Proletarian struggles and ’social revolts’ have multiplied since last summer all around the word, affecting all continents. Capitalist society is in a period of massive class confrontations worldwide because of the economic impasse and the drive towards imperialist war. The outcome of these beginning historical confrontations between the capitalist class and the proletarian class will decide the path towards generalized imperialist war, the only path for capitalism if it is not destroyed, or the path a towards pre-revolutionary period. To be clear, only the proletarian international insurrection, its destruction of the capitalist state and the exercice worldwide of its class dictatorship can prevent the whole of humanity from falling into a global catastrophe.

In the last six months, we have seen further evidence of the untenability of capitalist social relations. The ruling class has no other course to offer than intensified militarization of its economic rivalries, which requires the imposition of austerity on the home front, accompanied by the class collaborationist argument that these economic sacrifices must be borne by “all” (as usual the cost of imperialism is paid for by intensifying the exploitation of the proletariat) to increase competitiveness in relation to other imperialist powers, whether officially allies or foes. In the post Cold War era, the terrain of these conflicts was mostly economic, specifically as regards to direct confrontation between major powers. However, recently we have seen how intimate is the connection between military commitment and commercial interests, and how willing imperialist powers are to escalate their commercial conflicts to the point of military conflict. A dispute over access to energy resources off the coast Cyprus has escalated to the point that Greek authorities openly contemplate a military clash with Turkey. The latter has sent military forces to Libya to assist the government in Tripoli in the fight against the Russia-backed general Haftar. In Libya too, control of oil resources is an immediate stake, concerning numerous competing powers, as it is in Syria where Trump gloated they had seized the oil. Imperialist fronts are developing across North Africa, the Sahel, and the Middle East. In these arenas of conflict, access to energy resources, pipelines, and shipping routes are a direct stake for the different national bourgeoisies.

The austerity, unemployment, and degradation of the living and working conditions of large swathes of workers have provoked revolts with varying degrees of proletarian character across the globe, ranging from petty bourgeois led struggles appealing to British and US imperialism in Hong Kong, to struggles with a marked proletarian character, in which the unions and capitalist left parties nevertheless are strongly present to sabotage them. While some of these revolts have been oriented around typically petty bourgeois demands, such as the resignation of the government when there isn’t a viable alternative to capitalist rule, others have featured working class demands and been motivated by degradation of living and working conditions. Proletarians have mobilized in countries around the globe, notably in Lebanon, Iraq, Chile, France, the US around demands for employment, higher wages, payment of wages, against increasing the pension age. These struggles are a response to the attempt of the bourgeoisie to make the proletariat pay for its crisis and finance the drive to war by intensifying exploitation, and as such they are connected to the fight against imperialist war whether the participants of those struggles are conscious of it or not. That is why we can say that these massive class confrontations will determine the outcome of the historical alternative revolution or war.

In this period, given the stakes there is a pressing need for revolutionaries to become the effective vanguard of the class, a task which requires confrontation of bourgeois political forces intervening in the class struggle as well as debate and discussion among comrades and groups in the revolutionary camp to clarify what is objectively in the interest of the class and what are appropriate orientations to put forwards during struggles. These are key aspects of the process of reappropriating the communist program and the formation of the party.