January 20, 2021
New York

To President Joe Biden:

You were vice president in 2009, when the government of your party led by President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton supported the military coup in Honduras against our constitutional President Manuel Zelaya Rosales.

In 2010, the U.S. government imposed on us Porfirio Lobo-Sosa, whose son Fabio Lobo is imprisoned in the U.S. for cocaine trafficking. In 2013, they also imposed on us the narco-dictator Juan Orlando Hernández (JOH), whose brother Antonio (Tony) Hernández is imprisoned in New York for trafficking tons of cocaine and weapons to the United States. In 2017, the U.S. also imposed on us for the second time (in an illegal reelection) the narco-dictator JOH.

It was from the moment that this violent narco-dictatorship of the National Party was imposed on us that our country, Honduras, plunged into the worst social, economic and political crisis in our history. It is for this reason and in the face of despair that the Honduran people flee in the massive exodus of displaced human beings called caravans. They do not come in search of the American dream, but rather they flee from the nightmare that our country, the United States, has imposed on them.

The fascist government of Trump signed agreements with the countries of Guatemala and Mexico so that their repressive forces prevent the passage of the displaced victims, so that they do not reach the U.S. border, which is their destination to seek asylum and refuge.

So, President Biden, the caravans are the result of the failed policies of the “savage capitalist” system, as Pope John Paul II said, which the U.S. imposes on the Latin American region and the world. And if you and your government want the immigration “problem” to end, then we ask for a halt to U.S. intervention in our internal affairs.

The capitalist system that our country, the United States, imposes on to other countries in the region has not worked. On the contrary, it has produced and deepened extreme inequality, poverty, violence and the massive and inhumane exodus of entire displaced families.

You have been elected at a time of profound racial division, inequity, and economic and health crisis due to COVID-19. Therefore, you must understand how difficult it is when going to an electoral process under those circumstances.

Like you and the North American people, we in Honduras are fighting to recover our democracy, justice and peace, which was destroyed by the 2009 coup d’état. And this coming November 2021, we are going to presidential elections for the third time after that terrible historical moment that changed our lives.

Therefore, the only thing we demand from your government is to allow us to decide at the polls and that our sovereign decision as a people be respected. Do not let your government intervene. And I assure you, that, in this way, your government will not have to face the massive exodus of people who are fleeing from Honduras in search of what was unjustly taken away from them.

With all due respect and hoping that the purposes of your administration are fulfilled for the good of the people,

Lucy Pagoada-Quesada
North American-Honduran citizen and New York teacher

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• Migrant caravans flee U.S.-made crisis
• Appeal from Honduran activist
• Build working-class solidarity
• Organize workers and oppressed to fight the fascist movement
• Protesters say ‘Proud Boys out of New York!’
• ‘Honor Dr. King’s revolutionary vision’
• Harlem remembers MLK the fighter
• Women accounted for all jobs lost in December
• Bronx produce workers fight for justice
• Disbar Rudy Giuliani. Reinstate Alton Maddox!
• Was Trump ousted from the military chain of command?
• Trump & Pentagon in coup attempt
• U.S.-Africom out! Justice and reparations for Somalia!
• Condena a la fraudulenta calificación de Cuba como estado patrocinador del terrorismo
• ‘Recordamos a Lenin como recordamos a Fidel’

Minneapolis – More than 200 people gathered near South High School in Minneapolis, January 20, to demand a People’s Agenda that immediately reverses the policies of Trump and meets the demands of working people, immigrants and oppressed nationality communities. The protest rally started with the chant, “Indict, convict, send those killer cops to jail! The whole damn system is guilty as hell!”

Meredith Aby-Keirstead, a member of the MN Anti-War Committee, welcomed the crowd, “The Anti-War Committee and the Climate Justice Committee along with a coalition of many other organizations wanted to join together to say we are not going home. Today, we are in the streets to send a loud and clear message to Biden from day one we need change. We are tired of the status quo and we are here to make demands on Biden. He is making a lot of promises and we will hold him accountable.”

Throughout the rally and march, many groups spoke about these issues and put demands on Biden and all elected officials.

Autumn Lake from the Anti-War Committee emphasized, “One thing is abundantly clear: the U.S. war machine will not stop with the departure of Trump. Biden has already stacked his cabinet with foreign policy officials that are committed to continuing the U.S.’s destructive campaigns of intervention and war. The Democrat’s own legacy of war and intervention continues with the inauguration of Joe Biden. We’re going to stay in the streets and keep fighting for an end to U.S. wars, no matter who is calling the shots.”

“Defeating Trump is a victory for everyone concerned about justice,” said Austin Dewey from the Climate Justice Committee, “but Biden’s track record shows that he is unwilling to make the radical changes needed unless there’s pressure from a strong people’s movement.”

Jaylani Hussein, the executive director of the MN chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, rallied the crowd on the importance of staying in the streets, “They [the powers that be] want you to be scared to come out. But we are going to continue to be out in the streets until we get justice for all the stolen lives, until we bring back equality in all of our communities, until we free the wrongfully incarcerated, and until we protect water and our land from corporate greed that continues to rob people.”

With the chant of “Who’s streets? Our streets!” the marchers took to the streets, followed by a 50-car caravan down Lake Street to the former site of the 3rd Precinct police building, which was set ablaze during the George Floyd uprising this past summer.

Marching down Lake Street, people chanted, “Take it to the streets and fuck the police! No justice, no peace” and “Too many stolen lives, we refuse to close our eyes.”

Speaking on the need for a people’s agenda, David Gilbert Pederson of MN Workers United stated, “As the elites gather in Washington to celebrate the changing of the guard, working-class people all across America are still in the trenches fighting a war against U.S. empire, fighting a war against the COVID-19 virus, fighting a war against greed and austerity, fighting a war against police brutality, against deportations, against pipelines through indigenous lands, and a battle of against horrors of American capitalism.”

Monique Cullars-Doty, representing Black Lives Matter MN, was the last to address the crowd before they marched back to South High School, “It’s great to be out here, we have to be out here. The people in power don’t care about us, they don’t care about people who don’t have a voice. We want justice for all the stolen lives. An important thing I do is to work in solidarity and come out to support other movements because we all are connected. We have to remember that. We can’t do it alone and you shouldn’t have to do it alone. This for all us to get together in the face of injustice. Now that we have Biden in office, we must remember who this man is, a father of mass incarceration. We want our people free.”

As the march was leaving the 3rd Precinct, Jae Yates, one of the emcees and an organizer with Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar, said, “Every time I see this place, I remember all of us together, watching it burn. It was a beautiful moment.”

The rally was initiated by the Anti-War Committee and the Climate Justice Committee. It was endorsed by AFSCME 34, AFSCME 2822, AFSCME 3800, Black Lives Matter Twin Cities Metro, Brown Berets MN, Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN), Families Supporting Families Against Police Violence, Good Trouble for Justice, Justice4MarcusGolden, May Day Books, Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, MN Peace Action Coalition, MN Workers United, MN Youth for Justice, Native Lives Matter, Nukewatch, Racial Justice Network, Students Against Pipelines, Students for a Democratic Society at UMN, Student Movement Activists of South High (SMASH), Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar, Twin Cities Peace Campaign, UMN Climate Strike, Veterans for Peace Chapter 27, Welfare Rights Committee, Women Against Military Madness, and others.

Source: FightBack! News

Bulletin: Because of the courage of the striking workers, and the support given to them by the community, a tentative agreement was reached Jan. 22.

The 8.6 million people living in the Big Apple eat a lot of apples. Most of them come through the Hunts Point Produce Market in the Bronx. So does a majority of New York City’s other fruits and vegetables.

A thousand workers, members of Teamsters Local 202, have gone on strike there. They’re asking for a mere $1 per hour wage increase.

They are all essential workers who’ve kept feeding New Yorkers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Six of the Teamsters have died of the coronavirus doing so. Another 300 have fallen ill from it.

“Don’t say we should be lucky to have a job,” said one of the strikers, Hiram Montalvo, who unloads trucks. “Say thank you that we’re actually coming to work and risking our lives so that they can take care of their families as well.”  

New York City is awfully expensive. It’s hard to find a one-bedroom apartment that rents for less than $1,600 per month. Asking for a dollar more an hour is modest and necessary.

The response of the bosses has been to bring in the police. Three hundred police in riot gear attacked the picket lines after midnight on Jan. 19. Six strikers were arrested.

This is the same police force that’s arrested thousands for asserting that Black lives matter. Now they’re attacking workers on strike, most of whom are Black or Brown. That’s another reason to expel police organizations from the AFL-CIO.

Union leaders made the connection. Teamster Joint Council 16, which represents 120,000 workers, tweeted: “Hands up! Don’t shoot! We condemn the arrests of several peaceful strikers on the Teamsters picket line tonight at Hunts Point Market. These essential workers deserve their $1 raise.”

People have already come to Hunts Point to show solidarity. Congressperson Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez skipped the presidential inauguration to join the picket line. AOC was targeted for assassination by the fascist mob that was allowed to enter the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

More important were the CSX workers who refused to deliver 21 railroad cars to the market on Jan. 20. As the locomotive engineer, a member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, declared, “We’re Teamsters too!”

The produce bosses have to be made to come to the bargaining table. Behind them are banksters and other big capitalists who are trying to break the strike of 1,800 Spectrum cable workers. The 1,800 members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 3 have been striking for nearly four years.

New York City power brokers want to give the same punishment to Teamster produce workers in the Bronx. But the rich and greedy don’t seem to be winning.

As one Teamster said after the CSX train reversed direction: “Another victory. Another day longer. Another day stronger. We’re going to get this contract come hell or high water!”  

The writer is a retired Amtrak worker and member of the American Train Dispatchers’ Association and the Transportation Communication International Union.

While the eyes of the world were fixed on the presidential transition in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 17, the Guatemalan army attacked a caravan of 8,000 Honduran refugees trying to reach the U.S. border 2,400 miles away. 

“In the town of Vado Hondo, in the department of Chiquimula, bordering Honduras, the security forces confronted the migrants with tear gas and stun grenades. The security officers charged the crowd with batons and sticks, and managed to stop the migrants from advancing beyond Vado Hondo. In the incident of violent repression, hundreds of people were injured,” reported Peoples Dispatch.

People are fleeing terrible conditions under the repressive, drug-trafficking Hondruan regime — put in power after a U.S.-engineered coup in 2009 — and a string of subsequent disasters, including hurricanes and the pandemic. They had managed to cross the border between Honduras and Guatemala the day before.

This brutal attack on women, men and children is deeply connected to both the outgoing U.S. administration of Donald Trump and the incoming one headed by Joe Biden.

Trump, of course, openly and with extreme cruelty condemned the caravans coming from Central America to the U.S.-Mexico border, which began in late 2018. 

For more than two years, thousands of people from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and other countries have remained in ramshackle conditions waiting for an opportunity to apply for asylum that never came. Thousands more were forced to return home to dangerous situations or seek whatever work they could find, stateless and homeless.

Others — including refugees from Haiti — have been waiting even longer.

Trump’s regime bullied and bribed Guatemala and Mexico to crack down hard on refugees and migrants.

But how different is the new Biden administration? In practice, so far, not much.

While speaking in more diplomatic language, the message from Biden transition officials to the refugees was the same: Don’t come! And this posture encouraged the crackdown by the right-wing, U.S.-armed Guatemalan government.

By Jan. 19, both U.S. and Central American media reported that the caravan had been largely dispersed by the Guatemalan army repression. Only a handful of refugees reached shelters near the border with Mexico, where Mexican soldiers were also amassed to block the caravan. 

Many people were bused back to Honduras, where they faced an unknown fate. Many more drifted away in smaller groups, seeking other ways forward, such as the dangerous trip across the Suchiate River.

Despite the repression, two more caravans of Honduran refugees are preparing to risk the trek in the coming weeks.

What Biden did and didn’t do

Biden took office Jan. 20 and immediately signed 17 executive orders meant to reverse some of the most egregious Trump policies. 

This included repealing the so-called Muslim Ban that blocked passport holders from several majority-Muslim countries from entering the U.S. and restoring the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that provides a pathway to citizenship for undocumented residents (popularly known as “Dreamers”) who arrived in the U.S. as children. And he stopped construction of Trump’s “border wall” boondoggle.

Biden also ordered the Department of Homeland Security and immigration agencies to put a stop to some deportations for 100 days while their policies are “reviewed.” However, the moratorium order is full of holes and leaves much of the discretion up to agencies riddled with some of the worst white supremacist Trump backers.

The new U.S. regime has no plans to shut down or even curb the notorious Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) gestapo, only to “refocus” it on deporting people who are alleged to have committed crimes while in the U.S. and recent arrivals. 

This was the same policy followed by the Obama administration when Biden was vice president and earned Obama the title “Deporter In Chief.” The Obama administration deported more than 3 million people.

The first few days of the new government also failed to address the horrific detention of migrants and refugees, including children, who have managed against all odds to cross the border into the U.S.

As for the caravans, an unnamed Biden transition official told NBC News, “There’s help on the way, but now is not the time to make the journey.”

“Over time, the official said, the Biden administration plans to set up a way to safely process migrants at the border and allow asylum seekers to make their claims.”

Fighters for migrant and refugee rights are not convinced. “The 11 million [estimated undocumented workers in the U.S.] have seen this before,” said a Jan. 20 statement from Movimiento Cosecha, “a Democratic Congress and president promising a pathway for all. And we saw 3 million deported and an absence of political willingness to fight for our families.”

Cosecha chapters across the U.S. carried out banner drops and other actions during inaugural week, vowing that “the community is not waiting for others to take action, we are leading the fight for dignity and respect.”

A banner appeared in Brooklyn, N.Y., on the morning of Inauguration Day that read, “Democrats deport and detain too. Permanent protections now! Abolish ICE!”

Appeal from Honduran activist

On Inauguration Day, Lucy Pagoada-Quesada, a teacher and leading Honduran activist living in the U.S., issued an open letter to President Joe Biden. Pagoada-Quesada represents Department 19 of Resistencia/LIBRE, the official North American chapter of the resistance movement in Honduras.

“You were vice president when, in 2009, the government of your party led by President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton supported the military coup in Honduras against our Constitutional President Manuel Zelaya Rosales,” she reminded Biden.

“In 2010, the U.S. government imposed on us Porfirio Lobo-Sosa, whose son Fabio Lobo is imprisoned in the U.S. for cocaine trafficking. In 2013, they also imposed on us the narco dictator Juan Orlando Hernández, whose brother Antonio (Tony) Hernández is imprisoned in New York for trafficking tons of cocaine and weapons to the United States. In 2017, the United States also imposed on us for the second time (and in an illegal reelection) the narco-dictator Juan Orlando Hernández (JOH),” Pagoada-Quesada wrote.

“It was from the moment that this violent narco-dictatorship of the National Party was imposed on us that our country, Honduras, plunged into the worst social, economic and political crisis in our history. It is for this reason and in the face of despair that the Honduran people flee in the massive exodus of displaced human beings called caravans. They do not come in search of the American dream but rather they flee from the nightmare that the United States has imposed on them.

“Like you and the North American people, we in Honduras are fighting to recover our democracy, justice and peace, which was destroyed by the 2009 coup d’état. And this coming November 2021, we are going to hold presidential elections for the third time after that terrible historical moment that changed our lives.

“Therefore, the only thing we demand from your government is to allow us to decide at the polls and that our sovereign decision as a people be respected. Do not let your government intervene,” Pagoada-Quesada told Biden. “And I assure you, that, in this way, your government will not have to face the massive exodus of people who are fleeing from Honduras in search of what was unjustly taken away from them.”

It is the responsibility of workers in the U.S. to act in solidarity with our class siblings fleeing crises in Central America imposed by our own rulers. For more than a century, U.S. big business has plundered Honduras of its labor, and agricultural and mineral wealth. It imposed the Pentagon’s Palmerola air base and successive right-wing regimes on the people.  

We must demand an end to U.S. imperialist interference in Honduras and throughout the region, and reparations for the millions of people harmed as a result of the 2009 coup. 

And for those already in motion, fleeing unbearable conditions, we must demand of Joe Biden: Let them in! Let them all in — with safe housing, free, quality health care, and guarantees against repression and family separation.

Rudy Giuliani may finally be kicked out of the courts. He’s been busy there trying to get Black votes thrown out in cities like Detroit and Philadelphia.

The New York State Bar Association is considering whether to disbar the Trump mouthpiece. If Giuliani is disbarred he won’t be able to be a lawyer anymore.

The former New York City mayor fired up the racist mob in front of the White House on Jan. 6 by declaring he wanted a “trial by combat.” Thousands of bigots obliged by marching on the Capitol to overturn the presidential election.

Hundreds were allowed to invade the Capitol. A noose was set up outside. Five people died as a result of the assault.

These are all good reasons for Giuliani to be disbarred immediately and put on trial for inciting violence. This racist should have been prevented from being a lawyer decades ago.

Decades of racist violence

On Sept. 18, 1992, Giuliani was the ringmaster when 10,000 New York City cops rioted against David Dinkins, the city’s first and so far only Black mayor.

City Council member Una Clarke and other Black people were called a racist name by police. After the rally, cops broke the jaw of Black youth Ywunas Mohamed on the “J” subway train. 

Guiliani’s eight years as mayor were eight years of police terror. An unarmed African immigrant, Amadou Diallo, was killed when police fired 44 shots at him on Feb. 4, 1999.

Unarmed Patrick Dorismond, a father of two children, was killed on March 16, 2000, for saying “no” to an undercover cop trying to sell him drugs. Guiliani’s cops attacked Dorismond’s funeral in Brooklyn’s Haitian community and arrested 27 people. 

There was economic terror as well. Giuliani bragged that he kicked 640,000 poor people off welfare programs. 

Giuliani should have been disbarred 36 years ago for trying to frame up the New York 8+ as a federal district attorney in 1985. 

Field Marshall Coltrane Chimurenga, Viola Plummer, Ruth Carter, Omowale Clay, Yvette Kelley, Jose Rios, Robert Taylor and Roger Wareham faced fantastic charges of conspiring to rob banks and Brinks’ trucks, and to stage jailbreaks. Even their political activity was claimed to be violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.

The attempted frameup was part of the Reagan administration’s drive to crush all liberation movements. Because of their courageous resistance, all of the defendants were acquitted of conspiracy charges.   

Maddox: Fighter for oppressed

While Giuliani was made mayor and lionized by the capitalist media, Attorney-at-War Alton Maddox has been prevented from practicing law for 30 years. The Black lawyer was driven from the courtroom because he fought unconditionally for justice. 

Maddox demanded a special prosecutor in the racist murder of Michael Griffith in 1986. The Black man was chased by a white gang in the Howard Beach section of Queens, N.Y. Maddox prevented a coverup.

Alton Maddox had earlier represented the family of Michael Stewart. The 25-year-old Black artist was beaten to death by a gang of cops after being arrested in a Manhattan subway station. 

Then a federal prosecutor, Giuliani refused to press federal civil rights charges against the police who killed Stewart.

It was Maddox’s courageous defense of Tawana Brawley that led to the racist courts suspending the Attorney-at-War. On Nov. 28, 1987, the Black woman was gang raped by six white men in Wappingers Falls, N.Y., a northern suburb of New York City.

Tawana Brawley was a 15-year-old high school student at the time. Her attackers were part of the local power structure.

One of them was a Dutchess County police officer, Harry Crist. He matched the description that Brawley gave of one of her rapists in a Nov. 30, 1987, interview.

Within 48 hours Crist was dead. The authorities claim he committed suicide. 

If this was true, why did Crist take his own life? Was it out of fear of being exposed? Or was Crist murdered to eliminate a witness?

The pathologist who examined Crist’s body ― Dr. Alexander Aplasca ― listed Crist’s death as a homicide. Aplasca never found a self-inflicted wound.

Nor was he shown the weapon that Crist allegedly used or even any crime scene photos. The autopsy report was suppressed for 11 years. 

Attacking Tawana Brawley and her lawyer

Dr. Aplasca was never called to the grand jury conducted by New York state Attorney General Robert Abrams. Instead of seeking justice for Tawana Brawley, the vile corporate media claimed the Black teenager was lying.

A coverup has been orchestrated for a third of a century. Here’s a link to the real facts on this racist atrocity.

Besides slandering Tawana Brawley, the capitalist power structure sought to silence Alton Maddox. He was suspended from practicing law in 1990.

It’s outrageous that the courageous Black lawyer has been kept out of the courtroom. He’s needed there to fight for the people.

Reinstate Alton Maddox!

Describing the October Revolution in Russia, John Reed, in the prologue of his extraordinary book “Ten Days that Shook the World,” describes the forces vying for power, in the midst of a revolution that had not yet managed to define its destiny.

On the one hand, what he calls the possessing classes who aspired to remove the czar and replace him with a bourgeois power, in the style of the Western democracies of the United States and France; on the other, the Bolsheviks, who saw the revolution as based on the class struggle and insisted on the necessity of the soviets taking power.

Between these two forces, which he describes as extreme, Reed places the “moderate” socialists — the quotation marks are his, not mine. The moderates believed that Russia was not ready for a social revolution, and insisted on collaborating with the powerful classes in the government. From this moderate position, betrayal emerged quickly, as Reed explained. When the Bolsheviks disrupted this alleged compromise between classes, the moderates “found themselves fighting on the side of the possessing classes…. Today, in almost every country in the world the same phenomenon can be observed.”

Reed did not hesitate to cast his lot with one of the extremes: “Contrary to being a destructive force, in my opinion the Bolsheviks were the only party in Russia with a constructive program (…). If they had not come into government when they did, I have not the slightest doubt that the armies of Imperial Germany would have been in Petrograd and Moscow in December, and that Russia would again have been ruled by a czar.” The Bolshevik Communists were the only real force willing to fight the imperialist powers.

Leading the extremist forces was “the great Lenin,” as John Reed called him.

Ninety-seven years since his death, we remember him here as we remember Fidel, our Lenin, the Lenin of the peoples of the Third World. We remember him here on this island, where the Bolsheviks of today, defenders of the redeeming “extreme” of the dispossessed, remain determined to confront the empire, convinced that these 62 years of shaking the world are the prelude to taking the heavens by storm.

Source: Granma

Al describir los acontecimientos de la Revolución de Octubre, John Reed, en el prólogo de su extraordinaria obra Diez días que estremecieron al mundo, hace un recuento de las fuerzas que pugnaban por el poder, en medio de una Revolución que aún no lograba definir el color de su destino.

Por un lado, lo que denomina las clases poseedoras que aspiraban a quitar al Zar y sustituirlo por un poder burgués, al estilo de las democracias occidentales de Estados Unidos y de Francia; por el otro, los bolcheviques, que reclamaban centrar a la Revolución en la lucha de clases y la necesidad de que todo el poder fuera a los soviets.

Entre estas dos fuerzas que califica de extremas, John sitúa a los socialistas «moderados», las comillas son de él, no mías.  Los moderados creían que Rusia no estaba lista para una Revolución que llevara a las masas populares al poder, es decir, una Revolución social: «Consecuentemente, insistían en la colaboración de las clases poderosas en el gobierno. De ahí a apoyarlas había solo un paso. Los socialistas «moderados necesitaban de la burguesía». De esa moderación emergió la traición o, en palabras de Reed, cuando los bolcheviques desbarataron todo el pretendido compromiso entre las clases, esos moderados «se vieron luchando del lado de las clases poseedoras… Actualmente, en casi todos los países del mundo se puede observar el mismo fenómeno».

Para cerrar su juicio de lo que acontecía, el periodista norteamericano no vacila en situar su militancia en uno de los extremos: «Contrariamente a ser una fuerza destructiva, en mi opinión los bolcheviques eran el único partido de Rusia con un programa constructivo (…). Si no hubieran llegado al gobierno cuando lo hicieron, no tengo la menor duda de que los ejércitos de la Alemania imperial habrían estado en Petrogrado y Moscú en diciembre, y que Rusia hubiera estado nuevamente dominada por un Zar». Los comunistas bolcheviques eran la única trinchera real contra el poder imperial que los amenazaba.

Al frente de la fuerza extremista «el gran Lenin», como lo llamó John Reed, quien lo describió «de pequeña y fornida figura, cabeza grande, calva, y protuberante, clavada en los hombros; ojos pequeños, nariz roma, boca ancha y generosa, y macizo mentón. (…) De apariencia poco relevante para ser el ídolo de multitudes que era amado y respetado, como quizá pocos líderes de la historia. Un extraño líder popular, que lo era solo por la virtud de su intelecto (…) con el poder de explicar profundas ideas en términos sencillos, el poder de analizar concretamente las situaciones. Y, combinada con la sagacidad, la mayor audacia intelectual».

A Lenin, a 97 años de su muerte, lo recordamos aquí como recordamos a Fidel, nuestro Lenin, el Lenin de los pueblos del Tercer Mundo. Lo recordamos aquí en esta Isla, donde los bolcheviques de ahora, defensores del extremo redentor de los desposeídos, nos mantenemos empeñados en ser trinchera contra el imperio, convencidos de que estos 62 años de estremecer al mundo son la víspera de tomar al cielo por asalto.

Fuente: Granma

https://www.facebook.com/HarrietTubmanCenter/videos/1640930332768752

Video message from the Socialist Unity Party for the COVID-safe car caravan protest in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., his work and legacy, on Jan. 18 in Los Angeles.

Two weeks before he was assassinated, Dr. King told us, “If America does not use her vast resources of wealth to end poverty and make it possible for all of god’s children to have the basic necessities of life, she too will go to hell.”

Today we are living that hell. The conditions for Black Americans are as dire as they ever were, and the white supremacists that rule our nation are thriving.

Today, as we gather in the name of Dr. King, let us honor him for all of his revolutionary vision, that is all too often stripped of him by our white supremacist overlords, who have rewritten and sullied our history.

Let us never forget that Dr. King fought for socialist economics, guaranteed income, and an end to imperialism and war. His bold opposition to the war in Vietnam and calls for economic equality are surely what ended his life.

As we gather, know that the real threat has nothing to do with whether you march peacefully, break windows, stay on the sidewalk or storm a capitol building. It has to do with your principles and what you represent.

You represent an end to the racist, imperialist agenda. You represent a new future, in which they cannot destroy and plunder the earth and our communities with no consequences.

As Biden and Harris gear up to pass more terrorism laws that will do nothing but terrorize Black and Brown communities, and funnel more money to the police who murder us, remember this system is not made for us. Biden too is a relic of the racist institution that is the United States.

King warned us that their political system cannot serve us: “You can’t talk about solving the economic problem of the Negro without talking about billions of dollars. You can’t talk about ending the slums without first saying profit must be taken out of the slums.

“You’re really tampering and getting on dangerous ground because you are messing with folks then. You are messing with captains of industry. Now this means we are treading in difficult water, because it really means that we are saying that something is wrong with capitalism.”

Remarks by the Socialist Unity Party at a Jan. 16 protest in San Diego against the ongoing U.S. Africa Command (Africom) military intervention in Somalia. Despite an announced Jan. 15 withdrawal of several hundred U.S. troops from the African country, drone strikes and Special Forces operations will continue. The troops will not be brought home, but transferred to bases in Kenya and Djibouti.

The actions of Africom sparked global controversy. Leaders around the world were alerted. As a result of the outcry, Amnesty International conducted an investigation. Their investigation of just nine airstrikes revealed 21 civilians killed, 11 wounded, many more displaced, and they ruled it a clear violation of international law.

Africom subsequently admitted to killing and injuring people in four separate airstrikes. Up to this very day, neither the victims nor their families have ever been compensated or even contacted by the U.S. or Somali governments.

So what is Africom for? We know it’s not to help people. Nothing the U.S. ever does makes it better for the people there. I challenge anyone to show me one time where the lives of the average people improved when the U.S. moved in.

Imperialism is still the agenda — just like in the slavery trade, just like in the scramble for Africa.  To steal and exploit the inexhaustible mineral wealth and to cause the continued underdevelopment of the continent and its inhabitants.

That’s an important part, the underdevelopment, when we talk about slavery. When you take key people out of their community, guess what happens to that community? Don’t let them tell you that they were all savages and barbarians. 

In western Africa, we know that they had empires before the 1500s. They had doctors, teachers, what you would call professional people who maintained those societies. And when you went in and took millions out, you underdeveloped that entire continent. That’s a crime in and of itself.

Specifically, the U.S. is in central Africa for the coltan mines that fuel the tech industry. Coltan is key. That’s why they’re there. 

A news report from 2015 after the reporter visited a coltan mine demonstrated how the imperialists were exploiting the workers. After their haul is weighed and classified, the miners are paid $5 a day for the backbreaking work to dig out the precious metals that power our smartphones.

Recently, Africom announced it would be withdrawing from Somalia. This is no doubt in response to the public outcry against their war crimes in the country. But Somalians are demanding justice for these crimes. You can’t do the out-of-sight, out-of-mind trick. Pulling out of Somalia is not going to make us forget. It doesn’t absolve you of those crimes or make you not responsible.  

Citing Africom’s own admission of wrongdoing, Amnesty International said the troop withdrawal must not derail this momentum. Africom has an ongoing duty to care for the civilians impacted by its operations.

It’s been said that solidarity with Somalia is key. So we must stand with the Somali people in demanding justice, from Africom and its imperialist aims. 

We must not only join in Amnesty International’s demand for justice and for reparations, we must also call for an end to Africom. And we must call for the destruction of U.S. imperialism around the world.