Argentina woke up on September 2 with the University of the Mothers (UNMA) fenced off and surrounded by members of the national police, who prevented workers from accessing the center.

The Argentine President, Javier Milei, since his arrival to the Government, started a crusade against public education -which he accuses of ‘indoctrinating’- which implied hard cuts to the economic means for its own development, among many other coercive measures. Meanwhile, he favors teaching in private centers, in his opinion, they are much more ‘objective’ in their curricula.

The Mothers’ University, formerly the Popular University of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, was founded by the homonymous association that was born on April 30, 1977, when 14 women marched in front of the Executive to demand the dictator Jorge Rafael Videla to know the whereabouts of their disappeared children.

Beyond the current Argentine president’s war against the public, we must add the fight against memory. In this sense, the persecution against the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo has not only been limited to trying to destroy academic institutions but to also erase the atrocities of the military dictatorship of the 1970’s as well.

At the end of February 2024, the new authorities of Argentine public television excluded from its programming ‘Mothers of the Plaza’, a program broadcast since 2008, which served to denounce the cases of forced disappearances of the dictatorship.

In this process of dememory, furthermore, after the commemoration of the Day of Memory, Truth and Justice on March 24, the authorities carried out actions in response. Thus, painted over handkerchiefs of the Mothers, located in front of the headquarters of the Comando Monte XII, in Misiones, were covered; and the monument in homage to those same women, in the municipality of Marcos Juarez in Cordoba, was removed.

Last Monday’s picture serves to visualize, in its symbolic and practical expression, something even more terrifying.

The Argentine dictatorship was part of what is known as Plan Condor, which led to the creation of dictatorial regimes – under the umbrella of Washington and the Latin American national oligarchies – in countries such as Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil and Uruguay, as well as the persecution and murder of more than 100,000 people.

The context was the Cold War and, under the protection of the anti-communist Truman Doctrine -a conjunctural update of the Monroe Doctrine-, the US justified its interference in what it still considers its “backyard”.

The consequences included the staging of various coups d’état, the financing of armed counterrevolutionary groups, the persecution of leftists and even the physical disappearance of their militants, as well as the creation of regimes in line with its interests. At the same time, it also served as a test laboratory for the implementation of the neoliberal model, whose main reference will always be Augusto Pinochet’s Chile.

The Latin American oligarchies and their political-partisan manifestations have developed based on a model of dependency, where they act as ‘viceroys’ at the service of the metropolis and at the expense of their peoples. The strongly reactionary and lackey character of these oligarchies is in conflict, in a natural way, with any process of popular and national emancipation in the region.

However, they are fundamental in a general scenario of geopolitical struggle, where the U.S. needs to maintain control in Latin America. All this, favored, in turn, by an organizational advance of the extreme right at the international level, which also attends to this rising conflict.

The strongly reactionary and lackey character of the oligarchies to external interests naturally conflicts with any process of popular and national emancipation in the region.
In 2021, the former president of Bolivia Evo Morales denounced the implementation of a ‘ Plan Condor 2’ in the region, after it was made public the shipment of weapons, military and anti-riot material, by the Argentine government, then led by Mauricio Macri, during the coup d’état in Bolivia, in 2019.

In recent weeks, we have witnessed a new offensive against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, which has manifested itself in different spheres: the non-recognition of its political system, its institutions and its sovereignty; cyber attacks and power cuts; and the hijacking, in collusion with the authorities of the Dominican Republic, of a Venezuelan presidential plane.

In parallel, the pressure against other States has been manifested in the interference attempts of U.S. diplomats in Mexico and Honduras, which, in the end, have been failures due to the forceful response of sovereign defense implemented by their leaders.

Meanwhile, the government of Ecuador, which violated the sovereignty of Mexico with the illegal kidnapping of Jorge Glas in the Mexican Embassy a few months ago, in a macabre staging of irony, signed new agreements with the U.S. Southern Command focused on “the implementation and promotion of human rights”.

Similarly, Gabriel Boric, who has stood out as a leader against Venezuelan sovereignty in recent weeks, followed this same script. The Southern Command and the Chilean Navy, on September 2, kicked off, the Multinational Naval Exercise UNITAS 2024, making this the second time, in less than a month, that the Chilean government has participated in naval exercises in the Pacific Ocean together with the US.

“Why is this region so important? With all its rich resources and rare earth elements, you have the lithium triangle, which is necessary for today’s technology. Sixty percent of the world’s lithium is in the lithium triangle: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile. You have the largest oil reserves, light sweet crude discovered in Guyana more than a year ago. You have the resources of Venezuela as well, with oil, copper, gold. We have the lungs of the world, the Amazon. We also have 31% of the world’s fresh water in this region. I mean, it’s out of the ordinary. We have a lot to do. This region matters. It has a lot to do with our national security and we have to step up our game,” declared Laura Richardson, head of Southern Command, in late January 2023.

However, Richardson is wrong: they do not, and will not, have all those resources. But that is why we are seeing new versions of Videla, Banzer or Pinochet walking around Latin America, once again on the arm of the United States of America.

Source: Cuba en Resumen

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

Honduran President Xiomara Castro announced on August 28 that she ordered the suspension of the extradition agreement between her country and the United States. The move was in response to comments made by the U.S. Ambassador to Honduras, Laura Dogu, regarding different high-ranking Honduran officials who had traveled to Venezuela.

The Honduran head of state wrote in a post, “The interference and interventionism of the United States, as well as its intention to direct the politics of Honduras through its Embassy and other representatives, is intolerable. They attack, disregard and violate with impunity the principles and practices of international law, which promote respect for the sovereignty and self-determination of peoples, non-intervention and universal peace. Enough. Based on our Constitution and international treaties, I have ordered Chancellor Enrique Reina to denounce the extradition treaty with the United States.”

The comments in question by the U.S. ambassador happened during an interview with media outlet HCH TV on August 28. Dogu had said that it was “surprising and disappointing” to see Honduran government officials meet with members of the Venezuelan government because “The U.S. government announced several years ago that the Venezuelan government is involved in drug trafficking; especially, they are sending drugs directly to the United States.”

She added that the Venezuelan Minister of Defense Vladimir Padrino López who met with Honduras’ Secretary of Defense José Manuel Zelaya Rosales is one of the officials that has already been sanctioned by the U.S. government. “It was surprising to see [Honduran] government officials sitting with them because I know that the President [Xiomara Castro] is in a constant fight against drug traffickers. And it was surprising to see government officials sitting [next to] members of a cartel based in Venezuela,” she concluded.

The following day on August 29, Foreign Minister of Honduras Enrique Reina said in a televised interview that the comments by Dogu were linked to a more sinister plan. “We have obtained intelligence information, that these statements by U.S. Ambassador Laura Dogu, imply that some members of the Armed Forces, military personnel of certain rankings, were conspiring with the idea that since allegations have been made against General Roosevelt, he must be taken out of his post,” Reina stated. “Even though we were able to carry out a clean election which brought the president to power [in 2021], we know where we are coming from, we know of all the struggle that we have waged to even just rescue the institutionality in the country,” the foreign minister added. He also has clarified that at the moment there are not any pending extradition orders against government officials.

Xiomara Castro said in a public address on August 29 that the U.S. government cannot be allowed to publicly attack the Chief of the Armed Forces, General Roosevelt Hernández, and the Minister of Defense, José Manuel Zelaya, for having attended a meeting with the Venezuelan military, and these types of comments “weaken the institutionality” of the Honduran Army. She classified the comments as part of a plan to undermine and overthrow her government and stated: “I want to promise the Honduran people that there will be no more coups d’état, and that I will not allow the instrument of extradition to be used to intimidate or blackmail the Honduran Armed Forces, we are defending our Armed Forces.”

Several other Latin American and Caribbean left leaders have made statements in support of the Honduran government and condemning yet another U.S. destabilization plan.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel stated, “Stop meddling in the internal affairs of Honduras. All our support and solidarity to President Xiomara Castro, her Government and the Honduran people in the face of attacks on the sovereignty of Honduras and Our America.”

Former Bolivian president Evo Morales who was overthrown in a coup in 2019, wrote, “We extend our full support to our comrade Xiomara Castro, President of Honduras, in the face of the destabilization attempts orchestrated by the Honduran right wing in complicity with the government of the United States. We recognize her tireless work and courage in leading the destinies of the beloved and admired Honduran people and defending their sovereignty. They will not return!”

Extradition treaty

In addition to strong statements by top government officials, the Honduran government did take the concrete measure to terminate the extradition agreement between the governments of Honduras and the United States. This agreement has allowed more than 50 Hondurans to be tried and sentenced to prison in U.S. jails. Among them is former U.S.-backed President Juan Orlando Hernández, who in June was sentenced to 45 years in prison in New York (and who, interestingly, has criticized Castro’s decision to suspend the extradition agreement).

Extradition treaties with the U.S. have been widely criticized by progressives across the world as it represents a violation of a country’s sovereignty and undermines their judicial processes. Some have also criticized that the U.S. often uses extradition treaties for their own political goals. Advocates of such agreements argue that it places higher deterrence against committing drug trafficking crimes as the fear of imprisonment in the U.S. is higher.

The President of Honduras has clarified that her objective is not, as the opposition to her government claims, to diminish the fight against drug traffickers or to promote impunity (something that the U.S. ambassador herself recognizes as a virtue in Castro’s government), but rather to prevent the agreement from being used as a political “tool” against officials of the Executive and the Honduran Armed Forces.

U.S. Ambassadors’ provocations

In what appears to be a generalized imperialist political communication strategy, U.S. ambassadors in Latin America in recent years have decided to “comment” publicly to local media about their opinions on the internal politics of the countries in which they serve missions. Just this week, Mexican President López Obrador put diplomatic relations with the U.S. and Canadian ambassadors on “pause” due to their public opinions on the Judicial Reform proposed by AMLO and MORENA. However, Ambassador Dogu’s statements stand out for their severity and harshness against high-ranking officials of the Honduran State.

For now, it remains to be seen what attitude the U.S. government will take towards the moves made by the Latin American leaders, and if there will be any retaliation against the Executives of the countries that demand, in accordance with international agreements, that U.S. ambassadors stop publicly commenting on the internal affairs of the countries where they are based.

Source: Resumen

Since the beginning of 2024, the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (known as AMLO) has promoted a set of legal reforms aimed at rooting out corruption and diminishing Western corporate interests in the Mexican judiciary. At the core of AMLO’s proposal are popular elections for all judges, including the Supreme Court of Mexico. 

For years, corruption, bribery, and police brutality have been the hallmarks of Mexican courts and law enforcement. Cartels, militarized police, and U.S. corporations exert enormous amounts of pressure on Mexican judges in the form of bribes, threats, and violence. Under the current appointment system, judges in the hands of organized crime or companies like General Motors can maintain their positions indefinitely. 

These judges scuttle any individual or institutional attempt to bring justice to brutal cops, maquiladora bosses, or drug cartel bosses. 

AMLO’s reform aims to break this cycle by making the judiciary elected, not appointed. If the Mexican judiciary could effectively take on corrupt U.S. corporations and organized crime, it could help break the U.S. stranglehold on Mexican labor and reel in an out-of-control militarized police force. Under NAFTA and the current U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (“USMCA”), U.S. corporations own and operate factories across different industries in Mexico.

Further, the U.S. and Canada browbeat Mexico into pledging against state-owned enterprises as a part of the USMCA. NAFTA, and now USMCSA, allow, if not empower, U.S. billionaire corporations to pay Mexican workers less for more work and avoid most regulations enforcing higher standards for workers. 

Many of these same companies demanding continued cheap labor in Mexico left U.S. workers high and dry as they closed down factories over the past several decades. Mexican and U.S. workers have common enemies in Washington and on Wall Street.

A change in Mexico’s judiciary towards regulating U.S.-owned factories and away from the USMCA could help Mexico gain some independence from the U.S. imperialist machine. 

And for these exact reasons, the U.S. government and its mouthpieces have unleashed a firestorm of criticism against AMLO and his proposed reform. 

The U.S. Mission to Mexico denounced the reform and said that “popular election of judges is a major risk to the functioning of Mexico’s democracy.” What?! Popular elections are a threat to democracy? The U.S. has a fascinating definition of democracy. Is the U.S. so openly saying that “Mexican democracy” means a form of government that explicitly and solely benefits a small number of Western oligarchs? 

The U.S. Mission asserted that the proposed reforms would “threaten the historic trade relationship [the U.S. and Mexico] have built, which relies on investors’ confidence in Mexico’s legal framework.” As previously noted, U.S. corporations benefit greatly from a weak and corrupt Mexican judiciary. What the U.S. embassy won’t say is that “investors’ confidence” is based on higher and higher levels of exploitation of Mexican workers. 

The neoliberal think tank, the Wilson Center, went a step further and openly invoked the USMCA. Specifically, “If approved, these legal shifts could seriously challenge North America’s long term competitiveness, and nearshoring potential, jeopardize billions in U.S. and Canadian investments in Mexico, and complicate the 2026 review of the USMCA.” Translated: if the Mexican judiciary actually works, the U.S. ruling class could lose a lot of money. 

This attack on AMLO’s reform is nothing more than a U.S. corporate attempt to maintain a stranglehold on the Mexican economy. The U.S. cannot allow any attempt to restrict its exploitation of Mexican labor, even a relatively mild one. AMLO did not propose nationalizing the energy sector or serious tariffs on imported U.S. goods. However, the U.S. capitalist machine won’t risk losing a single penny. No restriction of their market domination can be allowed. Hence, they will fight this reform tooth and nail. 

When U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar bellicosely proposed that putting judges up for election would threaten “the historic commercial relationship” between the two countries, the Mexican government responded that Salazar’s comments “represent an unacceptable interference, a violation of Mexico’s sovereignty.”

AMLO suspended diplomatic relations with the U.S. and Canada, which has also denounced the judicial reforms. While this reaction is certainly justified and frankly should be applauded, it might be noted that AMLO’s response to the attempted coup in Venezuela was not nearly as strong. In fact, AMLO has yet to recognize Nicolas Maduro’s election victory even after it was fully certified by the Supreme Court. 

This is unfortunate because Washington’s attempts to re-colonize Venezuela are also a threat to Mexico. An attack on the sovereignty of one Latin American country is an attack on the sovereignty of all.

The U.S. attack on AMLO’s proposed judicial reform is outrageous and entirely rooted in the interests of the U.S. billionaire class. Mexico deserves to carve its future without having to pay the piper that is U.S. imperialism at every turn. 

Abuja, Nigeria, Aug. 14 — The Society for International Relations Awareness (SIRA) Conference on Aug. 12-13 in Abuja, Nigeria, served as a powerful testament of solidarity and commitment for peoples fighting for self-determination. The theme was “The Forgotten Peoples: International Conference to Decolonize the World.”

Today’s most dangerous period of the push towards World War III by Western imperialism – led by U.S. imperialism, which also leads NATO – can only succeed with the participation and obedience of the former colonized and neocolonized governments and peoples.

However, this conference makes it clear that the anti-imperialist organizations, activists, and youth in the colonized orbit will more likely become the gravediggers of the imperialists.

Owei Lakemfa, the current president of SIRA with a long history of struggle in leading and writing about labor unions and human rights, gave a welcome to the conference: “We feel the United Nations has not been fast enough, even though they promised to decolonize countries since 1960. So, we decided to bring the people of the colonies as well as the people of the colonial masters together to agree on a possible time frame, or framework, or action plan. …

“With about 61 non-self-governing territories in the world and about 17-18 by the UN, we want to see how many of them can be decolonized within the next 4 to 6 years.”

Occupation of Western Sahara

Western imperialism has and continues to encourage division among the colonized and neocolonized nations. The Spanish-enabled, long-standing occupation of Western Sahara by Morocco is one of those contradictions of the colonized becoming colonizers. Morocco was also a victim of French and British colonialism.

Lakemfa explained that the issue has deep roots, dating back to Spain’s controversial decision to hand over Western Sahara to Morocco and Mauritania during decolonization.

“While Mauritania eventually withdrew, Morocco maintained its grip on the territory, leaving the Sahrawi people scattered across occupied lands and refugee camps in Algeria.”

The keynote address was presented by Western Sahara Ambassador Oubi Bachir, representative of the POLISARIO Liberation Movement to the UN and Geneva: 

“I would assume that you all know that Western Sahara is known to be the last colony in Africa,” said Bachir, “because it is still listed within the UN list of countries to be decolonized,” but Morocco’s “Plan A was to militarily occupy the territory by exterminating the people.”

By 1991, however, Bachir states that the Sahara’s military resistance forced Morocco to appear to accept the UN plan that was calling for a referendum for self-determination. But Morocco reverted to military attacks against Western Sahara. Bachir pointed out that the responsibility of the European Union, the U.S., and the African Union is to assist in the self-determination of Western Sahara. “The people of Western Sahara are the ones and only ones entitled to determine the final fate of the territory of the Western Sahara,” said Bachir.

Solidarity with Cuba

The Ambassador of the Republic of Cuba, Miriam Morales Palmero, was well received. She spoke about solidarity with Nigeria and their common interests in ending the U.S. blockade of Cuba as well as the U.S. classification of Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism. Palmero received a chant of solidarity from participants in the conference and recognition of Fidel Castro’s birth on Aug. 13, the day she spoke.

The previous day, opening remarks were made by the chairperson of the conference – Professor Ibrahim Gambari – former UNICEF President, ex-Nigeria Foreign Affairs Minister, and past Chair of the UN Special Committee Against Apartheid and Envoy on Cyprus, Zimbabwe, and Myanmar: “As long as many people remain not free under colonialism, none of us can consider ourselves free,” said Gambari.

“The freedom of all oppressed people, colonized people is paramount; without it, international peace and security are truly endangered,” he continued.

“United resolutions are plenty in terms of supporting the end of colonialism, but they don’t self-implement; therefore, we really have to organize to make sure those territories under colonial rule or not self-governing must be independent as soon as possible.”

Jihad Abdul Mumit, former political prisoner and member of the Jericho Movement, USA, echoed this sentiment in his statement to the conference: “The point and opportunity here is to continue to build better and stronger networks to educate, uplift, and represent the people. It is our duty to develop a plan. It is our duty to fight against genocide, colonialism, and all forms of oppression. It is our duty to respect each other. It is our duty to struggle to win.”

Maggie Vascassenno, co-coordinator of Women in Struggle/Mujeres en Lucha, USA, referenced the Nigerian struggles today: “Women In Struggle is inspired by and in solidarity with the young people and workers here in Abuja and cities throughout Nigeria who are fighting against soaring inflation, hunger and poverty. We demand an end to the brutal repression which includes not only the deaths of those fighting against capitalist price gouging but also the mass jailings in Nigeria. We embrace the demands of the mass movement #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria.”

End colonization of Puerto Rico

The struggle to end the colonization of Puerto Rico within the U.S. was a major focus of this conference. Edwin Cortes, a former Puerto Rican political prisoner who spent 14 years in prison and who also spoke on behalf of former political prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera, expressed how it created a desire for struggle. “Since the 1970s, we have been and continue to be moved by many liberation struggles, including in Algeria, Angola, Mozambique, South Africa, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, as well as the Tupamaros in Uruguay, the FMLN in El Salvador, July 26 Movement in Cuba, Nicolas Maduro and United Socialist Party of Venezuela, Palestine, among others. …

“Oscar Lopez Rivera was born in Puerto Rico and, as part of a colonial economic forced migration, moved to the United States in the 1950s. He was conscripted into the U.S. armed forces and sent to Vietnam, where his eyes were opened to the anti-colonial struggle of the Vietnamese people. Oscar returned to the streets of Chicago with an anti-colonial vision to uplift the lives of our people struggling in the community and for the development of new campaigns for Puerto Rico’s self-determination and independence.”

This writer, a member of the Socialist Unity Party, spoke on the denial of self-determination taken from the Global South by the World Bank and IMF, which is dominated by the U.S. Their role in denying infrastructure only brings poverty and inflation — fueled by the U.S. wars, proxy wars and military terrorism in Africa.

Kandis A. N. Sebro, Alba Movements Continental Assembly of the Caribbean People: also spoke about the underdevelopment of infrastructure exposed in 1968: “As the Guyanese intellectual Walter Rodney highlighted, colonialist expansion was done with a view to exploit our resources, and the Caribbean was therefore structurally organized to foster the development of industrial countries predominantly in Europe — or the mainland.”

In addition, Sebro explained: “Social domination also included the renunciation of self in various ways such as through language and culture. This phenomenon is addressed by Frantz Fanon in his book, ‘Black Skin, White Mask’ where Caribbean people are constantly taught that elements of their culture are primitive and worthless.”

The violence of the Western imperialist countries is today very visible with technology and the unprecedented killing of children and Palestinians in Gaza by Israel’s most heinous and monstrous genocide — armed and funded by the U.S. And the genocide against African peoples, on the continent, and in the diaspora, continues to increase it’s violence.

Kazi Toure, former political prisoner and member of the National Jericho Movement, USA, was a witness to the state executions against the Black liberation movement: “When a child goes to school, he or she must place their hand over their heart, turn to the flag, and pledge allegiance to the flag of the U.S. – the same happens at every major sports event. …

“I stopped pledging when I was 13. Medgar Evers was murdered when I was 14. Brother Malcolm was assassinated when I was 15. The Black Panther Party was born when I was 16 and Martin Luther King was murdered when I was 18. … The counterintelligence program of the FBI, known as Cointelpro, infiltrated and destroyed every Black, Brown, and Indigenous organization that worked to better their communities and nations. Twenty-eight young people in the Black Panther Party were murdered by 1974, to the party’s demise.”

Berta Joubert-Ceci, a member of the Women’s International Democratic Federation and a regular contributor to Struggle-La Lucha, gave a very informative presentation at the conference that highlighted the economic violence against Puerto Rico:

“In 2015, the Krueger Report, an IMF neoliberal prescription, was published: ‘Puerto Rico a way forward.’ The 30-page report provides a detailed study of the economy of the colony and its practices … some of the measures of this five-year plan are:

• Elimination of the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, which it says is too high
• Reduction of the number of teachers and consolidation (closing) of schools; reduction of funding to the University of Puerto Rico, etc.

“It also includes privatization of public agencies such as the PUR Electric Power Authority, and other government agencies that are efficiently generating income as the State Insurance Fund. These facts point to the urgency of decolonization now.”

Estelí Capote, General Coordinator, Instituto Puertorriqueño de Relaciones Internacionales, talked about how organizations working through the UN committees could also push Puerto Rico’s independence and self-determination.

“For example, during the early 2000s, Puerto Rico had a big struggle in taking out the U.S. military from Vieques that was bombarding heavily the island resulting in contamination, displacement of population, the sickness of the population, death of personnel … this is the type of issue that the 4th Commission can work on. It is important for Puerto Rico to have a presence in this 4th Commission specially through our sister country of Cuba … with all the economic blockage and political restriction imposed by the U.S., they have continued to be very strict in their determination to fulfill the Jose Marti and Fidel Castro commitment to foster Puerto Rican independence.”

Owei Lakemfa and Estelí Capote – the key organizers – brought together an extremely successful conference that ended with the direction of work and the recognition of a significant and inspiring date of birth. Said Capote: “This is the first of a series of consecutive, consistent events to be celebrated until the objective of this body is obtained. The participants recognized today, Aug. 13, Fidel Castro’s birthday, the vital and inspirational energy of the great revolutionary of the world, sustaining and providing guidance in the process of debating and agreeing collectively on the objectives and goals of this conference.”

Statement from Maggie Vascassenno of Women in Struggle-Mujeres en Lucha presented to the International Conference for the Eradication of Colonialism, which was held in Abuja, Nigeria, from August 12-13, 2024.

Women in Struggle-Mujeres en Lucha is an anti-imperialist organization of women and oppressed genders based in the U.S. and affiliated with the Women’s International Democratic Federation (FDIM/WIDF). We salute and congratulate the organizers, SIRA – Society for International Relations Awareness, for the “Eradication of Colonialism” conference and express our full solidarity to all organizations and forces fighting to end colonialism and neocolonialism.

Women In Struggle is inspired by and in solidarity with the young people and workers here in Abuja and cities throughout Nigeria who are fighting against soaring inflation, hunger, and poverty. We demand an end to the brutal repression, which includes not only the deaths of those fighting against capitalist price gouging but also the mass jailings in Nigeria. We embrace the demands of the mass movement #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria.

The courageous spirit of the youth in Nigeria today is rooted in the historic militancy of African peoples against colonialism and oppression. For generations, Africans have been in solidarity with Palestine. South Africa has waged one of the most important battles against the genocide and war crimes of Israel in Gaza by leading the international struggle in the U.N. against the Israeli genocide. A genocide bought and paid for by U.S. imperialism. For more than 75 years, the Palestinian people have resisted the colonial efforts of the Zionist entity. 

The heroic Palestinian resistance and the international solidarity movement, of mainly students and youth, numbering in the millions on every continent, north to south and east to west, has shown, no matter the depths of depravity of the Israeli Occupation Forces, especially against women, children, and prisoners, the Palestinian people will win. From the river to the sea. 

Women In Struggle demands U.S. AFRICOM out of Africa now! We stand with our African comrades who have resisted colonialism for hundreds of years – from Southern Africa to Congo and Egypt and from Kenya to the Western Sahara & Guinea Bissau. And we extend our solidarity to President Nicholas Maduro and the Venezuelan people. The U.S. is employing all of its arsenal of deceit and deception to undermine Venezuela’s sovereignty, including its ongoing use of sanctions and attempted coups. We demand U.S. hands off of Venezuela.

As a women’s organization fighting in the United States, the belly of the beast, our main role is to bring down U.S. imperialism – in the interests of workers and the poor worldwide – particularly women, children, and oppressed genders who suffer doubly from capitalist and imperialist oppression. 

Down with U.S. imperialism!  End colonialism, neocolonialism, and occupation!

From the Aug. 16 Vanguard newspaper in Abuja, Nigeria, on the International Conference for the Eradication of Colonialism, which was held in Abuja, Nigeria, from August 12-13, 2024:

“The conference, which included delegates of colonized and oppressed peoples who flew in from the Caribbean, North America, Latin America, and Europe, was a potent reminder that although some have been colonized for hundreds of years, they have not forgotten their roots. 

“African-American internationalist John Thompson Parker had already written to register for the conference when, two weeks ago, DNA tests revealed that his forebears were taken from Nigeria. For a widely traveled man who had undertaken peace and solidarity visits to countries like Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Sudan, Syria, and Gaza, his participation in the conference was initially in solidarity with the colonized peoples of the world and to make suggestions on how this human scourge can be brought to an end. But finding out that he was originally Nigerian added urgency to his footsteps to be in Abuja. He said: ‘For Black folks in the U.S., it is a big deal to know where our ancestors came from.’

“However, his enthusiasm was dampened when, on August 10, he was refused boarding in Germany for his connecting flight to Abuja on the basis that his application for visa-on-arrival had not been confirmed. As the aircraft that should have taken him to Abuja took off, he lamented: ‘They stole me from Africa, and now they told me I can’t come back; that I can’t even get back to my homeland.’ He later got the confirmation, so the next day, he flew into Nigeria.”

A 24-year-old Nigerian man who works in a tailor shop cannot go home to his mother and two siblings because the bus fare doubled. When he can afford to go home, he brings home the money to support his mom and siblings and skips meals to allow others to eat. He’s got his food cost down to $1.60 a day.

Nigeria is facing the worst economic crisis, facing inflation levels not seen in almost three decades.

Basic staples like rice, milk, and corn are now at levels that promote malnutrition. The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that 26.5 million of Nigeria’s 220 million people are food insecure, with at least 9 million children at risk of wasting – a medical condition that stunts development.

In Ghana, the level of poverty cannot be explained when the production of timber, iron or diamonds, etc., including gold – the fifth largest producer of that metal in the world – seems to only maintain poverty.

Poverty in Somalia and in Sudan, etc., on our earth’s African continent is left in torment by Western imperialism and especially U.S. imperialism, and the IMF and World Bank in maintaining that torment.

The IMF was created at the Bretton Woods conference in 1944. And the primary architects from Britain and the United States ensured that African, Latin American, and Asian self-determination would be denied in the service of the maximization of profits of financial and industrial monopolies of the United States and Britain.

The IMF sits in Washington, D.C., which guarantees that the U.S. Treasury exerts the greatest influence.

World War II allowed the United States to be in virtual control of the world economy and place the world on the U.S. dollar rather than local currencies.

Only three of the 40 original members of the IMF were in Africa and at the time most of that continent was still under colonialism. Eventually, one-third of the IMF members were from Africa. But, they’re low income, the effect of years of colonialism. This gave them less than 9% of the voting power, and they held only three of the 22 seats on the executive board. Meaning self-determination for Africa was not a priority of the IMF.

African scholar Walter Rodney exposed in 1968 “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa” and wrote: “In the first place, the wealth created by African labor and from African resources was grabbed by the capitalist countries in Europe and in the second place restrictions were placed upon African capacity to make the maximum use of its economic potential, which is what development is all about.”

And in their own words, the IMF writes: “Their economic problems tend to be structural even more than macroeconomic; rooted in the need for improvements in education, health care, infrastructure and governance rather than finance and more deeply ingrained and persistent than in other regions.”

In spite of those words, the IMF does not help build vital infrastructure of a nation. It prioritizes privatization and a dearth of social spending.

While in the U.S., I saw a photo from a protester’s sign in Kenya that read, “IMF keep your hands off Kenya” and “Kenya is not IMF’s lab rat.” That protester and many others were subject to gunfire and tear gas from police in Nairobi’s streets. They were responding to President Ruto’s fiscal and austerity policies that were driven by the IMF in order to be eligible to receive loans.

The so-called shock therapies that are currently being used by the Nigerian president includes the reduction of gas subsidies, higher electrical costs, and the devaluing of currency which is like a pay cut for workers; which is why labor unions have gone on strike and protest. That austerity allowed Nigeria to get a $2.25 billion loan from the World Bank, and the austerity is celebrated by the banks.

Latin America has also inspired protests from the victims of the IMF social cutbacks.

In 1980, the structural adjustment programs or SAPs imposed deep cuts on public services and encouraged privatizations and trade policies in favor of capitalist countries.

Fela Kuti, the famous Nigerian musician – famous in the U.S. as well – sang a song about taking the wealth from African people called “SAP,” which he interpreted as meaning “Suck African People – suck them dry.”

The IMF has also been used in North African countries for a long time, inspiring inflation and high poverty rates. But, unauthorized protests are strictly enforced. I can tell you that I got a taste of the police on this continent in an unauthorized protest in Egypt that landed me in detention last November. I was simply a part of an international delegation trying to get humanitarian aid into Gaza.

I should also mention that I found out more of my history using Ancestry.com, which is a relatively new ability – being able to find out your ethnicity using DNA really is a big deal. You see, it is a unique disability that African Americans endure – our families were broken up and sold on arrival to foreign shores. But, two weeks ago, I found out where my ancestors are from, and that is a very big, emotional deal – just imagine not knowing where you are from. Just two weeks ago, I found out – it is a really big deal because most of my DNA comes from here – Nigeria! I’m so proud looking at the people here in Nigeria – my people, my family. I just found out two weeks ago!

And while I’m on the subject of my ancestors who were taken to the United States in chains from here, I want to point out that the wealth that was created by slaves in the U.S. in cotton production created the capital of the ruling class and the founding capital of the IMF.

The great wealth that was used to catapult capitalism in the U.S. was from cotton, thanks to the invention of the cotton gin and another advance in technology that increased production. Annual cotton exports reached 4 million bales. The cotton traveled up north and out of New York, making way for England and other places, allowing the fortunes of the industries facilitating its movement there to grow exponentially. And who were those beneficiaries? They were the railroads of the Vanderbilts. They were J.P. Morgan’s steel. They were Rockefeller, Melon, and Morgan’s Manhattan Bank (now Chase Manhattan), and created the capital for Rockefeller’s Standard Oil. All thanks to African slaves who were now producing for them and the world – for free. That’s where this insane wealth of the ruling class originated, and also some of the wealth of the English ruling class and the banks that made the IMF possible.

The IMF also induced inflation, and it also comes from the U.S. imperialist wars and proxy wars like the proxy war against Ukraine.

The U.S. Secretary of Defense 2022 report states right out of the gate that China and Russia are the main targets of the U.S. and China is the number one target – not because of a military threat – it states China’s threat is economic and, according to the Department of Defense, warrants war against China. And the plans also include Russia.

Last September, the U.S. held a meeting in India, pushing the Indian Middle East Corridor initiative with cooperation between Saudi Arabia and India and the U.S. with invites to Jordan. The destruction of Russia’s Nord Stream pipeline by the U.S. and the U.S. proxy war in Ukraine helped push the IMEC initiative, pushing an alternative hydrogen pipeline to replace the natural gas that Russia had provided to Europe. The pipeline flows from India to Saudi Arabia to Jordan to Haifa and occupied Palestine close to the West Bank and Gaza. The pipeline would then go to Greece to supply Europe.

It’s very interesting that before Oct. 7, the U.N. reported record-breaking violence with settler attacks against Palestinians in Gaza. And before Oct. 7, Israel’s Netanyahu presented a new map of Israel that eliminated Palestine.

But, in their haste for proxy war in Ukraine and funding of genocide in Gaza, the U.S. exposed itself and became isolated, especially in this African continent. Therefore, some are seeing Russia as an alternative. The African continent has experienced China and Russia as an alternative to the IMF and World Bank in building the infrastructure with no demands for austerity – that is the threat that the U.S. sees and does not mind playing with our lives by pushing World War III.

You might ask if it’s possible that there would be such a lack of basic morality to make such a threat against our lives, but what’s going on in Gaza makes clear the horrors of the U.S. The Biden and Harris administration funds and arms Israel. They have no limit in their tolerance for Israel’s most heinous genocide, which would not be possible if the U.S. was not on board.

One of the most trusted journals concerning health care and medical research, The Lancet, said a conservative estimate of the real number of folks dying is not 37,000. It’s more like 186,000 in Gaza.

And we know that the terror is also on this continent, coming from the same source.

Former President Obama fulfilled the U.S. imperialist dream of getting AFRICOM stationed on the African continent to supposedly fight terrorists.

What was the result? The number of extremist groups went up 400%, according to the Defense Department’s African Center for Strategic Studies.

This also echoes the 2017 U.N. report in the film “Journey to Extremism in Africa,” which states that government actions of repression – including the increased drone killings, killing of family members, and jailings and repression by the U S. and their collaborators – are the main motivation for recruitment into extremist organizations.

Many studies have correlated the lack of food and basic necessities of life as the greatest cause of internal conflict.

In 2018, the U.N. also reported that it would take just $175 billion per year for just 20 years to eradicate not only poverty on the entire continent of Africa but the entire world. So that’s just 17% of the U.S. yearly military spending of $1 trillion.

The fact is that AFRICOM’s war on terror, in addition to being a vital tool for U.S. imperialism, is also a self-perpetuating money machine for the ruling class, a huge buffet for the military-industrial complex and the politicians and corporations who directly and indirectly benefit from it.

Former President Obama’s father was Kenyan, so the contradiction of U.S. imperialist white supremacy in Black skin, which we know is a tactic of U.S. imperialism, is again being used by presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

Harris is a former District Attorney – encouraging and enabling police genocide in the U.S. that most acutely affects Black and Brown people — particularly in the Los Angeles Police Department. Harris is also a current supporter of Israel’s genocide.

But my ancestry knowledge of my Nigerian heritage does not allow that contradiction for me.

I am hoping this conference will be a qualitative change in our power. And increase the power of humanity organized with international collaboration to effectively fight our enemies who we have irreconcilable differences with. We have no interest or gain in the interests of the ruling class — and I like to say that our irreconcilable differences can also be expressed as the capitalist system vs. the winning socialist/communist solution.

John Parker is the coordinator of the Harriet Tubman Center For Social Justice in Los Angeles and a leading member of the Socialist Unity Party. Following is his presentation to the Conference for the Eradication of Colonialism.

When Canada took the field on July 25 to face off against New Zealand on the first day of the Paris 2024 Olympic women’s soccer competition, history was made: Canadian midfielder Quinn became the first out trans nonbinary Olympian to take part in consecutive Olympics. Quinn came out as nonbinary ahead of the 2021 Tokyo Games, becoming the first openly trans Olympic competitor. To mark the moment, they posted on Instagram, 

I don’t know how to feel. I feel proud seeing ‘Quinn’ up on the lineup and on my accreditation. I feel sad knowing there were Olympians before me unable to live their truth because of the world. I feel optimistic for change. Change in legislature. Changes in rules, structures, and mindsets. Mostly, I feel aware of the realities. Trans girls being banned from sports. Trans women facing discrimination and bias while trying to pursue their olympic dreams. The fight isn’t close to over… and I’ll celebrate when we’re all here.

Quinn is not the only nonbinary athlete competing in Paris. In early August, they will be joined by US 1500-meter runner Nikki Hiltz, who qualified for the Games in spectacular fashion, bursting past the leaders of the pack in the final stretch of the race. Afterward, they said, “All the LGBT folks… you guys brought me home that last hundred [meters]. I could just feel the love and support.” Hiltz added, “This is bigger than just me. It’s the last day of Pride Month… I wanted to run this one for my community.”

Now Hiltz will be running for their community in the Olympics, and very much against the grain when one considers the retrograde approach that the transphobic World Athletics, the global governing body for track and field, has taken when it comes to trans participation. In March 2023, it issued new guidelines that, in essence, banned transgender women athletes from participating in World Athletics events: The group “agreed to exclude male-to-female transgender athletes who have been through male puberty.”

World Athletics is headed by former Olympian and International Olympic Committee member Sebastian Coe, who emphasized the desire to assure “the integrity of the female category in athletics” and stated, “We will be guided in this by the science around physical performance and male advantage which will inevitably develop over the coming years.” Implicit in his official statement was a two-prong admission: (1) this policy targeted trans women, and (2) there is currently no scientific consensus—rooted in systematic, independent research—that justifies the exclusion of trans athletes. It’s just a vibes thing.

What about the International Olympic Committee? Back in 2021, months after trans athlete Laurel Hubbard represented New Zealand in weightlifting—and the world kept on chugging along—the IOC issued a “framework on fairness and non-discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sex variations” that, on its surface, sounded promising. The framework appeared to be rooted in inclusion (“Everyone, regardless of their gender identity, expression and/or sex variations should be able to participate in sport safely and without prejudice”), non-discrimination (“Eligibility criteria should be established and implemented fairly and in a manner that does not systematically exclude athletes from competition based upon their gender identity, physical appearance and/or sex variations”), and the assumption that no one was inherently advantaged by gender (“No athlete should be precluded from competing or excluded from competition on the exclusive ground of an unverified, alleged or perceived unfair, competitive advantage due to their sex variations, physical appearance and/or transgender status”). IOC President Thomas Bach said about trans inclusion policies: “You have to make a scientific evaluation. You have to consult with everybody concerned.”

But then, cowering behind a wall of nice-sounding words, the IOC did not defend or protect transgender athletes. Rather than assuming authentic leadership, the self-proclaimed “supreme authority” of the Olympics punted responsibility to international sports federations to craft their own policies. That’s exactly what the federations did, starting with swimming and athletics, which developed policies that violated the spirit of the IOC’s statement. Neither policy is rooted in independent science research. This bastion of ill-conceived chicanery explains why we will see no trans women athletes at the Paris Olympics, or any Olympics for the foreseeable future.

Satoko Itani, a gender-studies specialist at Kansai University in Japan, told us, “Excluding trans women in order to supposedly eliminate male privilege and to ‘protect’ women’s sports, ignores the fact that there are so many other forms of male privilege that are actually hindering women’s participation, from unequal opportunities for women and girls to the abuse that they suffer to sexual harassment.” They noted, “Unlike the fledgling and inconclusive science that anti-trans forces are marshaling to exclude trans women athletes, an abundant body of research exists on these other issues.”

Travers, a professor of sociology at Simon Fraser University, said that these rules do more than marginalize trans girls and women at all levels of sports, from elementary school to the Olympics. They also feed a far greater right-wing current in the United States and around the world. Trans athletes are their stalking horse, but their goals extend well beyond that. “Female eligibility policies delegitimize trans identities, but that’s not all,” Travers told us. “They have also become instruments to mobilize conservative and fascist movements both in the United States and across the globe. This is part of a process where they are using state power to eliminate all obstacles to the operation of racial capitalism and target people who are racialized, poor, disabled, LGBT, and undocumented.” They added, “In the United States, this is taking the form of eliminating legal protections for all marginalized people as well as the transformation of educational institutions to eradicate critical content, the maintenance of horrific border and immigration systems, and the prioritization of the needs of capital over climate change.”

This nexus of fascism, the Olympics, and anti-trans ideology recalls one of the darkest periods of Olympic history: when Nazis, notorious for their anti-queer persecution, convinced World Athletics (then called the International Amateur Athletic Federation) and the IOC to instigate sex-testing policies. Nazi sports doctor Wilhelm Knoll barraged the sports bodies with letters demanding “that all female participants in the Olympic Games should have their gender checked beforehand by a specially-commissioned doctor.” As Michael Waters notes in The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports:

Reading between the lines of these letters, underscores the truth: there was no coherent ideology or intellectual idea behind Knoll’s push for sex testing. For as adamant as he was, that the Olympics needed to regulate athletes on the basis of their bodies, he seemed to spend shockingly little time, considering what those regulations would look like. He simply hadn’t thought it through. Instead, Knoll’s push for sex testing could be seen as a reactionary measure, colored, almost entirely by his own anxieties about masculinity and femininity—and, perhaps, not incidentally, by his commitment to eugenics. 

Despite the dearth of scientific evidence, the Nazis teamed up with Olympic powerbrokers to ram ahead with gender surveillance in sports. “The stature of the Olympics would,” writes Waters in The Other Olympians, “become the ideal vector” for evidence-free sex testing. The anxieties that fueled this push actually started with high-profile cases of trans men, but they remain in full force today, powered by the fierce backlash against trans women in sport and society. 

Returning to Paris, it’s impossible not to root for Quinn and Hiltz. After qualifying for the 2024 Games, Hiltz said, “I’m just looking forward to keep showing up as myself and keep taking up space.” The runner added, “I use they/them pronouns, and people stumble all the time. But it’s like, ‘You can’t really ignore me anymore, because I’m a two-time, back-to-back champion. I’m here, get-it-right’ kind of vibe.” Hiltz is correct. They have long gone for the gusto. Now they go for the gold.

Source: Edge of Sports