redFlags

Immigration March in LA: "We didn't cross the border, the border crossed us"

Davey D, the hip hop historian and commentator writes: Don't believe the hype I was in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday when the historic march to protest the racist anti-immigration bill HR 4437 took place. For those who don't know, this bill would make illegal immigrants felons as well as anybody, including family members who help them in any sort of way.

This means that if you have a cousin living in Mexico who comes over here and his paper work ain't right, even if you didn't know, you could face jail time. This means if you unknowingly hire somebody to haul away trash you could be in trouble.  This is not about giving the government the power to build a wall at the border. This is much deeper then that..

As for the march, the mainstream news media claim there were 500 thousand people on who showed up. Keep in mind, this is after they tried to hate on the march and say only a few thousand were going to show up the night before. Trust me more than a million people showed up Anyone who was there could attest to that.  All the blocks around the courthouse for as far as the eye could see was a sea of people. It was wall to wall. The rally started at 10 am.. Folks showed up in masse around 6 am and it stayed packed with people until 3 or 4 that afternoon.

Rocking the Cradle for Rachel Corrie

Jed Brandt writes for the Indypendent:

If Israel is supposed to be the sixth borough of New York, then it’s looking like the theater is another occupied territory. After the New York Theatre Workshop indefinitely postponed My Name Is Rachel Corrie, in response to the “concerns” of as yet unnamed Jewish "community" organizations, the play’s future is in question.

Alan Rickman’s play was developed for England’s Royal Court Theatre from the journals that America anti-occupation activist Rachel Corrie kept from the age of 12 up until the day she was crushed by an Israeli bulldozer set to demolish a Palestinian home in the Gaza Strip. Corrie was the first “international” to be killed during her participation with the International Solidarity Movement, a non-violent direct action organization that attempted to obstruct the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Chinese Gov't Shuts Down Leftist Workers Website

Stephon Phillon conducted this interview with Yan Yuanzhang for MR Zine:

On February 22nd, the Chinese government shut down the China Workers' Website and Discussion Lists because, according to the order of closure, the owner of such a website must make a 10,000,000 Yuan (US $1.2 million) deposit to register it as a legal one.  The editorial collective responded that they would not be able to pay the fee since they were mostly farmers and employed and  unemployed workers without access to such a huge sum.  Thus the first leftist-run website in China that enabled workers and farmers to talk about their struggles to defend socialism in today's China was shut down. 

Below is an interview I conducted on February 26th with one of the administrators of the China Workers Website editorial collective in Beijing.  He, as well as other members of the collective, is evidence of a new generation of leftists in China who are actively involved in struggles of workers and farmers, stepping into the role that the Party rejected long ago.

Q: Now, why would the Chinese government, a socialist government in name, be concerned about a website run by leftists discussing the kinds of things that were discussed on the China Workers Website?

A: Well, because the government is not making socialism.   

Q: Of course.  I'm asking because outside China there are still some leftists who see China as a socialist country.

A: Well, hearing such nonsense would reduce a pig to tearful fits of laughter!

Our web discussion is designed for workers and farmers to discuss their issues and struggles.  This is the kind of thing a socialist democracy would want, for workers to have the kind of democracy that capitalism couldn't provide.

A National People's Congress will be convened soon, and the government knows that workers and farmers' voices will be heard by representatives and might even make way into the speeches made at the Congress.  The government doesn't want that -- it actually fears even the possibility of it.  So, when the national representatives speak, workers are supposed to keep their mouths shut. [continued]

World Can't Wait: Open Letter to the Antiwar Movement

Click the picture for NYC Indymedia coverage of the March 18 protests on the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.

Here's something hard not to notice: the more the population turns against the war (and president), the deeper the confusion among the movements built to oppose it.  Social movements in America are nearly blind to politics (when not lost in the Democratic Party's haze), hemmed in by a narrow field of "issues."  We can be anti- all day long, but when we find no representation in government and the media-military-industrial machineries grind on without consent... what turn must the movements make to unleash the sentiment of the people?

According to Bloomberg, the House just approved a 44% increase in annual funding for the war machine over last year, bringing the monthly bill to nearly $10 billion a month. When Marx talked about commodity fetishism, I don't think he foresaw that one day wars would be discussed as balance sheets just like movies are reported by box office receipts. Talk about putting the "late" in capitalism... Meanwhile, the grumbling over the Democratic Party's "disarray" continues, with even the eartwhile trumpets of ever-agitated, ever-resigned liberalism unable to call the Democratic Party's spade a spade.

Into this, World Can't Wait has written a desperately needed letter of orientation to the antiwar movement. Not only is it lacking the general pettiness of recent "open letters," but it is strategically correct, unapologetic and not waiting for permission. The point isn't that everyone has to listen to WCW and join them instead of xyz, but that wherever we are working already -- these ideas can be applied. It's not a zero-sum game, but a time for leadership in lieu of management.

World Can't Wait writes [links added]:

As all the latest polls show (even amongst soldiers), this country now stands increasingly opposed to the war on Iraq.  This is a testament to the work of the anti war-movement, as well as the real difficulties the Bush Administration is having in prosecuting the war, and the desire of the people of Iraq and the surrounding region to end the occupation.  In this context, World Can’t Wait – Drive Out the Bush Regime! is mobilizing for and joining others in making the correct demand to end the war now in protests around the third anniversary of the start of the war, and on April 29.

At the same time, in order to effectively oppose the war, it has to be understood and acted on as part of the whole direction the Bush Regime is taking society and the world.  We are calling on both ANSWER and UFPJ to bring their efforts to bear on not allowing this regime to determine the future for generations to come.

French youth protest: "Police everywhere, justice nowhere"

Someone better start building the next French left. Damn already. Millions of people, descendents of immigrants and long-timers better figure out how to bring this all together and forward. Suburban riots and an occupied Sorbonne. The French have been too impressed with not being Americaine for a bit too long.

Please post text or links to the best coverage you've seen in the comments. I'm too busy tonight to feign clever or informed.

New York Times: French Protests Over Youth Labor Law Spread to 150 cities and towns

To be fair, we're entering the fourth year of forever war and while French youth are disrupting the nation to defend rights we can't even demand -- I think, what is going to obstruct their march. How can we stop shouting and obstruct their march?

"There Is No War on Terror"

Larry Everest has covered the Middle East and South Asia for over 20 years as an author, regular contributor to Revolution, and radio commentator. His most recent article is filled with essential talking points on a propaganda meme that's confused far more than it should have.

He writes: There is no "war on terror." The invasion and occupation of Iraq are not part of a "war on terror."  Neither are the current threats and war preparations against Iran. The "war on terror" doesn't exist—no matter how many times the Bush administration cites it to justify its aggressions, no matter how often Republicans and Democrats debate how to best carry it out, and no matter how frequently it's referenced in the U.S. bourgeois media.

What does exist is a horrific and criminal U.S. war OF terror against the people of the world for greater empire. The attacks of Sept. 11 gave the U.S. rulers an opening to launch this war, but it has nothing to do with halting unjust violence or "terror," nor is it fundamentally aimed at stopping future Sept. 11's (and the full truth about the U.S. government's role that day is still not known—see  9/11: New Doubts on the 'Official Story in Revolution #13) or "protecting" those living in the U.S. or anywhere else. Instead, it has everything to do with waging unbounded war to solidify and extend the U.S. imperialist system's killing grip on the planet and its people. (continued)

FMLN publicly assures win in San Salvador, calls on activists to defend victory in the streets

With regular updates, The Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador reports: 24 hours after the close of voting in El Salvador’s March 12 municipal and legislative elections, FMLN general coordinator Milton Mendez spoke at a press conference reaffirming results that show the FMLN prevailing in the key mayoral race of San Salvador. 

Mendez said that the FMLN had won by 45 votes out of nearly 130,000 counted, and he called on the party’s members, the social movement, and the Salvadoran people to defend the important triumph.

Shortly thereafter, thousands streamed into San Salvador’s Central Plaza where FMLN leaders declared that they would occupy the plaza until the victory was acknowledged by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE.)

1,000 in "Great March" of Iranian Women Against Misogynist Laws

We saw a woman, just for love, condemned to death and stoned.

We saw the plant of hope turn yellow and die, without spring.

As long as we’re shackled, the world will endure the rule of capital, ignorance and religion.

What does the young life whose head is in a noose long for, if not liberation?

We said: what sort of life is that?

There’s no time to lose.

Yes, the time has come for this campaign.

A World To Win News Service reports: With this song called Karzar (Campaign) written especially for the occasion by a group of artists actively supporting this effort, the march for Iranian women organised by the Campaign for the Abolition of All Misogynist, Gender-Based Legislation and Islamic Punitive Laws started in Frankfurt, Germany, 4 March and ended on 8 March, International Women’s Day, in The Hague, Netherlands, where it culminated with a protest front of the International Criminal Court. Some 800-1,000 people, mainly Iranian women from all over the world, participated in the last day of the march.

The determination and enthusiasm of the protestors was such that the cold and heavy rain from early morning until late evening could not hamper their schedule. They felt as if they could see a bright sun shining over them that other people could not see: the emergence of a new women’s movement. If Ayatollah Khomeini and his Islamic regime celebrated their seizure of power by brutally attacking women’s rights, sparking the demonstration of 8 March 1979 in Tehran, this year on 8 March women celebrated the emergence of their movement as one of the most powerful forces threatening the very existence of the medieval Islamic regime. This march was the most important Iranian women’s protest since 8 March 1979.

Chicago in the house! 100,000+ March Against Anti-Immigrant Hysteria and For Dignity

Chicago Indymedia's coverage of the historic immigrant march in Chicago started with the observation that "it looks like someone went and kicked the sleeping giant."

On Friday, March 10, 2006 Chicago’s downtown was paralyzed by an immigrant march estimated at more than 100,000 people. They carried hand-lettered signs saying: “We are America,” “My Mexican immigrant son died in Iraq,” “I’m a dishwasher—not a criminal,” and “Don’t deport my parents.” The peaceful crowd stretched two and half miles, from Union Park on the West Side to their destination in Federal Plaza. No immigrant justice march like this has happened in Illinois history since some 80,000 immigrants marched down State Street demanding an 8-hour workday in 1886. [link added]

Mexicans in America are indeed a sleeping giant. With a proletariat increasingly illegalized as a matter of everyday life, this response is right on time. The spark that lit this fire is the Border Protection, Anti-Terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005. This law overturns "two Supreme Court rulings mandating fair treatment and due process for immigrants held indefinitely by the Dept. of Homeland Security [cough]... even more of these "indefinite detainees" would be held in legal limbo for long periods of time."

Democracy Now! talks with Abel Nunez, one of the protest organizers

Revolution: Chicago Immigrants—A Defiant Show of Strength (includes an excellent discussion of what it means to be (North) American and who we are in this land.

Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee RIghts

The Siege of Katmandu: CPN(M) Calls for Blockade

Is this it?

According to reports on the BBC and local reports, the Maoist revolutionaries in Nepal have called for a 3-week blockade of Katmandu aimed directly at driving the king from power. Compliance appears widespread with fewer than 100 vehicles entering the city compared with 3,000 on a normal day. The strike is national in scope and is also targeting local "district" headquarters -- in othe words, every area of the country where the monarchy still holds sway (if only in the barracks!).

While I am always highly skeptical of reports of schism inside revolutionary movements, the same sources as above say that two ranking leaders of the CPN(M) were expelled this week for attacking the leadership of the party, with particular issue around the acceptance by the Maoists of a multi-polar society, which the expelled members apparently call a "right" deviation. They accuse the central leadership of Prachanda and Bhattarai of being soft on the king... this, while a general strike paralyzes the country to drive said monarch out. According to the non-sympathetic reports, Prachanda called the pair "anarchic" and noted that the two were already suspended when they made public statements that broke party discipline.

This post will be amended as additional information comes to light.