As the global crisis of capitalism drives the bosses toward fascism and war, the bloody clash between Russia and U.S.-backed Ukraine is escalating by the week. Amid speculation that president-elect Donald Trump might try to force a peace deal on Vladimir Putin’s terms, a body blow to NATO, North Korean troops massed alongside Russian forces in the Kursk border region. In response, lame duck President Joe Biden gave his blessing for Ukraine to launch British-made missiles deep into Russian territory. Russia upped the ante with a threat to lower their threshold for using nuclear weapons (NY Times, 11/19), and then attacked Ukraine with a ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear payload (Reuters, 11/22).
While we can’t predict where or when the next world war will start, three things are clear. First, the collapse of the old liberal world order has ushered in a period of dangerous instability and chaos. Second, the U.S. rulers are both deeply divided and in steep decline as they struggle to stave off their imperialist rivals in Russia and China. Third, the imperialist bosses’ vicious dog fights are lose-lose propositions for the international working class. To date, official estimates count close to 200,000 workers–conscripted soldiers and civilians–killed in the inter-imperialist proxy war in Ukraine (economist.com, 11/26).
For the international working class, there is only one solution to the madness and carnage of capitalism: communist revolution. We need fighters to turn the guns around and choose to fight for a borderless communist world led by Progressive Labor Party!
Inter-imperialist rivalry sharpens after U.S. election
As the unpredictable “America First” Trump prepares to take office, the main-wing U.S. rulers–the Big Fascists of finance capital–are scrambling to keep on board their European allies, who have already invested over $100 billion in the Ukraine bloodbath. While France and Britain backed Ukraine’s missile strikes in Russia, Germany has refused to deliver its own long-range missiles to the cause (politico.eu, 11/18). Polish Prime Minister Donal Tusk warned that the escalation posed a “real and serious threat of global war” (Politico, 11/22). This shows the Big Fascists’ desperation and disregard for the lives of millions of workers - who will ultimately pay with their lives.
Meanwhile, China is pressing its case as a more reliable ally than the U.S. At last week’s G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, President Xi Jinping promoted the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and strengthened a bilateral relationship with Brazil (aljazeera.com, 11/20). In a pointed contrast to Trump’s threats to raise U.S. tariffs, Xi promised open trade and benefits for emerging economies in Asia, Africa, and Latin America (New York Times, 11/20). Alongside their carrots, the Chinese capitalist bosses are also sharpening their sticks. They are outpacing the U.S. in arms manufacturing and now boast the largest blue-water navy in the world (Foreign Affairs, 10/2). In September, China tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile in the Pacific Ocean since the 1980s (AP, 9/26), While the Chinese bosses are struggling at home with slowing growth and a debt crisis in their housing sector, they still have a big advantage over their U.S. rivals: a more disciplined and united ruling class that is further down the road to full-blown fascism.
The current period’s proxy wars, trade wars, arms buildups, unstable alliances, and dramatic shifts in economic power are reminiscent of the years leading up to World War I, when more than 20 million workers were slaughtered for the rulers’ profits. Compelled by the vicious, zero-sum competition of capitalism, the bosses are always being driven toward the next world war, whether they are ready for it or not.
But just as workers are now being won or coerced to kill their class brothers and sisters on the other side of made-up borders, they can also be won to kill a system that has no regard for their lives. As they develop an internationalist, antiracist, class-conscious outlook, workers can be organized into a mass party to smash the bosses’ profit system and build a world run by and for the working class.
Bipartisan rising fascism in the U.S.
Global volatility and the split within the U.S. ruling class will bring even sharper attacks on workers in the U.S. With less of a stake in liberal democracy, the Small Fascist bosses behind Trump (see glossary, page 6) are using him to accelerate the rise of fascism. In most cases, they are building on a foundation laid by the liberal racists of the Democratic Party over the last thirty years. Echoing Bill Clinton’s work-or-die welfare reform, Republicans are pushing Medicaid work requirements and spending cuts that could strip millions of workers and children of their healthcare (NYT, 11/20). Following up on the Biden administration’s threats to slash aid to colleges that allow anti-Zionist, anti-genocide protests, Trump is vowing to eliminate both aid and accreditation (Jerusalem Post, 11/14).
Moving forward with Trump’s nazi plan for mass deportations of undocumented workers, arch-racist “border czar” Tom Homan has jumped on a Texas rancher’s offer of 1,400 acres for immigrant concentration camps (Texas Tribune, 11/19). Citing an 1807 law for suppressing “insurrection” or “domestic violence,” Trump is already pushing for the U.S. military to round up migrating workers for detention and expulsion (NY Times, 11/18). The soon-to-be Klansman-in-Chief will inherit a headstart on anti-immigrant policy and infrastructure, thanks to Biden’s assault on asylum and the border cages built under Barack Obama (cnn.com, 7/13/19).
Fight back!
From Ukraine to Gaza to the U.S., we need multiracial unity to stand up and fight back against these brutal attacks. We must expose the capitalist system as a bosses’ dictatorship that can never serve the needs of our class. Under capitalism, mass murder, racism, and sexism are essential elements of the bosses’ pursuit of profit and power. Our only alternative is communism, a dictatorship of the working class.
The current period is dangerous to be sure. We have a long road to travel to build a mass communist party, but it’s also a period of huge opportunity. While Trump’s fear-mongering and scapegoating found traction among more workers than before, the winner of the 2024 U.S. presidential election–in a landslide–was “none of the above.” Where Trump got around 77 million votes and liberal misleader Kamala Harris around 75 million, close to 90 million eligible voters didn’t bother to go to the polls (usnews.com, 11/15)--and that doesn’t include the millions of undocumented workers or felons convicted by the bosses’ racist criminal injustice system.
In short, there is a great mass of workers who have lost all confidence that capitalism can make their lives any better. It’s our job to transform their cynicism and passivity into class consciousness and organized fightback against the rulers’ rotten death machine. We must struggle together by joining and building the international communist Progressive Labor Party. Together, we can fight to win a communist world. Join PLP!
