Recent Blog Posts – Page 2 – The Multiracial Unity Blog

What Is Imperialism? Is Russia Imperialist?

By Greg Godels, March 26, 2022

V. I. Lenin’s pamphlet, Imperialism, remains the leading elaboration of the concept of imperialism for Marxists. It is the starting point for any discussion of the global dynamics of capitalism from the late- nineteenth century until today.

While capitalism has taken twists, turns, and even detours since Lenin’s time, the destination remains the same– the exploitation of labor for profit, wherever workers and resources can be found. Capitalism’s evolution, concentration, growth, and uneven development are the necessary conditions for imperialism. Imperialism respects no social or political borders.

The Latest: INTERNATIONAL VACCINE APARTHEID WORSENS THE PANDEMIC FOR ALL

by Ellen Isaacs

March 25, 2022

From the point of view of public health, there are two overwhelming reasons to promote global vaccination against Covid-19. One is that since early in 2020, there have existed vaccines which are highly effective at preventing death and serious illness. Thus it is incumbent on all of us concerned with prioritizing human health to demand that all the people of the world have an understanding of and access to these vaccines. Second, if we allow large population groups to remain unprotected, the virus will have ongoing opportunity to mutate, creating variants which may be more lethal or vaccine-resistant and thereby endanger the health of the whole world, including those already vaccinated. Achieving global vaccination is no less important than practicing sound public health with masking and social distancing.

Concerning The War In The Ukraine: No Love for Putin-No Guns for Nazis

by David Van Deusen

March 21, 2022

Vladimir Putin’s Russia is motivated by imperialist ambitions and is rightly condemned by most for its military aggression against Ukraine. This is not a war of ideology for Putin. Russia is no longer the Soviet Union, but rather an authoritarian capitalist state where only Putin and the Oligarchs wield power. In a word, this is a war of empire.

A War is Not a War

by Raymond Nat Turner

March, 2022

“Truth is the first casualty of war”

—Phillip Snowden

Somewhere there’s bombing—

not where you are…

Somewhere there’s bombing—

maybe Kandahar?

War in Ukraine: The Only Good Imperialist Is a Dead Imperialist

Working class “cannon fodder” soldiers sacrifice themselves for imperialists on all sides

by The Editors

March 1, 2022

As this is written, Russia’s rulers are invading Ukraine with increasing brutality and even threatening to use nuclear weapons. Neither workers in Russia, Ukraine, the US or anywhere in the world have anything to gain from this conflict. We will only suffer bodily harm, economic turmoil and confusion from imperialist propaganda. Like all inter-imperialist conflicts, this one represents a struggle for territory, resources, and economic and military superiority. Sometimes such conflicts, like this one, threaten to pit great powers against one another, but more often there are proxy wars as in Syria or Yemen. In this article we will provide some history and analysis of this conflict and argue for international anti-war solidarity, opposition to all inter-imperialist fights, and building a worldwide workers’ struggle for a society we run in our own interests.

Fight Racism! Demand Universal Vaccine and Immigration Justice at the 2022 American Public Health Association Meeting

Karyn Pomerantz, 2-19-2022

Introduction

Public health activists in the American Public Health Association (APHA) have submitted a policy proposing universal vaccination, changes in global trade policy that protects manufacturers, and protection for asylee seekers and migrants. APHA must take a strong position for measures to prevent and treat Covid 19 and demand global working-class solidarity.

Adopting this policy will not guarantee action, but it gives credibility and science-based information to help advocates in the community, universities, and medical, health, trade, and labor sectors to organize more effectively. Writing it has given opportunities for more young public health students to learn about capitalism and to build relationships. What we learned:

Sudan: Coups, Imperialists and Resistance

by Ellen Isaacs

January 30, 2022

Like all the nations of the Horn of Africa that abut the Red Sea, the main passageway for the transit of Middle Eastern oil, Sudan has been a prize desired by many imperialist nations. (For a background summary of the region, see https://multiracialunity.org/2017/09/16/inter-imperialist-resource-rivalry-brings-devastation-to-the-horn-of-africa-and-the-middle-east/.) For 75 years, there has been a large leftist opposition within the country. Now another military coup has taken place and led to mass protests. We international anti-racists and anti-capitalists should take note, support, and assess what chance there is that these large, valiant rebellions with their great human costs will actually bring about the kind of worker run society we need and strive for everywhere.

Book review – Bitterly Divided: The South’s Inner Civil War, by David Williams

by Fran Gilmore

January 15, 2022

I never studied the Civil War, except briefly in an eighth grade US History class. Thus my knowledge was confined to the myths in American textbooks and what I imbibed from the culture in general, such as movies and other media. My conception was that southerners before and during the Civil War were solidly united in favor or slavery and the war to preserve it, and were solidly racist. Williams’ book shows that the latter notion was true–even those opposed to slavery were for the most part racist. But there were a few cases of whites opposed to both slavery and the war uniting with slaves to fight the confederacy, examples of the multiracial unity that remains so critical for the success of workers’ struggles today.