Review: Arun Gupta asks, “what anti-war movement?”

Review: Arun Gupta Asks, “What Anti-War Movement” (presented by Democracy Now!, September 24th, 2009)

(http://raimd.wordpress.com)

A year after Barack Obama’s presidential election and with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan still raging (and spreading into Pakistan), many within anti-war circles are engaged in dialogue about which way the movement should go. A large part of the problem faced by anti-war activists is that their once relatively large movement is now far smaller and less vibrant. Much focus has been given as to why this is. Many of those still dedicated to the anti-war cause are now taking a critical look at the movement’s preceeding years, attempting to find lessons which can help them recover from a major slump in organizing and mass action.

One such activist is Arun Gupta, editor of the New York City ‘left’-oriented newspaper, the Indypendent. In a speech presented by Democracy Now!, another nominally left media outlet, Arun Gupta attempts to answer some of the hows and whys of the death of the anti-war movement and offers prescriptions for future organizing.

Talking about his background, Gupta says he cut his political teeth as part of solidarity activism for the South African anti-apartheid movement and Latin American struggles. In explaining thoughts at the time about wider radical organizing, Gupta states, “there’s always been this notion that the left would re-found itself into a mass base movement if we only had some sort of imperialist war that we could oppose, something on the scale of Vietnam; that this would radicalize the population enough and it would show the true face of imperialism.” Gupta begins by noting how this never came to fruition.

Gupta on the death of the Amerikan anti-war movement

In attempting to answer why a mass, radical anti-war movement never came into being, Gupta reflects on one of the main US anti-war organizations, United For Peace and Justice (UFPJ). Gupta rightly pegs UFPJ as a shill for the war-mongering Democratic Party, something most remaining Amerikan anti-war activists are aware of. Citing mostly anecdotes and quotes, Gupta describes UFPJ’s role inside the anti-war movement as one of shepherding activists towards the reformist morass of mainstream electoral politics.

After the Democratic Party gained a congressional majority in 2006, UFPJ supporters, including Gupta, were advocating a ‘power of the purse strategy,” urging Democrats to use their federal budgeting power to cut funding to the war. Gupta says the leader of UFPJ, Judith LeBlanc, characterized that strategy, reformist as is was, as being “on the outside shaking our fists,” and told supporters that the way forward was working within the Democratic Party. Gupta also notes how long-time ‘leftists’ such as Carl Davidson, who campaigned for Barack Obama, hailed his presidential victory as a milestone for “class struggle.” According to Gupta, UFPJ and leaders such as Carl Davidson are why the anti-war movement collapsed.

Gupta also says there was a failure on the part of the “great hope” that was the “direct action left,” “anti-globalization movement,” “anarchists,” “student-led groups” and “some of the parties” [most likely referring to the 'Party for Socialism and Liberation' and 'Workers World Party']. Though there was a lot of talk between these groups about reforming and refocusing on anti-war work, he states, “nothing has really come from it.” He dwells little on why this is and fails to examine the politics of any of these groups. Instead, he still thinks they could potentially come together to form a “new, radical, principled anti-war movement.” According to Gupta, because it isn’t happening, UFPJ still maintains power in the passive, anti-war movement which now supports Obama.

Where Gupta gets it wrong

While UFPJ and Carl Davidson helped lead the anti-war movement’s shift towards support for the Democratic Party, Gupta adds no analysis or understandings beyond this. His answer of why the anti-war movement never coalesced into a mass-radical movement is shallow, bordering on conspiratorial. Thus, Gupta misses the point entirely.

From the beginning, the anti-war movement was a largely anti-Bush movement, a domestic reaction to the brash, John Wayne-esque brand of imperialism. There was almost none, if any, focused internationalism coming from the largely pro-Amerika movement. Almost all internationalist actions and slogans were by accident, as parts of the anti-war movement took up anti-militarist causes: one memorable example being when Portland ‘anarchists’ burnt an effigy of a US troop while chanting “Bye bye G.I., in Iraq you’re gonna die.” It is important to note this example was a fringe rejected by the mainstream of Amerikan anti-war sentiment. Moreover, the ‘anarchists’ undertook the action based on liberal anti-militarism, never bridging over towards a long-term, principled stand with the world’s oppressed against imperialism.

One meme to come out of the anti-war movement was that Bush had turned world opinion against the US. Another was that “peace is patriotic.” Hardly internationalist or radical slogans, the anti-war movement peddled the mythology of historic Amerikan greatness and a false picture international fraternity. It actually saw itself as trying to improve Amerika’s image worldwide. More contrived was the anti-war movement’s talk about how the wars are supposedly against the interests of Amerikans. Moaning about ‘our’ wasted tax money was common throughout the anti-war movement. The obvious problem with this is that imperialism, which Amerikans do benefit from, requires imperialist wars. Amerika’s wealth is and always has been based on the oppression of other peoples. Amerikans intuitively understand this and most never joined the anti-war movement.

Into 2005, as the war dragged on, and with Bush’s incompetence and instability in Iraq dominating attention, more Amerikans began seeing the wars as becoming overly costly and offering less in the way of long term returns, even describing them as a burden to Amerika’s interests. However, this is not an anti-imperialist view. Afterall, even ardent imperialists, such as Obama, have described the Iraq war in this light.

In the end, UFPJ didn’t simply act as a pied piper, marching the anti-war movement to grave of the Democratic Party. UFPJ is simply on the same page with those nominally opposed to the war. While Gupta thinks there is mass, radical potential within First World, UFPJ has a better understanding of where most Amerikans stand on. Thus, groups like UFPJ are able to maintain leadership of the anti-war movement despite the appearance of a seemingly radical fringe. The anti-war movement’s shift towards Obama was a natural one, not principally engineered by UFPJ.

Gupta’s “anti-imperialism”

Gupta, under mistaken notions about Amerika and the anti-war movement, says that the way forward is building a mass “anti-imperialist” movement.

From the beginning, Gupta defines imperialism in a metaphysical, abstract way. According the Gupta, capitalist-imperialism is “the defining if not dominant inter-state relation and flows of power in the world today.” Gupta points to the Iraq war as an example of Western imperialism’s attempt to secure Mideast oil against gains by the lesser imperialist bloc of Russian and China. While this is true to an extent, Gupta misses the point.

Capitalist-imperialism, today’s “flow of power,” is the process of capital accumulation on a global scale: it is the exploitation of the global majority, the Third World masses, to the effect of benefitting and buying-off virtually all of the First World. A primary feature of the current capitalist-imperialist system is vast global inequality between the exploiter First World and the exploited Third World.

Gupta is also wrong to say that imperialism is the “defining inter-state relations.” In actuality, states are propped up over the course of class struggle to enforce class rule. With few exceptions, Third World states are extentions of imperialism, surrogates to the process of capital accumulation. Also, while divisions between the imperialists of different countries exist, they are rarely a principal feature. What is significant about the Iraq war is not possible ambitions to wedge out lesser imperialist forces, but rather a multi-national, U.S.-led force invaded and occupied to country to secure a greater stake in oil reserves against the interests of the Iraqi and Third World masses.

Throughout his speech, Gupta never does come to terms what imperialism really is. Rather than stating the obvious– First Worlders enjoy greater rates of consumption, more leisure time, little repression, are visibly better off than most of the world’s people and thus have little reason to radicalize or become anti-imperialists– Gupta uses a ridiculous abstraction, “consensual hegemony,” to explain why First Worlders support the imperialist system. Gupta simply refuses to approach reality: the First World masses support imperialism because it supports them.

Because of this, Gupta’s “anti-imperialism” remains hollow. Not based on serious analysis, Gupta posits an “anti-imperialism” which almost anyone can embrace. Gupta’s “anti-imperialism” changes nothing in terms of practical implications for those who do uphold it. In this case, “anti-imperialism” is an abstract tag-on phrase, a meaningless slogan, for ultimately First Worldist, movementarian politics. Gupta is not concerned with doing a serious study of imperialism, including coming to terms with its consequences. For Gupta, his goal has always been to organize Amerikans.

The magic key theory

According to Gupta, there is a magic key that can unlock a radical potential in Amerikans. First Gupta thought it would be an imperialist war. Then he decides that supporting UFPJ and doing ‘independent’ journalism would somehow radicalize Amerikan masses. Now Gupta calls for “principled anti-imperialism” as part of his latest attempt to inspire a radical idealism into Amerikans. Gupta’s calls for “anti-imperialism,” like his calls for other moralistic positions, will fall on deaf ears as long as he sees Amerikans and the First World as a social base for radical, progressive change.

Because Gupta is a proponent of the magic key theory, his critique of other groups are petty. He claims that the more radical sectors of the anti-war movement never really confronted the state. He says that the anti-war movement was really never able to break free from the limitations of the state, and thus was never able to expand as a radical movement. But what does this mean and is it true? Just in Denver, for example, anti-war graffiti popped up. Khristopher Kolumbus and other statues have been vandalized multiple times. During the DNC, a protest led by a black bloc took the streets and marched downtown. Denver has solidarity networks for prisoners and victims of police brutality and active chapters of Copwatch. Most recently, a nominal anarchist has been accused by the pigs of breaking windows at the Democratic Party Headquarters.

What does Gupta think was missing? “A golden opportunity was missed in the counter-recruitment movement,” he says. Surely, counter-recruitment was another one of Gupta’s magic keys: another one that didn’t work supposedly because the “left” wasn’t turning hard enough.

Like Gupta’s “anti-imperialism,” his prescribed necessity to confront state power is abstract. Besides his counter-recruitment spiel, Gupta never defines “confronting state power.” He doesn’t give other examples, historic or modern. “Confronting state power,” for Gupta, is another movementarian fantasy, speculatively postulated in a way that ignores the real social and material basis of mass apathy and reaction-ism in Amerika.

Gupta’s chauvinism

Gupta’s “anti-imperialism” is not anti-imperialism at all. Instead, Gupta’s politics is one of chauvinism wrapped in loosely-construed, “anti-imperialist” slogans.

As a matter of narrowness and “left” Amerikan exceptionalism, Gupta never once mentions resistance efforts on the part of oppressed peoples in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Third World. Gupta, now a self-described “anti-imperialist,” not once mentions those exploited by imperialism in the Third World! Instead he focuses solely on the “radical potential” of the largely defunct anti-war movement in the First World. We ask, how can this possibly be anti-imperialism?

Gupta uses his privilege and broadcasts a phoney “anti-imperialism,” objectively to the disservice of real anti-imperialism. Those in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in the Third World, for whom anti-imperialist struggles are often ones of life and death, do not have the luxury to freely and openly broadcast their ideas and experiences on their common struggle against imperialism. Instead, this is a luxury for Gupta, who not only speaks the colonizer’s language but has the privilege of doing so without repression. Does he take this privilege seriously? No. For Gupta, “anti-imperialism” is another phrase, liberally thrown around to see if Amerikans bite. Without a second thought, he uses his membership of the world’s richest 15% to broadcast an effective lie, that Amerikans are friends of the Third World, calling it “anti-imperialism.” Again, we ask, what is Gupta doing besides objectively blunting real anti-imperialism worldwide?

Revolutionary anti-imperialism

The difference between Gupta and ourselves is obvious. Gupta conceives of unity between the Third and First World masses where none meaningfully exists; he insists that Amerikans are potentially revolutionary when they clearly are not. Thus, his politics will always be implicitly pro-Amerikan and not representative of the immediate interest of the world’s people.

Real anti-imperialism, the politics of the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Movement, derives its strength from and seeks to inspire the global masses, the 80% of the people in the Third World for whom resistance is a way of life. Real anti-imperialists see Amerikans for what they are– class enemies of the Third World masses– and understand this: imperialism will only come crashing down through the advancements of the struggle by Third World peoples for liberation.

Our strategy

While Gupta is wasting time trying to radicalize Amerikans, the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Movement (RAIM) is engaged in real strategies for real revolutionary change. Whereas “anti-imperialism” is just a buzzword for Gupta and First Worldists, RAIM understands that imperialism is the crux of world dynamics and proceeds from there. A hallmark of RAIM’s strategy is accounting for limitations imposed on us by the fact that Amerikans support imperialism and using our privilege to develop real aid in the revolutionary struggle.

We don’t water down genuine anti-imperialist politics to pander to First Worlders. Above all, RAIM speaks the truth and says it loud and clear: First Worlders maintain their decadent lifestyles via imperialism; are class enemies of the real masses in the Third World; the complicit ‘Volk’ in a murderous global empire; and must be overthrown along with imperialism. We openly represents anti-imperialist politics and broadcast our analysis to a global audience, using our own privilege to do so, even if most Amerikans don’t like or ‘get’ it.

First World mass movements come and go, along with most of its participants. Rather than trying to build an “anti-imperialist” mass movement in the First World, RAIM is a politically sophisticated and technically versatile one, with the aim of best serving the Third World masses and their struggle. We want dedicated, determined comrades who are all in for the long haul. RAIM broadcasts a consistent message of anti-imperialist solidarity globally and is a focal point of revolutionary agitation, education and political development within the belly of the beast, Amerika. Through RAIM, we seek out and educate those few First Worlders who can be best won over the consistent anti-imperialist politics. Through RAIM, we develop both politically and technically, becoming more of an asset to the revolutionary struggle.

RAIM is important as a national network which openly represents anti-imperialist politics, but it should be seen for what it is: an appendage to the vast Third World struggle; our collective effort to contribute to this larger revolutionary movement. RAIM’s message is huge, too big for RAIM alone. We encourage constant political and technical development, specialization and the application of Third World-oriented, revolutionary politics to different types and forms of work. We support those who support the movement of the exploited Third World against the imperialist First.

The scorecard

Arun Gupta and RAIM represent two very different types of “anti-imperialism.” Gupta’s is one of magic keys and preeminent, potentially ‘radical’ First World ‘masses.’ He brings little new to the table. His explanations of everything from why the anti-war movement collapsed to what is imperialism seem shallow or abstract. His analysis is neither real anti-imperialism nor a strategy for revolutionary change.

Nearing the end of his speech, after talking for thirty minutes, in the typical manner of First Worldist intellectuals, asking how to build a genuine, radical mass movement, Gupta says it’s something he’s thought about a lot about, but doesn’t have any real answers for. Typical.

RAIM posits an anti-imperialism that is new, that explains things in a way Gupta can’t. Our anti-imperialism is groundbreaking and changes the focus and look revolutionary political work for those in the First World.

RAIM won’t lead a revolutionary mass movement, nor do we intend to. Nevertheless, we still have a positive role to play in the global revolutionary struggle. By working together, representing and broadcasting a consistent anti-imperialist message, operating as a school to our own and others’ political and technical development and promoting Third World-oriented, revolutionary unity, we can act as agents of global revolutionary change in a way that First Worldists such as Gupta can’t.

The difference is simple. Gupta is First Worlder who’s into nominally-’leftist’ mass movements. RAIM? The name says it all.

[Video of Gupta's speech can be found here: http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2009/9/24/arun_gupta_asks_where_is_the_anti_war_movement]

RAIM Crashes Racist Tea Party

RAIM Crashes Racist Tea Party

(raimd.wordpress.com)

Racist tea baggers took their anti-migrant idiocy to the steps of the capitol building. The Saturday event in Denver was part of a national day to oppose amnesty for so-called “illegal aliens.” According to the website www.againstamnesty.com these “Tea Parties” were to be held in 50 cities, including Denver and Durango.

RAIM learned of the meeting of the pinheads only a few days before hand. That didn’t stop RAIM from organizing a counter protest. A few days before, RAIM put a shout out to oppose the fascists and to support migrant rights.

50 teabaggers, minutemen, and other racist scum gathered at the Capitol steps on the cold morning. RAIM and a few other migrant rights supporters turned out to counter the racists. RAIM showed up to give the racists a history lesson by pointing out that the land under their feet was stolen from other peoples, including the Cheyenne and Mexicans. We asked them where the border was in 1848 when the U.$. invaded Mexico. “Colorado” is, after all, a Spanish word. KKKolumbus and those who followed him from Europe to this hemisphere are the real illegal migrants. If anyone should get off the land, it should be the crackers who’ve been squatting here illegally for centuries. Slogans chanted were “Get off stolen land, deport the minuteklan,” “No minutemen no kkk no fascist usa.”

The very presence of our counter demo changed the dynamic of the teabagger protest. Despite our smaller numbers,the teabaggers were completely focused on us. Our presence provoked them, Some violently. Many threatened violence against us from across the street. Some crossed the street to confront us. One old crazed cracker with a Korean War hat came across the street to us and wanted to start a fight. He had to be held back by his wife, and then he threatened her and pushed her around. Typical pig. Another ugly old white trash women came and attempted to take our bullhorn. Despite their claims to the contrary, the racism of the tea baggers was obvious to everyone. One of the baggers threw pennies at Mexicans who were present, saying “Go buy some tacos.”

Others mocked Spanish accents. Others openly stated their hatred of Mexicans. Another cracker came over and spewed racist crap about Mexicans having 15 babies at a time and being a burden on the Amerikkkan tax payer.

As we faced off, a group of high school students came by passing out flyers for a school activity. Seeing the action, they joined our side. Kudos to the students, they had more education than the ignorant Amerikkkans on the other side of the street.

Our challenge to the teabaggers exposed their racist settler piggery. There is no point in trying to reason with deranged people. The “working class” and petty bourgeois Amerikkkans are the Social base of fascism. These people are some of the worst that Amerikkka has to offer.

RAIM, others wreck Zionist-led war mongering against Iran

RAIM, others wreck Zionist-led war mongering against Iran

On October 28th, Uzi Landua, a hard-line Zionist and long-time high-ranking official in the Israeli state, spoke at the Auraria campus in Denver. Landau was invited by the Zionist group, the Amerikan-Israeli Student Affairs Committee, to discuss the supposed threat posed by Iran. RAIM had other ideas.

Word about the event reached Denver’s activist community less than two days prior. The day before the event, officials from the student government and University of Kolorado asked activist Glenn Spagnuolo to call off a protest, stating it would force the speaking engagement to be canceled because it would create a security bill too large for the school to bear (an additional $3,500 supposedly). Spagnuolo, a student and organizer from the DNC protest-coalition Recreate ‘68, and was in Israel when Rachel Corrie was ran over by a made-in-Amerika tractor, driven by an IDF soldier, while Uzi Laudau was ‘Security’ Minister of the settler state. Glenn insisted that even if Landau had lunch on campus, which was also scheduled, there would be a some sort of a protest. Eventually, the Israeli embassy (read: Israeli state) footed the security bill.

The day of the event, a snowstorm blew into Denver, causing the campus to be closed 30 minutes prior to the start of the event. Because of the strict security the would-be audience of 25 or so was forced to wait outside, huddling against the door. A small protest of around 10 or so gathered, including some RAIMers. A RAIMer took the opportunity to hand out an special informational flier to everyone waiting to get in, sparking a debate between a hardcore Zionist and those in the crowd.

After the doors were opened, and after the crowd and protesters passed a metal detector wand and bag check, they were greeted to large amounts of pizza and soda. RAIMers helped themselves and made sure that everyone who didn’t get already get a copy of our informational flier, got one. It wasn’t hard. In the end, the audience numbered around 40-45, including the protesters. The Zionists student organizers, Uzi and his entourage were around 15. There were also around 15 pigs and 10 campus and student staff.

Uzi was flanked by a bodyguard who looked like an angry Lurch from the Adams family, with a bad military haircut, a black trench coat and obviously armed. As Uzi walked on stage, most in the audience clapped in applause. RAIMers and other protesters instead greeted him with loud boos. Boos and hisses persisted and steadily grew more frequent as his Cold War-esque, militarist screed continued. RAIMers occasionally interrupted Uzi’s speech with shouts of “war criminal,” “liar” and “what about Palestinians?” and clapped in applause when Uzi claimed Iran was pursuing nuclear weapon capabilities.

For his part, Uzi was a crude spokesman for the Israeli state, explicitly linking Israel and Amerika’s security and calling for the “free world” to confront the Iran. Whereas many in the audience already found Israel questionable, the information prepared ahead of time by RAIM and protesters’ on the spot agit-prop helped bring out a wider, more visible hostility towards his message. Uzi, feeling the pressure from the unsympathetic crowd, kept his speech short and fulfilled his obligation to field questions.

A RAIMer took the first questions, referencing the fact-sheet and asking Uzi to account for disparities in casualties between Israelis and Palestinians; and if he agreed with the idea that the state of Israel is the fulfillment of a promise by ‘God’ and not in need of further justification. Every question asked of Uzi thereafter was critical of Zionism and the Israeli state. There was no more discussion of Iran. Uzi was forced to fruitlessly defend Israel for the remainder of the event. As he left the stage, he was parted with more and louder boos.

Rather than finding a receptive audience for his militarist cheerleading against Iran, Uzi Landau was met with effective opposition from Denver activists and Palestine supporters, including RAIM. The event, which cost thousands of dollars for both the University of Kolorado and the Israeli state, became polarized with the majority of the audience finding themselves on the side of vocal opposition towards Zionism. Incidentally, RAIM was the only organized group with a presence at the event; we talked with Palestine supporters and handed out a few RAIM Digests. Uzi Landau’s Zionist war-mongering was wrecked.

Check out our informational flier on Israel here: Israel flyer

Speech by a RAIM Comrade on the 8th Anniversary of the Invasion of Anghanistan

The following was delivered by Comrade Hector of RAIM-Denver on October 7th, 2009, the 8th anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan. In the speech, the RAIM comrade tells the audience of anti-war and police brutality activists, anarchists and RAIM supporters that the problem is not Bush or Obama, it is Amerika.

“Leonard Peltier is a political prisoner – an artist, a writer, a father whose life has been stolen. Locked away for defending his land. Locked away in Amerikkka’s dungeons. He just sent an open letter to the president. To paraphrase: ‘I am not Bush’s political prisoner. I am your political prisoner now.’ He is Obama’s responsibility. This is an important point, especially for the liberals here whose politics begin and end with ‘throw out the Bush regime.’ Well, Bush is gone. Surprise, surprise. Amerikkka is still at war. Two wars wasn’t enough. Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Pakistan. And Iran is in the cross hairs. A recent poll shows a majority of Amerikans, Republican and Democrat or “Independent,” want to use force on Iran right now. Iran is in the crosshairs and it’s Obama with his finger on the trigger and your average Joe Amerikan cheering him on.

These wars are not just wars of the ‘right wing,’ or ‘conservative, or ‘Republican’ wars. These aren’t Bush’s wars. They are Obama’s now. More accurately, they are Amerika’s wars. And, it will take more to stop these wars, and the next war and the one after that, than marching in the streets holding signs. This shit goes back to 1492, even earlier. The crusaders, KKKolumbus, Manifest Destiny, chattle slavery, the endless imperialist wars of the last century.

In 1492, KKKolumbus sailed the ocean blue.. then he landed and killed everyone who wasn’t European. Exterminated the Taino peoples. That’s the real story.

Yesterday, it was the US genocide of South East Asia, the propping-up and financing of death squad states in Latin America, the rape and enslavement of Africa. Today it’s killing Pakistanis with unmanned drones. What will it be tomorrow?

The problem is bigger than Democrats and Republicans. Bigger than Bush and Obama. The problem is Amerika, and Amerikans. We can’t let Amerikans, and the Amerikan working class off the hook. Even the poorest Amerikan benefits from imperialism.

Yet Amerikans have the hypocrisy to point their fingers at the Third World. They call the Iranian president a “holocaust denier.” Yet Amerikans are the biggest holocaust deniers on the planet. It was the US that largely exterminated the whole continent of North America, from sea to shining sea — the largest genocide in history, thousands of civilizations gone forever – tens of millions killed by Uncle Sam.

In Zimbabwe, a recent report condemned Mugabe because he ‘only’ paid three percent in compensation to the imperialists during his land reform program. Let me get this straight. The imperialist come to Africa, they steal the land from the Africans, they disrupt the African traditional way of life, the imperialists impose white supremacist terrorist states on Africans, then when those Africans take their land back, the imperialists call it ‘theft’ and impose sanctions to strangle Zimbabwe, to punish the Africans, to make them OBEY. When Mugabe turned the tables and gave land to the poor Africans, he is a ‘thief,’ yet the imperialists think nothing about stealing whole countries as was the case in Zimbabwe or whole continents as was the case in the Americas. The only compensation the Africans received was the whites imposing a terroristic white supremacist state to keep them in bondage. The only compensations the Indigenous received in North America was to be killed or herded into reservations on the worst land, to have their children stolen and culture stripped away.

Remember the pigs earlier today who dared us to cross their invisible line on the ground? The pigs told us that we could not stand on parts of the sidewalk in front of the building? Who the fuck are they to say anything about where we can and can’t go on this land? This is Mexican and Indigenous land. It’s Uncle Sam who squats here on borrowed time. This land will be returned to its rightful owners. These crackers will get a taste of socialism – the power of the Third World over the First World. RAIM opposes the war. More than that, RAIM opposes Amerika and Amerikans.

The vast majority of humanity in the Third World barely survives on about $2.50 a day. Yet, Amerikans and the First World as a whole plop themselves down in front of their stupid boxes, one hand glued to a remote controller, the other in a bag of Cheetos. Amerikans waste their lives away on the back of others. RAIM is out to settle the score. RAIM is going to turn the tables.”

Amerikan E-Waste Poisons Chinese

Amerikan E-Waste Poisons Chinese

(raimd.wordpress.com)

E-waste increasingly flows from the U.S. to the Third World. E-waste is made up of computers, cell phones, and other electronics that have been thrown away. For example, Amerikans throw out 133,000 computers a day and 100 million cell phones a year. Electronics contain harmful, toxic materials such as lead, cadmium, mercury, chromium, and polyvinyl chlorides. These materials are known to cause cancer, brain damage, kidney disease, etc. This toxic e-waste is the fastest growing part of the municipal waste stream in the U.S.

How does e-waste get from point a to point b? There are dozens of corporations that are contracted to dispose of e-waste. One such company is Executive Recycling out of Englewood, Colorado. Executive Recycling promotes itself as an eco-friendly corporation, sponsoring Earth Day events and a “Go Green” campaign in Colorado, for example. They are a corporation that is contracted to dispose of e-waste in an environmentally safe manner. The Executive Recycling web page even warns of the dangers to Amerikans that e-waste poses: “Here in Colorado, residential customers are not governed by law to recycle electronics; however by putting these items in the trash we are causing a larger issue, as these items leach mercury, lead, and other hazardous elements into our drinking water.”

So, how does Executive Recycling keep Amerikans safe from toxic e-waste? Rather than expose Amerikans to their own hazardous trash, Executive Recycling dumps it on Chinese. A recent story by the news journal 60 Minutes documents how toxic materials are shipped by Executive Recycling, and other First World recycling companies, from Amerika to destinations in China.

One destination is Guiyu, China. It is a city with a growing population, where peasants have come after being driven off the land. The ex-peasants breakdown and burn old computers and other electronics. They earn a few dollars a day dealing with highly toxic materials without protective equipment. They report that their lungs burn and they have trouble breathing. Their skin is damaged with scars and burns. The local water has become undrinkable. Drinking water has to be trucked in. Guiyu has the highest level of cancer-causing dioxins in the world. Seven out of ten children have too much lead in their blood. Miscarriages are six times more likely there.

The Amerikan high-tech lifestyle produces poisons that are forced upon the impoverished peoples of the Third World. Not only do Third World peoples slave away in factories producing consumer goods for Amerikans for pennies an hour, Third World peoples also have to recycle Amerikans’ toxic trash. Capitalist-imperialism poisons Third World peoples in order to maintain the Amerikan way of life. This is yet another example of how the First World lives on the backs of the Third World, exporting the cost of its lifestyle to the majority of the world’s people.

Amerikans have help in poisoning the Chinese population. The Chinese state turns a blind eye. In the 1970’s, Chinese self-determination and independent socialist development was replaced with brutal comprador capitalism. Today, the Chinese state sells the labor and health of its people to imperialism in order to make a buck. The First World and its Third World lackeys will continue to ruin the lives of Third World peoples until imperialism is defeated, until Third World peoples seize control of their own destinies.

Source:  http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4586903n

Death 2 The West

Remember Oscar Grant: The Struggle Is Not Over!

This New Years Day 2009 in Oakland, California another tragic incident of police terror against a young Black man occurred.  Oscar Grant III, 22 years old, father of a 4 year old daughter, was shot execution-style by a transit cop.  Videos of the incident clearly show he was shot in the back while face-down on a subway platform, unarmed and posing no threat.

The incident was filmed by bystanders, and police attempted to confiscate most of the videos.  But a few made it to Youtube and were viewed around the world.  Outrage at this incident spread, with protests and rebellions happening in response to this atrocity in the Bay Area and elsewhere.

John Burris, a civil rights lawyer for the Grant family, called this murder one of the worst cases of police terrorism he ever witnessed.  Recently Johannes Nehserle, the pig shown on the video shooting Grant, was charged with murder after he quit the BART police force and fled the state to avoid questioning.  Along with calling for criminal charges against the cop, Burris is helping file a 25 million lawsuit for Grant’s family.

Although this case may be one of a few where justice is brought against a killer cop, it will be too little too late.  Terrorism and injustice are nothing new for Black people in Amerikkka.  It enslaved and killed millions of African people in one of the most brutal slavery systems known to man.  It subsequently lynched thousands of Blacks in its long history of colonial and neo-colonial oppression.  Other non-white peoples have been victims of Amerikkka in its long history of exploitation, land theft, and genocide.

With oppression comes resistance.  The Black Liberation struggle and the leaders it produced have long been an inspiration to oppressed peoples in every corner of the globe.  We take this time on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to remember that spirit of resistance.

This year’s celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day coincides with the inauguration of Barack Obama, the first “Black” president of the United States.  While objectively historic, it should be seen as it is, a reinvention of U.S. imperialism as a multicultural empire with a Black figurehead.  As seen by the murder of Oscar Grant, the Obama presidency will not end the police killings of non-white youth.  It will not end the huge incarceration rates of non-white peoples inside the United States.  It will not free Mumia Abu-Jamal and the hundreds of other political prisoners who are continually denied freedom and justice.  It will not end the U.S. instigated bloodbaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. support for Israel’s aggression against Palestine, or U.S. harassment against independent nations like Venezuela and Bolivia.  And it will not end the parasitic capitalism that steals resources and labor from the Third World to fuel Amerika’s opulent consumerism.

Even Martin Luther King Jr. saw the realities of the political, economic, and military imperialism the United States was inflicting not only to oppressed nations inside the country but all around the world:

A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, ‘This is not just’” (“Beyond Vietnam”).

The investments they continue to use to take profits from poor nations were received from previous thefts the U.S. committed throughout its history.  This cycle must stop.

At the same time Oscar Grant was killed, over 1000 Palestinians lost their lives in Gaza by the settler occupation of Israel, funded by the United States.  True freedom and justice will not come by accepting a bigger part of U.S. imperialism but by rejecting and abolishing it outright.  Oppressed nations everywhere must gain their freedom and determine their own destinies.  These freedom struggles are in solidarity with all oppressed peoples in the world, in bringing about a truly just world where an end to oppression with no concessions is more than just a dream.

PDF Flier

RAIM-Denver: Stand With Gaza

PDF Statement: Stand With Gaza

RAIM-Denver: [updated] Get Involved

How To Get Involved in RAIM-Denver and the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Movement.

Not everyone will be able to get involved with RAIM-Denver or the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Movement at the same level. Read through this and consider your options in the context of your individual dedication and situation.

1) Revolutionize Your Mind.

Before you do anything else, free yourself from the state of mental atrophy that First World society expects of you. Read materials made avaliable by RAIM-Denver, most of which can be found on our blog under the Short Readings category section. Check out some of the books on our Recommended Reading page. You don’t have to agree with every nuanced detail, but you should familiarize yourself with RAIM-Denver’s thus presented body of thought.

Additionally, don’t limit yourself to stuff only found on the RAIM-Denver blog. Branch out. Regardless of background, most RAIMers are more intelligent than the general First World population. Begin today and keep the tradition going. If you have any questions feel free to send them to us at raim-d@hush.com.

2) A Revolutionary Movement of One

After you’ve attained a decent understanding of revolutionary anti-imperialism, do something with it. Even if you’re a lone anti-imperialist, you can still do a lot. One way to contribute is through anonymous agitation work. Simply print out and distribute RAIM-Denver materials in your area. Hip ‘lefty’ coffee shops, infoshops and bookstores, university bulletin boards, and activist and other events are all great places to distribute revolutionary anti-imperialist literature and other materials. If you are distributing RAIM-Denver materials please include a link to our blog. If you want to hook up with other possible comrades in your area, include an email address.

Another great thing lone comrades can do is produce anti-imperialist material themselves. Writing and graphic design are great places to start. Even if you’ve never created political material before, now is the time to begin. Producing your own materials gives you valuable experience and with time can increase your capacity to contribute to the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Movement. If you’re not into distribution, send your creations to us and we’ll get them out there. If you have any questions, need some advice or want some feedback, RAIM-Denver can help.

3) Join RAIM-Denver Locally

RAIMers, or members of RAIM-Denver, contribute to the direction of RAIM-Denver through a combination of participating in inner discussions, producing and distributing materials and representing RAIM-Denver at political events.

For those locally on the same ideological page, generally what it takes to become part of RAIM-Denver is a certain level of dedication to the revolutionary cause and a willingness to work as part of a preexisting group. If this is you or if you have further questions and are not sure, then contact us at raim-d@hush.com.

4) Support RAIM-Denver’s Cause

RAIM-Denver often runs into people who support our politics and the work we do, but themselves do not have a great deal of time to offer. These people occasionally donate money to RAIM-Denver, distribute our materials in places we’re not or support RAIM-Denver at actions or events. If you would like to do this, please e-mail us.

5) Create a Larger Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Movement

Have two or more dedicated comrades in one area? Start working as a unit to develop and grow revolutionary anti-imperialism. Founding and being part of a RAIM cell takes no small amount of involvement. However, it is one of the best ways to contribute to the overall global revolutionary movement.

Working with others in an organized effort has a number of advantages. Your own development as an anti-imperialist is enhanced by the encouragement of others; your work made sharper by the observation and constructive criticism of other anti-imperialists. The more people involved in any project, the wider the range of ideas and resource available to that effort. Lastly, by acting as a unit, anti-imperialism is advantaged when it comes to dealing and working with the much more scattered but larger ‘left.’

RAIM-Denver has gathered a lot of collective experience and has a lot of advice to offer. Some of it is already posted on the RAIM-Denver blog. If you have any questions or want further advice, we’d love to help.

Start thinking about what you can do now. Once you’ve put in some work, email us, leave us a comment or start your own blog and let us know how you’re doing. As you get off the ground, we’ll highlight your work. Working together, we can build a stronger, better, more flexible Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Movement.

Nick Brown: Anti-Imperialism, Organization and Expansion

An Interview with Monkey Smashes Heaven

[Nick from RAIM-Denver was recently interviewed by the Maoist-Third Worldist online journal, Monkey Smashes Heaven. This is a slightly editted version of the interview.]

MSH: I understand that you’re familiar with Monkey Smashes Heaven and the work we’ve done. Thus far, what have you found most interesting about Monkey Smashes Heaven?

NICK BROWN: On a personal level, I have found the analysis of the Cultural Revolution to be quite interesting. I have read about the Cultural Revolution and China before in a general way. MSH is innovative in two regards. First, it is highly sympathetic towards the then-called “ultra-left” as well as overtly anti-amerikan elements. Second, it does this while taking a critical look at the role of Mao himself. Smashing dogma coming from both the ‘left’ and right, MSH is completely unique in its analysis on the Chinese Cultural Revolution. In many ways creating a new paradigm for understanding China in its revolutionary phase, MSH has set a new standard for future work to live up to.

An example of this is Lin Biao. RAIM-Denver has long distributed Lin Biao’s Long Live the Victory of Peoples War! as a historical revolutionary anti-imperialist text. However, recent studies produced by MSH have cast new light on Lin Biao’s role in the Cultural Revolution. This has made Lin Biao much more favorable in my eyes.

In terms of RAIM-Denver, what we like the most about MSH is its similar analysis of imperialism. Like RAIM-Denver, Monkey Smashes Heaven is one of the few leftist or revolutionary formations that accurately describes Amerikans as exploiters of the Third World. In this fundamental aspect, RAIM-Denver and Monkey Smashes Heaven has a clear common cause. MSH has explored various approaches to calculating exploitation and parasitism. The works of Prairie Fire, Serve the People, End Imperialism and Shubel Morgan have further illuminated global class analysis. We hope that MSH publishes more political economy in the future.

MSH: Such a view is part of Maoism Third Worldism, an emerging revolutionary trend. Where does RAIM-Denver diverge from Monkey Smashes Heaven and Maoism Third Worldism.

NICK BROWN: RAIM-Denver isn’t a Maoist-Third Worldist organization. Generally we operate around a basic points of unity of 1. seeing Amerikans principally as class enemies of the world’s exploited majority and 2. support for national liberation and resistance to imperialism. Beyond this RAIMers are free to adopt whatever ideological or philosophical line they like. That’s not to say that there aren’t some RAIMers who subscribe to Maoism-Third Worldism. But RAIM-Denver itself has a broader approach and points of unity.

MSH: How successful has RAIM been in the Denver area?

NICK BROWN: That’s a trick question. It depends on what you mean by success. Is there a growing revolutionary anti-imperialist social movement just below the surface in Denver? Absolutely not. But I really think thats a bad way of going about defining success in our context.

On a realistic level, I actually think RAIM-Denver has been quite successful. We are arguably the largest nominally leftist group in Denver area with the possible exception of a couple of non-profits with paid staff. We are probably the most active group in Denver. Also, we are active in more fields than other groups. Basically, no other group in Denver has the capacity to show up to as many protests, write as many articles, put out as many original images, distribute as many fliers, etc etc. All of this is especially astonishing because we are not the typical ‘leftist’ grouping.

MSH: To what do you attribute this success.

NICK BROWN: A few things. First, we’re all very dedicated. RAIM-Denver is not a bunch of coffee shop revolutionaries. Whether its showing up for cold February demonstrations, engaging in self-education or distributing anti-imperialist materials at high schools, RAIM-Denver does shit.

Second, we are really unorthodox in terms of the way we’ve organized ourselves. On one hand, we’re not a loose collection individuals who’ve come together for a special event such as a protest. On the other, we are not a party or even a formal organization. We are more a network organized around an ongoing project and ideology: RAIM-Denver and revolutionary anti-imperialism. This has given us a lot of flexibility in terms of working styles and the activities we engage in. One person may want to do something. Perhaps everyone else in RAIM-D is busy with other specific projects or otherwise too tied up. If the idea doesn’t raise major objections, then the person can do it as RAIM-Denver. This leads to a lot of simultaneous types of work being done, fosters personal initiative and cultivates collective leadership of RAIM-Denver. That’s not to say that this type of organizing doesn’t have its limitations. It does. But overall our non-dogmatic organizing approach has been an asset, made us more fluid and freed us from being bogged down in traditional organizational restraints.

Lastly, believe it or not, our unique worldview has contributed to our success. Most of the ‘left’ sounds the same. It all boils down to some sort of program for higher living standards for Amerikans. This leaves “communists,” “anarchists” and the Democratic Party vying for the same audience while spewing fundamentally the same message. RAIM-Denver on the other hand comes out and says that Amerikans’ living standards are based on exploitation and ecological destruction. We’re not toned down in other areas either. Thus, not only are we easily distinguishable from the ‘left’ milieu but we are the only ones who are intellectually honest. MSH: What are some of RAIM-Denver’s goals?

NICK BROWN: At this time one of our major goals is to see a larger country-wide anti-imperialist movement. We’d like to see independent, though not necessarily isolated, RAIM-like groups form in other cities and regions. Based on my experience there is limited potential for such growth.

MSH: Limited potential?

NICK BROWN: I don’t think you’re going to have groups comparable to RAIM-Denver sprouting up in many cities overnight. I would be pretty suspicious if it worked out that way. More probable is that two or three, maybe more, comrades hooks up in a city or two and begin working together. That’s how things start. Who knows where it could go from there.

MSH: What has RAIM-Denver been doing to to help facilitate such an expansion?

NICK BROWN: The first thing we did was start RAIM-Denver with this goal on the backburner. We wanted to organize in a way that could be roughly reproducible given similar conditions. Given our success thus far, I think that the founding of RAIM-Denver was an important first step in the creation of a loose, multi-celled revolutionary anti-imperialist network. Currently, we are beginning work on standardized versions of our more popular material. We want to make it as streamlined as possible for people to print out our material, makes copies and and distribute them. Keep your eye out for nicer looking, printer ready PDF versions of RAIM-Denver originals. Also, we are going to be expanding our web presence, adding an archive as a central place of find printer-ready materials and a kind-of general RAIM web portal to highlight the work of various emerging RAIM-like cells and proto-cells. Some of this stuff is still tentative, but keep your eye out for it. The idea behind a lot of this is that RAIM-Denver and its material can be used as a central reference point to build for other RAIM-like groups elsewhere.

We get comments and emails from all over the country from people who say that they wish there was something like RAIM in their city. Chances area, if you are reading this and live in a large city then there is someone else in your city who is equally fascinated with revolutionary anti-imperialism. The popularization of the anti-imperialist internet sources and the distribution of their materials around the country can be used as a basis to draw more people into organized revolutionary anti-imperialist efforts. Ultimately though, its up to other people to make it happen. RAIM-Denver only do so much before the responsibility to build such a country-wide movement rests on others. We’ll see what happens.

MSH: For those who have followed your work and want to get involved, what is the first step?

NICK BROWN: Assuming that one has read RAIM-Denver’s work and has a satisfactory understanding, I would tell that person to start doing anonymous agitation work. Writing and distributing articles is an excellent place to start, or one could print up RAIM-Denver materials and start distributing them at schools and universities, coffee shops, activist events, etc. Whatever you do, do something. For myself, revolution is a moral cause worth a lifetime. However, we are asking for you to put forth a minimal level of time and dedication now. RAIM-Denver has in many ways taken the first steps. Now all that is left is for people to pick up the torch to run with it.

MSH: Last question. What happened between you and Alex Jones?

NICK BROWN: It’s a long story, but I’ll try to keep it short. The confrontation stemmed from our work with Recreate ‘68 (R68), the main coalition that organized the anti-DNC protests in Denver. RAIM-Denver was one on the main groups working with Recreate ‘68, though much of our involvement was behind the scenes. Needless to say, RAIM-Denver’s local contributions R68’s efforts were considerable. Early on, Recreate ‘68 came under attacks in incidents ranging from anonymous threats, probable infiltration and not so covert agent provocateurs, as well as a media smear campaign to go along with it. Additionally, the were divisions within Recreate ‘68. A lot of it came down to rhetoric and the right to self defense.

In walks Jonathan Elinoff. Jonathan Elinoff at first glance seems like a hopelessly devoted “Truther.” He pretentiously came to a single R68 meeting, demanded an extravagant amount of publicity during the protests for his viewpoints and was unanimously rejected. During the course of the night he talked to a RAIMer and got ahold of a Troublemaker DVD. From this, he wrote an article claiming that we told him we were stockpiling blood and urine to throw at the pigs. He also claimed that Recreate was a front group for RAIM-Denver. The wild accusations spread from there. Unfortunately, the “stockpiling blood and urine” story stuck and was circulated word to mouth and through the internet. It even spread to mainstream national media. Using the non-violence issue as pretext, groups such as Colorado Communities for Peace and Justice, Tent State, the Colorado Green Party, Code Pink, and the International Socialist Organization split from Recreate ‘68. Unable to unite around the principle of letting the pigs kick your ass, they formed a coalition called The Alliance for Real Democracy, whose main activity was wrecking the real work being done against the DNC. They were de facto Democratic Party operatives. They ended up going to far as to host as Convention watching party and a friendly delegate meet-and-greet, among other things.

But it didn’t stop there. Alex Jones, nationally syndicated crackpot and white supremacist, invited Jonathan Elinoff, whom others in the 9-11 Truth Movement have told us is shady, on his radio show. There Jonathan embellished his claims even further, saying that we were planning violent acts and claiming that he had a tape of us telling him or someone else about it. Of course no such tape exists. Jonathan couldn’t keep his lies straight. Alex Jones however went ahead repeating Elinoff’s fabrications and instructed people to watch out for us and even video tape us. A situation was being put into place were RAIM-Denver could have been taken out before the DNC began. A similar situation was used against Anarchists prior to the RNC. More humorously, the “blood and urine” story made it to the Denver City Council. An ordinance was passed barring the possession of blood and urine with the intent to throw it at a pig. We thought it was funny at least.

During the Freedom March for Political Prisoners during the DNC, someone told me that Alex Jones was at the back of the crowd. He was hard to miss. Even before I got there he was yelling and flailing his arms around. I grabbed a bullhorn and got into a confrontation with him. I exposed his white supremacist and amerika-first world view and how his view implicitly supports the police state. A few reporters were on hand and it was noted in mainstream media outlets. Because of their lies, Jones and Elinoff are, for the most part, both looked at with hostility in the Denver activist scene. They never took responsibility for their pig behavior and they have never since mentioned RAIM-Denver.

MSH: Thank you for your time. Revolutionary salute!