Bulletins and News Discussion for February 19th to February 25th, 2023 - The Shadow of Suharto - COTW: Indonesia

ECA statement on the 2 years of imperialis war in Ukraine: http://www.eurcomact.org/m-article/ECA-STATEMENT-Two-Years-Since-the-Imperialist-War-in-Ukraine-The-Experience-and-Conclusions-of-the-Communists/

Competition within the imperialist system is escalating and contradictions are deepening. The attempts by the USA, the EU and their allies to impose their own interests on the international arena, against capitalist Russia and the countries supporting it, have been going on for years. In the last two years this has expressed itself in the form of an imperialist war in Ukraine. The increasing competition is for the raw material and energy resources, geostrategical footings and transport routes in the region.

From the very first day of the war, the Russian leadership has justified its military intervention in Ukraine on the grounds that the above-mentioned expansion threatens Russia's security. Regardless of whether this threat is founded or not, it cannot be used as a justification for the violation of the existing borders and new bloodshed of the peoples. The discussions initiated to dispute the existing borders mainly aim to generate pretexts that legitimise imperialist aggression and must be rejected. Moreover, our parties have to remember that “security purposes” have been applied for years by the USA, the EU and NATO as a justification for bloody operations in countless countries, for interventions and occupations in the territories under the sovereignty of those countries.

The protagonists of the war are not the peoples of the two countries but their capitalist classes. Presenting the war as a war between Ukraine and Russia obscures the real actors of the war and makes it difficult to understand its class character. The ongoing war is being waged between the Russian capitalist class and its allies on the one hand, the Ukrainian capitalist class, the USA, the EU and NATO on the other hand.

One of the most important elements showing the class character of this war is anti-communism, which is being intentionally raised in the region. The activities of the fascist forces in Ukraine and their crimes against humanity, bans and persecution towards communists continue. The Russian leadership, on the other hand, distorts scientific and historical facts in order to justify its strategic plans, and confronts Russia's socialist past with false and distorted claims concerning Lenin, Stalin and the policies of the Soviet Union. Our Parties will continue to fight creatively against the anti- communist hysteria fuelled by all the actors in the war, to increase solidarity with Ukrainian and Russian communists and not allow the legacy of socialism to be defiled.

Moreover, our parties, which are at the forefront of the struggle against foreign bases and the sending of troops and military equipment abroad, call upon the workers, who see the contradictions expressed within the imperialist blocs and organizations, to show no trust in proclamations that a “multipolar world” will supposedly stop this or any other imperialist war and will lead to a peaceful world, without the overthrow of the capitalist system, which is the cause of imperialist wars.

Our parties emphasize that the real choice is not between the so-called poles within the imperialist system but between the working people and the capitalist class. They remind us that the struggle of the working class can be strengthened with an independent line, far from all bourgeois and imperialist plans, and that the peoples, through their struggle, must oppose imperialist wars.

This is our call. We do not make an abstract call for peace, which is not clear to whom it is addressed and which serves to exonerate the capitalist class and the actors within the imperialist system. For a real sense of peace, we call for a struggle against NATO, the EU and all kinds of imperialist organizations and alliances that continue to fuel the war, we point to the need to expose the class character of capitalist alliances, and we declare that we will stand in solidarity with the working class movement and communists in these countries.

We continue the struggle for the withdrawal of foreign troops and the closure of bases in other countries, especially those of the USA, starting with our own countries. We act with the task of preventing our countries from being part of and implementing imperialist plans and of withdrawing them from imperialist unions such as NATO and the EU, with the peoples masters in their own land.

In the face of this war, which has a tendency to generalise, we declare once again that we will continue to be the voice of the working peoples' demands for peace, social justice and socialism maintaining a steadfast front against nationalism, racism, fascism, and militarism.