The Gauche anticapitaliste, like all the political and social forces of the left, has been struck by the international upheavals of recent weeks, following the electoral victory of the extreme right-wing Trump in the world's leading imperialist power, the USA. In this context, the debate on security, military and defence issues has gripped all the countries of Europe. Putin's regime poses a real threat to Eastern Europe and to democratic and social rights across the continent, through its alliances with the far right. Similarly, Trump, Musk and Vance, like the far right in Europe and elsewhere, are showing their willingness to attack head-on any social and progressive policy, however minimal, such as environmental regulations, the fight against discrimination or workers' social and trade union rights. Macron, Von Der Leyen and De Wever are merely preparing the ground for these openly neo-fascist forces.
In this new context, for revolutionary Marxists, the best defence is not the most expensive or the most dangerous weapons, but does raise anew the question of ends and means, and therefore of the objectives to be defended. In this sense, security for workers also means, first and foremost, social and ecological security. We therefore call on the whole of the social movement and the forces of the left to take security issues seriously and not leave them in the hands of the far right or the neo-liberal right, whose repressive and violent policies are tailor-made for big business and the most parasitic elites.
In the current context of a shift to the extreme right in the USA, a right-wing turn in Europe and threats against Ukraine, the following three objectives are unavoidable and indissociable: support for Ukraine against Russian expansionist carbofascism, the fight against the authoritarian liberals who govern us in Belgium and Europe, and the fight against the neo-fascist international of the Trump-Putin axis. As well as failing to meet the needs of Ukraine's legitimate defence against Putin's invasion, the European plans are once again being used as a pretext for imposing policies of austerity, repression of freedoms and ecological destruction. These same hypocritical European leaders are active accomplices in Israel's genocidal war in Palestine and, like Starmer, Macron and Rutte, are seeking to "negotiate" with Trump's USA, even if it means submitting to imperialist and annexationist policies in Ukraine, Palestine and elsewhere.
In this new development of deadly capitalism, we need an independent policy based in Belgium on three clear refusals:
- No to the ReArm Europe plan, which gives the arms industry and the market the keys to our defence policy. No to a capitalist, neoliberal Europe!
- No to the Arizona coalition's anti-social reforms against the whole of the world of work and social security, no to the plans to privatise (whether Belfius, BPost or others) to increase the defence budget, no to the increase in the retirement age for the military
- No to national unity: for a continuous and determined class struggle in the face of our governments' anti-social and liberticidal attacks!
For an independent and internationalist military policy, by and for the working classes, anti-capitalists are defending the following breakaway programme:
- The complete and unconditional cancellation of Ukraine's entire debt;
- The effective termination of all economic ties with Russia;
- The seizure Russian assets held by Euroclear in Belgium: an incursion into the property of capitalists ;
- A complete and immediate halt to arms deliveries to reactionary EU partner regimes such Saudi Arabia, Israel, Egypt, India, etc. in order to redirect available arms to Ukraine;
- Complete defence and strategic autonomy from the USA: for example, an independent Starlink programme, a halt to F35 purchases, etc. ;
- To achieve this, the arms industry needs to be socialised and planned, under democratic control, with existing and liberated resources prioritised to help the Ukrainian resistance. Similarly, the army must be democratised and placed under the control of the people;
- Our anti-capitalist security policy also requires massive investment in education and cyber-defence, and in the public health ;
- Similarly, such a policy requires the socialisation of key sectors of the economy such as finance and energy, and a move away from fossil fuels, which threaten humanity and make us dependent on the USA, Russia and the Gulf monarchies;
- A crisis tax on the big fortunes of Belgium and Europe and a wide-ranging social and ecological programme;
- Finally, the election of a constituent assembly of the peoples Europe: a genuine political process to create a democratic community of destinies for the peoples and workers of Europe.
Statement by the national leadership of the Gauche anticapitaliste, 17 March 2025