On the March to War

December 18, 2025

The following is part of a political report given at the 55^th Congress of Lutte Ouvrière, published in the December 2025 edition, #252 of Lutte de Classe. The report is directed toward people active in France, but it just as easily could have been written about the United States.

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There is no particular development because the deep causes of the march to war as well as its pace are linked to the march of globalized capitalism, to its highest phase, as Lenin said, imperialism, with its contradictions and its crises.… Macron’s agitation to make France or the European Union exist in this imperialist game is that of a second-tier actor: not insignificant but not decisive.

For now, in France, the march to war is essentially expressed through propaganda. We are under the relentless barrage of intense anti-Russian and anti-Chinese propaganda fueled by the media and by the martial posturing of Macron or the Chief of Staff, supposedly to “rearm France morally.” Already in 2020, before the start of the war in Ukraine, the Chief of Staff, Burkhard, warned: “Hard conflicts between states remain possible, even probable. The army must be more ready than ever to immediately generate military power to confront an unexpected threat, and to be able to absorb shocks with resilience.” He added: “French society has distanced itself from tragedy and history. It is not preparing these young people for the exorbitant responsibilities they will have at 25, the age of first operational deployments, of first deaths. We must make them mature as quickly as possible.” This went more unnoticed than General Mandon’s statement, but it was in the same vein.

They are manipulating public opinion, staging the Russian threat, trying to tug at the patriotic chord, invoking the defense of the homeland.… They are working, to borrow a phrase from Rosa Luxemburg, on the “manufacture of war” in public opinion. So, is it working? Undoubtedly, at least partially. In any case—as we see in our discussions—the government, the military, and the media have succeeded in instilling the idea of war, the idea that we should fear Russia and that we must be able to defend ourselves, and this is causing concern. As for the return of conscription, it is not viewed negatively at all, nor is the increase in the military budget.

This propaganda reinforces the feeling of national unity, the opposite of the necessary class consciousness. This feeling is already widely propagated by the protectionist and sovereigntist ideas championed by all parties and unions as the only way to stop layoffs and factory closures. This propaganda, with its accompanying warlike atmosphere, also fuels the feeling of powerlessness among workers in the face of a situation that is worsening on all fronts. How can we imagine preventing another world war when we can’t even fight for our own wages? It’s something we hear regularly in conversations.

And what can those who stood in solidarity with the Palestinians feel today, if not an immense sense of defeat? The message that the major powers sent from Gaza is: “Stay in your place! And look what we do to those who don’t submit!”

So yes, all of this is a burden, but it’s more background noise than a daily concern. The march to war is a gradual process. War isn’t imminent. And that’s part of the government’s problem. It has to maintain a certain level of tension even though it knows Russia isn’t going to attack tomorrow. It’s using the Russian threat and the war in Ukraine to prepare the public. Again, the survival kits, the plans for regional health agencies and hospitals to receive the wounded—it’s still primarily a propaganda operation.

War Economy: Employers Cautious

Material and military preparation for war remains a very gradual process. Look at the new military service: for now, they’ve designed it as voluntary. By 2026, it will concern a very small minority of young people: 3,000. Their goal is to increase that to 50,000 by 2030, a limited number given that there are 750,000 18-year-old youths. Macron spoke of the need to transform the economy into a “war economy” on June 13, 2022, at a Defense Exhibition. Again, this was more propaganda than reality.

The defense sector is ramping up production, arms dealers’ profits and stock prices have soared, but the economy has by no means transformed into a war economy. It’s nothing like what’s happening in Russia, or even Ukraine. The state isn’t yet fully committed to this, even though the government has increased the military budget. And the bourgeoisie isn’t going to start investing massively if it isn’t certain of the orders and profits to be expected. Comrades at Dassault have reported that, contrary to what the press is saying—namely, a tripling of Rafale production—Dassault is unable to maintain its production rates because the numerous subcontractors in the production chain aren’t keeping up.

We can also take the example of the Fonderie de Bretagne, which manufactured cast iron parts for the automotive industry. It was taken over by Europlasma, which claimed to be redirecting its activity toward the production of artillery shells. Europlasma promised 250,000 shells by 2025, and double that by 2026! Today, six months after the takeover, not a single shell has left the factory, nothing has been done to adapt the production equipment, and the workers fear the site will close. The same unscrupulous company took over the Tarbes and Valdunes Forges in northern France, where the activity was also supposed to be redirected toward armaments. The employees there denounce the same lack of investment and activity.

No requisitions, no state control, no planning, just continued competition, even between major players like Thales and Naval Group, between Thales Group and Airbus Defence and Space.… In this area, as in others, the bourgeois government gives free rein to shareholders and capitalist bargaining, and is incapable of truly anticipating and planning. In 1914, even though war had been foreseen for seven or eight years, and general mobilization had been anticipated, and military service extended to three years, it was only after the war began that capitalists, in France as well as in Germany, began to mobilize. And they did so under state pressure, while of course protecting their profits.

It wasn’t until September 1914 that Millerand—the first socialist to enter a bourgeois government in 1899 alongside Galliffet, one of the perpetrators of the Paris Commune massacre, and who had thus become Minister of War in 1914—summoned army chiefs and leading industrialists to implement production programs, find suppliers, and so on. According to one historian: “Improvisation reigned, with its inconsistencies; it took between two and three quarters for the war machine to truly reach full strength.” Certainly, the government and the state were preparing for war, but this was far from the disciplined cohort implementing a pre-established plan. This was a capitalist society dominated by the bourgeoisie and the laws of the market, and nothing was rationally organized, not even the preparation for war. And, today, for sure, it’s “business as usual” as they say!

And it’s the same old political maneuvering! The march to war is not at all an issue in the political crisis. It’s not even part of the debate. We hear discordant voices. The National Rally (RN) and La France Insoumise (LFI), like the French Communist Party (PCF), are putting on a pacifist act by denouncing the bellicose statements of others, whom they accuse of adding fuel to the fire instead of pursuing diplomacy. But it’s not a real point of contention because, fundamentally, they all agree on increasing military capabilities. They all talk about the necessity of waging wars when they are just. In other words: if we are attacked, we will have to defend ourselves!

But, once again, it’s not the issue of war that they want to emphasize at all. What’s occupying the parties today is their clowning around in the National Assembly, the supposed nationalization of ArcelorMittal, the Socialist Party’s compromise with Macron’s supporters, their potential alliances for the municipal elections, and the presidential race. And, as for the municipal campaign, they’re not going to focus on explaining that we need to prepare for our children to wear uniforms and go to war in the coming years, but rather on free school lunches, free back-to-school supplies, and free public transportation.…

Our Policy toward War

For our part, we must not downplay the campaign surrounding the march to war. Beyond the propaganda, there is a reality: the deadlock and senility of the capitalist system, the exacerbated rivalry for markets, Trump’s choice to intensify protectionism—all of this is pushing us toward war sooner or later. And that is when everything will come to a head. We must prepare for it.

We must capitalize on the diverse and multifaceted feelings aroused by this preparation, not to downplay the march to war, but to convince others that it will be an imperialist war. A war not to defend “our values,” “our freedoms,” but the interests of French capitalists (since we are in France), and because “the main enemy is within our own country.” We must not do this in a pacifist sense. We denounce the reinstatement of conscription because it is yet another step in the preparation for war. Because conscription has always been the means of enlisting young people and turning them into cannon fodder for the bourgeoisie. It is not that we reject the use of weapons and violence. No revolution can succeed without arming the workers and engaging in armed conflict to overthrow the bourgeois state.

And it’s not the risking of one’s life that should be condemned. It’s a good thing that young people are willing to commit to a cause greater than themselves. But for what cause, and under whose leadership? To perpetuate the capitalist order and the privileges of the imperialists? In the past, when military service was compulsory, our comrades didn’t particularly try to avoid it. Many could have, since students had the means to postpone their service and replace it with civilian or other forms of service. But the organization advised them to go, primarily to connect with the working class and, secondarily, to learn how to handle weapons.

“Incidentally,” because all the comrades who did their military service explain that the army’s primary lesson isn’t how to use weapons, but how to learn blind obedience and patriotic prejudices under the orders of officers. And another comrade pointed out that young drug dealers know perfectly well how to handle a Kalashnikov without having gone through military service! This choice to do military service was consistent with the idea that revolutionaries don’t have to flee the war, they don’t have to flee the more or less general mobilization that will occur, but rather stand alongside their class, in the factory as well as in the army.

As for young people who say they are against military service or against war, saying “I won’t do it,” or “If there’s a war, I’ll go abroad,” we need to talk. We need to tell them that the solution cannot lie in individual actions, if such actions are even possible, and that they will be no more exempt than anyone else.

Short of a revolutionary uprising, nothing will stop the steamroller once the government, the general staff, and the media unleash it. The First and Second World Wars demonstrate this, when class consciousness was incomparable to that of today, when, on the eve of 1914, there existed a genuine anti-militarist current driven by the socialist movement, which, right up until the outbreak of war, declared it would not fight. This is evident, for example, in Henri Poulaille’s autobiographical novel, “The Wretched of the Earth”. Today, we are starting from an even more disadvantaged position. And the gap in preparation between the bourgeoisie and our side continues to widen. So, yes, we must reflect on all of this. We must try to anticipate it in order to prepare ourselves morally and politically. When war becomes imminent, all of this will accelerate and change completely. Working conditions, living conditions, and civil liberties will change abruptly for everyone.

The true war economy also involves the militarization of workers. For now, it’s those working in the arms industry or the automotive sector who are learning that their factories can be converted to arms production, and who are reflecting on their responsibility in a future war. But in a wartime context, all workers are conscripted and become links in the war machine, from temporary workers manufacturing shells to train drivers and teachers who will serve as propaganda and recruitment agents for the army.

The conditions for activism will also be completely different. Today, one can still respond to Mandon’s speech with a tweet quoting the words of The Internationale: “If these cannibals persist in making heroes of us, they will soon learn that our bullets are for our own generals.” One can do this without facing prosecution for high treason. In the event of war, all of this will be a thing of the past. How will the organization hold together? How will we maintain militant ties? Will we withstand the patriotic wave? This is what we must also prepare for. For the time being, we must follow the path Trotsky laid out:

“The revolutionary makes his way with his class. If the proletariat is weak, backward, the revolutionary confines himself to doing discreet, patient, prolonged and unglamorous work, creating circles, doing propaganda, preparing cadres; with the support of the first cadres he has created, he manages to agitate the masses, legally or clandestinely, according to the circumstances.

“He always makes a distinction between his class and the enemy class and has only one policy, the one that corresponds to the strengths of his class and reinforces them.

“The proletarian revolutionary, whether French, Russian, or Chinese, considers the Chinese workers as his army, for today or for tomorrow.”

This quote is taken from a text written by Trotsky in June 1931 in response to André Malraux’s book The Conquerors, entitled “On the Strangled Revolution and Its Stranglers,” which can be found in The Permanent Revolution. In it, Trotsky develops a lengthy argument concerning the criminal policies of the Communist International and the Borodins in China, but this quote, even taken in isolation, is highly valuable.