The Pilippines-Interview with Professor Jose Maria Sison

This interview includes Sison's comments on the prospects for the people's war in the next 10 years. Sison is the founding chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines and Chief Political Consultant for the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.

Professor Jose Maria Sison: On People's War and Peace Negotiations
Interview with Roselle Valerio, Liberation International, September 13, 2009. Posted on Arkibong Bayan.
Thank you for granting this interview in your capacity as the chief political consultant of the negotiating panel of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). I would like to ask some questions about the status and prospects of the people's war and the peace negotiations of the NDFP with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP).
But first let me ask you, what is your current personal situation in exile, as a political refugee?

But first let me ask you, what is your current personal situation in exile, as a political refugee?
JMS: I am taking seriously and enjoying my role as chief political consultant of the NDFP negotiating panel, and as chairperson of the International League of Peoples' Struggle. I do a lot of research, writing and speaking before various types of audiences. I manage to speak through Skype, Yahoo Messenger and other video-conferencing methods to audiences in the US and other countries which refuse to give me the visa.
I am on the terrorist blacklist of the European Union and other governments, and I have been detained on false charges supplied by the Arroyo regime. I am banned from paid employment and I am deprived of social benefits. I have to borrow money in order to survive. But my detractors misrepresent me as living it up whenever they get hold of pictures of me enjoying the company of compatriots and friends in social gatherings.

Will the Arroyo regime, as they claim, be able to destroy or reduce the New People's Army (NPA) into an insignificant force before the middle of next year?
JMS: No. Even the top officials and military officers of the regime admit that they cannot destroy the NPA. The intensity, frequency and wide scale of the NPA tactical offensives belie the claims of military success by the most rabid psywar officers of the regime. The regime is worried about the worsening crisis and the rising strength of the NPA and other revolutionary forces of the people.

Why has the Arroyo government failed in its military objective of defeating the NPA?
JMS: The regime's anti-people policies of subservience to foreign interests, its big comprador-landlord character, its bureaucratic corruption and gross human rights violations drive the people to wage armed revolution.
The ever worsening crisis of the world capitalist system and the domestic ruling system fuels the people's war. The toiling masses of workers and peasants and the middle social strata suffer mass unemployment, lower incomes, soaring prices of basic commodities, more expensive social services and other grave difficulties.
Following the leadership of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), the NPA has successfully pursued the general line of new democratic revolution through protracted people's war, and is at the moment carrying out an intensive and extensive guerilla warfare on the basis of an ever widening and deepening mass base.

In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, you said that there are about 6,000 fighters of the New People' Army. Is that all the armed strength of the NPA?
JMS: I said that the NPA should have at least 6,000 Red fighters with automatic rifles because as early as 1986 their number was already 6,100. I said this precisely to contradict the varying estimates of NPA strength of 4,800 to 5,200 by the reactionary armed forces. I also pointed out that the number of NPA fighters never reached 25,000 in the 1980s.
The revolutionary movement does not publicize the exact number of NPA fighters armed with automatic rifles. But I dare say that the NPA armed strength is far more than 6,000. And it is not limited to the thousands of Red fighters with automatic rifles. They are augmented by tens of thousands of members of the people's militia and the hundreds of thousands of members of the self-defense units of mass organizations in nearly 10,000 barangays of the country.

Aside from armed struggle, how else does the NPA build its political strength?
JMS: It is a matter of public knowledge that the NPA draws political strength from the people by arousing, organizing and mobilizing them along the line of the new democratic revolution, and by serving them in every possible and necessary way. In very concrete and immediate terms, the NPA draws strength from the revolutionary mass organizations, the organs of political power and allied forces. These arise and grow due to the work of the CPP, NPA and NDFP.

On the basis of information available to you as NDFP chief political consultant, what is your view or evaluation of the plans of the CPP leadership to advance the people's war?
JMS: From what I read in CPP publications, it is logical for the CPP to aim for expanding the current number of guerilla fronts to more than 170, or enough to cover every rural congressional district within the next few years. Fulfilling the political and military requirements for such an expansion would certainly mean a great advance of the people's war and would lay the basis for a possible strategic stalemate or even a strategic offensive within the next ten years.

If the CPP is aiming for a great advance in the people's war, why does it allow the NDFP to engage in peace negotiations with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP)? Isn't there a self-contradiction in this regard?
JMS: I don't think that there is a self-contradiction. The peace negotiations arise precisely because of the people's war. At whatever rate the peace negotiations run, the GRP seeks to destroy the armed revolutionary movement of the people and the revolutionary forces defend themselves and advance the people's war.
The peace negotiations provide the revolutionary forces the opportunity to broadcast their just cause of struggle for national liberation and democracy, and explore possibilities of basic social, economic and political reforms. Even on the eve of complete revolutionary victory, the revolutionary forces can engage in peace negotiations in order to facilitate the victory.

What are the chances for the resumption of formal talks in the peace negotiations before Gloria Arroyo steps down in 2010? What can be accomplished before then?
JMS: The Arroyo regime has refused to respect and comply with the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG). It continues to use false criminal charges to abduct, detain, torture and murder NDFP panelists, consultants, staffers and other JASIG-protected people. Moreover, it seeks to undermine and scrap the the JASIG and all other bilateral agreements of the GRP and NDFP since 1992.
It regards the peace negotiations as a minor adjunct of Oplan Bantay Laya. It wishes to pacify the revolutionary movement of the people through military force and deception in peace negotiations. It is obsessed with imposing the framework of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration on the NDFP. It also wishes to frontload the issue of ending the hostilities and evade the prior issues of social, economic and political reforms in the substantive agenda of the peace negotiations.
If only the regime would agree to resume the formal talks and comply with the obligations stipulated by previous agreements, it is still possible to go a significant way towards a comprehensive agreement on social and economic reforms and to improve the human rights situation in the Philippines. But the regime is obviously determined to go down in Philippine history as a hated regime of unmitigated puppetry to US imperialism, unbridled corruption, and gross and systematic human rights violations.

Do you think that the next administration would be willing to negotiate with the NDFP?
JMS: I believe so. The crisis of the ruling system shall have become worse. More than ever, the people would be demanding peace negotiations even as they demand the advance of the revolutionary movement, especially because the peace negotiations have not as yet yielded substantial reforms for their benefit. The people clamor for basic reforms to realize a just and lasting peace, be it through people's war and/or peace negotiations.

Is it possible that the NPA and the people's war would someday become so strong that those in the GRP would choose to negotiate peace more seriously than now?
JMS: Just as it is possible for the revolutionary movement of the people to win complete victory in the next ten years, it is also possible for patriotic and progressive sections in the reactionary government to seek peace negotiations and accept a historic concord of national unity and just peace against foreign and feudal domination.

Obama commits to war in Afghanistan

We now have our work cut out for us as President Barack Obama has committed to sending a new surge of troops to Afghanistan. It is Vietnam all over again. Experts are warning this war can’t be won and it ill mean for the next 10 years the US will be bogged down fighting in a country where it is not welcome.
It is also a commitment to an empire that has only intensified after the end of the “cold war.”

From CNN:
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Barack Obama has approved a significant troop increase for Afghanistan, Pentagon officials said Tuesday.
The new troop deployment is expected to include 8,000 Marines from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, as well as 4,000 additional Army troops from Fort Lewis, Washington.
"This increase is necessary to stabilize a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, which has not received the strategic attention, direction and resources it urgently requires," Obama said in a written statement.
"The Taliban is resurgent in Afghanistan, and al Qaeda supports the insurgency and threatens America from its safe haven along the Pakistani border." See what CNN's Barbara Starr says about the increase on the AC360 blog

From the World Can’t Wait:

No More War! Get into the Streets & Protest!
By Debra Sweet
Afghanistan is now really Obama's war. He's in it to "win" and "finish the job." Is it your war?

See VIDEO from Saturday in NYC: Elaine Brower, Mac Bica, Matthis Chiroux, Debra Sweet & Andy Zee on why we should protest and what difference it makes. You don't end a war by sending more troops!

This is not a good war. You knew this when Bush started it. Why support it now? The richest country with the most powerful highly militarized empire is destroying one of the poorest countries!

On Tuesday, December 1st, President Obama will announce plans to expand the occupation of Afghanistan with 34,000 more troops.

When tens of thousands more troops are sent, will you be home watching the news passively, or out shopping? Or, will you protest visibly and speak out loudly; NO!

Black Friday

In honor of Black Friday, the beginning of the seasonal shopping frenzy, I’m posting this song by Bad News. There is the studio version and a live performance with them actually moving.
X-mass is almost here and we can hear the cash registers ringing (if they still make a ringing sound).

Bad News 16 - Cashing In On Christmas


Bohemian Rhapsody & Cashing in on Christmas

Thanksgiving Dinner, it’s all about buying the food

There may have been a “first Thanksgiving” dinner, but not likely turkey or the fixings we see today. The turkey became part of Thanksgiving about 1857. It is supposed to be of foods native to the New World. It became a national holiday in 1941. The traditional fixings came from a women’s magazine in the 1950s.
For a look at the real first Thanksgiving see the Kasama Project.

Now the truth about Pol Pot

For a look at Communist Revolution run amuck, order a copy of I Am Pol Pot. This is a fictional biography that tries to interpret Pol Pot and see how things may have looked to the rulers who planned and executed Democratic Kampuchea in what is now Cambodia. The book contains quotes from the Black Papers, one of the few books ever released by Democratic Kampuchea. It is also based on many of the records from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (known as the Khmer Rouge).
This book can be ordered from Amazon.com

US to shore up support for India’s failing “Democracy”

Just today, President Barack Obama welcomed Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, for a visit to the White House. He will probably assure him all his support for a planned offensive with India’s planned counter-insurgency plans.
It’s hard to say what the US will now give in the way of military hardware, advisors or troops. While there is much talk of sending thousands of troops to Afghanistan, the US already has troops in Colombia and the Philippines.

According to Yahoo:

"The relationship between the United States and India will be one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century," Obama declared — twice — during a news conference with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

War against the Maoists: But who are they and what do they want?
Posted by Radical Notes November 19, 2009
Rita Khanna
The Indian government is launching a full-scale war against the Maoist rebels and the people led by them in different parts of the country. The initial battles, without any formal announcement, have already started. For this purpose, they intend to deploy about 75,000 security personnel in parts of Central and Eastern India, including Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Jharkhand. The government will organize its regular air-force in addition to paramilitary and specially trained COBRA forces. The air-force has begun to extend its logistic support. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P. Chidambaram have declared the Maoist rebels to be ‘the biggest internal security threat’ to India and a hindrance to ‘development’. The mainstream media seem to have taken them at their face value. Their publications and television programmes seem to be building a war-hysteria against the Maoist rebels regardless of the fact that this attack by the government will be directed against some of the most deprived of the Indian people. Indeed this is turning into a war of the state against its own people!
While paying lip service at times to the notion that the current people’s insurgency led by the Maoist rebels has its root in decades of vicious exploitation of the poor, especially the dalits and tribals, the blare of government propaganda tries to convince us that the Maoist rebels are dangerous, blood-thirsty terrorists determined to establish their areas of influence. The Government is preaching that the Maoists can go to any extent to maintain their influence in these areas – by either preventing the government from undertaking development activities or using the power of their guns, killing disobedient individuals. Their ideology is to terrorise the common people, wrest power from the democratically elected governments and destroy the entire fabric of the society. The government and the media want us to believe that the only people, apart from a few romantic misguided intellectuals, who willingly support Maoists are the poor, ignorant, uneducated, uninformed tribal people. They seem to claim that no sensible, intelligent person living in a society like ours would support them voluntarily. But is this a true picture?

For the rest click here,

The American Right Wing tries to kill Obama with prayers

The latest weapon used by conservatives against President Barack Obama.—prayers.
Suddenly bumper stickers, T-shirts and right wing commentators are using Bible quotes to make fun of Obama. Their favourite is:

"Pray for Obama—Psalm 109:8"
And that psalm includes the lines:
“Let his days be few; and let another take his office.”
"Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow."

More on this can be found on Gawker.com.
I don’t know whether they think they’re being funny or taking this literally or both. It’s usually hard to tell when dealing with mentally-unbalanced-right-wing nuts.

So I decided to try and write my own prayer to attack the American right wing. Maybe we can call this the beginning of “prayer wars.”

Dear Jesus,
I ask for your divine intervention,
Please strike down Todd Tiarht,
May he haveth worms that eatith his brain until death,
Please cause Sarah Palin the act of rape,
May she gettith AIDS,
Please givith Rush Limbaugh an overdose of Oxycontin,
May Ann Coulter die of cholera, and may it commeth from her mouth,
And to the entire Republican Party I sayeth unto you-
Please Jesus, lettith their children grow to be losers,
May their wives be rapithed and left with child,
May they all die soonith in long anguished death,
And please Jesus, please send them to hell.

Jesus is my co-hater.

India- WHEN THE STATE DECLARES WAR ON THE PEOPLE

The government of India is planning a massive attack on a large area of the country controlled by the Communist Party of India Maoist. The government plans to throw everything it has at the Maoist, hoping to wipe them out and kill all the supporters of that movement.
Here are two videos that explain what is happening in those areas.

Micheal Moore on Health care

Students strike in Nicaragua

Conservatives from every country want to cut funding for education and students are fighting back. That’s the case for Nicaragua

From Radio France International:


Hundreds of students used homemade mortars to attack the National Assembly building in Managua on Tuesday as they protested against government plans to cut university funding. Further unrest is forecast for the weekend as pro-and anti-government demonstrators have both scheduled rallies in the capital.

No one was injured by the homemade mortars but several windows in the building were shattered.
The National Assembly is the only branch of the legislature not controlled by President Daniel Ortega who led the 1979 Sandinista uprising that ousted the regime of US-backed dictator Anastasio Somoza.
According to reports, lawmakers appeared visibly rattled as a mortar explosion shattered several skylights overhead in the main chamber of parliament, showering shards of glass upon their heads.
“Luckily the big pieces of glass fell where there weren't any people, because it could have killed someone,” opposition lawmaker and National Assembly Secretary Wilfredo Navarro told The Nica Times.
“Each day these mortars are getting stronger and stronger with a longer range - and we all know it's the Sandinistas who are sponsoring this.”
The student protest was against government plans to cut funding for public universities as set out in the draft budget for 2010, said National Universities Council leader Telemaco Talavera.
Lawmakers have admitted that the law was “a mistake” and have committed to support a presidential veto of the law expected this week.
Meanwhile, groups for and against President Ortega traded insults and claimed the right to demonstrate this weekend on the same stretch of road where thousands of people will square off with the likelihood of violence.
Pro-government groups said they will muster 100,000 people in support of the leftist president, while opposition leaders speak of "sinister plots" by authorities to arm their followers with rocks, clubs and bombs so they can use them against dissenters.
Opposition groups have complained to authorities for allowing the two demonstrations to take place Saturday at the same time and place, while business leaders have appealed to Ortega to personally ask that his followers change the timing of their march.
"The government thinks it not only owns the streets but the whole country. We're going to march, which will be orderly and peaceful,” Pro-Nicaragua Movement official Violeta Granera told AFP
"We won't allow ourselves to fall into violence because we're not only after ending the (Ortega) dictatorship and rescue democracy, but also breaking the vicious circle of violence gripping the country.”
The tension has been building since the ruling Sandinista party's crushing win in mayoral elections a year ago, which the opposition charged were riddled with fraud, and a Supreme Court ruling last month that cleared the way for Ortega to seek re-election in 2011.

For more click here.

Kansas politicians fight herbal highs

Once again the guardians of “our freedom” to get sick from our health care system are now worried about our mental health as a new herb called K2 is showing up in head shops.

According to The Wichita Eagle:

“Kansas City-area police confirm that little bags of dried herbs are starting to pop up among teens and young adults.
State Rep. Peggy Mast is considering trying to outlaw the substance.
The risks of smoking the substance are unknown, and some European countries already have moved to ban it.
Johnson County police first discovered the drug was being used by ex-convicts on probation and now they're seeing it in high schools.
The Sacred Journey, a botanical store in Lawrence, sells K2, and it's available online. Other brands go by the names Spice, Genie and Zohai
"It is new on the scene here," said Johnson County Sheriff's Deputy Tom Erickson. "It's just been a few weeks since we found out it was being sold locally."

And of course out legislators who have nothing else important to spend their time on are determined to stamp this product out. Not only that, they are trying to find a way to make any herb that alters people’s consciousness in any way is outlawed.

Again from The Eagle:

“Mast, an Emporia Republican, heard about K2 from The Kansas City Star.
"I would be very happy to sponsor a bill to make this illegal," Mast said.
Mast sponsored legislation a few years ago that outlawed the hallucinogenic plants jimson weed and salvia divinorum.”

Mast has also said she want s to look at all legal herbs. Jimson weed is used in a number of religions, including Druids, and many Indian shamans. Banning this is an assault on non-Christian religions. Alcohol is legal, yet anything else that can alter consciousness is banned. The excuse is that it targets children, but that isn’t really true. Most people who buy these things legally are adults. Once again, the protestant and puritanical influences trump all other religious and non puritan beliefs.
Soon we will be plagued by the garden police, spending countless hours and tax dollars checking to see what people have in their gardens.

Indian interview -- Maoist insurgents with Kisenji Part 2

Tusha Mittal, Tehelka, November 13, 2009
In this interview, underground Maoist leader Kishenji speaks on issues such as peace talks, armed struggle, the party's sources of funding, the difference between people's democracy and India's formal democracy, and the goals of the CPI (Maoist).
With unmistakable pride, he says he’s India’s Most Wanted Number 2. CPI (Maoist) Politburo member Mallojula Koteshwar Rao alias Kishenji, 53, grew up in the interiors of Andhra Pradesh reading Gandhi and Tagore. It was after understanding the history of the world, he says, that he disappeared into the jungles for a revolution. During search operations in 1982, the police broke down his home in Peddapalli village. He hasn’t seen his mother since, but writes to her through Telugu newspapers. After 20 years in the Naxal belt of Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, he relocated to West Bengal. His wife oversees Maoist operations in Dantewada [a district in southern Chhattisgarh]. Now, at a hideout barely a few kilometres from a police camp in Lalgarh, he reads 15 newspapers daily and offers to fax you his party literature. If you hold on, he’ll look up the statistics of war on his computer. Excerpts from a midnight phone interview:



How is the CPI (Maoist) funded? What about the allegations of extortion?
There are no extortions. We collect taxes from the corporates and big bourgeoisie, but it’s not any different from the corporate sector funding the political parties. We have a half-yearly audit. Not a single paisa is wasted. Villagers also fund the party by voluntarily donating two days’ earnings each year. From two days of bamboo cutting in Gadchiroli we earned Rs 25 lakh. From tendu leaf collection in Bastar we earned Rs 35 lakh. Elsewhere, farmers donated 1,000 quintals of paddy.

What if a farmer refuses to donate?
That will never happen.

Because of fear?
No. They are with us. We never charge villagers even a paisa for the development activity that we initiate.

What development have you brought to Maoist-dominated areas? How has life improved for the tribals of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand?
We’ve made the people aware of the State’s real face, told them how rich people live and what they’re deprived of. In many of these areas the tendu leaf rate used to be one rupee for 1,000 leaves. We got it hiked to 50 paise per leaf in three districts of Maharashtra, five districts of AP and the entire Bastar region. Bamboo was sold to paper mills at 50 paise per bundle. Now the rate is Rs 55. But these victories came after we faced State resistance and brutality. In Gadchiroli alone, they killed 60 people on our side, we killed five.
The CPI(Maoist) also sends medical help to 1,200 villages in India almost daily. In Bastar, our foot soldiers are proficient doctors, wearing aprons, working as midwives in the jungles. We don’t give them arms. We have 50 such mobile health teams and 100 mobile hospitals in Bastar itself. Villagers go to designated people for specific illnesses: for fever go to Issa, for dysentery to Ramu and so on. There is so much illness in these areas that there are not enough people to pick up the dead bodies. We give free medicines to doctors for distribution among the people. The government doesn’t know that the medicines come from their own hospitals.

If the State sends civil administration to the Naxal belt, will you allow it?
We will welcome it. We want teachers and doctors to come here. The people of Lalgarh have been asking for a hospital for decades. The government did nothing. When they built one themselves, the government turned it into a military camp.

What is your larger long-term vision? Outline three tangible goals.
The first is to gain political power, to establish new democracy, socialism and then communism. The second is to make our economy self sufficient so we don’t need loans from imperialists. We are still paying off foreign loans from decades ago. The debt keeps increasing because of the devaluation of our currency. It will never be repaid. This is what the World Bank wants. We need an economy that works on two things — agriculture and industry. First, the tribals want land. Until they own their land, the State will exploit them. The people should be entitled to a percentage of the crop depending on their labour. We are not opposed to industry; how can there be development without it? But we should decide which industries will work for India, not America, not the World Bank. Instead of big dams, big industries, we’ll promote small-scale industries, especially those on which agriculture depends. The third goal is to seize all the big companies – from the Tatas to the Ambanis, cancel all the MoUs [Memoranda of Understanding], declare their wealth as national wealth, and keep the owners in jail. Also, from the grassroots to the highest levels, we will create elected bodies in a democratic way

But look at the history of communist governments the world over. They became as oppressive as the ones they overthrew. There are ample examples of coercion and absence of dissent in Maoist regimes. How is this in the best interest of the people?
These are all stories spread by the capitalists. People in the villages are dying by the hundreds, but all our doctors want to live in the cities. All our engineers want to serve Japan or the IT sector. They reached their positions using the nation’s wealth. What are they doing for my country? The State cannot insist you become a doctor. But if you do, it should insist you use your skill for two years in the villages. How oppressive the State is depends on who is controlling the reigns of power.
We want to have a democratic culture. If there is no democracy, ask the villagers to start another revolution and overthrow us. In an embryonic form, we already have an alternative democratic people’s government in Bastar. Through elections, we choose a local government called the revolutionary people’s committee. People vote by raising their hands. There is a chairman, a vice-chairman, and there are departments – education, health, welfare, agriculture, law and order, people’s relations. This system exists in about 40 districts in India at present. The perception that Maoists don’t believe in democracy is wrong.
What exists in India today is formal democracy. It’s not real. Whether it’s Mamata Banerjee, or the CPM, or the Congress party, it is all dictatorship. We negotiated the release of 14 adivasi women in Bengal to show the world who the State is keeping in jail; to expose their real face.

Global Warming gives us more jelly fish

As if we needed anymore evidence of global warming, the ocean’s fish are declining while jelly fish are populations are spreading and taking over. I wonder if these Japanese fishermen, who make their living off of fish, doubt that global warming is real
From the AP

By MICHAEL CASEY, AP Environmental Writer Michael Casey, Ap Environmental Writer

KOKONOGI, Japan – A blood-orange blob the size of a small refrigerator emerged from the dark waters, its venomous tentacles trapped in a fishing net. Within minutes, hundreds more were being hauled up, a pulsating mass crowding out the catch of mackerel and sea bass.
The fishermen leaned into the nets, grunting and grumbling as they tossed the translucent jellyfish back into the bay, giants weighing up to 200 kilograms (450 pounds), marine invaders that are putting the men's livelihoods at risk.
The venom of the Nomura, the world's largest jellyfish, a creature up to 2 meters (6 feet) in diameter, can ruin a whole day's catch by tainting or killing fish stung when ensnared with them in the maze of nets here in northwest Japan's Wakasa Bay.
"Some fishermen have just stopped fishing," said Taiichiro Hamano, 67. "When you pull in the nets and see jellyfish, you get depressed."
This year's jellyfish swarm is one of the worst he has seen, Hamano said. Once considered a rarity occurring every 40 years, they are now an almost annual occurrence along several thousand kilometers (miles) of Japanese coast, and far beyond Japan.
Scientists believe climate change — the warming of oceans — has allowed some of the almost 2,000 jellyfish species to expand their ranges, appear earlier in the year and increase overall numbers, much as warming has helped ticks, bark beetles and other pests to spread to new latitudes.
Here on the rocky Echizen coast, amid floodlights and the roar of generators, fishermen at Kokonogi's bustling port made quick work of the day's catch — packaging glistening fish and squid in Styrofoam boxes for shipment to market.
In rain jackets and hip waders, they crowded around a visitor to tell how the jellyfish have upended a way of life in which men worked fishing trawlers on the high seas in their younger days and later eased toward retirement by joining one of the cooperatives operating nets set in the bay.
It was a good living, they said, until the jellyfish began inundating the bay in 2002, sometimes numbering 500 million, reducing fish catches by 30 percent and slashing prices by half over concerns about quality.

For the rest click on AP

Indian interview on Maoist insurgent with Kisenji Part 1

‘I Am the Real Patriot [Desh Bhakt]"

Tusha Mittal, Tehelka, November 13, 2009

In this interview, underground Maoist leader Kishenji speaks on issues such as peace talks, armed struggle, the party's sources of funding, the difference between people's democracy and India's formal democracy, and the goals of the CPI (Maoist).

With unmistakable pride, he says he’s India’s Most Wanted Number 2. CPI (Maoist) Politburo member Mallojula Koteshwar Rao alias Kishenji, 53, grew up in the interiors of Andhra Pradesh reading Gandhi and Tagore. It was after understanding the history of the world, he says, that he disappeared into the jungles for a revolution. During search operations in 1982, the police broke down his home in Peddapalli village. He hasn’t seen his mother since, but writes to her through Telugu newspapers. After 20 years in the Naxal belt of Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, he relocated to West Bengal. His wife oversees Maoist operations in Dantewada [a district in southern Chhattisgarh]. Now, at a hideout barely a few kilometres from a police camp in Lalgarh, he reads 15 newspapers daily and offers to fax you his party literature. If you hold on, he’ll look up the statistics of war on his computer. Excerpts from a midnight phone interview:

Tell me about your personal journey. What made you join the CPI (Maoist)?

I was born in Karimnagar in Andhra Pradesh (AP). In 1973, after a BSc mathematics degree, I moved to Hyderabad in to pursue law. My political journey began with my involvement in the Telangana Sangarsh Samiti, which has been pressing for a separate Telangana state. I launched the Radical Students Union (RSU) in AP. During the Emergency in 1975, I went underground to take part in the revolution. Several things motivated me: Writer Varavara Rao, who founded the Revolutionary Writers Association, India’s political atmosphere and the progressive environment in which I grew up.

My father was a great democrat and a freedom fighter. He was also vice-president of the state Congress party. We are Brahmins, but our family never believed in caste. When I joined the CPI (ML),my father left the Congress saying two kinds of politics can’t survive under one roof. He believed in socialism, but not in armed struggle. After the Emergency ended in 1977, I led a democratic peasant movement against feudalism. Over 60,000 farmers joined it. It triggered a nationwide peasant uprising.

The Home Minister has agreed to talks with CPI (Maoist) on issues like forest rights, land acquisition and SEZs [Special Economic Zones]? Why did you reject his offer? He’s only asking you to halt the violence.

We are ready to talk if the government withdraws its forces. Violence is not part of our agenda. Our violence is counter violence. The combat forces are attacking our people every day. In the last month in Bastar, the Cobra forces have killed 18 innocent tribals and 12 Maoists. In Chhattisgarh, those helping us with development activities are being arrested. Stop this; the violence will stop. Recently, the Chhattisgarh DGP [Director-General of Police] called the 6,000 Special Police Officers of Salwa Judum a force of pride. New recruitment continues. These people have been raping, murdering and looting tribals for years. Entire villages have been deserted because of the Salwa Judum. The government can say whatever it likes, but we do not believe them. How can they change policy when they aren’t even in control? The World Bank and America is.

On what conditions will you de-escalate violence?

The PM should apologise to the tribals and withdraw all the troops deployed in these areas. The troops are not new, we have been facing State terror for the last 20 years. All prisoners should be released. Take the time you need to withdraw forces, but assure us there won’t be police attacks meanwhile. If the government agrees to this, there will be no violence from us. We will continue our movement in the villages like before.

Before it agrees to withdrawing troops, can you give the State assurance you won’t attack for one month?

We will think about it. I’ll have to speak with my general secretary. But what is the guarantee there won’t be any attack from the police in that one month? Let the government make the declaration and start the process of withdrawing. It shouldn’t be just a show for the public. Look at what happened in AP. They began talks and broke it. Our Central Committee member went to meet the AP Secretary. Later, the police shot him for daring to talk to the government.

If you really have a pro-people agenda, why insist on keeping arms? Is your goal tribal welfare or political power?

Political power. Tribal welfare is our priority, but without political power we cannot achieve anything. One cannot sustain power without an army and weapons. The tribals have been exploited and pushed to the most backward extremes because they have no political power. They don’t have the right to their own wealth. Yet, our philosophy doesn’t insist on arms. We keep arms in a secondary place. We faced a setback in AP because of that.

The government says halt the violence first, you say withdraw the troops first. In this mindless cycle, the tribal people you claim to represent are suffering the most.

So let’s call international mediators then. Whether it’s Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal or Maharashtra, we never started the violence. The first attack always came from the government. In Bengal, the CPM [Communist Party of India (Marxist)] cadre won’t let any non-party person enter villages under their control. Police has been camping in the Lalgarh area since 1998. In such a situation, how can I press for higher potato prices and drinking water? There is no platform for me to do that. When the minimum wages in West Bengal were Rs 85 per day, people were being paid Rs 22. We demanded Rs 25. The Mahabharat [war] began when the Kauravas refused to grant the Pandavas even the five villages they asked for. The State refused our three-rupee hike. We are the Pandavas; they are the Kauravas.

You say violence is not your agenda, yet you’ve killed nearly 900 policemen in the past four years. Many of them came from poor tribal families. Even if it is counter violence, how is this furthering a pro-people goal?

Our battle is not with the police forces, it is with the State. We want to minimise the number police casualties. In Bengal, many police families actually sympathise with us. There have been 51,000 political murders by the CPM during the last 28 years. Yes, we have killed 52 CPM men in the last seven months, but only in retaliation to police and CPM brutality.

Are terrorist responsible for Major Hasan—Scott Roeder?

A new discussion is evolving over the massacre at Fort Hood by Major Nidal Malik Hasan. Is he legally a terrorist? Even though he acted alone, he was in contact with several Islamic terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda. He may have gotten inspiration and encouragement from them even if they didn’t actually help him. Some politicians are concerned about this and pundits are also questioning whether or not Hasan is actually a case of international terrorism. For example, see:

“Uncritical Pursuit Of Diversity Prevents Calling Hasan's Ft. Hood Attack Islamic Terrorism,” Pipelinenews.

This raises anther interesting question. If terrorist groups can be held responsible for what Hasan did, what about Scott Roeder? He was in contact with a member of Operation Rescue. Some anti-abortion fanatics have actually tried to raise bail for Roeder through the sale of terrorist manuals and other items on eBay. The Army of God web page starts off with the headline: “American Hero Scott Roeder.” Then it invites people to send “a thank you” to Roeder with a hyperlink to his e-mail. With all this glorification and moral support, is the Army of God responsible for those who commit murder. As with the jihadists, the Army of God and others like them, try to use religion to justify the killing of innocent people. Why is there no investigation into Roeder’s contacts? Why is he not connected with domestic terrorist groups and how are they able to openly support him and his criminal actions?

Conflict continues in Nepal and Maoist push for civilian government

The United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has made a push for change civilian control of the military. This is the main reason the UCPNM have pulled out of the parliament, where they had won a large majority of the vote. There is clearly resistance within the military for this change and the right and centre-left parties have only taken advantage of the conflict to try and gain political power in a coalition government for them selves. The following is a manifesto from the UCPNM’s own website and then news reports of today’s news on the present unrest still going on in Nepal.

From the Red Star:

Mass upsurge towards Climax
United National People’s Movement (UNPM), recently formed common platform for the struggle under the leadership of UCPN-Maoist, has declared its programme of struggle allover the country. It has recently published and publicized its manifesto of struggle against all the imposed problems by the anti-people forces and the foreign powers. The ongoing struggle has its inseparable fertile ground for progress and strong relationship of UCPN Maoist with the people with its long historical background.
It has clearly given its focus over the target, form and task of the movement along with the reasonable demands. The demands are categorized: i) as related with peace process; ii) related with nationality; iii) related with people’s power and iv) related with the people\\\'s livelihood. The 45- point demands have been included in the manifesto.
The first meeting of the (UNPM) has formed its 144 member body under the leadership of Vice President of the UCPN-Maoist Dr. Baburam Bhattarai. After the meeting, the mass organizations have declared their phase-wise programmes of the struggle all over the country.

From Nepalnews.com:

Maoists give Nov 20 deadline for consensus
Unified CPN (Maoist) chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal Friday gave one week deadline to the 22-party the ruling coalition to find solution to current political deadlock.
Addressing a mass meeting at the end of the second-phase stir for restoration of 'civilian supremacy' in the capital Friday afternoon, Dahal said his party will begin third phase of protests if the coalition government failed to address the demands by November 20.He said that Nepali people have given mandate to the Maoist party to conclude the peace process and write new constitution for the country and that his party is committed to fulfill the duties entrusted by the people.

From the Kasama Project:

Street Clashes in Nepal’s Capital

Rachel Maddow and the Stupak amendment

Protest end in Nepal – Dahal warns of a third wave

From Nepalnews.com:

Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Thursday warned that his party will be compelled to announce a general strike by launching their 3rd round of nationwide agitation if their ongoing protests fails to bring about the desired results - making the government agree to correct the President's 'unconstitutional' move.The Maoist chief further said that they are in favor of ending the current deadlock immediately and expressed his hopes that a consensus will be reached within the next week.