Stephen Von Sychowski.
Communist Party of Canada-Prince George Collective.
On Remembrance Day we remember all those who died in the wars of the last century, namely the two World Wars and the Korean War. Although these fighters should be remembered, a critical look at the tradition of Remembrance Day is in order.
As socialists, we understand that the First World War was primarily an imperialist war, fought between imperial powers of wealth and territory. Sadly, most people at the time did not understand this. They could not see through the barrage of lies and propaganda that was put out by the governments of the time, to stir up support for the war. And countless innocent human beings were killed in the ruling class’s selfish pursuit of wealth.
World War Two was primarily caused by the first World War, although it was in part an imperialist war, it was also a war between one state of capitalism and another. The fascist states fought the capitalist “democracies” and the Soviet Union. This is ironic, as fascism and imperialism are the final stages of capitalist development. Fascism is, basically, what occurs when capitalist power is threatened. The increased use of oppression and genocide are merely ways to solidify the power of the ruling class when in a time of need. Capitalism was in fact at war with itself, and the capitalist nations that had not degraded into fascist states, obtained help from their bitter rival, the Soviet Union, which was also under attack by fascism. Fascism grew out of the oppressive peace treaties that ended World War One, but once the mistake was made, it could not be repaired. Fascism had to be defeated, and the only solution seemed to be war. Countless brave soldier on each side marched to their death, many not really knowing why. Fascism would be crushed and the Cold War began, Communism and Capitalism battle on to this day, although the Soviet Union has collapsed, Communism lives on.
The Korean War was a blatant imperialist attack. A war against the will of the Korea people, to force them to continue to follow the capitalist line. The capitalist nations feared that they would loose domination of Asia, and thereby loose the capability to exploit it. The Korean War has resulted in a nation of Korea divided to this day.
All of these wars led to massive unnecessary death tolls. And all could and should have been avoided. All were the fault of capitalist imperialism. Nonetheless, we mourn the deaths of not only the Canadian and western soldiers and civilians who died in these wars but also the eastern ones, the Soviet’s, the Koreans, all human beings who died as a result of war. Let us take our mourning and direct it, in the form of resistance, towards the current policies of war. We must not allow the death and destruction to continue or the mourning will never cease.