THOSE of us of a certain age grew up watching Tiswas on Saturday morning television.

The programme, much more than a children’s show, led by Chris Tarrant, Sally James and Lenny Henry, among others, included a regular interlude called the “dying fly.”

This involved almost the entire studio — and those of us at home — lying down on our backs kicking and waving our hands. Yes, I absolutely joined in!

It was, in all honesty, much funnier than it sounds from my description.

But the dying fly that I want to talk about here is far less funny and has consequences that are extremely deadly.

I talk of the United States of America — as the great Brazilian journalist Pepe Escobar describes it — “the empire of chaos.”

The US is flailing about like a dying fly as the power it has exercised over large parts of the planet continues to ebb away and, in many cases, has disappeared altogether.

It would be a very serious mistake to fall into the trap of believing that this loss of power and influence only began with the return of Donald Trump to the White House earlier this year.

I would argue that the anti-colonial movements of the 20th century — particularly those after World War II when the full extent of US power around the globe began to be exerted — were a key milestone.

The “partial” victories in removing the Western colonial powers were obviously significant for the people of those newly created nations.

I describe it as partial because it was often only really a “flag independence.” But even this has largely been presented by the ruling classes as something they have given out of some benevolence rather than being won at the point of a gun, made inoperable or both.

The presentation of anti-colonial victories as a gift rather than born of resistance enabled the ruling classes to avoid the fact that the grounding for these rebellions was often born out of arguably the most significant event of the 20th century, the 1917 Russian Revolution.

The revolution provided a spark (“iskra”) and a political direction to many of the anti-colonial movements that emerged during the last century.

Without this direction there is no telling what politics may have emerged in the nations that won their newly found — or perhaps altered — freedom, or the nature of the revolutionary struggles that were victorious in places such as China, Vietnam or Cuba.

I want to go into the central importance of the Communist International at a later date. But this body, set up by the incomparable Vladimir Ilych Lenin in 1919, has been hugely undervalued for its role in helping to build and support the anti-colonial movement until it was dissolved in 1943.

But, notwithstanding some problems that I shall go into some other time, its contribution needs to be understood as one of the keys to building international solidarity.

I mention this here because the building and maintenance of international solidarity across the global majority will be critical in facing up to the flailings of the dying empire.

But I believe this solidarity will only really succeed if it has a socialist underpinning.

Any kind of solidarity against the imperial Trumpian-era US requires at least one point to bring nations and peoples together even when they disagree on some particularly fundamental issues.

Like many, I have talked a lot about the potential of Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) plus its new members Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates and many supporters wishing to join.

Brics is not a formal organisation with a permanent secretariat and offices but it has emerged as the leading body that many hope will counter the bellicose Trumpian attempts to keep the global majority “behaving themselves.”

Most of these nations have very different political ideologies and are having to come together on the basis of the overriding goal of freedom from the oppression of the US and its posse.

But I think it is a very legitimate question to ask ourselves whether this is enough to counter the dying fly or the unprincipled self-interests of, for example, Egypt and India?

Perhaps we just have to make do, at least for now, with the knowledge that the taste of freedom is too sweet to spit out.

Even watching others make a bid for freedom has often been inspiring enough for others to hope for the same for themselves — or, at least, to want it for those who follow.

The tariffs decreed by Emperor Trump must be seen as an example of US denial that the world has changed and is highly unlikely to shift back to what it was.

The US, even with its vast arsenal of nuclear weapons and worldwide network of hundreds of military bases, is simply no longer able to exert the power it once claimed to have.

Of course the US can still pick on the smallest of nations but perhaps we would do well to remember that power is often derived from the masses believing the lie that they are powerless.

The tariffs have been clearly demonstrated to be far more than about trade.

Emperor Trump has attempted to use the tariffs to interfere in the domestic and foreign policies of other nations, including each of the original Brics nations.

The effect of this appears to have misfired and has served to bring these and other nations of the global majority closer together and to make them more determined to find ways of working more collectively.

The emperor is drowning in front of our very eyes and few — even the ones that he called his allies but which were always its subjects — seem willing to throw him a lifebelt.

The only thing some appear willing to throw at him is a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize that he so desperately craves.

The old rastafarian terminology of “Babylon” refers to the corrupted, capitalist, colonial world. On that basis Washington DC can take the mantle of “Babylon Central.”

Rastafarians always had the aim of trying to escape Babylon.

Maybe we will still have to escape the purgatory of Babylon or perhaps it will simply eat itself before we get a chance to slip away.

Either way is fine by me. But as I began with a pop culture reference I’m going to end with one.

The amazing 1978 Steel Pulse album Handsworth Revolution contains the line in the title track of the album that Babylon is Fallen.

Seems to me our job is to help Babylon fall that much faster.