The Lead

Launching the Needed Anti-Colonial Movement

by Stewart Battle (EIRNS) — May. 01, 2026

Times of India author Mrutyuanjai Mishra provides a valuable reflection on the recent, highly symbolic visit of Britain’s King Charles III to the United States—and that, in particular, from a formerly colonized nation of the Global South. He writes in a May 1 op-ed:

“The 250th anniversary of American independence should have been a moment of clarity, a reaffirmation of the principles that gave birth to a republic. Instead, it has revealed a profound contradiction at the heart of contemporary political life. At a time marked by war, economic strain, and institutional breakdown, Donald Trump chose to celebrate not the rejection of monarchy, but its legacy.”

Mishra continues: “The American Revolution constituted a decisive rupture with monarchy and imperial rule. It was not an extension of British political culture but a rejection of it. The Declaration of Independence established that sovereignty resides with the people, not with a crown or inherited authority. This position diverged sharply from European traditions shaped by thinkers such as Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, whose frameworks, despite their differences, remained tied to hierarchies of power and property. The American founders advanced a more radical proposition: that human beings possess inherent dignity, rational capacity, and the ability to pursue the common good. Government, in this view, exists to cultivate these qualities rather than restrain them under the authority of a sovereign ruler. To celebrate monarchy at the symbolic center of American governance is therefore to invert the very principle upon which the republic was founded.”

If only Americans were as offended at this embarrassment as Mishra is for them!

This topic was taken up in full at the May 1 weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition. Professor Richard Falk, former UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine, said one reason for Trump’s fondness for Charles was that he sees himself as the “first American king,” and pointed to the increasing alienation of today’s ruling elites from the worsening conditions of life for the average citizen. He attributed this to the Western financial system’s transition from industrial productivity to financial profiteering, which has generated tremendous profits for a wealthy elite while wreaking destruction for the many. Even wars and genocides have become “good for business,” Falk noted, showing the amorality of this system.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche took this up forcefully, and described how President Trump’s claim that British and American history represent a continuity of the same traditions is not only a “travesty,” but also that it clearly illustrates the problem the world is facing today. After America’s successful anti-colonial revolution—the first in history—and the failure by the British to destroy it in the War of 1812 and the Civil War, the British aristocracy realized that they couldn’t militarily defeat the U.S. and would, therefore, have to “convince the American establishment to adopt the model of the British Empire as the basis for a unipolar world empire, based on the ‘special relationship.’” It was this treasonous faction, supported by the neoconservatives, which sabotaged the opportunity for a new peace order at the end of the Cold War and pushed for a new global Anglo-American empire. “And that’s how we got to the present crisis of being on the verge of being on the verge of World War III,” Zepp-LaRouche said.

The fact is, the world is rejecting this. Or, as Ray McGovern told the IPC meeting, “the world is changing.” The unprovoked war against Iran is failing to reach any of its objectives, while at the same time it is wreaking havoc on economies across the world. In addition, it is provoking blowback and distancing from even some of America’s closest allies in Europe. And now, as the 60-day deadline to get Congressional approval for the President’s war expires, Trump seems uninterested in following basic Constitutional requirements to end it. As Zepp-LaRouche said, the only thing this war is accomplishing is the “destruction of the Trump Presidency” and the end of the view of the United States as the preeminent world power. It is “the emperor without clothes in front of the eyes of the world,” she emphasized.

However, the crucial requirement for a republic, as opposed to a democracy, is an educated and responsible citizenry. Over the coming days and weeks, as the Epstein class’s lewd and morally bankrupt order continues to disintegrate, will there be enough courageous citizens to insist on a viable alternative?