Behind acts of terrorism, the putrefaction of capitalism

On December 14 last, on the sands of Australia’s Bondi Beach, two gunmen – a father and son, used two high-powered, legally-owned rifles to open fire on a children’s event marking the start of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. Fifteen people were killed by the two men, including a 10-year-old girl and an elderly Holocaust survivor. The elder of the two gunmen had been investigated by the Australian police for his links with the Islamic State in 2019. Dozens more were injured. As is now usual in these expressions of capitalist horror, individuals showed great courage and honour in trying to protect their fellow human beings and, as is also usual in these cases, security was lax to non-existent. The first response of the Australian government from the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his officials was to defend their state and its “democracy”, while promising further increases in its security and repressive measures that will weigh above all on the working class.

This latest slaughter of innocents comes on the 10-year anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris, the mass shooting at the Bataclan Theatre in Paris, the bombing of Brussels Airport nine years ago, and, eight years ago, the bombing of Manchester Arena during a concert perpetrated by an individual whose Manchester-based Libyan Jihadi family were working for MI6.  From these four events, all closely related to imperialist interests, over 200 celebrating individuals of all ages were killed and thousands more injured by explosive devices that had “to whom it may concern” written on them. The massacre of civilians, always a feature of oppressive systems, constantly reaches new, sickening heights under capitalism which thrashes about in its own decomposition and moral decay. And in the midst of this our leaders can only offer their hypocritical and empty “condolences” for the victims of their own system while beefing up their security systems.

The decomposition of capitalism, the rotting of a system dying on its feet, brings along with it a rise in all levels of violence, sexual, racial and totally indiscriminate atrocities as well, of course, as the organised violence of the state in the pursuit of imperialist interests through terrorism, warfare and support for warfare. Growing up in and surrounded by this unfolding global putrefaction, the mental health of youth can only be affected and often twisted by the forces of despair, by the no future and no perspective that capitalism holds and generalises throughout the world. Thus, indiscriminate attacks on schoolchildren and students are on the rise everywhere, to the point where they have become commonplace and banal along with attacks by pupils on teachers: “Society is fragmenting and disintegrating. Unemployment, misery, problems with housing, work and healthcare are everywhere. Everywhere, wars are multiplying. Everywhere, the planet is going haywire. Everywhere, the anguish of seeing no future.”[1] Youth is particularly affected by this ongoing carnage, bewildered, confused and psychologically damaged by the ambient death and destruction taking place all around them.

States that have no care for victims cynically exploit the violent acts that occur in other states for their own imperialist interests. Thus, the butcher Netanyahu castigates Australian Prime Minister Albanese over the Bondi attack, saying that he “allowed the disease of anti-Semitism to spread” because of his politically structured support for a Palestinian state. For his part Albanese proposes “a moment of national unity”, while advocating new measures that further strength the repressive machinery of the state. The ruling class generally unleashes massive ideological campaigns after these atrocities take place stirring up divisions by the way and implementing inquiries and measures that do nothing to “prevent this happening again”, as the empty mantra of the bourgeoisie has it. The only thing that they can do, the action that they are forced to take, is to implement and enforce more security measures, more obvious state repression ostensibly to “manage” and defend the state but, in reality, build up an arsenal of laws and  measures that can and will be used against the working class in its struggle. And in the west particularly, the more experienced bourgeoisie use these outrages and atrocities, not to deal with their root cause because they are beyond its control, but to defend the lie of the democratic state and corral us into being “good citizens” behind it.

The effects of decomposition, the violence, ravages, irrationality and absurdity of capitalism will remain a mortal threat to humanity and a constant danger for the working class and its struggle and, as long as capitalism exists, these threats will only become more manifest. There have been significant moments in history that show that only the struggle of the working class – and the working class alone – can push back the attacks of the ruling class and open a perspective for the future of humanity: the communist revolution. In 1905 in Russia, workers defended Jews against the pogroms unleashed by the Tsarist regime to counter the revolutionary tide; in the Netherlands 1941, in the depths of world war and the counter-revolution, workers in Amsterdam led strikes in order to prevent Jews being rounded-up by the Nazis working in conjunction with the Dutch authorities; in Hungary 1956 when workers came onto the streets against the bloody repression by the bourgeoisie in Poznan and in Poland, 1968, when young workers showed solidarity with students by joining them when they were being attacked by the police. Whether it’s a terrorist attack or that of a psychologically damaged individual, the working class can do little to prevent such occurrences which can only proliferate with the decomposition of capitalism. Indeed, there are dangers for it in getting involved in the campaigns of the ruling class around such events. What the working class can do, as it begun to with force and vigour in 2022, is develop its own struggle against this rotting system because in that struggle lies the perspective for a future that can go beyond the horrors of capitalism.

Baboon, 24.12.25