When did World War II begin? With the German attack on Poland on September 1, 1939? With the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941? In 1936 with the Nazi-Fascist intervention to crush the Spanish Revolution? Or in 1931 with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria?
(1) No one, especially in the historical phase of asymmetric and hybrid wars, will declare the Third World War. If we define as global the wars that mark the transition from one historical phase to the next, from one hegemonic system to another, well, we are already in a conflict of world-historical proportions, marked by the decline of the U.S.-led imperialist bloc. and the beginnings of a coalition led by China. The exponential increase in military spending at every latitude is proof that a large-scale conflict is approaching.
(2) The war in Ukraine has a world-historical importance because it is de facto a war in which Russia finds itself fighting not only against the powerful Ukrainian army but also against the entire NATO bloc that supports Kiev — in the times of the USSR this massive confrontation only occurred in 1950-53 during the bloody Korean conflict. In Ukraine, Russia is not only waging an existential war, it is acting as an anti-imperialist obstacle, it is deferring and hindering Western imperialist revanchism. A real peace in Ukraine would be possible on condition that the Collective West renounces its hegemonistic aims; this seems unlikely.
3) This is demonstrated by the arrogance with which the strongest Western European countries (the “willing”), in contrast to the seemingly Pontius Pilate-like attitude of Trump’s America, keep the war and their puppet Zelensky alive, continuing to arm and finance him and even planning to provide him with eternal and unconditional support. They refuse to rule out a future large-scale European war. This explains the major rearmament plan decided by the European Union, approved despite much public opinion and some countries’ opposition. A plan that alleged strength but conceals both the weakness of the Eurocratic elites and the EU’s profound crisis. The rearmament plan, which implies the adoption of austerity social policies, could trigger a major cycle of popular struggles, which anti-imperialists must support by all means, with the aim of dissolving the European Union. Such a result would restore the countries’ national sovereignty.
(4) It is wrong to place trust in the North American administration to end the war. Trumpism, despite the heterogeneity of the MAGA social base, corresponds to the gesture of someone who needs to take a breather to start running again. North American imperialism takes one step back to take two steps forward. This is simply imperialist cunning. This explains both the tariff policy to end globalization based on free trade, and the willingness to make an accommodation with Putin’s Russia in the hope of detaching it from China, in view of the anticipated decisive clash with Beijing. The infallible proof of the irreducible imperialist nature of Trumpism is its unconditional support for the ultra-Zionist regime of Israel, its ignoble support for its genocidal war in Gaza and the final annexation of the West Bank, and its aggression against Iran — which, despite being left on its own even by those who declare themselves its allies, has responded courageously by striking Israel deeply.
(5) In this implacable context, the tenacious battle being waged by the Palestinian Resistance and the people and government of Yemen are two factors of global historic significance, even more so given the serious blows suffered by the “Axis of Resistance” in Lebanon and Syria and the accommodating stance taken by Russia and China toward Israel. Palestine and Yemen demonstrate that with the support of the popular masses, the anti-imperialist torch can exist and endure.
(6) In solidarity with the Palestinian spark, not only in the imperialist West, a mass movement has arisen that, like a great river, sees the confluence of the most disparate streams of a humanity that had seemed to be in a trance. This could be the arrival of a new great world power, that of the peoples who desire peace, freedom, democratic rights and popular sovereignty.
STOPWW3 – www.internationalpeaceconference.info
September 7, 2025
