Amended and adopted by the 10th Congress of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization
1—Introduction
Our world is rapidly changing. U.S. imperialism’s decline is accelerating. Trump is both a product and an agent of this decay. We need a clear Marxist understanding of our international situation to enact changes upon our political terrain. Since the situation changes all the time, our task is not to predict the future. Nor do we need to write a chronicle of our times in order to forge the understanding we need. What we try to do here is to chart the overall motion of the forces in the world and how it relates to the struggle here in the United States.
We should understand that even though the imperialists are paper tigers, we need a real analysis built on facts. Like Mao said, “On the one hand, they were real tigers; they devoured people, devoured people by the millions and tens of millions. … Nevertheless, in the end they changed into paper tigers, dead tigers, and bean-curd tigers…. Hence, imperialism and all reactionaries, looked at in essence, from a long-term point of view, from a strategic point of view, must be seen for what they are—paper tigers. On this, we should build our strategic thinking. On the other hand, they are also living tigers, iron tigers, real tigers that can devour people. On this, we should build our tactical thinking.” In this report, we address the concrete questions in order to build our tactical thinking and clarify our strategic outlook.
Strategically, we see four contradictions that are shaping world events. In our view, primary among them is the contradiction between imperialism and the oppressed countries, nations, and peoples of the world. We are watching this contradiction develop as the Iranian-led Axis of Resistance takes on the U.S., its puppet Israel, and U.S.-backed Gulf states in a historic fight that has the potential to change the world balance of forces. Then there are the other three basic contradictions: between the capitalists and the working class; among the imperialist powers; and between socialism and capitalism.
Anyone who learns from us, should learn that U.S.-backed occupations, imperialist wars, genocides, sanctions, starvation, exploitation, mass suffering and senseless death are built into the system that exists: monopoly capitalism. The overall world situation takes its shape from the decay created by the monopoly capitalists, their inability to advance the productive forces and to unleash the potential still waiting among mankind, and their desperate ploys to keep power. Regardless, the decline of U.S. imperialism is shaping world events, unfolding as a cascade of resistance. The working class and national liberation struggles of the world grow stronger, moving us closer to our destination: revolution and socialism.
2—The end of the so-called “American Century”
At the Bretton Woods conference in 1944, the U.S. dollar became the capitalist world’s reserve currency, backed by gold. From here, the U.S. imperialists and other imperialist countries built a global economic infrastructure to maintain their world domination. This event marked the final period of ascendancy for the U.S. as the dominant imperialist country. In a similar vein, the U.S. had originally set up the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) in 1947, which became the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995.1
The U.S., under President Nixon, ended the Bretton Woods agreement by breaking the tie between the U.S. dollar and gold in 1971. We use this event to mark the end of the so-called “American Century,” or in other woods, the beginning of the decline of U.S. imperialism. Now, the U.S. refuses to appoint judges to the WTO and it can no longer function. Trump has also begun making noises about pulling U.S. support from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which officials once used to negotiate loans to other countries that allowed capitalist companies to plunder them.
The United States has used its international financial dominance to place economic sanctions on more and more countries who go against U.S. interests, in particular Iran and Russia. But this has led to more countries trying to trade outside of the U.S. dollar dominated systems, such as SWIFT. This exclusion forces more countries to find other trade partners and other houses for their financial activities. As demonstrated by the trade agreements between BRICS, they are eager and willing to do business with each other.
While the U.S. was once the largest trade partner for most countries in the world a few decades ago, now China has taken that spot and is a larger trading partner than the United States for over 120 countries in the world today, up from 40 countries in 1980. Not only does China accumulate more trade partners as the U.S. loses them, but its economy is growing more rapidly than the U.S. economy. Indeed, China has become the world’s largest economy in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms.2
Trump’s administration has made cuts to key institutions used to exercise “soft power” around the world. By cutting the National Endowment for Democracy, Trump eliminated an important institution for influencing foreign governments, political parties and trade unions. Likewise the “humanitarian” programs of USAID were a tool for pulling other countries into the U.S. orbit. Trump’s administration has left the U.S. imperialists with fewer means to sabotage anti-imperialist movements from within.
The Trump administration’s undermining international trade agreements and means of soft power such as USAID, come from a position of weakness, not of strength. What began under Trump I, and continued under Biden, is now growing even faster under Trump II, speeding the U.S. empire down the exit ramp.
Within the context of this decline of U.S. imperialism all the other major contradictions in the world are sharpening.
3—Trump and his “Department of War”
The U.S. had lots of treaties with governments all over the world, tens of thousands of them. Now the U.S. has a president who will happily flout any or all of them. All agreements, if any, are short-term and transactional. Trump resorts quickly to threats of invasion and waves the club at not only enemies but also at U.S. allies. Now he is following through on those threats by kidnapping world leaders and starting imperialist wars in ways that can shake any U.S. ally’s faith.Under Trump’s watch, the U.S. imperialists’ diplomatic position in the world ismoreunstable than ever. For instance, the U.S. called on NATO allies to reinforce their position in the U.S. war on Iran, and France, Germany, Britain and the other NATO members turned around and, in one damning move, refused.
In the Defense Budget Overview for fiscal year 2026, one can see the blueprint of the U.S.’s military vision, which is to double down on their historical spheres of influence: the Americas and Asia. For inspiration, Trump harkened back explicitly to the Monroe Doctrine. He has gone from killing Venezuelan and Colombian fishermen to seizing Venezuelan oil tankers, abducting President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores, and locking them in a Brooklyn prison, in a steady escalation towards war and regime change with the Bolivarian government. He went from putting Cuba back onto the list of state sponsors of terrorism to deepening the oil blockade and energy crisis in order to strangle its economy and force regime change. The Trump administration has also threatened military strikes against Mexico and conducted unauthorized CIA operations to intimidate the current progressive Mexican government. As well as launched a military coalition with other reactionary governments in Latin America called the “Shield of the Americas” in an attempt to fortify U.S. dominance in the Americas.
What remains as a major priority is making the pivot to Asia real. Though it was first strategized under Obama, Trump’s Department of Defense has plans to build ammunition factories in the Philippines, reinforce alliances with South Korea and Japan, and gear up for a war with China. The U.S. military has upped military exercises with the Philippine and South Korean armies.
A worsening problem for the U.S. desire to pivot to Asia is the Axis of Resistance. Trump’s administration moved from bombing Iran to assassinating the Ayatollah Ali Khameini and escalating into a full-blown war. Iran has responded with superior military strategy and preparation and has now left the U.S. and Israeli position in the region weaker. The U.S. has had to relocate one of their THAAD missile defense systems from the Republic of Korea to the Middle East, due to their losing position there.
The Trump administration undermined their tools of diplomacy and economic bribery, and now they are left with their tools of war. They made their bed, and now they’ll lie in it.In a symbolic gesture of their new position, they’ve renamed the Department of Defense, the Department of War. Like Clausewitz—a military theoretician who was studied and often quoted by Mao—once said, “war is a continuation of politics by other means.”
4—Imperialism versus the oppressed peoples of the world, the pitched battles
Of all the contradictions in the world, we uphold that the one between imperialism and the oppressed peoples of the world is the primary, most decisive one. Sometimes the national liberation movements have working class leadership. Most of them do not. In terms of categorization and historical stage of development, imperialism means monopoly capitalism—capitalism in its final, dying stage. The concrete question we are grappling with—the iron tigers—are the U.S. imperialists.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, the U.S. imperialists are escalating attacks and on the offensive. Caracas, representing the Bolivarian national democratic movement of Venezuela, maintains that they will defend their homeland at all costs. That said, Venezuela experiences immense pressure after the kidnapping of their President and First Lady as well as stricter trade restrictions on Venezuelan oil, and the government has made significant concessions as a result.
In Asia, the U.S. imperialists face challenges everywhere they turn, from communists and national liberation movements alike. There is the powerhouse, People’s Republic of China, whose socialist achievements, widening trade network, and strengthening military haunt their dreams. In the Philippines, the communist revolutionaries have built and now lead a national liberation movement whose accomplishments are myriad and widely known internationally. In Indonesia and South Korea, mass protests are growing against economic inequality and there have been attempts to reinstate martial law.
The Middle East is among the U.S. government’s most contested arenas. Today, we bear witness to a historic sea change taking place in the Middle East. On the one hand, the U.S. and Israelis have extracted a rising death toll of Iranians, including schools filled with children. On the other hand, Iran and the forces of resistance have dealt serious damage to American and Israeli military assets in the region, from runways to radar installations. They are draining weapons supplies and are ceaselessly raining drones and missiles onto Israel that American and Israeli missile interceptors are increasingly unable to stop. Iran has expanded the war by attacking the Gulf Monarchies. While Iran initially targeted U.S. military installations within these states that were used to attack Iran, they also began striking competing oil industry assets. Taken as a whole, this conflict has the potential to create an economic crisis that could make the war even more unpopular and completely unsustainable.
Iran has taken de facto control of the Strait of Hormuz, throttling the passage for 20% of the world’s oil. Already the rising costs of oil and gas are squeezing several economies around the world, from India to Australia, and impacting every economic realm from commercial industry to farming to transportation. States may seek new political alliances or alignments in order to withstand a prolonged energy crisis and stave off economic collapse.
On October 7, 2023 the U.S.-backed genocidal apartheid government of Israel saw a serious challenge from the Palestinian people.The struggle for Palestine is of critical importance and has been a rallying cry for freedom from imperialism on the world stage. Despite the genocide and assassinations carried out by the Israeli government, the Palestinian resistance and its supporters in the Middle East remain unbowed. The main setback in this period for the resistance was the overthrow of the Syrian government by forces backed by Turkey (a NATO member), the Gulf states, Israel and the United States.
In Africa, the U.S. imperialists find themselves losing ground. U.S. foreign direct investment in that continent has been on the decline since 2014. Several of the projects and vehicles for investment in Africa are taking a direct hit from the cuts to USAID, of which the U.S. African Development Foundation is a part. Chinese financial support for new major railway networks, port facilities, large-scale energy installations, and job creation sites improves life in countries such as Djibouti, Mozambique, and Botswana and offers an alternative to imperialist trade and investment.
The U.S. Africa Command, AFRICOM, continues to destabilize African nations. However, a number of patriotic governments, including Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger have forced French and U.S. military forces to leave their countries. In the Sahel region, there does seem to be emerging an anti-imperialist movement. We must not look at Africa as if it is helplessly enchained by imperialist forces. We should look at the definite stand against the genocide in Gaza when South Africa challenged both the U.S. and Israel before the international court as an example of this movement. The energy of the revolutionary power of Africa is indicative of the emergence of new life in the anti-imperialist struggle.One of the legacies of colonial and neocolonial rule in Africa is the number of armed conflicts in places such as Sudan and the Congo where neither side offers an anti-imperialist alternative.
The fight between the imperialists of the world and the oppressed peoples is heating up. As this contradiction sharpens, the other three contradictions sharpen along with it.
5—The fight between socialism and capitalism is gathering speed and momentum
In 2024, the U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin characterized the next major threat for the U.S. as “an increasingly aggressive People’s Republic of China.” Uneditorialized, what this means for us is that the contradiction between socialism and capitalism in the world is intensifying, with China at the forefront. It is a very good thing that the five socialist countries in the world—China, Cuba, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Laos, and Vietnam—present a real challenge to the imperialists.
The imperialists bought more time for themselves when socialism in the U.S.S.R. collapsed at the end of the 20th century. With the recent surge of socialist development, this is no longer the case.
The many achievements of China loom large in the enemies’ minds. Here the contradiction between capitalism and socialism is the sharpest. In addition to the clash of social systems, there is the last, unfinished piece of business of the Chinese Revolution: the reunification of Taiwan province to the PRC.
The United States, under both Trump and Biden, have tried to hold back the economic and technological development of People’s China. They have also tried to decouple the U.S. economy from China. The U.S. launched a tariff war with China, expecting an easy win. Instead, the Trump administration has had to back down on tariffs, even as the United States tries in other ways to contain China’s rise.
Hand in hand with the economic decoupling is the threat of war. Much of the focus of the Defense Department has shifted to bolstering the U.S. Navy in anticipation of war and increasing the activity of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. While the U.S. Navy has larger ships that boast more firepower, it is spread thin to protect the U.S. global empire. Meanwhile, China is able to concentrate on its defenses and build new ships at a faster rate than the United States.
China made good on its promises to its people and eliminated extreme poverty. It leads the world in shifting away from a fossil-fuel energy economy and is selling cheap electric vehicles and solar panels to the world. Despite being the single largest importer of oil from the Persian Gulf, China’s strategy of energy independence including the development of green electricity, diversification of energy supplies, and the world’s largest petroleum reserve, has allowed China to better cope with Trump’s war on Iran than other Asian economies. It has created the Belt and Road Initiative that aims to fund infrastructure projects along the old Silk Road and to create a corridor of countries that can freely trade and defend their own national economic interests.
China is on track to land its taikonaut on the moon by 2030. The U.S. moon landing goal of 2028 is looking less and less realistic as NASA does not have a moon lander nor rocket that can take the lander to the moon. It is looking more and more likely to fall behind China in the moon race. In the field of artificial intelligence (AI), China’s open-source software is being used more and more widely than the more expensive U.S. proprietary models.
At the last National Peoples Congress, China exceeded their goal of representation of national minorities. In Xinjiang, 3 million people were lifted out of poverty in 2020 while China continues to develop the region and their resources. Additionally, the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang enjoy the freedom to practice their distinct cultural heritage, despite the claims from the U.S. bourgeois government and the West.
Ninety miles away from the U.S., socialist Cuba shines like a beacon of hope to all of Latin America. Even with the intensified energy blockade on Cuba, Cuba shows usthat here too, in the Western Hemisphere, life can be better. While in Puerto Rico and Haiti people never recovered from hurricanes, in Cuba people bounce back fast with far fewer deaths and losses. Despite grueling sanctions, people’s needs are met and their lives are filled with politics and music. To the imperialists’ endless mockery, their major export is the world’s best doctors.
The DPRK marches on, honing their defense systems and nuclear program, and seeks reunification with South Korea. Laos continues working towards eliminating the vestiges of feudalism and seeks trade partners in defiance of the U.S. trade war. Despite the U.S. imposing 20% tariffs on its goods, Vietnam’s economy is expanding.
Together, the socialist countries show that a better world is possible. Feeding their people, advancing their health care and life spans, and making breakthroughs in technology: all around us is proof that life under socialism is superior to life under capitalism.
6—Labor versus capital, an ongoing fight
The contradiction between the capitalists and the working class around the world is sharpening too. Millions participate in strikes across Europe each year. A general strike in Italy put the question of Palestine at its center. Militant, striking French unions regularly bring business to a halt and set the streets ablaze. Videos come out all the time of French workers taking on riot police and besting them in street clashes. In Greece, the communist party leads frequent general strikes. The World Federation of Trade Unions continues to play an important role in bringing class struggle oriented unions together.
Even countries where the majority of the people live in rural areas, such as in India, we can see showdowns between labor and capital. Even in movements where the battles often take on a political character and raise national democratic demands, such as in South Korea, the unions and workers can engage the company bosses with utmost determination.
In advanced capitalist countries, we see a general tendency towards austerity measures. European imperialist countries have been cutting vital social services in order to up their defense budgets, and we see the same tendency in the U.S. as well. As a policy, austerity means that the government intervenes more directly in order to cut wages and benefits, deregulate industries, introduce privatization, and in the end weaken the bargaining power of industrial unions. In the advanced capitalist countries where ideologues still wax on about the supremacy of laissez-faire politics, these high-government interventionist policies are in reality the norm.
7—Inter-imperialist rivalries and a mounting threat of war
Coming to a head is the contradiction between the imperialists themselves. The U.S. trade war did not exempt imperialist allies such as Britain, the European Union, and Japan. Twenty-five-percent tariffs on imported autos and auto parts are affecting U.S. imperialist rivals the most. Trump administration has not exempted Europe from his designs, saying the Danish territory in Greenland should belong to the United States.
Our organization has recognized Russia as an emerging imperialist power for some time. Due to the legacy of the U.S.S.R. and the plunder of its state assets, Russian capital is highly monopolized and the country is ruled by a monopoly capitalist class, although the essential features of imperialism are unevenly developed in Russia. The established imperialist powers have no incentive to give Russia “a seat at the table,” leading Russia to at times play a progressive role by opposing Western imperialist interests, as in its willingness to trade with Venezuela and Iran, or its intervention in the early stages of the Syrian Civil War. However, this support for anti-imperialist struggles has shown itself to be conditional and unreliable, as exemplified in Russia’s vacillating support for the Assad government in the same war. Its dual character can also be seen in its transactional relationships with governments resisting imperialism in Africa. Russia is currently in a war with NATO in Ukraine. This is a proxy war: Ukraine is a proxy for the U.S. and Germany, against Russia.
Russia entered the war to gain a geopolitical military advantage, to prevent a NATO expansion, and gain access to rare minerals, for which they are willing to bargain with the U.S. imperialists. Now Britain, Germany, France, Belgium, and other governments are upping their defense budgets and embarking on rearmament efforts. Much to Europe’s alarm, Trump has raised the possibility of pulling the U.S. out of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and unbinding it from Article 5, the article which guarantees that the U.S. assist any NATO members in a time of war.Remarkably, not long after, we saw the reverse—NATO members refusing to come to the U.S. government’s aid—take place.We expect more inter-imperialist conflicts in the future.
For a long time, the U.S. government has freely exported capital to Canada and the Canadian government has complied. They had what they called the “world’s longest undefended border” and minimal tariffs since the North American Free Trade Agreement. This year, the U.S. changed the game and began a trade war, and the Canadians returned volley with retaliatory tariffs. The Canadian economy—which is unevenly industrialized and stretched over great geographical distances—has shrunken. With Trump publicly saying that the U.S. should annex Canada as a 51st state, a wave of Canadian patriotism aimed at the United States erupted. In April, the new Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, announced, “The old relationship we had with the United States… is over.”
In Japan, the election of their first woman prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, is a lurch to the right. Takaichi is dedicated to enlarging Japan’s military and has increased tensions by saying that reunification of China with Taiwan would be opposed by the Japanese military.
The days of “free trade” and so-called globalization among imperialist powers are over. Between the imperialists, belligerence, deterrence, and proxy wars have become the name of the game.
8—Workers and oppressed peoples of the world, unite!
As historical materialists, we understand that national liberation movements bring together many class forces who vie for leadership. As Marxist-Leninists, we stand on the shoulders of revolutionaries who have come before us, and we can see the path forward clearly: Marxism brings the fortitude to the national liberation movements that they require. As the Filipino revolutionaries demonstrate, with a communist party and the leadership of the working class, the national democratic movement can become a fire that never goes out. From hut to field to factory to school, Marxism can draw out class forces from every corner, every class force with a bone to pick with the imperialists and their friends, and align them against the common enemy. The permanence of the destiny of the working class and its objective traits mean that the working class is best suited to lead.
Like Marx would say, often invoked by the late and great Assata Shakur, the working class “has nothing to lose but our chains.” This is why we say that our strategy is to build a united front against imperialism and that at the center of it should be a strategic alliance between the multinational working class and oppressed nationalities of the United States. At the helm of this whole effort should be the working class and its communist Party.
Our organization is animated by the spirit of proletarian internationalism. “Workers and oppressed peoples of the world, unite”—we take this slogan very seriously. This is not a moral duty; there is a material basis for our solidarity, and it is an objective reality. The truth is, imperialism holds down the U.S. worker. Proof of this lies in the fact that as the profits of the imperialists skyrocket, wages in the U.S. go down. The only time they go up is when the working class fights. If we organize the multinational working class in the U.S., we strike a blow against the imperialists. This has borne out in practice in the past, and it is reflected in our practice today.
As more countries and peoples take the path of national liberation and socialism, the imperialists find fewer places to exploit and plunder.The worker in the U.S. and the worker in the Philippines have much more in common than the worker in the U.S. has with their own bosses and the bankers. In the same vein, the peoples in the U.S. have more in common with the oppressed peoples of the world than they do with the U.S. government. In the conditions of the world today, an injury to one truly is an injury to all.
Socialism is humanity’s hope for the future. On the world stage, the socialist countries, especially China, are leading the way. In our own country, we aim to do the same thing. We will surely face setbacks, but in the end, we will win. Time is on our side, and the future is bright.
Endnotes
1. Two other imperialist dominated international financial institutions were the International Monetary Fund or IMF and the World Bank, also begun at Bretton Woods in 1944.
2. PPP is a more accurate measure of the size of an economy as it adjusts for price differences among countries for the same goods or services. The common claim that the U.S. economy is larger than China’s is based on goods and services being generally more expensive in the United States.
