"The World Anti-imperialist Platform (WAP) is the latest addition to the consolidation of opportunist forces in this period.
The initiator of the movement to create this formation is the People's Democratic Party of South Korea. The defining feature of this new formation is their distorted understanding of the contemporary world. In fact, a simplification of the world's contradictions into something reminiscent of the nonsense formulated by the Brezhnevites in the 80s. The basics of WAP's understanding of the world is that the USA-EU-NATO is the only imperialist center, and all other countries are either oppressed by it, or liberated from it and therefore are now fighting a proud resistance struggle against the USA-EU-NATO bourgeois center. It is best summarized under this so-called "Multi-polarity theory" which dictates that as the US weakens, the world's contradictions shift to such an extent that imperialism can now be freely opted out of.
An absurdity that promotes a series of illusions. This theory is a complete rejection of Lenin's theory of imperialism. The postulate that they put forward proclaims that imperialism can be detached, that is, that imperialism is not a world system, but rather a thing exclusive to the US-EU-NATO axis. With this, the WAP dilutes the word imperialism to a phenomenon that is nothing more than an aggressive foreign policy, and therefore removes the concept of imperialism from its economic base. Something which also has the effect of removing imperialism from its class base; namely the global power of the bourgeoisie.
In the WAP Paris statement, the word capitalism is not mentioned once. Which really should be no surprise, given their ideological confusion. This detail is all-important about the WAP's un-Marxist and idealist basis.
Their deviation from Marxist-Leninist principles is no accident; it is precisely no accident that key aspects of our ideology are not to be found in their thinking. Because the goal of the WAP is not to advance the basis of the revolutionary movement in the world, but rather, to that end, they are transformed into agents of the rising center of imperialism, namely the Eurasian bourgeois center around China and Russia. Most ironic of all is that the parties participating are a strange conglomeration of backward government parties like the Venezuelan ruling party, fascistoid organizations like the Center for Political Innovation and nationalists like Avanguardia Espanola.
We are compelled as communists to question where this movement is coming from. For many years, various ideological deviations have been simmering on the web, which have become increasingly central in recent times.
In this era when imperialism is all-pervasive and the exploitation of the working masses takes on an increasingly antagonistic character, the class hatred of the people has become more and more evident. That is why people are flocking to the anti-capitalist theory and dissatisfaction with capitalism and imperialism is on the rise, especially among the youth. We see now that the winds of history are once again blowing, and it seems that the countless struggles of the past against opportunism and revisionism are still not over. Whether it was the struggle against Kautskyism, Bukharinism, Hrushchovism, Dengism, or whatever the opportunists have called themselves over the years, it is all the same. It is these ideas that still define a clear part of the communist movement. It is the belief in humane exploitation, the belief in progressive capitalism that the WAP postulates exists today in Russia and China under the false pretext of being socialist or anti-imperialist nations. These dangerous tendencies transform the legitimate discontent of the people into a tool of ideological decay. The complete departure, among those people who come from an honest standpoint, from the principles of Marxism-Leninism is a comic echo of the opportunists of the past. This is most clearly seen around this cult of productive power which is the defining feature of these people's thinking. Something that Stalin denounced many years ago in his criticism of Comrade Yaroshenko, about which Stalin writes:
“This peculiar development of the relations of production from the role of a brake on the productive forces to that of the principal mainspring impelling them forward, and from the role of principal mainspring to that of a brake on the productive forces, constitutes one of the chief elements of the Marxist materialist dialectics. Every novice in Marxism knows that nowadays. But Comrade Yaroshenko, it appears, does not know it.”
He elaborates: “It is not true, in the second place, that the production, i.e., the economic relations lose their independent role under socialism, that they are absorbed by the productive forces, that social production under socialism is reduced to the organization of the productive forces. Marxism regards social production as an integral whole which has two inseparable sides: the productive forces of society (the relation of society to the forces of nature, in contest with which it se-cures the material values it needs), and the relations of production (the relations of men to one another in the process of production). These are two different sides of social production, although they are inseparably connected with one another. And just because they constitute different sides of social production, they are able to influence one another. To assert that one of these sides may be absorbed by the other and be converted into its component part, is to commit a very grave sin against Marxism.”
WAP describes itself in the context of its Paris Declaration: “That there is no economic data to justify characterizing China or Russia as imperialist. These are countries that do not live by superexploiting or looting the world. They do not put other countries into military, technological or debt slavery. On the contrary, the beneficial terms of trade and the technological and military assistance they offer are giving smaller developing countries the chance to break out of imperialist enslavement.”
“That Russia and China are the targets of imperialist aggression because both by retaining their own independence, and by assisting other nations to gain theirs, they represent a serious threat to the imperialists’ world hegemony.”
Not only is their characterization of what imperialism is completely out of step with Lenin's definition of what imperialism is, but it is also a frightening statement of their willingness to legitimize the abuse of civilian populations and the exploitation of the masses in many countries.
The rationalization of their aggressive tailing policy is evidence of the lengths to which opportunists are willing to go to legitimize their ambitions. We should instead ask the Russian revolutionaries being prosecuted by the criminal Russian state how they feel about this absurd interpretation. We should instead ask the Greek dock workers who work under miserable conditions and where their trade union activities are actively opposed by the Chinese shipping monopoly COSCO, what they think about the great socialist China.
The argument that "They are building infrastructure! How can they be bad?" always lands in the wrong place. It is convenient that infrastructure is being built in these countries, indeed, it even seems like a favor to these developing countries... But, these are exactly the same arguments that have been used in the past to legitimize imperialist exploitation of various countries. This was the case with British imperialism, this was the case with fascist Italy, and the list goes on. So it is not a real factor that we can use to describe these countries as non-imperialist countries. The investment in infrastructure, under the banner of the Communist Party of China, does not mean that it is automatically progressive and a gift to these countries. History clearly dictates how investment in infrastructure is used to appropriate the new capacity for exploitation that will take place.
We see at the same time the Russian financial monopoly buying up smaller European banks and monopolizing them under the Russian monopoly capitalists. We see the Chinese shipping monopoly COSCO buying up a supermajority in the Piraeus port, where organized workers are attacked by fascists. There are countless such examples.
It is truly embarrassing to see self-proclaimed serious revolutionaries actively collaborating with obscure internet ideologies, actively supporting the abuser Caleb Maupin and his reactionary conspiracy.
Their dishonest interpretation of imperialism as the preserve of US-EU-NATO is a departure from basic Marxist-Leninist principles. There is no doubt about the looming US-EU-NATO threat, but to blind oneself to this threat is a significant right-wing error. The WAP's world view is undialectical, un-Marxist and serves only to support the exploitation of the working class by anti-people governments and to create illusions among the working class.
Every principled communist must voice his or her condemnation and criticism of this new organization and its activities as a legitimizing arm of imperialism."
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