The Breakdown of US Hegemony and the Struggle for Workers Power

After decades of relative world stability, we have now entered a period of growing turmoil. This new epoch is defined by the breakdown of US hegemony, with one crisis after another for the liberal, globalised world order created by US imperialism.

Those at the bottom of the world pyramid are hit hardest by the shocks and crises. Gaza lies in rubble, with tens of thousands of Palestinians massacred in the US-backed Zionist slaughter. Untold millions are plunged into poverty and starvation in Africa, Asia and Latin America as economies throughout the neocolonial world are squeezed to the breaking point by finance capital. Ukrainian and Russian working people are cut down relentlessly in the meatgrinder that is the NATO-provoked proxy war in Ukraine. In every country, from East to West, working people face a steep rise in the cost of living, massive attacks on working conditions, healthcare, public services and unions.

To defend and advance the interests of the world proletariat, we must be clear that a return to the status quo is impossible. But so is the prospect of declining US imperialism relinquishing its domination unless forced to by a revolutionary struggle. These are delusions that disarm the workers and oppressed of the world, leading them defenceless to the slaughter. But these are precisely the answers of the current leadership of the working class to the growing world turmoil. In the West they cling to the reactionary fantasy of “fixing” the liberal world order, while in the Global South they look to forces like the BRICS to push back US hegemony. This only demoralises and divides the working class, paving the way for reaction.

Against this, the task of Marxists is to utilise these shocks and crises to rouse the masses against the imperialist rulers, guiding their struggles along revolutionary lines. This is the understanding that informed all of Lenin’s activities during World War I. Carrying out this task is only possible by fighting at every stage of the struggle to break the workers movement from opportunism. That is the central lesson from Lenin’s legacy as a Marxist thinker and leader of revolutionary mass action. As his comrade Leon Trotsky wrote, “The struggle for the independent political party of the proletariat constituted the main content of his life.” It is through continuing that struggle that revolutionaries will best mark the centenary of Lenin’s death.

So that is what I would like to talk about here: how can we go about doing that today? To begin with, we must base ourselves on a correct understanding of the current epoch. This is especially crucial today, when the working class stands politically disarmed by its leadership, with the left wing isolated and profoundly disoriented by the post-Soviet period that came before. How did we get here, and what are the lessons that must be drawn in order to cohere a Leninist pole to fight for leadership of the mass struggles that are bound to be thrown up by the turmoil to come? These are the core questions taken up in the main document of the ICL’s Eighth International Conference, which is in the new issue of our journal Spartacist (English edition, No. 68, September 2023). We do not delude ourselves that it has the answers to every question, but we believe it contains some of the essential elements of analysis and programme needed to fight for an international Leninist vanguard party in today’s world. We are happy to have the chance to take part in this conference to engage with comrades from Nigeria and beyond who wish to take up this fight.

A Leninist Critique of the Post-Soviet Liberal Order

The post-Soviet era posed new challenges that profoundly disorientated the left and workers movement, including our organisation, the ICL, and other Marxists. With the collapse of the USSR, the world was no longer defined by the conflict of two social systems but by the hegemony of one imperialist power, the United States. There was a significant growth in world trade, massive offshoring of production and an explosion of capital circulation internationally, i.e., globalisation. This saw an overall increase in the productive forces with industrialisation, although uneven, in much of the neocolonial world.

Besides the disaster of counterrevolution itself, these developments appeared to contradict Lenin’s analysis of imperialism—that capitalism had arrived at its final stage where the domination of monopoly capital leads to parasitism, long-term decay and imperialist war. In fact, the US-created liberal world order leads not to gradual social and economic progress but to social calamity.

The stability of the world, as well as the overall growth of the productive forces and world trade during the post-Soviet period, were not based on mythical ideals such as “free trade” and liberal democracy. They were carried out under the yoke of US imperialism, which towered over its rivals.

The devastating blow that counterrevolution in the USSR dealt to working-class power; the huge advantage of the US over all its rivals; and the opening of great swaths of previously untapped markets to finance capital—all these taken together gave imperialism a new lease on life. Instead of tearing each other apart for market shares, the US and its imperialist rivals in Western Europe and Japan worked together to foster and exploit economic liberalisation in the neocolonial world.

But this lease on life could only be temporary, preparing the way for ever greater disruptions as soon as there was a shift in the relationship of forces. The domination and international growth of US finance capital has itself been the main driver hollowing out the very source of US global power, its once mighty industrial base. The growth of world trade; offshoring from the West and industrialisation of neocolonial countries in Asia and Latin America; the development of China—all these features of the post-Soviet system have undermined US hegemony and now force it to reverse the dynamic of liberal globalisation. To maintain its position, US imperialism must tear apart all the bases for the stability and growth of the previous period. It must confront China, relentlessly squeeze the neocolonies, throw up ever more trade barriers and reduce the crumbs given to its allies.

Far from refuting Lenin, these developments powerfully confirm his understanding of the parasitical, reactionary character of imperialism. So, why are those who claim Lenin’s heritage more splintered, weak and isolated than ever? Above all, because they adapted to liberalism in the post-Soviet period, rejecting the task of Leninists: building a revolutionary alternative to liberalism by charting an independent working-class road forward. The lessons of this failure must be learned in order to reorient and struggle to provide revolutionary leadership in today’s tumultuous world.

What Is to Be Done?

The growing contradiction between the hegemonic position the US still holds and its reduced real economic power is not sustainable. This is the root cause of growing economic and political instability in the world. How will this contradiction be resolved? This is not an academic question but one that will be decided by the living struggle of class forces. For our class to prevail, we must be clear about the fundamental nature of the conflict shaping today’s world. It is not a contest between Democracy and Autocracy, as liberals in the West claim. Neither is it a contest between hegemony and multi-polarity—“NATO versus the BRICS”—as Stalinists and nationalists in the Global South claim. No, the fundamental conflict today is between the social decay of capitalism in its imperialist stage and the interests of the world proletariat.

What strategy is needed to defeat imperialism? For Leninists, the cornerstone must be to put forward an independent path of struggle for the proletariat against the imperialists and against all bourgeois forces in order to advance the struggle for working-class power. To make this general statement concrete, let me look at one of the key controversies on the left today, the war in Ukraine and the strategy of looking to the BRICS bloc as a means to push back against US imperialism.

As I understand it, the trend in Nigeria is similar to what we see in South Africa and other parts of the neocolonial world, with a growing number of working people looking to Putin’s Russia as a force against imperialism. So they support a Russian victory in the Ukraine war. The appeal of this position comes from the fact that Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine is objectively the biggest challenge to US hegemony since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and a Russian military victory in Ukraine would be a humiliating defeat for US foreign policy. All true. But it does not follow that support for Russia advances the struggle against imperialism. In fact, this position runs completely counter to advancing the interests of the world proletariat against the US-dominated imperialist system responsible for the conflict.

The current war is not about Russia’s independence from imperialism. It is about who will control Ukraine. On the one side, the Ukrainian government is fighting to keep Ukraine under the boot of NATO, the European Union and the United States. On the other, Russia is fighting to bring Ukraine into its own sphere of influence. That makes it reactionary on both sides, a war about which gang of thugs—the White House or the Kremlin—will exploit and dominate Ukraine. Pacifist appeals to “end the war” also do nothing to advance the struggle against imperialism. To advance the anti-imperialist struggle, we must fight to transform this reactionary war between nations into a war of Russian and Ukrainian workers against their respective ruling classes, in the manner of the great October Revolution.

A strategy to defeat imperialism must be based on furthering the class struggle, on strengthening the unity of the international proletariat and on advancing the struggle for socialist revolution. Support for Russia in the Ukraine war does the opposite, dividing and weakening workers in Eastern Europe and beyond. What Russian workers must understand is that a Russian military victory would greatly weaken their own class interests and the struggle against imperialism by turning Russia into the oppressor of their class brothers and sisters in Ukraine. This far outweighs any short-term blow a Russian victory would inflict on US foreign policy. In the long run, it will strengthen the imperialist encirclement of Russia, as Zelensky and his NATO masters will be able to fraudulently present themselves as the defenders of small nations.

The way to deal a decisive blow against imperialism in Eastern Europe is through building a common revolutionary front of Ukrainian and Russian workers against their common enemy, the imperialists, and against their respective capitalist classes. If Ukrainian workers defend Russian minorities, fraternise with Russian conscripts and oppose NATO and the US, this will deliver a much greater blow to the Russian capitalists than any of Zelensky’s counteroffensives. If Russian workers take a stand against the oligarchs’ war and against Russian chauvinism and seek revolutionary unity with the Ukrainian workers, this will deliver a much greater blow to NATO and the imperialists than any Russian counteroffensive. This is the road to forging revolutionary unity against US imperialism.

What does all of this have to do with the struggle in Nigeria and in Africa? In a way, everything, because no struggle on this continent can advance one step without confronting imperialism. Let’s be clear: Putin will do nothing to liberate the oppressed masses of Africa from the yoke of the US and Europe. He is no anti-imperialist and will not be an ally in the fight for the national liberation of any country. This is precisely the reason why the likes of Ramaphosa are sympathetic to him. They hope to lull the working class with illusions that it can improve its living conditions and liberate itself from imperialism without a revolutionary struggle. At the slightest sign of upsurge from the oppressed masses of the world, they will look to the same imperialists they today denounce.

What’s needed to unite the workers of the world is a common struggle against imperialism, their common enemy. Since it is imperialism that is responsible for the masses’ state of destitution, and since it is imperialism that engineered the myriad divisions, forcing nations and peoples into arbitrary borders, the toilers must unite in opposition to imperialism itself. This requires a fight against all national oppression, whether at the hands of great powers or of nations that are themselves oppressed. In such cases—Iran and India are examples—liberation from imperialist subjugation cannot come about as long as minority nationalities and peoples within those states continue to be subject to oppression by the dominant nation. The latter has an objective interest in championing the liberation of the oppressed minorities, for without this their own liberation cannot advance one step.

To carry out this policy is only possible by forging an independent, revolutionary party of the proletariat, one which at every stage of the anti-imperialist struggle competes with the nationalists to wrest leadership from them. This goes for every key question to advance the struggle in the neocolonial countries, as my comrade explained in relation to the lessons of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. It goes as well for linking this struggle to the mobilisation of the proletariat in the West against their common enemy, imperialism. This is posed ever more acutely as the US and its allies’ efforts to maintain their grip on the world order come at ever-growing social costs for their populations at home, generating growing discontent in the working class.

The common factor linking all of this is the need for a revolutionary international vanguard party. As the workers face disaster and conflict, the need for such a party grows ever more urgent. To guide this effort, there is no better model than the Bolshevik Party that led the proletariat to power in the October Revolution. This is Lenin’s greatest legacy, showing the only road to defeating imperialism once and for all.