On 18 January, one third of Greenland’s population demonstrated against US imperialism’s threat of annexation. At the same time, at least 20,000 people gathered in solidarity in Copenhagen under the slogan “Greenland for the Greenlanders,” and tens of thousands more demonstrated across Denmark. Previous opinion polls show that 85 percent of Greenlanders oppose Trump’s plans to make Greenland a US colony.
Danish political force Enhedslisten (which made gains in last year’s election and is to the left of the Danish Left Party) also called on Instagram for a struggle against the ‘DCA agreement’ – which gives the US the right to establish military bases in Denmark and elsewhere. “We should not have American soldiers in Jutland at the same time as the US is threatening Denmark,” said Pelle Dragsted in the post, also warning of American high-tech weapons that can block Danish software. In the European Parliament, Enhedslisten has argued for a tougher line against the US instead of agreeing to humiliating trade tariffs.
Enhedslisten should also have launched a campaign for the right to a free, socialist Greenland, where the inhabitants must be allowed to decide their own future. It is up to Greenland’s approximately 57,000 inhabitants, most of whom are Inuit people, to decide the future of the island, including whether Greenland should become independent. Today, it has limited self-governance, the terms of which are dictated by the Danish authorities.
Colonial rule, imperialist power struggles, the plundering of its resources, and the militarization of the island prevent the population from exercising their democratic and national rights. In the struggle for a free Greenland, the people can only rely on their own strength and, not least, on the support and solidarity of workers in other countries, especially workers in the Nordic countries and the United States.
Greenland faces the threat of having its land dug up in search of rare earth metals, minerals, and oil, as well as being further militarized in the superpowers’ war for dominance. Under pressure from the Trump regime, the Danish government, led by the Social Democrats, has now launched plans to turn the island into a military fortress. First to appease Trump, and presently, to stand up to him. But even if the EU threatens Trump with a trade bazooka (officially known as “The Anti-Coercion Instrument” – a list of economic countermeasures and deterrents) and stops trying to appease the “big baby” (as Trump was called in Dagens Nyheter, Sweden’s biggest daily paper), European imperialism is hopelessly weak. Even in the future, European capitalism will remain dependent on the US military and its arms industry.
But there is another force that is stronger. US imperialism overestimates its own strength and underestimates the power of the political backlash and popular reaction that its policies and actions will cause, both in the US and globally.
The force that is needed is one that can be mobilized from within the US – from its oppressed workers, low-wage earners, Black people, and immigrants. In Europe, undocumented immigrants, dockworkers, train drivers, and others who brought Italy to a general strike last fall in solidarity with the people of Gaza have much more in common with immigrants under attack in Minnesota, who are now organising a strike against ICE (Trump’s militarized immigration police), than they do with the EU’s rulers. They also have much in common with the constantly struggling tenants and preschool workers in Denmark, who are reaching out in solidarity to the colonized Inuit people in Greenland. Only if decades of anger against Danish exploitation are included in the outcry that is now required will the movement become strong enough to push Trump back.
Brutal legacy of Danish oppression and colonization
From 1721 until 1953, Greenland was officially a Danish colony, and then became a Danish county. The island became self-governing in 1979, and self-rule was expanded in 2008 after a referendum won by 75 percent. But Danish colonialism lives on.
In the 1960s and 70s, Denmark tried to stop population growth among the Inuit in various ways. Among other things, through the so-called coil scandal, when thousands of girls and young women had IUDs (contraceptive coils) inserted, often without their consent or even knowledge of what was being done to them.
Another abuse against the Inuit was to send children to Denmark to receive a Danish upbringing and thus erase their Inuit identity. Some of these children came from orphanages, but others were stolen from their families. This led to a widespread feeling of rootlessness, mental illness, and substance abuse.
Greenland has the world’s highest suicide rate, and alcohol abuse is also a major problem.
Denmark has not yet come to terms with its colonial history. Greenland has self-government within its borders, but Denmark decides on international issues concerning Greenland. Therefore, Greenlanders may perceive other countries’ interest in Greenland as particularly threatening.
84 percent of Greenland’s population wants independence from Denmark, but 45 percent would oppose independence if it would negatively affect their standard of living. Even if Greenland were to nationalize its mines, tourism, and fishing industries, it would be difficult to maintain the standard of living, unless Greenlandic liberation were linked to the liberation of Danish workers from Danish capitalism. Many commentators say that Greenlanders will choose a Nordic welfare model over an American one. However, it’s a pity that the Nordic governments themselves are not choosing this welfare. Danish workers have repeatedly been forced to fight against devastating cuts.
Oppose US and European imperialism
US imperialism is seeking to expand its territory, take control of trade routes as the ice melts, control natural resources, militarize, and flex its muscles against China and Russia. Trump is also clearly seeking to suppress the European bloc. To challenge them, Trump would probably not need to intervene militarily; escalating trade wars and other forms of economic warfare may be enough to get his way.
European governments are in total political confusion. A fundamental plank of their propaganda for many years — that we are fighting alongside the US and NATO in defense of “good values”— has been completely destroyed. These leaders will not have the power to resist US imperialism, and it is important not to buy into their argument, which is just a variation of Trump’s: to militarize Europe and serve their own imperialist interests. On the contrary, the movement should demand a demilitarized Greenland.
The struggle to defend Greenlanders’ right to determine their own destiny, must be part of a struggle for a really different world order, a socialist world — built on common ownership, welfare for all, democratic rule from below, peace, and freedom.
