East Timor, hailed as the first democracy of the millennium, and established with the aid of the US state, with the assistance of the Australian regional satrap as the local gendarme has shown it's true colors. No clearer an illustration can be made of the reactionary nature of national liberation than in East Timor.

Half of an island yet wholly under the protection of imperialist soldiers, East Timor was once the flavor of the month for many leftists in the west. Supporting this cause allowed them to be seen as opposing US imperialism while championing the cause of the oppressed and exploited. In reality, they were neither opposing the aims of US imperialism nor supporting any sort of struggle against oppression.

The tiny Portuguese speaking bourgeois element that rules East Timor today rules over a population of the desperately poor who do not even speak the language of their new rulers. This element now employs police to shoot down high school age kids in the streets while the UN "peacekeeping" police make sure the exploiters property is safely protected so that the exploitation may continue without interruption.

What is at stake in East Timor and why would the US acquiesce to allow a piece to be carved off its long time ally Indonesia? East Timor is located strategically in an important international shipping lane and near an equally important regional supply of oil. Thus the interests of Australian capitalism are served giving them a share in the control of this resource while allowing the US more control of the flow of oil in Asia. December 17, the parliament of East Timor ratified the Timor Sea Treaty. Ninety percent of the revenues are supposed to go to East Timor's new rulers; the rest will go to their Australian partners. The outbreak of riots caused them to suspend the vote from the 11th of December to the 17th of December 2002. Currently only ConocoPhillips has control of the only development in the Bayu-Undan field in the Timor Gap. In the works is a $1.7 billion dollar (US dollars that is) plant in Darwin, Australia to refine oil and gas and supply Japan's Tokyo Electric Power and Tokyo Gas' energy needs for 17 years once the plant is built. Shell, Osaka Gas and Woodside Energy also have interests in the development of this field of oil and gas. The workers and elements of the exploited of this periphery of capitalism suffered through a "war of liberation" and the severe violence of the Indonesian state backed to the hilt by US capital only to have a new government installed, again with the help of US capital.

It illustrates the clear separation of national liberation movements during the ascendant or progressive phase of capitalism with its character today, that of a wholly bankrupt and reactionary system. When Xanana Gusmao says as a veteran national liberator, "we are more dependent than ever, living from the power and skills of others," he shows the true nature of national liberation movements that move from one imperialist patron to another.

In the past, prior to the First World War, national liberation movements possessed a certain progressive character because they were capable of leading to the creation of a greater proletarian class. When the world had been completely divided into the spheres of influence of the great powers, national liberation became synonymous with a change of imperial patronage. The nation itself grew with the rise of the capitalist class. Prior to the growth of capitalism the nation, as we know it today, simply did not exist. In the countries on the periphery of capitalism we see that even the borders are drawn up arbitrarily according to whatever the immediate needs of the imperialist powers happened to be at the time. Timor was never more than an outpost of Portuguese power at the end of the Malay peninsula. Nations are the concrete expression of the interests of the exploiters. In many parts of the world, where whole nations have fallen apart it is precisely because the bourgeoisie cannot come to a power-sharing consensus amongst themselves, thus what reigns is a chaotic and bloody struggle for power where the poorest most exploited people on the planet are crucified.

Like the bankrupt and reactionary capitalist class, those who supported independence for East Timor suffer from an equally bankrupt perspective. We have seen this sort of thing before from the left wing of capitalism. Remember how they called for the support of the ANC against the apartheid regime in South Africa and today the ANC preserves the privileges of the South African bourgeoisie that is, ironically, white. Yesterday they called for independence for East Timor, today we see the former Freitilin guerrillas in power and children shot in the streets of Dili. Yesterday's guerrillas become the rulers of a nation where those few who are employed earn a dollar and less a day. Compare that to the allowances paid to the primarily Portuguese and Australian UN troops who can be earning up to $100US a day. East Timor may be the first "democracy" of the millennium but it is a state that exists because foreign troops allow it to exist. It is one of the twenty poorest countries in the world and the only thing the people have to look forward to is the sacrifice of building up a new country so their new rulers and their new masters may exploit them efficiently.

Some leftists even go so far as to claim that support for national liberation is an integral part of the revolutionary program. This accomplishes tying the interests of workers in the country suffering through liberation with the interests of the fraction of the bourgeoisie seeking to rule over them, while wasting the energies of militants abroad by channeling their efforts into a struggle to support a fraction of the bourgeoisie in some far off corner of the world. The more clever leftists claim some sort of critical support for national liberation, but these too seek to tie workers to the service of their exploiters.

To fight imperialism you must start at home. This means in the US we should fight against the capitalists, against our bosses and against the state. Workers in the US would be better off if this country were destroyed than continuing to support the imperialist leviathan that feeds off their labor. While US capitalism spreads war and violence everywhere, conditions continue to deteriorate at home, roads crumble, bridges fall into disrepair, dams become more prone to collapse, good paying jobs vanish while only the poorly paid jobs remain. While the US military genetically manufactures fungal herbicides to wage biological warfare on South America, emergency food pantries become the first place workers seeking assistance turn to, now that social welfare programs have been gutted. The real task of the exploited, the proletarians of the periphery of capitalism is to engage in the struggle against capitalists, not to unite with them in the cause of nation building. If workers today still retain a capacity to free themselves and remake the world they must start to act now.