INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY IS A MUST FOR OUR FUTURE

 Dear Friends,

 We attended two webinars last night that were very impactful for me. The one linked below was a national membership meeting of Jewish Voices for Peace. It was well-organized and brilliantly led by young women who have organized and built a very large national organization in solidarity with the Palestinian people. The agenda included a systematic analysis of targets for our political work-they called it “three pillars” including politics, finance, and culture.

They identified two immediate programs to mobilize against US support for Israeli genocide; one was to support the Sanders resolution demanding an end to US military support for Israel and the other campaigns targeting public institutions that buy Israel bonds to dispose of them. The webinars also presented two local campaigns as illustrations.

 \There were 1,200 people on the ZOOM call and the JVP website indicates that there are more than 750,000 members and supporters of JVP: Jews, people of other faiths and citizenships, and young, militant women and men, many people of color.

I strongly recommend that we in the Socialist Left add international solidarity to our work after the election and join with our comrades in JVP to struggle against war, militarism, and imperialism. Of course, the immediate struggle is to oppose Israeli genocide.

But, I warn you that the webinar, linked below, was 1 ½ hours long. You may choose to delete this message and/or to watch just a bit of it, including an update on JVP policy recommendations.

 Harry Targ

Member of the Committees of Correspondence (CCDS) Peace and Solidarity Committee

 

 

ere's some next steps to take.

Dear Harry,   I’m still reflecting on the collective power of Wednesday night’s Mass Member Meeting. As we heard from our partners at the Rising Majority, "Stay the course because it's a long battle and we are here to answer the call."  More than 1,200 people made the choice to show up on Wednesday night. We need to stay organized, move as a collective, and stay the course.  Here are some next steps we can all take to stay plugged into this work for the long haul:   If you missed the meeting, you can watch the recording and read the notes.   If you haven’t found your place in the organization yet, you can get more involved in JVP and JVP Action by filling out the interest form. It may take some time to plug in — many organizing bodies are experiencing massive growth right now and developing systems to welcome new members. If you’re interested in joining a local organizing body, this form will take you to a map with contact information for each local formation.    It’s an honor to work alongside each of you as we confront the tragedy and challenge of this moment and continue the fight for Palestinian liberation. In this time of unprecedented crisis, we can only move forward together.   In solidarity,   CP Sr. Membership Organizer   P.S. Here’s the song we closed the meeting with.

CHARGES OF ANTISEMITISM USED TO STIFLE DISSENT: MCCARTHYISM CONTINUES

https://heartlandradical.blogspot.com/2023/12/antisemitism-charges-new-mccarthyism.html

And McCarthyism persists as Congressional report attacks universities:

https://edworkforce.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=412025

      

                      So far, politicians are still able to discuss US policy toward Israel:

https://www.sanders.senate.gov/press-releases/news-sanders-and-colleagues-move-to-block-arms-sales-to-israel/

THEODORE ROOSEVELT CELEBRATED “THE EXPANSION OF THE WHITE RACES”

 Harry Targ

“Purdue President Emeritus Mitch Daniels received the Theodore Roosevelt Distinguished Service Medal at the 105th annual meeting of the Theodore Roosevelt Association in Indianapolis on Oct. 19”.(Tom Schott, Purdue News, October 30, 2024)

I assume the Theodore Roosevelt Association and former Purdue University President are not aware of the complicated performance of Theodore Roosevelt as a president of the United States and leading politician, during the era of United States expanding empire.

Within a few years of the U.S. colonization of Cuba and the Philippines, President Theodore Roosevelt elaborated on the U.S. world mission. He spoke of the necessity of promoting peace and justice in the world: a project that required adequate military capabilities both for “securing respect for itself and of doing good to others.” To those who claim that the United States seeks material advantage in its activist policy toward the countries of the Western Hemisphere, Roosevelt responded that such claims were untrue. The U.S., he said, is motivated by altruism: “All that this country desires is to see the neighboring countries stable, orderly, and prosperous. Any country whose people conduct themselves well can count upon our hearty friendship.”

Cuba was an example, he said: “If every country washed by the Caribbean Sea would show the progress in stable and just civilization which with the aid of the Platt Amendment Cuba has shown since our troops left the island, and which so many of the republics in both Americas are constantly and brilliantly showing, all questions of interference by the Nation with their affairs would be at an end.”

He assured Latin Americans in this address to Congress in 1904 that if “….if they thus obey the primary laws of civilized society they may rest assured that they will be treated by us in a spirit of cordial and helpful sympathy. We would interfere with them only in the last resort….” (“Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine,” President’s Annual Message to Congress, December 6, 1904). 

During a presentation in Norway in 1910 Roosevelt praised the U.S. for leaving Cuba as promised after the war to return only   temporarily because of “a disaster…a revolution” such that “we were obliged to land troops again.”

The President proudly declared: “And before I left the Presidency Cuba resumed its career as a separate republic, holding its head erect as a sovereign state among the other nations of the earth. All that our people want is just exactly what the Cuban people themselves want—that is, a continuance of order within the island, and peace and prosperity, so that there shall be no shadow of an excuse for any outside intervention.” (“the Colonial Policy of the United States,” An Address Delivered at Christiania, Norway, May 5, 1910).

Earlier on January 18, 1909, to the Methodist Episcopal Church (“The Expansion of the White Races”) Roosevelt applauded the increasing presence--he estimated 100 million people—of “European races” throughout the world. The indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere have been assimilated with their “intruders” with the end result “that the Indian population of America is larger today than it was when Columbus discovered the continent and stands on a far higher plane of happiness and efficiency.”

And to highlight the missionary message Roosevelt added: “Of course the best that can happen to any people that has not already a high civilization of its own is to assimilate and profit by American or European ideas, the ideas of civilization and Christianity, without submitting to alien control; but such control, in spite of all its defects, is in a very large number of cases the prerequisite condition to the moral and material advance of the peoples who dwell in the darker corners of the earth.” 

 

The Grass Is Greener: A Radio Conversation on Elections, War, and the Rising of the Global South

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRT5lBq624g

What Next?

Harry Targ

 From my point of view we need to  begin to discuss a fundamental question: “What Next?” “what next” if either presidential ticket wins, both short term (such as defending the outcome) and longer term.

1.If the Harris/Walz ticket wins, (and down-ballot races for Congress and Statehouses), we will need to figure out ways to defend that victory from those who will claim the election was “stolen.”

2.If the Harris/Walz ticket wins we will need to immediately expand our movements for peace and justice. I would prioritize demanding a ceasefire in the Middle East, an end to arms transfers to Israel, demanding negotiations, perhaps through the UN, to end the war in Ukraine, and ending arms transfers to Ukraine. For the long run, we need to demand nuclear disarmament, an end to the New Cold War, and working with rather than against the rising of the Global South.

3.If the Harris/Walz ticket wins we need to demand immediate reestablishment legislatively and/or judicially the reinstitution of Roe V. Wade, immediate and serious work on the environmental crisis, healthcare for all, and  legislation to institutionalize a living wage.

4.If the Trump/Vance ticket  wins (including down ballot races) we need to bury our differences on the left and rebuild the Progressive Majority, a majority that we know exists on most issues of public policy.

5.We need to build our organizations to defend democracy, in our communities and at the state and national levels including progressive gains won over several decades.

IN GENERAL WE NEED TO REBUILD OUR LEFT: PEACE ACTIVISTS, FEMINISTS, WORKERS, ENVIRONMENTALISTS, AND ALL HUMANISTS WHO UNDERSTAND THAT. (HOWEVER WEAK) US DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS ARE UNDER ATTACK AND THE VERY PEACE AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITION OF THE WORLD ARE UNDER ATTACK.

 

 

SOMETIMES WE NEED TO RETURN TO OUR MUSIC

 (skip any commercials)

Our vision: “My Old Hometown”

https://youtu.be/98tS9YvHPXU?si=MCSvNb6-mUeMc6yt

 

We Are Working Class

https://youtu.be/wYexba3iiWQ?si=IyzujTZrY1m-clMX

 

 

Our Ancestors Told Us the Struggle Continues

https://youtu.be/8gwU3kjY5y4?si=mL9_aN39QCuhu6Qu

 

In Times Like These We Keep Walking Down Freedom's Highway

https://heartlandradical.blogspot.com/2024/04/in-times-like-these-repost.html

BLACK INTERNATIONALISM: a power point

I was invited to give a lecture in a class on Malcolm X. It afforded me the opportunity to revisit the political theory and practice of Malcom X. At the same time Vijay Prashad posted an essay in The Tricontinental on "conjunctural analysis" as a method for helping us understand the past, the present, and the future.  While I was preparing the materials for this class, I was mindful of the meeting of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia , China, South Africa and others) in Kazan, Russia. Their stated project is to begin the construction of a new international system based on peace, equity, and multinationalism. 

In sum, all of this led me to reexamine "Black Internationalism" an ideological tradition and historical narrative with roots going back years. I have tried in this power point, including links to videos and images to reflect the long tradition of global struggle for equality, justice, and international solidarity.

BLACK INTERNATIONALISM.pptx

UN FORCES REPRESENTING SEVERAL NATIONAL ARMIES ENTERED THE KOREAN WAR IN 1950; WHY NOT A UN FORCE TO STOP ISRAELI AGGRESSION?

Harry Targ

UN Action to Stop Israeli Aggression Today?

                                                 Code Pink

While historians have subsequently debated the Cold War narrative of conflicts on the Korean peninsula, the US operation was designed to “repel aggression” of the North in the South. Some 16 countries participated in UN operations under the US command.

When North Korean forces invaded below the 38th parallel on the Korean peninsula the UN commission on Korea claimed that the invasion was a planned full-scale attack. President Truman called for a meeting of the UN Security Council which resolved that the invasion was a “breach of the peace.” The Security Council  was able to act without  the threat of the former Soviet Union’s veto  because the Soviet delegate was boycotting the meeting (the Security Council had refused to allow the Peoples’s Republic of China to take the China seat in the UN).

On UN Military Action on the Korean Peninsula

“United Nations Command operates under the mandates of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolutions 82, 83, 84, and 85…..[11] While the UN had some military authority through Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, early Cold War tensions meant that the forces envisaged in those articles had yet to become reality.,,, the UNSC designated the United States as the executive agent for leading a "unified command" under the UN flag. As it was a designated body, the UN exercised little control over the combat forces.” (Wikipedia entry)

This US/UN force was the first attempt at collective security under the UN system. Most importantly, General MacArthur was appointed to head  the UN military forces in Korea and more than 16 countries participated  in US-led operations.

In Addition: Is Israel Committing Genocide?

Below is the language of Article 2 of the United Nations Convention on Genocide initiated in 1948. Is there any doubt that the government of Israel is engaging in genocidal policies against the Palestinian people in the Gaza strip?

“In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”

Both Israel and the United States are signatories to the Genocide Convention.

Possible UN Action?

The Korean War example and the Genocide Convention suggest that a comparable United Nations force should be constructed and sent to the Middle East, not just as a peacekeeping force, but a force designed to stop Israel’s aggression throughout the region. It is clear that most of the world’s citizens and a vast majority of United Nations member countries would support such action.