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Showing posts with the label “British imperialism”

Scenes from a Nightmare: The Imperialist Construction of Israel

Au lieu de a book In one sense, there is nothing extraordinary about this Zionist brutality. It is not, in its geo-political structure, very different from other imperialisms with which it shared during the 19th and 20th centuries. Of course Israel came to play a unique role in the world: its colon status on behalf of England and the United States marked a considerable aspect of its future course. But in its sense of entitlement to the land, resources and lives of another people, it merely replicated the horror of European and even American assumptions of superiority and secularized “divine right.” Crimes and state terror committed by the British and American imperialisms, the Zionist organisations, the ‘United Nations’ and the state of Israel

Imperialism and the Developing World

A very interesting review. The review too, I think, stops short at determining the cause(s) of imperialism. He does not identify the cause of power. “Power is the axis upon which the imperial machine turns and under which its various tentacles are subsumed. It is the means by which imperialists consolidate their near total control and domination of the lives of the imperialized. Kohli does discuss power in his analysis of imperialism, indeed, pointing out that, ‘Britain used its power superiority to build both a formal and informal empire’ (6); and ‘Force was used periodically to establish and maintain these economic interactions…’ (142). Also, ‘The use of coercion is especially significant for assessing a relationship as imperial’ (392). But so strong is the emphasis on motives (economic interest) that the significance of the concept of power or coercion is lost within the historical narrative. Indeed, in the case of the US, Kohli talks about ‘surplus power.’ We shall return to this

UK: Starmer Has Returned British Imperialism to the Core of Labour

I think ‘Western imperialism’ in the title is an overstretch. The article does not deal with Western imperialism. Nor does it mention economic imperialism. “Starmer’s flame-war against the left has become so extreme that, as some critics have pointed out, both Pope Francis and Amnesty International would face expulsion from Starmer’s Labour Party were they members. ”

Rudyard Kipling

Take up the White Man’s burden– Send forth the best ye breed– Go, bind your sons to exile To serve your captives’ need; On fluttered folk and wild– Your new-caught sullen peoples, Half devil and half child. – Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden” Kipling and British imperialism