JANUARY 23, 2026 IMPERIALISM Trump's Monroe Doctrine KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 The original Monroe Doctrine, which stated that all of the Americas was a U.S. sphere of influence, was declared in an address to Congress in 1823. This was still during the Colonial era and all major world powers were expanding. United States expansion was replacing European expansion and in conflict with multiple forces, especially with Spain and France in the Caribbean. Alaska was Russian and Czarist Russia was going down the Pacific coast. Jefferson had already stated that Cuba would fall to the United States when the time was right. The Monroe Doctrine laid the foundation for Manifest Destiny, which became essential to the U.S. view of itself. The Haitian Revolution defeated the French, then a 20,000-man British expedition, as they ended slavery. Haiti had the best military in the Americas and U.S. plantation owners feared a Haitian invasion. Haiti declared they had no intention of invading the states; for one, they had no navy. Their leader, Toussaint Louverture, was kidnapped from the negotiating table and died in prison. Haiti agreed to pay the French 150 million francs to secure their independence. The Monroe Doctrine was intended to establish the Americas as a U.S. sphere of influence and any European interventions would be viewed as a hostile act. The colonial era lasted throughout the 19th century as capitalism exploited the working class of all countries to amass wealth. It included the robber barons mentioned in some textbooks. The Mexican War, Indian wars and the Spanish American War brought many territories into the states. Neither Cuba, the Philippines nor Puerto Rico became states. The Cuban Revolution of 1959 established Cuban sovereignty decisively and has never been forgiven by the ruling class of the United States. France and the United States collaborated to keep Haiti a poor third world investment opportunity. Anyone my age remembers Papa Doc and Baby Doc, two of the most ruthless U.S. supported dictators in that long list. (Baseballs are big business in Haiti; most of the baseballs in the United States come from Haiti.) Study Jean Bertrand Aristide to get a better picture of Haiti and U.S. policy. He was the first democratically elected president who was quickly overthrown in a coup, reinstated and later reelected despite imperialist opposition. He was kidnapped and got a U.S. Marine escort to a CIA spot in Africa. Congresswoman Maxine Waters led the successful search and free campaign in 2004. The colonial era evolved into imperialism as industrial capital and financial capital merged into a new expression of supremacism and the right to rule the world. World War I was the first imperialist war. Vladimir Illich Lenin wrote the definitive analysis, “Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism.” As financial capital grew and learned to dominate industrial capital it became what is now called neoliberal imperialism. This phase took a sharp turn as Reaganomics, which Bush the First called voodoo economics, became the new model. Reagan’s vow to end the Vietnam syndrome led to the invasion of Grenada, one of the smallest countries in the world. The claim of rescuing medical students was exposed when those students told of taking shelter in bathtubs because so many bullets were coming through the walls. Leveraging debt into new forms of investments was the context of the 2007-08 financial crisis. The financialization of everything views your time as their commodity in the free market system. The system feels entitled to measure you in dollars. Financial supremacy is ready to destroy everything in its quest to control reality. The belief that reality can be controlled is the grand illusion of MLK from last page South Side win the city’s mayoral election of 1983. He became the first Black mayor of Chicago. Attorney Carol Mosley Braun, who graduated from the University of Illinois and the University of Chicago Law School, won the Illinois 1992 senatorial election. She became the first Black woman Senator of the United States of America. In 2008, Barack Obama was elected the first Black President of the United States. First Lady Michelle Obama grew up on the South Side. In the year 2026, when we reflect on the nation’s 250-year anniversary, let us be mindful of the social changes that have taken place due to peaceful non-violent direct actions. We must be grateful to the “Radical Republicans” who brought us the reconstructions of the 1860s and beyond. We must be grateful to everyone involved in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Hundreds gather in Liberty Plaza for a candlelight vigil for Renee Nicole Good on Friday, January 9. neoliberal imperialism. Trumpism, in its idolatry of wealth and power, fosters a narcissism that wants no border on its right to act in its belief of their supremacy. The bombing of Venezuela and kidnapping of Maduro abroad and the murder of Renee Nicole Good are an expression of this reckless will to power. Multiple demonstrations are taking place, especially to honor Renee and protest the extreme violence that is condoned by the Trump administration. The United States is looking ugly to the world. It ramps up the targeting of China as the excuse to use sanctions, tariffs and interventions to support the MAGA agenda. You could say MAGA is short for the maggots that are feeding on the carcass of a dying empire. I accepted an invitation to the State Theater for the screening of “The Earth’s Greatest Enemy.” The damage caused by the U.S. military includes their own personnel on polluted bases that have so many stillborn babies that the cemetery has a Baby Heaven section. Please look at that documentary. The building of new bases and alliances, including provocative military maneuvers, is in the plan as they prepare for war with China. The Pentagon is full of planners whose job is to prepare for Venezuelan rule and prepare to take down Cuba to teach everyone a lesson in abuse of power and their right to do this. Supremacism has wealthy supporters who flood their forces with money. I hear that Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who shot Renee in the face, has a lucrative Some historians have described the 1960s as America’s “Second Reconstruction.” Dr. King wants us to remember him as “A Drum-Maker for Social Justice.” Albert Raby, who was a graduate of the University of Chicago, is remembered for social justice and community empowerment in Chicago and across the world. Raby was selected by President Jimmy Carter to become the Peace Corps Director in Ghana. The hope of American people still GoFundMe site. There are signs that the people are waking up. The memorial vigil for Renee at Liberty Plaza on the Friday after her murder was a large assembly with a powerful energy field. Many thanks to those who organized it and the hundreds of people who came out. When we bring democracy into the workplace we will begin preparing for a general strike. This could be the time and space for people’s assemblies to organize the completion of the American revolution. Keep your eyes open for a workshop on Revolutionary Food as we learn to prepare health-promoting food for ourselves and have the energy to engage in the work that benefits all beings without exception. We will rid ourselves of biological and social parasites and train our minds to discover who we are and experience the sacred nature of this moment, with past, present and future in harmony with timeless time. Self and other dissolve in the All Good Expanse of Primordial Purity. Now is a good time to be alive! An important intellectual worker of the 20th century is Hannah Arendt who covered the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem and wrote landmark books like “The Banality of Evil” and “The Origins of Totalitarianism.” If Groundcover could work with the students who did the Venezuela teach-in at Mason Hall, maybe we could do a workshop on supremacy and totalitarian government. Maybe the Revolutionary Food group could provide food. The revolution needs us. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 lives and the dream shall never die. HAPPY 97TH BIRTHDAY TO DR. KING! Author's note: On January 13, 2026, Civil Rights Pioneer Claudette Clovin passed away at the age of 86. She was the fifteen-year-old student who refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery before the Rosa Parks incident in 1955. May her soul rest in peace.
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