the only way to fight empire
a late Valentine but time is a colonial construct anyway
Dear Beloved,
This Valentine is late but I wanted to write this for a long time and I refuse to wait another year to send this to you. Time is a colonial construct anyway.
245 years ago, a British Empire Navy captain named James Cook claimed discovery of the Kanaka Maoli’s ʻĀina and declared it the “Sandwich Islands” after his sponsor because colonizers on discovery loved naming other people’s lands after their bros (see: Tahoma). While there, he continued European colonizer tradition by introducing new diseases the Indigenous population such as venereal disease and tuberculosis.
Cook then sailed north towards California, the Salish Sea, and then southern Alaska where he named Tikahtnu after himself (how tacky). After going as far north as the Chukchi Sea, he swerved back south and eventually moored in Kealakekua Bay.
Ultimately, the colonizer did what colonizers did and still do: He fucked around. When Native Hawaiians didn’t put up with his crap, Cook reacted with impudence, arrogance, and violence. He was also stupid and racist enough to think that a single gun was enough to deter an entire army. Then he sure as hell found out.
But this isn’t my story - this history belongs to the Kanaka Maoli. Hawaiian scholars, activists, and baddies Haunani-Kay Trask and Lilikalā Kameʻeleihiwa broke it down already.
It’s late but Hauʻoli Lā Hoʻomake iā Kapena Kuke. Happy Death of Captain Cook Day. May we all uproot imperialism from our communities and return land to the people.
Now let’s talk about the Kingdom of Hawai’i.
Hawai’i Tourism as Neocolonialism
In February, the Kingdom of Hawai’i is often on my mind. It’s a popular vacation spot for the Seattle area’s wealthier residents. Every year, more than 300,000 people visit the Kingdom of Hawai’i. I’ve met many people who make Hawai’i part of their annual roster of trips.
At one nonprofit I worked at, the CEO organized a fully paid “retreat” for executive staff members and their families coincidentally around her birthday. At another organization, a former supervisor made annual visits to Hawai’i and would chime in on Zoom calls, gushing about seeing humpback whale migrations and all the sunshine, while I sat tight-lipped and seething in my pale office.
Yes, Hawai’i is a very popular location for Pacific Northwest’s wealthy and affluent.
Meanwhile, every year, over 15,000 Native Hawaiians are pushed out of their homelands by high living costs. Tourism and exploitive real estate corporations force the Hawaiian diaspora to the mainland.
Washington State has the second-highest of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander population because of this displacement.
For those who refuse to leave their homeland, Hawai’i is reported to have the highest rate of chronic homelessness in the so-called United States. This worsened after the 2023 Maui fires. While Hawaiians endeavor to recover from the disastrous fires, Governor Green hypocritically offers free housing to victims of the LA fires.
Criminalized for Living in One’s Homeland
If that’s not enough, the empire’s prison industrial complex surges in Hawai’i at 367 out of every 100,000 impacted. That means the State of Hawai’i locks up a higher percentage of its people than almost any democratic country on earth. Hawai’i alone tracks only shortly behind the United States as a whole, easily outpacing entire countries with larger populations.
This disproportionately impacts Native Hawaiians who are incarcerated at a rate of 1,259 out of 100,000 people. Comparably, white residents squatting on living in Hawai’i are incarcerated at a rate of 295 out of 100,000 people.
These 21st-century statistics are an extension of a long line of forced removal, disenfranchisement, and marginalization by an outside imperial force.
Colonization as a Family Business
The illegal overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawai’i by the United States can be narrowed down to 13 insurgents businessmen and politicians - the majority American or foreign-born naturalized subjects of Hawai’i. Originally dubbing themselves the “Annexation Club,” these men rebranded themselves as the “Committee of Safety” and utilized the US military to form a coup against Queen Liliʻuokalani.
The insurgents went on to form a provisional government in Hawai’i, headed by Sanford Dole (whose family would go on to form the Dole Fruit Company) and protected by the US military. They then began a process called “denationalization,” systemically weakening Hawai’i’s sovereignty. To further disenfranchise Hawaiians’ political power, the provincial government developed a constitution modeled after the 1892 Constitution of the State of Mississippi. This is what formed the short-lived Republic of Hawai’i.
Five years later, imperialist US President McKinley formally annexed the Kingdom of Hawai’i as a strategic territory during the Spanish-American War. Over time, Hawai’i was realized as a “military necessity” for the US to take control the Pacific. This is what built Pearl Harbor.
To justify US occupation, racist propaganda was proliferated about Native Hawaiian people. Native Hawaiians were portrayed as violent and - per the colonial course - “uncivilized,” in desperate need of Euro-Christian guidance. This false narrative infiltrated educational institutions
For example, the son of an early missionary named William DeWitt Alexander published a book called A Brief History of the Hawaiian People. In it, he wrote “…two thirds of all children were destroyed in infancy by their parents. They were generally buried alive,” because Native Hawaiian parents were “too lazy” to raise their children. This book was a standard textbook in all schools in Hawai’i for 40 years, and its author was a founder of the Hawaiian Historical Society and wrote many articles for its journals. Additionally, Alexander was familially connected to Alexander & Baldwin, one of the “Big Five” companies of Hawaii’s sugar industry.
Today Alexander & Baldwin, Inc. continues business operations as “Hawaii's premier commercial real estate company.” It remains one of the largest private landowners in Hawai’i.
Modern-Day Annexation Club
Oligarchy is alive and well in Hawai’i. Today just 37 billionaires own at least 218,000 acres of Hawai’i.
In 1909, less than 10 years after the Kingdom of Hawai’i was illegally overthrown by the United States, the island of Lanai was bought for $1 by William Irwin. In 1922, James Dole of the Dole Food Company bought the island and eventually, ownership was transferred to billionaire David H. Murdock when he bought the company. He then sold Lanai in 2012 to Oracle Corporation co-founder and Zionist Larry Ellison for $300 million.
Included in Jeff Bezos’ $500 million real estate portfolio is a $78 million oceanfront mansion in Maui. After the apocalyptic Maui fires, he pledged a $100 million donation - which accounts for less 5% of his entire $247 billion networth - but local residents are mystified on where the money is going if it’s been given at all.
Speaking of Maui, Oprah also withholds around 1,000 acres from Kanaka Maoli. She rightfully received criticism for asking others to donate towards Maui fire recovery, but did you know she also tried to profit off Maui residents’ destruction by bringing camera crews to post-fire shelters?
Tech oligarch Mark Zuckerberg hoards over 1,600 acres of Hawaiian land to build his own “little shelter” - likely because he knows what his oligarch peers are doing to our planet. As if that weren’t bad enough, Zuckerberg has even sued native Hawaiians for their own land.
Salesforce and Slack billionaire Marc Benioff is quietly buying land in a rural residential town.
In addition to buying more than 2,000 acres in Kauai, Idaho billionaire Frank VanderSloot took control of Hawai’i’s largest slaughterhouse. Cattle are highly harmful to Hawai’i’s ecology, impacting forests and watersheds alike.
Hawai’i’s Liberation is Our Liberation
What is happening in Hawai’i is a snapshot of what marginalized people face everywhere: Occupiers turn their homeland into weapons testing zone, pollute drinking water and the air, demolish ecosystems for cattle ranching and other harmful agricultural practices, displace Indigenous peoples, and criminalize those who stay. Then ultimately, billionaires and their corporations swoop for the land grab.
What is happening in Hawai’i is happening in Palestine is happening across Turtle Island is happening in Brazil is happening in Aotearoa is happening in Sudan is happening in New Caledonia is happening in Indonesia is happening in Congo is happening everywhere.
So what do we do, Beloved?
The United States of America is the most powerful imperialist country in the world - in the world! They control the United Nations. They control the Pacific Ocean - all of these nuclear submarines circulating around the Pacific. The United States of America is a death country. It gives death to Native people, and the only way to fight the United States of America is to be political.
- Haunani Kay Trask
URGENT: Support Funso’s Journey from Homelessness
Funso is 22-years-old and has already experienced years of homelessness. Through hard work and resiliency, they and their partner have secured. However, due to job loss, their newfound security is at risk.
$5,000 is needed to ensure Funso, their partner, and their two cats remain housed. They are already a quarter of the way to their goal but time is of the essence. Please donate today and share this campaign widely!
What is mutual aid?
Mutual aid is not charity. Mutual aid is a radical redistribution of resources. Mutual aid keeps hard-earned money in our communities and away from wealth-hoarding billionaires’ bloated pockets. Mutual aid is reciprocity. Mutual aid is resistance to the oligarchy. Mutual aid is the recognition that our survival is dependent on one another. Mutual aid will only become more and more essential to our collective well-being.
Mutual aid is life-affirming and community empowerment.
Mutual aid is political.
Why mutual aid?
You are closer to being unhoused than ever becoming a billionaire. Because of the oligarchy’s greed and social violence, already scarce government resources are being plucked clean and your monetary contributions will go much further in improving - even sustaining - someone’s life by giving directly to a person than to any nonprofit.
By giving to Funso’s campaign, you help keep TWO PEOPLE housed in a time of recording-breaking houselessness.
Seeds for Change
Listen to Haunani-Kay Trask’s famous speech, “I am not an American.”
Read From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawai’i by Haunani-Kay Trask.
Check out Hawai’i Public Radio’s series, This is Our Hawai’i. Hosted by Russell Subiono, this limited series podcast digs deep into residents’ frustrations with the status quo. Russell visits a different Hawaiʻi community threatened by outside ownership and listens to what longtime locals have to say.
Join the Day Labor Network’s upcoming workshop - ICE Watch and Rapid Response. In Spanish with English subtitles, you too can learn from four powerful organizations key strategies for self-defense and rapid response on Tuesday, Feb. 25, at 4 PM PST.
Check out the Unofficial Insider’s Guide to Visiting Hawai’i.
Watch this informative documentary on how the US illegally overthrew the Kingdom of Hawai’i.
Read Movement-Killing Behaviors by Nijmie Dzurinko and discuss it with people you’re organizing with now. Ask each other: How are we taking responsibility for ourselves and each other? What practices can we do to repair harm and strengthen ties to one another? What am I doing to hinder our movement in this time of crisis?
To be honest, this article was a necessary call-in for me. I hope it serves you well, Beloved.
Read this gem by
.Attend a virtual legal observer training tomorrow, Tuesday, Feb. 25 at 5:30 PST! Hosted by the National Lawyers Guild of Los Angeles, this training will teach how to observe & document potentially unlawful or unjustified interference with demonstrators’ rights as a legal observer in Los Angeles/Orange Counties and the Inland Empire.
Rooted in Community
Join the Queer Poetics Collective! Facilitated by Ezra Bronwyn Adkins, this event includes a somatic exercise, writing in community, and an open mic. This month’s theme is rippled reflections, paths (un)kown.
Find Queer Poetics Collective on Instagram (@queerpoeticscollective) and direct message them for a link. Deadline to register is Feb. 27th at noon PST.
Organized and presented by Lifewerq Project, this webinar series for queer and trans Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color offers community engagement and conversation on preparing for the difficulties ahead of us. Register today to attend Get Ready So We Can Stay Ready: Go Bag for Trans & Queer BIPOC and Build Resilience in your Food Program with Johnnie Stone.
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A very comprehensive piece. Thanks for including us - and thank you for writing it
Thank you for restacking this and for the kind comment!