Monday, 7 January 2019

TRUMP DIDN'T START THIS

Shithole trump didn't start deporting refugees fleeing amerikkkan created persecution, hardship and starvation in their home countries, although he is an enthusiastic fascist when it comes to that. He is continuing something obama was already fucking doing. Fuck 'em all, and their fucked up system.
Questions and Answers on the Democratic Policy on Immigration

How the Democratic Party Has Persecuted and Deported Millions—and Murdered Thousands—with Their “Moral” Immigration Policy

 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

What do the Democrats really think—and what do they DO—about immigration? The research below takes on two topics: first, the Democrats’ border proposal in the current “budget fight” with Trump; and second, their actual record on the border and immigrants. As shown below in their own words and deeds, and in what they refuse to rule out, while the differences are real, the unity—keeping people who are fleeing U.S.-created oppression OUT while maintaining the right of the U.S. to trample on everyone else’s borders—is more fundamental. They—and most fundamentally, the imperialist system they represent—have no answers.

First: What is the Democrats’ plan for “improving border security”?

Hakeem Jeffries, new chair of the House Democratic Caucus and four-term New York congressman, on the bill that the Democrats were putting on the floor on January 3: “[W]e’re going to allocate $1.3 billion in additional funding to allow for enhanced technology, cellphone towers, satellites, drones, enhanced fencing, increased communication capability, the things that the experts have said are necessary to improve border security.”1 (January 2, 2019)
What is “enhanced fencing”?
“There are areas along the border where there are currently fences that are put up or barriers that need to be enhanced, and consistent with what the policy experts have said are helping to improve our security along the border.” (Hakeem Jeffries, January 2, 2019) The Democrats are not ruling out additional enhanced fencing along the 2,000-mile border if they deem it’s justified.

Second: What has been the actual policy of the Democrats when they have held power?

OBAMA
Military Deployment at the Border
  • From 2010 to 2016, under Obama’s “Operation Phalanx,” 1,200 National Guard soldiers and airmen were deployed to support the Border Patrol in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. This provided time for the Border Patrol to hire, train, and equip the additional Border Patrol agents that had been funded by an emergency supplemental appropriations act.2
  • In February 2012, under “Operation Nimbus,” Obama deployed active-duty soldiers from Fort Hood and Fort Bliss in Texas to the southern New Mexico and southern Arizona borders to support Customs and Border Protection agency with border security. The soldiers conducted 24-hour reconnaissance and ground surveillance using advanced optics and sensor equipment during a high-traffic season for human and narcotics smuggling.3
Holding Refugee Families in Detention at the U.S. Border
  • When the surge of refugee families from Central America began arriving at the U.S. border in 2014, Obama responded to this “humanitarian crisis” by holding families applying for asylum in detention for indefinite periods of time. This didn’t end until the courts stepped in and stopped Obama from doing it. The court said that in addition to holding the families for far too long, federal officials had “failed to meet even [the] minimal standard” of “safe and sanitary” holding cells.4
  • When a surge of unaccompanied minors arrived at the border began in 2014 as well, the Border Patrol began holding children beyond the 72 hours that was legally allowed, and the government began putting children in holding shelters that looked like jails.
People were held in extremely cold detention facilities—called “iceboxes” by the refugees—and given only Mylar (aluminum) blankets, inadequate to keep them warm. According to the court, “deplorable” conditions also included the issue of overcrowding: “Children and their mothers were held for one to three days in rooms with 100 or more unrelated adults and children, which forced children to sleep standing up or not at all.”5
Using the Lives (and Deaths) of Immigrants to “Deliver a Message”
Jeh Johnson, Barack Obama’s secretary of Homeland Security, admitted the Obama administration began detaining immigrants at the border to send a message:
[T]here are adults who brought their children with them. Again, our message to this group is simple: we will send you back. We are building additional space to detain these groups and hold them until their expedited removal orders are effectuated. Last week we opened a detention facility in Artesia, New Mexico for this purpose, and we are building more detention space quickly.” (Johnson, in an official statement before the Senate Committee on Appropriations in 2014)6
The Democrats have never repudiated this practice. Refugees fleeing persecution were being arrested at the border, and forced to return to their countries unless they could prove they had a “credible fear” of persecution if forced to return. After the first year, a “Guardian investigation into consequences of Obama’s migration crackdown reveals US deportees have been murdered shortly after return to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, with study saying as many as 83 killed since 2014.”7
Nevertheless, on June 17, 2018, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said on CNN, justifying this practice: “We have to send a clear message, just because your child gets across the border, that doesn’t mean the child gets to stay.”8
BILL CLINTON
Actual building of a border wall, and the most draconian immigration bill in our lifetime
It was under Bill Clinton that the construction of barriers and walls began:
  • In 1993 “Operation Safeguard” and “Operation Hold the Line” authorized the construction of fences along the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona and Texas respectively.9
  • In 1994 “Operation Gatekeeper” authorized construction on a 13-mile “border wall” along a line in the sand between San Diego and Tijuana.10
  • In 1996 Clinton signed the draconian Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA), which essentially put into motion the immigration enforcement seen today where deportation is a constant and real threat for millions of immigrants. It was a bundle of provisions with a single goal: to increase penalties on immigrants who had violated U.S. law in some way (whether they were undocumented immigrants who’d violated immigration law or legal immigrants who’d committed other crimes).
IIRIRA greatly expanded the types of crimes that could result in the deportation of a non-citizen, including lawful permanent residents. And the Clinton bill made those changes retroactive, thereby boosting the number of possible deportations. The law also made many immigrants subject to mandatory detention while their immigration cases were being decided. This pretrial hammer was used to make frustrated imprisoned immigrants give up their effort to fight deportation and simply return to their countries of origin. Immigrants convicted of certain crimes or those caught within 100 miles of the border were given summary deportation orders without ever having the chance to see an immigration judge.11
  • In 1994 the Border Patrol, for the first time, issued a national strategy to control illegal border crossing: “Prevention through Deterrence,” a plan for greatly stepped-up patrol deployment and barrier construction on the most frequently crossed stretches of the border. According to the new strategy, many more agents would be deployed at the border, along with installing electronic surveillance at the border, and erecting border things like fences and stadium lighting, to deter illegal entry. A major factor behind this aggressive policy was the anticipated impact of the 1994 ratification of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which was expected to greatly increase the number of people trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border.12
Deaths and disappearances skyrocket
Together, Clinton’s immigration policies greatly increased the danger of crossing the Mexico-U.S. border, causing deaths and disappearances to skyrocket. According to a report by the groups No More Deaths and Coalición de Derechos Humanos, “Extreme heat and bitter cold, scarce and polluted water sources, treacherous topography, and near-total isolation from possible rescue are used as weapons of border enforcement.” The estimate of the numbers killed crossing the border is 8,600. In addition, because of this terrain, within weeks someone can be reduced to bone fragments, or completely disappear. “The region has been transformed into a vast graveyard of the missing.”13
Clinton spoke with pride in his 1995 State of the Union speech about his immigration policy
Our administration has moved aggressively to secure our borders more by hiring a record number of new border guards, by deporting twice as many criminal aliens as ever before, by cracking down on illegal hiring, by barring welfare benefits to illegal aliens. In the budget I will present to you, we will try to do more to speed the deportation of illegal aliens who are arrested for crimes, to better identify illegal aliens in the workplace as recommended by the commission headed by former Congresswoman Barbara Jordan. We are a nation of immigrants. But we are also a nation of laws. It is wrong and ultimately self-defeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in recent years, and we must do more to stop it.14
And finally:
The Secure Fence Act of 2006 was signed into law by Bush II in October of 2006. It “called for construction of 700 miles of fencing and enhanced surveillance technology, such as unmanned drones, ground-based sensors, satellites, radar coverage and cameras.” The bipartisan majority that voted for the act included Chuck Schumer, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton—all top Democratic Party leaders.15

3. The Border Fetish, Todd Miller, NACLA, April 30, 2018 [back]
8. Hillary: Minors crossing border must be sent home, Washington Post, June 18, 2014 [back]
9. Borders: The Fence: Origins, Georgetown University project [back]
14. Bill Clinton, Immigration Hawk, Center for Immigration Studies, January 30, 2018 [back]
15. How the Border Wall Is Boxing Trump In, New York Times, January 5, 2019
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Sunday, 6 January 2019

WERE THESE CHILDREN TERRORISTS ?

Does fuckface trump think these children were terrorists and drug dealers ?

Houston mourns border deaths of children from Guatemala

By Gloria Rubac posted on January 5, 2019
In December activists led by the Carnalismo Brown Berets gathered to mourn the deaths of Jakelin Caal Maquin, 7, on Dec. 8 and Felipe Gómez Alonzo, 8, on Dec. 25, two Guatemalan children who died while in custody of the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.
Caal died in a hospital two days after she was taken to a Border Patrol station, just days after her seventh birthday. She was in custody for over eight hours with no water. Houston activists gathered a few days later outside of what is planned to be a “baby jail” for migrant children. With candles lit at the vigil, Brown Beret activist Elizabeth Lozano expressed her sadness and anger at the death: “We must stay active so no more children die at the hands of the Border Patrol.”
Janie Torres, the sister of Jose Campos Torres, who was murdered by Houston police on Cinco de Mayo in 1977 in an explosive case that received national attention, told those at the vigil: “We need unity. We must work together to stop the violence from the government.”
Participating with the Brown Berets were members of the Carrizo/Comecrudo Indigenous nation and F.I.R.E., Fight for Im/migrants and Refugees Everywhere.
— Report and photo by Gloria Rubac
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Saturday, 5 January 2019

GREAT WORK, BUT....

I have reposted many articles by author and activist Yves Engler on this site , and he has done and continues to do some very important exposure of kkkanadian imperialism . The main criticism I do have though, is that he seems to expect the n.d.p. to do the right thing and stand on the side of the oppressed  of the world. They can not, and will not do so. They are no less a part of the imperialist machine as the conservatives and liberals. The only difference is, they try to put a kinder veneer on it. They are lying , and they want the system to stay as it is, with some very minor cosmetic changes. All that being said, please read this, assholes :

  JANUARY 4, 2019 · 19:50

Where do NDP MPs stand on CBC story exposing Jewish National Fund?

An explosive CBC expose Friday on the Jewish National Fund should be the beginning of the end for this powerful organization’s charitable status. But, unless the NDP differentiates itself from the Liberals and Conservatives by standing up for Canadian and international law while simultaneously opposing explicit racism, the JNF may simply ride out this short bout of bad publicity.
According to a story headlined “Canadian charity  used donations to fund projects linked to Israeli military”, the JNF has financed multiple projects for the Israeli military in direct contravention of Canada Revenue Agency rules for registered charities. The organization has also funded a number of projects supporting West Bank settlements, which Global Affairs Canada considers in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The story also revealed that the Canada Revenue Agency, under pressure from Independent Jewish Voices and other Palestine solidarity activists, began an audit of the state-subsidized charity last year.
After detailing the above, (which provoked hundreds of mostly angry comments from readers) the story notes that the “JNF has had strong relations with successive Conservative and Liberal governments.” The CBC published a picture of politicians congregated at the Prime Minister’s residence above the caption “Laureen Harper poses with JNF Gala honorees during a group visit to 24 Sussex Drive in 2015.”
But the JNF, like all good lobbyists, has hedged it political bets and the story could have noted that the social democratic opposition party was represented at this JNF gala as well and has dutifully supported the dubious “charity”. NDP MP Pat Martin spoke at the JNF event Harper organized to “recognize and thank the people that have helped to make JNF Canada what it is today.” In 2016 NDP foreign critic Hélène Laverdière participated in a JNF tree planting ceremony in Jerusalem with JNF World Chairman Danny Atar and a number of its other top officials. The president of the Windsor-Tecumseh Federal NDP riding association, Noah Tepperman, has been a director of JNF Windsor since 2004 and has funded the organization’s events in London, Ontario.
In 2015 Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath published an ad in a JNF Hamilton handbook and offered words of encouragement to its fundraiser while Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter planted a tree at a JNF garden in 2011. Manitoba NDP Premier Gary Doer was honoured at a 2006 JNF Negev Dinner in Winnipeg and cabinet minister Christine Melnick received the same honour in 2011. During a 2010 trip to Israel subsequent Manitoba NDP Premier Greg Selinger signed an accord with the JNF to jointly develop two bird conservation sites while water stewardship minister Melnick spoke at the opening ceremony for a park built in Jaffa by the JNF, Tel Aviv Foundation and Manitoba-Israel Shared Values Roundtable. (In 2017 Melnick won a B’nai Brith Zionist action figures prize for writing an article about a friend who helped conquer East Jerusalem and then later joined the JNF).
Besides NDP support for this dubious “charity”, the story ignored the JNF’s racist land-use policies. The JNF owns 13 per cent of Israel’s land, which was mostly taken from Palestinians forced from their homes by Zionist forces in 1947-1948. It discriminates against Palestinian citizens of Israel (Arab Israelis) who make up a fifth of the population. According to a UN report, JNF lands are “chartered to benefit Jews exclusively,” which has led to an “institutionalized form of discrimination.” Echoing the UN, a 2012 US State Department report detailing “institutional and societal discrimination” in Israel says JNF “statutes prohibit sale or lease of land to non-Jews.” Indicative of its discrimination against the 20% of Israelis who aren’t Jewish, JNF Canada’s Twitter tag says it “is the caretaker of the land of Israel, on behalf of its owners — Jewish people everywhere.” Its parent organization in Israel — the Keren Kayemet LeYisrael — is even more open about its racism. Its website notes that “a survey  commissioned by KKL-JNF reveals that over 70% of the Jewish population in Israel opposes allocating KKL-JNF land to non-Jews, while over 80% prefer the definition of Israel as a Jewish state, rather than as the state of all its citizens.” While such exclusionary land-use policies were made illegal in Canada seven decades ago, that’s the JNF’s raison d’être.
An organization that recently raised $25 million  for a Stephen Harper Bird Sanctuary, JNF Canada has been directly complicit in at least three important instances of Palestinian dispossession. In the late 1920s JNF Canada spearheaded a highly controversial land acquisition that drove a 1,000 person Bedouin community from land it had tilled for centuries and in the 1980s JNF–Canada helped finance an Israeli government campaign to “Judaize” the Galilee, the largely Arab northern region of Israel. Additionally, as the CBC mentioned, JNF-Canada build Canada Park on the remnants of three Palestinian villages Israel conquered in 1967.
A map the JNF shows to nine and ten-year-olds at Jewish day schools in Toronto encompasses the illegally occupied West Bank and Gaza, effectively denying Palestinians the right to a state on even 22 percent of their historic homeland. Similarly, the maps  on JNF Blue Boxes, which are used by kids to raise funds, distributed in recent years include the occupied West Bank. The first map on the Blue Box, designed in 1934, depicted  an area reaching from the Mediterranean into present-day Lebanon and Jordan.
The JNF is an openly racist organization that supports illegal settlements and the Israeli military. Many NDP activists understand this. The party’s MPs now have a choice: If they stand for justice and against all forms of racism, for the rule of international law and fairness in the Canadian tax system, they will speak up in Parliament to keep this story alive. The NDP needs to set itself apart from the Liberals and Conservatives by following up on the CBC’s revelations to demand the Canada Revenue Agency rescind the JNF’s charitable status.
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Friday, 4 January 2019

VACATION

A lot of people like to go to Hawaii this time of year to escape the shitty winters, and because "it's so beautiful " over there. I am not telling people not to go , but it's always good to understand how and why things came to be. Ask questions, and seek the truth.

American Crime

Case #64: The U.S. Conquest of Hawai`i

March 27, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Bob Avakian recently wrote that one of three things that has “to happen in order for there to be real and lasting change for the better: People have to fully confront the actual history of this country and its role in the world up to today, and the terrible consequences of this.” (See “3 Things that have to happen in order for there to be real and lasting change for the better.”)
In that light, and in that spirit, “American Crime” is a regular feature of revcom.us. Each installment will focus on one of the 100 worst crimes committed by the U.S. rulers—out of countless bloody crimes they have carried out against people around the world, from the founding of the U.S. to the present day.
American Crime

See all the articles in this series.



Marines marched from the USS Boston to I'olani Palace as part of taking over the Hawai’ian government.

The “Honolulu Rifles,” a heavily armed militia of 1,500 largely white businessmen, who patrolled the streets to put down any Native Hawai’ian rebels.
THE CRIME:
The Overthrow: On January 17, 1893, 162 armed U.S. sailors and Marines marched from the USS Boston, harbored in Honolulu Harbor, to Iolani Palace, the center of Hawai’i’s government, and set up camp. This act of war against a nation struggling for independence from foreign domination put the U.S. firmly in control.
Lorrin Thurston, the grandson of an American missionary who had the support of Hawai`i’s white business class, had organized a coup d’etat. And the U.S. had agreed to provide military back up. Thurston’s core conspiracy group, which included Hawai`i’s powerful sugar barons, joined the “Honolulu Rifles” a heavily armed militia of 1,500 largely white businessmen, who patrolled the streets to put down any Native Hawaiians who might rebel.
Queen Lili`uokalani, the reigning monarch in Hawai`i at the time, was in the midst of a struggle for a new constitution aimed at reducing the control of the powerful white elite and establishing independence from foreign powers. She now faced the challenge of the U.S. military and a gang of businessmen armed with modern rifles, machine guns and cannons. The Hawaiian Nation had only a small volunteer army and a few hundred outdated muskets. Facing a bloodbath, Queen Lili`uokalani surrendered under protest.
U.S. Government Minister John L. Stevens, who had been in charge of the U.S. military action, proclaimed Hawai`i a U.S. Protectorate (a dependent territory). A temporary government, the “Committee for Safety,” was formed to protect the white elite and terrorize the Native Hawaiian population. One week after the overthrow a new “Reciprocity Treaty” was signed with the U.S.—that guaranteed trade protections for Hawaiian sugar and most notably included the cessation of Pearl Harbor (which had already been identified as a potential U.S. military base).
The overthrow was met by immediate resistance—within days the Hawaiian people began to form organized protest groups. In the face of mass resistance a new constitution was written and the Republic of Hawai`i was proclaimed on July 4, 1894. The Republic was ruled by a single party controlled by white businessmen and Sanford B. Dole was its self-appointed president.
Queen Lili'uokalani
In 1895, a rebellion led by Royalists with the goal of reinstating Queen Lili`uokalani failed in its attempt to overthrow the Republic. The Queen was falsely accused of collaborating and was sentenced to prison. While in prison, she signed an agreement to abdicate her throne in return for the release of her jailed supporters. She was then held under house arrest in the I`olani Palace until she was pardoned in 1896. Thereafter she regularly traveled to Washington D.C. to fight against annexation and for Hawaiian Independence.
Forced Annexation: The 1893 overthrow of Hawai`i coincided with the beginning of an increasingly open battle within the U.S. ruling class over U.S. expansion and the U.S.’s relationship with Japan and Spain. By 1895 a draft plan to annex Hawai`i to the U.S. was introduced in Congress and Hawaiians began a new round of protest against annexation.
Then on February 14, 1898 the U.S. Battleship Maine blew up in Havana Harbor, Cuba; the U.S. blamed Spain for this and launched the Spanish-American War, which included fighting in the Philippines (then a Spanish colony). President McKinley, seeking a staging ground to deploy troops and supplies to the Philippines and expand U.S. power in the Pacific, moved quickly on plans to annex Hawai`i. In a campaign of jingoism—extreme patriotism in the service of aggressive foreign policy—the slogan was put out, “Remember the Maine” and the annexation of Hawai’i was forced through on July 7, 1898 and the U.S. appointed the first U.S. Territorial Governor of Hawai`i.
The century following annexation was characterized by the systematic oppression of the Hawaiian people. Their lands were confiscated by both “legal” and illegal means and their ties to the land were severed. Hawaiian language newspapers (of which there were many), were shut down and the Hawaiian language was made illegal. Flying the Hawaiian flag was outlawed, and genuine forms of Hawaiian culture were suppressed or made illegal. The real history of resistance to the overthrow and annexation was re-written and the myth that the U.S. had been welcomed was promoted. Certain aspects of Hawaiian culture were combined with fabricated fantasies, marketed to tourists—further alienating Hawaiian people from their culture.
People meet to plan opposition to the annexation of Hawai`i to the U.S.
Corporate plantation agriculture had a devastating impact on the health and lives of native Hawaiians, driving them off the land, and wiping out subsistence agriculture. Throughout the 1800s, waves of immigrant workers were viciously exploited as indentured servants.
Throughout the century the U.S. military built dozens of bases and installations, including Pearl Harbor, which today is the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Entire islands and valleys were “leased” for as little as $1 a year and used for bombing and live fire practice. Harbors became so toxic that they could no longer provide fish; wetlands so polluted they could no longer sustain wildlife, and huge swaths of agricultural land were poisoned. U.S. nationalism and militarism, especially punctuated by the events of World War I and World War II, further undermined the identity of the Hawaiian people. In 1959 Hawai`i became the 50th state.
THE CRIMINALS:
U.S. Minister John L. Stevens: U.S. diplomat who led the invasion of the U.S. military during the overthrow, after having conspired with white businessmen in planning a coup d’etat against Queen Lili`uokalani. Benjamin Harrison was the U.S. President at the time.
Lorrin A. Thurston: Grandson of American missionaries, who organized the “Honolulu Rifles,” a white businessmen’s militia; architect behind the coup d’etat of Queen Lili`uokalani.
Sanford B. Dole: Descendent of American missionaries and vociferous advocate of American control and/or destruction of anything Hawaiian. Self-appointed president of the Republic of Hawai`i formed after the overthrow. Appointed by U.S. President McKinley to be the First Territorial Governor of the Territory of Hawai`i after annexation.
U.S. President William McKinley: Aggressive advocate of U.S. imperialist expansion who signed a Treaty of Annexation in 1887, initially rejected by Congress, but then in 1898, in the midst of war hysteria accompanying the Spanish-American war, pushed through.
THE ALIBI:
The purported alibi for the overthrow was to protect American citizens residing in Hawai`i.
THE ACTUAL MOTIVE:
The 1893 overthrow was to protect the interests of Hawai`i sugar planters, who had invested huge amounts of money in fields and mills, and were now facing increasing competition from the sugar market in the U.S. and a rise of Hawaiian nationalism. The annexation of Hawai`i was to fulfill the need for a “rest and re-supply station” for U.S. troops deploying to the Philippines during the Spanish-American War.
By 1881 there were rumblings within the U.S. State Department that Hawai`i should become part of the “American system” and in 1891 the U.S. permanently stationed a warship in Hawai`i “to keep a United States vessel there from this time on to guard American interests in the Islands.” The overthrow and annexation of Hawai`i were part of U.S. imperialist expansion in the Pacific: the U.S. saw it crucial to the control of Hawai’i—which could be used as a military base in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. While the overthrow was set in motion by the contradiction between powerful white businessmen and the monarchy, the actual motive for the U.S. was imperialist expansion and the military control of the Pacific.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS:
Hiram Bingham, one of the first New England missionaries to Hawai`i, speaking about the Native Hawaiian people: “Can these be human beings! How dark and comfortless their state of mind and heart. How imminent the danger to the immortal soul, shrouded in this deep pagan gloom! Can such beings be civilized?”
Lorrin Thurston, Feb 3, 1893 [days after the overthrow]: “The trouble was, that the Queen did not wish to resign constitutionally, but instead sided with elements whose cry had for years been ‘Hawai`i for Hawaiians.’ The Americans and Europeans, who have by far the greatest interests there, are not willing to let the native spend the money which they have labored so hard to make.”
SOURCES:
Nation Within: The History of the American Occupation of Hawai`i , Revised Edition, Tom Coffman, 2009
Aloha Betrayed, Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism, Noenoe Silva, Duke University Press
Native Land and Foreign Desires: Pehea La E Pono Ai? How Shall We Live in Harmony?  Lilikala Kame’eleihiwa, 2013
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Thursday, 3 January 2019

SUMMARY

I have to say this almost every time I post something from this organization. I do not necessarily support their ideology , but they frequently have good analyses of world events , and have many times written articles worthy of serious study. So read this please.

2018: RISING FASCISM & FIGHTBACK

DateSATURDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2018 AT 4:17PM
As 2018 comes to a close, we review and summarize the highlights of the past year in struggle. While it may appear to have been “more of the same”—expanding imperialist wars and growing racism, sexism and fascism.Yet 2018 was so much more than that for our class. It was a year that showed the potential for expanding mass antiracist fightback and opportunities for communists to spread revolutionary ideas to masses around the world! As always, the working class fought back hard in 2018. A big part of being a communist means placing our confidence and revolutionary optimism in the international working class. Our class shows the growing numbers of workers and students in the international communist Progressive Labor Party the way forward.
Only communism can provide what the working class in every one of these struggles needs. The attacks on workers worldwide will produce more and more uprisings. We must be present in every one of them, organizing solidarity on the job and on campus, explaining that these fights are schools for communism. They teach us how to take power and organize an antiracist, anti-sexist, egalitarian world.
Mass struggle kicked off 2018
The year started with hundreds of thousands marching in the second annual Women’s Marches in the U.S. and worldwide. Thousands of healthcare workers marched in Oaxaca, Mexico. Worldwide, workers and students welcomed and supported refugees amid the worst refugee crisis in human history—created and worsened daily by the sharpening rivalry among the world’s imperialists. In Brooklyn, NY hundreds of immigrant rights organizers and Legal Aid and Brooklyn Defender lawyers rallied against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In Baltimore, Maryland, the year began with dozens protesting against the racist kkkops who were framing Keith Davis for murder. In Brooklyn, dozens of high school students fought to keep a popular class from being cut. The Progressive Labor Party was in all these struggles, calling on workers and students to organize for communist revolution instead of relying on the bosses’ Democratic Party politicians.
Racist police terror and fightback
In the U.S., the struggle against racist police killings did not let up. In a number of places, it flared up into small rebellions.
Baltimore: PL’ers participated in the 272nd West Wednesday rally to remember the police murder of Tyrone West.
Chicago: Tyrone Williams, a Black worker, was arrested in court for protesting the privileged treatment given to killer kkkop Jason Van Dyke. In October, Van Dyke was finally convicted of second degree murder. Then the CPD killed Maurice Granton, and in another case, Augustus Harith, sparking a small rebellion. Workers and PL’ers are organizing in the wake of Jemel Roberson’s murder by the police.
Brooklyn: In August, Kyam Livingston’s mother held the 60th monthly rally demanding justice for the death of her daughter in jail.
In July, PLP won a victory against the racist injustice system in California: The “Anaheim 3,” who had stood up to the Klan, won their case. One comrade, a Black worker, must still wait another year to have his case finally dismissed. The fight continues.
Worldwide struggle
All over the world, the working class fought back. The Party was often in the middle of these battles.
In Puerto Rico, the working class united following the catastrophic Hurricane María and the gutter racist neglect of the U.S. bosses and their current servant, President Donald Trump. PL’ers and friends traveled there and joined the rebuilding efforts in solidarity, building friendships and comradeships that show potential for PLP to grow and lead militant fightback.
In Haiti, the Party has been involved in massive protests against fuel price increases and against government corruption in the PetroCaribe scandal, where several billion dollars were stolen. We are also involved in smaller local struggles.
In Oaxaca, Mexico, indigenous workers organized a community trial of the government and mining companies. On many campuses, students went on strike when thugs beat some protesting students. More than 30,000 marched on the main campus.
Meanwhile, PLP organized a study group of Mexican women and a conference for young people. And, of course, the workers of Mexico provided a welcome to the workers of the migrant caravan. They provided food, clothing, and housing as the workers marched to the U.S. border to seek asylum.
In Pakistan, PLP is struggling to win workers to communism and away from union misleaders who promote voting.
In China, workers of the world witnessed the birth of a new communist movement. It has potential to link up with many workers’ struggles that those outside of China never hear about.
This movement is serious enough that the Chinese capitalist rulers are cracking down on it. PL’ers are reaching out to this young movement.Last but not least, at year’s end, we have a major rebellion in France. Unemployment is high, wages are low, and retirement funding is inadequate. President Emmanuel Macron, a former banker, is trying to make France attractive to investors by making workers’ lives even more difficult. When the bosses raised gas prices, the working class exploded (see page 2). This uprising shows the tremendous power of the working class, and that it will always rise up! The reform struggle has won some crumbs, but these workers need the communist PLP to go for it all—to seize state power under communism.
The fightback list goes on
Back in the U.S., Trump worked hard trying to eclipse Obama’s racist legacy of deporting over three million workers. As Trump tore families apart, the working class responded. At LaGuardia Airport in New York City, workers welcomed immigrant children. In Texas, thousands demanded the abolition of ICE.
In Los Angeles, workers blocked a Homeland Security van. In Indiana, workers tried to block an airplane from leaving with immigrants who were being deported. At the Families Belong Together march in New York City, on a day of 700 rallies across the U.S., 30,000 marched with a vigorous PLP contingent.
The fightback list goes on:
Workers went on strike at an airport in Turkey.
Nurses in Chicago struck, as well as hotel workers in Hawaii, teachers in West Virginia, and workers all over China.
Howard University students in Washington, DC, occupied the main administration building to fight racism and sexism on campus and support neighborhood workers.
At Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, students and workers supported cafeteria workers with a militant march that saw the college’s interim president flee the campus in fear. After exposing a racist administrator, a growing group of immigrant women and Black youth continues to fight anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim racism.
At Park Slope Collegiate, a secondary school in Brooklyn, students, staff, and parents are still fighting for school integration and defending communist, antiracist teachers.
Cheers to another year of struggle!
A system that destroys the lives of so many workers, the class that creates all wealth and value, does not deserve to exist. With their profit system in another crisis, imperialist rulers are plotting to bring even more devastation and misery as they organize for the next world war. Join the fight against capitalism. May Day is coming! Join with us as we march for a communist world, a world run by the working class.
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Wednesday, 2 January 2019

ILLUSION VS. TRUTH

There are so many ways that the fascist powers cover up, rebrand, and redirect the masses of people who want to believe something positive might actually be happening with the fucked up trump regime. It's better to know than not to know . How else will you fight back ?
The “Prison Reform” Bill

A Tiny Band-Aid to Conceal a Knife in the Gut

 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

If you looked at a newspaper the morning after Trump signed his fraudulent “prison reform bill,” you might have seen Van Jones acting like a hood ornament on the fascist juggernaut, prominently standing in the scrum surrounding Trump’s desk.
The bill in fact gives a few relatively small concessions while concealing what may turn out to be a major attack. And we’ll get to both the concession and the attack in a minute.
But the larger significance of this bill—and the larger attack—lies in the collaboration with fascism being carried out by people like Jones, along with the self-deluding and disarming notions coming from people like the writer Michelle Goldberg.
First, to the bill. The bill itself, by the estimates of even its biggest supporters, would reduce the sentences of no more than 4,000 prisoners in the federal system. The sentence reduction is the main thing being touted. That reduction would apply to a little more than two percent of federal prisoners, and when you stack it up against 2.3 million people being held in all prisons, jails and “detention centers,” you are talking about less than one in 500 prisoners, most of whom will have already served long, long bids on bullshit “crimes,” like possession of drugs. And even this pitiful reform has two big catches: First, no immigrants whatsoever are to be allowed early release AND second, the so-called “neutral” algorithm which will determine exactly who among the eligible does get released has been exposed by ProPublica as hiding decidedly racist criteria in its supposedly neutral yardsticks.
In fact, concealed within this extremely minor concession is a major attack. And that shouldn’t be surprising. After all, when the Senate passes a bill 87-12, when significant proponents of prison reform oppose it, and when a long-time racist become fascist chieftain Donald Trump signs it, shouldn’t we be asking some questions about who benefits from all this and why?
First, please note that the two largest “private prison companies” have now “rebranded” themselves as “re-entry” companies. Corrections Corporation of America, for instance, changed its name to CoreCivic (my, how public-spirited the new name sounds!). They not only have plans for vastly expanded use of ankle-bracelets, but for other even more intrusive forms of surveillance as well. So, with the states now strapped for cash and wanting to at least slightly pare down their prison populations, but with the ruling class overall still wanting to heighten their surveillance and control of the Black, Latino and Native American peoples in this country, we could be looking at a whole new phase of mass incarceration and worse.
The second attack is in some ways even more insidious—providing Trump cover to carry out his fascist onslaught. Look, we know Trump and we know America and while he has made numerous threats he has still not yet unleashed the full onslaught against Black people that he has, for instance, against immigrants, we should understand that this is not a matter of if, but of when. Now, however, opportunists like Van Jones (as well as pitiful bootlickers like Kanye West) have provided Trump with invaluable political cover. Van Jones won his disgusting photo-op by doing a whole big CNN interview with Jared Kushner leading into this. Watch this ass-kissing interview here and ask yourself if there is one question that Kushner could not have scripted in advance. Jones has used whatever credibility he pickpocketed from being associated with the “radical” movement of the ’90s to legitimize a regime that is the deadly enemy of the masses, and he has told people that the way forward is NOT massive resistance but conciliation and outright collaboration.
To those like the New York Times designated “woke” columnist Michelle Goldberg, who wrote a column entitled “Donald Trump Is Doing Something...Good?” saying that this bill could be the first step in rolling back the tide of mass incarceration: Wake the fuck up, will you? This is mainly a way to delude and bamboozle people like you into dropping your guard and believing in fairy tales, and staying on the sidelines when the hammer does come down, as it surely will unless it is prevented by massive, in-the-streets struggle.
Look at reality. Ask yourself WHY this is happening. Then act accordingly, and commensurate to the threat we face.

Here are some sources for further investigation and discussion on the First Step Act:
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Tuesday, 1 January 2019

REAL INSPIRATIONAL PEOPLE

The writer of the following letter brings up some good points about how a city can be two things at once. Historic, beautiful, lively, and a living hell for others. I have often wondered how the fuck Vancouver gets voted one of north america's most livable cities ?! Do they just happen to overlook the homelessness, drug addiction, and unaffordable rents ? Read please.

November 2018

A Tale of Two Cities, and the Need for Revolution

Dear Friends and Colleagues,
I want you to get to know, and to donate generously to the Revolution Club, Chicago, the “Rev Club Chi.” I had the pleasure and the honor to meet them and to do some revolutionary work with them on a recent trip to Chicago.
I love Chicago. It is my birthplace. It is a majestic city. Pristine. Amazing culture; incredible, historic architecture; international diversity; splendid lakefront beaches and barbecue ribs to die for!
But, spread bare within this city, is another city. South Side; West Side; ghettos where I got my start, way south of the city and these are hidden from view. Where the jobs have all left; where the housing is dilapidated and buildings are left to rot. Where the people are hopeless and have no future. Where the heartbreaking murder rate has captured national and international attention. The Chicago pigs harass and shoot down Black and Brown people with impunity; where the recent conviction of a murdering cop of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald was the first in half a century. This is the Chicago that represents the massive oppression and slow genocide of an entire population of people. Poor people, the youth, people of color. This other Chicago is a symbol of the savagery of this entire system of capitalism and imperialism now marching steadfast towards fascism.
The Rev Club Chi is organizing for an actual revolution. It is always on the move leading people to stand up against the brutality brought down by this system and to become part of working now to bring forward millions for revolution. It brings to the people, particularly to the youth, the understanding of why they are in the situation they are in and what it will take to get up and to get free. They introduce to the youth the compelling argument that their lives can have a transformative meaning. A direction away from killing each other and fighting over scraps of what this system throws out to them, to fighting for all of humanity. They introduce the work and the writings of Bob Avakian, the chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party. When members of the community engage in this work, they frequently become inspired by the possibility that they can become a salient part of working towards a whole new world.
My partner and I visited the Rev Club Chi storefront in the heart of the South Side. It is a no frills space that they have turned into a welcoming gathering spot, to teach about revolutionary theory; to show movies about the work of Bob Avakian; to organize protests and teach-ins. They engage the neighborhood with vibrant block parties. People are drawn to the center to debate the big issues of the day and to grieve the devastating losses as people are murdered all around them.
We spent time in the center with activists in the group and spoke with veterans of the movement as well as recent members. We worked with the group in an action while we were there to protest the murders in Chicago and the disparity of the resources between the North Side of the city and the West and South Sides. We joined the organizers of this march and we shut down a busy portion of Lake Shore Drive at rush hour and marched to Wrigley Field and shut down the streets leading to the stadium during a Cubs game! The Rev Club Chi led chants speaking to the danger of this moment and which indicted the system of capitalism and imperialism and not the people, which is such a part of the mainstream narrative. They were energetic, inspiring! “What’s the problem? The whole damn system! What’s the solution? Revolution!” No holding back! Confident! Passionate and resounding! They commanded a major presence to the crowd as the march progressed.
This group has put their bodies on the line in the streets of Chicago. They have been targeted by the police for just wearing Revolution T-shirts. They have been arrested for chanting and getting out materials about revolution. They have been brutalized by the police and have trumped up charges against them. Yet, they keep on fighting. They bring stunning insights about working in these neighborhoods and what is needed to build forces for this movement. They are a constant contributor to the Revolution newspaper.
This is a dangerous moment in our history where there is a limited time to stop Trump and his fascist cronies. Even if you are not ready to sign up as a revolutionary activist, please support those who are willing to stand up against the onslaught of bigotry; xenophobia; homophobia; trans phobia; patriarchy and slow genocide of people of color which may quickly turn into a fast genocide.
I am a psychiatrist working in a university setting as well as my private practice. I have recently donated $2,000 to Rev Club Chi but they need much more. They are in huge debt with all of the expenses that they incur. We need your urgent and generous donation. The Rev Club Chi will use every cent you donate to this fight to transform the people and to bring about a new world. To donate, go to www.gofundme.com/revolutionsummerchicagofund.
Thanks in advance for stepping up!
A Medical Professional
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