Transition in the US spills over and global integration makes coordinated worker’s struggle possible.

Based on the ideas of Marx and Engels, the original leaders of the Russian Revolution in 1917 – Lenin, Leon Trotsky and the Bolshevik Party – saw the overthrow of capitalism in Russia as the prelude to an international transformation of society. They understood that, economically, Russia was not ready for socialism, as it was mostly agrarian and only newly industrializing after centuries of feudalism. But the world was ready for such a transformation. For them the success or failure of the Soviet Union depended on the working classes of other countries successfully overthrowing capitalism. This is even truer today, with the increased integration of the world economy, than it was in 1917. With supply chain and production now conducted on an international level, the scope for coordinated international working class struggle has never been larger.

This is why Socialist Alternative is a part of International Socialist Alternative, with sections in over 30 countries. It is especially important to build a strong movement in the U.S. to challenge the American imperialist ruling class, which has been one of the greatest obstacles to international workers’ struggles over the past century. Having taken on the role of the world’s top banker and policeman after World War II, the United States’ history as a global superpower has nothing to do with its mythical exceptionalism or “freedom,” but its brutal interventions throughout Central and Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East to extend its control over the world’s resources and markets. In the process, it’s mowed over workers’ and oppressed peoples’ movements.

In all these situations, Marxists side with those working class people oppressed by foreign imperialist forces, and defend the right to the self-determination of nations, while advocating that such struggles from below also extend to their own national capitalist class. This is not at odds with fighting for a unified international working class struggle. Rather, Marxists are confident that a powerful socialist movement could inspire millions around the world to take up similar struggles in their own countries, in the same way the Arab Spring inspired the Occupy movement of the early 2010s, or how Black Lives Matter inspired global protests against racism and state repression.