:: Analysis

On March 16, 2007, Philippine police arrested veteran journalist, activist, former political prisoner and torture victim, Congressman Satur Ocampo, on the steps of the Philippine Supreme Court. One day earlier, in Washington DC, California Senator Barbara Boxer opened hearings on the mounting death squad executions and kidnappings in the Philippines.

While the number of the world's billionaires grew from 793 in 2006 to 946 this year, major mass uprisings became commonplace occurrences in China and India.

The imperial system is much more complex than what is commonly referred to as the “US Empire”. The US Empire, with its vast network of financial investments, military bases, multi-national corporations and client states, is the single most important component of the global imperial system.

Economic Empire building (EEB) is the driving force of the US economy and became more central over the past five years. More than ever before in US economic history, the principal US banks, oil companies, manufacturers, investment houses, pension and mutual funds all depend on exploiting overseas nations and peoples to secure high rates of profit. Increasingly the majority of banking and corporate profits accrue from overseas plunder.

Waging war on activists and others, with U.S. support. Since President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo joined the U.S. global \”war on terrorism,\” the Philippines has become the site of an ongoing undeclared war against peasant and union activists, progressive political dissidents and lawmakers, human rights lawyers and activists, women leaders, and a wide range of print and broadcast journalists.

Yesterday the major Zionist organizations told us who we may or may not criticize in the Middle East, today they tell us who we may criticize in the United States, tomorrow they will tell us to bend our heads and submit to their lies and deceptions in order to engage in new wars of conquest at the service of a morally repugnant colonial regime.

Marxism is about the concrete analysis of specific structures of capitalism as it evolves as a result of the class struggle and the inner dynamics of profit maximization.

The general consensus is that China is emerging as the next great economic superpower. Despite growing awareness of severe ecological problems and occasional recognition of the growing social inequalities, many writers foresee China (and lately India) as the next world powers, challenging and surpassing Japan, Europe and the United States.

Foreign investment by MNCs is highly prejudicial to most Third World countries, because of the non-market incentives that it demands.

Over the past 40 years, many \”socialist\” and nationalist regimes attempted to combine public enterprise with private investment, including foreign investment.

Most workers engage in struggles and many join trade unions or social movements to improve their living standards and working conditions with little knowledge of Marxism.

To speak or write of \”the intellectuals\” today is to refer to a range of political positions from the extreme rightwing (neo-liberal, neo-conservatives), through the center right (social-liberals) to the center-left (social democrats) to the revolutionary left (Marxists).

\”Ho, ho ho!\” laughed Papa Noel as the 10 \”dwarfs\” entered the workshop singing the work song he had taught them.

The year 2005 marks the signing and implementation of ALCA, acomprehensive political economic agreement which will radicallyreduce Latin American sovereignty.

The monstrous deliberate slaughter of over 330 parents and children in the Beslan school gymnasium by Chechen terrorists is not as the BBC claims a ?tragedy? ? but a vicious criminal act.

After reading hundreds of books and articles and listening to scores of speeches and interviews by experts on terrorism and terrorists from the US, Canada, Israel, Europe, Latin America, Asia and South Africa, I have come to the conclusion that there are recurring patterns.

The debate between socialism and capitalism is far from over. In fact the battle of ideas is intensifying.

When I was a young man, my high school social science teacher, an elderly man of great wisdom (or so I thought), and courage (it was in the early 1950\’s) passionately defended the \”Third Way\”.

2003 was not a year of Historic Victories or Historic Defeats; it was a year of constantly shifting relations of power between imperialism and popular resistance movements.

To understand the nature and dynamics of anti-imperialist politics it is important to answer several key questions. These include:

The bombing of the United Nations compound in Iraq has provoked anger, sorrow, bombastic bluster from the Bush Administration and unreflective promises to \”carry on the humanitarian mission\” from the Secretary General Kofi Annam.

Perry Anderson has written a polemical critique of the arguments of the liberal sectors of the anti-war movement. His critique of their support of the United Nations and particularly the Security Council and the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty are well-taken if one-sided.