Colonization continues by Mir Suhail Qadiri

via Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy – Pipfpd India

As much as I try to avoid rancorous disputes on social media, not long ago I took exception to an Indian socialist group posting an article by Slavoj Zizek who on several occasions has expressed Islamophobic & xenophobic opposition to refugees in Europe. The admins of the page said his insights as a ‘dialectical logician & philosopher’ were invaluable to them & despite his hatred for refugees, they gave him ‘conditional support’, a term they were unable to define. One fellow called me a white liberal for criticizIng Zizek & actually defended the xenophobia. He said small European nations steeped in old European customs are very homogeneous & that an influx of refugees would be catastrophic & play into the politics of the far right.

Well we certainly wouldn’t want to interrupt old European folk dances or beer festivals, but there are hundreds of thousands of refugees who need asylum & their needs & rights come first. Any ‘dialectical logician’ who can talk his ass around the human rights of refugees is a bullshit artist, not a figure of theoretical respect. Don’t give me that white liberal crap because if you are defending white supremacy in Europe, you are in collusion with the far right.

Now another socialist tells me my objection to lesser evil politics, to voting for candidates like Sanders is because I’m a white person who can’t understand the impact of US elections on non-white people. This is the same fellow I unfriended for ridiculing the Women’s March of millions of women on every continent by calling it a ‘pussy parade’. I don’t know if this fellow has ever marched against India’s occupation of Kashmir but I have been organizing antiwar actions against US wars for nearly 54 years. In that time, the commanders-in-chief were both Democrats & Republicans. There was never a modicum of difference in the military policies pursued by the twin parties of US capitalism. How could a socialist so misunderstand the relationship of militarism & war to capitalism that he believes Bernie Sanders can make a difference? How can he campaign for a candidate who, like Zizek, opposes asylum for refugees & also supports Israel?

Racism & white supremacy are pernicious & prominent influences in world politics. To mock the problem by white-baiting people who disagree with you over dialectics or elections is theoretical bankruptcy, a willingness to cow people when you cannot cogently answer them. White-baiting is a common Stalinist ploy & quite frankly it’s pathetic. But mostly it demeans the urgent struggle against white supremacy which includes standing with refugees. If you don’t stand with refugees over those damn clog dances, you may be a redneck.

So glad campaigning for Sanders gives the socialists something to do. Most of them haven’t been off their rumps for decades, if ever, to organize against war, for refugees, for women’s rights. If the future of humanity rested on these unfortunate souls, we could kiss our asses goodbye.

When Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Yao Jing said China will continue to support Pakistan on Kashmir, it is not the same as saying China will support Kashmiri self-determination. It’s an assertion of China’s right to control the Ladakh region of Jammu & Kashmir which has been at dispute between China, Pakistan, & India since 1947.

As the map shows, Ladakh belonging to Kashmiris, East Turkistan (Xinjiang) home to the Uyghur, & Chinese-occupied Tibet have contiguous borders. China considers Ladakh as part of Aksai Chin. As China sees it, the region has economic, social, military, & political importance. Thus human rights & national sovereignty are of no consequence.

It would be invaluable for Kashmiris to give us some insight into the relationship of Ladakh to the struggle for Kashmiri self-determination.

Yesterday, Bharatiya Janata Party National General Secretary Ram Madhav, with a BJP scarf around his neck, said Adolf Hitler & Benito Mussolini were the “products of democracy”. Tulsi Gabbard often proudly flaunts that BJP scarf around her neck. She & Sanders the Zionist are the preferred candidates of Assadists & Stalinists. Socialists are gung-ho for Sanders. When I recently objected to the Islamophobia, xenophobia, & racism of Slavoj Zizek, I was told that ‘Marxists’ give him ‘conditional support’. That must be what they’re doing with Gabbard & Sanders: ignoring their supremacist, rightwing views, their Islamophobia, xenophobia against refugees, & racism in deference to electoral rhetoric. There is no such thing in principled socialist politics as ‘conditional support’ to supremacists. We call that compromise, capitulation, collusion, finding common ground.

Here the NY Times tries to walk back the televised comments of Indian Army general Bipin Rawat about concentration camps for Kashmiri kids. The NYT represents a significant section of American capitalism & does not want US military alliances, arms sales, or trade deals with India threatened in any way by India’s fascist excesses in Kashmir.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/17/world/asia/india-kashmir-camps.html?

A lot of commenters are tweeting that concentration camps for Kashmiri kids are a proposal by Indian Army general Bipin Rawat. But all the reports quote him saying ‘de-radicalisation camps are operating in the country’. In terms of trauma & violence, there probably isn’t a lot of difference for the thousands of Kashmiri kids arrested between concentration camps & being tortured in Indian prisons & as far as we know housed with the adult criminal population, including rapists, murderers, nationalists. India is trying to break their spirits, destroy their sanity, torture them, & get them & their families to stop resistance to colonialism & occupation. Standing With Kashmir at a time of genocide does not come with an option.

How do Eva Bartlett & Vanessa Beeley get away with being called independent journalists when they grovel repeatedly over Bashar & Asma Assad, including sending saccharin birthday cards & drooling over how beautiful she is, & exchanging gifts with & writing paeans to Assad’s propaganda minister Bouthaina Shaaban? You can’t fool most people all of the time but you can trust an Assadist to kiss the ass of power all of the time.