Anti-imperialists of the World, unite!
LET’S ORGANIZE A UNITED STRUGGLE AGAINST IMPERIALIST WARS OF AGGRESSION, UNJUST WARS, ALL FORMS OF BACKWARDNESS AND FASCISM. LET’S SEND IMPERIALISM AND ALL FORMS OF REACTION TO THE DUSTBIN OF HISTORY!
Our call to the international proletariat, the oppressed peoples of the world, the anti-imperialist forces, revolutionaries and democrats!
Like all great sovereign systems of exploitation that have existed in history, the imperialist system is struggling with economic, political, social and military crises. It struggles to survive despite its incessant predatory wars, its limitless oppression and exploitation.
Our world is in a time of turmoil, deep unrest and change. Just thirty years ago, imperialism, especially Yankee imperialism (USA), proclaimed the “end of history”! With the “Pax Americana”, it declared “eternal peace” to be a reality. By means of gigantic propaganda, it was spread throughout the world that from now on a future full of peace, democracy and prosperity, guaranteed by the “world police”, would be ushered in. Developments since these words until today have shown that the “paradise” promised by the imperialists is a hell on earth for the oppressed masses of the world’s peoples. Since the imperialists’ promise of “life in the great paradise”, not a single day has passed without war and destruction. Never in the history of mankind has there been so much food and so much hunger. More than 25 thousand people die of hunger every day. According to official figures, 280 million people in 59 countries suffer from extreme hunger, while more than a billion people suffer from severe food shortages.
On the other hand, enormous wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few. The 26 biggest billionaires have as much wealth as the poorest 800 million people. While the world’s workers and toilers are rapidly losing their purchasing power and their right to work, more and more wealth is being created through increased exploitation for the benefit of the monopolies. While the five richest people have doubled their wealth in the last three years, 500 million people have been driven into poverty.
The domination of the imperialists in all semi-feudal, semi-colonial and backward countries and the agricultural policies implemented are leading to the mass displacement of peasants all over the world. Agricultural land is continuously plundered by the big agrarian monopolies and big landlords, and agricultural land is concentrated in the hands of a few international agrarian monopolies and big landlords. The peasant question, that is manly the land question, has enormously increased. The world’s largest exploiters of agriculture, the 1%, cultivate more than 70% of the world’s agricultural land. Poor farmers, small landowners and landless peasants, who make up almost half of the world’s population, own 30 percent of the world’s agricultural land and produce at least 70 percent of the food consumed worldwide. The agricultural policies imposed by the imperialists have worsened the situation of poor and landless peasants, particularly through increased exploitation and confiscation of land. The masses of peasants, whose poverty has increased, who are struggling with hunger and have been driven from their land, are forced to live in poor huts in the cities. Especially in semi-feudal, semi-colonial countries, the rule of the imperialists and the agrarian policies implemented are leading to the mass displacement of peasants all over the world. The increasing waves of migration in rural areas are a consequence of semi-feudalism and semi-colonialism caused by imperialist domination.
Since the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, emissions have increased by 60 percent instead of decreasing. Especially in the oppressed countries, new areas have been created for the imperialists to increase their exploitation under the guise of protecting the “natural environment”. The industries and natural resources of these countries have been further destroyed and the situation of the masses, especially the peasants and indigenous peoples, has worsened.
The wars that began in 2001 alone – Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, etc. – have directly and indirectly caused the deaths of 4.7 million people. Today, more than 110 million people worldwide have been displaced by war, persecution and conflicts of all kinds. The Zionist war of aggression against the Palestinian people is no exception, it is nothing but the true face of imperialism and world reaction. The murderous Zionist occupation of Gaza alone has led to the deaths of more than 35,000 Palestinians since October 2023, in addition to the more than ten thousand who have disappeared under the rubble. More journalists, doctors and humanitarian workers have been killed in Palestine than in the twenty years of the Vietnam War or the eight years of the Iraq War.
Imperialism is reactionary in all areas, it is a loss of rights. It is a permanent reaction that paves the way to fascism. International laws and treaties on genocide, war crimes and so-called human rights are thrown overboard by their creators and only enforced when the interests of the various imperialists are at stake. The suppression of solidarity with Palestine in Europe, the United States and other countries has shown that in imperialist countries the basic democratic rights of freedom of expression, assembly and organization, of which bourgeois societies are so proud, are easily violated. Even the minimum rights of political prisoners held in the prisons of imperialism and its henchmen around the world are not guaranteed. There are also hundreds of thousands who are persecuted, arrested, killed and disappeared.
Imperialism has existed at the cost of terrible and destructive wars for the overwhelming majority of humanity. For all its contradictions and rottenness, the imperialist system will not disappear by itself. Despite all its contradictions and rottenness, the imperialist system will not disappear by itself.
Only through the organization and struggle of billions of people across the planet will it be possible to eradicate the imperialists and their lackeys from the face of the earth. The masses are the makers of history and nothing can be achieved without them. The task of the advanced sections of the people, communists, revolutionaries, democrats, conscious workers and peasants, progressive intellectuals and the youth is to unite with the majority of the people, overcome hesitations and mobilize the struggle of the overwhelming majority.
Imperialism arouses the deep anger of the peoples of the world and prepares both the material and moral conditions for the struggle of the great masses of the people. In many parts of the world, workers and toilers are organizing mass protests and demonstrations for their economic, democratic and political rights.
It is an urgent task to unite the international proletariat, the oppressed peoples and the struggles of the oppressed nations of the world to achieve broad national and international unity against imperialist war aggression, unjust wars, reaction and fascism. The conditions are favorable to unite the majority of the peoples against the imperialists and their instigators.
“Imperialists are Paper Tigers”. The United Power of the Oppressed and Exploited Peoples of the World will Shatter the “Paper Tiger”!
Imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism, is a monopolistic, decaying, dying system of exploitation and plunder that exists with contradictions that inevitably prepare its own end. The entire system is based on the ability of monopoly capital to maximise profit. The deepening and widening of exploitation, the limitless destruction of nature and the annihilation of the natural habitats of living beings, the support of all kinds of reaction, the creation and support of enmities between peoples, the prevention of self-government and national independence of peoples, the endless unjust wars to redistribute markets, the enormous increase in funds allocated to war budgets serve only one purpose: to ensure the maintenance of the monopolies’ domination of the world at all costs. Since the transition from free competition capitalism to monopoly capitalism, we have seen two major imperialist redistribution wars that have cost millions of lives to maintain this system, direct occupations by the imperialists and dozens of regional wars under the leadership and provocation of the imperialists. In the time we are in, these wars continue and will continue. Unjust wars and occupations are, on the one hand, a result of the imperialists’ policy of absolute domination, and on the other hand, they mean the creation of enormous profits for the war industry. Imperialism is responsible for billions of people living in slavery, for the oppression of entire peoples. The workers and labourers of the world, the oppressed peoples bear the burden of all kinds of exploitation and brutality for the domination of finance capital. Billions of people are fighting for their lives under the harshest conditions and are subjected to the oppression of the imperialists and their lackeys.
US imperialism has been the hegemonic power since the Second World War, the imperialist redivision of the world, it is the main actor of all kinds of exploitation, plunder, unjust wars and occupations in the world. Although Chinese, Russian, British, German, French, etc. imperialism has gained more influence on the economic, political and military parameters of the world compared to the past, US imperialism is still at the centre of the imperialist system and is the main player determining the course of events. On the other hand, in parallel with the intensifying contradictions between them, the imperialists are trying to consolidate their mutual positions by dividing the powers dependent on them among themselves. Therefore, despite the contradictions between them, they form various economic, military and political alliances in order to ensure the continuity of the system and their own position. As always, it is the workers, the poor and the oppressed peoples of the world who are affected by the destructive consequences of the deepening contradictions and rifts between the imperialists and their followers.
The Great October Revolution of 1917 and the wave of new democratic and socialist revolutions that liberated a third of the world’s population from the imperialist system, as well as the reversals of socialism, have prepared the ground for the imperialists to ruthlessly continue their ever-increasing aggression against the workers and oppressed peoples of the world. However, the conditions that give the imperialists and their lackeys a relative advantage are coming to an end.
The imperialist centres, which propagate the “virtues” of their exploitative system with the argument of being a “democratic regime”, are increasing the influence and authority of the repressive forces of the bourgeois state, both by law and de facto, and are using more state violence against the population every day due to the problems of governance, which are aggravated by the deepening general crisis of capitalism. In addition to the police and the gendarmerie, the forces of the army are also being used against the people, while racist-fascist parties and organisations inside and outside parliament are becoming effective and the reserve forces of the counter-revolution are being strengthened. The general crisis of the imperialist system and the deepening and widening of the contradictions are causing the bourgeois states to emphasise the apparatus of violence, to make it more visible and to use it in practice. This is a sign of the hardening of the class struggle and that it will harden even more in the coming periods and that the bourgeois sovereign states will organise themselves against their “gravediggers”.
As the crisis of capitalism deepens and the price imposed on the peoples increases, the manipulations of the bourgeoisie on the people are losing their effect more and more, and the working class and the oppressed peoples are expressing their anger and resistance against the ruling conditions on the streets, including in the central countries of the imperialist system. Despite the huge resources and power of oppression at the disposal of the imperialists and their lackeys, workers, peasants and oppressed peoples, especially in Asia, Africa and Latin America, are resisting gloriously at great cost. The heroic resistance of the Palestinian national liberation and anti-colonialist forces against the Zionist reaction of Israel, which is supported by the imperialists with all their means, is one of the concrete expressions of this. These developments are signs that a new revolutionary wave is in full swing. What has not yet developed sufficiently are the organisations that can take up and lead this progressive wave. We need to create stronger, more systematic and the broadest possible alliances of forces. We have no time to lose and distract ourselves. Historical turning points require historical interventions. The adage that history does not forgive gaps expresses a reality. If we fail to make the right interventions, to find the means and methods to realise our subjective role in these moments of historical rupture, the imperialists and their lackeys will benefit to the maximum.
The antiimperialist struggle is a direct part of the class struggle. The foundation of the AIL is one of the concrete forms of revolutionary intervention under the conditions in which the class struggle is getting tougher and the imperialist and reactionary aggression is ruthlessly trying to maintain its rule. The political line of the AIL emphasises the need for a coherent anti-imperialist structure and underlines the need for an antiimperialist line informed by the scientific world outlook of the proletariat. It will therefore be part of the revolutionary transformation and play an active and decisive role in the struggle against the imperialist system ruling the world.
The antiimperialist political line of the AIL has a mobilising quality for a consistent struggle against imperialism. The anger and resistance of classes and sections outside the proletariat against imperialism will contain limitations and ambiguities due to their understanding of antiimperialism and the meaning they attribute to the antiimperialist struggle. The expansion of these limits and the overcoming of contradictions can take place in parallel with the development of the world outlook of the proletariat in this struggle.
The line advocated by the AIL represents the just and legitimate demands of the workers, labourers, poor and landless peasants, oppressed peoples and nations all over the world. The AIL is not in a state of general opposition or complaint about the existing situation; on the contrary, it wants to change this situation and positions itself as an active subject of the struggle to realise this change.
In our era, the antiimperialist struggle is also closely linked to the democratic struggle. The principles and values of democracy on a world scale have disintegrated in the hands of the bourgeoisie, and the struggle for democracy and consistent democratism has gained a unity with an antiimperialist character. This means the further integration of the oppressed peoples into the values, principles and political line of proletarian democracy with its consistent antiimperialist character.
In this context, the democratic struggle on a world scale is also characterised by resistance to the exploitation, values, political hegemony and ideology of imperialism.
The AIL emphasises that the main cause of hunger, widespread poverty, inequality and unjust wars is the imperialist system. This system is driving the world towards a great catastrophe. Humanity will either watch this visible decline and slide towards extinction in silence or resist it with all its might. In this context, the AIL defines itself as a direct part of the class struggle and represents one of the two fundamentally opposing lines in this struggle.
The AIL defends its basic principles: Resistance to unjust wars, support for class and national liberation struggles, defence of political prisoners. The AIL supports the economic and political struggles of the workers, defends the rights of the peasants against exploitation and supports struggles for social and national independence. It opposes discrimination and defends the right of oppressed peoples to self-determination.
The AIL is increasingly committed to the rights of women, young people and minorities and emphasises education, cultural development and environmental protection. It addresses issues such as child labour, the destruction of habitats and the right to housing, as it regards these as consequences of imperialist exploitation.
The AIL opposes the widespread privatisation of healthcare systems, denounces the crimes of the pharmaceutical monopolies and fights for universal access to healthcare. The AIL opposes repressive migration policies, but focuses on the root causes of forced migration and fights against these causes.
The AIL rejects alliances that serve the war industry and emphasises how environmental problems are linked to imperialist exploitation. It directly advocates anti-imperialist goals in the environmental movement and prioritises the well-being of people in solving environmental problems.
Our call to all anti-imperialist forces:
For the capitalist system, everything serves as a commodity in order to make a profit and utilise it for the expanded reproduction of capital. People, communities, other living beings and nature itself have no other meaning for the capitalist system than to be a commodity with which profit can be made. These relations of production and distribution are the cause of all humanity’s problems. This system is not limited to realising itself only through economic exploitation, or in other words, these relations of production and distribution create forms of man and society that are suitable for this. With the ideological and cultural hegemony that it creates, it creates human and social forms that obey it and accept the existing as a necessity. Although it is the source of the problems, it forces the problems to occur outside itself. It aims to ensure that the solution to the problems is to turn in on oneself and hope for help from oneself. Therefore, we must fight against the capitalist system, we must fight on different fronts in order to centralise all these areas of resistance and struggle as much as possible so as not to break the link between them and direct them towards the main source that creates the problems.
Poverty, unemployment, labour conditions under slavery, access to the most basic human rights is becoming more difficult every day, unjust wars are increasing, tens of millions of people are leaving their land and becoming refugees. The displacement of millions of peasant masses and indigenous peoples from their land through the appropriation of agricultural land in the interests of international monopolies and large landowners, the spread of racist, fascist and religious organisations, the unimaginable destruction of nature are the visible results of the imperialist order of plunder and pillage in which we live.
In all regions of the world there are reactions and resistance to this situation, which has reached unbearable proportions for the working class and the oppressed, exploited and suppressed masses who live under these conditions and are directly exposed to the practices of this brutal system. However, they do not yet have a line of struggle and organisation that unites their forces with a proper perspective and organisation to fight against their common enemies. They cannot repel the attacks of the imperialists and the ruling classes dependent on them, even if successes are achieved, they are temporary and even their strong resistance can be crushed by the imperialists and their servants.
The working class and the oppressed and exploited masses can only wage a victorious struggle against this cruel and rotten system in which they live if they unite under a correct standpoint and leadership. This is a necessary and obligatory reality for individual countries and the whole world. No matter how strong the oppression and terror against the masses of people who do not have a correct viewpoint and do not unite under a correct leadership, no matter how deep and unbearable the exploitation reaches, this cruel order will continue. The millennia-old history of class societies has proven this reality countless times.
We have the fighting experience and successes of the international proletariat and the oppressed peoples. We know how we were able to win and why we lost. In the present epoch, the imperialists and their lackeys have ruled the world, but the workers, the oppressed peoples and nations of the world have been able to defeat them many times and build their own power. They have achieved this only by uniting their forces against imperialism and all kinds of reaction under the right leadership. This is what we need today as well. The organisation of the AIL is a step towards fulfilling this need.
The basic principles and goals of the Antiimperialist League (AIL) provide a comprehensive framework for a consistent anti-imperialist struggle on a global scale. The AIL offers a comprehensive and principled understanding of the anti-imperialist struggle, covering a wide range of issues and uniting different oppressed classes and groups in a common cause.
The working class and oppressed and repressed peoples pay a high price for living under the effects of imperialist oppression and exploitation. We face class injustice, the plundering of our lands, the exploitation of the working class, the violation of women’s rights and many other problems. But instead of fighting separately, we can unite to increase our strength and put up a united resistance against this rotten system.
The workers and labourers of the world, the poor and landless peasants, the indigenous peoples who are being deprived of land and habitat in the name of mega projects are responding and fighting against the aggression of the imperialists and their lackeys. In the struggle of the poor and landless peasants of the indigenous peoples from Brazil to Mexico to protect their land, in the anger of the workers in Bangladesh who labour for the imperialist monopolies under slave conditions, in the strong resistance of millions of people who fill the streets in many corners of the world against the massacres of Israeli Zionism against the Palestinian people, in the actions of the American, British, Greek, Indian and Italian working class who refuse to transport or try to prevent the transport of war material. In short, we call on you to be the united voice and the united bearer of this voice of those who are fighting against the consequences of the imperialist system in almost every part of the world and taking their anger to the streets.
We are aware of the historical burden that the class struggle has placed on our shoulders. We have the consciousness and the faith to defeat the imperialists and all reactionaries. Above all, we believe in the power of billions of poor and oppressed people who long for and deserve a more liveable world.
We call for the establishment of an anti-imperialist international organization (the Anti-imperialist League) that will unite the broad masses of the people under the leadership of the proletariat against imperialism and all forms of reaction, that will give strong support to people’s wars and national liberation struggles, that will serve the struggles of the peoples all over the world, that will undertake the indispensable task of forming an anti-imperialist world front.
Following this call, we form the antiiimperialist barricade of the poor and oppressed peoples against all forms of imperialist aggression.
With this perspective, we invite all antiimperialist forces to organise and fight in the AIL.
Let us unite the struggles of the international proletariat, the oppressed peoples and the oppressed nations to wipe imperialism and its henchmen off the face of the earth!
Against imperialist wars of aggression, unjust wars, fascism and all forms of reaction: Let us build the Anti-Imperialist League!
LET’S ORGANISE OURSELVES IN THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST LEAGUE, LET’S EXPAND THE ANTIIMPERIALIST STRUGGLE TOGETHER!
COORDINATING COMMITTEE OF THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST LEAGUE:
PARTİZAN (TURKEY)
REVOLUTIONERY FRONT FOR THE DEFENSE OF THE PEOPLE’S RIGHT (BRAZIL)
FRONT TO DEFEND THE PEOPLE’S STRUGGLES (ECUADOR)
CURRENT OF THE PEOPLE-RED SUN (MEXICO)
1 June 2024
