MIM(Prisons) is a cell of revolutionaries serving the oppressed masses inside U.$. prisons, guided by the communist ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
Under Lock & Key is a news service written by and for prisoners with a focus on what is going on behind bars throughout the United States. Under Lock & Key is available to U.S. prisoners for free through MIM(Prisons)'s Free Political Literature to Prisoners Program, by writing:
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The latest issue of ULK (#75) was very informative. The article
on Afghanistan was a good review of many of the issues.
One you did not mention and that is one of the reasons that China is
sending money is that of the mineral resources of the country.
About 8 years ago I had a teacher who applied to work as an analyst
for the CIA. As part of his application he did a report on Afghanistan.
He found out why the U.$. invaded the country. There are large deposits
of copper and lithium ore. The U.$. soldiers were to protect the Chinese
workers who were building the railway that would transport the ore into
China for processing.
Just like Spain, France, etc. in the 16th and 17th centuries, the
U.$. government was in another country to steal its natural
resources.
MIM(Prisons) responds: Certainly, natural resources
continue to be a major impetus for imperialist foreign policy and war.
The gas lines through the Caspian Sea were also a key concern in the
region at the time.
Your description of the roles of the Amerikans and Chinese in
Afghanistan is emblematic of the relationship between the two countries
ever since the capitalist roaders took over in China in 1976. Today
contradictions have heightened as Chinese capital has become more
developed and therefore needs to exert its interests independent of the
United $tates. Meanwhile the Amerikans have begun looking at bringing
production and supply chains of basic goods a little closer to home
after becoming dependent on the labor of Chinese proletarians. These
contradictions playing out demonstrate why inter-imperialist conflict is
the rule.
On Thursday, 12 August 2021, CNN reported that Afghanistan’s capital
of Kabul would fall into the hands of the Taliban in 30 to 60 days.(1)
On Sunday the 15th (only 3 days later!) the Taliban took control of
Kabul. One day after that, the chief comprador leader of the Islamic
Republic, Ashraf Ghani, fled the country on an airplane.
As thousands stormed the capital’s airport to flee the country from
the Taliban takeover, U.$. soldiers escorting Amerikan personnel shot
and killed two Afghanis on the tarmac of Kabul International Airport.(2)
Video footage captured citizens hanging onto the side of the airplane
and falling off mid-departure.
In regards to the humiliating end note of their 20 years war, the
National $ecurity Advisor pig Jake Sullivian said the following:
“Despite the fact that we spent 20 years and tens of billions of
dollars to give the best equipment, the best training and the best
capacity to the Afghan security forces, we could not give them the will
and they ultimately decided that they would not fight for Kabul and they
would not fight for the country.”(3)
U.$. imperialism and the “democracy” they claim to spread around the
world propped up the extremely reactionary government of the now fallen
Islamic Republic. Despite wimmin’s rights having been a focal excuse for
the imperialists to invade Afghanistan, their puppets in the Islamic
Republic had no meaningful difference in wimmin’s rights in
Afghanistan.
To the U.$. imperialists, their defeat (while surprising in how
quickly Kabul fell) did not come as shock. On Saturday, 29 February
2020, (around a year and half before the fall of Kabul) the United
$tates and the Taliban met in a five star hotel in Qatar and signed
agreements to end the 20 years war.(4) One of the primary points of the
agreements was complete withdrawal of U.$. troops within 14 months.(5)
It seems that this is one of the rare agreements in which Amerikans made
a promise and actually kept it with an oppressed nation. Other
agreements included Taliban’s refusal to “terrorist groups” such as
Al-Qaeda to use Afghanistan’s territory as operation grounds, and
lifting of U.$. sanctions on the country.
The Sober Taliban?
In the Amerikan press, there were two big talking points around their
defeat in Afghanistan. One was the would-be refugees trying to flee
Afghanistan into the arms of Amerika, which nicely reinforces the story
that Amerikans were the saviors in the country after all. The second was
how wimmin would fair when the Taliban took over again. This reinforces
the justification for invading Afghanistan to have been to liberate
wimmin from gender oppression, a point that continues to serve U.$.
militarism even after a failed 20 year war. A point that had nothing to
do at all with why the U.$. invaded.
The Taliban is not unaware of these perceptions, leading to their
representatives at the peace negotiations to suggest for less backwards
treatment of wimmin under their rule.(6) Zabihullah Mujahid has claimed
that they will “honor women’s rights,” and the “independence of private
media” (journalists, news organizations, etc.).(7)
Mujahid’s comment highlights an important part of the Taliban’s new
look (and most importantly, their class character). As rising from the
bourgeois nationalist position, they were part of a country-wide Islamic
movement to usurp warlord factions which ruled Afghanistan. The warlords
themselves rose with western aid to usurp Soviet social-imperialist
compradors led by Mohammad Najibullah. Mohammad Najibullah also started
out with bourgeois nationalist tendencies usurping monarchist
compradors.
After coming to power in the 1990s, the Taliban were overthrown by
the U.$. imperialists themselves in the early 2000s after seeking to
bite the hand that fed them decades before. Now, in 2021, they have
risen to the seat again in Kabul. In order to maintain legitimacy, they
must seek acceptability to new potential imperialist sponsors. If that
means talking the talk to become the neo-colonial semi-feudal comprador
state that the puppet regime beforehand never lived up to, then they
must do it out of tactical necessity. Despite this tricky position that
they have found themselves in, the United $tates’ do not seem to be the
number one contender as Afghanistan’s neo-colonial ruler.
Upon the line of which class interest is at the helm of Afghanistan’s
liberation from the United $tates’, we should also emphasize that under
the leadership of the national bourgeois there was also the
petty-bourgeoisie, the peasantry, and the agricultural proletariat
within the Taliban movement. This character of Afghanistan’s national
liberation gives time and space for the Afghan masses to breathe and
provide necessary conditions for discussions on the country’s past,
present, and future: what is to be done? What were the historical
conditions that led up to colonial exploitations and humiliation? What
does our liberation from the U.$. imperialists mean today? These
questions will be further asked during the transformation of subjective
and objective forces by revolutionaries.
The
Social-Imperialist Road to Afghanistan
China was one of the first major imperialist countries to recognize
the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan and the Islamic
Emirate of Afghanistan as a legitimate country.(8) It is nothing new for
social-imperialism (not only in Afghanistan but for the whole world) to
hijack bourgeois nationalist movements and turn them into satellite
states. The number one tactic of Soviet social-imperialism was through
neo-colonial aid, and China seems to be using the same tactic. China’s
foreign minister Wang Yi said on September 8th, only a few weeks after
the Taliban’s victory, that they will be providing the Taliban
government $31 million dollars equivalent in food and aid.(9)
While publicly declaring their $31 million dollar deal with the
Taliban, Wang Yi has also expressed calls for the Taliban to combat and
remove the Uyghar jihadist movements of Xinjiang province – primarily
the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP). Where China borders Afghanistan, the
Xinjiang province is where most Uyghars reside (a majority Muslim
national minority group of China facing oppression). The Turkestan
Islamic Party – which has had historical alliances with the Taliban of
Afghanistan – poses a major threat to the stability of capitalist China
alongside the general Uyghar minority group. As a group who once
declared liberation for the Muslim world, the Taliban will now have to
be in a position of being the agents for Chinese social-imperialism
against fellow Muslim nations/organizations. This is the limit to
Jihadism as an anti-imperialist force (and other bourgeois nationalist
anti-imperialisms) and the poisonous consequences of social-imperialism.
Without Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, liberated countries will only fall back
to colonialism.
Long Live Afghanistan
The United $tates’ defeat in Afghanistan, and the Taliban’s victory
is a victory for the Afghan people. For the first time, Afghanistan
could have a chance of being an independent nation state in our modern
capitalist era. However, foreign meddling by the Amerikans, Chinese and
others continue to threaten the development of Afghanistan’s
self-determination. It is only by continuing down the road of
independence that questions of economics, gender and the urban/rural
divide in the country can be adequately addressed. The Taliban has
served as a historically important and necessary opponent of foreign
occupation, but the Afghan people need more than that to continue to
address the contradictions they face as a nation. Revolutionaries here
in the United $tates must continue to oppose our government’s
interference in that progress.
Long Live Afghanistan!
Down with world imperialism!
Notes
1. Barbara Starr, “Intelligence assessments warn Afghan
capital could be cut off and collapse in coming months,” CNN, 12 August
2021.
2. Rebecca Klapper, “U.S. Military Fatally Shoots 2 at Kabul
Airport as Biden Orders in 1,000 Additional Troops,” Newsweek, 12 August
12, 2021.
3. Ibid.
4. Saphora Smith, “U.S.-Taliban sign landmark agreement in
bid to end America’s longest war,” MSNBC, 29 February
2020.
5. Ibid.
6. Amanda Thub, “Why the Taliban’s Repression of Women May
Be More Tactical Than Ideological,” The New York Times, 4 October
2021.
7. Associated Press, “The Taliban Claim They’ll Respect
Women’s Rights — With Their Reading Of Islamic Law,” NPR, August 12,
2021
8. Memri, “During September, China-Taliban Relations
Continued To Strengthen,” 5 October 2021.
9. Helen Reagan, “China to provide Afghanistan with $31
million worth of food and Covid vaccines,” CNN, 9 September
2021.
These last couple of months, all that was on the news was the U.$
evacuation of Afghanistan and the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
U.$. citizens, military personnel (i.e. veterans, active duty) and
politicians have been showing their distaste for how Joe Biden pulled
the U.$. troops out of Afghanistan; where scenes of Afghanis who aided
the U.$. in their failed attempt to incorporate a U.$ controlled
government in their homeland, frantically rushing to the Kabul airport
to catch a ride with the U.$. citizens and troops. During the frantic
and chaotic evacuation, ISIS-Kabul (ISIS-K) committed a suicide-bomb
attack, which killed 13 U.$. troops, leading Joe Biden in a press
conference to state, “.. We won’t forget and we won’t forgive. We’ll
hunt you (ISIS-K) down till the end of the earth…”. I had to laugh at
the screen once I heard the words leave Joe Biden’s mouth, because of
the contradictions that this U.$. government hands out to the world and
her own citizens continuously.
The U.$. preaches of peace and unity to the world over, but
terrorizes or keeps a sniper scope on territories of the world, where it
wants control over in the disguise of “the spreading of democracy.” But
the only democracy that needs to be spreading faster than the COVID-19
virus and all its variants, is the New Democracy controlled by the Joint
Dictatorship of the Proletariat of the Oppressed Nations(JPDON). Under
the JDPON all oppressed nations may dictate their own destiny and as a
collective of oppressed nations keep imperialism in the cage where it
rightfully deserves to be in.
The democracy that the imperialists want to implement and maintain
will only bring death and destruction. Our FWL men, women, and children
are being deemed as terrorists then are murdered and imprisoned by the
U.$. piggy force. Just how our TW brothers and sisters, nieces and
nephews are being murdered and imprisoned by these imperialist armies
and drones. Just how the comrade
O.G. Hawk poem in issue #74 stated: “… FBI, CIA, and all of
America’s comrades have hurt more people than anybody on earth crying
that democracy is what it’s worth!”
We can go back into history and see the shaded hand of the U.$.
stirring the pot of confusion and destruction, while the other hand
points an entirely different picture of the truth. From the “War on
Drugs” to the recently ended “War in the Middle East”, both were
supplied with the money, drugs and weapons by the U.$ government and
counterparts. The U.$. piggy force are trained to be in a war zone when
they hit the local streets; for to them our neighborhood blocks are
their Iraq and Afghanistan. How many of We have been terrorized by the
U.$. government? As this article was being written, Haitian migrants
were being whipped by U.$. border control officers on horse back at the
Southern border of this country; an Afghani man and a couple of Afghani
children were bombed in a drone attack when mistaken as a convoy of
ISIS-K members. The latter is one of many over this ended 20 year war,
that the U.$. government won’t admit. Prisoners from the East coast to
the West coast are still being tortured with inhumane treatment, as We
the FW lumpen are being singled out and put under manipulation
techniques to enchant the spell of defeatism; deferring both the leaders
and comrades from continuing on with the fight to liberate oneself from
a capitalist/imperialist power.
We won’t turn the other cheek, extend the hand of friendship and sing
“kumbaya” or whatever make-me-feel-warm-&-fuzzy-inside bullshit that
the imperialists use as a ploy to keep We in a docile state. Holding on
to the hope for that perfect union that Martin Luther King Jr., his
descendants and followers of the non-violent movement have yet to
experience. Just as Biden said about ISIS-K, the FW lumpen and TW
proletariat won’t forget nor forgive the capitalist/imperialist
governments for the genocide of all indigenous peoples and folks around
the world, for colonialism and neocolonialism, the destruction of the
planet Earth for profitable gain for the few; while everyone else is
fighting each other for the top or a closer to the top spots of this
fucked up capitalist pyramid scheme.
As We liberate our minds and each other from the
imperialist/capitalist doctrines, culture and power, We’ll come to see
justice being served to the worlds most wanted terrorist group, and a
new age will emerge. An age of Freedom, Justice, and Equality for the
majority of the world.
by Ehecatl September 2021 permalink
Republic of Aztlán marched down Whittier Blvd in East Los Angeles for
the 51st anniversary commemoration of the Chican@ Moratorium
The most recent killing of U.$. troops in Afghanistan on 26 August
2021 marks the deadliest day in over a decade for the imperialists in
that country. It also makes two points quite clear. First, the once
reviled Taliban has negotiated a deal with the United $tates in which
they regained control of their country in exchange for cooperation
against organizations like ISIS(K) who’ve claimed responsibility for the
attack. The explosion took the lives of thirteen U.$. soldiers.
ISIS(K) is just one of over twenty armed groups in Afghanistan that
pose a threat to Taliban rule. However, the main incentive for the
Taliban’s allegiance to U.$. imperialism seems to be the Afghan economy
which the Taliban inherited once the “democratically elected” government
of Afghanistan realized that U.$. imperialism would no longer prop them
up.(1)
Second, Chican@s continue to account for a substantial portion of
Amerikan occupation forces in the Third World. Statistics in recent
years have shown Chican@s continue to be a growing source of foot
soldiers for the Amerikans.
The attack on U.$. troops came just three days before the fifty-first
anniversary of the hystoric Chican@ Moratorium. Contrary to what various
sell outs, integrationists and those who’ve simply been kept in
ignorance have to say about the matter, the moratorium was not about
civil rights or equality. Rather, the moratorium was an exercise in
power by Raza who attempted to deprive the imperialists of Chican@
troops in their war of colonization and attrition in Vietnam.(2) Thus,
it is both heartbreaking and sickening to see that so many years after
the last real upsurge against U.$. imperialism in the semi-colonies,
Chican@s continue to sacrifice and be sacrificed for the oppressor
nation. If Chican@s are to live and die for a cause then it should be
for Aztlán, the international proletariat and socialism. August 26 was
yet another example of what happens when we fail to organize the
oppressed – the imperialists organize them for us.
While four of the thirteen soldiers killed at the Afghanistan
International Airport that day were Chican@s born and raised in occupied
Aztlán, it should be noted that at least two other fatalities had
Spanish surnames.(3) That said, it is still important to note that the
attack was a blow against U.$. imperialism by anti-imperialists in the
region, and for that we should be appreciative, not horrified. Our
sympathies should be with the Afghan family who lost their lives in the
U.$. retaliation drone strike and the rest of the victims of the ISIS(K)
who were caught in the crossfire on August 26. Chican@s or not, those
U.$. soldiers chose their own destiny when they decided it was okay to
travel halfway around the world to further oppress an already oppressed
population.
It is not far-fetched to envision a reality in which Chican@ youth
strive to live and die for Aztlán liberated and free. The development of
material conditions will be crucial in this regard, but it will be the
struggle of revolutionaries and the masses of turned up youth that will
be principal. We should not let the fact that Amerika’s longest war has
come to an end deter us from the urgency of organizing the oppressed
nations for liberation and against U.$. militarism. “Raza Si, Guerra
No!” should be one of many political slogans that we champion in the
bi-polar world that is life under imperialism, as Amerikkka’s designs on
the African continent promise to become an even bloodier killing field
in the years to come.
Notes: 1. The PBS News Hour, 27 August 2021. 2. A
MIM(Prisons) study group, 2015, Chican@ Power and the Struggle for
Aztlán. (available to prisoners for $10) 3. KTLA 5 News, 27 August
2021.
At this moment Cuba is entering into a new phase in their struggle
which unveils a reality unfavorable to socialist construction. Yet we
should keep in mind that Cuba’s fate remains unsealed. History shows
that the Cuban people are up to the task of fighting for socialism as
they continue to inspire others around the world. They have enormous
amounts of creative and practical experience. Here we examine some of
the positions in the popular debate around Cuba, as well as the true
source of its successes and failures.
Privatization and Pandemic
The current protests in Cuba are the result of growing privatization
of sectors in multiple industries. This has been a gradual trend, but in
February of 2021 it took on new heights. Tourism in particular, as a
private industry, is Cuba’s largest revenue generator making over $3.3
billion for its people in 2018. With the ease
of relations under President Obama there was unfortunately even more
of a rise in privatization and large growth in tourism. Labour Minister
Marta Elena Feito said the list of authorized activities in the private
sector had most recently expanded from 127 to more than 2,000. Some of
these include barbershops, restaurants, taxi services, domicile and
hotel rentals, small shops and cafes. Most of these private sector jobs,
which are primarily in major cities such as Havana, are oriented towards
the tourist industry.
The last report showed that 600,000 people, around 13% of the
workforce, joined the private sector when the opportunity arose.
COVID-19 brought problems as the borders were closed to non-residents in
order to prevent the pandemic’s spread. About 16,000 private workers
asked for their licenses to be suspended, according to the Labor
Ministry, which temporarily exempted them from taxes. Shortly after, the
amount increased to 119,000, which was roughly 19 percent of the private
workforce. This measure allowed for a small section of the private work
force to be protected during the pandemic, however other sections,
mostly in tourism, were catastrophically hit.
U.S. Economic Warfare
The labor ministry stated that the decline began before COVID-19 as a
result of Trump’s new additions to the embargo on Cuba. In December of
2020, Cuban tourism had fallen by 16.5% due to U.S. sanctions that
imposed restrictions on travel to Cuba, money transfers, and trade
between Cuba and other nations. The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets
Control in 2020 stated the following in regards to the more recent
additions, “OFAC is removing the authorization for banking institutions
subject to U.S. jurisdiction to process certain funds transfers
originating and terminating outside the United States, commonly known
as”U-turn” transactions. Banking institutions subject to U.S.
jurisdiction will be authorized to reject such transactions, but may no
longer process them.” The rules also block money sent to Cuban
government affiliates, and decreased the limit but still allow for
remittances to most families in Cuba.
On 19 October 1960, the U.S. embargo was implemented as policy to
undermine the revolutionary government as a response to its
nationalization of industries and dealings with countries led by
communist parties. Over the coming years tension only increased and the
embargo would continually be adjusted to prevent growth of the Cuban
economy. As of now the sanctions vary with over 231 entities and
subentities like ministries, holding companies, hotels, etc.; meaning
the U.S. is trying to control Cuba’s economy. These provisions also
extend to international companies like the various shipping companies in
2019 which were sanctioned by the U.S. government for participating in
oil trade between Venezuela and Cuba. This was during the same period
that the U.S. was accusing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of
falsifying the election results that left Juan Guaido to bite the dust.
Allegations which later were proven to be false yet nevertheless caused
dire consequences for millions.
Economic terrorism continues to be perpetrated by the U.S. against
Cuba to prohibit other nations and companies from participating in trade
deals. Some ways the U.S. does this is by denying licenses or deals with
U.S.-based companies or other nations that have the audacity to ignore
the U.S. embargo on Cuba. Year after year the U.N. votes in favor of an
end to the embargo with only two nations (the U.S. and Israel) voting in
favor of continuing the embargo.
In 2021 former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo designated Cuba
once again as a state sponsor of international terrorism in another
futile attempt to further isolate Cuba from potential trading partners.
This designation carries with it the implication that any business or
state which does business with Cuba participates in sponsoring
terrorism. As a result the U.S. will then implement sanctions on those
businesses or states or at the very least deny them vital business
opportunities that they need to sustain a functional economy in a
U.S.-dominated global market. It follows from this that the private
sectors in Cuba who were not prepared for the pandemic, were already
affected by the ongoing trade embargo for about 60 years, with Trump’s
administration amping up attempts to suffocate Cuba’s resilient
economy.
Cuban Protests
Dwarfed by Uprisings in U.S.
When the protests erupted in Cuba this month, the U.S. wasted no time
in opportunistically pushing their agenda. Meanwhile, expatriated Cuban
terrorists living in the U.S. sent videos over social media promoting
the destruction of public property owned by the Cuban people, looting,
assault on peoples security forces etc. These videos, not surprisingly,
never found their way into mainstream reports but were exposed by Cuban
media. Díaz-Canel even made a point to say that there are
revolutionaries who have been misguided by false reports forged by
subversive reactionaries, and people with legitimate demands for an end
to the embargo and reform of failed policies. This made clear that these
demonstrators were not the target of criticism but genuinely concerned,
although in some cases misguided, citizens.
In reality only a small capitalist minority from certain private
sectors affected by the embargo and COVID-19 have taken to the streets
to promote their interests; interests that are antagonistic to that of
the Cuban people. President Díaz-Canel proceeded to visit the
demonstrations himself and speak with people. On live TV Díaz-Canel
called revolutionaries to take to the street and oppose the
reactionaries and to stay in the streets as long as necessary in order
to defend the revolution. It was correctly stated by Díaz-Canel that the
reactionaries with violent intent are of a specific small group who
align with U.S. interests. More specifically from his mouth he stated
that, “They want to change a system, or a regime they call it, to impose
what type of government and what type of regime in Cuba? The
privatization of public services. The kind that gives more possibility
to the rich minority and not the majority.”
Counter protests proceeded to take place where a greater part of
Cuba’s 11 million people came out to demonstrate their support for the
revolution and continuance of socialist construction. With such a small
minority of protestors being for regime change and only a few dozen
arrests we have to ask ourselves why there is such a controversy? It is
only explainable by the private interests and imperialist U.S. who
wishes to finally deal a deadly blow to Cuba. After decades of failed
CIA assassinations, a failed U.S. invasion, and a failed Embargo, the
U.S. government is reiterating its fledgling commitment to undermine the
people of Cuba.
All the while the Amerikans fail to see the irony that in 2020 the
protests in the U.S. were estimated to have between 15 and 26 million
participants with over 14,000 arrests documented as related to the
protests and a number of deaths associated. These numbers are not even
all encompassing in the true magnitude of arrest and torture by the U.S.
government on its own citizens. These protests put forward demands
guaranteed by the Cuban constitution. Article’s 16, 18, 19, 41, 42, 43,
44 of the Cuban constitution reveal rights and guarantees afforded to
Cubans that in the U.S. don’t even exist or are up for debate. A
civil war was needed to end slavery only to have it replaced by Jim Crow
segregation in this country. Without a doubt a quick look at the
Cuban constitution in comparison with the U.S. constitution, one would
begin to question the true ethics of the U.S. and why Cuba is portrayed
the way it is.
Cuba has made greater advancements than the U.S. in many fields. It
achieved a higher literacy rate, lower infant mortality rate, a lung
cancer vaccine as well as a COVID-19 vaccine independently developed
with a 92% success rate. All this despite the embargo and war crimes of
the U.S. The U.S. in their sad attempt to condemn Cuba’s Communist Party
declares the people of Cuba to be subjugated, unable to protest, or have
free speech. As can clearly be seen, the president of Cuba not only
respects the constitutional right to protest and have free speech, but
invited millions to take to the streets to do so.
The Will of the People in
Cuba
In 2018 a new draft of the Cuban constitution removed reference to
communism. This first draft was met with wide-scale protests
and a popular demand that reinstated communism as the goal. In 2019 the
new Cuban constitution reaffirmed the popular will. Time after time the
U.S. is embarrassed by Cuba’s revolutionary people. Which is presumably
why the U.S., who routinely overthrows democracies, assassinates world
leaders, or suffocates nations with sanctions, takes special interest in
torturing Cuba. It is not without effect either, as many Cubans feel
this pressure and suffer untold losses in this cruel escapade waged by
the United States.
Mind you, Cuba is not without mistake. The continued privatization of
industries and reliance on tourism is a massive failure on the part of
the Cuban government. Failures to foster the full creative potential of
the Cuban masses by putting politics in command has led the Cuban
government to become a bureaucratic mess. With a large population of
revolutionary masses eager to promote the ideals of socialism and forge
ahead on their path of self-determination, it is sad to see the Cuban
state fail to remove the fetters on the Cuban people that restrict their
ability to take control of power for themselves. This is a result of
internal contradictions within the Cuban state.
Over the past few decades the gradual decline of peoples’ power has
been witnessed. Today’s events are a result of the pandemic and U.S.
embargo. However, the principal issue is not from without Cuba and it
certainly is not from the Cuban people. It is in the Cuban state and
their failure to remain vigilant against growing opposition forces
within the state itself. Forces that undermine the peoples’ will. Forces
that cause unnecessary retreats and failures in planning. With all due
respect, these are serious errors that must be rectified by campaigns
led by the revolutionary Cuban people. Only the Cuban people can
determine their destiny.
So our appeal to Cuba should be directed towards the revolutionary
masses who represent the socialist majority. We are in solidarity with
you and support you. We will continue to fight to bring to an end the
U.S. embargo and all interventions. The revolutionaries in Cuba who
emulate the ideals as well as principles of socialism with the aim of
building communism are a continued inspiration to the freedom fighters
all around the world.
Díaz-Canel welcomed revolutionaries to the street to participate in
open debate and oppose the reactionaries. This is a step in the correct
direction. So long as those revolutionaries are allowed to progress down
whatever path they find suitable for themselves to sustain their
revolution. So long as they combat the reactionaries as well as the
revisionists. All of this on the terms set forth by the revolutionary
Cuban masses themselves who are truly world renowned heroes of
revolution.
MIM(Prisons) adds:
It is not MIM line that Cuba was ever really on the socialist road. The
Cuban revolution was very clearly one of national liberation from
imperialism. However, Cuba paralleled the Derg in Ethiopia in taking on
“Marxism-Leninism” for geo-political reasons related to using the Soviet
Union as a counter-balance to other imperialist interests. That’s not to
say there weren’t Marxists in their ranks, most popular movements in the
Third World are going to have Marxist influences. But the Marxists had
not consolidated a party around the proletarian line before seizing
power. They did not follow Mao’s example of building United Fronts with
other classes by maintaining proletarian leadership and independence. In
a capitalist-imperialist world, coalition governments invariably lead to
capitalism.
Cuba stood out for many decades as a symbol of resistance to U.$.
imperialism, even after the fall of the Soviet Union. It is also
well-known for directing resources in the interests of the Cuban people
and the people of the world. In our article on Ethiopia we mention that
the Cubans
had their differences with the imperialist Soviet Union, and that
speaks to the path Cuba took independent of the USSR during and after
its existence.
We agree with current President Díaz-Canel that privatization is only
bad for the people. However, nationalization only threatens imperialist
meddling, it does not address the internal class contradictions of a
country. And in the case of Cuba, with the dependence on tourist money
and remittances, the Amerikans have significant and increasing control
over their economy despite nationalization.
In the United $tates state-run firms (like the post office) are often
defined as “socialism.” But Maoists define socialism differently, as an
economy that is guided by the proletarian line, always engaging in class
struggle, pitting the interests of collectivism, humyn needs and humyn
relations above production, efficiency and profit.
As Mowgli writes, the internal contradictions of a capitalist economy
in Cuba cannot ultimately be resolved without a popular movement to
rectify the current leadership and shift to the socialist road. We would
go further in stressing that socialism is class struggle. There is no
policy shift that can bring a country to the socialist road, only the
militant mobilization of the masses concentrated in a communist party
that puts the class struggle at the forefront. Our opposition from
within the empire to the embargo serves to help the Cuban people see
their dreams come true via continued class struggle.
Anti-imperialists watching the Horn of Africa have sounded the alarm
that Amerikans are scheming to further their exploitation of Ethiopia.
In May, United States Agency of International Development (USAID) Bureau
for Humanitarian Assistance head Sarah Charles spoke to the U.$.
Congress about how the Ethiopian government and other armed forces were
restricting the access of Amerikan staff and equipment in the
country.(1) Ten days before the 21 June 2021 elections in Ethiopia, the
U.$. State Department issued a statement expressing “grave” concern
about the conditions of the elections and said they were ready to “help
Ethiopia address these challenges” in order to cast doubt on election
results.(2)
Many concerned about the talk coming from the U.$. government refer
to Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq and Syria as warnings of what could happen
in Ethiopia. Amerikan troops left the infamous sprawling Bagram Airfield
in Afghanistan on 2 July 2021, allowing looters to enter the grounds the
following day.(3) In 2001, the U.$. overthrew the Taliban-ruled
government of Afghanistan. Twenty years later, the Taliban are poised to
regain control of the country following the longest war in U.$. history.
All peace-loving people have an interest in preventing another one of
these long, drawn out wars that have become the norm for U.$.
imperialism as it struggles to dominate the rest of the world.
U.$. imperialists have already begun waging warfare in the form of
economic sanctions against both Ethiopia and Eritrea. Meanwhile, they
continue to push for access by USAID and its affiliated NGOs to meddle
in African affairs. The Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front(TPLF)
launched attacks on the Ethiopian armed forces back in November 2020,
which began the war that seems to have reached a stopping point this
July and has been used by the Amerikans as a reason to get involved. The
TPLF led the Ethiopian government until 2018 when the TPLF president
resigned due to popular pressure. In addition to domestic abuses, they
led Ethiopia in a war for territory against Eritrea during that time.
Eritrea has made peace with the new Ethiopian government led by Abiy
Ahmed and sided with Ethiopia in the recent war against the TPLF.
Ethiopia’s Importance
Ethiopia is the 12th most populated country in the world, and the
second most populated in Africa. In the 1970s, the Derg government led a
quick, forced nationalization of the Ethiopian economy. Current
President Abiy Ahmed has overseen the privatization and liberalizations
of the economy, which began after 1991, when Ethiopia shifted from the
Soviet Union to a U.$. client state. These moves by Abiy will increase
foreign investment and involvement in Ethiopian industry. A 2018 plan by
the Abiy-led government targeted 25% growth rates in manufacturing until
2025.(4) While falling short so far, this indicates their intentions to
become Africa’s leading manufacturing hub. In other words, the Ethiopian
masses still living in semi-feudal conditions are a potential source of
a newly proletarianized population for imperialist corporations to
extract surplus value from.
During the recent conflict, Abiy froze the assets of many TPLF
associated companies with U.$. and other foreign investments, which may
have concerned the Amerikans as well.
As part of their new plan to provide power for this growth in
industry, Ethiopia has been operationalizing the new Grand Ethiopian
Renaissance Dam (GERD). On 6 July 2021, Ethiopia began the second stage
of filling the dam. The Egyptian and Sudanese governments have been
calling for U.N. intervention for fear of the impact on their water
supplies. This will be the biggest hydroelectric project in Africa.(5)
Egypt (run by U.$.-backed dictator Abdel Fattah el-Sisi) has indicated
it would support intervention in Ethiopia to stop this project by saying
all options are on the table. Egypt is one of the most important U.$.
client states, historically falling in the top 3 receivers of military
aid from the imperialists. The Trump administration had supported
Egypt’s interests regarding the dam, and we expect U.$. support to
continue.
Land-locked Ethiopia’s access to the Red Sea is through Eritrea or
Djibouti. Djibouti is a small country between Eritrea and Somaliland. It
is the home of AFRICOM, the United $tates military’s Africa Command, and
a number of other imperialist militaries. These military bases provide
5% of Djibouti’s GDP. China has their only foreign military base in
Djibouti, making it a potential location of conflict between the
Amerikan and Chinese imperialists. This location is also important for
access between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea including
large movements of fossil fuels.
President Abiy has formed alliances with Eritrea and Somalia,
countries the U.$. has used Ethiopia to destabilize in the past. This
show of unity in the Horn of Africa could allow for greater serving of
African interests, rather than Amerikan interests.
Strong Marxist History
National liberation struggles influenced by Marx, Lenin and Mao are
central to the recent history of Ethiopia and Eritrea. In its early
days, MIM often mentioned Eritrea as one of the locations of a
liberatory people’s war in the 1980s. Current President of Eritrea,
Isaias Afewerki, was one of the first members of the Eritrean Liberation
Forces(ELF) to train in socialist China in 1967. He was later part of
the leadership to form the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF),
which split from the ELF and combined the ELF’s strong nationalism with
an explicit Marxist-Leninist line and the strategy of People’s
War.(6)
In Ethiopia a series of Marxist-Leninist organizations emerged to
challenge the feudal system of Haile Selassie. This led to the removal
of Haile Selassie by his own military leaders in 1974, who formed the
Derg government. The Derg undertook a massive nationalization campaign,
labeling itself “Marxist-Leninist” and a socialist state in 1975. The
Derg assigned head of state to U.$.-trained Mengistu Haile Mariam, but
became an ally of the social-imperialist USSR. Their national-brougeois
ideas fit nicely with the revisionist distortions of Soviet
“Marxism-Leninism.”(7)
The Tigray People’s Liberation Front also began in the revolutionary
period of the 1960s. By the late 1970s it was waging guerilla war
against the Derg, under the leadership of the Marxist-Leninist League of
Tigray. At this time there was a split in the revolutionary movement of
Ethiopia around the question of secession, with the Eritrean People’s
Liberation Front leading the call for the right to self-determination of
Eritrea independent of Ethiopia. Others saw secessionist movements in
Ethiopia as linked to the reactionary regionalism of feudalism, and a
division of the peasant masses.(8)
In 1991, MIM Notes celebrated the overthrow of the
“social-fascist Mengistu regime” by the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary
Democratic Front(EPRDF) as well as the Eritrean People’s Liberation
Front(EPLF), which abstained from the provisional government of Ethiopia
opting for independence instead. They noted, “MIM doesn’t have much
information about the”revolutionary programs” of the EPRDF, so we must
watch and let the practice of both the EPRDF and EPLF speak for
itself.”(9) Yet, MIM Notes had already quoted the New York
Times under the heading “Victories Betrayed”:
“The best insurance against another hard-line Marxist regime in
Ethiopia appears to be the presence in Ethiopia immediately after the
EPRDF’s victory, of an Amerikan, Paul B. Henze.
“Henze, the station chief of the Central Intelligence Agency at the
United States Embassy in Addis Ababa from 1969 to 1972, was invited to
the capital as a personal guest of President Meles. He spent five weeks
in Ethiopia advising Meles and was upbeat when he left. ‘Meles is
pragmatic,’ Henze says. ‘He and his colleagues are not bothering with
ideological matters. Ethiopia has a good chance of becoming a productive
country.’”(10)
Meles Zenawi was a member of the Marxist-Leninist League of Tigray
before becoming the first president of Ethiopia under the EPRDF
government. As the CIA agent predicted, rather than struggling against
differences between classes and nationalities in Ethiopia, the TPLF used
its power to dominate the government at the expense of other
nationalities and regions, and it soon became a pawn of U.$. imperialism
in its maneuvering for power. As a result, by 1998, Meles(TPLF)-led
Ethiopia had invaded Isaias(EPLF)-led Eritrea. It appears that both
organizations abandoned their Marxist-Leninist lines prior to the
overthrow of the Derg and their seizing of state power as part of the
process of forming the united front against the Derg. This indicates
that there were right-opportunist, liquidationist errors within the
leadership of both movements that allowed them to put the liberation
struggle and overthrow of the Derg above and in place of the struggle
for socialism and a dictatorship of the proletariat. They did not heed
the lessons of Mao’s China on how to keep proletarian leadership within
a united front of class interests against imperialism. This led to
reactionary bourgeois nationalism to play the leading role in these
countries, despite the promising Marxist origins of this shift in power.
The result gives credence to the warnings from those Marxists who argued
against regionalism and secession and opposed the politics of the
earlier ELF and original TPLF.
The Organization for African Unity, started by leaders like Kwame
Nkrumah and Haile Selassie, also took up a line that it was against the
interests of the people of Africa to begin dismantling the states that
were amalgamations of peoples imposed by the colonial powers. History
has proven this strategy to be effective in preventing divisions among
the oppressed. Nkrumah had hoped for the OAU to become a federal
government uniting all of Africa, but that strategy did not win out.
At the same time, Maoists recognize the right to self-determination
of all nations. And the liberation movement in Eritrea held much promise
leading up to liberation. Eritrea also differed from other regions in
Ethiopia in that it was previously a separately administered state under
Italian colonial occupation. Today, Eritrea remains the only country in
Africa without AFRICOM presence, leading to much derision from the
United $tates and Europe over the years. They took pride in their
non-aligned stance in a world divided by the United $tates and the
social imperialist Soviet Union. In 1984, Isaias Afewerki also declared
they had no links or support from China. They did not take a position on
whether China was still socialist at the time. Isaias did look at Cuba
as an example of what happens when you become a client state of the
Soviet Union. Isaias claimed the Cubans disagreed with USSR policy in
Ethiopia and Eritrea, yet Cuban troops operated in Derg-ruled Ethiopia
on behalf of Soviet interests in the 1980s.(11)
While Eritrea has a history of independence and remaining politically
neutral, they have recently provided support for the U.$./Saudi war on
Yemen that has led to a massive loss of humyn life since 2015. This was
likely motivated by financial gain.(12) In the 1980s, South Yemen was in
solidarity with the Eritrean liberation struggle despite opposition by
the imperialist Soviet Union. Like Cuba, South Yemen took on the form of
“Marxist-Leninist” state years after its liberation under the influence
of the Soviet Union. Like the Cubans, they seemed to recognize the
righteousness of the Eritrean liberation struggle. Today, we cannot view
the Eritrean leadership as serving real self-determination when they are
being pitted against Yemen by the imperialists. Ultimately, it was the
abandonment of proletarian politics that led Eritrean leadership to side
with imperialism in the Middle East.
While revisionism seems to have thwarted the popular revolutionary
forces in the Horn of Africa in the late 20th century, the proletarian,
revolutionary line is no stranger to the people of the region. This is
further evidenced by President Abiy having to specifically address and
critique Marx, Lenin and Mao in his recent book.(13) It is only through
the unified struggle of all African people that the current violence,
death and starvation can be properly ended. U.$. and other imperialist
involvement will continue to pit Africans against Africans and other
oppressed people.
Our Role in the Horn of
Africa
In April 2018, Abiy Ahmed of the Oromo Democratic Party was elected
Prime Minister of the EPRDF government of Ethiopia. This marked the end
of TPLF leadership in the EPRDF, which was replaced by the Prosperity
Party coalition in November 2019, excluding TPLF. After his
confirmation, Abiy quickly established peace with Eritrea, still headed
by Isaias Afewerki. This was a historic peace agreement, returning land
to Eritrea that the TPLF had been occupying, signalling unity in the
region against the U.$.-backed TPLF. Eritrea and Ethiopia have remained
united in the war that began in November 2020 with a TPLF attack on
Ethiopian forces. Until the people of the region can mount
proletarian-led struggles for power again, the Eritrean-Ethiopian
alliance remains important for strengthening the region against further
meddling by foreign imperialism.
Our role in all of this is determined by the imperial nature of the
United $tates government. Like all people in the world, it is our duty
to build towards a dictatorship of the proletariat in our own backyard.
But we have the added duty of countering the imperial machinations of
our current government.
We should expose the imperialist nature of State Department agencies
like USAID that want to present themselves as humanitarian
organizations. While President Trump celebrated the Ethiopia and Eritrea
peace deal, the Biden administration has brought those favoring
intervention in the Horn of Africa back into the White House.
Toward the end of his presidency, Barack Obama appointed Gayle Smith
to Administer USAID. Gayle Smith was first employed by USAID in 1994.
She had lived in EPLF-run areas dating back to the 1970’s, where she was
a “journalist” working undercover for the CIA. She later spent time
embedded with the TPLF where she mentored Meles Zenawi, who would go on
to wage decades of war against the EPLF.(14) Another close confidant of
Meles was Susan Rice, who was national security advisor to Barack
Obama.(13) And as we mentioned above, Meles had open relations with
local CIA agents from the very beginning of his presidency.
In 2021, Biden has appointed Samantha Power to head USAID. Samantha
Power had succeeded Susan Rice as Obama’s ambassador to the United
Nations after being mentored by both Rice and Obama. Rice was involved
in the violent separation of South Sudan from Sudan and lied about mass
rapes to justify the invasion of Libya. Rice and Power worked with
Hillary Clinton to greenlight the invasion of that killed Muammar
Gaddafi, which Clinton later laughed about on television.
In 2013, Power led the charge within the Obama administration to bomb
Syria, which Rice came around to support. Power’s book A Problem
From Hell justifies intervention against genocide. She used this
mission statement of hers to justify bombing Syria and Libya, and now
stands behind it to intervene and defend the TPLF.(15) We oppose the
continued expansion of U.$. troops in Africa since President Bush
started AFRICOM in 2008. U.$. support for the TPLF clearly aims to
divide Africans so that they can be better controlled for the benefit of
imperialist-country corporations.
In April, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) began considering
calls for aid to Third World countries in the face of the COVID-19
pandemic.(1) Since then, finance capital flows have begun moving out of
the Third World and back into the United $tates, resulting in currencies
in those countries losing their value. This is making it impossible for
these countries to pay off their existing debt burdens, as well as to
fund much-needed relief for their people during this crisis.
In our previous
article we mentioned the possibility of the IMF issuing Special
Drawing Rights (SDRs) which would allow all countries to access funds,
via the United Nations, without accruing additional debt and interest.
We have also been echoing the call for complete debt forgiveness, or
jubilee, for the poorest nations of the world.
In place of these measures, the United $tates has set up a system
where countries can apply for dollars in exchange for local currency
from the U.$. Federal Reserve Board. This allows the United $tates to
decide who gets funding. Due to their control of the IMF, the Amerikans
have already blocked funding to Venezuela to combat the pandemic.(2)
The money being offered from the the Fed will also be given as loans,
with interest.(2) Already, the most exploited countries of the world
cannot afford to pay off existing loans. Many countries are spending
more on debt payments than healthcare during the pandemic.(1) In
addition, these loans, unlike the proposed SDRs, will have conditions
that give the Amerikans control over the path of development these
countries take in the future.
The exiting of finance capital from the Third World will have the
effect of passing the impacts of the economic crisis disproportionately
on to those countries. Meanwhile, the United $tates is offering to send
dollars back to put these countries further into debt and ratchet up
further policy control over their economies. While the United $tates is
currently leading the world in deaths due to the novel coronavirus, the
Third World nations are likely destined to see much more dire death and
suffering without debt forgiveness, unconditional aid, and the lifting
of sanctions and embargoes by the imperialists.
In times of capitalist expansion, exporting finance capital works to
transfer wealth from the Third World periphery to the First World
nations. Now that the economy is quickly contracting, the methods above
show how pulling finance capital out of the periphery also transfers
wealth to the First World nations. Ultimately, national liberation
struggles are necessary to free the peripheral countries from the
economic system of imperialism that uses them as a source of wealth at
the expense of much humyn suffering.
On 2 April 2020 Cuban President Miguel Canel-Diaz said,
“Cuba denounces the fact that medical supplies from [China’s] Alibaba
Foundation to help combat Covid-19 have not arrived in the country due
to the criminal US blockade against the island nation.”(1)
These life-saving supplies were blocked by the United States, which
has put economic sanctions on Cuba since its revolution liberated the
island from the U.$.-backed Batista dictatorship in 1959.
At the same time that the United $tates is blocking Chinese support
from entering Cuba, there are reports that Amerikans are in China buying
supplies that are destined for countries in Europe.(2)
The COVID-19 virus affects everyone. It is in everyone’s interests to
slow the spread of the virus, and to develop effective treatments for
it. These actions by the United $tates go against the interests of all
the world’s people.
The leaders of the world need to come together in one common cause
until this pandemic is over. Since late March, the United Nations has
been making a similar call, urging an end to all military actions
worldwide.(3)
We call on the United States and its partners to:
Halt all blockades, embargoes and sanctions so that resources can
flow freely to countries that need them to fight COVID-19.
Halt all military actions as a gesture of peace and unity of all
of humynity in combating this pandemic, and put that portion of the
military budget into mobilizing treatment for people in the United
$tates who need support and protection from COVID-19.
Forgive debts to the poorest countries of the world so that they
have the resources to do their part to fight the spread of this
virus.
by a North Carolina prisoner September 2019 permalink
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins Penguin
Group, New York, 2004
I just read a very enlightening book Confessions of an Economic Hit
Man by John Perkins. It’s a memoir of a former manager of Economics
and Planning at MAIN (Chas T. Main Inc.), a powerful corporation, where
he worked with CIA agents and other economic hit men to impoverish and
subjugate peoples and countries around the world. Plagued by a guilty
conscience, he later founded Independent Power Systems and developed
environmental friendly power plants. Yet he was still tempted by
imperialism.
In his confessions, Mr. Perkins explains how the USA has seized power in
Saudi Arabia, Panama, Ecuador and other countries. We try to avoid open
warfare. Before we even send in the jackals (special forces, snipers and
other assassins, etc.) we employ economic hit men to corrupt
governments, destabilize local economies and destroy environments. A
Bedouin hero likened the tactics we’re using against Islam to the
tactics used to conquer the Native American nations. We cut down the
trees and shot the buffalo. The foundations of indigenous culture
collapsed, and we are now exploiting them, their farmland, their gold,
and their oil.
“You see, it is the same here,” he said, “the desert is our environment.
The Flowering Desert project threatens nothing less than the destruction
of our entire fabric. How can we allow this to happen?” (p.130)
In order to defraud and blackmail and corrupt foreign governments, and
prepare their countries for exploitation by American corporations, he
traveled around the world, living in tents, jungle huts and five-star
hotels. Some of the action took place in secret meetings here in the
United States. I particularly enjoyed reading some of the conversations
that took place in posh offices high up in skyscrapers near my home.
Economic hit men have been very successful in Saudi Arabia. When they
fail, as they did in Ecuador, jackals are called in. They probably
killed President Roldós of that country and President Torrijos of
Panama.
If the jackals fail, as they did in Iraq, military intervention is
undertaken directly by the USA government. The book sheds light upon our
current aggression against
Venezuela,
although the author did not have a major role there.
In 1930, Venezuela was the world’s largest oil exporter. By 1973 (the
time of the Arab oil embargo), Venezuela was wealthy and its people
enjoyed excellent health care, education and low rates of unemployment.
Within 30 years, American EHMs (Economic Hit Men) and the International
Monetary Fund had changed that. The country’s per capita income was down
40% and the middle class was shrinking.
George Bush and the CIA orchestrated a coup, but their victory was
short-lived. President Chavez returned to power and immediately
initiated further democratic reforms. Bush began war preparations, but
crushing resistance in Iraq and Afghanistan took priority and Venezuela
got reprieve. Now, fifteen years after Confessions of an Economic Hit
Man was published, Donald Trump is making moves to seize control of
one of the world’s biggest oil reserves and other important natural
resources, as well as cheap labor in a once prosperous country brought
low by Amerikan imperialists.
Confessions is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand how
the USA invades, attacks, and oppresses people and starves children in
the name of freedom; or why so many millions of people around the world
hate us.
MIM(Prisons) adds: The writings of John Perkins are a useful
exposé of the modern imperialist methods of subversion of other nations’
self-determination. United Snakes interventions stand in stark contrast
to all the concerns over Russian influence in U.$. election outcomes.
Despite the obvious implications of the facts Perkins revealed, ey
remains unabashedly embedded in the bourgeoisie. The solutions ey
provides in this book include pressuring corporations to do good things,
and joining organizations to get laws passed. Now it seems ey is
promoting a series of trips to the Third World for rich people to engage
in mysticism. Needless to say, we see much different solutions being
called for by the stories in this book.
Scott Daniel Warren faces 20 years in prison for his volunteer work
distributing food and water to migrants in Arizona. Warren works with
the group No More Deaths to aid migrants crossing the border in the
Arizona desert. For this work, and for providing a place for two men to
sleep, Warren was charged with two counts of felony harboring and one
count of felony conspiracy. Eir trial ended on June 11 with a hung jury.
Warren was arrested in January 2018 along with other No More Deaths
volunteers. The arrests came just hours after the group released video
of border patrol agents destroying jugs of water left in the desert for
migrants. This case isn’t closed yet; federal prosecutors may choose to
retry Warren.
The Arizona desert is one of the deadliest places for migrants to cross
the border due to the extreme heat. But people are forced to this area
by the 1994 Clinton era “Prevention Through Deterrence” policy aimed at
making border crossings more deadly. The idea was to force crossings
over more hostile terrain, putting more lives in danger, to discourage
migrants from attempting the journey. Metrics of the plan’s success
included “deaths of aliens.” By that measure, the plan has been a
success. The total number of people attempting the crossing has dropped
but the odds of dying have gone way up.(1)
Hundreds of migrants are found dead every year. Trump’s border policies
are just a continuation of the anti-immigrant policies of all Amerikan
imperialist administrations, including Obama. Closed borders maintain a
cheap source of labor and natural resources for the imperialists. This
preserves wealth for those within at the expense of poverty for those on
the outside. Migrant deaths are just one result of these borders.
Fighting the Trump border wall is a distraction from the real problem.
Fight borders not walls. Open the borders; return the stolen wealth to
occupied nations at home and around the world.