Syria: The Race for Al Bab - Turkey and SPF / YPG on collision course : South Front Analysis

Left divided over Maoists’ call for united front against Hindutva issue

Democracy and Class Struggle interviewed Harsh Thakor for his view on the news story below

Personally I think the statement below is distorting the true facts.and is not the official stand of the C.P.I.(Maoist) .I would never forecast that the C.P.I.(Maoist) would pledge a united front with revisionist parties like C.P.M.

This would mean treading the path of C.P.I.(M.L.)Liberation group which started this path in 1988.Ony the cadres of left parties are secular Otherwise CPI or C.P.M.have been forming alliances with ruling class parties like Congress or even the B.J.P.

It may have secular and progressive stances like being critical of globalization and communal fascism but it's practice does not reflect a progressive trend.

Did they play any effective role in resisting communal riots in Mumbai in 1993 or stop Babri Masjid demolition?Do they not take a centrist stand on Kashmir?

Making an alliance with such parties would be throwing the Maoist party into the quagmire of revisionism.

I can't forget how in Mumbai revolutionary groups mass organizations were towing the left parties in the 1990's through the ekta samiti who formulated no agenda to thwart the communal fascism.

We must get confirmation that this statement may well be the work of the intelligence.

Democracy and Class Struggle has been aware for some time of new orientation in CPI Maoist thinking on united fronts and would welcome clarity from the party on this question rather than comments to bourgeois press.

The banned CPI(Maoist) has expressed its willingness to join hands with parliamentary Left parties to put up a united fight against ‘Hindutva forces.’ The offer has left the Left parties divided .

While CPI and RSP readily welcomed the proposal, CPI(ML)(Liberation) and Forward Bloc are unsure about the prospect of coordinated movement with an outfit that essentially propagates armed struggle. SUCI (C) said they will not object if other Left parties agree.

Bachcha Prasad Singh, a CPI(Maoist) politburo member, who was arrested from Kanpur in 2010 and released on bail recently, has expressed this willingness to form ‘a broader united front’ in an interview given after his release.

“In my opinion the way to confront the present scenario is to form a strong resistance and a broader united front against Hindutva forces. It does not matter if the front includes Leftist parties in Parliament. It is the time to stay united, to forget our dogmatic and ideological differences and remember what Lenin said “divided we fall, united we will,” Singh said in an interview with a blog, kafila.org.

Responding to queries sent by HT, a senior Maoist leader said, “It’s is not his personal opinion. He is conveying the stand of the party.”

CPI central secretariat member and former MP Gurudas Dasgupta said his party welcomes the proposal. “Hindu fundamentalism is the greatest danger the country is facing and it is threatening the secular fundamentals of the country,” Dasgupta told HT. He added that all secular forces need to be united.

“Our party has no objection to Maoist participation in mass movement against Hindu communalism,” former Left Front minister and RSP West Bengal state secretary Kshiti Goswami told HT.
Sources in the Maoist outfit told HT that Singh’s statement is in pursuance of the party’s official policy regarding forming ‘united fronts’ outlined in its internal publications over the past couple of years.

They pointed out that the special issue of CPI(Maoist)’s central theoretical organ, People’s War, published at the end on 2014, gave special thrust on forging ‘tactical unit fronts’ with mainstream political parties, NGOs and rights organisations and spelt out guidelines on how to work together.

“The Communist party should continuously take an initiative by uniting allies through long-standing efforts and patience,” politburo member Mallojula Venugopal Rao alias Sonu wrote in an article on the necessity of forming united fronts.

Political observers feel Maoists’ plan may get some response only in pockets of Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, where CPI has some bases. The strength of RSP, active in West Bengal and Kerala, has weakened significantly.

“In the past, activists of CPI and the CPI(Maoist) were seen participating in mass agitations together in Chhattisgarh and Odisha,” a source told HT.

CPI(ML) (Liberation), however, is not optimistic about the prospect of the Maoists participating in any movement led by mainstream Left parties. “I’m not sure whether it is possible as long as the Maoists keep prioritising military movement. They need to decide first whether they want to lead a military movement or a political movement,” CPI(ML)(Liberation) politburo member Kavita Krishnan told HT.

Forward Bloc, too, made similar observations. “We will be ready to welcome them in mass movements after they abandon armed struggle. Otherwise, their presence in mass movements will bring unnecessary harassments and police repression for the activists of movements,” Forward Bloc central committee member Hafiz Alam Sairani said.

SUCI(C) general secretary Prabhash Ghosh said that an alliance of Left wing outfits – comprising CPI, CPI(M), CPI(ML)(Liberation), RSP, Forward Bloc and SUCI(C) – are active in the national level and that their party has no objection to the Maoists’ proposal if other constituents of the alliance agree.

Sources in the Maoist party told HT that among the mainstream Left parties, they have strong reservations against the CPI(M), which it calls ‘a social fascist force’.

They are unlikely to send any emissary to the CPI(M).

SOURCE: http://www.redspark.nu/en/peoples-war/india/left-divided-over-maoists-call-for-united-front-against-hindutva-issue/

India : Seven years after ban, Maoist leaders hold first public meeting in Bengal

Democracy and Class Struggle welcome the CPI Maoist orientation into plains areas outside hilly and forested tracts in this report

The slogan ‘Naxalbari ek hi rasta’, posters containing quotations from Mao Zedong and Charu Majumdar, rendition of ‘revolutionary songs’ and selling books written by Mao and Majumdar marked the first public event in the city attended by top Maoists leaders held to condole the death of former CPI(Maoist) state secretary Himadri Sen Roy alias Somen.

Besides recounting Somen’s role as a ‘communist organiser’, leaders, supporters and sympathisers of the banned outfit pressed for ‘broader unity of revolutionary forces’ to ‘carry forwards the work left unfinished by Somen’.

On the dais were top Maoist leaders Narayan Sanyal and Purnendu Sekhar Mukherjee, along with Chandi Sarkar and Gour Chakraborty. All of them are in their seventies and were released on bail after spending several years in jail.

Nearly 300 people belonging to various organisations attended the event at Bharat Sabha Hall in central Kolkata.

The event assumes significance, as the Maoist organisation in the state virtually collapsed overnight with the death of politburo member Koteshwara Rao alias Kishenji in an alleged fake encounter in West Midnapore in November 2011.

While Sanyal was a politburo member of CPI(Maoist) at the time of his arrest from Chhattisgarh in 2006, Mukherjee was a central committee member at the time of his arrest from Bihar in 2011. Sarkar was a state committee member when he was arrested in 2005.

Chakraborty, was the first overground spokesperson of CPI(Maoist), who was acquitted by the city sessions court judge on July 19 after he was slapped UA(P)A sections and spent more than six years in prison.

Sanyal, Mukherjee and Sarkar avoided reference to CPI(Maoist) during their speeches, but Chakraborty said, “I’m still with the Maoist party.”

In introspection mode, Chandi Sarkar said that they needed to asses why Naxalite agrarian movements by the erstwhile CPI(ML), Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) and CPI(ML)(Party Unity) in the plains of the country ‘failed to withstand the State’s repression’.

“We would not be able to move forward without finding answer to this crucial question,” Sarkar said, hinting that the Maoists were planning to stress on building movements outside hilly and forested tracts.

Messages sent by senior Andhra-based Maoist ideologue Vara Vara Rao and CPI(Maoist)’s former state committee member, Ajit Chakraborty, were also read out in the meeting. Both of them called for ‘resolute pursuance of Somen’s political line’.

Chakraborty was released from jail last year and the police believe he has gone underground since then. Jailed Maoist functionary Prasun Chatterjee sent a letter as well.

“Let us pay tribute to him (Somen) by rebuilding the organisation and inching towards completing the revolution,” Somen’s wife, Shikha Sen Roy, said.

Organisers also alleged Murshidabad police arrested a person on Sunday night on charges of campaigning for the event.

On Monday, apart from Maoists and their sympathisers, people representing such outfits as CPI(ML)(New Democracy), CPI(ML)(Red Star) and CPI(ML)(Liberation) and Nagarik Adhikar Raksha Samiti were also present at the event. Representatives of New Democracy and Red Star described CPI(Maoist) as a ‘true revolutionary party’ and preached broader unity among ‘revolutionary forces’

Source: .http://www.redspark.nu/en/peoples-war/india/india-seven-years-after-ban-maoist-leaders-hold-first-public-meeting-in-bengal/

The Life and work of Carlos Mariategui by Dr Luiz Pericas

Democracy and Class Struggle publish the above speech as an introduction to Carlos Mariategui - we do not share the political orientation of the speaker  -  therefore we recommend readers to study the two links below as a complement to this speech and importantly read Mariategui himself  here.

https://www.marxists.org/archive/mariateg/works/index.htm

SEE ALSO:

Chairman Gonzalo on Mariategui

http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/to-undertand-mariategui-by-chairman.html

Marc Becker on Carlos Mariategui and the Comintern and indigenous peoples.

http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/mariategui-comintern-and-indigenous.html

Revolutionary Poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz Remembered - Never Forgotten

In the Shade of Fallen Chinar - Kashmir - Music - Art - Resistance

SEE ALSO
http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/m-c-kash-njnp-kashmir-no-justice-no.html

Moscow Doesn’t Want the Kurds to be Too Strong or Too Weak: Russian Analyst by Wladimir van Wilgenburg

Top Russian officials have said that Kurds should still be part of the Syrian talks, despite the recent rapprochement between Russia and Turkey.

Moscow has recently played a role in ending a 7-days-clashes between the Syrian regime and the Kurds in the northeastern Hasakah city, inviting both to the Russian Khmeimim air base.

Furthermore, Russia restored its ties with Turkey and did not strongly oppose the Turkish intervention in Jarabulus after talks on Syria.

The Turkish intervention was most likely coordinated by the Turks with Iran, Russia and Syria.
While in the past Turkey refrained from directly militarily intervening in Syria, fearing a Russian military response after shooting down a Russian jet in November 2015, this time Turkey had a free hand on its border.

Nevertheless, senior Russian officials, such as the Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian ambassador to the UN Vitaly Ivanovich Churn, have stressed that Kurds should still be included in the talks.

“Apparently, peace in the Middle East is impossible without taking into consideration the Kurdish stance. The current illegal Turkish military campaign in northern Syria under the pretext of fighting against terrorism is aimed at the Kurds,”

Russian parliament’s Deputy Speaker Sergei Zheleznyak was quoted by the Russian media outlet Sputnik last Thursday.

“I’m convinced the Kurds should have a full-fledged representation in that process, should remain an integral part of the Syrian state,” Lavrov said on Saturday after discussing a solution to the Syrian crisis with his American counterpart, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

Speaking to ARA News, Timur Akhmetov, a Research Analyst with a special focus on the Middle East and Turkish politics, said that the Russians do not want the Kurds to be either too strong or too weak.

“It seems that Russia has a dilemma: on the one hand, it doesn’t want collide with Turkey again over the Kurds, on the other hand – Russia feels it needs to keep saying the formula “Kurds must also participate in the talks”,” Akhmetov said.

“Those statements are just usual rhetoric; it is always necessary to see if the words fit with the deed. I think now Russia wouldn’t mind that Kurdish positions be a little weakened by Turkey, but not to the extent that would render Kurds ineffective against other opposition groups in Syria.

In short, Russia doesn’t want to see Kurds both as too weak and too strong,” he said.

“I think now Kurds have the impression that Russia is giving into Turkish ambitions vis-a-vis the Kurds, so Russia will need now to send the Kurds positive message, signaling that it still wants to cooperate with the Kurds,” Akhmetov told ARA News.

Fabrice Balanche, a Syria expert from the Washington Institute For Near East Policy, said that Russia backs Kurdish ambitions to link their enclaves [in northern Syria], despite earlier signs that Russia also backed the Turkish-led Jarabulus operation.

“The Syrian regime is obliged to follow Russia. Putin wants to allow the Kurds to open a corridor to Efrin from Manbij. A narrow corridor, protecting Aleppo from rebel attack and easy to close if PYD [Kurdish Democratic Union Party] is not smart with Putin,” Balanche told ARA News.

“Turkey knows its limit: 15 km inside Syria no more, after that Russia would shell Turkish troops and its rebels,” he said.

Reporting by: Wladimir van Wilgenburg
Source: ARA News


SOURCE: http://www.kurdishquestion.com/article/3398-moscow-doesn-t-want-the-kurds-to-be-too-strong-or-too-weak-russian-analyst

Norway : Politics over Economy by Tjen Folket - Serve the People

Politics over economy

Serve the People have been criticised for focusing too much on political, social and cultural questions, and not enough on economy and class.

Firstly we don’t agree fully with this criticism, because economical and class struggles are often concentrated in political and social questions. Secondly, it’s obvious that we don’t have the resources necessary to work with every question.

Therefore, no matter how large we become, we can always be criticised for focusing on the “wrong” issues. We can never concentrate on all issues, which is why we have to choose. Some of the issues we have to opt out of are going to be important questions we would have liked to work with.

We have to prioritize

Serve the people has commented on several different questions on our webpages. We have written articles and pamphlets on capitalist economy and the crises it leads to. We have written about imperialism, taxes, strikes and the environmental crisis. But there are two questions we’ve prioritized especially highly, namely

• struggle against imperialism and the wars of the norwegian state
• the work against fascism and racism

Choosing to prioritize certain cases over others has been an entirely conscious choice on our part. Not because they’re more important than all other, but because only concentrated and protracted work can lead to success.

But are these questions “only” political or social? We think that Norwegian imperialism is first and foremost an expression of class and economy. Norwegian imperialism is a political-military expression of the capitalist class’ economic interest to spread throughout the world. Together with Norwegian bombers and troops come Statoil, Statkraft, Telenor and other Norwegian huge companies.

With Lenin against economism

Lenin’s classic “What Is to Be Done” is written in opposition to economism. Economism is a tendency in the workers movement that only focuses on economic struggle – struggle for wages, welfare and rights in the workplace – and that limits itself to union work. As a resistance to this, Lenin puts the versatile political struggle and the revelation of the state and the bourgeois. He writes:

“Class political consciousness can be brought to the workers only from without; that is, only from outside the economic struggle, from outside the sphere of relations between workers and employers.”

He also writes:

“that the Social-Democrat’s (communist ed.note) ideal should not be the trade union secretary, but the tribune of the people, who is able to react to every manifestation of tyranny and oppression, no matter where it appears, no matter what stratum or class of the people it affects; who is able to generalise all these manifestations and produce a single picture of police violence and capitalist exploitation; who is able to take advantage of every event, however small, in order to set forth before all his socialist convictions and his democratic demands, in order to clarify for all and everyone the world-historic significance of the struggle for the emancipation of the proletariat”
And:

“Trade-unionist politics of the working class is bourgeois politics of the working class”

Political struggle over economic struggle

In the article “Once Again On The Trade Unions” Lenin writes:

“I said again in my speech that politics is a concentrated expression of economics, because I had earlier heard my ‘political’ approach rebuked in a manner which is inconsistent and inadmissible for a Marxist. Politics must take precedence over economics. To argue otherwise is to forget the ABC of Marxism.”

To put politics first – to prioritize the so-called “political” questions in front of “economical” questions – is actually in line with Lenin’s recommendations. The question about the state power and what the bourgeoisie uses this for, are incredibly important to reveal capitalism. We can’t reveal capitalism if we only tail behind the union struggle – it can only be done through lifting our eyes and looking at imperialism as a world system. And the question about racism is a democratic struggle that affects many, and that easily can be used to reveal how rotten this system is.

The most important thing is to build red organization

The most important question both in Lenin’s time and our time, is to develop the working class’ own revolutionary politics and own revolutionary organization. This never develops spontaneously from class struggles, but has to be organized consciously with revolution as a goal. We have to build red power and communist organization step by step.

This means that it’s necessary to start relatively small, that one do not develop advanced politics in some important areas, and that one does not take part in all parts of the working class or all its struggles. That means sticking to ones priorities, even when its tempting to push them aside for more popular struggles or “new struggles” or struggles that are seemingly more “typical” communist (strikes, union work), than anti-imperialism and anti-racism.

The alternative is to never develop ones own praxis and ones own organization, but to tail after others and comment on the events that are happening, without creating any events themselves.

Tjen Folket
18.08.2016

SOURCE: http://tjen-folket.no/Sentralt/view/12127

India: Tata Steel is Leaving Bastar - Victory for People's Struggle

Democracy and Class Struggle says only days after the Chhattisgarh government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Tata Steel, a vigilante militia was established (known as the Salwa Judum).

Organised by the state government and funded by Tata Steel the Salwa Judum initiated a ground clearance operation to eradicate the local forest peoples so Tata could set up its steel plant. 

The Salwa Judum burned, raped and murdered its way through 600 local villages forcing 50 000 people into police camps and displacing a further 350 000. 

To keep these displaced persons in check, the government then deployed 200 000 paramilitary troops to the region to make sure that it remained a stable climate for investment and economic growth.


Therefore we welcome the news in the Business Standard that Tata Steel is leaving Bastar

REPORT THAT TATA STEEL IS LEAVING BASTAR

Tata Steel has finally given up the plan to set up 5.5 million tonne per annum (Mtpa) green-field integrated steel plant in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar district.

The company had inked a Memorandum of Understanding with the Chhattisgarh government in June 2005 for setting up the plant with an estimated investment of Rs 19,500 crore. Since the proposal could not realise, the MoU period was extended that finally ended in June 2016. The company did not seek another extension.

Anand Sinha, Tata Steel’s Chhattisgarh project head, told Business Standard that the company had officially decided to quit the Bastar steel plant project. The delay in the land allocation on the part of state government’s agencies was learnt to be the reason behind the move.

The company had selected site near Lohandiguda in Bastar district, otherwise infamous for the Naxal violence. About 2000 hectares of land spread across 10 villages was required. Since the pocket had been notified as “tribal area”, the company could not directly purchase land from the villagers. Instead, the government was supposed to procure land and later allot it to the company.

The company was allotted 2,500 hectares of iron ore bearing land in Bailadila deposit No. 4 in 2008 to feed raw material for the Bastar steel plant. A prospecting licence was issued to the company for the mine that had an estimated reserve of 108 million tonnes of high grade iron ore.

Since the pocket was infested by Naxal activities, the company failed to complete the prospecting work within the set time following which the agreement reached with the state government for the allocation of iron ore mine stood cancelled. Tata steel lost the mine.

The Tata steel winded up its offices located in Raipur and Bastar while shifting the manpower to other locations.

SOURCE:

http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/tata-steel-drops-bastar-plan-116082600407_1.html

USA: Trump Loves Crazy Alex Jones

The pathology of US Politics and its 2016 morbid symptoms.

Narcissists Alex Jones and Donald Trump

A 2012 book on power-hungry narcissists suggests that narcissists typically display most, and sometimes all, of the following traits:^[7]

• An obvious self-focus in interpersonal exchanges
• Problems in sustaining satisfying relationships
• A lack of psychological awareness (see insight in psychology and psychiatry, egosyntonic)
• Difficulty with empathy
• Problems distinguishing the self from others (see narcissism and boundaries)
• Hypersensitivity to any insults or imagined insults (see criticism and narcissists, narcissistic rage and narcissistic injury)
• Vulnerability to shame rather than guilt
• Haughty body language
• Flattery towards people who admire and affirm them (narcissistic supply)
• Detesting those who do not admire them (narcissistic abuse)
• Using other people without considering the cost of doing so
• Pretending to be more important than they actually are
• Bragging (subtly but persistently) and exaggerating their achievements
• Claiming to be an "expert" at many things
• Inability to view the world from the perspective of other people
• Denial of remorse and gratitude

M C KASH & NJNP - KASHMIR - NO JUSTICE NO PEACE - WHEN DO WE WANT JUSTICE - NOW !

SEE ALSO: 
http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/kashmir-mc-kash-liberation-valley-of.html

http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/azadi-only-way-delhi-convention-on.html

Democracy and Class Struggle says we hear your cry Kashmir in the mountains of Wales - Your struggle will not be invisible however hard the world's media conspire against you - truth and honesty will prevail and ultimately justice.

US Policy Towards Syria and the Mockery of International Law

The call for US airstrikes to scare President Bashar Assad into submission is a call for terrorism, says former CIA analyst Ray McGovern

KIM BROWN, TRNN: You?re watching the Real News Network. I?m Kim Brown in Baltimore.

Without question what?s happening in Syria is both a civil war and a proxy war with outside powers such as the United States, Russia, Iran, and Saudi Arabia all backing factions that promote their interests in the region. 

The Syrian conflict is now its 5th year and the Syria Observatory on Human Rights estimates that there have been about a half million killed. So what can or what will be done to end this war?

A former top brass for the CIA has suggested bombing Damascus into submission along with Tehran and Moscow if they also want some.

Our next guest penned a scathing article about former Deputy Director of the CIA Mike Morrel's military solution. 

Ray McGovern, he is a former CIA analyst under President Bill Clinton and his article is titled a Lawless Plan to Target Syria?s Allies. It appears on the website ConsortiumNews.Com. He joins us today from the Washington, DC area. Ray welcome.

RAY MCGOVERN: Thank you.

BROWN: Ray, Mike Morrel appeared on the Charlie Rose Show which airs on PBS where he articulated a plan to bring an end to the Syrian conflict. What was this plan?

MCGOVERN: Well his plan is to use what he calls the moderate opposition to kill off enough Russians and Iranians and Syrians to make a point and to make sure that Bashar al Assad will realize that his days are numbers to use Morrel?s words.

With respect Assad himself, Morrel advocates a more direct role by the United States Air Force to bomb his personal vehicles, his personal aircraft, and some of his [instillations] just to scare him into realizing that his days are numbered. Now before we go any further that fits the classic definition of terrorism.

Terrorism is using violence to achieve a political goal. So it?s no stretch to say that we?ve got our own terrorist here and Michael Morrel is exhibit A. Now one of the laughable things for us to tell us as professionals is for Morrel to pretend that he?s a knowledgeable about what CIA or US Air Force can do. 

How are we going to do this? We?re going to do this in the middle of the night. In the middle of the night we?re going to send the Air Force planes in and we?ll destroy his installations, personal aircraft, and then we won?t do it overtly but they?ll get the message. 

Okay the terrorist message. Now you know those of us who have been around for a while, we realize that these radars that guide anti-aircraft missiles actually they can work in the middle of the night.

You know? And there are Russian surface to air missiles all around Assad?s personal vehicles, his aircraft, and so forth.

So when you talk about naive, the guy doesn?t know what end is up. Let me just add a little flavor here.

BROWN: But Ray he also suggested that such a plan, a surreptitious attack on Assad?s vehicles and locations that he holds dear would somehow yield zero casualties. Then what?s the point of dropping the bomb?

MCGOVERN: Oh no this is just to teach him a lesson. This is just to scare him. You don?t want to kill him.

He said no this is not about assassination. We?re going to go in the middle of the night. We?re going to blaze around and that way we?have zero casualties.

Again, as though he doesn?t know that there are people around in the middle of the night and that there are people manning these surface to air missiles.

What I was going to say before is that this reminds me after Armstrong stepped on the moon there was a prominent astronaut from a NATO country that said tomorrow our astronaut is going to land on the Sun. And the press kind of laughed at that statement. One person said don?t you think it?ll be a little hot on the sun? I?m glad you asked that question. We?re going to go in the night time. He was also going to go in the night time to destroy all the things he wants to scare Assad with.

BROWN: So Ray we?re talking about the August 17th appearance on Charlie Rose. And Charlie Rose was pummeling him. Not really pummeling him but peppering him lightly with questions about US enemies and what perhaps our future engagements are going to be.

So let me tug on your expertise here as a CIA analyst or former CIA analyst because we have some triangulation of ally-ship here.

So we have Bashar al Assad leader in Syria who is being backed by Vladimir Putin in Russia. And now Iran is also in this mix of actors. So explain how Former Deputy Director Morrel's comments also brought Tehran and Moscow up possibly on the list of places to be bombed in order to end the Syrian conflict.

MCGOVERN: Well he wasn?t that specific. He?s not talking about bombing Tehran or Moscow. And realize that this is his do over. This is his mulligan. His second try. This is the 17th of August. His first try was on the 8th of August. Never have I ever seen one person interviewed by Charlie Rose 9 days later.

This was to make amends to make sure that people didn?t think that Mike Morrel was advocating bombing Moscow or Tehran.

Now what he did do of course was indicate that he?s in great favor of--he favors terrorism and he favors overt war without any regard to international law against state [inaud.] government and internationally recognized. They call it a regime but it?s a government. It?s in Damascus and it?s headed by Bashar al Assad.

BROWN: And also as we are looking at the Syrian conflict and also in the process of electing our next president in November. In part of this interview with Mike Morrel, Charlie Rose asked him about his relationship with Hillary Clinton whom he has endorsed for president and in part of your article you describe it as a fawning audition. What do you mean by that?

MCGOVERN: Well it?s a try. He?s trying to appear just as tough as Hillary Clinton and indeed what he?s advocating is pretty much what Hillary Clinton advocated and implemented in Libya and now wants to do it in Syria. It's a very crass attempt to say I?m only 58 and I?m ready to come back into your administration.

We talk about tough guys, tough gals, Michael Morrel I?m going to do it in the middle of the night and I?m going to scare them to death.

BROWN: So speaking of in the middle of the night, in your piece you detail how what Morrel is suggesting is illegal under international law.

However, the United States is not shy about either engaging in such acts itself or even supporting such acts itself and I am speaking specifically about the Saudi Arabian led coalition bombings in Yemen to the point that it has caused Doctors Without Borders, Médecins Sans Frontières, to withdraw from northern Yemen because they?ve had I believe 3 hospitals bombed in the past few years. This is not something new to us.

MCGOVERN: That?s right Kim. Now what you really have to do is go back to right after 9/11 actually. On the evening of 9/11, here?s Bush and Cheney and George Tenent and Richard Clarke who recorded this in his book. Now someone says now if you want to go after Iraq that?s against international law because Iraq didn?t have anything to do with 9/11 or what happened this morning. And Bush says and I quote ?I don?t care what the international lawyers say I?m going to kick some ass?. End quote. [Inaud.] Richard Clarke put it in his book, he was there.

Now that set the tone okay. International law really doesn?t matter to the United States anymore. And when you have the Saudis doing what they?re doing and we?re selling lots of bombs and missiles so that they can do it with for a lot of money for the military industrial complex, well international law doesn?t matter. This week Turkey invaded the sovereign country of Syria. 

I haven?t seen one person in any video say, well Turkey?s a member of NATO right? Are we in the practice of invading other countries? Let?s say the Syrian Air Force retaliated in Turkey. Wouldn?t we bound under article 5 of the NATO treaty to help Turkey repel the bombing or whatever from Syria?

It has really become [surrealistic] international law not for the main superpower in the world. It doesn?t really apply anymore. And that?s a sad state of affairs and that?s where Mike Morrel, Hillary Clinton, Trump, everybody sort of fits in and assumes that since we are the sole indispensable country in the world, that means all the other countries are what? Dispensable. We can do whatever we want. We don?t care what the international lawyers say, we?re going to do what we want.

BROWN: Ray if you were advising this president or even perhaps the next president, what would you tell them to do regarding Syria? Because the Syrian conflict has not been contained. It actually as you just mentioned about Turkey now engaging within Syrian territory, it?s expanding and it?s really pulling in a lot of our regional allies and some of our regional enemies as well. And it is going to require at some point the United States to take some kind of action. So if you were advising this president or the next president, what would you tell them to do?

MCGOVERN: Well Kim we don?t advise presidents what to do. What we do is try to educate them as to what the real factors are. Now it could be because the press is so miserable on this that Obama doesn?t really know [inaud.] who is profiting from this dismemberment of Syria. 

The answer is very simple. The state of Israel. Now 3 years ago the head of the Jerusalem Bureau of the New York Times visited top Israeli officials and said this Syria is really getting out of hand. What?s your preferred outcome?

And they say well you know this doesn?t sound really good. I?m not very humanitarian but our preferred outcome is no outcome. And Rudoren says I beg your pardon? He says well again it doesn?t sound very good but as long as the Sunni and Shia are at each other?s throats killing each other off it?s sort of like a playoff game.

You don?t want either side to win but you don?t either side to lose either. And so as long as this continues Hezbollah can?t be resupplied through Syria and Israel has nothing to fear from Syria. End quote. First page of the New York Times September 4, 2013. Look it up.

Now it?s very clear from Hillary Clinton?s own emails that this is precisely her preference, regime change. Making sure that Israel?s ?nuclear monopoly? remains intact. So it?s very clear that this policy towards Syria which is resulted in a half million killed, 2 million people refugee. It?s unconscionable. And who profits from it? Who egged us on? Israel.

But you can?t say that in the mainstream media. So most Americans are completely oblivious to the fact that Hillary Clinton and to an extent John Kerry, have been really carrying out the polices of the neocons who can really, they have difficulty drawing a distinction between the preferred policies of Israel and the preferred policies of the United States of America. That is very noxious.

BROWN: His article is titled A Lawless Plan to Target Syria?s Allies. You can find it online at ConsortiumNews.Com. We?ve been speaking with Ray McGovern. He?s a former analyst at the CIA under President Bill Clinton. He?s been joining us today from the Washington, DC area. Ray as always thank you so much for your insight and your expertise with us.

MCGOVERN: You?re most welcomed Kim.

BROWN: And thank you for watching the Real News Network.
End
  
  
DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy.

YPG Official: Turkey’s Target in Syria are the Kurds, not ISIS

In a new message to Turkey, spokesman of the Kurdish YPG forces, Redur Xelil, said Friday that no one should make excuses to attack headquarters of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) west of the Euphrates.

The Turkish army on Friday attacked the Kurdish-led SDF forces with artillery shelling, after the SDF-linked Jarabulus Military Council took the villages of Amarinah, Magara and Babalah north of Manbij and around seven kilometers from Jarabulus in northern Syria.

Turkey accused the YPG of using the SDF-label in order to take more territory, according to the Turkish state news agency Anadolu.

Xelil suggested that Turkey should not attack the SDF forces under the pretext of hitting YPG.

“Our forces have withdrawn from those areas and giving their support to the Manbij Military Council after the city was liberated [from ISIS],” the YPG spokesman said.

“Any attack against Manbij would be an attack against the people and the Military and Civilian Council of Manbij which is formed by their citizens and have the right to manage the issues of their region and protect it,” he said.

The US coalition is increasingly worried about the tensions between the two competing forces.

Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told reporters on Thursday that the Manbij operation is not over yet.

“Again, Manbij is not complete. There are forces that are still taking out pockets of resistance.
There’s been a movement as appropriate back east of the Euphrates, and we have every reason to believe that that will continue,” he said.

However, Cook did not refer to the clashes between Kurdish-led forces and Turkey-backed rebels near Jarabulus, while local officials suggested that the Turkish statements that they are against any de facto ‘Kurdish state in Syria’ clearly indicates that Turkey’s target is the Kurds, and not ISIS.

“We are in, obviously, close communications with all of our partners on the ground involved in the fight against ISIL [ISIS], including Turkey and our partners in Syria,” he said. “And this effort so far has been focused on ISIL.”

Reporting by: Jan Mohammed and Wladimir van Wilgenburg


SOURCE: http://www.kurdishquestion.com/article/3391-ypg-official-turkey-s-target-in-syria-are-the-kurds-not-isis

Operation Euphrates Shield Undermines Kurdish Hopes for Autonomy in Syria - View of South Front

Urban Agriculture: A new axis to boost the Venezuelan economy By Jesus Rojas

Democracy and Class Struggle says Venezuela continues its never ending battle with US Imperialism with food distribution innovations like the CLAP and the Urban Gardening initiative to overcome Venezuela's economic difficulties

As part of the activation of the 14 engines of the national economy, President Nicolas Maduro said to activate the Urban Agriculture Plan which serves to boost and strengthen food sovereignty.

Doing a thorough analysis of this plan, the Urban Agriculture is defined itself as one method of cultivation made at home, community and city providing food products of different types of planting such as grains, vegetables, fruits and animal poultry origin, rabbits, goats, sheep, cattle, pigs, fish and non-food as aromatic, medicinal, ornamental plants, among others.

Taking into account its contribution to the sustainable development of societies and food security of families, urban agriculture is the new line of action in the Venezuelan economy.

Despite of all attempts to make this not happen, the Bolivarian Economic Agenda (BEA) has found its own path and has served to avoid the worst deprivation ushered in by neoliberalism; it served thus as another way to protect the people against this adverse time. It is not and will not be easy.

The fall in oil prices, international financial strangulation against our country, in addition to the economic war and internal economic imbalances create a complex situation that has no magic solutions. Against this, the BEA seeks to find answers in the short term while seeking structural solutions. And in this dual objective, the productive economy emerges as a necessary condition.

Amid this context, urban agriculture has entered very strongly as a new productive, social, cultural and economic practice. In a very short time, it has established itself as a power player since it was announced by President Nicolas Maduro earlier this year.

It is not a new idea because Hugo Chavez himself already talked about this need before the coup of 2002. The importance of rediscovering the agricultural vocation of urban areas called for taking advantage of the verticality of the cities.

Urban Agriculture responds to this challenge of the XXI century, and its response becomes more important now, in a situation of economic emergency.

The great potential of this new axis results from the simultaneous combination of multiple features:

 1) Appeals to the productive narrative connecting the individual effort of the most diverse subjects with a national collective project;

 2) It is  formed as an indispensable material bastion of the new productive time;

 3) Incorporates a significant stamp of the new economic policy;

 4) It gives hope in the  building of positive expectations forward;

5)  every human being is grafted as a new productive Actor (Urban Agriculture, Human Agriculture), and consequently, economic activity is democratized; ;

6) It is in tune with the territory and returns to the Bolivarian project as a tool for the construction of a  political and productive density at a local level;

7) it is  more closely linked to the producer and consumer reducing distributor`s dependency;

8) It delineates the morphology of the new productive cities that requires this new stage. Therefore, urban agriculture would cease to be marginal.

On the contrary, it would become an economic centrality and powerful political instrument for this new stage.

This compels it to play the directionality of other economic policies (financial, tax, investment, commercial) in favor of itself. For this reason, we must be very ambitious about urban agriculture - we cannot conceptualize it as a trendy, lifestylist fad.

It must be promoted on a scale large enough for it to be a practical solution to real social problems."

Until now the first 100 days of Urban Agriculture Plan has been fulfilled with satisfactory results. The first thing that has been achieved is realization of the rationality and common sense connected with this project.  It has begun to bear fruit in the real, and now you can eat the new products that are being harvested in the cities themselves.

It has been made much progress in respect to its institutionality. It is being able to create effective mechanisms to produce its own seeds and fertilizers. That is an important step in the productive sovereignty. It also proposes to reorganize public space for this activity and mobilize public in favor of this collective productive project.

The next step must be to have own financial instruments (to be part of compulsory productive loans portfolio of public and private banks) to advance with firm steps in order to make this economy irreversible. Urban Agriculture has the challenge of building alliances with the rest of the economic and technology policies and thus achieve a sustainable development as the time goes by.

Urban Agriculture is presented to the country as an effective response to the economic emergency. it doesn`t want  to be any patch or a bird of passage. It came to settle in the new economic and social metabolism. Only in this way, it can be done.

SEE ALSO:

http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/the-clap-as-ultimate-expression-of.html

India: Harsh Thakor says Hail the Release of leaders of Zameen Prapt Sangharsh Committee and salute the protracted organised movement to secure this victory

We received great news that the youth leaders and ZPSC leaders were just released on August 23rd A march of around 500 people took place at the Sangrur police station

Earlier a gherao of CM Badal was to take place but was cancelled because of conceding of demands.

It is a lesson on how peoples protracted movements can win battles like release of leaders.

Democrats should salute the determination of youth activists for this victory.

Sarbjit Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 23 All 10 Dalit farmers who were arrested in connection with the Balad Kalan Panchayat land agitation, were released from the jail today.

They were lodged in the Sangrur jail for the past three months and had refused to seek bail taking the plea that they had been implicated in a false case.

The farmers were booked by the Bhawanigarh police in Sangrur district on May 24 and May 25 under various sections of the IPC. Though cases were registered against about 70 persons, only 10 were arrested and sent to jail.

Those released today are Lakhwinder Singh, Surdeep Singh, Ranjit Singh, Satpal, Paramjit Singh, Bhola Singh and Harbhinder, all of Balad Kalan village, Surjan Singh of Jhaneri village and Bhupinder Singh and Pirthi of Longowal village.

Dalits have been agitating in various villages of Malwa to take their due share of Panchayat land on lease at reduced rate. However, there was a resistance on the part of the official machinery in this regard.

To press the authorities concerned, they had launched an agitation. Of late, Balad Kalan village, where Panchayat owns a vast tract of land, had become the epicentre of the Dalit agitation to get the land rent reduced.

The Tribune had carried an in-depth report about the agitation and arrested Dalits on last Sunday.
Mukesh Maludh, a leader of Zameen Prapathi Sangrash Committee (ZPSC), the oranisation under the banner of which the agitation was launched, said the district police authorities today completed the necessary formalities and informed the court that they did not want to proceed further in the cases registered against the Dalits of Baland Kalan village.

Rampal Singh, a member of the Committee from the Balad Kalan village, said police had recorded statements of certain people from the village yesterday. The villagers had stated that the Dalits had taken part in the dharna but had not resorted to violence. False cases had been registered against them. The statements were made the ground to release the farmers, Rampal said.

Meanwhile, the district administration has reduced the lease rate of the panchayat land to Rs 20,500 per acre per annum from Rs 24,000 per acre, which was charged last year, for Dalits of Balad Kalan. About 85 acres of panchayat land has been given to them on the reduced rate this year.

Kurdish Movement Makes Statement on Jarablus: Attack on All Kurds

The Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) has stated that Jarablus was taken over by the Turkish state and FSA militants in agreement with Islamic State (IS/ISIS) and the target was not IS but the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The KCK Executive Council co-presidency stated that Turkey had implemented its goal of occupying Jarablus after the liberation of Manbij by SDF, and Jarablus was taken over in agreement with IS.

The KCK noted that "the aim of the Turkish state and jihadist groups is not IS but the Syrian Democratic Forces," and described a possible attack on Rojava as "an attack on all Kurdish people."

Turkey's target is SDF not IS

The KCK's statement said that the Turkish Intelligence Organisation (MIT) had directed IS to carry out the Gaziantep massacre to prepare the grounds for Turkey’s invasion of Jarablus, and condemned other states for turning a blind eye to the occupation.

The KCK described the massacre of 58 people (in Gaziantep), the majority of whom were children, as "one of the most heinous crimes against humanity in history", and added that the 'mise en scene' in Jarablus had exposed the collaboration between Turkey and IS once again.

The KCK Executive Council argued that Turkey’s placement of jihadist groups in Jarablus came right after the expulsion of IS from Manbij, and IS gangs withdrew from Jarablus as part of an agreement with the Turkish state, whose main target was the Syrian Democratic Forces, who are trying to democratise Syria.

Attack on Syria's democratisation

The KCK described Turkey’s attack on Jarablus "as an attack on the democratisation of Syria and the creation of a Syria where Kurdish, Arab, Assyrian, Turkmen, Circassian, Armenian and Druze peoples coexist peacefully." The KCK recalled Turkish officials’ statements describing Syrian Democratic Forces as the main target of the operation on Jarablus, and criticised international powers for "turning a blind eye to Turkey’s occupation and establishing all sorts of dirty policies that attack the interests of the region’s peoples."

Turkey wants to gain influence in Syria

The KCK statement said that the North Syria Federation established by the Syrian Democratic Forces and all the peoples in the region aims to strengthen the unity of Syria on the basis of democratisation, and has no goal of dividing the country. According to the KCK, Turkey’s attempt to portray these forces as such aims to hide its own intentions, which include influencing Syria through pitting different peoples against one another. "The Turkish state’s goal is preventing Kurds from strengthening the unity of Syria through obtaining their democratic rights, as it aims to weaken Syria through preventing the resolution of the Kurdish issue in the country," the statement read.

The KCK stated that with its occupation of Jarablus, Turkey wanted to increase its influence on Syria and anti-Kurdish forces as it hopes to advance its goals in the region through the elimination of the Kurds and the sectarian polarisation of the region. "Turkey is the leading anti-democratic force in the Middle East, working towards crushing Kurdish people and other democratic dynamics in order to extend the rules of authoritarian regimes in the region. For this reason the invasion of Jarablus is an attack on all groups in the Middle East who are demanding democracy. This is why everyone demanding democracy and freedom must oppose this invasion."

According to the KCK, the AKP government not only oppresses democratic forces inside Turkey but also in other parts of the Middle East in order to extend its rule, and attacks Kurdish people, "the most democratic group in the Middle East, and their democratic allies for this reason."

Call for enhancing struggle

The KCK called upon all Kurds and democracy forces to "unite in opposition to the attacks on Jarablus", and see the attacks as hostility towards all Kurdish people.

"Turkish state began to attack Rojava Revolution directly after its proxy group IS failed in Kobanê and other towns, we call upon the democracy forces of the world to rise up with the spirit of November 1 Kobanê Day and October the 6-7-8 Kobanê Resistance in order to protect the Rojava Revolution and ensure the democratisation of Syria," the KCK said.

SOURCE: http://www.kurdishquestion.com/article/3384-kurdish-movement-makes-statement-on-jarablus-attack-on-all-kurds

Red Salutes to Ramiro Gomez Spanish Anti Fascist from Democracy and Class Struggle

E mail to Democracy and Class Struggle from anti Fascist Ramiro Gomez a Donbass Volunteer

HELLO, my english is so bad... a time ago, i found your blog with some videos of me. i am ramiro gomez,..spanish antifascist . i was in donbass as volunteer some times. i was very happy when i read your red salutes for me. only want send you the red salutes back... great hugs compañero

NO PASARAN!


FOR MORE ABOUT RAMIRO GOMEZ VISIT :

http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/spain-ramiro-gomez-speaks-at-rally-in.html

YPG spokesperson Redur Xelil has said the Kurdish force will not retreat from the west of the Euphrates to the east.

People's Protection Units (YPG) spokesperson Redur Xelil has said the Kurdish force will not retreat from the west of the Euphrates to the east.

Speaking to journalist Mutlu Civiroglu, Xelil said his words had been misconstrued and that they wouldn't withdraw at anyone's request.

"We are in our own country and not withdrawing on the request of Turkey or someone else," Xelil told Civiroglu.

Reuters had said that Xelil had told them they would withdraw if the SDF instructed them to.

Turkish officials have threatened YPG with military action if the Kurdish force, which took part in the liberation of Manbij on the west of the Euphrates under the umbrella of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), did not retreat back across the river.

A top US official and Vice President Joe Biden also said they had told YPG forces to retreat to the east of the Euphrates or they would cease support for the group.

Turkish troops and FSA militants began a cross-border incursion into Jarablus today and have taken control of the ghost city within 12 hours.

Reports suggest there were no clashes between them and Islamic State militants, who have withdrawn to Al-Bab. Some commentators have called attention to the fact that IS had allegedly conducted artillery attacks on Turkish soil in the past two days but there was no IS presence in Jarablus when Turkish-FSA forces arrived.

Source: Twitter

Contention and Collusion in Syria - Kurds victims of Geo politics with US and Russia withdrawing support in last two weeks

Democracy and Class Struggle says worrying developments - collusion against the Kurds.

US officials, including Vice President Joe Biden, have declared their support for the operation and called on the YPG to return to the east of the Euphrates.

Syrian Kurds call Turkish op ‘declaration of war’

Spokesman for the YPG Kurdish militia, Redur Xelil, called Turkey’s move “blatant aggression in Syrian internal affairs.”

Aldar Xelil, another influential Kurdish politician, accused Turkey of initiating an occupation of Syria, saying the operation amounted to “a declaration of war” on the autonomous administration set up by Kurdish groups in northern Syria in 2011.

Saleh Muslim, head of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), warned that the Turkish forces would get bogged down in a quagmire and ultimately be defeated.

Speaking to ANFNews, Muslim said that Turkey had gone from targeting Syrian Kurds through proxies to directly fighting Kurdish fighters in Syria on the ground, adding that while Turkey had made the decision to enter Syria, withdrawing would not be as simple.

The PYD believes that Turkey has launched its operation to prevent the Kurds from retaking it from IS, Salam Ali, PYD’s representative in Moscow, told RIA Novosti.

“Jarablus is located in the north of Kobani area and our forces advanced close to it. After the Kurdish troops took the city of Manbij we had plans to go in that direction.

hApparently Turkey invaded from the North not to let the Kurds have this city,” he said.

The Syrian Kurdish militia YPG attempted to retake Jarablus last year, but were reportedly prevented from doing so when Ankara threatened to intervene.

In the meantime, the Kurdish Firat news agency (ANFNews) reported that 29 civilians have been killed by the advancing Turkish and allied troops so far. Some 3,000 ethnic Kurds have reportedly fled Jarablus and its neighboring areas since the Turkish operation became imminent.

The Kurds object to the operation, believing it to be a ploy to prevent Kurdish militias from retaking the town.

SOURCE: RT

Turkish tank units have entered Syria as part of a military operation backed by Turkish and US-led coalition warplanes to clear the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group from the Syrian border town of Jarablus, according to Turkish state media.

Turkish special forces had crossed the border and entered Jarablus earlier on Wednesday's morning, officials said.

"The operation, which began at around 4am local time (01:00 GMT), is aimed at clearing the Turkish borders of terrorist groups, helping to enhance border security and supporting the territorial integrity of Syria," Anadolu Agency quoted Turkish officials as saying on Wednesday.

Turkish media said the operation involved artillery and rocket shelling as well as warplanes early in the morning, before the ground forces, including heavy armoured vehicles, entered Syria towards noon.

PYD and ISIL targeted

The operation is targeting ISIL and Syrian Kurdish fighters in northern Syria to end attacks on Turkey's border, President Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech in the capital Ankara on Wednesday.
How is Turkey dealing with threat from Syria?

"At 4:00 this morning, operations started in the north of Syria against terror groups which constantly threaten our country, like Daesh [the Arabic acronym for ISIL] and the PYD [the Syrian Kurdish group]," he said in a speech in Ankara.

Turkey had pledged on Monday to "completely cleanse" ISIL fighters from its border region after a suicide bomber suspected of links to the group killed 54 people at a Kurdish wedding in the southeastern city of Gaziantep.

Turkey is also concerned about the growing influence of Syrian Kurdish groups along its border, where they have captured large expanses of territory since the start of the Syrian war in 2011.
Turkey sees them as tied to the PKK, which has been waging an armed campaign mainly in the country's southeast.

"It is hard to conduct this operation without the green light from Moscow, Tehran, Damascus and Washington," Metin Gurcan, security analyst, told Al Jazeera from Istanbul.

"The open objective in this operation is that Turkey is trying to create an ISIL-free humanitarian zone by clearing Jarablus for possible flow of refugees," he said.

"The covert objective is another one. 

The PYD's recent advances alarmed Ankara. Turkey aims to deny the PYD's objective of connecting cantons it controls and creating monolithic Kurdish entity."

The military operation against ISIL comes as Syrian rebels, backed by Turkey, also say they are in the final stages of preparing an assault from Turkish territory on Jarablus, aiming to pre-empt a potential attempt by Syrian Kurdish forces of PYD to take it.

The PYD, a critical part of the US-backed campaign against ISIL, took near-complete control of Hasaka city on Tuesday.

The group already controls chunks of northern Syria where Kurdish groups have established de facto autonomy since the start of the Syria war - a development that has alarmed Turkey.

SOURCE: Al Jazeera

China Increases its Involvement in Syrian War - South Front

Publication of this report is for information purposes and does not imply support for Chinese action in Syria.

USA: Rattling the Bars : US Prison Strikes - Democracy and Class Struggle says Long Live Kevin "Rashid" Johnson

Red salute to brother Eddie Conway

Democracy and Class Struggle  also salutes our brother Kevin "Rashid" Johnson still in a Supermax prison in USA and the best Marxist Leninist Maoist thinker in North America.

Here is some of his excellent proletarian Prison art, you can read his writings by following link here

PLEASE VISIT HERE :

http://rashidmod.com/

Imperialism,the Refugee Crisis, and EU : Smash EU Militarism and Racism

Democracy and Class Struggle welcome this speech of  Professor Feyzi Ismail.

Feyzi Ismail's interpretation of the UK Brexit vote is similar to ours and goes beyond the superficial appearance of some of the so called Leftists to the essence of the EU and its militarism and racism.

Philippines: Opening Statement in Oslo of Luis Jalandoni of NDFP on the resumption of Peace Talks

by LUIS G. JALANDONI,
Chairperson, Negotiating Panel
National Democratic Front of the Philippines
August 22, 2016

Hon. Foreign Minister of the Royal Norwegian Government, Borge Brende, Hon. State Secretary Tore Hattrem, Special Envoy to the Philippine Peace Process, Elisabeth Slattum, Hon. Jesus Dureza, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, Hon. Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III, Compatriots and Friends,

We in the National Democratic Front of the Philippines Negotiating Panel, Consultants and Staff, warmly greet and convey our heartfelt thanks to the Royal Norwegian Government for its determined and painstaking efforts as Third Party Facilitator since 2001 in patiently and efficiently working to move the peace process forward.

Their unwavering assistance and support, and the uniquely significant commitment of GPH President Duterte to push ahead the peace negotiations to address the roots of the armed conflict in order to achieve a just and lasting peace, with the tremendous efforts of our dedicated staff of lawyers and other committed organizations, have brought us to this point of high expectations for the success of our endeavors to achieve a just peace.

It is our unique privilege that in this session, our newly released NDFP consultants are present. Surely, their long standing dedication to serve the people and their rich experience will be a major contribution to these peace negotiations and give a decidedly significant push to achieve our goals in attaining a just and lasting peace.

May I introduce our Negotiating Panel: Vice-Chairperson of our Panel is Fidel Agcaoili, also the Chairperson of our Monitoring Committee under the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL), Julieta de Lima, Chairperson of our Reciprocal Committee on Social and Economic Reforms, Coni Ledesma, Member of the Monitoring Committee and Chairperson of the NDFP Special Office for the Protection of Children, and Asterio Palima, our representative for the Nordic countries.

Of course, all of you know, Prof. Jose Maria Sison, Founding Chairperson of the Communist Party of the Philippines and NDFP Chief Political Consultant. We have a further array of consultants, lawyers, and staff whom you shall surely get to know in the following days.

We are confident that both our negotiating panels, consultants and staff, will be able to take up the agenda we both agreed upon on our June 15 Joint Statement signed here in Oslo. We shall take up the following agenda points in the coming five days:

1. Reaffirmation of previous peace agreements;

2. Reconstitution of the list of personnel covered by the Joint Agreement on Safety
and Immunity Guarantees;

3. Acceleration of peace talks on social and economic reforms, political and constitutional
reforms, and end of hostilities and disposition of forces;

4. Amnesty Declaration for the release of all detained political prisoners; and

5. Mode of interim ceasefire

We shall once more take a point stated in our Joint Statement of June 15, namely, the release on humanitarian grounds of the sick and elderly, overly long detained, and women political prisoners.

More importantly, we expect the realization of the amnesty proclamation to release all political prisoners as a necessary incentive for the ceasefire between the two parties.

Our constituency demand that there ought to be a substantive reason for the high risk of agreeing to an indefinite and prolonged ceasefire, which could amount to capitulation and mere pacification, without substantive incentives for the revolutionary movement and without assurance of success in forging satisfactory agreements on social, economic and political reforms.

Whatever is the mode of ceasefire for a start or in the long run, there must be clear premises, terms and mechanisms so that the ceasefire can be more stable, less prone to violations and less vulnerable to actual occurrences and allegations of ceasefire violations.

At the same time, the ceasefire should promote the advance of substantive negotiations and agreements and not deter or delay the peace process.

The two panels must discuss fully the subject of ceasefire before further work is assigned to the respective ceasefire committees of the GPH and NDFP.

With the commitment for just and lasting peace, declared by GPH President Rodrigo Duterte and the leadership of the NDFP, Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army, we are confident we can decisively move forward towards achieving a just and lasting peace.

The Filipino people, our Third Party Facilitator, our peace advocates in the Philippines and abroad, are one with us in aspiring for meaningful reforms like land reform and national industrialization, political and constitutional reforms that will strengthen our independence and national sovereignty, negotiate the end of hostilities, and attain a just and lasting peace.

Thank you very much!