Israel’s genocidal campaign against Palestinians continues well into 2024, despite vocal condemnation by international human rights bodies and widespread public disapproval. After dedicating time to study the specific history of settler colonialism and resistance in Palestine over the past months, we expand our study to the history of capitalist imperialism to better understand the enduring systems of global hegemony and dominance that allow the genocide to continue unabated.

This series is for anyone who wants to learn more about the history of violent dispossessions that characterize the ascent of global capitalism and struggles for self-determination around the world—struggles which remain core to the socialist project. Across four sessions, this series examines foundational concepts, the role of national liberation within imperial power dynamics, and closes with a contemporary case study.

Our second session examines the globalized financialization that has accompanied the United States’ assent as an imperial power. Recommended readings explain the ways increased globalization and financialization have changed the way empire is administered, and compares current left theories of imperialism to those of the past.

Recommended readings listed below: Pages 23 – 53 in the Imperialism Reader

• Excerpt from “Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century: Globalization, Super-Exploitation, and Capitalism’s First Crisis” (John Smith, 2016)
• The New Debt Colonies, Jerome Roos (Viewpoint Magazine, 2018)
• The Specificity of Imperialism, Salar Mohandesi (Viewpoint Magazine, 2018)

 

RSVP: https://actionnetwork.org/events/imperialism-night-school-2