Category Archives: Government Oppression

GENEVA A prominent Okinawan activist told the U.N. Human Rights Council on Thursday that the Japanese government has committed clear human rights violations against those opposed to the relocation plan for U.S. Marine Corps Air Base Futenma.

Civilians are protesting the militarization every day. The government of Japan dispatched large police forces in Okinawa to oppress and violently remove those civilians, Hiroji Yamashiro, head of the Okinawa Peace Action Center, said in a speech to the council in Geneva.

Yamashiro, who was detained for five months starting last October for what he and his supporters call minor offenses during base protest activities on Okinawa, said he was forced to confess and give up the protest activity.

These are clear human rights violations by the authorities, he said.

Yamashiro, currently on trial, led a group of protesters who are opposed to the long-delayed Futenma relocation plan, which will shift the base from Ginowan to less populated Henoko, a coastal area of Nago further north.

He was arrested in October for allegedly cutting barbed wire at a U.S. military training area in Higashi and was released on bail in March. During his detention, Yamashiro was not allowed to see anyone except lawyers, not even his family, he said.

However, I and the Okinawan people will never bow to oppression, he said. I demand the government of Japan stop human rights violations, and respect the Okinawan peoples will against the construction of new U.S. and Japanese military bases.

The first arrest was followed by two retroactive arrests that kept him in jail for five months.

Yamashiro and others are suspected of piling some 1,480 blocks in front of the gate to Camp Schwab in January 2016 to prevent the delivery of equipment and materials needed for the relocation work.

He is also suspected of injuring a local defense bureau official by grabbing his shoulder and shaking him last August near the U.S. military training area in Higashi.

The high-profile case prompted human rights groups including Amnesty International Japan to call for Yamashiros immediate release.

The bulk of U.S. military facilities in Japan are situated in Okinawa.

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Okinawa base activist describes five months of alleged Japanese ... - The Japan Times

MIAMI President Donald Trump on Friday ordered tighter restrictions on Americans traveling to Cuba and a clampdown on U.S. business dealings with the Caribbean islands military, saying he was canceling former President Barack Obama's "terrible and misguided deal" with Havana.

Laying out his new Cuba policy in a speech in Miami, Trump signed a presidential directive to roll back parts of Obamas historic opening to the Communist-ruled country after a 2014 diplomatic breakthrough between the two former Cold War foes.

But Trump left in place many of Obamas changes, including the reopened U.S. embassy in Havana, even as he sought to show he was making good on a campaign promise to take a tougher line against Cuba, especially over its human rights record.

"We will not be silent in the face of communist oppression any longer," Trump told a cheering crowd in Miamis Cuban-American enclave of Little Havana, including Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who helped forge the new restrictions on Cuba.

"Effective immediately, I am canceling the last administration's completely one-sided deal with Cuba," Trump declared as he made a full-throated verbal assault on the government of Cuban President Raul Castro.

Trumps revised approach calls for stricter enforcement of a longtime ban on Americans going to Cuba as tourists, and seeks to prevent U.S. dollars from being used to fund what the Trump administration sees as a repressive military-dominated government.

But facing pressure from U.S. businesses and even some fellow Republicans to avoid turning back the clock completely in relations with Cuba, the president chose to leave intact some of his Democratic predecessor's steps toward normalization.

The new policy bans most U.S. business transactions with the Armed Forces Business Enterprises Group, a Cuban conglomerate involved in all sectors of the economy. But it but makes some exceptions, including for air and sea travel, according to U.S. officials. This will essentially shield American airlines and cruise lines serving the island.

"We do not want U.S. dollars to prop up a military monopoly that exploits and abuses the citizens of Cuba," Trump said, pledging that U.S. sanctions would not be lifted until Cuba frees political prisoners and holds free elections.

SOME OBAMA POLICIES LEFT IN PLACE

However, Trump stopped short of breaking diplomatic relations restored in 2015 after more than five decades of hostilities. He will not cut off recently resumed direct U.S.-Cuba commercial flights or cruise-ship travel, though his more restrictive policy seems certain to dampen new economic ties overall.

The administration, according to one White House official, has no intention of disrupting existing business ventures such as one struck under Obama by Starwood Hotels Inc, which is owned by Marriott International Inc, to manage a historic Havana hotel.

Nor does Trump plan to reinstate limits that Obama lifted on the amount of the islands coveted rum and cigars that Americans can bring home for personal use.

While the changes are far-reaching, they appear to be less sweeping than many U.S. pro-engagement advocates had feared.

Still, it will be the latest attempt by Trump to overturn parts of Obama's presidential legacy. He has already pulled the United States out of a major international climate treaty and is trying to scrap his predecessor's landmark healthcare program.

When Obama announced the detente in 2014, he said that decades of U.S. efforts to achieve change in Cuba by isolating the island had failed and it was time to try a new approach.

Critics of the rapprochement said Obama was giving too much away without extracting concessions from the Cuban government. Castro's government has clearly stated it does not intend to change its one-party political system.

Trump aides say Obamas efforts amounted to "appeasement" and have done nothing to advance political freedoms in Cuba, while benefiting the Cuban government financially.

"It's hard to think of a policy that makes less sense than the prior administration's terrible and misguided deal with the Castro regime," Trump said in Miami, citing the lack of human rights concessions from Cuba in the detente negotiated by Obama.

International human rights groups say, however, that again isolating the island could worsen the situation by empowering Cuban hard-liners. The Cuban government has made clear it will not be pressured into reforms in exchange for engagement.

The Cuban government had no immediate comment, but ordinary Cubans said they were crestfallen to be returning to an era of frostier relations with the United States with potential economic fallout for them.

"It's going to really hurt me because the majority of my clients are from the United States," said Enrique Montoto, 61, who rents rooms on U.S. online home-rental marketplace Airbnb, which expanded into Cuba in 2015.

Trump announced his new approach at the Manuel Artime Theater in Little Havana, the heart of the United States' Cuban-American and Cuban exile community. The venue is named after a leader of the failed U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961 against Fidel Castros revolutionary government.

(Graphics: Boom or bust for Cuban tourism click tmsnrt.rs/2rBfMTI)

(Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick, Lesley Wroughton and Patricia Zengerle in Washington, and Sarah Marsh and Marc Frank in Havana; writing by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Jonathan Oatis)

MOSCOW/BAGHDAD Moscow said on Friday its forces may have killed Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in an air strike in Syria last month, but Washington said it could not corroborate the death and Western and Iraqi officials were skeptical.

LONDON/DUBLIN Britain is likely to enter arduous talks on its exit from the European Union without a deal to keep Prime Minister Theresa May in power as negotiations with a Northern Irish "kingmaker" party grind into a second week.

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Trump says 'canceling' Obama Cuba policy, restricts travel and trade - Reuters

McClatchy Washington Bureau

In Miami, Trump toughens Obama Cuba policy 'like I promised' McClatchy Washington Bureau Last year I promised to be a voice against oppression ... and a voice for the freedom of the Cuban people, he said. You heard that pledge. ... To the Cuban government I say, put an end to the abuse of dissidents. Release the political prisoners ... Donald Trump announces new Cuba restrictions: 'We will not be silenced in the face of communist oppression'The Independent Trump Addresses Cuba, Warmbier, ScaliseU.S. News & World Report Trump rolls back Obama admin's Cuba policy: 'Will not be silent in the face of communist oppression'Washington Times KGMI -Roll Call -Los Angeles Times all 347 news articles »

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In Miami, Trump toughens Obama Cuba policy 'like I promised' - McClatchy Washington Bureau

U.S. News & World Report

Egypt arrests dozens ahead of proposed protests McClatchy Washington Bureau "The government has chosen more oppression rather than dialogue," said Eid, one of the two lawyers. "The arrests are meant to distract anyone who intends to protest tomorrow and sow confusion in the ranks of the opposition." Meanwhile, eight people ... Egyptians protest plan to cede islands to SaudiPress TV all 40 news articles »

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Egypt arrests dozens ahead of proposed protests - McClatchy Washington Bureau

CAIRO Egyptian police on Thursday stormed the homes of political opponents of a disputed 2016 agreement to transfer control of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, arresting dozens in raids in Cairo and at least 10 provinces across the country, according to two rights lawyers.

Lawyers Mohammed Abdel-Aziz and Gamal Eid said the arrests were made in raids staged before dawn or shortly before or after sunset, when Muslims break their dusk-to-dawn fast during the holy month of Ramadan with a meal known as iftar.

The lawyers put the number of arrests until nightfall Thursday at between 32 and 40 and said those detained were mostly linked to secular democratic parties. The arrests came amid calls on social media for protests against the agreement to be held Friday at Cairo's Tahrir square, epicenter of a 2011 popular uprising that toppled the regime of longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak.

It was not immediately clear what kind of response the call for a protest on Friday would receive. A similar call, also over the islands, drew thousands last year, but police foiled their action by deploying in large numbers, beating up and arresting hundreds of protesters and activists. The call also comes at a time when most Egyptians are too preoccupied with making ends meet in the face of steep price hikes resulting from economic reforms that slashed the currency's value by more than half and removed fuel subsidies.

Still, the April 2016 protests were the largest in Egypt since Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, a general-turned-president, took office in 2014, a year after he led the ouster of an Islamist president.

"The government has chosen more oppression rather than dialogue," said Eid, one of the two lawyers. "The arrests are meant to distract anyone who intends to protest tomorrow and sow confusion in the ranks of the opposition."

Meanwhile, eight people, including three journalists, who were detained during a small protest Tuesday against the islands transfer were released Thursday on bail, said the lawyers. They faced charges of disrupting public services and security and protesting without a permit.

Thursday's arrests came a day after a senior constitutional panel concluded that two courts which ruled to annul the transfer of the islands to Saudi Arabia had acted within their jurisdiction, defying parliament, which on Wednesday overwhelmingly backed the deal.

The panel's conclusion also signals the start of what could potentially be a destabilizing legal battle between the judiciary and the legislative branch of government.

The outcome of Wednesday's vote was a foregone conclusion since the legislature is packed by el-Sissi supporters, whose government insists the islands belong to Saudi Arabia.

The panel's report is meant as a guideline for the Supreme Constitutional Court, which is due to start hearings July 30 on whether the courts had acted within their jurisdiction when they ruled in June 2016 and in January this year to annul the deal. The panel's findings are not binding, but are rarely ignored.

El-Sissi must sign off on parliament's ratification of the agreement before the transfer of the islands can take place. It was not immediately clear whether the president would do that before the constitutional court meets next month.

Government supporters in parliament have insisted that the 596-seat chamber alone had the right to ratify or reject the agreement, signed during an April 2016 visit to Cairo by Saudi King Salman.

The government insists the islands of Tiran and Sanafir at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba were always Saudi but placed under Egypt's protection in the early 1950s amid Arab-Israeli tensions. Critics have linked the islands transfer to the billions of dollars in Saudi aid given to el-Sissi's government, saying it amounts to a sell-off of sovereign territory.

The government, loyal media and lawmakers have gone to great lengths to support Saudi ownership of the islands, a stand that many Egyptians have found to be unusual and vexing given the strategic value of the islands.

Tiran, a popular destination for Red Sea divers, controls a narrow shipping lane that leads to and from the ports of Eilat and Aqaba, in Israel and Jordan respectively. Egypt's unilateral closure of that lane was among the main reasons behind the outbreak of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

"It is the first time in history ... that a state volunteers to prove the right of another state to territory that is under its complete sovereignty and is linked to its national interest," prominent columnist Abdullah el-Sennawy wrote Thursday. "So much so, that some officials and lawmakers seemed more enthusiastic than the Saudis themselves" about the transfer of the islands.

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Egypt arrests dozens ahead of proposed protests - Fox News

Doth Protest Too Much: Australia's Communist Collusion Being Libertarian you may ask, but David, besides the strict regulations on firearms, the heavy taxation rates and failing war on drugs, how are the Australian people remotely subject to government oppression?! The ASIO (Australian Security Intelligence Operation ...

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Doth Protest Too Much: Australia's Communist Collusion - Being Libertarian

Protest during Suu Kyi's Canada visit (Photo-KCC)

Anyone working for social justice in Burma should be disappointed by the mainstream medias coverage of Aung San Suu Kyis visit to Canada last week. Given ongoing military abuses throughout Burmas ethnic regions, it was frustrating to see headlines focusing again and again that Canada must press Aung San Suu Kyi regarding her governments brutal treatment of Rohingya Muslim communities in Rakhine State, while ignoring the plight of other ethnic peoples in Burma.

Never once during the week was there any mention of the ongoing war in Kachin State that has displaced as many as a 100,000. On June 9, the day that Aung San Suu Kyi attended a Burmese community event at Toronto City Hall, was the sixth anniversary of the resumption of the Kachin war. However, the only Canadian media coverage of the event, an article in the Toronto Star, was silent on this issue. There was also no discussion of ongoing military occupation in ceasefire zones such as Karen State, where thousands of displaced villagers staged demonstrations last month.

In short, media coverage gave the Burmese military a free ride, while focusing all criticisms on Aung San Suu Kyis governments treatment of the Rohingya.

The focus on Rohingya suffering is understandable, and we are certainly not arguing that this coverage should stop. To the contrary, it needs to be set in the context of historical and ongoing patterns of Burmese military abuses. Singularly focusing on the Rohingya does not do justice to the suffering of other non-Burman ethnic peoples in the country. It also creates the simplistic notion that if only the government would uphold human rights of Rohingya, Burmas problems would be solved. However, Burmese military oppression is systemic in nature and permeates all of the militarys dealings with non-Burman ethnic communities.

Simplistic media portrayals of the situation in Burma are very troubling when we consider international development assistance to the central government. If international donors like Canada do not understand the complex situation in Burma, they risk subsidizing the Burmese governments continuing efforts to oppress and control the ethnic peoples. Our Karen community in Canada is very concerned with recent funding announcements by the Canadian government totaling CAD $28.8 million. We are worried that this funding will be distributed through central Burmese government channels, marginalizing ethnic civil society that continues to be a much-needed lifeline for conflict-affected communities.

The following case illustrates the impact of ongoing media marginalization of our Karen community in Canada. On June 9, our Karen community staged a demonstration in front of Toronto City Hall, while Aung San Suu Kyi attended an event with the Burmese community inside. Kachin and Rohingya communities staged concurrent protests. Our protest groups were gathered in the same area, all with strong messages condemning ongoing war, militarization, and human rights abuses in Burma. It was a perfect opportunity for Canadian news media to become more informed about the human rights situation in Burma. However, the resulting Toronto Star article only contained passing reference to the Rohingya protest, completely ignoring the Kachin and Karen demonstrations.

The Irrawaddy article covering our Karen demonstration made the opposite mistake, including reference to the Kachin protest nearby, but never mentioning the demonstration by our Rohingya brothers and sisters.

Media narratives that narrowly focus on single issues can be used to divides us and undermine our common struggle for justice. Following the demonstration, racist elements in the Burmese-Canadian community began attacking the Rohingya online. One of these attackers referenced incomplete coverage in both the Toronto Star and the Irrawaddy to bolster his attacks, taking to social media to claim that our Karen and Kachin protestors keep a distance from the Rohingya.

This is patently untrue. In fact, we collaborated with our Rohingya counterparts in organizing our joint events. Although there were times when our demonstrations diverged, we stood in solidarity together against the same oppressors the Burmese military. We also agreed to work together more closely with our Rohingya brothers and sisters in the future, and to combat racist and Islamophobic attitudes that persist among some in the overseas Burmese community. There is no room for racism or discrimination in our movement.

The mainstream medias singular focus on the Rohingya issue is unhelpful, as it overlooks ongoing suffering of other ethnic peoples under the same military oppression. There is a need for more informed media reporting on Burma issues to demonstrate that the plight of Rohingya and other ethnic nationalities in Burma are all part of the same root problem denial of basic human rights and equal right to life for all ethnic peoples in Burma. This realization should build more unity in our resistance, for only in unity will we have the strength to prevail.

Saw Lay Khu Wah is an informed Karen Community member in Canada. He can be reached at sawsroecho@gmail.com.

Tags: Aung San Suu Kyi, ethnic, Protest

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Aung San Suu Kyi's Canadian Visit Exposes Media Blind Spots in ... - Karen News

The following is part of a document called From a Tendency to a Party written in 1972 (45 years ago!) by Sam Marcy, the founder and theoretical leader of Workers World Party. This section was entitled Gay oppression. The term gay people reflects the language of the movement in those early days, before its evolution into a struggle explicitly against the oppression of lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, trans and gender-nonconforming people.

The oppression of national minorities is not the only oppression meted out by a divisive ruling class. There is also the extra oppression of women, of youth and of gay people.

The degeneration of monopoly capitalism into state monopoly capitalism carries to an extreme all the forms of oppression which the capitalist system, in the previous epoch, had engendered and developed.

As the crisis of the social system becomes more and more apparent, the need of the ruling class to unload its burden on the most oppressed sections of the society becomes more evident.

Only by dividing, fragmenting and continually pitting different elements of the oppressed masses against each other can the capitalist establishment maintain its sway over all society and hope to survive.

It is, however, the same sharpening of the persecution and oppression, the same divisiveness and fragmentation of the specially oppressed in society, that have awakened them to struggle and brought about a genuinely progressive militancy and resurgence of Black and Brown people, women, youth and gay people.

There is a striking difference in the character of the support which has been given by the progressive movement generally to the oppressed nationalities, women and youth, as contrasted with the limited support to gay people. A great deal of this can be explained by the fact that the prejudice may be even more deep seated and profound than in the other cases. Much of it emanated from the religious bigotry of the Middle Ages, and little has been done to combat it. On the contrary, it has been reinforced by the entire course of capitalist development.

Some explain the limited measure of support and sympathy to gay people by saying they constitute a numerically small segment of the population. This, however, is highly disputed by such an authoritative figure as Kinsey [Alfred Kinsey, an author of the Kinsey Reports].

It is particularly significant that the public change in attitude such as it is comes on the heels of a very formidable wave of struggle by gay people, a veritable coming out in a most demonstrative way. Gay Pride took a cue from Black Pride.

Without the launching of the womens struggle, Freuds reactionary theory concerning the inferiority of women might still be the prevailing conception. Without the momentous liberation struggles launched in the 1960s, the racist ideology of Oswald Spengler [German author of The Decline of the West] and his [U.S.] American disciples would still be taught openly, unabashedly and unashamedly. Without the struggle launched by gay people, the prejudices which have been ground into the consciousness of the masses by indoctrination would not even have been challenged, let alone shaken to their foundations.

An important influence in the progressive movement, insofar as the gay struggle is concerned, dates back to the victory of the [1917] October Revolution in Russia. The Soviet government annulled all laws that restricted the rights of homosexuals. It also annulled all the reactionary laws pertaining to divorce as well as the feudal family relations.

For the first time in history, a workers government established equality in law, and to a measurable degree also in fact, between men and women, for heterosexuals and homosexuals. Unfortunately, this period of very progressive development was short lived, and was succeeded by a period of reaction with the rise of Stalin to power.

Our Party, which bases itself on Marxism-Leninism, looks to the early model of the Soviet Union as the embodiment of what our own political position should be in relation to the struggle of gay people.

Our first, most elementary and fundamental duty on this question is to completely eliminate and abolish all forms of persecution and oppression of gay people. We must also fight against all ideological, political and social manifestations of gay oppression that may be reflected in our own ranks.

Ending oppression is really an elementary democratic demand that a bourgeois democracy should be able to grant, along with all other democratic demands. But imperialist democracy tends to restrict the elementary rights of all people not only gays, women, youth, Brown and Black. It is only the struggle that can wrest concessions.

In the long run, only the abolition of the capitalist system can produce a lasting free and equal treatment of all peoples.

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In 1972, WWP leader took on anti-gay oppression - Workers World

Middle East Eye

Egypt trying to 'control narrative' with media shutdowns, rights groups say Middle East Eye Speaking to MEE, Mansour said that, "It is clear from their systematic targeting of government critics in the media that the government goes after anyone who criticises government oppression of demonstrators, crackdown on speech, [or those who] oppose ... and more »

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Egypt trying to 'control narrative' with media shutdowns, rights groups say - Middle East Eye

Tarik Akbik met Jerald Wright while working at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. The two would talk about dogs, drink sangria and go to clubs, Akbik said. A year ago, on June 12, Akbik heard about the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub and found himself constantly refreshing web pages to see if anyone he knew was killed.

He found Wrights name.

Whats terrible about tragedies like this is theres 48 other people with a bunch of friends who are never going to have those moments with their friends again, he said.

Akbik spoke in front of a crowd on the Wisconsin Capitol steps on Sunday afternoon as Madison's LGBT+ community congregated for theEquality March for Unity and Pride. One purpose of the event was to remember the Pulse victims, and the other to call the community to action to prevent future tragedies. Speakers said that the transgender community is a population particularly in danger of victimization.

For the LGBT community, the 'T' often gets left behind, said U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, an openly gay Democrat from Madison.

Sundays event was both a sister march with the National March for Pride and Unity in Washington, D.C., and a remembrance of the Orlando nightclub attack of a year ago, when a gunman entered a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, killing at least 49 people and wounding 53, making it the deadliest mass-shooting in the U.S.

The event was organized by the Rainbow Resistance of Madison, a recently organized group of LGBTQAI+ individuals and allies resisting the Trump agenda and all other strides by government officials to oppress our rights.

Several speakers referenced this fear of regression of rights in the midst of what they see as intensified hate.

You know what? I sure as hell am not going to stand by and watch as fearful and small minded people are standing in the way of our civil rights and the work that we have done and oftentimes attempting to roll back these rights. And I know you wont either, said state Rep. Melissa Sargent, D-Madison.

President Donald Trump has not proclaimedJune as LGBT Pride Month, as former President Barack Obama did. Vice President Mike Pence has a contentious relationship with some in the LGBT community. In the past, Pence has called homosexuality a choice and supported a constitutional amendment that would limit marriage to a man and a woman.

The queer community always experiences a lot of violence and oppression, but I think we all feel a particular closeness right now to those issues, said Justice Kestrel, who is transgender and represents the Madison Degenderettes, a feminist and gender queer club. I think were experiencing a lot of cultural and political backlash right now.

But people in the queer community arent the only ones experiencing cultural scapegoating from the current presidential administration, Kestrel said, pointing to the homeless, undocumented immigrants, people of color and Muslims as examples.

Kestrel also pointed to the transgender community as frequently targeted. Some conservatives may realize they have lost the fight against marriage equality and focus their energies on depriving the trans community of its rights, Kestrel said, such as with bathroom legislation that would force transgender people use the restroom corresponding with the gender on their birth certificates.

I think its really important that the LGB people here stand up for their queer brothers and sisters and siblings to fight for our rights, because were being left behind, and were particularly vulnerable, Kestral said, referencing high rates of homelessness, suicide, mental illness and suicide among the transgender population.

Kaci Ninedreams Sullivan, Creator of TransLiberation Art Coalition, argued that the transgender community is often swallowed up by the majority.

I was done watching as our communities were erased into childlessness, erased into prison, erased into homelessness, despair and death, Sullivan said. We are a capable group, willing and ready to love each other and fight for each other. And we hold so much power between us ... and it is a power that cannot be erased.

Fighting for each other means everyone must acknowledge their privilege, Ali Muldrow said.

Muldrow is the Director of Youth Programming at GSAFE, an organization that aims to create safe schools for the LGBTQ+ community. When she recently ran for a seat on the Madison School Board, she was asked why she chose to jeopardize her political appeal by revealing that she's bisexual and queer when she could pass for a straight woman.

When people like me hide who we are, we make it dangerous for everybody who cant, she said.

The Orlando victims' names were read aloud, followed by a moment of silence.

Khary Penebaker, a Democratic National Committee member representing Wisconsin and gun control activist, said he met with Wrights parents, Fred and Maria Wright.

When you listen to a family member, especially a mother who cant stop crying because of losing their child over gun violence, it changes you, he said. It asks you how much more are you willing to do so that no one has to go through and live the nightmare that Fred and Maria have to go through now.

Penebaker and others urged action to make sure tragedies like Orlando dont happen again.

One audience member, who did not want to be identified because he hasnt come out to his family, noted the importance of being himself. He wore a rainbow flag tied around his neck and rainbow eyeshadow.

For a really long time, I was afraid to be who I was, he said. I want others to be okay being themselves, too.

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Madison Pride and Unity marchers emphasize need to look out for the transgender community - Madison.com