Are there good and bad imperialists?
The situation and the developments following Trump's rise to power and the realignment of alliances that is taking place in the camps of imperialism seem to have caused embarrassment and confusion among those who insist on identifying imperialist policy only with the US, cultivating the perception that "capitalist Russia will save us."
Since the beginning of the imperialist war in Ukraine, opportunist groups and aspiring pseudo-analysts, have attempted, in the name of a "genuine" militant anti-imperialism, to undermine the positions of the KKE, to outbid in cheap anti-Americanism and a false anti-fascism. Despite their "revolutionary rhetoric", they remain silent on the fact that the cause of the problem lies in the "root" of the capitalist system, imperialism.
These forces exhaust their “anti-imperialism” only against the Euro-Atlantic bloc, highlighting other imperialist centers and states as “opponents.” In practice, their line traps peoples and movements in alliance with bourgeois classes, such as that of Russia, attributing to them characteristics they do not have, proposing a “united front of progressive forces.”
To become more convincing (towards people that supports the KKE or appreciates its stance), they proceed in manipulative claims that they supposedly defend the Soviet Union and socialist construction. To manage their retractions and the weakness of theoretical-political analysis, which today leads them to a dead end and directly into the "embrace" of the bourgeoisie, they attempt readjustments in the attack on the KKE for its stance towards the war, with the aim of extracting forces from its influence. Of course, no one can doubt that in Greece the revolutionary movement faces the country's bourgeoisie, the state and its governments, its allies, NATO, the Americans, the EU. But can this assessment lead us to the conclusion that the answer is to align with the imperialist centers that oppose the Euro-Atlantic camp? In other words, in the search for the good imperialist?
Today's Trump-Putin bargaining, the US stance at the UN, G7 and the confrontation with the European Union over the war in Ukraine, the discussion about co-exploitation of rare earths on its territory, the negotiations for its accession to the EU and NATO, confirm once again and in the most categorical way that there is no pro-people imperialist alliance.
Both the confrontations as well as the interstate alliances in conditions of imperialism are always fragile and temporary, since interests change due to uneven development. Such is the "tangle" of contradictions that frictions and contradictions between allies intensify, while at the same time unrepentant enemies proceed to individual agreements among themselves, precisely because developments bear the stamp of the aspirations of the bourgeois classes, see for example the confrontation over tariffs, participation in war expenses, etc.
While they are negotiating ceasefires and peace agreements, they are intensifying war preparations, organizing the war economy, and planning gigantic armament projects worth hundreds of billions at the expense of all peoples.
The relevance of Leninism
Today, 110 years after the writing of Lenin's work "Under a Foreign Flag" [1] , his legacy is valuable and a guide to action. In this work, as well as in a series of others with the most important being "Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism" [2], Lenin is clear that in conditions of monopoly capitalism the bourgeoisie constitutes the past of social development, and wars between the national portions of monopoly capital are fought for the division of the plunder. That the working class is the only class that can lead and ensure social progress either in peaceful or warlike conditions. In other words, in the face of the state and the power of the few, the dictatorship of capital that generates crises, wars, poverty and suffering for the peoples, the way out is the state and the power of the many, the dictatorship of the proletariat.
On this basis, the position that the labor movement has any reason to defend one or another bourgeoisie in the imperialist war is unacceptable. Equally dangerous and unhistorical is the position that the working class and its political vanguard, in order to exploit the intra-imperialist contradictions, must drag themselves into the tail of the bourgeoisie or some imperialist alliance, betraying their class. Leninist teaching, for those who want to have it as a guide and not to distort it, is clear. The working class and the revolutionary movement will remain true to themselves only if they do not join any imperialist bourgeoisie, only if they accept that “both are worse than the other”, only if they wish the failure of the bourgeoisie in every country.
These positions apply to all countries regardless of their economic or military power and of course to the capitalist countries that emerged from the dissolution of the USSR and other socialist states, after the dominance of counter-revolutionary forces and the formation of bourgeois classes that plunder the wealth created by the peoples in the countries of socialist construction. Besides, in order to be able to truly and essentially utilize imperialist contradictions and antagonisms for the benefit of the struggle for socialism, you must have clearly separated yourself from all the warring imperialist camps. After all, this is what the Bolsheviks themselves taught.
Moreover, Lenin severely criticized Kautsky, highlighting the error of dividing bourgeois states into those that pursue and those that do not pursue an imperialist policy in the era of monopoly capitalism. The reproduction of similar concepts leads to the problematic position that imperialist policy is currently pursued only by the USA, which maintains primacy in the international imperialist system and is fighting by all means to maintain it.
The solid class, theoretical, political analysis of the KKE
From the very beginning, the KKE highlighted the imperialist character of the war on both sides, underlining that the war in Ukraine is not simply a war between two states3. It responded to the argument that the current level of development of capitalism in Russia supposedly does not justify to accuse it of imperialist policy. It demonstrated that its bourgeoisie, which consolidated its power after the victory of the counterrevolution, actively participates in the competitions for the redistribution and control of markets and territories of economic importance, that monopoly capitalism in Russia holds a strong role in the international imperialist system [4].
Based on the above, the bourgeois state of Russia consistently pursues an imperialist policy, accordingly with its economic, military and political power. It responded to the multifaceted anti-Sovietism and anti-communism [5], to the slanders against the USSR by the imperialist staffs of both sides. On the one hand, to the NATO myths about the “national oppression” of the people of Ukraine and the peoples of the USSR. On the other, to the Russian bourgeoisie that promoted the logic of the “territorial construction” of Ukraine by the Bolsheviks and the CPSU through the concession of territories that historically belonged to Russia. This is about the distortion of the Soviet heritage in the national question by both sides, in order to silence the fact that after the counter-revolutionary upheavals, the dominance and formation of bourgeois classes in all the former republics of the USSR was natural to lead to an intensified struggle among them, in order to share the spoils that the Soviet people jointly created in the unified socialist state. It called on the peoples to reject the pretexts, both of the NATO side that the war is supposedly being waged for the "freedom" and the right to "self-determination" of the people of Ukraine, and of the other side, which hides the goals of its own monopolies, invoking the so-called "denazification" of Ukraine and the "self-determination" of its Russian-speaking populations. Since 2014, it has actively opposed the fascist groups, the Azov battalions and the role of the bourgeois Ukrainian government, which led to the death of thousands of Russian-speaking people in Ukraine.
At the same time, it has highlighted that the Russian government is exploiting the sacrifice of millions of people from the USSR, using Soviet and communist symbols in order to exploit and appropriate the heroic struggle of the Soviet people against Nazi Germany and other capitalist states and comparing it to the Russian attack on Ukraine for the interests of the Russian monopoly groups.
The KKE has taken the lead against the deep involvement of our country in the imperialist war. It highlighted the responsibilities of the New Democracy government, as well as the other Euro-Atlantic parties, which have transformed the country into a "base" for the military operations of NATO, the USA, the EU. Its action and intervention have international dimensions, with a clear class criterion...
Today, while the imperialist war is raging in many regions of the planet, when the battle for primacy in the global imperialist system is intensifying, when the search for a profitable outlet for "stagnant" capital and the "minefield" of recession are intensifying competition and trade war, the risk of generalization of military conflicts and war as a natural continuation of the politics and interests of the bourgeois classes is growing. In these circumstances, the historical experience of the Bolsheviks, who provided the way out of World War I with the socialist revolution, is invaluable. For the workers' revolutionary movement there is no embarrassment.
With a pure class criterion, it utilizes this historical experience and knowledge, the modern elaborations of the KKE, so that the people are not trapped in the aims of bourgeois politics, in order to ensure the class and political independence of the working class, with the ultimate goal being its own power, socialism.
1. V. I. Lenin, “Under a False Flag”, Collection “On War and Socialist Revolution” ed. Syghroni Epohi or Lenin's Collected Works, volume 26
2. V. I. Lenin, “Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism”, ed. Syghroni Epohi or Lenin's Collected Works, volume 27
3. KOMEP v.2/2022 “Decision of the CC of the KKE: On the Imperialist War in Ukraine”
4. KOMEP v. 5-6/2022 “Some Facts on the Economy of Russia”
5. V. I. LENIN - I. V. STALIN “On the Class Struggle in Ukraine”,ed. Syghroni Epohi.
* Member of the CC of the KKE and Director of Syghroni Epohi Publishing House.
