The Internationalism

Internationalism No. 86, April 2026 Page 8 From the series Spain 1936 Spain, Marx observed in 1854 in the article Revolutionary Spain , was the first European feudal State to develop absolutism in its most unmitigated form , but political and fiscal centralisation never really took hold there. Similarly, it was Spanish caravels that opened up the era of the world market, and the Kingdom of Spain was the first great bourgeois maritime-trading empire. Yet that early and rapid rise ended up transforming itself from a favourable precondition for development into the cause of Spain's subsequent failure. In fact, the maritime overextension of the empire, combined with the failed political and fiscal centralisation of the Iberian heartland, resulted in stagnation and a subsequently inglorious and protracted putrefaction . While the economic and social arteries were becoming sclerotic, the State brain was moving away from European absolutism and t...

Internationalism No. 86, April 2026 Page 7 From the series Industry and pharmaceuticals I Since the beginning of the 21 st century, the life sciences sector has undergone profound transformations. Great scientific and technological innovations rooted in the achievements of the 20 th century have affected the whole of the world's healthcare system, revolutionising diagnostic procedures and therapies. However, the fruits of this acceleration of scientific development only reach a minority of humanity. In many cases, the high costs and the limited number of adequate structures — think of gene and cell therapies — make them inaccessible to most of the population, which barely receives even the most basic and lifesaving medicines. Their economic sustainability is a challenge even for the more advanced healthcare and welfare systems. Biotechnology is at the heart of this transformation, which is reshaping the world industry of...

Internationalism No. 86, April 2026 Page 6 On February 28 th , the attack launched by the United States and Israel against Iran ignited the third Gulf War . Already dealing with the conflict in Ukraine on its eastern flank, Europe now finds itself facing a second war on its borders, this time to the south. Unlike in 1991 and 2003, in the current conflict Washington has made no effort to build a coalition. No European or NATO country, nor any regional power, has been formally involved in the plans for intervention. European exclusion and the Atlantic crisis Europe’s initial exclusion – despite now being called upon to bear the energy, economic, and political consequences of Washington’s new war of choice – is the latest chapter of the Atlantic crisis . The issue has been at the centre of the European press’s commentary. Particularly in the early days, Brussels’ delays and impotence were highlighted. The Europe that isn’t there ran...

Internationalism No. 86, April 2026 Pages 4 and 5 According to The Economist , the war that began on February 28th with the American and Israeli attack on Iran has rightly earned the label third Gulf War . A clarification is needed: the war between Iran and Iraq, from 1980 to 1988, cost at least half a million lives and left its mark on the Persian Gulf no less than the subsequent conflicts. However, if we consider only the wars initiated by the United States in an attempt to manage its own decline, the current conflict follows on from those of 1991 and 2003. Hence, the third Gulf War . The conflict has already transcended regional boundaries, involving all countries in the area; the unprecedented assassination of Ali Khamenei, Iran’s religious and political leader, on the first day of the war, was the turning point. The war’s objectives are unclear: it is a war without a strategy , writes The Economist . Behind the strike on Iran, followi...

Internationalism No. 86, April 2026 Page 3 From the series European news The next half-century will be the age of nuclear weapons . This was the grim prediction with which Emmanuel Macron concluded his speech on nuclear deterrence, delivered on March 2 nd at the Île Longue submarine base. Standing before Le Téméraire , the nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine that carries a strike force equivalent to the sum of all the bombs dropped on Europe during the Second World War , the president announced a significant evolution in French nuclear doctrine. The emergence of new threats and the realignment of American priorities make it necessary, according to Macron, not only to strengthen deterrence by increasing the number of nuclear warheads, but also to rethink the deterrence strategy deep inside the European continent . His proposal is the gradual implementation of forward deterrence , which will initially offer t...

Internationalism No. 86, April 2026 Page 2 The joint attack by Washington and Tel Aviv on Iran, which began on February 28th and was dubbed Operation Epic Fury by the Americans, has been described as an epic gamble by the vast majority of international commentators, starting with the decision to eliminate Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader and a key figure for Shia Islam in Iran and beyond. While Tel Aviv is said to be intent on degrading Iran's military capabilities, and thus weakening it in the long term, what motivates US intervention, even according to Israeli sources, is regime change : something akin to the script followed in Venezuela at the start of the year. However, according to Le Monde , Washington's approach amounts to an exercise in strategic improvisation , owing both to the unilateral decision to attack and to the contradictory series of justifications put forward to launch the military campaign, conducted without a...

Internationalism No. 86, April 2026 Page 1 In his 1953 essay, Amadeo Bordiga argues for a very broad conception of economic structure and the means of production : The concept of the ‘economic base’ of a given human society thus extends far beyond the limits of a superficial interpretation confining it to the facts of the remuneration of labour and commercial exchange. It encompasses the entire field of the forms of reproduction of the species, i.e., family institutions; moreover, while the resources of technology and the provision of material instruments and tools of every kind form an integral part of it, its scope is not limited to that of a product showroom, but includes every mechanism available for the transmission from generation to generation of social ‘technological knowledge’. Accordingly, writing, song, music, the graphic arts, and the press, as general networks of communication and transmission, must be considered and counted among...