Communiqué of the Communist Party of the Workers of France (PCOF)
Stop the Imperialist Escalation in the Caucasus
For several days, the situation in the Caucasus is again becoming dangerously inflamed.
Pushed by the US imperialism, the Georgian reactionary regime began the
hostilities with a military operation whose stated goal was to retake
control of the "separatist" territory of South Ossetia supported by
Moscow. The Russia of Medvedev and of Putin responded with a military
counter-offensive of great scope. The bombs of the two camps have
fallen on the civil population in South Ossetia, but also in Abkhazia
and various towns of Georgia, leading to many casualties and hundreds
of thousands of refugees.
This is not a “thunderbolt in a cloudless sky,” but the result of a
long escalation that has as a backdrop the struggles between the great
imperialist powers for control of a region rich in hydrocarbons.
Georgia represents for the Caucasus what Afghanistan represents to the
Middle East: a transit zone to transport Azerbaijani oil from the
Caspian Sea to the Black Sea. As most of the former republics of the
south of the Soviet Union, it is the instrument of a policy of
destabilization used by US imperialism against Russia. This policy,
which has already set fire and sword on the Balkans, took a more and
more aggressive and provocative turn with the installation of the
infamous “anti-missiles shield” in Eastern Europe and the pressures to
accelerate the integration of Georgia into NATO.
Let us not be deceived; just as with Kosovo, it is not a matter of the
United States and its allies defending democracy and the rights of
peoples to run their own affairs! At the bottom of the energy crisis
and the economic recession, it is a matter of a war of imperialist
redivision! The violence of the Russian response, called
“disproportionate” by the Western powers, is a sign by Moscow of limits
that it will not allow anyone to overstep.
Sarkozy and his Minister of Foreign Affairs have gone to play mediators
in the name of the 27 countries of the European Union. If the positions
of the governments of the EU are far from being unified, it is become
some do not want an open conflict with Russia, nor a too unstable
situation, where they would be on the front line.
Our Party denounces this war between two reactionary camps, of which the peoples of the Caucasus are paying the price.
This confirms, if it was need, the danger of the “Atlantist” policy
developed by Sarkozy. This policy, which was recently shown by a
reinforcement of the French presence in Afghanistan – in response to
Bush’s expectation – and by the reintegration of France into all the
structures of NATO, is a aggressive and warmongering policy.
Stop the imperialist provocations! Stop the bombardments!
Work to reinforce the international solidarity of the peoples in their struggles against the imperialist warmakers!
Paris, August 12, 2008
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