Comrades, first I would like to thank the organizers for the invitation and the possibility of presenting our views at this seminar. We would like to also express our solidarity and support with communist and anti-imperialist movements all around the world.
It has been more than 100 years since the publication of Lenin’s seminal work on imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism. At the time, the significant section of the worker’s movement was still unaware of the qualitative change in the mode of production and adhered to the outdated analysis, leading to false conclusions. Many believed for example that socialism had to emerge in already industrialised countries, following inevitable growth of the working classes. Lenin put forward the theory of the weakest link in the imperialist chain, where capitalist formation is challenged at its weak points – in colonial or semi-colonial states.
Imperialism is understood here as the type of a socio-economic formation. It is a global system of interconnected and mutually interdependent institutions: private monopolies and companies, financial institutions, states and international bodies, various political organisations and networks, which secure the interests of the big capital and bourgeoisie. Lenin defined imperialism through accumulation of capital and power. In the last century this process was deepened with even higher degree of concentration of wealth and resources in the hand of even smaller minority. This wealth and resources are concentrated in so-called West, with US, EU, Japan and Canada accounting for more than half of world’s economy and 168 poorest countries accounting for merely 16%. 90 out of the world’s 100 biggest companies are based in and owned by the West and its allies, with only a handful of enterprises and banks from China, India and Russia and none from the rest of Asia, Africa and Latin America, which constitute vast majority of world population. US, Germany, Japan and UK are also leading countries in export of capital in form of the Foreign Direct Investments. This data leaves no doubt that the core of the imperialist system is now even more centred on in US / EU / Japan axis and their allies.
Indeed, we quite often hear from the Western media the phrase “the whole world” while referring to their political positions. In the press we can read for example that “The whole world condemns Putin’s war” (CNN). Stolenberg, General Secretary of NATO recently stated that Russia and Belarus will be “held accountable by the whole world”. But this “whole world” is restricted only to the West, with is 1.5 billion inhabitants! It can’t be considered as representative voice for the whole world by any measure, because the world has a population of nearly 8 billion, and the oligarchies of the West have questionable legitimacy even in their own countries!
This is not just a pure insolence on behalf of Western politicians, but a concrete demand and a very serious threat. You have to subordinate to this demand otherwise you will be kicked out of “the world” or “a civilized (or free) world”. Imperialism therefore places a claim for all global domination and control.
This control is exerted by direct economic, political and military pressure, but also by new means of technological and financial dominance. Imperialist domination has ceased to be only geographical, but has started to infiltrate deeply into the societies by means of modern technology and media. Imperialist forces are now able to apply sociotechnical means to control people’s psychology and behaviour. The legal framework of intellectual property (IP) ensures nearly complete western control over technology with its licencing system. States or companies who purchased the licence, became merely the “users”, when ownership and control over whole technology is retained by the imperialist monopoly. This advantage is being used to exert pressure and ensuring control even on the countries such as Iran, Russia and China. IP framework is also one of the reasons for the slowdown and hindrance of growth of productive forces, especially in so-called “developing countries”.
Accumulation of capital has also led to another shift in its politics. In the classical model of wages, workers were paid enough to allow them to survive and reproduce “the race of workers”, according to Ricardo’s law. Today, however, the reproduction and education of the workforce has become more expensive and emergence of global labour market allows bourgeoisie to purchase labour power without the necessity of providing the workers with conditions for local reproduction. We face here the new situation, where social structures and institutions, which in the past secured stable reproduction the workforce, started to hinder the profits of the monopolies. This led to a shift in ideological allegiance of the bourgeoisie from “conservative” to liberal. This is associated with promotion of individualistic lifestyles and attack on these institutions as evidenced by the social and demographic crisis. However, dismantling of these institutions, praised by the liberal left as a sign of “progress” overlooks the fact, that such institutions (nuclear and extended family, communities on the various levels) were present within humanity from the very beginning, answering to important human social and psychological needs. Destruction of these social structures and replacing them with liberal individualism cannot be therefore perceived as a sign of progress, but on the contrary – it is the sign of the decline of imperialist system, which has exhausted its geographical range of expansion and is now expanding into the human being itself, taking away his basic and fundamental tools to satisfy his needs as a biological and social entity.
Contradictions within imperialism started to inflate rapidly with the war in Ukraine. The legal frameworks which were supposed to guarantee certain rights to the states and individuals, both on international and national level, have collapsed. For example, article 8 of OSCE Istambul Treaty says that signatories “… reaffirm the inherent right of each and every participating State to be free to choose or change its security arrangements, including treaties of alliance, as they evolve. Each State also has the right to neutrality. Each participating State will respect the rights of all others in these regards. THEY WILL NOT STRENGHTEN THEIR SECURITY AT THE EXPENSE OF SECURITY OF OTHER STATES”. This measure was clearly broken with declaration of accession of Ukraine, Finland and Sweden to NATO. Other allegedly non-political international organisations, such as sport associations have been politicized. Capitalism also forgot its “holy laws” of private property, by seizing and freezing foreign assets. In Poland, for example, many civil rights guaranteed by the constitution have been illegally suspended. The state is blocking access to the websites and media which challenge their political views, political leaders are arrested and held in jail for “influencing public opinion” (which is equated with “spying for Russia), activists are detained and their computers and other electronic devices confiscated merely for comments made on social media (8 cases so far). Monuments to our Soviet liberators are being systematically destroyed. The witch-hunt for “supporters of Russia” is in full swing, with all the media and political parties taking part. It has led to intimidation and firing of many people with moderate but critical views from their jobs. Physical intimidation has been also reported, with several cases of physical attacks on our friends and allies carried out. On the 9th of May, the Russian Ambassador was physically assaulted by Ukrainian “activists” on the Soviet graveyard in Warsaw. Polish police not only failed to protect the diplomat, but ensured impunity of perpetrators, whose identity and links with foreign owned NGO’s are well known.
Concerning the military conflict in Ukraine, we perceive it as a proxy war, waged by the US/NATO against Russia, with Ukrainians and neo-Nazis as their proxy units and cannon fodder. The objective of NATO is to take over Russian natural resources and divide this country. Ukraine since the coup 2014 has been completely seized by imperialism and used as a trampoline for a war against Russia. It is clear that the big part of the responsibility for this pitiful situation lies on Russian post-soviet elites. Russian elites, who emerged after destruction of Soviet Union committed a crime against their own country, believing that they will be treated as equals and incorporated into the global imperialist system and supply chains, but the West was only interested in taking control over its natural resources and it was not interested in existence of Russia as an independent state, regardless of its socio-economic system.
Comrades, the events of the XX century only confirmed the correctness of Lenin’s analysis on imperialism. The global dominance of imperialism system has been successfully challenged in many places in its weakest links, with emergence of the first socialist societies, with anti-colonial and national liberation struggle all around the world. Even despite the destruction of the eastern European socialist bloc in the 1990-s, the socialist relations of productions still prevail in many countries, which bravely opposes imperialist domination. The existence of XX century socialism paved the way for the socialism of the future, providing a concrete material evidence of the efficiency and potential of central planning on the socially owned means of production, especially for non-industrialised countries. Imperialism is in stage of decline, degeneration and ultimate crisis as it will be unable shortly to satisfy basic people’s needs or deteriorate into a global war. The breach towards the new world will come from breaking the weak links in imperialist chain by anti-imperialist and anti-colonial struggle. Socialism is the future!
