Dimitrios Patelis | Revolutionary Unification (Greece)
With the election and inauguration of Donald Trump, a particularly notable international far-right group of supporters of the once again ruling Republican Party, with the US “Tea Party” as its main constituency, has re-emerged. Many Trump supporters see him as a global “anti-systemic leader” who has supposedly “revived the idea of the nation-state”―in contrast to the “national nihilists/globalists”. A leader in whom they not only place their hopes for a world of “peace and multipolarity”, but also urge us to support him “to solidify the prospects of the current antiimperialist movement”!
These are symptoms of a clear deterioration of conscience and deep ideological and political confusion of a significant part of the people who consider themselves “anti-imperialist”.
The long-term propaganda and practice of the most dangerous opportunism/revisionism in the conditions of World War III (WWIII), led by the group that controls the “Communist” Party of Greece, has contributed to this confusion. The hostile attitude of this group towards any form of national liberation anti-imperialist struggle and the denunciation of anti-imperialism as “opportunism”, combined with the dominant post-modern neo-liberal ideologies, according to which nations are nothing but “social-symbolic constructions”, have led to a situation where the confusion and subversion of the movement has reached its peak.
Thus, in some “progressive” circles, any reference to concepts such as the nation, the homeland, national independence and popular sovereignty of imperialist-dependent peoples and countries is denounced as supposedly indicative of “nationalism/fascism”, while imperialist cosmopolitanism of the EU-NATO type is presented as supposedly “authentic internationalism”!
Where there is subversion, where there is a lack of a serious left, communist body capable of rallying the anti-imperialist sentiments rising in WWIII into a victorious frontal struggle, the public management of these sentiments is handed over without a fight to be manipulated by the deeply entrenched regime forces of the extreme right and fascism.[1] In the context of this manipulation, variants of fascism are promoted and perceived as “anti-systemic”, “radical”, “anti-imperialist” and “anti-globalist patriotic forces”, supposedly beyond the “outdated right-left dichotomy”, “above class antitheses and interests”, as the only forces supposedly “fighting for the values of the ancestors, for altars and hearths”!
Contrary to such deceptions, ideological manipulations and confusion that de facto strengthen the US-NATO-EU axis, the World Anti-Imperialist Platform has scientifically and objectively documented the character of WWIII as a conflict between the forces of
a) the imperialist axis of aggression led by the USA and
b) socialism and anti-imperialism.
Especially as far as the USA is concerned, it is unthinkable to expect serious changes in the strategy, in the terms of engagement of this imperialist state, the “collective capitalist” (Marx), the most aggressive forces of the financial oligarchy, in WWIII.
However, with the intensive manipulation of the dominant ideological and propaganda mechanisms, a certain type of “public opinion” has been formed, which, while considering class (socio-economic) antitheses as “obsolete”, in the spirit of an extreme subjective idealism, perceives WWIII as a battlefield of certain ideas, values and norms, as an existentially important ideological and political confrontation of “darkness vs. light”, which is reduced to the following opposition―dipole:
1. Globalists, national nihilists―advocates of “multiculturalism”, the “woke agenda & culture”, rights activism, the endless “construction & reconstruction of gender etc. identities”, the “inclusivity towards of all differences and identities” (as well as DEI corporate frameworks & mandates), and
2. Anti-globalist nationalists, statists, advocates of the nation-state, of “national unity”, of “traditional ancestral values of the fatherland, of religion and of the [patriarchal] family”, of primordial history, of “land and blood”, of “conservative believers in the traditional values of the nation”, and so on.
The result is an audience addicted to unquestioningly swallowing, digesting and propagating any irrational nationalist, conspiracist, cosmopolitan, etc. nonsense, to accepting as “fact” and “explanatory cheat sheet” whatever seems to “light the way” and strengthen “their own” side in this “dark vs light” dichotomy. Here, as in every mainstream debate based on pack mentality, sensationalism through conditioned reflexes replaces rational judgement. The catchphrase, any primitive, easily digestible, vulgar slogan, replaces any claim to scientific substantiation.
In the USA, with its historically established traditions of extreme individualism, competitiveness and political illiteracy, the above ideological-political dichotomy has been channeled and consolidated in the one-party system that is very convenient for the oligarchy of capital, the alternating versions of which are ensured by the ostensible “bipartisanship”. This bipolarity now permeates the entire superstructure, the state as a whole, the deep state and the criminal underworld, the mechanisms of the capitalist media, the entertainment industry, religion, etc.
Today exist there:
1. the Democratic Party (primarily representing the interests of the financial oligarchy, organically linked to the global “bubble” of “virtual capital”), which is the main carrier of the ideologies of the “globalists”; and
2. the Republican Party (which at present mainly represents the interests of those sections of the oligarchy linked to real estate, the mining sector, the remnants of US manufacturing, the Elon Musk-type state-sponsored high-tech monopolies, etc.), which is the main vehicle of the “anti-globalists”.
This dipole is not just for domestic consumption. On the contrary, especially since the 1980s, it has become a “key export product”, a model for imposing the agenda of ideological-political fermentation and debate on a global scale, a “bed of Procrustes” for reform into regime positions―a mutation of “public narratives”―ideologies of transnational scope.
It is from the USA, etc., that the main lines of takeover, corruption, degeneration and manipulation emanate through massive funding, through overt and covert sponsorship of “academic” institutions and bodies, through a methodical transnational NGO-isation of parties, organisations, trade unions, etc., precisely in the spirit of this dipole.
In fact, in violation of every factual and logical principle, the ideological and political narrative of the Democrats is presented, in the context of the “bipartisan” rhetorical squabble as a model of the “left”, supposedly progressive, or even “Marxist”, which the Republicans go so far as to denounce as a vector of “radical & alien European ideas aimed at undermining the traditional values of the white majority”, and even going so far as to label its politicians as “communists”!
In this spirit, Trump’s resurgence is projected by some as an “anti-systemic revolution” against the “deep state” of the Democrats!
The confusion over these irrational and dangerous ideologies is exacerbated by the fact that they have been blatantly reproduced for decades in the propaganda figures of the mainstream media and the political leadership of the newly formed bourgeoisie of today’s Russia, in the context of the pursuit of a nebulous “multipolarity”.[2] The uncritical adoption and systematic promotion of this American-style agenda is indicative not only of the inherent counterrevolutionary and comprador character of the newly formed ruling class, but also of the omnipresence of powerful “fifth column” enclaves of Western interests within the current Russian establishment.
This is particularly true of those shades of ideology that are organically and openly linked not only to versions of mysticism, obscurantism, regression and reaction, but also to versions of fascist practices and ideological constructions. Examples of this are the cases of official reception and systematic over-promotion of far-right figures and politicians (Le Pen, Alternative for Germany [AfD], Northern League, Freedom Party of Austria, etc.) as “pro-Russian” and “anti-American”. In addition, attempts are being made to establish the geopolitical claims of certain centres/poles on the basis of reactionary, conspiracist tendencies of “anti-globalisation”, “conservative values”, ecclesiastical, parachurch and theological structures, pan-Slavism, pan-Turkism, any nationalist “great idea” (irredentism) and so on.
This policy is extremely destructive, not only for the genuinely anti-imperialist movement, but also for bourgeois Russia itself. Its architects are probably unaware of the following: especially in the NATO member countries, the entire extreme right-wing formations function from the outset as an instrument of the secret services and their tentacles in the deep state and non-state structures, imbued with long-standing anti-Soviet/anti-communist propaganda, which is now being turned against Russia, the DPRK, the PRC, etc. The proof lies in the attitude of all parliamentary far-right formations whenever the issue of NATO and US strategic interests in WWIII and beyond is raised. The cases of the pro-Mussolini government of Meloni in Italy and of Orban in Hungary, also a friend of Trump, are illustrative.
Typical is the over-promotion of the notorious irrationalist “philosopher” Alexandr Dugin,[3] propagandist of a hodgepodge of eclectic doctrines of a fascist bent, centred on anti-Sovietism/anti-communism, the resurrection of the reactionary doctrines of the Slavophiles of the 18th and 19th centuries, the “Black Hundreds”, precursors of tsarist monarcho-fascism, a primitive version of Russian nationalism, Orthodox mysticism and the portrayal of Russia as the bearer of a metaphysical mission of “Eurasianism”.[4]
The links between these circles and the Nazi terrorist organisation Golden Dawn in Greece and a host of far-right, nationalist and fascist groups from Turkey and many other countries are anything but coincidental.
As part of his “anti-Western” narrative, Dugin―fundamentally incapable of originality―is quick to justify Samuel Huntington’s reactionary ideology of the “Clash of Civilisations”[5] (also a product of plagiarism)! Dugin could only see the development and expansion of the BRICS as a “vindication” of Huntington’s theories! Since the early 1990s, he has been pushing the idea of a “war against Islam” in the context of the need for the “superior Western civilisation” under the US to achieve global hegemony. In the spirit of this racist Huntingtonian filth about the existence of self-existing, incompatible and hostile/rival cultures by default, Dugin is promoted as the self-appointed ideological spokesman for Russia in WWIII.
He portrays WWIII as an allegedly inevitable “war of civilisations”! Similar reactionary and obscurantist ideologies are designed to undermine the formation of a potential anti-imperialist movement by concealing the class nature of the conflict, imperialist super-exploitation, neo-colonialism and the instrumentalisation of fascism/racism by imperialism.
Instead of Hitler’s “Aryan race” and Huntington’s “hegemony of Western civilisation under the USA”, the Eurasianist monarcho-fascist Dugin puts forward his own adaptation of the chauvinist scenario about the “superiority and necessity of the supremacy of Slavic and Orthodox civilisation under the Holy and Monarchist Tsarist Russia”!
The absurdity of the monarcho-fascist Dugin culminates in his elation over Trump’s election and his proposal for the “simultaneous establishment of monarchy in Russia and the USA” under the “enlightened leaders” Putin and Trump respectively!
Even more ridiculous were the public celebrations of the “ultra-patriots” Dugin & Malofeyev at Trump’s inauguration, while he was threatening Russia with destruction if it did not accept US terms. At the same time, Trump’s chosen one Elon Musk (an avowed friend and sponsor of both Meloni in Italy and the “pro-Russian” Alternative for Germany) was giving Nazi salutes on a worldwide broadcast! Furthermore, he and the leader of the far-right AfD party called Hitler a “communist” before making an unprecedented attempt to exonerate Nazism during a speech at the congress of the same fascist-leaning party!
Striving for the formation of a pole based on “national Russian exclusivity”, the “Russian idea”, a metaphysical “special mission of the Russian people”, the “Russian world”―even in a highly multi-ethnic state like the present Russian Federation―indicates a nationalist, expansionist and chauvinist position. A position that can only provoke the aversion of peoples to such “alliances”.
There can be no anti-imperialist front, no serious struggle for independence based on bourgeois geopolitical narratives of “multipolarity”, borrowing from the resurrection of obscurantist “Eurasian” mysticism of the 19th century, adding “philosophical depth” from the irrational delusions of the likes of Dugin! Russian expansionist nationalism/chauvinism of a monarcho-fascist bent cannot be proposed as an alternative to anti-Sovietism/anti-communism, which has developed today into the Russophobic and Sinophobic hysteria of the imperialists.
It is in this spirit, the conspiracist rhetoric of the far right of the US “Tea Party” and its followers, is being launched internationally in different flavours, to suit every taste. They propose a package of ideologies that combines “anti-globalisation” with nationalism/racism, religiosity, “anti-illegal immigrant” sentiments, conspiracist “explanations” of the manufacturing and spread of SARS-CoV-2 by “Chinese communists”, with “the fight against microchip injections” (which is “orchestrated by Bill Gates, the World Health Organisation, the Chinese communists”, etc.), metaphysical technophobic hysteria against 5G telecommunications networks, against “aerial spraying” and other goodies for the genre’s aficionados.
The last thing the proponents of such fantasies are interested in is whether they correspond with reality or are scientifically proven to be feasible. Obviously, this audience is not limited to some fringe cult-like circles.
The capitalist circles that promote such ideologies do so with cynicism in the context of the opportunism and pragmatism that characterise them: as an ex-posteriori ideological wrapping of their preconceived, self-serving practices.
This was demonstrated on a practical level by the way the Russian leadership defended Syria by employing at best wavering and at worse convulsive balancing moves between mutually exclusive interests. The Syrian leadership, the US-NATO-EU “partners”, Iran, the untrustworthy friends Turkey & the Zionist formation (the “friend Tayip Erdogan” & the “friend Benjamin Netanyahu”), etc. in an unprecedented showcase of the fickle interests of the oligarchy (e.g. it is rumoured that 8 out of 10 Russian oligarchs have Israeli passports). Thus, while Russia had an air and naval base there (also a legacy of the USSR, a concrete testimony of support for the anti-colonial Arab anti-imperialism of the Baath Arab Socialist Party), with the most technologically advanced anti-aircraft and missile defence systems, the USA, NATO and Israel have been allowed to attack military and civilian targets in Syria unhindered for ten years, while it is the Russian leadership that forced the invasion of Turkish troops into northern Syria to create a “border security zone”, initially with mixed Russian-Turkish patrols. Finally, the implacable friends have jointly dismantled and occupied Syria, which marks a strategic victory for the imperialist axis in the West Asian theatre of operations, putting Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, etc. in existential danger. Hence the rather cold military part of the Russia-Iran summit agreement of 17 January 2025.
Who can be inspired by such ideological and practical “consistency”?
The above also serves as evidence of the result of the ahistorical and unscientific detachment, over-inflation and absolutisation of the nation-state and globalisation dipole from the overall framework of global relations (primarily the relations of production) and the elevation of this dipole to a “main contradiction of our time”, indeed above class antitheses, above the left versus right, fascism versus antifascism antithesis.
As the vice-president of the Central Committee of the CPRF, D. Novikov rightly and often points out, today many people are quick to replace the scientific approach to society, the socio-economic formation approach of Marxist historical materialism, with the bourgeois “approach of separate cultures”. He points out that today “much is said about the clash of civilisations. But […] we must not forget about class struggle, the class approach, the methods of analysis of Marx, Engels and Lenin. There is much here that is important and interesting for understanding the modern world and assessing its prospects”.[6]
Elementary scientific knowledge of Marxist political economy and social theory makes it clear that there are no equivalent, co-equal or equipotent nation-states and/or ideas about them. Nations, states, regional integrations, coalitions, etc. (and the accompanying ideas about them) function as organic elements of highly unequal, exploitative economic (political, military, cultural, etc.) relations on a global scale in which the colossal mechanisms of the multi-national monopoly corporations play a decisive role. The agents of capital, where appropriate, promote slogans in favour of nationalism, chauvinism, racism, etc. (like every Trump, Bolsonaro, Milei, Meloni, Orban, etc.) or in favour of “globalist” cosmopolitanism (like the US Democrats, the herd of Soros’ omnipresent flock, etc.) in order to promote their cynical class interests, as two sides of the same coin, the basically identical self-interests of the oligarchy of capital.
Any difference between these poles lies in the respective emphases and hierarchies of individual capital and the resulting manipulative expediencies, rather than in the broader and deeper strategic interests of the “collective capitalist”, the state of the imperialist centre in question.
They do this in order to disguise the class mechanism of capital’s exploitation at national, regional and global levels, while at the same time seeking to conceal the increasingly hideously destructive nature of capital’s rule and to prevent any thought of the only alternative prospect for the survival of society: the revolutionary unification of humanity (socialism-communism), for which the necessary and sufficient conditions are maturing to an unprecedented degree at all levels of:
• the creative potential of scientific and technological progress for the benefit of humanity,
• the development of the subject of labour,
• the necessity for planning within production and its effects on nature and society,
• the prevention of ecological and/or wartime destruction, the way out into space, etc.
Here, of course, the national question also has an extremely important role to play, not in isolation, but organically integrated into the strategic objective of the above-mentioned unification, insofar as the struggles of peoples and regions for popular/national sovereignty, against imperialism and neo-colonialism constitute an essential aspect of the global class struggle, an indispensable element of the global revolutionary process. This is primarily the struggle of peoples and countries with an average or below-average level of development, with corresponding positions and roles in the global matrix of the balance of forces, among which the “weak links”―especially in the conditions of WWIII―emerge as fertile ground for the eruption of revolutionary situations.
On the contrary, when the “greatness” of a nation-state of the metropolises of the global imperialist system and especially of the hegemonic superpower of the imperialist axis of aggression is put forward, this clearly refers to the most aggressive, inhuman and destructive forces of the global capitalist-imperialist system. It is naive at best to align oneself with the section of the multinational multi-branch monopoly capital represented by Trump (in the latter’s pursuit of “making the USA great again”, i.e. reversing the decline of the US pole of this capital, struggling to consolidate and extend its parasitic domination with new massacres) and to harbour illusions about serving national and international “revolutionary objectives” in this way!
The programmatic claims of Trump and the government of the oligarchy he has set up to “make America great again” are clear:
• US hegemony through military and economic power,
• Imposition of annual war spending of 5% of GDP on NATO members,
• economic warfare through the imposition of 100% tariffs on imports from the BRICS countries and 25% from Canada and Mexico,
• reassertion of the dominance of the dollar as the global reserve currency and of US-controlled intergovernmental institutions with claims to global governance,
• repatriation of industrial manufacturing operations of the US monopoly groups to US territory, recovery and establishment of hegemony in advanced technologies (military-industrial complex, artificial intelligence, microelectronics, aerospace, biotechnologies, nanotechnologies, etc.), through the direct merging/reassignment of key government positions and roles to prominent representatives of the capital oligarchy,
• attempt to entrap, temporarily appease or buy off the Russian oligarchy,
• focus on war in East Asia (DPRK, PRC),
• overt expansion with a series of annexations/expropriations aimed at seizing strategic natural resources (from Canada and Greenland, which can ensure an unequaled long-term self-sufficiency in natural resources as well as access to the resources of the North Pole on par with Russia) for the purposes of war, and re-industrialisation,
• control of the strategic maritime arteries (Arctic Belt, Mexico, Panama, etc.), all the oceans and the Mediterranean,
• subjugation―regime change and total control of Latin America,
• strengthening the criminal Zionist formation and further instrumentalisation of the “Kurdish factor” for the joint destruction of the axis of resistance in West and Central Asia (with Iran, its allies and the post-Soviet space as the main target),
• promoting ethnic cleansing in the territories occupied by Israel, with a massive increase in the supply of its war machine while “urging” Jordan and Egypt “to take the Palestinians from Gaza”,
• faith in “traditional values” with the institutional abolition of the “woke agenda”, etc.
Therefore, when some people confuse the strategic aims of the regime of the above monopoly groups with anti-imperialism, with the interests of the oppressed peoples, the working class and the revolution, it is clear whose interests they are serving and what kind of useful idiots they are fishing for in the murky waters of the systemic crisis of WWIII…
How much of a “progressive force” is the fascist-like to outright fascist flock of Trump supporters, or their counterpart of “democratic” war hawks?
Hence, there are people and organisations who see events in the US and the world in the light of an extremely dangerously oversimplified bipolar “globalist”―“anti-globalist”, “liberal multiculturalist”―“conservative believer in the age-old values of the nation” and so on, as a “revolution” of the latter against the US “deep state”. This confusion is echoed by the Kremlin’s official propaganda figures.
This, of course, requires zero reference to the class basis of the poles in question and to the fact that both stand for versions of the fascisation of the declining superpower at the head of the Euro-Atlantic axis in crisis and war. There is no reference to the global mechanism of exploitation / siphoning off of monopoly super-profits by the imperialist powers of the axis led by the USA and the global devastation they prescribe, especially as their decline, wavering and decay under the conditions of the imperialist WWIII becomes more and more obvious.
Humanity and the progressive movement are called upon to face the problems, the solution of which is impossible without the science of the Logic of History, without the global political economy of the modern stage of imperialism, without the study of the global mechanism of super-exploitation, regional imperialist integrations, capital flows, etc.
Some, like the opportunist group that controls the “Communist” Party of Greece, reproduce metaphysically mindless schemes of Althusserian origin about supposed “national socio-economic formations”, among which they see “interdependencies”, mechanistic “pyramids”, “unions”, “alliances”, etc. …
In the absence of revolutionary theory and methodology, the way is open for any kind of irrationalism and for the strengthening of reactionary geopolitical, racist, etc. schemes and doctrines…
The World Anti-Imperialist Platform is working on all levels (theoretical, ideological, practical and organisational) to coordinate the forces of anti-imperialism and socialism into a victorious front capable of crushing the mortal danger of the US-led imperialist axis of aggression.
This struggle requires great vigilance on the ideological level in order to disentangle con-sciences from extremely dangerous, artificial, confusing and manipulative dipole traps such as “globalisation vs. anti-globalisation”, “extreme postmodern neoliberalism vs. extreme postmodern neoconservative traditionalism of primordial values”, etc.
The creative development/application of revolutionary theory is an imperative task for communists and an indispensable condition for the reconstitution of the global communist movement of the time as the vanguard of the revolutionary anti-imperialist movement and the socialist prospect.
Notes
[1] See also: 1. On the relationship between imperialism and fascism during WWIII. D. Patelis. Platform № 9, February 2024, p. 36-43. 2. The destruction of fascism in 1945 as a legacy for the defeat of the present axis of the USA–NATO-EU! D. Patelis. Platform № 12, May 2024, p. 38-46
[2] See also: “Multipolarity” or internationalist anti-imperialism, Dimitrios Patelis, Platform № 4, September 2023, p. 42-57
[3] The over-promotion of Dugin and of controlled media (e.g. Tsargrad.tv) is based on lavish sponsorship―high “patronage” on behalf of monarcho-fascist circles of the Russian oligarchy of capital (of the Konstantin Malofeyev type). These circles also seem to sponsor and direct an international network of circles with similar “values” and ideologies, with luxurious publications of Dugin’s books and other activities. This kind of “generous sponsorship” of course pales in comparison to the torrent of resources flowing from the US-NATO-EU transnational channels of takeover & corruption, but it does have some reach and impact. It is enough for the eligible recipients of such donations to adopt a sufficiently flexible ideological framework of abstract to “de-ideologised” anti-American, anti-Western and pro-Russian attitudes. Necessary conditions are: 1. the emphasis on preventing economic and military support for Ukraine; 2. if not the elimination, at least the mitigation of any overtly critical reference to nationalist and monarcho-fascist versions of extreme right-wing “anti-American―anti-Western” attitudes in Russia and around the world; and 3. the separation of this kind of “anti-imperialism” from a radical socialist orientation, from the communist prospect.
[4] “Eurasianism” (Russian: евразийство) is an ideological-political pro-monarchist doctrine of metaphysical and irrational mystification of the “unrivalled Russian civilisation”, popular among Russian expatriates of the defeated “White Guard” after the October Revolution, most of whom collaborated with fascism-Nazism from the interwar period and participated in the then Axis offensive against the USSR. According to this doctrine, Russia does not belong to the European or Asian category, but to the geopolitical concept of Eurasia, and as such is destined to be entrusted with a global soteriological hegemonic mission of a geostrategic nature, as the core and heart of Eurasia, as the cradle of primordial, eternal values and orthodox religious traditions (with Moscow as the successor of Constantinople, as the ‘Third Rome’), ideally formed into a multiethnic empire―superpowerful, absolutist monarchy under God.
[5] Huntington, Samuel P. The Clash of Civilisations? Foreign Affairs; Summer 1993; 72, 3; The so-called “political scientist” Samuel P. Huntington (1927-2008) was one of the most reactionary representatives of the American academic and ideological-political establishment, far right, xenophobic and racist, a supporter of the “apartheid” policy and of “white supremacy” in South Africa. His ideology of the war of civilisations was also the product of plagiarism and propagandistic adaptation of older forms of reactionary bourgeois metaphysical philosophy, such as that of the Russian Nikolai Yakovlevich Danilevsky (Russian. Nikolai Яковлевич Данилевский (1822-1885), the German Oswald Spengler (1880-1936), the British apologist of imperialism and colonialism Arnold Toynbee (1889-1975) and others.
[6] Заместитель Председателя ЦК КПРФ Дмитрий Новиков о лукавстве западных поборников «сохранения единства России» и об актуальности марксизма-ленинизма (в программе «Время покажет»), 6 февраля 2024.
