Statement of the Internationalist Communist Tendency

Internationalists based in the world working class, wherever they are, have known it for some time. The long-running global economic crisis of capitalism, and the expedient policies adopted to combat it, have now reduced all the major powers to desperate measures. Even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the insoluble problems of ‘declining growth’ meant that it was only a matter of time before the major powers were openly taking the road to what was once unthinkable: yet another world war. The US attack on Caracas on 3 January represents another, even graver, step in the march to open imperialist war. The abduction of the president of a sovereign state demonstrates that the old world order constructed for the benefit of US imperialism in 1945 has now gone. All the institutions which were designed to defend that power, such as the United Nations, the International Criminal Court and even NATO have been systematically shredded or rejected. They are no longer deemed fit for the purpose of supporting US hegemony by the very power that had benefited from it most.

The abduction of Maduro was only the logical outcome of the abandonment of the so-called “rules-based order” that the US once (hypocritically) claimed gave it moral, as well as political, leadership of the “free world”. Yet this is about more than just the overthrow of one dictator. It is yet another front in the struggle between the US and its new imperialist challenger, China.

China's Advance

After Ukraine and the Middle East, Latin America has become part of the intense rivalry between the powers. China’s stealthy advance made it, until this year, the main trading partner for nine South American states. In addition, Chinese companies have extensive interests in both oil and mining in Latin America. They have invested in the “Lithium Triangle” of Argentina, Chile and Bolivia to supply their battery industry and have significant stakes in Chilean copper and Peruvian iron ore. With the recent opening of the joint venture port of Chancay in Peru, China now dominates the Pacific trade of South America. And, despite Trump’s threats last year, the two main ports on the Panama Canal are still run by the Hong Kong firm, CK Hutchison Holdings, as no deal has yet been reached to sell them, largely due to Chinese state involvement in negotiations. However, the US got its real wake up call when China responded last year to Trump’s tariffs by banning the export of rare earths and other critical materials for advanced technology and thus advanced weaponry. The Chinese regime has been steadily ensuring it has its own raw material supplies (not to mention strategic roads and ports throughout the world) and this has compelled the US to hit back. And where more urgently than in its “own backyard”? Venezuela was the chosen battleground.

China had been a leading supporter of the Maduro regime by both buying its oil (apparently cheaply) and giving it billions in loans. In the build up to the attack on Caracas, Maduro called on China (and Russia) for military assistance. The US attack was therefore not just about one man or one Latin American state but about reassertion of American dominance in “the Western hemisphere”. Ostensibly, nothing new here. The US has intervened to overthrow the government in 23 of Latin American and Caribbean states since “the American century” began with the defeat of the last remnants of the Spanish Empire in 1901. However, most of these interventions, like the overthrow of Allende’s reformist government in Chile, were not acknowledged openly and were masked by having a local actor (like Pinochet) already lined up to take over. In Venezuela, there is no pretence about “restoring democracy” as the name of the game is “we want our (sic) oil back”. It is a battle for resources which the US needs if it is to maintain its global dominance despite its growing indebtedness.

US Hegemony in Crisis

The US Federal debt has been growing for decades and is now at $38 trillion which means that US Government interest payments are now $1.2 trillion per annum. It has got away with this for decades because the dollar remains the currency of world trade. But since the 1990s this dominance has faced challenges. Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction but he was trying to sell Iraqi oil in other currencies, as was Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. Both were overthrown by US-led invasions. However, that has not stopped the rot. The Chinese, Russians and increasingly other members of the BRICS states have avoided the dollar as much as possible. Perhaps most telling is the failure of Saudi Arabia to continue the 1974 arrangement where it guaranteed to price and sell its oil in dollars. And, of course, as China became the main purchaser of Venezuelan oil after Trump sanctioned it in 2016, the dollar was cut out of the trade. China paid in yuan and got a discount on the oil whilst cheap Chinese commodities and loans helped to keep the so-called “Bolivarian revolution” afloat in the face of US sanctions.

Thus Trump is desperate to get US hands on any resource it can, starting with Venezuelan oil. Not only will seizing its immense reserves boost the US economy (at least that’s the idea, though Trump is probably not aiming to cough up the enormous sum needed to upgrade the extraction equipment) but it will also deny them to China and at the same time allow the US to defend the petrodollar against the OPEC producers and Russia and prevent them from defining oil prices. So the control of Venezuela is also a slap in the face to both Putin and Xi, neither of whom can convincingly accuse the US of breaching international law.

And there is no room for compromise. Secretary for War (formerly Defense) Hegseth announced that this was “America First” in action whilst Trump gleefully (but accurately) said they would “do it again” and “nobody could stop us”. In the wake of the abduction of Maduro threats are cascading from the White House. Trump threatens military action against Petro in Colombia, against the Cuban regime (where more protests are going on as it loses its Venezuelan ally’s support), and the Iranian Ayatollahs where demonstrations against the collapse of the currency have morphed into calls for the fall of the regime. But most dramatically of all, he has renewed his demand for Greenland. Trump claims that it needs it for US Arctic Circle security but this is a lie. The US already has a base on Greenland and could presumably negotiate any further expansion with NATO partners. No. Trump and his tech oligarch allies like Peter Thiel and Elon Musk want Greenland for its subsoil assets. Hence the threat of military force if negotiations fail. This would be a declaration of war on Denmark and NATO itself given its charter. And certainly no-one could stop the US taking Greenland by force as the mealy mouthed statements emanating from European leaders only underline. Force is thus the one area in which the US still can rule supreme given that its military budget is equal to that of China and Russia, plus the next 7 leading powers combined.

Socialism or Barbarism

The only force that can stop the drift to generalised war is the world working class. After decades of restructuring, job losses, austerity and wage cuts there are signs (which we have reported elsewhere) that workers everywhere are beginning to resist. For the moment, much of this resistance is about fighting cuts in real wages (in the face of inflation), ever worse social services and working conditions. The sacrifices we are called upon to make today are, however, nothing compared to what this decaying system is preparing for our future. While our rulers everywhere prepare weapons of mass destruction (using weapons of mass distraction which divert any blame to migrants) our weapons are our collective strength and consciousness that this system is no longer compatible with human survival.

Another world is necessary, based, not on exploitation and conflict, but on solidarity and cooperation. Only a world-wide working class revolution can produce this. It will not come today but, as the economic crisis grinds on and the road to another world war becomes inescapable, our guerrilla war with capital has to go beyond the fight over daily conditions. We have to go beyond demanding “a fairer capitalism” to demand the abolition of the wages system itself. This demands a leap in class consciousness. We have some way to go and the challenges are enormous but internationalists (whose ranks are now increasing around the world) can make their contribution by giving a lead through a closer dialogue and cooperation which concentrates on what unites us rather than divides us. This is what we have tried to be part of in participating in No War but the Class War (NWBCW) initiative, alongside others of both communist left and internationalist anarchist traditions. We need to expand that dialogue so that ultimately it gives rise to an international political organisation through which the world’s working class can take on the might of capital and fight all states, including those who make the fake claim to be “socialist” like Cuba or Venezuela. They are (or were) state capitalist regimes where the state replaced private capital. They are dependent on one or other of the greater imperialist powers for their existence. There is no such thing as “a workers’ state” anywhere in the world. As Marx stated 180 years ago, “workers have no country”. Our anti-imperialism is not restricted to the US or the West but is against every state. Only when we have rid the world of exploitation, by which we mean wage labour and capital, of states and standing armies, profit and money, will we be able to usher in a new world where the throwaway society will give way to one in which the basic principle will be “from each according to their ability, to each according to their need” and will we be in as position to save humanity and the planet it inhabits.

Some Further Reading:

Imperialist Tensions Are Heating Up The Arctic

Rare Earth Magnets are Pulling the World Apart

Trump and the New "Golden Age"