In the wake of the disastrous port explosion in Beirut, western media outlets have pushed that it was caused by corruption in the Lebanese government. But there is zero mention of the French or other imperialist countries’ massive role in that corruption, no mention of EU or U.S. sanctions that are crippling the Lebanese economy, and literally zero mention of the fact that France created the sectarian system of government of Lebanon in the first place.
Lebanon is a case study of imperialism with former colonized subjects being told they are too incompetent and in need of firm and direct Western disciplining. Every article comes in the tone of a former colonial master lecturing its bumbling natives. Macron, speaking in Lebanon was quoted saying that French aid would not go to “corrupt hands” and that he would be calling on all of Lebanon’s political leaders to establish a “new political pact.” Undoubtedly one where former colonial forces would profit. No mention of the protestors at the same event calling for the release of Lebanese political prisoner George Abdullah.
Macron’s lecturing about corruption is not only to distract from real problems, like enormous debts to western banks, but is hypocritical considering the French leader’s governing party being accused of massive instances of corruption. Even more hypocritical, is the French government’s deep ties with some of the most corrupt elements in the Lebanese government with many of these figures storing stolen Lebanese money in French banks. There is also zero mention of French, EU, and U.S. support for the political campaigns of many of these corrupt leaders.
Disgustingly, Macron declared that he would return to Lebanon to take what he called “my political responsibility.” The same French president who famously told Africans “to get over colonialism” is now being praised as if he were the savior of Lebanon. Later he went on to call for increased sanctions while hundreds of thousands have lost their homes, jobs and lack of food.
Finally, in almost all reporting on Lebanon, like many other formerly colonized countries, the big business media almost always leave out the brutal colonial history that shaped these countries. Lebanon’s sectarian governing system was quite literally imposed on them by the French. The 1958, U.S invasion of Lebanon that prevented the collapse of the sectarian Chamoun government is part of a long history of former colonial powers attempts to keep Lebanon a divided and fractured country dependent on its former colonizers. The fake cries from Western countries about the inept and corrupt Lebanese government in the wake of this latest tragedy should always be understood as just the latest in a string of attempts to impose their dominance over the country.
165,000 Pro-China demonstrators took to the streets of Hong Kong on June 30, 2019.
U.S. Media Censors Pro-China Demonstrations
By Gregory William
Who is leading and funding the protest movement in Hong Kong? Tellingly, demonstrators outside the U.S. consulate called on Trump to take over Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Human Rights Movement and other involved groups are funded by the National Endowment for Democracy, a CIA project. Leaders with these groups held meetings with U.S. and British officials in luxury hotels. Although many Hong Kong workers are impoverished, these organizations represent the very wealthy.
On behalf of capitalism, the U.S. government has tried to destroy China since they liberated themselves from colonialism in 1949 and set about building a socialist society. Unsurprisingly, the U.S. corporate media has not covered pro-government demonstrations in Hong Kong, even though half a million marched on August 18.
Capitalism and Colonialism to blame for Hong Kong’s problems
So-called pro-democracy groups distribute British flags and call for the return of British colonial rule. Britain cruelly colonized China for 156 years to steal its labor and wealth. Colonialism always counts on a small group of privileged people who collaborate with the colonizers to become wealthy at the expense of workers and peasants.
Through the Opium Wars (1839-1842, and 1856-1860), the British empire decimated the Chinese economy, got millions hooked on opium, and subjugated the population. This was done largely for the British East India Company, which needed markets for opium after the military takeover of India. This led to decades of rule by brutal warlords sponsored by different imperialist governments.
The majority of China was liberated from colonial rule in 1949 when the Communist Party, under the leadership of Mao Zedong, came to power. At that time, colonial conditions were so bad that life expectancy was only 36 years. With the establishment of the socialist economic system, life expectancy rose to 68 years by the early 1980s. Today it is over 76 years.
Nevertheless, the British government held control of Hong Kong until 1997, developing it into a world financial center like New York. When China regained Hong Kong, the government unfortunately agreed to allow capitalism to flourish in the territory. This is why it is one of the world’s most expensive cities. More than half of Hong Kong apartments cost over $2,550 a month. So many people sleep in 24-hour fast food restaurants that they are dubbed McRefugees. At the same time, Hong Kong is home to a million millionaires. Seventy percent of their obscene wealth is in real estate.
Democracy for millionaires, poverty for workers
Recent laws bringing Hong Kong more directly under Chinese government control have terrified the millionaires. China’s failure to alleviate the workers’ suffering, however, has alienated some workers from the mainland government. The millionaires stepped in to take advantage. Whenever there is a revolutionary vacuum this happens.
The immediate spark of the protests is an extradition bill. The proposed law would allow Hong Kong authorities to hand over criminals wanted in the mainland. The rich see this as a threat to their power. They do not want any barriers to their profits. Although there should not be billionaires or even millionaires, China does imprison and execute capitalists who go beyond certain limits of destructiveness. For example, billionaire Xu Xiang was sentenced to five years for his role in crashing the country’s stock market. This is intolerable to Hong Kong’s elite.
During Trump’s September 24 UN speech, he not only came out in support of the Hong Kong protesters, he berated the Chinese government for not allowing unfettered capitalism. He said, “Not only has China declined to adopt promised reforms, it has embraced an economic model dependent on massive market barriers.” In keeping with longstanding U.S. policy, Trump wants to undermine what is left of socialism, and to recolonize China. This is the thrust of the trade wars. But why should the U.S. government dictate how other countries run their economies?
More socialism is needed, not less The capitalist media says socialism is the problem. But the issues facing Hong Kong—and the rest of China—stem from capitalism, which has created inequality. The socialistic elements of the Chinese economic system benefit the vast majority. Workers in mainland China have no interest in losing the remaining gains of socialism. Workers in Hong Kong have an interest in accessing those gains themselves. They both have an interest in expanding socialism.
Millions of Chinese people rose up in the 1960’s and 1970’s to drive socialist revolution forward, but the Chinese Communist Party began opening the country up to capitalism in the late 1970’s. However, there was not a full-scale restoration of capitalism, as happened in the Soviet Union. This is why China has raised millions of people out of poverty. The remaining socialist elements, including the state ownership of banking and many key industries, and economic planning, have been responsible for these gains for the masses, not capitalism.
Nevertheless, the re-emergence of large-scale capitalism in China and capitalism in the Communist Party is a danger to the masses of people. The future of China depends on how well the Chinese working class organizes against this. Workers’ strikes are common in China, and this is a good thing. As Mao said, “It is right to rebel against reactionaries!”
The answer is not for the rest of China to become more like Hong Kong, or for Hong Kong to drift closer to the ruling classes of the U.S. or Britain. The answer is more socialism.
The United States has had its imperialist boot on the neck of Puerto Rico for well over 100 years. Both on the island and throughout the diaspora, all Puerto Ricans have been treated as second class citizens under colonial rule. As we look through the windows of the past, we see clearly how the is-land and the blood of Puerto Ricans have meant nothing but a dollar sign to U.S. Capitalists (both Democrats and Republicans).
Donald Trump’s recent racist comments on Puerto Rico’s “debt” crisis is nothing out of character for a U.S. capitalist. The U.S. Congress passed the Promesa Act under the Obama Administration which aims to force Boricuas to pay an illegitimate debt (accrued by massive tax breaks and corpo-rate ventures) of $74 billion. Since the U.S. illegally invaded and seized the island as a colony in 1898, the island’s veins have been open to the bloodthirsty U.S. capitalists. This illegitimate debt is a disas-ter that the U.S. created to keep air out of Puerto Rico’s lungs.
Let us not forget that in the early 1900s Puerto Rico suffered a hurricane similar to Maria. Then as now the US response was horrific: they deemed the Puerto Rican peso to be worth 60% of a US dollar. In the blink of an eye every Puerto Rican’s holdings dropped 40% in value.
Moreover, Puerto Rico is restricted in its ability to trade with any country other than the US while simultaneously being forced to pay one of the highest sales taxes (20%).
We know that the U.S. government is a government by and for the Wall Street banks. So—by no choice of the Puerto Rican people—it’s Wall Street banks that Boricuas are beholden to (with ever increasing interest) to cover basic expenses. To top it all off, the U.S. has made it illegal for Puerto Rico to declare bankruptcy.
Now, almost two years since hurricane Maria killed over 4,000 and left thousands without elec-tricity or basic necessities for months, Trump and U.S. officials are demanding that the island pay its debt. This seemingly hopeless situation is exactly how U.S. capitalists want it. They would prefer that Puerto Ricans cease to exist so that they can continue to build their corporate tourist play-ground. Both the debt and the United States rule are illegitimate.
Despite all that Puerto Ricans have been subjected to, we have never stopped resisting and fighting for our liberation. Most recently, many university students have been organizing against austerity measures put in place by Obama’s PROMESA board. Since Maria, there have been massive demonstrations in San Juan and other regions of the island to militantly protest austerity measures such as a 50% hike in tuition prices, privatization of the electrical grid and schools, and job and pen-sion cuts. Militant pro-independence groups such as the Ejército Popular Boricua (EPB-Macheteros) have been calling all Boricuas out into the streets to demand justice. Through hundreds of years of colonial rule Boricuas know one thing to be true: La Vida es Lucha Toda (all life is struggle).
On March 30, thousands of Palestinians demonstrate at the Israel-Gaza border.
40,000 Palestinians gathered on March 30 to commemorate the one year anniversary of the “Great March of Return” demonstrations at the Israel-Gaza border. The demonstrations commemorate Land Day, which marks 43 years since six Palestinians were killed by Israeli police as they protested the Israeli state’s seizure of their land. Since the beginning of the demonstrations last year, the Israeli military has killed more than 200 demonstrators and injured thousands more. Despite this, the Palestinian people remain steadfast in their fight for their homeland which was stolen from them and from which they were forcibly expelled.
The Palestinian people stand tall in the face of increased attacks by the fascist Zionist government of Israel and its military supplier the U.S. Israel has declared permanent annexation of the Golan Heights which is part of Syria. The Golan Heights has oil, water and access to the sea. Israel is also talking about annexing the illegally occupied West Bank. At the same time, they are raining down bombs on Gaza, all while depriving its residents of water, electricity and medical supplies. This shows that Israeli Zionism is nothing more than a Nazi-like racist ideology with imperialist designs. Every worker needs to stand with and show solidarity with the beleaguered Palestinian people.
Chairman Tehassi Hill of the Oneida Nation, outside the Federal Courthouse in New Orleans.
By Sasha Irby
On March 14 a delegation of leaders from a coalition of 325 tribal Nations came to New Orleans’ Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to defend the Indian Child Welfare Act against a legal challenge from the Goldwater Institute, a right-wing legal organization that works for ultra rich capitalists like the Koch brothers and the DeVos family. The Goldwater Institute supports lowering workers’ wages, privatizing schools, denying workers healthcare, and opposing any regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. Now they have the audacity to claim to be champion of civil rights. They allege that ICWA is a form of ‘race’ based discrimination because the federal law privileges the rights of Native people to adopt their own children over the adoption rights of non-Native families. This “civil rights” challenge is a cynical smoke-screen: by attempting to reduce the people of the many Indigenous Nations to a mere race, they aim to diminish Native people’s sovereign claims to their own children, their own governments, and their own land. The capitalists who are heading up the challenge to ICWA are eager to get their hands on the land and resources currently under the political control of Indigenous Nations.
The idea that right-wing advocacy groups are fighting against ICWA because they feel that it is ethically unjust is an insult to those who know the painful history that necessitated the law’s creation. IWCA was passed in 1978 to help stop the widespread kidnapping of Native children from their families by state and federal agencies. These children were then “adopted” into non-Indigenous households. For over a century the United States government operated according to the genocidal philosophy of “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.” Governmental policies sought to assimilate Native children into white society by removing them from their families, elders, and communities and placing them with white families or forcibly sending them to boarding schools to be stripped of their language, culture, spiritual practices, and identity. Even after the boarding school era, Native children were torn from their families at an alarming rate. Before the passing of ICWA, up to 1 in 3 Indigenous children were adopted into non-Native households.
ICWA is vital for the future of Indigenous Nations, and attempting to dismantle the law is a direct attack on the sovereignty of our peoples. Children remaining in families of their own tribal membership allow them access to their culture, their lifeways, and – key for maintaining tribal sovereignty – their tribal citizenship. The destruction of Indigenous sovereignty has always been the goal of imperial project of the colonizers. By leaving our children vulnerable to forced removal from their Nations, you strip that child of access to their identity and their part in their Nation’s future. By stealing the children, you drain the lifeblood of our Nations. Our tribal cohesion crumbles and eventually our numbers dwindle and we die out. Without our children, our future is written in sand.
In February there was rapid succession of major political developments in South Africa. Under the intense pressure from the public and his party, President Jacob Zuma stepped down and was replaced by Cyril Ramaphosa. Soon after his appointment, the new president announced that the African National Congress government would move to confiscate European land without compensation. This has always been a popular demand of native South Africans, but the government had previously hesitated to carry it out because of the power that rich whites still hold. The country also officially cut off diplomatic ties with Israel, recognizing the similarity between the brutal apartheid system that exists in occupied Palestine today and the apartheid regime that South Africans lived under until the nineties.
Ahed Tamimi (pictured above) is a 16-year-old Palestinian activist who stood up to Israeli soldiers. The soldiers shot her 14-year-old cousin, Mohammad, in the face with a rubber bullet after firing tear gas canisters directly into the Tamimi’s home. Mohammad had to be put into a medically-induced coma for 72 hours. The Zionist state has jailed Ahed Tamimi, who was unarmed, for confronting the soldiers. She has become an international symbol of Palestinian resistance to occupation and genocide. Free Ahed Tamimi!
“If the olive trees knew the hands that planted them, their oil would become tears.” — Mahmoud Darwish
On December 6, the current U.S. regime declared Jerusalem, one of the oldest cities in the world, to be the capital of the 69 year-old settler-colony of Israel. Since the illegal occupation of Jerusalem in 1967, the zionist entity has demolished 2,000 Palestinian homes, stolen 35% of East Jerusalem’s land for illegal settlements, and denies Palestinians born in Jerusalem citizenship. 75% of Palestinians in East Jerusalem live under the poverty line. 50% of the city’s tax revenue is generated by Palestinians while they receive little to no municipal services.
Further, Palestinians in both East Jerusalem and the West Bank risk their lives on a daily basis to provide the labor that fuels the city’s industry. In addition to risking their lives by crossing checkpoints and working in neighborhoods where settlers carry rifles and work in collusion with the zionist army to hunt Palestinians, their unregulated labor lack a living wage, benefits and labor rights.
Prior to the arrogant US declaration regarding Jerusalem, which the international community has denounced, the US has played a central role in attempting to erase the Palestinian people and their sovereignty. In James Baldwin’s 1979 essay “Open Letter to the Born Again” he writes that “the state of Israel was not created for the salvation of the Jews; it was created for the salvation of the Western interests”.
The West has been successful for decades in perpetuating the myth that this is a religious conflict rather than the active theft of land and resources. In 2016 alone, the Obama regime promised $38 billion dollars in military aid to the zionist entity. The U.S.’s interests in positioning the zionist entity as a military watchdog in the Middle East has been evident since 1948. Unfortunately for Americans who are not the 1%, US interests do not include education, health care, housing or living wages, let alone recognition of indigenous people’s sovereignty abroad and on US soil.
As the American war machine speeds ahead, so does Palestinian resistance. As the Palestinian Authority has consistently proved itself inadequate in representing the full liberation of Palestine and right of return for all Palestinian refugees, now is the time to support grassroots Palestinian movements from Palestine to New Orleans.
One of the best ways to stand with Palestine is to stop the normalization of zionism across every facet of life. This means joining the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction movement (BDS) that seeks to stop the normalization of zionism in our government, our universities and our supermarkets. This means proactive measures to build liberation movements and strategies with the global Palestinian community. This means listening to Palestinians and letting them take the lead deciding the tactics we use against zionism and US imperialism.
This current effort to displace and erase Palestinian life, culture and resistance is nothing new to a people steadfast in our struggle. From the river to the sea, Palestinians will accept nothing less than the restoration of our rightful place on our land and the right of all Palestinians to return to historic Palestine, including Jerusalem, which has been and will always be the true capital of Palestine!
Revolutionaries around the world mourned the death of Dennis Banks, legendary Anishinaabe Leader and co-founder of the American Indian Movement (AIM). Like many indigenous people of his generation, Banks was forced into boarding school at four years old. There he suffered beatings and other abuses in the US genocidal experiment to “kill an Indian, save the man”. These abuses included cutting the boys’ hair, refusing to let students speak their tribal languages or practice their tribal religions, and extreme physical deprivation.
In 1968, Banks co-founded AIM with Clyde Bettecourt to fight Native oppression and endemic poverty. A year later, he took part in the occupation of Alcatraz Island in California. In 1972, he helped lead AIM’s “Trail of Broken Treaties”, a caravan of numerous tribes protesting treaty violations and reservation conditions which came from across the US to Washington DC, and occupied the Bureau of Indian Affairs building. In early 1973, 200 armed Lakota and members of other indigenous nations occupied Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation for 71 violence filled days.
In later years, Banks became a substance and alcohol abuse counselor. However, he remained active in the fight for socialism and women’s liberation running for Vice President on the Peace and Freedom Party. He was also active in last year’s struggle against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
The indigenous peoples and all revolutionaries will long hold the memory of revolutionary activist Dennis Banks.
Beginning on September 22nd, 2017, a modern colony of the “greatest country in the world” went into complete darkness. The small island of Puerto Rico with its 3.4 million citizens suffered in isolation while Hurricane Maria ravaged the entire country. It was not until day 4 or 5 that the millions of anxious Puerto Ricans living in the states were able to hear any information about their loved ones.
The government has declared only 48 deaths as direct results of the hurricane. However, The U.S. is only counting deaths directly related to the storm itself and does not address the hundreds of deaths caused by the failure of the U.S. government to help the island during Maria’s aftermath. There have actually been reports of over 450 deaths, island wide, with 69 people reported missing. Many of the island’s hospitals are not functioning at full capacity: they are running out of medications and fuel for their generators. This has resulted in hundreds of deaths from a lack of medication, oxygen tanks, and the sanitation that electricity provides to prevent the spread of disease. Relief resources are not being distributed to the island’s remote villages. Instead, the U.S. immediately began the militarization of the island, sending in hundreds of police and military officials.
After almost 2 weeks, Trump finally visited the capital of San Juan, the epicenter of the tourism industry and site of his own personal investments. He has not addressed the villages where dead bodies of humans and livestock have yet to be moved, there is no running water or electricity, and people are desperate for food, clean water, cash, and gasoline. One of his first responses to this catastrophic event was to acknowledge the island’s illegitimate debt of $74 billion and remark that the island is throwing the “budget out of whack.” But that debt has been caused by over 100 years of abuse by the U.S., and compared to state debts such as New York at $143 billion, Puerto Rico’s debt is manageable. Not to mention, the U.S. military budget is well over $800 billion, a figure that could pay PR’s debt 10 times over. Puerto Rico’s debt should be pardoned and the island should be granted liberation!
Pedro Albizu Campos, Oscar López Rivera, Lolita Lebrón, Rafael Miranda, and Andrés Cordero: these are a few names of Puerto Ricans who have taken up the struggle for Puerto Rican Independence. Many discount their valiant efforts because of their use of violence; however, we must evaluate the violence that the U.S. has committed against the Puerto Rican people for over a century.
When your country has been deemed “Rich Port” by colonial conquest, when your native people were murdered, raped and enslaved, when your country experienced independence for only 8 days before the U.S. invaded and seized control, deeming your currency worth only 60% of the U.S. dollar and sending your population into poverty: you and your ancestors have been victims of continuous violence.
In 1937, policemen with tommy guns massacred 19 people while hundreds more were shot in the back while attending a peaceful march in Ponce. The U.S. conducted sterilization surgeries on over 33% of Puerto Rican women between 1936 and the 1970s as an attempt to control population growth. For over 60 years, the U.S. Navy used the eastern half of Vieques, an island off the coast of P.R., to test billions of tons of bombs and chemical weapons. This resulted in alarmingly high rates of cancer, hypertension, diabetes, and infant mortality among Vieques. In addition to these atrocities, the U.S. holds P.R. under its thumb as a de-facto colony. They are not allowed to have representation in the U.S. government, therefore having no control over their own destiny. When the U.S. executes these actions, your people are the victims of incessant violence.
This is the most malicious type of violence; an abusive relationship in which your people are helpless against the deviant acts of an imperialist state that feeds you propaganda to make you believe they are helping you. Unless your people recognize their power. Unless your people accept a call to action and unite in the struggle for independence by any means necessary. The only relief from egregious violence is self-determination.
¡Que viva Puerto Rico libre!
