Protest the “Tea Party Against Amnesty and Illegal Immigrants”, This Saturday

Protest the “Tea Party Against Amnesty and Illegal Immigrants”
Support Migrant Rights!

Gather at Lincoln Park,
across from State Capitol
Saturday, November 14, 2009 – 10:00am

The Tea Bagger movement is holding a rally to agitate against migrant peoples this Saturday, November 14 at 10am-12pm at the State Capitol.  The fascistic Minutemen and other nativist and racist “patriots” will be down spouting hatred and violence against migrant and non-white peoples.

Counter this racist gathering.  Bring your signs, banners, flags, noisemakers, voices, middle fingers, etc.  The real illegal aliens are those Amerikkkans who disregarded other nations borders and stole lands in its move west.  Occupiers have no right to impose a border, and even less to decide who should be on land it stole at gunpoint.

Called by Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Movement Denver
raimd.wordpress.com

RAIM, others wreck Zionist-led war mongering against Iran

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, is a student and organizer from the DNC protest-coalition Recreate ‘68.  He was in Israel at the time when Rachel Corrie was ran over by a made-in-Amerika tractor, driven by an IDF soldier and 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

Fuck The Troops II: Some People Push Back

The long-awaited sequel to Fuck The Troops is finally here:

 

Yum! Brands PR Department Launches World Hunger Relief Campaign, Doesn’t Really Care

Yum! Brands PR Department Launches World Hunger Relief Campaign, Doesn’t Really Care

(www.raimd.wordpress.com)

Last September, U.S.-based Yum! Brands, the world’s largest restaurant company and parent of KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Long John Silver’s and A&W fast food chains, launched its annual World Hunger Relief campaign. Touted as part of a commitment to ending global hunger, this new campaign provides a sense of charity and progressiveness the Yum!’s true purpose, making money by selling over-valued, though inexpensive junk food to people in the First World

The money raised will go to the UN’s World Food Programme. Founded in 1963, the WFP has thus far failed in providing a solution to hunger or ending its root causes. Today, though hunger is growing and with it malnourishment and starvation, the WFP itself claims to be under funded. Yum! cites this as a reason why its World Hunger Relief campaign is “even more crucial this year.”

At face value, Yum!’s concern for world hunger is a farce. In 2007 and 2008, Yum! says its raised $36 million for the self described cash-strapped WFP. Yum! continues by patting itself on the back for pledging to raise at least $80 million over the next five years, or $2 million less each year.

Rather than ending the causes of hunger, Yum! Brands and the UN World Food Programme mitigate it through pittances. Both admit it in round about ways. “Every U.S. dollar raised will provide four meals for hungry children,” Yum! states. In reality, meal rations will not end hunger because hunger today has structural causes.

Instead of tractors being sent to the poor farmers in Africa, they are sent to Israel to tear down Palestinian homes or to other countries to build “Special Economic Zones,” sweatshop compounds, on former farm lands. Whilst 1 billion people live in chronic hunger and a child dies of starvation every five seconds, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut are never short on food for First World consumers. A global relationship is at play here, imperialism, which is the root cause of hunger today.

Companies such as Yum! make money by selling over-valued, yet inexpensive convenience food to exploiters. They couldn’t run their business without the massive profits brought into the First World from the Third, resulting in widespread poverty. Likewise, the U.N. and the World Food Programme are institutions set up and lorded over by imperialists to preserve current class structure, not dissolve it.

The WFP nearly goes so far to admit this. According to WFP, chronic hunger leads to social and political instability, that is, instability to the social and political structures which maintain a state of poverty and looming hunger for most of the world’s people. Thus, the WFP’s implicit position is to mitigate instability through food rations, while providing no long term solution to the causes of poverty and hunger. Yum! Brand’s slogan for their own campaign is moving millions “from hunger to hope.”

For the Third World masses, those who regularly find themselves victim of preventable hunger, such “hope” is illusionary and short lived. While Yum! claims it has helped save the lives of 4 million people “in remote corners of the world,” the real effect has been keeping 4 million people dependent on constant food aid. In fact, despite the publicized ‘concern’ of image-conscious corporations such as Yum! Brands, hunger created by imperialism is increasing. Instead of finding a real solution to world hunger, such food aid programs hold back real solutions while keeping oppressed peoples passive and dependent.

Liberation from global poverty will not come via charity from those who create and benefit from it. Solutions capable of ending hunger will only arise as a direct affront to such self-congratulatory tactics of ‘benevolent’ corporations and their obese, petty-exploiter customers. An end to global poverty and hunger means economies and development directed by the vast majority to meet their own needs, not controlled and leeched upon by the imperialist First World.

Sources:
http://www.chainleader.com/article/CA6698439.html
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=14831&Cr=Africa&Cr1=food

A Speech by a RAIM Comrade on the 8th Anniversary of the Invasion of Afghanistan

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.”

Denver Kolumbus Day Reportback

from http://www.examiner.com/x-3907-Downtown-Denver-Examiner~y2009m10d11-Marchers-police-protesters-outnumber-spectators-at-Denvers-Columbus-Day-Parade

Denver Kolumbus Day Reportback

(raimd.wordpress.com)

On Saturday October 10, 2009 there was another wack ass parade of white settlers celebrating Columbus Day, disrespecting Native peoples, and engrossing themselves in settler parasitism. Denver has been an epicenter of resistance to this celebration of genocide and racism, as Colorado was the first state to officially celebrate Columbus Day over 100 years ago.

This year’s protest was different, as the official organized opposition to the parade, Transform Columbus Day, did not put out a call to protest the parade this year.  Colorado AIM put out an advisory for Native elders and children to avoid downtown Denver and the parade.  Nevertheless the controversy over the parade stayed in the news, mainly because of an attempted media prank by a Columbus Day opponent where a press release was sent out saying the parade was canceled. This later turned out to be a hoax.

We at RAIM thought that a bunch of cracker settlers celebrating being cracker settlers couldn’t go off without an anti-imperialist response.  So we issued a call to be out to confront the parade, not to take over leadership of this protest but to show that settler colonialism would not go off in Denver without resistance.  RAIM, along with about 20 other activist allies and others who came to protest the parade, made their presence known.

All of us gathered in this freezing Saturday morning to show opposition.  We chanted “Down With Columbus Day, Settlers (and Occupiers) Go Away!”  To liven up the anti-colonial festivities we brought a pinata of Uncle Sam.  Protesters had whacks at it with a shoe, in honor of Al-Zaidi in Iraq.  The media and parade pigs made a big deal about dwindling numbers at the protests, but the parade itself had fewer numbers too, even factoring in the weather.  As usual, it was made up of mostly gas-guzzling Hummers and empty flat bed semis.  There was lots of pigs out.  Some group of right wing assholes in camo gear stood across the street, one was visibly carrying a sheathed knife.

It seems that the celebration of Columbus Day overall is declining.  A corporate media report states the declining interest in Kolumbus Day, of course not all for reasons of celebrating the beginning of the largest genocide in history.

Despite the smaller turnout at the protest, the parade organizers were spurred to respond to it this year.  From www.columbusdayparade.org:

” Columbus Day Parade – Denver, CO

A Message from the President

Written by Richard SaBell

Sunday, 11 October 2009 18:15

Thank you all for your support and participation! The parade was a success despite the weather and the weak attempt at cancellation. The October newsletter will be out shortly with a full recap of the day. The following is copy of the letter sent to all the same people that received the phony cancellation email.

Letter to the Media October 11, 2009

As evidenced by the wonderful but cold Columbus Day Parade on Saturday, the parade was not cancelled and was never in danger of being cancelled. Some have called the attempt to disrupt the parade a hoax but in truth the criminal impersonation of anyone is a serious matter. Denver Police have informed me the investigation is ongoing. As a private citizen, as President of the Columbus Day Parade committee, and as a member of the National Order Sons of Italy in America and Grand Lodge of Colorado, I will pursue this matter to the fullest extent of the law.

It is important to remember that in addition to honoring a brave explorer and acknowledging Italian American contribution to this country, Columbus day commemorates the beginnings of America itself. A National American holiday of great importance. I feel it is long overdue for a close look at who and what opposes this celebration. We have multimedia documentation of protestor signs reading “I hate the U.S.A.,” “Victory to Afghanistan,” “Death to Empire,” and an effigy of Uncle Sam used as a pinata and beaten with a shoe. Shouted slogans over a loudspeaker of “occupier go away,” and “hey little kid, your dad is a racist.” This yearly abuse of the Italian American community at the hands of individuals with no regard for the law of the land or the rights of their fellow citizens is a disgrace. Know that the Columbus Day Parade will take place next year despite any opposition, even Mother Nature.

To avoid any confusion or misunderstanding in the future I suggest you check ou! r website for up to date info and a full contact list of anyone you may need. You may also call me direct 720-323-4260. If you reach my voice mail, please leave a message and I will return your call directly.

G. Richard SaBell

President

Columbus Day Parade Committee”

Sabell does accurately reflect the signs and pinata that were at the protest.  He is wrong to say that all who oppose the parade are against Amerika, but we at RAIM definately are.  He is accurate in saying that the Columbus Day holiday commemorates the legacy of Amerika, that of racism, colonialism, and genocide.  He attacks the supposed unsavory characters who protest the parade but ignores the shady supporters of the celebration that include white supremacists, neo-Nazis, the John Birch Society, and those who honor bringing Western civilization to the so-called New World because it is a “superior culture,” no matter the atrocities it brought.

This year’s protest kept alive a tradition of resistance to the racist parade and holiday, which started in Colorado over 100 years ago.  Worldwide this resistance continues.

John Brown Led Raid on Harpers Ferry, 150 Years Ago Today

October 16 is the 150th anniversary of the raid of Harpers Ferry in 1859.  Led by abolitionist, nation traitor, and revolutionary John Brown, this failed raid was intended to arm Black slaves in a rebellion against white Amerika and for freedom for the Black Nation.  Democracy Now shows a reading of John Brown’s last words at his trial, as well as a reading by Frederick Douglas on John Brown:

Maoist-Thirdworldist agitation artist Shubelmorgan (named after an alias taken by John Brown) presents a video introduction to John Brown:

Anti-imperialists from oppressor nations should take on the example of John Brown.  As the video states, though, John Browns will be a minuscule minority of members of oppressor nations, so oppressed peoples and their allies should have no illusions.

Denver Protests Ongoing Imperialist Wars

Denver Protests Ongoing Imperialist Wars

(raimd.wordpress.com)

October 7 was the 8th anniversary of the start of the current war in Afghanistan by the United States.  A number of national groups in the remaining U.S. anti-war movement called for actions.  Locally the Denver Anti-War Network (DAWN) called for a march many months ago, and it kicked off this day.  Many activists gathered for two separate events in Denver on October 7th, a march against the Afghanistan war, and a “Justice and Peace Jamboree” right after the march.

About 50 people mobilized for a rally and march that started at the Denver Federal Courthouse downtown.   A rally was held there for an hour.  A street theater was held about the situation in Afghanistan.  The crowd consisted of nominal anti-imperialists, anarchists, national liberation supporters, and anti-police brutality activists, along with RAIM members and supporters.   As it was a broad-based march against the war in Afghanistan, there were many who advocated First Worldist, pro-Amerika politics.  RAIM provided many anti-imperialist, anti-Amerika, anti-troop, and pro-Third World signs and slogans to promote our politics.  After the rally the march then set down 16th Street mall.  It was small in comparison to previous anti-war rallies, but was spirited and opted for more charged slogans.  “Number One Terrorist, U.S. Imperialists” were chanted by a large majority of the protesters for much of the march. The protest itself stayed on message, the notable interject of the so-called health care debate in the march was a sign brought by a RAIM comrade: “The Real Health Care Crisis- Amerikan Imperialism.”

Protesters addressed multiple issues in their slogans. “From Iraq to Palestine, Occupation is a Crime” and “No Justice, No Peace, Control the Police” was chanted by the crowd.  The march ended at a military recruitment office along the way.  Visual images of the victims of the war were going to be displayed, for  some truth in advertising in military recruitment, but was prevented by the pigs who were already there blocking the recruitment entrance.

For the small size of the march, the police presence was large. The federal police at the courthouse put cameras in front of and photographed protesters, and generally intimidated those expressing free speech rights.  Before stepping off, a speaker noted one local cop who was involved in a brutality case against a citizen.  He called the pig, who is black, a “twisted uncle tom” through a megaphone. Along the march anti-police brutality activist Shareef Aleem noted the large amount of pigs who followed the peaceful march. The police repression locally was also brought up, as well as the recent piggery against activists in Pittsburgh who were protesting at the G-20 meetings.  Everywhere along the march route Denver pigs were there to meet us.

The after-event, the Justice and Peace Jamboree, was held at a local restaurant and music venue, the Mercury Cafe, and was attended by over 70 people.  It was quite diverse, featuring a moving play about the Israeli settler state entitled Seven Jewish Children; interesting poetry by local poet Lenny C, hip hop by local group the Golden Soldiers; and speeches by local activists for a number of causes and organizations.  Denver RAIM member, Hector, gave a short, powerful speech which highlighted the fact the it’s not Bush or Obama that’s the problem, it’s Amerika.  Several RAIM supporters picked up the latest issue of the RAIM Global Digest and we got a chance to meet and get our message out to new people.

The numbers at this march and rally were expectedly small, as it was one of the first anti-war actions under the Obama adminstration.  On the other-hand, Obamamania has pulled some of the most reformist, pro-Amerika elements out of the anti-war movement, leaving the more radical sectors.  This was evident in Denver, as more moderate activists were absent at this march, leaving space for anti-imperialist slogans and direction.

Nationally the remnants of the anti-war movement called for protests around this anniversary date as Obama escalates war in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  Earlier in a march in Washington DC the corporate media reported almost 100 arrests at the marches there.  It remains to be seen where the anti-war movement will go in the U.S. under Obama.

In the end, marches and protests of 40 people or 40,000, even with anti-imperialist slogans, will not end the war. Revolutionary Anti-Imperialists know occupied peoples can only be truly liberated through their own accord. However, as allies of the oppressed Third World masses in the First World, one thing we can do is build public opinion in favor of their struggle. For those who truly desire change, there is little reason to reach out to the middle ground, water-down our message and pander to a progressive Amerikan majority that doesn’t exist. For revolutionary anti-imperialists, our message to Denver’s anti-war movement is clear: true change will only come through an end to imperialism, through a revolution of the world’s oppressed people against First World imperialism and Amerika; those who really support real change must support the Third World struggle and the defeat of Amerika.

Call Out to Oppose KKKolumbus Day and Settler Colonialism

Join RAIM-Denver and other Denver activists as we oppose the annual celebration of genocide, Kolumbus Day.

Saturday, October 10th, 9:30 am

West Steps of the State Capitol building

Afghan Locals Give U.S. Occupiers Proper Goodbye

Afghan Locals Give U.S. Occupiers Proper Goodbye

(http://raimd.wordpress.com)

On Saturday, October 3rd hundreds of insurgents stormed two remote military bases near the Pakistan border in Afghanistan. A proper goodbye– the attack killed eight occupiers from Fort Carson and injured many more as they were preparing to relocate from rural outposts to larger bases in more populated areas as part of a revised strategy by NATO war-planners.

This attack comes as the U.S. NATO Commander in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal, urges President Barack Obama to add 40,000 more Amerikan occupation troops on top of the 68,000 already there or en route. In a speech in London on October 1st, McChrystal acknowledged that the NATO occupiers are unpopular and advocated a “counter-insurgency” as opposed to “counter-terrorist” strategy, saying the latter was too narrow and would mean allowing Afghanistan to become “Chaos-istan.”

In reality, the U.S. and NATO are fighting a losing war: one of occupation waged by imperialists. Recent emphasis has been placed on training Afghan military and police forces to carry out the duties of the occupiers. However, the militarily imposed Afghan puppet government is also highly unpopular, as demonstrated by evidence of widespread fraud in the country’s recent elections. Saturday’s attacks were directed both at foreign occupation forces and those of the comprador state. U.S. military officials described the insurgents as members of “tribal militias,” a code word for fighters who receive support from the common Afghan rural masses.

Those occupiers killed in Saturday’s attack did not die heroically or with honor. Rather, they were killed as part of resistance by the Afghan people to foreign occupiers and a puppet regime. Rather than dying for abstract ideas such as “freedom,” the eight troops from Colorado Springs died for just the opposite reason: depriving Afghans of their freedom by enforcing imperialist rule.

Amerikan troops serve the interest of imperialism; therefore, they are rightly hated everywhere people are oppressed and exploited by imperialism. Unlike in Colorado Springs and the U.S., in Afghanistan there will be no mourning for these eight fallen Amerikans. For the Afghan masses, they are simply eight more dead occupiers.

Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/05/world/asia/05afghan.html
http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_13485884
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/world/asia/02general.html

Upcoming Anti-Imperialist Actions in Denver: No War In Afghanistan, No Kolumbus Day

If you didn’t feel there is enough to do around Denver fighting imperialism, this week will be eventful.

First, this Wednesday a march, rally, and after event to protest U.$. wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. Join RAIM as we do our thing and provide platform for revolutionary, anti-imperialist politics.

Then join us this Saturday as we oppose the celebration of indigenous peoples genocide (aka Kolumbus Day).  This year’s protest will be more low key but just as creative in letting oppressors know they are oppressors.

From the Denver Anti-War Network:

EIGHT YEARS IN AFGHANISTAN IS ENOUGH

March and Rally to Demand US Out of Afghanistan

DENVER, October 5, 2009— On Wednesday, October 7, as part of a month of actions around the country, the Denver Anti War Network will lead a march and rally to call for an end to the illegal US occupation of Afghanistan. The rally will be from 4:30– 5:30 at the Federal Courthouse, 19th & Stout, downtown Denver…

The march will be followed by a Justice and Peace Jamboree at the Mercury Café, 2199 California, at 7:00pm, where participants will enjoy music and poetry and share ideas for continuing opposition to the war…

and:

Saturday, October 10, 2009 at 9:30am

Demonstration at State Capitol

Confront the Racist Kolumbus Day Parade!

Oppose Settler Colonialism!

Harvest Season Means Forced Labor for Uzbek Children

(http://raimd.wordpress.com)

Every September, hundreds of thousands of Uzbek children begin two months of forced labor in the country’s cotton fields. Receiving almost nothing in wages and acting in accordance with state mandate, schools are closed and children become virtual slaves as the harvest season rolls in.

In the fields, children as young as seven are forced to meet extreme quotas with little opportunities for rest. Conditions are described as squalid and food inadequate. They earn a few pennies per kilo of cotton and wage deductions are made for transportation and food costs. At the end of the harvest season they are left exhausted and often in poor health. Teachers are conscripted into becoming overseers and also work in the fields in order to meet production quotas. Children make up only about half of the harvest season labor force and farmers, forced to grow the export crop,  have it little better. As one Uzbek farmer describes it, “being a cotton farmer here is like hanging between life and death. The government controls our lives very tightly. If we don’t obey, we’ll end up in trouble. All we want is freedom. And the state is punishing us for wanting freedom.”

Uzbekistan’s state-administered cotton industry has also taken its toll on the environment. With the heavy irrigation demands for the cash crop, the Aral Sea, once a climate modifying feature in the region, is at 15% of its former volume. As a result, salinity has multiplied, killing 24 species of native fish and wiping out Uzbekistan’s commercial fishing industry. The cotton fields themselves have been overirrigated and suffer from high levels of soil salinity and erosion. Cotton monoculture has left Uzbekistan’s formerly prosperous lands increasingly infertile, sometimes to the point of abandonment. The heavy use of pesticides has compounded the environmental problem, leading to increased rates of birth defects and genetic mutations.

Uzbekistan is the world’s second largest exporter of cotton, shipping 800,000 metric tons overseas. The comprador Uzbek state maintains a monopoly on the export of cotton. With a barely paid, seasonally captive workforce, much of the income from the cotton is not used in future development projects or as part of social welfare programs but instead props up a small parasitic elite which make up the Third World regime. The cotton which is not exported is sent to Uzbekistan’s small domestic textile industry, made up of joint ventures between the Uzbek state and foreign investors.

According to Steve Trent, Executive Director of the Environmental Justice Foundation, “We have witnessed the forced use of children in Uzbekistan’s cotton fields and seen the conditions they work in. At the same time we have seen how a small, corrupt, ruling elite denies these facts and continues to be the main beneficiary of the cash the child labor earns Uzbekistan.” While forced child labor is undoubtedly a regular feature in the country’s cotton industry, Trent and the Environmental Justice Foundation are missing the larger picture.

Most of Uzbeck’s cotton is exported. The Uzbek state actually sells the cotton at 85% of the global market price and 43% of it is sent to Asian textile mills. There young adults, often women, endure conditions which are scarcely better than that of the common Uzbek. Produced under similar conditions of comprador capitalism, the final product is then exported to imperialist countries where it enters consumer markets. While various Third World puppet regimes may reap some of the benefits of vast pools of virtually captive people, most of it is passed along.

After cotton is harvested and spun into textiles under brutal conditions of comprador capitalism, the finished goods finally enter First World consumer markets. There, First World business realizes massive profits from simply selling the products of Third World labor to First World consumers. Also, First World workers benefit: their high wages enable them to purchase vast quantities of goods, something that would not be possible without the super exploitation of Third World workers. In the grand scheme of things, the Uzbek state is a minor player. It is the imperialist First World which is the main culprit: through its exploitative workings of global scale, it demands cheap commodities produced under conditions of virtual slavery.

Those who benefit from Uzbek forced child labor, the Uzbek comprador elite and the First World, are a global minority. In contrast, the Uzbek masses are part of a larger majority, the vast Third World masses. According the the Environmental Justice Foundation, 250 million children around the world are compelled to work, presumably in commodity exchange industries. Adding to this are the world’s exploited adults, those languishing in vast urban slums and subsistence communities under constant threat of being kicked off the land. Together, the vast Third World masses pose a serious threat to the system: they carry great potential and a historical responsibility.

Today, the most long term solution to the problem of forced child labor is an end to the system which demands it, capitalist-imperialism. Organized along their combined interest, those currently at the bottom of the global order are key to destroying it and building anew. By organizing those who have nothing to lose, Uzbek children and farmers, Chinese factory workers and the vast Third World masses, around a radical program of class war and liberation, and by supporting each others’ struggles against the imperialist system, peoples everywhere can find freedom.

The struggle to build a new world can only take place alongside advances of the oppressed over the course of class warfare. Only through a revolutionary movement of the Third World masses will children everywhere have a future of peace, freedom, prosperity and equality.

Sources:

http://www.ejfoundation.org/pdf/white_gold_the_true_cost_of_cotton.pdf
http://www.newint.org/columns/currents/2009/07/01/uzbekistan/
http://www.ethicalcorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=5409

RAIM Global Digest # 5

RAIM Digest 5 PDF

Contents:

1,013 Afghan Civilians Killed in First Half of 2009

Pigs Deny Ward Churchill Job and Damages

Movie Review: The Rise of Cobra

Obama: More Troops, More Imperialism, More of the Same

Amerika’s Fierce Appetite

Movie Review: District 9

Amerikan E-Waste Poisons Chinese

Amerikan E-Waste Poisons Chinese

(raimd.wordpress.com)

E-waste increasingly flows from the U.S. to the Third World. E-waste is made up of computers, cell phones, and other electronics that have been thrown away. For example, Amerikans throw out 133,000 computers a day and 100 million cell phones a year. Electronics contain harmful, toxic materials such as lead, cadmium, mercury, chromium, and polyvinyl chlorides. These materials are known to cause cancer, brain damage, kidney disease, etc. This toxic e-waste is the fastest growing part of the municipal waste stream in the U.S.

How does e-waste get from point a to point b? There are dozens of corporations that are contracted to dispose of e-waste. One such company is Executive Recycling out of Englewood, Colorado. Executive Recycling promotes itself as an eco-friendly corporation, sponsoring Earth Day events and a “Go Green” campaign in Colorado, for example. They are a corporation that is contracted to dispose of e-waste in an environmentally safe manner. The Executive Recycling web page even warns of the dangers to Amerikans that e-waste poses: “Here in Colorado, residential customers are not governed by law to recycle electronics; however by putting these items in the trash we are causing a larger issue, as these items leach mercury, lead, and other hazardous elements into our drinking water.”

So, how does Executive Recycling keep Amerikans safe from toxic e-waste? Rather than expose Amerikans to their own hazardous trash, Executive Recycling dumps it on Chinese. A recent story by the news journal 60 Minutes documents how toxic materials are shipped by Executive Recycling, and other First World recycling companies, from Amerika to destinations in China.

One destination is Guiyu, China. It is a city with a growing population, where peasants have come after being driven off the land. The ex-peasants breakdown and burn old computers and other electronics. They earn a few dollars a day dealing with highly toxic materials without protective equipment. They report that their lungs burn and they have trouble breathing. Their skin is damaged with scars and burns. The local water has become undrinkable. Drinking water has to be trucked in. Guiyu has the highest level of cancer-causing dioxins in the world. Seven out of ten children have too much lead in their blood. Miscarriages are six times more likely there.

The Amerikan high-tech lifestyle produces poisons that are forced upon the impoverished peoples of the Third World. Not only do Third World peoples slave away in factories producing consumer goods for Amerikans for pennies an hour, Third World peoples also have to recycle Amerikans’ toxic trash. Capitalist-imperialism poisons Third World peoples in order to maintain the Amerikan way of life. This is yet another example of how the First World lives on the backs of the Third World, exporting the cost of its lifestyle to the majority of the world’s people.

Amerikans have help in poisoning the Chinese population. The Chinese state turns a blind eye. In the 1970’s, Chinese self-determination and independent socialist development was replaced with brutal comprador capitalism. Today, the Chinese state sells the labor and health of its people to imperialism in order to make a buck. The First World and its Third World lackeys will continue to ruin the lives of Third World peoples until imperialism is defeated, until Third World peoples seize control of their own destinies.

Source:  http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4586903n

Amerika’s Fierce Appetite

Amerika’s Fierce Appetite

(http://raimd.wordpress.com)

The U.S.-based organization Feeding America claims that 1 in 8 Amerikans “suffer from hunger.” The First Worldist advocacy group warns, “You may know someone who is hungry and not even realize it.” By contrast, in the Third World, hunger is easy to spot: malnourished, boney bodies, and swollen bellies. In Amerika, it is understandably difficult to pick out the hungry amidst the crush of fleshy figures.

Hunger, like every other social indicator, is defined differently by First Worldists. An Amerikan “suffers” from hunger, according to the USDA, if they feel “hungry but did not eat” or “cut [the] size of meal or skipped meal.” In other words, one eighth of all Amerikans may have experienced a grumbly tummy in the last month or so — perhaps that sensation is gas produced by the many meals not skipped, or the Big Mac without fries. Such is the “science” of the First Worldist.

Amerika is “hungry” indeed. So hungry in fact that 66% of Amerikans are overwieght or obese. More than half the population has a medical condition due to “hunger.” However, it isn”t malnutrition, it’s increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, and stroke, conditions often associated with overeating. The vast majority of Amerikans prefer potato chips and television to any sort of physical activity. So is it any surprise that there is a conspicuous lack of Amerikan children with distended bellies and exposed ribcages? Hunger, according to First Worldists, is a psychological state: “I didn’t eat as much as I wanted today!” “I had to skip lunch once last week!” “I just ate but I’m still hungry!” Such is the song and dance for advocates of First Worlders. By contrast, hunger in the Third World is a matter of life and death.

The World Health Organization recommends a minimum intake of 2600 calories a day. Those in the Third World consume, on average, 2100 calories; First World peoples approximately 3700. Thus, by a more objective standard of measure, hunger is virtually non-existent in the First World. And, by contrast, most Third World people experience hunger as a way of life.

The distribution of hunger in the world is yet more confirmation that the principal contradiction is between the First and the Third World. Capitalism-imperialism is a world system that generates vast inequalities between countries. Under the current world system a few wealthy countries live comfortable lives at the expense of the vast majority in the poor countries. To end hunger for the vast majority of humanity in the Third World means turning the tables, including the dinner table, on the fat, lazy First World.

Smash the obese empire that feeds on the world’s hungry!

Sources.

http://www.feedingamerica.org/

http://www.ers.usda.gov/briefing/foodsecurity/labels.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/overwt.htm

http://www.webmd.com/cholesterol-management/obesity-health-risks

http://wilderdom.com/games/descriptions/WorldMeal.html

http://www.newint.org/issue225/facts.htm

Obama: more troops, more imperialism, more of the same

Obama: more troops, more imperialism, more of the same

(raimd.wordpress.com)

The election of Barack Obama as president was promised as bringing a different direction to U.S. foreign policy.  But as recent news shows, Obama will continue U.S. imperialist policies, for one by increasing the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.  In the beginning of his term this year he kept on Bush family crony Robert M. Gates as Secretary of “Defense.”  Gates announced recently the Amerikan military will increase the number of overall troops in service for these new imperialist wars.  Contributing to this increase are the Amerikan people, looking for jobs in the faltering economy, taking on military positions.

On Monday July 20 “Defense” Secretary Gates announced a “temporary” increase of the size of the army up to 22,000 troops.  This increase is to meet the “persistent pace” of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Gates (1).

The increase is to occur over three years. In the end, the size of the army will increase to 569,000 active duty soldiers.  Previously, in 2007, Gates had given a goal of an expansion to 547,000 soldiers. This previous target was reached in May.

There are currently 130,000 Amerikan troops in Iraq, not including mercenaries and contractors. Also, by the end of 2009, there will be 68,000 troops in Afghanistan.  Obama’s promised removal of troops from Iraq has been carried out at a snail’s pace, at best. This removal is really a shift, or “phased redeployment,” of more troops from Iraq into Afghanistan. Obama is not pulling back Amerikan Empire, so much as shifting its focus.  In fact, only combat forces will be withdrawn from Iraq by August 2010, and other troops will be scheduled to remain at least until December 2011 (2).  Most withdrawals are not even scheduled until March 2010. In fact there have been no troop withdrawals since Obama came into office. In addition, Gates expressed concern that future U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan would not have enough boots on the ground.  Military advisors and senators are advocating more troops be sent to Afghanistan than originally planned (3).

Some have pointed to some of Obama’s policies, like the defunding of the F-22 fighter program, as a sign of Obama’s dovish credentials. However, the defunding of this single program happened in the larger context of increasing the size of the military, including increasing funding for other fighter jets (4).

Obama, Another Side of the Coin

Despite what Amerikan pseudo-leftists say, to the world’s majority it does not matter who would have become U.S. president.  The United Snakes continues its tradition of militaristic policies.  All Obama changed was perception.  Amerikan public opinion tired of the war in Iraq not for any principled anti-imperialist reasons but because the war was becoming too costly; in Amerikan money, Amerikan lives, and to Amerika’s global image.  This last one was a key, for under Bush world opinion of the U.S. was lower than at any point in history. The jingoistic superpatriotism represented by McCain-Palin carried less appeal as the U.S. was being wound down in the resistance in Iraq.  Obama came along to shift world opinion of Amerika to a more positive view.  Amerikans also felt better in their relationship to the world under Obama, even though there has been no change to the foreign policies that enrich all Amerikans.  With a more positive world opinion, Amerikans are more willing now to embrace Amerikan imperialism, even joining its military to defend it.

Reasons For the Increase of Volunteer Troops

The New York Times also notes that the Pentagon, without the aid of conscription, will increase the size of its army by traditional means of recruiting and retention.  Since the advent of the all-volunteer armed forces over 30 years ago the military has relied on recruiting to fill its ranks.  Most have to be actively recruited.

The Iraq War made military service during a sustained military conflict unpopular.  The military could no longer count on those enlisting for easy college money or signing bonuses, obtained without leaving their bases and incurring risk (5).  Even the National Guard, with less commitment, suffered unmet recruiting goals (6). Recruiters talked about having “rolled doughnuts,” slang for going an entire month without recruiting anyone.

Also, antiwar activists, dealing with an all-volunteer army, took on the strategy of counter-recruitment to symbolically hurt the war effort. It met with mixed success in deterring some young people from the military (7), with many students removing their names from military recruiting lists that schools are required to give (8).  Military recruiters became more aggressive in their efforts.  But the recent recession has helped enlistment and re-enlistment.

In mentioning Gates’ proposed increase of troops this year, the New York Times also mentions that recruitment has been aided by those looking for a job in the recession, and troops reenlisting beyond their scheduled terms due to the job market.  Another source says military recruitment was up 9 percent from 2008, and potential soldiers are including not only those out of high school but those with bachelors and master degrees, looking for a steady paycheck without fears of layoffs (9).

Overall, the opposition to the Iraq War in the U.S. increased not because of any principled opposition to its military committing atrocities for profit, but because it was seen as too costly and unwinnable for Amerikans.  Even with the global recession Amerikans are still better off than the great majority of the world.  They still willingly join its military to further imperialist aggression in order to objectively keep their privileged position in the world.

The U.S. is the principal global empire. It must assert itself militarily around the globe.  To do this, it needs warm bodies for its never ending military adventures. Since 1900 the U.S. has continuously engaged in military confrontations of some kind or other nearly every year since. This will continue to be the case for the next hundred years, or until U.S. imperialism is defeated.

Domestic opposition will not stop aggression against the Third World. The liberal anti-war movement came to a halt with the end of the Bush administration. Most in the anti-war movement swallowed Obama’s lies. Progressives in the U.S. are deluding themselves if they still think the Obama administration will initiate major changes in U.S. foreign policy.

The masses of the Third World are also deluded, if they buy into Obama’s reinvention of Amerika. After all, recent polls show that Obama has improved the image of the U.S. in the Third World. The reality is that Obama and Bush are just two sides of the same imperialist coin. Given the promise of a paycheck Amerikans in their self-interest will help in the effort to expand the war machine. Amerikans have a material interest in maintaining imperialism. They are the ones who benefit, after all.  The masses of the world should not rely on opposition inside Amerika to stop imperialist wars.  If imperialism is to be smashed, then it will be the Third World masses who wield the hammer.  If First-Worlders support humanity they will side with the Third World masses in this endeavor.

Sources:

(1). Bumiller, Elizabeth.  “Gates Says U.S. Army’s Size Will Grow by 22,000.”  New York Times.  July 20, 2009.  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/world/21military.html

(2). “With Pledges to Troops and Iraqis, Obama Details Pullout.”  New York Times.  February 27, 2009. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/washington/28troops.html

(3)  Bumiller, Elizabeth.  “With Boots in Iraq, Minds Drift to Afghanistan.”  New York Times.  July 31, 2009.  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/01/world/middleeast/01memo.html

(4).  Drew, Christopher.  “Obama Wins Crucial Senate Vote on F-22.”  New York Times.  July 21, 2009.    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/business/22defense.html

(5). Davey, Monica.  “Recruiters Try New Tactics to Sell Wartime Army.”  New York Times.  June 14. 2004.  p. 1, 8.

(6). Moniz, Dave.  “For Guard Recruiter, a Tough Sell.”  USA Today.  www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-03-07-recruits-cover_x.htm.  Accessed 3/8/2005.

(7). Some examples of earlier counter-recruitment strategies are here:  Weill-Greenberg, Elizabeth.  “Calling All Soldiers:  Military Recruiters Face Resistance From Young Anti-War Activists.”  New York Amsterdam News.  February 24, 2005.  Accessed from www.commondreams.org 3/8/2005; and Hampson, Rick.  “‘Counter-recruiters’ Shadowing the Military.” USA Today.  www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-03-07-counter-recruiters_x.htm.  Accessed 3/8/2005.

(8). “Students Want Off Recruiting Lists.”  Toward Freedom.  November 16, 2005.  http://towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/667/78/ Accessed 11/21/2005.

(9). “Slumping Economy Helping With Military Recruitment.” http://www.wjactv.com/news/20277281/detail.html

1,013 Afghan Civilians Killed in First Half of 2009

1,013 Afghan Civilians Killed in First Half of 2009

http://raimd.wordpress.com

A U.N. mission has reported that 1,013 civilians have been killed in combat in Afghanistan during the first half of the year, up 24% from the same period in 2008. Civilian deaths have not been restricted to Afghanistan. On January 23rd, less than three days after his inauguration, President Barack Obama ordered a drone attack into Pakistan which locals say killed three civilians.

Much of the world has been bamboozled by the Obama presidency. However, the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan are finding out that Obama is just another imperialist butcher. They likely won’t be the last as the Obama administration continues to redirect the “War on Terror.” The people of the Third World will not take such aggression lying down. This past July was the bloodiest month for occupation forces in Afghanistan since the start of the October 2001 invasion.

Sources:
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/related/303214
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article5575883.ece

Denver Anti-War Events

From the Denver Anti-War Network:

Open Community Discussion on the Anti-War Movement
Monday, August 31st: 6:30 pm
Mercury Cafe, 2199 California St.

“March for Real Change. Stop Obama’s Wars”
Wednesday, October 7th: 4pm
Federal Courthouse, 19th and Stout

Justice and Peace Jamboree
An evening of food, music and radical politics
Wednesday, October 7th: 7pm
Quixote’s, 2623 Welton St.

Movie Review: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Movie Review: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

http://raimd.wordpress.com

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is a Hollywood action movie packed with CGI-enhanced martial arts; explosions; sci-fi hi-tech weapons; chase scenes and topped off with near superhuman ‘good’ and ‘bad guys.’ Typical of Hollywood-type action movies, the plot centers around preventing the bad guys from attaining global dominance. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, like another summer blockbuster, Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, is one of many movies that promotes militarism and by extension imperialism.

The story opens with a weapons dealer, McCullen (later revealed as bad guy, Destro), showing off a new high-tech weapon, the Nanomite warhead. The weapon, loosely based on emerging technologies, is said to be able to destroy “any and all material in its path.” The first to procure this new weapon is the United States. The main protagonist, Duke, is charged with leading a NATO force to deliver four of the warheads. The audience is never challenged to ask why the U.S. wants or gets this weapon, let alone four of them, nor what would happen once it gets them. Instead the plot predictably begins when the warheads are stolen by the ‘bad guy’ Cobra force.

Unlike the G.I. Joe toys and cartoons, the new live-action G.I. Joe force is multinational, consisting of the “top men and women of the best  military units of the world.” Prior to the theft of the Nanomite warheads, it is unclear what purpose such an elite military force might serve. The two male protagonists who join the G.I. Joe force after the start of the movie, Duke and Ripchord, seem more interested in running around in suits which give them superhuman strength and speed than serving any humanitarian or even patriotic ends. At the beginning of the movie, Ripchord expresses interest in joining the U.S. Airforce simply so he can pilot military jets.

As the movie develops, the G.I. Joe force must stop the Cobra from destroying Washington D.C., Bejing and Moscow. The leader of the Cobra force is the Cobra Commander, a former friend of Duke’s who wants to use the Nanomite technology to attain global power. The Cobra Commander is aided by Destro the weapons dealer, a small army of mind-controlled fearless soldiers, and the Baroness, a former love interest of Duke’s who is also mind-controlled throughout most of the movie.

In the real world, where both high-tech weapons capable of small and vast destruction and various elite, multinational, sometimes private military units exist, bad guys like the Cobras don’t. In the real world, millions of people die from starvation and malnutrition, not violent conspiracies to usurp global power. The system responsible for these deaths, imperialism, also creates conditions whereby oppressors join the military for the ‘thrill’ of using destructive weapons, flying fast and blowing things up. However, these people are not heroes.

Today, in the real world, most state militaries and elite multinational  forces serve to maintain the imperialist system which starves millions. Taken out of the context of imperialism and global class systems, there is no need for elite military units. Action movies such as G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra and Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen create ridiculous fictional stories in which imperialist militaries are portrayed not as the protectors of global class structure, but as playing a positive role for humanity. ‘Ordinary,’ relatable characters such as Duke and Ripchord, who, in real life would play a mundane role in a profoundly awful system, are seen as both more significant and depoliticized: they’re “in the middle of the action” and supposedly saving the world. Amerikan and First World audiences, who are not routinely subjected to imperialist threats and aggression, might find themselves envious of such adventures and abilities. And whereas First World movie-goers, people who economically benefit from imperialist militarism, can’t join or cheer for the G.I. Joe force in real life, they conveniently can the U.S. military, NATO, Blackwater (now called Xe), the IDF and various other imperialist military organizations.

New RAIM Video: Fuck The Kops

Sacred, Indigenous Site Made Into Fill-Dirt for New Sam’s Club, Revolution Needed

http://raimd.wordpress.com

In Oxford, Alabama something awful is happening. A hill, on top of which lies a Native American rock mound, is being destroyed in order to procure fill-dirt for a new Sam’s Club a few miles away.

The rocks were arranged on the 200 foot (60 meter) rise over a millennium ago. The site was fundamental in Indigenous rituals and gatherings in the area. According to Oxford head racist, mayor Leon Smith, the site is the “ugliest old hill in the world.” “Just a pile of old rocks,” he added about the mound. City officials plan to in the future remove the top of the hill, including the rock mound, to create an elevated, eight acre (3.25 hec) commercial development site that will overlook the Choccolocco Valley and city of Oxford. Sam’s Club, a division of Walmart Stores Inc, which is carving into the hill right now, is a growing chain of wholesale megastores. Like Walmart, Sam’s Club markets itself as increasing the purchasing power of First World consumers through low prices.

Oxford, Alabama is one locality in an entirely stolen continent. Since 1492, all ‘development’ in Amerika has occurred hand in glove with the protracted genocide of Indigenous peoples. This genocide continues today. Those few Native Americans left which still have ties to the land are finding their historic claims increasing threatened by the federal and state governments and private interests. In the realm of ideas, Native identity and culture continue to be wiped out by Amerika. In Denver and elsewhere, the Sons of Italy and other racists conduct Kolumbus Day parades: celebrations of their 500 year conquest and occupation of the North American continent. Now in Oxford, Alabama, a clearly sacred site of an all but exterminated people is being destroyed with the intentions of creating more shopping opportunities at discount prices for Amerikans.

More significant is the connection between Amerika’s founding genocide and the system which fuels today’s consumerism: imperialism. It was in fact Amerika’s genocidal occupation of North America which provided a social, cultural and material launching pad for U.S. aggression abroad. It is no coincidence that during the 1890’s, after the ‘closing of the frontier,’ Amerika initiated a war with Spain and acquired through military occupations the colonies of Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam. Today this system is still in place and the U.S. virtually occupies the world. And it is precisely this history of aggression towards the Third World– and the resulting militarily imposed exploitation upon Third World peoples– which compels Sam’s Club and Walmart to bring ultra-low prices to ever more First World consumers, even at the cost of a clearly significant site for Native Americans.

While the outgoing scarification of the hill will likely continue, because of the extreme cultural chauvinism at a time when Amerika is attempting to re-invent itself as multi-cultural and pluralistic, the removal of the actual rock mound may be halted through effective campaigning at the reformist level. However, the real solution to this problem is nothing short of revolution. That is because the destruction of the site has a deeper cause than simple racism or cultural chauvinism. Consumer culture, rapid environment degradation, continued annihilation of Indigenous heritage, wars of aggression and systemic Third World poverty are all connected through capitalist-imperialism. Those who want to truly end Amerika’s continued genocide against Indigenous peoples and culture, as well as those who oppose consumerism, poverty and ecocide, should single out First World imperialism as the principal enemy in their related struggles. Those who truly want to create a new, better world must unite with and promote the struggle of the world’s exploited and oppressed majority against the capitalist-imperialist system.

Sources:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2009507533_apusindianmounddispute.html?syndication=rss
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/21/AR2009072100460.html

40th anniversary of “Whitey” on the Moon.

On this day, 40 years ago, two Amerikan settlers landed on the moon. In typical settler fashion, they even placed an Amerikan flag on the surface of the moon.

We at RAIMD look to this moment with great hope. One day, we hope to send all Amerikan settlers to the moon. Those oppressors called their moowalk , “one giant leap for man-kind.” However, the real leap will come when humanity must no longer suffer the oppression bestowed on it by the United Snakes.

Dear RAIM-Denver…Tell me more.

Earlier this month, we received this e-mail:

“I’m interested in learning more about the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism Movement. I have read many RAIM articles online and think there is a lot of benefit to studying the anti-imperialist theories your group has put forward. I have worked in the student and leftist movement for several years now, and RAIM and similar groups have provided important insights to strategy and tactics as well as a broader perspective. A minority of people have expressed similar ideas to RAIM in many leftist parties of all stripes.  I’m not 100% sure what RAIM’s stance is on some issues as some articles give an anarchist feel, while the majority is more in line with the Maoism of MIM or Monkey Smashes Heaven. So I’d be interested in learning where RAIM stands ideaologicaly and towards existing party organizations. I’m currently active in [activism], and look forward to cooperating with RAIM on a theoretical level, and perhaps eventually on a political level.”

RAIM: Anarchists or Communists

The Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Movement is neither anarchist nor communist. We are an anti-imperialist organization that seeks to unite and organize people around consistent anti-imperialist politics.

RAIM believes in the primacy of class in the development of revolutionary class struggle. Our position, which precludes questions of anarchism vs. communism, is that the First World is a reactionary, exploitative body acting against revolution and interests of the majority of humanity. As it turns out, some RAIMers are Maoist-Third Worldists. Others are anarchists. Still others are nationalists.

RAIM does not have a worked out position on our relationship with other groups or parties and does not currently maintain formal ties with other organizations. Instead, we support and stand in solidarity with all consistently anti-imperialist efforts. Regardless of pre-existing group affiliations, we encourage all individuals who shares a correct revolutionary anti-imperialist line to work under the RAIM banner.

RAIM’s Work

Beyond politics, RAIM is characterized by the fact that we do semi-public work.  We have an on-the-ground presence and produce materials that have a wide range of receptibility.  Whereas many of the ideas presenting by RAIM are increasingly gaining currency the around the world and amongst Third World movements, RAIM is unique in that it is making efforts to break the First-Worldist ‘revolutionary’ monopoly directly at its source within the First World. Sometimes this happens in a friendly way, such as our independent participation in various protests and demonstrations.  Other times this challenge to First Worldism comes off a more antagonistic, such as when we openly and directly attack various positions held by First Worldists.  While it is unlikely that Third World-oriented revolutionary tendencies will overshadow First Worldism within the First World itself, it has been proven that RAIM-like groups can interject themselves into nominally leftist politics while maintaining a clear contrast between ourselves and the remainder of First World self-styled revolutionaries.

Engaging and Contributing to Revolution

At present, we are seeking to expand the stark presence we’ve created in Denver into a national and international movement. The first step for this to happen is for people to do what you’re doing now: engage in a theoretical manner with the ideas presented by RAIM.  Do our ideas make sense; do they provide a realistic template for class struggle and revolution?  If you answered yes, then you’re the type of person we want to work with.

More specifically, an expanded RAIM can only come about through the sustained, determined efforts on the part of comrades such as yourself.  What will this look like exactly?  We’re not sure.  One thing’s for certain though: creating a larger network of RAIM-like groups will involve no small degree of dedication, independent initiative and even creativity on the part of people not already directly affiliated with RAIM.  For our part, we’ve already amassed a wealth of materials, such as the RAIM Global Digest, to help kick start such efforts.  While we at RAIM-Denver are currently making efforts to reach out and expand organizationally, in the end only a conscious effort on the part of individuals and small groups can make this prospect become a reality.

As always, thanks for the inquiry. We look forward to your and other comrades’ further engagements with and contributions to the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Movement.

See also:

Class Today and the Struggle for a New World
A general analysis of global class structure today and its relevance in revolutionary struggle.

Nick Brown Interview:
RAIM-Denver Comrade, Nick Brown, talks with Monkey Smashes Heaven about organization and anti-imperialist activism.

RAIM-D Global Digest
The newsletter of the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Movement. Great to print out in either single page or booklet format. This still developing RAIM project is a great way to study up on and get out the revolutionary anti-imperialist message and even contribute on in a more direct way through writing.

RAIM-Denver Archive Page
Find back issues the RAIM-D Global Digests, old and new pamphlets, graphics and videos here.

MSH: Pigs deny Ward Churchill job and damages

Pigs deny Ward Churchill job and damages

(monkeysmashesheaven.wordpress.com)

In a recent ruling Chief Denver District Judge Larry Naves ruled against Ward Churchill’s request to be reinstated to Colorado University and against financial damages. This ruling is a contrast to the jury verdict in April that concluded that Churchill was illegally removed from his position for his political beliefs. The ruling gives regents of the University a free hand to fire whomever they want for their political beliefs. Churchill’s attorney David Lane stated:

“It’s an extremely rare thing for a judge to throw out a jury verdict — that’s big, that doesn’t happen… Here it’s being done at the expense of the Constitution of the United States of America, and it’s really a tragedy. It sends the message to the public of, ‘Oh, jury verdicts. Who cares?’”

Churchill lost his job after attention was drawn to an essay that he had written following the 9/11 attacks. In his essay, Churchill called those who died in the twin towers “little Eichmanns.” Thus Churchill compared the technocrats who worked in the Trade Center maintaining the US empire with technocrats in Nazi Germany. Churchill’s point is hardly radical. Churchill’s point comes from the work of Hannah Arendt’s account of the trial of Adolph Eichmann. The Nazi bureaucrat Eichmann, according to Arendt, was a banal individual whose evil was not motivated by strong ideological beliefs, but rather by conformism and careerism. The evil of empire is made possible by a large strata of ordinary people who contribute to the evil of the system by staffing its bureaucracy. Like the verdicts at Nuremberg, Churchill’s point is that “I was just doing my job, just following orders” is not an acceptable defense for evil. Like the leaders of empire, the functionaries of empire are also responsible for its crimes. There is collective responsibility for the crimes of empire that go beyond the small circle of ideologists and figureheads who make policy.

The ruling is an unhappy ending to a long witch hunt. The ruling is a blow to academic freedom.

Source:

1. http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2009/jul/07/ward-churchill-job-university-colorado-boulder/

RAIM Global Digest Issue 4

Get it here at the RAIM-Denver Archives.

The Farce of July

New Agitation Handbill: America Sucks!

Just in time for the Farce of July weekend:

America Sucks!

Review of ‘The Old Future’s Gone: Progressive Strategy Amid Cascading Crisis,’ a talk by Robert Jensen

Review of ‘The Old Future’s Gone: Progressive Strategy Amid Cascading Crisis,’ a talk by Robert Jensen

http://raimd.wordpress.com

Last month, author and activist Robert Jensen spoke in Denver at an event sponsored by Argusfest entitled “The Old Future’s Gone: Progressive Strategy Amid Cascading Crisis.”  It was based on a writing that has circulated among left-liberal websites.  A professor of journalism at the University of Texas in Austin, he also has written many books and articles on topics such as imperialism, capitalism, white privilege and patriarchy.  He doesn’t quite go to our line, but he at least asks the right questions and approaches the right topics. Because of this, a few members of RAIM went to check out the event.

At best his talk could be summed up as eclectic with a sub-reformist emphasis.

Jensen also carries a sense of honest despair, admitting he sees little in the way of widespread, fundamental change. Rather than seeking out revolutionary means to revolutionary ends, he instead prefers to deal in ways in which he feels he’s made a more immediate, though irrelevant and fleeting, impact.

In talking about strategies for change, Jensen sees the Amerikan left engaged in three types: electoral politics, movement politics and local projects. He sees no use in electoral politics. Movement politics have their limits also, especially in their emphasis on protest marches. Bringing up the February 15, 2003 worldwide marches against the invasion of Iraq, the largest coordinated protest in history, which the New York Times said made world opinion a second superpower, he noted that they did nothing to stop that war. He sees more hope in local projects, things like community gardens and such. According to Jensen, the potential for dialogue and debate among others is increased in local projects, though he didn’t specify to what concrete end. The example he raised as his own efforts with local projects was a worker-owned cafe in Austin, though he admitted this effort failed to get off the ground.

While we understand the frustrations in observing the seemingly immovable state of Amerika and the world, the lack of radicalism in Amerikan mass politics, and the inability for radicals to act effectively in a minoritarian context, there were limits to Jensen’s insights beyond this.

When prodded by a RAIM comrade, Jensen admitted that the First World benefits from the exploitation of the Third World. When asked how this phenomenon of entire populations benefiting from others related to and could perhaps be overcome by local projects, he didn’t have an answer.  When asked about a solution in putting local projects to tackling this global issue of exploitation, he said the question was too big and too complicated to solve.

Jensen’s inability to answer straight questions were illuminating to the level of confusion within the Amerikan left, even amongst its intellectuals.  Jensen is one of the better intellectuals on the left, as he critiques metaphysical liberal ideas in favor of more radical analyses.  Jensen’s desire for revolutionary change is in some ways genuine, though Jensen himself is unable to come up with an effective model for widespread fundamental change.  Instead he promotes feel-good sub-reformism in the form of local projects, something he himself admits won’t work all the time. As once stated by Stokely Carmichael (later Kwame Ture), “Confusion is the greatest enemy of revolution.”

Much of this confusion can be seen in the trappings of left’s First Worldism.  Many on the left nominally go against imperialism while simultaneously campaigning to make Amerikans even better off. Jensen falls in this camp: he wants a better world but doesn’t want to alienate Amerikans. The truth is, Amerikans benefit from the global capitalist economic system as it is and have little material interest in working to create a new one.  This in part explains why revolutionary change seems so untenable within Amerika, even to those who genuinely desire it.

Unlike Jensen, we at RAIM apply global class analysis fully.  Doing simple math, Amerika is only 5 percent of the world population but the consumer of over 25 percent of the world’s resources.  The poorest half of the world lives on less than $2 a day, and the bottom 1.3 billion live on less than $1 a day.  Although Jensen admits this, RAIM-Denver plainly says the obvious truth and takes it to its logical end: Amerikans are part of the problem; they are a force which must be overcome during the course of progressive change. Unlike Jensen who is fruitlessly engaged in various forms of pandering to a population of petty exploiters and polluters, RAIM champions the cause of the world’s exploited and oppressed majority as the most direct route to creating a new world.

At one point, Jensen said that he struggles to identify as part of humanity and not Amerikan, white or male. In reality, to stand with humanity is to stand against Amerika and the First World.

The First World is destroying the planet and exploiting its people. On a structural level, this mean that the principal antagonism is between imperialism and the people of exploited nations. Exploitation-driven consumption and related environmental destruction affect the Third World the most, while benefits, even indirectly, trickle up to the First World.  The solution for this problem isn’t for those in the First World to engage in local projects. Rather, real change will come when Third World peoples wrestle stolen wealth out of the hands of First World imperialists. While this includes worker-owned industry on the part of currently exploited people, history has proven that this itself requires a fight and involves actual confrontations. Amerikans are not simply going to stop being exploiters: unlike the fluffy revolution of values Jensen dreams up, revolutions actually require revolution.

Conflict Heats Up in Oil-Rich Niger Delta

MEND Rebels (Photo credit : PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP/Getty Images)

Conflict Heats Up in Oil-Rich Niger Delta

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The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has recently released statements refusing offers of amnesty by the Nigerian state and, as of June 6th, given local and foreign oil workers 72 hours notice of an “imminent attack.” “The warning also applies to greedy individuals from oil communities tempted to carry out repair contracts on pipelines already destroyed,” MEND added.

These statements follow a major military campaign aimed at crushing MEND. As part of the campaign, which displaced thousands of indigenous civilians, the Nigerian military has been accused of indiscriminate aerial bombings and shelling villages. A spokesman from the Nigerian military called MEND’s warning an “empty boast by a toothless gang” and urged oil workers to disregard the threat.

In 2006, MEND began attacking oil installations, sabotaging infrastructure and kidnapping oil-industry workers for ransom. Since then, analysts have noted that the rebel group has grown more sophisticated. In June of 2008, MEND attacked Shell’s main oil platform, which, at 75 miles from shore, was thought to be safe from militant assaults. As a result, the platform, which normally produces 200,000 barrels per day, was temporarily closed, reducing Nigeria’s total oil production by 10% overnight. Since January of 2006, unrest in the Niger Delta has reduced Nigeria’s daily output from 2.6 million barrels to 1.76 million. Niger is the fifth largest importer of crude oil into the U.S.; oil accounts for 95% of Nigeria’s export income.

In January of 2009, MEND called off a four month ceasefire and resumed attacks against imperialist operations and infrastructure. MEND says that oil operations have caused massive pollution, killed local wildlife and left indigenous communities without a means of subsistence. Niger Delta communities use very little oil themselves. Almost no oil revenue makes it to the communities most affected by oil production. Instead it is exported as profits by companies such as Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron, transferred to the First World via price fixing and unequal exchange or consumed by local puppet-elites. Speaking of their own movement, MEND says, “The very reason for militancy is because of injustice. Fiscal federalism is among the things that will silence our guns.”

Under the current schema, imperialism dominates the Nigeria economy. This has predictably led to a social and environmental catastrophe. Traditional modes of existence have been destroyed through activities inherent in the maintenance of the modern global economy. In this case, foreign companies get the oil at the lowest cost possible and with no regard for existing communities or the environment and export it to consumption-based economies of the West. The people of the Niger Delta, instead of finding any benefit from this process, have lost their previous ability to feed themselves from their natural surroundings and have little opportunities to find subsistence level wages on their own land or in their own country. Regardless of natural wealth, imperialism is a death warrant for indigenous Third World peoples.

MEND’s struggle is a just one. Faced with displacement, oppression and exploitation by imperialism, Third World peoples have little alternative but fighting back at those who direct and facilitate such oppression. For groups like MEND, this means a struggle not only against the imperialist oil-industry but also against the Nigerian state. As witnessed by the military’s most recent offensive against MEND, the Nigerian state is itself an agent of imperialism whose main role is protecting, militarily if need be, the interests of multi-national oil companies.

The struggle of the Niger Delta masses against imperialism and its local puppets is one that must be supported by all revolutionary peoples. This is because the struggle in the Niger Delta is part of a larger struggle shared by the vast majority of humanity. A serious blow to imperialism in Nigeria weakens imperialism as a whole, allowing for revolutionary advances on the part of oppressed peoples elsewhere. Conversely, while MEND might be able to land some blows against Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell and the Nigerian state, the struggle against imperialism can only come to a victorious resolution through a unified effort on the part of oppressed peoples from countries around the world. Only by way of a global anti-imperialist struggle can imperialist exploitation, and the devastating social and environmental impacts that accompany it, no longer remain a threat to oppressed peoples. Only through the unified struggle of oppressed peoples against capitalist-imperialism and its various local lackeys can a new world, one based on the needs of people, be built.

Sources:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jIpUqBhxcOji3lQkTFIW07yahD8Q
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/5/21/nigeria
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7861257.stm
http://www.234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/News/National/5422826-146/story.csp
http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/company_level_imports/current/import.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7463288.stm

I-70 Expansion Plans Indicative of Wider Imperialist Parasitism

I-70 Expansion Plans Indicative of Wider Imperialist Parasitism

http://raimd.wordpress.com

Discussions about expanding Interstate 70 in Colorado have been happening for nearly a decade now. Proponents have cited everything from the living standards of Coloradans, quantified by their ability to quickly traverse the state’s main East-West highway, to the economic incentive of drawing into the state more tourist and commercial transport dollars. Proponents also say the state’s growing population will hasten the need for highway expansion projects.

More recently, plans to expand I-70 east of I-25 in Denver have moved forward with the publishing of a draft study on the environmental and social impacts of various options. Amongst other things, the study considered not expanding anything, expanding other main East-West Denver thoroughfares, building a multi-level highway, building an underground highway, expanding I-70 at the sides and rerouting the part of the highway. The later two options are most favored by the study. The portion of I-70 proposed for expansion is elevated over neighborhoods heavily populated by nationally oppressed peoples. The portion of the highway is also filled with potholes and bad patch-up jobs and predicted to be a point of major traffic congestion over the next ten years.

Thus far, the most vocal critics of the highway expansion plans has been the local environmental group, High Country Earth First! (HCEF!). HCEF! cites ecological concerns and a general critique of Amerika’s consumer economy, as well as advocacy for the neighborhoods which would be affected most, amongst its primary criticisms of the highway expansion plan.  According to HCEF!, any proposed highway expansion would contribute to problems such as urban sprawl, global warming, endangerment to local wildlife habitats and would negatively affect the surrounding nationally oppressed communities. According to HCEF!, the planned I-70 expansion “is part of the greater picture, one where poor people and communities of color are systemically oppressed by the state for the continued privilege of white people and the wealthy. Infrastructure expansion doesn’t meet the needs of underserved communities and only furthers their destruction. The I-70 expansion is no different; a low income community of color would be disrupted and displaced to serve the needs of a capitalist white supremacy.”

The Real Bigger Picture

While the proposed I-70 expansion occurs within the often obscured context of capitalist-imperialism, the cognitive reasons for the project, as noted by proponents and critics, are pretty clear cut: to bring more money into the state. Underlying these seemingly disconnected notions is the interconnected economics of it all.

Building a highway does not itself create value: portions of it will not be sold as a commodity in the form of a toll or user-fee. Rather, a highway expansion has one clear purpose, to better facilitate commerce, trade and private spending in the state. Whereas this added economic activity may inject billions of additional dollars into the state, this does not necessarily mean that such value was itself created within the state.

Under capitalism, value is created by labor engaged in the creation and distribution of commodities. Under capitalism, workers are only paid a portion of the value that was created and the capitalist keeps the rest. The situation today however is vastly more complicated.

Production and distribution is organized on a global scale and vast disparities exist between workers themselves. Nevertheless, value is still created by labor. The difference today is that whereas most of the world’s value is created in the Third World, it becomes realized and concentrated within the First. Thus, from the perspective of a single locality within the exploiter First World, anything that increases local commerce and economic activity in the area increases the realization of surplus value and the accumulation of capital.

Simply put, expanding I-70 will mean that more value created elsewhere will be channeled into the Colorado economy. The exploitative global relationship that is capitalist-imperialism makes the question of redundant and ecologically unsound infrastructure such as ever-increasing urban highways systems a realistic, even necessary one. Even truck drivers and highway construction workers, whose compensation places them in the richest 10% of the world, find themselves in positions of intersecting interest with the expansive system of imperialist parasitism.

Summing It Up

HCEF! gets it partially right when they say, “Infrastructure expansion doesn’t meet the needs of underserved communities and only furthers their destruction. The I-70 expansion is no different; a low income community of color would be disrupted and displaced to serve the needs of a capitalist white supremacy.”

HCEF! is right to frame the issue more as one of relative privilege than direct exploitation. Indeed, infrastructure expansion is meant to serve the general exploiter economy: one in which nationally oppressed peoples receive less opportunities and encounter more obstacles. For the most exploitative and oppressive sectors of Coloradan society, the damage done to the relatively least empowered, nationally oppressed communities is seen as a necessary consequence of increasing economic activity and thus the realization of value via this highway expansion project. Nevertheless, projects such as the proposed expansion of I-70, despite the damage it may cause to specific communities, should be seen for what it is: the expansion of imperialist parasitism within the Denver/Colorado area.

Demands for People Centered Infrastructure

Obviously not all infrastructure is bad. RAIM-Denver is hardly opposed to highways and roads on their own merits. In fact, a better regular distribution of food and medical supplies, which requires better road systems, and basic infrastructure such as water sanitation facilities and simply utilities are some of the basic demands of the world’s impoverished majority. While it is true that the natural capacity of the Earth could not allow the current mode and standard of living of Amerikans to be replicated the world over, this is more than anything else a reflection as to the depth of imperialist parasitism and the necessity of developing different productive and distributive arrangements in a new world.

As with imperialist parasitism itself, RAIM-Denver opposes any expansion of the I-70 highway system. Rather than continually expanding the material base for the realization of stolen wealth at this or that locality within the First World, RAIM-Denver demands that all resources for such projects instead be directed toward building life-saving and basic infrastructure, such that is centered around the creation of a more socially egalitarian and eco-centric organization of economic activity.

The proposed expansion of I-70 is merely symptomatic of a wider phenomenon of global exploitation and parasitism. In the end, only through destruction of this global imperialist paradigm will the idea of ever-expanding and destructive infrastructure projects, such as the proposed I-70 expansion, forever become of a remnant of a more primitive past. Only through the destruction of the modern capitalist-imperialist system can a fundamentally new world emerge.

Sources:

http://www.unconventionaldenver.org/?p=380

http://www.i-70east.com/reports.html

Pigs On a Rampage in Denver Area

Pigs On a Rampage in Denver Area

http://raimd.wordpress.com

Over the past few months three men have been shot by the police in the Denver Metro area. The events behind the multiple shootings are sketchy.

The latest was Darius Murray, shot on Saturday May 9th. The Aurora Pig Department originally claimed that 18-year old Darius Murray shot himself in the forehead after already being wounded by their officers (1). Later they backtracked and admitted that all of Murray’s wounds were caused by the officers. He remains in critical condition at University of Colorado Hospital.

According to the family’s lawyer, Derek Cole, the story the police are giving on the incident has constantly changed. The pigs say they were called out on an attempted burglary and when they tried to question Murray he “fired first” and “fired multiple times” before himself being shot in the leg, shoulder and head. He is being charged with attempted murder.(2)

The pigs refused to identify Murray as the shooting victim for two days after he was shot. The Murray family said the police never contacted them to let them know what happened. The family is not confident of police investigating police. The Aurora police chief, after saying he would not respond to the family’s concerns, issued a statement saying the shooting of Murray was justified(3).

Darius grew up in south Aurora and graduated from Colorado High School last year. While the details of the case are hazy, one thing is clear: he is another young Black male struck down through police terrorism.

This latest shooting follows two other shootings the month prior. In what sounds like an execution-style killing, the pigs killed an unarmed, un-named man on East Fifth Avenue and Lafayette St. on February 27th (4). And, in Arvada, police shot an unarmed, unnamed male on Feb.16, 2009 (5). Both shootings followed traffic stops.

Police terror is a mark of national oppression in the cities of Amerika. With oppression comes resistance. For oppressed nations within Amerika, this resistance is rightfully directed against the occupying army of violent, oppressive pigs. The Black Nation has the right of self-defense against police terror. For Blacks and oppressed nations the world over, freedom will come when it throws off the oppression that comes with Amerika.

Sources

(1). “Family wants answers after teen shot by officers.” 9News. http://www.9news.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=115606&catid=346

(2). “Colorado Crimes: Suspect in officer-involved shooting didn’t shoot himself.” Tuesday, May 12, 2009. http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2009/05/colorado_crimes_suspect_in_off.php

(3). “Aurora chief calls police shooting justified.” Denver Post. May 13, 2009. http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_12359557 ;
“Aurora police chief defends officers’ shooting of suspect.” Denver Post. May 14, 2009. http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_12364347

(4). “Police Shooting Murky.” Mike McPhee. Denver Post. February 28, 2009. http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_11804532

(5).“Suspect Shot After Assaulting Arvada Officer.” http://arvadapd.org/about-arvadapd/suspect-shot-after-assaulting-arvada-officer

Class Today and the Struggle for a New World

(http://raimd.wordpress.com)

“We want a better world. We want a world based on equality and mutuality. We envision a future in which the full potential of humanity is realized: one without unequal power relations and one of ecological harmony. Creating such a world is our common cause.” Such is the revolutionary refrain.

However pious the statements are, they stand disconnected from the world today: one full of inequality, oppression, coercion, violence, poverty and so on. If we really seek to create such a new, ‘utopian’ world, one thing is clear- we have a lot of work to do. Before we embark on this huge project, we need a plan or some sort of road map. Before we can chart a course towards the world we’d like to see, we must understand where we are now.

The world today is marked by extreme inequalities and stratification. The vast majority of people, around eighty percent, subsist on less than ten dollars a day. (1) Theirs is a world of poverty, toil and deprivation. Contrasted to this is a privileged minority noted for affluence, consumption and waste. Generally speaking, this social divide breaks down geographically: vast impoverishment being the norm of the ‘Third World’ and widespread affluence characteristic of the ‘First World.’

The scope and depth of this situation is unimaginable. In India alone, seven hundred million people live on less than two dollars dollars a day. (2) This is roughly equivalent to the entire English-speaking world. Around half of the world, about 3.5 billion people, live on less that $2.50 a day. (1) The human effects are devastating. For example, every year over 2 million people die of water born disease and every five seconds a child dies of starvation or malnutrition. (3) (4) All of these deaths are preventable: on a daily basis Amerikans alone have an average intake of 3,700 calories, throw away almost a third of their edible food and use 5.8 billion gallons of potable water just for toilets. (5) (6) (7)

The squalor of the of Third World and the squander of the First are directly related. Each world’s respective condition is the direct result of exploitation. The modern system of exploitation, whereby a global minority in a few rich countries lives at the expense of the impoverished global majority, is called imperialism. That is to say that in relation to the imperialist system and the Third World masses, those in the First World are beneficiaries of the former and a petty class of exploiters towards the latter.

Imperialism is currently the most widespread, fundamental form of oppression. This does not mean that other forms of oppression do not exist. Rather, imperialism is currently the dominant form of oppression: it touches the most people in the most fundamental way; it is the foremost determinant of life-options and class; and other forms of oppression are almost always negated, heightened, co-opted or superseded by imperialist exploitation. Imperialism drives social life today.

Attitudes and trends of thought, or ‘class consciousness,’ confirm this social reality. Whereas apathy and post modernism are common in the West, this is due to the lack of a functional need for a politically charged population. When First Worlders do express political views they are almost always supportive of imperialism. Mindless consumerism, a natural aspect of any society fattened on stolen wealth, is also a major phenomenon in the First World. On the other side of the social world, those in the Third World naturally resist their oppression. Radical Islam, the fastest growing social movement of the last thirty years, is in many regards an opposition movement against imperialism. This amalgamation of religion and anti-imperialism is no accident. Rather, it is evidence of two truths. First, the main social antagonism today is between the Third and First World. Second, oppression and resistance are inseparable.

Insofar as imperialism is the most fundamental form of oppression, resistance and revolutionary struggles are regular features in the Third World and at the margin. It is the Third World’s anti-imperialist struggle which is both the most widespread and common struggle amongst the global masses and by definition one against the core of global power. Containing amazing diversity, flaws and potential, the global anti-imperialist struggle is the struggle of the world’s exploited majority.

The anti-imperialist struggle is the modern day revolutionary struggle. The struggle of the global masses who are exploited by imperialism is of primary importance for those who seek a fundamentally better world: one that cannot freely evolve from the current one.

Anti-imperialist initiatives and revolutions in a single country or territory weakens the imperialist system as a whole and gives a new impetus for further, more widespread change.  It is as part of the global fight against imperialism that the foundations for a new world are built and of this process itself from which further revolutionary potential emerges. In our period, the complete abolition of capitalism, patriarchy, youth oppression and other unequal structural relationships as well as arriving at a state of mutuality and ecological harmony are directly tied the destruction of the current order via anti-imperialist struggle.

For revolutionaries around the world the current task is to advance and support the ongoing struggle against imperialism as part of our radical vision of a world free from all oppression. Those revolutionaries in the First World, who owing to class composition are few and far between and separated from the struggle of the world’s exploited masses, naturally find this task daunting. Nevertheless, for all those who desire a new world, this is the struggle we must engage in.

No doubt, the path before us is long and arduous. However, the place to begin is here; the time to start is now.

(1) http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats
(2) http://www.usaid.gov/locations/asia/countries/india/
(3) http://www.pacinst.org/reports/water_related_deaths/water_related_deaths_report.pdf
(4) http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/y7352e/y7352e03.htm#P1_34
(5) http://www.pacinst.org/reports/water_related_deaths/water_related_deaths_report.pdf
(6) http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/weekinreview/18martin.html?partner=rssnyt
(7) http://www.fypower.org/res/tools/products_results.html?id=100139

U.S. Troop Injured by Philippine Rebel Group

U.S. Troop Injured by Philippine Rebel Group

(http://raimd.wordpress.com)

On April 28th, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) announced that its military wing, the New People’s Army(NPA), injured a U.S. soldier embedded with the Philippine Army. According to the CPP, the Philippine Army attempted to encircle and attack a unit of the NPA, at which point the U.S. troop was injured, three Philippine state soldiers were killed and one NPA fighter was martyred. The New People’s Army, founded in 1969, has led South East Asia’s longest running insurgency. In 2002, both the CPP and the NPA were added onto the U.S. State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations.

The Philippines was one of the first overseas colonies of the United States. Today, U.S. imperialism rules through proxy governments. Though the U.S. has not operated military bases in the Philippines since 1991, U.S. troops are stationed in the country to augment the police powers of the comprador Philippine state. In 2008, the U.S. provided the Philippine state with 30 million dollars in military aid and admits to providing training, intelligence and consulting in its crusade against a number of insurgencies. While the U.S. claims its troops in the Philippines are limited to “humanitarian” roles, the CPP and independent NGOs have in the past stated that the United States is directly involved in military operations in the country.

More often than not, we are used to hearing about the U.S. military operating in Iraq and Afghanistan. This most recent incident sheds light on the fact that the U.S. military is used against peoples’ resistance even when it’s not widely publicized. The United States is not just involved in overthrowing recalcitrant governments; it also quietly supports its unpopular puppet-governments against the threat of homegrown insurgencies.

In an English-language statement, the Communist Party of the Philippines said it trusts that “the vast majority of the Amerikan people oppose U.S. participation in foreign civil wars,” and urged  the “Amerikan people not to allow their government to continue with military interventionism, waste millions of taxpayers’ money and risk the lives of US soldiers in the Philippine civil war.”

In reality, the vast majority of Amerikans hardly oppose U.S. aggression and bullying. This is because they have historically benefited from imperialism and continue to until this day. While the U.S. military may be currently bogged down in other regions of the world, relying on a non-existence shared interest with “the vast majority” Amerikans or any meaningful support on their part is not a viable long term strategy in struggle of the Filipino masses against imperialism and lackey capitalism.

Sources:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/05/09/18593985.php
http://www.fas.org/irp/crs/RL32223.pdf
http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/news/view/20080201-116212/US-military-aid-to-RP-up-tied-to-rights–advocacy-group
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-02-13-philippines-terror_x.htm
http://www.focusweb.org/philippines/docs/CPWReport.pdf

May 19th: Happy Birthday, Malcolm X and Ho Chi Minh

On this day, May 19th, two great revolutionary leaders were born.

Ho Chi Minh
May 19, 1890 – September 2, 1969

Malcolm X
May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965

May Day Report

May Day Report

May 5th, 2009

Around 700 people demonstrated for an end to attacks on migrant workers on Saturday, May 2, 2009 in Greeley, Colorado. The event was sponsored by a  Greeley-based community group, Al Frente de Lucha, which has long been involved in the Mexicano/Chicano community there.  Greeley has been a focal point in immigration battles, with ICE raids continuing to affect the local community.

Caravans and groups of individuals from throughout the state converged in the late morning and remained mobilized throughout the afternoon. The march was diverse, comprised mostly of Latino families but also included activists and radicals from around the state and students from the University of Northern Colorado.

Along the parade route, people came out of their homes to photograph, wave, stare or join the march. Almost all of the chants were in Spanish. This was itself a minor victory of the march: vocally opposing Colorado’s nationally-oppressive English-only culture. Singers, speakers, and organizers shared words with the crowd prior to and after the march.

RAIM-Denver was one of the only groups directly agitating amongst the crowd. We passed out around 50 new issues of RAIM-D Global Digest, copies of the J Sakai interview Stolen at Gunpoint, well over a hundred copies of our statement of support for Mexican national liberation and gave away dozens of Deporten a los Pinches Gringos patches as well a few t-shirts.  Many people came up to us asking for our literature.  The Deporten a los Pinches Gringos image was a big hit, especially with the numerous Mexican kids but also with their parents.  Also, we got to bring out our new “Revolucion Sin Fronteras” banner, made with the cooperation of the Mexican National Liberation Movement, which also was popular among the crowd.

A verbal confrontation between RAIM-Denver and the racist, anti-migrant group The Minutemen did occur. RAIMsters and other anti-racists taunted the feeble-looking anti-immigrant racists, who numbered around ten. Ironically, the Minutemen were standing right in front of a Mexican restaurant the whole time.

May Day has re-emerged as a day of marches and rallies within the USA. This important development is spurred forward by the increase in US government attacks on “undocumented” Mexican workers in their occupied homeland, as well as others. In many cities, there were small and not-so-small rallies demanding reforms for the Third World workers in the U.S. This most recent development in the history of May Day is positive and should be supported. However, only through revolutionary struggles for liberation and justice on the part of exploited people can the problems of the Third World, and by extension those of Third World workers within U.S. borders, be resolved.