Nationalism

West Papua Flag Day: Country That Doesn’t Exist

December 4, 2017 Chantal Da Silva, independent.co.uk Resist! Nationalism, West Papua

By Chantal Da Silva for Independent - ‘The whole essence of our humanity is being reduced to nothing’ Free West Papua campaign leader Benny Wenda said. In West Papua, simply raising the Morning Star flag – a symbol of the island’s fight for independence from Indonesia – can result in 15 years of imprisonment. But more than 12,000 kilometres away in the UK, the forbidden flag was raised this morning outside Oxford’s town hall for the tenth year in a row. Oxford is one of more than 250 locations across 50 countries worldwide expected to raise the Morning Star flag today in a show of solidarity with tens of thousands of West Papuans calling for international intervention in the fight for independence from Indonesia. “In West Papua, the whole essence of our humanity is being reduced to nothing. We are treated like animals and endure what some have described as an ‘apartheid-like’ military occupation,” exiled Free West Papua campaign leader Benny Wenda, who was granted political asylum in the UK in the early 2000s, and lives in Oxford, told The Independent. “Tens of thousands of us have been forced to flee as refugees and those that stay live under constant terror. Almost every day, people are arrested without reason, tortured and killed at the hands of the Indonesian government.” An undated document published on the UNHCR website states that Papua New Guinea alone has taken in as many as 10,000 refugees from West Papua since 1985.

The Dark Inevitability Of Zionism

November 28, 2017 Lawrence Davidson, consortiumnews.com Educate! Israel, Nationalism, Zionism

By Lawrence Davidson for Consortium News - Among the growing assaults on freedom of speech is an Israeli-driven campaign to criminalize a campaign to boycott Israel over its racist persecution of Palestinians, writes Lawrence Davidson. We know where Zionism has taken Israel. The Balfour Declaration of 1917 led the way. In that imperial and colonial document, the British promised the World Zionist Organization a “Jewish National Home” in Palestine. They did so, as Edward Said put it, in “flat disregard of both the presence and wishes of the native majority residents in that territory.” Right from the start the Zionists understood “national home” to mean an eventual Jewish state. Actualizing that assumption has had enormous implications not only for the Palestinians but also for the Jews. And, as it turns out, for the rest of us as well. You cannot introduce one people, in this case a large number of Europeans who happen to be Jewish, into a territory populated by hundreds of thousands of non-Europeans, without negative consequences. And, if the incoming Europeans have the goal of creating a state exclusively for their group alone, those consequences are going to be dire indeed. Surrounded by “the other,” the only way you can achieve your exclusive state is through discriminatory practices and laws ultimately producing an apartheid nation.

Utilizing Indigenous Thought To Cope In The Age Of Trump

November 27, 2017 Four Arrows, truth-out.org Strategize! Border, Donald Trump, Ideology, Indigenous Peoples, Nationalism

By Four Arrows for Truthout - November 9, 2016, was a typical North Dakota wintry day and the cold wind bit into me. Unlike the group of fellow Veterans for Peace I was with, who had come from northern or eastern locations, I was fresh in from a fishing village in central Mexico. We huddled around a red camper van, listening to a radio station in anticipation of hearing the results of the election. The crowded camp below our hilly perch was strewn with makeshift buildings, campers and tipis, and we were surrounded by rolling hills, grass plains and buttes that bordered the sacred Missouri River we were trying to protect. Hearing the radio transmission clearly was difficult, owing to static and occasional interruptions from TigerSwan, a private military contractor hired by Energy Transfer Partners to disrupt our communications with the outside world. Nonetheless, when we heard that Trump was the new president of the United States, the words resonated all too clearly. No one spoke at first. Then, showing tearful emotion, one of our younger vets, who had regretfully participated in two tours in Iraq, angrily spoke out: "How stupid are people in this country?" Immediately, one of our female Lakota vets walked up to him and gave him a sincere hug. She was a round-faced woman in her 40s or 50s who wore a derby-type leather brimmed hat, long beaded earrings, a brightly colored vintage Navajo-styled Pendleton blanket coat and a pair of eyeglasses that illuminated eyes that radiated gentle wisdom.

A Question Of True Democracy

November 25, 2017 David Companyon, transform-network.net Create! Catalonia, Democracy, Nationalism

By David Companyon for Transform! Europe - A mixture of economic, social, and territorial crisis is a cocktail without which it is impossible to understand the Catalan politics that follow the 1978 regime’s structural crisis. Faced with Rajoy’s constant “niet”, the Catalan independence movement took the option of going up against the State, the so-called unilateral path, all while confusing a majority in favour of the referendum with a majority in favour of independence, which sits at around 50%. That has led to strategic errors: despite Rajoy having declared it illegal, 2.3 million people showed up to vote that day, and they thought that the State wouldn't use violence (real or the treat thereof) to stop the October 1st referendum or the Declaration that proclaimed the Catalan Republic. Another strategic mistake was the lack of a social proposal, thinking that they could amass a wider majority that favoured independence without giving them radical, socially advanced democratic content through a constituent process. The divisive thought of “first independence, and then everything will be worked out” did not work for the portion of the population that is struggling to make ends meet, and for whom independence is not a priority. It will not work without contesting the hegemony of the neo-liberal right over the sovereigntist process, the driving force behind the same slashing of social services, with the same cases of corruption as the Spanish neo-liberal right.

West Papuan Civilians In Danger Amid Indonesian Military Attacks

November 24, 2017 Staff, freewestpapua.org Educate! Indonesia, militarism, Nationalism, West Papua

By Staff of Free West Papua Campaign - The names of those injured were: Aser Magai (male) Guwanus Tabuni (male) Deka Anow (male) Dominus Dogomo (male), Melianus Kobogau (male). Unverified footage appearing to show Indonesian soldiers firing shells in the Tembagapura area on 13th November has also been released.[12] Following this, the Indonesian military admitted firing mortars on West Papuans and admitted that Merina and Ilawe people had been killed but said this was “unexpected”. A West Papuan man claims that they were in fact civilians.[13] Speaking on 17th, the Nobel Peace Prize nominated West Papuan Independence Leader Benny Wenda who is the Spokesperson for the peaceful umbrella movement, The United Liberation Movement for West Papua, stated: “I am deeply concerned about the ongoing reports from the Tembagapura area of West Papua, especially the unconfirmed reports of West Papuan people being killed and wounded by ballistic missiles. I call upon all sides to show restraint and consider and fully respect human rights and especially the rights and needs of civilians. We don’t want any more bloodshed in West Papua. There must be a peaceful solution, both to the situation in Tembagapura and the wider situation in occupied West Papua.”

Zionist Indignation

November 21, 2017 Miko Peled, mikopeled.com Organize! Nationalism, Palestine, Zionism

By Miko Peled for Tear Down the Wall - Zionist righteous indignation would be a lot more convincing if it wasn’t covered with so much crap. In response to an upcoming lecture planned in London where Dr. Azzam Tamimi and I are to speak at University College of London, UCL, the Jewish Chronicle came out with an article titled: “Jewish UCL students ‘horrified by anti-israeli event.” They never seem to be horrified by the reality Israel imposes on Palestinians. They are not horrified by the racist laws, the slow death by lack of water and medical care imposed on people in Gaza, they are not horrified by the bombing and killing of innocents, nor are they horrified by thousands of political prisoners tortured by Israeli secret police. What horrifies them is, apparently Dr. Tamimi and I pointing these things out. Well, they ought to brace themselves because the truth can be horrifying. I recently returned from Palestine where as always I left my Palestinians friends behind and personally I cannot help but feel a combination of anger, sadness a sense of disgust by a world that seems to care very little for Palestinian lives. Palestinian mothers and fathers may at any moment be arrested or shot, may at any day and any moment see their children arrested or shot, may at any moment have their home demolished; Palestinian kids are being pulled over, beaten and harassed by police and soldiers who are motivated by racism and hate and armed to the teeth with the finest weapons.

Whither Catalonia?

November 18, 2017 Dan La Botz, socialistproject.ca Resist! Catalonia, Independence, Nationalism, Spain

By Dan La Botz for The Bullet - The impact of the independence process on Spain as a whole is complex because, in the short term, the Spanish right uses it to cohere its social base and in the last weeks we are experiencing a shift toward the right in the Spanish political and social life. But at the same time, it is the principal threat to the political regime created in 1978.[1] If Catalonia became independent, it is unlikely that the political regime of 1978 could survive. Such a crisis could open the opportunity for change in the Spanish state as well. The strategic, decisive question is how to link the independence movement – without dissolving its demand, with a perspective of breaking with the 1978 regime within the state as a whole. This requires combining unilateral action from Catalonia with the struggle within the Spanish state as a whole in favor of a new majority politics of the left. But this center-periphery dialectic is complex and neither Catalan independence movement, nor the forces of the Spanish left such as Podemos know how to do it. DL: What is the social base of the independence movement? JMA: The independence movement is principally based in the middle class, public employees, and youth.

‘Freedom For The Political Prisoners’: March In Barcelona

November 13, 2017 Staff, commondreams.org Resist! Barcelona, Catalonia, Nationalism, Political Prisoner, Spain

By Staff of Common Dreams - "Wearing yellow ribbons on their lapels to signify support, they filled the length of the Avenue Marina that runs from the beach to Barcelona's iconic Sagrada Familia church, while the jailed leaders' families made speeches," The Independent reports. "Catalonia's two main grassroots independence groups called the march, under the slogan 'Freedom for the political prisoners,' after their leaders were remanded in custody on charges of sedition last month." The march on Saturday followed a series of related demonstrations in recent weeks. On October 16, "around 200,000 people (according to calculations by the municipal police) came out to protest the jailing of the heads of the pro-independence ANC and Òmnium associations, Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart," the Spanish newspaper El Pais reports. "On October 21, another protest calling for their release saw 450,000 people take to the streets of the Catalan capital." In early October, the Spanish government mobilized a violent police force in hopes of quashing a regional independence referendum, but the movement for Catalan independence and subsequent actions by the Spanish central government in Madrid have left the wealthy region deeply divided. Those who were able to cast ballots last month overwhelmingly supported independence. Since regional leaders defied Madrid and declared independence in late October, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has imposed direct rule on the region."Wearing yellow ribbons on their lapels to signify support, they filled the length of the Avenue Marina that runs from the beach to Barcelona's iconic Sagrada Familia church, while the jailed leaders' families made speeches," The Independent reports. "Catalonia's two main grassroots independence groups called the march, under the slogan 'Freedom for the political prisoners,' after their leaders were remanded in custody on charges of sedition last month." The march on Saturday followed a series of related demonstrations in recent weeks. On October 16, "around 200,000 people (according to calculations by the municipal police) came out to protest the jailing of the heads of the pro-independence ANC and Òmnium associations, Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart," the Spanish newspaper El Pais reports. "On October 21, another protest calling for their release saw 450,000 people take to the streets of the Catalan capital." In early October, the Spanish government mobilized a violent police force in hopes of quashing a regional independence referendum, but the movement for Catalan independence and subsequent actions by the Spanish central government in Madrid have left the wealthy region deeply divided. Those who were able to cast ballots last month overwhelmingly supported independence. Since regional leaders defied Madrid and declared independence in late October, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has imposed direct rule on the region.

Defending Radical Black Self-Determination

November 10, 2017 Ajamu Baraka, counterpunch.org Strategize! Black Nationalism, Nationalism, Race, Self-Determination

By Ajamu Baraka for Counter Punch - It is absurd and an insult to argue that Russian propaganda efforts “deepen political and racial tensions in the United States,” as proposed by Julia Ioffe in a recent article in the Atlantic. But the linking of the legitimate struggle of African/Black people in the United States against systemic oppression with “foreign” influences has been a recurrent feature of the ideological and military containment strategy of the U.S. state ever since the Soviet Union emerged as an international competitor to the four hundred-year-old colonial/capitalist Pan-European project. From the early twentieth-century activism of the Pan-African Conferences through the Garvey movement, the socialist African Blood Brotherhood and the International African Service Bureau born out of the rise of fascism in Europe and the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in the 30s, Black radicals formulated a theoretical understanding of and practical response to the realities of colonial and capitalist racist oppression throughout the African world. And with the taking of state power by the Bolsheviks and the establishment of the Soviet Union and the Third International (COMINTERN), many black radicals gravitated to revolutionary Marxism, as both a critique of the Western capitalist dominance and a theory for disrupting that dominance.

Exiled Officials Create “Legitimate Government” Of Catalonia

November 10, 2017 Staff, catalannews.com Resist! Catalonia, Nationalism, Spain

By Staff of Catalan News - Carles Puigdemont and his four ministers in Brussels have established a "stable administrative structure" in exile. They claim to be the ‘legitimate government of Catalonia’ after being ousted by the Spanish executive during the last week of October. The five have published a letter where they say that a structure has been set up “in order to coordinate the activity of the government” and to denounce the “politicization of the Spanish justice system, its lack of impartiality and its will to persecute the ideas” on an international level. One of the first manifestations of this structure is a new Twitter account, @catalan_gov, which is the “official profile of the office of the legitimate government of Catalonia.” Call for citizens to 'sustain democracy.' In the letter, the pro-independence officials in Belgium also ask citizens to “sustain the democracy, which is now threatened by the coalition which enforced Article 155 (direct rule of Catalonia) together with the police and judicial violence and the far-right.” They claim that “the state has placed itself at the periphery of the central democratic European bloc” with its measures against Catalan self-rule. “It is a serious mistake to think that repression is the way to get Catalans to give up their legitimate wishes,” the letter also reads.

Catalonia Sees Second General Strike In A Month

November 9, 2017 Staff, catalannews.com Resist! Catalonia, General Strike, Nationalism, Strikes

By Staff of Catalan News - Unions, civic organizations and political parties sign up to stoppage demanding release of imprisoned Catalan officials Catalonia sees its second general strike in just over a month on Wednesday, November 8, after the Spanish Superior Court in Catalonia ruled on Tuesday that the stoppage could go ahead. It is the second such protest in little more than a month, after the successful general strike on October 3 to protest Spanish police brutality during the October 1 referendum. Despite uncertainty over whether the strike would go ahead, by Tuesday afternoon the stoppage was taking shape, with the CGT, the Coordinadora Obrera Sindical and USTEC unions all joining up. The strike to demand the release of imprisoned Catalan officials also has the support of the ANC and Òmnium Cultural pro-independence civic organisations. While the UGT and CCOO unions decided not to join the strike, arguing that the reasons for the stoppage are political, both organizations called on the public to join the demonstrations. Protests have been called outside town halls, and in the Cathedral square in Barcelona, at 6pm. Catalan News will also be observing the strike called for November 8, 2017.

Where Catalonia’s Secession Movement Goes Now

November 9, 2017 Oscar Berglund, theconversation.com Resist! Catalonia, Nationalism, Spain

By Oscar Berglund for The Conversation - As tension increases in Catalonia, there have been calls for widespread civil disobedience against the Spanish government. Even the recent referendum itself, along with its 2014 precursor, have been described as acts of civil disobedience. This popularity of gathering en masse in disobedience to the central government has been inspired in large part by the anti-austerity efforts of one group: the Platform for the Mortgage-Affected, or PAH. The outgoing disobedient Catalan government is a peculiar mix of anti-austerity parties, which have supported the PAH’s fight for people’s housing rights, and the Catalan establishment party that has generally opposed it. The PAH was founded in Barcelona in 2009 in the aftermath of the financial crisis, which burst the Spanish housing bubble. It now has around 200 groups across Spain. Barcelona’s mayor, Ada Colau was the movement’s spokesperson before moving into institutional politics. The PAH is famous for its innovative protests, which it calls acts of civil disobedience. This includes physically stopping evictions, organizing sit-ins in banks and squats in empty buildings that belong to banks.

Current Conflict In Spain Has To Do With Economic Failure

November 7, 2017 Mark Weisbrot, www.counterpunch.org Educate! Economics, Nationalism, Spain

By Mark Weisbrot for Counterpunch - As Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy threatens to take over the autonomous region of Catalonia, it is becoming clearer even to casual observers who the bad guys are in this conflict. Generally, when one side is peaceful and seeks dialogue, and the other is committed to resolving the disagreement through force, repression, and violence — well, you get the picture. The Spanish government’s argument that the October 1 referendum on independence was unconstitutional is not so determinative as they would like us to believe. As Vicente Navarro, who has written for many years on Spain’s incomplete transition to democracy, notes: the 1978 constitution was much more a product of the 36-year dictatorship than it was of the democracy that was struggling to be born. And Rajoy’s Popular Party (PP) in particular has deep roots in political forces and people who were part of the Franco dictatorship. The anti-democratic character and fascist heritage of the PP government became glaringly evident when Rajoy sent thousands of troops into Catalonia in a failed attempt to stop people from voting. This was not, as he claimed, to enforce the law: the Spanish government could simply have allowed the vote and refused to recognize the result. Rather it was to crush the independence movement and the expression of their ideas by force

Neo-Nazi Coalition Rallies In Tennessee Amid Pushback

October 30, 2017 Patrick Strickland, www.aljazeera.com Resist! Nationalism, Racism, Tennessee, White Nationalism

By Patrick Strickland for Aljazeera - Predicting a "strong turnout" in advance of Saturday's rallies, Schoep told Al Jazeera that the events marked the far right's "first major street action" since a deadly rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, just over two months ago. On August 12, hundreds of neo-Nazis and white supremacists travelled from across the country to Charlottesville to protest the city's decision to tear down a Confederate monument. Participants clashed with community members, anti-racist activists and anti-fascists throughout the city. By the end of the day, James Alex Fields, a 20-year-old Ohio resident, had allegedly rammed his car into an anti-racist march and killed 32-year-old activist Heather Heyer. The incident also left at least 19 people injured. "The media is claiming we started or brought violence to Charlottesville and anyone, with even half of a brain who was actually there knows the truth the Antifa violently attacked anyone who was deemed pro-white or pro-American even," Schoep, who refers to himself as the NSM's commander, said by email. He went on to allege that anti-fascists "viciously attacked us with mace, bricks, bottles, bats, chemicals, and countless urine-filled balloons and bottles" in Charlottesville.

Catalonians Celebrate Independence Vote, Spain Dissolves Cabinet

October 28, 2017 Staff, www.catalannews.com Resist! Catalonia, Independence, Nationalism

By Staff of Catalan News - Thousands of independence supporters took to the streets all across Catalonia after Parliament voted to leave Spain on Friday. As the political crisis between governments in Madrid and Barcelona entered unknown territory with the subsequent suspension of the Catalan executive and the dissolution of the Parliament by the Spanish government, many people continued to celebrate the independence declaration. According to Barcelona’s local police, some 6,000 people gathered in front of the Catalan government’s headquarters in Sant Jaume square. On Friday morning, people began gathering in Barcelona’s Ciutadella Park, where the legislative chamber is located, to closely follow the events taking place inside. Amid fears that Spanish police might break into the chamber to stop the vote, citizens encircled the park in a symbolic act of support for Catalan institutions.

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