by Ram\u00f3n Grosfoguel<\/p>\n
[As a continuation of the monthly conference \u201cCiclo Internacional: Nuestra America en los
\nPlanes del Imperialismo\u201d (\u201cInternational Colloquium: Our America in the Plans of US
\nImperialism), in the event \u201cUna Mirada desde Am\u00e9rica del Norte\u201d (A Gaze from North America)
\ncelebrated on August 25th, 2020, by the Caracas Movement of Social Scientists \u201cSimon Bolivar,\u201d
\nwe share the lecture delivered by Ramon Grosfoguel entitled \u201c8 Theses on USA Imperialism and
\nAnti-Imperialist Struggles in the 21st Century.\u201d]
\nThesis 1: The cycle of American hegemony in the world-system has entered into a terminal
\ncrisis. The American hegemony that began shortly after WWII in 1945, has come to an end in
\n2020. The new center of the capitalist world-economy has shifted towards China. With the
\nhighest death toll in the world and the more than 50 million people having lost their jobs over the
\nlast 12 weeks, the United States of America remains the epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic as
\nwell as the epicenter of a Global Great Depression of global capitalism.
\nThesis 2: In the long run, the decline of U.S. empire is good news for the world at large, but in
\nthe short run bad news for Latin America. After losing the wars in the Middle East, and after
\nhaving lost the trade war with China in Africa and Asia, the U.S. empire has retreated to the only
\nzone that remains, its historical periphery: Latin America and the Caribbean. This means that as
\nthe fall of empire accelerates, U.S. foreign policy in our region will be more hawkish and more
\naggressive. The empire seeks to monopolize the markets and natural resources of the region and
\nit looks to recuperate the countries it has lost to preserve and hold onto its imperial status in the
\nworld; hence the wave of soft and hard coups d\u2019etats of the last decade, the last ones being
\nagainst the government of Evo Morales in Bolivia last November, and the 4th Generation War
\nagainst Venezuela.
\nThesis 3: Over the course of the next few months, Venezuela will experience great tension. The
\nTrump administration is coming up against an election in which it fears losing. In the midst of
\nthe presidential election, the administration, in an act of desperation, is using Colombia, with its
\nneocolonial, narcopolitical, and parapolitical puppet government and neighboring neocolonial
\ngovernments to escalate tensions and if possible manufacture a conflict that will divert attention
\naway from domestic issues. This has always been a classic move on the part of US empire:
\ndiverting the discussion of its internal problems through warlike adventures abroad. If in the
\nMiddle East they deployed the rhetoric of \u201cIslamic terrorism\u201d to justify their imperialist statesanctioned
\nterror to destroy countries and murder millions of human beings, in Latin America
\nthey use the rhetoric of \u201cnarco-trafficking.\u201d We have already witnessed their use of \u201cfake news\u201d
\nto invent a cartel (the \u201cLos Soles Cartel\u201d) and accused President Maduro along with other
\nmembers of the Bolivarian government of heading the cartel. Using this false accusation, the
\nUSA emited a warrant calling for the arrest of the Bolivarian leadership in Venezuela. This is all
\na pretext for global public opinion, but above all, for public opinion consumption inside the
\nempire. Thus, the war of information becomes fundamental and we must brace ourselves for the
\nworse so that we are met with no surprises.
\nThesis 4: The Empire is torn between two versions of white supremacy: (1) the version of
\napartheid with an open and blatant racism represented by Donald Trump and the terrorist white
\nsupremacist militias that follow him and (2) the version of a new form of liberal multicultural
\napartheid currently headed by Joe Biden. The multicultural liberal apartheid version of the
\nClinton, Bush and Obama administrations seeks to put a multicultural and multiracial face on
\nwhite supremacy so that nothing changes.
\nThesis 5: These two versions of white supremacy constitute the two different responses to the
\nfact that White Americans will soon become a demographic minority within the next two
\ndecades.
\nLatinxs are the fastest growing population. The response on the part of Trump\u2019s version
\nof classic apartheid is to put up a wall on the southern border to stop the Latinx demographic
\ngrowth. The liberal multicultural response is to give the empire a multiracial face by integrating
\nelites from racialized groups into the administration while the white racial state and the white
\ncapitalist elites continue to rule over and further impoverish and exploit the Black and Latinx
\npopulations which the integrated elites claim to now represent. This is why we now have Black
\nand Latinx political elites, a former Black President and today a female Black vice-presidential
\ncandidate with no significant change in terms of race relations, capitalism, or imperialism in the
\nUnited States. What is important to note here is that these two versions of American White
\nSupremacy are simply two sides of the same coin. The differences are secondary and relate to the
\ndomestic politics of empire. As for the imperialist foreign policy there is no difference. For this
\nreason we should have no illusions about any American president: be it Donald Trump\u2019s version
\nof classic apartheid or Joe Biden\u2019s version of liberal multicultural neo-apartheid. In its decline,
\nthe empire\u2019s aggressive policy toward Latin America will intensify, above all against Venezuela,
\nregardless of who wins the presidential elections. As long as the WHITE house continues to be
\nWHITE, it matters little who occupies the presidency. The state will remain a white supremacist,
\nimperialist, and racial capitalist institution.
\nThesis 6: The demographic growth of non-white people is slated to be a majority inside the
\nempire in the next 15 to 20 years and has the potential to strengthen anti-imperialist struggles
\nwithin empire and move towards a decolonization that can put an end to the imperialist barbarity
\nof the U.S. racial capitalist state, in hopes of transforming the country into a civilized member of
\nthe international community that behaves itself in solidarity, peace, and equality with the rest of
\nthe peoples of the world. These struggles have been rendered essentially invisible outside of the
\nUnited States as a result of a media blackout. But regardless, these anti-imperialist movements
\nexist inside the empire and contain a lot of strategic potential. Let us remember that the war in
\nVietnam was won not only through the heroic struggles of Vietnamese people but also by the
\nmass anti-war mobilizations that occurred inside the empire. The empire will only fall as a result
\nof the efforts made by anti-imperialist struggles within its borders joined together by efforts of
\nanti-imperialist struggles abroad.
\nThesis 7: Facing the 21st Century, we cannot conceive of anti-imperialist struggles without
\ncoordination with anti-imperialist struggles inside of the US empire. In the 21st century, the
\nempire is torn between white supremacy in either of its two versions and the struggle for the
\ndecolonization of the empire from within. The Latinx population along with other groups inside
\nempire, such as Black people, Indigenous people, and migrants are strategic. Demographic
\nchanges open up a decolonial potential. This is not automatic as we have seen with the Obama
\nPresidency, where imperialism and the racial state did not change. It is about organizing a
\npolitical project towards the decolonization of empire from within, and in solidarity with other
\npeoples, build an anti-imperialist movement that will bring an end to the empire.
\nThesis 8: In the same way that a 21st century anti-imperialism cannot be conceived of without
\nthe coordination with anti-imperialist struggles within the empire, neither can we conceive of a
\n21st century anti-imperialism without epistemic diversity. We have to think of an antiimperialism
\nthat does not have a singular epistemology or worldview as its starting point. The
\nanti-imperialism of the 21st century must be epistemically and spiritually pluriversal, that is, a
\nuniversal that is diverse and plural. The anti-imperialist\u2019s principles of unity must be peace,
\nsolidarity and the people\u2019s right to self-determination, while respecting different spiritualities and
\nepistemic diversity. And it must have as a central theme the defense of LIFE, because the
\nimperialist system with its ecological destruction of the planet is only leading us towards death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Ram\u00f3n Grosfoguel [As a continuation of the monthly conference \u201cCiclo Internacional: Nuestra America en los Planes del Imperialismo\u201d (\u201cInternational Colloquium: Our America in the Plans of US Imperialism), in the event \u201cUna Mirada desde Am\u00e9rica del Norte\u201d (A Gaze from North America) celebrated on August 25th, 2020, by the Caracas Movement of Social Scientists … Continue reading Ramon Grosfoguel: 8 Theses on USA Imperialism and Anti-Imperialist Struggles in the 21st Century<\/span>