Communist Party of India (Maoist)
Dear comrades, Red Salutes! At the beginning, we the CC, CPI (Maoist) convey warmest revolutionary greetings to the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) that organised and the participants of ‘International Theoretical Conference on Imperialism and War’ on 14-15 October 2023 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The seminar is being held at the time of looming danger of World War III. We hope the seminar will help for a common understanding on the developments in world imperialist system and the tasks of the vanguard proletarian revolutionary parties. We are unable to attend the seminar personally due to obvious reasons caused by the state. Therefore, we are sending this paper. We hope the participants will discuss it and let us know their opinions. Revolutionary Greetings, Central Committee, Communist Party of India (Maoist)
‘Imperialism is war’ said the great Marxist teacher Comrade Lenin.
He also gave us the understanding to ‘Convert the imperialist war into a civil war’.
What is the imperialist war for? It is not alone the mathematics of politics between the imperialist powers. It is the blind and ferocious need of capital to expand that compels the imperialists to knock down by fire and sword all barriers that come in the way of its expansion. Imperialists resort to war not only to seize territories and markets and to plunder the wealth, but also to rouse national chauvinism in the toiling masses and to deviate their attention from the acute economic and political crisis internally and to exterminate the vanguard of the revolutionary movement.
The law of uneven development of capitalism in the era of imperialism shows how the relative strengths among the various imperialist powers vary continuously. It is this uneven development that had given rise to the two World Wars.
Lenin showed the inseparable connection between imperialist war and revolution. He said, “The so-called Great Powers have long been exploiting and enslaving a whole number of small and weak nations. And the imperialist war is a war for the division and redivision of this kind of booty”. He also said that ‘imperialism is the eve of social revolution of the proletariat’. He showed that the advent of imperialism had sharpened all the contradictions in the world, namely, the contradiction between rival imperialist groups, between the imperialists and the oppressed nations and between the
proletariat and the bourgeoisie in the imperialist countries, and that this will give rise to war and revolutions.
The world is now facing the danger of World War III. This is the time when the proletariat of the world needs to become stronger and united. We, the proletarian revolutionary parties of the world need to reach a common understanding about the prevailing situation. We need to take up joint program in the direction of accomplishing World Socialist Revolution.
Since history began, war had been an instrument in the hands of the strong, to conquer relatively weak clans, communities or countries. The strong ones could expand their territories out of wars. The weak countries were either merged or made colonies of the strong. Similarly, as we know, the United States of America (USA) is made out of massacres of hundreds of indigenous tribes. While Britain became the largest empire, France, Spain and Portuguese also tried to seize few parts of the globe. During the 19th and the 20th centuries imperialist conquest speeded up all over the world. By 1913, almost all of Africa was colonized by European powers. The then imperial Russia annexed its neighboring nationalities and became the largest country of the world. Asia too was largely under foreign domination. The United States originally along the Atlantic coast of North America, expanded across the continent up to the Pacific making wars against Mexico and the Indian nations. It later colonized countries such as Hawaii, the Philippines, Cuba, Puerto Rico.
However, things were different by early twentieth century. Marxist, democratic and nationality consciousness started emerging. Nationalities started to demand self-determination and independence. Socialist movement was on the rise. It provided the understanding that imperialism is anti-people and needs to be fought against. In the situation, world witnessed the first worldwide war.
World War I took place between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey said to be central powers on one side and France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy and Japan said to be allies on the other. Russia and most countries of Europe, the United States, the Middle East and other regions were engaged in the war. The war took maximum number of lives in the history of humankind. Nearly one crore people died during the war. 18 lakhs died in Germany, 17 in Russia, 14 in France, 13 in Austria- Hungary, 740,000 in Britain and 615,000 in Italy. France lost one in five males of fighting age and Germany lost one in eight. Over 2 crore 30 lakh shells were fired during the battle of Verdun that went on for five months. 20 lakh soldiers took part in this battle that left half of them dead. 10 lakhs died in the battle of Somme that went on for four months. Twenty thousand British soldiers died on the very first day of the battle. The combined forces of Great Britain, France, Italy and the USA had defeated the armies of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey. The then imperialist powers Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary and Turkey suffered a terrible blow in the war. On the other hand, US, Britain and France gained strength.
As various imperialist forces weakened as a result of World War I, intense revolutionary crisis came forth all over the world. This was efficiently utilised only by the Bolshevik Party in the leadership of the great Marxist teacher Comrade Lenin in Russia that came to power. The proletariat of other countries failed to seize power due to the betrayal of Social Democrats and the Second International.
As Lenin said, “The war of 1914-18 was imperialist (that is, an annexationist, predatory, war of plunder) on the part of both sides; it was a war for the division of the world, for the partition and repartition of colonies and spheres of influence of finance capital. The changes in balance of forces led to another world war” (in ‘Imperialism, The Highest stage of Capitalism’).
Few months after World War I took place, the Treaty of Versailles was made on 28th June 1918 that brought the war to an end only formally. In fact, it was a controversial agreement between the warring factions. The agreement made Germany the main cause of war and imposed a large amount of compensation. This apart, nearly one-eighth area and one-tenth population of Germany was taken over. It was forbidden to unite with Austria. It was to be demilitarized, all its colonies to be handed
over to the allies. The treaty gave way to Hitler to rouse German national chauvinism that helped to make war. As Lenin assessed, the two sides of the war were not satiate with the partition and repartition of colonies and other areas. Inequality in development always existed in history.
Collusion is temporary and contention is permanent among the imperialist forces. And so is peace. Peace is a superficial claim of the nations that consciously violate it in its interests. This proved itself in the subsequent developments. There were once again changes in the balance of forces. Germany became a powerful imperialist force in a short time after war. Britain and France strengthened and became allies of US imperialism. World War broke for the second time. This time the war was between Axis powers Germany, Italy and Japan and the allies France, Great Britain and the United States. Meanwhile Germany, Italy and Japan rose to become fascist. In World War II, Russia lost 2 crore and 70 lakhs of its people. hundreds of towns and thousands of villages vanished in the war. Germany lost 53 lakhs, China 75 lakhs of people. France lost 6 lakhs, Yugoslavia 17 lakhs and Poland lost 60 lakhs. The total number of deaths near 5 crores making it the largest war involving maximum bloodshed. This apart, there was large scale environmental destruction. The effect of nuclear bombs was catastrophic to the people for generations to come.
The Third International and the CPSU(B) in the leadership of the great Marxist teacher Comrade Stalin took up the task to utterly defeat fascism with proper strategy and tactics. It united with friendly forces and adopted the tactics of United Front, protected the proletarian base and defeated fascism. Red Army liberated the East European countries. Nationality liberation struggles gained momentum. Except for the US, the rest of the imperialist countries became very weak. The Communist Party of China (CPC) in the leadership of the great Marxist teacher Mao properly utilised the crisis conditions and seized state power in 1949. Socialist camp was established. Given the already prepared ground of uneven development through uneven treaties, after the war, America gradually attained hegemony and came to be the superpower.
By the time, due to rising people’s movements, the imperialists could no longer continue their colonies like the earlier. Then they took to neo-colonialism. Neo-colonialism became the trend of the imperialist forces supported by their lackey comprador classes of the backward semi-colonial, semi- feudal countries since post World War II. Neo-colonialism was such a weapon through which the imperialists could not only economically exploit and control the backward semi-colonial, semi-feudal countries but also establish their own influence, exploitation and control over military policies through various means, such as, military ‘aid and co-operation’, employment of ‘advisers’ and so on. They also strengthen their positions day by day through various kinds of military pacts. The military aid would help suppress the revolutionary movements and national liberation struggles in those countries. The oppressed countries continued to be exploited by the imperialist forces in new methods. In the 1950s, Russia turned capitalist and gradually to an imperialist country. It gained strength such as to contend with the US. There was a division of the countries of the world between these two superpowers. Cold war came into existence. While Russia made war of aggression in Eastern Europe and Afghanistan, the United States made in Latin America and Vietnam. When the cold war ended after a few years, imperialism also started to decline. Russia collapsed as a superpower. US started to become strategically weak since mid-1970s and lost the status of superpower by the beginning of second decade of 21st century.
After the demise of Comrade Stalin in 1953, revisionism seized power in Soviet Union and East Europe and restored capitalism. China that took the place of Soviet Union became revisionist in the leadership of Deng Tsiao-ping after the demise of Comrade Mao Tse-tung in 1976. By 1978, capitalist transformation began in China that gradually strengthened. With the loss of all the socialist bases, the revolutionary forces have suffered serious setback from the late 1970s. Imperialists in spite of being armed to the teeth, were neck deep in crisis on all fronts. But on the other hand, the subjective forces of revolution were too weak to utilise the situation to launch an offensive against imperialism.
When we say imperialism has further weakened, we must keep in mind that it is mainly from the point of view of strategy. Tactically, although imperialism might have suffered some reverses here and there, it is still strong and powerful.
Due to the following developments, there were changes in the balance of forces between US super power and the various imperialist forces – the heroic struggles of oppressed nationalities and people in Asia, Africa and Latin America; the huge military expenditure that pushed US economy to stagnation in its bid to hold colonies, neo-colonies and areas of influence; Considerable technical knowledge and capacity of production developed in big imperialist countries such as Germany and Japan, those overcame the Octopus hands of US imperialism and emerged as its strong contenders in the world market; Soviet super power that stood as a strong fort of reaction for nearly three decades suppressing nationality liberation struggles in the Third World and in the country, collapsed by 1990; the gradual decreasing share of US in almost all spheres of world market and its economic weakness; the weakening of hegemony of US super power on the other imperialist countries; the internal collusion-contention between imperialists; fascism became the main trend all over the world; the imperialist wars of aggression that took place in the leadership of US for control on world market and resources.
Globalisation
The severe crisis in the world capitalist system since mid-1970s led international capital to re- structure the world economy and to seek unproductive and speculative spheres of capital investment. This was said to be Globalisation. Three factors led to Globalisation policies in early 1990s. They were – the need to relocate production to cheap wage areas by the giant TNCs and MNCs thereby also leading to the reduction of the wages in the capitalist countries; The need to shift imperialist short- term speculative capital freely from one corner of the globe to another in search of maximum returns in the shortest possible time; and the need to ensure re-payment of the debts incurred by the oppressed countries to the transnational banks and the imperialist governments, required that a world without borders be created for the free flow of capital, goods, services and labour across all countries without any restrictions whatsoever on the part of the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America. This is the meaning of globalisation, liberalisation and privatisation. And it is in order to achieve this objective that structural adjustment programmes were brought forth and began to be imposed on many countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America after the mid-1980s and even more countries during the 1990s. At the same time, the imperialist countries resort to protectionism through tariffs on the commodities from the Third World countries along with massive subsidies to their own products thus exposing their double standards.
The dream of unipolar world with which America as a gangster had come forward the world over started becoming a daydream as a result of inter-imperialist contradictions. The economic and financial crisis that began with the bankruptcy of some major financial institutions in the US in 2008, rapidly expanded to other countries of EU, to Russia and Japan. In fact, this crisis turned crisis in the world capitalist imperialist system and with every passing day this crisis is deepening. However, to overcome this crisis, all the capitalist-imperialist governments have spent and are spending billions of dollars on ‘bail-out’ packages to protect their bankrupt big banks and big corporations.
By 2017, general crisis of capitalism took the form of stagflation. The weakening of America that started since the home loan crisis of 2008 furthered. It is also crystal clear from its long-drawn wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that the heavy war expenditure incurred by the US has turned out to be one of the main reasons for its deepening economic crisis.
Inter-imperialist rivalry intensified with the attempts of the US to expand NATO. America brought a few of the East European countries and a few of the old Soviet Republic into the NATO alliance since 2010 that put Russia in apprehension. Anyhow Russia improved its economic system to an extent and got down to severe conflict with America for its international economic and political
interests. As a part of it, it got down to war with Ukraine in the guise of Referendum against the American proxy government and turned Crimea to its side. In addition, Russia is making military preparations against America and the NATO alliance together with China in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the BRICS alliance. The meeting of BRICS in 2023 September in Johannesburg of South Africa included 6 countries with over a dozen countries becoming closer to the alliance.
Intensifying fundamental contradictions
The sharpening fundamental contradictions at the international level are – 1. The contradiction between imperialism and oppressed nationalities and people 2. The contradiction between bourgeoisie and proletariat in capitalist, imperialist countries 3. The contradictions among imperialist countries and among monopoly capitalist groups. The contradiction between imperialism and oppressed nationalities and people is the main contradiction. Since no country existed as a Socialist base, the contradiction between socialist camp and imperialist camp is temporarily extinct. The struggle between socialism and capitalism continues all through the era of imperialism and proletarian revolutions. Today it is mainly expressed as the struggle between two contending classes in ideological, political and cultural spheres – the proletariat that represents socialist forces and the bourgeoisie that represents capitalism.
The first two contradictions can be seen clearly. Since the world economic crisis in 2008, people’s struggles against imperialism all over the world and against imperialist comprador ruling classes in the respective countries intensified. The lives of the working class, peasantry, middle class and small capitalists shrunk all over the world. The small and medium kind capitalists are forced to sell off their industries to the comprador bureaucratic capitalists and Multi-National corporates companies or to restructure. On the other hand, Multi-National Corporations are eating away small industries. Acquisition and takeover of small corporate companies by big corporate companies is rising all over the world. With this, there is a rise in concentration and accumulation of capital with the giant corporate companies. Wealth is being accumulated in an unprecedentedly large scale for a handful of MNCs and TNCs in all sectors. Contention further increased among these corporations to loot natural wealth, cheap labour force and markets, for their areas of influence and to sustain their hegemony on those.
People of Latin American countries are on one hand making street fights against imperialist globalisation and on the other are electing candidates of left parties. We see such candidates being elected Presidents in Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Columbia, Honduras and Brazil in mid-October 2022. In fact, these left parties are fundamentally in the interests of imperialists, comprador bureaucratic capitalist and feudal classes. These countries mainly unleash policies in favour of Russian and Chinese imperialists. These countries nationalise the investments of MNCs and TNCs of the US and West European countries in the name of nationalisation policies, or else do not permit the investments of those companies in their countries. To an extent, those serve the interests of national capitalists, workers and middle classes.
With the rise in exploitation and oppression of the imperialists and comprador bureaucratic capitalists, presently all countries such as Tunisia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Ghana, Egypt, Panama, Ecuador, El Salvador, Argentina, Afghanistan, Nepal, Pakistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Philippines, Turkey, Peru and such other countries are caught in the web of high prices, inflation, poverty, unemployment and burden of loans. Outdated semi-feudal exploitation is seen in all these countries. These are making the people’s lives miserable and they are making struggles against imperialism and its compradors, the comprador bureaucratic capitalists and landlords.
The intensity of the world imperialist crisis had sharpened all the fundamental contradictions in the world and had brought the people – the oppressed people and nations as well as the proletariat in the imperialist countries into battles with the reactionary ruling classes. Through their sheer heroism and steadfastness by their refusal to bow to the predatory wishes of the imperialists, the world people
had demonstrated that they can prevent a world war. Despite the serious setbacks suffered by the world proletariat, the oppressed people and nations through their ruthless struggles for national liberation, New Democracy and Socialism, through their uncompromising battles against the imperialist policies of subjugations, subversion, interference and bullying, have thwarted a third World War.
The intensifying contradictions among imperialist countries
Contradictions among the imperialists are intensifying in its bid to solve the crisis by all means, to exploit the natural resources, to loot cheap labour force and to take over markets of the backward countries and for areas of influence. Collaboration and contention continued in the implementation of imperialist globalisation. Currently, contention for re-division of the world intensified between the imperialist countries and those countries are forming war alliances and intensifying preparations for war.
When imperialists cannot achieve their aims through peaceful means such as trade wars, currency wars, subsidy wars etc, and when all forms of peaceful conflict run out of steam, then these imperialists will inexorably resort to the means of war. War is the most active form of violence and will be taken up when all other forms have been exhausted. We must keep in mind the famous dictum of Comrade Lenin that war is a continuation of politics by other means.
Since Joe Biden came to power in 2020 November, he intensified attempts to regain the status of super power and to give a blow to its contending imperialist countries China and Russia. After World War II, US established 750 military bases in above 80 countries all over the world. The Pentagon had been given the power to indulge in wars without the congressional approval or even informing it. US’s military budget is presently nearly 1400 billion dollars and Pentagon does not normally account audits. Indo-Pacific Command was formed during the tenure of Trump in 2017 to fight China. Military alliance QUAD (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue) formed in 2007 including US, Japan, Australia and India was activated since 2017. The first summit of QUAD countries took place in 2021 March. Since then it had been actively working against China. Another military alliance AUKUS (Australia, United Kingdom and US) was formed in 2021 September 15th to face Russia and China. After stepping out of Afghanistan, another military alliance named QUAD-2 or West Asian alliance was formed comprising of US, Israel, UAE and India on 18th October 2021 to stop and contain the increasing influence of China, Russia, Turkey and Iran in West Asia. Although the US formed West Asia alliance, as a part of enhancing its influence in the area, China mediated a diplomatic agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran. This shows the rising influence of China in this area.
Russian imperialism overcame its economic weaknesses, increased its already existing military strength and started contending with the US for re-division of the world as a strong force. In the process, it is exporting oil, natural gas and wheat to West European countries including East European countries and could sustain those as its commercial partners. This affected the economic and strategic interests of the US in Europe. At the same time China rose as a social-imperialist country and became a contender to the US in all sectors. In this situation, the US withdrew ‘war on terrorism’ in view of its economic, military, geo-political importance and decided to contend and if necessary, to make war with China and Russia since the end of 2020. We have to understand the Ukraine-Russia war and the tensions between China and US regarding Taiwan as a part of this.
In order to enclose Russia, US started to expand NATO into East European countries and as a part of it into Ukraine by 2010 itself. Finland and Sweden joined NATO in 2022 March through which it could go one step forward in surrounding Russia in the Baltic sea. Both US and Russia were trying to establish its puppet government in Ukraine. The puppet of US and NATO Zelensky elected as the President of Ukraine in 2019 held consultations with both European Union and US for membership in EU and NATO. Russia made a defence agreement with China on 4th February 2022 stating that their
security is affected due to the policies of US-NATO in utilising Ukraine as a bait. Russia initiated its war of aggression on Ukraine on 24th February 2022 after this agreement.
The war is going on for the past 19 months and reached to a dangerous level. Lakhs of soldiers on both sides and people of Ukraine died or suffered injuries in this war. Lack of coordination caused heavy losses to Russian army and it could not achieve progress in war. On the other hand, Russia is facing resistance from its people especially the families of deceased soldiers. Ukraine started counter- offensive war in 2022 August with the partnership of military advisers along with tonnes of modern arms, war material, training and intelligence provided by all the NATO countries including US so as to seize the land that Russia occupied in east and south Ukraine. Russia mobilised forces in full level to suppress the counter-offensive of Ukraine and intensified attacks. It utilised combat drones for attacks and information. Thus, war intensified in east Ukraine and there was stagnation in war all through winter for almost 6 months. War is once again intensifying with the onset of summer.
Taiwan is producing 60 percent of semi-conductors (computer chips) of the world with the support of investments of US mega IT Companies, supply of raw material and market support from US. Taiwan is until now in the control of US. China’s control on it causes heavy loss to US economy. Therefore, US is trying to separate Taiwan from China and make its ally, to contain and encircle China that is developing in all sectors in the world and became a strong contender to it and to make Taiwan a part of its Asia-Pacific, geo-political strategy. It is going to provide defence material worth 100 crore dollars or military training per annum with the authority provided in National Defence Authority Act- 2023. China expressed severe protest to the Act. On the other hand, instead of paying importance to solve unitarization of Taiwan in a peaceful and harmonious manner, China is making military preparations.
Indo-Pacific area is prospective for manufacturing, growth of trade and commerce and has abundant new material including natural resources, labour force, especially skilled and semi-skilled. The area is utmost vital in view of economy, population and geo-political strategic importance. Therefore, it became another important centre for contention of imperialists for world hegemony including East Europe. US is playing a significant role in raising tensions in the region by agreeing to supply Australia with nuclear powered submarines as part of its Australia-United Kingdom-United States (AUKUS) security pact. Its intention is to contain the activities of China. South China Sea is yet another place of contention between the US and China. The archipelago is rich in a variety of flora, fauna and minerals. While in fact the islands come under the territorial purview of the Philippines, the US wants to control these through its control on the Philippines.
The danger of World War III
After all kinds of attempts of all countries for the past 15 years to solve the world economic crisis went vain, now the imperialist countries are contending for re-division of world. They are making large scale preparations for war. Militarisation and war have always been profitable enterprises for monopoly capitalists to derive enormous profits from militarisation and the sale of armaments acts as another important factor instigating war. Particularly during times of acute economic crisis, this is seen as a way out.
The preparations for war include heavy rise in defence and war related science-research budgets in all imperialist countries. US allotted 858 billion dollars in 2023. US is in the first place in international arms trade with a share of 37 percent. In the background of Ukraine, China rose its defence budget by 7.1 percent. The defence expenditure of China currently rose to 225 billion dollars. According to statistics of SIPRI, China is the 5th biggest arms exporter after US, Russia, France and Germany. Russia had a defence budget of 60.6 US billion dollars in 2020, Britain 61.5, Germany 51.3, France 55 and Japan 49.7. Apart from the imperialist countries, backward countries such as India, Saudi Arabia, Iran, South Korea and Brazil heavily increased its defence budget and are enhancing its military strength and abilities with ultra-modern technology and arms. Imperialist countries are making
different kinds of war manoeuvres of conventional war and anti-insurgency every year together with its allies.
The military forces of 30 European countries in NATO in the leadership of US are four times larger than the Russian military forces. US is in the first place in military force followed by Russia and China. Modernisation of armies of imperialist countries reached its zenith in these preparations. Imperialist armies are concentrating more on cyber sector. These armies are efficiently integrating defensive and offensive cyber operations including cyber intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, kinetic strike efficiency and developing modern war management systems. US joint war fighting concept, Britain new integrated operating concept came forth. The data flow of cyber space relayed by satellites combines Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance (C4ISR) and US is taking information warfare to new heights.
90 percent of nuclear arms in the world are centralised in US and Russia. These arms can destruct the world several times. According to a report of SIPRI, US has 5,428, Russia 5,977, China 350, Britain and France 500 nuclear arms by 2022. US had been trying to develop an utmost dangerous nuclear arms system namely Conventional Prompt Global Strike (CPGS) for the past one decade. Russia and China also are developing this kind of arms systems. This brought forth an utmost dangerous situation in the world.
Human and Environmental destruction
The crisis of world capitalism has not only increased the danger of world war but also of local wars. Since 1945 until 1990, at least 125 local and civil wars and armed conflicts have taken place in the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America leading to 40 million deaths and many more maimed and grievously injured. According to the investigative report released by a team of activists in Boston in the US namely, ‘Mapping US imperialism’, the number of people died due to imperialist loot is like this – Afghanistan – 1,76,000, Bosnia – 30,000, Cambodia – 30 lakhs, Chad – 4,000, Chile – 10,000, Columbia – 60,000. Congo – 1 lakh Croatia – 15,000, Cuba – 1800, Dominican Republic – 3,000, East Timur – 2 lakh, El Salvador – 75,000, Greece – 50,000, Grenada – 277, Guatemala – 2 lakhs, Haiti – 1 lakh, Honduras – 100, Indonesia – 5 to 30 lakhs, Iran – 2.62 lakhs, Iraq – 24 lakhs, Japan – 31 lakh, Kosovo – 5,000, Laos – 50,000, Libya – 2,500, Nicaragua – 30,000, Palestine – 2 lakhs, Panama – 4,000, Philippines – 1 lakh, Puerto Rica – 4,645 to 8,000, Somalia – at least 2,000, Sudan – 20 lakhs, Vietnam – 30 lakhs, Yemen – 3.77 lakhs, Syria – 3.5 lakhs, Yugoslavia – 1.7 lakhs. The report also mentions that these figures are only near to the facts, since the US never reveals the exact number of deaths in the wars it makes. Along with the total number of casualties, if we take into account the total number of troops involved in these 125 wars, the quantity of weapons used, the destruction of property, the ruination of economies, and the total expenditure involved, it far surpasses the figures of the Second World War. The Superpowers were involved, either directly or indirectly, in most of these wars in the backward countries both to undermine the influence of each other’s adversary as well as to increase their weapon sales. Some of these countries which aspire to be regional powers are also stockpiling chemical and biological weapons along with an enormous arsenal of conventional weapons and are preparing for local wars.
War destructs life of not only human beings, but also the flora and fauna that give life for the humankind. With its greed for oil, imperialist loot is reaching up to a depth of 6000 meters beneath the sea. According to an estimate, there are 11 billion barrels of oil and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the South China Sea. While the people of the islands in the area are already under the effect of the existing tensions between US and China for control over the Sea, the rising tensions make these islands further prone to devastation.
Climate change is being widely discussed but without a proper way to control and implement it. There are floods and wild fires in almost all parts of the world in the recent period causing thousands of deaths. Colombia, Libya, Florida are some of the recent examples. Experts say that there would be
a billion climate refugees in the world by 2050. Another deadly effect of imperialist artificial management of organisms is the pandemics. While the world got used to COVID, the world is now witnessing new viruses like the Nipah. Biolab releases are also causing these pandemics. Ecological balance is affected to such an extent that the parasitic organisms that normally find place in animal species are entering the human bodies. There was a recent incident in which such a parasite was found in a woman’s brain in China. Scientists say that there are 17 lakh unknown viruses in the animals. Eight and a half lakhs of these have the potential to be transferred to human beings.
These apart, nuclear war is a deadly danger that would vanish human life on the earth. A total
nuclear war between US and Russia shall cause the death of more than half of earth’s population.
The present war situation
The present Russia-Ukraine war is the result of intense conflict of US with its contending imperialist countries Russia and China in its economic and political interests for world hegemony. US lost its status of super power and ‘multipolar world’ came into existence and so, China started to challenge it. China and Russia are contending to consolidate the multi-polar world in the name of multilateralism. This is a proxy war between NATO countries in the leadership of US and Russia. NATO forces are participating on behalf of Ukraine directly and indirectly. The mercenary armies of both sides are also participating in this war. So, it is also a Regional war.
The war made by Ukraine army in the name of resisting Russian aggression is in fact made by NATO countries in the leadership of US. US is conspiring to prolong the war. It is disallowing Ukraine for peace talks and making all sorts of attempts to see that war lasts long. US-NATO openly declared its ill intention to suffocate Russia in war, cripple down its economic, military strength and efficiencies and see that it does not contend with it. The blast of Nord Stream Gas pipe line in 2022 September by US intelligence organisations as per the instructions of Biden is a part of this scheme. On completion of one year of Ukraine war, Biden went to Ukraine in the end of 2023 February and instigated it by declaring a heavy military package.
On the other hand, Russia is continuing the war with the objective to gain total hegemony on Black Sea, on the oil resources of Crimea and mineral wealth in Donbass. US-NATO adopted a dangerous strategy to close doors for peace talks and prolong the war. This is rising tensions between the two sides. These might lead to World War III at any time. On the other hand, tensions are rising between China and US on Taiwan issue and might lead to war between the two countries. This apart, US imposed economic sanctions on 26 countries. The militarisation of the US economy can be seen in the various wars it had unleashed all over the world, the hundreds of military bases it had established worldwide and the massive arms sales to the backward countries. It maintains more than 750 military bases in 80 countries and sends forces to above 100 countries across the world. It recently held mock beach landings and air assault manoeuvres in Rizal, a small town in western Palawan province in the Philippines engaging 1,760 Australian and Filipino soldiers and 120 US Marines. This is close to the South China Sea. In this situation, it might start as a regional war and turn into World War. Thus, the danger of World War III is rising.
Proving the assessment of Comrade Lenin about revolution in phases, the intensifying national liberation, democratic and revolutionary movements in the backward countries, working class struggles in capitalist-imperialist countries and environment protection movements all over the world for the past three years might transform into a new spate of revolution in the world. These people’s struggles and revolutions might contain the danger of World War III. Or else, if the people’s struggles and the spate of revolution do not gain the strength to the extent of containing the danger, WW III might begin and revolutions might arise. However, as the great Marxist teacher Mao said in 1970s, ‘World War might come and revolutions might arise, spate of revolution might contain World War. Revolution is the main trend in the current time’. This situation once again came forth now.
Today an excellent revolutionary situation exists world-wide, and as a result of the further deepening of the General Crisis of capitalism, all the fundamental contradictions in the contemporary world are sharpening day-by-day and imperialism has become further weakened. The monster of imperialism, even by combining all its forces, is finding it impossible to check the growing tide of people’s struggles all over the world. Masses are displaying their wrath against wars of aggression and bullying by imperialism, particularly US imperialism; against imperialist oppression of nations and people, against imperialist globalization and the neo-liberal policies, and against fascist measures and suppression.
The tasks of proletarian revolutionaries
Maoist forces must work as nucleus in the direction to provide leadership to unitedly fight against the danger of imperialist World War III and defeat it. Therefore, the immediate task of the revolutionary communist forces of the world is to form a forum of struggle together with all the anti- imperialist forces, i.e., revolutionary communist forces, nationality liberation movements, genuine anti-war and anti-globalisation forces. As Lenin said, “Modern monopolist capitalism on a world-wide scale — imperialist wars are absolutely inevitable under such an economic system, as long as private property in the means of production exists”. Basing on the understanding to “convert the imperialist war into a civil war” the world proletariat and its vanguard Communist Parties must fight against the danger of World War III basing on the following program –
- Both sides of Ukraine-Russia war must unconditionally stop war. They must solve the problems that arose between them according to the regulations of United Nations Organisation.
- US must immediately stop the expansion of NATO alliance. It must also dissolve NATO, QUAD, AUKUS, West Asia and other alliances of war. It must dissolve the Indo-Pacific Command. It must withdraw its military bases spread around the world.
- US must immediately put a stop to anti-China war frenzy actions in Taiwan issue. China must solve unitarization of their country in peaceful methods. China must end militarism in this regard.
- The defense agreement between China and Russia must be dissolved. All kinds of military alliances and defense agreements between imperialist countries and regional expansionist countries must be dissolved.
- All nuclear countries of the world must destroy their nuclear arms. and must implement Non- Proliferation treaties.
- We must fight against the danger of World War and for world peace with the slogans such as ‘not war, we want peace’, ‘World War III is a major danger to the entire humankind of the world and the earth’.
- All the countries including the imperialist countries must immediately stop preparations of war.
- If the imperialists reject the aspirations of the people of the world and indulge in World War III, the world proletariat (the current situation is that where there is no socialist camp and even a single country is not working as a base for the world proletariat) must initiate “to convert the imperialist war into civil war’ as per the balance of forces of the world proletariat, without falling into national frenzy. It must demonstrate revolutionary proletarian internationalism against war.
- We must take up wide political campaigns so as to see that the entire oppressed people including the proletariat in backward countries and capitalist-imperialist countries of the world do not fall into national frenzy. If the world proletariat falls into ideological ill influence brought forth by the exploitive ruling classes in the name of ‘protection of motherland’, it will split into two and turn scape goats in the war of the imperialists and their compradors in the backward countries. We must enlighten them that neither the proletariat nor the oppressed people can achieve anything out of it. ‘Proletariat of the world, oppressed people unite, bring down the imperialist exploitive system’ must be the slogan of the proletariat.
- The lives of the world proletariat, oppressed nationalities and oppressed people are becoming miserable due to the current economic crisis and preparations of imperialist war. Basing on this, the world proletariat must form revolutionary communist parties with the objective of New Democratic Revolution against the exploitive ruling classes in the backward countries and must begin Class Struggle-Protracted People’s War with proper perspective and proper orientation basing on the concrete conditions in the respective countries. The ongoing ones must be widened-intensified. Revolutionary Trade Unions and Communist parties must be formed with a proper perspective and proper orientation even in capitalist-imperialist countries, strengthen the existing ones and intensify the proletarian struggles with the objective of socialist revolution.
- The only way to bring world peace is to eliminate the capitalist-imperialist system and establish Socialist-Communist system. So, we have to form a united Communist International forum basing on proper theoretical, political stands so as to contribute to unitedly lead the proletariat and middle class in capitalist countries and the oppressed nationalities and people of the backward countries in International Communist Movement.
Conclusion
Imperialist forces are constantly bent upon division and redivision of the countries of the world. Imperialist interests are against peace and humankind. Therefore, apart from the demand to stop war, the proletariat of the world, especially of Russia and Ukraine must fight against the war frenzy imperialism of the US and Russia. This is the time to say that ‘peace’ spoken of by the imperialist forces is sham. It is clear to us that peace comes only through Revolutionary People’s War on imperialist war. Genuine peace will be attained for the people only when imperialism is totally rooted out from the earth. History provides enough evidence that the exploitation of resources and labour, geographical expansion and that of markets lead to constant wars and that unless this imperialist force is defeated, peace and harmony cannot be permanently established.
Historical experience after World War II shows that regional wars and wars of aggression are more the order of the day. But the possibility of these regional wars getting transformed into world war cannot be ruled out. But from the point of view of the people, world war is not inevitable. It can be prevented through relentless revolutionary struggles of the people. However, in the absence of such struggles, imperialist wars become unavoidable. Wars are inevitable as long as imperialism exists. This is the only correct stand that any Marxist-Leninist-Maoist can take.
It is one century after World War I and 75 years after WW II. We witnessed loss of lives of crores of people, lakhs become permanently handicapped out of nuclear weapons. There was huge loss of properties. And now, the looming WW III cautions us of possible unprecedented loss to human life, flora and fauna out of ultra-modern arms and technology. A war in any part of the world in the present time will not know borders. We can see that ‘Mother of all bombs’ and nuclear arms are going to end life on earth. The war in Ukraine already took the lives of or injured nearly 5 lakh people. Families are separated and disrupted. A race is on the verge of losing its survival and identity. This should not happen to other races. This should not happen in any country. Let us put forth all our forces to fight against the situation. Let us further unite under the leadership of the proletariat to advance the people of the world towards World Socialist Revolution, root out imperialism and then establish Communism on the earth.
