Comrades and friends:

On behalf of the Central Committee, and indeed the entire membership of Freedom Road Socialist Organization, we thank the National Democratic Front of the Philippines and its member organizations for organizing this important conference. We salute all of you who are gathered here. Having a developed understanding of imperialism and national oppression, as well as the fights for national liberation, is vital for understanding the world as it is and what one needs to do to change it. This conference will no doubt further this end.

Trump and the decline of U.S. imperialism

The election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the U.S. is symptomatic of a monopoly capitalist power in decline. His return to power reflects a failure of the other party of monopoly capitalism (the Democratic Party of Biden/Harris) and its inability to address the needs and aspirations of the working class. Drawing from a toxic brew of national chauvinism and reactionary currents of all kinds, Trump’s return to the White House will signal the sharpening of a host of contradictions domestically and internationally.

Trump has referred to himself as “Tariff Man,” promising to slap 20% tariffs on all imports and substantially more – 100 or 200% – on things like electric vehicles from China. The people around him, like some of the Biden crowd, look towards “delinking” the U.S. economy from the People’s Republic of China.

In his outstanding work, Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism, Lenin made the point that one of the features of imperialism, of decaying monopoly capitalism, was that big capital finds it increasingly difficult to utilize science and holds back advances in the productive forces. This phenomenon is on full display in the U.S., where someone like “vaccine skeptic” RFK Jr will be put in charge of public health, and where industrial policy is turning against technologies that cause less harm to the environment, such as electric vehicles.

The role of the U.S. in the world economy is shrinking. In 1960 the U.S. had about 40% of the world GDP. Today it is about half that. There was a day when U.S. imperialism championed free trade. For the past decade-plus, Washington DC has moved away from the neoliberal trade model, erecting a growing tariff blockade. The abandonment of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and paralysis of the World Trade Organization are signs of things to come.

After World War II, the United States constructed a web of economic intuitions where Wall Street and Washington DC occupied center place. That world is gone, and it has been replaced by a fragmenting world economy, where the decline of U.S. imperialism is picking up speed. Trump will accelerate the process.

One of the symptoms will be a sharpening of inter-imperialist contradictions, which will have political and military dimensions. For example, Trump’s view of the Ukraine is that it is mainly a concern of Europe and that too much U.S. time and treasure has been wasted on it. If implemented as policy, this shift on the Ukraine will force the European imperialist powers, especially Germany, to carry out a military buildup while putting new stress on NATO.

What we are seeing is clearer definition in the developing spheres of influence and domination – where the U.S. has a smaller role to play. Also worth noting is that the two other monopoly centers of monopoly capitalism, i.e. Japan and the European Union, are also producing a smaller share of the world GDP.

People vs. imperialism

The principal contradiction in the world today is between the peoples, nations and countries of the developing world versus imperialism. The U.S. is presently the principal imperialist power, and as such, it is the main danger to the world’s peoples. From Puerto Rico to the Philippines and Palestine, people are rising up and fighting for liberation.

The battle taking place in the Middle East is vital to the world revolutionary process in the current period. On one side you have Western imperialism, Zionism and Arab reaction. On the other, we have the heroic resistance of Palestine and Lebanon, and a whole axis of resistance, which encompasses Yemen, Syria and the popular forces of Iraq and Iran. This is a battle of world historic importance.

The U.S. cannot continue to exist as a world empire without dominance of the Middle East, and this fact explains why the bond between imperialism and Zionism is so strong. The broad masses of people throughout the Middle East hate foreign domination and want it to end. Israel is the cop on the beat for Western imperialism, a reliable nightstick that can be used against those who want freedom and independence. This means that Trump will double down on the Gaza genocide facilitated by Biden/Harris.

It is also worth noting that things can turn into their opposite, that Israel can move from being an asset to a liability: if the genocide and carnage in Palestine and Lebanon provoke uprisings in the Arab world, the position of imperialism will be impacted.

The fact that many of the forces fighting imperialism and Zionism are not led by the working class does not change the revolutionary, anti-imperialist nature of the struggle that is taking place. Stalin, an outstanding Marxist-Leninist and pathbreaking theorist on national question, wrote in the great work, The Foundations of Leninism:

“The struggle that the Emir of Afghanistan is waging for the independence of Afghanistan is objectively a revolutionary struggle, despite the monarchist views of the Emir and his associates, for it weakens, disintegrates and undermines imperialism; whereas the struggle waged by such ‘desperate’ democrats and ‘Socialists,’ ‘revolutionaries’ and republicans as, for example, Kerensky and Tsereteli, Renaudel and Scheidemann, Chernov and Dan, Henderson and Clynes, during the imperialist war was a reactionary struggle, for its results was the embellishment, the strengthening, the victory, of imperialism.”

That said, the struggle for working class leadership in the movements for national liberation is important, and as communists we have the responsibility to support other communists who are contending for leadership in the national movements – be it in Palestine or anywhere else.

Marxism-Leninism and the fight for national liberation

In an environment of declining imperialism, there are some important things to keep in mind.

First, there needs to be a strategic alliance, a “union” as Lenin put it, between the working class in the advanced capitalist countries, and the broad masses of the oppressed in the developing countries. There are hundreds of millions of people in rural areas locked in semi-feudal property relations, which in part provides the material conditions for people’s war.

Second, while there has been a resurgence of the communist and national liberation movements, party building and the construction of revolutionary, communist organizations is a vital task in the present period. Ending, or breaking free of imperialism is not easy, and to successfully do so over the long run requires organizations that embody the theory and practice of Marxism-Leninism. Building a new communist party should be the central task of revolutionaries in the U.S., and great progress is being made on this front.

Third, national liberation movements which weaken imperialism are objectively progressive and will hasten imperialism’s end. Self-determination of oppressed nations is a democratic demand, and, to the extent and degree that the fight for self-determination weakens imperialism, those fights should be supported. This has an application in multinational states, including the U.S.

Fourth, monopoly capitalism is a law-governed system where the drive to seek the highest rate of profit is basic. While capitalism is always incapable of genuine long-range planning, imperialism in decline is animated by the shortest of short-term gain and contingency. One of the things that makes the Trump administration dangerous is precisely a reactionary pragmatism that is reshaping the U.S. empire. It is a recipe for more wars and intervention, particularly in Latin America and the Pacific.

Finally, we need to be proletarian internationalists who are serious about uniting the working and oppressed people of the world. Looking around this room, that is exactly who we are. Mao made the point that imperialism is strategically a paper tiger. He was right – in the short term imperialism is an “iron tiger,” it is dangerous. In the long run it will certainly be defeated.

Long live proletarian internationalism!

Long live the unity of the people of the world!

Long live the unity of working and oppressed people – we have nothing to lose but our chains!

#RevolutionaryTheory #FRSO #Statement #Imperialism #Trump #NDFP #OppressedNationalities

Comrades and friends,

On behalf of Freedom Road Socialist Organization, I extend our warmest greetings to all who are assembled here at the International Theoretical Conference on Economic Crises under Imperialism, and thank our hosts, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, for organizing this important gathering.

In his great work Anti-During, Fredrick Engels made the point that freedom is the recognition of necessity. In other words, historical development is a law-governed process, and by understanding these laws, revolutionaries can be more effective in our efforts to change the world. Therein lies the great importance of a conference such as this. We have the opportunity to learn from one another and discuss some of the key features of monopoly capitalism and how it impacts the world. We do this from the perspective of bringing this system of exploitation and oppression to an end as soon as we possibly can.

The contributions to this conference address three big topics and, while this paper will address all of them, the principal focus of this paper will be the sharpening contradictions in the international financial architecture and challenges to the neoliberal model.

But before doing so, let me note the following. Many of us were here for the October 2023 Theoretical Conference on Imperialism and War, and, shortly before that conference got underway, the Palestinian resistance launched the historic Operation Al Aqsa Flood. Since that time, the Israeli occupiers and their U.S. backers have launched a genocide in Gaza. For its part, the Palestinian resistance has been resolute and steadfast, and it continues to land heavy blows. It is a movement of heroes that deserves the support and solidarity of all progressive people.

Economic crisis and the decline of U.S. imperialism

The history of capitalism is the history of periodic crises of overproduction, and these crises are rooted in the contradiction between a process of production that is social and the individual appropriation of the wealth that is created in that process by the capitalist class. Anarchy reigns in unplanned capitalist economies, where the guiding law is the hunt for the maximum rate of profits.

As Stalin said the work Economic Problems of the USSR that the most basic law of capitalism is

“…the securing of the maximum capitalist profit through the exploitation, ruin and impoverishment of the majority of the population of the given country, through the enslavement and systematic robbery of the peoples of other countries, especially backward countries, and, lastly, through wars and militarization of the national economy, which are utilized for the obtaining of the highest profits.”

U.S imperialism has been in a state of decline since the early 1970s. The periodic economic crises which have occurred in the context of that decline have altered the landscape of the productive forces in a dramatic way. One of the functions of crisis is to destroy the forces of production that are least profitable. Marx and Engels referenced this is The Communist Manifesto, stating, “In these crises a great part not only of the existing products but also of the previously created productive forces are periodically destroyed.”

The fall of the U.S steel industry illustrates this. The plurality of steel was once produced in the U.S. and in 1955 it dominated about 40% of the world market. In 1973 steel production reached its peak, but it was a colossus with feet of clay. The industry had failed to create new capacity with up-to-date technology such as basic oxygen furnaces. Japan and Europe, which had their industrial capacity destroyed during World War II, employed more advanced technologies. The economic crisis that unfolded in the 1973–75 period delivered huge blows to the U.S. centers of steel production like Gary, Indiana; Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and Cleveland, Ohio. The following economic crisis of 1980 continued the collapse of the industry. By 2019 the U.S. was one of the largest steel importers, only producing about 5% of the world’s steel.

A look at the numbers compiled by the U.S, Bureau of Labor Statistics show similar trends for manufacturing as a whole. Since the 1970s, every crisis or contraction of the economy has resulted in a decline in manufacturing jobs. In 1979, manufacturing employment was 22% of total nonfarm jobs. It was 9% in 2019.

Some general observations can be made. U.S. imperialism has entered a period of accelerated decline and repeated periodic crises have rocked the economic base. Capitalism is not capable of real, long-term planning and it is fixated on short term gains. As a result, the composition of the economic base has been altered with manufacturing’s relative decline. The U.S. has less ability to deal with disruptions of global supply chains and would face tough going in the event of another major war.

The neoliberal model in a changing world

Since the 1980s, neoliberalism has been the dominant economic model of the capitalist world. In his important statement Neoliberalism: A Scourge on Humankind, the brilliant communist Jose Maria Sison states:

Reagan and Thatcher undertook signal actions and pushed legislation to press down the wage level, suppress the trade union and democratic rights of the working class and cut back on social spending by government. They reduced taxes on the corporations and individual members of the monopoly bourgeoisie and provided them with all the opportunities to make super profits and accumulate capital.

These opportunities were made available through the flexibilization of labor, trade and finance liberalization, privatization of public assets, anti-social deregulation, the denationalization of the economies of the underdeveloped countries, the increase of overpriced contracts in war production and guarantees and subsidies for overseas investments.

U.S.-led imperialist globalization took place in this context. Not every center of monopoly capitalism fully adopted the neoliberal model – for example in Japan, liberalization was mainly limited to the financial sector, but that was an exception.

U.S. industrial policy

The decline of U.S. imperialism and sharpening rivalry between the respective centers of monopoly capitalism present a set of genuine challenges to neoliberal, free market fundamentalism.

While it could be said that the U.S. has always had an industrial policy, that of spending vast amounts of money on arms production, the recently adopted Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) along with the CHIPS Act have a real significance. U.S. government spending on developing the semiconductor industry will top $53 billion and create the ability to produce the most advanced computer chips. Government subsidies will also underwrite energy projects and the transition to electric vehicles. A huge boom in new factory construction is now underway.

A major target of this U.S. industrial policy is the People’s Republic of China. Currently about 90% of the world’s advanced computer chips are produced in Twain, and China’s leadership has made clear that the issue of reunification can not be put off forever. Additionally, China is the world’s largest producer of electric vehicles.

Using the measure Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), which allows one to compare which commodities and services can be purchased with a given currency, the World Bank concluded that the Chinese economy was 23% larger than that of the U.S. in 2022. Looking at the sum of these statistics it’s not hard see why the U.S. has moved towards a policy of massive subsidies for key industries: it is a declining, moribund power and its domination of the world economy is coming to an end.

Trade, tariffs and the rise of protectionism

The U.S. spent a huge amount of political capital to establish the World Trade Organization in the mid-1990s. It was the continuation of the post-World War II, U.S. designed General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which set the rules of trade in the capitalist world. At lease some of us can remember the massive 1999 protest against corporate globalization that coincided with the WTO meeting in Seattle, Washington. The U.S. is now the one stopping the dispute mechanism of the WTO from functioning.

In 2017, the Trump administration stopped appointing judges for the WTO appeal process. The Biden administration has continued that policy. So as things stand, countries that do not like WTO decisions can appeal the decisions, but there is no quorum of judges to hear the case, so nothing happens.

Likewise, the Biden administration has continued many of the Trump-era tariffs, particularly those aimed at China, and it is looking at imposing new ones. Currently the U.S. has an ongoing discussion with the European Union on limiting imports of Chinese steel. Trump, who is ahead in the election polls, is promising to put 10% tariffs on all goods entering the U.S., including those for Europe and Japan.

The U.S. also has ongoing trade disputes with Europe on a host of issues ranging from aluminum exports to American subsidies for “green” industrial production.

There are three major centers of monopoly capitalism today: the U.S., Europe, and Japan. As the decline of the U.S. picks up speed, it has less ability to occupy the center of the capitalist world’s financial architecture. A weakening U.S. has become increasingly preoccupied with the defense of its own markets at the expense of an international system of free trade, where the U.S. was the supreme rule maker.

There is a military element to all of this as well. The U.S. is preparing for a war with China, and that’s at the core of the talk about “delinking” the U.S. and Chinese economies. The U.S. proxy war in the Ukraine is going poorly. U.S. influence in the Middle East is waning as the movement for national liberation is continuing to advance. The U.S. is determined to maintain its domination of the Pacific region, plundering the regions land, labor and natural resources. It is also attempting to block China’s development, and hinder reunification with Taiwan.

The environment

All of us understand that the state of the environment is an existential question that is of vital interest to communists and revolutionaries.

The FRSO program states, “Monopoly capitalism is killing our planet. The boundless drive for profit is a threat to our continued existence. Climate change is causing more extreme weather disasters around the globe, with the most severe falling on the peoples of Asia, Latin America, and Africa.”

The existence of imperialism gives class and national dimensions to environmental crisis. Droughts, for example, do not impact everyone equally. Those who make the homes around Wall Street don’t worry about them, they don’t have to. The same can not be said for poor farmers in the Philippines or what few farmers that are left in the U.S.

Given that the monopoly capitalists are responsible for creating the environmental crisis, they are incapable of solving it. Instead, they hypocritically point at the countries that are, or have been, oppressed by imperialism and that are trying to make progress in national development.

In the U.S., investment in “green” technologies has become a mechanism to transfer wealth to the largest corporations.

In the U.S. our organization has been active in building the fight for climate justice and it is our view that the environmental movement can play an important role in opposing monopoly capitalism.

Polarization

The decline of U.S. imperialism has been accompanied by political polarization and sharpening contradictions in the camp of the enemy. The great uprising that followed the murder of George Floyd helped reshape the political landscape. The standard of living for the people of the U.S. is falling. The U.S.-backed genocide Gaza has brought millions of people into the streets.

Monopoly capitalism is a failed and dying system. Nothing – not industrial policy, increased contention with other centers of capital, or new wars are going to save it. Crises are a built-in feature of capitalism that express, in a way that words cannot, the overall weakness of an irrational system.

It is the task of communists to lead the fight that will bring this system to an end. To do this we need to start where people are at and recognize their felt need. By doing so we can continue to build mass movements and expand the strength of the mass organizations. And most importantly, we can win the advanced, the most active, to Marxism-Leninism and build a new communist party.

The outstanding revolutionary Mao Zedong once stated, “Historically, all reactionary forces on the verge of extinction invariably conduct a last desperate struggle against the revolutionary forces, and some revolutionaries are apt to be deluded for a time by this phenomenon of outward strength but inner weakness failing to grasp the essential fact that the enemy is nearing extinction while they themselves are approaching victory.”

It is like the great revolutionary Mao Zedong wrote, “U.S. imperialism is paper tiger.” It is dangerous. It should not be underestimated. But at the end of day, it can and will be defeated.

Long live the unity of the world’s peoples!

Long live proletarian internationalism!

In the words of Marx, “We have a world to win.”

#RevolutionaryTheory #FRSO #Statement #CapitalismAndEconomy #EconomicCrisis #Imperialism