Bulletin N° 870
“The Corporation”
(2h 24min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHrhqtY2khc
This 2003 Canadian documentary film was written by
University of British Columbia law professor Joel Bakan,
and directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott. The
documentary examines the modern-day corporation as a veritable paradigm of
social abuse which is reproduced at every level of society and the effects of
which no one can escape. Bakan wrote the book, The Corporation: The Pathological
Pursuit of Profit.
Subject : The Capitalist
Conspiracy, Part 6 : The corporate
ends used to justify corporate means of militarism, racism, sexism, genocide &
other instruments of fear mongering for
higher private profits.
December
8, 2019
Grenoble,
France
Dear
Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,
“Rulers
Represent Themselves” is the title of Chapter 6 of Joseph Plummer’s book, Tragedy
& Hope 101: The Illusion of Justice, Freedom and Democracy (2016).
In this chapter, this amature historian discusses “statecraft” and specifically
“the evolution of state power” in the United States of America, which like all modern states claims the exclusive right to a legitimate monopoly on lethal force within
their society.
Common criminals do not have access to the
media, the trust of the masses, or the air of legitimacy given to those who
secure a position of authority. They cannot legally seize our money,
destroy the purchasing power of our currency, or control the police and
military. Common criminals cannot legislate away our rights, or reduce
our children to debt slaves. They cannot obstruct an inquiry into their crimes
from inside the system. (They cannot seal documents, confiscate and
‘lose’ evidence, or appoint their own investigators.) Common criminals cannot
write laws and selectively enforce them. They cannot disarm millions of
their would-be victims, round them up and put them in cages, or worse. They
cannot take nations to war, profiting financially and politically from the
carnage....
Suffice it to say, this is why those who
created the US government spoke constantly about limiting its power via the Constitution
and Bill of Rights. As Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Kentucky Resolutions of
1798, too much confidence in our elected leaders’ good intentions is the
‘parent of despotism everywhere.’ It would be a ‘dangerous delusion,’ he
warned, for us to trust those who currently hold power simply because they are
‘men of or choice.’
. . .
Members of the Network have spent the past
one hundred years doing everything in their power to nurture the ‘dangerous
delusion’ that Jefferson warned us about. Before they can have their way with
the world, our rulers must break the ‘chains of the Constitution’ that bind
them down. They don’t want to exercise limited government power; they
want to exercise the opposite.(pp.120-121)
Plummer
goes on to cite James Madison (1751-1836), the fourth president of the
United States in his warning against a state of permanent warfare.
“Of all the enemies to public liberty war
is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded. . . . War is the parent of armies; from
these proceed debts and taxes . . . and armies, and
debts, and taxes are the known instruments of bring the many under the
domination of the few. . . . No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst
of continual warfare.”(cited on page 121)
This
historic conspiracy to monopolize the expansion of power, according to Plummer,
is often counter-intuitive. He explains:
In chapter 1, we briefly covered the
1950s-era investigations into large, tax-exempt foundations. Many were shocked
when it was discovered that the capitalist foundations were using their
money to support Communism. At first glance, this seems ridiculous. Why
would the wealthiest men in the world want to ‘orient American far eastern
policies toward Communist objectives?’ This seemingly suicidal policy begins to
make more sense when you learn how the Network actually operates. It’s
important to remember that war, and the threat of war, had enabled them
(more than anything else) to inch ever closer to their goal of destroying
national sovereignty.(pp.121-122)
To
illustrate the amorality of this insatiable quest for a monopoly of power by
the owners of capital, Plummer gives a brief history of Katherine Casey, a
research assistant for Norman Dodd, who in the 1950s was assigned the task of
investigating tax-exempt foundations, professing to do “humanitarian work.”
Norman Dodd was a lead researcher for one
of aforementioned investigations and, as such, he was chosen to appoint the
committee’s staff. By the 1950s, propaganda touting the humanitarian
‘benevolence’ of the tax-exempt foundations was widely accepted and many people,
including one of Dodd’s researchers, Katherine Casey, felt that the foundations
were beyond reproach. As Dodd put it, Casey was ‘unsympathetic to the purpose of
the investigation. Her attitude . . . was: ‘What could possibly be wrong with
foundations? They do so much good.’ But Casey’s trust was soon shattered as she
dug into what was, at the time, decades-old records of the Network-connected
Carnegie Foundation. Dodd explains:
I
blocked out certain periods of time [for Casey] to concentrate on, and off she
went to New York. She came back at the end of two weeks with the following on
Dictaphone tapes:
“We are now at the year 1908 . . . . In
that year, the trustees . . . raised a specific question, which they discussed
throughout the balance of the year in a very learned fashion. The question is;
‘Is there any means known more effective than war, assuming you wish to alter
the life of an entire people?’ And they concluded that no more effective means
than war to that end is known to humanity. So then, in 1909, they raised the
second question and discussed it, namely: ‘How do we involve the United States
in a war?’ . . . Then, finally they answered that question as follows: ‘We must control
the State Department.’ That very naturally raises the question of how do we do
that? And they answer it by saying: ‘We must take over and control the
diplomatic machinery of this country.’ And, finally, they resolve to aim at
that as an objective.’”
Plummer
goes on to remind readers of the history of the secret Network:
Keep in mind, the plans that Casey is
reporting on were originally written just a few years before the Network
managed to gain control the ‘diplomatic machinery’ of the country (using
Woodrow Wilson and Mandell House). That control was later
expanded via the Network-led group of ‘experts,’ known as The Inquiry.
The Inquiry, in turn evolved into what is now known as the Council on Foreign Relations.
Within twenty years of its founding, the CFR’s enormous power within the State
Department was undeniable. (Look no further than the 1939 War and Peace
Studies for an excellent example.*) Casey’s report
continues:
“Then
time passes, and we are eventually in a war, which would be World War I. At
that time they record on their minutes a shocking report in which they
dispatched to President Wilson a telegram, cautioning him to see that the war
does not end too quickly. Finally, of course, the war is over. At that time their
interest shifts over to preventing what they call a reversion of life in
the United States (to what it was prior to 1914 when World War I broke out. At
that point they came to the conclusion that, to prevent a reversion, ‘we must
control education in the United States.’ . . . They realize that that’s a
pretty big task . . . . They then decided that the key to success . . . lay in
the alteration of the teaching of American history.”
*NOTE: Today,
there is a good deal of information available on the CFR-directed War and Peace
Studies. However, the project was initially top secret, unknown to all but a handful
of CFR members. In Seeds of Destruction, page 102, William Engdahl notes that: ‘the War and Peace Studies Group of the New York
Council of Foreign Relations, effectively took over all significant post-war planning
for the US State Department. After 1942, most of its members were quietly put directly
on the State Department payroll.’
According to Norman Dodd, Casey was so devastated by the information she uncovered during the Reece Committee investigation that she never recovered:
As
far as its impact on Katherine Casey was concerned . . . she never was able to
return to her law practice. Ultimately, she lost her mind as a result of it. It
was a terrible shock. It’s a very rough experience to encounter proof of these
kinds.
That final sentence is profound. It
actually is a very ‘rough experience to encounter proof’ that you’ve
been intentionally misled. It is painful to learn that intelligent, manipulative,
and arrogant liars have secured your well-meaning trust, only then to play you
as a fool. Nobody wants to face that feeling and, as it relates to ‘our’
powerful institutions, that feeling gets worse before it gets better. After
discovering the initial betrayal, you come to realize that your trust has been
betrayed at every turn. You realize that the entire system has been designed
to deceive and trap you (along with the rest of the unsuspecting public) in a fabricated
reality, in an illusion.
Perhaps worst of all, after some study and
serious thought, you begin to comprehend the enormity of the problem. The same
institutional propaganda that initially fooled you still holds sway over millions
and millions of minds. To unlock those minds, you must convince people to investigate
ugly truths that, to them, seem ridiculous and offensive. You have to overcome
the fact that most people will be ‘unsympathetic to the purpose’ of any
investigation that challenges their deeply held beliefs.
Katherine
Casey uncovered a criminal conspiracy that was so inherently immoral, and so at
odds with popular perception, that few people would ever believe the story was
true. And, since we don’t have access to the documents she saw, healthy skepticism
is perfectly reasonable. So, moving forward, let’s assume that all we have to
go on is a few general assertions:
1)
Members of the
Network believe they have a right to rule in secrecy.
2)
By controlling policy
and public perception, they have the ability to do so.
3)
Because of their
power within the political system, their crimes are rarely exposed and never
properly punished.
Through
the remainder of this book, I will prove that these three assertions are true.(p.122-125)
The
23 + items below contain news of current events that can be used to test
the assertions made by Joseph Plummer in the above presentation of his book, Tragedy
& Hope 101: The Illusion of Justice, Freedom and Democracy, which
is a brief synopsis of the extensive study of Professor Carroll Quigley. This discussion
should raise questions about how the ruling class rules and what precisely is “cultural
hegemony,” which "goes without saying" and all but defies public scrutiny.
Francis Feeley
---
Professeur honoraire de l'Université Grenoble-Alpes
Ancien Directeur des
Researches
Université de Paris-Nanterre
Director of The Center for the Advanced Study
of American Institutions and Social Movements
(CEIMSA-in-Exile)
The University of California-San Diego
http://www.ceimsa.org
a.
Brazilian Indigenous Leader Davi Kopenawa: Bolsonaro is Killing My People & Destroying the Amazon
https://www.democracynow.org/2019/12/4/yanomami_indigenous_leader_protecting_amazon
+
"Hatred of the Indian" fuels the (US-backed)
junta in Bolivia
https://www.globalresearch.ca/bolivia-coup-hatred-indian/5696519
by Álvaro García
Linera
Vice-president Álvaro García Linera
reflects on the role of racial hatred in motivating the coup which forced him
and President Evo Morales out of office and into
exile.
Almost as a
nighttime fog, hatred rapidly traverses the neighborhoods of the traditional
urban middle-class of Bolivia. Their eyes fill with anger. They
do not yell, they spit. They do not raise demands, they impose. Their
chants are not of hope of brotherhood. They are of disdain and discrimination
against the Indians. They hop on their motorcycles, get into their trucks,
gather in their fraternities of private universities, and they go out to hunt
the rebellious Indians that dared to take power from them.
In the case of Santa Cruz, they organize motorized
hordes with sticks in hand to punish the Indians, those that they call ‘collas’, who live in peripheral
neighborhoods and in the markets. They chant “the collas must be killed,” and if
on the way, they come across a woman wearing a pollera [traditional skirt
worn by Indigenous and mestizo women] they hit her,
threaten her and demand that she leave their territory.
+
Reversing Pro-Palestinian
Stance of Evo Morales, Bolivia's Coup Government
Moves to Restore Ties With Israel
by Jake Johnson
Morales cut off diplomatic ties with Israel over its
deadly 2009 assault on the occupied Gaza Strip and called for top Israeli
officials to be charged with genocide.
"Eddie Conway Talks Indigenous Peoples Day and Political Prisoners"
https://youtu.be/nxuti-pZyYM
===========
b.
'Gaza Fights for
Freedom': An antidote to Israel’s criminal propaganda
https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/film-review-gaza-fights-freedom
by Belen Fernandez
+
"On Contact: Gaza with Abby Martin and Mike Prysner"
https://youtu.be/gcsEYRt_jGY
+
Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib targeted in Israeli
fake news operation
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52664.htm
by David Smith, Michael McGowan , Christopher Knaus and Nick Evershed
+
From: GAZA PALESTINE
[mailto:anahona366@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, December 06, 2019 11:06 PM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: We need $ 60 to buy first aid for next week.... Great return
marches have started today and we need your support, so our work does not stop.
We need your support in obtaining some first
aid for our work in the coming days.
The major
return marches began today, Friday, after they stopped since the last Israeli
aggression on the Gaza Strip two weeks ago.
The
demonstrators were subjected to live fire today.
Where the
Israeli occupation forces injured more than 40 people during the activities of
the major return marches.
A cameraman
and a journalist were wounded by gunfire, and a number of paramedics were
wounded with gas canisters.
Today we
are back to work and all this thanks to friend Mark, friend salvatore, friend Sheila Colligwood-Whittick,
friend Bengt Lundquist and David Spiro
Thank them
very much and we need your support in getting equipment for our work and
starting over.
We need
some gauze for $ 30 and the other 30 for some solutions and iodine
I am very
sorry to send this, but we need your continued support. I hope you will not be
upset with my mail.
I am sorry
and feel embarrassed about this, but I have to be human to help the injured.
You can
help us through the following link:
https://gogetfunding.com/gazanow1/#
+
From: Moshé Machover
Sent: Saturday, December 07, 2019
Subject: Pourquoi Israël est un Etat
raciste ‒ Moshé Machover - Matzpen.org/English
Pourquoi Israël est un Etat raciste ‒
Moshé Machover
Dévoiler le racisme d’Israël n’est que trop facile. Une timide
dénonciation, sans explication de son contexte sous-jacent, peut réellement
s’avérer trompeuse voire même contre-productive; elle
pourrait être vue comme une critique d’Israël dénonçant quelque défaut moral
étrange et exceptionnel de ses dirigeants ou, pire, de sa majorité juive. En
fait, les schémas et comportements racistes, partout où ils ont lieu, sont
partie intégrante de la superstructure judiciaire et idéologique et ne peuvent
être correctement appréhendés isolément de leur matière première. Dans le cas
d’Israël, la colonisation sioniste de la Palestine constitue cette matière
première – une opération dans laquelle Israël est tout autant le résultat que
l’instrument.
continuer la lecture :
https://matzpen.org/english/2018-12-20/francais-pourquoi-israel-est-un-etat-raciste/
+
Tom Friedman
condemns Iran for shooting protesters, but finds it ‘easy’
to defend Israel
for doing same
by Philip Weiss
===========
c.
Global NATO: A 70-Year Alliance of Oppressors in Crisis
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/04/09/global-nato-a-70-year-alliance-of-oppressors-in-crisis
by Horace G. Campbell
+
NATO: Past, Present, and Future . . . ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfO3h4IAtM4&feature=youtu.be
interview
with former NATO Deputy Secretary-General Alessandro Minuto-Rizzo
On this episode of Going
Underground, we speak to former NATO Deputy Secretary-General Alessandro Minuto-Rizzo on the upcoming NATO summit in London. He is
challenged by Afshin Rattansi
on NATO nations’ wars on the Middle East, the claim NATO is a force for peace,
why Macron called the NATO alliance brain dead, NATO’s response to the rise of
a more powerful Russia and China and more! Next, we speak to Robert Bahar, director of the film Silence of Others, a film about
atrocities in Spain during the Franco era. He discusses the continuities of
Franco’s dictatorship in modern Spain, how Franco’s regime shaped the Spanish
state, Franco’s involvement in fascist eugenics programs, why many people in
Spain don’t know the extent of the atrocities and more!
+
NATO's Secret Armies. Operation GLADIO and the Strategy of Tension
https://www.globalresearch.ca/natos-secret-armies-operation-gladio-and-the-strategy-of-tension/5500132
Interview with Dr. Daniele Ganser
+
"Report: 14,000 troops to Iran border — what gives?"
https://youtu.be/RXtaDbc6JIw
+
Moral Injury & America’s Endless Conflicts
https://consortiumnews.com/2019/12/06/moral-injury-americas-endless-conflicts/
by Arnold R. Isaacs
===========
d.
Could America
Survive a Truth Commission?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52654.htm
by Charles Hugh Smith
There is
precious little evidence that a Truth Commission in the U.S. would be aimed at
one goal: protecting the powerful from the consequences of their decisions and
actions. –
A nation that's no longer capable of naming names
and reporting what actually happened richly deserves an economic and political
collapse to match its moral collapse.
You've probably heard of the Truth Commissions held
in disastrously corrupt and oppressive regimes after the sociopath/kleptocrat Oligarchs are deposed. The goal is not revenge, as well-deserved as that
might be; the goal is national reconciliation via the only possible path to
healing: name names and tell the plain, unadorned truth, stripped of
self-serving artifice, spin, propaganda and PR.
Is such a stripped-of-spin truthful account of names
and events even possible in the U.S.?
Sadly, there is precious little evidence that a Truth Commission in the U.S.
would be anything more than a travesty of a mockery of a sham, a parade of
half-truths, misdirections, falsehoods and
fabrications, all aimed at one goal: protecting the powerful from the
consequences of their decisions and actions.
Sadly, we've lost the capacity to simply tell the
truth: everything,
and I mean everything, is crafted to protect the guilty, polish the putrid
decay of legalized looting, defraud the unwary, ease the most venal, power-mad
sociopaths into positions of unparalleled power, sell low-quality goods and
services nobody needs or would even want if the marketing weren't so Orwellian,
persuade debt-serfs to borrow more and bamboozle voters into further enriching
the few at the expense of the many.
The truth is no match for greed is good and don't be
evil, unless it's incredibly profitable, in which case, go for it but cover
your tracks (here's looking
at you, Big Tech). Outrage is reserved for whistleblowers who name names and
reveal the sordid truths that the status quo has expended the nation's treasure
to protect from the light of day.
This is the pathetic state of America: our outrage is reserved for those telling the
truth, not for the legions who lie, cheat, steal and
prevaricate to conceal the truth at all costs. |
The so-called gatekeepers are all corrupt and
self-serving, minions of the
Intelligence Community, corporate overlords, billionaires or the interest
groups that fund their studies, departments, think tanks and
"research" (the conclusions are established first and the
"research" follows accordingly).
+
Operation Northwoods. False Flag Attacks and Regime Change. US Intervention in India
https://www.globalresearch.ca/operation-northwoods-false-flag-attacks-regime-change/5695163
by Great Game India
+
Rwanda: the financiers of the genocide
https://www.cadtm.org/Rwanda-the-financiers-of-the
by Eric Toussaint
+
Rwanda. Do Banks Hold A responsibility In The Genocide ?
https://www.southworld.net/rwanda-do-banks-hold-a-responsibility-in-the-genocide/
+
"How White Collar Criminals Get Away with Murder"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWZTKWQZ4NA&feature=youtu.be
with Bill Black
===========
e.
'So If You're Poor, You're Dead'? Watch These Brits Gasp When They
Find Out Cost of Healthcare in the United States
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52653.htm
by Eoin Higgins
Brits can't fathom the barbarity of America's
healthcare system.
+
The
wolf that ate Wall Street: US economy roars amid rising income inequality
by Robert Bridge
As the US stock market continues to set
records, and the economy creates millions of new jobs, many Americans are
forced to settle for low-paying work and meager benefits. How long can the
inequality continue?
The sound of popping champagne bottles
will soon echo across Manhattan this holiday season as corporate America is in
decidedly high spirits. And for good reason. Wall
Street has witnessed one of its most robust earning seasons on record, unemployment is at its
lowest rate in 50 years, while many corporations are swimming in cash. But, as
so often happens in the shady world of business and markets, all is not as it
would appear.
Just below the shiny surface of Wall
Street’s epic success story an epic tragedy is unfolding as millions of workers
are silently struggling paycheck to paycheck, doing what they can to make ends
meet while raising a family. The numbers are sobering.
According to data released by the Brookings Institution, 53 million Americans
between the ages of 18 to 64 fall under the category of “low wage.” Their
hourly pay comes out to around $10.22, while median annual earnings are $18,000.
Most startling thing, however, is that this group of wage-earners accounts for
a whopping 44 percent of the entire US workforce
+
"How poor people survive in the USA”
Homelessness, hunger and shame: poverty is rampant
in the richest country in the world. Over 40 million people in the United
States live below the poverty line, twice as many as it was fifty years ago. It
can happen very quickly. Many people in the United States fall through the
social safety net. In the structurally weak mining region of the Appalachians,
it has become almost normal for people to go shopping with food stamps. And
those who lose their home often have no choice but to live in a car. There are so
many homeless people in Los Angeles that relief organizations have started to
build small wooden huts to provide them with a roof over their heads. The
number of homeless children has also risen dramatically, reaching 1.5 million,
three times more than during the Great Depression the 1930s. A
documentary about the fate of the poor in the United States today.
Trump Declared War on the Poor--And the Poor Are Fighting Back
https://youtu.be/4NBdEgCr8d0
with Liz Theoharis of the Poor People's Campaign and Karen Dolan of the Institute for Policy Studies
===========
f.
The Federal Reserve is prolonging the trade war, keeping
the biggest
financial
bubble in history going – and risking the entire global system
by Andy Xie
By fuelling a market rally
every time talks stall, the Fed has extended the trade war and made the asset
bubble bigger. If a crisis erupts outside the US or China, the bubble may burst
– with disastrous consequences for the world
+
‘Once you pop, you can’t stop’: Fed QE is like
Pringles, Ross Ashcroft tells RT’s Keiser Report
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has been
bailing out the repo market with multi-billion dollar programs every week, says
the Keiser Report, which asks if it’s the fourth round of quantitative easing (QE).
Max Keiser talks to award winning filmmaker,
broadcaster, and strategist Ross Ashcroft, who says it’s not QE but more like
QE infinity. “It’s like Pringles, once
you pop, you can’t stop,” says Ashcroft.
According to Ashcroft, who is the host of the weekly
program Renegade, it is the classic liquidity trap. He says the money is
stagnating while really bad ideas are being funded.
“This is
classic, the misallocation of capital, not only in the QE’s but right back to
the crisis” when instead of
letting banks go bust we have propped them up.“From that moment till now we were continually misallocating capital
week in, week out. And the repo market is just the canary in the mine, and of
course they can’t call it QE4 because the markets would trauma.”
He says the systemic fraud is simply staggering. The
asset stripping, political favors, and so on, that’s what is now considered to
be ‘business as usual’ and “obviously it’s not going to end well.”
+
Recession Watch: “Fed Rate Cuts Indicate Unhealthy
Economy”
While the Trump administration and Fed Chair Jerome
Powell double down on claims the America economy is strong, economics experts
say recent, record low, rate cuts point to a weak economy beneath the surface.
Boom Bust takes a deeper look at the actual economy behind the rate cuts (7:46). Plus,
on the World According to Jesse, Jesse Ventura criticizes Trump’s support of
Israel violating sovereignty of other nations. Then, we take a look at how the
protests unfolded in Hong Kong, And, is Jeffrey
Epstein, Victoria’s Secret? We explain in a live interview. | Just Press Play
has those segment and the best of other in-depth reports, exclusive interviews
and controversial issues you may have missed this week on RT America. This
episode features highlights from this week’s episodes of In Question, Larry
King Now, PoliticKing!
+
World Bank adopts $1 billion-plus annual China
lending plan
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/06/world-bank-adopts-1-billion-plus-annual-china-lending-plan.html
===========
g.
From: Richard Greeman
Sent: Thursday, December 05, 2019
Subject: French General Strike
French Unions
and Yellow Vests Converge;
Launch General
Strike for Dec. 5
by
Richard Greeman
(Montpellier,
France) On the eve of an “unlimited” (open-ended) General Strike called for
Dec. 5, more and more unions and protest groups are pledging join in.
Two
things are unusual about this strike. The first is that it is open-ended,
rather than the usual one-day ritualistic protest marches, and it may be
prolonged from day to day by workers’ assemblies as long as necessary. The
second is that the Yellow Vests, the self-organized, horizontal, social
movement that sprung up spontaneously just over a year ago and is still popular
despite severe repression, have decided to converge with the strike.
Just
as surprising, Philippe Martinez Secretary General of CGT, France’s largest
union federation, who had originally spurned the Yellow Vests, immediately
welcomed them, making for a heady mix. For the union leaders, who try to
control their followers tightly, the Yellow Vests are like a loose canon on the deck of a ship. Who knows what may result?
The
nation-wide strike was originally proposed by the CGT’s Martinez, in response
to the Macron Governments’ proposed neoliberal “reform” of the France
retirement system. Macron’s reform would
essentially gut France’s solidarity-based retirement system. Even more than
U.S. Social Security, which even Trump and the Republicans don’t dare touch, retirement over here is a sacred cow. It was
established at the end of WWII when the Resistance and the Communists were
influential and the business class was in bad odor, having collaborated with
the Nazis. Under Macron’s proposed new ‘point’ system, many will lose up to 30%
according to estimates, and future governments could arbitrarily decide how
much money each point is worth!
The Camel’s Back
The
French were already in an angry mood in the Spring of
2018 when Macron started pushing through his reforms, but they were
disappointed when the CGT and other union leaders imposed only stop-and-go,
limited, local strikes and failed utterly to counter-attack. It was on the
grave of those defeats that the spontaneous Yellow Vest movements sprung up
like mushrooms all over France last November, supported by over 70% of the
French.
Although
justifiably suspicious of unions, especially of the union leaders, the Yellow
Vests, after suffering a year of police brutality and prejudiced media
coverage, came around to the need for convergence. Thus, at our fourth national
Assembly of Assemblies on Nov. 3, we voted to join and “be at the heart” of the
Dec. 5 movement in the hope that “a defeat for the government would open the
road to other victories for our camp.”
Will
the union leaders like Martinez stay the course? If they try to settle with
Macron piecemeal and divide the movement as they have in the past, will the
workers’ assemblies be able to stop them? Will the strike over retirement
benefits develop along broad social revolutionary lines like similar horizontal
movements in South America, the Middle East and elsewhere? Will these
international movements finally connect, as the Yellow Vests’ Assembly of
Assembly proposed when it dedicated our first anniversary to social movements
around the world?
The
following leaflet, developed by the Yellow Vests of Uzès
and Montpellier, expresses the hopes and fears of the Yellow Vests on the eve
of this open-ended struggle:
“One for all and
all for one !”
For
the past two years, a government of the rich has been imposing
« reforms » designed to deprive the French people of all the
advantages won by several generations of workers. For the past two years,
Macron, “President of the rich,” following the rules laid down by the European
Union of bankers and in defiance of the people, has been using police-state
methods to increase the inequality of an already unequal society for the
benefit of his Stock Market cronies through tax advantages and privatizations.
Today,
by attacking their retirements, this would-be Jupiter has succeeded in uniting
the French people – against him ! United, we have
the power to make him withdraw his so called « reform » of our
pensions. That’s obvious. But we must not stop there. We must stick together
and make use of our united strength to impose all our demands :
wages, unemployment benefits, public services, hospitals, schools, agricultural
lands, ecological justice, fiscal justice….
Macron
has sowed the wind.
On
December 5 he will harvest the whirlwind :
An
Unlimited General Strike to take back our France
·
The nurses and
doctors
of the emergency rooms and hospitals are struggling for all of us. They are
demanding more beds, more personnel, more materials and of course decent
salaries and breaks. They just made a pact with the firefighters :
a fine example of solidarity between respected professionals. These are the
people who look after us when we are most vulnerable. Should we leave them behind ?
·
Working
women earn
only 4/5 of the wages of men doing the same work, and they do 4/5 of the unpaid
labor of homemaking, cooking and child-rearing. They are the true basis of
civilization, yet many women are beaten, murdered, raped or trafficked in
France – all too often with impunity. They are asking for justice. Should we
leave them behind ?
·
The majority of working
people have long been financially insecure. Even when
they work full time or do extra jobs. Although the productivity of their
labor and the profits of their bosses have not stopped increasing, the men and
women who create this wealth live in fear of the end of the month, in permanent
worry of unemployment, anxious about their employers closing shop and moving to
poor countries where labor is cheaper. The workers are fighting for
decent wages and stable employment. Should we leave them behind ?
·
Students
and teachers are
demanding less over-crowded classrooms, aids and assistance for handicapped and
special students, the right to participate in developing curriculums that
correspond to the needs of the young and not to the demands of employers. They
are our children. Should we leave them behind ?
·
Small
farmers work
hard to feed us and get back only 2-3% of the price their produce sells for at
Carrefour. Young people who want to raise organic crops and develop permaculture are unable to find agricultural lands to buy
or rent, while real-estate speculators are paving over fertile soils. On the
other hand, our government is subsidizing big land-owners and agro-businesses
who stuff us with chemicals and Frankenfoods. Obesity
is on the rise. The French peasantry, the salt of the earth, is in crisis.
Should we leave them behind ?
·
Macron
wants to privatize the French National Railways (SNCF) for the benefit of his
cronies, who have already taken over the National Highway System which we had
already paid for tenfold. Today, trains are more and more expensive and less
and less on time. The government is closing smaller stations, isolating the
people in the countryside and forcing everyone to buy cars. The railway
workers are defending these public goods on which we all depend. Yet Macron
calls them “privileged.” The government has already reduced their rolling
personnel to one (!) per train. Since September, the railway staff
have been using their legal right to stop trains in case of public
danger – without asking management or their union leaders for permission.
Should we leave them behind ?
·
The planet is on
the brink of climate catastrophe, while the government goes on subsidizing the
oil, coal and chemical companies that are raking in billions. We must
immediately cut these gifts to the rich and use that money for ecological
purposes, for example helping the inhabitants of Rouen who have been poisoned
by industry. Should we leave them behind ?
·
Immigrants
and ethnic minorities do the most grueling work in France without enjoying
the rights of citizens, while French imperialist companies are getting richer
pillaging their native lands and making them unlivable. They are being
discriminated, deported, brutally repressed by the
police. They are demanding liberty, equality and fraternity. Should we leave
them behind ?
·
The
Yellow Vests come
from all these underprivileged and exploited groups. They are the glue that
holds all these elements together in the struggle. For more than a year they
have been brutally repressed while fighting for dignity, fiscal justice, equality
and participatory democracy. They have kept Macron on the defensive at great
cost. Should we leave them behind ?
Qn Injury to One is an Injury to All!
The
general strike will be decided on by the women and men who are fighting for a
decent living against social injustice and climate chaos. By the women and men
who are standing up against racism and xenophobia in every sector of society. In brief, by those who are fed up living dreary lives, filled with
worries for tomorrow, without desirable perspectives for themselves and their
children. So, beginning Dec. 5, let us join together in solidarity with
each other and throw all our strength into the struggle.
Let
us stick together to the end. Let no sector defect. The strike will end when everyone
is satisfied. If we all pitch in together, the strike will not have to last
long. Our demands are reasonable. If Monsieur Macron can’t fulfill them, he
could be replaced by someone more reasonable. So could the system that puts
profits before the well-being of the people and the planet!
Like
the representatives of the Third Estate in 1789, let us swear an oath not to
separate until we have all had satisfaction.
Block
Everything ! Change Everything !
Unlimited
General Strike ! Unlimited General Dream !*
*Pun
on Grève (strike) and Rêve (dream) http://noussommesgiletsjaunes34.fr/
+
Massive union
strike shuts down transportation across France amid growing anger over Macron’s
pension reform
(PHOTOS, VIDEOS)
French Labour unions members holding flags attend a demonstration against French government's pensions reform plans in Marseille as part of a day of national strike and protests in France, December 5, 2019. © REUTERS/Jean-Paul Pelissier
A
nationwide union strike against pension reform has brought transportation
across France to a standstill. Photos show thousands of workers marching in
what has been billed as the largest protest of its kind since 1995.
The massive worker walkouts and marches were called in the
hope of forcing President Emmanuel Macron to abandon his plans to overhaul
France’s pension system. In Paris, 11 of the city’s 16 metro lines were
shuttered and schools in the capital and across the country closed down.
+
From: Mark Crispin
Miller
Sent: Friday, December 06, 2019 11:08 PM
To: newsfromunderground
Subject: [MCM] France "paralyzed" by striking workers (as
SHOULD happen here) (4)
Whatever will it take?
MCM
France Paralyzed as Over 1 Million Workers Hold Biggest Strike of
Macron’s Presidency
It was the
largest nationwide strike in decades.
https://themindunleashed.com/2019/12/france-paralyzed-pension-plan.html
+
France Paralyzed by Largest General Strike in Decades
Post on: December 5, 2019
https://www.leftvoice.org/france-paralyzed-by-largest-general-strike-in-decades
+
Denouncing Macron's Neoliberal
Pension Reforms, Hundreds of Thousands of Striking Workers Bring France to a
Halt
"We
have one of the best pension systems in the world, if not the best. Yet the
president has decided, purely out of ideology, to wipe it out."
by
by Jake Johnson
+
Message aux Gilets Jaunes: Y a t’il une Opération Gladio 2.0 en cours contre le mouvement ?
France’s worst strike in decades enters a
second day
PUBLISHED FRI, DEC 6 20195:44 AM EST
by Silvia Amaro
+
===========
h.
Inside the
Organized Crime Syndicate known as the CIA: an Interview with Douglas Valentine
with Heidi Boghosian
and Michael Steven Smith
+
Sleepwalking into a nightmare
With Little
Fanfare, William Barr Formally Announces Orwellian Pre-Crime Program
https://www.mintpressnews.com/william-barr-formally-announces-orwellian-pre-crime-program/262504/
by Whitney Webb
A recent
memorandum authored by Attorney General William Barr announced a new
“pre-crime” program inspired by “War on Terror” tactics and is set to be
implemented next year.
+
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52646.htm
by Chris Hedges
The police
forces in impoverished urban communities, empowered to harass and kill largely
at will, are the principal tools for the social control of the poor.
+
Cornel West: There
is 'a neo-fascist in the White House'
+
The Heat: One-on-one with Journalist Chris Hedges
(Part 1)
&
(Part 2)
===========
i.
How corporate
media manufactures consent for war and regime change"
by Max Blumenthal
+
Capitalism's
Failures Ignited Worldwide Protests
https://therealnews.com/stories/capitalisms-failures-ignited-worldwide-protests
with Marc Steiner
& Ben Ehrenreich
+
Hong Kong Unmasked
Hong Kong’s
violent anti-government movement continues to rage. It has won the world’s
attention and the support from politicians in the West. But what’s really
fueling the chaos?
Through exclusive interviews and copious research, RT America’s Michele
Greenstein, who was an eyewitness to the violence, paints a comprehensive
picture of the protests.
“Hong Kong Unmasked” explains what sparked the unrest and the social problems
that fuel it, and it reveals how forces in Washington have exploited it for
their own ends.
+
The Global
Inequality Gap, and How It's Changed Over 200 Years
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/global-inequality-gap/
by Iman Ghosh
+
From: U.S.
Peace Council via ActionNetwork.org
Sent: Le
04/12/2019
Subject: TR: Declaration of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba
+
Deaths caused by British Empire should be condemned
just like deaths under Stalin
by
Tomasz Pierscionek
+
From: Moshé Machover [mailto:ananmoshik@icloud.com]
Sent: Saturday, December 07, 2019
Subject: Rompre le consensus. Impérialisme, démocratie, sionisme et le Parti travailliste – CONTRETEMPS
https://www.contretemps.eu/imperialisme-democratie-sionisme-parti-travailliste/
Moshé Machover 9 janvier 2018
L’interview de Moshé Machover qui suit constitue une version abrégée et traduite d’un entretien conduit en anglais, début novembre 2017, par les membres de l’organisation états-unienne Science for the People (SftP). À cette époque, Moshé Machover venait d’être réintégré au Parti travailliste britannique (Labour Party) à la suite d’une campagne menée pour annuler son expulsion.
En collaboration avec le groupe Jewish Voice for Labour, SftP a élaboré une pétition internationale signée par des mathématiciens et universitaires de renom ainsi que par des champions des droits humains pour défendre Machover contre les accusations dont il faisait l’objet. Les demandes formulées dans cette pétition n’ont pas été satisfaites à ce jour et les défenseurs de Machover au sein du Parti travailliste continuent de lutter pour obtenir des excuses ainsi qu’une enquête sur les bureaucrates responsables de son éviction et de celles d’autres membres.
Traduction par Zoé Jourdain.
Moshé Machover : J’ai adhéré au Parti travailliste pour la première fois dans les années 1970, probablement autour de 1973, car je me souviens qu’il y avait un rapport avec la guerre du Kippour. Mais comme beaucoup d’autres, j’ai rapidement quitté le parti face à la dérive vers la droite qui le caractérisait à l’époque. De fait, vers la fin des années 1970, il a nettement viré à droite. Comme beaucoup d’autres, j’ai donc renoncé au Parti travailliste.
Il y a quelques années de cela, Ken Loach a appelé à la création d’un nouveau parti, Left Unity (Unité de gauche), principalement composé de déçus du Parti travailliste. Cependant, [lorsque Jeremy Corbyn a été élu à la tête des travaillistes], la question s’est posée de la pertinence de cette nouvelle formation. En réalité, tout se passe au Parti travailliste ; c’est pourquoi comme des centaines de milliers de personnes, j’y ai à nouveau adhéré. Beaucoup de jeunes qui étaient jusque-là éloignés de la politique ont également pris le train en marche. Aujourd’hui, c’est le plus grand parti d’Europe de l’Ouest. Il compte près de 800 000 membres, un chiffre énorme pour un pays de la taille du Royaume-Uni.
Le Parti travailliste est devenu une sorte d’énergumène, dans la mesure où il est composé d’une immense base populaire qui se situe largement à gauche. Jeremy Corbyn et ses proches forment un petit cercle également issu de la gauche mais qui représente le centre du parti, tandis que les bureaucrates et les représentants élus sont les vestiges de l’époque blairiste. Ils appartiennent à ce que l’on avait coutume d’appeler le New Labour, qui semble aujourd’hui très dépassé.
MM : Sans aucun doute. Les bureaucrates, qui sont la vieille garde de ce que l’on appelle le New Labour, se sont mis à exclure ou à suspendre temporairement tous les membres qu’ils suspectaient d’être à gauche. Je n’étais certainement pas le premier, ni le dernier. Simplement, mon cas a soulevé une vague de solidarité au sein du parti ainsi qu’à l’extérieur. Après avoir été réintégré au parti, j’ai été très touché par la résolution de solidarité qui demande des excuses et une enquête sur les mécanismes et les moyens derrière mon expulsion. Par exemple, une branche locale du syndicat des conducteurs ferroviaires a adopté une résolution unanime de soutien envers moi.
MM : À mon sens, ces deux intérêts forment une synergie. En réalité, il existe trois facteurs. D’un côté, les sionistes, dévoués à la cause d’Israël, qui ne peuvent supporter le fait que pour la première fois dans l’histoire du Parti travailliste, son leader est un défenseur reconnu des droits des Palestiniens. Ils sont très attachés à Israël et se servent des accusations d’antisémitisme, qu’ils assimilent à de l’antisionisme, comme d’une arme.
D’un autre côté, il y a ceux qui ont une dent contre Jeremy Corbyn, mais très peu d’intérêt pour Israël : ils utilisent cette cause pour attaquer Corbyn. Certes, il existe des personnes qui appartiennent à ces deux catégories, mais parmi ceux qui brandissent l’argument de l’antisémitisme, certains le font de manière cynique, sans intérêt réel pour le conflit israélo-palestinien.
Enfin, il y a une dimension internationale. L’État d’Israël joue un rôle majeur dans le positionnement et la stratégie des États-Unis à l’échelle régionale au Moyen-Orient comme à l’échelle mondiale. Il se trouve que les États-Unis sont à la tête de ce qu’on nomme par euphémisme la « communauté internationale ». Cette communauté est hiérarchique, et certains États y occupent une place plus élevée que d’autres. Le Royaume-Uni est relativement bien classé, mais pas aussi bien qu’Israël. Le pouvoir établi britannique se prévaut de sa « relation spéciale » avec les États-Unis. Spéciale, certes, mais pas autant que celle qu’entretiennent ces derniers avec Israël.
Pour faire partie de cette « communauté internationale », il convient de ménager la sensibilité du rottweiler du patron qui se trouve être Israël. Si le rottweiler urine sur vos chaussures, il ne faut surtout pas l’envoyer balader, mais lui dire « bon chien ! ». Cette obligation est partagée par l’intégralité du pouvoir établi britannique qui tente à tout prix d’empêcher la moindre critique de l’État d’Israël. Ils sont préoccupés par le fait que dans l’opinion publique, la cause d’Israël perd du terrain.
MM : La déclaration Balfour a fait couler pas mal d’encre dernièrement. L’idée initiale était d’implanter une communauté dont l’existence et la sécurité dépendraient entièrement du Royaume-Uni, et qui servirait les intérêts de cette puissance. Le premier gouverneur britannique de Jérusalem, Ronald Storrs, l’a formulé ainsi : « Nous avons, en Palestine, un petit Ulster [province d’Irlande du Nord] juif loyal dans une mer arabe potentiellement hostile. »
C’est ainsi qu’a été conçu et que continue de se développer le projet de colonisation sioniste, qui est unique en son genre. Contrairement à la colonisation de l’Amérique du Nord, où se sont installés exclusivement des citoyens issus de la métropole qui possédait ces terres, dans le cas de la Palestine, les colons sionistes n’étaient pas citoyens d’une métropole qui détenait cette partie du monde. Ils avaient donc besoin d’une mère patrie de substitution, et se sont systématiquement tournés vers la puissance impériale qui dominait la région. Dans un premier temps, ils ont conclu un accord avec le Royaume-Uni.
La situation a duré jusqu’aux années 1930, où il est devenu de plus en plus difficile pour le Royaume-Uni de concilier cette alliance avec ses autres intérêts régionaux. Le Royaume-Uni est connu pour sa duplicité. Peut-être devrait-on plutôt parler de triplicité. Il y avait l’accord Sykes-Picot passé avec la France, que le Royaume-Uni n’a pas respecté. Il y avait les promesses faites aux Arabes soulevés contre l’Empire turc d’un grand État arabe indépendant qui engloberait la Palestine. Et il y avait la promesse de la Palestine aux sionistes : trois promesses incompatibles avec lesquelles le Royaume-Uni devait jongler.
[Pendant ce temps], le projet sioniste devenait de plus en plus ambitieux. La promesse originelle ne consistait pas à fonder un État-nation juif en octroyant aux sionistes l’intégralité de la Palestine, mais à établir au sein de la Palestine un foyer national pour les Juifs. Toutefois, les sionistes désiraient désormais non seulement le beurre, mais aussi l’argent du beurre, avec la création de leur propre État-nation, ce qui a provoqué un conflit avec le Royaume-Uni. Jusqu’à la Seconde Guerre mondiale, le Parti travailliste était encore plus enclin que le gouvernement britannique à promouvoir le projet sioniste. De fait, une résolution du congrès du parti de 1944 prône le transfert de population. Je l’ai sous les yeux, je peux vous la lire, si vous le souhaitez.
MM : La résolution, rédigée par Hugh Dalton, est la plus prosioniste jamais adoptée par le Parti travailliste :
« À moins que nous ne soyons prêts à laisser les Juifs, si tel est leur souhait, pénétrer sur ce petit territoire en quantités telles qu’ils y deviendraient la majorité, la notion de « foyer national juif » est dépourvue d’espoir et de sens. (…) La Palestine présente un cas de transfert de population, pour des raisons humaines et en vue de promouvoir une implantation stable. Que l’on encourage les Arabes à partir, afin que les Juifs puissent s’installer. Qu’ils soient amplement compensés pour leurs terres et que leur installation ailleurs soit dûment organisée et généreusement financée. »
MM : Avant qu’Israël ne devienne le rottweiler des États-Unis, son sponsor impérial principal était la France. En 1956, lorsqu’Israël, de connivence avec la France et le Royaume-Uni, a attaqué l’Égypte, les États-Unis l’ont contraint à se retirer. L’alliance de la France avec Israël était liée à d’autres problèmes auxquels faisait face la puissance impériale dans la région. La France considérait l’Égypte comme un soutien important de la révolution algérienne, et présumait que sans cet appui, la résistance algérienne s’effondrerait. C’est pour cette raison que la France a soutenu Israël et encouragé l’invasion de l’Égypte, avant de mettre un terme à cette alliance dans les années 1960, avant la guerre de 1967.
Parallèlement, un important commerce d’armes provenant des États-Unis à destination d’Israël s’est développé et a pris de l’ampleur jusqu’en 1966. Sans le feu vert des États-Unis, Israël ne se serait jamais engagée dans la guerre des Six-Jours. C’est un fait qu’il convient de remarquer, parce qu’il est communément admis qu’Israël est devenu le partenaire junior des États-Unis à la suite de la guerre de 1967, mais cela n’est pas tout à fait vrai : Israël n’aurait pas lancé l’offensive contre l’Égypte en 1967 sans l’aval des États-Unis.
MM : C’est exact. Je me dois d’ajouter, cependant, qu’un autre facteur explique la compassion envers Israël : l’État nouvellement créé est parvenu très habilement à se faire passer pour la victime en 1967. Bien sûr, les discours terrifiants et menaçants du président égyptien, Nasser, n’ont pas aidé. Les généraux israéliens savaient parfaitement qu’il n’était pas en mesure d’attaquer Israël, que ses meilleurs atouts étaient enlisés au Yémen, que ses forces positionnées dans le Sinaï étaient défensives et qu’il ne préparait pas d’offensive. Israël a donc bénéficié des effets de sa propre propagande, mais aussi des erreurs stratégiques et de la propagande maladroite de l’Égypte.
Matzpen avait vu le jour en 1962. Lorsque la guerre a éclaté, nous avions élaboré notre position, qui correspond à notre analyse du sionisme. Nous étions prêts à exposer notre vision de la guerre, du statut spécial de l’État colonial israélien, du projet colonial qu’est le sionisme, fondé sur la négation des droits nationaux et individuels des citoyens arabes palestiniens, etc.
Fin 1968, je suis arrivé à Londres et me suis joint à cette campagne. Nous parcourions le pays, nous rendant dans un endroit différent (principalement des réunions d’étudiants) quatre fois par semaine. Mais outre l’expression de notre point de vue, je pense que les gens étaient avides d’informations et d’analyse de la situation. Nous avons beaucoup travaillé, durant ces années, et nos efforts semblent avoir largement porté leurs fruits.
C’est très simple : quelle que soit la réunion à laquelle j’assiste ces jours-ci, généralement au sujet du Moyen-Orient, une personne aux cheveux grisonnants s’approche de moi pour me dire : « Vous ne vous souvenez pas de moi, mais j’étais étudiant, en 1972, à l’université d’Essex (par exemple). Vous y avez donné une conférence qui a changé ma position sur la situation au Moyen-Orient. » Je vous assure que cela m’arrive presque à chaque réunion à laquelle je me rends.
Un autre indice de ce succès est la façon dont nos idées ont infiltré l’aile gauche du Parti travailliste. À l’époque, Anthony Benn était une figure de proue admirée de la gauche. Les dirigeants de la gauche actuelle étaient tous associés à lui. Quand je suis arrivé au Royaume-Uni, il était officiellement considéré comme un ami de Mapam, un genre de parti sioniste de gauche [en Israël]. Au fil des ans, il est devenu un défenseur des droits des Palestiniens fermement opposé au projet sioniste. Cela ne signifie pas qu’il était présent à nos réunions, mais montre bien l’évolution du climat à gauche. Jeremy Corbyn est en partie le produit de ce basculement dans la période qui a immédiatement suivi la guerre des Six-Jours de 1967.
MM : Absolument. La situation s’est retournée contre les personnes qui ont déclenché cette chasse aux sorcières. Jusque-là, j’étais un inconnu. Beaucoup de personnes doivent se demander pourquoi tout ce raffut, d’où viennent ces articles prétendument antisémites qui, en plus, n’auraient pas dû être publiés dans ce journal, etc.
Comme le dit l’adage, toute publicité est bonne à prendre, du moment qu’on écrit votre nom correctement. Ces détracteurs doivent se mordre les doigts d’être enfin tombé sur quelqu’un qui a suscité une telle vague de solidarité. À dire vrai, je me sens un peu coupable, car je ne suis pas le seul, mais les autres victimes n’ont pas bénéficié d’un tel soutien. Cela s’explique probablement par mon âge avancé, par le fait que j’aie abondamment écrit sur ce sujet et par le fait que je suis israélien. Ces facteurs ont aussi facilité la mobilisation des gens.
MM : Il y a, en premier lieu, l’accusation infondée d’antisémitisme qui relève de la diffamation. Il suffit de lire l’article : seul un esprit tordu peut qualifier ce texte d’antisémite. Ceci requiert des excuses. Plus encore, ceci requiert d’examiner le postulat qui sert de fondement à ces accusations, qui émanent d’une définition erronée et d’une interprétation sournoise de l’antisémitisme. En réalité, les détracteurs n’ont pas prouvé que mes écrits étaient, de quelque façon que ce soit, antisémites. Ils ont démontré que leur propre définition était incorrecte. En logique, c’est ce qu’on appelle le raisonnement par l’absurde : leur prémisse est réduite à l’absurdité.
En sus de cela, ils ont utilisé une règle draconienne pour me renvoyer du parti. Finalement, l’accusation d’antisémitisme n’a servi qu’à donner le ton : une diffamation gratuite, puisqu’elle n’a même pas servi de prétexte pour m’expulser. En effet, cela n’aurait pas marché. À la place, ils ont invoqué la règle 2.I.4.B du règlement du Parti travailliste qui leur permet de suspendre automatiquement tout membre qui adhère et/ou soutient une organisation politique autre que celles affiliées au Parti. Cette règle présente trois défauts évidents.
Premièrement, le fait de pouvoir expulser automatiquement un membre du parti. Cela signifie que les bureaucrates peuvent exclure n’importe qui sans audition ni examen des preuves. Deuxièmement, la règle ne définit pas ce qu’est une « organisation politique ». En théorie, cela pourrait donc correspondre à Momentum, un large mouvement principalement composé de sympathisants du Parti travailliste mais non affilié à ce dernier. Le texte est si évasif qu’il pourrait s’appliquer au groupe Electoral Reform Society ou à Refuge, une organisation de lutte contre les violences domestiques. Enfin, cette règle ne définit pas la notion de « soutien ». Or, le soutien n’est pas une simple affaire de oui ou de non. C’est comme ces référendums trompeurs, où l’on vous demande d’effectuer un faux choix entre deux options, alors qu’en réalité, ce n’est pas une question à laquelle on répond par oui ou par non.
Je n’appartiens à aucune des deux organisations mentionnées [dans la lettre d’expulsion], à savoir, le Parti communiste de Grande-Bretagne qui publie dans le Weekly Worker, où nombre de mes articles sont apparus, et le groupe des Marxistes du Parti travailliste. C’est ce dernier qui a agi de telle manière à rendre les bureaucrates du Parti travailliste furieux : les Marxistes ont reproduit un article que j’avais écrit et l’ont distribué au congrès du Parti en septembre 2017. C’est parti comme des petits pains. L’article, qui expliquait en quoi l’antisionisme diffère de l’antisémitisme, a eu beaucoup de succès. J’ai été renvoyé pour « soutien » à ces deux groupuscules.
MM : Tout à fait. Cette affaire empeste le maccarthysme.
MM : Imaginez ma surprise à la lecture de ces noms : Smale, Mumford, Atiyah… vous savez, en mathématiques, nous n’avons pas de prix Nobel, mais la médaille Fields. Contrairement au prix Nobel, qui couronne l’œuvre de toute une vie et est donc décerné à des personnes en fin de vie, la médaille Fields est accordée à des individus de moins de 40 ans. Dans le monde des mathématiques, ces lauréats sont vénérés. Je suis profondément touché par leur soutien. Parmi les personnes que vous avez citées figurent d’autres grands mathématiciens et scientifiques, dont j’apprécie infiniment la mobilisation pour un collègue.
Mais selon moi, ce geste gracieux était également nécessaire. Les mathématiciens et les scientifiques en général ne doivent pas demeurer dans leur tour d’ivoire proverbiale. Ils font partie intégrante de la société et se doivent d’utiliser leurs connaissances de tel ou tel sujet et de la réalité du monde pour mobiliser les forces de la lumière contre les forces des ténèbres. Cela ne peut être que bénéfique. Je trouve que les Britanniques ont toujours eu une certaine tendance à l’isolement. Ils vivent sur une île et ont une mentalité insulaire. Mais ils ont aussi une vague idée de l’existence d’un monde au-delà leurs frontières ; et il est très important que les membres du Parti travailliste réalisent qu’il ne s’agit pas d’une affaire interne au Parti ou même au pays. Il s’agit d’une affaire internationale.
Au début de cette discussion, nous avons souligné qu’au moins deux des trois facteurs [derrière les allégations qui me concernent] sont de nature internationale : la campagne sioniste menée à travers le monde contre les critiques de l’État d’Israël et le dévouement des autorités en place à la puissance hégémonique états-unienne. La haine vouée à Jeremy Corbyn au sein du Parti travailliste est d’ordre local et ne représente qu’une partie du tableau. L’autre partie est d’ordre international, c’est pourquoi j’estime que toutes les personnes en dehors du Parti sont légitimes à s’exprimer sur la lutte qui se déroule en son sein.
===========
j.
Why the world
needs WikiLeaks - A
Retrospective
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNOnvp5t7Do&feature=youtu.be
series of historic interviews
with Julian Assange
+
"Did
CIA-linked firm spy on Assange?"
with Rachel Blevins
+
Special Report: Hrafnsson
Tells CN Media is Essential to Assange’s Defense
by Joe Lauria
+
Doctors condemn failure of British government to answer letter demanding
medical care for Julian Assange
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/12/05/doct-d05.html
+
The ice is breaking—help us fight for Julian Assange
https://mailchi.mp/6c2c9ed1dc2e/the-ice-is-breakinghelp-us-fight-for-julian-assange?e=8faad9e393
+
Doctors Intensify Pressure on Britain over Assange
https://consortiumnews.com/2019/12/05/doctors-intensify-pressure-on-britain-over-assange/
+
Abby Martin: on
Julian Assange, Coup in Bolivia, Bernie Sanders &
Gaza
===========
k.
After His
Mysterious Death, the Media Scrambles to Get its Story Straight About White Helmets Founder James Le Mesurier
by Vanessa Beeley
+
As The OPCW
Is Accused Of False Reporting U.S. Propaganda Jumps To
Its Help
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52650.htm
by Moon of
Alabama
An international organization published two false reports and got caught in the act. But as the false reports are in the U.S. interests a U.S. sponsored propaganda organization is send out to muddle the issue. As that effort comes under fire the New York Times jumps in to give the cover-up effort some extra help.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) manufactured a pretext for war by suppressing its own scientists' research:
OPCW emails and documents were leaked and whistleblowers came forward to speak with journalists and international lawyers. Veteran journalist Jonathan Steele, who has spoken with the whistleblowers, wrote an excellent piece on the issues. In the Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens picked up the issue and moved it forward.
Under U.S. pressure the OPCW management modified or suppressed the findings of its own scientists to make it look as if the Syrian government had been responsible for the alleged chemical incident in April 2018 in Douma.
The public attention to the OPCW's fakery lead to the questioning of other assertions the OPCW had previously made. With the OPCW under fire someone had come to its help.
To save the propaganda value of the OPCW reports the U.S. financed Bellingcat propaganda organization jumped in to save the OPCW's bacon. Bellingcat founder "suck my balls" Elliot Higgins claimed that the OPCW reports satisfied the concerns the OPCW scientist had voiced.
That assertion is now further propagated by a New York Times piece which, under the pretense of reporting about open source analysis, boosts Bellingcat and its defense of the OPCW:
The blogger Eliot Higgins made waves early in the decade by covering the war in Syria from a laptop in his apartment in Leicester, England, while caring for his infant daughter. In 2014, he founded Bellingcat, an open-source news outlet that has grown to include roughly a dozen staff members, with an office in The Hague. Mr. Higgins attributed his skill not to any special knowledge of international conflicts or digital data, but to the hours he had spent playing video games, which, he said, gave him the idea that any mystery can be cracked.
...
Bellingcat journalists have spread the word about their techniques in seminars attended by journalists and law-enforcement officials. Along with grants from groups like the Open Society Foundations, founded by George Soros, the seminars are a significant source of revenue for Bellingcat, a nonprofit organization.
It seems that the New York Times forgot to mention an important monetary source for Bellingcat. Here is a current screenshot of Bellingcat's About page:
Porticus, Adessium, Pax
for Peace and the Postcode Lottery are all Dutch organizations. Then there is
the notorious Soros organization the New
York Times mentioned. But why did the NYT forgot to tell its readers that Bellingcat is financed by the
National Endowment for Democracy which itself
is to nearly 100% funded by the U.S. government?
===========
l.
Trump cancels
final NATO press conference after tense and troubled summit
https://www.rt.com/news/475020-trump-suggests-canceling-nato-press/
+
Trump Was
Right: NATO Should Be Obsolete
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52649.htm
by Medea Benjamin
The three smartest words that Donald Trump uttered during his presidential campaign are “NATO is obsolete.” His adversary, Hillary Clinton, retorted that NATO was “the strongest military alliance in the history of the world.” Now that Trump has been in power, the White House parrots the same worn line that NATO is “the most successful Alliance in history, guaranteeing the security, prosperity, and freedom of its members.” But Trump was right the first time around: Rather than being a strong alliance with a clear purpose, this 70-year-old organization that is meeting in London on December 4 is a stale military holdover from the Cold War days that should have gracefully retired many years ago.
NATO was originally founded by the United States and 11 other Western nations as an attempt to curb the rise of communism in 1949. Six years later, Communist nations founded the Warsaw Pact and through these two multilateral institutions, the entire globe became a Cold War battleground. When the USSR collapsed in 1991, the Warsaw Pact disbanded but NATO expanded, growing from its original 12 members to 29 member countries. North Macedonia, set to join next year, will bring the number to 30. NATO has also expanded well beyond the North Atlantic, adding a partnership with Colombia in 2017. Donald Trump recently suggested that Brazil could one day become a full member.
NATO’s post-Cold War expansion toward Russia’s borders, despite earlier promises not to move eastward, has led to rising tensions between Western powers and Russia, including multiple close calls between military forces. It has also contributed to a new arms race, including upgrades in nuclear arsenals, and the largest NATO “war games” since the Cold War.
While claiming to “preserve peace,” NATO has a history of bombing civilians and committing war crimes. In 1999, NATO engaged in military operations without UN approval in Yugoslavia. Its illegal airstrikes during the Kosovo War left hundreds of civilians dead. And far from the “North Atlantic,” NATO joined the United States in invading Afghanistan in 2001, where it is still bogged down two decades later. In 2011, NATO forces illegally invaded Libya, creating a failed state that caused masses of people to flee. Rather than take responsibility for these refugees, NATO countries have turned back desperate migrants on the Mediterranean Sea, letting thousands die.
+
Empire, Intervention, and the Intentional Sacrifice of U.S. Soldiers
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52647.htm
by Jacob G. Hornberger
On April 9,
1942, 12,000 U.S. troops paid the price of U.S. empire
and intervention when they surrendered to Japanese forces at Bataan,
Philippines. During the resulting “Bataan death march,” 600 of them died, and
then another 1,000 died after they were transported to Japanese POW camps.
The
Constitution called into existence a limited-government republic. No Pentagon,
no CIA, and no NSA. Just a relatively small military force.
No foreign military empire, no foreign colonies, and no U.S. military bases in
foreign countries. That system lasted for more than a century.
By the same
token, the original foreign policy of the United States was one of
non-intervention in the affairs of other nations. No coups, foreign wars of
aggression, foreign aid, state-sponsored assassinations, alliances with foreign
regimes, or regime-change operations. That system too lasted about a century.
Notwithstanding
the horrors of slavery, America’s limited-government structure and its
non-imperialist, non-interventionist foreign policy were among the factors that
led to the greatest and longest surge in liberty, peace, prosperity, and
standards of living in history.
The Spanish
American War
The turn
toward empire and intervention began with the Spanish American War, a watershed
event that would lead to those 12,000 U.S. troops surrendering to Japanese
forces almost 45 years later. The argument was that in order to be a great
nation, America needed to acquire overseas colonies, just like the British and
Spanish Empires.
During the
Spanish-American War, Filipinos were fighting for independence from Spain. The
U.S. government intervened in the conflict, with the ostensible aim of helping
the Filipinos win their independence. It was a lie, one that the Filipinos
discovered soon after Spain capitulated. In fact, the real aim of U.S.
officials was simply to replace Spanish rule with U.S rule.
|
The Filipinos
decided to keep fighting, this time for independence from the United States.
U.S. forces brutally put down the revolt, killing and torturing hundreds of thousands of Filipinos in the process. After the U.S. conquest of the
Philippines, U.S. officials took military control over the islands, constructed
many military bases, and stationed thousands of U.S. troops there.
+
Evidence
Talks: US Government Propelled Coup in Bolivia
https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-government-propelled-coup-bolivia/5695837
by W.T. Whitney Jr.
===========
m.
From: Fred Lonidier
Sent: Sunday, December 08, 2019 12:10 AM
Subject: JOIN US IN THESTRUGGLE FOR THE RIGHTS OF TIJUANA FACTORY WORKERS.
JOIN US IN THE STRUGGLE FOR THE RIGHTS OF TIJUANA FACTORY WORKERS.
There are more than 800 factories—maquiladoras - in Tijuana. They produce goods which are sold directly over the border in the USA. If you have been on one our Ollin Calli tours you will have heard first hand from women who work in those factories. They talk of having to work long grueling hours for wages which cannot sustain their families. They talk of physical and sexual abuse. They talk of their legal rights being ignored. They talk of accidents in dangerous conditions. They talk of working with toxic chemicals.
For the last ten years at Ollin Calli we have provided consulting, accompaniment, and legal support to workers from a feminist perspective. We are currently the only non-profit organization doing this crucial work.
Ollin Calli is the “go to place” for activists, students, teachers from both sides of the border. We provide support to new collectives. We train groups in security techniques. We are a recognized center in promoting labor and women’s issues.
The daunting gap between wages and the cost of living has widened. Outsourcing has devastated job security.
It will take your support for us to continue our struggle for worker justice in Tijuana.
Ollin Calli needs your support more than ever Just as labor struggles have heated up in Mexico and the work of Ollin Calli has become more critical, we have lost the financial backing of the foundation which had supported us for several years. This was due to a change in the focus of their funding strategies.
In order to keep our small office space and pay our two experienced and dedicated team members we need a consistent source of income.
We are asking you to consider making a regular pledge, a donation we can rely upon each month. We want our team to be able to dedicate themselves to the work of representing the maquila workers in Tijuana, rather than worrying about fundraising.
You can do this very simply through our sister organization the San Diego Maquila Workers Solidarity Network. Regular monthly pledges through this organization are US tax deductible.
Ollin Calli’s work for social justice and worker’s rights in Tijuana is more important than it ever has been.
To make a tax deductible regular pledge or one time donation, locate the donation button on the San Diego Maquiladora Workers' Solidarity Network website –
www.sdmaquila.org and follow the very simple instructions.
Alternatively you can send a check made payable to SDMWSN
Mail to: SDMWSN, 6142 Romany Drive, San Diego, CA, 92120
Please include your name, address, and email address.
Thank you for helping us continue this critical work,
The Ollin Calli Collective
Cathie
cathie.deweese.parkinson@gmail.com
619 403 0337
664 245 3626 (cel)
664 609 6667 (casa)
===========
n.
NY DNC Vice Chair ENDORSES TRUMP Over Tulsi
+
Could
California’s Public Banks Finance a Statewide Green New Deal?
https://truthout.org/articles/could-californias-public-banks-finance-a-statewide-green-new-deal/
by Carla Santos Skandier
+
Paul Jay and Sharmini Peries Ousted from The Real News Network in June; Current Fundraiser Hides that
Fact; Falling Viewership and Liberal Turn Result | naked capitalism
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/11/paul-jay-and-sharmini-peries-ousted-from-the-real-news-network-in-june-current-fundraiser-hides-that-fact-falling-viewership-and-liberal-turn-result.html
by Yves Smith
+
Targeted by the Inquisition – Reality Asserts Itself
https://therealnews.com/stories/targeted-by-the-inquisition-rai-with-matthew-fox-5-8
with Paul Jay & Matthew Fox
“Whistleblowers
Save our Democracy”
https://therealnews.com/?s=Daniel+Ellsberg&pum_form_popup_id=178694
a series of interviews with Daniel Ellsberg
===========
o.
From: Moshé Machover
Sent: Monday, December 02,
2019
Subject: Appel de 127 intellectuels juifs aux députés
français : « Ne soutenez pas la proposition de résolution assimilant
l’antisionisme à l’antisémitisme »
Appel de 127 universitaires juifs aux députés français : « Ne soutenez
pas la proposition de résolution assimilant l’antisionisme à l’antisémitisme »
Un collectif
d’intellectuels juifs du monde entier appelle, dans une tribune au « Monde »,
les députés français à ne pas apporter leur soutien à un texte sur la lutte
contre l’antisémitisme, qui doit être débattu et voté les 3 et 4 décembre, à
l’Assemblée nationale.
Le Monde, 2
décembre 2019 [Les députés doivent se
prononcer, mardi 3 décembre, sur une proposition de résolution visant à lutter
contre l’antisémitisme, déposée par le député La République en marche (LRM)
Sylvain Maillard. Controversé, ce texte propose que la France adopte, à la
suite du Parlement européen, la définition de l’antisémitisme établie par
l’Alliance internationale pour la mémoire de l’Holocauste (IHRA), en 2016.
Celle-ci inclut « les manifestations de haine à l’égard de l’Etat d’Israël
justifiées par la seule perception de ce dernier comme collectivité juive »,
rappelle le texte de M. Maillard. Lors du dîner du Conseil représentatif des
institutions juives de France (CRIF), le 21 février, Emmanuel Macron s’était dit favorable à l’adoption de cette
définition non contraignante, jugeant que l’antisionisme constitue « une des
formes modernes de l’antisémitisme ».]
Tribune. Le 3 décembre, l’Assemblée nationale va débattre et
voter une proposition de résolution sur la lutte contre l’antisémitisme. Cette
résolution est hautement problématique.
Nous,
universitaires et intellectuels juifs, d’Israël et d’ailleurs, dont beaucoup de
spécialistes de l’antisémitisme et de l’histoire du judaïsme et de
l’Holocauste, élevons notre voix contre cette proposition de résolution.
La montée de
l’antisémitisme dans le monde, y compris en France, nous préoccupe
profondément. Nous considérons l’antisémitisme et toutes les autres formes de
racisme et de xénophobie comme une menace réelle contre laquelle il convient de
lutter avec la plus grande fermeté, et exhortons le gouvernement et le
Parlement français à le faire.
Tout en
soulignant fermement notre préoccupation, nous nous opposons à la proposition
de résolution sur l’antisémitisme pour deux raisons principales, et appelons
les députés de l’Assemblée nationale à ne pas y apporter leur soutien.
Premièrement,
l’exposé des motifs de la proposition de résolution associe l’antisionisme à
l’antisémitisme. Il assimile même l’antisionisme à l’antisémitisme en précisant
que « critiquer l’existence même
d’Israël en ce qu’elle constitue une collectivité composée de citoyens juifs
revient à exprimer une haine à l’égard de la communauté juive dans son ensemble
».
Avant de
poursuivre notre argumentation, nous déplorons que l’exposé des motifs désigne
Israël comme « une collectivité composée de citoyens juifs ». Environ 20 % de
la population d’Israël sont des citoyens palestiniens, dont la plupart sont
musulmans ou chrétiens. La désignation choisie occulte et nie leur existence.
Nous considérons cette approche comme très problématique, compte tenu également
de l’engagement de votre pays en faveur d’une définition de la citoyenneté
française qui n’est pas basée sur l’ethnicité.
Nos opinions
sur le sionisme peuvent être diverses, mais nous pensons tous, y compris ceux
qui se considèrent comme sionistes, que cet amalgame est fondamentalement faux.
Pour les nombreux juifs se considérant antisionistes, cet amalgame est
profondément injurieux.
L’antisionisme
est un point de vue légitime dans l’histoire juive, et il a une longue
tradition, y compris en Israël. Certains juifs s’opposent au sionisme pour des
raisons religieuses, d’autres pour des raisons politiques ou culturelles. De
nombreuses victimes de l’Holocauste étaient antisionistes. Le projet de
résolution les déshonore et offense leur mémoire, en les considérant
rétroactivement comme antisémites.
Mouvement politique
oppressif
Pour les
Palestiniens, le sionisme représente la dépossession, le déplacement,
l’occupation et les inégalités structurelles. Il est cynique de les stigmatiser
comme antisémites parce qu’ils s’opposent au sionisme. Ils s’opposent au sionisme
non par haine des juifs, mais parce qu’ils vivent le sionisme comme un
mouvement politique oppressif. Agir ainsi témoigne d’une grande insensibilité
et d’une politique de deux poids, deux mesures, sachant qu’Israël nie le droit
de la Palestine à exister et mine son existence même.
Il n’y a
aucun doute qu’il existe des antisémites parmi les gens qui s’opposent au
sionisme. Mais il y a également beaucoup d’antisémites qui soutiennent le
sionisme. Il est donc inapproprié et totalement inexact d’identifier de manière
générale antisémitisme et antisionisme. En confondant ces deux phénomènes,
l’Assemblée nationale compromettrait les efforts vitaux de lutte contre le
véritable antisémitisme, qui est multidimensionnel et provient de différents
secteurs de la société française.
Notre seconde
objection est que la résolution approuve la définition de l’antisémitisme de
l’Alliance internationale pour la mémoire de l’Holocauste (IHRA). Cette
définition est hautement problématique. La résolution prétend que la définition
« permet de désigner le plus
précisément possible ce qu’est l’antisémitisme contemporain ». En
réalité cependant, la définition est peu claire et imprécise, et par
conséquent, n’est pas un instrument efficace de lutte contre l’antisémitisme.
D’autre part, une législation visant à lutter efficacement contre
l’antisémitisme et à le poursuivre existe déjà en France.
La résolution
crée un double standard injustifiable en faveur d’Israël et contre les
Palestiniens
L’exposé des
motifs de la proposition de résolution indique que la définition de l’IHRA « ne reconnaît pas comme antisémite la
critique des politiques de l’Etat d’Israël ». En réalité cependant,
plusieurs « exemples
contemporains d’antisémitisme » ont été joints à la définition qui associe intentionnellement
la critique et l’opposition aux politiques de l’Etat d’Israël à
l’antisémitisme. Ces exemples sont présentés et considérés comme partie
intégrante de la définition.
D’après les
exemples et la manière dont ils sont appliqués, il suffit de critiquer Israël
d’une manière perçue comme différente de ce qui se fait pour d’autres pays,
pour être considéré comme antisémite. Il suffit d’être en faveur d’une solution
binationale ou démocratique au conflit israélo-palestinien, pour être considéré
comme antisémite. Il en va de même, quand on blâme Israël pour son racisme
institutionnalisé. On peut certainement ne pas être d’accord avec ces énoncés.
Mais ces opinions sont considérées comme légitimes et protégées par la liberté
d’expression dans tout autre contexte politique. Ainsi, la résolution crée un
double standard injustifiable en faveur d’Israël et contre les Palestiniens.
La définition
de l’IHRA est déjà utilisée pour stigmatiser et réduire au silence les
critiques de l’Etat d’Israël, notamment les organisations de défense des droits
humains et des experts respectés. Cette situation a été condamnée par
d’éminents spécialistes de l’antisémitisme. L’avocat américain Kenneth Stern,
l’un des rédacteurs originaux de la définition de l’IHRA, a également mis en
garde contre l’utilisation de cette définition pour saper la liberté
d’expression.
Instrumentalisation
La
question-clé est la suivante : pourquoi tout cela se produit-il ? Nous ne
pouvons pas considérer cela comme indépendant de l’agenda politique principal
du gouvernement israélien visant à enraciner son occupation et son annexion de
la Palestine et à faire taire toute critique à l’égard de cet agenda.
Depuis des
années, le gouvernement israélien du premier ministre Benjamin Nétanyahou dénonce comme antisémite toute opposition à sa
politique. Nétanyahou lui-même a défendu avec force
l’assimilation de l’antisionisme à l’antisémitisme, ainsi que la définition de
l’IHRA. Cela illustre la manière dont la lutte contre l’antisémitisme a été
instrumentalisée pour protéger le gouvernement israélien.
C’est avec
inquiétude que nous constatons que ces efforts du gouvernement israélien
trouvent un soutien politique, jusqu’en France. Nous invitons ainsi l’Assemblée
nationale à lutter contre l’antisémitisme et contre toutes les formes de
racisme, mais sans aider le gouvernement israélien dans son programme
d’occupation et d’annexion.
Cette
proposition de résolution n’est pas un moyen crédible et efficace d’y parvenir.
L’antisémitisme doit être combattu sur des bases universelles, au même titre
que d’autres formes de racisme et de xénophobie, pour lutter contre la haine.
L’abandon de cette approche universaliste conduira à une polarisation accrue en
France, ce qui nuirait également à la lutte contre l’antisémitisme.
Dans ce
contexte, nous notons que la proposition de résolution est également en
contradiction avec la position de la Commission nationale consultative des
droits de l’homme (CNCDH). Dans son rapport de 2018 sur la lutte contre le
racisme, la CNCDH a averti que la définition de l’IHRA risque d’affaiblir
l’approche universelle française de la lutte contre le racisme et a insisté « sur la vigilance pour ne pas confondre
racisme et critique légitime d’un Etat et de sa politique ».
Nous prions
l’Assemblée nationale de ne pas soutenir une résolution qui assimile à tort
l’antisionisme à l’antisémitisme. Ne soutenez pas une résolution qui approuve
la définition politisée de l’antisémitisme par l’IHRA, d’autant plus si elle le
fait sans se distancier des exemples problématiques de la définition qui
concernent Israël.
Premiers
signataires : Jean-Christophe Attias,
professeur et titulaire de la chaire de pensée juive médiévale, Ecole pratique
des hautes études, université de Paris Sciences Lettres ; Jane Caplan, professeure émérite
d’histoire européenne moderne, université d’Oxford ; Alon Confino, professeur, directeur de
l’institut d’études de l’holocauste, du génocide et de la mémoire, université
du Massachusetts ; Tamar Garb, professeur d’histoire de l’art, directrice de
l’Institute of Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, university
College, Londres ; Sonia Dayan-Herzbrun, professeure
émérite, faculté de sciences sociales, université Paris-Diderot ; Amos Goldberg, professeur, département
d’histoire du judaïsme et du judaïsme contemporain, université Hébraïque de
Jérusalem ; David Harel,
professeur, département de sciences informatiques et mathématiques appliquées,
institut Weizmann des sciences à Paris ; Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin, professeur d’histoire
juive, université Ben- Gourion du Néguev ; Alice Shalvi,
professeur émérite, département d’anglais, Université Hébraïque de Jérusalem et
université Ben-Gourion du Néguev ; Joan Wallach Scott, professeure
émérite, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton ; David Shulman,
professeur, département d’études asiatiques, université Hébraïque de Jérusalem
; Zeev Sternhell,
professeur émérite, université Hébraïque de Jérusalem.
Full list of
signatories follows
+
Netanyahu
Should Be Indicted for War Crimes! ‘Gaza Fights for Freedom!’
with Abby Martin
+
"The 51
Day War"
===========
p.
Too Big to
Fail: the Epstein Investigation - MintPress News
https://www.mintpressnews.com/category/epstein-investigation/
by Whitney Webb
These
Scrubbed Reports Reveal New Secrets Into the Prince Andrew-Jeffrey Epstein
Relationship. Several now-censored reports from the 1990s and early 2000s
reveal that Prince Andrew’s involvement with the minors exploited by Jeffrey
Epstein is greater than previously believed.
===========
q.
China &
Russia collaborate on historic pipeline
+
“America v
China: why the trade war won't end soon” | The Economist
===========
r.
From: Ariel Gold, CODEPINK
[mailto:info@codepink.org]
Sent: Wednesday, December 04, 2019
Subject: What’s happening in Iran?
|
Dear francis,
From November
17–24, due to an almost complete Internet blackout by the Iranian government, I was unable to communicate with any of the new friends I made during
my time on the October 2019 CODEPINK peace delegation to Iran. As Iran shut
down Internet access and used extreme violence to quell protests sparked by a
50% increase in fuel prices, I worried greatly about them — according to
Amnesty International, at least 208 people were killed and thousands
arrested.
U.S. sanctions
are playing a major role in Iran being able to shut down Internet access. Until the U.S. pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, Iran’s Internet
was hosted by a combination of domestic and international providers. But
after the U.S. reimposed sanctions, only domestic
providers were available, giving the Iranian government the ability to shut
off the Internet inside the country — a violation of the right to freedom of
expression.
Tell Congress that all U.S. sanctions on Internet
technology to Iran must be lifted AND tell Internet technology companies
Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft to reactivate domain
fronting — disabled by Amazon and Google in
April 2018 — so that Iranians can resume using international Internet
providers.
Right-wingers
from the U.S. and Israel are feigning outrage at Iran’s Internet blackout and
violence against protestors. Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett put out a video appealing to technology
experts around the world to “help the long-suffering Iranian people gain open
access to all social media." U.S. Senators Cruz, Cotton, Cornyn, Blackburn, Barrasso,
and Rubio penned a letter to Donald Trump asking him to “take all available
technical measures to restore access to the Internet in Iran” and “ impose additional pressure in the form of additional
sanctions against the Iranian regime.” But it is precisely the Trump
administration’s sanctions that are giving Iran the ability to blackout the
Internet. Tell Congress that all sanctions on technology in Iran
must be lifted. In 2017, Iran
shut down the Internet in response to protests inside the country, but
because the country was so dependent on international Internet
infrastructure, they could only afford to close the Internet for 30 minutes.
Fast-forward to 2019 under U.S. sanctions, and Iran was able to blackout 93%
of the Internet for a week. With even more sanctions placed on Iran this
week, next time could be even worse. Contact Congress now! In solidarity
with the people of Iran, PS: Check out our blogs from Iran, and read about the
beautiful country and its people, and then make a year-end donation to support our work for #PeaceWithIran. |
To update your
email subscription, contact info@codepink.org.
|
© Copyright 2019
| www.codepink.org |
+
Six more
countries join Trump-busting Iran barter group | Iran's nuclear programme
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/01/six-more-countries-join-trump-busting-iran-barter-group
Belgium,
Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden sign up to Instex
mechanism that sidesteps US sanctions
+
Why are Iraqi
protesters targeting Iranian buildings?
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/11/iraqi-protesters-targeting-iranian-buildings-191128173736467.html
by Arwa Ibrahim
+
Stop maximum
pressure campaign on Iran: China tells US
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/12/06/612993/Iran-China-US-sanctions-maximum-pressure-JCPOA
===========
s.
Will the
global Left allow right-wing nationalists to take control of society's
discontent?
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/474473-left-protests-communism-nationalists-zizek/
by Slavoj Zizek
+
Turkey deserves
the blame for what happened in Syria
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/turkey-deserves-the-blame-for-what-happened-in-syria-1.4105830
by Michael Jansen
===========
t.
From: H-PAD [mailto:h-pad-bounces@lists.historiansforpeace.org]
Sent: Thursday, December 05, 2019
Subject: [H-PAD] H-PAD Notes 12/5/19: AHA convention; links to recent articles of
interest
Note: Historians for Peace and Democracy and the Radical
History Review are co-sponsoring eleven sessions at next month's annual American Historical Association convention in New York, Friday 1/3 to Sunday 1/5. Click here for a one-page flyer giving the
schedule for these sessions or here for complete information including
names of participants. All the sessions will be in the same room at the
convention hotel.
Links to
Recent Articles of Interest
"The House Should Go Big in Framing Impeachment
Articles Against Trump"
By Carolyn
Eisenberg, New York Times, posted December 5.
Argues that the 1974 House Judiciary Committee decision not to include
Nixon's secret bombing of Cambodia among the articles of impeachment meant
passing up the opportunity to set standards for future presidents. The author
teaches US history and foreign policy at Hofstra
University.
By Rebecca Gordon, TomDispatch.com,
posted December 5
A broad
analysis of US history and its influence on the coalition making up Donald
Trump's base of support. The author teaches at the University of San
Francisco.
"The Unfinished Revolution: Eric Foner's
Story of American Freedom"
By Michael
Kazin, The Nation, posted December 2
A lengthy review essay on Eric Foner's new book
The Second Founding, about the 13th, 14th, and 15th
amendments. As background, the essay discusses Foner's
other books on the Civil War era. The author teaches history at Georgetown
University.
"American Exceptionalism Is Killing
the Planet: The Many Abuses of Endless War"
By William J. Astore,
TomDispatch.com, posted December 1
The author is a retired Air Force
lieutenant colonel who has taught history in military and civilian schools.
"Remember the Oath of the Elbe"
By Jeremy Kuzmarov, The Progressive, posted
November 28
On a rendezvous of American and Soviet soldiers at the Elbe River in
Germany soon after the Nazi surrender, in which both sides promised to work for
a peaceful world.
By Ian
Zuckerman, Public Seminar, posted November 26
The author
teaches politics at Regis University.
"The Apocalyptic Myth That Helps Explain Evangelical
Support for Trump"
By Thomas Lecaque, Washington Post, posted
November 26
The author teaches history at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa.
"The Myth of the First Thanksgiving Is a Buttress of
White Nationalism and Needs to Go"
By Michael
J. Silverman, History News Network, posted November 24
The author
teaches history at George Washington University.
"America Will Never Live Down Trump's War Crime
Pardons"
By Danny Sjursen, TruthDig.com, posted
November 21
The author is a retired major in the US Army and a former history
instructor at West Point.
"Why Family Separation Is So Central to Trump's Immigration
Vision"
By Maddalena Marinari,
Washington Post, posted November 21
The author teaches history at Gustavus Adolphus College and is the author of the forthcoming book Unwanted: Italian and Jewish Mobilization Against
Restrictive Immigration Laws, 1882-1965 (U. of North Carolina Press).
Thanks to an anonymous reader for suggesting some of the articles
included above. Suggestions can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.
===========
u.
The Origins
Podcast with Lawrence Krauss
with Lawrence Krauss
& Noam Chomsky
+
After 10
Years of Hopes and Setbacks, What Happened to the Common Core?
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/06/us/common-core.html
by Dana Goldstein
+
What the U.S.
Torture Program Looked Like to the Tortured
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52657.htm
by Carol Rosenberg
===========
v.
War with
Russia? Stephen F. Cohen and Dan Rather in Conversation with
Katrina Vanden Heuvel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm5clHYTOhA
(1h5min)
===========
w.
STOP 5G Le cerveau humain est 40 hz et le champ Terrestre 30 hz Maximum
https://www.mesopinions.com/petition/sante/stop-5g-cerveau-humain-40-hz/75680
+
Almost Quarter BILLION Dollars Paid Out for Vaccine Injuries by U.S. Government in 2019