Contribution of Communist Party of Sweden

Contribution of the Communist Party of Sweden to the European Communist Action meeting

"On the struggle of the communists against the EU, its war economy and the involvement of bourgeois governments in imperialist wars” of February 16 2025

 

Dear comrades,

During the week preceding this meeting we have seen some developments which can have significant consequences for the war in Ukraine. I refer here specifically to the overture by the new Trump government in Washington to open talks with the Russian government to end the war, but I also refer to indications of the United States' shifting focus and priorities in the imperialist race for dominance, with China now secure in its place as the primary threat to the USA.

Whatever the outcome of these developments, it is certain that the theme of our meeting today is still of the highest relevance. Even in the case of peace being achieved in Ukraine, keeping in our minds that any peace under capitalism is a temporary peace, tensions are likely to remain high in Europe, and any peace agreement in Ukraine is unlikely to be seen by the EU, or its member states, as a reason to slow down their current military buildup. On the contrary, with cooling relations between the EU and the USA, the EU member states will see a need to strengthen their military capabilities, at a vast cost to the people, to secure their position in the hierarchy of imperialism, as its constellations now reveal themselves to be less stable than they had previously assumed.

Despite any promise of talks to establish peace, the risk of the generalization of  the war in Ukraine is not behind us, and even with peace brought to Ukraine, however that peace is achieved and whatever shape it takes, the clouds of war will continue to loom dark on the horizon. EU prepares for the next large scale conflict and as always the needs of capital take priority over the needs of the people, who shoulder the cost of building the war machine which inevitably will grind them up.

Already last year Swedish military expenditure reached the current NATO goal of 2% of GDP, with a significantly higher budget for this year and further increases projected for the coming years. In the Communist Party of Sweden's ongoing campaign for demanding better healthcare and improved conditions for healthcare workers, we highlight the rapidly increasing military budget compared to the shrinking healthcare budget. Last year the military budget already exceeded the healthcare budget and by 2027 it can be expected that the military budget will be over 50% bigger than the budget for healthcare. This is but one aspect of how the sharpening contradictions of imperialism affect the people.

This budgetary prioritizing by the Swedish government is not unique within the EU or Europe and neither are the huge military support packages that Sweden sends to Ukraine. Under the current plan the military aid to Ukraine would total almost 10 billion Euros by next year. This is an enormous transfer of wealth from Sweden's working people and into the coffers of the Swedish arms industry.

Unfortunately the voices opposing this are few in Sweden and generally lack a platform, with one poll indicating that three out of four Swedes wish for Swedish support to continue until Russian forces are evicted from Ukrainian territory, even if this means that the war will go on for longer. The same poll also indicates that support for a negotiated peace is low, which given the narrative served up by state and monopoly capital media is sadly unsurprising. The narrative that is publicized is the narrative demanding a Ukrainian victory, while what voices for peace there are go unheard.

The Swedish parliamentary parties are unanimously for sending military aid to Ukraine for as long as it takes, any disagreement mostly boiling down to who is willing to risk escalation the most through the delivery of more important and advanced weapon systems. From left to right the parties in parliament faithfully serve the Swedish monopoly capital.

With this being the situation in Sweden, the matter of the war in Ukraine is a difficult topic for the communists to gain traction within. This is further complicated by many of those few who do have dissenting views actually being supporters, or apologists, of the Russian side in the imperialist conflict. This in addition to the prevalent dishonest ideological representation of capitalist Russia being a continuation of the USSR, its history falsified and corrupted with anti-communist propaganda.

With the war in Ukraine being a clear example of what the imperialist system leads to, the general interest in the conflict and the fear it causes, it is of great importance for us to reach the people on this topic. Both with regards to the public understanding of the conflict and, by extension, imperialism in general. The people need to come to the understanding that the war in Ukraine has no outcome that leads to a lasting peace, or any sort of guarantee for their security. The current military buildup isn't to safeguard the wellbeing of the people, but rather to secure the position and profit of the respective countries and imperialist blocs. This military buildup doesn't prevent war, but rather brings it closer, and the more intensive the buildup, the more destructive the next war is likely to be.

Our task remains to show the people the only alternative to the wars and misery of imperialism. That the only hope for peace lies in socialism-communism, brought on through revolutionary organization and the crushing of the capitalist system and its state apparatuses.