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It made the headlines when the US government called off its official state visit to Denmark on the 2nd and 3rd of September. And even more because of the reason given – that US imperialism could not and cannot simply buy Greenland at a fixed price, as the US president and the White House wished.

This outrageous proposal of course created an outcry of disbelief and anger among the people of Greenland as well as among the Danish people. The president of the United States of America spoke as a true imperialist superpower and ruler of the world – Greenland is of strategic interest, so we simply buy the whole shit – and no more fuss. Without any political sweet-talk to cover it up. This situation forced the social-democratic government, the politicians in the Danish parliament and the politicians in Greenland to state in an open reply that Greenland is not up for sale.

The people of Greenland do not want to exchange their Danish citizenship for a US citizenship. Their aim and goal is to see Greenland as a free and sovereign nation. It is only ten years ago that Greenland gained status as a self-governing part of the Danish Kingdom and as an independent people after centuries as a Danish colony. Greenland is still a semi-colony, where the Danish state and government has the power over the foreign and security policy and the power to decide what that means.

Today’s reality has put Greenland and the Arctic right in center of the struggle between the two superpowers US and China for world domination. The rights to the many minerals, gas and oil to which climate change has eased the access has become a security question. The development of the infrastructure such as airports and new ship lanes becomes a security question as US imperialism by itself and through NATO demands full control, requiring exclusion of Chinese investments.

In order to secure control over Greenland the Danish Government must play two agendas – that of being a loyal servant (ally) of US imperialism and at the same time not appear as the old colonial power in the eyes of the people in Greenland. That is why the Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in her official reply in the Danish media very carefully stated that Greenland had said no to the sale and that the Danish government agreed.

At the same time the prime minister stated that Denmark and the US share the same strategic security interest in the Arctic, the Middle East and elsewhere where the Danish military operates as a part of the US NATO war coalition.

Just a few days ago the Danish Foreign Minister Trine Bramsen stated that Danish military investments in Greenland will be raised significantly – in accordance with the demands of the US and NATO. The militarization of Greenland and the arctic has a long and cruel history dating back to the Second World War Both at that time and during the Cold War US imperialism acted as if it already owned the country, and placed military bases, nuclear weapons that are strictly forbidden by Danish law, missile plants, radars etc. Even huge secret military plants and cities fully armed under the arctic ice, which are now coming for a day with the climate change together with dumped nuclear waste.

Another question in the rivalry to secure control over Greenland is the role of the European Union, EU. Denmark is a member state and the only country in the EU with borders and land in the Arctic, now with Norway and Greenland out of the EU. Greenland left the EU in 1985 after a popular referendum in 1982 and now has what is called an OCT (Overseas Countries and Territories) status as do a number of former French, Dutch and British colonies in the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean, and has the status of a geopolitical important partnership. Only a few weeks ago the Danish Government put up the first Schengen border control in North East Greenland.

Whether or not President Trump has cancelled his visit to Copenhagen this time, he is not welcome as he is a representative of US imperialism. A variety of organizations – antiwar, students, women’s, trade unions, solidarity and anti-imperialist, have been organizing protests and demonstrations, and they will still take place though in a smaller scale.

These are not anti-Trump demonstrations simply opposing Trump as a ‘mad man’. They are against US imperialism, its wars and crimes against the peoples, its military build-up and hegemony. It is against NATO as the military arm of imperialism and of Danish imperialism. Being targeted as a battlefield of the imperialist superpower is a big concern to all the peoples in this region of the world. It is against the militarization of the Arctic and a call for US and NATO bases to get out of Greenland.

It is in solidarity with all the people who fight imperialism – at this moment for instance the people of Venezuela– and in solidarity with the right of the people of Greenland to their own independent state and to make their own decisions about their future.

The social-democratic government in Denmark has given Trump the promises he wanted. It even turned the butt just to be kicked by an arrogant imperialist superpower.

August 21, 2019

Workers Communist Party of Denmark

Categories: Economic Exploitation, Imperialism, International, U.S. News