Russia’s intervention in Ukraine is not ‘inter-imperialist war’ – imperialism is a system
https://rokfin.com/post/78169/Russias-intervention-in-Ukraine-is-not-interimperialist-war–imperialism-is-a-system
An explanation of how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is not an example of “inter-imperialist war.” Russia is not an imperialist power; imperialism is a global economic system, and Russia is part of the semi-periphery, not the core. Moreover, the US-led NATO imperialist bloc started this crisis in Ukraine by sponsoring a coup in 2014, fueling a civil war in the eastern Donbas region, encircling Russia with Western military bases, arming and training Nazis and other far-right extremists, and flooding Ukraine with billions of dollars of weapons. (This talk was part of an event held on March 6 by the International Manifesto Group.)
Continue reading The West Provoked Ukraine War
Category Archives: USA
Imperial power
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 28, 2022
When Russian troops invaded Ukraine last week, it set in motion the possibility of another major transformation in the European political and economic order.
Russia launched its attack from Ukraine’s northern border with Belarus, across its eastern frontier with Russia, and in the south from Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014. Such a move suggests that more than the annexation of Ukraine is at stake.
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Putin—casualty of his own war
By Raffique Shah
February 28, 2022
I told everybody who asked my opinion on the likelihood of war, of Vladimir Putin’s massive military force positioned close to Russia’s boundaries with Ukraine storming into the latter’s territory in a bid to re-draw the maps for that part of the world, that was unlikely.
Speaking more from my heart than my head, I suppose, I posited that “nobody wants a war”—not now, not ever. Wars are costly, bloody affairs that wipe out of existence entire generations of mostly young people.
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What You Should Really Know About Russia and Ukraine
Did Putin Have ‘Other Options’ on Ukraine?
By Ray McGovern, May 22, 2023
The attempt at balance – however transparent – is welcome. But are readers not owed some attempt to spell out those “other options”? This is not a marginal quibble; we are talking war. When one glibly asserts, glibly, that that a country that launched hostilities had other options, well, what were they? A statement as lengthy as that published in the NYT might have made room for an attempt to cite one or two of those options
John Mearsheimer Ukraine Salon May 23, 2023
The Biden Administration is engulfed in a staggeringly expensive folly in Ukraine with no forseeable good outcomes. The Committee hosted University of Chicago Professor John Mearsheimer the week after the Russian invasion fourteen months ago. That zoom salon had 1,136,000 views. The Committee has invited John to return — this time in person.
Continue reading What You Should Really Know About Russia and Ukraine
Black Lives Matter
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 21, 2022
It is gratifying to see the United States Embassy in Port of Spain flying its flag atop its building together with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) flag in honour of Black History Month.
It has taken the US a long time to recognise the important role blacks have played in the making of its country. An accompanying statement to this event noted: “Raising BLM flags on US embassy and consulate flagpoles throughout the world calls attention to efforts to advance racial equity and access to justice in the US and worldwide.” (Express, February 16.)
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When extraordinary isn’t good enough
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 08, 2022
“[In the United States] Black people have had to perform at a much higher standard simply to receive the rewards of being ordinary. For Black people, being ordinary is an extraordinary achievement.”
—Lewis R Gordon on Du Bois’s Political Thought
During his lowest ebb in his political career at the Democratic primaries in 2020, Joe Biden promised he would select a black woman to be a US Supreme Court justice if he were elected. About a week ago, Justice Stephen Breyer resigned from the court, allowing Biden the opportunity to fulfil his promise.
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Voting Rights in America
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 24, 2022
“Slavery is not abolished until the black man has the right to vote.”
—Frederick Douglass (1865).
A few days ago, in the United States Senate, the Democrats fought vigorously against the suppression of the rights of black people to vote that were passed by 19 Republican-controlled states of the union.
In spite of their best efforts, the Democrats failed to achieve their objective, which led Carl Hulse to opine: “It was a disheartening moment for congressional Democrats, who put the full force of their majority behind the issue, despite the long odds of success” (Boston Globe, January 26).
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White America Should Not Be Afraid of Critical Race Theory
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
Speech delivered on October 19, 2021
Posted: January 12, 2022
“Critical race theorists are committed to a program of scholarly resistance, and most hope scholarly resistance will lay the groundwork for wide-scale resistance.”
—Derrick Bell, “Who’s Afraid of Critical Race Theory?”
INTRODUCTION
I am pleased that Ines Maturana Sendoya, Associate Dean of Students and Engagement, has asked me to be the keynote speaker in her series, “21 Days Against the Racism Challenge.” I am also pleased that she has asked me to address you on the subject of Critical Race Theory. At least, my take on the subject. For over fifty years, as a professor of Africana Studies (we used to call it “Black Studies”) and a columnist for many newspapers, I have been writing or teaching about how race and racism have functioned within America’s theoretical discourses and historical practices.
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Exposing the danger of cult leaders
By Dr Kwame Nantambu
December 24, 2021
As the US House of Representatives Select Committee continues to issue subpoenas to former president Donald John Trump’s advisers and allies in regard to the endemic dynamics of the historic, violent insurrection on the nation’s capital on January 6; plus the stark legal reality that on November 12, a federal grand jury “indicted” one of the former president’s advisers, Steve Bannon, “on two counts of contempt of Congress”; and as a sidebar, as of this writing, 32 “non-related sentences (have been) handed down so far” in cases filed by Justice Department prosecutors; ergo, it is a sine qua non to expose the gut danger of cult personality leaders: Jim Jones’ “Jonestown massacre” in Guyana on November 18, 1978, v Donald John Trump’s putatively inspired, violent insurrection on the nation’s capital in Washington DC, USA, on January 6.
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But for a video…
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 29, 2021
On March 17-18, 2011, I was invited to deliver two lectures at Albany State University in southwest Georgia on the topics “Caribbean Intellectual Thought” and ARF Webber, a Tobagonian who spent most of his life (from about the age of 19) in Georgetown, Guyana.
During a luncheon on one of those days, my host informed me about the violence that was ever present for black people who live in Georgia. He related an incident that he had seen with his own eyes. A black man and a white man had an argument/altercation. The white man did not agree with what the black said, and did not accept the outcome of their interaction.
Continue reading But for a video…