The images are searing. Helicopters ferrying diplomatic personnel from the U.S. Embassy while plumes of black smoke billow from the building. Taliban fighters with heavy artillery parade through the thoroughfares of provincial capitals. The International Airport, still under U.S. control, is in chaos as collaborators try storm planes to flee the country. In the space of a few weeks the puppet government collapsed, and its figureheads have vanished. The decades of occupation have come to an end. Those that fought to end it now sit at the former president’s desk.

The U.S.-led occupation of Afghanistan was never the right thing to do. The events of September 11, 2001 served as a pretext for the war on Afghanistan, a war that was cruel and unjust. Before the troops arrived, U.S. planes unleashed bombs on the country’s cities, destroying hospitals clearly marked with red crosses on the roofs. The invasion came with the brutality of a medieval crusade – marked by torture and summary executions. The U.S. and its accomplices always treated the Afghan people as the enemy. That is why we are seeing what we are seeing. The vast majority of the Afghan people welcome the expulsion of the foreign occupiers.

The occupation was never about helping people. It was about the domination of a strategic region of the world that is rich with resources. Nothing complicated about it. Empires doing what they always do – help themselves to land, labor and natural resources of others.

At the end of the day, and the end of the occupation, the Taliban are in fact a national liberation movement. A movement with real defects, largely lacking an agenda of social liberation that is product of a long historical process, which includes U.S. intervention to defeat the left in Afghanistan. That said, the people of Afghanistan have the right to determine their own destiny free of imperial arrogance.

The main way for assessing any movement for national liberation is by asking and answering the question, “does it weaken imperialism?” Undoubtably monopoly capitalism, or imperialism, was just handed a setback in Afghanistan. The rich and powerful who rule the U.S. rob people aboard and they rob us here at home. What is bad for them, is good for the rest of us. Their setbacks bring us closer to freedom.

President Biden heading out of Afghanistan is not a mistake – it is the recognition of reality. The U.S., along with the other Western powers, were defeated long ago, and we are witnessing the end of that process.

There is something fundamental going on here – U.S. imperialism is in a period of decline, and that decline is accelerating. In Latin America, Cuba and Venezuela are standing strong, and others are joining in. The Palestinian resistance is picking up steam, along with the other resistance movements across the Mideast. The revolutionary struggle in the Philippines is growing. Socialist China grows more powerful. The world is changing.

The outstanding Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong remarked, “Now U.S. imperialism is quite powerful, but in reality, it isn't. It is very weak politically because it is divorced from the masses of the people and is disliked by everybody and by the American people too. In appearance it is very powerful but in reality, it is nothing to be afraid of, it is a paper tiger.”

That is where we are at today. People everywhere, including here at home, are tired of the obnoxious elite that rules the U.S. The paper tiger, monopoly capitalism, can and will be defeated. It will take time, but time is on our side.

#UnitedStates #AntiwarMovement #Obama #Afghanistan #PeoplesStruggles #taliban #Bush #Trump #US #Biden #Asia

Tampa, FL – Activists from the Tampa Bay area organized a protest on June 27 in response to a U.S. intervention in Iraq. It was an emergency action in response to President Obama’s sending military advisors to Iraq, and the flying of U.S. drones over Baghdad.

Speakers addressed an array of issues, from President Obama’s continuation of U.S. wars,to the oppression of nations by imperialism, as well as anti-war activists facing political repression by the FBI—for speaking out against US wars.

“The US has no interest in the wellbeing of the Iraqi people, and the millions of dead Iraqis from the past 94 years of US and British domination are a testament to that,” said Gage Lacharite from Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society.

Jesse Nevel of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement facilitated the rally and stated, “Up with Iraqi liberation. Down with war and occupation” and described the US government’s foreign policy as “parasitic”, connecting current US imperialism to the history of enslaving and murdering African people.

Jessica Schwartz from Stop FBI – Tampa Bay talked about the U.S. government persecution of Arab Americans and Muslims for their political activity, as well as the Antiwar 23 who were raided by the FBI in 2010. “People fighting against the system and opposing U.S. wars, occupations, and military interventions like the one in Iraq are attacked by the US government, which prides itself on so-called ‘freedom of speech’”.

Marisol Marquez from Raices en Tampa linked the US meddling in the Middle East with the history of oppression in the US. “With its history of seizing Mexican land, committing genocide against Native Americans and enslaving Africans, how can this country possibly know what another country needs? Invading another country was not okay back then, and it sure as hell is not okay now.”

Jared Hamil from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization explained about the current situation in Iraq: “Sometimes there are many forces and groups at play. It can be confusing. And we ask ourselves where do we stand. We must always stand on the side of the people, not with those who attempt to build the US Empire. History shows that those two are never on the same side. We must stand with those who oppose imperialism, with those who fight imperialism”.

Organizations included in the protest were St. Pete for Peace, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, the Uhuru Solidarity Movement, Stop FBI Repression – Tampa Bay, Raices en Tampa, Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society, and Tampa Dream Defenders.

#TampaFL #AntiwarMovement #Obama #StudentsForADemocraticSociety #SDS #Iraq #Imperialism #Bush #DreamDefenders #Intervention #RaicesEnTampa #USF #War #2001 #ISIS #MiddleEast

La administración de Bush está impulsando estos acuerdos de libre comercio en el contexto del crecimiento de intervención militar estadounidense en la región, como por ejemplo el intento de golpe de estado en contra del gobierno de Hugo Chávez en Venezuela elegido democráticamente y también el aumento de fondos para el Plan Colombia.

El enfoque en comercio da a los progresistas, la oportunidad de dar a Bush la primera derrota de su nueva administración.

La reciente victoria izquierdista en la elección presidencial en Uruguay dió un golpe al ALCA. El gobierno de Chávez en Venezuela, del presidente Luiz Inacio ‘Lula’ da Silva en Brasil, y ahora también el gobierno de Uruguay se han puesto en contra de la ALCA. Esto hace al TLC mucho más importante para los Estados Unidos por su interés de ganar control económico sobra las américas. También significa que una derrota del TLC podría interrumpir el proceso entero del ALCA.

La administración de Bush empezó a negociar el TLC hace dos años, esperando poca oposición en los Estados Unidos y en Centroamérica. Pero calcularon mal. Trabajadores, campesinos, estudiantes, consumidores y partidos políticos de oposición en Centroamérica se han unido con activistas de comercio justo, trabajadores y activistas de solidaridad en los Estados Unidos para resistir el tratado. Campesinos que cultivan la remolacha en el medio oeste de los EEUU y los pescadores de camarones en el estado de Luisiana han sumado sus voces a la creciente oposición.

Cientos de miles de personas en Centroamérica han marchado repetidamente en contra del TLC y la política neoliberal del libre comercio y la privatización. Aunque la oposición ha sido más fuerte en Centroamérica, la posibilidad más grande de parar el TLC está en el congreso estadounidense.

Históricamente, el partido demócrata no se ha opuesto a los acuerdos de libre comercio, a menos que necesitaran el apoyo de los sindicatos. El candidato presidencial demócrata John Kerry fue muy ambivalente en sus pronunciamientos sobre el TLC. Eso, junto con la victoria republicana, podría causar que algunas personas piensen que la posibilidad de aprobar el TLC ha aumentado, pero de hecho todavía hay una lucha importante que librar. Muchos de los demócratas que se retiraron o que perdieron eran fuertes defensores del libre comercio – siete de los 21 demócratas que votaron para el “Fast Track” en 2001 ya no están en el congreso. Además el demócrata de Minnesota Collin Peterson, un opositor fuerte del TLC en la cámara de representantes, ya es el congresista demócrata con mayor precedencia en el comité de agricultura en el congreso. El movimiento anti-TLC en los EEUU está unido para parar el acuerdo defectuoso y ha forzado al liderazgo demócrata del congreso a declarar su oposición al acuerdo. Las líneas de batalla ya quedan claras.

Pero todavía no se sabe cuándo el congreso va a votar sobre el TLC. El líder mayoritario (republicano) del congreso Tom Delay de Texas dijo que a los republicanos todavía les faltan unos votos y dijo que la aprobación del TLC, “va a venir cuando tengamos los votos para aprobarlo.” Hasta la fecha no tienen los votos. Lo que queda claro es que Bush no tiene el respaldo de la opinión pública, y que el movimiento creciente en contra del libre comercio ahora tiene la oportunidad para movilizar los activistas anti-Bush que antes no estaban organizados.

Cuando al principio propusieron el TLC, pocas personas en los EEUU pensaron que el plan podría ser derrotado. Cuando organizadores salvadoreños oyeron eso, contestaron que, “Nosotros no escogemos las batallas basados en que se puede ganar, sino que escogemos las batallas basados en las necesidades de nuestra gente, sabemos que la lucha es justa, y si seguimos organizando para una causa justa, algún día vamos a ganar.” Tres años después, activistas estadounidenses y centroamericanos están a punto de hacer algo que muchos pensaron que era imposible – derrotar a Bush y sus aliados en el tema del TLC y dar un golpe fuerte a su agenda del comercio.

Para incorporarse a la lucha en contra del TLC, visite la página web de la coalición “STOP CAFTA” ( www.stopcafta.org) o la pagina web del Comité en Solidaridad con el Pueblo de El Salvador ( www.cispes.org)

Cherrene Horazuk es una experta sobre Latinoamérica y fue directora nacional del Comité en Solidaridad con el Pueblo de El Salvador (CISPES).

#EstadosUnidos #News #Americas #WorkersAndGlobalization #FTAA #CAFTA #Bush #elTratadoDeLibreComercio #elÁreaDeLibreComercioDeLasAméricasALCA