Comrades,
From the podium of today's International Meeting, we extend warm, internationalist, comradely, and militant greetings to all comrades present here today, and we send our warmest regards to all organizations of the communist left wing worldwide.
The subject of today's discussion is the situation of the anti-war movement, both in our country and internationally. These two parts of discussion are not entirely autonomous—nor could they be. The Greek anti-war movement is inextricably linked to the international one, as it is a part of it. To reflect on the state of the anti-war movement, we must briefly reference the current state of the communist movement, as the concept of the anti-war movement gains significant value only when connected to the notion of a class-oriented, anti-imperialist movement. Based on this premise, we must recognize the adverse condition of the movement in recent decades. The revisionist–reformist turn of the CPSU in 1956, developments in Eastern European countries—excluding Albania—from 1956 and culminating between 1989-1991, in China at least from the 1970s onwards, have led to an admittedly tragic situation in our era. Mass organizations, such as the historic KKE (CPG-Communist Party of Greece) in our country, were violently driven to renounce the revolutionary goals of overthrowing capitalist power, of establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat, and shifted to politically softer positions more palatable to the system.
These developments, naturally, had massive implications for both their time and the present. Such shifts in political theory and practice could not leave Marxists-Leninists passive, waiting idly for change from party leaderships or bureaucratic strata even within Communist Parties not engaged in socialist construction leadership. This need for action, already evident by 1956, necessitated a reevaluation of the political direction of the Marxists-Leninists, which, in various ways, led to or contributed to the fragmentation of the Communist Left.
Today, the communist, anti-imperialist, and anti-war movement face these challenges. Frequent coordination failures, erroneous political directions, and the absence of an organized working-class vanguard—even at the level of organizing resistance against the brutal anti-people offensive—constitute the main problem of today's anti-war movement. A case in point is the stance of certain comrades and allies regarding the Russia-Ukraine war. According to our analysis, this is a war of an imperialist country - Russia – against Ukraine, a nation with significant economic dependencies on the US-NATO-EU. However, some comrades and forces, invoking various "Revolutionary Processes", align with reactionary and bourgeois elements on the international stage, portraying Russia as a defensive, semi-dependent, anti-imperialist force, and Ukraine as a “Fourth Reich”. In our view, this analysis is flawed. Firstly, Russia is a country with significant capital accumulation, largely from the industrial sector. Alongside this, there is notable entrepreneurial activity in the natural resource export sector (e.g., natural gas) by companies headquartered and taxed within the Russian Federation. Of course, capital accumulation alone does not suffice to categorize modern Russia as an imperialist country. There are other matters as well; the most critical, in our analysis, is the existence of an aggressive capital export leading even to military interventions in other nations, are critical. It is no coincidence that Russia's involvement in developments in Syria is at least apparent, where it is known that there are various agreements between the Russian state and the new regime in Damascus regarding the status of naval bases and other issues.
Of course, since the issue of the Middle East was raised, the issue of Israel and Palestine cannot be left unraised. As an organization, since our first conference in December 2023, we have explicitly said that the solution does not lie in Zionism, but against nationalism of every kind and shade. The solution lies in a single state from the sea to the river, a state that will guarantee the rights of all its citizens, regardless of the religious beliefs or ethnic origins of each of its citizens. We have heard everything from the apologists of Israeli and American aggression: that Israel is suffering because it is trying to be the only “Western democracy” in the Middle East, that Israel is some kind of “heaven on earth” for women, LGBTQ+ people, and a bunch of other nonsense that aimed at emotion, ignoring the facts. The facts solemnly refuted these narratives: Israel started this war, not on October 7, 2023, but much earlier, when organized genocide against the Palestinian people was taking place. Regarding the social rights of women and LGBTQI+ people, we must tell the truth: too many legal provisions in Israel are not in favor of women's rights, with the most characteristic examples being found in family law. As for LGBTQI+ people, the legislative framework of Israel – accepting religious texts as the only law on marriage – has absolutely no provision for marriages between same-sex couples. Legally, it was only in 2004 that Israel recognized the right of same-sex couples to adopt children, provided that they were married abroad. And yet, despite the above facts, certain forces continue to seek ideological and sometimes Marxist perspectives in favor of Israel and the Netanyahu government.
Comrades, all these issues, seemingly unrelated, are interconnected. Even the women's and LGBTQ+ issues highlight the need for a radically new front and framework for struggle. This framework must involve creating an international people's front against imperialist wars and undermining human life's value, prioritizing the defense of broad popular rights and aiming to build a new society of Socialism and Communism.
The Communist Manifesto’s call, "Workers of the world, unite," gains new historical urgency as we stand on the brink of a new world war, potentially thousands of times more destructive than anything we have known. This looming global war can only be prevented through the revolution of working peoples, not by choosing one imperialist over another. Instead, a capitalist overthrow is required, with the communist vanguard leading the way, empowering working peoples to deliver the final answer. Thus, the first line of the Internationale’s Greek rendition rings true: "Arise, ye wretched of the earth!"
