The Irish have their problems, but silence isn’t one of them. Unlike their American counterparts, major media in Ireland are actually willing to participate with independent journalists and activists in debating coverage of the American war in Iraq. RTE recently teamed up with Real News and MediaBite to produce the following vibrant discussion.
Worth Thinking About
I was viewing Sinn Fein’s YouTube proclamation against imperialism, fascism, and racism, and thought to myself, “What bona fide political party in the United States would do anything like that?” Certainly neither of the two parties controlling our government.
Which reminded me of the recent decision by the Mapuche nation to organize a political party open to indigenous as well as non-indigenous citizens of the Chilean state, in order to fight for values, rights and beliefs betrayed by liberals and conservatives.
I don’t know how such an endeavor might be launched in the US, but it’s something worth thinking about. I mean, we’re certainly not going to make any headway against imperialism, fascism, or racism by supporting Democrats and Republicans.
War on Ideas
Social Research lists foreign scholars invited by US universities who were denied visas by the US State Department for holding beliefs contrary to US policy.
Indicting Justice
In their April 2007 report Maze of Injustice, Amnesty International documents the failure to protect Indigenous women from sexual violence in the USA. In an attempt to address this brutal legacy of ongoing colonialism in Indian country, Amnesty International — with the cooperation of Indigenous women’s organizations across the country — has compiled both an earth-shattering indictment of the US justice system, as well as a solid plan of action. Failing to act on this plan is not merely racist, it is inhuman.
Undermining Coexistence
Anti-Indian agent provocateurs are notorious for inciting hatred among confused citizens attempting to come to terms with Native American sovereignty. One of the worst fearmongers in the 1980s and 1990s was Chuck Cushman, the registered agent for American Land Rights Association located in Clark County, Washington. But Cushman is just one of many masters of political violence who work with Anti-Indian organizations like One Nation United, a national non-profit headquartered in King County, Washington.
In addition to field work in promoting bigotry, these corporations also organize lobbying against Native American sovereignty, as well as conduct public relations campaigns to generate public fear of tribal initiatives. In 2006, for instance, American Land Rights Association and Alliance Against Reservation Shopping* joined One Nation United in sponsoring an Anti-Indian conference in Washington, D.C.
Capitalizing on genuine concerns of tribal neighbors across the US, Anti-Indian Movement entrepreneurs have become adept at manipulating ill-informed citizens into opposing tribes seeking to enforce federal treaties in pursuing self-determination, resource protection, and economic development. While there is usually room for negotiation between the good-faith parties involved, it is the persistent politics of land and bigotry that often undermines just resolution and peaceful coexistence.
*This is probably a typo for Citizens Against Reservation Shopping.
Fomenting Fascism
Himal magazine’s Vivek Chibber examines the overwhelming influence that US universities have come to exercise over elite intellectual culture in India. Exploring how the academic circuit beneficiaries of corporate-sponsored think tanks that engendered neoliberal free-market fundamentalism have found a home in the halls of power in India, Chibber observes that the dominant portals of ideas on the subcontinent now represent a new wave of domesticated academics—even when wearing a radical face.
Taking a Stand
I often wondered how otherwise reasonable people in the US could believe in human equality and civil rights in our country, while at the same time opposing equality in Israel. Granted, ADL is much preferable to JDL, but the mindless support for Israeli exceptionalism by the former in some ways emboldens the latter. In this article, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights‘ Laith Marouf examines the movement for academic boycott against Israeli Apartheid in North America and the UK. Encountering the usual threats, harassment, lawsuits and violence by the anti-democratic Zionist network, Marouf looks at how some students and faculty have overcome easily intimidated university administrations in taking a stand against racial discrimination.
Free World
PEN lists writers imprisoned or recently released by country, including ways to help secure their freedom of expression.
White Man’s Burden
In this Time/CNN article, we get a glimpse of the type of psychological warfare we can expect as the transnational corporate pals of Western media intensify their looting of the African continent. With approximately half the world’s unmined minerals, ores, and fossil fuels located there, we can also anticipate Western governments to continue pouring ever more armaments into the hands of gangster heads of state in order to assure that pro-democracy and self-determination movements of Fourth World nations are thoroughly crushed.
Not that Western media has ever refrained from promoting white supremacy; it’s just become more subtle and brazen. How else could they keep a straight face suggesting former colonies, founded on slavery by brutal empires, were a benign influence on the bedrock aboriginal nations forced into the subjection of colonially-constructed modern states?
One Country
Out of the undeniable suffering and trauma of the Boer Wars, Afrikaners constructed an ideology in which they were in a state of permanent victimhood. It is this blindness that allows most [Israeli] Jews to believe the illusion that they have a democracy, despite the apartheid reality. Both Zionists and Afrikaners responded to resistance from the native population by rhetorically reversing the colonial relationship. But the reality is that neither Zionists nor Afrikaners would have gained control without the benefit of British power. This shared mentality of survival justifying any means led to Israel being the closest ally of apartheid South Africa.—One Country by Ali Abunimah
