Intensification of Imperialist Tensions During the Coronavirus Pandemic
A new round of imperialist tensions has erupted between large and small gangsters despite the coronavirus pandemic. The oil war between Saudi Arabia and Russia, the escalation of tensions between China and the US, and the escalation of tensions between Iran and the US are only some examples. If imperialists were looking for new colonies during the growth of capitalism, in the era of capitalist decline, imperialism is about redistributing the world market, and this includes all the countries of the world. In such circumstances, all countries (large gangsters such as the US and Britain or small gangsters such as Iran and Turkey) try to weaken one another and conquer one another’s markets.
In January 2020, the US and China signed an agreement aimed at easing the trade war between the two countries. China pledged to increase imports from the United States by $200 billion, while the US agreed to halve new tariffs on some Chinese goods. They apparently ended the two-year trade war. At a ceremony in Washington, Trump (backed by Republican campaigners) said that the agreement would pave the way for stronger ties between the US and China. Trump went even further, saying, “This is something that – far beyond even this deal – is going to lead to an even stronger world peace.” [1] But the gangsters are preparing for war when they talk about peace.
If conspiracy theories were once proposed by individuals or informal circles, with the coronavirus pandemic, conspiracy theories have become a tool in the hands of imperialist states, used to advance their imperialist interests. This policy is a code name for intensifying imperialist tensions. Trump has repeatedly called the coronavirus “the Chinese virus”, and newspapers such as the Daily Mail, the Washington Times and Fox News have speculated whether the coronavirus came from a laboratory in Wuhan and have engaged in a form of verbal war (even virtual war). On another front, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang has stressed to reporters that the “The U.S. needs to immediately correct its mistakes and stop making groundless accusations against China.” [2] Chinese diplomats and officials have reiterated their accusations and accused the US military of transmitting the coronavirus to Wuhan. All these criminals pursue only one goal by positing such theories, which is to steer the public away from the true cause of the coronavirus – the capitalist system of savagery – for the sake of humanity.
China is using the situation following the coronavirus pandemic to consolidate its position in the South China Sea, and this is not pleasant for the US, so on 21 April 2020, the US sent two warships (the USS and the Banker Hill) into disputed waters in the South China Sea. The US claims that the presence of a warship will ensure freedom of movement for fleets in strategic waters. The US considers the South China Sea to be international waters, and it opposes China’s construction of offshore facilities. China’s defence ministry, meanwhile, has warned the US against interfering in China’s maritime affairs, saying that the US was trying to find an excuse for its military presence in the region by diverting public attention and making baseless accusations against China [3].
After last year’s ‘avoiding confrontation’, there has recently been a new round of clashes between IRGC speedboats and American ships in the region. Trump said that he had issued an order authorizing US ships to target and destroy any Iranian boats that harassed them, and he said in this regard:
“I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea.” [4]
Hussein Salami, commander of the IRGC criminals, also resorted to using the language of “big bandit” (Trump) and responded to Trump with threats, exaggerating this war of words and declaring: “We also issued an order to our military units at sea so that if a floating or combat unit of the US Navy Terrorist Army wants to endanger the safety of our non-combat ships or warships, our military units will target those vessels or military units.” [5]
Peripheral capitalism, with its bankrupt economy, has created miserable conditions for the working class and lower strata of society. During the coronavirus pandemic, the working class and lower strata of society have been struggling for survival below the poverty line. The Islamic bourgeoisie has followed its imperialist ambitions, at the cost of working-class misery. Just days after the verbal war between the American and Iranian gangsters, tensions escalated with the launch of a military satellite by Iran. Although Iran’s attempts to send a satellite without the help of other countries date back to 2005, it has been defeated in the last four attempts. Finally, on 22 April 2020, not the Iranian Space Agency but the IRGC announced that it had successfully launched its first military satellite, Noor (Light), into orbit with a Ghased (messenger) satellite missile. Unlike previous times, when the launches had been widely advertised, this time, they were kept secret and were accomplished very quickly, with the operation to fill the missile fuel tank taking place just two hours before launch. The mobile launch pad was not placed in a known centre but in the desert (due to speculation that US-Israel sabotage had caused previous launches to fail). The main use of this satellite will be intelligence monitoring, and with the help of this satellite, Iranian gangsters can gain intelligence superiority over their competitors or even spy on their competitors. Although the satellite is in orbit, it has not yet stabilized and is spinning, and the satellite cannot become operative until it is stabilized. After its successful launch, the IRGC criminals announced:
“The IRGC went into space today. Today we can see the world from space, and that means expanding the strategic intelligence of the IRGC’s powerful defence force.” [6]
The Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of the Islamic Bourgeoisie also announced: “New surprises are on the way.” In response to Iran launching satellites into the Earth’s orbit, Trump said, “We’re watching Iran very closely. Very closely. We know more about Iran than they do.” The launch of the satellite has met with global reactions. The US has said the launch of the satellite violates UN Security Council Resolution 2231 and that it intends to take the case of Iran’s launch of a military satellite to the Security Council. Military sanctions against Iran will expire in about six months, five years after implementation of the nuclear deal, and the US has called for an end to the lifting of military sanctions against Iran. The French Foreign Ministry condemned the launch of the Iranian military satellite, calling it “inconsistent” with a UN Security Council resolution. Condemning the launch of the satellite, Germany said that it would have a destabilizing effect on the region and was unacceptable to Europe’s security interests. But Russia says that Iran has not violated the UN resolution because it has done nothing to build a nuclear weapon or ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.
The escalation of imperialist tensions is not a product of unconventional bourgeois governments but is rooted in the imperialist policy of gangsters and is part of capitalist metabolism. All bourgeois tendencies are equally reactionary. Capitalist democracy and capitalist dictatorship are two sides of the same coin: capitalist barbarism. Intensification of the class struggle can not only improve our living conditions but also challenge the evolutionary process of the capitalist system. The misfortune of capitalism can only be overthrown as the working class advances ever closer to a communist revolution, bringing a world free of imperialist tensions and resulting wars, as well as a world free of nuclear weapons, class and wage slavery; a world worthy of humanity.
Firoz Akbary
27 April 2020
Notes:
[2] http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-03/17/c_138888529.htm
[4] https://www.bbc.com/persian/iran-52384914
[6] http://khabarfarsi.com/u/85128237
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