Skip to main content

Wars of control: Profits, propaganda, and the price paid by the people

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak 
World peace lies buried beneath the wreckage of imperialist wars waged by the American and European ruling classes—wars that have devastated the lives, homes, livelihoods, and happiness of ordinary people, along with their libraries, schools, museums, archives, and histories. From Afghanistan, Beirut, Bosnia, Cambodia, Grenada, Iran, Iraq, Korea, Kosovo, Laos, Panama, Palestine, Somalia, and Vietnam to Yemen, countless people have endured the brutality of wars launched by Western imperial powers—wars justified under the banners of fighting terrorism, promoting democracy, defending human rights, and maintaining peace.
However, recent Israeli attacks on Iran and Palestine, as well as the American assault on Iran, have shattered the illusion of moral superiority that Europe and America project. Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Donald Trump have not only bombed Iran—they have symbolically bombed the very foundations of so-called liberal and constitutional democracy in the West. Their actions have also further undermined the already fragile legitimacy of the United Nations in upholding global peace.
The Zionist ruling elite of Israel, backed by American imperialism, is now even targeting graves in Gaza. Palestinians are paying with their lives as they resist colonial dispossession. Israel is attacking children in schools, patients in hospitals, and women in their homes. Its aggression against Iran, carried out without justification and in violation of international law, adds to this growing catalogue of crimes. Meanwhile, both Ukrainians and Russians are dying in a war driven not by national interests but by imperialist agendas.
Together, Zionist forces and Western imperialists are not only destroying ancient civilizations and killing people to seize control of natural resources, but are also systematically erasing the cultures and identities of working people across the globe. These war-mongering ruling classes continue to bomb nations, loot resources, and dismantle entire societies under the pretext of imperial power and neocolonial control.
The enormous profits reaped from these wars—through arms sales and the extraction of plundered oil, gas, and mineral wealth—provide only temporary relief to the suffering working classes of Europe and America. This momentary economic reprieve becomes the foundation of modern slavery, serving to pacify and silence workers in the name of national interest. Yet these wars will ultimately engulf all of us, stripping away our humanity. Dehumanisation is not a distant consequence of war—it is an intimate, everyday process. As violence is normalised and otherness is entrenched in daily life, our minds become militarised, and our lives increasingly defined by fear, exploitation, and uncertainty.
The collective punishment of people through imperialist wars is a deliberate strategy by ruling elites to impose mass shock therapy. It conditions the population to accept violence as a normal governing principle. Instability, insecurity, and uncertainty are not accidental side effects—they are deliberately engineered tools of imperial control designed to domesticate the masses. These tactics operate like a powerful pill, making the plunder of labour and natural resources appear natural, inevitable, and unquestionable. Such conditions confer unchecked power upon the imperialist ruling classes, enabling them to survive and expand their dominance.
Imperialist hegemony signals the death of liberal, constitutional, and secular democracy. It erodes the very foundations upon which human rights, citizenship, and individual freedom are built—threatening our ability to live, work, and love freely. In doing so, imperialist wars place the lives and livelihoods of the global working class in grave peril.
There are no truly nationalistic, religious, or cultural wars; these conflicts are designed to divide working people and send them to the slaughterhouses of imperialism. This is why the fight against war must be central to working-class politics and its internationalist, emancipatory vision for global peace. As democracy comes under increasing threat from imperialist aggression, working people across the world must unite to reclaim their democratic and citizenship rights—before it is too late.
The struggle for peace is, at its core, a struggle against the imperialist war machine. These wars can be stopped. Lasting global peace is possible—but only through mass mobilisation and unified movements of working people. Internationalism is the cornerstone of all emancipatory struggles.
Standing in solidarity with the people of Iran and Palestine is not only a moral imperative—it also strengthens and empowers the global working class in its fight for peace and prosperity. Imperialist wars are our common enemy. They destroy and dehumanise us all, robbing us of the essence of life—not only as human beings, but as interconnected members of the natural world. If working people fail to unite and resist these wars, then barbarism will surely be our shared fate.

Comments

TRENDING

The golden crop: How turmeric is transforming women's lives in tribal India

By Vikas Meshram*   When the lush green fields of turmeric sway in the tribal belt of southern Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat, it is not merely a spice crop — it is the golden glow of self-reliance. In villages where even basic spices once had to be bought from the market, the very soil today is yielding a prosperity that has transformed the lives of thousands of families. At the heart of this transformation is the initiative of Vaagdhara, which has linked turmeric with livelihoods, nutrition, and village self-governance — gram swaraj.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan*  “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

Authoritarian destruction of the public sphere in Ecuador: Trumpism in action?

By Pilar Troya Fernández  The situation in Ecuador under Daniel Noboa's government is one of authoritarianism advancing on several fronts simultaneously to consolidate neoliberalism and total submission to the US international agenda. These are not isolated measures, but rather a coordinated strategy that combines job insecurity, the dismantling of the welfare state, unrestricted access to mining, the continuation of oil exploitation without environmental considerations, the centralization of power through the financial suffocation of local governments, and the systematic criminalization of all forms of opposition and popular organization.

Echoes of Vietnam and Chile: The devastating cost of the I-A Axis in Iran

​ By Ram Puniyani  ​The recent joint military actions by Israel and the United States against Iran have been devastating. Like all wars, this conflict is brutal to its core, leaving a trail of human suffering in its wake. The stated pretext for this aggression—the brutality of the Ayatollah Khamenei regime and its nuclear ambitions—clashes sharply with the reality of the diplomatic landscape. Iran had expressed a willingness to remain at the negotiating table, signaling a readiness to concede points emerging from dialogue. 

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah  Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

False claim? What Venezuela is witnessing is not surrender but a tactical retreat

By Manolo De Los Santos  The early morning hours of January 3, 2026, marked an inflection point in Venezuela and Latin America’s centuries-long struggle for self-determination and independence. Operation Absolute Resolve, ordered by the Trump administration, constituted the most brutal and direct military assault on a sovereign state in the region in recent memory. In a shocking operation that left hundreds dead, President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores were illegally kidnapped from Venezuelan soil and transported to the United States, where they now face fabricated charges in a New York federal detention facility. In the two months since this act of war, a torrent of speculation has emerged from so-called experts and pundits across the political spectrum. This has followed three main lines: One . The operation’s success indicated treason at the highest levels of the Bolivarian Revolution. Two . Acting President Delcy Rodríguez and the remaining leadership have abandone...

The selective memory of a violent city: Uttam Nagar and the invisible victims of Delhi

By Sunil Kumar*  Hundreds of murders take place in Delhi every year, yet only a few incidents become topics of nationwide discussion. The question is: why does this happen? Today, the incident in Uttam Nagar has become the centre of national debate. A 26-year-old man, Tarun Kumar, was killed following a dispute that reportedly began after a balloon hit a small child. In several colonies of Delhi, slogans such as “Jai Shri Ram” and “Vande Mataram” are being raised while demanding the death penalty for Tarun’s killers. As a result, nearly 50,000 residents of Hastsal JJ Colony are now living in what resembles a state of confinement. 

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey*  ​In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.