Stephen Cho | Coordinator of the Korean International Forum
Practice is the criterion for truth and the driving force of theory development. The truth of revolution cannot be discussed without practice. Ideological and theoretical achievements are, in other words, revolutionary practical achievements.
The situation of World War 3 has shed new light on the historical experience of World War 2. Unlike World War 1, which was an inter-imperialist war, World War 2 was an antifascist war. It began as an inter-imperialist war but was transformed into an antifascist war when fascist Germany invaded the socialist Soviet Union. One of Stalin’s great achievements was to bring the imperialist US and UK into the antifascist camp, which gave him superiority in forces and isolated the fascist camp, eventually resulting in its defeat. This is why Stalin’s achievement cannot be left out when discussing the victory of the antifascist forces in World War 2.
The theory of the united front originated from Marx’s theory of the worker-peasant alliance, which resulted from reviewing the historical lessons of the Paris Commune. It developed into Lenin’s theory of the Soviet of workers, poor peasants, and soldiers through the historical experience of the Russian Revolution, and was developed into the theory of the antifascist front through the experience of the Popular Front in France just before World War 2 and the historical speech at the 7th World Congress of the Comintern. It was later newly deepened into the theory of the national united front and the theory of the national democratic front, reflecting the experience of national liberation revolutions and national democratic revolutions in colonies and semi-colonies, including Korea and China. Although these united fronts have different forms, they all have the same principle: to promote the victory of the revolution by strengthening the independent identity of the revolutionary forces of the working class, bringing the intermediate forces into line, and isolating the counter-revolutionary forces.
One of the decisive differences between the revolutionary ideology of the working class and opportunist ideologies such as Trotskyism lies in the united front theory. Trotsky’s dogmatic theory of the workers’ united front was the most dangerous opportunist theory that committed the typical errors of “Leftist” closed-door policy, denied the revolutionary principles of the theory of united front, and caused the division of the revolutionary forces.
The most important organizational line for the revolutionary forces of the working class during World War 3 is the line of anti-imperialist united front. Inheriting the revolutionary essence of the antifascist united front during World War 2 and innovating on it to meet today’s conditions, the anti-imperialist united front is a revolutionary and scientific line that can strengthen the capacities of the revolutionary forces of the working class, boost the intermediate forces, and isolate and divide the counter-revolutionary forces.
Imperialism and fascism are closely related but distinct. Historically, monopoly capital has used two ways of domination over the people: social democracy and fascism. It is no coincidence that both coexisted in Europe on the eve of World War 2. The UK chose social democracy because it was able to placate the middle class with superprofits exploited from colonies, and Germany just chose fascism because it was suffering from extreme inflation after losing World War 1. It is in the same vein that Hitler’s Nazi party switched from social-democracy to fascism. Imperialism, as an external expression, concerns a system in which a monopoly capitalist country colonizes other countries to extract superprofits. In other words, imperialism is the external system of monopoly capitalism, and fascism is one of the basic political methods of monopoly capital. Therefore, the war between the UK, a social-democracy country, and Germany, a fascist country, at the beginning of World War 2 was an imperialist war like World War 1. However, the nature of the war changed when Germany attacked the socialist Soviet Union.
This historical truth does not change, even though extreme Trotskyists maliciously distort and define the Soviet Union as “state capitalism” in an attempt to deny the nature of the antifascist war. We must heighten our vigilance against opportunistic theories that dilute the essence of the situation and cause division among revolutionary forces under the pretext of opposing capitalism. Kautsky’s theory of “ultra-imperialism” during World War 1 has re-emerged in today’s World War 3 in the form of the “imperialist pyramid theory” by the Communist Party of Greece. The same opportunistic organizational line of the “Leftist” closed-door policy, committed by Trotsky during World War 2, is now being inherited by the Communist Party of Greece, repeating the same mistakes in today’s World War 3. According to the “imperialist pyramid theory” that the Communist Party of Greece is spreading within the international communist movement, the war in Ukraine is a war between imperialist powers, and all theories of united fronts, such as the anti-imperialist front theory, national liberation revolution theory, and national democratic revolution theory, are denied. The fact that the absurd opportunist theory that defines socialist countries like the DPRK and Cuba as “state capitalist” is still prevalent within the international communist movement reaffirms the importance of the ideological struggle against opportunism.
Today, in World War 3, the country that has the most thorough socialist principles, the DPRK, the country of socialism with Chinese characteristics, China, and the country with socialist heritage, Russia, form a leading force of the anti-imperialist camp. Compared to the differences between the countries in the antifascist camp—the socialist state, the Soviet Union, and the imperialist states, the US and UK—during World War 2, the differences between the countries in anti-imperialist camp—today’s socialist states, the DPRK and China, and capitalist Russia with socialist heritage—in the anti-imperialist camp during World War 3 are far smaller. In fact, for political reasons, Russia’s ruling party and government still highly revere Stalin, who led the victory in World War 2, as a great generalissimo. Although the ruling party and oligarchy in Russia cannot be divided, when Russia fights a vital struggle against imperialist forces in the ongoing anti-imperialist war, allying with the socialist countries, including the most thorough socialist country, DPRK, there is no doubt that favorable objective conditions will be created to strengthen the revolutionary forces of the working class and deepen the consciousness of the middle class for independence. However, these changes in the situation are only objective conditions, and whether they actually strengthen the revolutionary forces and weaken the counter-revolutionary forces depends entirely on what role the revolutionary forces of the working class play. This is essentially the same as Lenin’s experience of using the war waged by the Russian empire during World War 1 as a decisive moment for revolution.
In today’s anti-imperialist camp, in addition to the leading forces of military powers in all aspects, both advanced and conventional, such as the DPRK, China, and Russia, the world’s anti-imperialist forces, including the “Axis of Resistance” such as Iran, form the auxiliary forces. It would be a clear error of the “Leftist” closed-door policy not to include armed anti-imperialist forces in the anti-imperialist camp just because they believe in Islam rather than socialist ideology. In fact, Russia, China, and the DPRK have long maintained and developed strategic relations with the “Axis of Resistance,” including Iran, which are now deepening.
The storm of World War 3, instigated by imperialists, is now blowing from East Europe through West Asia (the Middle East) to the Western Pacific. The imperialist camp is expanding the war from East Europe to West Asia, and is not hiding a ploy, when the wars in the “Republic of Korea (ROK) and Taiwan break out, to expand these wars into the war in East Asia involving Japan and the Philippines and the war in the Western Pacific involving Australia and New Zealand. The Washington NATO Summit Declaration in July 2024 and this summer’s intensive war exercises in the Pacific, such as the “RIMPAC,” confirm that the “Pacificization of NATO” is nearing completion. The prospect that East Asia and the Western Pacific will be the main battlefields of World War 3 is unfortunate but true.
Imperialism has always been the cause of wars over the past 100 years and its aggressive nature will never disappear until it is destroyed. The war in Ukraine began with the Maidan coup in 2014, not the Russian Special Military Operation in 2022, and the war in West Asia including Palestine, began with the Israeli Zionist occupation of Palestine, from 1948 not the operation of Hamas’ “Al Aqsa Flood” operation in 2023. The imperialist powers are insidiously carrying out a widespread Goebbelsian-style propaganda campaign to blame the anti-imperialist camp for the wars that they themselves started by creating the conflicts underpinning the wars followed by constant provocation. But as can be seen through the logical contradiction between the anti-Russian propaganda and the pro-Israeli propaganda, the limitation is obvious. Rather, favorable conditions are being created for the international communist movement to lead the pro-Russian and anti-Israel public to unite in a single anti-imperialist camp.
Just like the fight against fascism in World War 2, the fight against imperialism in World War 3 is today’s greatest cause. Under this greatest cause, all anti-imperialist forces, including socialist and national liberation forces, are united in a single camp, which is the path to victory. As the war against imperialism intensifies, the ideological battle will intensify against the opportunist forces that serve imperialism, and in this process, the international communist movement will be strengthened and will develop to a new stage.
One of the most important tasks for us will always be to inherit the revolutionary essence of the historical experience of the revolution and to apply it creatively to our time. The dialectic of practice and theory is an eternal issue for revolutionary forces. As the history of the victory in World War 2 shows, the final victory of the communist movement and the anti-imperialist camp, which advance with scientific conviction, is certain.
