1. The last few months have inaugurated a new political phase in Europe of increasing disequilibrium, one characterized by accelerating political and social polarization between the classes around the issues of: (i) refugees and racism, (ii) imperialist wars and terrorism, and (iii) the neo-liberal governmental policy of austerity.
vii) The ever-deepening alienation of significant sectors of Europe's population – in particular migrants and progressive sectors of the working class – from the ruling class' political system. This has been reflected in broad-based opposition to the bourgeoisie's austerity policy (Portugal's election, OXI in Greece, mass support for Corbyn in UK), the spontaneous mass solidarity with the refugees as well as the rejection of Islamophobia by broad sectors of the popular masses. The mass pro-refugee movement is of particular importance, since it emerged completely spontaneously and independent of any bourgeois party.
3. These contradictory developments culminated in the autumn of 2015 with the Paris attacks which symbolically ushered in a new political phase for Europe. These developments have provoked splits and divisions among the ruling classes in Europe. As we indicated above, the characteristic element of the present phase is a drive of the European bourgeoisie towards increasing repression and expansion of the repressive state apparatus and towards more military interventions in the Maghreb and Mashreq. However, at the same time the ruling class is not at all certain, and certainly not united about the future course to be taken. It is even more divided on the question of how to deal with the refugees reaching Europe.
4. These developments and the confusion of the ruling bourgeoisie classes about how to deal with them goes hand in hand with a process of polarization, politization and mobilization of substantial sectors of the popular masses. While some are rallying behind racist parties, others are becoming more politically conscious, adopting anti-racist and anti-imperialist convictions. Consequently, the political phase which was opened in autumn 2015 will be characterized by political instability and sharp political confrontations. This being the case, it is incumbent upon Socialists to mobilize the workers' movement and all organizations of the oppressed and rally them against the intensifying attacks on democratic rights. Most importantly, this is both vital and possible because the current leaderships of the working movement and migrant organizations – mostly reformists or petty-bourgeois nationalists and Islamists – are undermining the struggle or openly betraying it. Therefore, the Bolshevik-Communists of the RCIT declare that the crucial task before us remains to advance the formation of a revolutionary leadership, i.e., the founding of new revolutionary parties on the respective national levels as well as the establishment of a new Workers' International.
5. The accelerating political and social disequilibrium in the current new phase provokes growing divisions inside the bourgeoisie. First, the ruling classes are divided on how to react to the approximately 800,000 refugees who have arrived in Europe since the beginning of 2015. There is a sector of monopoly capital which considers these – mostly younger and male – refugees as a welcome source of cheap labor which will enable the capitalists to increase their depressed rate of profit. The pressure of this sector is reflected in various recently published studies like one by the OECD which proclaims positive effects for Europe economic growth if the new refugees will be given access to the labor market. Some Western European governments have already started integrating refugees as low-wage workers in the labor market.
6. However, another sector of the ruling class wants to seriously reduce the flow of refugees or even entirely stop it. This sector fears the politically destabilizing effects of the refugees as their numbers will by necessity augment the lower strata of the working class which is ideologically unbound to the ruling class via bourgeois nationalistic patriotism. At the same time, it is clear that sectors of the middle class and the labor aristocracy could easily be rallied by right-wing racist forces against the migrants. It is likely that this conflict between sectors of the ruling class will continue for some time.
7. Second, Europe's ruling classes are divided on whether they should advance a nationalist or an EU-wide response to the arrival of the migrants. Ultimately, this boils down to a division over whether they should scrap the border-eradicating Schengen agreement and advocate the construction of new fences along their old national borders or rather focus on a harsher regime along the EU borders on the Mediterranean Sea and in the Balkans. Similarly, the ruling classes are divided as to whether there should be an EU-wide compact of mandatory resettlement quotas for refugees or rather every national state should decide on its own how many refugees it is prepared to take in. Unsurprisingly the advocates of nationalist solutions are particularly strong among the Eastern European governments and Britain (but also among the right-wing opposition parties in Germany and France).
8. The advocates of EU-administered solutions are the German, French and Benelux governments and their supporters. They are pushing for solutions like an agreement with Turkey on the management of refugees' influx and for EU-wide mandatory resettlement quotas for refugees etc. Another example is the proposal of the Belgian Prime Minister Michel to create a Europe-wide secret service, i.e., a kind of EU-CIA.
9. Third, a significant sector of the ruling class in the EU is attempting to exploit the 13 November terrorist attack in Paris to go on the offensive against democratic rights, intensify repression and to accelerate European imperialist war drives in the Maghreb and Mashreq. The "Socialist" government of France, with the supporting votes of all parliamentary parties (including the so-called "Communist" Party), has imposed a three month long state of emergency which dramatically limits democratic rights. Some members of the conservative opposition led by ex-president Nikolas Sarkozy call for even a longer state of emergency extending for a minimum of six months. This is an obvious Bonapartist measure of the ruling class designed to suppress popular protests, as became immediately apparent during the COP 21 summit which was held in Paris in late November. As a result of the state of emergency, all public demonstrations against the summit were banned. A demonstration for climate justice on 29 November in which 5,000 participants took part was brutally attacked by the police and 200 demonstrators were arrested. At least 24 climate activists were even put under house arrest by the French police before the planned protests, while the state also closed three mosques.
10. The French government has also deployed 1,500 soldiers in the streets of that country, marking the unprecedented EU-wide tendency to openly deploy the army for domestic security tasks. The Belgian as well as the Italian governments have also deployed 150 and 1,000 soldiers respectively inside their countries. However, it is not all clear whether the entire ruling class in Europe is prepared to go down this dangerous road, since doing so would obviously undermine the traditional bourgeois-parliamentary system which has characterized most of Western Europe since the end of World War II.
11. The explosive potential of the present phase lies in the confluence of the numerous factors which characterize the current objective situation – economic crisis, accelerating rivalry between the great powers, war, terror and the "refugee crisis," increased political alienation of sectors of the working class as well as the middle class, etc. – all these are pushing the ruling class towards Bonapartist solutions. Naturally this means a substantial reduction of democratic rights, intensified chauvinism, domestic repression, more wars abroad, expansion of the repression apparatus, etc. While until now the mainstream parties of the bourgeoisie have been confused about the future course to be taken, the right-wing parties and several Eastern European governments are openly urging on steps towards Bonapartist and nationalistic solutions, which by definition would substantially undermine the EU as an international proto-state institution.
12. However these initiatives clash with the shift to the left among the working class and the lower middle strata which has become evident on the electoral level (Portugal, Greece, Corbyn as new Labour Leader in Britain) as well as in the impetus being given to spontaneous mass movements (the pro-refugee movement, anti-austerity strikes and demonstrations, etc.). Furthermore, there are also sectors of the liberal middle class and even the bourgeoisie who dislike the right-wing push against democracy, since this clearly undermines one of the central ideological cornerstones of European imperialism – democracy, tolerance and human rights. Naturally, this liberal opposition against Bonapartism is and can only be feeble and cowardly. In France, this liberal wing has already capitulated to the militarists, while in other countries this process is currently much slower. However, in the short term, it can nevertheless create obstacles for the drive towards Bonapartism.
13. As we have stated repeatedly Daesh/IS is a product of years and years of imperialist aggression. The failure of various petty-bourgeois nationalist and Islamist leaderships has resulted in the creation of such a vile, reactionary organization. While we emphasize that we defend all Islamist organizations against the aggression of the biggest terrorist of all – the imperialist great powers – we are also clear in our position that Daesh's terrorism and imperialist terrorism nurture one another. While the working class and the popular masses must defend themselves against all attacks of Daesh, the fundamental task is to eradicate the occupation and exploitation of the Maghreb and Mashreq by all imperialist powers. This task can only be achieved by permanent revolution, i.e., the working class's successful toppling of capitalist rule and the creation of workers' and peasants' republics throughout the entire region.
14. Since 13 November, France is the focus of the present political crisis in Europe. Here, the ruling class with the help of its "socialist" government lackeys has taken important steps towards militarization of its policy both domestically and aboard. At the same time the progressive sectors of the working class and the oppressed have been virtually paralyzed due to the massive chauvinistic hysteria drummed up by the government and the media, as well as the betrayal of the reformist bureaucrats (FdG, PCF, CGT, CFDT etc.) and the cowardice of most centrists who are adapting to the reformists.
15. The developments in France since the Paris attacks of 13 November demonstrate more than anything the bankruptcy of the official leadership of the workers' movement. The FdG and the PCF as well as the trade union leaderships fully joined the "Union Nationale" – as they had previously done after the attack on Charlie Hebdo in January this year. All PCF deputies voted for the three month extension of the state of emergency! Likewise, the Party of the European Left – the international association of the ex-Stalinist parties in Europe which includes, beside the FdG and the PCF, SYRIZA, the German LINKE, B.E. in Portugal, and others – failed to condemn either the state of emergency or France's drive to war. This is a larger-scale repetition of their social-imperialist capitulation in January after the Charlie Hebdo attack. These reformists have proved once more that they are loyal lackeys of imperialism. It is hardly surprising that most radicalized Muslim migrant youth don't join the not-so-radical left but rather Islamist formations. At least 1,000 of them have gone to Syria to fight against the Assad dictatorship.
16. Likewise, the official representatives of the Muslims and migrants in France continue to play the role of modern-day Quislings, i.e., agents of the state against the interest of the mass of migrants. They are funded by the state which they serve loyally. This reiterates the absolute necessity of separating state and religious institutions. As long as the latter are funded by the imperialist state, remaining dependent on it, they act as an instrument to uphold the oppression of the Muslim migrants.
17. True, the centrist left in France has not joined the "Union Nationale," and activists of the NPA, Alternative Libertaire and Ensemble, among them the NPA spokespersons, Christine Poupin and Olivier Besancenot, participated in the demonstration against the COP 21 summit on 29 November. However, the centrist left is organically incapable of consistently breaking with the institutions of French imperialism; of becoming a tribune of workers and the oppressed people. None of the three main French centrist groups (Mandelist NPA, Lambertist PT/CCI, LO) has dared to call for the defeat of the French troops and for solidarity with the resistance against the occupiers in France's colonial wars (Afghanistan, Mali, etc.) during the past one and a half decades. None of them joined the migrant youth in their uprising in the banlieues in 2005/06. Also, they all expressed their sympathy for the racist magazine Charlie Hebdo in January 2015 after the attack on the publication's offices. The LO has a shameful record of supporting the ban on the veil for young Muslim women attending school. The Lambertist PT/CCI has been inextricably linked with the corrupt trade union bureaucracy, particularly of the FO, which all hail Hollande's state of emergency.
18. However, opportunism and capitulation are not unique to French centrism, but rather apply to centrism in general. In Britain, significant sectors of the left opportunistically adapt to the new Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Hardly any of the British centrists dared to openly call for the victory of the military resistance against British imperialism. Groups like the SPEW/CWI have a shameful record of opposing "open borders" for migrants and refugees and even led a chauvinistic strike under the slogan of "British Jobs for British workers" in 2009. The same happened in Greece where, for a long period of time, sectors of the left failed to openly oppose the popular front government led by SYRIZA's Tsipras. In Germany, the Cliffite Marx21 (associated with the British SWP) is inextricably linked with the pro-Zionist LINKE party bureaucracy and holds several regional and federal parliamentary seats. Those centrists who radically oppose such left-reformist parties usually fail to deploy tactics which would enable them to build links with their rank and file supporters. This yet again illustrates that centrism is incapable of combining revolutionary intransigence in propaganda with flexible united front tactics in practice.
19. The RCIT emphasizes that the working class and the oppressed face, in addition to the dangers, enormous opportunities in the new interim political phase which has been inaugurated in Europe. The ruling class, irrespective of its temporarily internal divisions, is striving towards attacking democratic rights by intensifying chauvinism, militarism and Bonapartism. This anti-democratic offensive poses a tremendous threat to the working class and the oppressed. It undermines the right of workers to assemble in public, to demonstrate, or to strike and severely inhibits the right of Muslims to organize. In short, it is an attack on the class struggle as such.
20. Granted, the current divisions inside the bourgeois camp do, to a certain extent, open a window of opportunity for the working class to prepare its counter offensive. However, it would be foolishly naïve to ignore the fact that the imperialist ruling class will sooner or later decisively advance their attacks on the democratic and social rights of the workers and oppressed. And only complete fools or centrist idiots can imagine that the current attacks against the Islamists will not be repeated against the socialists. In fact, it should be clear that the imperialist logic of repression is: Today the Islamists, tomorrow the communists.
21. All these recent developments demonstrate once again the validity of the Bolshevik-Communist thesis about the central importance of democratic issues in imperialist countries. As the RCIT has outlined elsewhere, in the present period of its historic decay, imperialism is forced to attack democracy even in its own heartlands. The working class and the oppressed can only defend their interests as a whole if they will come to the defense of each democratic right, opposing all wars and chauvinistic attacks initiated by the bourgeoisie. A revolutionary party can only win the leadership of the workers and oppressed if it acts as a "tribune of the people" – as Lenin explained in What Is to Be Done? – in advancing the democratic struggle and combining it with the strategic tasks of the socialist revolution.
22. Bolshevik-Communists are aware that the new political phase in Europe offers important opportunities. The so-called "refugee crisis" provoked a wave of spontaneous mass solidarity throughout the continent and advanced a political, democratic, internationalist class consciousness among many workers and youth. Likewise, despite the massive propaganda and hysteria of the imperialist media, significant sectors of the population continue to oppose their government's policy of militarization. If the French police continue with actions like putting 24 climate activists under house arrest, they will guarantee that sooner or later the workers' movement will better understand the reactionary character of the imperialist state apparatus. If the Great Powers suffer setbacks in Afghanistan, Syria, and Mali the popular anti-war opposition will increase dramatically.
23. In order to fight against the sabotage of the left-reformists and the cowardice of the centrists, it is vital that authentic socialists make progress in founding new revolutionary parties on the national levels as well as a new workers' international. Hence, the RCIT calls upon all revolutionaries to join us in our joint struggle to build such parties; to establish such an international! Such a project demands that revolutionaries work among the popular masses and call upon the organizations of the workers' movement and the oppressed to undertake protest actions against the accelerating domestic repression and the imperialist war drive of European governments. They must state clearly that the main enemy is not the reactionary jihadists, but the Great Powers and their local lackeys.
24. Socialists have to explain to the working class and the oppressed that there is an indivisible unity between the issues of the anti-austerity struggle, the defense of democratic rights, solidarity with refugees and opposition to imperialist wars. All these attacks are directed against the working class and oppressed; and the counter-attack must be a consolidated one against our main enemy – the imperialist bourgeoisie and its local lackeys. All such struggles by the workers and oppressed serve to weaken the economic and political power of imperialist monopoly capital at home and abroad and to strengthen the power of our own forces.
25. The RCIT calls upon all revolutionaries to jointly advocate a strategy of resistance against austerity and for solidarity with the refugees. This strategy should call for the formation of action committees in the workplaces, the schools, and the neighborhoods with the purpose of organizing the struggle from below. Furthermore, it should call upon the trade unions and other popular organizations of the workers and oppressed to organize mass demonstrations and strikes against the austerity policy. Of particular importance is the slogan for an indefinite general strike. The strategy should involve the integration of refugees and migrants in the workers' movement; the fight against all forms of chauvinism inside the workers' movement; and ideally to win the mass organizations over to a program of revolutionary equality (i.e., abolition of the state language, equal status of the migrants' native languages in education and public administration, equal wage, equal access to housing, open borders, etc.).
26. Likewise, socialists should work to win the workers' movement over to a resolute campaign in solidarity with the liberation struggles of the Middle East. This must include solidarity with the ongoing Syrian Revolution against the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad as well as against the reactionary Daesh/IS. In conflicts between great powers (or their proxies) over who is to get a larger sphere of influence in Syria, revolutionaries must support neither side; for example, revolutionaries give no support to either Russia or Turkey in their recent clash following the shooting down a Russian Sukhoi Su-24M bomber by Turkey.
27. Similarly, socialists should call for solidarity with the popular resistance against the Egypt dictatorship of General al-Sisi, the struggle against the pro-imperialist reactionaries aligned with General Haftar in Libya as well as the Yemeni resistance against the Al-Saud aggression. In addition, the solidarity with the Palestinian liberation struggle – suppressed by the Hollande government during the Gaza war in the summer of 2014 – and the campaign for a workers' and popular boycott against the Zionist State of Israel remain an essential task for the European workers' movement. The Bolshevik-Communists state unequivocally that the struggle for democracy, for the improvement of the working class's conditions, and for its own liberation will be immeasurably enhanced if its greatest enemy – the imperialist bourgeoisie of the Great Powers – suffers defeats in their colonial wars. Similarly, the working class and the oppressed in Europe will only gain if the popular masses in the South succeed in overthrowing reactionary, lackey dictatorships, usually the most reliable and loyal partners of the imperialist Great Powers.
28. Bolshevik-Communists fight against the devastating influence of the Stalinists, proto-Stalinists and centrists who directly or indirectly hail Russian imperialism and reactionary dictatorships like that of Bashar al-Assad. They should explain to the vanguard of the working class and the oppressed that they should oppose the reactionary interference of all Great Powers – be it the US, UK, France, Germany, Russia, China or any other imperialist country.
29. Revolutionaries must also oppose all forms of adaption to imperialist chauvinism. Hence they must fight against those left-reformists and centrists who oppose the opening of borders for migrants and refugees (e.g., left social democrats, Stalinists, CWI). Similarly, they must denounce those who support the discrimination of Muslim migrants (e.g. Stalinists, LO in France).
30. In addition, revolutionaries must fight against the trade union bureaucrats and the left-reformists and centrists who attempt to cleanse their sins. The bureaucrats have repeatedly sabotaged the struggle against the austerity policy of recent years. At best, they call for limited one-day strikes. Such actions only serve to release working class anger but are useless in stopping the bosses' offensives. Greece, which has experienced more than 30 general strikes in the past five years, is a model for the bankruptcy of such a strategy of limited actions. The left-reformists and centrists are either silent about this betrayal or consider them "isolated mistakes" which could be corrected with some serious discussions with the bureaucrats.
31. Naturally, authentic revolutionaries, who constitute such a small minority in the workers vanguard, must not limit themselves to pure denunciations of the left-reformists and centrists. They must combine such criticism with a systematic campaign for united fronts, i.e., proposals for joint practical struggles with the reformists and centrists against the attacks of the bourgeoisie. Since the bureaucrats will usually ignore such calls, revolutionaries must utilize all opportunities by joining mass struggles, and fighting side by side with reformist and centrist rank and file workers and youth, and demonstrate the superiority of the revolutionary method in practice by exemplary mass work.
32. Revolutionaries must not be sectarian and stand aside struggles in which most participants have reformist illusions and follow some left-wing bureaucrats (e.g., the Momentum campaign of left-wing supporters of Corbyn in the Labour Party, or the Left Platform inside SYRIZA before the split in August 2015). They must give critical support to the left-wing bureaucrats in situations in which the latter actually act against the right-wing bureaucrats. However such support must be combined with critical warnings about the reformist or centrist character of such forces as well as adopting practical steps towards organizing the rank and file independently of such bureaucrats in order to break them away from the latter.
33. Most importantly, the RCIT stresses the necessity of building new revolutionary parties in all countries and world-wide. Only such parties can provide revolutionary leadership as the only alternative to both reactionary Islamists as well as reformists. Without such parties being united in a single, new revolutionary International, the working class and the oppressed peoples cannot hope to succeed in fighting effectively against their enemies. Only such parties – as part of the Fifth Workers International – can fight for a consistent program against austerity, for equality for migrants and for the defeat of imperialism in the Middle East. Only a revolutionary world party can succeed in the international struggle for socialist revolution. We call upon all revolutionaries to join the RCIT and to fight together with us for the formation of such a revolutionary party.
* Defend democratic rights! Down with the State of Emergency in France! Down with all repressive laws!
* Stop the harassment of Muslim migrants! Mobilize against racist and Islamophobic campaigns! For self-defense units, organized by organizations of the workers' movement and the migrant communities, to protect refugees' hostels and mosques against racist attacks!
* For a program of revolutionary equality for migrants! For the abolition of the state language and for equal status of the migrants' native languages in education and public administration! For equal wage and for equal access to housing! Full citizenship rights for migrants! Down with the imperialist border controls - Open the borders for migrants and refugees!
* Solidarity with the Arab Revolution! Support the ongoing Syrian Revolution! Down with the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad! Down with the reactionary Daesh/IS! Solidarity with popular resistance against the Egypt dictatorship of General al-Sisi! Support the Yemeni resistance against the Al-Saud aggression! Long live the Third Intifada in Occupied Palestine!
* Stop the austerity policy! For mass demonstrations and strikes up to an indefinite general strike! Build action committees in the workplaces, schools and neighborhoods in order to organize the struggle! Build a rank and file movement in the trade unions in order to advance the struggle against the bureaucracy and to finally drive them out of the workers movement!
* Down with the Imperialist EU! For the United Socialist States of Europe!
* For Workers' and Peasant Republics in Maghreb and Mashreq! For a Socialist Federation!