This article is the editorial for issue #22 of Communist Revolution. Subscribe here or order a copy of the new issue in our store.
A new word has just appeared in the vocabulary of major newspapers and liberal commentators: imperialism. Reuters warns that “Trump’s foreign policy called imperialist by experts.” La Presse speaks of a “return to unapologetic American imperialism.”
One wonders what planet these people were living on when the United States invaded Iraq and Afghanistan not so long ago.
But the fact remains that something is different about the last few weeks, with the kidnapping of the Venezuelan president, threats against Cuba, Colombia, and Mexico, and the declared intention to take Greenland.
This time, the United States is not even bothering to cloak its imperialist actions behind justifications such as democracy or rights and freedoms, as was the case with Iraq and Afghanistan.
Trump openly says he took Venezuela to seize its oil, and openly says he wants Greenland for its minerals.
The United States now controls Venezuela’s oil revenues, which are the main source of funding for the country’s government, and uses them to dictate its policies. U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright says that “the goal is to drive Venezuela’s behavior in a positive direction” — for the United States, that is.
In other words, Venezuela is rapidly turning into an American colony. Clearly, this is the same kind of domination and exploitation that the United States now envisions for the other Latin American countries it has threatened.
This is not really new for the United States, which has invaded a long list of countries throughout its history and still has colonies such as Puerto Rico and Guam.
The United States has been the leading imperialist power on the planet since World War II, particularly since the fall of the USSR, and has taken advantage of this position to exploit the planet, steal natural resources, conquer markets, and overthrow any government that is not sufficiently obedient.
What is new is the frenetic and brazen nature of this imperialism.
But with all due respect to our liberal commentators, this “unapologetic” imperialism is not purely a product of Donald Trump’s arrogance. Trump is merely the catalyst for a deep crisis within the system.
After all, it’s not as if the rest of the world is at peace and Trump has come along like a bolt from the blue. We are seeing a resurgence of wars and trade wars. According to the Oslo Peace Research Institute, 2024 was the year with the most armed conflicts since 1946.
Consider the struggle between Russia and France for control of Africa (which France has essentially lost), the proxy war between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in Yemen, the Sudanese civil war in which the various factions have international backers, or the war between NATO and Russia in Ukraine. Imperialist struggles are setting the world ablaze. They are fighting for control of natural resources, markets, territories, and cheap labor.
And like ill-fed rats in a cage, the economic crisis means that they fight for every crumb of territory, every scrap of the trade pie, with increased vigor.
Certainly, the eccentric and megalomaniacal American president is putting his personal stamp on the precise way in which the situation is developing. But fundamentally, Trump is merely the accident that expresses necessity.
Capitalism is sinking into a historic crisis that is affecting all sectors of society. Like a dying body, the system is convulsing, which is reflected in international relations.
As Karl Marx explained, a system that fails to develop productive forces is doomed to die. And that is what we see everywhere throughout the capitalist system.
Particularly in the West, society is stagnating, even regressing. The economy is slowing down. Living standards are declining. Wealth gaps are widening. Culture and science are no longer progressing.
The Canadian and European economies in particular are being hit hard by factory closures and job losses. Even in the United States, where there is a so-called economic boom, this hides rotten foundations. The boom is largely fictitious, based on the artificial intelligence bubble and stock market speculation.
All this creates profound political instability. The traditional institutions on which the system is based, such as the police, parliament, and the media, are viewed with mistrust at best, but generally with deep hostility.
In a number of countries, the chain has already broken. Last year, revolutionary movements broke out in Madagascar, Nepal, and Indonesia, among others. This month, destitution has driven the masses of Iran into the streets.
But in the West, too, it is only a matter of time before we see the same kind of movements. Last fall, Europe was hit by a wave of strikes and mass demonstrations. In France and the United Kingdom, in the last few years, prime ministers have been replaced as often as one changes socks.
Here too, discontent and despair are spreading as the housing crisis continues to wreak havoc, public services deteriorate, businesses close, and unemployment rises.
Pressure is mounting in the cauldron. After Justin Trudeau resigned mid-term early last year, this year it is Quebec Premier Legault’s turn to step down because he is so universally despised. Burdened with a sluggish economy and a trade war, and squeezed by his main trading partner, prime minister Carney has no good options.
Trump himself represented an attempt to break with this status quo, which is wearing people’s patience thin. He came to power on the back of a demagogic movement, certainly, but a popular one—millions of people, including workers, seeking radical change. But Trump is as powerless as traditional politicians to solve the urgent problems facing workers.
Unsurprisingly, Trump is failing to deliver on any of his promises. The cost-of-living crisis continues to affect millions of workers, he has yet to release the Epstein files, and his brutal crackdown on immigrants is provoking a mass backlash. His approval ratings remain low. He is desperately seeking easy victories.
“Unapologetic” imperialism, wars, and trade wars are merely the international expression of this crisis affecting every country. Internal pressure and instability only make the search for solutions more frantic—abroad if necessary.
This explains trade wars, with each country trying to protect its own economy at the expense of others. And it explains why those who have the means, such as the United States, try to stabilize their own economies by sucking the lifeblood out of others, as they are doing with Venezuela.
None of this will solve anything. Trade wars only serve to reduce economic activity and impoverish everyone. Wars and conquests enrich arms companies and imperialists, but do not improve the situation of workers.
In truth, no politician, wherever they stand on the spectrum, can offer a solution—at least, if they accept the limits of capitalism. The current crisis is a systemic crisis of capitalism: a crisis caused by the anarchy of the market, by the private ownership of large corporations, by the limits of the nation-state, by the rule of the banks.
The only possible solutions require nationalizing the factories that are closing, expropriating empty housing and launching a housing construction program at the expense of the capitalists, expropriating the banks, and democratically planning the economy to put an end to the chaos that reigns. This means recognizing that the system cannot be reformed: a revolution is necessary.
