The Eagle and the Jackal
America's Rape of the Third World

Year Published:  1984  
Resource Type:  Book
Cx Number:  CX2934

A major section of this paper deals with United States domination and exploitation of Third World countries, and the relationship of this to U.S. militarism. The final section of the paper deals with the question of how the peace movement can work for a better society.

Abstract:  A major section of this paper deals with United States domination and exploitation of Third World countries, and the relationship of this to U.S. military strategy world-wide. Included is a highly detailed account of U.S. relationships with, and interventions in, other countries. Other sections deal with, among other topics, nuclear strategy, foreign aid, mass media, multinational corporations, and the World Bank. A separate section deals with Canada's participation in this American-dominated system, looking at themes such as agribusiness, foreign aid, foreign investment and control, native people, multi-national corporations in Canada, Canadian banks, and trade and commerce.

The final section of the paper deals with the question of how the peace movement can work for a better society. This section argues that the peace movement should abandon the idea of being able to persuade the state to change its policies, and that it should evolve other means of working for social change. The essay argues that "We cannot hope to obtain basic social change by concentrating on single issue movements such as refusing to test the Cruise missile in Canada or seeking a nuclear freeze in the U.S." A number of suggestions are made to guide activities in the peace movement, including the idea that "each activity should start off not with a proposal for physical action, but with a discussion and definition of the result we hope to produce by doing an action around a given theme at a given time. Once that is clear, participants can decide what form of action would be best suited to bring about the desired result. Actions should be built around proposals we can carry out ourselves rather than on what we want the state to do." It is also suggested that "our primary purpose in no action should be to perform for the mass media; it is inevitable that they will misinterpret what we do."