Imperialism

Against The Current - As Russia's invasion and its global impacts spread with ruinous impact, it’s high time for factual, political and moral clarity on what this war is about. That requires sorting out a great deal of ideological mythology on all sides.

Ernest Mandel - If we look at the problem of World War II from a more dialectical, more correct Leninist point of view, we have to say that it was in reality a combination of five different wars.

Chris Slee - Western imperialism certainly played a part in creating the context for the war. But it was Russian President Vladimir Putin who took the decision to invade, and he must be condemned for this.

David Camfield - As catastrophic floods in Pakistan and drought in Europe and China highlight the ecological crisis of fossil capital, a debate between Matt Huber and Kai Heron raises important issues for anyone concerned with understanding and responding politically to our times.

Simon Pirani - A look at the economic war being waged alongside the military conflict, the resulting disruption of energy markets, and their place in the broader social and ecological crises shaking capital.

Various authors - Those who now tolerate a Russian victory also tolerate a victory for both global and “domestic” fossil and commodity-based capital, which is closely intertwined with the Russian fossil and extractive sectors. Therefore, a new anti-militarist movement must uphold solidarity with the civil as well as armed resistance of the Ukrainian people, and with the Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian leftists who oppose the Putin regime’s war.

Malik Miah and Barry Sheppard - For a time after the end of the Cold War, there were claims there was a US-centered “unipolar world”. What we see now is a multi-polar world in which the US is struggling to regain lost ground.

In this lecture from the series on imperialism today, Ilya Matveev discusses the particular character of Russian imperialism and the evolution of the Putin regime. Matveev is a political scientist formerly based in St Petersburg, Russia, and cooperator with the media-project posle.media

Should the Left support the division of the world into imperialist spheres of influence? A year ago, the very posing of such a question would have surprised me, since the answer seems obvious: of course not. Unfortunately, the apparent sympathy with Russian aggression against Ukraine by many on the Western left has shown that this is not so obvious.