redFlags

The Shock Doctrine

We must name the system

This dramatic reading of Paul Potter's rightly famous speech is part of a wonderful series of public performances called the Port Huron Project re-enacting the signal flares of the American New Left. It's striking how contemporary they sound, and why, really, 1968 neither failed nor won. It is in more ways than one would wish the terrain of the battle we are still fighting. It's easier than you think to engage in free speech. You just have to do it. Read an interview with project creator Mark Tribe.

Sison arrested: Emergency Action Alert

RELEASE JOSE
MARIA SISON!
Picket the Dutch
Consulate in NYC
Wednesday
August 29th, 4pm
11 Rockefeller Center in Manhattan
Trains: B/D/F/V/N/R to Rockefeller Place

Readings: JoseMariaSison.org | Biography | writings & speeches | Philippine Society & Revolution |  An interview with Jose Maria Sison | Intl. Herald Tribune article on arrest and protest in the Netherlands |  National Democratic Front (Philippines) | BAYAN USA statement

Support needed for SF mural on popular struggles against borders & fences

By Martin Travers
artist living in Holland, and creator of the original image

I am a firm believer in the right to self determination of all peoples all over this wonderful world we all inhabit. To stand by the right to that self determination by Palestinian people or any other people is by no means supporting terrorism or senseless violence or racism, to say that is in itself an injustice. My painting which was recreated on the mural in question is about that right, breaking through the wall that separates the Israelis from Palestinians and the Palestinians from each other is symbolic of the breaking of the walls that fence in the marginalised and the “unwanted” people everywhere because to see them is to be reminded of where and how Europe, north America and Israel got its wealth.

CPN(M) report on developments in Nepal & Prachanda Q&A

[The text below is from the Maoist Information Bulletin, produced by the CPN(M), Central Committee. The CPN(M) is listed as a "terrorist" organization by the U.S. State Department, American citizens should be advised. redFlags provides this link for informational purposes. On the link, there is also the entire text of a recent interview between Prachanda and Kantipur Online ]

"On several occasions we have brought out our assessment that the domestic situation in Nepal is favorable and ripe to capture central state power in the near future, but as all the genuine communist parties engaged in revolutionary practice know, the international situation is quite unfavorable to accomplish new democratic revolution and sustain it. It is obvious that we should try to mobilize justice-loving people all over the world in general and the peoples of south Asia in particular to garner support in favor of revolution, improving on the domestic situation in the same spirit. For this we should dare to abandon the course once selected and have the courage to climb the unexplored mountain."

IntifadaNYC: Racist campaign claims Khalil Gibran principal

The resignation of Debbie Almontaser as principal of the proposed Arab language school in Brooklyn has caused a great deal of controversy. The DOE replaced her with Danielle Salzberg. There's so much stuff flying it is hard to keep track of it all. An interesting interview by Amy Goodman posted on Democracy Now can be found here. Also this piece written by Almontaser, not long after 9/11.

By Steve Quester
UFT chapter leader
P.S. 372/418K The Children’s School
from Education Notes Online

Imagine...
A veteran Latina educator, with a years-long record of service supporting Latino/a youth and building bridges between Latino/a and non-Latino/a communities, is slated to be principal of a new middle school with a focus on Hispano-Caribbean studies and Spanish language. She endures months of vitriolic attacks from right-wing hate websites and blogs, and from the Murdoch news organizations. Finally, the Murdoch media uncover that she’s on the board of an organization that shares an office with a Latina girls’ empowerment organization. The organization has produced a T-shirt with the image of Che Guevara and the words “Hasta la victoria siempre.” The Murdoch media point out (rightly) that the “victoria” to which Che referred was the violent overthrow of all capitalist governments, including the U.S. The media demand that the educator condemn the T-shirt, but instead she says that the girls’ intention was to point to the victory of tolerance and coexistence over anti-Latino/a bias in New York. The media howl. The educator quickly apologizes, admitting that she did not take into account the effect that the image of Che has on Cuban-American refugees of Castro’s oppression.

After the apology, the United Federation of Teachers president [hypothetically Randi Weingarten —JB], who had been supportive of the new middle school and its principal, is quoted condemning the educator’s initial defense of the T-shirt...

Notes on XXIst Century Socialism

[Thus far my favorite critical piece on events in Venezuela. For a surprisingly robust, open and religious(!) exploration of the same theme, check out this speech by the outgoing Defense Minister... a long time friend of Hugo. — JB]

by Bromma
from threewayfight

Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela, recently announced the arrival of XXIst Century Socialism. This declaration, although greeted with great enthusiasm, left a residue of confusion. Since Chavez didn't discuss XXIst Century Socialism during his recent Presidential campaign, and since there are virtually no public theoretical documents defining this new Socialist era, its precise features are not always clear.

Fortunately, Chavez has appointed a committee, well stocked with international supporters, to come up with appropriate explanatory documents. In the meantime, we can best understand the contours of XXIst Century Socialism by examining it as it actually functions in the real world. Practice is the true test of theory; after several years of Chavez's leadership, we can readily detect the broad outlines of this innovative Socialism.

There appear to be several critical new features of the new XXIst Century Socialist breakthrough. We will review some of the most important:

First of all, XXIst Century Socialism does not require a revolution. This comes as a great relief to Socialists around the world, and will surely encourage many new Socialists to step forward.

A call to build the Iraq Moratorium Day

By by Jeremy Brecher & Brendan Smith
Originally published in The Nation

Though Americans disapprove of President Bush's handling of the situation in Iraq by more than two to one, they don't seem to be expressing that disapproval to anyone but pollsters. A plan to establish a monthly Iraq Moratorium Day may provide a way for them to do so.

Refitting an idea from the Vietnam era to the age of the Internet, organizers of the Iraq Moratorium Day are inviting ordinary Americans to demand an end to the war in targeted activities in their local communities and viral activities online. The goal is a "monthly expression of determination to end the war."

The initiators, a handful of individuals from different corners of the antiwar movement, are asking people to make a simple pledge:

"I hereby make a commitment that on Friday, September 21, 2007, and the third Friday of every subsequent month I will break my daily routine and take some action, by myself or with others, to end the War in Iraq."

U.S. Imperialism, Islamic Fundamentalism… and the Need for Another Way

by Sunsara Taylor, Revolution

As the U.S.'s crimes against humanity in the Middle East mount, it is of tremendous importance for people in the U.S. to honestly confront and rise to the profound challenges and responsibilities before us in bringing this to a halt. In this spirit, I welcomed the argument made by Hadas Thier and Aaron Hess in the Socialist Worker on April 20, 2007 entitled Standing up to Islamophobia, even while I find their central arguments to not only be wrong, but harmful.

I do not doubt that Thier and Hess want to oppose U.S. wars of aggression and their accompanying assault on Muslims, Arabs and South Asians living in the U. S. But they end up arguing for an approach that will neither meet the actual challenges of opposing the U.S. “crusade,” nor bring forward new, truly liberating possibilities here and around the world. They end up in this unfortunate place through the use of bad logic, flawed methodology, and a duck-from-unpleasant-realities epistemology (method for arriving at what is true).

Denmark riots: Youth House Vs. Father House

Riots and repression have rocked Copenhagen for three days and nights. In what's been billed as the "final conflict" of the Scandanavian autonomous scene, the Danish state has moved to sell off and shut down Youth House, the last remaining political squat outside of Cristiana, Copenhagen's famed semi-autonomous zone in the center of the city. Over 600 people have been brutally arrested attempting to block the transfer of Youth House to a Christian sect that has slated this vibrant social center for demolition. Supporters from around Scandanavia and Germany traveled to assist the Danes, with the government responding by raiding anti-authoritarian offices and movement centers in round-ups. UK Indymedia has an update page with timelines, pictures and tons of information.

David Rovics wrote a short report on some of the back story:

The 1980’s was the heyday of the autonomous movement in Denmark, Germany and elsewhere in Europe. Thousands of mostly young people squatted hundreds of abandoned buildings in dozens of urban centers, creating alternative societies that embraced community, art, music, and a culture of resistance that rejected consumerism and empire. A community was formed that rejected the domination of the world by multinational corporations and the governments that supported them, whether they be outright militarist states like the US or more watered-down NATO members like Denmark. They defended their squats in pitched battles with police, and at the same time debated sexism within their movement and organized protests in support of refugees and against nuclear power. The movement existed in a near-constant state of siege. Many squats were ultimately taken by force by the police, and others were legalized.

With that in mind: Either we fight for the world, or fight for our own turf. They are not the same thing. There is no as autonomy in this world and there never will be. The retreat into socio-political ghettos in Europe was a surrender to the permanence of the capitalist (welfare) state while playing at war against it. It is people in their millions who will take down European capitalism. In the difference between the suburban riots in France last year and the subcultural resistance of the long-waned autonomous scene – we can see the outlines of new European left that no longer sees itself flowering in the cracks and margins – but which pushes to the very centers of power through the rebellion of working people and their allies, both native born and immigrant.

These social centers are exciting places, particularly for Americans with little experience in strong, radical institutions (as Rovics ably reports). Understood in context, the squats and social centers were a retreat by movements past, not simply something to defend. When radicals gave up on a better world, they settled for a better apartment.

What sees itself as autonomy could be seen through another lens as containment.

That said, they take their autonomy seriously – and they fight for it. You have to respect people who refuse to be governed. In Texas, the fetish of private property means you legally get shot for walking on somebody's lawn. In Copenhagen for these days, what people were willing to wage a violent defense of is their right to a social existence outside of capitalism, with mutual aid and solidarity outside of the exploitative hierarchies of capitalism.

In the ferocity of their battle is the measure of their hope.

Former Black Panthers/BLA under attack

For anyone not familiar, raids in several states have nabbed eight former Panthers on charges that date back 35 years. This terrorization of comrades from the Black liberation movement is intolerable and all support is due. Though there are no complete histories of the Black Liberation Army currently in print, quite likely because of the continuing government interest in hounding these comrades across the globe, brother Kaz recently wrote up a short history of the deceased freedom fighter Kuwasi Balagoon that gives some flavor of the movement and its rank-and-file militants. RedFlags is here reposting an announcement from the Jericho Movement, an organization dedicated to supporting and assisting political prisoners and prisoners of war.

To all Jericho chapters, members and allies:

It is with urgency that we call on you to be alert right now in light of this latest assault on our movement coming from California and New York. By now you have heard the news that fascism has called for the arrest of at least eight (8) former members of the Black Panther Party, two of whom are already serving life sentences in New York state prisons. The incident occurred back in August 29, 1971, when, if I remember correctly, a unit of the Black Liberation Army attacked a precinct in San Francisco in retaliation for the assassination of Field Marshall George Jackson the week prior.

As with many actions of the BLA, large-scale corralling measures were taken and numerous folks, community revolutionaries and unaffiliated community folks were arrested and charged with criminal bs. Torture and other illegal but totally characteristic measures were used by local, state and federal forces to coerce “confessions” and manufacture evidence where there was none. But that's war, aint it?

Campus Strikes Against the War

Starting with a call from UC Santa Barbara – students around the country are planning strikes Thursday, February 15 against the escalation and war in Iraq. World Can't Wait has an excellent student strike resource page with a list of participating campuses and materials to help activists and there's a February 15 blog up and running with updates (and where I found the picture above).

From the initial call out of UC—Santa Barbara:

We, the students and staff of UC Santa Barbara, want to challenge our generation to put an end to the U.S. conquest of Iraq. Right now most opposition to the war is only symbolic. Congress is being sheepish and choosing not to end the war because we, the people, are not forcing them to act.

People's historian Howard Zinn says:

"I would like to endorse the idea of a student strike on campuses all over the country on Feb. 15, to rekindle the flame of protest that flared up all over the world  on that date four years ago, as  ten million people protested the pending invasion of Iraq by the United States. A student strike at this time would be a great boost to the movement against the war and would send a signal to Congress that it should listen to the American people and act immediately to stop this ugly war."

Join in where you can. If you're on a campus where nothing is currently planned, get involved now. It's going to be a hot spring~!

  Download STRIKE flyers
  PDF — easy to print & localize!
  Four different flyers!
  Put 'em up everywhere!

Breaking the Imperial "We"

The assembled columnists of the New York Times are known for their maudlin self-import. Think Thomas Friedman as freelance sloganeer of empire (while living off his wife's millions). But every now and then, one of these courtiers hits the nail on the head. David Brooks, who is something of a translator for the hard right to the urbane middle classes and generic barometer of the establishment, wrote a piece called The Iraq Syndrome, R.I.P. One of the comments in the discussion on the January 27 antiwar protests brought it to my attention – and I'm glad. Leave it to the Right to cut to the chase, after all: what are we fighting about in the first place?

Today, Americans are disillusioned with the war in Iraq, and many around the world predict that an exhausted America will turn inward again. Some see a nation in permanent decline and an end to American hegemony. At Davos, some Europeans apparently envisioned a post-American world.

Forget about it. Americans are having a debate about how to proceed in Iraq, but we are not having a strategic debate about retracting American power and influence. What’s most important about this debate is what doesn’t need to be said. No major American leader doubts that America must remain, as Dean Acheson put it, the locomotive of the world.....

The U.S. has no cultural need to retrench. Vietnam sparked a broad cultural revolution, a shift in values and a loss of confidence. Iraq has not had the same effect. Many Americans have lost faith in the Bush administration and in this particular venture, but there has been no generalized loss of faith in the American system or in American goodness....

In short, the U.S. has taken its share of blows over the past few years, but the isolationist dog is not barking. The hegemon will change. The hegemon will do more negotiating. But the hegemon will live.

Well, to quote that great American poet of national "confusion" — you have no faith to lose, and you know it.

The argument that's been bubbling among antiwar forces is about whether the issue is "this war", narrowly defined as the occupation of Iraq (forget the occupation of Kuwait going on 16 years, forget Palestine, forget the dozens of other countries with "entanglements") – or whether the Bush Agenda of the imperial presidency with its triple whammy of fear, repression and war is the target.

This is one of the ways where we can see the danger of narrowing the focus on "Republican mistakes" and the need to generate a culture of resistance that leads to definitive repudiation of the fascist direction Bush (and Hil) have taken the country. Read Brooks to see inside the mind of the collossus, look around to trip those clay feet.

Full commentary follows.

Impeachment: What's the word?

Far-fetched? Unlikely? Liberal? Won't impeaching Bush just leave us with Cheney? Didn't Pelosi say it's "off the table?"

Planned for February 17 and 18, the Emergency Summit to Impeach Bush for War Crimes in New York,  is a must-attend event.

Sponsored by World Can't Wait, Progressive Democrats of America, Troops Out Now, DemocracyRising, Ramsey Clarke's ImpeachBush.org, After Downing Street and the Green Party of the United States – it's looking to be a movement that won't be deniable. For any activists reading this, there's an open call for workshops — so if you know what the movement is missing, here's your chance to change the game.

Saving the summit talk for the gathering, I did want to bring together some of the available writing on impeachment and what people's thinking is. On the jump, I've posted the entirety of Howard Zinn's recent article Impeachment by the People.

Also worth a read, on both the urgency of the situation and the strategy of impeachment:
Voices for Impeachment | Voices Speak Out | US Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) on Oct. 5 | Deborah Sweet: Presentation to WCW National Meeting 1/13/07 | Liz Holtzman: The Case for  Impeachment | Fact Sheet on the Military Commissions Act | Why Demand Impeachment Now?  | Sunsara Taylor: Why the Democrats Won't Stand and Fight (and Why YOU Must) | The New Investigation Season | Nader: Talking About Impeachment | 4 Things You Can Do to Drive Out the Bush Regime

Kenya: World Social Forum Diary

by Jordan Flaherty

Nairobi, Kenya — This week, tens of thousands of people, representing nearly every nation and people, are gathered to strategize, debate and struggle for solutions to worldwide problems of injustice and inequality. For the first time, the World Social Forum has come to Nairobi, Kenya. The global conference is situated in a massive sports complex neighboring the slum of Korogocho, where tens of thousands of Kenyans live in abject poverty, a vivid demonstration of the themes discussed at the Forum, and a contrast to the wealth of many of the conference participants from the so-called “developed world.”

State in Disunity: Raise the political stakes on Jan. 27, Impeach Bush for War Crimes

Speaking for my own self, Bush looked weak during his State of the Union and Nancy Pelosi looked like a bobble-head when she jumped to applaud Bush's comment about "crossing the aisle." She was the first one to applaud. Guess who's going which way? Jim Webb gave the rebuttal. "God Bless America." Talk about code words.

||  ||  ||

After millions voted against this war in the last election, George Bush has a dramatic and risky plan to escalate and expand the conflict. Bush speaks of war for a generation, torture is legally codified. The Democrats talk about partial withdrawls somewhere down the line. That's not the orders going out to the military in this illegal, imperialist war.

"Spreading the war to Africa and Iran, while normalizing surveillance, torture and a culture of fear – the world can’t wait two more years for an election that may not even stop them. There is no way an administration that has committed war crimes should remain in office.

"We don’t need a new consensus: we need to drive this man out of power. We must repudiate everything Bush stands for. Join World Can’t Wait in Washington, DC to raise the concrete, possible and necessary goal for 2007: Impeach Bush for War Crimes!

"Get in touch now to find out about buses to DC, and how you can help put impeachment on the table... or turn it over!"

Purchase bus tickets from NYC | phone: 866-973-4463
email: info@worldcantwait.org | Download flyer 

The January 27 protest is sponsored by United For Peace & Justice with the slogan: "March on Washington to end the war."

Ward Churchill: Canary in the mine of academic freedom

Ward Churchill isn't just some controversy that flashed over the newswires last year. He's a real human being, a teacher, a soldier against holocaust denial in America and one of the few writers who took the time to explain "why they hate us." He's also a tenured professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado. Backed by powerful right-wing forces nationally, the campus administration is seeking to revoke his post for the tumerity to document empire.

Churchill is a showman as anyone who's ever seen him speak can testify. Sometimes he lets his own arguments get the best of him. But on this one, there's no mistake. Churchill isn't being purged for ettiquette. It's about a little matter of what America is. Churchill is ferocious in his exposure of America's hidden holocaust and imperial genesis. He has little patience for collegiality in the face of white supremacy.

Do academics have the right to question empire? To document its abuses? To challenge the youth on the ethics of Eichmann? Are professors bound to tow the party line in supposed "times of national crisis"?

For his courage to not shut up, we should all support Ward Churchill's right to teach, share his analysis and refuse a right-wing witchhunt through college campuses. If Churchill is fired, the chill will set in on campus. Turmoil would not be inappropriate, public solidarity is in order.

On the link, there's an Open Letter from Concerned Academics. If you're on campus, get involved or at least lend your name.

Workers Party of Belgium: Pageantry, Parliaments & Uncle Joe

By way of Jimmy Higgins from Fire on the Mountain, this report about the recent growth of the Workers Party of Belgium (PTB) is interesting on a few counts. The PTB has been the center of international gatherings to re-form the international communist movement on the conflation of revisionism and Marxism-Leninism, promoting left Stalinism against MLM. At the same time, they have grown from the "biggest of the small parties" to the "smallest of the big" in the Belgian parliament and local electoral lists. Running a high-profile campaign in her district and of mixed immigrant/European family, Miss Brussels Halima Chehaima came in second promoting the PTB platform. Cuts a better profile than Uncle Joe, but what of this program they run, what of their international profile, of shop stewards vs. tribunes of the people? What of syncretism vs. synthesis?

Maybe this is a good time to have a discussion about the Old Synthesis.

The full report is here on the link.

U.S. Peace Movement Plans to “Escalate” Street Protests

International ANSWER has released a statement calling for an "escalation" of street protests following the Bush State of the Union speech last night.

Dissent must turn to resistance.

The issue right now for the anti-war movement can not simply be opposition to a surge or an escalation: the issue is the war itself. The troops must be brought home now. As in Vietnam, that is the only solution. Those who initiated the war and who funded the war should be held accountable for one of the great crimes of the modern era...

If Bush fails in Iraq the people of the United States lose nothing. It is not our Empire.

Daring to Change Minds: Sunsara Taylor Back on the O'Reilly Factor

The day Congress opened with its new Democratic Party majority, activists with World Can't Wait confronted DLC bagman Rahm Emmanuel with chants of "De-escalate, Investigate, Troops Out Now!" Emmanuel couldn't handle the heat and like the chickenbutt he is, bounced from his own press conference.

According to Father Coughlin Bill O'Reilly, this was a "wild mob" of "lunatics" shouting poor Rahm down, or at least that's the approach he took with Sunsara Taylor on his show that night. Putting this surreal etiquette lesson from the bully pulpit himself aside, it was hot hot hot to see the Democrats put on the hot seat starting day one. World Can't Wait is pushing (yeah, pushing) for activists and people of conscience to not accept the Bush agenda as some "new normal"... whether Republicans or Democrats are serving it up — and to campaign for impeachment of the executive as repudiation of the program.

Legalization of torture, the shredding of the Fourth Amendment and a permanent, illegal war have to be stopped. We need a definitive repudiation. Impeachment is possible, but only if there is a broad mass movement determined to make it happen.

I urge any activist reading this to question their own work, and how they are contributing to the political fight shaping up (and not just the various issue-symptoms so many groups are built around).

UFPJ is building up for a big anti-war protest on January 27, and ANSWER is looking to March 17 with talk of direct actions coming from some others. If we all pick up the pace, we have a chance of turning this tide back instead of finding cold comfort in turning the reins of empire over to the Democrats. Judging from UFPJ's track record over the last couple of years, they cannot be trusted to do more than run scrimmage for the Democrats (and to avoid any "embarassments" to the now ruling party), having adopted a firm (and weak) pro-Democratic position over the last year.

If we fear disruption, resistance and honesty about the stakes — we are in trouble. Only in America are activists fatigued by success. The majority of people are now against this war, but they are sending more troops. Resistance, not dissent, is the order of the day.

Sunsara wrote up her experience for CounterPunch, Same As It Ever Was: The Democrats' First Day, and below is a recent speech by Sunsara Taylor from the World Can't Wait town hall at Fordham that lays out the basic analysis (edited for publication in Revolution).

Engage!

"Civil Wars" in Iraq, Palestine & Lebanon: Who Benefits?

The "War on Terror" is now spiraling into (the promised and feared) regional conflagration. Sparkling new talking points about a "civil war" and the "responsibilities" of occupation. First in Pakistan and Iraq, then Lebanon and Palestine, intra-ethnic/religious fighting is now a recognizable pattern. In each country, unsigned assassinations and sectarian bombings have commenced. In one (should be) famous incident, British SAS commandos were caught red-handed in Basra, dressed like Arabs with a car full of explosives and remote detonators.

Instead of what's been called the Salvador option, it's starting to look more like the Africa Option. Surround the resources with mercenary armies and destabilize the rest of society with permanent militarization, terror and fratricidal wars armed and cultivated from the imperial centers of Europe and North America. Get the oil from the Persian Gulf like the diamonds from Africa, and let the "natives" slaughter each other.

Making sense of what is happening in Iraq and the larger Arab world is increasingly difficult, with the mainstream media unreliable for both its narrow coverage and smothering blanket of imperial ideology. Getting a handle on events is more important than ever, with incoming Democrats a-okay with a troop increase and leading sections of what's supposed to be an anti-war movement taking marching orders from the Democrats (by way of the CPUSA ).

In other words: some sections of the "anti-war" movement is not even opposing the war!

Larry Everest has been writing an informative and detailed analysis of the so-called War on Terror that's worth the time to read.

The High Stakes in Iraq – For Them... And For Us:
• Part 1: The Crossroads in Iraq – Why the U.S. Went to War
• Part 2: Quagmire

Previous by Everest: There Is No War on Terror | The Baker Commission: Desperate Straights, Deep Divisions, Dwindling Options

I've also posted Jonathan Cook's must-read meditation on US and Israeli designs in full below. Cook argues that a provoked series of civil wars may be part of their plans for strategic domination in the region.

Day of Solidarity with the People of Oaxaca

An ad hoc network of activists in New York has taken up the Zapatista call for a day of actions in solidarity with the popular struggle in Oaxaca on Friday, December 22. Organizations, collectives and individuals are encouraged to plan autonomous actions, and to join gatherings at the Mexican consulate and later at Rockefeller Center (remember Diego Rivera!).

Download Oaxaca/NYC Solidarity Flyer

For more information, check:
El Enemigo Comun
Friends of Brad Will

Or for background on the conflict and the voice of the people themselves, check the website of the Popular Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO)

 

Celebration and concern among Maoists regarding developments in Nepal

No revolution in the twenty-first century can be propelled forward without taking proper lesson from the experiences of great revolutions and counter-revolutions of the twentieth century. From this point of view, our party has been giving plenty of importance to the questions of defense, application and development of the fundamental principles of MLM. —Prachanda

Major institutions from the international communist movement are beginning to speak on developments in Nepal.

In the interests of gathering a developed assessment of what is up and to facilitate discussion:

Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist): The Worker #10
This is the most comprehensive political and strategic statement so far from the CPN-M, published in their party magazine and distributed internationally. It includes a number of articles analyzing domestic and international issues, from leaders and politically allied organizations from the region and the RIM. These articles have been posted to the web by an independent Maoist collective in the United States.

A World to Win News Service (CoRIM): Nepal Maoists and Government Sign Peace Agreement
This careful explication of the terms of the peace agreement has a notably restrained tone. It comes from the CPN-M's comrades in the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, of which they are a participating member. This article is posted in full below.

People's March: Exclusive Interview with Communist Party of India (Maoist) spokesperson on Nepal Developments
Dated Aug. 6, 2006, this critical assessment of the peace accords comes from one of the CPN-M's closest companion organizations. Leading a people's war in neighboring India, the CPI (Maoist) is a co-participant with the Nepalese in the CCOMPOSSA, a political coordinating body of South Asian Maoists.

Analytical Monthly Review: People's Victory in Nepal, U.S. and Indian Reactions
Short analysis from the Indian companion magazine to Monthly Review here in the USA.

In the comments below, a comrade has posted a joint press statement from Aug. 8 by the Communist party of Nepal (Maoist) and Communist Party of India (Maoist) on the recent debates between two parties. They have also released statement condemning the brutal attack on Lebanon.

Impeach Cheney

A printable flyer with space on the bottom for customization.
Download impeach_Cheney.pdf

RCP election analysis

Let's start with this:

The Democrats, try as some of them might, have not come up with either the programme or the organized social and political forces to counter that – and they are not willing and they are not able, at this point, to oppose it with anything more than what Lenin once called “pious doubts and petty amendments.”

The top Democratic leaders make their main priority the preservation of this system, no matter what horrors (and horrific compromises) this preservation may require – and at this point they are quite open about that. For the past several years they have been intent on keeping the outrage of the people suppressed and diverted into channels that end up shoring up the system, and even the Bush regime itself.

This dynamic has not fundamentally changed through the election.

It's worse than you think: Video Teach-In on why the Bush regime must be stopped

Webcast of the World Can't Wait NYC teach-in "It's Worse Than You Think."

If all the recent changes brought by the Bush administration, and both Democrats and Republicans in Congress, has started to blur: this Oct. 30 teach-in is a necessary summation of what the stakes really are.

Where the Bush regime is taking the world and why it must be stopped, featuring:

Larry Everest
author, "Oil, Power & Empire: Iraq and the U.S. Global Agenda"

 Bill Goodman
Legal Director for the Center for Constitutional Rights
   
Chris Hedges
author of bestseller "War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning"
   
Cristina Page
author, "How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America: Freedom, Politics, and the War on Sex"
   
Les Roberts
An author of the recent study revealing that over 600,000 Iraqis have died since war began.

Watch | Donate

Click here for a list of dozens of teach-ins around the country through Nov. 5

Click here for more on organizing showings

On Your Own Terms: An open letter to activists regarding World Can't Wait

Jed Brandt writes:

This letter is a personal appeal for your active involvement with World Can't Wait, on your own terms, starting now.

Momentum is building for the Oct. 5 protests, but many activists have yet to step up -- or even investigate for themselves the scope of this effort. The lull in the protest movement since the start of the war, exactly as the population has turned against this disaster is more confusing than it should be and, I'd argue, related to a passive orientation towards the elections.

Let's stop waiting. Let's stop pretending like Bush will change his mind or the Democrats will "grow a spine." They have backbone, but they don't as a party represent us. After literally years of this same wishing game, we have to learn the lessons that are there in plain sight. That's right. I'm using the imperative "we have to." We have to act consciously, resist, and stop politically pussyfooting around.

Too many of us have been involved in day-to-day activism that isn't taking into consideration the political root of the current situation. Massive popular revulsion at the legalization of torture,  surveillance without warrant -- and Bush's recent legislation exempting himself and his cabinet from war crimes prosecution must be galvanized, mobilized, given tangible expression. This requires experienced activists, media workers, community-based organizers. It requires that we put distrust aside, and work like what we do matters.

If you are not now involved, please question why. What is holding "radical" movements from radical action? It certainly isn't that people aren't ready to move. Hardly. The problem as I see it is in the habits of the organized left and its refusal to get with the times, leave comfort zones and challenge all the orthodoxies of political passivity.

Lebanon, Palestine and a War Against the World: RESIST

War against the world? I am ready to resist. Knowing I am not alone, there must be mass resistance.

There is no simple way to describe the anger, the dispair, for the Arab people that I feel. Imperialism is a monster. Now reckless in its weakness, an anti-people machine.

Within the United States, Great Britain and to a much lesser extent Israel, there are millions of people who are opposed in their very bones to endless war with the world. Not just these crimes, so undeniable, racist and unrelenting. But the whole bloody history.

Now. This is not a cry against one bombing or one war. It is to condemn no people to the worst of their rulers and even own selves. It is a world system, backed by nuclear weapons and black ops. A cynical, de-humanized media propaganda that runs right into people's minds a culture of supremacy, well-minded ignorance and the cold surrender of our common human heart. I am refusing to accept these ground rules, the devil's choice our government always demands. We must begin to actually resist this war.

A movement against war can be nothing but a movement against empire, the economic vampirism and fake-ass "clash of civilization" bullshit. It must no longer just declare, opt out, reject. It must refuse through resistance. Our governments will not listen to reason because their interests are not our own. They will never listen.

Students out on the west coast have non-violently disrupted military supply chains at the Port of Olympia. Counter-recruiting puts the issue among the youth most at risk here. Opposition must now turn to not just to rallies of opposition, but demonstrations of manifest resistance to the war machine.

Participants in this action want to emphasize and make visible to people in the United States and beyond that the United States government does not represent them, that there is a significant group of people who will not allow U.S. aggression to occur in their name. It is an attempt to raise the social cost of the war by showing through actions the growing forms of resistance that will occur in the United States as the war continues. The participants in this action and its advocates were primarily younger people.

If Israel can drop American bombs on Lebanese roads killing the very refugees they are creating, then we can at least put our bodies on the streets and roads of America. Why should traffic proceed as normal? Why should normality be assumed, or shifted off to a fear of terrorism? Why should professors of the status quo direct fall's campus syllabus? You know, there are thousands of people in the USA who have blockaded whole cities. The knowledge is out there, but the political will to lead is lacking. [Opinions stated above are my own —JB]

On the jump, A World To Win News Service puts out a detailed analysis of the causes and implications of this war. The murder of Lebanon is not simply another grotesquery of Zionism, which it certainly is -- but it is Israel's very purpose as a state. This is the US/UK war. It is the larger conflict, it is the same war, the logic of imperialism. Here in America we must take heed of this. This is the best analysis I have seen, coming as it does from the revolutionary, internationalist and proletarian perspective.