“When the U.S. vilifies or threatens war against a people, our instinct should be to unconditionally and vocally oppose this aggression, rather than scrutinize the victim.”

by Andy Koch

I walk out of the job training classroom and into a nearby break room. A small group of recent college graduates in their early twenties, all of them white, sit around a table with coffee. We’re all just starting out as new nurses at the local state hospital.

Person A: “Did you see that thing on CNN last night? That crazy north Korean dictator guy, Kim Jing-Jong or whatever? Like, launched another nuclear bomb?”

Person B: “That whole frickin’ country is crazy. They’re all so brainwashed, it’s just unbelievable. It’s like that book, 1984 [by George Orwell]… it’s like there is ACTUALLY a real country that is exactly like that, with big brother watching you, and everything is propaganda.”

Person C: “I don’t know what’s taking Obama so long to take care of it, you know? It would be for their own good, like Iraq and Saddam Hussein. It’s the same deal. What’s the military for if not for taking care of these Hitler-type guys and shutting down their torture chambers and concentration camps?”

I’ve just met most of these folks for the first time, and from my experience, someone who barely knows you probably isn’t going to give an unpopular opinion any thought. While my politics are opposed to this kind of jingoism, I decided to pick my battle and not take issue with what they were saying. Sometimes it just doesn’t seem worth it, especially when I don’t know how hostile my job environment might be to my politics. Overhearing the conversation brought up feelings of sadness and frustration for me – just another reminder of how much I feel at odds with the war-loving society I live in.

These life-long United States residents’ comparison of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK for short, referred to in U.S. corporate media as “north Korea”) to the fictional society that George Orwell describes in the novel “1984” struck me as particularly ironic. 1984 paints a picture of a global state of affairs in which the powerful rulers of each of three super-states maintain dominance of their respective societies through endless war, constant surveillance, secret detentions and prisons, and a complete stranglehold on information and public thought through propaganda. Now, I honestly don’t know if this comparison applies to the DPRK – I’ve never been there, and isn’t a whole lot of reliable information available to us in the United States about the nation. However, I think the comparison certainly applies to a place I’m more familiar with – the United States.

Victim-Blaming

Most progressives and liberals I know would strongly oppose placing the blame for a sexual assault on the victim. Unlike the mainstream media, they would never ask of a survivor: “Well, what were you wearing? Why were you alone in that area?” This comes from the progressive instinct to side with the oppressed, to believe the victim, to look closely at who was the aggressor and who had the power in any situation. This is an essential act of solidarity which helps to break down oppression.

Unfortunately, among most of the progressive movement in the U.S., this opposition to victim-blaming does not generally apply to oppressed nations. When the U.S. wages war on or vilifies a nation, such as Iraq, Libya, Cuba, or the DPRK, the first place liberals and progressives look is at the victim. “They lack civil liberties, that’s not the kind of society I want”… “that country is a dictatorship”… “their leader is crazy.” I remember hearing no end to the reasons why Libyan leader Ghaddafi was a bad guy from the mouths of progressives, but fewer statements of opposition to the NATO bombing campaign that ensued, killing thousands of civilians.

Why do we jump at the opportunity to justify U.S. aggression? The DPRK isn’t perfect, but why do we need to list its imperfections every time the U.S. threatens war against this oppressed nation that has suffered under white, Western colonialism and imperialism for more than a century? This is victim-blaming on an international scale. When the U.S. vilifies or threatens war against a people, our first instinct must be to unconditionally and vocally oppose this aggression, rather than scrutinize the victim.

Endless War

There hasn’t been a single year that I’ve been alive in which the U.S. didn’t carry out some kind of military operation against the people of another country. The capitalist ruling class benefits immensely from these wars through the seizure of resources, destruction of “disobedient” governments, profitable contracts for the production of weaponry, and by distracting the working class by whipping up racism and xenophobia. Being told every day by a highly polished media that you are in danger of being killed by terrorists distracts the masses of people from the fact that they are 8 times more likely to be killed by the police ⁽¹⁾.

The US media portrays the DPRK as hyper-militarist, always itching to start a nuclear war. Is this the case? How can we judge this objectively? I find that looking historically at the actions which nations take, rather than the rhetoric coming from their leaders, is most useful in determining the objective character of these nations. How many aggressive wars has the US – either on its own or with NATO – waged in the past fifty years? Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Iraq (twice), Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Libya, Somalia, Grenada, Panama, plus countless military interventions fought by US-funded proxy forces such as in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Indonesia, Palestine, and more.

How many countries has the DPRK invaded? None, though some right-wingers might argue that north Korea invaded south Korea during the US’s 1950-53 war which claimed more than 3 million Korean lives. I don’t consider attempting to take back territory under colonial control to be an invasion, however – and by 1950, Korea had been under colonial subjugation for over 40 years, by Japan, then France, then the United States. Taking back your national territory from a colonial or imperial occupying army isn’t an invasion – it’s the right of an oppressed people.

Constant Surveillance, Secret Detentions & Prisons

Warrantless wiretapping has become a routine operation of the US Department of Justice since the start of the US government’s “War on Terror.” According to the ACLU, “more people were subjected to [telephone wiretapping] surveillance in the past two years [2009 and 2010] than in the entire previous decade… The number of authorizations the Justice Department received to use these devices on individuals’ email and network data increased 361% between 2009 and 2011.” (2) During the Bush administration, wiretapping and other breaches of civil rights were fiercely protested. However, once Obama came into office, much of the liberal movement against these attacks packed up and went home, much like the liberal anti-war movement. The rapid erosion of privacy and other civil liberties under the Obama administration hardly registered on most liberal and progressive activists’ radar. I’d like to go more in depth about secret detentions, prisons, and police repression in the US, but a thorough look at these issues would require a discussion of its own. I think it’s enough just to point out that the US has more prisoners than any other country in the world – 2.3 million, disproportionately Black, Native, and Latino. China, with more than four times the US population, has 600,000 fewer prisoners than the US. Looking at it from another angle, the United States, with five percent of the world’s population, has over 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. (3) Given the magnitude of the police state at home, it’s no wonder the U.S. exports prisons around the world, from Guantanamo Bay to Abu Grahib and countless other CIA “black sites.”

Propaganda

The U.S. corporate media is the most expensive, sophisticated propaganda machine in the world – all the more effective because it disguises itself so well as a “free press.” There hasn’t been a single war that the U.S. has waged in the past twenty years that didn’t have the full support of all the major media, from Fox News to the New York Times. Even today no major news outlet is willing or able to expose drone killings, challenge the basic logic of the war on terror, or defend the rights of oppressed nations to self-determination. This is because they are all the private property of the capitalist ruling class – for example, the Australian billionaire Rupert Murdoch owns Fox News along with countless other media holdings. Why would we expect the media to represent the interests of anyone but their owners? The media promote what is profitable and beneficial to the capitalist class: racism, war, sexism, etc. The U.S. propaganda system is so effective that the majority of the progressive and left movement is thoroughly misled by it. Remember when Fox, CNN, etc. told us that it was necessary to impose a “no-fly zone” over Libya in order to save its people from their murderous dictator? How many progressives, liberals, and leftists did you see adopt almost an identical position? Maybe they had a little more nuanced approach, and said something like “we are for a no-fly zone but against NATO and Gaddhafi” or “against a no-fly zone but for the Libyan rebels.” How did that turn out? NATO bombed what was once the nation with the highest living standard in Africa into submission, destroying almost all its public infrastructure. Tens of thousands of civilians died in these attacks. “Rebel” groups lynched Black Africans living in Libya by the hundreds. Libya’s government was destroyed, and replaced by a NATO-supported ruling clique which has yet to establish a functional government. We have to learn from these historical lessons – we have to oppose all imperialist war. And yet, even as I write this, an almost identical situation is happening in Syria.

Footnotes

(1)    – Data from the 2004 National Safety Council Estimates, analyzed by  The Progressive Review, Feb. 9, 2009. http://prorev.com/2009/02/cop-is-more-likely-to-kill-you-than.html

(2)    – “New Justice Department Documents Show Huge Increase in Warrantless Electronic Surveillance” by Naommi Gilens, ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, Sept. 27, 2012. http://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security-technology-and-liberty/new-justice-department-documents-show-huge-increase

(3)    “U.S. prison population dwarfs that of other countries” by Adam Liptak for The New York Times, April 23, 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/world/america/23iht-23prison.12253738.html

WW photo: Dante Strobino

by NC Student Power Union

Raleigh, N.C — On May Day, the NC Student Power Union mobilized more than 350 students from 10 colleges from all around North Carolina to participate in a demonstration against the Legislature’s regressive agenda.

Students began their day with a rally at the North Carolina State University Bell Tower and then marched to the Civitas Institute, a far-right think tank funded by multimillionaire and deputy state budget director, Art Pope. The demonstration raised opposition to the avalanche of backwards policies being advanced by legislators. They joined a broader coalition of workers, immigrant rights groups and many other community organizations for a march from Moore Square Park to the North Carolina Legislature.

When the march arrived at Jones Street, students, young people and others took over the street, and five sat down with a banner that read, “We Demand a Future! Stop budget cuts! Stop racist voter laws! Stop attacks on workers!”

During the street occupation, which lasted for nearly an hour, leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus, the North Carolina NAACP, the AFL-CIO and the Southern Workers Assembly, among others, delivered messages of support and solidarity as students spoke out against the attacks.

Demonstrators then attempted to bring their demands for justice into the Legislature and five were arrested — Jessica Injejikian from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Tristan Munchel and Dhruv Pathak from UNC Greensboro, and Zaina Alsous and Carissa Morrison from UNC Chapel Hill. All five were charged with disorderly conduct, and Morrison and Pathak were additionally charged with misdemeanor assault on a government official.

“We stand behind these five students who took a bold and powerful action today and put their bodies on the line to stop the attacks on the people of North Carolina,” said Juan Miranda, a student at UNCG. “Our hope is that many others are inspired to join the fightback against these forces from destroying our state and taking us backwards. We will fight these charges to the end. The fact that these students were arrested simply for peacefully trying to enter and bring their demands into the ‘People’s House’ is absurd, and the additional charges that Morrison and Pathak received are entirely baseless.”

In a statement, Pathak explained why he participated in civil disobedience: “Education should be affordable and accessible to all students. The right-wing Legislature and current budget proposal will make it harder for students to get into school and stay in school. My family struggles with finances every day and has trouble making ends meet. The last thing I need is a multimillionaire writing the state budget who wants to take away my financial aid. … That’s why I took this action today.”

Students have vowed that they will be back to continue demonstrations throughout the summer with other organizations, and as long as is needed.

Historic Thousands on Jones Street march, Feb. 9, Raleigh, N.C.
Photo: North Carolina Student Power Union

 by Zaina Alsous, Workers World Party member and Can’t Jail the Revolution Contributor

This article was originally posted in Workers World newspaper: http://www.workers.org/2013/04/24/may-day-in-raleigh-n-c/

Durham, N.C. — With extreme right-wing ideologues in the Legislature and governor’s seat, backed by a well-funded conservative political machine, the working class in North Carolina faces unprecedented attacks and swiftly degrading material conditions. In the face of this social crisis, workers, youth and students are mobilizing for a mass May Day march and rally in Raleigh, the state capital.

The North Carolina Student Power Union, a grassroots statewide organization and movement, has been hard at work since its February conference fighting attacks on public education and public services. Its current campaign raises opposition to the regressive budget drawn up by state budget director, Art Pope, a wealthy CEO and conservative oligarch who seeks to divest nearly $200 million from the North Carolina public university system.

If passed, the budget would also lay off thousands of workers, including teachers’ assistants and campus workers. It would force nearly 8,500 students off of need-based financial aid, making access to higher education out of reach for many.

These attacks on public higher education are emblematic of a broader redistribution strategy that seeks to privatize and defund public services while increasing the accumulated wealth of the ruling class. Perhaps the most telling component of the budget is a repeal of the estate tax, which applies only to estates worth more than $5 million. Though only the 23 wealthiest estates in North Carolina are subject to the tax, repealing it would cost the state more than $50 million a year.

Other attacks by the North Carolina Legislature include a proposal to amend the state’s constitution to include GS 95/98 — the state right-to-work (for less) law — a clear attack on workers’ rights and unions. Another proposed constitutional amendment would enshrine the state’s Jim Crow-era ban on collective bargaining for public sector workers.

After the Legislature refused federal-funded Medicaid expansion for an estimated 500,000 poor residents, Gov. Pat McCrory recently revealed a plan to privatize Medicaid by selling off part of the state’s Medicaid program to out-of-state, for-profit companies.

In addition, right-wing lawmakers are also pushing to eliminate the corporate and personal income tax at a cost of billions to the state, while simultaneously raising the sales tax, which disproportionately hurts low-income families.

Targeting Black and Brown people

These legislative attacks are also deeply racialized. Lawmakers proposed closing one or two campuses, which would undoubtedly target historically Black colleges and universities and working-class campuses.

The white supremacist majority is currently pushing forth racist voter repressive legislation to impose electoral barriers on communities of color, youth, women and the poor.

Right-wing lawmakers have also introduced an Arizona-style immigration bill that would allow law enforcement officers to check the legal status of anyone they stop and detain them for up to 24 hours. This will encourage racial profiling and increased police repression of immigrant communities.

Those in power are waging war on working people in North Carolina. They seek to implement a dangerous vision where public higher education is dismantled, public services are privatized, and Jim-Crow era white hegemony is reclaimed.

A May Day demonstration could not be occurring at a more critical moment in the state political climate. The NCSPU is organizing a statewide youth and student contingent to join the broader May Day worker and immigrant march and rally at the state Legislature.

Now more than ever, working-class struggles in North Carolina must be united in raising voices of opposition to this right-wing agenda. North Carolina serves as a key stronghold in the U.S. South with a rich organizing and civil rights legacy.

If we don’t want the futures of our youth to be stolen, mass resistance is the only option.

by Scott Williams

The facts are alarming. Young people and students privileged enough to go to college face a combined college debt of more than $1 trillion. That’s $1,000,000,000,000. Two-thirds of students who graduated in 2011 had student debt, averaging over $27,000. Meanwhile, 53 percent of recent college graduates are unemployed or underemployed. 37 percent of those who graduated work in jobs which do not require a college degree. This means that we are more likely to work as servers or cashiers than as chemists or mathematicians.

Most people with student debt have loans from the federal government which have an above-market interest rate. The federal government is making $34 billion each year in profit off of student loans, which is more than all the revenue Ford makes for selling automobiles. Private loans are even worse. Meanwhile, tuition rates regularly double, while humanities majors and those majors focusing the history and life of oppressed peoples are axed because they are not profitable. Even more recently, the federal government is considering tying student loan interest rates to market rates in an effort to raise debt payments even higher.

Bankruptcy laws have made it nearly impossible to get out of debt by claiming bankruptcy. Private student debt must be paid to banks even after death.

Many editorials in major newspapers discuss the need to change to role of college in our society to meet the needs of employers. Reactionaries and fools will tell you that its your fault for studying Sociology or Photography rather than something practical and profitable like Applied Sciences, Chemistry, or how to build a heat-seeking drone. Yet we know that education should be about fulfilling our dreams and finding our interests, not just on what is temporarily in demand by employers.

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The problem of student debt is systematic and historic. Simply put, the problem is capitalism. Capitalism is a system based on a small group of mostly white men who own large amounts of “capital” (factories, shops, land, etc) who use the government to ensure their right to exploit workers. Capitalist society is divided into the haves and the have-nots, the 1% and the 99%, the bosses and the workers. Workers are employed to create goods and services and for this we are paid a wage, salary, or commission. Yet the reality is we are only getting paid a small fraction of the wealth we create. The rest is taken, as the “right” of the owner of the workplace, as profit.

Because the worker is not paid for all the wealth that they create, workers cannot buy back all the products they create. This on a massive, worldwide scale, creates an overproduction of commodities and an impoverishment of the vast majority, who are paid as little as possible to get them to keep working. Credit was introduced to make it so workers buy more things with their future wages, thus prolonging their need to work so they can afford the goods that they need or deserve while propping up capitalism by increasing demand for goods.

The capitalist owner is compelled by competition with his rivals into figuring out how to make the production process more profitable. So he spends part of his previous profit to introduces robots and technology to replace workers, thus making the process more “efficient” (read exploitative), while lowering the wages of the workers.

Because of the introduction of job-killing technology, the crisis of overproduction deepens. Rather than technology helping the worker to create more and work less, it is used to enslave the worker further.

Meanwhile, workers want to get paid more, so they decide to get more skills through education. Yet they are told that they don’t have a right to this education unless they pay for it. So they take out a loan. Hence the trillion dollars in student debt.

In economics textbooks, the crisis of overproduction is seen as a cyclical crisis of supply and demand. In reality, it is a crisis of exploitation and greed. This cycle continues, but not indefinitely. With the increased amounts of technology we see the phenomenon of the crisis of “jobless recovery.”

Since 2007, a net total of over 11 million jobs have been entirely eliminated, meanwhile the amount of goods and services that has been created has gone up. This “jobless recovery” and the social crisis it creates is outlined in Fred Goldstein’s “Capitalism at a Dead End,” which shows that at this point in its development, no amount of austerity or stimulus can get people back to work on a worldwide scale. The dictatorship of the 1% is dragging humanity backwards.

No amounts of statistical fantasy employed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics can hide the rotten core of capitalism. It no longer needs skilled workers. It is telling young people that by going to college, and taking out the necessary loans, they can strive towards a life of stability or even prosperity. As many of us know, this dream is a lie.

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So we all know that our generation has been robbed of its future by Wall Street, the Pentagon, and the corporate puppets in Washington DC and every other state capitol. In an attempt to cannibalize and privitize anything that might be profitable, the bosses have introduced unheard of austerity. Yet the devastating economic crisis of overproduction is a systematic problem, not just a business cycle hiccup. Our answer must be systematic change.

We are the generation of Occupiers. We know that we must build strong organizations, coalitions, and movements to storm our rulers and take what is rightfully ours.

We need to set demands so we can reach out to our friends, family, and everyone else. Yet these demands need not be timid. We should state what we need. For example, “Forgive all student debt!” is an entirely reasonable demand given the context of the bailout of banks which continues to grow to the tune of $20 trillion. “Education must be free!” is again an entirely reasonable demand, especially given that it has been accomplished by many societies with much less wealth than the US (see Cuba, Libya, the Soviet Union, and many more.)

While we need to organize for these demands, we have little hope that the ruling class will give us what we need. The tremendous struggles by students in Puerto Rico, Chile, and Quebec show us the strength and possiblity of our collective action, yet winning compromises is only the beginning. Once we learn our strength, we must strive to shut down the system run by bankers, imperialists, and their entirely complicit governments.

An important element of building these movements is its leadership. What does the leadership look like? Who does it reflect? How are they working together? What is their ideological perspective? These questions must be answered.

Workers World Party has been with many others at the lead of many of these movements, striving for unity of the most committed and always against sectarianism. We want to work with all of those fighting for a better world.

Nearly two years ago now, Occupy started this fightback. Really, it was lots of young people who were mad as hell that they went to college, took out debt, graduated, and realized they had no future. Rather than sit around at home, we decided to sit down at City Hall, the capitols, the banks, and everywhere else there is injustice. We must continue doing this, while learning from our mistakes.

There is no way out of this crisis for capitalism. This is a terminal illness of overproduction, exploitation, and oppression in which the bosses and bankers reap what they sow. We must move towards a new society in which the profit motive, and the laws which help small groups of owners exploit the millions and the earth, is replaced by the motive of human development, respect, and dignity. Then we can truly have education which is emancipatory and free for all.

While the Obama administration continues to claim that it is providing only “nonlethal” aid to the Syrian opposition, its role in fueling the bloody war there is increasingly coming to light.

After two years of conflict, more than 70,000 people have been killed and over a million displaced in what is being described in the corporate media as a civil war. More than 2 million Syrian children continue to grapple with disease, malnutrition and severe psychological trauma.

As late as Feb. 28, Secretary of State John Kerry announced the U.S. was for the first time shipping “nonlethal aid” to the Syrian opposition, claiming not to be providing arms because “it is difficult to prevent them from falling into the hands of militants who could use them on Western targets.”

It has been widely reported that Jabhat al-Nusra, a group designated by the U.S as terrorist, has emerged as the opposition’s leading military force. “The lone Syrian rebel group with an explicit stamp of approval from Al Qaeda has become one of the uprising’s most effective fighting forces, posing a stark challenge to the United States and other countries that want to support the rebels but not Islamic extremists,” wrote the New York Times on Dec. 9, 2012.

Hints that the Obama administration’s public position on providing only nonlethal aid to Syria was false had first appeared as early as June 2012, when the Times found “a small number of CIA officers” secretly working with “a shadowy network of intermediaries,” including Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, to ship arms to the opposition. (New York Times, June 21, 2012)

It has now been confirmed that the CIA has been sending large shipments of weapons to Syria via regional proxies since at least early 2012. The secret airlift has in the past months increased dramatically to include more than 160 military cargo flights through Turkish and Jordanian airports.

The implications of this policy are staggering. Data on the Syrian war’s human toll show how as late as early 2012 — when the rebel arms shipments escalated — weekly deaths were falling, only to rise sharply to unprecedented levels a few months into the program. The exact concerns about arms being funneled to terrorists that Kerry raised publicly also seem to reflect the reality on the ground. U.S. proxies in Saudi Arabia are reported to be “involved in arming Syrian rebels, the most ultraconservative, ultrareligious groups, such as al-Nusra, and … hundreds of Saudis are infiltrating across the borders from Jordan and Turkey and going to fight with these extremist groups in Syria.” (democracynow.org, March 3)

The patently criminal nature of arming these groups to accomplish geostrategic goals is not without precedent in U.S. foreign policy. The U.S. role in Libya was identical, leading eventually to a cross-border conflict unfolding with deadly consequences in Mali. Another recent episode was the revelation that the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) had for years been arming and funding the Mujahedeen e-Khalq, including training members inside the U.S. in an ongoing covert war against Iran played out through targeted assassinations and bomb plots.

These developments, moreover, come amid rising signs that the violent Syrian opposition is floundering and fighting within itself. The president of the opposition Syrian National Coalition, Mouaz al-Khatib, announced his resignation on March 24, “citing his frustration with unspecified foreign powers, which he accused of trading funding for control of the group.” (McClatchy Newspapers, March 25)

Further militarization of the conflict seems likely only to exacerbate the pressing humanitarian crisis. Through it all, the U.S. imperialist ruling class continues fueling the violence, hoping that its repeatedly failed policy of military interventionism might serve its interests in the flames of Syria.

Rebel Diaz Arts Collective’s tribute to the late Hugo Chavez — be sure to support this important political arts collective, which has recently come under attack by law enforcement in NYC. Visit their site: http://rdacbx.blogspot.com/, and donate: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/i-am-rdac-bx

Nobody Knows. 2012. Oil on Canvas. 22×28” Artist’s website: PirateMousePaints.tumblr.com (click image to go to site)

A public mural in the North Lawndale neighborhood in Chicago, one of the many communities threatened by a proposal that would close up to 50 community schools in the city. Depicting a long history of struggle including the Black Panthers, North Lawndale is continuing this history by fighting back against the school closings. Image first appeared the article “The Chicago Public School Closings: Finding Truth Amidst Lies” on open.salon.com (click the image to link to the source.)

Esta obra de Pablo Picasso mostra um grupo de militares estadunidenses preparados para massacrar um grupo de mulheres e crianças na Coréia “do Norte”, uma obra que denuncia os crimes e o abuso do poder imperialista dos Estados Unidos após a II Guerra Mundial. A obra inspira-se nos “fuzilamentos de 3 de Maio”, pintado por Goya em 1814 e serviu como desenho ou cartaz de propaganda para o Partido Comunista Francês, do qual Pablo Picasso era militante. (Pablo Picasso, Massacre na Coréia, 1951, Óleo sobre madeira, Musée National Picasso, Paris)

This work by Pablo Picasso shows a group of U.S. soldiers prepared to massacre a group of women and children in “North” Korea, a work that denounces the crimes and abuse of power by the imperialist United States after World War II. The work is inspired by “shootings of 3 May”, painted by Goya in 1814, and served as a poster design for the French Communist Party, of which Pablo Picasso was a militant. (Pablo Picasso, Massacre in Korea, 1951, Oil on wood, Musée National Picasso, Paris)

Found on the super-awesome blog fuckyeahmarxismleninism.tumblr (click image to visit site)

by Prashanth Kamalakanthan

Ten years ago on March 20, Washington brought the long plague of invasion, occupation and mass murder to the Iraqi people. The least the Iraqis deserve is a moment of reflection.

The unholy trinity of the U.S. foreign policy establishment, a bought-off, embedded, corporate journalism culture and private defense contractors have now killed some 120,000 civilians, a hazy estimate that, according to some estimations, may actually be 10 times that number. The initial invasion saw cluster bombs, white phosphorus, highly carcinogenic depleted uranium and a new kind of napalm — what we might call weapons of mass destruction — dropped in dense urban areas.

As much as $1.7 trillion was spent, a number that will double when paid with interest, and about half a trillion dollars is still owed to veterans. For context, the United Nations estimates that $30 billion a year would end world hunger.

The occupation actually introduced al-Qaida for the first time into Iraq. Women’s rights and access to basic social services under the occupation have been set back centuries.

Security forces routinely torture inmates in what is now widely called a failed state. Meanwhile, the leading cause of death among U.S. military personnel is suicide. On average, 18 U.S. military veterans kill themselves daily, according to Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki.

In Iraq, the 10th anniversary of the occupation was marked by another bloodbath: 65 people died and more than 240 were seriously wounded in Iraq’s bloodiest single day of the year.

In just the past month, we learned how the U.S. exported leadership and tactics from its dirty wars in Central America to Iraq in the mid-2000s. Programs endorsed at the highest levels used “all means of torture to make detainees confess … using electricity, hanging him upside down, pulling out their nails.” Interrogation rooms were stained with blood; children in extreme stress positions were beaten until their bodies became discolored.

The U.S.-trained Iraqi Special Operations Forces, also known as the “dirty brigade,” carried out summary executions, searches and kidnappings closely echoing the U.S.-trained death squads in Cold War-era El Salvador and Guatemala.

Despite all this, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair recently informed the press that the war on Iraq was a “balanced decision,” the right thing to do. (in.reuters.com, March 15) Dick Cheney said, “If I had to do it all over again, I’d do it in a minute.” (thetimes.co.uk, March 14)

The inability to learn lessons from the U.S.’s catastrophic failed interventions points to a toxic psychosis at the heart of empire that can’t be negotiated or reformed. It must collapse entirely. When U.S. sanctions in Iraq killed more than half a million children, a higher number than those that died in the bombing of Hiroshima, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright responded, “We think the price is worth it.” (fair.org, Nov. 1, 2001)

Here, Albright, Blair and Cheney only voice a casual murderousness universally shared among the imperial class. Obama himself publicly defends the precision and humanity of drone warfare, though his administration has claimed it can’t officially confirm the existence of the program because that would be a security threat. In other words, the U.S. does whatever the hell it wants to, no questions asked. Especially not from the families of the Pakistani children killed collaterally.

Washington’s post-9/11 state of permanent war also accompanies a creeping authoritarianism at home. The National Counterterrorism Center and National Security Agency continue to coordinate broad surveillance on communications in contravention of the law as the CIA conspires with the New York Police Department to spy on ordinary Muslim shopkeepers, cab drivers and students across the Northeast.

The FBI was recently caught coordinating plans to monitor nonviolent Occupy protests, collaborating with banks, local police and college administrators. Maybe more disconcertingly, the use of drones in the post-9/11 era signals moves to institutionalize war as a permanent feature of ordinary life.

The U.S. is not officially at war in six predominantly Muslim countries, but is actively employing military drones in them. U.S. special ops forces are now deployed in at least 97 countries, around 50 percent of the world, a number that increased dramatically under Obama. And there is no endgame, because the endgame is what exists now: a state of imposed globalized control, enforced by history’s most violent military empire.

John Brennan helps illuminate the strings pulling the puppets of our foreign policy establishment. An outspoken proponent of Bush-era torture and wiretapping, also known as Obama’s “assassination czar” and drone program architect, Brennan was recently rewarded with the CIA directorship. Before his time at the CIA, he made $760,000 a year as CEO of a private intelligence contractor called The Analysis Corporation, after which he raked in $30,000 for an hour’s worth of work a week as chairperson of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, the industry mouthpiece for private war contractors.

The cruelty of our country’s corruption begins with the corporations that profit from corpses and ends with cluster bombs and child torture. Through it all, the silence of the youth, society’s wellspring for future hope, makes us all guilty.

War waged in our name, with our money and labor, is the greatest affront to humanity imaginable. The struggle for peace in the end thus becomes a struggle to prove our worth as human beings.

Prashanth Kamalakanthan is a junior at Duke University in Durham, N.C. 

By Caleb T. Maupin

The media in the United States is private property. FOX news is owned by Australian Billionaire Rupert Murdoch. MSNBC is owned by General Electric, a huge corporation that makes billions annually in military contracts and has brutally suppressed unions. The capitalist media largely reinforces and preaches ideas that serve the interests of those who own it, the wealthy capitalist class.

Naturally, a country like the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), also known as “north Korea”, is not going to be portrayed in a positive light. The DPRK is a country in which there are no billionaires. The banks, factories, industries, and natural resources are held in common. A revolutionary communist party, the Korean Workers Party, holds a monopoly on political power. While the United States sits atop the world system of capitalist imperialism, the DPRK is a socialist country. It points to a different way forward for the working people of the world.

It should be no surprise that the image of the People’s Korea etched into popular consciousness is a false one. Here is refutation of several of the most common misconceptions about the DPRK.

Myth #1: Socialism in the DPRK results in mass starvation and economic misery.

FACT -

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has had many unprecedented economic successes since being established in 1945. In the 1960s and 70s, even capitalist political commentators spoke of the “North Korean Economic Miracle.” With Soviet Aid, the DPRK became a powerhouse of industry. Education rapidly advanced and universal literacy was achieved. Huge Universities were established. Housing was constructed. The wages of Korean workers went up exponentially. (“North Korea: A Country Study” U.S. Library of Congress)

The Socialist planned economy of the DPRK was a model that inspired countless people around the world. Che Guevara even remarked that Cuba should model itself on the DPRK when he visited it during the early 1960s. (See “North Korea, Another Country” by Dr. Bruce Cummings.) Until the late 1980s, the life expectancy of people in the DPRK was higher than in those residing in south Korea.

The food crisis took place when the Soviet Union, the main trading partner of the DPRK collapsed. Economic sanctions and military encirclement from the U.S. caused huge problems. The DPRK’s agricultural system was largely dependent on the use of petroleum. Without the ability to purchase petroleum from the USSR, a food crisis ensued. Flooding followed by draughts made the situation even worse.

The Korean Workers Party refers to this period, in which many people starved to death as the “arduous march.” It blames the economic sanctions, the threats of military aggression from the U.S., and the loss of the Soviet Union as an economic ally and trading partner for the tragic events that occurred.

The “arduous march” period is over. The DPRK is recovering from the setbacks, and thousands of new houses are being constructed all over the country. (Korean Central News Agency)

Even during this food crisis, not a single person in the DPRK was ever homeless. Not a single person in the DPRK has ever been unemployed. Education, from kindergarten to University is free for all people residing in the DPRK. The DPRK is now one of less than 10 countries on earth that is capable of launching satellites into orbit. It has also successfully tested nuclear weapons several times.

The socialist planned economy in the DPRK has had largely good economic results. This is often ignored, while the media endlessly emphasizes the horrors of the “arduous march” period, while not pointing out their actual causes. The media is essentially lying through omission in order to demonize People’s Korea, and denigrate the successful economic record of Socialism.

Myth #2 – The DPRK is a hereditary monarchy. Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, and Kim Jong-Un were/are absolute monarchs.

FACT –

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has a highly democratic constitution. Workers are represented in people’s assemblies in their workplaces and neighborhoods. Elections, voting, and widespread discussions of government policy frequently take place. The Korean Workers Party, which leads the country, has many thousands of members. Koreans outside and inside the party are politically engaged in the decision-making process. The DPRK is not an autocracy ruled by a single person. Such things exist in many capitalist countries like Saudi Arabia, but not in Socialist countries.

The fact that Kim Il Sung’s descendents continue to represent the country as heads of state makes clear that the ideology and revolutionary spirit of the country has not changed. It communicates to the U.S. imperialists who seek to destabilize and overthrow the DPRK, that they will not be able to divide the Korean Workers Party. It makes clear that the Koreans are united in their desire to oppose the U.S., and build socialism. The vision of Kim Il Sung for a united, prosperous, independent Socialist Korea is still very well alive, and that vision remains unaltered despite the many hardships of recent decades.

Myth #3 – The DPRK is a very sexist country. Women are not even allowed to ride bicycles.

FACT-

The constitution of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea guarantees women equality with men, as well as equal pay for equal work. In the recent Olympic games, women from the DPRK received many gold medals for their athletic achievements.

Kim Jong Suk, a woman who led the anti-Japanese resistance movement in Korea, is a national hero and symbol of the Korean Workers Party. Paintings portraying Korean women brandishing rifles hang all across the DPRK. Korean women occupy leading positions within the government, the Korean Workers Party, as well as in the country’s police and armed forces.

The media recently attempted to declare that women in the DPRK could not ride bicycles. The DPRK released a video on youtube exposing this as a viscous lie:

North Korean Women Are Not Allowed to Ride Bicycles?

Myth #4 – All “credible scholars” hold an anti-DPRK views.

FACT -

Dr. Bruce Cummings, the most widely respected scholar of Korean history, holds a highly positive view of the DPRK. Cummings, who is the chair of the History Department at the University of Chicago, is not a Marxist. However, his writings that portray the DPRK do not echo the falsehoods preached in the capitalist media. His books such as Korea’s Place in the Sun and North Korea, Another Country paint a much more sympathetic portrait of the DPRK than is commonly heard in the United States.

Martin Hart-Landsberg, another well known and well respected scholar in the U.S. has written a book entitled Korea: Division, Reunification, and U.S. Foreign Policy. His book also presents a more accurate analysis of the history of the DPRK.

Many “personal accounts” about life in the DPRK have been published which demonize the country and its revolutionary leadership. Most of them originate from sources that are closely linked with the South Korean military. They have a clear motive for presenting falsehoods in their “personal recollections” of life in the DPRK.

Myth #5 – South Korea is a democratic country where people have freedom. It is being threatened by the DPRK.

FACT -

South Korea, also known as the “Republic of Korea” is a highly autocratic country in which many people, especially the working class are severely repressed. Syngman Rhee, a brutal dictator, ruled the country for many years. U.S. tax dollars, and thousands of U.S. troops supported Syngman Rhee as he brutalized and repressed the people in south Korea. Thousands of innocent Koreans were executed under Syngman Rhee, or put into prison camps.

The people of Korea rose up in the famous “April Revolution” and brought down the dictatorial state in south Korea. Though multi-party elections and a little more basic freedom exists, the country is still hardly “democratic.”

Park Joeng-Geun, a 24 year old man living in south Korea is facing a possible sentence of many years in prison. His crime? He made statements on twitter that are sympathetic to the DPRK. Organized labor is routinely repressed in south Korea, with strikes being ruthlessly put down and workers being murdered.

Thousands of U.S. troops occupy south Korea, often raping and murdering Korean women and children without facing any punishment. Mass rallies demanding that the U.S. troops leave country go on all the time. South Korean police are known to routinely torture striking workers and activists demanding democratic rights, and even very anti-Communist groups such as Amnesty International have condemned the “human rights violations” that exist in south Korea.

The DPRK is not threatening the people of south Korea. It instead has called for “peaceful reunification” and wants to re-unify with its southern countryfolk. The U.S. refuses to even sign a treaty recognizing the right of the DPRK to exist. The DPRK has been forced to spend millions on its military because it faces a continued threat from the U.S. and its puppets in the south Korean government.

U.S. troops sit on the “38th Parallel” threatening the DPRK. During the Korean War, the U.S. killed 4 million Koreans because they dared try to re-unite their country. The fact that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea still remains strong, and has recently launched a rocket into orbit, and test nuclear weapons, is a testament to the fact that U.S. imperialism is not unstoppable.

For many decades the DPRK has held out as a symbol of revolutionary anti-imperialism. It remains a stronghold of Socialism, and fights each day to peacefully re-unify the country and drive the U.S. out of the entire peninsula.

Can’t Jail the Revolution contributor and Workers World Party member Caleb Maupin debates a former US diplomat on the nature of the CIA.