Contribution of the Communist Party of the Workers of Spain

Contribution of the PCTE

Comrades,

In the last weeks we have witnessed dire events in the international arena. While Israel  continues its relentless genocidal policy against the Palestinian people —now under the  mantle of the so-called “peace accord”—, inter-imperialist conflicts are escalating all over the  world.

The United States have kidnapped the President of Venezuela and his wife in order to move  them to American soil and thus judge them according to their laws. Even though the  Washington Government has initially used the pretext of the struggle against drug trafficking  to justify the abduction, it was not long before Trump openly recognized that his goal was the  direct control of Venezuelan oil. This, among other statements, means a breakthrough in the  dynamics the imperialist countries bonded to NATO used to justify their military adventures  until now. This also discredits the system of international relations built in the second half of  the 20th century and the institutions related to it.

Other circumstances force us to analyze as well a modulation of the imperialist alliances,  currently characterized by their constant change and volatility. For example, the annexationist  rhetoric of the United States in relation to Greenland and the direct clash with the European  Union it means should force us to closely monitor and assess the relationship between both  imperialist partners. But there have also been different answers within the European Union  to the US policy towards Greenland and other events. This evidences that the imperialist  countries of the European Union have different commercial interests and are really far away  from the claimed cohesion of the European bloc. 

We are in the context of a sharpening in the inter-imperialist contradictions, spurred by the  scarcity of some natural resources, by the dispute of already divided markets, and mainly by  the limits of the capitalist economy, in which monopolies witness how their rate of profit  constantly tends to fall. In this context, clashes between imperialist powers are coming one  after one, regional wars are being multiplied, and we are dangerously coming closer to the  possibility of the outbreak of a generalized war. 

In the numerous regional hotspots for conflict being opened, the various imperialist powers  are using the dissatisfaction of masses caused by their living standards —as well as their  language, cultural, ethnic, or religious diversity— in order to exploit mass movements lacking  a class-oriented political guidance and use them as battering rams. We could talk about the  case of Iran, where we find the historical interest of the USA and Israel in destabilizing a  regional rival behind the legitimate economic demands of the working class and popular strata  related to their living standards.

In a world where the socialist bloc does not exist, every foreign interference in a country is  always made according to the promotion of the change or the maintenance of the bourgeois  faction in power. This includes the preservation or the change of the particular form the  bourgeois dictatorship is exercised. 

In this scenario, the various imperialist powers combine diplomacy, economic war, intelligence  actions, and direct military aggression in order to ensure the profits of their monopolies. It is  important to remark that, under a superficial analysis, it might look like only the strongest  countries in the imperialist pyramid —such as the United States— are capable of intervening  against other nations or repress the workers' and people's movement.  

Under such conditions, right and left opportunism attempt to create confusion among the  working class, trying to disguise certain bourgeois Governments as the allies of the  proletariat. Thus the anti-workers' and anti-people's role of bourgeois Governments like the  Venezuelan and Iranian ones is whitewashed, and also petty-bourgeois and reactionary  organizations are supported without any criticism, disregarding a class-oriented analysis. 

It is essential that the Communist and Workers' Parties fight a frontal assault against such  stances. This is a huge political-ideological clash with dangerous consequences. Ignoring the  class nature of the capitalist States, assessing them according to their relative strength in the  imperialist chain, to their internal repressive policy, or to the symbols they wrap themselves  up in to justify their actions is a serious threat to the working class, which could be trapped  under the banner of one or another bourgeoisie in the forthcoming wars. 

The working class and the popular strata, with the Communist and Workers' Parties at the  forefront, must denounce every imperialist aggression while not taking any side in the inter imperialist clash nor exonerating any bourgeois Government. We must break with false  dilemmas and remark the reactionary nature of every imperialist aggression and the national  bourgeoisies governing the assaulted countries. 

We must organize broad mass movements in our countries in order to denounce the  imperialist war and, particularly, the involvement of our countries in the imperialist  aggressions. In the particular case of Spain and the EU countries, we must demand the  immediate exit from the European Union and NATO, the withdrawal of US troops from our  territories. 

We must stimulate proletarian internationalism. In every imperialist aggression, we must rise  the banner of solidarity with the assaulted working class and popular strata, reject every  aggression by connecting it with the impact it has on the living standards of the people in the  assaulted country. 

The working class and the popular strata, our workmates at workplaces, should be clearly  told what imperialism is — a world system. The emergence of new imperialist competitors  does not change the nature of the world system nor makes it more balanced and peaceful.  On the contrary, it does prepare the conditions for heavier clashes.

For years, the imperialist countries bonded to NATO have used every tool they could benefit  from in their struggle against socialism — the UN, the WTO, NATO, a particular system of  international relations including the rhetoric of Human Rights, and the existence of multiple  NGO's and bodies related to the UN. They made use of them to influence the then colonial countries where the USSR was gaining influence. 

The fact that those same countries —and quite remarkably the United States— are now  renouncing to this built rhetoric, to the legality of treaties, to the workability of the UN and  maybe even to NATO, to the funding of auxiliary UN bodies, or to the free trade system related  to the WTO should not be seen as a change in the nature of such countries, but as a change  in their tactics. This answers to the same logic that, for example, is making China decisively  support the WTO, and also making China and Russia build trading systems not based on  dollars. Their only logic is “what can maximize the profits of our monopolies in this moment?”

Comrades,

Intervening on the confusion introduced by opportunism on the question of imperialism is a  primary task for every Communist and Workers' Party. A clear understanding of what  imperialism is, the clash with the theory of multipolarity, in defense of proletarian  internationalism, and putting forward the proposal of workers' power are red lines that  nowadays demarcate the Bolshevik positions from the non-Bolshevik ones. 

Thank you very much.