The original article in Russian is available here
In recent years, the world has been shuddering from an endless stream of disasters. The planet is gripped by economic crisis. Wars and epidemics are breaking out, which is inevitable under capitalism. Such times give rise to all kinds of speculators, including ideological ones.
In February 2022, with the beginning of the so-called ‘special military operation’ (SMO), the relations between the imperialist blocs – Eurasian and Euro-Atlantic – became even more aggravated. The RKSM(b) issued a number of statements on the problems of military operations in Ukraine. The most recent of these statements was the “Statement of the Central Committee of the RKSM(b) on the second anniversary of the beginning of the SMO.1
The World Anti-imperialist Platform (hereinafter WAP) was established the same year. According to its members, it is intended to:
The platform brings together forces from various countries that position themselves as socialist and communist:
Party of Communists USA, Communist Party of Chile (Proletarian Action), United Socialist Party of Venezuela, Communist Party of Kenya, People’s Democracy Party (South Korea), Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist), Hungarian Workers Party, Communist Party of Italy, Spanish Vanguard (Vanguardia Española is a nationalist force), Independence Platform and Collective of Struggle for the Revolutionary Unification of Humanity (Greece).
The WAP also includes the organisations from the CIS countries: the Belarusian Republican Organisation of the CPSU (BRO CPSU), the Party of Communists of Kyrgyzstan, and the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (VKPB). Representatives of the Russian Communist Workers’ Party (RCWP) also spoke at the platform events in Paris,3 Belgrade4 and Seoul5 on several occasions. However, they did not sign any declarations.
What do the organisations from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries have in common? They emerged after the collapse of the USSR and consider themselves the successors of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Many adhere to the pro-governmental bourgeois positions and are not de facto communist. On the one hand, BRO CPSU positions itself as a ‘constructive opposition’ to Alexander Lukashenko. On the other hand, it writes about the advantages of his policy and points to the ‘steadfastness and determination’ of the president of Belarus. During their speech at the teleconference of the European Communist Initiative, the BRO representatives stated that the SMO is not an invasion by the Russian Federation. Klara Azhybekova, the leader of the Kyrgyz Party of Communists, for example, generally believes that “Russia is ridding the whole world of the evil empire”. She also expresses the ideas about the transition to socialism in the manner of China. In her opinion, Belarus is “almost socialist”. Masquerading as orthodox Marxists, the VKPB, approves the SMO and agrees that the reason of the conflict “is the pro-American servile attitude of the present authorities of Ukraine and its policy of reliance on external forces.”6
The participants of the WAP can be conditionally divided into “friends of Korea” and “Europeans”. “Friends of Korea” are trying to prevent the spread of the war to Asia. Amongst the “Europeans”, an anti-NATO rhetoric and Euroscepticism prevail.
One of the most prominent speakers at the Platform meetings is Joti Brar, deputy chairman of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist). Her father, an Indian politician Harpal Brar, also attends the WAP sessions. Out of many members of this Party, Christina Kostoula stands out. Other notable representatives include the chairperson of the International Commission of the People’s Democracy Party (South Korea) Kim Hye-young. On behalf of the Collective of Struggles for the Revolutionary Unification of Humanity, Dimitrios Patelis also gives regular speeches.7
In October 2022, the members of the association signed the Paris Declaration in which they set forth the following programme theses:8
The WAP sees imperialism only as an aggressive foreign policy, i.e. they separate imperialism from capitalism, the superstructure from the basis. The word “capitalism”, by the way, is not even used in the Paris Declaration.9 The Platform evaluates the position of a state on the basis of its relations with the United States.
Let us turn to Lenin’s work “Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism”. In it, the author conducted a thorough analysis of the economic development of Europe, the United States and the Russian Empire. He concluded that the current stage (the highest and last) of capitalism is qualitatively different from the era of free competition. It has been replaced by the domination of huge monopolies that spread their influence over many countries of the world. Where once state regulation was minimal and undesirable, now newly formed trusts, syndicates and concerns need it to protect their interests within and across the national borders. Where once banks were simply the institutions for lending, borrowing, and holding the money of wealthy industrialists, now international financial corporations with dozens of subsidiaries and affiliates are formed. They extend and deny credit to entire countries and control the lives of hundreds of thousands of workers. Thus, we see the dialectic in action. In the process of rapid development, capitalism has undergone numerous quantitative changes which have turned into qualitative change. The bourgeois method of production has nurtured the opposite of what it once claimed to be.
Lenin identifies the following key features of imperialism:
These signs can also be seen in those countries that the WAP does not recognise as imperialist. For example, in Russia, the export of capital doubled and reached $18 billion in 2023. An additional fact is that a huge number of Russian large industrial enterprises have their “own” bank: Gazprom and Gazprombank, Rosneft and the All-Russian Bank for the Development of Regions, etc. The topic of imperialism on the example of the Russian Federation is addressed in detail in our paper (https://rksmb.org/top/imperialism-on-the-example-of-the-russian-federation/). Also, we recommend an article (in Russian) by Roman Osin,11 in which the author, based on the Leninist theory and the facts on the Russian economy, consistently proves the imperialist character of the Russian Federation and refutes the views of some “scientists”,12 surprisingly reminiscent of the position of the WAP. The same Joti Brar argues that “Russia is a huge territory that is not under the control of finance capital and, therefore, opposes the global imperialist system”.13 The WAP spokeswoman stubbornly ignores the publicly available facts.
Talking about the PRC, a similar pattern is noticeable here. In “communist” China, the gap between the rich and the poor is only growing. The number of millionaires and billionaires, some of whom hold leadership positions in the CCP, is increasing. Thus, the mergence of party functionaries and business is happening. For example, the entourage of Zhou Yongkang, a former curator of the Chinese law enforcement system and member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, had assets worth $14.5 billion seized during the anti-corruption purges in 2014.14 At the same time, the workers are living a precarious life, to say the least. They have fewer and fewer social guarantees and strike rights. The “Chinese socialism” shows its true nature – capitalism under the red flag. Private and public property are equalised; more and more sectors of the economy are liberalised. Private companies account for more than half of all taxes collected in the country. Konstantin Semin’s video “China is China is with us!” examines this topic in detail.15
The main page of the official WAP website says: “On the way to the world anti-imperialist platform – the locomotive of the world anti-imperialist revolution”. But the organisation does not answer the following question: What should we do to defeat imperialism? The WAP does not raise the question of the revolutionary overthrow of bourgeois power and does not consider the antagonistic conflict between labour and capital as the main contradiction in class-divided society. So, is the “World Anti-Imperialist Platform” just a buzzword? Let us examine its activities.
The “Platform” holds regular conferences at which participants give their speeches. Between May 2022 and July 2024, 7 conferences were held. The most significant meeting took place in October 2022 when the Paris Declaration was signed (50 signatories). There, the program guidelines were adopted. All other congresses (in Belgrade in December 2022, in Caracas in March 2023, in Seoul in May 2023, in Athens in November 2023, in Washington in July 2024) do not stand out as the participants never voiced new claims or ideas but repeated the ones from the Paris conference.
The March 2023 congress in Caracas took place in parallel with the slanderous and anti-communist campaign against the CP of Venezuela (PCV) launched by the leadership of Nicolás Maduro’s party (PSUV).16 In this confrontation, the WAP supports the president of the country. This is evidenced by the appraisals towards Maduro from the aforementioned Klara Azhybekova and Dimitrios Patelis in Caracas, as well as by the speech at the next congress in Seoul by Ricardo Molina, a former Vice President of Venezuela and member of the PSUV.
Together with the “Pole of Communist Revival”, WAP organises the pro-Palestinian marches under the slogan “Stop the US imperialist military campaign!” several times a month. In addition, the “Platform” joined the demonstration called “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” and organised a performance by the group “Hope Bird”. However, WAP fails to uncover the causes of the conflict and sees the problem not in the dominant system of production on Earth but only in the American bourgeoisie.
The frequent holding of large-scale events in various parts of the world raises the questions: Who pays for them and who benefits from these meetings? Who benefits from covering up the real anti-imperialist struggle?
As mentioned above, WAP assesses the Russian-Ukrainian conflict as “self-defence” of the Russian Federation, thus denying the inter-imperialist confrontation. This approach is as opportunistic as claiming that this confrontation is solely the result of Russian aggression.
The organization pays lip service to the people of Palestine, opposes Zionism, and has even issued a separate “Palestine Declaration.” But it still ignores the confrontation between imperialist blocs.17
It is also true for the situation around Taiwan. WAP only sees the American imperialists as the root of all problems, turning a blind eye to the aggressive aspirations of the capitalists of the People’s Republic of China. Also, the representatives of this organisation support North Korea and Iran, which together with the so-called “progressive” governments of Latin America resist imperialism.18
Greece is represented in WAP by two little-known organisations, which are not distinguished by their activity and do not have extensive public support: the “Collective of Struggle for the Revolutionary Unification of Mankind” (D. Patelis) and the “Platform for Independence” (V. Gonatas). They have recently turned to opposing the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). You can read about Patelis’ “diverse” position here.19
The confrontation between WAP and KKE deserves special attention. The beneficiaries of the attacks on the Greek Communist Party are the bourgeoisie of those countries that WAP does not consider imperialist. These includes the Russian Federation, China, Iran and other non-NATO countries. This is proved by the fact that WAP accuses KKE of “political shortsightedness”,20 of being unable to distinguish between the actions of the “real” imperialists and fascists and those of Russia on the Palestinian question.
The WAP members claim that KKE applies a non-dialectical analysis of the world economy and wrongly elevates the capitalist method of production to the rank of imperialism wrongly assuming that every country with a banking sector is imperialist. They consider the Greek Communist Party “anti-Marxist” and accuse it of “masterful leaps from correct to incorrect”.
At the same time, KKE notes21 that by dividing the world into two opposing parts, WAP actively supports the US agenda. After all, this is how the NATO propaganda presents the situation to the workers of their countries to convince them of the need for the war. However, in this case, the defending camp is not China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, but the United States and the North Atlantic Alliance. The first group of countries is declared “totalitarian”, while the second group are labelled as “democratic”.
All the facts above indicate that the grand bourgeoisie of the states, such as the Russian Federation, China, Iran, benefit from the existence of the World Anti-Imperialist Platform. The capitalists of these countries are trying to hide their imperialist ambitions with a fig leaf of “anti-imperialism”. It is profitable for them to divert the working class of their countries from the struggle against their domestic exploiters to the struggle against the external enemy.
But the workers of the whole planet have only one enemy – a class enemy that deprives people of their rights, territories, livelihoods and peace. The bourgeoisie has no fatherland, so it does not matter whether it is American or Russian. Its main goal is accumulation of capital, even at the cost of life of an individual or an entire nation.