Thank you to our comrades in the PDP for their hard work organizing this event, and just as importantly for their vision of international solidarity and a socialist future. Thank you to our friends from around the world who have joined us in this perilous and unprecedented time. I want to take my time today to speak about our perspective on the question of imperialism today.
The war in Ukraine is exceptional, we’re told, because it’s a war between two imperialist powers. Such a position condemns both NATO and US imperialism as well as Russia (and China). Yet equating U.S. imperialism and NATO and “Russian imperialism” mischaracterizes the war in Ukraine and produces a formulation that politically disarms our class. This is true even if the “equals sign” between the U.S. and Russia and China is qualified by the reluctant admission that the U.S. is the “main enemy.”
Imperialism emerged as a global system in the last part of the 1800s, especially after the 1884 Conference in Berlin, where the 14 imperialist powers met and divided Africa between themselves, so that France got Algeria and Italy got Libya, Britain got Egypt and Spain got Equitorial New Guinea, and so on. By 1902, 90 percent of Africa was under the control of the imperialists, and this happened all over the globe, from the Philippines to Venezuela. But each imperialist power had to keep expanding, so after another decade or so, the imperialist countries went to war with each other in order to redivide the colonies amongst themselves, which we know as World War I. It was the same impetus that led to World War II.
World War II devastated all of the imperialist powers. The U.S. was the only one that remained relatively unscathed, so the U.S. reorganized the imperialist world, rebuilding its former enemies, regrouping them under its umbrella, and uniting against their common foe: socialism.
For what they didn’t anticipate was the emergence of a socialist camp that would restrain or challenge imperialism globally. In the entire period between 1945 and 1991 world politics were reshaped by the bipolar relationship between two camps. On the surface, it looked like a war between two states—between the U.S. and the Soviet Union—but from our view this was a struggle between classes that took the form of a struggle between nations.
From 1991 until 2015
The 20th century was an era of global revolution, as the formerly colonized world rose up and, with the support of the Soviet Union—with their financial and military assistance and training—threw off the shackles of colonialism. By 1980, almost half of the world’s population was living under governments that were either socialist or anti-colonial.
The U.S., in response, launched a full-court press against the Soviet Union and destroyed or helped overthrow the socialist governments of the USSR and in Eastern and Central Europe. Yet after 1991, these countries that suffered counter-revolutions did not form a new imperialist camp. They were incorporated into the U.S. imperialist camp.
The main exception was Russia. The Russian economy collapsed. Pro-Western capitalist oligarchs looted what had previously been public property, and the masses of people who previously had social and economic rights, were plunged into poverty. Between 1991 and 1997, the life expectancy of Russian men dropped by 6 years, a kind of statistic that unheard of except during war times.
In 1991 there were 14 countries in NATO. Now there are 30. This can only be understood as the full incorporation of all of Europe into the camp of US imperialism. Russia requested to join NATO at various times but was denied or ignored because if it was admitted then several major European powers, like Germany and Italy, would have gravitated toward Russia and away from the U.S.
Break
U.S. imperialism has been waging wars, interventions, occupations, creating a network of foreign military bases and imposing economic sanctions on countries that have tried to maintain any semblance of independence from U.S. imperialism. That’s what the wars of most of our lifetimes have been about. While the U.S. was bombing Iraq and Afghanistan, Yugoslavia and Syria, Uganda and Somalia, Yemen and Northwestern Pakistan were—and are—about.
Does this resemble the conduct or motivation for Russian foreign military intervention, either in Syria in 2013 or Ukraine in 2022? To ask the question is to answer it. Russia moved into Ukraine not as part of any larger global design for domination, but because they and their security were severely threatened by the incorporation of Ukraine into the U.S. military/economic bloc. The U.S., which is already a de facto member of NATO, which means it’s in reality a member even if not formally.
Since the 2014 coup, which inaugurated a civil war between the central government and the primarily Russian population in the East, the Russian government refused to openly recognize or support the Eastern territories proclaiming their independence. This was a demand of communists in Russia and Ukraine. In fact, last month I met with leaders of the Ukrainian Communist Union, who told me that if Russia had invaded Ukraine in 2014, they would have been welcomed by the majority of the population, save for Kiev. The Ukrainian government and military were far weaker in 2014 and just after, and it could have feasibly done so with little resistance.
Russia didn’t move against Ukraine until 2022, which begs the question: if Russia was imperialist, why would it have waited so long, until conditions were unfavourable? The reality is that this isn’t an inter-imperialist war, but a defensive war to prevent U.S. imperialism from taking full control over Russia’s neighbor that shares a 1200 mile long border.
Some on the left argue that because Russia initiated military action, they caused the war, they are the aggressor, and the solution is for Russia to withdraw its military forces. As Marxists, however, we don’t look at war and evaluate it in terms of who fired first. We examine the class, sociological, and political factors underlying a military conflict.
The war isn’t between a socialist and an imperialist government. Both governments represent their respective capitalist classes. But the difference between them is of central importance. The war launched by Russia in Ukraine is not motivated by the desire of the Russian capitalist class to expand its economic power over and exploitation of Ukraine and Eastern and Central Europe. In fact, a great number of the Russian oligarchs are very unhappy about this war because the U.S. and EU-imposed sanctions impact their access to their fortunes. We have not supported the tactic of the Russian government to invade Ukraine. There were other options that could have contributed to a growing polarization in Europe over the US insistence on NATO expansion. But with that said, it is our view that the motivation for Russia’s intervention is far different from that of the wars initiated by the U.S. The Russian government has invaded Ukraine as a defensive measure to inhibit or prevent U.S. imperialism from using Ukraine as a staging ground for war and war threats against Russia.
The war in Ukraine is a terrible tragedy. Thousands of people from Ukraine and Russia have been killed. Had there not been a capitalist counter-revolution in Russia in 1991, the peoples of the two countries would be living in peace and as comrades. But describing the war simply as a tragedy is insufficient. The US imperialist state created all the conditions for the conflict. They cornered Russia. When Russia insisted on serious negotiations, just prior to the start of the war, the representatives of the Biden Administration flatly refused to enter into real negotiations even while they predicted that Russia would take military action.
The new era of global politics
For the 30 years since the dissolution of the USSR, the Russian government has tried to use various means to temper or restrict the growing threat that NATO’s eastward expansion posed. For a number of years Russia pursued a policy of appeasement. Russia was included in the G7, and the G7 became the G8. That was a particularly important point of recognition for Russia as a major power. China, for instance, was never included in the G7.
They could have vetoed UN Resolution 1973 that authorized the bombing of Libya, but they didn’t. One reason was likely that they weren’t ready for such a conflict, but another was that the war was fairly far removed from their borders. But the Syrian War was different, and in 2013 Russia not only vetoed a UN resolution authorizing the U.S.-led war, but it intervened on behalf of the Syrian government in a decisive way, such that the U.S. lost that war.
At that time, Putin had just come back as head of state. He had clearly opposed the Russian government’s appeasement of the U.S., Britain, and France in their war against Libya. By intervening forcefully in Syria, a principal Russian ally in the Middle East, the Putin government blocked the U.S. from carrying out its planned regime-change operation. This brought down the wrath of the U.S. against Russia and specifically against Putin who, by the way, is not the only person in Russia. Whatever country the U.S. is targeting, they equate the entirety of that country with a person: it’s the U.S. v. Putin, v. Saddam, v. Assad. That’s a way of dehumanizing the enemy and obscuring the actual political forces at play.
We need to regularly reaffirm that the danger to peace in the world comes from U.S. imperialism. We continue to affirm the core position presented by Lenin that imperialism is the period of monopoly capitalism. It is a system, not a policy. Furthermore, the relative weakening of U.S. imperialist power which has been evident for the past 15 years, doesn’t automatically or inevitably diminish the threat of war. On the contrary, the U.S. ruling class will use all available means to strengthen its position relative to those who constitute a major challenge to U.S. hegemony – especially China and Russia. NATO’ s eastward expansion which caused this war is an expression of the determination by the U.S. to use its power, especially its military power, to overcome the process of decline.
Because Russia is a large country, with a big military and thousands of nuclear weapons, Putin is determined to prevent the U.S. from succeeding. Thus, the logic of escalation is clear cut. This leads to the real danger of nuclear war. The threat of a nuclear confrontation receded from public consciousness after the destruction of the socialist camp and the end of the so-called Cold War. But this possibility is real and we have to help the broader public understand the danger.
Until now, U.S. public opinion has been impacted by the anti-Russia war hysteria. The fact that it was Russia that launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine means that Russia appears as the aggressor against a weaker neighbor. The fact that all of Europe was drawn in behind Ukraine fortifies this impression. The non-stop and one-sided media coverage of the war fortifies this consciousness. If the current reckless U.S. orientation leads to a wider war with Russia this will change all political calculations. Biden and the Pentagon don’t want a wider war with Russia. Such a development will shake everything up politically in the United States. Yet, it is precisely the arrogance and recklessness of the Biden Administration that could cause this outcome.
As socialists living in the center of US imperialism, we are required to expose the machinations and insidious role of our “own” ruling class, regardless of who its target is. That doesn’t mean that we support Putin or the Russian government, although we recognize that Putin’s government is widely popular within Russia (and around the world). The same government that’s taking away our basic democratic rights to autonomy over our bodies is by definition incapable of playing a progressive role anywhere in the world. If there’s anything the working and oppressed around the world need from us, it’s to wage that battle against our government. Our Party’s primary objective is not just to struggle against the current order, it’s to overthrow it and to create a socialist society where the people of the entire world have the freedom of peace and justice.
