Philipp Kissel | Communist Organization (KO, Germany)
The Federal Republic of Germany’s new and first military strategy identifies an enemy: Russia. The German Foreign Minister said, “Russia will always be our enemy.” Germany is preparing for war against Russia. 85 years after the invasion of the Soviet Union, the Federal Republic of Germany is not only seeking to build the largest conventional army in Europe, but it is also perfectly clear against whom it is to be directed: against the Russian Federation.
85 years after the colonial war of annihilation against the Soviet peoples, Russia is once again confronted with the world’s largest military machine. Once again, Nazi ideology and its terrorist gangs are being deployed by the West. We recall the many anti-fascists in Ukraine who were killed in 2014 by Bandera supporters, who carried out these murders with the full support of the Federal Republic of Germany.
We also wish to recall that by the end of 2021, the situation had been escalated by NATO, and a massive invasion of the People’s Republics by the Kiev regime was imminent. In early 2022, Russia decided to launch a pre-emptive offensive to stop the US proxies, who were prepared to commit any crime.
In our view, this is the correct assessment of these historical events. The lessons of 22 June 1941 are deeply rooted in the consciousness of Russian society. A renewed invasion, exploiting the element of surprise and the attacker’s military advantage, will be definitively prevented.
The decision by the Russian leadership to halt NATO’s aggression has a historic dimension. The German government spoke of a ‘turning point’ in order to exploit the situation and push through long-prepared armament plans. But it is indeed a turning point. For military resistance against NATO on this scale has not yet been mounted. To this end, according to the then German Foreign Minister—in full colonial style—Russia was to be ruined.
But it is also a turning point from the perspective of many oppressed countries and peoples, who have found the courage to take action against their oppressors, against their stranglers from the West. Russia’s resistance against NATO represents a significant psychological turning point in the context of war, following years of destruction in so many countries, from Iraq to Afghanistan to Syria.
It is a turning point in the international class struggle, in which oppressed countries and peoples on the one hand, and imperialist states and their military machine on the other, stand opposed to one another. The working class plays a central role in this, both in the oppressed countries and in the imperialist centres. At the same time, it faces various challenges and is, in part, not yet aware of its task.
A fierce debate has erupted within the International Communist Movement over how to assess these events. One section rejects the military operation and regards the conflict as an inter-imperialist conflict taking place between sides of equal standing. The working class, they argue, must not take the side of either of these ‘camps’.
This equates the aggressors with the attacked, disregards the real balance of power in the world, and ignores the realities faced by the oppressed. Regardless of why and how this line of thinking came about, we must clearly state that it constitutes a form of integration into imperialist ideology. On the crucial point, it is in line with the imperialist powers, namely in the rejection of military resistance against NATO.
Another important point is the disregard for the significance of the national question in the class struggle. Many peoples are fighting for their self-determination and, in many cases, can count on the support of Russia and China, as in West Africa. The national defence struggle of the Islamic Republic of Iran and of the socialist Cuba is also an important part of this international struggle. Here, too, the fatal consequences of the ideology of equidistance described above are evident.
Palestine’s struggle against settler colonialism, against the occupation and genocide, also plays a vital role in this current struggle, for the resistance of the Palestinian people is characterised not only by great courage, but also by great political clarity regarding the unconditional necessity of national self-determination, of life in dignity and freedom.
In Germany, there is a vibrant and tenacious movement in solidarity with Palestine which, like hardly any movement before it, challenges and attacks the ‘reason of state’ of this deeply reactionary state. There is much to learn from it, and it must be supported without reservation.
Russia, West Africa, West Asia, Palestine: when we look at the overall situation, we realise that these struggles are in fact all interconnected and share a common context. They do not merely share a common enemy: imperialism, which does not simply exist in the abstract or lurk within every state, but whose real existence is tied to the USA as the leading power and to Germany, France, Britain and Japan as ‘allies’ and simultaneous rivals. Alongside this common enemy, there is another important commonality: the great legacy of liberation struggles, from Vietnam through Cuba to Algeria.
In our view, the Communist movement needs to engage much more deeply with the crucial significance of Russia for the national struggle at the international level. It is rarely discussed why this is a central political issue for the working class. There is seldom any debate on how the struggles of the working class in the imperialist centres relate to Russia’s struggle for its national sovereignty.
It may be that within the International Communist Movement, a division into opposing positions has taken place. But for the working class, it is important to understand everything: what are the points of disagreement, what are the arguments, and how are the issues connected? Just as Lenin always wrote for the workers so that they could understand everything and take action, we too need a process of clarification before the public of the working class today, so that they themselves can have their say on the matter.
85 years after the invasion of the Soviet Union, we as communists in Germany are all the more obliged to educate people about the just national struggle of the Russian Federation, to inform workers in Germany that this concerns the future of their Russian colleagues, who are protecting their country from dismemberment and subjugation—and that it therefore also concerns their own future. For should NATO and the FRG succeed, it is their exploiters who will become even stronger, even more brutal and unscrupulous.
