This system of global capitalism-imperialism headed by the U.S. is the main source of the horrors that torment so many across the globe--from the ethnic cleansing and slow genocide of the Palestinian people by the U.S. and Israel, to the mass incarceration and slow genocide of Black people in the U.S.; from the rape of the planet to the systematic degradation and violence against women--here and around the world; from the extreme deprivation and starvation faced by billions across the planet to the growing poverty and desperation faced by millions in the U.S.
The rulers in these imperial metropoles distribute some of the spoils of empire to provide a higher standard of living than in the oppressed countries and buy social peace and loyalty at home (which "Money for Jobs, Not For War" encourages). People in the U.S. should reject that foul pact! The vast majority in the U.S. have a profound interest in making common cause with oppressed people worldwide, not in siding with "their" rulers. That means fostering a morality that declares: "American lives are not more important than other people's lives!"--not pandering to American chauvinism, which strengthens the system responsible for so much misery. It means people shouldn't appeal to those on the top to "spend more on jobs," but to clearly and unequivocally demand a STOP to the horrors the U.S. is committing around the world.
Through this process of actively opposing U.S. aggression and the "America Number 1" mindset fostered to justify it, people can and must be won to increasingly see that this capitalist system and state is utterly un-reformable and that it's going to take revolution to get rid of it, end its predatory wars once and for all, and bring into being a whole new system and state that is in the actual interests of the people in the U.S. and around the world.
**********
Larry Everest is a correspondent for Revolution newspaper (revcom.us), where this article first appeared and author of Oil, Power & Empire: Iraq and the U.S. Global Agenda (Common Courage 2004). He can be reached via http://www.larryeverest.org.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
