Shifting Imperialist Alliances Lead to Crisis and War here ♦ Soldiers, Sailors, and Communism Past and Present here ♦
Comrades in South Africa distributing Red Flag to soldiers
Shifting Imperialist Alliances Lead to Crisis and War. Young Communist Workers and Soldiers Will End Deadly Capitalist System
October 2—Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States (AUKUS) announced a new military alliance on September 15. It directly challenges China in the Indo-Pacific region, which has 60% of global maritime trade. It also intensifies rifts with Europe. The new deal cancelled an Australian contract to buy submarines from France in order to build US-designed nuclear-powered subs instead.
But the future is in the hands of the international working class, not of the US, Chinese and other imperialists.
“The right-wing government in Australia has exposed fault lines as the trade with China diminishes, mountains of wines and minerals are piling up unsold, and the workers’ jobs are no longer secure,” writes a Red Flag reader in Melbourne, Australia. “Millions of workers are looking for a better alternative. Communism is rising from the ashes. Please send us Red Flag for some of my friends.”
AUKUS is the latest stage in the Obama-Biden administration’s 2011 “Pivot to Asia.” Now, ten years later, the global positions of the US and the UK are weaker and that of China has become stronger.
Brexit and the UK’s current trucking crisis have exposed the UK’s desperate struggle to maintain remnants of its dying empire. Once the dominant global naval power, it can no longer even finance a credible naval force. The humiliating US exit from Afghanistan dramatized its own limitations.
AUKUS means to provide a military umbrella for the Quad (Australia, India, US and Japan). The Quad is attempting to create a competing supply chain to challenge China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Begun in 2013, BRI now links over 135 countries in Asia-Pacific, Africa, Europe and Latin America. The Quad has a big fight ahead.
As the Melbourne comrade suggests, China (formerly Australia’s largest trading partner) is finding new markets and sources of raw materials. This is creating a crisis of overproduction of critical commodities like iron ore. China once sourced 80% of its iron ore from Australia but is now developing a supply chain from Guinea (in western Africa).
This global realignment has military dimensions. For example, US Green Berets in Guinea were taken by surprise in September when their military trainees mounted a coup to install a new regime that now supports French imperialism.
But rising Chinese imperialism has its own internal contradictions.
Food delivery workers in China organized several strikes in September. They are among 110 million workers in the Chinese gig economy who face long hours, reduced wages, and who lack basic housing and health care.
The glittering neon signs of shopping malls can’t hide thousands of unoccupied high-rise buildings. This economic uncertainty translates directly to a Chinese military filled with young people who are only there for the paycheck—much like the US Army.
Chinese imperialism is pushing up against the limits imposed by US-dominated post-World War II institutions (World Bank, International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization). This makes a third world war increasingly likely.
Masses everywhere want an alternative to openly fascist butchers like Modi, Trump, Bolsonaro, the UK’s Boris Johnson and Australia’s Scott Morrison. Some mistakenly think that alternative is liberal politicians like the US Biden-Harris administration. But images of racist attacks on Haitian refugees and of Harris cozying up to Modi should help to dispel that illusion.
The only alternative for the working class is to end the system of wage slavery that is the root of imperialism and its wars. Our youth everywhere have a great potential to defend and advance our class by fighting for communism, rather than sacrificing their lives to defend our class enemies.
This poses an urgent task for our International Communist Workers’ Party. We need consistent work and a long-term outlook of building communist collectives, especially in factories and armed forces today. This will create a new generation of revolutionaries who will lead the masses to win and build our communist future!
Soldiers, Sailors and Communism: Past and Present
A young veteran reported to a recent ICWP International Meeting about the importance of communist military work. The report began with some history of the role soldiers and sailors played in the Paris Commune of 1871 and the events that occurred on the Russian battleship Potemkin in 1905.
The Paris Commune was a workers’ revolution that took place in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War. National Guardsmen stood up to the French government and took power in Paris by taking up arms against the French army. When the people of Paris took power, they established their own government in which a committee of leaders was elected. Many of these leaders were national guardsmen.
In 1905, the sailors of the Potemkin mutinied and eventually took control of the ship in protest of the conditions the officers of the ship were enforcing on the enlisted men.
Unfortunately, in both cases, a lack of communist organization and leadership made the successes of both those movements short-lived. The Parisians would eventually lose power due to internal flaws within their newly established government which allowed the French government to regain control of Paris. The sailors of the battleship Potemkin would eventually forfeit the ship and go into hiding due to a lack of long-term vision.
The takeaway for the party is to recognize the importance that soldiers and sailors play in the process of any movement. Soldiers and sailors not only have specialized training, but they also have access to weapons that any serious movement will need. Therefore, the party must see the necessity of recruiting active and prior military members.
In the meeting, another comrade then spoke about his time in the US military during the Vietnam era. He focused on issues he used to build a communist collective of soldiers. A younger comrade talked about his experience organizing in the US army within the last decade.
Despite having been in the military decades apart, the two comrades experienced many of the same things during their enlistments. Both saw racism, as well as sexism and classism: all the readily handy tools used by capitalism to further its imperialistic pursuits. That both the comrades experienced similar events gives us insight into the topics we can use to win over past and present military members.
For example, racism is still rampant in the armed forces. Last summer, a friend reported that his training brigade was split between right-wing boogaloos and a larger group of young multi-racial soldiers. Immediately, soldiers organized study groups on the role of systemic racism.
They made the mistake of appealing to officers and the staff sergeant. The higher ups swore but did nothing about the racists.
Our friend emphasized that these racists could not be ignored. He used US history to bolster his argument. Many soldiers gave our friend their contact information in preparation for the battles within the army that they all knew lay ahead. Experiences like this are not limited to this one training brigade.
Soldiers’ future will include not only racism, but extreme sexist abuse and vicious attacks on workers in the US and elsewhere, as well as imperialist invasions. We must struggle for a clear understanding how only communism can end these attacks in and out of the army. The communist fight against racism and sexism are once again gateways to joining the ICWP.
The report ended with a call to all party members and friends. The military work cannot be done solely by the military committee members. Every collective of the ICWP needs to work on helping communist military work grow, because we all stand to gain from more service member participation.
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