Palestine, Ukraine, Caucasus — The Return Of Great Power Politics

A few weeks before the criminal Israeli attacks on Gaza former adviser to US President Nixon, Henry Kissinger, said something very insightful. He said that we are not witnessing “individual crises across various geographies” but instead “the traditional patterns of great power rivalry are returning.” 

Kissinger is a man who helped manufacture the coup against the Allende government in 1973. He’s a ruthless establishment monster but his assessment of the world of 2023 is correct – imperialism is the defining feature of our age. The many fronts of conflict across the world need to be understood in the context of the global totality and as many fronts of one war – that between the US, NATO and its allies versus Russia, China and Iran. 

A NATO backed power, Azerbaijan, is committing war crimes and expelling 120,000 Armenians. At the same time the war in Ukraine is the main front of conflict between the US, NATO and Russia. Meanwhile the US and Britain stand full square with Israel as they massacre Palestinians. The movement of ships to the region is everything to do with sending a message to regional powers to back off and allow Apartheid Israel to kill without interference. 

The strength of a Marxist understanding of imperialism is that it roots these war fronts in capitalism itself. The military philosopher Von Clausewitz said that war is the continuation of policy with other means. But policy is made by representatives of a political elite who serve the corporate economic elite and although imperialism, war and conquest have existed before capitalism, imperialism in the modern age is rooted in the current economic system. 

When the First World War broke out the Russian revolutionary Lenin set himself the task of understanding how the economic dynamics of capitalism had given rise to war between nations. He wrote that: 

“Capitalism has grown into a world system of colonial oppression and financial strangulation of the overwhelming majority of the people of the world by a handful of ‘advanced’ countries. And this ‘booty’ is shared by two or three world-dominating pirates (America, England, Japan), armed to the teeth who embroil the whole world in their war over the division of their booty.”

He linked the growing rivalry between these pirate nations to “the rise of monopolies, as the result of the concentration of production, is a general and fundamental law of the present stage of development of capitalism.” In our current world of monstrous globe spanning corporations we can recognise to an even greater extent this “concentration of production” in fewer and fewer hands. 

“Monopolies bring with them everywhere monopolist principles: the utilisation of “connections” for profitable deals takes the place of competition in the open market.” These massive corporations bring the state under their control, buy off politicians and then turn the state into a tool to take what they need, to grab raw materials, to open up new markets and to cut off raw materials and markets from rival corporations. In every capitalist nation the capitalist class grew up alongside their state machine – from the beginnings of the system where they used the state to steal common land and force people through violence into slums and factories, to the present neoliberal age where they use the state to leverage public utilities into private hands to increase profit rates. 

But the growth of global corporations and giant monopolies sees the state grow into a monstrous bureaucracy with the capability of intervening politically, in trade deals and rivalry with other states, but also militarily when needed. Groups of corporations, tied to a nation state base, use their states to control the world. There is a contradiction between the internationalisation of production and the national basis of capitalism – this leads to war.

Who defends a corporation whose operations extend internationally, over national borders? Their own state necessarily will have to encroach on other national groups of capitalists in order to defend their own corporations. Lenin links the onset of the period of imperialism at the beginning of the 20th Century. Economic crisis in Britain for example meant they were searching for productive outlets for investment. 

They wanted colonies to offset the economic crisis at home. In other nations like Germany they were behind in grabbing colonies like the older British Empire but instead embarked on the strategy of amalgamation of companies into giants. Eventually both nations had to adopt both strategies – grabbing colonies and the growth of giant companies at home. 

Lenin uses the term “finance capital” to denote not a separate faction of the capitalist class but instead the combination of giant banks and industrial corporations into single financial industrial giants who carve up the world. He wrote: 

“If it were necessary to give the briefest possible definition of imperialism we should have to say that imperialism is the monopoly stage of capitalism. Such a definition would include what is most important, for, on the one hand, finance capital is the bank capital of a few very big monopolist banks, merged with the capital of the monopolist associations of industrialists; and, on the other hand, the division of the world is the transition from a colonial policy which has extended without hindrance to territories unseized by any capitalist power, to a colonial policy of monopolist possession of the territory of the world, which has been completely divided up.”

Once the great powers had divided the world between them, redivision was only possible through war. Lenin offers 5 defining features of imperialism in his time: 

“And so, without forgetting the conditional and relative value of all definitions in general, which can never embrace all the concatenations of a phenomenon in its full development, we must give a definition of imperialism that will include the following five of its basic features:

(1) the concentration of production and capital has developed to such a high stage that it has created monopolies which play a decisive role in economic life; (2) the merging of bank capital with industrial capital, and the creation, on the basis of this “finance capital,” of a financial oligarchy; (3) the export of capital as distinguished from the export of commodities acquires exceptional importance; (4) the formation of international monopolist capitalist associations which share the world among themselves and (5) the territorial division of the whole world among the biggest capitalist powers is completed. Imperialism is capitalism at that stage of development at which the dominance of monopolies and finance capital is established; in which the export of capital has acquired pronounced importance; in which the division of the world among the international trusts has begun, in which the division of all territories of the globe among the biggest capitalist powers has been completed.”

In summary his 5 features are firstly that huge corporations dominate the economy, secondly that there is a merger between banks and industry, thirdly that the great powers export capital around the world, forth that alliances form between great powers to aid their division of the world and lastly the division of the world is completed and therefore any new division will lead to war. 

This is why war is not some accidental personality trait of this or that establishment politician -it is built into the very DNA of the capitalist system. That’s not to say there aren’t more or less hawkish members of the elite – but that the pressure on them to act in the interests of corporations is there no matter what ruling class political faction they represent. This is why every cycle of peace is broken by another period of war. 

“Peaceful alliances prepared the ground for wars and in their turn grow out of wars. One is the condition for the other, giving rise to alternating forms of peaceful and non-peaceful struggle on one and the same basis, that of imperialist connections and interrelations of world economics and world politics” wrote Lenin. 

After each period of “peaceful” competition the outbreak of wars comes as a shock. But we have to see the periods of peace as nothing but preparations for new periods of war. War is corporate capitalist competition by violent means. At the end of the Second World War Britain had to let go of colonies like India because of revolt. This led to changes in the nature of imperialism from the classical outline given by Lenin. 

The great powers like the US and Britain saw changing balances of power with the US replacing Britain as the main sponsor for Israel as one example. The rivalry between the “Western” powers was also diminished by competition with the USSR. The big economies invested less and less capital in colonies and instead capital flows were from one developed economy to another. 

The less developed economies became sources of raw materials until agricultural output in the West rose and alternatives to many raw materials – new fertilisers etc – saw the great powers develop client regimes rather than stick with costly direct control. But there needed to be new methods of economic and political control if the great powers were backing off from direct military conquest. And the one great exception was control of oil. 

This was one of the key reasons for the US taking over as the main sponsor for the state of Israel, they wanted a heavily armed base in the oil rich Middle East and US funds created a colonial settler Israeli working class, wed to imperialism. The US also courted the Saudis and eventually transformed Egypt into a client state and the 2nd biggest recipient of US funds after Israel. 

The collapse of the USSR and associated governments led to a global realignment as the US and European powers sought to extend their influence Eastwards and the rise of China as an economic powerhouse led to growing rivalry between them and the USA. While the US wanted to “pivot towards Asia” after their disastrous interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the current criminal campaign by Israel against the Palestinians ties resources to those arenas. 

So how does the current world match up with Lenin’s understanding of imperialism? His first criteria, the growth of giant monopolies is more true than ever. Three systems theorists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich took a database listing all 37 million capitalist companies and investors worldwide and analysed all 43,060 transnational corporations and share ownerships linking them. 

They found that 147 monster corporations own 40% of all the other companies, while just 737 companies own 80% of all other companies. The top 50 include many of the world’s biggest banks, like Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank, showing the integration of finance and industrial capital reaching giant proportions. 

Tech corporations like Apple, one of the biggest companies in the world, own dozens of other companies including Israeli 3D sensing company PrimeSense which was behind Apple’s FaceID. It’s in their interests to use their influence over the US administration to demand the protection of their investments around the world. 

According to Apple’s CEO Tim Cook, Apple has acquired more than 100 companies in just 6 years. He told shareholders in the company’s AGM in February 2021, that it’s taking over about 3 or 4 companies per week. Their production is global – with factories in China notorious for mistreating workers. Workers endure 12-hour shifts, 6 days a week, and receive a monthly salary of just 3,100 Yuan, or about $450.

In 2010 the media reported on a series of suicides at a plant in Shenzhen, China, where iPhones were being manufactured. In the Luwow mine, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, coltan for phones is mined by poverty stricken miners. Covered head-to-foot in the ore-laden mud, hundreds of workers toil for 12 hours a day. The West backed the monster Joseph Kabila who used murder and rape to terrorise people. 

The US state is the protector of Apple’s interests. But when their interests stretch from factories in China to tech firms in Israel and on to mines in Africa the potential for war to defend those interests is built in. After World War Two and the retreat from direct control of formal colonies, international economic institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund were created to act as tools of imperialist control. The leaders of the World Bank and the IMF are not elected, but are nominated by the US and Europe. The US had veto power. In the IMF, a British person’s vote today is worth 41 times more than a Bangladeshi’s vote, and 23 times more than a Nigerian’s vote. 

These institutions have imposed neoliberal structural adjustment programmes all over the world – ruining nations and indebting them to the West. In some countries these policies led to decades of recession and economic stagnation. Debt is used as a weapon of control for a corporate agenda. China is competing with these institutions and has lent almost $1 trillion to developing countries. China’s financial institutions have stepped in with bailout packages that totalled $240 billion between 2000 and the end of 2021. 

The second of Lenin’s points, the merger of banking capital and industrial capital is clearly evident to a greater extent in our world. The third point, the export of capital assuming huge dimensions is a growing feature of the world but those capital exports are mainly between the powerful nations. His fourth point, that associations of capitalists would divide the world among themselves is still true. 

The US, EU and their clients are facing off against Russia and Iran – but the main rival of US imperialism is the Chinese economy. But just as military planners in Washington. London and Berlin factor this multi-front war into their calculations; war has always produced resistance. The First World War was ended by the Russian Revolution of 1917. The move to line populations up with the drive to war is evident in the authoritarian response to protests in solidarity with Palestine.

The French government is threatening 2 years in jail for criticising Israel. They were busy moving European populations into the NATO camp and the mass movement for Palestine has upset their calculations, so they respond with repression. Kissinger is right – we are seeing a multi-front war and the return of great power rivalry. They will murder millions to feed the corporate machine the raw materials it needs.

Meanwhile the corporate devouring of our world leads to climate catastrophe and an escalating refugee crisis. Our government here in Ireland is operating on many fronts to undermine the small amounts of democracy we get under capitalism – for example trying to pass the CETA deal which increases corporate control over nation states – while trying to destroy neutrality and march us into the NATO camp. And with Sinn Féin dropping its pledge to oppose an EU army it’s up to socialists to keep up the fight. 

Imperialism requires a state that serves corporate interests, is removed from popular democracy and authoritarian in its attitude to movements from below. Taking over such a state would make the left a pawn of imperialism – a window dressing for a monstrous system of corporate power and murder. 

The capitalist boom bust cycle ruins some companies and leaves others to grow at their expense, this led to the establishment of giant corporations and the marriage of banking and industrial capital which sets out to use its own national state to carve up the world in its interests. This is imperialism and it will be with us until we destroy it at the root – by destroying the capitalist system that breeds war. 

The Irish establishment aren’t big players on the global scene but they line themselves up with the US and EU imperialists. The main enemy of the working class is always at home. All we can do in the short term is protest to aid the Palestinians, prevent the overturning of neutrality, oppose the use of Ireland’s airports as launching pads for Western wars and educate our class as to the reality behind the rhetoric that defends those wars.  But to finally destroy imperialism we fight on our front of battle, here at home, we fight to overthrow the Irish state and replace it with Connolly’s vision of a workers’ republic.