We publish here the communiqué we wrote following the announcement of the attacks, at the very moment French President F. Hollande was calling for national unity and the defense of freedom of speech and democracy. From that very moment and in front of the immediate reaction – just an hour after the Charlie slaughter – it appeared very clearly for us that this massacre was going to be utilized by the bourgeoisie and that it will have international consequences. The hours and days which followed have confirmed our first impression. But at first, above all it mattered to warn the working class – as much as we could – against the trap which was set even when the horror and the barbarity of terrorism could not but provoke emotion and sympathy for the victims of these murders.

After this immediate statement, we produced a text of analysis of the international situation which aims to draw the historical significance and implications of the Parisian attacks and the use that the French State and, with it, the whole international capitalist class, made of them: A New Period is opening in which the bourgeoisie is set to confront more directly and massively the proletariat. It looks to impose not only economic sacrifices but, still more, an ideological, political and physical defeat so that it can open the path to generalized imperialist war. This text was written January 16th. It doesn’t take into account Syriza coming to power in Greece January 25th and the international significance of the putting forwards of so-called “radical” and anti-economic liberalism Lefts. Syriza’s success and the promotion of Podemos in Spain is the second act of this general offensive of the bourgeoisie against the proletariat after the Parisian events. They aim to give credibility to a left democratic political alternative for the workers to make them turn away from their class fight against the crisis and capitalist State, whether this one is ruled by the Right, the Left, indeed extreme-Left and whether it proclaims to be “anti-capitalist” as in Greece.

No to Terrorism, No to Capitalist State (January 7th 2015)

Just 4 hours after the slaughter of several famous journalists, the murderous attack against the satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo is already heralded as the ”French September 11th”. Calls are growing for national unity, to “unite” behind the democratic state to defend the Republic. France’s President, F. Hollande, was immediately at the scene calling for national unity in face of « an attack (…) committed against a newspaper – that is against freedom of expression – against journalists (…) against the spirit of the Republic ». “Democracy” has declared war on barbarism: « we need a national fight against Islamism » said a distinguished Left journalist (Serge Moati). The slogan is launched: “Defend democracy and the Republic against islamo-fascism”. In mere hours after the attack, the Socialist Party is already calling for “a Republicans’ March” aimed at leading the population to participate en masse. All the world leaders, Obama, Cameron, Merkel, Putin, etc. denounce the attack and Islamic terrorism. The war against terrorism, declared at the time of the Ottawa (Canada), New York and Sydney attacks these last months, is about to play out again with the population called upon to back their democratic state against the terrorist and totalitarian danger. The anti-Islamic and anti-Muslim propaganda campaigns will intensify just as street demonstrations and ’counter-demonstrations’ on this question are being advanced in Germany. It is a genuine warlike climate that the bourgeoisies of all countries, particularly North America and Europe, are trying to impose. And undoubtedly for us at this hour this last attack marks a step in setting up a great ideological and political offensive at the international level against the working class in order to impose an atmosphere and logic in defense of the state, national unity and preparation for war.

Clearly we denounce these barbarous acts and the use of terrorism. It is not a weapon of the working class. And above all, present terrorism is always, directly or indirectly, manipulated and provoked by the states as a measure – and moment – of imperialist war and, at the same time, against the working class through generalized terror and the means of repression for which these bloody actions provide the justification; and above all through the ideological and political spin designed to draw in whole populations behind their state and bourgeoisie in the name of national unity and the defense of the ’democratic’ state.

For the working class, the ’option’ of “democracy against Islamo-fascism” is a trap. Islamic terrorism is produced by democratic states and exacerbated imperialist rivalries – “Human Rights Watch” clearly revealed how the FBI recruited and used unbalanced Muslims (as well as others) to commit “lone-wolf” attacks. It is not Islamism confronting the working class but the capitalist states of which the majority, above all the main ones, are democratic. These terrorist provocations and the anti-terrorist and anti-Islamic campaigns are fully part of state policies used against the working class.

The further that capitalism falls into economic crisis, imperialist rivalries and war, the more that terrorism will develop and hit innocent people. Only the working class can drive back war and terrorist threats by developing its struggles in defense of its living and working conditions. Only through the destruction of capitalism can it pose a solution to this march to war that the bourgeoisie everywhere attempts to impose on mind and body.

The proletariat can’t fall into this bourgeois state trap - to line up ’either with it or against terrorists’. This would play into the hands of its archenemy, which it now must fight more than ever.

No to Terrorism, no to National and ’Democratic’ State! Both lead to generalized imperialist war.

Yes to working class struggle against capitalism, its misery, its terror, and its wars!

International Group of the Communist Left, January 7th 2015.