“The excuse for internet is that some are going to spread rumours. What rumours? That Kashmir has been under lockdown for last 150 days? That unilateral revocation of 370 has happened? That sitting parliamentarians and nationalists thought they were now entitled to Kashmiri women? That young kids are in Jails? That we have incurred an economical loss of 2.5 Billion USD? That Kashmir is cut-off from the world? That Indian media was rejoicing when this was happening? That there were celebrations when we were being terrorised? That there is no legal relationship now? Are those rumours or the harsh reality?.

If anyone thinks K-Dispute is over just because a piece of paper was signed by non-Kashmiris, let the dust settle down and whatever bloodshed there would be, the public that was in favour of it will be completely complicit in it.”

–Kashmiri Zachriah Sulayman

Indian capitalism is trying to figure out how to restore the internet in Kashmir for trade, commerce, & government purposes whilst keeping it shut down for reporting news & social media. They’ve likely hired electronic whizzes who can outsmart Kashmiri youth who made them eat dust by using VPN technology to bypass internet shutdowns imposed several times before. We may not see our Kashmiri friends back on social media for a long time, or ever, since India has cooperation from social media companies. But India is not the first country that tried to hide its barbarous criminality from the world. The former Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, the British Raj, US & European colonialists, modern day China, Syria, Israel, Burma, US-NATO, the many countries waging war & genocide against Indigenous tribes, all work(ed) tirelessly to hide their gulags, slaughter, torture, assassinations, divisive meddling & terrorist acts, drug & human trafficking, concentration camps, persecution of ethnic & religious groups. But resistance to tyranny is a relentless, indomitable force, no more so than in Kashmir, Palestine, & Syria. Just as Russians under Stalinism created clandestine samizdat literature, as Syrian activists used social media, as Kashmiris used VPN technology, we should continue to demand the full restoration of the internet in Kashmir & India whilst being confident that until that happens, Kashmiri activists will find ways to keep us informed of what is going on, even if international media has abandoned their posts in Kashmir as they long ago did in Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Somalia, Libya. If Kashmiris know we stand with them, they will be heartened & will continue to lead historic resistance to oppression with or without social media.

“in a world where women laborers have to remove their uterus so that they do not lose 4 days wages: is a world of the very unjust economy that needs annexation of the land of Kashmir on one hand, and domination of minorities on the other. while religion might give it a body to inhabit, it is rank capitalism which has no religion except profit.”

–Kashmiri Ather Zia

The southern border of Texas along the Mexican border is a subtropical zone, usually hotter than hell. But this winter has been a very cold one. US & Mexican border patrol used to allow refugees & asylum seekers from all over the world to line up in the (albeit) limited shelter of the international bridges. But in the past few months, under Trump’s Remain in Mexico program, they forcibly removed them to camps on the Mexican side where it is just as cold as south Texas since inclement weather does not respect the border wall.

According to some estimates, there are over 50,000 refugees waiting to be processed for asylum along the 2,000 mile border from Texas to California with US immigration officials resorting to cynical & contemptible ploys to discourage & deny them asylum. One Mexican official said Mexican border patrol was trying to get refugees to leave the camps & enter shelters. What shelters would those be since the few shelters that exist in border cities are run by charities & are already packed to the rooftops? Mexico has made no attempt to construct temporary shelters against the bitter cold or in the summer against intolerable heat or to protect refugees from the drug cartels.

The border towns are extremely dangerous since they are controlled by the criminal drug cartels. Transiting Mexico has long been especially dangerous for refugees who along the over 1,000 mile route are robbed, raped, kidnapped, tortured, mutilated, murdered, & dumped in mass graves or on public highways as a warning. Thousands of Americans used to cross the bridges daily for shopping in Mexico but now most of the cities are considered too dangerous. Humanitarian workers in the refugee camps, many who cross from the US despite the dangers, report that the cartels are victimizing women & children in the border camps, including raping, kidnapping, & forcing them into prostitution.

There is no security nor medical care provided by either Mexico or the US & volunteer medical staff (including a Cuban doctor seeking asylum) report treating refugees for epileptic seizures, appendicitis, heart attacks, asthma, & conditions caused by the squalid conditions of the camps like upper-respiratory tract infections, pneumonia, flu, skin conditions such as scabies, & rape.

Immigration is a human right. Asylum for refugees is international law based on human practices going back millennia. Open the damn borders. No human being is alien to us.

(Photo is refugees waiting on one of the international bridges before they were all forcibly removed. From Politicus, 2018)

The refugee detention centers are more properly called concentration camps. May the little ones Rest In Peace. How many more before we coalesce a national movement in defense of immigration & refugee rights?

That 2019 ended & 2020 begins with a resurgence of the Arab Spring uprisings in several countries, including massive Iraqi protests against the US presence & storming the fortified Green Zone (the largest US compound in the world filled with diplomats, CIA operatives, troops), is one of the most hopeful political signs that US-European colonial policies in the Middle East will be defeated.

US-NATO forces must be routed & decisively defeated if we are to have peace on earth & an end to war & genocide. No to the so-called ‘war on terror’ which is the modern justification for militarism, occupation, genocide.

It’s only an hour till 2019 ends & the new year begins. 2019 has been a hell of a year & 2020 won’t be any better unless we figure out the root of all this chaos & put up a sustained, coordinated international fight to end it. The future of humanity is at stake so we don’t have much of a choice. A big part of the problem is the political & theoretical bankruptcy of so-called leaders. Not government leaders whose corruption is a given but ideologues corrupted by careerism, elitism, compromise, Assadism, Stalinism, hating on Muslims & Jews. The leaden passivity & provincialism of working people in places like the US is a problem but that can change decisively when they begin to reject their compromised, white supremacist leadership. In Palestine, Kashmir, India, Syria, Iraq, the new Arab Spring uprisings, & some countries in Latin America, working people are the heart of the struggle & the political model for fearless resistance to oppression & inequality. Standing with them four-square is imperative because they lead the way forward for all suffering humanity. Solidarity is not noblesse oblige; it is the iron law of social transformation against capitalism in its barbaric phase.

Our mission is to build a society suitable for children to come of age in, for human beings to live & love in. Happy New Year 2020.

Ringing in the new year with massive protests against Indian fascism.

Only God knows how they did it, but the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society & the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons have published a human rights review for Kashmir from January 1st to December 31st, 2019.

http://jkccs.net/annual-human-rights-review-2019-2/?