redFlags

Battle Cry For Theocracy! Meet the Shock Troops of the Christian Right

Sunsara Taylor is sounding the cavalry bugle, and you better listen! In today's CounterPunch, the New York-based initiator of World Can't Wait lays out what is happening with BattleCry, the Christian Fascist youth movement led by the Pharisees from on high... She already debated Battle Cry leader Ron Luce on Fox, but this isn't a debate. It's war.

If you've been waiting until the Christian fascist movement started filling stadiums with young people and hyping them up to do battle in "God's army" to get alarmed, wait no longer.

In recent weeks, Battle Cry, a Christian fundamentalist youth movement, has attracted more than 25,000 to mega-rally rock concerts in San Francisco and Detroit and this weekend they plan to fill Wachovia Stadium in Philadelphia.

They claim their religion and values are under attack but, amidst spectacular lightshows, hummers, Navy Seals, and military imagery on stage, it is Battle Cry that has declared war on everyone else! Their leader, Ron Luce, insists: "This is war. And Jesus invites us to get into the action, telling us that the violent--the 'forceful' ones--will lay hold of the kingdom."

No joke, people. Read the full piece on the link.

      

Not Your Soldier: "Sir, No Sir!"

First watch this amazing Flash preview of Sir, No Sir!
The amazing story of GI resistance to the Vietnam War that you can send by link to friends and family getting preyed on by military recruiters.

Now indulge a personal tangent: By 16 I'd dropped out of school and was casting around 1980s Chicago. Marginally employed, surly, a little macho, prone to vice and mad at the world in a loving way, I was like so many kids looking for a way to get my act together.

Even though the florescent-light distopia of secondary education wasn't for me [my school building looked exactly like the local juvie hall in a Borg-cube kind of way], I loved to read and hungered to understand the ways of the world. I wanted to go to college, but every school of interest cost more money in tuition than my father made a year. I didn't want to go to a "13th Grade" college. I wanted to learn, not just to earn.

The Cold War was wrapping up in the late 80s. For the first time in my life, war didn't seem imminent. Even though I had no love for the government and made the most of my young rebel years, I actively considered joining the Marine Corps. The week after participating in a militant break-away march to disrupt the main recruiting depot in downtown Chicago because of interventions in Central America, where a bad-ass nun handed the youth red paint in styrofoam cups to douse the station with, I discretely snuck back to meet with a friendly recruiter on my own time.

Actions to Defend the Zapatista "Other Campaign"

RJ posted to NYC Indymedia:

The Zapatistas have declared a red alert! From now until May 8th, the Good Government Councils of the Zapatista communities are closed and the Mexican tour of Delegate Zero (SubC. Marcos) has been put on hold. For now, the words on the lips of every participant and supporter of the national anticapitalist initiative known as "the Other Campaign" are "We Are All Atenco!"

This is a call to organize actions at Mexican embassies and consulates throughout the world demanding an end to the attack on San Salvador Atenco and all repression against the Other Campaign!

Here in NYC, there will be a demonstration in front of the Mexican Consulate
(27 E. 39th St. between Madison and Park)
This Friday at 12:30!

This is one of those critical moments where visible solidarity will make a difference!

Blinded by the white

Graphic depiction of how whiteness blinds the mind.

The Israel Lobby: Stepping on the "Third Rail" of American Politics

Anyone who has done international solidarity work knows that to even mention Palestine is to alert a well-funded, aggressive and unscrupulous cadre of Zionist attack dogs... and face their apparently unaccountable fury. I don't mean to use harsh rhetoric, but there is no other way to describe the Dershowitz / Horowitz / ADL  types who defend Israel by tarring any opponent of that settler-state, or even critics of its most flagrant crimes, such as occupation, ethnic cleansing, torture, official state racism, as anti-Semitic.

For those on the left, committed to internationalism, this is enough to scare off a fair amount of people from even engaging an open discussion. My Name Is Rachel Corrie couldn't even play at the New York Theatre Workshop because of the tremendous fear Zionist attacks generate. When Rep. Cynthia McKinney stood up, she saw her right-wing opponent receive massive amounts of funds from Zionists to push her out of Congress. That's real power, from a real sector. What are grassroots organizations to do when they face foundations and a political class that openly suppress principled support for Palestine?

The recent imbroglio around the (decidedly non-radical, not left) Harvard study, which alleges U.S. support for Israel is "almost entirely related to U.S. domestic politics, and especially to the activities of the Israel Lobby,'" alongside the indictment of leading members of AIPAC for passing US intelligence informally to Israel, has brought the issue of why it is that the U.S. "unconditionally supports" Israel.

Read: The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy.pdf | The Lobby: It's Not Either/Or

Or just follow the link below for a few more ramblings...

Afghanistan Maoists on the clashes between Sunnis and Shiites

A World To Win News Service writes:

There have been many indications that the US occupation forces have worked to encourage the sectarian fighting between Shias and Sunnis in Iraq. They have organized a puppet government along religious ad ethnic lines.  Most basically, the occupiers have revived and allied themselves with feudal warlords, tribal sheiks and religious authorities, each fighting for supremacy. The following article analyses how the American-led occupation of Afghanistan is having similarly disastrous effects on that country. It is edited and excerpted from the March 2006 issue (no. 11) of Sholeh, newspaper of the Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan.

The Shia religious holiday Ashura (9 February) this year saw a kind of religious warfare Afghanistan has never known before. It is estimated that in the three days of bloody clashes between Shiites and Sunnis in the northwest province of Herat, more than 50 people were killed, mostly Sunnis, and more than 300 injured, some by security forces.

Bolivia Nationalizes Natural Gas Industry

From the Associated Press:

SANTA CRUZ DE LA SIERRA, Bolivia -- Soldiers guarded natural gas fields and refineries after Bolivia's leftist president ordered the nationalization of the sector, threatening to evict foreign companies unless they give Bolivia control over production within six months.

President Evo Morales announcement Monday fulfils an election promise to increase state control over Bolivia's natural resources, which he says have been "looted'' by foreign companies. It also solidifies his role along with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Cuba's Fidel Castro in Latin America's new axis of leftist leaders opposed to U.S. and corporate influence in the region.

Mayday: International Workers Day

Having worked until 6 in the morning today from yesterday afternoon, I'm feeling... exploited. The 8-hour day? The 5-day work week? Ha. The Chicago Martrys fought the good fight, but today I'm off to join the Red Flag Contingent in New York's Washington Square Park to march.

Much respect to the rebels of Nepal. Much respect to the militias of Venezuela. Much respect to the Zapatistas and their darker shade of pink (El Otro... Yo Soy). Much respect to the uprisers in the Philippines. Hoping for a revolutionary May Day in Berlin...

Much respect to all [email protected] de Mexico... un otro mundo esta en [email protected] manos.

We have no borders. Today our flag is red. Workers of the world unite. We have a world to win.

Local reports are welcome.

May 1: Another World—A Commuunist World—Is Possible!

RCP Chairman Bob Avakian:
The Need for Communist to Be... Communists
(and yes... that means you!)

Nepal: new developments, new challenges, great dangers

A World To Win News Service writes;

Nepalese politics have taken a complex turn with the restoration of parliament by the feudal autocrat Gyanendra Shah and the acceptance of this proposal by the parliamentary parties. US Ambassador James Moriarty commented, with a shudder of relief, that if this deal had not been made, Nepal “was close to getting rid of the monarchy entirely by a violent revolution.” (Nepalnews.com, 27 April) Reports now indicate that at least 19 people died and 5,000 were seriously injured in the three weeks of mass upsurge whose main demand was the total abolition of the monarchy. The alliance of seven parliamentary parties ignored this sacrifice in their eagerness to reach a compromise with the king.