Alan Woods speaks on the world crisis of capitalism at RCP congress 2025

Marxist Perspectives · 2025-05-02

Core Argument

The central thesis is that capitalism has entered a qualitatively new historical epoch defined by the simultaneous breakdown of the post-1945 global order and the exhaustion of the neoliberal settlement. The argument claims that the inter-imperialist rivalries suppressed by US hegemony for seventy years have now burst into the open, producing a conjuncture in which economic crisis, war, and social polarisation are no longer cyclical disruptions but permanent features of the system. The claim is that this opens the objective possibility for revolutionary breakthroughs, but only if the working class is equipped with a conscious revolutionary leadership — which is the political task the RCP congress is convened to address.

Theoretical Grounding

The analysis is rooted in the classical Marxist theory of imperialism as developed by Lenin and Bukharin, particularly the understanding that inter-imperialist rivalry is not a contingent feature of capitalism but a necessary expression of the drive for markets, spheres of influence, and the export of capital under conditions of monopoly capitalism. The argument also draws on Trotsky's theory of uneven and combined development, which explains why the current crisis does not unfold uniformly across nations but produces explosive convulsions at the weakest points of the system. There is an implicit reliance on Marx's law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall as the underlying economic driver of the intensified competition and militarism, though the article does not develop this theoretically. The political framework is that of the revolutionary party as the necessary instrument for translating objective crisis into subjective revolutionary consciousness — a position drawn from Lenin's What Is to Be Done? and the subsequent tradition of Marxist orthodoxy against reformism and centrism.

Conjunctural Relevance

The article is anchored in the specific events of early 2025: Trump's tariff war as a weapon to dismantle the multilateral trading system; Russia's military advances in Ukraine, presented as a strategic defeat for NATO; Netanyahu's escalation across the Middle East, which the article treats as a deliberate attempt to drag the US into a wider regional war. These are not treated as separate crises but as interconnected expressions of a single underlying dynamic — the breakdown of US-led global governance and the inability of any single imperialist power to impose a stable new order. The conjuncture is defined by the simultaneity of trade war, hot war, and social war (austerity, attacks on living standards), which the article argues is producing a radicalisation of the working class that has not yet found adequate political expression. The RCP congress is presented as the attempt to provide that expression.

Where the Argument Continues

The article is a congress announcement, not a developed theoretical intervention, so it points beyond itself. The argument is continued in Alan Woods' longer writings on the world crisis — particularly his regular "World Perspectives" lectures and the series of articles on the Ukraine war and the breakdown of the global order published on marxist.com. The theoretical elaboration of the inter-imperialist rivalry thesis is developed in the RCI's internal documents and in the Against the Stream podcast episodes that analyse the shifting balance of forces between the US, China, Russia, and the European powers. The article also gestures toward a deeper analysis of the economic crisis — the overaccumulation of capital, the bursting of asset bubbles, the fiscal crisis of the state — which is treated more fully in Woods' The Crash of 2008 and Its Aftermath and subsequent updates.

Connections

The analysis connects directly to Lenin's Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism and Bukharin's Imperialism and World Economy as the foundational texts for understanding the current inter-imperialist rivalry. It also connects to Trotsky's The War and the International and his writings on the interwar period, which the article implicitly parallels. Within the contemporary Marxist tradition, the argument aligns with the analyses of the International Marxist Tendency (now the RCI) and stands in opposition to both reformist interpretations (which see the crisis as manageable within the existing order) and ultra-left positions (which deny the need for a transitional programme and a revolutionary party). The article should be read alongside the RCI's programme, The Foundations of Marxism, and the ongoing coverage of the Ukraine war and Middle East escalation on marxist.com.

Key Quotes

1. "Gone is the stability of the past. On the social, economic, political and diplomatic fronts, capitalism is confronted by the biggest crises in its history, which are being deepened by the antagonistic policies of the imperialist powers, each out for themselves."

2. "Imperialist wars, trade wars, militarism… and to pay for it all, a war on the poor: this is what capitalism has to offer in 2025."

3. "This endless nightmare is feeding a mood of revolt against the ruling class and its representatives, preparing the way for explosive revolutionary developments worldwide."

4. "With Trump taking a sledgehammer to the order of the last century, with Russia closing in on victory in Ukraine, with the globalised world economy being ripped apart by tariffs, and with Netanyahu setting fire to the entire Middle East, a new epoch has opened up."

5. "To introduce the congress, and to help orient the communists to the implications of the lightning developments that are transforming the entire world situation, Alan Woods – lead theoretician of the International – will be speaking on World perspectives."