On 12 April 1964 at the King Solomon’s Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan, Malcolm X delivered what is considered by many to be the definitive version of his legendary Ballot or the Bullet speech. At one point he stated, “You and I have never seen democracy, all we’ve seen is hypocrisy” (X, 1964). This remains just as true today as it did 60 years ago when it was delivered.
Throughout human history, empires have always needed to justify their conquests. For the West, this was once the “White man’s burden” which has since morphed into the idea we have today of “spreading democracy.” It is the West who are enlightened and sophisticated members of the human race, and it is therefore their responsibility to spread these ideas to others who clearly can’t develop ideas themselves. The principal has been reimagined to fit with the times, as a result since 1945 the United States has attempted to overthrow more than 50 foreign governments, many of which according to the West itself would have been democratic. Here are just a few.
“The fall of Baghdad” in April 2003 prompted a series of spontaneous grassroots elections most notably in Mosul, Samarra, Hilla, Najaf, and Baghdad. At town hall meetings representatives were elected and plans were hatched for local reconstruction projects, security operations, and rebuilding of infrastructure. However, predictably “[t]he United States was quick to quell such indigenous drives towards democratization and to exert its own hegemony over Iraq…Bremer decided he would appoint the members of the Interim Iraqi Government (IIG) and, by the end of June he had further ordered that all local and regional elections were to be stopped immediately” (Isakhan & Stockwell, 2012., p. 194).
“Empires have always needed to justify their conquests. For the West, this was once the ‘White man’s burden’ which has since morphed into the idea we have today of ‘spreading democracy’”
All decisions made by local councils were revoked, elected mayors, governors, and other representatives were removed, and replaced by hand-picked puppets, even some former Baathists. All this despite the fact that spreading democracy was the main rationale behind the occupation.
Haiti is an example of Western powers at perhaps their most insidious. After the only successful slave revolution in human history (1804), Haiti is and has been constantly harassed by Western powers intent on destroying the Black Republic which threatened their slave-based economies. In 1905 US troops first invaded Haiti and ended its independence. Until 1990 they had uncontested control of the country via the brutal dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier and his father and head-of-state predecessor François Duvalier, and subsequent US beholden governments. All of this contributed to Haiti’s horrific present-day poverty.
However, in the late 1980s, this began to change and in 1990 Jean-Bertrand Aristide became Haiti’s first democratically elected leader, with a staggering 67% of the vote (Obama for instance had 52.93% and Blair had 43.2%). Despite this, Western powers overthrew Aristide not once but twice in 1991 and 2004.
As always the US played the lead role, however, both Canada and France (Haiti’s old colonial master) had significant roles in the coups. As well as several charities and NGOs ostensibly working for the good of Haiti. In one of Haiti’s poorest slums, Cité Soleil, the UN once again proved they are no ally to Third World people. “Every credible human rights investigation that visited Haiti in 2004-05 confirmed the same essential point…the PNH (Haitian National Police)… in conjunction with US and then UN troops, to wage an open campaign of terror in the Port-au-Prince slums” (Hallward, 2010., pp. 268-269). Is it any wonder Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere?
“It’s important to remember that the local elite sided with foreign imperialists to retain their own power and positions”
Up until the 1950s, Iran was part of Britain’s informal empire, where the British controlled the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), today British Petroleum (BP), which held a virtual monopoly on Iran’s Oil. “This resulted in the situation in 1950 where the AIOC earned some £200 million profit from its Iranian operations, but only paid the Iranian government £16 million in royalties, profit share, and taxes” (Newsinger, 2013., p. 174).
The popular backlash of this heinous state of affairs led to the appointment of Mohammed Musaddiq to the role of prime minister, and on 1 May 1951 Musaddiq signed a bill nationalizing the oil industry. The British were forced to rely on the US to overthrow Musaddiq and in August 1953 a CIA-led coup d’état overthrew his government. The Shah’s new dictatorship rewarded its American sponsors with frankly exploitative shares of its oil profits. The same brutal government would rule Iran until the 1978 revolution.
It’s important to remember that in all of these examples, as well as just about any other, you could mention the local elite sided with foreign imperialists to retain their own power and positions. Until we recognize both the danger and hypocrisy from within and without, our people will be at the constant mercy of Western imperial power.
Excellent, well done young professor, so proud of you.