Anti-Imperialism

I have a confession to make. In the 1990s. when I listened to my professors talk about anti-imperialism, it was always with doubt hidden deep inside, thinking that capitalism was working and that the free market was fine and that getting angry at empire was hopelessly old-fashioned. It turns out, my professors were right, and I was wrong. Even two years ago, I would read agitations against global capitalism and think it was all too reactionary. I would read about the modern slavery of peoples of color to serve a racist hierarchy, and I would think, this was an exaggeration.

Cue the rise of Empire.

In the exposure of the Epstein Files, we see global capitalism’s evil and how modern slavery operated. With ICE and the attacks against immigrants evolving into the attack of people of color in the USA, we see the resurgence of white supremacy. With the USA rattling sabres over Greenland, and China threatening Philippine sovereignty, we see anti-imperialism as the only real, viable stance in this world.

The good thing is that scholars have dissected all these issues before, and can provide a vocabulary and playbook to fight this imperial darkness. My surest guide out of this is the experience of African-American scholars and their criticism against Empire, white supremacism, and all kinds of slavery, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s example of love overpowering hate.

We also have anti-colonial and post-colonial writers from the Philippines to guide us. All of them, from Andres Bonifacio to Manuel Quezon to Renato Constantino, argued for the Filipino to decolonize, to stand up on our own two feet, against colonial powers, against colonial thinking, and to become the best versions of the Filipino that we could become. We are not perfect, but we are the best that we have. We cannot depend on other nations too much, we have to decide on our own. No one is coming to save us but ourselves.

Photo by frank mckenna on Unsplash