Several years ago, my co-author, Steven Victoria and I wrote a series of books called Murder Inc.– I-N-C, not I-N,-K. Incorporated. And we were writing about American history from below. We were writing in the spirit of the great, late historian Howard Zinn, whose People’s History of the United States sparked fires in the minds of millions of young people, and continues to do so today.
We made a point in Murder Inc. to distinguish imperial history from national history, and we tried to argue that empires are not nations, but imperial structures that own and direct and lead other nations. Therefore, we argue that empires have no allies because the very concept of an empire forecloses the ability to have an ally. It has vassals, only vassals, that it controls, that it directs, that it tells them what to do.
Why is that important? Look around you. Look at what happened within weeks in Venezuela. Look at what’s happening right now in the United States of America, where armed troops are at war with American citizens and people who want to be citizens one day in America. But again, to the point of no vassals: if a empire interacts with a nation, enters that nation by military force, takes its leader, transports the leader and his wife to another country, for a case against that leader in the imperial territory, and then sets up leadership to obey its directives, to give them the raw materials in that nation – are we talking about two nations? Or are we talking about an empire and a vassal state? You answer the question, but be honest about it.
Years ago, when we wrote those words, we were thinking of Iraq and Afghanistan, where Americans put in puppets to manage – unsuccessfully mind you – the successive states to the states that were crushed by military attack because of the resistance of the Iraqi people and the Afghan people. We know now that the most powerful weapons in the world cannot create a result if the people continue to resist.
We could not have imagined what we’re looking at today. We were more right than we thought we were. We suggest that you take a moment to acquire, and then read, Murder Inc. today, and then think about what’s happening right now before your very eyes. Were we right? You decide. With love, not fear, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
