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Imperialismus und Krieg – ist dies immer noch aktuell?!
Imperialism and war – is this still relevant?!
Event by: Kommunistisches Programm
Location: Rungestraße 20, Rungestraße 20, Berlin - Mitte
About event
In 1916, Lenin wrote his famous work “Imperialism as the Highest Stage of Capitalism” and described the development of capitalism into imperialist capitalism and also created the theoretical tools for dealing with the First World War. The question that is being debated a lot, however, is: Is this still relevant today? And what is the point of dealing with this topic?
The bourgeois side likes to pretend that imperialism is a dusty term out of the mothballs and that Lenin's theory of imperialism is rejected as outdated and wrong. However, “imperialism” is also experiencing a new upswing as a moral fighting term used by people who define themselves as left-wing against the aggressive policies of the leading imperialist states and as a term of abuse against the imperialist competitors from the bourgeois side. This is what Die Welt wrote about the then Chancellor Scholz on September 23, 2022: “Now he is using the Leninist fighting concept against Putin’s mobilization: ‘This is pure imperialism!’”.
Beyond different bourgeois ideologies from “left” to right, which are not able to understand the bourgeois-capitalist reality in its entirety, but at best theirs To take note of manifestations in a superficial manner, it is necessary to have a clear understanding of the functioning and development of capitalism with its different historical phases. This is the only way to understand the current development of capitalism and its contradictions, crises and conflicts. This is a prerequisite for being able to fight against it and open a revolutionary perspective in order not to sink into the quagmire of bourgeois politics and complicity.
However, if we assume that imperialism ultimately means “capitalism in crisis”, that in highly developed and overripe capitalism the possibilities of dealing with this crisis are becoming ever smaller and that, moreover, the entire world (all markets, spheres of influence, etc Territories) is already divided, it quickly becomes clear that this not only has an impact within the nation states, but also at the international level in the relationships between the nation states. The US trade tariffs under Trump and the attempts to blackmail other countries economically can only be interpreted as a desperate attempt by the US to eliminate competitors on the global market and strengthen its own position in order to at least mitigate the capitalist crisis. And in the same way, as the crisis progresses, every other state is also trying to assert its interests more and more ruthlessly against imperialist competition. The punching and stabbing is becoming more and more drastic and is also breaking up former “friendships”, as we can see between the USA and the EU or even within the EU. But it must also be clear that it will not remain just “mere” trade wars - next comes indirect, then direct military confrontation.
The development of the Ukraine conflict has surprised many. Just 20 years ago, wars were fought primarily on the so-called periphery, whereas today wars are fought directly in the imperialist centers and with the direct participation of the major imperialist powers. The bourgeois “attempts at explanation” and “analyses” changed again and again during the war, because to this day they have not been able to understand the conflict in its entirety. While many people used to shake their heads at us for our analysis that capitalist conditions were preparing for a third world war, today this can no longer be denied and is even taken up by the so-called bourgeois mainstream, even if only superficially. In our analyzes we have always emphasized and explained that it is the imperialist development in its entirety (highly developed capitalism with its crisis and its exploitation problems) that fuels the war-mongering dynamic and that the conditions themselves are preparing a new global slaughter of unimagined proportions. War is not an “industrial accident” in imperialism, but rather an integral part of it - it plays a fixed role in imperialism and is inevitable.
We want to discuss these points at our event on September 25th at 8 p.m.
https://www.internationalcommunistparty.org/index.php/de/3755-imperialismus-und-krieg-ist-dies-immer-noch-aktuell
The bourgeois side likes to pretend that imperialism is a dusty term out of the mothballs and that Lenin's theory of imperialism is rejected as outdated and wrong. However, “imperialism” is also experiencing a new upswing as a moral fighting term used by people who define themselves as left-wing against the aggressive policies of the leading imperialist states and as a term of abuse against the imperialist competitors from the bourgeois side. This is what Die Welt wrote about the then Chancellor Scholz on September 23, 2022: “Now he is using the Leninist fighting concept against Putin’s mobilization: ‘This is pure imperialism!’”.
Beyond different bourgeois ideologies from “left” to right, which are not able to understand the bourgeois-capitalist reality in its entirety, but at best theirs To take note of manifestations in a superficial manner, it is necessary to have a clear understanding of the functioning and development of capitalism with its different historical phases. This is the only way to understand the current development of capitalism and its contradictions, crises and conflicts. This is a prerequisite for being able to fight against it and open a revolutionary perspective in order not to sink into the quagmire of bourgeois politics and complicity.
However, if we assume that imperialism ultimately means “capitalism in crisis”, that in highly developed and overripe capitalism the possibilities of dealing with this crisis are becoming ever smaller and that, moreover, the entire world (all markets, spheres of influence, etc Territories) is already divided, it quickly becomes clear that this not only has an impact within the nation states, but also at the international level in the relationships between the nation states. The US trade tariffs under Trump and the attempts to blackmail other countries economically can only be interpreted as a desperate attempt by the US to eliminate competitors on the global market and strengthen its own position in order to at least mitigate the capitalist crisis. And in the same way, as the crisis progresses, every other state is also trying to assert its interests more and more ruthlessly against imperialist competition. The punching and stabbing is becoming more and more drastic and is also breaking up former “friendships”, as we can see between the USA and the EU or even within the EU. But it must also be clear that it will not remain just “mere” trade wars - next comes indirect, then direct military confrontation.
The development of the Ukraine conflict has surprised many. Just 20 years ago, wars were fought primarily on the so-called periphery, whereas today wars are fought directly in the imperialist centers and with the direct participation of the major imperialist powers. The bourgeois “attempts at explanation” and “analyses” changed again and again during the war, because to this day they have not been able to understand the conflict in its entirety. While many people used to shake their heads at us for our analysis that capitalist conditions were preparing for a third world war, today this can no longer be denied and is even taken up by the so-called bourgeois mainstream, even if only superficially. In our analyzes we have always emphasized and explained that it is the imperialist development in its entirety (highly developed capitalism with its crisis and its exploitation problems) that fuels the war-mongering dynamic and that the conditions themselves are preparing a new global slaughter of unimagined proportions. War is not an “industrial accident” in imperialism, but rather an integral part of it - it plays a fixed role in imperialism and is inevitable.
We want to discuss these points at our event on September 25th at 8 p.m.
https://www.internationalcommunistparty.org/index.php/de/3755-imperialismus-und-krieg-ist-dies-immer-noch-aktuell