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IMPERIALISTIC WARS AND THE WORKING-CLASS MOVEMENT
This Document was adopted at the 15th Congress (24.05.2003) of the Communist Workers' Party of Finland
Part I
The war that broke out against Irak in March 2003 touched the whole world widely and consequently. The USA invasion with its most modern weapons known in history including its 400 000 armed sodiers are now being followed by occupation of Irak. New war plans and countries to be occupied are ready waiting in the drawers of the imperialists.
New war machinaries have been produced and military plans in putting these machinaries into actions have been prepared all these years since the II world war. In every developed capitalist country the bourgeoisie and the socialdemocratic parties have equipped the armies for imperialistic wars.Their aim is to snatch for themselves a bigger part of the global raw materials, markets and power. However, this would not be possible without using forces, since the global riches, territories and markets have already once been divided. This is the reason why there is a need of armed forces so as to carry out the redistribution of the world.
Appropriation for armaments, including the outbreak of war and the continuing of various forms of occupation in Irak today are always clothed with false symbols. It is said that in war one defends its fatherland, national security, democracy, freedom and religion against tyrants. By using these false symbols the economy including the politicians of USA have since the II World War been constantly terrorizing the world.
Millions of people have been killed in the imperialistic wars run by USA. Invalids and other victims of war sum up to ten millions.In these wars destroyed have been properties including irrecoverable amount of the evolutionary history of human culture and mankind. So happened it also during "precision bombings" in Irak.
Imperialist stage of capitalism is living the eve of its collapse
While observing the development of capitalism one cannot avoid the conclusion, that capitalism has reached its new and more dangerous stage by concentrating capital and also by uniting armaments.This is the reason why in the capitalist coun-tries capitalism leads to continous increase of crisis, conflicts, including military.
The most important issue of today is to cut this development. Therefore the workers' movement must withdraw from governments that support imperialism and the policy of globalization. Not even the large group of young peace activits will succeed in obtaining their well-meaning goal if they don't know the main reasons for wars - the imperialistic stage of capitalism, from where wars spawn.
The attack on Irak and the new possible aggressive and promised warfares cannot be considered as e.g. religious wars, even though religion has been used in defending the reasons to wars. It neither can be a reason in defending democracy, freedom nor fatherland. The only scientific explanatory reason for Irak war and num- ber other wars - including the both World Wars - is the corruptive stage of the development of capitalism.
Consequently, the workers movement has to draw the following conclusion, when looking at the question from the standpoints of nations, religion and nationalities, that the war that broke out in the Middle East and even all wars to come must end with defeat for the most reactionary and dangerous terrorist government of USA, the most evil terrorist tyrannizing other countries and making a reach for imperialistic aims,while other capitalist countries at the same time are fighting among them-selves for priorities in different parts of the world.
The workers' movement and imperialistic capitalism are not teammates
Being aware of this communists are working so that the working class, the peace loving people of the society and the youth will understand the main reasons for wars.Along with wars the amount of victims will increase inevitably which will help the working class and antiwar activits to understand that capitalism as a system is to be made history so that all the nations of the world may achieve a secured democratic future.These changes seem today difficult, because many national workers' parties and particularly the trade unions are bound to their bourgeois governments.
After year 1945 Finland went through a peaceful and democratic reconstruction stage which lasted for 50 years. After the II World War the communist movement of Finland got their legal rights to function. Having support of the working class their suggested reforms gave political strength to the working class which forced the bourgeoisie and socialdemocratic functionaries to make concessions by fulfilling these proposals.
Simultaneously, during this "relatively" peaceful period of development an atmosphere of satisfaction came into being, like the possibility of gradual and peacefull changes in the main structure of the society in accordance with the interest of the workers. This was justified by convincing the workers that the capitalist system has become human, though this justification was even later knocked down by the attack on Irak. At the same time among the workers appeared a range of petit bourgeois bureaucratic accompanists. They tried on their part to explain that the bourgeois society is changing socially more in an analogical direction and that class struggle is becoming history and that the working class is simultaneously becoming a cooperative companion having the same prosperity interests in the society as the bourgeoisie.
They are trying to convince the workers to believe that their ideology does neither substantionally nor mentally anymore correspond with their present living standard. These same forces have succeeded in making workers companions of the capitalist society. For example, on the eve of the II World War an "engagement"-agreement in Finland had been announced between the trade unions and capitalists.
The trade union in Finland today is not funtioning in favour of the working class nor their interests. And this has caused an increase of unemployment up to 500 000 and an increase of part-time workers up to one million. The workers' share of the national economy is declining while the capital profit has continuously gone up, and this capital, being tax free, has been invested abroad up to an amount of 11 million euros per year. A final blow is recently being prepared to quash the reforms which had been achieved by struggling during the years after 1945.
The representatives of the workers' movement while being members of governments are rejecting the interests of the workers and instead approve the bourgeois "reformpolicy" - which includes appropriations for weapons to defend and sup- port the national bourgeois society - and thereby deny the solid facts that armament industries never benefit workers. Their legend that armament industry keeps up employment is falsehood, because the same amount of investment capital, if used to satisfy the peoples' needs, would bring considerably more employment.
Along with the fall of childrens' educational standard the expenses of public health service are being cut down and increased has the amount of people and their families, who are living in poverity with the aid of social security. Instead obtained have been 126 Leopard-tanks, airmissiles for Hornet-planes and the construction of the Helsinki naval port in Vuosaari, all of these which disaggrees with the interest of our people.
The workers' movement of Finland is part of the international workers' movement, and according to their interests they need no wars against each other, because war favours the interest of the capitalists. The trade union movement is an example of how wrong this is understood. It had completely withdrawn itself when the imperialistic aggressive war broke out in Irak and when the government and parliament of Finland made no demands to stop this war, but on the contrary increased the export and purchase of arms and thus took part in war operations and war preparations.
The only reasonable demand is to struggle against the imperialistic war so that the world can achieve its true freedom and peace. Only those, whose aims are tied to the bourgeois policy, are ready to deny these facts, even though they may receive only some overleft crumbs of the increased capitalists' profits. Being linked with the national bourgeoisie this small privileged group leads to a humble approval of the "bourgeois legitimacy",to confidence towards the bourgeois policy and to mis- trust towards the workers, in other words to alliance with the bourgeoisie against the exploited workers.
Even though some "radicals" have been given the floor in the parliament doesn't change this fact a bit. These speeches are neccessary coulisses to sway the people to believe that by sitting in a bourgeois government there is every possibility to have affect on its policy. It's worthwhile for the bourgeoisie to grease the palms of these "leaders"of the workers, since the gigantic profits will continue to grow. This bourgeoisified upper range - by their way of living, workplaces and incomes - has started to adapt itself to the bourgeois ideology.
This upper range of the working class has been the most important supporter of the bourgeois. Among them you may find proper bourgeois agents - like the former presidents and functionaries of the Communist Party of Finland (CPF), who had led the party to bankruptcy, but also workers, farmers and intellectuals, which are being today openly and indirectly bribed by thousands of strings. The working people, pensioners and youth - because of these obsequious behaviours - are being disappointed in the parties and trade unions and for this reason among them has spread an indifference in participating in the activities of the workers' organi-zations and the elections.
One might weigh, that along with the outbreak of war, many saw that it was not enough to adjust the bourgeois policy against peoples' interests, but that it's time to make a thorough change. Therefore it's neccessary to work for peace. Activity for peace will lead to victory in favour of the workers' interests.
What had been aggreed upon when European Union was set up
It's impossible with the help of reform policy to balance the development of economy in different countries. Attempts to restore the disturbed equilibrium lead to economic crisis and to political wars. Therefore temporal agreements between countries and big monopol capitalists are being drawn up. European Union is an example of such agreements.
And what has been agreed on? Only, how to protect in Europe, when the violent redistribution of the world is to come, the interests of the European imperialistic capitalism. First of all into question comes the taking over the raw-materials and markets from former Soviet Union and the former countries of the Warsaw-Pact. But also the USA imperialism have equal aims in this division. And so the conflict between the capitalist blocs is growing up to an acute stage.
This was obvious during the Irak war. This question brings forth in a rather fast tempo new examples, how the capitalist system is prepared to continue to redivide the world by means of forces. The USA is forming an alliance, which covers the whole world beyond EU and UN. Qualified are such European countries like England and Poland and the door is kept open even for other European countires. Be- sides Poland, also other countries of the former Warsaw-pact are being involved in the USA's imperialistic plans in using military forces.
The plans of France and Germany in developing their own military forces is a clear example of how European capitalism is ready to act so as to counterbalance the USA activities. We may now raise some questions, like - is the world moving with an accelerated spead towards larger military actions?This also concerns Nato. USA tries by organizing and leading the imperialistic military forces to protect its own sphere of power, economy and market in Europe.
This contradiction makes a big problem for EU and USA. This is the reason why the workers' movement in Finland should warn their people and demand their country to withdraw from European Union and from all cooperative plans with Nato. The workers' movement in Europe should reject without any doubts the plans of the capitalists in making their workers and citizens be cannon fodders for their battlefields and victims of imperialistic capitalism.
Unfortunately, the results of the elections gave authority to the parliament of Finland to continue to cooperate with the European imperialistic capitalism on terms dictated by latter. Surprising is that the Leftunion-party of Finland openly supports the transfering of the power of decisions over to the European most largest capitalist alliance.The leadership of the present Communist Party of Finland (CPF), which was established in 1997, also has approved the actions of the European im-perialistic forces. By taking part in the EU elections a false image of the true character of EU is being given to the citizens, including the support to develope EU into a federal state and military alliance. It is also most peculiar that the Moscow-correspondent of the CPF-party organ "Tiedonantaja" is supporting the imperialistic policy of capitalism and doing so is rejecting Lenin's widely known work: "Imperialism - the highest stage of capitalism".
The anti-EU "Alternative forces"-party of Finland took indeed part in the election campaign with its own mottos, but from a nationalism and not an anti-capitalism point of view. While, the president of the Green's Union organization of Finland by heightening globalization forces up to the military level has thus supported the military plans of the capitalist society,which only proves that the "greens" with their support are ready to increase the existing international ills.
What kind of mistakes do appear, when the imperialistic aggressive war is given a definition - not on the basis of classes - but on nationalism of the the national bourgeois? The revival of nationalism among the Kurdish people is an example of such, which had led their leaders to unity with the USA army against the Irak people and even their own. The future may give some Kurdish leaders USA capitalist's rewards, but to the Kurdish people it will bring slavery throughout the whole area in the Middle-East.
The attack on Irak revealed the beginning of a new ever more violent redistribution of the world by imperialistic capitalism
The attack on Irak openly unmasked the attitude of different capitalist countries to this war, since opposite were their economical interests. It even reflected the differences between the countries inside EU. Contradictory were the economical and political interests of Germany, France and Russia to the absolute imperialistic aims of USA and therefore UN was not able to make unanimous decisions on of- fence.
Countries like England, Spain and Italy, who had lost their colonies, supported the redistribution and the imperialistic war of USA so as to get some crumbs from the robberies made. It created difficulties for the socialdemocrats in England, but not for the conservative governments in Italy and Spain, who gave their firm support.
The governments of the former Warsaw-Pact countries, who gave their support to the USA operations, has to be looked at in the following way: in these countries by the help of USA came into power the economic and political forces which were in power before the II World War and controlled these countries by fascist terrorist methods and violence. A reason which will create in the future big problems for EU, because the new members will push EU far more in the reactionary direction. The present members in the Finnish parliament, representing the workers' movement, should at least now wake up to understand that EU will not be a union of citizens. On the contrary, it will be a temporary military and financial union which will defend the interests of imperialistic capitalism alone.
War crimials are to be sentenced
The conquest and occupation of Irak and the events after these operations are a sign of imperialistic aggression to conquer other foreign "fatherlands", to consolidate power and to grasp oil. We cannot justify this robbery war by defending the national interest and security demands of USA. War is a criminal act and therefore the poor and unemployed USA workers that are taking part in this war even "voluntarily", are making crimes against their fellow-workers and against the international working class. They are defending the exploitation of the USA's capitalists, which also is directed against its own working people and is internationally weekening the peoples' subsistence level.
Even now people are dying of hunger and lack of water more than ever before in the history of mankind. This is the result of the capitalist society's system. The resources used for war and military buildup would have been enough to abolish the above mentioned problems of the world. But it would not have brought additional profit to the monopol capitalists nor would have the stock portfolio even swelled enough. Therefore the misery and the death of hundreds and millions of people do not awake among the defenders of the imperialistic policy any kind of humanitarian feeling nor empathy at all.
Estimation of the class character of wars are not found in the bourgeois interpretation nor opinon of wars. It may be found only by studying the status of the class in power. One must indicate extensively the condition of the economical growth of the allied countries in war, including all the countries of the universe and their in-terconnections. Therefore it's quite correct to insist that the USA government and the leading army officers should be taken to the international court and be condemned for beginning the aggressive war and crimes against humanity. The govern-ments of England and Australia have also committed the same crimes. We must neither leave out the leading figures of the international enterprises that had given their support so as to gain more profit. Investigated must also be the oil and war industries of Britain and USA. Since sentenced were after the II World War also economic crimes.
However, the international peace movement has met with serious setbacks, because the UN had agreed with the war operations and also with the occupation of Irak and has not insisted on bringing to the international court the guilities of these crimes. In return USA has announced simultaneously that its parliament has granted money for developing tactic nuclear weapons.These weapons have already been developed and are ready for immediate use. These "small nuclear weapons" are meant to destroy the objects completely, that is to say they are more effective than those that were used in Irak. UN after having adapted by common consent the crimes against humanity and also all the political groups which were present when Security Council adopted this resolution have been taking part in committing these crimes. No communists were present during the adoption of UN's resolution.
USA and EU supporters of the Palestinians genocide, January 8 th 2009 Political Committee Communist Workers' Party -For Peace and SocialismFinland
Israel supports the regional power of USA in the Middle East, Session of the Central Committee (08.08.2006)
Protest against the scandalous plans of the Estonian government and parliament, (20.04.2007) Central Council For Peace and Socialism - Communist Workers' Party Finland
Communist Workers` party in Finland has sent a protest against the decision made by the Czech government to suppress the Communist Youth Union, Political Committee (31.10.2006) Communist Workers` Party
IMPERIALISTIC WARS AND THE WORKING-CLASS MOVEMENT, This Document was adopted at the 15th Congress (24.05.2003) of the Communist Workers' Party of Finland
STOP THE IRAK WAR, Session of the Central Committee (22.03.2003)
HANNU HARJU:THE NORTHERN DIMENSION, Speech in the (13th of November 1999) in Helsinki