The aggressive activities of the American and NATO’s militarists in Iraq and expanding hotbed of war in the Middle East have again vividly demonstrated to the whole humanity that in the contemporary world it is imperialism that has always been and remains now the main source of wars and international conflicts, that is is imperialism from which stems a menace of a new world conflagration.

It is becoming more and more evident that the collapse of the Soviet Union and socialist camp have led not to normalising international situation and ceasing the “cold war”, of which hastened to declare the spokesmen of the regime of the restoration of capitalism and the supporters of the so-called “democratic values” but to sharp aggravating of aggressiveness of imperialism and primarily that of American imperialism, to the real menace of turning Russa and East European countries into semi-colonies of imperialist powers, to arising tens of new and preserving old hotbeds of war threatening the international peace and security.

All the centenarian history of imperialism as the last stage of capitalism is full of dirt and blood and this is especially related to modern imperialism. Fascism and militarism, colonialism and neocolonialism, two world wars, nuclear bombardments which reduced to ashes Hiroshima and Nagasaki, countless bloody regional wars and conflicts, deadly arms-race imposed on mankind including that of weapons of mass destruction, orgy of militarism, chauvinism, reaction and political obscurantism such is the list (and it is far from being complete) of grave crimes of imperialism against humanity.
V.I. Lenin and J.V. Stalin have repeatedly pointed out that imperialism by the very virtue of its economic traits as monopoly capitalism is striving for division and redivision of the world, for expansion and conquest. Nowadays, intoxicated by victories and successes in its struggle against world socialism and as if being afraid to lose the favourable moment the imperialist superpower – the USA is feverishly intensifying its efforts to reach for world domination. It is by willpower of American strategists that the NATO military machine is now drawn up to the Western frontiers of Russia, that the Ukraine, Moldavia, the Baltic countries, the countries of Trans-Caucasus and of Middle Asia are involved in the “NATO partnership” and it is not only in dreams but already as of quite realistic objective to reach do these newly born successors of German fascism and Japanese militarism think now of making “independent from Russia” the Northern Caucasus, the Urals, the Far East and Siberia, the lands of Arkhangelsk and Kaliningrad regions…

The American imperialists are quite aware that only a new socialist revolution in Russia and the revival of the Soviet Union can create an insurmountable barrier on the way of realising their Messiah’s designs in the East. Russis of Yeltsin and capitalist restorers has humbly bent its knees before American imperialism. Being stupefied by the democratic intoxication it has become tied up with global agreements, has gravitated towards the position of a marionette of international neocolonialism and continues to thoughtlessly waste its natural resources. That kind of Russa is fully suitable for American imperialism and that is why there comes from Washington aqn all-round support for Yeltsin’s reformes, aimed at strenghening the dictatorship of capitalist restoration in the person of bourgeois-nomenclatura mafia elite and at preventing socialist revolution.

The arrows of imperialism and mainly of American expansion are also aimed at the socialist China. This powerfull country with 1.3 billion population and mighty military-industrial potential, the power aspiring to XXI century and challenging the domination of American capital has become after the collapse of the Soviet Union probably the main target of the US imperailism. Exactly as it was in the Soviet Union there exists for many years a “fifth Column” which was raised by the American imperialism and which is plotting now to undermine the leading role of the Communist Party of China in building socialism with Chinese characteristics, to puch China away from the road of socialism and to put it on the road of capitalist restoration. The American imperialism is also carrying on subversive activities against the DPRK and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, against the beacon of socialism in Latin America – the heroic Cuba enduring for more than 35 years constantly tightening economic blockade on the part of the US.

Imperialism has created and is trying to strengthen the system of neocolonial oppression, exploitation and plunder of peoples of Asia, Africa and Lation America. A gap in the level of economic development between the North and the South is disastrously widening. Hundreds of million of people in India, Nigeria, Brazil and other countries of the three continents are continuing to live in astonishing poverty. Economical and political crises are shaking South Korea and Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan which were quite recently considered “tigers” of capitalism in Asia. To keep the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America under the heel of neociolonialism, imperialism is busy with enlarging the system of its military bases there, establishing its spheres of “special interests”, driving the developing countries into arms race, stirring up hatred and military conflicts among them, using against them all means from inexhaustible arsenal of neocolonialist strategy.

All the contemporary history confirms the correctness of V.I. Lenin’s conclusion to the effect that militarism is a characteristic and an inalienable feature of imperialism. In analyzing the merging of the power of monopolies with the capitalist state and the formation of state monopoly capitalism on this basis V.L. Lenin noted its aggressive and predatory character. In our time there exists the whole international system of state monopoly capitalism which is characterised by a high dergree of aggressiveness, unrestrained war preperations and constant infringements of the rights of sovereign status and peoples.

In spite of the destruction of the Soviet Union and the collapse of military-strategic balances in the world the US are planning a considerable increase of its military budget for a decade to come, are radically modernizing their armed forces, keep threatening the world with nuclear weapons, are building up a vast aniti-missile defence system covering all the US territory, are trying to seize the dominant positions in the space and in the world ocean. Having arbitrarily assumed the functions of international policemen the American imperialism is more and more often resorts to using force in strategically vital regions of the world, for instance in the Persian Gulf and in the Balkans, striving to put its contral the main powr and raw material resources of the planet. Everywhere in the world the American expansion is invarably combined with a widely publicized US state strategy directed at spreading the so-called “American democracy” as allegedly based on the respect for basic human rights and freedoms. But in reality it happens that any bourgeois democracy wether American or of other type has obviously quite a limited, hypocritical and mendacious nature. As V.I. Lenin pointed out, the capitalists “under the guise of high-flown words about democracy, freedom etc. are in fact busy with strengthening the private property of capitalists and landlords, establishing the domination of a handful of the rich who are dividing all the globe and fighting with each other for its redivision, for enslavement of the hundreds of million weaker and more backward peoples”. (V.I. Lenin, “Complete Works”, vol 45, p. 209). No wonder therefore that it is under the guise of the slogans of bourgeois democracy and other doubtful values of “Western civilisation” that the imperialist powers are now trying “to master” the enormous national riches of the Soviet Union while carrying on an embittered struggle with each other for the division of “the Soviet inheritance”.

It is quite clear, that the collapse of the Soviet Union has considerably slowed down the process of bringing capitalism, in accordance with the objective laws of history, to its inevitable downfall. But the general crisis of capitalism is continuing and is manifesting itself both in the economy an d in the policy of the world capitalist system. The achievements of socialism which are preserved in the People’s Republic of China, the DPRK, the SRV and in Cuba serously narrowing thereby the sphere of capitalist domination, the sharpening of the contradictions between the labour and the capital in the majority of capitalist countreis including the USA, the growing symptoms of crisis in their economy, national-liberation and anti-imperialstic movements of the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America, which often acquire the forms of an open armed struggle against oppression and exploitation and at last the sharpening of the contradicitions between imperialist powers and their groupings headed by the USA, Germany an Japan – such are today the main signs of the continuing genereal, comprehensive crisis of the world capitalist system.

In order to find the way out of the crisis imperialism resorts to abominable crimes against humanity, to policy of aggression, violence and genocide, carries on merciless and sophisticated political, ideological, informational and psychological war against the forces of progress, democracy and socialism. All this is also true as far as the newly born Russian imperialism is concerned. The Russian imperialism has declared about its existence by the bloody war in the Chechen republic, by the genocide of its own people, by the attempts to establish its own spheres of influence under the guise of integration in the so-called “near abroad”, by the actual encouragement of NATO’s enlargin to the East, by collaborationg with the USA in the policy of sanctions against Iraq, Yugoslavia and Libya, by failure to support anti-imperialist movements in Asia, Africa and Latin America, by actual support of Turkey which is carrying on the policy of genocide with regards to the liberation movement of the Kurds, by collaboration with the USA in supporting Israel in its policy of boycotting the establishment of an independent Palestinian State. In the light of such a “service record” of unseemly activities of the Yeltsin’s regime it is not by chance that the most inpudent spokesmen of the American imperialism are nowadays assigning to Russia the role or a supplier of cannon fodder in the possible war of imperialism against socialist China.

The century which has passed since the time when capitalism has reached its last stage – the stage of imperialism – this is the century of never subsiding and dedicated struggle of the peoples against its predatory policy, against all the disgusting system of exploitation and national-colonial oppression, created by imperialism. The first world war unleashed by imperialism has provoked a wide anti-war movement in particular in Europe. In Russia Lenin’s slogan of turning the imperialist war in to a civil war, into a war against one’s own governments has played an enormous role in the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution. During the 1930s when the menace of fascism hanged over the world the People’s Front of the struggle against the fascist aggressions was created on the initiative of the Communist International. The victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War has led to the mighty upheaval of peoples’ democratic movement and to the establishment of socialist order in the countries of Eastern Europe. In China the national-liberation war against Japanese aggressors has turned into a peoples’ revolution which was crowned in October 1949 by establishing People’s Republic of China. During 60-70-ies under the blows of national-liberation movement, receiving an all-round support on the part of the USSR, PRC and other socialist countries there collapsed the colonial system of imperialism.

At the present time, in the period of temporary defeat of socialism in the USSR, Eastern Europe and Mongolia the developing of the struggle or the peoples against imperialism and neocolonialism is of extraordinary and urgent importance. It is also clear that one can curb imperialism, the main force blocking the road of progress of the humanity, only by strenghening the alliance of the three main revolutionary forces of the modern times: the socialist countries, the internationalst communist and working class movement and the national-liberation movement, fighting nowadays against the system of neocolonial enslavement, created by imperialism. It is important that the movement against the aggressive policy of imperialism should be joined by all the peoples of our planet. Incidentally it is necessary to take into consideration the possibility that, as J.V. Stalin pointed out, under certain conditions and under certain coincidence of circumstances the struggle for peace, against imperialism could outgrow into a struggle for socialism, for overthrowing capitalism (“Collected Works” vol. 16 p. 179).

“Imperialism is the eve of the socialst revolution.” This precise wording of V.I. Lenin (“Complete Works” vol 27, p. 301) means that the whole system of capitalism is in principle ripe since long time ago for the socialist revolution. It is true however that indispensable condition of success of any socialist revolution should be the leading role of a communist party and what’s more a communist party of Bolshevik type, a party free from disease of revisionism and opportunism. Correspondingly the problem of fighting revisionism and opportunism in the international communist and working class movement to get rid of revisionism and opportunism whether or not it could play the role assigned to it by history that is the role of the main moving and leading force in the struggle of peoples against imperialism, for socialism and peace. And in this connection it would be quite appropriate to also quote the following precise wordings of V.I. Lenin: “The struggle with imperialism without the struggle and rupture with opportunism is a deception” (“Complete Works”, vol. 28, p. 218), “The struggle against imperialism, not inseparably linked with the struggle against opportunism is either empty words or a deception” (“Complete Works”, vol. 30, p.p. 156-157).

It is well known that the leading party of the revisionst bloc of the Union of the Communist Parties-Communist party of the Soviet Union (the UCP-CPSU) acting on the USSR territory that is, the Zyuganovite Communist Party of the Russian Federation (the CPRF) has from the very beginning taken the road of open collaboration with the anti-people regime of Yeltsin, and nowadays it has in fact turned into an integral part of this very regime of capitalist restoration. The analysis of the programme of the documents of the CPRF’s opportunist leadership as well as Zyuganov’s speeches and pseudo-scientific works show that the class Marxist-Leninist approach to the appraisal of the characteristic features and tendencies of world development is replaced in them by bourgeois theories of “the genesis of civilisations” and of “modern geopolitics” which deny the very basis of Marxist-Leninist science – that is, the teaching of the inevitability of the change of social formations and the victory of the proletarian revolution. And it is not by chance that in his speeches and works Zyuganov simply ignores Lenin’s theory of imperialism. For instance, in his recently published book, “The Geography of Victory: The Basic Elements of Russian Geopolitics” (Moscow, 1997) Zyuganov maintains that the true reason for the origin of the two world wars was not inter-imperialist contradictions but simply the “lack of skill and desire of certain forces to play according to the rules” (p. 243). As far as Zyuganov’s words are concerned, when he says that “Russia has reached its limits as far as revolutionary uprisings are concerned”, they can justly be considered as belonging to the classics of modern revisionism and opportunism.

Zyuganov and his supporters do not recognise the Leninist-Stalinist theory of the general crisis of capitalism, they are out to improve the looks of the social and economic situation in the notorious “civilised” capitalist countries and ignore the imperialist character of the policy of the Yeltsinites in the “near abroad”. Indeed, the CPRF leader takes at face value the “patriotic” phraseology of Yeltsin-Primakov diplomacy. Meanwhile it is under the guise of this phraseology that Yeltsin’s regime is conniving at NATO’s approaching the frontiers of Russia, is pointedly abstainin,g from initiating consideration in the UN Security Council of the question of removing the sanctions against Iraq, is constantly striving for ratification of the SALT-2 Treaty by the State Duma, is consequently carrying on the policy of “partnership” and “strategic cooperation” with American imperialism and, as follows from his message of February 17, 1998 to the Federal Assembly, is perfectly ready to “swallow” even the American bombings of Iraq.
The opportunism of Zyuganov’s CPRF and the revisionist bloc of the UCP-CPSU as a whole is only one of many other manifestations of this injurious phenomenon in the international communist and working class movement. Unfortunately we have to note the continuing domination and the strengthening of the positions of opportunism in the communist movement of the majority of countries of Western Europe, where it is not a rare thing for the “communist parties” to be directly transformed into parties of a social democratic type. (Italy, France etc.) In India both “communist” parties acting there, one of them calling itself “Marxist-Leninist”, have been collaborating with the ruling regime and the comprador bourgeois circles of that country for a long time. Some of the Communist parties in Europe and Asia still have not yet succeeded in getting rid of anti-Stalinism.

Opportunism is manifesting itself in some of the activities of the Communist Party of China, for example in the CPC refusal to follow in practice the principle of proletarian internationalism because of fear of being accused of interfering in the internal affairs of other countries. Let’s remember in this connection that even as far back as the 1950s Mao Zedong warned the CPC about the menace of opportunism in the following words: “Even after the basic victory of our socialist revolution, there will still be a number of people in our society who vainly hope to restore the capitalist system and who are sure to fight the working class on every front, including the ideological one. And their right-hand men in this struggle are the revisionists.” (Collected Works, vol. V, pages 411-412).

It is clear enough that such a situation in the communist and working-class movement is seriously aggravating the struggle against imperialism. But it is this very circumstance that demands from genuine Marxist-Leninist parties that they constantly expose opportunism and revisionism as accomplices of capitalism-imperialism.

During the last years the struggle of peoples against imperialism has been considerably increased. One of the most important directions of this struggle has become demonstrations by the working people of a lot of countries, including the USA, against militarism and the policy of preparing for war. Everywhere in the world there are mass actions of protest against the aggressive activities of the American militarists with regard to Iraq and the presence of US troops in the Persian Gulf, against the shameful American economic blockade of Cuba and the provocative actions of US imperialism against the DPRK. In Europe there took place mass demonstrations of working people against the interference of the imperialist powers in the affairs of Yugoslavia and Albania. In Asia, the struggle of the peoples against the policy of neocolonialism does not subside, including the struggle against the activities of the IMF and the World Bank aimed at subverting the independence of the sovereign states. The peoples of the Asian continent are resolutely protesting against the strengthening of the American-Japanese military alliance, demand the cessation of the policy of genocide carried out by Turkey with regard to the Kurds, condemn the formation of the Turkish-American-Israeli military alliance, the attempts of imperialism to prevent the creation of an independent Palestinian state, the continued provocative attempts of imperialism in the area of Taiwan and Kashmir. In Africa the wave of people’s wrath has put an end to the rotten neocolonalist regime of Mobutu. In Latin America there have been wider demonstrations of the peoples against capitalism-imperialism in Brazil and Mexico, Argentina and Peru.

In November 1995 on the initiative of the revolutionary Marxist-Leninist party the Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI), the Anti-Imperialist Congress was held in Calcutta, and it established the All-India Anti-Imperialist Forum and adopted the Calcutta Declaration, appealing for the formation of a broad Front of Struggle against Imperialism throughout the world. Moreover the Declaration directly stressed the revolutionary importance of the struggle of the peoples for peace, against imperialism and consequently the necessity for linking this with the struggle for the liberation of working people.
In November 1997 in Calcutta, the All-India Anti-Imperialist Forum was held which appealed to all peace-loving and democratic forces of the world to unite and give impetus to the creating an anti-imperialist movement of all the peoples in the face of the growing aggressiveness of American imperialism and the main military bloc of imperialism – NATO. It is characteristic that the leitmotif of the speeches at the forum, in which more than a thousand representatives from SUCI from the majority of regions of India took part, were the slogans of allegiance to the teachings of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao Zedong, appeals to carry on a constant struggle against opportunism and revisionism in the international communist and working class movement. It is worth noting that soon after establishing the All-India Anti-Imperialist Forum, the same kind of forum was established in Germany, with branches in Cologne, Hannover and some other cities. Work is being carried on to establish anti-imperialist forums in the Netherlands, Luxembourg and some other countries of Asia.

The problems and tasks of the struggle against imperialism have always been at the centre of attention of the AUCPB. They have been considered in detail, in particular in the informational and analytical survey of the Secretariat of the AUCPB Central Committee, “The world revolutionary process and urgent questions of the struggle against imperialism, opportunism and national chauvinism” adopted by the second congress of the AUCPB (February 1996) in “The foreign policy platform of the AUCPB (November 1992) and in the “platform of the AUCPB on the national question” (March 1994), in the Statements of the AUCPB Central Committee: “Say no to anti-communism in intenational affairs” (November 1992), “For unity of action in the struggle against imperialist diktat and the threat of a new world war!” (July 1993), “On the imperialist essence and anti-popular aims of the ‘strategic partnership’ between the USA, NATO and Russia” (December 1993), “On the integration of Russia into the military, political and economic structures of imperialism” (July 1994), “On the bankruptcy of the foreign policy of the ruling circles of Russia” (December 1994), “Should our Motherland be under the heel of neo-colonialists?” (July 1995), in the informational-analytical documents of the Secretariat of the Central Committee, “The traitors to the socialist motherland at the steering wheel of the foreign policy of Russia” (November 1996), in the statement of the CC of the AUCPB “Let’s rebuff the destroyers of our socialist Motherland and revive the Soviet Union!” (March 1997). The AUCPB Central Committee has regularly been publishing statments on the situation in the Middle East, in the Balkans, in Africa, and in Latin America appealing to the Soviet people to use all forms of protest against the aggressive actions of imperialism in different regions of the world.

In March 1996 in the light of the fact that imperialism has sharply intensified its aggressive actions against the PRC, the DPRK, the SRV and Cuba, the AUCPB Central Committee has issued the statement “Hands off the socialist countries!”, appealing to the world public opinion, to all the peace-loving forces to raise their voices against the interference of imperialism in the internal affairs of these countries which serve as a bulwark of peace and progress on our planet. The AUCPB has also appealed to the leaders of the socialist countries to unify their efforts and to coordinate their actions in order to frustrate the plans of American imperialism which is out to finally scatter the community of socialist countries, to liquidate the socialist countries – the vanguard of the international communist and working class movement. The AUCPB has expressed firm solidarity with the peoples of China, Korea, Cuba and Vietnam which are standing on the front line of the struggle against imperialism.

At the present time the AUCPB is contributing to the anti-imperialist movement mainly by our struggle for the revival of the Soviet Union as a voluntary union of free peoples and a mighty bulwark of peace, democracy and socialism. We also intend henceforth to play an active role within the international communist and working-class movement, including on the direction of the struggle against imperialism and those who support it – opportunism and revisionism.

The AUCPB confirms our solidarity with the peoples and countries of the continents, fighting against imperialist encroachments on their freedom and independence, for peace and socialism. We are convinced that only all-world anti-imperialist front of peoples can ward off the threat of a new world war resulting from the aggressive policy of imperialism.

We, the Bolsheviks, will always remember the words of J.V. Stalin: “To eliminate the inevitability of wars, it is necessary to put an end to imperialism (“Collected Works”, volume 16, page 179).
Down with imperialism – the most wicked enemy of humanity, the plague of the XX century!
Down with opportunism and revisionism in the communist and working-class movement!

Long live the unity of the actions of the working people of all countries in the struggle against imperialism, neo-colonialism, for peace, freedom and socialism!

Adopted by the February-March 1998 plenary session of the AUCPB Central Committee

Leningrad, February 28, 1998