We are printing a recent statement made by Bill about the stage the world is passing through. We will return to his archives in future issues.
There is a huge insoluble rift as the USA tries to maintain control over the world and prepares for more wars. The centre in 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s was Iraq, shaking imperialist control and around it other divisions occurred. Now Iran has to defend itself but this is also shaking Israel, the US, and the European Union.
It signifies another step towards a deeper war and it is important to recognise that the world crisis and the drive of imperialism is the cause of the increasing tensions.
This poses a problem to the world’s working class. The USA and Europe see all the struggles for safe-guarding life and defending small nations as a signal for war, which means the only way to end war is to end capitalism.
We have reached a stage where attacks along a number of fronts are widening – Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and Palestine. These are particular wars but they can grow and widen because the US is forced to go further with or without victories and the world is facing a major step towards more generalised war.
The preparations for war such as the oil blockade imposed by the EU can at the same time push the protagonists further down. Greece, Italy, Spain, Ireland and Portugal are going through catastrophes for the majority of the population and a new shock to oil prices will worsen the struggle for life.
Some countries in the Middle East are threatened with war. The popular movements which started need to take note and have to develop as international movements. The preparations against Iran show that there is not much longer to go and that this situation cannot continue without blowing up.
The crisis of capitalism is undermining its strength and hence it is compelled to fight. What is posed over the whole thing is the end of capitalism and its exploitation.
The US and its lesser partner the EU cannot live without an empire, without repressing the whole world, without capitalistic monopoly, and the US will not allow another immense world power. It can’t have two capitalist powers of the same size and those nations that develop the slightest political independence face a titanic and vicious opposition.
Conflicting imperialisms are struggling for dominance over the worlds’ resources and markets but the only way for capitalism to survive is for the USA to dominate.
The US has to dominate the world so how will it achieve this? Its dilemma is great. The decline of capitalism is undermining its plans, but it is driven to more war which also accelerates its decline.
Humanity needs the unity of the whole world but it cannot get this under exploitation because exploiters cannot grow without the exploited. The floodgates to war are opening wider. This is the death agony of capitalism.
The development of capitalism created the conditions for the development of nationalities and at the same time for its own destruction and the destruction of nationalities. Therefore we must be internationalist, one comes out of the other, the internationalism of the working class is the only answer. Socialism has to grow out of capitalism in its decay. It is the road the class struggle has to take if it is to succeed.
Big questions of perspective and development are coming up. The old ideas are not outlived; Trotskyism has proved itself already, but not as many had expected. A world party of socialism and the struggle for socialist revolution is the only way forward for the world’s masses.
