The world is gripped by an economic crisis that threatens billions with even greater misery under the capitalist system. The capitalist class has been thrown into crisis by the credit crunch and the global recession, but they are clear on one thing – they must make the working class and peasants pay for the crisis. Workers, youth, peasants, socialists must unite across the world and fight against the capitalists and imperialists – they are the crisis, we are the solution!
The world system that we live under is imperialist; a few super rich nations dominate the rest. This economic system is defended and enforced most viciously by the US imperialists. Their invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq have shaken the world, demonstrating that the war on terror is a cover for their imperialist ambitions. But the dreams of the imperialists have turned into a nightmare. Afghanistan, now in its eighth year of occupation, is still fighting the NATO force. The occupation forces are forced into their military bases with the majority of people still opposing their presence and
demanding democracy without US and British bayonets.
In this situation all socialists support the democratic right of people in the semi-colonial world to defend themselves from imperialist attack. We do not in any way seek to aid the political islamist forces presently leading the resistance to come to power- such a regime has been and would be again as reactionary as Karzai’s, repressive against workers, women, students and youth- we do on the other hand believe that if the resistance movements were to drive out the imperialists this would be is a progressive act which will show the world, as it saw after the Vietnam war in 1975 that the most powerful army in the world could be beaten.
However our support is solely and exclusively for real acts of resistance to
the Nato occupiers. We do not believe the methods of the islamist forces can
decisively defeat the imperialist and their Afghan allies, especially if
they turn to the “Al Qaeda” tactics of indiscriminate bombings in urban
areas, fomenting sectarian and national strife. In Iraq their tactics
brought the resistance to the edge of defeat and saved the American
occupation forces from expulsion. We believe only the working class can
bring victory by fighting not only to drive out the invaders and overthrow
their stooges but by offering a progressive programme to the Afghan masses –
land to those who till it, a planned development of the country that can
ensure the balanced development of infrastructure as well as hospitals and
schools. All of this requires the socialisation of industrial production and
the planned use of the country’s resources by a workers’ and peasants’
government based on the power of councils composed of their delegates.
We believe therefore that revolutionary socialists can and must come to the
head of such resistance movements, offering a programme of action which not
only mobilises the greater part of the working class in the democratic
struggle but also prepares them for a struggle for power. Whoever is the
leader of a victorious resistance movement will be best placed to take power
after the imperialists have been defeated.
It is in the interest of the working class, women and youth that a
progressive revolutionary force is built in Afghanistan and Iraq that can
turn the fight for national liberation into a struggle for socialism. This
is the strategy of permanent revolution as outlined by Leon Trotsky, the
Russian revolutionary. We do not believe that there must first be a
democratic stage which allows capitalism to develop peacefully. There can be
no peace under capitalism for the working class as capitalism is constant
exploitation and alienation for the labourers. The working class in power
would have no interest in continuing capitalism, instead it could begin to
reconstruct society along the lines of socialism, with equality for all
proletarians.
This strategy is one that can offer a way out for the third world, trapped
by the horrors of imperialism, suffering under the misery of dictatorships, anti working class regimes and reactionary movements. To fight for this we need to construct a new international revolutionary party – one that connects the radical workers and youth in the imperialist heartlands with their comrades in the third world. The bosses and world leaders meet in their summits to plan how to defend their system from the crisis and the resistance from below – we, too, need an international party to c-ordinate our struggles. Such a party, when it is built, would be the fifth of its kind. We commit ourselves, and call on others in resistance to the system, to join us in that struggle.
Forward to the Fifth International!