Malcolm X om imperialismens "mjuka makt"

Vi har haft mycket att göra i samband med Första maj, men nu är vi tillbaka, och hoppas ni alla har haft ett bra firande av arbetarklassens dag!

En person som har haft enorm betydelse för de svartas kamp i USA är Malcolm X. Även om han inte var
marxist eller kommunist, utan muslim och svart nationalist, så närmade han sig under sina sista år marxismens ståndpunkter och började fokusera allt mer på frågor om imperialismen och klasskampen. Kort tid därefter blev han mördad. Stycket nedan är ett utdrag ur hans tal den 14 februari 1965 vid Ford Auditorium i Detroit, och berör något som vi tagit upp här på bloggen tidigare: imperialisternas s.k. "soft power", d.v.s. "mjuka" metoder - NGO:er, "demokratiprojekt", "freds- och försoningskommisioner" etc. - som de använder parallellt med mord och terror för att upprätthålla och utvidga sin utsugning och dominans runtom i världen.

"When the ball was passed to the United States, it was passed at the time when John Kennedy came into power. He picked it up and helped to run it. He was one of the shrewdest backfield runners that history has ever recorded. He surrounded himself with intellectuals -- highly educated, learned, and well-informed people. And their analysis told him that the government of America was confronted with a new problem. And this new problem stemmed from the fact that Africans were now awakened, they were enlightened, and they were fearless, they would fight. So this meant that the Western powers couldn't stay there by force. And since their own economies, the European economy and the American economy, was based upon their continued influence over the African continent, they had to find some means of staying there. So they used the "friendly" approach. They switched from the old, open colonial, imperialistic approach to the benevolent approach. They came up with some benevolent colonialism, philanthropic colonialism, humanitarianism, or dollarism. Immediately everything was Peace Corps, Crossroads, "We've got to help our African brothers." Pick up on that. Can't help us in Mississippi. Can't help us in Alabama, or Detroit, out here in Dearborn where some real Ku Klux Klan live."