World Anti-imperialist Platform

World Anti-imperialist Platform
Abbreviation	WAP
Founded	2022
Political orientation	Anti-imperialism
Website
https://wap21.org/ https://wapnews.org/
YouTube channel	https://www.youtube.com/@worldanti-imperialistplatf1312

The World Anti-imperialist Platform (WAP) is an international anti-imperialist organisation launched in 2022 to coordinate the efforts of all those who desire to work for the defeat of imperialism. It believes that the single most important theoretical task facing anti-imperialists today is that of correctly characterising both the ongoing war in eastern Europe and the imminent wars in east Asia (south Korea and Taiwan).

It believes that Russia and China are not imperialist powers, for they are not engaged in wars of dominance, colonisation and rivalry over the control of superprofits. It describes the 2022 Russo-Ukrainian conflict as a proxy war waged by imperialism against Russia.

This sets it apart from organisations such as the Communist Party of Greece and most parties in the IMCWP, which have characterised the war as interimperialist.

History

2022 Paris Declaration

On October 14, 2022, the platform launched its program: the Paris Declaration. A full version of the text can be found here. On this date, the declaration was signed by 14 parties, although this number is expected to grow as the imperialist war drive intensifies.

List of signatories in chronological order

Representatives of parties from across the world gather in Paris on October 14, 2022

Ruling parties listed in bold.

1. Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist), UK
2. People's Democracy Party, South Corea
3. Korea is One, Belgium
4. Baltic Platform
5. Communist Party of Kyrgyzstan, Kyrgyzstan
6. Hungarian Workers' Party, Hungary
7. Communist Party, Italy
8. Italian Communist Party, Italy
9. Communist Party, Switzerland
10. Spanish Avantgarde, Spain
11. Eastern Initiative
12. New Communist Party of Yugoslavia, Serbia
13. National Association of Communists, France
14. Pole of Communist Revival in France, France
15. Chilean Communist Party (Proletarian Action), Chile
16. Socialist Workers Party of Croatia, Croatia
17. Platform for Independence – Greece, Greece
18. Communist Party of Peru (Patria Roja), Peru
19. Collective of Struggle for the Revolutionary Unification of Humanity, Greece
20. People's Party of Panama, Panama
21. Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain, Spain
22. New Communist Party of Montenegro, Montenegro
23. United Socialist Party of Venezuela, Venezuela
24. Union Proletariat, Spain
25. Rassemblement Communiste, France
26. Lebanese Communist Party, Lebanon
27. Party of Communists USA, USA
28. Mexican Communist Movement, Mexico
29. Dynamique Unitaire Panafricaine, Africa
30. Party of the Communists of Kyrgyzstan, Kyrgyzstan
31. Belarusian Communist Workers’ Party, Belarus
32. Belarusian Republican Organization of the CPSU, Belarus
33. Center for Political Innovation, USA

2023 Caracas Declaration

On March 4, 2023, the platform hosted an antiwar conference with the Sao Paulo Forum. A mass demonstration was organized by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, and simultaneous demonstrations took place around the world.

2023 Seoul Declaration

On May 15, 2023, the platform held the Seoul International Conference in South Korea. The Seoul Declaration, concerning the rising tide of global war in east Asia, was read by Joti Brar, vice-chair of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist) (CPGB-ML) and spokesperson for the platform.

The third congress of the People's Democracy Party was held at the same time, receiving greetings from the Russian Communist Workers’ Party, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, and the CPGB-ML.

Criticism

According to some Marxist-Leninist critics, the WAP does not have a Leninist understanding of imperialism and bears similarities to the Second International and German Social Democracy, which tore up their resolutions on the question of imperialist war in the face of the First World War. For the WAP, the struggle against imperialism is selective and comes down to the form of its exercise and not its nature. An illusion is created that the peaceful side of the powers will never resort to force of arms, except for their own defensive purposes or out of humanitarian solidarity.

Other problematic issues, according to comrade Ivan Pinheiro, former General Secretary of the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB), are:

[...] not only the parties of this revolutionary camp are missing from [the platform], nor do the overwhelming majority of the parties that make up the International Communist Movement (ICM), including those that, despite our differences, deserve respect for their trajectories and the political weight they still enjoy in their respective countries. There are parties that only attended one of the first meetings, probably to find out about it, and never returned. In our country, apart from the PCB, the only other party that has participated in the WAP is the PCdoB.

By the way, the evidence that all the airfare and accommodation costs of the delegates from the organizations attending these meetings are fully covered by their main stakeholders and the frenetic pace of a world event on average every two months, on different continents, should serve as food for thought and study as to what the primary reason is for the creation and financing of this platform, which is oriented against Marxism-Leninism and in uncritical and unrestricted defence of the strategic interests of powers competing for world hegemony in the imperialist chain, of which they are a part.

Another aspect that needs to be considered is the risk that the initiative to create this eclectic platform could consolidate into a kind of anti-imperialist international (selective and, as we have seen, not so much anti-capitalist), which could end up resulting in a split in the International Communist Movement.