Aggression is widely understood as the most serious form of the illegal use of force under international law. At the post–World War II Nuremberg Trials, British Judge Norman Birkett said:

To initiate a war of aggression…is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime, differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.

UN General Assembly Resolution 3314 lists seven acts that constitute aggression, including:

• The invasion or attack by the armed forces of a state of the territory of another State….
• Bombardment by the armed forces of a state against the territory of another state, or the use of any weapons by a state against the territory of another state.

In a clear instance of such aggression, 125 US military aircraft (along with a submarine) unleashed 75 weapons against Iran on June 21, including 14 GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators (MOPs), each of which weighs 30,000 pounds (BBC, 6/23/25). The MOPs are the most powerful non-nuclear weapons in the US arsenal (Democracy Now!, 6/23/25).

‘Brilliant military operation’

The New York Times‘ Bret Stephens (6/22/25) acknowledged that US intelligence maintained that “Iran’s leaders had not yet decided to build a bomb”—but he argued that to act “amid uncertainty…is the essence of statesmanship.”

Rather than condemning this blatant violation of international law, US corporate media commentators gushed over what the Boston Globe (6/24/25) called a “brilliant military operation.” The Wall Street Journal (6/22/25) gave President Donald Trump “credit…for meeting the moment.”

To the New York Times’ Bret Stephens (6/22/25), Trump made “a courageous and correct decision that deserves respect.” “The president acted before it was too late,” he wrote. “It is the essence of statesmanship.”

For the Washington Post’s Max Boot (6/25/25), it’s “good news…that both Israel and the United States showed they can bombard Iranian nuclear facilities and other targets at will.”

Rather than toasting aggression, these observers could have used their platforms to try to help foster a political climate that prioritizes peace and the international legal principles that could help create a less violent world.

Meanwhile, some opinion mongers thought the US was at risk of insufficiently violating international law. The Post’s editorial board (6/22/25) said Trump

should ensure that Iran’s nuclear program is demolished, as he appeared to claim it was on Saturday. This would mean the destruction of the targeted sites plus any residual weapons-building capacity.

In other words, the authors are glad that the US bombed Iran in violation of international law, and think it might be best to do more of the same.

A Journal editorial (6/23/25) put forth a similar view, warning that Trump will “squander” any “gains” that the US and Israel may have made against Iran if he “lets Iran take a breather, retain any enriched uranium it has secretly stored, and then rearm. But the last fortnight creates a rare opportunity for a more peaceful Middle East.” I’m not a big Orwell fan, but there’s something to his vision of the propaganda slogan “war is peace.”

Upside-down world

Iran “now knows Mr. Trump isn’t bluffing,” the Wall Street Journal (6/22/25) wrote. Does the paper imagine that Iran thought Trump was “bluffing” when he assassinated Qasem Soleimani, the nation’s top military leader, in 2020?

These celebrations of bomb-dropping occur in an upside-down world, where Iran is an aggressor against the United States. One form of this lie is accusing Iran of wantonly killing Americans or seeking to do so. The Journal (6/22/25) cited “1,000 Americans killed by Iran-supplied roadside bombs and other means”—referring to the dubious claim that Iran is responsible for US soldiers killed during the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq (Progressive, 1/7/20). Thus, to the editors, “Mr. Trump had to act to stop the threat in front of him to protect America.”

For Boot (6/22/25), Iran is a “predator” that the United States and Israel “will still have to deal with…for years to come.”

It would be nice to be able to assess the evidence for these allegations, but the authors don’t so much as hint at any. What is well documented, though, is that the US has been the aggressor in its longrunning war with Iran.

The US ruling class initiated the conflict by overthrowing Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953 (NPR, 2/7/19), propping up the Shah’s torture regime for 26 years (BBC, 6/3/16; AP, 2/6/19), sponsoring the Iraqi invasion of Iran and helping Iraq use chemical weapons against Iran (Foreign Policy, 8/26/13), supporting Israel’s years-long campaign of murdering Iranian scientists (Responsible Statecraft, 12/21/20), and asphyxiating Iran’s civilian population through economic sanctions (Human Rights Watch, 10/29/19).

In other words, the US has been prosecuting a war against the Iranian people for more than 70 years, and Iran hasn’t done anything remotely comparable to the US, but the corporate media pretends that the inverse is true.

The consent manufacturers went even further, characterizing Iran as a threat to the world more generally. The Journal (6/22/25) said “Iran has been waging regional and terrorist war for decades,” and that “the world is safer” because the US bombed the country. Stephens proclaimed the Iranian government “the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism,” a claim Boot (6/25/25) echoed, writing that the nation has a “decades-long track record as the No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism.” Sickeningly, Antony Blinken (New York Times, 6/24/25), a leading architect of the genocide of Gaza’s civilian population, called Iran “a leading state sponsor of terrorism; a destructive and destabilizing force via its proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, Yemen and Iraq.”

As usual, none of these writers bothered to say which acts of “terrorism” Iran has backed, never mind provide proof. Of course, if one wanted to make a serious argument that Iran has won the planet’s “state sponsor of terrorism” gold medal, then it would be necessary to show how they trumped, say, US support for Al Qaeda in Syria. For such a case to be convincing, it would furthermore be necessary to assess where bankrolling a genocide ranks in the terror-sponsoring Olympics.

‘A grave nuclear threat’

Max Boot (Washington Post, 6/25/25): “The good news is that both Israel and the United States showed they can bombard Iranian nuclear facilities and other targets at will.”

In the fantasy world where Iran is a grave danger to the US and indeed the world, then wrongly implying that it has or is about to have nuclear weapons packs a heavier punch. The Journal (6/22/25) said, “President Trump’s decision to strike Iran’s three most significant nuclear sites on Saturday helped rid the world of a grave nuclear threat.” The editorial would later add, “Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wanted a bomb more than peace.”

Boot (6/25/25) wrote that “preliminary Israeli intelligence assessments [of the US bombing of Iran] conclude that the damage to the Iranian nuclear weapons program was more extensive—enough to set back the program by several years.” Stephens began his piece:

For decades, a succession of American presidents pledged that they were willing to use force to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. But it was President Trump who, by bombing three of Iran’s key nuclear sites on Sunday morning, was willing to demonstrate that those pledges were not hollow and that Tehran could not simply tunnel its way to a bomb because no country other than Israel dared confront it.

As FAIR contributor Bryce Greene (6/23/25) recently demonstrated, there is no proof that Iran has nuclear weapons or is close to having any. Yet the op-ed pages are peppered with insinuations that Iran’s imaginary nukes legitimize the US’s aggression against the country.

A Boston Globe editorial (6/24/25) read:

After years of insisting it would not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon, Israel followed through by launching a wide-ranging attack earlier this month, assassinating nuclear scientists and military leaders and destroying many sites associated with Iran’s decades-long nuclear program. Trump initially stayed on the sidelines, until Saturday when US bombers delivered the coup de grâce, destroying—or at least heavily damaging—a key underground site that only American bunker-buster bombs could reach….

Stopping Iran, whose unofficial national motto is “Death to America,’’ from gaining a nuclear weapon has rightly been a US priority for decades.

Iran’s nuclear program is now damaged but not destroyed.

What’s missing from this chatter is that, even if we lived in an alternate reality where Iran had nuclear weapons or was hours away from having them, attacking them on these grounds would not be legitimate. After all, international law does not grant states a right to attack each other on a preventive (Conversation, 6/18/25) or pre-emptive basis (Conversation, 6/23/25). This crucial point was entirely absent in the coverage I’ve discussed.

Also overlooked are the 90 nuclear warheads that Israel is believed to have, as well as the more than 5,200 that the US reportedly possesses, none of which apparently constitute “a grave nuclear threat,” even as it’s not Iran but the US and Israel that routinely carry out full-scale invasions and occupations of nations in West Asia.

Whether it’s Iran’s supposed support for terrorism or Iran’s nonexistent and non-imminent nuclear weapons, the propaganda follows the same formula: make an unsubstantiated claim about Iranian malfeasance, and use that as a premise on which to defend Washington openly carrying out acts of aggression, perhaps the gravest violation of international law.

If you want the US and Israel to stop killing and immiserating people in Iran, remember this pattern and get used to debunking it. Because, last week’s ceasefire notwithstanding, the US/Israeli war on Iran isn’t over.

This content originally appeared on FAIR and was authored by Gregory Shupak.

Palestinian writer Mosab Abu Toha has just been awarded the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for his essays about the Palestinian experience in the face of the U.S.-backed Israeli assault on Gaza. He joins Democracy Now! to discuss his work, the necessity of advocating for Palestinian rights, and the violence of Israeli occupation. Abu Toha, who evacuated Gaza in late 2023 after being arrested, beaten and detained by the Israeli military, now resides in Syracuse, New York. He says that, while grateful for the platform granted by the Pulitzer, he cannot celebrate the achievement while “my sisters, my brothers and my parents in Gaza are starving.” Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip has trapped millions of Palestinians in famine conditions, unable to evacuate and under threat of daily bombings and Israeli troop movements. “The only celebration for me is when there is an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza [and] the West Bank, and when justice and peace are served in Palestine,” says Abu Toha.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Bowman’s appointment was yet another gift from the Trump administration to the banking industry, with the American Bankers Association praising her as a “principled voice for sensible regulatory and monetary policy.” In a March interview with Fox News, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said he would be “excited to see [Michele] Bowman appointed” and that the “industry would be excited.”

“Bowman is a gift to the big banks looking to dodge regulation. Her nomination is a sign-off on the industry’s fight to undo key measures keeping money in the pockets of consumers and protecting them from predatory bank practices. Between McKernan at the CFPB and Bowman at the Fed, Trump is setting up an administration that only serves himself and his billionaire donors.”

—Accountable.US Executive Director Tony Carrk.

Previously, Bowman opposed a rule from the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency seeking to update the Community Reinvestment Act to ensure banks adequately provide credit and banking services to minority and low- moderate-income communities, and voted against a rule introduced by federal regulators seeking to increase the capital requirements of large banks, helping “reduc[e] the risk that a bank failure triggers system-wide financial instability.”

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.

China’s state-backed Global Times published an editorial focusing on VOA which it called “a lie factory” and “a thoroughly biased propaganda poison.”

“The so-called beacon of freedom, VOA, has now been discarded by its own government like a dirty rag,” it said.

In a Facebook post, former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who is Senate president and the father of the current premier, called the closure of U.S.-funded “propaganda” outlets “a major contribution to eliminating fake news, disinformation, lies, distortions, incitement, and chaos around the world.”

Meanwhile, human rights activists in some of the world’s most repressive countries spoke out in support of what they see as “beacons of hope” and upholders of the truth.

“There’s something I will remember forever … When my mother was told I’d be released after having served my sentence, she was sitting outside on the patio the whole day to wait for me. The first sound of my voice she heard was on Radio Free Asia and that made her cry out loud,” Le Quoc Quan, a Vietnamese dissident lawyer who served 30 months in prison and who now lives in the United States, recalled on Facebook.

‘Significant setback for the democracy’

Another Vietnamese democracy activist, who spent seven years in jail on subversion charges, said RFA and Voice of America had freed his thinking from the strictures of communist rule before he was imprisoned.

“These two stations played a pivotal role in helping me break free from the propaganda and indoctrination of the Communist Party of Vietnam, shaping my beliefs and actions,” Nguyen Tien Trung wrote from exile in Germany.

The discontinuation of RFA and VOA “represents a significant setback for the democracy and human rights movements in Vietnam, China, Asia, and globally,” he wrote.

“Communist parties in China and Vietnam will dominate narratives unchallenged, preventing Asian audiences from hearing alternative perspectives – stories of democratic progress, freedom, and the dignity that comes from respecting human rights.”

An executive order issued by U.S. President Donald Trump late Friday called for the reduction of non-statutory components of the United States Agency for Global Media, or USAGM, the federal agency that funds RFA, VOA and several other independent global news organizations that broadcast in more than 60 languages.

VOA Director Michael Abramowitz wrote Saturday that virtually the entire staff had been placed on administrative leave.

Staff at RFA were still working Monday and the Washington-based news organization has yet to announce how the funding freeze would impact operations.

Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said it was “devastating to lose Radio Free Asia from the media landscape in Asia.”

“RFA has many courageous reporters who shone a light on rights abuses that authoritarian governments would prefer to hide,” she said in a social media post. “This is a gift to abusive governments in the region.”

RFA covers some of the countries in Asia where press freedom is the most restricted, including China, North Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. It sends news in 10 languages through text, social media, radio and television.

Chinese journalist and human rights activist Gao Yu said in a post on X that authorities had warned her against talking to VOA and RFA.

“This made me realize that these two American media outlets are what the Chinese Communist authorities fear the most,” she said. “This is undoubtedly a moment that the Chinese Communist regime will celebrate.”

A fan of RFA’s Cantonese service, the main language spoken in Hong Kong, where opposition politicians and Western governments say political freedoms have been severely curtailed, expressed disappointment about the possible closure.

“I read your RFA Cantonese news every day. You’re doing a great job! It’s such a pity for it to end like this. I hope there’s a turnaround. Keep going!” said the poster, identified as Lukacat Lime.

Messages of support from Cambodians, Burmese

Thousands of messages of support for RFA and VOA flooded Khmer-language internet forums, with readers and listeners expressing their dismay.

“Khmer people need help because if there is no RFA or VOA we don’t know which news we can listen to,” a woman named Sokra wrote.

The United States and other countries have criticized the suppression of democracy in Cambodia in the years since the U.N.-organized an election in 1993, hoping to heal the decades of conflict and genocide after Cambodia became embroiled in the Vietnam War.

“The news of the potential shutdown is devastating,” said Viriya Lim, another RFA Khmer listener.

“Your reporting has been a crucial source of truth and information for so many. Please know that your efforts have made a real difference, and we are incredibly grateful for your service,” Lim wrote on RFA Khmer’s Facebook.

In Myanmar, where successive generations have struggled to throw off military rule, people expressed their appreciation for RFA.

“Because my father listened to RFA early in the morning and late at night since I was young, so I knew about the dictatorship, democracy, civil society organizations and different countries,” Moe Aung wrote on Facebook.

“I will always give thanks to RFA. I pray you continue to stand.”

In South Korea, Ha Tae-kyung, a three-term lawmaker and vocal critic of North Korea’s woeful human rights record, said it felt as if Washington was undermining its standing by shutting RFA and VOA.

“These organizations have been dedicated to North Korean human rights and democratization for decades,” said Ha. “It takes decades to build a well-constructed tower but only a single day to bring it down.”

Beijing’s criticism

The Chinese government did not immediately react to Friday’s executive order. But the Global Times editorial took aim at VOA, claiming that its independence and credibility “have long been questioned and criticized.”

“Known for stirring up conflicts, inciting social divisions, and even participating in regime change efforts, VOA is widely recognized as Washington’s carefully crafted propaganda machine for peaceful evolution, earning itself a notorious reputation on the global stage,” the Global Times said.

It mentioned RFA and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, too, saying that the organizations’ primary function is “to serve Washington’s need to attack other countries based on ideological demands.”

Hu Xijin, a top Chinese propagandist and former Global Times editor, praised the decision, calling RFA “malicious toward China” and the funding cut “greatly satisfying.” He shared his remarks on his WeChat channel, which quickly spread across Chinese state-owned media outlets like iFeng.com and other Chinese social media platforms.

Those remarks were amplified on social media by China’s army of nationalistic “little pink” commentators, who have started targeting VOA’s Chinese and Taiwanese journalists, posting their photos and accusing them of doing “dirty work” and being “yellow-skinned with white hearts.”

On Monday, an op-ed from Beijing Daily, a state-owned media outlet, mocked the shutdown of RFA, RFE, and VOA declaring, “The ‘beacon of freedom’ has collapsed.” and “U.S. Hegemony will eventually perish under global condemnation.

Some journalists working for Chinese media, such as Andy Boreham at the state English-language newspaper Shanghai Daily, said the prospect of RFA having to lay off staff over funding cuts was “excellent news.”

The New Zealand-born journalist labelled RFA “one of the U.S.’s most insidious anti-China propaganda outlets.”

RFA is funded by the U.S. Congress but retains full editorial independence from the government. All editorial staff are expected to conduct themselves professionally and ethically and promote the highest standards of journalism.

Edited by RFA staff.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.

Paolo* was just 15 years old when he witnessed the Philippine National Police (PNP) mercilessly kill his father in 2016.

Nearly nine years later, the scales are shifting as Rodrigo Duterte, the man who unleashed death upon his family and thousands of others, now faces the weight of justice before the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“Finally, naaresto din, [pero] dapat isama si [Senator Ronald dela Rosa], dapat silang panagutin sa dami ng pamilyang inulila nila. (Finally, he’s arrested but Dela Rosa should’ve been with him, they should be held accountable for how many families they left in mourning),” he said.

• READ MORE: Special Rappler coverage: The arrest of Rodrigo Duterte
• PHOTOESSAY: Buried in debt only to have their loved ones get a burial — Pacific Journalism Review
• Other Rodrigo Duterte reports

Paolo, then a minor, was also accosted and tortured by Caloocan police — from the same city police who would kill 17-year-old Kian delos Santos less than a year later.

He was threatened not to do anything else or else end up like his father. Paolo carried the threats and the fear over the years, even as he hoped for justice.

This hanging on for hope in the face of devastation was not for nothing.

Duterte was arrested today by Philippine authorities following the issue of a warrant by the ICC in relation to crimes against humanity committed during his violent war on drugs.

The ICC has been investigating the killings under Duterte’s flagship campaign, which led to at least 6252 deaths in police operations alone by May 2022. The number reached between 27,000 to 30,000, including those killed vigilante-style.

The Presidential Communications Office said that the government received from the Interpol an official copy of a warrant of arrest.

Duterte was presented by the Philippine government’s Prosecutor-General with the ICC notification of an arrest over crimes against humanity upon his arrival from Hong Kong on this morning.

Slow but sure step to justice
Paolo is not the only one rejoicing over Duterte’s arrest. Many families, including those from drug war hot spot Caloocan City, see this as the long-awaited step toward the justice they have been denied for years.

When the news broke, Ana* was overcome with joy and thanked God for giving families the strength and unwavering faith to keep fighting for justice. She knew the weight of loss all too well.

In 2017, police stormed into their home in Caloocan City and brutally killed her husband and father-in-law in a single night.

Ana, who was five months pregnant at that time, was caught in the violence and was hit by a stray bullet. She and other victims have since been supported by the In Defence of Human Rights and Dignity Movement.

“Sa wakas, unti-unti nang nakakamit ang hustisya para sa lahat ng biktima (At last, justice is slowly being achieved for all the victims),” she recalled thinking when she read that Duterte had been arrested.

But Ana is wishing for more than just imprisonment for Duterte, even as she welcomed the long-awaited accountability from the former president and his allies.

“Sana din ay aminin niya lahat ng kamalian at humingi siya ng kapatawaran sa lahat ng tao na biktima para matahimik din ang mga kaluluwa ng mga namatay (I hope he also admits to all his wrongdoings and asks for forgiveness from every victim, so that the souls of those who were killed may finally find peace),” she said.

Brutality they endured
For the families, the ICC’s move and the government’s action are an acknowledgment of the brutality they endured. The latest development is also a validation of their grief and provides a glimmer of hope that accountability is finally within reach. After years of being silenced and dismissed, they see this moment as the start of a reckoning they feared would never come.

Celina, whose husband was shot dead in a drug war operation, feels overwhelming joy but is wary that the arrest is just part of a long process at the ICC.

“Ang sabi nga po, mahaba-habang laban ito kaya hindi po sa pag-aresto natatapos ito, bagkus ito ay simula pa lamang ng aming mga laban [at] naniniwala kami at aasa sa kakayahan at suporta na ibinibigay sa amin ng ICC [na] sa huli, mananagot ang dapat managot, maparusahan ang may mga sala,” she said.

(As they say, this is a long battle, so it does not end with the arrest. Rather, this is only the beginning of our fight. We believe in and will rely on the ICC’s capability and support, knowing that in the end, those who must be held accountable will face justice, and the guilty will be punished.)

It is a stark contrast to the reality they have lived following the deaths of their loved ones. They were constantly under threat from the police who pulled the trigger. Many families had to flee to faraway places, leaving behind their own communities and source of livelihood.

“Nakakaiyak ako, hindi ko alam ang dapat kong maramdaman na sa ilang taon naming ipinaglalaban ay nakamit din namin ang hustisyang aming minimithi (I’m in tears — I don’t know what to feel. After years of fighting, we have finally achieved the justice we have long been yearning for),“ said Betty, whose 44-year-old son and 22-year-old grandson were killed under Duterte’s drug war.

For Jane Lee, the arrest only underscores the glaring disparity between the powerful and the powerless.

“Mabuti pa siya, inaresto ng mga kapulisan. Ang aming mga kaanak, pinatay agad,” she said. “Napakalaki ng pagkakaiba sa pagitan ng makapangyarihan at ordinaryong taong tulad namin.”

(At least he was arrested by the police. Our loved ones were killed on the spot. The difference between the powerful and ordinary people like us is enormous.)

Lee’s husband, Michael, was gunned down by unidentified men in May 2017, leaving her to raise their three children alone. Since then, she has volunteered for Rise Up for Life and for Rights, a group composed mostly of widows and mothers who remain steadfast in demanding justice for drug war victims.

Collective rage
Families from Rise Up in Cebu also voiced their collective rage against Duterte who ordered killings from the presidential pulpit for six years. They hope that Duterte will feel the same pain they felt when their loved ones were forcibly taken away from them.

This afternoon, Duterte condemned the alleged violation of due process following his arrest. His allies are also echoing this messaging, calling the arrest unlawful.

His longtime aide, Senator Bong Go, Go, tried to access Duterte in Villamor Air Base, asking the guards to let him deliver pizza since they hadn’t eaten yet.

“Katiting lang iyan sa ginawa mo sa amin na sinira mo ang aming buhay at hanapbuhay dahil sa iyong pekeng war on drugs,” the families of drug war victims in Cebu said. “Wala kang karapatan na kumuha ng buhay ng iba [kasi] Diyos lang may karapatan kaya sa ginawa mo, maniningil ang taumbayan lalo na kaming mga pamilya ng mga naging biktima.”

(That is nothing compared to what you did to us. You destroyed our lives and livelihood because of your fake war on drugs. You have no right to take another person’s life; only God has that right. Because of what you have done, the people will demand justice, especially we, the families of the victims.)

There is still no clear information on what comes next, whether Duterte will be immediately transferred to the International Criminal Court headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands, or if legal battles will delay the process.

But Mila*, whose 17-year-old nephew was killed by police in Quezon City in 2018, hopes for one thing if the former president finds himself in a detention cell soon: “Sana huwag na siya lumaya (I hope he is never set free).” 

Republished from Rappler with permission.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

Paolo* was just 15 years old when he witnessed the Philippine National Police (PNP) mercilessly kill his father in 2016.

Nearly nine years later, the scales are shifting as Rodrigo Duterte, the man who unleashed death upon his family and thousands of others, now faces the weight of justice before the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“Finally, naaresto din, [pero] dapat isama si [Senator Ronald dela Rosa], dapat silang panagutin sa dami ng pamilyang inulila nila. (Finally, he’s arrested but Dela Rosa should’ve been with him, they should be held accountable for how many families they left in mourning),” he said.

• READ MORE: Special Rappler coverage: The arrest of Rodrigo Duterte
• PHOTOESSAY: Buried in debt only to have their loved ones get a burial — Pacific Journalism Review
• Other Rodrigo Duterte reports

Paolo, then a minor, was also accosted and tortured by Caloocan police — from the same city police who would kill 17-year-old Kian delos Santos less than a year later.

He was threatened not to do anything else or else end up like his father. Paolo carried the threats and the fear over the years, even as he hoped for justice.

This hanging on for hope in the face of devastation was not for nothing.

Duterte was arrested today by Philippine authorities following the issue of a warrant by the ICC in relation to crimes against humanity committed during his violent war on drugs.

The ICC has been investigating the killings under Duterte’s flagship campaign, which led to at least 6252 deaths in police operations alone by May 2022. The number reached between 27,000 to 30,000, including those killed vigilante-style.

The Presidential Communications Office said that the government received from the Interpol an official copy of a warrant of arrest.

Duterte was presented by the Philippine government’s Prosecutor-General with the ICC notification of an arrest over crimes against humanity upon his arrival from Hong Kong on this morning.

Slow but sure step to justice
Paolo is not the only one rejoicing over Duterte’s arrest. Many families, including those from drug war hot spot Caloocan City, see this as the long-awaited step toward the justice they have been denied for years.

When the news broke, Ana* was overcome with joy and thanked God for giving families the strength and unwavering faith to keep fighting for justice. She knew the weight of loss all too well.

In 2017, police stormed into their home in Caloocan City and brutally killed her husband and father-in-law in a single night.

Ana, who was five months pregnant at that time, was caught in the violence and was hit by a stray bullet. She and other victims have since been supported by the In Defence of Human Rights and Dignity Movement.

“Sa wakas, unti-unti nang nakakamit ang hustisya para sa lahat ng biktima (At last, justice is slowly being achieved for all the victims),” she recalled thinking when she read that Duterte had been arrested.

But Ana is wishing for more than just imprisonment for Duterte, even as she welcomed the long-awaited accountability from the former president and his allies.

“Sana din ay aminin niya lahat ng kamalian at humingi siya ng kapatawaran sa lahat ng tao na biktima para matahimik din ang mga kaluluwa ng mga namatay (I hope he also admits to all his wrongdoings and asks for forgiveness from every victim, so that the souls of those who were killed may finally find peace),” she said.

Brutality they endured
For the families, the ICC’s move and the government’s action are an acknowledgment of the brutality they endured. The latest development is also a validation of their grief and provides a glimmer of hope that accountability is finally within reach. After years of being silenced and dismissed, they see this moment as the start of a reckoning they feared would never come.

Celina, whose husband was shot dead in a drug war operation, feels overwhelming joy but is wary that the arrest is just part of a long process at the ICC.

“Ang sabi nga po, mahaba-habang laban ito kaya hindi po sa pag-aresto natatapos ito, bagkus ito ay simula pa lamang ng aming mga laban [at] naniniwala kami at aasa sa kakayahan at suporta na ibinibigay sa amin ng ICC [na] sa huli, mananagot ang dapat managot, maparusahan ang may mga sala,” she said.

(As they say, this is a long battle, so it does not end with the arrest. Rather, this is only the beginning of our fight. We believe in and will rely on the ICC’s capability and support, knowing that in the end, those who must be held accountable will face justice, and the guilty will be punished.)

It is a stark contrast to the reality they have lived following the deaths of their loved ones. They were constantly under threat from the police who pulled the trigger. Many families had to flee to faraway places, leaving behind their own communities and source of livelihood.

“Nakakaiyak ako, hindi ko alam ang dapat kong maramdaman na sa ilang taon naming ipinaglalaban ay nakamit din namin ang hustisyang aming minimithi (I’m in tears — I don’t know what to feel. After years of fighting, we have finally achieved the justice we have long been yearning for),“ said Betty, whose 44-year-old son and 22-year-old grandson were killed under Duterte’s drug war.

For Jane Lee, the arrest only underscores the glaring disparity between the powerful and the powerless.

“Mabuti pa siya, inaresto ng mga kapulisan. Ang aming mga kaanak, pinatay agad,” she said. “Napakalaki ng pagkakaiba sa pagitan ng makapangyarihan at ordinaryong taong tulad namin.”

(At least he was arrested by the police. Our loved ones were killed on the spot. The difference between the powerful and ordinary people like us is enormous.)

Lee’s husband, Michael, was gunned down by unidentified men in May 2017, leaving her to raise their three children alone. Since then, she has volunteered for Rise Up for Life and for Rights, a group composed mostly of widows and mothers who remain steadfast in demanding justice for drug war victims.

Collective rage
Families from Rise Up in Cebu also voiced their collective rage against Duterte who ordered killings from the presidential pulpit for six years. They hope that Duterte will feel the same pain they felt when their loved ones were forcibly taken away from them.

This afternoon, Duterte condemned the alleged violation of due process following his arrest. His allies are also echoing this messaging, calling the arrest unlawful.

His longtime aide, Senator Bong Go, Go, tried to access Duterte in Villamor Air Base, asking the guards to let him deliver pizza since they hadn’t eaten yet.

“Katiting lang iyan sa ginawa mo sa amin na sinira mo ang aming buhay at hanapbuhay dahil sa iyong pekeng war on drugs,” the families of drug war victims in Cebu said. “Wala kang karapatan na kumuha ng buhay ng iba [kasi] Diyos lang may karapatan kaya sa ginawa mo, maniningil ang taumbayan lalo na kaming mga pamilya ng mga naging biktima.”

(That is nothing compared to what you did to us. You destroyed our lives and livelihood because of your fake war on drugs. You have no right to take another person’s life; only God has that right. Because of what you have done, the people will demand justice, especially we, the families of the victims.)

There is still no clear information on what comes next, whether Duterte will be immediately transferred to the International Criminal Court headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands, or if legal battles will delay the process.

But Mila*, whose 17-year-old nephew was killed by police in Quezon City in 2018, hopes for one thing if the former president finds himself in a detention cell soon: “Sana huwag na siya lumaya (I hope he is never set free).” 

Republished from Rappler with permission.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

The U.S. empire, draped in the language of feminism and empowerment, has weaponized IWD to justify its gangsterism. In Gaza, U.S.-backed Israeli forces have killed and displaced thousands of women and children, destroying homes, hospitals, and schools under the guise of “security.” In Sudan, U.S.-aligned forces and foreign interventions have fueled a devastating civil war, displacing millions and leaving women vulnerable to sexual violence and starvation. In Haiti, U.S. imperialism has propped up corrupt regimes and destabilized the nation, leaving women to bear the brunt of poverty, violence, and systemic collapse. Meanwhile, in the U.S., Black women in cities like Chicago and rural areas like the Mississippi Delta face systemic neglect, police violence, and economic exploitation. These are not isolated incidents but the direct consequences of Western imperialism, which prioritizes profit and power over human lives.

The celebration of IWD by those complicit in these atrocities is a grotesque distortion of its founding principles. True solidarity with women worldwide means opposing the systems that exploit and destroy their lives. It means standing against the U.S. empire’s wars, sanctions, and interventions that disproportionately harm women in the Global South. It means reclaiming IWD as a day of resistance against imperialism, capitalism, and patriarchy.

For the Black Alliance for Peace, the task is reclaiming International Women’s Day as a day of struggle, not of celebration—a day to dismantle Western imperialism and fight for a world where all women can live in freedom and dignity.

No Compromise.

No Retreat!

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Black Alliance for Peace.

Colloquially known as “Chinese New Year,” the Lunar New Year falls on Jan. 29 this year, but it can come as early as Jan. 21 or as late as Feb. 20. In 2026, the holiday falls on Feb. 17.

The variation is the result of using a lunar calendar based on the phases of the moon, modified into a lunisolar calendar that addresses leap years to keep it roughly in line with the solar year of the Western, or Gregorian, calendar.

Most East Asian nations adopted the Gregorian calendar in the late 19th or early 20th centuries, and the lunisolar calendar is used for cultural events, religious ceremonies, and for some people, birthdays.

(Chan Long Hei/AP)

Lunar New Year traditions vary greatly among the nine countries or territories covered by Radio Free Asia.

Most of China’s 1.4 billion people -– as well as people in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Chinese communities around the world, observe the Lunar New Year, known as Chunjie, or Spring Festival.

In China, the holiday brings a two-week vacation and a large mass migration of people back to their hometowns, where extended families reunite for feasts of special dishes believed to bring good luck.

Red envelopes and fireworks

Honoring ancestors is a key part of the festivities, but many of the rituals are forward-looking, symbolizing new beginnings and the hope of good fortune and health in the new year.

Children and youth are given red envelopes full of cash, and families clean their houses and try to pay off their debts to clean the slate. Masses of fireworks are set off to scare away demons that may haunt the new year.

When China was poor, the Spring Festival meant a rare opportunity to eat meat and other quality foods and wear new clothes. Now, many younger Chinese use the break to fly off to Japan to ski or to tour Southeast Asian countries.

(ADITYA AJI, Aditya Aji/AFP)

The reason “Chinese New Year” is a misnomer is that the holiday is also observed on the same date in South Korea and Vietnam –- two neighbors of China that were heavily influenced by Chinese culture centuries ago. Like China, they will ring in the Year of the Snake on Wednesday.

In South Korea, the holiday is called Seollal and features a return to hometowns, the wearing of traditional hanbok attire, playing folk games, and performing rites and offering food to deceased relatives to honor the family lineage.

Young people bow deeply before their elders and receive gifts and money, and rice cake soup is a main treat for the holiday, which is a three-day affair.

Kim Dynasty and Tet

North Korea, separated from the South in the wake of World War II in a division cemented by the 1950-53 Korean War, returned to the practice of celebrating the Lunar New Year in 1989, and made it an official holiday in 2003.

But the most important holidays in North Korea focus on the birthdates of founder Kim Il Sung and his son Kim Jong Il, the father of current leader Kim Jong Un. Even Lunar New Year is observed mainly by visits to statues of the two elder Kims.

(Hau Dinh, Hau Dinh/AP)

Vietnam, which moved from the lunar calendar to the Gregorian one when it was a colony of France in the late 19th century, calls the holiday Tết Nguyên Đán, or Tết for short. As in China, the Vietnamese will clean their homes and pay off debts, cook special dishes and make offerings to ancestors.

While Vietnam will ring in the Year of the Snake this year, they don’t follow all 12 signs of the Chinese zodiac. When China observes the Year of the Rabbit, Vietnam honors the cat, while the Chinese Year of the Ox is instead the Year of the Buffalo.

Special dumplings and Buddhist chants

Tibet, which was annexed by China in 1950, calls its new year Losar, which falls in February or March, and very occasionally coincides with China’s Lunar New Year. This year, Losar, one of the most important festivals, falls on Feb. 28 and runs for 15 days.

A highly religious holiday, Losar features a special noodle dish called Guthuk, containing dumplings made of different ingredients such as salt or rice that are seen as good omens.

(Bikram Rai/AP)

The ceremony Monlam (“Wish Path”) held at major monasteries of the Gelug sect of Tibetan Buddhism entails monks chanting and praying to bring peace and good fortune to their Himalayan region.

The Uyghurs of the Xinjiang region, annexed by China in 1949-50, celebrate Nowruz, the Persian New Year. It falls on or near the Spring Equinox and will be observed on March 20 this year.

The holiday is observed by various ethnic groups in countries along the Silk Road, including Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, India, Iran, Iraq, central Asian states and Turkey.

For the Uyghurs, facing repression under Chinese rule and heavy-handed assimilation policies, there is a strong emphasis on preserving cultural identity through gatherings, feasts of special food, music and dance.

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Splashing water, Buddhist rites

In Southeast Asia, while Vietnam follows the Chinese-inspired calendar and traditions, the traditionally Buddhist nations of Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar mark the solar new year in mid-April, when the sun enters the sign of Aries the Ram.

(Chalinee Thirasupa/Reuters)

Many rites and practices are similar to those of Thailand, with water festivals aimed at cleansing and renewal, as well as traditional food, games, music and dancing. The festival comes in the hottest month of the year, just after the harvest and before the rainy season.

In Cambodia, the Khmer New Year – known variously as Chaul Chnam Thmey, Moha Sangkran or Sangkran – runs from April 14-16 this year. It is a time of family reunions, religious ceremonies and giving alms to the poor.

In next-door Laos, the New Year is known as Pi Mai or Boun Pimay, and this will run from April 13-16. During the festivities, people splash water on each other to bring good luck and peace throughout the coming year.

(Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP)

The people of Myanmar celebrate the Burmese New Year, called Thingyan, or Water Festival, by throwing buckets of water on each other and on Buddha images as an act of prayer to wash away misfortunes to welcome the new year. It falls on April 13-16 this year.

Edited by Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Paul Eckert.

On December 22, 2024, Sudarshan News Jodhpur posted videos on its Facebook channel in which a man can be heard telling reporters this outside Jodhpur’s Shree Mahesh Shikshan Sansthan, also known as the MSS World School.

He proudly proclaims that once Bajrang Dal learned about Christmas celebrations in the school, they made it stop and had the adornments removed. Bajrang Dal is the youth wing of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), a far-Right Hindu organisation that also has associations with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Another video by the propaganda outlet shows this man inside the school. Addressing the camera, he says, “We will not accept this kind of an event (Christmas),” as other men take down the tinsel and decor. The song “Bharat Ka Baccha Baccha Jai Sri Ram Bolega” plays in the background.

The accompanying caption by Sudarshan News Jodhpur said that “conversion had spread like Cancer” under the previous government and, now, under chief minister Bhajanlal Sharma’s regime, Right-wing organisations will “expose anti-national elements one by one.”

What happened in this school, however, was not an isolated instance. In the days leading up to December 25, 2024, numerous social media accounts that identify as pro-Hindu or associate themselves with the Bajrang Dal took to social media, urging parents across the country to refrain from dressing their children as “jokers” — a crude reference to Santa Claus costumes. Below are some examples:

But it didn’t stop at that. While investigating incidents of targeted hate towards Christians, especially during Christmas, Alt News identified a troubling trend. Many affiliated with or claiming to be affiliated with pro-Hindu organisation Bajrang Dal were targeting schools celebrating Christmas.

District-level social media accounts that identified with Bajrang Dal or the VHP brazenly flexed this intervention by uploading videos showing Christmas decor being stripped off, celebrations being halted and “lessons” being taught to school authorities on what should and should not be celebrated.

Surprisingly, much of the footage that came to our attention was of vigilantes disrupting these celebrations in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state Gujarat.

‘Why Should We Celebrate Their Festival?’

On December 25, the Instagram handle of Vishva Hindu Parishad Gandhidham (@vhp_gandhidham) posted a video showing men wearing saffron stoles with the Bajrang Dal signage claiming that these workers from the Bapunagar district in Gujarat stopped a Christmas program in a school and informed everyone that children are the form of God, not ‘jokers’. 

Alt News was able to identify two schools from Ahmedabad in this edited montage — South International School and Rising Kids Preschool in the Naroda and Bapunagar districts, respectively. A ‘Before and After’ comparison in the video by the VHP-associated account showed the schools done up for Christmas taking down all decorations after a conversation between these saffron-clad individuals and school authorities.

An Instagram account going by the name Bajrang Dal Naroda Jila (@bajrang_dal_narodajilla) uploaded multiple videos documenting similar actions by them across various schools in the Naroda district. These videos were deleted after Alt News began reaching out to official members of the Bajrang Dal and VHP for comment. 

In one such video posted on December 24, a group of people wearing saffron scarfs with “Jai Sri Ram” written on them in Gujarati are seen speaking to authorities at the Ankur International School. A similar ‘Before-After’ comparison showed decorations previously adorning the primary school being removed. The accompanying caption said that ‘Bajrangi brothers’ went to the school and taught a lesson on Sanatan Dharma in “their own way”.

In another video uploaded by the same Instagram account on December 24, a similar chain of events unfolds at Little Angels’ School. In the video, a saffron-clad man is also seen tearing a hand-painted cutout of Santa Claus to pieces. The caption accompanying the video says that the group protested against celebrations happening on Christmas Eve at the playschool. On the same day, a similar group entered the premises of the district’s Excellent School. A video shows students removing Christmas decorations from the bedecked campus.

Ankur English School in the same area also faced a similar ordeal. In a video shared by the account, a group of people can be seen having an animated discussion with authorities at the academy. One of them says in Gujarati, “They (Christians) comprise only 2% of the population; they don’t celebrate Ram Navami, so why should we celebrate their festival?” He adds that the holiday should not be on account of Christmas but Tulsi Puja Diwas. The caption accompanying this video said that teachers at this school were instructed to teach their students about the values of “Sanatan Dharma” instead of Santa and Christmas.

Meanwhile, another video showed children at Saijpur Sarkari Hindi Medium School being made to chant “Jay Shree Ram” and recite Hanuman Chalisa, a devotional hymn dedicated to the Hindu god Hanuman. 

Alt News analysed each of these videos several times to ascertain the schools involved and identify the people in them. We were able to ascertain that while these groups might have been disparate, at least a few faces were common in most of them. All the individuals we tracked from these videos identify as pro-Right on their social media accounts and regularly amplify content linked to the VHP or Bajrang Dal.

Other district-level Instagram accounts associated with the Bajrang Dal or VHP also uploaded similar videos. For instance, on December 25, the accounts of Bajrang Dal Kalol (@bajrangdal.kalol), Bajrang Dal Mehsana (@bajrangdal_mehsana) and Bajrang Dal Nandasan Prakhand (@bajrangdal_nandasan_prakhand) collaboratively uploaded footage of workers directing authorities at Shree Narayana Higher Secondary School in Kathwada to remove decorations. The video clearly shows painted cutouts of Santa Claus with a reindeer and a Christmas tree, likely made by the children there being taken down.

Likewise, on December 24, Bajrang Dal Amaraiwadi (@bajrangdal_amraiwadi) posted footage of a group of saffron-clad men visiting different schools in Ahmedabad’s Hatkeswar locality. The video, which opens with men riding motorcycles and screaming “Jay Shree Ram” on the streets, shows them entering The Mother English School in the area. Here, they have a heated discussion with school authorities and soon after, one of those visibly identifying with the pro-Hindu group can be seen tearing down Christmas and Santa drawings, which looked like they were made by children. In the next shot, another man tears down streamers while a student is seen taking off his Santa Claus costume. The group then goes on to disrupt Christmas celebrations at St. Lawrence Public School.

A deep dive into these videos also led us to the Instagram account of a Pankaj B Nai (@pankajbnai_3636), who identifies as a Bajrang Dal worker. He uploaded the same video claiming, in the caption, that Bajrang Dal workers went to 15 schools in the Hatkeshwar area and put an end to programs deemed contrary to Hindu culture.

Alt News reached out to all of these schools for comment. Four of them anonymously confirmed that these events did happen; people claiming they were from the VHP or Bajrang Dal visited the schools and tried halting celebrations.

“They are little (kids) and we have Christian children studying here as well. We celebrate all festivals. But Bajrang Dal members coerced us into halting the program and sending students home,” a spokesperson from one of the schools said on condition of anonymity. “Humne poocha toh unhone kaha ki upar se order hai.” (When we asked they told us the orders were from higher up.) “We have to live and work here and we have to prioritise the safety of the students and faculty,” this person added when we asked whether they reached out to the police. 

Other schools did not comment or elaborate but did not outright deny that it happened.

Alt News also reached out to Vishva Hindu Parishad Gujarat’s spokesperson, Hitendra Rajput, who looked into some of the videos and said that none of the Instagram accounts uploading these videos actually belonged to the VHP or Bajrang Dal. “These are not our workers. These are not verified accounts and we don’t know who these people are, we only have one primary social media account which is for all of Gujarat,” Rajput told Alt News. When asked if the VHP would take any action against these people, Rajput said they would look into it now that it’s come to his attention. He clearly said that the VHP or Bajrang Dal has no official district-level social media accounts.

However, a day after we reached out to Rajput, many of the videos from VHP Naroda’s Instagram account and a few from other VHP and Bajrang Dal-associated accounts were deleted. Alt News had archived them when they were live. Additionally, these accounts that Rajput said were not officially affiliated to VHP or Bajrang Dal regularly share images and videos of VHP-led events and programs.

Gujarat Leads the Charge, Other States Follow

While our investigation primarily focused on Gujarat, we found more such incidents of Right-wing vigilantes teaching schools “a lesson” in other states as well.

One video from Nakur in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur district shows a group of men entering a school named Our Heaven Academy, where a program is going on and some can be seen wearing Santa Claus hats. When we reached out to the school, they said that Bajrang Dal workers tried to stop a “farewell program” that coincidentally happened to take place on December 25 and asked why students were in school on a holiday.

On December 20, in Kerala’s Palakkad district, three VHP members entered the premises of Nallepilly Government Upper Primary School, which was decked up for Christmas and proceeded to vandalize the decorations. The school authorities filed a complaint in which they said that VHP members questioned and verbally abused them. Workers of the Right-wing body reportedly asked whether the school observed Krishna Jayanti before calling them out for celebrating Christmas.

The three members, identified as K Anilkumar, V Susasanan, and K Velayudhan, were arrested by the police for harassing the school faculty. Three days after this, a Christmas crib arranged for celebrations at the Government Boys School at Thathamangalam, in Palakkad, was destroyed. 

Many of the incidents that Alt News documented were available on social media and in the public domain, easily accessible for all to see. But this also means that there could be more such cases that may never come to light because there is no record of them online or, like in the case of the videos by VHP Naroda Jila, have now been wiped away from the digital space.

The post ‘Why should Indian schools celebrate Christmas?’ Saffron sees red, strikes appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

Predominantly Buddhist Myanmar has been engulfed in conflict since the military overthrew an elected government in 2021, with fighting particularly heavy in ethnic minority areas where many Christians live and where generations have battled for self-determination.

“Christmas is a very important day for Christians, it’s also important to be safe,” said Ba Nyar, an official in an ethnic minority administration in eastern Myanmar’s Kayah state in an area under the control of anti-junta insurgents.

“That’s why lately religious ceremonies have only been held in Mother’s Cave, which is free from the danger of air strikes,” he told Radio Free Asia, referring to a cave in the forest that covers the state’s craggy hills near the border with Thailand.

Several hundred people, most of them women and children, crowded into the cave on Christmas Eve, squatting on its hard-packed floor for a service led by a priest standing behind an altar bedecked with flowers and candles.

Ba Nyar and other residents of the area declined to reveal the cave’s location, fearing the junta would bomb it with aircraft or attack drones if they knew where it was.

(Christ the King - Loikaw via Facebook)

Most of those attending the service in Mother’s Cave have been displaced by fighting in Kayah state, where junta forces have targeted civilians and their places of worship, insurgents and rights groups say.

Nearly 50 villagers were killed in Kayah state’s Moso village on Christmas Eve in 2021, when junta troops attacked after a clash with rebels.

In November, the air force bombed a church where displaced people were sheltering near northern Myanmar’s border with China killing nine of them including children.

More than 300 religious buildings, including about 100 churches and numerous Buddhist temples, have been destroyed by the military in attacks since the 2021 coup, a spokesman for a shadow government in exile, the National Unity Government, or NUG, said on Tuesday.

RFA tried to contact the military spokesman, Major General Zaw Min Tun, for comment but he did not answer phone calls. The junta rejects the accusations by opposition forces and international rights groups that it targets civilians and places of worship.

About 6.5% of Myanmar’s 57 million people are Christian, many of them members of ethnic minorities in hilly border areas of Chin, Kachin, Kayah and Kayin states.

No Christmas carols

In northwestern Myanmar’s Chin state, people fear military retaliation for losses to insurgent forces there in recent days and so have cut back their Christmas festivities.

“When the country is free we can do these things again. We just have to be patient, even though we’re sad,” said a resident of the town of Mindat, which recently came under the control of anti-junta forces.

“In December in the past, we’d hear young people singing carols, even at midnight, but now we don’t,” said the resident, a woman who declined to be identified for safety reasons.

“I miss the things we used to do at Christmas,” she told RFA.

In Mon Hla, a largely Christian village in the central Sagaing region, a resident said church services were being kept as brief as possible.

Junta forces badly damaged the church in the home village of Myanmar’s most prominent Christian, Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, in an air raid in October.

“Everyone going to church is worried that they’re going to get bombed,” the resident, who also declined to be identified, told RFA on Christmas Day.

“The sermons are as short as possible, not only at Christmas but every Sunday too,” she said.

The chief of the junta, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, attended a Christmas dinner on Sunday at St. Mary’s Cathedral in the main city of Yangon and reiterated a call for insurgents to make peace, saying his government was strengthening democracy.

Anti-junta forces dismiss his calls as meaningless and say there is no basis for trusting the military, which overthrew a civilian government in 2021, imprisoned its leaders and has tried to crush all opposition.

Edited by RFA Staff.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.

The now-banned pesticide — dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate, or DCPA, marketed under the trade name Dacthal — stops the growth of certain annual grasses and weeds, and was registered for use with broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and onions, among other crops, as well as turf. But mounting evidence has shown the chemical is dangerous to people — ”so dangerous that it needs to be removed from the market immediately,” as Michael Freedhoff, assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, said in a statement. 

As of Tuesday, farmers won’t be able to buy more DCPA or use up their existing stock. It’s the first time in nearly 40 years that the EPA has exercised this emergency authority for a pesticide.

Farmworker unions and advocacy organizations are hailing the decision as a major victory for environmental justice, as pregnant people working on farms can be exposed to DCPA levels between 4 and 20 times higher than what the EPA estimates is safe. Nearly 80 percent of farmworkers nationally identify as Hispanic, while 70 percent are foreign born, and 20 percent of agricultural worker families live below the federal poverty line. Economic precarity, language barriers, and fear of being reported to immigration authorities can make it difficult for farmworkers to push back against dangerous working conditions.

“The EPA’s order will protect farmworker women and girls who bear the heavy and dangerous burden of pesticide exposure every day,” Mily Treviño-Sauceda, executive director of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, an organization of female farmworkers, said in a statement. “It will spare their children lifelong harm when they are growing food to ensure families around the country have food on their tables.”

The EPA’s decision is the result of a regular review process conducted every 15 years to ensure registered pesticides cause “no unreasonable adverse effects on humans and the environment.” 

For DCPA, the EPA gathered toxicity data from the AMVAC Chemical Corporation, DCPA’s only manufacturer, between 2013 and 2023. After receiving a long-awaited study on the herbicide’s effects on fetal thyroid development, the EPA said last year that there were serious health risks to people handling the chemical or working in areas where it has been used.

Although DCPA product labels warned workers not to enter treated fields for 12 hours after the chemical was applied, EPA found that, in many cases, fields remained too dangerous to enter for periods of 25 days or more. A phenomenon called “spray drift,” where pesticides float from the point of application to other fields or neighborhoods, also posed potentially unmitigable risks to human health.

In April, the EPA issued a warning to farmworkers about the “serious, permanent, and irreversible health risks” associated with DCPA — including concerns that the chemical could induce changes to fetal thyroid hormone levels, which are linked to low birth weight and impaired brain development, and motor skills. AMVAC voluntarily canceled DCPA registrations for use on turf in December 2023, but the EPA said the company’s proposals to mitigate the chemical’s many health risks were inadequate. The agency notified AMVAC earlier this year that it would be taking regulatory action “as soon as practicable” under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, or FIFRA.

Under less urgent circumstances, that might have meant issuing a cancellation order but then keeping DPCA on the market for several months or even years while the agency fulfilled procedural requirements like collecting input from stakeholders and the public and negotiating with the product manufacturer. In this case, however, the EPA said the risks were so great that it could suspend DCPA while those cancellation proceedings unfolded.

The AMVAC Chemical Corporation did not respond to Grist’s request for comment.

Amy van Saun, a senior attorney for the nonprofit Center for Food Safety, commended the EPA’s decision to no only stop the sale of DCPA but order companies not to use the Dacthal they already have on hand: “No more sale or transport unless you’re giving it back to the manufacturer to dispose of,” she said. “If the EPA does a good job of telling everybody that this is happening, that you can no longer use this, then farmworkers who are working around [DCPA] will immediately not have to be exposed anymore.”

She added that farmworkers represent the “backbone” of the United States’ agricultural system but have historically “been treated extremely unfairly.”

Anne Katten, director of the Pesticide and Worker Safety Project at the nonprofit California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, said the suspension will also protect farmworkers’ families. “It’s often very hard to completely eliminate take-home exposures,” she said, explaining how DCPA can cling to field workers’ clothing and follow them home. Farmworkers are generally concerned about pesticide exposures, Katten added, but they often don’t know which ones have been applied to the fields where they work.

Katten and van Saun said they’re now eager to see the EPA use its authority to suspend other toxic pesticides, including paraquat and the weed killer glyphosate — known by the brand name Roundup. Long-term exposure to paraquat, which is banned in the European Union, has been linked to Parkinson’s; some studies link glyphosate to cancer, as well as liver and kidney damage. In 2021, the EPA banned the pesticide chlorpyrifos after research linked it to neurological damage in children.

“We really encourage EPA to keep doing this,” van Saun said. “We hope they continue to cancel more pesticides that are harming people’s health.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Farmworker advocates celebrate rare EPA ban of toxic pesticide on Aug 9, 2024.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Joseph Winters.

We look at the historic $2 billion payout by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to farmers who experienced systemic discrimination when applying to the USDA’s farm loan programs. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has documented how USDA administrators routinely denied loans to Black farmers and other farmers of color for many decades, contributing to a massive decline in the amount of Black-owned farms in the United States. “This is a very, very historic payout for Black farmers,” says John Boyd, a fourth-generation Black farmer and founder of the National Black Farmers Association, who notes the application to receive the payout was 40 pages long. He says the group is also still fighting for a related $5 billion debt relief program. “I want people to know this is a big win, and don’t never, ever give up. The arc of justice bends slow; it bends slower for Black people, but I never gave up.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

We discuss the plea deal and release of Julian Assange with press freedom advocate Trevor Timm. “Thankfully, Julian Assange is finally going free today, but the press freedom implications remain to be seen,” says Timm, who explains the U.S. espionage case against Assange, which was opened under the Trump administration and continued under Biden. Timm expresses disappointment that Biden chose to continue prosecuting Assange rather than demonstrating his stated support of press freedom. If convicted, Assange could have been sentenced to 175 years in U.S. prison, which Timm calls a “ticking time bomb for press freedom rights.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Journalists, publishers, academics, diplomats and NGO representatives from throughout the Asia-Pacific region will gather for the 2024 Pacific International Media Conference hosted by The University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji, next month.

A notable part of the conference on July 4-6 will be the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the journal Pacific Journalism Review — founded by the energetic pioneer of journalism studies in the Pacific, Professor David Robie, who was recently honoured in the NZ King’s Birthday Honours list as a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

I have been on the editorial board of PJR for two of its three decades.

• READ MORE: PJR to celebrate 30 years of journalism publishing at Pacific Media 2024
• Other Pacific Media Conference reports
• Dr Lee Duffield on 20 years of PJR
• Other Mark Pearson media law blog items

As well as delivering a keynote address titled “Frontline Media Faultlines: How Critical Journalism can Survive Against the Odds”, Dr Robie will join me and the current editor of PJR, Dr Philip Cass, on a panel examining the challenges faced by journalism journals in the Global South/Asia Pacific.

We will be moderated by Professor Vijay Naidu, former professor and director of development studies and now an adjunct in the School of Law and Social Sciences at the university. He is also speaking at the PJR birthday event.

In addition, I will be delivering a conference paper titled “Intersections between media law and ethics — a new pedagogy and curriculum”.

Media law and ethics have often been taught as separate courses in the journalism and communication curriculum or have been structured as two distinct halves of a hybrid course.

Integrated ethics and law approach
My paper explains an integrated approach expounded in my new textbook, The Communicator’s Guide to Media Law and Ethics, where each key media law topic is introduced via a thorough exploration of its moral, ethical, religious, philosophical and human rights underpinnings.

The argument is exemplified via an approach to the ethical and legal topic of confidentiality, central to the relationship between journalists and their sources.

After defining the term and distinguishing it from the related topic of privacy, the paper explains the approach in the textbook and curriculum which traces the religious and philosophical origins of confidentiality sourced to Hippocrates (460-370BC), via confidentiality in the priesthood (from Saint Aphrahat to the modern Catholic Code of Canon Law), and through the writings of Kant, Bentham, Stuart Mill, Sidgwick and Rawls until we reach the modern philosopher Sissela Bok’s examination of investigative journalism and claims of a public’s “right to know”.

This leads naturally into an examination of the handling of confidentiality in both public relations and journalism ethical codes internationally and their distinctive approaches, opening the way to the examination of law, cases and examples internationally in confidentiality and disclosure and, ultimately, to a closer examination in the author’s own jurisdiction of Australia.

Specific laws covered include breach of confidence, disobedience contempt, shield laws, whistleblower laws and freedom of information laws — with the latter having a strong foundation in international human rights instruments.

The approach gives ethical studies a practical legal dimension, while enriching students’ legal knowledge with a backbone of its philosophical, religious and human rights origins.

Details about the conference can be found on its USP website.

Professor Mark Pearson (Griffith University) is a journalist, author, academic researcher and teacher with more than 45 years’ experience in journalism and journalism education. He is a former editor of Australian Journalism Review, a columnist for 15 years on research journal findings for the Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers’ Association Bulletin, and author of 13 books, including The Communicator’s Guide to Media Law and Ethics — A Handbook for Australian Professionals (Routledge, 2024). He blogs at JournLaw.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.

Pacific Journalism Review, the Pacific and New Zealand’s only specialist media research journal, is celebrating 30 years of publishing this year — and it will mark the occasion at the Pacific Media International Conference in Fiji in July.

Founded at the University of Papua New Guinea in 1994, PJR also published for five years at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji before moving on to AUT’s Pacific Media Centre (PMC).  It is currently being published by the Auckland-based Asia Pacific Media Network (APMN).

Founding editor Dr David Robie, formerly director of the PMC before he retired from academic life three years ago, said: “This is a huge milestone — three decades of Pacific media research, more than 1000 peer-reviewed articles and an open access database thanks to Tuwhera.

• READ MORE: The Pacific Media International Conference 2024
• The Pacific Journalism Review website

“These days the global research publishing model often denies people access to research if they don’t have access to libraries, so open access is critically important in a Pacific context.”

Current editor Dr Philip Cass told Asia Pacific Report: “For us to return to USP will be like coming home.

“For 30 years PJR has been the only journal focusing exclusively on media and journalism in the Pacific region.

“Our next edition will feature articles on the Pacific, New Zealand, Australia and Southeast Asia.

“We are maintaining our commitment to the Islands while expanding our coverage of the region.”

Both Dr Cass and Dr Robie are former academic staff at USP; Dr Cass was one of the founding lecturers of the degree journalism programme and launched the student journalist newspaper Wansolwara and Dr Robie was head of journalism 1998-2002.

The 20th anniversary of the journal was celebrated with a conference at AUT University. At the time, an Indonesian-New Zealand television student, Sasya Wreksono, made a short documentary about PJR and Dr Lee Duffield of Queensland University of Technology wrote an article about the journal’s history.

The Life of Pacific Journalism Review.  Video: PMC/Sasya Wreksono

Many journalism researchers from the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia (JERAA) and other networks have been strong contributors to PJR, including professors Chris Nash and Wendy Bacon, who pioneered the Frontline section devoted to investigative journalism and innovative research.

The launch of the 30th anniversary edition of PJR will be held at the conference on July 4-6 with Professor Vijay Naidu, who is adjunct professor in the disciplines of development studies and governance at USP’s School of Law and Social Sciences.

Several of the PJR team will be present at USP, including longtime designer Del Abcede.

A panel on research journalism publication will also be held at the conference with several editors and former editors taking part, including former editor Professor Mark Pearson of the Australian Journalism Review. This is being sponsored by the APMN, one of the conference partners.

Conference chair Associate Professor Shailendra Singh, head of journalism at USP, is also on the editorial board of PJR and a key contributor.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.

"Japan is determined to support Ukraine so that peace can return to Ukraine," Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa said during a surprise visit to Kyiv, becoming the first official foreign visitor for 2024.

"I can feel how tense the situation in Ukraine is now," she told a news conference -- held in a shelter due to an air-raid alert in the capital at the time -- alongside her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba.

"I once again strongly condemn Russia's missile and drone attacks, particularly on New Year's Day," she added, while also saying Japan would provide an additional $37 million to a NATO trust fund to help purchase drone-detection systems.

The Japanese diplomat also visited Bucha, the Kyiv suburb where Russian forces are blamed for a civilian massacre in 2022, stating she was "shocked" by what occurred there.

In a Telegram post, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal thanked "Japan for its comprehensive support, as well as significant humanitarian and financial assistance."

In particular, he cited Tokyo's "decision to allocate $1 billion for humanitarian projects and reconstruction with its readiness to increase this amount to $4.5 billion through the mechanisms of international institutions."

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.

Meanwhile, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom told a Stockholm defense conference that the main goal of the country’s foreign policy efforts in the coming years will be to support Kyiv.

“Sweden’s military, political, and economic support for Ukraine remains the Swedish government’s main foreign policy task in the coming years,” he posted on social media during the event.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, speaking via video link, told the conference that the battlefield in his country was currently stable but that he remained confident Russia could be defeated.

"Even Russia can be brought back within the framework of international law. Its aggression can be defeated," he said.

Ukraine’s much-anticipated counteroffensive last summer largely failed to shift the front line, giving confidence to the Kremlin’s forces, especially as further Western aid is in question.

Ukraine has pleaded with its Western allies to keep supplying it with air defense weapons, along with other weapons necessary to defeat the invasion that began in February 2022.

U.S. President Joe Biden has proposed a national-security spending bill that includes $61 billion in aid for Ukraine, but it has been blocked by Republican lawmakers who insist Biden and his fellow Democrats in Congress address border security.

Zelenskiy also urged fellow European nations to join Ukraine in developing joint weapons-production capabilities so that the continent is able to "preserve itself" in the face of any future crises.

"Two years of this war have proven that Europe needs its own sufficient arsenal for the defense of freedom, its own capabilities to ensure defense," he said.

Overnight, Ukrainian officials said Russia launched 28 drones and three cruise missiles, and 12 people were wounded by a drone attack in the central city of Dnipro.

Though smaller in scale than other recent assaults, the January 7 aerial attack was the latest indication that Russia has no intention of stopping its targeting of Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, often far from the front lines.

In a post to Telegram, Ukraine’s air force claimed that air defenses destroyed 21 of the 28 drones, which mainly targeted locations in the south and east of Ukraine.

"The enemy is shifting the focus of attack to the frontline territories: the Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk regions were attacked by drones," air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat told Ukrainian TV.

Russia made no immediate comment on the attack.

In the southern city of Kherson, meanwhile, Russian shelling from across the Dnieper River left at least two people dead, officials said.

In the past few months, Ukrainian forces have moved across the Dnieper, setting up a small bridgehead in villages on the river's eastern banks, upriver from Kherson. The effort to establish a larger foothold there, however, has faltered, with Russian troops pinning the Ukrainians down, and keeping them from moving heavier equipment over.

Over the past two weeks, Russia has fired nearly 300 missiles and more than 200 drones at targets in Ukraine, as part of an effort to terrorize the civilian population and undermine morale. On December 29, more than 120 Russian missiles were launched at cities across Ukraine, killing at least 44 people, including 30 in Kyiv alone.

Ukraine’s air defenses have improved markedly since the months following Russia’s mass invasion in February 2022. At least five Western-supplied Patriot missile batteries, along with smaller systems like German-made Gepard and the French-manufactured SAMP/T, have also improved Ukraine’s ability to repel Russian drones and missiles.

Last week, U.S. officials said that Russia had begun using North Korean-supplied ballistic missiles as part of its aerial attacks on Ukrainian sites.

Inside Russia, authorities in Belgorod said dozens of residents have been evacuated to areas farther from the Ukrainian border.

“On behalf of regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, we met the first Belgorod residents who decided to move to a safer place. More than 100 people were placed in our temporary accommodation centers,” Andrei Chesnokov, head of the Stary Oskol district, about 115 kilometers from Belgorod, wrote in Telegram post.

With reporting by RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, Reuters, and AP

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

Officials used Mao’s birthday “to spread false information and distort facts about Tibet’s past history, in the hope of making the Tibetan people believe this disinformation,” a young Tibetan in Lhasa told Radio Free Asia, requesting anonymity for safety reasons.

The source said the public celebrations for Mao depicted an independent, pre-invasion Tibet as backwards and impoverished in order to justify the region’s invasion and annexation by China, which argues that Tibet was historically always a part of its territory.

“Chinese authorities use and disseminate pictures of poor, underprivileged Tibetan families from the 1940s and 1950s at these events to make it seem like the whole of Tibet at the time was poverty-stricken and in the same condition,” the person said.

“While it’s true that Tibet has witnessed development since the Chinese first invaded the country, the fact remains that many of the world’s free countries also underwent significant development over the same period, without the need for any ‘peaceful liberation,’” they said.

Mao’s government invaded Tibet in 1950 and subsequently took over the region completely in 1959 after a failed uprising by locals, which led Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and thousands of followers to flee into exile across the border in India and elsewhere in the world.

Chinese officials have exercised a tight grip on the region ever since, restricting Tibetans’ political activities and expression of cultural and religious identity. In October, Beijing changed Tibet’s romanized name to “Xizang” to further erode its independent identity.

17-point agreement

As part of its propaganda campaign on Mao’s birthday, the source inside Tibet told RFA, Chinese authorities were again promoting the idea that the Dalai Lama in 1951 signed the “17-Point Agreement” with Beijing and had promised Mao in a telegram he would abide by it.

Experts and rights groups, however, say the Tibetan side was forced to sign the document under duress by the occupying Chinese forces, who threatened all-out war if they declined. The Dalai Lama later repudiated the agreement after arriving in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, just across Tibet’s border.

The source said it was a tense time for Tibetans, with many forced to bite their tongues as the local Chinese authorities celebrated Mao.

“Any Tibetan who tries to share the real facts about Tibet’s past – in particular Tibet’s history as an independent country – is immediately apprehended by Chinese police and faces their wrath,” they said.

Tibet Policy Institute director Dawa Tsering said the forced celebrations for Mao seemed particularly twisted given many Tibetans know some of the worst atrocities against their forebears occurred under his rule.

“The ‘peaceful liberation of Tibet’ was in reality a forceful occupation of Tibet by Chinese authorities, who brutally tortured Tibetans for opposing the occupation and compelling the helpless Tibetans, under duress, to sign the 17-Point Agreement,” Tsering told RFA.

Nyima Woeser, a researcher at the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, which is based in Dharamsala, India, added that more than 1 million Tibetans are estimated to have been killed at the hands of Chinese “oppressive policies” in Tibet since Mao’s 1950 invasion.

“Every year, the human rights abuses inside Tibet continue to worsen … with no sign of a let-up,” Woeser said.

Translated by Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Lobsang Gelek for RFA Tibetan.

In the past, Christians across the country had to get permission from their village and district authorities – approval that was not granted in many cases.

Even though Laos has a national law protecting the freedom of religion, Christians have been restricted, persecuted and sometimes attacked in the one-party communist country with a mostly Buddhist population. Earlier this year, 15 Christian families and a pastor in Luang Namtha province were evicted and their homes destroyed because they didn’t participate in traditional and cultural activities of the communities.

This year, however, the security minister sent a notice asking the district and provincial authorities to facilitate Christmas celebrations. Christmas, which celebrates the birth of Jesus as the promised messiah, falls on Monday this year, but churches are marking the holiday with various services and gatherings during this time.

“We’re inviting some local leaders to attend our Christmas celebration,”  a member of the Lao Evangelical Church in Savannakhet Province, who like other sources in this report requested anonymity for safety reasons, told RFA Lao.

“This year, we don’t have to request permission to celebrate the holy day from the local authorities because we got permission from the central government more specifically from the Ministry of Interior,” he said.

“The ministry has just sent a notice of the authorization to all provinces then the provincial authorities passed it down to the districts,” he said. “A district official told us that there are some changes this year; one of the changes is that we don’t have to request permission from the local authorities.”

The Lao Evangelical Church is the largest registered Christian church in Laos with in 2021 more than 200,000 followers and around 200 pastors.

Restrictions in some places

Still, Christians in Savannakhet Province said they faced restrictions.

“We’re celebrating Christmas this year, but not in our village because our village chief wouldn’t allow us to celebrate the holy day here, we would have to join the celebration in another village in the district,” a follower in Nong district said.

Last year, Christians in three villages in that same district requested permission to celebrate Christmas, but the district authorities gave permission to only one village, Nalao.

When Christians defied those restrictions and set up stages, tables and tents in all three villages, about 20 police and military officers armed with guns came. They dismantled and confiscated all the things the people had set up, prompting the women and children to cry, said a believer from the province.

“We lost everything. We lost about 30 wooden planks, several hundreds of tables, chairs and tents. We rented these materials and equipment: so, we lost a total of ten million kip (US$500), and religious ceremonies were canceled,” he said.

Historically, the district has been resistant to Christians. In 2018, seven Christian leaders in Nong district were arrested then released about a week later for organizing services without proper permission. 

A Christian in the district called for more freedom to exercise one’s faith. 

“We’d like to call on the authorities to allow us to freely celebrate Christmas and other religious ceremonies in every village, not just only one or two villages,” he said.

Translated by Max Avary. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Lao.

Melanesians all across Aotearoa are coming together in Auckland this weekend to celebrate their unique cultural heritage.

This is the second time the annual Melanesian Festival Aotearoa is being held and it is an opportunity for community members from Fiji, Kanaky New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to fully immerse in their culture.

More than 7000 people attended the inaugural event last year which was a huge success.

Cultural performances, musical showcases, traditional food, arts and craft were on display and enjoyed by all.

Festival director Albert Traill said this festival is “something unique for New Zealand because New Zealand is a predominantly Polynesian-based society when it comes to Pacific Islands communities”.

He expressed that sometimes the Melanesian community feel left out or lost in the crowd and their numbers are smaller in comparison to their Polynesian brothers and sisters.

“Melanesian culture and music is really different to Polynesia. Very similar, but it has its own unique feel,” Traill said.

Annual event
The community have been talking about organising their own cultural festival for years, and with the support of Creative New Zealand, it is now an annual event.

“It’s an opportunity for our Melanesian community to come out and have a space for us to share our culture, our food, and just to come together and celebrate each other’s identity and culture.

“We love it here in New Zealand because New Zealand is a country that loves and supports cultural diversity.”

Traill has a smile in his voice as he reflects on the success of last year’s festival, sharing how many of the performances were youth driven.

The young ones spent months researching their countries and consulting with community elders and knowledge holders, to produce outstanding items.

Their pride and passion shone on stage, striking a string in the hearts of their family and friends

‘Everyone in tears’
“And pretty much everyone was in tears hearing them share how special they felt. Normally they get lumped in with Polyfest and, and all the other festivals and stuff. But this one, for the first time ever, they could say, ‘this is my festival. It’s Melanesian’.”

“We’re doing it for the young people,” he says.

“So hopefully one day when we’re not here, they can stand up with the same pride and say, ‘Yeah, you know what? I’m Melanesia. And I’m proud to share my culture’.”

The festival will be held at the Waitemata Rugby Club Grounds in Henderson from 9am onwards with a packed programme.

The cultural performances begin at 10am and there are a few popular reggae artists and bands hailing from the Solomon Islands, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.

Community groups from Christchurch, Tauranga, Waikato and Wellington are travelling up to participate and the entertainment will continue until late in the afternoon.

Cultural activation spaces will also be spread around the grounds showcasing the traditional weaving and tapa printing of Melanesia.

Ancient tatooing style
The ancient style of Papua New Guinea tattooing will also be on display.

It will be a vibrant hub of cultural identity and heritage and the the organizers warmly welcome any interested ones to come along and join in the celebrations.

“Come and have a look, come and see Melanesia,” Traill said.

“Melanesia is like the Tuakana of the Pacific, the older sibling, the older ancient cultures. You’re looking at 10,000 years of history in the Pacific. A lot of these are ancient old cultures and very complex.”

The organisers expect this year to be even bigger and better, and it will only grow each consecutive year.

They are already looking into further expanding the festival for 2024 and are looking to collaborate with embassies to fly across talented local artists and cultural performance groups to join in next years Melanesia Festival.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

Citizens are made to drop everything to beautify their towns, practice for dancing and sports competitions, and attend educational lectures, taking them away from economic activities at a time when many in the country are having trouble making ends meet. 

Though the fighting in the war is widely considered to have ended in a stalemate, and no peace treaty to end it was ever signed, North Korea has made July 27 a national holiday called the “Day of Victory in the Great Fatherland Liberation War.”  

To prepare for Thursday’s festivities, authorities are even taking children out of school, a source from the northern province of Ryanggang told RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

“The authorities bother people from the early morning until late at night to prepare for the event,” he said. “From 5:30 in the morning, each neighborhood watch unit must mow lawns, clean public toilets, and paint fences … to create a holiday atmosphere.”

Workers are called away from factory floors to study propaganda, the resident said.

“[They] have classes at education halls, study films, and paint propaganda signs and wall boards,” he said. “Starting July 20, the wall board exhibitions related to [the holiday] were held in each city and county.”

Citizens are also being made to donate money for the big event, another Ryanggang resident told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely.

“Each household is donating 3,000 won (US$0.27) to support the People’s Army,” she said. “[That’s] enough to buy a kilogram (2.2 lbs) of corn, which is enough to feed a poor family for a day.”

The second resident said students were being made to practice marching for parades and dancing for a mass dance event.

“They are complaining that they hope it rains all day that day,” she said.

According to the second resident, the schedule for Thursday is similar in each city and town across the country. Events include every citizen presenting flowers to statues of North Korea’s previous leaders, a military parade, and sports competitions with teams fielded by each factory and organization.

Additionally, there are propaganda speech contests, and mass dance events.

“For these events, the Central Committee [of the Korean Workers’ Party] has set July 27 as a rest day. From 10 p.m., fireworks will be held in each province,” she said.

Satellite imagery revealed that a military parade was held Thursday in the capital Pyongyang. It included missile transporter erector launcher vehicles, or TELs. 

Money matters

Because every citizen has something to do to prepare for the day, they are not free to earn money, and will experience difficulty making ends meet as a result.

In most North Korean families, men are required to work at their government-assigned jobs, but they are paid only a nominal salary. The responsibility for earning money therefore falls on their wives, many of whom operate family businesses by buying and selling goods in the marketplace.

Though these women are still called housewives colloquially, they are in fact the breadwinners of their families, and taking them away from their work is a recipe for family hardship.

Ladies in Kowon county, in the eastern province of South Hamgyong have been made to practice dancing every day from 7 to 8 p.m. in front of the local cultural center, a resident there told RFA on condition of anonymity for personal safety.

“Housewives who have to buy food for their families by selling in the marketplace are being mobilized …  during the day to prepare for a ball event in the evening,” she said. “People are complaining, saying, ‘We won’t get anything to eat and we are told to dance.’”

In the city of Sinuiju, on the Chinese border in the northwest, people were made to prepare for a three-hour mass dance from 7 to 10 p.m. on Thursday, a resident there told RFA on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

“There are college students involved in the outdoor mass dance and singing political event but the housewives who are members of the city’s Socialist Women’s Union of Korea get mobilized as well,” she said. “They complain, saying that ‘dancing is originally meant to be fun and exciting, but being forced to dance makes it more difficult than working.’”

Global remembrance

The international community released statements that reflected on the lessons learned from the Korean War 70 years ago.

U.S. President Joe Biden issued an order that recognized the sacrifices of soldiers who fought in the war and officially made Thursday National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day in the United States. 

“Let us honor the Korean War Veterans who fought to defend the security and stability we enjoy today,” the order said. “Let us renew our commitment to the democratic values for which they served and sacrificed.”

A statement by Lloyd Austin, the U.S. secretary of defense, called on Americans to remember the sacrifices of U.S. soldiers and its allies, and reiterated that the “ironclad alliance” with South Korea “is stronger than ever.”

Several U.S. lawmakers, including House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Gregory W. Meeks (D-NY) issued a statement warning that North Korea continues “to threaten the peace and stability of the Indo-Pacific with its missile and nuclear program.”

“Today’s anniversary reinforces the need for a strong U.S.-Republic of Korea alliance to bolster peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula and reminds us how important it is to stand against authoritarianism,” the statement said.

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), who in March introduced the Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act which would officially end the Korean War with a peace treaty, said that passing that legislation would be an important first step to achieving peace on the peninsula. 

He argued that a peace treaty would not be a form of appeasement to North Korea and that U.S. troops could still be stationed in South Korea even with a peace treaty. 

U.N. secretary general Antonio Guterres, meanwhile, said in a statement that the armistice agreement has “served as a legal foundation for the preservation of peace and stability on the Peninsula,” but reminded the world that Korea remains divided. 

“Amidst rising geopolitical tensions, increased nuclear risk, and eroding respect for international norms, the threat of escalation is growing,” he said. “We need a surge in diplomacy for peace. I urge the parties to resume regular diplomatic contacts and nurture an environment conducive to dialogue.”

The seven decades since the war ended show that the status quo on the Korean peninsula is not an “adequate response to the suffering of people” in North Korea, said a joint statement by several U.N. experts, including Elizabeth Salmon, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. 

“The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is more isolated from the global community than ever before,” the statement said, drawing attention to current issues such as mass poverty, starvation, and overbearing government control, and continuing issues from over the past 70 years, like separated families, forced disappearances, and abductions of citizens from other countries.

“We cannot remain indifferent. Today, every actor, and particularly both parties to the Armistice Agreement and the international community, must recall the plight of the people of North Korea, the disappeared and the separated, and urgently seek ways to reengage and find solutions.”

Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee and Leejin J. Chung. Edited by Eugene Whong.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Moon Sung Hui, Son Hyemin, and Kim Soyoung for RFA Korean.

Never underestimate the Democrats and the American System’s capacity to let the slithering orange monstrosity off the hook and back into power.

Many of the nation’s liberal talking heads and pundits want you think that the US bourgeois electoral and constitutional system is working because the fascist leader and putschist Donald “Take Down the Metal Detectors” Trump is now under multiple criminal investigations and has been indicted twice so far – in Manhattan for the payment of hush money to safeguard his path to the presidency in 2016 and at the federal level in Florida for his handling of classified documents since his departure from the White House.

Indictments are now apparently imminent for his brazen attempts to subvert and reverse the 2020 presidential election – one likely coming muti-count indictment from  the federal government and another likely coming multi-count indictment from a Georgia prosecutor in Atlanta. And we have recently learned that Herr Donald is under criminal investigation for fake Elector schemes in Michigan and Arizona (see this for a useful summary of all the legal cases involving Trump right now).

So hip, hip hooray, time to break out the champagne because the Malignant One, accurately described by Noam Chomsky in January 2020 as “the most dangerous criminal in human history,” is going down? US-Amerikaner fascism is on the ropes, right?

Not so fast. The orange-blushed mob-boss has been turning his indictments into fundraising gold and has successfully exploited them to solidify his position as the runaway top Republican presidential candidate to unseat the incredibly unpopular and doddering corporate-imperialist Joe Biden in 2024-25.  He is using the belated criminal inquiries and indictments to feed the paranoid-style narrative that he is being persecuted by a “radical Left” “deep state” that has “weaponized the justice system” against him and other palingenetic white nationalists (like the January 6 prisoners he regularly invokes and promises to pardon) who want to redeem America from “globalist” “Marxists” (like those well-known communists Joe Biden and Kamala Harris) and make the nation Great Again.

Trump has a dedicated base that believes – more as “a tribal pose” and “attitude” than as “ a fully formed thought” (Sarah Longwell) – his richly Hitlerian claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him. That same cult following believes their Dear Leader’s claim that all the charges and investigations aimed at him are the bogus products of a “radical Left deep state” that is persecuting him for nefarious political purposes that have noting to do with him breaking any laws.  The fact that he has twice been determined likely guilty of high felonies by democratically selected grand juries comprised of ordinary citizens is of no significance to his many millions of demented fans.

The federal indictments have come very, very late in the game, thanks to reprehensible foot-dragging by the nation’s conservative, cringing, and hyper-cautious Attorney General Merrick Garland. It is by no means clear that Trump can be tried and found guilty at the federal level prior to Trump potentially winning the 2024 presidential election and then shutting the investigations down and pardoning himself along with others who joined his effort to overthrow previously normative US bourgeois electoral democracy and tule of law in 2020 and 2021.

Aileen Cannot, the Trump-appointed hack of a federal judge in charge of the coming Florida classified documents trial seems ready to delay the proceedings on the thoroughly false premise that federal special prosecutor Jack Smith’s case in this matter is unusually complex and voluminous.

It is quite possible (as the esteemed Harvard constitutional law professor Laurence Tribe recently noted on MSNBC) that the time squeeze resulting from Garland’s pathetic delay will prevent the special federal prosecutor Jack Smith from going after Trump on insurrection charges for January 6^th.

There’s no law preventing Trump from running and assuming office even if he is convicted  prior to the November 2024 elections and the January 2025 presidential inauguration. Once he gets back in power, Trump will of course pardon himself, which is not forbidden by any part of the US Constitution. The monumentally corrupt and illegitimate, lifetime-appointed Christian fascist Supreme Court that he and former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel created will certainly not block any such action on his part.

Trump’s  ancient opponent Joe “Nothing Would Fundamentally Change” Biden is epically disliked by US-Americans (only Jimmy Carter has had lower approval numbers than Biden three-plus years into a US residency) and is gravely short on charisma and inspiration. Without the Covid-19 pandemic’s 2020 emergence, the doddering warmonger, oil-driller, and strikebreaker Biden would likely have lost the last presidential election. A recession or near recession in in the next year or so would likely seal the fate of the dedicated fascism-appeaser Joe “Working Across the Aisle” Biden, who has decided to run on “Bidenomics” – an arguably stupid thing to do amidst stubborn price inflation – and not against the authoritarian neofascist Christian white nationalism that has taken over the rightmost of the United States two capitalist parties.

In 2024 as in past presidential elections, the Electoral College will overrepresent the nation’s most revanchist and reactionary, Christian white nationalist states and regions. Also working in Trump’s advantage is the virulent partisan and racist voter suppression in place across Red State America and, perhaps more importantly, the concerted right-wing takeover down to the precinct level  of hundreds if not thousands of local vote-supervising and vote-tabulating positions.

This is no time for relief and celebration, trust me.  Promising literal revenge, Trump has an Enemies List that would make Richard Nixon green with envy.  A recent New York Times report shows that the Trump campaign is “planning a sweeping expansion of presidential power over the machinery of government,” working up detailed plans to “re-shap[e] the structure of the executive branch to concentrate far greater authority directly in his hands” should he take back the White House in 2025. The imperial presidency is nowhere near imperial enough for Trump and his big team of far-right policy wonks, an army of experts in authoritarian strategy and procedure far beyond anything at his disposal in 2016 and 2017.

And what if Trump’s legal troubles did somehow knock him off the Republican ticket next year (unlikely as that may be)? The most likely successor in the coin flip Electoral College contest with the nearly hapless bourgeois Democrat Biden is still Ron DeSantis, who is if anything a more lethal, hateful, sadistic, and disciplined fascist than Trump.

The evidence for locking Trump up and throwing away the key has been there all along.  No functioning and self-respecting “democracy” would allow this demented sack of fascist shit to still stalk the land, holding vicious campaign/hate rallies where he tells his frothing volk that he will be their “retribution” and suggests that he will deport U.S. born and raised Marxists and socialists.

That’s on the dismal, dollar-drenched Weimar Dems, the national corporate-imperialist party of inauthentic opposition and Hollow Resistance.

Sorry, no champagne.  The American System is by no means guaranteed to work to stop the US Amerikaner fascisation process, which has deep roots in American capitalism-imperialism, American white supremacism, American patriarchy, American imperialism, and American Christianity  and which is richly enabled by the nation’s archaic 18^th Century slaveowners’ constitution – a potent twenty-four decade-old Minority Rule straightjacket on popular sovereignty.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Paul Street.

An assembly of some 6,000 Quebec patriots, the Assembly of the Six Counties, was held October 23-24, 1837 despite public assemblies being banned by the British colonial government.

The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) is calling for Victoria Day to be renamed Patriots’ Day. The aim is to engage people in discussion on the peoples’ patriots and debunk the monarchical-patriotic legends handed down to the younger generations in order to stop them from conceptualizing a constitution and democratic process of their own making, which opens a bright future for all. In this vein, the celebration of Victoria Day is, to put it bluntly, a national humiliation. Canadians oppose everything she represents. In fact, the First World War long ago smashed the euphoria of empire to smithereens in the blood-soaked trenches of Europe.

Victoria is long dead, but to this day she is hailed as Empress of India and commended in innumerable ways. Through the personas of subsequent kings and queens and the conquests, treaties and institutions established in her name and since then in the name of her successors, and crimes carried out, everything is done on the basis of attempts to sneak in what she stood for which is called patriotic, to be saluted rather than condemned. The Constitution imposed in 1867 in her name, and subsequently its patriation in the name of Elizabeth II, relegate Canadians to subjects under a rule they did not adopt. All of it is based on monarchical-patriotic legends and the practices they generate to justify and legitimize their rule.

For instance, the claim is made that for Canada to sever its longstanding ties to the monarchy and become a republic, “it would require agreement between the House of Commons, the Senate and all 10 provinces.” This is the stipulation in the very Constitution which was patriated from England in 1982 by the government of Pierre Elliot Trudeau with the incorporation of a Charter of Rights and Freedoms and an amending formula. Besides the ruling class, nobody ever agreed to the imposition of the Constitution adopted by the Imperial Parliament in 1867. So too the addition of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and amending formula were never agreed to by the Canadian and Quebec people either. To this day, the Quebec nation has not even signed the Constitution of 1982, despite the fact that it is said to be a “founding nation” of Canada. Nonetheless,”Official Canada” presumes Quebec is subservient to it. This presumption characterizes the thought material of a ruling class and system of rule and governance imposed by the British during colonial times. Its origins lie in the conquest of territories which were inhabited by Indigenous Peoples but were declared the possessions of the British Empire through the use of force, deceit, cultural genocide and the imposition of a sovereign power represented to this day by a foreign monarch and its representatives, not the representatives of the people..

A legend holds a false idea to be true and uses it as the basis of other ideas. The Constitution imposed in 1867 and its “patriation” in 1982 are the basis for the rules which govern this country. It is presumed that nothing can be done outside of them if so decided by the people even though these rules block the empowerment of the people, which is needed in this modern time to complete the democratic revolution. The claims of foreign monarchs and prime ministers about what can and cannot be done, who can and cannot govern, are informed by this presumption and are self-serving.

All kinds of things are based on presumptions spawned by monarchical-patriotic legends. This includes nonsense of what it means to be a “legitimate” Canadian or Quebecker, or the promotion of racist and misogynist warmongers as heroes, or the giving of medals modeled on the British orders of the British Empire and the like. It is done without Canadians or Quebeckers having a say in the matter. This is a fundamental violation of their right to conscience and to identify themselves and affirm their own right to be. It is a means to condemn resistance and the patriots who wage it. Now is the time to settle scores with this old conscience of society and bring forward the thought material and solutions given rise to by all those patriots who fought within Canada and internationally for their right to be, peace, freedom and democracy.

It is “the people” who should define “the people,” not the state established by the British empire in days gone by, perpetuated by those who benefit from the structures of power and privilege it established. To perpetuate their rule, those who benefit from the structures of power and privilege of the state, which is a constitutional monarchy with a foreign monarch as head of state, base themselves on the declaration that they are legitimate and anyone or anything they do not approve of is illegitimate. With this they impose a set of values and standards onto the people and declare those who do not accept them as “fringe” or “extremists” for refusing to. Who sets the standards and the values is a “mystery of state’ — it is done through the prerogative powers of the sovereign and those said to be entitled to wield the sovereign power which, today, nobody can honestly say is the legislatures and parliaments! The false presumptions spawned by the monarchical-patriotic legends give rise to the celebration of Victoria Day which is, frankly, a national humiliation for the country called Canada which does not formally even enjoy the sovereignty understood to lie in the people according to the republican form of government.

This is also the case for Quebec, a nation within the country called Canada whose nationhood is not recognized in the form of its right to self-determination up to and including secession if it so desires. Reducing matters of principle to the kind of divisive politics which are common today, all dealing with matters of identity and the right to be, causes great harm to the people whose struggles are bound within the confines permitted by the outlook and definition of rights spawned by the British empire in the first place.

For the nations of the Indigenous Peoples, nation-to-nation relations are to be respected. Yet so long as this principle is subordinated to the final decision-making of the Crown as a result of the Constitution which makes it so, genocidal decisions continue to be taken in the name of high ideals. The rulers do not and never have, in fact, recognized the essence of the treaty relations and hereditary rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Like any union, Canada can only be strong if it is freely constituted and entered into and it can only be considered freely entered into if the constituent parts of Canada, Quebec and the Indigenous Peoples are not subjected to force or undue economic, political and cultural “persuasion” to remain within the union.

The use of the prerogative powers of the British Empire and its Imperial Parliament to impose the Act of Union in 1840 and then Confederation in 1867, its creation of the North West Mounted Police in 1873 to conquer the north west on behalf of the British empire against the expansion north of the United American states, the use of the prerogative powers of the office of the Prime Minister of Canada and the Queen of England to patriate the constitution – all of these are based on and in turn spawn monarchical-patriotic legends whose sole purpose is to perpetuate the form of rule established in the first place by Imperial Britain. Under that form of rule and its institutions the people have no say in the decision-making process, including the electoral process which is said to be a form of representation. The people do not decide the candidates, the mudslinging campaigns, the agenda set, the lack of an informed vote, the divisions promoted, the money spent, and certainly not the result. Whoever is represented, it is not the people.

The form of representation, in fact, represents what the sovereign who wields the supreme power stands for, not what the people stand for. It is a form of rule which not only carried out broad genocide of the Indigenous Peoples in the past in order to steal their territories and make them subject peoples but continues to do so in the present as well. Their heroic and ongoing resistance to this attempt to wipe them out as peoples is the only thing standing between their survival as peoples and their extinction.

The British monarchy was enriched by the brutal enslavement of people, yet Canadians are called on to be loyal to the King and the system of governance which carries his name because we are told we are ridiculous if we don’t let by-gones be by-gones. The rendering of history according to which the crimes committed by the British empire are in the past, not in the present in the form of the perpetuation of the constitutional order which permitted their commission in the first place, and today glorifies them, is also a monarchical-patriotic legend which must be put to rest once and for all. The outlook based on these legends perpetuates the constitutional rule which converts everyone into “loyal subjects” of a foreign monarch today and everything that entails as concerns where the supreme decision-making power lies.

The tacit presumption is that they correctly render what took place in the past even though they taint events with their own self-serving empire-building interpretation which creates a Canada in their own image. Their interpretation of events makes those who Canadians consider patriots out to be traitors. Meanwhile, the kings and queens and their governors general and police and personalities they consider worthy are called heroes. They are given awards and titles and made out to be people Canadians should emulate.

This is true of any ruling class where the people have no say over the modus operandi of those who take decisions. In Canada specifically, the rendering of the facts themselves is the fruit of a monarchical-patriotic process of thought which imbues the brains of successive generations with nonsense. The constitutional arrangements condemn us to remain within that realm of thought. The presumptions are to be successfully digested since Confederation imposed a constitution adopted by the Imperial Parliament in 1867 which was patriated holus bolus in 1982, with the addition of a Charter of Rights and Freedoms and an amending formula. None of the foundational constitutional arrangements are ever discussed. History lessons describe them but never discuss them. They were never adopted by the people. Quebec, said to be a founding nation of Canada, is not even a signatory to the Constitution 1982.

On the basis of the Victorian thought material the actual experience of the people and their memory are erased, to be forgotten, relegated to oblivion. We are supposed to accept the taboo on discussion and the limitations imposed by the conception of rights and freedoms given rise to by a civil society based on the Victorian ideals of duty, order and civilization.

The current status of Canada as a constitutional monarchy, with a foreign monarch as head of state to boot, is a national humiliation, an embarrassment, but this is ignored by the acceptance of monarchical-patriotic legends. The fictional persona presented to us as represented by our head of state, Charles III, is said to embody the values which unify the nation. How can values which we do not espouse unify the nation? It is a ridiculous presumption we are supposed to accept because we are supposed to accept that there is nothing we can do about it. We are powerless. The aim of erecting this fictional person of state is to hide the actual relations between humans and humans and humans and nature and what they reveal, which is the need to empower the people. Today, the call of history is to complete the democratic revolution by making sure constitutional arrangements vest the supreme power in the people, not in the narrow private interests which rule over the society for private gain.

Renaming Victoria Day Patriots’ Day will not on its own abolish the Monarchy. However it will contribute to debunking these monarchical-patriot legends which are meant to keep people constrained to the existing order and all its trappings. All across the country, the working people and peoples from all walks of life are bringing forward their own demands which require new arrangements suitable to the conditions today. A modern society emerges from the requirements of the material conditions today, not by reshuffling the monarchical-patriotic legends of the past and institutions based on them..

It is high time Canada settles scores with this old conscience of society by bringing forward the thought material and pro-social, pro-people direction given rise to by all those patriots who fought within Canada and internationally for their right to be, peace, freedom and democracy. Let us rename Victoria Day Patriots’ Day by ourselves celebrating our patriots, the patriots which the Indigenous Peoples and the peoples from all over the world who inhabit this land consider their heroes. These are the contributions we consider worthy of celebrating and memorializing, engraving on stamps, coins and bank notes, not the graven images of kings and queens and those who emulate them no matter who they are.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist).

An assembly of some 6,000 Quebec patriots, the Assembly of the Six Counties, was held October 23-24, 1837 despite public assemblies being banned by the British colonial government.

The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) is calling for Victoria Day to be renamed Patriots’ Day. The aim is to engage people in discussion on the peoples’ patriots and debunk the monarchical-patriotic legends handed down to the younger generations in order to stop them from conceptualizing a constitution and democratic process of their own making, which opens a bright future for all. In this vein, the celebration of Victoria Day is, to put it bluntly, a national humiliation. Canadians oppose everything she represents. In fact, the First World War long ago smashed the euphoria of empire to smithereens in the blood-soaked trenches of Europe.

Victoria is long dead, but to this day she is hailed as Empress of India and commended in innumerable ways. Through the personas of subsequent kings and queens and the conquests, treaties and institutions established in her name and since then in the name of her successors, and crimes carried out, everything is done on the basis of attempts to sneak in what she stood for which is called patriotic, to be saluted rather than condemned. The Constitution imposed in 1867 in her name, and subsequently its patriation in the name of Elizabeth II, relegate Canadians to subjects under a rule they did not adopt. All of it is based on monarchical-patriotic legends and the practices they generate to justify and legitimize their rule.

For instance, the claim is made that for Canada to sever its longstanding ties to the monarchy and become a republic, “it would require agreement between the House of Commons, the Senate and all 10 provinces.” This is the stipulation in the very Constitution which was patriated from England in 1982 by the government of Pierre Elliot Trudeau with the incorporation of a Charter of Rights and Freedoms and an amending formula. Besides the ruling class, nobody ever agreed to the imposition of the Constitution adopted by the Imperial Parliament in 1867. So too the addition of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and amending formula were never agreed to by the Canadian and Quebec people either. To this day, the Quebec nation has not even signed the Constitution of 1982, despite the fact that it is said to be a “founding nation” of Canada. Nonetheless,”Official Canada” presumes Quebec is subservient to it. This presumption characterizes the thought material of a ruling class and system of rule and governance imposed by the British during colonial times. Its origins lie in the conquest of territories which were inhabited by Indigenous Peoples but were declared the possessions of the British Empire through the use of force, deceit, cultural genocide and the imposition of a sovereign power represented to this day by a foreign monarch and its representatives, not the representatives of the people..

A legend holds a false idea to be true and uses it as the basis of other ideas. The Constitution imposed in 1867 and its “patriation” in 1982 are the basis for the rules which govern this country. It is presumed that nothing can be done outside of them if so decided by the people even though these rules block the empowerment of the people, which is needed in this modern time to complete the democratic revolution. The claims of foreign monarchs and prime ministers about what can and cannot be done, who can and cannot govern, are informed by this presumption and are self-serving.

All kinds of things are based on presumptions spawned by monarchical-patriotic legends. This includes nonsense of what it means to be a “legitimate” Canadian or Quebecker, or the promotion of racist and misogynist warmongers as heroes, or the giving of medals modeled on the British orders of the British Empire and the like. It is done without Canadians or Quebeckers having a say in the matter. This is a fundamental violation of their right to conscience and to identify themselves and affirm their own right to be. It is a means to condemn resistance and the patriots who wage it. Now is the time to settle scores with this old conscience of society and bring forward the thought material and solutions given rise to by all those patriots who fought within Canada and internationally for their right to be, peace, freedom and democracy.

It is “the people” who should define “the people,” not the state established by the British empire in days gone by, perpetuated by those who benefit from the structures of power and privilege it established. To perpetuate their rule, those who benefit from the structures of power and privilege of the state, which is a constitutional monarchy with a foreign monarch as head of state, base themselves on the declaration that they are legitimate and anyone or anything they do not approve of is illegitimate. With this they impose a set of values and standards onto the people and declare those who do not accept them as “fringe” or “extremists” for refusing to. Who sets the standards and the values is a “mystery of state’ — it is done through the prerogative powers of the sovereign and those said to be entitled to wield the sovereign power which, today, nobody can honestly say is the legislatures and parliaments! The false presumptions spawned by the monarchical-patriotic legends give rise to the celebration of Victoria Day which is, frankly, a national humiliation for the country called Canada which does not formally even enjoy the sovereignty understood to lie in the people according to the republican form of government.

This is also the case for Quebec, a nation within the country called Canada whose nationhood is not recognized in the form of its right to self-determination up to and including secession if it so desires. Reducing matters of principle to the kind of divisive politics which are common today, all dealing with matters of identity and the right to be, causes great harm to the people whose struggles are bound within the confines permitted by the outlook and definition of rights spawned by the British empire in the first place.

For the nations of the Indigenous Peoples, nation-to-nation relations are to be respected. Yet so long as this principle is subordinated to the final decision-making of the Crown as a result of the Constitution which makes it so, genocidal decisions continue to be taken in the name of high ideals. The rulers do not and never have, in fact, recognized the essence of the treaty relations and hereditary rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Like any union, Canada can only be strong if it is freely constituted and entered into and it can only be considered freely entered into if the constituent parts of Canada, Quebec and the Indigenous Peoples are not subjected to force or undue economic, political and cultural “persuasion” to remain within the union.

The use of the prerogative powers of the British Empire and its Imperial Parliament to impose the Act of Union in 1840 and then Confederation in 1867, its creation of the North West Mounted Police in 1873 to conquer the north west on behalf of the British empire against the expansion north of the United American states, the use of the prerogative powers of the office of the Prime Minister of Canada and the Queen of England to patriate the constitution – all of these are based on and in turn spawn monarchical-patriotic legends whose sole purpose is to perpetuate the form of rule established in the first place by Imperial Britain. Under that form of rule and its institutions the people have no say in the decision-making process, including the electoral process which is said to be a form of representation. The people do not decide the candidates, the mudslinging campaigns, the agenda set, the lack of an informed vote, the divisions promoted, the money spent, and certainly not the result. Whoever is represented, it is not the people.

The form of representation, in fact, represents what the sovereign who wields the supreme power stands for, not what the people stand for. It is a form of rule which not only carried out broad genocide of the Indigenous Peoples in the past in order to steal their territories and make them subject peoples but continues to do so in the present as well. Their heroic and ongoing resistance to this attempt to wipe them out as peoples is the only thing standing between their survival as peoples and their extinction.

The British monarchy was enriched by the brutal enslavement of people, yet Canadians are called on to be loyal to the King and the system of governance which carries his name because we are told we are ridiculous if we don’t let by-gones be by-gones. The rendering of history according to which the crimes committed by the British empire are in the past, not in the present in the form of the perpetuation of the constitutional order which permitted their commission in the first place, and today glorifies them, is also a monarchical-patriotic legend which must be put to rest once and for all. The outlook based on these legends perpetuates the constitutional rule which converts everyone into “loyal subjects” of a foreign monarch today and everything that entails as concerns where the supreme decision-making power lies.

The tacit presumption is that they correctly render what took place in the past even though they taint events with their own self-serving empire-building interpretation which creates a Canada in their own image. Their interpretation of events makes those who Canadians consider patriots out to be traitors. Meanwhile, the kings and queens and their governors general and police and personalities they consider worthy are called heroes. They are given awards and titles and made out to be people Canadians should emulate.

This is true of any ruling class where the people have no say over the modus operandi of those who take decisions. In Canada specifically, the rendering of the facts themselves is the fruit of a monarchical-patriotic process of thought which imbues the brains of successive generations with nonsense. The constitutional arrangements condemn us to remain within that realm of thought. The presumptions are to be successfully digested since Confederation imposed a constitution adopted by the Imperial Parliament in 1867 which was patriated holus bolus in 1982, with the addition of a Charter of Rights and Freedoms and an amending formula. None of the foundational constitutional arrangements are ever discussed. History lessons describe them but never discuss them. They were never adopted by the people. Quebec, said to be a founding nation of Canada, is not even a signatory to the Constitution 1982.

On the basis of the Victorian thought material the actual experience of the people and their memory are erased, to be forgotten, relegated to oblivion. We are supposed to accept the taboo on discussion and the limitations imposed by the conception of rights and freedoms given rise to by a civil society based on the Victorian ideals of duty, order and civilization.

The current status of Canada as a constitutional monarchy, with a foreign monarch as head of state to boot, is a national humiliation, an embarrassment, but this is ignored by the acceptance of monarchical-patriotic legends. The fictional persona presented to us as represented by our head of state, Charles III, is said to embody the values which unify the nation. How can values which we do not espouse unify the nation? It is a ridiculous presumption we are supposed to accept because we are supposed to accept that there is nothing we can do about it. We are powerless. The aim of erecting this fictional person of state is to hide the actual relations between humans and humans and humans and nature and what they reveal, which is the need to empower the people. Today, the call of history is to complete the democratic revolution by making sure constitutional arrangements vest the supreme power in the people, not in the narrow private interests which rule over the society for private gain.

Renaming Victoria Day Patriots’ Day will not on its own abolish the Monarchy. However it will contribute to debunking these monarchical-patriot legends which are meant to keep people constrained to the existing order and all its trappings. All across the country, the working people and peoples from all walks of life are bringing forward their own demands which require new arrangements suitable to the conditions today. A modern society emerges from the requirements of the material conditions today, not by reshuffling the monarchical-patriotic legends of the past and institutions based on them..

It is high time Canada settles scores with this old conscience of society by bringing forward the thought material and pro-social, pro-people direction given rise to by all those patriots who fought within Canada and internationally for their right to be, peace, freedom and democracy. Let us rename Victoria Day Patriots’ Day by ourselves celebrating our patriots, the patriots which the Indigenous Peoples and the peoples from all over the world who inhabit this land consider their heroes. These are the contributions we consider worthy of celebrating and memorializing, engraving on stamps, coins and bank notes, not the graven images of kings and queens and those who emulate them no matter who they are.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist).

Rotuman people and communities in Aotearoa New Zealand launched their Rotuman Language Week 2023 celebrations yesterday.

The event by the NZ Rotuman Collective began with a blessing and service at the Kingsland Rotuman Methodist Church — where the congregation began more than 30 years ago — and will showcase the language and culture of Rotuma.

“Each day of the week has been allocated a different theme with the elders, youth, children, community and religious leaders hosting their days,” said chairperson Rachael Mario.

• READ MORE: Other Rotuman reports

In addition to language and culture, the Rotuman Language Collective also focuses on key social justice areas that communities need more awareness about. These issues being presented at the NZ Rotuman Community Centre in Mt Roskill and other venues include:

• Te Tirirti o Waitangi presentation (Monday, May 8, 7.30am)
• Dawn Raids and Pasifika people’s advocacy for social justice (Tuesday, May 9, 7.30am)
• Health and wellbeing with Hula Fit exercise (Wednesday, May 10, 10.30am, 11.30am)
• Seniors lunch and storytelling (on Wednesday, May 10, 12 noon)
• Home ownership workshop (Wednesday, May 10, 7pm)
• Art classes for wellness (Thursday, May 11, 4pm)
• Serving our communities by continuing weekly distribution of food parcels (Friday, May, 12, 7pm)
• Education Hub launch (Friday, May 12, 7.30pm)
• Rotuman cultural show and community engagement (Saturday, May 13, Kingsland Trinity Methodist Church, 5.30pm)
• Mother’s Day acknowledging mothers and family (Sunday, May 14, 2pm)

“It is extremely important for our migrant communities to connect with Māori as people of this land, and be aware of colonisation and displacement,” Mario said.

‘Understanding colonisation‘
“This will also help Rotuman people understand our own colonisation by the British and Fiji.”

The Rotuman Language Week, a New Zealand-led initiative started in 2018 by the Auckland Rotuman Fellowship Group Incorporated (ARFGI), has now grown to include many groups across the world.

The feature event will be on Rotuma Day, including the Rotuman Showcase with a traditional dance and fashion show.

This will be followed by Community Engagement with chief guest MP Teanau Tuiono, Green Party spokesperson for Pacific peoples.

This year is also the continuation of the UN International Decade of Indigenous Languages, making this Language Week even more important.

The theme for this year’s Language Week is: “Vetḁkia ‘os Fäega ma Ag fak hanua” (Sustaining our language and culture).

Rotuman people are a separate ethnic group with their own distinct Polynesian language, culture, and identity.

‘Untouched paradise’
Rotuma is described by commentators as an “untouched paradise” with some of the world’s most pristine and beautiful beaches.

“Language is what makes us who we are, and is part of our culture and identity,” Mario said. “And it is our duty to preserve this invaluable taonga”.

The group hopes the week’s activities will help bring people together, and showcase Rotuman culture.

“We invite everyone to join us and celebrate being Rotuman,” Mario said.

“It has not been easy for our community to keep our language alive in Aotearoa.”

“We pay tribute to our elders and leaders, who for the last 40 years, have continued to celebrate our culture in New Zealand, and for helping keep our customs and traditions relevant.”

Rotuma consists of the island of Rotuma and its nearby islets, and is located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, about 500 kms north of Fiji, and 500 kms west of the French-ruled territory of Wallis and Futuna.

Rotuma was annexed by the British on 13 May 1881 (“Rotuma Day”). Although Rotuma is its own “nation”, it is currently administered by Fiji as a dependency.

The Rotuman language is listed on the UNESCO List of Endangered Languages as “Definitely endangered”.

• Full Rotuman Language Week programme details on Facebook and at the Rotuma website.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

New York Times (5/3/23): “Right-wing media outlets, Christian organizations and business groups…argued that the legislation would harm all news media, including conservative outlets, and lead to an increase in frivolous and costly lawsuits.”

FAIR (3/1/23) and other free speech advocates expressed concern when Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed for a bills that would redefine who a “public figure” is, thus challenging the longstanding Sullivan v. New York Times case that protects journalists from defamation lawsuits.

DeSantis is used to getting his way on most things these days, on everything from cloaking his travel records (NBC, 5/3/23) to taking over the state’s higher education institutions (AP, 4/26/23; Chronicle of Higher Education, 5/3/23). But not this time, as the New York Times (5/3/23) reports that the bills are hitting fierce opposition in the Florida legislature and is likely to fail.

The resistance came not from the liberals DeSantis loves to bash, but from the same right-wing media outlets that often support his administration. The reason? Efforts to intimidate liberal and centrist media by eviscerating the Sullivan standard would also impact right-wing media. The landmark case holds that public figures must prove that the accused acted with reckless disregard for the truth in order for a defamation case to hold up.

The Times:

“The minute conservative media outlets started catching wind of this it was stopped real quick,” said Javier Manjarres, the publisher of the Floridian, a conservative site that is usually supportive of the governor’s agenda. Last month, he wrote an article that said the legislation would be “an irreparable self-inflicted political wound” if Mr. DeSantis were to sign it.

“They were trying to hit the liberal media and didn’t realize it would be a boomerang that would come back around right at them,” said Brendon Leslie, the editor in chief of Florida’s Voice, a digital outlet that is favored by Mr. DeSantis. He and others worried that the legislation, if passed, would encourage lawsuits that could put many conservative publications out of business.

Reasons to be worried

Fox‘s $787 million settlement with Dominion (NBC, 4/18/23) was one of a number of high-profile libel payouts by right-wing media in recent years.

Such right-wing outlets have a reason to be worried, because even with the Sullivan standard, they have been vulnerable. Most famously, Fox News settled an enormous lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems over the network’s false statements that the company helped fix the 2020 presidential election for Joe Biden (FAIR.org, 4/20/23). And who can forget Alex Jones’ legal troubles over his lies about the Sandy Hook shooting at Infowars (FAIR.org, 8/18/22)?

There are a few other affairs. A former US Department of Agriculture official “settled her long-running defamation lawsuit against the late conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart” (National Law Journal, 10/1/15). A “House information-technology staffer who became the center of fevered right-wing conspiracy theories about espionage and extortion” sued “the Daily Caller, alleging the conservative website defamed him and his relatives” (Daily Beast, 1/28/20).

The New York Post “settled a high-profile defamation suit over the paper’s infamous ‘Bag Men’ cover in the midst of the Boston Marathon terrorist bombing,” in which the paper ran a cover photo of two people in “attendance at the marathon” who “were holding bags in the picture,” thus tying them to the attack (Washington Post, 10/2/14).

Media clout on the right

Defending Fox against Dominion’s libel claims, William Barr (Wall Street Journal, 3/23/23) put in a good word for Sullivan.

The Dominion lawsuit against Fox, especially, rattled right-wing commentators, as even former Trump administration Attorney General William Barr took to the Wall Street Journal (3/23/23) to invoke Sullivan as protection for Fox. The setback for the DeSantis agenda demonstrates just how much influence the right-wing media have on policy; he’s not a random Republican, but a leading presidential hopeful, and the governor of a large state whose attacks on public institutions and gender rights are leading a nationwide movement. Democratic lawmakers are unlikely to check in with, say, MSNBC before deciding whether it’s safe to follow California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s political lead.

But if conservative legislators are reluctant to buck the media their voters rely on for political information, the urge to revisit the Sullivan case is still strong in conservative judicial circles (FAIR.org, 3/26/21), and it’s unlikely that will subside. The right’s broad agenda to crush labor unions and public education includes a decimation of media outlets that spotlight corporate and governmental misdeeds.

The New York Times (4/19/23) reported:

In recent court cases, Republican politicians suing the news media for defamation—including the former Senate candidates Don Blankenship and Roy Moore and the former congressman Devin Nunes—have explicitly pushed judges to abandon the Sullivan ruling.

Aside from trying to win their cases, the apparent goal was to present the Supreme Court with a vehicle to reconsider Sullivan.

“That is definitely the strategy,” said Lee Levine, a prominent First Amendment lawyer who, until his retirement, regularly represented the New York Times and other news organizations. “It will continue.”

Tearing down precedents

Justice Clarence Thomas (New York Times, 7/2/21) says we shouldn’t continue “to insulate those who perpetrate lies from traditional remedies like libel suits.”

The current Supreme Court conservative majority is certainly not shy about tearing down the liberal precedents set by the Warren Court. Floyd Abrams, one of the US’s most famous press lawyers, told the podcast So to Speak (2/23/23) that the judges who want to overturn Sullivan “are offended by…the press reportage about really public matters, which I think Sullivan was absolutely right about and has served the public well.” Floyd doesn’t believe the court has the five votes needed to undo Sullivan yet. But there are at least two justices—Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch—that have their eye on the case, and possibly one or two more.

And next year’s presidential election could make a huge difference. “Former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, two favorites of many Fox News viewers, have advocated for the court to revisit the [Sullivan] standard,” AP (3/6/23) reported. The call to constrain press freedom is still ringing loud among right-wing voters.

Floyd said “if former President Trump were reelected and he got a chance…to appoint some more justices, sure, [Sullivan] would be at risk.”

The post DeSantis’ Anti-Press Bills Seem Dead, but Don’t Celebrate Yet appeared first on FAIR.

This content originally appeared on FAIR and was authored by Ari Paul.

The post National Security State Propaganda, the Fourth Estate’s Deadly Follies, and Why We Need a Truly Independent Press in Support of Human Rights and Freedom of Expression as we Celebrate Press Freedom Day appeared first on Project Censored.

This content originally appeared on Project Censored and was authored by Project Censored.

Tens of thousands demonstrated with a defiant yet jubilant spirit in London on Saturday to mark the second day of 'The Big One' climate protests aimed at getting the U.K. government to finally take bold action on the planetary emergency of greenhouse gas emissions.

A nonviolent die-in action was held outside Parliament, but the day of demonstration was billed as a "family-friendly" day of action meant to foster inclusion and participation as opposed to disruption or civil disobedience.

The coalition behind 'The Big One' events includes Extinction Rebellion UK (XR), Greenpeace UK, War Without Want, Global Justice Now, Women's Climate Strike, and dozens of others have warned that if the government does not respond to their urgent, collective set of demands, they will begin escalating their direct actions.

"As the government continues to fan the flames of the climate and biodiversity crisis it's clear that only a collective effort can put it out," said Areeba Hamid, Greenpeace UK's executive director, on Saturday.

"We will either win as a movement or lose as individual organizations," Hamid added. "And through bringing together groups from across civil society, The Big One will act as the catalyst of a new united fight against the vested interests putting profits over people and the planet."

In addition to unity across the movement, urgency was a main theme of the event.

"The climate and ecological crisis isn't something that is going to happen in the future, it is already here, we can see it with the noticeable lack of insects and wildlife every spring and summer," said Zoe Cohen, a spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion. "It's time that the government took this seriously and listened to the people here and the many not present who are represented by the organizations here."

On the ground in London, writer and activist James Marriot said the attendees—estimates ranged from 30,000 to 60,000 or more—came with diverse voices but shared a "vibrant" mood as they expressed extreme displeasure with the Tory-controlled government's refusal to act.

Saturday's event, said Marriot, is the "culmination of at least a year if not more of campaigning and preparation by XR and many other organizations across the UK to create a festival of climate resistance in London, the heart of government and bureaucracy—a festival that says, 'We are here. This is what we stand for.' It's not so much a protest, nor is it an obstruction, but a statement of existence. A statement that says we are here and we want action."

Marriott those participating are demanding a "change to the structures of government and the structures of the energy system" and to "make them change as swiftly as possible."

In a Metroop-ed on Friday, Green MP Caroline Lucas, who is speaking at various 'Big One' events, said the driving purpose for the U.K. climate movement is to create the necessary momentum for the "wholesale, societal change" to adequately address the climate emergency unleashed by the burning of fossil fuels and other highly-polluting industrial processes of the 20th and 21st centuries.

"How did we end up here?" Lucas asks. "I believe it's because climate and nature crimes are being committed with impunity right across the country and the world. Fossil fuel giants like BP and Shell are drilling the North Sea, polluting our planet and reaping record profits. And private water companies are dumping sewage in our waterways on a daily basis, all while returning billions in profits to their shareholders."

But instead of taking action to avert the destruction, she continues, the Tory government led by U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunal is "aiding and abetting" it.

"Despite the stark warnings of 'act now, or it will be too late' from the global scientific community just this week," said Mel Evans, the climate lead for Greenpeace UK, the government refuses to act.

"The U.K. government is failing to deliver the kind of wholesale action needed to avoid full-blown climate breakdown," Evans said.

The coalition behind "The Big One"—which will continue into next week—is demanding that the U.K. government "end all new licenses, approvals, and funding for fossil fuel projects as we begin a transition to a fair society centered on reparatory justice for all life on earth."

"This is a transformative moment in history, and we will accept nothing less than immediate and decisive action from the U.K. government," the alliance wrote. "The people of this country have the courage and power, and it is our responsibility to safeguard our own future by taking action where politics has let us down with apathy and dangerous false solutions."

Extinction Rebellion's Cohen said, "So far the atmosphere has been amazing and it's been great to see so many people from different organizations come together for the first time. There is a very clear desire from the public to discuss climate solutions together and build something different."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Jon Queally.

“The Party Is Ending for French Retirees.” That’s the headline the Wall Street Journal (3/14/23) went with just days before French President Emmanuel Macron invoked a special article of the constitution to bypass the National Assembly and enshrine an increase in the retirement age in national law. The Journal proclaimed:

The golden age of French pensions is coming to an end, one way or another, in an extreme example of the demographic stress afflicting the retirement systems of advanced economies throughout the world.

The possibility that this “golden age” could be extended is not even entertained. Due to previous “reforms” (CounterSpin, 9/17/10), the pension of the average French person is already facing cuts over the coming decades. So preserving the current level of benefits would require strengthening the system. For the Journal, this is out of the question. Stingier pensions, on the other hand, are portrayed as the inevitable result of “demographic stress,” not policy choices.

The French people, by contrast, recognize that a less generous pension system is far from an inevitability. Protesters quickly took to the streets this January after the government unveiled plans to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64; one poll from that month found 80% of the country opposed to such a change. And as the government pushed the reform through in March, protests grew especially rowdy, with monuments of refuse lining the city’s streets and fires illuminating the Parisian landscape.

But that’s just how the French are, you know? They’re a peculiar people, much different from us Americans.

The French are built different

As the New York Times’ Paris bureau chief Roger Cohen put it in a recent episode of the Daily (3/16/23), protesters have been “talking about how life begins when work ends, which is a deeply held French conviction, very different from the American view that life is enriched and enhanced by work.”

Left unmentioned is the fact that, for decades, Americans have consistently opposed increases to the Social Security retirement age, usually by a large margin (CounterSpin, 10/26/18). Moreover, two-thirds of the American public support a four-day workweek, and half say Americans work too much. How French of them.

US media (Extra!, 3–4/96) have taken to covering the uprising against pension “reform” in the same way the narrator of a nature documentary might describe the wilderness:

Now, we come to a Frenchman in his natural habitat. His behavior may give the impression of idleness, but don’t let that fool you. If prodded enough with the prospect of labor, he will not hesitate before lighting the local pastry shop ablaze.

The New York Times (2/24/23), for instance, ran an article in the midst of the protests headlined “The French Like Protesting, but This Frenchman May Like It the Most,” about a man who has “become a personal embodiment of France’s enduring passion for demonstration.” It followed that up with a piece (3/7/23) presenting French opposition to an increase in the retirement age as some exotic reflection of the French’s French-ness. A source attested to the country’s uniqueness: “In France, we believe that there is a time for work and then a time for personal development.”

Meanwhile, while the Washington Post has mostly been content to outsource coverage of the protests to Associated Press wires, it did run a piece (3/15/23) by one of its own reporters titled: “City of … Garbage? Paris, Amid Strikes, Is Drowning in Trash.”

The burden of old people

Among these, only the Financial Times (3/19/23) opposed the French government’s remarkably anti-democratic decision to raise the retirement age without a vote in the National Assembly, opining that Macron’s tactics have both “weakened” him and left “France with a democratic deficit.”

The Washington Post (3/17/23), by contrast, suggested democratic means would have been preferable, but gave no indication of opposition to Macron’s move. (As FAIR has pointed out—3/9/23—the Post’s supposed concern for democracy doesn’t extend far beyond its slogan.) And the Wall Street Journal (3/16/23) actually saluted the move, remarking, “Give Mr. Macron credit for persistence—and political brass.”

The editorial boards’ case for pension reform is based on a simple conviction—French pensions are unsustainable—for which there are three main pieces of evidence.

First, the ratio of workers to retirees. The Wall Street Journal (3/14/23) included a graphic projecting the worker-to-retiree ratio through 2070:

As the graphic shows, this ratio has declined substantially since 2002, and is set to decline even more over the next several decades. This trend is referenced more or less directly in editorials by the Journal (3/16/23, 1/31/23, 1/13/23), the Washington Post (3/17/23) and the Financial Times (3/19/23).

The declining worker-to-retiree ratio is meant to inspire fear, but in and of itself, it’s not necessarily a problem. After all, the increased costs associated with a rising number of retirees could very well be offset by other factors. It is therefore much more useful to look directly at how much of a nation’s wealth is used to support retirees.

Which brings us to the second commonly cited piece of evidence: pensions as a percentage of GDP. This is mentioned in editorials by the Journal (3/16/23, 1/31/23, 1/13/23), Post (3/17/23) and Bloomberg (1/16/23).

As it turns out, there’s no problem to be found here. In its 2021 Aging Report, the European Commission estimates that, even without a rise in the minimum retirement age to 64, public pension spending in France would actually decline over the next several decades, dropping to 12.6% of GDP in 2070, down from 14.8% in 2019. Cost-saving factors, primarily the deterioration in benefit levels, would more than cancel out the increase in the number of retirees. In other words, there is no affordability crisis. It doesn’t exist.

Which side are you on?

One solution to the deficit is raising the retirement age. Another is raising taxes. Oddly enough, the editorials cited above almost universally fail to mention the second option.

The only editorial board to bring up the possibility of raising taxes is the Financial Times’ (1/10/23), which comments, “Macron has rightly ruled out raising taxes or rescinding tax breaks since France’s tax share of GDP is already 45%, the second-highest in the OECD after Denmark.”

This statement says much more about the Times than it does about the reasonableness of raising taxes. Oxfam France (1/18/23) has estimated that a mere 2% tax on the wealth of French billionaires could eliminate the projected pension deficit. Rescinding three tax cuts that Macron’s government passed and that largely benefit the wealthy could free up €16 billion each year. That would plug the pension system’s projected deficit with money left over.

Which option you pick—increasing taxes on the wealthy or raising the retirement age—depends entirely on who you want to bear the costs of shoring up the pension system. Do you want the wealthy to sacrifice a little? Or do you want to ratchet up the suffering of lower-income folks a bit? Are you on the side of the rich, or the poor and working class? The editorial boards of these major newspapers have made their allegiance clear.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Conor Smyth.

"Ever-higher military spending is contributing to climate catastrophe, and U.S. lawmakers need a better understanding of alternative economic choices," Stephanie Savell, co-director of Costs of War, said in a statement. "Military industrial production can be redirected to civilian technologies that contribute to societal well-being and provide green jobs. This conversion can both decarbonize the economy and create prosperity in districts across the nation."

In one of the papers released Thursday, Miriam Pemberton, an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, described "how the United States developed a war economy," as reflected in its massive $858 billion military budget, which accounts for roughly half of all federal discretionary spending.

As Pemberton explained:

When the U.S. military budget decreased after the Cold War, military contractors initiated a strategy to protect their profits by more widely connecting jobs to military spending. They did this by spreading their subcontracting chains across the United States and creating an entrenched war economy. Perhaps the most infamous example: Lockheed Martin's F-35 fighter jet, which is built in 45 states.

The strategy proved successful. Today, many members of Congress have political incentives to continue to raise the military budget, in order to protect jobs in their districts. Much of the U.S. industrial base is invested in and focused on weapons production, and industry lobbyists won't let Congress forget it.

Not only is the Pentagon a major contributor to planet-heating pollution—emitting more greenhouse gases than 140 countries—and other forms of environmental destruction, but a 2019 Costs of War study showed that "dollar for dollar, military spending creates far fewer jobs than spending on other sectors like education, healthcare, and mass transit," Pemberton continued.

Moreover, "military spending creates jobs that bring wealth to some people and businesses, but do not alleviate poverty or result in widely-shared prosperity," Pemberton wrote. "In fact, of the 20 states with economies most dependent on military manufacturing, 14 experience poverty at similar or higher rates than the national average."

"A different way is possible," she stressed, pointing to a pair of military conversion case studies.

"The only way to really lower emissions of the military is you've got to make the military smaller."

As military budgets were shrinking in 1993, Lockheed was eager to expand its reach into non-military production.

"One of its teams working on fighter jets at a manufacturing facility in Binghamton, New York successfully shifted its specialized skills to produce a system for transit buses that cut fuel consumption, carbon emissions, maintenance costs, and noise, called 'HybriDrive,'" Pemberton explained.

By 1999, Lockheed "sold the facility producing HybriDrive buses and largely abandoned its efforts to convert away from dependence on military spending," she wrote. "But under the new management of BAE Systems, the hybrid buses and their new zero-emission models are now reducing emissions" in cities around the world.

According to Pemberton, "This conversion project succeeded where others have failed largely because its engineers took seriously the differences between military and civilian manufacturing and business practices, and adapted their production accordingly."

In another paper released Thursday, Karen Bell, a senior lecturer in sustainable development at the University of Glasgow, sought to foreground "the views of defense sector workers themselves," noting that they "have been largely absent, despite their importance for understanding the feasibility of conversion."

Bell surveyed 58 people currently and formerly employed in military-related jobs in the U.S. and the United Kingdom and found that "while some workers said that the defense sector is 'socially useful,' many were frustrated with their field and would welcome working in the green economy."

"This was a small group so we cannot generalize to defense workers overall," writes Bell. "However, even among this small cohort, some were interested in converting their work to civil production and would be interested in taking up 'green jobs.'"

One respondent told Bell: "Just greenwashing isn't going to do it. Just putting solar panels up isn't going to do it. So we're trying to stress that the only way to really lower emissions of the military is you've got to make the military smaller."

"By the way, do we really need to update all our ICBMs [Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles]?" the survey participant asked. "Don't we have enough to blow up the world three times over, or five times over? Why don't we take those resources and use them someplace else where they really should be?"

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.

This content originally appeared on openDemocracy RSS and was authored by Chrissy Stroop.

On Dec. 20, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh called the data "a proud, bright spot in the context of a developing country,” saying it showed the economy was progressing.

His optimism was shared by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong.

"In the context of many difficulties and great challenges ... thanks to the cooperation and efforts of the whole Party, the people, the army ... the economy continues to grow rapidly, reaching 8%, much higher than the plan and a high level compared to other countries in the region and around the world,” he said at a Jan. 3 conference reviewing the government’s work last year and outlining its tasks for 2023.

Not verified

Some economists are concerned about the reliability of the data.

Economist Nguyen Tri Hieu, who has over 30 years’ experience working in banking and finance in the U.S., Germany and Vietnam, told RFA that accuracy depends on the method of calculation and the ability of the statistician, information which is not available in Vietnam

“The problem is that there is no agency to verify the statistics of the General Department of Statistics. It's the only number we know," he said.

Hieu said in order to gauge the health of the economy it is important to consider factors such as workers’ living standards, social security, health and safety, and environmental issues.

Norway-based economist Nguyen Huy Vu, who worked for Germany’s Bundesbank, said the 8% growth figure has no meaning without considering factors that would indicate whether people are better or worse off than previous years.

“[If] the living standards of workers are not improved, many jobs are not created, the health of the economy is not increased, businesses do not increase, then the number, no matter how high, becomes meaningless," he said.

‘People are very poor’ 

The owner of an electronics assembly business in Ho Chi Minh City told RFA people’s lives, especially those of unskilled workers, have been extremely difficult over the past year.

Nguyen Dinh De said processing orders have fallen because Europe and the U.S. entered what he called “an economic crisis.”

In addition, the war in Ukraine pushed up global raw material prices, particularly oil. From June to September 2022, gasoline prices in Vietnam rose above VND30,000/liter (U.S.$1.23/liter).

“People have no jobs but raw materials prices are still high, transportation costs increase, all other commodities increase in price,” De said. “The people are very poor, [their lives] are very difficult."

More than 143,000 companies went out of business last year, according to the General Statistics Office, with an average of nearly 400 bankruptcies a day.

“If the government says 8% growth is the highest rate in the past 12 years, that’s a good point. But looking at people's lives, the difficulties of businesses, looking at the number of businesses that have to close, we understand the downside," De said.

2023 economic outlook

Even though Vietnam’s gross domestic product grew 8% and total trade value reached a record U.S.$733 billion last year, Nguyen Tri Hieu said the economy still had many problems. The most serious, he said, was the instability of financial markets, with the VN-Index losing as much as 300%, a liquidity crunch as companies struggled to sell bonds and continued weakness in the real estate sector. He said the economy will face a rough ride in the first half of this year before becoming more stable in the second half.

Nguyen Huy Vu said economic growth could be weaker this year because fewer outsourcing orders from the U.S. and Europe will cut the inflow of foreign currency.

With global interest rates rising, Vietnam will be forced to follow suit to keep exchange rates stable, Vu said. Higher borrowing costs will make it difficult for businesses to invest in higher production, he said, and manufacturers will face difficulties.

Trinh Khanh Ly, formerly at the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor and the International Labor Organization in Hanoi, is a specialist in labor law, income inequality, labor export policy and trade unions in Vietnam.

She told RFA the recovery of Vietnam's outsourcing companies depends on the economic strength of the major markets they export to, Japan, the U.S. and the E.U. 

“These are the markets that, after being greatly affected by COVID, are being heavily affected by the fuel crisis, the war in Ukraine, high inflation and are expected to continue to face many difficulties in 2023,” she said. “Therefore, I think Vietnam should prepare for a worse scenario where the loss of jobs in these enterprises will continue to occur in 2023 and the next few years."

Translated by RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Mike Firn.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Vietnamese.

The U.S. climate movement and people on the frontlines of the planetary crisis celebrated Thursday after the U.S. Senate declined to add Sen. Joe Manchin's fossil fuel-friendly permitting bill to a military spending package.

"The Senate's rejection of this dangerous bill is a resounding win for environmental justice communities and the climate."

While the $858 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was ultimately approved, the West Virginia Democrat's amendment fell short of the 60 votes needed to include his Building American Energy Security Act.

The 47-47 vote Thursday evening came after two earlier defeats: The bill was left out of the NDAA draft last week; and in September, Manchin asked Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)—who agreed to push through permitting reforms if Manchin voted for the Inflation Reduction Act—to remove a previous version from stopgap funding legislation.

"Defeated for the third time this year, this zombie bill would have fast-tracked dangerous fossil fuel and mining projects that would undercut the positive impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act," explained Chelsea Hodgkins, Oxfam America's climate policy adviser. "Sen. Manchin's proposal would do nothing to address the real barriers to renewable energy development, which include fully resourcing underfunded agencies and investing in community-supported renewable systems."

"Continued reliance on fossil fuels is making communities in the U.S. sick and driving climate change impacts in communities around the world," she stressed. "Sen. Manchin's dirty deal had absolutely no place in a must-pass bill like the National Defense Authorization Act; it is unpopular and dangerous."

Matt Casale, environment campaigns director for U.S. PIRG, argued that "it's already too easy to get permits to pollute."

"If it were harder to permit polluting projects, we could have less asthma, cleaner drinking water, and a more stable climate," he said. "The last thing we should do is allow more destructive, polluting, and dangerous projects such as oil pipelines to be easily approved without fully considering the damage they could cause to our health and climate. Thank you to all the senators who voted against this amendment."

Several campaigners not only praised the senators who opposed Manchin's amendment but also called out those who supported it.

"We are thrilled that Manchin's push to get his Big Oil wish list attached to must-pass legislation has failed for the third time," said Ariel Moger, government and political affairs director at Friends of the Earth. "Leader Schumer and Democrats who voted for the dirty deal should be ashamed of themselves."

"It is appalling that they are willing to sacrifice frontline communities and the climate to appease Manchin and corporate polluters," she charged. "Democratic leadership owes a swift apology to those suffering from environmental racism and climate change impacts for insisting this deal ever see the light of day."

"The people have triumphed over the polluters once again," said People vs. Fossil Fuels, a national coalition of over 1,200 organizations. "Sen. Manchin's dirty deal was a direct assault on frontline communities and the environmental laws that protect our air, water, climate, and public health."

"But we know this fight isn't over: The fossil fuel industry and the politicians in their pocket will continue to try and rubber-stamp more dangerous fossil fuel projects," the coalition continued. "Wherever they go, we'll be there to stop them."

Collin Rees of Oil Change International declared: "Good riddance to Manchin's dirty deal—the Senate's rejection of this dangerous bill is a resounding win for environmental justice communities and the climate. We've stopped this zombie bill three times and we'll do it as many times as needed."

Crystal Mello, an organizer with the Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights Coalition, delivered a similar message: "Every time we defeat Manchin's dirty deal, it gets weaker. This isn't the end of the fight because Manchin will continue to endanger our lives for his profit by trying to pass fossil-fueled legislation. We will continue to fight this dirty deal until it is defeated because our future is at stake."

Mello also had a message for President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Schumer, and all other members of Congress who have supported Manchin's effort: "Wake up and back frontline communities as we continue to fight this bad bill."

Food & Water Watch policy director Jim Walsh said that "it's time for Sen. Schumer to realize that fast-tracking a dirty backroom deal on behalf of the fossil fuel industry is a political loser and a climate disaster. Instead of looking to rush through favors for corporate polluters, lawmakers should turn their attention to real solutions that promote clean energy and protect our climate future."

Ahead of the vote, Biden on Thursday reiterated his support for Manchin's proposal, provoking widespread outrage.

"The dirty deal directly contradicts President Biden's climate plan and his rhetoric about environmental justice," People vs. Fossil Fuels said after the vote. "President Biden needs to listen to communities, not Big Oil CEOs, and use his power to reject all fossil fuel projects and declare a climate emergency, and we will continue to demand that he protects our public interest and follows through."

Rees asserted that "President Biden's strong support of this deadly legislation is a deep stain on his climate legacy."

"We'll keep standing with communities on the frontlines," he vowed, "to stop the Mountain Valley Pipeline once and for all, oppose fossil fuel expansion and sacrifice zones, and build a just renewable energy future."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Jessica Corbett.

Peace campaigners, activists and Nuclear-Free and Independent Pacific stalwarts were among those who gathered in Auckland this evening to celebrate publication of a new book dedicated to the remarkable mahi of the late international peace researcher Owen Wilkes.

This Auckland launch of Peacemonger at Grey Lynn’s Trades Hall was the second of three such events following one in Christchurch last week and a third planned for Wellington on February 24.

Speakers included three of the four Auckland contributors to the book — event organiser Maire Leadbeater, Dr Bob Mann and Dr David Robie — with the fourth, Dr Peter Wills, sending his apologies. Dr Robie also shared a message from Swedish researcher Paul Claesson.

Guest speakers Bob Woodward and Lyn Hume reflected on the Peace Movement and the remarkable achievements over many years.

Activist musician Roger Fowler rounded off the evening with a performance.

Photographs: Del Abcede/WILPF and APR

• Peacemonger: Owen Wilkes: International peace researcher, edited by May Bass and Mark Derby. Wellington: Raekaihau Press, 196 pages. $35. ISBN 978-1-99-115386-9

Owen Wilkes book launch

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This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

Progressives worldwide celebrated leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's victory Sunday in Brazil's presidential election as a major win for the climate, workers, and democracy itself, all of which were threatened by the policies and actions of far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, who has yet to concede the race.

"Six years ago, the coup against Dilma Rousseff ushered in a dark period in Latin America's largest country," DiEM25, a pan-European pro-democracy movement, said in a statement Monday, referring to the 2016 ouster of Lula's presidential successor and ally. "A darkness that deepened with the political imprisonment of Lula, and culminated with the election of Jair Bolsonaro and the disastrous—and criminal—acts perpetrated by him during his presidency."

"Now, Brazilian people have chosen hope over fear, and solidarity over hate," DiEM25 added. "Lula's victory is one for the poorest, for women, for indigenous peoples – and, ultimately, for all of us around the world concerned with the protection of Brazil’s invaluable ecosystems as part of the crucial fight against climate change."

The campaign went on to note that Brazil's presidential contest—which proceeded to a runoff after neither candidate won the 50%+ needed to secure outright victory earlier this month—"was marked by political violence and by Bolsonaro's suggestions that he would not respect the election's results if he lost."

"DiEM25, and its political parties MERA25 in Greece and in Germany, urge all progressives in Europe to unequivocally denounce any attempt by Bolsonaro to subvert what is widely recognized as one of the most efficient and trustworthy electoral processes in the world," the movement added.

DiEM25's message was echoed by progressives across the globe, including in the United States, where Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and other lawmakers had warned that Bolsonaro's assault on Brazil's voting system and baseless claims of fraud could culminate in violence similar to the January 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol.

"Today, the people of Brazil have voted for democracy, workers' rights, and environmental sanity," said Sanders, who helped secure Senate passage of a resolution calling on the U.S. government to oppose any subversion of Brazil's democratic process.

"I congratulate Lula on his hard-fought victory and look forward to a strong and prosperous relationship between the United States and Brazil," Sanders added.

U.K. Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn wrote on Twitter that Lula's win represents "a victory for social justice, Indigenous rights, and the future of humanity."

The jubilation in the streets of Brazil, applause from global progressives, and congratulations from leaders in Latin America and around the world contrasted sharply with the silence from Bolsonaro in the wake of his narrow loss.

The incumbent, defeated after one term in office that brought massive destruction to the Amazon rainforest and a catastrophic pandemic response, declined to speak Sunday night and has not publicly accepted the outcome amid concerns that he could falsely claim Lula's late surge is evidence of fraud.

As the Associated Press reported, "Bolsonaro had been leading throughout the first half of the count and, as soon as da Silva overtook him, cars in the streets of downtown São Paulo began honking their horns. People in the streets of Rio de Janeiro's Ipanema neighborhood could be heard shouting, 'It turned!'"

Soon after the final results came in, Brazil's presidential palace went dark, with Bolsonaro holed up and refusing to address the media or his supporters.

Ultimately, Lula—a former metalworker and union leader who previously served as Brazil's president from 2003 to 2011—won roughly 2 million more votes than Bolsonaro and is set to take office on January 1.

"So far, Bolsonaro has not called me to recognize my victory, and I don't know if he will call or if he will recognize my victory," Lula told supporters late Sunday.

The president-elect, who has vowed to prioritize the fight against hunger and poverty, added that "today, the only winner is the Brazilian people."

"This isn't a victory of mine or the Workers' Party, nor the parties that supported me in campaign," Lula said. "It's the victory of a democratic movement that formed above political parties, personal interests, and ideologies so that democracy came out victorious."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Jake Johnson.

Amid a resurgent U.S. labor organizing movement, an analysis released Thursday highlights how union membership specifically benefits workers under age 35.

"The advantages of union representation for younger workers make reinforcing the labor movement a critical investment in our collective future."

The new Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) report—entitled The Union Advantage for Young Workers: Higher Wages and More Benefits—comes as employees of Amazon, Apple, Chipotle, Starbucks, Trader Joe's, and more are waging and have recently won unionization fights.

"The advantages of union representation for younger workers make reinforcing the labor movement a critical investment in our collective future," said CEPR research associate and analysis author Hayley Brown in a statement. "It is vital to empower workers by protecting and supporting their unions."

Brown's report points out that "many workers between the ages of 18 and 34 will have entered the labor market during either the Great Recession or the Covid-19 pandemic, raising the potential for economic scarring across an especially large cohort."

"Union representation presents a potential counter," the paper continues. "Since union wage advantages often match or exceed earnings setbacks related to economic shocks, increased union density could serve as a bulwark against longer-term earnings suppression."

The analysis also highlights that while the Affordable Care Act policy allowing people under 26 to remain on a parent's health insurance plan has made securing coverage easier for many younger people, medical care is still expensive in the United States, and "no such provision exists for retirement."

"Increased union presence can dovetail nicely with other social movements, with younger workers helping to facilitate hybridized collective action that addresses inequality and injustice on multiple fronts," the report adds. "However, opportunities for this remain limited due to precipitous declines in union membership and coverage across workers of all ages since 1983."

In 1983, 18.7% of workers ages 18 to 34 were covered by a union; last year, that figure was just 9%, around where it has hovered for the past decade. However, recent organizing and public opinion—new Gallup polling shows 71% of Americans and 72% of young U.S. workers support unions, a five-decade high—could cause that figure to rise.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) said in July that from October through the end of June, union representation petitions filings have soared by 58% and unfair labor practice charges have jumped by 16% relative to the same period for the previous fiscal year.

Young workers who succeed in unionizing could see a notable impact on their wages as well as healthcare and retirement benefits. Brown found that from 2016 to 2021, the median hourly earnings for unionized workers ages 18 to 34 was $23.86, compared with $17.27 for those who weren't covered by a union—a difference of $6.59 per hour. Young union workers also were more likely than their nonunion counterparts to have employer-sponsored health insurance (71.1% v. 46.8%) and retirement plans (54.5% v. 24.5%).

"Simply comparing the earnings and benefits outcomes of union and nonunion workers does not necessarily tell us whether or to what extent differences in these outcomes can be explained by union coverage," the analysis notes, explaining that "union workers may be more likely to have other characteristics associated with higher earnings and increased benefit coverage, such as more formal education or geographic clustering in states with different market norms."

Because of that, Brown applied "standard regression techniques to control for systemic differences between the union and nonunion workforces," and found similar trends.

"These results suggest that union representation still confers substantial wage and benefit premiums for young workers," the paper states. "After adjusting for potential confounders, union representation is associated with an 11.3% wage premium for workers between the ages of 18 and 34."

"The union effect also remains substantial with respect to employer-sponsored health insurance and retirement benefits," the document adds, "with regression-adjusted union premiums corresponding with a 37.9% increase in employer-sponsored health insurance coverage and an 89.8% increase in employer-sponsored retirement coverage."

According to the report:

To make the most of this potentially revitalizing moment, policymakers must approach pro-labor initiatives with a greater sense of urgency. The already underfunded NLRB will need additional resources to expediently process the growing number of union petition filings and unfair labor practice complaints. Policymakers must also prioritize legislation that will reduce organizing obstacles and codify collective bargaining rights for additional workers—legislation such as the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act and the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act, respectively.

Finally, states also have a role to play in protecting the rights of workers to organize unions and collectively bargain. So-called right-to-work legislation undercuts union funding and has been shown to weaken labor unions and undermine the workers they represent. State-run union elections can also be more unnecessarily onerous for workers in certain industries, making legislation like California's Assembly Bill 2183 crucial to ensure that all workers are able to exercise their right to organize and join unions.

The analysis comes with just over two months until the U.S. midterm elections. Progressive leaders who support the nation's ongoing organizing efforts are urging Democrats to appeal to the working people who are fighting for unions and better labor conditions.

"Across the country young people are reviving the labor movement," Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said in an August speech. "For every moderate suburban Republican, there are line cooks, homeworkers, dishwashers, cashiers, farmworkers who would vote a straight Democratic ticket if they were given a reason to."

"Let's give working folks a reason to turn out to vote for us," she declared. "That's who our party should be for, that's who our party should be talking to, and that's who we should be counting on to help us save our democracy in November."

Addressing a trade union rally in London Wednesday night, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) similarly celebrated the labor organizing happening in the United States, and called for building international solidarity to take on corporate greed and create "a world that belongs to all of us, not just the people on top."

"Our job right now is to bring people all over the world together," he said, "to make it clear to the oligarchs that their day and their power is ending."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Jessica Corbett.

Ten years ago, an auspicious experiment started alongside one of the most atrocious bloodsheds of this century. In July 2012, as Assad's troops faced an armed insurrection in southern and central Syria, a popular Kurdish-led uprising in northeast Syria quickly filled the power vacuum. By 2017, the Rojava revolution encompassed 5 million people—Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians, Turkmen, Armenians, Yazidis, and others. Guided by one of the most democratic constitutions in the world, the people of Rojava have established a system of decentralised self governance based on popular assemblies, gender equity, and radical inclusion of minorities. Striving towards a post-domination, post-extractive, post-state society, the Rojava revolution rests on a deep recognition of the necessity of women's leadership at every level of social and political life, a community-based system of restorative justice, respect for all living beings and regenerative agriculture.

Standing with Rojava means joining in the work of reclaiming autonomy and experimenting with concrete ways of life beyond nation-states, capitalism, and patriarchy.

Its 10th anniversary may have seemed unlikely when the community first formed and their continued existence is testimony to the outstanding resilience and commitment of the people of Rojava, who willingly accept the consequences of their actions. From their inception, they needed to defend the revolution against significant hostility: Turkey to the north, Daesh (Arabic acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) and the Assad regime to the south and Iraqi Kurdish neighbors to the east.

In 2018 and 2019, just briefly after Rojava's military, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), had defeated Daesh, Erdogan and his Jihadist allies invaded and occupied the Rojavan canton of Afrin and launched an armed assault on larger territories, carrying out war crimes and forcing half a million people to flee their homes. In the occupied areas, the majority Kurdish population continues to suffer from what the United Nations calls a "grim" human rights situation, rife with ethnic cleansing, forced displacements and seizures of land and properties. Despite a ceasefire agreement, Turkey has led a perpetual war with consistent drone attacks, which has barely been reported in Western media.

The reason for this relentless crackdown however isn't "terrorism," as Erdogan repeatedly claims. The people of Rojava pose a core threat to any existing government, especially those with imperialist ambitions, by showing the world a viable model of peaceful multi-ethnic coexistence, grounded in lived political, cultural and ecological autonomy. As the visionary Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan, who is currently in a Turkish high-security prison with a life sentence, writes: "The real power of capitalist modernity isn't its money and its weapons, [but] its ability to suffocate all utopias […] with its liberalism."

Rojava's momentous anniversary is overshadowed by threats of an even more devastating assault. Erdogan is currently beating the drums of war, likely hoping to profit from nationalist sentiments in the run up to the presidential election next year. In April, he launched the latest offensive against Kurdish fighters in Northern Iraq, and in May threatened he would initiate a new incursion into Rojava. He makes no pretense of his intentions to crush the revolution. His plan is to permanently occupy a 30 kilometer-wide strip along the 600km border between Turkey and Syria and to carry out massive population engineering: displacing native populations and forcibly moving up to one million, mostly Arab Syrian refugees, into the area.

Turkey cannot proceed with this plan without the tacit and/or open support of NATO allies, as demonstrated in Erdogan's recent blackmailing of Sweden and Finland. The United States, meanwhile, plays a Machiavellian double game to serve its own strategic agenda. Under Biden, as under Trump, the United States simultaneously uses its leverage over the SDF to undermine the grassroots structures within Rojava and to supply the largest share of the weapons with which Turkey threatens to invade Rojava.

The future of Rojava is at grave risk, at a time when the global significance of this unfolding experiment is even more important now than it was ten years ago. As liberal democracies seem incapable of addressing climate chaos, mass species extinction, food system collapses, social and racial injustice and other pressing crises, while finding themselves increasingly challenged by totalitarian claims to power, the Rojava revolution—along with the Zapatistas in Mexico and  other kindred movements around the world—offers a compelling alternative vision for reviving politics as a collective force for worthy and necessary social transformation.

As leaders from social movements, communities and First Nations from around the world, we salute the people of Rojava for their lived example of possibility and their unfathomable courage. Even as we mourn the use of force, we stand with the recent call from 34 political parties and movements in Rojava to close the airspace of northeast Syria and to "put pressure on the Turkish state to prevent its attacks and bring it to account for its crimes against humanity."

To be effective, our solidarity must go beyond words and appeals. Standing with Rojava means joining in the work of reclaiming autonomy and experimenting with concrete ways of life beyond nation-states, capitalism, and patriarchy. We may not be able to overcome these outdated systems immediately; however, we can create more and more spaces outside the life-denying logic of capitalist modernity. Ensuring these spaces have appropriate contexts to flourish, and creating, supporting, and amplifying decentralised autonomous communities is the critical work for our times. What happens in Rojava may determine our collective future.

This letter includes the following signatories:

Sami Awad Holy Land Trust, Palestine 

Debbie Bookchin Emergency Committee for Rojava, Turtle Island (USA)

Gail Bradbrook Extinction Rebellion, UK 

João Camargo Climáximo, Portugal 

Noam Chomsky Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Turtle Island (USA)

Gigi Coyle Beyond Boundaries, Turtle Island (USA) 

Salim Dara Rural Solidarity, Benin 

Silvia Federici Professor Emerita of Social Science, Hofstra University, New York, Turtle Island  (USA) 

Tiokasin Ghosthorse First Voices Radio, Turtle Island (USA)

David Harvey Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Geography, CUNY Graduate  Center, Turtle Island (USA) 

Jason Hickel Visiting scholar, London School of Economics, UK 

Miki Kashtan Nonviolent Global Liberation Community, UK 

Ashish Kothari Global Tapestry of Alternatives, India 

Alnoor Ladha Culture Hack Labs, Turtle Island (USA) 

Sabine Lichtenfels Tamera Peace Research & Education Center, Portugal

Woman Stands Shining, Pat McCabe Diné elder, Turtle Island (USA)

Cláudio Miranda Favela da Paz, Brazil 

Lynn Murphy Transition Resource Circle, Costa Rica 

Kumi Naidoo Former Secretary-General of Amnesty International, South Africa

Carne Ross Former British diplomat, UK 

Aida Shibli Global Campus, Palestine 

Rajendra Singh Tarun Bharat Sangh, India 

Marina Sitrin Associate professor at Binghamton University, Turtle Island (USA)

Carlin Quinn Education for Racial Equity, Turtle Island (USA) 

V (formerly Eve Ensler) One Billion Rising, Turtle Island (USA) 

Martin Winiecki Institute of Global Peacework, Portugal

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Martin Winiecki, Alnoor Ladha.

Mass shootings, in a dark, dystopian way, are as American as apple pie. This was made painfully clear on July 4th in Highland Park, Illinois when a gunman opened fire on hundreds of people lining the streets for the Chicago suburb’s annual Independence Day parade. When the shooting stopped, six people lay dead with close to 30 injured, one of whom later died in the hospital.

July 4th honors the day in 1776 when the thirteen colonies issued the Declaration of Independence. “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” its preamble proclaimed, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The Highland Park murder victims have neither life nor liberty, robbed of their happiness as the shooter fired at least 70 rounds into the crowd, using his legally-purchased semi-automatic rifle exactly as the AR-15’s original designers intended, to kill human beings. The Second Amendment rights of the accused killer, recently expanded by the aggressively rightwing U.S. Supreme Court majority, irrevocably trumped the rights of his victims.

Six months before the Declaration in 1776, a pamphlet tore through the colonies like wildfire. “Common Sense,” by a working-class English immigrant named Thomas Paine, argued in favor of overthrowing British rule in the thirteen colonies. Several hundred thousand copies circulated among the 2.5 million people there, generating a wellspring of support for revolution. Paine cited the battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19th, 1775 as the moment that ended the possibility of reconciliation with England. On that day, the mythologized “Minutemen,” those American farmers who laid down their plows to take up arms, militarily retaliated against British soldiers for the first time, firing what Ralph Waldo Emerson called “the shot heard round the world.”

By December of 1776, the Continental Army, commanded by George Washington, was on the run, fleeing a massive British onslaught. Thomas Paine, seeing morale flagging, wrote another pamphlet, “The American Crisis.” He opened it with the lines, “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.” He’s credited with providing vital inspiration to the revolutionary cause at its lowest point.

A dozen years later, 55 white men, almost half of whom enslaved people, drafted the U.S. Constitution. They included provisions protecting slavery (without mentioning it) as well as the Second Amendment, a grammatically ambiguous statement linking a “well regulated Militia” with the right to bear arms. In recent years, including last month, the Supreme Court has stretched the meaning of the Second Amendment, expanding the rights of individuals to own and carry guns with less and less regulation. This helps explain our current sorry state of affairs with 400 million guns in circulation and 100 deaths from gun violence DAILY.

The current Supreme Court majority fancies themselves “originalists,” imposing their understanding of what the 18th-century founders were thinking. But “arms” back then were muskets, with each handmade bullet taking about a minute to load – a far cry from today’s ubiquitous AR-15.

The right to bear arms, like so much in our country’s bloody history, can be traced back to the violent institution of slavery, the suppression of slave revolts, and to the genocide against indigenous people.

“When you think about the Bill of Rights, you’ve got the right to freedom of the press, no state-sponsored religion, freedom of assembly, the right not to be illegally searched and seized, the right to a speedy and fair trial, the right not to have cruel and unusual punishment,” Carol Anderson, author of “The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America,” said on the Democracy Now! news hour. “Then you’ve got this well-regulated militia? The right to bear arms for the security of the state? That amendment is an outlier in this Bill of Rights…it was the payoff to the South to have a force under state control that could contain Black aspirations, Black freedom quests, that could contain what is seen as a dangerous Black population.”

Carol Anderson’s book, “The Second,” should be required reading for any modern, self-styled “patriot” claiming unfettered gun rights.

As Thomas Paine wrote in The American Crisis,

“Let it be told to the future world, that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and to repulse it.”

Our uniquely American crisis of mass shootings and gun violence must be confronted with sustained, grassroots action, starting with an assault weapons ban.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Amy Goodman, Denis Moynihan.

Notching a legal victory for transgender youth in Alabama, a federal judge Friday partially blocked a law passed by Republican lawmakers in the state that made it a crime punishable to up to ten years in jail to prescribe gender-affirming puberty blockers and hormone therapies to minors seeking such treatment.

According to the New York Times, the order by U.S. District Judge Liles C. Burke will allow some of the legislation to remain in place but blocked the portion focused on therapeutics because he "found that particular element of the law most likely unconstitutional, writing that parents have a fundamental right to direct the care of their children within medically accepted standards and that limiting care to gender-nonconforming children amounted to sex discrimination."

in his ruling against the law known as SB 184, Judge Burke said the state of Alabama's argument that gender-affirming care for youth is "unsettled science" was not persuasive. As the Associated Press notes, "The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Pediatric Endocrine Society both endorse the treatments that clinics here and in other states are providing for transgender youth. More than 20 medical and mental health organizations urged Burke to block the law."

Though the future of the law remains in doubt as the legal challenges against it continue, defenders of rights for trans children, including Jennifer Levi, the Transgender Rights Project director for the advocacy group GLAD, one of the plaintiffs in the case, celebrated the ruling.

"This ruling means that parents of transgender children in Alabama will continue to be able to make the healthcare decisions that are best for their families. It is an extraordinary relief. Parents should not be punished for wanting to do what's best for their kids," Levi said.

James Zoe, father of 13-year-old Zachary of Birmingham and also a plaintiff, expressed elation following the judge's decision.

"This ruling means that we will be able to continue providing our child with the medical care he needs and nothing could be more important or more of a relief to our family. Alabama is our home and we hope this cruel law will not be allowed to force us from it. We are fighting for our child and will continuing fighting so that he and all transgender youth in Alabama remain able to receive appropriate medical care."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Jon Queally.

Celebrating Rotuman Language Week in Auckland’s Kingsland today took the form of colourful and thrilling cultural dances.

The dances were performed at the Trinity Methodist Church hall by members of the Auckland Rotuman Fellowship Group.

The group has sponsored a busy week of events, thrilling Rotuman community participants.

• READ MORE: ‘It’s never too late to reclaim this rich heritage’
• Other Rotuman reports

The fellowship runs language classes in an effort to keep the culture alive.

Rotuman is listed as one of UNESCO’s endangered languages.

Rotuma is a Fijian-dependency island, but it is situated 500 km north of Suva and the island has its own distinct culture and language.

Less than 2000 Rotumans actually on Rotuma while about 10,000 live on the main islands of Fiji, and about 1000 live in Aotearoa New Zealand.

• The fellowship’s Rotuman Language Week programme

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

A historic settlement filed in court on Monday highlighted the power of Illinois' strong privacy law and will result in new nationwide restrictions on a controversial technology company infamous for selling access to the largest known database of facial images.

"This represents one of the biggest victories for consumers to date."

The deal permanently banning Clearview AI from providing most private entities with free or paid access to its database stems from a lawsuit that the ACLU and partners f in 2020, arguing that the company violated Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).

"This settlement is a big win for the most vulnerable people in Illinois," declared Linda Xóchitl Tortolero, president and CEO of the Chicago-based nonprofit Mujeres Latinas en Acción, one of the plaintiffs in the case.

"Much of our work centers on protecting privacy and ensuring the safety of survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault," she added. "Before this agreement, Clearview ignored the fact that biometric information can be misused to create dangerous situations and threats to their lives. Today that's no longer the case."

In addition to permanently banning Clearview from granting private companies and individuals access to the database, the settlement has some state-specific limits. For the next five years, Clearview can't allow private companies with exceptions under BIPA or state or local government entities in Illinois, including law enforcement, access to the database.

Under the settlement, Clearview will also maintain an opt-out request on its website for Illinoisans, end its free trials for individual police officers, and continue its efforts to remove photographs that were taken in or uploaded from the state.

As The New York Times reported:

In a key exception, Clearview will still be able to provide its database to U.S. banks and financial institutions under a carve-out in the Illinois law. Hoan Ton-That, chief executive of Clearview AI, said the company did "not have plans" to provide the database "to entities besides government agencies at this time."

The settlement does not mean that Clearview cannot sell any product to corporations. It will still be able to sell its facial recognition algorithm, without the database of 20 billion images, to companies. Its algorithm helps match people's faces to any database that a customer provides.

"There are a number of other consent-based uses for Clearview's technology that the company has the ability to market more broadly," Mr. Ton-That said.

Floyd Abrams, an attorney for Clearview, said the company was "pleased to put this litigation behind it."

Meanwhile, lawyers representing the plaintiffs and other experts celebrated the settlement as a victory.

J. Eli Wade-Scott of Edelson PC—which recently obtained a $650 million settlement in a BIPA case with Facebook—noted that the case was part of a broader fight.

"There is a battle being fought in courtrooms and statehouses across the country about who is going to control biometrics—Big Tech or the people being tracked by them—and this represents one of the biggest victories for consumers to date," he said.

Nathan Freed Wessler, a deputy director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, said that "by requiring Clearview to comply with Illinois' pathbreaking biometric privacy law not just in the state, but across the country, this settlement demonstrates that strong privacy laws can provide real protections against abuse."

"Clearview can no longer treat people's unique biometric identifiers as an unrestricted source of profit," he said. "Other companies would be wise to take note, and other states should follow Illinois' lead in enacting strong biometric privacy laws."

Rebecca Glenberg, staff attorney for the ACLU of Illinois, echoed that advice for other states.

"Fourteen years ago, the ACLU of Illinois led the effort to enact BIPA—a groundbreaking statute to deal with the growing use of sensitive biometric information without any notice and without meaningful consent," she said. "BIPA was intended to curb exactly the kind of broad-based surveillance that Clearview's app enables. Today's agreement begins to ensure that Clearview complies with the law. This should be a strong signal to other state legislatures to adopt similar statutes."

Surveillance Technology Oversight Project executive director Albert Fox Cahn told Gizmodo that "this is a milestone for civil rights, and the ACLU deserves our thanks for once again safeguarding our Constitution."

"Banning Clearview AI in one state is not enough; we need a national ban," Fox Cahn asserted. "Illinois has long been ahead of the curve in protecting residents from biometric surveillance, but it's time for the rest of the country to catch up."

"It's only a matter of weeks before we start seeing police use technologies like Clearview AI to enforce bans on abortion," he warned, alluding to a battle that's been heightened due to a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade. "We shouldn't allow this sort of technology to target pregnant people in any state."

As Common Dreams reported earlier this year, the fight over Clearview isn't contained to the states; progressive lawmakers have also urged federal agencies to end the use of Clearview's facial recognition technology.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Jessica Corbett.

Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said that in the 15 months since its Feb. 1, 2021, coup, the junta had “obliterated” a decade of moderate press reforms in Myanmar, prompting it to name the country the world’s fifth worst abuser of the media freedom in its annual global index.

Speaking to RFA’s Myanmar Service on Tuesday, Han Zaw of the Detained Journalists’ Information said his group had documented the arrest of 135 journalists in Myanmar since the coup, adding that nearly half of them remain in detention.

“Eighty-three of them — 13 women and 70 men — have been released so far, some on amnesty, some after completing their sentences and some after serving a short-term detention,” he said.

“More than 80 journalists have been charged. There are currently 51 detained journalists — 13 women and 38 men.”

Myanmar is recognized by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists as the world’s worst jailer of journalists after China. Since the coup, authorities have arrested and sentenced outspoken members of the press on vaguely worded criminal charges that include “publishing false information” and “defamation,” as well as on charges of “terrorism.”

Freelance journalist Soe Yar Zar Tun was detained on Feb. 28, 2021, while covering anti-coup protests and is being held in Yangon’s Insein Prison facing a trial for violating the country’s Anti-Terrorism Law.

His brother, Zar Ni Tun, told RFA that the junta has no right to arrest members of the media for reporting the news.

“It’s completely hypocritical,” he said. “They have harassed and arrested and tortured people in the past and are still doing it.”

An editor from the Shwe Phi Myay News Agency, which is based in Shan state, said that in addition to the threat of arrest, journalists are now regularly in danger of losing their lives while doing their jobs.

“We know that once a person is arrested, it is very difficult for them to be released. At worst, they could be arrested, tortured or even killed,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

“It’s not just the army in this area. There are many ethnic armed groups too. And so, we could get arrested and detained at any time and face a life-threatening situation.”

Veteran journalist Myint Kyaw said journalists in the country now find themselves in the worst situation they have faced since the military coup.

“We had the case of the first journalist to be killed while covering an armed conflict last January,” he said, referring website editor Pu Tuidim, who was abducted by junta troops while reporting on military clashes with armed ethnic soldiers in Chin state and later shot dead by his captors.

“Armed conflicts have escalated in cities as well as in rural areas. Journalists will be killed even more, as there are now death threats to journalists and their family members. And so there might be more bad news for us.”

According to RSF, Pu Tidim was the third journalist to be killed in less than a month in Myanmar. His murder followed the Dec. 25, 2021, death of Federal News Journal editor Sai Win Aung from gunfire during a clash between the military and anti-junta People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitaries in Kaiyn state. Freelance photographer Soe Naing became the first journalist to die at the junta’s hands under torture on Dec. 14, four days after being arrested while covering a protest in Yangon.

Journalists are also increasingly facing death threats for reporting news that portrays the junta in a bad light.

Last week, the pro-junta Thway Thauk, or “Blood Comrades,” militia called for the deaths of reporters and editors working for news outlets in Myanmar including The Irrawaddy, Mizzima, Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) and The Irrawaddy Times — as well as their family members.

Observers say groups like the Thway Thauk have been emboldened by the military regime’s open disdain for the media, which was again demonstrated — days ahead of World Press Freedom Day — by junta deputy information minister, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, when he accused several news outlets of being “destructive elements” in Myanmar during an April 27 press conference in the capital Naypyidaw.

When asked by RFA for comment on the number of reporters currently detained or in prison, Zaw Min Tun responded that the junta had “not arrested anyone for working in the media.”

“They were arrested for inciting people and for having contacts with terrorist organizations,” he said.

“All media outlets, with the exception of those that have been declared illegal, are working freely here,” he added.

Global media watchdog RSF disagreed with that assessment Tuesday when it dropped Myanmar to 175th out of 180 countries in its 2022 World Press Freedom Index from 140th a year earlier. The group said that in the 15 months since seizing power, the junta had “obliterated” a decade’s worth of modest media reforms that began when the country’s last military regime disbanded in 2011.

The new ranking put Myanmar behind only North Korea, Eritrea, Iran and Turkmenistan as the worst place in the world to be a journalist.

RSF said that after seizing power from Aung San Suu Kyi’s democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government on Feb. 1, 2021, the junta immediately banned a number of outspoken media outlets, leaving a handful to continue the work of informing their fellow citizens without offending the country’s military leadership.

The military regime enforces a strict regimen of censorship that prevents the press from reporting on its many human rights abuses, the group said, while leader Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing “openly promotes a policy of terror towards journalists who do not toe the junta’s line.”

RSF noted that reporters are regularly arrested and sentenced to lengthy jail terms on criminal charges of “false information” or “defamation” if anyone disputes what they have written.

“What with the risks of being jailed, tortured or murdered, journalism is an extremely dangerous profession in Myanmar, which has become one of the world’s biggest jailer of journalists, second only to China,” the group said.

“The few accounts emerging from Myanmar’s jails indicate extremely harsh conditions and systemic use of torture,” it added.

Sein Win, executive editor of Mizzima, told RFA that journalists who try to uncover the truth in Myanmar are now being targeted. 

“Dictators hate newspapers. True journalism always speaks the truth and that’s why these monsters do not want to see what journalists write or report,” he said.

“Troops have killed civilians and burned down houses in Chin and Karenni states and in Sagaing region, but they don’t want the news to come out. We were reporting the truth and they tried to cover up. They were afraid of it. Similarly, we report on their extrajudicial killings. It’s not just about them. We will report any wrongdoings, regardless of who committed them, in the search for truth.”

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Nayrein Kyaw.

But citizens and soldiers alike are beginning to resent the use of missile launches to praise Kim Jong Un, who is reverently referred to as the “Highest Dignity,” and would rather the government pay more attention to issues like food and supply shortages.

Though it was initially believed that North Korea launched the Hwasong-17 ICBM on March 24, South Korean military authorities reported Tuesday that it was in fact the older Hwasong-15. The Hwasong-17 was involved in a failed launch on March 16 and exploded over Pyongyang, they said.

“Today, while I was reading the news report in the Rodong Sinmun newspaper app on my smartphone, there was a report saying the Highest Dignity signed an order to launch an ICBM and I was skeptical whether our leader is the right person,” an official of Ryongchon county, in the northwestern province of North Pyongan, told RFA’s Korean Service.

“This year, the authorities insist that the food problem should be solved by decisively increasing agricultural production. Cooperative farms are struggling because they do not have fertilizer and other materials that are desperately needed for farming preparations, but the authorities do not provide any funds,” said the source, who requested anonymity for security reasons.

He said that the money the government is using for nuclear and missile development could be better used to boost the agricultural sector, but the government keeps launching missiles, so farm officials are angry.

In the city of Chongju in the south of the province, government loudspeakers have been broadcasting propaganda about the missile test.

“It says the Highest Dignity directly guided the launch of an ICBM that could stand up to a long-term confrontation with the United States,” a resident of the city told RFA. “This is the 13^th missile they launched this year alone. They are acting like kids playing war games. Is this something we should be proud of?

“The authorities’ propagandize that the launch of the ICBM was carried by the handwritten order of the Highest Dignity, which said to ‘launch bravely for the great dignity and honor of the country and people’. The residents find it absurd … expressing anger at authorities who turn a blind eye to their livelihoods,” the second source said on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.

Soldiers in the military also see through the propaganda, griping that authorities are telling to sacrifice their lives for the nation, just as the soldiers who launched the missile are somehow sacrificing themselves to fulfill the orders of Kim Jong Un.

The soldiers and officers have been attending daily “mental education classes” where they learn that the Red Flag Company, which launched the ICBM, are elite fighters who follow through on Kim Jong Un’s orders.

“The ideological education emphasizes that the Red Flag Company is a family that shares joy and suffering with the Supreme Leader. They say the Red Flag Company are dedicating themselves to defending him,” the military source said. “They are told the Red Flag Company are warriors prepared to sacrifice their lives for the Supreme Commander by following the spirit of defending the leader.

“However, the soldiers who listened to the instructor's lecture continued to have expressionless faces as if they did not know what they were willing to sacrifice their lives for. The soldiers griped about the military authorities, who were forcing them to listen to this propaganda when they needed time to rest after their grueling winter training,” the third source said.

Another military source, in North Pyongan, told RFA that the officers there are not buying the propaganda.

“They know that another intercontinental ballistic missile launch failed on the 16th, so they are wondering how much money was wasted again for this launch,” the fourth source said.

“Rather than focusing on the development of missiles, officers believe that it is urgent for the authorities to improve the poor supply situation in order to increase the morale of the soldiers. This would also increase the actual combat power of the military,” he said.

Translated by Leejin Jun. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Hyemin Son and Myung Chul Lee.

— Jeremy Brecher, Strike!

Although Critical Race Theory is now at the forefront of political debate, American history has often been about forgetting the events of its valiant labor past.

Following the crash of 1873, by July 1877 America was still deep in the depression. The previous year the total revenues of America’s railroads fell by $5.8 million. But they still raised profits to $186 million and managed to present shareholders with 10% dividends.

As Philip S. Foner noted in “The Great Labor Uprising Of 1877”, the railroads reduced workers’ pay by an average of 21%-37%. The Baltimore & Ohio reduced its staff’s pay by 50%.

Working people had to strike to provide for their families. They could no longer endure the misery. The Great Railroad Strike began on July 13 at Martinsburg, West Virginia and the strike quickly spread across many parts of the United States, at times taking on the appearance of an insurrection. There were widespread attacks on rail company property. In St Louis workers committees and general assemblies began running things and gender and color differences were put aside. The strikes went beyond the grievances held by the railroad workers and grew into a campaign for the Eight-Hour-Day. 1877 was also the year that the army was withdrawn from the ex-Confederate states, leaving the Ku Klux Klan to terrorize the former slaves and impose the Jim Crow regime. Instead, the military was sent to put down the workers’ strikes.

East St Louis General Strike

Largely organized by the Knights of Labor and the Workingmen’s Party, in East St Louis on July 22, train workers held meetings calling for pay rises but they adopted a series of radical resolutions:

“Whereas, The United States government has allied itself on the side of capital and against labor; therefore,

Resolved, That we, the workingmen’s party of the United States, heartily sympathize with the employees of all the railroads in the country who are attempting to secure just and equitable reward for their labor.

Resolved, That we will stand by them in this most righteous struggle of labor against robbery and oppression, through good and evil report, to the end of the struggle.”

When the strike began within hours strikers had taken control of the city. One speaker declared:

All you have to do, gentlemen, for you have the numbers, is to unite on one idea – that workingmen shall rule the country. What man makes, belongs to him, and the workingmen made this country.

At one rally a black man asked, “Will you stand to us regardless of color?” and the audience responded resolutely, “We will”.

24th of July then saw 350 federal troops arrive, reinforced by a further 450 soldiers on the 25th and more were to come. The city’s 360 strong police force was augmented by a “Citizens” vigilante organization of at least 1,500 armed men and they too were to grow in strength. The strike ended when troops and deputized special police killed at least eighteen people in skirmishes around the city. On July 28, 1877, they seized the strikers’ operations center, and arrested seventy strikers. With their leadership imprisoned, the strike movement lost momentum and the wage cuts were enforced, with many hundreds of strikers dismissed from their jobs.

David Burbank, in his book on what was also called the  East St. Louis Commune, ‘Reign of the Rabble’, wrote:

“Only around St. Louis did the original strike on the railroads expand into such a systematically organized and complete shut-down of all industry that the term general strike is fully justified. And only there did the socialists assume undisputed leadership…no American city has come so close to being ruled by a workers’ soviet, as we would now call it, as St. Louis, Missouri, in the year 1877.” [his emphasis]

The aftermath of July produced the Veiled Prophet Organization, a racist secret society, complete with KKK-style regalia, that comprised of St. Louis elite as an expression of the fear felt by the solidarity between white and black workers.

Pittsburgh

On Thursday, July 19, railroad workers brought train traffic to a halt. Iron and steel workers, miners, and many others joined the industrial action. The National Guard was mobilised but the authorities recognized that they could not be relied upon.

“Situation in Pittsburgh is becoming dangerous. Troops are in sympathy, in some instances, with the strikers. Can you rely on yours?” said a request by the local commander to higher command.

Many of the Pittsburgh town police and its local militia had sided with the strikers and were refusing to take action against them. Reinforcements were rushed in from Philadelphia and they were far less friendly towards the strikers. In an attempt to disperse a crowd, someone was bayoneted. Protesters retaliated with stones and shot pistols at the troops who returned fire and bayonet charged. When the fighting ceased, an estimated 20 men, women and children had been killed.

The news of the shooting spread. A gun manufacturer was looted and rifles and small-arms were taken by the strikers while gun-stores were broken into for more weapons.

The Philadelphian units found themselves overwhelmed and they retreated but, in due course, fresh detachments from Philadelphia arrived, in addition to federal troops and they managed to regain control. The exchanges had resulted in 53 strikers killed and eight soldiers.

Scranton

“Whereas, we, the employees of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company, believe that we are not getting a just remuneration for our labor or a sufficient supply for ourselves and families of the common necessaries of life, therefore Resolved, That we demand twenty-five per cent advance on the present rate of wages; also it is further Resolved, That with a refusal of these demands all work will be abandoned from date, as we have willingly submitted to the reduction and without murmur or resistance and finding that it now fails us to live as becomes citizens of a civilized Nation we take these steps in order to supply ourselves and little ones with the necessaries of life.”

Scranton general strike – Wikiquote

The strike began on July 23 when railroad workers walked off the job in protest of recent wage cuts. Railway workers were joined in the strike by coal miners, iron mill workers, and within three days it grew to include thousands of workers from a variety of industries. The employers and city officials responded with the creation of a vigilante force called “Scranton Citizen Corps.”

Violence erupted on August 1 after strikers attacked the town’s mayor, and then clashed with local militia, leaving four dead and many more wounded whereupon State and federal troops were called in to impose martial law.

Reading

There’s an army of strikers,
Determined you’ll see,
Who will fight corporations
Till the Country is free.

The chant of the crowd

 Another of the battlegrounds was in Reading, Pennsylvania where the boss of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and Coal and Iron Company, Franklin Gowen, had already proved himself to be anti-worker and anti-union. Reading Railroad was the biggest mine company in the Anthracite region. When it lowered mining wages to 54% of their 1869 level, miners began the “Long Strike” of 1875, lasting 170 days. But the company had stockpiled enough coal to outlast the strike and crushed the miner’s union. It also accused leaders of being part of the “Molly Maguires” allegedly assassinating company officials. Beginning in June 1877, 20 “Molly Maguires” were executed – often despite strong evidence of innocence and Catholics and Irish excluded from juries. The Reading Railroad later twice lowered miners’ wages by 10-15% between 1876 and 1877.

As for the railroad workers, the company demanded they desert the union and join the company’s insurance plan, which they would lose if they stopped working. In defiance, the trainmen went on strike in April 1877. They were replaced with inexperienced scabs who caused many accidents. Nevertheless, it finished the Brotherhood of Railroad Engineers with most of its members dismissed and blacklisted by the company.

As a precaution on July 23, the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Police, the railroad’s private police force, arrived in Reading, along with the 4th Pennsylvania Volunteer Militia which was asked by the railroad to release a train being blocked by protesters. As the 4th marched along the tracks in the dark they were stoned by a crowd. The soldiers opened fire and left between 10 and 16 dead, and between 37 and 50 injured.

16th Regiment Mutiny

Several companies of the 16th militia regiment from Conshohocken, arrived, however, many supported the strikes.

General Reeder, commander of the 4th, telegraphed to his superior explaining his predicament:

“My situation is not improved by the arrival of the Sixteenth regiment, which is very disaffected. The Fourth is becoming anxious, and is also very much exhausted. Should have reliable troops, without delay…The Sixteenth regiment is furnishing the strikers with ammunition and openly declare their intention to join the rioters in case of trouble. If troops do not reach us by dark, I cannot vouch for the safety of the city, or my power to hold the depot. Stir heaven and earth to forward reliable and fresh troops.”

16th soldiers began deserting and fraternalizing with the strikers, sharing in the animosity towards the 4th over the killings of the previous night.

In the words of one member of the militia:

“We may be militiamen, but we are workmen first.”

There was a real and growing risk of an open fight between the 16th and the 4th, and as a precaution before leaving for General Bolton telegraphed the State Adjutant General, “Have United States troops sent to Reading at once. Portion of the Sixteenth regiment are about revolting and joining the strikers”.

Angry crowds had again gathered, and they again threw stones at the 4th; however, when some in the 4th aimed their rifles, the 16th shouted to them not to shoot while some handed over their arms and ammunition to the crowd. The 16th also warned that if the 4th fired on the crowd, the 16th would fire on them.

On the 24th of July, all militia troops were withdrawn, replaced by three hundred regular soldiers to ensure the Coal and Iron Police had control of the town.

The Battle of the Viaduct

In Chicago on the 26th of July at the Halstead Viaduct, strikers and protesters refused to disperse and street fights with the police began who were reinforced by militia and regular troops. At least, thirty workers died, many being mere boys, and up to two hundred were wounded.

There were many other minor engagements with the employers such as Shamokin. On July 25, a day after the miners at the Shamokin’s Big Mountain Colliery demanded “Food or Work” and protested a 10 percent pay cut, the urban revolt arrived when the town’s Reading Railroad’s depot was sacked and looted. A citizens militia ordered the crowd to disperse. The crowd refused and was fired upon with many being wounded.

Conclusion

Was it an insurrection? Could it be called a labor revolution, a civil war between labor and capital. Or merely the work of a mob of rioters?

In Chicago, workers marched through the streets to shouts of “Bread or Blood,” a slogan from the recent Paris Commune and it instilled fear into the business community.

Writing to Engels on the 25th July 1877, Marx described it as the “first eruption against the oligarchy of associated capital which has arisen since the Civil War ” and predicted that although it would be suppressed, it “could very well be the starting point for the establishment of a serious labour party in the United States.”

Many thought as Marx that 1877 had acted like a catalyst.

The Workingmen’s Party of the United States the following year reformed itself as the Socialist[ic] Labor Party

Two-thirds of America’s seventy-five thousand miles of railroad track had been affected by the strikes. Millions of dollars worth of railroad property had been burned down, blown up or torn apart. And, for the first time in U.S. history, federal troops had been deployed in force to crush strikers.

In the aftermath, National Guard units proliferated. In many states and cities, armouries, thick-walled citadels,  were constructed in case anything like 1877 happened again. What was “poor men in uniform, fighting poor men in overalls” the local capitalists restructured the National Guar so they were now chosen from the well-to-do to ensure their class loyalty.

The July uprisings had shown the workers their strength and in the future, they would learn how to use it. It was a period in history, albeit short-lived and with varying degrees of success, working people held power is in their hands.

In 1877, the same year blacks learned they did not have enough strength to make real the promise of equality in the Civil War, working people learned they were not united enough, not powerful enough, to defeat the combination of private capital and government power.

— Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, 1980

Further online reading

Howard Zinn

The great railroad strike, 1877 – Howard Zinn (libcom.org)

Jeremy Brecher

The great upheaval of 1877 – Jeremy Brecher (libcom.org)

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Angie Tibbs.

This content originally appeared on openDemocracy RSS and was authored by Jackline Kemigisa.

The holiday known as Tet is the most important festival in Vietnamese culture. It fell on Feb. 1 this year. VGCL, Vietnam’s main trade union, said businesses and factories closed for nine days, from Jan. 29 to Feb. 6, to celebrate.

Workers in Vietnam often receive a holiday bonus and pay raises for the new year before Tet. But if they are not happy with the modest bonus and new salary, they post their grievances on social media or take to the streets waging strikes.

The 28 strikes took place in 12 provinces, including Thai Binh, Ninh Binh, Bac Ninh and Nghe An, from Jan. 1 to early February, the VGCL said.

Besides seeking higher pay, workers demanded more allowances for food and fuel and new benefits like seniority pay and support for workers who have contracted the COVID-19 virus.

Some workers returned to their jobs after employers met at least a few of their demands.

For example, employees at Viet Glory Co., Ltd., a Taiwanese-owned footwear manufacturer in central Vietnam’s Nghe An province, returned to work this week after the company agreed to give its 5,000-strong workforce a 6 percent salary increase and extra pay for long-term workers.

But in other cases, company managers only made relatively minor concessions while putting bigger demands like pay raises on hold. VGCL said that companies should clearly explain to employees why they are not able to meet specific demands.

A worker at an apparel factory in central Vietnam’s Ha Tinh province told RFA that most laborers were striking for higher pay. Employers have used the adverse economic impact from COVID to justify not increasing salary levels.

“Companies often increase their base salary at the beginning of a year,” said the woman, who works for South Korea-owned Haivina Hai Duong Co., Ltd. “However, I heard that due to the epidemic, no companies have given a pay rise to their workers, and they have only met some of workers’ demands, not all.”

A second Haivina worker, who also declined to give her name so as to speak freely, said the Viet Glory strike had inspired and encouraged employees in other places to stand up, though it was unlikely that the strikes were coordinated.

“The workers did it spontaneously,” she said. “They did not contact each other.”

Lingering discontent

Nearly all the companies told striking workers they did not increase pay because they were already paying wages higher than regional minimum wages stipulated by law.

Vietnam’s labor laws allow companies to make their own decisions regarding additional allowances. But some workers told RFA that the base salaries set by Vietnam’s labor laws are too low, particularly as the cost of food and other essentials have increased.

On average, most factory laborers earn about 6 million dong (U.S. $256) a month with little or no pay differential for overtime work, workers said.

“We went on strike in hopes of getting a pay raise as our current salary is too low,” said the second Haivina worker. “Even though we take night shifts, we only can earn 7 million dong a month.”

Vietnam sets four regional wage levels, with the highest minimum wage at 4.2 million dong a month and the lowest at about 3 million dong a month. The base wage for workers in Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces is 3.4 million dong a month.

Employees at factories in Nghe An province staged at least three strikes following the Tet holiday week.

More than 1,700 workers at a factory run by Em-Tech Vietnam Co., Ltd., in central Vietnam’s Nghe An province who went on strike on Tuesday resumed work the following day after the company agreed to pay each employee 50,000 dong (U.S. $2) for COVID-19 virus testing support. The company also pledged to improve meal allowances and virus preventive measures next month, in accordance with government regulations.

Not everyone was pleased about the outcome because the company did not agree to any wage increases.

“If they don’t give us a pay raise, they should tell us why,” said a factory worker. “They haven’t given any explanations so far.”

“Although the pay raise issue has not been resolved, we still have to get back to work; otherwise, we will be fired,” she added.

Also on Wednesday, about 700 workers from Nam Thuan Nghe An Joint Stock Company, an apparel and garment maker and exporter, returned to work after a one-day strike. Other employees remained off the job because they were not satisfied with the company’s response to their demands.

Workers asked managers to address 14 issues, including unequal pay increases, a small gasoline allowance and unreasonable salary reductions.

‘Labor union is useless’

Some trade union activists expressed frustration not only at their employer but with VGCL and its regional branches, which they do not think have fought hard enough for worker interests.

The first worker at Haivina said she has always paid her monthly labor union fee, even though the labor group has not been an effective ally.

“During the last strike, the provincial labor union came to negotiate with the company but to no avail,” she said. “Our labor union hasn’t resolved anything. I don’t know about other companies, but at this company the labor union is useless.”

Bui Thien Tri, chairman of the Vietnam Independent Union, a nonprofit organization that aims to improve workers’ rights, told RFA via email that the workers themselves remain their best advocates.

“Almost all the strikes in Vietnam so far have been spontaneous and not led by labor unions which are grassroots-level representatives of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor,” he said.

“This shows the very small role of government trade unions in representing workers’ rights at the grassroots level, as well as the irresponsibility of government trade union leaders in not fulfilling their responsibility while still being paid by the workers’ contributions,” Tri said.

Vietnam’s new labor law that went into effect on Jan. 1, 2021, permits the creation of worker organizations not affiliated with the VGCL. But the lack of additional government guidance has meant workers have yet to establish their own representative organizations.

District and provincial branches of the government labor union do not intervene in worker demands until strikes occur, at which stage they act together with local government officials and police to resolve the conflict and get workers back on the job as soon as possible, Tri said.

“They attribute the strikes to the grassroots-level labor unions being new and inexperienced, even non-existent in some companies, so workers have nowhere to turn,” he said.

Translated by Chau Vu for RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

The holiday on Wednesday marked what would have been former leader Kim Jong Il’s 80^th birthday. After his death in 2011, his son and successor, Kim Jong Un, declared his father’s birthday to be a national holiday called the “Day of the Shining Star,” elevating it to the same level as the “Day of the Sun,” the birth anniversary of the progenitor of the Kim Dynasty, national founder Kim Il Sung.

The North Korean prison system is well known to be incredibly brutal. Former inmates who have escaped the country have said prisoners are poorly fed, live in crowded cells, and are subjected to torture, backbreaking labor and sexual abuse.

Being released from a North Korean prison is reason to celebrate for the inmate and his or her family. But a resident of the northeastern province of North Hamgyong told RFA’s Korean Service that many of the prisoners released ahead of the Day of the Shining Star had suffered so badly that they appeared to be near death.

“Everyone was shocked when those who were released by the amnesty were severely malnourished and barely able to walk,” said the source, who requested anonymity to speak freely. “Some prisoners were unable to move, so their families had to bring them home on stretchers.”

The amnesty did not include political dissidents or criminals convicted of drug offenses or violent crimes such as robbery and murder, according to the source. It had been rumored for several months, and families eagerly anticipated the return of their imprisoned relatives.

“They had high hopes, they expected a five-year sentence reduction, but only a three-year reduction was announced, so, many prisoners who have more than three years remaining will have to complete the remainder of their sentences before they are released,” said the source.

“One-thousand prisoners were released from Hamhung prison, out of a total prison population of 6,000,” he said.

Prisoners headed home from all the country’s major prisons, including in the cities of Hamhung, Sariwon and Kaechon, and Chungsan county in South Pyongan province, west of the capital Pyongyang, a resident of North Hwanghae province, south of the capital, told RFA.

“An 18-year-old prisoner became big news when she said after her release from Sariwon prison that her time in jail was the first time in her whole life that she had eaten three meals per day. They gave her three meals of steamed corn,” the second source told RFA.

“She had lost her parents at a young age and was imprisoned for theft after living as a homeless street beggar,” the second source said.

Many people are concerned now that the woman has been released to a situation where she is homeless and jobless, the second source said.

“She has no home or family, so the head of the local government office and a local party secretary took her in. I am worried about how she will live in the future. She never went to school and does not know how to write or read because she was a street beggar,” she said.

“This year’s amnesty was done on a fairly large scale, with the government touting it as a tremendous show of mercy from the Marshal,” the second source said, referring to Kim Jong Un.

According to the source, of the 1,000 prisoners in Sariwon prison, 300 were released and 600 had their sentences reduced by three years.

“Even with the February 16^th amnesty, no one was released from Susong prison in the city of Chongjin, where serious criminals are held, such as those imprisoned for anti-state crimes, murder, robbery and drug offenses,” the source said.

Mobilization for celebration

North Korea forced residents to prepare elaborate celebrations for the Day of the Shining Star.

The activities included lectures on Kim Jong Il’s greatness, including research into his efforts and achievements and commentaries on his famous sayings, a resident of Chongjin told RFA.

The events were organized through civic organizations, state-run enterprises and neighborhood watch units.

“Residents participating in performances by organizations and enterprises have had to gather in one place after work every day since the end of January and practice singing until late at night,” the source said.

“The party committee chief officials came directly to the singing practice and monitored them so the staff of each organization and enterprise could not even think of leaving and had to practice until late at night for more than two weeks,” said the source.

From Jan. 14-17, North Korean authorities ordered civic organizations and state-run enterprises to observe a “special security period,” an official from North Pyongan province told RFA.

“During this period, organizations and enterprises should … set up a special security team to guard the statues and historic sites of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il at night,” the official said.

“It is prohibited to gather to drink or eat, and chief officials should check the situation frequently to prevent any problems that harm the atmosphere of the event. Tensions are rising as it warns that those who cause problems during the three-day special security period will be punished.”

Translated by Claire Lee. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Jieun Kim and Myung Chul Lee.