It’s true that Twitter disputes are the lowest form of political debate, mostly spit-swapping & pissing contests. But it is truly shattering to see the level of abuse piled on Kashmiris & Palestinians by Zionist & Hindutva loud-mouthes. Women can identify because of the put-downs & violence we face in our daily lives. It’s for sure, you have to develop a thick skin & a steely resolve to stay in the fight against supremacists over the long haul. International solidarity & unity in action make that easier but God bless our Kashmiri & Palestinian sisters & brothers for not standing down.
Daily Archives: February 11, 2020
The White Helmets report that yesterday 28 people in Aleppo & Idlib were killed by Russian war planes that bombed more than 30 areas & towns with 74 airstrikes, 14 barrel bombs, & hundreds of artillery shells.
There has been no antiwar response anywhere in the world to the displacement & slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Syrian civilians, a majority women & children. As Assadist propagandists present it, the White Helmets are harvesting organs from the battlefields & this small child in a squalid IDP camp without food, healthcare, or electricity is gearing up for her al-Qaeda unit to take down the legitimate Assad dictatorship. Does any serious political person really want to argue with that kind of crap?
It is a distraction, become a circus sideshow, to engage in social media disputes with Assadists & Stalinists over whether Syria has or does use chemical weapons against civilians. If you don’t know the science & forensics of chemical warfare, it becomes an exchange of snotty repartee, not a useful debate about military & political realities. The issue of primary importance is that Syria, Russia, Iran, Hezbolah, & US-NATO forces are all engaged in war crimes by bombing civilians with any kind of weapons. The matter before us is how to rebuild a principled antiwar movement that will stand with the Syrian Arab Spring & demand the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all foreign military forces & mercenaries.
(Photo of Syrian child in IDP camp by Esra Hacioglu/Anadolu Agency)
Are there any who want me to comment on Trump’s impeachment? It’s a dog & pony show unlikely to get him removed from office. Or more importantly, unlikely to proceed to a prosecution for denying asylum to refugees, kidnapping their children & putting them in concentration camps, the Muslim ban, several US wars. Short of prosecution, I don’t care what they do with him.
The banal arguments against ‘identity politics’ are taking a beating from Indian Muslims because the realities of oppression don’t comply with the idiocies & ideologies of those who want harmony based on the silence & conformity of the oppressed to the oppressors.
https://thewire.in/rights/shashi-tharoor-muslims-caa-protests?
Apparently, there are some who do not understand the immense distinctions between state sanctions (like those the US imposed on Iraq which led to the deaths of 576,000 Iraqi children from starvation) & boycott movements like BDS & the anti-apartheid boycott of South Africa. Boycotts like BDS are defense for an unarmed people being subjected to genocide. The primary target is corporations doing business with Israel & includes a cultural aspect asking actors, athletes, academics, performers not to legitimize Israeli apartheid, colonialism, genocide. BDS was modeled on the anti-apartheid boycott of South Africa.
State sanctions can be, but are not necessarily, an act of war. US & European sanctions against Burma after the military violently repressed the 1988 uprising & during the Rohingya genocide involved an embargo on selling military arms to Burma. Who could object to those sanctions, especially when Russia, China, Israel, & Pakistan were arming the Burmese generals up to their teeth?
US sanctions against Syria & Iran pale by comparison to those imposed on Iraq because they are extremely limited, focused primarily on some aspects of trade & on freezing assets of wealthy individuals, & because European & other countries do not go along with all of them. That’s because the US, Syria, & Iran are on the same side in Syria in a complex military assault on the Syrian Arab Spring.
Some who confuse state sanctions & boycott movements claim the association of some BDS supporters with Assadism & anti-Semitism has rendered BDS dangerous & irrelevant. Assadists & anti-Semites who leech off Palestinian solidarity do not invalidate the political importance of BDS whilst Palestinians are sustaining genocide. Nor do they render it ineffectual. But they have weakened its impact & growth at a time when it is under legal & political attack. Those who discredit the Palestinian struggle by association with hatred for Jews or support for dictatorships are political weak links & saboteurs. It should not be excluded that many of them are agents provocateurs, like the ‘retired’ CIA, FBI, Pentagon, & US State Department officials who line up for Palestinian solidarity whilst kissing Assad’s ass.
Rohingya activists have initiated a boycott of Burma, Uyghur activists have called for a boycott of China, & many are calling for a boycott of India to end the occupation of Kashmir & the persecution of Indian Muslims. Those boycotts are to be supported as a way to stand with the oppressed & every attempt must be made to keep them from being infiltrated or impugned.
A young Syrian man in Aleppo watches a White Helmet rescue team pull his family from the rubble caused by Syrian & Russian bombing, January 21, 2020.
Demand the immediate cessation of bombing civilians & the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all foreign military forces & mercenaries from Syria.
(Photo by Rami Al-Sayed via Sy24)
After diplomatically & militarily supporting the Rohingya genocide, China is now attempting to broker the deportation of unwilling Rohingya back to Arakan state, Burma. It just signed a multi-billion dollar agreement with Burma involving the massive expropriation of Rohingya property in Arakan & now, in a contemptible gesture, has provided hundreds of shipping containers for Rohingya to live in if they return. Let us just say, if it is not suitable for a Chinese Communist Party bureaucrat to live in, it is not suitable housing for the Rohingya in Arakan state. China is party to the genocide & has no place mediating on behalf of Rohingya refugees.
In a muddy field in western Myanmar, hundreds of Chinese shipping containers fit…
The youngest martyr at the January 21st, 1990 Gawkadal Massacre was 16-year-old Irfan Bhat who took 18 bullets to his chest to shield other protesters from being killed by Indian troops. May he Rest In Peace as we honor him for his contribution to Kashmiri self-determination.
(Photo & information from Raqeeb @RaqeebMushtaq)
This is 24-year-old Abdul Rouf Wani, one of the young Kashmiris present at the January 21st, 1990 Gawkadal Massacre. He was killed by 32 bullets trying to protect other pro-independence protesters from being shot by Indian soldiers. May he Rest In Peace. We honor him for his role in the struggle for Kashmiri self-determination.
–Photo & information from Baba Umar
MC Kash on the Gawkadal Massacre in Kashmir on January 21, 1990, with a tribute to the young men killed protecting others from being shot.