Danish capitalists fear losing their Arctic colony

Denmark is one of the only countries in the world that still has a colony, Greenland, which has suffered under the brutal oppression of Danish colonialism for over 300 years. Control of Greenland is the only thing that keeps Danish capitalism relevant on the international stage, and the Danish bourgeoisie is desperately trying to cling to it.

[Originally published on marxist.dk]

Trump's press release on 23 December, in connection with his nomination of the future US ambassador to Denmark, sent shivers down the spine of the Danish bourgeoisie.

In the press release, Trump expressed the need for the US to take over the sovereignty of Greenland: “In the interest of national security and freedom around the world, the United States feels that ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.”

Trump's recent statement about wresting Greenland from the clutches of Danish imperialism is not just an expression of Trump's personal ambitions, but reflects a real desire of American imperialism. Since 2019, when Trump first floated the idea of buying Greenland, the American bourgeoisie has stepped up its attempts to take over the Danish bourgeoisie's dominance over the country.

Tensions are rising in the Arctic

The heightened rivalry between the world's imperialist powers has also increased tensions in the Arctic. This is particularly noticeable in Greenland, which has an important geostrategic location and is of crucial military importance for the US.

In recent years, the American bourgeoisie has strengthened its economic and political ties with the Greenlandic elite, and in November a new airport opened in Nuuk, which for the first time will establish a direct flight connection between the capital of Greenland and the US. In both Nuuk and Washington, the new direct connection is being referred to as a stepping stone that will pave the way for even closer co-operation between the two countries.

The panic is palpable among the Danish ruling class, who view the prospect of losing the last Danish colonial possession with anxiety and fear. Without Greenland, Denmark would be reduced to an insignificant small state on the world stage, as is the case with many other European nations.

The United States has major military strategic interests in Greenland, including in the form of the American military base 'Pituffik Space Base' / Image: United States Space Force, public domain

However, it's not inconceivable that Trump's latest statement was simply part of a negotiating strategy to put pressure on the Danish government to rearm in the Arctic for, as with the rest of NATO, Trump has been pushing Denmark to raise its defence spending to 2% of GDP. If that was the case, it worked. The day after Trump's statement, the Danish government announced that it will spend tens of billions on armament in and around Greenland.

This shows the nature of the close alliance between the Danish and American bourgeoisie: the American as overlord and the Danish as loyal servant. The US president only has to make a social media post before the Danish government throws billions to satisfy American imperialism.

The Danish bourgeoisie is trying to do everything the US asks in the hope of being allowed to keep Greenland. But it's getting harder and harder. The world order that emerged after World War II, where the US could tolerate Danish imperialism retaining control over Greenland, is definitely over and its ability to retain its colony will only further erode as the crisis of capitalism deepens.

Chauvinism from Christiansborg

Predictably, Trump's statement was followed by a wave of outraged and condemnatory reactions from Christiansborg [the seat of the Danish parliament]. For example, former business minister Rasmus Jarlov of the Conservative Party reacted with an unabashed defence of Danish imperialism: “Greenland is Danish. [...] Control over Greenland is not up for discussion and not up for negotiation.”

The Liberal Party's justice and tax spokesman, Preben Bank Henriksen, responded by derisively calling Trump's offer a potential “liberation for disgruntled Greenlanders”, as it would free them from “Denmark, which sends approximately DKK 4 billion to Greenland every year in block grants”. His statement is in line with the typical patronising and arrogant approach of Danish politicians towards the Greenlandic people, who are expected to obediently comply with Copenhagen as ‘thanks’ for the annual block grant.

Danish politicians, such as Preben Bank Henriksen, claim that Greenland benefits from being subject to Denmark due to the block grant, but in reality it is Danish capitalism that reaps all the benefits of the relationship between Denmark and Greenland.

Due to Denmark's de facto trade monopoly over Greenland, the vast majority of the block grant ends up in the pockets of Danish companies. The block grant is simply business support for Danish companies with Greenland as a transit country.

With control over its Arctic colony, Denmark also moves up several weight classes on the international stage, giving the Danish bourgeoisie opportunities that are normally far beyond the reach of small, insignificant states like Denmark.

The block grant is pennies compared to the value of the trade agreements and diplomatic influence that control over Greenland gives the Danish bourgeoisie.

It therefore comes as no shock that the centre-right parties are rushing to the defence of Denmark's continued sovereignty over Greenland. But the defence of Danish colonial rule in the North Atlantic also permeates the parliamentary left.

The ‘socialist’ defender of Danish imperialism

The Socialist People's Party's foreign affairs spokesperson, Karsten Hønge, condemned Trump's statement as “an expression of a raw and cynical great power policy”. But where is Hønge's condemnation of the crude and cynical policy that the Danish state has inflicted on the Greenlandic people for centuries and continues to inflict to this day? Unlike the US, the world's strongest imperialist power, Denmark is not a superpower. But what the Danish bourgeoisie lacks in strength, it makes up for in aggression.

In 2014, Denmark claimed an enormous area in the Arctic Ocean north of Greenland equivalent to 20 times the size of Denmark. In doing so, Denmark became the first country in the world to claim full ownership of the North Pole. In a statement that oozed colonial megalomania, the then Foreign Minister for the Social Liberal party Martin Lidegaard said: “When these borders are fixed, they are fixed forever. This is the one time in history that we have the opportunity to influence this border demarcation.”

Denmark claims the North Pole. The area marked with black lines illustrates the enormous area in the Arctic Ocean over which Denmark claims full ownership / Image: Wikimedia Commons

When it comes to great power politics in the Arctic, the Danish bourgeoisie is not one notch better than their American counterpart, but this is ignored by Karsten Hønge in an attempt to present Danish imperialism in a more humane and civilised light.

However, the defence of Danish imperialism in the Arctic also extends all the way over to Enhedslisten [the Red–Green Alliance]. In response to Trump's statement, Pelle Dragsted wrote: “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders. Not to Denmark – not to Trump. Expect Lars Løkke to speak out clearly and unequivocally against Trump's insane neo-colonial statements about ‘owning’ Greenland, and not cringe or bend his neck.”

But if Greenland is not Denmark's, why is Pelle Dragsted invoking Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke to speak out against Trump? Dragsted's call can only be interpreted as a call for the Danish state to intervene over the heads of the Greenlandic people to defend the current status quo, which is Danish domination of the country. Dragsted labels Trump's statement as ‘neo-colonial’, but omits the fact that Denmark is currently the real colonial master of Greenland.

If you are truly against colonialism, you don't call on a colonial power to intervene to defend its dominance over its colony when larger powers flirt with the idea of appropriating it. Dragsted's call for the Danish state to interfere in the affairs of the Greenlanders in a paternalistic manner is merely a cowardly defence of Danish imperialism's interests in the Arctic.

The ‘socialists’ in the Danish Parliament are completely on the same side as the Danish bourgeoisie and act as left-wing cover for Danish colonialism. They buy into the idea that Denmark should be a ‘humane’ colonial master, unlike the US. But the entire history of Denmark's relationship with Greenland is one of brutal oppression. That's why 300 years of Danish supremacy has created a burning desire among the Greenlandic people to shake off any form of imperialist domination, first and foremost Danish, and the Danish government is aware of this.

Relationship at a freezing point

[Danish Prime Minister] Mette Frederiksen and Lars Løkke don't usually pass up an opportunity to be in the media spotlight, but both have declined to comment on Trump's press release and have instead referred the media to Greenlandic Prime Minister Múte B. Egede. The two party leaders' cautious approach to the whole affair is due to the historically poor relationship between Greenland and Denmark.

Just a few days before Trump's statement, the Greenlandic Prime Minister approached the Danish government to demand that Denmark stop using controversial psychological tests on Greenlandic parents in child abduction cases. Several institutions, including the Danish Institute for Human Rights, have criticised the Danish authorities' use of the tests, which sparked demonstrations in both Nuuk and Copenhagen in November.

Meanwhile, the IUD scandal continues to escalate. In 2022, it was revealed that up to 4,500 Greenlandic women and girls as young as 13 in the 1960s and 1970s had IUDs inserted against their will by the Danish authorities. Many of them became sterile as a result of the abuse, and in 2024, 143 of the affected women sued the Danish state for the lifelong trauma caused by the abuse.

The Greenlandic Prime Minister Múte B. Egede accused Denmark of committing genocide against Greenlanders in December, an apt description of the Danish government's disgusting attempt to slow Greenland's population growth. The Danish state's IUD campaign rivals other colonial powers' barbaric attacks on indigenous peoples around the world, and the scandal has understandably fuelled hatred in Greenland against Danish imperialism and strengthened the desire for independence.

In response to the Danish authorities' IUD campaign, the Prime Minister of Greenland, Múte B. Egede, accused Denmark of committing genocide against the Greenlandic people in December 2024 / Image: US Department of State, public domain

For fear of adding insult to injury, the Danish government has chosen not to comment directly on Trump's statement at a time when relations between Copenhagen and Nuuk are at a low point. But the government's actions speak louder than a thousand words.

The hypocrisy of Danish imperialism

A few hours after Trump's statement, the Social Democratic Minister for Immigration and Integration, Kaare Dybvad, announced that Greenlanders in Denmark and Greenland will have the opportunity to obtain a Greenlandic passport, where the nationality is stated as both Greenlandic and Danish. This is an extremely modest concession and a fundamental democratic right that was implemented long ago for the Faroe Islands.

The government's actions are obviously a calculated attempt to appear to the Greenlandic population as humanists who care about their rights. However, the timing reveals that the government is cynically treating the democratic rights of the Greenlandic people as concessions to be dribbled out when the Danish bourgeoisie feels under pressure.

On the same occasion, Kaare Dybvad announced an investigation into whether Greenlanders experience discrimination in Denmark. But the government's sudden concern about the violent oppression that Greenlanders face on a daily basis is again pure hypocrisy. As recently as 2023 – under the current government – the UN officially criticised the Danish state for its treatment of Greenlanders, after a report showed that they were subjected to racism and discrimination by the Danish authorities.

When the UN report was published, it did not cause the government to do any soul-searching, so one can only wonder what the government will now use a new, almost identical, study for.

In reality, Kaare Dybvad's announced study is nothing more than a cynical attempt to defend the interests of Danish imperialism in the Arctic by making it appear that the Danish state wants to fight the oppression of the Greenlandic people. The fact is, however, that it is the Danish bourgeoisie and their political representatives in Christiansborg who for decades have spread racist prejudices about Greenlanders to justify Danish capitalism's domination of the country – a domination they now fear losing.

Crush Danish imperialism!

As the crisis of capitalism deepens and international tensions rise, US imperialism's interest in Greenland will only grow. For the US, it is a simple matter of cutting out the middleman and securing direct control over an essential security territory to protect their imperialist interests. However, the Danish bourgeoisie will not voluntarily relinquish its hold on Greenland, but will try to cling to its Arctic colony.

As revolutionaries in Denmark, it is our task to expose the hypocritical defence of Danish imperialism coming from a united Christiansborg – from both the right and the left – and expose the reactionary interests of the Danish bourgeoisie in the Arctic.

Unlike all the parties in the Danish Parliament, we in the Revolutionary Communist Party do not defend Denmark's domination of Greenland, but wholeheartedly support the struggle of the Greenlandic people for freedom against Danish imperialism. We unconditionally support the Greenlandic people's right to self-determination, including the right to secede from Denmark. It is solely up to the Greenlandic people to decide what relations they want with other nations, be it the United States, Denmark or any other country.

Unlike the Danish capitalists, the Danish working class has no interest in oppressing the Greenlandic people, and the best way for Danish workers and youth to support the struggle of the Greenlandic people for freedom is to join the fight to overthrow our common enemy, the Danish bourgeoisie. Only by the working class taking power in society from the capitalists can we end imperialism and colonialism once and for all.