Fall 2015

Fall of 2015

Times have changed, but the truth remains. It has been over 70 years since the end of World War II. Still, we face evils in our time. We still have to defeat fascism in our generation. Fascists are not just who spew overt bigotry in public. Fascism is also found in covert groups who harbor hatred of black people, immigrants, Muslims, Jewish people, and other minorities in the world. So, we are continuing to stand up for wisdom and tolerance. Decades ago, our ancestors fought Jim Crow apartheid. Today, we are fighting police terrorism, imperialism, and economic exploitation. We have witnessed the huge rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and the further emphasis on environmental justice. On foreign policy matters, the neo-conservatives and other extremists want to picture Iran in the most negative light positive. The reality is that most of the people of Iranian are not terrorists and Iran has no nuclear weapon at all. Yet, we do know many nations in the world that do have nuclear weapons as well. These neo-cons even call a strict Iranian nuclear deal as not going far enough. We do know that the recent deal is extremely strict. Today, Congress will either agree with the deal or not. We face a heavily capitalistic, patriarchal and exploitative society. That is why we must press on. We press on for our ancestors and for humanity in the future. We want a future filled with hope, growth in our communities, and our environmental cleaner than previous general. When we act compassionate, act strong, and act just, then we are a better people and society becomes better. We remember those innocent human beings who passed away as a way to be further motivated to stand up for our beliefs and help our neighbors as ourselves. Another point is to be made too. Just because, you may not be famous or well known by millions doesn't mean that you have no value. We all have the precious value in the Universe. We believe in the general welfare for all people and universal health are as well.

It is wrong for our taxpayer dollars to be used for the NYPD to harass innocent BLM activists who just want a real, revolutionary change in society. The murderer of Eric Garner is living his life and he is not even in prison for the rest of his life. Eric Garner's family is strong and they are right to mention that this is not justice. It is not justice to witness a phalanx of NYPD officers illegally violating the civil liberties of NYC residents. It is not justice to witness a murderer not being held accountable for choking to death an unarmed, black man (also the medical people in the scene of Eric Garner's murder are guilty of negligence too). Many black women have died as a product of murder and we know about the great Say Her Name campaign (which is bringing awareness on the great value of the lives of black women). We should be careful of sellout negroes who work as a means to infiltrate real movements of liberation. One sellout was William O'Neal, who worked with the FBI to infiltrate the Black Panthers of Chicago. The CPD, the FBI, etc. was involved in the murder of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark in December of 1969. Fred Hampton was ahead of his time by creating gang truces, setting up real programs that helped the community (like health care services and the famous children breakfast program), and opposing police brutality all before he was 25 years old. Another sellout was Gene Roberts. Gene Roberts was an agent and he was Malcolm X's bodyguard. Gene Roberts had links to the NYPD (from its BOSSI program). We know that the FBI and the CIA illegally monitored Malcolm X worldwide.

The previous Nigerian President (who was Jonathan Goodluck) was disgraceful in his conduct of trying to save the missing young girls. It is very important that this story is told since this story represents a human rights crisis. The story represents the truth about how how any injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. There should be national and international collaborations in Africa to find these girls and to counteract evil in our world. Boko Haran is an evil counterrevolutionary, terrorist group who has committed unspeakable horrors in the world. Short term and Long term, Nigerian leadership must establish more national political unity among Christians, Muslims, animists, and others in Nigeria (there are more than 250 ethnic groups in Nigeria like the Hausa, Fulani, the Yoruba, the Igbo, the Ijaw, etc.). The reason is that Nigeria is one country and unity builds strength. There is a serious problem of economic inequality in Nigeria (as many residents of Chibok are very poor). Policies must be made to rectify issues. Nigeria should run its own nation (but, people in Nigeria have every right to demand transparency and accountability from its government) excluding imperialism. Great people (including the parents and relatives of the kidnapped girls) worldwide have talked about this issue, protested, and expressed solidarity with the kidnapped girls from Chibok. We are in solidarity with the missing Sisters too. We want them to be brought back home.

#BringBackOurGirls.

Je Ne suis Pas Charlie

Je ne suis pas Charlie is not only a phrase, but it’s a movement. France is filled with some people who are imperialists, xenophobes, Islamophobes, anti-Semites, racists, and other evil people and their views should be always repudiated (and opposed). There was the terrorist attack of the Charlie Hebdo headquarters in France, which was evil and unjustified. There is no excuse for killing innocent human life no matter what they show or say. Over 10 people died from the attack on early January 7, 2015. It started when 2 masked men, who had assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades (including bulletproof vests), shot at the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in Paris. The cartoonists Charb, Cabu, Tignous, and Wolinski were killed. The people who were the suspects were Said Kouachi and Cherif Kouachi, two brothers, both French and in their early 30s, and 18-year-old Hamyd Mourad. Both brothers were later killed by French authorities. Mourad subsequently walked into a police station about 145 kilometres from Paris and is now in custody. Another attack carried out by Amedy Coulibaly came in a kosher shop. He was later murdered, but his wife is probably in Syria as she escaped. It is already documented that Coulibaly and the Kouachi brothers were known to the intelligence services and to police. The Kouachi brothers were under intelligence surveillance from November 2011 to June 2014; they were also placed on British and US surveillance lists. From 2011 to 2013, one of the brothers repeatedly traveled to Islamist training camps in Yemen.

As for Coulibaly, he was convicted for having plotted the jailbreak of an Islamist activist. He met Cherif Kouachi in prison. It’s a fact that in an interview with Le Monde, President François Hollande even insisted that France had been arming Syrian Islamist forces as far back as the spring of 2013. Such forces, when deployed in Syria, can rely on training and operational assistance from French soldiers and CIA agents. So when the famous march in Paris came to promote Charlie, man of the leaders in various nations (like Holande, Benjamin Netanyahu., Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, David Cameron, etc.) were in favor of the same imperialism and anti-democratic policies that they (or the leaders of western imperialism not all the protesters there) were hypocritically “protesting” against. The January march has 1.5 million people marching in Paris, about 300,000 in Lyon, 115,000 in Rennes, 100,000 in Bordeaux and 70,000 in Grenoble and St Etienne. Only 60,000 marched in the Mediterranean port of Marseille, France’s second-largest city, which also has the largest Muslim population of any French city. I don’t agree with the sexist, Islamophobic, racist, and perverted images from Charlie Hebdo, yet even they or the people who work there shouldn’t be murdered. Also, I don’t support the agenda of Charlie Hebdo at all. The racist depictions (from Charlie Hebdo) of cabinet minister Christiane Taubira as a monkey, and the kidnapped Nigerian school girls as pregnant welfare recipients make a mockery of the word satirical. Regardless of how many French politicians are skewered in its pages, it must be pointed out that Charlie Hebdo indulges in racist hate speech. Also, it is important to condemn the xenophobic National Front party which is a reactionary organization. France is complicit in the Maafa, European colonialism of Africa (with the evil 1885 Berlin Conference when European countries divided up Africa unjustly and against the will of the African people), the harm done to Haiti, and their neo-imperialism in our generation. People need to know that France tried to prevent Algeria and Vietnam from having independence during the 20th century. Murder is wrong when committed by individual gunmen with grudges and it is still wrong when it comes from a drone strike. There are many great people of France who want liberty and justice, but we condemn French imperialism. So, Je ne suis pas Charlie.

By Timothy