Archive for the ‘Colonialism’ Category
Ajamu Baraka, former US Green Vice President Candidate, “war in Ukraine may be the most morally obscene war the U.S. has ever engaged in.”
Ajamu Baraka is the national organiser of the Black Alliance for Peace and was the 2016 candidate for vice president of the United States on the Green Party ticket. Baraka is an editor and contributing columnist for the Black Agenda Report and was awarded the U.S. Peace Memorial 2019 Peace Prize and the Serena Shirm award for uncompromised integrity in journalism.
There are some blustering types out there on the outer political limits of campism and ‘anti-imperialism’, but not many are fuller of hectoring swag than this chap.
2016: Baraka was the Green Party nominee for Vice President of the United States on the ballot in 45] states and received 1,457,216 votes (1.07% of the popular vote).
It is hard to imagine a more morally bankrupt statement on the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian state than the above.
Why is nobody in the slightest surprise that this is the company he keeps?
Ajamu Baraka, speaking from the standpoint of the oppressed masses of the Institute for Policy Studies, (“a progressive organization dedicated to building a more equitable, ecologically sustainable, and peaceful society. In partnership with dynamic social movements, we turn transformative policy ideas into action”) where he is an Associate fellow, tweets,
The tasty Geezer has form:
Ukraine: The Tip of the Spear for the Imperialist Project
February 14, 2022 Ajamu Baraka
It is imperialism, led by the United States, that is the culprit. Its parasitic imperialist domination would be impossible without its core instrument of enforcement and control: State violence. That is why we are discussing Ukraine today.
Imperialism: That is framework. Today, it is Ukraine. Tomorrow, it might be China. Why? Because with the seemingly sudden and spontaneous crisis that emerged with Ukraine, the steady, violent, oppressive and repressive relations of power between the United States and Western capital and the rest of humanity continues. Objective reality bears this out. While we are focused on Ukraine as the most immediate danger, the people of Afghanistan are starving, bombs are still dropping in Yemen, coups are unfolding in Africa, the United States is still pivoting to Asia, and the peoples and nations of Latin America and the Caribbean are still suffocating from the predatory weight of the U.S. hegemon.
When we remind ourselves that the doctrine of Full Spectrum Dominance animates U.S. foreign policies, we can disabuse ourselves of any illusions on what our historic task must be.
The drive for dominance has always been fueled by one objective: To position U.S. capitalist interests to be able to more effectively plunder the labor and resources of the peoples and nations of the world.
Is that not what is in play in eastern Europe? Is it not capitalist competition and its geostrategic implications that is driving events? Can we understand Ukraine, the role of NATO and the United States, without understanding the economic interests involved with Nord Stream 2 and the Eurasian Economic Union and even the Belt and Road Initiative? Was it a surprise that after being pushed out of Afghanistan, a crisis would emerge in Kazakhstan as the United States desperately tries to re-position itself in central Asia? That is why nothing short of the defeat of imperialism must be seen as our task.
This gives a flavour of what a degraded figure this man is:
In a January 2015 essay, Baraka described the March in reaction to the Charlie Hebdo shooting as a “white power march,” and the Je suis Charlie movement in general as an “arrogant rallying cry for white supremacy”.
The Charlie Hebdo White Power Rally in Paris A Celebration of Western Hypocrisy.
With typical arrogant US racism Baraka did not mention the Arab victims of the Islamist killers in the Charlie Hebdo attack: Mustapha Ourrad, Ahmed Merabet, not the Jewish woman murdered, Elsa Cayat, amongst the 12 people caught in the slaughter.
Update:
Baraka is involved with this Marcyite (Named after Sam Marcy) (Workers World) front: “The United National Antiwar Coalition is a “peace” coalition dominated by the Workers World Party.“
Alt-Right Ipswich MP, Tom Hunt, Send Refugees to “a safe European country, Rwanda.”
Tom Hunt is the Conservative MP for Ipswich. His background includes He was head of media for the Countryside Alliance which campaigned for hunting (hah!) and shooting. Hunt holds alt-right views, railing against ‘Cultural Marxism’ (1) and is a member of the Common Sense group of Tory MPs who fight ‘wokeness’. One of his first acts on becoming MP in 2019 was to join the Brexit ultras of the European Research Group, . In April 2021, Hunt called for the flying of the Union Jack to be made compulsory in all schools, stating on Twitter that “If any pupils and teachers have concerns about this then surely they can be “educated” about what the flag actually represents”.
Recently, the 13th of April, Hunt was again in the news:
Mr Hunt claimed that the Prime Minister didn’t break any law and suggested calls for his resignation are premature.
“Aren’t you belittling it in a way?” Andrew asked, to which Mr Hunt said the public are “right to feel angry and upset at what happened.”
Andrew pushed the Tory MP: “If Boris didn’t break the laws, did the Met get it wrong?”
“It would be a bit much for me to say”, he said.
“From what I can see I think the decision was a bit harsh to fine the Prime Minister and to fine the Chancellor.”
And this,
“Mr Hunt had said that the Prime Minister had not knowingly broken the law and that the event he had been fined for, when he was presented with a birthday cake, came after Mr Johnson almost died, and that “they’ve done a surprise greeting with a birthday cake. I don’t judge that to be a party”.
A Conservative MP responded like a toddler when he was criticised for defending Boris Johnson.
He has also wadded into this controversy:
Much merriment was created when this story appeared (19/4/22)
Tory MP Suffers From Foot-In-Mouth On Live TV As He Forgets Where Rwanda Is
Appearing on the BBC’s Politics Live programme on Tuesday, Hunt described the plan as an “offshoring processing” strategy which would allow the asylum seekers to stay in Europe – even though Rwanda is in East Africa.
He told the panel: “I’ve often felt that offshore processing is the only way to truly tackle this issue.
“This is obviously offshore processing to stay in Rwanda, not here,” presenter Jo Coburn said.
He replied: “To stay in a safe European country, Rwanda.”
A divisive figure, yesterday Hunt said in the Ipswich Star,
I firmly believe that schools should be helping our younger generations grow up with a strong understanding of British values. I also think it is important that schools create a sense of pride in our country. Sadly, this seems to be something which some on the Left disagree with.
(1) Ipswich Star 2020. “I do think it is unfortunate that some of the leadership figures of BLM have at times strayed beyond what should be a powerful yet simple and unified message in opposition to racism that still exists in our society, straying into cultural Marxism, the abolition of the nuclear family, defunding the police, overthrowing capitalism.”
Stop the War Coalition Challenges “the idea that (invasion of Ukraine) is “a battle between “Western civilisation and Russian degeneracy.”
Stop the War Coalition…..
(I note that after being widely mocked for having the likes of Tariq Ali posing as experts on Ukraine the StWC had finally got a Ukrainian people to speak, a pacifist Yuri Sheliazhenko and, “Ukrainian activist Oksana Solomou (who) said her home city of Chernihiv had been “60 percent destroyed by the Russian invasion” and that “40 percent of houses had been destroyed”. But she opposed Nato intervention. ” *).
Socialist Worker.
Around 400 people joined an online teach-in on Saturday analysing the roots and consequences of the war in Ukraine. It was organised by the Stop the War Coalition, which opposes the Russian invasion but also calls for no Nato escalation.
The size of the meeting shows there is an audience for those who do not go along with the dominant idea that the only villain is Vladimir Putin and that Nato is some sort of humanitarian body. The meeting was supposed to be a physical event, but the spread of Covid forced it on to Zoom. This restricted the opportunities for interchange of views, but it was still a useful event.
(Name the other villains!)
..
Chris Nineham, the vice-chair of the Stop The War Coalition, said the invasion had been a “disaster for the people of Ukraine but also for those in the region and across the world”.
But he challenged the idea that it was a battle between “Western civilisation and Russian degeneracy” (has anybody ever ever said that?). Instead he argued the need to recognise that “rivalries of big power competition” are central. He said the West’s propaganda was “shockingly hypocritical, Eurocentric and amnesiac, an attempt to bury the history of what they have done”.
He said the anti-war movement in Britain had been on the streets and would “need to do it again”. But he said that there was also a need for “education and organisation—public meetings and teach-ins”.
..
Rob Ferguson, a member of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and the Stop the War Coalition steering committee, spoke. He said that the West’s manoeuvres had intensified the divisions and hostilities in Ukraine. He particularly pointed to the Bucharest Nato summit of 2008 that welcomed Georgia and Ukraine’s “aspirations for membership” and had led almost immediately to war in Georgia.”
So, it is Nato to blame all along.
Building the anti-war movement is vital to stopping the horrors of the war in Ukraine
Read this perisher’s puff…..
march for Ukraine
rob marsden reports on Saturday’s protest in ‘Solidarity with Ukraine’.
Tendance Coatesy 