The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran has confused people across the political spectrum. The Trump administration’s apparent unpreparedness for the war, the severe (and predictable) economic consequences of Iran closing off the Strait of Hormuz, and the total lack of any attempt to build support for the war among the U.S. population have made the war appear irrational to many people. So irrational, in fact, that some feel there must be another explanation — that Israel has somehow tricked, persuaded, or forced the U.S. into launching a war on Iran on Israel’s behalf. But this gets things backwards. When you look at Israel’s role in the Middle East, it becomes clear that the U.S. calls the shots.

Iran has been in the U.S. gunsights for a very long time, for a few reasons. Iran has a tremendous amount of oil. Iran’s geographic location gives it the ability to impact world oil trade, as people in the U.S. are quickly learning as they watch gas prices climb. And Iran has also stood up for Palestinian liberation in a major way, launching attacks on Israel in response to Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people and supporting pro-Palestinian military organizations in Lebanon and Yemen. For all these reasons, the U.S. not only wants to overthrow Iran’s government, it wants to control it.

Since October 7, 2023, millions of people in the U.S. have rallied to the Palestinian cause for national liberation. They’ve seen Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Many people are still stunned by the U.S.’s unyielding support for Israel, from both Biden and Trump, as the Palestinian death toll continues to rise. People have also seen the arrogance of Israeli officials as they’ve dictated how U.S. students protesting the war should be punished. It makes sense that many people see this latest war and think it must be at the behest of Israel, because most people in the U.S. aren’t taught the truth about U.S. imperialism in the Middle East.

But the U.S. doesn’t send Israel billions of dollars a year in financial and military support out of the kindness of its heart. Israel’s non-stop attempts at expansion, and its attacks on Palestine, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq over the decades have had a continual destabilizing effect on the entire Middle East. Israel’s endless wars create constant refugee crises, destroy infrastructure, weaken or collapse governments, and create opportunities for the U.S. to pit countries in the Middle East against each other. This is all very good news for big U.S. businesses who want to control Middle Eastern oil, natural resources and labor.

Israel simply would not be able to carry out its crimes without U.S. funding. The U.S could stop Israel any time it wants to by just cutting the financial support. And the U.S. doesn’t stop Israel because it supports Israel’s actions — they’re a good thing for the capitalist rulers of the U.S.

Controlling Iran has been a stated goal of U.S. foreign policy since Iran’s parliament and Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh nationalized Iran’s oil in 1951, just three years after the Nakba — the forced expulsion of 700,000 Palestinians from their homeland — and the birth of the state of Israel. British intelligence and the CIA launched a coup, taking Mosaddegh out of power and turning power back over to the notorious monarch Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The shah had no qualms about U.S. companies taking 40% of Iran’s oil shares — shares that belonged to the Iranian people. The shah ruled with U.S. support despite mounting unpopularity among Iranians.

In 1978 Iranians led a revolution that got rid of the shah and established the Islamic Republic of Iran. This meant no more oil profits for U.S. companies and a new, major force resisting U.S. imperialism in the Middle East. Iran’s support for anti-imperialist movements, opposition to Israel, and steadfast support for Palestinian liberation in particular, have cemented Iran as a target of U.S. aggression. To whatever extent the war on Iran is about protecting Israel, it’s about protecting it as a tool of U.S. aggression in the Middle East.

When right-winger Joe Kent resigned as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center last month, he said in a resignation letter that Israel and the U.S. media “deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined [Trump’s] America First platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran.” Kent also criticized U.S. involvement in the Syrian Civil War, claiming it was fought for Israel too. Make no mistake, Kent is not anti-war — he served 11 combat tours himself. People have made a lot of hay out of Kent’s remarks, perhaps out of the hope that if even a far-right figure like Kent could see that the war on Iran is a bad thing, other politicians would too, and would intervene to stop the war.

But Kent is missing the big picture. Joe Biden put it pretty well all the way back in 1986 when he was on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, when he said, “Were there not an Israel, the United States of America would have to invent an Israel to protect her interests in the region.” But there’s a difference between the interests of Biden or Trump or all the other politicians who have supported endless violence against Iran, Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Palestine, and the interests of the vast majority of the people of the U.S. It’s ordinary working people that will have to deal with the economic consequences of war on Iran. Meanwhile, the big capitalists hope to make billions. And they’re using Israel as a tool to do it.

#Commentary #Opinion #Iran #Israel #AntiWarMovement

Chicago, IL – The No Kings protests and demonstrations are both an organized response and a clear manifestation of a spontaneous uprising in resistance to Donald Trump’s agenda. Given the commentary and calls of the leaders and organizers of the demonstration, it’s clearly entrenched within the limited oppositional politics of the Democratic and Republican parties.

The Republican Party has gone so far to the right that it has actually deprived the Democrats of a lot of oxygen for carrying out their neoliberal programs. The Democratic Party’s neoliberal budget cuts leave us lean, but the Republican cuts are to the bone. This makes for an interesting kind of politics. You might say that the Democrats are for restoring the leadership of the Democratic Party to its neoliberal mission. It’s more about restoring the status quo of neoliberalism, and this shows up in how they are presently negotiating with the Republicans about ICE, government layoffs, the “Big Beautiful Bill,” and so on. 

So where do we find the bottom line? If we look for the bottom line that the Democrats are drawing saying “Here’s where we stand. Here’s where we will fight, and we shall not be moved,” it’s hard to find that line. Just look at the fights around the budget. First they said ICE should be abolished. Then they said they had to be restricted. They had to show their badges, their warrants, and not wear masks. They went back and forth on that so much that we couldn’t keep track of what they are demanding, what’s the bottom line. Now that we’re in a period of trying to stop a government shutdown, they agreed to the Republican bottom line in the Senate. Now they’re being critical of the Democrats in the House for not going along with the Democrats in the Senate. 

And what’s wrong with this? They have been negotiated backwards to just the limited demand of giving ICE no more money, when ICE already has gotten hundreds of billions of dollars to function, and they don’t really need more money. So, it’s almost a meaningless demand. 

Both the liberal and the conservative parts of the Democratic Party unite and agree that the problem that people have with Trump is the price of eggs and the price of gasoline, and that he broke his promise to take prices down and instead prices have gone up. They have moved the economy to the front burner. This becomes their principal demand. 

But what about the Medicaid cuts? What about housing? What about the near-elimination of the National Labor Relations Board, where no government official is bound to respect trade union rights? What about the massive layoffs of all of the government workers, including air traffic controllers? And last but certainly not least, what about the white supremacy? What about the unchecked, blatant, gross racism that currently resides in the White House?

It becomes like a meteorite issue that flashes through the political firmament and then is no longer seen and no longer mentioned by the Democratic Party, even when their own leadership, like the Obamas, have been characterized as apes by the President. 

As harsh and mean-spirited as Trump’s racism is, it is not exceptional or unprecedented in the annals of American history. 

The masses of the people are way out ahead of the Democrats when it comes to opposing Trump’s agenda. We think this was demonstrated in Minneapolis, and we think it’s also been demonstrated at numerous Congressional hearings, but mainly in Minneapolis, where we heard an undisputable, unmistakeable protest against the ICE occupation and the police state tactics of Trump, coming from the masses of people. 

I’m not talking about the governor of Minnesota. He opposed it, yes. Nor am I talking about the mayor of Minneapolis. He opposed it, too. But they also did not draw the line when it came to aggressive, brutal and murderous actions of ICE on the ground. They let one face of ICE be replaced by another, switching out Bovino for Homan. 

So, the challenge to us is that in these momentous times, when you have political leaders clearly standing in contradiction and opposition to the popular demands and impulses of the masses, that we consciously intervene and make it clear that defeating Trumpism, or defeating the Trump agenda and all the social savagery that it unleashes on the people, means we must address the racism, xenophobia and gender-based oppression as vigorously and uncompromisingly while we also address the social misery caused by the rise in the cost of living. 

Our response to the neoliberal war cry coined by Bill Clinton decades ago, “It’s the economy, stupid,” is “It’s the politics, stupid.” 

Because of the extremism characteristic of this administration, we must not draw the conclusion that our demands are unreachable. We must take the fighting attitude that to get out of the situation that we’re in, our demands must be met. Our immediate demands to stop the Trump agenda must not be seen as a transitionary demand to tolerate the present moment until we get a better moment.

Trumpism is totally unacceptable now, and we must fight it to the finish.

#Opinion #Commentary #FrankChapman #Trump #PeoplesStruggles #ImmigrantRights

Chicago, IL – Now more than ever it’s important for our movement to talk about what the Trump administration is doing and what we need to do to stop it. Right now, he doesn’t have the entire ruling class behind him, but right now he has the MAGA people of the Republican Party, which operates like a racist cult. The difference being that they have state power, and this is the difference that makes a difference.

What we should be looking at is what they’re actually doing with that state power vis a vis Kristi Noem with the Department of Homeland Security and Pam Bondi with the Justice Department, and how both these agencies of government have gone rogue and show no intention, much less a desire, to abide by the Constitution, or to respect the balance of powers.

So, all we’ve had since the election is one act of defiance after another, and the most blatant one before engaging us in the war against Iran and the peoples of the Middle East, was clearly the refusal to obey the mandate from Congress to release the Epstein files.

Although it’s been a back and forth with the federal courts because the Supreme Court has time and time again taken the side of Donald Trump, there’s a trend that can’t be ignored where Trump has also been in defiance of federal district courts with regard to ICE and lately the Supreme Court itself on the question of the tariffs. The thing to be noted here is that the basic trend has been to vilify the courts and refuse to obey their rulings if they are against Trump’s policies.

What Trump has done through all these measures is to turn the federal government into the enemy of the people and actively engage in setting up a regime of racist and political repression.

This administration has been actively engaged in weakening the federal government in areas that have to do with workers’ rights. It’s active in weakening if not abolishing the Voting Rights Act with new ID requirements which have become a new poll tax. This regime has told people that the gains made by the LGBTQ community do not have to be respected. They’ve done several broadsides against women and the women’s movement, and one of the headline things is what they did in the Winter Olympics, so much so that the athletes who participated in those games, both men and women, have come out and denounced the administration, and refused to go along with it.

There are so many instances of blatant, open, racist expressions on the part of Trump and his administration. We can take what happened with Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl, or the instance where Trump portrayed the Obamas as apes. All of these incidents spell one thing: that already this administration is in open defiance of Congress, the Constitution, and the people of the United States who have been demonstrating en masse against them, manifested by what happened in Minneapolis.

As of this moment, they are illegally holding people, despite court orders, in detention centers. They are illegally going about the business of trying to set up concentration camps throughout the United States. What has put a hold on it is that these jurisdictions where they’re trying to set these up are saying “no, we don’t want that here.” Why would people be saying no? Because people know what it is. They know that these detention camps are really the prelude to concentration camps, a place where they can send those of us who are engaged in resistance as well as immigrants. If they get these detention camps set up all over the country, they’re not going to make a distinction.

Also, they have entered into hidden and open agreements with other countries. We know about the agreement they’ve entered into with El Salvador, but they’re not just talking about sending immigrants to El Salvador. They’re talking about sending American citizens to El Salvador, including people who are in prison on felony charges having absolutely nothing to do with immigration. Again, it is obvious that in fact, we have a regime of repression that is openly and flagrantly carrying out its illegal actions with the power of the state. They have taken over the government to make the government an instrument of their illegal actions.

All the major news networks talk about what they’re doing. The reporting on Fox News now and the reporting on MSNBC and CNN are not fundamentally different. What’s different is Fox News is openly supporting Trump and the other ones are being critical of him and taking advantage of the mass protests and whatnot to express that criticism. But also making him popular at the same time, giving him a lot of airtime.

Right now, he’s using his authority as president to make wars, and to do all of these things that he’s not supposed to be able to do, except through Congress, he is in fact doing them.

What the war on Iran and the peoples of the Middle East has revealed is more than the prerogatives of an imperial presidency. It has revealed that defending and perpetrating the crimes of U.S. imperialism remains a significant point of unity for the U.S. ruling class. Is there any doubt that the war that is presently being waged against Iran has the support of the U.S. ruling class, even though some of them raise issues of legality? At the same time, they praise Trump for having murdered the leaders of the Iranian people and ruthlessly prosecuting a war for regime change.

This brings us down to this here. There are no big differences in the understanding of what’s going on between the different networks, between the masses of the people and the politicians. Millions of people see where this is going.

A word about the Texas elections. The Texas elections are again a clear demonstration of the willingness of the Democratic Party to still pursue the bankrupt policy of reaching across the aisles in search of mythical unity with the Republican Party that will stop the movement that they’re engaged in to destroy every semblance of democracy in the United States.

So where is the real opposition? It’s the spontaneous uprising of the people in the streets and the growing organized engagement of the people on the part of Freedom Road and our allies.

We have to make up our minds going forward to really give a program to our slogan “make the country ungovernable.” Now is the time to do that because in these momentous times, our movement and our people are engaged in an existential struggle to bring about an end of the Trump administration, which is using every enforcement mechanism the government has to protect the rights of the people to destroy the rights of the people. And finally, choosing world war over peace.

This is not so much an analysis as a factual depiction. These are the facts. This is the reality created by the Trump administration that we must change.

#ChicagoIL #Opinion #Commentary #Trump #PeoplesStruggles #ImmigrantRights #Elections #DemocraticRights #AntiWarMovement

But AI is not on the verge of being introduced, it has been introduced into every sector of the economy possible, and the balance sheets are coming up wanting. Last year MIT conducted a study of over 300 firms and found that 95% of them saw no return whatsoever on their investment in AI. British firm PricewaterhouseCoopers reported in its 29th annual CEO survey that over half of respondents had seen no benefit from AI whatsoever, either in the form of reduced costs or higher revenue.

Despite these gloomy reports and increasing fears that the dramatic overvaluation of the tech companies tied into the AI boom is a financial bubble waiting to pop, the tech moguls are still demanding more investment. For the most part, they are getting that investment, whether into sprawling new data centers or the power stations to keep them online. While cultural backlash to AI “slop” is becoming more and more widespread, it is clear that the capitalist class still sees AI as the future.

In trying to understand why, it is important to disaggregate the hype of AI’s most shameless salesmen, like Sam Altman or Elon Musk, from the actual capabilities of the technology. Essentially at its core all of what we see called “AI” is just a series of mathematical equations whose parameters are set by a combination of pre-existing data and manual rules set by its designers. The process of “training” AI can be likened to feeding paper into a shredder that can then recombine the letters and words to form new sentences. The AI is “incentivized” to make “good” sentences, which tends to mean ones that look like a human could have written them. The same goes for photos, videos, or music: all the AI is doing is regurgitating something it was already fed.

Throughout the entirety of the process, then, human labor still plays the essential role. Humans need to make the works to be fed to the AI in the first place, because if AI is trained on AI generated data it begins to “rot” and produce increasingly poor results. Then humans need to design the mathematical procedures for the AI to be “trained,” and humans often have to intervene forcefully to prevent the AI from breaking the law (by relaying legally sensitive information like how to make explosives or creating images of illegal activity like CSAM). Then, to create the final generated product, the AI needs to be prompted to do so by a human, who needs to write the prompt in such a way that the machine gives them the output they want. The value that AI possesses is the value of embodied human labor within it.

This is plainly not what capitalists believe. They think that AI carries in it the same unique capacity that only human labor power possesses: the ability to create new value beyond that which it cost to produce it. Capitalists do not understand that, out of the portion of capital they advance for means of production, and out of the portion of capital they advance for labor power, it is only the latter that creates new value in excess of that initial advance. To them, it simply appears as a profit in excess of the total cost they paid. While AI’s mystification is particularly intense, the capitalist class has never understood this fact about any machine, or indeed about their entire mode of production: the origin of profit is in the unpaid labor time of workers.

It is no coincidence that AI investment and speculation took off in the last five years, in the wake of COVID’s disruptions and the growing power and militancy of the labor movement that emerged out of them. Capitalists are desperate for the next big technological innovation to save them from the contradictions of capitalism, as Mr. Andreessen himself admitted last month. “If we didn't have AI, we'd be in a panic right now about what's going to happen to the economy,” he said on a podcast, claiming that “declining population” (a racist dog whistle he uses alongside Elon Musk) and “slow productivity growth” would be the “real crisis” that AI is thankfully solving.

What he is facing up to is the idea that without populations of “surplus” human beings to form the reserve army of the unemployed, and with the rate of profit falling continuously as more and more capital becomes advanced and embodied in machines that merely transfer value and do not create it, that capitalists are dinosaurs living on borrowed time. As they look up at the meteor of class struggle and socialism plummeting towards them, they are conjuring phantasms and trying to breathe life into them with dollars and electricity. AI can be a useful tool, a means of production like any other, but it will not save capitalism from itself.

#WestLafayetteIN #IN #Commentary #Opinion #CapitalismAndEconomy #AI

The bill, authored by State Senator Liz Brown of Fort Wayne, revives core portions of an immigration bill she previously refused to hear last year as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. This led to an open spat between Brown and Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, during which Rokita claimed Brown had held up the bill because she had an “illegal alien” in her family. Brown said these comments were false and filed an attorney misconduct grievance over Rokita’s comments, which ended up dismissed. Then, after the Indiana Senate voted to reject Trump’s gerrymandering scheme in December, Brown was replaced as chair of the committee by State Senator Cyndi Carrasco of Indianapolis.

The fractious Indiana Republicans are now fumbling for unity through this “improved” version of the bill, which is drawing praise from Rokita as properly forceful. Under the law, local governments at all levels would be legally required to comply with federal detainer requests, holding arrested immigrants for 48 hours past their usual release so they can be disappeared by the DHS. Local governments, public schools and universities as well, would be liable for civil penalties of $10,000 per violation of immigration enforcement.

Additionally, the Family and Social Services Administration and hospitals would be required to turn over reams of data about non-citizens who receive benefits from Medicaid, expanding the massive DHS surveillance dragnet. And even the private sector does not escape the crackdown. Employers face threats of temporary or even permanent suspension of their right to operate if found to be employing people deemed “illegal.”

Indiana has had a law on the books outlawing sanctuary cities since 2011, Senate Enrolled Act 590, but the attorney general has had considerable trouble enforcing this ban and is using this law to seek firmer enforcement mechanisms to ensure a clear path for DHS boots to march.

Senate Bill 76 stands to expedite the terror waged against immigrant communities across the U.S. to Indiana’s front door. With the terror comes repression, a futile attempt of Trump’s running dogs to silence any institution willing to fight back. While tightknit communities’ decades long established may lean on each other for support, recent immigrants and rural communities strewn across Indiana face a greater threat of serious harm if targeted.

However, it is doubtful that Rokita and Trump’s other henchmen in Indianapolis will have their way. Resistance to the immigration crackdown is growing across the state. Hundreds of people from all walks of life have hit the streets week after week all across the state since Renee Good was murdered in Minneapolis during “Operation Metro Surge.” Their message has been clear: ICE is not welcome in their streets.

In contrast to the bickering Republicans seething at one another over personal insults and failed legislation, the people of Indiana are finding unity in their common opposition to the murder and kidnapping of their neighbors and do not believe in any special “immunity” for federal immigration jackboots. Even in what some would write off as “Trump Country,” people are standing up to fight back because they know they can win.

If you want to get organized and join that fight in Indiana, you can reach out to FRSO Indiana at frsoindiana@gmail.com, on Instagram at @frso_indiana.

#IndianapolisIN #IN #ImmigrantRights #Opinion #Commentary #ICE #FRSO

This past year, horrifying accidents and the government shutdown have put many of us on alert about travel risks. It’s made more people reflect on how important flight attendants are. Their primary job, after all, is keeping passengers safe. As the year comes to an end, let’s put a spotlight on some working conditions that affect their own safety.

Physical injuries

Despite gendered stereotypes about being a flight attendant, the job causes serious physical strain. Strain manifests in several parts of the body, most consistently in the shoulders and back. The job requires lifting your own luggage, working aircraft doors (many of which are old and have levers that require lots of muscle to push and pull), and maneuvering beverage carts that can weigh up to 300 pounds. Even stepping out of tall crew vans in heels can be a fall or concussion risk.

Injuries caused by turbulence are also prevalent. Almost every flight experiences some turbulence. Unexpected turbulence occurs frequently, leaving flight attendants no time to safely secure themselves. The National Transportation Safety Board found in 2021 that flight attendants account for 79% of those seriously injured by turbulence (nearly all of the remaining are passengers who were unbelted at the time of injury).

Additionally, a majority of turbulence-related injuries occur below 20,000 feet. The seatbelt light is illuminated at this altitude. But flight attendants have to be up, due to the high demand of service that airlines push for. Despite the Commercial Aviation Safety Team recommending a policy (over 20 years ago) that would have flight attendants seated from takeoff to cruise and from 20,000 feet until landing, no major airline has changed its safety guidelines to fit this.

Sickness and hygiene

One of the most obvious workplace hazards is the fact that the workplace is 30,000 feet in the air, in a pressurized cabin. Flight attendants go through extreme altitude changes every day, sometimes working up to four flights a day. The pressure changes cause pain and long term issues in the sinuses and ears, a problem that every flight attendant must learn to combat. Furthermore, flying with blocked sinuses, which can result from a common cold or just regular congestion, can cause extreme pain, ruptures, bleeding and in the worst cases: hearing loss. In addition to the pressure changes, working around loud planes and engines every day can also cause ear problems and hearing loss. In a 2007 study conducted by the Royal Society for Public Health, it was found that nearly 52% of flight attendants exhibit some sort of hearing loss.

Flight attendants are routinely exposed to hundreds of people in tight, unsanitary conditions. Especially during the wintertime and holiday seasons, flight attendants are prone to catching many different sicknesses just from being around so many people. Cabin dryness can also harm crewmembers’ immunities, since it’s harder to stay hydrated.

Despite this, calling in sick is a challenge. Especially during the six to twelve month probationary period, calling in sick just twice can be a reason for termination. For example, at United Airlines, flight attendants are not able to call in sick without receiving some sort of discipline “points”. Even when accompanied by a doctor's note, a flight attendant will always be disciplined for calling in sick. This unjust system forces flight attendants to work while sick, which causes further damage. Flight attendants have been fighting for better systems for calling out.

Toxic fumes

In September, the Wall Street Journal published an extensive article about toxic fumes that have harmed hundreds of crew members and passengers over 20 years. Fumes are a mix of toxic chemicals that are used in routine airplane procedures (i.e. oil, hydraulic fluid) that occasionally leak into the cabin and flight deck. They can cause illness, and have been an ongoing complaint in many airlines. The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) offers education to members on how to recognize fumes and respond, but little has been done by airlines to rectify the problem.

An AFA statement on fumes reads: “The first step in change is defining the problem. The industry sought to make victims feel crazy and define unions as hysterical and hyperbolic, but we haven’t backed down.”

Fatigue

According to a report from the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), only 1 in 5 union representatives believe their airline treats fatigue seriously. With inconsistent work schedules and frequent time zone changes, flight attendants commonly experience fatigue. In 2022, the FAA upped the required minimum rest from eight hours to ten hours after flight attendants fought for this. These ten hours are not solely for sleeping, but include passengers deplaning, customs on international flights, and transportation between the airport and the hotel. By the time many flight attendants make it to their overnight hotel, unpack their bags, shower and get ready for bed, it’s almost time for them to wake up for their next duty day. This amount of rest often remains the same even after working 14 or 16 hours, which the FAA allows during maintenance issues or weather.

Another contributing factor to fatigue is the inability to eat proper meals during duty. Flight attendants do not have mandated meal breaks between flights and are expected to find time while flying. The same ITF report shows that three quarters of cabin crew on low-cost carriers do not receive adequate rest breaks. In 2022, after California flight attendants successfully sued Virgin America over this issue, the AFA argued that flight attendants should receive crew rest on long haul flights and be provided meals or compensation for meals. Not getting proper sleep or nutrition can impair cognitive performance and cause flight attendants to make mistakes on the job, sometimes at the risk of their own safety.

Harassment and violence

Flight attendants face routine harassment. Most have stories about uncalled-for behavior: ass grabbing, catcalling, pictures being taken, etc. Some have reported stalking during layovers – think someone showing up to your hotel room.

Almost every flight attendant had seen some kind of unruly behavior. In a 2021 member survey, the AFA found that 17% of respondents reported having had a physical incident with passengers. Their survey cited slurs “too offensive to repeat.” Most receive little to no follow-up on reports to management.

It’s not just passengers. In November, Delta settled a lawsuit with former flight attendant Aryasp Nejat. As reported in the Guardian, the suit accused a uniform inspector of “non-consensual, sexually assaultive touching.” When Nejat posted on social media that this was why his airline needed a union, Delta fired him. Now, they’re paying for him to go to law school.

“One of the reasons that flight attendant unions were originally formed were to root out sexual harassment, assault or sexual exploitation in order to try to get workers to do what you want them to do, to keep them quiet,” said Sara Nelson, president of the AFA.

Mental health

Through all this, flight attendants need to stay prim and proper. That takes it out of you. The National Institute of Health found that the number of flight attendants experiencing depression tripled in 2020. The CDC found that flight attendants have a 50% higher suicide rate than the national average. They go through this while away from friends, family and loved ones.

Unions keep you safe

Some of these workplace hazards may be unavoidable, but company policies can and should be better. Service demands, no-break scheduling, punitive sick policies, handsy managers… the list of preventable issues goes on. The common thread: flight attendants fighting together in a union is the surest cure.

Crew members can plug into AFA campaigns to protect safety on board. These include downloading the 2Hot2Cold app to report extreme cabin temperatures. for identifying and responding to fume events they can access this resource kit.

Various flight attendants contributed to this article.

#Opinion #Commentary #Labor #FightAttendants #WorkplaceSafety #AFACWA #Feature

Venezuela, Caracas – When we arrived in Caracas, we had a 30-minute bus ride from the airport to the hotel where we were staying. Watching the city go by and the beautiful mountains in the background, there were dozens of beautiful murals painted for Bolívar, Chavez and Maduro celebrating the Bolivarian revolution.

During the International People’s Assembly for Sovereignty and Peace of our Americas conference, there were many chants from all over Latin America -¡Viva Bolívar! ¡Viva Maduro! ¡Viva Diaz-Canales! ¡Viva Sheinabum!

The Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression has long supported progressive leaders like President Maduro, and I have been to hands off Venezuela protests where the people supported Maduro, but it truly surprised me to see a room full of people chanting for their leaders. In the United States, I cannot remember the last time I really saw a large crowd of people chanting with love and pride for a politician. Once in a while Trump supporters might try to disrupt our actions, but they often chant to show what they oppose rather than what they stand for.

At home, people have no sense of ownership and pride in most politicians. They get elected on empty promises that no one expects them to follow through on. It was amazing to meet people who live in places where they truly can have governments that believe in the people, and fight for them. In the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Repression we fight for community control of the police, for the right of the people to control what police do, how they do it, and to convict them when they commit crimes. Seeing the love and pride that other countries have for governments where they feel their leaders are fighting for them instead of repressing them for it was an amazing experience.

The more surprising thing for me at the conference was how many people were extremely grateful to see Americans organizing for peace, and were worried about our safety on return. As the United States tries to go to war with Venezuela, I was not sure what people would think of us. However, people had many questions about videos of specific police murders they had seen, ICE kidnappings, National Guard occupations, and other repression. They were incredibly concerned about Black liberation and immigrant rights in the United States.

People from all over Latin America celebrated when they heard about our struggles against heightened police repression, especially with George Floyd in Minneapolis and the small town of Kenosha, Wisconsin in 2020, in supporting student encampments for Palestine, and then ongoing struggles against ICE kidnappings and opposing troops on the streets, with the uprising in LA, the defiance in Chicago, and campaign against troops in DC this year. These struggles are also unfolding in Portland and New Orleans where we also lead protests and movements.

When they asked if we were scared of the police or of repression, I told them that we believe that justice is worth any level of struggle. I also told them how we had won a campaign against FBI repression by freeing Chicano activist Alejandro Orellana in LA.

One Cuban delegate said to me that the Alliance's organizing “prove[s] your resistance in your situation.” As I prepare to return to the United States soon, I am excited to bring all of the excitement and love I experienced from around the world to the struggle for Black and Chicano liberation at home.

#International #Venezuela #AntiWarMovement #MAARPR #Chicano #Opinion #Commentary #InJusticeSystem #PoliceCrimes

Salt Lake City, UT – It is an exciting time to be a labor organizer in Utah. In the past weeks, workers at the SunTrapp Bar in Salt Lake City struck against unfair labor practices, winning the love and support of the community, and nine Starbucks stores in the state have organized under Starbucks Workers United. Now, campus workers at both the University of Utah and Utah State University are flexing their organizational muscle as the United Campus Workers swells its ranks, building a wall-to-wall union of staff, graduate student workers, career instructors and faculty.

This upsurge in the labor movement in Utah and across the country is a perfect time to celebrate the life of Joe Hill, a labor activist executed in Salt Lake City 110 years ago this November 19, 1910. Framed up on a murder charge by the police, who were in league with the railroad bosses, Hill was put to death in Sugarhouse Prison despite mass nationwide opposition. A coalition of personalities from AFL President Samuel Gompers to Helen Keller opposed the execution, which was carried out by firing squad.

A Swedish immigrant, Hill was an itinerant worker and musician. As an organizer with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), songs like Everybody’s Joining It stirred workers to organization with a touch of relatable humor which earned Hill widespread movement fame and support:

The Boss is feeling mighty blue

He don’t know just what to do

We have got his goat, got him by the throat

Soon he’ll work or go starving.

Songs like Workers of the World, Awaken! written shortly before his death in 1915 demanded revolutionary change:

Workers of the world, awaken

Break your chains; demand your rights

AII the wealth you make is taken

By exploiting parasites.

Indeed, Hill was an activist who walked the walk with other organizers. He spoke to working people and delivered rousing speeches on their behalf as he traveled on freight trains, as many dispossessed workers did in the early 20th century. Salt Lake City had been a hotspot of union activity before Hill’s arrival here, as organized workers on a railroad construction site forced the bosses to concede food, bedding and a 25 cent pay raise after a strike.

The state of Utah killed Joe Hill. Hill’s now-famous last words before he was killed were, “I die like a true-blue rebel. Don't waste any time in mourning. Organize.”

To organize despite setbacks and repression remains an important lesson for those interested in fighting injustice. Murdering Joe Hill only exposed the Utah courts and police as tools of the bosses, and he became even more famous in death than in life, his music and message reaching new generations and an even wider working-class audience.

People should heed this call to organize by getting involved in movements for change. Join and participate in your union or organize your workplace. Attend and organize protests against racist and reactionary political schemes.

All workers at the University of Utah and Utah State University are encouraged to join the UCWU.

#SaltLakeCityUT #UT #Labor #Opinion #Commentary #JoeHill

This news comes after mounting mass pressure for Congress to release the Epstein files, with House Republicans delaying the release and with politicians on both sides of the aisle using the case as political ammunition against the opposite party. The call to release the files has been raised broadly and spontaneously by the masses, including online and at anti-Trump protests.

Meanwhile, there is longstanding evidence that Epstein consorted with high-ranking Democratic and Republican politicians alike, including Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, along with billionaire monopoly capitalists like Peter Thiel of PayPal and Palantir, Bill Gates of Microsoft, and Elon Musk of Tesla.

Epstein was an elite financier with a net worth of almost $600 million, who provided financial advice and services to his clientele of billionaire monopoly capitalists. Although there are different camps within the monopoly capitalist class, recent history has made it abundantly clear that they are united on many fronts, from support for Israel to political repression. It comes as no surprise that Epstein's sex crimes and exploitation of women and children would be another area of class unity for billionaires.

Monopoly capitalists earn their existence by stealing from workers and extracting riches from oppressed nations the world over. Their very existence is parasitic. Their exploitation knows no bounds – they manufacture genocides to fuel their war industry, they incarcerate generations of Black and Chicano people to fund their private prisons, they leave the poor to die on the streets to enrich their real estate investments. These treacherous conditions leave women and children increasingly vulnerable to sex trafficking.

The Epstein case is a potent reminder that the monopoly capitalist ruling class, along with both the Democratic and Republican parties that represent it politically in the U.S., is incompatible with working people's demands for justice and liberation. These criminal exploiters will never be brought to justice while they remain in power. It will require the organized power of the working and exploited people of this country to put an end to the evils of sex crimes and sex trafficking. Another world is possible, and there is only one path to get there: revolution and socialism.

#Opinion #Commentary #Trump #Epstein

On November 9, seven Senate Democrats and one Democrat-aligned Independent shocked the party by caving to Republicans. They supported a funding package that would reopen the government without any gains on extending healthcare subsidies. Earlier that same week, Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral election on a massively popular cost of living campaign.

The Democratic establishment is so disoriented, they don’t seem to know their left and right.

Among other provisions, the deal will continue to fully fund the government through January. In “return,” the Republicans “conceded” to reverse the reduction-in-force layoffs that Trump implemented in October. They also agreed to guarantee backpay for federal workers. Neither of these was in question when the shutdown began. The GOP offered no clear or sure concessions on addressing healthcare costs.

The House is voting on the measure today, and it then goes to Trump’s desk.

Several Democratic heavyweights defected. These include Minority Whip Dick Durbin and former vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine. These represent the centrist party establishment, aligned with the likes of Hillary Clinton.

They’ve come under heavy fire from other Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and California Governor Gavin Newsom. After all, the liberals have the leverage. A late October NBC News survey found that 52% of Americans blamed Republicans for the shutdown, with only 42% blaming Democrats. An Economist/YouGov survey found that, across the political spectrum, Trump’s approval rating has fallen over his handling of the shutdown.

As it turns out, Trump didn’t need leverage. He just needed to wait out his opponents’ divisions.

But as much as it exposed spineless politicians, the shutdown revealed the masses haven’t let their felt needs go unheard. Democrats chose to make healthcare their main issue. A year after Biden told us the economy was in great shape, his party’s had to acknowledge that Americans’ wallets are hurting.

Just days before the Senate vote, center-left Democratic candidates won governorships in New Jersey and Virginia. They ran on affordability platforms, including issues like rising energy costs. Mamdani won in New York by focusing on three promises: freeze the rent for stabilized tenants, provide fast and free buses, and universal childcare. Hakeem Jeffries endorsed him, and Barack Obama called him twice. Compare this to Kamala Harris’s presidential bid, which only offered to “defend democracy.”

Class contradictions are intensifying in the United States, forcing a reckoning among the Democrats. It’s no secret that Biden and Harris lost the election due to complicity with the genocide in Palestine and the fact that they were tone deaf to the deteriorating economic condition of the multinational working class.

Due to this larger polarization, the Democrats are more and more splintered. On the one hand, a centrist wing is deluded about the importance of compromise and the sanctity of American institutions. On the other, both progressives and moderates have taken up cost-of-living issues. They see that they face popular demands everywhere, from more active labor unions to mass movements of youth. These are inevitable under capitalism. The party’s feet have been put to the fire. No matter how you slice the pie, the more the Democratic Party promises it can protect the system, the more it will fall short of meeting people’s needs. Regardless of how negotiations round off in Congress, a people’s agenda is on the table, and in the streets.

#Opinion #Commentary #PeoplesStruggles #Democrats #Trump

On October 15, a White House memo boasted a $13 billion investment in five Midwestern plants by automaker Stellantis. It also announced projects by Whirlpool, General Electric and others. Thanks to tariffs, Trump tells us, the prodigal sons of industry have returned.

But how does the scoreboard really add up for reindustrialization?

Not quite as advertised. These aren’t new factories; they’re old ones being retooled. Tariffs shoot manufacturers in the foot, since they drive up prices for supplies. Investing in new technologies takes skilled workers. This is a hard sell when ICE just deported over 300 Korean technicians from a Georgia car factory. Auto corporations, hearts full of liberal compassion, fear that “first they came for Hyundai.”

That said, there is a real attempt by both parties to “bring manufacturing back.” The truth is, this isn’t the same thing as creating jobs.

Putting America back to work?

The latest factories will be more automated than those of the past. For example, the Wall Street Journal reports that Hyundai’s latest auto plant in Georgia has a robot-to-human ratio of 2 to 1, compared to the 7 to 1 industry average. A study by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 23% of employment in direct production is mostly automated. While Trump promised booms in employment, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a loss of 12,000 manufacturing jobs in August alone. The Bureau predicts continued stagnation through 2034.

This trend is not new. In 1980, it took over ten hours’ labor to produce a ton of steel, and by 2018 this dropped to 90 minutes. Production levels have stayed constant, but the number of manufacturing workers has declined since 1979.

Automation not only reduces the number of jobs, it demands greater levels of education for the jobs it opens. Programming, overseeing, operating and repairing equipment often requires either college-level education or specialized training. Workers late in their careers, rural workers, or otherwise poor job-seekers are going to have a hard time accessing these skills.

Economist Robert Lawrence summarizes, “the sector should not be promoted as a vehicle of inclusive growth and employment for low-skilled workers.”

Falling rate of profit

Automation has sharpened the tendency for the rate of profit to fall. In order to undercut each other, manufacturers race to adopt the latest technologies. However, by doing so, they’re permanently raising the bar for machinery used throughout the industry (i.e. think the robot-to-human ratio discussed earlier). That means that a greater portion of their costs are constant. It’s impossible to squeeze an extra dollar out of a machine like it’s possible to exploit a human worker. The overall rates of profit can go down.

This can be seen in General Motors’ average annual operating margin, which went from 8.7% in the 1960s to negative numbers in the 2000s. Since 2008, car companies have been able to buck this trend to some extent. But this is the exception that confirms the rule: they needed help from Obama’s bailout and Biden’s subsidies. They’ve also slashed wages and relocated U.S. plants to union-busting states in the South. The 2023 strikers in the United Auto Workers know this all too well. But even in the past few years, automakers have seen their profit margins dip once again.

The race to the bottom is self-defeating. Low rates of profit make it harder to attract the finances needed to stay on the cutting edge.

Julius Krein, head of the New American Industrial Alliance, criticizes fellow capitalists for the big green dollar signs in their eyes. “During the last several decades, Americans found a way to financially engineer seemingly everything except for investments in critical techno-industrial capabilities,” he writes.

“Warning indicators are flashing red”

Because of this stagnation, more of the U.S. ruling class is ready for a heavier government hand. The prize at stake isn’t the average worker, it’s the average bottom line.

Oren Kass, chief economist at a conservative think tank, writes in Foreign Affairs: “Across the American economic dashboard, warning indicators are flashing red. The globalization and financialization of the past several decades have slowed investment, innovation, and growth. Industrial output and productivity have declined, and the United States has lost its leadership position in vital technologies – including in aerospace, energy, and semiconductors.”

It’s not just that lights are blinking on the dash, it’s also that capitalists won’t pay for a new car. “Simply put, the activities that generate the highest returns on capital are not the ones that have anything to do with building productive and innovative enterprises.”

Their solution is for the government to support gains that capital can’t achieve in the marketplace. Tariffs are one step of many. These are starting to compel manufacturers to invest in the U.S., which in turn forces companies to automate to avoid paying more workers. Industry representatives are also begging for subsidies and state-funded retraining programs. “Lead us,” the blind ask of the blind.

Salvaging jobs, or empire?

Attempts at reindustrialization have nothing to do with jobs and more to do with recovering profits. But above all else, it’s U.S. imperialism’s scramble against foreign competition.

Within U.S. borders, European and Asian automakers assemble more vehicles than the Detroit Three (Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler/Stellantis). Julius Krein complains that the U.S. is in the “middle of the pack” for overall automation levels.

China is leading the pack. The ruling class has come to admit the country’s economic superiority. “China has achieved advanced electrification with astonishing speed in part because of government support,” a recent Foreign Affairs article noted. “If the United States wants to achieve results like China, it will have to build more like China by replicating certain aspects of how Beijing organizes and mobilizes its production economy.”

In the same pages, former US Deputy National Security Adviser Nadia Schadlow recommends: “A commitment to reindustrialization would undercut China’s efforts to weaken the United States.”

The motivation behind attempted reindustrialization is clear – the U.S. monopoly capitalists face an existential threat from socialist China. And they can’t foot the bill to pull ahead. They are right to be worried. Modern manufacturing is central for everything from cars to drones to artificial intelligence. As much as Trump wants to sell the idea of some untapped potential for jobs, he won’t revive the factories of the 1950s. He’s desperate to shore up imperialism by milking what he can out of a declining industrial base.

#Opinion #Commentary #Labor #Automation #Trump #Jobs #Unemployment #CapitalismAndEconomy

Commentary by Lia S. Lopez

Chicago, IL – Chicago has so many unique and distinctive neighborhoods, but Little Village is special. Little village is one of the most prominent neighborhoods with Black and brown people. The community of Little Village has always cherished our heritage and upheld it through each passing generation.

However, with President Trump pushing for mass deportation around the country, we as a community have lost our passion. Due to the Operation Midway Blitz, many community members don’t feel safe to go to work, school, or to even step out their doors.

On Wednesday, October 22, federal agents came into Little Village and attacked our community. I remember feeling so much anger. Seeing my community repeatedly be hurt and beaten into fear and submission was what made me realize something had to be done. I had asked my friend, co-organizer of the walkout Lilian Dominguez, if she would be willing to walk out with me, and she said she would. And from there we worked with a Latina run group, where we started spreading the word of the walkout to news sources, community members and organizations, and Aldermen Michael D. Rodriguez.

We wanted to be organized and safe so the community, the media and the city would take us seriously. 500 students, 89 community members and 25 businesses attended and supported the October 28 walkout. I never thought in a million years my voice would ever matter or make an impact. Thanks to the support of the community, we were able to spread our message of peace and unity not just in Little [Village] but in all of Chicago and Illinois. This is just the beginning of stopping this mass deportation in the country.

#ChicagoIL #IL #Opinion #Commentary #ImmigrantRights #HighSchool

New Orleans, LA – On September 30, “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth blew his bugle for the military’s next crusade. The world’s biggest and baddest armed forces folded in Afghanistan and burned in Vietnam. Hegseth and Trump looked at these defeats, and many more, then scratched their chins. At last, they ferreted out Benedict Arnold: DEI.

Top brass from across the globe scrambled to Quantico to hear about it. Hegseth attacked “fat generals,” women, “men in dresses,” “weak men,” and supposed diversity hires. He announced he’d whip troops into shape by prohibiting beards, narrowing hazing protections, and replacing gender-neutral expectations with “male-standard” physical training. Trump followed by parading a $1 trillion 2026 military budget.

Military meeting or MAGA sales pitch?

“All-hands” high-level gatherings are routine, but this one stood out. It was a full court press to build consensus against “wokeness.”

“What made this meeting so notable is that today’s military is buffeted by an atmosphere of extreme partisan polarization,” wrote former National Security Council staffer Peter Feaver.

Commentators saluted the officers for listening with their poker faces on. It’s supposed to be a win for keeping politics out of the military. But many haven’t kept their cards close to their chests.

“Could have been an email,” one officer told Politico. Another described the conference as an “inexcusable strategic risk.”

“I suspect it’s not being taken well,” retired Lt. General Mark Hertling told MSNBC.

These comments expose that polarization hasn’t been staved off; it’s already running deep. It’s come up before, everywhere from shaving rules to the trans ban. The latter was opposed by 56 retired generals and admirals.

Take it to the streets, see who comes out on top

The sharpest flashpoint has been the National Guard’s occupation of major cities. Trump called them “training grounds” for troops. He states plainly that these takeovers, in Black and Chicano urban areas, go fist-in-glove with imperialism abroad.

Trump’s takeovers have escalated deportations and racist arrests. Although the National Guardsmen do not have powers of arrest themselves, they give backup to federal agents to go after people on petty or trumped-up charges. On Fight Back! Radio, a DC Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression activist described how agents have detained people for legally smoking weed.

But these occupations have prompted a wave of mass resistance. Protests have sprung up in every city that Trump has targeted, and even local politicians are speaking up. “Training grounds” indeed – for the united front against Trump.

The court system is taking notice. The Guardian reported that DC has seen unprecedented lows in indictments by grand juries on charges related to the Trump takeover, even if a grand jury can indict a ham sandwich.

Pushed on by the fightback from civilians, soldiers up and down the chain aren’t buying that there’s an “enemy within.” One officer told Politico that these deployments “distract warfighters.” At least eleven former generals criticized the Los Angeles takeover. The Guardian reported that dozens of troops deployed to LA voiced anger about being political pawns. One said the assignment was “shitty.”

“Disoriented, demoralized, and ineffective”

This isn’t to say there’s a revolt within the armed forces. But they face a different kind of problem – disorganization.

In Foreign Affairs, Peter Fever writes: “Over the course of their professional lives, these military officers are likely to serve a large chunk of their time under both parties. If they become identified as partisans of one, they may be viewed as enemies of the other—starting a cycle of partisan purges that leaves the military disoriented, demoralized, and ineffective, as has happened in other purge-prone militaries.”

To complicate things further, this divided force is running up against a fragmented legal system. The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the federal military from participating in general law enforcement without a state’s consent. It’s the basis for the California ruling against the occupation of Los Angeles. Effectively, cities in blue states have this legal avenue against the deployments. States like Louisiana, where Trump crony Governor Jeff Landry requested federal assistance, are a different terrain.

Polarization in the military, like in the rest of the U.S., is a sign of imperialism’s decline. Hegseth admitted to this decline when he compared the aftermath of Vietnam to the U.S.’s position today. In Vietnam, like in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. tried to rally other imperialists under the banner of “spreading democracy.” But out with these ambitious, ideological wars. In with the wars of naked and narrow self-interest. It’s the desperate gambit of an empire losing its grip. Mounting abuses of military power come with the territory. But, after all, Americans have resisted the likes of this since 1776.

#NewOrleansLA #LA #Opinion #Commentary #Hegseth #ArmedForces

On May 7, the Indian Armed Forces launched a series of air strikes at Pakistan. The attack was labeled “Operation Sindoor.” The regions of Kotli, Muzaffarabad and Bagh in Pakistan and some regions of Pakistan-administered Kashmir were affected by the strikes. The attack reportedly killed a three-year-old girl and two others and injured 35 more. This was confirmed by Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry of Pakistan.

The words used by the Indian government to describe the air strikes were “non-escalatory,” as well as “measured” and “targeted at terrorist bases,” phrases that are often utilized by the U.S. during war on terror campaigns.

The attacks from the Indian side were in consequence of the killing of 26 Indian civilians in Pahalgam in Indian administered Kashmir by “Islamists.” The Indian government did not seek to investigate the situation, nor did they resort to a diplomatic resolution. They launched the air strikes without any proof that the Islamists were directly connected to the Pakistan government.

The attacks came after the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, which gives India control over the waters of the three “Eastern Rivers” – the Beas, Ravi and Sutlej – which have a total mean annual flow of 41 billion cubic meters. Control over the three “Western Rivers” – the Indus, Chenab and Jhelu – which have a total mean annual flow of 99 billion cubic meters, was given to Pakistan by India in 1960.

From May 8 to May 9, the border regions between India and Pakistan, as well as adjoining territories saw heavy machine gun shelling. Several people have died on both sides of the border, particularly in Poonch and Uri, in Jammu and Kashmir. Reportedly 300 to 400 drone strikes were launched from the Pakistani side towards India, affecting 36 locations on the Line of Control from Leh to Sir Creek. There were blackouts in the states of Punjab, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir.

To understand the present situation in these regions, here is a short timeline:

20th century:

• The Partition of India in 1947 following India's independence from British rule led to the creation of two dominions, India and Pakistan (East and West).
• After the partition of India, both Pakistan and India claimed the region of Jammu and Kashmir. This resulted in a regional war after Pakistan launched an attack from Waziristan, ultimately resulting in a UN-mediated ceasefire and a “Line of Control” founded in 1962.
• The second Indo-Pak war in 1965, following Operation Gibraltar, the purpose of which was to create an insurgency in the Indian region of Kashmir, ultimately leading to the Tashkent declaration.
• In 1990s, the religious tensions led several religious minorities to leave the regions, primarily Kashmiri Pandits. The Indian Army carried out several atrocities against civilians in Jammu and Kashmir, extrajudicial killings, murder, rape etc.
• 1999 the Kargil war breaks out and leads to the defeat of the Pakistan Army .

Recent history:

• The Bharatiya Janta Party came to power in India in 2014 and accelerated the religious tensions between Hindus and Muslims, by working towards a Hindu-Nationalism (Hindutva) through public policy, limitations on access of resources, citizenship amendment for Muslims and religious minorities.
• Pulwana attack occurs in 2019, where 40 border security personnel (CRPF) are murdered by “Islamists” in Indian administered Kashmir
• As a retaliation to Pulwana, the Modi government removed the special status (Article 370) of Indian administered Kashmir [Jammu and Kashmir remained a union territory after it became a part of the region, meaning that it operated under some autonomy while still being part of the larger whole of the region] and made the region into a state, enforcing heavy governmental clampdown, increased military personnel as well as shutting down the internet and preventing assembly while enforcing curfews.
• In 2025 Waqf bill is introduced impacting the ability of Muslims to manage property and religious institutions, sparking religious riots in West Bengal.
• Murder of 26 civilians in Pahalgam (Jammu and Kashmir) by “Islamist” forces, leading India to escalate a military conflict with Pakistan without proof of involvement from the Pakistani government

Pakistan and India are neighboring countries with deep-rooted ties historically. The governments of these regions have political elites and billionaires that have utilized this moment to embolden themselves. The news media from India and Pakistan have misled the populations categorically.

While the tensions were at their highest, the private news media spread lies about the war, showing pictures from regions that were not even involved. For example, a news outlet from India utilized pictures from Iran showering missiles on Israel.

The Reliance foundation i.e. Ambani, took the opportunity to make money off of the war by trying to trademark “Operation Sindoor” and this was met with tremendous pushback from progressive and communist parties.

The Trump administration met with their counterparts in Pakistan and India. On May 9, the Pakistani government received over $2 billion in aid from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), despite the Indian government arguing against this. Pakistan in the past has received several IMF loans, and it is in a phase of a debt trap due to these predatory loans. There were real fears the loan would bolster the war effort.

The Pakistani government grew closer to the United States after the removal of Imran Khan from office and his subsequently being sent to jail. The current prime minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif, is seen as a keen ally of the U.S. while maintaining key relationships with China through the Belt and Road Initiative.

The Trump administration met with their counterparts in India and later proclaimed that “India will drop tariffs to nothing,” meaning import tariffs on American commodities would be reduced to zero. This figure was then adjusted to two-thirds. India is an ally the United States and, in recent times, has become a close ally of Israel. India and Israel have had trade and military exchange in the past. The pro-Indian government driven social media has also voiced open support for the governments of Israel and the U.S. during the genocide in Gaza. India is also a participant in the BRICS (Brazil Russia India China and South Africa) formation, leaving it in a strange and contradictory political position with the other constituents of the formation.

The unprecedented attack on Pakistan by India has led to the death of several on both sides of the border. Pakistan and India are both nuclear powers, but they are also 105th and 109th respectively out of 127 countries in the world hunger list. Both South Asian countries are in a phase of deep economic decline; unemployment is at an all-time high while health care and educational access is at an all-time low. Neither country can afford a war between themselves nor a war that involves other regional powers too.

Continuation of the war would lead to a severe decline in the wellbeing of both countries, while benefitting imperialist countries like the United States and the United Kingdom.

A ceasefire, though necessary, should be utilized to build a concrete peace plan that handles religious extremism delicately with cross-border participation.

#Opinion #Commentary #International #India #Pakistan

As the struggle for national liberation continues, we experience attacks and opposition from various angles in our society. The state weaponizes law enforcement and the justice system in order to threaten, subdue and eradicate those in our movements. The mainstream media sits at the opposite arm of this imperial body, disseminating propaganda to dull and warp the minds of millions through half-truths and obfuscation. To effect the reinforcing chauvinist fervor and trust in the system of capitalistic exploitation, we are constantly bombarded with stories and roundtable discussions syndicated by media conglomerates. These figures are financially incentivized to keep the masses from adopting any semblance of class consciousness.

Perhaps one of the more observable forms of this process is the constant stream of lies and false narratives reported around the Palestinian genocide by politicians and political pundits.

However, I’ve observed a less obvious form of media programming that has been significantly more effective in its goals of reproducing individualistic ideals and enforcing systems of oppression that collectively harm our communities. I’m talking about rap music. More specifically, I’m speaking about the productions by artists financed by industrial powerhouses to create vapid and heavily corporatized messaging.

Media that contains materialistic glamorization provides one side of the myth of Black capitalism to a catchy 808. A genre that at one point featured a plethora of young Black artists creating art that called upon criticisms of the various mechanisms of this society built on white hegemony, has largely been replaced them by those who will, at best, make shallow references to Black radical political ideas while eschewing any calls for changing our society to better meet our material conditions.

A Brand Nubian or Public Enemy of the early 90s, two groups who followed the Black radical tradition of utilizing media to raise political consciousness, simply could not and do not exist with any mainstream presence in the present day. That isn’t to say that these artists no longer exist, but they are not at the forefront of the media circuit. This has not stopped the rap industry from becoming a global enterprise, with artists selling out millions in stadium venues across the world and headlining major sports events to crowds that would otherwise have disapproved of their preponderance. Rap is bigger than it’s ever been in the history of the genre, and along with it the media programming is at an all-time high.

As a person who has been a fan of the genre for over two decades, I’ve watched an industry become more and more co-opted into vectors of mass compliance for capitalist exploitation – from brand deals and corporate sponsorships to globalization through every major social media platform on the internet. Rap is everywhere, and as much love I have for the genre it is primarily not positioned for the betterment of our communities.

Concretely, what we have today is an ever expanding list of artists who serve the interests of those who most profit off the U.S. propaganda machine. Take Kendrick Lamar, who is widely regarded in both numerical and cultural values (ticket sales, music awards and pop cultural relevance) as one of the most highly successful rap artists of the last few decades. His discography includes a mix of upbeat and party music to more introspective and culturally relatable works exploring themes of financial exploitation and interpersonal relationship struggles (To Pimp a Butterfly, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers). What his artistry lacks, however, is any attempt at providing a sober analysis of the systems that churn profit off of our oppression and raise the question of the legitimacy of capitalism.

When he says, “But remember, you ain't pass economics in school. And everything you buy, taxes will deny. I'll Wesley Snipe your ass before thirty-five,” he speaks to one of the ways that the tax system works in tandem with scholastic institutions to produce talented Black artists ignorant of financial exploitation. At the same time, there is no call to divorce young Black artists from engaging in this industry in the first place. An exploitative practice in the system is pointed out, but the legitimacy of the system and those benefiting from it remain relatively untouched. In fact, in this same song he features media mogul and CEO of Aftermath Entertainment Dr. Dre, who not only mentored Kendrick in his rise to success but is directly responsible for signing him onto the record label which produced most of his albums.

Aftermath Entertainment is but one of many subsidiaries of the media powerhouse Universal Music Group, which has managed the albums of some of the most commercially successful pop artists of the last few decades, from Justin Beiber to Taylor Swift. It’s also worth noting that the CEO of this company, Lucian Grainge, is a staunch Zionist who has maintained an imperialist stance on the genocide of Palestinians for years. Music produced under such a global conglomerate simply cannot be allowed to question monopoly capitalism in any substantive form, and yet it is this music that is widely distributed through all manner of media outlets. Clearly it represents no threat to any wing of the establishment, and the artists who are absorbed into the system are used to expand the profits of the CEOs and their constituents through brand endorsements and commercial advertising.

Seeing an artist heralded by the masses appear in a TV commercial for a multinational financial corporation like American Express, which Kendrick did alongside Shaq in 2016, only one year after To Pimp a Butterfly, sends a dangerous message to those communities – a message exacerbated by the fact that Kendrick was put on tour by that same financial corporation in the same year. And, to bring it to recent events, was the featured artist for one of the most televised sporting events in the world. This message is antithetical to the movement we are trying to build, and one that we cannot allow to foster amongst the people unabated.

Growing up in the Black Belt South, I’ve experienced the effects that rap and hip-hop cultures largely have had on myself and my peers. There was a time when I would have championed a Kendrick Lamar Superbowl show, without considering the implications of showcasing dozens of corporations before, during and after the performance. The same performance had one of the backup dancers, Zul-Qarnain Nantambu, arrested for independently showing international solidarity for those suffering imperial-backed genocide in Palestine. But I wasn’t a communist who believed in the science of Marxism-Leninism then, and now that I am I see another great need in our working class struggles against the state.

As we move forward in our struggles of liberation against the forces committed to our repression, we simply cannot understate the significance of mass media and the celebrity class in manufacturing consent for this system of greed and exploitation. When Malcolm X said, “The media is the most powerful entity on earth.” he was speaking to the power of the media to fool the working-class into believing in false narratives and to keep from correctly identifying and mobilizing against those in power.

In all our organizing grounds, we seek to correct these ideas through political education of the people. However, we need to go a step further and cultivate a culture of media analysis that identifies the vectors of these pacifying ideas and address their sources of influence. When internationally recognized artists such as Meg the Stallion and Will.i.am are brought onto Kamala Harris’ campaign trail, we must be able to recognize the role they are playing in the imperial core and treat them as such. It’s the same position that Malcolm X correctly identified in 1963, and that role has only intensified in the digital age.

Furthermore, our struggle against this arm of monopoly capitalism must be waged within and amongst ourselves. Our media consumption and engagement should be filtered through a materialist analysis of the artists and the messaging they are distributing amongst the masses. That means being expressly critical of the music and supporting industries we engage in, even more so given where we situate ourselves in these national liberation struggles. This is not a call to destroy your copy of Late Registration because of Kanye West’ most recent trend towards nazi apologia and his professed allegiance to the most reactionary elements of the U.S. political landscape. Rather, it is a reminder of the many forces we are up against as we continue to advance the struggle towards collective liberation from imperialism. We wish to transform society into one that is free from class exploitation, and we must be ready and willing to engage in that struggle in every aspect it manifests in. Even if that manifestation is set to a dope bass line.

#Culture #Opinion #Commentary #AfricanAmerican #Rap

Can he legally do this? Probably not, but Trump has shown a disregard for the law and even the Constitution that he swore to uphold. After all, he is a convicted criminal. It is Congress, not the president, nor the Federal Reserve Bank that determines the production of coins.

With fewer pennies in circulation, businesses will round off their prices. In Canada, they phased out their penny ten years ago, and required businesses to round off, both up and down, to the nearest five cents for the total cost, plus sales taxes. Without any regulation, businesses here in the United States would tend to round up, raising prices and giving a bump to inflation. Some of the greediest businesses could even round up the price of each item, and then round up the sales tax, to squeeze even more from the consumer. This would fall hardest on lower-income consumers who use cash.

Now it is true, as Trump said, that the penny cost more than one cent to produce and distribute, so that the government loses money on this; this has been going on for years. But I have to ask, if the goal is purely about saving money, why stop production of the penny and not the nickel? While it cost two cents more to produce a penny than its face value, it costs the U.S. Mint five cents more to produce a nickel.

Perhaps a difference is who is portrayed on each coin. The penny has the face of President Lincoln, who led the country in a war against the slave South. On the other hand, the nickel shows President Jefferson, who was a slave owner. Normally I wouldn’t think of this, but with Elon Musk and his Nazi salute, his support for neo-Nazis in Germany, and his band of racist and eugenicist interns in the DOGE, and Trump’s own bigotry, it is hard to argue that this had no role.

#Opinion #Commentary #CapitalismAndEconomy #Trump

El 25 de noviembre, el presidente electo Donald Trump anunció su nominación de Pam Bondi para fiscal general de los Estados Unidos. Bondi, de Tampa, es la antigua fiscal general para el estado de Florida. Si es confirmada, ella dirigiría el Departamento de Justicia (DOJ), que supervisa agencias como el Buró Federal de Investigaciones (FBI) y la (Administración de Control de Drogas) DEA.

“El cargo más importante después del presidente de los Estados Unidos en la próxima administración, no soy yo. Es a quién seleccionemos como fiscal general,” dijo el vicepresidente electo JD Vance, en una entrevista con la National Public Radio.

Esta candidatura marca dos cambios importantes. Primero, el gobierno estadounidense está tan polarizado que un DOJ de Trump no hará ningún intento de parecer justicia ciega, por encima de políticas partidarias. Segundo, Trump quiere aprovechar los poderes federales para pisotear el derecho a reunirse.

Bondi: Una títere corrupta

Él anunció su decisión pocas horas después de que su anterior candidato, el representante federal Matt Gaetz, renunciara. Trump escogió a Gaetz por su lealtad política, pero tuvo que abandonarlo porque el congresista enfrentaba una investigación federal por tráfico sexual. Bondi claramente estaba en la lista corta de Trump. Ya se predice que ella tendrá un camino más fácil para ser confirmada, considerando su experiencia en la fiscalía.

Esta administración entrante tiene a los antiguos fiscales generales Jeff Sessions y William Barr en el retrovisor. Ambos cayeron en desgracia con Trump por romper filas cuando él estuvo bajo investigación. Bondi, por otro lado, tiene una historia comprobada de dedicación.

Su lealtad data de 2013, cuando su oficina de repente dio marcha atrás a investigar la Universidad Trump. A los pocos días de este cambio de postura, un comité de acción política apoyando la campaña de reelección de Bondi recibió una contribución de $25,000 de la Fundación Donald J. Trump. En 2016, Bondi apareció en una manifestación por Trump. En 2020, sirvió en su equipo legal durante su primer juicio político. Ella se unió a los gritos de “detener el robo” cuando Trump perdió la elección de ese año. En mayo de 2023, ella apareció en su juicio criminal.

Como fiscal general de Florida, Bondi se opuso al matrimonio gay y se unió a una demanda contra la Ley del Cuidado de Salud a Bajo Precio. Su tiempo en el sector privado incluyó hacer cabildeo para Amazon y Uber. Actualmente preside los brazos legales del America First Policy Institute, un centro de estudios pro-Trump.

En un artículo reciente del Daily Caller, los antiguos empleados de Bondi insinúan que su DOJ exoneraría a Trump y enjuiciaría a oponentes en el Partido Demócrata.

Lista para criminalizar las protestas

Bondi llego a los titulares después de su entrevista con Newsmax en octubre 2023 sobre los activistas estudiantiles. “Francamente, necesitan ser sacados de nuestro país, o el FBI debería entrevistarlos de inmediato cuando dicen ‘Apoyo a Hamas. Soy Hamas,’” dijo.

Eso es peligroso, porque las cortes del DOJ son responsables de escuchar casos de deportación. Las condenas por “delitos que impliquen depravación moral” son motivo para la deportación bajo la Ley de Inmigración y Nacionalidad, incluso para residentes permanentes y los titulares de visas. Estos pueden incluir delitos menores, como crímenes de odio (a menudo interpretados para incluir el anti-sionismo), acoso, y otros cargos injustamente usados contra manifestantes. Hay defensas legales potenciales, dependiendo del caso.

Además de esto, Bondi declaró que el FBI debería investigar manifestantes. Esto va más allá de cualquier cosa que Trump ha dicho en público. También representaría una clara violación de los derechos de la Primera Enmienda.

Más allá de estas declaraciones sobre la solidaridad con Palestina, ella ha elaborado planes para reprimir el Movimiento por la Liberación Negra.

Menos de una semana después de que Trump ganara la elección de este año, el ala de Bondi del America First Policy Institute publicó un reporte sobre protestas en Portland, Oregón durante la rebelión por George Floyd y Breonna Taylor. El informe promete un “enfoque de América primero a la violencia liberal.”

El momento no podría enviar una señal más clara de que la candidata a fiscal general está espumando en la boca por la represión racista y política. La elección de la ciudad para el reporte también es significativa. Portland es donde agentes federales sin identificación se llevaron a personas de las calles en 2020.

Por ahora, una ley de 2021 exige que oficiales federales lleven una identificación visible mientras realizan control de multitudes. Las organizaciones del movimiento ganaron esto después del levantamiento en Portland.

El reporte también culpa a los “fiscales progresistas renegados” por retirar los cargos contra “más del 90%” de los manifestantes de Portland, indicando la voluntad de Bondi de maximizar las acusaciones contra activistas.

Dicho esto, Bondi comparte su ciudad de origen con las 5 de Tampa. Estas cinco mujeres enfrentaron cargos de delito mayor inventados por protestar ataques contra la diversidad en la educación, pero vencieron todos los cargos. Como ellas, los manifestantes en solidaridad con Palestina de costa a costa han resistido en la corte y varias veces han ganado. Las estrategias más exitosas para luchar en contra se basan en abogados defensores agresivos y campañas de apoyo público. Entre más intensa sea la batalla contra la injusticia, más mostrará este sistema su putrefacción.

#PeoplesStruggles #Trump #Bondi #Opinion #Commentary

On December 4, United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot and killed in broad daylight, right in front of the hotel where a UHC investors meeting was set to begin. What followed was a multi-million dollar manhunt that culminated in the arrest of 26-year-old Luigi Mangione.

Since then, the ruling class media have worked overtime to paint Mangione as a villain, although he represents people’s righteous anger at a health “care” system that is killing us.

In one breath, Fox News hosts derided those who applaud Mangione as “nutbags” and claimed they had a “sickness.” Then, in the same segment, Laura Ingram said subway killer Daniel Penny was a hero. She supports individuals such as Daniel Penny because of a deeply rooted racism and white chauvinism. In Ingram’s world, the actions of Daniel Penny, the white ex-Marine found not guilty of the murder of Jordan Neely, a homeless Black person and street performer, meet with her approval precisely because she embraces keeping the oppressed oppressed.

The hypocrisy is blatant and unsurprising. Fox News is silently shouting that the life of a Black homeless man is worth less than the life of a high-powered white health insurance executive.

Right-wingers love vigilantism as long as it doesn’t target the rich and powerful. They celebrate racist killers like George Zimmerman, Kyle Rittenhouse and Daniel Penny but condemn Luigi Mangione.

It’s not just the right-wing media that is trying to persuade Americans against Mangione; liberal publications like The Daily Beast have published headlines like “Luigi Mangione Destroyed His Grandfather’s Rags-to-Riches Legacy.” The media is attempting to frame the focus away from the systemic failures Mangione’s actions highlighted and redirect it toward character assassination. The media tries to turn the public eye towards the privileged upbringing of Mangione and attempts to bury the man’s chronic suffering, which was much like the suffering of many Americans.

This isn't an issue of “left-wing lunatics” celebrating the death of a CEO. The events of the last week shine a light on the hundreds of thousands of Americans drowning in medical debt and grieving loved ones who were killed by the profit-driven healthcare industry. Sky-high premiums, along with benefits that are cut more steeply each year, are taking a toll on the people. The Peter G. Peterson Foundation found that in 2022, the average American spent significantly more on healthcare than other countries, at $13,493 per person or $4.5 trillion nationwide.

Additionally, Statista reports, “As of 2023, around 19 percent of U.S. adults were satisfied with the total healthcare cost in the United States.” According to Value Penguin, UnitedHealthcare’s claim denial rate is the highest in the industry, at 32%. Physicians for a National Health Program also found that 44,789 Americans die every year due to a lack of healthcare. The United States of America is touted as the wealthiest country in the world. Yet, it is the only developed nation that does not provide free universal healthcare to its citizens.

The American people are aware of the growing social inequality. They are aware of the ways that the wealthy 1% uses power and money to disenfranchise the masses. Therefore, the ruling class must contend with what will undoubtedly be increased hostility as the people grapple with the hypocrisies of our present society.

Luigi Mangione is not the villain – the healthcare industry is. Ultimately, Brian Thompson's death does not undo this for-profit industry's systemic failures. Individual actions like this are not the answer. Organizing is.

Donald Trump will be sworn in as president soon, and he has already promised to undo the Affordable Care Act. What the killing of Brian Thompson has shown is that the masses of the American people want something better, sooner rather than later. Now is the time to demand single-payer healthcare. The current system, which places the profits of the wealthy before the needs of the people, needs to go.

#Opinion #Commentary #Healthcare #LuigiMangione #HealthInsurance

Thousands of small, seemingly innocuous devices, exploding in the hands and pockets of Israel’s enemies. Tuesday and Wednesday’s bombing attacks across Lebanon have been hailed by Zionists as a crushing blow to Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah, an intelligence coup that one viral tweet called “biblical” in scale and sophistication.

But while the attacks certainly showed cunning, an analysis of their targets, objectives and likely effects reveals not sophistication but a crude logic of collective punishment, common to flailing colonial regimes.

Who are the victims?

Contrary to its portrayal in Western media as a shadowy underground terror organization, Hezbollah is in reality a vast social movement, with mass support and an above-ground institutional network that goes far beyond guerrilla warfare. Hezbollah operates hospitals, charities, schools, agricultural development centers, garbage collection and other social services across Lebanon. It also has a political bureau, with members elected to the Lebanese Parliament and holding ministerial appointments in the official government.

In other words, Hezbollah employs many thousands of people in noncombatant and civilian roles. Many—if not most—of the bombing victims appear to have been from this category, including doctors, first responders, administrative and diplomatic personnel. Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon was also wounded in Tuesday’s attack, as well as several people in neighboring Syria.

While much has been made of the attacks supposedly breaching Hezbollah’s famed operational security measures, recognizing many of the victims to be civilian functionaries paints a different picture. Israel and/or its allies simply planted explosives in large numbers of devices bound for Hezbollah-connected institutions, then began detonating them indiscriminately. Far from a masterstroke of targeted espionage, this is just another of Israel’s grotesque mass bombing campaigns.

A failing strategy

Hezbollah’s frontline positions seem to have been negligibly affected. Resistance operations continue along the Zionist occupation’s northern border.

So what is Israel’s strategy with the device bombings? Terrorism, plain and simple. It sought to convey to the entire population of Lebanon that it will target anyone remotely involved with the resistance, no matter how incidental or tertiary the connection—children and other family members, or even random bystanders.

This is much like Israel’s strategy in Gaza. There, too, Israel has openly targeted civilian families of suspected Hamas members on a mass scale, as well as doctors and nurses, aid workers, police and other civilian functionaries deemed to be “part of” Hamas—which, like Hezbollah, operates a vast network of social and political institutions in addition to its armed wing.

In Gaza, Israel’s strategy has largely failed. Despite Israel’s nearly year-long campaign of mass murder and destruction, Hamas continues to function both as an administrative and military formation, even retaining the ability to strike inside the borders of the Zionist occupation. Crucially, the genocidal scale of Israel’s terrorism has failed to crush the spirit of resistance among the Palestinian masses. Gaza remains a quagmire for Israel.

High-tech atrocities

Likewise, the device bombings in Lebanon are unlikely to win anything beyond a short-term morale boost in the twisted minds of Zionists, but the human toll remains horrifying to contemplate. Focusing on the death count alone obscures the scale and the truly gruesome nature of the attack. While at least three dozen people have been killed by exploding pagers and other devices, hundreds to potentially thousands more have lost hands, eyes and other organs.

Let’s be clear about the historical precedents for this: from 19th-century colonial authorities in the Congo Free State chopping off plantation workers’ hands, to the mutilations of Mau Mau rebel prisoners by British occupiers in 1950s Kenya, to Israel’s own “break their bones” doctrine against Palestinian protesters during the First Intifada—not to mention the tens of thousands wounded during the ongoing Gaza genocide—mass maiming and disfigurement campaigns have long been waged by colonial regimes against indigenous resistance. Whether done by machete or by exploding pager, the sadistic brutality is the same.

If there is anything new about the bombings, it’s the large-scale weaponization of civilian consumer items. It heralds an era where household tech devices might not only be spying on you but waiting for a signal to bomb you. This novel tactic will force resistance groups around the world to reevaluate their suppliers, but the greater economic fallout could affect civilian supply chains and consumer behaviors all over the world. Considering that Israel’s own economy relies heavily on its tech sector, the mass boobytrapping of tech products reeks of desperation.

Regardless whether these attacks continue, and regardless whether Israel ultimately attempts a Gaza-style military invasion in Lebanon, Israel’s crude strategy of mass reprisals against resisting populations is unlikely to succeed in the long run. History shows that colonial violence tends to unite and grow national liberation movements, not silence them.

People here in the United States—Israel’s main director and sponsor—have our part to play. By building international solidarity with liberation movements, we help create the conditions for the overthrow of the imperialist system altogether.

Wyatt Miller is an organizer with the Minnesota Anti-War Committee.

#Opinion #Commentary #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #Lebanon #Feature

This theft is a pathetic attempt to wrestle some control over the independent nation that recently re-elected the former union bus driver as its president. It is a direct violation of Venezuela’s sovereignty, using U.S. economic sanctions as cover.

Similar to the kidnapping and imprisonment of Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab in 2020, the U.S. government believes its sanctions on Venezuela put it above international law. Saab heroically brokered agreements for food, medicine and technical parts in exchange for oil and gold. His capture was clearly retribution for successfully defying the U.S. empire’s attempts to ruin life for everyday Venezuelans.

The international campaign to Free Alex Saab included a spirited rally and press conference outside Saab’s Miami court appearance, embarrassing the Biden administration. In December 2023, clever Venezuelan statecraft secured the freedom of Alex Saab as he left the clutches of U.S. detention and rejoined his family.

This time, it’s not a human who “thwarted” the sanctions regime of the dying U.S. empire, but a $13 million jet. The U.S. claims it was purchased in the U.S. by Venezuela despite U.S. sanctions.

For over 20 years, the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela has been a national democratic revolution that ushered in a radical transformation. Once a primarily oil export state, by nationalizing its oil to serve the needs of the people, Venezuela drastically reduced extreme poverty and achieved tremendous gains in health, housing and education.

Mutually beneficial international trade agreements have resulted in support for domestic industrial production and agriculture. Once mocked for leaving so much productive land unused, resulting in more than 80% of food imported, Venezuela can now feed itself. With this base, it has been able to buttress its people against the wicked sanctions apparatus started under President Obama, continued under Trump, and now by Biden.

From coup attempts, to lockouts, to sanctions and assassination attempts, the success of the Bolivarian Revolution has been to frustrate and overcome U.S. attacks, while strengthening self-reliance and advancing. The U.S. sanctions are like medieval siege warfare.

The timing of Biden’s pirate act is not lost on those who pay attention to the affairs of the Bolivarian Revolution. This same Monday, September 2 also saw the Venezuelan prosecutor’s office issue a warrant for the arrest of failed U.S.-backed presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez on charges of “crimes associated with terrorism.” The prosecutor’s office issued similar charges to another opposition leader, Marina Corina Machado, who lives in Florida. Machado could not run for office in Venezuela due to prior legal violations. Both Gonzalez and Machado represent the richest of the rich in Venezuela and Miami, wishing to roll back the gains of working class Venezuelans.

This July, Maduro won with 51% and Gonzalez, the handpicked candidate of Wall Street and the Biden administration, lost with 44%. Other candidates split the remainder. Of course, the U.S. government and all of its stenographers in the corporate media have been disputing the results and supporting the outrageous claim by the opposition that Gonzalez won in a landslide.

As in past incidents, the U.S. regime change operation kicked into gear after it was clear the U.S.-backed candidate lost the election. Like election fakers elsewhere, the rich people and their paid lackeys launched protests that turned into violent clashes, attempting to sow chaos and distrust. Like so many other times before, the Venezuelan masses took to the streets in far greater numbers to support President Maduro and once again defend their Bolivarian Revolution.

It is clear: this is an attack on President Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan state, and the Bolivarian Revolution. Much like the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s genocide against Palestine, the Democrats supporting the elite opposition of Venezuela is gross and a failure.

#International #Venezuela #Maduro #Commentary