The South-East Passage

Abstract

Contrary to Marx’s predictions, the form of class struggle that prevailed in the twentieth century was the national one. It was the century that saw the anti-colonial revolution develop on a world-wide scale. Taking up again and radicalizing the colonial tradition, Hitler aimed at building the German continental empire in Eastern Europe: the Slaves were, on the one hand, the ‘red-skins’ destined to be decimated, on the other, the ‘negroes’ who were obliged to work as slaves. In Asia, the Empire of the Rising Sun aimed at emulating the Third Reich. In this situation, Mao formulated his thesis of ‘identity between national struggle and class struggle’.