The U.S. and world ruling class have their hands full with Venezuela. Venezuela is by no means a weak nation, isolated from the world. It sits on the largest proven oil reserves in the world, and it is one of a growing number of countries across the globe attempting to unshackle themselves from the domination of the U.S. financial and petrodollar system. Fighting back against the U.S. attempts to destroy the country, Venezuela stands as an inspiration to the peoples of the world, for its efforts to better the lives of its people and its defiance of U.S. power.
Within ruling circles both nationally and internationally, a struggle is underway, grappling with changes in the world economy and geopolitics. The Venezuela crisis is at the center of this global process, set in motion by the revolution in technology. The world order that has been in place since the fall of the Soviet Union, a unipolar, hegemonic order dominated by the U.S., is being challenged by the rising of a new multipolar world order, particularly the Russian Federation and China, as they rise to contend with U.S. hegemony. The overriding quality of the process is deepening polarization and instability.
The attacks against Venezuela cannot be separated from the U.S. strategy of economic warfare and military aggression against Iran, Russia, China, and the regional blocs throughout the world, who are challenging U.S. economic, financial, and geopolitical dominance. The current administration is exacerbating this polarization, but is by no means its cause.
Control of, and access to, the global oil supply is central to U.S. strategy. In tandem with the transnational corporations, the U.S. aims to wield control over the vast amounts of Venezuelan oil, and through that control, dictate to and even strangle the economies of any country that attempts to defy them, particularly China.
The U.S. is a formidable economic and military power. Yet, its deepening polarization of wealth and poverty, astronomical debt, and world economic competition have set the U.S. on a trajectory of decline. Removing its competitors access to Latin America is essential to shore up the economic and geopolitical position of the U.S. in the world.
In the U.S., both political parties are also playing their role in accelerating fascism, protecting the interests of the corporations, and the power of the U.S. State. The Democratic Party and its various media mouthpieces have all of a sudden forgotten how much they hate Trump and are clamoring for Venezuelan blood, right along with the Republicans.
Deepening economic and political polarization define the times, as the global market continues to shrink, and the economic center of gravity shifts from the West to the East. New polarities are developing between the U.S. and its allies, as they are forced to protect their national economies. Regional blocs outside of the U.S. sphere of influence are also consolidating to protect their markets, and more countries are trying alternatives to using U.S. petrodollars as the exchange currency for oil trading.
China, Russia, Iran, Turkey, India and many smaller nations, vulnerable to U.S. aggression, are increasingly tied together through regional blocs, set up to defend themselves against the economic and geopolitical domination of the U.S. These countries are found throughout the world – Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. It is these very countries who have opposed the U.S. campaign against Venezuela.
The rulers of these countries cannot submit to the U.S. and still continue to develop their economies. But the growing economic instability in the world, the inability of the consumer to buy, and the intense competition for markets, lay the foundation for the inevitable trade wars to turn into shooting wars.
As we go to press, Venezuela is still up and fighting. If defeated, the consequences will reverberate through the world. It will further polarize the world order, create greater instability, and foster the conditions for world war. It will strengthen the hand of the global fascist movement, and advance the consolidation of the rule of transnational corporate and financial dictatorship.
Worldwide, robotic and electronic production is doing away with human labor in every sector of the economy, while the capacity for untold abundance grows daily. The capitalist economy, based on the buying and selling of labor power is being irreversibly destroyed, as the new productive forces generate a reorganization of economic relations and unleash a struggle to abolish private property. The economy can only conform to the productive capacity of robots and computers, if society’s productive capacity is transformed from private property to public property.
There is a global workers’ movement in the making. Social upheavals are increasing – protests, marches, and civil disobedience worldwide are characteristic of this epoch. The world’s workers need democracy, peace, and the economic conditions to build a stable and cultured life. These demands are the basis of unity for the workers of the world and tie U.S. workers to those of Venezuela.
As American revolutionaries, we have a special role. We have to develop consciousness so that the American working class fights its own ruling class for education, healthcare, food, and housing and against war. In these battles for the necessities of life, we bring to the fore our real class interests. We revolutionaries shed this light so that we, the working classes of the world, can unite as a class and fight for our common interests, not for the capitalist class. This is the real meaning of proletarian internationalism. RC
March/April 2019 Vol29.Ed2
This article originated in Rally, Comrades
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