Hereby we share an unofficial translation of the last Editorial published by Servir al Pueblo.

Imperialism is misery, hunger, exploitation and unjust wars. Imperialism, is, in short, oppression of humanity itself. Oppression born from the development of capitalism.

Imperialism is the highest phase of capitalism. The free competition of capitalism leads to accumulation and concentration of production. This, at the same time, leads to the monopoly (association of capitalists in the same sector who agree on prices, production and share the market). The different associations of monopolists are increasingly larger and more powerful until they finally become the fraction of the ruling bourgeoisie: the financial oligarchy (because it controls financial capital) or imperialist bourgeoisie.

In the imperialist State, the ruling class is the financial oligarchy. A truly parasitic class, which is making itself wealthier with the distribution of profits and a rentier economic policy. And since the State is the political instrument of the class that leads it, the imperialist State is the same parasitic and rentier. Their wealth increases exponentially thanks to the looting and exploitation of the nations oppressed by imperialism.

Imperialism is in crisis and decomposition and it is since it was born

However, imperialism was born in crisis. Lenin said that “the deepest economic basis of imperialism is the monopoly”, and therefore, imperialism itself is the negation of free-trade capitalism, is the negation of the original laws of capitalism. Lenin said:

“As any monopoly, capitalist monopoly has within it inevitably a tendency towards stagnation and decomposition. To the extent that monopolist prices are set, even though temporarily, the stimulant causes of technical progress, and therefore, of all progress, of all advance, disappear”.

Imperialism is in crisis and decomposition because: 1) its economic basis is monopoly, which negates the original laws of capitalism; 2) monopoly and struggle between monopolies leads to the division of world markets, and inevitably to violent division of the world through imperialist wars; 3) cyclical crisis of imperialist over-production are inevitable; 4) imperialism is the previous step to proletarian revolution, since it gives no other option to the proletariat; 5) imperialism is condemned to disappear because, objectively, it prevents the advance of the productive forces and technological development of humanity; 6) imperialism is condemned to violently disappear and to suffer all the evil it generated.

However, imperialism has phases in its development and has not been always the same. The current moment of imperialism is different than when it was born. From Servir al Pueblo we have repeatedly said that imperialism is not just in crisis and decomposition, but it is in its last moment, in the historical phase where the crisis of imperialism raises and leads it to the biggest degree of decomposition seen until now. With this Editorial we want to give few glimpses of why imperialism is in its biggest degree of decomposition.

Imperialism in its biggest phase of decomposition

The economic crisis of over-production are increasingly shorter, more continues and more sharpened. More or less violent depending on their context, the struggle is fierce between the monopolies and between the imperialist countries.

The wealth produced grows without stop and increasingly grabbed by a group of people increasingly smaller. Imperialists fiercely struggle for this wealth, for raw materials (we see Africa with the wars for coltan or the so-called blood diamonds), they fiercely struggle to redivide the market, and obtain the cheapest work force worldwide, etc.

The objective conditions for the proletarian revolution are increasing. That means, the economy is more socialized than ever, the production chain is more socialized than ever. Instead, producers have nothing while owners have everything, and the quantitative and qualitative gap increases between them. There are more and more producers (proletarians) and less and less owners (bourgeois): quantitative gap. The owners participate less and less in the production process, and become simple rentiers: qualitative gap.

The objective conditions of the revolution increase because the economy has developed in such way that is tremendously easy to socialize it. It is enough that the owners “disappear” to realize until which extent they are parasites who are not needed for anything.

The subjective conditions of the revolution also advance. That is, the proletarians, the masses, the forces of the revolution in perspective. If the struggle between imperialists is increasingly fierce, the exploitation of the oppressed nations is increasingly brutal. To obtain the same, they need to explore more, commit more brutality and crimes against the peoples. And faced with this, the masses rebel and their wrath against the injustice increase. The explosivity of the masses increases. The People’s Wars in Turkey, India, Peru and Philippines, are trenches of the world revolution, which advances every day. The last subjective condition of the revolution is the Communist Party, which leads it, and there are more and more communists in the world who struggle to constitute and reconstitute their Party.

Bureaucratic capitalism, which is the capitalism that develops in the oppressed nations, a capitalism that has not naturally been born, but it is imported. Bureaucratic capitalism develops its crisis in the current moment. Let’s look at Latin America and how happen, one after another, the crisis of different governments and with this crisis, the popular protest. Latin America, backyard of Yankee imperialists, the sole hegemonic superpower, is becoming more and more in the current center of the revolutionary storm.

And, in general, the base of the world revolution are the oppressed nations, as we see how the old States of the bourgeoisie and the big landlords at the service of the imperialists are in deep crisis. Illegitimacy of the “democratic governments”, of the electoral farce and of bourgeois democracy, further reactionarization, more military coups and fascist and reactionary armed groups, etc.

Let’s develop the anti-imperialist struggle!

Imperialism is a dying fish that is out of water, which resists to die, but is giving its last breath. We have to give it the final blow, kill it, overthrow it.

It doesn’t matter how strong it looks, because at the end they have a powerful tool of repression (the State), imperialism is a paper tiger with feet of clay. That means, tactically strong, strong in the short term, but strategically, in the long term, very weak. The people and just the people, the masses, the proletariat, is truly powerful and who can destroy them.

The foundation of the Anti-Imperialist League (AIL) is a milestone in the history of the international class struggle of the past years. We must struggle to reinforce it, develop it, and to build a strong, big and worldwide anti-imperialist front to develop the anti-imperialist struggle at the service of the world proletarian revolution.

Editorial – July 2024