Contents:
RAIM Crashes Racist Tea Party
Blackwater Runs Hi-Tech Dirty War in Pakistan
Program of the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Movement
RAIM-Seattle: Reportback from Anti-Olympics Organizing
25th Anniversary of Union Carbine Murders in Bhopal, India (MSH)
Water an Imperialism (MSH)
Black, Latinos, Other Oppressed Nations are Born Stupid, Say Imperialists (MSH)
Review: Arun Gupta asks, ‘What Anti-War Movement?’
RAIM, Others Wreck Zionist-Led War Mongering Against Iran
Review: Arun Gupta Asks, “What Anti-War Movement” (presented by Democracy Now!, September 24th, 2009)
(http://raimd.wordpress.com)
A year after Barack Obama’s presidential election and with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan still raging (and spreading into Pakistan), many within anti-war circles are engaged in dialogue about which way the movement should go. A large part of the problem faced by anti-war activists is that their once relatively large movement is now far smaller and less vibrant. Much focus has been given as to why this is. Many of those still dedicated to the anti-war cause are now taking a critical look at the movement’s preceeding years, attempting to find lessons which can help them recover from a major slump in organizing and mass action.
One such activist is Arun Gupta, editor of the New York City ‘left’-oriented newspaper, the Indypendent. In a speech presented by Democracy Now!, another nominally left media outlet, Arun Gupta attempts to answer some of the hows and whys of the death of the anti-war movement and offers prescriptions for future organizing.
Talking about his background, Gupta says he cut his political teeth as part of solidarity activism for the South African anti-apartheid movement and Latin American struggles. In explaining thoughts at the time about wider radical organizing, Gupta states, “there’s always been this notion that the left would re-found itself into a mass base movement if we only had some sort of imperialist war that we could oppose, something on the scale of Vietnam; that this would radicalize the population enough and it would show the true face of imperialism.” Gupta begins by noting how this never came to fruition.
Gupta on the death of the Amerikan anti-war movement
In attempting to answer why a mass, radical anti-war movement never came into being, Gupta reflects on one of the main US anti-war organizations, United For Peace and Justice (UFPJ). Gupta rightly pegs UFPJ as a shill for the war-mongering Democratic Party, something most remaining Amerikan anti-war activists are aware of. Citing mostly anecdotes and quotes, Gupta describes UFPJ’s role inside the anti-war movement as one of shepherding activists towards the reformist morass of mainstream electoral politics.
After the Democratic Party gained a congressional majority in 2006, UFPJ supporters, including Gupta, were advocating a ‘power of the purse strategy,” urging Democrats to use their federal budgeting power to cut funding to the war. Gupta says the leader of UFPJ, Judith LeBlanc, characterized that strategy, reformist as is was, as being “on the outside shaking our fists,” and told supporters that the way forward was working within the Democratic Party. Gupta also notes how long-time ‘leftists’ such as Carl Davidson, who campaigned for Barack Obama, hailed his presidential victory as a milestone for “class struggle.” According to Gupta, UFPJ and leaders such as Carl Davidson are why the anti-war movement collapsed.
Gupta also says there was a failure on the part of the “great hope” that was the “direct action left,” “anti-globalization movement,” “anarchists,” “student-led groups” and “some of the parties” [most likely referring to the 'Party for Socialism and Liberation' and 'Workers World Party']. Though there was a lot of talk between these groups about reforming and refocusing on anti-war work, he states, “nothing has really come from it.” He dwells little on why this is and fails to examine the politics of any of these groups. Instead, he still thinks they could potentially come together to form a “new, radical, principled anti-war movement.” According to Gupta, because it isn’t happening, UFPJ still maintains power in the passive, anti-war movement which now supports Obama.
Where Gupta gets it wrong
While UFPJ and Carl Davidson helped lead the anti-war movement’s shift towards support for the Democratic Party, Gupta adds no analysis or understandings beyond this. His answer of why the anti-war movement never coalesced into a mass-radical movement is shallow, bordering on conspiratorial. Thus, Gupta misses the point entirely.
From the beginning, the anti-war movement was a largely anti-Bush movement, a domestic reaction to the brash, John Wayne-esque brand of imperialism. There was almost none, if any, focused internationalism coming from the largely pro-Amerika movement. Almost all internationalist actions and slogans were by accident, as parts of the anti-war movement took up anti-militarist causes: one memorable example being when Portland ‘anarchists’ burnt an effigy of a US troop while chanting “Bye bye G.I., in Iraq you’re gonna die.” It is important to note this example was a fringe rejected by the mainstream of Amerikan anti-war sentiment. Moreover, the ‘anarchists’ undertook the action based on liberal anti-militarism, never bridging over towards a long-term, principled stand with the world’s oppressed against imperialism.
One meme to come out of the anti-war movement was that Bush had turned world opinion against the US. Another was that “peace is patriotic.” Hardly internationalist or radical slogans, the anti-war movement peddled the mythology of historic Amerikan greatness and a false picture international fraternity. It actually saw itself as trying to improve Amerika’s image worldwide. More contrived was the anti-war movement’s talk about how the wars are supposedly against the interests of Amerikans. Moaning about ‘our’ wasted tax money was common throughout the anti-war movement. The obvious problem with this is that imperialism, which Amerikans do benefit from, requires imperialist wars. Amerika’s wealth is and always has been based on the oppression of other peoples. Amerikans intuitively understand this and most never joined the anti-war movement.
Into 2005, as the war dragged on, and with Bush’s incompetence and instability in Iraq dominating attention, more Amerikans began seeing the wars as becoming overly costly and offering less in the way of long term returns, even describing them as a burden to Amerika’s interests. However, this is not an anti-imperialist view. Afterall, even ardent imperialists, such as Obama, have described the Iraq war in this light.
In the end, UFPJ didn’t simply act as a pied piper, marching the anti-war movement to grave of the Democratic Party. UFPJ is simply on the same page with those nominally opposed to the war. While Gupta thinks there is mass, radical potential within First World, UFPJ has a better understanding of where most Amerikans stand on. Thus, groups like UFPJ are able to maintain leadership of the anti-war movement despite the appearance of a seemingly radical fringe. The anti-war movement’s shift towards Obama was a natural one, not principally engineered by UFPJ.
Gupta’s “anti-imperialism”
Gupta, under mistaken notions about Amerika and the anti-war movement, says that the way forward is building a mass “anti-imperialist” movement.
From the beginning, Gupta defines imperialism in a metaphysical, abstract way. According the Gupta, capitalist-imperialism is “the defining if not dominant inter-state relation and flows of power in the world today.” Gupta points to the Iraq war as an example of Western imperialism’s attempt to secure Mideast oil against gains by the lesser imperialist bloc of Russian and China. While this is true to an extent, Gupta misses the point.
Capitalist-imperialism, today’s “flow of power,” is the process of capital accumulation on a global scale: it is the exploitation of the global majority, the Third World masses, to the effect of benefitting and buying-off virtually all of the First World. A primary feature of the current capitalist-imperialist system is vast global inequality between the exploiter First World and the exploited Third World.
Gupta is also wrong to say that imperialism is the “defining inter-state relations.” In actuality, states are propped up over the course of class struggle to enforce class rule. With few exceptions, Third World states are extentions of imperialism, surrogates to the process of capital accumulation. Also, while divisions between the imperialists of different countries exist, they are rarely a principal feature. What is significant about the Iraq war is not possible ambitions to wedge out lesser imperialist forces, but rather a multi-national, U.S.-led force invaded and occupied to country to secure a greater stake in oil reserves against the interests of the Iraqi and Third World masses.
Throughout his speech, Gupta never does come to terms what imperialism really is. Rather than stating the obvious– First Worlders enjoy greater rates of consumption, more leisure time, little repression, are visibly better off than most of the world’s people and thus have little reason to radicalize or become anti-imperialists– Gupta uses a ridiculous abstraction, “consensual hegemony,” to explain why First Worlders support the imperialist system. Gupta simply refuses to approach reality: the First World masses support imperialism because it supports them.
Because of this, Gupta’s “anti-imperialism” remains hollow. Not based on serious analysis, Gupta posits an “anti-imperialism” which almost anyone can embrace. Gupta’s “anti-imperialism” changes nothing in terms of practical implications for those who do uphold it. In this case, “anti-imperialism” is an abstract tag-on phrase, a meaningless slogan, for ultimately First Worldist, movementarian politics. Gupta is not concerned with doing a serious study of imperialism, including coming to terms with its consequences. For Gupta, his goal has always been to organize Amerikans.
The magic key theory
According to Gupta, there is a magic key that can unlock a radical potential in Amerikans. First Gupta thought it would be an imperialist war. Then he decides that supporting UFPJ and doing ‘independent’ journalism would somehow radicalize Amerikan masses. Now Gupta calls for “principled anti-imperialism” as part of his latest attempt to inspire a radical idealism into Amerikans. Gupta’s calls for “anti-imperialism,” like his calls for other moralistic positions, will fall on deaf ears as long as he sees Amerikans and the First World as a social base for radical, progressive change.
Because Gupta is a proponent of the magic key theory, his critique of other groups are petty. He claims that the more radical sectors of the anti-war movement never really confronted the state. He says that the anti-war movement was really never able to break free from the limitations of the state, and thus was never able to expand as a radical movement. But what does this mean and is it true? Just in Denver, for example, anti-war graffiti popped up. Khristopher Kolumbus and other statues have been vandalized multiple times. During the DNC, a protest led by a black bloc took the streets and marched downtown. Denver has solidarity networks for prisoners and victims of police brutality and active chapters of Copwatch. Most recently, a nominal anarchist has been accused by the pigs of breaking windows at the Democratic Party Headquarters.
What does Gupta think was missing? “A golden opportunity was missed in the counter-recruitment movement,” he says. Surely, counter-recruitment was another one of Gupta’s magic keys: another one that didn’t work supposedly because the “left” wasn’t turning hard enough.
Like Gupta’s “anti-imperialism,” his prescribed necessity to confront state power is abstract. Besides his counter-recruitment spiel, Gupta never defines “confronting state power.” He doesn’t give other examples, historic or modern. “Confronting state power,” for Gupta, is another movementarian fantasy, speculatively postulated in a way that ignores the real social and material basis of mass apathy and reaction-ism in Amerika.
Gupta’s chauvinism
Gupta’s “anti-imperialism” is not anti-imperialism at all. Instead, Gupta’s politics is one of chauvinism wrapped in loosely-construed, “anti-imperialist” slogans.
As a matter of narrowness and “left” Amerikan exceptionalism, Gupta never once mentions resistance efforts on the part of oppressed peoples in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Third World. Gupta, now a self-described “anti-imperialist,” not once mentions those exploited by imperialism in the Third World! Instead he focuses solely on the “radical potential” of the largely defunct anti-war movement in the First World. We ask, how can this possibly be anti-imperialism?
Gupta uses his privilege and broadcasts a phoney “anti-imperialism,” objectively to the disservice of real anti-imperialism. Those in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in the Third World, for whom anti-imperialist struggles are often ones of life and death, do not have the luxury to freely and openly broadcast their ideas and experiences on their common struggle against imperialism. Instead, this is a luxury for Gupta, who not only speaks the colonizer’s language but has the privilege of doing so without repression. Does he take this privilege seriously? No. For Gupta, “anti-imperialism” is another phrase, liberally thrown around to see if Amerikans bite. Without a second thought, he uses his membership of the world’s richest 15% to broadcast an effective lie, that Amerikans are friends of the Third World, calling it “anti-imperialism.” Again, we ask, what is Gupta doing besides objectively blunting real anti-imperialism worldwide?
Revolutionary anti-imperialism
The difference between Gupta and ourselves is obvious. Gupta conceives of unity between the Third and First World masses where none meaningfully exists; he insists that Amerikans are potentially revolutionary when they clearly are not. Thus, his politics will always be implicitly pro-Amerikan and not representative of the immediate interest of the world’s people.
Real anti-imperialism, the politics of the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Movement, derives its strength from and seeks to inspire the global masses, the 80% of the people in the Third World for whom resistance is a way of life. Real anti-imperialists see Amerikans for what they are– class enemies of the Third World masses– and understand this: imperialism will only come crashing down through the advancements of the struggle by Third World peoples for liberation.
Our strategy
While Gupta is wasting time trying to radicalize Amerikans, the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Movement (RAIM) is engaged in real strategies for real revolutionary change. Whereas “anti-imperialism” is just a buzzword for Gupta and First Worldists, RAIM understands that imperialism is the crux of world dynamics and proceeds from there. A hallmark of RAIM’s strategy is accounting for limitations imposed on us by the fact that Amerikans support imperialism and using our privilege to develop real aid in the revolutionary struggle.
We don’t water down genuine anti-imperialist politics to pander to First Worlders. Above all, RAIM speaks the truth and says it loud and clear: First Worlders maintain their decadent lifestyles via imperialism; are class enemies of the real masses in the Third World; the complicit ‘Volk’ in a murderous global empire; and must be overthrown along with imperialism. We openly represents anti-imperialist politics and broadcast our analysis to a global audience, using our own privilege to do so, even if most Amerikans don’t like or ‘get’ it.
First World mass movements come and go, along with most of its participants. Rather than trying to build an “anti-imperialist” mass movement in the First World, RAIM is a politically sophisticated and technically versatile one, with the aim of best serving the Third World masses and their struggle. We want dedicated, determined comrades who are all in for the long haul. RAIM broadcasts a consistent message of anti-imperialist solidarity globally and is a focal point of revolutionary agitation, education and political development within the belly of the beast, Amerika. Through RAIM, we seek out and educate those few First Worlders who can be best won over the consistent anti-imperialist politics. Through RAIM, we develop both politically and technically, becoming more of an asset to the revolutionary struggle.
RAIM is important as a national network which openly represents anti-imperialist politics, but it should be seen for what it is: an appendage to the vast Third World struggle; our collective effort to contribute to this larger revolutionary movement. RAIM’s message is huge, too big for RAIM alone. We encourage constant political and technical development, specialization and the application of Third World-oriented, revolutionary politics to different types and forms of work. We support those who support the movement of the exploited Third World against the imperialist First.
The scorecard
Arun Gupta and RAIM represent two very different types of “anti-imperialism.” Gupta’s is one of magic keys and preeminent, potentially ‘radical’ First World ‘masses.’ He brings little new to the table. His explanations of everything from why the anti-war movement collapsed to what is imperialism seem shallow or abstract. His analysis is neither real anti-imperialism nor a strategy for revolutionary change.
Nearing the end of his speech, after talking for thirty minutes, in the typical manner of First Worldist intellectuals, asking how to build a genuine, radical mass movement, Gupta says it’s something he’s thought about a lot about, but doesn’t have any real answers for. Typical.
RAIM posits an anti-imperialism that is new, that explains things in a way Gupta can’t. Our anti-imperialism is groundbreaking and changes the focus and look revolutionary political work for those in the First World.
RAIM won’t lead a revolutionary mass movement, nor do we intend to. Nevertheless, we still have a positive role to play in the global revolutionary struggle. By working together, representing and broadcasting a consistent anti-imperialist message, operating as a school to our own and others’ political and technical development and promoting Third World-oriented, revolutionary unity, we can act as agents of global revolutionary change in a way that First Worldists such as Gupta can’t.
The difference is simple. Gupta is First Worlder who’s into nominally-’leftist’ mass movements. RAIM? The name says it all.
[Video of Gupta's speech can be found here: http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2009/9/24/arun_gupta_asks_where_is_the_anti_war_movement]
In the name of troublemaking on the settlers’ gorge-fest known as Thankkksgiving, RAIM-S now gives a reportback on a recent presentation by representatives of No2010.com and the Olympic Resistance Network (ORN) in downtown Seattle*. The presentation was promoting the Anti-Olympic Convergence in Vancouver in February, 2010. The speakers from the ORN and No2010.com filled the room with inspiration as the crimes of past and continued Kanadian settlerism against the First Nations** of so-called “British Columbia” were thoroughly exposed:
(Image courtesy of No2010.com)
A Hi$tory of British KKKolumbia and KKKlanada: False Entities Legally, Real Oppressor-Nations Materially
The underlying historical theme of the speakers goes beyond the parameters of the slogan, “No Olympics on Stolen Native Land”. In fact, as one of the speakers pointed out, the First Nations covering most of the territory within the legally fake borders so-called “B.C.” never surrendered their land and never signed treaties in the first place! All of the so-called “Land/Indian Acts” of the late 1800’s/early 1900’s were duly never recognized. The resulting land grabs, dislocations, the resource stealing, the massive Indigenous child abuse, the poisoning of the Earth, the sexual assault and murder of Indigenous women, and the outright genocide of the First Nations were righteously resisted by the Indigenous Peoples’ Warriors, as they do to this day. As far as the history of white settler nations go, there doesn’t seem to be a treaty they sign with First Nations that they don’t break. If there’s no treaty for Crackers to break to begin with, them RAIM-S sees this contemporary position as bringing a radical, “no compromise” progressive nationalist spirit to the Indigenous Peoples. This revolutionary spirit gives strength to their righteous struggle against these imperialist settler states, and in particular, the upcoming genocidal First Worldist “Five-Ring Circus” known as the Olympics.
The 2010 Olympic Game$ as a concentrated imperialist campaign of land stealing and genocide against the First Nations
The speakers laid out for the audience the ongoing conquest of Native land by the capitalist-imperialists backing the 2010 Olympics. One of these latest settler assaults on the First Nations is the ravaging of Eagleridge Bluffs by contractors for the expansion of the Route 99 “Sea-to-Sky” highway leading to Whistler ski resort. In 2006, about two dozen protesters were arrested blocking the highway expansion, including Native elder Harriet Nahanee. B.C. Supreme Court pig “Justice” Brenda Brown gave Harriet Nahanee an effective death sentence for contempt of “court” for her righteous defense of Native land, and was subsequently martyred on February 24, 2007.
Harriet Nahanee died fighting the devastation to the Earth wrought to Eagleridge Bluffs and the surrounding area, and in the interest of preserving the land and traditional Native culture for these and coming generations of First Nation youth. The resulting deforestation from the continued cracker Olympic onslaught led to an alarming increase in the deaths of black bears and other land mammals, as well as disrupted bird habitats. Concurrently, the gravel and sand mining to supply some of the materials for the highway expansion and other Olympic kkkonstruction projects has resulted in the deaths of 2 million salmon in 2006.
The toll of the Olympic fiasco on women that happen to be involved with the sex trade will also be magnified. Male tourists from the First World flip their polite “p.c.” patriarchal inhibitions with privileged white females into crude patriarchal privilege of sex slavery, rape, and murder upon many Native women in the B.C. area. National oppression seems to connect itself to gender oppression here in such a way as to show where the priorities of real feminists should be; fighting imperialism. The speakers touched on the horrific numbers of Native women gone missing, not all of whom were even involved in the sex trade per se, but were nevertheless kidnapped, tortured, raped, and murdered. Some of these women heroically escaped or survived their ordeal to tell their horrific accounts of the ways these vicious, male Cracker Klanadians and Amerikkkans perpetrated their sexual assaults on Native women. The following from “Why We Resist” on No2010.com explains the current situation and its prospects best:
Events such as the Olympics draw hundreds of thousands of spectators and cause large increases in prostitution and trafficking of women. In Vancouver, over 68 women are missing and/or murdered. Many were Native, and many were reportedly involved in the sex trade. In 2007, the trial of William Pickton occurred for six of these murders, and he is to be tried for an additional 20 more. In northern B.C., over 30 young women, mostly Native, are missing and/or murdered along Highway 16. The 2010 Olympics and its invasion of tourists and corporations will only increase this violence against women.
What’s different about RAIM from other groups is that we recognize that, like what is stated above, its not just the corporations but the tourist “mASSes” that will contribute to this patriarchal assault on Native women. By attacking this aspect of gender oppression at the node, RAIM-S believes that national oppression can be attacked at the same time! The all-round global approach utilized by RAIM makes tackling the main enemy, imperialism, as principal. By smashing imperialism, the “node” at which gender and national oppression seem to meet, there’s no telling how far humanity can go in saving the Earth and eliminating ALL exploitation and oppression.
Fascist KKKrap a hallmark of Olympic Game$’ past
The two following excerpts from No2010.com exposes the history of these Olympics as being consistent with the current atrocities being committed today:
1. Massacres and Concentration Camps: The Bloody History of the Games
The modern Olympics have walked hand-in-hand with political repression and violence. The 1936 Olympics in Berlin (held despite a call from the Jewish community to boycott the games) actively promoted the Nazi regime. IOC members who opposed holding the Games in Berlin were dropped from the organization. Witnesses reported that there were more swastikas on stage at
the opening ceremony than Olympic flags. By the time the Games opened, a concentration camp was operating just half an hour’s journey from the Olympic site. As well, the Nazi regime initiated the modern Olympic torch relay as a way of promoting fascism throughout Europe.
Hundreds of people (mostly students) were massacred by a special forces unit called the Olympia Brigade in the Tlateloco Plaza in Mexico City ten days before the Olympics began in August 1968. A recently declassified document written to President Lyndon Johnson reported that “… the current tensions in Mexico City point toward the possibility that the Olympic games will be used as a focal point for demonstrations and actively favoring leftist, subversive, and militant radical elements.” Other documents show how the US Government directed the FBI to actively investigate any Americans planning to go to Mexico to protest the Olympics. These documents show that there was active pressure on Mexican President Diaz Ordaz to quell any student rebellion before the start of the Games.
Repressive laws and security build-ups are hallmarks of recent Olympic Games. The Games have been used as a convenient cover for permanent repressive laws and to create new police and military units. In Sydney there were four cops for each athlete at the Games for a total of 35,000 police and security guards, 4000 troops and elite commando units, and Black Hawk helicopters.
The Sydney Olympics were also used as a pretext to allow the Australian government to introduce permanent legislation that allows the military to be called out to quell domestic unrest. Steve Martin, the Labour Party’s Defense Critic, called the Olympics the “catalyst” for the bill. The Olympics Arrangements Act was passed giving the police the unfettered use of cameras and recording devices, and the powers to prevent the distribution of materials, and the powers to search and detain people in both Olympic and public spaces…
2. Racism and Racial Profiling
Increased Olympic security has also led to the increased racial profiling of immigrants and people of colour by both police and immigration authorities.
During the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, police cordoned off the mostly black neighborhood surrounding the Olympic Village and required identification from everyone entering or leaving the area. There was a similar lock-down of the Black community in Atlanta during the 1996 games.
During the 2004 Athens Olympics, Islamic communities in Greece were subjected to state surveillance of places of worship, and mass document-checks and inspections. A spokesman for the Greek branch of Amnesty International warned that “security for the 2004 Olympics is used in Greece as a pretext to systematically break international treaties on the right to refugees.”
This from the No2010.com FAQ:
FAQ: Why don’t they just leave the Olympics in Greece, where they started?
Good question… Although that would be unfair to the people of Greece. It is interesting to note that the Olympics are an archaic European tradition that have only become a global phenomenon due to the expansion of Western Civilization through colonialism and imperialism. Maybe the Olympics should just be abolished!
RAIM-S would add to that: “…and abolish KKKlanada and AmeriKKKa while we’re at it!”
Good News For First Nations
The speakers brought up a couple great points about the prospects of First Nations resistance:
1. The Native Youth Movement (NYM) is spreading among Indigenous Peoples worldwide, including solidarity with the Zapatistas in Chiapas, Mexico. Recent actions by NYM supporters include interrupting Olympic schmooze-fests with “native” sellouts like AFN Grand Chief Phil Fontaine, protesting the 2010 Cracker invasion and in honor of elder Harriet Nahanee. Other heroic acts by NYM supporters of the Native Warrior Society include the taking of the Olympic flag from its flagpole at Vancouver City Hall, and releasing a statement honoring Harriet Nahanee and in defense of the Native land and Mother Earth.
2. The other good news for the First Nations 2010 Olympic Resistance is that, today, most Natives are under the age of 25! Let the IOC and the First World tremble…
The RAIM (Seattle) Conclusion – Resist the Five-Ring Circus!
A recent report from the Vancouver Sun reprinted on No2010.com says the following:
VANCOUVER — B.C. residents are more skeptical than average Canadians about the potential benefits of the 2010 Olympics, but a majority still believe the Games will have a positive impact on the province, according to an Angus Reid survey.
The online poll found that 57 per cent of British Columbians expect the Olympics will benefit B.C., compared with 76 per cent of all Canadians who feel the province will gain from hosting the Games.
Twenty-eight per cent of B.C. residents feel the Olympics will have a negative impact on B.C., more than triple the nine per cent of Canadians who feel that way.
The heroism of NYM against the 2010 Olympics is obviously demoralizing the local B.C. Cracker population vis a vis the Klanadian population at large, but there are still a majority of those settler descendants who support the ongoing “Whiter Games” genocide against the First Nations. This polling information above confirms RAIM’s point about the overwhelming majority of Klanadians and Amerikans being the enemy of the world’s oppressed.
A RAIM-S comrade asked the speakers after the event what they believed would make these settlers realize the human cost of their consumerist circuses like the Olympics, and their continued privilege from stolen land and labor. The speaker’s response was absolutely righteous with regard to the RAIM view on First World settlerist privilege (here paraphrased): If the descendants of settlers could imagine a great tidal wave, earthquake, or some great force of nature wiping out all the privileges from stolen land they live on, perhaps then they would become conscious of how to live without exploiting humanity, other living things, and Earth itself.
RAIM also believes that justice for Indigenous Peoples ultimately relies upon the elimination of First World privilege. The resistance to imperialism worldwide is itself like a great tidal wave that sweeps across the globe. Ending the settler mythology around Thankkkstaking and the Olympic Game$ are two great starts to this global movement to eliminate the AmeriKKKan and KKKlanadian scourge from the Planet.
Join the convergence in Vancouver, Feb. 10-15, 2010!
* Kudos to Common Action and Democracy Insurgent for hosting this outstanding event!
** Terminology Clarification: First Nations = (Indigenous or Native Peoples/Oppressed Nations/Friends); First World = (White Settler Crackertopian Scum/Oppressor Nation/Enemies) Crackers are good with tomato ketchup on Thankkksgiving…
[We encourage new and emerging cells to read over and adopt this program.]
***
Program of the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Movement
We want to smash this world and build a new one. Today, the median global wage stands around $2.50 an hour. Over 1 billion people face chronic hunger and a child dies every five seconds of starvation. This same situation is killing the planet at an unprecedented rate. Meanwhile, a global minority lives in comfort, unconcerned with their effect on the world. We aim to change this.
We understand that there is a causal relationship between wealth on one hand and poverty on the other. On a global level, the First World is rich because it exploits the impoverished majority, the Third World. This global divide, called imperialism, is the principal feature of the world today.
We side with the Third World masses and support their struggles for liberation. Exploiters are not going to hand over freedom to those they exploit. Only through struggle can the oppressed free themselves. We support the right of resistance- and revolution- for oppressed peoples against their oppressors. We support unity of the Third World masses against imperialism.
We reject First Worldism: politics which panders to or assumes that First Worlders are a social base for revolution. The “masses” of the First World are a global minority: a petty-exploiter class which regularly supports the imperialist system from which it benefits. Global revolution demands a just and egalitarian distribution of the world’s resources and wealth. Thus, over the course of global revolution, First Worlders will receive less, not more.
We are John Browns, staunch First World allies of the Third World. We are few and far between and behind enemy lines; there is little direct effect we can have. We consider our circumstances and focus on areas where we can effectively contribute to the revolutionary struggle.
We openly represent revolutionary anti-imperialism and work to build public opinion for Third World liberation struggles. We interject revolutionary, anti-imperialist politics into political arenas such as speaking events and protests; contribute to publishing and distributing revolutionary literature such as the RAIM Global Digest; and conduct group education through study collectives, practical tasks and informal discussion. We seek out and educate those who can be won over to consistent anti-imperialist politics.
We encourage direct participation and involvement, promote personal development and push people to become more valuable to the larger, global revolutionary movement. In part, RAIM is a ‘university of revolution.’ Through direct involvement with RAIM, we encourage people to become more proficient both politically and technically. A large part of RAIM’s purpose is to make individuals more of an asset to the Third World majority.
We encourage Third World-oriented, revolutionary political work. Though RAIM fills a roll by providing a public presence for and entry-level work into revolutionary politics, it is not the end-all-be-all of revolutionary political work. We encourage and support revolutionary, Third World-oriented politics being applied as part of different types of projects and efforts.
Adopted by RAIM-Denver and RAIM-Seattle, November 23rd, 2009
RAIM Crashes Racist Tea Party
(raimd.wordpress.com)
Racist tea baggers took their anti-migrant idiocy to the steps of the capitol building. The Saturday event in Denver was part of a national day to oppose amnesty for so-called “illegal aliens.” According to the website www.againstamnesty.com these “Tea Parties” were to be held in 50 cities, including Denver and Durango.
RAIM learned of the meeting of the pinheads only a few days before hand. That didn’t stop RAIM from organizing a counter protest. A few days before, RAIM put a shout out to oppose the fascists and to support migrant rights.
50 teabaggers, minutemen, and other racist scum gathered at the Capitol steps on the cold morning. RAIM and a few other migrant rights supporters turned out to counter the racists. RAIM showed up to give the racists a history lesson by pointing out that the land under their feet was stolen from other peoples, including the Cheyenne and Mexicans. We asked them where the border was in 1848 when the U.$. invaded Mexico. “Colorado” is, after all, a Spanish word. KKKolumbus and those who followed him from Europe to this hemisphere are the real illegal migrants. If anyone should get off the land, it should be the crackers who’ve been squatting here illegally for centuries. Slogans chanted were “Get off stolen land, deport the minuteklan,” “No minutemen no kkk no fascist usa.”
The very presence of our counter demo changed the dynamic of the teabagger protest. Despite our smaller numbers,the teabaggers were completely focused on us. Our presence provoked them, Some violently. Many threatened violence against us from across the street. Some crossed the street to confront us. One old crazed cracker with a Korean War hat came across the street to us and wanted to start a fight. He had to be held back by his wife, and then he threatened her and pushed her around. Typical pig. Another ugly old white trash women came and attempted to take our bullhorn. Despite their claims to the contrary, the racism of the tea baggers was obvious to everyone. One of the baggers threw pennies at Mexicans who were present, saying “Go buy some tacos.”
Others mocked Spanish accents. Others openly stated their hatred of Mexicans. Another cracker came over and spewed racist crap about Mexicans having 15 babies at a time and being a burden on the Amerikkkan tax payer.
As we faced off, a group of high school students came by passing out flyers for a school activity. Seeing the action, they joined our side. Kudos to the students, they had more education than the ignorant Amerikkkans on the other side of the street.
Our challenge to the teabaggers exposed their racist settler piggery. There is no point in trying to reason with deranged people. The “working class” and petty bourgeois Amerikkkans are the Social base of fascism. These people are some of the worst that Amerikkka has to offer.
Watch out Cascadia. The first West Coast RAIM chapter, RAIM-Seattle, has arrived!
Issue 6 is now out!
Contents:
-Amerikans Poison Chinese With E-Waste: RAIM-Denver
-Afghan Locals Give US Occupiers Proper Goodbye: RAIM-Denver
-Real Vs. Fake Universal Healthcare for Women: Monkey Smashes Heaven
-US Journalists Lee and Ling Ignore Role of US Policy in Impoverishing North Koreans: Stephen Gowans
-Yum! Brands PR Department Launches World Hunger Relief Campaign, Doesn’t Really Care: RAIM-Denver
-Your Playstation Has Real Blood On It: RAIM-Denver
-Harvest Season Means Forced Labor for Uzbek Children: RAIM-Denver
-Guatemala in Food Crisis, Revolution is the Solution: Monkey Smashes Heaven
-Sacred, Indigenous Sites Made Into Fill-Dirt for New Sam’s Club, Revolution Needed: RAIM-Denver
-Kolumbus Day Reportback: RAIM-Denver
-Denver Protests Ongoing Imperialist Wars: RAIM-Denver
-A Speech by a RAIM Comrade on the Eight Anniversary of the Invasion of Afghanistan: RAIM-Denver
RAIM, others wreck Zionist-led war mongering against Iran
On October 28th, Uzi Landua, a hard-line Zionist and long-time high-ranking official in the Israeli state, spoke at the Auraria campus in Denver. Landau was invited by the Zionist group, the Amerikan-Israeli Student Affairs Committee, to discuss the supposed threat posed by Iran. RAIM had other ideas.
Word about the event reached Denver’s activist community less than two days prior. The day before the event, officials from the student government and University of Kolorado asked activist Glenn Spagnuolo to call off a protest, stating it would force the speaking engagement to be canceled because it would create a security bill too large for the school to bear (an additional $3,500 supposedly). Spagnuolo, a student and organizer from the DNC protest-coalition Recreate ‘68, and was in Israel when Rachel Corrie was ran over by a made-in-Amerika tractor, driven by an IDF soldier, while Uzi Laudau was ‘Security’ Minister of the settler state. Glenn insisted that even if Landau had lunch on campus, which was also scheduled, there would be a some sort of a protest. Eventually, the Israeli embassy (read: Israeli state) footed the security bill.
The day of the event, a snowstorm blew into Denver, causing the campus to be closed 30 minutes prior to the start of the event. Because of the strict security the would-be audience of 25 or so was forced to wait outside, huddling against the door. A small protest of around 10 or so gathered, including some RAIMers. A RAIMer took the opportunity to hand out an special informational flier to everyone waiting to get in, sparking a debate between a hardcore Zionist and those in the crowd.
After the doors were opened, and after the crowd and protesters passed a metal detector wand and bag check, they were greeted to large amounts of pizza and soda. RAIMers helped themselves and made sure that everyone who didn’t get already get a copy of our informational flier, got one. It wasn’t hard. In the end, the audience numbered around 40-45, including the protesters. The Zionists student organizers, Uzi and his entourage were around 15. There were also around 15 pigs and 10 campus and student staff.
Uzi was flanked by a bodyguard who looked like an angry Lurch from the Adams family, with a bad military haircut, a black trench coat and obviously armed. As Uzi walked on stage, most in the audience clapped in applause. RAIMers and other protesters instead greeted him with loud boos. Boos and hisses persisted and steadily grew more frequent as his Cold War-esque, militarist screed continued. RAIMers occasionally interrupted Uzi’s speech with shouts of “war criminal,” “liar” and “what about Palestinians?” and clapped in applause when Uzi claimed Iran was pursuing nuclear weapon capabilities.
For his part, Uzi was a crude spokesman for the Israeli state, explicitly linking Israel and Amerika’s security and calling for the “free world” to confront the Iran. Whereas many in the audience already found Israel questionable, the information prepared ahead of time by RAIM and protesters’ on the spot agit-prop helped bring out a wider, more visible hostility towards his message. Uzi, feeling the pressure from the unsympathetic crowd, kept his speech short and fulfilled his obligation to field questions.
A RAIMer took the first questions, referencing the fact-sheet and asking Uzi to account for disparities in casualties between Israelis and Palestinians; and if he agreed with the idea that the state of Israel is the fulfillment of a promise by ‘God’ and not in need of further justification. Every question asked of Uzi thereafter was critical of Zionism and the Israeli state. There was no more discussion of Iran. Uzi was forced to fruitlessly defend Israel for the remainder of the event. As he left the stage, he was parted with more and louder boos.
Rather than finding a receptive audience for his militarist cheerleading against Iran, Uzi Landau was met with effective opposition from Denver activists and Palestine supporters, including RAIM. The event, which cost thousands of dollars for both the University of Kolorado and the Israeli state, became polarized with the majority of the audience finding themselves on the side of vocal opposition towards Zionism. Incidentally, RAIM was the only organized group with a presence at the event; we talked with Palestine supporters and handed out a few RAIM Digests. Uzi Landau’s Zionist war-mongering was wrecked.
Check out our informational flier on Israel here: Israel flyer
The following was delivered by Comrade Hector of RAIM-Denver on October 7th, 2009, the 8th anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan. In the speech, the RAIM comrade tells the audience of anti-war and police brutality activists, anarchists and RAIM supporters that the problem is not Bush or Obama, it is Amerika.
“Leonard Peltier is a political prisoner – an artist, a writer, a father whose life has been stolen. Locked away for defending his land. Locked away in Amerikkka’s dungeons. He just sent an open letter to the president. To paraphrase: ‘I am not Bush’s political prisoner. I am your political prisoner now.’ He is Obama’s responsibility. This is an important point, especially for the liberals here whose politics begin and end with ‘throw out the Bush regime.’ Well, Bush is gone. Surprise, surprise. Amerikkka is still at war. Two wars wasn’t enough. Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Pakistan. And Iran is in the cross hairs. A recent poll shows a majority of Amerikans, Republican and Democrat or “Independent,” want to use force on Iran right now. Iran is in the crosshairs and it’s Obama with his finger on the trigger and your average Joe Amerikan cheering him on.
These wars are not just wars of the ‘right wing,’ or ‘conservative, or ‘Republican’ wars. These aren’t Bush’s wars. They are Obama’s now. More accurately, they are Amerika’s wars. And, it will take more to stop these wars, and the next war and the one after that, than marching in the streets holding signs. This shit goes back to 1492, even earlier. The crusaders, KKKolumbus, Manifest Destiny, chattle slavery, the endless imperialist wars of the last century.
In 1492, KKKolumbus sailed the ocean blue.. then he landed and killed everyone who wasn’t European. Exterminated the Taino peoples. That’s the real story.
Yesterday, it was the US genocide of South East Asia, the propping-up and financing of death squad states in Latin America, the rape and enslavement of Africa. Today it’s killing Pakistanis with unmanned drones. What will it be tomorrow?
The problem is bigger than Democrats and Republicans. Bigger than Bush and Obama. The problem is Amerika, and Amerikans. We can’t let Amerikans, and the Amerikan working class off the hook. Even the poorest Amerikan benefits from imperialism.
Yet Amerikans have the hypocrisy to point their fingers at the Third World. They call the Iranian president a “holocaust denier.” Yet Amerikans are the biggest holocaust deniers on the planet. It was the US that largely exterminated the whole continent of North America, from sea to shining sea — the largest genocide in history, thousands of civilizations gone forever – tens of millions killed by Uncle Sam.
In Zimbabwe, a recent report condemned Mugabe because he ‘only’ paid three percent in compensation to the imperialists during his land reform program. Let me get this straight. The imperialist come to Africa, they steal the land from the Africans, they disrupt the African traditional way of life, the imperialists impose white supremacist terrorist states on Africans, then when those Africans take their land back, the imperialists call it ‘theft’ and impose sanctions to strangle Zimbabwe, to punish the Africans, to make them OBEY. When Mugabe turned the tables and gave land to the poor Africans, he is a ‘thief,’ yet the imperialists think nothing about stealing whole countries as was the case in Zimbabwe or whole continents as was the case in the Americas. The only compensation the Africans received was the whites imposing a terroristic white supremacist state to keep them in bondage. The only compensations the Indigenous received in North America was to be killed or herded into reservations on the worst land, to have their children stolen and culture stripped away.
Remember the pigs earlier today who dared us to cross their invisible line on the ground? The pigs told us that we could not stand on parts of the sidewalk in front of the building? Who the fuck are they to say anything about where we can and can’t go on this land? This is Mexican and Indigenous land. It’s Uncle Sam who squats here on borrowed time. This land will be returned to its rightful owners. These crackers will get a taste of socialism – the power of the Third World over the First World. RAIM opposes the war. More than that, RAIM opposes Amerika and Amerikans.
The vast majority of humanity in the Third World barely survives on about $2.50 a day. Yet, Amerikans and the First World as a whole plop themselves down in front of their stupid boxes, one hand glued to a remote controller, the other in a bag of Cheetos. Amerikans waste their lives away on the back of others. RAIM is out to settle the score. RAIM is going to turn the tables.”
From Monkey Smashes Heaven on the state of global health care:
MSH: Real versus Fake Universal Health Care for Women
(monkeysmashesheaven.wordpress.com)
The debate over “universal healthcare” dominates the political landscape in the US. Obama’s administration and the Democratic Party have committed themselves to healthcare reform. This has caused a firestorm, splitting Amerikans on the issue. Michelle Obama has stepped into the fray over Amerikan healthcare reform. The first lady’s presence in the debate brings attention to the implications of healthcare reform for women. Amerikan feminists argue that “universal healthcare” is a feminist issue because women are disproportionately affected by the costs of the current system. Even though women make up the majority of the population in the US, recent polls indicate that most Amerikans oppose “universal healthcare” as it is currently being advanced by the Democrats. However, the reality is that all Amerikans, even Obama, oppose real universal healthcare. This is because real universal healthcare means health care for all of humanity, not just Amerikans. Real universal healthcare means focusing on those who need healthcare most. It means addressing the health issues of those in the Third World who have little or no healthcare at all.
Real universal healthcare would address the plight of Third World women. Third World women suffer in great numbers from conditions that hardly exist in the First World. First World so-called feminists shrilly advocate expanded healthcare for Amerikan women but are silent about those who truly need health care reform.
Vaginal fistulas are a prime exapmple of the disparity between the healthcare available to First and Third World women. Vaginal fistulas are tears in the vaginal lining resulting from complications during childbirth. This can cause urine and feces to leak from the vagina or chronic incontinence. An estimated two million women in the Third World suffer from vaginal fistulas, with an additional 50,000 to 100,000 occurrences a year. With proper obstetric care this is a highly treatable and preventable medical condition. Most women in Africa have little or no access to such care. Often help, most needed during a prolonged and painful labor, is several days walk and unaffordable. However, vaginal fistulas in the First World are almost unheard of. Women in the First World have easy access to basic levels of care that prevent and treat such conditions.
Another reproductive health issue that plagues women in the Third World, particularly Africa, is HIV/AIDS. Women in sub-Saharan Africa are disproportionately affected by the virus: 12 million women were reported living with the virus in 2007 while approximatley 127,000 women in the U.S. were infected in 2005. Management and treatment of HIV/AIDS is similarly disproportionate. Risk of mother-to-child transfer of HIV/AIDS can be mitigated in the First World by the administration of anti-retroviral drugs which are rarely available to women of the Third World. Testing and prophylactics are widely available in Amerika, slowing the rate of infection, whereas sub-Saharan Africans have limited access to such preventative measures. Women in the First World have access to preventative measures that have kept the number of women affected by the virus relatively low. Post-infection care has greatly improved the prospects of those few women who are infected in the First World. Women of the Third World have severely limited access to preventative measures and post-infection care and are suffering in great numbers.
Imperialist exploitation allows for women in the First World to have first-rate access to reproductive medicine while the women in the Third World are denied basic levels of care. Sub-Saharan Africa, and the rest of the Third World, has been ravaged by imperialism and the people are left hungry and poor. Real feminists and advocates of universal healthcare place a priority on the healthcare of the peoples of the Third World. The superior health care available to First World women comes at the high cost of compromised health of women in the Third World.
Sources
1. http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?forumID=6941&edition=2&ttl=20090903070545
2. http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?forumID=6941&edition=2&ttl=20090903070545
3. http://www.endfistula.org/q_a.htm#q6
4. http://www.avert.org/women.htm
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