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.

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