Saturday 29 June 2013

OH CANADUH...


If you're willing to be delusional enough to believe that kkkanada only does "humanitarian" interventions in other people's countries, and that some fucking how kkkanada isn't imperialist, that "we" haven't treated the Native people here as badly as the fucking yanks have, that kkkanadian troops never commit atrocities against civilians, that cops up here are not as fucked as the assholes to the south, that we have a social safety net, then go ahead and celebrate on July the 1st. If you support injustice against the Third World so you can have your fucking convenience, go ahead. If you actually believe the bullshit about the "war on terror", you are a stupid asshole. Paint your stupid fucking face, get drunk at your fucking BBQ, and fuck off, eh.

Sunday 23 June 2013

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE...

There is a group of imperialists and their bootlickers who call themselves the "friends of syria", and they have decided to provide military aid to the "rebels" fighting against the government of Bashar Al Assad. Now, these "friends" include the united states, france, germany and the u.k., and they have condemned "outside interference" in the internal affairs of  Syria. Please tell me I don't need to point out the utter and brutally fucked up hypocrisy of countries with track records like those "friends" mentioned above. Are the u.s. friends with anyone, or is it ALWAYS a relationship of ownership and domination, or if not that, then inter-imperialist competition? Same with the u.k, germany, france, etc., and of course, our own "kinder, gentler imperialism", with fuckwad harper at the helm. ALL of these assholes are known throughout history as doing nothing but interfering in the internal affairs of other countries. Fuck them.

Friends of Syria will arm rebels for fight against Assad and Hezbollah

Statement pledges 'all the necessary materiel and equipment' after recapture of Qusair and as assault on Aleppo nears
syria rebels
A Rebel tries to locate a fighter plane in the village of Al-Rami in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib. Photograph: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images
International opponents of Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria, agreed on Saturday to give urgent military support to Western-backed rebels, aiming to stem a counter-offensive by Assad's forces and offset the growing power of jihadist fighters.
Assad's recapture of the strategic border town of Qusair, an effort spearheaded by Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas, and an expected assault on the divided northern city of Aleppo have alarmed supporters of the Syrian opposition. The US administration has responded by saying, for the first time, it will arm rebels, while Gulf sources say Saudi Arabia has accelerated the delivery of advanced weapons to the rebels over the last week.
Ministers from the 11 core members of the Friends of Syria group agreed "to provide urgently all the necessary materiel and equipment to the opposition on the ground," according to a statement released at the end of their meeting in Qatar. The statement did not commit all the countries to send weapons, but said each country could provide assistance "in its own way, in order to enable [the rebels] to counter brutal attacks by the regime and its allies".
The aid should be channelled through the Western-backed Supreme Military Council, a move that Washington and its European allies hope will prevent weapons falling into the hands of Islamist radicals including the al-Qaida-linked Nusra front.
Ministers from the Friends group – which includes Western and Arab states as well as Turkey – also condemned "the intervention of Hezbollah militias and fighters from Iran and Iraq", demanding they withdraw immediately. As well as fighting in Qusair, Hezbollah is deployed alongside Iraqi gunmen around the Shia shrine of Sayyida Zainab, south of Damascus. Iranian military commanders are believed to be advising Assad's officers on counter-insurgency.
Two Gulf sources told Reuters that Saudi Arabia, which started supplying anti-aircraft missiles to the rebels on a small scale two months ago, had accelerated delivery of sophisticated weaponry. "In the past week there have been more arrivals of these advanced weapons. They are getting them more frequently," one source said, without giving details. Another Gulf source described them as "potentially balance-tipping" supplies.
French military advisers are training the rebels in Turkey and Jordan, sources familiar with the training programmes said. US forces have been carrying out similar training, rebels say.
Rebel fighters say they need anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons to stem the fightback by Assad's forces in a civil war that has killed 93,000 people, driven 1.6 million refugees abroad and cost tens of billions of dollars in destruction of property, businesses and infrastructure.

Louay Meqdad, spokesman for the Supreme Military Council, which is led by former Syrian army general Salim Idriss, said it had received several batches of weapons. "They are the first consignments from one of the countries that support the Syrian people and there are clear promises from Arab and foreign countries that there will be more during the coming days," he told Reuters Television in Istanbul.
US Secretary of State John Kerry and Qatar's prime minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-ThaniUS Secretary of State John Kerry and Qatar's prime minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, after a ministerial meeting on Syria, in Doha, Qatar. Photograph: Str/EPA
A French diplomatic source said Paris would increase non-lethal aid such as communications equipment, gas masks, night-vision goggles and bullet-proof vests. It would also provide assistance with military strategy and battlefield intelligence.
"All this has already started," a Western source said. "Broadly speaking, Western nations will do this, while Gulf Arab nations will deliver the weapons. It's a division of roles. If the northern front receives enough material and non-material support quickly, it could soon be equivalent to thousands of men, or even tens of thousands."
Idriss himself told Al-Jazeera International television on Saturday that his men were still lacking "effective air defence" against Assad's planes and helicopters. "That's why we are asking for shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles … and anti-tank missiles, modern ones with long range," he said. "We need it yesterday … because the regime is trying to recapture the whole country."
The increasingly sectarian dynamic of the war pits mainly Sunni Muslim rebels against forces loyal to Assad – who is from the Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shia Islam – and has split the Middle East along Sunni-Shia lines.
US secretary of state John Kerry said Hezbollah's role transformed the conflict "into a much more volatile, potentially explosive situation that could involve the entire region".

Saturday 22 June 2013

NOT JUST ABOUT TREES....

For those people who have been following the events in Turkey through the bourgeois press, you might not be getting the whole story. Gee whiz, who would have thought that our "open press" would only be giving us one side of the story, especially about a government that's "on our side"? As far as censorship and one sidedness, the western press is far more clever than the old soviet "communist" media used to be. Over there, they knew they were being manipulated and lied to. Over here, we're given these "objective reports", and made to think they are our own ideas. Read this.

A Spring Thunder Resonating Far and Wide

June 20, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

The following was written by a contributor and is being posted in both English and Turkish:
A social uprising on a scale not seen in recent decades has burst into the open like spring thunder, rejecting the way things are and opposing the direction they are heading. It has rapidly spread across Turkey, bringing a massive number of protesters into the streets in more than seventy cities and towns all the way from Istanbul to Diyarbakir. And it has brought forward a whole lively chorus of international solidarity from four corners of the world.
Since the end of May an explosion of a political crisis of tremendous significance has seized the center stage, sharply polarizing the whole society, drawing millions into debate and exposing all the basic rotten and oppressive nature of the existing social order and its fundamental assumptions. One defiant young woman, in the heat of pitched battle with the police, proudly responded, "It is not about a few trees, this struggle is about our souls!", to a journalist inquiring about what motivated the relentless surge of the protests.
On the surface it was the brutal attack by the riot police and the authorities at 5 o'clock in the morning on the 31st of May to evict 50-100 people peacefully protesting the planned demolition of Istanbul's Taksim Gezi Park that sparked the whole social uprising. However from behind the thick fog of cr-gas and crippling shots of high pressure water cannons and concussion grenades of the first day engagements, it became clear that a new and fresh and determined force, a young generation of rebels has emerged, increasingly impatient with and intolerant of the existing political and social reality in Turkey.
The depth and scope of the rebel forces arrayed against the regime of the AKP (the Justice and Development Party), which has been ruling since 2002, reveals the sharp intensification of the contradictions. The young people from universities and the shantytowns, middle class people from all walks of life, artists and intellectuals are united with those who have been recently dislocated from the countryside, demanding the resignation of the prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, along with the people who are outraged with the systematic islamization of the state and the public space and growing imposition of Islamic values and traditions and unrelenting promotion of religion-based morals. At the center and in the front ranks of this rebellion stand women who are furious about the encroachments on their bodies, lives and freedoms and the restrictions of abortion, and the government dictats about how many children a "patriotic," "good mother" should have. People who are outraged about the state sponsored efforts to erode or reject scientific truths like Darwin's theory of evolution are also part of the protests. The sympathizers of revolutionary groups and organizations fight alongside the people who oppose the deterioration of the environment and those who demand real freedom of speech, a stop to internet censorship and the arrests of journalists for even mild truth telling or criticism. Hence the slogan "Tayyip Resign!" loudly echoes between battle lines and barricades in different cities, representing a deep loathing of the AKP regime.
The AKP came to power cultivating an image of the "underdog" and promising a "just economic order" and development. Now the truth of this is clear in all its ugliness: an orgy of speculation, profiteering, and cronyism, all done with the help of the state: huge construction projects such as Istanbul Canal (a new artificial Bosporus), the Third Bridge or yet another "the biggest mosque ever" and many others. Not only are these projects aimed at enriching a handful of "pious AKP entrepreneurs," they are also ecological disasters that waste water resources, provoke land erosion and destruction of irreplaceable historic archeological treasures. An out-of-control mosque building program is masquerading as urban planning.
People are fed up with the regime's increasingly bellicose and arrogant swaggering in the region. They are glorifying, whitewashing and instrumentalizing the heritage of the Ottoman Empire. Foreign affairs minister Davutoglu's pseudo academic thesis about the importance of the Turkish state's "strategic depth" for governing the region in cahoots with the real masters of the region—the U.S. and European imperialists—represents their predatory aims and over-sized appetite. The fueling of sectarian reactionary civil war in Syria amply manifests this. And now they are coming to a cynical agreement with some Kurdish nationalist forces in order to chase after the reactionary regional ambitions of the Turkish ruling class and to stomp on the legitimate aspirations of the Kurdish people in the process.
Despite the public posturing of the prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with his dismissive tone laced with overt threats against the protesters, there are signs within his ruling party that a gnawing sense of being under siege is making itself felt. There is talk of breaking ranks with Erdogan's leadership in order to deal with the developing legitimacy crisis of the reign of the Islam-based traditionalist pro free-market AKP which has been in government for 11 years.

What Lies Underneath the Surface

For the past three decades giant changes have been sweeping Turkey as part of the quickened pace of "globalization" in the world as a whole. During this period capitalist development has intensified in Turkey, which has meant new capitalists who want their share of the state power and their right to a "fair share" in the loot. This same process of development has also led to dislocation of millions of peasants and subsistence farmers, driven to bankruptcy and pushed into the shantytowns or to migrate abroad. This process of displacement and upheaval has been reflected in culture, ideas and morals. One strong tendency has been nostalgia for traditional values and morals such as seen in "Arabesque" music. Women have in massive numbers been brought out of the house and forced to feed their family as low wage laborers. Yet these same women are the victims of this Islamic and feudal ideology and the yearning for traditional values and lifestyle. The much vaunted modernization of Turkey has gone hand-in-hand with increasing occurrence of degradation and brutalization of women even including horrific honor killings. This is the bloody secret of the "pious entrepreneurship" model that symbolizes so much of the consciously cultivated posture of the AKP machinery.
The AKP came into existence and was propelled into power as an expression of these drives and contradictions toward, on the one hand, an increased "modern capitalist development" and, on the other hand, the promotion of traditional values and religious ideology—its "politics of piety." On the one hand, the AKP represents the unashamed defense and practice of "free market" capitalism and exploitation, working hand-in-hand with imperialism, yet their claim to power, their ideological cohesion and their appeal to a section of the people is increasingly rooted in religious ideology (Islam) and its nostalgic yearning for a traditional way of life that is being undercut by the very workings of the world capitalist system that the AKP is salivating over.
In the world today, and especially in the Middle East and North Africa, these two conflicting but interdependent drives are shaping political events and posing reactionary alternatives, contending with each other, and fueling reactionary violence and manipulation. Aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan, Somalia, the imperialist "war on terrorism," the ongoing confrontation with Islamic Republic of Iran, all of this is marked by this same dynamic. The so-called "Turkish Model" was touted, as recently as May 31, as an example of mitigating and harmonizing unbridled capitalist, imperialist fueled development with reactionary outmoded Islamic political regime. Many in the region and in Turkey believed that this gymnastic leg splits was the best possible option available. Three elections were won with this self-delusion and this model was being sold (or pushed down the throats) as the deadening, stifling final curtain of the Arab Spring.
The current explosion is the sudden surfacing of these insoluble contradictions.
The efforts to reconcile imperialist-fueled capitalist development and western bourgeois democracy with a "harmless" moderate dose of Islam cannot achieve its aims. Tayyip may not be Taliban or Bin Laden, but he too is both an agent and a product of these same two opposed tendencies that he cannot possibly control. And this is one of the reasons he is so uncontrollably arrogant in his speeches.
The other side of the same dream was that Turkey would go from being a feasting ground for foreign imperialism to taking a seat at the imperialists' own table: the hopes of joining the European Union. From the beginning of the Turkish Republic in 1923 the goal of reaching the level of the "West Civilization" has been the dream of all of the rulers in Turkey. The AKP promised to deliver what even Ataturk and the generals could not. Beyond and above the fact that this was self-delusional, why should the peoples of Turkey want to aspire to take part in the pillaging of others or be proud of being a "strategic partner" (actually cop and torturer) for world class marauders, to protect a system which puts billions of dollars in the hands of a handful while billions of people are degraded? Where international sex slave trade becomes a big industry, child labor persists and the environment sustains irreparable damage? Isn't the effort to resurrect the grandeur of the Ottoman Empire nothing but a dream of Turkey taking its coveted place in the world imperialist system?
The most important fruit of the social rebellion against AKP, its ideology, its heavy hand and its project of society is the emerging collective realization that a completely different, opposing society must be brought into being.

Fighting Our Way and Bringing Forth a Radically New Society

People in Taksim Square and increasing numbers around the country want to participate in determining the direction of the country. They want to make good use of their passions and their talents to contribute to create a better society. There is a growing sense of the need to be good caretakers of the planet and not sacrifice the earth for money grubbing. Women and men dream of a society where patriarchy, the oppression and degradation of women can be overcome through struggle. Where one nation no longer lords it over others. People yearn for genuine cooperation and community and to get out from under the dog-eat-dog competition and indifference characteristic of the capitalist and imperialist world.
All of what people are fighting for and in fact much, much more is possible in Turkey and in the whole world. It is possible through a communist revolution. As "The Revolution We Need... The Leadership We Have, A Message, And A Call, From The Revolutionary Communist Party, USA" put it:
"Communism [is] a world where people work and struggle for the common good....Where everyone contributes whatever they can to society and gets back what they need to live a life worthy of human beings... Where there are no more divisions among people in which some rule over and oppress others, robbing them not only of the means to a decent life but also of knowledge and a means for really understanding, and acting to change, the world."
Without this vision, without a determined struggle to emancipate humanity from the life devouring social divisions and antagonisms, people's hopes and dreams for a different world, without exploitation and oppression, cannot be realized.
The conditions necessary to reach communism exist in the world today. Extremely advanced productive capacity exists and links together people all over the globe. But under the existing social system, this very capacity can only be used for the accumulation of ever greater private capital. And the greatest resource of all—the masses of people themselves—are held back from contributing to solving the needs of every one. Not only are unemployed workers and displaced farmers left idle, even those who have had the chance to gain important knowledge and skills are not allowed to use them in the service of the people. The condition and the oppression of women, of the half of human society, is a striking manifestation of the imprisonment of humanity.
The fundamental reason that society goes on and on this way is that the small minority who benefits from the existing setup, the exploiting classes, have the control of the state—the government, the army, the police, the bureaucracy. And the economic and political domination also is reflected in the ideas, culture, ethos, etc. which draw on systems, past and present, of exploitation and oppression and contribute to keeping the people enslaved.
So there has to be a revolution, a real revolution, if society is going to be transformed. By this we mean the overthrow and dismantlement of the existing state and its replacement by a radically new political power, a socialist state, in which the exploited in alliance with the middle class and professionals govern society with the leadership of a visionary vanguard party.
Such a socialist society could only exist as a "base area" for revolution in the region and the world.
Most importantly, a socialist society would be a transition from the society of today toward the future communist world. It could only exist if it is a lively, colorful society full of debate, struggle and experimentation. A society that would be a joy to live in.
But for the possibility and desire of revolution to actually lead to a successful revolution there has to be a revolution in theory and ideology. There has to be a section of people who consciously take up the revolutionary theory and the responsibility to lead the masses in seizing power and embarking on the process of transforming society. This is the importance of the New Synthesis of Bob Avakian: a re-envisioning and reinvigorating of communist revolution. He scientifically examines the history of proletarian revolution and contemporary society, and the new knowledge emerging from different fields of human activity. The result is a Marxism that is more scientifically grounded, more emancipatory and makes the revolutionary transformation of society more desirable and even more feasible.

A Glimpse into Such a Future

In broad strokes it is possible to see two major features of immediate revolutionary transformation that need to be at the heart and center of any genuine revolutionary programme. First, there is the whole spider web of connections to the world imperialist system that keep Turkey and similar societies economically, politically and culturally entrapped and dependent. A real revolution can not just try to tinker with these chains, or even worse, try to figure out how to somehow "use" this or that connection to the imperialist world system as some kind of leverage or advantage. The modern imperialist-centered tourism industry in Turkey, to take one clear example (or petroleum involving other countries in the region) is a major chain on the people and the whole society and most definitely not a potential vehicle for "national liberation."
The second immediate objective of the revolution is unleashing a whole process of social transformation which will sweep away the reactionary, patriarchal and backward social relations which continue to weigh so heavily on the masses of people and the whole society.
The fact of the matter is that these two major objectives can only be achieved through genuine, revolutionary, socialism.
The events at Avenue Bourgiba, Tahrir Square and now in Taksim Square and Gezi Park electrified the world, not only as focal points of resistance, but also as "free zones" full of lively debate over the direction of the movement and society as a whole. The daring to criticize anything and anyone that was felt to be standing in the way. Under the reactionary rule this kind of activity was met with police charges, thugs on camel back, television blackouts, and secret informers. In the socialist society of the future this kind of ferment will not only be "tolerated," it must be welcomed and fostered by the leaders of the society and its revolutionary institutions. Protest and mass upheaval, a spirit of daring to think, to re-evaluate, to criticize, will exist on a scale never seen in history and involve the masses of people normally "locked out" of intellectual and political life as well as the intellectuals and artists who will continue to have a crucial role to play in the conditions of the new society. The state power will protect the rights of the people to carry out these kinds of struggles. To be clear, opposition to socialism can be expressed as long as these opponents do not try to actually overthrow the system by illegal means.
Avakian's vision of socialism is one where controversy, dissent, struggle over right and wrong, and mass debate are woven into the fabric of the society, not the exception. Resources (publications, television stations, meeting halls and so forth) must be made available so that these rights are real and meaningful, unlike the bourgeois democracy where money, connections and ownership empties "free speech" of most of its meaning. This orientation is not a pious wish to be cast aside at the first difficulty. In the future socialist societies there will certainly be vicious enemies at home and abroad that will do everything to bring back the reactionary system, but all-too-often the realities of such enemies and the need to combat them has been seen as a reason to resort to heavy-handed methods and to not rely on and bring forward the masses of people.
The new socialist societies of the 21st century must be marked by an unprecedented expansion of individual rights throughout the population. The state itself will be qualitatively different from currently existing states in that it will be a result of the revolution of the masses, but this will not change the fact that there will still be contradictions between the state and the people as long as it is still necessary to have a state at all. The democracy that will exist and the guarantee of individual rights will be part of the struggle to keep the social transformation moving forward and will create more favorable conditions for the advance of the revolution.
Take, for example, the important question of the fight for a scientific world outlook and opposition to religious outlooks that weigh heavily on the thinking of the masses. In basically all of countries in the region including Turkey and across the globe as well, whether by law or just the weight of family and tradition, the media, and sometimes thugs, people are not encouraged to explore and debate alternative outlooks, and those who don't believe are often cowed into silence. There must be a strict separation between religion and the state. The educational system must treat religion according to the same scientific standard used to examine all other social phenomena. There will be no state-imposed official ideology, including the ideology of communism.
A radically different socialist society will handle the discussion over religion much differently. We know that for a long time there will be people who reject the scientific world view of communism and cling to religion. Freedom of religion will be respected and no one will be pressured to pretend to be something they are not. On the other hand, the communists will not back away from the struggle over religion and world outlook more generally, because it will be impossible to achieve a communist society until people look at the world as it actually is and on that basis transform it. This struggle in the sphere of thinking between believers and revolutionary communists can be a real and exciting "school" through which millions can participate, learn and transform.

Sound Familiar?

Many people say, the communist revolution has been tried and it was a failure in the Soviet Union and Mao's China. It is true that these socialist revolutions were ultimately defeated, but to call these revolutions "tyranny" or a "nightmare" is a vile slander. It is worth considering who it is that most considers these socialist states a disaster: the very representatives of the same exploiting classes that were overthrown by these revolutions! The actual fact is that these revolutions put power in the hands of the masses for the first time in history and dared to undertake and realize never before seen social transformations. It is not surprising that these initial efforts contained shortcomings and errors, some of which were serious in both implementation and conception.
Some people argue that the communist revolution may succeed in meeting the material needs of the people but at the unacceptable price of forfeiting freedom and individuality. But despite real errors, this is not a fair characterization of those societies. More importantly, today Avakian's new synthesis offers a different and more emancipatory way of understanding and leading the revolutionary transformation. In the light of this new understanding it is important to grasp that while revolution must have as its center the millions of downtrodden and oppressed, the goal of the proletarian revolution is not revenge, but the emancipation of all humanity.

Conclusion

The upsurge in Turkey is closely linked to the winds of hope and change that have been sweeping through the region and often called the Arab Spring. While this had been a most necessary breath of fresh air and unleashed great enthusiasm, even bringing the fall of some regimes, these movements have not yet led to real revolution.
The same conditions, the same fault lines and contradictions, can also, in the absence of a real revolutionary alternative, lead to horrors as well. Witness the bloodbath in Syria in which two reactionary sides are abusing and misusing the masses of people.
A great and tremendous moment is being played in the history of Turkey. It requires a real revolution in thinking as well, if the aspirations of the people are to be fulfilled. We have the great advantage that more rigorously scientific and revolutionary understanding exists in the new synthesis that can serve as a theoretical foundation for initiating and carrying through a new process of communist revolution.
At this moment it is crucial that a determined struggle must be waged so that the present movement continues to advance and forces the government to back down in the face of the people's just demands. The forces on the side of the people must strive to unite their ranks closely and solidly against this regime and the rulers of this system, while understanding clearly that the known reactionary forces and their political symbols such the blood-soaked flag of the Turkish state cannot possibly aid those who are fighting the police and the hated government of the same state. We cannot defeat our oppressors while holding up their flag or defending their outlook. What it stands for must be understood and it must be rejected.
It is a liberating feature of this movement that it has brought into the open many burning issues of the conditions of society and the world to debate and struggle and in doing so brought together a broad spectrum of people from all walks of life. It is vitally important to reach out and win over a lot more forces from broad sections of the people, including from among the proletarian and downtrodden social groups. The AKP and other reactionaries cannot be allowed to continue to fool and mislead many of them against this movement and the future it must be fighting for.
There are many who yearn for revolutionary change, many dream of revolution, again. And others are just beginning to realize why it is necessary. It is decisively important to debate, struggle over and clarify our thinking about how to make revolution and emancipate humanity. To draw correct lessons from past revolutions, to develop clear strategic conceptions about how to initiate and carry through revolution in today's world towards human emancipation worldwide is a task that cannot be put off or belittled. Old tired run-of-the-mill arguments for communism will no longer suffice. Engaging with Bob Avakian's new synthesis of communism is essential for all those who desire to arm themselves theoretically and politically to prepare the ground and the forces for the revolution that cries out to be made.
Step forward, Turkey and the whole world needs to be transformed through revolution!

Ishak Baran, June 15, 2013
Supporter of Bob Avakian's new synthesis of communism and a veteran participant of the Maoist movement in Turkey.
Distributed by the Revolutionary Communist Manifesto Group (Europe)rcmanifestogroup@yahoo.co.uk

Thursday 20 June 2013

FAR TOO MANY

Too many people are wilfully blind to the actual essence of what constitutes the richest country on earth, forcing their version of democracy on everybody else, usually at the point of a fucking gun or death from above. Unless, of course, you happen to be on board with the slavery they are selling, without getting to the point where you can compete with these bloodsuckers...Fuck amerikkka, their wars, imperialism, prisons, and all of their lies.

HOW LONG?

by Joe Veale | June 9, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

In reading the May 23-29 issue of the Black-owned newspaper Los Angeles Sentinel, there was one article that especially jumped out and grabbed me, making my blood boil.
Photo: AP
The article is speaking about how with the passage of a new law, the state of California will now be notifying parents and guardians when their children are placed in the gang database.
What grabbed me in this way and I'm quoting from the article here: "In California, individuals can be added to the CalGang Database without being arrested or accused of a crime, based solely on interviews by police during routine stops. The CalGang Database is then used to add people to gang injunctions, support arguments for enhanced sentencing in court and disqualifying entire families from living in public housing."
And it goes on to say "Children as young as ten are included in this database..."
This is one of the ways that the school to prison pipeline begins. Today, there are close to 200,000 people in California prisons. There is an equivalent of this CalGang program in every major U.S. city, so that now there are over 2.4 million people locked up nationally, the majority of whom are Black and Latino. And THIS slow genocide is what the Stop Mass Incarceration Network is talking about and working to put an end to.
Photo: AP
I can't help but be reminded of what happened to some of my friends, as well as family members, who were sent to jail as children in the early 1960s. My 12-year-old brother was arrested and sent to California Youth Authority (CYA) for defending himself against a physical assault by a teacher in West Berkeley, a poor and Black neighborhood (see Bob Avakian's memoirFrom Ike to Mao and Beyond..." for a sense of segregated Berkeley of that time).
This was my brother's first encounter with the police. And it was the first time our whole family felt totally powerless as my grandmother and five of us kids all went to court, crying and pleading for my brother's release. Our anguished compassion and love for my brother meant nothing to the judge, who sent my brother away for a year. His life was over. He was raped and came out of CYA refusing to accept that we lived in poverty, and would go in and out of CYA on parole violations. At 18, my brother ended up taking his own life.
CH was one of my best friends who I knew since elementary school. By the time he was 10 years old, he was put into CYA "for fighting." His life was basically over from then on. He spent more time in CYA and state prison than on the streets. I ran into him in prison when we were both in our early 20s. I could still talk to him but it was clear that prison and its brutal treatment had robbed him of much of his humanity and his personality. One of their torments was to repeatedly promise him parole, and then renege for no real reason. I was the only person who could reach him because we grew up like brothers, but he was no longer the person I knew and loved.
During those years, any time I was also sent to county jail or prison, it would be more like an informal high school reunion. My brother and CH, like millions today trapped in America's INjustice system, have the potential to contribute so much, under a radically different society. But this will take a revolution.
So when BA asks the question at the start of his live talk BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! of "how long must this nightmare of oppression and brutality go on?", it makes me think of all this and also all the other great suffering of humanity all over the world.
But what's most significant today is that because of BA's new synthesis of communism, all this suffering is no longer necessary.

Tuesday 18 June 2013

CARNIVAL

Here's another one on what's going on in Turkey.

Turkey: A bright carnival in the shadow of a revengeful state

June 16, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Editor's note: The following is drawn from new coverage including the article "Turkey: A bright carnival in the shadow of a revengeful state" distributed by A World To Win News Service.
A World to Win News Service is put out by A World to Win magazine, a political and theoretical review inspired by the formation of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, the embryonic center of the world's Marxist-Leninist-Maoist parties and organizations.


Thousands of youth clash with security forces in Ankara on June 1. Photo: AP
1) "It started out about a park, but now it's about everything," someone tweeted in the middle of the night as protesters fought police in Istanbul's Taksim Square. As we go to press, massive protests are raging throughout the country of Turkey. The events began on Tuesday morning, May 28, when some 50 protesters stood in front of the bulldozers about to attack the trees in Gezi Park, adjacent to Taksim Square.
Taksim Square is a major gathering place, hangout, and location for political and cultural activities. Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had announced that much of the square would be leveled and replaced with a bizarre replica of a military barracks serving the oppressive Ottoman Empire that once stood on this site, along with a shopping center, condominiums, and a new mosque. Erdogan's role has been to shore up the Turkish ruling class power structure in large part through Islamicization of society, including imposing religion and tightening the oppression of women. In the days following the initial protest, the park was occupied around the clock by youth in affinity with the global Occupy movement and others determined to save one of the city's last green spaces.


Youth chant "Tayyip, resign!" in Ankara on June 1. Photo: AP
2) At 5 am on Friday May 31, police attacked. They fired rounds of tear gas into tents with people sleeping in them, including children; they sent in bulldozers to roll over everything and set fire to the encampment. Hundreds of protesters, journalists, and passersby were injured. An attempted sit-in was dispersed. Instead of putting an end to the protests, this assault made many thousands of people from all walks of life feel that they had to come to the rescue. Some people chanted, "Thanks, Tayyip, for the wake-up call."
News coverage described youth throwing stones and other objects, fighting back against police in pitched battles that lasted all day and all night. The next day, the police withdrew from the square and protesters closed off the entrances with high barricades built of cobblestones and appropriated police crowd-control barriers, street signs and other items.
The protesters are high school and university students and teachers (the universities suspended final exams); artists, architects, city planners, and other intellectuals (some of the very first demonstrators); doctors and lawyers (their associations defended the protesters, and many came to help them); slum youth and their parents, many of Kurdish origin (Kurdish people are an oppressed nationality within Turkey and in other countries in the region); white collar workers and business people; shopkeepers (often handing out lemons and milk to sooth eyes burned by tear gas and pepper gas); pushcart peddlers; and housewives of all backgrounds, including traditional peasant families, some covered, most not. A few days later the two public service union confederations called a two-day strike and their members joined the youth.

3) In response to the protests, a government spokesman said, "It doesn't matter what you do. We made a decision and we will follow through with that decision." A bridge that is part of the project, he announced, would be named Yavez (the Great) Sultan Selim, after the 16th-century hereditary ruler who made the Ottoman Empire a caliphate (Islamic state), also infamous for the slaughter of members of the Alevi religious minority. And the regime has continued to use violence to attempt to suppress the uprising.


The police, who were spraying people in the face with streams of pepper gas and firing bone-breaking, flesh-penetrating baton rounds at close range, displayed a particularly violent hatred for women. Photos on the web show one or another defiant woman caught in a crossfire of gas-loaded water cannons strong enough to cause serious injury. Above, a woman defies police water cannons in Istanbul on June 1. Photo: AP
4) In the clashes with the police, in the assaults and counter-assaults, countless women were in the forefront of the fighting, relishing a chance to battle for what they see as a clash over what kind of world they will live in. There were women in sun dresses holding out their arms to mockingly gesture "bring it on" to the riot police; women in thin tank tops, their hands wrapped in rags so that they could grab tear gas canisters; many young students in jeans, some wearing head-scarves and a few with Occupy face masks as well; and other women of all ages and classes.
The police, who were spraying people in the face with streams of pepper gas and firing bone-breaking, flesh-penetrating baton rounds at close range, displayed a particularly violent hatred for women.
Few women entered into this fray without an awareness of the special dangers, but perhaps their enthusiasm for symbolic and physical confrontation stems from a feeling that they are a central target of Erdogan's reactionary Islamic program. He tried to ban caesarean section births and put restrictions on abortion, not so much in the name of religion but because, as he once opined on TV, "Turkish women" (meaning ethnic Turks, not the country's minorities) should have more babies. In the blatantly patriarchal climate Erdogan has helped foster, honor killings, long a plague in Turkey, have risen sharply, with little prosecution. This participation by women is not just an interesting and positive feature. It is one of the best characteristics of this movement.

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5) Less than three weeks before the protests, Barack Obama had Erdogan visit the White House and praised the U.S.'s "partnership" with his regime. With the outbreak of the protests, a White House spokesman issued a hypocritical statement claiming to support "full freedom of expression and assembly" in Turkey. But for many decades the U.S. has been the main imperialist overlord of Turkey and has propped up a succession of brutal, reactionary regimes that massacred opponents, oppressed nationalities, and revolutionaries. The ruling class of Turkey plays an important role policing the region on behalf of U.S. imperialism—including right now serving as a key conduit for U.S. intervention in Syria. The inspiring protests are rocking a country that, especially in recent years, U.S. imperialism has seen as a relatively reliable and stable ally and enforcer for its interests in Central Asia and the Middle East.
People in the U.S. have a particular responsibility to support the uprising in Turkey, and oppose repression against the protesters, as well as moves by the rulers of the U.S. to tighten their domination of the country and advance their interests in the midst of the uprising in Turkey.

Monday 17 June 2013

THIS IS HOW IT'S DONE

The defiance of the Turkish masses against their duly elected reactionary government should serve as a lesson for us all, but you know it won't. Canadians are still locked into the same old "we'll get 'em next time" crap, and still believe that this rotten faded old lying democracy is the best thing ever. "Get out there and vote, make a difference !", the chorus of deluded fools living their sad lies. Idle No More is the true exercise of democracy, as well as the Occupy Movement, even though there is much work to be done, and this is all in it's embryonic stage. But I digress. Read this from a Turkish Revolutionary Party....

Statement of the Maoist Communist Party/Turkey-North Kurdistan on the Uprising in that Country

MKP
The following statement from the Maoist Communist Party/Turkey-North Kurdistan (MKP) is a translated version from the original Turkish. The translation was carried out by the comrads of Towards a New Dawn, which some minor additional edits to enhance readability. Much thanks go towards TND for this translation work of this document from an important Turkish revolutionary organization in this time of great upheaval in that south west Asian country.
The MKP along with the Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist and the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party are outlawed revolutionary organizations in Turkey that upholds the anti-revisionist legacy of the martyred Ä°brahim Kaypakkaya, including the necessity of armed struggle against the Kemalist state.
To our Struggling Comrades!
Those who should be leading, are acting as followers of masses today!
Communist and revolutionaries going through another exam today. This is the time for selfless struggle without dismissing the movement as self manifested. The definition of revolutionary movement or the revolutionary wave is the practice that masses exhibit. Masses are revolutionary, their reaction is democratic, rebellion and uprising is legit!
As our leadership role requires, we have to be in the front of the struggle with the masses even though it developed with our absence. We will resist, struggle, and pay the price! As long as the masses are being tortured, shot down and massacred, the Proletarian revolutionist’s cannot be a spectator!”
To Our Valued Masses;
The masses who are filled with hate because of reactionary oppression and violence have shaken the ruling class and the Turkish Government.  The massive rising caused by destruction attempt of Gezi Park for the benefit of the bourgeoisie is moving forward. Once again, the screaming masses have showed the neo-liberal bottom feeders that people can take their own fate into their own hands. AKP government’s savage fascist oppression wasn’t able to stop the resistance. The masses continued to fight and wouldn’t let go of their democratic requests even though they have been wounded, arrested, beaten and tortured. Despite turkeys sell out media and silence of bourgeoisie writers, the resistance was able to get the attention and support of the world.
Presence of enormous masses have become the nightmare for the AKP and reactionary and oppressive ruling class, who don’t even recognize their own laws. On the firth day, the masses who started off with protesting destruction of the nature have turned into revolutionary and the masses claimed victory by forcing AKP to take a step back!
The reactionary, corporate, bureaucrat and bourgeoisie-feudal supporters of AKP have done their historical tradition and tried to surpass the democratic requests of the masses by using violence and bloodshed. On the contrarily the rising determent masses have caused the movement to grow and continue despite paying the price for it. Thousands of people in dozens of different cities have united as one in the streets to join Taksim Gezi Park Resistance.
The history of reactionary classes have always been oppressing, exploiting the masses and its proper to cause any kind of pain to them.  In order to keep their rule and their domination, they have never shied away from using reactionary violence against the oppressed and poor people. The organized reactionary classes that are receiving the benefits of capitalism have always looked down upon the masses and caused them barbaric pains. They have pushed alienation toward proletarians and forced them to live in hunger and poverty.
But the people have reminded the reactionary class that it is the people who are the real heroes and with their own fate in their own hands through revolutionary actions, they have caused system to be upside-down. Revolutionary masses have proven in unforgettable way that the mockery of the ruling class, such as ” three five bare legged” and “looter” is baseless. This historical fact have materialized against fascist AKP through the resistance of the masses of ethnicities and marginalized groups in Turkey- North Kurdistan altogether!
AKP leader and “Turkish Republic” president Erdogan shamelessly and arrogantly insulted/humiliated the rising masses by claiming they are “dozens of looters”.  Even taking it further by threatening “As a party I can gather one million”.
Unfortunately for him, once these “Bare legged looters” are awakened; threats nor blood stinking vampire fangs of yours will stop them! The same warmongering two-faced Erdogan criticised Essad dictatorship for brutalizing its people, have sank low enough to call its own revolting masses “couple of looters”. What makes him so raged is nothing but the fear of its own people uprising!
Two-faced AKP government is using “priest-executioner”(Aztec Spanish massacre reference) tactics to suppress the fires of uprising while trying to please its own masses. While Bulent Arinc, speaker of the government Cemil Cicek and couple of AKP mc have tried to soften the masses by telling them peoples request is democratic, Erdogan is not taking any step back by showing his fangs.
Proletarian and the masses are not gullible enough to fall for these tricks. All your tactics will hit that bronze wall of yours and shedder your power. Resistance is not over, it continues on. The nightmare of the reactionaries that called the masses “looters” will continue. Who is looter who is the hero has already been revealed and will continue to be revealed.
In Conclusion:
Us the proletarian revolutionaries are absolving the bourgeoisie fascist parties such as CHP, MHP while seeing the mass’s democratic rebellion as a revolutionary reaction, and are greeting uprisings of all oppressed people. We have vowed to fight the tyranny side by side with the masses as its our revolutionary duty!
With the same attitude, we are condemning the fascist torture and violence used against people, and forming a rank to oppose these fascist oppression. In order to accomplish more efficient, eligible and more organized revolutionary movement, with the leadership of proletarian we are calling all democratic and revolutionary powers to unite! For this reason, alone we are calling all the Turkey- North Kurdistan proletarian , the oppressed poor people and the comrades to make war on the reactionary ruling class as well as the capitalist system.
We know that with our Peoples war and its blazing fire, we will be able to shatter this reactionary system. Rule of the people and building of socialism and finally communism will be accomplished through Peoples War! It’s our duty and necessity to wage revolutionary struggle by uniting rebellions of all the democratic and revolutionary masses with Marxism-Leninism-Maoism ideology under proletarian flag. No obstacle can stand before the masses of people! Reactionary force will materialize the revolutionary one. The revolutionary force that materialized in the hand of masses is legit and necessary. Because it’s the method that will stand against reactionary classes and lead to democracy, freedom and communist society. The masses that unites, resist and fight will not lose. Just like this one, all the reactionary forces and the classes that relies on it are condemn to lose sooner or later!
Its the revolutionary masses and their revolutionary actions that writes history!
Long live the legal- democratic resistance and the struggle of the people!
Long live the united revolutionary rebellion of the People !Long live the peoples war!