Skip to main content
An empire of appearances 
Trump’s policy on Ukraine has shifted the transatlantic order and the illusion of European power has been dispelled – leaving behind the harsh reality of the continent’s irrelevance and its inability to shift the geopolitical dial, writes PAWEL WARGAN
BEHEMOTH: Dmitrii Moor’s poster ‘Death to World Imperialism’

IN A 1920 poster by the Soviet artist Dmitrii Moor, a snake-like behemoth is prodded and repelled by a colourful army waving bayonets and red flags — the world’s colonised and oppressed. 

The snake is coiled around a giant factory, representing not only the precious spoils of imperial plunder but also, as hawk-eyed students of Marx might recognise, the fetters that monopolisation imposes on development. “Death to imperialism!” the poster reads. 

The image comes across as a curious relic today, if we take the snake to be those European leaders who, with notable snubs and omissions, met in London on Sunday to discuss Ukraine’s humiliation by Washington. Like a century ago, the snake is all grimace and panic. But where is the factory? And where, really, is the threat? 

Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Qiansimen Bridge
Features / 30 November 2024
30 November 2024
PAWEL WARGAN examines how the nation’s infrastructure projects reflect its journey from poverty to lightning-fast development by combining ancient civilisation with modern socialist construction
Cuba
Features / 19 September 2024
19 September 2024
In Havana’s streets, where past and future dance, PAWEL WARGAN traces the island’s unwavering socialist commitment, a torch lighting the path for liberation movements from Angola’s battlefields to Palestine's besieged streets
8frelimo
Features / 16 May 2024
16 May 2024
Are we seeing an anti-colonialist resurgence like that in the wake of Portugal’s Carnation Revolution, asks PAWEL WARGAN
Similar stories
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer with French President Emmanu
Features / 7 March 2025
7 March 2025
CARLOS MARTINEZ condemns Europe’s failure to develop genuine autonomy from US hegemony, as leaders like Starmer and Macron cling to a declining imperial order rather than building good relations with the emerging powers
Ukrainian soldiers fire a French-made CAESAR self-propelled
Editorial: / 21 February 2025
21 February 2025
8frelimo
Features / 16 May 2024
16 May 2024
Are we seeing an anti-colonialist resurgence like that in the wake of Portugal’s Carnation Revolution, asks PAWEL WARGAN