The CIPOML conference convened in October at a time when the peoples in Asia, Africa and Latin America have risen up one after another.
International bourgeoisie and capitalism do nothing, but increase social problems, always adding new ones and rendering them unsurmountable.
Let us recall how they promised peace and welfare for everyone with the New World Order, and how exploitation and social classes would end with globalisation when it transformed the world into “a small village” and rid the humanity of their problems!
The working class and the oppressed peoples of the world have been experiencing the opposite of these claims through the unbearable deterioration of their living and working conditions. The workers are coming to terms with the fact that capitalism has nothing to offer through their own experience in soaring unemployment, decreasing wages, increasing poverty due to the cuts in social services and rising prices and taxes, and deteriorating conditions for the very basic necessities. And the source of all these problems is the fact that capitalist production is made to increase the profit of the monopolies.
This decay manifests itself in the crisis that many dependent countries have already been dragged into, and in the capitalist world as a whole it has led to a slow down in economic growth, especially in industrial production, accompanied by a decrease in capacity utilisation, factory closures and lay offs. There are signs that the next crisis of capitalist world economy will be much more severe than the one in 2008. And this time, as major imperialist states do not have the opportunity to have centrally implemented interventions, the crisis will have more destructive consequences.
The sharpening inter-imperialist and inter-monopoly contradictions and increasing conflicting interests have already led to the “trade wars”. These contradictions and conflicts result from the drive of imperialist monopolies for maximum profit and surely have a negative impact on the world economy.
Uneven development of monopolies and imperialist countries, just like enterprises and sectors, lead to differentiations in the level of power of monopolist financial capital groups and of imperialist countries, which in turn leads to demands for a new appropriation of the world. The US, China, Russia, and the German-French imperialists dominating the EU that is riddled with contradictions, are the leading imperialists, and among them the US-China conflict appears in the forefront.
The US is the biggest hegemonic imperialist power due to its industrial and financial base, the size of the countries and regions dependent on it, the dollar “weapon”, its military bases all around the world, its continuing ability to impose its will on the Western powers through also NATO despite the differences of interest in between them and its military spending surpassing the total of the rest. The hysteria to protect what it has renders the US aggressive and war mongering, making it more reckless. China, on the other hand, with the completely modern technical basis of its capitalism and the resulting rapid industrial and economic growth, with the level of capital accumulation and the resulting economic expansion and its potential to surpass the US, is a rising imperialist power which cannot refrain from bringing on the agenda the redivision of the world, and is on the move to improve its military apparatus accordingly. The conflict between the US and China as well as the fights between the others to protect what they have and expand at the expense of the other have already spread in all continents, including proxy wars.
Inter-imperialist contradictions and conflicts have a negative effect on the world economy and lead to the deterioration of the living and working conditions of the exploited masses as the imperialists aim to exploit the working class and the oppressed peoples and plunder.
In conflict with one another in every part of the world, and concentrating in some regions, no imperialist power is a friend for the workers and peoples. Their promises to help peoples economically or politically, to bring independence and democracy for example, are just big lies. They are all exploiting and plundering monopolist bullies and no matter what they promise they are only concerned with making profits at the expense of peoples and expanding their hegemonic spheres by making peoples dependent on them.
While no imperialist is hesitating to take advantage of the smallest of opportunities to ransack the riches of the peoples and expand their economic and political influence by spreading relations of dependency, the US imperialism in particular, is on the offensive against the peoples through a series of sanctions, embargoes and occupations using its over 800 military bases, Israeli Zionism, and regional reactionary powers such as Saudi Arabia and Colombia. It still retains occupying forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. This continues with the intervention in Syria and the embargoes against Cuba, Venezuela and Iran. It has been a while since it relocated its embassy from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem.
CIPOML condemns all these attacks.
Unconditionally defending the right of all peoples and nations to self-determine, including also the right of the founding separate states, CIPOML also declares its solidarity with all the oppressed peoples and liberation struggles with primarily those of Venezuela, Iran, Palestine, Kurds, Cuba and Kashmir.
The fact that the contradictions between labour and capital, between imperialists and peoples and between imperialists themselves are intensifying means that capitalist imperialist aggression is increasing, so is the danger of fascism and war. Unless this course of events is averted, surely the working class and the oppressed peoples are in for worse to unfold.
Unless the ruling class cannot overcome the crisis of capitalism, whose decay and impasse is deepening, and suppress the demands of the working class and peoples, then it will be so natural for them to resort to fascism, which is a more intense form of the monopolist reactionary tendency. And inter-imperialist dog fights lead to a new imperialist war.
However, it is also true that all the negative consequences of capitalism lead to the mobilisations of the working class and of the oppressed peoples.
In India, it was not long ago that 200 million workers went on a general strike. In Iran, the strikes and mobilisations of last year involving tens of thousands of workers were also witnessed this year. While strikes have been increasing in Europe, we have seen several strike actions in the US over the last couple of years; the metal workers’ strike being the latest example. After a long period of stagnation, the working class is in a state of new mobilisations, and this can be observed in various strikes and other actions of all sizes, although they are not yet united nationally.
We also witnessed the outbreak of many popular movements in October, resulting from the destructive outcomes of capitalism and the repression of the reactionary forces. In many countries these movements have shown tendency to turn into uprisings and began to have a political character. In Burkina Faso, the people had foiled the military coup 4 years ago. In Sudan, Omar al Bashir was overthrown. In Algeria, Bouteflika had to resign and later withdrew his candidacy. In Lebanon, Prime Minister Hariri resigned. While the Iraqi Prime Minister resigned, the head of state dismissed the government in Chile. In Ecuador, President Moreno had to cancel his austerity package. In Haiti, Iraq, Honduras, Guinea, etc. the struggle of the people who rose up could not be suppressed. The number of popular uprisings with large working class participation are on the rise.
The uprising of the working class and peoples against the plunder and oppression by the monopolies and imperialism is the only way of stopping the aggression of capital, preventing the danger of fascism and war, as well as national and social emancipation.
Social reformism is falling into a void as it is not able to hold onto the rising working class and peoples. It is only natural that the calming down effect of reformism which suggests nothing but conciliation between the objectively revolutionary popular struggles and the reactionary forces is broken.
Our conference calls the workers from all countries that:
The only prescription for our emancipation is to fight against capitalism without any expectations from any bourgeois faction or imperialist power and to abolish the hegemony of capital and the relations of exploitation. We must end the bourgeois rule and organise as the hegemonic class, depending on nothing but our own power.
However, we cannot achieve this if we are disunited and unorganised. We must, therefore, organise in our independent working class parties in our countries, if there is one, and if not, found one, and carry out our class struggle independently from the bourgeoisie.
With this in mind, we must not only take part in popular struggles which develop outside our initiative, but lead them, organising the struggles of the working people of the town and the country and directing these struggles against capitalism.
Our conference also calls for the scale up of the struggle of the oppressed peoples and nations of the world.
The only way of getting rid of imperialist and monopolist plunder and oppression is to carry out an uncompromising fight against the imperialist powers and monopolies. We must follow the example of the struggles that take place in other countries, helping to develop one in our own country and expand it. Peoples have no other friend but themselves. We can depend on ourselves alone and the workers that form part of peoples.
Uniting, organising and rising up the struggle against imperialism and monopolies are what we need. The united and organised struggle of the working class and the oppressed peoples is invincible.
25th Plenary of International Conference of Marxist – Leninist Parties and Organisations
Germany, November 2019