In 2025, as conflicts intensify and military offensives multiply (in Ukraine, the Middle East, India…), many still hope that the bourgeoisies at the helm of the great powers will "return to reason."This belief assumes that the ruling classes, despite their excesses, fundamentally act for the general interest. Nothing could be further from the truth. The actions of capitalist powers are not guided by moral principles, but by their economic interests and the necessity of maintaining their domination by force.
The idea that the bourgeoisies might one day "return to reason" is a delusion. Capitalist powers do not seek to establish a just and equitable order, but to maximise their profits and maintain their power. Thus, they use military force to secure resources, control markets, and crush any resistance to their domination. Rosa Luxemburg showed how the accumulation of capital relies, from its primitive to its advanced stage, on violence and exploitation. Capitalists stop at nothing to accumulate wealth, even if it means destroying lives, ecosystems, and entire communities. The wars we are witnessing are merely the continuation of this brutal logic.
From this perspective, recent military offensives in "disregard of international law," particularly those by Israel, are not aberrations, but clear manifestations of capitalism's predatory nature.As Lenin emphasised, competition between capitalist powers inevitably leads to armed conflicts. Fundamentally, the law has never served the bourgeoisies for anything other than maintaining the order necessary for their domination over societies, their control over strategic resources, and the opening of new markets. If the law gets in their way, they simply step over it!
This is the meaning of Israel's total disregard for international law, as it continues the genocide of Palestinians without worrying about sanctions despite condemnations from the International Criminal Court.Why would it be otherwise, when the capitalist powers that support it built their own domination through wars, sometimes genocides, and policies of terror, with Africa still being the macabre theatre of this today?
This explosion of violence demonstrates the feverishness of a system for which domination, appropriation, and exploitation are matters of life and death.It is precisely because the old capitalist powers and their alliances (like NATO) are already losing momentum in the new international power dynamics that they are trying everything to restore their hegemony. Donald Trump's aggressive economic policies are a striking example of this.
Under the guise of "protectionism" and "defence of national interests," Trump is waging a fierce trade war to weaken US competitors and strengthen the dominant position of American companies.Trump is not a madman, but truly a champion of US capital. All the policies he has implemented since the beginning of this second term aim at only one thing: plugging the gaps in the US's decline in the international market. At the NATO summit held in The Hague, Trump has just aligned the entire Western camp with his policy and obtained the 5% of each member's GDP to be allocated to military spending (with the exception, at this stage, of Spain, which is trying to resist).
Let's face reality: our leaders will not return to reason. As long as they hold power, each year will be worse than the last.In this destructive headlong rush, wars will multiply, inequalities will worsen, and human rights will be increasingly violated.
The only alternative is the seizure of power, everywhere, in every country, by the peoples.It is a difficult path, and the temptation to be discouraged is legitimate. But there is no other. Let us remember that any system is, in fine, only the expression of choices, whether these are the choices of a few in defiance of everyone, or collective and democratic choices.
The good news is that there are, even in our daily lives in France, moments when it is possible to move towards this goal.This is currently the case with support for the Palestinian cause. This was the case with the Yellow Vests. This was the case in 2022, in 2024, when millions of French people took hold of political life for the left to win the presidential and legislative elections, to change the country and the world.
In these moments, yes, it is possible to derail the catastrophe that the world's leaders are preparing before our eyes. This path is anything but easy. But isn't it worth taking?
Illustration image: "Remarks by the NATO Secretary General and the President of the United States – 2025 NATO Summit in The Hague", photograph from June 25, 2025, by NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
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