8. Imperialism, geopolitical disorder and resistance - Peter Drucker

Introduction to report and reporter [/br] Reporter: A US, Jewish, queer anti-imperialist in Holland [/br] Not an economist or regional expert Links with other reports: far right, women, LGBTIQ, and especially Palestine (overlapping, complementary?)

I. 20th-century imperialism Basics of Lenin’s theory Uneven development & export of capital Competition for raw materials The division of the planet: colonial empires Spheres of influence and semi-colonies Two imperialist world wars (according to Third & Fourth Internationals) Cold War imperialism and colonial revolution One imperialist superpower (and one ‘anti-imperialist’) Trilateral imperialisms: US, Western Europe, Japan Neocolonialism, wars of national liberation & breaks with capitalism: China, Vietnam, Cuba Consumerist imperialism: oil and cars (2023 top 10 companies by revenue: 4 oil v. 2 tech)

II. Neoliberal globalization and the ‘war on terror’ Imperialism and global inequality: Claudio Katz’s theses Unequal exchange: from raw materials suppliers to dependent industrialization Repatriation of profits Global competition & growing inequality (with a few major shifts, above all in Asia) 2022/3: OECD countries (17% pop.) GDP per cap. $46,280; world $12,688 GDP 2023: US (330 mil. pop.) $25.5 trillion; India (1.3 bil. pop.) $3.4 trillion Supply chains: from national to global (due to technology & above all defeats in class struggle) Accumulation by dispossession (David Harvey): genes, air, water, music, schools, health Armed globalization and the ‘clash of barbarisms’ (Gilbert Achcar) US as enforcer of global neoliberal order: 37.5% of global military spending Tools: ‘Coalitions of the willing’, NATO and UN The ‘Arab despotic exception’ (Achcar), 1979 Iranian revolution, the clash of fundamentalisms (Saudis) & ‘femonationalism’/‘homonationalism’

III. Neoliberalism’s apogee: hyperglobalization (Dani Rodrik) NAFTA (1993), Maastricht (1992), WTO (1995) Armed hyperglobalization and the ‘unipolar moment’: US invasions of Iraq (1991 & 2003) & network of US bases China’s rise, phase I: as a key link in the hyperglobalized world Bourgeoisifying bureaucracy & overseas bourgeoisie (Hong Kong & Taiwan) Foxcomm and Walmart (world’s biggest company) A new imperialism BRICS/regional sub-imperialisms: the challenge that wasn’t

IV. Imperialism in crisis (from 2008) China’s rise, phase II, as a factor of crisis: trade & technological wars, sea lanes, One Belt One Road – and Hong Kong/Taiwan Middle East crises I: revolution & counterrevolution in the Arab region (and echoes in Iran); Turkey, Qatar and Muslim Brotherhoods; hyper-Zionism Clashes with Russia Bourgeoisifying bureaucracy & ‘extractivism’ From NATO expansion to war in Ukraine (by way of Syria) Brexit, Trump and the new far right Cracks in the power bloc (analogy with 1930s) The EU project in crisis The global far right: Putin, Orbán, Modi, Bolsonaro, Erdoğan… Covid-19: nail in the coffin of hyperglobalization Middle East crises II: genocide in Gaza, pinkwashing and the polarized world Iran and the anti-Zionist/counterrevolutionary ‘Axis of Resistance’ (Iraq/ Syria / Hezbollah / Hamas)

V. What’s next? What next for imperialism as a system? What role within it for ‘multipolar’ actors like Trump, China and the EU? What next for resistance?: rise and difficulties of anti-imperialist solidarity in an essentially capitalist but fragmented world

Questions for small group discussion

1. How should anti-imperialists define victory in Ukraine (‘self-determination’?)? How can we contribute to this victory? 2. How should anti-imperialists define victory in Gaza/Palestine/the Middle East? How can we contribute to this victory?

Readings V. I. Lenin, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (Excerpts), 1917 Claudio Katz, ‘Imperialism in the 21st Century’ (Excerpts), 2002

David Harvey, The ‘New’ Imperialism: Accumulation by Dispossession, 2004 (Excerpts)

Peter Drucker, ‘Imperialism Transformed’, 2022 (Excerpts) [up until subhead ‘Relevance of Lenin’s Analysis’; section under ‘Resistance is Progressive’; section under ‘Self-Determination’] Pierre Rousset, ‘Imperialism(s), Russia, China – a contribution to the debate centred on the historical context’, 2022 (Excerpts) [first paragraph; from subhead ‘A big capitalist power is an imperialism’ through the paragraph that starts ‘Whatever updates are needed’; from subhead ‘Some peculiarities of the Chinese and Russian regimes’ to the end]