Needed: A grassroots foreign policy to resurrect communities in the U.S. and abroad

By Charles E. Simmons

Following the jubilation over the assassination of Osama bin Laden, America once again will ask whether and when troops will return home from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Even before this event, some Pentagon officials have hinted there may be a long-term military presence in that region, similar to the U.S. presence in South Korea in spite of the fact that that war ended in the mid-1950s. Or consider the fact of U.S. military bases in the Philippines and Guantanamo, Cuba following the U.S. War against Spain in 1898. 

One of the central issues in the current struggles for social justice and peace across the planet is the question of corporate and military globalization led by the U.S. and former colonial Western European nations under the umbrella of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Although this extension of power of the multinational corporations has led to a rapid rise in Wall Street profits and an expanding global wealthy class, it has also resulted in increasing impoverishment and a deterioration of domestic services and benefits among workers, family farmers and the middle classes in both the rich and poor nations. 

As the local middle classes, workers and farmers of the Third World see their resources and rights being stolen with the complicity of local puppet dictators, they often revolt and demand real democracy that benefits the little folk, as we are currently witnessing in the North African nations at this very moment. Some of the oppressed youth from these impacted communities will also turn to various forms of suicidal terrorism, just as many of our youth in the rich nations adopt suicidal behavior. But Americans must also remember the slogans from the freedom fighters in U.S. history, such as Patrick Henry and George Washington, and Nat Turner, who cried, “Give me liberty or give me death!” when challenging the might of colonial Great Britain or southern slave masters. 

In many cases, the muscle of a misguided U.S. military power back up this current expanding economic power of Wall Street and Fleet Street. Hence, Americans can expect a continuing spiral of rebellion followed by the intervention of western military forces under the umbrella of the United Nations and NATO, a coalition of the former European powers that brought us slavery and colonialism. This military foreign policy costs trillions of dollars annually and drains the local domestic budgets for education, housing, community development, infrastructure and security. Combined with the rapid deindustrialization of America, these forces guarantee continuous deepening of poverty, foreclosures, unemployment and environmental degradation in this great land. 

Many supporters of current U.S. foreign policy argue there is no choice given the dangers of the international community, and that war has always been the norm among nations. The old ways, however, cannot continue in this nuclear era of weapons of mass destruction that will leave no survivors. And there are other alternatives. A U.S. grassroots movement must call for a new foreign policy that promotes peace as well as defense by spending an equal amount of the military budget to study sustainable development that will build thriving communities in the poor nations that will allow farmers to grow food for their own consumption and create their own industries to feed, clothe and house their own peoples. This diplomacy will include citizen-to-citizen relationships among cultural workers and non-governmental organizations from ordinary people across the nation to discuss mutual interests and needs. It will also expand the student exchanges so that youth will develop a sense of international as well as local justice and humanity. The cost of this foreign and military policy will be half what it is today, and the human cost in the short and long term will decline tremendously. 

So let our jubilation turn from assassinations to a new future for our cities and family farms, our environment and the health of the planet. 

Copyright Charles E. Simmons 

Professor Simmons teaches Journalism and Media Law at Eastern Michigan University and is Co-Director of The Hush House Black Community Museum and Leadership Training Institute for Human Rights. Charles.simmons@emich.edu.