Presented by Henry Lowendorf on behalf of the Peace and Solidarity Commission to the CPUSA National Committee meeting, January 31, 2026.

Opposition to U.S. wars of aggression is appearing more and more within broad social movements.

Most recently, the Indivisible call for another massive “No Kings” protest on March 28 included four slogans: “NO thugs terrorizing our neighborhoods. NO troop deployments in our streets. NO imperial wars of conquest. NO KINGS.” Third Act has publicized the same set of slogans. “NO imperial wars of conquest.” Wow!

Trump’s imperialist attacks on Venezuela have generated majority opposition. Indivisible’s rallies, which began as resistance to Trump’s domestic terrorism, now acknowledge imperialism’s international expression. This is a critical turning point within the anti-MAGA coalition. We must build on it.

Significantly, resistance within the trade union movement to this blatant aggression has spread beyond progressive unions like the United Electrical Workers and National Nurses United to the national AFL-CIO itself, which signed an antiwar statement condemning the US military attack on Venezuela. Our Party fully recognizes the importance of trade union participation and leadership in stopping U.S. aggression and supporting peace.

Many political leaders from right to left are also speaking out against the war on Venezuela, but the aggression continues through open piracy of ships, the bombing of fishing boats, and multiple CIA operations. Peace advocates must continue protesting outside the Brooklyn jail and beyond to free Venezuela’s kidnapped president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores.

Given the open attacks by the MAGA section of the ruling class on Venezuela, its increasing aggression against Cuba, joint threats with Israel to invade Iran and overthrow its government, and Trump’s demand to own Greenland and other territories, what has become apparent is that the international order the U.S. has mastered and remastered since WWII has reached a new phase. The U.S. is openly assaulting its long-term NATO alliances with Canada and Europe. Its dependent partners do not yet know how to respond.

The faltering leadership of European and Canadian allies, pillars of NATO, is responding to popular anger and just beginning to realize that U.S. imperialism has no permanent friends—even as most of NATO succumbs to Trump’s demands to massively increase military budgets. Off-balance NATO members are now forced into a 180° reversal, calculating how to protect themselves not from the old enemy constructs of Russia and China, but from the U.S.A. itself. It will not be easy, because they accepted complete subservience to U.S. hegemony and built their alliance, their militaries, and their “rules-based order” on a foundation of lies, as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney candidly admitted at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos.

The term imperialism is now being used not only by social justice movements but also by the corporate press. The New York Times, however, would have us believe that U.S. imperialism stopped with the Spanish-American War, disappeared for 120 years, and then suddenly reincarnated when Trump arrived on the scene.

Clearly, we must be ready to provide the many examples of U.S. imperialism, rampant for a century and a half, as the DNA of capitalism drives it to monopoly and violence. We must denounce the disastrous damage to social uplift contained in Trump’s proposal to increase the weapons and war budget by 50%, and instead articulate what our country would look like if that vast treasure—$1.5 trillion—were redirected to affordable healthcare, housing, education, transportation, parks, green energy generation, and so on: a Just Transition.

We must work to engage the millions participating in anti-ICE and “No Kings” protests by reminding them that Trump is not the first president to wage imperial wars of conquest. The United States has been stealing the sovereignty of other lands for most of its existence.

Since the previous National Committee meeting, the Party held its second Peace Conference last November. The Conference’s primary goal was to identify ways to introduce and integrate the urgency of peace into all social justice and workers’ movements.

Comrade Rossana began the Conference with an excellent analysis, pointing out that the extreme savagery Israel blanketed Palestine with from October 2023 was the spark that awoke an exhausted peace movement. Representatives of different Party collectives then offered context for bringing peace into all social movements. pointedly, this included examples of a Just Transition—that is, providing workers good jobs in a non-militarized economy.

In effect, this is the concrete expression of the Party slogan: People, Peace and Planet Before Profits. Most critically and inspiringly, comrades from around the country in small groups shared how they would incorporate anti-war, peace, and Just Transition work into their regular organizing. Finally, Comrade Joe asked when we last heard elected officials condemn the military budget. We must change the answer from “never” to “frequently.” How else can we convert the actions of the existing peace majority from a trickle into an overwhelming flood?

We are working to turn the different Conference segments into pamphlets that clubs and districts can use in practice. We will add these to the already-published Imperialism pamphlet, a Conference toolkit, and the Political Action Commission’s peace toolkits. Building the movement for peace must be part of every district and every club’s plan of work. Majority opposition to the aggression against Venezuela means there are now more inroads to match each club’s concentration.

On Martin Luther King’s actual birthday, January 15, the PSC followed up the Peace Conference with a class in the Education Department’s Marxist series, “Building the Movement for Peace,” now on the Party’s YouTube channel.

Let’s be clear: U.S. imperialism has not changed its spots. Seizing the Western hemisphere from the tip of South America to Greenland does not mean it is giving up control over the rest of the globe. Colonizing Gaza and trying to overthrow Iran’s government in the Middle East, insisting that Japan remilitarize and agitating to detach Taiwan from China in Asia — these are but two examples of U.S. imperialism’s continued global reach.

Let me finish this report by stating a most serious situation that we all know: Donald Trump and Marco Rubio are engaged in actions they hope will finish off revolutionary Cuba, including starving it of oil. Cuba has played a heroic role in creating a humane and socialist world. Our Party’s plan of work includes Cuban solidarity as a pre-eminent goal. Our responsibility is to contribute to blocking the latest aggressions against Cuba with all the means at our disposal — working within the mass movements, lobbying, educating, and providing material aid.

Long live the Cuban revolution. ¡Venceremos!

Images: NYers Against ICE protest. Creative Commons. Veteran for Peace members march in New York. Veterans for Peace.