HAMILTON ANARCHIST BOOKFAIR
Klasbatalo will have a presence at the Hamilton Anarchist Bookfair.
When: Saturday, 30 September 2023
Where: Hamilton Craft Studios, 121 Princess St, Hamilton, ON L8L 8B7, Canada
The first meeting of the committee took place in December. 30-35 internationalists met and were able to discuss the drive towards generalised war and our possible responses. The meeting was split into two parts. The first dealt with the international situation, and the second asked what the committee could do about the war.
We must note first of all the number of attendees given that another meeting of other internationalists was taking place close by, as well as the trains being on strike. It has been a long time since we have seen such a meeting of revolutionaries in Paris. Naturally, the meeting reflected the heterogeneity of its participants, which was to be expected given the state of the internationalist milieu, composed as it is of people who had not spoken to each other for a long time. In itself, the meeting was already a noteworthy event, and a success. It is a sign that anxiety and questions about the political situation are at the forefront of many minds.
The presentation was focussed on several points which were addressed briefly in order to leave more room for discussion. The points of the presentation were generally accepted and developed by the meeting.
Point one – the gravity of the general situation characterised by:
Point two – this means that it is an imperialist war affecting the great powers. During the Cold War, aside from the Cuban episode, the great powers of the USA and the USSR were not involved in direct confrontation.
Point three – the war in Ukraine is the tree that hides the forest. The goal of the USA through this war is to get all of its allies lined up, in order to then turn against China, which China has understood very well while remaining in the background for now.
What has the USA already gained from this war?
Point four – the drive to war can only intensify.
The USA has pulled out of Afghanistan, where they had nothing more to gain. In fact, they are now attempting to fix all the related problems in the world, like the Iranian question, in order to pursue a policy of surrounding China more decisively.
Point five – obviously, the above is the ideal scenario for the USA. World imperialist war between the nuclear powers is risky. Nuclear weapons are supposed to serve as a deterrent. It seems that this is no longer the case, since there have now notably been talks of nuclear tactics that could be less dangerous; we are dancing on the brink of horror!
There could however be one other scenario that might allow for a halt to the rise in tensions. Naturally, the growing competition between China and the USA is not solely military. It has an important economic dimension; we have spoken elsewhere of economic warfare between China and the USA. This would be a repeat of the Cold War policy of containment of the USSR. China, if suffocated like Russia, could then no longer militarily keep up.
Point six – why this change in strategy by the USA towards war? Because China would have a military power equal to that of the USA by 2050 according to its objectives. Between now and 2050, the Chinese army could definitively overtake the American army. Time is ticking for the USA.
With generalised war rapidly approaching, it is urgent that internationalists organise against world war. Ultimately, only revolution can put an end to capitalism which, though dying, can still be deadly.
We are bolstered by the need of the bourgeoisie to develop the military economy, which will put pressure on workers and mobilise them as a result. This is what the states are afraid of: our strength. We are already seeing how workers are being attacked all over the world, and how they are beginning to feel it on their own skin.
It would be errant to judge the situation based on the class struggles of today. Faced with intensified production of arms, the workers’ reactions will be quite different; besides which, the states will shield themselves against their populaces (with the police, etc.). For us, it is necessary to create defence networks in case we are forced into clandestinity (e.g. see Clara and Pavel Thalmann during the Second World War(2)).
Now more than ever, we must reaffirm that only the working class can put an end to this barbarism. Hence the only slogan on the agenda: revolution to bring down the system and put an end to the war once and for all.
After a very open and interesting discussion during which there were no great divergences in analysis, we moved onto the second part of the discussion, that is, the propositions of the NWBCW committee. Why committees? Because, as we have seen above, the political situation will be increasingly marked by imperialist war in the foreseeable future. Let’s not be immediatists! If in the past the committees did not manage to respond to the situation, it is because the drive to war was not yet so evident; this is no longer the case today.
Based on the legacy that the internationalist workers’ movement has left us in its struggle against the two imperialist powers, the minimum basis for cooperation is summarised by the following points:
Revolutionary minorities must act now to prepare the way for the wider international class movement of tomorrow.
During the discussion it was acknowledged that alongside propaganda and denunciations of the war by all the means at our disposal, there is a whole host of other practical actions we may take (press, appeals, public meetings, demonstrations, etc.), and for inspiration for this we need look no further than the actions of internationalists during the two imperialist world wars.
We remember that during a period of extreme famine in Greece in 1942-3, the population looted food stores in the face of the threat of Stalinists, who hoped to snatch them up for the Resistance. The KDEE (Internationalist Communist Union) and Stinas were able, with the consent of the masses, to distribute the seized food to feed the population.
We remember the aid for German deserters provided by the GRP-UCI (Groupe révolutionnaire prolétarien - Union des Communistes internationalistes) and the RKD (Revolutionären Kommunisten Deutschlands), just as the CNT-AIT do with the Olga Taratuta Initiative, and the support to Assembly in Ukraine and KRAS in Russia. The RKD worked with groups like the Quakers, who never betrayed them. Because it is not necessarily our task to manage cases of desertion in detail. We must know how to make use of the skills of specialist organisations which act professionally in these matters.
Finally, we remember those actions that played a more typically central part of the workers’ struggles, like the general strike in which the PCInt participated extensively in Northern Italy in 1943, or the GRP and others at Renault in France in 1944.
A general discussion of disagreements allowed the meeting to clarify what we all understood the creation of NWBCW committees to mean.
An appeal was launched for wider reflection on these questions. In conclusion, a number of comrades present declared themselves willing to participate in the committee or to be kept informed of its initiatives. Nobody assumed the right to mock, criticise or dismiss them. They are valiant militants of our class who are getting involved in the class struggle, and we commend them.
We have no illusions in the prospects of immediate success or the development of these committees in the coming months. However, we know not to judge things on a day to day basis, lest we should fall into immediatism. We know that as the war escalates and intensifies, such committees will become more and more necessary. Our slogans are to be understood in the context of the whole of the new era on the horizon, which profoundly alters our political knowledge.
This does not mean that we are ceasing our propaganda and our actions (those of the ICT or others outside the committee) in workplace and social struggles. On the contrary, we will see more and more of a need to link economic and social struggles with the struggle against the war, since the bourgeoisie, having already claimed our sweat, will then claim our blood. In this context, we cannot turn our backs on any proletarian internationalist force that may appear. Instead, we call them to join us in the herculean task of tomorrow against the imperialist war.
MO(1) The Monroe Doctrine (2 December 1823) stipulated that Europe must be driven out of America, which would become the territory of the USA alone, which in turn would not intervene in European affairs.
(2) Combats pour la liberté, La digitale, 1997.
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HAMILTON ANARCHIST BOOKFAIR
Klasbatalo will have a presence at the Hamilton Anarchist Bookfair.
When: Saturday, 30 September 2023
Where: Hamilton Craft Studios, 121 Princess St, Hamilton, ON L8L 8B7, Canada
ANARCHIST BOOKFAIR IN LONDON
The CWO will have a stall at the Anarchist Bookfair in London.
When: Saturday, 7 October 2023
Where: four venues in East London (see link below)
READING GROUP
This meeting's text: Theses on the Tasks of International Social-Democracy by Rosa Luxemburg
When: Saturday, 7 October 2023 at 6:00pm
Where: Hamilton, Canada (contact us through our social media for location details: linktr.ee)
Klasbatalo
NO WAR BUT THE CLASS WAR: WHAT OPPOSITION TO IMPERIALIST WAR REALLY MEANS
PUBLIC MEETING AND DISCUSSION
Topics of discussion:
When: Saturday, October 14, 2023 at 2:00pm
Where: 134 W 29th St, Fl. 2, Conference Room 3-4, New York, NY
Internationalist Workers’ Group
LONDON RADICAL BOOKFAIR
The CWO will have a stall at the London Radical Bookfair.
When: Saturday, 4 November 2023
Where: Great Hall and adjoinging rooms at Goldsmiths University, 8 Lewisham Way, London, SE14 6NW
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.