There are signs that the Ukraine war could be coming to an end, via negotiations. Apart from senseless death and destruction, its only main achievement has been to further empower corporate elites. It unnecessarily boosted human suffering, much like Israel’s genocide in Gaza, in the service of an unempathetic, dystopian order. And as the callous competition between ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’ leaders to out-racist each other shows, this elitist order has a dangerous stranglehold on British politics today.
Ordinary people’s wellbeing and futures depend on upending this cold-blooded, manipulative rule of establishment politicians.
Case study #1: Elites used Ukraine as a battlefield for land and resources
The Western proxy war with Russia could have ended quickly, if the liberal-conservative alliance of Joe Biden and Boris Johnson hadn’t pushed Ukraine away from a peace deal.
Instead, the conflict has: killed many tens of thousands of troops, and about 12,300 civilians; opened Ukraine up to increasing privatisation in service of powerful corporate interests; hurt poor people at home and around the world, disrupting food and energy supplies and contributing to inflation, and forced Western nations to commit resources to keep the unwinnable war going rather than investing in the welfare of their own citizens.
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy, aware of US counterpart Donald Trump’s interest in ending the proxy war with Russia, has used natural resources to try and ensure Washington’s essential support.
Speaking to the Guardian, Zelenskyy promised US corporations “lucrative reconstruction contracts and investment concessions”, along with “priority access to Ukraine’s “rare earths””. Offering opportunities for extracting valuable “rare earth mineral resources” and other minerals like uranium and titanium, he insisted that “for American companies it will create profits”.
Trump has been clear about his interest in these resources.
Case study #2: Callous establishment politicians emphasise our differences to prevent unified resistance
Ordinary people in Ukraine were only fortunate in the sense that Western elites tend to operate refugee policies on what is politically convenient. That’s why the British government was happy to welcome around 213,000 Ukrainians to the UK in less than two years – “equivalent to the number of people granted refuge in the UK from all origins, in total, between 2014 and 2021”.
The scandalous inhumanity of establishment politicians this week, however, saw them oppose one Palestinian family with four children entering the UK in the same way after UK-backed war criminals Israel had destroyed their home during its genocide in Gaza.
Commentators rightly slammed politicians for their distortion of truth, “racialised hierarchy” and “clear-cut”, “blatant, rotten”, “anti-Palestinian racism”. Activist Andrew Feinstein even called prime minister Keir Starmer’s repulsive stance “racist white supremacy”.
Starmer was never going to ‘move leftwards in power’. He was and is the establishment – just as Tory leaders are and just as far-right elitist Nigel Farage is. This dominant order doesn’t care if your personal views are liberal or conservative. It only cares that you’re distracted from talking about the corrupt and out-of-control economic order that threatens our current and future wellbeing.
Want stability? Then resist dystopia, like the Ukraine war.
We often hear that centrists value stability, moderation, and pragmatism. But what we have now in the world is far from stability. Both Ukraine and Gaza have revealed that the political and economic elites ruling over us have created a callous, cold-blooded, dystopian world right in front of our eyes. And that threatens everyone’s wellbeing, and darkens everyone’s futures.
Ukraine made some people think the British state was the good guy and the Russian state was the bad guy. But Israel’s genocide in Gaza should have made it clear to most that the British and US governments are the bad guys too.
The leaders of all these nations have shown disinterest in human suffering, manipulative, antisocial behaviour, and remorselessness. They have openly attacked and undermined an international legal system that ostensibly fostered global stability, in their ruthless quest for territorial control and natural resources.
After the Cold War, it was perhaps understandable for many to think that stability meant embracing capitalism. But the relentless profit-seeking of economic elites has compromised any possibility of progress ever since.
Servile politicians divided us according to our personal identities so that the division between ordinary people and our rulers wasn’t the focus. Meanwhile, the rich entrenched their wealth. In 2024 alone, billionaires increased their wealth by $2tn, “three times faster than the year before”. However, “the number of people living in poverty has barely changed since 1990”.
That’s not ‘stability’. It’s the gradual capture of our political and economic systems by an increasingly empowered super-rich class.
We must ALL unite to stop billionaire-led global destabilisation
Without the divisive influence of the super-rich in Western politics and their support for death and destruction, the world would undoubtedly be a stabler place.
People might be able to talk to each other, coexist peacefully despite our personal, private beliefs and differences, and meet our basic needs.
When the political will exists, it’s perfectly possible to mobilise massive resources to protect people. Just think of the Covid-19 pandemic. Supporting each other’s wellbeing wasn’t radical. It was just common sense. And so is ensuring a minimum level of living standards for everyone, protecting their wellbeing, environment, and future.
That is what creates true stability, not the ongoing rule of tiny elites who completely disregard human suffering in search of personal gain.
Billionaires simply shouldn’t exist. Their existence is “a sign of economic failure” that undermines ordinary people’s power and wellbeing.
We have the receipts, because the increasing inequality in recent decades and simultaneously increasing power of the super-wealthy has been utterly disastrous for ordinary people. In both Ukraine and Gaza, meanwhile, the absence of super-wealthy influence would almost certainly have pushed people to talk instead or perpetuating unwinnable conflicts, reducing human suffering significantly.
Stopping the billionaire-led destabilisation of the world isn’t just a fight for socialists, anarchists, or communists. It’s in the interests of humanity as a whole, with all our unique strengths and flaws. And the sooner we unite to challenge the dystopian order our political and economic elites have built up, the sooner we’ll have true stability.
Featured image via the Canary
