The Internationalism

Internationalism No. 82, December 2025 Page 16 Ultimately, what will become of the negotiations surrounding the conflict in Ukraine? It is impossible to say. War is a strange matryoshka doll, where each front contains its own conflicts, dividing alliances and bringing adversaries closer together. At the outset, Putin thought he could get it over with in a matter of weeks: a special military operation , as he called it. But he has become entangled in a long war of attrition; his military advantage no longer compensates for the weakness of his economy and his dependence on Xi's China. Beijing has finely balanced a sort of active neutrality. It has declared eternal friendship with Russia but is signalling that it could mute its support for Moscow in exchange for recognition of its vital interest in reunification with Taiwan. Europe has been caught off guard by the conflic...

Internationalism No. 82, December 2026 Page 15 From the series Militarisation of space The first shot of the next war between the world's big powers, it is often said, will be fired in space. As conflict spreads on Earth, ill omens are emerging in the firmament ( The Economist , February 3 rd , 2024). A year later, the commander of the US Space Force espoused the same position. In a Congressional testimony, General Bradley Chance Saltzman wrote: Because of space's strategic importance, it is highly likely that satellites will be some of the first casualties of any conflict between the US and China . Early in his career, the general continued, space was considered a sanctuary . Satellites were few, extremely expensive, placed in remote orbits, and essentially untouchable by hostile activity. Today, General Saltzman stated, we are not alone in recognising the incredible strategic advantage offered by space, and we cann...

Internationalism No. 82, December 2025 Page 14 According to the Chosun Ilbo , South Korea’s leading national-conservative newspaper, the agreements between Donald Trump and Lee Jae-myung—negotiated on the sidelines of the late-October Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Busan—represent Seoul’s first step towards becoming a fully autonomous nuclear State , capable of building and operating nuclear reactors and producing nuclear fuel. It was a historically significant event. The agreement is part of a broader one concerning the commitment by Seoul to invest $350 billion in the US, including $150 billion in the shipbuilding sector. This commitment was matched by Trump’s green light for South Korea’s ambition to build a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, or SSNs. National-progressive ambitions for national autonomy As noted by the newspaper Hankyoreh , linked to the Democratic Party, which currently holds the presidency and a parl...

Internationalism No. 82, December 2025 Page 13 From the series The world car battle The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionising the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society [Marx and Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party ]. The cost of car accidents According to the World Health Organization report of December 13 th , 2023, over 1.2 million people die in road accidents worldwide every year, with car crash casualties outnumbering those of armed conflicts. The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data report, published by The Washington Post on December 12 th , 2024, estimates that at least 233,000 people were killed in wars in 2024. On roads worldwide a massacre is underway—the cost of which, according to the report by the Safety Insights Explorer of the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP), is $3.6 trillion per year, equivalent to over 3% of g...

Internationalism No. 82, December 2025 Page 12 From the series Workers’ struggles in the world “Why is it that large-scale factory production always leads to strikes? It is because capitalism must necessarily lead to a struggle of the workers against the employers, and when production is on a large scale the struggle of necessity takes on the form of strikes”. What has changed since Lenin wrote these theses in 1899? The capitalist mode of production has spread throughout the world, we have entered the imperialist phase, and wage earners now make up 80-90% of those who produce goods and services, numbering over two billion. Consequently, “large-scale [...] production”, and therefore the “struggle” in “the form of strikes”, are now phenomena which are present worldwide. The strike has become a “natural economic phenomenon” of the capitalist mode of production, as Lenin wrote in 1902, and it has spread across the globe. Its regularity and diffusion ...

Internationalism No. 82, December 2025 Page 11 From the series Industry and pharmaceuticals On August 15 th , the White House published a long list of the most recent investments in American manufacturing. The statement emphasised the role of President Donald Trump who, with the aim of revitalising American industry [...], has spurred trillions of dollars of investments in US manufacturing, production, and innovation [ The White House, “Trump Effect: A Running List of New US Investment in President Trump’s Second Term” ]. The list includes around twenty pharmaceutical companies, which have announced a total commitment of over $340 billion in investments, more than half from European companies. Stephen Farrelly, an analyst at ING, estimates that investments in the United States announced by pharmaceutical multinationals amount to more than $400 billion [ Il Sole 24 Ore, October 15 th ]. Political pressures and old problems This i...

Internationalism No. 82, December 2025 Page 10 From the series Chronicles of the new American nationalism Washington is redefining its commitments in Europe and the Middle East, while reaffirming its presence in the Western Hemisphere and coming to terms with China's rise in every theatre. Donald Trump has imposed tariffs and threatened adversaries and allies, gaining bargaining leverage without, for now, provoking the catastrophic outcomes predicted by critics. In nine months, he has achieved successes , acknowledges David Sanger of The New York Times , an opposition newspaper: many allies will spend more on defence and various regional conflicts have been defused, at least temporarily, including those in the Middle East. However, Trump's approach is erratic . Some commentators have tried to make the process intelligible, even to policymakers. Rival tribes In a widely cited 2022 essay, Jeremy Shapiro and Majda Ruge of the Eur...

Internationalism No. 82, December 2025 Page 9 On the Chinese front of his trade offensive, Donald Trump, from his first term onwards, has combined tariffs on imports from China with US export controls aimed at Beijing's technological containment , such as the ban on supplying the latest generation of software and chips to telecommunications giant Huawei. Democratic President Toe Biden confirmed many of these measures in the ambiguous formula of a "small vard with a high fence": severe restrictions but limited to technologies deemed sensitive for national security. Underground panic The Chinese government has responded blow for blow, both with trade tariffs on US goods and by rationing export licences for strategic raw materials. In this way, it has been said, the trade battle has extended into manufacturing supply chains, opening a technological cold war with new forms of deterrence. In 2023, for example, pressure from the White...

Internationalism No. 82, December 2025 Page 8 Will the artificial intelligence bubble burst? The question mark adds to the dilemmas that the crisis in the world order is fuelling with debt, rearmament, protectionism, wars, and illusory peace agreements. After many years in which stock markets have weathered persistent headwinds, becoming the emblem of capital’s resilience to its own crises, the accumulated risks are coming to the surface. High technology, the newest sector of listed companies, has become a magnet for investment, producing in just a few years giants with unprecedented market values. The Magnificent Seven in the sector (Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Nvidia, Tesla) have a combined market capitalisation of around $22 trillion, about 35% of the total of the 500 largest US corporations. The artificial intelligence (AI) champion Nvidia alone has a market capitalisation of $5 trillion. In November, when third...