No War But the Class War Initiative in South Asia

NWBCW Initiative: Building Internationalist Cooperation Against Imperialist War

Introduction

The NWBCW (No War But Class War) initiative represents a coordinated effort to unite internationalists and internationalist organisations across national boundaries, working together to agitate the rest of our class for internationalist aims. This initiative brings together internationalists from different tendencies who can reasonably cooperate on the fundamental principle of internationalism, rejecting the nationalist divisions that serve only the interests of the ruling class.

Global Context and Origins

The world is marching towards a generalised war, with conflicts already raging across multiple fronts. Wars persist in Cambodia versus Thailand, the ongoing genocide in Palestine, conflicts in Sudan and Yemen, the protracted war in Syria, and now the US reigniting hostilities against Venezuela. The European Union has announced plans to mobilise about €800 billion over the next four years for military purposes, reflecting the massive rearmament drive occurring worldwide. This deteriorating situation demands immediate internationalist response.

The Urgent Need for Organising in South Asia

Nationalist sentiments remain consistently high throughout South Asia, creating particularly dangerous conditions as imperialist tensions escalate. The Kashmir situation demonstrated how quickly nationalist fervor can be heightened within a matter of days. This rapid escalation cannot be attributed solely to immediate bourgeois propaganda campaigns, as nationalism is already deeply ingrained in popular consciousness through decades of ruling-class indoctrination. Recent political changes in Bangladesh have further illustrated this dynamic, with online nationalist elements immediately advocating for war with India following governmental transitions.

With genuine internationalist workers’ groups so limited and consistently drowned out by social patriots and parliamentarians, it becomes necessary to begin the difficult task of organising beyond national borders. This urgency intensifies as workers face the high possibility of being sent to kill each other in service of competing ruling-class interests.

Proposed Structure and Approach

The plan involves establishing a NWBCW group specifically for South Asia, combining internationalists from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and other regional backgrounds. This would facilitate direct contact between internationalists across these artificial state boundaries, enabling collective agitation efforts while maintaining local activity.

The initiative explicitly rejects serving as a front group for any existing organisations, instead fostering genuine international cooperation among committed internationalists. The approach involves reaching out to internationalists throughout the region and established organisations that demonstrate authentic internationalist principles, functioning in their respective localities while coordinating with the broader NWBCW network.

We maintain no illusions about “left unity,” recognising it as nothing more than opportunism that dilutes revolutionary potential. In practice, “left unity” typically involves accommodating social patriots who support their own imperialist states in times of conflict, parliamentarians who channel class struggle into electoral dead ends, and various nationalist tendencies that ultimately serve ruling-class interests despite radical rhetoric.

Tasks and Practical Work

NWBCW committee members engage in cross-border collaboration against imperialist war through locally-focused interventions and coordinated propaganda efforts:

Anti-Racist and Anti-Communal Organising: Committee members organize workers against racist attacks by the state and intervene in anti-racist/communalist rallies. This can take the form of promoting the creation of mass assemblies of workers (targeted for their ethnicity/religion/caste) where they can function independently. These mass assemblies can also provide internationalists with a platform where they can agitate to prevent workers from being duped by legalistic NGOs or leftist organisations whose only aim would be to gain further support for their party (eg: Mass Line Politics).

Strikes: The committee members should intervene in strikes as they emerge to promote self-organisation and the creation of strike committees.

Development of Self-Organisation: Holding demonstrations and actions specifically designed to develop self-organisation within the working class, serving both immediate political purposes and long-term organisational development.

Class Struggle: Beyond issues of race and communalism, members participate in the general class struggle, recognising that anti-imperialist work must be grounded in the situation as it is and workplace organisation.

Propaganda Coordination: Local groups coordinate their efforts across borders, developing consistent internationalist messaging that challenges nationalist narratives promoted by ruling-class media and political establishments.

Educational Meetings: To at first organise hybrid educational meetings on current situations and essential literatures.

Writing and Translations: One of the key tasks is to create further internationalist propaganda in a variety of languages. This can take the form of articles (to be also given out as leaflets), posters and banners. There is also a considerable list of articles in foreign languages that there are plans to translate into native languages.

Creation of a Revolutionary Internationalist Organisation: The ultimate task of this initiative is not only to gather revolutionaries for the purpose of propaganda but to actively organise so that we may intervene in working class struggles as they emerge. If we recognise that workers become class consciousness through lived experiences, revolutionaries also emerge during the period of the ascendancy of class struggle. To not organise revolutionaries into an unified body so that it may coordinate agitation and organising beyond just their locality, merely means sabotaging class struggle itself. This requires an organisation that is international but will not likely emerge as the growth of a singular organisation. We may call this organisation a Party or Federation or Revolutionary Organisation, the terminology is irrelevant and different names may have to be used when necessary. We however do not have illusions that in the long run a heterogenous organisation of communists, anarchists and all else in-between can fully agree on tactics. If this group can result in the creation of separate internationalist communist and internationalist anarchist organisations, it will still contribution towards the creation of a World Revolutionary Organisation.

Strategic Objectives and Conclusion

The overarching goal involves building a robust internationalist movement throughout the region, directly confronting the nationalist fervour that pits workers against each other across artificial state boundaries. The initiative specifically targets communists and anarchists who demonstrate genuine internationalist principles, so that they can intervene in the class struggle together while also providing them with necessary contacts and organisational support to develop sufficient capacity for establishing formal organisations capable of contributing toward an eventual world revolutionary organisation.

Success depends on maintaining principled internationalist positions while developing concrete local interventions in class struggle. The goal is not merely to oppose war in abstract terms or to hurl empty words denouncing pogroms, but to build a revolutionary movement capable of effective resistance to imperialist conflict and all other attack son the working class.

In a period marked by escalating global tensions, massive military expenditures, and manipulation of nationalist sentiment, such coordination becomes essential for any serious anti-imperialist work. The establishment of a South Asian NWBCW Group represents a practical step toward building the organisational capacity necessary to oppose both local ruling classes and the broader imperialist system, making this work absolutely necessary for the survival and advancement of working-class interests across artificial national boundaries.