Shifting Alliances Motivate Comrades and Friends to Organize for Communism here ♦ BRICS, G20 Shifting Alliances here ♦ The Perils of Uniting with the “Lesser Evil” Imperialist here ♦
Shifting Imperialist Alliances Motivate Comrades and Friends to Organize for Communism
SEATTLE (USA), September 10— “Since the BRICS Summit and the anti-APEC demonstrators, the most remarkable thing has happened,” reported D., a comrade in the eastern USA.
He was surprised that several of his friends quickly grasped the significance of the rise of BRICS globally in contrast to the decline of the US-led G7.
These friends are workers, students, vocational teachers, and university adjuncts in New York City and Maryland (USA), Ecuador, Brazil, and China. They are struggling to understand how these seismic shifts will affect their work environments. They are thinking more seriously about the need to fight for communism.
J. in Portland (USA) was energized by the communist work done at the anti-APEC forums, rallies, and demonstrations. He said that seeing the party put communist struggle into practice was among the most inspiring activities he has witnessed lately.
But he did not have as good a response from his group of anti-racist activists in the Oregon schools as did comrade D. He hadn’t understood the significance of the trade-bloc conflicts well enough to explain it to his friends.
J. is now prepared to fight harder for communism. The collective worked out a plan to distribute ICWP pamphlets on migration as we did during the anti-APEC activities. His group of anti-racist activists links xenophobia to racism. J. thought it would open the door to the ICWP’s strategy for international communist revolution.
J.’s plan shows confidence in the masses of workers. His conviction that the masses will fight for more than their immediate economic needs inspired other comrades. International communist revolution rests on this foundation.
Old Friends Learn New Things
Seattle comrades have recently made contacts with dozens of people who are interested in our communist strategy. We have been in touch with some of them and are inviting them to an upcoming barbecue.
That doesn’t mean we can neglect our longtime friends. Mobilizing those close personal and political friends is crucial to following up these contacts.
M., a long-time activist, has helped the party for over a year despite some ideological differences. After the BRICS expansion, he spent some time with a comrade discussing our slogan throughout the APEC activities. ICWP included the Chinese-led trade blocs when we said, “Abolish All Trade Cartels With Communist Revolution.” China is also an imperialist power.
“I’m with you with that,” M. agreed for the first time. The BRICS expansion made an impact on him.
M. agreed that anti-APEC coalition organizers, whom he’s known for a good while, were wrong to blame only US imperialism. He is interested in what the ICWP comrades in South Africa think about BRICS. Ideological changes like these driven by communist practice validate persistent communist struggle.
We plan to show the new contacts list to M. and ask him to help us visit them to make our case for communism. We are asking M. to continue inviting people he knows to our meetings and social events.
“In politics, when the water starts boiling it is foolish to turn off the heat,” wrote D. Now is the time to step up our efforts to rally our longtime friends and returning comrades. They will help heat up the struggle for a mobilized base to grow the party and build for communist revolution.
BRICS, G20 Shifting Alliances
SEATTLE (USA), September 13—Trade bloc wars are growing like weeds in an unkept garden. Every month there is a new trade coalition meeting. In between, US or China are inventing new political-economic alliances. Every bloc promotes exploitation of the global working class. Each prepares for war.
In August, the BRICS alliance (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) added six new nations. These are Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. A staggering 47% of the global population now falls under its umbrella. So does 37% of the world’s gross domestic product. The lion’s share of energy reserves and other key national resources do too.
The numbers don’t lie: BRICS surpasses the US-led G7 in almost any category that counts. No wonder even US longtime allies are flocking to Beijing in search of trade deals.
US imperialists tried to retaliate at the G20 summit in September. They fell short. Nothing substantial was agreed upon. The US hoped to get a condemnation of Russia’s role in Ukraine. The final declaration was even feebler than the one drafted at the last meeting, in Bali.
The US is increasingly isolated. The Chinese and Russian heads of state didn’t even bother to attend the G20. They are preparing for their Belt and Road forum in October. More than 150 countries and over 30 international organizations have signed cooperation documents. Over 90 countries confirmed their attendance.
“When I first got involved in anti-imperialist political work, the US was the dominant power,” said a Portland (USA) comrade. “That’s not true anymore. China and its allies now hold the upper hand.”
China’s rise and US decline reflect uneven development among competing imperialists. Each continues to fight for supremacy. They turn trade blocs into platforms to recruit war allies.
Some self-identified anti-imperialists insist the US is the aggressor and the China is just defending itself. The Portland comrade thinks that assessment is particularly dangerous. It promotes nationalism and racism, sacrificing the lives of millions of workers for the sake of one imperialist or another.
“Communist politics can prevent this from happening,” added a comrade in the eastern US, “by taking the communist fight back to the bosses, whichever country they represent.”
The Perils of Uniting with “Lesser-Evil” Imperialists–Let’s Build International Working Class Unity for Communism
A rising fascist wave engulfed the world in the 1930s. Western imperialist powers were arming Hitler to march to the East to destroy the Soviet Union.
Soviet leaders thought they couldn’t fight Nazi Germany alone. They led the Third Communist International to adopt the United Front Against Fascism (UFAF) line in 1934. This urged communists to unite with “anti-fascist” imperialists against German imperialism and its allies.
Signing a nonaggression pact with Hitler in 1939 didn’t buy the Soviets much time. But it dealt a blow to the anti-fascist resistance in occupied Europe.
Germany invaded Russia in 1941. That year, the US, UK, and the USSR formalized the alliance Stalin had sought before. Soviet leaders expected to receive major help from this alliance. That didn’t happen.
It was the commitment of the Russian masses and resistance fighters throughout Europe that defeated Hitler. Twenty-eight million Russians and hundreds of thousands of communist-led resistance fighters died to defeat fascism in Europe and the Philippines.
The Red Army defeated the Nazi army at Stalingrad in 1943. They marched triumphantly toward Berlin, liberating Eastern Europe. Berlin fell to the Soviets in 1944. Only then, to prevent the Soviets from taking all of Europe, did the U.S. and Britain open the second front in Europe.
In 1945, the US bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, knowing Japan was ready to surrender–to threaten the Soviet Union. It was the opening shot of the Cold War.
This shows the bankruptcy of a united front with “lesser evil” imperialists who quickly became the “greater evil.” Our enemy is the whole capitalist imperialist system.
We cannot unite with any capitalist or imperialist exploiter, or with their social fascist agents in mass movements.
“United Front” Politics Dangerous Today
Open fascism and war are again engulfing the world. Many now support Russian and Chinese imperialists as “lesser evil” (or even good) alternatives to US/NATO imperialism. That includes reformist leaders like South Africa’s Ramaphosa and Malema.
For example, the Russian imperialists are fighting to control the resources and surplus value created by workers in Africa. In Niger, they exploit the masses’ justifiable hatred of French imperialism to gain support for Russian imperialism. The masses’ real interests lie in fighting for communist workers’ power and production for human need, not in changing imperialist masters.
The main contradiction driving events in Niger is the contradiction between French imperialism (allied with the US) and Russian imperialism (allied with China). The fundamental contradiction is the masses versus all the capitalists and imperialists, who profit from our exploitation.
Build a Mass ICWP
The masses will defeat fascism only through communist revolution.
The main contradiction driving events everywhere is that between weakened US imperialism versus rising Chinese and Russian imperialism. Both sides fight for the allegiance of local capitalists and to win workers to fight and die for them. Each side vies to pay the lowest wages and to control markets and resources. It is driving wars from Ukraine to Syria. It drives the growth of the BRICS to challenge the G7.
This makes the world more unstable. It exposes the profit system as murderous. It is leading to World War III, possibly nuclear. Our near future is full of danger — and the opportunity to fight for communist revolution.
As ICWP and the fight for communism grow, the fundamental contradiction will become the main one: workers versus the capitalists and imperialists. The struggle for communist workers’ power will drive world events. Communist revolution will resolve both contradictions by eliminating capitalism and imperialism forever.
The communist masses will build a world based on collectivity to meet our needs.