The first session, “Current International Situation and World Anti-Imperialist Movement” was held in Taipei, Taiwan, on Oct 5 as part of the Taipei Colloquium, “World War and the tasks of Anti-Imperialist Forces.”
Dimitrios Patelis, the coordinator of the Central Council of the Revolutionary Unification (Greece), provides a historical analysis of the confrontation between anti-imperialist and imperialist camps in World War 3, saying, “The character of the present World War 3 shares some similarities, but it is qualitatively and essentially different from the two previous ones because of the Era, the context and the character of the forces that are de facto involved in it.”
He pointed out, “In contrast to World War 2, today, during World War 3, the strategically important frontal policy, the victorious policy of alliances, must prioritise the consistent and militant anti-imperialism, the prioritisation of the unified US-NATO-EU axis of aggression as the number one enemy of humanity,” adding, “Those who do not put forward a consistent anti-imperialist position in today’s struggle and appeal to the pre-eminence of an abstract ‘anti-fascism’ (as if nothing had changed since the inter-war period of the 20th century) are objectively acting in a disorientating and undermining way.”
A more thorough and rounded approach reveals that WWIII begins with the end of the “Cold War”, with the escalation of bourgeois counter-revolution and the restoration of capitalism in the USSR and the countries of early socialism in Europe, from the infamous “First Gulf War”, the 1990-1991 imperialist armed campaign waged by a military coalition of 39 countries in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. It escalated into a series of civil wars in the region of the former USSR and the “Black October” of 1993 (armed repression of the uprising in the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation in Moscow with thousands of dead and missing), with the imperialist wars to break up Yugoslavia, with the “War on Terror” & the “2nd Gulf War”, with the US-NATO-EU invasion of Afghanistan, with the “Arab Spring” operations etc.
A member of the Labor Party (Taiwan) said, “When the war in Ukraine broke out, most major medias around the world blamed Russia, and Taiwan’s mainstream media did the same. Occasionally, there were both-sides perspectives suggesting that both Russia and the US were responsible. From the beginning, our Labor Party raised issue of NATO’s eastward expansion.
Referring to his visit to Donbas in May this year as a member of the World Anti-imperialist Platform delegation, Patelis stressed that the national liberation struggles in Lugansk and Donetsk are an important heroic struggle in the current anti-imperialist and national liberation movement.
He explained, “Since the 19th century, there have been provocations against Russia by the US, and in particular, conspiracies to colonize and destroy Russia as an ‘empire’”. Historically, “Kievan Rus” is the cradle of Russian history and culture. The term “Ukraine” itself means “the country’s frontier region” and/or a region inhabited by frontiersmen, guards of the border, emphasizing, “During the October Revolution, the imperialists tried to divide the Russian Empire by manipulating Ukraine, which was part of the Soviet Union, through ethnic separation.”
He also stated, “With a consistent doctrine of “Divide and Rule,” they are now seeking to dominate through the Ukrainian military.” He exposed various forms of imperialist provocations, including creating ethnic divisions and fostering ethnic conflict through language differences, and expressed that ‘anti-Russian and anti-Soviet ideas are being imposed through proxy wars.’”
In addition to the members of the Labor Party (Taiwan), about 50 activists participated in the colloquium, including former long-term prisoners detained during the martial law period in 1940s, members of Taiwan’s Palestine solidarity groups, professors from National Taiwan University, progressive theater groups, and anti-imperialist and progressive local organizations.
