“Anyone waiting for a ‘pure’ social revolution will never live long enough to see it. He is only a revolutionary in words, who understands nothing of what a real revolution is.”
– Lenin in “Review of a discussion on the law of nations,” 1916, Works, Volume 22.

On the night of Aug. 21, 1791, the enslaved men and women of the French colony of Saint Domingue, then the richest in the Western Hemisphere, rose up in fury.

They had been kidnapped from Africa, survived the deadly “middle passage,” seen their families separated, enslaved under inhuman conditions, worked around the clock, tortured, raped, abused, and humiliated.

When the day of reckoning came, three centuries of anger erupted in a geyser of violence.

The rampaging slaves burned the plantations and homes of their European enslavers. They killed men, women, and children, even infants, sometimes mutilating them as they had been mutilated. They also torched slave quarters and the abodes of free men who owned no slaves.

In addition to pillaging, raping, torturing, mutilating, and killing the French, the insurgents also put to death fellow slaves, usually “house servants,” who sought to hide or protect their masters or were suspected of doing so.

European historians and newspapers reported on this violence in lurid detail, perhaps inventing events in their accounts, and some of them even cited the uprising’s ferocity as proof of why slavery had been justified in the first place.

But 1791’s violence and the ensuing 13 years of the Haitian revolution gave birth to a completely new and transformative society, one where slavery was abolished and all men and women – at least formally – had equal rights and standing, a first in modern human history.

Today, Haiti may be in the opening days of its second social revolution, which differs from a political revolution (like Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s 1990 election) in a crucial way. An oppressed, exploited class not only seizes political power but also control of the economy, by wresting ownership from the ruling class of the nation’s means of production: its land, factories, banks, stores, transport, utilities, communications, and other economic mainstays.

Today’s revolution is also being carried out by men whom many in the West, including some “leftists,” regarded as sub-human. The revolutionaries are simply characterized as “gangs” or “thugs,” and, indeed, some of them not only committed crimes but survived off of crime, most notably kidnapping. But many others in the Viv Ansanm coalition, which now is battling the Haitian National Police (PNH), fought the criminal “gangs” with which they are currently united. Both the formerly crime-based and crime-fighting armed groups, now united for “system change,” arise directly out of Haiti’s proletariat and lumpen-proletariat in Port-au-Prince, the sprawling capital of close to three million souls.

Like the European writers two centuries ago, the mainstream media today shrieks daily about the “horrors” that they claim the modern-day insurgents are committing: wanton killings of innocent people, burning poor people’s homes, vandalism of national institutions like the National Library and the General Hospital.

In fact, the violence now seizing Haiti can be divided into four different categories.

1) Popular Rage: Like the uprising of the 18th-century slaves, Haiti’s modern-day wage slave masses have deep anger at those who have oppressed and exploited them for decades. This can be seen in their assault on institutions, however imperfect, that are essentially, formally their own, like the General Hospital. But due to corruption, lack of funding, and incompetence in its running, the masses have become alienated to the institution and take it as a parasitic body disconnected from themselves.

2) Indiscipline, ignorance, and lack of control: The “soldiers” of the various armed groups that make up the Viv Ansanm coalition have different levels of training and discipline. Some have an almost military preparation and structure, while others are more informal and anarchic.

On Apr. 3, armed individuals stormed and looted the National Library of Haiti. “I was told that the thugs are taking away the institution’s furniture,” the library’s director general Dangelo Neard said. “They also destroyed the building’s generator. I alerted the police for rapid intervention […] We have rare documents, more than 200 years old, of heritage importance which risk being burned or damaged by bandits.” The library holds some 26,000 volumes.

“No Viv Ansanm leader gave an order to attack the National Library,” Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier the next day told Haïti Liberté. “It was attacked by a group of men who don’t even know what a library is. They can’t read, they don’t know anything, they can’t even understand the concept of a library. That, in the end, is the state’s fault; the poor devils never went to school so they don’t understand that a library is a national treasure that should not be uprooted, that it has rare books, archives, important for the nation. Some of those books are irreplaceable.”

As for the General Hospital, “who in their right mind and who has gone to school would uproot and vandalize a hospital?” Cherizier asked, again blaming the state for not educating poor young men. “We have now given a formal order to all the troops to protect hospitals, schools, libraries, and the like.”

Cherizier also bemoaned that his Masonic Lodge was vandalized. “Some guys broke into my lodge and pillaged it,” he said. “I want to make a video about it. It’s again because the state never invested in educating these young men. I don’t blame them; I blame the state.”

In another interview on Apr. 9 with ON TV, Cherizier again seemed to follow the Amilcar Cabral maxim for revolution: “Tell no lies, claim no easy victories.”

He admitted to many problems but assured that the fight would go on.

“We knew that this struggle would not be easy,” he said. “Furthermore, we are fighting against an adversary which is very rich and powerful and a system which has been in place for over 200 years. We only launched this struggle two months ago. We can’t get it in our heads that we could have already finished with this system. It is powerful, controls the media, makes many opportunists hungry and uses journalists for hire to say that we are making the poor suffer and are attacking people who look like us, all to discredit our struggle.

“Our forces still remain strong and united, despite many difficult moments and several disagreements we have had. We will continue the struggle.”

3) False Flag or Psychological Operations: Viv Ansanm leaders have claimed that the police are carrying out attacks on poor neighborhoods to blame them on Viv Ansanm. On Sun., Apr. 7, one Viv Ansanm leader released a statement saying, “we are going to uproot the oligarchs with the police. The police have killed too many men and women in the poor neighborhoods. They come in their cars, shooting everyone, motorcycle drivers are killed, people have been assassinated in the Croix-des-Mission market, in Clercine, people can’t pass through Bobine… We can’t take these attacks. Nobody talks of human rights… When the police fight with us, they burn the things of poor people and then pretend that we did it… We know that literacy has not reached many in our poor neighborhoods. Often they believe the lies they hear people saying and don’t hear our side of the story even though we live in the same poor neighborhood.”

This type of “psy-op,” as it is called in CIA and Special Forces jargon, is to be expected. Indeed, the U.S. State Department’s policy paper entitled “United States Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stability” from April 2022 explicitly calls for the Pentagon “to manage and prevent conflict and address global fragility through specialized activities including… psychological operations…” This refers to efforts to discredit the Viv Ansanm through “false flag” actions. Well-known historical examples of “false flag” operations to start, maintain, or wage war are the 1898 bombing of the U.S.S. Maine in Havana’s harbor, the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin staged attack, and the 2002 charges that Iraq had “weapons of mass destruction.”

Such psyops are then echoed in the mainstream media, what the State Department calls “information operations engagements.” Also, the DoS calls for “security cooperation,” which is a euphemism for deploying U.S. Special Forces to train, command, or even fight alongside Haitian police or army.

Meanwhile, there are home-grown “psy-ops” in Haiti. Under the Aristide government, the organization KID of Evans Paul and André Michel used to take bodies from the morgue and put them in the streets as if they were victims of government death squads. It is not far-fetched to think that they have or will resort to such tactics again today.

4) Opportunistic crimes and the settling of scores: In any revolution or wartime situation, the state is weakened, the police are busy fighting, and there are people who take advantage of the situation to steal, grab, squat, or get even with a rival. Often, the culprits are unclear in the fog of war.

Last week, an octogenarian counselor and board member of Haïti Liberté, Edmond Bertin, saw the house he owns just off Avenue Jean-Jacques Dessalines in Port-au-Prince attacked by assailants and burned. Its residents had to flee. This is how blind and indiscriminate some of the violence is, especially in conflict zones near the National Palace and police stations.

Was it vandals? Was it undisciplined Viv Ansanm soldiers? Was it police or their agents? Until now, we don’t know.

But the mainstream and Haitian bourgeois media wants to magnify and call attention to every faux pas, every injustice, every error in these early days of the struggle, so as to build the case for the foreign military intervention that Washington, Ottawa, and Paris want to see. On that note, let us give the final word to Jimmy Cherizier from his Apr. 9 statement.

“There are many things that have happened since we launched this movement which we deplore and regret. We wish they hadn’t happened. Unfortunately, when there are battles, the leaders of different zones, we are not in the streets. Unfortunately, when some of the soldiers are in the street, they carry out their own actions and initiatives, and this harms the struggle. We don’t want to be the devil’s advocate. We’re trying to understand things.

“When a young man is armed and he’s not trained, he’s a danger to himself and to society. There are things that have happened, places that have been pillaged or burned, that we deplore. But the state is responsible, because if it had educated young men and women, some of these tragedies might not have happened.

“Despite these setbacks, we’re not discouraged. We know why we’re fighting, where we’re going, and we will continue our struggle to get to exactly where we want to go.

“Everybody with guns in hand are victims. Don’t let people pass us off as the guilty ones, as the killers. Our objective is clear, and we won’t retreat. Either we work for Haiti to become a paradise for everyone, or it will become a hell for everyone.”

Source: Haïti Liberté

As there is a growing trend among the Left to sway away from openly supporting Resistance groups, leftists need to pause and ask themselves what the figures they cherish would do.

To say that the Israeli genocide against Palestinians has been ongoing for six months is inaccurate, as it started in 1948, 76 years ago. Over the past 76 years, Palestinians have exhibited magnificent strength and determination in facing their oppressor, defending themselves against the Israeli occupation, and fighting for their own liberation and freedom. Their resistance has worn several shapes and forms, from a simple rock thrown at an Israeli Merkava to meticulous, groundbreaking operations carried out by Resistance groups.

Ever since local resistance movements emerged, many people have stood up against them for reasons that vary from pure Western propaganda to just simply being pro-imperialist. The saddening stance, however, is the one taken by several leftists around the world who do want a free Palestine but do not support resistance groups.

The very same people praise revolutionaries like Ernesto Che Guevera, who dedicated his life to fighting imperialism through armed struggle, making imperialists fear him even after it gruesomely killed him. Che Guevara showed the world the importance of fighting imperialism through guerilla warfare rather than mere protests. He spread important ideas through statements and actions that, to this day, inspire many people, most of whom are to the left of the political spectrum.

A very famous video for Che Guevara shows him giving a speech at the United Nations. He ends his speech by saying, “Homeland or death.” This has been embodied by Palestinians from the moment they are born to the moment they leave the world, often with their blood on the hands of Israeli occupation forces.

“Homeland or death,” if taken in the context of Palestine, strictly means that one should do everything they can to fight for a free Palestine, from the river to the sea. It means that leftists around the world should not promote or even accept a “two-state solution,” nor should they accept the demonization of Resistance groups by the Israeli occupation and its allies or even hesitate to support the Resistance.

Che Guevara is still alive

Following the Israeli attack that deliberately targeted and killed Al Mayadeen correspondent Farah Omar, videographer Rabih Me’mari, and Hussein Akil on November 20, Che Guevara’s daughter, Aleida, visited Lebanon to attend the memorial service of the martyrs.

Aleida Guevara also took a detour to Saida, a city in South Lebanon, and met with the Popular Democratic Party, a leftist group. As I was present in the meeting and had the honor to meet Che’s own flesh and blood, and heard her share many stories about her father and experiences from her own struggle against imperialism, I was curious to know what she believes Che would think amid the increasing leftist diversion from armed resistance.

So I asked, “We notice today that many people within the left, who raise pictures of Che and idolize him, have a negative stance toward several Resistance groups standing against Western imperialism, from Hamas to Hezbollah and the Yemeni Armed Forces. If Che was here today, what would his opinion be, and what can we do to unite fronts?”

She started her reply by saying that it was indeed a difficult mission to unite these fronts, but “I always say, based on my father’s thinking, we should always look for the common ground. We should begin by specifying our goals and then look for what unites us or what common goals we have.”

A group of Baltimore activists organized by the Peoples Power Assembly gathered along Broening Highway on April 7 to protest the arrival of President “Genocide Joe” Biden. The President visited the city to tour the recently collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge. 

The demonstration sent one unassailable message to Joe Biden: Genocidal maniacs and imperialist dilettantes are not welcome in Baltimore City. As Biden pretends to care about the six immigrant workers who lost their lives due to corporate greed and regulatory incompetence, thousands continue to die in the U.S.-backed Zionist genocide in Gaza. 

The protesters braved wind, cold, and rain to make their message heard loud and clear. As the war criminal flew overhead in his helicopter, the group chanted, “Biden Biden, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide!” and “Free Free Palestine!” 

After hours of demonstration, protesters marched through the southeast Baltimore neighborhood to a local park, where they held a brief community meeting that focused on future actions in the Baltimore area. 

Our city will not stand by while the zionist genocide and the repression at home only escalate. As long as the imperialist slaughter in Gaza continues, the Zionists, corporate oligarchs, and mainstream politicians will have no peace. 

On May 6, 2016, the New York Times published an obituary for Donald W. Duncan, a former Green Beret master sergeant and later an outspoken critic of the U.S. war against Vietnam. Duncan wrote articles and a memoir and spoke at many anti-war rallies.

The Green Berets, a “special operation” military unit, was first sent into Vietnam in 1957, not long after Ho Chi Minh and the liberation forces drove the French colonial forces out of Indochina. They were tasked with training soldiers for the newly formed U.S.-created “South” Vietnam puppet regime.

Duncan told the radical journal Ramparts about his special forces training, which “…included ‘methods of torture to extract information,’ including ‘the delicate operation of lowering a man’s testicles into a jeweler’s vise.’ He said he later witnessed the use of such techniques in Vietnam.”

Mr. Duncan also testified that year [1967] at an unofficial “war crimes tribunal” organized by the philosopher Bertrand Russell in Denmark, and at a South Carolina court-martial, where he spoke in defense of Capt. Howard R. Levy, a Green Beret who had also turned against the war. Captain Levy was convicted of disobeying orders and attempting to incite disloyalty, and eventually served 26 months in prison.

Duncan’s testimony about the military and the war industry is just as true now as it was then:

 I also know that we have allowed the creation of a military monster that will lie to our elected officials, and that both of them will lie to the American people.

After the U.S. was driven out of Vietnam in 1973, the Green Berets were sent by President Ronald Reagan to guide the secret illegal war to support the “Contras” in Nicaragua and their murderous campaign against the Sandinista government. The contras were responsible for killing thousands of civilians, including many members of the clergy.

In 2001, the Green Berets were the first shock troops sent into Afghanistan when the U.S. began its 20-year occupation of that country, and in 2003, they were then sent into Iraq to overturn the government there, resulting in the deaths of more than 300,000 people, mostly civilians.

Biden sends Green Berets to Taiwan to set up ‘live fire’ exercises.

On March 20, Newsweek reported that:

“Taiwan has confirmed there are U.S. troops stationed on its islands in the Taiwan Strait on a permanent basis, including an island just over a mile off China’s southeast coast.

“The [U.S.] National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in 2023 paved the way for their arrival to conduct training programs for troops on Taiwan’s front line.”

The Green Berets are now permanently stationed on Quemoy, also called Kinmen, within sight of the Chinese mainland coast, as well as Penghu, some 70 miles away.

Of course, “training” is actually down the list of duties for these soldiers. More importantly, they act as a “tripwire” for U.S. imperialism as it attempts to provoke China into open war.

The South China Morning Post reported that Taiwan’s quasi-regime will conduct 20 days of “live fire drills” on Quemoy, which the Pentagon says the Green Berets will participate in:

A military source said various guns and cannons, including M60A3 main battle tanks, 20mm cannons, 120mm mortars, and high-explosive 155mm and 105mm Howitzers, will be used during the exercises that will simulate defending against attacks from the People’s Liberation Army.

On March 7, the Eurasian Times website reported that Taiwan and the U.S. will test the Israeli-made Spyder air defense missile system as it makes its debut during these “fire drills.”

An opinion piece by Alex Lo in the South China Morning Post on March 19 puts this all into perspective:

Now imagine how Washington would react if China had permanently stationed some of its most elite troops a couple of kilometers from Hawaii, Guam or worse, the continental United States. The Pentagon would probably deploy more than a few coastguard vessels as a response.

Taiwan residents are not eager to be Washington’s proxies in war with the PRC.

The Global Affairs website published a March 2022 article about two polls conducted in Taiwan with questions about how willing the residents were to fight off an invasion by mainland China.

The article stated that the results differed sharply depending on who sponsored the poll, whether it was by the ruling pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) or a more non-aligned conductor:

One organization’s [DPP] poll had 62 percent of respondents say yes and 27 percent say no, while the other survey, with a slight difference in its wording asking whether “you or your family” would be willing to fight, found only 40 percent said yes and 51 percent said no. 

In January of this year, elections were held in Taiwan. The DPP candidate won the presidency with only 40 percent of the vote, while the combined opposition vote was close to 60 percent. The opposition parties also took control of Taiwan’s “legislature.”

The aptly named Institute for the Study of War, whose board is made up of retired Pentagon generals, former neo-con officials, and Wall Street bankers and hedge fund operators, published a March 22 “China-Taiwan Weekly Update.”

While Washington frequently boasts that Taiwan is “democratic,” this article complains that the DPP war preparations are being hampered by the opposition parties in the legislature:

The Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) are pursuing political reforms that threaten to undermine the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) governance by expanding legislative oversight of the executive branch. 

The opposition’s plan to impose checks and balances on the DPP could significantly hamper the government’s ability to pass policy by miring it in defensive actions against accusations of overstepping authority or corruption.

For these well-heeled gentlemen, imperialist war to crush socialist China is far too important to be stopped by the people that would bear the consequences of it, whether in Taiwan, mainland China, or the U.S..

Meanwhile, on April 1, former Taiwan “president” Ma Ying-jeou traveled from Taiwan to mainland China for an 11-day trip. He is expected to meet with PRC President Xi Jinping.

“This is a trip of peace as well as of friendship,” Ma told reporters in brief remarks at the airport in Taiwan before flying to the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen in Guangdong province.

Ma added that he hoped to convey a message that Taiwan’s people love peace and hope to avoid war.

As U.S. imperialism faces setback after setback in its proxy wars in Ukraine, in Gaza, and in Yemen, as it faces more and more opposition in the streets here and abroad for its devastating drumbeat for war while fundamental people’s rights are under attack, the anti-war movement must be vigilant and ready to mobilize against this threat to People’s China!

There is one China!

Taiwan belongs to all the Chinese people!

U.S., hands off Taiwan! Remove the Green Berets now!

Source: Fighting Words

The recent nonsense issued by U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on China’s ‘overcapacity’ and ‘unfair subsidies’ to its industries is particularly pathetic.  As Renaud Bertrand put it: “The so-called threat of China’s ‘industrial overcapacity’ is a buzzword that actually means that China is simply too competitive, and by asking it to address this, what Yellen is truly asking of China is akin to a fellow sprinter asking Usain Bolt to run less fast because he can’t keep up.”

Indeed, let me quote Bertrand’s rebuttal of Yellen’s claims of ‘overcapacity’: “Let’s start with capacity utilization rates. It’s crystal clear they’ve been pretty much constant in China for the past 10 years, standing at roughly 76% right now, which is in the same ballpark as America’s own utilization rates, at about 78%. So, there’s no issue there.”

Bertrand goes on: “Despite the very low prices for its EVs or solar panels, Chinese companies involved still make a profit (industrial profits are rising at double-digit growth), and they DO charge higher prices abroad than at home. The competitiveness of Chinese companies is overwhelming: today, in scores of industries – like solar or EVs – there is simply no way for American or European companies to compete with Chinese ones. This is the real issue: Yellen and Western leaders are afraid that if things keep going, China will simply eat everyone’s lunch.”

China is the only country in the world that produces all categories of goods classified by the World Customs Organization (WCO). This gives it a key advantage when it comes to end prices: when you want to build something in China, you can literally find the entire supply chain for it at home. Bertrand: “China has become an innovation powerhouse. In 2023, it filed roughly as many patents as the rest of the world combined, and it’s now estimated to lead 37 out of the 44 critical technologies for the future. All this, too, has implications when it comes to the final prices of its products.”

Europe’s leaders have been echoing Yellen’s claims.  After meeting Xi in Beijing last December, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen noted the EU’s trade deficit with China had ballooned to €400bn from €40bn 20 years ago, as she highlighted a series of complaints, including China’s industrial ‘overcapacity,’ she said: “European leaders will not be able to tolerate that our industrial base is undermined by unfair competition.”

But let’s get this right: the EU trade deficit with China has risen from $40bn to $400bn in 20 years!  Not two years, not five years, not ten years, but throughout this century.  First, that makes the rise in the deficit not so large per year, say about $10-15bn, and throughout that period, we heard little complaint from the EU that China was adopting unfair trade practices.  Suddenly, after the debacle of rising energy costs after cutting off Russian energy imports and a virtual two-year recession in the major EU countries, von der Leyen now blames China. Indeed, most of the increase in the ‘China deficit’ has come in the post-pandemic period.

As for the U.S., currently, the bilateral trade deficit between the U.S. and China relative to the size of the U.S. economy, is the lowest it’s been since 2002.  As Bertrand says, “So it’s an odd time to complain so vociferously about trade imbalance with China since, from America’s standpoint, the trade imbalance is the lowest it’s been in over 20 years.”

Nevertheless, the Keynesian/China experts promote and parrot Yellen’s message. Here is a quote from a Western media source: “Against the backdrop of rising international concern, experts believe the manufacturing strategy will not deliver on Beijing’s growth targets. Exports already account for a fifth of GDP, and China’s share of global manufacturing stands at 31 percent. Absent an explosion of demand, they say it is unlikely the rest of the world could soak up China’s exports without shrinking its own manufacturing.”

Who are these great experts?  The usual suspects.

Michael Pettis tells us that if China goes on expanding its manufacturing exports, it will have to be “accommodated by the rest of the world.” And the rest of the world is unlikely to do that.  Really?  It seems that China has no problem selling its exports to the rest of the world’s consumers and manufacturers, who are eager to buy.

Another expert is Brad Setser.  Setser tells us that “China’s domestic EV market was created via industrial policy; it didn’t appear out of thin air. A critical point, and one that is often now forgotten. Same is true of HSR and wind, and China is trying in other sectors as well.”  Shock, horror; it was not achieved through market forces but through state-led investment.  He goes on, “The reality that many of China’s export success stories now didn’t originate with the magic of the market no doubt complicates global trade, as adjusting to accommodate China’s successes doesn’t “feel” like a true market adjustment.“  In other words, the U.S. and Europe and Japan cannot compete.  So what to do?  Setser says, “I think the U.S. should make a real effort to offset China’s economic coercion here. It will take a bit of sacrifice but I at least am willing to step up.”   So competition is now called ‘coercion,’ and the U.S. must respond with coercion itself, with Setser ready to help Yellen on that.

The rationality of this nonsense is found in the Western mainstream view that China is stuck in an old model of investment-led export manufacturing and needs to ‘rebalance’ towards a consumer-led domestic economy where the private sector has free rein. China’s weak consumer sector is forcing it to try to export manufacturing ‘over capacity’.

But the evidence for this is not there. According to a recent study by Richard Baldwin, he finds that the export-led model did operate up to 2006, but since then, domestic sales have boomed so that the exports to GDP ratio has actually fallen. “Chinese consumption of Chinese manufactured goods has grown faster than Chinese production for almost two decades. Far from being unable to absorb the production, Chinese domestic consumption of made-in-China goods has grown MUCH faster than the output of China’s manufacturing sector.”

Chinese manufacturers remain highly competitive in world markets, despite all the efforts of the West to impose tariffs and other protectionist measures.  China is doing particularly well in electric vehicle production, solar energy and other green technologies. But as Baldwin points out, this export success does not mean that China depends on exports for growth.  China is growing mainly because of production for the home economy, like the U.S.

But there is a more worrying feature of this ‘overcapacity’ nonsense.  It has been swallowed hook, line, and sinker by economists in the Chinese banking sector, who were mainly trained in Western universities.  Take the recent speech by the chief economist at the China Bank, Zu Gao.  His speech was highly praised by the likes of Pettis and Setser.  Xu argued that “the significantly lower consumption-to-GDP ratio in China, compared to the global average, is the fundamental cause of the country’s lackluster domestic demand and economic slowdown.”

Xu explains that “weak domestic demand, compounded by lackluster external demand or export volumes, results in insufficient total demand, thereby stifling economic growth. In that sense, the long-term growth constraints on the Chinese economy lie not in the supply but in demand.”  Really?  China’s relative growth slowdown in the past decade has been due to the slowing expansion of its labor force with economic growth then depending primarily on raising the productivity of labor.  And that depends on investment in productivity-boosting technology, not consumption, which is a deduction from resources for investment.  Moreover, which countries have achieved faster growth in the last few years: the consumer-led West or low-consumption China?

Xu follows up his classic crude Keynesian theory by saying that “the objective of economic growth is to fulfill the people’s expectation for a better life, which is primarily manifested through their expectation for enhanced consumption—better quality food, clothing, and leisure activities. When a country’s consumption constitutes a small fraction of its GDP, it indicates a misalignment between the aggregate economic growth (as depicted by GDP) and the lived experiences of its people.”

But this is just not true.  A low consumption-to-GDP ratio does not necessarily mean low consumption growth.  And China’s consumption growth has been way faster than the consumer-led economies of the West.

Then we get to the real purpose of Xu’s speech: “The extensive presence of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in China, whose profits and dividends primarily flow to the state rather than households, diminishes the wealth effect that might otherwise stimulate household consumption.” You see, it’s China’s state-led economy that’s the problem: it is stopping “an efficient market mechanism” from working.

So what to do? “Of course, SOEs in China are technically owned by the people, yet their equity is predominantly held by the state. Consequently, the dividends from SOEs primarily flow to the state rather than the households; the profits retained post-dividend distribution from SOEs are not directly connected to the balance sheets of households, making it difficult to contribute to household wealth. So says Xu, “We need to distribute all SOE stocks to citizens,” i.e., privatise the state-owned companies.

The chief economist of China Bank seems to reckon that the only answer to the perceived ‘lack of demand’ and ‘overcapacity’ in China is to restore the dominance of the ‘efficient market mechanism”.

Fred Goldstein, a prominent Marxist thinker, revolutionary socialist, and author who contributed significantly to the international communist movement, died a year ago on April 11, 2023. His enduring legacy lies in his significant contributions to the international communist movement, notably his unwavering defense of socialist China.

As the Palestinian people in Gaza face the brutality of the U.S.-armed Zionist entity, Palestinian liberation leader Leila Khaled recently emphasized the imperialist forces’ preparations to attack China. “We know that they speak about terrorism, but they are the heroes of terrorism. The imperialist force everywhere in the world, in Iraq, in Syria, in different countries. Now they are preparing to attack China,” Khaled said

In his work “The New Cold War Against China,” Goldstein wrote:

“The conflict between imperialist capitalism, headed by Washington, Wall Street and the Pentagon, and the Chinese socialist economic system, with state-owned industry at its core and planned economic guidance, is becoming much sharper, and imperialism is growing more openly hostile.”

Goldstein’s steadfast belief in the importance of revolutionary Marxism shines through in his document, “Reviving Marx and Lenin.” He argued that understanding the struggle for socialism, including the achievements and challenges faced by the USSR, is crucial for contemporary struggles. This document serves as essential reading for revolutionary socialists, particularly in the United States, given the U.S. role as the primary instigator of war and oppression as the bulwark of world capitalism.

Goldstein authored two influential books, “Low-Wage Capitalism: Colossus with Feet of Clay” (2008) and “Capitalism at a Dead End: Job destruction, overproduction, and crisis in the high-tech era” (2012), which analyzed the impact of technology on the global working class and the restructuring of capitalism in the post-Soviet era.

To explore Goldstein’s extensive work, visit the Marxists Internet Archive.

The never-ending U.S. sponsorship of the Zionist entity makes it easy for many to believe that “Israel” is the superior in the relationship. Biden’s behavior during the horrible genocide in Gaza is designed to feed into that false narrative. 

The U.S., of course, subsidizes Israel and provides the arms and ammunition for the Zionist regime’s deadly mission to police the region to protect the oil and gas resources for giant U.S. energy companies and banks. 

Any rift between the Zionist right wing and the White House is over the management of the genocide. Israel’s job is to use whatever brutality is needed, doing the dirty work for U.S. monopoly capitalist interests.

The bloodthirsty assault on Gaza and forced starvation may incite a wider war involving Iran, Syria, and the fighting forces of Hezbollah in Lebanon. 

Already, the U.S. and Britain are engaged in a parallel war with the forces of Yemen to try to regain control of the Red Sea. As of April 6, they have bombed Yemen 148 times since January in response to Yemen’s campaign to block ships linked with Israel. Israeli warplanes bombed Iran’s embassy in Syria on April 1, escalating the war.

The absolute determination of the Palestinian people cannot be extinguished. The horrors inflicted on Gaza are outrageous. And the role of the U.S. empire has ignited an anti-imperialist movement as powerful as any this century. 

The opposition is widening and getting deeper. Mass protests are weekly in cities across the country and around the world. “Genocide Joe” Biden can’t go anywhere without being confronted by protesters. State Department officials are resigning. Two members of the U.S. armed forces have committed suicide by self-immolation. A third soldier is on a hunger strike at the White House.

The sharper understanding of the U.S. role and the mass protests have spread like wildfire and are now being expressed in the realm of international diplomacy and legality.

South Africa sued the U.S. and Israel at the International Court of Justice for violating the 1948 Genocide Convention. While the court didn’t rule that actual genocide was happening in Gaza, it did rule that South Africa’s brilliant arguments were “plausible.”

The Court ordered Israel to cease actions that, in fact, amount to genocide. The Zionist regime was ordered to report on its progress in a list of demands designed to end the genocide. 

The South African government also announced it would arrest any of its citizens who were mercenaries for the Zionists if they returned home.

A long list of countries and blocs, including the 57-member Organization of Islamic Countries, the 22-member Arab League, the Maldives, Namibia, Pakistan, Turkey, Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and others, supported the suit. 

During the hearings, the Chinese ambassador to the U.N., Zhang Jun, backed the Palestinians’ right to free themselves from occupation using armed force, calling it an “inalienable right well founded in international law.”

A few weeks after the ICJ ruling, the U.S. vetoed a ceasefire resolution at the U.N. for a third time since Oct. 7. That resolution had the support of 13 Security Council members; Britain abstained, and the U.S. vetoed it. 

The U.S.-armed Israeli Occupation Force has already killed more than 30,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and children.

The White House claimed it vetoed ceasefire resolutions to protect its negotiations for what it called a “humanitarian” ceasefire. In Qatar, representatives from Egypt, Israel, and the U.S. were meeting with Hamas, demanding the release of hostages. In the meeting with Hamas, representing the Zionists was Mossad chief David Barnea, and the U.S. was CIA Director William Burns. 

Together, the CIA and Mossad are the two deadliest terrorist organizations on the planet, sharing a long, collaborative relationship in carrying out plots of sabotage and assassination throughout West Asia and elsewhere.

Palestinian leaders participating in the talks have stood firm in their position that the release of hostages can only happen in exchange for a permanent ceasefire, unhindered delivery of food and supplies, and the release of thousands of Palestinians being held in Zionist prisons. They are trying to find a way to protect the Palestinian people. 

CNN reported that on March 5, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken ordered Qatar to threaten Hamas representatives with expulsion from Doha, where the talks are being held, unless they surrender the hostages and accept the U.S. position of only a temporary ceasefire.

After the most recent veto at the U.N., Malaysia called for abolishing the use of a veto by a single Permanent Security Council member. According to an analysis by Blue Marble, the U.S. has vetoed resolutions critical of Israel more than any other council member – 45 times out of 89 times it has used its veto power since 1945. 

Malaysia’s former Prime Minister addressed the President of the U.N., saying, “Exercise of the veto by permanent members of the Security Council should be regulated so that it cannot be used in situations such as mass atrocity crimes, crimes against humanity or war crimes.” If the Malaysia proposal were adopted, a veto could only happen if it is supported by two Permanent Security Council members, three non-permanent members, and a simple majority of the General Assembly, effectively ending the dominance of the US empire at the U.N.

It should be no surprise that Russia is also an important part of the growing outrage over the U.S./Zionist genocide. In mid-October, when Brazil submitted language for a resolution calling for a humanitarian pause to deliver aid to Gazans, Russia had submitted draft language that was ultimately stripped from the final resolution calling for an immediate, durable, and full ceasefire and to stop attacks against civilians. 

After the U.S. veto, Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told Council Ambassadors, “Anyone who did not support Russia’s draft resolution on this issue bears responsibility for what happens.” The current draft “has no clear call for a ceasefire” and “will not help to stop the bloodshed.”

Soon after the ICJ announced the results of the lawsuit in February, Nicaragua went to the ICJ against Germany for funding Israel’s genocide and cutting aid to UNRWA, the relief agency that distributes food and safe drinking water to Gazans. More than 10 U.S. allies have suspended aid to UNRWA, the main distributor of desperately needed food and water to Gazans.

Since the Al-Aqsa Flood uprising against Zionist occupation on Oct. 7, the Palestinian people in Gaza are bravely continuing the fight to win a permanent ceasefire and an end to the occupation. Despite billions of dollars in weapons provided by the U.S., the Zionist military has faced strong resistance in the north of Gaza that is largely downplayed in the U.S. media. As in the Vietnam War, the movement of millions in the streets and the efforts by so many former colonialized countries to use every avenue at their disposal to come to the aid of Palestine will bring this horror to an end. Palestine will never die.

April 7 — With the greatest sadness, grief, and revolutionary anger, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) mourns, in the name of its Secretary-General and his deputy, the Political Bureau, the Central Committee, its fellow prisoners, and all the comrades in the homeland and the diaspora, its companion, the great national and Front leader, the prisoner, the intellectual, the revolutionary thinker, and the writer Walid Nimr As’ad Daqqah “Abu Milad,” 62 years old, one of the most prominent leaders, theorists, and thinkers of the prisoners’ movement, who was martyred this evening as a result of a policy of medical negligence after suffering from a long illness.

The Popular Front extends to the comrade leader, Secretary-General Ahmed Saadat, the comrades in the prison branch and the prisoner movement, his struggling wife, Sanaa, his daughter Milad, his entire family, and all his comrades, its deepest condolences on the martyrdom of this comrade, leader and inspiration, one of the generals of steadfastness, and the distinguished national and Front leaders and writers who engraved their name in letters of gold for what he presented in rich and inspiring struggle experience for many generations of prisoners in the occupation prisons. 

He also had a rich and distinguished intellectual and literary experience that was unparalleled in its influence on the lives of the prisoners, its meanings, its revolution, and its exploits. He was one of the most prominent symbols of prison literature. Rather, it is its dean and first writer, as he contributed important intellectual and literary studies to the Palestinian, Arab, and international libraries. In parallel, the martyr was one of the most prominent national leaders and prisoners of the occupied interior who advanced the ranks in confronting the practices and violations of the occupation and participated in all the struggle battles of the prisoner movement.

Biography of Comrade Commander Walid Daqqah (“Abu Milad”)

– Born on July 18, 1961.

– He is from the town of Baqa al-Gharbiya, Haifa district.

– Commander Walid grew up in a Palestinian family consisting of 6 brothers and 3 sisters.

– The martyr received his basic education in Baqa al-Gharbiya schools, and obtained his high school diploma in 1979 from Yimma Agricultural Secondary School. He joined the university and continued his scientific and academic studies.

– During his studies, his views and awareness of the issues of his people and his deep affiliation to his Palestinian national identity blossomed.

– In 2010, he obtained a bachelor’s degree in the interdisciplinary study of democracy, and in 2016 he obtained a master’s degree in regional studies, “Israeli Studies track” from Al-Quds University, but he was unable to complete his preparation for the degree of PhD.

– He joined the ranks of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in 1983, and joined a military cell affiliated with the Front.

– In 1984, he received military training at the Front’s military bases in Syria, and then he contributed to the formation of a secret military apparatus for the Front inside the occupied interior, whose mission was to collect information about zionist leaders and officials who participated in committing massacres in the invasion of Lebanon.

– The martyr Walid and his comrades within the military cell carried out a series of operations, including the kidnapping and killing of the zionist soldier “Moshe Tammam,” as a result of which he and a group of comrades were arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment.

– He completed his sentence in March 2023, but an additional two years were added to his sentence because he was accused of smuggling mobile phones into prisons.

– He was among 23 prisoners whom the occupation refused to release in all exchange deals. The occupation also withdrew from placing him on the list of released long-term prisoners in 2013-2014.

– He is considered one of the most prominent prisoner theorists and thinkers inside the occupation prisons. He has intellectual and literary productions that have reached the international level, the most famous of which are the books “The Melting of Consciousness” and “Parallel Time,” and the novel “The Story of the Secret of Oil,” which won international fame and many awards, continued with the novel “The Story of the Secret Sword,” a second part, and it was expected that the third part, “The Tale of the Secret of the Spectrum,” would be published.

– His book, “Fusion of Consciousness or ‘Redefining Torture,’” is considered one of the most prominent productions of the prisoner movement and is considered an important reference. Through this study, he laid out the ABCs of steadfastness, discipline, rooting organizational work, and the strength of the will inside prisons. He is also credited with crystallizing concepts that describe the reality inside prisons, such as the concept of “Parallel Time” (i.e., the time of prisoners versus the time of those outside the prisons), and he wrote a large number of political, intellectual, and literary articles and studies, and is considered a first-class political thinker. He produced inside the occupation prisons a huge intellectual project during which he answered all issues, inquiries, and existential questions, as well as issues of liberation, strengthening the state of criticism within it, on his way to reaching the truth and the crisis of the national project. He was a painter who provided the prison with many important national paintings, speaking the Hebrew language fluently.

– He was subjected to torture, solitary confinement, and being prevented from visiting during his long detention, and his writings and publications were pursued by the Prison Service.

– He smuggled sperm out of prison and became a father at the age of 57 to a daughter he called “Milad.”

– On December 18, 2022, it was announced that he was suffering from a rare bone marrow cancer, as a result of which his health condition deteriorated, and he was transferred to the hospital. In June 2023, his request for release was rejected, and the Central Court also rejected the appeal he submitted against the committee’s decision.

– He died this evening as a result of a policy of medical negligence after a serious deterioration in his health.

As the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine bids farewell to its comrade, the leader, thinker, writer, inspiration, and great theoretician, it pledges to him to be loyal to his national, intellectual, and Front legacy, through which he made Palestine and the cause of its liberation his compass. Until his departure, he remained inhabited by Palestine, all of Palestine from its river to its sea.

Glory to the great martyr of Palestine and humanity.

We will certainly be victorious.

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Central Information Department

April 7, 2024

Source: Resistance News Network

April 22 marks Earth Day, highlighting decades of environmental activism. Since 1970, this date has symbolized the ongoing battle waged by environmental advocates, notably from Indigenous communities, against the relentless pollution of our planet’s air and water by Big Oil and large corporations driven by profit. Their actions have led to the destruction of natural habitats, the conversion of fertile lands into deserts, and, significantly, the alarming escalation of global warming.

On April 5, the world witnessed a historic event in Latin America. Ecuadorian police officers stormed the Mexican embassy in Quito in search of Jorge Glas, former vice president of Ecuador, during the administration of Rafael Correa (2007-2017). Hours before this violation of international law was committed, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) granted political asylum to the former official for being a victim of political persecution in his country, like so many other members of Correa’s leftist government, including Correa himself.

Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has made a sordid move amid the rising tide of violence in the country and a state of emergency closely watched by the international community for reports of arbitrary detentions and a rampant rise in drug trafficking. Dozens of heavily armed men stormed the diplomatic headquarters and then transferred Glass to a high-security prison, where he is already suffering physical and psychological torture, according to local press reports.

In images released by the government, Glass can be seen entering La Roca prison with a saddened expression, shackles in his hands, wearing a tracksuit and a gray sweatshirt, while he is led by a police officer. La Roca has a capacity for one hundred prisoners, each of them living in an individual cell. A few months ago, it housed gang leaders who vandalized cities and terrorized the Ecuadorian population.

Following the events, President AMLO announced the immediate rupture of diplomatic relations between Mexico and Ecuador, stating that “This is a flagrant violation of international law and Mexico’s sovereignty, for which I have instructed our foreign minister to issue a statement on this authoritarian act, proceed legally and immediately declare the suspension of diplomatic relations with the government of Ecuador,” said the Mexican president on his social networks, as soon as he learned of the incident.

Since then, political figures, international alliances, and governments in the region have begun to react in support of the North American nation.

One of the harshest reactions of condemnation came from Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who called the police raid a “fascist act,” while Bolivian President Luis Arce added that this action “has no precedent in the history of international law.” The president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, described the act as unacceptable, as did the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,

The Argentine government also expressed its condemnation. “The Argentine Republic joins the countries of the region in condemning what happened last night at the Mexican Embassy in Ecuador,” the Argentine Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner expressed in a publication in the social network X: “The events of public knowledge that took place in the Mexican Embassy in Ecuador constitute an unprecedented aggression in American territory that violates both international law and the historical tradition of the Republic of Mexico in terms of political asylum.” And he added: “From that country the broad concept of the right of asylum was built, which not only saved the lives of Argentine men and women in the darkest moments of our recent history, but also those of many citizens of the world.”

The Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodriguez, assured that the ambassador of the Caribbean island in Ecuador accompanied the Mexican ambassador on her departure from the territory.

“I contacted Alicia Barcena, Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, and conveyed to her all our solidarity and support to our dear Mexico. At the request of Mexican authorities, the Cuban Ambassador to Ecuador, along with other Heads of Mission, accompanied the Mexican Ambassador to her departure from that country,” Rodriguez said in his X account.

The 18 members of the Mexican diplomatic corps in Quito were also accompanied to the plane by the ambassadors of Germany, Panama, and Honduras, and the president of the Ecuador-Mexico Chamber. “Thank you all for your solidarity with the people of Mexico,” the Mexican Foreign Ministry assured in a statement.

The Alliance for Development in Democracy (ADD), formed by the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and Panama also rejected Ecuador’s actions against the Mexican embassy in Quito. In the statement, the countries that are part of the ADD “express their rejection and deeply regret the inexcusable violation by the government of Ecuador of the territorial integrity of the Mexican Embassy in Quito. We trust that Ecuador and Mexico, friendly nations, can overcome this serious conflict as soon as possible through dialogue.”

The Mexican embassy in Ecuador will remain closed indefinitely, as will its consular services, and the people of both nations will be the ones to suffer the consequences the most. “The Ecuadorian people are noble people. Mexico is for them like another homeland. Many Ecuadorians love our country and assume our culture as their own. President Noboa made a mistake by taking an unprecedent decision that not only breaks with everything established by international conventions, but also implies a disregard for the reality of his people,” Ambassador Raquel Serur told the press after her arrival in Mexico.

The outrage committed against the Mexican embassy is of such magnitude that the Government of Ecuador still cannot measure what it has done to its people. “The Ecuadorian people do not deserve the government they have. I left Ecuador with my head held high. And I arrive in Mexico standing tall,” Serur concluded.

Source: Resumen Latinoamericano – English