Think about the last 10 women you’ve seen.

Can you remember their faces? Their eyes? What they were wearing?

Could you?

In Mexico, we do.

We always remember their faces and the way they were dressed, not because we want to, but because we know that if they disappear we’ll need that information to tell the police.

Statistics show that 10 women are killed every day in Mexico. It seems that, with every femicide that’s committed, we develop a new form of self-defense to go out on the streets. 

“Don’t wear that skirt. Those red lips are too provocative. Walk with a pair of keys in between your fingers in case anyone tries to assault you. Don’t act rude to your Uber driver. Don’t act too friendly. If someone is raping you, just let them finish. Don’t fight back. Run, run as fast as you can.”

We have heard all these phrases since we were little girls. We’re tired of living in a country that seems like a normalized war zone — where the only constant targets are us, the women.

In recent days, we saw a lot of front page headlines related to two femicides. One was the murder of Ingrid Escamilla, a 25-year-old woman who was brutally killed and skinned by her boyfriend. The other one, Fatima Aldrighetti, was a 7-year-old girl who was tortured and killed by a married couple. The wife claimed she “needed to commit the crime” in order to prevent her husband from raping her own children, since he told her several times that “he wanted a little girl as a girlfriend.”

Two different cases, both shockingly vile in the way they were committed, and both clear representations of everything that’s wrong in our country.

After these crimes, our President Andrés Manuel López Obrador told the press in one of his morning news conferences that “feminists shouldn’t paint the institution’s walls as a way of protest.” That made a lot of people on social media criticize his response. 

For many, the same concern that he has taken to conserve the integrity of buildings should be channeled instead into developing effective plans of action in order to eradicate violence against women.

We’re facing a crisis that for many years has gone unsolved and year by year seems to get worse. That’s why a feminist collective in Veracruz convened all women around the country to carry out a national strike on March 9 under the hashtag #UnDiaSinNosotras — a day without women.

The goal is for women of all ages to be absent nationwide. The idea is that, since the government is not hearing our needs, the economic disruption caused by the women’s strike will make them wake up and listen. Everyone will experience “a day without women” and finally realize what the loss of women’s lives means.

When the femicide of Ingrid Escamilla was committed, a sensationalist newspaper leaked explicit photographs of her mangled body, proving that, even after death, a women’s identity can be reduced to a gruesome news story.

But I guess — until now — that was part of growing up as a woman in Mexico, a country that constantly calls us the weaker sex, that objectifies and sexualizes girls on their telenovelas, where femicides are renamed as “crimes of passion” and perpetrators are defended by the laws that were made by and for men, where people socially punish a naked body more when it’s alive than when it’s found in a bag on the streets. 

The same country that forgets that we, “the weak ones,” were the same ones that helped to reconstruct an entire city after the earthquake of 1985 and then again in 2017; the ones capable of not only saving lives as scientists or doctors, but also the only ones capable of birthing life. The ones who are in a daily war zone and yet are out there constructing amazing and inspiring lives.

So, if they forget who we are, we’ll remind them. We will paint walls, we’ll conduct strikes, we’ll yell hard, and, if it’s needed, we’ll set the entire city on fire, until they remember, until they never forget, until we can go out without having any fear, until we can remain alive, until, as women, we can finally be free of this terror.

The writer is a student from Mexico City.

On Feb. 6, 2020, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) invaded Wet’suwet’en land, armed with snipers, and forcibly removed land defenders while they were mid-ceremony, in order to allow the Coastal GasLink pipeline to be built through the land. The Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs have unanimously rejected the pipeline, yet the Canadian government has refused to acknowledge this. 

In response to this, support for Wet’suwet’en has sprung up all across so-called Canada. Train rail blockades and port blockades have been the most powerful, causing a mass disruption of the Canadian economy, domestically and internationally, with massive popular pressure for state actors to change their engagement with the Wet’suwet’en Nation. 

The Wet’suwet’en territory is unceded and thus not covered by any treaty with Canada. This means that Wet’suwet’en laws are the laws of the land and any efforts to undermine them, as Canada and the RCMP are doing, are indisputably a violation of sovereignty and a continuation of Canada’s long legacy of colonial violence. As Palestinians living in the diaspora in so-called Canada, we recognize the complete sovereignty of the Wet’suwet’en people and their right to self-governance and self-determination. 

Furthermore, the 1997 Supreme Court of Canada ruling in Delgamuukw v. British Columbia reaffirmed that the Wet’suwet’en are the rightful owners of their land and thus have jurisdiction over it. The RCMP, and therefore, Canada, have violated not only Wet’suwet’en law, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), and the human rights charter of the Canadian Constitution, but have also gone against their own Supreme Court ruling. It is clear from these examples that the settler-colonial state of Canada only respects “law and order” insofar as it provides a steady instrument for colonial dispossession.

All around the world, colonial governments and their armed forces are joining forces to intensify extractive industries and bolster global trade of such resources, in direct contradiction to the liberation movements of Indigenous and Third World peoples, and in opposition to any model of sustainable and non exploitive relationships to land. 

We, the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), stand in firm and unrelenting solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en Nation in their struggle to defend their land, water, autonomy and sovereignty from the colonial Canadian state and the Coastal GasLink pipeline. The Toronto Chapter of the PYM is participating in solidarity rallies and direct action in support of Wet’suwet’en and will continue to do so until their demands are met.

In light of the current claim by the RCMP that they are removing themselves from Wet’suwet’en land, we look to reports from the Hereditary Chiefs. We encourage all those engaging with Wet’suwet’en actions to do the same, as we are aware that the Canadian media outlets are actively trying to sway public opinion towards anti-Indigenous racism in order to foment the public sentiment necessary to justify the use of greater force against Indigenous land protectors and their allies. 

As Palestinians, we are all too familiar with colonial violence, dispossession and exploitation. The “Deal of the Century” is an extension of the ongoing displacement, the barring of self-determination by the Israeli state and its allies, in efforts to undermine us as a people and destroy our culture and livelihood. As we continue our struggle against settler-colonialism, we extend our full and unequivocal support to our Wet’suwet’en relatives on Turtle Island in the spirit of Joint Struggle. 

The PYM amplifies the calls from our Wet’suwet’en relatives for the removal of the RCMP from Wet’suwet’en land, for the Canadian government to respect their commitment to UNDRIP, and for Canada to respect the sovereignty of Wet’suwet’en. We call on our supporters and followers, Palestinians and Arabs in the homeland and diaspora, to join solidarity actions with Wet’suwet’en wherever they are and to organize these actions in accordance with the calls from the Hereditary Chiefs. 

It is clear that not only do our struggles parallel each other but our fates as peoples struggling against colonialism and oppression are indelibly tied together. Liberation will be achieved through a united front and together we are powerful enough to win. 

The law is not on Canada’s side and, even more significantly, the people are not on Canada’s side. We stand with Wet’suwet’en!

Until Return and Liberation,

Palestinian Youth Movement

Source: PYMUSA.com

Brett Forester and Lee Wilson
APTN News

Gitxsan Chief Spookwx put on his hereditary chief’s regalia as he prepared to be arrested on Monday night.

Around the campfire that burned on CN Rail tracks, he told those present that he, as hereditary house chief, was prepared to be arrested.

“I told them they could just step aside and I would get arrested,” said Spookwx, whose English name is Norman Stephens.

“But there were a number of people that stepped up and said they were going to stand with me and they were willing to get arrested. I did not expect them to do that.”

The RCMP then moved in and arrested 14 at the rail demonstration near New Hazelton, B.C., he said.

Two other Simogyet, or Gitxsan hereditary chiefs, were among the arrested: Gwininitxw (Yvonne Lattie) and Dawamuxw (Larry Patsy).

This was one of several actions that erupted after Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) enforced an injunction near Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, partway between Ottawa and Toronto.

OPP officers showed up Monday morning and gave the Kanien’kehà:ka (Mohawk) there a last chance to leave camps set up adjacent to the tracks. A standoff ensued.

Police confirmed ten were arrested in that operation. All are charged with mischief over $5,000 and disobeying the court ordered injunction. All are charged with breaching the Railway Safety Act. Three face the charge of resisting arrest and one person is charged with obstructing a police officer, said OPP spokesperson Bill Dickson in an email to APTN.

Video streamed live to Facebook by Real Peoples Media showed the leadup to these arrests.

“You’re on sovereign territory, every single one of you,” an unidentified man shouted at police. “Unceded. Every single one of you. I want you all to understand, you came here. Your ancestors came here sick, tired, and oppressed. Your ancestors came here wanting a better place, and our ancestors took care of them, taught them how to live, let them live on their land.

“What did your ancestors do when they got sick and 90 per cent of them died? They violated their treaties. They stole. They killed. But they did it when we were sick. F**k off. I’ll stand where I want. I’m on Onkwehón:we territory. Yeah, me.”

The arrests followed. Those who were not arrested backed off as police remained standing in a line by the tracks.

After seeing this, Spookwx decided it was time for the Gitxsan solidarity blockade to go back up. It was voluntarily dismantled on Feb. 13, a week after RCMP enforced an injunction against Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs and their supporters on the Morice West Forest Road on Wet’suwet’en territory. Twenty-eight were arrested in those operations.

“I just walked into my store here and announced that we were going to have to go back because they had invaded the Mohawks.”

“The Gitxsan Nation could no longer sit back. We had to do something. We had to show the other nations that the Gitxsan were willing to step back up. We couldn’t leave it to just the Mohawks to resist and take those arrests. I decided to go back on the tracks.”

Spookwx said they paused the Gitxsan solidarity action as a show of good faith. Discussions were in the works for talks to happen between Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs with federal and provincial governments.

New demonstrations flare

Other demonstrations also restarted and new ones flared. Some continued uninterrupted on Tuesday.

VIA Rail said it expects to resume running its Montreal-Halifax route on Friday. As of Monday, 24, 789 trains were cancelled and 138,000 passengers affected, VIA stated.

People on Canadian Pacific (CP) tracks continue to prevent trains from passing through Kahnawake Mohawk Territory into Montreal.

CP obtained an injunction Tuesday to end the demonstration.

Quebec also obtained an injunction to get people off tracks on Listuguj First Nation territory. This demonstration has continued for near three weeks.

About 300 people blocked access to the B.C. legislature on Monday. A small group remained overnight in defiance of an injunction.

Hamilton police served an injunction to a new rail blockade on Go Transit tracks in Ontario. This action halted trains in a busy commuter corridor between Hamilton and Niagara Falls. It has not yet been enforced.

At the New Hazelton site, Chief Spookwx said his people responded to their chiefs’ arrests by blocking Highway 16, the main route through the region, until about 3:30 a.m.

All 14 people who had been arrested were then released by the Mounties.

“Doing the music. Playing the drums. They had told the police that they were going to stay there until the chiefs were released, all the people who were arrested were released.”

“I’m very proud of my nation for standing up like that, and I’m wishing that they stand strong and continue the battle, because the underlying issue here is our title and rights, our title and rights that just got violated last night by the RCMP coming onto our territory,” he said of what transpired.

“We’ve been here for over 10,000 years. Canada has been here for 152 years. Their laws cannot supersede us. The ruling in Delgamuukw was that our title and rights have not been extinguished. They still exist,” he added.

Status of the proposed talks

Delgamuukw was a landmark 1997 Supreme Court of Canada decision that was brought forward jointly by Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs.

The Wet’suwet’en point to Delgamuukw when they say they have jurisdiction over the traditional lands.

Hereditary chiefs oppose construction of the 670-kilometre Coastal GasLink pipeline. It would carry fracked natural gas from Dawson Creek, B.C. to a liquification facility near Kitimat, where it would be shipped to markets in Asia.

However, 20 elected First Nation governments signed Impact Benefit Agreements (IBAs) supporting the $6.6-billion project, including five of six First Nations on Wet’suwet’en territory.

The hereditary chiefs and their supporters erected camps and checkpoints along the disputed forest road.

The Tyendinaga Mohawks said they would dismantle their camps voluntarily if the RCMP left that disputed territory.

The chiefs issued that same demand and one other before they would meet for nation-to-nation talks: for Coastal GasLink to cease work on its proposed pipeline.

Minister of Indigenous Services Marc Miller told reporters on Tuesday that “modestly positive” discussion continues over the first demand.

“Again, the importance is to discuss with those chiefs what the measures are with respect specifically to the de-escalation of the RCMP community centre” on the road’s 29-kilometre mark.

RCMP has pulled back to Houston, B.C., but they plan to continue patrols of the area to ensure the road remains open.

Coastal GasLink said it would support the RCMP drawback “provided Coastal GasLink contractors and staff continue to have safe and secure access to work sites.”

The two demands are related. If Coastal GasLink will not withdraw, the RCMP have to ensure its workers get access to the road, according to the injunction.

The talks did not happen.

After stressing “dialogue,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared on Friday that “the barricades must come down.”

“Canadians have been patient, our government has been patient,” he said at a news conference in Ottawa.

The prime minister switched posture, he told the house of commons on Monday, “when it became clear that there was no reciprocal openness to dialogue from the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs.”

In response, Chief Spookwx accused the RCMP of “dragging their feet.”

“They were not willing to move quickly at all.”

He accused Trudeau of being the one who was not negotiating in good faith.

“That was not a show of good faith on Canada’s part to go ahead and be making arrests while the preliminary talks.”

bforester@aptn.ca
@BrettForester

lwilson@aptn.ca
@APTNLee

Source: APTN

On Feb. 20, the Peoples Power Assembly announced a campaign to roll back food-stamp cuts and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) rule changes taking effect in April.  

On April 4, on the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the group will launch a “Hunger March” from Baltimore to the Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. 

The Department of Agriculture must face the poor families, children and food industry workers who will suffer from its actions. 

The people losing SNAP benefits (as food stamps are now officially called) are just the tip of the iceberg. Social Security Disability benefits and children’s school lunches will be cut, too. 

But not the Pentagon! This year, the military got a $130 billion increase. People will starve while billionaires like Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos pay next to nothing in taxes.

700,000 people to lose food stamps 

This April, some 700,000 people will lose food stamps. Millions more will get fewer benefits under USDA rule changes made by the Trump administration.  

In Maryland, over 50,000 people will lose food stamps. In Baltimore City alone, 15,000 will be cut. Nearly 25 percent of the people in Baltimore — that is 1 out of 4 people, many of them children — already go to bed hungry. 

Major cuts in food stamps will also mean that many small grocery stores that service the poor will have to close their doors. This is a crisis affecting not only big cities, but many small towns and rural areas across the U.S.

School lunch programs cut; children suffer

The Department of Agriculture’s rule changes not only impact food stamp recipients, they will also reverberate in cuts to free school lunch programs.  

As of this writing, it remains unclear exactly how many children will lose school lunches.  But, according to USDA regulations, as many as 942,000 children could be cut.

Millionaire Sonny Perdue attacks workers’ rights on the job

Millionaire Georgia farmer and politician Sonny Perdue is the Trump-appointed head of the USDA. On top of food stamps and school lunches, the USDA also overhauled slaughterhouse rules that threaten the safety of workers.  

These rule changes removed federal limits on pork-processing line speeds.  While highly profitable for the meat industry, it puts workers in danger of higher rates of injury, both acute and long term. The United Food and Commercial Workers union has filed a lawsuit to suspend the rule change.  

Activists say, ‘Fight, don’t starve!’

On Jan. 18, during the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. birthday holiday, Miranda Bachman from Youth Against War and Racism participated in a March to Resist War and Racism, opposing U.S. war threats against Iran and Iraq and to stop the food stamp cuts.

She explained, “People were so angry about food stamps being cut that some of those watching our protest from bus stops and the sidewalk spontaneously joined the march.”  

She added, “Our phones started ringing immediately. April 4 is our next step. Please sign our petition.”

Andre Powell, a Peoples Power Assembly organizer and retired AFSCME state worker who helped to administer the food stamp program, explained: “We have to organize and march. It’s time to revive the Food Is a Right Campaign and the old slogan, ‘Fight, don’t starve.’”  

Powell added: “The Trump administration, and more importantly the entire capitalist system, is determined to roll back every possible workers’ gain imaginable. But we can stop it if we organize and fight.”

March organizers are inviting groups to endorse and join in organizing the march.  

“On April 4, we will put a face on poverty.  We will march from Baltimore to the doors of the USDA,” concluded Powell.

Reprinted below is a report by William Paul — “Lenin on Communist Tactics in Britain” — that appeared in “The Communist,” published in London in 1920. Struggle-La Lucha believes this report holds useful insights for revolutionaries in the U.S. about relating to the Bernie Sanders election campaign.

In 1920, several revolutionary socialist groups in Britain were working together to form a Communist Party. One of the main obstacles to forming a united party was disagreement on the question of the parliamentary elections and the Labour Party.

The Labour Party was not a revolutionary party. In fact, at the outbreak of World War I, the head of the party resigned to protest the war and Arthur Henderson became head because of his pledge to support the war. Henderson even served in Prime Minister Lloyd George’s war cabinet.

Nevertheless, after the war, Henderson and the Labour Party were running on a democratic socialist platform, which had popular support among the workers.

The question was, should the communists support Henderson and the Labour Party in the elections? Some in the communist grouping said that communists must not compromise with reformism and take a direct road to revolution.

V.I. Lenin, leader of the socialist revolution in Russia, who had closely followed the working-class movement in Britain, responded in both writings and meetings with British communists. Lenin wrote that “the British Communists very often find it hard even to approach the masses, and even to get a hearing from them. If I come out as a Communist and call upon them to vote for Henderson and against Lloyd George, they will certainly give me a hearing.” He urged the communists to run their own candidates in the local elections for parliament, who would declare their support for Henderson and the Labour Party. 

Lenin noted that the fact that most British workers followed the lead of Henderson and the Labour Party and had not yet had experience of a government composed of people supporting a reformist socialist platform — “an experience which was necessary in Russia so as to secure the mass transition of the workers to communism” — undoubtedly indicated that the British communists should participate in parliamentary action, that they should, from within parliament, help the masses of the workers see the results of a Henderson government in practice, and that they should help Henderson defeat the united forces of Lloyd George, head of the Liberal Party, and Churchill, head of the Conservative (Tory) Party.

Lenin on Communist Tactics in Britain

By William Paul

The Communist, London, December 2, 1920

I have had a long and interesting interview with Lenin. We spoke on various aspects of the movement, and particularly upon the growth and progress of Communism in Britain. Lenin had read the report of the Communist Unity Convention held in London last August. He said that the verbatim report of the speeches and resolutions of the Convention showed that the formation of the Communist Party marked an epoch in the history of the British revolutionary movement. …

Lenin then proceeded to discuss the attitude of the Communist Party towards the Labour Party in view of the much-talked-of forthcoming General Election. His views on the subject showed that he abhors the type of revolutionary who has a canalized, or single track, mind. 

Lenin looks upon every weapon as necessary in the conflict with capitalism. To him, as a good student of old Dietzgen, every weapon, every policy, and every problem must be examined in the terms of its relations to the needs of the moment and the means at our disposal. This explains why he does not go out of his way to extol one particular weapon. He clearly realizes the value of revolutionary parliamentary action, but he also understands its limitations as a constructive power in the creation of a Workers Industrial Republic. To Lenin, the test of the real revolutionary Communist is to know when to use a given weapon and when to discard it.

Talking on the Labour Party, Lenin said he was very glad to learn that it had refused to accept the affiliation application of the Communist Party. It was a good move to have applied for affiliation, because the refusal of the Labour Party to accept Communists in its ranks showed the masses exactly where the Labour Party stood. 

Henderson had, thus, unwittingly paid a great tribute to the growing power of revolutionary Communism in Britain by being afraid to have aggressive Communists in his organization; and the Labour Party, by its own action, in turning down the Communist Party, had plainly indicated that there was, at last, a fighting group in Britain which had attracted good mass fighters to its ranks. 

Of course, continued Lenin, we must not forget that the Communist Party in its application for affiliation to the Labour Party very frankly put forward certain conditions which would have given it full freedom of action to conduct its own policy in its own way. We must never enter into negotiations with bodies, such as the Labour Party, without demanding full freedom of action. …

Lenin passed on to review the political situation in Britain. 

The next General Election would be of paramount importance, and the Communists ought to play a most important part in it. As Lenin favored the policy of supporting the Labour Party, in order to assist it to capture political power, this subject was thrashed out in detail. Lenin advises the Communists to help the Labour Party to get a majority at the next election in order to facilitate the general decadence of the Parliamentary system. 

Already, he reasoned, there are thousands of people in Britain who feel that the Parliamentary system of social representation cannot solve the problems which history has placed before it. These people had become discontented and disillusioned regarding the Parliamentary system of social control as a result of the inability of that machine to cope with the vital tasks of modern society. 

In other words, the passage of events was providing a series of concrete experiences which were educating the masses regarding the general breakdown of capitalism, in the sphere of social representation. The toiling masses, who had neither the time nor the inclination to examine social theories, always learnt their political lessons by undergoing concrete experiences. 

The task of the revolutionary Communist is not only to preach his Marxist theories; he must prove that his theories are correct by compelling his opponents to act in such a way that they provide the practical lessons which enables the Communist to test his theories before the eyes of the masses. 

The test of Marxist and Communist theory is experience. How then can the Communists of England prove to the workers that the Parliamentary machine has broken down and can no longer serve them or the interests of their class? 

Since the days of the Armistice, the Parliamentary system in England has been on trial. During the past two years the political policy of Lloyd George had shown many workers how little they could expect from any Parliamentary form of Government manned by the capitalist class. Since the Armistice, Lloyd George, Churchill, Bonar Law, and Co., have had an opportunity to demonstrate what they could do, and their reign of office has been one trail of disasters so far as the workers are concerned. 

The Labour Party solemnly assures the masses that they could solve the problems confronting society if once they were in control of the Governmental machine. So far as Henderson, Thomas, and the Labour Party are concerned, they only differ from Lloyd George in that they have never had an opportunity to control the Government. Knowing, as we do, that Henderson, MacDonald, and their followers cannot solve the immediate problems confronting the masses through the Parliamentary machine, we ought to prove the correctness of our theory by giving the Labour Party a chance to prove that we are correct. 

The return of the Labour Party to power will accelerate the inevitable collapse of the Parliamentary system, and this will provide the concrete experiences which will ultimately drive the masses towards Communism and the Soviet solution to the modern problems. For these reasons the Communists in Britain ought to support the Labour Party at the next election in order to help it to bring on, ever faster, the crisis which will ultimately overwhelm it. 

At this point, I interposed, and said that if the Communist Party officially assisted the Labour Party to capture political power in order to precipitate a crisis, it was just possible that the indignant masses, remembering that we had urged them to vote for the Labour Party, might sweep us away too, when the social crash took place. 

Lenin pondered over this for a moment and said that the Communist Party, in assisting the Labour Party to capture the Government, must make its own case very clear to the masses. He then advanced the following argument which he pressed forward very strongly, and which he wishes the Communist Party to discuss. He said the Communist Party could easily help the Labour Party to power and at the same time keep its own weapon clean. 

At the forthcoming elections, the Communist Party ought to contest as many seats as possible, but, where it could not put up a candidate, it ought to issue a manifesto in every constituency challenged by the Labour Party urging the workers to vote for the Labour candidate. The manifesto should frankly state that the Communist Party is most emphatically opposed to the Labour Party, but asks it to be supported in order that Henderson, MacDonald, and Co. may demonstrate to the masses their sheer helplessness. Such a manifesto, such a policy, would accelerate and intensify the problem now looming up before capitalism and its Parliamentary system. But, above all, such a policy would provide the concrete experiences which would teach the masses to look to the Soviet method as the historically evolved institution destined to seriously grapple with the manifold problems now pressing so heavily upon humanity.

We discussed this problem for some time and viewed it from many angles. I kept raising many points against Lenin’s position until at last he, no doubt scenting a good dialectical duel, challenged me to debate the whole matter in the columns of “The Communist.” I readily assented to this, and asked him when he would have his first contribution ready. He looked around sadly at the mountains of work—work involving the solution of international problems—piled up in front of him. I at once said I would write up his case for the Press, as I have done above. To this suggestion he heartily agreed.

I know, said Lenin, that it may seem awful to young and inexperienced Communists to have any relations with the Labour Party, whose policy of opportunism is more dangerous to the masses than that of consistent and openly avowed enemies like Winston Churchill. But if the Communist Party intends to secure and wield power it will be compelled to come into contact with groups and organizations which are bitterly opposed to it. And it will have to learn how to negotiate and deal with them. 

Here in Russia, we have been forced by circumstances to discuss and make arrangements with elements which would hang us if they got the chance. Have we not even entered into alliances and compacts with Governments whose very hands reeked with the blood of our murdered Communist comrades? 

Why have we entered into such contracts and adopted such a policy? It is because we are realists and not utopians. It is because, at present, international capitalism is more powerful than we are. Every move, each Treaty, and all our negotiations with capitalist States, are but one side of the Russian Soviet Government’s policy to conserve its strength in order to consolidate its power. Learn to meet your enemies and be not afraid. It tests your strength, it creates experiences, it judges the character of your members. And you may find that your most embittered critics are not in the camp of the enemy but are the shallow doctrinaires to whom revolutionary Socialism is a mere manual of phrases instead of a guide to action.

While we were talking, Lenin was continually interrupted by the arrival of cables, despatches and messages. He was frequently called to the phone. Despite these things, he could return quite serenely to the point under discussion. 

I confess that I was slightly agitated when entering the Kremlin; bad news had arrived from the various fronts; Poland was acting strangely at the Riga Conference; France had been indulging in one of her bullying outbursts; and Finland was on the point of signing peace. All these things, I imagined, would make it impossible for Lenin to settle down and have a quiet talk on the various details of the movement upon which I was anxious to have his opinion. 

When I entered the room he was courteous, cool and tranquil. He eagerly entered into a discussion of many points on Communist tactics, which, to some people, might have seemed almost trivial. Lenin is always anxious to hear of any new development in Marxism, and to him every aspect of the movement is important. I very timidly suggested the possible application of Marxist theory to a certain subject which had been monopolized by the anthropologists and ethnologists. He became enthusiastic over the problem which he quickly elaborated and extended, made several important suggestions, indicated where some good data could be found, and urged that the matter should be written and published. To Lenin, Communism is a synthetic philosophy.

After having had a talk with Lenin, it is easy to understand why his quiet and humorous style fails to impress middle-class intellectuals. People like Bertrand Russell are in the habit of meeting pompous bourgeois thinkers whose ideas on social theories are so incoherent and vague that they can only express themselves with great difficulty. This ponderous and floundering method of struggling to deliver an idea is, in certain quarters, mistaken for mental ability. Lenin, on the other hand, sees problems so clearly and is able to explain himself with such clarity and simplicity, that his conclusions seem to be the obvious deductions at which anyone would inevitably arrive.

Source: Marxist Internet Archive

As many as 13 people have died in India’s capital, Delhi, after right-wing mobs went on a rampage, especially targeting sites where people have been protesting the discriminatory and divisive Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). In many areas, mobs burnt vehicles, beat up people and shouted offensive slogans against Muslims. Over 150 people have been injured. After inaction and even instances of collusion with the rioters for two days, the police issued shoot-at-sight orders in the northeast part of the city on the evening of Tuesday, February 25.

Peaceful protests have been going on at many sites in Delhi since December against the CAA, the National Register of Citizens and the National Population Register, which many fear will reduce Muslims to second-class citizens. The law will also affect the poor and working classes of all religions. Throughout this period, there has been a sustained campaign by Hindu right-wing forces, including those associated with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, to polarize the people.

Over the weekend, many of the anti-CAA protests continued even as people gathered at a few new protest sites as well. The gatherings were also in response to a call by an organization called the Bhim Army for a countrywide shutdown. The Bhim Army, which has a strong support base among the Dalits (the formerly untouchable castes), called for the shutdown in response to attacks on reservation (affirmative action) across the country.

The right-wing forces, led by the local leaders of the BJP, issued calls for people to mobilize against the peaceful protests. Kapil Mishra, a BJP leader, publicly threatened that they would clear the streets soon. Beginning with Maujpur in northeast Delhi, right-wing mobs began attacking multiple protest sites on Sunday evening.

As clashes erupted, stone pelting was reported. The police, meanwhile, did not take any steps to calm the situation. Instead, the police also targeted the peaceful protestors. Tear gas shells were fired against the protestors and they also made the use of baton charge. In Hauz Rani area, many women and children were injured due to the baton charge which was carried out by police during their peaceful march.

The tense situation continued the next day with the condition worsening in many areas. In many instances, Muslims were singled out as targets. In Maujpur, Jaffrabad, and Chand Bagh areas, many shops and vehicles were burnt.

In the evening, section 144 was imposed in the affected areas which prohibits the assembly of four or more people.

There following is a video report of the violence that took place on Sunday and Monday. (The death toll has since risen)

Through Monday night and Tuesday, the violence by right-wing rioters continued. The epicenter of the violence and the rioting continues to be the northeastern part of Delhi.  In many areas, people gathered, bearing sticks, rods and batons and smashed and burnt vehicles and shops. There have been reports of rioters trying to barge into houses and attack residents, and wandering around, shouting inflammatory and provocative slogans against Muslims. There have been many reports of police inaction and even of collusion with the right-wing mobs. Journalists too were attacked by some of these mobs.

All this is happening as US president Donald Trump is on a visit to India. The Indian government has gone all out to welcome him. Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has been continuously tweeting about his meetings with Trump but has not referred to the rioting so far. It was only on Tuesday that home minister Amit Shah held a meeting with the chief minister of Delhi State and senior police officers. The State chief minister, Arvind Kerjiwal, has said that there is not adequate police presence on the ground.  There has been strong criticism of especially the Central government for failing to stop the targeting of Muslims as the police of the city are under the Central home ministry.

Leftist parties strongly condemned the government’s inaction. Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury tweeted that the “hate speeches by union ministers, members of parliament and top ruling party leaders in Delhi inciting hate and violence in a call to arms .. are responsible for the collapse in law and order that we see today.” He questioned the silence of the prime minister and home minister, asking if it was incompetence or complicity. The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation condemned “the ongoing campaign of violence in Delhi being spearheaded by BJP-RSS [Rashtriya Swayamwevak Sangh, the ideological parent of the BJP] thugs and openly facilitated by the Delhi Police and sought the arrest of those who instigated and orchestrated the pogrom, including BJP leaders.” On February 26, a host or organizations and activists are holding a sit-in for peace at the Jantar Mantar in Delhi.

Source: Peoples Dispatch

Fascism is a crime, not an opinion. Fascism is inhuman. Fascism is an evil that must be eradicated. Any block or front which does not aim at overthrowing fascism is destined to remain within the limits of the new world order and to suffocate within the limits of the order.

Every massacre, every terrorist attack and murder in the world is signed by fascism and imperialism.

What happened in Hanau, Germany, is only the latest manifestation of this ideology that strikes and spreads without any filter or legislative limit. 

Tobias Rathjen, a 43-year-old German man, entered two different cafes in the city frequented mainly by citizens from non-European countries, opening fire. Then he returned to his home, killed his mother and committed suicide. Provisional balance sheet: 11 dead and several injured.

Among the victims, all of foreign origin, are mainly Turks and Kurds. According to the media, the assault in the two cafes was carried out by a man suffering from a serious psychiatric illness, but he had a weapons license and openly sympathized with the neo-Nazi fringes, he incited racial hatred on social media, and last year he wrote a manifesto calling for the total destruction of most countries in North Africa and the Middle East.

After the massacre, a note found in his house said, “Arabs and Muslim Turks must be exterminated.”

The massacre is part of a disturbing trend of growing violent fascist and racist attacks. But it could not be otherwise, since there are (not only in Germany) extreme right-wing parties such as the Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany, AfD), which feed undisturbed on racial tensions.

In the heart of Europe, the evil heart of neo-Nazism grows. While, as usual, the Nazi-fascists are described as “mad,” but only after they have massacred or killed someone, it is also emerging that within the state apparatus, particularly in the police and the army, neo-Nazi cells have been created.*

While criminalization, repression, persecution and blackmailing of leftists, anti-fascists, and especially organized left political migrants is increasing, Nazis and extreme right-wing groups and people linked to them can freely move and were enabled again to kill innocent people.

Racist-motivated, discriminating and fascist ideas can’t be put on a level with those of the anti-fascist movement. Fascism is a crime. It’s a human duty to fight back!

Freedom for all political prisoners, who are charged and arrested for their anti-fascist, anti-imperialist political ideas and defense of the freedom struggle!

The Anti-Imperialist Front expresses its condolences to the victims of the xenophobic and fascist massacre in Hanau, Germany, on Feb. 19, 2020. Attacks like this are merely the sharpest expression of the growing fascism in Germany and indeed Europe, often expressed at the ballot box in votes for far-right parties.

This is also against a background of official apathy about fascist murders, especially in Germany, and a tendency to see them as the deeds of mentally ill individuals. As Patrik Köbele, chair of the German Communist Party (DKP) noted, garbage cans allegedly set on fire by the left are placed on the same level as fascist murders.

The Anti-Imperialist Front calls for the greatest possible unity of action among anti-fascist forces to confront the fascist wave, of which these murders are merely the latest example.

*A short time ago in Frankfurt, five police were suspended on charges of belonging to a neo-Nazi network; they had threatened by fax to slaughter the 2-year-old daughter of Turkish lawyer Seda Basay-Yildiz.

Source: Anti-Imperialist Front

Fifty-five years after Malcolm X was assassinated, people came to the National Black Theatre in Harlem on Feb. 21 to demand the lifting of illegal sanctions off Zimbabwe. The December 12th Movement organized this important event.

The renowned musician and jazz scholar Jerome Jennings opened the program with fantastic drumming. Omowale Clay of D12 welcomed the standing-room-only crowd. 

Viola Plummer, chairperson of D12, quoted Malcolm X: “We have to be free by any means necessary.” Plummer introduced the featured speaker, Ambassador Arikana Chihombori-Quao, M.D., as “a sister who speaks the truth.”

The diplomat and physician is the former representative of the African Union to the United States. Born in Zimbabwe, Dr. Chihombori-Quao is a scientist with a master’s degree in organic chemistry. 

A graduate of Meharry Medical College, she spent 29 years as a family physician in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Dr. Chihombori-Quao is currently leading the African Diaspora Development Institute.

Dr. Chihombori-Quao reminded people of the consequences of the evil Berlin conference of 1884 that carved up Africa among the European colonial powers. The Belgian King Leopold had millions of Africans in Congo killed and mutilated for rubber profits,

The ambassador spoke of how her father and his family were driven off their land by white settlers in Zimbabwe. Under British colonial legislation, whites could seize 2,000 hectares — almost eight square miles of land — and burn the homes of Africans.

Yet, virtually every capitalist media outlet denounced the late Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe for leading Africans to reclaim their land!

Dr. Chihombori-Quao also described how the French imperialists, while being forced to grant formal independence to African countries, demanded that their financial reserves be controlled by French banks. But the media only talk about the alleged corruption of certain African leaders.

She emphasized the importance of the African Union initiating an all-African customs union on July 1, 2020.

The doctor and diplomat also spoke movingly about how much was stolen from Africa. The African Holocaust includes thousands of African skulls that are displayed in European museums. Dr. Chihombori-Quao told how women belonging to the Ashanti nation in Ghana prevented the British colonialists from stealing the Golden Stool, an important symbol of nationhood.

Dr. James McIntosh, member of N’cobra, (National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America), gave a dynamic fundraising appeal. Dr. McIntosh is the author of “The Unauthorized Psychoanalysis of Donald Trump.”

Viola Plummer denounced the nearby Bloomberg for President office as an insult to Harlem. She reminded people that the U.S.sanctions against Zimbabwe are coming up for renewal by Trump in March.

Ending the meeting, Plummer led the crowds in chants of “Sanctions are a weapon of mass destruction!”

Hands off Zimbabwe!

Saturday, February 29 – 12 noon

Union Square Park, 14th St. & Broadway, Manhattan

In solidarity with students in Chile and the movement for dignity.

For more information: chileresisteny [at] gmail.com