By David Sole
Secretary of State Antony Blinken gave a major address on September 13 at John Hopkins University where he outlined U.S. plans for world domination. Just one day before a shocking report was made public that poverty levels in the United States had skyrocketed in the past year, “the largest one-year jump on record” according to the New York Times.
Speaking at the School of Advanced International Studies, Blinken’s remarks were titled “The Power and Purpose of American Diplomacy.” Blinken proclaimed “Now we find ourselves at another hinge moment in history – grappling with the fundamental question of strategy.” He characterized the current period as the end “of the post-Cold War order.”
He cited Russia’s successful fight against the U.S./NATO proxy war in Ukraine, which he characterized as “Russia’s war of aggression,” … the most acute threat to the international order.” Of course he couldn’t say it, but this threat was to the United States’ imperialist goal of domination.
Then the People’s Republic of China was described as posing “the most significant long-term challenge because it not only aspires to reshape the international order, it increasingly has the economic, the diplomatic, the military, the technological power to do just that.”
Think about this. Blinken isn’t condemning China for any military action. No, he, and the U.S. government, are furious that Chinese socialism has built up a powerful, modern, economically strong state that has won the admiration and respect of much of the rest of the world. It can and is functioning as a counterweight to U.S. economic imperialist control and U.S. military bullying.
What’s worse? “Beijing and Moscow are working together … through their ‘no limits partnership.’” He worries about the competition posed by that alliance and that “countries and citizens are losing faith in the international [U.S. imperialist] economic order, their confidence rattled by systemic flaws.” What flaws? He doesn’t mention crushing debt to the Western capitalist powers, U.S. militarism spread across the globe, or climate change caused by the big capitalist economies. He does mention “policies that failed to do enough to help out the workers and communities that were left behind.” Blinken is forced to admit that inequality has “skyrocketed. Between 1980 and 2020, the richest 0.1 percent accumulated the same wealth as the poorest 50 percent.”
Much of Blinken’s flowery language gives way to the core militarism of the U.S. empire. Speaking about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization – the hammer used to destroy the prosperous nation of Libya and is now fighting Russia to the “last Ukrainian,” Blinken brags “Today, the Alliance is bigger, stronger, more united than ever. We’ve added…Finland [right on Russia’s border], Sweden will join soon” and other nations are being recruited to host military bases to further surround Russia and China. He is especially proud of enhancing “our deterrence and defense, including adding four new multinational battalions to NATO’s Eastern Flank, and increasing defense investments.”
In the arena of world economic domination, Blinken is happy to report “We’re transforming the G7 into the steering committee for the world’s most advanced democracies [read capitalist powers], combining our political and economic muscle…”
The goal of surrounding China is on his list of accomplishments with a stronger military alliance with Japan, a treaty with the Republic of [South] Korea, and “new basing and posture arrangements with allies Australia and the Philippines.” Biden’s recent visit to Vietnam, which included signing an economic agreement, holds the U.S.’s hope of capturing control of that heroic anti-imperialist nation. Blinken revealed that Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand “are now regular and active participants in NATO meetings.”
Blinken’s ode to world domination included the promise that the U.S. policies “would ultimately make the American people more prosperous, more peaceful, more secure…
Yet Blinken’s empty promises for a better, more prosperous world were exposed when the New York Times described the real state of affairs for the people in Blinken’s home country – the United States. The day before Bliniken’s speech the headline read “Poverty Rate Soared in 2022 as Aid Ended and Prices Rose.”
Children were particularly hard hit “as living costs rose and federal programs that provided aid to families during the pandemic were allowed to expire.” After two years of declines attributed to special outlays for pandemic relief, “the poverty rate rose to 12.4 percent in 2022 from 7.8 percent in 2021, the largest one-year jump on record…Poverty among children more than doubled…” Also alarming was that “the median income, adjusted for inflation, fell 2.3 percent.”
The U.S. capitalist system cannot and will not deliver on its promise of “prosperity” because it is a system whose goal is to enrich the billionaire class. The military threats and alliances are set in place and are being strengthened precisely to crush any and all uprisings by those being exploited and impoverished around the globe.
The very day after Blinken’s speech the United Auto Workers (UAW) began a strike against the Big Three automakers in the U.S. The strike started slowly with only three plants shutting down: a GM plant in Missouri, a Stellantis plant in Toledo and the Ford Wayne Assembly plant west of Detroit.
A new and militant leadership of the UAW International Union has set its sights on reversing decades of concessions and losses suffered by its membership. Especially odious are the existence of two tiers for workers doing the same work. Drastically lower wages and benefits, and no pension are the lot for younger workers. The ;UAW is also looking to safeguard jobs which may be lost in the transition to electric vehicles.
Needless to say that neither Blinken, nor his boss President Biden, as loyal servants of the Wall Street banks and corporations, can be depended on to support the workers in this developing strike situation.
Blinken can’t cover up the true state of affairs for poor and working people around the world or even right in his backyard.
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