Monday News

He has his credentials for advancing a free market agenda. He is allied with the law and order policies long with the evil, ruthless attacks on refugees including the Roma. He has been nicknamed the “French Blair, the “French Schroeder” and the left wing Sarkozy. The €50 billion in budget cuts to be imposed by 2017 announced by his predecessor, Jean-Marc Ayrault, are just the beginning. The financial markets and their executive organs, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Union Commission, are demanding even deeper cuts. Public spending is running now at 56 percent of France’s gross domestic product or GDP compared to 45 percent in Germany. To reach the German level, French would have to cut is public expenditure by €200 billion annually. At the same time, big business is demanding radical cuts in wages and sweeping attacks on working conditions to reduce France’s €60 billion trade deficit. The FN loves the austerity agenda. The FN has made considerable gains in the municipal elections. FN leader Marine le Pen will profit from Valls’ policies. The reason is that Valls attacks social programs. Also, she or Marine Le Pen will act as representative of ordinary people and Valls’ tirades against immigrants will relate to her racism. The FN deals with fascism and fascism must be opposed. The ruling class in France is using fascists to suppress the class struggle. Within the conservative Gaullist UMP (Union for a Popular Movement), supporters of collaboration with the FN are gaining ground, and in the ranks of the PS and its pseudo-left supporters there are not a few who are likewise prepared to do this. This is similar to the Ukraine. The U.S./Western government supported the pro-Western new government filled with fascist Svoboda and fascist militias. The new Ukraine government is imposing brutal austerity as a means to make Ukraine an outpost in the military encirclement of Russia. The PS has compromised.


The PS was founded in 1969 in response to the general strike of May-June 1968, which shook bourgeois rule to its foundations. François Mitterrand, who took over its leadership in 1971, was a reactionary bourgeois politician. He had served in the pro-Nazi Vichy regime during World War II and played a despicable role as interior and justice minister during the Algerian war for independence, signing death warrants for Algerians fighting to end French colonial domination. As PS leader, he was supported by the PCF, which exploited its influence in the working class to foster illusions in a Mitterrand presidency. Mitterrand followed austerity after his 1981 election. The PS has squandered its influence and then the Gaullist Jacques Chirac won the Presidency in 1995. There was weeks of strikes during the winter. Chirac called for early parliamentary elections bringing the PS back into government. Chirac and PS Prime Minister Lionel Jospein worked together to attack the working class. Jospin was so discredited that in the 2002 Presidential election, he came in third behind Chirac and FN leader Jean-Marie Le Pen. The PS had to ally with socialist and communist parties to gain support. During Mitterrand’s Presidency, they made sure that protests against the government remained under the control of the trade unions and came to nothing. Even the LCR or the Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire (the League of Communist Revolutionaries) compromised. The LCR dissolved itself into the new anti-Capitalist party. They renounced its previous ties to Trotskyism. The LCR has supported the neo colonial war in Libya, French imperialism’s campaign for regime change in Syria, and the Western back fascist led putsch in Ukraine. So, there are many developments in France. The leadership of France continues to call for austerity and militarism. Even Hollande said, “I will tell you a sort of secret: if it turned out that we had had to carry out strikes in Syria, we would have been able to do it.” War mongering is not just found in the States, but it is found globally. We are in solidarity with all French people that love freedom and abhor tyranny.


The Senate report on CIA abuses during Bush Jr.’s reign should be released. The declassification process is very slow though. The report has 6,300 pages. The CIA’s now defunct rendition and torture program was evil. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligent voted overwhelming 11-3 on last Thursday to release the findings of the five year study. That shown details on how much more extensive and brutal the torture program is. It shows details on how extensive and brutal the torture program has been. The CIA lied about the program’s effectiveness by claiming that it led to useful intelligence when in reality that was not the case. The vote, in this sense, is an important message regarding the role of congressional oversight of U.S. intelligence agencies, especially in the context of the legally and morally murky universe of the “war on terror.” The vote doesn’t mean that the report will see the light of day. There must be real accountable for those who ordered or committed torture in violation of international and domestic law. The vote refused to show the entire report, but the executive summary. That portion of the report runs to about 480 pages. It withholds the other several thousand pages of detailed accounts regarding individual cases. The CIA apologists will continue to offer justifications, obfuscations, and repudiations all over the place under the adage of “plausible deniability.” Many leading Republicans dismiss the report as biased and potentially damaging to national security. In a joint statement, Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Jim Risch of Idaho called it “a one-sided, partisan report to the CIA and White House for declassification despite warnings from the State Department and our allies indicating that declassification of this report could endanger the lives of American diplomats and citizens overseas and jeopardize U.S. relations with other countries.” The Republican puppet Richard Burr from NC said that the report was flawed and biased too. The reality is that the report outlined critical evidence of criminal wrongdoing done by many folks from the CIA. There should be an expeditious approach in declassifying the report. As media reports based on leaked sections of the report have indicated, CIA agents had illegally detained 26 of the 119 individuals in CIA custody, and the interrogation techniques used on detainees went beyond the methods that had been approved by the Bush Justice Department or CIA’s headquarters (guidelines that were likely overly permissive in the first place). Also at issue are potential crimes committed including murder and obstruction of justice. As McClatchy reported on April 1, “In the case of the death of Gul Rahman, an Afghan who was shackled, doused with cold water and left in a cold cell partially clothed until he died of hypothermia, the CIA’s internal documents reviewed by the Senate confirm the agency’s culpability.” There is yet no accountability over this incident and others. So, we know that the evil torture is one part of the disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush.




We reject the ideologies of the ruling class and their bourgeoisie too. We all know that structural inequality and capital accumulation being unevenly shown in the world are inherited to capitalism. We see that the American government and the free enterprise system are structured in a deliberate way as a means to maximize oppression against black people including others. The modern economic system has done brutal exploitation of workers and consumers. The power structure uses the system of white supremacy to maintain institutionalized racism, sexism, and other forms of control over the masses. One great lesson of Marcus Garvey was that he told the truth about the great value of black personhood and the necessity to respect Africa. One valuable lesson of WEB Dubois was that he outlined words that sought economic justice not just racial justice (which we all must support with strength and vigor). He was also correct to expose the nefarious practice of colonialism in the world. Until racism is abolished, liberation will not come totally for the human race. After Dr. King was unjustly assassinated in 1968, many leaders sought to follow token middle class values instead of revolutionary solutions. Even some ministers within the SCLC refused to explicitly expose class oppression by the capitalist ruling elite. That is why many U.S. corporations culturally manipulated many black consumers and expropriated billions of dollars in profits from the African American domestic market. We have to condemn and repudiate the system that rewards political accommodation at the expense of the continued exploitation of black working class and poor people. We must place the collective needs of the people ahead of narrow individual needs of any single person. Reactionary propaganda is what I will always reject. I will always support the interests of African peoples globally and I will always believe in pan-Africanism. What I will not do is to ignore economic inequality, ignore human rights oppression, capitalist exploitation, and any injustice in the world. Our issues are not just national, but they are international as outlined by WEB DuBois and the late great Malcolm X (who created his OAAU as an extension of the overall pan-Africanist movement. Malcolm X became more progressive after him leaving the NOI. That is a historical fact). The system of White supremacy is the key number one enemy of black African peoples worldwide beyond any ideological or political view. International aims are legitimate to follow and it is part of pan-Africanism too. I will always respect pan-Africanism. Likewise, other peoples of color legitimately expressing anti-colonialism are respected by me. Also, as black African peoples, we should have an undying love for Africa. We should focus on Africa since Africa is our ancestral home and the freedom of Africa is key to freeing ourselves globally (as Africans are found everywhere in the world. I am in solidarity with my people in the four corners of the world). Yet, I will continue to oppose the capitalist War on Drugs, I will continue to condemn the prison industrial complex, and I will always advocate anti-imperialism (as imperialism has been executed by the Republicans and the Democrats regardless of what anyone has to say about it). We know about the evils done by the CIA and the FBI from illegal spying to unjust coups. Both organizations follow the agenda of the ruling class not the common people. Martin Delaney, Marcus Garvey, Dr. King, Malcolm X, and other of our leaders taught us to unite with Africa politically, socially, intellectually, and culturally. So, my views are clear on Africa. Adhering to universal health care and egalitarian principles has to do with revolutionary ideals (which is antithetical to following the whims of the political establishment).

As much as some black men talk about natural hair, the husband (on the Steve Harvey show) ought to be glad that his wife has worn her hair natural. The husband is in error to express fundamental dismay on his wife displaying natural hair. The wife is obviously very beautiful and has the right to wear her hair in a natural hair state. Any human has the right to have self-autonomy & self-preservation, so the couple should discuss about this issue in a progressive way. Yet, at the end of the day, it is her decision to wear her hair natural if she wants to. A wife should not be treated as a slave, but as a full human being. I am hopeful that the couple can overcome this situation. The young husband should be educated more on the beauty and strengths of natural hair. I am hopeful that the husband will come around fully. Many of our people have waked up as a product of various events, circumstances, and so forth. I am glad that the episode has outlined the diversity of natural hair, because natural hair can be displayed in a multiplicity of arrangements. Steve Harvey is Steve Harvey. When he's wrong, he is wrong. When he is right, he's right. Our natural image as black people ought to be respected irrespective of the faux Western beauty standards. It is ironic that the same white racists demonizing black people (like many in this forum) want to mimic our beautiful black phenotype via tans, surgeries, injections, and other means of trying to copy our wonderful BLACK IMAGE (THAT CAN NEVER BE DUPLICATED BY ANYONE ELSE AT ALL. BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL). I wish the best for the husband and the wife. I wish for their marriage to last forever and ever. BLACK LOVE IS SO BEAUTIFUL. :) Of course, I abhor Jim Crow. Yet, many of the old school traditions of passing down legitimate wisdom about our culture and our hair are great to incorporate into the younger generation. That is why as you have mentioned eloquently that we ought to pass down truths to the youth especially about the value of their melanin, their real history, and their hair. When we eliminate mental colonialism and express our gifts fully and prodigiously, then the POWER OF THE CREATOR (the Holy Spirit is certainly powerful) AND THE POWER OF THE ANCESTORS can be more active in blessing our lives. We have similarities and differences. Our differences recognize our strength and our beauty. :) Beauty is not just about outward appearances. Beauty deals with honor, truth, dignity, compassion, hope, faith, strength, and righteous action.


 By Timothy