Neue Einheit  -  Internet statement 2003-10

The importance of the worldwide united front against the Iraq war of the US.  How is the opposition by France and Germany to be judged?

-About the pro-Bush activities of certain "leftists"

It is right that France or Germany or both countries together perhaps could become once a European superpower or the core of such a power under certain conditions. Nobody may deny that the development of capitalism/imperialism in each of the countries can go in such a direction. Where capitalism or revisionism are ruling, an imperialistic development is possible. What matters now, however, is not what could be once in the future, but what is in the present time. At the present time a common European imperialism cannot even be thought of, because these states by far aren't unanimous, they have the utmost political contradictions -to be seen also by the facility the US experienced in splitting the camp -, and a lot of small countries is part of the bunch which have opinions of their own. It is nonsense to talk about a European imperialism at present, because this agglomeration of states of which Europe consists is hardly capable of acting uniformly. It is an anticipation which skips 2 to 3, even 4 possible stages. And the single states like France or even more so Germany are militarily zero in comparison with the US, they aren't bigger than the toe of the US, what concerns nuclear weapons, armament in space, international naval forces - Germany is not at all comparable, but neither France is. Even if only these two states would connect themselves more closely, this still would not change anything basic. Not to speak of the strong pro-American forces which the US have reserved for themselves everywhere here in Europe, and of the fact that the NATO structures are dominated by the USA anyway. To talk about a German imperialism somehow acting independently, which alone or in alliance with France would be capable of considerable competition with the US, is eccentric already for the simple reason that it doesn't exist. What matters is not what potentially could once be, but what is really there now.

Russia is in such a way inwardly washed-out, in such a way infiltrated and politically and economically depending from the US, much stronger than from the Europeans, that also in the case of Russia one cannot talk but of a conditional independence. Most likely China has to be named as a former socialist country, with today obviously capitalist structures, which would be capable of resistance at the present time. But also there the USA have their irons in the fire and want to interfere in the class struggles of this country in their own way, to hawk "human rights and democratic fight" and a new variant of bourgeois democracy against the revisionist structures. And they don't have such bad cards there at all, since there serious conflicts line up. In addition, they intend to play off the so-called Tibetan independence, the so-called independence of Sinkiang and possibly of further parts, in order to get on in this way also against China. Because of this the Chinese independent position also hasn't developed very far.

So the USA all in all are the absolutely dominant factor at the present time. How has this come? What is this based on? It is based on the fact that we had two superpowers, that modern revisionism has spoiled the biggest portion of the formerly communist world and has simultaneously contributed to the sole power monopoly of the USA, up to the self-dissolution of the Soviet Union and the state system allied with it, so that the USA alone remained. And this unusual constellation of imperialism, which we have at the present time, is what now shapes the situation. Due to the objective laws the power of the USA, viewed in international political terms, crumbles, that is there are trends of tearing apart their Pax Americana, and they want to repair it by all their political-military measures now again. Under the present conditions it is not at all wrong in our opinion to favor and to promote that the Europeans, Russia and China act commonly, that they best together with others, e.g. with Brazil, with South Africa, Mexico, if possible Canada, act against the USA and isolate them. This would cause this rotten quirk of the USA to fail at the present time. And it is the only material factor in my opinion which really could cause the USA to fail now. For a class struggle or a class war which would be able to considerably attack the USA, doesn't exist at present, we'll perhaps have to wait for it for ten years, perhaps less, and demonstrations cannot anyway put a stop to the US' measures - but the USA would have to fear a total confrontation with virtually all the remaining states. This is the only factor which hinders them, and this factor must be strengthened.

One must get pointed ears, therefore, if so-called leftists who have run behind pacifism over all the time, exactly now attack movements which take part in supporting this united front, like the peace movement and also the movement of these states.

It is all about to prevent the USA from this criminal war. However, if this isn't possible, they must be forced at least to carry out this war alone or only with Great Britain. In this case there would still be something good, because in this way they decidedly undermine their own position of power. With regard to this, the efforts of C. Rice and C. Powell are well understandable, that they try with all means to break through this isolation. And one could have had doubts against it that the USA dare to carry this through against the remaining world of states. If they do it, though, then a new situation arises with the consequence of new tasks.

There are many weak points in this front. Let us take Germany for once. This German government drives the economy against the wall. With big talks nothing is won. The ecologistic conception leaning on windmill vanes while ruining the own industry and preferentially treating services, as propagated by Schröder some time ago, is completely out. The German economy is in free fall, and it is only a question of time that this government, if it doesn't get it, is overthrown by another bourgeois government. The USA could therefore also put hopes that somebody like Angela Merkel (chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union, CDU) would come to power, that it then would come to the break in Europe, and the advantage for the USA would be the result. A dangerous potential for Europe is given in the CDU.

I would like to emphasize again and again: Although we belong to those who creatively apply Marxism and do not declare that Marxism is something to be put prior to reality or is something sacrosanct, as it appears in the wording of some programmes, although, thus, we belong to those who put the concrete analysis of the reality in the first place, making use of all historical experiences among which Marxism occupies an extraordinary special role, we nevertheless also belong to those which continue to have the principles of Marxism like the dictatorship of the proletariat or Lenin's analysis of imperialism, the analysis of the irreconcilability, the necessity of the development of capitalism in the democratic stage, that is quite classic Marxist-Leninist theses, as basis. We analyze the culture, we analyze the problems arising in the context of the development or of the putting into action of all these principles, and take them into account. We always try to grasp the concrete situation, and in certain situations it sometimes happens that a certain diplomatic confrontation on the international scale takes a predominant role which cannot be put against the social struggle. On the contrary, the democratic development favors the development of the class struggle, which still is to come on the globe, which surely has its beginnings in the present world, but is still not capable at the present time to step in on a larger scale in the international development.

The attacks and machinations of US-imperialism, or e.g. the ecologistic insanity of the German bourgeoisie or other particularly reactionary phenomena, all basically serve to strangle the class struggle already in the cradle, in the development of the democratic approach. In our opinion, this ultra-reaction will be finished soon, because it gets tangled up in the deepest contradictions at all corners and ends.

translation from the German original by wgr.

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