[lbo-talk] Financing the Empire (was IMF warns the US)

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Sat Sep 20 08:59:35 PDT 2003


Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:


>You and Jim Devine criticized United for Peace and Justice
>literature about "War and Globalization" that came out of the UFPJ
>"Global Justice" working group -- the criticism that I share. If
>you were asked to draft a 2-page flyer (or 8-page leaflet) on
>"Financing the Empire" to educate anti-war/anti-occupation
>activists, what would it look like?

I'm about to leave on a brief trip, so I don't have time to say much, but I'd emphasize:

* How much it costs to run the empire, at the expense of domestic needs. E.g., $87b = twice the federal education budget, eight times what it costs to run the EPA, more than the cost of a univeral child care program, etc. Comparisons to what it would cost to cure malnutrition and provide basic literacy in what used to be called the Third World are even starker.

* How running an empire requires a crackdown on democracy at home. This could appeal to many fairly mainstream types even.

Doug



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