In September, another military exercise ended in Latvia. This time they took place not just in the city, but in the center of Riga, among unsuspecting civilians and walking mothers with babies. The exercises have caused the expected resonance of indignation among the population, especially in the social networks, but the comments were mostly “like – do not like” or “need – do not need”. Let’s try to look at what happened from a class perspective.
Our regular readers have already learned that any state is an instrument of violence and repression in the hands of the ruling class, which in Latvia is the bourgeoisie. The army, police, and other power structures, being an integral part of this apparatus, direct their activity first of all to the protection of the existing state of things, in which a small part of society lives at the expense of other people’s unpaid labor. The military budget is formed at the expense of the working population (the exploited class), but the power structures protect the domination of the capitalists (the exploiting class).
Of course, the police are involved in policing, preventing crime, and catching dangerous criminals. This is its positive role from the point of view of society as a whole. The police enforce the law. But don’t forget that the law is the will of the ruling class. The bourgeoisie does not want unrest, strikes, and demonstrations by workers with demands of an economic or political nature. Everything should be quiet and peaceful – the exploited should not demand an improvement in their standard of living and prevent the capitalists from making a profit. This kind of “class peace” is constantly being imposed on workers and local politicians on the payroll of the ruling class.
Against whom might urban warfare exercises be directed, and to what extent do modern military conflicts involve such actions? We suggest that you think about the answer for yourselves. We, the workers, are not on our way with the bourgeoisie, even if our interests coincide in some respects. Capital has a state with its apparatus of violence, and workers have nothing to rely on but their own strength.
A well-known bourgeois politician explained that everything that is happening is aimed at showing the potential aggressor (you know who) that he will not take us over and that we (i.e. Latvia) will not be under the “Russian boot”. Let’s look without emotion who really owns the power in Latvia. According to the constitution it of course belongs to the people of Latvia, but who holds the economic levers of government? Who owns the biggest banks, the remaining industrial enterprises, trade and logistic centers? That’s right, foreign capital, including Russian capital. Foreign “boots” have been walking over Latvia since the end of counter-revolution in 1991, taking out the profits created by the work of Latvian workers and creating conditions for the outflow of labor force abroad with the help of local bourgeoisie. Would you hear such a thing from prominent politicians, servants of capital?
Conscious workers do not need Russian or American or anyone else’s “boots” on the ground. Workers must abolish exploitation and coercion, and work for the good of all society, not for the capitalists and their servants. But this is something you will never hear about in the “independent media”. The agenda will be the same: the evil East and the good West, “we must endure in the name of democracy and independence, support local business”. Another noodle from the ruling class.
