“The entire history of bourgeois democracy lays bare this illusion: to deceive the people, the bourgeois democrats have launched and always launch all the “slogans” they want. The problem is to verify their sincerity, to compare words with facts , not to be content with idealistic or vain phrases, but to see class reality . Imperialist war does not cease to be imperialist when charlatans or petty bourgeois philistines launch a sweet "slogan", but only when the class that directs the imperialist war and is linked to it with millions of threads (even ropes) of an economic nature, It is actually overthrown and replaced in power by the truly revolutionary class, the proletariat. Otherwise, it is impossible to get rid of an imperialist war, as well as an imperialist, predatory peace . ”
— Lenin. The proletarian revolution and the renegade Kautsky.
The imperialist war that broke out first in Ukraine, but which threatens to become a generalized imperialist war, forces the imperialist poles not only to maintain the support of the bourgeoisie of their respective countries, who are, in reality, the promoters of the war, but also considers it urgent to gain the support of a sector of the working class, in favor of one imperialist side or another.
We have witnessed the shameful attitude of what were once glorious Communist Parties in Europe during the last century, but which ended up in the swamp of Eurocommunism and are currently on the side of the imperialist pole led by the United States/NATO/ European Union, fulfilling the agreements acquired with social democracy by participating in its coalition governments. It is no secret to anyone that these parties no longer represent the interests of the working class, but openly of the bourgeoisie of the imperialist pole already mentioned.
However, the imperialist pole led by China, to which Russia belongs, also seeks to gain the sympathy of a certain number of parties. Not only have an amalgam of organizations of all kinds joined active support for this pole, taking advantage of the eclecticism provided by terms such as “anti-imperialism”, “multipolarity”, “anti-colonialism”, “national liberation”, etc., but they have also A series of parties and organizations that call themselves communist and workers have become promoters of the defense of this imperialist pole.
These groups have come together around something that has come to be called the World Anti-imperialist Platform (WAP), which, from October 2022 to date, has set the goal of forming a platform from which to defend Russia and “socialist” China against the aggression of what they identify as the worst enemy of humanity: the NATO military alliance, led by the United States.
The interesting thing about the WAP is that, for these purposes, they appeal to the International Communist Movement (ICM), to communist and worker organizations that, under the assumption that Russia is a capitalist but not an imperialist country and that socialism is being built in China, They adopt a common strategy to confront the axis led by the United States.
But it is even more interesting that, both due to the very nature of the constituent organizations, as well as the positions they have held within the MCI, the general positions of the WAP end up falling not only into a terrible misunderstanding of what imperialism is, what the fight for socialism-communism implies and the tasks that the MCI should set for itself; but also in absolutely anti-communist and anti-proletarian positions, directing their bullets towards the parties that hold the most revolutionary positions in the MCI.
Therefore, it becomes an obligatory task for the communist parties that hold revolutionary positions to unmask the deeply anti-communist and opportunist character of the WAP and how it, even under “anti-imperialist” rhetoric, ends up being a space of articulation for the defense of one of the imperialist poles in conflict.
Who makes up the World Anti-imperialist Platform and who is it addressed to?
From its Paris Declaration of October 2022, the WAP explains: “ we believe that it is vitally important that communists and anti-imperialists make common cause around the world in a broad anti-imperialist front, and that they explain to workers , everywhere, that it is not Russia or China that must be opposed, but rather the imperialist powers, led by NATO and with the US, the boss among them . [1]
Clearly, the WAP expresses that those it calls to fight against the imperialist powers, “led by NATO and the US.” It is not only what is considered the broad spectrum of “anti-imperialism”, but also the communist movement. The latter is even more explicit in subsequent declarations, especially in Belgrade, in December of the same year.
Now, although some of the organizations participating in the different meetings and conferences of the WAP may call themselves communist, not all of them correspond to this category. Many of the communist parties that sign the Paris Declaration, for several years before the existence of the Platform, have held opportunist positions within the International Communist Movement. Such is the case of the communist parties that sign for Great Britain, Italy, Mexico, Chile, Spain, among others.
On the other hand, other organizations of a strange nature participate in the Platform, unrelated to the International Communist Movement, some that even hold reactionary, xenophobic, anti-immigrant and openly anti-communist positions, such is the case of organizations such as Vanguardia Española, the Center for Political Innovation of United States or the United Socialist Party of Venezuela.
It is with all of them that they seek to organize the communist movement in the world with “anti-imperialist” positions or, as the French forces participating in the WAP have even proposed, to form a “new communist international.” [2] That is, with organizations that are not proposing the fight for socialism-communism [3] , the seizure of Power by the working class, the transformation of the imperialist war into a civil war for the proletarian revolution; but with groups that hold anti-communist positions, without real links with the working class in most cases and with “communist” parties that reveal a deep misunderstanding of Marxism-Leninism and the character of imperialism.
The Platform's characterization of imperialism and its confrontation with the Leninist interpretation of it
Since the majority of the organizations that make up the WAP are opportunist or reactionary groups or parties, it is natural that there is a deep misunderstanding of imperialism as Lenin defined it more than 100 years ago. For the WAP, imperialism is not the highest phase of capitalism, the era in which the export of capital predominates rather than the export of goods [4] , where free competition has given way to the dominance of monopolies throughout the world. and the contradictions between the different imperialist poles are exacerbated by the dominance of the markets. For the WAP, imperialism has its expression only in a policy of aggression by an imperialist pole against “weaker” peoples or countries.
Hence, following a dogmatic analysis of what imperialism was in its first years of development, that is, from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, they continue to divide capitalist countries into two camps: a field of capitalist countries imperialists and a field of non-imperialist capitalist countries. For this reason, they do not identify China or Russia as imperialist countries or their military actions in other countries as a way to preserve or expand their markets in imperialist terms, even when they comply with the economic characteristics outlined by Lenin.
On the contrary, the lack of a Leninist and revolutionary interpretation of imperialism leads the Platform to conclude that Russia and China are “anti-imperialist” countries that must be defended from US imperialist aggression, and thereby justify the Russian military aggression, not only in Ukraine, but also in Syria and other countries of the former Soviet Union, on the one hand; and from China in Africa, on the other hand.
But the world is no longer what it was more than 100 years ago, when there were still countries whose capitalist development had not reached its final phase, the imperialist one. Since the middle of the 20th century, imperialism ended up becoming a world system, in which every capitalist country is immersed, regardless of whether its productive forces are more or less developed than those of another country or group of countries.
This theoretical step of a scientific nature in the analysis of imperialism today has been developed, for several years, by the Communist Party of Greece (KKE); which has allowed a series of communist parties around the world to shake off the dross of opportunist conceptions around imperialism and have acquired a better understanding of strategy and tactics in the fight for socialist revolution.
It is not surprising, then, that the KKE and other communist parties that have corroborated the correctness of this analysis are today the target of the most furious attacks by the WAP, something openly recognized by Stephen Cho, Coordinator of the Korean International Forum at say “ Today, the main focus of the Platform's ideological war is the sectarian opportunism of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) ” [5] .
The articles and publications of the Platform, which are condensed in its monthly organs, are full of hints from its different organizations against the revolutionary positions of the KKE and the parties framed under the Leninist point of view. However, it has been the Communist Party of Great Britain (ML) and the Communist Party of Chile (Proletarian Action) who have carried the banner of the WAP as a whole to launch their anti-communist diatribes against the KKE and the parties that, in the face of the confusion unleashed by the outbreak of war in Ukraine, have remained firm in proletarian internationalism and the defense of revolutionary positions.
The PC (AP) of Chile has dedicated, until now, an article divided into three parts entitled The political position of the Communist Party of Greece… a communist position? which focuses specifically on the issue of “criticizing” the imperialist pyramid theory developed by the KKE. In fact, a large part of the attacks that the WAP has launched against the KKE have been based on trying to pass off said analysis as “revisionist”, “opportunist” or there are even those who have dared to compare this theory of the KKE with Trotskyism. .
Why does the imperialist pyramid theory bother the WAP so much? To try to reach an answer to this question it is necessary to quote in extensive Aleka Papariga, who was General Secretary of the KKE, who explains that “ The term imperialist has recently become very fashionable in Europe and in Greece among forces that did not use it. frequently or as easily in previous years. The problem is that imperialism is presented as something different and distinctive from capitalism, as a political concept separate from the economic base, a position that was strongly supported by the father of opportunism, Kautsky. Opportunism is, among other things, incapable of modernizing; He repeats Kautsky, resorts to anti-scientific arguments, deliberately focuses on the surface and not the essence. It is not in his interest and therefore he cannot see the total picture of the world capitalist economy in its mutual international relations. He, who does not want to understand the economic essence of imperialism and see in this basis the ideological and political superstructure, in the end absolves it, supports it and sows illusions among the working and popular masses that there is good and bad capitalism, good and bad bourgeois management. ineffective. […] He hides the classist essence of the war from the people, since he criticizes it from a moral point of view due to its tragic consequences. […] Opportunism, reformism repeats with an innovative style the ancient, old and outdated perception that imperialism is identified with military aggression against a country, the policy of military interventions, blockades, with the effort to reactivate the old colonial policy. […] They arbitrarily use Lenin's assessment in his well-known work 'Imperialism, the highest phase of capitalism', that a handful, a small number of States plunder the vast majority of States in the world. As a consequence, imperialism is identified with a very small number of countries, which can be counted on the fingers of one hand, while all other countries are subordinated, oppressed, they are colonies, occupied countries due to subordination to the liberal perception. Today, there are few countries at the top, in the upper positions of the international imperialist system (which is also illustrated with a pyramid scheme to show the different levels that capitalist countries occupy). ” [6]
The entire previous quote demolishes the opportunistic positions of the WAP. So far, a brief summary: 1) imperialism has long since become a world system in which all capitalist countries occupy a space in the imperialist pyramid; 2) the position that a country may occupy one day in the pyramid will not necessarily be the same as the one it occupies the next day, since the development of its productive forces and the insertion of its monopolies in the international arena are the conditions for exercising its strength and be placed higher or lower than this or that country; 3) imperialism does not only imply a policy of aggression, in any case, that is a political action that reflects its economy, but it is not the main or most characteristic feature of a country to define it as “imperialist”, as it did Kautsky separates his political reflection from its economic base; 4) wars have a class character, but opportunists try to bury such a definition with moral positions about who attacked first or if it is done in “defense” of this or that imperialist pole, which has been the justification, for example, in the Russian invasion of Ukraine; 5) an opportunistic misrepresentation of imperialism is that the world is divided into a handful of imperialist States that oppress and plunder other smaller and weaker ones, which are characterized as “dependent”, “colonial”, etc., and that this by itself makes them “anti-imperialists.”
Of course, what was mentioned above does not condense the entire development of the theory of the imperialist pyramid, since it is the result of a study that the KKE has carried out for several years based on material reality and not on speculations in its head. of any of its militants. However, with this the reason for the attacks against the KKE by the WAP may become clearer, because once the world working class understands what imperialism is and what it is not, it can identify the true enemy. , which is not a single pole, but the working class of capitalist countries always has its enemy in its own house, in its respective bourgeoisie, in the words of Liebknecht. Therefore, the WAP's raison d'être, to defend the imperialist pole headed by China and Russia, loses all meaning and, on the contrary, places them in the opportunist position that Lenin and the Bolsheviks criticized on the eve and during the First World War. World War.
Hence the reason for the anti-communist positions that end up emerging among the WAP organizations; Hence why all kinds of tricks are tried to justify support for an imperialist center in dispute with another, appealing to the International Communist Movement; Hence why any “weak” country is automatically classified as “anti-imperialist”, and in contradiction with NATO, even if it persecutes and murders communists and workers, as in Iran, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Turkey, etc. ; hence the reason for the disqualifications of the CPGB (ML), not only against the KKE, but against the WAP, the Communist Party of Sweden and others, for “repeating NATO propaganda” [7] ; hence why we agree with the black legend of the opportunists that the KKE “intervenes in parties to divide the communist movement,” as Cho claims [8] .
Unfortunately, the elements to characterize the WAP as anti-communist do not end there. In March 2023, the Platform held its third meeting, in the city of Caracas, Venezuela, and was hosted by the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) at a time when this party was preparing the offensive against the Party. Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) in order to intervene, outlaw it and impose an ad hoc direction on it. All the participating organizations of the WAP knew what the Venezuelan comrades had been denouncing to the world for months, but that did not prevent the WAP from being the means with which the Maduro-Cabello government legitimized itself as an “anti-imperialist” force.
How can an organization, which appeals to the communist movement, act in such a provocative way in favor of an anti-communist government like Maduro's? How can you even justify the PSUV's aggression against the PCV, as the PC (AP) has done, by saying that the PCV has "lost popular support" for maintaining a critical position towards the bourgeois government of Maduro? [9] It only remains to say that whoever works against a Communist Party in favor of a bourgeois government, for the sake of a supposed “anti-imperialism”, is an anti-communist.
The need to strengthen the International Communist Movement on revolutionary positions
Since 1998, various communist and worker parties have made extremely valuable efforts to rearticulate the communist movement in the world and open the discussion on the validity of socialism, after the long night of counterrevolution that dominated much of the 90s. It is a pity that some of the parties that participate in the WAP have at some point coincided in the International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties (IMCWP) and a revolutionary current has not finished taking shape within them, but it is also comforting to see that the imperialist war has been a catalyst for communist parties to recover Leninist positions and wage an ideological struggle against opportunism.
Each imperialist pole will seek to articulate parties around itself, both bourgeois and “communist”, to form not only a base of popular support to legitimize the participation of their countries in the war, the approval of war credits, etc., but also to use them as cannon fodder once the imperialist war becomes widespread. On the one hand, the parties that ended up in Eurocommunism are grouping around NATO; On the other hand, the WAP opportunists are grouped around China/Russia.
Although we continue to be part of a handful of parties, the communists who have recovered Lenin, who have made a scientific analysis of the construction of socialism in the 20th century and the causes of the counterrevolution, who have once again placed him at the center of our activity To the working class, who have clarified what imperialism is and have refused to place ourselves on one imperialist side or another, despite the pressures that weigh on us, our parties must also regroup around common positions. We have taken firm steps regarding this, as with the International Communist Review, but we must redouble our efforts to unmask the opportunist and anti-communist positions that, with an anti-imperialist mask, try to cajole the people and place them behind one or the other. imperialist pole.
NOTES:
[1] World Anti-imperialist Platform. Paris Declaration. The rising tide of world war and the duty of anti-imperialists . October 14, 2022. Viewed at: https://wap21.org/?p=334
[2] The Platform . No. 2. July 2023. p. 35.
[3] Those who propose socialism-communism do so following a stage tactic, proposing a maximum program and a minimum program, and justifying the participation of communists in “patriotic” or “popular” bourgeois governments. This is the position of the Communist Party of Chile (Proletarian Action): “ First of all, it is worth mentioning that we believe that communists should, to the extent possible, not only participate in patriotic and popular governments with a socialist perspective, but also promote them together with progressive, anti-imperialist, anti-fascist and democratic bourgeois forces. To achieve this, communists must have both a communist political program and a patriotic and popular program that allows them to establish contact with these groups and join forces to achieve common objectives.
At a time when the seizure of political power and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat is far from being a real possibility, as is the case today in the vast majority of societies (including Greece), it is legitimate, from the point of view of political tactics, that the communists unite, even “behind” the democratizing bourgeois forces that try to carry out structural changes . The Platform . No. 3. August 2023. p. 40.
[4] In attempting to criticize the KKE's imperialist pyramid theory, the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist) made a "slip" by suggesting that it still considers that what currently prevails under the last phase of imperialism is the export of merchandise and not that of capital. In his words, “ The KKE's new 'imperialist pyramid' theory is based on the incorrect claim that every economy in which trade takes place and goods are produced is a capitalist economy. With a single stroke, this simplification denies the Marxist historical understanding of the development of commodities; the understanding that capitalism is the stage of human social development in which commodity production is the dominant form of production. It ignores the fact that commodities have been produced since the time of the first class societies: that they existed in slave and feudal societies, and that they will continue to exist for some time in socialist society . The Platform . No. 3. p. 53.
On the other hand, another misunderstanding is revealed about the fact that, contrary to what the PCGB (ML) affirms, in socialism the goods produced are no longer commodities, since in socialism the law of value, as Stalin explains in the “Economic problems of socialism in the USSR”.
[5] The Platform . No. 3. p. 64.
[6] Aleka Papariga. On imperialism-the imperialist pyramid . Consulted at: http://elcomunista.nuevaradio.org/sobre-el-imperialismo-la-piramide-imperialista/
[7] The Platform . No. 3. p. 56.
[8] Op. cit. p. 64.
[9] The Platform . No 2. p. 39 and The Platform . No. 3. p. 44.
* Guillermo Uc is a member of the CC of the Communist Party of Mexico (PCM).