6. Imperialism, geopolitical disorder and resistance
Imperialism, the global far right and resistance
19 August 2025
Peter Drucker
Introduction to report and reporter
Reporter: A US, Jewish, queer anti-imperialist in Holland
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 (oil & 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)
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
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
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 (endless) war in Ukraine
Brexit, Trump 1.0 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…
Femonationalism, homonationalism, heteronationalism & global transphobia
IV. Genocide, Biden, Trump and chaos
Middle East crises II: genocide in Gaza, pinkwashing and the polarized world
Iran and the collapse of the anti-Zionist/counterrevolutionary ‘Axis of Resistance’ (Syria / Hezbollah / Hamas)
Tariffs and clashing imperialisms
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. What policy of alliances in the fight against post-/neo-fascism?
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 [1]
Claudio Katz, ‘Imperialism in the 21st Century’ (Excerpts), 2002 [2]
Peter Drucker, ‘Imperialism Transformed’, 2022 (Excerpts) [up until subhead ‘Relevance of Lenin’s Analysis’; section under ‘Resistance is Progressive’; section under ‘Self-Determination’] [3]
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] [4]
Gilbert Achcar, ‘Anti-Fascism and the Fall of Atlanticist Liberalism’ [5]
FI Executive Bureau, ‘Trump’s First Six Months: A Threat to Our Planet and Its Peoples’ [6]