“If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.” Malcolm X
International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity held a successful ‘hybrid’ meeting in central London earlier in November. Speakers from Britain, Ireland, Ukraine, the Russian Federation and Poland spoke on the platform or via Zoom on the topic ‘The struggle against Banderite fascism and the future of Ukraine’. This is the contribution from Konrad Rękas, a Polish journalist and political commentator.
In 1913, the world was convinced that the threat of war was completely impossible, which was related with the progress of civilisation, the development of science, and especially the international system based on the so-called concert of powers, international conferences during which colonial empires shared global spheres of influence. In reality, however, under the skin of this alleged belle epoque there were insurmountable contradictions and class conflicts, and enlightened minds already saw the spectre of a crisis that would surpass all previous problems of capitalism.
Nevertheless capitalism always tries to move forward, changing itself just to continue its basic goal: unlimited, infinite accumulation, achieved thanks to the exploitation and oppression of the working class. And precisely so that these oppressed and exploited did not see their chains, the demons of xenophobia, racism, chauvinism and jingoism were invoked. The world war meant not only new, gigantic profits. It was also a great draining of workers’ blood, a release of emotions and the lowest human instincts, as a result of which British, German, French and Russian workers murdered each other instead of turning their weapons against their real enemies: capitalists, plutocrats and the imperialist governments corrupted by them.
Historical mistake
One hundred and nine years ago, even a huge part of the European left got carried away by false, nationalist emotions, widely joining the camp of the global war. Those few who called for peace, for solving real, pressing social problems, were murdered, such as the Frenchman Jean Jaures, or imprisoned, such as the Scotsman John Maclean.
The war, started under the pretext of a secondary incident in the distant Balkans, covered almost all of Europe, and a significant part of the colonies in Africa and Asia, claiming nearly 20 million victims. A war that almost no one believed was a threat a year earlier…
In fact, only one major socio-political movement opposed the war from the beginning, rightly seeing it as just another stage of capitalism and imperialism. Only the Bolsheviks from the beginning condemned the primitive blackmail of pseudo-patriotic nationalism used to draw nations into war. And only the Bolsheviks acted in accordance with the best interests of the global proletariat, implementing the programme: “War on the palaces – peace to the huts!”. For there is no other just struggle than the class struggle, the struggle of the oppressed against the oppressors, the struggle of those who have nothing to lose except their chains, against those who have everything.
Peace, Land and Bread
We have met a few days after the 106th anniversary of the Great October Revolution and immediately after the 105th anniversary of the end of the war in 1918, and we still find this programme relevant. Peace, Land and Bread.
War, unimaginable yesterday, is today an everyday reality for Ukrainians and Russians, Palestinians and Jews. Land, water and natural resources are the subject of increasing accumulation. We are observing the takeover of Ukrainian agricultural production by global corporations such as Bayer-Monsanto, DowDuPont/Corteva and BASF. The legendary fertile Ukrainian chernozem or black soil is today used to produce artificial toxins in the interests of globalists. The same applies to the gas deposits in the sea shelf of the Gaza Strip, over which the Zionists want to take direct control.
Nazism – the last resort of capitalism
Concentration of ownership is also a constant for the Western world. Even more so when we face the growing Nazism today. Nazism is always the last weapon of capitalism. Today, global liberalism has summoned two of its historical dogs of war to the idea: Jewish fascism: Zionism, and Ukrainian Nazism: Banderism. Genocide has been going on in Gaza and in the whole of Palestine since 1947, now escalated by an obviously Zionist provocation.
Similarly, the Western takeover of Ukraine is marked by genocide: the provocations in Kiev in February 2014, the mass murder in Odessa on 2nd May 2014, the relentless attacks by Kiev troops against the people of Donbas, resulting in over 20,000 people killed and injured in the last nine years.
The wars in Palestine and Ukraine are parts of the global war against Nazism, but also the manifestation of class struggle.
In Ukraine, this war is taking a particularly harsh, cruel, dehumanised course, under the authoritarian rule of oligarchs and compradors who deny the working class basic rights, even those formally guaranteed during the liberal oligarchy period after 1990.
The Ukrainian working class is exploited without even a theoretical right to resistance, and at the same time, millions of Ukrainian migrant workers join the reserve army of labour not only in Poland but also in Western countries, such as the UK. This phenomenon has an objectively negative impact on the position of the Western working class, supporting ethnic prejudices inducted by the capitalists to prevail against the common class cause.
Revolution will prevail!
The cyclical nature of the crises of capitalism and imperialism are a necessity, directly as Marx predicted, and the same is about our obligation to hold active resistance. The liberation of Ukraine from Nazism is therefore today not only a Ukrainian issue, but also a deeply internationalist issue. And as internationalists we must say clearly today: just as our forefathers defeated Nazism by raising the banner in Berlin over the Third Reich’s Chancellery and the Reichstag, today we must do it again in Banderite Kiev and Zionist Tel Aviv!
International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity held a successful ‘hybrid’ meeting in central London earlier in the month. Speakers from Britain, Ireland, Ukraine, the Russian Federation and Poland spoke on the platform or via Zoom on the topic ‘The struggle against Banderite fascism and the future of Ukraine’. This is the contribution from Jon Maxted from the British No2Nato-No2war campaign.
Since its founding, No2Nato has fought hard to establish itself as the home for all sections of the British anti-war movement, regardless of where they identify on the political spectrum. We recognise that it’s only by forging a united front that we can truly stand up for international peace and friendship.
Perhaps most importantly, we understand that the greatest obstacle to achieving and maintaining that peace is NATO and the aggression it has carried out on multiple fronts. This is why it is our mission to see Britain break free from this organisation, as it is effectively incapable of changing course while it remains bound to it.
The UK has contributed £4.6 billion in aid to Ukraine since the war escalated in February 2022. This has come in various forms, ranging from advanced weapons systems and munitions such as Challenger 2 MBTs and NLAW anti-tank missiles, to training and technical support for Ukraine’s armed forces, including the large numbers of Banderite Nazis who have at this point spread throughout its ranks at all levels.
This British aid only serves to propup a failing regime and prevent its total collapse, effectively prolonging the butchery and bloodshed that has come to characterise this horrendous war. In this way, Britain’s government has played its shameful part in the deaths of many Russians and Ukrainians.
What’s more, this comes at a time when the UK is entering a period of recession and can ill afford yet more imperialist military entanglements abroad. The UK is amongst the worst affected countries of both the energy and cost-of-living crises that have only been stoked-up by international developments precipitated by this conflict.
This has resulted in a reality where food poverty for British children has almost doubled in a year, as many households are driven deeper and deeper into poverty from the double whammy of skyrocketing inflation and energy prices, the latter directly driven in large part by the successful US-led campaign to drive a wedge between Russia and European clients for its energy exports. This is most prominently the case in Germany, which is now undergoing a process of de-industrialisation as a consequence of the new status quo. So we see that this isn’t simply a matter of the British government wasting resources that could be better utilised at home rather than propping-up murderous ultranationalist regimes abroad, its policy in Ukraine is actively exacerbating the poverty and misery of our own people, particularly the poorest and most vulnerable sections of British society. In this way, it is clear that the struggles of the British, Russian and broader European peoples are linked together and in direct contradiction with the US-led NATO proxy war in Ukraine.
It’s precisely this contradiction that motivates No2Nato as it campaigns to sweep away the tenacious remnants of the old Cold War that are now driving us on a path towards a new world war. With its aggressive and predatory foreign policy, our government is now flirting with human devastation on a scale never before seen, all for the reckless self-interest of a vanishingly small elite, an elite that will nevertheless still burn in the nuclear fire along with the rest of us should we ever cross that terrible threshold.
With this in mind, No2Nato is more committed than ever to push back against US-led aggression in Ukraine, by any means at our disposal. We carry forward the demand for Britain to invoke article 13 of the North Atlantic treaty, formally beginning the process of our country’s withdrawal from NATO.
It is our mission to agitate for this in every town; to bring it to the doorstep of every MP and councillor; to make this demand heard on every campus of every university in the country and to decisively rally the public to the cause for peace.
It is integral that we spare no resources in not only hastening the end of this war, but in laying the foundations for a new international order that will safeguard against a disaster like this ever happening again.
A major international conference, ‘Stop World War Three – For a true and just peace, stop NATO’, took place in Rome last weekend. It was attended by delegates from over 40 countries including former premiers, politicians, generals, diplomats and activists from peace and solidarity organisations from Europe, the Americas and the Global South, along with representatives of all the main Palestinian liberation organisations.
Mohammad Hannoun, of the Association of Palestinians in Italy, said: “Mossad was paying Italian journalists to write about democracy in Israel and to describe Hamas fighters raping women, but there is no evidence of this from the released hostages, while others have described Israeli troops shooting Israeli civilians.”
Former Minister of the Lugansk People’s Republic, Andrej Kochetov, said that in 2014 the NATO-backed fascists “launched a genocide against five million people in the Donbas republics – Ukrainian citizens – because we defended our identity, culture, history and language common to all Ukrainians”.
Leading Russian Marxist Said Gafurov pointed out: “The finest elements of the working class in Ukraine, miners and metal workers, fought against the lumpen petit-bourgeoisie who supported the 2014 coup.”
Former prime minister of Slovakia Jan Carnogursky said: “The Ukraine war is led by the USA and the whole of NATO against Russia, it is a proxy war in which Ukrainian people are being sacrificed. The war should end, but this can happen only when the Western forces leave Ukraine.”
Commenting on current global changes, Yiannis Rachiotis of the Platform for Independence of Greece said that “the period of historical retreat since 1990 has now been closed, and this is good news”.
Ukrainian socialist leader Alexey Albu told the conference: “It is time to put an end to the bloodshed on the territory of the former Soviet Union,” saying the only way we can achieve this is to stop the supplies of weapons to the Kiev regime.
He said: “The economic model based on US hegemony is in deep crisis. Every day the hegemon becomes weaker and weaker, giving humanity a chance to build a new configuration of international relations, a chance to build a multipolar world.”
Communist Party of the Russian Federation CC member Dmytry Novikov called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, saying that “the struggles of the working class are being incorporated into the struggles against imperialism around the world”.
International secretary of the United Communist Party of Russia, Daria Mitina, said the war in Ukraine is “an outsourced war with the characteristics of punishment of the resistance”, adding: “There is a consensus around the world about the Palestinians’ struggle against Israel, but unfortunately there is no consensus about the European war.”
Larissa Schesler, of the Union of Political Emigrants and Political Prisoners of Ukraine, said that at least 6,000 Ukrainians have received 8–13 years prison and confiscation of all property for “collaboration”, some simply for continuing to work in areas under Russian control, and another 50,000 cases have been opened of which half are women and half over 60 years of age.
Theo Russell, representing the British-based International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS) campaign, talked about the attempts to criminalise anyone speaking the truth about Ukraine through censorship, media collaboration with the Kiev junta, and covert sabotage, and spoke of the desire for a future fully democratic Ukraine in which the countless crimes of the Banderite Nazis were punished. But he pointed out: “The imperialists will describe this new Ukraine as ‘a Russian-backed reign of terror worse than Hitler’s Germany’, that they would continue to support fascist terrorism and subversion attempts, so Ukraine will still need our solidarity in the future.”
The final conference statement called for the defeat of NATO in Ukraine, a new framework of co-operation in East Europe and Balkans, liberated from US–EU control, a world of sovereign countries whose peoples can determine their own future free of the global economic dictatorship imposed by the West and unilateral Coercive Measures.
It was decided to form a permanent network, ‘Stop World War 3 – International Initiative for Peace’, to co-ordinate these tasks, to organise international actions and solidarity delegations to Russia, the Donbas and Palestine, and to organise a second international peace conference by the end of 2024.
•Chinese ambassador Zheng Zeguang opens the seminar
by Andy Brooks
New Communist Party leader Andy Brooks took part in a seminar on the role of the Communist Party of China and the world today at the Chinese embassy in London in August. This is his contribution to the discussion.
We meet at a time of sharpening contradictions – and the primary contradiction in the world today is between US imperialism and the rest of the world it seeks to dominate.
Generations of Chinese communists struggled against dogmatism and sectarianism to build a people’s democracy in their own way, to serve the needs of the working people of China and throughout the wider world we live in – a world torn apart by war and stricken by poverty and disease. While the American imperialists incite conflict and sectarian division People’s China has taken the lead in helping to build the economies of the Global South while working for peace and harmony throughout the world.
We too must struggle for peace and nuclear disarmament – as well as the abolition of other weapons of mass destruction.
Imperialism fans the flames of war in Ukraine and the Middle East, blocks the return of Taiwan to its Chinese homeland and prolongs the unhappy partition of many countries including Cyprus, Ireland, Kashmir and Korea. China’s perspective, on the other hand, is based on the concept of ‘one country, two systems’ and the principle that ‘a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought’. But the most aggressive sections of the American ruling class now at the helm in Washington clearly believe in ‘one world, one system’ and that nuclear war is, under certain circumstances, entirely winnable.
The Chinese revolution that established the people’s government in 1949 has transformed the country that was then the poorest in the world. Since then China has risen from being a weak semi-feudal, semi-colonial country to become a force for peace in the global arena with the second largest economy in the world.
People’s China, the fifth permanent member of the UN Security Council, is the only veto-power actively supporting proposals for multilateral nuclear disarmament. Pledging never to be the first to use nuclear weapons in any conflict, China stands for the complete prohibition and total destruction of all atomic weapons.
China, backed by many other countries, has repeatedly challenged the West to implement the entire non-proliferation treaty, signed in 1968, that not only called a halt to nuclear proliferation but also committed the signatories to work towards universal nuclear disarmament.
The struggle to abolish nuclear weapons is crucial for the survival of humanity. But central to averting a Third World War is the need to eliminate the causes of war. And that is why communists have always understood that the struggles for peace and socialism are indivisible.
The Chinese communists are striving to achieve lasting world peace, so that all countries can enjoy a peaceful and stable external environment and their people can live a happy life with their rights fully guaranteed to build a world that is free from fear and enjoys universal security.
This is, of course, a quantum jump from the post-war Soviet policies of “peaceful co-existence” and “detente” that failed to end the Cold War and probably accelerated the collapse of the USSR. Peaceful co-existence mistakenly believed that the capitalists could be economically beaten at their own game while detente was, in essence, a futile Soviet attempt at achieving nuclear parity with the Americans to divide the world into Soviet and American spheres of influence.
Sadly the United Nations has been marginalised by the imperialists, who only pay lip service to UN institutions when it suits their purposes. When it doesn’t, the world forum is ignored and discarded. So although the UN remains a prime focus, China has taken the initiative in setting up other platforms for economic and diplomatic co-operation including BRICS, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Shanghai Co-operation Council.
China has become a beacon of hope for all the peoples of the world struggling to build their own independent economies without imperialist interference. While Anglo-American and Franco-German imperialism use their military and economic might to impose their neo-colonial rule throughout the Global South, the Chinese people can, and do, provide the countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America with an alternative source of high technology and economic assistance without the odious strings attached that always go with deals with the West.
China puts people first. China has become a pivot for peace in a world torn apart by imperialist greed and aggression. China is strong but it threatens no one. China respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries. It stays true to the principle of equality of all countries big or small, strong or weak, and rich or poor, and it respects the development paths and social systems independently chosen by all the world’s peoples. The people’s government is dedicated to promoting a human community with a shared future.
China stands ready to work with all countries and peoples who love peace and aspire to happiness to address all kinds of traditional and non-traditional security challenges, protect the peace and tranquillity of the planet, and jointly create a better future for humanity, so that the torch of peace will be passed on from generation to generation and shine across the world.
Earlier this year the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, launched the “global security initiative” that lays out core concepts and principles regarding global peace and security.
The first is to eliminate conflict through the establishment of a balanced, effective, and sustainable security framework under which countries respect the legitimate security concerns of each other and promote political solutions to cope with hotspot issues.
The second is the promotion of economic development in the Global South.
The third is respect for diversity. It is the right of every country to choose its own political system and development path.
Finally, all international disputes should be resolved through dialogue not unilateralism and hegemonic acts. The UN can play a positive role in international affairs if the voice and representation of countries throughout the Global South is expanded in the world forum.
This is what we should all be working for. Hopefully we will live to see it happen in the years to come.
•Andy Brooks with CPB leader Robert Griffiths and Keith Bennett from the Friends of Socialist China society.
by New Worker correspondent
NEW COMMUNIST Party leader Andy Brooks took part in a seminar with other communists, academics and solidarity activists, at the Chinese embassy in London this week, on the role of the Communist Party of China and the world today.
The NCP delegation, which included national organiser Theo Russell, joined Robert Griffiths, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Britain and Ella Rule, the Chair of the CPGB (ML), in the discussion that looked at China’s new Global Security Initiative and its long-standing efforts to promote sustainable development in the Global South and throughout the rest of the world.
The symposium was opened by Ambassador Zheng Zeguang, who said that the Chinese people are acting upon the goals set forth at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China and working hard to achieve the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through a Chinese path of modernisation. “We are also taking concrete steps to promote high-quality development. Many British friends who have recently visited China are amazed by the prominent progress China has made over the last few years in green and low-carbon development and the digital economy. And they are full of confidence for China’s economic progress.”
People’s China has always upheld the principle that all countries, big or small, are equal. “We never engage in economic coercion, and we oppose bullying and coercion by others. It’s only when China’s core interests are undermined by certain countries that we take legitimate and reasonable counter-measures.” In his opening, Andy Brooks said: “Imperialism fans the flames of war in Ukraine and the Middle East, blocks the return of Taiwan to its Chinese homeland and prolongs the unhappy partition of many countries including Cyprus, Ireland, Kashmir and Korea. China’s perspective, on the other hand, is based on the concept of ‘one country, two systems’, and the principle that ‘a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought’. But the most aggressive sections of the American ruling class now at the helm in Washington clearly believe in ‘one world, one system’ and that nuclear war is, under certain circumstances, entirely winnable.”
China is striving to achieve lasting world peace through the traditional United Nations framework and through other platforms for economic and diplomatic co-operation including BRICS, the Belt and Road Initiative and the Shanghai Co-operation Council.
This, the NCP leader said, “was a quantum jump from the post-war Soviet policies of ‘peaceful co-existence’ and ‘détente’ that failed to end the Cold War and probably accelerated the collapse of the USSR. Peaceful co-existence mistakenly believed that the capitalists could be economically beaten at their own game while detente was, in essence, a futile Soviet attempt at achieving nuclear parity with the Americans to divide the world into Soviet and American spheres of influence.”
China, backed by many other countries, has repeatedly challenged the West to implement the entire non-proliferation treaty, signed in 1968, that not only called a halt to nuclear proliferation but also committed the signatories to work towards universal nuclear disarmament.
The struggle to abolish nuclear weapons is crucial for the survival of humanity. But central to averting a Third World War is the need to eliminate the causes of war. And that is why communists have always understood that the struggles for peace and socialism are indivisible.
•Peter Hendy in the driving seat of his hotel lobby!
On the 24th June, Peter Hendy from the New Communist Party of Britain (NCP) joined other communists from North America, Scandinavia, Australia and the UK, including General Secretary Rob Griffiths of the Communist Party of Britain (CPB), as guests of the Communist Party of China. They arrived in Guangzhou in southern China to visit Guangdong and Guizhou provinces before travelling to Beijing. This provided an opportunity to see first-hand the profound developments and modernisation that have taken place in People’s China; to learn about the role and work of the Communist Party of China (CPC) over 40 years of reform and opening-up; and to find out the truth about ‘Socialism with Chinese characteristics’ and the CPC’s path to modernisation.
In 1989 there was a political earthquake with the collapse of the Soviet Union and counter-revolutions in Eastern Europe. Economic stagnation, significant problems in commodity production, inefficiency, corruption, opportunism and revisionism were factors ruthlessly exploited by imperialism, which led to an enormous setback for socialism and the working class.
In response, the Communist Party of China led a new #long march# to thwart the potential threat of counter-revolution.
The CPC has overseen deep reforms and opening-up but also overcome complex social difficulties and unexpected events to develop a modern and dynamic socialist country.
Socialist modernisation involved a restructuring, diversification and transformation of the economy that has led over 853 million people out of poverty, with improvements in living standards, incomes and quality of life for people in both rural and urban areas.
Life expectancy is now 76.7 years, in 1949 it was 36. Medical Insurance is provided to the whole population and 45 per cent of youth from 18–22 go to college. With a population of 1.4 billion this is an astonishing achievement!
Today China is a global power and the second wealthiest country in the world, with a staggering $5 trillion in bank reserves. In 2021 China’s share of global GDP was 18.4 per cent. The trade between China and other countries along the Belt & Road is $12 trillion, and in advanced digital technologies China is now a world leader.
People’s China has successfully responded to one of humanity’s worst epidemics and its international response was to provide millions of vaccinations and protective equipment to other countries around the globe. Following the lifting of COVID19 restrictions China’s economy is estimated to grow by over an incredible five per cent GDP.
US imperialism has aggressively responded to the perceived ‘Chinese threat’ by attempting to economically destabilise China’s economy by imposing sanctions, increasing hostilities, provocations, geo-political tensions and conflicts, even within China’s borders.
China is now a powerful force for diplomacy and peace, however. China’s recent peace proposals for Ukraine contained a 12-point peace plan to end hostilities and to resume peace talks. Iran and Saudi Arabia have now agreed to establish diplomatic relations following a conference hosted by China.
In a report delivered to the 20th National Congress of the CPC, Xi Jinping stated the CPC’s desire to build China into a modern socialist country and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through a Chinese path of modernisation.
Guangdong Province
Guangzhou (Canton) is the capital of Guangdong province, situated on the North Pearl River Delta near Macau and Hong Kong, known as ‘The South Gate’ of China. Guangdong is the most populated province in China, with over 127 million people.
Our first impressions of Guangzhou were of an ultra-modern, economically vibrant and rapidly expanding city with multi-lane motorways, wide tree-lined boulevards and soaring skyscrapers. The city was awe inspiring with an incredible skyline and is home to 16 million people. It was smart, clean and architecturally contemporary with an abundance of urban green spaces. There was an absence of pollution, rubbish, poverty and destitution associated with Western cities.
On the outskirts we saw enormous construction projects taking place, providing evidence of China’s rapidly expanding economy and to meet new demands for low-cost housing.
Guangzhou is a major transportation and communication hub for South China, having a humid sub-tropical climate with plentiful rainfall. It has a long and illustrious history with a profoundly rich culture of over 2,200 years, being the starting point of the ancient maritime Silk Road. The Opium War and the 1911 Revolution took place here and its museums contain a wealth of cultural relics and artefacts.
Poverty to prosperity
Guangdong was established as a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and a pioneer of socialist market reforms and the opening-up of coastal areas. It is the epitome of Chinese-style modernisation driven by a scientific and technological revolution. Moving from a predominantly labour-intensive, backward agricultural province to the largest most dynamic and fastest-growing high-tech manufacturing province in China. According to the World Bank it has been transformed from a low-income to high-income economy. Its economic performance is phenomenal, with growth of 0.5 per cent and being a quarter of the national total. In 2021 its economic growth surpassed south Korea! Some 1.32 million jobs were created in 2022 and there are more than 300,000 foreign-invested enterprises in Guangdong. From a closed economy in 1978, its foreign trade imports and exports reached $1.2 trillion in 2022.
The modernisation of Guangdong province has involved a high level of future planning to develop all aspects of the economic infrastructure involving the constant improvement of roads, highways, ports and harbours linking the province with other cities.
Guangzhou now has an international airport, port and the province is developing high-speed railways and bus links. The city demonstrates the CPC’s leadership and commitment to implementing the Belt & Road Initiative in order to develop its international economic infrastructure, to boost trade and stimulate economic growth, not only for China but for other countries across the world.
Research, development and innovation are instrumental to China’s economic growth and prosperity. Guangdong is a Science and Technology Hub and is at the forefront of research, being number one nationally for invention patents.
To promote economic stability the CPC is implementing supply-side structural reforms, to increase economic capacity, reduce imbalances and inadequate development, and to raise efficiency. It is promoting new areas of economic growth involving innovation and technology.
Dual Circulation Theory emphasises the need for structural supply-side adjustments and potential problems for China by depending too much on exports for its economic development. This reduces the risk of financial crisis but also acknowledges the enormous potential of a domestic market with over 1.4 billion consumers and opportunities to improve their lives. More emphasis is being placed on safeguarding China’s domestic economy consumption by increasing consumption to achieve a balance between exports and imports.
Previously there has been a reliance on exports, but due to global changes and future uncertainties a new paradigm has been developed. This recognises the dual importance of simultaneously developing and expanding the domestic circle or market to achieve strategic goals.
In Guangzhou we visited KingMed Diagnosis, China’s leading independent clinical laboratory company providing a technology-oriented medical service company specialising in clinical diagnostics and pathology. The facility was state of the art, but what made it so remarkable was that out of 17,000 employees some 1,063 were CPC members!
We also visited the GAC group, which is ranked 61st in the top Chinese enterprises, building both conventional high-class vehicles and electric cars with a production capacity of 200,000 vehicles using the most advanced robotics technologies.
•China — once again the workshop of the world…
Guizhou province
Next, we flew to Guiyang in Guizhou province. A scenic area with a landscape of domed mountains, rivers and waterfalls. Guizhou was previously China’s poorest and most under-developed region.
Guizhou has also experienced a dramatic economic surge in high quality scientific, electronic and technological digital transformation. Artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing (online storage that keeps files readily accessible anytime anywhere), block chain (advanced database mechanisms that allow transparent information to be shared in businesses) and other technological developments are unfolding. Guizhou has an advantageous climate, power supply and infrastructure. The cooler climate is conducive to the servers’ operation and thus reduces operating costs. Power supplies are from thermal- and water-power and electricity costs are cheaper. Following a three-year highway construction programme all urban areas have access to expressways enabling Guizhou to connect more efficiently with the outside world.
It is China’s first national big comprehensive pilot zone and part of its national big data strategy. It now has the highest number of mega data centres in the country. The added value to the digital economy is predicted to exceed $91.7 billion. This will promote the integration of big data into the real economy – industry, agriculture and service industry – and transform, upgrade and improve industrial development and big data industry.
Developments in big data are a central component of the province’s social and economic development strategy. Financial support has been provided with special funds for the big data industry. The province has used big data integration to alleviate poverty and to establish the country’s first provincial data platform for the online handling of provincial, municipal and county level government services. This has simultaneously involved the successful completion of upgrading optical fibres in 8,900 villages. Guizhou has achieved 100 per cent coverage for fibre-optic broadband and 4G network. Vocational training and college education has included the development of eight universities to set up courses in response to shortages of talent. Emphasis being placed on deepening relationships between universities and industrial and research institutes.
Ethnicity and Culture
China is a multi-ethnic country of 56 ethnic groups that form a rich part of its political and cultural identity. This diversity is strongly promoted rather than suppressed as is claimed in mass media propaganda. A system of regional autonomy exists for ethnic minorities and equal rights are enshrined in the Constitution.
Guizhou is one of China’s most ethnically diverse provinces in China whose people have benefited culturally from the immense economic developments. In Guiyang we attended a magnificent performance involving people of Miao, Dono, Shui and Buyi ethnic minorities wearing traditional, brightly coloured embroidered costumes and jewellery. The production was a musical opera and dance with traditional musical instruments against a backdrop of rivers, mountains, forests and waterfalls.
Culture is considered the soul of the nation and a nation’s strength is dependent on its culture. Xi Jinping has stated: “A nation’s confidence in its culture is its essential, underlying and enduring strength.” China is committed not only to stimulating future cultural innovation and creativity in literature and the arts, but also to protecting and restoring cultural relics, artefacts and historical sites.
A visit was made to Qingyan, a former military town of the Ming and Qing dynasties. The streets and alleyways are paved with cobbles and the houses are of stone with traditional Chaomen and Yaomen roof tiles and flower-wood doors that reflect the architectural style of Old China. The place is full of temples, palaces, ancestral halls and pagodas, and is a national cultural heritage site.
We travelled to the Zunyi Conference Site and Memorial Hall, which is a place of great historical revolutionary significance. During the Zunyi Conference in 1935, Mao Zedong delivered a lengthy report criticising military errors and serious failures due to “left dogmatism” during the Long March that nearly led to the defeat of the Red Army. Mao was co-elected as a member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo and so entered the military leadership of the Central Committee of the CPC and Red Army. The Zunyi Conference was a significant turning point in the life and death struggle of the CPC and Red Army.
The journey was made via a high-speed bullet train from Guiyang, symbolic of the rapid economic and cultural progress made by People’s China since that historical conference. In a province defined by mountains and rivers, the development of a high-speed train network is a feat of engineering ingenuity. In Beijing we attended the Third Dialogue on Exchanges and Mutual Learning among Civilisations and the first World Conference of Sinologists, to which General secretary of the CPC Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter. He supported efforts to promote cultural exchanges, understanding, friendship and co-operation between China and the rest of the world. This was held at the China National Archives of Publications and Culture located at the foot of the Yanshan Mountains in Beijing, which holds China’s largest collection of publications and database of cultural resources and traditions.
The Communist Party of China
The CPC has a membership of 98 million. It has experienced an arduous journey since its formation, involving great sacrifices. During the period of liberation and from 1949 onwards in the socialist construction of China, the CPC has achieved profound social changes for the Chinese people. After reviewing China’s historical experiences and rejecting dogma, it oversaw a strategic shift from class struggle to one of opening up, reform and socialist modernisation.
The Museum of the Communist Party of China, located on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, provides a comprehensive exhibition of the Party’s history, 100-year struggles and truly astonishing progress, including magnificent statues, photos and exhibits. A simulator takes you on a virtual, awe-inspiring intrepid journey: Through frozen mountains on the Long March, where you feel snow on your face, before zooming through modern cities across China. Then plunging to the depths of the oceans, before lifting off into space and landing on Mars!
The Report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China presented by Xi Jinping is a comprehensive political declaration for the future. The CPC is committed to continually improve people’s incomes, material living standards and overall quality of life, but knows that it must also guard against complacency, corruption and ideological degeneration. To maintain its support and the integrity of the people it represents, the CPC must remain dynamic and not stagnate.
•China Railway Highspeed links the nation
Ideological
The CPC acknowledges the potential high risk of an emerging class that may represent an ideological threat to the communist movement. The situation is vigilantly monitored, and laws prohibit capitalists or foreign investors from ownership or control in the Chinese media. We learnt how through Party Schools such as in Guizhou, exemplary working environments provide continuing education for CPC comrades.
In a survey conducted by China Youth Daily in 2021 involving young people, 97.7 per cent of respondents believed that the spirit of the CPC is the spirit of the nation. We met with members of the Communist Youth League (CYL), which has 81 million members. The CYL are the next generation, and a priority is developing and strengthening ideological conviction. Political education, training and guidance is provided to forge a revolutionary spirit and socialist values. Educating young people in their historical knowledge of the CPC, Marxism-Leninism and its theoretical developments adapted to Chinese realities.
The CYL has been modernising how it disseminates information using technology, eg social media, and significant attention is paid to ensure that theories and policies are relevant to the present. Work includes frequent face-to-face dialogue with members of the National’s People’s Congress highlighting issues such as housing problems for young people and the need for low-cost housing.
CYL members carry out voluntary political work and were previously involved in work relating to improving literacy in poor rural areas, abolishing poverty, and during the fight against the COVID19 epidemic.
Governance
In the West the term Governance is loosely associated with corporate mandatory training. It relates to selflaw or ‘rule of virtue’ and the individual. Often a superficial understanding is required before moving on to something else.
Whereas in China the term has a significantly deeper meaning and is associated with a process of continually reviewing, improving, strengthening and modernising the functioning of public institutions. To promote transparency, efficiency and ultimately accountability to the people at all levels. Achieving qualitative changes in political, social and economic organisations and systems.
At a national level this includes the working relationship between the Central Committee of the CPC and the National Congress. Its functioning and the implementation of its policies and procedures relating to key government reform strategies from national security to developing renewable energies. Strengthening China’s socialist systems in respect of the rule of law, democracy and the environment. This involves the people in villages, towns, counties, cities and provinces, in both urban and rural locations.
The CPC considers that these systems need to be developed by the people for them to be effective. Thus the modernisation of Governance promotes a sense of social vitality, trust and connection, guaranteeing the welfare of the people. To protect and safeguard their interests and rights ensuring political stability.
The CPC recognises the importance of grass-roots support for the CPC. The need for leadership to improve local functioning and organisation of the Party. To recognise and respond to problems that arise affecting people’s livelihood at local level.
In Guizhou, The Jinyuan Community in Guanshanhu District, Guiyang City, the home of 10,890 people, is a fantastic example of the CPC’s dynamic work and implementation of social governance with the people. We met local CPC National Congress Member Yuan Yan in Jinyuan, who explained how people’s democracy and social governance works. She demonstrated her enthusiasm, commitment and dedication to representing the people of her community and was eager to show us the vital work being undertaken in an inner city area. The Party used the social media and public information screens to communicate with a predominantly elderly population living in high-rise apartments to identify and quickly resolve problems. Recreational, social and primary healthcare facilities were gold standard. The local CPC involved people in regular consultations and decision making, promoting an evident strong sense of community. The environment was landscaped and a natural habitat created using trees and plants to enhance the area.
•The communist party school in Guizhou
The Environment: Shougang Park
Shougang Park in Beijing was a former steel mill that produced 10 million tons of iron and steel, but the former industrial wasteland has been transformed into a hub for tourism, sport and cultural events.
The steel mill was closed in 2005 to reduce air pollution and due to significant changes in the supply of steel. Smokestacks, blast furnaces, cooling towers and other industrial relics are now surrounded by expansive green spaces, sport facilities, modern offices, commercial facilities and apartments. In 2022 it was a venue for the Winter Olympics and provided a dramatic backdrop. Shougang Park is now a monument to urban regeneration and innovation. It’s an outstanding illustration of how the CPC is a catalyst for urban rejuvenation promoting a harmony between man and nature. Creating a green ecological and sustainable environment whilst retaining its magnificent industrial heritage.
New Era Modernisation
Overall we saw the enormous advancement in terms socialist modernisation to meet the ever growing material and cultural needs of 1.4 billion people.
The People’s Republic of China is moving into a ‘New Era’ with astonishing economic, political, social, environmental, scientific, technological and cultural modernisation against a backdrop of imperialism and war. Socialism with Chinese characteristics has shown how socialism is being integrated with the market economy and is not capitalism as critics proclaim. There are inherent dangers, but the CPC is the representative political power of the working class in China and the power of the socialist state belongs to the people.
The CPC’s goal is to build a modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic and harmonious, but recognises the important contribution it can make to the progress of mankind in promoting diplomacy, international relations and peace.
At the 19th Party Congress in 2017 General Secretary Xi Jinping stated that it takes a good blacksmith to make good steel, demonstrating the Party’s resolve, confidence, and unswerving commitment to the future of socialism. Its greatest strength, the leadership of the CPC.
A Friends of Korea committee seminar was held at the NCP Centre in London to commemorate the victory of the Korean people over US imperialism and its lackeys. Chaired by Andy Brooks the symposium heard papers from Michael Chant and Dermot Hudson, and video link contributions from Jong Gi Kim from the DPR Korea embassy in London. This is the contribution from Michael Chant, secretary of the Friends of Korea Committee.
On July 27, 1953, the heroic forces of the Korean People’s Army and Chinese People’s Volunteer Army achieved victory in the Korean War by forcing the US imperialists and their allies to come north of the 38th parallel to sign the Armistice Agreement that ended the fighting in the Korean War. This was a victory not only for the Korean people, but for peace-loving humanity. The signing of the Armistice Agreement also signalled the first military defeat of the USA following the Second World War – a humiliation which has haunted the US imperialists ever since, and for which it has yet to forgive the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) and the Korean people. From Britain, there were 81,084 men and women who served in the conflict, including 1,108 British servicemen who were killed in action. This is also a crime for which Britain must be held responsible.
As we said in the invitation to participate in this seminar, on 25th June 1950 the US imperialists, under the aegis of the United Nations, had launched a brutal illegal war of aggression against the Korean nation. Since 27th July 1953, the USA has done everything possible to maintain its military presence on the Korean Peninsula and keep the Korean War going. But the resistance of the DPRK continues, as the Korean people proudly demonstrate their mettle and build their own future.
Victory Day is not simply a celebration day for commemorating and looking back to a chapter of resistance in a previous era. The day also serves as a reminder that the US imperialists and their appeasers are stepping-up war preparations in the Asia Pacific, and that the terrible tragedies visited upon the Korean people during the Korean War must never again be permitted. The significance of that war is taking on new meaning today as the US imperialists beat the drums of war to attempt to justify a nuclear catastrophe that threatens the very survival of the Korean people and the peoples of the world. But it further serves as a reminder that it is the people who are the makers of history and that they themselves must prevail against war.
This year, on the 70th anniversary of 27th July 1953, the people of the DPRK held activities to celebrate the victory, together with a delegation from the People’s Republic of China which took part in the events and a military delegation from the Russian Federation which also paid a congratulatory visit to the DPRK on the occasion.
On 25th July, leader Kim Jong Un had visited the Fatherland Liberation War Martyrs Cemetery, paying high tribute to the martyrs who defended the sovereignty and security of the country and people at great cost. Kim Jong Un said that they provided the precious ideological and moral heritage and tradition of victory as a steadfast cornerstone for the DPRK. He made the important point that the victory of 27th July 1953 is of significance to all humanity. This is the case not just because it inflicted such a disgraceful defeat on US imperialism, but also because it played its part in preventing a new world war at that time.
On visiting the martyrs’ cemetery of the Chinese People’s Volunteers, Kim Jong Un further elaborated on the significance of the DPRK’s victory in the war, saying that it was a hard fought just war not only to defend the dignity, honour and sovereignty of Korea and its people, but was also essential to defend world peace and security. It was, he said, an acute political and military confrontation with the imperialist forces that was waged on behalf of the peace-loving forces and progressive humankind. That great victory continues to show its vitality today.
The USA had intervened in Korea based on the reactionary Cold War policy of the “containment of communism”. From the Japanese colonial era through the Second World War, the outstanding resistance and guerrilla warfare carried out in Korea under the leadership of Kim Il Sung and other communists brought great prestige to communism throughout Korea for its ability to mobilise and organise the people to defend themselves.
Even before the surrender of Japan, the USA divided Korea by force at the 38th parallel with the aim of imposing their rule over the victorious Korean people who had contributed, second to none, to the Allied victory in the Second World War. The aim was to keep the Korean people divided and to turn the south of Korea into a US military beachhead in order to wage war against China and the Soviet Union.
Following the Japanese surrender, the USA brutally suppressed and outlawed the Korean People’s Republic that had been proclaimed by the representatives of the whole Korean people on 6th September, 1945, in Seoul. The USA installed the US Military Government of Korea in the south, which carried out a campaign of terror against the Korean people’s resistance to US dictate and occupation. A virulent anti-communist, Syngman Rhee, who had spent most of his life in the USA, was installed as the first President of the so-called Republic of Korea (ROK) in July 1948. The pro-US Rhee government continued to suppress the Korean people’s widespread resistance to US military occupation through extrajudicial killings, civilian massacres, mass incarcerations and other crimes, carried out with impunity.
Meanwhile in the north, the Korean people, under the leadership of Kim Il Sung, were able to establish the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) and found the DPRK in 1948. They took control of their future and began to build a modern socialist society on the basis of self-reliance. President Kim Il Sung and the WPK also provided political and practical leadership to the Korean people’s aspiration for a reunified Korea. It was following the ROK elections of 29th May, 1950, when the Syngman Rhee government suffered a major electoral setback and the forces for reunification were gaining momentum, that the US launched the Korean War on 25th June, 1950, to block the independent reunification of Korea.
In the Korean War, the people of the DPRK, led by Kim Il Sung, were organised by the WPK and mobilised to support the Korean People’s Army. The newly established People’s Republic of China sent troops in the form of the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army to support the Korean people after US forces approached China’s eastern border with the DPRK. They ardently defended the Korean people in this war of aggression carried out by the US imperialists and 15 allied countries, including Britain, under the fig leaf of the UN flag.
The armistice talks began on 10th July, 1951. The USA refused to agree to a ceasefire as a condition of talks, however, and also refused to abide by the Geneva Convention regarding the repatriation of prisoners. During the two-year period of negotiations, the USA and its allies employed all sorts of delaying tactics in the hope of achieving an outright military victory. They massacred hundreds of thousands of civilians in the north and south of Korea, with many buried alive, dismembered, burned to death or drowned. They carried out such war crimes as germ and chemical warfare, the bombing of infrastructure including dams and irrigation canals to flood the grain fields and starve the people, the carpet bombing of civilian targets, and the massive use of napalm – all to terrorise the Korean people into submission. An estimated 4.6 million Koreans, mostly civilians, perished during the war.
A US victory was not to be, however. The Korean people, led by Kim Il Sung and the Korean People’s Army, with the help of the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army, defeated the troops of the USA and the other aggressor nations. The USA was forced to come to the north to sign the Armistice Agreement in Panmunjom. It was a bitter pill to swallow – being defeated for the first time in the 20th Century and by a small Asian nation at that.
In the spirit of revenge-seeking and stubbornly following its own geopolitical interests, the USA has refused ever since to sign a peace treaty to end the Korean War, as stipulated by the terms of the Armistice Agreement, despite the repeated invitations by the DPRK to do so.
Item 60, Article IV of the Armistice Agreement states: “In order to insure the peaceful settlement of the Korean question, the military Commanders of both sides hereby recommend to the governments of the countries concerned on both sides that, within three (3) months after the Armistice Agreement is signed and becomes effective, a political conference of a higher level of both sides be held by representatives appointed respectively to settle through negotiation the questions of the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Korea, the peaceful settlement of the Korean question, etc.”
Ongoing imperialist aggression
Since 27th July, 1953, the USA has done everything possible to maintain its military presence in Korea and keep the Korean War going. On 1st October, 1953, it concluded the US-South Korea Mutual Defence Treaty, which has since become the basis of the continued US military presence in south Korea that is opposed by the vast majority of the Korean people. It is also the basis by which the US/south Korean forces carry out their Key Resolve/Foal Eagle and many other joint military exercises, which now include Britain, as well as Japan, Australia and others, and are aimed at invading the DPRK and imposing regime change.
The USA continues to rebuff all attempts at normalising DPRK–USA relations, including diplomatic resolutions to such issues as the DPRK’s use of nuclear energy and the development of its nuclear deterrent capability, whilst at the same time it maintains and expands its own nuclear weapons in the south. The USA has also increased economic and political sanctions against the DPRK, another form of warfare, as it is doing against other countries that affirm their right to be and refuse to submit to US dictate. The Biden administration continues the disinformation about “human rights violations” in the DPRK in a feeble attempt to divert from its own human rights abuses at home and abroad.
The British government for its part maintains its hostility to the DPRK, following the lead of the USA. On the anniversary of the Armistice Agreement, it shamelessly referred to the US and British aggression as a “war for freedom”. Today the government also follows the USA in promoting the so-called “rules-based international order”, in which it is not international law that prevails but ‘rules’ that are made by and serve the interests of US imperialism. Britain also follows the USA in terming its marauding in the Indo-Pacific region as “enhancing security”, which the government defines as “shifting greater resource to the region and developing nations’ ability to police and protect their waters”.
The British government further shamelessly states: “Two Royal Navy Offshore Patrol Vessels are deployed to the Indo-Pacific on a permanent basis, and in their first year of operation succeeded in enforcing UN sanctions against North Korea, […]. The UK’s Carrier Strike Group will return to the Indo-Pacific in 2025, representing our commitment to exercise the best capabilities our Armed Forces have to offer alongside partners in the region.”
As time goes on, however, the US imperialists and their allies are increasingly isolated in terms of relations with the DPRK. The DPRK’s principled stand in defence of its sovereignty and right to self-determination, and its consistent defence of the Korean nation’s honour, continue to win the support of all humanity who can clearly see who is the aggressor on the Korean Peninsula.
The aim of the USA remains the same today as it was at the end of the Second World War – to occupy the entire Korean Peninsula as a launching pad for its takeover of Asia and then the world. And the US justification for doing so remains as bankrupt as ever. All the attempts of the USA to realise its domination of the region – its occupation of the Korean Peninsula with almost 30,000 troops and its military bases, the ongoing attempts to sabotage the Korean people’s movement for national reunification, and its engineering of puppet regimes in the south – have failed to silence the resolve of the 70 million Koreans who are united in their aspiration for the peaceful, independent reunification of their homeland, free of US imperialist interference.
The anti-war movement
The criminal role of the US imperialists in Korea, from 1945 to the present, has been exposed for the whole world to see, and the resolute struggle of the Korean people for peace and justice, independence and reunification stands as an example for all the peoples of the world aspiring for peace. It is the task that Friends of Korea and all friendship organisations have taken up to tell the truth about the situation on the Korean Peninsula, and patiently explain the contribution that the DPRK is making to peace and stability to the region and its wider implications.
The first demand of the Korean people and all peace- and justice-loving people around the world is that the USA signs a peace treaty with the DPRK to replace the Armistice Agreement and end the Korean War. This would be a major step to stabilise the political situation on the Korean Peninsula and ease tensions. To-date the USA has violated all the terms of the Armistice Agreement since the time it was signed and has constantly rebuffed efforts by the DPRK to normalise relations between the two countries. The DPRK knows first-hand the perfidy and subterfuge of the US imperialists and refuses to participate in “empty talks” that do not advance peace on the Korean Peninsula.
For the people in Britain, it is crucial that the demand be made that Britain make amends for its role in the crimes perpetrated against the Korean people during the Korean War. Furthermore, Britain must immediately end its participation in the illegal naval embargo against the DPRK, which is part of the US-led sanctions regime and an act of war and a crime against the peace, the most serious war crime under international law. Friends of Korea will itself do its work to hold the USA responsible for its crimes on the Korean Peninsula before, during and since the Korean War, and demand that it sign a peace treaty with the DPRK to end the Korean War. For the people, this is a matter of contributing to making sure that another Korean War does not break out and providing every support to the Korean people’s drive to reunify their divided country. It is also a contribution to ensuring peace around the world.
One of the crucial issues about which confusion is spread is that of the danger of nuclear war. Using the nuclear threat as an instrument of negotiations – agree with our terms or else – was a practice introduced by the USA at the time of the criminal bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6th and 9th August 1945. This practice was first heroically rejected by the Korean people in the 1950–1953 Korean War. Subsequently the heroic Vietnamese people did the same in the context of their War of National Liberation.
The USA, together with Britain, are intent on raising hysteria on the nuclear issue to a fever pitch in order to prevent humankind from thinking, from actually assessing the conditions and what these conditions reveal, and so prevent people uniting in favour of peace. The hysteria and disinformation is an attempt to block discussion on what can be done to turn things around in favour of the peoples. To open a path to progress and end the retrogression that the imperialists are pushing onto the peoples of the world, it is crucial to broaden discussions amongst ourselves so as to not permit the campaign of disinformation to be effective.
The conditions given rise to after the Second World War ended with the collapse of the former Soviet Union. That ended the domination of two superpowers and an equilibrium between them based on nuclear deterrence. The so-called unipolar world that they tried to bring into being, with the USA as self-declared indispensable nation, also no longer exists.
The Korean War is an example of seeing where justice prevails. Furthermore, it can be seen that the present defensive measures being taken by the DPRK, far from being the threat to peace that is being claimed by the USA, Britain and others, is a defence against the danger of war, a danger which comes from the criminal striving of the USA for world domination.
The world that the people aspire to is in the grasp of the people’s forces working to make it happen. It can be said that fighting for an anti-war government at home will also be a contribution to ensuring peace on the Korean Peninsula and vice versa. Friends of Korea will certainly continue its work in favour of support and friendship with the DPRK. This is not a narrow aim, but is a component part of bringing into being a world where peace prevails and countries can follow their path of independence, security and sovereignty, without the interference of US imperialism together with Britain and other big powers.
As a result of the Nazi shelling, a member of the Communist Party, war correspondent Rostislav Zhuravlev, was killed. Reportedly, the impact on the film crew was inflicted with prohibited cluster munitions.
Rostislav has always been where it is dangerous. Participated in the Crimean spring and from the very beginning of the events in the Donbass. He was a faithful comrade, a reliable friend, always upholding truth and justice. War, unfortunately, takes the best.
I express my sincere condolences to Lyudmila Zhuravleva, a member of the Central Committee for the Development of the Cross, and the family of Rostislav in connection with the irreparable loss.
Eternal memory to the Hero!
Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennady Zyuganov
“The immediate aim is the demilitarisation of Ukraine, and the removal of the current leadership of Ukraine by any means.” – Boris Litvinov
On 28th May 2023 I met with Boris Litvinov, secretary of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) District of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), in Moscow. His comments are reported below.
“We have spent eight years fighting for the Donetsk People’s Republic with volunteer detachments against the Ukraine Armed Forces (UAF).
“The Western Powers cynically used the Minsk and Normandy negotiations to buy time for Ukraine to build up its armed forces, and in 2021 Zelensky declared his intention to reoccupy the Donbas.
“After 17th February 2022 shelling of the Donbas by the UAF greatly increased, and on 18th February the mass evacuation of children from the war zone to the Russian Federation began.
“The UAF launched an attack with 60,000 troops, and the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s militias had to defend along a border of 476 kilometres with a force of 27,000.
“We realised that we had to defend our self-determination and independence with our lives. Faced with this situation, the Donbas republics appealed to the vice president of the Russian Federation for military assistance.
“The Kiev regime still controlled 35 per cent of the DPR. We forget that for the UAF reoccupying all of the DPR was symbolic, as this is where the ‘Antimaidan’ movement began in 2014.
“The DPR is 96 per cent urbanised, it has a strong community spirit and strong ties with Russia. We feel that it is a part of Russia.
“Before 1860 there was no industry in Donetsk. The Welsh engineer John Hughes was invited by the Czarist government and founded the city of Donetsk in 1870. Some of the factories he built there are still operating today.
“There is no history of conflict between the Christian, Russian Orthodox, Jewish or Buddhist communities in Donetsk, and there has always been a strong sense of unity amongst the population.
“During 20 years of Nazification Russophobia has spread to the whole of Ukrainian society, from primary school education onwards.
“Only this month (May 2023), Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, at a meeting with Zelensky in Kiev, publicly praised the death of Russians in the current conflict, saying that US support for the war in Ukraine was ‘the best money we’ve ever spent…and the Russians are dying’.
“It will take at least 15 years for this anti-Russian mentality in Ukraine to change, requiring a complete transformation of education and the media.
“In our view the immediate aim in the current war is the de-militarisation of Ukraine, and the removal of the current leadership of Ukraine, by any means.
“On May Day this year an exhibition was held in a park in Donetsk City on international solidarity with the Donbas republics, with photos from the UK, USA, Ireland, Italy, Germany and other countries.
“At the Havana Conference of Communist and Workers’ Parties in November 2022, general secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine Pyotr Simonenko stated that the current war is not a Ukrainian war, but a world war about the shape of the global order and said that our noble task is to preserve the Russian nation.
“The plan for Western imperialism is to solve the so-called ‘Russian problem’. If Russia is eliminated, the imperialists plan to replace it with multiple states governed by fascist regimes. This is the only way in which imperialism would be able to control such a vast country.
“Today many socialists and communists around the world are together with Russia, but in future they may move in different directions, so there is a necessity for a left turn in Russia. We believe that only socialism can provide the opportunity to restructure and rebuild such a large country.
“For several years the CPRF has upheld the slogan ‘save the Russian world’ – ‘the Russian Mir’.
“At the CPRF central committee on 27th May 2023 it was decided that it was necessary to fight for a Soviet world in Russia, as well as for all other national groups of the former Soviet Union. This was the first time such a goal was stated at a CPRF CC meeting.”
Act of Defiance 