Since the end of the Second World War (the second imperialist massacre to be more precise), Capital has never ceased to bathe the planet in blood, as well as disrupting it with its poisons and its need for self-valorization. The list of the greater or lesser wars that have followed suit since then is striking and demonstrates, even just in the black words written and printed alone, that for a long time now its rule has become one long and destructive agony, a bloodbath that grows and spreads year after year. What is happening in Ukraine is the last “episode” in time: but an “episode” which, because of its dimensions and implications, can only serve as the antecamera to others, up until the outbreak of a third inter-imperialist massacre of worldwide dimensions.
Only the strength of the proletariat, the same class that is sacrificed on the front and rear, can stop this bloody outrage. To recover this strength, there are two indispensible conditions: that, on the battlefields of the many struggles it is forced to engage for survival, the proletariat should finally recover its independence in the fight against its historical enemy, the bourgeoisie and its State with the institutions representing it, which hold it locked in their grasp to the point of strangulation, like an octopus; and that its avantgarde should get organized, joining and reinforcing the revolutionary party, which does not descend from heaven (as too many imagine) but has worked and still works stubbornly to defend it and prepare it for the revolution, for the seizing of power and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the indispensible and transitory tool for overthrowing and getting rid of Capital into the trashcan of history, preparing for the classless society, for communism. The path is long and fraught with difficulty: but it is the only one possible. An inevitable and necessary stage is that of revolutionary defeatism: inevitable because the inter-imperialist war that is being prepared is inevitable, even, and above all, in times of “peace” (that illusory silence between one explosion and another, which in reality is not “peace” at all). This means the collective and organized refusal to obey the military, political and economic demands of our “own” national capital and transform the conflict, whether looming or ongoing, into a class war, a civil war, a war for power. The catchword must again become the battle cry of the proletariat.
We know, however, that if it is not to become an empty slogan for placating the conscience of amateur-theatrical revolutionaries, that battle cry must be prepared starting from when it seems a long way off and almost beyond reach – as it appears today to those who do not believe in the bragging of those who get the wrong end of the stick and announce to the world that “the objective conditions have already matured and only the revolutionary lead is missing”. No, that is not how things stand: this is demonstrated by the fact that in almost eight months of war in Ukraine, acts of authentic revolutionary defeatism have been substantially non-existent – the sort that were not missing, for example, amongst any of the belligerent parties in the First World War: resistance to conscription and mass desertion, the refusal to obey orders, dialogue and fraternization between opposing trenches and, most of all, strikes in the cities destroyed by bombardment…in short, what happened in the First World War, opening the way to Red October. Unless we want to claim that they are the same as those scarse, scattered, bleating and priestly marches throughout the world that have followed banners proclaiming a generic “No to war”..!
The obscene vampire going under the name of Capital does not die of its own accord. Its death throes are savage, destructive and self-destructive. A stake must therefore be driven through its heart: a certainty that comes to us from afar but in flaming red, 1848. And this outcome must be prepared, just as the class war against imperialist war must be, starting out from reality, i.e. that of a proletariat still crushed and paralyzed beneath decades of fatal defeats and poisoned by all the ideological outpourings of the ruling culture. Of course, the same old mole is working in our favour: the crises (for now only economic and financial but soon bound to become social as well) follow one after the other, “guarantees” and “rights” go up in a puff of smoke, like the meagre savings of the proletariat, in a matter of just a few mornings, poverty and anguish grow visibly, the army of proletarians and the proletarianized fleeing death by famine, war and repression swell exponentially, here and there rebellions break out… There is no lack of work for communists to do: but it must be done with our feet firmly on the ground!
And so, if the catchword of revolutionary defeatism is not to remain just a fine story, then the outcome must be prepared today. Let’s start from the ABC and work around this, so that, in terms of actual facts, there is a return of that class antagomism that is still struggling to emerge today. Let’s launch again the operational keypoints for recovering and organizing revolutionary defeatism:
- Refusal to accept economic and social sacrifices in the name of the “national economy”.
- Organization of the battle to defend the living and working conditions of proletarians, to strike a blow at the bourgeois war effort.
- Open break with the social pact and a determined return to the methods and objectives of the class struggle, the only real internationalist solidarity of the proletariat, both in the metropolises and in the periphery of imperialism.
4. Refusal to take sides (nationalist, religious, patriotic, mercenary, humanitarian, pacifist) in favour of any of the imperialist fronts.
5. Strike action leading to a general strike against any type of mobilisation or propaganda for war.
6. Organized disobedience to the orders of the military hierarchy, allowing our “own” State to be defeated and holding on firmly to the weapons for defending and freeing ourselves from the tentacles of the bourgeois institutions.
September 2022