Why Progressives Should Oppose Imperialist Interevention in Africa

Is French Operation in Mali a neocolonial intervention?

The conflict in Mali is continuing full bore, with the French military taking the lead both on the ground and in the air and seemingly pushing back Islamic rebels based in the northern part of the country. The rebels, associated primarily with Ansar Dine, had overrun a number of cities in the central part of the country, and for a time were menacing the Malian capital of Bamako.

On Jan. 22, two key cities,Diabaly and Doutenza, were taken by French and Malian troops after the rebels holding them retreated. For the time being, this has ended the threat of the fall of the Bamako government and shifted the fighting back towards the northern part of the country. The French air force has been launching numerous airstrikes in northern Mali, including in the ancient city of Timbuktu, in an attempt to weaken the strongholds of the rebel forces.

The proposed “Africanization” of the conflict has yet to happen as troops from the Economic Community of West African States and other African states have as yet only trickled into Mali. At a recent emergency summit in the Ivory Coast, ECOWAS leaders called on the “international community” to provide financial support for their African military mission in Mali, which is slated to take over most ground operations from the French.

With many towns being taken without a fight, it is unclear if the rebel strategy is to retreat to strong points or launch a guerilla-style conflict. Ominously, human rights organizations have reported that Tuaregs and ethnic Arab civilians have been targeted by Malian security forces in a number of brutal attacks and killings…

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Source: Party for Socialism and Liberation

President Barack Obama’s second Inaugural Address has been greeted by much of the corporate media and his supporters as a new “liberal vision,” in the words of a New York Times headline.

But while much of the president’s rhetoric was progressive-sounding and strongly delivered, there was little actual content, and most of that was decidedly unprogressive and/or dishonest.

“A decade of war is now ending,” Obama stated. In fact, U.S. military attacks and interventions are continuing in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and other countries. Every Tuesday, there is a gathering in the White House where the president signs-off on the assassination-by- drone-missile of targeted individuals—and anyone who has the misfortune of being near them at the time of the strike—in a number of countries, none of which is actually at war with the U.S. .

While declaring that “We, the people, still believe that enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war,” Obama boasted that “America will remain the anchor of strong alliances in every corner of the globe.” The Pentagon continues to maintain 900+ bases on every continent. The U.S. military budget is larger than all other countries in the world combined! These are, in fact, the essential elements of perpetual war and empire.

In his speech, the president referenced “Seneca Falls and Selma and Stonewall,” seeking to present himself as a continuator of the historic movements for women’s, African American and LGBT equal rights. But in face, the advances of these movements have been the results of determined mass movements over decades and centuries.

Despite the reality that more immigrants have been deported during his administration than any other in history, Obama called for “bright young students and engineers” to be “enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country.”

Some passages of the speech seemed to come from a parallel universe. “We know that America thrives when every person can find independence and pride in their work, when the wages of honest labor will liberate families from the brink of hardship.”

In the real world United States of 2013, more than 23 million people are unemployed or severely underemployed. More than 146 million—or 48 percent of the population—is classified as low-income or living in poverty, a record. Real wages have been relentlessly driven down over the past three decades. When adjusted for inflation, the minimum wage now is worth 45 percent less than it was in 1968.

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Source: Party for Socialism and Liberation

PSL: Capitalism is bad for your health

Study: US health poor compared to other countries

Health care profiteering and class divides were identified as key reasons for a poor health outlook in the United States, according to a recent report.

The U.S. National Institutes of Health commissioned an investigation by the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine into health care looking at where people in the U.S. fare in relation to the rest of the globe. In the 400-plus-page study, U.S. health care was compared to Canada, Japan, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and nearly a dozen other countries. Researchers revealed the U.S. was at the bottom of the list of the countries surveyed in nine areas, including longevity, infant mortality, AIDS, drug abuse, obesity, heart disease and lung disease.

The report notes the weak U.S. showing was due to a lack of health care coverage and relative poverty in the country. Unlike many Western countries, the U.S. has no national health care system. The dominance of private health insurance companies, lack of public options when people become sick and the many unhealthy lifestyle choices marketed by big business are all factors.

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Source: Party for Socialism and Liberation

PSL: From one 'cliff' to the next

Anti-worker deal on taxes sets stage for anti-worker deal on spending

By Walter Smolarek

Poor and working people know what crises are. Being evicted, losing your job, or being sick and uninsured is a crisis. Crises have definite causes and consequences that require immediate action.

But for Wall Street’s loyal servants in Washington, crises are not all that bad. They present an opportunity to carry out on a grand scale the permanent bipartisan agenda of Congress to protect the rich and their ability to make money. Fiscal cliffs, debt ceilings and other creatively named points of no return induce so much fear that workers often find themselves paralyzed and unable to present any real resistance to the austerity schemes that are hatched in the halls of power.

These types of crises are so convenient for the politicians that they manufacture them all the time. First came the 2011 “debt ceiling” negotiations. Since 1917, Congress has periodically increased the amount of money the federal government is allowed to borrow in a relatively drama-free affair that prevented the country from going bankrupt. However, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives decided that they would refuse to raise the debt ceiling unless major cuts to vital social programs were made. Months of fear-mongering and negotiations in Washington produced the Budget Control Act of 2011.

With wide bipartisan support…

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Source: Party for Socialism and Liberation

FBI documents reveal secret nationwide Occupy monitoring

PCJF exposes documents from FBI spy files

FBI documents just obtained by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) pursuant to the PCJF’s Freedom of Information Act demands reveal that from its inception, the FBI treated the Occupy movement as a potential criminal and terrorist threat even though the agency acknowledges in documents that organizers explicitly called for peaceful protest and did “not condone the use of violence” at occupy protests.

The PCJF has obtained heavily redacted documents showing that FBI offices and agents around the country were in high gear conducting surveillance against the movement even as early as August 2011, a month prior to the establishment of the OWS encampment in Zuccotti Park and other Occupy actions around the country.

“This production, which we believe is just the tip of the iceberg, is a window into the nationwide scope of the FBI’s surveillance, monitoring, and reporting on peaceful protestors organizing with the Occupy movement,” stated Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Executive Director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF).  “These documents show that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are treating protests against the corporate and banking structure of America as potential criminal and terrorist activity.  These documents also show these federal agencies functioning as a de facto intelligence arm of Wall Street and Corporate America.”

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Source: Party for Socialism and Liberation

PSL: When justifying imperialist intervention "goes wrong"

Cruise-missile socialists

By Mazda Majidi

On July 1, an article titled "Libya and Syria: When Anti-Imperialism Goes Wrong" was published on the North Star website, signed by "Pham Binh of Occupy Wall Street, Class War Camp." The article argues that imperialist interventions in Libya and Syria are justified because they are demanded by forces the author calls revolutionary. While claiming to cut against the grain, he formulates what is a common position among liberals, progressives and even some self-proclaimed socialists and anti-imperialists. As such it is important to respond.

When imperialist countries intervene in the affairs of oppressed countries, the justifications do not only emanate from the U.S. government and the corporate media. In each instance, various forces and individuals with liberal and progressive credentials succumb to the imperialist propaganda campaign and put forth pro-intervention arguments, albeit using progressive-sounding analyses and using liberal/left language.

Even if “progressive” arguments for intervention originate far away from the halls of power, and receive no wide audience among the ruling class, they nonetheless play an important role for the imperialist war drives. (Read more)

Source: PSL

PSL Presidential Campaign on the ballot in Arkansas, Colorado, Vermont and New Jersey

The Party for Socialism and Liberation is proud to announce that our 2012 campaign is confirmed as being on the ballot in Arkansas, Colorado, Vermont and New Jersey!

These are just the first four of many states throughout the country in which the PSL's campaign is seeking ballot access. We will bring the campaign’s socialist message to poor and working people in every region of the country.

With just this initial success, millions of workers will have the option of voting for the PSL’s campaign. Instead of voting for one of the two major parties beholden to the interests of the bankers and CEOs, people in these four states can cast a vote for revolution!

These states in particular are badly in need of a socialist alternative. Arkansas suffers under significantly greater poverty – 18 percent according to the government’s outrageously low threshold – than the rest of the country, and the state legislature is considering harsh budget cuts. Colorado was among the first states to be hit hard by the capitalist economic crisis, leading the country in foreclosures in 2006.

Last year, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin's budget included 83 million dollars in cuts, affecting programs that provide assistance for mental and children's health care. In New Jersey, workers face an unemployment rate that is even higher than the outrageous national average.

Now the working people of Arkansas, Colorado, Vermont and New Jersey can vote against the twin parties responsible for these attacks. This tremendous accomplishment was made possible by the hard work of PSL volunteers. The Lindsay/Osorio PSL presidential campaign is truly a grassroots movement with no paid campaign workers.

Please make an urgently needed donation to help us get on the ballot in states across the country!

In Arkansas, a team of volunteers secured our place on the ballot through a tireless petitioning effort. The minimum requirement in the state is 1,000 valid signatures, but the PSL campaign managed to turn in over 2,000. Students and members of working-class communities were eager to help a people’s campaign challenge the twin parties of the rich.

Our team was able to meet their goal in just five days, focusing on college campuses, shopping centers and public events in downtown Little Rock. Petitioners visited campuses like the University of Arkansas – Little Rock and the University of Central Arkansas. Many working-class people, especially in the African American community, were very receptive to our campaign’s anti-racist message in the wake of the murder of Trayvon Martin, and many were just happy to see the word "socialism."

Lindsay/Osorio supporters carried out a similar effort in Vermont. Focusing their efforts on Burlington, volunteers braved snow and freezing temperatures to collect the 1,000 valid signatures to be placed on the ballot. The workers and students who signed the petition were glad to hear that the two-party system would be challenged by a candidate who will fight against the bankers and CEOs. Because of the overwhelming support Lindsay/Osorio campaign petitioners recieved from the people of Vermont, they were able to collect 2,000 signatures in less than a week.

In New Jersey, 800 valid signatures are required, and the PSL campaign submitted over 1,500.

We would like to thank the many people willing to be electors for our campaign, a critical part of ballot access work. In Arkansas, we are required to have one elector for each of four congressional districts plus two more at-large, while in Colorado we must have nine electors, in Vermont we must have three, and in New Jersey we must have 14.

Even at this early stage in the campaign, we are encountering a huge amount of support from people fed up with unemployment, foreclosures, discrimination and all the other injustices of capitalist society. The PSL campaign’s demand of seizing the banks to provide jobs, education, housing, and healthcare for all is clearly resonating.

Source: PSL e-newsletter