Ukraine, Middle East, reactionary Greek-Turkish antagonism.
The region is surrounded by the flames of war.
We will not become meat for their cannons.
We live in an era of intense capital's struggle for global domination, in an era of generalized explosion of capitalist antagonisms and military conflicts with victims the working classes and the peoples. This is a result of the capitalist crisis that cannot be effectively overcome by capital and the struggle for international hegemony. Capitalism carries war like a tortoise carries its shell. An expression of this struggle is the war in Ukraine; a war that undoubtedly constitutes a turning point and the starting point of a new phase, to which the war in Gaza and the military operations in the Middle East have been added. These military confrontations are developing as miniatures of a world war with a real risk of spreading to other parts of the planet.
If we were to speak in terms of the First World War and the words of Lenin, the confrontation in Ukraine is the definition of an imperialist, unjust and reactionary war on both sides. A new phase is taking shape, during which it seems that military operations will remain active on “peripheral” fronts, but at the same time the drums of war will also sound in areas where the interests of major or even smaller geopolitical players clash.
The furious effort of the US to maintain global hegemony in the face of the rise of China is a leading factor of instability and threat to peace. The US seeks to strengthen its position as a leading power and the strategy of encircling Russia (which is also indirectly directed against China) is a constant pursuit and is constantly developing, opening new fronts. For the time being, military confrontation with China does not seem to be an immediate scenario, however, elements of an aggressive tactic are also manifesting themselves in the Pacific. This process is also shaping tensions within the US with a struggle over whether the main opponent is now Russia (where there is already military involvement) or China (where the trade/economic war is escalating). This struggle, however, does not question the essence of the intended direction, it concerns a confrontation around the ways and means of promoting it.
The challenge of US dominance is taking place simultaneously with the rapid economic and geopolitical emergence of China, as well as other developing states. The China-Russia-Iran alliance has formed a strong second pillar at the political, economic and military level. China does not have a significant military presence outside its borders and its strategy is primarily the spread of its economic and political influence. There is talk of overthrowing the “unipolar” world of the US by a “multipolarity” with more players. However, this cannot be done peacefully or permanently. Capitalist competition, but also the tendency for war, ultimately shaping a hierarchy of economic, political and military power, is a “law” of capitalism.
In this setting, the barbarity of the massacre of Palestinians by the murderous state of Israel stands out. There is a serious risk of a general conflagration in the region based on both Israel’s actions and the attacks on Lebanon, Syria and Iran. The fall of the Assad regime in Syria is a historical development, it is not the product of the victory of a popular uprising but of its defeat. The “revolutionary” forces undermined any sense of genuine popular anger and became reactionary puppets of imperialist powers, against a regime that implemented neoliberal policies of impoverishment, relying for years only on the army, the police and the protection of Russia, Iran and Hezbollah. The developments in Syria are not only painful for its people, but they further strengthen the tendency for direct warlike expression of the intensified antagonisms of capital, bourgeois states and capitalist blocs, which bring destruction and endless suffering to the peoples.
The example of Syria shows that the possibility of liberation for exploited peoples cannot be based on any “protector”. The expectation of national liberation under the auspices of foreign powers is dangerous for the peoples. The heroic Palestinian resistance, despite its own internal contradictions, deserves our all-round solidarity as it fights against a state that is today the epitome of modern capitalism. The genocide in Gaza has become the field of application of tools of the most sophisticated “achievements” of technology, where giant companies (Google, Amazon, Microsoft, etc.) with war digital applications test their products, simultaneously boosting their profits. The solidarity movement has at the same time a deep anti-capitalist content, it highlights the basic issue of the subordination of science, research and technology to the needs of capitalism. Israel embodies the model of a state where power is absolute at the expense of the oppressed without any restrictions. The commission of a genocide on live broadcast by a country fully integrated into what is called the West opens a new era. If Israel can exterminate a people with impunity, the way is opened for the same to be done to every people that struggles against its own oppressors but also in every country at the expense of “their own Palestinians”, refugees and immigrants initially, but to anyone who resists and does not “fit in” in the future. Liberal political forces are fully responsible, even many that identify as progressive and left-wing.
In European countries, the issue of policies towards immigrant communities is deeply class, as immigrants are a large part of the working class. What the bourgeoisie in Europe fears is that the struggle of the Palestinian people may radicalize immigrant communities, become an example of resistance and struggle that will also take on class, political characteristics. The far right as the vanguard of bourgeois politics practices the diffusion of racist divisions within the working class, which is why - despite its historical anti-Semitism - it is today the most fanatical friend of Israel on the planet.
The genocide in Palestine mobilized hundreds of thousands of people in many countries with mass mobilizations despite the bans of a series of governments. This new wave of solidarity has partly anti-NATO and anti-imperialist characteristics. The student outburst of solidarity with Palestine at universities in the US and Europe was of particular importance, as it highlighted the above elements of the connection between genocide and capitalist profits and its support from almost the entire spectrum of bourgeois politics.
Great concern, fear and indignation are growing among the people. The ongoing war confrontations are exacerbating popular problems, intensifying the regime of manipulated information-propaganda, further attacking popular freedoms, increasing militarism, and reinforcing nationalism and racism of all kinds. The unprecedented increase in military spending will inflict new blows on the already depleted funds for health, education and popular needs. Investments are being launched in the military industry and meeting NATO's goals for military spending of more than 2% in each member country. The EU has already entered “war economy mode”.
The Greek bourgeoisie, led by the New Democracy government and with the consent of the bourgeois parties, declares that it already exceeds 3% of GDP for war spending, seeking the country’s ever-deeper attachment to the NATO camp and – through this – the upgrading of the position of Greek capitalism in the wider region. In the broader context of the antagonisms of the imperialist centers, the intensification of the Greek-Turkish antagonism is also developing. The Greek bourgeoisie is attempting to link its effort to recover domestically with the effort to upgrade its geostrategic and economic position in the wider region, with maximalist positions on maritime zones and EEZs with the aim of taking a larger piece of the pie at the expense of Turkey. On this basis, it simultaneously seeks to become the spearhead of NATO and EU policy in the Mediterranean. It is leading the arms race while the country has been transformed into a US-NATO war bridgehead. The bases in Souda, Eleusis, Anchialos, Alexandroupoli are at the service of the "murderers of the people", participating in imperialist military interventions and missions.
On the other hand, the Turkish bourgeoisie and its state seek to upgrade their role, expressing the dynamic economic development of recent decades. Turkey is developing into a major regional power with a relatively independent role and strategy. Although its economy faces major problems, it has a strong production base, has developed a military industry, exploits its geopolitical position and its relations with the Muslim world. It carries out military missions or invasions in a number of countries (Syria, Iraq, Libya, etc.), develops relations in Africa. Although a member of NATO, it stood against the Israeli invasion of Gaza, while maintaining relations with Russia. It is escalating competition with the Greek bourgeoisie, even raising issues of sovereignty over Aegean islands in negotiations. The Erdogan government, despite having open fronts at home with the Kurdish struggles, the labor movement and the struggling left, is adding fuel to the fire of antagonisms.
The developments that are taking shape reveal that the competition between the bourgeois classes of Greece and Turkey has a class-exploitative basis and is unfair, reactionary, aggressive on both sides of the Aegean. This competition has intensified to a dangerous point, with the threat of war hanging over the peoples and war preparations developing in both countries. At the same time, however, imperialist centers, multinational and bourgeois groups desire some form of negotiation, so that the cohesion of NATO can be preserved and energy resources and roads can be exploited for the benefit of capital. The workers and peoples of Greece, Turkey and Cyprus must fight together against the dangerous competition, to defeat the war plans of the governments and the appetites of the multinationals. They must organize their common internationalist struggle for the exit of Greece and Turkey from NATO.
Overall, the need for a modern internationalist anti-war movement of workers and peoples in independence and rupture with the forces of capital and the imperialist blocs is imperative. The fight against capitalism and imperialism does not fit into the bipolarity of good or less bad imperialists. In order to be effective, this fight must be directed specifically against the policy and interests that tie each country to the chariot of war.
In Greece we live in a member state of the greatest capitalist-imperialist integrations that humanity has known, of NATO and the EU. That is why in Greece, the fight against war means primarily a fight for the defeat of the war line of the NATO bloc, of which Greece is a part, a fight against the EU, for the overthrow of the policy of the Greek government and every government that follows the same policy. In the past, initiatives were developed that had a significant contribution to the development of the anti-war struggle (formation and actions of the Anti-War Initiative of left-wing organizations, formation of the Solidarity Initiative for the Palestinian People of Labor Unions and Collectives, demonstration at the Motor Oil facilities against the supply of fuel to the Israeli army, blocking of war research programs at universities, etc.). These initiatives must be strengthened and intensified in the new period. The total war turn of capitalism of our time requires decisive steps for a new revolutionary programmatic and organizational response of communist liberation, for a strong internationalist anti-capitalist Left and a corresponding labor movement with a sharp anti-war line, with political independence against the rival capitalist blocs in their competition for dominance. With an internationalist anti-capitalist struggle, the peoples can win the fight against the wars of capital.
As Communist Liberation we fight:
Communist Liberation
January 2025
