When the powerful punish the principled, we glimpse the unmasked face of empire. Donald Trump’s vindictive executive order denying aid to South Africa — punishment for its support of Palestine and pursuit of land reform — offers precisely such a moment of clarity.
The contours of our new global struggle are now etched with brutal exactitude: a struggle between those who bow to imperial diktat and those who defy it. On the questions of Palestine and its right to undertake land reform, South Africa stands on the right side of this divide, and it must not stand alone.
South Africa’s so-called “crimes” are acts of courage. First, its steadfast support for Palestine’s struggle against Israel’s genocidal war machine. Second, its determination to redress the inequalities wrought by colonialism and apartheid through land reform. Both are acts of resistance against the imperial order that demands the Global South remain subservient, impoverished and pliant.
The parallels with Greece’s humiliation at the hands of the Troika are impossible to ignore. When I served as finance minister in 2015, our democratically elected government was brutally disciplined for daring to challenge austerity orthodoxy. The message was clear: democracy ends where creditor power begins. South Africa now faces a similar lesson — sovereignty ends where solidarity with Palestine and moves towards land reform begin.
But let us not mistake this for mere coincidence. What happened to Greece was not an aberration; it was a calculated demonstration of power. The European left, with a few honourable exceptions, stood by as our economy was strangled and our people impoverished. Southern European governments, cowed by the threat of similar treatment, offered little more than sympathetic murmurs. Greece was made an example of, a warning to others who might dare to challenge the neoliberal consensus.
This is precisely why South Africa must not face its current predicament alone. Unlike Greece in 2015, it must be encircled by a wall of solidarity from the Global South and from principled forces within the Global North.
Palestine remains the great moral clarifier of our time. It represents the ultimate test of our commitment to universal human rights. Either we believe in the equal value and dignity of all human lives, or we accept a world of hierarchical humanity where some lives matter immeasurably more than others. There is no middle ground.
The courage of South Africa in taking Israel to the International Court of Justice on charges of genocide exemplifies precisely the moral leadership the world desperately needs. That this action is being aggressively punished reveals the hollowness of Western pretensions to support international law. The empire demands obedience to its power, not adherence to international law.
South Africa’s moral authority on this issue is unassailable. Having emerged from the horrors of apartheid, it speaks with a clarity born of lived experience. Even its most vocal domestic critics — trade unions, grassroots movements such as Abahlali baseMjondolo — recognise the gravity of its stance. This is not merely a matter of foreign policy; it is a matter of principle.
The West’s claim to moral leadership has always been a grand illusion, sustained by a relentless ideological apparatus that regenerates itself after each catastrophic exposure. From the colonial massacres in Algeria and Vietnam to the destruction of Iraq and Libya, the empire has cloaked its brutality in the language of benevolence. Today, as genocide is livestreamed from Gaza, this illusion lies in tatters. The moral bankruptcy of the West is plain for all to see.
Trump’s attack on South Africa reveals something else: the bipartisan nature of imperial logic. While Republicans and Democrats may squabble over domestic policies, they remain united in their commitment to disciplining Global South nations that assert genuine independence. The rhetoric may differ, but the underlying commitment to maintaining Western hegemony never wavers.
The mechanics of this punishment should be understood clearly. By weaponising aid, Trump follows the well-established playbook of economic coercion. Aid has never been about altruism; it has always been about leverage. When a nation such as South Africa refuses to align its foreign policy with Washington’s demands, the mask of benevolence slips, revealing the true transactional nature of imperial “generosity”. The hypocrisy is staggering: an administration that professes to champion “democratic values” punishes a democratic nation for making sovereign choices.
So, what is to be done? The answer is solidarity — real, practical, material solidarity. The Global South must develop alternative financial mechanisms to reduce its dependence on imperial powers. When Greece faced financial asphyxiation, we lacked such alternatives. We were at the mercy of institutions — the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission — that were determined to crush our experiment in economic sovereignty. Had robust alternative structures existed, our story might have been different.
The only defence against divide-and-rule tactics is collective resistance. The recent formation of the Hague Group, a collection of nine countries, including South Africa, committed to collective solidarity with Palestine, is an important step forward. But more must be done.
Land reform — the other “crime” for which South Africa is being punished — is another arena of necessary solidarity. We must support South Africa’s right to undertake land reform, just as we support the right of Brazil to do the same, and the rights of governments in countries such as Bolivia and Senegal to put resources under national control.
The greatest power of the powerful lies in convincing us of our powerlessness. South Africa’s defiance challenges this manufactured fatalism. The question for all of us is simple: will we allow South Africa to be isolated and punished for its moral clarity? Or will we stand with South Africa, recognising that their fight against the arrogance of power is ultimately our fight too?
The answer will determine not only South Africa’s future but the possibility of a truly democratic international order. The choice is ours.
Yanis Varoufakis is the leader of MeRA25, a former finance minister in Greece and author of Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism. He sits on the Council of the Progressive International.
