This week police brutality, the art of protesting, and the anti-war movement were on your minds. You wrote on “Brazil Is a Killing Field For Young Black Men,” “Freedom Rider: Abortion Rights and the Power of Protest,” “Where Have All The Anti-War Warriors Gone?,” and “Freedom Rider:U.S. Wages War Against The World.”
In radio segment “Brazil Is a Killing Field For Young Black Men” Prof. Jamie Amparo Alves frames the daily killing of Black Brazilians by police as genocide and argues that we must see the election of Bolsonaro through the lens of anti-blackness.
Bob Witanek writes:
“Bolsonaro is one of the regime heads that is backing Guadista Golpista CIA operation -- that is what the US wants to install in Venezuela and the way things look right now the US would have to slaughter thousands, maybe 10s of 1000s, maybe 100s of 1000s, maybe a million -- OF BLACK AND BROWN PEOPLE to impose this sort of fascist will on Venezuela. Duque's Colombia ranks right there with Bolsonaro's Brazil.
“US GOT NO BUSINESS CRITICIZING MADURO WHILE IT BACKS DUQUE, BOLSONARO, AND A WHOLE HOST OF OTHER LATIN AMERICAN HEADS OF STATE who are: VIOLATING RIGHTS, FOSTERING AN ENVIRONMENT OF ASSASSINATION OF DISSENTERS AND CARRYING OUT VIRTUAL WARFARE TO ATTEMPT TO SEPARATE INDIGENOUS FROM THE LAND IN PURSUIT OF PROFITS FOR FOREIGN OWNED CORPORATIONS!”
In “Freedom Rider: Abortion Rights and the Power of Protest” Margaret Kimberleyargues that in order to secure abortion rights Americans will have to relearn the art of militant protest.
Riva Enteen writes:
“In Margaret's excellent article about the need to organize with clear demands on abortion (and other issues) she says: The issue...has been complicated by a feminist movement which exists to get goodies for well-educated white women and do little else. The Hyde Amendment (which bans federal funding for most abortions) still stands, unchallenged, after many decades. This illustrates Margaret's point. Repeal of the Hyde Amendment needs to be among the demands made to protect ALL women's right to healthcare.”
“Where Have All The Anti-War Warriors Gone?” by Dr.Kweli Nzito asks why there is little resistance to Washington’s war agenda among the US population.
I.P. writes:
“There are anti-war groups in the US – with regard to Iran, perhaps their campaign will grow if Trump’s bluster is backed by military action. There have been indications Trump isn’t as willing to attack Iran as some of his advisors such as Bolton would prefer, but his position on Iran seems primarily at the behest of Netanyahu and secondarily the Saudis. The ‘defensive’ posture the US is claiming against Iran seems so very contrived. The hope is with 18 months left to his first term, Trump won’t prioritize war (unless it might guarantee him needed votes), and he’ll focus his energies on re-election, albeit unsuccessfully. American mainstream news media tows the government line in portraying Iran as some threatening, rogue state. Even though the hypocrisies and double standards of the US aren’t lost on many around the world (e.g. in the context of the Islamic Republic of Iranian, the nations that have done the most invading and occupying in the region are the US and Israel), even in less ‘tribal times’, many Americans unfortunately adopt the propaganda of their national government as a patriotic duty.
“None of the three nations in Bush’s ‘axis of evil’ had friendly relations with Israel (I hesitate to add ‘or the US’ because of America’s self-serving, fickle expediency in the Middle East and indeed elsewhere that as quickly makes a nation a friend as a foe). Post-Saddam, Iraq’s government is dominated by Shiites, and is influenced by Iran. N. Korea has rudimentary nuclear weapons capability, and concerns Netanyahu to the degree it might transfer its nuclear tech to Iran. Trump’s dealings with N. Korea have seemed an attempt to address and appease such concerns. As long as any possible interactions between N. Korea and Iran are prevented, the former’s bold posturing wouldn’t worry Israel even though Netanyahu would likely prefer nuclear tech transfer to Iran weren’t possible at all. As for N. Korea’s rocket-development program, they seem to have explained it as primarily motivated by the annual joint American-S. Korean war games in the Korean Peninsula. In other words, it hasn’t been ‘offensive’ but ‘defensive’.”
In “Freedom Rider:U.S. Wages War Against The World” Margaret Kimberley reports on Washington’s war march against Iran and Venezuela and calls on peace forces to stand in opposition.
Paul Haeder writes:
“Yes, the misery of the world is US Murder Incorporated, which is best reflected in that war mongering college (sic), West Point, where the White Supremacist roots of the military and the country are now flowered with more African Americans -- and women -- graduates than ever before.
What would Malcolm X say, or James Baldwin or Angela Davis?
“That taxpayer sponsored military rot academy has been successful at colonizing every race and sub-culture in the USA.
“They don't even teach a former general's small little booklet, “War is a Racket,” which would, if deeply analyzed, turn every true blooded victim of this racist society into revolutionaries against capitalism:
‘I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.’― Smedley D. Butler, War is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America's Most Decorated Soldier.’”
Steadfast opposition against imperialist war remains the test of revolutionary politics in this country. We are happy to carry so much discussion on this issue since it is so rarely discussed on corporate media.
Jahan Choudhryis Comments Editor for Black Agenda Report. He is an organizer with the Saturday Free School based in Philadelphia, PA
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