Founding documents of the AIL – Anti-Imperialist League

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Founding Documents of the Anti-Imperialist League ¹

2024
CALL FOR PUBLIC OPINION FROM THE ANTIIMPERIALIST LEAGUE FOUNDING COMMITTEE

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! ANTI-IMPERIALIST LEAGUE

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 maximize 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 laborers 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 centers, 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 emphasize 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 organize 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 realize 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 emphasizes 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 mobilizing 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 anti-imperialism 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, laborers, 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 realize 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 characterized by resistance to the exploitation, values, political hegemony and ideology of imperialism.

The AIL emphasizes 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, defense 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 emphasizes education, cultural development and environmental protection. It addresses issues such as child labor, the destruction of habitats and the right to housing, as it regards these as consequences of imperialist exploitation.

The AIL opposes the widespread privatization 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 emphasizes how environmental problems are linked to imperialist exploitation. It directly advocates anti-imperialist goals in the environmental movement and prioritizes 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 utilize 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 realizing 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 centralize 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, labor 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 laborers 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 labor 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 loveable 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 anti-imperialist barricade of the poor and oppressed peoples against all forms of imperialist aggression.

With this perspective, we invite all antiimperialist forces to organize 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!

ORGANIZING 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)

IDEOLOGICAL-POLITICAL CONTENT OF THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST LEAGUE

Imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism, is a monopolistic, decaying, dying, and determined by its own contradictions, it is an inevitably destructive system of oppression and exploitation. It is a system based on the striving for the greatest profit for monopoly capital. Deepening and widespread exploitation, unlimited destruction of nature and of the natural habitats of living beings, support of all kinds of reactionaries, creation and maintenance of hostilities between peoples, prevention of self-determination and national independence of the peoples, endless unjust wars for division and redivision of market, energy, cheap labor and raw material resources areas, the massive increases of resources for war budgets, all that serve only one purpose: to ensure at any cost the maintenance of the rule of the monopolies over the world. Since the transition from free competition capitalism to monopoly capitalism, until today, two major imperialist wars of wars of redivision of the world have been fought in order to keep up this system, costing millions of lives, and dozens of regional wars have been witnessed, either through direct occupation by the imperialists or under their leadership, or through their provocation.

The first imperialist war of world division costed 40 million lives, mainly in Europe. The second imperialist war of wars of redivision of the world costed nearly 100 million, more than 30 of which were from the Soviet Union when defeating fascism in the Great Patriotic War. During the second half of the 20th century and in the 21th century, the United States has occupied and waged aggression wars in Korea, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Cuba, Haiti, Panama, Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Libya, Syria, Philippines, Central Africa, Iraq and Afghanistan, among others. Only related to the US aggression of in the Greater Middle East since 2001, the deaths are estimated in 1 million and indirect deaths are estimated in 3.5 million. The US lackey, Israel, has occupied Palestine and killed thousands of Palestinians, nearly 5,000 Palestinians are imprisoned as of March 2023 and thousands have been displaced. The European imperialist countries have occupied – either unilaterally or in temporary imperialist alliances – the nations and countries of Ireland, Egypt, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Yemen, Mali, Central African Republic, Ivory coast, Chad, Morocco among others. Considering only between 2014-2018, France alone has occupied – with 4,000 French troops – Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Chad, causing thousands of deaths and millions of displaced people and masses of refugees. Russian imperialism – after the collapse of social-imperialism (a collapse that was also accelerated by its imperialist occupation of Afghanistan, Czechoslovakia, among others) – has invaded Moldavia, Georgia and Ukraine. The list of imperialist military aggression falls short of all the devastation, death, rapes, and displacements caused – and all of it in the interest of the most rapacious imperialist plunder. China has participated in imperialist aggression to Mali and continues to occupy areas of the Philippines. All these occupations and aggression have been confronted with a fierce and heroic resistance from the oppressed peoples and nations.

In the current time period, these wars and military aggression continue. Unjust wars and occupations, while being the consequence of the domination policy of the imperialists, also mean the creation of enormous profit for the war industry. The total global sales of weapons and military services of the biggest 100 war industry companies in the world for the year 2011 were 465.770 million dollars – 47 of which are USA companies that hoard 60% of the total sales. Imperialism is responsible for billions of people living under conditions of slavery and peoples being kept under oppression. The number of people affected by hunger has raised to 828 million in 2021 while the fortune of the top 10 billionaires could end poverty. The burden of all kinds of exploitation and brutality applied for the domination of finance capital is borne by the workers and toilers of the world and the oppressed peoples and nations. Billions of people are struggling to survive in the most difficult conditions and are subjected to the oppression of the imperialists and their lackeys.

Since the second imperialist war of redivision until today, the hegemonic power of the imperialist system is US-imperialism, and it is the main actor of all kinds of exploitation, plunder, unjust wars and occupations in the world. Due to the law of uneven development of capitalism, its position as the decisive hegemonic power is being eroded more and more and, although Chinese, Russian, British, German, French, etc. imperialism have a greater influence on the economic, political, and military parameters of the world than in the past, US-imperialism is still at the center of the imperialist system and is the main actor determining the course. On the other hand, parallel with the deepening contradictions between the imperialists, they are trying to consolidate their opposing positions by rallying their dependent forces behind them. Therefore, despite the contradictions between them, they form various economic, military, and political temporary alliances and agreements to ensure the continuity of the system and their own positions. As always, it is the workers, the poor and the oppressed peoples and nations of the world who are affected by the devastating consequences of the deepening contradictions and alliances between the imperialists and their lackeys.

The Great Socialist October Revolution of 1917 opened a wave of new-democratic and socialist revolutions, which achieved a third of the world’s population breaking away from the imperialist system, achieving the greatest development for the masses and proletariat ever seen in history. However, the restoration of capitalism in USSR and China paved the way for the continuation and increase of aggression against the workers and oppressed peoples and nations of the world. But the conditions that were relatively advantageous for the imperialists and their lackeys are coming to an end. The imperialist centers, propagating the “virtues” of the exploitation systems with the argument of being a “democratic regime”, are increasing the preponderance and authority of the repressive forces within of the bourgeois state day by day, both by law and de facto, due to the governmental problems created by the sharpening general crisis of capitalism, and are increasingly using state violence against the peoples and nations. While the armed forces themselves, as well as the police and gendarmerie, are confronted with the people, racist-fascist parties and organizations are being activated inside and outside the parliament, thus strengthening the reserve forces of the counterrevolution. The general crisis of the imperialist system and the deepening and spreading of contradictions lead the bourgeois states to make the means of violence more prominent, visible and practical. This is an indication of the sharpening of the class struggle and the fact that it will become harder in the coming periods and shows that the bourgeois sovereign states as well as in the States in the oppressed countries, are organizing themselves against their “gravediggers”.

As the crisis of capitalism deepens and the price paid by the peoples for it increases, the manipulations of the bourgeoisie against the peoples – Such as opportunist “left” governments, workers aristocracy and opportunists acting within unions and struggles, and misleading propaganda like the use of the pandemic to cover up the economic crisis – lose their effect more and more. Even in the central countries of the imperialist system, the working class and the oppressed masses are increasingly expressing their anger and resistance against the prevailing conditions by taking to the streets. Despite the enormous possibilities of oppression by the imperialists and their lackeys, the workers, peasants and oppressed peoples and nations, especially in Asia, Africa and Latin America, are carrying out great protests and resistances. These developments are the signs that a new revolutionary wave is maturing.

THE IDEOLOGICAL CONTENT OF THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST STRUGGLE

Our era is the era of imperialism and proletarian revolutions, and, despite temporary stalemates and retreats, revolution is the main tendency. This opposition and struggle are embodied in the brutal struggle between the proletariat, the most revolutionary class of our time, and the bourgeoisie, which is the source and carrier of all reactions in the world. The contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, the two most important opposing classes of our time, also has the characteristic of determining the outcome when the rule of the bourgeoisie, in its various shades, is thrown onto the scrapheap of history.

The ideology of the proletariat is a necessity in order to have a unified understanding of anti-imperialism and a line of struggle. Therefore, anti-imperialism and the anti-imperialist struggle must be defined by the ideological norms of the most revolutionary class of our time.

Any genuine and consistent anti-imperialist struggle is essentially an anti-capitalist struggle. Today’s capitalism is a monopoly capitalism, and without the struggle against the monopolies that sit at the center of the imperialist system and determine the system, there can be no anti-imperialist struggle.

In our time, the anti-imperialist struggle is also closely linked to the democratic struggle. The principles and values of democracy can no longer exist under the framework set by the bourgeoisie – which is now a reactionary class – and have acquired an integrity linked to the anti-imperialist character. This means a stronger integration of the democratic struggle and all the oppressed peoples and nations with the values, principles and political line of proletarian democracy. In this context, the democratic struggle on a world scale also gains its quality against the exploitation of imperialism – its worldview, its political hegemony and its ideological approach. This contradiction is bound to a consequent necessity. The political line of the proletariat also leads the struggle for democracy and freedom for the peoples against the obsolete and rotten bourgeoisie. To understand the democratic character of a movement, one must certainly look for it to some extent at its positioning against the imperialist system – this reveals its democratic side. However, the degree of proximity to proletarian democracy is what makes clear the anti-imperialist characteristics and structure of this movement. A characteristic of the age of imperialism and proletarian revolutions finds a basis and gains importance in this relationship. We should meet, define and handle the national and social movements and democratic and progressive views and struggles, with this approach. Therefore, it is important for the proletariat to lead the anti-imperialist front with a program that can mobilize and channel all the movements of the oppressed and exploited, struggling to give consistency to the democratic struggle by bringing it closer to the proletarian democracy.

Crucial for this task is to combat the action of revisionism and the work of opportunism within the struggles of the oppressed classes and nations that seek to channel the anti-imperialist struggles to serve imperialism and reaction. It is even more valid what Lenin has said that the struggle against imperialism in only phrase-mongering if not indissolubly linked to the struggle against opportunism. In most cases, the petty bourgeoisie, the peasantry, the students, the teachers, the intellectuals, and other sectors, firmly stand against the dictates of imperialism and their lackeys and are willing to accept the proletarian democracy, it’s crucial that the proletariat struggles to gain this sector and always maintain the principle, combating the influence of revisionism, opportunism, as well as decadent imperialist ideology and politics.

THE CLASS CONTENT AND FUNDAMENTAL POINTS OF THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST STRUGGLE

While the anti-imperialist struggle in imperialist-capitalist countries is a part of the socialist revolutionary struggle, in semi-colonial, semi-feudal countries it is a part of the people’s democratic revolution.

Therefore, in the era of imperialism and proletarian revolutions, in both general types of countries, the anti-imperialist struggle, although the concrete content differs, essentially leads to the same goal: to ensure the liberation of the proletariat and the oppressed peoples and nations through the defeat of the imperialists and their lackeys.

The proletariat is the main force of the anti-imperialist struggle. The proletariat is the only class capable of liberating the whole people with itself. Therefore, all anti-people economic, political, military, cultural and ideological reaction originating from and produced by the ruling system will be possible only with the ideological hegemony of the proletariat. The real liberation of all oppressed classes and strata and oppressed peoples and nations will be possible only through the leadership of the proletariat.

When we talk about imperialism, we talk about capitalism. What must be understood when one is against imperialism is that one is essentially against capitalism. The stage of imperialism is the transformation of capitalism into a world system. Unlike in the previous stage periods of free competition capitalism, in this stage, monopolistic finance capital – that is, the fusion of industrial and banking capital – becomes the main form and reaches the remotest corners of the world through great movements and flexibility. While in the previous stage phase of capitalism other regions were mainly commodity and market areas, this continued, but through the export of capital, which has come to the foreground, a deeper and wider network of exploitation was created. The world was divided into a handful of imperialist countries on the one hand, and oppressed nations on the other. The imperialist countries are the main exporters of financial capital and dominate the vast majority of nations and the whole world. In the oppressed nations imperialism unfolds capitalism of a bureaucratic type, based on unprecedented super-exploitation of the overwhelming majority of the masses in these nations, being unable to develop the productive forces and destroy pre-capitalistic forms existing in these countries, evolving them tied to and at the service of the deeper and wider network of imperialism. If capitalism cannot be understood in its full depth and results, the nature and consequences of imperialism cannot be properly understood. Capital export, with its profitable and parasitic character, is penetrating further and further into social production around the world and causing great decay. It is penetrating ever more deeply into the network of capitalist production relations in other parts of the world, making them even more dependent. It further suppresses independent medium and small-scale production.

Without being against capitalism or its higher stage, imperialism and its effects and the direct causes that produced them, and without waging a total struggle against it, but only being against a result or a form or policy that appears here and there, may be meaningful in itself, but cannot be defined as anti-imperialism in a complete sense. In fact, a view and a style of action that consciously or unconsciously separates the phenomenon of anti-imperialism from the main cause, and limits itself to the results, leads to the continuation of capitalism and limits the struggle with it. If one opposes the expropriation of indigenous peoples by the interests of international monopolies and their local lackeys, positioning oneself in the anti-war movement, as part of the environmental movements to anti-fascism, one is doing something good, but one remains fighting the single problem one is targeting without going beyond.

The anti-imperialist struggle must lead social and national liberation struggles against imperialism, its collaborators and lackeys in a revolutionary way, deal with all social problems and contradictions within the framework of the class struggle and does not go to the source of the problem monopolistic capitalism and direct itself against the political power, and makes its solidarity mainly with such struggles, otherwise it cannot be anti-imperialist. Because the source of all kinds of exploitation and oppression, poverty, misery, and injustice are the monopolistic capitalism system. The owners of this reactionary system are the monopoly bourgeoisie and its lackeys and collaborators. Therefore, independence, freedom and peace cannot be possible without ending the economic, social, political, ideological, cultural and military domination of these reactionary classes, and without the power of the people under the leadership of the proletariat through smashing the states, which are the tools of the rulers of this reaction.

THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST STRUGGLE OF THE PEOPLES OF SEMI-COLONIAL COUNTRIES

The process of development of capitalism into imperialism also brought the contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie to express itself in another contradiction, it brought forth another contradiction. This is the contradiction between imperialism and oppressed nations and oppressed peoples. The cruelty and plunder of the imperialist system can most clearly be seen in is the hegemonic structures they have created in the colonial and semi-colonial countries either directly or through their servants. For the imperialists, the exploitation of colonial and semi-colonial countries, which make up the overwhelming majority of the world’s population, is crucial. The ability of the imperialists to deal with the oppression of the working class and toilers in their own countries is only possible at the expense of the brutal exploitation of the peoples and of colonial and semi-colonial countries. Because of this reality, the struggles that have been and are being waged for the resolution of the contradiction between imperialism and the oppressed peoples and nations in favor of the oppressed peoples and nations are very important for the overthrow of the imperialist system. Especially with the October Revolution of 1917, the struggles of the oppressed nations became part and allies of the world proletarian revolution:

“2) The liberation movement of the oppressed peoples and the proletarian revolution. In solving the national question Leninism proceeds from the following theses:

a) the world is divided into two camps: the camp of a handful of civilized nations, which possess finance capital and exploit the vast majority of the population of the globe; and the camp of the oppressed and exploited peoples in the colonies and dependent countries, which constitute the majority;
b) the colonies and the dependent countries, oppressed and exploited by finance capital, constitute a vast reserve and a very important source of strength for imperialism;
c) the revolutionary struggle of the oppressed peoples in the dependent and colonial countries against imperialism is the only road that leads to their emancipation from oppression and exploitation;
d) the most important colonial and dependent countries have already taken the path of the national liberation movement, which cannot but lead to the crisis of the world capitalism;
e) the interests of the proletarian movement in the developed countries and of the national liberation movement in the colonies call for the union of these two forms of the revolutionary movement into a common front against the common enemy, against imperialism;
f) the victory of the working class in the developed countries and the liberation of the oppressed peoples from the yoke of imperialism are impossible without the formation and the consolidation of a common revolutionary front;
g) the formation of a common revolutionary front is impossible unless the proletariat of the oppressor nations renders direct and determined support to the liberation movement of the oppressed peoples against the imperialism of its “own country,” for “no nation can be free if it oppresses other nations” (Engels);
h) this support implies the upholding defense and implementation of the slogan of the right of nations to secession, to independent existence as states;
i) unless this slogan is implemented, the union and collaboration of nations within a single world economic system, which is the material basis for the victory of world socialism, cannot be brought about;
j) this union can only be voluntary, arising on the basis of mutual confidence and fraternal relations among peoples.” (The Foundations of Leninism, J. Stalin)

Again, from a similar standpoint, we see clearly in Comrade Mao’s words that the struggle of colonial and semi-colonial peoples with national and independence struggles and the struggle of the proletariat for political power and unity against the common enemy are important and necessary in the struggle against imperialism:

“From this it can be seen that there are two kinds of world revolution, the first belonging to the bourgeois or capitalist category. The era of this kind of world revolution is long past, having come to an end as far back as 1914 when the first imperialist world war broke out, and more particularly in 1917 when the October Revolution took place. The second kind, namely, the proletarian-socialist world revolution, thereupon began. This revolution has the proletariat of the capitalist countries as its main force and the oppressed peoples of the colonies and semi-colonies as its allies. No matter what classes, parties or individuals in an oppressed nation join the revolution, and no matter whether they themselves are conscious of the point or understand it, so long as they oppose imperialism, their revolution becomes part of the proletarian-socialist world revolution and they become its allies.” (Mao Zedong, On New Democracy, Bd2/351)

When we talk about an imperialist state or the imperialist system in general, we are actually talking about the rule of monopolies. Monopolies dominate either directly or indirectly in all countries, imperialist-capitalist states and in colonial or semi-colonial and semi-feudal states. In imperialist-capitalist states, the monopolies dominate directly, in colonies and semi-colonies, they dominate through comprador-bureaucratic bourgeoisie and big landowners.

In colonial, semi-colonial and semi-feudal countries, the imperialists rely on the most reactionary classes in terms of politics, economy, culture, etc., and they secure and maintain their dominance through these reactionary classes. The fact that capitalist development cannot complete its normal development – due to the domination of imperialism, and that feudalism maintains its existence in various forms and degrees in these countries, – makes the struggle for the People’s Democratic Revolution, which includes the national independence struggles, directly intertwined with the anti-imperialist struggle and the removal of obstacles to the development of the productive forces. In these countries, the peasantry, and especially the poor and landless peasantry, constitutes the main force of the anti-imperialist struggle. The anti-imperialist struggle and the anti-feudal struggle are so much intertwined that they cannot be dealt with independently.

In semi-colonial, semi-feudal countries, we see the regulations made according to the interests of the monopolies in all agricultural policies applied both at the national and international levels. The concreteness itself is the organization of agriculture according to the plans and calculations determined by the imperialist monopolies and the arrangement of agricultural land according to the needs of the monopolies, especially in the semi-colonial countries. The result of this reality is that the production of types of products, other than the traditional types of products, is dictated according to the needs of the monopolies, both by sheer force and by laws, and millions of peasants break away from production and flock to the districts and cities. The concentration of landownership, where the 10% of the landowners own and control 60% of the world’s farmland, in Latin America and South Asia reaching the value near 80% ; the multinationals increasing large-scales acquisition and spoliation of land ; Landlords and the land banking of parasitic capital with its unbearable debt-systems imposed on the peasantry, as well as the imperialist pillage to control natural resources; all of this highly exacerbates the struggle for land by the peasantry, and sharpens the contradiction between semi-feudality and the masses. Therefore, the poor and landless peasants – which even with underestimated data are said to constitute over 40% of the world‘s population- constitute the important force of the anti-imperialist struggle intertwined with the people’s Democratic Revolution in these countries.

Limiting anti-imperialism to targeting any imperialist country in the colonies and semi-colonies is to be against an invasion or against this or that imperialist power, but it is not equivalent to being anti-imperialist on a total and consistent basis. Even though there is an anti-imperialist side, if we reduce anti-imperialism to anti-US-Imperialism or any other anti-imperialist power, as is often done, it does not mean that there is a complete anti-imperialism.

Programme and process

Anti-imperialists of the World, unite!

THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST LEAGUE AS AN INTERNATIONAL UNITED CENTRAL ORGANISATION OF THE STRUGGLE AGAINST IMPERIALISM

INTRODUCTION:

The main cause of hunger, deep and widespread poverty, endless unjust wars of redistribution is the ruling imperialist (monopoly capitalist) system that dominates our world and in which we live, that has led the whole of humanity into a great decay, that continues its existence through brutal and unbridled exploitation, oppression and plunder. Either humanity will be doomed with all the negative consequences that this brutal system of exploitation entails, or it will send this rotten system to the dustbin of history where it belongs. There is no other way and no intermediate solution. For this reason, the Anti-Imperialist League defines itself as part of the class struggle, representing one of the two antagonistic lines: The line it represents includes the defense of the just and legitimate demands of the workers and laborers of the world, the poor and landless peasantry, the oppressed peoples and nations. The Anti-Imperialist League is no opposition which only complains about the existing but strives to change it and positions itself as an important force in this struggle.

The anti-imperialist political line will only have a coherent character and mobilize for the revolution if it is subordinated to the scientific ideology of the proletariat.

Apart from the working class, the anger and resistance of the peasantry, the urban petty bourgeoisie, the oppressed nations and other laboring groups against imperialism will undoubtedly not be unified on class grounds. The social and national liberation movements representing these classes, the environmental movements, the peasant organisations, the women’s movements, the youth movements that oppose the destruction of imperialism will never have the consistency of the political line of the proletariat. Therefore, it will be a historical task of the proletariat to make the anti-imperialist forces, which do not agree with the various forms of organization, means of struggle and, of course, with its political line, transform indecision into determination, inconsistency into consistency. On this axis, the working class has the task of forming a political line that unites its allies, who for different class, social and economic reasons wage fierce, consequent and determined resistance against imperialism.

CHARACTER, PROGRAM, ORGANIZATIONAL PRINCIPLES AND FUNCTIONING OF THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST LEAGUE

Name: ANTI-IMPERIALIST LEAGUE (AIL)
The nature of the Anti-imperialist League:

The Anti-imperialist League is an anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, anti-fascist, anti-feudal and anti-bureaucratic-capitalist formation. It stands against imperialism, fascism, racism, discrimination and all kinds of reaction.
The Anti-imperialist League regards the imperialist system as the source of all the problems we face. Therefore, its struggle is not limited to the fight against the visible negative consequences, but also aims to eliminate the causes of these consequences.
The Anti-imperialist League is based on the policy “from the masses to the masses” and adopts the method of criticism-self-criticism to hold itself accountable to the masses as a necessity of this policy.
The organizing principles of the Anti-imperialist League

The Anti-imperialist League is based on the principle of democratic centralism and this principle is decisive for all its activities.
The Anti-imperialist League is open to the participation of all organizations and individuals who define themselves as anti-imperialist and accept the program and principles of the AIL. The AIL accepts as members all individuals and organizations that accept the principle of democratic centralism and the program of the AIL.
In accordance with the principle of democratic centralism, the members of the Anti-imperialist League shall participate in the decision-making process and in the definition of the political and practical guidelines of the AIL.
The members of the Anti-imperialist League take over the decisions taken within the framework of democratic centralism and the practical work and act with a sense of responsibility for the success of the political, practical and organizational work decided upon.

Organizational structure of the Anti-imperialist League

The highest organ of the Anti-imperialist League is the AIL Congress. The program, the organizational way, the functioning and the working style of the AIL are determined by the AIL Congress.
The Congress of the Anti-imperialist League shall meet every two years.
In the period between the two Congresses, the Anti-imperialist League shall be led and guided by the Central Leadership Committee of the AIL, which shall be chaired by the President of the AIL and formed by elections according to the principle of democratic centralism.
The Anti-imperialist League seeks to set up sub-committees at regional level, in parallel with the expansion of the countries in which it is organized. In the current membership structure, there are Latin American and European AIL regional committees.
The chairpersons of the regional committees of the Anti-imperialist League are part of the central governing body of the AIL.
Commissions are formed on the topics contained in the program of the Anti-imperialist League. These commissions shall work in coordination with the AIL’s central governing body.

Goals of the Anti-imperialist League (AIL):

The Anti-imperialist League is an anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, anti-fascist, anti-feudal and anti-bureaucratic-capitalist formation. It stands against imperialism, fascism, racism, discrimination and all forms of reaction.
The Anti-imperialist League advocates the greatest possible unity against imperialism and fights for its realization.
The Anti-imperialist League opposes unjust and reactionary wars. The AIL defends an attitude in accordance with the principle of proletarian internationalism against the war of occupation and redivision waged by the imperialist powers among themselves and by their lackeys.
The Anti-imperialist League: It is against all kinds of military and economic alliances (NATO, IMF, WB, UN, BRICS, EU…) formed by the imperialists and reactionary ruling classes against each other and against the peoples. It considers the struggle against these alliances as one of the most important goals of the anti-imperialist struggle.
The Anti-imperialist League recognizes the struggles for social and national independence against imperialism and its henchmen and strongly supports revolutionary liberation struggles, especially people’s wars and national liberation wars against imperialist occupations. The Anti-imperialist League is a supporter and part of the struggle of the world proletariat and oppressed peoples against the ideological, political, economic, military and cultural oppression and aggression of the imperialists and their lackeys.
The Anti-imperialist League stands by the communist, revolutionary and democratic prisoners and prisoners of war who are fighting for social, national and democratic liberation and supports them by all means.
The Anti-imperialist League fights against the apparatuses of violence (military, police, secret service, etc.) of the ruling class, which have been functionalized for the purpose of oppressing and controlling the peoples, and against all forms of reaction that serve the purpose to dominate the lives of the masses. For imperialism is reactionary from beginning to end. The nature of this reactionary system produces economic, political and social crises. The crisis-producing character of the imperialist system inevitably develops the tendency of society to become militarized and fascist.
The Anti-imperialist League recognizes the current and historical task of the working class. It opposes policies that exacerbate the exploitation of the working class and aim to disperse it and render it powerless against capital by forcing disorganization. It supports the class unions in which the economic and democratic rights and demands of the working class are expressed and in which the struggle for these demands is organized jointly. It endeavors to realize the unity and class solidarity of the class trade unions at national and international level. It involves the struggle to make class unity dominant within unions that capitulate and agree with the bourgeoisie.
The Anti-imperialist League defends the rights of poor and landless peasants and agricultural workers against feudal, semi-feudal and capitalist-imperialist exploitation and plunder. Anti-Imperialist League adopts the slogan “Land for the Landless” and the land revolution that will eliminate semi-feudal and imperialist rule over all peasants. It supports struggles to destroy all large landownership through revolutionary means.
The Anti-imperialist League fights against discrimination, racism and national oppression by the imperialists and the submissive, collaborating ruling classes. It unconditionally defends the right to self-determination of national minorities and oppressed nations.
The Anti-imperialist League opposes the suppression and disregard of religious and sectarian beliefs and sees this as part of the struggle for democracy.
The Anti-imperialist League: supports all efforts for the emancipation of women workers, toilers and poor peasants who live under patriarchal oppression, and class exploitation. It believes that the real emancipation of women can be realized through the emancipation of all the oppressed, and all its efforts are aimed at achieving this goal.
The Anti-imperialist League opposes the suppression and oppression of persons based on their sexual inclination and sees this as part of the struggle for democracy.
The Anti-imperialist League regards the youth of the people as a very important part of the anti-imperialist struggle and endeavors to get them actively involved in the anti-imperialist struggle.
The Anti-imperialist League defends the right to education in general. In particular, it fights for the removal of obstacles to access to education for oppressed and poor youth. The AIL is in favors of education taking place within the framework of scientific principles and in the service of the people. It rejects education as a commodity.
The Anti-imperialist League fights for the free development of the democratic culture of all peoples and nations and especially supports all efforts to develop the national culture of oppressed nations.
The Anti-imperialist League defines the fight for the prohibition of child labor as one of its most important tasks.
The Anti-imperialist League fights for the right to a healthy, livable home, which is one of the most basic human rights, and supports the struggles for the realization of this right.
The Anti-imperialist League recognizes and fights for the unconditional and free access of all oppressed classes and strata to all health-related rights as one of the fundamental rights
The Anti-imperialist League fights for the protection of migrants from discrimination, chauvinist racism, persecution and oppression in the countries of origin. The AIL recognizes migration caused by imperialist destruction as a right and at the same time fights against the causes and consequences of imperialist-induced migration.
It fights against the destruction of the natural environment, against imperialist mega-projects that destroy the traditional habitats of farmers and indigenous peoples, and against all forms of oppression of indigenous peoples.

1 Footnotes

Prepared by Maoism Library from https://ail-red.com/ ↩