Sunday 30 March 2014

OBAMA'S AMERIKKKA

Something that has to be hammered home over and over again, is the fact that under obama, amerikkka has not changed at all.So what if a few more people are eligible for health care?! Countries are still being invaded, women's rights are under attack at perhaps even a higher rate than under bush, and immigrants are being deported in greater numbers than under bush. How much of this can you blame the previous regime for, and how much of it is just the "normal" workings of the u.s. imperialist empire? Read this, assholes...
Revolution Interview

Maru Mora Villalpando: Support the Immigrant Hunger Strikers! Stop the Deportations!

March 24, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Revolution Interview
A special feature of Revolution to acquaint our readers with the views of significant figures in art, theater, music and literature, science, sports and politics. The views expressed by those we interview are, of course, their own; and they are not responsible for the views published elsewhere in our paper.

On March 7, 1,200 immigrant detainees at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, began a hunger strike demanding better food, better treatment (including medical care), increased pay (from $1/day) and a stop to deportations. (See Carl Dix's statement "Detained Immigrants Launch Hunger Strike: Support Detainees Putting Their Lives on the Line" and "Immigrants on Hunger Strike: Seeking a Better Life, but 'Treated Like Animals'" in Revolution #333.) On March 15, Revolution correspondent Li Onesto talked to Maru Mora Villalpando, who is an activist and undocumented immigrant with the group Latino Advocacy and part of the #Not1More Deportation campaign organized by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. She had just returned from an action in front of the detention center in support of the hunger strike. The following are excerpts from this interview.

Li Onesto: Immigrants at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma have been on a hunger strike since March 7 and I want to get an update from you on the situation there. But maybe you could start at the beginning and talk about how the hunger strike started. I understand it had something to do with an action outside the detention center on February 24, right?
Maru Mora Villalpando: Right. Back on February 24, 10 people decided to stop the deportations and we showed up at the detention center in Tacoma at 6:30 in the morning and we linked arms with PVC pipes and blocked the main entrance to the detention center. We were there calling for a stop to the detentions and joining the #Not1More Deportation campaign, a national campaign that has been going on for over a year now, taking civil disobedience actions to call on Obama to stop the deportations.
Blocking the road in front of the federal Northwest Detention Center, Tacoma, Washington, February 2014. AP photo
Maru Mora Villalpando, right, and others sit chained together blocking the road in front of the federal Northwest Detention Center, Tacoma, Washington, February 2014. AP photo
So we shut down the deportation center that day and we were there for about three hours. There were some of us blocking the streets but there were about 50 people organized in it. So we were there from 6:30 to 8:30 in the morning, we had maybe from 70 to 80. We knew that the detention center would try to deport people in different ways. So we were trying to block any kind of transportation happening that day. We knew that one bus had already tried to leave. And then a van and a third van was trying to leave and we decided to break our circle of 10. Five of us remained in the street and five went to the back street where the van was heading. One woman whose husband was being deported that day really stopped the van with her own body. By the time she was standing in front of the van, we, the five of us advanced and we blocked the street with our arms locked with PVC pipes. Then the van had to go back into the detention center. But the people waiting in the vans saw, they were able to see our action.
So based on that and because this was all over the news, the people on the inside decided, well, how do we join this movement. They thought we should be doing something around the deportations and to stop future deportations. So they organized themselves. The reason why they decided to join was because we were able to stop 120 people being deported that day.
Li Onesto: How did you determine this? That’s a lot of people.
Maru Mora Villalpando: Well, we knew that ICE had a schedule of 120 people there and we talked to people inside, lawyers that are part of that group and that’s how we confirmed that 120 people were scheduled to be deported. And the other thing that we heard was that The GEO Group, Inc., the corporation that is running the detention center, retaliated against some of those 120 people—they took away their blankets and their pillows. So that made people think, well we had nothing to do with this and they’re still retaliating against us so we actually should do something.
So it took them about a week to organize. Once they began their strike, we were told about this because they knew we were the ones that organized the February 24 action, so some of us that participated in the actions received different messages during Friday, early afternoon. For example, one of the ways that we found out—one relative of one of the organizers called the radio station and said on the air that this is happening right now. So the radio station called us and asked us to confirm this. And so then we had one of the lawyers go in and she confirmed it. She actually talked to them and got the list of demands that they wanted to give us. And so everything began on March 3.
Li Onesto: So how many people were involved in the hunger strike at the very beginning?
Maru Mora Villalpando: The paper they handed out said that 1,200 people were involved in the hunger strike.
Li Onesto: And what were their demands?
Maru Mora Villalpando: Better food, better treatment, including medical treatment. Lower commissary [prices] and access to judges—just the fact that they should be able to see a judge. And they wanted people to know about the fact that they are being paid a dollar a day for working in things like the kitchen or the laundry services or the janitorial services.
Li Onesto: There were initially 1,200 participating in the hunger strike—how many people are being held in this detention facility?
Maru Mora Villalpando: The facility has about 1,500 or 1,600 people but GEO claims that there are only 1,300 right now.
Li Onesto: So really almost all of the people in the detention center were involved at the beginning. So what happened next?
Maru Mora Villalpando: What we heard was that at first, all day Friday, they didn’t eat. Then the next day, GEO started taking down the names of the people that were not eating and the numbers. They began retaliating by intimidating them, calling them names, making fun of them, harassing them. And then when they saw this was serious, that they actually were not eating, all of them, they started doing different strategies. They pulled people out individually, supposedly to assess them medically. And instead they were being told that if they didn’t end they would be force-fed. Some of them were told that their cases that were pending would be closed and they would be deported immediately. In other instances they were just told that nobody is paying attention on the outside to this, nobody cares. Some felt the pressure and decided to stop the strike and began eating.
They continued to take individuals and they would say to some of them, you know you are the only one left. They started transporting people from place to place, there are different sections there. They kind of knew who were the main organizers and they would move them around to stop them from communicating with each other. So they would say to everybody, well, you are the only one now, you have to stop now, no one else is doing it. So that’s another way they were able to make people stop the strike. But also one of our lawyers communicated that they changed their uniforms. And instead of their regular uniforms they came in with riot gear with weapons. So that intimidated a lot of people as well. So at some point they were all transferred and isolated. We heard a case where more than 20 people were sent to isolation, in a very dark and small room and they were not able to communicate with anybody. People started getting really worried. We heard stories that people that were still striking, GEO would come and take them to a different section and they didn’t know, they weren’t told you’re going to be transferred, they would just take them. And then GEO agents would come back and just grab their things and take them. People were afraid about what was happening to them. At some point we didn’t know how many people were still striking because they couldn’t talk to each other. They revoked their privilege of watching TV or listening to the radio so they couldn’t know what was going on outside.
We were only able to talk to three people who were doing the strike through one of the wives. From Saturday last week, she was able to communicate with us directly. So she was a direct communication with the strike and we were able to get that communication going. We had a lawyer going in. Those three as of today are still on a hunger strike.
Li Onesto: So people are very isolated from each other, not able to talk with each other, they are in individual cells?
Maru Mora Villalpando: They usually are not in individual cells. They are actually in big rooms called pods. But what they do is they don’t allow people to talk to each other. If they see three people are gathering agents will come and stand right next to them so they wouldn’t be able to talk to each other. So because the space is open they [guards] go in and quietly observe but also listen to them talking to each other. So the way they have handled the situation, it’s really difficult for them to talk to each other and organize anything.
So today, we were there from 12 to 5 pm and we were able to talk to about 10 people. And out of those 10 people that were coming in to visit their relatives we heard there are six of these relatives that are still on strike. They either have been on the strike, or they were on strike then stopped and are coming back, or they are starting. Because some of them were able to get communications through their families that this is actually working, that what they did is historic, that this is international news and so they decided to join again. So that’s just six direct cases. And we heard through another person that just met with her relative that in his unit there were at least four people also on the hunger strike. So just today, for just a couple of hours, we heard of 10 more cases, besides the three that have been constantly on strike since March 7.
Li Onesto: What about the threats of force-feeding?
Maru Mora Villalpando: The three that have been on strike since March 7 were isolated sometime this week. They were sent to a place they call the tank and it’s a big room where it was only the three of them. The only thing they have there was a phone, so one of the main strikers communicated with his wife and that’s how we have been getting lots of information. They were threatened with force-feeding. So we were in conversation with the American Civil Liberties Union. And so they went in, they got permission to represent them and they communicated with the attorney of the USA to make sure that if ICE is moving to serve a court order to force-feed them then the ACLU is going to go in to represent them as their clients. So that is the way we have been able to stop the force-feeding for now. But that is not going to stop ICE from trying to get the federal government to allow them to do that.
Li Onesto: What about the health of the strikers, in terms of getting doctors to examine them to see how they are doing?
Maru Mora Villalpando: Now since yesterday the three strikers were moved into a medical facility and so they are in different rooms from each other so they cannot talk to each other, they are in individual rooms now. So they are under medical assessment, they are just there and the medics that are coming in are ones from GEO Incorporated. And today one detainee’s wife was able to go in and see him and one of the other strikers lost more than 20 pounds and his wife said he lost 20 pounds. Their relatives said that both of them they are definitely continuing with the strike until their demands are met for better treatment, better food, lower commissary—but most importantly stopping the deportations and allowing all these families to be reunited again.
Li Onesto: I understand there have been other hunger strikes in other immigrant detention centers around the country.
Maru Mora Villalpando: There have been several across the country for many, many years including a recent one where about 15 decided to go on a hunger strike. Even here in Tacoma, Washington, some years back, people decided because the food was so terrible, it was spoiled, they decided to stop eating. Another time 150 people here in Tacoma, Washington complained that they had been working for a month and were not paid. Also there was an instance in California of people going on a hunger strike. But this is the first time that they were able to organize such a huge number to go on a hunger strike, so this is what makes this so unique. So this is really historic.
Li Onesto: So this is the largest one so far.
Maru Mora Villalpando: It is, and I don’t think it’s going to be the last one.
Li Onesto: Could you also talk about civil disobedience actions that have taken place, like on the border, to protest the treatment of immigrants and the deportations—which now, under Obama, is approaching 2 million?
Maru Mora Villalpando: In general, people have been so disappointed in so many promises. Disappointed with the fact that there is supposed to be relief for families that have been separated. That knowing what happened with the Senate bill last year in Congress, that was not immigration reform, we believe that was an immigration “deform bill” because they pretty much continued this big machine of deportation. That bill would not have a path to citizenship for all of us and if there was some it would be for only a few. And if that kind of bill had ever become law we would have many complications for workers of all kinds and it would have legalized the slavery of our labor. So that is why so many people decided to go and take civil disobedience actions and those actions have taken different shapes. But most of the ones that have happened on the border, which actually just happened also this time in coincidence with the hunger strike in an effort to reunite families and bring people back so the campaign is to bring them home. But for those who have actually been deported they have tried to bring people across the border to be reunited with their families. And obviously at a national level we are calling for a national day of action on April 5 that marks the 2 million deported.
Our kids are being separated from their parents. If you were able to see kids that come to see their parents. They are just broken, they are completely broken. They just want to see their dad, they just want to be with them. We heard so many stories today, they just break your heart.
Li Onesto: Could you tell a couple of those stories?
Maru Mora Villalpando: For example, we were there and we were asking people could you give us the information of your loved ones so we can go and visit them. Somebody said, yes, his birthday is March 15—today. So that’s his birthday and the kids came with mom to see their dad in prison. This is a prison, this is for a civil proceeding but it’s a prison. So they come to say happy birthday to their dad in this prison system where it’s just a civil proceeding. These kids, they were crying when they were describing the situation and I’m talking about teenagers and teenagers don’t like to show their emotions but they couldn’t stop crying when mom was sharing this with us.
The other story I can tell you right now is this one husband and wife. She is the one that has been calling me every day since this began. She has to work now three jobs. They have three children, 13, 11, and 5 years old. He is a carpenter and he volunteers every year for a once a year event that goes to the houses of people with disabilities and they build ramps for them so they can have easier access to their homes. And now she has to work these three jobs and she is not able to come out all the time because she’s working. She decided to join her husband in the hunger strike, she’s there all the time, the three kids come with her every time. And also the teenager just breaks every time, he’s just crying. The younger one doesn’t really know what’s going on but just knows that she wants to see her dad.
Li Onesto: The other thing I wanted you to talk about is Operation Streamline. Maybe you could describe that a little for some of our readers who might not know what it is and the significance of it. Because it is different than how the U.S. government has handled things with regards to deportations in the past—an increase in the repression against immigrants. And there has also been resistance to Operation Streamline, right?
Maru Mora Villalpando: Right. So with Operation Streamline, the process is when people cross the border without a permit and they are taken by the Border Patrol, they are immediately processed before a federal judge. People have been also deported before and they are trying to get into the country again, what they call that is illegal re-entry. And that, under the past administration was made a way to stop people from reuniting with their families. And so it’s a federal crime under the current law to re-entry after you have been deported, regardless of [if] you are trying to reunite with your family.
What happens is that the Border Patrol has this system where they get as many people as possible sent to a federal judge to have an immediate hearing. But that’s not really a hearing. It’s a very expedited thing where people are found guilty. But they are not returned to their country immediately, they actually are sentenced to jail, to a local jail. Then they have to spend time there for some months and then after that they are sent back to their country of origin. Now, one of the actions that happened last year to make sure that people know about this is that the people that are part of the campaign decided to shut down Operation Streamline. And so they blocked one of the buses that was ready to leave and they actually locked arms underneath the bus. So they had their arms locked around the tires. And there are so many hours only that the border patrol have from the time they catch people to the time they have to have a hearing before a federal judge. So if that time passes and they aren’t able to send them, then they have to release them. If they don’t go before a judge in this many hours, then they have to release them to Mexico at the location they were coming from. So this was actually the time that they stopped the bus—the hours to ensure that instead of being sent to the judge they would be sent back over the Mexican border. So that’s what they had to do.
Li Onesto: How long were they blocking the buses?
Maru Mora Villalpando: It was for several hours that they were able to stop the bus. So when that time had already expired they have to release people. The people that organized the action knew it so they knew exactly when they had to be released and the Border Patrol had to release them and that’s how they proclaimed victory. They were able to stop Operation Streamline that day.
Li Onesto: Just to be clear, the significance of Operation Streamline is that before they would stop people at the border and send them back. But now they are quickly putting them before a judge, finding them guilty and having them serve time, which means they are convicted of a felony—which means they have a record and so if they come back across the border, what does that mean in terms of the repercussions for that person?
Maru Mora Villalpando: Well, like I said, illegal re-entry becomes a federal crime and the person has to serve many months, if not years in some instances, in a federal prison.
Li Onesto: I see the statistic here that over 50% of all federal felony convictions are now for immigration violations. That’s an astounding statistic actually.
Maru Mora Villalpando: It is. There was also the interview of an immigration judge about Operation Streamline where she very proudly gave a number, which I don’t remember the exact number. But she was really proud to say how fast she placed people in the system of the federal prison. She doesn’t really even see people, she just calls the name and pretty much just convicts them, and she was very proud of her record of so many immigrants per minute.
Li Onesto: Oh yes, I see an article here where a judge says “my record is 30 minutes” to hear 70 cases.
Maru Mora Villalpando: That’s right. The government should be so ashamed of making people’s life not only so miserable—but making these judges so proud of being part of this system. It’s just outrageous. Maybe finally the public in general will realize this is so wrong, this is so wrong. And that’s why this hunger strike has touched everywhere people’s interest. So now it’s an international issue. We actually got calls from Canada because over there they’re also doing the same. There are some people in immigration detention in Canada that have also gone on a hunger strike. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear from other countries and obviously from other detention centers across this nation, that in general in the world right now, they are not only making profits from our labor—because they only pay us not so much for working in the fields or cleaning houses, but they are also profiting from our imprisonment.
When I was talking to this one mom out at the detention center, she said, you know how I feel? I feel that they had stole my son from him and now they are selling him back to me. And this is not right, he’s my son, he’s not for sale. This is what’s happening in this country and really around the world.
Li Onesto: This is really stealing the humanity of people. I guess the last question I would ask you is what do you think people can and should do to support the hunger strike in Tacoma?
Maru Mora Villalpando: There are several ways to support this. One is we have an online petition. We need people to put pressure on ICE, not only to meet their demands, but basically to investigate GEO for the conditions that they have people in, but also to release them. We need to stop the deportations right now, that’s it. If people want to support them, ask for the release of everybody in the detention centers across the nation.
Li Onesto: That’s the biggest demand.
Maru Mora Villalpando: The other thing is we want people to do is solidarity actions in each of their cities. They can come here to Tacoma, if they could that would be great. But if they cannot, please take solidarity actions in your areas, show support across the nation to them. And also to the people who are in detention in your own cities find ways to prevent the deportations. Because this is the thing, they are very isolated. Like here in Tacoma, the detention center was built in a place that is very isolated. People here didn’t know that it existed. So go find the different locations where people are being imprisoned just because of immigration civil violations. And go and show support, talk to the families, bring a banner saying stop deportations, stop making profit our of our misery, out of the separation of families. And let us know, we need to show that this is the larger movement, this is not only Tacoma, this is really the whole nation calling for an end to the deportations.

Tuesday 25 March 2014

HARDCORE CLEANING

Yesterday evening after my regular job, I spent four hours cleaning a local barber shop. I know it doesn't sound like an ideal night, but I found it rewarding ( oh how I hate that stupid word). I transformed the place from a total shithole, to a terrific looking establishment. ( Uh-oh, aren't I supposed to be anti-establishment? ) But the best part was, I got to listen to some of the most blazing hardcore whilst doing said job. CokeBust, Government Warning, Christ On A Crutch, Let's Grow, Seein' Red, F.P.O., Migra Violenta, Ruidosa Inmudicia, Mihoen, and motherfuckin' GOAT BOY!!!!! Fuck yes. Listen to Goat Boy, you foolish mortals, or perish in the swamps of mediocrity. Anyway, the music I was listening to, made what could have been a tedious and disgusting job, into something immensely enjoyable. In fact, the hardcore probably inspired me to do a better job than I might have otherwise. There is no point to this, except listen to all of the bands mentioned in this post, and punk rock cures everything. It's a scientific fact.

Friday 21 March 2014

JENNY CON

A fucking lowlife politician taking a disneyland vacation at the expense of the homeless? What a big fucking surprise. Sure, the n.d.p. mla said that it was her ex-husband's fault, and she trusted him, and is even paying the money back, but so what? She got caught. And like any of these idiots, leeches, and worthless parasites, they are sorry after they get caught ! There are going to be many on the fake left making excuses for her, but we see the bullshit. She took her family on a disneyland vacation at the expense of people who were for the most part raised in nightmarish conditions,with horrific abuse, alcoholism and drug abuse being a part of their childhood, and who in all probability never even had the chance to dream of going to disneyland. One night free of suffering would have been fantasy enough. Fuck jenny kwan, and all of her asshole " colleagues".
NDP MLA Jenny Kwan says she is repaying $34,922.57 in expenses for trips she and her family took to Bristol, Vienna and Disneyland that were paid for by the Portland Hotel Society.
In an emotional appearance this morning in Vancouver, Kwan said she trusted her husband Dan Small, who was a director with the Portland Hotel Society, when he told her that he had paid for the family's personal expenses when they accompanied him on a business trip to Europe in 2012.
She said he also told her he personally had paid for an upgrade during a family trip to Disneyland the same year.
"I was reassured by my ex-spouse that he had paid for all the family portion of the travel...I trusted that he was telling the truth," she said.
Kwan and her husband are now separated and have filed for divorce.
She said she talked to him this week and to the society to try to get clarification on his handling of the expenses for the trips, but says she was unable to get a clear answer.
"I've asked individuals involved to advise how much of the travel costs is attributed to my family, and to provide me with the document to verify this.
"As of today, they were not able to provide information....It is clear to me that their accounting is deficient," she said.
So, Kwan said she wrote a personal cheque Friday morning to cover the full amount of the questionable expenses attributed to their trips, which were identified in a recent audit of the PHS.
The expenses Kwan has repaid include:
  • $8,323 for travel to the UK.
  • $3,175 for travel to Bristol.
  • $5,950 for flights.
  • $4,100 for transportation.
  • More than $10,000 for travel to Vienna.
  • $2,600 for a trip to Disneyland.
When asked why she did not question the expenses at the time, the visibly shaken Kwan said, "I trusted him... In a relationship there is a element of trust."
She added she now plans to take an unpaid leave of absence to spend an undetermined amount of time with her family.
"My first priority is to be with my children," she said.
The non-profit Portland Hotel Society runs several operations for homeless people and drug addicts on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, including the Insite supervised drug injection facility.

Expenses not paid by government: PHS

The trips were part of several questionable expenses uncovered in a government audit of the society. Its directors and board resigned Tuesday after the government issued an ultimatum to step down or it would pull the non-profit's government funding.
The audit released this week found the Vancouver group spent thousands of dollars on lavish hotels, limousine rides, expensive dinners and a trip to a Disneyland resort.
Separate financial reviews examining expenses by the Portland Hotel Society — which runs Canada's only supervised injection site — have uncovered alleged misuse of corporate credit cards, unsupported expenses and inadequate criminal record checks.
The audit report released on Thursday also detailed over $8,600 spent on limousine rides last year and a stay in a British hotel that cost almost $900 per night.
The society's co-executive director Mark Townsend said none of the expenses in question were paid for with government or program money. He said the expenses in question were paid for out of the society's administrative fund.
Mark Townshend
Mark Townsend says none of the expenses in question were paid for with government or program money. (CBC)
"You have to understand the vast majority of these expenses are non-government expenses, they are from private foundations and their purpose is education or speaking at conferences and they're all funded by non-government money and they are part of the wider work we do," Townsend said 
The Disneyland trip was a way of rewarding the hard work performed by Kwan's former partner because the society doesn't offer traditional health and overtime benefits, he said.
The Portland Hotel Society runs Insite, which is Canada's only stand-alone supervised injection site for drug users, and a number of social housing and support facilities in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

Thursday 20 March 2014

AMERIKKKAN BULLY

obama the asshole idiot, has "ruled out the use of force" in the continuing dispute between russia and the ukraine. Some simpletons could attribute this to his being a new president, who is a man of peace. The reality is, is that the yanks haven't starved  russia and deprived the country of medicines through a decade of sanctions, killing millions of it's citizens during this time. If this were the case, and russia was aThird World country, it would be a different story altogether. But as it stands, the amerikkkans can and will only fight if they can do so from a safe distance. Otherwise, they will lose, just like they lost in Iraq, and like they are losing in Afghanistan. The drones they send in to kill civilians in Pakistan and Afghanistan don't seem to work too well, even against Third World peasant guerrillas.
   They can put out as many movies as they want, glorifying or making their imperialist actions seem more "complicated" than what they actually are, but reality will assert itself no matter what. They will lose. And they are losing now.
Revolution Back page

Monday 17 March 2014

THE DIFFERENCE

There is a fundamental difference between people who live their passion for punk and hardcore music, and people who see it as just another style, trend, or as a business. You don't need full sleeve tattoos, mohawks, or band t-shirts to get it. Obviously, as some of the worst trendy nightclub hopping douchebags have all of the above, rendering it meaningless. This is something you just can't explain to people who aren't part of it. We don't need stupid fucking contracts. Ask us to play, and if we can, and are okay with you and what you're doing, we'll try our best to do it. Otherwise, please go away.
  PS-Right now I am totally into the first Suicidal Tendencies album. I don't know what it is, but I am in love with it all over again.

Friday 14 March 2014

THE PICTURE SAYS IT ALL.....

BUSY AS FUCK

I haven't been posting as often as usual lately, due to my crazy fucking work schedule, but I'll keep up, don't you worry your pretty little heads about it.
   Fuck u.s. imperialism. Fuck the tea party, fuck pathetic little obama lovers who can't see shit because they're blinded by his bullshit.
Trampling On Other Nations?

The U.S. Empire Was Built On That

March 10, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

The situation in the central European country of Ukraine continues to be tense, volatile, unpredictable, and dangerous. What—as we go to press—is contention at the level of economic blackmail and lower-level military moves could erupt very quickly into something even much worse.
In the midst of all this, Barack Obama talks about respecting the territorial integrity of Ukraine, and the aspirations of the people of Ukraine.
But neither the aspirations of people in Ukraine (which are conflicting, contradictory, and overall quite confused), much less respecting the territorial integrity of Ukraine, is what is driving the U.S. and the European Union, or Russia, on an ominous trajectory.
As we wrote last week, this crisis is driven by the “jockeying for position and geopolitical advantage by rival imperialist powers—with the potential to escalate into direct great-power confrontation.” (See “Ukraine: Not a ‘Democratic Uprising’ but a Clash Between Predators.”)
In all this, people in the United States are being systematically lied to and taught to identify—unthinkingly and uncritically—with the interests of the U.S. ruling class that sits atop a world of vicious exploitation, ferocious oppression, and environmental devastation.
* * * * *
At a tense, contentious press conference, in an endless series of questions for White House spokesman Jay Carney about whether or not Obama authorizing restrictions against travel and financial transactions by Russians who are “threatening the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” are “tough enough” or will be “effective,” NOBODY asked what should have been the OBVIOUS question:
Who the fuck is the United States to lecture anybody about not respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other countries!?
And in the midst of saber-rattling, Secretary of State John Kerry declared, “You just don’t in the 21st century behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pretext.”

What happened in the 19th Century and the 20th?


Civilians killed by U.S. troops in Fallujah, Iraq, 2004. The U.S. invaded Iraq because the regime allegedly had "weapons of mass destruction." This was proven to be a total lie, and the U.S. was again "invading another country on a completely trumped up pretext." Photo: AP
The United States has invaded or staged coups, and carried out massacres on a scale unmatched in human history. There were wars against the Native American peoples as part of the genocidal seizure of North America (including the massacre of 300 Lakota Indians at Wounded Knee in 1890).
There were U.S. invasions, coups and occupations: Argentina (1890); Chile (1891); Hawaii (1893); Nicaragua (1894); China (1894-95); Korea (1894); Panama (1895); Nicaragua (1896); China (1898-1900); the Philippines (1898-1910); Cuba (1898-1901); Puerto Rico (1898); Guam and Nicaragua (1898); Samoa (1899); Panama (1901-14); Honduras (1903); Dominican Republic (1903-04); Korea (1904-05); Cuba (1906-09); Nicaragua (1907); Honduras (1907); Panama 1908); Nicaragua (1910 and 1911).
There was military aggression against China (1911); Cuba (1912); Panama (1912); Honduras (1912); Nicaragua (1912-33); Mexico (1913); Dominican Republic (1914); Mexico (1914-18); Haiti (1914-34); Dominican Republic (1916-24); Cuba again (1917-33); Russia (1918-22); Panama (1918-20); Honduras (1919); Yugoslavia (1919); Guatemala (1920); Turkey (1922); China (1922-27); Panama (1925); China again (1927-34); El Salvador (1932); Iran (1946); Yugoslavia (1946); Greece (1947-49).
There was a counter-revolutionary invasion of the Philippines (1948-54) and invasion of Puerto Rico (1950). The U.S. sent troops into Korea (1950-53). They staged a coup in Iran (1953). The U.S. first went into Vietnam in 1954; and that same year deposed a nationalist-elected government in Guatemala that tried to nationalize unused land owned by U.S. agribusiness. The U.S. interfered militarily in sovereign countries in the Middle East: Lebanon (l958); Iraq (1958 and again in 1963).
Until driven out, the U.S. waged a genocidal war in Vietnam (l960-73). The U.S. expanded the war in Vietnam by invading Laos (1964-73). And the U.S. carpet bombed Cambodia (l969-73).
Under John F. Kennedy, the U.S. invaded Cuba (l961). The U.S. orchestrated a coup in Indonesia in l965 that resulted in the deaths of up to a million people, and invaded the Dominican Republic that same year.
In 1996-7, the U.S. engineered death squads and counter-revolutionary insurgents in Guatemala that resulted in the death of thousands. In 1973, the U.S. orchestrated a coup in Chile that installed a fascist regime that killed tens of thousands, tortured more, and drove many of the country’s intellectuals into exile.
The U.S. backed brutal death squads in Angola (l975-92) and in other countries in southern Africa at the same time. It carried out a military operation in Iran in 1980; attacked Libya in l981; funded reactionary armed forces in El Salvador (1981-92); financed and aided terrorist attacks against the elected government of Nicaragua (l981-90); invaded Lebanon (l982-84); invaded and overthrew the elected government of Grenada (l983-84). The U.S supported genocide of the Indonesian regime of Suharto agasint the people of East Timor in 1975.
The U.S. established military bases in the sovereign state of Honduras (l983-89); carried out more military operations in Iran (l984); against Libya (l986); against Bolivia (1986); and again against Iran (l987-88).
U.S. forces went into the Virgin Islands to suppress protests (1989 and 1991-2003)); the Philippines (1989); Panama (1984). The U.S. invaded Iraq (1990-91 based on lies about “weapons of mass destruction”; Somalia (1992-94); attacked Yugoslavia (1992-94 and 1999); invaded Haiti (1994); and invaded Afghanistan in 1998.

Lies, Distortions, and Coverups

These invasions, coups, and wars via proxies overthrew elected governments. They attacked progressive nationalist and communist revolutions. And in these invasions, coups, and proxy wars, the rulers of the United States systematically trampled the territorial integrity of just about everywhere—including outright seizing of countries like Puerto Rico and Guam.
How many people in this country even know this history? It’s buried in footnotes in a few textbooks. It is ignored and covered up by the ruling class’s media. It is lied about and distorted by the rulers and spokespeople for this country. But it’s true.
Do some digging and critical investigation at revcom.us and other sites about this history. Encourage your classmates, your students, your cell mates, or your colleagues to do that as well. When you look into any of these crimes, the whole truth is much worse than we can detail here. The rivers were choked with the bodies of hundreds of thousands of communists and others as a result of massacres orchestrated out of the U.S. Embassy in Indonesia in 1965. The bloody invasion of the Philippines at the beginning of the 20th century in a U.S. war of colonization killed hundreds of thousands of resistance fighters and civilians. The United States bombed every building two stories or higher in northern Korea between 1950 and 1952—aggression against a country halfway around the world from the United States—in part to threaten socialist China. The U.S. dropped napalm—jellied gasoline—on children in Vietnam, burning them alive, and dropped terrible chemical weapons that poisoned farmland to starve civilians throughout Vietnam.

And Today...

But that’s not all! Since the 19th and 20th centuries, when the U.S. was establishing its empire, in the 21st Century—when U.S. officials proclaim that you just don’t do this (anymore)—the U.S. has invaded or continued occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, wars that have killed or dislocated millions. American drones blow up people the rulers of the U.S. see as a threat, or just people at random in Pakistan and Yemen—supposedly sovereign countries in which a constant state of terror is created for the peoples of those countries. More death, more oppression, more misery. And yes, as we exposed in our coverage last week, the U.S. is knee-deep in machinations to reconfigure the government in Ukraine and has been for some time.
And it is on the basis of all that and more that the U.S. empire (and other colonial and imperialist empires) have risen, and today the U.S. capitalist-imperialist ruling class is the top oppressive power in the world. The logic and “morality” of these global meta-thugs is: We killed millions and millions, and laid waste to much of the planet to dominate it. It’s ours, back off or else.
* * * * *
That fact that Russia and other oppressive global powers are contending with the U.S. with their own drive to expand their piece of the action doesn’t diminish for a minute the fact that when it comes to respecting the integrity of other countries, nobody can touch the record of the U.S.A.
The stakes are high. Truth must be told, lies confronted, and the interests of HUMANITY brought to the fore everywhere right now.

Editors’ note: This article draws on the paper, “A Century of U.S. Military Interventions: From Wounded Knee to Iraq,” by Zoltán Grossman, faculty member in Geography and Native American Studies, The Evergreen State College

Saturday 8 March 2014

MARCH 8TH

Read this essay, written by Comrades from Afghanistan and Iran. You will learn something.
From A World to Win News Service:

Women are confronting outmoded patriarchy: capitalist-imperialism and religious fundamentalism!

March 6, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

March 3 2014. A World to Win News Service. Following is a statement issued on February 19 by the 8 March Women Organisation (Iran-Afghanistan) (zan_dem_iran@hotmail.com).
The 8th of March, International Women's Day, is coming, and we will continue our struggle to achieve the dream of emancipation. We are seeing the struggle of our sisters to join together with the countless hands of oppressed women all over the world to break the thousand-years-old chains of oppression that bind us.
Women carry out 2/3 of the world's labor, but obtain only 10 percent of its income and own less than 1 percent of its wealth. Seventy per cent of the world's poor are women. We are the main makers of the world and carry its load on our shoulders, but what is our lot?
Our lot is ever-increasing organized state violence, alongside the domestic and social violence which a third of the world's women experience on a daily basis. There is ever-increasing rape, murder, honor killings, prostitution, degradation, insults and threats and an unprecedented use of women's bodies as commodities. Women's "beauty" is presented as our only capital, and motherhood as the only source of our identity, with fighting over whether our bodies are to be controlled by being covered up or auctioned off by the state, religion, tradition and culture, by the demands of the market and even men's personal tendencies, just as there is fighting over the right to control or terminate our own pregnancies. This is the context in which our bodies have become commodities and assigned a price day after day.
Our bodies are commodities that are mass advertised by a pornography industry that gives training in their use. They are used in human trafficking and are priced in the sex markets where they are traded for money. In marriage contracts, financial considerations are accepted as completely legitimate and are reinforced by law and public opinion. Ultimately this commodity is sometimes appropriated free of charge as women are raped either individually or by gangs.
As part of the basic way this patriarchal system functions, imperialist powers confront each other over the division of the world, and in the name of "freedom" and "democracy" they wage war to invade the third world—and again, women are the first victims.
Although women are the cheapest, most obedient and most profitable work force for turning the wheels of capital, they name us "housewives" and hide our super-exploitation. They justify our low wages and rob us of any possibility of organizing ourselves. In the third world they force us to leave our small plots of land in our villages and move to urban shanty towns in our millions, an "unofficial" work force in the service industry, forced labor, all while taking care of their children who have been abandoned by society and the authorities.
And when we join in struggle to change the existing order, backward Islamic regimes again become our lot, as we are once again the first victims.
Unfortunately, the repetition of our experience as women in Iran has clearly demonstrated that the ideological foundation, the outlook and specific feature of an Islamic regime is the inferior position of women, our enslavement and deprivation of rights—this is how the religious fundamentalists with their international partners have harvested the fruit of the people's just struggle. Thirty-five years ago, when this backward and anti-woman regime posed as a possible replacement to the Shah as the people of Iran rose in revolutionary struggle, the religious fundamentalists tried to legitimize their rule and integrate Iran into the world capitalist system. Islamicizing the patriarchal system was their most important contribution to this effort. By utilising the full force of state power, the oppressive relations enchaining women were recast on the foundations of Sharia law. This was not some "eternal" culture of "Muslim women" being re-born, it was the culture and relations of Islamic patriarchy being given the full backing of state repression. The Islamic Republic thus codified the subjugation of women in law, and to enforce such laws established a set of courts and repressive forces.
The existence of these forces is directly related to the setbacks suffered by revolution in the world today. It is not a coincidence that one after another Islamic regime is being established either through the imperialist invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan or in the wake of the struggles of the people in the Middle East and North Africa. And at the center of these transformations women are the first social force to be controlled and oppressed. In Afghanistan and Iraq the legalization of Sharia law against women; in Libya the legalisation of polygamy; in Egypt the unprecedented increase in female genital mutilation; in Syria the re-establishment of punishing women by stoning; the rise in the hijab (head covering), whether enforced or arbitrary—all these are undeniably a concentrated expression of Sharia law.
All these represent the real bloody wars of these two outmoded forces—capitalist-imperialism and religious fundamentalism—to subjugate, oppress and control women. These two forces are equally oppressive and act as brothers in preserving their common interests, as they establish militarized regimes against women through hate and extreme violence.
We women are at the center of this war, which once again repeats the bitter tale of rape in the name of preserving and defending virginity. Once again the teeth and claws of patriarchy are shown so as to control and auction off women's bodies. Once again we see the tragedy of women courageously taking part in their masses in the process of social change, but winding up in the end pushed back down, without change. Once again women are pushed to choose between the "lesser evil" of who would violate them.
This is the so-called democratic choice facing women: do you prefer to be covered by a hijab and stay untouched and "supported" by Sharia law and Sharia-raped by your male lords, or do you prefer to be displayed in shop windows wearing the latest designer fashions and adored while you're priced and abused and molested? Do you prefer to be placed next to male rapists in Tahrir Square or under the boots of Western dependent armies claiming they support you?! Do you prefer to be an obedient wife and a "real" mother in your own country and single-handedly bear the heavy load of years of raising children without the presence of a father, or to be perched in the shopping windows of Europe or the private brothels (called harems) in the Gulf States?! Do you prefer to take part in the process of exploiting other people and oppressing other women for your own personal interests and advance and be protected by the laws of the world capitalist patriarchal system, or do you prefer to work and be exploited in some small or big factory or farm, or do you prefer to remain a "housewife" and expect god to protect you through his male representative in an effort to obtain and then safeguard your privileges in the "next world?" Do you want to take part in the population increase programme of the Islamic Republic on the basis of its Sharia law and thus bear more jihadists, or to be turned into a mere incubator by the churches and Christian fundamentalists?
All these options lie on the endless wheel of choice between these two poles that are outmoded and rotten. These two forces have no future for humanity. Indeed, the danger of collapse they both face push them not only to have a go at each other but also to support each other and hide their contradiction when they face the protesting masses.
The dynamics of this outmoded and backwards-turning wheel mean that struggle against one of them, in the absence of a clear stance against the other, invariably winds up pushing people into the other camp. Therefore, supporting one of these two poles, even if the intention is to fight and weaken the other, in practice actually strengthens the other pole. Everyone who is a victim of the existing order, all those who hate it and want to struggle to change it, ultimately have no other choice than to take a clear stance against and fight both of these poles. Women are at the heart of this contradictory situation and the struggle against these two poles. For both of these reactionary poles, women are an army of labor, foot soldiers of the system, a valuable commodity whose role is indispensable to the operation of this system of exploitation and oppression. And on the other hand, because of this strategic position, if women enter the arena of struggle with the aim of emancipating themselves and all humanity, they are capable of destroying all the rotten patriarchal barriers, which are facing historical collapse, and building a new world.
Because of all this, we as women can, through revolutionary internationalist struggle against these two outmoded and anti-women forces, succeed in lifting their blood-soaked, male and "holy" hands from the lives of millions of women who are being crushed in homes, factories, fields, streets and brothels violently, mercilessly and without precedent. Only through this kind of struggle can women chart the course of their emancipation and achieve a society without exploitation and oppression.
Without the fight and overthrow of these two outmoded forces, there is no other clear prospect for the emancipation of women and indeed of all humanity—which is impossible without the full participation of women.

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.

Friday 7 March 2014

EVERY WORD AND EVERY NOTE OF EVERY SONG

Whether the lyrics state it directly or not, every word and every note of every fucking song we do is dedicated to the liberation of the oppressed, and we mean that, especially on International Women's Day, March 8th. No, I'm not talking about whiney social workers talking about how something's "inappropriate", or other such first world bullshit. I'm talking about breaking all of tradition's chains, and at the point of a gun, if need be. I'm talking about Revolutionaries willing to take you out for being a sexist ignorant date-rapist lowlife sack of shit. So, on International Women's Day, we want to say we support our Sisters fighting back any way they can against this corrupt fucked up world.


Break the Chains! Unleash the Fury of Women as a Mighty Force for Revolution!

Fight for the Liberation of Women All Over the World!
March 8—International Women's Day

February 10, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Across the planet, women are being slammed backwards—facing the epidemic of rape, the scourge of sexual slavery, the degradation of pornography, the imprisonment of the veil, the humiliation of the woman-hating cultures, and the countless other punishments meted out against women and young girls for the "crime" of being born female.
"The fabric of women's oppression is carved deeply into the calloused hands of women in the sweatshops of China and Honduras. It is draped over the faces of young women in Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. It is stripped off the bodies of girls of Moldova and Bangkok who are put up for sale in brothels worldwide, and it is worn like a prize by pre-teens in the U.S. and Europe who are taught to dress and move like sex objects long before they understand what sex even is. This fabric ropes back into history, it winds its way around the globe, braided into all the dominant religions and "moral codes" and woven into every aspect of human societies. It is a heavy veil that casts the darkness of humanity's first oppressive divisions over the lives, the dreams, and the prospects of every corner of humanity in the 21st century.
"To live like this on this planet in the 21st century cannot be justified and should not be accepted. None of this can be tolerated or excused away with counsel of patience.
WE DECLARE: NO MORE!
"Women need emancipation. Women need liberation from thousands of years of tradition's chains. This is a declaration that stands on the clear recognition that for humanity as a whole to advance, half of humanity must be lifted from centuries of being condemned to being the property of men and pitilessly exploited, demeaned and degraded in a thousand ways.
"Women are not breeders. Women are not lesser beings. Women are not objects created for the sexual pleasure of men. Women are human beings capable of participating fully and equally in every realm of human endeavor. When women are held down, all of humanity is held back. Women must win liberation, and they can only be liberated through the revolutionary transformation of the world and the emancipation of all of humanity, and through being a powerful motive force in that revolution."
International Women's Day is a day to call forth the fury of women and unleash it as a mighty force for revolution. It is a day for all who dream of and yearn for a better world to act on the recognition that you cannot break all the chains except one, that if you are serious about winning full liberation you must include the fight for the full liberation of women. It is a day to call forth mass struggle against all forms of enslavement and degradation of women, and it is a day to make all this contribute to hastening the development of a situation where revolution here and all over the world will become possible.
This March 8, join with protests and other actions around this country and across the world.
Break the Chains! Unleash the Fury of Women as a Mighty Force for Revolution!

Go here for info on IWD 2014 actions in NYC, SF Bay Area, Seattle, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

Thursday 6 March 2014

NO, THEY'RE NOT ALL THAT BAD

Once again, to all of those numbnuts who like to say that not all cops are bad. No, not all of them, but the ones that are, get away with murder and other horrible shit. This asshole pedophile got caught, but how many don't? Death would be too easy for this insect.

Former Vernon Mountie to stand trial on child pornography allegations

 

 
 
 
 
Former Vernon Mountie to stand trial on child pornography allegations
 

A former RCMP officer in Vernon will face child pornography charges.

VERNON — A former RCMP officer in Vernon will face child pornography charges.
A provincial court judge in the north Okanagan city has found there is enough evidence to proceed with charges against 35-year-old Ryan Hampton.
He appeared in court Tuesday charged with nine counts including possession of child pornography and obstruction of justice, and will return April 14 to set a date for trial.
Hampton was suspended without pay almost immediately after his arrest last June.
At the time, Chief Supt. Mike Sekela said the force would also hold a formal disciplinary hearing and seek Hampton's dismissal.
Hampton has since left the RCMP but the circumstances are unclear.


Read more:http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Former+Vernon+Mountie+stand+trial+child+pornography+allegations/9582548/story.html#ixzz2vFaYSF3k