This Saturday, the 25th, a virtual internationalist meeting was held, called by the Partido Obrero (Argentina), the Revolutionary Internationalist Tendency (TIR, of Italy), the New Left Current for Communist Liberation (NAR, of Greece) and the Socialist Workers Party (SEP, of Turkey), with the participation of the MLPD of Germany, UFCLP of the United States, OKDE of Greece, Red Initiative/Red Action (Serbia-Croatia), Red Dawn of Northern Macedonia, GAR of Mexico, Agrupación Vilcapaza of Peru, Fuerza 18 de Octubre of Chile, Comunistas of Cuba and Tribuna Classista of Brazil. In addition, the SWP of the United Kingdom and the Workers Party of France participated as observers.

This meeting was preceded by an appeal of the convening organizations, entitled “For a regroupment of internationalists against imperialist war”, addressing the new developments in the world situation, such as the fall of the Al-Assad regime in Syria and the triumph of Donald Trump in the United States.

Speeches

Opening the meeting, Guillermo Kane (leader of the Partido Obrero) argued that the Trump administration is an attempt to reverse the decline of US imperialism that will lead to an upsurge in inter-imperialist confrontations, war and attacks against the people of the US and the working class itself. Kane mentioned this second administration of the tycoon as part of a new wave of right-wing governments (Meloni, Milei, etc.) and called for them to be confronted from a position of class independence, rejecting the orientation of a popular front and political collaboration with a wing of the bourgeoisie. At the same time, it raised the need to move forward in a regrouping of internationalists, in the face of the desertion of a large part of the organizations that claim to be of the revolutionary left, but have supported NATO or Putin's Russia in the war in Ukraine and other recent conflicts. The proposals for a global anti-repression forum, a conference against imperialist war and two days of mobilization, one against the imperialist war in Ukraine on its third anniversary, and the other against the Trump administration's immigration raids and mass deportations, were made not only to debate an internationalist approach, but to advance with a pole of common action.

The outcome of the war in Syria once again showed the watershed that divides the global left . The same sectors that support the Ukrainian side in the name of a supposed struggle for national liberation against Russia are the ones that have hailed the fall of Al-Assad as a supposed popular victory, ignoring the fact that the process is being overseen by imperialism and Turkey. Meanwhile, other currents came out to defend the deposed Syrian regime, despite the fact that it has acted as an executioner of its people and the political representative of the local capitalist class for decades. The merit of the document mentioned at the beginning of this article is that it establishes a line of political independence, questioning the two blocks in dispute.

The speaker from the SEP in Turkey mentioned that the United States is still the main imperialist power, but its power is weakening. He considered, at the same time, that China is a second-order imperialist power and the BRICS are not an anti-imperialist alternative to the White House. He called for the rejection of imperialist attacks against Iran and Yemen, where a change of regime is sought as in Syria, but at the same time dismissed Islamism as an ally in the struggle. He also questioned Erdogan's “sub-imperialist expansionism” and called for an international anti-war movement. He argued that there is great confusion on the left today, especially in the West, which has not risen to the occasion, sharing positions with imperialism on the question of the war in Eastern Europe.

Alex Callinicos, of the British SWP, a section of the IST (International Socialist Tendency), argued that the immediate effect of Trump's assumption of power is the disorganization of Western imperialism, putting the traditional “liberal” imperialist bloc of the Biden administration in crisis. One example is the tycoon's attempt to annex Greenland, whose administrator, Denmark, is a NATO member. He argued that the priorities at the moment are the fight against the far right and the construction of a global movement of solidarity with Palestine.

Roberto Luzzi, from the Italian TIR, called for thinking about how to move forward with the initiatives that have been coordinated in recent months. In this sense, he stressed the importance of working towards a new international face-to-face meeting. He considered Palestine to be a very important issue, but also the war in Ukraine, where European imperialism is very involved. He called for the formation of a proletarian camp against all forms of campism.

Panos Xoplidis, from the NAR in Greece, argued that we are facing a new period of wars, as shown by the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, and the genocide in Gaza, which are miniatures of a world war. He said that the stage is characterized by a retreat of the United States from China, which is a factor of global instability, and argued that the US strategy is to advance against Russia and China. He also expressed his support for the Palestinian resistance and reported on the activity of the NAR in the solidarity movement in Greece.

Jan from the MLPD of Germany (Marxist-Leninist Party) expressed his solidarity with all those affected by state repression. He argued that united actions with democratic bourgeois forces cannot be ruled out to prevent a fascist dictatorship. In this regard, he argued that many people in Germany are under the influence of these organizations; that on the 25th there were marches against the AfD (the neo-Nazi force) and the MLPD had participated in them, with a socialist perspective.

With regards to China, he considered that it is an imperialist country, perhaps not as strong as the United States, but that the central confrontation is between the two. He reported that the MLPD is part of a very broad anti-imperialist united front against fascism and war, which is not limited to one ideological current, and is preparing a meeting for September. In February, he added, there will be actions in Germany against the war in Ukraine in anticipation that the next elected government will probably maintain the pre-existing agreements to finance Zelensky's side and NATO.

Frank García Hernández of Comunistas from Cuba proposed adding to the document the effect of the new Trump administration as a threat against Cuba. On the other hand, he also proposed incorporating the defense of the LGBTI community as a sector that, together with immigrants, is the object of attacks by Trump and Milei.

Diego Hernández, from GAR in Mexico, referred to the question of the popular front, pointing out that it is a mistake to think that a reformist party or government will mechanically lead to a fascist government, and that revolutionaries have to pay attention to the way in which the working class appreciates these movements, developing educational work to show their limits.

Steve Zelter, of UFCLP (United Front for a Labor Party Committee) in the United States, considered - because of Trump - that there is a rise of a fascist government that is the result of a crisis of Yankee imperialism, which must change its form of organization and becomes more adventurous. Attacks on migrants and the working class will escalate, he said, and that is why a united front is necessary. He warned of the possibility of martial law, or a self-inflicted coup, which would raise the need for self-defense committees and united international actions against fascism. And that the working class must lead that struggle.

Dominique Ferré, of the French Workers' Party and CORCI, characterized that there is a single global imperialist war, which includes the processes of Ukraine, Africa, etc., and that in the imperialist countries it is the duty of the workers to fight against their governments. This policy, however, is opposed to that of the main left-wing parties in Western Europe with regard to Ukraine, since most of their leaders have voted for war budgets in parliament, while the Russian Communist Party in Moscow supported Putin's war economy. The struggle for a workers' international is contradictory, he said, with support for the governments of war. He argued that China is not yet a capitalist or imperialist country, as 80% of its economy is based on the state economy. Defending the Chinese working class means rejecting Trump's imperialist threats, he added.

Pietro Basso, leader of the Italian TIR, emphasized, among other concepts, that Trump's return to power and his bellicose project of “Make America Great Again” occur in a context not of flourishing but of decadence of Yankee imperialism, which configures one of its limits. At the same time, he warned that in Europe the experiences of following the “democratic” bourgeoisie, in the name of the fight against fascism, had negative results for the workers.

Comrades from Chile and Peru also took the floor, making contributions on the repressive and anti-popular nature of the governments of Gabriel Boric and Dina Boluarte, respectively. For his part, a comrade from OKDE in Greece stressed in his speech the importance of understanding imperialism as an international system, and not as a mere sum of attributes that would distinguish a particular nation.

Closing and resolutions

To close the day, Pablo Heller (national leader of the PO-Argentina) welcomed the debate and at the same time valued the coincidences reached. “There is a common point of view - which the document brings out - and that is that we are not facing a sum of local conflicts but that each of them is a link in a trend towards a world war,” he said.

He insisted that Trump's assumption of power implies a reinforcement of the period of wars and the document has the merit of marking a line of class independence from the processes in Ukraine and Syria.
With regard to the fight against the far right, he differentiated between what could be a convergence in the streets with reformist sectors and a political front with sectors of the bourgeoisie, which would end up alienating the working class and favoring the right wing itself.

He also emphasized that the difference in analysis of social and economic development in Russia and China should not obscure an important common political position of those present in the debate, that is to say, total opposition to NATO and the USA, while rejecting alignment with Russia, China and the BRICS under the lie of wanting to present these oppressive regimes as a “progressive” or “anti-imperialist” camp.

In relation to resolutions, an international day against imperialist war was agreed for the week of February 24 (the new anniversary of the start of the war in Ukraine) and an international forum against the repression and persecution of activists and the left, tentatively in April. In the case of Argentina, this advance can be seen in the legal cases against Polo Obrero, the congresswoman Vanina Biasi and the Partido Obrero activist César Arakaki - convicted for participating in a demonstration against the pension reform in 2017. The organization of an international day of action (on February 7 and 8) in solidarity with migrants in the face of Trump's attacks, an initiative that started with the United States UFCLP, was also approved. It was also agreed to introduce some amendments to the document presented for consideration at the meeting, following the suggestions of the invited organizations.

Finally, it was decided to move, in the course of 2025, towards an in person conference of internationalist anti-war organizations (in May or June) to be held in Europe.

Reunión internacionalista lanza conferencia contra la guerra imperialista en Europa y un plan de acción

Se realizó en forma online, con referentes de 17 países -

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