1/ The entire planet is shaken by the seismic tremors produced by the combination of the generalized capitalist crisis and the fierce imperialist rivalries that have turned every corner of the globe into a field of confrontation. From the conflict raging in the heart of Europe, in Ukraine, to the Middle East and the Caucasus, from the Arctic to Africa, from the powder keg of our Balkan neighborhood to the Indo-Pacific. In the background of all these developments lies the relentless struggle of the main imperialist powers, the USA, Russia and China, for the conquest of global hegemony. Of course, the European imperialists could not be absent from this race, however serious strategic deadlocks are emerging for them as their distance from the frontline imperialist forces increases.
In these circumstances, and under the weight of the generalized bellicosity of our times, the last traces of the theories of “globalization” and “capitalist integrations”, which a few decades ago were bandied about by the system's apologists to describe the supposed “peaceful future of mankind”, are crashed. The parasitic nature of the capitalist-imperialist system is revealed in all its breadth and depth, as it threatens to lead humanity and the planet to an unprecedented catastrophe, in order to find solutions to its problem of reproduction.
2/ This situation did not arise “overnight”. Its origins lie in the collapse of the regimes of restored capitalism in 1989-91 and the emergence of the USA as the sole superpower. It was then that US imperialism considered that a historic window of opportunity opened to advance its goal of world domination and, as the head of the West, engaged in a campaign to tear countries and take peoples apart to achieve it. At the same time, the forces of the system throughout the world escalated the attack against the working class and the peoples to unprecedented levels, attempting to take historic revenge on the defeated communist movement. In the process, however, it became apparent that not only had the goal of world domination not been achieved for the US, but that it now showed serious signs of a relative weakening against allies and competitors, with the imperialists of Eurasia, Russia and China, regrouping and upgrading their position.
The search for conditions and ways to overcome this weakening is at the core of the civil war-type conflict that has been raging for years within the US establishment. It is in this direction that the new Trump administration will attempt to provide answers, while they preach, on behalf of the entire capitalist-imperialist world, the escalation of war preparations and the reactionary onslaught against the popular masses at all levels (even with Musk's Nazi salutes!).
Therefore, an "all against all" struggle unfolds, with central issues being: the course the US takes to claim its global hegemony, Russia's attempt to overturn the global status quo in its favour, and China's attempt to transform its economic potential into strategic power. Thus, actions and blackmail are promoted in the direction of forming strategic alliances between the imperialist powers, which is also the great challenge for the transition to the phase of an all-out confrontation. In connection with this, a number of wavering regional powers are under increasing pressure to choose sides, while dependent countries are forcibly lined up or fought over to join the sphere of influence of one of the warring sides. At the same time, the economies are being militarised, the arms race is proceeding at a frenzied pace, while the exploitation of the working class is deepening, the social majority is being called upon to sacrifice its rights by warlike decrees such as that of NATO Secretary General Rutte, and the fascistization of public life is intensifying, with the aim of subjugating the peoples and the younger generation to the prospect of becoming cannon fodder for the powerful. We have irrevocably entered a period of preparation for the terms of the Third World War.
3/ The war in Ukraine, as an indirect conflict between the USA and the West, and Russia, ushered in this new era and placed it at the centre of the world's inter-imperialist rivalry, where it remains. For in it we have the expression and condensation, at the highest level at any given moment, of the dominant US-Russia contradiction on the world stage. Because, precisely for this reason, this war is linked to strategic stakes such that "the USA cannot fail to win and Russia cannot be defeated"! On this basis, it also brought about the shifting of the "red lines" of the global conflict in the direction of ever greater escalation, dangerously reaching even the limits of the so-called "nuclear balance".
The deadlocks for the imperialists, however, arise precisely from the fact that this war cannot yet become global! On this basis, the US and the West wage it largely by proxy, with Russia having managed to occupy 20% of Ukrainian territory. It was these facts that pushed the US towards seeking a compromise, reflected in Trump's proposals to launch the so-called "peace talks".
These proposals bring no "peaceful settlement" of the Ukrainian question! Through them, the US attempts to change the terms of the war, not to end it. Seeking to put Western troops on Ukrainian territory and at arm's length from Russian forces. Attempting to rally the European imperialists under their absolute command. One wonders how easily this will be accepted. What else is it but another step in preparing the conditions for the Great War? If and when any compromise moves forward, then, in whatever form, it will be temporary and fragile, a period of regrouping of two rival camps, neither of which has yet been defeated or vanquished, leading to a festering wound in the heart of Europe, which at any moment may begin to bleed profusely again.
The criminal lightness of those who saw developments thought to be even positive for the peoples from the unjust war in Ukraine, lining up behind the so-called 'lesser evil' imperialist, is deafeningly revealed today. Today, when like common bandits and murderers, the masters of this unjust confrontation weigh their interests on the backs of the Ukrainian people and the peoples of the world, and sharpen the knives for the next stages of the carnage.
4/ In this dark period, the heroic struggle of the Palestinian people proved once again that the peoples will not stop fighting for freedom and justice.
Despite the scale of the atrocities that were being unleashed for over a year and the heavy blows that were inflicted on it, the Palestinian resistance did not bend. It withstood an operation of genocide by the Zionist killer state of Israel, which was (and still remains) in development, with the full support of the USA and the European imperialists, as well as several reactionary bourgeoisies, including the Greek one. It stood up to an over-armed imperialist war machine and in many cases even managed to inflict considerable blows on it.
The Palestinian people succeeded in bringing the Palestinian issue, the issue of the struggle of a people against occupation, for a free and independent homeland, back to the forefront as a historically and politically active issue. In the first instance, it blew up the “Abraham Accords”, i.e. the bridging of relations between the reactionary Arab regimes and Israel, the basic policy promoted by the USA for the Middle East region and leading the Palestinian cause to “burial”. It triggered a worldwide wave of solidarity to its struggle, which came to take the form of a major student uprising in universities in the USA and Europe.
Regardless of the outcome of the fragile ceasefire agreement on Gaza, what is certain is that it bears the imprint of the Palestinian resistance, which is the main obstacle to the imposition of the imperialist and Zionist plans for the “final solution” and the complete expulsion of the Palestinians from their land. These plans, moreover, not only have they never disappeared from the spotlight, but Trump's proposal on Gaza puts them back on the agenda in the most aggressive way, while at the same time attempting to tempt the reactionary Arab states of the region to restart their convergence with the killer state.
The developments keep proving again and again that the state of Israel, as a planted gendarme of the US, as long as it exists, embodies the denial of the Palestinian people's right to a free homeland. Several political forces that still believe that the imperialist fraud that the “two-state solution” may even be possible, have learned no lessons from this, however! The goal, according to all of them, must be a “Palestinian state on the 1967 borders” and the implementation of the relevant UN resolutions. This is a historically bankrupt position, a tool to subjugate the Palestinian resistance, as a product of a compromise line and delusions about the possibilities of negotiating with imperialism. After all, what else do the calls on “international legitimacy”, the appeals to the UN and the “international community” express other than the notion that the peoples' issues will ultimately be resolved by a powerful “protector” and not by their struggle?
In opposition to this logic, we believe that the perspective of the Palestinian cause lies in the struggle for a “United Palestinian State from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea”, with equality of all ethnicities within it. This position must also be the central slogan of a real movement of solidarity with the Palestinian people in the face of the new trials that lie ahead.
5/ Serious trials also face the people of Syria, a country devastated by the long-standing intervention of the imperialists and the various reactionary local states and agents. The fall of the Assad regime by the advance of Islamist groups, methodically orchestrated by the USA and the West, opens a new period of great instability and danger in the region. The developments show that US imperialism has dealt a major blow to the gains Russia managed to make in the country after its intervention in 2015 and the rescue of the crumbling -at the time- Assad regime. They also mark an even greater squeeze on Iran, which, in the coming period, will come under suffocating pressure to pull away from Russia and China. What is certain is that the USA will attempt to extend this success by trying to eliminate the important foothold of Russian imperialism to the country, as enshrined by the presence of its military bases.
The overthrow of Assad and the conditions under which it took place also demonstrated the fragility of such regimes, which base their existence exclusively on their relations with imperialism, with which they negotiate until the last moment to save their own skin, without the slightest popular support. It is therefore political naivety, to say the least, to call them “allies” of the anti-imperialist struggle, which basically stems from the open pro-imperialism that characterizes certain forces in relation to their attitude towards Russia.
6/ Against the backdrop of this flaming landscape, Greek-Turkish relations and rivalry enter a new phase. We believe that for the peoples and movement of the two countries, the position on this issue is not just one point among others. It is a fundamental criterion for separating a left-revolutionary direction from the line of conformity and responsibility towards the system. To distinguish a conception that takes as its starting point the interests of the working class and peoples from its opposite, which starts from turning a blind eye to the “anxieties” of the local ruling class and bows reverently to the narratives of domestic bourgeoisie. And it must be clear that one or the other position is not formulated “out of the blue”, but is accompanied by the corresponding, very serious, practical–political implications for the movement in our country.
The Greek-Turkish rivalry is unfair and reactionary on both sides of the Aegean. It touches on aspirations for sovereignty and “vital space” that both bourgeois classes claim, with each aiming to prevail over its rival. On both sides, therefore, maximalisms and grand idealisms are projected, while nationalism and chauvinism are promoted to the peoples of both countries, in order to make themselves available for the “hot incidents” and the war slaughterhouses prepared by the development of the reactionary confrontation.
The two dependent ruling classes, with their differentiations and the distances that separate them in terms of their capabilities, can only compete for roles in the wider region, within the framework determined by the aspirations of the imperialist factor, first and foremost the USA. Here lies the key to understanding the nature of their confrontation. In other words, the fact that it takes place under the arbitration of the USA and NATO and based on their interests, which at another time will not hesitate to drag the peoples into military carnage in order to align their vassals and impose reactionary solutions.
This is why it is misleading to promote the economic reading, according to which the dominant issue is the profits from the energy deposits sought by sections of local capital, which in any case seek only complementary roles in relation to the imperialist monopolies. For it is in the Greek-Turkish rivalry that the imperialist quest for suzerainty in the region puts its stamp of approval. Anyone who bypasses this issue risks being overtaken by developments. They cannot respond effectively to the crucial task of the anti-imperialist, anti-war front of struggle of the peoples of Greece and Turkey, but also of the peoples of the wider region, since, by erasing imperialist dependence and the role of the big bosses, they lose sight of the main enemy that the peoples have to face.
Things get even worse with the complaints against NATO for supposedly “favoring Turkey” and “bringing down Greece”, which are omnipresent in the positions of the Communist Party of Greece, which not only have nothing to do with anti-imperialism, but are in fact a reproduction of the demands that the local ruling class addresses to its imperialist masters, in order to concede points to itself at the expense of its rival. This is the ultimate level in the adoption of the bourgeois narrative of “aggressive Turkey–defensive Greece”, on the basis of which the official reformism of the CPG goes so far as to accuse the bourgeois governments of “giving in”.
What are the tasks for the movement if we accept all this? Do we have to lower the flag of struggle and preserve social peace in the face of the “external danger”? Should we have proposals for the “battle-readiness” of the armed forces? Shall we, in turn, assist the rulers in preparing the people and youth for war? And what, after all, can a line that pushes the working masses straight into the arms of “national unanimity” and the adventurist policies of the local ruling class have to do with a class, anti-imperialist direction?
We consider the formation of the struggle on the basis of such a direction to be a crucial issue. Basic elements of this direction are:
- The struggle to prevent the unjust war between Greece and Turkey. Consequently, the opposition to any action by imperialism and the bourgeois classes that escalates rivalry and brings war closer. The defending of the inviolability of the borders, which have emerged on the basis of the historical process of the formation of the two states. From this point of view, we reject the bourgeois line of “sovereign rights”, the delimitation of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), which is nothing but a tool of the imperialists' sovereignty and perpetuation of the confrontation, the extension of the territorial waters to “12 nautical miles”.
- The struggle against the reactionary, dichotomous plans for Cyprus, which seek to turn it into an unsinkable aircraft carrier of the USA and NATO in the Southeast Mediterranean. The promotion of the prospect of “a united and independent Cyprus, without guarantor powers, military bases and foreign armies, with the fraternity of Greek and Turkish Cypriots”.
- Above all, the friendship and common struggle of the peoples of both Turkey and Greece, against war, fascism, imperialism and the reactionary bourgeoisies.
At this stage, we can by no means rule out new serious aggravations in relations between the two countries in the near future. Besides, the US-ordered “Greek-Turkish friendship”, for the sake of the cohesion of NATO's South-Eastern wing in the face of increased military needs in Ukraine, is being tested under the weight of developments in Syria. The role played there by Turkey and the upgraded ambitions it projects are causing strong concerns among the local ruling class, which resorts to the familiar formula of tying the country to the US-NATO chariot and supporting the reactionary axes with Cyprus-Egypt-Israel under the guidance of the USA. The deadlocks of the imperialists' "good boy" policy, however, cannot be hidden. They cannot be hidden at a time of escalating tensions in the relations between its US and EU masters, triggered by Trump's moves, when it is very likely that it will be required to play the role of the "ready and willing" in new "Ukrainian campaigns". The turmoil that has been caused within its ranks, too, following its cynical "dumping" by French imperialism, which, on the basis of its aspirations in the region, seems to give its approval for the granting of Meteor missiles to Turkey, is a typical example of the cornering that its policy of subservience to its many "patrons" creates.
On the other hand, it must be clear that for the dependent Turkish ruling class, which has made significant gains from recent events, the road is far from being paved with flowers. It is far from certain that its potency really allows it to come to terms with the multiple fronts it has opened, which include the intensification of the confrontation with Israel, which has managed to extend its occupation of Syria, the Kurdish issue, the problems in its peculiar relationship with Russia and, above all, the increasing pressure from the USA to align itself with its needs and aspirations.
7/ The period is critical for the forces with reference to the revolutionary and communist left, full of demands, dangers and unprecedented challenges. The direction of building an anti-imperialist, anti-war movement, which was once so much denounced as obsolete, is increasingly assuming the dimensions of a life-or-death question for the working class, the peoples, the planet as a whole. There are, however, long delays or even refusals to serve this necessity.
With regards to the developments in Ukraine, a “conspiracy of silence” prevails in the movement in our country! The issue has simply been passed over by the majority of the forces, while for some it is seen as a historic opportunity to “defeat NATO” by the rival imperialist. Even at the level of solidarity with the Palestinian people, there is a prevailing fragmentation and a following of the “two-state” line and compromise.
Indeed, there is the phenomenon of invoking the most different historical periods and the most different attitudes and tactics that have emerged in the course of the communist movement in order to wash away the most improbable conceptions, the choice of bowing to correlation, even the open pro-imperialism of certain tendencies! It is forgotten that every historical moment is unique and unrepeatable. The top issue is bypassed, that of the concrete analysis of the concrete situation with a view to define tasks. The history of the movement, from being a source of lessons, is treated as a tool to justify a whole “junk” of concepts and practices, which emerged precisely from the defeat of the revolutionary-communist movement.
After all, if history shows us anything about those who turn a blind eye to what is actually happening and come to choose an imperialist side, it is that they do nothing but imitate the worst and most right-wing traditions that have appeared in the movement, from the opportunism of the Second International to the Three Worlds Theory. And at the present stage, they express nothing but a further version of the line of class collaboration. For this constitutes a line that does not recognize the competence of the workers and peoples to answer the problem and anxiously seeks forces and tendencies within the capitalist-imperialist system that can supposedly reverse the dominant course.
As far as we are concerned, we cannot take even half a step back from the view that the anti-imperialist, anti-war struggle is a matter of the working class and the peoples. We must rely on their forces to build another prospect, far from the logic of seeking protectors. That is why the struggle against war and imperialism is inextricably linked to the struggle against the capitalist offensive and the demand for workers' and peoples’ rights. The same subject is called upon to take the lead and bear the burden in both these fields. Therefore, the only criterion that can characterize us when we draw a line and objectives of struggle is none other than what promotes the autonomous constitution of the subject of struggle, outside any imperialist and bourgeois influence.
In our country, the bourgeoisie owes its existence and reproduction to its imperialist masters. In the present troubled landscape, deepening its dependence on the US and European imperialists, despite the impasses arising from the growing imbalances in their relations with each other, emerges as a one-way street for it. The transformation of the entire country into a vast military base, a platform for US and NATO military expeditions, is the only possible option for the local dependent regime and for all the bourgeois parties, through which they expect rewards from their imperialist patrons in the confrontation with the rival Turkish ruling class. On the basis of this line of navigation, the country becomes more and more deeply involved in the war fronts and imperialist rivalries, in supporting the unjust war in Ukraine, in reinforcing the massacre of the Palestinian people. On the basis of this line, the bourgeois cadres proclaim that they “hand the country over to the USA” and call on the people and youth to “shed their blood” for them.
Therefore, the anti-imperialist struggle in Greece has a broader character. It strikes at the pedestals of support for the local bourgeoisie. It is an integral element of the perspective of the popular movement for the revolutionary overthrow, for the double strategic goal of INDEPENDENCE and SOCIALISM. In this direction, it is the field in which the working class will basically conquer its hegemony in broad working and popular strata, to the extent that it will constitute itself as a class for itself mainly in its confrontation with capital.
In the current period, when the local rulers are coordinating with the war preparations of their big bosses and the working majority is called upon to sacrifice itself as expendable, it is imperative that this road is opened up. To unfold struggles against war and imperialism. With basic objectives of struggle:
This event certainly gives us the opportunity to exchange views and assessments with the participating forces. We want, however, to go further. To a platform to contribute to the development of the anti-imperialist, anti-war struggle, in terms of coordination and real joint action, which is an important pending issue. We seek to respond to this task, and we call on every organization and collective with reference to the movement, every militant who wants to fight for this cause, to walk together.
