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Reports, News Flashes, and Commentary from Various Conflict Zones Around the Globe
HUMANITY IN TORMENT

This is a screen capture of Enbridge’s Nort American infrastructure map. Notice that they are way north with hheavy activities in both Canada and the United States. Does this look like a project that is being phased out? Yes, this also includes Keystone.

Winona LaDuke leads environmental horse ride against Enbridge’s new pipeline route in Minnesota

Winona LaDuke

Rice Lake, MN – Winona LaDuke, executive director of Honor the Earth lead another horse ride along Enbridge’s proposed route for Sandpiper and Line 3 in Minnesota, which includes crossing irreplaceable wild rice lakes and rivers and freshwater aquifers at the very source headwaters for 3 of the 4 North American continental watersheds; north by Red River to Hudson Bay, east to Lake Superior to the Atlantic Ocean and south by the Mississippi river to the Gulf of Mexico.

The horse ride follows the Enbridge proposed route between 2 of the historically most-important wild rice producing lakes for the Chippewa, both called Rice Lake and established as federal wild rice refuges by Congress for the exclusive use of the Chippewa at the beginning of the 20th century.

“I cannot emphasize enough the importance of protecting our sacred manoomin (wild rice) which is at the root of our cultural and spiritual ways of life with mother earth we call bimaadiziwin, living our life in a good way” said Winona LaDuke, adding “Days of us riding horses shows and reminds us of the many gifts from the Creator which we must protect for the generations to come. It’s an important job.”

In a recent letter to EPA Region 5, LaDuke expressed concerns about a recent Michigan federal court’s Consent Decree against Enbridge for the Kalamazoo oil spill including the replacement of all of Line 3 in Minnesota reminded the administrator that “This may be one of the most important and critical times for EPA vigilance and protection in light of the Department of Defense 2014 Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap especially recognizing the greatest, negative climate change contributors and impacts are tar sands extreme extraction and fracking and our nation needs to protect the environment now.”

In a directly related background story LaDuke describes efforts to use Chippewa treaty rights to protect our territories environment from pipeline abandonment and allowing new routes through wild rice lakes and rivers at Indian Country Today http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/07/22/treaty-rights-battle-links-hunting-and-oil-pipelines-minnesota-165233

Attached here is the link for the consent decree and 30 day comment period at https://www.justice.gov/enrd/consent-decree/us-v-enbridge-energy-partners-lp-et-al-0

Honor the Earth is working with a variety of citizen groups who have come to understand their property rights are vulnerable big oil and state law and that Chippewa Treaty rights may be the one protection for our environment, for all Minnesotans today and tomorrow. For updates and information on treaty rights, pipeline abandonment, Line 3 and Sandpiper please visit www.honorearth.org or see us on FaceBook.

http://lastrealindians.com/army-corps-approves-dakota-access-pipeline-land-and-water-defenders-respond-vow-to-continue-to-fight-by-matt-remle/

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ALL IMAGES, CAPTIONS AND PULL QUOTES BY THE EDITORS NOT THE AUTHORS

Ramzy Baroud, PhD
Politics for the People

Latuff – write cap

It is encouraging when people reach across borders to offer their solidarity in these struggles against oppression. Such is the case with Palestinians and African Americans as each are considered some how less than human, and therefore there is little restraint in the use of lethal force. What I find hopeful is that people are recognizing that they are each fighting a similar fight though dealing with different cultures and different bases (ethnocentrism and religious on one side and racism on the other). Regardless, the brutal oppression is similar and justice is necessary in both instances and nations. -rw

Last year, I wrote an article that made many readers unhappy. As soon as it was published, I began receiving messages of abuse and angry, threatening calls.  

I hesitated about reporting the threats to the local police in Washington State and, in the end, I resolved to file the unpleasant experience under a burgeoning folder of ‘controversies’ caused by my writings. The title of the article was: “‘I Can’t Breathe’: Racism and War in America and Beyond.” 

As a Palestinian columnist and a book author over the past 20 years, it has not been entirely easy working in the United States. Nor has it been possible to be embraced by the mainstream while raging against mainstream ideas, constant appetite for war and unthinking support of Apartheid Israel.  

George Orwell once wrote: “In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act”. With time, and with no other alternative, I have decided to comfort myself with that sage realization.  

Having been born in a refugee camp in Gaza, I am the descendant of a generation of refugees and peasants, who once dwelled in a Palestinian homeland before it was brutally vanquished in 1948 and ‘miraculously’ became Israel.  

For the better part of a whole century, generations of Palestinians have experienced every form of oppression that the twisted human mind is able to conjure up: massacres, ethnic cleansing, destruction of property, rape, unremitting war, siege and all the psychological torment that often accompanies such devastation.  

In fact, being survivors of a perpetual injustice has, at least for many of us, become the main frame of reference through which we can understand the world, and ourselves.  

As a refugee, I have always remained absorbed and totally committed to expose the suffering of refugees, wherever they are. But I am just one of an ever-growing movement of Palestinian intellectuals, artists, academicians and justice activists the world over.  

Our shared experience and unrelenting fight for freedom and justice has molded us into a unique breed, where solidarity with others have become so innate, an uncontrollable urge, a pathology even, although a welcome one. Thus, it should come as no surprise that the loudest international solidarity that accompanied the continued spate of the killing of Black Americans comes from Palestine; that books have already been written and published by Palestinians about the plight of their Black brethren. In fact, that solidarity is mutual.  

Surprisingly, some of the anger that followed my writings on the subject of Palestinian-Black solidarity came from pro-Palestinian ‘White’ readers. One even went as far as disowning the Palestinian cause altogether. ‘Let Black people free your country,” he wrote, along with a few profane phrases.  

Honestly, good riddance. There must be no racism in the Palestine solidarity movement anyway, and any solidarity that is conditioned on isolating Palestinians from the fight for human rights anywhere in the world is unworthy and unwelcome.  

The truth is, I was not trying to score cheap political points by espousing justice for 12-year-old Tamir Rice, or Eric Garner or, more recently, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. These, among hundreds of other who are killed every year in the ongoing drama of police violence, come from the most economically and socially disadvantaged segments of American society. They hold little political influence and are rarely known for their powerful lobbies in Washington DC.  

Yet, siding with them, however strategically useless such a move may appear to some, is the only moral path to be taken. I, like millions of Palestinians, know precisely what racism is, what oppression feels like, how being economically underprivileged and politically disadvantaged are often the inception of anger –  and even counter-violence.  

My people have been living that vicious cycle for a century and, for me, not to take a moral stance in solidarity with any oppressed group anywhere in the world is denying the very foundation of my being, the collective drive that keeps millions of Palestinians standing strong and moving forward.  

There is an unmistakable sense of being permanently exiled that is shared by many Palestinians, regardless of their political backgrounds. That sense is both real and figurative to the extent that, with time, it has morphed into a culture, a mode of thinking and perspective.  

Being ‘out of place’, the title of Edward Said’s powerful memoir is not unique to a single Palestinian individual, but to a whole nation. Even in our homeland, there is little sense of continuity; things can change so very quickly: by bombs, bulldozers or military orders.  

To adapt, Palestinian culture – although rooted in a long history of uninterrupted existence that exceeds a millennia – has been quite fluid; culturally and geographically, as well. With the prolonged ‘exile’, our political identity surpassed time and place. Thus, identifying with Black or Native Americans, the refugees of Syria, the victims of South African Apartheid or the Rohingya of Burma is hardly an act of political expediency, but a natural moral inclination. A culture even.  

Edward Said had convincingly articulated the concept of ‘global perspective’ that made the Palestinian struggle part and parcel of a global fight for social justice. For Palestinians, the lines have become truly blurred between their political identity, their own culture and that of a much greater fight with loftier goals.  

“In the case of a political identity that’s being threatened, culture is a way of fighting against extinction and obliteration,” Said wrote.  

“Culture is a form of memory against effacement.”  

In a recently released poetry collection that I co-authored with two brilliant Palestinian poets, Samah Sabawi and Jehan Bseiso, what is Palestine merged into a much larger array of global struggles against injustice.  

In the poem, written after the death of Herman Wallace – a Black man who was incarcerated in solitary confinement for 41 years on the basis of what many believe were trumped up charges – I attempted to include the old fighter’s struggle as part of my people’s own ‘memory against effacement.’  

“.. My fist will rise from the charred earth; in a painting by Naji Ali,
Through the thick walls of Louisiana State Penitentiary
In the streets of Hanoi
Amid the rubble of a Gaza mosque.
Even on my dying bed.
I have many names.
But my face is always my face.
On my forehead stitched the memory of pain.
I smile still.
And teach my son to never hate
Because hate is not love
And love is freedom
I am a Palestinian
My name is Herman Wallace
And I will always die free.”  

Suddenly, being Palestinian and Black was the most natural feeling. It was not a calculated decision, but an innate feeling driven by the common struggle for justice and a shared history of pain.  

Ramzy Baroud, PhD

Has been writing about the Middle East for over 20 years. He is an internationally-syndicated columnist, a media consultant, an author of several books and the founder of PalestineChronicle.com. His books include ‘Searching Jenin’, ‘The Second Palestinian Intifada’ and his latest ‘My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story’. His website is: www.ramzybaroud.net.

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FRONTLINE
NEWS—

Reports, News Flashes, and Commentary from Various Conflict Zones Around the Globe
HUMANITY IN TORMENT

=By= Lauren McCauley

In addition to shaving the heads of six teachers, union members forced them to walk barefoot carrying signs that read “traitors.” (yucatan.com)

Nine reportedly killed in Oaxaca, days after thousands of teachers marched in Mexico City to protest neoliberal education reforms

[dropcap]A [/dropcap]Mexican teacher protest against neoliberal education policies turned deadly on Sunday, with nine people killed, after police unleashed gunfire on the demonstrators’ road blockade.

According to TeleSUR, teachers from the dissident union, Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (CNTE), “had set up the blockade as part of protests over an education reform implemented by President Enrique Peña Nieto and the arrest of several of the unions’ leaders over the past week,” which they said, were politically motivated.

With scant reporting, much of the details of the have emerged on social media, including reports that police attacked an elementary school being used as a makeshift clinic to treat the more than 100 wounded.

Quick recap: six killed by police including two teachers, burning barricades and the people are still resisting. pic.twitter.com/vZn6YaiC8X

— Dirty Thirty Tony (@MexicAnarchist) June 20, 2016

EPN INDIFERENTE como #Ayotzinapa
ADMIRABLE DIGNA RESISTENCIA #Nochixtlan
EPNyNUÑO POLÍTICAMENTE DERROTADOS @Omarel44 pic.twitter.com/qB8bTzhy0p

— Violet (@ncv_Violeta) June 19, 2016

Police denied that the original shots were fired by them. “Mexico’s National Security Commission originally said in a statement that the police officers involved in the operation near the town of Nochixtlan were not carrying guns,” BBC reports. “But federal police chief Enrique Galindo later said that an armed unit was deployed after shots were fired at the police and the protesters by ‘unidentified people’ not linked to the demonstration.”

However, national security commissioner Renato Sales Heredia warned last week that the government would employ a “moderate use of force” to repress the ongoing mobilization.

TeleSUR further reports: “Another clash between demonstrators and police took place in the city port of Salina Cruz, in Oaxaca as well, where another group of teachers were blockading a road that connects the state with its neighbors on the Pacific coast. Local media also reported dozens of injured protesting teachers and dozens of arrests, however authorities have not said anything on this case.”

Blockades were erected across Oaxaca in recent days and on Friday thousands of teachers marched in Mexico City to protest the controversial reforms.

Thousands in Mexico City chanting for the president to leave. Teachers & their supporters get greeted with riot cops https://t.co/avIAJPHRwK

— Dirty Thirty Tony (@MexicAnarchist) June 18, 2016

During that demonstration, activists read a letter that was signed by hundreds of global academic, religious, popular, student, human and social rights organizations condemning the “brutal repression” exerted against teachers.

“We think that the authorities must commit to dialogue, recognizing the just demands of the teachers’ movement, and not to force to solve this and any other conflict, especially in a country marked by violence and impunity,” the letter states.

The union—which was founded to represent teachers in the poorer and largely indigenous southern states of Mexico—is fighting against the government’s 2013 education reform that imposes teacher evaluations. They say the mandatory testing is being used to justify mass layoffs and fails to consider the specific challenges of teaching in rural areas and Indigenous communities.

“In many places, educators are expected by the population to do more than provide classes in schools lacking computers or basic supplies such as chalk,” Vice News explains.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License

Source: CommonDreams.
Featured Graphic: In addition to shaving the heads of six teachers, union members forced them to walk barefoot carrying signs that read “traitors.” (yucatan.com)

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=By= Lamont Lilly

Black Lives Matter. Photo: Johnny Silvercloud. (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Lamont points out a critical reality that is impacting the Black Lives Matter movement, namely the targeting of organizers and groups by local police and the FBI. This is huge, but it is one, not new; and two, increasingly characteristic of today’s government (fed, state, and local). It is open season on those who speak out against racism, inequality, destruction of the planet, and corruption within government. Interestingly, while it is the folks on the far right are the ones carrying guns (and too often using them) they do not seem to be facing the same infiltration and targeting problems. This point is NOT what is being argued by Lilly in this article. There is an inescapable truth that there is significant differences in harsh and deadly encounters with police, and a significant difference in how those who engage in deadly violence are treated. This article discusses these problems quite cogently. -rw

During the height of the Ferguson Rebellion in late summer 2014, youth organizer, Joshua Williams quickly rose to the call of duty. In the aftermath of Officer Darren Wilson’s brutal murder of unarmed Black teenager, Mike Brown, 19-year-old Josh Williams, stepped forward in the most dedicated and courageous way possible – on the front lines.

At protests, Williams stood his ground against armed police, national guardsmen, tanks and teargas, encouraging others to do the same. In doing so, Josh not only earned the respect and admiration of his peers, he began to garner favor with longtime veteran leaders such as Cornel West and Al Sharpton. Williams became a darling of the national media, from USA Today to the New York Times. Everyone loved Josh. His humor. His courage. His charisma.

Unfortunately, just a few months after Mike Brown’s dead body dangled in the street for four hours, another Black teenager, Antonio Martin, was shot by the police in Berkeley – a small town just outside of Ferguson. In a righteous rage, youth took to the streets in rebellion. In the process, Williams was caught on camera lighting a fire at the convenience store where Martin was shot and killed. In December 2014, Josh Williams was arrested by the St. Louis County police, and a year later plead guilty to first degree arson and second degree burglary.

Were Josh’s actions of “damaging property” illegal? Yes, of course. But so was the murder of innocent human lives. Did Darren Wilson serve time in jail? No, he did not. Did George Zimmerman serve time for murdering 17-year-old Trayvon Martin? No, not at all! Josh Williams, however, was sentenced to eight years in the Eastern Reception Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre, Mo. Neither Wilson nor Zimmerman never served one day in prison.

Legal Repression, Trumped-up Charges

Another recent case of overt targeting of activists by the state is the case of 28-year-old Jasmine Richards (also known as Jasmine Abdullah). Founder of the Black Lives Matter  Pasadena Chapter, Richards became the first Black person in the United States convicted of “felony lynching.” Yes, lynching! She was hit with this charge for attempting to prevent the arrest of a Black woman accused of not paying her bill at a local restaurant, back in August 2015.

During the incident, Jasmine and others were nearby at a local park rally against violence in the Black community. As commotion spilled over into the street, Jasmine and nearby protesters came to serve as witnesses, demanding justice. At the time, only the suspect accused of not paying her bill was formally arrested. Three days later, however, for her valiant pursuit of justice, Jasmine was charged with delaying and obstructing officers, inciting a riot and felony lynching. On June 1, 2016, Jasmine Richards was sentenced  to 90 days in jail and 3 years of probation time.

In the state of California, lynching implies “the taking by means of a riot of another person from the lawful custody of a peace officer.” The erroneous charges against Jasmine backfired, however, when the general public finally received word of such a ridiculous interpretation, and legal application. Public outcry was heard worldwide. And though Richards was released on bail just a few days ago on June 18, an old phenomenon has become quite clear.

Learning Lessons from Past Movements

What we’re seeing in regards to targeting activists and organizers of the Black Lives Matter Movement  is nothing new – no different than the targeting of Mumia Abu-Jamal, Assata Shakur and Leonard Peltier. What we’re seeing is the same strategy that COINTELPRO used against the Black Panther Party (BPP), Black Liberation Army (BLA) and American Indian Movement (AIM).

What we have to do now is call this out, and critique such developments through a contemporary context. The intent of such repression is to halt the movement, to halt the surge and organization of the poor and oppressed, to “disrupt, discredit and destroy.”

For those who may not be familiar, “the state” is the police and county sheriffs – ICE , U.S. Border Patrol, the FBI and CIA – your local probation and correctional officers – even the judges and state prosecutors. Collectively, the state apparatus will do anything to protect the elite. Such statement is unfortunately true because, it is indeed, their job. And if the state cannot stop you permanently, they’ll tie up your time, energy and resources in the jails and court system. And they’ll use the media to demonize you in the process.

As current activists, radical scholars and revolutionaries, we have to learn from these lessons and pass them on. As the Movement for Black Lives continues to grow, mature and push forward, it would behoove us to only expect that there will also be other activists targeted. It could be me. It could be you. It could be any one of us: the organizer, the foot soldier, the professor.

We know what the state wants – to prevent the poor and disenfranchised from rising and seizing power. Such position has always been the state’s role. What is new, is that a new generation must be armed with the proper information to protect themselves. Those on the front line must be defended, by us, the people, the community, at all cost, by any means necessary.

As our great field general, Assata Shakur teaches us, “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.”

Lamont Lilly is a contributing editor with the Triangle Free Press and organizer with Workers World Party. He has recently served as field staff in Baltimore, Ferguson, Oakland, Boston and Philadelphia. In February 2015, he traveled to both Syria and Lebanon with Ramsey Clark and Cynthia McKinney. Follow him on Twitter @LamontLilly.

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Nauseated by the
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Had enough of their lies, escapism,
omissions and relentless manipulation?

Last night, Jesse Williams received the 2016 Humanitarian of the Year award. He took the opportunity to speak out. It was an eloquent statement against racism in the United States, and makes a direct challenge to others to not stand quietly while racist police brutality continues.

jesse williams – full speech from Josh Begley on Vimeo.

Transcript of Williams’ remarks (from Genius.com)

Peace peace. Thank you, Debra. Thank you, BET. Thank you Nate Parker, Harry and Debbie Allen, for doing that. Before we get into it, I just want to say — I brought my parents — thank you for being here and for teaching me to focus on comprehension over career. They made sure I learned what the schools were afraid to teach us. Also, thank you to my amazing wife for changing my life.

Now, this award – this is not for me. This is for the real organizers all over the country – the activists, the civil rights attorneys, the struggling parents, the families, the teachers, the students that are realizing that a system built to divide and impoverish and destroy us cannot stand if we do.

It’s kind of basic mathematics – the more we learn about who we are and how we got here, the more we will mobilize.

Now, this is also in particular for the black women in particular who have spent their lifetimes dedicated to nurturing everyone before themselves. We can and will do better for you.

Now, what we’ve been doing is looking at the data and we know that police somehow manage to deescalate, disarm and not kill white people everyday. So what’s going to happen is we are going to have equal rights and justice in our own country or we will restructure their function and ours.

Now… I got more y’all – yesterday would have been young Tamir Rice‘s 14th birthday so I don’t want to hear anymore about how far we’ve come when paid public servants can pull a drive-by on 12 year old playing alone in the park in broad daylight, killing him on television and then going home to make a sandwich. Tell Rekia Boyd how it’s so much better than it is to live in 2012 than it is to live in 1612 or 1712. Tell that to Eric Garner. Tell that to Sandra Bland. Tell that to Dorian Hunt.

Now the thing is, though, all of us in here getting money – that alone isn’t gonna stop this. Alright, now dedicating our lives, dedicating our lives to getting money just to give it right back for someone’s brand on our body when we spent centuries praying with brands on our bodies, and now we pray to get paid for brands on our bodies.

There has been no war that we have not fought and died on the front lines of. There has been no job we haven’t done. There is no tax they haven’t leveed against us – and we’ve paid all of them. But freedom is somehow always conditional here. “You’re free,” they keep telling us. But she would have been alive if she hadn’t acted so… free.

Now, freedom is always coming in the hereafter, but you know what, though, the hereafter is a hustle. We want it now.

And let’s get a couple things straight, just a little sidenote – the burden of the brutalized is not to comfort the bystander. That’s not our job, alright – stop with all that. If you have a critique for the resistance, for our resistance, then you better have an established record of critique of our oppression. If you have no interest, if you have no interest in equal rights for black people then do not make suggestions to those who do. Sit down.

We’ve been floating this country on credit for centuries, yo, and we’re done watching and waiting while this invention called whiteness uses and abuses us, burying black people out of sight and out of mind while extracting our culture, our dollars, our entertainment like oil – black gold, ghettoizing and demeaning our creations then stealing them, gentrifying our genius and then trying us on like costumes before discarding our bodies like rinds of strange fruit. The thing is though… the thing is that just because we’re magic doesn’t mean we’re not real.

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