The death of Trayvon Martin is a
part of the huge evidence of the extrajudicial killings of black people. It is
so bad that about 313 black people have been killed in extrajudicial killings
in 2012 alone. That is one in every 28 hours. Zimmerman's acquittal
should wake up folks. If this doesn't wake up the sellouts, then nothing will.
Some want to have a new civil rights movement, but the movement never died. It
just grew. The jury believed that Zimmerman is innocent of second degree murder
and manslaughter. Zimmerman had a history of racial profiling, assault, and
possible child molestation. That makes him a degenerate and a man who is low in
character. Zimmerman was an armed man with a gun and he stalked Trayvon in a
threatening way. If he had followed the 911 operator's words, Trayvon Martin
would have been alive today. These injustices are common in my community. The
justice system is corrupt and wrong. Even a study entitled, "Operation
Ghetto Storm" from the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement document this oppression
against our community. The report found that a black man, woman, or child was
executed by the police (including some security guards and self-appointed
vigilantes) every 36 hours. These killings out pretext or legal consequences
are like Jim Crow laws. The judicial system's racism is shown by Zimmerman's
initial release without any charges filed. If Trayvon Martin can die, we can
die in such a manner. It is a disgrace. State sanctioned murder has been
commonplace since the inception of America. The Sanford police did a lot of
corrupt actions and in the near future, I will mention their acts more. Sanford
Police Chief Bill Lee was forced to resign, because of the death of Trayvon
Martin. Now, the Federal Justice Department's Civil Rights Division opened an
investigation to the killing. The enemy wants to change tactics as a means to
contain popular revolt. The system of racial oppression in the world is strong,
but our values are stronger than their evil. Mass organizing and unity are ways
to start to fight back against evils. We need to end the reign of the economic
elite harming the human race in the world. Mass actions for justice for Trayvon
and all victims of abuse can bear fruit. We can win without fear via
mobilization and organization. We must have Unity. We should be strategic also. We should be wise
and act fairly in the Earth. We should also expose and oppose the evil actions
from the corporate Democratic and Republican parties as well. We know that
imperialism is immoral, corporate crime is evil, and we understand that
warrantless wiretapping is still inappropriate. So, it is a continued fight for real
justice for the entire human race.
Folks are talking about the juror
B37. She admitted her agenda in her interview with Anderson Cooper. She said
that George Zimmerman was justified in killing Trayvon Martin since he had
Stand Your Ground legal justification, but that law should not be used in the case.
The case dealt with self-defense laws in the state of Florida. She is a mother.
She only spoke for herself. She wanted to have book deal, but one hero from
Twitter (who is a Sister) prevented that since she was profiting from another human's death that
was not her son. Her husband was a lawyer. She claimed that she knew nothing of
the case and there were riots. She called Trayvon Martin a "boy of
colour," so we can see her agenda a mile away. She gets her news from The
Today show and does not trust Internet news. She should have not been a juror
in the first, because of her huge bias. During the trial, she thought that
one of George Zimmerman's friends was the medical examiner. She falsely
believed that it was a Stand Your Ground case. She used the testimony that the
judge told her to disregard and she was extremely confused by the laws she had
to apply. She believed Chris Serino and not Rachel Jeantel. Jeantel was the
closest that we have seen to Martin's side of the story. She believed that
Zimmerman was not a wannabe cop, but he was overeager to help people. So, she
believed in Zimmerman's story throughout the trial. She denied that race played
a role in the case when the authorities made sure that there were no
black jurors were in the trial.
Washington is having a strong
influence in the present authority in Egypt. We have the U.S. Deputy Secretary
of State William Burns coming to Cairo for two days of talks with the leaders
of Egypt's new military back government. There are reports that the U.S. Navy
has dispatched ships and Marines to the Red Sea Coast. Burns met with interim
President Adly Mansour and Prime Minister Hazem al-Beblawi. This visit came and
was meet with protests by supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and deposed
Mohamed Mursi. The folks chanted, “Down with the military regime! Down with the
dictator! President Mursi, no one else!” Reuters reported last Thursday that
two U.S. Navy ships have patrolled the Middle East. They are moving closer to
Egypt's coast in recent days. Reuters cited words from Marine Corps Commandant
General James Amos' conversation with the Center for Strategic and
International Studies think tank. “Egypt is [in] a crisis right now,” Amos
said. “When that happens, what we owe the senior leadership of our nation are
some options.” Amos said the USS San Antonio, an
amphibious transport dock, and the USS Kearsarge, an amphibious assault ship,
had moved further north in the Red Sea to make the movement of helicopters and
other equipment easier. “Why? Because we don’t know what’s going to happen,” he
said. DEBKAfile, which is close to
Israel’s Mossad, claimed Sunday that the despatch was aimed at disciplining
Israel and “as a deterrent to the generals in Cairo”—placing assault ships
carrying 2,600 Marines off the coast that would “step in” if “Gen. Abdel Fattah
al-Sisi and his generals… took their persecution of the Muslim Brotherhood too
far.” There is a threat of a civil war in Egypt. The rulers now in Egypt
are not radically helping the working class. The Obama administration facilitated
and agreed with the evil July 3 coup diplomatically, and now
militarily (including with cash). Burns said that he wants all violence ending and a transition of
Egypt into an inclusive, democratically elected civilian government. This is
ironic the military coup was never democratic and we see select folks ruling
Egypt without the input of Egyptian citizens. To assume the pose of an “honest
broker”, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki has supported German demands
for an “end to all restrictive measures” against Mursi and other MB leaders.
However, the US has still refused to designate the July 3 events as a coup, so
that it can continue providing $1.3 billion in aid to the Egyptian military.
Its polite urgings to the military come amid a massive, escalating clampdown.
Senior Brotherhood leader Essam El-Erian said that about 240 Morsi supporters
were jailed since a deadly clash with army troops occurred a week ago. He said
that no lawyers are sent to them and they are having a closed hearing in prison
(in violation of the rule of law). The U.S. is allowing the Gulf Monarchies to
fund Egypt. Saudi Arabia, the UAE (or the United Arab Emirates), and Kuwait
pledged $12 billion in aid to Egypt so far. Saudi Arabia gave 5 billion dollars
to Egypt. Last Saturday, President Barack Obama discussed Egypt with King
Abdullah. Coup leader Al-Sisi loved his power grab. He claimed that Mursi is in
conflict with the judiciary, the police, etc. The neo-liberal Interim Prime
Minister Al-Beblawi was appointed by President Mansour. Al-Beblawi was once an economist
who worked with Western international financial institutions (that same ones economically exploiting his own people). El-Beblawi has named
another liberal economist, Ahmed Galal, who has a PhD from Boston University,
as his finance minister. Nabil Fahmy was a former ambassador to the US. He is
now the new foreign minister of Egypt. The junta is evil and even the Salafi
al-Nour party refuse to join the interim government. Mohamed ElBaradei is still
having a leadership role in Egypt. He is the vice President for foreign
relations. So, Washington has a huge influence in this interim Egypt government
after the military coup. The new constitution being drafted is even worse than
the previous one. It wants to drop the existing stipulation of a 50 percent
share of seats for workers and farmers in parliament. It has the omission of any
protection of the right to strike. The state can also legislate some forms of
forced labor, if this is deemed necessary. Military trials for civilians are
also possible. It calls Sharia law as recognized doctrines of the people not just
Sunni Islam as the main source of the legislation. The economy is suffering
with foreign reserves decreasing. There has been a savage attack on working people as
well. Al-Beblawi has led the charge in reducing wages and reducing subsidies.
1/4 of all Egyptians live below the poverty line. The official employment is at
13 percent or 3.5 million humans. Real youth unemployment is as high as 82
percent. Fully 21.4 percent of the 27.3 million strong work force are temporary
workers and at least 46.5 percent of those employees work in the unofficial
sector with no job security. So, Egypt should have real freedom not a military
junta.
There is a strong, mass protest
movement in Brazil. It came about in June of 2013. It has been the largest and
most significant protests in Brazil in a generation. This movement has
been growing large in its size. Many folks from the left, the right, and the
government talked about this movement and they are caught by surprise. The
movement began on June 6. This was when the radical left Free Fare Movement (or
the Movimento Passe Livre or the MPL) started it. This movement was an autonomist, non
party organization. It has been active in the country for several years. It led
a small demonstration. They wanted the reversal of a recent increase of public
transport fares in the city of São Paulo from R$3 to R$3.20. The movement was
criticized by the press for blocking the traffic and making unrealistic
demands, and the demonstration was attacked by the police. The MPL returned in
larger numbers in the following days, and the police responded with increasing
brutality, beating up demonstrators and passers-by indiscriminately, and
wounding several journalists. The demonstrations grew in size in 2 weeks. They
spread across Brazil. More than one million people in hundreds of cities and
movements were still taking place almost every day. There was a large
mobilization led by the left on July 11, 2013. Many students, middle class,
poor, young workers, etc. Some of them wanted demands to be fair to bus
drivers, lorry drives, health sector workers, etc. Some in the mainstream press
and TV networks supported the movement. Some wanted to let the movement to
expose corruption and state inefficiency in order for them to drown out the left and
delegitimize the federal government. Some of the demonstrators became more white
and middle class. They included other issues like drugs, spending, etc. There
has been many police repression and some of the police pulled back. Some of the
police and reactionaries have tried to infiltrate the movement. The left has
made a coordinated effort to regain leadership of the movement. Some of the
middle class and bourgeoisie hate it that Brazil has a more expansion of
citizenship. The Brazilian elite hates this reality as well. The redistribution of income
and the expansion of social programs have benefited millions of people. This
has occurred in the past 10 years allowing some of the poor to own a car or
travel in shopping centers. The middle class is slowing in growth because of
neoliberal policies. Many protesters want to stop government corruption, basic
services, and the squandering of billions in state funds on the construction of
lavish stadiums of the Confederations Cup and World Cup soccer tournaments
(instead of investing in education and healthcare). Dilma Rousseff is the new
leader of the Brazilian government. In Brazil, there has been huge inflation
and sluggish economic growth (in about 0.6 percent in the first quarter and
with industrial production fallen triggering layoffs). The ruling PT Party has
a lot of explaining to do. This mass movement should have a revolutionary
political perspective or it risks co-option. At the new of the day, all of us
have the right to advance revolutionary changes in the world, especially in Brazil.
There are a lot of South African
woman that heroically fought against apartheid indeed. You can't talk about the
anti-apartheid movement in South Africa without discussion about its women.
Many of them fought for political justice and social equality. The fight for
gender equality is linked to the fight for racial equality. Back in 1905, Charlotte
Maxeke became the first black woman in South Africa to earn her Bachelor's
degree. Charlotte was a schoolteacher. She continued her studies in the United
States. When she returned to South Africa, she advanced the cause for racial
and gender equality. That is why in 1918, she founded the Bantu Women's League
of the South African Native National Congress. In 1935, she was the first
President of the National Council for African Women. Cecilia Makiwane was the
first black woman to register as a professional nurse. Fatima Meer became the
founder and chief architect of the Federation of South African Women or the
FEDSAW in 1954. The ANC officially admitted women members for the first time by
1943. A year later, Adelaide Tambo (the wife of Oliver) is elected courier for
the organization. She left South Africa in 1960. She worked as a courier for
Oliver Tambo in London. She became one of the most important women of the
Struggle in her lifetime. The ANC Women's League was formed in 1948. Treason
trial defendant Ida Mtwana is its first president. Mary Malahlela-Xakana, who
becomes the first female black doctor in South Africa in 1947, and Patricia
Jobodwana, who becomes the youngest black woman to enroll at a university – at
Fort Hare, aged 14, for a degree in medicine. In 1936, Zainunnisa
‘Cissie’ Gool founds the National Liberation League, and becomes its first
president. She represents District Six in 1938 on the Cape Town City Council,
the first coloured woman in on this all-white council, retaining the position
until 1951. She is also elected president of the Non-European United Front
(NEUF) in 1940. She features prominently in Cape Town’s political landscape for
most of her life. The now legendary Albertina Sisulu joins the league in the
same year. Fatima Meer united women from the ANC, the South African Indian
Congress, trade unions, and self helps to fight the degrading pass book laws of
the National Party. She is the Founder and the chief Architect of the
Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW) in 1954. The Black Sash was created
in the 1950's. Sonia Bunting was one of the keynote speakers at the Congress of
the People in Kliptown and Francis Baard is a member of the committee that
produces the draft copy of the Freedom Charter. Many women suffered in the
early 1960's by the evil apartheid system. The ANC was outlawed. Many folks
were placed under house arrest or restricted to certain places for being
members of the ANC. In 1963, Miriam Makeba, better known as a singer, speaks at
the meeting of the United Nations’ Special Committee Against Apartheid in New
York. She will go on to world fame as a Singer and Activist – she is awarded
the Dag Hammarskjold Peace Prize in 1986. So, these Sisters deserve their real
respect and praise as some of the leaders that helped to end the apartheid
regime in South Africa indeed.
By Timothy
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