John Prendergast, a US operative in Africa, & George Clooney, his celebrity stooge

John Prendergast (Jeff Trussell) July 20 2015

Media is favorably reporting the launching of a new joint project by John Prendergast, a US operative in Africa, & his celebrity stooge/shill George Clooney. The two go back several years now war-mongering against Sudan over the issue of Darfur. The new initiative called The Sentry is ostensibly to map the network of war profiteering in South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda, The Central African Republic, & the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They’re launching the project under cover of the Enough Project, a front group run by former officials in the Clinton administration, including Prendergast. In 2010, under the umbrella of Enough, Clooney & Prendergast launched a satellite surveillance program in the same region ostensibly as part of a rapid response system to “deter mass atrocities.”

Prendergast is a telling study in how covert agents operate & how governments preempt & use the language of human rights to advance a military & neoliberal colonial agenda. Prendergast is touted all over media as a human rights activist in Africa–another great white savior. There isn’t a media genre he hasn’t invaded in his safari outfits & where he isn’t treated like a self-sacrificing hero: he does opeds, articles, news interviews, documentaries, books, even “Law & Order” episodes.

For over 25 years he has been involved in Sudan, Darfur, & claims he was instrumental in the secession of South Sudan into a separate country. You can bet your bottom dollar, he’s involved in the chaos & trauma of the entire region–with Chinese oil exploration a primary concern. He weighed in heavy on the side of “Kony 2012” about Uganda & was likely involved in the making of that ill-fated political mockumentary which led to the deployment of US troops to Uganda.

If you take a close look at who this guy answers to you’ll see his humanitarian credentials stink to high heaven. His collaborators include Obama, the Clintons, Susan Rice, the National Security Council, & several foundations that are nothing but fronts for US foreign policy in Africa. In other words, his mission is to advance US economic & military interests in Africa, not human rights, & nothing he says can be trusted.

The problem with dragging out a shill like Clooney is that our humanitarian war-monger has never spoken out against US wars in Iraq & Afghanistan. He’s never denounced US bombing in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya. He hasn’t said boo about the plight of millions of refugees from Africa drowning in the Mediterranean. His tender heart & indignation only beat in sync with US militarism & the Pentagon.

The case for US military engagement in Africa is being built–lie by lie, with phony documentaries, movie stars & everything else they can marshall–& the surveillance apparatus is being set up under the guise of human rights. This bogus & war mongering campaign must be answered with a resounding, “Hands off Africa”.

(Photo is mug shot of John Prendergast by Jeff Trussell)

The election year doldrums for social activism

Not to be a know-it-all, but I have an observation from long years of activism that may prove useful to younger activists finding this a hard time to get things moving. Election years kick the bejeezus out of independent political action; things get slower than molasses when many activists & people in general start focusing on candidates. That’s likely true in other countries as well.

That’s no reason at all to cancel actions but expectations need be more modest & perhaps actions more creative–& activists need be careful not to turn frustrations on each other.

By more creative actions, it doesn’t mean activists have to stand naked on main street bouncing balls off their heads like trained seals to garner media attention but perhaps forums, teach-ins, etc.–though small rallies are still effective.

There are wars to oppose & BDS to build & we can’t wait for the next president to disprove all our hopes again before we act.

The emotional life of animals

Tim Glach photo of Diatoou and Cheka (July 20 2015)

And some say animals have no emotions!? This is Diatou (on the left) & Cheka, a pair of bonobos, a species from the Congo basin in central Africa.

(Just to be clear, this is not the species most politicians & bankers evolved from. That species went extinct from warfare & lack of cooperation. Only their most wretched remained. Thus the likes of Modi, the US Congress & Supreme Court, Netanyahu, Obama, Clinton, Cameron, Phil Windsor, Merkel, Lagarde. You get the picture.)

(Photo by Tim Flach, a UK photographer, exhibiting a series of his animal portraits at the Retina Scottish International Photography Festival, Edinburgh)

Black activists take on KKK in South Carolina

Black Eds for Justice rally (Getty Images) July 19 2015

A Ku Klux Klan chapter from North Carolina rallied their forces for a rally at the South Carolina capital in defense of the Confederate flag. All 35 of them showed up bearing their ugly-assed flag, white supremacist & Nazi insignias & shouting racist insults at the counter-rally of 2,000 activists gathered across the street.

The people who got the permit for the counter-rally were reportedly from the Florida group Black Educators for Justice, which media sources immediately linked to the New Black Panther Party (NBPP). Media reports claim participants at the rally included NBPP members as well as activists from Black Lawyers for Justice & the Nation of Islam (NOI). This identification is supposed to set off red alerts for us since both the NBPP & NOI have been identified as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

There are undeniable political & organizational associations between Black Educators for Justice, Black Lawyers for Justice, & the NBPP. Malik Zulu Shabazz, the head of Black Lawyers for Justice, is a well-known & very impressive Black activist regrettably notorious for antisemitic outbursts–often reprehensibly conflating anti-Zionism & opposition to Israeli apartheid with antisemitism. NBPP is unmistakably antisemitic in its views.

This is not a new problem in the Black nationalist movement. It has long been an issue in the Nation of Islam, including under Louis Farrakhan. It was an issue during Malcolm X’s tenure in the NOI & has led many to charge him with antisemitism.

As the BlackLivesMatter movement grows, there will be many young activists looking for a radical alternative to the old conservative civil rights groups. Many will be drawn to groups that espouse antisemitic views. That is no reason to declare them all haters or their groups as hate groups & try to shun them out of politics. That is a failed strategy of the SPLC–perhaps more related to their relationship to Israel than their commitment to Black justice. Would they have declared Malcolm X a hater? Likely.

Antisemitism is social hatred & it’s a problem wherever it rears its ugly ass. There’s no reason to be accommodating; there is no political merit to pretend there’s good reasons for it among Black activists. It weakens the Black movement & Palestinian solidarity in one fell swoop. But instead of declaring them political pariahs like SPLC does, it is necessary to take them on politically & forcefully to persuade young activists that social hatreds of any kind have no place in the civil rights & Black power movement. Historic movements for human freedom & justice have no place for prejudice.

We wish media were merely reporting the truth & not issuing a warning against support. Our fullest solidarity with the rally yesterday. When activists do what’s necessary, we stand with them.

(Photo of activist at counter-rally in Columbia, SC by Getty Images)

Another Nobel prize winner makes an ass of himself

Nobel prize winning physicist Ivar Giaever says Obama is “dead wrong” on global warming. Which part is wrong? The one where he acknowledges it as an existential threat or the one where he doesn’t do anything about it because corporate profits would be affected?

Our man Giaever is no more qualified to speak on global warming than the local proctologist nor Obama to address world peace since he’s openly conducting at least two major wars & using proxies in others. Nobel might have problems with its selection process.

Pellet guns used against unarmed protesters in Kashmir by Indian occupying army

Pellet guns in Kashmir (Abid Bhat) July 18 2015

Protestors around the world are facing extreme violence from riot cops, particularly assaultive weapons like rubber bullets, water cannons, stun grenade cannisters, & in some places like Palestine & Kashmir, live ammunition. In 2010, the Indian army began using pellet guns in Kashmir. They claimed they were moving to “non-lethal weapons” to quell anti-India protests. Pellet guns use hydraulic force to pump out hundreds of pellets at a time which become embedded & can cause permanent blindness & disfigurement as well as fatal injuries by destroying vital organs. Because of the scattershot nature of buckshot, many children & passersby are also blinded & injured.

The buckshot is made of lead & the deleterious health effects of that metal are not mitigated in pellet form. There are actually restrictions in the US on the use of lead pellets in hunting because of its negative impact on birds & the environment.

Pellet guns were also used in the 2011 Bahrain uprising when the regime hired two supercops, one from the UK & one from the US, to organize security. Pellet guns were part of their arsenal & there are dozens of photos of protesters riddled with buckshot–many which cannot be removed. The lethality & barbarism of the weapon are beyond dispute.

The photo is an X-ray of Amir Kabir Beigh, a 22-year-old Kashmiri, showing dozens of lead pellets embedded in his skull. Looks like they were directing the pellet gun directly at this eyes & head. And it looks like documentation for human rights & war crimes against Kashmiris by the Indian army.

Today Kashmir is considered the most densely militarized zone in the world administered & occupied by over 700,000 Indian soldiers. Since the 1990s, the death toll from political conflict has risen to 70,000, with an estimated 100,000 tortured & 10,000 disappeared.

Things are not going to improve for Kashmiri justice under Modi, India’s new reactionary prime minister. His close political association with apartheid Israel bodes very badly. Colonial wars eat at the very soul of a society, engendering extreme violence at home & abroad unless they are actively opposed & international solidarity extended to the people of Kashmir.

Our fullest solidarity with the people of Kashmir.

(Photo by Abid Bhat)

The vilifying of immigrants

Syrian children refugees (Dimitar Dilkoff:AFP:Getty Images) July 17 2015

Vilifying immigrants & refugees isn’t just a staple of right-wing talk radio in the US or boneheads like Donald Trump. The US government has used it for at least 130 years to justify discrimination against immigrant groups. Inflammatory accusations played a big role in drug policy & prohibition–first against Chinese immigrants & opium; then against Black Americans moving north from Jim Crow (US form of apartheid) & cocaine; & against Mexicans & marijuana. The problem was not their high rates of addiction; on the contrary, studies showed low rates. But associating them with excessive drug use allowed associating, especially Blacks & Mexicans, with orgies & rape of white women. As contemptible & stupid as Trump is, he is repeating ancient racist & xenophobic verities cooked up in the US Bureau of Narcotics, testified to in the US Congress, & promoted in the NY Times.

Those of us outside European countries & Australia can only imagine what their xenophobes are peddling against immigrants. But as anyone who has studied the development of legislation & proscription against immigration knows, all of these countries collaborate on policy, formulate them to suit national circumstances, & likely suck at the same trough for hateful propaganda. Social hatred is fundamental to divide & conquer & working people have been held in its stranglehold for too long. There is no way around the iron law of social transformation that “an injury to one is an injury to all.” That’s all she wrote!

The dislocation of entire families from their homelands is primarily a phenomenon of war & catastrophe & is now a central feature of immigration. Nothing puts the lie more quickly to the hateful rubbish immigrants are subjected to than the massive presence of small children in the millions of refugees around the world–& not just small children with parents, but unaccompanied minors.

These children are Syrian refugees queueing up at an immigration center in Serbia to apply for asylum & get documents allowing them to stay for 72 hours. Children are the face of modern immigration all over this world, including those crossing the US-Mexican border. Perhaps hardened misanthropes & right-wing psychos don’t give a damn what happens to kids, but most working people do. And we need evangelize for the rights of immigrants to cross borders unimpeded because the welfare of children is now central to the human right of immigration–& the Obama regime is not the only one to flout that.

Immigration is a human right. Open the borders!

(Photo by Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images)