The Young Communist League completely opposes US President Donald Trump’s visit to Britain this week. This is a position supported by workers and the youth across Britain. We call for socialists, trade unionists and young people to mobilise opposition in their communities and makes this message clear to Trump and the Tory government.
Donald Trump may be especially offensive to women, ethnic minorities, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and indeed all decent people, but he is far from unique. Trump has carried on foreign policies that were the bedrock of the Obama administration and have been the longstanding strategy of the United States since the end of WWII.
The identical strategy of both presidents underlines the complete control of military and industrial interests in US politics whether the party in power be Democrat or Republican, whether kind-faced and charismatic or utterly despicable.
The drive of US imperialism to secure markets for US capital, oppose progressive change and undermine the socialist countries continues at a relentless pace in 2018, and will continue past 2018 unless fundamental change is brought about. Below are just some examples of US intervention, which are both abhorrent and long-standing across the past five presidencies.
PALESTINE
The Middle East continues to be the flash point for US and NATO intervention. The provocative move by Washington to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of the Zionist settler state Israel merely adds more fuel to the fire of an already horrific situation and flies in the face of United Nations recommendations for dialogue, peace and a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.
SYRIA
Intervention in Syria is prolonging the war against Islamic State and the other Islamist factions armed by the US, Britain, NATO powers and Israel. Hundreds of thousands have died in this conflict with many millions more displaced, creating an overwhelming humanitarian crisis. The objective? Carving up Middle Eastern pipelines for oil and gas production and isolating and surrounding Iran. We are yet to see the evidence of alleged weapons attacks that NATO hoped would justify invasion, used as pretexts in previous ‘humanitarian interventions’.
YEMEN
War and unrest intended to isolate Iran and secure oil transport routes for US and Saudi interests is also the cause for US and NATO intervention in the dire civil war in Yemen. 80% of the country’s population are in need of humanitarian assistance, 15 million have no access to basic health services and 3.2 million have had to leave their homes. Bombings of cities, markets, schools and other vital infrastructure has been the deliberate policy of the Saudi led coalition, with US backing and British-made bombs.
Due to the war in Yemen, weapon deals between more than a dozen countries and Saudi Arabia have massively increased, with the US selling $60 million worth of weaponry under Obama’s Government and over $110 million worth under Trump. The UK has also profited from the war. During the first 3 months of war UK weapon sales to Saudi Arabia rose to £1 billion.
KOREA
The role of big business, international weapons manufacturers and financial interests in promoting wars and their benefit from US imperialism was clearest during the peace talks on the Korean peninsula. Every step towards lasting peace and demilitarisation in Korea was greeted with falling share prices from big arms companies such as Lockheed Martin.
While people across the planet celebrated the move towards peace and cooperation, the US government sought only to maintain division. Why? To justify its massive military presence in Korea and Japan, right on China’s border, and the domestic arms industry that relies upon it.
SOUTH CHINA SEA
The US role in Korea is part of their broader strategy to isolate and surround China, a move known as the ‘pivot to Asia’ first initiated under Obama. In the South China Sea, rather than allowing matters to be resolved through democratic channels, the US has sought to stir up border disputes between a number of countries as a pretext for moving massive numbers of troops and warships to the area, thousands of miles from US territory. However, according to the Western powers, China is the apparent aggressor in all this. It is merely coincidental that the South China Sea is one of the busiest and most important shipping lanes on the planet.
LATIN AMERICA
The US Government has continued and intensified their decades long campaign of attacking left and progressive governments in Latin America.
Economic war and attempts to spark civil unrest have so far proved unsuccessful in Venezuela. The United States remains desperate to reverse the massive gains for working people in Venezuela under the socialist government. The nationalisation of Venezuela’s oil industry, which controls one-fifth of global reserves, is unacceptable to the US and its puppets in the Venezuelan ruling class.
The same tactics are also currently being used in Nicaragua where the US is once again eager to support civil war and political assassinations. Similar attacks on socialist politics and socialist politicians have also been seen in countries such as Argentina, Brazil and Ecuador, whilst Cuba remains under the extraterritorial blockade.
UKRAINE
The situation is not getting better, but worse. US imperialism is ever more aggressively making itself known right on our doorstep, in this case in Eastern Europe. Ukraine has been the flashpoint for conflict between the US, EU and NATO and the growing imperialist ambitions of Putin’s Russia. The US and its allies, including Britain, have been happy to spoon-feed money, guns and political support to a government of outspoken and admitted fascists and rabid nationalists. The British Government has even trained neo-Nazi paramilitary groups in the country.
The biggest victims of these policies have been the Ukrainian people, especially those in the east of the country, in addition to the Communist Party of Ukraine and her supporters. Thousands of people have died, and many more have been forced to flee, due to the Ukrainian Government’s civil war against Eastern Ukraine. Rising government debt to the EU and the IMF and money-grubbing oligarchs are leading the general population towards impoverishment. The Communists – who received over 2.5 million votes in the last free election – have faced violence, intimidation and murder for opposing this. Again, the priority for the US and its allies is to secure economic resources and geopolitical positions and put pressure on opponents such as Russia. To do so, they have to crush Communists and other progressive voices who refuse to submit to Western imperialism.
THE SOLUTION
The problem is not Trump nor Obama. Trump is just the honest expression of the bloodthirsty and degenerate capitalist system that exists in the world today – capitalism profiting from war, exploitation and human suffering. But capitalism is also a crisis-stricken system. Its chronic weaknesses can be understood.
The working class and the youth have to face up to this reality in order to pull Britain, and the rest of the world, back from the blind alleys into which we are heading.
People must get out, oppose Trump, and argue against the Special Relationship whereby British politicians and business shamelessly line up behind US imperialism to receive the bloody breadcrumbs.
Communists call for withdrawal from NATO and an independent foreign policy for Britain, based on respect for national sovereignty and cooperation, especially with the socialist and progressive countries, in order to fight terrorism and make the world a safer, more stable place. We call for nuclear disarmament and peace, with no more British involvement in dirty wars and interventions.
US military supremacy is not invincible – it is a chain of command where Britain has been a lapdog and accomplice for too long. Time to break the British imperialist link!
No to Trump and US imperialism!
Yes to peace and socialism in our lifetime!
Executive Committee
Young Communist League
London, Britain
12 July 2018
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