A-Infos (en) Italy, FDCA, Cantiere #44 - The Role of the State in the Inter-Imperialist Conflict -- Lino Roveredo (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

We are witnessing a profound historical transformation in the role and 
form of the modern state. Nation-states, which emerged as a response to 
the political fragmentation of the Middle Ages, have for centuries 
constituted the fundamental framework within which capitalism developed. 
Processes of centralization of power have enabled the unification of 
homogeneous economic spaces, serving the formation of national markets 
and the expansion of the bourgeoisie. In this context, the principle of 
state sovereignty and the construction of national identity have served 
as essential political tools for the organization and stabilization of 
social and productive relations.
The national market, far from being a neutral space, is configured as a 
political device regulated by the state and functional to the 
consolidation of economic and social power. The nexus between the 
nation-state and the national market structurally tends to generate 
competitive dynamics between states, as each is called upon to guarantee 
the conditions for capital accumulation within its own space and to 
project them externally. This results in systemic competition that, 
while taking historically variable forms, incorporates within itself the 
possibility of conflict, even war.
With the national market consolidated, the dynamics of capitalist 
accumulation push toward expansion beyond state borders. The search for 
raw materials, new markets, and investment opportunities are not a 
contingency, but an intrinsic tendency to the valorization process. In 
this sense, imperialism and, in its early historical phase, colonialism 
does not constitute a deviation, but rather a coherent development of 
the relationship between state and capital. Colonial conquests, 
militarily and politically supported by states, are part of a logic of 
expansion of capitalist relations on a global scale.
This dynamic is particularly evident in the nineteenth century, with 
phenomena such as the scramble for Africa, during which European powers 
divided up entire territories among themselves. The ideology of the 
"civilizing mission," the appeal to national prestige and state 
greatness, not only masks economic interests but actively contributes to 
their legitimacy, playing a material role in building consensus and 
organizing domination.
In the contemporary context, the role of the state is not diminished, 
but is being reorganized on a larger scale. The emergence of powers such 
as China, the United States, India, and Russia signals the consolidation 
of continental-scale state formations, characterized by a strong 
integration of political apparatus, productive capacity, and 
geopolitical projection. Nation-states are not disappearing, but are 
being progressively hierarchized within an increasingly polarized 
international system, in which territorial, demographic, and economic 
dimensions assume a decisive role.
In this framework, competition between powers cannot be reduced either 
to a pure economic logic or to a mere "will to power": both dimensions 
are intertwined within complex strategies for the reproduction of power. 
Contemporary forms of inter-imperialist conflict tend to favor indirect 
methods, where the goal is not so much the immediate acquisition of 
resources as the modification of the systemic conditions within which 
rival actors operate. This establishes a logic of relative competition, 
in which the strengthening of one actor depends on the structural 
weakening of the other.
From this perspective, tensions involving strategic areas such as Iran 
or Venezuela can also be interpreted in relation to the control of 
global energy flows. China's growing centrality as the world's leading 
oil importer makes these flows a crucial arena of geoeconomic 
competition: Beijing imports approximately 10-11 million barrels per 
day, equal to over 70% of its needs, with a significant share coming 
from the Middle East. Rather than establishing direct and stable control 
of resources, the strategies implemented tend to produce conditions of 
instability and uncertainty that impact costs, access, and the security 
of supplies.
Strategic junctions such as the Strait of Hormuz play a crucial role, 
carrying approximately 20% of the world's oil and between 17 and 20 
million barrels per day, as well as a significant share of liquefied 
natural gas. Controlling or destabilizing these passages is not only of 
regional significance, but also a tool for exerting systemic pressure 
capable of affecting the balance of power among major powers, 
particularly those most dependent on energy imports.
These dynamics are intertwined with internal transformations within 
advanced capitalist economies. From a materialist perspective, 
deindustrialization and financialization should be understood as moments 
in a broader restructuring of capital. Faced with difficulties in 
valorizing production, capital reorganizes production on a global scale 
and, at the same time, intensifies its use of financial instruments not 
as an alternative but as a complement to it.
Financialization does not replace production, but redefines its 
conditions, accentuating the dependence of production processes on 
speculative dynamics and short-term logic.
With the end of the "social democratic" compromise between capital and 
labor, which had ensured a partial redistribution of wealth, these 
transformations are also reflected on the political and institutional 
level. Rather than automatically determining authoritarian outcomes, 
they redefine the scope within which states operate, narrowing the space 
for mediation and intensifying the use of instruments of control. In 
this context, we can observe tendencies toward the weakening of formal 
guarantees and the growing management of social conflict in terms of 
public order, dynamics also observed in Italy under the government led 
by Giorgia Meloni.
Overall, a situation emerges in which competition between powers, the 
restructuring of capital, and the transformation of state structures are 
increasingly intertwined. The contradictions of contemporary capitalism 
are manifested not only on the economic level, but also affect the 
entire political and social structure, shaping a system characterized by 
growing instability and conflicts that tend to unfold simultaneously on 
a global and internal scale.
The escalation of the conflict between imperialist powers, which brings 
the concrete possibility of global conflict back to the horizon, marks a 
historical transition in which the contradictions of capitalism are 
manifesting themselves in increasingly violent forms. In this scenario, 
the emergence of a direct role for the exploited multitude can no longer 
be postponed: a role capable of breaking with dominant mediations, 
reclaiming the language of class struggle, and openly addressing the 
issue of radically transforming the existing order.
The competition between different fractions of capital though riddled 
with internal contradictions continues to be unloaded on the exploited, 
fueling divisions, conflicts, and hierarchies that weaken their capacity 
to respond. The oppressed are thus mobilized, pitted against each other, 
and sacrificed within dynamics that respond to logics of power and 
accumulation that exclude them.
This fragmentation must be countered by a clear break: the 
reconstruction of an internationalist solidarity among the exploited, 
not as an abstract principle, but as a material practice of struggle. 
Only through concrete processes of organization, conflict, and 
cooperation can a force emerge capable of countering the intensification 
of domination, exploitation, and war, opening up the real possibility of 
overcoming the social relations that produce them.

https://alternativalibertaria.fdca.it/wpAL/
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