VANGUARD - Expressing the viewpoint of the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) For National Independence and Socialism • www.cpaml.org
ICOR Resolution Active resistance against psychological warfare, the imperialist war preparation and threats in the Ukraine-Russia conflict!
NATO with the USA as the main war-monger has constantly provocatively advanced its eastward expansion in the last decades and increasingly armed the reactionary Ukrainian regime with weapons and ammunition supplies. Already for months, imperialist Russia has concentrated an army of 100,000 men equipped with heavy equipment and offensive weapons on the Ukrainian border. The military is also being reinforced in Crimea and in the part of the Donbass controlled by the Russia-friendly republics.
At the same time, it became known that the Baltic states are preparing to supply Ukraine with air defense and anti-tank systems. Combined with the provocative conduct and announcement of maneuvers by both sides, the danger of an imperialist belligerent confrontation is greatly intensifying. Russia has threatened to deploy military forces in Cuba and Venezuela if the U.S. and NATO maintain their claims. This demands the active resistance of the international revolutionary forces, the working class and the broad masses against any imperialist aggression!
Two highly armed powers, Russia and NATO, are directly facing each other. Media in the West, the Baltics and Poland portray Russia as the sole aggressor and divert attention away from the Western military alliance headed by the main warmonger, the USA. But the U.S., NATO and the EU have long since broken their promise made at the Two Plus Four talks that the countries of Central Eastern Europe, especially Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Romania, would not become NATO deployment zones on Russia's borders. There are NATO combat units in Poland and the Baltic countries. An almost hysterical anti-Russian agitation is being staged in the Baltic states and Poland; Ukraine is being forcefully armed; Russia is encircled on three sides (the exception being the Arctic in the north) by almost 1,000 U.S. military bases; the new beginning of the anti-Russian "3 Seas" project has been started. It must never be forgotten that the Russian people bore the main burden of World War II!
However, the EU imperialism with Germany and France at the lead has just now asserted its right to have a say in the struggle over Ukraine under the slogan of a "more powerful European foreign policy" and increasingly independent military options. This also expresses growing contradictions within NATO.
Ukraine itself, not least because of the loss of the Russian market since 2014, has ranked among Europe's poorest countries while also arming up. It has an army of 250,000 men under arms, plus 400,000 reservists and members of protofascist fighting units such as the Azov Regiment. NATO member Turkey sells armed drones to Ukraine. Turkey, as a NATO member, tries to maneuver against Russia as in the Crimea case, but still offers itself as a mediator to expand its influence in the region.
Ukraine is important to the Putin regime not only economically but also politically: the return of Ukraine to its sphere of influence is a cornerstone of Russia's expansion and great power aspirations. For the West, in turn, Ukraine is a fundamentally important bridgehead for exerting influence on both Russia and the entire Eastern European region, and also for gaining advantages in the fight against China. Whoever controls Ukraine will also have easier economic access to Europe and Asia. Moreover, mineral resources, gas and access to the Black Sea play a role. It is not at all about the Ukrainian people's right to self-determination, as is hypocritically argued.
The instability of the imperialist world system is increasing. All imperialist great powers, and in their wake all imperialist and reactionary forces are preparing for war, expanding their military potential. On the border between Ukraine and Russia, two imperialist camps are facing each other, highly armed. NATO and EU want to incorporate more countries like Moldova and Georgia more closely into their sphere of influence and market. Russia, on the other hand, is demanding to maintain its influence over these states. In the meantime, it has signed a pact on military cooperation with Belarus and is also conducting maneuvers from the north on the border with Ukraine.
The same power politics has been shown by the Putin regime in Kazakhstan, and with its military intervention in Kazakhstan, it gave backing to the regime there when it brutally suppressed the justified uprising of the Kazakh working class and popular masses. Because Kazakhstan "has considerable resources of coal, non-ferrous metals, rare earths and uranium" . The expansion of its own imperialist sphere of power can only take place at the expense of the other's. The highly uneven development, the shifting of the balance of power, the formation of new blocs among the imperialist states is the source of the aggravation of the inter-imperialist contradictions.
Imperialism means war externally and reaction internally. Only socialism can put an end to this. For this, especially the international working class must stand together. Today, a militant worldwide peace movement can oppose the preparations for war and delay or prevent the outbreak of a concrete war.
Forces that portray Russia's foreign policy as "anti-imperialist" and call for its protection by a peace movement are dangerous confusers. This is betrayal of the peace struggle and weakens the necessary international struggle for peace. The situation especially in Ukraine shows the consequences of such division: at mass demonstrations for social issues there is hardly any demand for peace. "Many, including especially parts of the youth, see the cause of all difficulties only in Putin's aggression and not in Western imperialism or in the nature of capitalism. There are only very few anti-war protests - largely linked to activities of pro-Russian forces," thus weakening "resistance to Putin's aggression."
The military and economic cooperation of Russia, China, and others in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) also puts them at risk of intervention as an alliance organization in the event of war. In the face of these growing inter-imperialist contradictions, the revolutionary forces worldwide must stand up for the struggle against the imperialist wars and their root and for the winning of the masses for the revolutionary overcoming of the imperialist world system.
The current extremely dangerous situation underlines the urgent need to build and strengthen the Anti-Imperialist and Anti-Fascist International United Front with great determination.
Psychological warfare is what "all imperialists actively try to use to spread propaganda myths to their advantage, designed to persuade workers to fight voluntarily and selflessly for the interests of the imperialist centers" (KSRD Ukraine).
All the more necessary and groundbreaking is the decision of the 4th World Conference of the ICOR to "deepen the educational work on imperialism and the perspective of socialism".
Should there be a warlike confrontation between Russia and Ukraine, the ICOR calls for protest actions in all countries at 6 p.m. on the day after.
Strengthen the building of the Anti-Imperialist and Anti-Fascist United Front!
Strengthen the ICOR organizations!
Stop psychological warfare and war maneuvers on the borders between Ukraine and its neighbors! No naval maneuvers in the Black Sea, Mediterranean and Baltic Sea!
For the right of self-determination of peoples!
Workers of all countries, unite!
Workers of all countries and oppressed peoples, unite!
Fight for peace, friendship among peoples, socialism!
Signatories (as of 14 February 2022, further signatories possible):
1.PCPCI Parti Communiste Proletarien de Côte d'Ivoire (Proletarian Communist Party of Ivory Coast)
2.UPC-Manidem Union des Populations du Cameroun - Manifeste National pour l’Instauration de la Démocratie (Union of Populations of Cameroon - National Manifesto for the Establishment of Democracy)
3.MMLPL Moroccan Marxist-Leninist Proletarian Line
4.CPSA (ML) Communist Party of South Africa (Marxist-Leninist)
5.PCT Parti Comuniste du Togo (Communist Party of Togo)
6.PPDS Parti Patriotique Démocratique Socialiste (Patriotic Democratic Socialist Party), Tunisia
7.CPB Communist Party of Bangladesh
8.SPB Socialist Party of Bangladesh
9.CPI (ML) Red Star Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Red Star
10.NCP (Mashal) Nepal Communist Party (Mashal)
11.PPRF Patriotic Peoples Republican Front of Nepal
12.CPA/ML Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist)
13.PR-ByH Partija Rada - ByH (Party of Labor - Bosnia and Herzegovina)
14.MLPD Marxistisch-Leninistische Partei Deutschlands (Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany)
15.UC Unité Communiste (Communist United ), France
16.UPML Union Prolétarienne Marxiste-Léniniste (Marxist-Leninist Proletarian Union), France
17.BP (NK-T) Bolşevik Parti (Kuzey Kürdistan-Türkiye) (Bolshevik Party (North Kurdistan-Turkey))
18.KOL Kommunistische Organisation Luxemburg (Communist Organization of Luxemburg)
NATO with the USA as the main war-monger has constantly provocatively advanced its eastward expansion in the last decades and increasingly armed the reactionary Ukrainian regime with weapons and ammunition supplies. Already for months, imperialist Russia has concentrated an army of 100,000 men equipped with heavy equipment and offensive weapons on the Ukrainian border. The military is also being reinforced in Crimea and in the part of the Donbass controlled by the Russia-friendly republics.