24.10.2024

Danger of World War III: the communist response

Supported by: Ian Spencer, Bob Paul, Andy Hannah, Paul Cooper, Carla Roberts, Anne McShane

Motivation: We welcome the PCC’s initiative, following a discussion at an aggregate, to issue a “statement with a view to cementing principled unity and furthering the struggle against war and capitalism”. We believe that such a statement should focus on political principles and are therefore proposing this alternative document, which incorporates points from the original text, as well as the joint statement agreed with the Dutch Communist Platform in February 2023. Of course, we welcome amendments.

1. There is a real danger of yet further escalation in Ukraine and the possibility of war between Russia and Nato. With the intensification and spread of Israel’s war on Gaza and Lebanon, backed by US-led imperialism and fully supported by the British and other capitalist governments, there is the distinct risk of (a nuclear) World War III. It remains the duty of genuine socialists and communists to urgently cement principled unity.

2. The Ukraine war has antecedents long predating the Russian invasion of February 24 2022. Directed by the CIA, the Maidan coup of 2014 deposed the government of the ‘neutral’ Viktor Yanukovych. Ukraine was shunted into the western camp with the stated ambition of joining the European Union.

3. It was a clear provocation - and Russia responded. Crimea was annexed, Russian-Ukrainian separatist forces were encouraged and aided and the Putin/FSB regime gave the go-ahead for a full-scale invasion. An invasion that all genuine communists must oppose.

4. Like Iran, India and China, Russia is certainly not anti-imperialist. These countries want to join the top ranks of the imperialist club, not overthrow imperialism. Communists do not foster the illusion that a ‘multipolar’ world would make imperialism ‘more peaceful’ - an illusion akin to Karl Kautsky’s prediction of ‘ultra-imperialism’ (a few months before the outbreak of World War I).

5. The US administration is pursuing regime change in Moscow and the break-up of the Russian Federation. The real target, however, is China. It is a proxy war, fought in the strategic interests of a declining US hegemon - which does not face any serious challenge from Russia. Nato’s steady eastward expansion is fundamentally directed against China, not Russia. This gives the Ukraine war an inter-imperialist dynamic.

6. Genuine communists support neither side. Both sides in this war are reactionary, both are anti-working class. While recognising that a victory for Putin would weaken US/Nato imperialism and their attempts to encircle China, this is not grounds for us to call for such a victory. Communists fight for the withdrawal of the UK from Nato and its disbandment.

7. There is confusion among many on the left and we need to speak out clearly against three dangerous trends:

 Those who support the Kremlin, or who see something anti-imperialist in its war with Ukraine - the anti-imperialism of fools.

 Those on the social-pacifist left who foster the illusion that there can be a peaceful capitalism, as long as governments act reasonably and abide by internationally agreed rules and standards. War and capitalism are inseparable. Peace is only a moment between war, and war is merely the continuation of the same policy previously carried out peacefully through diplomacy, tariffs and sanctions.

 Those on the social-imperialist ‘left’ who claim that its support for Ukraine is no different from its support for Palestinian self-determination. Both Ukraine and Israel act as US proxies.

8. In the current situation, communists in the belligerent imperialist and proto-imperialist countries need to take a position of revolutionary defeatism: the main enemy is at home. That does not mean communists simply want their ‘own side’ to lose or that ‘the other side’ should win. Communists fight for a Communist Party and a workers’ movement capable of overthrowing the capitalist state, necessarily in solidarity and cooperation with the workers’ movements and communist parties in other countries.

9. Our perspective is that the reactionary war should be turned into a civil war led by the working class. While we welcome strikes, boycotts and other actions against the war, we always need to explain that by themselves they cannot succeed. Such actions need to be linked with a strategy of overthrowing the international capitalist state system and for the working class to become the hegemon of society.

10. We support the democratic republican principle of the replacement of the standing army by democratic and accountable workers’ defence units (or a popular militia/citizen army), as part of our strategy of splitting the army and transforming the working class into the ruling class. Towards this goal, communists fight for freedom of political speech within the army, the right of soldiers to organise in trade unions and political parties and other democratic demands.