Imperialism

* Ce texte a été publié en 2001 dans Workers Liberty, publication de l’Alliance for Workers Liberty, au moment de l’intervention américano-britannique en Afghanistan. (NPNF) 1. Comment peut-on affronter le problème du terrorisme et de l’intégrisme (1) ? Tout d’abord en ne soutenant pas le gouvernement américain. Pendant soixante ans, les Américains ont été les associés et les alliés du régime fondamentaliste saoudien. Ils ont aidé l’Etat pakistanais et l’Arabie saoudite à financer les talibans dans les années 1990. Ils ont fréquemment appuyé des mouvements fondamentalistes afin de contrer des...

The capitalist rulers of the United States mounted to power through a series of violent struggles against precapitalist social forces. The first of these upheavals took place at the dawn of modern American history with the invasion of the Western hemisphere by the nations of Western Europe and the conquest of the aboriginal inhabitants. The uprooting of the Indians played a significant part in clearing the way for bourgeois supremacy on this continent. However, the pages of the most learned historians contain little recognition and less understanding of this connection between the overthrow of...

25 April 2015 will be the 100th anniversary of the landings by British, French, Australian, and New Zealand troops at Gallipoli, in Turkey, in an unsuccessful effort to seize Constantinople (now Istanbul) during World War One. More than any other imperialist sally, this one has become a nationalist legend. This article by Tom O’Lincoln, abridged with thanks from the Australian socialist newspaper Red Flag , recounts the history. From 1916, 25 April was officially named Anzac Day. Australian troops marched in London, and a sports day was held in the Australian camp in Egypt. In the Sydney march...

By the end of the 60s, what had once been “the pride” of Marxism — the theory of imperialism — had become a “tower of Babel”, in which not even Marxists knew any longer how to find their way - Giovanni Arrighi There is not, nor can there be, such a thing as a “negative” Social-Democratic slogan that serves only to “sharpen proletarian consciousness against imperialism” without at the same time offering a positive answer to the question of how Social-Democracy will solve the problem when it assumes power. A “negative” slogan unconnected with a definite positive solution will not sharpen, but...

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A “common sense” which has dominated much left thinking since the late 1980s or early 1990s is now breaking down. That’s a good thing. The old line was to support whomever battled the USA. By opposing the USA, they were “anti-imperialist”, and therefore at least half-revolutionary. So many leftists backed the Taliban. They sided with Khomeiny’s Iran. They claimed “we are all Hezbollah”. But Syria’s dictator, Assad? Some leftists have taken the US support for the Syrian opposition, and the US threats to bomb Syria, as mandating them to side with Assad. Most find that too much to swallow. And...

History is rich in examples of the revival of institutions appropriate to more primitive civilizations in advanced societies. Mankind is infinitely ingenious in adapting old cultural forms to new uses under the changed conditions of a new social order. Like a thrifty housewife, humanity hesitates to discard familiar acquisitions, however outmoded; it prefers to store them in attics or cellars in the hope of finding a use for them in the future. The history of economics, no less than the history of philosophy, religion, and politics, shows that such expectations are often realized. The rise of...

History is rich in examples of the revival of institutions appropriate to more primitive civilizations in advanced societies. Mankind is infinitely ingenious in adapting old cultural forms to new uses under the changed conditions of a new social order. Like a thrifty housewife, humanity hesitates to discard familiar acquisitions, however outmoded; it prefers to store them in attics or cellars in the hope of finding a use for them in the future. The history of economics, no less than the history of philosophy, religion, and politics, shows that such expectations are often realized. The rise of...

History is rich in examples of the revival of institutions appropriate to more primitive civilizations in advanced societies. Mankind is infinitely ingenious in adapting old cultural forms to new uses under the changed conditions of a new social order. Like a thrifty housewife, humanity hesitates to discard familiar acquisitions, however outmoded; it prefers to store them in attics or cellars in the hope of finding a use for them in the future. The history of economics, no less than the history of philosophy, religion, and politics, shows that such expectations are often realized. The rise of...