On this day two years ago, the US 20-year war on Afghanistan officially "ended." The goal of the war was to "free" Afghanistan from the T@l!b@n. Over 65% of the casualties were Afghans; today, the
T@l!b@n are back in power.
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#AfghanistanWar #Imperialism #AntiImperialism
The death of Russian Wagner leader Prigozhin has placed private mercenaries under unprecedented spotlight. However, state-hired mercenaries aren’t new or exclusively Russian; they are used by governments worldwide.
But why?
Private Military Companies (PMCs) are non-state actors contracted to perform military tasks. Like everything else in capitalism, PMCs are not subject to any ideology except the drive for profit.
PMCs are utilized to militarily enforce state interests while evading responsibility for associated war crimes. This modus operandi has defined warfare ranging from today’s Russian Wagner operation in Ukraine to the US deployment of Blackwater in Iraq.
Russia has admitted that they have given Wagner nearly $1 billion in the last year while at the same time denying the group’s legal existence. Another example is the failed Venezuelan coup in 2020 which was organized by Silvercorp USA, something that has been denied by the US.
Founded by neo-Nazi Dmitry Utkin and Prigozhin, Wagner says it has deployed 78,000 troops in Ukraine and suffered 66,000 casualties. Wagner’s total forces in Ukraine added up to over a quarter of the 300,000 extra troops the Russian MOD said it enlisted last year for the war.
Guns for hire is the preferred warfare strategy of imperialist states. The US used contractors with a 1:1 ratio with US troops during the Iraq war’s peak in 2008, where the Blackwater PMC gained infamy for its war crimes.
A survivor of a mass killing of unarmed Iraqi civilians in 2007 by Blackwater PMC recounted the haunting memories of the massacre in Baghdad.
Eight times as many US contractors have died than US troops in the Middle East since 2001, according to a 2020 Boston University Study. Half of the Pentagon’s $842 billion budget goes to “defense” contractors.
PMCs often cash in on the deposits of the country where they operate, such as Wagner’s export of billions of dollars of Sudanese gold, unlisted on official gold exports to Russia.
With imperial rivalries spilling over, PMCs are looking to a profitable future. It is estimated that the global PMC market will be valued at $457.3 billion by 2030.
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#WagnerGroup #UkraineWar #Prigozhin
French President Macron: “Without the French intervention…Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, would no longer exist with their existing borders”.
Facts: Violent events in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger before French intervention - 10. After French intervention - 2,130.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/obcpJJ7cRqs
#Colonialisme #Sahel #EmmanuelMacron
Our documentary "Deadly Bloom: Flower Farms in Kenya" will be screened at the open-air cinema Kiezhaus Agnes Reinhold in Berlin. The five-month red. investigation into the global flower industry has uncovered extreme abuses by multinational corporations in Kenya, the world's third-largest exporter of cut flowers.
If you live in Europe, you probably buy these flowers. 40% of Europe's roses come from Kenya where our investigation has uncovered evidence of illegal chemical use, widespread corruption, and tax evasion, all of which have serious consequences for the health of workers and the environment.
You can watch Deadly Bloom, presented by Internationalistisches Büro in Berlin, on August 30, 19:30 CET, at Volkspark Rehberge in Berlin. The producers and filmmakers will also be at the open-air screening to give behind-the-scenes insights.
https://youtu.be/ZNVHXTVgVYE?si=pCq2xxpWSXAYKQhl
#Colonialism #AntiCapitalism #AfricanPolitics
63 years ago today a vicious series of racist attacks were launched on the Black Caribbean population of the Notting Hill area of North Kensington in west London. White mobs led by groups of youths known as "Teddy Boys" attacked the homes of Black people while making threats to kill them. As a result, local Black men organized themselves to defend their community. The London Metropolitan Police completely ignored the racist nature of the violence, blaming it on "hooliganism" leading to a culture of distrust towards the police amongst London's Black community which continues today. In 2002 documents were released that revealed that the police had deliberately ignored the racist nature of the violence.
Following the end of the Second World War Britain faced a severe labor shortage and Black migrants from the Caribbean were invited to fill vacancies in crucial jobs in transport and the new National Health Service amongst others. Under the 1948 British Nationality Act those living in British colonies had the same rights as British citizens including the right to settle in the United Kingdom. Those who arrived from the Caribbean during this period became known as The Windrush Generation after the famous ship that brought Caribbean migrants to Tilbury Docks in 1948. However rather than being welcomed for their contribution they faced fear, suspicion, and hostility tensions that exploded in August 1958.
Following the riots efforts to exploit the unrest by the fascist Oswald Mosley failed and The Notting Hill Carnival organized by Caribbean communist Claudia Jones emerged, eventually becoming one of the largest street parties in the world. However, the area caught the world's attention again in 2017 when the Grenfell Tower disaster happened just over the road from where the 1958 riots started.
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#BlackHistory #Riot #AntiRacism
His name was Emmet Till.
He was a 14-year-old boy from a working-class neighborhood in Chicago who was brutally murdered by white racists in Mississippi in 1955.
In 1955, Till visited his family in Money, Mississippi, when he was falsely accused of whistling at Carolyn Bryant, a white female cashier in a grocery store.
In 2017 it was revealed that Bryant admitted she lied about the boy making advances towards her.
Four days after the alleged "incident," Bryant's husband Roy and his half-brother J.W. Milam, kidnapped, viciously tortured and shot dead the 14-year-old boy, throwing his body in the Tallahatchie River, tied to a metal fan.
His body was found days later.
In a historical act of courage, Till's mother, Mamie Till Bradley, organized an open casquet funeral in Chicago to reveal the atrocities perpetrated by racists in the US.
"Let the people see what I've seen," she is reported to have said.
Thousands attended the funeral and many more saw pictures in the media, exposing the racist atrocities prevalent in the US.
An all-white jury declared Bryant and Milam not guilty.
This galvanized the civil rights movement and Till's death resonate to this day.
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#AntiRacism #Racism #BlackHistory
Massive anti-French protests erupted again outside its military base in Niamey, Niger, threatening to storm the base if France’s roughly 1,500 troops don’t leave the country within a week. The former colonial power ignored a deadline to withdraw its ambassador, saying “putschists have no authority.”
That same day, tens of thousands gathered at Niamey Stadium for a military-called rally as a show of force one month after the coup takeover that toppled the pro-Western government of President Mohamed Bazoum. Niger’s coup leaders warned that troops from the regional ECOWAS alliance, which threatened a military invasion, had been put on “high alert.”
Last week, Niger officially signed a military agreement with Burkina Faso and Mali, allowing the two neighboring countries to intervene militarily in Niger against ECOWAS forces. ECOWAS, backed by the EU and US, rejected an offer by Niger’s coup leaders to hold democratic elections after a three-year transition period.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ve-T2tZhuew
#NigerCoup #ECOWAS #PanAfricanism
In December 1979, the USSR invaded Afghanistan. An event interpreted differently by the Afghan and International left. Those who perceived Moscow as socialist described the invasion as "internationalist support". Those who saw the USSR as imperialist viewed it as an occupation.
In the mid-1950s, Afghanistan was dominated economically by the West. When the Afghan monarchy declared its independence from Britain, it lost part of its northeastern provinces. Foreign pressure on the new Afghan state forced it to seek other international partners.
Moscow expanded its ties with the Afghan monarchy in the mid-50s, offering loans at a 3% interest rate. The king's attempts to develop relations with both blocs did not last long. His prime minister Daoud Khan took power in a coup in 1973 and proclaimed a Republic. While Daoud Khan tried to remain neutral, the country still owed one-third of its debt to the USSR.
Under these circumstances, the USSR saw it necessary to form a new ally in Afghanistan to suit its own interests. It helped the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) to seize power in 1978. The PDPA was known by the Afghan left to be Soviet-friendly, and was composed of the Khalq (left-social democratic) and Parcham (social democratic) factions.
The conflicts between the East & West were escalating in the 1970s, threatening the outbreak of a new world war. In Afghanistan, Khalq-faction leader Taraki was unable to fulfill Soviet expectations. In particular, the Soviets were worried about the growing strength of Afghan intelligence chief Hafizullah Amin.
When Amin realized he was losing Soviet support, he began flirting with the US. In September 1979, Amin staged another coup and had Taraki assassinated. For Moscow, this was the straw that broke the camel's back. On 27 December 1979, the USSR invaded the country, shot dead Hafizullah Amin, and instated Parcham-faction leader Babrak Karmal in his place.
By this time a civil war had been going on in Afghanistan since 1978. In the name of reform, the PDPA regime gave land to tribal chiefs and landowners. The Taraki government gave privileges to the majority Pashtuns, increasing pressure on other minorities. These policies led to the formation of the Organization for the Liberation of the Afghan People (SAMA), a Maoist organization.
SAMA largely succeeded in linking the spontaneous struggle of the peasant masses with its own. They were the first to take up arms against the PDPA & the USSR in 1978, and dealt severe blows to the invading Soviet forces, as well as the US-funded Mujahideen.
SAMA lost many of its key leaders to both the Soviets & US-funded Mujahideen and was forced to withdraw from the Afghan political scene, leaving the battlefield to the Moscow-backed government and US-funded feudal reactionaries. In modern Afghanistan discourse, the plight of the SAMA has been ignored, while warlords were championed as "heroes of the free world".
The tragedy of Afghanistan, beginning with the British invasion in 1839 is that it has been bombed back a century with the Soviet invasion in 1979 and the US-led invasion in 2001. The Taliban government, which was granted political power on a silver platter, has plunged the country spiritually and mentally back to the Middle Ages.
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Meet Chile's iconic cop-biting riot dog Negro Matapacos (Black Cop-Killer), who passed away on this day six years ago. The stray dog showed up at student protests for free education in 2011, defying tear gas and water cannons, becoming an unwavering companion in the students' struggle. He would only attack "pacos" (Chilean slang for cops), never students or protesters.
The image of the black dog in a red bandana remains a symbol deeply ingrained in Chilean protest culture. Matapacos' presence continues to resonate in various forms, like on signs at protests with phrases like "Estai Presente" (You're Present) and "En Tu Memoria" (In Your Memory). Negro Matapacos passed away of natural causes on August 26, 2017.
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#ChileProtests #RiotDog #NegroMatapacos
This week's photo dump featuring people in struggle and major events worldwide.
Seoul, South Korea – Police arrest students protesting Japan's dumping of over one million metric tons of nuclear waste into the Pacific Ocean.
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Cape Town, South Africa – Activists call for redistributing land primarily owned by a white minority, rooted in the country's apartheid roots.
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Canuto, Ecuador – Heavily armed security personnel oversee presidential elections shaken by the on-camera political assassination of a top candidate.
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Athens, Greece – Firemen battle flames burning vegetation during the ongoing climate change-fueled wildfires.
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Nablus, Occupied Palestine – Protesters take cover from Israeli forces during protests against new illegal Israeli settlements.
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Niamey, Niger – Supporters of the military coup staged a month ago protest in the capital against a looming Western-backed invasion from neighboring states.
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Buenos Aires, Argentina – The country's relentless IMF-fueled economic crisis continues to fuel leftist protests, disillusioned by recent pre-election results.
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#Politics #Photography #postphotos
Today in 1913, the five-month-long Dublin lockout began, involving 20,000 workers. Often wrongly categorized as a strike it was a callous attempt by Ireland's capitalist class to starve workers into submission and prevent them from joining the growing Irish Transport and General Workers Union (ITGWU). Impoverished workers living in some of Europe's worst conditions were locked out of their workplaces while British and Irish strikebreaking workers or "scabs" replaced them.
The story is a pioneering attempt at building working-class unity and one big union representing all workers as a step towards overthrowing capitalism and establishing a workers' republic in Ireland. After betrayal by Britain's trade union leadership, Irish workers would lose this battle. But out of its ashes, a growing trade union movement and the Irish Citizen's Army were born, which would lead the first major challenge to British rule three years later.
#IrishHistory #ClassStruggle #WorkersUnite
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Happy birthday to the undefeated revolutionary military leader, Vo Nguyen Giap, General of the People's Army of Vietnam, defeater of US imperialism and French colonialism! He later gained the nickname "Red Napoleon" in the west. However, the euro-centric comparison is a poor one because, unlike Napoleon, Giap never lost a war.
The village teacher's son, who grew up to become an army leader, gave painful lessons to the best of France's colonial and world war experienced generals and top US generals. Giáp never attended any courses at any military academy nor had any direct military training before WW2.
He took military control of revolutionary forces in WW2, the 1945 War in Vietnam, the first Indochina War, the 1955 US War on Vietnam, the Vietnam-Cambodia War, and the Sino-Vietnamese War. The Communist Party of Vietnam remembered Giap as "one of the foremost practitioners of modern revolutionary guerrilla warfare of the 20th century."
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#VietnamWar #Guerrilla #PeoplesHistory
Watch US Secretary of State and arch-hypocrite Antony Blinken discuss the suffering of the Ukrainian people while conveniently ignoring the horrific plight of the Palestinians. While the US has sent over $75 billion to Ukraine, Washington continues to make excuses for the far-right Israeli government. So far this year, over 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in Palestine, the highest number of fatalities since 2005.
#PalestineWillBeFree #UkraineWar #FreePalestine
Japan's decision to dump nuclear waste from the Fukushima nuclear power plant 12 years after a meltdown at the site into the Pacific Ocean sparked protests in the Pacific nation of Fiji. Fiji's human rights organization says Japan threatens "future generations" by discharging over a million metric tons of radioactive water.
The coalition of environmental groups also protested the Fijian government's decision to support Tokoyo's action. Palau, Papua New Guinea, Cook Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia have also publicly backed Japan's plan.
Numerous international human rights and environmental organizations, including the UN, have criticized Japan for "violating the human right to clean and healthy environmental conditions." Neighboring countries have also voiced strong criticism, including China, which banned the import of fisheries from Japan.
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#ClimateChange #ClimateJustice #Fukushima
Capitalist "fat cat" CEOs from the top 100 listed British companies received an average 16% pay rise last year while millions of British people faced eviction, homelessness, unemployment, and visits to food banks. The average pay increase for bosses from FTSE 100 companies was £500,000, taking their median annual pay from £3.4 million in 2021 to £3.9 million according to the High Pay Centre think tank. Pascal Soriot from drug company AstraZeneca collected a whoping £15.3 million. Charles Woodburn from arms manufacturer BAE Systems earned £10.7 million while former BP boss Ben van Beurden took home £9.7 million.
The median pay of FTSE 100 bosses is now 118 times that of the median British full-time worker. According to the Office for National Statistics the average UK salary for full £33,000. Read on to find out how this capitalist greed is destroying the social fabric of the UK.
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#Capitalism #England #Exploitation
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, better known as the FARC, shook hands with the state seven years ago today as both warring parties signed a historic peace agreement ending nearly 50 years of bloody guerrilla war – what remains? Broken promises and political persecution pushed many to take up arms again. Why can't Colombia find peace? Watch here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNFt_PBEzGU
#FARC #Paz #GustavoPetro
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Happy birthday to Marsha P. Johnson, a revolutionary Black transgender woman who was involved in the Stonewall Riots as well as in pioneering LGBTQ+ struggles. She is still a source of inspiration for LGBTQ+ activists today.
Working with Sylvia Rivera, she played a vital role in building the Gay Liberation Front, organizing marches, and establishing the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) group. Her life reached a tragic conclusion in July 1992 when her body was discovered in the Hudson River.
#LGBTQ #StoneWallWasARiot #Pride
Watch Israeli Minister for National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir reveal the true nature of the Zionist Apartheid colonial project during a televised interview. Ben-Gvir a member of the far-right Jewish National Front argued that the rights of Israeli Jews are more important than those of Palestinians. He claimed that this includes the right to freedom of movement in the West Bank which is de facto controlled by Israel and is increasingly being ethnically cleansed by Zionist settlers with the support of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF).
Ben-Gvir is himself a Zionist settler who lives on the outskirts of the Palestinian city of Hebron in a settlement that has been declared illegal under international law. He has a long record of anti -Arab hate speech, including comments in 2019 that Arabs who were Israeli citizens who were not loyal to Israel "must be expelled". In 2021 a video surfaced of him waving a gun at Arab security guards and last year he told Palestinian protesters in East Jerusalem "I am your landlord".
So far in 2023 over 200 Palestinians have been killed during clashes in Israel and occupied Palestine the highest number of fatalities since 2005. A number of Palestinian villages in the West Bank have also had all of their original inhabitants driven out by Zionist settlers and the IDF including Al-Qabun and Al-Baqa close to Ramallah.
#Palestine #Apartheid #BenGvir
On this day in 1791 a massive slave rebellion began in Haiti which eventually led to the end of slavery in the country and the establishment of the first free Black republic in 1804. It had a significant impact on the end of the transatlantic slave trade.
European colonial slavery in Haiti, then known as Hispaniola started shortly after the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492. A Spanish colony was established on the island and by 1514 92% of the native population had died from enslavement and European diseases.
In 1519 African slaves and Native Americans joined forces to launch a three-year revolt against slavery. Spanish missionary Bartolomé de las Casas spoke out about the brutality of the Spanish and this led to the end of the enslavement of the native Taíno people.
In 1697 the Spanish ceded control of Hispaniola to the French who renamed it Saint-Domingue. They established the richest colony in the world based on coffee and sugarcane. Like the Spanish, they imported slaves from Africa, and by 1789 there were almost half a million slaves.
Conditions for slaves were brutal with many dying within a few years of enslavement with sugar plantations having a 6-10% mortality rate. Enslaved Africans who escaped were known as Marrons and they sometimes returned to plantations to free friends and family members.
On 21 August 1791 thousands of slaves revolted as they began to kill their masters as the colony descended into civil war. Many slave owners were killed and French children had their heads placed on pikes. By October 4,000 whites were dead and hundreds of plantations were destroyed.
After two years of fighting the French eventually declared the abolition of slavery across the colony in October 1793 and proclaimed that all previously enslaved people were French citizens. However, Haitians faced attacks from British and Spanish colonists.
In 1799 Napoleon seized power in France and in 1801 he invaded Saint-Domingue in order to restore slavery. Following years of brutal fighting and 50,000 French dead attempts to reintroduce slavery were defeated. On 1 January 1804, the new free republic of Haiti was declared.
However the French slave owners never forgive the Haitians and 27,000 compensation claims were launched. As a result, the Haitian government was essentially bankrupt while the French practiced a form of economic slavery. Haiti only paid off these debts in 1947.
#BlackHistory #AntiColonialism #HaitiRevolution
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Cuban revolutionary Vilma Espín founded the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) in 1960, Latin America’s largest women’s organization. 91% of all Cuban women are organized in the non-governmental federation. Here is an album of the legendary ex-guerrilla fighter, Cuba’s First Lady Vilma Espín, and Cuban women in struggle.
Although women made up only 17 percent of the labor force and were the primary victims of the illiteracy that afflicted much of the population, they played a crucial role in the fight against the Batista dictatorship. Through underground organizations such as the Frente Cívico de las Mujeres Martianas and Mujeres Unidas Oposicionistas, and later as part of the all-female guerrilla squadron “Mariana Grajales,” Cuban women helped win the revolutionary war.
The FMC spearheaded what Fidel called the “revolution within the revolution,” and contributed to drafting the first constitution and Family Code, which guaranteed women economic, political, social, cultural, and family rights. Through the work of the FMC, Cuba pioneered sexual and reproductive rights. It was the first Latin American country to legalize free abortion in 1965.
#Feminismo #CubanRevolution #WomenRevolution
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