The events inside of the Ukraine are known greatly in the world.
The working class and the poor are suffering there. There has been the failure
of the Ukrainian opposition and its Western supporters to overthrow President
Viktor Yanukovych. Some want to replace his regime with an EU friendly
government. There are armed fascist gangs being mobilized to achieve that same
aim. There have been bloody clashes in Kiev since the protests began this week.
26 people including several policemen were killed. There were 1,000 or more
injured when gangs armed with paving stones, guns, and firebombs engaged in
violent street battles with the government security forces. Even when most
Western mainstream media outlets support the opposition, some of them admitted
that many of the violent protesters are ultra-reactionary forces. The Financial Times reported, “Some demonstrators wearing
camouflage clothing, military helmets and bullet proof vests responded with
what appeared to be hand guns.” The same newspaper wrote: “Right Sector, one of
the most militarized protest groups, urged citizens with guns to join the
encampment.” German news channel N24 reported that the “radicals of Right
Sector have hijacked the protest movement.” Noting that the group consists of
“supporters of ultra-right-wing organizations across the country,” it added,
“With their faces hidden behind masks or helmets, they attack the police in
Kiev with batons and iron bars.” The U.S. and German government are supporting
directly or indirectly these paramilitary neofascists group as a means to
pressure Yanukoych and his government. The Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung expressed
this bluntly. It “no longer matters if it was radical opponents of the regime
or the security forces who first resorted to violence on Tuesday,” the paper
stated. “Now only one thing can help: the rapid resignation of
Yanukovych.” On Monday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warmly received
Ukrainian opposition leaders Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Vitali Klitschko, but turned
down their call for sanctions. After the bloody riots in Kiev, she reversed
herself and expressed support for sanctions against the Yanukovych government.
In a joint appearance with French President François Hollande, she denounced
the security forces in Ukraine for brutality. The U.S. government has made
similar governments in trying to call for the Ukrainian government to withdraw
its riot police. “There will be consequences if people cross a line,”
President Barack Obama threatened. The big picture is that America wants
Ukraine to submit to Western not Russian interests. The West wants brutal
austerity policies in the Ukraine and want replacement of the regime of
Yanukovych (under the guise of the rule of law and democracy). This is
also the aim of the opposition led by Klitschko, Yatsenyuk and Oleh Tyahnybok,
whose Svoboda party openly celebrates the Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera and
espouses anti-Semitism and racism. The West and the EU want to rule over
Ukraine, so Russia is furthered isolated. The power of NATO and the EU is
growing. Ukraine has a network of energy pipelines, military bases, and heavy
industry, so that is a target of Western imperialism. That is why the Germans
and the Nazis invaded Ukraine in WWI and WWII. The Nazis massacred millions of
Ukrainians. Berlin, Washington, Brussels, etc. want the Ukraine to be under
their influence. The reactionary and fascist groups are in the opposition movement,
but they are not representative of all opposition people though. We should
reject imperialism and make sure that Ukraine is a progressive society.
When you have the status quo, radical
politics are in order to make a difference in the world. Many people are tired
of the corporate dominated political system. So, they want solutions. Some politicians
in Newark, Jackson, Seattle, and throughout the nation are fighting for change.
Today, we know how bad the GOP is. Also, there is still a new class of young
right wing Black Democrats that love austerity, privatization, school closures,
and other items of reaction. Corporate money has propped up Cory Booker and
Harold Ford into national prominence. Many mayors of many colors are workers of
corporate power. Yet, folks are still fighting. One new city councilperson
Kshama Sawant in Seattle is trying to make a difference. She is forcing her
Democratic colleagues to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour (and she wants
the rich to pay for an overhaul of public education and transportation). In
Jackson, Mississippi, 66 year old Mayor Chokwe Lumumba has worked for selfless
dedication to social transformation for decades. He was an activist in the
Republic of New Africa. He worked as a lawyer and one of the founders of the
Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. He is the mayor of Jackson, MS now. He wants to
encourage a cooperative economy to build “wealth equity, economic democracy
and self-determination in Jackson,” the South, and the nation. In Newark, New
Jersey, Cory Booker is known for his corporate educational experimentation,
city councilman and high school principal Ras Baraka is running for mayor. He
is the son of the late poet and activist Amiri Baraka. Ras Baraka opposes
recent school closings and promises to bring economic development to the
neighborhoods. These people want self-determination among the human beings in
their respective communities. Many people want a distorted view of the late Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr as a means to advance a reactionary agenda where the
rights of immigrants, women, black people, and other minorities are submerged
or suppressed. We all know that Dr. King was a revolutionary and a democratic
socialist. He utilized spiritual imagery and political words as a means to
appeal to a wide spectrum of Americans as a means to make society a humane,
progressive society. His words impacted human beings globally. You can see how
he loved Africa and wanted liberation for the colonized and neo-colonized
peoples of the globe. That is why he celebrated the freedom of one African
nation from European imperialist oppression. That nation was Ghana as he
visited Ghana in 1957. His embrace of Personalism was key to him believing that
all human life has dignity and worth (he respected the massive power of the
human personality). He offered critiques of Stalinist communism, but he never
rejected the necessity of Social justice. I also respect how Malcolm X promoted
gender equality (just before he was unfortunately assassinated) and gave women
leadership positions in the OAAU. Malcolm X said the accurate words (one of my
favorite quotes of Malcolm X): "...But in every backward country you’ll
find the women are backward, and in every country where education is not
stressed it’s because the women don’t have education. So one of the things I
became thoroughly convinced of in my recent travels is the importance of giving
freedom to the women, giving her education, and giving her the incentive to get
out there and put the same spirit and understanding in her children. And I am
frankly proud of the contributions that our women have made in the struggle for
freedom and I’m one person who’s for giving them all the leeway possible
because they’ve made a greater contribution than many of us men..." At the
end of the day, we need unity with AFRICA. Our liberation is tied to Africa.
When we develop our cultural, economic, and political ties with Africa, we are
morally, spiritually, and socially enriched. That is why in real life when I
study Africa or listen to African music, I feel better. I feel more happy and
joyful in my life. Also, in this process of pan-Africanism, we can never mimic
the acts of the oppressor. We have to care for the environment, we have to care
for the dignity of labor, and we have to advance real human rights. We are over
1 billion people globally. When we are truly united, we are A POWERFUL FORCE.
Interesting questions about life deserve
answers (in dealing with social justice, etc.). Now, I will take this one step
at a time. Social justice is a type of justice. Justice is a broad goal of
liberty, respect, and great opportunities sent to people. Social justice deals
with making systems of the world or institutions beneficial to humanity,
especially to those who are dispossessed or extremely poor. In essence, social
justice is about the creating of a just society via legitimate changes in the
economy, labor, the environment, etc. It deserves its own ontological category
since there are diverse concepts in the world and these concepts sometimes
can’t be pigeonholed into one world or one phrase. Human liberty is a real ideal.
There is no other liberty, but human liberty. Yet, black people have the right
to affirm their heritage in the world. Power must be redistributed, because
power has been unfairly and unjustly utilized throughout the ages. For example,
the serfs in Russia were oppressed by the CZARs. The serfs rose up to make
power more redistributed among them despite the unfair power grabs done by the
czars for centuries in Russia. The slavery in America gave undue power to the
slave owners and select corporate interests. The Civil War ended overt slavery
and caused power to be redistributed from former slave owners. Many Africans
redistributed power stolen from European imperialists after WWII in Ghana,
Nigeria, and other nations. So, REDISTRIBUTION is not evil in every
circumstance. Our wealth has been stolen by the military industrial complex,
the FED, Wall Street, and other entities to be sent to foreign banks and
multinational corporate interests. Wealth redistributed that has been stolen by
SELECT interests is not immoral. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wanted an ECONOMIC
BILL OF RIGHTS, wealth sent to the people that funded the Vietnam, an agency to
deal with poverty, a guaranteed annual income, the funding of black
institutions, and other solutions to handle this issue of oppression (with
redistribution of wealth, fair taxation, ending unfair tax allowances, the
ending of the Vietnam War, etc.). Human liberty is important, but liberty is
not nihilism. See, reactionaries claim to want liberty, but they want the
MARKET to lack accountability and to lack morality. See, they want to lecture
us on family values, but refuse to promote boundaries in the conduct of
economic interests. You can’t do what you want, so the markets can’t do what it
wants. There should be boundaries on POWER and revolutionary solutions in the
world. There is nothing wrong with saying Black is Beautiful too and there is
nothing wrong with fighting for my black interests in the world too. The Poor
People Campaign of 1967-1968 had legitimate aims. It was worked on by the
Sister Marian Wright Edelman too. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. courageously
fought for the Poor People Campaign as a means to fight poverty and create
revolutionary social change in America. We need economic empowerment and self-determination,
but we should also need a radical redistribution of economic and political
power as the late Brother Dr. King said. There can be no true equality and
freedom without economic justice. It is as simple as that. This struggle is for
UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE and for QUALITY EDUCATION. It is for a clean environment
and an end to imperialism or militarism. We are all fighting for BLACK
LIBERATION, which BLACK PEOPLE are doing 24/7 365. Every day, I think about the
poor and the oppressed. Every single day of my life, I will always fight
against poverty and I will fight for human justice.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was an eloquent
spokesman for social justice and human liberty. He expressed revolutionary
statements during the duration of his life. In his 1967, THREE EVILS IN SOCIETY
speech, he stated the obvious that the ghetto is a domestic colony and that
power must be redistributed as a means to give the poor (both black and nonblack)
the just means to control their own destinies. In that same speech, Dr. King
was right to say that: "...We cry out against welfare handouts to the poor
but generously approve an oil depletion allowance to make the rich,
richer..." The call for economic justice and the defeat of plutocracy is
the great calling of our 21st century generation. We should never forget other
heroes who stood up for justice too like Fannie Lou Hamer, Malcolm X (who by
1965 critique capitalism and he started to condemn the great evil of sexism),
Septima Clark, and other brave human beings that expressed sacrifice not
submissive to the status quo as a means to confront the powers that be. Ella
Baker was a Sister that was a great organizer and she was the Mother of SNCC
literally. Ella Baker was just as important in the struggle for human justice
as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood a firm
stand in recognizing the truth that BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL. So, Dr. King loved
black people, he loved Africa, and he wanted black self-determination to be one
concept ingrained in the social consciousness of all those of black African
descent. He was a strong religious leader, a socialist, a family man, and a man
with great courage & great strength. It takes strength to take blows
and a rock without retaliation. It took great strength to handle offensive
criticism and to press on. So, we ought to express courage too in our lives to
advance the ideal of the BELOVED COMMUNITY. His last campaigns were the Poor
Peoples Campaign and the Memphis Sanitation Workers' strike. Each of those
campaigns was about the common people to fight for economic justice, fair
wages, and the true defeat against the corrosive conditions of poverty in the
world. So, we will never give up. We never gave up when we suffered the Maafa.
We never gave up when the capitalist instrument of Western slavery oppressed
our ancestors and we never gave up when reactionary brutes used dogs and water
to assault our Brothers and our Sisters. So, this fight for a cooperative
society continues on. I will maintain my core convictions of truth and creating
a humane world. Martin's story is an eye opener. One of the interesting points
that he said is that he followed his extreme passive attitude about things when
learned to "turn the other check" (which is a theological concept
that has been distorted by some as a means for evil folks to justify the
wickedness in the SYSTEM) from white private school conditioning. That gave me
a thought in my mind. White supremacy always promotes immoral passivity among
black males as a means for some to attempt to make black males tolerate the
injustices in society (and we know how society glamorizes black males acting
weak, malleable, brutish, and evil). The truth is that we should never tolerate
injustice and we have every God-given right to let our voices heard and to
fight back legitimately. We should inspire black youth to be STRONG BLACK MEN
and to never be ashamed of their masculinity, of their strength, and of their
human dignity at all. Also, bullying is evil and this story documents the
negative side effects that the victims of bullying experience physically and
psychologically. Bullying is an abomination. So, we should fight against
bullying and we have to mention that there is nothing wrong with a black male
standing up for himself. Aggression properly applied is not immoral. That is a
good thing. Black people want a black man to be a MAN and never allow RELIGION
to be used as an excuse to be submissive to a nefarious system. We have the
responsibility to stand up for a Brother or a Sister that is suffering too. We
are our Brothers' and our Sisters' keepers. We hope the best for Jonathan
Martin.
Well, Brother Marcus Garvey is of black
Caribbean descent. I have black Caribbean descent on the mother side of the
family (and I am not ashamed of my Caribbean roots). Black Caribbeans have
direct involvement in the black liberation struggle in America spanning a long
time. That is just a historical fact. Our struggle is an international struggle
against injustice, white supremacy, and oppression. We have to think about our
people in an international Pan-Africanist fashion not worship America as God
since America is not God. America is a nation not a deity. Brother Kwame Ture,
WEB DuBois, Malcolm X, Shirley Chishlom, etc. have black Caribbean blood. So,
we are one BLACK PEOPLE. There truth is that tons of black Americans that are
down for the cause and there are tons of non-American blacks that are done for
the cause of justice too. WE ARE ONE BLOOD, WE ARE ONE PEOPLE, WE ARE ALL
AFRICANS, AND WE ARE ALL BLACK PEOPLE REGARDLESS. We should never play the game
of divide and conquer based on our nationality. We all came from Africa. We all
love our families and our people a great deal. We are still fighting the same
oppression in the globe; therefore we should unite with all Diasporan black
people and all those of black African descent in the world. Michael Dunn is a
murderous piece of work. He has no respect for human life. No genre of music
should be blamed for the actions of a murderer like Michael Dunn at all. Also,
hip hop music is very diverse and many progressive, honorable human beings love
real hip hop. If he didn't like the music, he can easily either deal with it,
turn the windows up, wear earphones, drive away, and do a multiplicity of other
options excluding murdering Jordan Davis (and putting other lives in risk of
death. See, he also put other unarmed lives in risk too). He is superior to no
one while claiming to be someone's superior that we must obey. We should never
obey him. KARMA is coming for him. We all care for the family of Jordan Davis
and we should always remember why we do this. How dare Michael Dunn portray
himself as a victim when he victimized the lives of others with his abhorrent
action. We do this (of fighting for justice and believing in PROACTIVE
SOLUTIONS) for Jordan Davis and his family. We do this for our people and we do
this for the CREATOR AND THE ANCESTORS. Certainly, we are from a strong people.
Many Brothers and Sisters need to remember that. We came from people who
endured unspeakable events and still we survived and became doctors, lawyers,
scientists, theologians, political leaders, etc. So, we have nothing to be
ashamed of at all. We are fighters and our ancestors were fighters too. All of
all of Africa is not monolithic. Africa today has issues. Also, Africa has
great intelligent human beings. Africa has industry, communication services,
technology, educational services, transportation, and other amenities of modern
society. Following the peaceful elections in 2013, Kenya seems to have become
one of the hotspots for investments and growth in Africa. The creative
industries are among the most rapidly expanding sectors across the globe.
According to the United Nations' (UN) Conference on Trade and Development
(Unctad), the sector has a growth rate of 13.9% in Africa. Namibia has seen
growth as well. Namibia rejoices in smooth transfers of power and has witnessed
economic growth of 3.5% – 5.8 % in the last decade. The reactionaries ignore
and omit (like their type always does) the war crimes committed by the
barbaric, nefarious, and evil white supremacist apartheid regime of South
Africa from the Sharpeville Massacre to the Soweto massacre. There are many
Brothers and Sisters who fought against apartheid heroically like Steve Biko.
Winnie Mandela being physically abused in prison has no justification at all.
Detroit has been harmed by deindustrialization, corporate exploitation,
austerity policies, and other reasons. It has nothing to do with black genetics
(when black people are filled with geniuses and other dynamic human beings).
There has been an overall decline in the crime rate nationwide in America (even
among many metropolitan centers). So, AFRICA IS THE MOTHERLAND OF BLACK PEOPLE.
I WILL TREAT AFRICA WITH RESPECT AND EVIL FOLKS CAN NEVER STOP THE POWER OF
BLACKNESS AT ALL. BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL AND AFRICA IS BEAUTIFUL TOO. I BELIEVE IN
BLACK POWER AND BLACK UNITY INCLUDING BLACK LOVE.
By Timothy
2 comments:
That is a great Malcolm X quote, never heard it before I read it on your blog. Another one of my favourite quote of Malcolm X is about the smiling fox and the growling wolf.
On the issue of violence: passive aggressive and physical; any individual involved in breeding or consuming above ecological carrying capacity limits (or endorsing the conspiracy of silence to expose the role of violation of carrying capacity limits as passive aggressive violence) is involved in passive aggressive violence, which builds up in individuals, families, communities and nations as individual or organized physical violence, as tribes compete for resources, due to overuse and depletion of their own resources.
There is an interesting Gary Null interview with Arun Gandhi, fifth grandson of Mahatma Gandhi; where he argues that Gandhi was acutely aware of and exposed passive aggressive (aka Fundamentalist Slavery Freedumb violence) violence against nature (although Gandhi only exposed the overconsumption role of passive aggressive violence, remaining silent (unlike Dr. King's quote on overprocreation) on the passive aggressive role of overprocreation violence).
He also says very few of Gandhi's followers have taken note of, not just physical violence, but passive violence committed everyday by everyone. They don't don't recognize, understand or explain passive aggressive violence.
1. even in the making of a pencil, we use allot of the worlds natural resources and when we throw them away, we are throwing away resources = violence against nature.
2. in affluent society we buy in bulk, so overconsume, and we deprive others of resources, and that is violence against humanity.
He argues passive violence generates anger that fules the violence of physical violence. To put out the flame of physical violence, we have to cut off the passive violence oxygen fuel source of physical and organized violence.
“The white liberal differs from the white conservative only in one way: the liberal is more deceitful than the conservative. The liberal is more hypocritical than the conservative. Both want power, but the white liberal is the one who has perfected the art of posing as the Negro’s friend and benefactor; and by winning the friendship, allegiance, and support of the Negro, the white liberal is able to use the Negro as a pawn or tool in this political “football game” that is constantly raging between the white liberals and white conservatives…. Once the Negro learns to think for himself, he will no longer allow the white liberal to use him as a helpless football in the white man’s crooked game of “power politics.” The white conservatives aren’t friends of the Negro either, but they at least don’t try to hide it. They are like wolves; they show their teeth in a snarl that keeps the Negro always aware of where he stands with them. But the white liberals are foxes, who also show their teeth to the Negro but pretend that they are smiling. The white liberals are more dangerous than the conservatives; they lure the Negro, and as the Negro runs from the growling wolf, he flees into the open jaws of the “smiling” fox.” -- Excerpts from 1963 speech by Malcolm X.
“Unlike plagues of the dark ages or contemporary diseases we do not understand, the modern plague of overpopulation is soluble by means we have discovered and with resources we possess. What is lacking is not sufficient knowledge of the solution but universal consciousness of the gravity of the problem and education of the billions who are its victim.” – Martin Luther King Jnr.
Post a Comment