‘We Bolivarians make cosmic dust of the Monroe Doctrine. That is our victory, Mr. Blinken,” Foreign Minister Yvan Gil said.

Sept. 9 – On Sunday, Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister Yvan Gil said that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is seeking to publicize a coup d’état in the South American country through social media.

“Their plans were dismantled through voting and civic-military-police unity and mobilization,” the Bolivarian diplomat said, asking the U.S. government to accept the results of the July 28 presidential elections issued by the National Electoral Council and ratified by the Supreme Court of Justice.

In that democratic process, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was re-elected for the 2025-2031 period, defeating far-right politician Edmundo Gonzalez, who is currently in Spain after the Bolivarian government granted him a safe-conduct to leave the country.

“We Bolivarians make cosmic dust of the Monroe Doctrine. That is our victory, Mr. Blinken,” the Foreign Affairs Minister said in response to a post by Blinken on the social network X in which the Secretary of State encourages a coup in Venezuela with the justification that citizens voted for a change.

In his message, Blinken claims without evidence that the Government of Venezuela “has killed or imprisoned thousands of people.” Foreign Minister Yvan Gil said that the statements of the U.S. high official are part of a new U.S. strategy and emphasized to Blinken that his objectives failed.

Source: teleSUR

Nigeria is experiencing its worst economic crisis in a generation. Annual inflation stands at more than 30%. Prices for food like yams, a staple food, are almost four times higher than last year.

New protests against the recent fuel hikes began the first week of September.

Protests, inspired by the protests in Kenya against IMF-imposed austerity, pushing poverty, encouraged protests to demand an end to the Nigerian President’s “shock doctrine.” The so-called shock therapies that the Nigerian president is currently using include the reduction of gas subsidies higher electrical costs, and the devaluing of the currency, which is like a pay cut for workers. That austerity allowed Nigeria to get a $2.25 billion loan from the World Bank and the austerity is celebrated by the banks. But not celebrated by the victims of the imperialist’s financial and economic war on the people.

Ten people who took part in last month’s protests across Nigeria have been charged with treason and other serious offenses at the federal high court in the capital, Abuja.

All of the accused pleaded not guilty. The charges of treason look very similar to the charges by the U.S. federal government against the three members of the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement in Florida – serious charges that break down into criminalizing speech.

Amnesty International has labeled the ongoing trials in Nigeria as a “sham.”

We are honored to present this report by Nigerian journalist and President of Society of International Awareness (SIRA) Owei Lamkefa.

– John Parker

Democratizing treasonable felony and deregulating intelligence failure

ADEYEMI Abayomi Abiodun is a respectful, hard-working and dedicated youth. At 6 p.m. Monday, August 26, 2024, he was picked up by the Nigeria Police Force, NPF. He is a staff member of the Iva Valley Bookshop located at the headquarters of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC. His employment by the bookshop means he is guilty by association.

The police had raided the bookshop in the night of August 7, 2024, in search of Drew Povey, the bookshop owner. The NPF claims that Povey, a Briton, is the prime suspect “in numerous criminal activities across Nigeria and other African countries.”

Apparently, Abayomi could not help the police in their investigations nor implicate himself as a sponsor of protests in the country. Those who saw him three days later in police custody said he was in chains and had evidently been badly tortured.

Povey had returned to the United Kingdom on a scheduled trip three days before the police raid, so there was no way Abayomi could produce him.

Povey’s immediate family was in a similar dilemma. So members have suffered visitations by security agents. These include visits to the Stars of Nations Schools, which the family runs and where Povey’s wife, Helen Batubo, is principal. On August 21, 2024, her home at Serenity Estate, Karshi, in Nasarawa State, was raided.

Povey also claims the police raided his personal home: “The police smashed in the front gate and the back door of my house. They turned everything upside down and stole our television and my granddaughter’s bike. They then left the house unlocked for anyone to enter. Later, police were seen returning to try and trap my family.” He also claimed that in the various raids, the NPF had seized his books, photocopier, and car.

Ms. Batubo herself was invited and interrogated by the NPF on allegations of “criminal conspiracy, terrorism financing, treasonable felony, subversion, and cyber crime.” These allegations carry a life sentence.

The interrogations reveal that the main claim against Povey is that he is one of the foreign sponsors of protests in the country. Snippets also indicate that he is suspected of sponsoring the ongoing civil war in Sudan, which has claimed some 15, 000 lives, 33,000 injured, with at least 10 million persons displaced or becoming refugees.

When in a phone interview, the National Record Newspapers asked Povey about the allegation of sponsoring the Sudanese conflict, he responded: “It is true that I worked as a secondary school teacher in what is now Sudan for a year. But this was 45 years ago and I have not visited the country since then.”

Povey has lived on and off Nigeria for about a quarter of a century now and what struck me about him is that he seems a conscientious investor who is committed to Nigeria. I reached this conclusion based on his investment in education, marriage to a Nigerian, which technically should earn him citizenship, and, of course, in running the Iva Valley Bookshop and Business Center.

I am not surprised he is of interest to the security services given the fact that he is an enthusiastic leftist with an undisguised aversion to international agencies like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. These agencies have, since 1986, virtually dictated the economic direction of the country. This may make Povey appear like an enemy of the state.

I also find interesting the fact that he named his seven-year bookshop, Iva Valley. That is the coal mine where, on Friday, November 18, 1949, British colonialists opened fire on striking coal miners. Twenty-one miners were killed and 51 others injured in the shootings. This became known as the Iva Valley Massacre. Apart from the international outcry it elicited, that event became the rallying point for nationalists.

Since independence, the political elites have tried to downplay that massacre and its significance in the anti-colonial struggles. Comrade Ola Oni, an outstanding radical, mentor of youths and conscientious intellectual, had tried to keep it alive by naming his popular bookshop in Bodija, Ibadan, Iva Valey Bookshop. But that seems to have collapsed after he passed away on December 22, 1999.

The last time I met Povey and Abayomi at a public function was on July 19, 2024, when the proactive Political Science Department of Bingham University organized a symposium to commemorate 50 years of the famous book How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, written by the intellectual giant and political activist, Walter Rodney.

A salutary contribution by the duo on that occasion was to make the book available to all those who wanted copies. The price was low, as are most books the bookshop sells.

Let me add that it is not just Povey, Batubo, and Abayomi that are being accused of these serious crimes. Others, like Comrade Joe Ajaero, President of the NLC, are similarly accused. Also, six Polish students and a lecturer were arrested for allegedly taking part in the ‘End Hunger Protests’ in Kano and waving Russian flags while doing so. I felt ashamed that our security agents did not have the most basic knowledge of international relations. If their leaders did, they would have known how weird it is to accuse the Polish of carrying Russian flags. Good sense prevailed, and the Polish were released after some weeks.

This liberal democratization of these crimes reminds me of the Abacha junta. In those days, any seeming dissident earned you an allegation of being “an accessory after the fact of treason”, and you are off to life in jail. When the then Publisher of The Sunday Magazine, TSM, said she doubted the veracity of an alleged coup by Colonel Lawan Gwadabe, she was sentenced to life.

When TheNews magazine reported that the Military Tribunal was setting some of the accused coup plotters free, one of its Editors, Kunle Ajibade, was tried as an accessory and received life sentence. Dr Beko Ransome-Kuti, the leader of the Pro-Democracy Movement, was suspected of being in possession of the defense statement of coup suspect, Colonel Bello Fadile. For this, he was tried as an accessory to treason and sentenced to life.

The security agencies should not return the country to those Babangida and Abacha junta days. They need to concentrate on the rampant cases of banditry, terrorism, and kidnappings that have seized the country. They also need to win the trust of the citizenry, especially the youth, who can assist in fighting the true enemies of the state and ensure the protection of the country.

Let me draw the government’s attention to a reality. While it is dissipating energy searching universities, bookshops, and bus stops, and accusing Poles, Britons, Nigeriens, and Nigerians in the Diaspora of sponsoring the protests, hunger, the real sponsor, is hiding in plain sight.

The Haitian State is repressing Haiti’s masses by importing foreign military occupation troops, called the Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS), to reinforce the Haitian National Police (PNH), the traditional counterinsurgency force deployed by the international and local ruling classes.

The State is also looking to bolster the Armed Forces of Haiti (FAdH), which has historically been the ruling classes’ principal hammer to keep the masses down. Although disbanded in 1995, the force was relaunched in 2017.

But the puppet government of de facto Prime Minister Garry Conille and the nine-member Transitional Presidential Council (CPT) are also using what could be called economic or financial repression.

The MSS has not been going well. It is plagued by low morale and shortages and delays in the delivery equipment and ammunition as well as the deployment of forces. Blessed by the UN Security Council (with Russia and China abstaining) on Oct. 2, 2023, its first 200 Kenyan troops could not deploy in Haiti until Jun. 25, 2024. Another 200 Kenyans arrived on Jul. 16, three weeks later, bringing the MSS current force strength to a mere 400 Kenyans, who have spent most of their time in their U.S.-built base. The MSS is supposed to eventually amount to over 2,500 soldiers from 10 nations.

The main problem is money. “While the United States has contributed $369 million in money, equipment and services, a UN fund [for the MSS] only has about $68 million, leaving it over $150 million short of the estimated $589 million needed for the first year’s operations,” Reuters reports.

Too make matters worse, those 400 deployed Kenyans are discouraged by bait-and-switch salary tactics. “For those already in Haiti, uncertainty around pay has weighed on morale,” Reuters explained. “The officers were told in Kenya that they would receive monthly bonuses of around $1,500, several times their regular salaries, two officers said, adding they never signed contracts and were not told when they would be paid… [On Sep. 2], some officers had received [bonuses] while others had not, three officers said. But they said they were given no explanation for how their pay was calculated, with some only receiving about $750.”

“It is very demoralizing,” a senior officer told Reuters.

Rank-and-file soldiers were already disgruntled about their much lower pay, Haïti Liberté reported in July.

Meanwhile, PNH cops are still being sent out with hardly any ammunition, a trusted source says. Some six million rounds of 9mm, .762, and .556 ammo bound for Haiti have been sitting since last year on palettes at AmeriJet’s hangar in Miami, all due to corruption and incompetence in both the PNH bureaucracy and that of the U.S. Embassy’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) unit.

Faced with these problems in both the MSS and PNH, the Conille government aims to beef up the FAdH. According to the National Defense Ministry’s website, some 4,981 signed up to take the “intellectual exams” on Sep. 1 to become soldiers in the force which now numbers between only 1,500 to 2,000.

“Thousands of young Haitians are jumping at the chance to become soldiers as widespread gang violence creates a rare job opportunity in a deeply impoverished country where work is scarce,” the Associated Press reported this week.

Ironically, the need for military repression is being fueled by the Haitian government’s just unveiled austerity budget, an expression of economic repression.

According to economist Simone Wapler, financial repression is “an arsenal of measures that allow States to reduce the cost of their debts by manipulating the markets and their citizens.” In Haiti, the anti-national State has taken a whole series of economic measures to maintain the proletarian masses in living conditions that border on slavery.

These include: setting interest rates at almost zero to lend money to bankers, financiers, and other business sector groups; paying remittances from Haitians living abroad in the local currency, the gourde; increasing the value added tax (VAT); and promoting the increase in the prices of basic necessities.

Indeed, according to the Haitian Institute of Statistics and Information’s (IHSI) latest report in July 2024, the general consumer price index (CPI) has maintained its inflationary progression from 317.9 in July 2023 to 413.3 in July 2024, an annual increase of 30%.

No public investment to improve the living conditions of Haiti’s impoverished masses is planned in the 2023-2024 “rectified” budget published last week in Le Moniteur. It only contained the same old tricks which promote corruption, cost overruns, and the embezzlement of public funds through bogus programs which will not lift the national economy by increasing state tax revenues or national production. The construction of new irrigation systems should have been the priority, since such labor-intensive works create economic benefits like increased tax revenues while facilitating the revival of national food production, which would address the dire food insecurity crisis faced by nearly half a million Haitians.

Instead, the Haitian State has chosen to hand out cash willy-nilly to random categories of people.

On what criteria will the Haiti’s State choose the beneficiaries of the cash transfer to more than 25,000 households in Haiti’s ten geographical departments, or 2,500 households on average per department? On what criteria will the government choose the 35,000 assembly factory employees for financial support? On what criteria will it grant a targeted subsidy to 25,000 public transport operators? How will the State proceed with giving money to more than 280,000 parents of schoolchildren in national schools in seven of Haiti’s geographical departments, i.e. 40,000 parents on average per department?

On the basis of what criteria and how will the public treasury distribute 61,230 “solidarity baskets” to vulnerable households through the Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development, in addition to installing 400 “community restaurants” throughout the country?

Donations from the Food Shock Window (FSW) program of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will be squandered like the millions of dollars for reconstruction after the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake and the development funds borrowed from oil sales under the the PetroCaribe program. The masses’ impoverishment will grow without a revolutionary government’s program of real economic and social development that would transform today’s economic system into a socialist economy, based on the formula: “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.”

The annual inflation rate of 30% constitutes a crime against Haiti’s masses, a form of economic repression, coupled with tax repression where the masses pay more taxes than the more privileged layers of Haitian society, where the private sector benefits from all tax and commercial advantages in addition to their practice of tax evasion (smuggling) and corruption (overcharging), while the Catholic Church is subsidized by the State.

The prices of food products and non-alcoholic beverages increased by 42.3% over the period from July 2023 to July 2024; clothing and footwear items shot up 22.2%; housing, water, gas, electricity, and other fuels increased by 18.7%.

The economic repression is deepened when the two cellphone monopolies, Digicel and Natcom, without improving their technical service, have increased the price of communication in Haiti by 42.2% in one year.

Meanwhile, importers, in complete freedom and without worry, despite the stability of the gourde against the U.S. dollar, increased the price of rice by 55.9%, corn by 48.7%, millet by 50.1%, meat by 41.7%, fresh fish by 44.3%, herring by 41.6%, edible oil by 44%, lemons by 90.7%, bananas by 44.2%, fabrics by 23.1%, dresses by 24.2%, tights by 24.5%, suits and universal jackets by 23.6%, housing rent by 18.9%, charcoal by 27.5%, propane gas by 24.2%, meals consumed outside by 30.5%. All this inflation in a country where unemployment is raging and formally affects 16% of the active population in Haiti.

Even the prices of local products have increased by 29.7% to reinforce the economic repression on the Haitian masses.

The least affected regions in Haiti, according to the IHSI, were the departments of the Center and Artibonite with an increase of 28.5%, and the “Great North” (the North, Northeast, and Northwest departments) with an inflationary increase of 28.1%.

Since founding father Jean-Jacques Dessalines’ assassination on Oct. 17, 1806, this is the somber scenario that Haitians have endured: political repression and exclusion of the masses, economic repression for the benefit of local importers and their foreign masters, commercial repression made of economic and commercial monopolies, tax repression where the masses pay the largest share of the national tax base, financial repression where the popular masses pay the highest interest rate on borrowing and earn the lowest interest rate on savings.

Haitian progressives, let us unite to carry out a national liberation struggle for Haiti.

Notes:

1) Simone Wapler is a journalist and economic author. She was long-time editor-in-chief of Agora Publications, paid newsletters specializing in financial analysis and advice founded by Bill Bonner.

2) Data taken from Table 1: Evolution of the Consumer Price Index of the IHSI Monthly Bulletin, JULY 2024.

3) Unemployment rate reference: World Food Programme, Country Strategic Plan, Haiti 2024-2028 Analysis of the country situation, page 7 no 23.

Source: Haïti Liberté

Statement from the Central Organizing Committee of the Communist Party of Kenya (CPK)

Comrade Booker’s Illegal Arrest: A Cowardly Attack by a Regime in Fear

Fellow Kenyans, comrades, and the international community, we come to you in a state of fury and defiance after the illegal and politically motivated arrest of our National Vice Chairperson, Booker Ngesa Omole, on the 7th of September, 2024.

This regime has once again shown its true colors—an administration of fear, repression, and state-sponsored harassment against those who dare challenge its authority. Booker was on an official assignment for the Communist Party of Kenya, en route to China, a country with which Kenya has ongoing diplomatic relations. In a shocking display of abuse of power, Booker was arrested aboard a Qatar Airways flight bound for Beijing via Doha. The immigration police at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) acted on a stop order with no basis in law, detaining him for six hours before handing him over to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI). The state is desperately trying to silence the leaders of the revolutionary movement. What was the basis of Booker’s arrest? Incitement to violence—an outrageous and baseless charge meant to humiliate and intimidate. The arresting officer even mocked him of competing with the president by thinking he can travel to Beijing when the head of state has just concluded his visit to China. The absurdity of this explanation exposes the fragile paranoia gripping this regime. The Kenyan government is willing to expend more resources chasing after revolutionaries than addressing the real criminals plundering our country. We must ask ourselves: why is this government so afraid of Booker’s trip to China?

What truths does he carry that they fear? Let it be known: there is nothing illegal about Booker’s travel! The same President who continues runs from the truth in Kenya only visits China to peddle lies and more lies. The hypocrisy is staggering.

Booker was taken from JKIA to Central Police Station under the cover of night, where he was locked up for two hours. It was only due to public pressure and multiple calls to the Inspector General that he was released at 11 p.m. But the damage had been done.

His travel documents—passport, yellow fever card, and boarding pass—were confiscated, and to this moment, the state has yet to return them. Let this be clear: the charges of incitement and the use of Section 56 of the Police Act are relics of colonial rule, unconstitutional and out of place in post-2010 Kenya. These laws must be quashed from our penal co de, and we demand their immediate abolition. This harassment will not deter us. The Kenya Kwanza regime, led by the dictator William Ruto, must return Booker’s travel documents immediately and cease this state-sponsored witch hunt. They can try to harass us, intimidate us, and fabricate charges, but the truth is on our side. The only criminals here are the ones sitting in power, auctioning off our country to imperialists and multinational corporations.

Ruto shall not change. He is beyond reform. Every act of repression only cements what we have long known: the only solution for this nation is to remove him from power once and for all. The Kenyan people deserve leadership that fights for them, not against them.

The Communist Party of Kenya, alongside all revolutionaries and patriots, will continue the struggle for justice, freedom, and dignity. To the Kenyan people, rise up! Let this illegal arrest serve as a reminder of the lengths this regime will go to maintain its grip on power.

We shall not be silenced. Ruto and his cronies have no future in a free and just Kenya. The people shall prevail. The revolution will triumph. Return Booker’s documents! Stop the witch hunt! Ruto must go!

Signed, The Central Organizing Committee of the Communist Party of Kenya In solidarity with the oppressed masses of Kenya

Source: Friends of Socialist China

At the beginning of August, leaders of North America’s largest dockworkers’ union, the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), sent the employer association, USMX, a strike notice that federal law requires 60 days before a strike. 

When ILA delegates met on Sept. 4 and 5, they reported that union members voiced unanimous support for a strike. As delegates discussed the demands and a strike strategy, ILA  president Harold Daggett told the ILA members they must be prepared “to hit the streets at 12:01 on Tuesday, Oct. 1.”

Longshore workers on the West Coast are in the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). They deal with the country’s biggest container volume. On the East Coast, the five busiest ports are covered by the ILA contract agreement with USMX: New York/New Jersey, Savannah, Houston, Virginia, and Charleston.

A strike by the ILA, which moves the trade at the ports along the East Coast, Gulf Coast, and Puerto Rico, would impact 43% of all U.S. imports and billions of dollars in trade every month. 

Contract negotiations between the ILA and USMX began in 2022. The ILA demands are a wage increase, greater management contributions to retirement benefits, larger employer contributions to local benefits, higher starting pay, and a continuation of existing health care coverage.

The Real Story

On July 20, in an “Open Letter to the Public: The Real Story Behind Our Fight,” Dennis Daggett, the son of Harold Daggett and the ILA Executive Vice President, told members that a priority in the negotiations is the demand for the retention of existing technology language that created a framework on how to modernize and improve efficiency while protecting jobs and hours.

The leadership of ILA has long been considered more conservative than the ILWU on the West Coast. The ILA says they have not been on strike in half a century since 1977. Faced with the pressures of globalization, imperialist wars, and climate change conditions, such as the drought threatening the Panama Canal, the leadership appears to be becoming more active by calling on the members to take defensive action.

In his open letter, Daggett, who is also a representative of the International Dockworkers Council (IDC), wrote:

“Over the past few years, the shipping industry has undergone a significant transformation. Many private equity firms like BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street, which now own 88% of the companies on the S&P 500, have started to infiltrate our industry. Firms like BlackRock, focused solely on profits and return on investment, have partnered with companies like Mediterranean Shipping Company’s subsidiary, Terminal Investment Logistics (TIL), and others to acquire and build terminals worldwide. Their influence is growing, and it poses a direct threat to our livelihoods. 

“A decade ago, ocean carriers decided to exit the terminal operating business to concentrate on their steamship lines and logistics. But now, in the aftermath of the pandemic, they are reclaiming control over terminals. This shift isn’t just about business strategy – it’s about controlling where and when they can place their cargo without dealing with third parties.

“For them, it’s about power and profits. For us, it’s about our jobs and the future of our families.

“BlackRock and other private equity firms don’t care about workers. They care about their bottom lines. They see automation as a way to increase profits, even if it means eliminating jobs historically performed by human beings. For the past two years, the ILA has been fighting to secure a new contract for our members, with our current contract expiring on Oct. 1, 2024. We know what we’re up against, and we’re ready to fight to protect and preserve our jobs and our industry. 

“We’ve been paying close attention to the enormous profits ocean carriers, and terminal operators have made in recent years. … These companies have raised rates on their customers to keep their profits soaring, but they refuse to share this wealth with the workers who helped them achieve these profits. Instead, they aim to cut costs further by eliminating jobs and attempting to automate our work.”

Will Biden issue strike-breaking Taft-Hartley order?

When ILA president Harold Daggett spoke to the members in a video during the September delegates meeting, he said they were bargaining in good faith. He threatened a worker slowdown if the Biden administration forced the union workers back to the docks using the Taft-Hartley Act.

“Taft-Hartley means I have to go back to work [for 80 days] after a cooling off period,” said Daggett. “What do you think when I go back after those [80 days], that those men are going to go back to work on that pier? It’s going to cost them money. They’re going to be like this,” he said, making a gesture of putting his hands around his throat in a choke hold. The company’s money to pay their salaries while they go from 30 [container] moves an hour maybe to eight?” he said. “You’re better off sitting down and let’s get a contract, and let’s move on with this.”

During ILWU contract negotiations on the West Coast in 2023, longshore workers worked at a rate that created a logjam of trucking and rail containers. Union actions in recent years have impacted the global supply chain.

Intervening on behalf of the distribution companies, governments have been forcing union workers off the picket line and back onto the job. 

The Canadian government intervened in contract negotiations this August. Trade between Canada and the U.S. was disrupted after Canadian freight rail workers, represented by the Teamsters, were locked out during contract negotiations by Canadian National Railway (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City.   

The Canadian Teamsters issued a statement saying: “By resorting to binding arbitration, the government has allowed CN and CPKC to sidestep a union determined to protect rail safety. Despite claiming to value and honor the collective bargaining process, the federal government quickly used its authority to suspend it, mere hours after an employer-imposed work stoppage. This action mirrors their earlier interference this year, where they used the CIRB to stifle bargaining for months.”

Despite his claim to be “union-friendly,” U.S. President Joe Biden called on Congress to intervene in the stalled talks between railroads and some of the rail industry’s major unions. Congress passed legislation on Nov. 30, 2022, that enforced a rail labor agreement and blocked the workers’ right to strike. 

Reflecting the pressure of the upcoming election and in a naked distortion of the truth, the Biden administration told CNBC during the first week of September, “We’ve never invoked Taft-Hartley to break a strike and are not considering doing so now.” 

An ILA strike on Oct. 1 would impact not only the U.S. economy but the U.S. elections as well. It may be a bargaining chip in the union’s favor.

Around 5,000 tons of aid bound for Gaza has been blocked by Turkish authorities, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition has said, with one of the group’s vessels stranded in the port town of Haydarpaşa and waiting for approval to head to the besieged enclave.

Freedom Flotilla Coalition has been confined to the Turkish port for more than 45 days, despite passing all the necessary checks to depart for Gaza, the group has said.

The aim of the flotilla is not only to deliver desperately needed aid to Gaza but also to raise awareness about the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave which is on the verge of famine.

“As human beings, we have a duty to stop this genocide committed by Israel and its collaborators. We have prepared ships to break the blockade and carry humanitarian aid and these ships need to be allowed to sail,” said Beheşti İsmail, a Steering Committee member of the Freedom Flotilla.

“As we approach the one-year marker of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, we speak not only to the Turkish government but every member of every political establishment around the globe when we say: any political obstacles placed in our path are walls that must be overcome and torn down,” İsmail said, adding: “Those who build these walls will not be able to account for their actions before the conscience of the world.”

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause throughout the 11-month war on Gaza and before, making him a key target of the Israeli political establishment.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was also invited to address the Turkish parliament last month where, wearing a Turkey-Palestine scarf, he gave a defiant speech about the war on Gaza.

Erdogan has also been applying pressure on Israel and its allies to end the war, Ankara has said, where he even threatened in July to send Turkish troops to Israel if the offensive on Palestinians continues or an invasion of Lebanon takes place.

The coalition attempted to send a humanitarian vessel to Gaza in April but was blocked due to “Israeli tactics“.

In 2010, a flotilla to Gaza led by Turkish activists was subject to a brutal assault by Israeli special forces, resulting in the massacre of 10 unarmed people.

Gaza has been subject to a crippling blockade by Israel since 2007, which has intensified during October with the UN warning of famine due to a lack of essential supplies.

Source: The New Arab

Tampa, Fla., Sept. 5 – This morning the U.S. government will continue presenting their “evidence” which may conclude the prosecution portion of the trial as early as Monday. 

The U.S. government is attempting to criminalize international solidarity but has come up against a solid and growing wall of support for the Uhuru 3 when their federal trial opened Sept. 3 here in Tampa. Collectively known as the Uhuru 3 — Omali Yeshitela, Chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party, Penny Hess, Chair of the African People’s Solidarity Committee, and Jesse Nevel, Chair of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement — are falsely accused of being pawns of a foreign government. And, of course, that foreign government would need to be Russia to justify spending so much on the investigation and what, at the outset, looked like a lengthy trial.

The proverbial election interference elephant in the room is undoubtedly AIPAC and “Israel” that get a free pass. Not to mention the holier-than-thou U.S. government interventions on every continent, “color” revolutions like the one preceding the war in Ukraine.

What an indictment of the U.S. government that it would even suggest that an African freedom organization with a 50-year history would need a foreign power to instruct them to fight for reparations.

But, as Yeshitela was quoted in the New York Times this week, “We’re just a vehicle that’s being used to assault free speech.” And — as the Black Alliance for Peace included in their support statement — association, information, and political dissent. The Times article’s condescending attitude to the historic struggle for Black and African self-determination and dignity focused instead on what it described as a “low tech” approach for gaining “influence” in the U.S. – solidarity.

An hour before the trial began on Tuesday, Sept. 3, Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, former New York City Councilperson Charles Barron, Jaqueline Luqman representing Black Alliance for Peace chair Ajamu Baraka arrived later, Benjamin Prado from Union del Barrio, Pam Africa, the heart of the movement to Free Mumia, and others spoke at the press conference across the street from the Federal Court in downtown Tampa.

Sister Pam declared, “We are not coming here looking for justice, we are coming here to expose injustice. This is not something they thought out very well. They’ve given our brother, the Uhuru organization, each and every last freedom fighter out here, an international platform to expose exactly what these people do and the extent to which they do it.”

Rev. Edward Pinkney and Mrs. Dorothy Pinkney traveled from Michigan. Pinkney is a long-time community organizer who has led resistance in Benton Harbor, Michigan, a predominantly African-American community, to a government subservient to the Benton Harbor-based Whirlpool corporation. He suffered unjust imprisonment by a vindictive and racist capitalist power structure until a relentless international solidarity movement prevailed.

Many solidarity movements are watching this trial carefully. Nesbit Crutchfield from the Venceremos Brigade and this writer who is a Co-chair of the National Network on Cuba represented the Cuba solidarity movement in the U.S. 

Everyone who can come to Tampa next week, do come. Volunteer to help the campaign and follow HandsOffUhuru.org. Watch the daily livestream from 8 a.m. – 1 p.m. Eastern at youtube.com/UhuruTV or facebook.com/handsoffuhuru.

29 de agosto de 2024

Cerca de 20.000 personas participaron en las grandes marchas convocadas por la Coalición para marchar contra el DNC el lunes 19 de agosto y el jueves 22 de agosto. Se llevaron a cabo acciones durante toda la semana, incluida una marcha a la Misión Israelí. Representantes de Struggle-La Lucha por el Socialismo marcharon y participaron en las protestas fuera de la convención.

En un tiempo récord, la maquinaria del Partido Demócrata descartó a Joe Biden, coronó a Kamala Harris y montó un espectáculo de convención sin precedentes que impresionó al mundo, del 19 al 22 de agosto.

Probablemente se gastaron más de mil millones de dólares (se pagaron más de 76 millones de dólares al Departamento de Policía de Chicago por “horas extra” y equipo). Con esa cantidad de dinero, pueden pasar muchas cosas, y rápidamente.

El discurso de aceptación de la vicepresidenta Kamala Harris resumió el núcleo del programa del DNC. Una vez que se eliminan los lugares comunes y los discursos sentimentales a favor de un “futuro” mejor, se encuentra el núcleo del mensaje: guerra y más guerra.

Harris prometió a los generales del Pentágono, a los banqueros y a los fabricantes de armas, entre los que se incluyen las empresas de inteligencia artificial y de alta tecnología que están tambaleándose, que la guerra continuará, ya sea la guerra por subsidiarios de Estados Unidos y la OTAN en Ucrania, o la guerra no tan fría contra China, Venezuela, Cuba, Irán, Líbano, Yemen y la República Popular Democrática de Corea.

Afirmó: “Como comandante en jefe, me aseguraré de que Estados Unidos siempre tenga la fuerza de combate más fuerte y letal del mundo”.

Sobre la cuestión de Palestina, estas son las declaraciones directas de Harris:

“Siempre defenderé el derecho de Israel a defenderse, y siempre me aseguraré de que Israel tenga la capacidad de defenderse, porque el pueblo de Israel nunca más debe enfrentar el horror que una organización terrorista llamada Hamás causó el 7 de octubre, incluida una violencia sexual indescriptible y la masacre de jóvenes en un festival de música”.

Los que estaban tras bastidores y crearon el espectáculo del DNC, hicieron que los participantes entusiasmados, gritaran “¡U.S.A.! ¡U.S.A.!” durante la presentación de Harris, imitando los mítines MAGA de Trump.

La vicepresidenta Harris también proclamó: “Prometo ser una presidenta para todos los estadounidenses”. Pero una voz muy importante faltaba en el “todos”: el pueblo palestino.

Los delegados no comprometidos habían luchado para que el DNC permitiera que al menos un orador palestino hablara. Esto incluyó una sentada que duró toda la noche antes del último día. Incluso prometieron al DNC que el mensaje podría ser visto antes. Pero sus súplicas fueron aplastadas en una ciudad que cuenta con la diáspora palestina más grande de los Estados Unidos.

Tampoco hubo familiares de Sonia Massey para pedir por las vidas negras o recordarle al mundo que el terror policial racista continúa. Las verdaderas voces de los trabajadores, los oprimidos, las mujeres, la comunidad LGBTQ+, los negros, los latinos, los árabes, los mexicanos, los indígenas y los asiáticos estaban fuera de la conferencia protestando.

Los candidatos de un tercer partido, Cornel West, activista nacional de derechos civiles; Claudia De la Cruz, del Partido Socialismo y Liberación; y Jill Stein, del Partido Verde; hablaron en la conferencia de prensa de Abandonen a Biden el 19 de agosto, que votó para cambiar su nombre a Abandonen a Harris.

Lo que hay detrás del mensaje

¿A qué se debe el repentino aumento de los demócratas, particularmente en términos de respaldo financiero, junto con las excelentes críticas en los principales medios de comunicación?

José Ramón Cabañas Rodríguez, director del Centro de Investigación de Política Internacional en La Habana, Cuba, infiere la respuesta en su ecuación Kamala-Trump-Walz-Vance:

“Pero quizás una de las claves de lo que estaba sucediendo bajo la superficie la dio el megabanco JPMorgan en una comunicación dirigida a sus clientes:

“A los mercados no les gusta la incertidumbre, y parte de la fortaleza de los activos de riesgo durante el verano probablemente se debió a la mayor probabilidad de una victoria republicana. No nos sorprendería ver más turbulencias a medida que evolucione la carrera presidencial”.

“Lo que en ese momento era una mera probabilidad se confirmó de manera escalofriante con la caída récord en los principales mercados bursátiles el 5 de agosto.

“Para el mundo financiero estadounidense, lo opuesto a la incertidumbre es la predictibilidad. En las nuevas circunstancias, esta condición parece más probable en el Partido Demócrata, que no solo podría ofrecer una sensación de continuidad a partir del 2028 al equipo que podría ser elegido este noviembre, sino que también exhibe una lista de probables ‘líderes’ para el futuro que no están presentes en el Partido Republicano”.

Harris proviene de Silicon Valley y representa, en gran medida, a los capitalistas de alta tecnología cuyos intereses están conectados con la maquinaria de guerra y los industriales militares. Por supuesto, estos acontecimientos no se basan en un solo sector de la clase capitalista, sino más bien en lo que beneficia a todo el conjunto de ladrones depredadores, desde los banqueros hasta los terratenientes.

La economía capitalista estadounidense se basa (y no sólo cada vez más) predominantemente en el gasto militar y en especulaciones arriesgadas en el mercado de valores. No es un crecimiento real basado en la producción para el consumo. El resultado es una inflación continua, marcada por el desempleo y el estancamiento.

El guante de terciopelo y el puño de hierro

En este momento, el Partido Demócrata parece que podría surgir como ganador en las elecciones presidenciales de noviembre. Aunque suene burdo, hay que seguir el rastro del dinero; y no es que Trump no tenga a sus contribuyentes multimillonarios como Timothy Mellon, heredero de la fortuna bancaria de Mellon, y otros, principalmente del sector inmobiliario. La campaña de Harris se jacta de haber recaudado 540 millones de dólares desde su lanzamiento.

Pero, por supuesto, nada está garantizado, especialmente en el mundo caótico, despiadado y no planificado de la política capitalista. El mismo Colegio Electoral que todos los millonarios de ambos partidos han consagrado puede jugar a favor de la campaña de Trump.

La mayoría de los trabajadores, especialmente en las grandes ciudades, odian a Trump, y por muy buenas razones. Es un bufón racista, misógino, antiobrero y antiinmigrante. Y es un fascista. Es un buen instinto sentirse horrorizado por Trump.

Pero adoptar al Partido Demócrata como una alternativa real, cuyas políticas neoliberales en el país y en el extranjero han proporcionado el terreno para este desarrollo, no es una solución. De hecho, han alimentado el crecimiento de movimientos abiertamente fascistas.

Se podría decir que la maquinaria del Partido Demócrata representa el guante de terciopelo y los republicanos el puño de hierro. Pero no es tan simple. Es más preciso decir que, ya sea la administración Biden o una futura administración Harris, estamos sujetos tanto al guante de terciopelo como al puño de hierro al mismo tiempo.

El llamado sistema electoral burgués “democrático” y sus resultantes funcionarios electos son solo una parte de la superestructura del sistema capitalista: existe el aparato estatal de represión, que se ha vuelto más grande y más virulento y es un producto y una consecuencia de la militarización de la economía estadounidense.

Son el puño de hierro e incluyen a la racista policía asesina, el FBI con sus redadas y espionaje, los departamentos del sheriff plagados de neofascistas, el sistema judicial y penitenciario, y mucho más. Ellos, junto con el Pentágono, son los garantes del gobierno de los multimillonarios tanto en el país como en el extranjero.

El embajador retirado Chas Freeman, que fue el traductor de Nixon durante su viaje a China en 1972, dijo recientemente: “Estados Unidos está en medio de una creciente crisis constitucional que llegará a su punto crítico con las elecciones del 5 de noviembre y la transición a la toma de posesión del próximo presidente el 20 de enero… El gobierno civil en Washington puede desintegrarse a fines de este año, pero las Fuerzas Armadas de Estados Unidos no lo harán”.

Mientras que la élite del Partido Demócrata pregona la libertad y los derechos constitucionales, los ataques masivos y violentos contra campamentos estudiantiles que se oponen al genocidio en Gaza contradicen el derecho mismo a protestar. Los despidos de maestros y trabajadores que se posicionan a favor incluso de un alto el fuego se hacen para acallar a la oposición.

El escalofriante caso de los 3 de UHURU, miembros del Partido Socialista de los Pueblos Africanos que fueron víctimas de equipos SWAT militarizados y acusados de conspiración por hablar en contra de la maquinaria de guerra, tiene como objetivo aplastar la libertad de expresión. Los ataques a organizaciones sin fines de lucro como The Peoples Forum en la ciudad de Nueva York, amenazan la capacidad de construir centros organizativos.

Debe ser imposible para las madres y los padres palestinos, que lloran a sus hijos asesinados y sufren un genocidio absoluto, y para los pueblos ocupados y colonizados de toda la región, oír hablar de “un mal menor”. Es hora de romper con ambos partidos capitalistas y acabar con todo “mal”.

On Sept. 1, Zionist occupation forces announced that six “hostages” were found dead near the Rafah border crossing. The announcement sparked all sorts of outrage among the “Israeli” fascist masses. 

Demonstrations numbering in the hundreds of thousands of people rocked cities across “Israel.” Further, occupied Palestine’s largest labor union, Histadrut, has called a general strike that will last until the “hostages” are brought back within the 1967 borders. 

The central demands of the demonstrations and Histadrut revolved around Zionist captives currently held in Gaza. Zionist society and Western media frame these captives as “hostages” to garner sympathy and rally mass fascist support against Palestine.

The phrase “Bring Them Home” has become a rallying cry for the forces behind the current demonstrations. While these protests are anti-Netanyahu, they should not be misconstrued as progressive. This movement’s main gripe against Netanyahu stems from a belief that these six dead captives could have been saved if Netanyahu had not hijacked ceasefire/prisoner exchange talks. The demands of these current “Israeli” protests and strikes are entirely centered around the “hostages.” There is zero language around Palestine. 

First things first, these six individuals who died were not hostages. They were Zionists and settlers. For an occupying force to brutally enforce genocide and apartheid against a people and then shame the occupied for their resistance is nothing more than pearl-clutching and political theater. 

The blood of every single person, Palestinian or Zionist captive, killed in Gaza covers the hands of the Zionist regime and its imperialist backers. If there was no Zionist occupation, there would be no war. There would be no genocide. There would be no need for Palestinian forces to take prisoners of war, let alone for fascist stormtroopers to launch retrieval missions into Gaza. 

Second, the biggest threat to the lives of Zionist captives in Gaza is not any Palestinian resistance organization. The biggest killer of Zionist captives in Gaza is their own Zionist government. “Israeli” air strikes alone have killed dozens of Zionist captives inside Gaza. This does not even account for all those who have died and are currently dying of starvation and disease due to the generally abhorrent conditions inside the world’s largest open-air concentration camp. The Zionist regime does not care about these people’s lives. To Netanyahu and the Israeli Occupation Force, the “hostages” need to stay exactly where they are to continue justifying the war. 

Third, these current demonstrations against Netanyahu around the hostages are not progressive, nor are they anti-Zionist in nature, not even close. For the largest “Israeli” labor union to call a general strike over the deaths of six Zionist settlers but remain silent while the Zionist regime murders tens of thousands of Palestinians in cold blood is laughable. What real labor union fundamentally values one ethnicity of workers over another? The answer is, none. Like so many institutions inside the 1948 borders, Histadrut has become just another mouthpiece for genocide. 

If “Israel” wants its “hostages” back so badly, then it should end the siege on Gaza. 

Lev Koufax is an anti-Zionist Jewish activist.