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By Ramzy Baroud

The State of Israel was established on the ruins of Palestine, based on a series of objectives that were initialed by letters from the Hebrew alphabet, the consequences of which continue to guide Israeli strategies to this day. The current violence against Palestinian worshippers at al-Aqsa Mosque in Occupied East Jerusalem is a logical extension of the same Zionist ambition.

Plan A (February, 1945), Plan B (May, 1947) and Plan C (November, 1947) all strove to achieve the same end: the ethnic cleansing of Palestine of its original inhabitants. It was not until March 1948 that Plan Dalet (Hebrew for Plan D) brought together all of the preparatory stages for final implementation.

Championed by the Haganah Jewish militias, ‘Plan Dalet’ saw the destruction of hundreds of villages, the depopulation of entire cities and the defense of the new country’s borders, ensuring Palestinian refugees are never allowed back. For Palestinians, that phase of their history is known as the “Nakba”, or the “Catastrophe”.

‘Dalet’ was an astounding success from the Zionists’ viewpoint. However, the borders were never truly defined – in order to allow for territorial expansion, at the opportune time. That moment came when Israel launched its war of 1967 (known to Palestinians as ‘Naksa’ or the ‘Setback’), seizing East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, thus sealing the fate of entire historic Palestine.

Occupied Jerusalem was not open for negotiations: it is Israel’s historic, eternal and undivided capital, they claimed, citing or misinterpreting biblical references as they saw fit. Almost immediately, the Israeli Government annexed Jerusalem by extending the West Jerusalem municipal borders to include newly conquered East Jerusalem.

It was not until 1980 when Israel passed a law that explicitly annexed the illegally occupied city to become part of the so-called Israel proper.

Since then, Jerusalem has been a major point of strife, political conflict and controversy. Understandably, the Jerusalem political discourse is conflated with discussion about religion, but it is far more encompassing than a conflict over access to holy sites.

The fate of Jerusalem and its holy sites cannot be understood separately from the fate of Palestine. And the daily struggle of Palestinian Muslims and Christians in that City is a representation of the struggle of Palestinians everywhere.

As West Jerusalem was conquered under ‘Plan Dalet’, East Jerusalem, like the rest of the Occupied Territories was, along with other Palestinian regions, the target of another plan: The ‘Allon Plan’.

It was named after Yigal Allon, a former general and minister in the Israeli Government, who took on the task of drawing an Israeli vision for the newly conquered Palestinian Territories. While the Israeli Government moved to immediately change the status quo governing East Jerusalem, the ‘Allon Plan’ sought to annex more than 30 percent of the West Bank and all of Gaza for ‘security purposes’.

It stipulated the establishment of a “security corridor” along the River Jordan, as well outside the “Green Line”, a one-sided Israeli demarcation of its borders with the West Bank. The plan envisioned the incorporation of all of the Gaza Strip into Israel, and was meant to return parts of the West Bank to Jordan as a first step toward implementing the “Jordanian option” for Palestinian refugees, i.e., ethnic cleansing, coupled with the creation of an ‘alternative homeland’ for Palestinians.

While the plan did not fully actualize, the seizure, ethnic cleansing and annexation of occupied land was a resounding success. Moreover, the ‘Allon Plan’ provided an unmistakable signal that the Labor Government, which ruled Israel at the time, had every intention of retaining large parts of the West Bank and all of Gaza, with no intention of honoring United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, which challenged Israel’s military takeover of Palestinian territories.

To ensure seizure of new land would be irreversible, the Labor Government needed to move some of its citizens (in violation of the Geneva Conventions) to the newly-occupied territories. Doing so required reaching out to the most reactionary, religious elements of Israeli society, the religious- ultra-nationalists camps, who were on the margins of mainstream politics.

To capitalize on the Government’s alluring settlement policies in the West Bank, a group of religious Jews rented a hotel in the Palestinian town of al-Khalil (Hebron) to spend Passover at the ‘Cave of the Patriarchs’, and simply refused to leave, sparking the biblical passion of religious Orthodox Israelis across the country, who referred to the West Bank by the Biblical name, Judea and Samaria.

The move ignited the ire of Palestinians, who watched in complete dismay as their land was conquered, renamed and, later, settled by outsiders. In 1970, to ‘diffuse’ the situation, the Israeli Government constructed the ‘Kiryat Arba’ Settlement on the outskirts of the Arab city, which invited even more orthodox Jews to al-Khalil.

The ‘Allon Plan’ may have been intended for strategic purposes; but out of necessity, what began as political objectives intermingled with what became religious and spiritual.

Over the years, the strategic settlement growth was complemented by the religiously motivated expansion, championed by a vibrant movement, exemplified in the founding of “Gush Emunim” (Bloc of the Faithful) in 1974. Its mission was to settle legions of fundamentalists on the West Bank.

Little has changed since, save the fact that the current Israeli Government is a government of settlers, who are not engaged in a symbiotic relationship with the Government but who dominate a political establishment that is teeming with zealots and fanatics, relentless on changing the status quo in Jerusalem, starting with Haram al-Sharif, or the ‘Noble Sanctuary’.

Haram al-Sharif is one of the holiest Islamic sites, but this is not just about religion. Israeli politicians have been ‘debating’ the status of Haram al-Sharif for many months, as right-wing, religious and ultra-nationalists elements are advocating the complete appropriation of the al-Aqsa Mosque (situated in Haram al-Sharif), currently under the management of the Islamic Trust (known as ‘Waqf’.)

Israel’s new Minister of Internal Security, Gilad Erdan, is repressing any Palestinian in Jerusalem who dares challenge new Israeli rules regarding Muslim access to al-Aqsa. Scores of Palestinians have been shot, beaten and many more arrested in recent days as they have attempted to confront Israeli police who escort Jewish extremists on their provocative ‘tours’ of the Muslim holy site.

The current conflict suggests a repeat of what took place on February 25, 1994, when a US-born Jewish fanatic, Baruch Goldstein, stormed into the Ibrahimi Mosque in the Palestinian city of al-Khalil and opened fire. Over 50 Palestinians were killed while kneeling for prayer on that day. In the name of ‘keeping the peace’, the Israeli army took over the Mosque and began regulating Muslim access to it, allowing Jewish worshippers to the Palestinian holy site.

Goldstein and his most ardent supporters hailed from the notorious “Kiryat Arba” illegal Jewish settlement.

Israeli politicians now want to see the al-Aqsa Mosque status changed as well. The Government wants to ensure its complete dominance over Palestinians, while the extremists wanted to demolish the Mosque, seeking ancient Jewish temples presumably destroyed in 586 BC and AD 70.

But to change the status of Haram al-Sharif, which has been an exclusive Muslim site for the last 1,300 years, much blood would have to be spilled. That, too, is being managed by Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has successfully pursued the country’s Attorney General to permit the use of sniper fire against protesting Palestinian youth.

With such right-wing and extremist politicians at his side, Netanyahu’s designs in Jerusalem are consistent with the political mood in Israel today, and also consistent with plans enacted by his predecessors many years ago.

The fact that plans to conquer even the remaining symbols of Palestinian nationhood and spirituality have finally reached al-Aqsa is particularly alarming. Considering the turmoil throughout the Middle East region and the ineffectual Palestinian leadership of Mahmoud Abbas, Netanyahu is likely to push forward with his plan, no matter the price or the consequences.

Dr. Ramzy Baroud has been writing about the Middle East for over 20 years. He is an internationally-syndicated columnist, a media consultant, an author of several books and the founder of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story (Pluto Press, London). His website is: www.ramzybaroud.net.
23 September, 2015
Countercurrents.org

By Dr Hakim

Kabul, Afghanistan, 21st September 2015, the International Day of Peace: 16 years ago, a Talib ( literally translated, a student ) shot and killed Zarghuna’s father.

Zarghuna and her family were frantically fleeing a desperate situation. The same holds true for more than 60 million refugees in today’s ‘progressive’ world.

If you’re like me, you may think, “Oh, how messy is Zarghuna’s part of the world.”

“How terrible are the Taliban!”, and perhaps even, “We should imprison or eliminate them.”

But, Zarghuna thinks differently.

In the noisy violence raging around her, Zarghuna quietly but resolutely says, “#Enough!”

Okay, I confess I’m not confident that, in our hurried lives, we’ll appreciate the relevance of Zarghuna’s distant struggle.

But I trust we can care for her when she cries.

Just sitting there. Crying.

“I don’t think my mother will manage if Arif leaves,” she said.

Arif, Zarghuna’s youngest brother, has already left home twice in the past three months, with the intention of smuggling himself to Iran and onwards to Europe.

Unlike the steady girl that she usually is, Zarghuna looked up from her downcast posture, and said, “There’s nothing really ‘fulfilling’ in Afghanistan to stay around for, is there?”

Zarghuna’s mother lost her husband and father-in-law to war.

“She can’t live through another loss,” Zarghuna stated plainly.

I believe we need to hear voices like Zarghuna’s. Our ‘smart’ devices, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, We Chat etc etc can’t do the listening. We are the ones who need to listen. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

On Zarghuna’s palm is written the word ‘Enough’ in Dari and Pashto ( the official languages of Afghanistan ), pronounced ‘bas’!

We may not have experienced war as Zarghuna has, but we’ve each had enough of different severe frustrations; of being treated as less than others, discriminated against, insulted, looked down upon, disrespected, exploited, and violated in various ways.

Or we’ve had enough of feeling lonely in life’s materialistic rush.

These challenges appear separate, though that’s not what Zarghuna has been learning.

These are interconnected crises.

The outcome? We can face the ugly crises we have on our hands today by questioning why there’s such a huge socio-economic difference between the elite and most of us ( the so called 99% ), and an even greater difference between them and the most vulnerable people, like street kids, labourers, and people who live in war zones.

Our greed has its toll.

#Enough! is #Enough! is the feeling we all share.

So, today, Zarghuna, 100 Borderfree Street Kids, some of whom she teaches, and the Afghan Peace Volunteers, tried to set aside those unpleasant human ways by sharing a meal with 100 Afghan labourers.

They divided the work of drawing up an invitation list of labourers, getting enough wood for the fire, sifting and washing the raisins and rice, cooking, and thinking about the meaning of it all.

They looked kindly at one another as they shared the food, each of them bearing a war story.

How can I reach within you who are so far away, to share with you how captivated I was by the transformation of war-generated pain, sorrow, fear, distrust and hate into the tiny but cumulative actions of determination and love?

Can you see it on Zarghuna’s palm, and on the faces of her peace volunteer and street kid friends?

For this story, I had asked Zarghuna to choose between the group picture and a solo picture of her alone.

How I wish you could see and hear her wish for the human family not to be alone, but to be together, to agree with one another, including with the Taliban who killed her father and the U.S./NATO forces whose strategy has increased ‘terrorism’, that we’ve had #Enough!

Perhaps, listening will be our revolution.

Dr Hakim, ( Dr. Teck Young, Wee ) is a medical doctor from Singapore who has done humanitarian and social enterprise work in Afghanistan for the past 10 years, including being a mentor to the Afghan Peace Volunteers, an inter-ethnic group of young Afghans dedicated to building non-violent alternatives to war. He is the 2012 recipient of the International Pfeffer Peace Prize.

23 September, 2015
Countercurrents.org

By Federico Fuentes

Governments across the world are erecting walls and tightening laws to keep refugees out, but one country is taking a radically different approach based on the simple premise that “no one is illegal”.

The Andean nation of Ecuador, with a population of 15.7 million people, is no stranger to the challenges of dealing with refugee crises.

Ecuador houses about 50,000 refugees seeking asylum within its borders. This is the largest refugee population in any country in Latin America. The vast majority of these refugees want to become permanent residents.

The overwhelming majority are victims of the decades-long civil war raging in neighbouring Colombia. A United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees report found Colombia is second only to Syria in terms of displaced people.

Since 2000, 60,000 Colombians have received refugee status in Ecuador – most since left-wing President Rafael Correa came to power in 2007.

Correa’s election marked a sharp break with the traditional political class, which had become thoroughly discredited after years of implementing pro-rich neoliberal policies.

In contrast, Correa pushed forward with a number of measures that social movements had been fighting for over many years.

Among these were the removal of foreign military bases from Ecuadorian territory, no free trade agreement with the US, and the convening of an elected constituent assembly to draft a new constitution.

A new constitution – widely recognised as one of the most progressive in the world – was approved in a referendum in 2008. As well as enshrining important rights for indigenous communities and the environment, the new constitution grants migrants and refugees the same rights as citizens – including access to free healthcare and education.

The constitution also explicitly recognises the right to seek asylum. Article 40 states: “No human being will be identified or considered illegal due to their migratory status.”

In a bid to implement this measure, the government accepted the claims of 39,000 Colombian refugees between 2009 and 2010, more than double the number accepted during the previous decade.

This was done as part of the Correa government’s “Enhanced Registration Process”. Colombians refugees were actively sought out to process their claims as quickly as possible.

In May 2012, however, Correa was criticised by groups working with refugees for issuing a decree requiring refugees to register with authorities within 15 days of entering the country or risk not having their claims processed. The Constitutional Court later overturned the decree, declaring it went against the spirit of the constitution.

Now, an important step has been taken towards turning these constitutional principles into law. In July, seven parliamentarians, six of whom were elected by Ecuadorian migrants living outside the country, tabled a new bill.

The bill not only covers the rights of refugees, but also migrants and Ecuadoreans living outside the country.

Linda Machuca, one of the law’s proponents, explained that the bill seeks to recognise “the 2 million Ecuadoreans living outside their homeland as part of our transnational family, as well as the more than 60,000 people with refugee status and another 60,000 applicants who are in Ecuador [seeking refugee status]”.

The bill outlines 12 key principles, including a ban on criminalising refugees and migrants: “No one will be criminalised due to their migratory situation … Irregular migratory condition is not a crime.”

Article 126 of the proposed law states: “No person applying for refugee status will be rejected or stopped at the border or immigration control, nor will they be returned, expelled, extradited or subject to any measure that obliges or exposes them to returning to the territory where their life, security or integrity is at risk …”

The law proposes to ensure all refugees are guaranteed due process and have their claims assessed as quickly as possible, at no cost to the asylum seeker.

Such progressive views towards refugees are not unique in the region

Bolivia’s left-wing president Evo Morales has also been outspoken on the issue, declaring his country supports the idea of universal citizenship.

“In Bolivia … we will try and welcome migrants because they are human beings”, he said in June while in Italy. “And we don’t use the term ‘illegal’ because we must have universal citizenship.”

Acknowledging that the issue of immigration was complex, Morales said it was necessary to tackle the causes: “Migratory flows are caused by capitalism, by wars, by military intervention and the fact that wealth is concentrated in the hands of too few people.

“We need to democratise resources.”

Federico Fuentes is co-author, together with Roger Burbach and Michael Fox, he is the co-author of Latin America’s Turbulent Transitions: The Future of Twenty-First-Century Socialism (Zed Books 2013).

22 September, 2015
Greenleft.org.au

 

By Thomas C. Mountain

Wouldnt it be great if there was a place in the world where Muslims and Christians live in peace?

Where their children play together, their families eat together, Christians visiting their Muslim neighbors at Eid, Muslims going to eat next door at Easter?

Where a Christian girl can marry a Muslim boy without any real commotion within families?

Where Muslims and Christians dance together while celebrating weddings and holidays, old and young, rich and poor, different tribes and languages and all this peacefully?

I am not talking about a community, a village, town or even a province. I am saying wouldnt it be great if an entire country of millions of people, lets say half muslim and half christian, lived together in respect and harmony?

In todays world its hard to imagine that this could be possible. In Iraq the christians have been driven from the land. In the Central African Republic the muslim peoples have been chased out.

In Switzerland, popular vote made the display of Islamic culture in the form of minarets on the roofs of their houses of Islamic worship illegal. In Kenya a series of Muslim clerics are murdered by supposedly Christian police.

In Nigeria, and now Cameroon and Chad, religious fanatics claiming membership in Islam drive christians from the land.

In the USA the Gestapo a.k.a. the FBI, has at least one full time agent monitoring every single Muslim Mosque in the entire country.

So wouldnt it be great if there was somewhere on this planet where Muslims and Christian respect each other, and dwell together in peace and harmony?
I live in Eritrea and have seen this all existing for years now, first hand, many, many times. Jamal’s family are our Muslim neighbors. My wife is christian. We eat together on Eid and Easter. In this country every tribe dances, mostly everyone together, grandparents and grandchildren, men and women, boys and girls, no matter social, religious or ethnic status.

Eritrea, about 5 million people, is half muslim and half christian. There are a total of nine tribes in our country, and some of the tribes like the Saho and even the largest, Tigrinia, have both christian and muslim members.

The one thing we dont have is religious fanatics, no Jerry Falwell or Osama Bin Laden allowed. No one is allowed to spread religious hatred or intolerance, the matter is to sensitive. The Eritrean people are united on this point, that no one is going to divide us along religious lines like has happened in so many other african and asian countries.

It is really nice living somewhere Muslims and Christians live in peace, I just wish that this be known for all the world to see, so all the lies and slanders I hear said about us can be swept into the dust bin of history and maybe, just maybe, other countries in this world may take heed of us and bring religious peace to their lands, and muslims and christians will live together in peace.

Thomas C. Mountain is an independent journalist living and reporting from Eritrea since 2006. He can be reached via twitter @thomascmountain on Facebook at thomascmountain or at thomascmountain at g mail dot com
22 September, 2015
Countercurrents.org

By Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum Jerusalem Inter-Church Centre

Your Excellencies,

Representatives of foreign governments to Israel and Palestine,

We, Palestinian Christians, along with people of goodwill in the global community, ask for your prompt intervention on a matter of utmost urgency.

Recently the shocking situation in the Cremisan valley and Bir Ouna has come to the attention of the world. Israeli forces have been uprooting hundreds of olive trees in order to clear space for a new section of the Separation Barrier. This new effort to annex occupied Palestinian territory directly affects Palestinian wellbeing. These developments have been distressing for the entire Palestinian community. It has a direct impact especially on Palestinian Christians, who are made more vulnerable by these actions from the Government of Israel. This is a clear violation of international law.
In its Advisory Opinion, released in 2004, the International Court of Justice concluded “that Israel cannot rely on a right of self-defence … or on a state of necessity in order to preclude the wrongfulness of the construction of the wall…. The Court accordingly finds that the construction of the wall, and its associated régime, are contrary to international law” (Para. 142).

Fr. Aktham Hijazin, parish priest for Bir Ouna, has warned the world: “When you destroy the olive trees, you also kill the people here.” And we remember the words of the Bible, “You must not destroy trees by wielding an axe against them. Although you may take food from them, you must not cut them down” (Deuteronomy 20.19).

Just four months ago the High Court of Israel rejected the Israel-planned route for the wall along the heart of the Cremisan Valley. It was acknowledged that this route would bring great harm to the convent, monastery, and school located there. The route would also directly impact privately-owned parcels of land, destroying olive groves and with them the wellbeing of local communities.

Despite this previous judgment, under official Israeli pressure, the High Court inexplicably allowed a new interpretation of its ruling to take force. As a result, work began immediately on construction of the wall through the Cremisan Valley.

We stand in solidarity with the people of Cremisan, remaining firmly committed to non-violent struggle and prayer for the area. The Israeli legal system appears to have been manipulated for the benefit of the occupation régime; all options within the Israeli legal system have been exhausted. We therefore call on international intervention to pressure Israel to return to the original ruling of its High Court. Without such pressure, the State of Israel will continue to act with impunity, humiliating the dignity of our people, threatening the livelihood of Palestinian communities, and insulting any effort toward building a just peace.

The construction of the wall on occupied land is a breach of international law – the Cremisan Valley is only the latest victim. Local Palestinian Christian communities urge you to put pressure on Israel to:

>> immediately stop the illegal construction of the Separation Barrier on occupied land,

>> dismantle the sections already constructed on all occupied territory, and

>> replant the uprooted olive trees and compensate farmers who have lost their trees.

In hope,

National Coalition of Christian Organisations in Palestine

Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum of the World Council of Churches
19 September, 2015
Petition Campaign

 

By Dr Hakim

Hadisa, a bright 18 year old Afghan girl, ranks as the top student in her 12th grade class. “The question is,” she wondered, “are human beings capable of abolishing war?”

Like Hadisa, I had my doubts about whether human nature could have the capacity to abolish war. For years, I had presumed that war is sometimes necessary to control ‘terrorists’, and based on that presumption, it didn’t make sense to abolish it. Yet my heart went out to Hadisa when I imagined her in a future riddled with intractable violence.

Hadisa tilted her head slightly in deep thought. She listened attentively to different opinions voiced by fellow Afghan Peace Volunteers. She struggles to find answers.

But when Hadisa turns up at the Borderfree Afghan Street Kids School every Friday to teach the child breadwinners, now numbering 100 in morning and afternoon classes, she lays aside her doubts.

I can see her apply her inner compassion which rises way above the war that is still raging in Afghanistan.

Hadisa, like 99% of human beings, and the more than 60 million refugees fleeing from military and economic wars, usually chooses peaceful, constructive action rather than violence.

“Dear students,“ Hadisa says, “In this school, we wish to build a world without war for you.”

Hadisa, now convinced of the possibility of abolishing war, says #Enough!

Her street kid students enjoy Hadisa’s teaching. What’s more, away from the rough and unpredictable streets of Kabul, they find the space at the school affirming, safe and different.

Fatima, one of Hadisa’s students, participated in the very first street kids’ demonstration in Kabul demanding a school for 100 street kids. In subsequent actions, she helped plant trees and bury toy weapons. In another two days, on the 21st of September, the International day of Peace, she will be one of 100 street kids who will serve a lunch meal to 100 Afghan labourers.

“In place of war,” Fatima learnt, “we will do acts of kindness.”

This action will launch #Enough!, a long-term campaign and movement initiated by the Afghan Peace Volunteers to abolish war.

Wow! What practical learning!

If the street kids were taught erroneous ways, and became ‘terrorists’, would the solution be to eventually ‘target and kill’ them?

I couldn’t bear to think of it, and am more and more convinced, like Hadisa and the Afghan Peace Volunteers, that killing those labelled ‘terrorists’ by waging war against them doesn’t work.

War and weapons don’t heal the root causes of ‘terrorism’. If our brother or sister was violent, we wouldn’t think of killing them to reform them.

I was in the class when the question was first posed to the street kids: “To whom would you wish to serve a meal?” Hands went up like love and hope blooming for the new Afghan generation, and Habib, an older street kid who was Hadisa’s student last year, echoed along with many others, “The labourers!”

I felt immensely moved, having seen a definite glimmer of our human capacity to care for others, rather than exercise hate, discrimination, indifference or apathy.

Habib, with pen and paper, making an invitation list of 100 Afghan labourers

with whom he and other Afghan street kids will share a meal

Yesterday, Habib helped his volunteer teacher, Ali, to invite labourers to the meal on the 21st. As I filmed and photographed Habib taking down the names of Afghan men much older than him, I felt renewed faith in our human ability to do good, and a warm, tender feeling overwhelmed me.

With people like Hadisa, Fatima, Habib and the many wonderful young Afghans I’ve met, I know that we can abolish war.

For their sake and the sake of human kind, we should work together with much patience, and all of our love.

In 1955, after two world wars and the loss of at least 96 million people, Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein wrote a Manifesto, saying, “Here, then, is the problem which we present to you, stark and dreadful and inescapable: Shall we put an end to the human race; or shall mankind renounce war?”

After finishing the invitations, as we were walking along the very streets where Habib used to take the weight of pedestrians to earn some income for his family, I asked him, “Why do you want to end war?’

He replied, “Ten persons killed here, ten persons killed there. What’s the point? Soon, there’s a massacre, and gradually a world war.”

Habib says #Enough!

Dr Hakim, ( Dr. Teck Young, Wee ) is a medical doctor from Singapore who has done humanitarian and social enterprise work in Afghanistan for the past 10 years, including being a mentor to the Afghan Peace Volunteers, an inter-ethnic group of young Afghans dedicated to building non-violent alternatives to war. He is the 2012 recipient of the International Pfeffer Peace Prize.
photo credits: Dr. Hakim

19 September, 2015
Countercurrents.org

By Binu Mathew

Today is the 100th day of the heroic strike of the Film and Television institute of India (FTII), Pune students. For the last nine days three students are on hunger strike. Their hunger strike is now on for 200 hours. Lives are at stake, yet the Government of India doesn’t move. The strike started by 200 odd students of FTII has spread far and wide, to every nook and corner of India and has become a movement against saffronisation of India’s secular polity.

The strike began with the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as Chairman of India’s premier film institute. He is best known as Yudhishthira in the popular Mahabharata TV series. Chauhan has appeared in television serials, generally of inferior quality, and several ‘B’ grade Bollywood films, some of them can be termed as semi-porns. He is an active member of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He extensively campaigned for the BJP in Haryana during the Lok Sabha elections last year.

FTII panel also was reconstituted with four of the eight members aligned with the ruling party. Some call them propagandists of BJP and its parent organisation Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sang(RSS). These include Anagha Ghaisas, who has made several documentary films of Prime Minister Narendra Modi; Narendra Pathak, a former president of the Maharashtra ABVP; Pranjlal Saikia, an office bearer of an RSS-linked organisation; and Rahul Solapurkar, who is intimately associated with the BJP.

The strike began with the slogans “No Colour” “No Fear”. Observers were curious why students took up this slogan “No Colour” as these appointments were clearly colour coded. The colour of ‘Hindutva’ – Saffron.

No one should mistake ‘Hindutva’ with the religion Hinduism. Hinduism is generally believed world over as a religion of tolerance and peace, mainly taking the life and practices of Mahatma Gandhi as an example. But people living in the strictly hierarchical caste structure of Hindusism tell a tale of oppression severe than racism. Untouchability is still practiced in many parts of India. Caste violence, rapes and killings still occur regularly in India. One of the demands of the Dalit groups in the “World Conference against Racism” held in Durban, South Africa 2001 was to term caste system as racism. But the Durban declaration failed to term caste discrimination as racism.

Hindutva on the other hand extols casteism and terms it as the best method of social organization suited to India. Manusmriti (Law of Manu) the moral and code of casteism would put the most extreme racist to shame. The Manusmriti decreed that if a lower caste person were to recite the Vedas, his tongue must be cut off, if he dared to listen to a recitation of the Vedas, molten metal be poured into his ears. In another section it says, with whatever limb a man of a low caste does hurt to (a man of the three) highest (castes), even that limb shall be cut off. A Sudra who raises his hand or a stick, shall have his hand cut off; he who in anger kicks with his foot, shall have his foot cut off. A low-caste man who tries to place himself on the same seat with a man of a high caste, shall be branded on his hip and be banished, or (the king) shall cause his buttock to be gashed . If out of arrogance a Sudra spits (on a superior), the king shall cause both his lips to be cut off; if he urines (on him), the penis; if he breaks wind (against him), the anus. If he lays hold of the hair (of a superior), the (king) should unhesitatingly cut off his hands, likewise (if he takes him) by the feet, the beard, the neck, or the scrotum. It also dehumanized women and prescribed that if married man dies, the widow should jump into the funeral pyre and die with him. This horrific crime called Sati was being practiced in India until a few decades ago.

The official biography of Hedgewar, written by C. P Bhishikar ‘Sanghvriksh Ke Beej’ throws light on the emergence of RSS. Dr Hedgewar alongwith B. S. Moonje, L.V. Paranjape, B.B. Thalkar and Baburao Savarkar who were all ardent advocates of Brahminical revivalism – founded Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in 1925. Explaining the need to start RSS, Hedgewar is reported to have given two reasons : one, Muslim threat and second, assertion of the lower castes.

B.S.Moonje, one of the founders of RSS, had a personal audience with Mussolini on March 19, 1931 at 3 p.m., in Palazzo Venzia, the headquarters of the Fascist government. He visited Italy’s Central Military School of Physical Education, the fascist academy of Physical Education and Balilla and Avanguardisti, organisations. According to an article written by Shamsul Islam, one of foremost scholars on Hindutva in India, titled “Marketing Fascism As Hindutva”

On March 31, 1934 Moonje, Hedgewar and others had a meeting, the subject of which was the military organisation of the Hindus, along Italian and German lines. Moonje told the gathering: “I have thought out a scheme based on Hindu Dharm Shashtra which provides for standardisation of Hinduism throughout India… But the point is that this ideal cannot be brought to effect unless we have our own swaraj with a Hindu as a dictator like Shivaji of old or Mussolini or Hitler of the present day in Italy or Germany.” Moonje also wrote Preface to ‘The Scheme of the Central Hindu Military Society and its Military School’ where he declared: “This training is meant for qualifying and fitting our boys for the game of killing masses of men with the ambition of winning victory with the best possible causalities (sic) of dead and wounded while causing the utmost possible to the adversary”.

M.S. Golwalker, the econd Sarsanghchalak of RSS, writes in his book “We Or Our Nationhood Defined”

” The foreign races in Hindusthan must either adopt the Hindu culture and language, must learn to respect and hold in reverence Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but those of the glorification of the Hindu race and culture, i.e., of the Hindu nation and must lose their separate existence to merge in the Hindu race, or may stay in the country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu Nation, claiming nothing,deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment not even citizen’s rights. There is, at least should be, no other course for them to adopt. We are an old nation: let us deal, as old nations ought to and do deal, with the foreign races who have chosen to live in our country.”

So Hindutva has nothing to do with Hinduism. The RSS considers its saffron coloured flag as its Guru. It is a political ideology closer to Fascism which envisages a theocratic Hindu nation where minorities live without even citizenship rights.

The first victim of this fascist ideology was none other than the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi who was assassinated on 30 January 1948 by Nathuram Godse, a member of the RSS. Soon after the assassination of Gandhi, RSS was banned. Until then it was working like secretive fascist organisations in Europe without a constitution and never keeping membership records. The constitution of RSS was written in 1949 on the insistence of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, then home minister of India, as a pre-condition to lift the ban. The constitution states that the Sangh had “no politics” and would remain “devoted purely to cultural work” (Article 4(b) of the RSS constitution)

After the ban was lifted, RSS worked quietly and spawned several political organizations one of which was Bharatiya Jana Sangh, which later became BJP.

After decades long efforts to polarize the society on communal lines BJP secured absolute majority in the parliamentary election of 2014 . As soon as Narendra Modi, who oversaw the Gujarat Pogrom of 2002 in which more than one thousand muslims were massacred , who also faces many criminal cases in courts of law, assumed office as the Prime Minister of India RSS quietly went about its business of changing the character of India.

The main agenda of RSS is to destroy the secular character of India and define India in terms of its fascist Hindutva ideology. The very first appointment of such nature was that of Prof. Y.Sudarshan Rao, as the chief of ICHR (Indian Council for Historical Research). Prof. Rao claims that epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata are historical events. Then nobel laureate Amartya Sen was forced out from the Chancellorship of Nalanda university. Well known writer Sethu was forced out from the Chirmanship of National Book Trust of India. Ambedkar-Periyar Study Circle, a dalit discussion forum, was banned in Chennai IIT. Apart from the Chennai IIT, there was not much resistance against the cultural occupation of spaces by Hindutva forces.

Then came FTII. Although the students started it as a “No Colour” resistance, the Saffron/Hindutva/Fascist colour of the agenda was very apparent to the discerning viewer. As the strike gathered momentum and support poured in from different quarters of the civil society, the students themselves dropped the “No Colour” slogan. The larger civil society saw it as an attack on the very idea of India and its long cherished secular values.

As the strike was still going on, shedding its claim that the RSS is only a cultural organisation and not a political body.RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended a co-ordination committee meeting of 93 top RSS-BJP leaders in Delhi. In that meeting, strategies were chalked out how to take control of cultural institutions of India. The government was unabashed in its stand to clear India of ‘malicious’ elements.

The DNA Reported:

After the meeting Union culture minister Mahesh Sharma and HRD Minister Smriti Irani pledged to remove all traces of western culture from India by launching a nationwide movement. “We will cleanse every area of public discourse that has been westernised and where Indian culture and civilisation need to be restored – be it the history we read or our cultural heritage or our institutes that have been polluted over years,” Union culture minister Mahesh Sharma said. The culture and HRD ministries will prepare independent road maps for the proposed culture ‘cleansing’ exercise which will involve school curricula, art and cinema, science and technology and libraries. “We have 39 institutions under the culture ministry, including grand museums and the National School of Drama, but we have not been up to the mark in presenting our Indian cultural heritage in a right way,” said Sharma. “We will totally revamp all these institutions after a detailed roadmap is prepared.”

All other spheres of Indian society is slowly being saffronised, including the food, dress habits to criminal justice delivery system. That is a subject for another article. The beef ban in several states, the dictats of several ministers and other Hindutva elements to young women how to dress, when to go out are some of the examples.

In this highly polarized and communally charged atmosphere the students of FTII held their ground. The credit goes to the students of FTII who held fast to their ideals, in spite of threats, false cases, intimidation , even putting their own future and lives at stake and fought their battle to give the whole of India time to reflect on the direction the country is taking. Now the FTII strike has become a battleground for the whole of India, to decide to which direction the country should be headed, to a new dawn of liberal, democratic, secular polity or a long dark night of fascism?

Binu Mathew is the editor of www.countercurrents.org. He can be reached at editor@countercurrents.org

19 September, 2015
Countercurrents.org

By Andre Vltchek

Why should I care whether Iran has nukes? It most likely doesn’t, but even if it does… it never attacked anyone, never overthrew any government, and never performed experiments on human beings. It had not committed a single genocide, and never dreamed about conquering the world.

So why should I even bother to think much about Iran’s nuclear program, big or small, “peaceful” or defensive?

If Iran is capable of defending itself – then excellent; I am only happy! At least it will not be wiped out from the face of the Earth, as happened to its unfortunate neighbors Iraq and Afghanistan or to a bit more distant but not more fortunate countries like Libya.

Do I want this great, ancient Iranian culture to become defenseless and to eventually disappear, to be destroyed, or to get replaced by aggressive Western consumerism, arrogance and pathological lack of compassion? Or more concretely: Do I want Iran to turn into yet another Western colony? I don’t! I want it to survive and to thrive. As I want great Chinese and great Arab cultures to survive and flourish. As I want all cultures on Earth to survive and flourish.

But it seems that, as the Empire is on its final bellicose and ideological crusade, unless a truly independent nation begins to roar, unless it shows both its teeth and its missiles, it has almost no chance to survive.

Iran is roaring and it is also logically explaining where it stands. It has both guts and big heart.

***

Iran is ordered to prove its “innocence”, all of the time. There are entire “international” (sponsored and handled by the West) organizations and commissions challenging its course, sticking their muzzles into Iran’s internal affairs.

Iran is told to comply, “or else”. Its tormentors insist on “transparency”, while themselves staying in total murkiness. They are above the law; in fact they are the law. In the world they created, they themselves don’t have to prove absolutely anything, while their victims are routinely challenged, scrutinized, cornered, bullied and humiliated.

After suffering, after bleeding incessantly, it appears that Iran had finally enough. It is no longer willing to play this neo-colonialist game. It is now going public with its grievances.

***

At the opening of the “2nd International Congress on 17.000 Iranian Martyrs”, (held in Teheran on August 31 – September 1st, 2015) I was allowed to speak right after the President of Iran, Mr. Hassan Rouhani.

President Rouhani gave a powerful speech about the terrorism in the region: “Maybe for many people it is something new, but not for us… Today there are powers in Europe and the United States – they are silent about some terrorist groups, while supportive of others. Can we really win against the terrorism like this?”

“You are being targeted because you are taking care of your people”, I said after him, in my discourse, as I was designated a keynote speaker of the Conference. “Iran suffers similar attacks as Latin America. The Western imperialism tries to destroy virtually every revolutionary, socialist country. But the world is changing and you are not alone. As Latin America is not alone.”

17.000 Iranian victims; 17.000 human lives lost. And almost no one in the West seems to know! How convenient. How cowardly. How servile!

The West supports the Saudis, Qataris and other Wahhabi extremists. It had been arming ISIL (Dash). It already destroyed almost every socially oriented, moderate and secular nation in the Muslim world, from Yemen to Syria, from Egypt to Indonesia. Little surprise that independent-minded and proud Iran is now at the very top of the Empire’s hit list.

After all, Iran is standing by Syria and it is supportive of Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hezbollah is the only true social force in that otherwise collapsing country; the only social force that incorporates several religious and ethnic groups. And it is locked in a dogfight with ISIL, and it fights Israel whenever Israel decides to invade Lebanon. That is why Hezbollah is also on that hit list (or call it “terrorist list”) of the West. The fact that Teheran is backing Hezbollah is yet another reason why Iran is ostracized by Washington, London and Paris.

Teheran is simply spoiling some of the most outrageous colonialist plans of both North America and Europe.

***

It is time for the Western public to wake up and pay attention to the fact that thousands of common Iranian people are dying, have been murdered, for absolutely no reasons… both common people, as well as prominent figures, including some of the country’s top scientists.

I saw mothers and wives holding photos of their murdered loved ones, in terrible grief. I saw men without legs. I saw archive photos depicting aftermaths of countless horrific terrorist explosions, executed by The Mujahedeen-e Khalq Organization (MKO), an anti-Iran terrorist group, and by other pro-Western groups.

To me, all this was not new, but it is shocking nevertheless. I saw how the Empire has been murdering thousands, even millions of those who have been reluctant to succumb to its dictate – in the Middle East, in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

But here, in Iran, the West has been behaving with almost absolute ludicrousness. While torturing the country, it was shamelessly insisting that the entire world should actually fear it and despise it. Its propaganda against Iran reached crescendo.

And while murdering Iranian people directly or through vicious sanctions, the West has been demanding from Teheran ever newer proves of its “guiltlessness”.

The entire situation would be grotesque, truly laughable, if those thousands of innocent people would not be dying.

When I spoke in Teheran, my voice was shaking. I addressed the Iranian government and the academia: “We are all brothers”, I said, old images of Chavez and Ahmadinejad embracing, appearing in my mind. Then I recalled the US-sponsored coups in Venezuela, and few moments later, those thousands of innocent, slaughtered Iranian civilians.

I spoke about resistance to imperialism, about new powerful media outlets in Latin America, Russia, and China as well as in Iran itself.

I told them about my 1.000-page book “Exposing Lies of the Empire”, depicting virtually all corners of the globe that have already been ravished by the West. I spoke about those fascist, fundamentalist doctrines behind such attacks. I told them what I saw, how devastated I have been, but also how determined to resist! And I concluded:

“Why is Iran one of the main targets of the terrorists who are supported by the West? It is obviously because Iran is doing many of the right things, for its own people and for the world!”

***

Iran, one of the most criticized and scrutinized nations, is in reality one of the most peaceful and long-suffering countries on earth.

The West has been tormenting the Iranian people sadistically, continuously and relentlessly.

Since the ancient Greek Empire, Iran (Persia) was continuously invaded and partitioned, although never fully colonized.

In 1953 the US and Britain overthrew the democratically elected government of Mohammad Mosaddegh, a socialist leader dedicated to social changes. During his government, the Iranian people were enjoying subsidized housing, good education and medical care. He also launched a comprehensive land reform. In order to improve life of Iranian people, he nationalized Iran’s oil industry. The Brits and the North Americans, of course, considered such behavior as unacceptable. Mosaddegh was ousted, and a tyrant monarch, Shah, put on the throne. Cheap oil began to flow to the West, while thousands of Iranian people were savagely tortured and killed. The Empire later committed the same crimes in Indonesia (1965) and in Chile (1973), to name just two places.

After the Shah was forced to leave, the West armed and encouraged Iraq to invade its neighbor, Iran. In 1980, a terrible war erupted. As a result, around one million people died.

When Iran decided to develop its peaceful nuclear program, brutal sanctions were imposed, destroying lives of millions, including women and children.

Then the extremist terrorist groups were “put to work” by both the West and Israel. Their goal was to spread fear and devastation, and to murder Iran’s prominent scientists.

Attempts to destabilize Iran are constant but had proven to be futile.

Shaken, injured but determined, Iran is facing vicious attacks calmly and with dignity. The more self-respect it radiates, the more vicious propaganda and loud barking are coming from the West, and the more chilling are the threats.

The position of Washington, Paris and London is obvious (and it has been for centuries): non-Western countries have no right to defend themselves. They only exist in order to supply North America and Europe with cheap raw materials and labor. They cannot decide their fate.

And there is no compromise on the table. Either a country fully submits to the Western dictate, or it is destroyed.

But Iran refused to accept such “arrangement” of the world. Too mighty to be out rightly attacked, it rose against Western global dictatorship. Of course Russia did, too. And so did China. Most of Latin American countries did as well. And now several African and Asian countries are also determined to join those who are refusing to kneel.

The West trembles: its dogmas are being challenged! And it does what it has been doing for many terrible centuries: it is trying to murder, to deceive and to trick. It is desperately fighting for being able to maintain its iron grip on the World.

At the Conference, ideas were exchanged, and concepts erected. Several speakers described how the West has been supporting extreme, ultra-conservative Islamic teaching -Wahabbism – and used it against the socialist Islam, against countries like Turkey, against several Arab states, against the Soviet Union, China and now against Iran. Ahmadinejad called Wahhabism “a cancer that made the entire Middle East sick.” I also argued that it is also making sick entire Indonesia.

One of the speakers, Professor Azizi, declared from the stage of Shahid Beheshti University Conference Center:

“Americans intend to establish their own religion, their own version of Islam… They created DAESH (ISIL) in order to support such version, such “new religion”… They do it this way, covertly, because they would not dare to fight Islam openly, fearing a great backlash.”

I heard terms like “social terrorism”.

Finian Cunningham, renowned columnist from Northern Ireland, compared the operations of British death squads in his country to other acts of terror that the Empire has been spreading all over the world, including places like Yemen and Iran: “Illegal war of aggression against sovereign nations.”

I was told by several Iranian participants, repeatedly, that one hidden “secret” which the Western media has been keeping away from the public, is that both Ahmadinejad and Chavez were actually building two respective socialist countries, two states with different history and cultures, but with very similar, socialist principles.

Western propaganda is depicting Iran as some brutal religious dogmatic state, not as an enormous 80-million inhabitants country that is re-inventing itself on the values of the socialist Islam.

High above the city, at the viewing platform of the magnificent Milad Tower, I listened to a passionate discourse of my new friend, Soraya Sebahpour-Ulrich, a great Iranian thinker, and a stepdaughter of a former cabinet minister who also happened to be the Shah’s ghostwriter:

“The world sees Iran not as it is, but as it is projected by Western media. It pains me. I see the kindness and beauty, and then I am told that it is being ugly. And this destructed image is stabbing me in the heart. I just want to say: ‘I am Iran and Iran is me… I want people to see me as I am, and I want them to see real Iran.”

Soraya also believes that Iran is a socialist country, and she wants it to stay this way: “This is Iran that I love and appreciate much more than that Iran, where I had a very privileged life.”

***

I report that I saw great socialist city – Teheran – standing tall, proud and determined.

Teheran with its old bazaars and mosques, palaces and mountains, but above all with thousands of projects designed to provide welfare for its people.

In Teheran, like in Caracas, I witnessed a breathtaking struggle for a better world. Sanctions or not, Teheran is impressive, with its modern public transportation system, huge public parks, wide sidewalks, vast cultural institutions, free medical facilities and schools.

I did not see slums. I did not see people begging. I did not witness frustration or rage. Instead, I felt kindness at each and every corner, and I also felt great confidence of the nation with tremendous culture and 5 thousand years of recorded history.

At one point, I was driven to the studios of Press TV and asked to comment on the diplomatic conflict between the USA and Russia. There was absolute trust. Few minutes later, IRINN TV interviewed me on the West–Iran relationship. Radio stations, including IRIB, were lining up, microphones ready. Some interviews were live. No one was asking those ‘BBC screening question’: “What are you going to say, Mr. Vltchek?”

It was like interacting with other progressive channels – like TeleSUR or RT.

Iran was not scared of me, as I was not scared of Iran.

What I said in Teheran, I have been saying again and again in Caracas, Quito, Beijing and Pretoria: “If we are united, we will never be defeated! Venezuela may appear far away on the world map, but in reality it is standing right here, shoulder to shoulder with you.”

The powerful specter of a united, internationalist, and anti-imperialist block horrifies the West. That is why Iran is now under attack. That is why fascist gangsters are hitting Venezuela. That is why the imperialists are encircling Russia and China. That is why Western propaganda is demonizing all proud and noble countries around the world.

17.000 Iranian victims of terrorism sponsored by the West. More than one million victims since the West overthrew the progressive government in 1953. What a tremendous toll! But true freedom is priceless.

I report that Iran is standing! And it will not succumb to vicious and senseless attacks. It will never kneel, because it knows – surrendering would lead directly to slavery.

***

One is of course tempted to ask: how much is too much? How many people have to die, before the patience of the oppressed of the world runs out?

I interacted with many Iranian people. Their peaceful nuclear program does not scare me. And it does not scare people of Western and Central Asia. Iranian culture is thousands of years old and it is deep and tolerant. It gained the trust of the world; of people who are not blinded by toxic propaganda.

But I have to admit that the Western Empire increasingly disgusts me, as it terrifies billions of people all over the world. It already lost all breaks, all sense of decency. It already ruined and finished billons of lives, by spreading and forcing its fundamentalist dogmas, its greed and incomparable brutality. I don’t want more lives to be destroyed. I don’t want more countries, more nations, to be shattered.

That is why I feel that as long as Iran and countries like Iran are standing, so are we!

Andre Vltchek is a novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. The result is his latest book:Exposing Lies of the Empire, “Fighting Against Western Imperialism”. ‘Pluto’ published his discussion with Noam Chomsky: On Western Terrorism. His critically acclaimed political novel Point of No Return is re-edited and available. Oceania is his book on Western imperialism in the South Pacific. His provocative book about post-Suharto Indonesia and the market-fundamentalist model is called “Indonesia – The Archipelago of Fear”. His feature documentary, “Rwanda Gambit” is about Rwandan history and the plunder of DR Congo. After living for many years in Latin America and Oceania, Vltchek presently resides and works in East Asia and Africa.

18 September, 2015
Countercurrents.org

Editorial of the Socialist

For decades the Palace of Westminster has been almost completely devoid of serious disagreements. All three of the major establishment parties – the Tories, Labour and the Lib-Dems – have agreed on the central questions such as the supremacy of the ‘free market’, support for privatisation and public service cuts, the necessity of austerity and the need to undermine workers’ rights to make Britain more ‘competitive’.

Nine members of the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs, isolated on Labour’s weak left wing, were very often the lone opponents to the endless attacks on the rights of working class people. Despite their best efforts they resembled prisoners occasionally smuggling out a note to the population outside.

But now the world has been turned upside down. The Blairites – who have considered Labour as their possession for decades – are now the 4.5%: the woeful result for the most right-wing Labour leadership candidate Liz Kendall. Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, the most prominent MPs in the Socialist Campaign Group, are the leader of the opposition and the shadow chancellor. The pro-austerity consensus has been smashed with Jeremy Corbyn’s election as leader of the Labour Party with an overwhelming 59.5% of the vote. The hopes have been raised of millions who want to see a society for the 99% not the 1%. This is a tremendous step forward.

The Socialist Party has long argued that the potential exists in Britain for a mass anti-austerity, workers’ party. We have pointed to the five million mainly working class people who have stopped voting Labour since 1997. Profoundly disillusioned with the establishment parties many have stopped voting altogether, some have voted Green, for the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, or even for Ukip in order to protest against the establishment. The austerity-lite of New Labour held no attraction to them.

An outlet for voiceless anger

We have argued that – if it could find an outlet – the up until now voiceless anger at austerity could very quickly become a powerful force. In Scotland it found an outlet in the independence referendum and then in the SNP landslide at the general election. In England and Wales it has now found an unexpected channel in Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign for Labour leader. No-one, least of all Jeremy Corbyn – who initially stood because it was ‘his turn’ – expected this outcome.

The possibility of building a powerful mass party can be seen from the events of the last few days. We have consistently fought for such a party. We considered it more likely to come into being from forces outside of the Labour Party – as has been the trend in most countries – given the Labour Party’s transformation into a capitalist party.

The lack of democracy in the Labour Party and growing levels of working class alienation from it meant a movement within the Labour Party structures was not the most likely scenario. Nonetheless, we have no fetish about by what route the crisis of working class political representation would be solved and have never excluded the possibility of Labour swinging left. As long ago as 2002 we argued that, “under the impact of great historic shocks – a serious economic crisis, mass social upheaval – the ex-social democratic parties could move dramatically towards the left” (Socialism Today September 2002).

However, the reality is that the Corbyn surge has mainly not come from within the Labour Party but from ‘outside’ – new members and registered supporters who were attracted by the hope of something different. This is a new party in the process of formation which will face relentless attack from the ‘old’ pro-capitalist New Labour.

Ironically, it was Ed Miliband’s further decimation of Labour Party democracy which created the conditions for this completely unintended consequence. Tom Baldwin, Ed Miliband’s aide, has made it crystal clear that the intention of the Collins Review was to remove the final vestiges of trade union ‘influence’ in the Labour Party. In doing so, however, Miliband inadvertently opened the election to hundreds of thousands of people who were enthused by Corbyn.

The registered supporter scheme, where anyone could sign up for the price of a pint, enabled 105,000 people who did not want to commit to joining the Labour Party to vote in the contest. Another 55,000 of them were ‘purged’ and prevented from voting – including trade union leader Mark Serwotka – in a desperate bid to prevent Jeremy Corbyn winning.

It made no difference. More than 80% of the £3ers voted for Corbyn. Others – including students who could join the Labour Party for £1 and ex-members returning joined the Labour Party in order to vote for Corbyn. They joined a largely empty party. The turnover in Labour Party membership means that only a minority of those who voted in this election were eligible to vote in the 2010 contest. As a result, although the Blairite candidates combined vote among the full members was higher than Jeremy Corbyn’s he still came top – with 49% of the vote – in the members section as well.

Enthused millions

Jeremy Corbyn’s victory has left the right wing of the Labour Party on the back foot and enthused millions. The question is how best to consolidate and extend on this success. Winning the leadership of Labour is a very long way from transforming the party as a whole. In attempting to do so, Corbyn and his supporters will face the determined opposition of not just the right-wing dominated Parliamentary Labour Party and Labour machine, but also of the capitalist class.

The Financial Times editorial the day after Corbyn’s victory described it as a ‘catastrophe’ for ‘British politics itself’ despairing that: “it places a maverick far-left figure at the head of a mainstream political party”. Thatcher considered Blair and New Labour her greatest success. Labour had been transformed into a party that could be relied on to act in the interests of the 1%. There will now be a huge campaign to try and extinguish the anti-austerity flame that has been lit with the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader.

The right wing of the Labour Party are on the back foot because of the scale of Jeremy Corbyn’s victory. Their dreams of ‘getting rid of him by Christmas’ have had to be dropped. Nonetheless, it is clear that the Labour right will attempt to imprison and undermine Corbyn with the aim of removing him as soon as possible. They will not be reconciled to a Corbyn/McDonnell leadership by calls for unity and attempts to build a ‘broad church’. To win requires building on the popular movement against austerity that found a voice in his election campaign. Unity has to be built around clear anti-austerity policies.

The shadow cabinet is a mixed bag. The appointment of John McDonnell as shadow chancellor, to the horror of the capitalist class, shows a willingness to oppose austerity. The same cannot be said of all of the appointees. The shadow justice secretary, the Blairite Lord Falconer, has a record of introducing draconian anti-democratic legislation. Heidi Alexander, the shadow health secretary, has previously supported privatisation and closure of hospitals. Andy Burnham, the shadow home secretary, showed how right-wing he is at the start of the leadership election campaign, supporting further benefit cuts and opposing the mansion tax as “the politics of envy”.

Of course many on the right of the party have refused to serve in the shadow cabinet, but there is an element of a division of labour, with those inside the tent trying to imprison Jeremy Corbyn, and others trying to sabotage from the back benches.

To defeat the onslaught Jeremy Corbyn will face going beyond the constraints of the right-wing dominated Labour Party machine or the niceties of Labour’s constitution, recast by Blair.

As a starting point we would urgently encourage Jeremy Corbyn to organise a conference of all those who have supported him, plus the many trade unions – including non-affiliated unions like the RMT, PCS and FBU – which support a fighting anti-austerity programme. The Socialist Party would participate in such a conference and would encourage all other anti-austerity campaigners to do the same.

A campaign needs to be launched to recreate Labour’s democratic structures. Labour ‘moderates’ are already bleating that the left will ‘seize the party’s levers of power’ under Corbyn’s leadership. What they mean by this is “giving more control over policy to the annual conference and the National Executive Committee and less influence to the Parliamentary Labour Party” (The Independent 11.09.15). In other words restoring some of the party democracy that existed in the past!

They are also hysterically attacking any attempt to re-select MPs. Yet the right to re-select MPs just means the democratic right of a party’s members to replace an MP that has voted against the party’s policies. That should be uncontroversial. However, it is not a surprise that it upsets Labour MPs who have voted for welfare cuts, austerity and war. A fight needs to be launched to implement every one of the democratic measures which so terrifies Labour’s right wing, including restoring the rights of the organised working class, via the trade unions, within the party, introducing mandatory reselection of MPs and more.

This does not mean simply returning to the party structure which existed thirty years ago. The Labour Party was founded by the trade unions, as part of a struggle by the organised working class to create its own political voice. Nonetheless, from the beginning Labour was a capitalist workers’ party – with a working class base but a pro-capitalist leadership, but the working class was able to influence it via the party’s democratic structures. An essential part of the transformation of the Labour Party into a capitalist party over recent decades was the removal of the trade union vote within the party. This should be restored, but on a more democratic basis; fully accountable to rank-and-file trade union members.

At the same time a Corbyn-led Labour Party needs to reach out to all those opposing austerity, including community campaigns and other political parties. A new constitution could be based on the original, federal constitution of the Labour Party. Even today a few remnants of that federal constitution remain, with some MPs standing on behalf of the Cooperative Party under the Labour Party umbrella. Why couldn’t that be extended to allow anti-austerity parties and campaigns to join with Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party as affiliates, while maintaining their own independent identity, just as the ILP and John Maclean’s British Socialist Party were able to do in the first twenty years of the party?

Welcoming approach

Such an approach would be able to reach out to the millions, particularly of young people, who are anti-austerity and enthused by Jeremy Corbyn’s victory, but are nervous of any hint of a ‘top-down’ party, particularly given their experience of the Labour Party. The dangers of a top-down approach were demonstrated in the mid 1990s by the stillbirth of the Arthur Scargill-led Socialist Labour Party.

Jeremy Corbyn has up until now rightly taken a flexible and welcoming approach to the movement that has sprung up around him, but any insistence by his campaign that the only way to support Jeremy Corbyn is to sign up as a Labour Party member under the existing constitution would be a mistake, which potentially could act to repel potential supporters.

At local level anti-austerity alliances will be needed to bring together all of those who want to fight the cuts. This is urgent. Council services have already been cut by 39% and will face further catastrophic cuts next spring. Jeremy Corbyn has rightly made the call for councils to stand together and refuse to implement government cuts.

Some of Corbyn’s supporters however, like Owen Jones, are now emphasising the importance of him being seen to be ‘moderate’ and ‘reasonable’ and therefore argue that Labour councils should continue to implement Tory cuts. This would be a terrible mistake. A Corbyn-led Labour Party will be popular if it is prepared to oppose austerity. Miliband showed clearly that implementing it with a sad face will never enthuse potential Labour voters.

It is hoped that many Labour councillors will now heed Jeremy Corbyn’s call and begin to oppose austerity instead of carrying it out. Where they do so the Socialist Party will fully support their stance. But unfortunately given the character of the majority of Labour councillors (only 6% of them backed Jeremy Corbyn) it is likely that many, probably the majority, will continue to implement government cuts.

Where this happens they should be opposed by anti-austerity activists at the ballot box. This will strengthen the hand of Jeremy Corbyn and the anti-austerity movement as a whole. TUSC is already writing to Labour candidates for next May’s election in order to discuss with them their attitude to voting for cuts, with a warning that we will aim to stand against all those who continue to close our libraries, lay off council workers, evict victims of the bedroom tax and all the other cruelties that come with voting for cuts.

On a national basis it is vital that Jeremy Corbyn continues to put forward the very popular policies which won him the leadership election such as nationalisation of rail and the energy companies, a £10 an hour minimum wage, free education, council house building, and repeal of the anti-union laws.

It is nonsense to suggest these are unpopular with the general public. After all 68%, 67% and 66% support renationalisation of the energy companies, the Royal Mail and the railway companies respectively. The latest polling from Lord Ashcroft has been ignored by the capitalist media, because it showed 52% of people agree that a ‘radical socialist alternative would be a good thing’.

‘People’s QE’

However, it is also necessary to go beyond the very good demands Jeremy Corbyn puts forward. He has raised the popular idea of ‘people’s QE’ but has not drawn all the conclusions about what would be necessary to implement such a policy. He merely calls for ‘meaningful regulation of the banking sector’ rather than for nationalisation of the banks under democratic control, for example.

The experience of Syriza in Greece, where the leadership of an anti-austerity party capitulated to the pressure of big business and is now implementing austerity, shows that defeating austerity requires a determined struggle with a clear goal. Endless austerity and growing inequality are not an accident; they flow from the needs of capitalism, where profits of a few have been restored at the expense of the majority.

To permanently end austerity requires a break with capitalism. That means calling for the nationalisation – under democratic working class control – of the major companies and banks that dominate the economy. Only in this way would it be possible to begin to build a democratic socialist society planned to meet the needs of the majority instead of having, as at present, a society driven by maximising the profits of the 1%.

The most important single consequence of Jeremy Corbyn’s victory is that these issues – how can inequality be ended and austerity be defeated and, above all, what is socialism and how can it be achieved are now being discussed widely. A new generation is hearing about socialist ideas for the first time. This is a great step forward which must now be built on.

18 September, 2015
Socialistparty.org.uk

By Abdus Sattar Ghazali

A 14-year old Muslim student takes his science project to school. Instead of appreciating his talent the school teachers call police. The teen ager is interrogated for one and a half hour. Taken to juvenile prison, fingerprinted and photographed like a criminal. During this ordeal he was not allowed to contact his parents.

What lesson the Muslim students will get from this episode and what advice I will give to Muslim students who often face bullying at school? Don’t take your innovative science project to school.

This is the horrifying story of Ahmed Mohamed of Irving High School in Texas.

Ironically, the mainstream media is now portraying him as hero of the Silicon Valley for his creative skill in making an electronic clock that was considered a bomb by teachers and police.

To borrow Zack Beauchamp of Think Progress, this is textbook racial and religious profiling: Mohamed looked like what the Irving police thought terrorists looked like, so they treated him differently.

Ahmed told NBC Dallas Fort Worth that his family surname repeatedly came up in police questioning. “I really don’t think it’s fair, because I brought something to school that wasn’t a threat to anyone. I didn’t do anything wrong. I just showed my teachers something and I end up being arrested later that day,” he said.

The CNN reported this graphic account of Ahmed’s arrest of Monday Sept 14:

By Thursday, more details of the 14-year-old’s arrest in Irving, Texas, came to light. In an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, Ahmed said he was pulled out of class at MacArthur High School by his principal and five police officers and taken to a room where he was questioned for about an hour and a half. He said he asked the adults if he could call his parents. “They told me ‘No, you can’t call your parents,'” Ahmed said. “‘You’re in the middle of an interrogation at the moment.’ They asked me a couple of times, ‘Is it a bomb?’ and I answered a couple of times, ‘It’s a clock.'” “I felt like I was a criminal,” the teenager said. “I felt like I was a terrorist. I felt like all the names I was called.”

Hayes asked what he meant.

In middle school, Ahmed said, he had been called “bomb maker” and a “terrorist.”

“Just because of my race and my religion,” he said, adding that when he walked into the room where he was questioned, an officer reclined in a chair and remarked, “That’s who I thought it was.” “I took it to mean he was pointing at me for what I am, my race,” the freshman explained.

Adding insult to injury, Ahmed suspended for three days from the school. The school defended its cruel action as reported by Max Fisher of Vox Media:

This arrest, clearly, should never have happened. But one would like to expect at least that the Irving school, … would realize its mistake. That the school would apologize to Mohamed for humiliating and terrorizing him, acknowledge its mistake, and use it as a teaching moment to discuss racism and profiling.That is not what has happened. Instead, even after learning that the clock was just a clock built as an educational project, the school suspended Mohamed for three days and sent out a letter, which acknowledges no mistake whatsoever on the school’s part even though by then school officials knew the clock was harmless, is infuriating to read for its tone-deafness.

It seems to imply that Mohamed was at fault for violating the “Student Code of Conduct.”The letter also asks students to “immediately report any suspicious items and / or suspicious behavior,” in effect asking students and parents help to perpetuate the school’s practice of racist profiling, even after that profiling had been clearly demonstrated as without merit. It is appalling that school officials would still think this way even after their arrest had been exposed as a horrible mistake, but it is especially telling that they would wish to announce this fact to students’ parents as well.

Social Media drive

Nobody would have noticed Ahmed Mohamed’s ordeal but thanks to social media his arrest news went viral. His sisters, 18-year-old Eyman and 17-year-old Ayisha, set up a Twitter account for him, @IStandWithAhmed, and watched it balloon to thousands of followers within hours. His sisters also posted his picture in hand cuff.

Thousands of Twitter users praised the boy’s initiative and questioned why he was detained including Nasa scientists, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and President Barrack Obama.

“Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It’s what makes America great,” President Obama wrote on Twitter.

“Having the skill and ambition to build something cool should lead to applause, not arrest,” Zuckerberg wrote. “The future belongs to people like Ahmed.”

Josh Earnest, Obama’s press secretary, said the case goes to show how stereotypes can cloud the judgment of even the most “good-hearted people.”

“It’s clear that at least some of Ahmed’s teachers failed him,” Earnest said. “That’s too bad, but it’s not too late for all of us to use this as a teachable moment and to search our own conscience for biases in whatever form they take.”

The White House also extended the teen an invitation to speak with NASA scientists and astronauts at next month’s Astronomy Night.

Republican Presidential candidates not sympathetic

Not surprisingly, three Republican Presidential candidates – Bobby Jindal, Gov. George Pataki and Sen. Lindsey Graham – were not sympathetic to Ahmed Mohamed’s arrest on hoax bomb suspicion.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal lauded Irving school officials and police for erring on the side of caution when Ahmed took his device to MacArthur High School. “I’m glad they’re vigilant,” he told Jake Tapper who was moderating a four-GOP presidential debate at CNN.

“We’re at war, folks,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, another GOP presidential hopeful. “Young men from the Mideast are different from Kim Davis alluding to the Kentucky county clerk briefly jailed this month for defying court orders to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples citing his religious beliefs. “We’ve got to understand that.”

Former New York Gov. George Pataki didn’t address Ahmed’s situation but said he would have fired Davis, adding that a Muslim county clerk who cited religious beliefs to refuse to exercise her public duty would never have generated such sympathy. [Dallas News – GOP candidates weigh in on Ahmed Mohamed arrest for ‘hoax bomb’]

Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne defends school action

Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne took to Facebook to defend the actions of the school district and police, saying their daily work helped make Irving “one of the safest cities in the country.”

“I do not fault the school or the police for looking into what they saw as a potential threat,” Van Duyne wrote. “We have all seen terrible and violent acts committed in schools. … Perhaps some of those could have been prevented and lives could have been spared if people were more vigilant.”

The mayor later amended her post, acknowledging that she would be “very upset” had the same thing happened to her own child.

“It is my sincere desire that Irving ISD students are encouraged to use their creativity, develop innovations and explore their interests in a manner that fosters higher learning,” Van Duyne wrote.

“Hopefully, we can all learn from this week’s events and the student, who has obvious gifts, will not feel at all discouraged from pursuing his talent in electronics and engineering.”

Anti-Muslim bigotry in America is out of control

For Max Fisher, Foreign Editor at Vox.com, the arrest of 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed, was completely in line with a problem that has been growing over the past year: Islamophobia, which is the fear-based hatred of Muslims, is out of control in American society.

To understand why a Texas school would arrest a 14-year-old student for bringing in a homemade clock, it helps to understand what came before: the TV news hosts who declare Muslims “unusually barbaric,” the politicians who gin up fear of Islam, the blockbuster film that depicts even Muslim children as dangerous threats, and the wave of hatred against Muslims that has culminated several times in violence so severe that what happened to Mohamed, while terrible, appears unsurprising and almost normal within the context of ever-worsening American Islamophobia.

Many Americans might be totally unaware this is happening, even though they are surrounded by Islamophobia: on TV, at airport security, in our pop culture and our politics, and inevitably in our schools. Perhaps, then, Mohamed’s arrest will be a wake-up call.

American Islamophobia has grown so severe that, even looking just at the neighborhoods immediately surrounding Mohamed’s Dallas suburb, one can see, in broad daylight, the climate of hostility and fear America’s 2.6 million (read 7 million) Muslims have been made to live in.

Marcus Wohlsen of Wired.com wrote: What would happen if kids across the country decided to take their own homemade clocks to school that they made following those instructions? Who knows. Maybe if enough young people make clocks, teachers and police will at least learn what a clock looks like, even on the inside. Or, if that’s too much to ask, maybe they’ll just learn to trust their students when they describe what they’ve made. We get it: technology can be scary: after all, open up any computer or smart phone, and what’s inside? Circuits! Or should we say, a hoax bomb waiting to happen.

The ACLU of Texas, executive director Terri Burke said, “Ahmed Mohamed’s avoidable ordeal raises serious concerns about racial profiling and the disciplinary system in Texas schools. Instead of encouraging his curiosity, intellect, and ability, the Irving ISD saw fit to throw handcuffs on a frightened 14 year-old Muslim boy wearing a NASA t-shirt and then remove him from school.”

Abdus Sattar Ghazali is the Chief Editor of the Journal of America (www.journalofamerica.net) email: asghazali2011 (@) gmail.com

18 September, 2015
Countercurrents.org