by Danny Haiphong
“Both the corporate ruling class on one side and much of the proclaimed ‘left’ on the other are caught up in fact-manipulation.” For differing reasons, neither tells the truth about Zionism’s mission to create a ‘Greater Israel’; of U.S. and Israeli support for jihadists such ISIS – which claimed credit for killing the three teenage Jewish settlers; or U.S. schemes to contain China and foment war against Russia.
Truth and Politics as an Alternative to Despair in the Last Stage of US imperialism
by Danny Haiphong
“The settler Zionists who are currently watching the massacre of Gaza on a hill are reminiscent of the White Americans who attended the lynching of Black Americans.”
Some of the most difficult conversations are not the ones rife with American exceptionalism, white supremacy and pro-imperial reaction. The most difficult conversations and organizing situations tend to be when the person or group being addressed becomes overwhelmed with despair over the state of the world under US imperialism. It certainly isn't unreasonable to feel discouraged if one analyzes the enormity of exploitation in this period. The lack of a broad program and movement in the US leaves many who want to fight feeling hopeless about whether the last stage of imperialism will ever truly end.
A 21st century movement to fight imperialism from within the US must be grounded in an honest analysis of current conditions. However, both the corporate ruling class on one side and much of the proclaimed "left" on the other are caught up in fact-manipulation, albeit for different reasons. The capitalist class's existence requires that the education of the exploited classes teaches adherence to the values and logic of the social order. In contrast, pro-imperialist left wing groups and individuals who support US "humanitarian intervention" (imperialism) in Libya, Syria, and Venezuela or partake in anti-Russia and China hysteria are doing so under the assumption that such positions will attract popular support in a reactionary period. This brand of opportunism damages the possibility of strategic global alliances by fortifying a racist left buffer between unfettered imperialist rule and revolutionary possibility, tipping the scale in favor of the capitalist ruling class.
Over the last few weeks, the corporate media's coverage of global developments provides ample evidence for the need to break from racist and sectarian narratives. Below are just a few developments we CANNOT avoid if we are serious about building an anti-imperialist movement in this period.
Palestine and Israel's Ground Assault
Israel has indiscriminately slaughtered men, women, and children in its latest invasion of what remains of Palestine. The death toll for Palestinians has reached over 1,000 and counting, with thousands more injured. While it is crucial that anti-imperialists denounce Israel's wanton massacre, it is the pretext for the recent invasion of Gaza that reveals the true motivations behind this round of genocide.
Israel claimed that the criminal massacre of Gaza was a response to the three settler teens found dead in the West Bank. The corporate media failed to cover that the leader of the imperialist-backed terrorist organization, ISIS in Iraq, claimed responsibility for the death of the settlers. Around the same time this was announced, Eric Snowden leaked NSA documents that exposed the CIA and Mossad's role in training ISIS's leader in an intensive yearlong military course. The corporate media and Washington have blacked out Israel's and the US-NATO alliance's intelligence and logistical support for ISIS since the war on Syria officially began in 2011, a policy that has been carried out by the US and its imperial satellites since the 1979 Western-backed Jihadi invasion of Afghanistan. Netanyahu himself has been caught shaking hands with injured ISIS terrorists receiving treatment in an Israeli funded hospital in the occupied Golan Heights.
“The US-NATO-Israeli alliance possesses the joint goal of dismembering the entire Middle East and North Africa.”
If Israel helped create ISIS and ISIS truly did murder the settlers, why would Israel need to create a pretext to invade Gaza? For one, colonialism's foundation rests on the dehumanization of the colonized. The Israeli colonial project is no different. For over a century since its founding, Zionist ideology proclaimed that Israel was an economic and political project for a settler class of so-called followers of Judaism. Judaism was the cover for the Zionist "manifest destiny"-like mission to build an empire and exterminate whoever was in their way. Each and every Israeli military venture since the Western imperial powers granted Israel statehood in 1948 has been a Palestinian and Arab World bloodbath in service of criminal Zionist expansion. The Zionist mission of a "Greater Israel" is really a project in land theft at the expense of Palestine and the entire region.
Israel's alliance with NATO and the United States gives immunity to the Zionist state's criminal colonial project. The US-NATO-Israeli alliance possesses the joint goal of dismembering the entire Middle East and North Africa. This fulfills Israel's objective of creating a "Greater Israel" from Egypt to the Euphrates, the founding dream of the Zionist movement. Israel's position in the region also paves the way for US imperialism to strengthen its murderous geopolitical and strategic economic influence. Vice President Joe Biden himself has been caught on the record saying that if Israel did not exist, the US would have to create one. Thus, Israel's invasion of Gaza is deeply tied to US imperialism, which explains why 350 million more in US military aid will be given to the Zionist State in a unanimous US Senate decision to increase the 3.1 billion that US taxpayers already pay Israel annually.
Ukraine and the Malaysia Flight 17
In February of 2013, the democratically elected government of Ukraine was illegally overthrown after months of political subversion by NATO and the US State Department. This led to Ukraine being overrun by fascists armed and funded by the US-NATO alliance. Dominoes began to fall, including Crimea's choice to join the Russian Federation soon after Ukraine was destabilized. Private mercenaries led by oligarchs, US Special Operations forces, and Blackwater (Academi) troops have spent nearly a year using Ukraine to build the conditions for an economic and military war with Russia.
The US-NATO-EU campaign in Ukraine is the most severe threat to Russia's security in a long line of encounters posed by the West, especially since Putin's re-election in 2012. The US has sponsored the NATO military encirclement of the post-Soviet nation. Russia's growing economic relationships with Europe, China, and the Eurasian region and its advocacy of a multi-polar global order has run counter to Washington's imperial ambitions. Washington sees Russia (and China) as the primary obstacle to its ambitions of submitting the globe into the grips of its genocidal foreign policy and bankrupt economic model.
The situation in Ukraine thus represents a multitude of interests for US empire. Before Flight 17 plummeted from Ukrainian airspace, Ukraine's fascist military wing had bombed Russian territory multiple times. Fascists in Ukraine have targeted key pipelines and infrastructure to weaken Russia's ability to trade with European allies. Given these facts, it is no wonder that Washington and the corporate media are doing all they can to blame Russia for the newest Malaysian flight tragedy. A full investigation has yet to be conducted and still the Obama Administration denounced Russia for the downing of the civilian airline only twenty-four hours after knowledge of the incident.
“Washington sees Russia (and China) as the primary obstacle to its ambitions of submitting the globe into the grips of its genocidal foreign policy and bankrupt economic model.”
Even without a full investigation, political developments in the region implicate Ukraine's illegitimate coup government in the Malaysian Flight 17 tragedy. For one, Russians and other anti-Kiev forces do not possess the money to purchase the firepower necessary to shoot down a plane 33,000 feet in the air. However, Kiev's fascist forces are receiving ample support from the US-NATO alliance, which does possess the Buk systems allegedly responsible for the flight's demise.
Finally, It would make little sense for Russia to provoke US imperialism and kill hundreds of civilians from around the world in the process. An objective analysis of Russia's involvement in the Ukraine debacle reveals a firm patience with US imperialism's policy of destabilization. But for an unstable, US-NATO backed regime in Kiev, the need for tougher sanctions on Russia and more Western aid makes the Malaysian Flight 17 scenario a very convenient development for US imperialism's continued war with Moscow.
Conclusion
The image going viral on social media of the American Jewish youth who was dragged and beaten by Israeli police forces for speaking out against the Gaza massacre coincided with the now viral video of the NYPD's murder of Eric Garner. Garner, a Black American male, was strangled to death after demanding the NYPD officers leave him alone and stop questioning him after breaking up a street fight. These instances of resistance and brutality show US imperialism's global character. The settler Zionists who are currently watching the massacre of Gaza on a hill are reminiscent of the White Americans who attended the lynching of Black Americans during the Post-Antebellum period. US imperialism affects oppressed people everywhere, whether it is the daily US law enforcement murders of Black Americans or the daily IDF murders of Palestinians in Gaza. The struggle against racist police brutality, austerity, mass Black imprisonment, and gentrification cannot be separated from the fight against US imperialism around the world.
The task of a revolutionary left is to organize the people's anger away from despair and toward a commitment to full justice, total liberation, and lasting peace. Despair is ultimately fostered by a combination of anger toward the prevailing order and a lack of confidence in changing it. The Zionist war crimes in Gaza and the Malaysian Flight 17 tragedy are just a few examples of important, fast moving developments that we need to actively discuss with people in our workplaces, schools, universities, and streets. An honest analysis of current conditions is the foundation of an organized anti-imperialist movement. Such an analysis can and will de-isolate the exploited classes. We have the majority of the planet on our side. It is time to join them.