Communist Labour Party of Turkey/Leninist

We are in Africa, where the flag of Amilcar Cabral, Nkrumah, Ahmed Sekou Toure, Patrice Lumumba, Thomas Sankara and other revolutionary leaders is being raised again today, where the anti-imperialist wave is rising. Greetings to all revolutionary fellows who learn from their revolutionary past and stand up again!

Comrades

Events are progressing at an extraordinary speed. Developments of years, even decades, now fit into days and hours. The world has been swept up in a spiral of conflicts and wars. The fire of war is spreading. The imperialist criminals are carrying out terrible attacks in order to slow down the wheel of history, in order to keep their crumbling order alive a little longer.

However, nothing can stop the march of history! The upcoming dawn of brighter days is breaking out of great pain and tears: “The earth shall rise on new foundations / We have been nought we shall be all.”

The fire in West Asia (Middle East) is growing

The ongoing genocide in Palestine is now evolving into a war that is setting the whole region on fire. The Zionist entity is recklessly spreading the fire in line with imperialist plans. West Asia (the Middle East) is rapidly being dragged into a regional war.

The conflicts have rapidly spread to Lebanon. After the terrorist attacks carried out with the cooperation of imperialist technology companies and imperialist intelligence services, we witnessed intensive aerial bombardments and assassinations. Then, while Israel’s recklessness had reached its height with the assassination of Nasrallah, Iran’s belated retaliation took place. The weather suddenly reversed. After 7 October 2023, Israel’s fragility, the fact that it can be hit and punished was once again seen. Today, the fact that both the US-NATO imperialism and the Zionist regime are talking about attacking and destroying Iran at such a high level is because their soft bellies have become visible to the whole world.

So, both the US-NATO and the fascist Netanyahu government are now declaring that they will launch a violent attack on Iran. The US has officially declared its involvement in this process. The commander of the Central Forces has already flown to Tel Aviv. Statements both from Tehran and the imperialist camp indicate that an Israeli-US-NATO attack on Iran is imminent. We do not know what kind of conflicts this attack will provoke. The fire in West Asia (Middle East) can get out of control at any moment. Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, and Syria have now become targets of Zionist army attacks.

And there is more. The Zionist regime has launched successive attacks near the Russian base in Syria. The missiles were fired from ships in the Mediterranean Sea! This is a clear act of provocation against Russia and the US-UK tandem is behind it. At the same time, Turkey, a NATO member and loyal ally of the imperialists, is installing an air defence system and an electronic warfare system in Idlib. These systems are being positioned against Russian and Syrian aircraft.

All these are US-NATO moves. The Turkish army is a NATO army, and its moves must be evaluated by taking this point into account. There is a widespread misconception in public opinion, including the revolutionary public opinion, to be deceived by the statements of Erdogan and the Turkish government and to evaluate them according to what they say. However, it is necessary to look at their actions. Erdogan and the Turkish government, who on the surface have been quarrelling with Israel, have never stopped supporting Israel. Trade continued at full speed. The products that feed Israel, especially oil, continued to flow to Israel through the port of Iskenderun. To use the discourse of the Israeli intelligence chief, “Erdogan is Israel’s friend in the guise of an enemy. Israel has gained more under his rule than ever before.”

It is clear that Syria, together with Lebanon, will be one of the main targets of the Zionist-imperialist attack. They will mobilise religious gangs. All preparations prove this.

The Imperialist System is Collapsing

What lies at the basis of this atrocity in the Middle East (West Asia) is none other than the collapse of the imperialist system. For the last quarter of a century, the collapse of the imperialist-capitalist system has become more evident and accelerated. In the same period, workers and labourers around the world took to the streets in millions and rose. To stop this process, US imperialism has waged a global civil war against the working class and labouring peoples of the world since 11 September 2001. At the same time, it started a series of attacks and invasions that have bloodied the whole world.

That is why there are tensions, conflicts and violent wars in Ukraine, the Middle East (West Asia), East Asia, Africa and Latin America. Because the imperialist system is rapidly declining and collapsing. In order to prevent this, it does not hesitate to set the whole world on fire.

The imperialists created an “anti-Russia” with the fascist coup in Ukraine. Russia was a power that had to be dismantled because of its socialist past and the cultural and material heritage of socialism that has been preserved until today. Moreover, it opposed the imperialist process of full annexation. “Russia cannot, like some countries, give up its sovereignty and become someone’s satellite in exchange for sausage,” Putin had declared to the whole world. Then Russia had to be destroyed. On the shoulders of the fascist government in Kiev, they launched the offensive to dismember Russia. They declared the goal of “the strategic defeat of Russia”. Thus, the pack of imperialist thugs led by the USA dragged the world to the brink of a great war of destruction.

Russia, under attack, has started to directly and indirectly support the anti-imperialist forces all over the world. It strengthened its strategic relations with China. It established a strategic partnership with the DPRK in the true sense of the word and officially recognised it as a “nuclear power”. It rejected UN-labelled sanctions. It strengthened its ties with Cuba and boosted its support. It provided military, political and economic support to the democratic-popular governments of Latin America. It has added strength to the anti-imperialist wave that has reemerged in Africa.

It is clear that Russia is being forced to adopt a policy closer and closer to the foreign policy line of the USSR. This is not the will or the choice of the Kremlin. It is the compulsion of objective conditions. As long as it refuses to be swallowed up and disintegrated by the imperialists, life forces it to follow the foreign policy line of the USSR. What we see both under the auspices of the UN and in the arena is nothing but a manifestation of this necessity.

Russia did not reach the point of confronting and challenging the imperialist-capitalist states easily. After the economic destruction and social collapse that became almost a genocide during the ‘90s, the cadres who wanted to prevent total disintegration and destruction paved the way for Putin in 99. They did not have a socialist orientation. But they were acting to stop the process of destruction and get back on their feet. This path they took inevitably brought them into confrontation with the imperialists.

The confrontation of the bloc led by Russia and China against the imperialists created a strong anti-imperialist wave on a global scale, just like in the middle of the last century. More precisely, it strengthened and fuelled the anti-imperialism developing at the grassroots level.

Africa Rises Once Again

The colonisation of Africa is a story of unprecedented and unheard-of atrocities. This common home of the human species is the victim of the most brutal colonisation process of capitalist civilisation. Let us use the apt description of Howitt, a cleric in the United Kingdom:

“The barbarities and unprecedented outrages committed by Europe in all parts of the world, and upon all the peoples whom she has succeeded in subjugating, have no parallel in any other race at any period of the world.”

The liberation struggles often had a Pan-Africanist tendency. The natural reflections of this were regional unions, federation initiatives and joint federative organisations in different parts of Africa. In the middle of the century, the debate on “Pan-Africanism or communism” was one of the main themes. But for the most part, there was no contradiction or conflict between the two. Marxist tendencies were almost always inherent in African national liberation movements.

African peoples have created great revolutionary leaders from their own bosom. Agostinho Neto, Mário Pinto de Andrade and Lúcio Lara from Angola; Marcelino dos Santos and Noémia de Sousa from Mozambique; Vasco Cabral, Osageyfo Kwame Nkrumah, Ahmed Sekou Toure from Guinea; Alda Espírito Santo and Hugo Menezes from Sao Tome and Principe; Amilcar Cabral from Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde; Patrice Lumumba from Congo, etc. To coordinate the political-ideological military struggle of the African Revolution, they founded “The All-African People’s Revolutionary Party”.

The strong presence of the socialist bloc and Marxist-Leninist theory was a great support for the revolutionary African peoples in their struggle for national and social liberation.

Amílcar Cabral, the revolutionary leader of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), wrote 1970: “Whether Marxist or not, Leninist or not, it is difficult for anyone not to recognize the validity, even the genius of Lenin’s analysis and conclusions, which prove to be of immense historical scope, illuminating with fruitful clarity the often thorny and even sombre path of the peoples who are fighting for their total liberation from imperialist domination.” 

He emphasised that “the oppressed peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America are necessarily called upon to play a decisive role in the struggle to liquidate the world imperialist system, of which they are the main victims.” The Palestinian revolution was a fundamental issue for Cabral and his comrades, as for all socialists.

He wrote “We are with the refugees, the martyred refugees from Palestine, who have been reviled, expelled from their homeland by the maneuvers of imperialism. We stand with the refugees of Palestine and we support with all the strength of our hearts everything that the children of Palestine are doing to liberate their country, and we support with all our strength the Arab countries and African countries in general to help the Palestinian people regain their dignity, their independence and their right to life.”

Against such a strong internationalist orientation towards socialism, the colonial powers resorted to the most vile assassinations. In the countries that succeeded in gaining independence, they organised military coups. Cabral, himself assassinated in 1973, after the coup against Nkrumah, called collaborationism the “The Cancer of Betrayal” and declared that assassinations and coups were futile.

“But all in vain. Because no crime, no force, no manoeuvre or demagogy of the criminal Portuguese colonialist aggressors will be able to stop the march of history, the irreversible march of our African people of Guinea and Cape Verde toward independence, peace and the true progress to which they are entitled.”

And so it was. Revolutionary leaders were assassinated, but their liberation struggle triumphed. Today, the legacy of Amílcar Cabral, revolutionary, patriot and internationalist, constitutes a valuable contribution to the struggle of the peoples for freedom, sovereignty and independence, for social progress.

Unfortunately, the heroic peoples of Africa, who had put an end to classical colonialism with great suffering, were reduced by coups d’état and the spread of the “cancer of betrayal” to the dependency net of imperialism. When anti-imperialism was not realised in the anti-capitalist direction, imperialism, which was expelled from the door, returned through the chimney. The imperialists continued to ruthlessly exploit the whole continent through the so-called “neo-colonialism”.

Over time, global conditions have changed radically. Today, when the countries led by Russia and China stand up to the imperialists, the new balances on a global scale have strengthened the hand of popular progressive governments in Africa and other continents that put the interests of their people above all else. They started to boldly implement policies that challenge the imperialists.

The revolutionary governments formed by the progressive-popular coups in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso in Africa are kicking out the imperialist monopolies one by one. These three progressive governments have succeeded in expelling the imperialists with the military support of Russia, China and other socialist countries and countries with democratic-progressive governments. They are pursuing an anti-imperialist line that is deepening day by day. The main trend among the African peoples is towards the development and strengthening of the anti-imperialist struggle.

Unite and Win

The historical motto of the imperialist powers is “divide and rule”. At the beginning of colonialism in the classical sense, they divided countries into small units according to their tribal and ethnic origin in order to rule huge areas in Africa, Asia and Latin America. That is why revolutionary leaders throughout the 20th century made a special effort to bring together the forces that the imperialists had divided and fragmented.

As Nkrumah said, the war against the common enemy cannot be separated from its own war. “Old philosophies designed to justify regimes of oppression and exploitation are disguising themselves under new masks. We must be awake and condemn in the strongest terms all behaviour and actions that obstruct the true liberation of Africa. The struggle in Africa and on other continents cannot be separated from the struggle on Guinean soil. The development of freedom requires an unceasing struggle. In Guinea, in Africa and throughout the world, we oppose all forms of oppression and domination.”

Those who want to win against imperialism must unite all forces under the banner of revolution with the slogan “Unite and win”. Uniting the forces of revolution is possible only through a complete break with the “cancer of betrayal” in the international socialist movement. This “cancer of betrayal” stands before us today as social chauvinism. Throughout the entire 20th century, such a sharp split was always accompanied by a major war. Today it is the war that has broken out in Ukraine. The war has exposed the “cancer of betrayal”, social chauvinism, in all its clarity.

This is marching against the current; it is fighting against all odds. We know that there is no easy victory! We will defeat the “cancer of betrayal” together besides the imperialists and the world bourgeoisie.