United Front against Western Imperialism

I wanted to talk about Gaza. Gaza is a microcosm of the entire global South and the entire Muslim world. The genocidal Zionist attack on Gaza that's going on right now is nothing but unmasked, naked, western colonialism at its most barbaric, at its most brutal essence. And we have to recognize that that's what it is and remember that that's what it is. You know, the West can cloak, its violent intent, its violent predatory nature, and its, violent predatory actions.

They can cloak that in layers upon layers of camouflage until we're looking, actually at an invading and occupying army while we're thinking that we're looking at a bed of roses. Know, they can put a noose around our neck and have us thinking that it's a a necklace. They can put handcuffs on our wrists and have us thinking that they're bracelets, we'll show it off like it's bling. They'll put a silk pillow, between our head and the gun that they have pointed at our head just to obscure the fact that they've got us under the gun and they're ready to shoot the moment we make a move they don't like. So in Gaza, we're seeing that, naked brutality without any camouflage, without any cushion.

It's the West as they truly are. It's the West as they truly are towards us, the way they truly are towards the rest of the world. The Muslim world and the global South have been held hostage by the West just like how Israel has been holding Palestine hostage. Everyone in Gaza is a hostage, and they've been held in a dungeon for decades. Again, this is just a dramatic what's happening in Gaza is just a dramatic, unpolished, unedited, stark version of the same reality that the entire non western world, the entire Muslim world has been suffering, for as long as anyone can remember.

Gaza is iconic. This conflict is iconic. They stood up, and resisted the most inhuman, the most vicious colonialism, and their resistance, and the manifestation of the colonialism that they are resisting is colonialism, western colonialism at its most raw and its most violent, but it's also symbolic of the maybe less dramatic, but the just as real way that the global South and the entire Muslim world as a whole are rising up against western colonialism and western domination. And I think that until now, the West doesn't fully understand or fully realize, that this is, psychologically one of the reasons that the situation in Gaza, the conflict in Gaza is resonating all across the global South with Muslims and non Muslims, and even why it's resonating with millions of people in the West precisely because it is symbolic. It's emblematic.

It's iconic. And it represents a microcosm, as I said, of the worldwide struggle against Western hegemony. And now by by Western hegemony, of course, what I'm talking about is the hegemony of the Western owners and controllers of global financialized capital, the elites, the ruthless class of people and institutions, the power structure who exploit, oppress, repress, and suppress, who rob and pillage and dominate and subjugate every nation on the earth for their own, selfish psychopathic interests. And they use every means at their disposal, which means access to, from among their means of disposal is every means of power at the disposal of governments, every means at the disposal of The United States, and they're using it to sabotage, to undermine and destroy and ruin whole economies, whole populations, whole societies, whole systems of government. They're even using it against their own people in the West.

They're using it against Europe. They're using it against Germany, against France. They're using it against any business or any company, that isn't worth hundreds of billions of dollars or tens of billions of dollars. And they'll use it against any people, any individuals, any segments of the population who aren't billionaires or millionaires. I told you that, they wear camouflage when they invade your country, and that's all the multinational corporation is.

It's just a camouflaged invasion. The IMF is an army. The World Bank is an army. BlackRock is an army. Vanguard is an army.

Well, there's no difference, between the IMF and the IDF except in terms of, the sophistication of their methods, the sophistication of their approach. There's only a a varying degrees of subtlety, varying degrees of tact, but the objective is the same, the goal is the same, and the result is the same. Subjugation and domination and annihilation of any resistance. You know, the whole Muslim world, the whole global South sees Zionism today as just the unsheathed blade of western colonialism. And as I've said before, the anti Zionist movement is becoming and must inevitably be, an anti colonialist movement, a movement against, western hegemony, against western economic domination.

Because we all know, we know too well that the economic domination is, the West's soft version of military domination. And we know that if we don't capitulate to the former, then we're gonna get the latter. If we don't let them, take over our countries economically, then they'll do it militarily. Then the camouflage will come off. They'll remove the pillow from between our heads and the barrel of their gun, and they'll shoot us just as heartlessly and just as cold bloodedly as the, Israelis are attacking Gaza now.

It's like Israel, by their actions, or as they say, they're saying the quiet part out loud, and everyone can hear it. You know, the quiet version, is buy our products, open up your markets, give us access to your resources, work in our factories, and enjoy our wonderful brands and products. That's the soft version, the quiet version. But what they're really saying is obey or else, and Gaza is what the or else looks like. Now you may think that this is all just rhetoric, but it's not.

This is the understanding, that has to inform our strategies. We have to understand what kind of a struggle this is, And we have to understand that the struggle isn't only in Gaza. And we have to understand that the struggle in Gaza is inextricably connected to the global struggle against Western domination. As I've talked about many times before, we are living through an historic shift in the world order, in the global economic order. There are at least two important elements in that shift.

One is the supremacy of the private sector private sector power that has developed over the past several decades. And that ascendancy of private sector power means that the control and decision making over policy is not connected anymore to so called national interests. The OCGFC are a national. They constitute a nation unto themselves. So they make decisions and they control policy and they exercise power and direct power, to serve their own private interests.

Now the other element, is, as I've talked about again before, the demographic erosion of Europe. I'm not gonna get into a lot of detail about that now because I've talked about it repeatedly in the past. But these two factors, are largely what's behind the pivot to the global South. The dismantling of the, post World War two order and the shift to the global South, the creation of bricks, the shift to the East, the focus of the global economy, and the center of gravity of the global economy is moving from the West to the East. And it's largely because of these two elements that I mentioned.

Now all of this can mean just a new era of imperialism and colonialism. It can mean, history just repeating itself with maybe, say, BlackRock, as the new, iteration of the East India Company. But because the empire of capital is not tied, to any particular state's interests, it doesn't have to be that way. It can be different. Regional powers, regional actors, regional members of their own OCGFC can change the dynamic.

They can change the way that the pivot south is gonna proceed because BlackRock doesn't care, if America profits. They don't care if America benefits or even if the West benefits. And that should be clear from the two years of relentless sabotage that's been carried out against the economies of Europe. As long as BlackRock's clients, prosper, then they've done their job. BlackRock and their clients don't have any particular preference, with regards to how the pivot south will proceed.

They don't really care so long as it's profitable and sustainable in the long term. So if that means, war and violence, then they're fine with that. They don't mind. But if war and violence is not going to be the most profitable, long term approach, then they'll opt for an alternative if there is one. They'll opt for an alternative approach if there is one.

Well, it just so happens that there is an alternative approach. And that alternative approach right now anyway, is the approach that's being advocated and it's being promoted by Saudi Arabia, which is to make the Middle East the new Europe. And I've again, I've talked about that many times. They wanna make it a new Europe, a stable crisis free, conflict free, economically vibrant region that will provide endless opportunities for development and investment for the OCGFC. They wanna make it a region, that can serve as a sort of managerial hub for the global South or at least for the, Middle East and Africa and Asia.

And this is just because of The Gulf's, enormous wealth and their geostrategic location, and it's because they're Muslim. And it's also because, The Gulf is uniquely positioned to act as a broker and as a sort of manager for the interests of Russia and China, their interest in the global South. These are two obviously incredibly important and influential countries economically, but whose power structure more or less locks BlackRock out of having any direct involvement, in their decision making over their economy, over their investment strategies, and so on. Now I think that the Saudi Arabian alternative that's being offered to the OCGFC, I think it was maybe a bit less convincing, prior to October 7 than it is now, which is why, in my opinion, the early days and the early, weeks after October 7, there was no real sign of any hesitation, or even any concern for the consequences of Israel's atrocities and Israel's actions. But two things, since then have moved the needle in my view.

And now there does appear to be, in my opinion, a preference by the OCGFC for the Saudi Arabian alternative. There are indications of that. Indications like the fact that, we now see in the mainstream media criticism of Israel, and there are indications like the failure, to pass an emergency aid package for Israel by the congress. There's a very strong indication, that the OCGFC are are preferring the Saudi Arabian alternative when you had the, The, US not veto, but only abstain from a resolution in the UN calling for a secession of violence, even though it didn't even condemn Hamas. They seceded.

They they they abstained from that. They didn't veto it, even though they had previously, they they vetoed the last resolution like that. So it looks to me like the needle has moved. And I think that there's two main reasons for that. One has been the monumental level of diplomatic coordination between the BRICS countries and the Arab and Islamic countries like at that summit.

There's been tremendous coordination to unify upon a single position and a single demand, and it the the single position and the single demand, is the same that was made by Saudi Arabia prior to October 7. And then in in reality, it was actually made twenty years ago in the Arab Peace Plan. So I think that that impressive level of coordination and solidarity, would probably in and of itself be persuasive to the OCGFC. But the other factor, has been public protest. And specifically because the nature of public protest, as I've talked about before, the nature of public protest is most conspicuously targeting the the the targets of popular activism, for Palestine have been Western companies, companies that are aligned with Israel or that are otherwise perceived to be supportive of Zionism.

You know, Starbucks, McDonald's, Coca Cola, Disney, what have you. Then there's the, you know, the BDS movement, boycotts across the world. And especially in the Arab world and in the Muslim world, those boycotts have been more intense and more disciplined than we've ever seen before. And well, obviously, BlackRock owns shares in most, if not all of these companies. That's sending a clear message to BlackRock, and to the OCGFC that the approach of Israel, the approach of war and violence, the violent approach to colonialism is absolutely going to be fatal to western companies all around the world.

And so I think that that has to have become a serious concern for BlackRock and for everyone else, that comes from that class, from the OCGFC. And the more that that type of protest continues and the more that that type of protest intensifies and the more it organizes, I think the more this will disinclined the OCGFC from cooperating with Zionism, and the more it will incline them, towards the Arab peace plan, and more it will incline them towards the position of bricks. So treating this issue, treating this conflict and our approach to this conflict as a confrontation against Western imperialism and colonialism, in my opinion, is not only correct because it is exactly what this conflict actually is, but also because it is strategically effective. You know, as a result of all of this, we're now on the verge of taking the Palestinian situation out of the hands of the Americans for the first time ever. And we're on the verge of, making the ideology of Zionism politically extinct.

And we're even on the verge of, ending western hegemony in The Middle East, in the entire region, and in fact, around the world. And now, I'll say one last thing related to this, and this has to do with the Arab and the Muslim rulers, the leaders, particularly in The Gulf, the GCC. And I know perfectly well, that there's a whole troll army online that attacks me anytime I say anything positive about the Arab rulers and about the Arab governments, and anytime that I disapprove of denigrating the rulers. And they'll berate me and call me names and so on. And I've said before, because it's a fact, there is a very dirty and very malicious propaganda campaign against the Arab rulers, against the Muslim rulers.

And anyone who is participating in that is either knowingly or unknowingly serving the interests of western imperialism. You are absolutely serving the West whether you know it or not. Most of you probably don't know it, but listen. It does not work to say, Muslims of the world unite as long as it's against your rulers. That's 100% a form of collaboration with the most destructive and the most predatory elements of the western power structure, of the Western owners and controllers of global financialized capital.

And nobody with any sense, will do that when their people are under attack, when their people are confronting any sort of enemy. What you're supposed to do is circle the wagons. You're supposed to stand as one single solid structure to defend your people and to defend your land united. You get into formation, and you don't allow any cracks, and you don't allow any divisions to develop in that formation because that will only ever be, exploited by your opponents. It is impossible to be against Western hegemony and simultaneously against your own rulers.

That doesn't make any sense. You know, anyone who actually knows anything about me and who knows anything about my history and who knows anything about the work that I've done for the past decade, they'll know that I have been a consistent critic of the governments in The Gulf. And I've been involved in more active and practical work against the injustices in The Gulf, probably more than anyone who today ignorantly calls me an apologist for those rulers. But, of course, most of those people have never even been to The Gulf. They probably never even venture outside of the suburbs where they live in America.

Whereas I've been there, I've been kicked out of there, and I've been banned from ever returning to the GCC. Like I've said before, I know more than most people do about the, wrongdoing and the injustice that those governments do, but there's a time and a place for everything. And now is not the time, and the public sphere is not the place. Look, there is nothing that the, pro Zionist, pro Israel, western owners and controllers of global financialized capital, there's nothing that they would like to see more than to see the Arab and the Muslim world disintegrate into rebellion and strife. And to see the, Saudi Arabian alternative to colonialist war and violence fall apart as a result of your easily manipulated, personal hostility towards the rulers.

You know that they're gonna be trying to find, any way they can to undermine us, to undermine our resistance. And one of the easiest ways that they could do that, one of the absolute easiest ways that they could do that is to just redirect your anger away from Israel, away from the West, and turn it against our own governments. So you need to soldier up and say what's good or remain silent. And don't sow doubt and suspicion and rancor amongst the Muslims. Because if you're doing that, then you either don't take this conflict seriously enough or you don't even understand what kind of a conflict it is, or else you're just on the wrong side of this conflict altogether.