Article originally published in Rizospastis, Organ of the CC of the KKE, on Thursday 10/4/2025. Translated by Nikos Mottas.
The fairy tales about a "peaceful" redistribution of the world, which flared up with Trump's election, the bargaining over Ukraine, and the ceasefire in the Middle East, have collapsed with a blast. Those who try to whitewash the imperialists with such lies and hide their irreconcilable rivalries under the carpet are shamelessly provoking the people.
The confrontation of all against all - "allies" and opponents - is on a path of escalation, regardless of who is in power in the US, the EU, and everywhere.
The U.S. policy is pouring more "fuel to the fire" of the rivalries for supremacy in the global imperialist system, as they are mobilizing all their weapons to defend their position against China. Things that were considered unthinkable a few years ago are becoming the new "normality" thus changing the landscape on the global imperialist chessboard.
The war statements and countermeasures against American tariffs show that "economic war" and military conflicts are not separated by a Great Wall. They are sides of the same coin. Just as imperialist war is a continuation of "peace" with a gun to the people's heads, when rivalries do not fit into old agreements and compromises. After all, the people pay for imperialist war, just as they do for "peace."
That's happening now: Tariffs are triggering a series of anti-popular and anti-labor measures to fortify economies, which are "flirting" with a new crisis. The war economy is expanding throughout the sphere of production and social life. It becomes the funnel that sucks everything in, even the reserves of social security funds, which will finance investments for the construction of weapons.
The people are being blackmailed to hide in the corner, to accept new sacrifices. To demand nothing, in the name of "emergency conditions" and "national interest." To prepare for the worst, with the ... "72-hour survival kit" distributed by the warmongering EU.
Regardless of how tariffs are utilized in imperialist bargaining, which run parallel to military preparations, the combustible material that is accumulated increases the risk of conflict and cannot be diffused by any fragile compromise. We saw this happening in the Middle East: The agreed ceasefire has become a scrap of paper, and the risk of a widespread ignition in the region is rising again.
Therefore, no complacency is allowed in the face of dangerous developments! The primacy of the USA is threatened for the first time since World War II, and its defense by any means is a matter of "life and death" for US monopolies. China, on the other hand, declares its readiness for a "war to the end," intensifies its armaments, and responds accordingly to US trade tariffs, while at the same time tries to undermine "traditional" US allies in Asia and the EU.
On the side of History where the old world is being reshuffled with fire and axe, there is no hope for the interests and needs of the peoples! On the contrary, the bourgeoisie, the governments, and the opposing imperialist camps are preparing new episodes of wars and destruction.
But they are not invincible! It is in the hands of the people to transform the fractures that are opening under the weight of the intensifying rivalries into major fault lines of upheaval! And this concerns the present, not some distant tomorrow. It is built in the struggles of the workers, the people, the youth so that they do not pay with new sacrifices the tariffs and the war economy, so that they do not become cannon fodder for the bourgeoisie.
With the banner of contemporary needs, they must become protagonists in the struggle for the overthrow of capitalist barbarism and the construction of socialism - communism!
The U.S. policy is pouring more "fuel to the fire" of the rivalries for supremacy in the global imperialist system, as they are mobilizing all their weapons to defend their position against China. Things that were considered unthinkable a few years ago are becoming the new "normality" thus changing the landscape on the global imperialist chessboard.
The war statements and countermeasures against American tariffs show that "economic war" and military conflicts are not separated by a Great Wall. They are sides of the same coin. Just as imperialist war is a continuation of "peace" with a gun to the people's heads, when rivalries do not fit into old agreements and compromises. After all, the people pay for imperialist war, just as they do for "peace."
That's happening now: Tariffs are triggering a series of anti-popular and anti-labor measures to fortify economies, which are "flirting" with a new crisis. The war economy is expanding throughout the sphere of production and social life. It becomes the funnel that sucks everything in, even the reserves of social security funds, which will finance investments for the construction of weapons.
The people are being blackmailed to hide in the corner, to accept new sacrifices. To demand nothing, in the name of "emergency conditions" and "national interest." To prepare for the worst, with the ... "72-hour survival kit" distributed by the warmongering EU.
Regardless of how tariffs are utilized in imperialist bargaining, which run parallel to military preparations, the combustible material that is accumulated increases the risk of conflict and cannot be diffused by any fragile compromise. We saw this happening in the Middle East: The agreed ceasefire has become a scrap of paper, and the risk of a widespread ignition in the region is rising again.
Therefore, no complacency is allowed in the face of dangerous developments! The primacy of the USA is threatened for the first time since World War II, and its defense by any means is a matter of "life and death" for US monopolies. China, on the other hand, declares its readiness for a "war to the end," intensifies its armaments, and responds accordingly to US trade tariffs, while at the same time tries to undermine "traditional" US allies in Asia and the EU.
On the side of History where the old world is being reshuffled with fire and axe, there is no hope for the interests and needs of the peoples! On the contrary, the bourgeoisie, the governments, and the opposing imperialist camps are preparing new episodes of wars and destruction.
But they are not invincible! It is in the hands of the people to transform the fractures that are opening under the weight of the intensifying rivalries into major fault lines of upheaval! And this concerns the present, not some distant tomorrow. It is built in the struggles of the workers, the people, the youth so that they do not pay with new sacrifices the tariffs and the war economy, so that they do not become cannon fodder for the bourgeoisie.
With the banner of contemporary needs, they must become protagonists in the struggle for the overthrow of capitalist barbarism and the construction of socialism - communism!