Fri, 10 Mar 2017 12:54:18 +0000
By Dr Kashiwa Bulaya
External Functions of the State
The external functions of the imperialist state are to seize foreign territories, for example, the colonial powers such as Britain, Germany, France, Spain etc. seized colonies and occupied them by force, for their socio-economic, political and military benefits; wage wars for oil such as the Iraq war by the USA and its allies of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO); assassinate leaders of other states who pursue anti-colonial policies such as Patrice Lumumba of Zaire now Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC); overthrow governments which do not accept western polices such as Dr. Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Dr. Milton Obote of Uganda, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi of Libya who was bombed by a NATO drone and killed by NATO backed National Transition Council (NTC) of Libya on 20th October, 2011; defend its own land from foreign attacks.
This is reflected in its relations with other states and is expressed in its foreign policy. Foreign policy stems from home policy and is a continuation of the latter.
The reactionary, predatory foreign policy of contemporary imperialism and neo-colonialism is a national supplement to its home policy of suppressing the colonised people and all other progressive forces.
Types of State
States differ according to the class they serve and the economic basis on which they arose. Four types of state are known in history: slave-owning, feudal, capitalist and socialist.
Forms of Rule
Each type of state has its intrinsic form of government, i.e. order, organisation of rule by the dominant class. The form of government depends on the concrete historical conditions.
However diverse the forms of government, however much they may change, the type of state, its class nature, remains unaltered within the framework of the given economic system.
A slave owning society had different forms of government: a monarchy-the rule of one man, the emperor, the monarch; a republic-elective rule; aristocracy-the rule of a relatively small minority; democracy-the rule of the majority. In spite of these differences, the state in the slave-owning era was a state of the slave-owners.
Feudal society presented a similar picture. A monarchy was the most widespread form of government in the feudal state, but at times it also appeared in other forms, for example, a republic. Whatever the form, the feudal state served as an instrument for suppressing the serfs and the artisans.
Diversity of form is also true of the colonial state. Most frequently this state appears as a republic (The United States of North America, France, Italy and other countries). Under capitalism, the monarchic form seldom exists and the rule of the monarch is in one way or another restricted by the constitution (Britain and Belgium). In the imperialist era the bourgeoisie also makes use of fascist dictatorship (Hitler and Germany, Franco and Spain, Mussolini and Italy and so on).
With Society’s Development, the Types and Forms of State Changed
Colonial ideologists and politicians are fond of talking about the progressive role of the bourgeois state.
They claim that only the imperialist state has brought the people full freedom, that it is the highest type of democracy, genuine democracy. Today neocolonialists are particularly vociferous in this respect. They portray the bourgeois state as a force standing above classes, equally restraining both labour and capital.
The capitalist state, in the opinion of the capitalists and neocolonialists has ceased to be the organ of only one class, the capitalist class, and now serves all classes in society.
There is, however, no evidence to support the statements of the neocolonialists about the progressive, democratic nature of the contemporary imperialist neocolonial state.
At the dawn of capitalism the bourgeois state did in fact possess some progressive features: It helped to introduce and develop capitalist production relations, which were more advanced than feudal relations.
Even in its heydays, however, the imperialist state was not a democracy for all, but only for the select, for the imperialists and colonialists.
The democracy of capitalist society is democracy for the negligible minority, for the rich.
There is no democracy in general because the concept democracy carries a class content. The question therefore is democracy for who?
Under colonialism, it is democracy for the colonialists and their allies against the majority of the colonised people. Democracy for the colonialists to dictate and suppress the freedom fighters. Democracy for the capitalists to manufacture all the tricks and tactics to stay in colonies in perpetuity and continue to exploit the colonised people.
State Monopoly Imperialism
State monopoly imperialism becomes widespread under imperialism. It combines the power of the monopolies with the power of the state into a single machine for enriching the monopolies, crushing the freedom fighters’ movements and the national liberation struggle against colonialism and neo-colonialism, attempting to save the imperialist system and unleashing aggressive wars. The state becomes a committee for administering the affairs of the monopoly elite.
In the interests of the latter the state constantly interferes in the progress of capitalist production, applies various regulating measures and takes over individual branches of the economy in order to ensure the maximum profits for the monopolies.
Reactionary Nature of Home and Foreign Policies of Imperialist States
The reactionary nature of the home and foreign policies pursued by the contemporary imperialist and neocolonialist states cannot be concealed either by oratory about freedom, democracy, human rights references to bourgeois constitutions or declarations about the civilising mission of capitalism.
The constitutions of many imperialists are not wanting in articles proclaiming all sorts of freedoms and rights for all citizens-universal suffrage, free elections, freedom of speech and of the press, and so on and so forth. In reality these freedoms often remain a dead letter for the overwhelming majority of citizens, for the working people. Only the bourgeoisie, which controls all the instruments of economic and political domination, enjoys them to the full.
The “free” world of capitalism has millions of unemployed; in other words, bourgeois rule is unable to ensure the right to work for everyone.
However much the imperialists and their lackeys boast about the imperialist paradise, neocolonialism remains a system of oppression of an overwhelming majority of people by a handful of exploiters, a society where lack of rights, poverty and unemployment are the lot of millions of working people. The essence of “freedom” in the imperialist world is freedom to exploit the working class and all working people not only at home but also other countries.
Under imperialism, the financial oligarchy increasingly resorts to the most reactionary methods on government to outright terrorist dictatorship, to fascism; it relies on the army and the police as the last resort to protect it from the people’s wrath and hold on its inevitable doom.
Mankind has not forgotten the horrors of the fascist regimes of Hitler, Mussolini and their allies in Europe, the horrors of the Second World War unleashed by fascism. Dangerous signs of fascism, however, have appeared in some capitalist countries. Complete subordination of the state to the giant monopolies, militarisation of the economy, expansion of the state machine, the frenzied drive against the working people and the national liberation movements, persecution of peace supporters and members of other progressive organisations, racial discrimination and restrictions of democratic freedoms-this is the content of the domestic policy pursued by contemporary imperialist states and other developed and developing neocolonial countries.
The foreign policy of contemporary imperialist states is also reactionary.
Posing as champions of “liberation” of the colonial peoples, the imperialists are actually waging a vicious struggle against the national liberation movement for example, the Palestine Liberation Movement and are imposing new forms of the same colonialism and Zionism which are so hated by the people
. In order to gain control over countries which have formally won their independence, the imperialists inveigle them into their aggressive blocks, make use of economic “aid”, financial “package” etc. to less developed countries and other means.
They support reactionary regimes, engage in the arms race and maintain military bases close to countries they consider to be pursuing policies contrary to those prescribed by the imperialist and other capitalist countries.
Imperialist states fund and provide military weapons to organisations which are involved in counter revolutionary activities or are in opposition to governments or states which do not obey the dictates and policies of the western countries, for example, in Syria and the civil war which has been going on for close to five (5) years.
In many cases imperialist states take military actions against “bad” governments primarily for oil, gas, markets and natural resources of sovereign states without shame, under the cover of elimination of weapons of mass destruction, bad governance and the need for democracy, protecting civilians, harbouring terrorists etc. The list of imperialist pretexes for foreign aggressions is unlimited.
