The following joint statement was made by organisations attending the international conference held by the World Anti-imperialist Platform in Dakar, Senegal on 26 October 2024. This was the Platform’s eighth international conference, its first on the African continent.
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The revolutionary upsurge demanding independence from imperialism by the peoples of the world is growing intense. The anti-imperialist struggle in the Sahel region of Africa, which reached new heights in 2020, has led to the complete removal of US and French troops from Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso. The ejection of these troops, which facilitated the political domination and economic plunder of the region by western powers, is one more historic victory for the anti-imperialist struggle on the African continent.
Also in the Sahel region, the Senegalese people have been waging an intense struggle against the pro-imperialist regime, which had deepened its west-backed fascist repression of the popular forces. The recent electoral victory after 12 years of fierce struggle is a significant achievement by the popular movement in Senegal.
Underlying the shining achievements of the anti-imperialist struggle in Africa is the spirit of combative and revolutionary Pan-African anti-imperialism. This combined the constant contemplation and practice of brave African revolutionaries with the great global upsurge in the national-liberation struggle that emerged from the victory over fascism achieved by the socialist forces with the USSR at their head during WW2.
The revolutionaries who fought for African liberation, including Amílcar Cabral, whose 100th birth anniversary we celebrate this year, transcended the borders artificially created by the imperialists, smashed their viciously divisive tactics and raised the strategic banner of anti-imperialism and socialism as the true path to the liberation of the African continent from colonialism and neocolonialism.
The struggle and activities of the African peoples to realise their dignity and rights in the face of imperialism’s aggression and plunder for five long centuries confirm the revolutionary principle that imperialist forces, whose aim is domination and exploitation, are the main enemies of the world’s people, and the immutable truth that where there is oppression, there will be resistance.
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The world is heading deeper into a third world war
The imperialist camp is now deepening its drive into World War 3 by prolonging the war in Ukraine, escalating the war in west Asia (the middle east), and driving towards further war in east Asia and the western Pacific.
The US-Nato Ukrainian neo-Nazi puppet army has been demanding that the US and Nato authorise long-range missiles to hit the Russian mainland, and many within the imperialist camp indeed want to lift the restrictions on the use of these missiles, forcing Russia to revise its nuclear doctrine in self-defence. Despite losing on all the major battlefields, the aggressive imperialist forces continue to provoke Russia and are frantically trying to expand and prolong the war in Ukraine.
Using its zionist proxies, US imperialism is driving towards a wider war in west Asia. The zionist killing machine, with the full support of the USA, the EU and Nato, continues to massacre Palestinians in its genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip. At the same time, the zionists have been bombing Beirut, southern Lebanon, Syria and Iran, assassinating (among many others) Hezbollah’s military commander and the chairman of Hamas’s political bureau in July, and going on to murder Hezbollah’s secretary general in late September and Hamas’s fighting leader in October.
On 1 October, Iran launched Operation ‘True Promise 2’, and Hezbollah has since then been engaged in close fighting to repel repeated Israeli invasion attempts along the Lebanese border. The Palestinian resistance forces continue to resist zionist invasion forces in the Gaza Strip, and the ‘Axis of Resistance’, the united forces of armed and popular struggle against imperialism and zionism in the region, has announced its intention to fight to the finish in the event of a full-scale war in west Asia.
There are increasingly clear signs that the imperialist camp in its death throes is preparing for a war in the western Pacific, in which Australia and New Zealand will be also involved, expanding its existing plans for war in east Asia and provoked through a combination of proxy forces from Japan, the ‘Republic of Korea (ROK)’, Taiwan and the Philippines.
The imperialist camp has been realising its plan for the “Pacificisation of Nato” with the Washington Nato summit in July 2024 and via large-scale multinational joint military exercises in the Pacific, in which the pro-US belligerent countries in the western Pacific participated alongside Nato Members. The USA and pro-US belligerent countries have been completing various military blocs, forming aggressive military alliances and conducting joint military exercises at the ‘alliance’ level.
It is deeply concerning that the drive towards a war on the Korean peninsula could well trigger a wider war in east Asia and the western Pacific. The USA, Japan and the ROK have agreed on a Nato-style “collective security system”, conducting joint Nato-style military exercises and completing the formation of a “northeast Asian Nato”. The puppet regime of Yoon Suk-yeol in the ROK conducted joint military exercises aimed at the DPRK with the USA throughout August, culminating in a fascistic crackdown on even constitutionally recognised political parties at the end of the month.
The opposition leaders of the ROK have even presented evidence that Yoon’s government is plotting a local war in order to justify declaring martial law and consolidating his unpopular regime. Meanwhile, the USA has set up a unified command over Japanese and US forces, which will be operational in early 2025, in order that a Japanese militarist force can provide the storm troops for its planned wars in the region.
Alongside these expanding military fronts, US imperialism is waging economic warfare, attempting to isolate and crush all anti-imperialist nations. It has accused the foremost anti-imperialist countries – the DPRK, China and Russia – of being a new “Axis of Aggressors”, and has used this excuse to justify the deepening of its long-standing economic and propaganda war against them. Its aim of breaking and colonising Russia and China is but the latest iteration of the same old imperialist hegemonic strategy that was outlined in Zbigniew Brzezinski’s notorious “Grand Chessboard”.
‘Colour revolutions’ – ie, plots for overthrowing governments that stand in the way of US diktat – are being overtly attempted all over Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia. A recent representative example was the attempt by US-backed fascists to carry out a coup d’etat against the Venezuelan people’s government.
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We must strengthen our fight
The revolutionary parties, workers and peoples of the world are faced with the task of overcoming the unprecedented crisis into which the capitalist-imperialist system has plunged humanity and of building a new era of based on peace, fraternity, liberation and self-determination.
The imperialist camp’s drive towards all-out global war, backed up by the establishment of a ‘new cold war’ political, media and economic framework, is a reflection not of the strength but of the weakness and desperation of the imperialist system and its rulers. Our response must be to strengthen the anti-imperialist front and help to bring strength and clarity to the inevitable people’s uprisings.
The imperialist countries are experiencing a serious political and economic crisis, with low approval ratings, corruption scandals, soaring government debt, high prices and high unemployment. The more that they pursue war policies to escape this crisis, the deeper the crisis will become and the more intense will be the resistance of their people. The imperialist camp is caught in a trap with no way out.
The military and political power and strategic and tactical cooperation between the socialist countries of the DPRK and China, and a country with socialist heritage, Russia, are steadily increasing. The Axis of Resistance led by Iran in west Asia, the anti-imperialist mass movements of Africa, Latin America and Asia, and the peace-loving people in the imperialist countries, are all important forces within the anti-imperialist camp. Under the just banners of peace, antifascism, liberation and reunification, the anti-imperialist forces are dealing heavy blows to the imperialist camp’s offensives and advancing forward.
The World Anti-imperialist Platform stands with the forces of global anti-imperialism, setting itself three major goals: the strengthening of the anti-imperialist struggle among the masses, the strengthening of the ideological battle against pro-imperialist ideas, and the strengthening of the communist movement as the core of true anti-imperialism.
These goals aim to strengthen the anti-imperialist front and help the peoples of the world advance towards the achievement of independence, peace, liberation and revolution.
The struggle against imperialism, which is the enemy of all humanity, must be waged with courage and persistence, with the clear understanding that ‘The people, united, will never be defeated!’
Workers and oppressed peoples of all countries, unite!
Disband Nato!
No cooperation with imperialist war!
Down with zionism and fascism!
Death to imperialism!
Victory to the forces of socialist and anti-imperialist resistance!
