As the United States ruling class digs in for an indefinite occupation of the Middle East, weighs its options for war against Iran, and expands its presence in East Asia, it faces a major obstacle: the lack of enthusiasm for this future of expanding war among working-class youth. The bosses’ dilemma is the context for the viral spread of the “Kony 2012” video, an attack on a murderous warlord in Central Africa that collected more than 70 million hits on YouTube within days of its release.
Invisible Children, the organization that created the video, was founded by three former film students at the University of Southern California. They have gained a reputation for profiteering (they’re charging $35 for a Kony 2012 “action kit”) and for on-line “slacktivism,” where social change is supposedly just a mouse click away. They also promote the neocolonialist myth that U.S. do-gooders represent the best hope to cure Central Africa’s ills.
Despite these evident weaknesses, the “Stop Kony” campaign has grown into a dangerous mass phenomenon. Endorsed by celebrities like George Clooney, Rihanna, and Sean “Diddy” Combs, and dovetailing with the needs of U.S. capitalism, it may have the potential to break through cyberspace and spill over into action in the real world — a phenomenon that one blogger called “crowd-sourced internvention.”
An Excuse To Expand Troops in Uganda
In reality, the “Stop Kony” campaign is a carefully crafted call to mobilize young people to support U.S. imperialism in Central Africa. By building public pressure for a stepped-up fight against Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army, and in particular for the U.S. to expand its current ranks of military advisers in Uganda, the video is misleading millions of well-meaning viewers. By siding against such an easy target, the vicious and brutal Joseph Kony, Invisible Children prompts people to side with the U.S. capitalist class, its politicians and its armed forces.
But when it comes to brutality, nobody beats U.S. capitalism. This system was built on the most extensive genocide, slavery, and racism the world has ever seen. It inspired and then armed fascists from Germany to South Africa to Nicaragua, and in 1945 unleashed a nuclear holocaust on Japan. Today, U.S. capitalism rests on a global system of violence that condemns billions to grinding poverty and premature death. Workers cannot side with this murderous system.
On April 19, Invisible Children will be organizing an overnight effort to plaster public spaces across the U.S. with “Stop Kony” posters. By showing a profile of the warlord with bin Laden and Hitler in the background, the poster implies that the movement to stop Kony warrants a U.S. invasion. Youth in and around the Progressive Labor Party will work inside this campaign to expose its warmongering essence. We will lead the friends we make there to join us on April 28 for May Day, and to enlist in the only organization that can stop capitalist brutality from Uganda to Brooklyn, the revolutionary communist PLP.