Anti-Imperialism in the Age of Great Power Rivalry
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Anti-Imperialism in the Age of Great Power Rivalry The Factors behind the Accelerating Rivalry between the U.S., China, Russia, EU and Japan A Critique of the Left’s Analysis and an Outline of the Marxist Perspective By Michael Pröbsting Published by the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency Anti-Imperialism in the Age of Great Power Rivalry The Factors behind the Accelerating Rivalry between the U.S., China, Russia, EU and Japan A Critique of the Left’s Analysis and an Outline of the Marxist Perspective By Michael Pröbsting Published by the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency Anti-Imperialism in the Age of Great Power Rivalry The Factors behind the Accelerating Rivalry between the U.S., China, Russia, EU and Japan A Critique of the Left’s Analysis and an Outline of the Marxist Perspective By Michael Pröbsting This book is dedicated to all those who devote their lives to the working class’ liberation struggle and to the building of the revolutionary world party without which this liberation struggle can not win. Published by the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) Web: www.thecommunists.net Email: [email protected] Phone: +43 (0)650 406 83 14 The Revolutionary Communist International Tendency has sections and activists in Nigeria, Zambia, Kenya, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Yemen, Israel / Occupied Pal- estine, Brazil, Mexico, Britain, Germany, and Austria. Furthermore, the RCIT has fraternal relations with organizations in Kenya, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Russia and Turkey. © Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) and Michael Pröbsting All rights reserved First Edition 2019 ISBN 978-3-200-06168-2 Impressum: Revolutionär-Kommunistische Organisation zur Befreiung (RKOB) 5 Contents List of Tables . 10 List of Figures . 12 Introduction . 15 Part 1: Features of Imperialism in the 21st Century I. The Historic Crisis of Capitalism . 21 II. Global Offensive of the Capitalists against the Working Class . 31 III. Capitalism and the Increasing Relevance of Migration . 38 IV. The Marxist Criteria for an Imperialist Great Power . 45 Main Characteristics of an Imperialist respectively a Semi-Colonial State Is a Transition from Being One Type of State to Another Possible? “Sub-Imperialism” – A Useful Category? V. The Emergence of China and Russia as New Great Powers . 57 Production and Trade Monopolies and Billionaires Capital Export and Military Spending VI. The Acceleration of Inter-Imperialist Rivalry and the Global Trade War . 69 At the Onset of a New Cold War Tianxia – China’s Ideological Challenge Protectionism and Militarism The Imperialist Drive for Control of the South Rivalry between U.S. and China as the Main Axis of Inner-Imperialist Contradictions VII. Imperialist Great Powers: Some Historical Comparisons . 88 Excurse: The Law of Uneven and Combined Development Some Historical Examples about the Unevenness of the Great Powers before 1939 Globalization and Great Power Rivalry in the Period before World War One The “Fat” and the “Lean” Cows 6 ANTI-IMPERIALISM IN THE AGE OF GREAT POWER RIVALRY Part 2: Modern Revisionist Theories of Great Power Rivalry in Today’s World VIII. Revisionist Whitewashing: Stalinist and Bolivarian Admirers of Beijing’s “Socialism” . 105 Is China a Unique Case of Capitalist Miracle? Russian Stalinists: Failure to Understand Imperialism in their own Country The Ultra-Stalinist CPGB-ML: “Anti -Imperialist” Russia and China? IX. Revisionist Whitewashing: Russia and China are neither Capitalist nor Great Powers (PO/CRFI) . 121 Capitalism is still not restored in Russia and China? Lenin’s Theory of Imperialism and its Stalinophile Falsification Russia’s and China’s Capital Export: Myth and Reality On the Character of China’s Foreign Investments State-Owned Corporations in China and Russia: Not Capitalist? The Role of Migration X. Revisionist Whitewashing: China and Russia are Semi-Colonies rather than Great Powers (LIT / UIT / FT) . 147 LIT: Is China Comparable with Brazil, India or Mexico? UIT: China is Super-Exploited by Imperialism? FT: Russia and China can not become Imperialist before a Major War? XI. Revisionist Whitewashing: When the Category “Imperialism” has no Meaning (CWI / IMT / IST) . 158 CWI: “Forgetting” about Russia’s or China’s Imperialist Character? IMT: A purely formal Recognition of Russia and China as Great Powers SWP: Theoretical Indifference Part 3: The Program of Revolutionary Defeatism against All Great Powers XII. Is World War III Inevitable? (Critical Notes on Michael Roberts) . 167 Population Growth and Long Upswings What are the Conditions for Long Upswings? An Element of Kautskyanism XIII. The Proletariat as an International Class . 176 Internationalism and National Liberation On Aristocratism and the Labor Aristocracy 7 XIV. The Internationalist Character of the Struggle against Imperialist War and the Social-Patriotic Nature of the Stalinist Theory of “Socialism in One Country” . 183 XV. The Meaning of the Dictum “War is the Continuation of Politics by Other Means” . 190 XVI. Revolutionary Defeatism as a Combined Strategy . 194 The Contradictory Nature of Imperialism as the Objective Basis for Anti-Imperialism The Marxist Classics on the Combined Strategy XVII. The Relationship between War and Revolution . 203 “Small” and “Large” Imperialist Wars World War III and Revolution – A Contradiction in Itself? XVIII. Revolutionary Defeatism in Conflicts between Imperialist States: The Marxist Classics . 209 Marx and Engels in the Pre-Imperialist Epoch The Bolsheviks and the Russian-Japanese War 1904/05 The Full Elaboration of Lenin’s Defaitist Program in World War One 1914-17 Bolshevik Agitation against the War in Russia Trotsky continues the Revolutionary Struggle against Imperialist War XIX. Revolutionary Defeatism in Conflicts between Imperialist States: Programmatic Components (1) . 220 For Working Class Independence – No Support for Any Great Power! The Struggle against Chauvinism Changes in Conditions and its Consequences The Moral Crisis in the Western Imperialist Countries XX. Revolutionary Defeatism in Conflicts between Imperialist States: Programmatic Components (2) . 231 The Issue of Sanctions of one Great Power against Another Global Trade War and Internationalist Tactics Wars between Great Powers respectively their Proxies Siding with the “Lesser” (Imperialist) Evil? The Poverty of Pacifism The Slogan of Disarmament International Courts of Arbitration and United Nations 8 ANTI-IMPERIALISM IN THE AGE OF GREAT POWER RIVALRY XXI. Revolutionary Defeatism in Conflicts between Imperialist States and Oppressed Peoples . 248 Imperialist Wars and Occupations of Semi-Colonial Countries Imperialist Non-Military Aggressions against Semi-Colonial Countries Oppression of National Minorities Tactics of Mass Struggle On Complex War Scenarios XXII. Revolutionary Defeatism and the Struggle for Full Equality of Migrants . 260 Part 4: The Failure of the Left in the Struggle against Imperialism XXIII. The Left Facing Great Power Rivalry: Pro-Western Social-Imperialists . 267 General Introductory Remarks The Party of the European Left (PEL) Islamophobia is the new Anti-Semitism of the 21st century The Japanese Communist Party JCP: Advisor for an Alternative Strategy for Japanese Imperialism XXIV. The Left Facing Great Power Rivalry: Pro-Eastern Social-Imperialists (Stalinists) . 282 The Stalinist Alliance around the “International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties” “Defending the Sovereign Rights of Greece”: The Stalinist KKE as an Example of Bourgeois Social-Chauvinism Stalinism and Counterrevolution in Syria Russian Social-Imperialism: The KPRF, the RKRP and the OKP Stalinists Cheer Serbian Chauvinism against Kosovo Albanians The Ultra-Stalinist CPGB-ML: Loyal Cheerleaders of Russian and Chinese Imperialism Excurse: Some Observations on the “Pacifist” and the “Belligerent” Social-Imperialists XXV. The Left Facing Great Power Rivalry: Pro-Eastern Social-Imperialists (Non-Stalinists) . 307 Boris Kagarlitsky and Rabkor: Great Russian “Marxists” ready to fight for Moscow’s Interests “with Blood and Iron” The Pro-Russian/Chinese Pseudo-Trotskyists (PO/CRFI) The Spartacist sects and their defense of the Chinese “Deformed Workers State” 9 XXVI. On Inverted Social-Imperialism and the “Anti-Imperialist” Appeal of Russia and China . 318 What are the reasons for the misplaced “anti-imperialist” Appeal of Russia and China? Inverted Social-Imperialism as a Variation of Class-Collaboration What will Inverted Social-Imperialists do in Case of a Major War? XXVII. The Left Facing Great Power Rivalry: Deniers of Russia’s and China’s Imperialist Character without Drawing Conclusions . 327 XXVIII. The Left Facing Great Power Rivalry: Eclectic Social-Pacifists . 331 CWI/IMT: Refusal to Defend Semi-Colonial Countries against Imperialism IMT Russia: No Support for “Chechen Separatism” Did Lenin “correct” his Program of Revolutionary Defeatism? The Russian Socialist Movement: Confused Eclecticists Part 5: The Task of Organizing the Anti-Imperialist Struggle XXVIX. Building the Revolutionary World Party in the Age of Great Power Rivalry . 347 Changes in the Conditions to Build a Revolutionary World Party Orientation to the New Militant Layers of the Working Class and Youth Reformism and Centrism as Obstacles Appendix: Theses on Revolutionary Defeatism in Imperialist States . 357 Bibliography . 367 About the Author . 407 10 ANTI-IMPERIALISM IN THE AGE OF GREAT POWER RIVALRY List of Tables Table 1. The development of global Gross Domestic