October 12, 2023

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Greeting from (new)ICP to promoters and participants of the International Theoretical Conference on Imperialism and War (Amsterdam, October 14-15, 2023)

 

Dear comrades,

the Central Committee of the (new)Italian Communist Party greets the “International Theoretical Conference on Imperialism and War” (Amsterdam, October 14-15, 2023), promoted and organised by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, as a relevant event gathering dozens of parties (communist, progressive, anti-imperialist, democratic) and people’s organizations debating about the current stage that humanity is passing through and the means we must use to get out of it.

First of all, communists must deepen the understanding of the essence and range of the imperialist epoch in order to lead more effectively their revolutionary work. Resuming the analysis that Lenin exposed during the years 1916 (Imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism)-1919 (RCP(B)’s 8th Congress) and updating it, the (new)Italian Communist Party firmly came to the conclusion that the current stage of human history is the second general crisis of capitalism, succeeded in the ‘70s of 20th century to the exhaustion of the first world wave of the proletarian revolution (1917-1976), during which first socialist countries took shape. But communists didn’t succeed in establishing socialism in any imperialist country, unless in the weakest link of the imperialist chain at that time, the Russian Empire. Here, they constitute USSR that, in its turn and at the contrary, after the great victory of 1945 over Nazi-fascism entered, after the death of Stalin and the rise of modern revisionists (20th Congress of CPSU, 1956), a stage of decay culminated in the dissolution of 1991. The rot of the society dominated by the International Community of US, Zionist and EU imperialist groups has worsened and the catastrophe is looming over all humanity. Today, putting an end to the world imperialist system has become a matter of survival for the planet and the whole humanity. The only way to get out of this devastating situation is advance the socialist revolution globally – namely in the imperialist countries such as Italy – establishing socialism, a world based on the respect of each people and all nationalities.

In the light of the historical experience of Conscious and Organized Communist Movement of the 20th century, we understand that socialism is essentially based on three pillars:

1. the dictatorship of the proletariat (the power of the organised popular masses, gathered around their communist party),

2. the scientifically, centrally-planned management of the economic activity of the whole society,

3. the mobilization of all social resources to promote the growing access of the popular masses to those specifically human activities, from which the ruling classes have always excluded them to the maximum extent compliant with their particular form of domination.

 

To deepen the understanding of the current stage, we suggest our booklet Supplemento a La Voce 72 (Supplement to The Voice No. 72 - December 2022) as a contribution to the research and debate. Sure, among English-speaking comrades to which we send this greeting there is someone who knows enough the Italian language as far as he can propose himself as translator. His work would contribute to the frank and open debate on the nature of imperialist epoch and it would compensate for our deficiency of adequate forces, the reason why we haven’t succeeded until now in translating it.

 The Supplement illustrates (1) the main features that distinguish the imperialist epoch – that is the epoch of socialist revolution and the decay of bourgeois society – from the bourgeois society of previous centuries and (2) the main events of about 150 years of the imperialist epoch. The basic characteristic of the imperialist epoch is that the production of the material conditions of human existence as commodities becomes a secondary feature of the valorisation of capital and of the activities of the bourgeoisie (although it remains an unavoidable feature of them): these activities are subjected to the development of capital through financial and speculative operations. The capital employed in the production of commodities is reduced to a small part of the aggregate capital, to whose valorization the activities of the imperialist bourgeoisie are directed.

The expansion of wars, productive activities and research aimed at war, the multiplication of goods and activities that enter as new commodities in the consumption of human beings, the devastation of the planet with the atmosphere, sea and earth’s pollution, the elimination of achievements (in terms of security, equality, solidarity, education and healthcare) which the popular masses, especially in the imperialist countries, had wrested from the bourgeoisie in the period 1917-1976 and the ensuing undeclared war of extermination, the recolonisation of the old colonial countries and the former socialist ones (see the former People’s Democracies of Eastern Europe embedded in the US-NATO field), the incitement to migration of populations that must leave room for plantations and mining activities and, at last but not least, the intellectual and moral brutalization are all features of bourgeois society in the imperialist epoch. The other important feature of imperialist epoch is the development of the first socialist countries which are gradually spread over the three stages (transformations that move away from capitalism and lead towards communism, restoration or gradual and peaceful establishment of capitalism, "restoration at all costs" of capitalism), illustrated in chapter 1.7.3 of the Manifesto Program of the (new)Italian Communist Party.

We think that the importance of the Supplement derives both from the fact that the imperialist epoch is the context in which communists carry out their work, both that not only the declared opponents of Marxism-Leninism (anarchists, Trotskyists, bordighistis [another Italian current of left-wing extremists among proletarian revolutionaries], etc.), but also self-declared Marxist-Leninists and even Marxist-Leninist-Maoists conceive of the imperialist epoch as one of the stages that make up the history of bourgeois society: the stage following the last described by Marx in Capital (book I, chapter 13 and 23). Such a conception hinders an understanding of the conditions, form and results of the class struggle, as advanced as necessary to successfully lead the socialist revolution in the imperialist countries. So we have to get to the bottom of the struggle against this conception and strive to impose the one that is consistent to the actual reality.

Comrades, we wish you a successful debate: that this Conference represents both a theoretical and practical boost in our struggle against International Community of US, Zionist and EU imperialist groups for the ultimate liberation of people from capitalist yoke!

Dare to think, dare to win!

Central Committee of the (new)Italian Communist Party