Anti-imperialism

The phrase gained a wide currency after the Second World War and at the onset of the Cold War as political movements in colonies of European powers promoted national sovereignty. Some anti-imperialist groups who opposed the United States supported the power of the Soviet Union, while in some Marxist schools, such as Maoism, this was criticized as social imperialism. Islamist movements traditionally view the United States, Israel, Russia and China as imperial and neocolonial forces engaged in persecution and oppression of Muslim communities domestically and abroad.

An influential movement independent of the Western left that advocated religious anti-imperialism was pan-Islamism; which challenged the Western civilisational model and rose to prominence across various parts of the Islamic world during the 19th and 20th centuries. Its most influential ideologue was the Sunni theologian Muhammad Rashid Rida, a fierce opponent of Western ideas, who called upon Muslims to rise up in armed resistance by waging jihad against imperialism and re-establish an Islamic caliphate. Through his resolution in the Second World Congress of Comintern (1920), Lenin accused the anti-imperialism of pan-Islamists of favouring the interests of the bourgeoisie, feudal landlords and religious clerics; and incited communists to compulsorily fight pan-Islamism. Since then, Soviet authorities regularly employed the charge of pan-Islamism to target Islamic dissidents for anti-Soviet activities and fomenting anti-communist rebellions.

Theory

Some Enlightenment writers expressed anti-imperialist ideas in the 18th century, especially targeting luxury as an issue.

In the late 1870s, the term "imperialism" was introduced to the English language by opponents of the aggressively imperial policies of British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (in office: 1874–1880). It was shortly appropriated by supporters of "imperialism" such as Joseph Chamberlain (1836–1914). For some, imperialism designated a policy of idealism and philanthropy; others alleged that it was characterized by political self-interest; and a growing number associated it with capitalist greed. John A. Hobson (1858–1940) and Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) added a more theoretical macroeconomic connotation to the term. Many theoreticians on the left have followed either or both in emphasizing the structural or systemic character of "imperialism." Such writers have expanded the time-period associated with the term so that it now designates neither a policy, nor a short space of decades in the late-19th century, but a global system extending over a period of centuries, often going back to Christopher Columbus. As the application of the term has expanded, its meaning has shifted along five distinct but often parallel axes: the moral, the economic, the systemic, the cultural and the temporal. Those changes reflect—among other shifts in sensibility—a growing unease with the fact of power, specifically Western power.

The relationships between capitalism, aristocracy and imperialism have been discussed and analysed by theoreticians, historians, political scientists such as John A. Hobson, Thorstein Veblen, Joseph Schumpeter and Norman Angell. Those intellectuals produced much of their works about imperialism before World War I (1914–1918), yet their combined work informed the study of the impact of imperialism upon Europe and contributed to the political and ideologic reflections on the rise of the military–industrial complex in the United States from the 1950s onward.

Hobson

John A. Hobson strongly influenced the anti-imperialism of both Marxists and liberals, worldwide through his 1902 book Imperialism: A Study. He argued that the "taproot of imperialism" is not in nationalist pride, but in capitalism. As a form of economic organization, imperialism is unnecessary and immoral, the result of the mis-distribution of wealth in a capitalist society. That created an irresistible desire to extend national markets into foreign lands, in search of profits greater than those available in the Mother Country. In the capitalist economy, rich capitalists received a disproportionately higher income than did the working class. If the owners invested their incomes in their factories, the greatly increased productive capacity would exceed the growth in demand for the products and services of said factories.

Hobson was influential in liberal circles, especially in the British Liberal Party. Historians Peter Duignan and Lewis H. Gann argue that Hobson had an enormous influence in the early-20th century that caused widespread distrust of imperialism:

Hobson's ideas were not entirely original; however his hatred of moneyed men and monopolies, his loathing of secret compacts and public bluster, fused all existing indictments of imperialism into one coherent system....His ideas influenced German nationalist opponents of the British Empire as well as French Anglophobes and Marxists; they colored the thoughts of American liberals and isolationist critics of colonialism. In days to come they were to contribute to American distrust of Western Europe and of the British Empire. Hobson helped make the British averse to the exercise of colonial rule; he provided indigenous nationalists in Asia and Africa with the ammunition to resist rule from Europe.

Optimistically, Hobson argued that domestic social reforms could cure the international disease of imperialism by removing its economic foundation. Hobson theorized that state intervention through taxation could boost broader consumption, create wealth and encourage a peaceful multilateral world-order. Conversely, should the state not intervene, rentiers (people who earn income from property or securities) would generate socially negative wealth that fostered imperialism and protectionism.

Liberal anti-imperialism

There have been many examples of liberal anti-imperialism. However, liberal anti-imperialists are distinct from socialist anti-imperialists because they do not oppose capitalism. Most liberal anti-imperialists, similar to socialist anti-imperialists, view internationalism as the primary alternative to imperialism. However, unlike socialists (specifically Marxists), instead of favoring proletarian internationalism, which promotes the spread of socialist revolution, liberals favor liberal internationalism, which promotes international cooperation and the spread of liberal democracy. Liberal anti-imperialism was core to the American Revolution, Latin American Wars of Independence, the Revolutions of 1830 and 1848 in Europe, some decolonial movements in Colonial Africa and Asia, and the Revolutions of 1989.

Argentina

Bolivia

Chile

China

Colombia

Egypt

El Salvador

Greece

Hungary

Iran

Ireland

Korea

Mexico

Nicaragua

Palestine

Poland

Taiwan

Tunisia

Ukraine

United States

Venezuela

Communist and socialist

In the mid-19th century, Karl Marx mentioned imperialism as part of the prehistory of the capitalist mode of production in Das Kapital (1867–1894). Vladimir Lenin defined imperialism as "the highest stage of capitalism," the economic stage in which monopoly finance capital becomes the dominant application of capital. As such, said financial and economic circumstances impelled national governments and private business corporations to worldwide competition for control of natural resources and human labour by means of colonialism.

Leninism and Marxism–Leninism

The Leninist views of imperialism and related theories, such as dependency theory, address the economic dominance and exploitation of a country: economic imperialism rather than the military and the political dominance of a people, their country and its natural resources. Hence, the primary purpose of imperialism is economic exploitation, rather than mere control of either a country or of a region. The Marxist and the Leninist denotation thus differs from the usual political science denotation of imperialism as the direct control (intervention, occupation and rule) characteristic of colonial and neocolonial empires as used in the realm of international relations.

Lenin adopted Hobson's ideas. In Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1917), Lenin outlined the five features of capitalist development that lead to imperialism:

1. Concentration of production and capital leading to the dominance of national and multinational monopolies and cartels.
2. Industrial capital as the dominant form of capital has been replaced by finance capital, with the industrial capitalists increasingly reliant on capital provided by monopolistic financial institutions. "Again and again, the final word in the development of banking is monopoly."
3. The export of the aforementioned finance capital is emphasized over the export of goods.
4. The economic division of the world by multinational cartels.
5. The political division of the world into colonies by the great powers, in which the great powers monopolise investment.

Generally, the relationship among Marxist-Leninists and radical, left-wing organisations who are anti-war, often involves persuading such political activists to progress from pacifism to anti-imperialism—that is, to progress from opposing war in general, to the condemnation of the capitalist economic system in particular.

In the 20th century, the Soviet Union represented itself as the foremost enemy of imperialism, thus the Kremlin gave political and financial support to Third World revolutionary organisations who fought for national independence. This was accomplished through the export of both financial capital and Soviet military apparatuses, with the Soviet Union sending military advisors to China, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Angola, Egypt and Afghanistan.

However, anarchists as well as many other Marxist organizations, have characterized Soviet foreign policy as imperialism and cited it as evidence that the philosophy of Marxism would not resolve and eliminate imperialism. Mao Zedong developed the theory that the Soviet Union was a social imperialist nation, a socialist people with tendencies to imperialism, an important aspect of Maoist analysis of the history of the Soviet Union. Contemporarily, the term "anti-imperialism" is most commonly applied by Marxist-Leninists and by political organisations of like ideological persuasion who oppose capitalism, present a class analysis of society and the like.

About the nature of imperialism and how to oppose and defeat it, Che Guevara said:

imperialism is a world system, the last stage of capitalism—and it must be defeated in a world confrontation. The strategic end of this struggle should be the destruction of imperialism. Our share, the responsibility of the exploited and underdeveloped of the world, is to eliminate the foundations of imperialism: our oppressed nations, from where they extract capitals, raw materials, technicians, and cheap labor, and to which they export new capitals—instruments of domination—arms and all kinds of articles; thus submerging us in an absolute dependence.

— Che Guevara, Message to the Tricontinental, 1967

Trotskyism

The concept of permanent war economy originated in 1945 with an article by Trotskyist Ed Sard (alias Frank Demby, Walter S. Oakes, and T.N. Vance), a theoretician who predicted a post-war arms race. He argued at the time that the United States would retain the character of a war economy; even in peacetime, US military expenditure would remain large, reducing the percentage of unemployed compared to the 1930s. He extended this analysis in 1950 and 1951.

The concept has been a core tenet of the British Socialist Workers Party with founder, Tony Cliff, examining its application to the First World War, American imperialism and colonial empires including Britain, France, and Germany.

Islamist anti-imperialism

The 18th and 19th centuries witnessed the rise of numerous colonial and imperial Islamic resistance movements across various parts of the Muslim World. These included the jihad movement led by the Imamate of Caucasus and the Circassian Confederacy against Russian imperialism during the Caucasus Wars (1763–1864 CE). Prominent leaders in this resistance campaign included Ghazi Mullah, Hamzat Bek, Shamil, Hajji Qerandiqo Berzeg, Jembulat Boletoqo, etc. Other major anti-imperial movements included the Padri War, Java War, the Aceh War against the Dutch colonisation of Indonesia, the Moro Rebellion against the United States, the South Asian Jihad movement of Sayyid Ahmad Shahid, Mahdist State in Sudan, and the Arabian Muwahhidun that fought British colonialism, Emir Abd al-Qadir's military insurgency against French in Algeria, North-West Frontier Uprisings of the Pashtun tribes against the British Raj, Omar Mukhtar's Jihad against Italian Fascists in Libya, etc. The establishment and defense of Islamic statehood that enforces Sharia (Islamic law) based on Qur'an and Sunnah, elimination of superstitions and heterodox local practices and folk rituals, etc. were key objectives of these reform movements.

These anti-colonial movements inspired the rise of Pan-Islamism during the late 19th century; which gave birth to numerous Islamist organisations advocating anti-imperialism across the Muslim World; such as the Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan al-Muslimeen) and Jamaat-e-Islami. Syro-Egyptian Islamist theoretician Muhammad Rashid Rida (1865 CE/1282 AH – 1935 CE/1354 AH), a Salafi theologian greatly influenced by preceding militant Islamic revivalist movements, was an ardent opponent of European imperial powers; and he called for armed jihad to defend the Islamic World from encroaching colonialism, complemented by a political programme to establish Islamic states which would implement Sharia (Islamic laws). He extended this anti-imperialist campaign to the theological level through the Arab Salafiyya movement; which professed the key theme of returning to the values of Salaf al-Salih. This encompassed a theological assault on Western ideological currents emanating from the principles of secularism and nationalism as well as denunciation of Western cultural imperialism.

After Rashid Rida, the mantle of Islamist anti-imperialism was spearheaded by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood founder Hasan al-Banna, South Asian revolutionary Islamist leader Sayyid Abul A'la Maududi and Egyptian Jihadist theoretician Sayyid Qutb. Mawdudi held the belief that West was in decline and that restoration of Islamic prowess was inevitable. Openly equating Western colonialism with atheism, Mawdudi called upon Muslims to rally in jihad against the imperialist forces to regain their spiritual, cultural, economic and military sovereignty and self-sufficiency. Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian scholar influenced by both Mawdudi and Rashid Rida, took their ideas to its logical culmination; proclaiming the necessity of a permanent, unending Islamist revolution not only against the imperialists but also its allied regimes in the Muslim World. This revolution against the apostate regimes has to be waged as an armed jihad by an ideological vanguard committed to establish the Islamic state and uphold Tawhid (Islamic monotheism). These ideas gained prominence and arose in influence across the Islamic World during the post-World War II era. During the Cold War period, the Islamist intellectuals from the Muslim Brotherhood and Jamaat-e Islami also launched fervent anti-communist campaigns, ideologically critiquing socialism and Marxism, and chiding leftists as agents of Soviet Imperialism. In his book "Al Jihad Fil Islam," South Asian revolutionary Islamist scholar Abul A'la Mawdudi made a comprehensive religious refutation of imperialism. He argued that oppressive rulers justify imperialism in the name of progress and socio-political reforms. Describing the main features of imperialism, Mawdudi wrote:

"the basic quality of imperialism is the dominance of one particular nation or country....Thus, the doors of imperialism remain closed to people of other nationalities and for this reason, they can play no major role in running its affairs. This gives rise to the development of other faults in the system and characters of the subject nation. They develop a weakness of character, lose self-esteem and the sense of righteousness. Even if the ruling nation does not treat the subjects with outright cruelty and arrogance, their (the subject nation’s) character sinks to such a low ebb of ignobility that they become quite incapable of striving for attaining and maintaining self-rule for a very long time."

— Abul A'la Maududi, Al Jihad fil Islam,

The Indian Jamaat-e-Islami Hind launched a 10-day nationwide campaign titled Anti-Imperialism Campaign in December 2009. Contemporary Jihadist movements such as Al-Qaeda, influenced by Sayyid Qutb's thought, declares itself as a "global revolutionary vanguard" waging jihad to defend Muslims from atrocities committed by the forces of Western imperialism and its allies.

In the worldview of Egyptian Jihadist theoretician Sayyid Qutb, imperialist policies of the secular Western regimes were a continuation of their historical "Crusading Spirit." In his commentary of the Qur'anic verse 2:120 "{Never will the Jews be pleased with you, (O Prophet), nor the Christians until you follow their way...}," Sayyid Qutb writes:

"The conflict between the Judeo-Christian world on the one side, and the Muslim community on the other, remains in essence one of ideology, although over the years it has appeared in various guises and has grown more sophisticated and, at times, more insidious. We have seen the original ideological conflict succeeded by economic, political and military confrontation, on the basis that 'religious' or 'ideological' conflicts are outdated and are usually prosecuted by 'fanatics' and backward people. Unfortunately, some naïve and confused Muslims have fallen for this stratagem and persuaded themselves that the religious and ideological aspects of the conflict are no longer relevant. But in reality world Zionism and Christian Imperialism, as well as world Communism, are conducting the fight against Islam and the Muslim community, first and foremost, on ideological grounds... The confrontation is not over control of territory or economic resources, or for military domination. If we believe that, we would play into our enemies’ hands and would have no one but ourselves to blame for the consequences."

— Sayyid Qutb, Fi Zilal al-Quran,

Right-wing anti-imperialism

The anti-imperialist movement has generally been linked to left-wing politics, but some right-wing conservatives, nationalists, anti-globalists and religious fundamentalists that have emerged in reaction to alleged imperialism might also fall within this category.

Iran's right-wing anti-imperialism is often linked to anti-Americanism and anti-Zionism; Iranian principlists historically derived much of its popularity from its appeal to widespread anger at American intervention or influence. American paleoconservatives denounce neoconservatives as "imperialists" and support anti-imperialist views to defend traditionalist, American nationalist values and republicanism.

Chiang Kai-shek was a right-wing authoritarian nationalist, but supported anti-imperialist foreign policy that antagonized the Japan, Soviet and West, and he supported decolonization of Asia until 1949, but after the Great Retreat, anti-imperialist policies were effectively abandoned, adopting an anti-communist pro-Western diplomatic line that relied diplomatically on the United States and Japan. Unlike classical fascists (Italian fascists and Nazis) with imperialistic elements, some neo-fascists—such as the Azov Brigade and the Russian Volunteer Corps—oppose imperialism, particularly Russian imperialism, as an extension of their anti-communist opposition to the legacy of the Soviet Union.