By Kamryn Stringfield

The primary issue confronting the entire world at the moment is imperialism. 

Western imperialism is a danger to all life on this planet, especially as it risks global nuclear conflict, continues exacerbating the climate crisis and resuscitates fascism and militarism around the world. American hegemony reaches over continents, forcing a myriad of nations to succumb to Western economic pressures just to get IMF loans and more. 

Our military is deployed on every continent in the world, we have more than 800 military bases worldwide, the world’s largest navy with fleets in every ocean and a massive “intelligence” community that excels in cyber-warfare. We’re the closest we’ve ever been to achieving “full spectrum dominance” of land, sea, air, space and cyberspace.

Besides the activities of the imperialists abroad, we can see clear as day the results of imperialism in our own communities. We see our fellow working people go broke, homeless, sick and starving while billionaires go to the bottom of the ocean, the edge of space and to private islands to flaunt their wealth and status. 

We see working class America struggling more and more to make ends meet, and watch as year after year the military budget is increased to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, as cities and counties approve increased police budgets and as Congress approves billions of dollars of military aid to Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, South Korea and more. 

We sat through a worldwide pandemic, declaring our bankruptcies and floundering to find jobs while corporations and the ruling class got bailed out with billions of dollars. We’ve watched as both parties constantly vote against the interests of the people, beat the drums of war, divide the working class with scapegoats and moral panics as well as work to repress dissenting voices. The distaste of the U.S. government, as well as most western governments and institutions, is palpable in every working-class person in America.

Times like these have arisen in history multiple times, and in those moments, the most important task of the working class was anti-imperialist organizing. Great revolutions burst forth out of these periods, such as in Russia during WW I or Cuba and Vietnam during the Cold War. Anti-imperialist action brought the first world war to a close, brought independence to dozens of colonies around the world, ended our interventions in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, brought about nuclear treaties and, to some extent, brought about the end of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

We must protest the U.S./NATO role in the current conflict in Ukraine, and understand why Russia invaded Ukraine. We must stand with the anti-imperialist countries that are arising in a new multi-polar world such as Russia and China against Western imperialism, and reject the state department crafted narratives about these countries. We have to demand an end to NATO and imperialist institutions and doctrines.

This is the most important task a human ever had, and we owe it to ourselves and our descendants to fight this fight. We need to organize demonstrations, direct action against local, state and federal governments, use local publications and media to denounce western imperialism, and build a popular front against Western imperialism and fascism. 

We must put differences aside and unite people from all backgrounds and demographics together for this struggle, as in the final analysis, we would all like to live and love and cherish our futures, and this will be impossible in a holocaust, whether it be fascist, nuclear or climate holocaust. We cannot let sectarianism and idealism get in our way. We need to organize disciplined, collective, centralized actions in coalition with as many organizations as possible, and build power against the empire and the system of imperialism. 

I’m calling all anti-imperialists in Oregon for this task, whether they be progressive, conservative, liberal, anarchist or apolitical. Let us unite and work to bring an end to imperialism so that we may finally see progress and avert the worst of the crises this world will face if imperialism is left uncontested. My email is Kamryn.Stringfield.z@gmail.com if anyone is interested in uniting for anti-imperialist action.

Kamryn Stringfield is a trans woman living in Eugene and is a member of Movement for People’s Democracy, Women for Racial and Economic Equality and People’s LGBT+ United Society. She has been involved in numerous anti-fascist and climate-based events in Oregon as well as in campaigns nationwide.

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