Jean-Paul Batisse | Pole of Communist Revival in France (PRCF)
Dear friends and comrades,
I will speak on behalf of the Pole for a Communist Renaissance in France, which fights for the four “NOs”: NATO, the EU, the euro and capitalism.
As concerns imperialism, of which NATO is the embodiment, Iran’s victory over the United States marks a turning point for the anti-imperialist movement. It represents the biggest defeat for imperialism since the Vietnam War. It is even more momentous than the latter, insofar as the valiant Viet Cong certainly drove the Americans out of Vietnam but 1) there was a strong opposition to the war inside the USA itself, and Vietnam benefited from the support of the USSR, while Iran single-handedly defeated the most important American aggression precisely since Vietnam and 2) Iran has increased its sphere of influence with its control over the Strait of Hormuz. It is a force that everyone in the region and even beyond is going to have to reckon with. The Iranian-American agreement could even help preserve the integrity of Lebanon from the designs of the “Greater Israel”.
Nothing will be the same again. Also, the imperialist camp is divided and the EU, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have refused to follow Donald Trump.
Yet we must remain vigilant: despite Iran’s victory we must not let the US turn against Cuba.
Indeed, imperialism is more than ever alive and kicking, especially U.S. imperialism, which attacks every progressive, anti-imperialist country in the world that strives to achieve social change and self-development as proven by the scandalous kidnapping of President Maduro in Venezuela and the starving to death of socialist Cuba. Why so? The West is losing ground on the economic front with the rise of the BRICS (especially China) The West is also losing ground militarily (with Russia holding its own in Ukraine against all imperialist or allied countries, to varying degrees of involvement, despite the growing provocations of NATO, which is behind the pro-Nazi regime in Kiev. As the United States produces less and less civilian equipment nowadays and specializes more and more in weapons it has turned to destruction (with its arms industry). Historically the military industrial complex has always profited from war. There is only one way out for (especially American) imperialism—brazen aggression left right and centre in desperation in the form of international terrorism. Covert action (soft power)—once favoured by the CIA—is increasingly giving way to physical attack flouting international law in the shape of all-out war. In this sense, international terrorism is practised by the USA on a worldwide scale to bully whole countries into submission. When it cannot decapitate a country’s leadership (regime change) imperialism resorts to terrorism.
Despite the setbacks in Syria and Libya (two regimes that always supported the Palestinian cause), the forces of progress and independence are better placed than ever to prevail. The problem is the West is prepared to do anything to keep its power—even destroy the whole world (The first mass extermination was that of the Native Americans. Today look at the genocide in Gaza) and even sacrifice its own populations. That is what is called ‘exterminism’. It started with Ronald Reagan’s ‘better dead than red’ and is more than ever the order of the day with the Trump administration. That is why Russia and China are being so careful on the world stage to avoid the outbreak of World War Three—which would be a nuclear war and cause massive destruction in its wake. Hence the importance of the fight for peace. The priority for the communist movement and more broadly for all progressive forces must be to constitute a front for peace capable of rolling back imperialist aggression.
Of course, everyone on the left likes to criticize Trump—but the UK and the EU (especially France and Germany) are, for example, even more aggressive on Ukraine than the US itself. With the military escalation pushed by the Macron-Merz-Starmer-Von der Leyen quartet, the prospect of a major East-West confrontation has never been so great. We French must do everything we can to warn people about the Sacred Union advocated by Macron, who is trying to create a consensus in France in favour of war against Russia. From this point of view, Macron or any centrist or social-democratic successor would be just as dangerous as the Rassemblement National (the far right).
The anti-imperialist struggle is different in every country. In some (pro-)imperialist countries (e.g. the United Kingdom), it is a question of fighting NATO and/or subservience to the USA in general. In others, such as France, it is also necessary to fight one’s own imperialist government. The PRCF welcomes the fact that Africa has made huge strides with French imperialism being kicked out of Western Africa and the French Army left with only two bases left—Gabon and Djibouti. France favoured the occupation by Islamists of the eastern half of Mali (in return for the abandonment of Colonel Gaddafi by the Tuaregs) and has turned a blind eye towards terrorist groups that now aim to destabilise progressive regimes in Burkina Faso and Niger. The French army has had to leave Senegal, Chad and the Central African Republic. The French government refuses to condemn the M-23 terrorists against Congo (in return, Ruanda guards Total facilities in Mozambique). The oligarchic governments of France hold on to the structures inherited from the colonial period overseas, impoverishing the populations (as in Corsica), to the point that Martinique and Guadeloupe had to call on Cuban doctors to fight the coronavirus epidemic and feeding separatist temptations. They do not want decolonized sovereign overseas territories, let alone socialist ones.
I will conclude by calling on Cuba and Venezuela to stand firm despite the imperialist aggression they face. Cuba must be free to pursue the path to socialism it has chosen, and Nicolás and Cilia Maduro must be released.
I take this opportunity, on behalf of the PRCF, to salute the heroic struggle of the Palestinian people, without forgetting those of our comrades in Western Sahara, West Papua, Yemen and Somalia, to name only those who have to face imperialist attacks from abroad.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the Platform for organizing this symposium and many others around the world.