It was the staid NY Times which nearly three weeks ago called Kashmir “a living hell.” That’s really hard to hear even if you have no family there because in an odd way you begin to think of the friends you interact with, based on deep affinities, as family. This genocidal assault on Kashmiris is very personal to thousands of their friends who’ve never met them nor been to Kashmir but who are worried sick about their safety & well-being. That’s why we are not going away & why Kashmiri solidarity is not just internationalized but deeply personal.

“75 people shot by Israeli snipers today on the Gaza border, including 18 children, two women, a paramedic & a journalist.”

#GreatReturnMarch

–Israeli activist Ofer Neiman

Slaughter in Idlib & only a handful of protesters standing against it in Madrid. May it be said, that if Kashmiris were not under lockdown, they would be first to express solidarity with their brothers & sisters in Idlib. Is it a coincidence that they are also vilified as terrorists?

(Photo via Zaher Sahloul)

A Twitter friend is proposing to rent a digital billboard in Times Square to project images of pellet injury victims in Kashmir. It would probably cost millions & be excluded for its political content but I just love people who think big when it comes to solidarity.

Hundreds of Syrian war refugees are protesting today against Turkey, Assad & Russia near the hermetically sealed Turkish border. Our fullest solidarity with them.

Madrid stands with Idlib, now under nearly five months of aerial bombardment by Syrian & Russian war planes using barrel bombs & incendiary weapons. It may be small but it is one of the few protests for Syrians anywhere in the world. Code Pink & the rest of the corrupt US antiwar movement are too involved in defending the abandoned Venezuelan embassy in DC & too supportive of Assad to even make a statement of protest.

A salute to the principled antiwar activists in Madrid. May they lead the way in rebuilding a principled antiwar movement.

(Photo from On The Ground News)

Let me speak frankly: if you call yourself a socialist & have not spoken out about the blockade of Kashmir, the bombing of Idlib, the ongoing genocides against the Rohingya & Palestinians, or any of the US wars, you have made yourself completely irrelevant & ridiculous no matter how knowledgeable you are about historic & more often esoteric disputes. A socialist worthy of that name stands with the oppressed or they are “but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts & frets his hour upon the stage & then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound & fury, signifying nothing.”