Dear comrades, dear friends,

First and foremost, I would like to warmly thank the organizers of this International Anti- Imperialist Pan-African Conference, our comrades from the DUP, the CNP, and the People’s Democratic Party, as well as all the members of the World Anti-Imperialist Platform for their hard work.

The current global situation gives the initiative and work of this platform crucial importance. Just over a century ago, Lenin theorized imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism. We assert that imperialism has now reached its supreme phase: the exterminationist phase, which threatens the annihilation of Humanity and all living things.

After the world wars, American imperialism subordinated the former imperial powers of Europe and Japan, forming what Samir Amin calls an “Imperialist Triad” (NATO, AUKUS, EU) that has dominated global trade and intervened militarily against resistant nations. The fall of the socialist camp seemed to ensure this dominance, but today, this imperialism is losing influence. Increasingly, peoples—especially through the BRICS and the uprisings in West Africa—are rejecting this hegemony by diversifying their alliances and currencies.

We can observe every day that hegemonic imperialism, wounded and cornered, seems ready to do anything, even to go all in, to save its dominance. Naturally, our attention is drawn to certain hotspots: the shocking massacre perpetrated by the fascist Israeli theocracy; the Russo-Ukrainian conflict in which NATO cynically sends the Ukrainian people to slaughter in hopes of weakening Russia; or the suffering of the populations in Eastern Congo. But in truth, it is the entire world that is marked by a great planetary rift pitting the peoples of the world against collective imperialism backed by hundreds of American military bases: from strangled Cuba to Taiwan explicitly turned into an American aircraft carrier, passing through Venezuela, the Sahel, Sudan, the Caucasus, and the Korean Peninsula. These are all points waiting for just one misstep from either side to join forces and ignite the world once again, potentially with nuclear fire.

In this ultimate offensive to save imperialist hegemony, the European Union is preparing to play a deadly role. Declarations in favor of creating a European army are multiplying. The French President unveiled the project in a speech at the War School, the first given at this institution by a President of the Republic since De Gaulle in 1945: this army will not replace national armies but will be tasked with protecting European interests abroad, precisely at the borders of Russia, toward Turkey and the Maghreb…

This global picture is obviously not a call for pessimism; on the contrary, this situation holds many potentialities. More and more nations refuse to submit to the “international order” promoted by NATO, as we have said. At the same time, the working class is making a strong comeback on a global scale after having been weakened by the fall of the USSR. This resurgence is manifesting through strikes and movements in England, the United States, Argentina, South Korea, Bangladesh, as well as in Italy and Greece, where dockworkers refuse to load weapons for Ukraine and Israel. The massive strikes in India in 2020, led by over 200 million workers with red flags at the forefront, also illustrate this global resistance.

In France, the class struggle is also sharpening, as proven by the Yellow Vest uprising and the mobilizations against the reform that raises the retirement age. The deterioration of conditions and living standards, along with the destruction of public services, is causing great anger among the masses. In the absence of a major avant-garde party, this anger often finds no political outlet and results in spontaneous eruptions. The Pôle de Renaissance Communiste en France is working on rebuilding this great Communist Party, section by section, working committee by working committee, and by proposing, without excessively focusing on certain divergences, a convergence of action among all unitary communists on the ground. It is also a matter of raising awareness among the population about the link between their difficulties and the march toward global conflict by using, for example, the slogan: “Money for wages, not for war!”

To counter the danger of global war linked to declining imperialism, we believe there are several fronts to maintain. The first is the anti-hegemonic front, bringing together all countries that reject the ambitions of the imperialist bloc, including reactionary regimes if they nonetheless weaken the hegemonic bloc. Next is the anti-imperialist front, composed of countries and progressive organizations fighting against imperialism in all its forms. Finally, the anti-capitalist front, with the revival of the International Communist Movement, is essential to support and coordinate workers’ struggles. These fronts must be able to articulate but not be conflated, lest they partially or completely neutralize each other.

Comrades, a few more words on the ideological aspects of the anti-imperialist struggle in the center of imperialism. In Europe, fascization is accelerating at an alarming rate under the benevolent auspices of the European Union. Nazified Ukraine, with its battalions displaying openly Nazi symbols, is merely the most eloquent example: we observe in many countries that fascists, more or less openly, are raising their heads, even coming to power to varying degrees.

This fascization relies on an ideological campaign where the clash of civilizations is instrumentalized in the media, reactivating dehumanizing colonial stereotypes. The media coverage of France’s actions in what it calls its overseas territories or departments, particularly in New Caledonia Kanaky, is part of this logic. This atmosphere, in addition to spreading racist hatred, encourages simplistic reasoning, thereby preparing populations for a war propaganda that integrates Islamophobia, Russophobia, and Sinophobia. On its side, the Israeli theocracy, a rallying point for reactionaries, justifies its expansionist barbarism through an eternal struggle between the West and the East that has nothing to envy from the Nazi worldview and history.

What must be called a mass irrationalism thus constitutes the ideological and cultural aspect of exterminism. Moreover, we should not hide the fact that this ideological offensive is not limited to the imperialist center but seeks to deploy its tentacles even into nations subjected to neocolonialism, as seen in the troubling penetration of American evangelical churches in South America and Africa.

It is to counter this formidable reactionary ideological offensive that the PRCF is waging the battle for what we call the Common Enlightenment. Let us avoid any misunderstanding; it is not about resurrecting a formal and Eurocentric universalism but about developing and promoting, particularly within the masses, a rational vision of the world in all its aspects, relying on the sciences and the humanities. The counter-offensive against reactionary, colonialist, supremacist ideologies, as well as against fanatical or neo-magical religious thoughts, remains essential to waging the anti-imperialist and anti-extermination struggle. Thank you everyone.