Maoist in Nepal ready for a final revolt

For some time the Unified Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) has been squeezed out of the new government and bullied by the Nepal military. Now the Maoist have decided to push back and according to Telegraph Nepal and Kasama, they are planning a final revolt.

From the Telegraph Nepal:

Nepal Maoists determined for waging final Peoples’ Revolt
TGW
The Unified Nepal Communist Party-Maoist is preparing to lead a new peoples’ revolt.
The Maoists party has also decided to warm up the Streets and the Constituent Assembly body together in order to guarantee Peoples’ Supremacy and forcing the President to retract from his unconstitutional move that he took on May 3, 2009.
The Maoists party has also concluded that to achieve the set objectives, unity among the Nationalists, Republicans, Forward-looking and Communists was urgent and significant.
Responding to queries posed by party central committee members, Wednesday July 29, 2009, a pretty annoyed looking party chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal also said that there was no option left with the Maoists than taking on to the path to what he called “Third People’s Uprising”.

For the rest click here.

Chavez and Colombia bump heads

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has cut diplomatic ties with Colombia, after its President Alvaro Uribe accused his military of supplying the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia with grenade launchers,
There really isn’t much love lost between these two leaders. One is a populist and nationalist leader who has thumbed his nose at the US, while the other is a direct puppet of the US, collecting military hardware and receiving US troops to hunt down leftist guerrillas that have been fighting there for about 40 years.
Chavez has also refused to recognize the new military government in Honduras, which came to power in a right-wing coup.
Ironically Colombia is a major imperialist outpost in South America. Uribe is probably the US’s closest ally. There “total war” approach to the guerrillas has just escalated the war their and caused a lot of death and destruction. Also there is no dialog offered to the guerrillas, which means the Colombia government intends to exterminate them.
Much of this is done under the guise of fighting drug traffic. The US public would never consent to such a military build up just to fight leftist guerrillas. But the US can claim to be stopping cocaine with this war.

From the New York Times.

Public Enemies good, but nothing new

This year’s block buster Public Enemy was a good gangster film, with some good action and acting. But it shed no new insight into the real life of bank robber John Dillenger? It seemed the movie was just entertainment. Johnny Depp is a good actor and he does a good job of portraying John Dillinger. But there is little to explain him other than he is a thrill seeker. “He tells one bank customer to “put your money away. I only want the banks money.” So he sees himself as a modern day Robin Hood even though he keeps what he steels for himself. There were a few inaccuracies in the film, Baby Face Nelson (played in the movie by Stephen Graham) died after Dillenger in real life.

Here is a tune by Woody Guthrie on Pretty Boy Floyd.

Military problems for the CPN(M)

The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) is still having problems with the military. A new government security strategy requires the removal of all roadblocks on the highways. The new measure claims it is for security measures against criminals, but the roadblocks are usually manned by the CPM(M).

According to Nepalnews.com:

"Govt adopts new security strategy
The political committee of the Council of Ministers has approved a new security strategy that aims to crackdown on highway blockades and organised crimes Sunday.
The strategy tabled by home minister Bhim Rawal proposes an addition of 16,000 security existing force to be deployed in the Terai and eastern and mid-western hills. Nepal Police alone will have 10,000 new security personnel, Kantipur daily reported.
The security strategy categorised into five basic points stresses on the smooth functioning of essential services and highways.
The government has adopted a policy of enforcing compulsory third-party insurance to all vehicles in order to prevent road blockades due to accidents. In case of any accidents, the government will ensure compensation to the victim through the insurer immediately and use force if any one still tries to block the roads, according to the new security strategy.
The other points included in the security strategy are curbing organised crimes, a special security plan for Kathmandu valley, strengthening of the security situation in the Terai and the eastern and the mid-western hills and raising awareness among the public for effective implementation of the strategy. "

For the rest click here.

Dr. Tiller’s killer feels neglected by other local anti-abortion groups

Scott Roeder, the alleged killer of Dr. George Tiller, is now complaining he feels deserted by Operation Rescue. He feels the group owe him a debt of gratitude and they just ignore him.
According to The Wichita Eagle, Roeder told them in an interview he was disappointed with Operation Rescue president Troy Newman. According to an interview with the newspaper,
"He said that I never was a member and I never contributed any money," Roeder said. "Well, my gosh, I've got probably a thousand dollars worth of receipts, at least, from the money I've donated to him."
Newman claims he has no records of money given from Roeder. It would be interesting if Roeder can produce those receipts and other evidence that there has been contact between him and OR.
Roeder said he wrote Newman a letter from jail. Again, from The Wichita Eagle:
"I told him, 'You better get your story straight, because my lawyer said it'd be good for me to show that I was supporting a pro-life organization.' "
Roeder said he had done “sidewalk counselling” (another word for patient harassment).
Presently OR has tried to distance themselves from Roeder, with Newman claiming;
"We've worked 20 years in the pro-life movement to do things within the system," he said. "It certainly doesn't help us out when guys assassinate abortionists in their church — or any other place."
Roeder has complained he doesn’t get visitors from the “pro-life” community and no one yet has tried to post his bail.
But he said he feels elated that he killed Tiller. He said he was tired of the legal efforts to shut Tiller down and while the doctor was going to trial (which he twice attended) “approximately 300 more babies were going to die in two months."
Roeder bragged that Wichita is now abortion free and that is something Newman has also boasted about recently. So the pro-life (anti-abortion, anti-women) agenda advances, violently as usual, and the chief anti-abortion operator is left to defend himself. He talked of getting out in 25 years. He just doesn’t get it. His blatant murder of an innocent person has shocked most of this community and no one ever wants him out again.

Good luck Mr. Roeder….Youuuuure gonna need it.

Man gets 18 years for crack for living by a school

According to The Wichita Eagle, a Kansas City man was given 18 years in prison for distributing crack cocaine within 1,000 feet of a school. The article doesn’t say the man was actually distributing the cocaine to school children. That was supposed to be the intent of the school zone law when it was passed, about a decade ago. But what it amounts to is discrimination against those who live near a school. The sentence is ridiculous. This shows once again the cruelty, outright discrimination and phoney hypocritical motivations for the war on drugs.

Deadliest month in Afghanistan

Already Afghanistan is starting to look like another Vietnam. There were four US servicemen killed Thursday and this has been the worst month for some time.
According to The Wichita Eagle:

“KABUL - A U.S. service member was killed Thursday in an insurgent attack in the country's volatile south, a U.S. military official said, raising to 35 the number of American troops to die in the Afghan war this month.
Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker, a spokeswoman for the U.S. military in Kabul, said no further details could be released until the soldier's family is contacted.
July has already become the deadliest month for American and international forces since the U.S.-led invasion of 2001 toppled the Taliban from power.
Also in southern Afghanistan, Canadian forces said Thursday that its troops were involved in two shooting incidents, killing a girl and wounding three policemen.
The girl was hit by a bullet in Panjwayi district of Kandahar province late Tuesday. A Canadian patrol fired a warning shot at a motorcycle which was approaching them quickly and was not heeding their warning to stop, said Maj. Mario Couture, a spokesman for the Canadian forces.”

This should be a warning to President Barack Obama that this was will not be a picnic. It will be for his foreign policy what Iraq was for former prez. George Bush.

China’s Cultural Revolution

In the last 20 years there has been a trend for Chinese authors to write books that trash the Cultural Revolution. Examples include The Red Guards' Path to Violence: Political, Educational, and Psychological Factors, by Jing Lin; Red China Blues: My Long March From Mao to Now, by Jan Wong; and Blood Red Sunset: A Memoir of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, by Ma Bo.
While these books are filled with plenty of horror stories of gruesome excesses and mal treatment, they do little to explain the motivations or purpose of the Cultural Revolution. At best, these people misunderstood their role in this historical campaign. At worst they are simply cashing in on a bourgeoisie trend to demonize a campaign to fight against class-ism.
Not all the criticism is on the right. There are plenty of leftist that are willing to bash and criticize both Maoism and the Cultural Revolution.
Take for example this critical piece by Mike Ely of the Kasama Project blog:

“I recently studied “Red Color News Soldier.” It is a book by Li Zhensheng, who was a Chinese news photographer during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution — recording key events in Heilongjiang, an industrial province in the far northeast of China. His photos here include the official ones that appeared in the press at the time, but also a whole secret stash of pictures he took of mass meetings and denunciations. It is very revealing and gives a sense of these movements that is freed from the official veil of romantization. You see the power of this revolutionary movement — but you also see it in ways that are very real and gritty.

And that is a sobering way to view any revolution. And while it should not cause us to pull back and oppose sharp class struggle — it does help us identify (as Mao did) forms of struggle that are not appropriate for our cause, our values and goals.”

Ely is a Maoist. It’s not a major crime to criticize a campaign that clearly had some problems and mistakes in implementation. But with so much criticism from the right, how valuable is this criticism without taking the time to explain the positive goals of the Cultural Revolution or its importance to history.
Of the blog comments receive on the piece some were outright reactionary. For example, John B. said:

“I too was intrigued by the GPCR when I was in high school (I’m a few years younger than you), but came to the conclusion rather quickly that it was a tremendous disaster for the Chinese people, that cost them dearly in wealth and culture. I frankly am a little dismayed to read some of the praises to the Cultural Revolution on this blog, but I suppose people will just have to figure it out for themselves. Have they ever considered that perhaps it was a reaction to the excesses of the GPCR that paved the way for Deng Xiaoping’s restoration of capitalism in China?”

This statement is one of the most anti-Maoist, pro-right wing statements I have ever seen on a left-wing blog. With opinions such as this, who (bourgeoisie) needs the right-wing press?
One of the few organizations to explain and defend the Cultural Revolution has been the Revolutionary Communist Party and its newspaper Revolution:

“The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976 was a mass revolutionary upsurge involving hundreds of millions of people. It was a kind of "revolution within the revolution."
In 1949, China's worker-peasant revolution overthrew the old order. The revolution established a socialist political and economic system that empowered the masses and brought great benefits to people. But significant economic differences and social inequalities still existed in the new socialist society. Most dangerously, a new privileged elite had emerged. Its political-organizational center was right within the Chinese Communist Party, and its political and ideological influence was growing.
By the mid-1960s, the top capitalist-roaders (so called because they were high-ranking Party leaders who used a watered-down Marxism to justify taking China down a political-economic road that would lead to the restoration of capitalism) were maneuvering to seize power. Their goal was to re-institute systems of exploitation and to open China back up to foreign domination—in short, to turn China into the "sweatshop paradise" that it is today!
Far from being a "palace power struggle," the Cultural Revolution was a profound and intense struggle over the direction of society and over who would rule society: the working people or a new bourgeois class.
Mao and the revolutionary forces in the Communist Party mobilized people to rise up to prevent capitalist takeover and to shake up the higher levels of the Party that had become increasingly cast in a bourgeois-bureaucratic mold. But the Cultural Revolution was much more than that. The masses were carrying forward the revolutionary transformation of the economy, social institutions, culture, and values and were revolutionizing the Communist Party itself. This is what Mao called continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The Cultural Revolution was not about "round-ups," people being sent to "forced-labor camps," or "totalitarian group-think." The methods of the Cultural Revolution were quite different. Workers, peasants, and people from all walks of life engaged in mass criticism of corrupt officialdom. They engaged in great debates about economic policy, the educational system, culture, and the relation between the Communist Party and the masses of people. Mao wasn't interested in "purges." He was calling for mass action from below to defeat the enemies of the revolution.”

For the rest click here.

For the record, despite the goals listed above, much of the Cultural Revolution didn’t work. It may have been too unorganized or not well understood by some of the classes that found themselves dealing with unwanted change. Some intellectuals didn’t want to share with manual labor, which was done to try and bridge the gap between the intellectual classes and the poor common workers. Leader Jiang Qing tried to get writers to make heroes of common people and the common soldier instead of princes, princesses and generals. Writers are always hard to work with then they are told what they should write.
But one fact remains. This was an attempt to fix problems that China had and it would have been worse not to at least try and change these problems. The right-wing wants us to believe that the Cultural Revolution was just a Stalinist purge carried out by Mao. That is one myth we must bust for sure.

Foreign wars for Americans only

A new proposal for the Vietnamese soldiers who fought for the south has to be in a different spot than the Americans from that war. It may seem trite, but the Americans want to keep their war memorial only American.

According to The Wichita Eagle;
“The Veterans Action Committee's main mission, according to its Web site, is to have the City Council declare that the park is reserved for memorials dedicated to United States Armed Forces only.
Highlights of the compromise, according to the veterans committee, include:
* The memorial, now to be called the South Vietnamese Community Memorial, would be constructed north and west of the existing Veterans Memorial Park, but outside of park land.
Future attempts to make the proposed memorial part of the park would be denied.
* Landscaping, possibly including a 6-foot-to-8-foot tall berm, would separate the memorial from the park, and block any views between the two.
* The city would work with Veterans Memorial Park of Wichita Inc. to create a master plan for the park's future development.
* The City Council would be asked to designate Veterans Memorial Park for those who served in the United States Armed Forces.
The city is expected to release an official version of the compromise proposal today.”

They fly a number of flags, including the old South Vietnam flag and the Confederate Southern Cross. So why is it so important to them to have only Americans in their foreign war memorial?

“Trust in God” another fight over government religion

Once again the attempt to roll over atheist, agnostics and other non-believers are being fought in the Courts. It all boils down to Rep. Dan Lungren wanting to spend nearly $100,000 to engrave the words "In God We Trust" and the Pledge of Allegiance in prominent spots at the Capitol Visitor Center, in Washington DC.

According to The Wichita Eagle;

…” The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation Inc. sued last week to stop the engraving, accusing Lungren of trying to force his religious beliefs on as many as 15 percent of all U.S. adults. That comprises "atheists, agnostics, skeptics and freethinkers, none of whom possess a belief in a god," according to the lawsuit.
"It really is a Judeo-Christian endorsement by our government, and so Lungren is wrong," said Dan Barker of Madison, Wis., a co-president of the foundation. "Lungren and others are pro-religious, and they want to actually use the machinery of government to promote their particular private religious views. That is unconstitutional, and that's what we're asking the court to decide." ….

Few in the house opposed it. The vote went 410-8.
Each time this slogan is challenged, the legislators are quick to act startled, surprised and we can just hear the fundamentalist's corrus of “Oh not them again. They’re just a minority.”
And yes we are just a minority. But aren’t Asians, Native American Indians and African Americans.
In his defense Lungren said that the phrase "In God We Trust" had a long history and was consistent with the beliefs of America's founding fathers. He also said that the Declaration of Independence referred to rights given by a creator.
If historical accuracy is what he’s aiming for, he needs to have slaves holding up the banner and dead Indians below it. The original constitution was written entirely for white Christian men. Hasn’t the country changed a little since 1776? Just as women are considered full citizens with the right to vote, non-believers have the same rights.
It may be an inconvenience to some to have to be sensitive to the rights of non-believers, but it is the right thing to do and Christian Americans might as well get used to it.

Latest confrontation between Peruvian Maoist and government troops

The following news was reported to the
http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/MAOIST_REVOLUTION.

This is a Google translation:

Lima, 16.07.09
Various sources claim that there has been a new confrontation between Maoist guerrillas and government units but VRAE Defense Ministry sources deny this. The alleged fight occurred in a jungle area. The guerrillas ambush a patrol of the government army. Three soldiers were wounded. So far this month the Army had suffered two dead and eight wounded in diverse guerrilla attacks. There were also reports that a heavily armed column of guerrillas led by Comrade Olga, Regional Center of the Committee PCP has moved through the area of Huanta Rumichaca in and talked with workers from along the roads.

The Original:

Lima, 16.07.09
Diversas fuentes afirman que se ha producido un nuevo enfrentamiento entre fuerzas guerrilleras y unidades gubernamentales en la zona del VRAE aunque fuentes del Ministerio de Defensa lo niegan.El combate se produjo en una zona selvatica al emboscar efectivos de la guerrilla maoнsta a una patrulla del ejercito gubernamental. Otros tres soldados resultaron heridos.En lo que va de mes las fuerzas del ejercito han sufrido dos muertos y ocho heridos de diversa ataques de la guerrilla. Asi mismo se informa que una columna guerrilera fuertemente armada encabezada por la camarada Olga, del Comitй del Regional Centro del PCP se ha desplazado por la zona de Rumichaca en Huanta y ha conversado con trabajadores de carreteras.

In memory of the first moon landing

Space – the final frontier - Our mission is to boldly go where no man has gone before. - To seek out new life and new civilizations. - Then go back home and sit on our asses for the next 40 years and do nothing.

More on Brownback and Tiahrt’s C. Street organization

From Fightin’ Cock Flyer

New Wichita arena kicks out old favorites

Wichita KS has Century II Concert Hall, a dilapidated and possibly set to be torn down Kansas Coliseum complex — Britt Brown Arena and the pavilions — which the Sedgwick County manager plans to close in February
But Wichita now has the new INTRUST Bank Arena. This arena was originally opposed by city leaders, but a group of determined investors decided Wichita would have one so they pooled their money, got an ordinance on the ballot and spent millions in deceptive advertising to pass a proposal for a 1 cent sales tax to pay for this white elephant. It took a long time to find a place downtown where it would destroy only a minimum of the old city’s buildings and they are still working out a parking plan for all those people who will visit this new arena. Many young people were lured into this believing it would bring more rock concerts to town. But the reality is that Wichita is just not a good market for big named bands and this new arena will probably not change that.
The INTRUST Bank name was bought for $8.75 million. Now the other arena’s the town has may suffer from underfunding or we may loose some, such as the Kansas Coliseum, which has been in this city since the 1970s. It serves a number of purposes, but the new arena crowd ran ads warning the taxpaysers would spend millions fixing it up or it could just pay 1 cent for a brand new arena. Also the selling of the name cheapens the arena and shows that capitalism has reached a new low in public standards. Do I write a check at the new arena or see an event?

It all shows once again that it only takes a hand full of rich people to fool the rest and reck our city’s treasures in the pricess.

Interview with member of the Communist Party Bhutan (Marxist Leninist Maoists)

Here is an interview from a member of te Communist Party Bhutan (Marxist Leninist Maoists). It is from the blog of Lal Salam Blog:

Saturday, May 23, 2009
The following Interview was conducted at some point in the previous few weeks. It occurred somewhere in the area of the Indian-Bhutan border.

Lal Salam Blog: Thank you very much for meeting with me. So are you from Bhutan?
Co: mrade Sushil:Yes, from Bhutan.
Lal Salam Blog: From the Bhutanese refugee camps?
Comrade Sushil: Uhh, actually people think that all our party are from the refugees, but i am from Bhutan. I have spent allot of time in India, working, but then also in Bhutan and then in Nepal working for the party as well.
Lal Salam Blog: So you are a cadre of the Communist Party Bhutan (Marxist Leninist Maoists)?
Comrade Sushil: Yes i am a member of the Communist Party of Bhutan (Marxist Leninist Maoist). I have been a member since 2003 and i have worked actively as a whole timer since the same year. I joined the party from within Bhutan.
Lal Salam Blog: What is the history of the Party?
Comrade Sushil: The CPB(MLM) was established on the 7th of November 2001, and the announcement of the Party was on the 22nd of April 2003. From this time the party has been working with the exploited people in Bhutan. The people are all exploited by the regime, so our party has been working with all the people, mainly in rural areas, but in urban areas also. Mostly we work with the people in the villages.
Lal Salam Blog: So what are the problems in Bhutan? What sort of oppressions are forced on the people of Bhutan?
Comrade Sushil: The biggest problem is the feudal Monarchy. Because of this monarchy the problems are created. Peoples standard of living has been kept backwards because of the Monarchy. In a third world country like Bhutan, this is because of feudalism. This feudalism is the main problem of Bhutan. This is why the Communist Party, our glorious party, is working to overthrow the regime, and to overthrow feudalism.
Lal Salam Blog: So the goal of the Party for now is to throw out feudalism from Bhutan?
Comrade Sushil: Definitely. The main aim of our party is to overthrow feudalism and to establish the peoples rule in Bhutan.
Lal Salam Blog: So you would like to establish a People’s State in Bhutan? Is that what you would have replace the King?
Comrade Sushil: We should not understand like this. We should replace the king with a Proletarian Dictatorship. Our aim, our hope, no our dream is to establish a New Democratic Socialism. Only after that can we achieve our ultimate goal, which is to achieve communism. It is not only our goal to throw out the king and overthrow feudalism in Bhutan, but to establish a peaceful society that can achieve socialism and communism.
Lal Salam Blog: Last year your party started a Peoples War in Bhutan…
Comrade Sushil: No. We have not initiated a protracted peoples war in Bhutan. Since our parties establishment we have however had many rural peoples class struggles and these struggles have used different means. In different ways we have launched many struggles and programs, and we have the aim of reaching a level where we can launch a Protracted Peoples War.
Last year we did initiate some armed struggles, which is only a factor of the rural class struggle. Much of the media proclaimed this as the beginning of the Peoples War, but we are not at that phase. We are trying to reach the level of Peoples War, but we have not yet reached it, and are preparing for it. We do not know how long this will take, it will depend on many factors.
Lal Salam Blog: So there will be more attacks, more bombs and more armed actions in the future?
Comrade Sushil: Certainly. We are preparing for this. There will be more armed struggle. Without the armed struggle, we cannot change the situation in our country. We cannot change the state power. We will one day take the state power, but for now we are in preparation, making networks with the peasants and in the cities, training, preparing for the struggle.
Lal Salam Blog: Do you think Peoples War can be successful? Bhutan is already a very brutal state. As many as a sixth of the population lives in exile and the state has beaten, attacked, arrested and even raped and murdered those it perceives to be political activists?
Comrade Sushil: Our parties thought is that only by waging the armed struggle and the Peoples War can we win the liberation of our exploited people. I believe so. Thousands of people have been evicted from Bhutan, we are very aware of this. Why were they evicted? They were evicted after political activism and movements. They were evicted because the people in the southern belt had a high political consciousness.
This is totally not a refugee problem, this is a political problem. It is a problem of a brutal monarchy and a restrictive feudal system. Without destroying these institutions we cannot solve these problems. Our party is launching this armed struggle to liberate the exploited people and we know that one day we will be successful. This is a long term plan, it will take many preparations, and without this and without correct politics we cannot be successful.
We have this ideology, the Marxist-Leninist- Maoist and this is a political weapon. With this weapon we believe that one day we will be successful.

the rest click here.

Drake Levin, Lead Guitarist of Paul Revere & the Raiders, Passes On

Paul Revere & The Raiders - Indian Reservation

For more information on Drake Leven see A Shroud of Thoughts.

Economic tragedy brings out the rats of capitalism

Is it just human nature that some people will take advantage of people in times of economic crisis and steal from them? A recent report from The Wichita Eagle said a Kansas family who sought debt relief is suing three companies, claiming they have operated in Kansas illegally. They are charging huge fees to people who are already in debt. There is little doubt they are already victims of predatory lending practices, where people are lured into easy credit and then stuck with a lot of unexpected new rules to burry them in debt, interest rates and penalties until they feel financially trapped.
Then along comes more conmen and conwomen who promise relief if the victim will just pay some simple fees. The fees ad up and the victims are taken twice.
According to The Wichita Eagle:

“Beginning in June 2008, Galen and Suzanne Yunker of Caldwell and their son Gregory tried to use Arizona-based Rise Above Debt Relief LLC to settle some of their debt. In the process, they paid nearly $7,600 to the program, including about $4,400 in fees, according to their complaint filed in U.S. District Court.
A Kansas-registered credit service organization could not have charged more than $290 under state law over the same period, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit is against three companies: Rise Above Debt Relief, Oklahoma-based Global Client Solutions LLC, and Colorado-based Rocky Mountain Bank and Trust.”

Suing these creepy bastards is about all a person can do. This is capitalism at its worst.

More from the Family/C Street cult

Projection of U.S. Power Abroad

When they’re not philandering and violating their own professed Christian morality, C Street members push for the projection of U.S. power abroad. As Obama went to Port of Spain, Trinidad for the Summit of the Americas in April it was Ensign who criticized the President for shaking Hugo Chávez’s hand. “I think it was irresponsible for the president to be seen kind of laughing and joking with Hugo Chávez," he said. Ensign, a big booster of corporate-style free trade, voted for the Central American Free Trade Agreement or CAFTA in 2005. He also supports the coup government in Honduras and signed a letter to Secretary of State Clinton calling on the Obama administration to revoke its support for deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya.
Coburn, who is an obstetrician, has advocated the death penalty for any of his peers who carry out abortions. In the foreign policy realm he has stuck to a moralistic credo. He criticized a USAID program for example which sought to teach commercial sex workers in Central America about condom use to prevent HIV AIDS. An irate Coburn wrote President Bush to demand that the United States cease financing the preventative program, run by the non-profit Population Services International (PSI). Apparently the note had the desired effect and shortly after Coburn made his appeal PSI received word that USAID was cutting off money for the program. When not working to defeat sexual education in Central America Coburn supports free markets in the region, voting like his colleague Ensign to support CAFTA. He also supports the coup regime in Tegucigalpa.
C Street’s real free trade messiah is South Carolina native son Jim DeMint who just chastised the White House for supporting Zelaya, thereby carrying out what he called “a slap in the face to the people” of Honduras. Hondurans “have struggled too long to have their hard-won democracy stolen from them by a Chávez-style dictator,” he remarked. The South Carolinian, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, went even further and attacked the Organization of American States for “trampling” over the hopes and dreams of a “free and democratic people.” It’s hardly surprising that Demint would come out for the military takeover in Honduras given that he’s been a long time booster of Central American free trade. In this sense, he shares the ideological views of newly installed Honduran President Roberto Micheletti, a former businessman and conservative politician who has supported CAFTA. Demint has long been on the other side of the fence from the likes of Zelaya and Chávez. First elected to the House in 1998, he has been an eager promoter of far right wing economic orthodoxy like privatizing social security and abolishing the federal minimum wage.
Zach Wamp is another free trade zealot at C Street. Like his fellow Christian members, he supported CAFTA. At the time Wamp conceded that America’s trade policies were unpopular but defended his vote remarking that the trade agreement was beneficial to his native Tennessee. In the never ending race to the bottom, Wamp said that “if we ever want to compete with China, we must build alliances in our region with countries - like these CAFTA partners - so we can preserve American jobs and not lose any more manufacturing jobs to China or the Pacific Rim.” The southerner then went on to explain his other reasons for supporting the trade agreement. “During this critical time in American history,” he declared, “we are facing multiple national security implications for U.S. leadership and the Western hemisphere. The influences of communism and dictatorships are on the rise to our South.”
Warming to his theme, Wamp continued “in Venezuela, Hugo Chávez rules with an 'iron fist' and stands ready to team up with his mentor, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, to expand their influence in these Central American countries. Countries such as Nicaragua and El Salvador impacted by CAFTA must see the United States as a partner - not the adversary - so this region can be stable and secure.” Raising the alarm bell, Wamp continued “instability in Central America might also jeopardize U.S. border security. Should the Communists succeed in spreading their philosophies and regimes throughout Central America, even more illegal aliens will want to flee their countries and cross our southern border.”
Wamp has also signed on as a co-sponsor to legislation which condemns former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya for carrying out unconstitutional moves. The resolution chastises Zelaya for forging close ties with Chávez and Cuban rulers Fidel and Raul Castro and for joining the Bolivarian Alternative of the Americas (ALBA), an anti-free trade initiative including Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba and Nicaragua.
In their own personal lives, C Street members have made a mockery of the group’s Christian teachings. Yet when it comes to the far more important and consequential issue of foreign policy these Republicans have stuck to their guns. From Chávez to Zelaya to free trade in Central America they have been consistent in seeking to overturn progressive reform and working to maintain U.S. imperial hegemony.
Nikolas Kozloff is the author of Revolution! South America and the Rise of the New Left (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2008)

Sen. Brownback belongs to the Family/C street cult

It has now been established that Sam Brownback, R-Kan is a member of the Family or C Street. It is a religious cult that many member of the US congress belong to. Here is an article from Counter-Punch:

C Street Band

By NIKOLAS KOZLOFF
As the Republican Party implodes the public is becoming aware of a secretive Christian society known as the Family or the Fellowship. The group was founded in 1935 in opposition to FDR's New Deal and its adherents subscribe to a far right Christian fundamentalist and free market ideology. A minister named Abraham Vereide founded the Family after having a vision in which God visited him in the person of the head of the United States Steel Corporation (no, I’m not making this up). The Family has a connection to house on C Street in Washington, D.C., known simply as C Street. Officially registered as a church, the building serves as a meeting place and residence for conservative politicians.
Few members of the fellowship talk about the group’s mission. The organization organizes the annual National Prayer Breakfast which is attended by the president, members of Congress, and diplomats from around the world. Earlier this year Obama presented his Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the event. According to Jeff Sharlet who wrote a book about the group the Family’s philosophy is based on “a sort of trickle-down fundamentalism,” which believes that the wealthy and powerful, if they “can get their hearts right with God ... will dispense blessings to those underneath them.” True believers in market orthodoxy, Family members think that God's will operates directly through Adam Smith's “invisible hand.”
The Family’s current leader Doug Coe is secretive but enjoys considerable political influence as a spiritual adviser. When South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, himself a visitor and a kind of honorary alumni at C Street, compared his political difficulties involving his affair with an Argentine woman to those of biblical King David the South Carolina politician was falling back on a central figure in Family theology. You could “almost hear Doug Coe’s voice” coming out of Sanford, Sharlet remarks.
C Street’s stately red brick, $1.1 million building is subsidized by secretive religious organizations and is located a mere stone’s throw away from the Capitol. Lawmakers who live there include Reps. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn.; Bart Stupak, D-Mich.; Jim DeMint, R-S.C.; Mike Doyle, D-Pa.; and Sens. John Ensign, R-Nev., Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, and Sam Brownback, R-Kan. The lawmakers, all Christians, live in private rooms upstairs and pay an incredibly low rent --- a paltry $600 --- to live at C Street.
Tenants dine together once a week to talk about religion in their daily lives. Richard Carver, a member of the Fellowship’s board of directors who served as assistant secretary of the Air Force during the Reagan administration, says “Our goal is singular—and that is to hope that we can assist them in better understandings of the teachings of Christ, and applying it to their jobs.” Senator DeMint, a Presbyterian who moved into C Street less than a year ago, says that members are wont to share a verse or a thought in Bible Study “but mostly it's more of an accountability group to talk about things that are going on in our lives, and how we're dealing with them.”
It’s not uncommon for C Street residents to invite fellow congressmen to the lodging for spiritual bonding. Sanford for example turned to C Street for answers and support as his marriage crumbled apart. Now Sanford is joined in his troubles by another C Street member, John Ensign, who had a sexual relationship with a staffer. The Ensign affair has threatened to take down yet another C Street member, Tom Coburn. In February, 2008 Coburn and Ensign’s former mistress’ husband confronted Ensign and urged him to end the affair. Reportedly, Ensign paid the woman more than $25,000 in severance when she stopped working for him in 2008.
Now comes word that that Ensign’s parents paid his mistress and her family almost $100,000 “out of concern for the well being of longtime family friends during a difficult time.” The severance payment could lead to campaign finance or ethics issues for Ensign. But the scandal is also damaging for Coburn who is said to have encouraged Ensign to compensate the couple and to help them relocate. Coburn has denied any knowledge of the payments.
Coburn, who is a physician, will not comment on the advice he provided Ensign saying his position as a doctor and ordained deacon required that he keep all information private. “I'm not going to go into that — that's privileged communications,” the Oklahoma Senator said. “I'm never going to talk about that with anybody. I never will, not to a court of law, not to an ethics committee, not to anybody — because that is privileged communication that I will never reveal to anybody.”

system of a down (boom) banned video

system of a down (boom) banned video

Miners rebel in South Africa

Platinum miners are striking in South Africa demanding better job security. They have held several managers for ransom. Two have just escaped.
According to the BBC:

Three people are still being held by about 500 miners in North West Province, after three had evaded their captors on Thursday night.
Eastern Platinum Limited told the BBC that police were conducting negotiations with the miners.
The contract workers are demanding that Eastern Platinum give them permanent jobs at the Crocodile River mine….


The protesting miners work for two contractors, Sindile Mining and JIC Mining Services, Eastern Platinum said……

Eastern Platinum has filed for an urgent court action which would order the workers to:
· Refrain from participating in illegal and unprotected strike action
· Release those who are being detained against their will
· Vacate the underground working areas.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), whose other members are currently engaged in a nationwide strike which has put the brakes on all 2010 World Cup construction in South Africa, has reportedly condemned the miners' actions.

Holy! Holy! Holy! Zapatista Anthem

Obit for McNamara, who gave us the Vietnam War

This is an excellent piece on the late Robert McNamara
From McClatchy, July 6, 2009:

Commentary: Galloway on McNamara: Reading an obit with great pleasure

By Joseph L. Galloway McClatchy Newspapers
"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." —Clarence Darrow (1857–1938)
Well, the aptly named Robert Strange McNamara has finally shuffled off to join LBJ and Dick Nixon in the 7th level of Hell.
McNamara was the original bean-counter — a man who knew the cost of everything but the worth of nothing.
Back in 1990 I had a series of strange phone conversations with McNamara while doing research for my book We Were Soldiers Once And Young. McNamara prefaced every conversation with this: "I do not want to comment on the record for fear that I might distort history in the process." Then he would proceed to talk for an hour, doing precisely that with answers that were disingenuous in the extreme — when they were not bald-faced lies.
Upon hanging up I would call Neil Sheehan and David Halberstam and run McNamara's comments past them for deconstruction and the addition of the truth.
The only disagreement i ever had with Dave Halberstam was over the question of which of us hated him the most. In retrospect, it was Halberstam.
When McNamara published his first book — filled with those distortions of history — Halberstam, at his own expense, set out on a journey following McNamara on his book tour around America as a one-man truth squad.
McNamara abandoned the tour.

For the rest click here.

Afghan is treated as the spoils of war

While president Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev are looking at the spoils of war, people in Afghanistan only want them out. Afghanistan is becoming a piece of realistate needed for control of the Middle-east.

From the Wichita Eagle, June 6:

The Associated Press
MOSCOW - President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart agree that there hasn't been as much progress as they'd like to see in the fight against insurgents in Afghanistan.
Their comments at a Monday news conference in Moscow followed a Russian commitment to let U.S. troops and weapons cross Russian territory on their way to Afghanistan.
Obama said it's too soon to measure the success of his new strategy in Afghanistan, which includes the deployment of additional U.S. troops. He says after that country's election is completed, the U.S. can take another look at the situation.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says in some respects, progress has been "insignificant" in Afghanistan. He said it's hard to say how quickly the situation will improve.
For the rest.

From Shola Jawid, Website of the Communist (Maoist) Party of Nepal:
Obama in Cairo: Praising Islam to keep the people of the Mid East down
8 June 2009. A World to Win News Service. "The streets surrounding the university and across the city were largely quiet and empty on Thursday. Many workers in this Egyptian capital on the Nile had been told to stay home. The sidewalks were closed to ordinary people but lined by hundreds of soldiers – some dressed in black, others in white – who had been standing in place for hours before Mr Obama arrived." (The New York Times, 5 June) The Great Father had come from Washington to lecture some of America’s subject peoples.
The whole framework of Barack Obama's carefully crafted speech at Al-Azhar University in Cairo 4 June was meant to keep people's eyes focused on the surface of things. "We meet at a time of tension between the United States and Moslems around the world," he said. But is the basic problem a misunderstanding about religion and values, that people don't get that "America and Islam... share common principles", or is it deeply grounded in the material world and its economic, social and political relations – oppression, inequality and injustice?
These are the facts: control over the "Greater Middle East" stretching from North Africa to Afghanistan is a central requirement for consolidating American global hegemony in the world. All the countries in this vast region are dominated by foreign capital and their economic development subordinated to the interests of the imperialist powers. The regimes that rule over the people largely reflect these interests and where they don't, war is often waged or threatened. These foreign interests and powers have allied with reactionary local ruling classes to impose lives of frustration at best and misery for the vast majority of the people.
Read More.

Emperor Obama

the Fourth of July

Do we support our independence from Brittan and our break from feudal aristocracy on July 4? Or do we celebrate the genocide of Indians, slavery, racism and years of imperialist wars. Either way we can celebrate with fireworks, which here in the small town of Maize are still legal.
The US was a revolutionary country AT ONE TIME!
Fireworks shells


Firecrackers


The real Kaboom!

Franken finally wins

Al Franken was just officially declared the next U.S. senator from Minnesota! Will he make a good senator? He can’t do much worse than the slime buckets there now. He’s a smart man and a good comedian. The trick for him will be to try and change the system more than it changes him. He has looked to grass roots organizations such as MoveOn for financial help.

He sent a personal note to MoveOn members in the wake of his victory (see below).

What a day! I just wanted to take a moment amidst all this to say thank you to the MoveOn members in Minnesota and across the country. Paul Wellstone understood that real change comes from the ground up. And there's really no better example of that than MoveOn.org. You've been there for me since the beginning. And I look forward to working with you as a U.S. senator to make the progressive vision we all share into a reality: affordable health care for all, new jobs from clean energy, and an economy that works for everyone. Thank you for all you do.

Senator-elect Al Franken

Excerpts from I AM Pol Pot

Here are some excerpts from the book I Am Pol Pot, by Steve Otto:

Chapter 15

The Creation of Democratic Kampuchea

Journal entry: 12 October Pol:

Pon was ecstatic when I told him his men would enter Phnom Penh first.
“We have never been in that city,” he said with a grin. “We were never allowed near it and my men will be dazzled to see how city people live. There’s a lot for them to experience.”
“Yes,” I said. “We will evacuate the city, but your men will get to spend as much time there as they want. They will have plenty to see.”
As the guns drew silent, the last of Lon Nol’s army threw off their uniform and run from their posts. Pon’s men, who had been at the core of my revolutionary army, began walking into the city. They were tired and weary of all the fighting and had spent day after day lying in trenches or manning the mortar rockets we kept firing into the city. I was proud that it was they whom we sent in first to see what we had captured first hand. Shortly after that, I planned on sending in some trained zone commanders to keep things organized.

Louise Aude
Correspondent for
Association française de presse,
17 April 1975:
Sent written in French, translated to English

At first a small group of guerrillas came down the street. They were smiling and marching with the government’s soldiers. There were smiles and the people greeted them as they road into town on army tanks and carrying the rebel’s flag.
Shortly after came the other soldiers. They were not smiling. They seemed grimy and stressed out from the fighting. They had mostly black uniforms, and many had their red and white-chequered Krama’s wrapped around their heads, while others wore green Mao caps with no red stars on them. They all had frowns until they began to examine the city.
Some drank out of toilets, apparently believing they were places where city people kept their water. Some were just children as young as 10. They looked as if they had never seen a bottle or canned food before. They were looking for the spoils of war, but they seemed uninterested in money or jewellery. One soldier threw a wad of money into the street as if it were trash.
They did want machines. They drove cars and motorbikes, often crashing them into walls. They would just laugh and get another one. They had not seen electricity before.
As the day wore on, other soldiers came, some in black, others in green. None wore rank insignias or badges of any kind. I couldn’t tell who was in charge and it seemed as if some of the soldiers didn’t know. Some seemed to be fighting with each other. I was beginning to wonder who these rebels were and even if they were all from the same army.
By the end of the day, all local people we were all told to leave the city. The rebels said not to take much because they would not be gone that long. They were told they weren’t going very far. I must stop for now and pack. I’m not sure how long they plan to let foreign journalist stay here or which country’s journalists will be allowed to stay if any.

Journal entry Pol,

Before the guns went silent, along the riverbank where we held our last congress, we had already lined up the posts of the committee to run our party. I had been voted prime minister, and it was agreed that I held the highest post. Ponnary would naturally be the head of the Women’s Association and in charge of all departments dealing the women’s issues. There would be no sexism or discrimination in my government.
Hem was the president, which is more or less the second highest post. We had agreed to that while he was out making diplomatic overtures with Sihacook. Every other member of the Marxist Circle held a post in the new party structure.
Lately I spend a lot of time at my Chinit River base while hem and Sihacook spend time mingling with diplomats.

Newstimes:

28 April 1975:

“HEM SAPHRON: OUT OF THE JUNGLE”

………Many questions have arisen as Cambodia’s mysterious conquerors emerge from the jungle. For some time, Western experts have not been able to determine what kind of government the new regime will produce. Will it be nationalistic, Marxist or doctrinaire communist? No one seems to know. Little is known about the second leader in the NUFK coalition, Hem Saphron. What is already clear, however, is that Hem Saphron, 43, will probably wield the most power in the new regime. During the war he was Deputy Premier to Prince Nurodum Sihacook as well as Minister of Defence and commander in
Chief of the Khmer Rouge fighting forces…………

This book is available through Amazon.com.

Another right-wing military coup in Honduras

Left leaning president Manuel Zelaya.was overthrown in a coup this week. People have taken to the streets in protest.

From Yahoo News:

“Police and soldiers clashed with thousands of protesters outside Honduras' national palace Monday, leaving at least 15 people injured, as world leaders from Barack Obama to Hugo Chavez demanded the return of a president ousted in a military coup.
Leftist leaders pulled their ambassadors from Honduras and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala would cut trade with neighboring Honduras for at least 48 hours. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called for Hondurans to rise up against those who toppled his ally, Manuel Zelaya.
"We're ready to support the rebellion of the Honduran people," Chavez said, though he did not say what kind of support he was offering.”

While other leaders talked of taking action, the US has chosen to do nothing about the coup. As with military coups of the past, the US condemns them, but takes no action to reverse them. This is the case in Honduras today.

Again, quoting Yahoo News:

“While Obama said Zelaya is still president, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton hedged on that point at an earlier news conference, suggesting that both the ousted president and his foes should make compromises.
Asked if the administration would insist that Zelaya be restored to power, she said: "We haven't laid out any demands that we're insisting on, because we're working with others on behalf of our ultimate objectives."

Indian Maoist critisized Nepal’s Maoist party for its perceived mistakes

COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (MAOIST)

CENTRAL COMMITTEE

Press Release: May 5, 2009 - (Became available June 29, 2009)

The political crisis in Nepal is the result of Indo-US conspiracy!

Oppose the attempts by Indian expansionists
to meddle in the internal affairs of Nepal!

People's democracy can be established in Nepal
only by smashing the old state!!

Withdrawal of support by CPN(UML), MJF and other allies to the government headed by comrade Prachanda does not come as a surprise to any keen observer of the unfolding situation in Nepal in the context of the growing realignment of forces in South Asia and the world at large. South Asia has become a top-priority zone for American imperialism in the context of its growing rivalry with China which is seen as the greatest threat to American imperialism in the world arena in the coming decades. Besides, its importance has grown against the backdrop of a series of defeats suffered by the occupation forces of NATO and US in Afghanistan at the hands of Taliban and the latter's fast-expanding hold and influence in Pakistan. The strategy of US imperialism in the region is to contain the growing influence of China and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), forge a powerful pro-American axis of powers to turn the tide in its favour in Afghanistan where its forces are on the run in the renewed Taliban offensive, and establish its hegemony in the region as part of its global strategic designs. To achieve this goal American imperialism has been trying to forge an alliance with Pakistan and India, preaching to Pakistan that it should do away with its obsession with threat from India and, instead, concentrate on war in its western frontier to crush Taliban.
US imperialism and Indian expansionism are particularly perturbed over the growing influence of China over the region, consolidation of China's grip over Sri Lanka, and the fear that the government in Nepal is moving closer to China. And it is this fear which is common to both India and US that has pushed these powers to oust the government led by the Maoists in a bid to install a regime loyal to them. Hence Washington and Delhi had instructed the allies of UCPN(M) in the ruling coalition to withdraw support to the government headed by Prachanda and to form a government with all other forces sans the Maoists. Attempts are already on to form a government with UML, Koirala's NC, MJF and others all of which are loyal to India.
The arch-reactionary UML which dons the garb of Marxist Leninist had always served the reactionary rulers of Nepal and their foreign masters. They blame UCPN(M) and com Prachanda for "unilaterally sacking" the chief of the Army Staff, General Rookmangud Katawal. But why such a step had to be taken is simply hushed up. Moreover, the unconstitutional act of the President in reinstating the Army Chief is given legitimacy by these anti-people Parties. The fact is the army chief had ordered the fresh recruitment of several thousand soldiers into the Nepal Army while blocking the integration of the PLA cadres thereby going against the letter and spirit of the agreement reached between the various parties who waged a unified struggle against the monarchy. Gen Katawal had also extended the tenure of several senior Army officers with the aim of retaining the hold of the pro-monarchy elements over the Army. It is a deliberate planned move by the reactionary ruling classes of Nepal under the close guidance and planning of the Indian expansionists and US imperialists. By resuming recruitment to Nepal Army even before finalizing the integration of the two armies, these reactionary forces wanted to precipitate the situation and place the blame for the break-up of the government on the Maoists themselves. Thereby they aim to isolate and attack the Maoist forces, consolidate the anti-people Army, tighten the hold of India-US over Nepal, and contain the growing influence and competition from China in the region.
In fact, the Indian ruling classes have been feeling uncomfortable ever since CPN(M) had emerged as the single largest political Party in the elections to the CA in April 2008. Their attempts to prevent the formation of a government headed by the Maoists had failed. Hence they had been waiting for an opportune moment to topple the government and preparing to create such a crisis by placing spokes in the process of integration of the two Armies, advising the Army Chief to go ahead with massive recruitment into the Nepalese Army, and assuring support to any unconstitutional move to oust the Maoist-led government.
That Gen Katawal should have been allowed to continue for so long in office even after his mentor, King Gyanendra, was forced to retreat from the political scene in Nepal, is itself a bad thing. He had been the most reliable pillar of the monarchy and the old state power whose interests he had served all along. He and the Army he heads are representatives of the old state and naturally would cling to their privileges and class interests until they are overthrown by force. The attempt by the Maoists to utilize the apparatus of the old state to bring about change in the social system, instead of smashing it, is the basis for the development of the present dangerous situation. Today any slight mistake on the part of the Maoists would result in grave disaster. The reactionaries in Nepal, with the active aid and assistance of US and India, are hatching conspiracies to unleash a blood-bath to wipe out the Maoist forces. The only way to resist these reactionary attempts is to rely on the revolutionary masses, organize them against the state and prepare them for street battles basing on the base areas in the vast countryside. At least now the leadership of the CPN(M) should realize the futility of the parliamentary path and resume the people's war to achieve complete victory by smashing the old state and reactionary forces, and establishing the people's democratic state. And to achieve this, the major chunk of the Party leadership and cadre should go underground immediately, rely on the vast countryside to wage guerrilla war on the one hand and mobilise the masses politically in the entire country against the reactionary forces who are attempting to establish the rule of the feudal forces, comprador bourgeoisie.
The CC, CPI(Maoist), condemns the Indo-US conspiracy in toppling the government headed by comrade Prachanda and warns them against meddling in the internal affairs of Nepal. It pledges all support to the Maoists in Nepal in their fight against Indian expansionism and cautions them to beware of the attempts by the reactionary rulers of India to create a blood-bath of revolutionaries in Nepal.
sd/
Azad,
Spokesperson,
Central Committee,
CPI(Maoist)