In the 1980s people carried protest signs saying “US out of Nicaragua!” and El Salvador, and Grenada, and then many others. I also saw signs saying “US out of my uterus!” While the problems may seem to be quite different — the first ones are international and the last is very personal — they really are related.
We want sovereignty. When I search for “sovereignty definition” the first two lines give a quick definition and a great example to apply to the United States:
— Sovereignty: Supreme power or authority.
— “How can we hope to wrest sovereignty away from the oligarchy and back to the people?”
The US government has taken up too much power. That power has been bought and paid for by huge corporations and billionaires, ensuring that the government serves the oligarchy, not We the People in the US, and certainly not people around the world.
It is beyond ironic how much the US and Europe want to discourage people immigrating from the same countries the US and Europe have colonized for centuries, both governmentally and economically, by exploiting people and resources.
What can we do? We can pull our support of the “oligarchy” every which way we can! Although many of the problems and solutions are systemic and institutional, we can still do our individual efforts of reduce, reuse, and recycle, especially reduce. Simplify, simplify, simplify, as Thoreau said.
We can favor small businesses and union shops. We can pull out of the corporate-and-billionaire-bought Titanic parties, both the Democratic and Republican parties. We can act in solidarity with sanctioned and subordinated people whenever we have the chance.
We can learn from Latin America. Countries from south of the border showed the power of solidarity when they gave a failing grade in June to Biden’s “Summit of the Americas” in Los Angeles — which excluded the nations of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Many countries acted in solidarity with those three nations by not showing up and by supporting two strong alternative summits, the People’s Summit in LA, and the Workers’ Summit of the Americas in Tijuana, which I was lucky enough to attend.
Here are some wonderful sayings that exemplify the Latin American commitment to victory, solidarity, and love.
Let me say, at the risk of seeming ridiculous, that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love — Ernesto “Che” Guevara
Déjeme decirle, a riesgo de parecer ridículo,
que el revolucionario verdadero
está guiado por grandes sentimientos de amor.
— Ernesto “Che” Guevara
Colonialism NO, Sovereignty YES.
Colonialismo NO, Soberanía SI.
The people united will never be defeated!
¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!
Until victory, forever — or — Ever onward to victory.
Hasta la victoria siempre.
Another world is possible,
Otro mundo es posible,
Laura