Wednesday, 19 July 2017

WHO'S THE CRAZY ONE ?

Guess who voted in favour of getting rid of nuclear weapons and who opposed it ? Fuck the amerikkkan imperialists and their fucked up allies.

United Nations Adopts Historic Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

North Korea, Alone Among Nuclear States, Voted “Yes” on Res. L.41 Authorizing this Treaty

By Carla Stea

Global Research, July 12, 2017

Theme: Militarization and WMD, United Nations, US NATO War Agenda

In-depth Report: NORTH KOREA, Nuclear War

At approximately 11AM on July 7, 2017, following a recorded vote of 122 states in favor, 1 opposed (Netherlands in opposition, on behalf of all NATO states), and 1 abstention (Singapore), Ambassador Elayne Whyte Gomez, Costa Rican Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, and President of the “United Nations Conference to Negotiate a Legally Binding Instrument to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons, Leading Towards their Total Elimination,” announced the adoption of this treaty, which had been awaited for 70 years, the legally binding norm prohibiting nuclear weapons.

Following Ambassador Whyte’s announcement, the entire assembly of ambassadors, other delegates and non-government organizations in Conference Room 1 immediately stood, many embraced and all 122 States in support exultantly applauded this historic and long overdue achievement by the majority of member states of the United Nations, none of whom possess nuclear weapons, and all of whom are unified in seeking to end the reign of terror imposed on the world by certain of the states possessing nuclear weapons.

Excerpts from the preamble to this landmark treaty state:

“The States Parties to this Treaty,

PP1: Determined to contribute to the realization of the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations,

PP2: Deeply concerned about the catastrophic humanitarian consequences that would result from any use of nuclear weapons, and recognizing the consequent need to completely eliminate such weapons, which remains the only way to guarantee that nuclear weapons are never used again under any circumstances,

PP4: Cognizant that the catastrophic consequences of nuclear weapons cannot be adequately addressed, transcend national borders, pose grave implications for human survival, the environment, socioeconomic development, the global economy, food security and the health of current and future generations, and have a disproportionate impact on women and girls, including as a result of ionizing radiation,

PP5: Acknowledging the ethical imperatives for nuclear disarmament and the urgency of achieving and maintaining a nuclear-weapon-free world, which is a global public good of the highest order, serving both national and collective security interests,

PP9: Basing themselves on the principles and rules of international humanitarian law, in particular the principle that the right of parties to an armed conflict to choose methods or means of warfare is not unlimited, the rule of distinction, the prohibition against indiscriminate attacks, the rules on proportionality and precautions in attack, the prohibition on the use of weapons of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering, and the rules for the protection of the natural environment,

PP10: Considering that any use of nuclear weapons would be contrary to the rules of international law applicable in armed conflict, in particular the principles and rules of international humanitarian law,

PP11: Reaffirming that any use of nuclear weapons would also be abhorrent to the principles of humanity and the dictates of public conscience,

PP14: Concerned by the slow pace of nuclear disarmament, the continued reliance on nuclear weapons in military and security concepts, doctrines and policies, and the waste of economic and human resources on programmes for the production, maintenance and modernization of nuclear weapons,”

The 24 paragraphs of the preamble set forth incontestable reasons for the imperative and immediate adoption of this treaty by all member states of the United Nations. Reference to the full text of this treaty makes this imperative explicit, and in great detail.

The operative section of the treaty includes 20 Articles. Article 1, entitled “Prohibitions” states:

“1. Each State Party undertakes never under any circumstances to:

Develop, test, produce, manufacture, otherwise acquire, possess or stockpile nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices;

Transfer to any recipient whatsoever nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices or control over such weapons or explosive devices directly or indirectly;

Receive the transfer of or control over nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices directly or indirectly;

Use or threaten to use nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices;

Assist, encourage or induce, in any way, anyone to engage in any activity prohibited to a State Party under this Treaty;

Seek or receive any assistance, in any way, from anyone to engage in any activity prohibited to a State Party under this Treaty;

Allow any stationing, installation or deployment of any nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices in its territory or at any place under its jurisdiction or control.”

Although none of the states possessing nuclear weapons participated in the negotiations leading to the adoption of this treaty, it is, nevertheless a major achievement of the United Nations, and a fulfillment of one of the most important sections of the United Nations Charter. It is the expectation of those member states who participated in this long and grueling process culminating in the successful adoption of this treaty, that the very establishment of this treaty provides a legal norm which will exert significant pressure upon the states possessing nuclear weapons, and places the nuclear weapons states in de facto violation of international law. This newly adopted United Nations based legal norm stigmatizes the nuclear weapons states precisely for their possession of these ultimate weapons of mass destruction.

During the September 26, 2016 meeting calling for this treaty, it was emphasized that there are treaties prohibiting the possession and use of biological weapons, there are treaties prohibiting the possession and use of chemical weapons, but at that time there was absolutely no legal prohibition against the possession and use of the most devastating and horrific of all weapons of mass destruction ever devised by the human species, nuclear weapons. At that time powerful calls for this just adopted treaty were made by many states, in particular, forceful and eloquent speeches by South Africa, Sweden and numerous others.

On October 27, 2016 the UN General Assembly voted on Resolution L.41, to convene negotiations in 2017 on a “legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination.” It is of great significance that, alone among the states possessing nuclear weapons, only the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea voted “yes,” in support of these negotiations to create a “legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons,” which is powerful and virtually incontestable evidence that North Korea’s possession of nuclear weapons is purely and exclusively defensive.

The Press Statement by the US, UK, and France

At 12:51 AM on July 7, a joint press statement was issued by the Ambassadors of the United States, the United Kingdom and France, and reads:

“France, the United Kingdom and the United States have not taken part in the negotiation of the treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons. We do not intend to sign, ratify or ever become party to it.”

The statement then comments, irrationally, and absurdly, that the new treaty will create “even more divisions at a time when the world needs to remain united in the face of growing threats, including those from the DPRK’s ongoing proliferation efforts.

This treaty offers no solution to the grave threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear program.” No sane person would consider that the tiny number of defensive nuclear weapons allegedly possessed by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea could possibly be a threat in any way comparable to the more than 15,000 advanced, sophisticated nuclear weapons possessed by the US, the UK and France, a nuclear arsenal capable of obliterating all life on earth. The exploitation of the DPRK’s tiny defensive weapons as a cynical justification for retaining the gargantuan arsenals possessed by the authors of this press statement also reveals dangerous paranoia by the most militarily powerful nations on earth. Indeed, even The New York Times, on July 9, page 10 acknowledges that:

“During the Korean War, North Korea was hit with thousands of tons of American bombs. The conflict technically continues, and North Korea claims it needs a robust defense program to protect itself in case of a renewed American attack.”

It is surprising that the U.S., the U.K. and France have issued a statement flaunting their violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty: they are required by Article 6 of that treaty “to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control,” which is precisely what the new Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons constitutes.

The authors of this press statement evidently consider themselves above international law, and not beholden to any legal restrictions on their use of force. With this press statement, the US, the UK and France have forfeited moral legitimacy, and as permanent members of the Security Council are divested of any authority to sanction North Korea. Further, they should themselves be sanctioned for their violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Their indifference to this new treaty’s basis in international humanitarian law, one of the treaty’s pillars, gives the lie to their pretense of concern for humanitarian considerations which they frequently cite, deceptively, during their speeches at the Security Council.

But July 7, 2017 will remain a pivotal date in the history of the United Nations, the day on which the majority of countries of the developing world, and many of the responsible and mature nations of the “developed world” have confronted the nuclear states with the uncivilized character of their possession of nuclear weapons, and the moral and practical imperative of divesting themselves of these insane instruments of horror.

Carla Stea is Global Research’s correspondent at United Nations Headquarters, New York, N.Y.

The original source of this article is Global Research

Tuesday, 18 July 2017

STANDING UP

There is much to be learned from people who actually stand up to brutal genocidal regimes, from Ferguson, to Occupied Palestine, to Istanbul. It beats the fuck out of just rolling over and saying "Next time we'll vote n.d.p., eh ". Horseshit.

In Turkey: Tapping the Hidden Potential for Resistance

Hundreds Become Hundreds of ThousandsStanding Up to Brutal Repressive Regime

July 17, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

On July 9, in the face of extreme repression, up to a million people flooded the streets of Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, demanding that the fascist regime of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan end the state of emergency imposed after a failed military coup last July. In so doing, they cut through the suffocating atmosphere of fear, intimidation, and accommodation that has gripped the country over the last year.

Background

Since 2003, Erdoğan was first prime minister, and then president of Turkey. He combined extreme Turkish nationalism (known as “Kemalism” after the founder of modern Turkey) and Islamism (organizing society on patriarchal, misogynist, and anti-scientific religious tenets), with a program of concentrating more and more power in the executive branch of government and in his own hands.

This was deeply polarizing. Erdoğan had been the target of massive protest by progressive forces in big cities, as well as resistance based among the 15 million Kurds (a bitterly oppressed national minority) living mainly in Turkey’s mountainous southeast. But Erdoğan had strong support among religious fundamentalists, and in the vast rural areas, towns, and small cities.

In July 2016, a section of the military attempted a coup. Erdoğan was able to mobilize his own supporters in the streets to oppose it, and faced with the threat of military takeover, most of Erdoğan’s bourgeois liberal, as well as more progressive opponents stood with him against the coup, which was crushed.

Over 200 died in the attempted coup, but Erdoğan referred to it as a “gift from God” because it created a temporary political situation where he had broad support both in the ruling class and among the masses. Erdoğan seized on this to make a huge leap in implementing fascist rule.

Using the pretext of rooting out coup supporters, Erdoğan quickly broadened his attack by equating the just struggle of the Kurdish people with the military coup. Kurdish regions faced heavy military repression and at least a dozen leaders of Kurdish political parties were arrested. And Erdoğan went even wider, targeting his ruling class and military opponents, journalists, artists, and intellectuals. 150,000 teachers, professors, journalists, judges, civil servants, and others were fired; 50,000 people were arrested and thrown into brutal prisons where torture is rampant; over 100 news outlets were either seized or shut down.

The main bourgeois liberal, nationalist, and Islamist parties all either supported this or went quietly along, but there was important resistance. In October, the government extended the state of emergency for another 90 days—500 protested this in Ankara and in Istanbul, answering the call of trade unions and smaller left-wing parties. In the Kurdish region there were clashes both between the military and armed forces of Kurdish political parties, and between police and Kurdish youth. Even soccer games became arenas of potential protest, so the Turkish government banned the selling of jerseys with the word “Kurdistan” on them.

Though these outbreaks were extremely important in challenging both the fascist state, and challenging the broader masses to stand up against it, they were still relatively small, sporadic, and confined to a few big cities and the Kurdish area.

Fascist Referendum and Outbreaks of Resistance

To consolidate and give legitimacy to his power, Erdoğan held a national referendum in April 2017 on constitutional amendments that gave him direct legal control over both the courts and the legislature. Supported by another right-wing party, Erdoğan stacked the deck, using his control over the media to fill the airwaves with “Yes” propaganda, and organizing much vote fraud as well. Nonetheless, his victory (with 51 percent of the vote) did reflect the support of a section of Turkish society.

The referendum victory gave the government vastly more power and legitimacy, but it also sparked growing outrage and protest. Right after the referendum, there were two nights of intense protest in Istanbul, with thousands chanting: “We are shoulder to shoulder against fascism” in the face of heavy militarized police presence. There were smaller actions in cities around the country, some of which were attacked by police.

In Ankara, two teachers who had been fired in the crackdown went on a hunger strike in protest. 75 days later, as their strike continued and became a focal point, and police broke into their homes to arrest them, one of them tweeted: “Political department police are trying to enter the house. They are now breaking the door. Damn fascism! Long live our hunger strike resistance! We want our jobs back! We have not and will not surrender!”

The crackdown widened to include the mainstream parties who had supported both the suppression of the coup and the crackdown on the Kurds, but were (mildly) opposed to the constitutional amendments which pretty much eliminated any pretense of democracy. In May 2017, the regime arrested a CHP (Republican People’s Party) member of parliament and sentenced him to 25 years in jail. ¹

At that point, the CHP, the largest opposition party, did decide to speak up, and put out an ambitious call for a 280 mile march from the capital city of Ankara to Istanbul—the boldest act of mass defiance since the coup.

On June 15, hundreds gathered in Ankara to march against the seemingly overwhelming power of the state. This required real courage, as Erdoğan openly compared this nonviolent protest to the armed coup attempt that he had drowned in blood, saying: “The coup soldiers had their F-16s and tanks; Kılıçdaroğlu [the leader of CHP] has his march.” Erdoğan said the march was “illegal” and that he was only allowing it as “a favor.”

Nevertheless, the march set out on its arduous journey, traveling 15 miles a day along highways, stalked by Turkish police (who claimed to be “protecting” them), across open country and over mountains in the summer heat. At least one activist died of a heart attack on the way.

But this courage and determination began to tap into the vast reservoir of previously suppressed hatred of the regime. It soon grew to over a thousand, including some prominent artists and performers. After two weeks on the road, it had topped 10,000 people and then grew to 15,000.

Once it left Ankara, the march went through the rural heartland of Erdoğan support, Turkey’s “Red States,” about which a marcher commented: “I would never in a million years have even thought I’d drive through.” And the march did meet sharp opposition, as Erdoğan supporters in some places lined the road to shout abuse, while others dumped manure in the march route.

But there were also hundreds of people in these areas who were emboldened by the march, who flashed victory signs from their cars or applauded from their balconies. No doubt it left much greater political ferment and debate in its wake, which is favorable for winning over those who are now intoxicated with Erdoğan.

By the time the march reached the furthest outskirts of Istanbul it had grown to 30,000, but even then there was grave doubt and fear about what would happen when they entered the city: Would they be attacked and dispersed? Would people turn out to join them?

Erdoğan made a call to not attack the march, and into this fresh opening surged hundreds of thousands of people, many of whom no doubt only decided what to do in the last hours. The rally—at the prison that held the jailed CHP member—was jubilant. One speaker declared: “This is a rebirth for us, for our country, for our children. We will revolt against injustice.”

A Hard-fought Breakthrough, the Challenges, and the Importance of Leadership

People are right to be jubilant, and this was a hard-fought breakthrough. But it is also important to be sober and scientific. First, the Ankara-to-Istanbul march was a bold idea at the right moment and was able to bring together very broad sections of people, ranging from radical forces determined to drive out this regime to mainstream parties who vacillate between going along and conciliating with the fascists, and organizing some resistance to them. But now that a broad opposition movement has surfaced, so will those differences, and different forces will sharply contend over both the direction and the goals the movement should take.

Even more important, the Erdoğan fascist regime is still in power, wielding tremendous armed forces and a significant mass base; it is not going to give up or fade away. In fact, a few days after the Istanbul rally, another 7,348 public sector workers were fired as part of the ongoing purge. And on July 15—the one-year anniversary of the coup-attempt—Erdoğan mobilized hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions, around the country to mark his victory, and he used the occasion to more tightly bind the masses there to his reactionary ideology, and to ominously threaten his opponents. Referring to those who fought for his regime, Erdoğan said that “God has promised ... those who fight in the way of God or in the way of their nation ... paradise.” And he warned that the purges and trials were far from over, and that he would “decapitate the traitors” and that “none of them will be left in this country without getting their punishment.”

So this will likely be a period of great political ferment and debate among the people, and very intense back-and-forth struggle with the reactionary forces. The Ankara-to-Istanbul march revealed not only the great breadth of opposition, but also the willingness of tens of thousands to put a lot on the line to fight it. And this whole situation poses the question of what kind of society do people want for Turkey.

But in this context, the question of leadership is crucial. If those most determined to see a new and liberated Turkey—and a new and liberated world—work to scientifically sum up what has changed and how to further transform things, and take that into the swirl of struggle and debate, there is a good basis to—through twists and turns—forge and lead a determined struggle to drive out the fascist regime and to open up new questions and new possibilities about bringing a truly emancipatory society into being, rather than settle for going back to the deeply oppressive conditions that marked Turkey before Erdoğan even came on the scene.

1. The CHP had actually supported the earlier arrest of Kurdish parliamentarians, once again illustrating the profound truth that Martin Niemöller summed up from his experience in Nazi Germany: “First they came for the communists, and I did not speak up because I was not a communist…. Then they came for the Jews and I didn’t speak up because I was not a Jew.… And then they came for me, and by then there was no one left to speak out for me.”) [back]

Monday, 17 July 2017

THE REAL FIGHT

Carl Dix nails it again, and right in front of the death recruiting station. Fuck the u.s. war machine, and all of their threats against whoever doesn't go along with their agenda of domination, killing, and exploitation.

Chicago protest against U.S. threats of war against North Korea

Carl Dix and the Revolution Club: “Don’t Fight For Uncle Sam…Our Fight is Here!”

July 14, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

On July 11, in front of an Armed Forces Recruiting Station on Chicago’s South Side, Carl Dix and the Revolution Club went up against the Trump/Pence regime’s threats to make war against North Korea.

The Revolution Club marched into the parking lot of the strip mall where the imperialist death-recruiting center is located. The message on their banner was bold and clear:

To all Black and other oppressed people… and to all people who stand for justice—DO NOT FIGHT FOR UNCLE SAM IN NORTH KOREA—OR ANYWHERE ELSE!! Our Fight is Right Here!

In front of the military center, Carl Dix took the mic to tell people:

The United States is threatening war with North Korea. You got Donald Trump with his finger on the nuclear button, threatening to push it to start a war, telling us that this war is in some way a defense against a madman in Korea. But... a war between the United States and North Korea would be a war of a nuclear-armed bully, the United States, against a small country. And it would be a disaster for humanity. No one—not Black people, not other oppressed people, not anybody who cares about justice should fight in that war. In fact no one should fight in the United States' wars because these are wars for empire....

… you got this system, this capitalist-imperialist system, whose rulers unleash their cops to patrol Black and Brown neighborhoods like occupying armies spreading terror, brutalizing and even murdering people there. Warehousing people in prison. Pinning people down in segregated communities in cities like Chicago and elsewhere. Gearing the educational system to fail people. And then they wanna come to our young people and say “You gotta fight for your country.… It becomes your country when they go to war—they say ‘you got to go out and fight for it.’”

Well I say bullshit. This system... is unleashing attacks on immigrants, Muslims, attacks on women, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender people, that has everybody’s rights to protest and exercise free speech under attack, that’s even attacking sections of the capitalist media—this is not our system, its fight is not our fight. No one should fight in this war with Korea, no one should fight in any of the wars of this system.

But there is a fight that we should wage and that’s a fight to get rid of this system in the only way possible and that’s by getting organized into a revolution to overthrow this system to defeat and dismantle its military, police force and all the rest and to bring a whole different world into being. That is a fight that’s ours.... We got the leadership that we need for this revolution in Bob Avakian, the leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party, a man who has developed a strategy and approach for how to make revolution in a country like this, how to get in position to be able to lead millions of people to go all out for revolution when the time is right, to do that with a real chance to win and a vision of the kind of world we could bring into being. A world where the exploitation and oppression of this system has been done away with once and for all. We do have a fight and people need to get with that fight. They need to check out this revolution. They need to check out the leadership we have for this revolution in Bob Avakian. They need to get with this revolution.

Struggle with and among the people

An important part of this action at the military recruiting station was to actually STOP people from going in and joining the U.S. military. It was slow at the recruiting station while the Revolution Club was there (a lot of recruiting is done at schools and other places). Then, a 19-year-old Black youth walked up, headed towards an appointment at the recruiting station. It was not his first time there—he was in the process of being recruited into the military. When a Revolution Club member stopped him to talk, he said he wanted to make his life about something and was not seeing anything else out there for him. The revcom told him, “Look, the only time you count to this system is when they are ready to use you to kill other people. The reason there is nothing for you out here is ’cause they don’t give a shit about you. They want to keep you trapped in this shit here and all over the world. And to join their armed forces to enforce this shit all over the world.”

The young man replied, “I can’t argue with that.” The revcom told him, “They also have armed white supremacists to enforce all this shit—they don’t see police killing people as a problem, they see people fighting against it as the problem. If you want to make your life about anything, don’t join the enemy’s army—join the revolution. Joining the military makes about as much sense as a slave joining the slave master.” The young man said a few times, “I didn’t see it that way,” and didn’t really say much more. But he did walk away after that conversation instead of going in for his appointment with the imperialist recruiters.

Other people going through the parking lot said they were in agreement with what they were seeing and hearing. Some stopped to listen to Carl Dix. There was struggle among the people too. A woman who took some flyers and passed them out on the corner near the recruiting station gave one to a guy who looked at it and then tried to give it back to one of the revcoms, saying, “I’m only concerned about Black people.” The woman heard this and struggled with him, saying this IS about Black people! The revcom added, and it is not just about Black people, it is about ALL OF HUMANITY getting free. The man decided to keep the flyer.

A U.S. military veteran who works with Refuse Fascism also spoke and announced the July 15 nationwide protests to drive out the Trump/Pence regime. A vet from the Revolution Club also spoke.

After this bold action held the sidewalk in front of the U.S. Armed Forces recruitment center for over an hour, Carl concluded, saying the Revolution Club will be joining in the July 15 protests and calling on everyone to be there.

Sunday, 16 July 2017

FIGHTING BACK

July the 15th was marked as the day that people were going to start mass protests against the trump regime, and protest they did. People came out in the thousands to tell trump and his fucked up government that enough is enough, you have to fucking go. Read all about it here.

Wednesday, 12 July 2017

TERRORISTS

The u.s. and russian rulers are far bigger terrorists than isis could ever dream of being. They destroy and divide up the world and it's resources while killing millions of people in the process. This is an informative and excellent article, even though, ( as I've said before ), I am not a supporter of the organization writing it. Read it. Now.

CARNAGE OF WORKING CLASS IN SYRIA

FRIDAY, JUNE 30, 2017 AT 1:42AM

As ISIS loses ground and influence over eastern Syria, two larger, more lethal terrorist organizations—the U.S. and Russian capitalist ruling classes—are escalating their competition for control of this strategically vital area in the oil-rich Middle East. The inevitable result: more carnage for our working class sisters and brothers in Syria. From April 23 to May 23, more civilians were killed by U.S.-led airstrikes than in any other month so far in the six-year-old war, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (Independent, 5/23).
In the current month alone, in a move to protect Syrian rebel ground troops fighting the Russia, and Iran-backed regime of President Bashar al-Assad, U.S. warplanes have downed two Iranian-made drones and a Syrian SU-22 warplane—“the first time the American military had shot down an enemy plane since an F-16 took down a Soviet-era MIG-29 during the 1999 conflict over Kosovo” (New York Times, 6/19). In response, Russia threatened to target any U.S. or allied planes sighted west of the Euphrates River. A bloody proxy war that has already slaughtered and displaced millions of workers and children may be evolving into more direct—and more lethal—inter-imperialist conflict.
The catastrophic turmoil in today’s Middle East is a direct result of U.S. efforts to dominate the Persian Gulf region since the end of World War II. In 1980, the Carter Doctrine made it official that U.S. imperialism would stop any other “outside” power from challenging U.S. hegemony. In the words of the late mass murderer Zbigniew Brezinski, Carter’s national security adviser, “such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force.”
While the blunt force of U.S. imperialism has guaranteed billions of dollars in profits for Exxon Mobil, it has also enabled regional capitalist powers to mislead masses of workers and make their own grab for bigger pieces of the petroleum pie. In 1979, Iran’s mullahs gained power by deposing the hated shah of Iran, who’d been installed to protect U.S. and British oil interests after the CIA engineered a coup to overthrow the elected president (Guardian, 8/19/13). In the 1980s, before the unreliable Saddam Hussein made the U.S. most-wanted list, he was propped up by U.S. power during the Iran-Iraq War. The CIA incubated al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. ISIS was born out of post-Saddam manipulation of mass anti-U.S. sentiment after the 2003 Iraq invasion.
Today, as the U.S. bosses find their capacity to shape events eroding, rival ruling classes in Russia and Iran are growing more aggressive. Even traditional U.S. allies—Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel—are charting more independent courses to challenge U.S dominance.
Imperialists Murder With Impunity
U.S. rulers’ fight to control Middle East oil and natural gas has been a disaster for the international working class. According to the Washington, DC-based Physicians for Social Responsibility, the death toll from the “War on Terror,” launched after 9/11, may be as high as two million (Middle East Eye, 4/18/16). That number doesn’t include the millions killed in the Gulf War in 1991 and the murderous U.S. sanctions on Iraq that followed. By themselves, President Bill Clinton’s no-fly zones of the 1990s cost the lives of 500,000 Iraqi children—a price that Madeleine Albright, Clinton’s secretary of state, considered “worth it.”
Now, in their quest to wrest control of territory from ISIS, U.S. coalition forces are committing war crimes in urban centers in Syria and neighboring Iraq. According to Human Rights Watch (6/4):
In both Mosul and Raqqa, the US-led forces are using US-made M825-series 155mm artillery projectiles containing 116 felt wedges impregnated with white phosphorus, which ignites and continues to burn when exposed to the air….White phosphorus fragments can exacerbate wounds even after treatment and can enter the bloodstream and cause multiple organ failure. Already dressed wounds can reignite when dressings are removed and they are re-exposed to oxygen. Even relatively minor burns are often fatal.
Refugee Crisis
The spread of fighting has led to a dire humanitarian crisis, with 6.1 million internally displaced people and 4.8 million seeking refuge abroad, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. By mid-2016, according to Human Rights Watch, an estimated 1 million people were living in besieged areas, with no access to life-saving assistance or and humanitarian aid. A recent polio outbreak punctuates the health risks to the population, and to children in particular (NYT, 6/20).
Perpetual War is the New Normal
As the conflict in Syria has grown into the most intense urban combat since World War II, living on the brink of wider war has become the “new normal” for the international working class. Atrocities by U.S. imperialism are now routine, the backdrop of daily life. This is a great danger for our class, especially in the absence of mass anti-imperialist mobilization. In the Vietnam War era, communist-led and communist-influenced movements around the world fought back against these imperialist atrocities. Today, after the reversal of the communist revolutions in the Soviet Union and China, workers’ fightback has been muted or misled by fake leftists, racist nationalists, and Islamic fundamentalists. This is the challenge for Progressive Labor Party—to pick up the red flag and lead the workers of the world to their only solution—communist revolution.
Only communist revolution removes the conditions that create imperialist war. Only a dictatorship of the proletariat enables workers to decide which wars are worth fighting. In 1917, when the Bolsheviks led workers, soldiers, and peasants to sweep the Russian ruling class from power, an inter-imperialist war (World War I) was transformed into class war. The towering lesson of that event is that imperialist war spells doom for capitalists if working people reject patriotism and embrace proletarian internationalism. Every worker is a foot soldier in class war. When workers from the U.S. to Russia, Iraq, Syria, Iran, and beyond place class consciousness above national identity, the end of war in the Middle East will be in sight.

Tuesday, 11 July 2017

SOME LIGHT

The u.s. is giving the israeli state over 3 billion in military aid every year, extremist rabbis are calling for the poisoning of the Palestinians' water supply to drive them out of the little strips of land they are still allowed to live, but there are still little points of light that will serve as inspiration. There are still some brave people with some form of morality out there. Read this.

Israeli youth say no to military

By Michael Kramer posted on July 9, 2017

Atalya Ben-Abba

Atalya Ben-Abba, a young Israeli woman, was released on June 27 after spending 110 days in an Israeli military prison. She had refused to be drafted into the Israeli military.

On her release she stated: “I walk out of military prison with my head held high, alongside many supporters who, like me, understand that refusing to take part in the occupation is a necessary, moral choice. There have been other conscientious objectors who came before me and others will follow, part of a growing movement of youths who aren’t afraid to say ‘enough is enough.’” (972mag.com, June 27)

Ben-Abba added that she refused “to participate in a system that uses violent means to oppress another people, has imposed an occupation upon it for 50 years, and is imposing a siege, the consequences of which are yet to be seen.”

Previous Israeli draft resisters include Aiden Katri, a transgender political activist who was sentenced to prison in March 2016. She called for “an alliance of the victims of oppression.” She has since been released. (972mag.com, March 30, 2016)

In a long statement released prior to her jailing, Katri explained that “as someone who believes in gender equality, I cannot ignore inequality in other issues. Arabs and Jews live in this country as two different classes; Israelis and Palestinians live under two different legal systems. It would be absurd to strive for justice in the context of injustice. I struggle against my oppression — my gender oppression as a trans woman and my ethnic oppression as a Mizrahi Jew [Jews from the Middle East], and if I turn a blind eye to an oppression of another people this would be hypocrisy.”

While refusing to serve in the Israeli military as a political statement is not yet a mass movement, large numbers of Israeli youth find their own ways to avoid service by other means, including medical and religious deferments or by emigrating from the U.S.-armed and -financed settler state to start a new life somewhere else. Germany has become a popular destination.

Ben-Abba, Katri and other draft resisters have broken from the Zionist consensus that is built around the cult of the so-called Israeli Defense Forces. Instead they have consciously sided with the liberation struggle of the Palestinian people. This is an important victory for the Palestinian resistance.

Kramer served in the Israeli military during 1972-75 and is a member of Veterans For Peace/Chapter 021(Northern New Jersey).