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Time to write history – Internationalist Perspective




For over 30 years, World War 3 has been intensifying day by day. Warring regions in every continent of the world are burning, and we are heading straight for another explosion of chaos and destruction. As abstract and complicated as the wars and conflicts of this world may seem, they become clear and easy to understand when we take a look at the interests of the different powers. As it has always been, in every society, it is the political and economic interests of the rulers in which the cause of war and conflict is to be found. It is no different with the wars raging today, primarily resource distribution battles between the powerful of this world. Even if they may claim to fight for the nation, for religion, or even for democracy and human rights, nothing can hide the fact that today's armed conflicts also revolve around the control of markets, resources and labour. A system in which maximum profit, as the supreme law of this world, still stands above all conventions and the dignity of man himself, must in its ravenous pursuit of profit and the relentless competition of the capitalist market, ultimately result in warlike conflict. Already at the outbreak of the First World War last century, the socialist Jean Jaures, murdered by a French nationalist in 1914, stated very correctly: "Capitalism carries war in itself like a cloud carries rain."


No matter where we turn our gaze, a fierce struggle is being fought today on all continents to reorder the global balance of power. After the collapse of real socialism brought to an end the era of the so-called "bipolar world order" in which the two great powers, the USA and the Soviet Union, dominated the planet, the USA embarked on the mad attempt to become the "one and only world power" and to impose a "unipolar world order" under US-American rule. By means of wars and interventions, political-economic pressure and an unprecedented propaganda offensive, the new world order was to be enforced. Today, more than 30 years later, the failure of this project can no longer be denied. The emergence of new imperialist powers, which no longer want to accept their previous subordinate position and are trying to get a "bigger slice of the pie," is challenging U.S. hegemony worldwide.


As much as the Russian Federation and China are usually at the center of public discussion, there are also other centers of gravity alongside them in the emerging multipolar world order. Together with Brazil, India and South Africa, they form the economic alliance of the "BRICS states," which is to be expanded on January 1st of next year to include Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. As a confederation of states, the BRICS countries are attempting to create a counterweight to the dollar's dominance of the world market through economic cooperation among themselves, and in doing so are striving to unite all states who are bothered by the supremacy of the West.


In recent months, the African continent in particular has become the scene of major changes and fierce fighting. Since the 1950s, more than 106 military coups have taken place in Africa, but the series of military coups beginning with Mali and Burkina Faso and most recently in Niger and Gabon are probably the first signs of major change on the continent. The coups themselves are not mere isolated events or internal affairs of the respective states, but also the direct consequence of the power struggle between the Western imperialists, especially France and the United States, on the one hand, and the new emerging imperialist contenders, especially China and the Russian Federation, on the other.


Since the beginning of the colonisation of the region, the Sahel zone in particular has been an important source of raw materials for France, and until recently Nigerien uranium mines supplied most of the uranium needed for the French nuclear industry. However, the new military government, which internationally aligned itself with the Russian Federation and signed a regional alliance with the anti-Western military governments, has now ended all cooperation with the former colonial power. While ECOWAS states allied with Western imperialism, led by Nigeria, threaten military intervention against Niger, fierce fighting between the army and militias supported by Russian mercenaries also continues in Sudan. The situation on the African continent is more than explosive, and the more the Third World War continues to unfold, the greater the chances that major transregional conflicts could erupt here as well.


If we take a look at the Middle East, the place where the ongoing Third World War first broke out and which is still at the center of the global conflict today, it was above all the conflict in Israel and Palestine that dominated the headlines of the world press in October. To date, the fighting between the jihadist organization Hamas and the Israeli army continues in all its ferocity. Thousands of civilians have died so far, the Israeli army is ruthlessly pounding Gaza with artillery and aerial bombs, committing multiple war crimes, and Hamas Islamists are also guilty of numerous crimes against Jewish civilians and women in particular. If the conflict continues to escalate, it has the potential to deepen the rifts between the peoples to unsurpassable abysses and make a resolution to the conflict unthinkable. It is not without reason that the Kurdish community has declared that the current operations and attacks do not benefit a solution of the conflict, but rather stand in the way of a common coexistence of the peoples. However, it is also clear that the cause of the conflict is not to be found in the latest attacks by the Palestinian side, but the cause of the current problem is the historical problem of the Palestinian issue itself. Even though Hamas Islamist fighters may have succeeded in overcoming Israeli barriers and successfully attacking and overrunning Israeli outposts in the first days of the so-called "Al-Aqsa flood," it remains undeniable that the Israeli armed forces are far superior to Hamas, both militarily and in terms of personnel. Today, the people of Gaza face an imminent Israeli ground invasion that would result in the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians and the near total destruction of Gaza.


It is clear that here, too, the current confrontation far exceeds the dimensions of a regional conflict between Israel and Palestine and is closely related to the interests and plans of regional and international powers. For the West, the Israeli state, along with the Turkish Republic, is the central gateway to the Middle East and one of the decisive guarantor powers of capitalist modernity. The growing tensions between Iran and its allies, and the United States and the International Coalition on the other side, are certainly one of the factors that have led to the deepening of the crisis. Thus, there are also analysts who consider the current escalation and especially the provocative behavior of foreign powers to be related to the plans made at the recent G20 summit in New Delhi to create an alternative energy route between Asia and Europe. The new route is to run from India, through Saudi Arabia, Israel, Southern Cyprus and Greece, and would thus mean bypassing both Iran, but also the Central Asian states and, above all, Turkey.


However, from whichever angle we view the current escalation, it is absolutely clear that we cannot view this war, as well as the other ongoing conflicts around the world, separately from the Third World War, but rather as an integral part of it. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict, like the Kurdish question, is one of the great Gordian knots of the Middle East, and without a solution to these two problems, democratisation of the region remains unthinkable. It is not wrong to go so far as to say that both conflicts have a kind of key function. Just as in the Kurdish question, the apparent insolubility of the problem lies in the nation-state mentality itself. The nation-state as a concept has become the cause of both problems and cannot be the solution to the conflicts. Already in 2009, Rêber Apo had written in his last defense paper that "If one does not understand the fabric of the hegemony of capitalist modernity in the Middle East," one cannot understand "why 22 Arab nation-states were created." Even the creation of a Palestinian nation-state, as the 23rd state in line, would deepen rather than solve the problems. The struggle of the Palestinian people remains legitimate and lasting peace can only be achieved through the recognition of the Palestinian people's right to self-government, but the solution to the Palestinian problem is not the two-state or one-state solution; the only solution can only be a 'no-state' solution. The model of the democratic nation, which was developed by Rêber Apo as a solution to the crises of the Middle East, and with which the self-government model in North and East Syria has sufficiently proven itself viable, is able to guarantee a truly free and equal coexistence for the peoples of the Middle East.


While two million people in Gaza are struggling to survive without water, electricity, and adequate food under the bombardment of Israeli aircraft, millions of people in North and East Syria are also cut off from supplies of the most basic goods. Turkish attacks on the region's vital infrastructure have completely destroyed or disabled large sections of the power supply, as well as waterworks and gas production facilities. Both Netanyahu and Turkish dictator Erdogan have declared civilian infrastructure and settlements to be the "legitimate targets" of their military actions, and are murdering regardless. While Erdogan never tires of expressing his sympathy for Gaza's civilian population, Turkish bombs and shells shred innocent

 civilians, women and children just a few kilometers from the Turkish border. The airstrikes at the beginning of October, which hit over 200 targets in North and East Syria, also went virtually unnoticed by the world public. That the established press and the ruling authorities meet the brutal attacks of Turkish fascism with silence, is also ideologically motivated.


The attacks against the revolution of Rojava, but also the war of extermination against the guerrilla units in Northern and Southern Kurdistan, are above all to be considered as attacks of the capitalist system under the leadership of NATO against an alternative and revolutionary social project. In this respect, it is above all the responsibility of the socialist, revolutionary, and democratic forces of this world to raise their voice and join the defense of the internationalist revolution in Kurdistan.


After the collapse of socialist reality and the proclaimed "end of history," the successful struggle of the apoist movement in Kurdistan today proves that revolution need not be a dream or a distant utopia even in the 21st century. In order to preserve what we have already fought for and to expand our revolution in all directions, what is needed above all is the creation of a new internationalism. Instead of struggling to achieve a place in the halls of power ourselves, or even to establish new nation-states, we must create the international and non-state organisation of all the oppressed of this world. The state itself is created as a tool for the ruling classes to maintain their power and hold down the masses. It is in its essence not much more than an apparatus of power through the organised use of force, and an instrument that cannot help us gain freedom. If in the past the goal of revolutionaries was to conquer the state and use its machinery, what is needed today is an international of self-organisation that can unite the struggles of the oppressed and exploited across all state borders. Since the crisis we are facing today is a global crisis, our response can also only be global. As an internationalist youth movement, we must take the lead in this process of construction and move dynamically and fearlessly into the future. The world of tomorrow, democratic modernity as an alternative to the system of destruction and death, already exists today in our struggles. It exists wherever women rise up and young people fight for their future, and it already lives today in every project of self-organisation and communal economy, no matter how small. Everywhere where workers fight for a life in dignity and people defend their right to land and food, there also lives a piece of the world that resists this system. What remains as a task for us is to give democratic modernity concrete forms and organisations.


The construction of democratic modernity also requires a radical change of mentality, we can say a revolution of the mind, but also concrete material changes. A needs-based and sustainable economic system that replaces the brutality of the free market, a new system of social justice instead of the state judicial system, a social contract that regulates social coexistence and structures of self-defense to protect the achievements of the revolution against all threats from within and without, must all be created to guarantee long-term change. Speaking about self-defense, we must not only consider the military-material side of self-defense. The appropriation and defense of one's own culture, language and history are also aspects of self-defense against the attacks of the capitalist system that should not be underestimated. The annihilation of a society occurs not only through physical genocide but also through the so-called "White Genocide," that is, assimilation and cultural annihilation. Therefore, for colonised nations as well as for all other societies, the construction of their own educational system and strong cultural works are an indispensable necessity to fight for a free existence and to guarantee it in the long run. Diplomacy, which has today become a tool for the enforcement of state power interests, must be replaced by a real diplomacy that serves communication and reconciliation between peoples on an international level. Rêber Apo defines this form of diplomacy, in which the establishment of relations and exchanges between peoples is not limited to the professional activity of official diplomats, but becomes an everyday activity of all members of a society, as people's diplomacy.


It may be that the Middle East today is the main battlefield of the Third World War, but it is up to us, the internationalist youth, to spread the struggle for another world to every corner of this planet. The first World Youth Conference in Paris is a historic step in this direction, which will certainly bring us closer to our goal. Today we do not have the luxury of being divided by our diversities, different approaches and political traditions. As the youth of today, we have a historic responsibility to the society, women, and youth of tomorrow, and it is in the awareness of this responsibility that we must strengthen our unity.


Our anger and hatred against the system of destruction, against the organised barbarism of capitalist modernity, we must transform into the energy and creativity we need to build a world of beauty and freedom. In recent years we have made great progress, but what we have created is still far from enough. If we take a look at the state of the world, we can clearly see the great dangers, but also the great opportunities that are opening up in front of us. The situation of the Third World War, what Rêber Apo has called the interval of chaos, will necessarily pass into a phase of reorganisation of the world. The rulers are preparing or have already begun their offensives to put their stamp on the new emerging order. It remains for us to decide whether we will continue to be mere spectators of the course of history, or whether we will take up the pen ourselves and, as the youth, write our own history.

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