Once more imperialism is trying to use war to dam up the rising colonial revolution. The Middle East, epicentre of the Arab revolution that is hastening from victory to victory, is currently the scene of a brutal and cynical intervention by the counter-revolutionary forces of imperialism.
The heroic uprising of the Lebanese masses against the reactionary and pro-imperialist Chamoun regime was already a first pretext for thinking about this intervention.
The uprising of the Iraqi masses who have brought down the abject regime of Noury Es Saïd, warder of imperialist interests in the Middle East, made imperialism decide to intervene in Lebanon and Jordan to save these puppet regimes which are in the direct and cynical service of imperialism. The fabulous profits amassed by imperialism and the very limited native cliques contrast with the immense misery of the peoples of these countries. But, since Mossadegh's nationalization of Iran oil, and especially since Nasser's nationalization of the Suez Canal, and finally since the lamentable failure of the imperialist intervention against Egypt, the Arab masses in the Middle East have become conscious of their invincible rights.
Irresistibly they are driving to take into their own hands the wealth of their countries by expropriating imperialism and the native cliques in its pay.
Imperialism, however, has decided to defend the some three thousand million dollars invested in these countries, and even more the exorbitant profits that it annually draws therefrom — all the more so in that a monopoly price for oil is possible only by control of the fields and the low production costs of Middle Eastern oil.
Imperialism furthermore needs to control the Middle East as an important strategic region, vital for its war plans against the USSR, the workers' states, and the proletarian revolution as a whole — hence the fierceness with which it wants to halt and strike down the Arab revolution that up till now has foiled these plans.
During the Suez expedition, American imperialism thought it well to desolidarize itself from the action of the French and English pirates, already so compromised in the eyes of the Arab masses, in order to gain time and the good graces of at least part of the Arab bourgeoisie. But now, faced by the rising strength of the Arab revolution that is showing itself to be more decisive than the plans and enterprises of betrayal or cowardice, whether from the outside or the inside, American imperialism has been forced roughly to tear off its mask of "anticolonialism" and to head up the new expedition à la Suez.
This fact provokes an immense danger of a world war. For imperialism's enterprise in this vital region will inevitably run head on into the de facto united front between the colonial revolution and the workers' states.
Dogged by its growing difficulties in conquering the colonial revolution and the growing strength of the workers' states — however degenerated or deformed may be the political regime assumed in them by a bureaucracy — difficulties to which is now added the economic depression which is spreading over the capitalist world, imperialism is seeking a way out through war.
Of course it thinks that this might be limited to a sort of repetition of the war of Korea, in which the effectiveness of tactical atomic weapons might now be tried out. But the dynamics of a war in the Middle East, under the new military and political conditions, run the risk of soon proving incompatible with any limitation to a given region. The dress rehearsal runs the risk of proving to be the first night itself: The War!
Let the masses of the metropolitan countries, in Europe and the United States, become rapidly conscious of imperialism's mad race toward atomic world war. Let them shake off their numbness; let them rise to their feet, with extreme energy and extreme determination, to demand:
the immediate withdrawal of imperialism's troops from the Middle East!
the right to self-determination for subject peoples!
It is high time to show active solidarity toward the colonial revolution, so as to avoid defeats like those which de Gaulle's coming to power in France has been, and war would be tomorrow!
It is time, by revolutionary action raised to the highest pitch, to disarm imperialism which is on its way to murdering all humanity!
The Fourth International, conscious of the extreme gravity of this moment, appeals to the big workers' organizations and to the proletarians of the entire world to act without delay.
It calls on the British Labour Party and Trade Unions to support, including by the general strike, the demand for an immediate withdrawal of the British troops sent to the Middle East.
It calls on American trade unions and workers' organizations to act in the same way.
It calls on the French Socialist Party, Communist Party, and Trade Unions to oppose any sending of troops to the Middle East, and to demand the end of the war in Algeria.
It calls on workers' organizations everywhere, the class as a whole, to determined and immediate action against the counter-revolutionary war, and for the defense of the colonial revolution, the USSR, and all the workers' states.
It proposes the immediate holding of an international workers' conference so as to oppose a class united front to imperialism's war.
Proletarians of the metropolitan countries, arise!
If you fail to act quickly and resolutely, you run the risk of cruel awakenings!
INTERNATIONAL SECRETARIAT OF THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL
Milan, 17 July 1958