A fascinating window into a scene, and into conditions in Iran.
Archive for January, 2010
Iranian Hip Hop: God, wake up! I’m just Trash.
Posted by Mike E on January 31, 2010
Posted in >> analysis of news | 2 Comments »
New Book Available: Kasama Essays Vol. 1
Posted by Mike E on January 31, 2010
Kasam has now published many of its key essays in a single paperback book — perfect for study (and study groups).
It is 266 pages — and includes all of Kasama’s previous pamphlets (except for the 9 Letters to Our Comrades which is not included)
Selected Kasama Essays for Discussion, Volume 1
by Kasama Press
Cost: $14.95
Ships in 3–5 business days
(Kasama Press currently uses Lulu for our book publishing and Mag Cloud for our pamphlets — all can be ordered, preprinted, relatively cheaply and delivered to you by mail.)
Click here to order our new book of essays.
Contact us for reduced bulk rates (for study groups and book tables).
Posted in >> Kasama Project, Kasama pamphlets | Leave a Comment »
Naisiun: Operation Green Hunt
Posted by Mike E on January 31, 2010
Thanks to Naisiun for creating this internationalist video and sharing it with Kasama.
Posted in >> analysis of news | 3 Comments »
Kali Akuno: Are We Free Yet?
Posted by Mike E on January 30, 2010
The following article originally appeared on Kali Akuno’s blog Navigating the Storm. For study, print the PDF. (Thanks to the Fire Collective for pointing this out.)
Barack Obama & the New Afrikan “National Question”
Are We Free Yet?
by Kali Akuno
May 24th, 2008
In Honor of the 83rd Birthday of Malcolm X and the clarity he brought to the New Afrikan[1] revolutionary movement.
Since the stunning Iowa victory of Senator Barack Obama in January, a great deal has been said and written about the declining or ongoing significance of “race” and “racial prejudice” in US society and the prospect of a person of Afrikan descent being its President as proof of its substantive social transformation. While this discussion must be regarded as an advance over the conservative moralistic and race-coded discussions that have dominated political debate in the US since the 1980’s, we must acknowledge its critical limitations.
In the main, these discussions individualize the issues and only engage the behavioral and subjective aspects of inequality and oppression. What is fundamentally missing is a critical discussion of the structural and systemic nature of oppression and exploitation within the US and how the Obama campaign “phenomenon” relates to these structures and dynamics.
Posted in >> analysis of news, African American, Black History, Kali Akuno | 1 Comment »
Something Decent in Kansas: Conviction of Killer Roeder
Posted by Mike E on January 30, 2010
Honoring George Tiller, the martyred women's doctor and advocate
by Mike Ely
Scott Roeder gunned down the truly heroic women’s doctor George Tiller in cold blood.
The motive was clear: Tiller provided women with abortions in the center of the U.S. where such services are hard to get. Roeder was a violent rightwing fanatic who imagined he was delivering justice. (He testified that he had considered cutting Tiller’s hands off with a sword so he couldn’t operate, but settled on killing.)
But in the courtroom and outside, the fanatical right tried to portray Roeder as justified, and demanded that the jury convict him of a lesser charge than first degree murder.
Such a verdict would have been terrible: It would have vindicated rightwing religious terror against abortion providers. It would have encouraged more killings, terrified more doctors, and further restricted women’s access to reproductive services.
In a climate of debate over “health care reform” — can we start with this one: Don’t shoot down courageous women’s doctors or harass women seeking to control their own lives.
Kansas laws have a loophole allowing a lesser charge for killings motivated by “an unreasonable but honest belief that circumstances existed that justified deadly force.” And Roeder argued that he was motivated by the (delusional, mystical, reactionary) belief that killing Tiller was saving the lives of thousands of “babies.”
In this case, the jury did the right thing — and found this vicious killer guilty, after only 37 minutes of deliberation. It is a vindication of women’s rights, and a message of an existing consensus around the existing right to abortion.
Kansas has disappointed before — we all remember the bizarre school board escapades there, where creationism was given serious yardage in the public debate. Well, for once we are not saying “what’s wrong with Kansas?” This time the “heartland” reputation of this very rural state helps make clear what is just and what is not. The hero here was George Tiller — who will not quickly be forgotten. His killer was just that — a killer. A killer of women’s dreams and women’s rights. A killer of rational thought and human choice.
Posted in >> analysis of news, abortion, civil liberties, fascism, feminism, fundamentalism, healthcare, Howard Zinn, politics, religion, women | Leave a Comment »
Canada: Olympic Security State
Posted by Mike E on January 29, 2010
Thanks to Ka Frank.
The War On Terrorism and The Countdown to the 2010 Olympics
By Dana Gabriel
26 January, 2010
Countercurrents.org
The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics will be the largest security operation in Canadian history. It will include more than 15,000 Canadian Forces, private security personnel, along with the RCMP and other police agencies. The U.S. will also provide security and support for the Games. With the Olympics fast approaching, the fear of terrorism is back in the public’s psyche. Although there has been no specific threats to the Games, more than anything, it is the danger of terrorism which is used to justify the huge security operation. This is further advancing the militarization of North America and U.S.-Canada military and security integration. The Olympics will take bi-national security cooperation to a whole new level.
Unmanned drones are patrolling the U.S.-Canada border as part of the war on terrorism and to curb smuggling, along with drug trafficking. It is unclear if they will be used for surveillance during the Games, but U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman, Juan Munoz-Torres has stated that, “If the RCMP or Canadian government believes they can make use of the aircraft for support during the Olympics, we will be more than willing to provide it.” In Afghanistan, Pakistan and other parts of the world, armed American drones continue to carry out strikes against suspected terrorists and insurgents. It is interesting that many of the weapons used in the war on terrorism overseas are later deployed for domestic purposes. The use of unmanned drones on the northern border will only add to the further militarization of North America.
Posted in Canada, police, war on terror | 35 Comments »
Creedance Clearwater Revival: Fortunate Son
Posted by Mike E on January 29, 2010
Posted in >> analysis of news | 2 Comments »
Does Our Optimism Require Belief in Communism’s Inevitability?
Posted by Mike E on January 28, 2010
Mayan urban civilization arose and then receded. Was there any directionality to that experiment with class society?
“Nando, if every road is open at all times, if capitalism has infinite possibility of regeneration , if there’s no direction to history (even if the way is twisted and tortuous), where does your REVOLUTIONARY OPTIMISM come from? Is revolution, for you, just one ‘option’ among others?”
by Nando Sims
In a nearby discussion Servir le Peuple (SLP) put forward several assertions and challenges that focus on the idea that capitalism is reaching limits, and that this defines the framework for revolution. I would like to share a reply (with minor editing or paraphrasing in SLP’s quotes for clarity).
SLP wrote:
“In the world’s current economic crisis, reformist politics is no longer possible. Any ‘political mechanism’ someone might try to use [within the official political system], would lead to betrayal within a year… Everywhere in the world, any wish for “change” or reform now pushes events immediately toward military coup. Look at Honduras. People’s war is the only way — now more than ever.”
Posted in >> analysis of news | 40 Comments »
Howard Zinn: The Historian Who Made History
Posted by Mike E on January 28, 2010
From The Nation. Thanks to Koba for pointing it out.
by Dave Zirin
Howard Zinn, my hero, teacher, and friend died of a heart attack on Wednesday at the age of 87. With his death, we lose a man who did nothing less than rewrite the narrative of the United States. We lose a historian who also made history.
Anyone who believes that the United States is immune to radical politics never attended a lecture by Howard Zinn. The rooms would be packed to the rafters, as entire families, black, white and brown, would arrive to hear their own history made humorous as well as heroic. “What matters is not who’s sitting in the White House. What matters is who’s sitting in!” he would say with a mischievous grin. After this casual suggestion of civil disobedience, the crowd would burst into laughter and applause.
Only Howard could pull that off because he was entirely authentic. When he spoke against poverty it was from the perspective of someone who had to work in the shipyards during the Great Depression. When he spoke against war, it was from the perspective of someone who flew as a bombardier during World War II, and was forever changed by the experience. When he spoke against racism it was from the perspective of someone who taught at Spelman College during the civil rights movement and was arrested sitting in with his students.
And of course, when he spoke about history, it was from the perspective of having written A People’s History of the United States, a book that has sold more than two million copies and changed the lives of countless people. Count me among them. When I was 17 and picked up a dog-eared copy of Zinn’s book, I thought history was about learning that the Magna Carta was signed in 1215. I couldn’t tell you what the Magna Carta was, but I knew it was signed in 1215. Howard took this history of great men in powdered wigs and turned it on its pompous head.
Posted in >> analysis of news | Leave a Comment »
Howard Zinn: Good-bye Old Friend
Posted by onehundredflowers on January 27, 2010
Who told the unknown stories of the people? Who dared enter Mississippi in the days of the lynching tree?
Who spoke out against war after war after war? Who skewered the lies of the rich and imperial?
Who taught rooms filled with eager young faces, year after year? Who signed every petition, spoke out against every injustice?
Who helped invent the teach-in and the people’s history?
Who studied, and wrote, and spoke tirelessly for those who could not read, or write, or be heard?
Howard Zinn did. And now he is gone.
Who among his countless students, comrades and friends will now step to the podium? Who will now fill his place? How many of us will it take?
Good-bye old friend. We miss you already.
* * * * * * *
This was originally posted on boston.com.
Howard Zinn, historian who challenged status quo, dies at 87
By Mark Feeney, Globe Staff
Howard Zinn, the Boston University historian and political activist who was an early opponent of US involvement in Vietnam and a leading faculty critic of BU president John Silber, died of a heart attack today in Santa Monica, Calif, where he was traveling, his family said. He was 87.
“His writings have changed the consciousness of a generation, and helped open new paths to understanding and its crucial meaning for our lives,” Noam Chomsky, the left-wing activist and MIT professor, once wrote of Dr. Zinn. “When action has been called for, one could always be confident that he would be on the front lines, an example and trustworthy guide.”
Posted in >> analysis of news, African liberation, AIM (Indian), Black History, civil rights, genocide, Howard Zinn, labor history, slavery, USA | 12 Comments »
A People’s History of American Empire by Howard Zinn
Posted by Mike E on January 27, 2010
Posted in >> analysis of news | Leave a Comment »
Gary Leupp: Grappling with what Happened in Haiti
Posted by Mike E on January 27, 2010
Even before the disaster -- the conflicts of Haiti were intense (November 2009)
From Dissident Voice (Jan 25).
by Gary Leupp
I notice that Haitian authorities (what passes for “the Haitian government”) have, repeatedly in the last week, cited the figure of 200,000 as the death toll from the January 12 earthquake. On the day following the quake, the prime minister, Jean-Max Bellerive, said the government thought “well over 100,000” had died” while Interior Minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aimé told Reuters on the 15th that the quake could eventually claim 100,000 to 200,000 lives. The European Commission using Haitian government data estimated 200,000 dead on January 19, noting that 70,000 bodies had been collected, most trucked off to mass graves.
You wonder how many died immediately, suffocated by rubble, and how many over many hours through neglect. There is no infrastructure in Haiti. Unlike nearby Cuba, which is organizationally well-equipped to handle natural disasters, Haiti has no emergency aid network. There’s not even a military; that was disbanded during the last invasion, the one that followed the U.S.-abetted uprising of thugs in 2004, the kidnapping of President Aristide (sent into exile in Africa), his replacement with Boniface Alexandre as a provisional president, and the subsequent election of Rene Preval. There’s no way of knowing what’s going on in that country, poorest in the hemisphere to begin with, now without power or water or meaningful news coverage.
Posted in Gary Leupp, Haiti | Leave a Comment »
Benefit: Greensboro Loves Haiti
Posted by Mike E on January 27, 2010
Date: Sunday, January 31, 2010
Time: 5:00pm – 8:00pm
Location: 1214 Grove St.
As you all know Haiti recently suffered from a 7.0 earthquake which resulted in horrific damage to their country. The last statement from the Haitian government I heard estimated 50,000 deaths, but some commentators are estimating up to 100,000.
The event is a benefit dinner for disaster relief in Haiti. We’re asking for a $5 dollar suggested donation per plate. But, don’t let that discourage you from coming. Bring whatever you can, especially a sense of solidarity
The event will include an open mic for speakers/poetry. People planning to attend are encouraged to bring their own poetry, rhymes, as well as statements and commentary. A jazz group from Guilford College will be playing music during the segment of dinner not allocated for the open mic session.
The event officially starts at 5pm but folks are welcome to come and go whenever they please.
Food will be cooked by Food Not Bombs and provided by them as well as some individual donors.
Posted in Haiti | 1 Comment »
Haiti: When I Stand on Rubble that was My Home
Posted by Mike E on January 26, 2010
photo credit: TMG
We have received the following by phone from Haiti. Our translator could not hold back her tears as she worked. (We posted a previous few precious minutes from haiti.)
By Jean Baptist (a brother who is with you in struggle)
Today I stand on the pile of what used to be my home.
The mound of debris is higher than that of the house which still partially stands next door to me. The roof that covered my apartment and the store below us has fallen so that it slants onto what is left of my neighbor’s house. If I stand on the peak I can look in the distance to the airport. And that’s where I see it.
It is huge and white and winks in the sun. It covers a large area at the end of the airport runway. I look at it and I cannot help but cry!
It is boxes and boxes, pallets upon pallets, all wrapped in plastic to protect from the weather. Inside these packages you will find boxes of medication, bags of IV fluid, baby formula, tents, bottled water, cooking pots, wheel barrows and all the other supplies that we need to live, to dig out those whose bodies remain trapped, and to remake our lives. It is the goods that we need to survive, it is that which will keep us alive.
I squint my eyes and I see it there, across the runway. It sits there, untouched, unused and inaccessible.
Posted in >> analysis of news, Haiti | 2 Comments »
Heart-Warming Memory… of Shameless Privilege
Posted by Mike E on January 26, 2010
by Mike Ely
I opened the New York Times Science section and found short anecdotes excerpted from Times’ bloggers.
As I read one of them, I realized that it was a casual, very personal story of how people of the upper classes make their claims for special privilege. It is told with a completely unapologetic sense of entitlement.
The author describes how her husband was injured. In the hospital she was carrying out a strategy of connecting with the nurses — seeking special attention for her husband by pointing out that she too was a medical professional.
And (the humorous twist in the story) she discovers that she didn’t need her own strategies, because her husband’s job (as a physicist) already qualified him to be treated “like a rock star.”
Here is the key passage:
“His job as a physics professor ended up mattering in a way I never expected: the doctors all treated him like a rock star. They respectfully called him Professor, shyly admitted to struggling in physics, and guardedly said they would treat him as long as he didn’t ask them any physics questions. Who knew? I thought our ace in the hole would be that I’m a nurse in the same hospital system, but my husband’s profession trumped any cred I could have brought to bear. And the truth is, that was kind of a relief. Because that night, I realized, I didn’t want to be there in the emergency department as a nurse, I just wanted to be a wife.”
Posted in >> analysis of news, abuse, capitalism, Domestic violence, healthcare, homeless, immigrants | 5 Comments »
Afghanistan: Torture And Suicide On The Rise
Posted by onehundredflowers on January 26, 2010
This was originally posted in truthout.org.
“Whether protests against the economy will be linked to the bellicose policies of the Obama administration in its own version of Bush’s “war on terror” remains to be seen. But one doesn’t have to look very far to see that the premises of prosecuting a democratic, human rights war is no more tenable under Obama than it was under Bush.”
Afghanistan: Women Dying and Torture Run Amuck
by: Jeffrey Kaye, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed
Two reports coming out of Afghanistan illustrate the depth of hypocrisy and subterfuge characterizing the US/NATO intervention in that country. One could cite a myriad of such examples, so immoral and wrong is the US war there.
In the first report, a 2009 human rights assessment prepared by Canada’s Foreign Affairs Department, obtained by The Canadian Press and reported at CBC News, revealed a skyrocketing suicide rate among Afghan women:
“Self-immolation is being used by increasing numbers of Afghan women to escape their dire circumstances and women constitute the majority of Afghan suicides,” said the report, completed in November 2009….
The director of a burn unit at a hospital in the relatively peaceful province of Herat reported that in 2008 more than 80 women attempted suicide by setting themselves on fire, many of them in the early 20s.
Posted in >> analysis of news, Afghanistan, antiwar, Barack Obama, Human rights, imperialism, torture, war on terror, women | 1 Comment »
Precious Minutes Direct from Haiti
Posted by Mike E on January 24, 2010
photo credit: by TMG
AK explains:
This was dictated by phone. The call was tape recorded and then we transcribed and translated it. These were, in fact, ‘precious few minutes.’”
* * * * * * *
From Haiti:
There is so much misinformation, rumors and fears swirling around the discussion about Haiti.
On the one hand, I want to spend the precious few minutes I have with you to debunk these rumors. I want to point out how the fear of Haitians as the violent black savage is rooted in long-standing racism.
I want to point out how the rumors of violence are spread not only by the foreign media, where surely you have heard them, but also by those in power within our own country who benefit from portraying the masses of ordinary Haitians as violent, dangerous criminals.
I want to point out to you how the misinformation is costing lives! How the international aid agencies have drawn lines on a map, segregating our city in red zones, green zones and the like; and how this segregation is preventing food and water from reaching those who need it most.
I would like to explain all these things to you and many more but, unfortunately, I do not have the opportunity at this moment to do so.
Instead, I would like to talk about why this terrible event happened and why the cost has reached such great proportions. In fact, no one could have predicted the earthquake. It is true that scientists have devised a technique to warn of approaching earthquakes, but still, this only gives a few moments warning if at all. So, I know that we could not have learned of this impending disaster with enough time to adequately prepare.
Posted in Haiti | 5 Comments »
Nepal: Ring The Bell Loudly
Posted by Mike E on January 24, 2010
By Mike Ely
To put this as bluntly as I can:
The Nepali Maoists are preparing right now (i mean over the next few weeks) for what-may-be a decisive military/political confrontation with the reactionary government and army.
The insurrection they have been preparing so carefully and so long may take place over the next two months.
The Maoists are seeking to mobilize the people (based on the understanding that their enemies will be wanting to act closely with Indian intrigues, and can be isolated by exposing those intrigues.) Their Indian, Nepali and American enemies understand this. Their revolutionary core base knows this. And we need to know it.
I will be ringing this bell loudly, and more loudly… and I want you to join me in ringing this bell.
Everyone we know and meet should start to consider how they can discuss and explain this important revolution in (what may be) its most bold and desperate hour.
Posted in >> analysis of news, >> communist politics, communism, Mao Zedong, Maoism, Nepal, peoples war, revolution, UCP Nepal (Maoist), UCP Nepal (Maoist) | 27 Comments »
Debate over Analysis & Strategy: A Critique of India’s Maoists
Posted by Mike E on January 23, 2010
Children of an Indian urban shanty town
We have for the last year published dozens pieces on the views and activities of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) — including on our sister site Revolution in South Asia.
In this post, we want to make available a major critique written by a different political current in India: It is from the magazine “Liberation” (Dec. 2009) and is associated with the Communist Party of India (ML) – Liberation.
This piece raises important questions about the nature of India’s social formation and about the strategic implications of such analysis. As always, posting this does not imply endorsement by Kasama.
The article is part one of a three part series. The next two parts are promised in future issues of Liberation. We also plan to publish replies of the CPI(Maoist) to the arguments of the CPI(ML)-Liberation.
“Maoism,” State and the Communist Movement in India
by Arindam Sen
In our last number, and partly also in some previous issues, we discussed the contours of the Indian state’s ongoing war on “left wing extremism”, a sister project of the national-international “war on terror”. From previous reports and bits of information the big picture that emerged there was that the Salwa Judum [rural death squad and paramilitary movement]- meaning “Purification (or Peace) Hunt” in the Gondi language – which started in June 2005 as India’s most scandalous PPP (where private stands for Tata, Essar and other business interests, public stands for Chhattisgarh state government (ruled by BJP) and the union government (ruled by Congress)… ) has since spread over the entire country in diverse forms and with greater or lesser intensity.
The UPA Government’s politico-military offensive against Maoism constitutes a veritable war on the people of India, a multipronged assault on their basic democratic rights. The central as well as state governments are bent upon using the state-Maoist confrontation as a pretext to suppress people’s struggles on basic issues and crush the voice of protest and resistance against the state-sponsored corporate plunder of the country’s resources.
Posted in communism, CPI(Maoist), India, Mao Zedong, Maoism, Marxist theory, mass line, methodology, Naxalite, peoples war, revolution | 9 Comments »
Mos Def: Sunshine (The New Danger)
Posted by Mike E on January 20, 2010
What is there to say — other than to thank Koba who included the note:
MCs at the top of their game: “I make it go without a brand new car, I was fresh without a brand new song and could give a f-ck about what brand you are, I’m concerned with what type of man you are, what your principals and standings are, ya understand me y’all?” We do.
Posted in music, video | 1 Comment »
