Paris Declaration: The rising tide of global war and our tasks

Download the Paris Declaration as a leaflet

The following declaration was signed by 14 parties on Friday 14 October, when their representatives gathered in Paris to launch the programme of the newly-formed World Anti-Imperialist Platform.

The declaration sums up the platform’s common approach towards the imperialist war drive, offering much-needed clarity about the root causes and nature of the war, while also indicating what socialists and anti-imperialists believe should be our approach towards the growing movement opposing the effects of crisis and war on workers everywhere.

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We stand at a moment of grave peril for workers and oppressed peoples everywhere, in which the imperialist war drive is pushing us towards a third world war and a nuclear conflagration.

Even as Nato’s aggression in Ukraine is failing both militarily and economically, the USA’s desperation to save its hegemonic position in the world means it cannot back down, but is instead looking for ways to expand and prolong the war. In the face of all experience, it seems that the imperialists still hope they can find a way to wear down all resistance to their rule and come out on top.

As a result, we face the prospect of the Ukraine war spilling over into neighbouring countries in Europe and central Asia – and also of the outbreak of hostilities in several other theatres further east. Recent US provocations in Taiwan, alongside its ceaseless ratcheting up of tensions with the DPRK and China on every front, make this all too clear.

At this moment of historic importance, we, the undersigned parties, agree that the following essential points should be made clear to the masses of the world, and should guide our antiwar and anti-imperialist work:

1. That the conflicts that have already or are threatening to break out are not isolated and local affairs, but are integral parts of the USA’s drive to retain its global hegemony.
2. That the present war in Ukraine is not the result of ‘Russian aggression’ but of this western imperialist drive to war – in particular, the war drive of the USA.
3. That the war really began when the USA and its allies financed, armed and organised a fascist coup in Kiev in 2014, and that the Russian side, in its alliance with the peoples of the Donbass, is engaged in a war of self-defence and national liberation against imperialist attack.
4. That the war drives against China and the DPRK are also a result of imperialist aggression, and that, no matter who fires the first shot, if the threatened conflicts break out in Korea or Taiwan, those wars will likewise be wars of anti-imperialist self-defence and national liberation waged by the Korean and/or Chinese people.
5. That Russia and China’s ability to defend themselves and others does not indicate expansionist ambitions or imperialist economics; it is based in decades of planning for self-defence, initiated by the socialist governments of the USSR and the PRC.
6. That there is no economic data to justify characterising China or Russia as imperialist. These are countries that do not live by superexploiting or looting the world. They do not put other countries into military, technological or debt slavery. On the contrary, the beneficial terms of trade and the technological and military assistance they offer are giving smaller developing countries the chance to break out of imperialist enslavement.
7. That Russia and China are the targets of imperialist aggression because both by retaining their own independence, and by assisting other nations to gain theirs, they represent a serious threat to the imperialists’ world hegemony.
8. That the growing alliance between Russia and China offers hope to the people of the world: hope of an alternative to US domination and imperialist superexploitation. A strong anti-imperialist camp is our peoples’ best defence against the aggressive plans of the bloodthirsty Nato alliance – our best defence against the looming threat of nuclear war.
9. That antiwar activists must mobilise the masses in their countries for a campaign of active non-cooperation with the imperialist war effort aimed at sabotaging Nato’s war machinery in every way possible. We must refuse to fight in or assist Nato’s armies (direct or proxy). We must refuse to transport Nato’s men and materiel. We must refuse to allow Nato’s bases to operate unimpeded on our territories. We must refuse to manufacture or supply Nato’s armaments and other vital equipment. We must refuse to broadcast, print or distribute imperialist propaganda lies; and refuse to cooperate with imperialist trade and sanctions wars.
10. That the accelerating war drive, economic crisis, hunger crisis, environmental crisis and more all make it abundantly clear that the need to remove the imperialist economic system is more urgent than ever.
11. That the slogans of true anti-imperialists in this time must be: Defeat for the Nato-led imperialist alliance! Victory to the resistance! No cooperation with imperialist war!

Signatories

Initial signatories

• Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist), Britain
• People’s Democracy Party, south Korea
• Pole of Communist Revival in France
• Korea is One, Belgium
• Baltic Platform, Eastern Europe
• Communist Party, Italy
• Communist Party, Switzerland
• Communist Party of Kyrgyzstan
• Eastern Initiative, Eastern Europe
• Hungarian Workers’ Party
• Italian Communist Party
• National Association of Communists, France
• New Communist Party of Yugoslavia, Serbia
• Spanish Avantgarde

Further signatories

• Chilean Communist Party (Proletarian Action)
• Socialist Workers Party, Croatia
• Platform for Independence, Greece
• Communist Party of Peru (Patria Roja)
• Collective of Struggle for the Revolutionary Unification of Humanity, Greece
• People’s Party of Panama
• Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain
• New Communist Party of Montenegro
• United Socialist Party of Venezuela
• Unión Proletaria, Spain
• Rassemblement Communiste, France
• Lebanese Communist Party
• Party of Communists USA
• Mexican Communist Movement
• Dynamique Unitaire Panafricaine, comprising 23 organisations in Africa
• Party of the Communists of Kyrgyzstan
• Belarusian Communist Workers’ Party
• Belarusian Republican Organisation of the CPSU
• Centre for Political Innovation, USA
• Communist Party of Quebec, Canada
• All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Soviet Union territories
• Mazdoor Kissan Party, Pakistan
• Communist Party of Kenya
• Iniciativa Comunista, Spain
• Socialist Platform, Georgia
• Communist Party of Belgium
• Peruvian Communist Party
• Anti-Imperialist Camp, Europe
• Workers’ Party of Ireland
• Borotba, Ukraine
• Bultza Herri Ekimena, Euskal Herria (Basque Country)
• Antifascist Former Resistance Fighters / Association of Antifascists, Netherlands
• Party of Committees to Support Resistance – for Communism (CARC party), Italy
• Syrian Communist Party (Unified)
• Resistenza Populare, Italy
• Congolese Communist Party
• Union of political emigrants and political prisoners of Ukraine

The declaration remains open for socialist and anti-imperialist organisations to sign, and the number of signatories is steadily growing as the imperialist war drive intensifies and spreads and the Platform continues its work.