Washington declaration:

The Nato imperialist alliance can be defeated if we build the worldwide Axis of Resistance!

Recognising that the ultimate cause of all the wars currently raging around the globe is imperialist monopoly-capitalism, the global economic system of domination and superexploitation, we, the parties and organisations of the World Anti-imperialist Platform, note the following:

• That during the last two years of Nato’s war against Russia via fascist proxies in Ukraine, many weaknesses have been exposed in the imperialist camp.

• That nine months of imperialist war (a Nato war in all but name) against the people of the middle east via zionist proxies in Palestine have only served to exacerbate these weaknesses and expose them further.

• That the war in Ukraine first exposed the economic weakness of the Nato imperialists, who tried to destroy Russia’s economy with a sanctions war and ended up by strengthening Russia’s economy and further damaging their own.

• That as a result, the economic crisis that the imperialist countries were trying to escape, has only been exacerbated, with energy prices and inflation rocketing, European industry becoming unviable, and the cost of living for ordinary workers climbing steeply.

• That the war in Palestine has further exposed this weakness, revealing that despite almost unlimited subsidies to the settler-colonial entity, its backers in the west are no longer able to keep the zionist economy afloat.

• That the war in Ukraine has also exposed the military weakness of the imperialist countries, which have for so long held out the threat of overwhelming force to compel the submission of those in the oppressed and developing world. In Ukraine today, despite Nato having spent a decade creating huge and multiple lines of fortification in preparation for a confrontation with Russia, and despite having built up the Ukrainian army into what was essentially Nato’s largest fighting force, the western alliance is being decisively beaten.

• That the war in Palestine has further exposed this weakness. Despite its backing by Nato bombers and aircraft carriers, and despite being re-equipped daily with arms supplies from the west, the zionists are being decisively beaten on every front of the war: in Gaza by the Palestinian resistance, in northern Palestine and the Golan Heights by Hezbollah, in the Red Sea by Ansarullah and across occupied Palestine by a combination of regional resistance forces, including those based in heroic Yemen and in occupied Iraq.

• That the death and destruction that the zionists have wrought so mercilessly on innocent Palestinian civilians, on their homes, schools, workplaces and hospitals, have achieved nothing militarily – today there is no area of the Gaza Strip that is safe for Israeli or US soldiers.

• That both these wars have highlighted an extremely significant shift: that the west has lost its technological dominance, and with it the ability to enforce its will over the people of the planet.

• That the war in Ukraine has also exposed the systematic dishonesty of the imperialist camp. Unable to win outright military victories, the imperialists have been using their global dominance of corporate and social media to spin headlines and build narratives about the war that are pure Hollywood, with no real basis in reality.

• That during this process, the imperialists have been extremely careless with Ukrainian lives, unconcerned with the hundreds of thousands of men who have been sent to their deaths for no military purpose whatsoever. Thus, the absolute inhumanity of imperialism has been highlighted once again.

• That this duplicity and inhumanity has been most glaringly laid bare in Palestine, where real-time footage of the ongoing Gaza genocide has been giving the lie to the assertions of western journalists and politicians almost as soon as they are uttered.

• That while making statements about the need for peace and negotiations, western leaders have been shown to be sending unlimited supplies of arms and finance to the zionist genocidaires. Meanwhile regular massacres of civilians and the systematic targeting of schools, universities and hospitals hardly get a mention in western media, or are blatantly misrepresented. The genocide perpetrators are routinely sympathised with and presented as ‘democratic’ forces engaged in ‘self-defence’, while those resisting oppression continue to be dehumanised and described as ‘terrorists’.

• That this duplicity extends to the diplomatic sphere, and that countries in the oppressed world are increasingly coming to the conclusion that the imperialists cannot be negotiated with; that their treaties are not worth the paper they are written on. That neither the Sunshine protocols signed up to by the DPRK, nor the Oslo process signed up to by the Palestinians, nor the Minsk process signed up to by the Russians were ever sincerely aimed at finding genuine or peaceful solutions but were simply a mechanism for tying the hands of one side while the imperialists themselves created ‘facts on the ground’ and prepared for a renewal of military aggression.

• That as a result, many countries are coming to the realisation that there is simply no way to remain safe from imperialist hostility while also remaining sovereign. This is the reason for the ever-accelerating rate at which the anti-imperialist countries are now strengthening their bilateral and multilateral relationships – a most welcome development for the oppressed people everywhere.

• That despite all their differences in ideology and outlook, the anti-imperialist camp today is stronger than it has been since the death of Josef Stalin in 1953. In economic and technological terms, it is stronger than it has ever been, while imperialism is weaker than it has ever been. Truly the balance of forces are reaching a decisive tipping point in history.

• That the wars in Ukraine and Palestine have also exposed the bankrupt and rotten state of much of what still calls itself the ‘communist’ movement. The war has provided us with a perfect litmus with which to find out who is a genuine revolutionary and who has become merely a tame ‘oppositionist’; who retains fidelity to anti-imperialism in practise and who merely hides behind plausible phrases as a cover for their rotten, opportunist actions in support of imperialism.

• That genuine anti-imperialists have a duty to do everything possible to bring home to workers all the lessons outlined above. We must help workers see that just as they have been lied to about Palestine and zionism, so they have been lied to about Russia and Ukrainian fascism, about China, the DPRK and Iran. And we must use this understanding to mobilise the masses everywhere to take an active part in this, the most decisive struggle of our era – the struggle to destroy once and for all the imperialist global system.

• That failure in its wars in Europe and west Asia will not hold the imperialists back from their war drive, but rather impel them on, desperate to save themselves and their system by any means necessary. It is in this light that we must understand the spread of Nato across the globe, the attempt to create an east Asian wing of Nato with which to confront China and the DPRK, and the building up of proxy armies by Nato on the continent of Latin America.

We therefore commit to the following:

1. That we will do everything in our power to help workers and oppressed peoples understand that we have a side in this war; that it is in every working person’s interest for Russia to defeat Nato, and for Palestine and the wider middle-eastern resistance to defeat zionism and kick imperialism out of the middle east; that these huge blows at our common enemy can only help accelerate the shifting of class forces in the world and create better conditions for the struggle against imperialist domination and exploitation everywhere else.

2. That we will do everything in our power to popularise the demand for a campaign of active non-cooperation with every aspect of the imperialist war machines, including proxy forces. We will work to help workers realise that they have the power to compel their governments to withdraw support for the illegal, aggressive warmongering of the zionist and Nato extermination machines, and to help them organise to use that power.

3. That we will do everything in our power to debunk the propaganda and expose the war preparations of the imperialists in relation to China and the DPRK; to help working people understand that no matter who fires the first shot, any war that breaks out in east Asia will have been provoked by imperialist aggression; that therefore the masses must be on the side of China and the DPRK and must work actively for their victory just as in every other theatre of war where imperialism and its proxies are fighting to maintain or impose their hegemony.

4. That we will do everything in our power to bring to the attention of the masses the essential inability of the imperialist system to live in peace, highlighting the rapid and aggressive expansion of Nato across the world – in particular into east Asia and Latin America – and explaining that the imperialists hope to recover from their economic crisis through means of warfare and are desperately searching for fresh troops to throw into the battlefield.

• That we will work to spread awareness of the historical opportunity that is opening up to humanity, and the duty we have of rising to the times; that we will inject the working masses with optimism about their prospects for success and the bright future awaiting them on the other side of victory.

Imperialism is in a deep crisis, and its combined forces are weaker than at any time in their history. Meanwhile, the combined forces of anti-imperialist resistance are stronger than they have ever been.

People everywhere are crying out for the chance to break the chains of imperialist enslavement, impoverishment and perpetual war; they are crying out for the chance to develop along a human-centred and ultimately socialist path, free from exploitation of all kinds.

The times are changing. All over the world, the balance of forces is shifting and a revolutionary current is building.

Now is the time to redouble our efforts in building up the Axis of Resistance in every corner of the earth.

Disband Nato!

Death to imperialism!

No cooperation with imperialist war!

Victory to the resistance!