We are at a historic crossroads that has finally shattered the illusions of a stable postwar order that emerged after 1989. What we are currently witnessing with all the current wars is not a temporary conflict, but a qualitative intensification of the imperialist contradictions that have thrust capitalism into its era of decadence and accelerated decomposition. The breakdown of the Transatlantic Alliance, which is taking place during Trump’s second term, is not the result of personal misconduct on the part of the U.S. president, but rather the expression of a systemic necessity: the U.S. is withdrawing as the "guarantor of security", essentially withdrawing from NATO in an attempt to address its own existential crises and top priorities, forcing its former vassals and allies to bear the costs of a crumbling system on their own. However, with its policies, the U.S. can only keep adding fuel to the fire and further escalate one conflict after another.

For Germany, this means the loss of the protective U.S. umbrella against Russia and the need to redefine its own military identity. It is a return to the reality that prevailed between the world wars: a country in a geo-strategically central location that is obliged to use force to assert its imperialist ambitions in order to maintain its place in the global dog-eat-dog world. But this path is marked by countless contradictions. The rapid militarisation it is undertaking has been described as a “turning point” What is being celebrated is not only the fastest military buildup in Europe, but also the harbinger of a profound social assault on the working class.

1. Imperialism as an expression of decadence

To understand current dynamics, we must shift our focus from day-to-day politics to the fundamental laws of capitalism. It was the left wing of the Social Democratic Party of that time, centered around Rosa Luxemburg, that was able to initiate a deeper analysis, which Rosa Luxemburg would then elaborate upon in her 1913 work The Accumulation of Capital. As Karl Radek had already analyzed in “Our Struggle Against Imperialism” in 1912, imperialism is not merely the “foreign policy of a collapsing capitalism,” but the inevitable consequence of capitalist accumulation in its stage of decadence. Decadent capitalism, having left its phases of growth behind, was forced to redivide the world in order to secure the maintenance of its hegemony, and this was not possible without a corresponding imperialist policy. As Rosa Luxemburg wrote in The Junius Pamphlet in 1915: “Imperialism is not the creation of any one or of any group of states. It is the product of a particular stage of ripeness in the world development of capital, an innately international condition, an indivisible whole, that is recognisable only in all its relations, and from which no nation can hold aloof at will.” [1] [1]

Radek emphasised at the time that the German bourgeoisie, due to the belated formation of its nation-state and of its industrialisation, played a particularly aggressive role in this process. Today, this story is repeating itself—not as a farce, but as a tragic necessity—though, of course, under different circumstances.

While the U.S. is currently attempting to salvage its waning hegemony through destabilisation in the Middle East and the Pacific, Germany, at the heart of Europe, is pushing for a reorientation. The rift between the U.S. and Europe is the first step in a process in which Germany is forced to assert its imperialist interests independently—and thus, if necessary, even against the interests of its former allies. The drive toward militarisation today is not a political choice, but a historical necessity from which the German bourgeoisie cannot escape. In the era of capitalist decay, war has lost its function as an engine of economic expansion and has become a permanent way of life for society. As a geo-strategically central, landlocked country in Europe, Germany is under particular pressure in this regard: without the protection of its own ocean or a stable bloc leader, it is forced to redefine its imperialist and military existence in order not to lose ground in the global competition. Every national bourgeoisie—and especially the German one—must expand its power to secure its position; the “turning point” is thus not an expression of free political choice, but the inevitable reaction to the systemic crisis of capitalism.

2. From a frontline state and military restrictions to the new aspiration to become a leading power

Today’s militarisation stands in sharp contrast to the role Germany played after 1945. During the era of the bloc structure, Germany was the potential main theater of war and a bulwark in the Cold War, but it was a state without sovereignty. The Bundeswehr was primarily conceived as a territorial army, equipped with tanks and troops to ward off the Soviet threat, but completely dependent on the presence of U.S., British, and French forces. Germany was, in a sense, a military dwarf at sea and in the air; it possessed no capabilities of its own for out-of-area operations and no navy or air force of global significance.

The illusion that emerged after 1989, when the Russian army withdrew from East Germany and the bloc boundaries disappeared, was the notion of peaceful integration and economic dominance without military means. The German bourgeoisie believed it could assert itself in Eastern Europe through economic means, while military capabilities were being dismantled. Mandatory military service was abolished, barracks fell into disrepair, and U.S. troops reduced their presence. Yet this period was merely a historical interlude made possible by the implosion of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc.

With the accelerated decline of the U.S., the war it provoked in Ukraine, and Russia’s return as a military power, this illusion collapsed. The “turning point” of 2022 marked the beginning of a new phase in which Germany is forced to rebuild its military infrastructure from the ground up and rearm at all costs. But unlike the U.S. or France, which possess global projection capabilities and nuclear weapons, Germany remains essentially confined to the European theater. Its navy is limited mainly to the Baltic and North Seas, and its air force relies on support from NATO.

Nevertheless, the German bourgeoisie strives to become the number one power in Europe. In doing so, it finds itself caught in a deep contradiction: on the one hand, it is attempting to equip the EU with a military arm ‘through the back door’; on the other hand, it is also driven by an ‘every man for himself’ mentality, which brings it into conflict particularly with its close partner, France. While France seeks to defend its dominant role in joint projects such as FCAS (fighter jets) and KNDS (tanks), the German bourgeoisie is increasingly trying to push through its own position—a contradiction that undermines European defense cooperation. At the same time, bilateral partnerships are being forged with India, Japan, and South Korea, and the list of countries that are equally important for a ‘privileged’ relationship—or that are striving for one, such as Turkey—is long. But its main focus must be on Europe, and here the current confrontation with Russia is the defining factor. The U.S. has provoked this process, forced a break with Russia, pushed for distancing from China, and continues to do everything it can to weaken Europe. But this is also provoking a counter-movement: Germany is rearming, while the economic foundation on which these ambitions rest is already faltering.

3. Militarisation is impossible without an attack on the working class

For Germany, militarisation means even greater, massive debt (on top of the debt already accumulated) and the necessity of severe social cuts. The federal government has already driven the national debt up to 2.8 trillion euros, and plans for an unlimited increase in defense spending will cause these figures to skyrocket once again. This is not a sign of strength, but a desperate attempt to maintain its position—and even expand it into a military leadership role—by fleeing into boundless militarisation amid brutally intensifying imperialist rivalries and the ever-increasing pressure of the economic crisis. The consequences are catastrophic for the working class. The “ecological transition,” of course, is also being sacrificed to free up funds for tanks and aircraft. The automotive industry, once the backbone of the German economy, is already in an existential crisis that will sooner or later lead to the collapse of certain companies. Thousands of jobs are being lost, and fears of further plant closures are growing. Corporations such as Volkswagen and Daimler-Benz, which traditionally relied on civilian production, are now pushing into arms production. They want to profit from militarisation, but this means transforming the entire economy into a war economy.

The “turning point” is no longer merely a military one, but a social one as well. The bourgeoisie knows it has no alternative but to launch social attacks. The demand to raise the retirement age to 70 is a blatant attack on the living conditions of the working class. Spending on healthcare, education, and social security systems is being cut to finance military spending. Working hours are being extended, and the right to early retirement is being undermined. But time is running out. The cuts will soon be felt. Added to this are the effects of growing economic chaos due to escalating global imperialist tensions (the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz), and the pressure on the working class will increase. The militarisation of civil society is advancing: A 10-billion DM plan to strengthen “civil defense” has been announced, which will overhaul infrastructure, logistics, cybersecurity, and other areas. This heralds a society being prepared for war, in which the needs of the population are subordinated to the logic of the war economy. As is the case internationally, the bourgeoisie is in the midst of a deep crisis of credibility. The established parties—the CDU, SPD, Greens, and FDP—have no answer to the crisis other than austerity and rearmament. The “firewall” against the AfD (“Alternative for Germany”) is crumbling, and this populist party is growing, fueled by the anger of the population and the powerlessness of the established forces. Yet the AfD offers no solution, only another form of oppression and mystification. The bourgeoisie knows that its ‘solutions’ are fueling social unrest, but it has no alternative.

A turning point for the working class

We stand at a crossroads. Imperialist conflicts are escalating, the economic crisis is deepening, the bourgeoisie is pursuing an increasingly short-sighted, aggressive, and irrational course, and the working class is under attack as never before. For the ruling class, this “turning point” is a necessity to secure its power. For the working class, it is a declaration of war against their living conditions.

The illusion that this course can be reversed through a change in political leadership or ‘democratisation’ is dangerous. The problem is not Trump, Merz, or the AfD, but the capitalist system itself, which thrives on exploitation and war. Militarisation is an expression of the decadence of capitalism, which is driving towards its own destruction.

The task of the working class is clear: we must defend our own class interests and not line up behind bourgeois slogans in “popular fronts.” We must link the struggle against social attacks with the struggle against war. The international solidarity of the working class is the only weapon we have to fight against the imperialist powers and their wars.

Pandora’s box has been opened. Capitalism is leading us into the abyss. Only the revolutionary struggle of the exploited class can save humanity. A turning point has arrived—not for the bourgeoisie, but for the working class, which must refuse to be the victims of imperialist barbarism.

May 25, 2026, Weltrevolution

 

 

 

Note: We have decided to go ahead with the meeting as the weather should be a bit more bearable tomorrow

ICC open meeting

2-5pm, Saturday 27 June

Calthorpe Arms

 252 Gray's Inn Rd, London WC1X 8JR

The ICC will be holding an open meeting, without a formal presentation, where we will be available to discuss any aspect of our politics, current world events, or the history of the workers’ movement. We welcome suggestions in advance about possible questions or topics: write to [email protected] [4] or BM Box 869, London WC1N 3XX.

Over two nights -9th and 10th June- in Belfast racist gangs waged a systematic campaign of terror against migrants. They went from home to home, kicking down doors, smashing windows, throwing petrol bombs into houses in order to drive out migrant workers. Cars and even a bus were set on fire in order to terrify people. Letters were sent to health workers living around the North Belfast hospital telling them to leave or be ‘burnt out’. Cars were stopped in the search for ‘foreigners’. One nurse was chased by four masked men on her way to work. International health workers had to be rescued by their fellow workers. Some workers took those driven out into their homes, at great risk to themselves. These attacks were coordinated, and included migrant workers’ addresses being distributed online so they could be targeted. Older men – perhaps linked to the Loyalist paramilitaries and drawing on a long experience of persecuting Catholics and dissident Protestants - were reported directing these gangs, that were mainly composed of disaffected youths. At least one victim reported police standing by while their homes were torched. The systematic nature of these attacks has not been seen on this scale before.

All this recalls the anti-Jewish pogroms organised by the Czarist bourgeoisie in the early 20th century. These massacres were used by the Russian ruling class, especially after the 1905 revolution, as a way of diverting workers’ militancy away from seeing the ruling class and its system as their historic enemy and blaming the Jews instead.

But today we are not just talking about the use of pogroms in one particularly rotten and anachronistic empire. Today it is the entire ‘world empire’ of capital that is rotting on its feet, and the more it rots the more it is raising the most irrational hatreds and divisions onto a new level, spreading the spirit of the pogrom across the globe. Today all minorities – religious, ethnic, national, sexual – are being scapegoated. In particular, migrants fleeing from persecution or war are being blamed for the real problems that result from the advancing decay of the capitalist system: declining health and social care, housing shortages, unemployment….

The Belfast pogrom is not simply the product of cynical manipulation by the bourgeoisie but the decomposition of capitalist society. As we said about the growing anti-Semitic attacks: “today capitalist society is far more fragmented and lacking in even any short-term solutions to its insoluble crisis. Hatred against minorities is taking ever-more numerous forms and is increasingly manipulated by governments to boost their repressive campaigns against immigrants. And as imperialist wars spread chaotically across the planet, these antagonisms are directly encouraged and exacerbated in order to justify the slaughter of whole populations. We have entered a new era of genocides”[1]  

The ruling class’s use of race, religion or any division they can use to disperse its main enemy, the working class, has a long history.

Of course, the main political parties have denounced the pogrom. They also condemned the race riot that took place the week before in Southampton, after the conviction of a Sikh man for killing a young Polish student who had been handcuffed by the police as he lay dying. Starmer made a big display of denouncing Nigel Farage’s inability to condemn the violence in Southampton and his call for “pure cold rage”. This did not stop him promising to impose even more draconian measures against immigration. One of his ministers, interviewed immediately after a Somalian woman had recounted the terror and her friends experienced, which reminded them of the war in Somalia they had escaped, made a point of boasting about the government’s success in deporting 70,000 ‘illegal’ migrants, and insisting that war-damaged migrants posed a real threat! Such crass manipulation of the tensions is not new. Both Labour and Tory governments have used migration to promote division for decades.

However, in the dynamic of a society in uncontrollable decomposition, the bourgeoisie is now playing with fire.

The main parties are now faced with the rise of populist parties such as Reform or Restore, whose central political message is the idea of overcoming the crisis through anti-migrant policies and are more and more openly calling for mass deportations. These parties thrive on their brutal displays of racism and Islamophobia. They embody and embrace the nihilistic dead-end of capitalism, by shamelessly selling the illusion that sacrificing one part of the population can benefit another part. These parties have no hesitations about stoking up violent confrontations, even if they don’t not openly call for them. The greater the instability, the more they can present themselves as the ‘saviours’ of the nation.

These parties are increasingly turning the main parties’ promotion of racial divisions against them. Reform and Restore promise to actually do something about migration, not just talk about it. This forces the main parties to adopt even more draconian policies, further exacerbating tensions.

An imperialist dimension

Labour and Tories have pointed to the role of Musk, Vance and other Far Right elements in the US who have actively been promoting these riots and the whole climate of fear around migration. They point to the links between Reform and Restore with the Trump administration. What they avoid saying is that this link is part of US imperialism’s strategy of destablisation aimed at its British and European imperialist rivals. A policy based on promoting and backing populist and Far Right parties – the ones referred to as “patriotic parties” in the Trump administration’s National Security Strategy:

“American diplomacy should continue to stand up for genuine democracy, freedom of expression, and unapologetic celebrations of European nations’ individual character and history. America encourages its political allies in Europe to promote this revival of spirit, and the growing influence of patriotic European parties indeed gives cause for great optimism. Cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations.”

Reform and Farage have become one of the main tools of US imperialism. Faced with Trump’s threats to Greenland, and the Iran war, Farage has tried to distance himself from Trump, because of the latter’s growing lack of popularity, even in Reform. Rupert Lowe, the leader of Restore, has been much more loyal to Trump and has now gained the backing of Musk and others around Trump. Reform is now faced with a rival on the Right, and having to adopt polices such as mass deportation which Farage once called “politically impossible”. He was always willing to place the race card, but within some constraints, because it would undermine his image as the only person able to stop the Far Right. Reform is now competing with Restore over the numbers to be deported. 

Poison for the working class

The whole political apparatus of the British state is becoming ever more unstable, trapped in the deepening contradictions of dying capitalism. The toxic ideological fumes this is giving off are a real danger to the working class.

The main danger is the ability of the main parties, and their leftwing parties in particular, to divert workers’ revulsion faced with pogroms and race riots into the defense of democracy and the state. Reform and Restore are presented as a threat of democracy, human rights and social cohesion. Workers are told you have to back one of the traditional, the same ones that have been fueling racism for decades and pushing through shameful anti-immigrant policies. We are told that we have to go and vote for these parties, which are dripping with the blood of refugees, in order to block the rise of Reform or Restore to power and oppose racism.  

A large demonstration was organised in Belfast by Unite against Racism. But this ‘unity’ means uniting behind the bourgeois state which organises exploitation and discrimination in the name of the ‘nation’, the very basis of which is racism and hatred against those who come from the other side of the border. The “unity” is above all that of the ‘people’, in order to make us forget that both ‘British’ and ‘foreign’ workers are part of the same international class.

This class unity has been demonstrated in practice in Northern Ireland, notably in the struggle of Belfast NHS workers. Health workers, who usually come from many different national and ethnic backgrounds, are an important part of the workforce and have engaged in a number of struggles to defend wages and protests against working conditions.

The only antidote to racism and the pogrom atmosphere is the united struggle of workers across ethnic, national, religious and all other divisions foisted on them by capital.

Phil, 24.6.26

 

Since 10 October 2025, the Pakistani army has intermittently been bombing Afghan cities. Kabul, Kandahar and Jalalabad were targeted, and the bombings continue. The aim is to put pressure on the Afghan regime to ban the activities of the Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP)[1] in Pakistan. While these bombings have so far failed to reduce TTP activity, entire neighbourhoods of Afghan cities have been seriously damaged and hundreds of people have been killed or seriously injured. Eight months ago, Pakistan also decided to cut off cross-border trade in order to force the Afghan regime to take action against the TTP. For the Afghan economy, the impact is considerable, as it seriously compromises trade, economic stability and the daily lives of the population: supply restrictions have caused the prices of basic necessities such as flour, cooking oil, rice, and fuel to soar; thousands of workers, truck drivers and day labourers in the Afghan provinces bordering Pakistan have lost their means of subsistence; youth unemployment is exploding. The Afghan economy risks collapsing.

Imperialist each-against-all inevitably leads to military confrontation

How can we explain this confrontation between the two countries when the Taliban movement was welcomed, financed and armed by the Pakistani state? Between 2001 and 2021, Taliban leaders were trained, protected and indoctrinated within Pakistan's borders, often within madrassa networks steeped in radical Islamist ideology. These institutions functioned not only as religious schools, but also as strategic centers, producing fighters and commanders who would shape the Taliban insurgency. In short, by largely supporting the Taliban's fight, Islamabad was effectively behind the current regime in Afghanistan. In doing so, the Pakistani army and secret services hoped to obtain what security experts call “strategic depth” [2] which would strengthen their strategic influence in Afghanistan and allow better control of minorities on their own territory by securing its western border. But that was without taking into account the imperialist ambitions of his former protégé. The new regime in Kabul refuses to subordinate its own interests to Pakistani demands and gives carte blanche, even grants its support, to the Pakistani Taliban terrorist movement TTP, which has now changed its strategy and is carrying out terrorist attacks from Afghan territory, among other places in the Pakistani Pashtun province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

According to Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, these bombings are necessary because the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is said to have “brought terrorists from all over the world to Afghanistan and exported terrorism”. The accusation against Afghanistan of exporting terrorism is particularly hypocritical on the part of Pakistan. Pakistan has always harboured terrorist organisations. Militant groups are an integral part of its security system. Thus, it even used the Taliban as a backup force to “pacify” the region of Balochistan when it was in revolt. During the war in Afghanistan, Pakistan intensified its policy of using radicalised proxies to carry out acts of terror and achieve its foreign policy objectives. Additionally, many terrorist attacks across the world are attributed to Pakistan. Groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), which target Indian-administered Kashmir, have operated from Pakistani territory for decades with an appreciable degree of tolerance from local authorities.

As for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, although it does not have the same means as the great powers or even the regional medium powers, it nevertheless shares the same imperialist ambitions. It's a bit like the world of gangsters: while the godfather rules the whole city, the local pimp controls a street. Kabul, which does not have the capacity to launch a large-scale military attack against Pakistan, resorts to a method that it knows well and with which it has experience: terrorism, and for this, it uses the TTP. The TTP claims, based on their ethnic composition, that in Pakistan, the traditionally Pashtun autonomous province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) and the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) belong to the Taliban, and it is waging a campaign of guerrilla warfare and bloody attacks there.

The conflict between Pakistan and Afghanistan is an expression par excellence of the intensification in all regions of the world of “each against all” which increasingly dominates current imperialist relations. Regional powers, as well as the terrorist organisations they use, constantly manoeuvre to weaken their rivals, exploit instability and obtain advantages that are as temporary as they are illusory, freeing themselves from any stable alliance structure. At the same time, the massive destruction and ruins that are accumulating, without any of the belligerents gaining the slightest lasting advantage, underline the total irrationality of these conflicts. The Pakistani-Afghan conflict concretely illustrates the broader trends of the decomposition of capitalism: the multiplication of local conflicts, incessant military confrontations, the growing irrationality of political orientations and decisions, etc.

Imperialist tensions across South Asia.

But the conflict does not only concern tensions between Pakistani and Afghan imperialism. The fact that India has strongly condemned Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan territory highlights this. In fact, since November 2024, India, Pakistan's main imperialist adversary, with which it was in open war until May 2025, has forged political ties with the Taliban regime. Faced with increasingly strong imperialist pressure from its historic competitor in the region (China), also faced with the erratic policy of the Trump administration which constantly threatens drastic increases in customs duties and which is moving politically closer to Pakistan, Modi's government has strongly strengthened diplomatic, security and economic ties between Kabul and New Delhi. Thus, India has reopened its embassy in Kabul, supports the Taliban in areas linked to the fight against narcotics and internal instability, and projects are being studied to offer investment facilities to Indian companies in Afghanistan. This rapprochement is obviously perceived by Pakistan as a direct threat and also explains the increasingly aggressive position towards what it perceives as an Afghanistan-India axis. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has openly accused the Afghan Taliban regime of facilitating Indian objectives.

Furthermore, the destabilisation of the autonomous province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa also seriously worries China to the extent that the “Silk Road” to the Pakistani port of Gwadar also crosses this province and, moreover, the Pakistani regime, a long-time ally of Beijing, seems to be looking more and more towards the United States. While the Chinese regime, which has significant economic interests in both countries, is increasing efforts to end the violent clashes between the two nations, Pakistan is determined to continue its policies until Kabul puts an end to the TTP attacks. This intransigent attitude is supported by the United States.

Since 2022, Pakistan has had a new government which seeks to limit its dependence on China. Favouring ties with the United States, it joined Donald Trump's Board of Peace and strives to curry favour with the American president in his deals.[3] The United States today views Pakistan as an ally in the fight against the threat of terrorism that Afghanistan, in particular, poses to South Asia. The first result of cooperation between the two countries was the designation by the United States of the Balochistan Liberation Army as a foreign terrorist organisation and the subsequent arrest and detention of the mastermind of the suicide bombing at Kabul International Airport on 26 August 2021, which killed 182 people. Finally, authorisation was granted by the United States to Pakistan to use Afghan airspace to carry out bombings on strategic TTP sites along the border, but also in certain towns.

Thus, in addition to the scheming of local imperialist powers, the intrigues of major imperialist powers come into play, and all of these manoeuvres make the formation of alliances in South Asia particularly uncertain and volatile. The rise of an imperialist each-against-all mentality, here as elsewhere, underlines the system’s descent into chaos and barbarism.

Capitalism is war! Workers have no homeland!

In addition to the imbroglio of the imperialist ambitions of the different actors, small, medium and large imperialisms, this war illustrates a more general characteristic of the current period of putrefaction of capitalist society: conflicts which persist and get bogged down without finding a solution, burying entire regions in the quagmire. Thus, the United States' decision to give Pakistan carte blanche to bomb TTP positions only increases chaos and the risk of larger regional conflagration. The Pakistani-Afghan conflict demonstrates how imperialist confrontations increasingly escape the control of the great imperialist powers, whether directly or indirectly involved. As a result, uncontrolled and increasingly barbaric militarism is spreading around the world: increasing military operations, increased border bombings, proliferation of armed militias, terrorist attacks and nationalist propaganda are intensifying, even as these policies only increase instability. The growing recourse to militarism, despite its manifest inability to resolve the underlying political questions and contradictions, reveals the deeply irrational character of the decadent capitalist system.

Like all wars, this one is criminal! First, the Pakistani bombings and the TTP terrorist attacks left hundreds dead and injured. Moreover, these regimes are spending billions of dollars to fight this war while large parts of their populations are plunged into extreme poverty: in Pakistan, 11 million people suffer from severe food insecurity and malnutrition, while 1.7 million are on the brink of famine; In Afghanistan, 17.4 million people suffer from acute food insecurity, while 4.7 million are at risk of famine.

This war in no way corresponds to the interests of the working class in any region. If it cannot be indifferent in the face of bullets and bombs, and feels solidarity with all these victims, the working class does not have to take sides in all these conflicts, but must clearly denounce all the imperialist camps involved. It must express its solidarity in its fight against the exploiting class of capitalists and, in the development of its struggle throughout the world against all nationalist mystifications, by defending proletarian internationalism.

F. June 1, 2026.