Ever since Hillary Clinton was defeated by Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, one issue has dominated the anti-Trump “resistance” coming from the Democratic Party and corporate media.

Is it Trump’s flagrant racism and bigotry against im/migrants? His support for Israeli terror against the Palestinian people? His rampant misogyny, homophobic and transphobic hate-mongering? How about his sympathy for violent white supremacists, from Charlottesville to Covington Catholic?

No, no, no and no!

Instead, the Democratic Party leadership, cable TV talking heads and mainstream editorial writers have been shouting this message: “Russian interference won the election for Donald Trump. Russian President Vladimir Putin is pulling Trump’s strings. That’s why Trump has got to go.”

Robert Muller’s investigation into Trump’s dealings with Russia is daily news — often the top story — and has led to an ugly trend by liberals and even some progressives to valorize the racist, anti-people FBI and other repressive state bodies that supposedly oppose Trump, while normalizing the demonization of Putin and Russia.

Never mind that Clinton won the popular vote, and the only reason Trump is in office is because of the Electoral College, originally enacted to protect slavery. The Democratic Party has declined time and again to work toward abolishing the Electoral College, even when it costs them elections.

Why? Because their paymasters on Wall Street like having this safeguard for their domination of the “democratic” electoral process.

Never mind that no one, to this day, has presented a credible explanation of how Russia supposedly swung the elections. It all hinges on conspiracy theories about buying ads and “misleading” people with fake profiles on social media — particularly African Americans, an especially patronizing and racist theory — or in divulging the dirty dealings by Hillary Clinton’s inner circle to sabotage the Bernie Sanders campaign.

Never mind that Russia’s government had good reason to oppose Hillary Clinton’s election. Clinton campaigned hard on a pro-war, anti-Russia platform. Her record as secretary of state during the Obama administration gave good reason for people everywhere to worry.

Clinton helped to mastermind the right-wing military coup against democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras in 2009 — talk about election interference! This led directly to the Central American refugee caravans that Trump is spewing hatred against today. Clinton was also responsible for the 2011 NATO bombing war that overthrew the sovereign government of Libya and saw the slavery of Black Africans reintroduced in that country.

And she helped set the stage for the 2014 coup in Ukraine, led by open neo-Nazis, on Russia’s Western border, and Kiev’s brutal war against the primarily Russian-speaking residents of the Donbass mining region. The coup occurred under the watch of Clinton’s successor, John Kerry.

Trump and his ultraright campaign advisers exploited the natural mass revulsion for Clinton’s warmongering, just as they took advantage of the long U.S. history of racist divide-and-conquer tactics to court the white supremacist right.

Meanwhile, Trump won the backing of powerful elements among the bosses, who not only wanted his promised tax cuts, but sought a shift toward China as the main target of U.S. aggression.

Those are some of the real, homegrown reasons behind Trump’s victory. Russia had nothing to do with it.

No conspiracy required

Two recent developments should explode the myth of “Russian control” over Trump once and for all. Both are acts by the Trump administration that have been reported in all major media in the U.S. and around the world — no conspiracy theories required.

First is Trump’s decision to withdraw from a major arms-control treaty with Russia: the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, known as the INF. This is the latest in a string of attacks on treaties that once offered some guarantees of protection to the Soviet Union, and later capitalist Russia, near the end of the Cold War.

A common refrain in reports of the Trump administration’s Feb. 1 announcement was that it would set off a new nuclear arms race — not only with Russia, which can ill afford it, but also with China.

The source of Trump’s decision to axe the INF wasn’t Moscow, but the bankers and corporate heads of the U.S. military-industrial complex, who are hungry to increase their profits by developing new generations of high-tech weaponry for the Pentagon — at public expense, natch — and to sell abroad.

Second is the Trump administration’s attack on an important Russian ally in Latin America: Bolivarian Venezuela.

While their political perspectives are very different, Moscow and Caracas have forged an alliance of mutual benefit and self-defense against Western aggression.

Both countries are largely dependent on oil sales and have taken hard hits from the last decade’s slump in oil prices. Both are subject to harsh U.S. economic sanctions on their oil sales. And both have struggled to create alternatives to the U.S.-Western European dominated global financial system.

Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA, is shifting proceeds of its sales to a bank based in Russia after Washington, London and other countries moved to freeze Caracas’ accounts.

Moscow views the ongoing U.S. coup attempt against Venezuela’s rightful president, Nicolás Maduro, with alarm. “The international community’s goal should be to help, without destructive meddling from beyond its borders,” said Alexander Shchetinin, head of the Latin America department of Russia’s foreign ministry.

On Feb. 7, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zajarova held a press conference declaring Russia’s belief that the U.S. had already taken the decision to militarily intervene in Venezuela and was only waiting for a fortuitous moment to strike.

“Signs are coming from Washington about the possibility of using force to overthrow the legitimate authorities,” Zajarova said. “I would like to remind you that these kind of statements from U.S. officials are a direct violation of the article of the U.N. Charter that requires all members of the organization to refrain in their international relations from the threat of force or its use.”

The same day, Russia’s delegation was blocked from attending the summit on Venezuela organized in Montevideo, Uruguay — a sure sign of how little respect imperial Washington has for its erstwhile “puppet master.”

It’s been reported that Russia, as well as China, will participate in military exercises by the Venezuelan armed forces in mid-February to practice defending the country from potential invasion.

Old Cold War, new Cold War

The truth is, Russia’s standing in the world economy is far more similar to a developing country like Venezuela than that of the imperialist United States. Socialism hasn’t existed in Russia for nearly 25 years. Its former socialist economic system was ravaged by Western profiteers and local oligarchs during the big sell-off of the 1990s, which destroyed much of the country’s economic infrastructure — at the price of millions of jobs and the steepest decline in peacetime life expectancy ever recorded.

Today, capitalist Russia is largely dependent on the export of resources like oil and natural gas. The perception that it is a world power on the scale of the U.S. is false and entirely based on the military defenses it inherited from the Soviet Union, built up to counter decades of Washington’s Cold War aggression.

Of course, politicians on both sides of the aisle in Washington are more than happy to take advantage of this popular misconception and exploit the anti-communist and anti-Soviet biases long indoctrinated in people here.

As for election interference — what could compare to what the U.S. is doing now in Venezuela?

Washington tried everything it could to sabotage last year’s presidential election in Venezuela, from sanctions to sabotage to boycotts. Yet the people still handed victory to President Nicolás Maduro.

So now the U.S. government appoints its own stooge, Juan Guaidó, as the “legitimate” president of Venezuela, and twists the arms of its allies and puppets to fall in line.

Imagine if Russia declared that it didn’t recognize the president of the U.S. and appointed its own candidate — under threat of military intervention. But of course, nothing of the sort has happened.

The real enemies of the workers and oppressed are right here at home, not in Russia or Venezuela.

British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal, the outcome of a plan to withdraw from the European Union, suffered a historic defeat in Parliament on Jan. 15.

A major obstacle to the Brexit plan is the border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland.

Brexit would cause the border in Ireland to become the only land border between the U.K. and the EU. It creates the specter of a new customs and regulatory border patrolled by British troops.

Currently, there are no border posts, physical barriers or checks on people or goods crossing the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Now, Brexit has “encouraged many, or some nationalists in Northern Ireland, along with some unionists, to think more favorably about the prospect of a United Ireland,”  reports the Jan. 25 Irish Times.

Brexit would be catastrophic to the gains of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement made in the northern city of Belfast, Ireland. It was an agreement on how Northern Ireland should be governed, made between the Irish government and the British government, that included the largest nationalist and unionist political parties. The agreement laid the foundation for a peaceful process that would eventually lead to Irish reunification.

Sinn Féin, the Irish Republican Party, has made it clear to the British government that if they exit the EU without a solution to the border problems, “it is absolutely incumbent on them to put the constitutional future to the people here through a unity referendum.” (An Phoblacht.com, Jan. 19)

Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Leo Varadkar raised the fear that Brexit would mean that Ireland and Britain would be treated as one block in relation to the rest of Europe.

In Northern Ireland the only staunch supporter of Brexit is the hard-line Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), an important prop in Prime Minister Theresa May’s conservative government.

The EU had proposed that the Belfast Agreement could be upheld if all of Ireland remained fully aligned with the EU’s customs union and part of the single market after Brexit.

The ‘backstop’

In an attempt to make the Brexit deal more acceptable, Theresa May has agreed to a “backstop” measure in the terms of Britain’s withdrawal from the EU.

The backstop is a measure in the Brexit deal that ensures a continuation of the current border with no military posts, barriers or checks on people and goods crossing between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

The terms of the backstop would remain in place even if the hard-line Brexiteers do succeed in forcing a withdrawal from the EU “over a no-deal cliff edge” on the March 29 legal deadline. (Brexit: All you need to know about Britain leaving the EU from the anti-Irish BBC)

Right-wing opponents like the DUP fear that the backstop could become permanent and weaken the English partition of Ireland.

In Scotland, unionist members of Parliament argue that backstop undercuts Brexit and allows the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) to demand separate arrangements.

The Irish, Scottish and Welsh people all voted to remain in the EU at the time of the original Brexit vote in 2016.

Scotland and Wales under Brexit

Scotland and Wales have the status of devolved nations which provides for more local autonomy. They had been making many of their own arrangements within the European Union.

The devolved administrations have argued that they’ve not been allowed a role in the Brexit negotiations.  

Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon of the SNP, said, “To be frank, there wasn’t much indication that the prime minister is listening to, or hearing, the concerns of the people of Scotland — and no doubt across Britain — about trade and the economy and population.” (The Guardian.com, Jan. 23)

On Jan. 1, Jair Bolsonaro was inaugurated as the new president of Brazil. Bolsonaro is a former army officer who was expelled, while still a lieutenant, due to his involvement in a group opposing cuts in the military and demanding higher salaries for officers. It was discovered that this group planned to place explosive devices in some barracks to achieve its goals.

Forced to resign, Bolsonaro took advantage of his media notoriety and entered the political field. He became a popular figure with the military and other ultraright opponents of civilian rule, which was re-established in 1985 after more than 20 years of popular struggle against military dictatorship.

It is important to point out that, even though Bolsonaro has been in the public eye for many years, he was never considered a leader or even a powerful politician.

Bolsonaro took advantage of the congressional-judicial coup d’etat that ousted former President Dilma Rousseff — the first woman to hold the office in the history of Brazil — and sent another former president, Luis Ignacio Da Silva, popularly known as Lula, to jail on trumped-up corruption charges.

The coup allowed Bolsonaro and his backers in the Brazilian ruling class to manipulate the dissatisfaction of the Brazilian people with the social-democratic Workers Party of Dilma and Lula, the country’s history of corruption, urban violence, and the decline of the economic power that Brazil had achieved during Lula’s presidency from 2003 to 2011.

As scapegoats for all the country’s problems, the Workers Party and its leadership, with Lula and Dilma at the forefront, became the favorite targets for reactionaries and fascists. To facilitate the attacks by these anti-progressive forces, the media used plenty of their time to talk about corruption in a way that it made it seem that members of the Workers Party and their allies were the only ones to blame.

So, with a massive use of propaganda on social media platforms Facebook and Whatsapp (both owned by U.S. tech mogul Mark Zuckerberg) and the spread of false accusations against his opponent, Workers Party candidate Fernando Haddad, Bolsonaro was elected.

U.S. imperialism, looking to turn back the “pink tide” in Latin America inspired by Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution, was only too happy to support Bolsonaro’s candidacy. Bolsonaro has promised closer ties with Wall Street and the Pentagon, aiming to turn Brazil into a base for subversion against Venezuela.

‘Change or disappear’ says Bolsonaro

Many of the horrible things that Jair Bolsonaro has done and said are well known, so there is no need to repeat them here. But his election is taken very seriously by those who understand the perils of fascism, right-wing nationalism and neoliberalism.

Bolsonaro and those he represents are a threat to the Indigenous peoples of Brazil; to the Quilombolas — a group of Afro-Descendants that live in small communities in the interior of the country; to LGBTQ2S people, women, poor people and people of color — especially those who live in the slums or in the inner cities.

During the presidential campaign, Bolsonaro made his most frightening statement of all: He said that “minorities” had to change or else they would disappear. By change he meant they have to adhere to the customs, values and expectations of his wealthy, white, male, heterosexual, patriarchal electoral base.

To the LGBTQ2S community, he was saying to become heterosexual and gender-normative; to the Indigenous, to abandon their culture and habits and adopt European ones; to women, to stop complaining about sexual harassment and unequal pay; to poor workers, to stop complaining about low wages as it was better than being unemployed.

This election showed that people who voted for Bolsonaro did so not because he was the best candidate, the most intelligent, nor the most apt to lead the country. They voted for him because they saw a reflection of their own prejudices in him. Bolsonaro and the capitalists who supported him understood this very well, and exploited it all the way to the presidential office.

Although the majority of Brazil’s population is made up of African descendants, the country is still in the grip of racism and has not freed itself from its past. The mentality of slavery and colonialism still lingers in the population, causing trauma to those who suffer the abuses of racism.

The oppressed of Brazil had finally found their voice after the election of Lula, and were demanding to be treated with respect. This was something the rich and powerful refused to take lying down.

Not just the most oppressed groups, but the whole working class is the target of Bolsonaro’s attacks. Now it is urgent for all sectors of the workers and oppressed to unite and fight back — and for people in the U.S. to give them the utmost solidarity and assistance in their struggle.

Struggle ★ La Lucha presents this urgent report from the Socialist Popular Front of Lithuania. A former Soviet republic, Lithuania has been ruled by a succession of ultra-right-wing governments since the fall of the USSR, and has been a member of the U.S.-dominated NATO military alliance since 2004. The country holds an officially sanctioned march of neo-Nazis and World War II fascist collaborators in the capital, Vilnius, every year on March 11. The article was translated by SLL editor Greg Butterfield.

Political repression in Lithuania is already a familiar phenomenon. But the recent events became a sensation in our country. Searches and mass arrests of anti-fascists are taking place, and against this background, even striking teachers are called “terrorists.”

In spring 2018, a secret arrest was carried out in Palangda, when the famous blogger Simonas Zaurskas was quickly arrested and imprisoned. He was held for a week, suspected of having written articles on the events of Jan. 13, 1991, and openly stated that many people were shot and killed by local militants R. Cheponis, R. Greinis and others, directed by representatives of the CIA. In late September, Zagurskas was convicted — he was fined 3,700 euros.

But the recent event, more ominous, was the secret arrest of the politician and former leader of the Socialist Popular Front, Algirdas Paleckis. Some other members of the Socialist Front, including the famous historian Valery Ivanov, were also arrested. The identities of some of the arrested people are still unknown.

Security services persecute Socialist Front activists

If you look at recent events, there were other such cases: in January 2016, Socialist Front activist Skajsta Rakauskienė was secretly arrested. She actively fought the drug mafia. She was arrested, kept in isolation in a detention facility for 24 hours and then taken to a psychiatric hospital on a strict regimen. I and my colleagues, H. Yodishka, D. Schulzas, Z. Volkovas-Lākats and others, defended the rights of S. Rakauskienė.

A year later, all charges against her were dropped and she was released from the hospital. But she died in her apartment a week later, as the persecution turned out to be a decisive factor in the health of the elderly woman.

The new repression is on a wider scale. But besides A. Paleckis and V. Ivanov, are others still detained in this political case?

By the evening of Dec. 20, it was revealed that other members of the Socialist Popular Front were arrested — a member of the organization’s board, Andrei Gorbatenkov, and another member of the organization, businessman Leonas Minkevicius. There is evidence that several other people were arrested, including two women, one of them a member of the Socialist Front, but for now specific information is withheld.

The comrades searched for Gorbatenkov for several days, and by the evening of Dec. 20 it was learned that he had been arrested on Dec. 18 and released after two days. His apartment was searched, and many things were confiscated, including computers and his phone. The anti-fascist bought a new phone and contacted other members of the Socialist Front.

L. Minkevicius is still behind bars. He was a member of the board of the organization from 2009 to 2012, and participated in the elections to the Seimas [parliament] of Lithuania. The son of famous philosopher professor Juokubas Minkevicius has long been acquainted with Algirdas Paleckis and other well-known anti-fascists.

In this whole story of barbaric political repression, most surprising is the position of a narrow circle of people who knew about A. Paleckis’ secret arrest, but were silent. One of them is his brother Rimvydas. He stated: “I warned Algirdas at that time that he was going the wrong way. I knew about the arrest, but was silent, so as not to interfere with the investigation.”

Of course, his brother’s position is very beneficial for the security services, which conduct political repression. Now, a long time has passed since Paleckis was arrested at the beginning of November. He does not have a regular lawyer, and the state of his health is unknown. If a person is secretly arrested, then torture and other illegal measures are possible.

Repression became harsher after coup in Ukraine          

Since spring 2014, after the coup in Ukraine, the Lithuanian security services have begun to act more strictly. Thus, in January 2015, a criminal case was instituted against 11 Lithuanian citizens who are members of the Socialist Front, the movement “Let’s Be United” and other organizations. Searches were conducted, judicial cases began. I, along with Oleg Titorenko, Vaidas Lextutis and other comrades, was tried for a long time.

On Dec. 20, I received an official document stating that I was forbidden to enter the building of the Lithuanian Seimas. This is another trick of the Lithuanian security services. The Supreme Court recently acquitted me, putting an end to the long political case, so now they are trying to find other ways to repress us. V. Titov, V. Orlov, D. Šulcas, A. Janisius and other Lithuanian anti-fascists are also facing persecution by the security services.

For more information, visit the web page of the Socialist Popular Front.

The sixth presidential election in the contemporary history of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela took place on May 20, 2018. Nicolás Maduro Moros was elected Constitutional President of Venezuela and according to the Venezuelan Constitution will take office for a new presidential term on January 10, 2019.

The election took place in a climate of peace and tranquility with a participation of 46.02 percent of the total electoral voters, very similar to the percentage in U.S. elections.

Candidates of different political parties participated in the electoral contest, such as Henry Falcón, leader of the Advanced Progressive Party, and Javier Bertucci, leader of the El Cambio party, both opponents of the currently constituted government. It should be noted that of the total turnout, 67.84 percent of voters cast their ballots for Frente Amplio de la Patria and its elected candidate Nicolás Maduro. This represents 6,245,862 valid votes. The opposition party with the next most votes was Henry Falcón, who received only 20.93 percent of the votes, which represented 1,927,387 votes.

The electoral result and the democratic response of the Venezuelan people resulted in their decision to continue a path of democratic construction as their destiny.

During the last five years, different U.S. administrations have been implementing a sophisticated destabilization plan against Venezuela to overthrow a democratically elected government through an electoral system that even former U.S. President Jimmy Carter described as the best in the world.

The U.S. government’s attitude of regime change systematically violates the sovereignty and self-determination of the Venezuelan people.

In March 2015, under an executive order, the U.S. government declared Venezuela an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States,” declaring a “national emergency” in order to confront that threat. Another executive order in August 2017 requires the Treasury Department to implement “irreversible” sanctions against the Venezuelan economy and financial system, a set of unilateral coercive measures unacceptable under international law. With these legal frameworks, the economic siege has been activated against the recovery plans of the Venezuelan economy, affected by the collapse in oil prices beginning in summer 2014.

Compounded by the economic blockade of Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the backbone of the Venezuelan economy, the commercial and financial blockade is hitting hard the quality of life of the Venezuelan people. William Brownfield, former U.S. ambassador to Venezuela, referring to the South America country, declared in October 2018, “At this moment perhaps the best solution would be to accelerate the collapse, even if it produces a period of suffering to the population of months or perhaps years.”

Using the monopoly of media power, the United States is manipulating world public opinion by imposing the narrative of a “humanitarian crisis” in Venezuela, thereby seeking to justify a military intervention disguised as “humanitarian intervention.” In September 2018, Trump openly told the media at the United Nations that when it comes to Venezuela, “all options are on the table.”

In 2016, the document “Venezuela Freedom-2 Operation” of the U.S. Southern Command (Southcom), signed by commanding officer Adm. Kurt W. Tidd, was published, where the plan for the implosion-collapse with a set of policies aimed at overthrowing the Venezuelan government was outlined, using a broad-spectrum strategy where simultaneous, combined and continuous operations were to be developed in the period 2016-2018.

The U.S. and a group of governments obedient to the orders of the White House are preparing to ignore the legitimacy of the mandate conferred on President Nicolás Maduro Moros as of Jan. 10. Given this fact, we call upon the people of the U.S. and the international community not to intervene, and to recognize and respect the sovereign will of the Venezuelan people, who continue to chart their own path of peace, guided by their inalienable right to self-determination and independence.

January 7, 2018

The declaration was signed by nearly 600 intellectuals, academics, artists, representatives of religious organizations, lawmakers, ambassadors, lawyers, activists and peace-loving people from all over the world. See the complete list of signers here.

Donald Trump‘s recent announcement that he is withdrawing 2,000 troops from Syria and half of the 14,000 troops currently in Afghanistan has opened a fissure in the imperialist ruling class.

Secretary of Defense Gen. James “Mad Dog” Mattis resigned over the issue. Brett McGurk, the presidential special envoy for the global coalition to counter ISIS, also resigned. Reuters news agency reports that U.S. military commanders planning the withdrawal are now recommending that Kurdish fighters be allowed to keep their U.S.-supplied weapons and equipment after the withdrawal from Syria — another rebuke to the U.S. president.

To a lesser or greater degree, all the major media and a significant portion of the political establishment have been calling Trump’s plan an abandonment of U.S. allies and a surrender to the Syrian Arab Army.

The allies that they are referring to are not only the armies of other countries and the mercenaries that they’ve hired. They are also referring to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), at the center of which is the People’s Protection Units (YPG) — the primarily Kurdish fighters that have been one of the main U.S. proxies in the war to overthrow the elected Syrian government.

Trump’s erratic presidency has frayed the nerves of many in the ruling class, but the military seemed to have been more comfortable with him. After all, he stacked his administration with military figures. And within a couple of months of moving into the White House, he fired Tomahawk missiles at Syria and dropped the largest non-nuclear weapon in existence in Afghanistan, as if to prove his imperialist warmaker chops.

But the uproar from the military is significant. Whether or not their differences will be patched up remains to be seen, but it’s clear that their squabble is based on a crisis for imperialism — the fact that the Syrian Arab Army, with assistance from allies Iran, Russia and Hezbollah of Lebanon, have regained much of their country. Signs are emerging of international recognition that Syria has won.

ISIS a convenient cover for U.S. intervention

The stated reason for the multiple ongoing U.S. wars in the Middle East and Africa is to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, popularly known as ISIS, which had taken over huge portions of the Middle East. But even as the U.S. coalesced with other countries’ armies to drive ISIS out of the areas they’d taken over, the U.S. military at times aided ISIS’s operations. The war against ISIS has been a convenient cover for Washington’s real goal of destroying Syria.

The use of the YPG as a proxy army has been a balancing act in Washington’s relationship with fellow NATO member Turkey. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey has been fighting against the Turkish regime for self-determination since the 1980s and has faced brutal repression, assassinations, massacres and prison sentences in that struggle. Turkey says that the YPG in Syria is an extension of the PKK in Turkey.

The U.S., Turkey and the European Union all consider the PKK a terrorist organization, but, in order to justify using the YPG against Syria, Washington distinguishes between the PKK and the YPG.

The U.S. has ignored Turkish attacks on the Kurdish fighters for the duration of the war. During the fighting to retake Raqqa in northern Syria, Turkey focused more on fighting the YPG than fighting ISIS. From January to June 2018, a Turkish invasion of Syria drove the Kurdish fighters out of the city of Afrin. In both cases, Syrian anti-Assad rebels backed by the U.S. helped in the attacks on the YPG, even as the U.S. was arming the YPG.

Turkey is now massing troops and equipment preparing to move on Manbij, which is still held by the YPG. Manbij is on the western bank of the Euphrates near the area of Deir ez-Zor, where most of Syria’s oil reserves are located.

But alliances are shifting fast. The YPG has appealed to the Syrian government to defend it against the Turkish military. According to the December 28 Guardian, the Syrian Arab Army has already sent forces to the outskirts of Manbij. Additionally, Hezbollah, the progressive fighting force in Lebanon, has offered more military assistance.

Struggle-La Lucha recently published a 1991 article by Marxist leader Sam Marcy in which he wrote about the first attempt at a Kurdish state that came about in 1945 in northern Iran when the strength of the Soviet Union emboldened revolutionary movements in Asia and throughout the world.

“The Kurdish Republic of Mahabad existed from December 1945 to December 1946 in the northern part of Iran. … What happened to it?” asked Marcy. “The Truman administration, in collaboration with the British, gave notice to the Soviet Union that its troops had to evacuate Iran. It was one of the first salvos of the Cold War. After their withdrawal, the Shah, armed by U.S. imperialism, opened a military struggle to destroy the Kurdish republic.”

The Kurdish people have been used and betrayed by imperialist forces in the past. Trump’s plan to throw the Kurdish fighters under the bus again should come as no shock. The outcry from military leaders isn’t genuine concern about the safety of Kurds at all. Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger famously said, “America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests.”

Kurdish people and all those fighting for self-determination will win by joining in solidarity with their natural allies — revolutionary, working-class and progressive forces, in the struggle to end U.S. imperialism.

Throughout 2018, Gaza’s struggle for survival has embodied Palestinian resistance to the world: from frequent Israeli bombings of homes, schools and hospitals inside the world’s largest open-air prison, to the now 11-year-long blockade that prohibits importing medicines and other basic human needs, and of course, the heroic Great Return March and weekly Friday protests at the militarized “border” of Gaza and the part of Palestine claimed by the apartheid settler state.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, since the beginning of the Great Return March on March 30, Israeli soldiers have shot and killed 240 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 25,000 more. (Gaza Post, Dec. 14)

Yet, as the year comes to a close, the people of the West Bank, too, are rising in a new wave of fightback to remind people everywhere that Palestine will never die.

On Dec. 13, Israeli occupation forces staged a series of raids in the West Bank, executing three Palestinians suspected of planning or carrying out attacks on Israeli soldiers: Saleh Barghouthi, Majd Mteir and Ashraf Na’alwa. They also executed 60-year-old businessman Hamdan Arda in his car as he was driving home. (Samidoun, Dec. 13) Dozens more were arrested.

The occupation raids were meant to strike a blow at the morale of the resistance as well as taking militant fighters off the chessboard. The assassinations were carefully timed, coming one day after the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) celebrated its 51st anniversary on Dec. 12, and three days before the commemoration of the 31st anniversary of the founding of the Islamic resistance movement Hamas on Dec. 16.

But if the apartheid regime in Tel Aviv and its sponsors in Washington thought Palestinians would end 2018 demoralized and immobilized, they guessed wrong.

In retaliation for the extrajudicial murders, Palestinian fighters shot and killed two occupation troops and wounded two others near the illegal Israeli settlement of Ofra, north of Ramallah in the West Bank. (Ma’an News, Dec. 13) Then, the people came into the streets.

“Today Palestinians from the river to the sea, from Gaza to Ramallah to Nabi Saleh to Hebron to Tulkarem to Nablus confronted occupation forces and held demonstrations to condemn the Israeli offensive, mourn yesterday’s martyrs and reassert the right of Palestinians to resist by any means necessary,” declared Within Our Lifetime – United for Palestine on its Facebook page Dec. 14.

The Israeli occupation forces responded to mass demonstrations in the West Bank with tear gas, rubber-coated bullets and live ammunition. Eighteen-year-old Mahmoud Nakhleh was killed by Israeli fire in Ramallah. Troops opened fire on a Palestinian ambulance in al-Bireh City.

Israeli forces sealed off Ramallah and raided the city and nearby refugee camps with hundreds of troops. They destroyed the home of 73-year-old activist Latifa Abu Hmeid and forced hundreds of her neighbors into a nearby open sports field despite freezing cold. This is an example of the collective punishment against the families of political prisoners and resistance fighters carried out by the U.S. and Israel.

Abu Hmeid said that the demolition “will not break our will,” vowing to rebuild. “All my sons have either been martyred or imprisoned, and that didn’t break me.” (Al-Jazeera, Dec. 16)

The Israeli military also aided and defended armed Zionist settler attacks over the weekend of Dec. 15-16, targeting schools in al-Lubban al-Sharqiya, a village south of Nablus, and civilian homes. (Middle East Monitor, Dec. 16) On Dec. 18, settlers rampaged through Bethlehem, hitting a Palestinian youth with a car and raiding a Greek Orthodox monastery. (Ma’an News, Dec. 18)

The so-called state of Israel is a U.S. military enterprise, weaponized and funded by Washington and Wall Street as a bastion of U.S. imperialist power and white supremacy in the Middle East. Its ideological project, Zionism, is meant to divide Jewish people from their Arab siblings and fellow workers.

U.S. imperialist politicians, from reactionary Donald Trump to “liberal” Democrat Chuck Schumer, seek to destroy Palestinian resistance through force of arms and withdrawal of humanitarian aid. They enact censorious laws to try to silence solidarity with Palestine at home.

But increasingly, even here in the belly of the beast, the mask is being torn away, and people of all nationalities are demanding: Free Palestine!

Dec. 18 — Thirty people braved the cold wind in front of the Japanese Consulate on New York City’s swanky Park Avenue today to protest the building of a new U.S. military base on Okinawa. People from Okinawa were joined by U.S. supporters, including members of the Granny Peace Brigade and Veterans for Peace members.

The 466-square-mile island of 1.4 million people already hosts “19,000 U.S. Marines as well as the largest U.S. Air Force base in the Asia-Pacific.” (Washington Post, Sept 28)

All these forces are aimed at the People’s Republic of China and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. They are a tripwire for World War III.

Protesters were also concerned about the ecological damage caused by the base construction, which was scheduled to begin on Dec. 14.

A leaflet addressed to President Trump states, “Earlier this year the Okinawan people overwhelmingly elected Gov. Denny Tamaki on the premise of STOPPING the construction at Henoko/Oura Bay. The Bay is a CRUCIAL part of the Okinawan ecosystem. However the Japanese government & U.S. military have so far IGNORED the democratic will of Gov. Tamaki & the Okinawan people.”

People are urged to sign a petition to the White House demanding that construction be stopped until a referendum can be held. Go to https://bit.ly/2SF0eMT

“Struggle for Socialism/La Lucha por el Socialismo,” a newly-established Marxist-Leninist publication in the U.S., congratulates the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) on its 50th anniversary. We send our warmest revolutionary greetings and deepest solidarity to all members and supporters of the CPP in their struggle for peace and liberation in the Philippines.

The CPP was founded on Dec. 26, 1968, in order to continue the unfinished revolution started by the Katipunan in 1896 and to continue the struggle for national liberation and democracy against U.S. imperialism and the local reactionary classes of big compradors, landlords and bureaucrat capitalists.

Today, the CPP holds broad support among a significant section of Filipino people. This is in part because of its ability to convince the masses of people of the correctness of its program — specifically, genuine land reform and national industrialization. The workers and peasants of the Philippines understand that these are real solutions to the problems of poverty, joblessness and exploitation. This support from the Filipino people is what has allowed the CPP to grow and strengthen for so long.

As a neocolonial client of U.S. imperialism, the Rodrigo Duterte regime enjoys material and political support from Washington, especially in the form of funds for the Philippine army and police. These are the same military and police forces that have been given free reign by Duterte to kill anyone they suspect of being subversives. Duterte has refused to continue the peace talks with the CPP that began with his presidency, thus removing the possibility for a peaceful solution. He has opted for an all-out war on Filipino workers and peasants.

In its 50 years, the Communist Party of the Philippines has achieved incredible victories for the workers and peasants. Under the direction of the CPP, the National Democratic Front, consisting of 18 allied organizations, has ousted two reactionary regimes: first, the fascist Marcos dictatorship in 1986, and then the corrupt Estrada regime in 2001.

Additionally, the growth and strength of the New People’s Army (NPA) has allowed for the building of local organs of political power nationwide, meaning that there are territories throughout the Philippines operating under a people’s government. The NPA is assisted by tens of thousands of people, operating in more than 110 guerrilla fronts in 17 regions and 73 out of 81 Philippine provinces.

Revolutionaries in the U.S. can help to further the struggle in the Philippines by opposing the U.S. war machine and toppling imperialism via a strong and broad anti-war, anti-imperialist movement here.

Happy 50th anniversary and deepest solidarity to the Communist Party of the Philippines. Struggle onward!

Angelo Conti, known as Sigaro, died Dec. 11 in Rome, following a brief illness. A worker, musician and communist, Conti was a founding member of the world-renowned punk band Banda Bassotti.

Hundreds of friends, comrades and admirers turned out to the Egyptian Temple cemetery in Rome for Sigaro’s funeral on Dec. 13. They chanted, sang, carried banners and raised their fists — it was a political demonstration.

The city walls of Rome and the social media walls of thousands of people around the world were plastered with posters reading: “Those who struggle will never be slaves. Ciao (farewell) Sigaro.”

What was the cause of this incredible international outpouring on behalf of a 62-year-old Italian shipyard worker?

Banda Bassotti is little known in the U.S. thanks to the historic legacy of Cold War anti-communism in the punk music scene. But in the rest of the world, the group is loved and admired — both for its music and more than 30 years of carrying out international solidarity with some of the most oppressed and exploited workers of the world.

The workers who founded Banda Bassotti — Angelo Conti, Gianpolo “Picchio” Picchiami and David Cacchione — met in the shipyards of Rome in 1984. They started out using their construction skills to build stages for demonstrations and concerts by radical bands in the Ska-Punk-Oi scene. Others joined with them. And they embraced an internationalist perspective — organizing a solidarity work brigade to Nicaragua to help build a school during the U.S.-Contra war.

In 1987, inspired by groups like The Clash, they were first coaxed into performing on stage themselves. Along with their own powerful songs, Banda Bassotti is known for its renditions of anti-fascist classics like “Bella Ciao” and Soviet revolutionary songs, which often turn into thundering singalongs.

Since then, from Palestine and Turkey to El Salvador and Mexico, and most recently in the annual Antifascist Caravans to the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, Banda Bassotti has continued to unite the left in campaigns of political solidarity, inspiring concerts and material aid, helping to raise revolutionary internationalist consciousness along the way.

In fact, just days before Sigaro’s death, members of Banda Bassotti were in Chile, where they gave a concert. While there, they visited the Casa Bolívar to stand with the Mapuche Indigenous community and bring aid to local children, and held a meeting and rally with local communists in solidarity with Donbass.

Like their peers and comrades in the Turkish band Grup Yorum, they have set the standard which communist, anti-fascist and anti-imperialist artists around the world aspire to.

And so, in cities and towns across Italy, as well as in the Basque Country, Santiago de Chile and many places in between, groups of activists, musicians and supporters of radical sports teams came out into public squares to light flares and hold banners reading “Ciao Sigaro” and other slogans.

The outpouring of grief and solidarity extended to women’s and men’s basketball and football teams in Buenos Aires, Argentina, who held a minute of silence during an exhibition. Soccer players in the Donetsk People’s Republic also showed their solidarity, holding signs honoring Sigaro before a match.

Sigaro and Banda Bassotti’s tremendous unifying influence on the radical left in Europe and beyond was demonstrated by the immediate outpouring of solidarity messages from radical groups around the world. Messages came in from groups including Fronte Popolare, Partito Comunista, Patria Socialista and Communist Refoundation in Italy; the Anti-Imperialist Front in Turkey; the Communist Party of the Donetsk People’s Republic; the German Communist Party (DKP); and the Communist Party (Proletarian Action) of Chile; and many more.

In a statement published Dec. 14, Banda Bassotti reported: “One of the last messages Angelo had sent to us was ‘FORWARD UNITED,’ written in capital letters. A terrible legacy in a country where splitting is the rule, where ‘united’ is a beautiful word but nobody can put it into practice.

“With Banda Bassotti we can talk a little to all those who are part of our world. We willingly leave the thousand differences to others. Once Picchio said a historical truth for us: the communists have rarely joined together. One of those times was the October Revolution.”

“Our songs tell the reality that we live and we try to sing together with the world we are part of,” Sigaro said in an interview a few years before his death. “We are still working on the construction site, we are still exploited, we are a group of communist workers who are trying to fight hypocrisy and injustice. We are old, it’s true, but our spirit remains young.” (Republica, Dec. 12)

Sigaro, presente!

To learn more, watch the documentary “Banda Bassotti: The International Brigade”: https://youtu.be/Pk8sfOdJVRo