Officials of the U.S. government, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank are dealing out a harsh lesson on the reality of the imperialist order to working people in Argentina. They have shown they are willing to let the country’s economic situation spiral further downwards, with no end in sight. They simply keep demanding the Argentine government take whatever steps are necessary to resume interest payments on the country’s $140 billion national debt. Whatever devastation this brings to working people in Argentina is of no concern to the imperialists.

As the excerpt from Capitalism’s World Disorder printed in this issue explains, the deepening crisis facing working people in Argentina today, far from being an aberration, is a result of the lawful workings of the imperialist world order.

Far from relaxing their pressure on semicolonial governments in the face of this crisis, Washington and the other imperialist powers are tightening their squeeze, insisting on debt payments and using their capital and trade advantage to open up markets for their investment and goods. The U.S. rulers’ trade offensive, for example, targets not just their imperialist rivals in Europe, Japan, and Australia, but also semicolonial countries. From Mexico to Ghana, a flood of low-cost agricultural imports from the United States is wiping out sugar, corn, and rice growers, making each country more and more dependent on the imperialist monster.

Bourgeois commentators have expressed relief that the "contagion" of Argentina’s crisis in banking and industrial production has not spread to Brazil and elsewhere. But in their self-satisfaction the capitalist rulers seem blind to the potential for unforeseen political shocks to precipitate a wider crisis--including shocks like the widespread resistance by workers and peasants that undermined government and capitalist confidence in Argentina.

Within the bounds of the imperialist system, there is no solution for working people in the Americas. Washington continues its unremitting war against the Cuban Revolution because it stands as the only example in the Americas of a road forward for workers and farmers. Working people in the United States and the other imperialist countries face the same Washington-based enemy as our brothers and sisters in Argentina and Cuba. We should fight alongside them to defend jobs, living standards, and rights in face of the imperialist assault. To that end, we should demand:

Cancel the Third World debt! End all tariffs and other restrictions on trade and travel erected by the U.S. rulers! End Washington’s embargo of Cuba!
 
 
Related article:
The capitalist nightmare unfolding in Latin America
Trade conflicts rise around U.S. farm subsidies, steel tariffs  
 
 
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