Philippines: U.S. soldier wounded fighting New Peoples Army

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Communist Party of the Philippines, which urges an end to U.S. intervention in the Philippines.

US soldier wounded in failed anti-NPA combat operation in Masbate April 28, 2009

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today disclosed that a US soldier embedded in a combat unit of the 9th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army was wounded last April 15 after joint US and government troops attempted to encircle and attack a unit of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Barangay Baras, Esperanza, Masbate. The Red fighters were able to fight back, resulting in the death of three government soldiers and the wounding of the US trooper. An NPA fighter was martyred in the clash.

North Carolina: Freedom Road Socialist Organization hosts regional student conference

Kosta Harlan from Chapel Hill, North Carolina explains the roots of the current economic crisis.

The following is from Fight Back! News:

By staff

Asheville, NC – Around 25 student activists and organizers from seven cities throughout the southeast came to Asheville, North Carolina, April 4, for a conference called “The Crisis of Imperialism and Building a Revolutionary Movement.” This regional student conference was hosted by Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

On 6th Anniversary of Iraq War More than 10,000 march on Pentagon

The following is from A.N.S.W.E.R.

A “throng of war protesters swelled Saturday as they marched across the Memorial Bridge.” (AP) The protesters marched on the Pentagon and what followed was a dramatic direct action at Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and KBR, corporations that demonstrators labeled “merchants of death.” The predominantly young crowd continued to grow as the day proceeded. They marched through the Pentagon north Parking Lot and then into downtown Crystal City, where the leading war corporations’ headquarters are located.

Norman Bethune: “Wounds”

The following article, “Wounds”, is by the Canadian communist and medical doctor, Norman Bethune, who died in China serving the revolution. It is a scathing critique of imperialist war.

The kerosene lamp overhead makes a steady buzzing sound like an incandescent hive of bees. Mud walls. Mud floor. Mud bed. White paper windows. Smell of blood and chloroform. Cold. Three o’clock in the morning, December 1, North China, near Lin Chu, with the 8th Route Army. Men with wounds. Wounds like little dried pools, caked with blackbrown earth; wounds with torn edges frilled with black gangrene; neat wounds, concealing beneath the abscess in their depths, burrowing into and around the great firm muscles like a dammed-back river, running around and between the muscles like a hot stream; wounds, expanding outward, decaying orchids or crushed carnations, terrible flowers of flesh; wounds from which the dark blood is spewed out in clots, mixed with the ominous gas bubbles, floating on the fresh flood of the still-continuing secondary haemorrhage.

FRSO on the RNC: Two Summations

The following two statements by the Freedom Road Socialist Organization sum up the protest in St. Paul, Minnesota of the Republican National Convention in 2008.

Anti-war protests at the RNC send message to the world

The tens of thousands of RNC protesters who hit the streets of Saint Paul Sept. 1 – 4 did something that was truly great. The demonstrations sent a powerful message that was heard around the world: The people of the United States reject the war on Iraq and the Republican agenda. We insist on peace, justice and equality. This message was heard by the rich and powerful, who responded with repression. And it was heard by hundreds of millions of people. Reports of the protests were carried by thousands of media outlets ranging from network TV in the U.S. to Al Jazeera to the New China News Agency. The Sept. 1 rally against the war was carried live on C-SPAN.

The demonstrations that took place on the first and last days of the RNC were of particular importance. The size, scope, militancy and the political clarity – crystallized in the slogan “U.S. out of Iraq now” – helped to create the political context for the entire week of actions against the RNC.

Read the rest here →

Lessons From the RNC: Mass Mobilization and Militant Actions Advance the Struggle

The Republican National Convention brought many of the biggest war-makers to Minnesota. The people’s movements from across the U.S. responded by organizing four days of demonstrations against the RNC. Freedom Road Socialist Organization prioritized organizing against the RNC and helped build multiple days of protest including the mass anti-war march of 30-35,000 people on September 1st and the “No Peace for the Warmakers” militant march turned civil disobedience on September 4th.

We saw the RNC as a chance to unite the anti war movement under the slogan “U.S. out of Iraq Now” and to build a broad united front against the Republican agenda. By any standard the powerful protests that rocked St. Paul were a blow against the rulers of this county.

For progressive and revolutionary organizations the RNC served as a sort of test. Many, from a variety of political trends – ranging from Marxist-Leninists to anarchists – passed this test with banners raised and flying colors. They stepped up to the plate, organizing a historic response to the Republican agenda of war, racism, and reaction.

Read the rest here →

See also the numerous articles on Fight Back! News

PFLP calls upon Arab and international forces to escalate their actions and solidarity

The following is from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Marxist-Leninist organization that has been waging armed struggle against U.S./Israeli occupation for 41 years:

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine called on January 3, 2008 upon the Arab people and all progressive forces in the world to escalate all forms of resistance against the Zionist and imperialist enemy.

New School University is Now Occupied!

The following demands from the students occupying the New School University are from http://www.newschoolinexile.com/:

• The removal of Bob Kerrey as president of our university

• The removal of James Murtha as executive vice president of our university

• Students, faculty, and staff elect the president, EVP, and Provost.

• Students are part of the interim committee to hire a provost.

• The removal of Robert B. Millard as treasurer of the board of trustees.

• Intelligible transparency and disclosure of the university budget and investments.

• The creation of a committee on socially responsible investments.

• The immediate suspension of capital improvement projects like the tearing down of 65 fifth Ave.
• Instead, money towards the creation of an autonomous student space.
• Instead, money towards scholarships and reducing tuition.
• Instead, money for the library and student life generally.

Sign the petition calling for President Kerrey’s resignation, http://www.petitiononline.com/nokerrey/petition.html.

Please also read this open letter and statement from the occupying students to the New School Community:

Le Feyt Declaration – Peace in Iraq is an option

From the International Anti-Occupation Network

The US occupation of Iraq is illegal and cannot be made legal. All that has derived from the occupation is illegal and illegitimate and cannot gain legitimacy. These facts are incontrovertible. What are their consequences?

Is Bush on the path to victory in Iraq?

The following was a contribution from Kosta Harlan, an organizer with Students for a Democratic Society, at a program on the Iraq war organized by the People’s Organization for Progress in Newark, NJ on October 18. The program was titled “Which way to peace in Iraq?”

In a word: no. That’s simple enough. The whole world can see the occupation’s days are numbered. But it’s not enough to know the government’s cause is unjust or that the occupation is failing. We need to understand why.

The causes for the failure can be summed up simply:

1. To achieve “victory” the occupation needs a political process to rule over Iraq.
2. The Green Zone political process, the puppet government set up by the occupation authorities, is a failure.
3. Therefore, the war will end in defeat for the United States, and in victory for the people of Iraq.

I. Why the occupation needs a puppet government

The origins of the current U.S. aggression against Iraq reside in two landmark events. The first was the 1958 revolution that swept the British-supported monarchy from power and established Iraqi independence and political sovereignty. Fourteen years later, the Baath Party nationalized the country’s oil, which ended the domination of Big Oil in Iraq. That laid the foundation for Iraq’s economic sovereignty.

The working class has the power to stop the war!

Here is a great video from Labor Beat about the Teamsters Local 743 from Chicago at the protest of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, MN. Teamsters Local 743 was a yellow-dog, mobbed-up union for decades. In October of 2007, a rank & file insurgency within the union took power, removing the old-guard crooks and putting the local in the hands of the workers.