ACTION ALERT:
Help Us Bury the Monroe Doctrine
David Swanson / World BEYOND War
(November 18, 2023) — Events are being planned around the world to bury the Monroe Doctrine on or about its 200th birthday on December 2, 2023, including actions in Mexico, Colombia, Wisconsin, Virginia, etc. We’ll be posting the events (and you can add your own) here.
The event in Virginia will feature a burying of the Monroe Doctrine at Monroe’s house at the University of Virginia, and Monroe himself may make an appearance.
Sample Letter to the Editor:
The Monroe Doctrine turns 200 on December 2, 2023. The lines excerpted, — years later, from President James Monroe’s 1823 speech and established as a “doctrine” — have been used ever since to assert US dominance over the Western Hemisphere.
This “doctrine” has been used to justify numerous wars against and dispossession of lands from Native Americans, as well as the Mexican-American War, the Spanish-American War, and all variety of coups, sanctions, and economic pressure.
While approximately half of the US political establishment now renounces the Monroe Doctrine in words, in actions there is less disagreement. In fact, this first-ever doctrine (a concept found nowhere in the US Constitution) has led to many more presidential doctrines, the accumulation of which has effectively expanded the Monroe Doctrine globally.
When the United States began expanding westward, it was aided by the belief that in supposedly opposing European imperialism, nothing it did itself could be imperialistic, as well as the beliefs that anyone would naturally want to be conquered by the United States, not to mention the belief that many people were not fully persons at all – a belief supported when, also in 1823, the Doctrine of Discovery was put into US law.
Now US wars and weapons shipments are alleged to spread democracy, defend the innocent, and guard US “interests” – a concept with its roots in the Monroe Doctrine. But the reality has never been as advertised. The US has never done much to support Latin American democracies — quite the reverse. The Monroe Doctrine is not a legal concept. And the world could not long survive two or more nations advancing expanding Monroe Doctrines.
The time has come to hold a funeral for the very idea of imposing US will on other nations, for their own good or otherwise, and to establish a new doctrine of peacemaking, the rule of law, cooperation, demilitarization, and mutual respect.
On December 2nd there will be an event ____________________________.
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Sample Replacement for the Monroe Doctrine:
The occasion is long overdue for asserting, as a principle for the future conduct of the United States government, that other nations will be treated with the respect that this government would like to be treated with itself. Violations of the rights of one nation by another will be referred by the US government to international courts, which the US government will support, join, and hold itself likewise accountable to. Such violations will not be used as excuses for wars by the US military. Nor will the US government any longer speak of distant imperial wars as “defensive” or of US “interests” as justifications for wars.
The US government will cease arming, training, and funding foreign militaries, police, and prison guards, cease sanctioning foreign populations, cease interferring in foreign elections, and cease imposing conditions on foreign nations through financial and trade policies.
The US government will join and support human rights and disarmament treaties, hold other nations to the same standard through its example and non-hypocritical action through a democratized United Nations or replacement thereof.
The United States government will maintain itself as one among equals, and as an honest beneficiary of nations less wealthy and of nations that have not done the same sort of damage to our collective natural environment. US policy will be formed, not through extra-legal doctrines, but through democratic or representative decision making, respecting all human and environmental rights.
ACTION TOOL KIT: These Resources May Help:
Book.
Descendants of people enslaved by Monroe.
Propaganda film with response.
Newspaper Theater (from Daphne Agosin and WBW Chicago).
Sample Video Presentations: one, two, three, four, five.
Letter to Biden calling for a real Good Neighbor policy for Latin America and the Caribbean.
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For the Event in Charlottesville, Virginia:
• https://worldbeyondwar.org/bury-the-monroe-doctrine-at-the-university-of-virginia
• Flyer for promoting the event (PDF).
• Flyer for handing out on walk (PDF).
• Letter to Biden calling for a real Good Neighbor policy for Latin America and the Caribbean.
