USAID tool for U.S. Imperialist Terror

While the Trump administration eliminates foreign aid as it stockpiles weapons for war with China, the death of USAID is no great loss for the international working class. Under the guise of providing "humanitarian” assistance around the world, USAID was an agent of imperialist regime change and a partner of brutal forces in Cuba, Bolivia and Venezuela, among other countries (Foreign Policy, 4/3/14).
Born during the John F. Kennedy administration, USAID distributed food and medical care while working as a CIA front in committing atrocities. It collaborated with state terrorists in Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam. It trained police and military forces in torturing and executing workers who opposed fascist U.S.-backed governments. Beyond funneling money to dictators and their shock troops, a USAID convoy murdered 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007. The agency also tried to organize an uprising in Cuba against the Castro government (New Yorker, 2/25).
Most recently, USAID was exposed for funneling CIA money to opium producers in Afghanistan as part of the U.S. effort to woo Afghan militias to support the U.S. war there (Yahoo News, 2/25).

On March 28, a devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake rocked Myanmar, leaving more than 3,500 dead, nearly 5,000 injured, and hundreds missing (Deutsche Welle, 04/05/2025).  While the earthquake itself was a natural disaster, its catastrophic toll on the working class is all about capitalism. Its impact was worsened by a four-year civil war, inter-imperialist rivalry, massive economic inequality, and shoddy housing built for profit. Compounding the crisis, Myanmar’s military junta resumed its brutal bombing campaign over the following weekend (New York Times, 03/30). 

The racist brutality of capitalism makes natural disasters even more deadly. The vast majority of aid in Myanmar has been allocated to cities where wealth is concentrated. Rural areas, where most of the impoverished minority Muslim population lives, were ignored for days (New York Times, 4/1). Only communism and an end to the profit system can stop these capitalist disasters for the workers of the world. 

Capitalist death traps

There is no technological barrier to building earthquake-resistant housing. The problem is that developers are in business for profits, not safe and decent homes for the working class. Substandard materials, weak building codes, and corrupt inspectors are the norm, particularly in places where housing profits are limited by mass poverty (Northeastern.edu, 3/25). Capitalism and the dislocation of war forced thousands of workers to settle in high-risk areas. In cities like Mandalay, high-rise apartment buildings were falsely promoted for their earthquake-resistant foundations. They became tombs for hundreds of residents (NYT, 4/1). 

Now workers are battered by the Myanmar government's pathetically weak famine response, a shortage of shelter, and a lack of medical supplies and personnel (France24, 3/30). Damaged road infrastructure has impeded the search for missing persons and care of the thousands of injured. The junta’s minimal help is wielded as a weapon: "The Myanmar military has a long-standing practice of denying aid to areas where resistance groups are active and sending it to areas they control, while denying it to areas they don't control" (BBC, 4/1). 

Crumbs from the imperialists

The big imperialist countries have sent mere crumbs in emergency response to the devastated country, with China pledging just $14 million in aid. The U.S., behind President Donald Trump and his faction of Fortress America bosses, has promised just $2 million. As inter-imperialist rivalry between a rising China and a declining U.S. escalates, Trump’s administration is waging a protectionist trade war while dismantling the “soft power” favored by the liberal main wing of U.S. capitalism, like the CIA front USAID [see box]. The Trump administration’s gutting of international aid aligns with its distancing from multilateral alliances and obligations around the world, including NATO. It marks a sharpening split within the U.S. ruling class and a collapse of the old liberal world order.

China's interest in Myanmar stems from its massive investments in the devastated country, in particular in mega-infrastructure projects that have been damaged by the civil war and now by the earthquake. The Myanmar-China Oil and Gas pipelines give China an alternative distribution route to the chokepoint of the Strait of Malacca. Most of all, China is focused on strengthening its economic and military domination of the Pacific region. While its rulers back the brutal junta that controls most of the country, China is willing to work with whoever comes out on top in the civil war.  It is playing both sides by using "clandestine diplomacy" to approach nationalist rebel groups (Stimson, 8/26/24). The U.S. is also hedging its bets. Although ex-president Joe Biden backed the National Unity Government, a rebel coalition, his administration never formally recognized it.

Meanwhile, imperialist Russia has significant interests in Myanmar oil and gas deposits. Russia is also “a key supplier of military equipment to the Myanmar armed forces, significantly strengthening their defensive capabilities at a time when they are facing internal resistance” (PIA,  3/3). 

As fascism rises and global war looms among the big imperialist powers, billions of workers face death, disease, and a wave of climate crises. Only communism can prevent the unnatural disasters that endanger our class. Under communism, housing will be built to high-quality standards in safe areas. Under communism, the medical care system will be designed to help all workers live longer, healthier lives. Under communism, the fossil fuel pollution that kills millions each year will be ended in favor of clean energy. Under communism, imperialist and proxy wars will be ended for all time.

The banner of Progressive Labor Party must lead the struggle to smash the lethal profit system. Capitalism is a machine of war, death, and destruction. Communism is a society built in defense of life and nature. Let us march on May Day and condemn the capitalist barbarity in Myanmar and the imperialist competition that plunges the working class into misery, hunger, and disease. The bosses have shown they care nothing for the security and well-being of the working class. The struggle for communism is our only way out of this evil system of exploitation. Join us! The future of our class rests in our own hands.