The current international situation is fraught with political, economic, environmental, and social crises that threaten human existence as we know it. This situation is an expression of the global capitalist crisis. The developing crisis between the Russian Federation and the West, led by the United States, is one example. Central Asia has already become a conflict zone between the United States and the West on the one hand and Russia and China on the other, indicating increased rivalry and animosity between the two camps. If added to previous NATO expansion to Poland and the Baltic states and the 2014 U.S.-inspired coup in Ukraine and the U.S. meddling in Belarus, it becomes apparent that the United States is moving to encircle Russia through NATO. The U.S. attempt in 2008 to destabilize Russia by fomenting trouble through Georgia prompted Russia to invade Georgia and indirectly control significant parts of its territory. Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2015 is an example of Russia standing firm against U.S. machinations to encircle it.
Control of West Asia
In 2011 the United States launched a war by proxy to dismantle Syria. It indirectly utilized ISIS, al-Qaida, and other forces recruited by U.S. regional allies such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and Turkey. In 2014, the United States was compelled to enter the battle directly, using its airpower through a hastily constructed international coalition. Russia’s direct participation in the war in Syria in 2015, along with other Syrian allies (Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah), thwarted these U.S. hegemonic intentions and its plan to block Russia and China from West Asia. The failure of the United States and NATO in Afghanistan and their withdrawal in 2021 has not prevented them from continuing with attempts to encircle Russia.
It is essential to note that U.S. political, cultural, and military influence in West Asia is vast. The United States projects this power to maintain its influence and domination of the global capitalist system. The United States has more than 700 military bases and installations throughout the world, with a significant number in West Asia.
Despite U.S. destabilizing attempts and crippling sanctions, Iran has stood up to U.S. attempts to dominate the region. Consequently, it constitutes a threat to U.S. imperial interests in West Asia. U.S. support for Israel as a settler-colonial state in Palestine has significantly contributed to making an already dangerous situation even more so.
In addition to U.S.-Israeli operations to perpetrate war and destruction on the region, the United States is building up its forces in the Pacific in a clear move to encircle China. The AUKUS (Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) alliance was created in 2021 to foment instability and increase political and military pressure on China by encouraging and supporting disturbances in Hong Kong under the pretext of democracy, freedom of speech, and human rights. More recently, the United States and its Western allies attempted to turn the tables on China in Taiwan. These events and the belligerent global U.S. posture pushes Russia and China to the edge and makes the present moment dangerous and portentous.
Underlying Causes of Global Instability
The critical question for revolutionaries is to understand better the underlying causes for these political and military crises around the globe. While it is true that rivalry and hatred among dominant states have created instability within the global capitalist system, it is important to note that the origins of this instability are within the capitalist crisis of production and the problem of accumulation. The 1970s witnessed the beginnings of an electronic revolution that spread like wildfire at the beginning of the 21st century. The relatively quick transformation of production from an economy based on electromechanics to one based on high technology created an unstable global situation.
Gradually, new technologies emerged that changed the nature of production from labor-saving devices to labor-replacing technologies. Steel production that required thousands of workers in one factory can now be done with a few hundred workers. The replaced workers had to fend for themselves. The consequences of production based on electronics resulted in a rise in contingent and “gig” workers. Part-time work became more prevalent. Homelessness reached unprecedented proportions, and poverty increased even in highly industrialized countries. It is critical to note that a new class comprising contingent, part-time, seasonal workers, and permanently unemployed is emerging across the globe due to high technology in production and services.
Although U.S.-based transnational corporations control this high technology in the West, a developing global capitalist class reaps benefit from it. Should a country elect to develop its high technology independently and compete with the United States in international trade, the United States would see such a move as a challenge to its global domination. Political economic instability in the global system would then ensue. It is essential to understand the development of U.S. global domination and the challenges to it.
U.S. Global Domination
In the United States, neoliberal policies that began under President Jimmy Carter and continued in earnest under President Ronald Reagan exacerbated the situation even more, by facilitating capitalist globalization through high technology based on electronics. A considerable number of corporations moved their operations to low-wage areas worldwide. This shift in production based on electronics and production in low-wage areas accelerated after the breakup of the Soviet Union. The demise of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc in 1990 ushered in a new global situation with a unilateral international system dominated by the United States.
The United States, which had penetrated the Soviet Union through domestic neoliberal forces, continued its political meddling in the Russian Federation under Boris Yeltsin. It almost converted Russia into an area where global, transnational corporations could extract natural resources, as they were doing with other resource-rich regions of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The China of 1990 was not the economic giant it currently is. Consequently, it was less of a problem during that period for the United States to maintain it as a cheap labor area in the service of global transnational corporations.
Parallel with U.S. implementation of neoliberal policies necessary for a political economy based on electronics, the United States moved to reconfigure West Asia’s politics to better serve its interests. The United States built on its plan for the dual containment of Iraq and Iran through the September 1980 war between the two countries that ended in 1988 with both countries exhausted. Shortly thereafter, the United States led Iraq’s ruler, Saddam Hussein, to believe that he had a green light to invade Kuwait, with which he had a dispute about border and debt issues. That invasion provided a pretext for the United States to attack Iraq under the “virtuous” guise of liberating Kuwait. During this period, the United States quickly moved to liquidate Palestinian claims to their state by sponsoring the Madrid Conference (October 30-November 1, 1991). The Conference brought all Arab states together with Israel to “negotiate” peace and develop economic relations with Israel. Lebanon participated in the conference, even though a resistance movement fought to liberate the south of the country from the Israeli occupier.
This U.S. domination of the unipolar global capitalist system encouraged the United States to tighten its grip on global energy and natural resources. Hence, the invasion of resource-rich Afghanistan in October 2001. Afghanistan’s strategic location was also an important consideration. It borders China, Iran, Pakistan, and Central Asian countries that had been part of the Soviet Union. The 2003 invasion of Iraq emboldened U.S. control of global capitalism. The wars and aggression by the United States on peoples and countries around the world amply illustrate the reckless disregard the United States has for human rights, the environment, and the right of nations to self-determination.
Challenges to U.S. Domination
There are important challenges to U.S. unilateral power in dominating global capitalism. Syria remained defiant despite direct U.S. threats after the invasion of Iraq. The Lebanese resistance movement is still at war with the Israelis that occupy parts of the Lebanese south. The Palestinian people remain steadfast in the West Bank and Gaza against Israeli occupation. In Latin America, the United States has been losing ground, especially in Venezuela, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina. Also, with the rise of China, challenges to U.S. power in recent years are forging a multilateral global capitalist system. It appears, however, that the United States is unrelenting in rejecting this reality and is hell-bent on remaining top dog. This explains its continued machinations to regain its unilateral position in the global capitalist system.
With the stellar development of the forces of production outside of U.S. domination (especially in Russia and China), a return to the old unilateral world is no longer possible. However, a multilateral global capitalist system, which still has a crisis of accumulation at its core, shall continue to face existential threats. The only way for humanity to extricate itself from the danger of war is if the global new class that is forming takes matters into its own hands to seize political power, dismantle private property, and use high technology to benefit all. However, that would require a conscious global communist movement to organize the emerging new class. RC
March/April 2022 Vol2. Ed2
This article originated in Rally, Comrades
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