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Monument to Imperialism’s Victims Overdue

As published in The Leveller: Spring 2015

While a monument to the estimated one hundred million victims of “communism” is a noble undertaking; it is unlikely that we will ever see a monument to the victims of modern imperialism. What we commonly refer to as communism is actually various versions of totalitarianism linked with government economic control. One of Lenin's first acts in 1917 was to kill all the real communists who espoused genuine equality and participatory citizenship.

Between the world wars, Western scholars and corporate pundits both manufactured and perpetuated the “Red Scare” that found its strongest expression in the Cold War propaganda that lingers in the public mind and government policy.

I propose a monument to victims of the imperial violence perpetrated by Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Holland, Belgium, Turkey, Japan, Russia, the United States and Israel. Each felt entitled to expand their borders and increase their wealth at the expense of those less-skilled in military arts, technology and political manipulation.