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The Scale of US Ambition

Guest post by the Vice-Chancellor of the Johannesburg Communist University
The US assault on Venezuela is part of something bigger. It is part of an attempt by the USA to restore the position it had in the 1950s (when this writer was a child). This is the full meaning of “Make America Great Again” (MAGA).

 MAGA is not a withdrawal from the world, but it represents a US-led colonialist attempt to repossess the world.

In the pursuit of its megalomaniac goals the USA is putting out mass-scale misdirection and misrepresentation, mixed with crude frankness. The USA sends mixed messages. Those of us who are to be the losers have to work hard to gain a clear picture of what is happening, and of what can proceed to happen in the near future.

For Africans and for the once-called “Tricontinental” former colonial countries, the USA’s project, which is a bipartisan (Democrats as much as Republicans) project, represents an intended reversal of the “independence” movement that swept the world in the second part of the 20th Century.

This began with Indian, Chinese and Ethiopian independence in the 1940s; Libyan independence in 1951, followed by most other African countries; and it culminated in the 1994 universal-franchise elections in South Africa – our so-called “democratic breakthrough”.

As a result of independence, progress in the formerly-colonial countries has been in historical terms extremely rapid, especially in comparison with the stagnation of the colonial times that some of us can still remember. Progress has been so rapid that it became possible to talk of a “multi-polar” world, where the former colonial powers, which are still by far the strongest, would soon find themselves as no more than equals among the fresh economies of the East and South.

For the first time in more than five centuries, the “North Atlantic” powers face the prospect of losing their exceptional, dominant power in the world. They had kept their position through neo-colonialism, or in other words through indirect, capitalist Imperialism. But neo-colonialism became insufficient. In capitalist terms, it carried too much “uncertainty”. Challenges were present that spread fear in the halls of the might West.

Reaction broke out in the 1990s, and it is by now florid, flagrant, unapologetic, rude, vulgar and aggressive. In the USA it is represented by Bolton, Pompeo, Abrams, and Trump, and a majority of the citizens. The USA has no anti-colonial or peace movement worth mentioning.

The USA, with Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, Japan, and the majority of the European Union are united in this re-colonisation project, which by the way is just as racist as its predecessors.

Get used to it.

The case of Venezuela is not in other ways exceptional. There have been many regime-change projects. Many of them have succeeded already. There are countries where regime-change has become the normal means of succession.

But what is extraordinary about these days of January and February, 2019, is the sheer openness with which the colonial powers are moving again. There is no shame or apology. There is no rule of law or due process. There is direct imposition of power.

For those of us who have lived through, and tried our best to assist, the anti-colonial movement of the post-WW2 period, it means that we have to begin again. We have to begin again in circumstances where the ideological struggle appears to be more difficult.

 At least, it appears that the difficulties are of a new kind, or mixed to a different formula.
In dealing with this situation, I believe the first thing is to appreciate the scale of the US ambition. It is necessary to understand that the USA is planning, and proceeding now with all possible speed, towards full dominance of the entire globe.

The US power is not democratic at all, but it is a manifestation of a capitalist ruling class which in itself is not stable, or capable of managing what it is grasping at.

Therefore acceptance of some kind of “pax Americana” is not an option. As much as the British Empire was a disaster, so also is the new Empire of the North already a disaster for humanity.

Ours is to continue to develop a cadre-collective that is capable and willing to conceive of these problems in full. That is where we begin. Venezuela is the front of today, but the war is global. Venezuela is us, today and tomorrow, in resistance, in defeat, and in victory.

It is necessary to respond, and to conceive of our response in scale. It is necessary to see how far we have to go, and to prepare ourselves accordingly.

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