Down with imperialist aggression and wars!
The imperialist world and the Ukraine crisis
“The fierce competition between the imperialist monopolies on a world scale took the form of a fierce struggle between the major imperialist states for markets, sources of raw materials, areas of profitable investment and spheres of influence in general. This struggle, exacerbated by uneven development, has become the source of unprecedented militarism and imperialist wars for world domination.”
(TKIP Program)
“Another essential element of the structural crisis of the system is the sphere of inter-imperialist relations. The escalating rivalry in the internal relations of the imperialist world, the intensifying struggles for influence, the increasing arms race and the escalating militarism, and finally the series of aggression and wars that complete all of these and embody them in the most destructive way, constitute the foreground everyday manifestations of today's world.
(TKIP V. Congress Declaration, December 2015)
-I-
1- The Russian Federation, as confirmed by the statements of President Vladimir Putin in the days preceding the war, is an imperialist state that claims to be the current heir of Tsarist Russia. This position and identity shape the axis of the domestic and foreign policies he is following. The attack he launched against Ukraine is an example of an unjust and reactionary imperialist intervention in this context. This being so, Russia is by no means solely responsible for the war that is still going on in Ukraine. The US-led imperialist Western bloc and its war and offensive instrument, NATO, are at least as responsible for this war as Russia.
2- The provocations that US imperialism and its direct instrument NATO have been intensifying over Ukraine for months have finally resulted in the war in question. Russia's pursuit of diplomatic compromise within the framework of certain concessions was firmly rejected, so that if it wanted to protect its imperialist power claim and spheres of influence, it was almost compelled and condemned to this attack.
3- Since war is the continuation of politics by other means, in order to fully identify the real culprits of this war, it is necessary to look at the policies that led to this point in its entirety. Behind and underlying these policies is the strategy of US imperialism to encircle and neutralize its potential rivals as much as possible since the early 1990s. It is this imperialist strategy that underlies the policies pursued against Russia through Europe and against China through Far Asia, and the ongoing tensions within this framework. The endless expansion of NATO, which has proven to be an offensive and war organization throughout its history, to include Eastern European states and former Soviet republics is also part of this same aggressive imperialist strategy. The aim is to encircle Russia from all sides, to put it in a suffocating position, to subdue Russia into a secondary regional imperialist power.
4- Since the Georgian war (2008), Russia has been actively resisting such attempts of encirclement by the western bloc led by the US imperialism, and for this, it risks wars such as the last Ukrainian attack when necessary. Russia's attitude and the practical consequences of it are at the same time a confirmation of the crisis of imperialist hegemony at a new level. The last Ukraine war, which the USA, EU and NATO waged despite all their threats, is a new example of this. If the threats of the hegemon imperialist power cannot produce a deterrent result, this is the most direct proof that the system is in a crisis of hegemony. China exhibits a similar objection within the system and a resistance based on it in the Far East against the US encirclement aimed at surrounding it, and although it has not led to an open conflict until now, the tensions continue as a product of this. US imperialism is forming new imperialist alliances against China in Far Asia, increasing its military build-up to the fullest extent possible, and the conditions for a major crisis in the region are constantly maturing.
5- The strategy of encircling Russia and China, also gives the US imperialism the opportunity to keep the European imperialists, who are trying to get out of its sphere of influence, under control. Russia and China are resisting to the goal of creating a unipolar world based on unrivaled US leadership with the claim of multipolarity and they did make some progress in achieving their own goal. This aspect of the business has been an essential element of the strategy pursued from the very beginning. As a matter of fact, the Biden administration set out to aim precisely this, on the one hand to add new layers to Russia's encirclement through Ukraine, and on the other hand, to turn this into an opportunity to rally NATO, which shows signs of disintegration, and thus to consolidate its control over the European imperialists.
6- As a part of this aim and target, US imperialism has particularly aggravated the Ukraine crisis, a creation of its own, by bringing the discussion of NATO membership back to the agenda and at the same time provoking and encouraging the puppet administration in Kiev to attack the Donbas region. The ongoing war has been the most direct and in a way inevitable product of these policies. The games and provocations that have been going on over Ukraine for years have gained new momentum in recent months, thus Russia has been pushed into the intervention. Of course, this in no way justifies or acquits Russia, which acts on its own imperialist plans. However, there is no denying that this provides Russia with the opportunity to find excuses for its intervention. On the other hand, this same reality reveals the common responsibility of the imperialist world as a whole against the peoples suffering from imperialist aggression, wars and occupations, which came to the fore as a product of imperialist influence struggles.
-II-
7- As one of the main elements of the structural crisis of the system, the crisis of hegemony in the imperialist world is certainly not a new situation. However, the developments in recent years show that things have taken a turn for the worse. The increase in and intensification of conflicts and wars is also a reflection of this. Our party's evaluations on the subject maintain their importance and actuality in the light of the latest developments.
8- “US imperialism, whose hegemonic position has been irreversibly shaken, is still constantly straining international relations by using its multi-faceted advantages. It provokes an arms race, imposes embargoes on various countries and imposes it on the whole world, unilaterally cancels the international agreements it has signed, engages in new attacks and invasions, resorts to changing governments by resorting to various methods, including military coups, and thus de facto seizing the relevant countries.
9- “As a result of this aggression, the political and military tensions in the imperialist world are getting tougher. The arms race, aggression, regional interventions and wars have been indicators of this for years. Under the heavy influence of the global economic crisis, this conflict is also heating up in the economic, financial and commercial areas. Trade wars, combined with embargo practices and expanding in scope, are a current example of this.” (TKIP VI Congress Declaration, December 2018)
10- The game on Ukraine in recent months is a part of this. As a matter of fact, the first reactions show that the US imperialism is shedding false tears over Ukraine, and that in reality is trying to turn the situation that Russia has fallen by entering a war of aggression into an opportunity to isolate Russia and crush its economy. The new economic-financial embargo practices, to which the US also dragged Europe, Canada and Japan, are an expression of this.
11- On the other hand, today's world capitalist economy is an organic whole, tightly interconnected with a thousand and one ties. Therefore, the economic-financial embargo targeting this or that country is also a weapon that strikes back the entire system. Especially if the target country is Russia, not a relatively small country with an insignificant economy, but a very important big country, especially in terms of market and raw material source. The embargo imposed on Russia will deeply affect the large consumer masses, especially over fuel and food prices, as well as the Western capitalist monopolies, thus aggravating the multi-faceted crisis of the system.
12- On the third day of the war, the information available has made it certain that the ongoing war is actually an ongoing war between the US-led imperialist Western bloc and imperialist Russia. Other than not sending soldiers directly, Western imperialism takes part in the ongoing war in all respects. It can even be said that it personally led the war on the Ukrainian front. The blatant to prevent a compromise that would stop the war efforts through its proxy, i.e., the Ukrainian administration, the massive overt and covert arms, resources and intelligence support and all other attempts to isolate Russia from the world in all respects, prove that the Western imperialists as an open party in this war. Thus, Ukraine and its completely innocent people have been turned into victims.
-III-
13- The very important speech of Russian President Vladimir Putin just before the attack on Ukraine was extremely useful in terms of clarifying some issues. As the present representative of the Russian monopoly bourgeoisie, Putin frontally rejected the October Revolution and the Soviet Union's legacy of socialism in his speech. Since the subject was Ukraine, he did this specifically on the national question, and therefore on the implementation of the national question program of the October Revolution. Thus, he emerged openly as the heir of Tsarist Russia. This openness should be regarded as a very important and beneficial development from a revolutionary point of view. Thus, the so-called claim to resurrect the "Soviet Union", which the Western imperialist propaganda attributed to Putin in an anti-communist tone, has lost all its grounds. Whatever the historical allies of Tsarist Russia will say to Putin's Russia from now on, they have to do this through this clearly declared position and identity.
14- Tsarist Russia was a system of national slavery over many nations and nationalities, as well as the class domination of the landed nobility and the bourgeoisie over the working class and peasantry. It was a "prison-house of nations", as the Bolsheviks defined it at that time. The October Revolution put a complete end to this situation. It liberated all nations enslaved by Tsarism. It instantly recognized the independence of Poland and Finland, which were subjects of Tsarist Russia. It united the nations who triumphed in their revolutions over the old propertied classes as the free and equal nations within the Soviet system. Thus was born the Soviet Union, a voluntary socialist union of free and equal nations.
15- So, what was the position and attitude of today’s hypocritical Western imperialists’ community in the face of Tsarist Russia, of which Putin emerged as an heir today? All of the European imperialists, who showed great sensitivity in the name of so-called freedom regarding the current independence of the former Soviet republics, especially Ukraine, recognized, approved and supported the slave-ridden domination of the Tsarist over these same peoples. None of them had a problem with the rights, freedom or independence of these nations. For example, Poland had been a divided and enslaved country between Russia, Germany and Austria for exactly one hundred and fifty years until the revolution in Russia. Imperialist Britain and imperialist France, the great colonial powers of that day, were the allies of Tsarist Russia, which was the "prison-house of nations", in the first imperialist war. They did not care about the freedom or independence of Poland and Finland, or of the nations that were liberated from national slavery with the October Revolution, especially Ukraine.
16- All the nations and nationalities enslaved by Tsarist Russia gained their freedom with the October Revolution and gained the right to exist as a free Soviet republic or autonomous region. The program put into practice by the October Revolution on the fundamental national rights of the oppressed nations was the expression of an unprecedentedly profound democratic solution to the national question. All of the formerly subjugated peoples of Tsarist Russia, from the largest to the smallest minorities, had the right and opportunity to exist freely in their own national regions with their own language, culture, national color and administrative apparatus. The Bolsheviks not only liberated all these peoples nationally, but also followed a special policy based on positive discrimination to eliminate the actual inequalities from history. They generously mobilized the knowledge, experience, technique, constructive and constructive energy in all its forms and, of course, material resources of the more developed regions of the Soviet country for the peoples of the more backward regions. As the present heir of Tsarist Russia, Vladimir Putin admitted this historical fact in his last speech, when he complained that not only were some pieces of land belonging to the Great Russians left to these national republics, but also that important Russian resources were handed over in the most generous way.
-IV-
17- This program and line was one of the most powerful and deep-rooted steps of the October Revolution, the effects of which still continue today. Those who brutally liquidated the gains of socialism in all other areas of social life could not so easily touch the legacy in this area. For example, it is because of this that today's Russia still stands as a federal republic. There are twenty-one national republics within the Russian Federation, which consists of eighty-odd federal units, as well as many autonomous regions and units in various forms. This administrative structure is inherited from the Soviet Union in form. Today's Russia, which is deeply experiencing all the destructive and destructive problems of capitalism, owes a great deal to this fact that apart from the Chechen war in the '90s, it has not experienced any other ethnic problems that can be mentioned. Although nationalism is inevitably gaining strength, fraternal feelings and relations between different peoples are still an important difference of today's Russia.
18- The national problems that occurred between or within the republics that left after the collapse of the Soviet Union were almost entirely a product of the attack on the achievements of the October Revolution in this area. The Karabakh conflict and the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict that broke out right after the disintegration were the products of this. The conflicts that took place in Moldova at about the same time, and whose effects are still ongoing, were a result of this. This is also true of what happened in Ukraine after the fascist coup in 2014. Likewise, the way things turn into today's war. The suppression of the Russian language and the usurpation of the rights of the Russian minority in Donbas not only created an important problem area, but also provided the rationale for today's intervention in Russia.
19- Despite being a nation of Slavic origin, Ukraine, which has its own historical, cultural and linguistic differences, as Putin complained and condemned, for the first time in history, achieved real national freedom thanks to the October Revolution, as an expression of this, as a Soviet republic. has the right and opportunity to exist. Just like all the other ex-Soviet nations that now exist as separate states. Therefore, Putin, the present heir and representative of Tsarist Russia, is completely right in what he says, even if he speaks it with cold and cruel sarcasm. What he accuses of is the October Revolution and a great historical honor on the part of Lenin. (Although Ukraine owes its historical existence as a free nation and national state organization entirely to the Bolsheviks under the leadership of Lenin, those who still govern Ukraine, as if mocking this historical fact, may consider quoting Lenin's works in this country a reason for heavy imprisonment.)
20- Following the "Square" coup in 2014, the first action of the new Ukrainian administration, based on mafia oligarchs and paramilitary fascist groups, was to put an end to the status of Russian as the second official language and to oppress the Russian minority. This is how the present Donbas problem was created. The new fascist administration was not satisfied with this. In order to get rid of all the remnants of communism, he started to destroy everything that was the symbol of the Soviet people's resistance against fascism, especially the monuments, with fascist hatred and brutality. While all kinds of disrespect were made to the memory of Lenin, to whom Ukraine owes its national freedom, statues of Hitler collaborators who betrayed the socialist homeland during the Nazi occupation and were responsible for the deaths of millions of people were erected. Moreover, all this was done with the open support or tacit approval of the Western imperialists, who still keep their mouths on the so-called "liberal-democratic" values.
21- This is how the Western imperialists, the dirty and obscure oligarchs, the corrupt rulers and politicians, and finally the openly Nazi-fan paramilitary fascist groups, jointly prepared Ukraine for today's results. Of course, Putin is expressing an indisputable historical truth when he says with bitter irony that you owe your national freedom and your existence as an independent state today entirely to Lenin, whose statues you still demolished. Today, these two-sided enemies of Lenin and Soviet socialism, the heir of Tsarist Russia, Vladimir Putin, and today's representatives of the Tsarist Ukrainian ruling classes stand face to face on the stage of conflict. All the people of Ukraine, especially the workers and laborers, suffer.
22- When the process of restoration of capitalism took on open forms and thus the Soviet Union collapsed, the new representatives of the Great Russian bourgeoisie, who brutally trampled the legacy of the past, as Putin now solemnly mentions, that the slave nations of the Tsarist era separated and existed as separate states within the Soviet Union. they could not prevent their attempts to become Although not the only reason for this, the main reason was the digested effect of the October Revolution in this field and its gains that could not be easily discussed.
23- This peaceful disintegration over the borders prevailing in the period of socialism was also a major blow to the anti-communist discourse up to that time that the existence of the Soviet nations as republics was a hollow formality. In reality, all Soviet republics had their own borders, languages, cultures in national form, autonomous administrative structures, and their own state institutions shaped accordingly. It was in this way that when the socialism that united them was completely empty and things reached the stage of disintegration, they were able to declare their independence as a state and leave without any problems.
24- But to the extent that they, as bourgeois republics, experienced all the evils of capitalism in time, they would inevitably face the consequences of this in the field of bourgeois nationalism. The most reactionary and destructive forms of this have emerged in today's Ukraine, where mafia-based oligarchs in the service of Western imperialism and fascist paramilitary groups organized by them play horses. Hitler collaborator traitors were promoted to "national heroes". The democratic national rights of the Russian minority, inherited from the Soviet era, were trampled on in the most brutal form. It is not surprising that this aroused Great Russian nationalism against Ukraine in Russia. Likewise, it led to the annexation of Crimea.
25- The transfer of Crimea to Ukraine as an administrative relationship in 1954 had a meaning within the socialist law of the Soviet country. In the conditions when that law was ended and the October Revolution was rejected and liquidated with all its consequences, the old law would naturally be returned, and it would be easier for Great Russian nationalists to claim that Crimea belonged to them and, in Putin's words, to "return to the homeland". In the same way, where the old socialist law that united peoples in free and equal relations ended, the "Donbass sovereignty" of Ukraine would thus have lost all its historical, political and moral foundations. The same facts apply, for example, to the events in Georgia and its former autonomous Soviet territories.
26- Expressing these facts has nothing to do with justifying the imperialist intentions and attempts of Russia, which took Great Russian nationalism as its flag and declared the former Tsarist region its natural sphere of influence. To point out these facts is only to point out the historical pre-October Revolution and the post-Soviet class origins of the national problems emerging today in the former Soviet geography. What is happening are the inevitable consequences of the new path chosen, that oppressive and confrontational world of capitalism based on power and domination.
-V-
27- All the problems we have pointed out through the Ukraine crisis and war once again show the invaluable importance of the theoretical-political and practical legacy of the October Revolution. This legacy belongs to the working class and oppressed peoples of the world. Today's world of capitalist barbarism and the problems it reproduces increase the importance of this legacy and make it more relevant than ever before.
28- As soon as the October Revolution was victorious, three basic decrees were issued. These were the decrees of land, peace, and nations. With the first, serfdom, which was the greatest shame of Tsarist Russia, was put to an end forever. With the second, the imperialist war, which had been going on for more than three years, was coming out, the secret agreements belonging to the war arsonists were announced to all peoples, the war was stopped immediately, and for this, soldiers from all countries on all war fronts were called to fraternity. In the third, all enslaved nations of Tsarist Russia were offered the right and opportunity to freely determine their own destiny.
29- This last one is closely related to the current crisis. As Vladimir Putin, who gave the order to intervene in Ukraine, admitted just before the attack, all the nations that were in national slavery relations within the Tsarist system owed their national liberties and their existence as republics to the October Revolution itself, and especially to its leader, Lenin. The October Revolution destroyed the legacy of Tsarism, which imposed slavery on many nations and innumerable minority nationalities, in a short period of time measured in months.
30- However, today's so-called Ukraine-friendly imperialist England has not been able to fully resolve the Irish problem for nearly four hundred years. US imperialism has finally been able to elect a black president, but it still has not solved the problem of racism against blacks, which is hidden in its genetics. The Republic of Turkey, which has lived for the last seventy years as the outpost of the imperialist attack and war organization NATO, has been hosting a Kurdish problem for a century and has not been able to move forward in the direction of its solution. Likewise, the imperialist world not only watches the Palestinian problem, which has been a bleeding wound in the heart of the Middle East for seventy years, with empty eyes, but also generously gives all kinds of support to the Zionists in line with its gangrene. Spain still suffers from national problems rooted in history. And most importantly, the capitalist-imperialist world order is constantly producing new problems in the field of national relations, as in every field. The problems experienced with the return to capitalism in the former Soviet geography, and moreover, are a part of the reality of this same social order.
-VI-
31- The imperialist Western world is still acting with a disgusting hypocrisy and double standard in the face of the Ukraine crisis. Those who destroyed Iraq, Syria and Libya for their own imperialist calculations and interests, who caused the death, maiming or mass refugee situation of millions of people, today cynically blame Russia's intervention in Ukraine. Those who destroyed Serbia with the NATO war machine for the sake of the so-called national rights of one million Kosovars, those who burned down Belgrade, down to the broadcasting establishments, can blame Russia's operation against Ukraine with the greatest shame, citing the national rights of the millions of Donbas Russians. The same infamous hypocrisy can be exemplified by the full support for the destruction and massacres Zionist Israel is waging against the defenseless Palestinian people. Likewise, with the historical support given to the systematic oppression, terror and massacres carried out by Turkey, a NATO member for 70 years, against the Kurdish people.
32- Therefore, the accusations of the imperialist Western world against Vladimir Putin's aggression are devoid of any political-moral basis on their part. An example of hypocrisy is the expression of a double standard. It is the most shameless form of immorality and dishonesty to wrap this in the wrapping of "liberal-democratic values of the west". Liberals on the right or left, who likewise repeat this in Turkey, show nothing more than to show that they are an extension or even a feeder of imperialism by doing so.
33- The imperialists don't care about the pain that Ukraine is experiencing as much as the real interests of the Ukrainian people. As always, they are concerned with their own selfish, miserable and dirty imperialist plans and interests. As a matter of fact, they took the path of provoking a crisis, which they could have postponed until years later, with very special efforts, with the declaration that it is not on our agenda to include Ukraine in NATO, thus putting Russia in a deadlock and possibly dragging it into a quagmire. They are fueling a war that they could have stopped if they had made the same statement during the war that had begun, on the contrary, with the ever-growing arms aid to Ukraine and the steps to punish Russia. The risk of this exacerbating the war, leading Russia to an even more destructive war, leading to the burning down of Ukrainian cities and costing the lives of thousands, tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of innocent people, does not concern them in the slightest. The important thing for them is the sinking of Russia as an imperialist rival. Ukraine and its people have already been chosen as victims by them to achieve exactly this result.
34- It has been a clear fact since the 2014 “Square” coup that the Western imperialist fraudsters, who associate the dirty game on Ukraine with the “liberal-democratic values of the west”, are based on paramilitary fascist organizations in the same Ukraine. So much so that Western leaders can conclude their statements as heads of state or prime ministers by repeating the famous greeting of the Hitler collaborator Ukrainian traitors.
35- The Western imperialists have always and everywhere refrained from relying on such the most extreme reactionary forces and currents. In order to surround the Soviet Union, religious reactionary currents under the name of "green belt project", sharia leftovers from the Middle Ages in Afghanistan, fascist paramilitary gangs of Türkeş, who received special warfare training in Miami in the 1970s, Turkey, and recently Iraq and Syria. They also tried to rely on the most barbaric sharia movements such as ISIS, drug gangs with the UCK in Kosovo, and now neo-Nazis and Nazi collaborator Banderaci in Ukraine. This is neither coincidence nor surprising. Imperialism is not only the main source of all kinds of reaction in our age, but also its main supporter. As recorded through the TKIP Program, “Imperialism is a violent and reactionary tendency; It is the basis of all kinds of reaction in the contemporary world.” Beyond that, the dirty record of the "free world" in the post-World War II period is the most direct proof of this.
The imperialist parties must immediately withdraw their hands from Ukraine!
Our party is against all forms of imperialist and reactionary aggression and war. As a requirement of this principled view and position, it is also against the ongoing imperialist war in Ukraine and demands that it be stopped immediately.
As can be seen from the sum total of our assessment, this imperialist war actually has two main imperialist sides. One of the imperialist sides is actually in the war and is clearly visible to everyone. The other side of the war, which seems to be out of the war, but which is in reality with everything but sending its own soldiers, is the imperialist West camp under the leadership of US imperialism. Its attack and war organization is NATO.
Therefore, the demand to stop the war immediately must be addressed simultaneously to both imperialist focuses that are equally guilty and responsible. Any peace demand that does not observe this will remain incomplete and one-sided and will serve the Western imperialist camp as it is. As a matter of fact, this camp gives the signs that it is already tending to exploit the people's rightful desire for peace and to develop a guided and therefore an extension of its own policy.
On the other hand, as everyone knows very well, war is nothing but the continuation of politics by means of violence. Therefore, the demand to stop the war must be combined with the demand for immediate abandonment of whatever immediate current policies led to the war. This is by no means asking the imperialist centers to set aside their general imperialist intentions and calculations. This is against the nature of the thing. Aggression and war, within the framework of struggles for influence and expansionist plans, are the most basic characteristics of imperialism and its actual actions when necessary.
What needs to be done is to clearly and definitively condemn all parties on the most direct causes that led to today's actual war, and to appropriate the demands regarding this to the masses.
The US imperialism-led camp's policy to include Ukraine in NATO, a new link in Russia's stranglehold, should be condemned unequivocally. Because the provocative and aggressive imperialist attitude that still threatens world peace and makes Ukraine and its people a victim finds its expression in this policy.
On the other hand, Russia's reactionary and expansionist policy, which brought into question the right of the Ukrainian nation to exist as a separate state, right before the war and through the head of state, should be condemned with the same certainty. What the Ukrainian nation is and in what form it will continue to exist politically is a question entirely dependent on the will and preference of the Ukrainian nation. Whatever the situation in which the current puppet administration drags Ukraine, the right of the Ukrainian nation to exist as an independent state is inviolable.
A final point of fundamental importance is the direct responsibility of the reactionary-fascist Ukrainian leadership in the ongoing war. Ukrainian reaction must fully respect the rights of all national minorities in this country, as well as the right of Donbas to self-government.
The current anti-war struggle must be based on the definitive condemnation of these three reactionary policies and their appropriation to the masses.
The last congress of our party has stated clearly enough what we can say beyond this current approach to stop today's war, which may cause great destruction and suffering for Ukraine and its people:
“Capitalism produces wars and revolutions along with crises, this is the solid truth that the past historical period has clearly proven. Now, we are in a period of crises that are getting worse day by day and wars that show themselves on a regional scale. Massive problems accumulating and intensifying class antagonisms leave the soil more and more leavened for revolutions. In this case, thwarting the counter-revolutionary moves of bourgeois reaction to stifle the possibilities of the revolution and protecting humanity from the irreparable destruction of a new great imperialist war will depend on the extent to which the working class and the oppressed peoples can seize the possibilities of the coming new era of revolutions. (TKIP VI Congress Declaration, December 2018)
Capitalism means aggression and war!
Socialism for freedom and equality, for peace and fraternity!
Communist Workers’ Party of Turkey (TKIP)
February 27, 2022