The European Communist Action (ECA) convened in Istanbul in a conference that is hosted by the Communist Party of Turkey, on the second anniversary of the imperialist war in Ukraine. Delegates from the Party of Labour of Austria, the Communist Workers’ Party – for Peace and Socialism (Finland), Communist Revolutionary Party of France, Communist Party of Greece, the Workers Party of Ireland, Communist Front (Italy), New Communist Party of the Netherlands, Communist Party of the Workers of Spain, Communist Party of Sweden, Swiss Communist Party, Union of Communists of Ukraine, and Communist Party of Turkey participated in the conference entitled “Two Years Since the Imperialist War in Ukraine: The Experience and Conclusions of the Communists”.
The opening speech of the conference was made by TKP General Secretary Kemal Okuyan. Okuyan pointed out that the conflicts going on all over the world, including the war in Ukraine, should be handled by placing them on a class basis and said the following:
“The war in Ukraine has been going on for two years. This war is not so different from the wars and conflicts going on in other parts of the world with different intensities while containing many peculiarities. Although they may have various forms, the armed conflicts in the Caucasus, the Middle East and Africa are all related to the rivalries and contradictions within the imperialist system. Even the Israeli barbarism against Gaza, which can be seen as a new phase of the decades-long aggression against the Palestinian people, inevitably becomes part of these contradictions and makes the events in Gaza part of the complex struggle within the imperialist system.
Unlike those who evaluate all these conflicts independently of each other and only in terms of their visible, current dimensions, communists must address the issues by situating them on a class basis. This obligation does not mean ignoring the peculiarities of the events and stuffing all tensions into the same sack. But we need to know that the working-class movement, in the past and today, has made countless mistakes by absolutizing the peculiarities of the concrete agenda it confronts, and has created excuses for reformist stances that were often thought to be very brilliant and clever.”
Kemal Okuyan drew attention to the stances by working-class parties in France and Germany in the early 20th century in favor of the war and emphasized that “it is true that NATO is expanding eastwards and neo-Nazis are settling in state institutions in Ukraine, but false political conclusions should not be drawn from these facts.” He added that although conceptual rigor is extremely important, imperialism cannot be reduced to the USA or a foreign policy practice, that one can never speak of a monolithic imperialism free of contradictions and conflicts, and that the fact that imperialism is a hierarchical structure must be constantly kept on the agenda.
Underlining that the distortion of the concept of imperialism is a result of the weakening of the idea of the actuality of the revolution, Okuyan stated that the struggle against US imperialism and NATO would be meaningless if it was not based on a revolutionary strategy. He stated that when a class movement is not organized around a consistent and revolutionary program against exploitation, the struggle against US imperialism or NATO is left to the mercy of the bourgeois governments’ maneuvers at the war or the bargaining table.
The representatives of the parties of the ECA pointed out the overt and covert material support given to Ukraine by the governments in their countries, the risk of the war turning into a regional war and the current tasks they are undertaking in the face of this fact.
The conference also emphasized that an anti-imperialist stances lack of a class perspective would have harmful results. It was pointed out that this could result in taking a position on the side of the bourgeoisie of some countries within the imperialist system.
The conference ended with the preparations for a joint statement to be published in the upcoming days. The conference, where a fruitful discussion was held, is expected to strengthen the participating parties’ struggles in their own countries and a class-based struggle against imperialism in the international level.