Panagiota Materi & Dimitrios Patelis | Founding Members of the Revolutionary Theory Group, Greece
Our meeting is taking place amid escalating conflicts in various theatres of operation and zones of destabilisation across the Black Sea region, the eastern Mediterranean, western and central Asia, and so on. A prime example of this is the coordinated, criminal and genocidal aggression by the United States, the racist Zionist entity and their NATO and EU allies against the peoples of Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Iran. Based on analyses adopted at the World Anti-Imperialist Platform (WAP), humanity is not currently facing isolated conflicts and local or regional wars, but rather World War III (WWIII), which is escalating across various theatres of operation and fronts around the globe.
At the WAP, our aim is to forge a victorious global front uniting all anti-imperialist and socialist-communist forces to defeat the aggressor axis of the U.S., NATO, EU and Zionism. A necessary condition for forming this front is the theoretical, ideological and political exposition and crushing of all ideological and practical tendencies promoted by the enemy within the movement’s ranks in order to disorient it from its main objective, split it and undermine it. Women’s liberation collectives, as well as national liberation and anti-imperialist movements, play a special role in this struggle. The systematic efforts of imperialism and its ideological and propaganda mechanisms in this direction are no coincidence: ‘Non-governmental organisations’ (NGOs) operating transnationally, and the ideological components of the ruling class bought off by the axis (university professors, ‘researchers’, ‘intellectuals’, ‘activists’, etc.).
As many comrades from various countries have highlighted in our theoretical journal ‘Platform’, the enemy is making a long-term, concerted effort to undermine the movement through its systematic ‘NGO-isation’.
Despite the fact that masks fall more easily in WWIII, we observe that stereotypes of the ‘common mind’ and everyday consciousness are very powerful and resilient. Reality continues to be perceived in stereotypical terms by this ‘common mind’, fully categorised into black and white, negative and positive, boxes and dichotomies that are convenient for the idle minded―a metaphysical dichotomy, i.e. an absolute separation of poles, principles and value scales.
In the WAP, we recognise that the irreconcilable, competitive contradictions that led to WWIII are incomprehensible without Marxist-Leninist science and dialectical methodology.
A world war encompasses creative and destructive, progressive and regressive tendencies not on one side or the other of its surface or manifestations, but in its essential relation itself, in its interaction and the process of its escalation. This is a law of history, linked to the complex web of competitive and non-competitive contradictions that give rise to this war and which this war itself reproduces, rearranges and brings to the surface with unimaginable intensity.
No matter how much the ‘common mind’ resists this law of history, its manipulable idleness is duly exploited by the cunning ideological and propagandistic mechanisms of the bourgeois regime and its institutions.
Therefore, things do not proceed in a linear fashion and cannot be categorised into prefabricated ‘analytical tools’, tucked into little boxes, especially under the conditions of such a war.
The situation is further exacerbated and complicated by the long-term co-optation, fragmentation and overall manipulation of the movement through distraction and deflation, which has now become entrenched through long-term NGOisation. The sponsors and strategic guides of this NGOisation are deep-seated state, transnational and parastate mechanisms of imperialism and its instruments.
This is the law and the norm during the stage of violent, state-monopoly imposition of the imperialist-financial oligarchy’s interests, especially when it is in a state of desperation during WWIII.
For example, the alternation of occupants in the White House has resulted in a certain restructuring of the deep state/international parastate’s ideological orientations and emphases(as exemplified by the far-right ‘Make America Great Again’―MAGA movement), grant priorities and directions to NGOs, and the abrupt transformation of a group of NGOs that were once renowned and effective in their manipulative work into meaningless rubber stamps. This has led to a frantic search for an alternative ‘movement-based’ focus in order to regain funding, an audience and supporters.
This does not mean that the Democrats, who have long held ideological hegemony in the US, will surrender these mechanisms without a fight. Nor does it mean that Republicans as a whole reject this hegemony. After all, for decades they have managed to institutionalise a steady stream of grants for subsidised undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programmes at universities, and to exert systematic control over the mass media for manipulation and propaganda. They have also imposed a transnational ‘rights-based’ agenda on every leftist and progressive movement and organisation, supposedly as ‘self-evident and indispensable’!
Furthermore, especially under the conditions of WWIII, what is decisive is the promotion and enforcement of the strategic interests of the financial oligarchy of imperialism, rather than its ideological veneer.
This involves hard-hitting PR aspects, strategies and tactics of ‘international public relations’, promotion and legitimisation through the involvement of the mass manipulation media, and so on. The ‘movement-oriented’ aspect may be a successful component of ‘alternative aggressive marketing’ in the struggle for control of NGOs and, through them, for undermining any movement.
But does this mean that solidarity is unnecessary, or that we should fall into a state of generalised ‘sectarian suspicion’ and reject any united internationalist action out of hand? Should we content ourselves with the pose of the ‘know-it-all elite’ who hastily denounce every endeavour as a ‘shadowy conspiracy’?
Far from it. Of course, In the context of WWIII, it is naive to rule out the fundamental component of any successful operational intervention by the parties involved, namely ideological, psychological and information warfare.
Therefore, a different kind of revolutionary conscious vigilance is needed. However, we do not need the all-too-common readiness to uncritically and enthusiastically accept the aforementioned marketing with our own reckless participation in the escalation of manipulation through ‘NGO-isation’.
How can this be achieved? Through the clarity of scientific knowledge, theory and methodology, the corresponding clarity of strategy and frontal, internationalist, anti-imperialist tactics, and revolutionary strategic prospects. We must be ready to discern and reveal the insidious nature of such manipulation tactics in each instance, guided by the purity of our aims and the collective nature of our processes.
Let’s examine a few examples of how imperialism has successfully manipulated and undermined the movement ideologically.
The term ‘femicide’ is used by a specific type of NGO and ‘feminist movements’ linked to neoliberal postmodern ideology and practice. This is within the framework promoted by the US ‘Democratic’ Party and the ‘movement’ of ‘LGBTQI+ communities’.
The same applies to the uncritical and repeated use of phrases such as ‘women and LGBTQI+ persons’, referring to political movements and organisations that are organically integrated into heavily subsidised and directed manipulation by transnational imperialist institutions based on neoliberal postmodern ideology and practices regarding the ‘social construction of gender’ and ‘gender identities’. Systematically referring to ‘women and LGBTQI+ persons’ in every text on women’s issues is part of an agenda of ‘demands and claims’, primarily aimed at replacing the movement’s revolutionary, class-based, collective goals with individualist ‘demands’ of an abstract ‘rights-based activism’. This is part of the corruption and undermining of the movement through its ‘NGO-isation’.
Unfortunately, many comrades, especially among the youth, with limited Marxist-Leninist scientific education, are susceptible to such ideological manipulation, perceiving it as ‘modernising the movement’ and adopting and reproducing it uncritically. However, this very agenda constitutes a fundamental strategy for undermining and dismantling the movement. We must therefore expose and combat it both theoretically and practically, as it has posed an existential threat to the communist and anti-imperialist movement in recent years.
The practical significance of such ‘progressive’ ideological manipulation tactics became starkly evident during the escalation of the genocide in Palestine and the Axis’ attacks on Iran. These tactics are rooted in the deeply racist and colonialist imposition of anti-Arabism and controlled Islamophobia. One way in which such manipulation is carried out is by presenting it as the ‘protection of women from patriarchal violence in hostile, backward, theocratic regimes’. Such forces are eager to stand ‘with Iranian women who have been resisting the mullahs’ regime for years’, yet are extremely reluctant to condemn and combat imperialist neo-colonial aggression. This aggression is cloaked in the guise of ‘humanitarian intervention’ to ‘restore democracy and the human rights of women and ethnic, religious and gender minorities’.
Imperialist propaganda in all NATO and EU countries speaks with contempt and pathological hostility of the great Iranian anti-imperialist revolution, which overthrew the US-backed, Zionist, neo-colonial, monarcho-fascist Shah regime in 1979.
It is blatant hypocrisy to portray the agenda of the Epstein gang―a ruling global financial oligarchy whose unimaginable wealth is derived from the superexploitation of the planet, combined with insatiable elitist greed and impunity―as ‘progressive’. This agenda considers the complete commodisation of women’s and children’s bodies for sexual exploitation of every kind as ‘normal’, including ritual infanticide and cannibalism. Yet it ‘wants to save women’ in countries that imperialism has targeted. Hidden behind closed doors, this perverse and misanthropic pursuit by the rotten oligarchy is the other side of the coin of imperialist aggression and the mass genocidal practices of the imperialist axis in WWIII. Therefore, these corrupt and depraved individuals are not entitled to lecture ‘from a moral high ground’ about the ‘protection of women, motherhood and childhood’.
Could the critics and opponents of ‘theocratic patriarchy’, who focus on the status of women in Iran, for example, be right? The data strongly suggests otherwise:
• In Iran, women account for around 60% of all enrolments at higher education institutions,
• up to 70% of graduates in STEM fields (science technology, engineering and mathematics.
• According to UNESCO, Iran has the highest ratio of female to male undergraduate students in the world.
• Adult female literacy in Iran has increased substantially, rising from approximately 35% in 1976 to over 92% by 2023.
• Women hold equal professional positions in STEM fields, particularly in mechanical engineering, nuclear engineering and the oil and natural gas industries.
All NGOs subsidised and directed by the imperialist axis promote the agenda of ‘feminism’ and LGBTQI+ rights in order to portray the criminal and genocidal assault on Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen and, especially today, Iran as a so-called ‘humanitarian intervention against the barbaric mullahs and patriarchy, in defence of the rights of Iranian women, LGBTQI+ persons, etc.’!
But how exactly do the imperialists contribute to the ‘emancipation, liberation and protection of women, motherhood and childhood’ in practice, for example in Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen and Iran?
Palestine: Since October 7 2023, the total number of Palestinians killed in Gaza has exceeded 72,000, not counting those still trapped under the rubble. The UN reports that women and children account for at least 56% of the dead, with estimates putting that figure as high as 60%.
According to UN Women, between October 2023 and December 2025, more than 38,000 women and girls were killed. This averages out to at least 47 women and girls every day!
Even after the ceasefire took effect in October 2025, the deaths continued. By the end of January 2026, the Gaza Ministry of Health reported that, of the more than 500 people killed since the ceasefire, 180 were children and 139 were women.
Since May 2026, attacks by the Zionist entity against Palestinians in Gaza have escalated once again. Despite the ceasefire, the month was recorded as the deadliest of the year, with 119 people killed, including 19 children and 10 women. A total of 119 people were killed during that month, including 19 children and 10 women.
Lebanon: Official figures recorded by the Lebanese Ministry of Health and confirmed by the UN paint the following picture as of 16 June 2026:
• Total number of victims of Israel’s recent attacks on Lebanon alone: More than 3,700 people have been killed since 2 March 2026.
• Female and child casualties: Of these, 296 were women and 247 were children. According to UNICEF, this equates to an average of 12 children killed or injured daily.
• ‘Double-tap strikes’: Human rights organisations have reported typical terrorist tactics involving attacks on locations that have just been struck, targeting rescuers who are rushing to help the wounded.
Yemen: Women and children make up the majority of the civilian population affected by airstrikes carried out by the imperialist axis.
• A report covering the period from January 2024 to January 2025 cites 116 deaths and 366 injuries, the majority of which were women and children.
• A subsequent report by the ‘Entisaf Organisation’ covering the period from March 2025 to January 2026 states that more than 2,000 civilians, including women and children, lost their lives as a result of US attacks.
• In a series of airstrikes in March 2025, local health authorities reported at least 31 deaths and 101 injuries, most of whom were children and women.
• The independent organisation Airwars estimated that at least 224 civilians were killed by U.S. airstrikes between March and May 2025.
The authorities in Sana’a (the Ansar Allah movement) have unequivocally condemned the U.S. attacks, describing them as a ‘flagrant attack on an independent state’ and a ‘gross war crime’. They have directly linked these attacks to U.S. support for Israel and the blockade of Gaza.
Iran: An example of this is the incident at the elementary school in Minab, Iran on 28 February 2026, when successive strikes from ultra-precise U.S. Tomahawk missiles killed 120 boys and girls aged 7-12 (156 people in total, including students, parents, and teachers). This constitutes a deliberate war crime and a crime against humanity, a flagrant violation of the international humanitarian law.
Of course, there is also the ‘milder and more moderate’ version of this despicable, racist manipulation tactic which claims to maintain ‘equal distance between the mullahs’ regime and the imperialist-Zionist attacks’!
Another peculiar variant of this basic narrative of imperialist propaganda and manipulation is the irrational nonsense about an ‘imperialist pyramid’ and the resulting stance of ‘equal distance’ towards WWIII, spearheaded by the ‘Communist’ Party of Greece, etc.
We have seen versions of this disgraceful stance taken by the ‘Communist’ Party of Greece and other agents of imperialism in Ukraine, Venezuela, Syria and now Iran.
They all promote the narrative of ‘equal distance’ as follows: ‘We absolutely want the ‘unpopular’ regimes [of Assad, Maduro, the ‘mullahs’, etc.] to be overthrown by the people themselves NOW, but we also do not agree with intervention or invasion by the US-NATO, etc.!’
Consider, for example, what the ‘parties of equal distances’, which align themselves with the ‘Communist’ Party of Greece and other agents of imperialism, have to say on the matter: ‘this attack on Iran and the Iranian people is the prelude to total domination over the rest of the countries of the region, a plan that the Israeli government and the US administration do not hesitate to disclose, and we also affirm that this US-Israeli imperialist military aggression, not only does not herald Iran’s liberation from the yoke of tyranny and the current dictatorship, but is also an attempt to destroy Iran as a capable regional state, and to replace the current government with a subordinate and authoritarian regime that has previously announced its program to bloodily suppress its opponents.
As internationalist communist parties, we call upon all forces seeking true liberation from the regimes of exploitation and oppression in each of our countries, as well as the peace-loving and progress-loving forces in the world, to unite their efforts with all their force in these critical and decisive moments in order to struggle against the governments of war and aggression.’[1]
The emphasis in such texts is clearly placed on the struggle ‘against the governments of war and aggression’ in Iran. This is because 1) the text is published while the imperialist attack on Iran is unfolding, 2) overthrowing the imperialist and Zionist governments in the US and Israel is a rather abstract declaration today, and 3) regime change in the Islamic Republic of Iran during wartime is an act of war and a strategic objective of the US and Israel.
This propaganda and action, carried out under the guise of ‘neutrality’, is extremely dangerous and subversive, especially today. Despite the axis’s temporary regional retreat following Iran’s proud victory, its aggression is reaching a peak. Once again, it is targeting Cuba and other countries in Latin America, as well as other potential fronts in Africa and Asia.
In the context of an escalating WWIII, all versions of the ‘neutral’ narrative effectively amount to support and solidarity with the imperialist aggressor axis!
NGOs specialising in migrant and refugee reception and management are prime arenas for ideological manipulation.
In the European Union, these NGOs are never strictly single-issue organisations. Within their framework, the entire postmodern package of neoliberal ideologies and practices is circulated and imposed in combination with techniques for managing national, religious, cultural and other communities, identities and minorities―always through manipulative tactics operating within the bourgeois dichotomy of nationalism versus cosmopolitanism. Even anti-racist discourse is effectively nullified through its highly arbitrary and expansive interpretation within the framework of postmodern neoliberalism, where ‘racist’ is defined as anyone who does not recognise the ideologies and practices of rights-based activism and the entire LGBTQI+ ‘identity construction’ agenda. Those who rush to slander any criticism of rights-based activism as ‘racist’ are effectively downplaying actual racist practices such as apartheid and genocide, as seen in Palestine, while often showing a reluctance to publicly denounce them!
NGOs and imperialist regimes reviving Nazism (in Ukraine and Israel, for example) embrace the LGBTQI+ agenda and lead frenzied ‘Pride’ celebrations with open support from the US, NATO, the EU and Zionism, even as WWIII escalates! In 2026, genocidal Zionists celebrated the ‘most massive and spectacular ‘Pride festival’ right next to―or even on top of―the corpses and ruins of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank (and, symbolically, those in Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Iran)!
Governments subservient to the Axis, such as Greece’s, and a multitude of organisations from the Euro-Atlantic ‘left’ endorse and support ‘Pride’ and every action of the ‘strategic ally’ of the ‘right side of history’, in the ‘only democracy in the Middle East’, the ‘cradle of tolerance and inclusive democracy’, the well-known Zionist/Nazi entity―a bastion, bridgehead and engine of terrorism and genocide for neo-colonial global financial oligarchy!
A complex global network funds Pride events, involving multinational corporations from Silicon Valley and Wall Street, major imperialist institutions (e.g. Soros’s ‘Open Society’), and the governments of the US and imperialist Western European countries. Within this framework, ‘liberal internationalism’ is promoted, which―particularly in West Asia―is synonymous with the promotion of ‘left-wing Zionism’. The main pillars of this network are:
1. Soros’s ‘Open Society’-type institutions are major sponsors of international NGOs such as ‘Outright International’. Here, the agenda of constructing gender identities, rights activism and woke terminology is promoted and imposed. ‘Left-wing Zionism’ aims to portray Israel as a ‘progressive, cosmopolitan, rights-based state and the only civilised democracy in the Middle East’, in order to gain acceptance from the ‘progressive West’.
2. Multinational monopolies such as Google and Microsoft, as well as large investment funds, are the main sponsors of Pride festivals. They aim to turn the movement into an apolitical framework of consumerist norms with a ‘progressive facade’ (such as ‘Rainbow Capitalism’).
3. Direct state funding from governments of imperialist countries such as the USA (through USAID and embassies) seeks to promote this agenda and its corresponding institutions as a marker of cultural superiority of the ‘civilised West’ over the ‘barbaric East’.
The European Union, as a regional imperialist entity, provides extensive funding for LGBTQI+ issues through three main pillars: programmes for NGOs, research grants and educational scholarships. This funding is provided through the establishment of ‘partnerships’ based on ‘compliance with EU regulations on equality’.[2][3]
1. Funding for NGOs and ‘civil society’ organisations
• CERV (Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values): This is the EU’s main funding programme for tackling discrimination. It supports initiatives for LGBTQI+ individuals in the areas of education, health and housing through regular calls for proposals, such as CERV-EQUAL-LGBTIQ.
• Organizational networking (framework partnerships): The EU directly funds European LGBTQI+ umbrella organisations (e.g. ILGA-Europe and IGLYO), which then distribute smaller grants to national or local NGOs (re-granting).
2. ‘Research’ programmes
• Horizon Europe: Funds research and innovation projects with an emphasis on equality, diversity, and intersectionality.
• A mandatory requirement for participation is that research centres and universities have an approved ‘Gender Equality Plan’ (GEP). [See references 2 and 3 and the European Funding Portal].
3. Educational programmes (Erasmus+): The programme directly supports initiatives related to inclusion and combatting exclusion through non-formal learning.
• Key Action 1 (Mobility): This covers youth exchanges, seminars for youth workers and volunteer placements (European Solidarity Corps), with a focus on LGBTQI+ themes.
• Key Action 2 (Cooperation Partnerships): Funds partnerships between schools, universities and NGOs to develop educational materials to combat bullying and promote diversity (e.g. the Erasmus+ European Project Portal).
4. Scholarships and doctoral programmes
• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA): These offer exceptional research opportunities, either through Doctoral Networks or individual Postdoctoral Fellowships. Research fields focusing on gender, gender inequalities and LGBTQI+ sociology are fully eligible.
The Kurdish national question has historically been a particularly intense issue in our region. For communists, it is clear that ‘a people that oppresses other peoples cannot be free’. It is the duty of internationalists to fight against bourgeois and petty-bourgeois nationalism, as well as imperialist cosmopolitanism, which the bourgeois media deliberately conflate with proletarian internationalism.
Here, we see this agenda combined with the active exploitation of the ‘national liberation’ struggle of certain Kurds by imperialism-Zionism.
For Marxist-Leninists, the national question has never been, nor will it ever be, separate from the broader tactical goal of anti-imperialism, which is of strategic importance. It is inconceivable that it could be separated from the strategic goal of socialist revolution and communism. Any such separation inevitably transforms the national question into a tool for counter-revolutionary manipulation in the service of imperialist interests![4]
We will not delve into the organic integration of Iraqi Kurds into imperialist strategic plans, nor the recent plans to mobilise the ‘Kurdish factor’ as a ground force for invasion, sabotage and fragmentation in Iran.
In the context of the rapid escalation of WWIII and Iran’s historic counterattack against Imperialism-Zionism, it is crucial to have scientifically substantiated positions based on Marxism-Leninism. This will enable our internationalist discourse and action to contribute to the practical strengthening of the anti-imperialist revolutionary struggle and overcome the enemy’s manipulative tactics.
Notes
[1] Joint Statement of the Communist Parties of Iran (TUDEH), Israel (CPI) and the United States (CPUSA)
[2] European Commission: Find all opportunities for education and training.
[3] Horizon Europe guidance on gender equality plans
[4] For a more detailed study of this issue, which is of major theoretical and practical significance, see: Dimitrios Patelis, Aspects of the national question and anti-imperialism during WWIII, ‘Platform’ No 8, January 2024.