INTERNATIONAL SITUATION MARKED BY ENDLESS WARS AND THE HYPOCRISY OF THE WESTERN POWERS

1.            The wars in Europe and the Middle East show no signs of abating. On the contrary, the military escalation continues, the barbarism, deaths and destruction go on and on, and the declarations of the political leaders of the Euro-Atlantic axis are always in the direction of war, marked by the hypocrisy of those who talk about the need for a ceasefire, but increase the supply of arms and funding to their allies. NATO’s new secretary-general, Mark Rutte, wants “a more robust transatlantic military industry” because the organization “has to go further and faster”. This is also one of the conclusions of the Mario Draghi report which, with the argument that we need to gain competitiveness, advocates a war economy for the EU. The US and the European powers are directly involved in the conflicts through political support and by sending increasingly technologically sophisticated military resources to Ukraine and Israel. The US contrasts its decline and the emergence of other poles in the global dispute with the assertion of its military superiority. NATO is positioning itself and preparing for conflict in order to maintain its global hegemony.

2.            The unequivocal condemnation of the Russian Federation for invading Ukraine cannot justify an endless war until “Russia is defeated”, as Ursula von der Leyen argues. The incendiary statements of Mark Rutte, who wants to give Ukraine permission for long-range missiles of European and American manufacture to attack Russian territory, are dangerous, they encourage the escalation of war and its spread to other geographies. The policy on war and NATO is becoming a dividing line for the European left. It is reminiscent of the historic division at the time of World War I, between those who advocated taking credit for participating in the war and those who rejected this path. The only possible path in the interests of the peoples is to reverse the logic of weaponisation, to concentrate all efforts on a path to peace, with more dialogue, diplomacy and fewer weapons. To this objective, social mobilization against war and in defence of the promotion of peace is essential and is the most powerful way of confronting the designs of the imperialist powers. The mobilization and initiative efforts of the Platform Against War and Social War are of great importance.

3.            October 7 marked the anniversary of Hamas‘ reprehensible attack on Israel. We must not forget that the history of the Middle East did not begin on that day. The Palestinian people have been colonized and victims of heinous genocide since the Nakba in 1948, and UN Resolution 3103 of 1971 grants them the right to insurgency and armed struggle against colonialism.  What followed was not an act of Israeli self-defence.  It was (and continues to be) a brutal aggression by the Netanyahu government against the Palestinian people, a veritable genocide that has already claimed the lives of more than 42000 (forty-two thousand) people in the Gaza Strip and caused the displacement of around two million people. Apartheid and the constant attack on the Palestinian people’s historic and legitimate right to their land has reached an inhuman scale. What is underway is a scorched earth policy to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state. The Israeli government’s offensive is only possible with the complicity of the US and EU governments.

4.            Israel has extended its military attacks on Lebanon, put the region on the brink of war with the involvement of Iran and Syria and added to the suffering of the people. Not even UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) is respected or spared. A few days ago, the Israeli parliament branded as terrorist UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian which provides aid to the people of Gaza, preventing it from continuing its work. Israeli arrogance defies any idea of international law, but it only does so because it has the backing of the US and Western countries and is counting on a certain silence from Arab capitals. The Israeli army is bombing and invading Lebanon, a sovereign state, but the West, which protested against the invasion of Ukraine, doesn’t lift a finger in repudiation of the invasion of Lebanon, refrains from condemning the terrorist attacks of the pagers and walkie-talkies and doesn’t issue sanctions against the invader. The double standards of the Western powers are glaring and destroy the usual rhetoric about the moral authority of the West. Israel’s ambassadors in each of our countries should be summoned by their governments to be told “go home!”, we don’t want relations with genocidal governments.

5.            The working class, societies and economies of our countries are being strongly affected by the greed of the EU elites, submitted to the geostrategic interests of the US, by war and the dispute for global hegemony. We understand that other countries are trying to organize themselves, as in the case of the BRICS, but we don’t have exaggerated illusions about the results for the peoples of a myriad multilateralism that has an underlying inter-imperialist dispute. At the current juncture, we must demand and join forces to get Israel out of Palestine, Putin out of Ukraine and NATO out of Europe. The war is feeding conservatism, populism and the extreme right, attacking the right to gender equality and exacerbating racist discrimination and discrimination against LGBTQI+ people. Labor exploitation is increasing, the rights of workers, immigrants and the majority of populations are being severely affected, with resources taken from the welfare state being drained for war. The climate crisis is becoming increasingly serious, with private interests driving a policy of greenwashing. However, the left has suffered many setbacks in recent decades. We need a new, strong, polarizing and mobilizing political response, able to embracing working class and those excluded by globalization. It is urgent to assert a policy against destructive war and social war. That’s why we are here!