Dear comrades,

I cordially welcome you to our first ICC meeting since the Fifth ICOR World Conference.
I am very glad that we are finally meeting today after we had to postpone our meeting that was actually scheduled for January.

Unfortunately, our meeting is overshadowed by sad news. We were deeply pained to learn of the passing of Comrade Sanjay Singhvi on 23 April 2025. We had hoped to have him with us here at our meeting, as at many previous ICC meetings. Sanjay’s death is a great loss for all revolutionaries in India, for the international communist movement, for the international working-class movement and anti-fascist movement. With him we lose a founding member and mainstay of ICOR and the ICC. The revolutionary world movement is poorer because of Comrade Sanjay’s death, but he will not be forgotten. By further building ICOR we continue one of the causes that were particularly dear to him.

I would ask you to rise from your seats for a moment of silence.

We meet today for the first time since our Fifth ICOR World Conference and the Lenin Seminar. The ICC has changed a great deal compared with the ICC elected at the Fourth ICOR World Conference. Adib and Alejandro, two veterans of the ICC, have left. Many of you are new to the ICC or in a new role in the ICC. So a central task of our meeting is to jointly familiarise ourselves with the work in our new team and also to introduce everyone to our tried and tested way of working. We already began discussing this in the ICC Secretariat at our very successful meeting in March. An important innovation issuing from that meeting is this introductory speech, which for the first time we have prepared collectively as ICC.

Many of you have assumed new responsibilities in the ICC.

Of course, we must discuss the political and economic developments, which involve serious changes that pose new tasks also to ICOR – and also discuss the development of the struggles of the workers and broad masses, and how we as ICOR work in them. This introductory speech gives us a lot of material for this discussion.

An essential task of our meeting is the thorough evaluation of the Fifth ICOR World Conference and the Lenin Seminar. You received the respective drafts in good time and were able to study them thoroughly. The decisions of the Fifth ICOR World Conference are the basis of our work, and the discussion at the Lenin Seminar addressed and pursued central ideological and political issues, the further discussion of which we definitely should organize inside and outside ICOR.

A special highlight of this meeting is that we are coupling it very closely with public political activities for solidarity with the Palestinian people. Thanks to all of you for declaring your willingness to participate.

Of course, we must above all take a number of decisions on the coming work of ICOR well into 2026.

As usual with the introductory speech, the personal position of the Main Coordinator and her party is included.

So please view the following text explicitly as a contribution to the discussion at our meeting from the MLPD, too.

Trump’s inauguration marks a turning point in post-war history – his foreign and economic policies are shaking up the imperialist world system

The inauguration of the fascist Donald Trump marks a turning point in post-war history, influencing events around the world.

Trump has been rebuilding the USA for 100 days in the spirit of a fascist dictatorship, the main features of which are:

1. Trump is switching to a fascist, aggressive imperialist-colonial foreign policy:

He wants to annex Canada and Greenland and demands sovereignty over the Panama Canal.

2. “America first” is also being brutally enforced in economic terms.

3. Fascist and racist refugee policy.

Trump plans to deport “millions and millions”. A state of emergency was declared at the border with Mexico when he took office, and the military is massively involved in deportations.

4. Establishment of concentration camp-like prisons, initially for refugees.

Guantanamo will become such a camp for 30,000 refugees. 150 Venezuelan migrants have already been deported to the fascist CECOT prison in El Salvador, in some cases against the rulings of US judges. Homeland Security Secretary Noem had herself photographed like a concentration camp guard in front of caged, shaved prisoners.

5. Abolition of the bourgeois-democratic separation of powers and subordination of all state decisions to the fascist president. In feudal-monarchical style, Trump issued 143 decrees in his first 100 days in office, i.e. 1.5 per day. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt made it clear that, in Trump’s view, federal courts have “no jurisdiction over the President’s conduct of foreign affairs.”¹The US administration forced many prosecutors who were involved in proceedings against Trump to resign from their posts.

6. Mass purges in the state apparatus to eliminate democratic and critical forces.

7. Transition to a racist interpretation of citizenship in accordance with the fascist theory of “ethno-pluralism,” according to which a people is defined by its ethnicity, not by its citizenship. Trump has unconstitutionally abolished the place of birth principle in citizenship law.

8. Trump has decreed to extend the death penalty, and a wave of executions is looming in the USA. He instructed Attorney General Pam Bondi – who is also the top prosecutor – to seek the death penalty if “an illegal immigrant living in the U.S. commits a ‘state crime’.”² State crimes include cyber attacks, money laundering, drug trafficking and tax evasion.

9. Abolition of the rights of queer people

10. Comprehensive fascistization of bourgeois ideology

The core of his ideological struggle is aggressive anti-communism:

During the election campaign, Trump described Kamala Harris as a “Marxist, communist, fascist” who wanted to establish a “communist-style government.”

The petty-bourgeois anti-communist mode of thinking is integrated into fascist demagogy. This was specifically mobilized among the Latino population who had fled bureaucratic-capitalist countries such as Cuba or Venezuela.

Use of language as an aggressive weapon: He instructed US authorities to stop using 200 terms, such as “racism”and “climate crisis.”

Another method is the creation of enemy stereotypes and aggressive agitation against migrants, queer people, democrats and socialists.

Religion is being instrumentalized in a proto-fascist way.

11. Step-by-step, outright Gleichschaltung of the media:

Fierce threats against journalists and media that report critically on Trump. Only Trump-friendly media still have access to the White House. Various media outlets are nothing more than fascist propaganda machines of the Trump administration.

12. Attack on bourgeois-democratic science:

Because Harvard University does not want to bow to Trump's dictates, billions in funding are being cut.

13. Inhuman cessation of humanitarian aid and dismantling of previous multilateral international organizations:

The withdrawal of the USA from the WHO or USAID is driving the impoverishment of broad masses around the world, on the one hand, but is also challenging their rebellion on the other.

14 Dramatic attacks on the natural environment

Trump wants to “unleash” fossil fuels and scrap all climate regulations since 1970, without the slightest consideration for the survival of humanity.

The change to a fascist form of rule that has begun in the USA is inspiring fascists all over the world. They have set out to present modern fascism to the masses as a way out of the dilemma.

Above all, the petty-bourgeois anti-communist mode of thinking is mobilized, according to which the left-wing alternatives and socialism have failed.

The fact that the previously bourgeois-democratic rulers use the system of the petty-bourgeois mode of thinking in a seemingly progressive variant is cleverly exploited. In this way, criticism of the government can be declared as criticism of the left-green mainstream and socialist economic policy.

However, whether the qualitative leap towards the establishment of the fascist dictatorship will mature depends essentially on how the working class and the masses act. Trump has already suffered significant losses among his mass base. 51 percent of the population now disapprove of his “actions,” with 56 percent disapproving his actions in relation to trade and 62 percent in relation to inflation.³

Trump was elected by many workers because they hoped for the alleviation of social problems and inflation. Shortly after taking office, he declared that inflation had been resolved, whereas it fluctuates between 2.8 and 4 percent.

He promised a “Trump boom” on the stock markets – and achieved the worst 100-day record of any US president since 1945, apart from Nixon. He has also managed to achieve the worst 100-day poll ratings of any president in 70 years.

The blatant contradiction between narcissistic, megalomaniacal self-congratulation and reality is likely to become a growing problem for Trump, on the one hand. After all, the more you aggrandize yourself, the deeper the fall people sincerely wish for you!

On the other hand, Trump’s narratives and fake news are being systematically disseminated in various media that no longer mention any other views. These fascist propaganda methods must not be underestimated.

The working-class and people’s movements in the USA have begun to break free from their paralysis. On 19 April 2025 there was a second nationwide day of protest with activities in 700 cities. In the meantime, progressive creative artists have joined the vanguard of the movement, which has broadened it considerably.

There were also mass demonstrations on May Day, which is not necessarily common in the USA. The situation is challenging masses of people “to become politically active again,” as ntv analyzes. It is noted that a “new left-wing generation”⁴ is emerging in the USA. They are protesting against the “oligarchy” in the USA. In 2024, a quarter of all young adults already took a positive view of communism.⁵ In the USA, contradictions extend far into the state apparatus, and democratic judges are increasingly stopping Trump’s decrees.

One has to be prepared for new, sometimes surprising developments. For instance, it is foreseeable that the Democrats, who are more an umbrella organization for a wide variety of movements than a party, will split. The two-line struggle is coming to a head there. A wing with socialist aspirations has emerged, which is also up in arms against the reactionary Biden.

Courageous anti-fascist democratic protests are developing around the world, such as in Argentina or Serbia, and in Turkey there is even a transition to a democratic anti-fascist revolutionary ferment.

The election of the liberal Carney in Canada is not only a rejection of Trump’s annexation threats, but the masses have also gained their experience with the first months of the fascist Trump administration.

In the beginning, modern fascists usually do not yet act with open terror against the working-class movement. Sooner or later they must and will switch to open terror when the means of deception lose their effectiveness.

The development of the world economic and financial crisis

Dear comrades,

The worldwide economic and financial crisis from 2008 onwards had already triggered a crisis in the reorganization of international production. On this basis, a new global economic and financial crisis unfolded in 2018, just four years after the end of the last one.

The overproduction crises that occur in a law-governed way are exacerbated and prolonged by the chronic overaccumulation of capital. Whereas the last world economic and financial crisis was the deepest, we are now facing the longest.

After 2023, industrial production in the G7 countries fell again in 2024, to 94.8 percent of the pre-crisis level. In the eurozone, it fell to 96.5 percent of its pre-crisis level. The OECD is also just short of the pre-crisis level again.

In Germany, the industrial production index fell for the third year in a row in 2024. At -4.7 percent, this is the sharpest decline in the last 20 years, apart from 2009 and 2020.

The global automotive industry is the focus of the interpenetration of the overproduction crisis with the structural crises in the transition to e-mobility, in connection with digitalization and the switch to renewable energies.

In the automotive and supplier industry in Germany, 68 percent of all companies are planning to cut jobs, also through outright layoffs.

Since 2023 in particular, industrial production is stagnating in countries aspiring to become new-imperialist countries, like Poland, after partly steep increases through 2022. Growth momentum meanwhile is slowing considerably also in the new-imperialist countries. Since mid-2023 at the latest, stagnation or a downward trend can be observed also in Turkey, South Korea and Mexico.

The reorganization of international production is reaching a relative limit. We are experiencing a profound disruption in the reproduction process of capital that goes beyond the cyclical overproduction crisis. The structural crises also play a role, but that is not a sufficient explanation.

The new dimension of government crisis programs in connection with corona and inflation fizzled out in a very short time.

New law-governed developments have emerged in the economy that we have not yet fully grasped.

The crisis of the reorganization of international production is currently intensifying drastically with the transition to an open global economic war.

This is driving the danger of a Third World War.

The tendency to replace human labor power in the digitalization process has, with the force of law, driven the tendency of the rate of profit to fall to a peak. This is another reason why some of the industrial production transferred abroad now is to be brought back into the country.

The fact that the imperialist countries are now literally vying for the employment of industrial workers is the material basis for the fact that a particularly intense battle has broken out over the minds of the industrial workers.

However, Trump’s vacillating course is an expression of an insoluble dilemma: being dependent on international production, on the one hand, and having to enforce an “America First” policy on the other.

The international competition is to be fought out with a course openly guided by nationalistic interests, including even openly violent methods.

However, today no one can do without the world market and economic interpenetration, because this is the decisive source of maximum profit for solely ruling international finance capital.

Trump’s grandiloquently announced tariffs therefore quickly had a damper put on them. This is because if tariffs on imports are increased, they will also increase costs for US companies that rely on international supply chains. At the urging of leading US monopolies and in the face of growing criticism from the masses, Trump had to suspend the general tariffs of over 10 percent against all countries except China.

Trump’s blackmailing methods aiming at (re)transfer of parts of the international monopolies’ production to the USA are also part of the preparations for world war.

This direction was already set by a congressional committee in December 2024:
“Plan, prepare and then do what is necessary as if we were fighting a war with China in the next three years.”⁶

China is taking up the gauntlet in the battle over who is to be the leading imperialist superpower. For in 2024, the USA overtook China again in the list of the 500 largest monopolies for the first time since 2018 – 139 of them are US companies, 119 are from China.

However, China certainly has opportunities to put pressure on the USA in this economic war. Not only via the numerous US monopolies that make maximum profits from the exploitation of Chinese workers, but also through the high proportion of US government bonds held by China and US dependence on Chinese raw materials.

The cards are being reshuffled in global trade relations. China is also continuing to expand its trade relations with other countries and is currently trying again to win over the EU as an ally for “free world trade.” While the dollar has lost trust and value worldwide, interest in switching trade relations to the Chinese currency is growing.

The global economic war will drive the formation of camps in the world economy.

But there can be no solution to the contradiction between the revolutionary internationalized productive forces and the nation-state power and organization of capitalist production relations within the imperialist world system.

Since 2018 the market capitalization of shares listed on the stock exchange worldwide has risen by 37 percent to USD 116 trillion. That is three times the increase in global industrial production.

The dominant role of speculation has once again gained massively in importance compared to 2008. In addition to its role as an “offtake” for over-accumulated capital, it has also become a means in the competition between monopolies to wrest profits away from each other.

Dear comrades,

A political characteristic of the crisis of the reorganization of international production is the accompanying crisis of international institutions, which has in part openly broken out, such as the open crisis of NATO.

The UN is divided both on the Ukraine war and especially on the Israel/Palestine issue.

At the 62nd plenary session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) at the end of February, no agreement was reached despite a 30-hour extension. Especially India, China and Saudi Arabia are campaigning against the publication of the next report.

The USA, which previously provided the majority of overall funding, withdrew from the World Health Organization (WHO) following Trump’s election, with Argentina following suit.

Rapid intensification of the threat of world war

In its elaboration on the instability of the imperialist world system, the ECC (J.) writes:

The program that the Trump administration is implementing is not a surprise, but an accelerated implementation of what has already happened in, for example, Poland and Hungary. What is surprising is the rapid switch of the rest of the world to trade wars and real war preparation.

All top imperialist politicians and government leaders use peace phrases – and ruthlessly prepare for a third world war. The EU itself promotes the danger of a third nuclear world war in the murderous competition for sales areas and spheres of influence and with the redistribution of markets. France promotes the nuclear armament of the EU. The EU as a ‘peace force’ strives for a gigantic additional armament. That is the imperialist answer of the EU. The costs are to be offloaded on the masses in Europe by cuts in social expenditure.

The war in Ukraine is a race for raw materials and rare earth metals, an imperialist war between Russia and Western imperialists, who have a willing ally in the Ukrainian government. The US and Russia want to make a deal in which the wealth of Ukraine will be divided between them. However, the European imperialists also want a seat at the table where the cake is divided. The billions invested in that war must yield hard cash. The US wants to keep the spoils for itself, with its agreement on the mining of rare earth metals and other raw materials. Imperialism shows its most cynical face here, at the cost of about 300,000 dead and almost a million wounded so far (WSJ, OHCR, IISS). Competition for rare earths and raw materials is also a key issue in the proxy wars being waged in Congo – and the war in Sudan, which has so far cost about 200,000 lives and displaced over eight million people (Wikipedia). Sea-bed deposits of cobalt, nickel and copper are regarded as key minerals for the global battery industry and are the next target for inter-imperialist confrontations.

In 2024, global military spending reached a new high of 2.72 trillion US dollars. The strongest increase in Central and Western Europe was recorded in Germany at +28 percent.⁷ The EU wants to mobilize a further 800 billion euros in additional funds for war preparations. Most European countries are switching to a war economy, which is an international trend. The transition to a war economy with the awarding of state-backed large-scale contracts to the domestic monopolies is to become a key factor in getting out of the global economic and financial crisis.

The war in Ukraine remains a major flashpoint. Ukraine and its ally NATO are on the defensive and are threatened with a general military defeat.

Trump’s “peace plan” amounts to a deal with new-imperialist Russia to divide up Ukraine among themselves at the expense of the Ukrainian masses and the imperialist rivals in the EU. Leading EU states and their politicians, on the other hand, are calling for a massive rearmament of Ukraine, including the delivery of Taurus missiles. They reach far into Russian territory and harbor the risk of unleashing a nuclear war.

Another flashpoint is developing around Taiwan. Up to 70 percent of the world’s semiconductors come from there. The Taiwan Strait is one of the most important trade routes, with a third of the world’s shipping traffic passing through it.

After a brief respite, the third flashpoint in the Middle East is once again ablaze. Israel began a new ground offensive and has started to permanently occupy parts of Gaza, Syria and Lebanon. It is confirmed that the core of the war is the creation of an imperialist Greater Israel.

Gaza has been cut off from the outside world for over 50 days. There we get a taste of what imperialist barbarism means.

In Israel, war fatigue is growing and more than half of the population and reservists reject the war’s continuation. The increasingly widespread worldwide criticism of Israel’s genocide in Gaza is also contributing to the open political crisis of the fascist Netanyahu government.

Our response to all this must be to fight against all imperialists, to promote international working-class unity and a worldwide peace movement, as well as to transform imperialist war into revolutionary war.

Dear comrades,

Those in power are reacting to the extremely unstable situation and the social polarization it entails with an accelerated rightward development and fascistization of the state apparatus.

As part of an alleged German “reason of state,” fundamental rights are being widely attacked in connection with solidarity with the Palestinian liberation struggle. This includes more than ten thousand criminal proceedings.

Around 100 proceedings were initiated against our campaigners during the election campaign. The threat of claims for damages by the VW Group against the MLPD is a serious indication that attacks will focus on the MLPD.

The ideological core also of fascistization is anti-communism.

Development of the main factors of the global environmental catastrophe

Dear comrades,

About the environmental factors the ECC (J.) writes: Scientists reported that carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels are higher than in the last 6,000 years. Polar ice caps are rapidly melting – sea levels are rising. Small island nations and coastal cities face increased flooding and erosion. Climate change is making extreme weather more common and dangerous. Flooding and prolonged droughts threaten food and water supplies. These events create a chain reaction, impacting economies and displacing communities. The continued use of poisons in large-scale capitalist agriculture is leading to a biological wasteland. Ocean acidification is threatening marine life and ecosystems. Millions of people die annually from diseases linked to polluted air. Microplastics enter the food chain, affecting animals and humans alike. In capitalism, the environment will never be adequately protected. Production must focus on maximum profit that can be made today, or the competitive battle is lost.

The record levels of global warming and the direction of its accelerated development can hardly be explained by emissions from fossil fuel combustion alone. Rather, the different “processes of self-destruction of various elements of the biosphere”⁸ are increasingly becoming the determining cause of global warming.

In particular, the main factors of the global environmental catastrophe, which are closely linked to the worsening of the climate catastrophe, have grown alarmingly. These include regional environmental disasters, record melting of the ice sheets at the North and South Poles, and the fact that the AMOC (Atlantic overturning circulation) to a great extent threatens to fail, with catastrophic global consequences.

In contrast, however, environmental awareness has been pushed back by those in power. The fascists massively attacked environmental protection as nonsensical and antisocial.

In preparation for the International Environmental Policy Council, an overall successful preparatory meeting was held in Göttingen, Germany. Up to 60 people from at least nine countries took part in the face-to-face and online discussion.

In addition to the fascistization of the state apparatus, there is also a fascistization of the management of the monopolies. At the top are monopolies such as Tesla/Musk or Chinese companies like CATL, and some belonging to the coal and steel industry.

At Tesla, the fight against dismissals and reprisals against militant colleagues is combined with environmental policy initiatives and the worldwide anti-fascist protests against Elon Musk.

Let us strengthen the ICOR and work on its alliance capacity/cooperation with UF and organizations outside ICOR on the basis of important achievements of 2024

Dear comrades,

At our Fifth ICOR World Conference we made ambitious plans. We discussed “how the Marxist-Leninist parties and organizations can play a leading role in mass struggles, uprisings and revolutionary situations”, that we “must work for … the leading role of the working class”⁹, and that we are continuing the successful work in and vis-à-vis the United Front, which is gaining importance in view of the existence threatening crises into which imperialism is thrusting humankind. None of these tasks can be accomplished without resolutely strengthening ICOR, the United Front, and other international forms of organization of the workers’ and mass movements.

Doubtless we generally have worked on this successfully in 2024 and in this year so far:

• With the Fifth ICOR World Conference and its proletarian culture of debate we have strengthened our unity. We were able to admit three new member organizations, namely the Chinese Communists (MLM), likewise from China the CPPDM, and from India SUCI(C). And with the Regional Coordination Middle East we were able to strengthen out structures. With PCR Argentina and FLSP Sri Lanka, important organizations took part as guests. DPLF shows interest in membership.

• The Lenin Seminar with more than 700 attendees had broad participation. Important organizations were represented there, in particular also a number of smaller organizations from the USA that are interested in ICOR.

• The new Social Media Team of ICOR took up its work.

• The United Front has since organized four webinars, which now usually have around 100 participants and feature numerous highly interesting introductory speeches. With the Zimmerwald Conference 2.0 on 6 September in Switzerland the UF is currently working on its biggest and most important project since the First World Congress in 2023.

• Together with the United Front we organized the Environmental Day of Action in November 2024 and took part in COP29 in a critical spirit with a Russian-German delegation.

• Starting from the Solidarity Week in October 2024 we developed the solidarity with the Palestinian liberation struggle, and in December we were able to sign the Solidarity Pact with Al-Awda, which will enter its next phase with the council on 18 May: the immediate preparation and financing of the ICOR brigades for the rebuilding of the hospital as soon as the situation in Gaza permits. We have proved that not a piece of paper can be slipped between us and the progressive and revolutionary forces in the Palestinian liberation struggle. We must also clarify what the standards are here; we from the MLPD have decided that for our part we cooperate only with secular and democratic organizations.

• The work of the International Miners’ Conference in relation to the strike of the miners in Chiatura, Georgia, is an instance of actual coordination in the midst of a struggle, and certainly the most highly developed work of the IMC since it was founded.

We have decided that all ICOR organizations “should search for other revolutionary organizations and groups in their country/region and write to them to win them over to our tasks.”¹⁰In the work of the new Regional Coordination Middle East this is bearing first fruits. You read in the Progress Report that nine organizations from the region took part in its webinar. DPLF feels like an ICOR member, and we are exchanging letters with them so that they really become a member. It would also be very important to win the various smaller organizations from the USA that were at the Lenin Seminar at least for closer cooperation. There has been a first exchange of letters with the Office and an online meeting, and the comrades there are mulling over the matter.

With the United Front we have strengthened ICOR’s capacity for alliances. We have gained a reputation far beyond the United Front. For example, Hatem introduced ICOR and the Solidarity Pact at a webinar on the tasks of the working class in the Palestine question that was organized mainly from the Trotskyist camp. Trotz Alledem and meanwhile also IARKP Austria selectively sign ICOR resolutions and spread them themselves. An important role in this certainly is played by die webinars of ICOR and United Front, which are unique.

With the Zimmerwald Conference 2.0 on 6 September in Zurich we want to develop this to an appreciably higher level.

Resistance is erupting throughout the world, especially workers’ and people’s struggles, and sets us important tasks

“There is no proletarian revolution without the leading role of the working class, which the ICOR organizations must work for.” That was the quintessence of the discussion at the Fifth World Conference on the role of the industrial proletariat. The Conference analysed “that the practical coordination and cooperation of the workers’ struggles, especially in the production networks of the international monopolies … are not developed enough.” (Final Resolution of 5th ICOR World Conference) In a separate resolution the Fifth World Conference reaffirmed this task. (Resolution on the working class)

Objectively, the time is ripe for powerful, corporate-wide and cross-border strikes and workers’ struggles. However, the developments are very, very complicated, and given the significantly increased demands on class consciousness we must therefore be patient until the subjective factor corresponds with the objective development. The international industrial proletariat faces great challenges in responding to these attacks with a working-class offensive.

• In response to Trump’s aggressive and chaotic tariff policy, workers are being subjected to constant attempts to divide them along social-chauvinist lines. ‘My company first,’ ‘Our country first,’ ‘Europe united against the United States’ are its slogans. This is accompanied by plans to relocate parts of production to the United States (automotive industry) and export offensives (China to Europe). With the rapid military build-up in all imperialist countries, there are already very concrete plans to manufacture armaments instead of cars in carmakers’ plants (VW workers: “We don’t want to produce death at VW,” leaflet, Labournet, 21 March 2025). In opposition to this, international cooperation between the workforces in the multinational monopolies (automobile, steel, IT technology) must be developed, strengthened and expanded by the ICOR organizations. Through education, cross-border actions and practical solidarity.

• Even though corporations are increasingly abandoning the decades-old ‘tried and tested’ method of class collaboration, it remains a method to discipline the workforce. Reformist and rightist union leaders are at the forefront of this. Strengthening class consciousness and developing class independence, on the other hand, is the path to international worker unity and class solidarity.

• The debate within the workforce and trade unions is intensifying and becoming more polarised. Fascist forces are systematically trying to gain a foothold in the unions or found their own unions and anchor nationalist, racist and xenophobic ideas. Fascism today presents itself in a demagogic and particularly hypocritical manner; it is a crucial task of the ICOR organizations to expose this and strengthen class unity.

It is vital for this complicated work that the ICOR organizations exchange thoughts on their experiences and jointly increase their power of persuasion.

There have already been some very important steps in this direction in recent months. The formations supported by ICOR for international worker coordination – the Miners’ Conference, the International Automotive Workers’ Coordination, and the dockworkers’ exchange of experience – are present where the struggles are growing in determination and independence. Beyond concrete solidarity, we are developing new forces and contacts with trade unions, families, and grassroots initiatives. One example is MACUA (Mining Affected Communities in Action), an alliance supporting ‘illegal’ miners in South Africa who are being treated murderously by the state and mining companies. C Rutledge, their spokesman, wrote to the Miners’ Conference: “MACUA and the mining-affected communities of Stilfontein reaffirm our commitment to working alongside our international comrades. We call upon miners worldwide to join hands in resistance …” (Letter to Andreas Tadysiak, Miners’ Main Coordinator, 9 February 2025)

The most advanced coordinated work is being done in conjunction with the courageous struggle of the miners and their families in Chiatura, Georgia, which has already lasted 60days. A delegation from the miners’ coordination travelled to Chiatura twice, learned from the colleagues, advised them, and was directly on site during important concrete steps in the struggle against the manganese company GM and the government. Money is being collected and the struggle is being publicized worldwide. The people in the region and a growing section of the population in Georgia support the miners. The miners told the Miners’ Conference delegation: “If we had known you earlier, we would have started the struggle sooner.” This is an important signal indicating the great importance of direct coordination, the exchange of experience, and information. This example must set a precedent.

It is of great importance that the International Miners’ Coordination (ICG) takes real steps in developing the coordination of the miners’ struggles.

The miners’ struggle in Georgia, which has been ongoing since autumn 2024, is consciously understood as part of the international coordination of workers’ struggles and is linked to the mass struggles against fascistization in the country.

The potential for a signal for the offensive of the workers worldwide is growing. The ICOR and United Front webinars, which always also serve as a window on the world, report on many mass actions by the working-class movement: from Turkey in connection with the mass struggles against the Erdogan regime, from Argentina in the fight against Milei; from China, where thousands of workers went on strike at the BYD factories in Chengdu; from Belgium (general strike in mid-February 2025). In Germany, hundreds of thousands of workers resolutely participated in union-led strikes in the face of plans to destroy tens of thousands of jobs or even close entire plants. 16,000 workers also carried out independent strikes, which also have the effect of promoting the development of the unions into fighting organizations.

The 3rd Automotive Workers’ Conference becomes extremely important in view of the crisis-proneness of imperialism. But this is in contradiction to a delay of the invitation process.

The miners from Chiattura wrote heartbreakingly in a letter to the miners of Schachtbau GmbH in Thuringia, Germany, a few days ago:

“International solidarity is one of the biggest tools in our arsenal, as our struggle has confirmed … over and over again. ...

This is why we want you to know that your fight isn’t alone.

We may be far from you physically, but we are closer than ever.”

The ICOR also is planning to take major steps in the preparation, implementation and evaluation of the 3rd IAC in Pune, India. We decided to actively promote the IAC, and everyone agreed to this with enthusiasm at the 5th World Conference. But so far we clearly have not kept our promise!

We are now all aware of the need for a long lead time and of the countless detailed tasks that need to be completed in preparation. We therefore have a duty to establish contact with automotive workers and suppliers without delay and to promote the sending and financing of delegates, as well as to take care of the organizational tasks. We must immediately begin to win delegates, clarify visas, collect money, organize travel, write country reports and evaluate the experience. And report on them. Reports on all successful mobilization efforts, and also the problems that still arise in the process, belong on the ICOR website.

We have all made a promise and see it also as our obligation to Comrade Sanjay, who had the idea to hold the IAC in India, in the heart of an international industrial metropolis, and to make it a success with powerful appeal.

What tasks does the ICOR set itself this year?

Dear comrades,

Our analyses, which we prepared on the basis of the ICC-Secretariat meeting in March and which are contained in your continental reports and contributions to this introductory speech, provide the guideline for our work in the coming six months.

We have given ourselves the Zimmerwald Conference 2.0 as a major practical task, which, in view of the acute fascist danger in many countries and the accelerated militarization and war preparations of all imperialist countries, is becoming even more important than we initially assumed. Zimmerwald stands for bringing the various currents of war opponents to the “table” and mobilizing as diverse a spectrum as possible from the progressive democratic and anti-imperialist peace movement. “No truce” with the imperialists and the ruling class in our own country is the motto.

This is not self-evident. The position of Red Wedge Belarus (webinar 27.04.25) issues the slogan “Peace without weapons is capitulation. Peace without justice is collaboration”and calls for arms deliveries to Ukraine. This would leave the Ukrainian workers and people to their reactionary government and collaboration with the imperialists. The Australian CPA(ML) sees itself as a “second world” country according to the “three worlds theory” and is developing a strategy involving its own bourgeoisie. There is a great need to clarify the strategic positions for approaching the socialist revolution.

The comrades of the ECC write about Zimmerwald: “It will also be necessary to deal with various contradictions (including the assessment of … the leading role of the working class, the dialectical consideration of mass movements … in particular), and to achieve a higher degree of unification.”(Continental Report Europe)

Mass persuasion must now help people to understand that capitalism and imperialism are at the root of this development towards barbarism and that only socialism is the solution.

A highlight at the end of the year will be the 3rd International Automotive Workers' Conference.

We are also planning an effectively staged protest at the COP 30 summit in Brazil, which will also prepare the 2026 Environmental Strategy Conference.

The Continental Conferences are to be held in 2026, but should already be prepared this year on the basis of the resolutions of the 5th WC.

But we will not only be discussing the highlights of our work. A key outcome must be the focus of the day-to-day work of the Continental Coordinators. Especially in our fast-moving times, there must be intensive personal contact with the individual organizations, communication about the work, the organization of mutual learning, and contributions to the analysis of the continents for the entire ICOR.

Dear comrades, the work of the ICOR has already been developed to a considerably higher level – but the challenges have also grown by leaps and bounds. That is why our meeting, together with the public activities, comes at exactly the right time. There will certainly be differences of opinion, but with our usual proletarian culture of debate, we will certainly emerge from this meeting unified and strengthened.

In this spirit, much success to us all.

1https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/politik/ausland/usa-donald-trump-gesetz-abschiebung-venezuela-gericht-100.html

2www.morgenpost.de, 12.3.25

3 USA poll: Trump and Musk more unpopular than ever, rollingstone, 15.4.25

4 Quotes from N-TV online article from April 13: "You make Trump and Musk very nervous".

5 USNews.com 1/13/25

6 “The Decline of the United States Defense Industrial Base and the Need to Restore Industrial Deterrence,” aei.org 5 Dec. 2024

7 SIPRI Annual Report 2024, 28 April 2025

8 Stefan Engel et al, The Global Environmental Catastrophe Has Begun!, p. 322

9 Final Resolution of 5th ICOR World Conference

10 All adopted decisions of 5th ICOR World Conference, Point 6