10/10/2017 Lenin.

Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism

Strategy for Revolution in Lenin. Imperialism: The Highest Stage Its Relation to a Culture of
21st Century of Capitalism, 1916 Peace for the 21st Century

Sources Issues
Lenin undertook his detailed study of Imperialism: The Highest
Marx and Stage of Capitalism in 1916, basing it on the research of an English Revolutionary
Engels: economist named Hobson. His analysis continues to explain what is socialist culture
Communist of peace
happening in the world today as we enter the 21st Century.
Manifesto
Culture of War
Marx: Lenin saw capitalism evolving into a higher stage. The key to
Civil War in understanding it was an economic analysis of the transition from free Internal Culture
France competititon to monopoly: "...imperialism is the monopoly stage of of War
capitalism." As Lenin would point out in another article written in
Marx: 1916 (Imperialism and the Split in Socialism), imperialism was a Culture of
Alienation new development that had been predicted but not yet seen by Marx Peace
and Engels.
Marx: Education for
Theory of nonviolence and
Lenin provides a careful, 5-point definition of imperialism: "(1) the
History democracy
concentration of production and capital has developed to such a high
Marx and stage that it has created monopolies which play a decisive role in Sustainable
Engels: economic life; (2) the merging of bank capital with industrial capital, development for
On Human and the creation, on the basis of this "finance capital", of a financial all
Nature oligarchy; (3) the export of capital as distinguished from the export
of commodities acquires exceptional importance; (4) the formation Human rights vs
Engels: of international monopolist capitalist associations which share the exploitation
Anti-Dühring
world among themselves, and (5) the territorial division of the whole
Women's
Engels: world among the biggest capitalist powers is completed. Imperialism equality vs
Violence and is capitalism at that stage of development at which the dominance of patriarchy
the Origin of monopolies and finance capital is established; in which the export of
the State capital has acquired pronounced importance; in which the division of Democratic
the world among the international trusts has begun, in which the participation vs
Engels: division of all territories of the globe among the biggest capitalist authori-
Socialism: powers has been completed." tarianism
Utopian and
Scientific Tolerance and
At the present time, we can easily recognize in Lenin's analysis, not solidarity vs
Marx, Engels, only American and European imperialism, but also the World Bank, enemy images
Lenin: IMF, WTO and Third-World debt, as described in 1965 by Kwame
On Dialectics Nkrumah in Neo-colonialism, the Last Stage of Imperialism. Transparency vs
secrecy
Lenin: Imperialism is enormously profitable. Hobson estimated that in 1899
What is to be it had provide Great Britain an income of 90 million to 100 million Disarmament vs
done? pounds on the basis of its foreign capital, "the income of the armament
rentiers." As Lenin emphasized, "The income of the rentiers is five
Lenin: Revolutionary
Imperialism
times greater than the income obtained from the foreign trade of the leadership
biggest "trading" country in the world! This is the essence of
Lenin: imperialism and imperialist parasitism... The world has become Revolutionary
The State and divided into a handful of usurer states and a vast majority of debtor organization
Revolution states. 'At the top of the list of foreign investments,' says SchuIze-
Gaevernitz, 'are those placed in politically dependent or allied Proletarian
Lenin: War countries: Great Britain grants loans to Egypt, Japan, China and Interna-
Communism South America. Her navy plays here the part of bailiff in case of tionalism
necessity.'"
Lenin: National
The Cultural Liberation
Revolution In another article around the same time, War and Revolution, Lenin
was more specific about the fact that imperialism uses its military as Guerrilla
Lenin: the "bailiff": "Peace reigned in Europe, but this was because Warfare
Left-Wing domination over hundreds of millions of people in the colonies by
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10/10/2017 Lenin. Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism

Communism the European nations was sustained only through constant, incessant, Terrorism
interminable wars, which we Europeans do not regard as wars at all,
Lenin: since all too often they resembled, not wars, but brutal massacres, Agent
The American Provocateurs
the wholesale slaughter of unarmed peoples."
Revolutions
Communica-
Lenin: Beginning in 1919, imperialism turned its war machine against the tion systems
The French Russian Revolution, invading from all sides, in an unsuccessful
Revolutions attempt to "strangle the baby in its cradle." From that time on, the Psychology for
imperialist culture of war has targeted all socialist revolutions as the revolution- aries
Lenin: enemy and attacked them either directly by invasions or indirectly
On Workers through the Cold War, the arms race and the sabotage of the CIA, Capitalist
Control etc. culture of war

Lenin: Socialist culture

War, for imperialism, is not only used to conquer and control the
On Religion of war
colonies and to prevent the development of socialism, but also to
Lenin: compete with other imperialist powers. Periods of peace, says Lenin, Winning
On the Arms are "nothing more than a 'truce' in periods between wars." World War Conflict by
Race I, to Lenin, could only be understood as an inter-imperialist war. And Nonviolence
a few years later, in a speech on December 6, 1920, Lenin would
Trotsky: foresee that a second inter-imperialist war was brewing that would
Militarization of pit Japan against the United States and Germany against the rest of ---
Labor
Europe.
Luxemburg:
Russian The superprofits of imperialism enable the capitalists to buy off the More Sources
Revolution workers in the home country. Lenin points out that this had been
foreseen by Engels in a letter to Marx as early as 1858, "The English South African
Peace Process
Zetkin: proletariat is actually becoming more and more bourgeois ... For a
The Women's nation which exploits the whole world, this is of course to a certain Soviet Union
Question extent justifiable." Lenin confirms that this trend had continued to Disarmament
develop and was accompanied by opportunism on the part of many Proposals
Mao:
working class leaders and socialist writers. He carefully analyzes and
Role of
Communist dismisses the opportunism of Kautsky and his followers and Soviet Collapse
Party concludes that "the fight against imperialism is a sham and humbug
unless it is inseparably bound up with the fight against opportunism" Slovo:
Has Socialism
Mao:
Failed?
On Violence Today imperialism, in the form of neo-colonialism, continues to
profit enormously from the culture of war. The imperial powers Freire:
Mao: profit directly from the exploitation of workers and the environment Pedagogy of the
On the Army under the protection of their own or proxy military force. But that is Oppressed
not all. They also profit financially from interest on the debts they
Mao:
On Women impose and from the depression of prices for the raw materials they Fidel:
obtain. Ecology in
Cuba
Mao:
Great Revolutionary countries cannot succeed in direct competition with
Fidel:
Proletarian the capitalist culture of war by establishing their own socialist On Religion
Cultural culture of war. If there is any lesson of the 20th Century that
Revolution revolutionaries must take to heart, it is the fact that the profits of Mandela:
capitalist imperialism enable it to outperform a socialism culture of Human Rights
Mao and Fidel:
Fall of the
war in head-to-head competition. in South Africa
American
Empire In the long run, however, imperialism is sowing the seeds of its own King
destruction. As Mao and Fidel have pointed out, it is only a matter of on Nonviolence
Guevara: time before the American empire crashes. This will leave a void of
Gandhi
Man and power in the world, and it is up to us whether that void is filled by
on Nonviolence
Socialism in new cultures of war or by a revolutionary culture of peace.
Cuba
Gandhi
To take part in a discussion about this page, go to the Forum on on Communism
Hall and
Writings of Vladimir Lenin on the Discussion Board:
Winston:
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10/10/2017 Lenin. Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism

Fighting
Racism

Fanon:
National
Liberation and
Culture

Cabral:
National
Liberation and
Culture

Nkrumah: Neo-
Colonialism

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