Month: December 2020

On November 11, 2020, Veterans Day, Residents of Gordon Plaza and the New Orleans Peoples Assembly held a rally and march. Beginning at the Veterans Administration Hospital and ending at the vacant Charity Hospital, nearly a dozen speakers wove connections between the struggles of military veterans duped into fighting unjust, imperialist wars and the struggles of working class Black people who the City of New Orleans knowingly scammed into buying houses on toxic land. Organizers demanded long-overdue justice, including a fully funded re-location for Gordon Plaza residents.

On Saturday, June 11, hundreds of people took down a statue of slaveowner John McDonogh in Duncan Plaza and threw it in the river, rejecting the racist monument and everything it stood for. NOPD singled out and falsely accused two people among the hundreds. Mickey Davis and Caleb Wassell were assaulted and arrested. In an act of openly racist retaliation, the city had members of the white supremacist Monumental Task Committee appraise the statue in order to inflate the value of it and charge Caleb with a felony that could come with a sentence of 10 years in prison.

The charges are a blatant attempt to intimidate the mass movement that arose this summer in response to police terror and racism. Six months later, the city is still pursuing these ridiculous charges, with no evidence that either Davis or Wassell was involved in the alleged “crime” of removing a racist eyesore from a public park.

Stand in solidarity with Mickey and Caleb!

Contact the district attorney and the mayor and demand that ALL charges be dropped!
District Attorney’s office: (504) 822-2414 or emurphy@orleansda.com
Mayor’s office: (504) 658-4900 or mayor@nola.gov

Suggested message:
“I am contacting you to demand that the District Attorney’s office drop all charges against Mickey Davis and Caleb Wassell. The city must respect the will of the people of New Orleans, who decided to remove from the public landscape a statue that venerated the slaveowner John McDonogh. It’s time that New Orleans join the ranks of cities across the world who are taking the path of progress by disowning monuments to slavery, genocide, and racism. Drop the baseless and unjust charges against Davis and Wassell now.”

New Orleans Mayor Cantrell and the NOPD have shut down young Black musicians trying to survive by playing in the streets of the Quarter. The city fines residents $500 for going maskless in the Quarter. But a mainly white, right-wing, illegal concert at Jackson Square is apparently not a problem. Anyone truly religious and caring for others does not encourage mass church or tight, maskless street gatherings which will spread COVID-19 and death. These “preachers” and “Christian” bands only want to get their money collections and fame.

DJ Soul Sister put it best: “HOW in the hell does this happen in New Orleans in the middle of a pandemic, not a mask nor social distanced space in sight? Who allows this kind of thing, and how, and WHY???? Also, last I was told, OUR New Orleans musicians, whose historic culture created the foundation for American popular music, are still not allowed to perform en masse (or even minimally) in OUR city…We can’t do our New Orleans things. And we are following the rules so that we are in compliance in order to keep ourselves and others safe as we move towards ending the pandemic with science.”

From a poor senior:

Despite years of work, I am a senior who is poor like so many others. While we live in a country that produces more than enough food for everyone, corporate profiteering leaves much of this food out of reach. I often need supplemental food assistance even with SNAP.
TV and papers have praised Hands On New Orleans, a city project which recently began delivering one box every week to seniors not eligible for FEMA meals because we get SNAP.

Now, I’m not picky at all. But I am outraged that 3 weeks in a row our box mainly consisted of 3 pounds of hot dogs with no expiration date or ingredients listed. Hands on Nola excused themselves by saying the mystery dogs are coming from the Dept. of Agriculture which obviously is buying tons of unsellable, unhealthy mystery hot dogs (from one of Trump’s friends?) Sodium, nitrates, food poisoning… Is the plan to kill even more seniors than COVID-19 and poverty already does?

To add insult to injury, the hot dogs came with a letter from criminal Donald Trump, a fan of seniors dying. He writes, “consider wearing a mask”. Consider 280,000 dead, one quarter of them seniors. Keep your friends’ hot dogs, Trump, and we’ll feed them to you in jail where you should be.

But the City and Hands on Nola also have a responsibility to not poison seniors while getting praised for good deeds. We must expand SNAP and raise the amount for seniors, and all people who need food. Then we can buy food with labels and not depend on charity.

On November 20, The End SARS solidarity network organized protests outside the Nigerian embassy in DC to demand justice for protesters in Nigeria who were massacred by the Nigerian Army on October 20, 2020. Nigerian police and military have brutally repressed protesters in the massive End SARS movement, which has seen tens of thousands of Nigerians in the streets demanding that their government disband the U.S. trained Special-Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigerian army. This SARS forces maintain the rule of tiny class of rich elites who cater to U.S. and other transnational corporations at the expense of their people.

Like the uprisings in the United States against racist police terror, the #ENDSARS movement has inspired thousands to fight back against the terrorism of the capitalist state.

The End SARS Solidarity Network demands that the Nigerian government take responsibility for the Lekki Massacre and the murder of civilians and protesters, end all harassment of protesters, and release all political prisoners and drop their charges. The U.S. government should do the same for all arrests and state murders of anti-racist activists here.

An anti-abortion court decision on October 22 has sparked massive marches, strikes, and road blockades across Poland. In the past few weeks hundreds of thousands of women and allies have taken to the streets to call for an end to the oppressive, anti-woman policies of the right wing government.

The court decision, which was pushed by far-right politicians and the reactionary leadership of the Catholic Church, would outlaw abortions in the event of fetal defects, which accounted for 98% of legal abortions last year. Already abortions have been effectively illegal since 1993 (except in the rare cases that women can convince a judge that she’s been the victim of rape or incest).

Represented by the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, the far right in Poland has been waging a brutal war on the rights of women, LGBTQ folks, and workers. They have also been organizing fascist militias to enforce their rule. This same government proposed the building of a “Fort Trump” in honor of the U.S. fascist in chief. In August, the U.S. worked out a deal to deploy between 5,000 and 20,000 troops to Poland to threaten Russia.

In 2016 the PiS tried to ban abortions completely but tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets forcing the parliament to back down. This just goes to show that when the people mobilize to defend themselves, we can beat back against the harshest of attacks. Louisiana women, take note!

In the fall of 2019, the U.S. backed a right-wing coup in Bolivia that ousted President Evo Morales, the only Indigenous head of state in the Americas and the leader of the Movement for Socialism (MAS). The white supremacist, anti-Indigenous, fascist government installed by the U.S. was met with resistance by the Bolivian working class, with a year of protests and fighting in the streets. Eventually the coup government was forced to hold elections. When the votes were counted in late October, MAS had won and the Bolivian people had elected Luis Arce as president. Within weeks, Evo Morales returned from exile. Though there is a great struggle ahead for the Bolivian people to hold onto their gains, this was a great victory for workers and Indigenous people the world around.

COVID-19 deaths in China: 4,634, COVID-19 deaths in U.S.: 300,000

On March 19, China reported No Locally-Transmitted Cases in Mainland China. Small outbreaks since have been confined to a few hundred cases.

In the World Health Organization’s February report after a visit to China, the team members wrote, “In the face of a previously unknown virus, China has rolled out perhaps the most ambitious, agile and aggressive disease containment effort in history.”

How did China do this?

• Free healthcare: To contain the spread of the virus China immediately declared all treatment free.

• Economic relief: China expanded coverage and amount of economic relief for its residents. Already China dedicates 3 times as much of its national budget to social programs as the U.S. Much of the spending goes toward guaranteeing jobs for all.

• Production for need, not profit: Across the country, thousands of factories were refitted to produce masks, respirators, and other needed In Fight Against COVID-19, China Leads the Way supplies. China was making 20 million masks a day before the coronavirus epidemic. Now it makes 100 million masks a day. In just two weeks, two specialized hospitals were built and 16 exhibition halls and sports venues were converted into makeshift hospitals, opening up 60,000 beds for COVID-19 patients at the site of the outbreak in Hubei province.

• Cracking down on price gouging and hoarding: During the lockdown, the government guaranteed a steady supply of food and fuel at normal prices. State-owned enterprises increased their supply of basic foodstuffs like rice, flour, oil, meat and salt. From February 3 to April 8, the Ministry of Public Security investigated 3,158 cases of pandemic profiteering.

• People’s Power: In Wuhan, thousands of civilian neighborhood committees went door-to-door to check temperatures, to deliver food (particularly to the elderly) and to deliver medical supplies. In other parts of China, the neighborhood committees set up temperature checkpoints at the entrance of the neighborhoods to monitor people who went in and out.

By Jennifer Lin

LIE: China is a military threat to the U.S.
FACT: The U.S. military is the threat. The U.S. military has 800 foreign bases; China has one. 400 U.S. bases—some armed with nukes—encircle China. China doesn’t have a single military base in our hemisphere. Though the U.S. population is only a third the size of China’s, the $1.2 trillion U.S. war budget is three times that of China. China has not fought a war in over 40 years and urges peace while the U.S. wages endless wars around the world.

LIE: China is taking our jobs.
FACT: China is made up of people just like us. They work to go to school, feed themselves and raise families. They are not the enemy. U.S. residents lose jobs when US corporations are free to run all over the earth to find the cheapest labor they can. Congress allows this and hands out huge subsidies to corporate owners who put their profits in tax-free offshore banks. Trump’s tax cuts for millionaires did not create jobs, only more profits for the rich.

LIE: China is cheating on trade.
FACT: The U.S. government subsidizes U.S. corporations through tax exemptions, deductions, and grants. Trillions of dollars in tax money are handed over to banks and huge corporations. Many companies like the war profiteering General Electric pay no taxes at all. The U.S. is subsidizing drug companies to make vaccines, but they turn around and charge us high prices so they can make a profit. The U.S. forces other countries to trade in U.S. dollars, and has trade agreements that hurt all workers but make companies rich. China’s “crime” is that they refuse to allow foreign companies to take over their state-owned enterprises, and resist demands to end state support for education, health care and pensions. Workers: Don’t believe U.S. billionaires’ liesTh Say ‘No!’ to racist war on ChinaTh

LIE: The coronavirus pandemic is China’s fault.
FACT: The origins of COVID-19 remain unknown. Wuhan was the first place to report the virus, but this doesn’t mean it’s where the virus originated. Within two weeks of the first reported case, China notified the CDC and the world and shared the virus’ genetic sequence with the World Health Organization. Vaccine research began immediately. Trump refused to admit it was even a problem.

This racist blame and refusal to protect residents has caused surging deaths in the U.S. China has sent medical assistance to over 150 countries and is developing a vaccine that will be distributed globally for free. The U.S. is letting hospitals overflow with

LIE: China is persecuting Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.
FACT: The U.S. funds and trains a far-right movement that recruits Chinese Uyghurs to join Al Qaeda and ISIS. China has brought education, poverty alleviation, and job training to Xinjiang. Accusations about concentration camps, genocide, torture, and cultural erasure come only from the U.S. and its allies, while nearly all the world’s Muslim-majority countries have praised China’s policies.

The U.S. government has bombed and persecuted Muslims for decades, killing millions in Syria, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and more. The U.S. still tortures Muslims imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay and anti-Muslim hate crimes remain all too common.

Questions

1. Which is the only country in history to drop the atom bomb?
   a. Iran
   b. United States
2. Which country has a secret agency that has carried out thousands of political assassinations around the world?
   a. Iran
   b. United States
3. Which country organized a coup to overthrow the elected government of another country?
   a. Iran
   b. United States
4. Which country supported the brutal dictatorship of the Shah (king) for 25 years?
   a. Iran
   b. United States
5. Which country has 6,000 atom bombs and refuses to sign a “no first strike” treaty?
   a. Iran
   b. U.S.
6. Which country has a war industry that profits from building nuclear weapons?
   a. Iran
   b. United States
7. Which country opened its nuclear civilian facilities to international inspection?
   a. Iran
   b. United States
8. Which country pulled out of the “Iran nuclear deal”?
   a. Iran
   b. United States
9. Which government threatens the security of the people of the U.S.?
   a. Iran
   b. United States

Answers

1. The United States bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan after learning they were about to surrender. More than 200,000 people were killed. Thousands more were wounded and a!icted with disease for future generations.
2. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is the secret outlaw agency of the U.S. which sells drugs, corrupts, and assassinates politicians and overthrows governments.
3. In 1954, with taxpayer money, the CIA and the British espionage agency MI6 overthrew the democratically elected Mossadegh government. His government had nationalized Iran’s oil wealth which had previously belonged to the Anglo-Iranian oil company (now known as BP).
4. The CIA then installed the Shah (king) of Iran who ruled by torture and fascism and close ties to the U.S. government, bankers, and oil companies. In 1979 the people rose up and ousted the Shah, who was brought by Chase Manhattan bank to the U.S. His son, the Crown Prince, now lives in Northern Virginia (ten minutes away from the CIA headquarters) on the
   dime of U.S. taxpayers.
5. The U.S. has 6,000 atom bombs. Detonated, they would be enough to make Earth uninhabitable for more than half the world’s population.
6. The U.S. allowed war profiteering after WWII. They now loot the taxpayer’s treasury by over $1 trillion a year and get whopping profits. They then buy politicians. Both the Democratic Party and the Republican party vote to raise this budget at the expense of the people every year.
7. Iran opened its nuclear facilities to U.N. inspections which verified Iran’s full compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, an agreement reached by Iran and six countries including the United States.
8. Only the U.S. pulled out of the nuclear treaty with Iran. All other countries stayed.
9. The U.S. government wages endless wars to control resources and secure cheap wages around the world. This brings down workers wages here in the U.S. as they set up a competition between workers worldwide. The war budget is eating up money that should be used for healthcare, jobs, environmental protection, food and housing security, raising social security, infrastructure, and defeating COVID-19.

STOP THE ASSAULT ON IRAN! NO MORE BLOOD FOR OIL!

On November 27, a top Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed in a U.S./Israeli terrorist attack. Fakhrizadeh headed up a ministry of scientific research for national defense which produced Iran’s first COVID-19 test kit and was working on a vaccine.

Fakhrizadeh’s assassination is intended to draw Iran into a U.S. war for oil. This follows years of U.S. sanctions and assassinations. Only weeks ago Trump ordered his generals to look into bombing one of Iran’s civilian nuclear facilities.

A war with Iran would bring misery and death to millions around the world, including here where workers will be denied healthcare, food, and housing in order to feed the Pentagon war machine.

No more endless wars for profit!

No more blood for oil!

U.S. out of the Middle East!

Feed the people, not the Pentagon!