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Source in Spanish: https://proletariosrevolucionarios.blogspot.com/2022/03/sobre-el-derrotismo-revolucionario-y-el.html

“International proletarian class struggle against international imperialist genocide is the socialist commandment of the hour.
The main enemy of every people is in their own country! […]
An end to genocide!
Proletarians of all countries […] Ally yourselves to the international class struggle against the conspiracies of secret diplomacy, against imperialism, against war, for peace within the socialist spirit!”
−Karl Liebknecht (May 1915). The Main Enemy Is At Home!

Introduction

To begin, and to make it clear upon which grounds the incidents and the present article are developing, the question must be answered: why is Russia invading Ukraine? To take over its geopolitically strategic position, its natural resources, its industrial and commercial infrastructure and its collective labor force. To expand its market and its power as a decadent imperialist power on the plane of world capitalism, with the USA/NATO as its main adversary and China as its main ally. (Yes, Russia is capitalist and imperialist… from the days of the USSR until now.) To revive its economy in crisis or to compensate for the decline in its rate of profit through the war industry, exploiting workers or extracting surplus value from them on the production front and murderously disposing of surplus proletarians on the military front. In fact, the repartition of the world during an imperialist war is, in the backdrop, the repartition of world surplus value between national and regional bourgeoisie – Eurasian and Western bourgeoisie, in this case – through the worldwide exploitation and massacre of the working class. (Although, on the other hand, every war is very expensive and cannot be maintained for long). And, above all, to prevent new revolts and insurrections of the exploited and oppressed in the territories under its dominion: together with the repressive state administration of the health crisis, this war is a key piece of the ongoing preventive counterrevolution, especially after the worldwide revolt of 2019. In synthesis: there is no capitalism without imperialism, without crisis and without war; and every imperialist war is always a war against the proletariat.

Having said this, now we can really ground the preceding quote of the historical comrade Liebknecht upon the current global situation: it means that the most forceful and effective way to fight and topple the imperialist war between Russia and Ukraine/NATO “from below” is through the struggle of the proletarians of the Russian region against their own Russian bourgeoisie and through the struggle of the proletarians of the Ukrainian region against their own Ukrainian bourgeoisie. As a comrade from the Mexican region says, “proletarians marching against Kiev and Moscow alike”.

Firstly this implies the proletarians in uniform, or soldiers of both countries at war: may they stop shooting and killing their class brothers “on the other side” of the national border imposed by the capitalist class, may they disobey the orders of their bourgeois officers and generals, and rather point their weapons against them to defend their own lives. If we say so, it’s because it happened before in this type of historical situation (world wars and civil wars).

To go further still, it implies that the proletarians in uniform of both countries fraternize and join together amongst themselves, that they desert the military ranks, hand-in their arms to the proletarians without uniform in the streets, and participate together in a wave of self-organized protests and general strikes through workers’ assemblies and councils that attack, paralyze and subvert capitalist social relations on all fronts (from the production front to the military front); that’s to say, to make an insurrection that contributes, by its own means, to the communization of life in those territories.

Taking into consideration the latest revolts, strikes and protests in this region of the planet (e.g. Kazakhstan this year, Donbass in 2021, Belarus in 2020, Ukraine itself in 2014, etc.), that is what the bourgeois rulers of both Russia and Ukraine are really afraid of, and that is why they wage war.

Or, failing that, it implies mass demonstrations against the war and the recruitment for it, like those that are already taking place and being repressed in both countries. As well as expressions of internationalist class solidarity, which also have been appearing against this war.

Anyway, all this is, in practice, what is known as revolutionary defeatism, which is the historical and invariant position of internationalist communists and anarchists towards imperialist war, as a product of the tough experience of millions of proletarians in the two World Wars.

Revolutionary defeatism against and beyond all nationalism and militarism. Theory and practice

Why defeatism? Because it is in favor of the defeat of both Nation-states at war. Why revolutionary? Because it is in favor of the international proletarian revolution. So, neither Russia nor Ukraine/NATO: revolutionary defeatism.

That is what the motto “neither war between peoples nor peace between classes” means concretely now. Although in the present historical context it is more complex than in the historical context in which it was formulated, it also means “to transform imperialist war into class war”… in order to abolish social classes: dialectically speaking, only in this way, through the inevitable revolutionary violence against capitalist violence and its accomplice that is citizen pacifism, can there be real peace among human beings, once the violent class society is abolished and the real human community is established worldwide. This is the peace we socialists, communists or revolutionary anarchists are fighting for.

Contradictory? Yes indeed, because the reality of capitalism and class struggle is contradictory. Contradictions that must be assumed in order to solve or overcome them in a revolutionary way, since both capitalist development and class struggle produce the elements of and tendencies towards the abolition of class society and the gestation of the real human community. Elements and tendencies which remain latent throughout the most of historical times, but which become visible in exceptional but decisive revolutionary situations.

Now, first of all, it is necessary to recognize the position of weakness our proletarian class, as a real, autonomous, and antagonistic movement against the State/Capital, finds itself in around the whole world and therefore just as much in the Russian and Ukrainian regions. A weakness that makes it inevitable that the proletarians in uniform in these regions kill each other, and that the proletarians without uniform do not yet possess the real social force to defeat the war from within. Because, under the effect of the drug of nationalism or patriotism and, above all, because of their present weakness as an autonomous and antagonistic class, they support their respective national bourgeoisie, meaning their class bosses and executioners.

But we should not give up because of this temporarily adverse situation, and much less betray our fundamental positions against imperialist war, such as revolutionary defeatism and proletarian internationalism – positions which, by the way, are the product of the historical and international experience of struggle of our own class –, in favor of false concretions and “tactical” urgencies which in reality only benefit our class enemy, the international bourgeoisie, although it disguises itself as an “ally against fascism and imperialism”.

So at least two things need to be clear. First, in such unfavorable situations these revolutionary positions take on a character that is defensive of the immediate living conditions of the proletarians, which is to say of their own lives against the death machine that is war. And secondly, history shows that the attacks and wars of the capitalist class can produce unexpected or surprising counterattacks by the proletarian class, which can even turn into revolution or, at least, into revolt. In both cases, it is a matter of hundreds of thousands of proletarians defending and materially transforming their lives without intermediaries or representatives of any kind.

In other words, however defensive they have to be in unfavorable circumstances, if proletarian internationalism and revolutionary defeatism do not translate into autonomous class actions with the capacity to alter the real balance of forces, then they are nothing more than abstract and even delirious mottos (like those of a certain Caribbean leftist character who sees “proletarian insurrections” everywhere and constantly issues “revolutionary military instructions”).

However, this does not depend on the will or even the activity of the revolutionary organizations and militants, but on the present material conditions of exploitation, division, disorganization, repression and capitalist alienation in which we proletarians find ourselves as a class all over the world. Therefore, only the unfolding of the ongoing capitalist catastrophe and the real class struggle can alter the present balance of forces or create the objective and subjective conditions for a revolutionary situation… or not.

In spite of all this, it is up to us revolutionary minorities of the proletariat to uphold and arouse our fundamental positions against the current, wherever and however we can, as a living memory and consciousness that our immediate needs as exploited and oppressed persons are at heart inseparable from our need for social revolution as a human species, not only to live a life worthy of being called so – as opposed to the daily war and living death we have under capitalism – but also to save ourselves or cease to die as we do in these times. Yes indeed, because it is the life of our species and our planet that is at stake. And this applies to both current and future war conflicts.

Therefore, the internationalist and revolutionary defeatist appeals against the war do indeed make sense and are useful. But more meaningful and useful are the direct actions against the war by the proletarians of the Russian and Ukrainian regions.

Therefore, we must be attentive to actions of this nature and their evolution on the part of the proletarians living in both countries. Actions which are already taking place (protests against the war) and which will probably take place (desertions from military ranks, fraternization and joint struggle of proletarians with and without uniform, etc.), done not only because of the agitation against the imperialist war by the communist and anarchist minorities active in those regions, but principally [done by people] to save their own lives and the ones of those closest to them, that’s to say for their immediate material needs, since every passing day the war is massacring them without mercy (the news and images in this respect are of gore and horror).

As revolutionaries of other countries, we must be vigilant and be in solidarity with such actions when they take place, not only by translating them, spreading them and making them visible, but also by fighting against the bourgeoisie of “our own” countries; meaning internationalizing the proletarian struggle against imperialist war, because the isolation of such actions will inevitably lead them to defeat, and because the bourgeoisie of all countries always take sides in favor of one imperialist bloc in a war or another, not only through public statements, but by sending soldiers from their countries to that great slaughterhouse, as it happened during this century in Iraq, Syria, Haiti, etc. In that case, it would also be necessary to fight against the support of “our own” States for this war, by denouncing it, boycotting it and sabotaging it as much as possible. This is what proletarian internationalism and revolutionary defeatism on part of the anti-capitalists of other countries would imply, in practice in the present world situation.

And if not for that reason, it will be for a reason like global inflation or the increase in the prices of basic products caused by the war, which will immediately and directly affect the pockets and stomachs of proletarians everywhere. Thus, “if they globalize misery, we globalize resistance”: if they globalize hunger, we globalize protest. Only the struggle of the international proletariat can defeat the international imperialist genocide.

In short: this is a worldwide class struggle and not a struggle of nations; therefore, from the anti-capitalist and internationalist perspective, against the barbarity of the wars of capitalism the key is to practice class solidarity in all places and on all fronts or, in other words, to self-constitute proletarian communities of struggle in the heat of the struggle against all States, markets, homelands and other false communities (national, ethnic, cultural, identitarian, political, religious, etc.) of global Capital, not because of this or that leftist or ultra-leftist ideology, but because of a concrete vital necessity.

Proletarian internationalism against and beyond the false antagonisms of anti-fascism and anti-imperialism. Theory and practice

“Democracy and fascism aren’t opposed, but rather they are complimentary; be it in an alternating manner or in unison. […] it’s attempted to subject the proletariat to the alternative between fascism and antifascism, obstructing any anticapitalist route whatsoever. […]
The function of Social Democracy […] is that of deviating the struggles of the proletariat from their historical objective of class emancipation and, therefore, anti-capitalism, in order to drive them to the defense of bourgeois democracy. It’s necessary to prepare the altar of the sacred [national] antifascist unity of all classes, in order to proceed to carry out all the “necessary” sacrifices […].
Anti-fascism is the most serious consequence of fascism. It replaces the revolutionary ALTERNATIVE CAPITALISM/COMMUNISM, for the (always bourgeois) option DEMOCRACY/FASCISM. […]
Social Democrats, reformists, populists, nationalists of all homelands and statists of all stripes will come to implore us to give up the fight, to abandon our principles, to forget our demands, to accept our defeat before the combat begins.
And they will try to take the lead in any movement that may arise, to divert it, denaturalize it and defeat it. […]
The alternative is not fascism or anti-fascism, because both defend the capitalist system, while deceiving us with a false confrontation.”
−Agustín Guillamón (December 2018). Fascism and antifascism

Another implication of proletarian internationalism in practice is not to become entangled in the false antagonism “democracy vs. fascism” which, by the way, is part of the false antagonism “anti-fascist Russia vs. Yankee imperialism”, and which is proper to the progressive bourgeoisie and historical Social Democracy, that is to say, proper to the left of Capital. A false antagonism which, by the way, the capitalist-imperialist bellicose Putin discursively manipulates and with which the Stalinists and even some pro-Russian “anarchists” rail against “Ukrainian Nazi-fascism” and “Yankee imperialism”, from the “People’s Republics” of Donetsk and Lugansk (Donbass) to the Marxist-Leninist and anti-fascist organizations of Chile and Ecuador.

But it is not the only international power bloc to do so. Just like the meme of several Spidermen accusing each other, U.S. bourgeois press and its international chorus-leaders and Donbass separatists-populists point the finger at each other in consonance and some Ukrainian “anarchists”, like the good democrats they are, also accuse Putin’s regime of being “fascist”, associating him with Hitler and even calling him “Putler”.

In short, both capitalist-imperialist blocs currently at war boast of being “the savior of democracy” and accuse their opponent of being “a fascist monster”. Thus justifying their warmongering and raving about repeating the “glorious” times of World War II. Enough to realize that “democracy vs. fascism” is a false antagonism or better said an inter-bourgeois and inter-imperialist war where proletarians are nothing but cannon fodder.

Why is it – and always has been – a false antagonism? Because fascism and democracy are two sides of the same coin: capitalism. On the one hand, as a socio-political system based on mercantile freedom and equality between proprietors-citizens, democracy is and can only be capitalist (to say “workers’, socialist, direct democracy, etc.” is like saying “virgin granny” or decaffeinated coffee), capitalist society is the generalized mercantile society and, therefore, democratic. Moreover, in democracy the bourgeois State persecutes, represses, it jails, tortures and murders rebellious proletarians. On the other hand, fascism is also and can only be capitalist, because it is the most authoritarian, brutal and ruthless historical-political form of defending the Capital-State or when the class dictatorship of the bourgeoisie simply takes off its mask and shows up for what it really is.

Historically, when the bourgeoisie stopped using democracy to combat the advance of the struggle of the proletariat, then it resorted to fascism… and vice versa. Logically, although they are not the same in the form nor in the intensity of the violence exercised by the State of the rich and powerful over the exploited and oppressed, in essence they are the same or, to use a vivid phrase, democracy and fascism are two tentacles of the same octopus: the social dictatorship of Capital over proletarianized humanity all over the world. Therefore, like the left and the right, democracy and fascism are not opposites, they are complementary.

It should also be mentioned that fascism only existed as a specific political regime, financed by industrial and bank capital, during the first half of the twentieth century in Europe; while today, although it survives internationally as a current of Capital’s far-right, this term is used lightly and even as a political fetish by leftists everywhere, especially by anti-fascists. This trivializes it, but it is not at all innocent: the left of Capital opposes fascism and not democracy because it defends the latter, it is democrat; or better said, because it is social-democratic or reformist, even if it calls itself “Marxist” (various Leninists) or “anarchist” (liberal anarchists).

On the contrary, we as communists and revolutionary anarchists have always denounced and fought against the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie that is called democracy (being anti-capitalist implies, therefore, being anti-democratic), as well as its other face which is fascism. Always keeping in mind that the enemy is capitalism in any of its forms or variants, not fascism. We fight with intransigence both fascists and democrats because both are capitalists. That is why only Social Democrats of all kinds are yelling at us, accusing us of “playing into the hands of fascism” or flatly slander us communists and radical anarchists as “fascists”. And for this very reason they are false critics of capitalism, who must also be denounced and fought as such.

The same applies to anti-imperialism which, generally, is only against U.S. imperialism – its political fetish – but not against the imperialism of other powers such as Russia or China, to which it ends up subordinating itself, under the pretext that these are “socialist”, which is completely false because they were and are capitalist. Another false antagonism. The point is that anti-imperialism as such only fights against Yankee imperialism, for “national liberation” and the “self-determination of the oppressed peoples” of the “Third World”; that is, it fights for a new capitalist Nation-State with a “socialist” mask, in order to exploit and dominate the proletariat at home “in better conditions” and to compete “in better conditions” with other equally capitalist Nation-States. For this reason, the ideologies of anti-imperialism and national liberation are not only reformist, but counterrevolutionary.

On the contrary, the revolutionary communists and anarchists understand that imperialism is not the “highest stage of capitalism”, but one of its inherent and permanent characteristics as a world historical system; that every Nation-State is imperialist, but that there are hierarchies or different levels of imperialist power among the States; that imperialist war is a warlike competition between capitalist States with a higher level of imperialist power and, above all, a war of the international bourgeoisie against the international proletariat; that the enemy is not imperialism, but world capitalism; and, that the position of revolutionary communists and anarchists towards all imperialist war is not anti-imperialism and “national liberation”, but revolutionary defeatism, proletarian internationalism and worldwide social revolution.

Therefore, to struggle “against fascism” and “for the democracy” of one imperialist power/bloc or the other in war competition, or to struggle for “national liberation” and “self-determination of the oppressed peoples”, is not only to fight for “the lesser evil”, but in reality it is to fight for the material interests of one national or regional bourgeoisie against another (accumulation of more territory, natural resources and working population to exploit in order to accumulate more capital and world power); and, above all, it is a struggle against the proletariat which has no homeland, yes, because we proletarians have no homeland: whichever Nation-State wins in this war, whether through military or diplomatic means, the proletarians of both countries will continue to be oppressed and exploited if they do not make the international social revolution.

In short: the war of “democracy vs. fascism” is – and always has been – a key piece of imperialist war and, therefore, an inter-bourgeois war that uses proletarians in combat as cannon fodder, with the aim of preserving and developing capitalist social relations throughout the world, even under a non-capitalist or “socialist” label. This is what happened in the “Spanish civil war” and this is what is happening in the Russia-Ukraine war at this moment: once again in history, anti-fascism is demonstrating its social-democratic, nationalist, militarist and counter-revolutionary nature.

Meanwhile, much to the contrary, in the long run and in the end proletarian internationalism means to struggle for the world communist revolution, and in unfavorable conjunctures like the present one proletarian internationalism means to struggle autonomously or directly, i.e. without intermediaries or representatives, to defend the material interests of our class (saving lives, food, housing or at least shelter, health – physical and mental –, education, real peace, real freedom) against and beyond any Nation-State’s interest, however democratic and anti-fascist it may claim to be, as in this particular case the “People’s Republics” of Lugansk and Donetsk claim.

“People’s Republics” which in reality are sponsored and annexed by Russian capitalism-imperialism through armed separatist gangs, in which participate as comrades-in-arms ultra-right or Nazi, Eurasianist and National-Bolshevik groups and even, pitifully, proletarian fighters with anti-fascist ideology. We say pitifully because, however much these class brothers believe and say otherwise, in reality they end up being cannon fodder of this inter-bourgeois and inter-imperialist war. (The same film with different actors occurs in Kurdistan, because this also forms part of the imperialist spiderwebs of world-historical capitalism today, under the mystification of democratic and anti-imperialist anti-fascism).

A war that, furthermore and here and now, is a “hybrid war”, i.e. a war that uses regular State armies and irregular non-State armies – such as these polyclassist and populist militias in which the anti-fascists participate – as well as economic pressures (sanctions, financial speculations, etc.) and cybernetic, mediatic and psychological attacks, not only against the other State, but also against the unarmed civilian population.

The height of this militarist disease is to say that the murder of unarmed civilians is a “collateral damage” or a “necessary sacrifice” of “the people’s war against fascism and imperialism”. Something which is bleated out by not only by the military of both armies, but also by some anti-fascist militiamen, and not only at this moment, but since the times of the USSR and World War II. A disastrous constant of capitalist nationalism and militarism, be it from the right or the left.

By way of conclusion. Some revolutionary clarifications against and beyond leftist confusionism towards war

Here, then, it is worth remembering why is Russia invading Ukraine? To take over its geopolitically strategic position, its natural resources, its industrial and commercial infrastructure and its collective labor force. To expand its market and its power as a decadent imperialist power from the point of view of world capitalism, with the USA/NATO as its main adversary and China as its main ally. (Yes, Russia is capitalist and imperialist… from the days of the USSR until now.) To revive its economy in crisis or to compensate for the decline in its rate of profit through the war industry, exploiting workers or extracting surplus value from them on the production front and murderously disposing of surplus proletarians on the military front. In fact, the repartition of the world during an imperialist war is basically the repartition of world surplus value between national and regional bourgeoisie – in this case, Eurasian and Western ones – through the exploitation and massacre of the world working class. (Although, on the other hand, every war is very expensive and cannot be maintained for long). And, above all, to prevent new revolts and insurrections of the exploited and oppressed in the territories under its dominion: together with the repressive state administration of the health crisis, this war is a key piece of the ongoing preventive counterrevolution, especially after the world revolt of 2019. In synthesis: there is no capitalism without imperialism, without crisis and without war; and every imperialist war is always a war against the proletariat.

On the other hand, the Ukrainian State is not “better”, “less bad”, neither more nor less “fascist” or democratic than the Russian State, since it does not differ qualitatively but only quantitatively from the latter, being smaller and with less imperialist power, but equally bourgeois and anti-proletarian; and since the “Nazi-fascist” mercenaries, financed and armed by both the Putin regime and NATO, are on both sides of the Russian-Ukrainian border. The same applies to the “People’s Republics” or the emerging bourgeois mini-States of Donetsk and Lugansk.

Both the Russian bourgeois State and the Ukrainian bourgeois State are brutally exploiting and slaughtering the proletarians of both territories under their domination as if they were cattle which today they lead to the slaughterhouse of war, in order to then impose “the peace of the cemeteries”. Therefore, to defend one or the other State in war competition, even under the banners of anti-imperialism and anti-fascism, is to defend our class executioners. In war, proletarians have nothing to win: on the contrary, they will die by the thousands and their blood will only feed world Capital. “The main enemy is in our own country”, it is of a class enemy, and this reality is common to all the nations of the planet, because capitalism is a world system and an impersonal social relation that alienates, exploits, oppresses and murders proletarians everywhere day after day.

So, once again: neither Russia nor Ukraine/NATO: proletarian internationalism and revolutionary defeatism against imperialist war. Neither fascism nor democracy: proletarian autonomy against all types of capitalist State. To put an end to the war it is necessary to put an end to capitalism and class society, by doing the world communist revolution, not the “anti-fascist and anti-imperialist war”. Against all the false communities of world Capital, let’s develop communities of struggle, mutual support and class solidarity everywhere. Although they seem abstract and distant for all the above reasons, these are revolutionary points of clarity which are concrete and immediate in the current world conjuncture, given that wars simplify and clarify the real social antagonisms de facto. “International proletarian class struggle against international imperialist genocide is the socialist commandment of the hour.”

The confusionism that currently prevails on the left towards the war in Ukraine is a consequence, among other reasons, of the lack of such clarifications, not only due to a lack of training in revolutionary theory or as a consequence of a leftist ideological deformation (Leninist, anti-fascist, anarchist-liberal and/or postmodern), but mainly due to a lack of experience of struggle in situations of war and revolution or, at least, of revolt. And this is due, by the way, to the fact that the material conditions of capitalist development and class struggle have not yet rendered true and lesson-giving situations upon such leftist organizations and individuals. In short, the leftist confusionism towards this war is a consequence and symptom of the present counterrevolutionary historical period.

The point is that in such circumstances or borderline situations the abstract becomes concrete again and the class positions are clarified in facts; and in this capitalist society, there are and can only be two class positions: on the side of the international bourgeoisie or on the side of the international proletariat, on the side of capitalism or on the side of communism and anarchy, on the side of counterrevolution or on the side of revolution. There are not and cannot be half-measures or relativism in this respect. Therefore, just as citizen pacifism ends up becoming accomplice to capitalist warmongering, so also postmodern negationism of class struggle ends up becoming accomplice to bourgeois class domination and, in this conjuncture, of imperialist war. The same applies to anti-imperialism (Russian and Yankee) and anti-fascism (Ukrainian and Russian).

The problem is that, within this leftist confusionism, the false antagonism “democracy vs. fascism”, which by the way is part of the false antagonism “anti-fascist Russia vs. Yankee imperialism”, effectively functions as ideological-political and emotional blackmail (“if you support Ukraine, you are a fascist”, “if you support Russia, you are a fascist”, “if you are against both, you are an intellectual purist…”, etc.) for many proletarians everywhere who oppose imperialist war out of common sense or class instinct, but without clear and firm revolutionary positions such as proletarian internationalism and revolutionary defeatism. In such a way that these class brothers and sisters end up repeating uncritically what public opinion says or, in the worst case, becoming cannon fodder on the battlefield. Another consequence and symptom of the present counterrevolutionary historical period.

Finally, the Russia vs. Ukraine/NATO war is not the Third World War as such, but it could be said that it is the prelude to it or, as the German bourgeois press says, “the beginning of a new and dangerous epoch in world politics” in which “Europeans must fight back if they are to survive in it”: let us not forget, among other things, that Germany, France and Italy buy fuel from Russia, and that fuel is the lifeblood of the economy. For their part, the USA and China, the two world superpowers, are watching, giving their opinions and lobbying from the window so that when their turn comes to get down from there, they will be the protagonists of a new and bigger military confrontation. Moreover, it is not the only region of the planet that is at war: so are Syria, Palestine, Yemen, Mozambique, Cameroon. Countries in which the U.S. and NATO are known to interfere, but public opinion says little or nothing about it. And, above all, let us not forget that the U.S. has been facing a strong internal class struggle or a social war behind closed doors for the last few years. Just like China.

The point is that there is no capitalism without war, even more so in times of crisis, upon which this system once again unmasks its violent and catastrophic nature. And, that in the context of the current capitalist crisis, a Third World War is possible. Which, by the way, would not be the classic type of war, but a new type of war: “hybrid”, fragmented, tiered, and worst of all, nuclear and devastating. Added to this is the ongoing global ecological crisis. Thus putting our species at serious risk of extinction.

For such compelling reasons, the slogans to transform imperialist war into class war and communism or extinction are no longer abstract, but concrete and urgent in order to defend and regenerate the life of the proletarianized humanity living on planet Earth.

Let’s say also and above all that, due to the unfavorable balance of forces for our class at this moment or due to its defeat after the world revolt of 2019 up to the present, the positions of proletarian internationalism and revolutionary defeatism cannot currently be offensive, that is, capable of being presented as a real alternative and carrying out the world proletarian revolution, but they can be defensive. Defensive of what? Not of abstract principles, but of the flesh and blood lives of hundreds of thousands of proletarians of those regions at war. Lives to be defended by those same proletarians, without intermediaries or representatives of any kind.

However, the contemporary history of the class struggle shows that imperialist war can be a trigger for the world proletarian revolution, and that the latter is the only force capable of defeating the former. The lashes of the counterrevolution can stir the steeds of the revolution to arise and advance…

Capitalism produces its own gravedigger, because most people do not want to die like cattle in the slaughterhouse of war and because, sooner or later, when there is exploitation there is conflict and when there is misery there is rebellion, there and everywhere.

This is obviously a process and not an event. A process of unequal, contradictory, conflictive and uncertain development. Only the times to come of the real class struggle, there “where the going gets hot” all over the world, has the last word. The very nature of war makes it impossible for it to be sustained for long before social discontent and revolt begin to boil up within the countries in conflict. And the globalization of inflation and hunger produced by the war will also globalize social protest against it.

Whatever happens, we must be vigilant and prepared as revolutionary proletarians of all countries in facing this context of generalized catastrophe and accelerated decomposition of capitalism that fate has reserved us in the 21^st century. Likewise, the class struggle is and will be what takes charge of carrying out this revolutionary preparation, where our best weapons, as always, are and will be mutual support and class solidarity: in one word, the real community. Although, being crudely realistic, there are still more wars, catastrophes, revolts and insurrections to come.

Keeping always in mind that, in a war situation like the present one, the real struggle is that of classes and not of nations, and therefore, it’s a matter of fighting autonomously to defend our material class interests against and beyond any national interest. As much for the offensive as for the proletarian resistance, the key is in self-constituting communities of struggle in the heat of the struggle against all States, markets, homelands and other false communities of world Capital. In the last instance, to put an end to the war it is necessary to put an end to capitalism and class society, by doing the world social revolution, not “the people’s war against fascism and imperialism, for national liberation and self-determination of the peoples, since that is nothing more than another inter-bourgeois and inter-imperialist war. The social revolution is not about “taking up arms and killing all the bourgeois, cops and fascists”, but is in a process of communization of life that consists in destroying and overcoming capitalist social relations (private property, the commodity, value, wage labor, the division of labor, social classes, States, markets, nations, “races”, genders…) completely and to the root, replacing them with relations of real solidarity and freedom among individuals everywhere… yes, everywhere, because the communist and anarchic revolution will be worldwide or it will not be.

Some internationalist proletarians from the Ecuadorian region

Quito, March 6, 2022

English translation: Los Amigos de la Guerra de Clases