Introduction statement for the zoom meeting on 6 March 2022

Dear comrades, dear friends,

my name is Monika Gärtner-Engel I welcome you all very warmly to this highly topical Zoom Meeting. We have such an aggravated danger of war - many judge it as a real danger of world war - as not since the Cuban Missile Crisis. The anti-imperialist forces are challenged to take up the struggle against all imperialists, strengthening the forces of revolutionaries and transnational solidarity.

I want to introduce myself briefly: I am the main coordinator of the ICOR and was elected co-president by the Consultative Committee of the anti-imperialist and anti-fascist united front.

In my introductory contribution I would like to inform you firstly in a short overview how the state of the building of an anti-imperialist and anti-fascist united front has progressed; secondly briefly outline the main topic of today's zoom-meeting and thirdly inform you how our zoom-meeting will proceed.

First, then, the overview of the history of the United Front so far. While ICOR has been continuously informing everyone involved, today we are also happy to welcome new forces.

At the end of 2019, the international unions ILPS and ICOR launched a joint call to launch an anti-imperialist and anti-fascist united front as a broad coalition.

A provisional Consultative Committee was formed with three representatives each from ILPS and ICOR, which prepared a call and the rules and working methods in cooperation in thorough discussions and consultations with others. If you would like to have these documents sent to you, please write this in the chat or to ICOR and we will mail them to you.

In this founding call to a United Front we wrote in March 2021:

" .... the time is ripe for a force to oppose this imperialist world system in an organized and increasingly unified way: in an anti-imperialist united front (.......) for national and social liberation, democracy, freedom and socialism! It is time for the oppressed proletariat and the peoples of the world to join this (.....) world-wide movement with their specific and national movements. (....) We call to connect the foundation of the anti-imperialist united front with a strategy discussion on how to fight for a society free from exploitation and oppression. We assume that many forces involved see socialism as an alternative."

In contrast to the existing organizational forms of ICOR and ILPS, the United Front is a broader, coordinating association with a broader basis in terms of content. The core is anti-imperialism and anti-fascism, while agreement with scientific conceptions of socialism, criticism of revisionism, etc., should not be prerequisites for participation. There is also no democratic centralism, but each organization decides for itself on which questions it will cooperate. Thus also a whole series of organizations for the united front beyond ILPS and ICOR could be won as participants. On this basis, we were able to form a Consultative Committee in March 2021, which is the coordinating body under the agreed rules. At the first meeting, the call and rules were unanimously agreed upon and Len Cooper was elected as ILPS chair and I as co-chair. On this basis the practical work began, for example with calls for May 1, 2021, founding meetings and other activities were planned.

Very surprisingly, the successfully started way of building up the ILPS was interrupted in May 2021 with the wish for a "pause for thought". This is currently ongoing, but when Len Cooper is in Europe in June 2022, thorough and friendly talks have already been arranged for clarification.

Beyond that, however, the 4th ICOR World Conference in October 2021 has affirmed, in view of the world political development, to hold on to the united front under all circumstances and to continue the work with all interested forces, initially on an interim basis until June 22. In the meantime, the ILPS has also again declared its desire for cooperation and wants to draft a joint call of ILPS and ICOR against the current war. So much for the brief overview.

The current war situation confirms that the idea of anti-imperialist and anti-fascist united front is correct and urgently needed. As the main global belligerent, the U.S. and NATO have a long history of aggressive imperialist policies and interference: not forgotten are the Vietnam War, the bloody Pinochet support in Chile, the constant threat to Cuba, Venezuela up to Afghanistan or the word-breaking, provocative NATO expansion to the East in recent years. However, all this in no way justifies Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which is also justified in an anti-communist way against Lenin's nationality policy.

We are very proud of our friends and comrades in Ukraine and Russia who courageously oppose this imperialist war policy. Even if this concrete war is over, the inter-imperialist contradictions will continue to unfold and the respective blocs will re-form due to the unevenness of development and in connection with the ongoing world economic and financial crisis.

The rulers, for all their competition, are organized transnationally in different imperialist organs. Proletarian internationalism, on the other hand, has always been the guideline of the revolutionary and workers' movement - the policy of truce that of the reformists and chauvinists. However, proletarian internationalism must form itself in its consciousness and organizedness on a new level, according to today's tasks.

That is why I am very happy that so many participants are here today - from Europe, Africa, Latin America, North America, Asia, Near and Middle East - or have signed up for future cooperation if they cannot participate today. There are already 15 organizations signed up to make a statement, and I will call on them one by one. (….)

We start now with the statement of a comrade, she speaks for the Solidarity Party of Afghanistan (SPA) - one of the organizations that is neither a member of ICOR nor ILPS, but a participant in the anti-imperialist united front. After that, Sanjay Singhvi from the CPI ML Red Star speaks and then we hear a statement from Ukraine.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)