Opulence and Misery: The Economic Crisis of Imperialism Deepens

The severe and increasing general economic crisis of imperialism, which shows no signs of recovery, is felt even within the world’s sole-hegemonic imperialist superpower, the United States—albeit to a lesser degree than the rest of the world. While the majority of imperialist countries grow in desperation to remain imperialist powers, fighting for scraps and besieged by their own peoples, the ascending power of Chinese social-imperialism and the secondary imperialist superpower Russia fight for re-division of the world, posing a strategic risk to the sole-hegemony of US imperialism. All of this amounts only to the world’s secondary contradiction, the one among the imperialists. The main problem is the rebellions and revolutions flaring brightly from the oppressed nations, which respond to the crisis in a way that puts all of the imperialist world on a defensive and desperate footing.

In the United States the contradictions manifest in clear ways: a periodic crisis of overproduction, where the monopolists find no effective market for their goods owing to the increasing ruin of the masses—which the monopolists themselves brought about—and so are compelled to destroy goods, suspend production, and destroy productive forces at a time when millions of people suffer unemployment and face hunger and deprivation. They do this not because there are not enough goods, but because everything has been overproduced.

Recent layoffs confirm this general principle: approximately 48,000 workers from UPS, 30,000 from Amazon, 24,000 from Intel, 16,000 from Nestle, 11,000 from Ford, and many more. As a result of reporting the worsening conditions of the economic crisis, the Bureau of Labor Statistics head has been dismissed by the Trump administration.

Millions of people across the US are set to lose food assistance as a result of the continued government shutdown, a shutdown which is essentially a standoff between two rival mafias to contend for domination over the state bureaucracy. Already the food-lines at pantries, which usually comprise the lowest strata of proletarians, are increasingly populated by typically relatively well-compensated government employees.

According to the monopoly CNN, the US Department of Agriculture says it lacks the money to pay $8 billion in food stamp benefits for November, arguing that it cannot tap into its contingency fund. Nearly 42 million people, about 1 in 8 people, receive food stamps. The majority of these go to the elderly and to households with children. As the economic crisis is pushed onto the people at the federal level, many state-level assistance programs remain difficult to obtain or are in disarray. The cessation of federal assistance means these shambolic state programs will either break or be incapable of mitigating the disaster faced by the nearly 42 million federal recipients.

A federal judge in the district court in Rhode Island ruled Friday that the administration must fund SNAP and asked for a progress report by Monday. However, it is unclear if the ruling will actually stand since it could be overturned by the Trump-stacked Supreme Court. In response, the president asked the court to “clarify how we can legally fund SNAP as soon as possible,” saying he will wait for the court’s answer before funding SNAP. Hunger is another bargaining tool as the rival political mobs hold the people’s funds hostage.

The government still managed to find $20 billion to provide to the old-state in Argentina after the re-election of the right-wing extremist Javier Milei. During the election, the ultra-reactionary chief of US imperialism declared that “if he doesn’t win, we are gone.” In response to the financial injection received by Argentina, US finance capitalists jumped for joy. Holding financial threat over elections is one means by which the imperialists control the oppressed nations of Latin America, while the other means, direct military threat and regime change, are being seen in regard to Venezuela and Colombia.

The government has found more money in the top monopolists—many of whom hold government contracts and stand to gain from their investment—which have graciously banded together to foot Trump’s $600 million bill for the construction of his opulent ballroom, for which the entire East Wing of the White House has been destroyed to accommodate.

These include Meta CEO Mark Zuckerburg, who owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp; Apple CEO Tim Cook; former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos; the monopoly Alphabet, which owns Google; the top arms manufacturer and monopoly Lockheed Martin; the tech monopoly Microsoft; the media monopoly Comcast, owner of NBC Universal; the tobacco monopoly Altria; CEO Brian Armstrong of the cryptocurrency platform Coinbase; Palantir. a data-analytics monopoly complicit in mass surveillance and border enforcement; the cell phone monopoly T-Mobile; the railroad monopoly Union Pacific; and the machinery monopoly Caterpillar, along with many more corporations and extremely wealthy families. Trump, displaying poor political decision-making and even worse business management, remarked this month that he had no idea how much his project would cost.

The president has also remodeled the bathroom of the White House’s Lincoln Bedroom, putting in marble paneling across its entirety and his signature gold faucets, plastering his gaudy decadence over the vestiges of the once-progressive bourgeois ruling class. Trump called the redesign “very appropriate for the time of Abraham Lincoln”, a time most remembered for its titanic struggle to smash US slavery and unleash capitalism. The renovation displays the utter degradation of the bourgeoisie in the last era of the epoch of imperialism, the era of its sweeping away by the world revolution.

What is clear in this debacle is that the American people—including those who voted for the flagrant villain Trump—are not in need of an opulent ballroom for the ruling class and its government, but require stable and safe jobs, food, and necessities, all of which are under threat by the very class that finds it pertinent to construct palaces among the squalor. This is the US ruling class’s legacy in naked form, the decadent self-indulgence of a dying class, ripe for being cast off the stage of human history.

Contradictions Sharpen Within the Political Mafias of the Ruling Class

The general economic crisis manifests itself in a political crisis for the dominant bourgeois party mafias, which affects the cultural crisis of the entire country. The Republican mafia is desperate to maintain its relative dominance over the state bureaucracy, reshaping government in its own interests based on its interpretation of how to best serve the ruling class. The same is true for the Democratic mafia, which is undergoing a serious identity crisis, beaten to smithereens by its self-induced miserable electoral performance.

Within the Republican mafia it has become futile to try to demarcate between conventional Republican mobsters and “Trumpist” Republicans, as the entire mafia has consolidated behind the second term of Donald Trump. Trump himself is less of a politician and more of a prostitute selling himself to whoever can pay the most, but nevertheless he serves as a symbol, a figurehead of the mob. Within the Republicans there exist only two types of “Trumpists”: the ultra-reactionary overwhelming majority who mainly collaborate and seldom contend with the second type, those advocating fascist policy. What used to be known as the “alt-right”, a mainly civilian movement, has now established itself administratively inside of the government.

The Republican mob’s flirtation with Nazism has been documented in the monopoly media. In 2023 The Texas Tribune as well as The Guardian detailed how the Republicans in Texas struck a clause banning inclusion of members “known to espouse or tolerate antisemitism, pro-Nazi sympathies, or holocaust denial” with a vote of 32-29. The clause was presented in support of the Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people, and all of the support for Israel passed, on the condition that the members could freely associate with neo-Nazis.

In October 2025, scandal erupted when the Telegram chat of leaders of the Young Republicans was leaked to monopoly media, filled with comments about “gas chambers,” “Hitler aesthetic,” and adoration for slavery, with one proclaiming “I love Hitler.” Many of the chat participants work inside the government. The atmosphere alone indicates what the future of the Republican mafia will look like. The fallout was minimized by firing several of the most vocal Hitlerites, including Samuel Douglas, who was called to resign from his state Senate seat in Vermont. On the top level, Vice President J. D. Vance mocked both Democrats and Republicans who found the chat inappropriate and dismissed it as the participants “telling a stupid joke”.

The contradiction within the Democratic mafia is clearer, as the party has developed an identity crisis after wearing out its old electoral tricks with business-as-usual ruling class candidates. The traditional Democrats are atrophied and the party has become senile and irrelevant to most voters, faring even less favorably in polls among the people. According to the ruling class think tank Pew Research Center, “three quarters of U.S. adults say the Democratic Party makes them feel frustrated.” The Republicans are not faring much better according to the same survey, which ranks frustration at 64%. This is despite the fact that historically the ruling party fares worse polling results while in office.

The crisis within the Democrats has provoked a flirtation with social-fascism evidenced by the reluctant acceptance of the mafia’s “democratic socialist” faction. While the professed aim of the false “left” within the mafia is to bring it further to the left to preserve it and inject it with enthusiasm, the reality is that the establishment mobsters, senile as they are, are able to make use of the “democratic socialists” and move them to the right, while giving their own appearance a face-lift, something to lure in more voters within the fetters created by a tradition of restricting the impulses among the people to transform society.

The different types within the Democratic mob, with each utilizing the other, have become more pronounced in this election cycle. Out of desperation, the conventional Democratic mobsters have come to flirt more with social-fascism, as indicated by Kamala Harris’s endorsement of New York City mayoral front-runner and Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) member Zohran Mamdani, and reciprocally Mamdani’s cessation of “radical” rhetoric and his promotion of “liberal” Zionism (a requirement for the support of the party).

This feeds the sprouts of social-fascism with the same false confidence the Trump administration imparts upon the fascists; in times of crisis the old-establishment dinosaurs are desperate to regain the interests of the struggling masses, to inoculate themselves against growing interests in authentic socialism. This is done, as always, by the way of bourgeois imperialist perversions of socialism—i.e., through fascism and social-democracy.

Another costume the Democrats don is their invented “working class” character like Graham Platner, a two time participant in the US imperialist war of aggression in Afghanistan, first as a Marine and then as a mercenary in the employment of Blackwater—indicating that Platner not only saw validity in the lies that propped the US imperialist invasion, but aligned with their goals.

The allegation that Platner was employed by Blackwater comes from the left camp of the social-democrats themselves. News commentator and social media personality Hasan Piker wrote that, “He [Platner] felt a renewed call to service, and in 2018, got a job as a security contractor for the State Department in Afghanistan.” Platner’s base of support comes in the form of endorsements from the likes of Bernie Sanders along with a media campaign carried out by Morris Katz, the same multimillionaire campaign manager for Mamdani.

The strategy embraced for Platner is to frame the small business owner as “working class”, not based on his relationship to production or class background, but on his demeanor and “rugged” appearance. Class for the false left comes down to the vague criteria of identity politics and has little to do with material reality.

This tactic only came back to bite the ruling class handlers of the campaign when a Nazi SS insignia, known as a Totenkopf skull, became visible online in a video of Platner drunkenly dancing in his underwear at a bar. Platner would go on to publicly cover up the tattoo, feigning ignorance of its origin and attributing getting it in the military as part of a bonding ritual with fellow imperialist soldiers.

The culture of death worship is apparent in the imperialist militaries, and it should be concerning enough that the false left is willing to overlook this and plead ignorance. The falsely named “Jacobin” Magazine, the fake socialist rag, has gone to great lengths in apology for Platner, including combing though over a decade of bad-taste social media posts and re-framing them in a more favorable light.

In another article, “Jacobin”, which would be better named “Girondin”, accuses the Democrats of “cynically wielding ‘wokeness’ against Graham Platner.” While it is clear the old-guard mobsters have no real interest in principles and seek only political fodder, “wokeness” here is nothing but the bastard child of the likes of “Jacobin” and others, their own beast coming back to bite the hand that has fed it. The entire pageant presents the miserable state of the Democratic mob.

The Ruling Class Cannot Rule in the Old Way and the People Cannot be Ruled in the Old Way

In the world today there exists a revolutionary situation in uneven development. Contradictions have been pushed to the brink and the main one for the entire world is the contradiction between the imperialists and the nations oppressed by imperialism. The future rests on this contradiction, which more and more proves that the third world will triumph in the struggle to free itself.

Second to this is the contradiction between the imperialists themselves, which has proven to tend toward world war; in every instance of world war, the oppressed nations have taken advantage of this contradiction and have risen in arms to free their countries. Third, there is the contradiction which exists in each country between the exploiters, the bourgeoisie and the exploited, the proletariat. This is the contradiction fundamental to the US, since as the sole-hegemonic imperialist superpower, there is none other oppressing the people than the bourgeoisie of this country. According to Marxism, this contradiction can only be resolved through the socialist revolution. The intensification of the contradictions on the world scale only make socialist revolution—a historic necessity—more actionable.

While the ruling class of the United States fights tooth and nail to secure and preserve its global hegemonic control, they scramble at home to re-organize their political parties along more reactionary lines, and to reorganize their government and the old-state with more power for the executive branch—propping up the corpse of Congress for posterity. Their minority factions flirt increasingly with open terrorist dictatorship and dream of a society organized on corporate lines and the economy controlled by the state. While the contradictions and revolutionary situation are not so advanced that the majority of the ruling class feels compelled to force monopolization in “national interests” and shows little indication of a willingness to take total control of the economy for the state, the embers of fascism can still be seen in ruling class gestures and policy.

Subjectively, the revolutionary forces of the class-conscious proletariat are still dispersed and withdrawn. The class consciousness among the broad working class still lags behind most of its siblings throughout the world, conjuring up the immediate need for a serious approach from the nascent and inexperienced revolutionary elements among the people. The great crisis has also provided fertile ground for imparting revolutionary and proletarian ideology among the people; this cannot be accomplished separated from the class struggle, which often boils over in a struggle for the people’s rights.

The working class feels the crisis pushed onto its belabored shoulders, and it too will struggle to reorganize its forces and confront its conditions. It has nothing to lose, there is no power for it to desperately cling to, and it is still young and energetic as a class. It has everything to gain from organizing itself on an expedited timeline to be the most suited to confront the class enemy with new and uncompromising means of combat and resistance.

The word communism still has not left; it is used by representatives of the ruling class to attack one another, it is used by their administrators to scare the working people away from seizing what is rightfully theirs, and it is used on the glorious banners of the best sons and daughters of the international proletariat in its most advanced trenches of combat. This word reveals a luminous future for all of humanity. When the light comes on, the roaches of the present are sure to scatter.

The only forces today that are capable of grasping the implications of this are those who stand and fight for the most rationally organized future in which human beings in their infinite creativity overcome the outdated and harmful organization of society based on class, those who have followed the development of proletarian ideology in its leaps and have taken the correct examples of the forebears of their standard along with the contemporary fighters who hold it aloft and never allow it to drop. These forces are only those who are dedicated to uniting under Maoism, who are condemned to win against all manners of revisionism and deviation that only offer yet another fetter to the last class in human history—the last class that, even in this country, clamors for leadership and promises with all its movement to reconstitute its glorious Party.

The world revolution is a unity; it is important to conceive of it as such. As a historical and political trend, it is already on the agenda. The period is defined by the increasing decomposition of imperialism; the destruction of the exploiters is approaching, with their increasing militarization being a sign of weakness, not strength. The weight of the world’s masses is in the third world, compelled by their circumstances to rise to the top and lead the fight, laying out the groundwork for revolutionary tactics and strategy. These turbulent and difficult times spell out the end of exploitation and oppression and generate the future.

Photo: Trump’s remodeled gold-and-marble bathroom in the White House. Retrieved from Truth Social.

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