Spinning terror to fuel racism

Tony Iltis writes that governments, with the connivance of the main-stream media, are Spinning terror to fuel racism.

The endless summits held by Western leaders to counter “extremism”, such as the February 18 Washington summit, not only target Islamist extremism and ignore its Islamophobic counterpart, they deal with it only as a security issue in an Islamophobic framework.

Understandably, given their own role in fuelling it, the Western media generally ignores Islamophobic violence, such as the epidemic of vandalism and arson attacks on mosques throughout the Western world. When Islamophobic violence is on a scale that cannot be ignored, its ideological content is generally denied.

Even the 2011 killings of 77 people in Norway — the worst terrorist attack in post-war Europe — was treated as the act of a deranged individual despite the perpetrator, Anders Breivik, releasing a long Islamophobic manifesto that referenced several mainstream media commentators and politicians, including then-Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

Of course, the increasingly pervasive Islamophobia in the West legitimises Islamist extremism. The two have a symbiotic relationship. The perpetrators of the January 17 attacks in Paris (who, unlike El-Hussein, were linked to wider terrorist networks) understood this. The Islamophobic response, including several arrests for and criminal investigations of thought crimes (including that of an eight-year-old child), will serve their cause.

Danish PM Thorning-Schmidt has acknowledged that there is “no indication [El-Hussein] was part of a cell,” the December 16 New York Times said.

Islamophobia is part of a broader system of racism against Third World migrants in the West. The NYT reported that before being imprisoned in 2013 for assault, El-Hussein had been involved in urban gang culture and his affiliations were not political or religious. “This was a loser man from the ghetto who is very, very angry at Danish society,” Aydin Soei, a sociologist who knew him told the NYT.

El-Hussein was won to Islamist extremism in jail, as were the perpetrators of the Paris attacks. After the latter, there has been discussion in France about Muslim youth being exposed to extremism in jail. Muslims make up less than 10% of the French population but 70% of prisoners.

The solutions discussed focused on security, such as keeping “known extremists” in isolation. The over-representation of Muslims in French jails (like the over-representation of African-Americans in US jails and Aboriginal people in Australian jails) resulting from discrimination in education, employment and systematic racism by the police and courts, was ignored.

The Western establishment's promotion of Islamaphobia is partly to provide justification for imperial wars. But it also serves domestic agendas. One of these is justifying increasing state powers at the expense of civil liberties.

Another is a way to provide a diversion for governments implementing unpopular policies. This could not have been clearer when Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott released a YouTube video on February 15 drumming up anti-Muslim paranoia and foreshadowing new “tough” measures against Muslims and asylum seekers.

Abbott's attacks on social services and ordinary people's living standards have made his government the most unpopular in Australian history. A week after surviving a leadership spill and promising the beginning of “good government”, his popularity has continued to plummet.

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Racism is being manufactured on a daily basis in order to keep the people's anger focussed on anyone but the rich and the governments that serve them.

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Exploitation in the lab

Chris Dillow finds experimental evidence for Exploitation in the lab.

Experimental evidence suggests that Marx was right.

In Capital, Marx describes the selling of labour power thus:

He, who before was the money-owner, now strides in front as capitalist; the possessor of labour-power follows as his labourer. The one with an air of importance, smirking, intent on business; the other, timid and holding back, like one who is bringing his own hide to market and has nothing to expect but — a hiding.

And here's a recent paper by Nikos Nikiforakis, Jorg Oechssler and Anwar Shah:

We have designed a game in which exploitation can result from the hierarchical relationship between players and, in particular, from the fact that the senior worker has the power to coerce a junior worker into exerting high levels of effort. Using a laboratory experiment, we find that senior workers often attempt to exploit junior workers.

This is not an isolated finding: it's consistent with an earlier paper by Ernst Fehr and colleagues.

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Exploitation is built into the hierarchy. To remove the exploitation requires removal of the hierarchy, or to make the hierarchy accountable to everyone.

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Grandmothers say ‘Bring our babies home’

Grandmothers say ‘Bring our babies home’.

We march to mark seven years since then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made an “apology” to the Stolen Generations of the 20th century, an apology loaded with the worst hypocrisy, given the crescendo of forced child removals that took place under the watch of his government.

There are currently more than 15,000 Aboriginal children in so-called “out of home care”. The majority of these removals are for alleged “neglect” — the exact rationale provided for tens of thousands of 20th century removals. It is a term used to denigrate Aboriginal culture and the love and care provided by Aboriginal families and communities. It is a term that masks the systematic neglect of governments that enforce conditions of extreme poverty and social trauma on our communities. It is a term used to justify a continuing project of forced assimilation.

We march to demand recognition of the continuing sovereignty of our nations and our fundamental right to determine our own future — we have been camping with the National Freedom Movement at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy for the last three weeks and support their manifesto.

We demand Aboriginal control of Aboriginal child welfare and a massive transfer of resources into Aboriginal hands to deal with unacceptable social conditions. We demand an end to the removals and a moratorium on the use of police armed with guns, batons and pepper spray to take children.

…

We demand the full domestic implementation of the 1948 Genocide Convention into Australian law by repealing section 268.121 and 268.122 of the International Criminal Court (Consequential Amendments) Act 2002, in order to enable a challenge to the destruction of our religion, culture, bloodlines and communities by forced child removal and creating conditions of life set to destroy the group in whole or in part.

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The invisible genocide. We trained to avert our eyes. We are educated to see the Aborigines as less than human. In this miasma of racism, we refuse to see this geonocide because the press keeps telling us that white people are civilised, and that the non-whites are the barbarians with their strange religions, beliefs, and cultures.

How can one stop absorbing this racism through what we read, listen to, and warch? The first step is to admit that it is happening. Denial of racism is its strongest support.

It is always easy to see racism in others. It is extremely painful to reflect upon our own prejudices and practices, for we consider ourselves to be good people.

But, we must do this daily. From that reflection comes a plan of action. The plan will be flawed as will be shown by experience, and mistakes will be made. Then further reflection is needed. But we will have learned as we hobble along the rocky path out of racism.

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Aboriginal people driven from their land

Emma Murphy writes that Aboriginal people driven from their land.

Driving Aboriginal people off their land will rob them of their areas of wealth and expertise: their connection to, and knowledge of, country, maintenance of their languages, cultures and oral histories.

Aboriginal people living on their homelands are also often at the forefront of struggles to protect country from extractive industries: this is the case around the world. In the NT, Indigenous leaders are focusing on environmental struggles, as the NT government seems intent on digging up and selling some of the most ecologically significant parts of the continent.

Clans at Borroloola and across the Roper region are gearing up for a fight against fracking on their country. And leaders of the Muckaty campaign, with their supporters across the country, had a big win last year when the federal government withdrew plans to store radioactive waste on their country.

The strong grandmothers leading the current fight against Aboriginal child removals need our respect and support, as do the many Aboriginal activists around the country who have taken the baton, rekindled the fires of resistance and kicked off 2015 by taking the fight to Canberra.

While there are many issues being raised by these activists, there are also many ideological threads that join them together. They are struggling for the right to assert and control that which is theirs, and that which white Australia has tried so long to take from them, whether it is their children, their land, their language or their identity.

While Tony Abbott’s “Prime Minister for Aboriginal Affairs” title becomes more of a joke as his inaction continues, Aboriginal people themselves are increasingly taking matters into their own hands and setting the agenda.

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Here racism is being used in the service of the mining and fracking industries. With Aborigines out of the way, the miners and frackers have free reign.

It doesn't matter that people's lives are devastated as along the All Ordinaries stock index continues to rise and the profits keep rolling in.

In supporting the Aborigines to live in dignity and with respect, we become more human. We need to learn to see beyond the myopia of Capitalism, and see the human community within the ecosystem.

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Respect for Religion

Ted Rall questions why there is Respect for Religion, but not for political beliefs or tastes.

Cultural norms are that religion must be respected while other beliefs, cultural and political, receive no such deference.

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The answer is that religion can be seen as “opiate of the people”, while political beliefs and tastes show independent thinking which are dangerous to the control exerted by the ruling class.

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Watching the Same Movie About American War for 75 Year

Peter Van Buren writes that we have been Watching the Same Movie About American War for 75 Years.

In propaganda terms, think of this as controlling the narrative. One version of events dominates all others and creates a reality others can only scramble to refute. The exceptions do, however, reveal much about what we don’t normally see of the true nature of American war. They are uncomfortable for any of us to watch, as well as for military recruiters, parents sending a child off to war, and politicians trolling for public support for the next crusade.

War is not a two-hour-and-12-minute hard-on. War is what happens when the rules break down and, as fear displaces reason, nothing too terrible is a surprise. The real secret of war for those who experience it isn't the visceral knowledge that people can be filthy and horrible, but that you, too, can be filthy and horrible. You don't see much of that on the big screen.

The Long Con

Of course, there are elements of “nothing new” here. The Romans undoubtedly had their version of war porn that involved mocking the Gauls as sub-humans. Yet in twenty-first-century America, where wars are undeclared and Washington dependent on volunteers for its new foreign legion, the need to keep the public engaged and filled with fear over our enemies is perhaps more acute than ever.

So here’s a question: if the core propaganda messages the U.S. government promoted during World War II are nearly identical to those pushed out today about the Islamic State, and if Hollywood’s war films, themselves a particularly high-class form of propaganda, have promoted the same false images of Americans in conflict from 1941 to the present day, what does that tell us? Is it that our varied enemies across nearly three-quarters of a century of conflict are always unbelievably alike, or is it that when America needs a villain, it always goes to the same script?

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The propaganda for racism follows a similar script. No matter who is being persecuted: Jews, Arabs, Irish, Poles, Africans, Aborigines, etc.

Power needs an enemy—either within the state or without. The ruling class does not want the anger of the oppressed directed against them. This is why the rulers always deflect the anger elsewhere.

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NSA Hacks Into SIM Card Makers Giving US and UK Criminals Access to Millions of Cell Phones

Mike Shedlock writes that NSA Hacks Into SIM Card Makers Giving US and UK Criminals Access to Millions of Cell Phones.

I have a simple question: Why is it a crime for someone to hack into Sony, Target, weather stations, etc., but not a crime for the NSA to hack into phone SIM card producers then steal every master key?

In my opinion, all of these hacks are illegal, and the NSA officials who authorized the hack I describe below belong in prison.

…

The only way to stop this sh*t is to press charges, find the NSA guilty and send those responsible to prison.

Since Obama is unwilling to do what's necessary, and given Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton won't either, if you are outraged by this, I suggest voting for Rand Paul, the one person who has taken a stand on these issues.

In the meantime, act as if someone is listening to every conversation you make.

I go one step further given my outspoken nature on these issues. I act as if my entire house is bugged and the NSA is monitoring everything I do.

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Why is anyone surprised at the blatant criminality of the premier Capitalist state? Illegal wars, invasions, murders, coups, kidnappings, drug dealing, torture, spying, eavesdropping, etc.

And who gets prosecuted? The people who expose these abuses: Snowden, Assange, Manning, etc.

We are supposed to be outraged by the lies told by Brian Williams, but not by the continual lying from our governments on their crimes.

How much longer can this sick society survive?

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The US hates Venezuela's independence

John Pilger writes that The US hates Venezuela's independence.

The remarkable change in fortunes for millions of people in Latin America is at the heart of U.S. hostility. The U.S. has been the undeclared enemy of social progress in Latin America for two centuries. It doesn't matter who has been in the White House: Barack Obama or Teddy Roosevelt; the U.S. will not tolerate countries with governments and cultures that put the needs of their own people first and refuse to promote or succumb to U.S. demands and pressures.

A reformist social democracy with a capitalist base — such as Venezuela — is not excused by the rulers of the world. What is inexcusable is Venezuela's political independence; only complete deference is acceptable. The 'survival' of Chavista Venezuela is a testament to the support of ordinary Venezuelans for their elected government — that was clear to me when I was last there.

Venezuela's weakness is that the political 'opposition' — those I would call the 'East Caracas Mob' — represent powerful interests who have been allowed to retain critical economic power. Only when that power is diminished will Venezuela shake off the constant menace of foreign-backed, often criminal subversion. No society should have to deal with that, year in, year out.

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This is the core problem of dual power. Until the Venezuelan people take control of the economy, the threat of a counter-revolution is always present.

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Radical objects: MaThoko’s post box and the LGBT movement in South Africa

John Marnell writes about Radical objects: MaThoko’s post box and the LGBT movement in South Africa.

For some young comrades, the liberation struggle was inseparable from the fight for sexual rights, and a new push for sexual equality began to emerge from within the anti-apartheid struggle. Before the late 1980s, the "gay lib" movement was white, male dominated and largely middle class. It also attempted to position itself as apolitical, as separate from the fight against institutionalised racism. This shifted with the imprisonment of Simon Nkoli, one of 22 activists detained in September 1984 after a protest in Sebokeng. Accused of treason, a charge that carried the death penalty, Nkoli and his comrades found themselves at the centre of one of the longest trials in South Africa’s history.

Nkoli had been involved in the 1976 Soweto uprising and over the next few years had become increasingly involved with the Congress of South African Students (an anti-apartheid student organisation established in the wake of the uprising). Although Nkoli’s sexuality had been known to some in the student movement, few of his co-accused in the treason trial were aware. In jail he refused to remain silent and took the bold step of coming out, a move that sparked heated debate among the group. Despite initial calls for Nkoli to be tried separately, the comrades eventually accepted his argument that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is as morally unjust as racism.

For many of Nkoli’s co-accused — and indeed most people in the struggle — this was their first time being confronted with the question of homosexuality. Nkoli was steadfast in his position, and his self-affirmation as a proud black gay man helped bring the issue of sexuality to the attention of the liberation movements. It was a turning point for LGBT activism, not only because it placed sexuality on the agenda but also because it explicitly linked homophobia to other forms of injustice.

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It is humbling for revolutionaries to learn that they can be oppressors in other areas of their lives: anti-racists can be sexist and homophobic.

The important lesson is to mindful and attentive of other people's experiences.

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Walking Back the American Twenty-First Century?

Tom Engelhardt wonders if the USA is Walking Back the American Twenty-First Century?.

Since 2013, the Pentagon has transferred for free more than 600 mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles, or MRAPs, worth at least half a million dollars each and previously used in U.S. war zones, to various “qualified law enforcement agencies.” Police departments in rural areas like Walsh County, North Dakota (pop. 11,000) now have their own MRAPs, as does the campus police department at Ohio State University.  It hardly matters that these monster vehicles have few uses in a country where neither ambushes nor roadside bombs are a part of everyday life.

Post-Ferguson, a few scattered departments have actually moved to turn these useless vehicles back in.  It's clear, however, that police forces “kitted out with Marine-issue camouflage and military-grade body armor, toting short-barreled assault rifles, and rolling around in armored vehicles” — that is, almost indistinguishable from soldiers — are now the future of American policing and there’s no walking that back.  Since Ferguson, President Obama has essentially refused to do so and Congress certainly won’t.  Despite a small uproar over the pile of military equipment being transferred to the police, there is no indication that the flow will be stanched.

When it comes to all this militarized equipment, as the president has emphasized (and the task force he appointed to look into these matters will undoubtedly reemphasize), “reform” is mainly going to be focused on “better training” in how to use it.  In other words, reform will prove to be a code word for further militarization.  And don’t count on anyone returning those 94,000 machine guns either in a country that seems to be in some kind of domesticarms race and in which toddlers now regularly find their parents’ loaded guns and wound or kill them.

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Back in 2005, I made an observation in 4GW and Police Work, that:

I have come to the conclusion that Fourth Generation Warfare (4GW) is simply police work. Third Generation Warfare (3GW) aimed to convince people who owned assets to obey your orders. 4GW aims to do the same with people who have no assets. In other words, normal everyday police work.

Maybe the police are worried about what nearly happened on Palm Island back in November 2005.

So Lex was organising a protest against the inadequate Coroner's report. There was anger at the blatant lies and cover-up of violence against Aborigines.

As the protest got out of control with the Police station and Sergeant's residence being burnt down, the police were barricaded inside their barracks, the green zone of Palm Island. They thought they were about to be massacred by the islanders. At point, a truce is negotiated (p.68):

But Lex Wotton, who had been trying to jemmy open the gate's padlock, now ordered the crowd to stop throwing rocks. They did so. 'You've won! You've won! [Senior Sergeant Roger] Whyte called. He negotiated for sixty minutes' grace, sixty minutes to get off the island. The Torres Strait Islander cop, Bert Tabaui, heard Wotton yell, 'We'll give you an hour to get off the island, then we'll kill you!'

The police managed to retreat to the hospital (p.69)

Lex faced the police. He was still angry, but the anger was now controlled. 'Time's up! he called to the cops. 'All I wanted was for you to get off the island!'

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However, the women objected to this demand. They wanted police protection against the men. (p.69) The police said they could not leave because [t]hey had no transportation Lex arranged for two cars to made available for their escape, but the police were fearful of an ambush on the way to the airport. (p.70)

The confrontation ends with the timely arrival of the airborne (p.71):

The thunder of helicopters filled the smoke-clouded sky. Extra police had now arrived and still more were coming. Inspector Richardson came outside and told Lex. 'We are not leaving this island. We are the police. You are the ones causing the problem...we are not going anywhere! No way in Australia!'

Lex Wotton froze. He turned around and faced the crowd. The revolution had failed. His idea that the police would leave the island had been biblical in ambition and naivete, a declaration of war that he had no chance of winning. His actions would draw national attention to Cameron Doomadgee's death, but at that moment he knew he would soon be the one inside a jail cell.

'The party's over,' he called, 'we'll all go home!' Then he turned around to the police. 'You can come around later and pick me up.'

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The occupier is not easily dislodged from his conquests. No dissent is allowed.

However, in case, the resolve of the occupier is weakened by the crackdown and the relative leniency of Lex's sentence. Future oppression is assured but it could be one foot on the throat too many.

Chloe Hooper: The Tall Man (3)
Page references are to The Tall Man by Chloe Hooper

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Coup plot thwarted in Venezuela

Coup plot thwarted in Venezuela.

Maduro explained that a video of masked military officials speaking out against the government had been recorded, which was set to be released after the planned assassination was carried out.

Venezuelan Minister of Defense Vladimir Padrino Lopez stated via his Twitter account that the armed forces remain loyal to the constitutional government.

“The Bolivarian National Armed Forces remain resolute in their democratic beliefs and reject coup schemes that threaten the peace of the republic,” said Padrino.

According to Maduro, one of the suspects was already under surveillance and had been suspected of plotting against the government during last year's violent demonstrations, but was not charged. Nevertheless, he continued plotting against the democratically-elected government.

The four-stage plan involved creating an economic assault on the country, creating an international debate around a supposed humanitarian crisis, a political coup involving officials who would turn on the government, and finally a military coup that would lead to the installation of the transitional program.

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The continued support of the Venezuelan Armed Forces is vital for the survival of the Bolivarian Revolution. Despite American money and influence, they remain loyal to their ideals.

This also shows that the Capitalists are eagar to use military power to overthrow a democracy when they see their policies being thwarted. This is often cast as ‘What we really need is a benign dictatorship’.

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State governments share blame for (Not) Closing the Gap

Sharlene Leroy-Dyer writes that State governments share blame for (Not) Closing the Gap.

Impending state government plans to cut essential services to remote Aboriginal communities will, on the contrary, widen the gap.

This is one of the richest countries in the world and yet many of my people, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of this land, live in worse than Third World conditions with an average life expectancy gap of more than 10 years.

Liberal-National and Labor governments alike have chronically failed to deliver real land rights and the urgently needed strong measures to redress more than two centuries of violent racism and dispossession.

The latest Closing The Gap Report is a huge fail as it shows little progress in closing the shameful gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in Australia on health, literacy and education and Aboriginal unemployment and underemployment has steadily got worse since 2008. Yet the few programs to create jobs for Aboriginal people have been cut back.

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Destroying a person's self-identity through racism, state violence, cultural annihlation, and learned helplessness destroys their ability to live a healthy life no matter how much money is thrown at a problem.

To really solve this problem requires all non-indigineous Australians to confront their racist attitudes towards Aborigines, and begin to redress the wrongs inflicted on them.

This requires that we acknowledge the racist basis for Capitalism and the invasion of Australia.

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IMF actions worsen Ebola crisis

Jerome Duval writes that IMF actions worsen Ebola crisis.

Obviously, this claim should be extended to all poor countries, misnamed as “developing”, where 85% of the world’s population lives. Their public debt (about $1.8 trillion) represents only 1% of global debt. Relief will not affect the global economic balance; the only thing needed is the political will.

It is good to raise the fiscal deficit when the health and lives of people are in danger.

It is not we who say this, but contradicting the usual conservative ideology of the IMF, its director Christine Lagarde said it and acknowledged that the IMF does not say it often.

But we should not have to wait for great humanitarian crises such as that caused by Ebola for people to see the clear need to increase the deficit in order to fund social services. Also, international law requires that compliance with basic human need is a priority compared to the bleeding of resources to pay the debt.

The IMF, which inhumanely ignores serious human needs, must disappear; those responsible for its decisions should be brought to justice for their actions. The devastating IMF policies have damaged too many people through neoliberal debt programs to be allowed to continue with impunity.

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The IMF is not the problem. It is merely an institution that implements the policies of the Capitalists.

Abolishing the IMF will not solve the problem: but its abolition will weaken the Capitalists’ ability to implement their policies.

At this time is history, blunting the harshness of Capitalism as SYRIZA is doing in Greece is the best we can hope for. At least, until the working class awakens to its historic mission to bury Capitalism once and for all.

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‘What we really need is a benign dictatorship’

Viv Miley writes that Tom Elliott said that ‘What we really need is a benign dictatorship’.

Elliott is not your ordinary right-wing mouthpiece with a Herald Sun column — he has ruling class pedigree. As well as being a columnist and radio presenter on 3AW, Elliot was a former investment banker and is the son of (in)famous Australian businessman and former Liberal Party president John Elliott.

Elliott's comments should be met with alarm, because they reflect an attitude among the ruling class that if parliamentary democracy isn't working — meaning parliament is not making decisions that benefit them — then democracy can be easily removed.

There is an element of truth in what Elliott is saying. There is a fundamental problem with our political system. But things won't be any better under a Labor government because it is beholden to the same corporate interests as the Liberal party. It may not be as vicious as Tony Abbott’s government in carrying out cuts, but its track record shows Labor is just as willing to inflict cuts and austerity measures on those who can least afford it.

Australia does need a different political system, but not Elliott's benign dictatorship. It needs a system that increases democracy and decision making in favour of the majority of society, the 99%.

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In other words, democracy works when the Capitalists have their way. This is why the UK, USA, and Australia have two or three major parties—these parties can be trusted to implement pro-Capitalist policies.

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Israel Top Court denies justice to Family of Slain Activist Rachel Corrie

Sarah Lazare writes that Israel Top Court denies justice to Family of Slain Activist Rachel Corrie.

The family of Rachel Corrie—the 23-year-old U.S. activist crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer while nonviolently protesting a home demolition in Palestine 12 years ago—was denied justice by Israel’s top court on Thursday.

The rejection is the latest stage in the family’s decade-long legal battle to hold Israel liable for Corrie’s death, on charges that the military either killed her deliberately or was negligent.

Corrie, who hailed from Olympia, Washington, had been volunteering with the International Solidarity Movement for two months in Gaza when she was run over and killed by Israeli forces near the Rafah crossing in 2003. Her death sparked international outrage at Israeli human rights abuses, as well as accolades for Corrie’s life and legacy.

Since her killing, Corrie’s parents—Cindy and Craig—have continued their daughter’s work for global justice.

However, they have so far not seen justice in Israel’s courts.

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US citizens who protest against the brutal policies of US allies, cannot expect support from the US government.

In contrast, the US military invaded Grenada when the rumour went around that the US students there were in danger.

US lives matter when US interests are at stake.

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