My idols are dead and my enemies are in power.
Ask me anything
May 17, 2013
"Formerly, the national question was usually confined to a narrow circle of questions, concerning, primarily, “civilised” nationalities. The Irish, the Hungarians, the Poles, the Finns, the Serbs, and several other European nationalities-that was the circle of unequal peoples in whose destinies the leaders of the Second International were interested. The scores and hundreds of millions of Asiatic and African peoples who are suffering national oppression in its most savage and cruel form usually remained outside of their field of vision. They hesitated to put white and black, “civilised” and “uncivilised” on the same plane. Two or three meaningless, lukewarm resolutions, which carefully evaded the question of liberating the colonies-that was all the leaders of the Second International could boast of. Now we can say that this duplicity and half-heartedness in dealing with the national question has been brought to an end. Leninism laid bare this crying incongruity, broke down the wall between whites and blacks, between European and Asiatics, between the “civilised” and “uncivilised” slaves of imperialism, and thus linked the national question with the question of the colonies. The national question was thereby transformed from a particular and internal state problem into a general and international problem, into a world problem of emancipating the oppressed peoples in the dependent countries and colonies from the yoke of imperialism."
"Trayvon’s blackness wasn’t something he could hide, so it wouldn’t have mattered whether he’d worn a hoodie or a t-shirt that fateful night. It mattered that he was black, and it mattered that the person who shot him had a vendetta out for black men before Trayvon ever set foot in the neighborhood. It matters that in 2012, there are more black men in prison today than those who were enslaved in 1850. It matters that blacks, in particular black men, are overrepresented in the criminal justice system and underrepresented in colleges. It matters that the black unemployment rate is nearly double that of unemployment for the general population. It matters that blacks are less likely to be screened, diagnosed, and treated for preventable diseases, less likely to own homes, less likely to receive research grants, and more likely to retire in poverty than their white counterparts. It matters that blacks are less likely than whites to abuse drugs, but more likely to be convicted of drug crimes. None of these statistics are due to a genetic predisposition to violence, poor health and underachievement, instead as a direct result of the disenfranchisement of blacks that has occurred in this country for more than 200 years at the hands of slavery, Jim Crow Laws, discrimination, and the institutionalized racism in our schools, banks, businesses, courts, and prisons that has torn apart our families and fractured our community. Just like Trayvon Martin, race mattered for Amadou Diallo, Oscar Grant, Sean Bell, Emmett Till, and hundreds more we will never know the name of who died because of their skin color"
These are some of the extremely disturbing expressions of racist hatred now circulating in the wake of the remake of Red Dawn—proof that propaganda, no matter how ridiculous and ham-fisted it might seem to those with an anti-capitalist, anti-racist analysis, has a powerful effect on many people, reinforcing Americans’ violent hatred of the DPRK and Asian people in general. Asian Americans will bear the brunt of the violence and discrimination instigated by Hollywood’s latest war propaganda, while the capitalist class profits off of racism yet again.
…we’ll work with anybody, form a coalition with anybody that has revolution on their mind. We are not a racist organization becuase we understand that racism is an excuse used for capitalism. We know that racism is just- is a by-product of capitalism.
Everything would be all right if everything was put back in the hands of the people, and we’re going to have to put it back in the hands of the people… socialism is the people. If you’re afraid of socialism, you’re afraid of yourself.
“Without question, blacks have benefitted from the Revolution, now there is much greater social and employment mobility. There are many black professionals and as many blacks in graduate school as whites.” -A Portrait of Cuba
“In order for our party’s leadership to duly reflect the ethnic composition of our people, it must include those patriots of proven revolutionary merit and talents who in the past have been discriminated agaisnt because of their skin color”. -Fidel Castro
“While one may criticize Castro on many counts, the fact that the Afro-Cuban population has scored tremendous gains under the Revolution is unquestioned. The last thing Afro-Cubans want is a return to the old days, to the system that existed prior to the Revolution; they want real equality. They want representation that reflects their majority role, and they want the freedom to practice their traditional religions, If Castro can assure them that the Revolution is moving toward both goals, I have no doubt that Afro-Cubans would fight for the Revolution…. If the conservative white exiles from Miami got back in power, it would mean the end of all the gains Afro-Cubans have made since 1959”. -Carlos Martinique, a Cuban exile and critic of revolutionary Cuba.
Let them eat cake! The £10m jubilee festival ‘fit for a queen’
It’s a Marie Antoinette moment for the jubilee as we learn it will feature a cake portrait of the queen—made up of 3,120 individual cakes.
As ordinary people struggle to afford their weekly shop, the 94 square foot monstrosity will use 1,000 eggs, 50kg of butter and 150kg of sugar.
It’s all organic of course.
The cake is just part of the £10.5 million London diamond jubilee festival and river pageant planned for 3 June.
Organisers say it will be “a festival fit for the queen”. What does that mean?
First, eight enormous church bells—named Elizabeth, Philip, Charles, Anne, Andrew, Edward, William and Henry—will be rung from a floating belfry.
Then the queen’s new £1 million gold-plated barge Gloriana will lead a 1,000-boat flotilla down the Thames. It will stretch for over 12 miles.
Not enough pageantry for you? Not to worry.
The next day the queen will light a beacon at a concert in her honour—using a huge diamond-shaped crystal.
There’s also the Windsor Castle celebration, being held this week.
It will feature a parade of 500 of the finest horses in the world—some flown in by private jet at a cost of up to £40,000 each.
But just remember—we’re all in it together.
If you can’t quite cope with it all, help is at hand. The official merchandise includes a diamond jubilee whisky flask.
However, it seems not everyone is welcome to join in the jubilee celebrations.
The police have banned a jubilee party at a Sheffield community centre—after finding out it was planning to play R&B, reggae and soul music.
Tickets were to be sold from a Caribbean restaurant.
The police claimed that they feared the event at the Everyone Centre in Heeley might really be of a “different nature” to what the organisers said.
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So they’re spending more on fancy horses than one working class person’s annual salary. What can possibly justify these egregious displays of wealth to a population struggling under neoliberal austerity? Why aren’t people tearing the country apart with rage at this bourgeois hypocrisy? Because the royal family generates a peculiar kind of nationalist false consciousness; proletarians surviving off dwindling dole money keep royal scrapbooks and speak of the queen like an old friend or kindly grandmother. But as the article points out, immigrants (or more generally ‘foreigners’) are systematically excluded from the nationalist narrative, which must preserve its lily white respectability. So the police, those agents of state racism, banned a jubilee party in a Caribbean community, but continue to allow the facist EDL to flood the streets with mass rallies, and terrorize people of colour. Meanwhile the queen is regaled with golden barges and diamond horses, and for what, exactly? What the hell has she done to deserve all this ostentatious fawning? Absolutely nothing, save acting as the living embodiment of a legacy of brutal imperialism.
The Young Lords Party is a Revolutionary Political Party Fighting for the Liberation of All Oppressed People.
1. We want self-determination for Puerto Ricans—Liberation of the Island and inside the United States.
For 500 years, first spain and then united states have colonized our country. Billions of dollars in profits leave our country for the united states every year. In every way we are slaves of the gringo. We want liberation and the Power in the hands of the People, not Puerto Rican exploiters.
Que Viva Puerto Rico Libre!
2. We want self-determination for all Latinos.
Our Latin Brothers and Sisters, inside and outside the united states, are oppressed by amerikkkan business. The Chicano people built the Southwest, and we support their right to control their lives and their land. The people of Santo Domingo continue to fight against gringo domination and its puppet generals. The armed liberation struggles in Latin America are part of the war of Latinos against imperialism.
Que Viva La Raza!
3. We want liberation of all third world people.
Just as Latins first slaved under spain and the yanquis, Black people, Indians, and Asians slaved to build the wealth of this country. For 400 years they have fought for freedom and dignity against racist Babylon (decadent empire). Third World people have led the fight for freedom. All the colored and oppressed peoples of the world are one nation under oppression.
No Puerto Rican Is Free Until All People Are Free!
4. We are revolutionary nationalists and oppose racism.
The Latin, Black, Indian and Asian people inside the u.s. are colonies fighting for liberation. We know that washington, wall street and city hall will try to make our nationalism into racism; but Puerto Ricans are of all colors and we resist racism. Millions of poor white people are rising up to demand freedom and we support them. These are the ones in the u.s. that are stepped on by the rules and the government. We each organize our people, but our fights are against the same oppression and we will defeat it together.
Power To All Oppressed People!
5. We want community control of our institutions and land.
We want control of our communities by our people and programs to guarantee that all institutions serve the needs of our people. People’s control of police, health services, churches, schools, housing, transportation and welfare are needed. We want an end to attacks on our land by urban removal, highway destruction, universities and corporations.
Land Belongs To All The People!
6. We want a true education of our Creole culture and Spanish language.
We must learn our history of fighting against cultural, as well as economic genocide by the yanqui. Revolutionary culture, culture of our people, is the only true teaching.
7. We oppose capitalists and alliances with traitors.
Puerto Rican rulers, or puppets of the oppressor, do not help our people. They are paid by the system to lead our people down blind alleys, just like the thousands of poverty pimps who keep our communities peaceful for business, or the street workers who keep gangs divided and blowing each other away. We want a society where the people socialistically control their labor.
Venceremos!
8. We oppose the Amerikkkan military.
We demand immediate withdrawal of u.s. military forces and bases from Puerto Rico, Vietnam and all oppressed communities inside and outside the u.s. No Puerto Rican should serve in the u.s. army against his Brothers and Sisters, for the only true army of oppressed people is the people’s army to fight all rulers.
U.S. Out Of Vietnam, Free Puerto Rico!
9. We want freedom for all political prisoners.
We want all Puerto Ricans freed because they have been tried by the racist courts of the colonizers, and not by their own people and peers. We want all freedom fighters released from jail.
Free All Political Prisoners!
10. We want equality for women. Machismo must be revolutionary… not oppressive.
Under capitalism, our women have been oppressed by both the society and our own men. The doctrine of machismo has been used by our men to take out their frustrations against their wives, sisters, mothers, and children. Our men must support their women in their fight for economic and social equality, and must recognize that our women are equals in every way within the revolutionary ranks.
Forward, Sisters, In The Struggle!
11. We fight anti-communism with international unity.
Anyone who resists injustice is called a communist by “the man” and condemned. Our people are brainwashed by television, radio, newspapers, schools, and books to oppose people in other countries fighting for their freedom. No longer will our people believe attacks and slanders, because they have learned who the real enemy is and who their real friends are. We will defend our Brothers and Sisters around the world who fight for justice against the rich rulers of this country.
Viva Che!
12. We believe armed self-defense and armed struggle are the only means to liberation.
We are opposed to violence—the violence of hungry children, illiterate adults, diseased old people, and the violence of poverty and profit. We have asked, petitioned, gone to courts, demonstrated peacefully, and voted for politicians full of empty promises. But we still ain’t free. The time has come to defend the lives of our people against repression and for revolutionary war against the businessman, politician, and police. When a government oppresses our people, we have the right to abolish it and create a new one.
Boricua Is Awake! All Pigs Beware!
13. We want a socialist society.
We want liberation, clothing, free food, education, health care, transportation, utilities, and employment for all. We want a society where the needs of our people come first, and where we give solidarity and aid to the peoples of the world, not oppression and racism.
TINLEY PARK, Ill. (STMW) – A law enforcement source Sunday said the group beaten at a Tinley Park restaurant Saturday was made up of white supremacists, and those who assaulted them were protesters attacking their beliefs.
Police had five people in custody after the attack, which occured at The Ashford House, 7959 W. 159th St. around noon. No charges have been filed yet, and the suspects did not appear in bond court Sunday.
Tinley Park Mayor Ed Zabrocki on Sunday said police do not know if the protesters had any connection to the NATO Summit in downtown Chicago.
He said police still have 35 to 40 people to interview, and charges could come Monday
The men in custody aren’t talking yet to police, he said.
Restaurant owner Mike Winston said he was working in the kitchen the restaurant during the lunch rush when a waitress screamed that a fight had broken out in the dining room.
Winston said a mob wielding metal batons and hammers hurt ten diners in the attack, and three of those were hospitalized.
Winston said 18 young men, all wearing hooded jackets and obscuring their faces with scarves and other coverings, stormed into the restaurant. Police said there were 15 to 18 attackers.
“They came running in the door single file,” said Winston, who owns the restaurant and the adjacent Winston’s Market.
Winston and police said the men knew who their targets were and that the attack wasn’t a random act of violence. Winston said the mob “targeted” a group of 20 diners, all of whom were from out of state.
“Once they attacked the table, they went and started hitting random people,” Winston said.
Along with hammers, the men used what Winston described as “old-fashioned police batons” as well as metal batons.
He chased after one of the attackers “and had him on the ground, then five guys got out of a car and started kicking the (crap) out of me,” Winston said.“Four or five people got knocked over the head pretty good, enough to require stitches,” he said.
Winston said he was kicked in the back of the head and suffered several bruises, but he was the only restaurant employee who was hurt.
“They did a whole lot of damage,” he said. “They flipped over tables, they broke half the dishes.”
Surveillance cameras inside the restaurant captured the attack and footage was turned over to Tinley Park police, Winston said.
Police said the attackers fled in three vehicles, and that one vehicle was stopped near the intersection of 159th and Harlem Avenue.
Winston said that during the attack most of the men’s face coverings were torn off.
“Most of these kids were white, and they all looked like they were between 18 and 25,” he said.
In a news release, police tried to assure residents the attack was “an isolated incident” and that “there is no immediate threat to the community.”
Winston said he has “no flippin’ idea” what sparked the incident.
“We’re just a little family restaurant,” he said.
Tinley police said they were being assisted in the investigation by the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force.
