WRONG TARGET,ASSHOLES

The kkkanadian government, in their infinite imperialist arrogance and stupidity, have gone after the charity group International Relief Fund for the Afflicted and Needy , saying that they support terrorism because they support Hamas. The real fucking terrorist here is the government of israel. It is they who destroy entire villages, kill and imprison children, and who are driving more and more Palestinians out of their ancestral lands every year, with the unconditional support of the greatest terrorists of all time, the united fucking states of amerikkka. It just shows how fucking backwards the whole world is, and why EVERYTHING needs to fucking go. And of course, the little yappy sidekick of the u.s., kkkanada, has to back up everything the yanks do. You can't really expect anything more from a second rate imperialist power, now can you? Fuck harper. 

Revolution #52, June 25, 2006

Fact Sheet

Palestine: A History of Occupation and Resistance

Recent events have focused new world attention on Palestine: the killing of seven Palestinians at a Gaza beach by Israeli artillery shells (and the Israeli government’s outrageous attempts to deny responsibility); the clashes between Palestinian groups, in particular Hamas and Fatah; and the intense suffering of the Palestinians because of the cut off of international aid. Revolution will analyze developments in occupied Palestine more in future issues. In this issue, we present a basic fact sheet on the history of Israeli occupation and Palestinian resistance.

A central reality about the state of Israel is that it serves as an attack dog for U.S. imperialist interests. In the Middle East, those interests focus on controlling this strategic crossroads between Europe, Asia, and Africa and its vast oil reserves.

Without U.S. backing, the state of Israel could not survive. The U.S. gives Israel $2 to $3 billion a year in aid, allowing Israel to build up one of the most powerful armies in the world. The bookDeadly Arsenals estimates that Israel has 100 short-range and medium range missiles that are nuclear capable. And Israel has nuclear weapons that could be delivered from fighter jets or launched from ships.

Israel is a direct oppressor of the Palestinian nation. It has also carried out many vicious assaults on the masses and other crimes in the region and around the world on behalf of imperialism. Israel invaded Lebanon in 1976—and again in 1982, killing over 20,000 Lebanese and Palestinians. In 1982 Israeli warplanes bombed a nuclear reactor in Iraq. In 1991 and 2003 Israel supported U.S. wars against Iraq. Israeli agents have trained torturers from Guatemala to South Africa and sold weapons to reactionary pro-U.S. governments all over the world.

Imperialism, Israel, and the Palestinian People

From the 1500s up until World War 1, Palestine was ruled by the Ottoman Empire. In the course of resistance to Ottoman rule, the modern Palestinian nation was forged with a common culture, contiguous (connected) territory and a truncated, but coherent national economic life based on agriculture and processing agricultural products (like olive oil). At the end of World War 1, in 1918, there were 680,000 Palestinians and 56,000 Jews (some of whom were refugees from pogroms in Europe) living in Palestine, and Palestinians owned 97 percent of the land.

After World War 1, imperialist powers carved up the Ottoman Empire, including Palestine. The rivalry was intense because oil was now a precious economic and military commodity. In 1922 Britain got a League of Nations “mandate” to rule Palestine as a colony. Between 1933 and 1945, the British imperialists, along with the U.S., severely restricted Jewish immigration into their own countries in order to push Jews toward Palestine—at a time when Jews in Europe faced the Holocaust.

Zionist Jews from Europe began to colonize historic Palestine (what is today Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank) in the late 1880s. The Zionist movement arose in part as a response by sections of Jews to their persecution in Europe. But, in opposition to forces - often led by communists (who also had a significant following among Jews) - that were fighting to forge opposition to reaction and fascism, Zionist leaders instead offered to set up a settler-state in the Middle East in service of various imperialist powers. When British imperialism took up this offer in the early 1900s, a wave of Zionist settlement began.

In 1936 Palestinians launched an armed uprising against the British and the Zionist settler-colonialists. The British brutally crushed the uprising in 1939 and passed emergency laws condemning to death any Palestinian found with a gun.

Through World War 2, the U.S. emerged as the top imperialist power in the world and moved to replace Britain as the main power in the Middle East. In November 1947, a U.S.-backed UN resolution partitioned Palestine into a Zionist state and an Arab state. At that time, the Palestinians outnumbered Zionist settlers two to one and owned 92 percent of the land. But the partition gave Israel 54 percent of the land. In May 1948—after the Palestinians and the Arab countries refused to accept the UN partition—Israel launched a war against Palestinians. Israeli forces massacred 250 villagers in Deir Yassin, including 100 women and children. Israel used this atrocity to spread terror among the Palestinian people, and many fled their homes in panic. By the war’s end in January 1949, nearly 800,000 Palestinians—two-thirds of the population—had been driven into exile; Israel had seized 77 percent of the land.

The 1960s saw a revolutionary upsurge among Palestinians. Palestinian guerrilla organizations launched armed struggle against Israel in 1965, with the aim of creating a democratic, secular (non-religious) state throughout Palestine. In March 1968 Palestinian fighters held off a major Israeli attack at Karameh, Jordan. In 1967 the Israelis launched the “Six Day War” and seized the remaining 23 percent of historic Palestine—the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem—along with Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and Syria’s Golan Heights.

UN Resolution 242 called on Israel to withdraw from all areas seized in the 1967 war. But the Israelis began to build heavily armed settlements in the occupied areas. Since 1967, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza have been under harsh military occupation, denied basic rights and unable to develop any viable economy.

The Deadly “Peace Process”

The Palestinian intifada (uprising) that erupted the late 1980s deeply shook Israel and the U.S. imperialists. In addition to outright bloody suppression, the U.S. and Israel initiated a so-called “Peace Process.” A key part of U.S. strategy has been the “two-state solution”: official Palestinian “recognition” of Israel and end to all resistance, in return for a small state in the West Bank and Gaza. By the late 1980s Yasser Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) had basically agreed to this.

The U.S. and Israel have never intended to allow a truly independent Palestinian state. Under the Oslo “peace process” begun in 1993, Israel transferred about 40 percent of the West Bank to the Palestinian Authority (PA). But this PA territory is only about 10 percent of historic Palestine and consists of small disconnected pieces of land surrounded by areas under Israeli control. The main roads, key water resources, and access to neighboring countries and the sea are all controlled by Israel. And the Oslo agreement made no provisions for the four million Palestinian refugees living outside of Israel, West Bank, and Gaza. During the years of the “peace process” (1993 through 2000), the number of Israeli settlers in the West Bank doubled.

The U.S. and Israel dropped this “peace process” and pursued even more unrestrained tactics after the year 2000. Meanwhile Israeli settlements have multiplied, now numbering hundreds, with Israeli troops protecting their land grab and aggression.

Since the late 1980s Israel has at times promoted the growth of the Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas as a countervailing force against secular forces and to stoke clashes among Palestinian groups. Hamas, with its reactionary ideology, is in some ways a perfect foil for the U.S. and Israel, who try to portray themselves as modern democracies confronting obscurantist theocracies. (Enlightened people in the West who want to oppose fundamentalist theocracies can start at home: the U.S. has a president who is deeply connected to Christian fascist theocrats.) The U.S. and Israel have used the victory of Hamas in the recent Palestinian elections to justify intensifying brutality against the Palestinian people by further embedding these attacks in the overall rationale of the “war on terror.”

Intensifying Brutality of Occupation

Israeli brutality against the Palestinian people became even more deadly after Ariel Sharon—the man responsible for the 1982 massacre of hundreds at the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon—was installed as Israel’s prime minister in 2001.

In 2002 Israel began erecting a fortified barrier—concrete walls, electrified fences, electric sensors, razor wire, trenches, and watchtowers—across more than 400 miles of Palestinian land in the West Bank. This apartheid wall further isolates many Palestinian towns, separates farmers from their fields, and steals more land from the Palestinians.

In September 2005 Sharon carried out a “disengagement” from the Gaza Strip, dismantling Israeli settlements and military installments—as part of a plan to make Gaza into a big prison for the 1.4 million Palestinians there, while moving to annex more land in the West Bank. Sharon’s successor, Ehud Olmert, has continued on this path, announcing a plan for “unilateral withdraw” from the West Bank—which means consolidating Israeli control over the most valuable and strategic territory, while intensifying the siege around the scattered Palestinian enclaves.

Further adding to the misery of the Palestinian people, the U.S. and European powers invoked Hamas’ victory in the elections for the Palestinian legislature in early 2006 to cut off or restrict aid to the Palestinian Authority. This economic strangulation is having a traumatic effect on the Palestinian people. More than half of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza now live below the international poverty line of $2 a day. The UN’s World Health Organization has warned of a “looming” health crisis, with hospitals and clinics running out of medicine, fuel, and other vital necessities.

THIS IS IT

This front page of Revolution Newspaper sums up why I write the lyrics I do. Not that I am under any illusions as to what punk rock can and cannot do. Bands are, in the final analysis, just bands. But why not use the opportunity, no matter how small, to say something? We are not in the habit of spewing voluminous amounts of political blah blah blah during our twenty minute sets. After all, people are there to hear your music. I do appreciate bands that do some of that stuff, within limits. But most people are there because they like your music. All I'm saying is, if you like what we are saying, then look deeper, and if you don't care, that's fine. But read this....

Supreme Court Confirms:

White Supremacy Has Been—and Will Be—the Law of the Land

Updated 2 pm EDT April 27, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

In a 6-2 ruling announced April 21, the Court upheld a Michigan constitutional amendment banning affirmative action in admissions to the state’s public universities. In other words, white supremacy is, and will remain, the law of the land.

Seven other states, including California, Texas, and Florida, have passed similar constitutional amendments; so the Supreme Court was well aware that their ruling is an endorsement of the outrageous under-representation of Black and Latino students in the most elite public universities across the country.

In California, the percentage of college-aged residents who are Latino is 49 percent, while 9 percent are Black. Yet the 2011 freshman class at UC Berkeley was only 11 percent Latino and 2 percent Black. UCLA’s freshmen class was 17 percent Latino and 3 percent Black. In Texas, Latinos make up 45 percent of the college-aged residents, while Blacks make up 15 percent. But at the University of Texas, the 2011 freshman class was 21 percent Latino and 5 percent Black. At Texas A&M, Latinos made up 19 percent of the 2011 freshman class, while Blacks made up only 3 percent.¹

Affirmative action policies in education were a product of the tremendous struggles of the 1960s and early 1970s for the liberation of Black and other oppressed peoples. These policies attempted to overcome discrimination by increasing the numbers and percentages of people of oppressed nationalities who had been systematically kept out of the country's colleges and universities. At the time, a section of the ruling class itself gave support to such policies, in an effort to show that fundamental change in the conditions of Black people and other oppressed nationalities could take place within this capitalist-imperialist system.

While some changes were made, and the growth of a middle strata from among the oppressed took place in that period, in part as a result of affirmative action policies, these policies soon came under attack on the grounds that they were “discriminating” against whites. In other words, the “privilege” of being from the dominant nationality was being threatened. And the ruling class as a whole upholds white privilege. It is so embedded in this system, its dominant institutions, and its culture, so crucial to what the USA is and what holds it together in the society as a whole, that it cannot be challenged.

For many, many people, not only among Black and other oppressed people but among people of all nationalities who understand the horrific history and present-day reality behind these statistics, this ruling takes you back to how it felt the moment it was announced that Trayvon Martin’s murderer would walk free—like taking a hard punch in the gut, but not a surprise.

Because the deeper reality that is being brought home once again—and must be recognized, with all of its implications—is that the Supreme Court and the U.S. constitution itself represent the interests of this ruling class and the capitalist-imperialist system, including its white supremacy as an historic, and essential, cornerstone.

The decision reached by the Supreme Court went against many of its own previous rulings, so there are many different arguments made to justify what it has done. And four separate opinions were written supporting—or in the case of Justices Sotomayor and Ginsberg, opposing—the Court’s decision. But never do those approving Michigan’s constitutional ban on affirmative action touch the question of why these inequalities in admissions to the universities exist, and what they have to do with the historical crime of slavery and its continuation today in what’s been characterized as theNew Jim Crow. Nor do they speak to the impact their ruling is going to have in making all of these conditions worse. In fact, the Court’s opinion, issued by Justice Kennedy, is introduced with an “assurance” that amounts to "hiding in plain sight":

Before the Court addresses the question presented, it is important to note what this case is not about. It is not about the constitutionality, or the merits, of race-conscious admissions policies in higher education.

But in the end what the opinion rests on is the "sanctity" of the so-called "will of the people." As described in the Syllabus that introduces the ruling:

Michigan voters exercised their privilege to enact laws as a basic exercise of their democratic power, bypassing public officials they deemed not responsive to their concerns about a policy of granting race-based preferences. … this Nation’s constitutional system also embraces the right of citizens to speak and debate and learn and then, as a matter of political will, to act through a lawful electoral process, as Michigan voters have done here.

Here you have a country that is founded on slavery, and for hundreds of years slavery was supported by the vast majority of the country—but that didn’t make it right. The debate over the writing of the U.S. constitution gave great consideration to the "will" of the supporters of slavery, and wrote slavery into it; but the "will" of the slaves did not matter at all. In fact, the Supreme Court itself, in 1857, ruled that Dred Scott—an enslaved person who managed to escape his enslavement—“had no rights which the white man was bound to respect” and sent him back to his owner.

And for nearly 100 years after slavery, “states' rights”—the doctrine that the "will of the people" of a southern state could not be challenged by a higher court—made legal a world of “Jim Crow” segregation throughout the South. This kept Black people from voting; made them second-class citizens in every way; and used Ku Klux Klan terror to enforce it. And today the system, as legally embodied and codified in its constitution, is in the service of the New Jim Crow, maintaining Black people, and other oppressed people, in an exploited and oppressed condition—and declaring it the "will of the people" that it should continue, and nothing can be done to interfere with that.

What we’re witnessing is the consolidating in an even greater, formal/legal way, the reality, and permanence, of the New Jim Crow that Black people have been forced into, following the struggles of the 1950s, '60s, and '70s that struck at the previous period of Jim Crow. Students, and especially Black students, on some campuses across the country are righteously standing up against the outlawing of affirmative action and demanding change. This struggle must not only be supported, but it must be built. And, more, this struggle should be linked with the struggle to make revolution, as the whole nature of this Supreme Court ruling makes it even clearer why it is going to take a revolution, and nothing less, to finally defeat, dismantle and eliminate this system, finally put an end to all of its crimes against Black and other oppressed people, and bring a whole different kind of society, and world, into being.

1. From charts included in “Court Backs Michigan on Affirmative Action,” Adam Liptak, New York Times, April 22, 2014. [back]

FAKEBOOK

I don't judge people or bands who have assbook accounts to keep in touch with family they rarely see, or in the case of bands, folks who come out to the shows who they don't always communicate with personally, and to alert people as to when their next shows are. That's all fine. It's the sad morons who post "selfies" regularly, ( holy crap, how I hate that word, if it even is a fucking word), and who travel 3,000 miles just to put up pictures of what they fucking ate. And also those total fucking idiots who start up fakebook accounts for their dogs, and get offended when you don't accept them as "friends". What the fuck, are you fucking five years old? Also, no, your dog does not send out christmas cards, you fucking idiot. Keep that shit to yourself.
   As you may or may not be able to tell, I am not on this so called "facebook". Maybe it would be a good idea for the band, but I just can't do it. I think if I were to try and set up an account for myself, the band, whatever, I might puke. Maybe I can set one up for my shoes, and you'd better accept, or else there'll be internet drama galore. And that's another thing. Some shitasses find it to be the ultimate insult when you delete them from assbook. I'm talking about adults here. Boo fucking hoo. It's also one of the reasons I've disabled comments from being written on this here bloggy type thing. Go be "funny" somewhere else. If you want to communicate, e-mail me directly, but no public airing of your extremely important views. Arrogant? Maybe, but that's the way it is. Fuck your drama. Bye.

THE EASY WAY OUT

There are people on this planet who consider themselves "non-conformists" because of the music they listen to, or because of the way that they dress. This is not enough. Just because you listen to shitty music and colour your hair some fucked up shade, doesn't mean shit. If you still act like the jock assholes you profess to hate, then what the fuck is going on? If you get drunk and try to prove how fucking stupid you are, then join a fucking frat. Fuck off. 
    Becoming part of a movement to destroy this system is the most rebellious thing you can do. When  you are actually a threat to the fucked up system , then you are fucking doing something rebellious. It is far easier to get loaded, break bottles, and do the same shit over and over again. You are no threat to anybody, and certainly not a "non-conformist", whatever the fuck that means anymore. Get your shit together. Learn something. And yes, it is possible to have fun while doing this.

Get Ready for May Day 2014!

April 14, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

WE REFUSE TO ACCEPT SLAVERY IN ANY FORM HERE AND AROUND THE WORLD!

FIGHT THE POWER, AND TRANSFORM THE PEOPLE, FOR REVOLUTION!

May 1st, 2014—a time to raise your voice and fight to end this modern day horror billions around the world live every day. May 1st, 2014—a time for internationalist celebrations in cities across this country. May 1st, the day when revolutionaries and broad numbers of people the world over take stock of their struggle, but more... look to and fight for a different and far better world. This is a time when our aspirations for the emancipation of all humanity are put front and center.

Get Ready for May Day 2014

Volunteers Needed... for revcom.us and Revolution

FOR THOSE WHO ARE CONFUSED

For all of those people who are still confused about what's going on between the Ukraine and Russia, this is an enlightening article. But I'm sure since the hockey playoffs are on, most of you have far more pressing things on your minds, eh...that's the way she goes.

Ukraine: Intensifying Dangers, Dangerous Lies

April 14, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

The situation in Ukraine continues to be tense, dangerous, and unpredictable. In the aftermath of a regime change that put pro-U.S. forces in the Ukrainian ruling class in power, Russia orchestrated an independence referendum in the region of Crimea (home to a major Russian naval base), and after an overwhelming majority in Crimea voted to secede from Ukraine, Russia has declared that Crimea is now annexed into the Russian Federation. The pro-U.S. Ukrainian regime is moving to assert control of the eastern part of the country, including by forcibly disbanding pro-Russian protests that have seized government buildings in a number of cities. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Russian troops remain massed on Ukraine's border, and Russia is threatening to cut off or curtail essential gas deliveries to Ukraine.

The interests, objectives, and grand designs of the imperialists are not our interests—they are not the interests of the great majority of people in the U.S. nor of the overwhelming majority of people in the world as a whole. And the difficulties the imperialists have gotten themselves into in pursuit of these interests must be seen, and responded to, not from the point of view of the imperialists and their interests, but from the point of view of the great majority of humanity and the basic and urgent need of humanity for a different and better world, for another way.

Bob Avakian
Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA
BAsics 3:8

Neither side in this conflict—essentially between the predatory imperialist powers of Russia on the one hand and the U.S. and its allies on the other—appears to prefer the outbreak of full-fledged war. But the situation in Ukraine involves a complex and combustible mix of clashing outside powers and internal reactionary forces that could set off a war, regardless of the intentions of the U.S. or Russia. And there are global conflicts among reactionary powers that are framing and driving the situation in Ukraine, and in turn those global conflicts are impacted by how things turn out in Ukraine.

Nobody can say where all this will lead. But one thing can be said: Whether or not this particular conflict erupts into open warfare, nothing good will come from any of these clashing reactionary forces. And that is true regardless of how many people are misguided into rallying under the banners of these forces at any particular time.

Dangerous Lies

People are being systematically lied to about the driving forces behind the conflict in Ukraine.

The rulers of the U.S. say Russia's actions in eastern Ukraine are trampling on the integrity of other peoples. True. But who's talking!? From the initial theft through genocide of the lands of the Native peoples in North America to the latest drone attack in Yemen or Pakistan, the U.S. has an unchallengeable claim to be the world's number one, all-time violator of the integrity of other peoples. (See "Trampling On Other Nations? The U.S. Empire Was Built on That.")

THINGS YOU CAN DO NOW

• Read, discuss, and spread the coverage of Ukraine at revcom.us through social media and in the streets, worldwide.
• In the U.S. and the West, join or call protests, forums, and speak-outs against U.S. or NATO military involvement in Ukraine.
• Stay tuned to and promote revcom.us as the place to go for exposure, analysis, and how to act on the situation from the perspective of the RCP's statement "On the Strategy for Revolution."

When pro-Russian protesters seize government buildings in the eastern part of Ukraine, the U.S. declares they are "being used" by outside powers. Again true, but again, who is talking? The rulers of the U.S. were knee deep in manipulating a regime change in Ukraine that set off the current conflict. A leaked audio of a phone call between a top U.S. State Department official and the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine revealed these officials discussing which representative of the Ukrainian ruling class should replace the elected president, and how to effect that change in a way that would have the UN appear to be the force orchestrating the change.

And the rulers of the U.S. and their media use highly selective news clips of people in the streets to justify self-righteous proclamations that any political force that serves the interests of the U.S. in global contention with other powers is "the voice of the people."

What's Really Behind the Conflict in Ukraine

As the U.S. rulers amp up their mass media to condition people in this country to see any outbreak of more intense conflict between pro-Russian and pro-U.S. forces in Ukraine as "Russian aggression," it is critical to understand, and fight for serious scientific understanding, of what this is all about.

(Click map to enlarge)

Ukraine is a country of 45 million people, geo-strategically located in relation to Russia, Europe, the Middle East, and the Black Sea. Ukraine is rich agriculturally, industrially developed, and strategically located between Russia, Europe, and the Middle East. Today pipelines carrying Russian natural gas crisscross the country. The country straddles the Black Sea (which connects to the Mediterranean Sea), and Russia's Black Sea fleet is based in Crimea. Russia considers Ukraine key to its military position.

After the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s, Ukraine became the focal point of a new wave of contention between the U.S., Europe, and Russia.¹

As we wrote in Revolution:

"That contention is the main driving force in the upheaval now gripping the country. Broadly speaking, since 1991, the rulers of the U.S. have assessed that it is essential to maintaining their empire to lock in global supremacy, including by hemming Russia in and preventing it from re-emerging as a global challenger. A key element of this strategy has been working with its European imperialist allies to absorb former Soviet bloc countries into the European Economic Union and the U.S.-led NATO military alliance....

"Meanwhile, Russia's capitalist rulers are driven to rebuild Russian power and influence. In part, this involves attempting to reassert their influence over bordering countries once part of the Soviet bloc, including by using their enormous energy resources as economic and geopolitical leverage.

"From 1991 on, these predatory imperialists—the U.S. and the European Union on one side (though the U.S. and Western Europe each have their own strategic agendas) and Russia on the other—have generally been in direct contradiction, even as there are times when these rival powers cooperate for their own reactionary interests." ("Ukraine: Not a 'Democratic Uprising' but a Clash Between Predators")

In short: Underlying all the claims and counter-claims, the essence of the situation continues to be jockeying for position and geopolitical advantage by rival imperialist powers—with the potential to escalate into direct great-power confrontation.

The Interests of Humanity

The interests of the vast majority of humanity lie entirely outside the terms of this clash of global predators.

The unexpected eruption of conflict and danger of war in Ukraine shines a light on the reality that the existing world order is not stable, much less unchangeable. Events are not all under the control and will of contending oppressors. But left to their own "logic," breakdowns in the status quo only lead to the restructuring of a world of global oppression—often in horrific ways. Syria is a case in point, with at least a million people driven from their homes by conflict between reactionary forces, and no force posing a positive way out for people.

Breaking out of the framework of the global world order means breaking out of the outlook and rule of capitalism—whether in the form of "U.S. democracy" (the essence of which is maintaining the world's largest empire and the world's largest prison population) or Putin's package of traditional (oppressive) values mixed with claims to being an alternative to U.S. global domination.

An essential element right now is for people in the U.S. to refuse to be played into aligning with the rulers of this country, and to expose and oppose the lies and moves of "their own" ruling class in Ukraine.

---

1. What was called the Soviet Union was actually two profoundly different societies: From 1917 to 1956, it was socialist and aimed at getting to a world without exploitation and oppression. After new capitalist forces seized state power and overthrew socialism, the Soviet Union developed into a capitalist-imperialist power contending with the U.S. for global domination. See "You Don't Know What You Think You 'Know' About... The Communist Revolution and the REAL Path to Emancipation: Its History and Our Future" at revcom.us. [back]

YOUR TROOPS

These are the people who are defending your "freedom" against the hordes wanting to destroy it. Eat your rhetoric and don't ask any questions, like every good citizen.
  Despite the media's efforts to say that this isn't your typical soldier or young kkkanadian male, I heartily disagree. I'll take my weirdo and (somewhat) nutty friends over douchebags like this any day. 

Ontario Provincial Police are looking for women who have been in contact with a member of the Canadian Armed Forces in Petawawa, Ont., who is facing multiple sexual assault and voyeurism charges.

Cpl. Derrick Gallagher, 31, was arrested Monday after a woman came forward to police on March 29, launching an investigation that led police to other alleged victims.

Gallagher is charged with eight counts of sexual assault and two counts of voyeurism involving multiple victims.

The incidents are alleged to have taken place in the town of Petawawa between January 2007 and March 2014, according to court documents.

OPP Sgt. Kristine Rae told Radio-Canada she doesn't know how many victims there are exactly, and that police are looking into whether drugs were involved in any of the alleged assaults.

OPP are asking any woman who has been in contact with Gallagher, or who has any information on the case, to contact investigators at 613-735-0188.

Gallagher joined military in 2005

CBC News has confirmed Gallagher is an infantryman with the 1st Battalion Royal Canadian Regiment, based at CFB Petawawa.

Gallagher joined the military in December 2005 and served in Afghanistan from September 2008 to April 2009, according to military officials at the base. They said military police are not involved in the investigation, but are willing to help OPP if requested.

Kimberley Maxwell, who lives in the same multi-unit Petawawa building as Gallagher, said Friday that she wasn't aware of any police investigation until police arrived to speak to Gallagher.

"I've heard little bits and pieces but ...  I have no idea what happened," Maxwell said. "I talked to him, like, 'Hi, how are you doing?' in the hallways. He seemed like a decent person. I just never had an actual conversation with him.… He wasn't here too long.

"I'm just waiting to find out [what happened] like everyone else, I guess."

Gallagher is scheduled to make a court appearance on April 10 in Pembroke.

THE FIRST REVIEW

This is the first review I've seen for our new CD, "Garden City". It's from long time punk rock journalist, 'zine editor, and enthusiast Al Quint, of "Suburban Voice" from Massachusetts. His website is located at subvox.blogspot.ca , and he also writes for MaximumRockandRoll.

AK47-Garden City (self-released, CD)
Self-described old-timers from Victoria, BC who have been a band since the late 90s. Still angry, still pissed, with, among other issues, plenty of anti-cop rants--in fact, some of the songs deal with specific incidents, such as the shooting of an unarmed young man, Oscar Grant, who was gunned down at a public transit station in Oakland (everyone should see the excellent movie Fruitvale Station, a dramatic account of the last day of his life). AK47 slam out fast hardcore with the occasional metallic lead, some double-speed moves and chuggy sections (which I could really do without) and the rage seems genuine, especially vocal-wise. (ak47hardcore.blogspot.com)





All in all, the review is pretty accurate. I understand that everyone has their likes and dislikes, but we enjoy the "chuggy sections", and they aren't going to stop anytime soon. But thanks for the review! And yes, it is available for 5 bucks from Box # 60-2680 Quadra St.
                                                                                Victoria B.C. V8T-4E4
                                                                                 Canada.
Thank you and good night.

                                                                                

STILL AMERIKKKA, STILL RACIST

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NO NAMES....

We recently had an unfortunate incident with a promoter who shall remain nameless. Let's just say that certain things were supposed to happen regarding a show, and they never did. No big deal, in the great scheme of things. But I need to clarify a couple of things. #1: I have tried over the years to lead a flake-free existence, and have almost achieved this. Now that we will not be "working" with this particular individual, this might be closer to being a reality.
#2: Punk/Hardcore to us is not a "business", and never will be. The objective of any successful business person is to make money, and if that is the case, then we should have filed for bankruptcy decades ago. This is artistic expression, a way to get ideas out to people, and a love of the music. Nothing else. I am sorry for you if you don't get it.
   That being said, our next show will be in Vancouver on May25th at the Astoria, with our friends Car 87, Legion Of Goons and others. It'll be our first show off the island in years, and we are looking forward to it. Car 87 is a band that gets it, and are one of my current favourites. See you there.

STUPID HIPPIES

I'm usually the first one to hate on the dirty smelly hippies, especially with their "pot will save the world" bullshit, but when it comes to the environment being destroyed rhetoric, they might just have a point. Where it falls apart, is when they advocate everyone growing food everywhere, and recycling everything as an ultimate solution. It is not. And it ignores the world's growing environmental destruction by the capitalist/imperialist bourgeoisie. Just because I throw a can into the recycling bin here, it does not negate the crap we all buy from Bangladesh or China over here. It does not mean we can ignore the rest of the world just because we smugly think we are actually accomplishing something. The ruling classes in every country need to be overthrown. They only give a fuck about money, and what they have to destroy in the process is irrelevant. Fuck them.

New UN Climate Panel Report:

This Criminal System Is Destroying Our Planet!

By Orpheus Reed | April 7, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

On March 31 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its latest report on the dangers of climate change, “Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability.” This IPCC report is the second piece of its current report—the fifth assessment report published over the last 25 years.

Above, 2006, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Wading through stagnant rainwater in search of drinking water after a week of deadly storms in the Bay of Bengal. Photo: AP

The Human Costs of Climate Change

Past reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have focused on the negative effects of climate change on the Earth and the natural world. One of the key “take home messages” from the latest IPCC report is the immense impact of climate change on human beings—now and even more so in the coming decades. As we emphasized in the special issue of Revolution, State of EMERGENCY! The Plunder of Our Planet, The Environmental Catastrophe & The Real Revolutionary Solution, the health, well-being, and even continued existence of humanity is linked to and dependent on healthy, vibrant, and intact natural ecosystems....

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With each report, the warnings of this panel get more alarming, the dangers clearer and the stakes higher. The 2014 report establishes that climate science as a whole has concluded that climate change is not a far off, abstract danger but is already impacting “natural and human systems on all continents and across the ocean.” The negative effects of climate change are hitting especially hard at the poor people and poor countries on this planet, who have done the least to cause the problem. It makes very clear that unless there are dramatic changes that happen very soon, there will be devastating and possibly even catastrophic impacts on the natural world and on human life from the warming of the planet and climate change.

For 25 years, the IPCC has warned the world of the danger to the climate. Despite all of these warnings, and against the opinions of 97 percent of the world’s climatologists and a growing mountain of shocking and extremely frightening studies done by smaller scientific teams (more later), nothing that matters a damn has been done by the world’s ruling powers to stop or even address this roaring emergency. We are truly on course for a climate and humanitarian disaster, and we must move now to change this course before it’s too late.

What the IPCC Summary for Policymakers Highlights

The impacts climate change is already causing in the world:

• Glaciers continue to shrink all over the planet, due to the planet warming. This is affecting water supplies for people in many regions.
• Climate change is warming and thawing permafrost in far northern regions. Permafrost is soil in layers that has been frozen two years or more, but much has been frozen far longer. Thawing of permafrost is very dangerous because it contains large quantities of frozen organic matter. So when it thaws, methane and carbon dioxide from this previously frozen matter is released into the atmosphere, further warming the planet.
• Many different species on land and sea are shifting their geographic ranges, migrations, and seasonal activities in response to climate change, and this is affecting the health of species and their interactions. The report says while climate change has so far been proven to have caused only a few recent extinctions of species, in the past more gradual, natural climate change caused big shifts in ecosystems and extinctions of species. This point raises the danger that as thing go forward, species extinction will become much worse.
• There are increasing human impacts from climate change—deaths from heat waves, floods, and cyclones, as well as impacts from increasing droughts and wildfires. These impacts are already interacting with and making social inequalities worse—hitting poor people and countries the hardest.

The increasing  impacts and risks to come as climate change advances:

A large chunk of frozen soil—permafrost—in the Antarctic polar region that melted and detached from the land mass as a result of warming climate. Photo: USGS

• The report says, “Increasing magnitudes of warming increase the likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts.”
• The amount of the world’s people experiencing water scarcity in some regions or times,  and on the other hand major river floods  in other regions or times, will increase with continuing warming.
• There is increased risk of extinction of “a large fraction” of land and sea species, as climate change interacts with other environmental stresses.
• Sea-level rise will cause low-lying coastal areas to erode, flood, and in some cases be submerged.
• Climate change will cause a vast redistribution  and reduction of ocean-living species causing a severe reduction in fisheries’ productivity.
• Ocean acidification, caused by carbon dioxide being taken up by the seas, poses big risks to life in the oceans, especially in the polar regions and coral reefs.
• Production of major food crops like wheat, rice, and maize will be negatively impacted in tropical and temperate regions. There are potentially huge risks to the global food supply if the world warms an additional 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) or more. (At least 3-4 degrees Celsius increase and even more is what scientists are predicting if the current emissions path continues as it is.)
• All of this will hit the world’s poor people and countries hardest, and will make poverty worse. Poor people will disproportionately suffer and be impacted by heat stress, extreme rainfall, flooding, landslides, air pollution, drought, water scarcity, and lack of food.
• Climate change will increase the displacement of people and increase the risks of violent conflict—civil war and other “inter-group violence”—by making poverty and economic shocks worse.

The IPCC report also addresses possible ways to adapt to the transformations climate change is causing—things like ways to prevent the worst of storm surges from powerful hurricanes, flooding, etc. Such “adaptation,” to the extent it was attempted, would be highly unequal, given the huge gap between have and have-not countries in the world. But even more fundamentally, what is clear from this report as well as the picture from climate science in general is that no amount of adaptation can deal with the truly horrific impacts to come. What is needed are massive emergency efforts right now to STOP the emissions of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels and other causes, and to transform the entire energy foundation of human society. Reversing the environmental crisis requires revolution, and the battle now to STOP the devastation of the environment can and should contribute to and be increasingly linked to the overall movement for revolution. The conclusion one must make based on this report is one of a particularly horrific future for the vast majority of humanity—the poor and dispossessed in the oppressed countries of the world—already facing  extreme struggles to eat, sometimes starving, suffering from disease and lack of clean water, health care, etc. All of this will be made unimaginably and likely even catastrophically worse if the current trajectory of the warming planet continues.

The IPCC Consensus and the Actual State of Things

 Listen to Dr. Michael Mann, Distinguished Professor of Meteorology at Penn State University and director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center, discuss the IPCC report on The Michael Slate Show on KPFK, April 4, 2014.

Thousands of scientists from over 100 countries contribute to the IPCC reports. So the reports represent the overwhelming consensus of the world’s climate scientists based on a thorough review of scientific studies that have been peer-reviewed and published, from many converging streams of evidence. Because of the consensus—everyone has to agree on the final conclusions written in the report—these reports end up being a kind of “lowest common denominator” in describing impacts and dangers. Past IPCC reports have in certain respects underestimated the speed and level of climate impacts, particularly the speed of melting of Arctic ice. Climate scientists such as Michael Mann and Stefan Rahmstorf have pointed out that the IPCC represents an important consensus of climate reality and prediction but, if anything, tends to underestimate the level of future temperature and sea level rise. In an important interview with Michael Slate on KPFK, Mann talks about what the current report shows and comments on how striking it is that despite this built-in conservative pull, the report draws such stark conclusions.

Unfortunately, as stark as the reality the IPCC demonstrates is, the actual level of danger the world faces is very likely worse. This is especially so because of the reality that as the climate warms to certain levels, new dangerous processes can be unleashed that cause even greater and sometimes qualitatively more warming.  The melting of permafrost and frozen methane in the oceans and the melting of polar ice are examples of these “positive” feedbacks that, when they certain levels, can reinforce warming further and can even cause  larger qualitative changes to a different state—climate tipping points.

In 2012, climate blogger Joe Romm, a climate scientist and senior fellow at Center for American Progress, put together a summary of conclusions of many of the latest peer-reviewed scientific climate studies. In looking into just a few of these, the conclusions are beyond hair-raising.

Here are just a few things these studies found:

A flock of geese fly past a smokestack at the Jeffery Energy Center coal power plant near Emmett, Kansas. Photo: AP

• An article by Jeffrey Kiehl in Sciencemagazine in 2011 looked into “lessons from earth’s past.” Scientists can study past temperature and carbon dioxide (CO²) levels through various means. If global carbon levels continue to grow as they are over the next century, they are expected to reach between 900 and 1100 parts per million by century’s end. After examining evidence from past geologic ages, Kiehl found that the last time CO² levels were this high was 30-100 million years ago and that temperature levels at that time were 16 degrees C (29 degrees F) higher than now on average. Kiehl concludes, “If the world reaches such concentrations of atmospheric CO² positive feedback processes can amplify global warming beyond current modeling estimates.”  In other words,  given the same CO² levels, past real world temperatures were actually worse than the most dire predictions of what Earth’s temperature in 2100 will be.
• The UK Met Office (Britain's national weather service) Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research predicted in a study in 2006 that  on current course, drought will impact 1/3 of the Earth’s land mass by 2100.
• A study in Nature magazine in 2010 found that over the past century, the ocean’s phytoplankton declined by 40%. The authors say they believe this has happened as a result of global warming causing rising sea temperatures. One of the co-authors, marine biologist Boris Worm, said, “I’ve been trying to think of a biological change that’s bigger than this and I can’t think of one. … Phytoplankton are a critical part of our planetary life support system. They produce half of the oxygen we breathe, draw down surface CO² and ultimately support all of our fishes.”

Yet none of the evidence pointing to a catastrophic future if things continue as they are, is stopping the continual pumping out of greenhouse gases. Levels of carbon dioxide have already climbed to over 400 parts per million—levels not seen in all of human history. Not only are greenhouse gases continuing to build up, the rate of their build-up has increased! Instead of stopping this, the ruling classes of the dominant capitalist powers, who have a stranglehold on the world’s economy and political power, only accelerate the emergency.

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It must be confronted by humanity that the stakes of this are, quite possibly, whether we as humans will be able to survive on this planet and whether most of the world’s species will also be driven out of existence.  The trajectory we are on is one of catastrophic and horrific changes, changes that are accelerating and picking up momentum in ways we never would have imagined 20 or maybe even 10 years ago. But now these changes are upon us and threaten to spiral completely out of control.

When the IPCC report came out, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said, “The costs of inaction are catastrophic.” Yet he represents the world power most responsible historically for the build-up of CO². Barack Obama vows to “act if Congress won’t” on climate change while building the U.S. up to be the world’s leading producer of oil and natural gas, and among the world leaders in coal production and export—the very materials whose burning is bringing this catastrophe. The U.S. and all the other capitalist powers wring their hands over the danger while they continue to be compelled by their system’s laws to race to find and burn even more destructive unconventional fossil fuels in their mind-numbing battle to outpace each other. All of this is beyond hypocrisy and cynicism—this is systemic, sickening destruction of everything.

The release of this report has provoked widespread expressions of concern and outrage—for millions, it has been a wake up and shake up call. And it should be. But far more people need to be woken up and shaken up! Given this I have some questions for people. Is what’s realistic to bury your head in the sand or only let in as much of the actual reality as you “can handle”? Is what’s realistic to expect that these capitalist criminals who are destroying the entire world and threatening to take us out of existence, are capable of stopping this? Or is what’s realistic to wake up and realize we need dramatic transformations that can only come from an actual revolution and a new socialist system—based on people being caretakers of the Earth and being mobilized to move heaven and earth to combat environmental disaster? This is our only real hope. Whether or not people agree with that, we have to come together, awaken humanity, and fight to stop these criminals from potentially taking us and most of our natural world out of existence.

From the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic In North America
(Draft Proposal) from the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

B. The Environment.

1. In the development of the socialist economy, and in the overall functioning of the government, within the New Socialist Republic in North America and in its international relations, not only must the fundamental orientation and principles of proletarian internationalism be consistently adhered to and applied, but this has special and urgent relevance with regard to the environment. In addition to–and in a dimension far beyond–damage that had been done to the environment in previous periods of history, the fundamental dynamics and the overall operation of the capitalist-imperialist system in this era–not least the wars and other massive destruction this system repeatedly gives rise to and continually causes–have created an environmental crisis constituting a genuine and increasingly severe emergency, and this is being and will be continually heightened and exacerbated, for so long as the system of capitalism-imperialism continues to dominate, or to exert significant influence and force in, the world.

The establishment of the New Socialist Republic in North America, through the defeat of the imperialist state of the USA, while it could not have occurred without the unleashing of further violent and destructive acts on the part of that outmoded imperialist state, nevertheless represents a truly gigantic stride toward the emancipation of humanity and with regard to the ability to more frontally and comprehensively confront and address the critical environmental emergency threatening humanity and the other species and ecosystems (the complex webs of interacting and interrelating life) on this earth. In full recognition of this, the New Socialist Republic in North America, in its development of a socialist economy, in all spheres of government and social activity, and in its international relations, will apply itself–and the initiative, knowledge, energy and creativity of the masses of people who make up and are the backbone of this Republic–to addressing this environmental emergency, in its various dimensions, and will seek out the ways to do so through increasing cooperation and common endeavor with scientists, and people from all walks of life, in every part of the world, struggling and joining with others in struggle to overcome barriers that are placed in the way of such efforts by the operation of the capitalist-imperialist system and the functioning of imperialist and other reactionary states. 

2. Already, in the period before the revolution that led to the establishment of the New Socialist Republic in North America, the Revolutionary Communist Party (in what was then the imperialist United States of America) published a special issue of its newspaper,Revolution (issue #199, April 6, 2010) which analyzed the extent, depth and urgency of the environmental crisis at that time and the fundamental elements and principles of a program for addressing this crisis.  One of the distinguishing features of the New Socialist Republic in North America is its determination to apply the principles set forth at that time by the Revolutionary Communist Party–and what has been learned since, with further developments with regard to the environmental crisis and in the world more generally–in order to contribute all it can to solving this environmental crisis and, to the greatest degree possible, reversing its terrible and manifold effects, and to ushering in a new era in which human beings and their society can truly be fit caretakers of the earth.