There are so many “leftists” turned libertarian who openly support Trump & also post about Standing Rock. They’ll have to make a choice now since you can’t have it both ways.

Political degeneration is hell to watch.

Do you think they’re trying to have Trump wipe out the Bill of Rights through Executive Orders in the first few weeks before criminal & impeachment charges catch up with him?

Do we need a revolution this week?

2nd anniversary of death of Egyptian revolutionist Shaimaa al-Sabbagh

Shaimaa al-Sabbagh (Islam Osman-Youm El Sabea:Reuters)  Jan 25 2017

Yesterday was the 2nd anniversary of the death of 33-year-old Shaimaa al-Sabbagh, a socialist activist from Alexandria, Egypt who was peacefully marching with a group of less than 20 people to Tahrir Square in Cairo to lay a wreath in tribute to the thousands of activists killed in the 2011 uprising which had been decisively reversed by the military in July 2013.

As soon as the memorial procession set out behind a banner, masked riot police blasted the group with tear gas & pellet guns from across the street to disperse them. Sabbagh was shot in the back of the head, neck, & side of her face & died from shotgun pellet injuries to the heart & lungs & bleeding from the chest. Other participants also sustained pellet injuries but no one was killed.

The man frantically holding Sabbagh up is Sayyid Abu el-Ela, a personal & political friend of hers. He carried her across the street out of the line of fire & placed her on the sidewalk as she died.
Since the defeat of the revolution in July 2013, the killing of protesters has become a regular occurrence. The day after Sabbagh’s death was January 25th, the 4th anniversary of the uprising, & at least 20 more protesters were killed; several others were killed across Egypt on following days.

Since her death, Shaimaa al-Sabbagh has become a symbol of continuing opposition to Egypt’s military junta. It is far too early for libertarians & cynics to write their jubilant requiems for the Arab revolutions against dictatorship. The seething & continuing defiance may explain the extreme barbarism & attempts to destroy the revolutions in Yemen & Syria by carpet bombing & by extreme repression in Bahrain.

Long live the Arab revolutions. Our tribute to those who died in the momentous struggles for democracy.

(Photo by Islam Osman/Reuters)

6th anniversary of Egyptian Revolution which overthrew Mubarak

Tahrir Square Jan 25 2011 (EPA)

Today is the 6th anniversary of the Egyptian Revolution which overthrew Hosni Mubarak 18 days later on February 11th after 30 years of dictatorial rule.

The very next day after Mubarak’s ouster Global Research began its campaign against the Arab Spring denouncing the uprisings as funded by US agencies & staged by undercover US operatives. Their right-wing treacheries became full-blown in denunciations of the Syrian Revolution, which began March 2011, & continue till today. They’ve never been able to explain how the US got millions of Egyptians, Bahrainis, Yemenis, Syrians to play revolution, to get their heads beat in or submit to torture, incarceration, disappearance, execution.

It is Egyptian working people who will write the next chapter of their revolution. Did they ever say it was over? No one underestimates the weight of General Sisi’s counter-revolution–the toll it takes on the human spirit & that repression takes on political action. A force as powerful as the Egyptian Revolution may be set back, even for a while, as they recoup & assess the reasons for the defeat. But it will rise again more aware of the treacheries used to defeat them & more steeled in battle.

General Sisi’s regime clearly does not share libertarian cynicism about the future of the revolution or regime repression would not be so extreme & violent. Nor would he have marked the 6th anniversary of the revolution by closing the Sadat metro station leading to Tahrir Square.

The photo is Tahrir Square on January 25, 2011. Was there ever a more glorious sight for the oppressed around the world?

Right-wing sneer against the Women’s Marches of over 3 million people on every continent: So they march against Trump but didn’t against Obama’s wars?

Righteous left sneer against the new surge of activists since Trump’s election: So they march against Trump but didn’t against Obama’s wars?

That’s what happens when cynicism replaces wisdom & patience in politics. People move when they’re ready, not when you snap your fingers.

Filipino human rights activists on Duterte’s death squads

EJK Not OK (from FB wall of Salvador Cariaga) Jan 25 2017

Whose judgement of Duterte carries more weight? Those from other countries who also support Assad? Or that of Filipino human rights activists?

Salvador Cariaga, whose Facebook wall is committed to campaigning against Duterte’s extrajudicial killings (EJK), posted this on his wall (Digong is a nickname for Duterte):

Digong: “My god I hate drugs.”
God: “I am God, I hate killers.”

(EJK meme from Salvador Cariaga)

Time to undue the damage of “left” analysis of Venezuela government

Now that all the uncritical supporters of the Venezuelan government have become full-blown Assadists, we can get back to basics, not to mention reality, in assessing the character of the Venezuelan government & the mass protests against it.

We’re so used to their vituperations against us on Assad that when they start in defending Maduro it will be like white noise. They’ve picked up that unfortunate intellectual habit of sucking up to power so de rigueur to Stalinist politics.

People think Stalinism died with the collapse of the Soviet Union. We can call it anything you like but the term signifies a political method that’s still alive & strong, particularly in assessments of Latin American neoliberal regimes & most certainly in Syria.

The killing fields of war in Iraq & Syria

Mosul Iraq Jan 24 2017 (REUTERS:Ahmed Jadallah) Jan 24 2017

Mosul, Iraq, where the current siege by nearly 110,000 Iraqi & US-coalition soldiers against 5,000 ISIS fighters is in its fourth month:
Hard to tell the difference between what Assadists call the “liberation” of east Aleppo from emancipation US-style in Mosul from Armageddon.

That’s why principled antiwar activists demand the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all foreign military operatives, lock, stock, & barrel.

The historic imperative remains: rebuild the international antiwar movement.

(Photo from Reuters)

That hating on liberals crap

That hating on liberal schtick wears thin real fast yet some never tire of it. It’s become the gestalt in some circles. As a socialist & an activist, let me say frankly that I’ve seen a whole lot more liberals make important contributions to social transformation than the types who fritter their political energies denouncing them.

My suggestion would be to find something positive to commit to–like building opposition to Trump’s assaults–& stop blaming liberals for everything. You’ll get things done for justice & meet some marvelous liberals on the front lines, & maybe, just maybe, get over the attitude.

On slum evictions & slum arsons under neoliberal urban policy

Nepalese Dalit child evicted from slum ((Photo by Bikash Dware:Reuters) Jan 24 2017

This heart-rending photo from May 2012 showed up on my newsfeed because I posted about it on January 24, 2013. The little guy is holding his baby sister after riot police in Kathmandu, Nepal forcibly evicted Dalit families who had set up an illegal settlement in an area targeted for gentrification.

The government of Nepal which took power in 2008 is often heralded as socialist by those who think the Soviet Union under Stalin represented the highest achievements of human civilization rather than a new form of barbarism.

Nepal’s government achieved power by talking socialism but began working with the IMF, World Bank, & multinational agribusiness interests & instead of delivering equality are imposing neoliberal economic policies which require rural land expropriations & privatization of public lands for development purposes. “Development” meaning upscale condos & shopping malls, resorts, golf courses, swank offices for multinational investors, sweatshops. These slum evictions began early under the so-called socialist government.

For many years, I’ve written about forcible slum evictions & slum fires for purposes of neoliberal development & always wondered why no intrepid investigative journalists were pursuing the story. Slum fires are a constant in Bangladesh, India, & the Philippines; forcible slum evictions are a constant in Nepal, Cambodia, Nigeria, Brazil, & several other countries.

Serendipitously I saw this post today on the FB wall of Meena Kandasamy in India who says his source is “highly reliable”:

“Slums are being hunted down, ransacked, burnt & the people are beaten down. Many people are missing. Police are still at Pattinapakkam, Nadukuppam, Nochikuppam slums & picking up people & thrashing them. There is no media coverage, & the blackout of information is because the media is being taken over by the state.
“Poor slum people are becoming the target. Police themselves are burning their vehicles. They also have orders to open fire.”

This is the first time, after years of following this, I’ve seen reports of violence against slum residents except, of course, in those several countries where they physically resist forcible eviction & face down bulldozers–most notably but not only in the Philippines. Now in the Philippines, forcible slum evictions dovetail with Duterte’s vigilante war on poor people & have made them even more violent toward residents.

Investigating these slum evictions & fires would be a dangerous assignment because one would be messing with the the thuggish forces of the real estate industry (we’re talking Trump) but that has not stopped human rights groups in several countries from doing so.

Slum evictions are a big component of neoliberal urban economic policies & human rights advocates should be paying careful attention to what is going on.

(Photo by Bikash Dware/Reuters)