Justice

 

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