Text presented by the CE. Votes (CPN) : 40 in favor, 0 against, 1 abstention, 5 NPPV (do not vote)
A) Rising inter-imperialist tensions and popular uprisings
1. The far-reaching reorganization of global capitalism is giving rise to growing commercial, technological and military conflict in inter-imperialist relations. There is, of course, the ongoing genocide in Gaza, an enclave now buried in ruins, and the threat of a similar fate for the Lebanese population, brought about by the savage war waged by the Zionist state of Israel, unconditionally supported by its Western allies. Then there is the war in Ukraine, triggered by the invasion of the country by Putin’s army, which has taken a catastrophic human and material toll. And let’s not forget the war that has plunged Sudan into chaos, leaving more than 10 million people displaced and nearly 20,000 dead in a single year. Everywhere, military budgets are on the rise, and the nationalist, war-mongering rhetorics that accompany them are growing by leaps and bounds. The spectre of the two world wars is looming and the question can be asked: is imperialism leading us towards a new all-out military conflict?
Rising inter-imperialist tensions for markets and profits
2. The period following the end of the USSR, of hegemonic American imperialism, chief policeman of the global capitalist order seems to have come to an end. While it remains by far the more dominant – more than 750 military bases in at least 80 countries, a dollar that remains the reference currency in international trade, American companies that retain leadership in most sectors – American imperialism must now face up to the emergence of other capitalist powers, starting with China. It thus faces many rival powers, which it tolerates only with great difficulty. While prepared to go to any extreme to maintain its economically eroding hegemony militarily, American imperialism jealously defends its global status quo, paradoxically giving the illusion that it is not a war-monger, unlike regimes such as Russia and China, which are fighting their way towards a more important place in the global imperialist system.
3. Integrated into the global economy from the 1970s as a subcontractor for Western industry, which generated and continues to generate immense capital gains through the overexploitation of hundreds of millions of proletarians, China has nevertheless succeeded in becoming the world’s second largest economy in terms of GDP (which has increased forty-fold since 1980). The state-led economic dirigisme of a Communist Party that has nothing Communist about it, provides the Chinese bourgeoisie with a highly honed tool for defending its collective interests. It has accumulated its own capital, through the exploitation of vast natural resources and, above all, an immense reservoir of wage slaves. In 2023, of the world’s 500 biggest companies, 142 were Chinese (136 were American, many of them in the lead). With its trade surpluses and technology transfers, China’s economy has moved upmarket: its exports are no longer simply toys, clothing or travel goods, but more and more telephones, motor vehicles, machinery and electrical equipment.
4. This development means that the interests of the Chinese bourgeoisie, less subject to the investments and decisions of Western multinationals, are no longer so closely aligned with those of the Western bourgeoisie. They are even in direct competition, not only on their domestic market, but increasingly on a global scale. The automobile industry is a clear example: by 2023, China will be the world’s largest market, with 21.7 million cars sold, the world’s biggest producer, with 30 million assembled, and the world’s biggest exporter. Its companies have technological leadership in the electric vehicle, presented as the future, thanks to complete control of production: from the extraction and refining of key raw materials to assembly plants and battery factories. Agreements between Western and Chinese groups, such as those between Stellantis and Leapmotor, are a snapback of those concluded some twenty years ago: Chinese manufacturers are conquering European and even American markets, which are trying to protect themselves with trade barriers.
5. Despite its rhetoric about the « global South » and the solidarity that should unite its states, the Chinese state, like other imperialist powers, defends the political and economic interests of its national bourgeoisie, in many areas and in the international arena. It is also developing its military capabilities, year after year, today encroaching on zones of influence and market shares devolved to the dominant imperialisms of the 20the century.
6. To contain the development of this new rival, the United States is significantly adjusting its policies. Tariffs of up to 100% on certain Chinese products, export restrictions on high-performance chips, sanctions on Chinese companies such as Huawei: these measures are designed to curb competition from Chinese capitalism, by cutting off its access to cutting-edge technologies in the semiconductor industry and depriving it of part of the American market.
7. However, this US-led trade and technology war is not intended to sever ties with China, whose industry still feeds the global economy. The interdependence of the Chinese and American economies remains significant today: China remains the second largest holder of American debt, American capitalists’ holdings in the Chinese economy are increasing, and trade remains high, despite a decline over the last two years (it will amount to $664.4 billion in goods and services in 2023, not counting Chinese products passing through Mexico to circumvent customs duties). As the workshop of the world, China is central to global supply chains and remains a destination of choice for multinational capital thanks to its skilled workforce and ultra-developed infrastructure. Moreover, the Chinese domestic market has become vital to the profits of certain sectors such as luxury goods and agriculture… while its industrial overcapacity makes the Chinese economy dependent on commercial outlets on world markets.
8. Can we speak of « deglobalization » or « decoupling » between all economies worldwide? Certainly not, but increased protectionism for sure. Each state seeks to support its national champions with massive subsidies or trade barriers, while profits remain privately owned! In the face of growing instability, globalization is fragmenting, and trade flows and capital investments are tending to reorient themselves, following the example of the boom in trade, particularly in fossil fuels, between China and Russia. India, Indonesia and Vietnam, for their part, are starting to see an influx of Western capital seeking to reduce their dependence on China.
9. The reconfiguration of inter-imperialist relations affects all powers, even the so-called secondary ones. The « old » European powers are caught between the commercial aggressiveness of their American « partner », sometimes to their detriment, and the rise of new powers, including China. Capitalists in Germany, the EU’s leading economic power, are thus impacted by the war in Ukraine and US sanctions policy, particularly in terms of access to Russian gas, while they face serious competition from the Chinese industry in their export markets. German industry is weakening, and of course it’s the workers and the poorest who are paying the price: among other consequences, massive layoffs are planned at Volkswagen or Bosch, but much more widely in the whole country.
10. Following the decolonizations, France, which has retained economic and political interests in sub-Saharan Africa and the Sahel, is suffering the backlash of decades of plundering natural resources and over-exploiting people, organized with the support of corrupt and dictatorial local governments. In Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Gabon, opponents of the regimes, often wearing military uniforms, are taking power by surfing on the legitimate « anti-France » feelings of the populations. They are challenging the tutelage of French imperialism… to negotiate with it for a bigger slice of the cake, or to turn to a new sponsor. Indeed, China and Russia, following in the footsteps of the United States and others, are trying to extend their own zone of influence in Africa.
11. It is also through its overseas territories that French imperialism continues to assert its claim to a global role. Perpetuating the domination inherited from colonization, it imposes a profoundly unequal situation on the peoples living in these territories, at every level. Poverty and unemployment are more widespread than in France, but so are police repression and emergency laws.
Mayotte. French imperialism has created an increasingly hermetic and murderous border between Mayotte and the inhabitants of the other islands of the Comoros, thereby seeking to stir up divisions between populations of the same archipelago. The brutal Wuambushu operation carried out in 2023 to demolish shantytowns and carry out mass expulsions illustrates the violence with which the French government administers these territories. A further step backwards in Mayotte’s already exceptional legislation on birthright citizenship.
Kanaky. With the same violence, French imperialism opposes the decolonization of Kanaky, an overseas territory moving towards independence. In response to the mobilization against the French Parlement’s brutal attempt to revise the electoral body in May 2024 (aimed at making the Kanak ever more of a minority in their own territory), repression left more than a dozen Kanak activists dead . Seven of them, including Christian Tein, spokesman for the collective that led the struggle (the Cellule de coordination des actions de terrain, CCAT), are now imprisoned in France, 17 000 kilometers away from home. Faced with the revolt of the kanak people, who have still not disarmed, Macron and his Prime minister Barnier have had to back down, or at least repackage the draft constitutional law reforming the electoral code.
Martinique: the movement against the high cost of living, announced in July 2024 and launched on September 1st continues. It takes place against a backdrop of profound economic inequalities that have already triggered major revolts, including the multi-week general strike in Guadeloupe in 2009, against « pwofitasyon ». The current movement in Martinique is protesting against a cost of living that is at least 40% higher than in France. These inequalities are not only linked to capitalist exploitation, but also to colonial reality. And in Martinique too, the repressive forces of the French state defend the privileges of the well-off, targeting protest leaders. As we write, Rodrigue Petitot, spokesman for RPPRAC (Rassemblement pour la Protection des Peuples et des Ressources Afro-caribéens – Gathering for the Protection of the Caribbean People and Ressources), has been arrested and imprisoned.
Through our political expression and our participation in demonstrations, we denounce this perpetuation of colonial oppression by our own imperialism, in these so-called « territorial collectivities ».
Towards a new world war ?
12. As revolutionary Marxists, we know that capitalism carries with it war, particularly in its imperialist phase. Marx emphasized the importance of force as an economic agent of capitalism. The exacerbation of conflict between the various imperialist powers is reflected in attempts to re-divide the world, in shifts in commercial power relations that can tip over into armed confrontation. The reconfiguration of power relations that has been taking place for over a decade, marked by increased conflict, including military conflict, does not today express a programmed desire on the part of the world’s bourgeoisies to go to war at a given time and on defined sides. The United States and its NATO allies are not in direct confrontation with Russia on Ukrainian soil, nor are the United States and China around Taiwan. But we should not take lightly the marked worldwide increase in military budgets – to the detriment of social budgets – and attempts at nationalist incitement. The greater the tensions, the greater the increase in military budgets, and the greater the risk of a generalized spiral out of control. Every imperialist power, including France, is seeking to modernize its army, to the great benefit of its arms dealers, whose profits are flourishing. This is a reminder of the extent to which military-industrial complexes are the spare lungs of breathless capitalist economies. And of course, the boom in the arms market also means that these weapons can be used. For which wars ?
13. Excessive emphasis on the real danger of future inter-state wars – known in military jargon as « high-intensity » wars – between imperialist powers runs the risk of downplaying the class wars and wars against peoples they are waging today. It also runs the risk of downplaying the complicity between imperialist protagonists, who may appear in opposing blocs, but who, through their ongoing agreements and cronyism, seek above all to maintain the capitalist social order, at the cost of increased exploitation and oppression of workers and peoples, and especially of a terrible widening of social inequalities around the world. These inequalities are on the rise, and for years have been giving rise to major social revolts and mobilizations, against which the imperialist powers have been preparing their political and, above all, repressive weapons – ever more numerous and over-armed police and military contingents.
It’s from the hell of the poor – and of the planet – that the paradise of the rich is made<
14. According to Forbes magazine’s 2024 ranking, there have never been as many billionaires on the planet as in 2024 (2,781), and they’ve never been richer (totalling a staggering of $14,200 billion). From the old lions of industry and luxury to the young wolves of the tech industry, whatever their nationality, these fortunes all draw from the same source of capitalist exploitation. Dividends paid to shareholders set a new record in 2023, thanks in large part to inflation. The development of the information and communication technology sector has created new behemoths, each with a market capitalization equivalent to France’s GDP. From the heights of their fortunes and their media empires, the biggest bosses are on display. In Franc47. For several years, the l’Étincelle and A&R currents of the NPA-R had been forging close links with international organizations : Speak Out Now from the USA and the RSO from Germany for l’Étincelle, Izar from the Spanish State and OKDE-Spartakos from Greece for A&R. The links forged between these organizations stem from the respective backgrounds of these two currents. The merging process we are engaged in France, between Étincelle and A&R (revolutionary currents from the former NPA), and comrades not linked to a current, convinces us of the feasibility and need to extend such a process on an international scale. The stages have yet to be determined, but participation in our revolutionary summer meetings and the international meeting held in this context have given substance to this perspective. We’ve set ourselves the goal of co-organizing an international camp next summer, enabling exchanges between militants, and not just between leaderships. This first international camp, organized by the NPA-R, Izar, OKDE-Spartakos, SON and RSO, will be held in the Spanish state in early August. It will be an opportunity to deepen our knowledge of each other’s organizations and to discuss our programs.e, Bolloré promotes his reactionary ideas. In the US, the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, reactionary XXL, has thrown himself into the battle of the American presidential elections to support his billionaire friend Trump.
15. This accumulation of wealth in the hands of a tiny number of billionaires takes place at the expense of workers and has, as its direct consequence, the precariousness of living and working conditions for the vast majority of the world’s population. Not to mention the oppressions, ecological disasters and wars fueled by capitalism. Over the past forty years of unbridled capitalist development in China, many rural and informal sector workers have been integrated (in the most brutal and barbaric ways) into large-scale industry. These workers became wage earners, joining the ranks of the working class and its struggles by the tens of millions. Everywhere, the profits of big business are fueled by the policies of social destruction and worsening exploitation pursued by the governments that serve them, such as the pushing back, in France as in China and many other countries, of the retirement age. Real wages, meanwhile, are being eaten away by inflation almost everywhere. In recent decades, inflation was « reserved » for the poorest countries. In some countries, such as Argentina and Venezuela, disproportionate inflation is having dramatic social consequences, pushing whole sections of the population into poverty and providing fertile ground for far-right demagogues.
16. Capitalism’s limitless exploitation of both humans and nature also threatens to turn our planet into a living hell. + 3.1 °C (according to the United Nations Environment Programme’s October 2024 report) : this is the most likely trajectory towards which our insatiable quest for profit and our unbridled, anarchic productivism will lead us. As the frequency and intensity of disasters linked to climate change increase, the poorest populations are already being hit hardest. The recent tragic events in Valencia, Spain (in addition to even more terrible catastrophes in countries such as Bangladesh), show how these tragedies are not « natural » but social and political : capitalism kills, and on a massive scale. In Valencia, anger and awareness of the responsibilities of employers and state authorities exploded into demonstrations that showed the way forward.
17. At a time when technological possibilities have never been more capable of satisfying humanity’s needs, and when modern means of communication tend to abolish distances, the reactionary and barbaric role of capitalism is all the more obvious. This system is totally incapable of ensuring the well-being or even the survival of the planet’s billions of inhabitants. What’s urgently needed is a global revolution to take power out of the hands of the handful of exploiters who are driving humanity into the wall.
B) Ukraine, two and a half years of war and the reconfiguration of the balance of power
18. The war, which has been waged in Ukraine for two and a half years following Putin’s Russian invasion of the country in February 2022, has taken an extremely heavy toll on the country’s working class (tens of thousands of military and civilian dead and wounded and increasing difficulties in recruiting for the front, accompanied by scenes of violence to do so, millions displaced and exiled, vital infrastructure and housing destroyed, entire towns razed to the ground, and 20 % of the territory occupied by the Russian army). It offers the spectacle of what inter-imperialist tensions and rivalries can engender : a shift from commercial or « geopolitical » rivalries to armed conflict. If it seems to us the duty of proletarian revolutionaries to demand that the troops of Russian imperialism leave Ukrainian soil, in the name of the Ukrainian people’s right to decide their own fate, it seems to us equally important to denounce the responsibilities of American imperialism, which has seized the opportunity to give new life to the Nato military alliance, ostensibly in « defense of Ukraine ». Behind Biden, Scholz and Macron have teamed up to provide dollars and war toys (to be repaid by the working classes) to Zelensky’s government, not in defense of the Ukrainian people, whose territory is increasingly devastated and occupied, but in support of the profits and markets of American gas, nuclear and, above all, arms multinationals.
19. Under Biden’s leadership, Western aid was substantial (in terms of arms sales and profits) but politically measured. The so-called « red lines » initially set by the Western powers for the delivery of tanks and aircraft were crossed : Western military advisors are present on Ukrainian soil, while Ukrainian soldiers have been trained in Great Britain and France. But while Biden has just authorized Ukraine to use long-range missiles capable of striking Russia in depth, the United States is refusing to allow Western troops to confront Russian troops directly. On the ground, « only » the armed forces of Russian imperialism and those of the Ukrainian capitalist state are fighting each other. Among the latest episodes, Ukraine’s invasion of the Russian region of Kursk, with the occupation of 70 towns and the evacuation of 130,000 people, seems above all a bluff by Zelensky to distract from Russia’s advance into the Donbass, a diversion for which only the Russian and Ukrainian populations on both sides of the border are paying a high price. On the other hand, the arrival in Russia of several thousand North Korean soldiers illustrates above all that Putin considers North Korea to be a reservoir of mercenaries.
20. This war may last, or it may become one of the « frozen conflicts » the world is experiencing. For several months now, the United States has been putting the brakes on its military and financial support for Ukraine. Some sectors of the American bourgeoisie would like to see a ceasefire between the parties, based on the balance of power on the ground, to some extent to Putin’s advantage (which does not mean to the detriment of the United States). Trump’s electoral demagoguery included the promise to bargain for an end to the war as soon as he took office. Let’s not forget that while the US and Russia are competitors for the planet’s wealth, and these and other inter-imperialist rivalries could explode into global conflict, US imperialism continues to regard Putin’s regime as a pillar of the imperialist order. It is certainly Trump who expresses in the most unabashed way what could become of American aims in this area : those of an imperialism which, after having taken advantage of Putin’s war to reinvest the European continent economically, politically and militarily, especially its eastern zone, could resume official relations with Russia. An agreement on the back of the Ukrainian working class, which could also trample all or part of the interests of Zelensky and the capitalists he represents, and even many of the economic and political interests of Nato’s allies, primarily Germany. Nato is certainly an alliance, but one between brigands who compete fiercely with each other.
21. Confronted with this situation, in which the predominant American imperialism succeeds in profiting from Putin’s warlike annexation of a piece of Ukraine, the far left and the international radical left have reacted variously. One section almost unconditionally backed Zelensky and the military support given to him by the Nato powers, suggesting that the class struggle could be postponed until the country is « liberated ». Another part was tempted by « campism », i.e. choosing the camp opposed to American imperialism. This is expressed in various ways : refusal to consider the Russian regime installed on the ruins of the former USSR as imperialist, refusal to demand that Russian troops leave Ukraine, calls for « peace » as if the Russian and Ukrainian belligerents on the ground were in a symmetrical position. This campist temptation, which we can understand without sharing, has its roots in the crimes committed for decades by the dominant Western imperialisms. We have no hesitation in saying : « NATO troops, including French troops, out of every continent ! « . Freedom for the Ukrainian people cannot be the replacement of one imperialist oppressor by another.
22. However, revolutionaries must not fail to denounce Russian imperialism, which may be second-rate, but which rages against workers and peoples, starting with those it directly dominates. For almost 25 years in power, Putin has given unfailing support to dictators battling popular uprisings : in Syria, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Africa. His dictatorship is increasingly costly and repressive for the Russian working class itself ; Putin has waged a colonial war in Chechnya, and is waging a deadly hunt for opponents of his policies, over a million of whom have taken to the roads of exile. He tries to champion anti-imperialism (he defends the interests of wealthy capitalists) by claiming, among other things, support of the BRICS (an alliance of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), of which he organized the meeting in Kazan, Russia, and which was extended to some thirty countries. A clear act of defiance against the United States and its NATO allies, but not one that delivers a serious or lasting impact. Today’s global imperialist Monopoly is a billiard table with too many cushions for the revolutionary workers’ movement to be satisfied with any « campist » position, separating two conjecturally opposed camps of the same global imperialism. The only valid « campism » is that posited by Marx, between « bourgeois and proletarians ». What remains is to bring it to life through our militant efforts to build an international revolutionary pole. It is a revolutionary emergency, an emergency to find a common path to class independence for the world’s workers and impoverished populations.
23. Of course, in France, in our rallies and election campaigns, we have denounced Macron’s hypocritical or self-serving support (through arms sales) for Zelensky and continue to do so. We denounce the way in which the war in Ukraine has been used to justify an increase in the military budget, i.e. the loot that can be pocketed by French gun merchants, who are now the world’s second-largest exporters (and Barnier has no intention of reducing their position). We also denounce the opportunity Macron has seized to sound the nationalist bugle and launch an SNU (Service National Universel), a new version of military service to try and recruit young people. In addition to our own interventions, we proposed a meeting of revolutionaries on May 1st against the war and the rise of militarism, which unfortunately went unanswered. The difficulty of mobilizing against Putin’s war, and the way it is being exploited by the Western imperialist powers, also stems from the pressures exerted by the French bourgeoisie : part of the right and the far right are shamefully on Putin’s side ; the parties composing the Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) are divided, the Socialists and Greens are trailing American imperialism, while the Communist Party and LFI (Left, Mélenchon) are defending abstract pacifism. A policy of class independence and discussions to define it between revolutionaries from different countries, including Ukraine and Russia, would be of the utmost importance. Some progress in this direction exists, and we’re working on it, but it’s meagre.
C) Israel’s war on Gaza and Lebanon, the great powers complicit
24. At time of writing, it is impossible to say how far Israel’s escalation in the Middle East will go. Despite multiple trips by the US Secretary of State to try to establish the conditions for a ceasefire with the support of their other allies in the region, despite Macron’s verbal admonitions about the war in Lebanon, the great Western powers, like pyromaniac firemen, are incapable of limiting a fire started by Israel : Gaza razed to the ground and 43,000 dead, Lebanon bombed and thousands of people on the road to exodus, and continued missile confrontation with Iran.
From the outset, the major Western powers have been pyromaniacs and accomplices
25. Netanyahu’s years-long expansionist policy of creating the « Grand Israel » from the sea to the Jordan by expelling the Palestinians, had the encouragement of Trump, symbolized by the installation, in 2018, of the American embassy in Jerusalem. A support that his successor Biden was careful not to go back on, while saying he wouldn’t have made the choice. Netanyahu had the green light from the United States. The criminal Hamas raid of October 7 provided him with the pretext to pose as the hero of the Palestinian people over whom he exercises his dictatorship in Gaza.
26. Since the outbreak of Israel’s war in Gaza, followed by a campaign of new settlements on the West Bank, the invasion of Lebanon at the end of September 2024 and threats against Iran, Israel has had the assent of the United States and other major powers, including France, every step of the way. At the same time, Israel’s warlike escalation has prompted calls for restraint from these powers, for fear of once again destabilizing the Middle East, the source of so much oil wealth and trade routes.
The imperialist order above all
27. The Western powers, led by the United States, have never shied away from bloodshed in the Middle East. After encouraging the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988, nearly a million dead) to weaken the new Iranian regime, the USA sent its own troops to the region. With the end of the USSR, they felt their time had come to rule the world unchallenged. The result : two wars in Iraq, the second of which created more chaos than order, to the extent that the United States ended up handing over power to the Shiite leaders, by compromising with the Iranian regime, which was considered to be their great enemy in the region ; then, twenty years of war in Afghanistan to combat the Taliban, before finally handing them back to power by withdrawing from the country.
28. Their military intervention in the Syrian war was a one-off, ending with them and their allies (including France) rallying to the policy of rescuing Bashar al-Assad’s regime, under the aegis of Putin’s Russia and Iran, with the military help of Lebanese Hezbollah troops, as they were unable to find an alternative dictatorship to al-Assad. This U.S. policy in Syria, like its policy in Egypt in 2011 when it advocated power-sharing between the army and the Muslim Brotherhood to stem the revolt that toppled the Mubarak dictatorship (before Field Marshal Sissi got rid of the Brotherhood despite U.S. advice), is characteristic of one thing : the major Western powers in the Middle East are not so much afraid of Islamic movements (Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis) or dictatorships whose interests in part rival their own (Iran), as they are of the peoples of the region if they demand their freedom and their due. Above and beyond the competition, order against the people comes first.
Israel, imperialism’s policeman
29. Beyond the domestic political reasons, the great powers’ unwavering support for Israel has a fundamental underlying cause : a small, rich country in the middle of a Middle East of misery, it plays a policing role in the region. Israel is the only gendarme state whose overthrow Western imperialism cannot fear. But it is far from being the only policeman in the region. All the efforts of American diplomacy in recent years have been aimed at inducing the dictatorial regimes of the Arab countries linked to them to abandon their façade of solidarity with the Palestinian people to forge advantageous diplomatic and commercial relations with their Israeli friend. A diplomacy that Netanyahu’s adventurism is somewhat undermining.
30. The insistence of American diplomacy and its Western allies on opening up Gaza to humanitarian aid, however inadequate, seeks to keep these two million poor people in the ghetto in which they have been confined for decades.
31. The war in Lebanon would be more in line with American policy, which has classified Hezbollah as a « terrorist organization ». Less in line with that of France, whose businessmen have retained many interests in Lebanon (a former French colonial protectorate), and which sees Hezbollah as a governing party like the others – whose leaders Macron was keen to meet in Beirut. Hezbollah is a far-right religious party, born in 1982 in the aftermath of the Lebanese civil war in the poor regions of the country, which today has, in addition to its army, its businessmen, its ministers and participated, like the others, in the repression of the social movement that shook the Lebanon of 2019.
Rivalry but class solidarity
32. The people who are the victims of this war have no allies either on the side of rulers who, like those of Iran or Syria, are in rivalry with the United States, or on the side of religious nationalist movements such as Hamas or Hezbollah, bourgeois and reactionary parties for whom the people are nothing more than cannon fodder to increase their influence and dictatorial power. A few decades ago, the Palestinian cause had an echo throughout the Middle East, and even in North Africa, when it seemed to represent the continuation of colonial revolts. This solidarity gave the cause its strength, independently of the movement’s nationalist leadership, which sought alliances only with neighboring governments. Today, this solidarity seems hard to express, except in Jordan, where there is a large Palestinian community, and where the king is quick to suppress any demonstrations.
33. And then there’s the social powder keg that has repeatedly erupted in the Middle East in recent years (including the profound social revolt in Iran, still latent despite repression), especially since the Arab Spring of 2011. The eruption of a contagious revolt in these various countries, against the massacres in Palestine and Lebanon, could bring real support to the Palestinian and Lebanese people. And potentially, although we are unfortunately still a long way from it, an opposition at last in Israel against this genocidal war that has been going on for over a year.
34. It is also for this reason, both to put pressure on those in power who support Israel’s warmongering policy, and to strengthen as much as we can all those who are revolted over there, that we must show our solidarity here with the Palestinians and Lebanese crushed by war. This has been our party’s priority for the past year, as we have held demonstrations in support of the Palestinians and the Lebanese people.
35. In France, this solidarity movement, although limited in number, has left its mark on the political situation through its duration and the politicization it has generated, particularly among young people. Today, we are a recognized and identified component of this mobilization in several cities, through our almost weekly participation in demonstrations – which our intervention, including in the legal arena to force their authorization in October 2023, has helped to exist. For the past year, we have been driving forward a collective known as « Inter-orga Palestine », committed to strengthening this mobilization on a class basis, without aligning ourselves behind the nationalist perspective of the Palestinian « resistance » alone : for an immediate halt to the bombings and against the colonialist and segregationist policy of the State of Israel supported by the major imperialist powers, while denouncing the obscurantist and reactionary perspectives of Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah. As part of this movement, we have been among those who have spoken out against state repression, but also against campaigns by those in power and their supporters, equating solidarity with the Palestinian people with anti-Semitism. We have sought to bring the discussion to the unions and more widely to workplaces, including through the « Soignant.es pour Gaza » initiative.
D) The rise of the far right worldwide
36. In this context of exacerbated crisis of the capitalist system, the competing bourgeoisies on an international scale are fighting workers and peoples with the same political arsenal of weapons of mass division, in order to continue extracting maximum profits from the exploitation of the working class. These weapons include authoritarianism, racism, xenophobia and nationalism. Hence the rise all over the world of an extreme right, nostalgic of the fascism of the 1930 s, whose cadres systematically put forward racist, reactionary and authoritarian propaganda. It achieves spectacular electoral success, coming to power in many countries around the world, either on its own or through occasional or long-term alliances with other bourgeois parties (Argentina, Italy, India, Austria, the Netherlands, among others). The electoral successes of far-right demagogues are coupled with an accentuation of the political and cultural offensive against LGBTI and women, in the name of traditional family and homeland values. But also against migrants, of course, the target of all of them, because through migrants they target all workers.
37. Trump’s return to power fits into this framework, after the interlude of a term of office for the Democratic Parti which disgusted a good part of those who had voted for him in 2020, then defeating the Trump candidacy at the end of his first term. Disillusionment was strong particularly among the working class, whose situation has continued to worsen. As a result, the Democrat Party lost ten million votes this year compared to the 2020 election, which is more a reflection of the disrepute of the Democrats than of the progress made by Trump’s ideas. Victory, however, is above that of capital and reaction. Alongside the billionaire Trump is America’s richest businessman, Elon Musk, who has been promised the post of Minister of « Government Efficiency »: productivity and profits above all else. And all the most reactionary ideas are on the agenda : contempt for women’s rights, stepping up the hunt for immigrants, strengthening economic protectionism (announcing increased pressure on the American working class). And while Trump promised in his campaign to negotiate peace in Ukraine with Putin on the backs of the people, his election is already an encouragement to Netanyahu’s genocidal policies and warlike escalations. It remains to be seen what the reactions of the working classes will be to the new attacks being prepared, particularly those of the working class, whose strike movements have multiplied in recent years ; but also what the reactions of a fraction of the youth, politicized, as elsewhere in the world, by the international situation will be.
38. Particularly in the world’s richest countries, the far right is benefiting from the scarecrow of immigration, which masks the responsibilities of capitalists and their system of exploitation in the eyes of the impoverished and worried working classes. The hunt for migrants is conducted by all governments in power, whether far-right, right-wing, left-wing or coalition, to such an extent that in Europe, for example, the English Channel and the Mediterranean have become graveyards. In the European Union, the hunt is organized and financed to keep migrants outside the borders of a barricading EU, in camps in Tunisia, Libya or Turkey. In many other countries, such as India and Burma, the hunt for migrants often turns into massacres, encouraged or even orchestrated by governments.
39. Revolutionaries must obviously take the lead in the fight against the ideological grip of the far right, by putting forward demands for open borders, freedom of movement, the repeal of all racist laws, the defense of rights won by women and LGBTQI people, but also the denunciation of patriarchy and systemic racism.
40. Calls for « republican » or even « left » electoral fronts are not the way to put an end to the extreme right on an international scale, and to all the right and left-wing policies that pave the way for it. The solution to this problem, both national and international, is linked to the necessary resurgence and reorganization of a revolutionary, international and internationalist workers’ movement.
E) The working class is back ?
41. We wrote, end of 2022, in the C Manifesto text at the 5th Congress of the NPA :
« Globalized regression is provoking popular revolts and the emergence of proletarian protests. At the same time, the proletariat is reacting with unprecedented waves of large-scale social protest. First, in 2011, we witnessed revolutionary processes unprecedented – for decades – in the Middle East and North Africa. But the absence of revolutionary leadership meant that this « Arab Spring » turned into a winter of counter-revolutions, or at least authoritarian regimes. Yet, less than ten years later, in 2019, we have seen a resurgence of mass protests, again affecting urban areas, this time all over the world : in Sudan, Algeria, Haiti, Hong Kong, Honduras, Kazakhstan, Puerto Rico, Lebanon, Chile, Iraq, Colombia, Sri Lanka, and a rise in strikes in Iran followed by an explosion of protests against the regime today […] Feelings of revolt against the explosion of inequalities (on a global scale as well as within imperialist countries) are spreading, and the discrediting of political parties, including so-called « leftists » (see the rapid wear and tear of neo-reformism in Chile), as well as traditional trade union apparatuses, is accelerating. On the one hand, this situation is strengthening a right-wing extremist movement that is multi-faceted but well established throughout the world. On the other, these objective factors could converge and lead to genuine social revolutions. This makes it essential to strengthen the « subjective » factor, by building revolutionary leaderships and parties capable of understanding, linking up with and intervening in these political and social contestations, with the aim of transforming revolts into social revolutions that not only overthrow a dictator or regime, but also put an end to the dictatorship of capital and establish a dual-power situation leading to a government of working men and women. »
42. The situation is still marked by social and political polarization, with the far right on the rise, and social and political protests, sometimes on a massive scale, such as the « Women, Life, Freedom » movement in Iran. When the left has returned to power, whether in Spain, Chile, the UK or Brazil, it has failed to respond to popular aspirations and has behaved as a loyal manager of capitalism, thereby accelerating its discredit. It’s worth noting that, in an inflationary context, we are witnessing the return of massive strikes in industrialized countries such as the UK, the USA and Germany : « The strength of workers is the strike »… now more than ever ! These strikes can win immediate demands, such as the wage increases obtained in the automotive sector in the USA, and could encourage a revival of collective organization in the working class – they are already leading to the strengthening and rejuvenation of the trade union left. Nevertheless, confined by union apparatchiks to a strictly economic level, they have so far failed to counteract the rise of reactionary ideas – ideologically and politically. If these strikes and mobilizations are to escape union or « reformist » impasses and become political contestation and workers’ incursion into the domain of capitalist private property, to impose their own law and power, the need for a revolutionary politics (revolutionary leadership and parties) is urgent.
F) Establishing international ties
An international hub of revolutionaries
43. The capitalist system we face, and the power of the ruling class, are by nature international. So is our class. The seizure of power, the building of communism and, more broadly, the class struggle will be waged on an international scale. The task of building a world party, an International, in parallel with building a party within the imposed national borders, logically constitutes one of the pillars of our orientation and daily practice. We are aware of the gap between the current situation and this objective. The fragmentation of revolutionary forces both nationally and internationally is widening this gap.
44. We focus on possible steps towards the construction of revolutionary parties in France and worldwide. We see the move towards a pole of revolutionaries as a step towards this goal. To this end, we participate in and take initiatives to build relationships with revolutionary organizations and activists on an international scale, without sectarianism. We are not seeking to proclaim an umpteenth International of which we think we are the central element. We are open to discussions with currents and organizations whose positions and practices can nourish our understanding of situations, and who, like us, seek exchanges. We do not wish to forge alliances based on texts alone. Our programmatic references need to be illuminated by militant and organizational practices, put to the test by our presence and actions in the working class and among young people. Our aim is to develop a shared vision of the situation and the tasks ahead, through this contact between revolutionary ideas and their implementation.
Our recent experience in France, since the explosion of the NPA at its 5th congress, leads us to think of the construction of revolutionary organizations through processes of mergers and recompositions, on a national as well as international scale, which in view of the urgency of the general context should accelerate.
Our rencontres d’été révolutionnaires (RER – summer camp) under the sign of internationalism
45. Our RERs are an illustration of our conception of these international links and our efforts to build them. In the summer of 2024, for the second year running, activists from invited organizations met – the League for the 5th International, the International Trotskyist Opposition (including the Communist Workers’ Party of Italy), Socialist Alternative of Australia, Lutte Ouvrière, Lotta comunista ; organizations close to the NPA-R – Izar (Revolutionary Anticapitalist Left party of Spain), OKDE Spartakos (Internationalist Communist Organization of Greece), RSO (Revolutionary Socialist Party of Germany and Austria), SON (Speak out Now, USA) ; and international organizations whose militants are organized within the NPA-R – Socialism or Barbary and the International Socialist League. Once again, the political distance that may exist between different groups does not prevent the exchanges and collaborations necessary to all.
The experience of the Milan conference
46. Using this method, we took part in the first two conferences in Milan, initiated by the Lotta Comunista organization. This organization took the good initiative of proposing to all revolutionary forces wishing to do so to discuss ways of opposing the risks of imperialist war, and in the summer of 2023 brought together a significant number of revolutionary organizations, including a good number of Trotskyists. We have frank disagreements, but also important points of agreement, with this Italian revolutionary organization. Such points of agreement led to the joint organization of a demonstration and meeting in Paris in March 2024, attended by over 800 people, against Fortress Europe and for freedom of movement. The next (and third) « Milan conference » will be held in spring 2025 in Paris, and we are co-organizers.
Towards a common international camp for organizations with pre-existing links
47. For several years, the l’Étincelle and A&R currents of the NPA-R had been forging close links with international organizations : Speak Out Now from the USA and the RSO from Germany for l’Étincelle, Izar from the Spanish State and OKDE-Spartakos from Greece for A&R. The links forged between these organizations stem from the respective backgrounds of these two currents. The merging process we are engaged in France, between Étincelle and A&R (revolutionary currents from the former NPA), and comrades not linked to a current, convinces us of the feasibility and need to extend such a process on an international scale. The stages have yet to be determined, but participation in our revolutionary summer meetings and the international meeting held in this context have given substance to this perspective. We’ve set ourselves the goal of co-organizing an international camp next summer, enabling exchanges between militants, and not just between leaderships. This first international camp, organized by the NPA-R, Izar, OKDE-Spartakos, SON and RSO, will be held in the Spanish state in early August. It will be an opportunity to deepen our knowledge of each other’s organizations and to discuss our programs.
Texts of platforms
- Platform 1 : For a world without borders and bosses, urgent revolution! Building the NPA-R as a tool for a pole of revolutionaries
- Plateform 2
- Plateform 3