Category Archives: Government Oppression

Outside two world wars and the protracted Cold War, what most defined 20th century geopolitics were two competing global projects: imperialism and anti-colonialism. Totalitarian rulers embraced both banners, launching wars of aggression that crushed the ambitions of free peoples and those yearning to be free.

Today, those malignant projects are back, once again setting the world aflame. Extinguishing the fires will take both might and moral clarity. It will also require the radical left to admit its been radically wrong. The free world will have to tack right to win.

End of the Beginning

InThe End of History and the Last Man(1992), Francis Fukuyama confidently declared that threats to a liberal world order were waning, never to rise again. That fanciful notion is now dead: trampled by Russian tanks, flattened by Iranian missiles, and paved over by Chinese belts and roads. China, Russia, and Irancollectively and individuallyrepresent grave threats to the liberties, security. Underpinning these physical dangers are a dangerous set of ideas that held sway throughout much of the 20thCentury.

The worst impulses of imperialism are nothing new. The last century started with the struggles of competing imperialist powers. Though Europe was ground zero for the Great War, the impact stretched globally as the fate of the Great Power combatants rippled across their vast empires. (See Michael Howard,The First World War,2003.)

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Then came fascism, a new imperialism on steroids from Italy, Germany and Japan. Those powers instigated World War II. If there are any doubts where these monsters were headed read Gerhard Weinbergs 2005 book,Visions of Victory: The Hopes of Eight World War II Leaders.Their conquests would have left the world looking like a horror show.

After World War II, formal empires declined, leading to a new force to be reckoned with: decolonization. The U.S. championed this movement. So, too, did the Soviet Union and China, but for very different reasons. American foreign policy viewed the dismantling of empires into nation-states self-governed by their peoples, as a natural evolution toward a more stable world order.

The Soviet Union used decolonizations language of liberation to mask its imperialist designs, ultimately enslaving half of Europe in an iron grip. Mao implemented his communist ideology by slaughtering 20 million of his countrymen during the Cultural Revolution, all the while dismissing opposition from the free world as effort of colonialists to shore-up the old world order. By the iron laws of Marxist history, opposition to the Communist system was, by definition, a feudal and futile attempt to suppress the masses that Stalin and Mao purported to liberate.

This was a new war: a war of ideas. And the U.S. position was challenging. Unlike in World War II, the world wasnt simply black and white, where siding with new or old powers would axiomatically further the cause of freedom.

The best exemplar of this dilemma was President Eisenhowers struggle to find a sure path through the Suez Crisis in 1956, juggling independent nations (backed by the Kremlin) against former regional powerbrokers Britain and France. This dilemma is described well in Mike Dorans book,Ikes Gamble: Americas Rise to Dominance in the Middle East(2016). The crisis demonstrated that the U.S. had a real fight on its hands to keep the free world free and that figuring out how to do thatlet alone explain it to Americans and the rest of the worldwas very hard indeed.

For one thing, the U.S. had to fight off Soviet efforts to weaponize decolonization as a propaganda tool to undercut American promotion of democratic governance. Some critics in the West and the non-aligned world (a movement that claimed independence from either sides in the Cold War, but was heavily supported and influenced by Moscow and Beijing) simply parroted Communist propaganda.

Other leftist scholars derived the same conclusions from Marx and Engels, their passions and intellect fueled in part by the Vietnam anti-war movement and later the radical environmental and anti-nuclear campaigns. The most extreme examples included the likes of the Black Panthers and the Weather Underground, as described inDays of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violenceby Bryan Burrough (2015).

Marxist ideology was the basis of an interpretation of history championed William Appelman Williams and the Wisconsin School. (See, for example, hisEmpire as a Way of Life,1980). They accused Washington of everything from cultural imperialism (jazz music and Coca Cola) to running an informal empire.

Thus, the U.S. found itself continually fighting two fronts in the Cold War of ideas: one against the physical expansion of Soviet imperialism (clothed as Communism), the other against the canard that democracies were themselves the real imperialists battling decolonization every step of the way.

These debates became largely academic when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989, giving Fukuyama free range to run with his geopolitical imagination.

Prologue is Past

Today, we are back in a dangerous place.

There is no question that Russia, China and Iran have imperial designs, visions that are far more dangerous than winsome musings of past glories. Putin has launched a campaign of brutal conquests to reclaim lands in the West. Xis goal is to reestablish the Middle Kingdom, not by isolating it from the outside world, but by using every tool availablefrom military threats and cyberspace to debt diplomacyto seize near dictatorial control over markets, information, territory, and supply chains. Iran seeks the destruction of Israel, in large part because Tehran views the country as the only real obstacle to the expansion of its power and influence throughout the Middle East.

Anti-colonialism has also returned. The ideals of popular sovereignty are under assault again at home and abroad, denounced as artificial constructs imposed on others. In America, everything woke from ANTIFA and BLM to the most radical of the radical left, condemns our constitutional order as fascist. If that seems like history repeating itselfwell, it is. Many radical left leaders propound ideas are entrenched in Marxist-Leninist ideology and the legacies of Stalin and Mao. The radical roots of Black Lives Matter, for example, are exposed in Mike GonzalezsBLM: The Making of a New Marxist Revolution(2021).

Wokeness has also been weaponized against American allies, attacking our friends for not being liberal enough because that dont share far left ideology on topics from gender identity and abortion to climate action. Many of these critiques are steeped in the same impulses of Marxist critiques from the Cold War attacking religion, economic liberalism, history, traditions, culture, and democratic practices as institutions of Western oppression and racism.

A New, New Beginning?

Once again, the West is in a two-front ideological war from within and without. One is a physical struggle, a new kind of war against the likes of Russia, China and Iran. We must defend not just our territory, but our economies, supply chains, and infrastructure from their malicious and malevolent designs. That starts with rebuilding our military, striving for energy independence, freeing the free world from economic exploitation by Communist China, and checkmating Chinas efforts to overtake and corrupt international organizations. In short, we cant win without being proactive and securing our freedom, safety, and prosperity.

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The second war is one of ideas. To prevail in this fight will require a common moral and ethical compass. That wont come from compromising in the center. The right and left sides of the political spectrum are not equipoised. The modern left has been sucked far toward its extreme Marxist flank, like a planet swallowed by a black hole.

The left must wake up. They are on the wrong side of historyagain. When it comes to the threat they pose to freedom, Communists and fascists are a distinction without a difference. The only difference between Antifa and Putin is that Putin has tanks.

In the 1950s, the U.S. achieved bipartisanship in foreign policy not by splitting the difference between right and left. Democrats returned to national power only by becoming more anti-communist than the anti-communists. JFK, for instance, could only follow Ike in office by showing as much determination to take on Moscow as did Richard Nixon (who took second place to no one as an anti-communist). The left will not be relevant in todays new kind of war unless they tack right, embracing peace through strength, empowering economies by freeing them from unnecessary regulation and excessive government spending, and respecting the popular sovereignty of states.

Unhappy with this administrations progressive agenda, the American people already are moving in that direction. It the left doesnt tack right, their party might not survive. If the West doesnt tack right, it might not survive.

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In a New Kind of War, the Old Wars of Ideas Are Back - Heritage.org

BY Tatenda MazaruraSOUTH Africa is home to millions of immigrants, mainly from Lesotho, Nigeria, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. The regional giant has played an immense role for more than a century in attracting labour for its economy. However, this has come at a cost. While the influx of migrants continues as a result of several push-and-pull factors, the question arises: how will coexistence with increasingly anxious locals be possible?

One of the major challenges facing migrants in South Africa is xenophobia and xenophobic violence. The worst wave to date, the nationwide attacks on migrants and refugees in 2008, was followed by a second round of nationwide xenophobic violence in early 2015 when migrant-owned businesses were targeted by mobs. Scores of people died unimaginably violent deaths.

Over the years these attacks have increasingly targeted migrants and refugees, including many Zimbabweans seeking to make a living in that country.

Now, Operation Dudula, a Soweto-born movement comprising Soweto and Alexandra residents is wreaking havoc, reportedly targeting foreign traders and alleged criminals spreading the call to #PutSouthAfricansFirst.

Migrant-owned informal businesses are being systematically targeted while illegal migrants are being forcibly evicted from their rented homes and marketplaces in areas such as Johannesburgs Turffontein, Alexandra and Hillbrow.

The hashtag #PutSouthAfricansFirst has become prominent on social media (trending almost daily), calling on government and the private sector to prioritise locals over foreigners, while accusing undocumented foreigners of being responsible for rising crime in communities, as well as running drug and prostitution syndicates, among other social ills.

As Operation Dudula intensifies, many immigrant traders and shopkeepers now live in fear. For most Zimbabweans, returning to Zimbabwe is not a viable option because of the economic and political conditions in the country.

Last week, the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, which comprises more than 75 civil society organisations and focuses on democracy, human rights, good governance and sustainable development, hosted a Twitter space to reflect on the possibility of coexistence among South Africans and other Africans in the country.

Vusumuzi Sibanda, president and CEO of the African Diaspora Global Network said in order to address the challenges of the migration crisis, one needs to look at the causes of xenophobia and the natural hatred of other Africans in South Africa. As in many parts of the world where a significant and in most cases growing portion of the population comprises migrants, immigration is an emotive issue and, to politicians delight, an election issue.

Sibanda criticised right-wing extremists and politicians in South Africa for often using political opportunism and populism to blow issues of migration and poor service delivery out of proportion by attributing government failure to service its people to the influx of migrants.

For a while now, there are people in government and in opposition parties that prey on the issue of migration. They blame migrants for crime and as the people that make it difficult for the government to deliver housing and adequate hospital facilities, noted Sibanda.

While acknowledging that migrants do commit crime, he insisted that crime must be addressed as a human phenomenon, not an exclusively migrant phenomenon, arguing that, just like natives, if migrants commit crime they must face the full wrath of the law.

Sibanda bemoaned the resurgence of xenophobia in South Africa, which he believes is hinged on the principle of divide and rule by incumbents and those trying to get into power, in order to mislead the people, diverting their attention from real governance issues.

While Africa may have attained political independence, there remains a gap in terms of properly applying effective public policy, democracy, constitutionalism and the rule of law. The failure of governments in the region to abide by even the minimum governance standards sets in motion the phenomenon of forced or involuntary migration from ones country to another.

When migrants arrive in South Africa, which is facing its own economic and governance challenges, the stage is set and all that is required is for immigrants to be blamed for everything. All that is required to detonate the bomb is a simple trigger in any form.

Sibanda accused politicians of brainwashing communities by controlling access to information and interfering with Press freedoms.

The information put out there by our leaders is information that is meant to vilify certain groups of people and make other people feel inadequate rather than educate people and make them realise that they are the ones that can hold governments to account, because they vote governments into power and can always take them out of power.

The ability of South Africans and migrants to coexist lies with removing the prejudices that have been sown into peoples minds, such as the simplistic microphone statements that if migrants are kicked out of South Africa there will be better job opportunities and better service delivery, among other things. Targeting foreigners is just a fallacy and a diversion from the governments failure to deliver on its promises and obligations.

Sibanda concluded by urging civil society organisations to provide adequate civic education to the people of Africa so that they understand and appreciate the power they have. The people must be empowered so they can hold African leaders, the Southern African Development Community and the African Union to account for presiding over sham elections and poor democracies and start demanding political and economic stability instead of fighting among themselves.

Speaking on the same platform, Trevor Ngwane, one of the Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia organisers, a movement formed in February 2022 in response to attacks on immigrants, added that the struggle against xenophobia is a struggle to complete the revolution and end all forms of exploitation and oppression in South Africa, the African continent and throughout the world.

Xenophobia presents an attempt to use the old colonisers tactic of divide and rule, instead of us uniting with each other and demanding land, jobs, our factories and our minerals back. Instead, we start fighting over scraps from the masters table.

Ngwane expressed concern that these tactics of fighting poverty and inequality favour the exploiter, the oppressor and the former coloniser.

Certainly, the minds of the ordinary people are still owned by the bourgeoisie. Many ordinary working-class people find themselves without skills, without hope, and many of them are still stuck in the ghetto, in the shacks and townships.

But instead of challenging their government, they are now being influenced by the bourgeoisie, especially the black bourgeoisie who are enriching themselves by scapegoating immigrants. So, this is part of a bigger strategy to defend capitalism, the new black elite and the old white monopolycapitalism.

Ngwane said winning the fight against xenophobia hinges on collective efforts by the ordinary people of Africa.

We must abolish colonial borders that force us to view our African brothers and sisters as illegal foreigners and go with the pan-Africanism spirit of Kwame Nkrumah and Patrice Lumumba. We must unite against the bourgeois class, our former exploiters, and the new aspirant black bourgeoisie. We must unite as the exploited and the oppressed and fight for a better life. Whether you come from Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Malawi, South Africa, let us unite as the oppressed, speak with one voice and say no to xenophobia!

The now predictable cyclical episodes of xenophobic violence in South Africa is an embarrassing blight on the very idea of African solidarity and oneness that the regional leaders espouse at every opportunity. Besides being responsible for fanning the flames, it is tragic that there seems to be no real political will to address this phenomenon from a systemic and genuineposition.

As long as selfish politicians put a premium on whipping up emotions for narrow political gains, the noble dream of a united Africa so gallantly fought for by the continents late icons such as Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Robert Mugabe, Julius Nyerere and Kwame Nkrumah, will forever be delayed.

In the main, governments in and around South Africa have an urgent obligation to reset their governance systems in a manner that is people-focused through deliberate broad-based development agendas. Countries like Zimbabwe are so rich in minerals; in normal circumstances there shouldnt be such a daily influx of illegal immigrants to South Africa.

Xenophobia is unnecessary and avoidable and the solution is not even magical: we just need to get back to basics in the form of good governance in the region as well as responsible leadership, especially at the epicentre South Africa.

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The political agency of xenophobia, violence in SA - NewsDay

And not just a tool for government oppression a remarkably comprehensive and efficient tool. Companies such as Spotify and Twitter and GoFundMe and so many others have helped to centralize communication in the public square, which is increasingly the internet, and they increasingly do the leftist governments bidding.

In its early days, the internet was supposed to facilitate free expression of ideas around the world. Great! Fab! But over time it has featured platforms that have centralized that information and grown to huge size, allowing their private owners to have tremendous power to censor and to affect politics around the world as they see fit.

We certainly saw that during the Trump years. The process is now close to Orwellian in scope even though its not usually the government doing it directly. And as a telescreen-equivalent, the internet isnt forced on people but is instead involuntary. We have forged our own chains or at least, weve put them around ourselves.

At the moment, alternatives to big companies with leftist-based censoring such as Twitter or GoFundMe are allowed to exist online (although remember how Gab was closed down for a while?). How long will these alternatives be allowed? Even when they exist, however, they are smaller and weaker than their well-established and more powerful rivals who have already been building their user bases for many years while holding themselves out as welcoming nearly all and then later coming down hard on the right.

The internet has also greatly facilitated the ability to spy on people in other words, to collect vast storehouses of information on them and to search it for whatever the government or the company is seeking. For example, GoFundMe has the personal information of everyone who donated to the truckers convoy; do you think they would protect that infomation if the government wanted it? I sure dont. In fact, its likely that the government already has access to it. And such goings-on also discourage people from contributing to conservative causes in the first place, because they fear the government will retaliate. Thats one of the goals of this entire process, too to induce fear and avoidance behavior.

Enormous amounts of information are on computers, far more than paper and pen could afford in the olden days, unless a person was a diarist suffering from OCD. Computers track what people read, buy and sell, wonder about, watch for entertainment, write, and financially transact. It all can be stored easily (none of the pneumatic tubes and paper archives of Orwell) and perhaps most important of all it can be accessed easily. A search for a certain word in all of someones correspondence that would take years with paper now takes seconds and can be expanded without much trouble at all to encompass many millions of people.

The internet is potentially (and perhaps already actually) the greatest totalitarian tool ever invented.

[NOTE: At the moment, the EARN IT bill has been introduced in the Senate by Blumenthal and Graham. It is supposedly meant to give the government the tools to investigate online-mediated child abuse, and if you read the material at that link, nothing about it sounds bad. But although Im not going to write a post about this right now Ive seen assertions online that it will give the government the power to scan all of our online communications. I have to say Ive suspected it was already doing that.]

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By Lauren Ellenbecker,The Columbian

As a soldier in the U.S. Army, Joe Kent says he dedicated his life to preserving Americas safety and integrity, and now hes fighting to restore it in the race for Washingtons 3rd Congressional District.

The former Green Beret, 41, said he didnt anticipate running for Congress until incumbent Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, voted in favor of impeaching former President Donald Trump in 2021.

Now, Kent is weaponizing his Trump endorsement to challenge what he describes as the establishment, or Democrats and Republicans whom he says are plotting against the public through policy Herrera Beutler included, he said.

This rhetoric is common in many of Kents campaign messages many of which are broadcast on conservative platforms, including Tucker Carlsons Fox News television program and Steve Bannons War Room podcast. The appearances garnered him nationwide support, where he perpetuates far-right talking points to large audiences: claims of election fraud, calls for freeing political prisoners from the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, and repudiating gun regulations.

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Kent maintains a staunch group of supporters who help him remain in a comfortable position near the top of the list with campaign finances. The latest Federal Election Commission report showed that he holds $1.39 million in total, whereas the incumbent sits on $2.26 million.

Despite the gap in campaign finances, Kent says he is confident his goal in disassembling the establishment will encourage voters to join his efforts beginning with unseating Herrera Beutler.

Every time we need to stand up and actually fight for something that is going to benefit conservatives and the working class, she doesnt do it, he said. She passed her litmus test with the establishment.

Kent said he expects Democrats to vote for Herrera Beutler in the primaries if their partys candidate doesnt have a strong backing. Still, he isnt concerned about whether he will get booted out of the race for a seat in Congress.

The unity that we have to have is us shutting off our parties and doing whats best for the American people, Kent said.

National security, economic independence

As Kent pursues his goal, he says America should isolate itself from foreign companies, especially in the energy and manufacturing sectors. Furthermore, he believes the countrys military must maintain a strong foothold in technology in case of any future threats, especially as it relates to cyber warfare.

As it relates to the war in Ukraine, Kent said Russian President Vladimir Putins military action in the country has been too aggressive, but he has said that Putins reason for doing so was legitimate, according to The Centralia Chronicle. He added that America should promote aggressive diplomacy moving forward rather than enforcing sanctions or utilizing the military, they reported.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kent said he became dissatisfied with the closures of businesses and schools, citing it as a major influence in tanking the economy. Both COVID-19 mandates and environmental regulations on timber and fishing industries diminish a strong workforce, he said.

Bolstering the working class and reducing inflation are a prime focus in Kents campaign, which he seeks to address through supporting legislation to build a border wall and reduce funding to sanctuary cities. Along with unwarranted government spending, he says illegal immigration is a risk to the economy due to corporations valuing cheap labor rather than providing jobs to minimum-wage workers.

Law enforcement, education reform

As a veteran, Kent would seek ways to reduce veteran homelessness by finding ways to consolidate chronic homeless encampments and supporting social programs. However, he said he wouldnt back the allocation of federal funding to these programs unless law enforcement saw similar aid.

Conversely, Kent is adamantly against reducing police funding and police reform, such as Washington House Bill 1310.

Before we give up the smoke signs, I would want to repeal the constraints they put on law enforcement recently, he said.

Kent alleges that dismantling of democracy is worsened by the education system. He said the federal government supports curriculums that are antithetical to parents beliefs, including lessons about gender theory, sex education and the historical oppression of Black, Indigenous and people of color.

If we cant get rid of the Department of Education like Id like to, I would cut off funding to education around critical race theory and The 1619 (Project), Kent said.

Editors note: This part of a series of candidate profiles for Washingtons 3rd Congressional District. Each candidate who has consented to be interviewed will be profiled, with stories running in alphabetical order. Find all the profiles at columbian.com/election.

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Joe Kent: Herrera Beutler is too 'establishment | Government and Politics | tdn.com - The Daily News

What director Kamal K.M. achieves with the material has much to do with the seamless coming together of Vishnu Vijays music, Shan Mohammeds editing and Sameer Tahirs cinematography

What director Kamal K.M. achieves with the material has much to do with the seamless coming together of Vishnu Vijays music, Shan Mohammeds editing and Sameer Tahirs cinematography

A majority of responses to injustice often serve the function of pressure releasing valves, as one-off protests calming the pent-up anger, while staying within the accepted confines of civil society. Once in a while, there are acts which break out of this safe zone with the victims of oppression putting even their lives on the line for what they believe is a just reaction. Pada is a cinematic chronicle of one such real-life incident, which is now almost forgotten in Kerala, although the issues raised remain as relevant now, as it was then.

On October 4, 1996, four men who claimed to be members of the Ayyankali Pada walked into the Palakkad District Collectors office and held him hostage for 10 hours, keeping the entire state administrative machinery on tenterhooks. They had only one demand: the State Government should withdraw the amendments made to the Kerala Scheduled Tribes (Restriction of Transfer of Land and Restoration of Alienated Land) Act 1975, which was enacted to return to the tribal people all the land taken over from them by settlers after 1960. Over the years, successive governments had watered down the law and the 1996 amendment was the last straw, driving four tribal activists to carry out a daring act to bring the government to the discussion table.

Pada

Director: Kamal K.M.

Cast: Kunchacko Boban, Joju George, Vinayakan, Dileesh Pothan, Prakash Raj, Unnimaya Prasad

In Pada, Kamal K.M. recreates the events of that day to raise the larger question of tribal land alienation. His debut film ID was written around the search for the identity of an unknown labourer who had collapsed at his workplace. Here too, the protagonists are from the marginalised sections, struggling to eke out a living. We get quick, but lasting glimpses of their backgrounds, in the frenzied preparation ahead of the day of action. Balu (Vinayakan) borrows his young daughters wristwatch, because timings are important, even as she asks him whether he is going to sell that too. Aravindan (Joju George) delivers a line about his helplessness when a lottery seller pesters him to buy one. Rajesh (Kunchacko Boban) seems to be the only one with a history of violent acts, while Kutty (Dileesh Pothan) is busy pacifying his wife Mini (Unnimaya Prasad), who is in the know of the plan.

The script lands straight into the hostage situation without wasting much time for the set up. Inside, it is a relentless shift between various tense situations, giving no respite to the audience. On one hand, there is the constant shift in dynamics between the captors and the Collector (Arjun Radhakrishnan), who is sensitive to their demands, while on the other side there is the Chief Secretary (Prakash Raj) and team racking their brains to calm down the captors. Outside, there is a clueless team of police officers looking for a way in.

Kamal is sure of the material he is working with, be it in the political sense or the technical sense. The background research to get right the little details from that day is also evident. The fictional elements or the cinematic liberties that he takes do not take away anything from the core issue that the film raises. But what he achieves with the material has much to do with the seamless coming together of Vishnu Vijays music, Shan Mohammeds editing and Sameer Tahirs cinematography. One drawback may be the presence of too many actors who do not have a standout role, especially that of Shine Tom Chacko, Karamana Sudheer and Jagadeesh.

Pada is a sympathetic portrayal of the justified anger of the oppressed.

Pada is currently running in theatres

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Pada movie review: A sympathetic portrayal of the anger of the oppressed - The Hindu

Two Iranian refugees who have been imprisoned by the Australian government for nearly nine years have been consigned to the United States under a 2016 refugee swap deal.

Adnan Choopani and Mehdi Ali, who are cousins, were 16 and 15 respectively when they were captured by the Australian navy and sent to the notorious immigration prison on Christmas Island, in the Indian Ocean, in 2013.

Now 24 and 25, they will be dumped in the US as part of a brutal resettlement deal struck with the Obama administration, allowing the Australian government to reject all responsibility for their wellbeing. They will be placed in a country that leads the world in COVID cases and deathsmany recorded in immigrant and refugee communities.

Their imprisonment has left significant psychological scars. The conditions they experienced underscore the cruelty of the bipartisan border protection regime, in which refugees who arrive to Australia by boat are subjected to indefinite detention.

Both are members of the Ahwazi Arab minority, who face oppression in Iran. They were separately urged by their families to flee the country for their own safety, and did not know the other was fleeing until they met up in Indonesia and boarded the same packed fishing vessel headed for Australia.

After being locked-up on Christmas Island for nine months, Mehdi was deemed to be a child and sent to live with other minors and families. Adnan, just some months older, was assessed as being 10 years above his age, and transferred to the adult male facility.

They were separated for this nine-month period until they were both transferred to the refugee prison camp on the small Pacific Island nation of Nauru. Adnans age was reassessed, and they were placed together in the family camp. Here they were subjected to years of psychological torture.

The Nauru facility is notorious for its squalid conditions and poor treatment of detainees. It has been the subject of a film, international inquiries and lawsuits. It had inadequate medical facilities. Prisoners, including families, were kept in tents that were filled with mold, causing skin irritation and respiratory problems.

In 2016 the Guardian published more than 2,000 leaked incident reports, dubbed the Nauru files, which documented officially buried cases of abuse, violence, mistreatment and suicide attempts among over 600 refugees, including 104 children.

The boys former teacher, Gabby Sutherland, told Al Jazeera: The boys were still kept in a cage within the camp. The cage was used to section off unaccompanied minors from other detainees.

In late 2014, their refugee status was formally recognised, but this did not change their situation. The Rudd Labor government in 2013 had declared that all asylum seekers who reached Australia by boat would never be allowed to settle in Australia.

In October 2014, 29 unaccompanied minors were removed from detention and placed in accommodation on the island. This granted little freedom and created great risk for the young men.

Nauru has been ravaged by major corporations for decades for its phosphate deposits. It now resembles a moon, with craters everywhere. Very little grows on the island. Most food must be imported and is highly processed.

This has created an obesity epidemic, along with high unemployment, fuelling discontent in the tiny country, with a population of just below 11,000. To divert this anger, the government has blamed the detainees for the poor social conditions. The young minors bore the brunt of this redirected anger.

Four boys were beaten and robbed in the first month alone, and threatening letters were sent to others. Adnan sewed his lips together in protest and sat outside the settlement services building. Mehdi joined him in solidarity. They were arrested, stripped naked and thrown in a prison cell where they were beaten, abused and spat on, although neither was ever charged.

They also watched their friends in the camp succumb to the torturous conditions. One of their friends burned himself to death, which led to them attempting suicide themselves.

In 2019 they were brought to Australia under a medevac bill. The legislation, later repealed, allowed doctors to recommend the transfer of asylum seekers to Australia. This did little to alleviate the suffering, as they were moved between detention centres and guarded hotel rooms.

Mehdi told the Guardian: Its been a complete trauma We came as children, we were boys, and we never had a childhood, we were just put in a cage. We did not receive a proper education, we were never allowed to have fun, we just had to try to survive in these harsh circumstances.

Adnan told the newspaper: Every day is still uncertain, that is the way they punish us. Every day we struggle to survive. They are going to leave us almost a decade with no update, no date of release, no charges, no nothing, its completely mental torture.

Mehdi spent his last birthday in detention sharing a hotel with the tennis star Novak Djokovic, who was detained there before being deported. Djokovic, a promoter of the anti-vaccine movement, broke COVID-19 rules when entering Australia. However, his treatment highlighted the plight of the asylum seekers imprisoned in the hotels.

With their consignment to the US, the future of the two young men is uncertain. And there are still hundreds of other refugees imprisoned or abandoned by the Australian government in countries such as Nauru and Papua New Guinea.

The entire Australian ruling elite is responsible for the inhuman treatment of refugees. The precedent was set by the Keating Labor government in the 1990s, which initiated the mandatory detention of all refugees who arrived by boat. Subsequent Coalition and Labor governments deepened this policy by introducing offshore detention on remote islands.

The Greens, who posture as refugee advocates, formed a minority government with Labor from 2010 to 2013 as it reopened the offshore camps and banned all asylum seekers who arrive by boat from ever settling in Australia, setting a policy that continues today. Such policies pioneered the pitiless treatment of refugees in the US, the UK and across Europe.

Join the SEP campaign against anti-democratic electoral laws!

The working class must have a political voice, which the Australian ruling class is seeking to stifle with this legislation.

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Australian government dumps two Iranian refugees in the US after nearly nine years of imprisonment - WSWS

The normative Muslim position on the Russian invasion of Ukraine is simple. It is to stand against oppression wherever it may occur.

However, many people and governments from across the global South are not taking a categorical stand against Russian aggression. Instead, their focus is on European racism. They point to the overwhelming response of the West to aid Ukraine and highlight the ill treatment of African and South Asian students by Ukrainian and Polish border guards. However, this line of thought keeps us fixated on complaint and does not allow us to move towards contribution.

Racism is universal and as long as human beings exist, such a prejudice will always remain with us. While the popular social discourse emphasises the racism of white people against people of colour, it also manifests between various people of colour through colourism, casteism and classism. The treatment of the untouchables by upper-class Hindus or of poor Hindu girls by powerful Pakistani feudals showcases how this prejudice manifests in the Indian Subcontinent. The history of India and Pakistan also shows how mob frenzy took over in 1947 where Hindus and Muslims relinquished their humanity in mass massacre. Indeed, existential threat at times brings out the worst in people.

This context of an existential threat could explain the ill treatment of the Ukrainian and Polish border guards. It may also be explained through the environment created by the Belarusian dictator, who used refugees as pawns against the European Union. YouTube educator Dhruv Rathee goes into detail on how Belarus brought Afghan, Syrian and Iraqi refugees, gave them wire cutters, and let them fend for themselves at the Polish border. While this does not excuse the ill treatment of the Ukrainian and Polish border guards, it does provide a context to their ill actions.

Racism needs to be condemned anywhere and everywhere, just as the oppression of Ukraine by a much powerful Russia should be condemned without ifs and buts. Otherwise, we risk becoming tribal groups that are always lashing out at each others racism with whataboutisms. Such a predilection will not allow us to move away from complaint and towards actions that could help our fellow human beings in need. Thus, instead of worrying about the overwhelming response of white Europeans towards white Ukrainians, we can focus on what we have been doing to help our own people.

There are many resourceful Pakistani businessmen, powerful politicians and well-off Pakistani professionals in the West, who could have used their combined influence to rescue Pakistani students from their predicament. The Pakistani media could have played its role in giving more coverage to the plight of our students instead of worrying about how whites are helping other white people. In short, how does white people helping each other out prevent our people from helping their own?

If people are complaining about the diminished European response on Palestine, Yemen, and Syria, why do they ignore the muted response of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and other rich Gulf countries on Muslim issues? In recent news, the Turkish President welcomed his Israeli counterpart on mutual cooperation. I wonder how Pakistanis of the PTI ilk would respond to this move by their favourite modern day Ertugrul Muslim leader Erdogan. Similarly, if Mohammed Bin Salman potentially sees Israel as an ally, then should the Palestinians be concerned about white Europeans who are overwhelmingly helping their white brethren, or should they be more concerned about the lukewarm reception by their own Arab brethren? Furthermore, under Mohammed Bin Salman, Saudi Arabia has used Sudanese soldiers in their oppression in Yemen. That is, Arab countries are drawing support from African nations to inflict oppression on fellow Arabs. How much of such news is being reported by Al Jazeera and other Muslim media sources or will their focus remain fixed on the racism of Europeans?

Additionally, do Putin fanboys in the global South (who get awed by his strategic comments against Islamophobia) forget that Russia, like the West, has targeted Afghanistan in the past, wreaked destruction in Chechnya and most recently in Syria? And to top it all, he is also recruiting both Syrian and Chechens against Ukraine, just as he had recruited Chechens in Syria? Are they so nave not to see through his strategic use of Muslim concerns for leverage?

Black American Muslim scholar, Abdullah Bin Hamid Ali, wrote a critical paper on critical race theory (CRT). His words are worth underscoring:

how absurd and idolatrous this belief is to the Islamic teachings. The truth is that colored people all around the world have power, many of them significantly more than millions of white people. If the teachings of CRT are taken to their logical end, this would mean that not one dictator in the Arab world is responsible for the carnage they create every time they massacre their people. Nor are the Chinese, Burmese, or any other person, group, or government represented by a particular ethnic enclave. This is not to say that the European political elite are not in fact culpable for great carnage, oppression, and savage treatment of others for many centuries. They are responsible for what they did and do. However, every soul is mortgaged for it earns. And, no bearer [of] burdens bears anothers burden.

Thus, if our social discourse remains fixated on CRT and decolonisation, then it takes away scrutiny from the Arab dictators and many other violators of human rights in the global South. Additionally, the whole decolonisation narrative may also be used to perpetuate more oppression. For instance, BJPs India is bent on decolonising the influence of past Muslim invaders by furthering the dharmic faiths (Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism) at the expense of demonising present-day Muslims and Islam.

Many Ukrainians are leaving the comfort of their own homes in Canada and other Western countries to return to fight for their motherland. We can learn from the actions of a resolute people who are offering stiff resistance to a much stronger Russia. Indeed, it is time to move our lens away from constant complaint and towards positive action. Pakistanis need to focus on helping their own people in duress in Pakistan and across the Diaspora. Gulf Arabs need to question why is it that their own countries refuse to grant their Palestinian, Syrian, and Iraqi brethren citizenships and human rights and instead let them suffer at European borders? They need to question the actions of their own governments that are directly contributing to the plight of refugees.

In essence, the discourse that relies heavily on complaint does not lead towards an end goal. We cast stones at the white devil for our own catharsis but dont do much on improving the condition of our own people.

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Muslims, The Global South And War In Ukraine: Towards A Politics Of Contribution - The Friday Times

A TIMELY new film is sounding the alarm about authoritarian attacks on the right to boycott, as the government seeks to quietly introduce anti-BDS laws in Britain.

Last month, MPs passed an amendment to the Public Service Pensions Bill to prohibit public bodies from engaging in boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaigns.

Award-winning filmmaker Julia Bacha, whose new documentary film Boycott details the impactof anti-BDS laws in the United States on freedom of expression, has warned moves to replicate similar legislation in Britainwould have tremendously harmful consequences.

Speaking ahead of a screening of the documentary at the Human Rights Watch film festival at the Barbican this weekend, the directortold the Morning Star that British MPs must stand up for the right to boycott.

The film, produced by Palestine-Israel focused company Just Vision, shines a light on the insidiousness of legislation passed at an alarming rate across the US with little media attention or public awareness of the issue.

Since 2014, 33 states have introduced policies or laws that punish US citizens, organisations or businesses for engaging with or calling for boycotts of Israel.

They were really being passed under the radar with very little scrutiny and we thought it was very important to lift that story up, Ms Bachasaid.

The documentary focuses on the personal stories of three US citizens who decided to challenge these laws on the basis that they violated their first amendment rights.

One of the protagonists, Bahia Amawi, a US-Palestinian speech therapist, lost her contract after refusing to sign a pledge not to boycott Israel.

I could not stay quiet and just go on with my life while I know that this law is going to make it OK to continue this kind of oppression against the Palestinians, she says in the film.

Ms Bacha warnedthe laws also pose a dangerous precedent. Texas legislators have since used anti-BDS law as a template to pass Bills preventing firms that boycott fossil fuels and firearms from securing state contracts.

We thought we were going to finish the film with this still being a theory and hypothesis, she said. But now its the reality.

The documentary also investigates where the Bills have come from, anduncovers a network of evangelical Christian and Israeli lobby groups, allegedly bankrolled by the Israeli government.

The importance of preserving the right to boycott is particularly pressing in the current context of the Wests response to Russias invasion of Ukraine, Ms Bachasaid.

If anyone had any doubt about the importance of boycott, divestment and sanctions, they really shouldnt have any doubts anymore, about how precious those tools are in a situation where you cannot go to war, she said.

We need to be able to decide those things in the public forum and have a dialogue and debate about these issues, and for you to take away that tool from your citizens feels, to be honest, incredibly authoritarian.

Anti-BDS laws have also been passed in Germany while in Britain, the Commons waved through Tory MP Robert Jenricks amendment on February 22, with Labour MPs ordered to abstain.

If the Bill is passed, local pension funds would be prohibited from making investment decisions that conflict with the UKs foreign and defence policy.

Warning against the moves, Ms Bacha added: Conservatives who officially have been the biggest defenders of freedom of speech should really think about their principles here.

And progressives and the Labour Party need to really think about where they historically want to stand on this and what are we taking away from our ability to advocate for social and political change in the future by not taking a stand now.

The screening of Boycott at the Barbican on March 20 at 3pm will be followed by a Q&A with Ms Bacha, and is available to stream across Britain and Ireland from March17-25https://ff.hrw.org/film/boycott

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Film sounds alarm on 'authoritarian' attacks on the right to boycott as government seeks new anti-BDS laws - Morning Star Online

WAR IS a catastrophe and the war in Ukraine is no exception. It has created a new and uniquely dangerous situation, altering the political balance in Europe, accelerating its militarisation, and raising the risk of nuclear war.

This will have a profoundly negative impact on our societies, far beyond the immediate catastrophe of war. We are seeing bellicose nationalism generated by warmongers on all sides, with politicians and media glorifying militarism, exploiting the refugee crisis and stoking racism and xenophobia.

One of the great dangers we face is that the far right, which has developed significantly over the last decade, feeding off economic crisis and weaponising the pandemic, will further develop in this new context.

We need to be very alert to that danger, and quick to counter it. Alarm bells have already been sounded by the appalling racism displayed towards African, Asian and Middle Eastern nationals attempting to leave Ukraine, and the verbal and physical abuse some have faced on arrival at the Polish border; the African Union summed this up as shockingly racist and in breach of international law.

As we mark the UNs Anti-Racism Day, we reject the brutality, the hatred and the oppression which this war fever on the part of our leaders is generating.

We reject the untold damage it will do to our society, and to our diverse communities. And we must be united in our determination to challenge the racism and xenophobia which so often accompanies war, and is used by government and media to distort public opinion and behaviour.

This week I heard a moving appeal from a Russian anti-war activist, who spoke of the millions of Russians that oppose the war and called on us all, in the peace movement and beyond, to oppose Russophobia.

As they face arrest, brutality and imprisonment for their protests, it would only add to their distress if all the Russian people were deemed pro-war because of the actions of their politicians.

During the Iraq war, we were very conscious of the crimes of our leaders and our cry Not in our name was our pledge to the world that we fought against that illegal war with all our strength. That same cry is coming from Russia and we must heed it.

Colonel Ann Wright, from US Veterans for Peace, wrote recently: As a US diplomat who resigned from the US government in 2003 in opposition to Bush and Blairs war on Iraq, I hoped at the time that all Americans (and British) citizens would not be vilified by the world for the actions of the Bush and Blair administrations.

I have visited Russia twice in the past seven years and I know most Russians do not want a war and object to Putins war on Ukraine.

We should not vilify Russians for the actions of their political leaders, and recognise that they face criminal actions for speaking out against the war and yet they still are speaking and writing.

I hope that we will be as generous to peace-seeking Russians as the world was to anti-war Americans and Britons.

This is a powerful message and one that I hope we will stand by, while the frenzied rush to sever civil society links continues.

To those breaking twinning links with Russian towns, I would say, maintain that contact, support anti-war voices, take steps to strengthen people-to-people connections against the war.

As the Russian peace activist said, let us explore new ways of international dialogue between peoples, to create strong new connections to help build the kind of future we want to see.

And we hear the same message from the peace movement in Ukraine, in the words sent to our recent rally in Trafalgar Square: We call for the solidarity of global civil society in seeking non-violent solutions to the current crisis with the help of all people in the world speaking truth to power together we could build a better world without armies and borders.

Never has it been more clear that the ordinary people of Ukraine and Russia and indeed of Britain and across the world have more in common with each other than they do with the leaders of their own countries.

Let us fight to make this the reality that determines policy across our countries, rather than the current imperatives of war and profit. Let us build this together and help create the world of equality, justice and peace that we wish to see.

See the article here:

We have more in common - Morning Star Online

Thank you Mr Chair. Im grateful to the UN Assistant High Commissioner for Operations for briefing us today. As he has just said, this week we passed a terrible milestone 3 million people have been forced to flee Ukraine. Forced to flee due to President Putins war of choice. We are grateful to Poland and other neighbouring countries for the generosity and the compassion that they have shown to fleeing Ukrainians.

Hundreds of thousands of people have also left their homes within Ukraine seeking places of safety elsewhere in the country.

We are grateful to UNHCR for their work to support those who have fled their homes.

Sadly, the numbers of those displaced is only likely to rise as we see Russia increasing the number of Ukrainian towns and cities that it targets with shelling. Last week there were attacks reported on Lutsk in north western Ukraine and Ivano-Frankivsk.

As Martin Griffiths told us last week, it is vital that civilians are afforded safe passage to leave areas of active hostilities in the direction of their choosing. While we welcome reports that some civilians were able to depart from Mariupol on Tuesday, we continue to be concerned by evidence that Russia has targeted evacuation corridors. Russias continued attempts to force civilians to flee via Russia and Belarus are cynical and unacceptable.

Meanwhile 12.7 million people are stranded in conflict affected areas as the Russian government resorts to ever more barbaric tactics. Russia is using cluster munitions and thermobaric rockets, weapons designed to inflict maximum damage wherever they are deployed.

For those civilians who have been unable to leave encircled cities like Mariupol and Volnovakha the situation is life-threatening. Not only have they been facing shelling daily, but hundreds of thousands of people are facing critical shortages of food, water and life-saving medicines. We are shocked by multiple reports that Russian forces shelled a theatre and a swimming pool in Mariupol where we understand people were sheltering. Mr Chair, who can hear the harrowing testimonies coming from civilians in Mariupol and not be moved? Moved by anger at the Russian governments actions and moved by determination to bring those responsible for atrocities to justice.

Likewise, Mr Chair who can not be moved by the bravery demonstrated by Ukrainians? Ukrainians protesting Russian military control in Kherson, Berdyansk and Melitopol. We are deeply concerned at reports of arrests of protestors being made by Russian forces in those cities, as well as reported abductions and abuse of Ukrainian activists, human rights defenders, volunteers, journalists, health-care workers and government representatives in the areas of Ukraine under control of the Russian army. Russia must immediately release all illegally-detained persons in Ukraine.

Sadly, as the esteemed US Ambassador rightly pointed out last week, we know all too well the results of Russias efforts to stamp out opposition to their presence in Ukraine. This week we mark eight years since Russias illegal annexation of Crimea, which they attempted to seal with a sham referendum and enforce with brutal oppression. Our thoughts remain with all Ukrainians wrongfully detained simply for expressing the truth that Crimea is an integral part of Ukraine.

Russias attempts to subvert Ukrainian democracy is an unacceptable abuse of OSCE principles and commitments.

In the face of these appalling violations of fundamental freedoms by Russia, the work of human rights organisations is more important than ever. We welcome the appointment of three eminent experts to conduct an independent fact finding mission under the Moscow Mechanism; a mission that is supported by Ukraine and 45 participating States.

This is important because, Mr Chair, facts matter. Even the Russian government knows that facts matter otherwise they would not be going to such lengths to conceal them from the Russian people. As the OSCE Representative on the Freedom of the Media has highlighted, Russia has blocked access to several media websites and introduced a law on the spread of so-called fake information about the brutal actions of the Russian Armed Forces. Several Russian media representatives have resigned in the face of overwhelming editorial interference. Those who, like Marina Ovsyannikova, dare to defend the truth, those individuals face arrest.

Mr Chair, we will not stand by as President Putin wages his campaign against the Ukrainian people. We will hold him accountable for his crimes.We will work with prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) to help them get the information they need. And we will not relent in our mission to see justice done. This hideous and barbaric venture must end in failure. However long it takes, that will be the steadfast and unflinching goal of the United Kingdom.

I ask Mr Chair that this statement be attached to the journal of the day.

Read more:

Russia's ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine: UK statement to the OSCE, 17 March 2022 - GOV.UK