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Colonialism

Puerto Rico Contends With Two Storms: Fiona And Colonialism

October 20, 2022 Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch. , ,
In mid-September of this year, Hurricane Fiona hit Puerto Rico as a Category 1 storm. Despite Category 1 being the mildest ranking, the damage was devastating, triggering an island-wide blackout and leaving more than 760,000 without clean water. After nearly a month since the storm, the reality on the ground is still grim. Officials estimate $172 million in damages to roads, excluding municipal roads, which are the majority. Around 900,000 Puerto Ricans have applied for individual assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). 59%, or three out of every five such applications have been approved. According to Manuel Laboy, the director of the Central Office of Recovery (COR3), FEMA has not approved any of the public assistance applications submitted by the 78 municipalities, 40 agencies and 57 non-profit organizations. FEMA itself has challenged this claim.

Africans Take UK To Court Over Abuses Committed During Colonial Era

August 31, 2022 Almayadeen. , , ,
Several Kenyan activists are suing the United Kingdom over abuses committed during the British empire's colonial era, raising a case against the country in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday. The plaintiffs, Africans forced off their land in the Kenyan Rift Valley, are saying London violated the European Convention of Human Rights through the abuses it committed in Africa during its colonial rule of the continent. The UK is a signatory to the European Convention of Human Rights, and the plaintiffs' lawyers are saying it violated the accord by consistently ignoring complaints raised by the victims of the brutal British colonial rule.

The Intricate Fight For Africa

August 8, 2022 Ramzy Baroud, Mintpress News. , , ,
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s recent tour in Africa was meant to be a game changer, not only in terms of Russia’s relations with the continent, but in the global power struggle involving the US, Europe, China, India, Turkey and others. Many media reports and analyses placed Lavrov’s visit to Egypt, the Republic of Congo, Uganda and Ethiopia within the obvious political context of the Russia-Ukraine war. The British Guardian’s Jason Burka summed up Lavrov’s visit in these words: “Lavrov is seeking to convince African leaders and, to a much lesser extent, ordinary people that Moscow cannot be blamed either for the conflict or the food crisis.” Though true, there is more at stake. Africa’s importance to the geostrategic tug of war is not a new phenomenon.

South Africa’s Energy Crisis Escalates

July 28, 2022 Brian Kamanzi, Black Agenda Report. , , ,
On the morning of June 27, 2022, National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) shop steward David Fankomo joined his fellow members at the picket line outside Eskom’s Emalahleni office in the heart of South Africa’s coal belt. Workers at Eskom, the nation’s state-owned electricity utility, have been embattled in four rounds of wage negotiations with the executives since April 2022. South Africa is rich in energy but is in the midst of cascading energy shortages. Fankomo’s union is at the heart of this crisis: the workers bring the coal out of the ground but live with barely enough of its energy. On June 28, Eskom announced  that it was going to implement “Stage 6 load shedding” due to “unlawful industrial action.” “Load shedding” is defined as a rationing measure to reduce the demand for electrical energy by imposing rotational power outages when the supply from power plants is severely constrained.

Puerto Rico: Between Colonialism, Racism And Slavery On July 25

July 27, 2022 Antonio A. Camacho Camacho, Multipolarista. , , ,
Despite the harsh reality that Puerto Rico is neither free, nor associated, nor a state, July 25 marks the day of the creation of the constitution of the “Free Associated State,” or commonwealth, of Puerto Rico. I write this article with the purpose of revealing some details about the Anglo-Saxon-supremacist jurisprudence that gave rise to and govern this colonial territorial status. Before we travel back in time, let me point out that Section 2 of Article 3 of the United States constitution contains the Territorial Clause, which gives Congress the authority to fully regulate and dispose of US territories. Under this, the United States has total control over Puerto Rican territory. Let’s start with the slavery controversy elucidated in Dred Scott v. Sandford, dated 1856. Scott was a slave who lived in the Missouri Territory, but in Illinois he obtained his freedom – a legal status that Missouri did not recognize when Scott re-entered the territory.

Who Is Bankrolling Israel’s Latest Excursion Into The West Bank?

July 23, 2022 Jessica Buxbaum, Mintpress News. , , ,
Occupied West Bank - On Wednesday, thousands of Israeli settlers from the Nachala settler group — along with Israeli lawmakers — flocked to the occupied West Bank and established seven illegal outposts in a land grab operation propelled by a massive fundraising campaign. By Thursday evening, Israeli forces evacuated the day-old outposts and detained and later released 11 settlers. Despite the evictions, Nachala remains determined to continue building on land they claim is only reserved for Jews, with plans to set up new outposts as early as next week. Nachala, the group responsible for the infamous Evyatar outpost erected last year, has been preparing since April to establish outposts en masse in July. Initially, the plan was to build 28 new outposts throughout the West Bank, but that number was scaled back in recent days.

Nicaragua Expels The OAS

April 25, 2022 Kawsachun News. , , ,
The government of Nicaragua has announced the expulsion of representatives of the Organization of American States (OAS) and the closure of its offices in the country. “We will not have a presence in any of the instances of that diabolical instrument of the misnamed OAS (..) neither will this infamous organism, consequently, have offices in our country. Its local branch has been closed” reads the communique released by the Foreign Ministry on Sunday afternoon. Back in November, the Sandinista government communicated that it would begin the typically two-year withdrawal process from the OAS. Today’s statement reads; “from this date we cease to be part of all the deceitful mechanisms of this monstrosity”. Police were seen guarding the now closed former offices of the OAS in Managua following the announcement.

Malvinas 40 Years: It’s Time To End Colonialism

April 3, 2022 Daniel Filmus, Kawsachun News. , , ,
Every April 2, we Argentines pay tribute to the compatriots who fought valiantly for the recovery of the exercise of sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands, other archipelagos of the South Atlantic and their corresponding maritime spaces. On the 40th anniversary of the heroic deed carried out by our young men and women, the memory and recognition of their dedication must go hand in hand with a firm commitment to continue fighting for the cause for which many of them gave their lives. The permanent increase of the military presence and the refusal during these four decades of the United Kingdom to resume the dialogue for sovereignty in the terms proposed by the United Nations in its resolution 2065 (XX), show the illegality and illegitimacy of the usurpation that took place in 1833 and reveal the economic, geopolitical and military interests that drive the British to try to perpetuate the usurpation of an important portion of the Argentine territory.

Black Alliance For Peace Statement On International Women’s Day

March 8, 2022 the Black Alliance for Peace. , , ,
As the world’s eyes are on Ukraine on this International Women’s Day, March 8, 2022, we are reminded of the disproportionate impact that war and militarism have on women. This is a reality that the women of the global South are acutely aware of because of the steady assaults on the humanity of peoples in the South executed by the U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination. The militarized terror of the Axis of Domination in the service of their economic elites have been even more intensely felt by the women of Africa and the African Diaspora.  The socialist groundings of the day were expressed in its early unfolding. Indeed, the earliest militants for International Working Women’s Day, lifted up the violence of capitalism as labor exploitation.

Africa Must Not Abandon Palestine By Granting Israel Observer Status

February 21, 2022 Ramzy Baroud, Counter Punch. , , ,
Africa is currently facing one of its most crucial decisions regarding Palestine and Israel. The repercussions of this decision could be as significant as the 1975 Resolution 77 (XII) by the Organization of African Unity – the precursor to the African Union – which recognized Zionism, Israel’s founding ideology, as a form of racism. This time around, however, it is Palestine, not Israel, that stands to lose. Israel’s attempt to gain observer status at the AU began years ago. For many years, most African countries have severed all ties with Israel in solidarity with Palestine and other Arab countries. The African boycott, which began in earnest in 1973, faltered soon after the Palestinian leadership itself signed a series of agreements with Israel, starting with the Oslo Accords of 1993.

Why We Need A Mau Mau In Amerikkka

February 18, 2022 Dedan Waicuri And Yusuf Askari Wa Watu , Hood Communist. , , ,
There is nothing left to do in the US but to organize and mobilize the masses. The US is a country made up of conservatives who are openly racist and imperialist, and liberals who are incoherent and inconsistent; only “inclusive” when it comes to upholding white supremacy and imperialism. They both give false hope to us, the colonized masses, lie after lie, broken promise after broken promise. We have come to see that the US has always resembled genocide, war, imperialism, capitalism, white supremacy, and so many other cancers that we as the colonized masses are infected with. To be cured, to be free, we must rid ourselves of the tumors and infected areas of our body. Only through collective, protracted, and organized struggle will we obtain liberation.

Puerto Rico: March Of Indignation Against ‘Shakedown Plan’ Of More Austerity

February 14, 2022 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. , , ,
Tens of thousands of teachers and other public workers have taken to the streets of San Juan, Puerto Rico in a March of Indignation to protest a debt restructuring plan given the green light by Judge Taylor Swain of New York. Puerto Ricans call it the "Shakedown Plan" because it will enforce more austerity on a land where disinvestment in education and health care and privatization of the energy system have already caused great hardship. A National Strike has been called for February 18. Clearing the FOG speaks with Monisha Rios, a Puerto Rican social worker and psychologist, about who and what are behind the protests. Rios discusses the PROMESA, an act passed in Congress, that put a financial oversight board in charge of the islands and that has violated the rights of Puerto Ricans to have a say in what is happening.

Class Struggle And Freedom Beyond Colonial Borders

February 13, 2022 Charisse Burden Stelly, Hood Communist. , , ,
The global COVID-19 pandemic has brought into sharp relief how truly interconnected our world is, how superficial colonial borders are, and thus how the struggle for freedom must link localized organizing to broader global insurgencies. Of course, this is not new. Though our epoch offers unique challenges, problems, and articulations of the dialectic between repression and resistance, history doesn’t repeat itself—but it rhymes. In a world structured by racial capitalism, white supremacy, and imperialism, Blackness has often been the antithesis of freedom. After legal emancipation from racial slavery, freedom for Black folks has generally meant freedom to die and suffer—or simply “slavery by another name.”

The ‘White Saviour’ Deal For Nature

January 5, 2022 Gert Van Hecken and Vijay Kolinjivadi, Green European Journal. , , ,
There is no denying that the world’s biodiversity is under serious threat. A recent proposal that has gained significant traction to address this decline is to designate 30 per cent of the earth’s surface as protected areas by 2030 (commonly referred to as the Global Deal for Nature, or the 30×30 Plan). This proposal will be discussed at the world’s top-most biodiversity summit expected in 2022 in Kunming, China. The 30 per cent reservation for “nature” is itself viewed as part of a roadmap towards the idea that “Nature Needs Half” – a campaign calling for half of the world to be dedicated to nature, rather than human activities. At first glance and given the urgent need to act to halt species extinction, nature conservation seems like a common-sense solution.

Native Mascots Are A Direct Result Of America’s Fabricated Colonial History

December 19, 2021 Kelsi Rae Barron, Last Real Indians. , , ,
The negligence of our nation’s history has allowed for the continued racist representation of Native Americans, specifically when discussing their representation as mascots in amateur and professional sports. Several scholars have chosen to raise awareness to the ongoing misrepresentation and racist imagery that is present in amateur and professional sports by arguing against the allowance of such images, claiming such representation to be a by-product of a postcolonial society that allows for cultural imperialism, where the idea of Native American lives and presence are simply a thing of the past and not of the present day. The continued misrepresentation and racist portrayal that has plagued Native American communities simply reinforces a false image that does not fully and adequately reflect Native American cultures, peoples, epistemologies, and complexities.
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