At the most fundamental of levels, imperialism, as it has existed since the beginning of the 20^th century, is a structure. This structure's primary feature is the concentration, in just a handful of countries, of the capacity to continually revolutionise the means of production: to continually upgrade the productivity of labour across the whole of society through the use of increasingly powerful and complex technologies.

Few questions of international politics over the past century have seen the Western left as sharply divided as the war in Ukraine. At the same time, the quality of left-wing debate on Ukrainian topics has rarely been high; often, characterisations that demand detailed analysis and proof are presented as self-evident.

This report seeks to identify main features of the current situation in world politics and set out the internationalist tasks for socialists in Australia. In the time available, it is only possible to identify and elaborate briefly on these features. The tasks identified are what a socialist group in Australia should be doing. The extent to which our group, RED ANT, can carry out these tasks will depend on how our membership strengthens and our supporting network grows.