Bulletin N° 34 avril 2023 On March 3, 4 and 5, the third meeting of the "World Anti-Imperialist Platform" was held in Caracas (Venezuela), after those in Paris (October 2022) and Belgrade ( December 2022). What is it about ?
This organization, which was born after the start of the war in Ukraine, brings together various organizations. Some are totally non-existent like two Greek organizations, the "Collective for the struggle for the revolutionary unification of humanity" and the "Platform for independence" . Others, like "The Spanish Avant-Garde" represent ultra-nationalist positions. Was present, of course, as an organizer the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), President Maduro's party, which is not, as its name suggests, not a communist party, but is considered a progressive party because of the Chavez legacy. Finally, for the most part, the organizations present claim to belong to the communist movement.
The participants defend the idea that being anti-imperialist means being in the "camp" of Russia and China. The Communist Party of Mexico, whose positions we share, put it this way in a statement on this conference: "Although the word 'anti-imperialist' is in its name, its objective is to convince the working class to take sides for the imperialist bloc of China and Russia in the face of imminent war in Taiwan and South Korea”.
Fallacious arguments
When we study two of the declarations of the platform, one devoted to the contribution of Latin America to the imperialist struggle, the other general, we are struck by the specious side of the argument based on anachronisms.
Thus, reference is made several times to the “Monroe Doctrine” of the President of the United States from 1817 to 1824 which, under the pretext of combating the colonization of America by the European powers, indicates the desire of the USA to dominate the continent. That the heavy hand of Uncle Sam is still present today in Latin America is certain. That the dominant imperialist power still and always wants to rule everything there, of course. We have seen it again with the overthrow of Evo Morales in Bolivia and the more recent one of Peruvian President Pedro Castillo. We stand in total solidarity with the workers and peoples of America in their struggle against US imperialism. But this focus suggests that the only imperialist country in America would be the United States, and, implicitly,
The final statement is based on a statement by Che Guevarra about Vietnamese resistance to the US oppressor: "What a bright future would open up before us if two, three or more Vietnams flourished all over the world, with their repeated blows against imperialism, forcing it to disperse its forces under attack! » . But the argument is fallacious, because it compares two completely different situations: the current one where the imperialist powers dominate the world and that of the 1960s when a third of humanity (and in particular the USSR) escaped capitalist society and at its imperialist stage.
The affirmation of the existence of a single imperialist bloc
In fact, the members of the platform try to reduce the causes of the current wars to a “push” of American imperialism to maintain its hegemony; while hiding the real contradictions that exist between the main economies of the world for the control of natural resources, means of communication, labor force, geostrategic positions or local financial institutions. Thus, there is no mention at any time of the economic stakes of Ukraine or Africa.
This strangely resembles the justifications of the socialist parties on the eve of the First World War, which spoke of the aggressiveness of French or German power while forgetting the economic stakes. This served as justification for their support of their respective bourgeoisies in 14/18.
In fact, it is a question of justifying the war by maintaining the zones of influence of the capitalist countries like Russia or China, under the mantle of "national liberation". The ideological maneuver to reach these dangerous conclusions is to deny the imperialist character of China and Russia. Since it is not possible to hide their capitalist character, it is denied that the second and eleventh largest economies in the world, with indistinct Financial Capital and Industrial Capital and monopolies of transport, trade and energy very strong, be imperialists.
The Caracas final declaration refers to “the anti-imperialist governments of Russia, China, DPRK and Iran”. Further on, she indicates that“Understanding the need for maximum unity against imperialism is what motivated Brazil to join the formation of the BRICS alliance, which today stands at the center of a new world order who is struggling to be born. This means that Brazil is not a capitalist power that weighs in South America either. For the Revolutionary Communist Party, the BRICS form a bloc of rival capitalist powers of the USA-EU bloc and not an anti-imperialist alliance.
Already, in the Paris press release of the platform, it was affirmed that these countries “do not live from the overexploitation or the looting of the world”, as if the working class of the countries belonging to the Commonwealth of Independent States, not to mention Russia and China itself, were not part of the world, or the savage policy of exporting Chinese capital to Africa was non-existent.
The Platform serves objectively to introduce the harmful idea of taking sides with an imperialist camp in the war whose first scenario is in Ukraine and which risks spreading and generalizing. Here is what the general statement of Caracas contains about the war in Ukraine:“Comrades, the outbreak of war in Ukraine has drawn a line across the world and clarified the question of who stands with whom for all who want to see it. It is time for all who yearn for freedom to let the people know that we have a side in this war the imperialists are waging to preserve their position as masters of our suffering world and to keep the rest of us in the state of slaves. The Mexican Communist Party rightly draws this conclusion in its press release: "There is no place for an anti-imperialist policy, when it seeks to subordinate itself to an imperialist pole, and not to fight imperialism at its root, as the higher phase of capitalism. »
The Question of National Capitalist Bourgeoisies
The choice of the parties of the Second International 100 years ago, unity with the opportunists, meant the subordination of the working class to "its" national capitalists and alliance with them to oppress many other nations. Today it is the same thing for the parties of the imperialist countries, but for the others there is added a submission of "their" comprador capitalists to other imperialist powers than the USA, France or Germany.
We come to the question of the alliance between the working class and the anti-colonialist National Bourgeoisie. This alliance can only be temporary; we have seen in the history of decolonization, how even this national Bourgeoisie can get rid of its working class, as in 1976 in Iraq or after the death of Boumediene in Algeria. However, the spirit of the platform is to set up the “progressive” countries as unwavering allies. This is particularly the case of Venezuela.
From Chavez to Maduro, water has flowed under the bridge. The bride is no longer so beautiful since Maduro makes alliances with other fringes of the capitalist bourgeoisie, tries to renew ties with the USA. In this context, the PSUV vigorously attacks the Communist Party of Venezuela, which does not want to submit. Moreover, the CUT, trade union center of Venezuela, member of the WFTU is increasingly critical of the government of Venezuela and the party in power, the PSUV. Here is an excerpt from a statement of its secretary-general, in a meeting of the WFTU:“In Venezuela, the reality of dependent capitalism and a model of accumulation based on oil rents has not been overcome in the period of the Bolivarian progressive process that began with President Chávez and the Constituent Assembly of 1999, with significant advances in social and labor rights. Now, with the government of President Maduro, it has degraded into a regressive and reactionary process, although manipulating with a pseudo-revolutionary rhetoric that has no correspondence with the public policies that are carried out, nor with the conduct and the way of life of the high state bureaucracy. »
Conclusion
For the Revolutionary Communist Party, it is clear that such an "anti-imperialist platform" is a useful operation to whitewash one of the parts of the capitalist countries participating in the current imperialist war and to sow confusion among the international proletariat. , as well as those who seek to whitewash the United States, NATO or the Zelensky government. We have expressed this point of view clearly in a joint declaration of 44 communist parties at the international level.