Monthly Archives: November 2009
Jose Maria Sison on the 45th Founding Anniversary of the Kabataang Makabayan
From the National Democratic Front of the Philippines:
Brief address on Kabataang Makabayan on its 45th founding anniversary
By Prof. JOSE MARIA SISON
Founding Chairman, Kabataang Makabayan
It is a great honor for me to have been the founding chairman of Kabataang Makabayan (Patriotic or People’s Youth). And it is my pleasure to talk to you about KM on the occasion of its 45th founding anniversary.
The KM was founded on 30 November 1964, the birth anniversary of the great worker and founder of the Katipunan, Andres Bonifacio. Since the beginning, the KM has been dedicated to the just cause of continuing the revolutionary struggle of the Filipino youth and people for national liberation and democracy against foreign and feudal domination.
The Filipino people are proud for being the very first nation in Asia to fight and defeat a Western colonial power, specifically Spain. But unfortunately, a modern imperialist power, the United States, intervened and launched a war of aggression against the Filipino people to destroy the Philippine republic and kill 1.5 million Filipinos in order to recolonize and occupy the Philippines. To this date, the US continues to dominate the Philippines through the local exploiting classes and their political agents.
The KM has inherited the rich revolutionary tradition of the Filipino people in fighting against Spanish colonialism for more than three centuries, in defending their national sovereignty against the US war of aggression, in resisting the colonial power of the US and the Japanese fascist invasion during World War II, and in carrying out a people’s war against the semicolonial and semifeudal system under the US and the local exploiting classes of big compradors and landlords.
Racism & The Far Right at Caledonia
Thanks to the blog Solidarity with Six Nations for putting this together and continuing to add to it.
Paul Fromm
Paul Fromm is one of Canada’s most well known white supremacist organizers. he began his far right organizing in 1967 with the Edmund Burke Society, and then was the founder of the Western Guard, Canada’s most significant neo-Nazi grouping in the 1970s. Fromm had his Ontario teaching license revoked in 1997 due “failure to maintain professional standards; not complying with college regulations and bylaws; disgraceful, dishonourable, unprofessional and/or unbecoming conduct; and practising while in a conflict of interest” after being conspicously linked with the Neo-nazi Heritage Front. Wikipedia has a well-documented resource page on him that is worth checking out.
The following is a youtube video that Fromm released after having made links with people in Caledonia opposing Six Nations. He was spotted (and photographed) with several other neo-nazis at McHale and Vandermas’ January 20th 2007 flag raising protest, and was part of a group of about 30 people led by McHale who conveyed from the protest over to the Chatwell’s residence which backs out onto DCE. He released this YouTube video discussing the Chatwell’s circumstances in July of 2007. In it he uses many of the same images of Six Nations protests publicized by McHale on www.caledoniawakeupcall.com and speaks in almost exactly the same way as many members of CANACE. He avoids racist slurs, plays up white victimhood, and casts activists from Six Nations as terrorists.
U2 – Native Son
A friend of mine pointed this song out to me the other day, and it is quite interesting as it is indicative of a greater trend in U2′s music over the last several albums of having less and less serious political content, something which of course contrasts greatly with their first several albums. For those who do listen to U2, you will notice that this song is a very early version of the song that would become Vertigo off of their 2004 album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. Why is this version called Native Son? Because it is about Leonard Peltier, one of the most well known political prisoners in the world, who has been in prison for most of his life for a “crime” he didn’t commit and that the U.S. government now admits did not commit.
Why did U2 change this song into Vertigo? Apparently during the recording sessions for How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb Bono was asked if he would be able to perform the Native Son in front of an audience and afterwords said that he found the experience to be to uncomfortable, so the process was begun to turn the song into Vertigo. Why would he feel uncomfortable? Probably because with the exception of a few artists like Rage Against the Machine, in your face politics don’t so well (and even the extent to which RATM’s audience is/was based on their politics and not the music itself is up for debate). As U2 has become one of the most successful musical acts in history they have become seriously apolitical and the transforming in studio of Native Son into Vertigo is probably yet another example of this.
Philippines ‘Witness’ Recounts Killings
Thanks to Jack Stephens of The Mustard Seed.
Bayan to Sec. Puno: Impunity, patronage, not who appoints police officers, behind Ampatuan massacre
News Release
November 27, 2009
Multisectoral group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) today criticized Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Ronaldo Puno for obfuscating the issues why the Ampatuan massacre happened.
Indigenous Mayans Beaten, Arrested for Roadblock
More than 200 Indigenous Mayans were arrested this week for setting up a roadblock just south of Cancun, in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo.
On the night of November 24, Mayan ejidos (communal landowners) from the municipality of Felipe Carrillo Puerto went to block the main highway leading from Felipe Carrillo Puerto to Cancun after learning the government would only pay half of the reimbursement monies they were promised after losing many of their crops due of a lack of rain during this year’s monsoon season.
Once the state and federal police officers caught up with the Mayans, according to statements from Ejido commissioners and delegates, they started to abuse and arrest anyone they could get their hands on. The police then scoured the streets of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, where the confrontation took place, arresting anyone they considered to be an Ejido. 228 people were arrested in total.
The Latin American Herald reports that all 228 Mayans have been transported to a federal jail in Chetumal. Quintana Roo’s Deputy Public Safety Secretary, Didier Vazquez, says the Mayans will now be “handed over to federal prosecutors because blocking a highway is a federal crime.”
Return to Alcatraz: 40 Years of Resistance
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
ALCATRAZ — With the sounds of the Miwok singers and the calling out of the names of the original occupiers of Alcatraz, American Indians ushered in a new era of resistance, remembering how the act of holding the rock became the bedrock of a new generation.
During the Alcatraz Sunrise Ceremony, commemorating the 40 year anniversary of the Occupation of Alcatraz, Clyde Bellecourt of the American Indian Movement, told thousands gathered to prepare to hold President Obama accountable.
Bellecourt said that last year everyone was excited when President Obama was elected. “I was happy too. I went to his inauguration. The whole world was excited.”
“I told every one of you to be vigilant, to be watchful. We’ve heard promises before.”
Bellecourt pointed out that President Obama has bailed out the car companies, bailed out Wall Street and bailed out the banks. The Indian people, however, have not been bailed out. Obama made campaign promises to the Indian people. So far, the missing billions in the trust funds have not been returned to the Indian people.
Out of Sight, Out of Mind
By Thunder Horse
Hidden away, out of sight but dotting the landscape of America, are the little known or forgotten Reservations of the Indigenous People of our land. Sadly, the average U.S. mainstream resident knows almost nothing about the people of the Native American reservations other than what romanticized or caricaturisation versions they see on film
or as the print media stereotypes of oil or casino-rich Indians. Most assume that whatever poverty exists on a reservation is most certainly comparable to that which they might experience themselves. Further, they assume it is curable by the same means they would use. But that is the arrogance of ignorance.
Our dominant society is accustomed to being exposed to poverty. It’s nearly invisible because it is everywhere.
We drive through our cities with a blind eye, numb to the suffering on the streets, or we shake our heads and turn away, assuming help is on the way. After all, it’s known that the government and the big charities are helping the needy in nearly every corner of the world.
But the question begs: What about the sovereign nations on America’s own soil, within this country, a part and yet apart from mainstream society? What about these Reservations that few people ever see?
Despite nearly-insurmountable conditions, few resources, and against unbelievable odds, Nation after Nation of Indigenous leaders and their people are working hard to counteract decades of oppression and forced destruction of their cultures, to bring their citizens back to a life of self-respect and self-sufficiency in today’s world.
In the meantime, these words will serve simply to dispel a few illusions and make public part of that which is hidden away, out of sight, out of mind, in the richest country in the world. It seeks to dispel the arrogance of ignorance. Read the rest of this entry
The Pentagon’s Bases in Colombia
Zach Mason of Socialist Worker explains how aggressive moves by the U.S. in Latin America are ratcheting up the conflict between Colombia and Venezuela.
Colombian armed forces on patrol
RECURRING TENSIONS between neighboring South American countries Venezuela and Colombia have reached new heights in recent weeks.
The current conflict centers around the October 30 signing of a military pact between Colombia and the U.S. that gives the American armed forces the use of seven military bases in Colombia, and grants immunity to U.S. soldiers operating in there.
Colombian President Álvaro Uribe and President Barack Obama claim that the U.S. military presence in Colombia will serve only to combat narco-traffickers and leftist guerillas, not threaten Colombia’s neighbors. Yet as the Venezuelanalysis.com Web site reports, this claim “is contradicted by the 2010 fiscal year budget of the U.S. Air Force Military Construction Program, which states that…the pact ‘provides a unique opportunity for full-spectrum operations in a critical sub-region of our hemisphere’ and ‘supports mobility missions by providing access to the entire continent.’”
What’s more, the agreement on military bases follows the reactivation of the U.S. Navy’s Fourth Fleet, historically used by Washington to intimidate and attack countries that challenge its agenda in the Caribbean and Latin America.
For years, the U.S. has pumped money and weapons into Colombia and sent military advisers there in the name of fighting “narco-terrorism.” As a wave of left or center-left governments have been elected in Latin America, military aid to Colombia has swelled, making it the third-largest recipient of U.S. military aid in the world.
Honduras’ Sham Election
Shaun Joseph of Socialist Worker analyzes the upcoming elections in Honduras–a sham vote orchestrated by the coup regime after it broke its commitment to restore Manuel Zelaya.
The head of the Honduras' coup regime Roberto Micheletti
JUST OVER five months since the June 28 coup d’etat against Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, elections scheduled for November 29 will complete the current phase of the struggle over Honduras’ future–but only by opening another, perhaps darker, period.
A “peaceful” resolution to the Honduran drama was widely expected after October 30, when U.S. negotiators brokered the Tegucigalpa/San José Accords between representatives Zelaya and the golpista (coup-maker) government headed by Roberto Micheletti.
But Washington’s hands-off behavior in the following week allowed Micheletti to break the agreement by unilaterally announcing the formation of a “unity government,” headed by himself, while the golpista-controlled Congress deliberately dithered on the question of restoring Zelaya to office, which was the prime condition of the opposition to the coup regime to recognize the elections.
Although the Accords are obviously in tatters–members of the “unity government” aren’t even known, nearly three weeks after they were supposed to be installed–the U.S. insists on acting as if everything is still going according to plan. This is because the agreement, were it not a fiction, would legitimize the upcoming elections and lead to the normalization of Honduras’ international relations, which is important for North American corporations, especially in the fruit, textile and mining sectors.
Cooking the History Books: The Thanksgiving Massacre
Is All That Turkey and Stuffing a Celebration of Genocide? By Laura Elliff, Vice President, Native American Student Association.
Thanksgiving is a holiday where families gather to share stories, football games are watched on television and a big feast is served. It is also the time of the month when people talk about Native Americans. But does one ever wonder why we celebrate this national holiday? Why does everyone give thanks?
History is never simple. The standard history of Thanksgiving tells us that the “Pilgrims and Indians” feasted for three days, right? Most Americans believe that there was some magnificent bountiful harvest. In the Thanksgiving story, are the “Indians” even acknowledged by a tribe? No, because everyone assumes “Indians” are the same. So, who were these Indians in 1621?
In 1620, Pilgrims arrived on the Mayflower naming the land Plymouth Rock. One fact that is always hidden is that the village was already named Patuxet and the Wampanoag Indians lived there for thousands of years. To many Americans, Plymouth Rock is a symbol. Sad but true many people assume, “It is the rock on which our nation began.” In 1621, Pilgrims did have a feast but it was not repeated years thereafter. So, it wasn’t the beginning of a Thanksgiving tradition nor did Pilgrims call it a Thanksgiving feast. Pilgrims perceived Indians in relation to the Devil and the only reason why they were invited to that feast was for the purpose of negotiating a treaty that would secure the lands for the Pilgrims. The reason why we have so many myths about Thanksgiving is that it is an invented tradition. It is based more on fiction than fact.
Young. Onkwehonwe. United. (Y.O.U.) Rally for a Youth Centre on Six Nations
Six Nations youth and supporters gathered on the afternoon of November 22nd in order to to rally for a much needed youth centre on the Six Nations of the Grand River Reserve. Youth gathered at the Six Nations tourism board, marched down Chiefswood road past Band Council, and then out to the construction site for the new police station. To the supportive honking of drivers, drumming, and singing, youth chanted: “We are Yong Onkwehonwe United”; “Who doesn’t need more jail cells: Y.O.U.!”; “Who needs a youth centre? Y.O.U.!”
Y.O.U. (Young. Onkwehonwe. United.) is a youth led, grassroots initiative, and they have been petitioning for a youth centre for upwards of a year. “We need a place were we can feel safe, where youth can feel empowered, where we can learn our language,” asserted Melissa Elliot of Y.O.U. “We need a place to play, to raise our voice and find our way,” the youth sang outisde the Conferedacy Council House.
The Six Nations Solidarity Network supports Young Onkwehonwe United and their call for a youth centre. For more information, Y.O.U. has a facebook group.
The 40th Anniversary Alcatraz Occupation Reunion in Photos
Here are some photos of the 40th Anniversary of the Alcatraz Occupation at UC Berkeley. All photos by Kailey Wong.
We are Not Hispanics; We are Natives and Afro Descendants
Why I am not celebrating Hispanic heritage: I am a Native American man, and because the term Hispanic is a discriminatory word that denies and tries to hide our true racial and cultural heritages. Carlos in DC blog.
Trail of Broken Treaties
Yesterday, Friday November 20th, 2009, marked the 40th anniversary of the occupation of Alcatraz Island by a group of brave warriors who rose up against 500 years of colonial occupation, genocide, theft and oppression. In remembrance of those brave warriors I am posting the American Indian Movement 20 Point Proposal.
The Trail of Broken Treaties
20-Point Position Paper
Preamble: An Indian Manifesto for Reconstitution, Reparations, Restoration of Lands for a Reconstruction of am Indian Future in America
We need not give another recitation of past complaints nor engage in redundant dialogue of discontent. Our conditions and their cause for being should perhaps be best known by those who have written the record of America’s action against Indian people. In 1832, Black Hawk correctly observed: You know the cause of our making war. It is known to all white men. They ought to be ashamed of it.
The government of the United States knows the reasons for our going to its capital city. Unfortunately, they don’t know how to greet us. We go because America has been only too ready to express shame, and suffer none from the expression – while remaining wholly unwilling to change to allow life for Indian people.
We seek a new American majority – a majority that is not content merely to confirm itself by superiority in numbers, but which by conscience is committed toward prevailing upon the public will in ceasing wrongs and in doing right. For our part, in words and deeds of coming days, we propose to produce a rational, reasoned manifesto for construction of an Indian future in America. If America has maintained faith with its original spirit, or may recognize it now, we should not be denied.
