Socialists of Caltech
Anti-Imperialism Working Group
Mission
Caltech is an institution with significant historical ties to both the US military and the American eugenics movement. As socialists at this institution, we recognize that the history of Western science is inextricably tied to colonialism, white supremacy, and military expansion. We will oppose imperialism via a diversity of methods, including political education events, direct action, and institutional pressure.
Science and US Empire
It is especially crucial that science workers recognize the political nature of their labor. The continued militarization and automation of policing—deployed against oppressed communities in the United States as well as in other nations—is bolstered by weapons and algorithms that we design. Massive surveillance of marginalized people is enabled by software and technology that we create. Arms dealers sell their wares—the products of our labor—to the most oppressive regimes in the world, including the United States military. Science plays a significant role in maintaining the power of the ruling class, and that this power is expanded and reproduced globally primarily in the form of American empire. In order to oppose capitalism, it is necessary to oppose imperialism and to fight for a revolutionary science—one which exists not for the production of profit, nor for the destruction of human life and dignity, but for the liberation of all oppressed people.
These slides from previous workshops (2019, 2021) elaborate on the connection between science and US imperialism.
Don’t Work for War Fair 2021
Anti-Imperialism working group counter-programmed the Winter Career Fair, at which 19 out of the 67 employers had ties to US military. Some of our materials from the day can be found below.
- Employer Guide: a comprehensive list of all employers at the career fair with US military ties
- Science and Imperialism talk: slides for the intro-level SoC-led presentation
- Invited speaker Chewy Shaw of the Alphabet Workers Union: video recording
“What do nations care about the cost of war, if by spending a few hundred millions in steel and gunpowder they can gain a thousand millions in diamonds and cocoa?”
– W.E.B. Du Bois
“The result of neo-colonialism is that foreign capital is used for the exploitation rather than for the development of the less developed parts of the world. Investment under neo-colonialism increases rather than decreases the gap between the rich and poor countries of the world.”
– Kwame Nkrumah
“Capitalism has grown into a world system of colonial oppression and of the financial strangulation of the overwhelming majority of the population of the world by a handful of “advanced” countries.”
– V.I. Lenin
Current Projects
- Disruption of recruitment by military contractors on campus. We organize sit-ins, disruptions, and opposition to the recruitment of Caltech community members by military contractors that are regularly invited to campus during information sessions and career fairs.
- Compiling a dossier on the Caltech trustees. We are doing research into all the Caltech trustees to document their connections to war and other US imperialist interests with the goal of creating a public dossier.
To get involved, please use the contact form at the bottom of the page.
Past Projects
- Panel discussion on Sinophobia, McCarthyism, and the New Cold War in Academia (video) – May 2021
- Don’t Work for War Fair – January 2021
- Vigil for Victims of US Imperialism at the CIA booth – Winter 2020 Career Fair.
- Discussions on the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT).
- SoC Anti-Imperialism workshop (Jan 2019) (slides here).
- Hosted Free Radicals workshop “A People’s History of Science.”
Science for the People Workshop 
SoC Anti-Imperialism Workshop 
Career Fair Coup of the CIA table 
Career Fair Vigil for Victims of US Imperialism