US Military Base in Galapagos Ecuador here ♦ Build Real Workers’ Internationalism for Communism here ♦
November 2024: Ecuador General Strike: “We are the Strength of America in Quito”
US Military Base in Galapagos, Ecuador Expands World War III
Communist Revolution, More Urgent and Possible Than Ever
January 7— Ecuadorian rulers have granted US imperialism permission to build a naval base in the Galapagos islands. “They need that base for World War III against China, as part of their strategy to control the Pacific,” said Andrés Arauz, an Ecuadorian politician.
As World War III unfolds, capitalists worldwide are being forced to choose sides between two contending imperialists camps: the US-led imperialist bloc, or the imperialist bloc led by China and Russia.
For now, Ecuador’s capitalists are in the US camp. President Daniel Noboa was born and educated in the US. His father, the richest man in Ecuador, owns Bonita Bananas.
US Rulers Losing Latin America to China
Peru’s deep-sea mega-port Chancay exemplifies this. Built for $3.6 billion, it’s 60% owned by Chinese state-owned Cosco Shipping. Chancay makes shipping goods between China to South America cheaper, while shortening the voyage by 10 days.
Ecuador, Chile, and Argentina will build roads to Chancay. Brazil, China’s biggest South American partner, will build a railroad link. It will bypass the Panama Canal, critical during war, which Trump intends to take back from Panama.
Peru, unlike Ecuador, has moved closer to the China-Russia camp. It ranks third among Latin American countries in sales to Beijing. It is the second-largest recipient of Chinese investments in the region. Bilateral trade with China in 2023 grew by seven times over the last decade.
China controls 100% of the electricity distribution to Peru’s capital Lima (population ten million) and 55% of electricity distribution nationwide. With one switch, China can paralyze Peru, if it chooses.
China controls 30% of Peru’s mining sector, the main engine of the Peruvian economy.
Losing Economically in Latin America, US Rulers Prepare for War
Trump’s priorities include illegal immigration, illicit drugs, and reducing the amount of Chinese goods flooding the US.
These all involve US policy toward Latin America. “He (Trump) will resort if necessary to punitive measures including tariffs, sanctions, and perhaps limited military action.” (Foreign Affairs, Dec. 10, 2024)
Rhetoric aside, military action is the US’ only option. It plans to use this new Ecuadorian military base and seventy-six others in the region to enforce its two centuries-old policy of complete US control of Latin America. It will try to expel China and Russia from the hemisphere.
China’s Rulers Prepare to Face US in Latin America
Like all imperialists, China needs to protect its investments and expand control over natural resources and markets. Chancay, like all Chinese-built ports, has dual usage: commercial and military.
China is upgrading or building dozens of ports in the region, all with dual usage. Its navy, the world’s largest, makes calls to Latin American ports. China has conducted military exercises with Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela.
Last year, for the first time, members of the Chinese army marched in the traditional Grand Military Parade celebrating Peru’s independence.
World War III: Danger and Opportunities for Communist Revolution
ICWP will not be paralyzed by the coming war’s brutality and destructiveness. We will mobilize the masses to take advantage of the many opportunities that will develop to bury capitalism-imperialism and build communism.
World War III will not be like World War I or World War II. The main imperialist-capitalist centers – Russia, China, US, India, Europe, Middle East, along with other regions – will face massive destruction.
World War III will be fought on every continent. Workers everywhere will be directly affected, whether involved in battles or not. Already, for example, the US-led NATO war against Russia in Ukraine has left thousands of Ecuadorian banana workers destitute. Russia and Ukraine had consumed one out of every five Ecuadorian bananas. The war ended this.
World War II reduced international commerce to less than one third. A nuclear World War III might reduce it to zero. Masses worldwide will rise up in struggle for survival. Soldiers (especially the low-paid) will join them if their loyalty is to the workers, not the capitalist exploiters.
Masses need communist ideas. In this situation, even a small party with roots among the workers and soldiers can lead masses in revolutionary struggle for communism.
The work we do today building ICWP among these key sectors can enable us to quickly grow and mobilize masses for communism in many countries—possibly sooner than we think!
Imperialists Call for “Internationalist Solidarity” to Prepare for War
Let’s Build Real Workers’ Internationalism for Communism
I have seen many pictures of Beijing’s Tiananmen on the Internet. The front has giant placards on the western and eastern walls, with a portrait of Mao Zedong at the center. The placard on the western side reads, “Long Live the People’s Republic of China!” The placard on the eastern side reads, “Long Live the Great Solidarity of the Peoples of the World!”
The latter placard sounds great on the surface, because it calls for internationalist solidarity. However, it is NOT communist internationalist unity. The misleading slogan “the peoples of the world” unites workers and capitalist bosses of the world together. Furthermore, fascist nationalists in China are using “the peoples of the world” to refer to workers and capitalists of “oppressed nations”, “colonized nations”, and countries friendly to the Chinese government, such as those in Palestine, Iran, Latin America, Russia, and North Korea. This includes international supporters of the Chinese government, including the BRICS.
The distorted internationalist slogan excludes workers of “oppressor nations” such as Israelis, Jews, US workers, Japanese, and Ukrainians. The distortion becomes clear when online nationalists write violent genocidal speech such as, “Peoples of the world, unite and kill [American/Jewish/Israeli] devils!” Messages like this appear to sound “internationalist” to the authors, but they are in reality fascist incitements to war and genocide. Those who have the courage to post stuff like that online have the potential to stir up fascist mobs.
As World War III approaches, fascist nationalistic hate speech, even in the name of “the peoples of the world”, will appear more and more frequently on the Internet. The Chinese capitalist-imperialist rulers are calling on the masses in China and China-friendly countries to support their upcoming war against U.S. imperialism. Like the “united front against fascism” in WWII.
This means that the workers in China and the U.S. will be forced to kill each other for the capitalists’ profits.
The supposedly internationalist slogan also in reality excludes communists and workers’ movements that threaten the capitalists’ interests. The capitalist rulers fear real global workers’ unity, which is working class unity for communism against capitalism. Capitalists are always the enemies of the workers. Workers and soldiers are wage slaves and cannon fodder; capitalists are parasites, exploiters, and warmakers.
When workers of the world unite for communism against capitalism, the capitalist rulers will utilize all the forces and violence at their disposal to attack communist revolutionaries and workers. However, this time, the capitalists will fail at suppressing the communist revolution, because they are the few, and we are the many. We need to build our ICWP into a mass party everywhere.
Real global solidarity means uniting to fight for and build a classless egalitarian communist world. Where we will collectively produce and share only for the masses’ needs. There will be no more nations, borders, money, racism, sexism, and nationalism.
—Comrade Bambi