The usual explanation for conflict between Palestinians & Israel over the Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem is religious. That is, that the site is the third holiest in Islamic tradition & the holiest in Judaic tradition since it is claimed to be the original site of Solomon’s Temple said to have housed the Ark of the Covenant but destroyed in 587 BCE. It also plays a role in Christian tradition since the Mosque was taken over by Crusaders (1099) & used as horse stables & headquarters for Templar Knights. The Judaic & Christian claims are hardly compelling; they’re more akin to farce.

Even if it was the site of the temple (there is no archaeological evidence for this despite repeated excavations), this would not give Judaism a historic or religious claim any more than those of Celtic heritage can lay claim to the Rhineland where they originated. As for claiming old horse stables from the ill-begotten Crusades as a religious site, the diplomatic person would call that “grasping at straws.” The rest of us are rolling on the floor laughing in scorn. Does anybody really think they’re going to ride to heaven on that one?

There was an actual temple on the site between 516 BCE & 70 CE, when the Romans destroyed it. The Al-Aqsa Mosque has been there since 705 CE. The dispute around Al-Aqsa is part of Zionist attempts to create a religious heritage that does not exist in any meaningful way to justify destruction of the mosque. The only religion that has a claim to that site is Islam. All the other claims are baloney.

When Israel was established in 1948, East Jerusalem (where Al-Aqsa is located) came under the control of Jordan but was occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. After that war, Zionists under the leadership of Rabbi Shlomo Goren (the chief rabbi of the Israeli military & later chief rabbi of Israel) began cut & pasting Biblical verses to claim the area for building another temple. In 1983, Goren & several other rabbis claimed to have seen the Ark of the Covenant in an excavation under the mosque when in fact nothing but a few shards & animal bones have ever been found. The Zionist regime had the good sense to seal the chamber with cement so no further inspections could make fools of their right-wing rabbinical squad.

Constructing a third temple requires the destruction of Al-Aqsa but the real intention of course is to destroy all Palestinian claims to Jerusalem. To accomplish this, Zionist myth-makers began courting allies among right-wing Christian dispensational Evangelicals with an Apocalyptic theology that takes Biblical prophecies literally that the second coming of Jesus will be heralded by the reestablishment of Israel & the construction of a third temple.

After the 1967 war, Evangelical fiction writers began speculating how Al-Aqsa could be destroyed: Hal Lindsey wrote “Late Great Planet Earth” (in 1973), an end-time prophecy of famines, wars, earthquakes, Antichrist rule, & Armageddon war preceding the second coming; Salem Kirgan wrote “666” (in 1970), where the Antichrist vaporizes Al-Aqsa with a ruby laser ring; Charles Colson wrote “Kingdoms in Conflict” (in 1987), where American Evangelicals bankroll Israeli Zionists in blowing up the mosque. This is where fiction & right-wing politics shade into derangement. But they make clear the shared commitment of Zionists (& here the crackpot wing is indistinguishable from the others) is to destroying Al Aqsa.

As a result of Zionist collaboration with dispensationalist Evangelicals, many Zionist Christian groups have been formed in the US & elsewhere; many members of the Lost Tribes of Israel have been identified by Evangelical missionaries in Peru, Ethiopia, India, & elsewhere to promote settlements in the West Bank (here fiction shades into idiocy); sister-city relationships have been forged with Zionist settlements; thousands of Evangelicals pilgrimage & march in Jerusalem every year; in 1969, one Australian Evangelical attempted to torch the mosque. Most importantly, Israel & AIPAC have developed strong religious allies among Christian nut cases.

The profound sarcasm in this alliance is that the religious vision of dispensational Evangelicals requires the mass conversion of Jews to Christianity–or their annihilation in the battle of Armageddon. It doesn’t get more anti-semitic than that. Or more repugnant. What the hell would Jesus say!?

And those are the reasons why Israel continues to prevent Palestinian access to Al-Aqsa but still allows right-wing Zionists to guide tours of the mosque; why they militarily attack Palestinians defending their rights to the mosque; & why defense of the mosque is part of the struggle against Israeli apartheid.

Here Israeli riot cops prevent a Palestinian man from entering Al Aqsa for prayer (last Friday). Males under 50 have long been barred access to the mosque & must pray in the public streets. Israel ordered the mosque closed down for all after the shooting of an ultranationalist Zionist who campaigns for Jewish prayer rights at the site.The Palestinian suspect was killed by cops in a shootout at his home. Why they suspected the young man is not certain but it doesn’t take much & Israeli authorities figure murdering mere suspects will spare the expense of one of their kangaroo courts.

Support Palestinian justice by boycotting all Israeli products (barcode beginning 729); by supporting the cultural boycott of Israel; by demanding “No US aid to Israel!”

(Photo by Gali Tibbon/AFP/Getty Images)

The usual explanation for conflict between Palestinians & Israel over the Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem is religious. That is, that the site is the third holiest in Islamic tradition & the holiest in Judaic tradition since it is claimed to be the original site of Solomon’s Temple said to have housed the Ark of the Covenant but destroyed in 587 BCE. It also plays a role in Christian tradition since the Mosque was taken over by Crusaders (1099) & used as horse stables & headquarters for Templar Knights. The Judaic & Christian claims are hardly compelling; they’re more akin to farce.

Even if it was the site of the temple (there is no archaeological evidence for this despite repeated excavations), this would not give Judaism a historic or religious claim any more than those of Celtic heritage can lay claim to the Rhineland where they originated. As for claiming old horse stables from the ill-begotten Crusades as a religious site, the diplomatic person would call that “grasping at straws.” The rest of us are rolling on the floor laughing in scorn. Does anybody really think they’re going to ride to heaven on that one?

There was an actual temple on the site between 516 BCE & 70 CE, when the Romans destroyed it. The Al-Aqsa Mosque has been there since 705 CE. The dispute around Al-Aqsa is part of Zionist attempts to create a religious heritage that does not exist in any meaningful way to justify destruction of the mosque. The only religion that has a claim to that site is Islam. All the other claims are baloney.

When Israel was established in 1948, East Jerusalem (where Al-Aqsa is located) came under the control of Jordan but was occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. After that war, Zionists under the leadership of Rabbi Shlomo Goren (the chief rabbi of the Israeli military & later chief rabbi of Israel) began cut & pasting Biblical verses to claim the area for building another temple. In 1983, Goren & several other rabbis claimed to have seen the Ark of the Covenant in an excavation under the mosque when in fact nothing but a few shards & animal bones have ever been found. The Zionist regime had the good sense to seal the chamber with cement so no further inspections could make fools of their right-wing rabbinical squad.

Constructing a third temple requires the destruction of Al-Aqsa but the real intention of course is to destroy all Palestinian claims to Jerusalem. To accomplish this, Zionist myth-makers began courting allies among right-wing Christian dispensational Evangelicals with an Apocalyptic theology that takes Biblical prophecies literally that the second coming of Jesus will be heralded by the reestablishment of Israel & the construction of a third temple.

After the 1967 war, Evangelical fiction writers began speculating how Al-Aqsa could be destroyed: Hal Lindsey wrote “Late Great Planet Earth” (in 1973), an end-time prophecy of famines, wars, earthquakes, Antichrist rule, & Armageddon war preceding the second coming; Salem Kirgan wrote “666” (in 1970), where the Antichrist vaporizes Al-Aqsa with a ruby laser ring; Charles Colson wrote “Kingdoms in Conflict” (in 1987), where American Evangelicals bankroll Israeli Zionists in blowing up the mosque. This is where fiction & right-wing politics shade into derangement. But they make clear the shared commitment of Zionists (& here the crackpot wing is indistinguishable from the others) is to destroying Al Aqsa.

As a result of Zionist collaboration with dispensationalist Evangelicals, many Zionist Christian groups have been formed in the US & elsewhere; many members of the Lost Tribes of Israel have been identified by Evangelical missionaries in Peru, Ethiopia, India, & elsewhere to promote settlements in the West Bank (here fiction shades into idiocy); sister-city relationships have been forged with Zionist settlements; thousands of Evangelicals pilgrimage & march in Jerusalem every year; in 1969, one Australian Evangelical attempted to torch the mosque. Most importantly, Israel & AIPAC have developed strong religious allies among Christian nut cases.

The profound sarcasm in this alliance is that the religious vision of dispensational Evangelicals requires the mass conversion of Jews to Christianity–or their annihilation in the battle of Armageddon. It doesn’t get more anti-semitic than that. Or more repugnant. What the hell would Jesus say!?

And those are the reasons why Israel continues to prevent Palestinian access to Al-Aqsa but still allows right-wing Zionists to guide tours of the mosque; why they militarily attack Palestinians defending their rights to the mosque; & why defense of the mosque is part of the struggle against Israeli apartheid.

Here Israeli riot cops prevent a Palestinian man from entering Al Aqsa for prayer (last Friday). Males under 50 have long been barred access to the mosque & must pray in the public streets. Israel ordered the mosque closed down for all after the shooting of an ultranationalist Zionist who campaigns for Jewish prayer rights at the site.The Palestinian suspect was killed by cops in a shootout at his home. Why they suspected the young man is not certain but it doesn’t take much & Israeli authorities figure murdering mere suspects will spare the expense of one of their kangaroo courts.

Support Palestinian justice by boycotting all Israeli products (barcode beginning 729); by supporting the cultural boycott of Israel; by demanding “No US aid to Israel!”

(Photo by Gali Tibbon/AFP/Getty Images)

This photo of the Egyptian army blowing up homes on the Egyptian side of the Gaza border is proof positive the US gets it’s money’s worth out of the $1.5 billion in annual military aid to Egypt–military aid used to buttress authoritarian rule in Egypt & Israeli control over Palestinians in Gaza. On Tuesday, authorities ordered Egyptians living along the border with Gaza to evacuate so they could blow up their homes to set up a buffer zone “to stop weapons & militant trafficking” between Egypt & Gaza. This keeps Egypt as the southern flank of US policy in the region & enforcers of the Israeli embargo on Gaza. Egypt also indefinitely closed the Gaza crossing so Palestinians cannot leave. This is a noose around the necks of Gazans.

The buffer zone will include water-filled moats 500 meters (1,640 feet) wide along the 13 kilometer (9 mile) border between Egypt & Gaza. It’s not sure if they’ll be throwing alligators into those moats just to make sure nothing goes in & no one comes out of Gaza. The purpose of the buffer zone & the moats is to thwart tunnel diggers, a vital way Palestinians smuggle in medicines, foods, & other vital needs banned by the Israeli embargo. Under the Morsi regime, those tunnels were flooded with sewage; under Israel’s Operation Ethnic Cleansing, most were bombed out.

Egypt also claims this is to keep Hamas from meddling in Egyptian politics by supporting “Islamic militants” fighting the regime. Hamas remains the all-purpose whipping boy to justify barbarisms against Gaza. But isn’t the traiterous Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas in charge now in Gaza? Shouldn’t that ease restrictions rather than tighten them up?

The worst of it is the Egyptian uprising expressed fullest active solidarity with Palestinians which is one reason the US Pentagon worked so laboriously with the Egyptian generals to undo the uprising. Israel cannot survive without militarizing the entire region in its defense. Neoliberal policy in the Middle East has turned Israel into an unstable armed fortress & bastion of reaction & social hatred rotting at its core.

The Israeli embargo is war by other means against Gaza; it is an ethnic cleansing device of barbaric execution. It must be politically opposed & exposed for all the world to see. That is where the cultural & economic boycott (BDS) of Israel comes in. Let’s speak frankly: those stunted political minds who oppose BDS because it will hurt the working class of Israel have their heads stuck up the nether regions of Zionist barbarism & after Operation Ethnic Cleansing should extract their heads & hang them in shame.

Build the boycott of Israel & continue to demand “No military aid to Israel!” “No military aid to Egypt!”

(Photo from BBC; photographer not identified)

Netan-psycho is reportedly bristling that a US official called him a “chickenshit” which means a worthless, contemptible, & cowardly person. It seems so wrong to let him get off describing only the best side of him. How could they ignore that he’s also deranged? For what he did in Operation Ethnic Cleansing in Gaza, for the ongoing embargo of Gaza, & for what he’s doing in the West Bank he qualifies as a monster & war criminal in a league with Bush, Obama, Pinochet, & all the other contemptible murderous figures in human history.

Palestinians in the West Bank stand unarmed before one of the mightiest military machines in the world with only rocks to defend themselves. Now Netan-psycho is pushing to stiffen punishment for rock throwers which would include financial sanctions on the parents of rock throwers, 10 years in jail for throwing rocks at moving vehicles, & 20 years in jail for throwing rocks at moving vehicles with intent to injure. Throwing rocks at an Israeli soldier means 5 years in jail.

The report in the Israel National News (which is run by nutcake religious Zionists) claims the rock throwers have caused serious injury & even death, including to “scores of Israeli children & infants”. One wonders why there’s been no coverage of these deaths even in Zionist media which is prone to invention & exaggeration when it comes to Palestinian self-defense. The article, which favors the new sanctions, says they’re not just hurling rocks but fist-sized rocks, bricks, chunks of concrete, & cinder blocks. What treachery & insolence against bulldozers, armored wheel loaders, tear gas, skunk bombs, grenades, rubber bullets, & live ammo!

The punishment for Palestinians, including little kids, for throwing rocks has always been draconian. Hundreds of kids & teens are sitting in the Israeli gulag for throwing rocks against Zionist settlers & their military protectors who poison Palestinian wells, assault them, pull up their olive trees, expropriate their lands.

For our part, we salute the rock throwers for incredible determination & fearlessness because they are sitting ducks for being shot or arrested–& that includes Palestinian children.

Build the hell out of the cultural & economic boycott of Israel (barcode beginning 729) & demand “No military aid to Israel!”

(Photo entitled “Arab Rock Throwers” from Israel National News)

Despite all the blandishments being dumped on her to corrupt her & turn her into a toady for the status quo, Malala Yousafzai seems like a fine young girl at heart. We’re hoping that as she matures & becomes independent from the regrettable guidance of her father & the yoke of establishment honors, she will prove to be bigger in spirit & not subject to manipulation. That’s a long shot because they‘re working her over to make her indebted to them & reluctant to express her own views. But it took some guts to even mention drone assaults to Obama when she was there as window dressing for his wars.

The purse from the Nobel Peace Prize is US$1.5 million so she’s got a bundle of money & most likely a line of “advisers” trying to get their hands on it. She just raked in more dough from the World’s Children’s Prize & donated $50,000 of that to the UN agency dealing with Palestinian refugees to help rebuild some of the 65 schools in Gaza used as refugee centers which Israel bombed. It would have been preferable for her to give the money to relief agencies in Gaza so the money was managed & controlled by Palestinians. But UN reps are likely all over her trying to get their hands on that money, where there will be no accountability.

In handing over the dough to the UN she said, “We must all work to ensure Palestinian boys & girls, & all children everywhere, receive a quality education in a safe environment. Because without education, there will never be peace.” Who knows who wrote that speech? Not that she isn’t capable of writing her own eloquent words but she is now a marketable product with jingoism experts writing ditties like for a commercial.

Education is a good thing; the oppressed have always valued it. In the US, after the Civil War ended, Blacks set up the first free public education system (for whites & Blacks) in the US because they understood the transformative power of education in overcoming inequality. But lack of education isn’t the reason there’s no peace in Gaza. Israeli apartheid & ethnic cleansing are the problem. Does young Malala understand that? If she does, would she be allowed to express that by her handlers? Fat chance! Because if she ever does, the awards will abruptly stop & the ditty writers will be composing slanders to discredit her.

They’ve a long way to go in corrupting Malala beyond redemption but it’s not for their lack of trying. They’ll keep dumping prizes, they’ll keep dumping dough, they’ll flatter & arm-twist & cajole, & maybe even threaten. But we can hope–because human beings are complex & often wonderful–that she will break free of the yoke trying to make her a mealy-mouthed champion of the status quo spouting empty ditties like a UNICEF commercial. We can hope that she will take her place with the forces of social transformation & speak the truth–the whole truth.

(Photo by Tt News Agency/Reuters)

The media caption to this photo read: “A Palestinian man in front of his home, which was demolished by Israeli bulldozers near the Jewish settlement of Karmel.” And here we thought it was Gaza when in fact, it’s in the West Bank. We don’t know what the story is since elaborating on the violence of Zionist settlements in the West Bank belies all the Exodus mythology so media doesn’t much report it. While Zionists claim the Old Testament gives them the deed to Palestine nobody else, including Christian Palestinians can find that passage anywhere. They certainly can’t find the passages where God says extreme barbarism is allowed to reclaim a place they haven’t lived in for over 1,400 years.

The brief history of Karmel in Wikipedia is an example of Zionist colonizing of that source, making anything written about Palestine or Israel completely unreliable. The entry abruptly stops in the 9th century when, apparently for economic reasons, Jewish inhabitants left the area & abandoned the synagogue. What happened to the last 1,100 years of Arab history there? In fact, Islam goes back nearly 300 years more so there’s nearly 1,400 years to account for that are just left out of Zionist history but plenty of history books that do accommodate reality. Al-Muqaddasi, a 10th century Arab geographer, has written descriptions of all of Palestine, including the Hebron area of Karmel. He describes a mosque there in 985 CE. So if ancient deeds to the land prevail, they won’t be found in the Bible anymore than they are in the Qu’ran. Enough with Zionists making Biblical claims to Palestine!

We don’t know which Israeli rationale is justifying this house demolition. Israel has been moving freebooting Zionists into the area for a long time. These demolitions are all a piece with Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestinians but sometimes they claim the houses are unauthorized or built with invalid permits. But the question is, why is Israel, which is illegally occupying the West Bank, allocating housing permits or deciding who is & isn’t authorized? If there was ever a compelling argument against the bantustate solution, that would be it.

During Israel’s Operation Ethnic Cleansing in Gaza, Israel returned to a policy of punitive demolitions which they employed between 2001-2005 when Israeli military bulldozers demolished 664 Palestinian homes “belonging to suspected Palestinian militants & their families” according to B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights group. As a rationale for demolishing homes, that is simply breathtaking. The relatives of someone “suspected” (Of what? Throwing rocks at Israeli bulldozers?) get their homes taken out with explosives & bulldozers. And the (so-called) “international community” & UN aren’t screaming bloody-murder at the violation of umpteen (albeit impotent) international laws?

Punitive demolitions were abandoned in 2005 because the military decided they engendered resentment & inspired militance among Palestinians, “helping fuel the Palestinian insurgency”, as the Washington Post put it. But actually who needs punitive demolitions when you use that rubbish about invalid permits & unauthorized housing? Who needs any rationale at all when you can just move bulldozers in & the “international community” doesn’t make more than a peep of protest?

Solidarity with Palestinians has never been more critical. Public outrage (except by the colluding international community) against Operation Ethnic Cleansing has Israel & it’s Biblical deed claims on the run. We need to build the hell out of the cultural & economic boycott of Israel (barcode beginning 729) with rallies, teach-ins, forums, speak-outs. Justice demands it & peace in the Middle East will be the reward.

(Photo by Mussa Qawasma/Reuters)

The eccentricity & nonconformity of these fellows at the Just For Men World Beard & Moustache Championships is admirable. They all look fairly benign & since they go out in the public streets with those mugs they can probably handle themselves in a scuffle. But there’s no way in hell I’m answering the phone if one of them calls. There’s no way I’m sitting across a dinner table (they have to skip breakfast & lunch since it takes so long to groom) from a mustache that looks like an attack animal.

(Photo of winners on Oct 25th in Portland, OR by AP)

Although Hong Kong protests for democracy continue after nearly a month & a half, there is relatively little coverage & almost no photojournalism of a very significant movement for democracy directly challenging Beijing control. Thousands of protesters continue an Occupy encampment blocking traffic in key sections of the city.

China, for obvious reasons, is conducting a campaign to smear the movement as bankrolled & orchestrated by the US & various left groups have made a mockery of theoretical analysis by echoing this campaign. This has been reflected in media reports also.

It is not inconceivable that Beijing, in league with the Hong Kong tycoons, would attack protesters even more aggressively than they already are. Solidarity with protesters is essential & the vicious & misguided political campaign to discredit their cause cuts across that.

This issue of baiting social movements & even the Arab uprisings is important to understand. Because if international solidarity is destroyed with slanders, there is no hope for social transformation. I repost my response to these slanders to discredit those who don’t know their ass from their elbows about political movements:
****
“Many articles insist the Hong Kong democracy movement is orchestrated by the US State Department, because the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)–which is a US government agency likely chock full of CIA operatives–fed money to some organizations & activists. Those who make these allegations have read too many John LeCarre novels or listened too much to Alex Jones–& have participated in politics too little. Of course the US government is involved; they have vested interests in the outcome. But suggesting these protests are CIA street theater rather than a profound social movement for democracy is politically shabby & plays into the hands of reaction.

The CIA & other US agencies have a long-standing policy of intervening in political movements all over the world. There are volumes written on this, some books now decades old. All the most important social movements (including the US Civil Rights, women’s, labor, antiwar, & socialist movements) are/were infiltrated by provocateurs using bribery, blackmail, & other corrupting practices. It’s what undercover operatives do. That does does mean the entire movement is compromised nor does it render the entire movement bankrupt.

Too much has been written by conspiracy thinkers claiming the Arab uprisings are a sting operation of Mossad & the CIA; many circulated rumors that the Brazil anti-World Cup protests of millions were taken over by fascists; competing political forces have made a cacophony of dissenting analyses of Syria & the Ukraine. Now, based on a shred of evidence & massive speculation, some are on a band wagon denouncing the Hong Kong movement because the NED dished out dough to some participants. Does it surprise anyone that Beijing is making the exact same claim?

Some people who make these claims about the Hong Kong protests are Maoists, shamelessly attempting to cover for the undemocratic regime in China. Many are libertarian thinkers who have no respect for working people as the agents of social transformation & think they are only pawns in international espionage. Where will this nonsense end!? Those who don’t recognize the compelling realities of a mass social movement demanding democracy need to get out of the game & take up crocheting. Conspiracy models of social uprisings serve reaction, not justice. In many ways it’s just a shade away from the Zionist claim that Hamas rockets are the problem in Gaza rather than Israeli apartheid & ethnic cleansing.

In 1968, the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia to suppress the movement for democracy called the Prague Spring. Both Soviet & capitalist media reported the movement as anti-socialist–of course because that deceit served the interests of both. It justified suppression for the USSR & it discredited socialism for the US. But what the movement was demanding was democracy; they wanted democratic freedoms & the end of a police state. The point of the comparison is that misrepresenting & discrediting progressive movements is an old game that always plays into the hands of reaction, undercuts solidarity, & buttresses continued tyranny.

So who are these protesters in Hong Kong? They’re students, union organizations, & unaffiliated working people. Likely a section of them are even anti-communist & identify capitalism as democratic. Call it heresy, but that doesn’t invalidate their struggle for democratic suffrage one iota. They’ve been out on the street now for nearly three weeks (since Sept. 28th), setting up an Occupy encampment in Admiralty, the central business district & venue of financial institutions & government buildings. They also set up encampment in Mong Kok, a major commercial district with high end retailers & catering to the tourist & entertainment industry, particularly the sex industry, with brothels, massage parlors, nightclubs, & bars run by criminal cartels.

Democracy activists paralyzed commerce & traffic in both districts with makeshift metal, bamboo, & umbrella barricades. Since billions of dollars of business are transacted in Hong Kong & at least 44 banks were closed due to protests, business analysts are worried about the negative economic impact of the protests. Some alarmists speak of the need for financial markets to move to Singapore to escape the instability; some are concerned foreign investors will shy off. A few expressed indignation at the illegal character of the protests which defy a local ordinance that protests of more than 50 people must have police permits. It’s a good thing those analysts are good are making money because they stink at politics.This could be taken as a petulant & pissy complaint. But of course, it’s because they answer to the capitalist tycoons who run Hong Kong like a mafia. What’s regrettable is they differ so little from the Chinese “socialist” regime.

The People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese government, issued a condemnation on October 1st which also calls the movement “an illegal gathering” which is “disrupting social order & harming Hong Kong’s economic livelihood.” It goes on to threaten that if the protests continue the “consequences will be unimaginable.” When you have the untenable situation of Hong Kong called “one country, two systems” & you can’t tell the difference between the two political systems, & when you have ostentatious wealth juxtaposed to thousands living in basement chicken coops, you gotta ask, ‘just where does the socialist side of that equation manifest’? And you have the cauldron that foments revolution.

It’s not certain which of the two systems governs Hong Kong’s riot cops because they act just like the ones at Tiananmen Square in 1989 & those we’ve experienced in all the political uprisings around the world. Starting last Tuesday, police using pepper spray & tear gas moved on the Admiralty & Mong Kok encampments, drove out the protesters, & armed with bolt cutters, chainsaws, & sledgehammers, dismantled the barricades.

Media has been reporting about scuffles between democracy activists & disgruntled local residents or supporters of the Beijing regime who counter-protest, attempt to remove the barricades blocking the streets, & attack the protesters. Let’s get real! They’re more likely to be goon squads hired by the brothel owners or bouncers at the local strip clubs than neighborhood people or political reactionaries. Multinational businesses can’t ply potential clients with booze & prostitutes if they have to traverse barricades & encampments to get to the brothels.

Protesters using the umbrellas that have come to symbolize their movement as weapons & shields against pepper spray & tear gas battled with riot cops & retook Mong Kok on Saturday morning. They retook Mong Kok, but do the protesters stand a chance of forcing the regime’s hand? Will political power in Hong Kong remain in the hands of a tiny elite of capitalist tycoons in league with the undemocratic regime in Beijing? Maybe for now they will only squeak out minor concessions; maybe Beijing will continue to let capitalist tycoons run the place. But a movement has emerged, the forces of social transformation have assembled. If that wasn’t making Beijing & the tycoons sweat bullets, Beijing would not have put up an internet firewall to prevent millions of discontent Chinese on the mainland from witnessing the undoing of the monstrosity called “one country, two systems.”

For our part, we salute the protesters in Hong Kong & extend our fullest solidarity.”

(Photo from BBC; the movement expresses itself in street art using the umbrella, iconic of their movement, as a motif)