In a spectacular display of capitalist arrogance, the latest maneuver by the German industrial behemoth Thyssenkrupp serves as yet another bitter reminder of imperialist priorities in the so-called “west.” The decision to spin off its marine division—whose obscene prosperity is driven by swelling defense contracts amid Europe’s ever-intensifying militarization—exposes the monstrous marriage of State and capital, united in their pursuit of profit at the expense of the global working class.

The shifting of Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems onto the stock market is hardly the grand “modernization” trumpeted by the bourgeoisie. Rather, it is the calculated dismemberment of productive forces for the benefit of a parasitic class of shareholders. It speaks volumes that, beneath all the talk of “agility” and “access to capital,” the real engine driving this transformation is the insatiable hunger of global finance. The gigantic armaments contracts fueling TKMS growth are nothing but a testament to the decaying, bellicose character of European imperialism, which would rather fill its coffers with the spoils of militarism than direct resources toward the well-being of its people or international solidarity.

The restructuring of Thyssenkrupp into a holding company, and the fracturing of its once-unified industrial might, represents the very logic of late capitalism at work: break apart, privatize, and package every public good, every instrument of social wealth, so it can be devoured by the investor class and speculators. What of the workers whose hands forged Germany’s steel backbone for decades? What of the productive unity that once made such institutions a pillar of material progress? These are cast aside, sacrificed at the altar of shareholder returns.

The voice of IG Metall—seeking public investment to shield jobs and retain national competitiveness—rings with a misplaced faith in the capitalist state. Has it not been proven, time and again, that the bourgeois state exists not for the worker, but as the armed defender of capitalist interests? The state may buy shares, may wield “rights of first refusal,” but it always bows to the interests of capital, not labor. Only under a system where the workers themselves control industry, not the profit-driven cliques of investors and managers, will such resources serve peace and society, not war and capital accumulation.

The overwhelming vote of the shareholders for the spinoff—nearly unanimous—unmasks the class enemy’s unity of purpose. They recognize only one loyalty: to profit. Their “specialized investors” will not specialize in anything but exploitation, their “management focus” will focus only on deepening divisions among workers and fattening themselves on the spoils of militarized industry.

Let no worker be deceived: this is not progress, but regression. Instead of forging alliances that serve humanity, German monopolies are becoming leaner instruments of imperialist competition, their fortunes yoked to the war machine, their fate decided in boardrooms and trading floors, not the factory or the shipyard. Only the working class, led by revolutionary consciousness and imbued with the spirit of Maoist collectivity, can seize these colossal means of production and redirect them toward human need and international peace. The time has come for the workers of all nations to unite against the bourgeoisie’s schemes, reject the capitalist fragmentation of industry, and fight for a world where production is for the people—not for profit, not for war!