The US-EU split, & the dangerous “right populist” push to side with imperialism’s American wing

With the Ukraine negotiations, and the EU’s blacklash against Trump over his willingness to talk to Russia, the “anti-establishment” right-wingers have adopted a new rhetorical tactic. What they’re doing is corralling disillusioned westerners to side with the USA’s imperialist dictatorship, under the guise of fighting against liberal hegemony. The narrative they’re pushing is that Europe represents the central stronghold of the world’s economic and political establishment, and that Trump has broken from this structure to lead a revolt against global capital. They frame this as a story of “Trump vs the globalists,” with the American side supposedly being the antithesis to international monopoly domination.

This current within alternative media and “dissident” politics promotes a certain view of political struggle; one in which the coming of multipolarity is in itself seen as revolutionary. Multipolarity is certainly an indispensable step towards monopoly capital’s defeat, since imperialism depends on the perpetuation of the old unipolar order. But to actually beat our class enemies, we’re also going to need class struggle; without a revival of the global workers movement, multipolarity’s emergence is not going to bring the end of the present economic system. The system’s life will instead be prolonged, to the effect that the imperialists can expand their genocidal campaigns in Palestine and elsewhere. Washington and Europe may be in conflict on the question of Ukraine, but on Palestine they’re as unified as ever; and unless we build a serious proletarian movement, both wings of imperialism will continue the extermination while assailing their own working classes.

Obviously we shouldn’t side with Europe; but we must combat the narrative in which Washington is seen as a force that’s resisting monopoly finance capital. It’s not even true that Europe is the epicenter of the imperial system, as this narrative implies. The reality of capital in the 21st century is that the United States, and nowhere else, is the location from which all other imperial monopoly forces branch out. The European great powers may be imperialist as well, but their capital is truly an extension of the USA’s capital; in the post-World War II order, where Europe’s old colonial empires have lost their former status, the U.S. is the force that keeps imperialism vital. Even Washington’s fellow imperial benefactors are merely U.S. satellite states; there’s no other imperialist power that’s anywhere near equivalent to the U.S. in economic strength, and therefore the U.S. is the core imperial player.

When we Americans see Europe get upset that Trump has a different strategy than the liberal “Ukrainiac” zealots, we’re really seeing the non-Trumpist wing of our own ruling class get upset. Europe is a place where monopoly capital’s liberal sector continues to be dominant, as opposed to within the United States; and many have interpreted this as meaning we should back the USA. But it is never correct to side with any camp within imperialism; and moreover, the American and European sides are truly of the same camp.

As the International Initiative for Peace has explained, we obviously should support any effort to weaken NATO, but the Trump White House is not an ally of the anti-imperialist cause:

Trump and the White House seem to press ahead with the attempt to make peace with Russia. This is only possible because Russia resisted successfully to the imperialist pressure. Meanwhile the European Union is continuing their war drive against Russia, embarking on an incredible hubris which is destined to implode. The more and the longer they continue, the deeper will be the fall. This eventually can tear down the entire European Union opening up new possibilities for the struggle of the popular classes. Therefore, we pledge our full support for immediate peace with Russia and the full withdrawal of NATO from Eastern Europe while we need to continue fighting US imperialism.

It is an error to think that the new Stars and Stripes administration will want to adopt an isolationist policy. The White House rather wants globalization to be under its domination [emphasis mine], so it will try to block the way for the BRICS and strike at any Anti-Imperialist Resistance.

This is the most important piece of context that these alt media elements leave out: as Washington fights against the European wing of globalization, Washington’s sole goal is to consolidate global monopoly power within its own sphere. The U.S. wing doesn’t even truly diverge from the Europeans on the question of whether Russia should be subdued; the Trump White House is trying to put pressure on Russia too, just in a different way. It’s decided Ukraine should be abandoned so that the imperial powers can give more resources to the Zionist entity, which is the primary tool Washington has been using to try to secure Syria. And with the recent counter-attacks from Syria’s anti-imperialist rebels, Washington now has even more motivation to prioritize the West Asian region.

The right populist alt media is working to run cover for this imperative pivot, portraying it as something revolutionary. And many other parts of alt media—including ones that aren’t even right-wing or pro-Trump—are indirectly assisting this psyop just by emphasizing multipolarism over class struggle. It’s the correct position to support multipolarity, but without prioritizing the class struggle, doing this will actually have a counterproductive effect. It will lead the most politically advanced parts of the masses into complacency, and towards the attitude that history’s preexisting momentum will defeat imperialism.

The truth is that all of the positive international developments we’ve recently seen, from Russia’s beating back NATO to the Sahel revolutions, are products of bottom-up mobilizations from the popular masses. The masses can and must take advantage of shakeups which come from the top-down, like inter-elite conflicts; but capital cannot be defeated simply by waiting for capital’s internal crises to destroy the system. Left on its own, a collapsing capitalism will only create more barbarism, like we’re seeing in places like Gaza. There is a widespread willingness among the masses to resist the imperial order; this has been shown both by the Gaza protests, and by the rise in popular desire for anti-establishment perspectives. But if we neglect the task of collective organization, of building power for the workers, this popular energy won’t translate into victory against the empire.

The reason why the “populist right” presents a diversion from this mission is because its core economic interests are not proletarian, but bourgeois or petty-bourgeois. Communists like myself do not exclude small business owners, and in fact we seek to rally them alongside the workers: this is because we’re true friends of the masses, unlike the discourse actors who sell Zionism and empire through a false “dissident” brand. This psyop is largely aimed at the petty-bourgeoisie, with the narrative being that Trump is fighting the global monopolist forces which threaten business owners in this country. But even many of the people who initially got persuaded by this argument, and backed Trump, are now increasingly turning against Trump because of his loyalty towards Zionism.

There are some conservatives who want peace with Russia while uncritically believing Zionist propaganda, but plenty of others within MAGA see the incoherence of that thinking. This makes the “right populist” psyop weaker, and puts authentic dissidents in a better place to connect with the masses. The danger of this psyop is that it can pull the most politically conscious among the people, including organizers, in a direction where they’re not accounting for the class struggle. But if much of the MAGA base is turning against the “dissident” Zionist right, then we can prevent this ruling class faction from influencing our own political circles.

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