British mining company on trial for torture of Peruvians

(monkeysmashesheaven.wordpress.com)

A British mining company, Monterrico Metals, is on trial in London, UK for torture of Peruvians that happened at the Rio Blanco mine in 2005. Protesters were detained and tortured at the outcast copper site by the imperialist corporation in Peru, near the border with Ecuador. The victims are seeking millions in damages. The company denies the abuses.

According to witnesses, protesters were detained at the mine by armed police who were acting under orders from the company’s managers. After tear gassing the gathering, police detained 28 protesters with wrist ties. Three protesters were shot. One was left to bleed to death at the mine for 36 hours. The detained had noxious substances sprayed in their faces. They were also beaten with sticks and clubs and whipped. Two women protesters were sexually assaulted and threatened with rape.

A Peruvian journalist who was detained has photos of the incident. The photos reportedly show the protesters bound with hoods on their heads. Some are beaten and bloody. One photo shows a Peruvian farmer lying on the ground, badly injured. Other photos show smiling police waving around women’s underwear taken from the protesters as trophies.

The confrontation in 2005 is part of an ongoing struggle between imperialist mining companies backed by the Peruvian state and local farmers and indigenous peoples that continues to this day. Recently, protests against mining interests have forced economic disruption across Peru. Because of conflict, the Peruvian state oil company Petroperú has had to temporarily stop pumping oil through its northern pipeline from the jungle. Also, the Argentine Pluspetrol has had to halt oil production in the northeastern region of Peru. A state of emergency was recently declared. Commentators have said that the conflict between corporations and the people is the worse since the height of the People’s War led by the Communist Party of Peru.

The comprador regime of Alan García seeks to sell off Peru’s resources to the imperialists without giving the masses a say in how their country is developed.  The García administration seeks to do away with protections for indigenous land in the Peruvian constitution. He seeks to open up communal jungle lands and water resources to oil drilling, mining and large scale farming in accordance with the Peru-U$ free-trade pact.

To put the mining companies on trial in an imperialist court in London is letting the fox watch the henhouse. Imperialists usually protect their own. Although, every once in awhile, they make a show of punishing one imperialist in order to maintain a façade of justice. In reality, the imperialists and their comprador agents in Peru kill and torture people every day. The Peruvian state, backed by the imperialists, led a genocidal war against the Peruvian countryside two decades ago. Trials such as the one in London are usually for show. After all, it is not just the mining company that is guilty, but all of the First World. Whatever the outcome of the London trial, the vast majority of the crimes committed by imperialists and their lackeys will go unpunished. The only way to truly find justice is through people’s war and the capture of state power by the proletariat. Maoism-Third Worldism is the shining path to justice in Peru and everywhere else.

Sources

1. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/18/peru-monterrico-metals-mining-protest

New poll: Capitalism not too hot

(monkeysmashesheaven.wordpress.com)

A recent poll has people talking. The results of the poll are a sharp contrast to the free-market triumphalism of the 1990s. Intellectuals were declaring the victory of capitalism. In the 1989 book, the End of History and the Last Man, Francis Fukuyama declared that history was over and that free-market, liberal society was the final form of human society, the end point of civilization. Others got a piece of the action too. Post-modern liberal Richard Rorty liked to say that Western liberalism, with all its flaws, is the best that has been offered up by history: The age of ideology is over, or at least it should be. Globalist capitalism, or its companion “capitalism with a human face,” was the new mantra. That was then.

The recent poll implies that most people correctly know that the system as it currently exists is bad for them. The poll, conducted across 27 countries, reports that only 11 percent of people think that free-market capitalism is working well. Of the 29,000 people polled, only one in five think that capitalism is working well.

Almost a quarter of all those polled, 23 percent, think that capitalism is fatally flawed. The majorities in 22 of the 27 countries support a more egalitarian distribution of wealth. The poll shows that the majority of humanity has some sense of their own oppression even if they do not understand their oppression scientifically.

One poll result has been the focus of much commentary: Double digits in the imperialist countries see capitalism as “fatally flawed.” Over 40 percent in France and 15 percent in the US think that capitalism is fatally flawed. This figure is making its way through the First Worldist “left” that stupidly sees the double digits as confirmation of their worldview. These kinds of polls are not new. For example, Max Elbaum, in Revolution in the Air, peddled the same claim about the 1960s. Elbaum reports that 3 million people in the US thought revolution was necessary at that time. However, seeing capitalism as “fatally flawed” or that “revolution is necessary” is not an endorsement of socialism. In fact, nihilism runs deep in First World. It is a good bet that many see all systems as fatally flawed. Although there may be support for social democracy or social imperialism or fascism in the First World, there is almost no support for actual socialism there.

Actual socialism is perceived as frightening by First World peoples for the same reasons that many express their disappointment with the current capitalist system. Most in the First World believe that they are entitled to more privilege, not less. The current economic crisis has resulted in a drop in the standard of living. No doubt that this is reflected in the numbers. In addition, under actual socialism, First World populations will have even less privilege than they do under the current capitalist system. Actual socialism on a world scale entails something close to an equal distribution of the global social product. Under such a distribution, virtually everyone in the First World will see their incomes cut drastically, their purchasing power reduced, their leisure time shortened, etc.  After all, Karl Marx wrote that the ruling classes would tremble in the face of communist revolution. The entire First World, almost without exception, trembles at the prospect of genuine proletarian revolution.

There is almost no social base at all for revolution in the First World. It is a mystery to the First Worldist why the First World workers are not lining up for revolution. The First Worldist, like Goldilocks, looks to find that combination of mass line and party building, spontanaity and commandism, agitation and propaganda, hot and cold, that  will be “just right.” What the First Worldist utopians don’t realize is that there is no key that will unlock First Worldist proletarian revolution because there is no significant proletariat in the First World. There are hardly any masses at all in the First World. There are plenty of asses, however. Maoist-Third Worldists, by contrast, recognize that since the vast majority in the First World oppose real socialism, revolutionaries in the First World must design minoritarian strategies.  Revolutionaries find themselves behind enemy lines in the First World. Real revolutionaries adopt Jacobin strategies appropriate to their unique conditions in the First World.

The same poll asked people how they perceived the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989. Poll results varied greatly across countries. The fall of the Soviet Union is mostly seen as a “good thing” in Europe, and, presumably, most of the First World: 79 percent in Germany, 76 percent in Britain and 74 percent in France feel that the dissolution was a good thing. However, 70 percent of Egyptians think that the fall of the Soviet Union was a “bad thing.” And, in Russia, Ukraine, and Pakistan, sizable majorities report that the fall was mainly a bad thing. In India, Kenya, and Indonesia, opinions are sharply divided.

Even though the Soviet Union in 1989 was not socialist, it is incorrectly perceived as both socialist and anti-imperialist by many. The poll results in many cases are, thus, less about the actual Soviet Union and more about the hostility that many in the Third World feel toward imperialism and capitalism. Such poll results can be more of an expression of pre-scientific, intuitive class hatred directed toward the Western imperialists. Ironically, the revisionist Soviet Union was imperialist also. In the 1950s, the Soviet Union became social imperialist. Even though the revisionists used socialist rhetoric, their actions were still imperialist.

Capitalism-imperialism has failed to guarantee a decent life for the vast majority of the world’s population. Most people in the Third World barely survive while most people in the First World live in relative luxury. Thus it is no surprise that opinions about the current system and about the Soviet Union would vary greatly. Similarly, opinions about revolutionary leaders also vary greatly between Western and non-Western countries. Stalin is seen as no different than Hitler in the West. However, in the ex-Soviet bloc, Stalin often polls as one of the greatest leaders of all time. It is a good sign that so many in the Third World understand that the system has failed them. It is the job of the communist to transform that basic intuition into a scientific understanding and revolution.

Sources

1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8347409.stm

2. Max Elbaum. Revolution in the Air, p. 2

Cuba, ALBA Nations Condone Sri Lanka, Revisionism Further Exposed

(monkeysmashesheaven.wordpress.com)

Revisionism was on display in recent events. Recently Cuba gave an official statement reassuring its international relations with Sri Lanka. Both countries claim to be socialist in some sense. Deputy Foreign Minister Marcos Rodriguez Costa stated that friendship between the two nations would continue to flourish. These remarks were made at an estate in Horona, Sri Lanka marking the 50th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations with the two countries. It was the site where Che Guevara symbolically planted a tree 50 years ago, and Costa planted another tree there this year. (1)

This diplomatic show glosses over the current violent crackdown of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam by the Sri Lankan government, and the ongoing war against the Tamil nation. To issue such praise at this moment is to offer de facto support of the genocidal policies of Sri Lanka.

Back in May 2009 the United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution commending Sri Lanka for dealing with the humanitarian crisis caused by the civil war. The resolution also condemned the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam for attacks on civilian populations and alleged use of human shields. Cuba and 28 other state members voted to pass the resolution. (2) To draw a moral equivalence between the Liberation Tigers and the Sri Lankan state fails to account for material reality. Typically, the UN failed to recognize the difference between violence in the service of liberation and violence in the service of oppression. Along with Cuba, both Brazil and Nicaragua voted for the resolution. Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez also gave encouraging words to Sri Lanka at that time. (3)

The Sri Lankan state has imposed a harsh “peace” on the Tamil people. Hundreds of thousands of Tamils languish in prison-like refugee camps like Manik Farm. In the overcrowded Manik Farm, 15 people live in tents meant for only five people. Water and food are difficult to obtain. Chicken pox has ravaged the camp. In addition, typhoid, tuberculosis, skin and respiratory infections, hepatitis A scabies and diarrhea have all appeared, according to UN reports. According to a Government presentation, more than 35 percent of children under 5 are afflicted with wasting, or acute malnutrition. Plus, the upcoming rainy season could make a bad situation much worse. There are also reports that Tamil women are being abducted and raped by Sri Lankan soldiers. According to a UN document, Sri Lankan soldiers and paramilitaries are stationed inside the camps.

It is no accident that the Indian reactionaries openly discuss inflicting the “Sri Lankan” option on the Naxalite movements and their supporters. (5) India’s genocide against its own poor has drawn inspiration from the brutality of Sri Lanka’s treatment of the Tamil people.

The silence on this issue today exposes the ideological weakness of supposedly revolutionary states. It is clear that the demands of the Tamil liberation movement are legitimate.

The honoring of Che by Cuba and Sri Lanka is ironic, as Che recognized that true internationalism is national liberation. If Che were alive today, he would, most likely, be on the side of the Liberation Tigers. Whatever the errors of his Bolivian adventure, it cannot be said that Che did not die for national liberation.

Revisionism is fake communism. It is communism only in name. Revisionism rejects the path that will lead humanity to liberation, in these instances for the sake of bourgeois geopolitics and narrow national interests. Sri Lanka is officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, and is a member of the Non-Aligned Movement. Sri Lanka’s foreign policy has usually aligned with the United States. Thus, despite its name, the Sri Lankan state is comprador and revisionist, not socialist.

It is not nit-picking to call out revisionists. Revisionism has led to the downfall of every socialist state in recent history. Revisionism is the enemy within. The oppressed and exploited need to be able to recognize real friends and real enemies. Contrary to these revisionists, no matter if they hold state power or not, Maoist-Third Worldists support the national aspirations of the Tamil people.

Sources:

1. “Cuba assures support for Sri Lanka.” Sri Lanka Daily News.
Tuesday November 10 2009. http://www.dailynews.lk/2009/11/10/news27.asp

2. 11th special session of the Human Rights Council: “The human rights situation in Sri Lanka” – Tuesday 26 and 27 May 2009 http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/specialsession/11/index.htm
and
“U.N. Human Rights Council decides against condemning Sri Lanka.”
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/05/27/un_human_rights_council_decides_against_investigating_sri_lanka

3. Cited in series of articles by Rod Ridenhour on the relations with Sri Lanka and the ALBA nations of Latin America.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/11/cuba-alba-let-down-sri-lanka-tamils/

http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/11/tamil-eelam-historical-right-to-nationhood/

http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/11/equal-rights-or-self-determination/

http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/11/the-terrorists-international-support-for-sri-lankas-racist-discrimination/

4.  http://monkeysmashesheaven.wordpress.com/2009/07/26/210000-tamils-jailed-slowly-dying-in-camp/

5.  http://mikeely.wordpress.com/2009/11/19/awtw-a-sri-lankan-solution-for-indias-maoism/

Smash the Amerikkkan Dream and all First Worldist lies!

From Politics Are Over

Дети Третьего мира голодают и страдают от задержки роста, дети Первого мира страдают от тучности

(monkeysmashesheaven.wordpress.com, translated by the Russian Maoist Party (RMP))

Согласно недавнему отчёту Детского фонда , 200 млн детей в возрасте до пяти лет в бедных странах имеют задержку роста из-за недостаточного питания. Почти 90 % из них живут в Азии и Африке. Почти треть смертных случаев в этой возрастной группе связана с недоеданием.

В целом по Азии задержка роста затрагивает 30 % детей. Положение в Южной Азии особенно безрадостно: в Афганистане, Непале, Индии, Бангладеш и Пакистане насчитывается 83 млн голодных детей в возрасте до пяти лет. В Африке доля составляет 43 %.

Огромное большинство тех, кто страдает от недостаточного питания, живёт в Третьем мире. По контрасту, дети в Первом Мире страдают от проблемы потребления слишком большого количества продовольствия. Например, согласно руководителю государственной службы здравоохранения, в США 12,5 млн детей, 17 %, страдает от тучности. Эти дети имеют также проблемы со здоровьем, но это проблемы, связанные со сверхпотреблением. Кроме того, дети Первого мира стали менее физически активны. Физическая активность в США сократилась. Согласно одному исследованию, 20 % детей в возрасте от 9-ти до 13-ти лет не участвовали ни в какой физической активности вне школы. О подобных результатах сообщалось в других странах Первого мира.

Дети, испытывающие задержку роста, затем всю жизнь страдают от связанных с этим болезней. При империалистическом капитализме у 200 млн детей в Третьем мире украдено их будущее. Миллиард голодает каждый день, главным образом в Третьем мире. По контрасту, дети в Первом мире становятся грузными и бездеятельными.

Капитализм производит ради рынка, а не человеческих потребностей. Капитализм делит страны на Первый и Третий миры, с небольшой промежуточной зоной. Кучка стран богатеет за счёт большинства. Социализм совершит переворот. Исследования показывают, что производится достаточно продовольствия, чтобы при надлежащем распределении можно было легко избавиться от голода и недоедания. При социализме доступ к адекватной пище будет элементарным правом человека.

RAIM-Seattle forms

(monkeysmashesheaven.wordpress.com)

A new RAIM cell has formed in Seattle. MSH sends a red salute to RAIM-S.

From the RAIM-S website:

“- What does RAIM-Seattle want?

A utopian society. We want a world free from oppression of groups by groups and people by people. A world without imperialism, capitalism, patriarchy, national oppression, or youth oppression. We want a world based on egalitarianism and mutuality.

-Why is RAIM-Seattle so focused on anti-imperialism?

Because we are revolutionary humanitarians. People live off of three dollars a day, not because they are workers, women or children, but because they were born into the Third World. Everything is connected. The affluence of the First World is directly causative of the poverty in the Third World. The destruction of imperialism is the first step towards a mutualistic society.”

Third World children starve, suffer stunted growth, First World children suffer obesity

(monkeysmashesheaven.wordpress.com)

According to a new UNICEF report, 200 million children under 5 in poor countries have stunted growth due to insufficient nutrition. Of the 200 million, almost 90 percent live in Asia and Africa. Almost a third of deaths in that age group are linked to undernutrition.

In Asia as a whole, the stunted growth rate is 30 percent. The situation in South Asia is especially bleak with Afghanistan, Nepal, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan accounting for 83 million hungry children under five. In Africa, the rate is 43 percent.

The vast majority of those who suffer insufficient nutrition reside in the Third World. By contrast, children in the First World suffer problems of consuming too much food. For example, according to the Surgeon General, 12.5 million children, 17 percent , in the US suffer from obesity. These children also suffer health issues, but they are health issues related to overconsumption. In addition, First World children also have become less physically active. Physical activity has declined in the US. According to one study, 20 percent of youth from 9 to 13 years old engaged in no physical activity outside of school. Similar results have been reported in other First World countries.

Children who suffer stunted growth suffer related ailments their whole lives. Under capitalism-imperialism, 200 million children in the Third World have their futures stolen from them.  A billion go hungry every day, mostly in Third World. By contrast, children in the First World  grow overweight and inactive.

Capitalism produces for the market, not for human needs. Capitalism divides countries into the First and Third Worlds, with little in between. A few countries grow wealthy at the expense of the majority. Socialism will turn the tables. According to studies, enough food is produced so that hunger  and undernutrition could easily be wiped out with proper food distribution. Under socialism, access to adequate nutrition will be a basic human right.

Sources:

1. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091111/ap_on_he_me/eu_med_nutrition_report;_ylt=AjUkpaoBeiVgjl3j5np6jT3VJRIF;_ylu=X3oDMTJvaTlpZGRkBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkxMTExL2V1X21lZF9udXRyaXRpb25fcmVwb3J0BGNwb3MDMwRwb3MDOARzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3J5BHNsawN1bnNheXNodW5nZXI-

2. http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/obesityprevention/index.html

3. http://www.fitness.gov/enewsletter/fall2008/featurearticle.html

4. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/8/419

5. http://monkeysmashesheaven.wordpress.com/2009/08/16/amerikans-first-worlders-waste-food-third-worlders-starve/

First Worldism underneath the Beyonce controversy
(monkeysmashesheaven.wordpress.com)

Pop diva Beyonce’s “I Am..” tour has so far made 53 million dollars, and generated controversy to boot. In giant posters that pepper the streets, Beyonce sports a revealing, flame covered outfit  in the shape of motorcycle handlebars. Tour ads are running on Egyptian and Arab satellite television.

Islamic critics are reportedly saying that her show is an “indolent sex party” and that it promotes “vice and debauchery.” A facebook campaign against her concert has gathered 10,000 supporters. The critics are right on the whole. Beyonce, like most Amerikan pop culture, is pornographic and self indulgent — “sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll.” Behind the controversy are assumptions about Islam, the Third World, and women’s liberation.

First Worldist feminism often portrays two paths for women: First World liberalism or Third World barbarism, Sex in the City or Sharia law. In this controversy, Beyonce’s aptly titled “I Am..” tour has come to represent the former and her Islamic critics have come to represent the latter in the bourgeois media discourse. Lacking from the controversy is materialism. Beyonce, as a cultural artifact, is ripped out of one world and dropped into another. Beyonce’s music, her image, etc. resonates one way in the liberal First World and another way in the Islamic Third World because women live very different kinds of lives across very different kinds of societies. Capitalism-imperialism has created a world divided between exploiter and exploited countries. Women’s advancement in the First World has come to be very different from women’s advancement in the Third World.

The gains made by women in First World, liberal societies are made possible by super-profits taken from the Third World. First World societies have given individuals, both men and women, a greater range of life options. People in the First World have more social and geographic mobility. They are not bound to one way of life. First World women are free to change jobs. She is free to support herself, change locations, opt out of family life, enter into non-traditional sexual relationships, etc. Super-profits have freed women from restrictive traditional roles in the domestic and work realms. Like men, women have gained greater and greater access to leisure time in the First World. The imperialist economies of the First World have blunted the sharpest edges of patriarchal oppression for women.

Women’s advancement in the First World has gone beyond just gaining independence from the worst aspects of patriarchy. In gaining independence, women have gained access to much of the man’s world. Women’s advancement has thus taken the form of women opting into, not out of, the male world. Women are entering the man’s world, not as women, and not as second-class citizens. Rather, they are entering the male world on more and more equal terms with their First World male counterparts. And, with the rise of raunch culture over the past decades, First World women, in greater numbers, no longer see themselves as women, but as “one of the guys.” Women’s “liberation” in the First World is a “liberation” that is achieved by joining the oppressor as the oppressor, not by defeating the oppressor. Thus the contradiction between First World men and First World women, such that it exists, has ceased to be antagonistic. Insofar as gender imbalances still remain between First World men and First World women, it is a small price to pay to enter the male’s world. The reward for First World women is that they gain greater privileges, including gender privileges, over Third World peoples, both men and women. First World women benefit by their participation in the global patriarchy as oppressors. There is more unity than disunity between First World men and First World women.

To advance oneself in the First World, one becomes an oppressor. By contrast, Third World women cannot enter the world of the First World oppressor. In general, she cannot enter his world as anything close to his equal. She can only enter into his social world to be oppressed, for example, as a prop for a sexual fantasy. First World women advance their interests, including their gender interests, by creating inequality on a global scale. By contrast, Third World women must seek their liberation by seeking equality for the vast majority of humanity in the Third World. Many Third World women are still bound by traditional roles, both in domestic roles and in production. They do not have the life opprotunities that First World women have. Survival within the capitalist-imperialist system greatly limits what Third World women can and cannot do. Third World women have none of the mobility that First World women have. Thus Third World women’s liberation is tied to the uprooting of feudalistic and traditional ways of life that often become even more unbearable in the context of capitalism-imperialism.

The First Worldist feminist says that it is either her way or tribal barbarism. She says that Third World women can find liberation through individualistic self discovery and self help, by throwing off the veil and putting on miniskirts, by liberating her sexuality, by joining the hedonistic free for all, by becoming “one of the guys.” However, such is a dead end for the Third World. The real way forward for Third World women is the proletarian revolution, uprooting the old mode of production. For the vast majority of women, they must find a way that breaks the chains of patriarchy, the chains of national oppression, and all other chains.

Gender contradictions in the First World follow a familiar pattern. The super-profit flow into the First World has transformed First World society such that antagonistic contradictions hardly exist, or are severely blunted. Instead, First World populations are more and more homogenous in their alignments, especially in their alignments toward the Third World. To meet this challenge, the Third World must unite to defeat the First World. Social revolution, including gender liberation, must happen within a context of the global people’s war, the struggle against imperialism, the struggle for national liberation, New Democracy, socialism and, ultimately, communism.

Sources

1. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/05/beyonce-egypt-show-called_n_347326.html

Fragging statement: MSH and Anwar al Awlaki

(monkeysmashesheaven.wordpress.com)

All the facts about the Fort Hood shootings are not in yet. The facts may never be fully known. After all, the bourgeois media, the accused’s handlers, and others, will try to craft their own narratives around the events. However, it is reported that there was a mass shooting that killed 13 and wounded 30 others at Fort Hood on November 5th, 2009. The alleged shooter is Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a US Army psychiatrist. According to reports, Hasan, a Muslim, is a vocal opponent of the war. He reportedly defended armed resistance to imperialism, including suicide attacks on US forces. Whether or not the shootings were a politically motivated attack against imperialism is not known yet.

The bourgeois media has condemned the horror of the shootings. However, capitalism-imperialism is the real horror. The continued existence of the US and other imperialist countries is the real horror. The US was born of the greatest genocide in human history. Amerikans exterminated a continent of Indigenous civilizations to make way for its racist empire. Millions of Blacks and Africans were killed and enslaved to make the US what it is today: the most murderous country that has ever existed. There is not a corner of the Third World that escapes the murderous grasp of US imperialism. Billions of people in the Third World barely survive, making less than 2.50 dollars a day, exploited by the US and First World. Billions live in poverty so that US and other First World populations live in luxury. Billions live under constant military threat from the imperialists. In Iraq alone there have been 100,000 to 600,000 violent deaths since 2003. In Afghanistan, there have been 12,000 to 32,000 civilian deaths since 2001.

Those who strike out against the real horrors of imperialism should be applauded, not condemned. Fragging has a long histoy. In the last century, fragging was a form of resistance practiced by Russian troops against their Czarist officers during World War 1 and the Bolshevik revolution. Fragging was also a form of protest against the genocide waged by the US against Vietnam.

Fragging is still a valid form of resistance today.  Not only does fragging hurt imperialist forces in a very direct way, fragging strikes a strong psychological blow against the enemy. Fragging demoralizes and destroys the enemy from within.

Islamic cleric Anwar al Awlaki, who knew Hasan earlier in life, had this to say about the events:

“Nidal Hassan is a hero. He is a man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people. This is a contradiction that many Muslims brush aside and just pretend that it doesn’t exist. Any decent Muslim cannot live, understanding properly his duties towards his Creator and his fellow Muslims, and yet serve as a US soldier. The US is leading the war against terrorism which in reality is a war against Islam. Its army is directly invading two Muslim countries and indirectly occupying the rest through its stooges.

Nidal opened fire on soldiers who were on their way to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. How can there be any dispute about the virtue of what he has done? In fact the only way a Muslim could Islamically justify serving as a soldier in the US army is if his intention is to follow the footsteps of men like Nidal.

The heroic act of brother Nidal also shows the dilemma of the Muslim American community. Increasingly they are being cornered into taking stances that would either make them betray Islam or betray their nation. Many amongst them are choosing the former. The Muslim organizations in America came out in a pitiful chorus condemning Nidal’s operation.

The fact that fighting against the US army is an Islamic duty today cannot be disputed. No scholar with a grain of Islamic knowledge can defy the clear cut proofs that Muslims today have the right -rather the duty- to fight against American tyranny. Nidal has killed soldiers who were about to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan in order to kill Muslims. The American Muslims who condemned his actions have committed treason against the Muslim Ummah and have fallen into hypocrisy.

Allah(swt) says: Give tidings to the hypocrites that there is for them a painful punishment –

Those who take disbelievers as allies instead of the believers. Do they seek with them honor [through power]? But indeed, honor belongs to Allah entirely. (al-Nisa 136-137)

The inconsistency of being a Muslim today and living in America and the West in general reveals the wisdom behind the opinions that call for migration from the West. It is becoming more and more difficult to hold on to Islam in an environment that is becoming more hostile towards Muslims.

May Allah grant our brother Nidal patience, perseverance and steadfastness and we ask Allah to accept from him his great heroic act. Ameen”

Although we do not agree that Muslims should necessarily leave the West en masse, we applaud al-Awlaki’s condemnation of the pro-Yankkkee lackeys in the Muslim community and his open endorsement of warfare against the imperialist enemy. Every human worthy of the name has a duty to fight an imperialist enemy that kills tens of millions of humans every year.

Sources

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_casualties_of_the_War_in_Afghanistan_%282001%E2%80%93present%29#Aggregation_of_estimates
3. http://www.anwar-alawlaki.com/?p=228

Floating parasitism

(monkeysmashesheaven.wordpress.com)

Royal Caribbean International has just launched the world’s largest cruise ship. The Oasis of the Seas weighs 225,282 tonnes. The ship is 360 meters long and 72 meters high above the water line. Passenger features include luxuries such as two-story loft suites and other luxury suites measuring 150 square meters with balconies overlooking the sea or promenades. Its capacity is 5,400 passengers, 6,296 people total.

The passengers will enjoy all the luxuries of a floating resort town. The ship will be divided into neighborhoods with different themes and activities. One ship highlight is the first living park at sea with 12,000 plants and 56 trees. The ship also includes a 750-seat outdoor amphitheater, a golf course, volley ball and basket ball courts, a zipline, a casino, a handcrafted carousel, rock climbing walls, several pools, many bars, a youth science lab and a computer gaming area.

The maiden voyage of this floating, behemoth monument to decadence is scheduled for December 5th, 2009. The vessel, along with a soon to be completed sister ship, will be based out of the US port of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The ship cost 1.4 billion dollars to construct, and even more to maintain and operate. The building cost of the ship is about the same as the GNP of Eritrea in 2008. The capitalist-imperialist system has dedicated roughly the equivalent of the GNP of an African country into creating a floating playground for First Worlders.

The average ticket price will be about 1,000 dollars for 7 days. This is not out of the range of the average adult Amerikan who has an income of 32,000 dollars per year. By contrast, many people in the Third World don’t even earn 1,000 dollars in an entire year. In fact, there are more people in India whose yearly income is less than a 1,000-dollar ticket. The vast majority of the workforce make less than Rs. 20 or 0.49 dollars a day.

This is an example of what Karl Marx identified as the anarchy of production under capitalism. Capitalism produces for the market, it does not produce to meet the needs of the vast majority. Under  socialism, by contrast, the few will not be able to take a cruise on a floating utopia while others fight for their basic survival. Under socialism, the global distribution will be one that is more rational and egalitarian. The First World itself will be abolished under global socialism. Under socialism, the few will not benefit at the expense of the many.

Sources

1. http://www.cruiseshipforum.com/cruise/cr….the-world. html
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Oasis_of_the_Seas
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28nominal%29
4. http://monkeysmashesheaven.wordpress.com/2007/08/19/amerikkkans-rich-indians-poor-so-called-

Third World countries protest First World countries over climate change

(monkeysmashesheaven.wordpress.com)

50 African countries walked out of a UN working meeting on climate change in Barcelona, Spain. The African and 70 other Third World countries have been protesting U.N. climate negotiations this week. According to the African spokespeople, the wealthy countries make weak commitments to environmental protection and it is the poor countries suffer the most severe consequences.

Africa, for example, is being devastated by droughts and floods that result from climate changes. Even though the Third World accounts for only a third of greenhouse gasses, it will suffer 80 percent of the damage resulting from climate change. According to an African Union official, the state of Texas alone “with 30 million inhabitants creates as much greenhouse gases as the billion Africans taken together.”

Africans advocate that the First World countries should reduce their carbon emissions by at least 40 percent by 2020. The African demand lines up with the upper limit advocated by scientists. However, so far, the targets that have been announced, favored by First World countries, have fallen far short.

These protests set the stage for negotiations at the final Copenhagen conference. UN negotiators hope to adopt a final treaty to reduce worldwide carbon emissions. The Copenhagen deal would succeed the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which sought to reduce gas emissions from industrial countries by 5 percent. Of all the major greenhouse gas producers, the US was the only one to reject the Kyoto accord.

Environmental issues, especially global warming, affects both First and Third World peoples. However, First World peoples are the ones who benefit the most from greenhouse economy. The greenhouse economy, the capitalist-imperialist economy, is an economy that principally serves First World consumers at the expense of Third World producers. Yet those who suffer most from climate change are peoples in the Third World. Any fair treaty to reduce carbon emissions should put the brunt of responsibility on First World countries to clean up the environmental mess that results from the world system that serves their endless consumption. In addition, any fair treaty should respect and not impede Third World development and sovereignty.

Sources

1. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091103/ap_on_re_eu/eu_spain_climate_talks
2. http://monkeysmashesheaven.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/reparations-demanded-for-eco-destruction-of-africa/

Lackeys in Iran: Help! Obama! Help!

(monkeysmasheshheaven.wordpress.com)

This week witnessed demonstrations in the streets of Tehran. According to reports, these are the first significant ones since the end of demonstrations surrounding the contested presidential elections months ago. The recent protests come at a time of increased pressure on the Islamic Republic by the imperialists over Iran’s nuclear energy program.

According to reports, some demonstrators went onto the streets to protest the legitimacy of Ahmadinejad. Others defended the Iranian state’s “hard line” toward the US. According to reports, in Haft-e-Tir Square, demonstrators clashed with police.

The anti-government protesters openly sought imperialist help. In a widely circulated youtube clip, anti-government demonstrators in Tehran chant in Farsi: “Obama, Obama, you are either with them, or with us!” Another widely chanted slogan, aimed at Ahmadinejad, was “Death to the dictator!”  The Obama administration responded by calling on an end of violence against the anti-government protesters. Press secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama administration leaders “hope greatly that violence will not spread.”

By contrast, at the rally to mark the 30th year anniversary of the takeover of the US embassy where 52 Amerikans were held hostage for 444 days, thousands gathered in front of the US embassy chanting “death to Amerika!”  US flags were trampled and marched on.

The US public overwhelmingly supports imperialist action against Iran. According to a recent poll, the majority, 61 percent, of Amerikans favor the use of military force against Iran.  Also, 71 percent of Israelis favor a military attack against Iran. The Obama administration has left no doubt whose side its on in numerous public statements criticizing the Islamic regime.

Behind the scenes, the Obama administration is surely aiding those forces that have been destabilizing Iran. Others too have played their parts behind the scenes to undermine anti-interventionist sentiment in the US. For years, fake-Maoist organizations like the RCP USA and other imperialist lackeys in the so-called “left” have parroted neo-con propaganda,  attacking Iran’s nuclear program and over gender issues. And, over the summer, First World “leftists,” caught up in the media hype, found themselves cheering what the US State Department hoped would be another pro-imperialist color revolution. These “leftist” forces are hardly friends of the Iranian people.

It is in this context, that Israel claims that its commandos have seized a shipment of 3,000 Iranian-made rockets bound for Lebanon to be used by Hezebollah. Whether this event is being reported truthfully or not,  it creates yet more pretext for imperialist attack against Iran. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu :

“The time has come for the international community to put real pressure on Iran for it to halt this despicable activity and back Israel when it defends itself against terrorists and their patrons.”

There is increased imperialist meddling and pressure being applied to Iran. Pretexts are being created for military intervention and public opinion is being shaped. Those who welcome imperialists as Iran’s saviors and those who end up in de facto alliances with imperialists as they attack Iran have no credibility among the masses. Those who oppose the imperialists are real patriots in Iran. Iran’s future should be decided by Iranians.

Sources

1. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091104/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran
2. http://monkeysmashesheaven.wordpress.com/2009/10/14/which-side-are-you-on-61-of-amerikkkans-favor-using-force-against-iran-28-oppose/
3. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091104/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_arms_boat
4. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091104/wl_mideast_afp/iranpoliticsusembassyanniversary

Sa Liyab ng Libong Sulo

(amihanmalaya.wordpress.com)

Ang “Sa Liyab ng Libong Sulo” ay isang bidyu-dokumentaryo na gawa nuong 1996 at hango sa librong, “Lipunan at Rebolusyong Pilipino,” ni Amado Guerrero. Inilalarawan nito ang kasaysayan ng pakikibaka ng sambayanang Pilipino magmula nuong kapanahunan ng kolonyalismong Espanyol hanggang sa panahon ng imperyalismo sa pagbungad ng bagong milenyo. Tampok rito ang proletaryong pananaw sa kasaysayan, kaya nga naman binansagan itong “subersibo” at ipinagbawal pa ng reaksyunaryong gubyerno. Sa rami ng reklamo ng mga reaksyunaryo sa pelikulang ito, ni isa sa kanila ay hindi pinagusapan ang nilalaman ng pelikula ukol sa tunggalian ng uri, na batay lamang sa katotohanang nagaganap sa lipunan. Alam na alam ng mga reaksyunaryo ang batas ng tunggalian ng uri, ngunit hindi nila ito inaamin sa publiko.

Reklamo ng isa:

“Ang hanap ng lahat ay kapayapaan, kaayusan, katahimikan – mga bagay na hindi maibibigay ng pagyakap sa isang ideolohiya na di tanggap ng nakararami, na ikinokondena ng Simbahan, na di tinatangkilik ng pamahalaan.” … “Pakiramdam ko kasi’y isang pagbebrainwash… isang pagtatangka na isubo sa aking utak ang isang mapait na lason.”

Sa halip na punahin niya ang makasaysayang naratibo ng pelikula gamit ang wastong pagaargumento, nauwi siya sa paggamit ng estilong “ad homimem” at “argument from authority”. Hindi basta sinabi ng simbahan, o gubyerno ay totoo, binase lamang ng nag-iingit na kritiko ang kanyang makitid na pananaw mula sa anti-komunistang retoriko ng mga reaksyunaryo. Bukambibig niya ang salita ng mga ahenteng pang-psywar ng berdugong militar, taglay rin niya ang kababuyang lohika ng mga naghaharing uring panginoong maylupa at burgesyang kumprador. At hindi kagulat-gulat ang kanyang naging reaksyon, ang mga kaaway ay natural na kinikilabutan kapag naririnig ang mga salitang rebolusyong proletaryo, sosyalismo, komunismo: ang mga salitang ito’y nangangahulagan lamang kasi ng kanilang katapusan. Masdan na iniiwasan niya ang anumang makabuluhang pagtalakay sa mga makasaysayang kaganapang naibanggit sa dokumentaryo, alam rin nila kasi na ang kasaysayan ay hindi panig sa kanila kaya pilit nilang palabuin ito para sa sariling pakinabang.

Ito ay sumasalamin sa mga realidad ng lipunan, ang mga krimen na kinasasangkutan ng mga naghaharing uri ay hindi nabibigyan ng pansin, bagkus ay sadyang kinakalimutan. Nagagawa ng mga reaksyunaryo na baguhin ang kasaysayan gamit ang pang-estadong kapangyarihan, at palabasin na sila pa ay mapagmalasakit. Mula sa mga librong ginagamit ng mga estudyante hanggang sa anong mapanood at marinig sa telebisyon ay kontrolado ng estado. Para magbanggit ng ilan, meron pa bang balita tungkol sa masaker sa Hacienda Luisita? Naaalala pa ba ng mga tao ang Mendiola Massacre nuong 1987? Kahit ang mga lider ng mga ligal at mapayapang pagkilos para sa reporma sa lupa ay pinapatay, isang halimbawa ay yung kaso ng mga magsasaka sa Sumilao. Ang kamay ng mga naghaharing uri ay basang-basa sa dugo ng mamamayan subalit lagi na lang nagbubulag-bulagan at tikom ang bibig ng midya, maging ang simbahan.

Sa saradong mundo ng mga reaksyunaryo, wala naman talagang nangyaring mga henosidyo sa Pilipinas nuong pisikal na sinakop tayo ng mga dayuhan, masamang panaginip lang yung mga tributo na ipinataw sa sambayanan ng mga parasitikong Prayle, kolonyal na estado bilang kabuuan, imahinasyon lang yung madugong polisiyang “kill all above ten” ng U$ military nuong ipinasa tayo ng mga espanyol sa kano, at kathang-isip lang ang Bataan death march. Nililikha ng mga reaksyunaryo ang mga ganitong kabulastugan sapagkat gusto nilang kalimutan ng masa ang kasaysayan, sa ganitong paraan nais ng mga reaksyunaro na mapanatiling bulag at bingi ang kamalayan ng masa sa sanhi ng kanilang kaapihan. Gusto nilang kalimutan ng masa ang kasaysayan, ang tunggalian ng uri, at palitan ng ipinalalandakang nilang teorya ng mga produktibong pwersa. Habang atubili ang naghaharing uri sa pagpapahirap sa bayan, habang inilalako nila ang bayan sa presyong pinakamura para sa mga imperyalista, gusto nilang sabihin sa masang naghihikahos na tularan ang imperyalistang Unang Daigdig at kilalanin sila bilang tagapagligtas ng sambayanang Pilipino at ng buong sangkatauhan. Gusto nilang alisan ng pag-asa at panghinaan ng loob ang masang inaapi at pinagsasamantala. Layon ng mga reaksyunaryo na pasamain ang sosyalismo at ijustify ang walang katarungan na kaayusang panlipunan na kanilang pinakikinabangan, upang ipamukha sa anakpawis na habang buhay silang magiging alipin.

Walang tunay na “kapayapaan, kaayusan, katahimikan” sa ganitong klase ng lipunan. Ang “kapayapaan, kaayusan, katahimikan” para sa mga naghaharing uri ay sukat lang ng ayos ng pagtakbo ng kanilang mga negosyo at karera. Maingay nilang inirereklamo ang karahasan ng rebolusyonaryong armadong pakikibaka, pero mula’t sapul ay marahas naman talaga ang tunggalian ng uri. Dagdag pa rito, hindi nila magawang aminin ang pang araw-araw na karahasan na dinudulot ng pangangalaga sa naghaharing sistema, ang karahasang dinudulot ng kapitalismo-imperyalismo bilang kabuuan sa mga aping mamamayan ng Ikatlong Daigdig, na oras-oras na pinapatay at ginugutom.

Lagi na lang ipinapahiwatig ng mga reaksyunaryo na kasalanan ng mga mahihirap kung bakit sila mahirap, ang mga mahihirap daw ay dapat lang manatiling mahirap at ang mayayaman ay marapat lang magpakayaman. Dahilan naman ng mga relihiyosong orden, ito raw ay sadyang “likas” at kapasyahan ng “diyos”. Ayon naman sa mga sobonistang petiburges, kaya raw mahirap ang masa ay dahil sila ay tamad at bobo, kaya naman mayaman ang mayaman ay dahil sila ay masipag at matalino – ganito ang takbo ng mga kaisipang reaksyunaryo, hindi nila mabigyang sagot ang problema na sila rin ang lumikha tapos ibabaling nila ang sisi sa proletaryo. Hindi isinisikreto ng kasaysayan na ang simbahan at ang midya ay kinakasangkapan lamang ng mga naghaharing uri para sa kanilang iba’t-ibang agenda. Sabi narin ng obskurantistang simbahan magmula pa nuon upang pangatwiranan at gawing panghabangbuhay ang kanilang mapaniil na paghahari sa masa, mamamatay raw muna ang mga mahihirap bago nila makamit ang kasaganahan…duon sa “paraiso”.

Hindi tulad ng mga metapisikong reaksyunaryo, tayong mga rebolusyonaryo ay armado ng syensya, alam natin na ang takbo ng kasaysayan at ang kinabukasan ng sangkatauhan ay hindi umiikot sa mga antedelubyang kasulatin ng bibliya, sapagkat tao ang siyang may hawak ng kanyang kapalaran. Ating balik-aralan ang kasaysayan, makikita natin na ang masa ang siyang mapagpasya. Sa paraan ng kolektibong pagkilos ay magagawa ng mga inaapi at inaalipin na baguhin ang takbo ng kasaysayan, ang mga taong api mismo ang siyang lilikha ng makatotohanang paraiso dito sa lupa, aabutin natin ang isang lipunang walang pang-aapi’t pagsasamantala.

Kamatayan sa kapitalismo-imperyalismo!

Mabuhay ang Tagumpay ng Digmang Bayan!