El Ciudadano
Original article: La trampa de la paz abstracta: Por qué urge señalar al imperialismo
By Lois Pérez Leira
In recent days, we have witnessed various demonstrations for «Peace» across different locations in Spain. Crowded streets, loud slogans, and banners calling for the cessation of hostilities fill the air. However, upon examining the true essence of these mobilizations, an uncomfortable yet essential question arises: Peace for whom and against whom?
The significant issue with current proclamations is that they deliberately omit the fundamental factor: they do not specify who instigates wars.
When the call for peace is disconnected from its material causes, the term loses its meaning, becoming an empty signifier stripped of substance, much like the overused concepts of «freedom» or «democracy» today.
Screaming for «peace» in the abstract, without pointing fingers at imperialism and the global logic of accumulation that thrives on war, is not neutrality; at best, it’s naivety, and at worst, it’s discursive complicity.
We must put an end to euphemisms once and for all. Contemporary wars are neither natural disasters nor spontaneous explosions of human irrationality; they are the direct result of the geopolitical and economic struggles of major powers vying for control over resources, markets, and sovereignty.
As Karl Marx warned, analyzing how the dynamics of capital pervert any humanistic pretense, stating that «commercialism, which is the spirit of our time, is the spirit of profit, not of peace.» Under the current order, the so-called «peace» is merely the silent preparation for the next conflict, a temporary truce while financial interests reorganize.
Therefore, attempting to achieve lasting peace by appealing to the goodwill of the very organizations and institutions that uphold the global military framework is a fruitless utopia. To secure peace, the historical and unavoidable task is to defeat imperialism.
Vladimir Lenin, who lived through and theorized about the slaughter of World War I, effectively dismantled the bourgeois pacifism of his time with a warning that resonates strongly in our plazas today: «The call for peace can assist the masses […] but if framed in an abstract manner, if divorced from the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat, it becomes a utopian phrase or a deception for the people.»
Lenin understood that large-scale violence is a structural necessity of the system, concisely summarizing that «war is the continuation of politics by other means. Imperialism is the highest stage of capitalist development. Therefore, enduring and democratic peace is impossible without overthrowing the power of capital.»
Naming things for what they truly are is the first step toward any real resistance. It is not enough to wish for an end to bombs if we do not combat the economic machinery that manufactures and launches them.
As long as demonstrations continue to dilute the historical and economic responsibility of aggressors in a sea of abstract sentimentality, the word «peace» will remain the perfect smokescreen behind which imperialism operates with total impunity. Demanding peace today necessarily means being anti-imperialist.
Lois Pérez Leira
Regional Coordinator of Sovintern for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Cover Photo: Michael Kappeler
La entrada The Illusion of Abstract Peace: Why It’s Crucial to Address Imperialism se publicó primero en El Ciudadano.
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