The intervention of popular forces—what Marx termed the “sixth” great power among the five European “great powers” of his time—remains fundamental to the current systemic transition. This article seeks to clarify the evolving character of the contradiction between imperialism and the working people of the Third World. Drawing on Samir Amin’s notion of “polycentrism,” it is argued that the current transition, marked by the protracted decline of the capitalist system, still presupposes “delinking” from the worldwide law of value and the forging of sovereign development paths on a popular basis. Such a transition can only be fulfilled by the intervention of workers and peasants in the peripheries of the system. Key elements of the current systemic rivalry are discussed to illuminate the challenges, with special focus on the expansion of labor reserves and the character of peripheral social formations today.