We’re not even past January and 2026 already feels like a dizzying whirlwind, with Donald Trump at its centre. The kidnapping of Maduro, threats to bomb Iran, and the creation of a colonial “Board of Peace” for Gaza, consisting of war criminals and/or billionaires, have all taken place within less than three weeks.
Domestically, his administration has continued his racist war on migrants, unleashing the highly militarised fascistic thugs of ICE in Minneapolis, a force Trump has massively beefed up in the last year, resulting in the murder of Renee Nicole Good (and at least 32 others around the country since September). All of this, undoubtedly, will add to a mood of foreboding and leave many with a disorientating sense of dread for the future.
Greenland under threat
Now Greenland, with a population of 56,000, is in Trump’s sights. With characteristic bellicose language he has threatened all sorts to acquire the state of Greenland for the US, from sanctions to military force. During his bizarre and rambling speech in Davos yesterday, he seemingly backed away from military action, but made clear his intention to bring Greenland under his jurisdiction. The wishes of its people are totally irrelevant as far as Trump is concerned.
As well as violating Greenlanders’ rights to decide their own future, including the right to independence from Denmark, which has colonised the island since 1721, his actions seriously threaten to tear NATO apart, given that he would be invading land that is in possession of a NATO member. He initially tried to weaponise tariffs against European countries opposed to his plans for Greenland, only to back down and do what his mentor, the infamous lawyer Roy Cohn, advised him to do in his youth: claim victory regardless.
Along with the attack on Venezuela on 2 January, Trump has jettisoned any notion of operating as part of the “rules-based order” that has existed, as far as Western imperialism is concerned, since 1945. Of course, this was an order always rooted in rank hypocrisy, as the livestreamed genocide in Gaza since October 2023 has definitively borne out. The only order that imperialism and big capitalist powers seek is one where the rules apply to the weak, but not the powerful – facilitating geopolitical and economic domination.
However, faced with the crisis and relative decline of US capitalism and imperialism, Trump’s far-right regime is dispensing with the pretences of those rules and, in the face of greater inter-imperialist rivalry, is even coming into collision with its traditional and subservient allies in Europe.
The mask slips
A telling speech by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in Davos also shows the deepening divisions opening up within the Western imperialist alliance. In a rare moment of candour, he described how:
“For decades, countries like Canada prospered under what we called the rules-based international order. We joined its institutions, we praised its principles, we benefited from its predictability. And because of that, we could pursue values-based foreign policies under its protection.
We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false, that the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient, that trade rules were enforced asymmetrically. And we knew that international law applied with varying rigour depending on the identity of the accused or the victim.”
The Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky aptly wrote that: “Imperialists do not fight for political principles but for markets, colonies, raw materials, for hegemony over the world and its wealth.”
Indeed, when it comes to Greenland, Trump’s unvarnished colonialism and desire to exploit its wealth and strategic position could not be more apparent. His actions cannot be understood simply as manifestations of his erratic and bizarre behaviour; they are logical actions that flow from the US empire’s objective geopolitical needs.
Navigational routes and rare-earth minerals
Firstly, there is the question of the three navigational routes in the Arctic: The Northern Sea Route (NSR) / Northeast Passage, the Northwest Passage (NWP) and the Transpolar Sea Route (TSR). These new routes have cut journey times by several days per sailing, and, in turn, can increase profitability for the major capitalist powers that dominate them. These routes, particularly the NSR, which spans the whole of the seas north of Russia, are becoming increasingly dominated by China.
While the melting of polar ice caps, along with capitalism’s ecocide generally, spells catastrophe for our planet, it has increasingly been viewed as an opportunity to profit and plunder by capitalist states. In the period from 2013 to 2023, the number of ships operating in the NSR increased by 37%, and the TSR will be fully open to trade by the 2050s – due to further melting.
The second factor spurring US imperialism’s lust for Greenland is its vast mineral resources. It is estimated that 25 of the 34 crucial raw materials on our planet are located there. These include zinc, lead, gold, iron ore, copper, oil and rare earth elements (REEs), which are crucial for high-tech industrial production. Many of these REEs are crucial for the US to possess, given that China currently accounts for 90% of global processing and production.
Climate change and colonialism
Another horrendous consequence of the melting of the Arctic ice caps is the unleashing of deadly diseases that have been locked in its permafrost for millennia. The thawing of long-dead Arctic animals, whose bodies may harbour dormant microbes, could have deadly consequences – potentially dwarfing those of the Covid pandemic. It is yet another grim reminder of the criminal consequences that flow from capitalism’s brutal war on nature and its destruction of our ecosystem.
Just like with the national rights of Greenlanders, who are overwhelmingly Inuit – the indigenous population of the island – the impact on our climate is a matter of total indifference to Trump and his ilk. We stand emphatically against the US’s imperial designs on Greenland; its people must be allowed to decide their own fate.
Likewise, we stand against it being informally colonised through an increase in the number of US or European troops, and the construction of new military bases. We must also expose the rotten role that Danish colonialism has played in its domination of Greenland, including the sterilisation of Greenlandic women – a genocidal act. Greenland should be given the right to independence, without outside interference from big powers.
Trump’s shock and awe
This is a democratic principle that is incompatible with the US ruling class, which shamelessly and arrogantly believes that it is the master of the world and its resources. The opening weeks of 2026 have laid bare how the beast of capitalism truly operates. Trump’s actions are designed to have a shock and awe effect and to stun people into submission.
However, this stunning effect can and will wear off, and as the battle in Minneapolis against ICE shows, with the calling of a general strike there, can lead to an important fightback. If organised, the working class, the poor and oppressed of this system can defeat this system. So now is the time to get organised, and get active. The future of humanity and our planet depends on it. Join the struggle for revolutionary socialist change today.