Africa and permanent (global) wars

Africa and permanent (global) warsIn the history of capital, militarism has become a province of capital accumulation (Luxemburg 1913(Luxemburg (2003))).Militarism and wars -alongside waste -have become a key domain of capitalist accumulation in the age of US imperialism (Capasso and Kadri 2023).To remind the public that the war in Ukraine is not the only ongoing war, we stick to our remit: we keep eyes on Sudan, Palestine, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Libya, Western Sahara.Our eyes get tired from the feeling of powerlessness that this state of constant war produces.War is the ultimate tragedy for the people -yet it is very good for business.Militarism remains a core element of the capitalist system and the wars that it sustains.The imperialist power of the US has been founded on a permanent war economy (van der Linden 2025) and liberalism has succeeded in normalising permanent war and militarisation, while desensitising people about it (Amin 2006).In early March 2025, the EU shakes its magic money tree (yes, there is a magic money tree!): a new rearmament programme is announced, ReArm Europe (EU 2025), freeing up 800 billion from other national budget allocations, and redirecting it towards public financing of European defence, including a plan to borrow up to 150 billion to lend to national governments to fund weapons production (Bahceli 2025).Given that the EU massively relies on the import of US weapons, European leaders rapidly reacted to the US withdrawal of military aid to Ukraine.In Germany, the Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Social Democrats (SPD) are negotiating to form a coalition government and seemingly agree on the creation of a 500 billion fund for investment and infrastructure spending (Rinke, Alkousaa and Marsh 2025).The presumed future chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) justifies this with the need for more spending on 'defence': 'In view of the threats to our freedom and peace on our continent, the same must now apply to our defence: whatever it takes' (Deutschlandfunk 2025).Economists have been quick to stress the potential economic benefits of the new EU defence plan: this surge in public investment in the defence sector could 'help jumpstart Europe's flat economy' (Bahceli 2025), as the weapons industry could boost interconnected industrial sectors that have been declining for decades and absorb the job losses in the EU automotive sector.