The aggressiveness of imperialism and the antifascist struggle in Europe

I would like to salute our meeting, that’s being done in the beautiful and majestic Moscow, but at a time where it is not necessary to emphasize its importance, as the facts speak for themselves.

Just a few days ago, the NATO Summit in Warsaw has concluded, and its effects play a big role in the completion of the American-NATO plans for Europe and the whole world.

Russia is surrounded by fire from all around Europe, starting from the South, from my country and the military base of Suda in Crete island, to the northern end of Europe, in the South-West Ukraine. Its purpose, to create a divided Europe, with the threat of war being present constantly, which means a Europe even more susceptible by the American interests.

For years the American-NATO forces promote for the division of Europe. In their sights, they have Russia. Through propaganda and using some circumstances, or even without any reason at all, against Russia and its people. The last years we saw some unbelievable images playing in the major channels and we read articles and analyses in the press, both the printed and the electronic, with the sole purpose to present Russia as a broken, authoritarian country. An uncontrollable beast that wants to come and disrupt our “quite” western world.

When, a few years ago, President Putin did one of his most important, in my opinion, statement saying “We do not renounce or deny any part of our history”, the western media ran amok. “President Putin is trying to restore the Soviet Union”, they concluded holding this conclusion like a scarecrow above Europe. It is as if they were saying that the Soviet danger is coming back, addressing and trying to scare first of the bourgeois of the continent and a part of the ensconced to the imperialistic structures intellect, but also to warn peoples that they will make them pay a high price to avoid that danger.

They went beyond propaganda, to the economic blockade, but also to the obstruction of any means of cooperation of the European countries with Russia. My country is a typical example of that behavior. In 2007, the agreement for Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline was signed. The agreement was signed from a rightist government, a bourgeois government. But after the agreement bourgeois classes opposed to the government. 

The major media (TV and press) that in Greece are controlled entirely by bourgeois interests (ship-owners, big-contractors etc) went against the government, although the same media once supported it’s rise to power. That summer we experienced the most tragic and destructive wildfires in the history of the Greek state, which claimed more than 70 lives. 

We owe it to the Russian pilots, who came and decisively helped extinguish them, the rescue of the Ancient Epidavros Theater and Ancient Olympia, both monuments and landmarks of the whole modern world. In this of course, little attention was given in our country and almost none in Europe. That government fell 2 years later. The first thing the next government did was to cancel the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline agreement. And the second was to enter the country in the IMF.

Now, the encirclement of Russia is being done with real weapons, although we should wonder if it is indeed an encirclement of Russia, as claimed by the American-Nato forces, or perhaps with these actions they just isolate this side of Europe from the rest of the world, sending it once again on a destructive way, in order to promote their interests.

We’ve lived similar situations before. The same tactic is used, every time the system is falling apart under its own inabilities and becomes isolated and in conflict with society It discovers “enemies” to overcome the weakness through a catastrophic onslaught, hoping to gain some decades of life. 

In the battle against the Arabic fundamentalism, not only they tried to turn it into a rivalry between the Western and the whole Arabic world, but even more, this Arabic fundamentalism was created or aided to go to such extremes by the American-NATO forces through financing, close relations with the Taliban and the ISIS more recently with American agencies or other countries-members of NATO such as Turkey with the tolerance and the encouragement from the USA. What grew out of this polarizing process of the alleged anti-fundamentalist hysteria? Once more, war and destruction.

But this tactic goes back much further. Hitler targeted the Jewish people to start the World War II. The history and course of the developed imperialism itself is based on this development dogma (essentially for an extension of its existence) through the destruction of societies and their productive forces and that we see again and again on a smaller or a bigger scale, peripherally or centrally, depending on the correlation of forces and the severity of its problems.

The above, unfortunately, is not a prediction or an estimation of the situation and its outcome, but the reality as we already experiencing it. The events in Libya just a few years ago and the situation those events shaped is not a nightmare that we can just forget. It’s not the exception where things got out of control. Let’s see the sub-Saharan African countries, where lots of them immersed themselves to a Civil War, which in some cases still continues. Let’s see the war in Iraq and the consequences it had for the country and for the surrounding region. Or let’s see what’s happening in my country.

All this destruction has been “dressed” with ideological arguments, that some of them appeared even before all these events started to unfold. For a long time now and for every adventure or destruction we experience, there is the same excuse and justification, that it is only the precursor for the improvement and the development that is to come subsequently, for those who will be able to survive of course. 

The doctrine of neoliberalism itself is based on this principle. The well-known “shock and awe” wants big hits on the societies, hits that can cause shock and a social numbness so on that base they can build the awe for the American-Nato forces’ omnipotence. After that it’s easy for them to have the measures taken they need to hasten the wealth of the societies.  

But always with the promise of a “post”-normalization of the situation. So that, the “post” ended up as a kind of a fashion that is used almost everywhere, from the post-industrial era in the economy to the post-modern perception in arts, everything tailored to create a new illusion of a paradise that awaits us after the destruction, and worst of all a paradise born from this destruction. In Greece, we experienced this very strongly when the crisis begun. 

For the last three months of 2009 and the first three of 2010 everywhere, in talk-shows in TV, in theoretical analyses of the press, they all talked about a small difficult period that would be followed by a “post”-growth. Today, 7 years later, unemployment is up to 30% and that is only because half a million of Greek people instead of being added in the catalogs of unemployment decided to be added in the catalogs of immigration.

Today, after all these events and while nothing can predict that we are past the difficulties, the paradise of “post” is not used like before anymore but it tends to be replaced by other not so different arguments. Serious efforts are made to pass the concept of equal distances, equating every action with their intentions. So for example, the fascists in Western Ukraine are presented, mostly in the countries of Western Europe, as the same with those who are opposed in the democracies of the Eastern Ukraine, with sole difference their respective allies, the former the USA and the later Russia. 

That way they poison the perception of young people mainly for every kind of fight, resistance and a prospect outside of these imperialist plans. On the other hand, they proclaim in every way that this dead end and this destruction we see and experience today, is the only way of living, maybe even the best way. Every time they pass a new memorandum in Greece or new measures in France or some other European country, they threaten openly that we must learn to live in this way of living or maybe even worse.

These arguments, if they are not answered properly, they create suspension, disappointment and discharge from an effort for something better in society. We see that the last years. In Greece for example, the BREXIT, instead of sparking conversations, troubling, or to strengthen the need for fighting the neoliberalism policies of EU, it gave food to the channels for endless hours of terrorizing the people, where all the guests were foreseeing the total destruction if such logic was to prevail. And for the people, the main problem was not the political choices of Europe, but that our immigration in England will be more difficult, something that until now seemed like a way out of the dead end we live in.

After the recent events in Turkey, the situation seems to become even more alarming, since the polarization seems to be within the NATO allies, not as an explicit command of some ruler over a dependent one, as it happened before in similar occasions (e.g. the dictatorship in Greece or in similar previous attempts in Turkey itself). 

On the contrary, today it seems that the conflict is between the ruling classes of the allies without any tolerance for the ruling classes of the two sides, against the choices of each other. Whenever in history such a polarization existed it signified the preparation of war and it is certain that the situation will continue to be critical and produce multiple results not only for the region but also beyond.

Societies react based on the reality they experience and the disposition of the forces which act within them. That is why especially in the Western societies it is hard to see the resistance that is required to the aggressiveness of imperialism. In these societies the political stuff acts in complete agreement and alliance with Imperialism and American-NATO interests, (that historically goes decades backwards). In any other case, every effort for a different policy must confront with serious difficulties from the beginning, before it has the time to grow, and so stands weak and unable to shape any kind of situations, creating frustration in the people. 

In Greece, and after the referendum of last Summer, where a “left” in its proclaims government entrapped the country with the worst possible way in the neoliberal-imperialistic politics, the result is frustration and people giving up. While forces that try to create any kind of political and ideological resistance are being devaluated systematically and encounter attacks and tries of shrinking and dissolving them. Any anti-imperialism voice is blocked by the media. While the police forces are systematically attacking strikes, even small ones.

But there is also something else to take into account. Imperialism, at this moment, is at its most weak and aggressive. It’s as if things have turned and now Imperialism is the one who having nothing to lose, prefers to drag in its demise the society. But we have things to loose, our achievements, our future, our life. This fierce aggression doesn’t hesitate to take the most extreme forms, even the support of fascist phenomena, like the ones we experienced in Ukraine.

I want to speak about the experience we had in Greece. We started as a support group for the fight of the Eastern Ukraine Democracies with events, information campaigns and various actions mainly of activist character. We managed to create our own place that helped to increase those events and the people who gathered in them. With the creation of the site on a European scale and its operation in Greek too, it became possible to inform a large number of people who systematically now follow our posts.

However, I think that the real opening for our actions was just some time ago, when taken the opportunity of the 9^th of May, Day of the Antifascist Victory, we organized a concert in the center of Athens. The concert became in a really difficult day for Athens where due to a 24-hour strike, that in fact were surprisingly announced the night before, there were no means of transportation. As a result of this, all our previous work was wasted, as we were continuously receiving messages from the people who were supposed to come, that they couldn’t come because of the strike. 

 

At first, we panicked. Nevertheless, the concert attracted a big number (more than 2.000 people) of passing byers, who upon seeing our graffiti, the photos and realizing the antifascist meaning of the concert gathered and stayed until late at night, the concert ended after 1:00 a.m. A few days later was programmed the event of “Immortal Army” in the center of Athens, in Syntagma square. The event was planned by the organizations of the Russian-speaking people who live in Athens and we helped them to organize it. 

The success of the event is unquestionable, not only because a big number of Russian-speaking people participated, but also for the way the Greek people welcomed it. The event coincided with one more working concentration, (these happen quite often in Athens) and the “Immortal Army” passed through the concentration.  The reception from the Greek working people was spectacular. They applauded, bought almost all the books we were selling and have exhausted all the ribbons of Victory we had. Finally, the event lasted up until the point where the police started hitting with chemicals the concentration.

It’s true that Greece is a special case, since in World War II we had a very strong antifascist movement that grew up to the point of developing a powerful guerrilla army, that from the beginning had strong friendly feelings and bonds with the Soviet Union. But, on the other hand, in these events participated a big number of young people, who grew without knowing not even the Soviet Union itself, let alone its contribution to Word War II. 

This experience, lead us to the conclusion that the antifascist struggle, when is properly combined with the struggle of the country and the demands of the people, can create the right conditions for the development of a fight strong enough to stop the imperialist plans. Even more, a political expression of such a movement can provide today a perspective for peoples of Europe, or even worldwide.

Worldwide we have a rich experience from the political action through fronts. Although they appeared in different countries and historical periods, with different characteristics on the economic development, the social structure and the political goals, they had in common the cause of their creation. Historically, fronts appear and have an essential role in the life of the societies, in times when there is a strong aggression from the ruling class against the lower classes, and at the same time the working class together with the other lower classes are weak to stop this aggression, either because of the intensity of the aggression, or because of the weakness of their movement, or maybe even both of them.

Examining the reality of our days, we shall see that both the imperialistic and the neoliberalism aggressiveness against the people, because of the crisis, was and still is enormous, and this situation came at a time when the workers’ movement was weak, and this is true more or less for all the countries of Europe. In these conditions the establishment for the fight through political fronts is urgent. Through fronts the working class can fight along with the other lower classes, to enforce a process out of the frame and against the “development” of the capitalist way, that has become a nightmare for the societies, even for the highly developed west countries. 

In this frame of the historical movement, I thing that Russia has particular role. The modern Russia was and still is the great power of the antifascist victory. Also it is a great power that can grow and achieve great things, not through the exploitation and the oppression, but with another way, the way of the peaceful coexistence and the cooperation among the nations. With such a role and together with the development of the antifascist struggle of the working class, it is possible for the society to create a new future, in the “post”-imperialism world.