US, China, Europe: Inter-imperialist Rivalry Intensifies

Trade Wars Lead to Shooting Wars here ♦ Only the Masses Can Defeat Fascist Imperialism Everywhere here ♦

Trade Wars Lead to Shooting Wars.  Communist Revolution is the Only Way Forward

“We’re prepared,” US Defense Secretary Hegseth said on TV. “Those who long for peace should prepare for war That’s why we’re rebuilding our military. We live in a dangerous world with powerful, ascendant countries with a different ideology.” He spoke soon after Trump imposed an additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods.

“If war is what the US wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war, or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight until the end,” answered a Chinese Embassy spokesperson in the US. China retaliated quickly with its own tariffs. It placed 25 US firms under export and investment restrictions, citing national security threats.

The inter-imperialist rivalry between China and the US is intensifying with no end in sight. The rulers’ bellicose rhetoric aims to win the masses to war.

China’s capitalist-imperialist rulers have the world’s biggest, most modern navy. They are building “the mother of all aircraft carriers,” with more firepower than the whole UK military. They have conducted unannounced live-fire exercises off Taiwan’s southwest coast.

Seizing Taiwan would allow them to deploy their submarines worldwide by accessing the deep waters of the Pacific. They would avoid US underwater sensors in the straits of the First Island Chain (Japan, Philippines, Indonesia, and Taiwan).

US imperialists disagree over whether to defend the Taiwanese government during a Chinese invasion. Some US rulers arrogantly think they can successfully confront China in Taiwan. Others fear this is not true. They would rather confront Chinese imperialists elsewhere. But they favor encouraging Taiwanese nationalists to confront Chinese imperialism anyway.

Meanwhile, the US government has quietly unfrozen $870 million in security assistance programs for Taiwanese capitalists. Chinese imperialist rulers criticized the resumed funding for violating their interests in Taiwan. The Chinese Defense Military spokesperson threatened Taiwan, “We will come get you sooner or later.”

A “reunification” war will bring disastrous consequences to the working class. Thousands of workers in both Mainland China and Taiwan, and potentially the US, will die fighting each other for the interests of the ruling elite. The most impoverished sectors of the working class will become even poorer.

We are already feeling the effects of the Russia-NATO proxy war and genocides in Ukraine and Palestine. These fascist regional wars have massacred hundreds of thousands of workers. They have already worsened the global energy crisis, leading to higher energy prices. In turn, rising energy prices and supply chain disruptions have contributed to inflation, eroding workers’ purchasing power.

The escalating US-China trade war will make life even more unbearable for tens of millions of workers in the US and worldwide.

The goal of capitalism-imperialism is profits for the capitalists at the expense of the world’s workers. Capitalism means endless competition, profit accumulation, and terror. While billionaires live in luxury, impoverished workers in war-torn regions have been uprooted from their homes. They are forced to live without adequate food and water. Many refugees seek a better life elsewhere, only to get deported.

Only a humane egalitarian social system, communism, will end all profit-motivated wars and meet the masses’ needs everywhere. The new system will do away with nations, borders, money, and the wage system.

Communist masses will collectively re-distribute food, water, and other resources to impoverished regions. We will eliminate the wealth gap and social classes. All workers will live freely without fear of imperialist invasions.

Communism will be achieved only through armed communist revolution to wipe out all capitalist imperialists everywhere. To do this, we should recruit more youth, workers, and soldiers to the International Communist Workers’ Party.

Anti-fascist workers who recognize that their interests are with the workers of the world, and not with the capitalist governments, will join forces with the international communist masses in overthrowing the capitalist imperialist system. We invite them to join ICWP.

Letter: Only the Masses Can Defeat Fascist Imperialism Everywhere

“Western Europe couldn’t defeat Nazi Germany alone,” reflected J. “That took the US.” We were discussing Trump’s made-for-TV ambush of Ukraine’s Zelensky.

“I don’t agree,” I replied. “It was the Soviet masses that defeated the Nazis at Leningrad and Stalingrad. The US didn’t launch the ‘second front’ until the Soviets were already chasing the Nazis back to Berlin. US imperialists wanted to get there first.”

“I didn’t know that,” J said. “I’m wondering what the equivalents would be today?”

“Great-power rivalries are again leading to world war,” I agreed. “But the parallels aren’t exact. Who is fascist now?”

“The USA!” J said quickly. I agreed, adding that Russia is too. Unlike during World War II when workers worldwide saw it as a beacon of socialist anti-fascism.

We were at a picnic sponsored by a local activist group. J and others there like Red Flag but don’t follow world events carefully. They think that local reform struggles are the only way they can be effective.

I explained to J that for a long time, the US and Europe were united in NATO, opposing Russia and China (both now imperialist).

But European imperialists and capitalists (France, Germany, Poland, Britain) now believe Trump when he says they can’t count on the US to defend them from further Russian expansion. They are pivoting from being NATO’s “boots on the ground” to preparing for operational leadership that the US formerly monopolized.

How far will this go? Will NATO fall apart? Will the European Union split as countries like Hungary with openly fascist rulers choose to side with Trump’s US and Putin’s Russia? What will China do? There’s a lot we don’t know. There’s a lot that really can’t be known yet.

But here’s what seems certain. As Mao Zedong told US journalist Anna Louise Strong in 1945 and 1956, US imperialism – even with nuclear weapons – is a “paper tiger.” Mao explained, “In appearance it is very powerful but in reality, it is nothing to be afraid of.”

Of course US imperialism is capable of inflicting even more massive devastation on the world’s masses. It is preparing for world war to do just that as it slides inevitably deeper into decline.

The European pushback on Ukraine, the pushbacks on tariffs from Canada, China, and Mexico, show that US imperialism is more isolated – and therefore more deadly – than before. Trump dreams of a golden age and a golden statue in front of a Gaza resort ethnically cleansed of Palestinians. He goes to Saudi Arabia begging for more investments in the US. These are not signs of strength. They are a show of weakness.

US imperialism cannot take its industrial workers, its youth, or even its soldiers for granted. Most important, we must not underestimate them either. It’s still the masses everywhere that are the force that can and will defeat fascism—with communist revolution.

— Comrade in the US

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