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Indigenous Sovereignty Week 2011 – Toronto
For the third year in a row Defenders of the Land (DoL) has issued a call to First Nations / Indigenous communities and supporters across Canada to host a week of events celebrating Indigenous Sovereignty.
The purpose of Indigenous Sovereignty Week is to gather with the intention of building local relationships among groups and individuals around the dissemination of ideas of Indigenism as well as to contribute to building a cross-Canada movement for Indigenous rights, self-determination and justice that is led by Indigenous communities but with a broad base of informed support.
The theme for ISW 2011 is Celebrating Community Victories – Standing up to the Harper Threat. Read more…
Decolonizing Indigenous Traditionalism
The Spiritual Ceremony of honoring a Chief with an Eagle feather Headdress and the sacredness of giving a Spirit Name where Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was bestowed the name by the Blood Tribe as Chief Speaker obviously exemplifies how we attach "Traditionalism" on to Colonial Institutions where we fool ourselves keeping ourselves oppressed by using our Spirituality or "Traditonalism" as a form of Colonization
An important and insightful article by Johnny Hawke of the northern Ontario based Anishinabek Confederacy to Invoke our Nationhood (ACTION). On a similar theme check out Jimmie Durham’s classic essay American Indian Culture: Traditionalism and Spiritualism in a Revolutionary Struggle.
“Traditionalism, the movement to restore the social, cultural, and political integrity of our communities by restoring ancient models of governance and social interaction, has degraded into a laughable form of self-centered New Ageism, a ceremonial show or smokescreen behind which the dark abuses of the colonial master on a personal and collective level continue.”
- Taiaike Alfred in his book Wasase Indigenous Pathways of Action and Freedom Read more…
By comrade JMP
Upon reading the uOMSA and PCR-RCP’s joint statement regarding their current withdrawal from Ottawa’s #occupy site, and spending a short period of time writing a post about red-baiting, I found myself considering the political efficacy of their withdrawal. Since I still feel that the spaces opened by the “occupy” movement are possibly spaces that are filled with organizational potential, there was a part of me that wondered whether the abdication on the part of these comrades was correct. As Morgan Finch rightly indicated, “in Toronto we’ve managed to defeat red-baiting by having lots of commies in the camp.” Thus perhaps, as Finch argues from what logically follows from this Toronto context, the Ottawa comrades behaved in an “excessively pacifist” and non-militant way to the red-baiting by choosing withdrawal over confrontation. I think Finch’s comments (which must also be noted were extremely respectful because they not only reject the red-baiting but end with the qualification that s/he respects the Ottawa communists’ decision to withdraw from a context where they are clearly not wanted) might be correct when judged in accordance to the Toronto situation; at the same time, however, I feel they open up questions regarding: a) the concrete context of Ottawa; b) the general concrete context of the Occupy Everything movement. Read more…
Why We Left Occupy Ottawa
The following is a joint statement from the University of Ottawa Marxist Student Association and the Revolutionary Communist Party of Canada’s Ottawa members/supporters regarding their experience with Ottawa’s version of the Occupy Location X Movement.
I am posting this because the experiences of the PCR-RCP Ottawa and uOMSA are a lesson for all of us on how to deal with anti-communism, and also because there is a need for principled solidarity against such practices. I am also posting it though because there have been conscious efforts by forces in the United States, principally the Kasama Project, to misrepresent the PCR-RCP Ottawa and uOMSA on this issue.
It is truly sad that this kind of crap is coming from a self-described revolutionary grouping. Kasama’s words and actions have been petty, opportunistic, unnecessarily hostile and sectarian. However they can, and should, be countered by actually reading and examining the positions of the PCR-RCP Ottawa and uOMSA.
Finally, the posting of this should not be taken as an endorsement of either the PCR-RCP or the uOMSA. Read more…
The War On Democracy
The War on Democracy is an excellent and eyeopening examination of the role of US imperialism in Latin America, especially as it has worked to keep down progressive democratic movements that have sought a path independent from imperialist white power.
Justice and Jacobo Árbenz in Guatemala: 1954 Revisited
The news barely raised a murmur in the US media and the BBC covered it only fleetingly, but last week the Guatemalan government of Álvaro Colom formally apologized to the family of former president Jacobo Árbenz who was overthrown in a CIA-backed coup in 1954 and later died in exile in Mexico. The apology came after a lengthy case in the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) that ended in a “friendly settlement” between the Guatemalan State and Árbenz’s heirs.
Through the settlement, the Guatemalan State recognizes its responsibility for “failing to comply with its obligation to guarantee, respect, and protect the human rights of the victims to a fair trial, to property, to equal protection before the law, and to judicial protection, which are protected in the American Convention on Human Rights and which were violated against former President Juan Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán, his wife, María Cristina Vilanova, and his children…” Read more…
Immortal Technique – The Martyr
From Immortal Technique’s new free mixtape The Martyr
Philly Police Deny Black is Back March Permit to Maintain $80K Occupy Philly Budget
The Black is Back Coalition will hold a press conference and demonstration on Thursday, Oct 27 at 9am at Dilworth Plaza of City Hall to protest the Philadelphia City Commissioner’s decision to deny the Black is Back Coalition’s permit application to hold its November 5 march entitled “Stop the Wars! Build the Resistance!” which is planned to travel south down Broad Street from Susquehanna to Thompson.
To justify its decision, the City claims that the police department does not have the resources needed to properly “secure” the march because all of their resources are currently tied up in Occupy Philadelphia.
The denial of a permit to hold the march is a blatant violation of the Black is Back Coalition’s and the African community’s democratic and legal right to free speech given the fact that Occupy Philly and Philly Against War have both held recent marches without a “permit.” Read more…
Underground Activists Stage Tribute-March for Ka Roger
October 21, 2011, Metro Manila – Over a thousand members of underground national democratic organizations from the Philippines’ Southern Tagalog region marched in EDSA to pay tribute to Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal, spokesperson of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).
Ka Roger died of a heart attack on June 22, 2011 after serving as the national spokesperson of the proletarian party for almost two decades. He joined the CPP’s armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), during the 70s and have served the Philippine revolution ever since.
You can also read statements from CPP National Capital Region (Regional Committee), the National Democratic Front of the Philippines and CPP Central Committee.
Dear England
Libyan President Gaddafi Murdered by Imperialist Lynch Mob
Tune in to UhuruRadio.com on Sunday, October 23 at 11:00 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time for a live discussion on the imperialist assassination of Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and the overthrow of the Libyan government. Call in with your questions and comments regarding the living conditions for the Libyan people under Gaddafi, the Libyan government’s involvement in economic development throughout the African continent, what is the background of the people in the National Transition Council and what is the role of international governments and military forces in planning and executing the overthrow of the Libyan government.) Read more…
Thoughts On the Death of Gaddafi & the Future of Libya and Africa
Yesterday in Libya the Great Satan, the imperialist white power beast, finally got its man. Muammar Gaddafi, leader of Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, was captured, injured but alive, and then summarily executed by imperialist white power’s “rebel” proxies when the town of Sirte was overrun by them. His last words were a question, “Do you know what’s right or wrong?” It should be obvious now that the so-called “rebels” only now what their imperialist masters want.
The blood thirsty white power beast had been after Gaddafi’s head since this past winter when they lost their proxies in Libya’s neighbours Tunisia and Egypt. They feared the spread of the revolutionary spirit that was sweeping across Africa and the Arab World and so they decided to strike back, painting a bulls-eye on Libya. Gaddafi’s principal crime, despite what you have heard and read in the Western media over and over again since the beginning of the assault on Libya, was that he continued to be a thorn in the side of US hegemony building projects in Africa. Read more…
Uhuru Movement at “Philly Against War / Occupy Philly” Rally
Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal, spokesperson of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), passed away in a guerrilla zone on June 22 after suffering a heart attack. He was 64. The Speed of Dreams extends its condolences to the the entire membership of the CPP, the red warriors of the New People’s Army (NPA), all Filipino revolutionary forces and the Filipino masses as mourn Ka Roger’s death.
The following statement comes to us from the CPP National Capital Region (Regional Committee). You can also check out read the statement from the National Democratic Front of the Philippines and from the CPP Central Committee. Read more…
For All Those Who Were Indian In A Former Life
The following by article by Andrea Smith first appeared in the “Cultural Survival Quarterly”, Winter 1994. Andrea helped to found the Women Of All Red Nations branch in Chicago as well as INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence. She is the author of one of the most important works in formation of my politics, Conquest: Sexual Violence And American Indian Genocide (cover to the right).
The New Age movement has sparked a new interest in Native American traditional spirituality among white women who claim to be feminists. Indian spirituality, with its respect for nature and the interconnectedness of all things, is often presented as the panacea for all individual and global problems. Not surprisingly, many white “feminists” see the opportunity to make a great profit from this new craze. They sell sweat lodges or sacred pipe ceremonies, which promise to bring individual and global healing. Or they sell books and records that supposedly describe Indian traditional practices so that you too, can be Indian. Read more…
The International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement welcomes the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protestors into the historical struggle against the ruling class that we, as Africans, have been involved in for centuries.
This growing movement of mostly white protestors who are challenging the bankers, capitalists and the political rulers represents a reinforcement for the ongoing centuries-long struggles of African, Mexican and Indigenous people.
The undeniable fact is that colonized people have been victimized by the bankers, politicians and even ordinary white citizens ever since Europe enslaved Africans and committed genocide against Indigenous people.
Identifying the Enemy: The Ruling Class and Their Puppet Politicians
The thieving bankers on Wall Street and the corporations are the ones who control the politicians, hire the armies to occupy communities and steal the resources of the oppressed peoples of the world. Read more…
Omali Yeshitela Speaks at Occupy Oakland
Omali Yeshitela, Chairman of the African Socialist International, founder of the Uhuru Movement and leader of the Black is Back Coalition speaks at Occupy Oakland in California to the People of Color Caucus about struggles of African and Indigenous peoples against U.S. imperialism and Wall Street interests since its inception.
Stand Up and Give the Red Salute to Ka Roger!
Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal, spokesperson of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), passed away in a guerrilla zone on June 22 after suffering a heart attack. He was 64. The Speed of Dreams extends its condolences to the the entire membership of the CPP, the red warriors of the New People’s Army (NPA), all Filipino revolutionary forces and the Filipino masses as mourn Ka Roger’s death.
The following statement comes to us from the CPP. You can also check out read the statement from the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.
Today, the Filipino people usher Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal into their Hall of Heroes and Martyrs. Today they engrave Ka Roger’s name onto the granite wall next to those of such great working class heroes as Andres Bonifacio, Macario Sakay, Crisanto Evangelista, Amado V. Hernandez, Felixberto Olalia, Crispin Beltran and many others. Read more…
Soundtrack to the Struggle
British-Iraqi rapper Lowkey’s sophomore album Soundtrack to the Struggle was finally dropped yesterday at midnight. STTS is easily one of the most anticipated hip-hop albums of the last year and has been in the making for a year more with snippets, teasers and music videos being occasionally released here and there, but as Lowkey says on the album’s first and titular track: it’s here now.
Also, I’m only putting these tracks here to help spread some hype for Lowkey and his work. Please do not be a cheap bastard. Don’t rip the album tracks from Youtube. Please actually buy this album which is fully independent. It is more than worth it and you will help big up an artist with an amazing talent and message.
What a Whopper! U.S. Throws All the Demons in the Mix for the Mother Of All Anti-Iran Psy-Ops
Who said Barack Obama would bring sobriety and dignity to U.S. foreign policy? The president’s men, and Top Woman Hillary Clinton, have thrown every stereotypical demon of middle American nightmares into the psychological operations gumbo, to create a war hysteria against Iran. No reflexive terror button is left unpushed, no racial hysteria unexploited. Bubble, bubble, boil and trouble, the administration is cooking up an almost comically infernal witches brew just in time for Halloween.
What a confabulation! There’s the Mexican drug cartel hit men, the specter of a bomb exploding in a crowded, upscale Washington eatery, plus attacks on Israelis and, of course, in the background, the elite Quds unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. And if you believe the government story – well, that proves you are the typical America, and any idiot can keep you in a state of endless war. Read more…
