Russia and the Ukraine Crisis: The Eurasian Project in Conflict with the
Triad Imperialist Policies
Samir Amin, Moscow, March 2014, in MRzine, USA, 24 March 2014
1. The current global stage is dominated by the attempt of historical
centers of imperialism (the US, Western and Central Europe, Japan --
hereafter called "the Triad") to maintain their exclusive control over the
planet through a combination of:
a. so-called neo-liberal economic globalization policies allowing
financial transnational capital of the Triad to decide alone on all issues
in their exclusive interests;
b. the military control of the planet by the US and its subordinate
allies (NATO and Japan) in order to annihilate any attempt by any country
not of the Triad to move out from under their yoke.
In that respect all countries of the world not of the Triad are enemies or
potential enemies, except those who accept complete submission to the
economic and political strategy of the Triad -- such as the two new
"democratic republics" of Saudi Arabia and Qatar! The so-called
"international community" to which the Western medias refer continuously is
indeed reduced to the G7 plus Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Any other country,
even when its government is currently aligned with the Triad, is a potential
enemy since the peoples of those countries may reject that submission.
2. In that frame Russia is "an enemy."
Whatever might be our assessment of what the Soviet Union was ("socialist"
or something else), the Triad fought it simply because it was an attempt to
develop independently of dominant capitalism/imperialism.
After the breakdown of the Soviet system, some people (in Russia in
particular) thought that the "West" would not antagonize a "capitalist
Russia" -- just as Germany and Japan had "lost the war but won the peace."
They forgot that the Western powers supported the reconstruction of the
former fascist countries precisely to face the challenge of the independent
policies of the Soviet Union. Now, this challenge having disappeared, the
target of the Triad is complete submission, to destroy the capacity of
Russia to resist.
3. The current development of the Ukraine tragedy illustrates the reality of
the strategic target of the Triad.
The Triad organized in Kiev what ought to be called a "Euro/Nazi putsch."
To achieve their target (separating the historical twin sister nations --
the Russian and the Ukrainian), they needed the support of local Nazis.
The rhetoric of the Western medias, claiming that the policies of the Triad
aim at promoting democracy, is simply a lie. Nowhere has the Triad promoted
democracy. On the contrary these policies have systematically been
supporting the most anti-democratic (in some cases "fascist") local forces.
Quasi-fascist in the former Yugoslavia -- in Croatia and Kosovo -- as well
as in the Baltic states and Eastern Europe, Hungary for instance. Eastern
Europe has been "integrated" in the European Union not as equal partners,
but as "semi-colonies" of major Western and Central European
capitalist/imperialist powers. The relation between West and East in the
European system is in some degree similar to that which rules the relations
between the US and Latin America! In the countries of the South the Triad
supported the extreme anti-democratic forces such as, for instance,
ultra-reactionary political Islam and, with their complicity, has destroyed
societies; the cases of Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Libya illustrate these targets
of the Triad imperialist project.
4. Therefore the policy of Russia (as developed by the administration of
Putin) to resist the project of colonization of Ukraine (and of other
countries of the former Soviet Union, in Transcaucasia and Central Asia)
must be supported. The Baltic states' experience should not be repeated.
The target of constructing a "Eurasian" community, independent from the
Triad and its subordinate European partners, is also to be supported.
But this positive Russian "international policy" is bound to fail if it is
not supported by the Russian people. And this support cannot be won on the
exclusive basis of "nationalism," even a positive progressive -- not
chauvinistic -- brand of "nationalism," a fortiori not by a "chauvinistic"
Russian rhetoric. Fascism in Ukraine cannot be challenged by Russian
fascism. The support can be won only if the internal economic and social
policy pursued promotes the interests of the majority of the working people.
What do I mean by a "people-oriented" policy favoring the working classes?
Do I mean "socialism," or even a nostalgia of the Soviet system? This is
not the place to re-assess the Soviet experience, in a few lines! I shall
only summarize my views in a few sentences. The authentic Russian socialist
revolution produced a state socialism which was the only possible first step
toward socialism; after Stalin that state socialism moved towards becoming
state capitalism (explaining the difference between the two concepts is
important but not the subject of this short paper). As of 1991 state
capitalism was dismantled and replaced by "normal" capitalism based on
private property, which, as in all countries of contemporary capitalism, is
basically the property of financial monopolies, owned by the oligarchy
(similar to, not different from, the oligarchies running capitalism in the
Triad), many coming out of the former nomenklatura, and some newcomers.
The explosion of creative authentic democratic practices initiated by the
Russian (October) revolution was subsequently tamed and replaced by an
autocratic pattern of management of society, albeit granting social rights
to the working classes. This system led to massive depoliticization and was
not protected from despotic and even criminal deviations. The new pattern
of savage capitalism is based on the continuation of depoliticization and
thenon-respect of democratic rights.
Such a system rules not only Russia, but all the other former Soviet
republics. Differences relate to the practice of the so-called "Western"
electoral democracy, more effective in Ukraine, for instance, than in
Russia. Nonetheless this pattern of rule is not "democracy" but a farce
compared to bourgeois democracy as it functioned at previous stages of
capitalist development, including in the "traditional democracies" of the
West, since real power is now restricted to the rule of monopolies and
operates to their exclusive benefit.
A people-oriented policy implies therefore moving away, as much as possible,
from the "liberal" recipe and the electoral masquerade associated with it,
which claims to give legitimacy to regressive social policies. I would
suggest setting up in its place a brand of new state capitalism with a
social dimension (I say social, not socialist). That system would open the
road to eventual advances toward a socialization of the management of the
economy and therefore authentic new advances toward an invention of
democracy responding to the challenges of a modern economy.
It is only if Russia moves along such lines that the current conflict
between, on the one hand, the intended independent international policy of
Moscow and, on the other hand, the pursuit of a reactionary social internal
policy can be given a positive outcome. Such a move is needed and possible:
fragments of the political ruling class could align on such a program if
popular mobilization and action promote it. To the extent that similar
advances are also carried out in Ukraine, Transcaucasia, and Central Asia,
an authentic community of Eurasian nations can be established and become a
powerful actor in the reconstruction of the world system.
5. Russian state power remaining within the strict limits of the neo-liberal
recipe annihilates the chances of success of an independent foreign policy
and the chances of Russia becoming a really emerging country acting as an
important international actor.
Neo-liberalism can produce for Russia only a tragic economic and social
regression, a pattern of "lumpen development" and a growing subordinate
status in the global imperialist order. Russia would provide to the Triad
oil, gas, and some other natural resources; its industries would be reduced
to the status of sub-contracting for the benefit of Western financial
monopolies.
In such a position, which is not very far from that of Russia today in the
global system, attempts to act independently in the international area will
remain extremely fragile, threatened by "sanctions" which will strengthen
the disastrous alignment of the ruling economic oligarchy to the demands of
dominant monopolies of the Triad. The current outflow of "Russian capital"
associated with the Ukraine crisis illustrates the danger. Re-establishing
state control over the movements of capital is the only effective response
to that danger.
Further Readings
Amin, Samir. <http://monthlyreview.org/press/books/pb4208/> The Implosion
of Contemporary Capitalism. London and NY: Pluto and Monthly Review Press,
2013.
Amin, Samir. "What 'Radical' Means in the 21st Century."
<http://rrp.sagepub.com/content/45/3.toc> Review of Radical Political
Economics 45.3 (September 2013).
Amin, Samir.
<https://monthlyreview.org/2011/10/01/the-democratic-fraud-and-the-universal
ist-alternative> "The Democratic Fraud and the Universalist Alternative."
Monthly Review 63.5 (October 2011).
Amin, Samir. "Unity and Diversity in the Movement to Socialism." Monthly
Review (forthcoming in the June 2014 issue).
Amin, Samir. "Russia in the Global System." Translated from Arabic into
Russian by <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Said_Gafurov> Said Gafourov.
_____
<http://monthlyreview.org/author/samiramin> Samir Amin is director of the
Third World Forum in Dakar, Senegal. Among his latest works are
<http://monthlyreview.org/press/books/pb4208/> The Implosion of Contemporary
Capitalism and <http://monthlyreview.org/press/books/cl4246/> Three Essays
on Marx's Value Theory, both published by Monthly Review Press in 2013.
From: http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2014/amin240314.html
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