The in-depth article entitled `US imperialism is the most ferocious enemy of humanity’ carried in the September 16-30, 2018 issue of MEL is significant. It brings out the essence of this dominant feature of our era in no uncertain terms, and also arms the working class with a plan to take the work of revolution forward. It is important to know what the precise modus operandi of the imperialists is at this time and also to discover where the chinks in the arms of imperialism is in order to break the impasse. As in the era of Lenin, the present era is also one where imperialism is ripe and rife with contradictions, and it is important also to know where it is weakest so that the weakest link in the chain may be broken.
The Editor,
Sir,
The in-depth article entitled `US imperialism is the most ferocious enemy of humanity’ carried in the September 16-30, 2018 issue of MEL is significant. It brings out the essence of this dominant feature of our era in no uncertain terms, and also arms the working class with a plan to take the work of revolution forward. It is important to know what the precise modus operandi of the imperialists is at this time and also to discover where the chinks in the arms of imperialism is in order to break the impasse. As in the era of Lenin, the present era is also one where imperialism is ripe and rife with contradictions, and it is important also to know where it is weakest so that the weakest link in the chain may be broken.
Indeed, the most ferocious offensive has been launched after the Cold War, which the US imperialist camp actually! While this may appear to be paradoxical, it is the truth and the following features have been captured in the article of the background in no uncertain terms:
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that the US and other capitalist countries ruling classes have unleashed racism and other reactionary forces on an unprecedented scale to small the united struggle of the working class and people, thereby setting society on a retrograde path, negating the achievements of the 20th century and taking mankind back to medieval times,
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that the peoples across the world are uniting and rising against capitalism and imperialism,
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that despite the bluff and bluster of the US President Donald Trump, it is the US that has formed and leads aggressive military blocs and occupies countless countries, protecting the ruling classes in those countries from revolution, and also using their armies under its own command to launch wars of aggression, in addition to US forces deployed across the world,
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that in the post Second World War period, the US stood as the main imperial power as Japan, Germany, Italy and other Axis powers lay in ruins, and while France and the UK were weakened and lost their colonies, and cobbled together neo-colonialism, put together the Marshall plan to rejuvenate Japan and Germany, brought several countries under its own orbit, sanctioned and supported reactionary wars including in Greece, to prevent the rise of Communism in those countries, whereas it was the Soviet Union and its heroic peoples that defeated Nazi Germany, to encircle and surround the East bloc countries, to launch aggressive military campaigns, and to sponsor idealogical wars against communism and socialism and to defeat all democratic forces in Europe and elsewhere,
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that the disintegration of the Soviet Union ushered in a period of retreat of the revolution, and yet the bourgeoisie across the world remains petrfied at the thought of revolution that would overthrow their exploitative and oppressive order.
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The present period also has some key features which have been summarized as:
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one where the US continues to strive for world domination, and has formulated the theory of ‘clash of civilizations’ to keep the world at perpetual war, by arming several terror groups and attacking people willy-nilly using this or that pretext, especially in the Middle East, West Asia and North Africa as Islamist,
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that no system of Government except representative democracy that would safeguard the interests of the rich and powerful in respective countries would be tolerated, and anything else would be called a ‘rogue state’ and attract subterfuge and regime change activities, or coloured revolutions as the former Soviet Republics,
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that all societies are crying out for a way out of their economic and political problems, and any genuine demand is subverted into pro-democracy and anti-corruption slogans,
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that all these activities have been facilitated by its immense economic power, military might, and ability to infiltrate countries at will and sow seeds of anarchy and chaos elsewhere.
It may also be noted that there are other contradictory features of the era which are that several countries have in the same period consolidated their own economies and their own reactionary ruling classes also have imperial ambitions, thereby causing cracks in the formations, leading to vicious trade wars and tensions, especially between, say Russia and the USA, and other blocs such as BRICS and the USA. And yet in these countries too the reactionary classes are just as much against human rights and rights for their working people as the imperialists. Given this scenario, they would be eager participants in the imperialist redivision of the world which would bring great disasters to all the peoples of the world.
The only way out of all this is for the working class to bring itself back to the centrestage and point out that it is only through the proletarian revolution and socialism that society can be saved from the ravages of imperialism. The article concludes by highlighting this feature and I am writing to thank you for this outstanding piece of educational writing. I encourage everyone in the revolutionary camp to read and discuss the contents of this article.
Sincerely,
V.Kumar, Chennai