Program of the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Movement

[We encourage new and emerging cells to read over and adopt this program.]

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Program of the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Movement

We want to smash this world and build a new one. Today, the median global wage stands around $2.50 an hour. Over 1 billion people face chronic hunger and a child dies every five seconds of starvation. This same situation is killing the planet at an unprecedented rate. Meanwhile, a global minority lives in comfort, unconcerned with their effect on the world. We aim to change this.

We understand that there is a causal relationship between wealth on one hand and poverty on the other. On a global level, the First World is rich because it exploits the impoverished majority, the Third World. This global divide, called imperialism, is the principal feature of the world today.

We side with the Third World masses and support their struggles for liberation. Exploiters are not going to hand over freedom to those they exploit. Only through struggle can the oppressed free themselves. We support the right of resistance- and revolution- for oppressed peoples against their oppressors. We support unity of the Third World masses against imperialism.

We reject First Worldism: politics which panders to or assumes that First Worlders are a social base for revolution. The “masses” of the First World are a global minority: a petty-exploiter class which regularly supports the imperialist system from which it benefits. Global revolution demands a just and egalitarian distribution of the world’s resources and wealth. Thus, over the course of global revolution, First Worlders will receive less, not more.

We are John Browns, staunch First World allies of the Third World. We are few and far between and behind enemy lines; there is little direct effect we can have. We consider our circumstances and focus on areas where we can effectively contribute to the revolutionary struggle.

We openly represent revolutionary anti-imperialism and work to build public opinion for Third World liberation struggles. We interject revolutionary, anti-imperialist politics into political arenas such as speaking events and protests; contribute to publishing and distributing revolutionary literature such as the RAIM Global Digest; and conduct group education through study collectives, practical tasks and informal discussion. We seek out and educate those who can be won over to consistent anti-imperialist politics.

We encourage direct participation and involvement, promote personal development and push people to become more valuable to the larger, global revolutionary movement. In part, RAIM is a ‘university of revolution.’ Through direct involvement with RAIM, we encourage people to become more proficient both politically and technically. A large part of RAIM’s purpose is to make individuals more of an asset to the Third World majority.

We encourage Third World-oriented, revolutionary political work. Though RAIM fills a roll by providing a public presence for and entry-level work into revolutionary politics, it is not the end-all-be-all of revolutionary political work. We encourage and support revolutionary, Third World-oriented politics being applied as part of different types of projects and efforts.

Adopted by RAIM-Denver and RAIM-Seattle, November 23rd, 2009

RAIM Global Digest Issue 4

RAIM Global Digest

Issue 4, July 8th, 2009

Contents:

-I-70 Expansion Indicative of Wider Imperialist Parasitism
- Review of “The Old Future’s Gone: Progressive Startegies Amid Cascading Crisis,” a talk by Robert Jensen
-RAIM-Denver: Class Today and the Struggle for a New World
-Arghiri Emmanuel: The North-South Division
-Pigs on a Rampage in Denver Area
-U.S. Troop Injured by Philippine Rebels
-Conflict Heats Up in Oil-Rich Niger Delta

Class Today and the Struggle for a New World

(http://raimd.wordpress.com)

“We want a better world. We want a world based on equality and mutuality. We envision a future in which the full potential of humanity is realized: one without unequal power relations and one of ecological harmony. Creating such a world is our common cause.” Such is the revolutionary refrain.

However pious the statements are, they stand disconnected from the world today: one full of inequality, oppression, coercion, violence, poverty and so on. If we really seek to create such a new, ‘utopian’ world, one thing is clear- we have a lot of work to do. Before we embark on this huge project, we need a plan or some sort of road map. Before we can chart a course towards the world we’d like to see, we must understand where we are now.

The world today is marked by extreme inequalities and stratification. The vast majority of people, around eighty percent, subsist on less than ten dollars a day. (1) Theirs is a world of poverty, toil and deprivation. Contrasted to this is a privileged minority noted for affluence, consumption and waste. Generally speaking, this social divide breaks down geographically: vast impoverishment being the norm of the ‘Third World’ and widespread affluence characteristic of the ‘First World.’

The scope and depth of this situation is unimaginable. In India alone, seven hundred million people live on less than two dollars dollars a day. (2) This is roughly equivalent to the entire English-speaking world. Around half of the world, about 3.5 billion people, live on less that $2.50 a day. (1) The human effects are devastating. For example, every year over 2 million people die of water born disease and every five seconds a child dies of starvation or malnutrition. (3) (4) All of these deaths are preventable: on a daily basis Amerikans alone have an average intake of 3,700 calories, throw away almost a third of their edible food and use 5.8 billion gallons of potable water just for toilets. (5) (6) (7)

The squalor of the of Third World and the squander of the First are directly related. Each world’s respective condition is the direct result of exploitation. The modern system of exploitation, whereby a global minority in a few rich countries lives at the expense of the impoverished global majority, is called imperialism. That is to say that in relation to the imperialist system and the Third World masses, those in the First World are beneficiaries of the former and a petty class of exploiters towards the latter.

Imperialism is currently the most widespread, fundamental form of oppression. This does not mean that other forms of oppression do not exist. Rather, imperialism is currently the dominant form of oppression: it touches the most people in the most fundamental way; it is the foremost determinant of life-options and class; and other forms of oppression are almost always negated, heightened, co-opted or superseded by imperialist exploitation. Imperialism drives social life today.

Attitudes and trends of thought, or ‘class consciousness,’ confirm this social reality. Whereas apathy and post modernism are common in the West, this is due to the lack of a functional need for a politically charged population. When First Worlders do express political views they are almost always supportive of imperialism. Mindless consumerism, a natural aspect of any society fattened on stolen wealth, is also a major phenomenon in the First World. On the other side of the social world, those in the Third World naturally resist their oppression. Radical Islam, the fastest growing social movement of the last thirty years, is in many regards an opposition movement against imperialism. This amalgamation of religion and anti-imperialism is no accident. Rather, it is evidence of two truths. First, the main social antagonism today is between the Third and First World. Second, oppression and resistance are inseparable.

Insofar as imperialism is the most fundamental form of oppression, resistance and revolutionary struggles are regular features in the Third World and at the margin. It is the Third World’s anti-imperialist struggle which is both the most widespread and common struggle amongst the global masses and by definition one against the core of global power. Containing amazing diversity, flaws and potential, the global anti-imperialist struggle is the struggle of the world’s exploited majority.

The anti-imperialist struggle is the modern day revolutionary struggle. The struggle of the global masses who are exploited by imperialism is of primary importance for those who seek a fundamentally better world: one that cannot freely evolve from the current one.

Anti-imperialist initiatives and revolutions in a single country or territory weakens the imperialist system as a whole and gives a new impetus for further, more widespread change.  It is as part of the global fight against imperialism that the foundations for a new world are built and of this process itself from which further revolutionary potential emerges. In our period, the complete abolition of capitalism, patriarchy, youth oppression and other unequal structural relationships as well as arriving at a state of mutuality and ecological harmony are directly tied the destruction of the current order via anti-imperialist struggle.

For revolutionaries around the world the current task is to advance and support the ongoing struggle against imperialism as part the advancement of our radical vision of a world free from all oppression. Those revolutionaries in the First World, who owing to class composition are few and far between and separated from the struggle of the world’s exploited masses, naturally find this task daunting. Nevertheless, for all those who desire a new world, this is the struggle we must engage in.

No doubt, the path before us is long and arduous. However, the place to begin is here; the time to start is now.

(1) http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats
(2) http://www.usaid.gov/locations/asia/countries/india/
(3) http://www.pacinst.org/reports/water_related_deaths/water_related_deaths_report.pdf
(4) http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/y7352e/y7352e03.htm#P1_34
(5) http://www.pacinst.org/reports/water_related_deaths/water_related_deaths_report.pdf
(6) http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/weekinreview/18martin.html?partner=rssnyt
(7) http://www.fypower.org/res/tools/products_results.html?id=100139

Hamas Official Calls For International Justice Against U.S and Israel

Hamas Official Calls For International Justice Against U.S. and Israel

(raimd.wordpress.com)

Speaking in Malaysia, a senior Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, called for the United States and Israel to be brought to trial for widespread destruction in the Gaza Strip. The charges stem from Israel’s 22-day assault on Gaza, which killed over 1,300 Palestinians.

Efforts are underway to gather evidence against the two criminal states, Zuhri said. During the conflict Israel used white phosphorus, which caused a number of structure fires including one to a food warehouse. In another example of Israel’s flagrant disregard for even bourgeois norms of war, a school received sustained shelling, killing 42 people including women and children.  Such occurrences and more were all too common.

While Zuhri’s proclamations are certainly righteous, they propagate a common misjudgment. Attempting to challenge the U.S. and Israel through their own institutions and by their rules is a dead end. The United Nations and International Criminal Court exist solely to perpetuate and reinforce the current order. Neither are conduits for justice for those directly under the boot of imperialist aggression. While Zuhri specifically encouraged private civil suits against Israeli forces and their backers, it is guaranteed such actions will lead to little long term success.

Hamas and all other representatives of people resisting imperialist oppression and exploitation must join together in creating a new international order. Only through the building of alternative institutions of the oppressed and the displacement of those championed by imperialism can the people of Palestine, and those of the world, come to fully realize justice and equality.

In the wake of Israel’s most recent attacks, support for Hamas, both in Occupied Palestine and internationally, has improved. Zuhri’s remarks came at a press conference after receiving a donation of over $250,000.

Sources:

http://210.19.40.5/ssig/news/fullnews.php?news_id=45695&news_cat=ts

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/02/03/65655.html

http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Israeli-39phosphorous-shells39-incinerate-1000s.4883418.jp

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&Do=&ID=35536

Welcome

Welcome to the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism Movement Central Blog. Here you can find aggregated information, goings on, and material from various RAIMs and RAIM-like groups.

We welcome contributions from comrades from across Amerika and the rest of world.

At the moment, this blog is under the moderation of the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Movement- Denver. Please send all submissions and requests to raim-d@hush.com.