As the capitalist system increasingly engulfs the world in imperialist wars and climate catastrophes, more and more young people are looking for an alternative. The revolutionary ideas defended by the Communist Left over the last century are once again gaining wider exposure and as a consequence we see new groups appear around the world.

Communism or Barbarism, based in South Korea and with contacts across East Asia, is trying to build a nucleus of the Internationalist Communist Tendency (ICT) in the region. Since 2023 they have been translating articles and documents into Korean and Chinese, and have been involved in NWBCW Korea together with the comrades of the Internationalist Communist Perspective (국제주의코뮤니스트전망). As they take the next steps in establishing themselves as a group, we publish here their founding statement and would recommend other internationalists in the region to get in touch.⁽¹⁾

Founding Statement of Communism or Barbarism

Capitalism has been on a path of decline since the imperialist era that began with the First World War in 1914, plunging humanity into two crises, world wars, destruction and reconstruction, followed by new crises. Today, capitalism is currently pushing humanity toward an infectious disease pandemic, climate crisis, ecological destruction, and generalized imperialist war, pushing the international proletariat into war and poverty. Under these circumstances, the so-called "left" is divided between the reformist social-democratic tendency that seeks to maintain and "reform" the current capitalist system, the Stalinist tendency that defends the post-counterrevolutionary Soviet Union, China, Cuba, etc. as "socialist countries", and the Trotskyist tendency that criticizes Stalinism but paradoxically, uncritically supporting the above state capitalist systems as "degenerated workers' states”.

Although the internationalist communist forces are still small and weak, their defense of the revolutionary tradition and steady internationalist activities have recently attracted new generations and workers around the world and are expanding. Therefore, the work of embedding internationalist principles in the global working class and the discussion and exchange among internationalist communist organizations and groups, and the progress they make, are crucial to building an international revolutionary organization.

The political principles (program) of the internationalist communist forces are the product of the experiences and lessons learned from the class struggle of the international working class and the revolutionary struggles of the communist political forces. Our origins are therefore found in the Communist League, the First International (International Workers' Association), the left within the Second International, the left within the Third International (Comintern), and the communist left that defended proletarian internationalism and communism against the Third International, which went through a period of counterrevolution and decline.

Communism or Barbarism–ICT(코뮤니즘이냐 야만이냐/コミュニズムか野蛮か/共产主义或野蛮主义) was founded as a part of the international revolutionary organization to develop internationalist communist organization and movement in East Asia. We present the following basic principles for members and sympathizers to uphold:

1. We strongly condemn the capitalist system as a whole as a global system parasitic on the exploitation of the working class (proletariat) and the destruction of the global environment. We support communism, a worldwide system in which borders, classes, markets and money are abolished, as the only alternative to this capitalist barbarism, and we are convinced of the necessity and reality of an international proletarian revolution to overthrow this capitalist system, which is blocking all social development and leading to its total collapse.
2. We strongly condemn all "socialist" states that have ever existed, such as the Soviet Union, China, etc. They were all state capitalist states in which the state assumed the role of private capitalists.
3. We oppose all nationalisms that sacrifice the working class to the interests of the ruling class, and we criticize bourgeois feminism, ecologism and other sectoral struggles that reject class struggle and undermine class unity.
4. We strongly condemn the bourgeois electoral and parliamentary system as a device for maintaining the capitalist system of exploitation and ensuring the legitimate domination of the bourgeoisie over the working class. We also criticize trade unions for their administrative role within the capitalist system and support the independent struggle and organization of the working class beyond them.
5. We therefore advocate the self-organization of the working class and the formation of independent class organizations (workers' councils, proletarian congresses, etc.). We also support the building of a world revolutionary party that can defend the principles of internationalism, intervene internationally in the proletarian struggle, and serve as a political compass for the communist revolution, in a period of capitalist decline, the period of "war or revolution?”.

Notes:

(1) Communism or Barbarism can be contacted through Twitter/X or by email.