Capitalism and imperialism
strongman, because it has a Bonapartist character, this feels very overt. It is barely disguised and executed through the interests of the state. But it is important to remember that, though the west disguises it better, with narratives of ‘formal democracy’ and ‘human rights’, it too has the same oppressions, the same oligarchies, the same capitalism, and it, too, is composed of mafia gangster states. The west, just like Russia, is run by a dictatorship of capital: the interests of business dominate policy, the state, and the economy.
Russian interests in Ukraine
We can agree that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is deplorable. Many have argued that western provocation is cynical and selfish. But why is Russia in Ukraine? Putin is not an unrestrained ‘madman’ operating without reflection; he has material interests there, which can help us understand some of the forces which promote territorial imperialism. He is in Ukraine to maintain a buffer zone between Russia and Europe. He is also there because, with the growth of Russia ’s oil exports, and the growth of Russian finance capital and international investment, he can afford to be: he believes he has enough power to do so untouched, particularly after the USA showed its weakness in Afghanistan. He is there for strategic interests: the Black Sea, Sevastopol, Crimea. Taking control in Ukraine, alongside crushing Chechnya and supporting Assad seems to show that Russia’s primary interests are to return to the global influence that the USSR had under Stalin, and to challenge the USA ’s longstanding control over world politics and economies, displacing its role with the ‘Third World’, alongside other growing internationalist powers like China and India.
Chinese imperialism
Though China has a history of being a victim of colonialism, as borne out by the Opium Wars, the Century of Humiliation, and other things that fall outside of the scope of this essay, it is, today, an enormously powerful imperialist power, even if for a significant part of its history under Mao, it was seen as a leader of the postcolonial world, as justified or unjustified as that may be. The reason China is such a great example to raise when we talk about imperialism is because modern China employs a mostly economic form of imperialism, the same that the USA, the IMF, Britain, and the west more broadly have been using for some time.
Trade, China & Britain
Owing in part to its population size and in part to its manufacturing industry, China is the world’s largest trader, and this is an important context. By importing raw materials and products of other nations to fuel its own industry and by exporting its products and manufactured goods into world markets, China’s economic relations to other parts of the world can be likened to that of Britain in its imperial glory days. After the industrial revolution, large enough to win out in a free market, the British bourgeoisie spread and imposed a particularly self- serving version of ‘free’ trade to and on its colonies 1
1 This was often bundled along with the ‘civilizing mission’, as exemplified by the role that missionaries played in establishing links with those who would become Britain’s colonial subjects and in sharing geographical and cultural information with British imperialists. Though I do not explore this concept in this essay, it is important to
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