Or this, a shock, perhaps, to those who believe Russia cannot be considered imperialist in any Leninist sense: “[Among] the six powers [that had divided the world], we see, firstly, young capitalist powers (America, Germany, Japan) which progressed very rapidly; secondly, countries with an old capitalist development (France and Great Britain), which, of late, have made slower progress than the previously mentioned countries, and, thirdly, a country (Russia) which is economically most backward, in which modern capitalist imperialism is enmeshed, so to speak, in a particularly close network of pre-capitalist relations.” (V.I. Lenin, Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism, International Publishers, 1939, p. 81) The essence of imperialism, wrote Lenin, is the “division of nations into oppressor and oppressed.” (V.I. Lenin, Declaration of Rights of The Working and Exploited People, 4 January, 1929 in Pravda No. 2 and Izvestia No. 2.)
What do you make of the point this article raises and the criticism that Lenin’s five points don’t apply to a individual countries but are rather characterizations a globe-girding economic system? Is the article a wrong reading of Lenin?
This is so fucking infuriating. Any analysis of geopolitics that ignores the primary, absolutely number 1 ginormous contradiction in the world that is US imperialism is utterly fucking worthless. It is the last barrier for so many progressive leaning people in the west to understand reality and it is really mindboggling. As an American, seeing people who live here and are well acquainted with the normalized brutality of American life turn around and defend EVERY. SINGLE. geopolitical position taken by the US government makes my skull want to cave in and turn into a black hole. And this absolute horse bile is no exception.
Take for example this sentence: “The working class in Europe, already careworn with declining purchasing power, will soon pay even higher rates for energy, and will be hurt further by higher taxes or reduced services or both as growing military outlays stress government budgets.”
How exactly is this the fault of Russia? This is quite literally the consequences of US superimperialism! Just because the working class of the imperial core will be harmed doesn’t make this an unjust war. It certainly does not mean Russia is imperialist. In fact, this contradiction seems to be at the crux of many confused leftist arguments. The liberation of the South will necessarily corollate with decreased quality of life for the working class in the imperial core as the superstructures of US imperialism collapse, as they indeed have begun to now. Their solution to this is usually to deny the horrors of the US empire and turn around and shame the South, shame China and Russia et al. for pursuing sovereignty and prosperity for their own people, as this piece does.