Tag Archives: American Party of Labor

Tennessee Bans Teaching that Homosexuality Exists

21 May

Tenn. Senate OK’s bill on gay lessons

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A bill passed yesterday by the Tennessee Senate would forbid public school teachers and students in grades kindergarten through eight from discussing the fact that some people are gay.

Opponents deride the measure as the “don’t say gay bill.’’ They say it is unfair to the children of gay parents and could lead to more bullying. Supporters say it is intended to give teachers clear guidance for dealing with younger children on a potentially explosive topic.

The bill is not likely to be taken up by the House before lawmakers adjourn this spring, but the sponsor there has said he would push it forward in 2012 when the General Assembly comes back for the second year of the session.

Passage would make Tennessee the first state to enact such legislation, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In 2003, Washington defeated a proposal similar to Tennessee’s, as did California in 2005 and 2006. A Louisiana law forbids the use of sexually explicit materials depicting homosexuality in sex education classes.

Under the proposal, any instruction or materials at a public elementary or middle school would be limited to age-appropriate lessons about the science of human reproduction.

Source.

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Majority of Americans Support Gay Marriage

20 May

(Reuters) – Fifty-three percent of Americans support making gay marriage legal, a Gallup poll showed on Friday, a marked reversal from just a year ago when an equal majority opposed same-sex matrimony.

The latest Gallup findings are in line with two earlier national polls this spring that show support for legally recognized gay marriage has, in recent months, gained a newfound majority among Americans.

Gallup said Democrats and political independents accounted for the entire shift in its survey compared to last year, when only 44 percent of all respondents favored gay marriage, while 53 percent were opposed. The percentage of Republicans favoring same-sex matrimony held steady at 28 percent.

Same-sex marriage remains a highly contested issue in U.S. politics, but homosexual couples have won the right to legally wed in five states — Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire and Iowa — and the District of Columbia. Gay couples have faced setbacks elsewhere, and no statewide initiative to legalize gay marriage has ever won a majority vote.

The growing support for gay marriage comes after President Barack Obama signed into law legislation in December to repeal the ban on openly gay men and women serving in the military under a 17-year-old law known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Gallup noted the policy change, but said it was unclear if that influenced Americans’ attitudes about same-sex unions.

“The trend toward marriage equality is undeniable — and irreversible,” Joe Solmonese, president of the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement.

Maggie Gallagher, chairman of the National Organization for Marriage, said the poll shows her fellow opponents of gay matrimony have been “shamed” into silence.

“Polls are becoming very sensitive to wording, and the wording being used in the media are not predicting accurately what happens at the actual polls when people vote,” she said.

In a sign of a generation gap, Gallup found 70 percent of respondents between the ages of 18 and 34 support gay marriage, compared to only 39 percent among those 55 and older.

A Washington Post/ABC News poll in March showed 53 percent of Americans said same-sex marriage should be legal, and 51 percent said the same thing in a CNN Poll released in April.

By comparison, a 1996 Gallup found that 68 percent of Americans were opposed to same-sex marriage, a figure that has trended downward ever since.

Twenty-nine states have adopted constitutional amendments restricting marriage as between a man and a woman, and 12 other states have passed laws to that effect, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

In Minnesota, a proposal to put a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage before voters in 2012 gained momentum this month when it passed the state Senate.

In a setback for gays and lesbians seeking marriage rights, 52 percent of California voters approved a constitutional amendment that banned same-sex marriage in 2008, months after the state’s Supreme Court had legalized it. Passage of the ban, known as Proposition 8, was seen as particularly significant because of Californians’ history of supporting liberal causes.

In 2010, a federal judge found Prop 8 unconstitutional, but his decision was blocked by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals while the case remains under judicial review.

Source.

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On Atheism

19 May


Take a look around these days and you’ll see that atheism seems to be gaining ground. It is good to know that more people are challenging the influence of organized religion in American society, demanding that that America live up to its lofty constitutional guarantee of the freedom of religion and the separation of church and state. The rise in people openly proclaiming their atheism is both cathartic and encouraging to those atheists who may still feel they must remain “in the closet.”

These benefits cannot be ignored, but it would seem that the atheist “movement,” meaning the growing mass of individuals who now seem to build their entire identity around atheism, may not be fully equipped to usher in a new era of science and reason. In fact, there is good reason to believe that these self-styled “critical thinkers” or “free thinkers” succumb too many of the same failings of religious fundamentalists, and even subscribe to their own ridiculous ideas despite a disbelief in the supernatural.

First, let us consider the wisdom of basing so much of one’s identity and ideology on atheism. If one does not believe in any sort god, one is by definition an atheist. If one does not play football, can we say this person’s hobby is not playing football? Of course we would not. Karl Marx summed up the idea of proclaiming one’s atheism to the high heavens, comparing it to a child who goes around telling anyone who will listen about how he no longer believes in the bogeyman. We are now past the first decade of the 21st century, and thanks to our level of scientific knowledge about the world it is in many ways easier not to believe in god than to be a believer. After all, a non-believer need only accept that knowledge which science has provided us thus far, believers must explain away all these proven facts.

So let us then be clear, becoming an atheist in the United States is not some great accomplishment. What is more, non-belief in god does not necessarily make one a rational thinker. In fact, one can notice a certain trend whereby many of our modern-day atheist evangelists find it easy to reject god and the supernatural, but so easily fall for all kinds of ridiculous beliefs which do not involve supernatural beings. Take a few of the big names you’re likely to see as spokespeople for atheism, starting with Bill Maher.

Maher won an award from Richard Dawkins for his attacks on organized religion. Unfortunately, he treats vaccines with the same skepticism he has for almighty deities. An even more illustrative example is Penn and Teller, comedy magicians and ex-hosts of the Showtime program Bullshit! In the first few episodes of the first season, the duo took on psychic mediums, alternative medicine quackery, UFOs and end of the world prophesies. In the second season they even went for the Bible itself. While the shows were often entertaining and informative regarding a number of issues, if one watches even one entire season it is clear that the hosts try to slip in their radical libertarian capitalist ideas in a number of not-too-subtle ways. They don’t believe in angels, ghosts, god, or aliens, but apparently they subscribe to the dogma of the magic fairies that sanctify whatever a man lays his hands on and claims as his private property.

Let us examine the dogma of libertarianism in detail to see how people who think rationally when confronted with the supernatural can be easily suckered into believing a totally secular dogma.

In one episode of Bullshit! , Penn Jilette explains that taxes are when men with guns come and take your money from you, which is a common argument not only heard from libertarians but conservatives as well. A rational person understands that taxes constitute payment for government services, that they often constitute subsidies to businesses in the private sector by distributing the costs of large, expensive, but necessary fixed capital projects such as highways and roads, and they also provide services at cost or even at a loss so as to meet a vital need or simply to benefit businesses who can reap the benefits without having to pay some other private company with a profit motive.

A rational person understands that men with guns don’t come to collect your taxes; they come if you attempt to cheat on your taxes, just as men with guns will attempt to take you by force if you fail to pull over should you be caught breaking the speed limit. Virtually all law, at some level, is backed up by those “men with guns”; what is a law that cannot be enforced?

Actually, libertarianism of this variety is not far removed from young-earth Creationism in the sense that it is based primarily on faith in a certain dogma, as its central beliefs cannot be observed in the real world. They may weave very passionate arguments, but as soon as we go out into the real world to see if these principles work, we generally find that the opposite is true. Countries which put a lot of money into state welfare programs have much higher standards of living, whereas countries with weak or even non-existent central governments are rife with conflict, starvation, disease, corruption, human trafficking and a whole host of other social ills.

If we look at the history of the United States and its trade and economic policies, we see that thirty years of free market fundamentalism haven’t brought improvements but have in reality helped bring the country into another depression. Virtually no claim of libertarianism can be observed in the real world; it is contradicted by both history and sociology, among other disciplines. Despite these obvious leaps of faith, folks like Pen Jilette believe themselves to be rational thinkers.

So why this inconsistency among people who shout from the rooftops that they don’t believe in god, and thus are rational minds, while simultaneously subscribing to secular beliefs which often go against all scientific or historical knowledge? Perhaps the failure lies in a very simple chicken or egg question. Basically, it is irrational thinking, idealism, which led to a belief in god or gods; belief in god or gods did not lead to irrational thinking.

Early man looked at the forces of nature around him, and supposed that there were unseen forces controlling those phenomena, a practice sometimes known as magical thinking. Magical thinking and idealism are what led to a belief in god, and therefore eliminating the latter does nothing about the former. Eliminating one strain of irrational thinking does not automatically eliminate any others. This is how in this modern age we can have people who easily dismiss belief in the supernatural while believing so readily in libertarianism, conservatism, liberalism, human rights and other such idealistic nonsense.

The question of religion and the workers’ movement for their own emancipation and seizure of society is among the most difficult. Historically the Bolsheviks and other socialist revolutionaries were often very pragmatic and conciliatory. The often repeated line was “religion is a personal matter.” Of course it would not be a personal matter for the thousands of priests, imams, and lamas who enjoyed various privileges of capitalist or semi-feudal society, and claiming to speak for higher powers, convinced the credulous to take up arms against socialist revolution. The revolutionaries fought back. Despite this, it is worth noting that with a few notable exceptions; nearly every socialist or self-proclaimed socialist country in history has tolerated religion at one time or another.

Those who struggle for socialism must continue the fight under the slogan that religion is a personal matter. Decades of globalization and capitalist excess have revealed to many how morally bankrupt, hypocritical and beholden to the ruling class their priests, ministers, patriarchs, bishops and imams are. These people want justice, and rather than attack them for their religious beliefs it would be far better to show them how the values of their faith conflict with capitalist society. When religious people reach out to revolutionaries, the latter should set an example of secular morality and decency by showing gratitude and respect. On the other hand, this does not mean making concessions to religion. Marxism-Leninism, being based on materialism, is incompatible with religion as a philosophy. Marx understood, however, that religion could not be wished away nor crushed outright. Let us look to what are probably his most famous words on the subject:

“It is the fantastic realization of the human essence since the human essence has not acquired any true reality. The struggle against religion is, therefore, indirectly the struggle against that world whose spiritual aroma is religion. Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo.”

Put simply, Marx is saying that people have a need for religion under the present conditions. The ruling class still needs religion to help justify the system which preserves it, and the working class needs religion to alleviate suffering, to bring hope of a better life beyond this one on Earth, to be sure that if justice is not served in this world, it will be served in the next. This is why those who wish to change the Marxist movement by insisting on an all-out attack on religion whenever they find it is flat out wrong, and contrary to Marxist thought.

The task ahead lies not in abolishing religion, but rather in abolishing the conditions which make religion necessary in the first place. Lastly, we would all do well to remember that atheists come in all shapes and sizes, as well as classes. Never should atheism become such an identifier that it might lead one to find common cause with class enemies solely because they too are “no longer afraid of the bogeyman.”

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Ex-Honduran President Zelaya Will Return Between May 27 To May 29

18 May


Former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya will return to Honduras between May 27 and 29.

His legal advisor, Rasel Tome said Zelaya will arrive at Toncontin International airport in the capital, where thousands of Hondurans will gather to welcome him in a reception organised by the National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP).

Zelaya is returning a few days before the 41st Assembly of the Organisation of American States (OAS) in El Salvador, which begins June 5.

While two trials on corruption charges against Zelaya were annulled, the FNRP insists that the government is responsible for his personal safety once in Honduras, where his wife recently denounced a conspiracy to murder him, Tome said.

Zelaya has been living in the Dominican Republic for more than a year after Honduran soldiers kidnapped him and sent him to Costa Rica on June 28, 2009.

Honduras was expelled from the OAS, which set the safe return of the former Honduran president as a condition for re-entry, sources said.

Source

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Poverty & Violent Crime

11 May

Poverty is the main cause of most violent crime in the United States today. Some cite violence in media as creating a mentality of willingness to harm others that would not otherwise exist; others see it as a problem of the degeneration of Judeo-Christian morality. Race, too, is cited as a factor in some White Nationalist and right-wing circles, considering that African-Americans and Latinos are disproportionately imprisoned in the U.S.; yet this analysis does not go deep enough. These explanations cannot fully explain the issue.

Broadly speaking, actions are perceived in an individual context within the United States, especially when these actions are seen as deviant. This is especially true of crime. When the subject of violent crime is brought up in media, we see a mugshot or a courtroom sketch of a man who is to play tonight’s boogeyman. We do not take the time to ask ourselves why – under what day-to-day conditions would drive a person to such crime; the best analysis we are given is that the individual was deeply disturbed.

This theory cannot adequately explain why the United States has had such an explosion of prisoners in recent decades, or why crime remains undeterred by such methods. “Between 1980 and 1996, the prison population more than tripled from 500,000 to over 1.6 million. The number of people under […] correctional supervision (in prison or jail, on probation or parole) surpassed 5 million [in 1994]” (Ambrosio, and Schiraldi).

Rather than the chief casual factor in violent crime being exposure to violent media, a person’s “race” or moral system, or even mental illness, the answer is ultimately one of power and economic position. In fact, “[c]omparative studies including many nations have shown a correlation between income inequality and a welter of social ills, prominent among which are crimes of violence” (Golash 42). If we look at crime in the U.S. more broadly, patterns emerge that make it difficult to look at crimes as simply the personal faults of individual crooks and villains.

What is it that, on a societal level, brings people to commit violent acts against one another? Elliott Currie concluded in his book that there is “overwhelming evidence that inequality, extreme poverty, and social exclusion matter profoundly in shaping a society’s experience of violent crime” (114). Currie further concluded, “countries with relatively low levels of violent crime tend to be not only among the most prosperous but also those where prosperity has become most general, most evenly distributed throughout the population” (115).

Indeed, structural poverty causes alienation in those born into relatively little material comfort, who observe other strata enjoying exponentially greater material security. In addition to this, the “countries where violent crime is an endemic problem are those in which prosperity […] is confined to some sectors of the population and denied to others” (Currie 115). Thus, we can see that there is a powerful connection between poverty and the levels of violent crime.

What really drives violent crime is desperation—namely, desperation for a person’s situation to change and improve. Oftentimes, for example, a lack of quality schooling will encourage youth to sell narcotics in order to obtain a source of income.

Golash reported that there is a “wide, (though not universal) agreement among criminologists that social factors such as income inequality, poverty, unemployment, and local social disorganization contribute to crime” (155). One thread that all these potential causes listed by Golash have in common is the economic factor. All of them involve disenfranchisement and in the case of poverty and unemployment, bodily harm from starvation, disease and lack of adequate shelter or care.

The reserve pool of unemployed can be counted as a form of structural violence that costs many lives. It is this same real-life violence that sets the stage for violent crime in American society, not virtual games whose original concepts are merely derivatives of that structural violence. At the same time, crimes that harm the livelihoods of millions of people are completely and totally ignored—white collar crime harms many more people than street muggings, but they are not punished institutionally to the extent that what is considered “low class” crime is persecuted.

Structural violence in the form of being born into poverty, combined with American commodity fetishist culture which encourages acquisition by any means necessary, fuels the drive to commit violent crime. Even if the argument of psychological or moral degeneration being the main cause of violent crime held water, the mental health and morality of a person are social products, which can be seen in the social context of poverty.

In the face of these facts, crude psychological or racist-eugenicist arguments will not suffice to explain the phenomenon of violent crime.

Sources

Ambrosio, Tara-Jen and Vincent Schiraldi. (1997) From Classrooms to Cellblocks: A National Perspective. Washington DC: The Justice Policy Institute.

Currie, Elliott. Crime and Punishment in America: Why the Solutions to America’s Most Stubborn Social Crisis Have Not Worked – and What Will. Picador, 1998. 114-115. Print.

Golash, Deirdre. The Case Against Punishment: Retribution, Crime Prevention, and the Law. NYU Press, 2005. 42. Print.

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Top 10 Anti-Abortion Myths

9 May


If you’ve been keeping up with the abortion debate in this country, you have no doubt heard some very interesting claims made by anti-abortion activists. Some of these claims need to be taken seriously, but others…well, not so much. In the spirit of raising the level of discourse, here are ten provably false claims that anti-abortion activists really need to stop repeating.

1. “You can’t be pro-choice and be anti-death penalty/anti-war at the same time.”

False. The pro-choice position is predicated on the idea that women have the right to decide whether to carry their pregnancies to term. The victims of the death penalty and war are fully conscious persons rather than presentient entities in a woman’s womb, so the moral questions involved are entirely different.

2. “Abortion causes breast cancer.”

Mostly false. In 1997, the New England Journal of Medicine published the largest-scale study ever on this subject–with 1.5 million participants–which concluded that there is no independent link between abortion and breast cancer. Clearly if abortion does increase the risk of breast cancer, it does so by an undetectably small margin. Becoming pregnant and carrying a pregnancy to term may, however, reduce the risk of breast cancer.

3. “This is what an abortion looks like.”

Almost always false. Many abortion protest photographs are artist’s renderings or the result of image manipulation, and the bulk of the rest are of very late-term fetuses aborted for emergency medical reasons. The most well-known graphic abortion poster is of a 30-week-old fetus, aborted six full weeks into the third trimester. The vast majority of abortions are performed during the first trimester, and Roe v. Wade only protects first and second trimester abortions.

4. “Even first-trimester fetuses can feel pain.”

False. Fetal nerve cells can react to trauma, but pain reception requires a neocortex–which is not formed until early in the third trimester.

5. “Fetuses become conscious at 8 weeks.”

False. Fetuses begin to develop a minimal brain stem at 7 weeks, but are not capable of consciousness until the third trimester and most likely remain unconscious until birth. As one brain scientist puts it: “the fetus and neonate appears incapable of … experiencing or generating ‘true’ emotion or any semblance of higher order, forebrain mediated cognitive activity.”

6. “Emergency contraception causes abortions.”

False. Emergency contraception prevents pregnancy from occurring in the first place by blocking fertilization of the egg and subsequent implantation in the uterus; it does not, and cannot, induce abortions. If your objective is to reduce the number of abortions, then the single most effective thing you can do to achieve that goal is to help make emergency contraception universally available over the counter.

7. “Banning abortion will get rid of it, once and for all.”

False. In El Salvador, abortion is illegal with a possible 30-year prison sentence attached–and women can still easily obtain cheap black market abortificients to induce abortion. The only drawback? No medical supervision. Banning abortion won’t put an end to abortion, but it will put women’s lives at risk.

8. “Pro-choice activists want to increase the number of abortions.”

False. Pro-choice activists lead the charge in advocating comprehensive sex education, increased access to birth control, condom use, and emergency contraception, all of which reduce the incidence of abortion. Strangely, anti-abortion activists work equally hard to make these options more difficult to access–creating the impression that the anti-abortion movement is more concerned with sexual purity than abortion.

9. “Pro-choice activists want abortion on demand until the moment of birth.”

False. Pro-choice activists work to protect the Roe v. Wade standard, which allows states to ban elective third-trimester abortions. The debate over late-term and partial-birth abortions has to do with abortions performed for emergency medical reasons, not elective abortions.

10. “Human life begins at conception.”

False. Human life actually begins prior to conception, because each sperm and egg cell is a living thing. It is more relevant to discuss when sentience, or self-awareness, begins. In 2000, the British House of Lords established a Commission of Inquiry into Fetal Sentience, which estimated that higher-level brain development begins to commence at about 23 weeks.

Source

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The Scott Walker Phone Call & the Attack on Unions in Wisconsin

27 Feb

Puppet protest: Two demonstrators in masks demonstrate outside Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's office at the state capitol building

Most of reporter Ian Murphy’s prank call to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was fairly innocuous. Governor Walker, who thought he was talking to billionaire Tea Party backer David Koch, laid out some of his strategies for luring the 14 missing Democratic state senators back to Wisconsin. His proposals included an embarrassingly toothless plan to try to bring ethics charges against the state senators if they were being “paid up” by unions while outside of the state, and a proposal to withhold the Senators’ paychecks from them.

To some, this whole ordeal was even a little bit funny. How could a sitting governor get so badly fooled as to think this guy in Buffalo was David Koch? The sheer incompetence of Governor Walker must at least be worthy of a chuckle, right?

But I am not laughing.

I am furious.

[Video description: The BEAST's Ian Murphy calls Walker, posing as archconservative moneybags David Koch, and they casually discuss crushing all public unions.]

Part One

When the fake David Koch told the governor that he was thinking about planting troublemakers in the crowd, Governor Walker responded by admitting, “We thought about that.”

I have been in the Capitol for the last 10 days, and it has been nothing but peaceful. Things have been so peaceful, as a matter of fact, that the Madison Police released the following statement to the protesters last Saturday:

“You conducted yourselves with great decorum and civility, and if the eyes of the nation were upon Wisconsin, then you have shown how democracy can flourish even amongst those who passionately disagree.”

On the day of the dual Tea Party and pro-union protests, no major incidents were reported and no arrests were made.

The fact that Governor Walker even considered deliberately sending “troublemakers” into the Capitol to put my safety and the safety of thousands of his other constituents at risk should at the very least be grounds for impeachment. It should be noted that on Wednesday afternoon at the Capitol I saw two elderly women in wheelchairs and at least five small children who were there with their parents.

Part Two

Of course, Governor Walker didn’t actually send in these “troublemakers.” However, his explanation for why he refrained may be even more damaging than the admission itself. Here’s the full text from the conversation.

Murphy (as Koch): Right, right. Well, we’ll back you any way we can. But, uh, what we were thinking about the crowds was, uh, was planting some troublemakers.

Walker: You know, the, well, the only problem with that — because we thought about that. The problem — the, my only gut reaction to that is right now the lawmakers I’ve talked to have just completely had it with them, the public is not really fond of this. The teachers union did some polling of focus groups, I think, and found out that the public turned on ‘em the minute they closed school down for a couple days.

Governor Walker refrained from sending thugs to assault the people in the Capitol not because it was a dangerous, felonious, and borderline tyrannical act, but rather because it was not politically expedient.

I think I speak for all my compatriots who have been with me at the Capitol when I say Governor Walker should be ashamed of himself, and the public must hold him accountable for these comments.

Source

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State says Wisconsin Capitol Protesters have to leave Sunday

27 Feb

Thousands of demonstrators who have occupied the Capitol for nearly two weeks will have to leave by 4 p.m. Sunday, state Capitol Police Chief Charles Tubbs said Friday.

In a statement, Tubbs said the building will reopen on Monday at 8 a.m. The Capitol police will then more closely monitor the number of people in the building.

The statement said protest organizers agreed to remove items from the building, which has been cluttered with sleeping bags and mattresses as well as hundreds of signs and posters. Walls throughout the building have been plastered with signs denouncing Gov. Scott Walker and his budget-repair plan that on some days has drawn tens of thousands of protesters and counterdemonstrators to the Capitol.

“We are closing the Capitol for a short period of time for public health reasons, as well as for general building maintenance,” Tubbs said.

Walker shot down suggestions that he wanted to remove protesters as soon as possible.

“There’s an interest by Capitol police, by the end of the weekend, to consider start going back to normal business hours at the Capitol,” Walker said Friday.

The Capitol police are a division of the state Department of Administration, which Walker oversees.

The Tubbs statement said that protesters were asked to remove all large items from the rotunda Friday, although little had been moved by early evening. And several officers said they have not been told to order any type of removal. Starting Saturday, protesters will not be allowed to bring mattresses and blankets into the building.


Protesters have been sleeping in hallways and in various nooks and crannies throughout the ornate structure, a practice that police stopped Friday night. For Friday and Saturday nights, people were to remain on the ground and first floors. As of Saturday, people were not to bring in blankets or other sleeping gear. And beginning Sunday night, people will not be allowed to stay overnight.

Earlier Friday, a flier was distributed to police patrolling the building saying that “soft items” were to be removed beginning at 4 p.m. Among the items to be removed were tables, folding chairs, large boxes, mattresses, food, coolers, extension cords, easels and slow cookers and other cooking appliances. The flier also stated that “animals/snakes (exception: service animals)” were banned.

Throughout the day Friday, demonstrators were boisterous, although they were generally orderly and polite. Dozens of protesters were seen going through a revolving door single file while chanting anti-Walker slogans.

Before the announcement that the Capitol would close Sunday, Jim Palmer, executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, said Walker should keep the building open and allow the protesters to stay.

Palmer’s statement said “the protesters are cleaning up after themselves and have not caused any problems.”

Any items left in the building after 4 p.m. Sunday will be taken to a designated lost and found within the Capitol for people to claim before 6 p.m. March 4.

On Monday, the Capitol will return to its normal business hours, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays.

Source

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Workers Stand Up to Wisconsin Union-Busting

26 Feb

Rallies were held across the country Saturday to support thousands of protesters holding steady at the Wisconsin Capitol in their fight against Republican-backed legislation aimed at weakening unions.

Union supporters organized rallies from New York to Los Angeles in a show of solidarity as the protest in Madison entered its 12th straight day and attracted its largest crowd yet: more than 70,000 people. Hundreds banged on drums and screamed into bullhorns inside, while others braved frigid weather and snowfall during a rally that spilled into city streets.

“I want to thank you for coming out here today to exercise those pesky First Amendment rights,” actor Bradley Whitford, who starred in television’s “The West Wing,” told his hometown crowd. “This governor has to understand Wisconsin is a stubborn constituency. We fish through ice!”

Republican Gov. Scott Walker has introduced a bill that includes stripping almost all public workers, from librarians to snow plow drivers, of their right to collectively bargain on benefits and work conditions. Walker has said the bill would help close a projected $3.6 billion deficit in the 2011-13 budget. He also argues that freeing local governments from collective bargaining would give them flexibility amid deep budget cuts.

The bill has sent Democrats and unions into an outrage nationwide. They see it as trampling on workers’ rights and as an attempt to destroy Democrats’ strongest campaign allies.

“Wisconsin is opening up people’s eyes a little bit,” said Jay Van Loenen, a teacher who attended a rally in Denver that attracted about 1,000 people. “So I think that the move is to try to get people more involved in their unions and create a stronger front so that if something happens here, we are prepared.”

Several thousand people gathered for a rally in Columbus, Ohio, where lawmakers are considering a similar bill. Indiana Democrats successfully blocked a Republican bill last week that would have prohibited union membership from being a condition of employment.

Large crowds of teachers, firefighters and public workers also gathered for rallies — holding American flags, wearing pro-union clothing and holding signs — in other capital cities including Topeka, Kan.; Harrisburg, Pa.; and Olympia, Wash.

In Los Angeles, public sector workers and others held signs that read “We are all Wisconsin.” Some wore foam “cheeseheads,” the familiar hats worn by Green Bay Packers fans.

Covered in layers of coats, scarves, hats and gloves, about 1,000 rally goers outside the Minnesota Capitol chanted “Workers’ rights are human rights” and waved signs, some reading “United we bargain, divided we beg.”

“The right to collectively bargain is an American right,” Eliot Seide, a local union leader, told the crowd in St. Paul. “You can’t have American democracy if you don’t have a strong trade union movement.”

The rallies were part of a campaign by the liberal online group MoveOn.org to hold demonstrations supporting Wisconsin workers in major cities across the country. Some of the demonstrations attracted counter-protests, though the pro-union rallies were larger.

Madison Police spokesman Joel DeSpain said he didn’t have a firm estimate on the Wisconsin capital’s crowd, but said it was larger than last weekend when nearly 70,000 people descended on the Capitol.

The crowd cheered as pilot Jeff Skiles, the first officer on the US Airways Flight that landed in New York City’s Hudson River in January 2009, told them that “justice and righteousness will always win out.” Skiles helped pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger land the plane, whose 155 passengers and crew members were safely rescued.

Protesters jammed the Wisconsin Capitol steps, packed the ice-covered lawn — some sat in trees — and filled surrounding streets. Several thousand counter-protesters came out last Saturday to support Walker, but they were hardly visible this time.

Capitol police planned to let protesters stay overnight Saturday into Sunday, but plan to finally close the building Sunday afternoon to let crews clean it.

People held signs that called Walker a parasite and a dictator and demanded voters recall him. Michael Janairo, a 4-year-old of Sheboygan, held a sign that showed Green Bay Packers star linebacker Clay Matthews tackling Walker. Michael’s mother, Lisa Janairo, is not a public worker but drove to Madison to show support.

“For him to dictate and not negotiate is just wrong and we won’t stand for it,” the 45-year-old said.

Source

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Review of “The Brest Fortress”

23 Feb

February 23rd is the holiday known as Defender of the Fatherland Day in Belarus and several other former Soviet Republics. Originally known as Red Army Day, its name was changed to Soviet Army and Navy Day in 1949 and it was given its current name after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. We release this review in memory of the defenders of the Brest Fortress and all Soviet heroes who fought in World War II against fascist aggression.

“I’m dying but I won’t surrender. Farewell, Motherland. 20.VII.41.” - Found written on a wall in the fortress.

The Brest Fortress (2010) is a joint Russian-Belarusian production that chronicles the heroic defense of the fortress in Brest, Belarus in 1941 at the start of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, known as “Operation Barbarossa,” in World War II. It is hands-down the best movie on World War II the reviewers had ever viewed.

The Historical Basis of the Film

The country of Belarus lost approximately 40% of its population, or 3,650,000 (three million six hundred and fifty thousand) people, during the course of World War II as a result of fascist aggression. During the three years of war in occupied Belarus (June 1941-July 1944), the partisans killed and incapacitated 500,000 Nazis. The SS often executed entire villages sympathetic to the partisans – more than 600 villages like Khatyn were burned to the ground and their populations murdered.

The defense of Brest Fortress accounted for 5% of all Nazi casualties on the entire Eastern Front up until the end of the siege on June 30th, 1941. The events of the film are seen through the eyes of Sashka Akimov (Аlyosha Kopashov), who also narrates the story. The basis for the character of Sasha was fifteen-year-old Petya Klypa, one of few defenders of Brest Fortress who survived. The attack on the fortress began on June 22, 1941, when the town of Brest and Brest Fortress were bombed by artillery guns. The Nazi 45th Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht, 17,000 men strong, led the attack, launching assaults all around the border and the town of Brest. These same men had participated in the occupation of Poland and France. During the first half-hour of the assault, the Germans fired on the entrance gates, fortifications, bridges, artillery, the barracks, food, water and medical supplies, warehouses and civilian dwellings. Writing about the attack on the fortress, the commander of the 45th Division stated the following in his reports:

“It was impossible to advance here with only infantry at our disposal because the highly-organised rifle and machine-gun fire from the deep gun emplacements and horse-shoe-shaped yard cut down anyone who approached. There was only one solution – to force the Russians to capitulate through hunger and thirst. We were ready to use any means available to exhaust them… Our offers to give themselves up were unsuccessful…” The defenders of the fortress continued to resist even after the German Minister of Foreign Affairs, Joachim von Ribbentrop, held a press conference in Berlin announcing that resistance along the border had been broken. The Wehrmacht Division attacked the fortress from the 22nd to the 30th of June, sometimes six to seven times a day, repelled by the Red Army and armed civilian resistance.

By July 8th, the commander of the 45th Division reported that the headquarters had fallen, but pockets of resistance continued until mid-July through rifle and machine-gun fire from small groups of soldiers inside the fortress, particularly from the cellars. More powerful guns, artillery shells, rocket mortars tear gas and flamethrowers could not break the resistance. There were reports of fighting as late as August. To prevent any last resistance, the cellars and basements of the fortress were flooded with river water.

During this time, Hitler and Mussolini visited the fortress under heavy guard to protect them from remaining partisan fighters. There are rumors that Hitler picked up a stone from the destroyed bridge and kept it in his office at the headquarters of the Third Reich until the end of war. No one knows who these last defenders were, when they died, or when the very last shot was fired in the fortress. The Brutality of Fascism and Belarus’ Heroic Resistance Brought to Life

Historical figures are well-represented in the film. Figures such as the regiment commander, Pyotr Mikhailovich Gavrilov (Аlexander Korshunov), the commissar Efim Moiseevich Fomin (Pavel Derevyanko) and the head of the 9th frontier outpost, Andrey Mitrofanovich Kizhevatov (Аndrey Merzlikin) come to life on the screen. The look of the film is realistic and gritty and does not try to make war appear as a romantic or clean ordeal. The realities of fascist occupation are not toned down, apparent with the German’s initial bombardment of the fortress, killing women and children in the process (the fortress was supposed to protect civilians). The brutality continues with the Germans’ march through the area, gunning down Soviet civilians en masse. Following this, the NKVD’s (Soviet intelligence service) troops rush the Germans and fight hand-to-hand with bayonets, shovels, axes, and even chairs. The events of the Nazi assault on Brest Fortress are portrayed in detailed accuracy.  In the battle itself, the German army outnumbered the defending Soviets ten-to-one, and yet lost more troops than the defenders did. This is clearly shown during film’s battle scenes, when German soldiers attack in larger numbers and fall in droves. The Brest Fortress makes a point of highlighting the struggles of common people during times of war, and succeeds in evoking genuine empathy from the audience in a way few films can. This is amplified by the fact that the film portrays a true story; many of the defenders were awarded prestigious medals by the Soviet Union.

Conclusion: A Fantastic Tribute to the Anti-Fascist Fighters in Belarus

The Brest Fortress is doubtlessly one of the best war movies ever made, and definitely shouldn’t be missed by fans of historical movies, war movies, or foreign/Russian movies. Overall, the film succeeds emotionally as well as visually, and sticks close to its historical source material. This film succeeds in portraying the visceral drama of the Belarusian front and helps provide a broader perspective of the war than that of American World War II cinema.


Watch the Trailer:


(In Belarusian)

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Glenn Beck Has Meltdown over Wisconsin Protests; Jon Stewart Throws Left under the Bus Again

22 Feb

Right-Wing and Phony Left Slander Protests

Who didn’t see this coming? Every time real-live working people show the slightest hint of independent thought media clowns come out the woodwork to belittle, insult and undermine the movement in any way they can.

On February 18th, Glenn Beck claimed on his show that the protests in Wisconsin are chiefly the work of “one-world government” agents, Islamic fundamentalists and communists. He accused each of these three groups of plotting to use the protests and revolutionary fervor to overthrow the existing order and create a “New World Order.” He also accused the protests of trying to create chaos and “provoke” martial law.

Despite the fact that protests were made up of workers and unions, he accused them of “trying to create chaos on the backs of the worker”:

“Unions claim the cuts will affect teachers but it’s not the everyday teacher that this story is really all about,” Beck said.

“There are three groups of people. They want a new world order. This is your choice. One world government. This is open society. This is United Nations, whatever you want to call it. One world government. They have lots of money and lots of power and they have NGOs, non-governmental organizations.”

“This is the United Islamic Nations, this is the one the Muslim Brotherhood is going for now. But it all looked like this, a new world order. They are organized, too. They have the religion and mosques and apparently help from Google as well… at least in Egypt.

“Then you have this one, workers union, they call it state capitalism. Really what it was good old-fashioned communism. They have unions and community organizing.”

Finally, the coup-de-grâce came today (Feb. 22nd) when Beck’s level of hysterics went up a notch.

“Is it a little hard to deny that radicals, Islamists, the communists, socialists will work together against Israel against capitalism, and they’ll try to work together to overturn stability? Who in the media is telling you this? Who? NAME THEM! Where are they? How can they possibly deny it at this point, and why wouldn’t they tell you these things?”

“Protests become contagious. Can you deny this anymore? They’ll cascade. They will sweep the Middle East, and they will begin to destabilize Europe and the rest of the world. Tell me what the hell Madison is? Show that picture up in front of New York right now. Tell me what this is? What the hell is this? It’s the unions poking, pushing, prodding. They will lose because they don’t know who you are.”

The reaction from the so-called moderates was not much better. Comedian and television personality Jon Stewart, who has a long history of riding the fence when push comes to shove, had this to say about the protesters’ comparison of themselves to the protesters in Egypt and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker to ousted Egyptian President Mubarak:

“The Egyptian protesters risked being shot. The Wisconsin protesters risked being caught in a drum circle,” Stewart said. “And as for protesters’ charge that [Gov. Scott] Walker is a tyrant, I will remind you that he was elected with 52 percent of the vote; tyrants tend to poll in the high-90s. C’mon, man, like 400 people died in those protests, reporters were brutally beaten, I’m sure you can come up with a more appropriate comparison” (1).

Not only did Stewart publically distort and minimize the very real threat posed to protesters by Gov. Scott Walker’s public threat to call in the National Guard if there were any unrest among state employees, he even went out of his way to reinforce the image of protesting workers as unwashed degenerates.

Clearly, such uprisings have flown in the face of the media, and can we honestly say this is a negative development? Despite the ignorant ramblings of media personalities, there are already people in the United States that think it’s high time we had an “Egypt Moment” in their own backyard.

Cited:

1) http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2011/0223/Cheddar-revolution-Glenn-Beck-vs.-Jon-Stewart-on-Middle-East-Wisconsin-comparisons

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Wisconsin Protests Continue

21 Feb

Wisconsin Protests Draw Thousands Of Workers Fighting For Key Union Rights

MADISON, Wis. — On Friday, February 11, at the same hour that the world watched the former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak resign his post, the newly appointed Republican Governor of Wisconsin quietly launched a ferocious attack on public sector unions — and the very notion of organized labor in America.

For nearly fifty years unions have sought to safeguard and advance their rights through a process known as collective bargaining, which is the most powerful tool labor has for peacefully resolving disputes and ensuring workers a voice in negotiations on everything from fair wages to safety conditions and sick leave.

The bill championed by Wisconsin’s governor takes dead aim at this process by stripping most state workers of many of their collective bargaining rights. Union leaders have responded uproariously, claiming that the bill effectively guts public unions of their most critical asset in a state that pioneered many of the fundamental fights for worker’s rights. Political chaos has ensued on both sides. State Democrats fled the state last week to prevent a vote on the legislation, while many Republican governors — some who already have similar bills on the table — watch carefully to see, if the bill succeeds, how they might pass anti-union legislature in their own states.

President Obama called the bill “an assault on unions.” On the ground in Wisconsin, the growing crowd of protesters portray their actions as part of a once-in-a generation struggle to shape the dynamic that determines what voice workers will have in the workplace. They feel the eyes of the world upon them. Last Friday as millions swarmed the streets of Egypt in a “Day of Victory” rally, a young man posted a picture on his Facebook page showing a sign reading “EGYPT Supports Wisconsin One World One Pain.”

Source

Solidarity with Wisconsin Workers!

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Desperate Bid of the U.S. to Avoid Regime Change in Egypt

18 Feb

Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt, February 11, 2011: Egyptians rally to celebrate the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak and reiterate that the full extent of their demands for regime change be met. (Al Manar)

From TML Daily of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist):

The Anglo-Zionist imperialists, with the U.S. at the helm are desperately trying to divert the people’s movement in Egypt from accomplishing its just aim of regime change and to block the further spread of this revolutionary fervour across the region. This situation constitutes arguably the greatest threat to the strategic interests of U.S. imperialism in decades, and it is a situation where the imperialists have little room to manoeuvre. As the Anglo-Zionist media today jubilantly declare that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s resignation settles the question, the real play of the U.S. to block the people’s movement in Egypt has just begun. The military bid, announced today, to take over the helm of the sinking Egyptian ship is a thinly disguised U.S.-backed coup aimed at establishing facts on the ground that will block the people’s striving for empowerment. No Rest for the Wicked

Their desperate bid entails a constant effort to buy time so as to put the facts on the ground necessary for a transition that suits their interests. Consider the scenario. The U.S. imperialists with the exception of a small coterie of recalcitrant elements, have always recognized that Mubarak must go but the question was always how. If, along with the rest of his regime, he was forced to step down according to the demands of the people, then the situation is grave for the imperialists. This is an equation where genuine regime change takes place, invariably leading to a renewed people’s Egypt opposed to imperialism. Instead, the U.S., Israel and other foreign powers have opted to orchestrate a situation where Mubarak goes while another U.S.-client government is established — the much sought after and acclaimed “orderly transition” of the reactionaries including Canada — so that the people would continue to be marginalized while the foreign rule takes another form. Hence the announcement that the newly appointed Vice-President Omar Suleiman, former head of Mubarak’s murderous intelligence agency, is assuming various presidential powers while the military has taken over control of the country.

To date the Egyptian people have refused to be diverted by either the carrot or the stick. In regard to the former, the token negotiations Mubarak claimed to conduct with some opposition forces failed to demobilize the people. There is no reason to believe that they will be demobilized by Mubarak’s resignation while the military makes promises about lifting the State of Emergency once this situation ends. In regard to the use of the stick, all efforts to use the police forces, military or hired thugs (dubbed pro-Mubarak supporters) to quell the protests through violence, torture, murder, arrest or sheer chaos have also failed. If anything, the numbers and militancy of the protestors have swelled. Workers have joined the protestors after the unions held another General Strike starting on February 8 and large numbers of expatriates continue to arrive to join the protestors. So, the flip side of the equation is that the Egyptian people have been doing everything possible to block the imperialist and reactionary strategies aimed at wiping out their movement. How will this clash of interests manifest itself in the coming days? The People’s “Last Warning” Communiqué

Events in Egypt are unfolding quickly. Today is the day protestors, in the face of Mubarak’s appearances on TV arrogantly running governmental meetings as if all were well, declared a deadline for the entire regime to step down. Entitled “Last Warning,” the communiqué of the protestors stated that if this demand were not to be met by the deadline, they would mobilize towards the presidential palace in Cairo to arrest Mubarak for crimes against the people. In doing so, they would directly confront the military guarding the palace and the surrounding rich district where it is located. At the eleventh hour, with tens of thousands surrounding the presidential palace and millions assembled at Tahrir Square and in cities all over Egypt, Mubarak resigned, handing over the reins of power to the military, as if the Egyptian people want to exchange one form of military rule for another.

Today may yet prove to be the most decisive day since the protests erupted on January 25. The protestors’ courageous proposal to arrest Mubarak was highly significant. In taking this stand, they cut through all the forked tongue talk of the reactionary regime and imperialists, forcing them to decide: will the army be mobilized against the people? What will the likes of Obama and others do with their proclamations of democracy and non-violence if a bloodbath is unleashed by the military against the people? Managing finally to have Mubarak resign and the military take over may de-escalate the situation temporarily, but everyone knows it is far from over. After 30 years of emergency rule, the Egyptian people are no more likely to accept a military takeover in the guise of democracy than they have the current regime. Little Room to Manoeuvre

The contradictions are sharp. Even though Mubarak was the head of a U.S. client state, his refusal to follow U.S. dictate to make a clean exit when he saw it as a threat to his power made life especially difficult for the imperialists. Simultaneously, Mubarak knew that without U.S.-backing he had no chance of maintaining power. The army cannot survive without the long-standing funding of the U.S. Yet it is this same military that would be mobilized to break the protests, even as the U.S. recognizes that full-scale military attack against the protestors will likely only further enrage the people against the same U.S. known to back that military.

How will the imperialists put in place the orderly transition in the region — that neoliberal multiparty system whose aim is to block the people from exercising political power in their own interests? The dictatorships the U.S. imperialists have propped up in the region from Egypt to Saudi Arabia are opposed to this token change which will see them lose their corrupt stranglehold in its present form. The people are refusing to accept any such U.S.-backed solutions whatsoever. A military takeover of the country will settle nothing so far as the people are concerned, even as it increases the potential for all-out military violence against the people.

This is the significance of Saudi Arabia giving refuge to the deposed President of Tunisia Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali, former friend of the U.S. who was abandoned by the Americans when it became clear that he could no longer maintain their interests in the face of the popular uprising. This is the significance of the earlier threat to the U.S. from Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, that his kingdom will prop up the tottering regime of the Egyptian president if the U.S. withdraws its support, particularly its funding of that regime. Similarly, this is the significance of their claim that they would replace U.S. funding to the military if necessary. The contradictions are sharp between an Obama administration trying to pacify through token, superficial “democratic” change the masses of people who refuse to be diverted or fooled, and the dictatorships/militaries of the U.S. client states which are quickly becoming an obstacle to U.S. imperialist interests by refusing to give up their corrupt power to safeguard U.S. interests.

Egypt Is Not Honduras

February 11, 2011: Egyptians in Tahrir Square celebrate the resignation of President Mubarak. (RIA Novosti)

The imperialist bid to pacify popular uprisings by imposing token democracy, with controlled elections and civil institutions run by the U.S., is a strategy the U.S. imperialists and countries of the European Union and Canada have been attempting to enact in the Middle East for a number of years. This started with the Charter of Paris signed in 1991 which declared that every country had to have a free market economy, multiparty system and abide by so-called human rights. The U.S. in particular has been funding regime changes in the name of democracy to deal with the ever-rising discontent of the peoples over the havoc wreaked by the so-called free market economy and U.S. imperialism and American client states on their societies. The British have provided the so-called Civitas Project to corrupt the Palestinian Authority and sabotage the liberation movement of the Palestinian people. Canada is a partner in this project and is mandated to provide the so-called electoral and judicial arms for these so-called democracy building initiatives. In Egypt the reactionaries are hoping to use the strategy used to smash the people’s 2009 uprising in Honduras, orchestrating a coup against the popular government of Manuel Zelaya and then using ambiguity to gain time so as to declare it legal and institute the coup regime. Yet Egypt, with a population of 81,527,172, compared to 7,318,789 in Honduras, and with 1,001,449 square km compared to Honduras’ 112,090 square km is a completely different kettle of fish.

TML again salutes the revolutionary movement of the Egyptian people and the fearless unity of their ranks representing all sectors of the society. TML calls on the Canadian working class and its allies to go all out in support of the Egyptian people as events continue to unfold. A victory for the Egyptian people will transform the situation across the region, affirming the right to sovereignty for all, including the long suffering Palestinian people. A victory for the democratic aspirations of the Egyptian people is a victory for the peoples of the world in their striving to hold governments responsible for providing the human rights of all with a guarantee.

Long Live the Democratic, Sovereign Movement of the Egyptian People!
No to the Use of Military Force Against the People!
One Humanity, One Struggle!

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Review of “Redacted”

16 Feb

Introduction: A Better War Movie

In American cinematography, war movies have come in two flavors exclusively: those movies which ultimately support and fetishize war, and those films which are critical of certain wars and actions; typically coming from a liberal perspective with proper amounts of patriotic sentimentalism, apologism for the barbarous acts of US soldiers and a weak message that only scratches the surface of the true horrors of imperialist war. Redacted (2007), written and directed by Brian De Palma, is a rare break from the typical Hollywood dynamic.

A Dramatization of a Real Crime

In 2006, five American soldiers serving with the 502nd Infantry Regiment of the US Army participated in the rape of a 14 year old Iraqi girl and the murder of her and her family in their home. Redacted follows the story of these soldiers on their deployment before, during and after their rape and mass murder. Having their tour in Iraq extended for additional months, we are made to see the psychological state of these soldiers deteriorate until, after mowing down a car with a pregnant woman in it with 50 caliber rounds and having their commander killed by an IED, the soldiers decide to take out their frustrations on a young girl and her family during a horrific and unsanctioned night raid. This crime, and the events leading up to it, are depicted in a pseudo-documentary style, with much of the footage being “documented” by Private First Class Angel Salazar (Izzy Diaz), making for an experience that appears very genuine considering that this is indeed a dramatization.

For more information on the crime itself, read this article: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2006-07/10/content_637134.htm

Colonialist Attitudes, Colonialist Actions

One thing that this film does well to capture is the colonialist attitudes that US soldiers hold towards those whom they are occupying. Soldiers, no matter their ethnicity or background, refer to the civilian populace as “hajis,” “ali-babas” — or even more telling examples of colonialist rhetoric — ““rag-heads” and “sand-niggers.”

While this may seem exaggerated to some readers, one must keep in mind that creating racial epithets and using dehumanizing rhetoric towards ones enemy in war is a military past-time as old as weaponry itself, especially as far as the United States’ colonial interests are concerned.

Logically following this ideological effort at dehumanizing their enemy, some of the soldiers make comments about how killing Iraqis is like “stomping on cockroaches.” There is even a reference to the utility of having a nuclear holocaust visited on the country, with one character saying that the US Air Force should “vaporize every sand nigger… leave nothing but scorched Earth!”

After using his 50 caliber machine gun to blow apart a pregnant woman and her unborn child at a checkpoint, Specialist Reno Flake (Patrick Carroll), the main antagonist and driving force behind the rape and murder, responds to questions of his remorse for the killing of this innocent woman “The only language these sand-niggers understand is force” and denies any feelings of remorse. The Inevitability of Sexual Violence in Imperialism

While the film focuses on one individual crime and its perpetrators, an effort is made to communicate that this isn’t an isolated phenomenon. Rather than being an “unfortunate incidents” carried out by “bad apples” rape in war serves an important function to imperialism. It serves to make clear the dominating position of the occupiers over the bodies and minds of the occupied. Even if rape isn’t an openly accepted tactic and policy, as it was in the case of Japanese imperialism in Nanking and in the case of US-backed regimes in Latin America, rape is destined to occur with more frequency as an occupation and insurgent resistance carries on.

In Redacted, we see how the fear and hatred the soldiers have for the Iraqis eventually consummate in the acts they perpetrate. The combination of their colonialist attitudes towards the occupied, the strain of having to stay in Iraq overtime and the day-to-day stress of the occupation brought these soldiers to the breaking point. From the massacre at Mai Lai to the rape and murder of Abeer Qasim Hamza al-Janabi and her family, this is a pattern as old as imperialism itself.

The Victims, Foreign & Domestic

The rape committed by US soldiers in the course of their campaigns of imperialist adventurism isn’t always targeted at civilians. Rather, a large percentage of rape in the military involves soldiers raping their comrades. For a good article on this phenomenon, check out this Salon.com article: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/03/07/women_in_military

Additionally, you can find out more at http://www.stopmilitaryrape.org/

Cover-Ups and Silenced Witnesses

When it came to acting on reports of the crime, authorities within the military acted with skepticism and hostility when Corporal Lawyer McCoy (Rob Devaney) came forward with the accusations. McCoy, who did not participate in the rape and murder and was forced at gunpoint out of the house by the rapists, is at one point told by his own father (a veteran himself) that his accusations will be met with “questions of his sanity.” The prevailing attitude of authorities is that they’d prefer to “save face,” in a nationalist sense, and at the end when they are finally confronted and interrogated, the perpetrators justify their actions by saying “you persecute guys like us… you’re just aiding the terrorists.”

THIS is War

A few months ago, the Red Phoenix reviewed a war movie released with the title “This is War.” That little gem of imperialist propaganda, however, would seem to be entirely at odds to the reality of imperialism as experienced by the citizens of countries occupied by the United States military. Redacted, while it is a fictional dramatization of an actual event, does more to showcase the colonialism, the physical and sexual violence, as well as the generally macabre circumstance which imperialism creates for both the occupiers and the occupied. This film is important in that it makes an earnest attempt to communicate the horrors of imperialist war and is a must see for anyone with any “support the troops” illusions about the occupation. Viewers should keep in mind that what they will see in this film is graphic and incredibly disturbing, but so is the truth of imperialist violence.

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Wisconsin Governor Threatens to call in National Guard against State Workers

14 Feb

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker made the dramatic announcement on the morning of 11 February that he is prepared to call in the Wisconsin National Guard to respond if there is any unrest among state employees. In the wake of his announcement that he wants to revoke nearly all of their collective bargaining rights. Walker said he has not called the National Guard into action, but he has briefed them and other state agencies in preparation of any labor problems. Walker’s attacks on the union workers violated a long-held state tradition of honest collective bargaining, and his threat to call the National Guard is an unnecessary insult to the state employees.

“Although this stunningly radical move is being cloaked as a budget necessity, it is a cruel hoax because Governor Walker and the Legislature have full authority to balance the state budget without attacking the fundamental rights of workers,” said Robert Kraig, executive director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin. “In reality this is a naked power grab by the large corporate interests that back Scott Walker and who seek unfettered control over Wisconsin politics.”

Indeed Robert Kraig is correct on this matter. Union workers losing the right to collectively bargain is not only an insult to the state workers in question, the very workers who teach the children, collect the trash, and keep the infrastructure intact; but is also an attack on all workers, including those in the private sector.

Should this measure be put into place, Wisconsin Unions will be effectively broken. Indeed, the fact that Governor Walker has already put the National Guard on alert demonstrates that should strikes break out the state will immediately use National Guard forces to break the union completely.

Given the history of times when the National Guards, or as they were called at the beginning of the 20th century, State Militia, have dealt with labor disputes, it would not surprise us if any such confrontation results in violence to the detriment of workers. Only 90 years ago, mine workers went on strike in Wyoming and West Virginia. As a result, the governments of both states called in the National Guard to wantonly murder strikers.

The American Party of Labor stands in solidarity with the public workers of Wisconsin!

Sources:

http://anonym.to/?http://www.biztimes.com/daily/2011/2/11/walker-says-he-will-call-in-national-guard-if-state-employees-balk-at-his-proposal

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