Publish Date: 2020-09-10

THEORY / PRACTICE & “HumanNEWS power is its own end”—Karl Marx LETTERSVol. 65 No. 5 September-October 2020 Yemen: A voice that Amid election battles, masses must be heard The intense suffering of Yemen’s people contin- ues. The country is torn by a regional imperialist demand no return to normal war between the Saudi Arabia-sponsored govern- by Terry Moon peace, an end to racism and police killings, and a ment and the Iran-sponsored Houthi rebels, with refusal to return to the way things have always been. There is rage in America—rage at the choices both relying on various unprincipled alliances; Now there’s rage and fear about the com- the Trump administration has forced on people by militia allied with the United Arab Emirates; and ing election. Politicians talk about “the peo- his purposeful bungling of the coronavirus pandem- ISIS and al-Qaeda factions. The result amounts to ple,” as if they speak for them. But Donald ic, rage at his racism, sexism, disdain for people with genocide. Trump and his enablers dread “the people” disabilities; and anger at his attempts to destroy This is a counter- as he orders the police and Federal EDITORIAL revolution against the thugs to beat, teargas, jail and lie 2011 revolution—for about their victims. the imperialist rulers, it was a conscious decision to This dread of “the people”—which is choose a path of repression, however extreme, over fear of revolt, of revolution—has never human freedom. been more obvious than in the blatant More than 100,000 people, mostly civil- and often frighteningly effective efforts ians, have died as a direct result of the fight- to silence and disenfranchise voters and ing. Over 85,000 children have died from war- to wreck the approaching election that caused famine. Two million children face Trump may lose. acute malnutrition, and at times up to 80% of the population has stood in need of humani- ELECTIONS/DEMOCRACY UNDER tarian assistance. The Saudi blockade and ATTACK Houthi food confiscations have been brutal. Ever since Blacks and women won Disease, including cholera, is rampant. the right to vote, taking the franchise The U.S. is hardly innocent. U.S. arms sales to beyond land-owning white men, that Saudi Arabia and the UAE have helped fuel the con- right has been under siege. The most flict, including $8.1 million worth of weapons that vicious attack was during Reconstruc- Congress attempted to block, but which the Trump tion when Black voters’ lives were put in administration found loopholes to provide. Women act as a human shield in Louisville, Ky. on May 28, 2020. jeopardy when trying to vote. By gutting the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the U.S. Su- ONGOING BRUTALITY AND CYNICISM what little democracy people in the U.S. have, all to preme Court majority let loose the Trump adminis- Most recently, the UN Human Rights Office— keep himself in office. tration and state legislatures to stop not only Blacks a compromised institution—has documented severe from voting, but anyone who may vote Democratic. crimes against journalists by all parties to the con- THE PANDEMIC DOES DISCRIMINATE Trump has tried to discredit voting by flict. These include one assassination, one abduc- That rage showed itself when teachers across mail, lying that it was rife with fraud. Repub- tion, three cases of arbitrary arrest and detention, the country struck or staged sickouts rather than ac- lican governors are working to make voting four journalists sentenced to death, six jailed, and cept Donald Trump’s demand to open schools regard- more difficult: cutting the number of voting three physical assaults. Doubtless the situation is less of the consequences. A school principal in small- stations—especially in Black, Latinx, poor and even worse. In June, photojournalist Nabil Hasan town Arizona, whose students are 90% Hispanic and student neighborhoods; shortening times for al-Quaety was murdered at his home in Aden. poor, spoke out when ordered by Gov. Doug Ducey to voter registration and attacking early voting, Now an environmental catastrophe threatens. open or lose 5% of his school’s funding. He said: “I making it more difficult for working-class peo- A derelict oil tanker in the port of Hodeidah could already lost one teacher to this virus. Do I risk open- ing back up even if it’s going to cost us more lives? ple; using any excuse to reject mail-in ballots; continued on p. 9 Or do we run school remotely and end up depriving tightening rules for who is allowed to vote by these kids?...There’s no way it can be safe.” mail, for example not allowing a fear of catch- You see it in obituaries in local papers like the ing COVID-19 as a valid reason. These new VOICES FROM THE INSIDE OUT one in Jefferson, Tex., where David W. Nagy’s wife efforts are in addition to racist and partisan wrote: “Family members…blame his death and the gerrymandering, mass incarceration and old- deaths of all the other innocent people, on Trump, fashioned intimidation. Now Trump has attacked the United States [Texas Gov. Greg] Abbott and all the politicians Black prison Postal Service (USPS) by installing his sycophant, who did not take this pandemic seriously and were the multi-billionaire Louis DeJoy, as Postmaster. more concerned with their popularity and votes than (See “USPS crime scene,” p. 3.) Trump refused the lives matter lives.” needed funding increase, stating openly that with- by Robert Taliaferro Over 200,000 have died because of incom- out it the USPS is “not equipped” and “you can’t have petence, because of politics, because of this The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on universal mail-in voting.” anti-human system. Those who died were May 25 sparked an overdue worldwide movement Sabotaging the USPS has drastically slowed mostly old, Black, Latinx, Native Americans, against racism and injustice. In sports, politics and down mail delivery, causing huge numbers of vot- immigrants, disabled or poor and are viewed television, the concept of Black lives actually mat- ers in primaries to be disenfranchised, as it did in by those who run this country as an accept- tering for something other than fodder for growing Minneapolis. In one mostly Black public housing able loss. As we go to press, more than 1,000 prison populations has become the predominant complex, it took nine days for mail delivery to re- Americans are dying every day. theme of American and international consciousness. sume after it was stopped before the election. People The rage was revealed when tens of thousands However, Black lives have always mattered. in Missouri told of 24-day delays for mail to “arrive demonstrated in every U.S. state against police bru- It is sad that only after tragedies do people in all back at the county election board.” tality and racism—a racism made “acceptable” by walks of life express a realization of this fundamen- Postal workers in Detroit fought back. A tal concept. Equally sad is when a tragedy inspires Trump and his cronies who praise white suprema- cists and demonize Black, Brown and white dem- mail carrier in Detroit reported: “The carri- others to compound it by turning a necessary move- ers were so outraged about the ballots and the ment into a forum to espouse their personal agendas onstrators as thugs, looters, mobs, Antifa and an- geared towards furthering discord or hatred in the archists when what demonstrators want is justice, continued on p. 10 political sphere or within the movement itself. APARTHEID USA STYLE It is heartening to see the attacks on systemic Trump threatens DACA, ignores court racism and inequality sustained as we go into the by Buddy Bell well as university students from around the country. Some had been camped out on the steps since the long summer months since Floyd’s murder. Only the When, in June, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Jus- former system of apartheid in South Africa seemed day before. Others spent a week traveling on foot, tice John Roberts authored a 5-4 ruling on the De- to gain as much worldwide attention. all the way from New York City. Local radio station ferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, Yet concepts of apartheid were not limited to WAMU interviewed 23-year-old Brenda Perez, part and when last year he authored the 5-4 ruling that South Africa. They have existed in the U.S. since of the DACA program: “This is really scary. This is removed a new question asking about citizenship its founding, not only toward Black folks but Native really messed up. Everything that I’ve been work- status from the census form, each time he was tell- continued on p. 9 ing for, I could see it right in front of me just going Trump to go back to the drawing board (next ing to waste.” Actor and DACA recipient Bambadjan time be more thoughtful, deliberate, not so overtly ON THE INSIDE Bamba, who was quoted in the American Prospect, racist). Roberts fears that a miserably failed Trump told the crowd: “If we want any chance of moving this p. 4 Bloody Sunday and John Lewis candidacy might doom Republican senators down political needle, especially with this upcoming elec- the ballot. A Senate with a safe Democratic majority tion where immigration will be a central issue, [we p. 5 A dialectic perspective of struggle could pose a threat to his stranglehold on the Court. have to] start telling our stories, telling our truths.” p. 9 Fracking cannibalizes our future SUPPORT FOR DACA GROWS In April 2020, the Center for American p.

Load more