Anecdotal, but i’ve seen the term “imperialism” explode in non-ml spaces over the past year or so. It is not at all beyond the reach of my imagination that perhaps an effort has been made to muddy the waters on the term, and dull it’s edge.
Out of all the words and movements the CIA would benefit from co-opting, anti-imperialism has to be among the top.
You can call what Russia is doing aggressive, warmongering, hell, call it evil - but call it imperialist and you are insulting the millions who suffered under true Western imperialism for over a century.
Limiting our understanding of imperialism to “only what the US does abroad” is ignoring the definition of imperialism.
I never said the US, I said Western, (UK, France, NL, etc.)
And only the West has met the definition of imperialism. Maybe you could say Imperial Russia did, I don’t know enough about the Russian Empire to say, but the Soviet Union and post-soviet Russia have been the victims of imperialism. Invading your neighbours doesn’t make you imperialist, even if it’s bad.
only the West has met the definition of imperialism
Again, this is ignoring the definition of imperialism. Lenin’s five basic characteristics of imperialism:
- The concentration of production and capital has developed to such a high stage that it has created monopolies which play a decisive role in economic life;
- the merging of bank capital with industrial capital, and the creation, on the basis of this ‘finance capital’, of a financial oligarchy;
- the export of capital as distinguished from the export of commodities acquires exceptional importance;
- the formation of international monopolist capitalist associations which share the world among themselves, and
- the territorial division of the whole world among the biggest capitalist powers is completed.
Being the victim of imperialism doesn’t mean it’s impossible to become imperialist, especially after the forced liberalizations of the Russian economy. The post-USSR state of Russia was gutted by the west and much of the wealth and capital moved into the hands of the new Russian bourgeoisie.
Maybe you could say Imperial Russia did
It’s kinda in the name…
You can call what Russia is doing aggressive, warmongering, hell, call it evil - but call it imperialist and you are insulting the millions who suffered under true Western imperialism for over a century.
You also need to understand the history of Russia as an empire, and its ambitions and politics. And that Russia was a part of western imperialism and has similar ambitions now, even if driven by russian capital…
