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

Plastic burning in homes threatens food, water and air across Global South: Study

By Jag Jivan  In a groundbreaking  study  spanning 26 countries across the Global South , researchers have uncovered the widespread and concerning practice of households burning plastic waste as a fuel for cooking, heating, and other domestic needs. The research, published in Nature Communications , reveals that this hazardous method of managing both waste and energy poverty is driven by systemic failures in municipal services and the unaffordability of clean alternatives, posing severe risks to human health and the environment.

Economic superpower’s social failure? Inequality, malnutrition and crisis of India's democracy

By Vikas Meshram  India may be celebrated as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, but a closer look at who benefits from that growth tells a starkly different story. The recently released World Inequality Report 2026 lays bare a country sharply divided by wealth, privilege and power. According to the report, nearly 65 percent of India’s total wealth is owned by the richest 10 percent of its population, while the bottom half of the country controls barely 6.4 percent. The top one percent—around 14 million people—holds more than 40 percent, the highest concentration since 1961. Meanwhile, the female labour force participation rate is a dismal 15.7 percent.

The greatest threat to our food system: The aggressive push for GM crops

By Bharat Dogra  Thanks to the courageous resistance of several leading scientists who continue to speak the truth despite increasing pressures from the powerful GM crop and GM food lobby , the many-sided and in some contexts irreversible environmental and health impacts of GM foods and crops, as well as the highly disruptive effects of this technology on farmers, are widely known today. 

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.

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

UP tribal woman human rights defender Sokalo released on bail

By  A  Representative After almost five months in jail, Adivasi human rights defender and forest worker Sokalo Gond has been finally released on bail.Despite being granted bail on October 4, technical and procedural issues kept Sokalo behind bars until November 1. The Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) and the All India Union of Forest Working People (AIUFWP), which are backing Sokalo, called it a "major victory." Sokalo's release follows the earlier releases of Kismatiya and Sukhdev Gond in September. "All three forest workers and human rights defenders were illegally incarcerated under false charges, in what is the State's way of punishing those who are active in their fight for the proper implementation of the Forest Rights Act (2006)", said a CJP statement.

Jayanthi Natarajan "never stood by tribals' rights" in MNC Vedanta's move to mine Niyamigiri Hills in Odisha

By A Representative The Odisha Chapter of the Campaign for Survival and Dignity (CSD), which played a vital role in the struggle for the enactment of historic Forest Rights Act, 2006 has blamed former Union environment minister Jaynaynthi Natarjan for failing to play any vital role to defend the tribals' rights in the forest areas during her tenure under the former UPA government. Countering her recent statement that she rejected environmental clearance to Vendanta, the top UK-based NMC, despite tremendous pressure from her colleagues in Cabinet and huge criticism from industry, and the claim that her decision was “upheld by the Supreme Court”, the CSD said this is simply not true, and actually she "disrespected" FRA.

Stands 'exposed': Cavalier attitude towards rushed construction of Char Dham project

By Bharat Dogra*  The nation heaved a big sigh of relief when the 41 workers trapped in the under-construction Silkyara-Barkot tunnel (Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand) were finally rescued on November 28 after a 17-day rescue effort. All those involved in the rescue effort deserve a big thanks of the entire country. The government deserves appreciation for providing all-round support.

'Restructuring' Sahitya Akademi: Is the ‘Gujarat model’ reaching Delhi?

By Prakash N. Shah*  ​A fortnight and a few days have slipped past that grim event. It was as if the wedding preparations were complete and the groom’s face was about to be unveiled behind the ceremonial tinsel. At 3 PM on December 18, a press conference was poised to announce the Sahitya Akademi Awards .