For the Freedom of Nations!

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"For the Freedom of Nations" Movement рус. - Движение "За свободу наций!"
Chairman	Medvedev, Dmitry
Founded	16 February 2024 (2024-02-16)
Headquarters	Moscow, Russia

"For the Freedom of Nations!" Movement (full title - "Forum of Supporters of the Struggle against Modern Practices of Neocolonialism - "For the Freedom of Nations!") is an international inter-party movement uniting various political parties of the states of the Second World and Global South aimed at countering modern manifestations of colonialism.^[1]

The movement was officially created in February 2024 on the initiative of the United Russia Party after the founding General Assembly of the "Forum of Supporters of the Fight against Modern Practices of Neocolonialism" was held in Moscow.^[2] Since then, political parties from more than 50 countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Europe and the CIS have joined the movement.^[3]

Ideological background[edit]

Countering modern neocolonial practices is understood by supporters as the main goal of the "For the Freedom of Nations!" Movement. These practices include the imposition of sanctions and restrictive measures, weaponization of currencies, cultural indoctrination, falsification of history, information and psychological campaigns, etc. The Movement positions itself as a Forum for consolidation of the political movements from countries of the Global South.^[4]

The term "neocolonialism" itself emerged in the 1960s, with Kwame Nkrumah, President of Ghana at the time, being the first to mention it in his book "Neocolonialism: the Last Stage of Imperialism".^[5] In 1965, Cuban revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara gave a speech in which he criticized the domination of some countries over others, which he also called neocolonialism^[6].

""Africa is, one might say, an almost untouched field for neocolonialist invasion. Here we saw changes that forced the colonial powers to give up their former absolute rights. However, in those cases where these changes occurred slowly and non-violently, colonialism invariably developed into neo-colonialism From the point of view of economic dominance, one is no different from the other". Ernesto Che Guevara

The ideological basis for the "For the Freedom of Nations!" Movement was expressed in Chairman of the United Russia Party Dmitry Medvedev's article entitled "The time of the metropolises is up".^[7] In it, he identifies several types of neocolonialism, which the Movement is called upon to fight, namely: sanctions, monetary, debt, cultural-ideological, legal, regulatory, "friendly" and its other types.

"The former metropolises passionately desire to continue to parasitize the countries dependent on them, to ensure their own comfort by humiliating and suppressing others. Only this time - with more sophisticated means and methods. There is nothing new in this. Consuetude est altera natura ("habit is second nature"), as the famous Latin proverb says". Dmitry Medvedev

Thus, the main goals of the Movement are as follows^[8]:

1. Countering attempts to revise generally accepted principles and norms of international law, the practice of taking illegitimate sanctions measures;
2. Systematizing information about crimes committed during the colonial period (based on the principle that there is no statute of limitations for such acts), assessing the damage caused;
3. Providing assistance to former colonies in the fight against falsification of history, as well as perpetuating the historical memory of the crimes of the colonialists;
4. Developing joint approaches on current issues on the international and regional agenda, as well as coordinating efforts to achieve economic, food, information, scientific, technological and fuel and energy independence;
5. Developing international programs of cultural exchange and humanitarian cooperation to strengthen genuine good-neighborly relations among the states of the Global South.

Members[edit]

The movement is informal in nature, so it has no official membership criteria. The structure of the movement includes a Standing Committee, which includes political movements from 20 countries of the world.^[9]

The founding General Assembly of the "Forum of Supporters of the Struggle against Modern Practices of Neocolonialism - "For the Freedom of Nations!" was attended by 50 political movements, including 6 European, 23 Asian, 14 African and 7 Latin American ones.^[10]

Structure[edit]

Standing Committee[edit]

The Standing Committee is the main executive institution of the movement. Dmitry Medvedev, Chairman of the United Russia Party was elected as the Chairman of the Standing Committee at the inaugural General Assembly. It also has two Deputy Chairmen, namely, Andrey Klimov, senator of the Russian Federation, and Evgeniy Ivanov, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, The Standing Committee comprises 20 political movements:

Members of the Standing Committee of the "For the Freedom of Nations!" Movement

Political party	Country
National Liberation Front	Algeria
Yeni Azerbaijan[11]	Azerbaijan
Belaya Rus Party[12]	Belarus
Worker's Party	Brazil
Communist Party of China[13]	China
Communist Party of Cuba[14]	Cuba
Golkar	Indonesia
Lao People's Revolutionary Party	Laos
Free Patriotic Movement	Lebanon
FRELIMO	Mozambique
Union Solidarity and Development Party[15]	Myanmar
Sandinista National Liberation Front[16]	Nicaragua
Pakistan Muslim League[17]	Pakistan
United Russia	Russia
Serbian People's Party[18]	Serbia
Ba'ath Party[19]	Syria
African National Congress[20]	South Africa
People's Democratic Party of Tajikistan[21]	Tajikistan
United Socialist Party of Venezuela[22]	Venezuela
Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF)[23]	Zimbabwe

The Standing Committee regularly holds discussions on key issues regarding the development and future activities of the Movement. It makes decisions on the strategic directions of the Movement's activities, determines the places and dates of regular and extraordinary General Assemblies, and also approves draft programmes and final documents. The Standing Committee was formed on the basis of the Organizing Committee, which functioned until the founding General Assembly of the Movement in February 2024.

Meetings of the (Organizing) Standing Committee of the "For the Freedom of Nations!" Movement

№	Date	Place
1	30.03.2023[24]	Moscow
2	31.05.2023[25]	via videoconference
3	21.11.2023[26]	via videoconference
4	16.02.2024[27]	Moscow
5	17.06.2024[28]	Vladivostok

General Assemblies[edit]

General Assemblies of the "For the Freedom of Nations!" Movement are large-scale events, which are held every two years. The first one took place on February 15-17, 2024 in Moscow, Russia.^[29] Currently, plans are underway to hold the next General Assemblies in Latin America and Africa.^[30]

Expert Council and Coordination Working Group[edit]

The decision to create the Expert Council and the Coordination Working Group of the "For the Freedom of Nations!" Movement was adopted at the meeting of the Standing Committee of the Movement in Vladivostok, Russia, on June 17, 2024.^[31] Their composition has not yet been confirmed.

Main achievements[edit]

During the first events of the movement, the following agreements were reached:

1. To consider within the framework of the UN General Assembly the possibility of establishing a Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Colonialism on December 14, the day of the adoption of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples^[32];
2. To promote the activation of the process of final decolonization in relation to those territories included in the List of Non-Self-Governing Territories, approved by the relevant UN Special Committee^[33];
3. To strive to launch a process of systematization and comprehensive calculation of damage to affected countries from illegal unilateral restrictive measures taken bypassing the UN Security Council and crimes of the colonial era^[34];
4. To encourage scholarly research, including about the so-called the "great divergence" and its connection with the plunder of colonial peoples;
5. To counteract the falsification of history and attempts to erase from collective memory the facts of the crimes of colonialism, including genocide, mass ethnic cleansing, illegal transfers of cultural heritage, slave trade, racism, as well as other similar practices of violation of universally recognized rights and freedoms^[35]
6. To counteract the selective application of universal norms of international law and the promotion of the concept of a "rules-based world order".^[36]

Criticism[edit]

"For the Freedom of Nations!" Movement is criticized for being overly ideological and having a distorted view of neocolonialism. Political scientist M. Komin, in an article for the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), writes that the movement did not lead to any serious results, except for a call to consider December 14 as the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Colonialism.^[37]

In addition, it is noted that the initiative of the United Russia Party is aimed at distancing itself from the "colonial past" of Russia itself. "The modern interpretation of neocolonialism aims to cleanse Russia's historical image and lay the foundation for its modern anti-colonial position, suggesting a continuation of Soviet-era policies," the author writes. In addition, the formation of a discourse around neocolonialism is considered exclusively as another attack against the "collective West" and the American world order.

Political scientist S. Sukhankin writes for the Jamestown Foundation that the emphasis of Russian politicians on the neocolonial agenda is largely based on successful campaigns to "disinformation" the peoples of Africa and Asia and is not very successful in the long term.^[38] Criticism of the Movement was also published by Chatham House^[39]

See also[edit]

• BRICS

References[edit]