17 IMCWP, Contribution of CP of Denmark [En]

11/5/15 1:53 PM
  • Denmark, Communist Party of Denmark IMCWP En

17 IMCWP, Contribution of CP of Denmark [En]

The confrontation between imperialism and the peoples which has been dominating the global theatre for several years is undergoing further aggravation. After being smashed to pieces by an imperialist predatory war, which imperialism would have us believe was a popular rebellion, an offshoot of the ”Arab spring”, Libya is today in the grip of Islamist hooliganism. The so-called ”rebellion” or ”civil war” in Syria has evolved into outright war as savage and brutal as not seen for decades, maybe for centuries. New fronts have been opened up in Ukraine and on the Arab peninsula. And behind all this reckless aggressivity and destructivity stands imperialism – US and emerging EU imperialism.

It is far from evident for all that such is the case. Imperialism laid the foundations of its dummy strategy during the Vietnam war and refined it in Afghanistan, and now it has developed it further onto a new and higher level, a dual or second degree dummy war with the imperialist power whose interests the war serves hiding behind a regional client power, which in its turn will be pushing a pretended ”insurrectionary” or ”revolutionary” movement in front of it: The US, whose aim it is to get rid of the Syrian Baath regime, is not waging an open war against Syria, but is watching and washing its hands in bombing raids against the eastern positions of the Islamic State, while under sanctimonious protests leaving it to Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states to finance, equip and man the Islamist terror batallions which in the west fight the real war on Damascus. This strategy is deceiving many – not least of the Left.

Whereas the US and its Middle East satellites – Israel included – more or less openly support the so-called ”Syrian insurgents”, among whom IS is only the most fanatic faction, the Syrian government is backed by Russia, Iran and patriotic forces in Lebanon and Iraq. The forces involved in this confrontation are such that there is danger of far more than a civil or regional war. This is especially true after Russia joined the actual fighting.

The case of Ukraine is similar. Only Russia’s reluctance has until now prevented a direct military confrontation between the greatest powers of the world. Add to this the mounting tensions in the Pacific region too, and there is no denying that the international situation today is such that even a small slip may open the door to a third world war.

In this context it gets increasingly important that the EU is unfolding more and more its negative sides, externally, in the case of Ukraine, as well as internally, in the case of Greece. The EU was never a peace project as so often pretended, but EU imperialism is now increasingly helping to draw the world towards crisis and war. Fighting EU and imperialism is becoming more and more of a main task in our epoch.

In such a gloomy situation, it is encouraging that rebellion is budding all over the world.

Latin America is liberating itself from the hegemony of US imperialism and is no longer the ”private backyard” of its big neighbour. A majority of countries on the continent are defying the US, solidarizing with socialist Cuba, building their own regional cooperation agencies, and attempting at home to do away with the neoliberal economic and social policy being forced upon them; some of them are experimenting with their own forms of revolution and socialism building. Much of this is imperfect and lacking in its relations to global class struggle, but it is clearly antiimperialistic and a weakening of especially US imperialism, and countries like Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador give hope to a world in which exploitation and oppression rules, in the different countries as well as between them.

Europe has seen popular risings against EU austerity policies prospering in a growing number of countries, even winning significant positions of power, such as Syriza in Greece and Podemos in Spain. These movements are too immature, inaccurate in their aim and too marked by illusions to really show the way in the struggle against capital and reaction; in particular, their lack of courage or will to confront the EU is a weakness which has already proved hampering for their endeavour. A revolutionary movement towards a socialist Europe is by no means what we see. But it is an expresssion of public discontent and will of change and in this sense a positive trend.

The same is true for the resistance, armed as well as political, against EU expansion in the (few) countries in Europe not yet annexed to the Union. Particularly the armed resistance in Donbass commands respect; less conspicuous, but equally encouraging was the rejection of the Euro by the people of Iceland in defiance of their government some years back. These resistance movements are of course quite complex, subject to nationalist limitations, and not unambiguously revolutionary or even anticapitalist; but they are a strong contribution to weakening EU imperialism. The same goes for the movements of solidarity with fighting Donbass throughout Europe.

I shall refrain from attempting any analysis of the situation in Turkey; but here, too, we are witnessing interesting developments in the light of this incipient world rebellion against imperialism and reaction.

And now to the tasks of the Communists in this situation.

A year ago, the Communist Party of Denmark stated that the working class and people of Denmark is facing a strategic choice:

”Is the present imperialist course to be continued towards a world order dominated by globally operating and imperialist-capitalist corporations in mutual competitional combat, to the interests of which states and peoples are forced to adjust?

Or should alternatively a struggle be waged for these imperialist power structures to be replaced by a world order of sovereign and equal states […]?

In Denmark as in other countries, Communists must set themselves the task of helping the working class and the people reach an understanding of these fundamental alternative options.”

This statement was reiterated in the political resolution of our recent 34th Congress and is an important guideline for our work. The vast majority of people in imperialist countries are not able to view imperialism from the outside; they are used to the idea that their system and their way of life is the natural and lawful way which others should imitate, and prone to believing their rulers when they tell them that the purpose af imperialist aggressiveness is to defend freedom and democracy. The task we have set us is one of information and propaganda. It requires that we reach the broadest possible population strata and the most remote circles of society. It requires that we forge a unity the like of which has not been seen for decades – a unity reaching far beyond the narrow circles consciously concerned with socialism. It requires that we act and not just talk as revolutionaries.

The Communist Party of Denmark has throughout its nearly centennial existence proven several times that Danish Communists are able to perform such a task. We are confident that our weakened and divided movement will rise to the challenge and, in doing this, gain new strength and vitality.