Above: a demonstration by the World Anti-Imperialist Platform in Belgrade, Serbia
Communists have a mandate to unite with the other elements of the anti-NATO movement; so naturally, the parts of the left with an investment in the imperialist institutions are working to stop this mandate from being fulfilled. When Greece’s opportunistic KKE responded to the developments of the last couple years by attacking Russia for defending its people from fascism; and by attacking formations like the World Anti-Imperialist Platform for siding with Russia’s struggle; it was in effect working on behalf of the colonial interests which it’s aligned itself with. As the U.S. empire is increasingly forced to abandon Ukraine, we can’t forget the lesson this proxy war has taught us; this being that we can’t trust huge amounts of the communists throughout the Euro-American sphere to properly advance the class struggle.
When I talk about the KKE like it’s a representative of the other opportunists throughout the imperial sphere, I’m not just referring to the types of opportunists who share the KKE’s absurdly anti-Marxist interpretation of what imperialism means. As Joti Brar has observed, the org has such an obviously infantile view of the nature of global economic relations; one many of the opportunists I talk about aren’t bad enough to think this is correct:
The KKE’s theoreticians appear to believe that anyone who produces something for sale on the market, whether internal or external, anyone who uses money, is a capitalist. And they follow this vulgarisation with another and even more problematic one. They tell us that, since capitalism globally has now entered its monopoly phase (as demonstrated by Lenin); since capitalist production tends everywhere towards concentration and towards monopoly (as demonstrated by Marx, Engels and Lenin), then every capitalist country in the modern era is also an imperialist one (as firmly rebutted by Lenin. This, we are told, goes as much for the capitalists of Burkina Faso as for the capitalists of the USA. Apparently, the desire to grow one’s capital reveals a desire to become an imperialist – and this desire is all that counts. According to the theory of the ‘pyramid’, every country that engages in trade, from Great Britain and France to Cuba and the DPRK, is guilty of imperialism – the various states of the world simply occupying different levels on the great global ‘pyramid’ of imperialism.
These aren’t the KKE’s only harmful ideas, though; they and those adjacent to them also make other, more mildly ultra-leftist arguments. And these arguments are accepted by far too many of the communists who recognize that Russia and China aren’t imperialist; which is a big reason why it’s so necessary for Marxists to be promoting the ideas that people like Brar have been promoting lately. Those are the ideas about unifying the different kinds of anti-imperialist forces, and building a coalition against our ruling institutions.
If the arguments for forsaking a diverse anti-NATO coalition were only accepted by the KKE, and by the other most infantile ultras, then these ultras wouldn’t be as substantial of a threat; but there are many others within Euro-American communist spaces who have an incentive to sabotage the project at building anti-imperialist unity, even though they don’t take KKE’s anti-China position. And as the U.S. empire reacts to its Ukraine defeat by seeking to persecute pro-Russian, pro-solidarity orgs like Uhuru, combating these anti-solidarity ideas is becoming our greatest imperative.
If we take advice from these opportunists, our movement is going to be made vulnerable to the intensifying anti-revolutionary internal war which our state is waging. Because what happens when communists come to lack respect for pro-Russian orgs like Uhuru because these orgs have sided with Russia, or have allied with other pro-Russian orgs (like Maupin’s CPI) that leftist circles view as untouchable? These communists are incentivized to act apathetic about defending such orgs from state repression, which is what we’re seeing at the moment; there’s an unacceptable amount of silence about the Uhuru case from not just the broader left, but also the types of Marxists who’ve invested themselves in appealing to the “left.”
As Brar has concluded from seeing the things that have happened since the Ukraine conflict escalated last year: “we must do everything in our power to unite the forces of anti-imperialism, providing them with a correct understanding so that they are able to identify who are their friends and who are their enemies at this crucial moment in history; so that they are able to form the strongest possible alliance in order to achieve victory in the crucial battles that are coming.” This is the type of unity that’s truly important for us to cultivate: unity among those who seek to rectify the world’s primary contradiction, that being U.S. hegemony. Not unity among those who view anti-imperialism as optional, and who will disavow anti-imperialist countries or denounce anti-NATO orgs as soon as this is opportune for them to do.
That’s the distinction Brar identifies as essential for Marxists to understand as they decide who to break from, and who to ally with:
We are being accused of ‘splitting the movement’ by attacking the KKE. But we cannot split what is not whole. Our movement is already deeply divided. Indeed, it has been for many decades. The present war has revealed not only the deep divide within our movement generally but also the absolute rottenness of the group of parties clustered around the KKE and the futility of expecting anything useful to come to the working class from trying to preserve ‘unity’ with such elements – with individuals and organisations that have clearly shown themselves to be on the side of the imperialist camp. Once again, we call to mind the words of Lenin, when he described the betrayals and rottenness of the majority of leaders of the Second International during World War 1: “This contradiction [between the revolutionary words and opportunist deeds of the social-democratic leaders] was a boil which just had to burst, and burst it has.”
These KKE-aligned actors Brar talks about aren’t just the Greek parties that are directly clustered around it; they include the other elements throughout the imperialist countries that have displayed this pattern of decisions which make them compatible with imperialism. And the more credible they otherwise appear; the more they take reasonable stances in spite of ultimately being against this anti-imperialist solidarity project; the more of a threat they’re capable of representing towards revolutionary progress.
How effective of a gatekeeper somebody is depends on how much they’re willing to do things that are correct, while still not doing the right things where it’s most important. That’s the tactic which has proven best at preventing an authentic vanguard from emerging; at bringing the individuals with the most revolutionary knowledge towards projects that are fundamentally incapable of defeating the state.
In the core of imperialism the United States; which is the place where the Uhuru indictments have happened, and therefore where building solidarity with NATO’s opponents is perhaps most urgently important; this insidious undermining of anti-imperialist unity is based within American exceptionalism. That being the type of American exceptionalism which comes not from right-wing nationalism, but from ultra-leftist idealism.
This was an earlier meaning of the phrase “American exceptionalism” when communists helped popularize it in the early 20th century, and it describes the elements that today are opposing a diverse anti-NATO coalition from a “leftist” angle. The essence of the argument these elements put forth is that in the USA, our domestic contradictions are in every way more important than the contradiction of imperial hegemony; that because of the real or perceived ways in which most of those opposing NATO are incorrect about our domestic conditions, building a coalition with them isn’t worthwhile.
To accept this idea, and still believe oneself to be an effective contributor to the class struggle, you’ll have to either embrace the path of aligning with the anti-Russian orgs; or embrace the path of totally isolating yourself and your cadre from the rest of the communist movement, and trying to win on your own. Rejecting the only practical option is never the right choice; it will bring you nothing besides defeat. If we want to win, we must unite with the others who’ve sided with the anti-imperialist bloc in the new cold war.
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