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Monthly Archives: October 2019
Demand to end illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe intensifies
During the opening of the United Nations General Assembly this week, the United States came under fire. “U.S. imperialist economic sanctions are weapons of war and must end now,” declared Viola Plummer, chair of the December 12th Movement International Secretariat, at a march and rally to lift the illegal U.S. sanctions on Zimbabwe, held in Dag Hammarskjold Plaza on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2019.
Hundreds marched in defense of Zimbabwe and Africa through the streets of midtown Manhattan echoing chants, “U.S. hands off Zimbabwe! End the illegal sanctions now! Sanctions kill ordinary people of Zimbabwe!”
A counterprotest by the Zimbabwe opposition Movement for Democratic Change got rowdy at one point, but did not take away from the December 12th Movement’s position.
The plaza was filled with protesters condemning U.S. economic sanctions on Zimbabwe and Puerto Rico, which have a devastating impact on the people of both nations.
“We are all here in unity and solidarity to expose the racist foreign policy of the U.S., which is rampant around the globe. In Zimbabwe, basic human needs, including medicine and medical supplies, water purification systems, fuel, agricultural equipment and national infrastructure development, have suffered due to severe illegal sanctions on international trade, loans and currency manipulations,” Plummer explained.
Puerto Rico, a U.S. colony referred to as a “territory,” crippled by the hurricanes and the effects of climate change, has been willfully neglected and denied adequate U.S. emergency management assistance. The island nation is recovering at a snail’s pace. The people resisted en masse and forced the resignation of the corrupt Gov. Ricardo Rosselló in July. New York City protesters vowed to fight on.
“The U.S. imposed economic sanctions on Zimbabwe in 2001, in response to their land reclamation program, which returned the vast lands stolen by a tiny sector of former British colonizers to the indigenous Zimbabweans. Further, the 2019 summit of the 16 heads of state in the Southern African Development Community condemned the illegal economic sanctions that have affected the entire region.
“The summit declared Oct. 25, 2019, as the date on which SADC member states can collectively voice their disapproval of sanctions through various activities and platforms until the sanctions are lifted,” Plummer concluded.
The December 12th Movement has also conducted this campaign in Pan African unity. For more information, call 718-398-1766 or visit http://d12m.com/.
Regime Change
Milwaukee, October 4, 2019: Confronting Climate Change and Forced Migration in El Salvador
Milwaukee, October 3, 2019: ICE out of MKE
Milwaukee City Hall, 200 E Wells Street, 4:30-6:30 P.M.
Join us Thursday, October 3 at City Hall to urge the Fire and Police Commission to immediately consider policy changes to include non-collaboration between the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) and ICE.
The Policy Commission previously postponed their initial vote in face of mounting community pressure. We need to send the message that there can not be further delay.
This is important to all community members because we propose (unless in the case of a judicial warrant) MPD:
* Will not assist in ICE raids.
* Will not use any resources for immigration enforcement.
*Will not report people, share info with, or collaborate with ICE.
* Officers won’t investigate immigration status at any point.
*Officers will not comply with warrantless requests from ICE to detain someone or transfer someone to custody
Contact the Voces office if you need transportation or have questions: 414-643-1620
Find policy FAQ’s at: http://bit.ly/2kd4OGz
Sign the continued petition at: https://vdlf.org/iceoutofmke/
Photo Credit: WI BOPM
___________________________________________________
Únase a nosotros el 3 de Octubre a las 4:30 de la tarde para insistir que la Comisión de Bomberos y Policía considera las politicas sobre la colaboración entre el departamento de policía e ICE.
Considere asistir a nuestro evento y trae a un amigo o a un familiar.
Llama la oficina de Voces para planear transporte o con preguntas a: 414-643-1620
Firma la petición a: https://vdlf.org/iceoutofmke/
War On Nature: How Zionist Colonialism Has Destroyed The Environment In Palestine
The latest casualties in the war on the environment in Palestine were 450 olive trees destroyed last week by Israeli army bulldozers. The destruction of the Palestinian-owned trees took place in the villages of Bardala, in the Jordan Valley, and Yatta in the southern West Bank. Dozens more were also destroyed by illegal Jewish settlers.
It is a myth that only Zionist Israel “made the desert bloom.” On the contrary, since its establishment on the ruins of more than five hundred Palestinian villages and cities that it has destroyed and wiped off the map, Israel has done the exact opposite. The land inhabited by Palestinian Muslims, Christians and Jews for thousands of years has been disfigured beyond belief by Israel in the matter of a few decades.
“Palestine contains vast colonisation potential which the Arabs neither need nor are qualified to exploit,” wrote one of Israel’s founding fathers and first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion, to his son Amos in 1937.
Zionist Israel, however, has done more than just “exploit” that “colonisation potential”; it has also subjected historic Palestine to a relentless and cruel campaign of destruction that is yet to cease. This is likely to continue as long as Zionism prevails as a racist, hegemonic and exploitative ideology.
Since its very early days, in the mid and late 19th century, political Zionism has misled its followers in its depiction of historic Palestine. To encourage Jewish migration to Palestine and by way of providing a semblance of moral justification for Jewish settlements, Zionism constructed myths which remain a central theme to this day. According to early Zionists, for example, Palestine was a “land without a people for a people without a land”. It was also said to be an arid desert, awaiting Jewish colonialists from Europe and elsewhere with the urgent mission to “make it bloom”.
What the Zionists have done to Palestine, though, is rather inconsistent with their intellectual discourse, as racist, colonialist and exclusivist as it always has been. The land of Palestine, around 10,425 square miles from the River Jordan in the east to the Mediterranean Sea, became the subject of a cruel experiment, starting with the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people and the destruction of their villages, land and crops in 1948. This exploitation of the land and its people has grown with intense fervour through subsequent generations.
Uprooting trees, burning orchards ….
Cuba calls Anti-imperialist Solidarity Conference for Democracy and against Neoliberalism, November 1-3, 2019
Havana will again serve as a meeting place for those who defend peace, solidarity, and justice, November 1-3, 2019
To discuss the needed articulation of movements, organizations and groups focused on the struggle against imperialism, the Cuban Social Movement Coalition has called an Anti-imperialist Solidarity Conference for Democracy and against Neoliberalism, November 1-3, in Havana’s International Conference Center.
Ulises Guilarte de Nacimiento, member of the Communist Party of Cuba Political Bureau and secretary general of the Federation of Cuban workers, described the event as a broad, massive mobilization of the regional and world left to support our Revolution.
“Cuba is again a meeting place for those who defend peace, solidarity among peoples, justice, and democracy based on the true power of the progressive masses,” the Cuban leader stated, emphasizing that the event will propitiate debate and interaction around a program of concrete action to condemn the brutal economic, commercial, financial blockade imposed unilaterally by the U.S. government.
He said it will be an opportunity to build and reinforce unity among these forces, to continue the struggle for systematic change in the face of a capitalist offensive to impose neocolonialism, racism, and other forms of discrimination.
To be considered is the media war launched by imperialism, along with our own creative communicational strategies to provide accurate information.
Five work groups will meet during the event to gather opinions and initiatives to oppose belligerent U.S. foreign policies, that has led to armed conflicts is all parts of the planet. An open tribunal will be held in a Havana neighborhood, and one group will meet at the Latin American School of Medicine to learn about Cuba’s solidarity in the academic training of youth from around the world.
Some 1,000 delegates are expected, from all continents, along with representatives from the Cuban Social Movement Coalition, which includes the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, the Federation of Cuban Workers, the National Association of Small Farmers, the Federation of Cuban Women, the Cuban Peace Movement, and the Martin Luther King Center, among others.
Canvases for peace. Photo: http://www.vtv.gob.ve
Contradictions in the impeachment struggle
https://lowwagecapitalism.com/
By Fred Goldstein
The impeachment struggle against Trump poses many contradictions.
On the one hand hundreds of millions of people around the world would like to see Trump brought down in the hope that this will alleviate his administration’s oppressive, racist, and corrupt rule.
On the other hand, the impeachment struggle is, at bottom, a struggle by various factions of the ruling class to keep Trump from undermining the strength of U.S. imperialism at home and abroad.
Tens of million have suffered from Trump’s various forms of reaction. From the gag rule against abortion counseling, to immigrant families separated from their children, to Muslims and immigrants whom he has vilified, to Iranians suffering under sanctions, to Venezuelans and Cubans under threat from all sides, to Palestinians under Israeli occupation, to Zimbabweans under U.S. sanctions, and environmentalists watching the administration allow the extreme pollution of the air, drinking water, land and oceans. Trump has cultivated the ultra-right and fascist elements with his racist defense of killer cops as well as attacks on African and Caribbean countries.
On the other hand, Trump has antagonized sections of the ruling class as well. He has weakened the NATO alliance, pulled out of the U.S.-sponsored Transpacific Partnership, pulled out of the Paris Peace Accords, abused the Mexican government, the Canadian government, the German government, sided with the Brexit forces in Britain, and done numerous things to offend the allies of U.S. imperialism and to damage the military and diplomatic structure built up by Washington over decades.
Three hundred so-called “national security” experts have supported the articles of impeachment. What are “national security” officials? They are CIA, NSC, FBI and all the agents of sabotage, subversion, special operations, and dirty tricks, whose job it is to undermine, remove or destroy all obstacles to the advancement of U.S. capitalist and imperialist interests at home and abroad.
Trump’s corruption ….
Court of Appeals Allows Trump’s Anti-Worker Executive Orders to Take Effect
https://www.afge.org/
September 30, 2019
Categories: The Insider, Executive Orders
AFGE National President J. David Cox vowed that the union will continue to fight Trump’s anti-worker executive orders after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied a request by AFGE and other unions to have all 11 judges of the court rehear the case against the union-busting executive orders.
The Sept. 25 decision upheld the July ruling of the court’s three-judge panel that the court did not have jurisdiction to rule on the lawsuit filed by AFGE and other federal unions.
It is important to note that the Court of Appeals did not rule on the merits of any of the unions’ arguments that specific provisions of the executive orders are unlawful. The Court of Appeals decision only concerned the manner in which unions may challenge the executive orders.
This ruling means the anti-worker executive orders will take effect as soon as Oct. 2, 2019. It also means that AFGE will have to go to the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) to challenge anti-worker provisions of the executive orders. The court left the door open to judicial review of FLRA decisions.
As we review our legal options, AFGE is asking local unions to continue to coordinate challenges to the executive orders with the General Counsel’s office. If you have specific questions or ideas, you may direct them to eoquestions@afge.org.”
Background
President Trump in May 2018 issued three anti-worker executive orders aimed at weakening workers’ rights and voice on the job.
Specifically, the orders were aimed at severely restricting the types of issues members can bargain about with the agency, hampering the ability of members to get representation at the worksite by sharply reducing hours union representatives can engage in representational work during the course of the normal workday, and gutting due process and merit systems protections central to our apolitical civil service.
AFGE subsequently took the administration to court, and a District Court judge in August 2018 struck down the bulk of the executive orders and placed an injunction on them.
The Trump administration appealed the decision. In July 2019, the three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals determined that the court did not have jurisdiction to rule on the lawsuit filed by AFGE and other federal unions. The court said the unions must challenge the EOs through the FLRA first.
AFGE and other unions requested a rehearing by all 11 judges, citing irreparable harm if forced to go through the FLRA. The request was denied.
Visit www.afge.org/fightback for more details on what you can do.
Click here to read how the administration is using the FLRA to purge unions.
If you have specific questions about the executive orders, please direct them to EOQuestions@afge.org.
