US imperialism rampant

Eleven months have now elapsed since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The dramatic nature of these attacks has been followed by equally dramatic advances in the interests of US imperialism worldwide. Not only has the US taken over Afghanistan and advanced into the oil rich region of the

Caspian basin, it has effectively abandoned the cold war restrictions on the use of its enormous military power. All this has taken place with the consent of its main imperialist rivals, the Europeans, who have been manoeuvred into supporting the US advances through the anti-terrorist alliance and the invoking of clause 5 of the NATO alliance. The US is now poised to attack Iraq and possibly Iran thereby reshaping the Middle East so that it

has sole control of its oil resources and there is little its rivals can do to prevent this.

Domestically the events have been used to shock its citizens into acceptance of the need for open-ended foreign wars to defend US interests and the spectre of Vietnam has, for the present, been laid to rest. At the same time US citizens have been persuaded that internal surveillance and repression are absolutely necessary. These events have been used to create a climate of opinion in the US to support war in the same way Pearl Harbor was used. A more recent (Russian) example of such a manoeuvre was the terror bombings in Moscow in 1999 killing 300 Russian workers, which were used to prepare the ground for the second Chechen war. There is no doubt that the bungling incompetence of the highly-trained and massively-funded US secret services in failing to detect the long-planned September 11th attacks, which led to the deaths of thousands of people, gave the US the moral excuse it needed to stomp around the planet imposing its imperialist aims. In some ways it couldn’t have come up with anything better had it tried.

Advances of US imperialism

In a few short months the US military achieved the total destruction of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and the decimation of the Al Qa’eda movement. As we have explained in previous editions of RP⁽¹⁾ both the Taliban and Al Qa’eda were created by the US to start with, and sponsored by it via its allies, namely Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Hence their independent existence was something of a fiction and their destruction relatively easily accomplished. The next process, that of installing a puppet regime in power has also been smoothly accomplished. The latest successful step being the use of the “Loya Jurga” to confirm the US appointees in power. The security of the regime ultimately rests with the US military. This is true despite the protection given to the new government by the International Security Assistance Force (Isat) which is made up of the US NATO allies. Although this force and the limited use of specialist troops, such as British marines, provides the fiction of an international effort it is the US which retains command of both Isaf and all other military operations. It is the US which provides the real power through its control of the air, and through its military base at Kandahar in the south of Afghanistan and its further 13 other bases set up in the surrounding countries.

Many of the new US bases are in countries of the ex-USSR. The US has taken over Soviet military bases in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgistan and has deployed military personnel in Georgia. US imperialism has thereby advanced towards the oil and gas wealth of the Caspian basin. All this indicates a more open use of US military might to support its economic interests. It was no surprise when in May the new Afghan ruler, Karzai, announced plans to revive US plans for gas and oil pipelines from Turkmenistan to the Pakistani port of Karachi in conjunction with US energy company UNOCAL. Other pipelines are being planned from

Afghanistan’s own gas fields in the north of the country together with plans to exploit the Haji Gak iron ore deposits in the north west, and to build new roads to support these developments. Through its military might the US has opened up the area for US capital and hopes thereby to achieve cheaper raw materials for its industry and control of the resources of the region.

All this has been achieved by a rapprochement with Russia. A rapprochement which can only indicate the weakness of Russia since the US has unilaterally abrogated the 1972 ABM treaty, which Russia said it would not accept, and said it is to press ahead with its missile defence programme which is aimed at making Russian missiles redundant. In a separate agreement, however, it was announced that the US and Russia had agreed to reduce nuclear weapons from the present numbers of 6000 - 7000 each to 1700 - 2200. Even this appears advantageous to the US, which is to store most of its weapons while Russia is to be given a $20bn loan to enable it to destroy its warheads. At the same time the US has arranged, for the first time ever, to directly purchase oil from Russia and deliveries started in June. This shows Russia cooperating with the US in its attempts to diversify oil supplies.

The other element of rapprochement with Russia is undoubtedly over Chechnya. Although we do not know the sordid details of the deal which allowed the US to move into the ex-USSR central Asian republics, fewer supplies now appear to be reaching the Chechen rebels and criticism of Russian atrocities is more muted. The stationing of US forces in Georgia was apparently to assist in stopping Al Qa’eda support for the Chechens but it is clearly highly advantageous to the US. It represents a military foothold in the oil rich Caucasus and thus the ability to protect the principal artery for oil from Azerbaijan to the US which runs from Baku in Azerbaijan to the Georgian port of Supsa on the Black Sea.

The US has clearly made enormous gains from these agreements with Russia and conceded little in return. These deals also serve the longer term US aim of tying Russia to the US and preventing its alignment with the Europeans.

The proposed attack on Iraq and possibly Iran, both of whom have no connection with Al Qa’eda, indicates how the US has used the September 11 attacks to dispense with the old rules under which it pursues its military interests.

New ground rules for US imperialism

Since September 11 greater unilateralism has appeared in the US use of its military force. It now feels able to unilaterally abrogate military treaties, ignore the UN and set its own limits on the use of its power. No UN resolution was bothered about before the onslaught on Afghanistan and war has not even been formally declared. Although this follows the precedent set in Kosovo, this time almost no effort was spent justifying this. The US has also stated it has no intention of getting a UN resolution before invading Iraq. Similarly international law is now brushed aside and its Afghan prisoners are caged on its Guantanamo bay base in Cuba like animals. They are denied rights which should be accorded to them under treaties to which the US is itself a signatory, e.g., the Geneva Convention.

The US has already refused to submit to international treaties on military issues such as nuclear testing, land mines, chemical and biological weapons. The fact that the US can argue for an attack on Iraq because Iraq might develop nuclear, chemical or biological weapons while refusing to submit to any international monitoring of its own development and stockpiling of these weapons shows new levels of arrogance and

hypocrisy. The recent antics over the International Criminal Court (ICC) set up by the UN in July (against US wishes) confirm that the US no longer considers itself bound by international law. It certainly will not tolerate such restrictions on its military as it accepted during the period of the Cold War. On the contrary, the US wishes to extend its law internationally forcing other countries to obey decisions of the US government and legislation passed in US congress. The attempted prosecutions, brought against foreign companies trading with its enemies such as Cuba and Iran, are evidence of this.

Since the September attacks the US has also announced massive increases in its military spending which will be used to bolster its global military role.⁽²⁾ It has also announced a new doctrine on the use of nuclear weapons, namely that it is now prepared to make first use of them in future conflicts, just as it did at Hiroshima.

All these things amount to a redefining of the limits to the use of force which the US is prepared to use in the pursuit of its imperialist interests. The US is, of course, demanding that these new limits be accepted by its rivals who are, to say the least, not happy with what has occurred. The new US watchword coined by Bush is,

You are either with us or you are against us.

The first real test of this new doctrine will come with the invasion of Iraq.

Imperialist tensions

The US is determined to invade Iraq and install a puppet regime there and possibly do the same in Iran. Such a bold move would give the US the ability to reshape the entire Middle East. It would give the US access to the vast untapped Iraqi oil reserves and provide another route, via Iran, for the oil and gas of the Caspian basin. It would also, in the eyes of Bush’s strategists, be the key to solving the Palestinian problem. Without support of Iraq and Iran, they argue, the Palestinians would be forced to accept Israeli terms of surrender.

Although the UK remains ambivalent in following wherever the US leads, the other European powers and Japan are not. They stand to suffer substantial economic losses if the US overturns the present regimes in these countries with whom, despite US trade embargoes, they have negotiated lucrative contracts. Nor do they wish to see the US gaining complete control of all the oil from the Middle East as this will certainly be used against them. Both Germany and France have now insisted that a UN resolution will be needed before an attack on Iraq.

The Europeans would also prefer to see the oil from the Caspian going westwards in pipelines taking it to Europe rather than south east via Afghanistan to the US, and are therefore far from happy with the course the Afghan campaign is taking. The Europeans are similarly irritated over a range of other issues in which the US has acted unilaterally such as the failure to ratify the Kyoto climate accord, the imposition of steel tariffs and the new subsidies to US farmers. Imperialist rivalry between the US and the EU is growing and expressed in differences on the Palestinian crisis, the invasion of Iraq and trade. Although the EU is not yet able to openly put its head above the parapet and challenge the US it is able to play a spoiling game which it is now clearly doing.

Despite the initial support for the US which followed September 11th, the course of events since has actually sharpened the imperialist rivalry between the US and its main rivals. All this can only lead in the longer term to more confrontation paving the way to future imperialist war.

Internal repression

The events of September 11 gave all the major imperialist countries a golden opportunity to increase internal repression and surveillance, which they have been quick to seize. The US has set up a new government department, that of “Homeland Security” with a huge budget whose role will be further surveillance and policing of US residents. In the so-called “land of the free” thousands of foreigners are now detained indefinitely without charge or access to lawyers or family. Where access of detainees to lawyers is granted all telephone conversations are tapped and monitored by the state.

The UK has been quick to follow the US lead. In the wake of September it rapidly passed an “Anti-terrorism and Security Act” extending the existing Prevention of Terrorism Act to allow foreigners to be imprisoned without charge. This enabled our heroic home secretary to evade the European Convention on Human Rights and dish out repression on the basis of nationality, race and religion. A further extension of the state’s powers to tap telephones and read e-mails has been introduced. This obliges service providers to retain records of e-mails and other internet activity and hand them over to the state. Plans for further control of the population such as identity cards are now in preparation.

All these measures are justified in the resolute fight undertaken by our rulers against terrorism and the forces of darkness. However, all these measures will in future be used against the working class and its revolutionary organisations. This is because the working class is the real enemy of the capitalist class and will inevitably be drawn into deeper conflict with it. The events, which we have seen since last September, have their roots in the capitalist economic system, which leads to economic crises, and to imperialism. To attempt to evade the economic crisis all states attempt to lower workers wages and living conditions. They attempt to restore competitivity by undermining their rivals, which leads directly to imperialism and foreign wars. When actual wars break out the capitalist class demands total loyalty to the national, or more precisely their class’s, cause. At this point strikes are banned, wages frozen and workers are marched off to slaughter each other for the imperialist cause. The ultimate victims of imperialism are therefore workers and it is necessary for the bourgeoisie to have to hand ready means of oppression when they resist. September 11th has provided the camouflage under which a new suite of repressive legislation has been introduced which will ultimately be targeted on the working class.

Resistance to imperialism’s plans

Without doubt the world is a much more dangerous place since September and a further series of barbaric wars lie ahead. As we have previously argued the so-called anti-war movement, which in UK is the

“Stop the War” coalition, is the complement of the war movement since it supports the aims of ending terrorism and establishing peaceful capitalism⁽³⁾. Many in its ranks such as Greens, Christians, Muslims and pacifists openly support capitalism. To try to persuade capitalism to be peaceful is like trying to persuade a shark to become vegetarian. Just as the entire metabolism of the shark demands meat, so capitalist competition leads to imperialism, which leads to war. War is an expression of the real nature of capitalism and cannot be prevented while the capitalist system remains the global system of production. Peace under capitalism is only the preparation for new wars. The last 100 years are evidence enough. The only way to end war is to end the system which causes war. All else is pure utopia. There are therefore no wars which the working class can support but the class war.

The CWO supports the UK grouping “No War But The Class War” in an attempt to build an anti-capitalist opposition to the wars which lie ahead. We refer readers to the report and leaflet from the Sheffield section of this grouping published elsewhere in this edition. There is one, and only one, way out of the present crisis and that is the way which leads to the destruction of capitalism and its replacement with communism. Even the smallest steps taken down this road are an advance.

(1) See RP 23 “Afghanistan - The war on the working class continues”

(2) Military spending is now $320 bn annually and due to rise to $450 bn by 2007. It is now equal to the combined total of the next 19 nations in the military spending league.

(3) See RP 25 “US advances into Central Asia” and Aurora No 6 “To end war we have to end the system that causes war”.