Protests erupted in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Friday (Dec. 5th) demanding the resignation of former death squad member & president Michel Martelly & prime minister Laurent Lamothe, so palsy-walsy with Sean Penn. Protesters also accused the US of supporting the despised regime.

To prevent being ousted by popular vote, the Martelly regime has postponed elections since 2011 so they can rule by dictate. Media has shown some protesters holding up signs reading “Vladimir Putin, Please Help Us!” They wouldn’t be the only ones in the world confused by the political character of Putin. Volumes of nonsense is being written in his defense. Haitians would not need to turn to this disreputable, undemocratic politician if solidarity against decades of US military & economic intervention were stronger in this country, if it existed outside of a few cities.

This is where you see the value of racism in US foreign policy. Haiti was the first Black republic in the world, created in 1804 when an army of slaves defeated the army of Napoleon & became independent. That tradition of political resistance & intransigence has not been defeated. But it has also not been victorious against the armies of neoliberal plunder.

The US cannot let a Black-led republic prosper anymore than it can let a socialist country like Cuba survive. Such success up close & personal in the same hemisphere would lay to rest all the rancid lies taught US schoolchildren about the character of Blacks & about the character of socialism. Combined, this would shake the foundations of neoliberalism, the barbaric phase of capitalism, & possibly wield a death blow.

Both Clintons & the weasel Penn have worked with Martelly & Lamothe to turn Haiti into a sweatshop nation. It becomes tiresome to reiterate that solidarity in the US & around the world can help turn that situation around, can help the Haitian people throw off the yoke of tyranny & drive the US out. But that is the case. And that is the mission to create.

(Photo of protest in Port-au-Prince by Dieu Nalio Chery/AP)

How is it possible the death of former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier passed by without notice on October 4th? This deserves a celebratory obituary featuring his criminal rap sheet. He was a worthless bum, murderous criminal, loathsome thieve, international drug trafficker, merchant of Haitian body parts for profit, & close collaborator of Bill Clinton & Sean Penn–the great white saviors of neoliberal plunder in Haiti.

Here he is on his return from exile surrounded by armed guards lest the forces of Haitian justice catch up with his sorry ass. The Haitian people ran him out of the country in 1986 but his US-supporters sponsored his return, which was armed & less than triumphal, in January 2011. He was a paltry soul who committed massive crimes against the Haitian people & was supported & protected by the US.

US oligarchs hide themselves so we’re hoodwinked into believing we live in a classless, egalitarian society. Getting a load of Duvalier who strutted his class gives us an idea of what they’re like: insular, stupid, indolent, cruel, unable to function without minions, willing to commit the most egregious crimes for profit.

There isn’t much to say about him. Cockroaches have more emotional & spiritual depth–& far more value. Except good riddance. Break out the champagne. Let’s party. There is a certain let-down to the celebrations since he never had to face justice before the Haitian people. This is when you hope there’s a hell.

When the partying is over it’s long-since time to commit ourselves to solidarity with the Haitian people so they can throw off the shackles of tyranny & in the style of St. Patrick, chase the snakes out of Haiti.

(Photo by AFP)

It’s traditional in the banality of US electoral rituals for candidates to play coy about whether they’re running or not. That gives them time to scope out Wall Street & Hollywood to see how much dough they can raise. It’s like a horse race for undeclared candidates but the race is fixed.

The Republicans are now selecting from a range of idiots who will provide nothing so much as hilarity & farce. Who can ever forget Paul Ryan or Herman Cain? The Democrats are pitting Hillary Clinton against Elizabeth Warren & although neither is likely to provide many laughable moments, it’s only because their politics are more treacherous. While they may represent an alternative to idiocy they do not represent an alternative in policy. War & austerity programs will continue whoever wins. US neoliberalism, the barbaric phase of capitalism, will just be managed by a different team.

So today I declare my candidacy for President of the US in the 2016 elections. Why play coy? It can’t be said my campaign for governor of Texas was a crack, bang up job because it was run by the seat of my pants. Many Texas socialists are the sort that vote Democrat & were unwilling to help me get speaking engagements. I don’t see any reason in the world why that should deter me or why I shouldn’t think big & expect better of socialists around the country. Cause if socialists can’t learn to work together on something so simple as an election campaign they can just bend over & kiss their asses goodbye.

I would like help because I have to file formal papers & all that jazz & will need to raise funds & get help to speak at venues other than on the border with Mexico. But today I throw my hat in the ring. Bring it on!

“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, & to steal bread.”

– Anatole France

This is 3-year-old Jaidyn Walker from Atlanta at a “die-in” in White Plains, NY just north of NYC in Westchester County. For the second night in a row thousands of protesters are filling the streets & bridges of NYC & cities across the US to protest the decision to let the murderous cop who strangled Eric Garner to death walk free. There were no ambiguities in this case, no confusions about what happened since the murder was videotaped from start to finish. The opacity of the grand jury decision & likely prosecutorial misconduct has not yet been sliced & diced as the Michael Brown grand jury decision to show the arrant racism & social hatred involved.

The question must be asked: has the US ruling class lost its mind? Does it really think it can get away with this forever without a massive countermovement of justice? Does it think the thousands of protests across this country will eventually dissipate & they can go back to shooting unarmed Black teens without consequences?

This is where the media plays such an invaluable role by playing stupid & doing the incredulity thing about cop terrorism in the Black community. Just one case in point (out of many) would be the Judy Woodruff newscast on PBS, the corporate-funded channel that like NPR pretends to intellectualism. Woodruff, a very long-time reporter, asked NY Times reporter David Brooks & some other middle-aged jamoke just how widespread cop violence actually is against unarmed Black teens. The question came after airing extensive footage of protests across the US. The protesters are the ones who would know & who any self-respecting investigative reporter would interview. David Brooks is an effete, privileged, right-winger; a disciple of Milton Friedman; a person who believes humans derive from killer apes; a man who attributes his conservatism to his time as a crime reporter in Chicago; a right-wing Zionist who supported Israel’s Operation Ethnic Cleansing in Gaza & doesn’t recognize the humanity of Palestinians; a man whose home is a suburban villa & lives the yachting life. What the hell would he know? Or should we ask, what the hell does he have to say that’s worth a rat’s ass?

But that is the (let’s be frank) scummy way media tries to cover for police terrorism in the Black community–bringing on reporters that don’t look psycho & so can say the most rancid lies & make them credible.

The main way the voices of justice are heard is in the streets collectively demanding justice by shutting this country down if need be. And the time for “need be” has arrived. We can’t breathe in a society based on social hatred & oppression. Shut it down.

(Photo by Adrees Latif/Reuters)

Though out of the headlines, protests continue in Mexico against the disappearance of 43 student teachers & in Hong Kong despite police attacks to shut down the democracy encampments. Now the US has erupted with protest over the impunity of killer cops going after unarmed Blacks. If we look at the world in the past several years, we see massive protests everywhere that shake the foundations of the status quo. Though none yet have brought it down. There were massive anti-austerity protests throughout Europe followed by the Occupy movement & by the Arab uprisings in several countries; there were protests in Turkey, Brazil, Chile, Russia, India, the Philippines, & many smaller eruptions in other countries. Many of these protests sustain now for years.

Cynics look at this & claim nothing good has come from all that protest. Tyranny was shaken but remains intact so there’s not much purpose to social protest. It would be better if cynics kept their traps shut since their vision is so tainted by pessimism. They’re a drag to be around. What they don’t see is that these eruptions in Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia, & the US expose the systemic crisis of neoliberalism, the barbaric phase of capitalism. Its predations have created such inequality, such human suffering, such unbearable economic, social, & political conflict they cannot be contained or managed even with countless wars.

These social explosions will continue because the global system is in profound crisis & unable to maneuver out & it’s methods remain greater austerity attacks on working people & wholesale assaults on democratic rights–most importantly the right of protest–to limit the ability of working people to resist.

It’s undeniable the massive mobilizations have not produced regime or systemic change. And where they have, as in Egypt, they have been out-maneuvered by the forces of reaction combining to reverse the gains. That doesn’t mean political resistance to tyranny & neoliberal predation is all for naught. It means the decaying system still has plenty of force left & a determination to survive at all costs so its power & treacheries cannot be underestimated. It means massive protests can be insufficient to the task of social change if there is no program for action developed & a leadership forged & selected that is uncompromising with tyranny & doesn’t confuse its enemies with its allies–like those who thought the military in Egypt could play a progressive transformative role. These are hard lessons to learn; no one can get on their high horse if major mistakes have been made.

A program for action means figuring out what is required to end tyranny once & for all, what is needed to address the injustices & inequalities in society, what would a humane society look like, who the shysters are & who the men & women capable of building a solid movement, of uniting discordant voices & visions & of standing strong against blandishments or belligerence from the ruling elites. In short social transformation is a complex process requiring the best we have to give. Sometimes it seems evolutionary–until revolutionary becomes imperative.

All that’s certain is that society cannot carry on as it is with neoliberal regimes running the planet into the ground for private profit & creating such massive overwhelming human suffering. Somethings gotta give but it won’t without a shove. We live in momentous times, stressful times, but the crisis of neoliberalism opens up possibilities for social transformation–real possibilities. And the sine qua non of that transformation is international solidarity: “an injury to one is an injury to all.”