Detailing The Unspoken Truths Of A Deadly Relationship

In 1975 South African defence minister PW Botha requested a sale of nuclear warheads from Israel. Shimon Peres (centre), then Israel's defence minister and now its president, responded by offering them in three sizes.

Recently the British newspaper the Guardian revealed that secret South African documents show that Israel offered to sell nuclear weapons to the Apartheid state. The minutes of meetings between the two countries in 1975 showed that South Africa’s defence minister, PW Botha, asked for the warheads and Shimon Peres, then Israel’s defence minister and now its president, responded by offering them “in three sizes.” The papers also constitute the first documentary evidence that Israel possesses nuclear weapons. Israel is universally believed to have around 200 nuclear warheads, but the state has never confirmed or denied this under a policy of what it calls “nuclear ambiguity.”

The documents were uncovered by the American academic Sasha Polakow-Suransky for a brand new book that reveals a deep relationship between Israel and the Apartheid regime in the 1970s and 1980s. Here Bill Fletcher, Jr., author of Solidarity Divided, reviews the book. This first appeared on ZNet.

Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance:  Israel’s Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa (New York:  Pantheon Books, 2010).  324 pps. $27.95 hardcover

I could hardly contain my excitement after reading Sasha Polakow-Suransky’s The Unspoken Alliance:  Israel’s Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa.  So, I got on the phone and called a long-time friend who had been active in the solidarity movements against white colonial/minority rule in Africa in the 1970s and 1980s.  He responded:  “Well, didn’t we already know about the connection between apartheid South Africa and Israel?”

What is striking about The Unspoken Alliance is not that it contains the revelation of a complete secret.  My friend was correct.  Bits and pieces of this story had been public for years, at least in some circles.  What makes this book different is both the level of detail and factual disclosure combined with its blunt recognition of a strategic unity between Israel and apartheid South Africa based on a common colonial/settler framework.

Polakow-Suransky provides historical background that may surprise many readers in pointing out that the dominant political forces in Israel, up through the late 1960s, saw themselves as operating within an anti-colonial framework.  Israel reached out to many newly independent African states, for example, providing a wide range of types of assistance.  While this ‘solidarity’ may not have been driven completely by the noble aims that Polakow-Suransky suggests, it is nevertheless noteworthy.  David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir, for instance, saw no inconsistency between advancing a settler project in the Palestine Mandate (the territory occupied by Britain until 1948) aimed at displacing the Palestinian people, on the one hand, and positioning Israel as an ally in the struggle for independence on the part of African states.  Interestingly, they suggested that they were an outpost not only for the anti-colonial struggle, but also one in the struggle against reactionary Arab regimes.

Voices of the Voiceless: El Vuh

This is the second of my now weekly Sunday Morning music-oriented posts. With these posts my goal is to help promote the words and sounds of various political artists, of all musical genres. This week’s post takes a look at the music of Mexicano-indigenous hip-hop trio El Vuh. Last week’s inaugural post featured British-Iraqi rapper Lowkey.

Meaning “the book,” El Vuh is a hip-hop trio from occupied California. Eemcees Zero, Victor-E and E-Rise have often been called lyrical medicine men by those who have heard their music, using their songs as a vehicle for expressing personal views on today’s environmental, socio-economic and political climates of the modern world.

The trio first met in 2002 after open mic night at the legendary Tia Chu Chas Café in the San Fernando Valley. There a young artist named E-Rise impacted host Victor so much that he decided he and friend Zero had to meet. “Victor called me up and asked me to come and meet him Keep in mind I live an hour away – but somehow I agreed. When I got there, E-Rise was just about to leave. We met and really vibed. It felt like we had known each other for a long time,” recalls Zero. The meeting sparked something magical and soon after the trio recorded their first release, “Jaguar Prophecies”, at a studio in Zero’s house, reportedly only in the space of one weekend.

During live performances, they incorporate the hue hue drum and wooden-slit drum – ancient Mexican instruments that replicate the sounds of nature – into their performances and include a visual interpretation through ‘danzantes’ (Aztec dancers) and projected images of temples and hieroglyphs, recreating their ancestor’s mystical atmosphere within the contemporary sounds of hip-hop rhythms.

“To Have and To Be”: Building a Socialist-Feminist Economy in Venezuela

An interview with Lidice Navas, by Susan Spronk and Jeffery R. Webber. This appeared in The Bullet, the e-bulletin of the Toronto-based Socialist Project.

A long-time revolutionary activist, Lidice Navas is an important socialist-feminist leader within the PSUV and a candidate for the Latin American parliament, among her many other responsibilities. We met her at the Women’s Development Bank in Caracas on June 18, 2010 to talk about her vision of socialism, the accomplishments of the Bolivarian process so far, and what remains to be done.

Susan Spronk teaches in the School of International Development and Global Studies at the University of Ottawa. She is a research associate with Municipal Services Project and has published several articles on class formation and water politics in Bolivia.

Jeffery R. Webber teaches politics at the University of Regina. He is the author of Red October: Left-Indigenous Struggles in Modern Bolivia (Brill, 2010), and Rebellion to Reform in Bolivia: Class Struggle, Indigenous Liberation and the Politics of Evo Morales (Haymarket, 2011).

What is your political history?

I am a candidate for the PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela) in Caracas. I am also a member of the Political Bureau of the Region of Caracas and a candidate for the Latin American parliament. I also have some responsibilities in the Women’s Development Bank (Banco de Desarrollo de la Mujer, BanMujer) and am also active as a coordinator in the parroquia [parish] El Valle, where we are trying to construct socialism from the level of the community.

I have been a revolutionary activist for a long time. In the 1960s, I was a militant of the revolutionary movement in Venezuela. I was militant and founder of the Bandera Roja guerrilla movement in 1976, and when that divided I joined the Bandera Roja Marxista-Leninista. I was active in that organization until it, too, disappeared. These were difficult years. I was imprisoned many times and subject to political persecution. In the 1980s, for example, I was part of a simulated execution.

I sought exile in El Salvador, where I went with my husband, and we were militants with the FMLN revolutionary guerrilla movement. I lost both my husband and my eldest son in that struggle. I was part of the Truth Commission in El Salvador in 1992, and trained human rights workers until my return to Venezuela in 1995.

It was a new phase in the struggle when I returned. I first met Hugo [Chávez] in 1994 and worked on his electoral campaign in 1998.

Barriere Lake Algonquins Set Up Peaceful Blockade

Three-Figure Wampum belt, dated back to around 1760, is an agreement between the Barriere Lake Algonquine, the Church and the settlers. The belt depicts an acknowledgement whereby, under the sign of the cross, no interference would be made into the local native ways of life.

Early on the morning of July 22 a group of Barriere Lake Algonquins set up a peaceful blockade on the access road leading to their reserve, about 300 km north of Ottawa. The defensive action was aimed at stopping a government-appointed electoral officer from holding a nomination meeting on the reserve for the government’s highly-controversial imposed Band Council Election.

Below is a press release about the action from Barriere Lake Solidarity. H/t to Intercontinental Cry for this.

Kitiganik, Rapid Lake, Algonquin Territory / – This morning Barriere Lake community members set up a peaceful blockade on the access road to their reserve to prevent an electoral officer from conducting a nomination meeting for Indian Act band elections.

The electoral officer aims to implement the federal government’s plan to abolish Barriere Lake’s traditional leadership selection system by holding nomination meetings in the community for a band election imposed through section 74 of the Indian Act. Barriere Lake is one of the few First Nations in the country who have never been under the Indian Act’s electoral system, continuing instead to operate under a Customary Governance Code that they have used since time immemorial.

At its General Assembly in Winnipeg on Wednesday, the Assembly of First Nations passed an emergency resolution condemning Minister of Indian Affairs Chuck Strahl and demanding that he rescind the section 74 order to impose Indian Act band elections.

“We reject the Minister’s unconstitutional attempt to assimilate our leadership selection customs by imposing a foreign regime on us. The community is unanimously in favour of continuing to be governed by our customs,” says Marylynn Poucachiche, a community spokesperson. “Because the government has not heeded its constitutional obligations or our community’s wishes, we are turning to peaceful direct action. We will be preventing the nomination meeting from proceeding and are demanding the federal government immediately cease and desist in their attempt to abolish our customs. The government is breaking the law, but through our actions we are protecting it.”

Barriere Lake’s inherent right to customary self-government is protected by section 35 of the Canadian Constitution. A May, 2010 report by the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples affirmed that First Nations have the right to maintain control over their internal affairs and be free to pursue their vision of customary government.

“The Canadian government is trying to forcibly assimilate our customs so they can sever our connection to the land, which is at the heart of our governance system,” says Tony Wawatie, another community spokesperson. “They don’t want to deal with a strong leadership, selected by community members who live on the land, that demands that the federal and Quebec governments implement the outstanding agreements regarding the exploitation of our lands and resources.”

Queers Against Apartheid: From South Africa to Israel

Simon Nkoli

By Tim McCaskell.

Canadian Dimension is the leading progressive politics magazine in Canada. Published 6 times per year, it covers art, politics, labour, indigenous issues, queer, feminist and emerging social movements.

Twenty-five years ago I used to compile the international news for The Body Politic, at the time Canada’s leading gay and lesbian liberation journal. In the winter of 1985 I was sifting through the piles of newspapers, journals, and newsletters that we received every month and I noticed a small article in a newsletter from Scotland.

The article talked about a young anti-apartheid activist who was being held in solitary confinement and who had just come out as a gay man.

Simon Nkoli

Anti-apartheid activism was a major current in progressive organizing in Toronto in the mid 80s so the story immediately piqued my interest. I contacted the Toronto Committee for the Liberation of South African Colonies (TCLSAC) and got the number of a member who had returned to South Africa. He was able to put me in touch with someone who was in contact with this young man, Simon Nkoli.

Simon was one of the Delmas 22, most of whom were members of the United Democratic Front. The UDF was the major legal anti-apartheid organization since the African National Congress (ANC) had been banned as a terrorist group. The UDF had been central to organizing protests against arbitrary rent hikes in the African townships surrounding Johannesburg. Most of the protests had been peaceful, but violence had broken out on a number of occasions and there had been several deaths. In September 1984, the South African police attempted to crush the ongoing protests and swooped down on key organizers, arresting twenty-two. The prisoners were held in solitary confinement until they were finally charged with treason and murder in January 1986, charges that could carry the death penalty.

Simon had been a leader in both the Congress of South African Students and the UDF. He was also a gay man and had joined the fledgling Gay Association of South Africa (GASA) in 1983. GASA, ostensibly a multi-racial group, was overwhelmingly white in practice. Meetings, for example, were usually held in white only areas. Simon was disturbed by this and organized a support group that met in Soweto on GASA’s behalf. The Saturday Group, as it became known, was overwhelmingly black.

Unist’ot’en Leadership Takes to the Streets to Assert Their Rights and Stop the Enbridge Pipeline

By Sheila Muxlow. This appeared on the Vancouver Media Co-Op, a project of the Dominion News Cooperative.

Just after lunch on July 16th in the town of Smithers, BC on the unceeded territory of the Wet’suwet’en Nation more than 100 people took to the streets holding signs and following a banner “’Yin’Tah Wew’at zëenlï’ ‘Taking Care of the Land’”

The group was organized by the ‘Unist’ot’en leadership of the Wet’suwet’en Nation alongside their grassroots allies and supporters. They assembled in Smithers to organize a demonstration designed to assert their title and rights on their ancient lands. The action was a well-planned march with strategic stops at the Ministry of Forests office and the Ministry of Environment office where the Unist’ot’en asserted their legitimacy as a governing body and their right to free, prior and informed consent before any decisions about development on their land.

The march also provided the ‘Unist’ot’en with an opportunity to offer support to the allies who had come in to support the action. The Tsilhqot’in Nation members from Tl’etinqox (Anaham) and Tl’esqox asserted their rights to stop proposed plans for Prosperity Mine to develop a copper and gold body that will destroy and drain a sacred lake called Teztan Biny (Fish Lake) in their traditional territories. The Lubicon Cree of central Alberta spoke of their work to have their rights and title asserted on unceded lands. The Athabasca Dene and Mikisew Cree of Northeastern Alberta are fighting for their very lives with the ongoing Tar Sands contamination of their aquifers and ecosystems which are creating a deadly epidemic of rare cancers among their population.

The struggles of the Wet’suwet’en and their allies are linked. The Tsilhqot’in are a neighboring nation fighting mining development not only on Fish Lake, but also on the historic site of hungry hill, a burial ground shared by both the Wet’suwet’en and the Tsilhqot’in peoples. Meanwhile, communities were represented from Tar Sands-impacted communities, from those resisting their devastating impacts at ground zero, to those resisting the construction of tar sands pipelines and refineries.

Indigenous Liberation and Class Struggle in Ecuador: A Conversation with Luis Macas

By Jeffery R. Webber

Luis Macas

I met up with Luis Macas in his office at the Instituto Científico de Culturas Indígenas (Scientific Institute of Indigenous Cultures, ICCI) in Quito, on July 14, 2010. Macas, arguably the most renowned indigenous leader in Ecuador, was born in 1951 in Saraguro, in the Province of Loja. A lawyer by training, he is currently executive director of ICCI. Macas is an ex-President of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), and former congressional deputy (in the late 1990s) and presidential candidate (in 2006) for the Movimiento Pachakutik (Pachakutik Movement, MP) party.

In a few words, can you describe your political formation?

It’s difficult (laughing), but I’ll try. I learned most of what’s guided me for the better part of my life in the community where I was born and raised, Saraguro, in the Province of Loja. My father was a leader in the community at various points. He participated a great deal in the collective leadership of the community. There was no single leadership in the community, no type of caudillismo (big man leadership), but rather collective leadership. There are various people, men and women, who lead a process of organization, of unity in the community.

This is what I learned about simply by watching. I was raised with all of these lessons. I really began to be integrated into this collective life when I was about 8 years old. My father brought me along for the communitarian work of our people, what we call the minga. So I worked collectively in the community, together with the other children. This is not a case of discriminatory, exploitative work as some like to think in the cities. It’s a responsibility that the community asks of everyone – the children, teenagers, even the elderly, that they do their work in the community. This is how to ensure that none of the social sectors of the community are excluded.

So I learned a lot from these experiences. I’ll give you an example. My job when I was 8 was to bring food to the workplace. Families in the community would prepare food for those who were working, and I would transport it to the workplace. So I would bring food, and drinks, for example chicha, from my house to the work site. This was the work we did, myself along with my eight other siblings. So you have that water (pointing to my water bottle on the table) my job would be to bring it, filled with chicha, around to all those who were working.  This was the kind of work children did, not physically demanding, not the kind of hard labour that the adults were engaged in.  But, in any case, we had this responsibility to the community.

This tradition of communitarian obligation has diminished since that time in many communities, even disappearing in some. Because obviously the system in which we are living is so powerful that it is destroying this fabric, this conduct, this way of thinking in the community.

But in my childhood, it was like that. So my first steps in learning how to conduct myself were these experiences – in my own community, with the elders. No one was excluded. For example, in the general assemblies, children would be present too. I would say that this is a communitarian form, practice, and way of thinking that I’ve kept with me.

Voices of the Voiceless: Lowkey

Weekends have always been the slowest time of any given week for this site, so I have decided to change things up a bit and use these days to promote radical recording artists and their music. I have always posted music and videos from artists whose music has a powerful message or has touched me in some way, but now Sunday’s will be dedicated to helping give exposure to those artists on a regular basis.

The title of this new regular feature is taken from the Immortal Technique and Lowkey song of the same name, one of the songs to be featured in this inaugural post.

Lowkey is somewhat of a rarity in the North American music scene, a rapper from Britain.  Of English and Iraqi descent he is a playwright, poet and activist on top of being a very talented rap artist. First hitting the scene in Britain before his 18th birthday with a series of mixtapes, Lowkey has seen his popularity surge with the release of two albums and a number of singles.

His song Long Live Palestine, which was released in the wake of the Israeli assault on Gaza in December 2008 because a popular expression of the outrage felt around the world. Since then he has become a true voice of the voiceless, tackling racism, world revolution, war, colonialism and other global political issues in his music.

So sit back, relax, and enjoy the music.

Lowkey – Obama Nation

Venezuelan Inventiveness, Marxism, and Vernacular Revolutionary Traditions

By John Bellamy Foster, writing for Monthly Review.

I’m certain that this process is irreversible. This movement of change, of restructuring, of revolution, will not be stopped.

—Hugo Chávez, 2002[1]

El Caracazo

In the eyes of much of the world, the year 1989 has come to stand for the fall of the Berlin Wall, the demise of Soviet-type societies, and the defeat of twentieth-century socialism. However, 1989 for many others, particularly in Spanish-speaking countries, is also associated with the beginning of the Latin American revolt against neoliberal shock therapy and the emergence in the years that followed of a “socialism for the 21st century.” This revolutionary turning point in Latin American (and world) history is known as the Caracazo or Sacudón (heavy riot), which erupted in Caracas, Venezuela on February 27, 1989, and quickly became “by far the most massive and severely repressed riot in the history of Latin America.”[2]

The Caracazo started in the early morning in the suburb of Guarenas in response to a 100 percent increase in transport fares. These transport hikes were part of a set of neoliberal shock policies introduced by the government of President Carlos Andrés Pérez. The object was to put Venezuela back in good standing with the IMF and international financial institutions, obtain their assistance in the servicing of its foreign debt, and provide “fresh money” for the oligarchy to rely on—all on the backs of millions of poor people. Outraged by the doubling of transport fares, the Caracas demonstrators hurled stones at the buses and overturned them. Motorcycle couriers joined in the protests, going from one part of the city to the other and spreading the message. Riots also broke out that same morning in nineteen other cities across the country.

By late afternoon in Caracas, public transport had come to a standstill. Hundreds of thousands of people were walking home and buses were burning. The protestors began to loot shops and supermarkets in order to obtain basic needs—food and clothing. That night, in what came to be known as “the day the poor came down from the hills,” the impoverished barrio-dwellers, joined in some instances by the police, engaged in a campaign of massive looting, first in the commercial center of Caracas and then in the privileged residential districts of the wealthy. From the standpoint of the majority of the Venezuelan poor, the looting was an act of social justice and retribution, an attempt to take back a little of what had been taken from them for decades—as they watched the oligarchy become ever richer, while they struggled to get enough merely to survive. (President Peréz’s ostentatious inauguration, only a few weeks before the announcement of the austerity program, was reported as “one of the grandest celebrations Latin America has ever known,” with a total of ten thousand invited guests attending, consuming 650,000 hors d’oeuvres, 209 sides of lamb, and twenty sides of beef—washing it all down with twelve hundred bottles of scotch, accompanied by immense quantities of champagne.)

A New Wave of Criminalization Against Social Movements in Ecuador

By Jennifer Moore. Jennifer is a Canadian independent journalist who has been reporting from Ecuador for several years.

Ecuador’s anti-mining and indigenous movements are denouncing renewed attempts by the Correa Administration to criminalize dissent. Over thirty people, including top leaders of the national indigenous movement, are being investigated for allegations including terrorism and sabotage as a result of their participation in protests related to controversies over gold and copper mining, as well as water and indigenous rights.

President of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) Marlon Santí and several others were summoned just days after a Summit of the Bolivarian Alliance (ALBA) was held in northern Ecuador at which indigenous rights were at the top of the agenda. The CONAIE protested the June 24 and 25 summit, questioning why ALBA would address indigenous rights without representation from important indigenous organizations such as theirs.

A Partial Victory – The Struggle Continues!

By Josh Sykes

Hello friends,

I’m writing to you all to thank you for your support, to tell you some good news, and to say that we are not finished yet.

My profile has been reinstated by facebook. We are still waiting to hear about the other two administrators, Angela Denio and Tom Burke.

However, facebook is not yet willing to budge on the Free Ricardo Palmera group.

Here is their letter to me:

—–

Hi Josh,

After reviewing your situation, we have determined that your group violated our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. One of Facebook’s main priorities is the comfort and safety of our users. We do not allow credible threats to harm others, support for violent organizations, or exceedingly graphic content. Your violation of Facebook’s standards has resulted in the permanent loss of your group. We will not be able to reactivate this group for any reason. This decision is final.

Your account has been reactivated and you should be able to access it now. Sorry for the inconvenience. If you have any further questions, please visit our Help Center at the following address:

http://www.facebook.com/help.php

Thanks for contacting Facebook,

Liam
User Operations
Facebook

—–

Mumia Abu-Jamal: Capitalism = Ecocide

Angela Denio and Josh Sykes Speak Out on Facebook Censorship

The following video is an interview with Angela Denio and Josh Sykes of the National Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera regarding Facebook censorship. http://www.freericardopalmera.org/. Along with Tom Burke they were the administrators for the Facebook group, which on June 30th was deleted by Facebook. Several days later all three of them had their personal accounts disabled as well.

This is a story I have been following since it broke, and I will keep readers updated as more information comes out and things develop. Check out the The Marxist-Leninist forcoverage as well. You can also join the Facebook protest group here.

Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance

On a July day in 1990, a confrontation propelled Native issues in Kanehsatake and the village of Oka, Quebec, into the international spotlight. Director Alanis Obomsawin spent 78 nerve-wracking days and nights filming the armed stand-off between the Mohawks, the Quebec police and the Canadian army. This powerful documentary takes you right into the action of an age-old Native struggle. The result is a portrait of the people behind the barricades.

Kanehsatake 270 Years of Resistance, posted with vodpod