By Laur Muth, Member, Portland DSA
On Saturday the U.S. Navy commissioned the USS Portland, an amphibious transport ship that will be used to send American soldiers abroad in our wars for empire.
Soon the ship could be carrying 800 marines along with tanks and armored vehicles around the world. Many of those soldiers will have joined the military as a pathway out of poverty. They in turn will be expected to fight, to kill, and perhaps to die to protect the interests of wealthy Americans and corporations and perpetuate American domination of other countries.
Portland DSA calls for an end to a militarized foreign policy that makes poor youth, often people of color and immigrants, into foot soldiers for the preservation and expansion of the capitalist system that made those same soldiers poor in the first place. And we stand in solidarity with the victims of U.S. imperialism abroad, whose homes are bombed and countries are invaded on the whim of the strongest military power in the world.
We are working to make Portland a true sanctuary and refuge for those in need. A warship with our name is antithetical to the Portland we are trying to build.
The USS Portland cost $1.6 billion. This year, the already bloated U.S. defense budget was increased by 10 percent. At the same time the people of Flint, Michigan still do not have clean water. The people of Puerto Rico still do not have reliable power. The American people as a whole do not have guaranteed health care or the right to a living wage. Every time we ask for these basic rights and public goods, we are told they are too expensive. Yet the price tag is never too high for more bombs, more guns, more fighter jets, or more warships.
Our country has troops in 150 countries around the world and bases in 80. If any other country had a similar military projection, we would recognize and call it out for what it was: an act of aggression. Portland DSA calls for a foreign policy based on solidarity with oppressed peoples around the world, not one based on domination.
We reject the use of our city as a symbol for U.S. imperialism abroad just as we reject the violence enacted against our fellow Portlanders on the basis of race, gender, nation of origin, or class. We reject the use of walls and soldiers to defend a border imposed by settler colonists, because we know no human is illegal on stolen land. We reject the use of our tax dollars to fund wars instead of public services. We reject this warship and all that it represents.