Monday News and Justice

The death of 19 year old Tony Robinson was a tragedy. People are showing great emotion over his death. Tony Robinson was shot and killed by a white police officer named Matt Kenny in March 6, 2015. Immediately after his death, protesters have demonstrated in Madison and all throughout the state of Wisconsin. Now, people are still protesting and rightfully demanding justice. Tony Robinson was killed in the apartment of a friend. There have been massive demonstrations, which are similar to the demonstrations found in Ferguson after the tragic death of Michael Brown. Grassroots activists like the Young, Gifted, and Black (YGB) coalition, college students, and others exist from the growing Black Lives Matter movement. Protests have occurred on Williamson Street, which is outside the building where Robinson was killed. People have protested in the Capitol building in Madison as well. Tony Robinson graduated from high school last year in Sun Prairie. He was about to start classes at Madison Area Technical College to study business. His father and his mother are grieving. His mother was recently diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She defended on Tony to assist her including his brothers and sister. After his death, she wasn’t even allowed to hold her son’s body, because people the police called Tony’s body as “evidence.” Robinson’s grandmother named Sharon Irwin spoke at an impromptu vigil hours after his death. Sharon told the people that: “…My grandson...was a beautiful boy, so don't you believe the stories they tell you about what he was and wasn't. He was a gentle, loving caring boy. He might have been big, but he wasn't scary. I love him. Whatever injustice is done today has to be addressed...I want you all to stand together and say: We don't want this anymore...I want my grandson's death to mean something...I am asking you to stand and say this is wrong. Across the world, I'm hoping this happens. It's time…” The police say that Robinson was disrupting traffic and threatening people. The cops say that Kenny followed Tony into a building and that Tony attacked him and then he opened fire to kill him. Many people disagree with the police’s accounts. Even the police admitted that Robinson was unarmed and less than half a minute elapsed between Kelly entering the apartment and shots being fired. Police detained two of Robinson's friends for hours without charges or any notification. YGB sent a lawyer to help the two underage youth, but police refused access, claiming they had refused representation. The police reportedly confiscated their property, include a cell phone, apparently because it could have video or pictures implicating the police. Almost 100 demonstrations marched to the City County Building and staged a peaceful sit in to demand the release of two young men. Some remain outside. The demonstrators refused to leave until the two people were finally released. The family of Tony Robinson has gained support from the mother of Dontre Hamilton (he was the victim of the Milwaukee police) who was shot dead in a hail of 14 bullets in a park bench on last April.  Maria Hamilton is Dontre’s mother and she gave support to Tony Robinson’s family. Madison is portrayed by many as a progressive city, but there are massive racial disparities in income and in the criminal justice system. Lorien Carter or Tony Robinson’s aunt talked to the crowd and she said that Madison has problems. Racial injustice and class oppression must end in Madison (and throughout the Earth).

Any social movement will have radicalism. Radicalism should not be a dirty word. Radicalism can not only enhance the ideologies of a movement, but it can improve analysis, develop creative solutions, and inspire people in general to stand up and fight oppression. Evil cannot be defeated with neutrality. If we want to end oppression, then we have to mobilize, organize, and use activism, so we can establish concrete changes. Many black heroes have studied socialism, communism, and other philosophies. They have sacrificed their time and efforts, so we can be truly free. SNCC and CORE’s contributions in the black freedom struggle should be honored and respected. The youth certainly need inspiration, education, and advice from the elders. Yet, it is important to note that many of the youth are forming organizations now that are addressing the prison industrial complex, mass poverty, police brutality, voting rights, and other important issues. We have to study the past and also form our unique solutions. New institutions are being created by the youth and many of the youth are promoting grassroots, decentralized leadership. Leadership doesn’t have to be massive centralized and there is nothing wrong with self-determination at all. Selma represented how the working class and other people can unite in common cause to fight back against the disenfranchisement of black American people. Today, we face similar challenges (and we have the growth of the bourgeoisie when the poor and the working class people need true economic justice), but we ought to never give up. Black people are always resilient and we will continue to struggle for our rightful liberation. We have to know how the counterrevolutionary of the War on Drugs, deindustrialization, the growth of bourgeois power base, etc. targeted the black community and other communities. The War on Drugs existed long before Richard Nixon as Billie Holiday was a victim of the War on Drugs during the 1950's. The racist sentencing practices and the neoliberal, regressive policies from the capitalist two parties have been abhorrent. The growth of the prison industrial complex is linked to the War on Drugs, because unfair war on drug policies caused an increase of the prison population (even nonviolent drug offenders) to be into prison. The prison state has ruined many untold black lives and black families. There should be no massive militarization of the police at all.

I don’t advocate reformism, and many are incorrect in their assumptions of my views or where I stand on issues. My words are not empty and I have every right to defend civil liberties, workers' rights, environmental justice, and freedom in general. Calling for a living wage, working in real organizations, and being socially active are just deeds that any human being has the right to do. You don't even have to call for a reactionary army to fight for these things. People can organize in organizations, use civil disobedience, and use other revolutionary actions. In any real social movement, people have to struggle against oppression and be active in their own communities. Power comes about by the oppressed via struggle, demand, and activism (in the growth and development of legitimate, progressive social movements). Power never comes about by moral pleas alone. I don't believe in that. I do realize that the oppressor never voluntarily gives up their power up to the oppressed. The Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, and other legitimate laws came about by activists and courageous human beings who used protests, sacrifice, and other forms of massive social activism. So, social activism can work to enact real laws. This has been proven historically as the labor movement used massive social activism to establish many labor rights. We have a long way to go and that is why I believe that the poor and the working class should unite, form parties, and fight for economic justice. Economic justice has been supported by heroes throughout human history. Criticisms of capitalism have been said by Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Fred Hampton, Eugene Debs, and other activists who sacrificed, spoke the truth, and galvanized people to stand up against evil. So, we should do a multiple amount of actions. Calling out the capitalist elites for their crimes against humanity is a necessity. No one can be free unless they call out the oppressor without scapegoating the oppressed collectively. The masses of the people are the victims of the policies of the elites. To stereotype the masses of the people as fascists collectively is false and disrespectful. Apathy is real fantasy. Apathy and having some defeatist attitude solves nothing. Over 200 years ago, skeptics said that the Maafa would never end. Over 100 years ago, skeptics said that Jim Crow apartheid would never end. These people were proven wrong and the skeptics will be proven wrong again. People are entitled to justice and people will fight for it. Black people definitely have every right to fight for justice and freedom without question. Therefore, I stand by my words, I stand by my core convictions, and I won’t back down.

The current Kiev regime has done war crimes that the mainstream media is not reporting extensively at all. It is hypocritical for the media to criticize Putin, but won’t critique any policies from the Kiev junta. There is a new Foundation for the Study of Democracy (FSD) report entitled, “War crime of the armed forces and security forces of Ukraine: torture of Donbass region resident.” This report describes graphic evidence of horrendous Kiev war crimes Western media ignore. Kiev’s forces have targeted civilian neighborhoods, schools, hospitals, and infrastructure. Its military have used cluster munitions, white phosphorous, and other chemical weapons. There has been the cold blooded murder of hundreds of captives. Eyewitness has exposed the war crimes of the Kiev regime too. FSD’s report shows even more damning evidence of Kiev junta’s inhumane and degrading treatment. They interviewed over 100 former regime prisoners. These people are lucky to be alive. Some of the captives have been tortured to death. Many others continue to be held. These crimes should cause Ukraine’s National Guard, other military units, internal affair ministry, and security service (or the SBU) to have full responsibility for these high crimes. Yet, Washington supports the Kiev regime. The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) protects fundamental freedoms at all times – including during “war or other public emergency threatening the life of the nation.” It’s been in force since 1953. It established a European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). It adjudicates for anyone claiming lost rights – including nation-states and individuals. The ECHR said that the state is responsible for the actions of all of its agencies like the police, security forces, law enforcement officials, etc. Article 3 of the ECHR bans people experiencing torture or inhumane, degrading treatment or punishment. Liliya Rodionova is Committee for Refugees and Prisoners of War (Donetsk) deputy head. She commented on junta released prisoners.  Liliya said that people have their legs and ribs broken. The junta in Ukraine was installed by the coup and its replaced Ukrainian democratic governance. The West has allied with despots worldwide for its own interests for decades. In November 2014, SBU operatives tortured Ukrainian citizen Alexander Agafonov to death. His wife, Yana said that he was torture by holes in his hands. Some victims had Nazi swastikas and SS symbols burned in their flesh. Women have been raped by the junta’s forces too. The FSD reports show other unspeakable, graphic crimes against people. These actions are similar to what CIA operative inflict on victims in global black sites. So, the Kiev regime has supported torture and other barbaric actions as documented in the FSD report.

The Harper government supports the C-51 bill or the Anti-Terrorism Act. Its critics believe that it will assault the rights of free speech, free assembly, the principles of constitutional law, and it is anti-democratic. There has been a huge criticism about the bill. The government is rushing it through Parliament. Newspaper editorials have criticized the bill. There has been an open letter criticizing it. It has been signed by four former Prime Ministers and five former Supreme Court judges. The letter denounced the bill for exposing Canadians to major violations of their rights. There was another letter signed by a hundred Canadian law professors, explaining the dangers it poses to justice and legality. The bill is not about terrorism totally. The bill has many anti-civil liberty parts in them. It can smear people by association. The till target people who defend the treaty rights of the First Nations, people who oppose tar sands, fracking, and bitumen carrying pipelines (as threats to health and the environment). It can target people who want international law to be peacefully applied to end Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories. But the Anti-Terrorism Act is more mortally dangerous to Canadian democracy than even these indications would suggest. A central section of the act empowers CSIS agents to obtain judicial warrants—on mere suspicion, with no requirement for supporting evidence—that will allow them to supplement other disruptive actions against purported enemies of Harper with acts that directly violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and other Canadian laws. The only constraints placed on this legalized law-breaking are that CSIS agents shall not “(a) cause, intentionally or by criminal negligence, death or bodily harm to an individual; (b) wilfully attempt in any manner to obstruct, pervert or defeat the course of justice; or (c) violate the sexual integrity of an individual.” The second of these prohibitions—occurring in the midst of a bill that seeks systematically to obstruct citizens in the exercise of their rights, pervert justice, and defeat democracy. The first and third clauses amount to the authorization of torture (as said by Matthew Behrens. The George W. Bush memos of the Justice Department promoted torture too). On February 17, the two prominent legal experts, Clayton Ruby and Nader R. Hasan give the CSIS expansive power like waterboarding and inflicting pain including psychological harm to an individual. The torture practices of Ahu Ghraib, Bagram, and Guantanamo Bay have been made public. The CSIS and the CIA have worked in Kandahar interrogation sites as well. The October 22, 2014 Canadian attack was when a gunman shot at people and killed Corporal Nathan Cirillo at the National War Memorial. He tried to run in Parliament Hill and he was killed by a man. There is high level Canadian CSIS and CIA complicity in the torture going on in Afghanistan.

By Timothy