There have been news blackouts on the refugee crises all over the world. That’s an extraordinary, almost criminal omission when you know that over 60 million people are now on the move, displaced by wars, persecution, & neoliberal economic policies involving land theft for mining & agribusiness, sweatshops, & child labor. They’re running from the killing fields of neoliberalism, the barbaric phase of capitalism.

It’s a humanitarian & political crisis involving tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors from Central America crossing the US border–with no coverage in local or national news; involving hundreds of thousands crossing the Mediterranean from Africa–with no coverage of the African diaspora, most importantly if FRONTEX naval operations have rescued thousands from drowning. In the past few years on that route, over 25,000 drowned, making the Mediterranean a crime scene for which European Union (EU) officials still should face prosecution. Media reporting on the FRONTEX operation is locked down tighter than a drum so we don’t know what’s going on–except for a few reports of drownings.

Since winter began, media reports of the Turkey to Greece diaspora from the Middle East went down to almost nothing, giving the impression that the crisis had abated. In fact, according to the UN refugee agency, the number of crossings since January 1st of this year is nine times what it was a year ago. In January 2015, 5,560 arrived by sea; already this year, 46,121 have arrived. Drownings in the Aegean have increased to 149 just this month, 45 this past week alone when their boats sank near the Greek islands.

Using a deft switch & bait technique, EU officials try to dump the blame on human traffickers for the drownings. Why aren’t FRONTEX ships & Greek & Turkish coast guard ships out there on constant search & rescue missions? Why are they allowing refugees to travel in plastic rafts rather than sending ferries to carry them safely? Truth of the matter is, human traffickers wouldn’t be in business if the EU wasn’t throwing up dangerous obstacles for refugees fleeing war.

Perhaps the most damning feature of the EU response to this massive crisis (& this prevails on the US-Mexican border also) is the governmental refusal to provide any kind of assistance to the refugees. The food, shelter, medical aid, thermal blankets, & human kindness they receive comes entirely from volunteer groups & local residents while regimes do the policing & enforce impediments to asylum–separating refugees by nationalities & asylum seekers from those to be deported; fingerprinting & documenting; bussing them (especially single men) to detention centers. UN officials seem to function primarily as high-paid bean counters & have made themselves useful by keeping a daily count–at least of the Middle East diaspora.

These news blackouts are a political choice by media, a method of dehumanizing refugees so that regimes can blither on without challenge about ISIS & terrorists sneaking across the borders in the guise of refugees.

This photojournalist has an album from the current winter trek of refugees. He headed for the Serbia-Macedonia border to document how refugees were coping with -20C/-4F temperatures in snow conditions & with “wind so strong you have to walk backwards into it.” He said “The wind was so noisy that the migrants weren’t able to talk to each other. Many of them were crying from the cold. I was speechless.”

We’re speechless too. And outraged. The refugee crises are a challenge to the very foundations of human civilization. If, like our governments, we were unwilling to render human solidarity, we would align ourselves with the forces of barbarism. But every inch of the way, refugees have encountered the kindness of strangers who recognize a human being when they see one & think that matters. Now the task remains to bring our political solidarity into accord with our humanitarian assistance.

Immigration is a human right. Open the borders.

(Photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters)

I had to block my own niece today on Facebook after she brought my adrenalin to the boiling point. My entire family, with some exceptions, is conservative & have always objected to my politics. Producing a socialist from a clan of right-wingers is one of nature’s sarcasms. My aunts & uncles are all Republicans but still beloved to me. I would never be disrespectful to them in language or attitude–nor have they ever been disrespectful to me, despite their disapproval. But when you’re a socialist people sometimes think they can take liberties & get outright insulting. That doesn’t work for me, especially coming from someone who combines insolence & ignorance with bad politics.

I must be out of the socialists for Bernie Sanders loop since the national March for Bernie came & went yesterday & I didn’t hear a peep about it till it ended. They say it took place in 35 cities but was postponed on the east coast due to inclement weather. Good thing nature intervened since it appears they were sidewalk events most places–though sizable in a few. The indomitable antiwar movement hasn’t drawn sizable crowds for a long time either so no one ridicules a movement for size. Only for folly.

This photo shows the softer, gentler side of EU refugee policy. This refugee mother & child in Tabanovce, Macedonia near the border with Serbia were given thermal blankets for the 180 km/113 mi walk in freezing temperatures from the Greek-Macedonia border. You don’t see humanitarian largesse like that every day.

The blankets were likely given to them by volunteer groups since the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) appears to spend most of its time hand-wringing & shaking the naughty finger about the crisis.

This is a child tobacco worker in the US where child labor is legal for industrial farmworkers & where there are an estimated 800,000 child farmworkers. In 2012, an initiative from the Department of Labor (DoL) to institute protective & safety laws for child farmworkers was vigorously opposed by the Obama administration which mandated the DoL never raise the issue again. Neither of the US labor federations did a thing to oppose this. Obama’s politics are a seamless whole–from war & drone bombing to child welfare.

Kashmir, the other Intifada: without identification, it would be impossible to distinguish this photo of Kashmiri opposition to Indian military occupation from one of Palestinian opposition to the Israeli occupation. These youth are protesting today in Srinagar against the murders of 20-year-old Shariq Ahmad Bhat & 25-year-old Parvez Ahmad Guroo on Wednesday & Indian police are firing tear gas & rubber bullets to disperse them.

There is a political, economic, & military nexus between India & Israel that inextricably links the struggles for self-determination of Palestinians & Kashmiris. In 2014, bilateral trade between the two countries, excluding military sales, stood at almost US $5 billion, including $45 million in blood diamonds from Israel. (The breakdown is exports from India to Israel: $2,241 billion & exports from Israel to India: $2,286 plus the $45 million in diamonds.)

In one of the comic ironies of politics, Larry Summers, the former head of Harvard University who gained ignominy claiming women had inferior intellects, now publicly opposes BDS as “deplorable.” Perhaps for Israeli propaganda, beggars can’t be choosers. You take the political losers you can get.

As an illustration of how Israel uses culture & celebrities to legitimize colonialism, they’ve enlisted the actor Michael Douglas to join Natan Sharansky for a speaking tour of US campuses to address “heightened anti-Israel activity on campus” & to talk about Israel & the Jewish people “at a time when certain individuals & groups in the academic community as well as other forces are making sustained efforts to delegitimize Israel.” Do you think they might mean Palestinians & BDS? Golly it sure sounds like it.