Contribution of the Party of Labour of Austria

Dear comrades,

First of all, many thanks to the Communist Party of Turkey for organising the conference in hybrid form. Making it possible for those parties who, like us, unfortunately cannot be present today to participate is certainly the greatest effort for the comrades of the TKP and we appreciate this.

The imperialist war in Ukraine has been going on for two years now. Thousands of people, sons and daughters of the working class and the popular classes of Ukraine and Russia, have died in this war. Thousands of Ukrainians have been driven from their homes or have fled either to escape repression by the anti-communist and anti-grassroots regime in Kiev or to avoid conscription into the Ukrainian army. A regime that, with the support of the USA, NATO and the EU, was able to seize power in 2014 with the aim of integrating itself into the NATO and EU-led imperialist bloc. The previously pursued seesaw policy between the bloc of China and Russia on the one hand and the EU, NATO and the USA on the other should be ended.

But we must also have no illusions in capitalist Russia. It is not only since the beginning of the war in Ukraine that the bourgeois government has been going against the organised labour movement, above all against the communists. The war has also intensified repression in Russia. When Putin refers positively to the Soviet Union, he is instrumentalising the positive memories of parts of the Ukrainian and Russian people. What is hidden behind this is that this war is not about anti-fascism, but about the interests of Russian capital. It is about domination and control over markets, raw materials, transport routes, communications and energy in the region. The true nature of the Russian attack on Ukraine becomes clear when we consider Putin's Great Russian chauvinism and his continued attacks against Lenin and the founding of the Soviet Union.

Two years after the start of the imperialist war in Ukraine and 110 years after the start of the first imperialist world war, we can draw some general conclusions.

Imperialism is not capable of peace. Imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism is a world system. In it, the monopolies and their bourgeois states compete with each other for resources, transport routes, spheres of influence, geopolitical bastions, investment opportunities, market shares and cheap labour. It is about the redivision of the world and the imperialist hegemonic position, for which international alliances are also created. This competitive struggle is pursued with economic and political means of power, ultimately with military force. War as a continuation of politics by other means is an inevitable component of imperialism. Imperialism means war.

The main enemy is in one's own country. It is capital and its governments and parties that are interested in imperialist wars - they ultimately stem from the global hunt for maximum profits. But it is the masses of the working class who are sent to the battlefields by the rulers, into wars in which the working people have no interest, because they are anyway propertyless, exploited and oppressed. Just as they produce the surplus value that capital appropriates as profit, they are expected to pay the blood toll for the imperialist wars and goals of the rulers. The workers of the different nations have no reason to be hostile to each other and to shoot at each other; on the contrary, they have common interests in prosperity, self-determination and peace. This is denied to them by the rulers. It is therefore these rulers, their own national capital, their own national monopolies and their political lackeys, who represent the real enemy, the main enemy of the respective working class. It is against them that the workers must take up arms and enforce peace.

Only socialism can secure peace. Due to imperialist competition and the uneven development of capitalism, there is no basis for sustainable peace under these conditions. Whoever wants to banish war from human history must overcome capitalist class society. Only socialism will be able to eliminate not only exploitation, oppression and crises, but also the material causes of war associated with the present system. The revolutionary rule of the organised working class and the transformation of private ownership of the means of production into social ownership are the means to build new societies of friendship between peoples, in which prosperity, self-determination and peace will be secured for all. The barbarism of capitalism and imperialism, which threatens to destroy humanity, will fall when the working class rises up, when the socialist revolution triumphs and the path to communism is cleared. The war in Ukraine is a clear illustration of this. The Russian and Ukrainian peoples lived united under socialism in peace for more than 70 years. The counter-revolution paved the way for the current war.

The Marxist-Leninist party shows the way to peace and socialism. The Marxist-Leninist parties of the world, whose Austrian representative is the Party of Labour of Austria (PdA), are the most vehement champions of peace. They fight against their own imperialism and militarism, against armament and military alliances, against fascism and national chauvinism, against truce and collaboration. They promote the international solidarity of the working class and the peoples. The PdA also demands an active and consistent policy of neutrality on the part of the Austrian state. But we harbour no naive pacifist illusions. A strong peace movement can force the rulers to make peace for a while, but the best struggle for peace is the revolutionary class struggle for the overthrow of capitalism and imperialism. For this it is necessary to free the working class from its tutelage by the old and new social democracy. Social democracy changed sides 110 years ago, supported the imperialist world war and saved capitalism from revolution. This betrayal has long been institutionalised by social democracy, while other "leftists" are repeating their ineffectual methods. Reformism, revisionism and opportunism are obstacles on the road to a socialist world of peace.

The revolutionary working class must be capable of defence and struggle. The socialist revolution does not come with the ballot paper in bourgeois elections. The rulers of capitalism and imperialism will not relinquish their power voluntarily, but will use all means of violence and repression, in the last resort possibly a new fascist dictatorship. History teaches us that the working class must be mentally, physically and materially capable of fighting in order to be victorious. It must not only be prepared for resistance, mass struggle and insurrection, but also, in case of doubt, to wage revolutionary civil war if it is forced upon it. An unarmed or inadequately armed revolution will in any case suffer defeat. This lesson is not only to be learnt from the end of the Popular Front government in Chile in September 1973.

110 years after the beginning of the First World War, our judgements are based not only on its historical background and results, but also on the history of the 20th century. The USSR and a strong socialist world of states that emerged after the Second World War were able to prevent major imperialist wars for decades. Nevertheless, the most powerful imperialist states left a trail of blood through the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Today, 35 years after the counter-revolution, we can state that the number of wars has increased, that war has returned to Europe, that imperialism has been able to unfold its aggressive nature anew.

We are at a point where different imperialist blocs are again struggling for the redivision of the world and supremacy. In this situation, we will not take sides, because the working class has nothing in common with the imperialists' cause - not even with that of a relatively "weaker" imperialism. In this sense, we also reject the illusion of stability through a "multipolar world order", because this would only be a regrouping and regrouping for the next war.

As the wars in Syria, Libya and Ukraine show, we are currently in a phase of proxy wars. However, the increasing direct involvement of the EU states and therefore Austria in the Ukraine conflict and the constantly fuelling conflict between the USA and China show that a new global imperialist war is looming on the horizon that would far overshadow the two previous ones. This war must be prevented - and if it does come, it must end as quickly as possible with a socialist revolution.