The USA, the left and the fight for Greenland’s freedom

Donald Trump’s threat to take over Greenland has escalated compared to a year ago, when he was just sworn in as president. He has threatened tariffs, military force, and all sorts of other things. It is still uncertain where it will all end, but it has put the Danish government under enormous pressure and, at the same time, shocked many people at home.

[Originally published in Danish at marxist.dk]

On Saturday, 17 January, the streets of Greenland and Denmark were filled with demonstrators who wanted to show ‘solidarity and support for Greenland’. There is widespread anger in Denmark and Greenland over Trump’s behaviour. Among Danish workers and young people, there is a genuine desire to support and show solidarity with the Greenlanders. But how do we actually combat the threats from Trump and fight for true freedom for the Greenlanders?

The answer that may seem most logical at first glance is to send troops to Greenland. This is also what Denmark’s Red-Green Alliance and its leader Pelle Dragsted have demanded:

“It should not be the case that you can just land a helicopter in Nuuk and plant the American flag. We need to make it clear that it will be an armed conflict if the Americans go down that path.”

According to Dragsted, this is about “a possible attack on our own realm. It is about defending the Greenlanders’ right to determine their own destiny”. But is a military confrontation with the United States really the way to ensure that the Greenlanders can determine their own destiny?

Among Danish workers and young people, there is a genuine desire to support and show solidarity with the Greenlanders / Image: Jens Cederskjold, Wikimedia Commons

It may seem appealing to anyone who wants to do something to help the Greenlanders in the face of the overwhelming American threat here and now. But there are several problems with this so-called solution from the Red-Green Alliance and Dragsted.

A military solution?

Firstly, it is obvious that Denmark cannot win a military conflict with the US. Pelle Dragsted acknowledges this, and as he himself puts it: “it will probably be quickly decided”. When asked, “does that mean sacrificing Danish soldiers in a battle that is known to be lost in advance?” Dragsted replies: “When you have a defence force, it is there to be used, and when you enlist in the Armed Forces, it is of course also a known risk that you will go to war”.

In other words, Dragsted is advocating sending Danish soldiers to a completely pointless death. It would be purely symbolic, to raise the ‘price’ of an American invasion. This is not changed by the fact that several EU countries have sent troops to Greenland in recent weeks, as the number and quantity have been negligible.

But even if so many European troops were sent to Greenland that they could actually challenge the US, what would that mean? It would be tantamount to risking the start of a war between the US and Europe, i.e. starting and fighting World War III on Greenlandic soil. A scenario so horrific that it cannot be considered a ‘solution’ for either the Greenlandic people or anyone else.

Denmark as a guarantor of independence?

Secondly, the question is: what are Danish troops being sent to Greenland to defend? Dragsted says that they are going to Greenland to defend “the Greenlanders’ right to determine their own destiny”. But this is based on the premise that the Danish authorities are actually interested in defending the Greenlanders’ right to ‘determine their own destiny’.

Dragsted is advocating sending Danish soldiers to a completely pointless death / Image: public domain

If we look at the last 300 years of history, we have to say that this is not what the Danish authorities have shown. Quite the opposite, Denmark has behaved like a brutal colonial master in Greenland and still treats Greenland as a Danish colony today.

It is only now, in the face of the threat from the US, that Danish politicians are beginning to apologise for some of Denmark’s crimes, to talk about Greenland’s independence, and to take a real interest in the country. If they really believed they were fighting for Greenland’s right to independence, they could allow Greenland to conduct its own foreign policy and speak for itself, with whomever it wishes.

This is not the case at present, as the current crisis has clearly shown. But it goes deeper than the current situation, because it is enshrined in the Constitution that Greenland’s foreign policy is conducted by Denmark. That is why Danish politicians have made it very clear that Greenlandic politicians cannot, under any circumstances, talk to the Americans without a Danish presence.

The Danish ruling class and their politicians are not ‘defending’ Greenland against Trump because they intend to give Greenland real independence. They are standing up to Trump to defend their own interests. Ownership of Greenland has given Denmark a place at the table on the world political stage that is completely unheard of when you consider how small and weak a country Denmark actually is.

Until recently, this gave Denmark a special connection to the US. The Danish rulers have no desire to give up that place. The road to Greenlandic independence therefore does not lie in supporting the Danish ruling class.

What would happen if, hypothetically, Denmark won a military conflict against the United States? It would mean that Danish dominance over Greenland would continue and actually be strengthened, now with far more Danish military forces stationed in Greenland. This would strengthen the argument already used by the Danish authorities against demands for Greenlandic independence: ‘You cannot manage on your own. You will immediately be taken over by the United States – if not by China or Russia. You need Denmark’. A hypothetical Danish military victory against the US would not mean independence and freedom for the Greenlanders, but a continuation and strengthening of Danish colonialism, which is precisely what is strengthening the desire for independence felt by many Greenlanders.

Denmark at the forefront against American imperialism?

This brings us to the third problem with the Red-Green Alliance's ‘solution’: the illusion that the Danish ruling class is interested in fighting American imperialism. American imperialism is not a phenomenon created by Trump. The difference from the past is that American imperialism is now in relative decline; the US can no longer be the ‘world’s policeman’, and so is concentrating on the Western Hemisphere to strengthen itself against its growing rivals, especially China. Furthermore, the difference is that Trump, unlike most politicians, in his own peculiar way, says things more honestly and as they actually are. Therefore, he reveals the real interests behind American imperialism.

It is only now, at a time when Trump is threatening Danish interests, that the Danish authorities are raising criticisms of the Americans. For many decades, successive Danish governments have followed American imperialism through thick and thin, including in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Ukraine.

Only now are they criticising their attacks on national sovereignty and calling for the defence of the rules-based world order. This was not something that concerned them when they followed the US into Afghanistan and Iraq, two sovereign nations, or that caused them to withdraw their support for Netanyahu’s genocide in Gaza or to condemn the United States’ kidnapping of Nicolas Maduro, the head of state of a sovereign nation.

Danish capitalists and politicians are not fighting Trump or American imperialism / Image: Christian Ursilva, Wikimedia Commons

We are not opposed to Trump’s threats to take over Greenland because he does not comply with the so-called rules-based world order, or because it is an attack on an ally, but because it is an expression of imperialist aggression that serves only the ruling class in the United States.

Even now, when the US is directly threatening to take Danish territory, the Danish ruling class shows that they basically need the US. They continue to buy American weapons systems, allow the Americans to establish bases on Danish soil, and remain dependent on advanced American technology. Danish capitalists and politicians are not fighting Trump or American imperialism. They are only fighting his plan to take Greenland from them and thus weaken their own imperialist interests.

National unity

The Danish government, which was historically unpopular before this crisis, is trying to use Trump’s threats to rally the Danes behind the nation, and not least to pressure the Greenlanders into supporting Denmark. The Red-Green Alliance is helping them with this task. Pelle Dragsted has put all criticism of Denmark aside and, like all the other politicians, emphasises Denmark as Greenland’s salvation: “a fine and important press conference by the chairman of Naalakkersuisut [Prime Minister of Greenland] and the Prime Minister. We stand together in the Realm. Greenland is not for sale.”

As a response to American imperialism, the Red-Green Alliance ends up defending Danish imperialism instead. The Red-Green Alliance claims to be fighting for Greenland’s independence, but Dragsted repeatedly mentions the need to defend the Realm, which is specifically the organised expression of Danish imperialism’s colonial supremacy over Greenland.

Denmark is a small nation caught in the conflict between the major imperialist powers in the world that have an interest in Greenland. But that does not mean that the Danish ruling class is progressive, or that they do not have their own imperialist interests to pursue, not least in Greenland.

It is obvious to everyone, including the Red-Green Alliance, that Denmark alone cannot stand up to the United States in a conflict. The solution for Pelle Dragsted is to involve Europe as a progressive counterpart to the United States. In a debate on DR (Danish Broadcasting Corporation), he said: “this is about an attack on Europe, because Europe is the last bastion in the world for an international legal order that means that it is not the strongest in the jungle that decides”.

In a Facebook post the day after the famous meeting in Washington between Vivian Motzfeldt, Lars Løkke, J.D. Vance, and Marco Rubio, Pelle Dragsted described how moved he was: “A number of Nordic and European countries announced yesterday that they would make troops available in Greenland for an Arctic exercise under Danish command”. The post continues:

“We are not just standing together in words. We are standing side by side in Greenland.

To secure the Greenlanders’ right to determine their own future.

To defend international law and territorial integrity.

It is truly hopeful. A light in the darkness. And it is actually also a positive surprise for me that the European and Nordic countries are taking such a strong stance after we have long seen a more cautious, conciliatory line towards the bully in the White House.

It is quite amazing to experience this solidarity from our friends and partners in the Nordic countries and Europe.

Greenland and Denmark are not the most populous countries in Europe. Nevertheless, the Nordic countries and Europe are ready to put their words into action to defend the borders and the self-determination of the Greenlandic people.

I am honestly deeply moved by this this morning.

This is solidarity. It gives hope not only for Greenland and Denmark, but also for unity in Europe and for a world and a future where it is not just the law of the jungle and the right of the strong that reigns.

Together we are strong <3”

We must make it clear: European imperialism is not one iota more progressive than American imperialism. It is simply weaker and has been so for many years.

There are countless examples of how European powers throughout history have plundered countries, slaughtered populations, and dominated governments in Asia, South America, and Africa. But this is not something that belongs only to the past.

The wars that many European powers have helped the US fight have already been mentioned above. Another recent and undisguised example of European imperialism was in 2024, when France crushed a mass movement among the Kanak people in New Caledonia.

The indigenous people have long fought for independence and more political rights in New Caledonia, which is still a French colony. In May 2024, a spontaneous mass movement broke out in the country, which was brutally suppressed by French military and police forces, shipped from France. The result was 14 deaths and several thousand injuries.

Defending Danish and European imperialism is not defending a world “where it is not just the law of the jungle and the right of the strong that reigns”. It is defending the victory of Danish and European capitalist interests over American imperialism. It is an attempt to bind the Greenlandic, Danish, and European working class to our own national ruling classes. It helps our rulers to rally the nation behind them and weakens the struggle for a free Greenland, because it weakens the struggle against imperialism in all its forms.

What is the path to Greenlandic independence?

The Red-Green Alliance’s proposal to send troops to Greenland seems appealing because it immediately appears to be the only realistic solution right now. The problem is that it is neither a solution nor realistic.

There is no ‘easy’ or quick path to freedom for the Greenlanders / Image: Revolution

There is no ‘easy’ or quick path to freedom for the Greenlanders. In the current situation of increased tensions between the imperialist superpowers – the relative decline of the United States and a totally crippled Europe, and on the other hand the rise of Russia and especially China – small nations are caught between a rock and a hard place. This is not Donald Trump’s invention, but the reality of the capitalist world in which we live. If Greenland is to become truly free, imperialism must be thrown out; that is, the capitalist system must be uprooted.

Danish workers have no interest in oppressing the Greenlanders, as expressed by the current great solidarity with Greenland. As communists, it is our task to channel that solidarity into a struggle against imperialism as a whole, and we do that by starting with our own rulers, instead of strengthening them, as the Red-Green Alliance does.

We are fighting for the working class to take power in Denmark and throw out the capitalists and their rotten imperialist policies. Against this backdrop, we will join the Greenlanders in making a genuine appeal to American workers for solidarity.

Opinion polls in the US already show massive opposition to American imperialism taking Greenland. But if American imperialism is to be stopped, an alternative is needed. Right now, Trump and his government are pointing out the injustice of Denmark owning Greenland while the US pays for its security, just as he has pointed out the injustice of the US paying for a large part of Europe’s security. He has identified this as the reason why Europe has been able to afford better welfare than the US. This is not because Trump has any intention of giving Americans better welfare, but it may resonate with some American workers.

However, an appeal to American workers to support Greenland's freedom will have a much greater effect if it comes from a position that shows the alternative to a world dominated by imperialism, rather than from a position that defends Danish and European imperialism as the opposite of American imperialism. That is, from a class position.

Greenlandic, Danish, and American workers have exactly the same interests: a world where profit and competition do not rule, but where the world’s resources are used to make life better for the vast majority. Where economic interests do not dominate and lead to war and oppression. That is to say, they have an interest in fighting for a socialist world. We can change the world if we organise ourselves in the struggle for a socialist revolution. It is the only way for everyone to live in true freedom.