Caleb Maupin and Harpal Brar: imperialism and nuclear weapons

In the 14th episode of these fantastic discussions, Harpal Brar and Caleb Maupin continue on from the episode in which they discussed imperialism and war, focusing on the changing face of modern warfare with the proliferation of the nuclear bomb.

To this day, the only country to have used large-scale nuclear weapons is the USA. In 1945 the imperialist USA dropped two atomic bombs on an already defeated Japan, causing the complete obliteration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Knowing that they had already beaten the Japanese, the imperialists still launched their nuclear weapons, not to ‘seal the victory’ but to display to the Soviet Union the power that they now held over the world. It was a warning as to what might happen if the USSR stepped too far out of line.

In this discussion, Caleb and Harpal relate the fear of these world-ending weapons to the rise of revisionism over class politics with the revisionist incorrect position being that class contradictions no longer matter in the face of human survival. This was used as a justification for setting aside revolutionary aims in order to ‘save the world’.

Mediating the discussion, Joti Brar helps draw useful points from these two comrades, who provide the audience with important conclusions as to how we ideologically rearm the working class in imperialist countries to face the coming period of intensified class struggle.

This conversation was originally broadcast on 8 February 2023.