Almost one year ago I posted this article about US imperialism on my blog. It discusses what imperialism is, its history, current manifestations, why it must be opposed and how to do so. Essentially, it is an introduction to the topic with a further reading list at the end. Its rather long for a message board post so I won't try to copy and paste it all, but here is the first paragraph with a link to the rest:

US Workers’ Special Responsibility: End US Imperialism
Thursday, December 31, 2009

Despite its current decline (most strikingly evidenced by its decreasing percentage of the world’s total GDP) US imperialism is still the most dominant political and economic force on the planet. Weaker imperialist countries, like Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan are mere satellites in US imperialism’s orbit. The US has nearly 1000 military bases in over 100 countries and controls a large, hostile military bloc (NATO) that seeks to encircle and destroy Russia. Understanding US imperialism’s nature, history, current activities, and probable future shows the US left a way forward to victory.

Click for the rest: http://fosterhall.blogspot.com/2009/12/us-workers-special-responsibility-end.html

woo hoo. Daunting I'd say, but ya gotta go with the cards you are dealt.

but there is one point that I wonder about. Lenin's Imperialism is a story of IMPERIALISM and not Empire. A significant part of this is Lenin's Uneven Development (and I say "Lenin's" because it is NOT a theory of simple economic disparity as most put forward but more like a Formula One race: jockeying for position, pit stops, crashes, caution flags, fuel conservation, et cetera et cetera..all of this influences who is in the lead at any time and also stands ready to upset the entire race order at any time)

Yes, the US dominates the stage -- but just as Lenin once chastised Bukharin for not seeing the dialectical turn -- so to do we have to keep in mind the way things are unfolding and portend to unfold -- which is not just a simple recitation of how they have unfolded thus far projected forward in time (in a sense "determinism" breaks down, but since we've been to this tango before there remains very strong "predictive" powers available to us)

A fascist US hegemony over the entire world I think confuses the political dimension of Imperialism with its economic aspect (witness so-called Neo-colonialism which is actually a break down of the old direct rule of colonialism)

EDIT: not a criticism incidentally, but a critique

Just read your blog entry with interest. Thanks.

Feel free to post text of any length here.

There are not a lot of us here, but don't confuse a relative lack of activity when compared to many other boards with a lack of interest. Most of us read everything here, even if we do not have time to comment right away.