...."This is a good example of why we need land reform in the U.S., especially for poor farmers," Willie Head, an African-American farmer in Pavo, Georgia, involved in struggles to defend working farmers and their land, told the Militant. "What really bothers me is that the son and father were convicted of arson and given a sentence, and then the federal court of appeals judge decided it wasn't enough and increased it. That's a dangerous precedent."
Mu
Saturday, January 16, 2016
Sunday, January 10, 2016
Palestinian Journalists, Intellectuals Speak Out Against Children Participating In Terrorist Attacks And Against Targeting Civilians
Palestinian Journalists, Intellectuals Speak Out Against Children Participating In Terrorist Attacks And Against Targeting Civilians
By: C. Jacob*
Introduction
The Palestinian public and leadership widely support the ongoing violent events which PA officials have dubbed a "popular uprising" and Hamas calls an "intifada."
The PA and Fatah do not condemn stabbing or even shooting attacks, and its officials and media outlets justify the current wave of terrorism, lionize its participants, commemorate attackers who were "martyred" and praise perpetrators who survived the attack. They also accuse Israel of executing Palestinians, especially children, and claim that it still intends to change the status quo at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.[1]
Despite the atmosphere of incitement and accusations against Israel by the PA, several Palestinian intellectuals and journalist, including Hafez Al-Barghouti, the former editor of the PA dailyAl-Hayat Al-Jadida and a Fatah Revolutionary Council member, have criticized the attacks, and especially those carried out by children. They expressed outrage at the participation of teenagers, including very young ones, in stabbing attacks against Israelis, claiming that it was not the place of children, and that their childhood and lives must be protected. They accused the leadership of Palestinian organizations of "trading in the blood of children" and sending them to die by encouraging them to carry out such attacks and praising and glorifying those who do. Some intellectuals called to instill in the public and the youth values of life, study and work, rather than values of seeking death.
Some writers also urged the Palestinians to avoid harming Israeli civilians, for both moral and practical reasons. On the moral level, they claimed that Palestinians must preserve their humanity; on the practical level, they argued that harming civilians, especially at the present time, harms the Palestinian struggle and casues it to be associated with the global terrorism led by ISIS. Some even called to cease stabbing attacks due to their lack of effectiveness and their heavy cost in Palestinian lives, and called to find alternative modes of struggle.
The following are excerpts from the articles:
Criticism Of The Participation Of Children In Stabbing Attacks: We Must Protect Their Childhood
Some writers spoke out against encouraging children to carry out attacks, calling on the public to protect their childhood and not send them to their deaths. On November 11, 2015, Hafez Al-Barghouti wrote: "From the start we said: Do not send your children into the fray, even though the occupation does not distinguish between children, youth, and adults... We must not bring our children into the cycle of violence... Even the Prophet Muhammad refused to bring children into battle... We should keep our children away from the demonstrations in the areas of conflict and clashes so they can experience their childhood. Even if it is a difficult [childhood], it is better than the childhood of the injured, the prisoner, or the martyr who is [completely] bereft of a childhood."[2]
In another article titled "In Defense Of Childhood" Al-Barghouti added: "Do not cheer [the stabbing children] and do not take pride [in them], since this has become a game of blood. Those who scream and roar, congratulating a child for pulling out a knife or a schoolgirl for taking up a pair of scissors, should see them as though they were their own children. Would they agree to throw their son into this furnace?"[3]
Journalist Mohammed Daraghmeh echoed the claim that the attacks were pointless in an article in Sawt Al-Nisa, the women's and social affairs supplement of the PA daily Al-Ayyam. Addressing the youth, he wrote: "Do not march towards death. Palestine needs you alive. You may rage, rebel, and take to the streets and checkpoints. You can block roads, shout, and make your voices heard to the deaf world. If it does not hear you today, it will hear you tomorrow. But do not die. The homeland needs you alive. [True,] it will be a mark of shame for Palestinians, young and old, if they remain silent in the face of the occupation, or remain busy with their own affairs and forget the homeland. However, there must not be only two options: silence or madness. We were silent for a long time and today we are swept up in the madness of destructive revenge. A youth pushed [to the limit] by the occupation may lose all capacity for thought, hide a knife, and take to the street to seek a symbol of the occupation and slaughter it. This has happened and will [continue to] happen, but it remains on the level of individual acts. The youths of Palestine must not all rush to their deaths [en masse] in this fashion. The small number of soldiers killed by stabbing attacks cannot be compared to the large number of Palestinian youths who lay soaking in their own blood at the feet of armed and trained soldiers.
"When the second intifada ended, we stood up as one and said: We made mistakes here and there; sometimes we went mad and sometimes we lost our [humane] feelings. No one had the courage during the intifada to say what was said at its painful end, lest they be harmed. But today we must face ourselves with courage and call things what they are... Indeed, anyone who takes up a knife and attacks a soldier is committing suicide, because the well-trained and armed soldiers will kill him. Every day several Palestinian youths are killed, yet we remain silent or even praise their deaths. We should stand as one and say 'enough'...
"To the Palestinian youths who have lost hope and seek revenge, I say what I say to my children: Take to the streets, go and protest. This is only one round of the conflict, which will not bring about the end of the conflict, but rather a new phase that is necessary for each and every of us... Palestine is an international problem that will be not solved in a round of knife of suicide attacks, or protests and rallies, but only when the world understands that it must intervene and draw borders as it did in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and North and South Korea. How much longer [must we wait]? Until the day comes.
"We must protect the lives of our children and continue the national struggle... If someone asks whether the previous nonviolent struggle against the occupations [the first intifada] brought about the end of the occupation, I will ask in response: Did the armed military struggle accomplish this? The Palestinian problem is not local, but rather an international problem that the world created and only [the world] can solve, but it will not do so if we [either] remain silent or commit suicide."[4]
Jihad Harb, a political scientist and a columnist for the Amad website, which is run by former PA minister Hassan 'Asfour, called in an article to stop the stabbing attacks, since they have played themselves out. He expressed hope that the Palestinian leadership would heed him and protect the lives of the youths "who are pointlessly executed at checkpoints." According to him, "most of those who carried out such operations or attempted them, or those killed due to claims that they tried to stab, were younger than 18 and could not deal with well-protected, armed, and trained soldiers. The stabbing operations have given Israel a pretext to kill our young men and women at checkpoints... The call for the [Palestinian] leadership and organizations to work to stop the stabbing attacks - even though [this leadership and these organizations] did not join those who lead this activity [i.e., the stabbings] - comes to protect the lives of our sons and daughters, whom Palestine needs in order [to build] a better future. This is not a call for a tahdiyya[calm], but rather a call to redirect this activity and develop the methods and means of the popular resistance."[5]
Criticizing The Culture Of Death
Journalist Mahmoud Fanoun wrote in favor of the culture of struggle, victory, and life in place of the culture of pointless death: "You hear children younger than 10 wishing to die a martyr's death... [A child] wishes to die, rather than to live, struggle, fight the enemy, kill him and defeat him. He wants to offer himself up to die at the enemy's hands. Why? Why does he not wish to terrorize the enemy and persist until the enemy leaves Palestine?... When a youth dies wielding a knife - what is the wisdom of this? There is a battle. On one side is the enemy, its army and its settlers, and on the other side is a boy. The battle ends one-sidedly: the enemy kills the Palestinian fighter before he even launches his hidden attack. In this battle the enemy wins and defeats the youth before he even did anything. Had the youth planned this [attack], he could have attacked and survived or [only] sustained injury. These are the rules of war... They say that life is [but] a corridor to the hereafter and therefore it is all right if life is short, since at its end is Paradise and the black-eyed [virgins]. This [belief] does not anger the enemies; on the contrary, they are happy to have defeated the youths, and their soldiers are rewarded, while we experience tragedy in light of the loss of young life and the youths' chagrin at their failure in the battles against the soldiers.
"This is also true of [Arafat's] slogan: 'Millions of martyrs marching on Jerusalem.' Why martyrs? Are we in a swordfight where we are forced to crawl to Jerusalem while the enemy is armed with large quantities of firearms? Why not set out to conquer and win, and then we can arrive safe and sound, even if some of us are killed? These are the rules of war. This culture [of death] does not affect the enemy; on the contrary, the enemy is glad of it... We set out to die and we will indeed die, while the enemy continues to occupy the land from end to end. We achieve martyrdom, if anything at all, while the enemy achieves the homeland, instead of us defeating him and remaining alive."[6]
Criticizing Leaders Of Palestinian Organizations: They Encourage Children To Carry Out Attacks But Do Not Send Their Own Children
The writers also criticized the leaders of the Palestinian organizations, accusing them of encouraging children to carry out attacks while not sending their own children into the fray or carrying out attacks themselves. Hafez Al-Barghouti wrote: "Some organizations and clans that are morally bankrupt go too far with the
Saturday, December 26, 2015
Daesh support dwindles as workers see them in action
Islamic State getting weaker, not bigger
BY EMMA JOHNSON
Do the recent terrorist attacks by Islamic State show that the reactionary group is getting stronger and becoming more attractive, particularly to Muslims around the world? Using this pretext, rulers from Paris to Washington, from Moscow to London have unleashed a witch hunt against working people of the Muslim faith and expanded and intensified bombings in the Middle East.
The reality is the opposite. Islamic State is a tiny sect that is getting weaker. Its victims are overwhelmingly Muslims. Hundreds of thousands who hate the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad have fled the country rather than fall under Islamic State rule.
IS extended the area it controlled in eastern Syria and swept into western Iraq in June 2014, as the Iraqi army fell apart and fled. Since then, IS has lost as much as one-third of its territory in Iraq, most recently the city of Sinjar.
After Kurdish forces halted Islamic State's advance at Kobani in Syria in January, it has lost key areas along the Syrian border with Turkey, including important transfer hubs for fighters and materials. In both countries Kurdish militias have been the strongest fighters pushing IS back.
Daily brutality, onerous taxation
An estimated 5-8 million people live in areas controlled by Islamic State. Residents who have fled, others living there and groups like Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, which opposes both the Assad regime and Islamic State, have described the rule of the terrorist jihadi group.
Detailed regulation of personal life combined with brutal punishments for any violations amount to a daily reign of terror. Morality police patrol the streets.
Smoking and drinking are punished with flogging, theft by amputation of a hand. Men accused of adultery are thrown from a high building, women are stoned to death. Public executions are a daily occurrence.
Islamic State funds its military and bureaucracy through myriad taxes and fees and some $500 million from oil sales. "Only the air people breathe is not taxed," Abu Mujahed, who recently fled with his family from Islamic State-controlled Deir al-Zor in eastern Syria, told the Atlantic.
IS exacts tolls and traffic tickets; taxes income, crops and cattle; levies fines for smoking, drinking, wearing the wrong clothes and keeping a shop open during prayer hours. It collects car registration fees, utility payments and a cut of small business revenues.
Last year Islamic State issued an urgent appeal for "experts, professionals and specialists." As support for the reactionary groups has dwindled, money is drying up. Many construction projects have stopped because workers are not paid, there are frequent blackouts, and water is only available a couple days a week.
The National Hospital in Raqqa, paraded as the pride of health care in the caliphate, hardly functions now because many doctors have fled. There are shortages of medicine for chronic diseases. The cost of food in Deir al-Zor is up as much as 1,000 percent.
Pressure is increasing on families to deliver their sons as cannon fodder for Islamic State's military. The lure is permission to leave the area. Some youth, facing high unemployment and dwindling job openings, feel they have no choice but to sign up.
Half of Syria's prewar population is internally displaced or has fled the country's civil war. Virtually none have sought refuge in IS-controlled areas.
A recent survey by the Pew Research Center in countries with mainly Muslim populations shows the vast majority have an unfavorable view of Islamic State. In Lebanon less than 1 percent view it favorably, in Jordan, 3 percent. After the terror attacks in Paris that killed 130 people, protests against Islamic State by Muslims took place in France until the government banned demonstrations.
The terror group is now seeking to set up shop in the Libyan city of Sirte, where there is no government. This isn't a sign of expansion or strength, but an attempt to compensate for losses in Iraq and Syria. Residents are forced to witness executions and lashings, but get no basic services. "No services, just punishment," said a resident who fled recently.
Ukraine ban on Communist Party blow to workers’ rights
"....The CP backed the regime of Viktor Yanukovych, which was overthrown in February 2014 by popular mobilizations seeking Ukraine's independence from Moscow's boot. Since then the party has faced physical and legal assaults on its members, offices, newspapers and its right to exist. These attacks are a threat to the working class and labor movement in Ukraine and the political rights of all working people there...."
Former Workers World Party leader suggests "Israel Lobby" supports ISIS
....The Israel lobby, which openly promotes the interests of a foreign, ISIS-supporting government, should be investigated and dismantled. It is bad enough that while hospitals, schools, post offices, and other important services are being shut down, the US continues to give billions of tax dollars to a serial human-rights violator. Now that Israel is documented to be supporting ISIS with airstrikes and medical aid, it is a matter of national security that Israel-connected lobbyists and activists not be able to influence government policy.
Saturday, December 12, 2015
Attacks on right to free speech are blow to the working class
....Violence has no place in the working-class movement. Shouting down speakers, shutting down meetings or banning the expression of opinions you don't agree with prevents the debate necessary to reach political clarity, build a mighty proletarian movement and fight for political power.
....Only by considering all ideas in an atmosphere of free debate and discussion can working people decide how to effectively oppose imperialism and war; fight for higher wages and unions; push back police violence; win affirmative action in hiring for African-Americans, women and all victims of discrimination; and build a labor party based on the unions.
Sunday, November 29, 2015
"Gun violence"
....working people are not safer with a monopoly of firearms in the hands of cops and other armed bodies whose job is to protect property and prerogatives of the capitalist exploiters. Defending all workers' rights against stepped-up encroachments by the bosses and their government become more, not less important today, as the employing class mounts assaults on our wages and working conditions.
The Second Amendment is among the constitutional protections that working people wielded as part of the mass proletarian fight for Black rights in the 1960s. Groups like the Deacons for Defense and Justice and Robert Williams' NAACP chapter in Monroe, N.C., maintained their right to bear arms and used them to stay the hand of racist thugs and cops, protect social protest actions and Black communities and prevent bloodshed.
At the same time, the working-class movement has nothing in common with the gun-rights politics of rightist militia outfits or with vigilante "justice" and so-called Stand Your Ground laws that promote them. But the working-class political battle against such reactionary movements and laws cannot be advanced by calls for government restrictions on any rights of working people.
Anti-social violence and senseless murder do not come from video games or legal rights to own guns. They are not a product of too many constitutional rights or too few armed cops at every corner. They are first and foremost a by-product of social relations under capitalism—buttressed by cop brutality, deaths and maimings on the job, and bloody wars of conquest abroad.
And violent crimes within the working class can be exacerbated by the myriad social pressures that mount under the grinding effects of the capitalist crisis.
At the same time, the rise of mass working-class struggles to come will replace capitalism's dog-eat-dog values with social solidarity, just as they always have in the past. It's this solidarity and the transformation of working people and their view of themselves that develops in the course of struggle against capitalist exploitation that is the most powerful weapon against anti-social behavior of all kinds.
http://www.themilitant.com/2013/7701/770101.html
__
........While radical rightists harangue about what they are against, working-class revolutionists are guided by what we are for. Communists are not primarily against the government or capitalists, but for the fight by working people to create a socialist society and to begin to transform themselves in the process.
Communists share no common ground with the rightists' hatred of the FBI, taxes, government wiretapping, gun control, or repressive legislation. The revolutionary movement doesn't form a bloc with fascists, as Meredith seems to advocate, in order to "focus our main fire on the government for now" until the moment when "the fascists openly attack the workers' organizations."
Instead, class-conscious workers and working farmers are distinguished completely from such right-wing groups and individuals by their everyday political activity. They are publicly known as proponents of equal rights for immigrants, affirmative action quotas, women's rights, and gay rights. They are identified as partisans of the Cuban revolution. They are known for their opposition to the death penalty, America First propaganda, and all kinds of prejudice. In other words, they are known as people whose views are incompatible with any right-wing formation. The communist movement can only be built in uncompromising opposition to the politics of right-wing groups like the one in which Meredith is active.
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