Taiwan: Building an internationalist revolutionary force amid the war

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international socialist road report

Since Putin's invasion of Ukraine in February, anti-war demonstrations have been launched in many countries around the world, but because of the lack of leadership in the movement, pro-Western, militarized and nationalistic fantasies have arisen among the masses. The International Socialist Alternative (ISA) actively participated in the anti-war movement and proposed a plan to truly stop the imperialist war. In the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, etc., our organization has been involved in anti-war protests large and small; in Russia, anti-war protests have been severely suppressed, and any anti-war group can be charged with treason, and the maximum penalty is imprisonment In 2015, several members of the ISA were also arrested and imprisoned for speaking out and organizing protests. Internationally, we called on trade unions and anti-war groups to donate to support anti-war activists in Russia.

In Taiwan, ISA not only independently held weekly street propaganda, but also participated in 6 rallies, including in front of the Moscow office in Taiwan on February 26, the Symbiosis Music Festival on February 28, and the anti-nuclear rally on March 10. In our anti-war action, we proposed that "stopping the Putin (Putin) war does not depend on the European and American empires, but on the global anti-war movement" and. "Ukraine Today, Taiwan Tomorrow" is a warning that the new Cold War is heating up and the masses need to be on guard. Under the cover of the propaganda of the ruling class, the current Taiwanese people's awareness of the cross-strait crisis is relatively lax. Although Xi Jinping sees that the West is tough on Russia and is afraid of being implicated by sanctions, he will be more restrained in attacking Taiwan at present, but this cannot prevent the new Cold War between China and the United States from continuing to heat up, and the conflict between China and Taiwan is bound to intensify. At the same time, we oppose militarization and advocate the united struggle of Chinese and Taiwanese workers to challenge Chinese and American imperialism.

China-Hong Kong-Taiwan Internationalist Conference

On March 19th, ISA successfully held an online public seminar on "How the Ukrainian War Subverts the World Political Situation" in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and invited our Swedish comrades from the International Committee to give a lecture. The participants came from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, with more than 50 people. join. In Hong Kong and Taiwan, leftists face the pressure of pro-Western imperialism; in China, they have to fight pro-Russian and pro-China official propaganda. Only the ISA has the ability to hold a conference that spans three places and responds to the lies of the ruling classes on both sides under an internationalist program, overcomes the centrifugal force of nationalism, and deepens the program of solidarity with the working class.

The challenge of nationalism

Rising nationalism in Taiwan challenges our anti-war struggle. Our position against Sino-US-Russian imperialism was attacked by the Green Camp. In February, some pro-U.S.-Taiwan factions tried to undemocratically stop our propaganda and slandered us as "China Common Passers-by". If the Green Camp really takes anti-war as its primary goal, it should unite the largest number of groups and numbers under the general principle of anti-war, and accommodate groups with different ideas in the movement, but it seems that pushing Taiwan closer to US and Japanese imperialism is their primary purpose . They welcome the presence of blue-green politicians at rallies to use the war in Ukraine to promote pro-American and militarized policies, and to incite "national unity" to deflect anger against those in power.

We at ISA support the greatest solidarity in action, while defending our independent position and patiently explaining our views to more rallies, selling over 140 publications. Many people said that it was the first time they heard our views on international socialism, which caused them to reflect.

Left-wing political power is weak

It's a pity that we were the only left-wing group involved in the aforementioned anti-war rallies, other groups calling themselves revolutionary Marxism, such as the ISF (International Socialist Forward) and Sparks (IMT Taiwan) that split with us last year for going nationalistic, were absent . They even signed a joint letter initiated by a peripheral organization of the Green Camp NGO. The petition unilaterally condemns Russia, but has no criticism of Western imperialism. In the new Cold War era, if one unilaterally criticizes the oppression of one of the imperialist camps, no matter how correct the criticism itself is, it will fall into the trap of supporting the opposite imperialist camp. Sadly, the ISF wasn't welcomed by them for their endorsement of the Green Camp. In recent months, they launched a nationalist movement called the "Olympic Rectification Referendum", and they tried to win over the far-right nationalist Taiwan Federation, but they fell behind.

The war in Ukraine will create 5-7 million refugees, causing international public opinion to once again discuss the refugee crisis. Tsai Ing-wen was elected in 2019 on the back of the Hong Kong protests, but has done little for Hong Kong asylum seekers since taking office. Now society exposes Tsai Ing-wen's breach of promises about refugees, embarrassing the Green Camp. In order to divert their attention, some of the green camp cyber army attacked our ISA's request for the Tsai government to immediately grant full asylum rights as "too greedy" and "overwhelming". In order to escort Tsai Ing-wen, they have completely betrayed the protesters in Hong Kong. They believe that the refugee's right to asylum is not won through struggle, but can only "humbly" beg for alms from those in power in the country of asylum. ISA advocates for the solidarity and struggle of people around the world to put pressure on governments to obtain asylum rights for all refugees.

If you share our philosophy and want to build a fighting leftist organization, please contact us! Join ISA!