Tom Anderson, Eliza Egret: Turkey wages war on its Kurdish population

Tom Anderson & Eliza Egret writes that Turkey wages war on its Kurdish population.

The state and the right-wing in Turkey are maintaining a deafening media silence about the police and military massacres in the south-east through intimidating anyone who dares report it.

Due to this intimidation, coupled with its own racism and bias, Turkey's mainstream media has distorted the killings in Kurdish cities, branding those killed as terrorists and blaming the violence on the PKK and not the state.

On February 7, Today's Zaman reported the impossible figure of 733 'PKK members' killed in Cizre and Sur, while not mentioning any killings of civilians. A columnist in Daily Sabah claimed that the PKK had opened fire on ambulances — in reality it is the police and army preventing medical care reaching wounded civilians.

Similarly, the international press has remained overwhelmingly silent over Turkey's massacres in Bakur. There are two main reasons for this.

First, the Turkish state has imprisoned and deported foreign correspondents reporting from Bakur over the past year, and the mainstream media is unwilling to trust Kurdish media sources, buying into the state's attempts to discredit them.

Second, Turkey is an important ally of NATO and the US, and it is not in the interest of US-aligned governments to criticise it. In London, there have been demonstrations at the BBC, with British-based Kurds and their allies protesting the corporation's silence on Turkey's massacre of its Kurdish population.

“There is a reality in Kurdistan that if you don't have a weapon or gun then you can't live, as you are surrounded by brutal forces who don't let you live in normal conditions,” Baran said. “So the Kurds think that armed struggle is very crucial for them. This armed struggle guarantees their lives. If these people didn't have any weapons then worse things could happen. Kurds know that the armed struggle is very important for their existence.”

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The Kurds have been screwed over by the British, French, Syrians, Turks, Iraqis, Syrians, Iranians, USA, etc.

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Lucinda Donovan: University of Queensland bake sale backlash

Lucinda Donovan writes about the University of Queensland bake sale backlash.

Shortly after the event was announced, its Facebook page was flooded with threats of death and rape, both at the event organisers specifically and at women in general. Comments such as “kill all women” were popular, as well as a meme that depicted a victim of domestic violence and her abuser with the words “women deserve equal rights, and lefts”. Other comments and threats received both on the page, and in the personal inboxes of the organisers, are too foul to reproduce here.

Once again the attempts by misogynists to devalue and disprove the relevance and use of feminism has proved exactly why it is so desperately needed. Lewis's Law — that the comments on any article about feminism justify feminism — seems to be right yet again. When something as inoffensive as a bake sale is enough to provoke such hatred, what does that say about how we view women?

The hatred received for this bake sale was not just limited to a few trolls, but many commenters, some still in high school. When such vile opinions are still so readily spewed by so many, and those so young, it becomes apparent that not only do we still desperately need a powerful feminist movement, but that we also have a massive way to go.

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Oppression is not just by the ruling class. A significant proportion of the general population must also be actively involved.

A pervasive oppression means that young people readily engage in it without critical thought. This oppression flows through the education system and mass media, and encourages teenage boys to act in horrific ways.

Heterosexuality is seen as only being expressed through violent oppression of women. Thus, rape and threats thereof are seen as normal.

This rape mentality then spreads out to all outsiders: homosexuals, prisoners, protesters. Rape signifies the power relationships within any oppressive system.

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Chris Dillow: Marxists & Libertarians

Chris Dillow writes that Marxists & Libertarians have much in common.

I don’t say this to embarrass him. Quite the opposite. I do so to point out that Marxists and libertarians have much in common. We both believe that freedom is a — the? — great good; Marxists, though, more than right-libertarians, are also troubled by non-state coercion. We are both sceptical about whether state power can be used benignly. And for both of us, the ideal is a withering away of the state. In these regards, Marxists probably have more in common with right-libertarians than with social democrats; Unlearning Economics has charged right libertarians with being “lazy Marxists.”

Of course, there are obvious differences between us — not least about the causes of poverty and historical nature (and definition!) of capitalism. My point is simply that we have some things in common. However, whereas Marxists have engaged intelligently with right-libertarianism, the opposite has, AFAIK, not been the case — as Robin and Bryan’s ignorance of the intellectual history of Robin’s theory of schooling demonstrates. This is perhaps regrettable.

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Another difference is that the Libertarians want to liberate Capitalism from State interference and control. Marxists want to replace Capitalism with Communism.

Although there is theoretical overlap, there is no point in political alliances because of this difference.

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Ted Rall: Inside the Media Bubble, No One Can Hear Us Scream

Tell Rall writes that Inside the Media Bubble, No One Can Hear Us Scream.

Talk about blaming the victim! Sure, Trump could have hired teams of professional politicos to navigate the peculiarities of each state’s primaries. As a billionaire, he certainly could have afforded them. Why didn’t he? I have no idea.

But why should he have to? Why should Trump, or any other candidate, be subject to such a strange system? Democracy should be simple and straightforward: one person, one vote. All these crazy rules — the signatures required for ballot access, the polls used to determine who gets to debate on television, winner-take-all primaries, superdelegates, delegates secretly pledged to candidates other those they’re sent to the convention to represent, the electoral college — exist for one reason. They exist in order to dilute the influence of we the people so that They — the ruling class — continues to get its way.

When They win, we lose. We lose our jobs. Our standard of living. Our rights.

If you’re like me — on the left and generally unsympathetic to billionaires — you may be tempted to join the media when they dismiss Trump as a whiner. But this is different. In business, Trump is the consummate insider. But he’s a political naïf. When someone as sleazy and unprincipled as Donald Trump is shocked by how dirty politics are, you have to take note.

And if they can steal elections from someone as rich as Donald Trump, there is nothing left of American democracy.

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Wow!

Bernie Sanders is getting the same treatment. The Democratic Party machine is pulling out all stops in order to ensure that Hilliary Clinton gets the nomination.

Sanders and Trump are exposing the corruption at the heart of the US political system.

People should not be surprised at this as the State exists to serve the interests of the ruling class.

Although Trump is a billionaire, he is a rogue capitalist. He is exiled from the ruling class. He is a beneficiary, not a participant.

Sanders has always been an outsider and proud of it.

Yet, the political revolution that Sanders proposes will fail unless the economic relationships that the political system protects is also overthrown.

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Liam Flenady: France: 'Nuit debout' movement shakes politics

Liam Flenady writes that, in France: 'Nuit debout' movement shakes politics.

Like Occupy Wall Street and Spain's indignados before them, the Nuit debout movement has been criticised for not having a clear set of demands.

This criticism is unfair on two fronts. Firstly, the demonstrators have by-and-large been very clear that they are against corruption, against extreme inequality and austerity, and specifically against the unjust new labour laws. For many, the goal of the Nuit debout movement is to “bring together the different struggles” in French society.

They are for a more responsive democracy, where representatives are less beholden to corporate interests, and where society is run in the interests of the people.

Secondly, it is understandable they do not feel a rush to issue concrete demands at this stage when they are only just emerging from political demobilisation, isolation and division — and feel so betrayed by the mainstream left and the political establishment.

As one participant pointed out: “Basically, it's all the people who have left-wing sympathies but who feel betrayed by left-wing mainstream political parties.”

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This is a very dangerous situation to be in. The revolutionary parties must be with the people, not aloof from them.

The revolutionary parties have a large credibility gap to overcome. And I expect that they would not be welcome in such a movement at this time.

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Sue Bull: Nationalise the steel industry

Sue Bull writes that Australia should Nationalise the steel industry.

Rather than repeat this mistake, any government that seriously wants to save jobs and the steel industry should nationalise the steel industry and run it as a publicly-owned service in the interests of the people and the environment.

Over the next few decades, our society is going to have to make a massive investment in the infrastructure needed to shift to a renewables-based economy. Hundreds of billions of dollars need to be spent on building rail, public transport vehicles and renewable energy systems that harness solar, wind and wave power instead of fossil fuels.

A steel industry will be needed to supply materials for this transition.

History has taught us that the profit-driven corporations are not going to make this switch and, blinkered by the short-term solution of importing cheaper steel from overseas, the market will destroy what steel-making capacity there is left in this country.

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Hey, big business! If you want government hand-outs, we own you.

Small businesses do not get this kind of help. They sink or swim on their own merits.

None of this Capitalism for the poor, and Socialism for the rich.

It has to be Socialism for All.

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