Dying Empire: US Imperialism and Global Resistance

197 Pages·2010·8.509 MB·English

by  Francis Shor

Dying Empire
U.S. imperialism and global resistance
Francis Shor
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LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2010
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2010 Francis Shor
Typeset in Times New Roman by
Taylor and Francis
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
TJ International, Padstow
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN 10: 0-415-77822-0 (hbk)
ISBN 10: 0-415-77823-9 (pbk)
ISBN 10: 0-203-86535-9 ~bk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-415-77822-0 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-415-77823-7 (pbk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-203-86535-4( ebk)
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: the world turned over 1
Part I
Imperialc onstructionsa nd deconstructions 9
1 Imperial burdens: constructing and contesting the U. S.
empire 11
2 Fortress America redux: breaking down imperial and civic
enclosures 27
3 Afflicted solidarities: contradictions in local and global citizen
movements 42
Part II
Whose globalization? 57
4 U. S. military imperialism and the pursuit of global
dominance 59
5. U. S. economic imperialism and global inequities 77
6. U. S. cultural imperialism and global dissonance 92
•
Part ill
Other publics,o ther worlds 107
-
7 Transnational counterpublics and the globalization of
resistance 109
viii Contents
8 Is another world possible? 124
I
Conclusion: it's the end of the world as we know it
Notes 149
Bibliography 175
Index 189
Acknowledgments
The germination of this book, like a flowering bulb, has taken time and
required nurturing. The earliest, preparation and planting, I suppose, came
with the political commentaries I felt compelled to write as the Bush
Administration went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Fortunately, the web
offered a variety of sites to post these commentaries. Responses from around
the world from people too numerous to mention demonstrated the keen desire
to utilize this technology for alternative means of expression and solidarity.
With the encouragement of Joel Kuszai and Factory School Press, many
of these electronic postings became the basis for a 2005 publication
entitled Bush-League Spectacles: Empire, Politics, and Culture in Bushwhacked
America.
However, as an historian, I felt compelled to look beyond the policies of
the Bush Administration and to seek explanations for the broader context
and persistence of U. S. imperialism. In addition,, I wanted to account for
specific types of global resistance and the emergent aspirations for "another
world." Thus, I began to plow numerous fields, some of which-were new to
me, in order to integrate recent scholarship on U. S. imperialism with vari
ous perspectives on globalization from above and below. The result of this
synthesis, I trust, is critically grounded in that scholarship without being
overwhelmed by it, achieving, in the process, a desire,d accessibility for a.
wide audience.
There are many people to thank for the variety of nurturing they have
provided to me and this book, albeit often in an indirect manner. A 2006
summer seminar on "Globalization," led by Jackie Smith, a dedicated aca
demic and activist, opened up the whole field to me. Over the last few years,
colleagues and comrades in the Global Studies Association, especially,J erry
Harris, have also helped to expand my understanding of and concern with all
of the implications of imperialism and globalization. Members of the Utopian
Studies Association in the United States and Europe have shared their
insights on numerous related topics. Two international colleagues, Verity
Burgmann from the University of Melbourne and Marcel van der· Linden
from the Institute for Social History in Amsterdam, have enlightened me with
their global perspectives.
x Acknowledgments
Through a variety of formal and informal seminars, meetings, and dis
cussions, colleagues at Wayne State University'have also nurtured my work
in this general area. These colleagues include the following from the former
Interdisciplinary Studies Program (ISP): Ron Aronson, the late Eric Bock
stael, David Bowen, Andre Furtado, Gloria House, Julie Klein, Bill Lynch,
Daphne Ntiri, and Marsha Richmond. In addition, the adult working stu
dents in the former ISP were instrumental in challenging me to articulate
and make accessible my ideas about imperialism and globalization in a
senior seminar. Other colleagues from Wayne State and especially my new
department, History, have aided immensely in the exploration of related
issues. Among the most helpful have been Tom Abowd, Jorge Chinea, Jose
Cuello, David Fasenfest, Liz Faue, Heidi Gottfried, Marc Krugman, Janine
Lanza, Guerin Montilus, Marilyn Rashid, Aaron Retish, Brad Roth, Nicole
Trujillo-Pagan, and Monica White. I especially want to thank my History
colleague and fellow-traveler, Alex Day, for the close readings he did of over
half of the manuscript. I actually took account of some of his suggestions
even though he should not be tagged with what finally emerged. In addition,
the History department secretary, Terri Patton, helped with some of the
aspects of manuscript production.
Outside WSU and in the greater Detroit area, there are many who have
helped nurture this project in so many different ways. First and foremost, I
want to acknowledge the careful reading of a portion of the manuscript that
my neighbor and friend David Palmer did. He, too, like Alex, should not be
held accountable for the final text. As a participant and sometimes speaker in
programs sponsored by Peace Action of Michigan, Michigan Coalition for
Human Rights, and, Huntington Woods Peace and Citizenship Project, I
gained both the clarity and empathy that made' my writing for this book more
compelling. My long-time friends·and anarchist provocateurs, Ralph Frank
lin, David Watson, and, especially, Peter Werbe (my genial traveling compa
nion to the Caracas World Social Forum) have had an enormous impact on
my thinking, even as I have stubbornly clung to my own idiosyncratic read
ings•of local, national, and global events. Also, Ralph managed to solve some
tricky formatting problems for which I owe him my thanks.
Of course, this book would have never seen the light of day without the
encouragement -and support from Barry Gills, editor of the Routledge
"Rethinking Globalizations" Series. He has been responsive in so many dif
ferent ways to the twists and turns in bringing this project to publication. The
two anonymous readers who reco~ended giving me an advance contract for
the book must be acknowledged. It is impossible to convey what a comfort
it was to have a publisher already committed to the book. My editor at
Routledge, Heidi Bagtazo, and her assistant, Lucy Dunne, have been incredibly
generous with their time, especially in light of the blizzard of questions
with which I pestered Heidi in particular. Thanks also to Harriet Framminghan,
Rosemary Morlin, Ann King and Abi Bennett Humphries.
Acknowledgments xi
Finally, my deepest gratitude goes to my immediate intimate others, from
my Dad and Uncle Ed to my daughters, Molly, Miriam, and Emma, to the
Grand Nurturer, my wife, Barbara Logan, who has the patience of Job.
That patience and the computer skills I lack came into valuable play in the
formatting of the manuscript. In addition, Barb's capacity to listen to my
constant rants about all of the items that went into this book, both large
and small, proves that love is a potent force, even in the face of daily dour
pessimistic rants.
Hopefully, the blossoming of this book is part of the flowering of that other
world which is needed now more than ever. To all those working in their own
fields for a more equitable and sustainable world, I dedicate this book.
The author acknowledges permission to incorporate his article on Habitat
for Humanity in New Orleans ("Hammerin' on Heaven's Door"), which
appeared in the Winter 2008 edition of the journal, New Politics <www.
newpol.org>, as part of Chapter 3 of this book.
The author acknowledges permission from Peter Lang Publishers in Oxford
to incorporate material from his chapter, -"A Better (or, Battered) World is
Possible: Utopian/Dystopian Dialectics in the American Century," in Liz
Russell, ed. Trans/Forming Utopia. Portions of Chapter 1 on the American
Century and World Social Forum and Chapter 8 on the WSF appeared in an
earlier form in the aforementioned chapter.
The author ~cknowledges permission of Susan Bergholz Literary services.
New York, NY and Lamy, NM to include material from Upside Down: A
Primer for the Looking-Glass World. copyright ©1998 by Eduardo Galeano;
translation, copyright ©2000 by Mark Fried. Published by Metropolitan
Books, Henry Holt & co.
"Notes on the House of Bondage" by James Baldwin reprinted with per
mission from November 1, 1980 issue of The Nation magazine.
Thanks also go to the James Baldwin Estate for permission to reprint
excerpts from "The Fire Next Time".
One can speak ... of the fall of an empire at the moment when, though all of
the paraphernalia of power remain intact and visible and seem to function,
neither the citizen-subject within the gates nor the indescribable hordes out
side it believe in the morality or the reality of the kingdom anymore - when
no one, any longer, anywhere, aspires to the empire's standards.
James Baldwin, "Notes on the House of Bondage"
Introduction
The world turned over
If the world is upside down the way it is now, wouldn't we have to turn it over
to get it to stand up straight?
Eduardo Galeano
All empires die, but not in the exact same way. Certainly, as analyzed by
world systems scholars, there are similar patterns that determine the rise
and fall of empires. Moreover, there are generic characteristics that define
empires, even though these characteristics are constantly subjected to his
torical circumstances and contradictions. Central to the operation of any
empire is the compulsion to establish a matrix of control, whether formal or
informal, through several overlapping domains, i.e. socio-economic, geo
political, and ideological/cultural, which, in turn, help to create the hege
mony empires need to legitimatize their rule. To realize control in one or all
of these domains, empires utilize imperial domination through direct state
and military mechanisms or through more indirect economic and cultural
links. In the older forms of imperialism, direct territorial and/or political
control was imposed through colonial domination. Although there wer~
certainly manifestations of internal and external colonial domination by
U. S. imperialism in the nineteenth and early twentieth centurie's, for the
most part, and particularly after World War II, U. S. ilhpedaf,policfes relied
less on direct territorial and/or political control than 9n a range of indirect
strategies, some of which, however, resulted in direct military intervention. 1
The drive to impose control and domination, whether indirect or direct,
invariably engenders resistance on an individual and/or collective level. Such
resistance necessarily alters the shape of imperial geo-political strategy. That
dialectical play of forces, furthermore, complicates the range of imperial
options and forms of resistance. Moreover, th'ere are inevitable consequences
for the institutions and ideology of the mother country as a result of the
enactment of imperialism at home and abroad. Dying Empire: U. S. Imperi
alism and Global Resistance will scrutinize the specific historical and socio
cultural peculiarities of an American empire in its death throes and the
myriad forms of global resistance to the dying empire.
2 Introduction
Although the death of the United States Empire may be greatly exag
gerated, the historical exploration of how an empire emerged and what its
material and ideological impact has been on its own citizens as well as people
around the globe demands detailed analysis. Beyond the particulars rendered
by that analysis, history, as an interpretive enterprise, contains its own pur
poseful cunning. To paraphrase and reverse Picasso's notorious comment on
art, history is a truth (albeit, provisional and selective) that shows us the lie.
The lie at the root of the historical investigation in Dying Empire is that the
United States, especially since the end of World War II, has operated abroad
with heartfelt charity and wise leadership. That lie, repeated over and over,
with bipartisan faith among the ruling elite and with substantial support from
a blinkered citizenry, requires forthright and extensive examination. Certainly,
as noted by the historian Gabriel Kolko, "the conviction that the United
States has a universal calling and the economic and military power to fulfill it
is a notion with deep historical roots." Probing those roots and their reper
cussions will be the essential task of this book. The book also shares another
critical perspective with Kolko: "That other nations have in the past also
believed they were predestined for imperialist missions only confirms that the
United ·states is not the only imprudent country in the world, but it has been
much slower than others to learn from its errors and adjust to reality."2
Hopefully, Dying Empire will be the kind of educational experience that
allows its readers to comprehend the errors of the past and participate in the
rectification of those errors in the present and future.
My own education about the imperialist mission of the United States owes
much to my first direct ~ncoun'ter witp ·t he tragic repercussions of U. S.
imperial policy in Central America. This ,resulted in generating an emotional
resonance to my rather academic and remote sense of the deleterious nature
of that policy. In Octob~r of 1984, I traveled, ~o Nicaragua as part of a small
Michigan delegation for Witness for P~acei 'i1l1o rganization that had been
founded the year before with the intention q( bringing U. S. citizens to that
embattled county.3 Our dual role was to o6serve the dynamics .of political,
social, and economic changes in Nicaragua and to intervene non-violently,
where and when possible, against the increasingl_yl ethal U. S.-sponsored
Contra War. In that dual capacity, we interviewed a variety of participants in
the Sandinista &overnment, in the opp,ositipn pol_iticalp arties and press, and
in the U. S. embassy in Managua. We also visited the Nicaraguan campo, or
w<;
countryside, where engaged in such activities as a day of work on a coffee
plantation aQ.dm µnel'ous solidarity meetings with peasant cooperatives and
inhabitants of border villages that had come under attack by the Contras.
Oqviously, as a member of Witness for Peace, the expression of solidarity
with certain groups of Nicaraguans meant that we would be actively involved
in the polarized politics of that country and ours. Without endorsing the
policies of the Sandinista government, we, nonetheless, were unalterably
opposed to our own government's illegal proxy intervention in Nicaragua.
There were some among us who naively embraced whole-heartedly all of the