To the majority of the world’s socialist and anti-imperialist movements, it’s not surprising that Russia’s decision to take action in Ukraine has been vindicated. All who’ve been paying attention knew from the start that this was strategically sound for Russia to do, because they’ve seen the direction that history has been going in throughout the 21st century. With the destruction of Ukraine’s armed forces to the point where peace negotiations are now being semi-openly talked about, and with all the ways Russia’s action has weakened U.S. hegemony, the correctness of Russia’s choice has only been further confirmed.
For a generation, the hegemon’s strength has been steadily declining, a process that was long ready to begin and then got catalyzed by Bush’s self-destructive invasions. From the perspective one gets by studying the history of declining empires, wherein each empire keeps desperately embarking on military projects that only end up further weakening it, it was only logical that Biden’s Ukraine proxy war would put Washington in an overall worse place.
On the geopolitical chessboard, the hegemon has only taken some pawns by swaying more of Europe towards backing the war on Russia. The multipolar forces have taken Washington’s knights and queen by speeding up the rise of BRICS, the BRI, and the Global South’s liberation movements. By showing that it’s now more feasible than ever to win against Washington, Russia has provided great encouragement to Africa’s fighters against neo-colonial exploitation, and to the Palestinian freedom fighters. So many new possibilities for anti-imperialist victories have been created by Russia’s operation, and we’ve only begun to find out what they’ll look like.
With this escalation in our class and geopolitical conflict has also come new responsibilities for those who seek an end to U.S. hegemony. And for we in the center of the empire, these responsibilities have a particular kind of significance. Whereas the people in Russia are able to accelerate the transition to multipolarity and inspire many new anti-imperialist actions, should we also choose the right side of history, we’ll be able to bring fatal damage to U.S. imperialism. We’ll end all the occupations, genocidal sanctions policies, and terroristic campaigns that our government perpetuates. Which means the European imperialist powers, should they not undergo revolutions first, will be left without the ally they need to maintain their extractive efforts.
No imperialist power has the ability to replace the U.S. empire, like how the U.S. took on the role of the British empire after its fall. If we in the core act according to the interests of the peoples the hegemon targets—which absolutely align with the interests of U.S. workers—the next step in the liberation process will be brought to completion. Russia’s speeding up the emergence of multipolarity is only the prerequisite to what needs to happen now: a joint struggle between the peoples of the imperialist countries and of the Global South, wherein we all work to make the imperial order fully nonexistent. This cooperative liberation project is increasingly coming into being with the combination of the Palestinian liberation efforts, and the efforts of the anti-imperialist forces in the core which have united with the Palestinians.
There are forces within socialist spaces that seek to undermine this project of anti-imperialist unity, though. Like how the compatible left joined with the U.S. empire in portraying Russia as wrong for taking action, in this new stage of the struggle, it’s joining with the empire in gatekeeping who’s considered an “acceptable” ally within the fight for freedom.
At the moment, a major example of this is how both our imperial institutions and the opportunistic parts of the left view the Uhuru organization as a bad actor. The state sees it as such because it’s supposedly guilty of carrying out “Russian interference,” while the compatible left sees the org as part of a “red-brown alliance.” (Which is what these elements of the left call any coalition that goes beyond left-liberal circles.) The outcome of the compatible left’s anti-solidarity way of operating is that both the Black liberation cause and the Palestinian cause get harmed, as we’ve seen with the recent efforts by certain white leftists to weaponize Palestine against Uhuru.
All the while, the DOJ’s campaign to criminalize international anti-imperialist solidarity work by prosecuting Uhuru is allowed to continue unabated, receiving insufficient narrative pushback. Which puts all pro-Palestine activists in danger of a new level of state persecution, justified with the same legal logic that’s being used to say Uhuru is doing something criminal by working with Russians. The state gets what it wants (continued lack of widespread awareness about the Uhuru case), while the compatible left also gets what it wants (continued ability to monopolize the protest cage without Uhuru threatening this monopoly).
This shared interest between the state and many supposed radicals in discrediting authentic anti-imperialists is based within a willingness by the latter to ignore the effects their actions are having. The practical reality is that if you put sectarianism and the narcissism of small differences above what’s best for the anti-imperialist cause, our government is going to be enabled to advance the next stages in its war on dissent. With the collapse of the neocon plan for Eurasia, unity among anti-imperialists has taken on this urgent type of importance. Because now our ruling elites feel a more immediate need to crack down on those opposing them.
The hegemon’s final hope for winning the new cold war has disappeared, as if it was ever there in the first place. So the elites need to shift towards the only war they still have a chance of winning: the war against their own people. The more our enemy gets weakened, the more inclined it gets to try to purge the members of our liberation movements. And the more we therefore come to need a united front against the liberal fascist menace.
With the greater dangers towards us that come from this war on the USA’s people, there also come new opportunities to do damage to the power structure. Ukraine’s discrediting of the neocon ideology is leading to intensified rivalries among the elites. One section of the elites (represented by the lower levels of capital) is becoming less willing to support the provenly unfeasible schemes for new American military conquests. The neocons have revealed their model of operating to be too absurd for anyone to want, unless they’re invested in the self-destructive military adventurist project that finance capital is carrying out. The dominant wing of capital is going to stubbornly stay with this model, and likely try to redirect its war efforts towards an invasion of Mexico. Which will provoke even more backlash domestically.
This shift into an even more nakedly aggressive manifestation of imperialist war is going to come along with the escalation of the war against the illiberal elements, rendering the USA an exaggerated version of the military-obsessed rogue state which it already is. As the country gets more isolated, and its economic system reaches its next phase of breakdown, its logical trajectory is towards a liberal totalitarianism. This is going to be distinct from traditional fascism, in that it will still have the liberal “democratic” structure. It will look not like Hitler, but like Trotsky, with his reality-denying program to focus on an absurdly ambitious goal rather than on what’s immediately practical.
It will look like a government which is not just centered around waging permanent wars, but is willing to keep waging these wars at the expense of totally hollowing out the country’s economy. That’s the logic the highest levels of capital will be drawing from when they start pushing for war with Mexico, and trying to eliminate every element that challenges liberalism (including the ones within the lower levels of capital).
While we transition into this dystopic scenario, more and more elements of society are going to find themselves unable to be complacent in the existence of the war machine, because finance capital will be forcing them to fight for their existence or else be crushed. We’ll see more individuals among the armed forces become revolution-compatible, and find more libertarians come to be sympathetic towards the goals which communists have. In the new cold war, the point of division is increasingly over whether a given person supports U.S. hegemony, and the liberal political order that this hegemony depends on. The compatible left is compatible because it’s refusing to adapt to this political realignment, and acting like the old ideological divisions are the only things we should be taking into account. To win this fight, we’ll have to transcend this outmoded view, and build a united front against the liberal totalitarian state.
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