The Internationalist No. 37 May-June 2014 50¢ Get the Hell Out of Afghanistan and Iraq – And Stay Out! From Ukraine to Middle East: U.S. Imperialism Strikes Out Instigating Ethnic/Religious War in the Name of “Democracy” JUNE 20 – When a right-wing cabal of pro-European Union capitalists, Ukrainian nationalists and fascists seized power in Reuters Kiev in a coup d’état at the end of Febru- ary, their backers in Western capitals hailed this supposed victory for “democracy” and setback for Russia. But the Kremlin’s swift and bloodless takeover of Crimea just days later threw the U.S. and European imperial- ists for a loop. When pro-Russian rebels rose up in eastern Ukraine a month later, quickly gaining popular support, Washington called on its Ukrainian puppets to crack down. But instead of stifling unrest, the military offen- sive provoked massive opposition in the east. A May 2 massacre of dozens of anti-Ki- ev demonstrators by fascists and Ukrainian ethnic nationalists in Odessa (see article, page 12) sealed the division of the country in blood. On May 11, hundreds of thousands turned out in the Russian-speaking eastern oblasts (districts) of Donetsk, Luhansk and Mariupol to vote in a referendum for home rule. The May 25 presidential election (boycotted in the east) solved nothing, and when the new president, Petro Poroshenko, stepped up the “Anti-Terrorist Operation,” indiscriminately shelling residential areas, it only intensified the overwhelming hatred of the Ukrainian nationalist Kiev regime. On top of this disastrous situation in Fascist-led protesters set barricades aflame in Kiev’s Independence Square, 20 February 2014. Ukraine, with the country coming apart at the seams, suddenly Iraq appears to be disinte- Organize Workers Defense Committees to Defend the Favelas, Protests grating as well. After eight years of war and occupation, the U.S.-installed government of and Social Movements Nuri Karmal al-Maliki is a sectarian Shiite Muslim regime, systematically persecut- Brazil: No to the World Cup of Repression! ing the Sunni Arab minority which used to be dominant under the rule of strongman Saddam Hussein. Since Sunnis are in the Popular Front Launches Reuters majority in the areas to the west and north of War on the Favelas the capital, Baghdad, it was only a matter of time until a Sunni uprising occurred. When The following article was published it did on June 10, the Iraqi army collapsed, in a May Day supplement to Vanguarda with whole units running away. Operária, the newspaper of the Liga Now Republicans and Democrats in Quarta-Internacionalista do Brasil, Bra- Washington are at each others’ throats, zilian section of the League for the Fourth squabbling over “who lost Iraq,” while International. policy planners in the White House and ANNIVERSARY OF THE MILITARY Pentagon are tearing their hair out over COUP – March 31 marked the 50th how, or whether, to intervene. The role of anniversary of the civilian-military coup the murderous jihadis (holy warriors) of d’état that overthrew the government of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) Jango Goulart and installed 21 years of spearheading the attack has raised the spec- bloody military dictatorship, of torture, tre of a fundamentalist Islamist caliphate in of disappearances, of repression against the Sunni areas of the two Middle Eastern working people and the poor. Marches countries. Behind the scenes, Washington is in the streets carry photos of the victims, seeking the aid of the ayatollahs’ regime in proclaiming “Never Again.” There are Heavily armed police contingents invaded the da Maré favela on March 27. Tehran in dumping al-Maliki and preserving conferences, debates and films in the In preparation for the World Cup of soccer, the popular-front government continued on page 9 continued on page 2 has imposed a state of siege on the poor neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro. Airport. Unrest there could have a huge impact World Cup... on the Cup: a traffic jam like occurred during continued from page 1 the Pope’s visit last year would be a disaster. universities on the “democratic transition.” That being the case, in the expectation of But at the same time a deputy in the federal having well-known personalities from the House of Representatives and a professor world of football and “illustrious” political at the University of São Paulo praised the leaders from various countries, the Brazilian coup. Folha de S. Paulo (30 April), which capitalist class decided to install a military feverently supported the seizure of power dictatorship over the 130,000 inhabitants of the by the generals and which in 2009 caused Maré and the half million who live in the other a scandal when it referred to the “soft favelas and morros (hilltop communities) of dictatorship” in Brazil, published a self- Rio. justifying editorial saying that “the options The workers movement must mobilize at the time” were “much worse” and hailing its forces now to defend our class sisters and the economic growth under the military brothers. For that reason, the Comitê de Luta regime, as a result of which, it incredibly Classista (CLC – Class Struggle Commit- claimed, “all social layers progressed”! tee), a union opposition tendency linked to “NEVER AGAIN?” After ten years of the the Liga Quarta-Internacionalista do Brasil popular front government of presidents Lula (LQB – Fourth Internationalist League of (Luis Inácio da Silva) and Dilma (Rousseff), Brazil), put forward a motion at assemblies of the Workers Party and other reformist of the Rio teachers union (SEPE-RJ) and “The Police Who Repress in the Streets Are the Same Ones Who Kill in the parties and their bourgeois allies, torture and health workers union (SINDSPREV-RJ) Favelas.” March protesting killer cops in the Maré Complex, June 2013. murder continue to be the common practice proposing: “Drive out the pro-imperialist Christ the Redeemer3 insists on keeping the dos Carajás (1996), of Rio street children in of the various police forces. So, too, are occupation troops from Haiti,1 the favelas descendents of the slaves under its whip. For Candelária (1993), of the Carandiru prison massacres of residents of the favelas, the and social movements.” The motions, which it, the phrase in the Communist Manifesto that massacre (1992) and of the brutal eviction impoverished slum areas of Brazil’s cities, were approved by the SEPE-RJ state net- the proletariat will be the gravediggers of the of the Aldeia Maracanã (an Indian village and on the very anniversary of the 1964 work and the SINDSPREV, call to mobilize bourgeoisie is a constant nightmare, since the set up at the site of Rio’s famous soccer sta- coup there was a police/military invasion of the unions against police attacks, and for the potential gravediggers live right above them dium) last year. Or one can simply observe the favelas of the Maré Complex in Rio de formation of workers defense committees, and all they would have to do is come down the horrendous fate of the house cleaner Janeiro. More than 1,500 troops and officers based on the unions, to protect the favelas from the hills, from the favela of Rocinha to Cláudia Silva Ferreira: on March 16, seven participated, including the military police, and street protests.2 (See below for the text Leblon, from Cidade de Deus (City of God) months after the disappearance of the stone the BOPE and BOE (elite police special of the motion.) As a banner proclaimed to Tijuca, etc. mason Amarildo in the hands of the Police operations battalions) and Marines with 21 after the Maré massacre during the June The nightmare of the ruling class is noth- Pacification Unit (UPP) in the favela of armored cars. Immediately a youth was shot Days last year, “The Police Who Repress ing new, nor is its “cure.” Only a few months Rocinha, she was hit by a bullet during a down by the invaders. Seven days later came in the Streets Are the Same Ones Who Kill after the Brazilian monarchy in 1888 decreed police operation in the morro of Congonha, the second blow: a new occupation of the in the Favelas.” Let’s make this May Day the “Golden Law” finally abolishing slavery, on Rio’s north side. She was transported in Maré, this time with 2,700 army troops. A the starting line for class struggle against some former slave-owners carried out a coup the trunk of an armored car of the military week after that, on April 11, there was the the bourgeoisie’s World Cup of Repression. d’état, proclaiming a republic in revenge and police but fell out. Her clothes caught on brutal eviction of the “TELERJ favela,” on While the ruling class is imagining militarizing the police corps. The proprietors the military vehicle, she was dragged for lands belonging to the Oi company in the possible terrorist actions against prominent of the Old Republic maintained their class about three city blocks. This is only one of district of Engenho Novo. Gas and rubber visitors, the Rio favelas are already living rule using the same methods of yesteryear.4 the many sinister and macabre events which bullets were used, provoking ferocious under state terror. For some time the Maré As the verses of the song “The Black Admi- confirm once again that our Republic and resistance by the residents. More recently, Complex as been surrounded by a wall of ral” by Aldir Blanc and João Bosco put it so our Democracy were born bathed in the two residents of the Maré favela were shot steel plates, with squads of heavily armed well, “Ruby-red cascades tumbled down the blood of blacks, Indians and the poor.