Snowden granted 1 yr asylum in Russia, leaves airport to undisclosed location

America's Next Colonies - The Truth Seeker

This video confirms Democracy and Class Struggle view of the Strategy of Tension of US Imperialism operating on both sides of the street has indicated in US Army Manual 2010.

US Army Document mentioned in video here

http://nsnbc.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/special-forces-uw-tc-18-01.pdf

http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/greece-alexistsipras-speaks-out-about.html

Demonstration against Vedanta at their AGM - 1st August - 2 pm at London Marriot Hotel

Join us for our major annual demonstration at Vedanta's AGM.
 

1st August, 2pm. The London Marriott Hotel, Grosvenor Square, W1K 6JP.
 

We will bring the defiant energy of the Dongria Kond tribe to London, as they fight the final stages of their 10 years battle for survival against Vedanta's planned mega mine.

Parallel demonstrations are already planned in Odisha and Delhi in India on this international day of action.

Bring drums, placards, banners and lots of energy!

 

 

For more information see our website

JOIN OUR GRASSROOTS SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT TO STOP THIS KILLER CORPORATE!

Vedanta Resources is a FTSE 100 British-Indian mining company guilty of thousands of deaths, environmental devastation, anti union action, corruption and disdain for life on earth. They have become one of the most hated and contentious companies in the world.


In Odisha, India they are trying to mine a mountain inhabited by an ancient tribe – the Dongria Kond – who have successfully fought them off for more than 10 years. Their fight is in its final stages, and we need to mobilise all our energy to ensure Vedanta is kicked out of the Niyamgiri mountains forever. 

Vedanta is now diversifying into oil and gas, and expanding into Africa, Sri Lanka and possibly even the Arctic. They currently operate in Zambia, South Africa, Liberia, Namibia, Australia, Sri Lanka, and across India.
 
Coverage of last year's AGM demo in the Guardian newspaper
 
Since last year’s AGM Vedanta are guilty of a major toxic gas leak affecting thousands of people at their Sterlite subsidiary copper smelter in Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu. At their Jharsuguda Aluminium complex they released fly ash over farmland polluting rivers and villages. In Zambia they tried to fire 2000 workers from their Konkola Copper mines and smelter before being stopped by the Zambian Government. One Zambian employee was shot dead at the plant.


At Niyamgiri, Odisha, Vedanta with it’s cronies in the Odisha state government are trying to force their mega bauxite mine through at any cost. They are using police harassment, manipulation, threats and distortion of the legal system to prevent the Dongria Kond from voting against the project in the coming weeks. Forces have even opened fire on women and children threatening them not to oppose the mine.

 But the Dongria are stronger than ever and prepared to fight tooth and nail to save their mountain in these final stages.

Vedanta are supported by the British government, as well as our banks, pension funds and financial institutions. Vedanta is 64.9% owned by CEO Anil Agarwal and his family via various tax havens. Top shareholders include Standard Life, Blackrock inc. and JP Morgan – the same financiers of South African miner Lonmin who shot and killed 34 protesting mine workers in August 2012.

 

Foil Vedanta is a solidarity movement working directly with those affected by Vedanta in India and elsewhere. We are currently trying to get Vedanta de-listed from the London Stock Exchange.


Please join activists who will be rallying in Odisha, Goa and Delhi on 1^st August as part of an international day of action to stop this killer corporate and it’s supporters.


We will be rallying outside Vedanta’s Annual General Meeting in solidarity with the Dongria Kond tribe of Odisha.

Aquino employing Marcosian tactics to quell dissent -- CPP

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) condemned the Aquino regime and its police forces for brutally attacking demonstrators to prevent them from marching towards the Batasang Pambansa where Benigno Aquino III was set to deliver his state of the nation address at the opening of the Philippine congress.

At least 20,000 workers, peasants, students, urban poor, women and other sectors marched in the streets leading to the Batasan building in order to voice out their grievances and air their demands for jobs, higher wages, land reform, higher social spending, a stop to privatization schemes, an end to spiraling prices of oil and basic commodities and a stop to corruption under the Aquino regime.

"The CPP denounces the Aquino regime for employing Marcosian tactics of suppression against the people's democratic rights in the vain attempt to prevent them from effectively voicing out their demands," said the CPP. "

The Aquino regime carried out a series of measures to stop the demonstrations, including the denial of a 'permit' to hold a demonstration at the Batasang Pambansa, setting up police and military checkpoints in Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Bulacan and other nearby provinces where participants where held at bay and prevented from proceeding to Quezon City, setting up road blocks and barriers at the highway leading to the Batasang Pambansa and the deployment of at least 5,000 police personnel to block the roads and prevent marchers from advancing."

Scores of demonstrators were injured when truncheon-wielding policemen mercilessly swung at demonstrators who where trying to bypass the police barricades. At least 40 rallyists, including students, the elderly, women and workers were reported to have been hospitalized or provided emergency medical treatment. "

Aquino is acting more and more like the old dictator Marcos and all succeeding oppressive regimes in employing the full force of the police and military to prevent organizations of the toiling masses to demonstrate in the streets," pointed out the CPP.

"The CPP denounces Aquino's media officials, spinmeisters and yellow media managers for disparaging the anti-Aquino mass demonstrations by highlighting and blaming the rallies for the traffic jam (actually caused by the police roadblocks and barricades) in order to draw attention away from the fact that the people's basic right to assemble and demonstrate were being violated openly and with impunity." "

It is unfortunate that some news reporters made such a big fuss of the fact that some demonstrators threw a few water bottles and a rock or two at the police, but did not seem to mind that hundreds of truncheon-wielding policemen were swinging left and right at the bare heads of demonstrators or that demonstrators who were picked up by the police were being mandhandled and treated like criminals."

Philippine Authorities Violently Crackdown on 'People's State of the Nation March'

"The Babies We Don't Care About Today," Laurie Penny on Democracy Now !

British journalist Laurie Penny, a critic of the royal baby hoopla whose latest article, "The Babies We Don't Care About Today," was published in the New Statesman.

 "We can estimate that at least 700 babies were born into poverty on the day that the 'Royal Baby' was born," Penny says. "

And at the moment, the British government is taking measures to make life harder for those children, particularly the children of single parents and teenage, single mothers.

 I want to live in a country where all babies matter and where all families matter."

Elephant in the Room : Afghanistan Drugs and Pakistan

(NaturalNews) Afghanistan is, by far, the largest grower and exporter of opium in the world today, cultivating a 92 per cent market share of the global opium trade. But what may shock many is the fact that the US military has been specifically tasked with guarding Afghan poppy fields, from which opium is derived, in order to protect this multibillion dollar industry that enriches Wall Street, the CIA, MI6, and various other groups that profit big time from this illicit drug trade scheme.

Prior to the tragic events of September 11, 2001, Afghanistan was hardly even a world player in growing poppy, which is used to produce both illegal heroin and pharmaceutical-grade morphine.

In fact, the Taliban had been actively destroying poppy fields as part of an effort to rid the country of this harmful plant, as was reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on February 16, 2001, in a piece entitled Nation's opium production virtually wiped out (http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=gL9scSG3K_gC&dat=20010216&print...).

But after 9/11, the US military-industrial complex quickly invaded Afghanistan and began facilitating the reinstatement of the country's poppy industry. According to the United Nations Drug Control Program (UNDCP), opium cultivation increased by 657 percent in 2002 after the US military invaded the country under the direction of then-President George W. Bush (http://www.infowars.com/fox-news-makes-excuse-for-cias-afghan-opium-c...).

 

CIA responsible for reinstating opium industry in Afghanistan after 9/11

More recently, The New York Times (NYT) reported that the brother of current Afghan President Hamid Karzai had actually been on the payroll of the CIA for at least eight years prior to this information going public in 2009.

Ahmed Wali Karzai was a crucial player in reinstating the country's opium drug trade, known as Golden Crescent, and the CIA had been financing the endeavor behind the scenes (http://www.infowars.com/ny-times-afghan-opium-kingpin-on-cia-payroll/).

"The Golden Crescent drug trade, launched by the CIA in the early 1980s, continues to be protected by US intelligence, in liaison with NATO occupation forces and the British military," wrote Prof. Michel Chossudovsky in a 2007 report, before it was revealed that Ahmed Wali Karzai was on the CIA payroll. "The proceeds of this lucrative multibillion dollar contraband are deposited in Western banks.

Almost the totality of revenues accrue to corporate interests and criminal syndicates outside  Afghanistan" (http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Afghanistan/US_Forces_Narcotics_Tra...).

But the mainstream media has been peddling a different story to the American public. FOX News, for instance, aired a propaganda piece back in 2010 claiming that military personnel are having to protect the Afghan poppy fields, rather than destroy them, in order to keep the locals happy and to avoid a potential "security risk" -- and FOX News reporter Geraldo Rivera can be heard blatantly lying about poppy farmers being financially supported by the Taliban, rather than the CIA and other foreign interests.

You can watch that clip here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj-b3pB6M7s

So while tens of thousands of people continue to be harmed or killed every year by overdoses from drugs originating from this illicit opium trade, and while cultivation of innocuous crops like marijuana and hemp remains illegal in the US, the American military is actively guarding the very poppy fields in Afghanistan that fuel the global drug trade. Something is terribly wrong with this picture.


Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/034289_Afghanistan_opium_trade.html#ixzz2ZoFZDHlH



AFGHANISTAN - MARCH TO FREEDOM - VIDEO MADE TO CELEBRATE
88 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE FROM BRITAIN IN 1919




TO STUDY THE SITUATION IN AFGHANISTAN READ         

SHOLA  JAWID 

http://www.sholajawid.org/update/index_english.html

Trans Pacific Partnership : TPP Wraps Up Another Round: What Does This Mean for You?

Democracy and Class Struggle has been pointing out the dangers of TPP for some time - if you have not heard of it - it is time you became aware of TPP.

Lori Wallach: TPP agreement cuts banks loose, undermines Buy America, hurts food safety and environmental safety, but it's still being put on the fast-track by Obama.

See Also:
http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/japanese-movement-against-trans-pacific.html

http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/everyone-but-china-trans-pacific.html

The Filipino People's Struggle for National and Social Liberation by Luis G. Jalandoni

 

picture  Luis J Jaladoni

 

Contribution to the International Conference on Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines

Quezon City, Philippines
19-21 July 2013


By LUIS G. JALANDONI
Chairperson, NDFP Negotiating Panel

26 December 1968 marked the historic event whereby the Filipino people acquired a proletarian revolutionary leadership with the re-establishment of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). Guided by Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse Tung Thought, the CPP declared its program for the people's democratic revolution through protracted people's war. Three months later, it founded the New People's Army (NPA) and in 1973 the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

The re-establishment of the CPP was the culmination of an accumulated revolutionary tradition of the Filipino people. They launched more than 200 revolts against Spanish colonialism. Then, led by Andres Bonifacio, they waged the armed struggle for independence against Spain. When US imperialism invaded the country in 1898, they fought against the US war of aggression from 1899 to1913. More than 20% of the population then, that is, 1.5 million Filipinos died in that war of resistance.

The tradition of resisting foreign exploiters and oppressors continued during US colonial rule, also against the Japanese invasion and occupation from 1942 to 1945, and has continued since 1946 against US neocolonial rule and the local exploiting classes of landlords and big compradors. The revolutionary movement is aimed at realizing the national and social liberation of the people.

The revolutionary forces survived the massive attacks of the US-backed Marcos dictatorship from the early 1970s up to 1986. They grew through valiant struggle. They built mass organizations and organs of political power. By 1980, they had established 29 guerrilla fronts throughout the country.
 

In February 1986, the dictator Marcos was overthrown by a people's uprising. Through dint of hard struggle, the revolutionary movement established its presence throughout the country in urban and rural areas with a mass base running into millions and an armed force operating nationwide under the guidance of a central political authority that functions within the framework of the Guide for Establishing the People’s Democratic Government.

Permanent Peoples' Tribunal Sessions on the Philippines 

In 1980, revolutionary organizations in the Philippines and abroad organized the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal (PPT) Session on the Philippines in Antwerp, Belgium. The 10-member international jury, headed by Nobel laureate, US Professor George Wald, declared the NDFP “legitimate representative of the Filipino people”. While judging Marcos guilty of crimes against the people and unfit to govern, the jury declared that the armed struggle of the Filipino people enjoyed the status of belligerency and deserved the support of the international community.

A Second PPT Session on the Philippines was held in The Netherlands in March 2007. The jury headed by Prof. Francois Houtart condemned the US backed-Arroyo regime for crimes against humanity and numerous crimes against the people. Human rights and peace organizations in the Philippines provided compelling evidence based on meticulous research and testimonies of courageous victims of human rights violations.

The Second Great Rectification Movement

The revolutionary forces of the NDFP also survived major internal errors committed by elements among their leadership, many of whom became renegades. The Communist Party of the Philippines launched the Second Great Rectification Movement (SGRM) in July 1992. Its aim was to identify, repudiate and rectify the major errors of subjectivism and opportunism, especially what caused the most damage, namely, insurrectionism, prematurely building big NPA formations and, upon failure of the incorrect line, carrying out an anti-informer hysteria.

The rectification movement was an educational campaign. It was embraced by the masses and the broad membership of the revolutionary movement. It was completed in 1998 and reinvigorated the revolutionary movement. It was reminiscent of the success of t he First Great Rectification Movement from 1965 to 1971, which gave birth to the Communist Party of the Philippines, the New People's Army and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines as a consequence of criticizing and repudiating the major errors of the old communist party and the old people's liberation army.
 

After the success of the SGRM, the revolutionary movement has been able to consolidate and expand. It is now rooted in 70 provinces, out of a total 81 provinces. It has built mass organizations of workers, peasants, women and youth, children, indigenous people, urban poor and fisherfolk. The NPA is now operating in more than 110 guerrilla fronts wherein organs of political power form the backbone of the people's democratic government.

Program of Genuine Land Reform

The people's democratic government carries out programs of genuine land reform, health, education and literacy and culture.

With 75% of the 100 million population consisting of the exploited and oppressed peasantry, the program for agrarian revolution is the main content of the revolutionary program. It responds to the basic aspirations of the peasantry.

The revolutionary movement's minimum land reform program consisting of lowering land rent, elimination of usury, and raising of farmworkers' wages is carried out widely. There are also campaigns to increase agricultural production through mutual aid teams in planting, harvesting and distribution of produce, in developing irrigation, vegetable farming, poultry and husbandry. The program is benefiting millions of the rural population.

The maximum program of confiscation of land and free distribution to tillers is carried out where feasible in certain areas where the revolutionary movement is sufficiently strong. The vision for the future, upon nationwide victory, is the free distribution of land to the peasantry with the provision of support services like irrigation, farm to market roads, assistance for mechanization and building of cooperatives and collectivization towards greater productivity for the benefit of the peasantry and the entire population. Nationwide implementation of land reform will be coupled with national industrialization to lift the backward agrarian economy to a developed and prosperous one.

Educational and Health Programs

Revolutionary education on the history of the Filipino people and their culture is widely carried out. So are programs of literacy and numeracy which are enthusiastically welcomed by the masses. Revolutionary schools have been set up benefiting many thousands of peasants and national minorities, especially children and youth. Educational materials and works of art and literature have arisen from the revolutionary struggle. The revolutionary movement has promoted the use of Pilipino as the national language, and regional languages among the people.

Health programs popularize the use of acupuncture, herbal and traditional medicines culled from the age-old practices of the masses. Western medicine is also utilized. These programs respond to vital health needs of the people. Health campaigns like proper sanitation, building outhouses, anti-malaria and people's health clinics have been successful. Health professionals have been encouraged to serve the people in the countryside and in the urban slum areas. They have also trained paramedics to provide first aid and treatment for common illnesses.

Special Office for the Protection of Children

In April 2012, the NDFP National Council set up its Special Office for the Protection of Children (SOPC). It proclaimed a comprehensive program for the protection of rights and welfare of children. A committee has been appointed to carry out and monitor the implementation of the program all over the country. The NDFP has frustrated the repeated attempts of the imperialists and local reactionaries to misrepresent its policy regarding children.

In a statement on July 1, 2013, the SOPC Head, Coni K. Ledesma declared the reports of the UN Office of the Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict on the so-called recruitment and use of children by the NPA as “false, biased and baseless”.

Revolutionary Justice System

The revolutionary movement has a justice system far superior to the corrupt anti-people justice system of the reactionary government. It has won the support not only of legal experts in the Philippines, but also international lawyers. In November 2012, the International Legal Advisory Team (ILAT), was set up to advice the NDFP on international legal matters. It is composed of more than a dozen experts in international law from different parts of the world.

There is a growing number of cases wherein the victims of human rights violations by the regime approach the revolutionary forces to obtain justice. Recently, a teenager was a victim of gang rape by three soldiers of the reactionary army, filed her case before the justice system of the revolutionary forces. She had been denied justice by the soldiers' officers. Furthermore, she and her family were subjected to threats. Hence, she, her family and supportive organizations filed the criminal case of rape against the soldiers before the people's court.

Peace Negotiations

The NDFP has forged twelve bilateral peace agreements with the reactionary government with the aim of addressing the roots of the armed conflict. These agreements, in particular, The Hague Joint Declaration, the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) and the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) are of the highest standard and widely appreciated by peace advocates in the country and abroad. In 2004, the Joint Secretariat (JS) of the Joint Monitoring Committee under the CARHRIHL was set up. It holds office in Metro Manila, with both Parties represented in the JS. It is supported by the Royal Norwegian Government, the Third Party Facilitator in the peace negotiations between the Manila government and the NDFP.

The aim of the NDFP in peace negotiations is to address the roots of the armed conflict through fundamental economic, social and political reforms. But the Manila government only wishes to impose capitulation and indefinite ceasefires. Despite the widespread calls of peace advocates, the Aquino government has paralyzed the peace talks after failing to impose its unjust wishes on the NDFP..

Nevertheless, the NDFP Negotiating Panel has declared its openness to continue peace talks. It demands respect for and compliance with The Hague Joint Declaration, the JASIG (1995), the CARHRiHL (1998) and other bilateral agreements. Therefore, it demands the release of political prisoners in accordance with the CARHRIHL and the NDFP Consultants arrested and detained in violation of the JASIG. It also calls for the independent investigation of the killing and disappearance of NDFP Consultants, family and staff

The NDFP also welcomes the positive actions and recommendations of peace and human rights advocates for the resumption of the peace talks.

Overseas Filipinos

The NDFP firmly supports the just struggles of the millions of overseas Filipinos. Their struggles for their rights and welfare, to organize themselves, to work and be treated fairly, not to be subjected to racism and xenophobia, to understand well the roots of their migration, and to return to their home country and serve the nation. These deserve support and solidarity. The NDFP is firm in upholding their right to voluntarily return to the Philippines and contribute their skills and talents in land reform and national industrialization, in building a free, prosperous, democratic and peaceful Philippines.

International Solidarity

The revolutionary Filipino people have won the international solidarity and support of revolutionary, anti-imperialist and progressive organizations and individuals from different parts of the world. They are also contributing their solidarity to the just causes of other peoples' struggles in the spirit of proletarian internationalism and anti-imperialist solidarity.

From strategic defensive to strategic stalemate of people's war

The revolutionary forces led by the CPP are intensifying their revolutionary armed struggle. They aim to advance in the coming few years from the strategic defensive to the strategic stalemate of people's war. The US-directed reactionary government is hell-bent on seeking the destruction of the revolution for the benefit of US imperialism and the local exploiting classes of big compradors and landlords. Thus, the Filipino people and their revolutionary forces are justified to persevere in the revolutionary struggle.

In celebrating the glorious victories and achievements of the Filipino people over the last 44 years of revolutionary struggle, we must render honor to the many martyrs and heroes who have sacrificed their lives for the people's struggle for national and social liberation and for a just and lasting peace. The revolutionary masses must be honored. As the great Chinese revolutionary, Mao Zedong, declared: “The masses, and the masses alone are the makers of history!”

But there are some individual revolutionary heroes and martyrs, we wish to especially honor today: Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal, NPA Commander and CPP Spokesperson, Antonio “Manong” Zumel, journalist, first Chairperson of the NDFP, and Atty. Romeo T. Capulong, the Chief Legal Counsel of the NDFP.

No escape from Caste Prejudice even in UK by Anahita Mukherji

LONDON: If you happen to be of Dalit origin, or from the so-called lower castes, migrating out of India may not help you escape discrimination. India's infamous caste system has reared its ugly head in the United Kingdom.

School children from the lower castes have been taunted with casteist slurs like "bhangi" and "chamar" from other Indian school children of a higher caste. Many Indians in the work place say they have faced a great deal of harassment from other Indians on grounds of caste.

 

This has resulted in widespread protests across England. Human rights activists and Dalit organizations in the UK are campaigning for the enforcement of a clause in UK Equality Act that mentions the Indian caste system.

One of the worst instances of discrimination took place in central England, in a city called Coventry. "An elderly Dalit lady was receiving home care from the city council, who would send a council worker to her house to bathe her. One of the council workers happened to be an Indian of a higher caste. When she discovered the lady was Dalit, she refused to give her a bath," says Lekh Pall, an activist with the Anti-discrimination Alliance.

Harbans Lal Bali, a retired employee of UK's Royal Mail, who lives in the suburbs of London, recalls the harassment he faced at the Post Office when he was temporarily promoted to the post of supervisor. "I got to know that some of the people under me, who were Indians of a higher caste, complained to the management about my promotion. They said that they were not used to taking orders from people of my caste," he says.

There has also been an instance where an Indian of a lower caste was in a relationship with another Indian from a higher caste in the same office. Both were asked to leave their jobs by their employer, who was an upper caste Indian.

Lekh Pall was amongst those who campaigned for the inclusion of caste under the Equality Act 2010, as a form of racial discrimination. "We presented the House of Lords with a great deal of evidence when the Bill was being passed. They made an amendment to the Bill and included caste as an aspect of race. When the Bill was sent to the House of Commons, ministers were in favour of conducting their own study on the subject before including it in the law," he adds.

The UK government commissioned a nation wide study on the issue and came out with a report showing that there was "evidence suggesting caste discrimination" in the UK with regards to "work (bullying, recruitment, promotion, task allocation), provision of services and education (pupil on pupil bullying)". Though the Equality Act does mention caste, Dalit organizations say they are upset that this clause has yet to be enforced.