The Worker, Vol. 37, Number 2
Contents:
I. The Tragedy of the Former Workers' State Continues
II. The Appetite of the Capitalists for Greater and Greater Profits Knows No Bounds
III. Oppose U.S. Plan to Use Philippines in War Strategy Against China
The Tragedy of the Former Workers' State Continues
Today, America's North Atlantic Treaty Organization is feverishly widening its reach and using the conflict centered in the Donbas as a pretext for stationing yet more missiles and weapons in Europe. Washington and its militarist allies are entertaining vain hopes. The failure of yet another string of attempt by the U.S. administration to seek a solution to the Donbas crisis which would suit its interests by escalating the hostilities again confirmed this.
NATO was created by U.S. imperialism after the Second World War both to subjugate the peoples of Western Europe and to encircle the then-socialist USSR and the newly formed states of People's Democracy. Together with the European Union, NATO remains the backbone of U.S. domination in Western Europe. The global, "protective" military umbrella of U.S. imperialism is a chain around the necks of the European peoples as well as the peoples of all the countries suffering from U.S. neo-colonial domination.
NATO's hopes have long been linked with the intention to impose America's NATO domination over the formerly socialist world. And in particular, to do this by foiling all of their sovereign efforts to reach accord about which post-Perestroika reforms would be capable of solving the unique, complex, and unprecedented problems of the peoples of the region.
It is therefore hardly surprising that the main thrust of the U.S. administration and the government in Kiev is now concentrated on massive arms transfers and working night and day to fan the flames of the regional problems. This is the typical global mode of operation of the U.S. government. The goal of U.S. imperialism's military adventurism in Europe is to insure its control over a greater extent of the region.
Beyond the region, the post-Perestroika era in world history has ushered in a period of disequilibrium and realignment. Right from the start, the so-called "new world order," which was advertised by Washington as a new era of "peace and prosperity," was immediately marked by continuous U.S. wars, including its on-going wars in the Arab world, its militarization of the Persian Gulf, the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the incitement to war in the Balkans, the extension of the Pentagon's "war on terror" to the four ends of the earth, etc. and so forth.
But within the region there was also a tragedy. By the time of Gorbachev, the Soviet economy had been a capitalist one for many decades. The Khrushchevite revisionists, the trojan horse of world imperialism that seized power in the Soviet Union in the 1950s, and its descendants – Breshnev, Andropov and Gorbachev – progressively destroyed the socialist system which was once being built in the USSR. They re-imposed the yoke of capitalist exploitation on the working class. By the time of Gorbachev, capitalist ownership was already re-established to include: 1) the classic type of capitalist private enterprise, which since the time of Khrushchev has played a major role in the sphere of agricultural production and the service sector. Perestroika was when most of the remaining productive forces based on cooperation by the population were restructured in order to maximize the profits of the bourgeois owners - including in manufacturing, intellectual, and professional sectors; 2) foreign capitalist ownership, through which more than 500 multinational corporations, such as Monsanto Chemicals, Occidental Petroleum, Pierre Cardin, Fiat, and others shared, along with the "Soviet" capitalists in the ownership of the means of production and exploitation of the labor of the local workers; and 3) state monopoly capitalism in which the formerly socialist state property had, both in practice and in law, been transformed into the personal capitalist property of a handful of people who had secured key administrative assignments or positions as Party bureaucrats.
Between the end of Perestroika and the turn of the century, claims were made not only to the effect that the workers movement was liquidated, but even to the effect that the working class had disappeared from those regions. America's NATO bloc began to look upon its role as a means to prevent the workers from getting re-organized. Over the last decade the situation began deteriorating rapidly as a result of increasingly coercive measures by the NATO bloc designed to foment ethnic rivalry and to accelerate the imperialist penetration of the region by Western capital.al.
On a world scale, the tragic consequences of the Krushchevite revisionists' betrayal continue. U.S. imperialism remains at the center of the problem – instigating and unleashing terror through local wars which in turn have repeatedly prepared the ground for the bipartisan Washington aggressors to unleash future wars on a wider scale.
For our part, the Workers Party, USA, calls for a democratic foreign policy in the U.S. in which the people are the decisive force. The program is for the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops stationed abroad, the withdrawal of the U.S. from all aggressive military pacts and alliances – such as NATO and the U.S.-Japan treaty – an end to the militarization of the U.S. society and an end to U.S. interference and intervention against other countries in any form, including economic, diplomatic, political, and military.
NATO was created by U.S. imperialism after the Second World War both to subjugate the peoples of Western Europe and to encircle the then-socialist USSR and the newly formed states of People's Democracy. Together with the European Union, NATO remains the backbone of U.S. domination in Western Europe. The global, "protective" military umbrella of U.S. imperialism is a chain around the necks of the European peoples as well as the peoples of all the countries suffering from U.S. neo-colonial domination.
NATO's hopes have long been linked with the intention to impose America's NATO domination over the formerly socialist world. And in particular, to do this by foiling all of their sovereign efforts to reach accord about which post-Perestroika reforms would be capable of solving the unique, complex, and unprecedented problems of the peoples of the region.
It is therefore hardly surprising that the main thrust of the U.S. administration and the government in Kiev is now concentrated on massive arms transfers and working night and day to fan the flames of the regional problems. This is the typical global mode of operation of the U.S. government. The goal of U.S. imperialism's military adventurism in Europe is to insure its control over a greater extent of the region.
Beyond the region, the post-Perestroika era in world history has ushered in a period of disequilibrium and realignment. Right from the start, the so-called "new world order," which was advertised by Washington as a new era of "peace and prosperity," was immediately marked by continuous U.S. wars, including its on-going wars in the Arab world, its militarization of the Persian Gulf, the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the incitement to war in the Balkans, the extension of the Pentagon's "war on terror" to the four ends of the earth, etc. and so forth.
But within the region there was also a tragedy. By the time of Gorbachev, the Soviet economy had been a capitalist one for many decades. The Khrushchevite revisionists, the trojan horse of world imperialism that seized power in the Soviet Union in the 1950s, and its descendants – Breshnev, Andropov and Gorbachev – progressively destroyed the socialist system which was once being built in the USSR. They re-imposed the yoke of capitalist exploitation on the working class. By the time of Gorbachev, capitalist ownership was already re-established to include: 1) the classic type of capitalist private enterprise, which since the time of Khrushchev has played a major role in the sphere of agricultural production and the service sector. Perestroika was when most of the remaining productive forces based on cooperation by the population were restructured in order to maximize the profits of the bourgeois owners - including in manufacturing, intellectual, and professional sectors; 2) foreign capitalist ownership, through which more than 500 multinational corporations, such as Monsanto Chemicals, Occidental Petroleum, Pierre Cardin, Fiat, and others shared, along with the "Soviet" capitalists in the ownership of the means of production and exploitation of the labor of the local workers; and 3) state monopoly capitalism in which the formerly socialist state property had, both in practice and in law, been transformed into the personal capitalist property of a handful of people who had secured key administrative assignments or positions as Party bureaucrats.
Between the end of Perestroika and the turn of the century, claims were made not only to the effect that the workers movement was liquidated, but even to the effect that the working class had disappeared from those regions. America's NATO bloc began to look upon its role as a means to prevent the workers from getting re-organized. Over the last decade the situation began deteriorating rapidly as a result of increasingly coercive measures by the NATO bloc designed to foment ethnic rivalry and to accelerate the imperialist penetration of the region by Western capital.al.
On a world scale, the tragic consequences of the Krushchevite revisionists' betrayal continue. U.S. imperialism remains at the center of the problem – instigating and unleashing terror through local wars which in turn have repeatedly prepared the ground for the bipartisan Washington aggressors to unleash future wars on a wider scale.
For our part, the Workers Party, USA, calls for a democratic foreign policy in the U.S. in which the people are the decisive force. The program is for the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops stationed abroad, the withdrawal of the U.S. from all aggressive military pacts and alliances – such as NATO and the U.S.-Japan treaty – an end to the militarization of the U.S. society and an end to U.S. interference and intervention against other countries in any form, including economic, diplomatic, political, and military.
The Appetite of the Capitalists for Greater and Greater Profits Knows No Bounds
For the past month, the capitalist newspapers have been filled with stories about Washington's national debt crisis. Currently the total debt owned by the Federal government is over $30 trillion.
The two parties in Congress and the White House are again screaming poverty in order to slash social programs while guarantying interest payments and profits for the bankers, militarizing the economy and cutting taxes for the rich.
On the one hand, from the late 1960s to this day, taxation has gone on constantly increasing, resulting in intensified social oppression of the exploited masses. Nowadays taxes gobble up nearly 20 per cent, and at times even more, of the family income. They represent an important source of income for the state budget, covering 80, even 90, per cent of its expenditure.
On the other hand, the two parties have used the deficits as their excuse for slashing social investments in health care, education, income-support for the poor and most vulnerable, public housing, etc. But all along, the government was taking trillions of dollars out of the public treasury and turning it over to Wall Street and using to oil the Pentagon war machine.
The attacks against the livelihoods and well-being of the working people must be met with the united resistance of the workers, with collective struggles against the capitalists and their government. We must launch one class conscious initiative after another, designed to make the rich pay for the crisis of their system. We must force the burden of taxation squarely onto the shoulders of the billionaires and the monopoly corporations. Our social programs must be paid for in full by forcing the capitalist class to be the one to do the belt tightening.
The two parties in Congress and the White House are again screaming poverty in order to slash social programs while guarantying interest payments and profits for the bankers, militarizing the economy and cutting taxes for the rich.
On the one hand, from the late 1960s to this day, taxation has gone on constantly increasing, resulting in intensified social oppression of the exploited masses. Nowadays taxes gobble up nearly 20 per cent, and at times even more, of the family income. They represent an important source of income for the state budget, covering 80, even 90, per cent of its expenditure.
On the other hand, the two parties have used the deficits as their excuse for slashing social investments in health care, education, income-support for the poor and most vulnerable, public housing, etc. But all along, the government was taking trillions of dollars out of the public treasury and turning it over to Wall Street and using to oil the Pentagon war machine.
The attacks against the livelihoods and well-being of the working people must be met with the united resistance of the workers, with collective struggles against the capitalists and their government. We must launch one class conscious initiative after another, designed to make the rich pay for the crisis of their system. We must force the burden of taxation squarely onto the shoulders of the billionaires and the monopoly corporations. Our social programs must be paid for in full by forcing the capitalist class to be the one to do the belt tightening.
Oppose U.S. Plan to Use Philippines in War Strategy Against China
The following article by Marco Valbueno is reprinted from the digital edition of "Philippine Revolution Web Central". January 14, 2023.
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) condemns the imperialist US for war-mongering and heightening war-preparations against China and for using the Philippines and other countries as launching pad for its planned military attacks against its rival imperialist power.
In an interview by the Financial Times a few days ago (“US military deepens ties with Japan and Philippines to prepare for China threat”), the imperialist hooligan Lt. Gen. James Bierman, who is the commanding general of the US armed forces’ Third Marine Expeditionary Force (III MEF) and Marine Forces Japan, revealed explicitly how the US has long been planning to set the stage for war against China, comparing it to the many years of preparations they made in Ukraine:
"Why have we achieved the level of success we’ve achieved in Ukraine? A big part of that has been because after Russian aggression in 2014 and 2015, we earnestly got after preparing for future conflict: training for the Ukrainians, pre-positioning of supplies, identification of sites from which we could operate support, sustain operations.
"We call that setting the theatre. And we are setting the theatre in Japan, in the Philippines, in other locations."
These statements of General Bierman are typical of the gross arrogance of the US imperialists in its relentless push to establish its global hegemony in its desperation to counteract its strategic economic decline. It regards with contempt the sovereignty of the Philippines and other countries. It treats its so-called “allies” as mere pawns in its imperialist game of chess to encircle its super-power rival China.
In line with the Pentagon strategy of encircling China and prepositioning its forces within the so-called first-island chain, the US continues to build up its military presence in Japan, Korea, Singapore and the Philippines where it maintains military bases, and ruling governments are subservient to US interests.
Late last year, the Marcos government declared plans to allow the US military to add five more locations chosen by the US to construct its military facilities within existing or to be constructed military camps of the Armed Forces of the Philippines: two in Cagayan province, and one each in Isabela, Zambales and Palawan. These are in addition to the military facilities which the US has already constructed in five camps of the AFP under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA). It is believed that in addition to prepositioning weapons, the US plans to construct ground-to-air missile systems in these facilities, which will have the advantage of being guarded by Philippine military forces under the EDCA.
The construction of these military facilities in the Philippines form part of the heightening war provocations against China which include increased presence of American naval forces in the western and eastern Philippine seas, in the eastern Japanese seaboard and in the Taiwanese strait. The US continues to challenge the One China Policy (Chinese sovereignty over Taiwan) as the pivot of its strategy of provoking China to “own the starting pistol” in order to justify an all-out war against China.
The planned missile launching systems and other US military facilities to be constructed in the Philippines will serve as magnet for Chinese attacks against the Philippines. The US is brazenly violating Philippine sovereignty by using the country as a base for launching its foreign wars.
The Filipino people must firmly oppose the plans of the US to use the Philippines as a military launching pad and draw the country to its theater of war against China. They must amplify their clamor against imperialist war preparations and demand de-escalation of military tensions.
The Filipino people must link-up and build anti-imperialist solidarity with the people of Asia, to defend national sovereignty in the respective countries and oppose imperialist war provocations. In Japan and Korea, the people are vigorously protesting US military presence in their countries. Tens of thousands of people have staged demonstrations to defend their country’s sovereignty and oppose the subservience of their governments.
While demanding China to dismantle its military facilities in the West Philippine Sea that violate the country’s maritime sovereignty, the Filipino people must also demand the dismantling of all US military facilities inside the AFP camps and oppose the plans to construct missile launching systems.
The Party enjoins the Filipino people to raise their demand for genuine national freedom, and for an independent and peace-loving foreign policy. They must voice out their protests and demonstrate their indignation against the US government and military and demand an end to imperialist war provocations.
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) condemns the imperialist US for war-mongering and heightening war-preparations against China and for using the Philippines and other countries as launching pad for its planned military attacks against its rival imperialist power.
In an interview by the Financial Times a few days ago (“US military deepens ties with Japan and Philippines to prepare for China threat”), the imperialist hooligan Lt. Gen. James Bierman, who is the commanding general of the US armed forces’ Third Marine Expeditionary Force (III MEF) and Marine Forces Japan, revealed explicitly how the US has long been planning to set the stage for war against China, comparing it to the many years of preparations they made in Ukraine:
"Why have we achieved the level of success we’ve achieved in Ukraine? A big part of that has been because after Russian aggression in 2014 and 2015, we earnestly got after preparing for future conflict: training for the Ukrainians, pre-positioning of supplies, identification of sites from which we could operate support, sustain operations.
"We call that setting the theatre. And we are setting the theatre in Japan, in the Philippines, in other locations."
These statements of General Bierman are typical of the gross arrogance of the US imperialists in its relentless push to establish its global hegemony in its desperation to counteract its strategic economic decline. It regards with contempt the sovereignty of the Philippines and other countries. It treats its so-called “allies” as mere pawns in its imperialist game of chess to encircle its super-power rival China.
In line with the Pentagon strategy of encircling China and prepositioning its forces within the so-called first-island chain, the US continues to build up its military presence in Japan, Korea, Singapore and the Philippines where it maintains military bases, and ruling governments are subservient to US interests.
Late last year, the Marcos government declared plans to allow the US military to add five more locations chosen by the US to construct its military facilities within existing or to be constructed military camps of the Armed Forces of the Philippines: two in Cagayan province, and one each in Isabela, Zambales and Palawan. These are in addition to the military facilities which the US has already constructed in five camps of the AFP under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA). It is believed that in addition to prepositioning weapons, the US plans to construct ground-to-air missile systems in these facilities, which will have the advantage of being guarded by Philippine military forces under the EDCA.
The construction of these military facilities in the Philippines form part of the heightening war provocations against China which include increased presence of American naval forces in the western and eastern Philippine seas, in the eastern Japanese seaboard and in the Taiwanese strait. The US continues to challenge the One China Policy (Chinese sovereignty over Taiwan) as the pivot of its strategy of provoking China to “own the starting pistol” in order to justify an all-out war against China.
The planned missile launching systems and other US military facilities to be constructed in the Philippines will serve as magnet for Chinese attacks against the Philippines. The US is brazenly violating Philippine sovereignty by using the country as a base for launching its foreign wars.
The Filipino people must firmly oppose the plans of the US to use the Philippines as a military launching pad and draw the country to its theater of war against China. They must amplify their clamor against imperialist war preparations and demand de-escalation of military tensions.
The Filipino people must link-up and build anti-imperialist solidarity with the people of Asia, to defend national sovereignty in the respective countries and oppose imperialist war provocations. In Japan and Korea, the people are vigorously protesting US military presence in their countries. Tens of thousands of people have staged demonstrations to defend their country’s sovereignty and oppose the subservience of their governments.
While demanding China to dismantle its military facilities in the West Philippine Sea that violate the country’s maritime sovereignty, the Filipino people must also demand the dismantling of all US military facilities inside the AFP camps and oppose the plans to construct missile launching systems.
The Party enjoins the Filipino people to raise their demand for genuine national freedom, and for an independent and peace-loving foreign policy. They must voice out their protests and demonstrate their indignation against the US government and military and demand an end to imperialist war provocations.