Contribution of Swiss Communist Party

Dear Comrades,

The Swiss Communist Party believes that the work we have done on the question of imperialism, based on Marxism-Leninism within the framework of the European Communist Action since its founding in November 2023, constitutes a very important common base. Our contributions and joint statements have indeed helped to enlighten communists and militants of the worker-popular movement in Europe and around the world at a decisive moment, with a materialist method and a revolutionary perspective.

In particular, we have rightly condemned the imperialist war in Ukraine and the nationalist, demagogic, and opportunist ideologies expressed in the propaganda of the belligerents on both sides. We have recalled that under socialism, the two Soviet peoples lived in equality and that only a socialist revolution can rebuild this condition.

We therefore thank the New Communist Party of the Netherlands for organizing this teleconference, which gives us another opportunity to speak out on recent developments in the imperialist war and imperialist agreements for a new division of the world.

In this regard, it is useful to recall that, under capitalism, the division of the world can have no other basis, no other principle than force, as Lenin teaches us in his 1915 article “On the Slogan of a United States of Europe.”

Indeed, the global capitalist-imperialist system we are currently facing is undergoing a necessarily brutal reconfiguration of the balance of power between monopolies, states, and blocs, thus marking the end of a period of unilateral hegemony by the United States, NATO, and the European Union.

Recent developments in the imperialist war in specific conflict zones, such as Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and the Caribbean, must therefore be understood in the context of a global confrontation between a hegemonic bloc in decline and a rival bloc on the rise.

We must recognize that the restoration of capital in Russia following the dissolution of the USSR, the development of capitalist relations in China, and the formation of bourgeois power in the post-colonial space have paved the way for the development of capitalist monopolies, which over time have become capable of competing with the hegemonic bloc.

New economic, political, and military alliances have thus been built to ensure that these monopolies have access to the markets, investments, and resources they need, such as the BRICS, the Eurasian Union, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

Thus, we have a global capitalist-imperialist system in which economic relations between capitalist monopolies are intertwined in a heterogeneous manner, including relations between economic actors from competing blocs. At the same time, the bloc of the United States, NATO, and the European Union on one side, and the bloc of Russia, China, and their allies on the other, are fighting fiercely for global hegemony within the framework of this dynamic of decline and rise.

Currently, the rules of the world system are capitalist, and all the powers in contention are competing on the same terrain, that of the reproduction of capital power. Clearly, there is no comparison with the anti-imperialist struggle waged by the Soviet Union against nazifascism and later by the socialist bloc against the capitalist world.

In the context of the current inter-imperialist rivalries, the disputing actors are in some circumstances promoting new agreements that may involve infringements on the sovereignty of nation states in areas such as borders, natural resources, or military capabilities.

The governments of the G7, the European Union, and their allies in Latin America, Africa, and Asia obviously defend the interests of capital. The reaction is growing stronger in these countries, and social, trade union, and democratic rights are in decline. In general, an increasingly global capitalist governance is being established in line with the level of concentration of contemporary capital. Indeed, as Lenin described for his time, the contemporary phenomenon of free competition known as globalization has necessarily led us to the current situation of huge capitalist monopolies on a scale never before seen. The United States, particularly under the Trump administration, is reconfiguring this large economic, political, and cultural space of approximately two billion inhabitants around the interests of its own monopolies, subjecting nation states, or even dissolving them, to a global inter-state structure.

In this way, we cannot describe the recent military actions of US imperialism in Syria or Venezuela as colonial adventures, as if they were a step back in history. In reality, we are facing a leap forward by the capitalist-imperialist system to an even greater scale of domination than a century ago, when Lenin already defined imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism.

It is indeed capital, regardless of nationality, religion, culture, gender, and political preference, that occupies the world and imposes its priorities according to a class hierarchy on a scale that exceeds the size of nation states as we currently know them.

For its part, the Russian capitalist government defends its own monopolies, as do the capitalist governments of its allies. The imperialist war in Ukraine will soon reach its fourth year. The military balance of power on the ground in favor of capitalist Russia, at a monstrously high human cost, will likely be the subject of an agreement, at least temporarily.

It is very clear that the popular interests are absolutely not decisive in the talks between the Trump administration and Putin's capitalist government. On the contrary, the capitalist-imperialist agreements will have serious consequences for the peoples of the region.

Historically, and in comparison with the bloc led by the United States, the BRICS countries are less integrated economically, politically, and militarily with each other. But China and India are nation states, each of which governs more than a billion people.

Dear Comrades,

Despite the imperialist convergence of positions on Ukraine, the imperialist war is escalating in a very worrying manner in Iran. The summit talks between the United States and Russia, and even with China, are testing the limits of each party and determining both the points of agreement on trade and the rules of engagement in the event of military conflict. In this dangerous game between capitalists, the people are caught between the hammer and the anvil. But this situation is not inevitable.

The peoples and workers, with the support of the Communist and Workers' Parties, have the capacity to resist the capitalist-imperialist system without having to entrust their destinies to either of the competing blocs and without having to be fooled by false promises of peace. In this sense, our organizations must prepare for popular resistance to the reactionary policies of capital, even in currently non-revolutionary conditions. 

In this context, we also reaffirm our absolute solidarity with the Cuban people and their revolutionary leadership, whose heroic resistance to US imperialism is exemplary. 

In conclusion, the task of communists is to strengthen the communist organization and the worker-popular movement from a revolutionary perspective. This is the only way to defeat imperialist plans.

Long live socialism-communism !