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The Fascist Threat and the Tasks of the Communists



Speech by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the RCWP-CPSU Stepan Sergeevich Malentsov at the XXII Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties in Havana.

Dear Comrades,


We welcome all the participants in the meeting, and all the parties that could not come to Cuba, but stand with us in the same class formation. We express our special thanks to the hosts of the meeting, the Cuban comrades. An example of your courage and resilience inspires new generations of revolutionaries around the world. And the example of fraternal proletarian assistance to the Cuban Revolution, primarily by the Soviet Union, remains a subject of study for today’s communists. This is especially true in these October days, when exactly 60 years of the most intense days of confrontation with the Caribbean crisis, when the world stood a stone’s throw away from a possible global nuclear catastrophe, are exactly 60 years old. But thanks to the courage of the Cuban comrades and the fraternal solidarity of the world’s first state of workers and peasants, it was possible to both defend the revolution and preserve peace. Today, under the conditions of the temporary defeat of socialism in the USSR, there is no such level of proletarian internationalism. But the tension in the world today is approaching the level that prevailed then. We are talking, of course, about the military clash in Ukraine.
    After the start of the SMO (special military operation), at two plenums of the Central Committee (in March and October 2022), our party worked out and refined its position. And it would be more correct to say that we have been developing this position together with the communists of Donbass and Ukraine since 2014. And we are ready to defend it, despite the fact that many parties that were honored in the past do not agree with us today.
    The cause of the war is the struggle of the largest imperialist predators, led by the United States, for world hegemony in the context of the growing general crisis of capitalism. The economic interests of the American imperialist bourgeoisie, as the basis of the war, were clearly manifested in the sanctions struggle not only against Russian competitors, but also in suppressing the economic potential of their European allies (primarily Germany) through a gas war, sabotage against the Nord Streams in favor of opening the way for LNG from the USA.
    The object of aggression is bourgeois Russia, and the means of implementation, the battering ram of NATO imperialism is Ukraine and its Nazi, fascist regime. Ukrainian fascism, which is a product of the policy of American mentors, is a real livingfascism, which recognizes itself as fascism – the heir of Hitler’s accomplices (Bandera and Shukhevych, the heroes of today’s Ukraine). The Ukrainian state today is a state that commits monstrous mass crimes, murders and abuse of people. The Ukrainian bourgeois nation has degraded to the glorification of Hitler’s accomplices, to the support of fanatics and sadists from the armed forces of Ukraine and nationalist organizations, to Nazism. All this is happening today with the full military, economic and political support of the most reactionary circles of the American and European financial bourgeoisie in the center of imperialist Europe. Europe again found itself in the role of a festering abscess of fascism, but already in the 21st century.
    Our party’s scientifically substantiated, based on the definition of the Comintern, assessment of the aggressive foreign policy of the United States and its NATO allies as being objectively fascist has been confirmed., reanimating and supporting fascist forces, continuing the chain of reprisals against sovereign states: Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Donbass. Today, more than 50 countries are waging war with Russia and Donbass on the territory of Ukraine, under the control and at the command of the United States. There is a classic, reactionary, gangster, imperialist alliance of NATO countries, a flock of their closest allies in the anti-Russian bloc, the addition of their economic, political and military power. (Probably, Putin and the Russian authorities underestimated this option, or they were even provoked by “respectable Western partners”, as they provoked Iraq’s aggression against Kuwait)
    For the people of Donbass, this war is unequivocally fair, lasting for the ninth year. It is also true for most of the people of Ukraine, which was confirmed by the people’s vote for entering Russia in the territories liberated from the Nazis, despite the danger to life, the hardships of war, revenge and persecution of the Ukrainian Nazi regime.
    Russian imperialism, which is much weaker and in its infancy, is fighting for its place in the market world, for the right to manage and exploit the country’s energy and other resources. At the same time, in the Russian bourgeois nation there still remains a significant number of elements and forces that bear a good memory of the Soviet period of life and admit the possibility of the revival of socialism. Hatred of fascism and Nazism largely explains the approval by the majority of the people of the liberation mission of the SVO in Ukraine at the present time. The Russian bourgeoisie cannot ignore such sentiments. Due to the presence of the Soviet military legacy, Russia today is the only country capable of resisting the predatory pack of imperialists led by the United States. In the event of the defeat of Russia, the repetition of the fate of Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, the iron heel of the modern fascist dictatorship will be established not only in Ukraine, but also in many countries of the world.
    In this regard, the struggle of the Russian armed forces to suppress fascism in Ukraine is forcedly defensive and fair . At the same time, it is necessary to distinguish between the objective justice of the people’s anti-fascist struggle and the motives of the Russian bourgeois regime. We welcome any manifestations, the desire of the inhabitants of Ukraine to liberate Kyiv from the Nazi dictatorship, we recognize the progressive significance of the results of the popular referendums of the Lugansk People's Republic, Donetsk People's Republic, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions on their entry into Russia. To some extent, Russia’s allies are China and a number of countries (Belarus, Syria, North Korea, etc.) that are not members of NATO, due to their own competitive struggle against the economic dominance of the United States.
    The war showed once again that the reason that allowed the former fraternal peoples to play off in a bloody battle was the counter-revolution that took place in the USSR and capitalism established in Ukraine and Russia. The guilt of the counter-revolution in the USSR and Russian capitalism, from Yeltsin to Putin, is undeniable today . The so-called decommunization continueson the part of Putin, who uses to justify his failures in politics by laying the blame for the situation on the Bolsheviks and Lenin. There are tendencies to tighten the screws on production, curtail political freedoms, and intensify the reaction. A whole series of military failures with the abandonment of occupied territories and people for reprisal by the Nazis, the constant desire to negotiate “in a good way” with the imperialists and fascists, moreover, the exchange of the leaders of the Nazis “Azov” for ordinary fighters of the Armed Forces (and Putin’s godfather – the oligarch Medvedchuk), showed the class relationship of “partners”, the rotten ideological essence of the Russian authorities.
    The United States and its allies will support this war as long as possible, throwing wood into the hearth to keep the fire going. This business is on the blood, a cure for the crisis, orders in the billions and the corresponding income. This is the division of the future world of capital.
    Both warring parties are increasingly using the institution of mercenaries. NATO sends its thugs to help Bandera. And in the Russian Federation, proposals are being made, in addition to PMCs (private military companies), to use more foreign legions, to give an opportunity to atone to prisoners from prisons, to allow the employment of foreign citizens in the Armed Forces under a contract, etc.                    Increasingly, there are proposals from the warring parties to use at least tactical nuclear weapons. The Ukrainian side is shelling nuclear power plants. The threat of nuclear conflict is clearly increasing. Considering the previous practice of American imperialist propaganda, cynically and falsely claiming that Donetsk is shelling itself or that Russian troops are shelling the territory of the Russian Federation, it is not difficult to assume that NATO can use nuclear weapons on the territory of Ukraine. And the guilty party has already been appointed by imperialism – Russia . The prospect of a war growing to a much larger scale, up to a world one, is becoming more and more real.
    At the same time, Russia continues to trade and supply energy carriers and strategic raw materials to actually its enemies from the NATO camp. The issue of creating a gas hub in Turkey, a NATO member country that votes in the UN condemning Russia and supplying weapons to Ukraine, is already being discussed! This once again confirms the essentially imperialist nature of the war.
    The task of the Communist Party is to work for the development of the revolutionary movement of the proletariat in concrete historical conditions, to explain to the working people the policy of classes, nations and states. This is especially necessary in times of crises and wars. Today, in connection with the conduct of a special military operation in Ukraine and Donbass, the situation is tense, the society is seriously discussing the possibility of an exchange of nuclear strikes between the Russian Federation and NATO countries. The world has split into two camps, each side accuses the other of fascism, appeals to humanity, justice and calls for retribution. The peoples of Russia and Ukraine have been drawn into the slaughter, so far mainly on the territory of Ukraine and Donbass. Shelling of the adjacent territories of the Russian Federation began.
    The RCWP and other communist parties never tire of repeating: war is an inevitable companion of capitalism. Mankind can get rid of wars only on the path of progressive revolutionary transformations. However, at this unobjectionable place, the unity of views sometimes ends, and further serious differences begin in the assessments of current events, which, we believe, need to be recorded and considered. Thus, a number of respected and well-deserved parties in their analysis erroneously proceed from the fact that modern conditions are almost identical to the events of the First World War. They believe that the imperialist predators in the face of the Russian Federation, the EU countries and the NATO bloc led by the United States are fighting among themselves simply for the redistribution of spheres of influence, control of transportation routes, etc. Therefore, workers, they say, one should not choose for the interests of which particular imperialist they fight and die. 
    These comrades, relying on dogmatically understood Marxism, represent Ukraine and its people as a punching bag, which the imperialists beat from all sides. Hence, they conclude that the war must be stopped immediately and all troops must be withdrawn from Ukraine! Comrades organize demonstrations, go to embassies with their demands, but the war continues. The position of thesenon- warriors in fact comes down to placing equal responsibility on all belligerents, and thereby the main aggressor, the United States, is being taken away from responsibility. And the call to “stop the war” is tantamount to a proposal to stop beating the Nazis. What will happen to the rebellious miners and tractor drivers of Donbass in the event of the withdrawal of Russian troops, comrades are either not very interested, or they themselves do not believe in their calls. But what happened to people in Ukraine after the Russian army left some areas previously liberated from the Nazis is already known – arrests, reprisals and executions.
    There is a group of parties and anti-imperialist movements that see Russia and China as anti-imperialist forces. They correctly assess the main danger posed by the pack of imperialist predators represented by NATO and the US, but they reduce their anti-imperialism to anti-Americanism. They see in bourgeois Russia and modern China a progressive, even socialist principle. This, of course, is a delusion. The Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China are a deterrent to American aggression, but they are far from participants in the struggle for socialism.
    In its analysis, the RCWP proceeds from the fact that imperialism in the Russian Federation is still very weak, is in its infancy, that the US and the EU are doing everything possible to suppress their rival and open the way to world hegemony. They are used by openly fascist, Nazi forces initiated and supported by them.
    The Ukrainian regime – where the Banderists who fought on the side of Nazi Germany are glorified, Soviet monuments are demolished, etc. – managed, in fact, to set the Ukrainian nation against the Russian one and push the two once fraternal peoples together. We have noted many times that this war on the part of the Russian Federation, although being waged by a bourgeois state, has a defensive character of defense against the imperialist policy of the reactionary alliance of Western powers and contains a positive component. Russian state expressing the interests and aspirations of the Russian bourgeoisie to dispose of natural resources and exploit the labor force, at the same time it is forced to reckon with progressive sentiments in a significant part of Russian society. Russian workers sympathize with the Ukrainians, who found themselves under a terrorist dictatorship and total Nazi propaganda. Thus, the Russian bourgeois state (defending the interests of its capital) is forced to suppress fascism and help the national liberation struggle in Ukraine.
    Therefore, the RCWP and orthodox Marxists believe that the main task of the world proletariat now is to prevent international imperialism and its satellites, the modern anti-Comintern pact of the Anti-sovereign national democracies and the shock detachments of Bandera from defeating bourgeois Russia. Russia repeating the fate of Iraq and Libya is not in the interests of the working class. The RCWP considers it necessary to promote the Special Military Operation in terms of measures and actions aimed at defeating the Ukrainian Nazis (fascists).
    The fundamental difference between today’s situation and 1914-16. is that at that time there was no such powerful fascist core. Today it is. The iron heel of fascism hangs over the world. Unlike in 1914, today an opportunist is not so much one who, sacrificing class interests, swears allegiance to his imperialist fatherland. An opportunist today is one who, in his political short-sightedness, goes over to the side of non- warfare , evades war against fascism, and thereby hastens its eventual triumph, and consequently the verdict for all working classes.
    The bourgeois state wages war with those methods, those instruments that are at its disposal by virtue of the historically conditioned mode of production. The Russian Federation is not the Soviet Union. Incompetence, theft, corruption at all levels are an inevitable consequence of the capitalist structure of society. All these costs ultimately fall on the shoulders of the working people and have a negative impact on the front. This is already exacerbating the dissatisfaction of the citizens of Russia itself with the so-called leadership of the country, prompting them to think and realize the true reasons for their own troubles, and the very fact of wars, as a natural continuation of capitalist existence. From temporary support for the actions of the bourgeois state in the suppression of fascism, go over to an alliance with all progressive elements and sections of society against the bourgeoisie in the struggle for socialism.
    At the same time, the workers of the Lugansk and Donetsk people's republics, as well as citizens of other regions of Ukraine, who find the strength and courage to resist the Nazis, who create lawlessness in the country and threaten reprisals against these courageous people, are already seasoned fighters, many of whom may in the near future stand together with Russian working people in the united ranks of detachments of the army of the proletariat. The further liberation of the working people of Ukraine from the oppression and atrocities of the Nazi criminals (that is, the liberation of other territories) expands the circle of potential supporters of the socialist idea. And all this will force the awakened, armed proletariat to move on.
    The Communists must help this process in every possible way. This is the task that the communists of the RCRP-CPSU set themselves. . We stand for the development of the imperialist war (on the part of the big bourgeoisie), national liberation and anti-fascist war (on the part of the proletarian strata) into a war for socialism!


S.S. Malentsov
First Secretary of the Central Committee of the RKRP
Cuba, Havana, October 29, 2022

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