Solidarity with the Party for Socialism and Liberation
Solidarity to the six Denver, Colorado anti-racist organisears, including four Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) members, targeted by US police in a political attack on working class, anti-racist organising. Racist police used overwhelming and excessive force to arrest and detain the organisers on ludicrous charges. Targeted following their involvement in a mass campaign for justice for 23-year-old Elijah McClain, a black man killed last year, Colorado authorities singled out six leading comrades – we must make sure they are not alone!
It is clear Colorado authorities seek to disrupt the growing uprisings against state racism and economic crisis, a struggle in which the PSL have played a leading role. Speaking at meetings organised by Manchester RCG and London RCG this year, a PSL organiser from Boston described the role being played by the Party as communists furthering political education and deepening the struggle in this crisis of the imperialist system.
Attacks on anti-racist organisers in the US show us the importance of fighting racism in the struggle for socialism. In Britain the state has attacked anti-imperialists with the political imprisoning of the ‘Saoradh 9’ and the Palestinian activist Issam Hijjawi. RCG comrades in Newcastle have also been detained and harassed by the police in organising against state racism. These attacks from the state show our struggles against racism in Britain and the US are a central part of the struggle against British and US imperialism and for socialism.
Revolutionary Communist Group
Drop all charges against anti-racist organisers in Denver!
Free all political prisoners – fight US imperialism & racist policing!
Defend the movement, fight for socialism!
West Bank’s Tent of Nations deserves support after attack
The Tent of Nations is a farm covering 400 dunams near Bethlehem in Palestine, in an area much desired by the Israeli state and which has long been disputed between Daoud Nassar’s family and the Israeli state itself. It is surrounded by the illegal settlement bloc of Gush Etzion.
Tent of Nations is a place of union between different cultures, to promote respect for each other and break down inequalities. They are working towards becoming completely self-sufficient in regard to food, water and electricity, but recently they suffered an attack by unknown people, who completely destroyed one of the small caves where volunteers used to live.
Gas cylinders and medicines were stolen, and they also destroyed solar panels and stole a generator, which provided electricity for the cave. The amount of damages in terms of costs is huge, and they do now need our help and support as during this pandemic they do not have volunteers helping.
To find out more and support Tent of Nations, go to
www.tentofnations.org
Anna Catteschi
LONDON
Time to create strong organisations of the working class
Here in prison it’s been quite tough during the coronavirus crisis, not seeing family, comrades and friends for so long. I hope there are no casualties amongst you.
I have been receiving FRFI and I especially loved the June/July issue. I am currently translating into Spanish some articles about both the UK and international matters. We all reckon many interesting things are going to happen worldwide since the Covid-19 crisis has struck during an already huge global capitalist crisis. I personally think people all over the world are not ideologically ready to overcome capitalism yet, but I am really certain that in extreme circumstances, fast-learning experiences actually happen. I am also convinced about the need to make even greater efforts to create strong working class and anti-fascist organisations. Solidarity is one of the cornerstones for achieving this.
Keep doing a great job. Long live communism!
Marcos Martin Pouce
Anti-fascist prisoner
Picassent prison
VALENCIA, SPAIN
Kashmir’s year of lockdown
Today is 5 August 2020. As I write this letter, it has been one year since the nationalist government of the BJP and its fascist wing the RSS put Kashmir in lockdown, with no internet, no mobile or phone communication and curfews.
The Indian government has decided to go down the same route as the Zionist apartheid regime in Palestine by trying to change the demographics of Kashmir, removing Kashmir’s special status and making it easier for Indians to buy land and properties, and move to Kashmir.
All we Kashmiris are asking for is a referendum to decide if we want to be with India, Pakistan or independent. But this so-called largest democracy stamps out any call for going to the ballot box and a peaceful resolution of our issue, despite the passing of many UN resolutions in favour of a plebiscite.
We feel like the overlooked people and struggle. We would like support from the revolutionaries of the world, whether we stay a majority peaceful or a majority armed struggle in the future. Please use the platform you have to support us and see us in the fold of revolutionary movements, whether under occupation or in liberation.
In solidarity,
Comrade Zed
KASHMIR
Another view of Lincoln
I’d like to contribute to the analysis in Susan Davidson’s excellent article in FRFI 277 on the US civil war. At least one revolutionary had a lower opinion of Lincoln than perhaps did Marx and Engels. Malcolm X recalled how in prison the teachers would tell him how wonderful Lincoln had been for black people – and he would respond by quoting Lincoln directly.
For example, in a 1853 speech during a debate with the viciously pro-slavery Southern Democrat Stephen Douglas (later his rival in the 1860 election), Lincoln said:
‘I am not, nor ever have been, in favour of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races – that I am not, nor ever have been, in favour of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people…I am in favour of having the superior position assigned to the white race’.
A few months after the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, an abolitionist delegation urged Lincoln to proclaim the abolition of slavery. He said no: ‘we didn’t go into this war to end slavery’.
A year later, only with the Union war effort in disarray, did Lincoln issue the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves on New Year’s Day 1863 – albeit at first only in Confederate-held territory. It was a devastating blow to the Confederacy, depriving it of slave labour and providing thousands of former slaves as recruits to the Union Army.
Shortly after the surrender of the Confederacy in 1865 came another policy shift. Lincoln tentatively suggested extending voting rights to black people who had served in the Union Army. The proposal threw Southern racists into paroxysms of fury and Lincoln was assassinated a few days later.
None of this detracts from the analysis in Davidson’s article, nor from Lincoln’s stature as the greatest US president of all – although, really, he does not face much competition!
Mike Webber
AYLESBURY
No more police harassment!
I am speaking out against the unfair treatment I have received at the hands of Northumbria Police which I believe is racially motivated because I am Muslim. Since May I have had at least 10 different police raids and visits to my house, usually on the pretence of looking for missing persons. I suffer from mental health issues and have a diagnosis of schizophrenia; at one point I was living in a hostel where I felt unsafe. I uncovered some police surveillance equipment and illegal substances on the premises and when I phoned the police to report this, I was arrested! On another occasion I was faced by armed response and put under taser point, even though no arrest was made. I have complained to the IPCC and attempted to log complaints about all of this but it has gone nowhere. I am speaking out as I know I am not the only one going through this.
Hamza
Kevin Zeese presente!
Our thoughts are with the comrades, friends and family of Kevin Zeese who unexpectedly passed away on 6 September aged 64. As a lawyer and a long time anti-war activist, he was involved in many anti-imperialist campaigns. Kevin was one of the ‘embassy protection collective’ in Washington, who occupied the Venezuelan embassy with the full support of the Bolivarian Revolution in 2019, to prevent its takeover by US backed coup mongers. He was one of four jailed for this and fought a political defence campaign which won an important legal victory in June as federal charges were dropped. Kevin was the co-director of the ‘Popular Resistance’ news outlet and online resource. He sat on the advisory board of the Courage Foundation and defended Julian Assange, Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning amongst others and helped to organise Occupy Wall Street in 2011. His contribution to the struggle against imperialism has especially been championed in Venezuela. He will not be forgotten.
Sam McGill
NEWCASTLE
