Today we start a multi-part series on imperialism. We're going to be talking about Lenin's

principal thesis, imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism, and the new book, Imperialism in

the 21st century updating Lenin's theory a century later.

We need a new system. We need a new society. We need to demand that which may have sounded

impossible even a few weeks ago, but is not only realizable, but an imperative necessity. Welcome to The Real Story on the Socialist program.

I'm Brian Becker.

I'm joined today by Walter Smalerick.

Walter joined me and others in helping to write a book called Imperialism in the 21st century updating

Lenin's theory a century later.

We'll discuss the core ideas from this book and weigh in on how the situation has further

evolved since Lenin's publication more than a century ago.

Walter, welcome back. Glad to be here.

I mean, Walter, as you know, for anti-war people, for social justice activists, for people in the

labor movement, especially for those political and social forces fighting for revolutionary or

radical change in the United States, the center of world

imperialism, it's critically important to have a clear vision or political understanding of what

imperialism is. I can remember as a kid, people my age and people in that generation, we were all

learning about war up close because of the Vietnam War.

If you were 12 or 13 in 1965 or 1966 and then you were a little bit older a couple years later,

it was very likely that you might be drafted and go to Vietnam and fight.

And so people were thinking about U.S. foreign policy.

They were thinking about the war. They were coming out against the war. They finally decided in

...