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THE WAR ON TERRORISM SHIFTS THE FOCUS FROM STATE-SPONSORED TERRORISM
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THE WAR ON TERRORISM SHIFTS THE FOCUS FROM STATE-SPONSORED TERRORISM1. US HISTORY INCLUDES A LONG PATTERN OF STATE-SANCTIONED TERROR MUMIA ABU-JAMAL, JOURNALIST/ACTIVIST/POLITCAL PRISONER, 2004 WHAT WAR AGAINST TERRORISM?, http://www.prisonradio.org/maj/maj_5_23_04_war.html It is ever so easy for us to talk about the 'War Against Terrorism', and accept it as a given; an obvious truth. Yet, it is exceedingly difficult to speak on it, if one has but an inkling of the history of the US, in its own regions and neighboring territories, for the last century, or even 50 years. There, we find a history of US-sanctioned and supported barbarism, against people throughout the length and breadth of Central and South America, who have had to endure (if they survived!) decades under ruthless generals, monsters who wreaked unholy havoc upon their people, or rapine, torture, murder and more; in the name of their masters — the norteamericanos. For millions of people who live in the countries south of the Rio Grande, US claims to wage a 'war against terrorism', are dismissed with deep cynicism, if not ill humor. For they know that the US has always been the motivating force behind the sheer terror that has ravaged their societies since the 1800s. 2. THE MEDIA USES THE WAR ON TERROR TO MASK US COMPLICITY IN TERRORISM MUMIA ABU-JAMAL, JOURNALIST/ACTIVIST/POLITCAL PRISONER, 2004 A TALE OF TERRORISTS, http://www.prisonradio.org/maj/maj_5_19_04_tale.html To say the word, "terrorist", is to evoke an image inculcated into our consciousness of a scowling, bearded and turbaned fundamentalist Arab. That is the sheer power of the corporate media, in its ability to shape and limit our thinking. For what's lost is the distinction between retail terrorism and state terrorism. When a state unleashes its power against innocents, it's acceptable collateral damage; when a group does it, it's animalistic evil, and sheer barbarity. The media's innate bias in favor of nation-states and corporate power makes state violence the norm, and thus makes it virtually invisible. That's because the media is owned by the wealthy and uses its influence to protect its class interests. The day this is written, a US plane fired high-powered weaponry into a wedding party in Iraq; at least 40 people were killed. The same day Israeli tanks open fire on a Palestinian protest march to Rafah, killing some 20 unarmed civilians, including women and children. No corporate media agency will call these acts "terrorist", but for the Iraqis and Palestinians on the receiving end of the tanks, fighter planes, and helicopter gunships, terror is probably the overwhelming feeling. 3. THE US ACTIVELY TRAINED TERRORISTS TO FOSTER REBELLION IN LATIN AMERICA MUMIA ABU-JAMAL, JOURNALIST/ACTIVIST/POLITCAL PRISONER, 2004 ANOTHER TIME, ANOTHER TERRORISM, http://www.prisonradio.org/maj/maj_5_12_04_time.html The brutal US-trained, armed, and paid dictators used their militaries, and their police to wage internal wars against their own people, to protect US and national elite profits at all costs. Using places like what was formerly known as the School of the Americas, at Fort Benning, Georgia, the US trained a vast coterie of torturers, saboteurs, and terrorists. Tens of thousands of workers, peasants, and youth were tortured, imprisoned, exiled and killed by these US-trained attack dogs. For Latin Americans, the school became known as 'la escuela de golpas' — coup school. 4. THE WAR ON TERROR PROVIDES A JUSTIFICATION FOR DEHUMANIZATION OF A PEOPLE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL, JOURNALIST/ACTIVIST/POLITCAL PRISONER, 2004 A TALE OF TERRORISTS, http://www.prisonradio.org/maj/maj_5_19_04_tale.html But under the reigning media regimes, Arabs can only be projected as terrorists, and even when they are subjected to massive state violence, it is overlooked as if they are somehow complicit in their own oppression. And because they are permanent suspects, they are somehow responsible for calling this extreme carnage on themselves. It's war .. and 'war is hell'. Oh, well! We are witnessing the dehumanization of a people — where Arab = terrorist - and any degree of violence visited upon them is acceptable. When we digest this media mental poisoning, we become a party to this evil, and acquiesce in acts of media violence. We must all reject it, for the mind-poison that it is, and call state terror the evil that it is — whether the culprit is American or Israeli. RESISTING OPPRESSION BY STATE INTERESTS REQUIRES LOCAL, GRASSROOTS ORGANIZATION1. POLITICAL CHANGE REQUIRES WIDESPREAD MOVEMENTS FOR SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION MUMIA ABU-JAMAL, JOURNALIST/ACTIVIST/POLITCAL PRISONER, 2003 THE POWER OF PROTESTS, http://www.prisonradio.org/maj/maj_2_20_protest.html If people really want Peace; if they want to transform this infernal addiction to war that drives every administration, then they must begin to organize to deeply transform this political order, starting from the bottom, ending at the top. That really means the end of the 'strategy' of 'the lesser evil' in American politics. It means voting, yes; but voting for what people really want, and really need. It means seeing both major parties as traitors to democracy, as wards of the same corporate interests who want, not only war-- but War Without End — for generations, to protect their swinish wealth and opulence. It means Change. In a word, revolution. It means that, or it means nothing. It means washing away the deep American addiction, not only to oil, but to hierarchy, the need to obey one's 'leaders'. It means — social transformation.
MUMIA ABU-JAMAL, JOURNALIST/ACTIVIST/POLITCAL PRISONER, 1997 DEATH BLOSSOMS, 11 People say they don’t care about politics; they’re not involved or don’t want to get involved, but they are. Their involvement just masquerades as indifference or inattention. It is the silent acquiescence of the millions that supports the system. When you don’t oppose a system, your silence becomes approval, for it does nothing to interrupt the system. People use all sorts of excuses for their indifference. They even appeal to God as a shorthand route for supporting the status quo. They talk about law and order. But look at the system, look at the present social order of society. Do you see God? Do you see law and order? There is nothing but disorder, and instead of law there is only the illusion of security. It is an illusion because it built on a long history of injustices: racism, criminality, and the enslavement and genocide of millions. Many people say it is insane to resist the system, but actually it is insane not to. 3. ACTING WITHIN DEMOCRATIC STRUCTURES SILENCES MINORITY VOICES MUMIA ABU-JAMAL, JOURNALIST/ACTIVIST/POLITCAL PRISONER, 2004 ANOTHER STOLEN DEMOCRACY, http://www.prisonradio.org/maj/maj_7_31_04stolen.html If the major media is to be believed, the recent election is a done deal; done... over and done with. It was free and fair, and folks should just accept it, and quietly move on. If Greg Palast, an American journalist usually working out of London, is to be listened to, American democracy has been ripped off — again. Palast, author of *The Best Democracy Money Can Buy*, really did the prodigious legwork to crack the Florida debacle back in 2000. He demonstrated, quite convincingly, it seems to me, how the White House, Florida's Governor, Jeb Bush, and the then-Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, essentially stole the elections there, by undercounting and spoiling sufficient votes to allow Bush to eke out a win in the Sunshine State back in 2000. Palast now argues that, once again, this time utilizing dirty tricks, and ambitious politicians, the same thing happened in the states of Ohio and New Mexico. In a brief, 4-page Internet article, Palast presents facts and figures that once again demonstrates that there is a system in place in the U.S. that uses terms like democracy; but in practice, it's something else again. It's bait and switch; it's hide and don't seek; it's actually the disenfranchisement of hundreds of thousands, and indeed, millions of Americans, based on their race, their ethnicity, and often, their economic class. 4. SOCIAL CHANGE REQUIRES A VAST GRASSROOTS MOVEMENT MUMIA ABU-JAMAL, JOURNALIST/ACTIVIST/POLITCAL PRISONER, 1993 STILL BLACK, STILL STRONG, 165 There [are] several orgianziations in the U.S. of varying ideological persuasions who have revolutionary theories that they believe will transform America’s present social, political, and economic reality. Do they have the power to enforce them and change the reality now? No. What it is going to take, more than anything, is the cohesion of many forces, the building of mass power to change those realities, in the sense that no one organization has the power to transform it themselves. This is a vast country with 260 million people and to suppose that organization of 200, 300 peopole is going to affect the deep degrees of transformation that need to take place, is pretentious. Look at the fact that at its height the BPP had 15,000, 16, 000 members and was cooperating with other revolutionary organizations as well. Directory: uploads uploads -> 587 Return function, r i(X) r i(0) r i(1) r i(2) r i(3) 1 0 2 4 6 Thermal Station, I 2 0 1 5 6 3 0 3 5 6 10 uploads -> Department of science and humanities department of mathematics part-a questions and answers uploads -> The Case Against the nypd’s Quota-Driven ‘Broken Windows’ Policing What Is It? uploads -> For want of a nail uploads -> Ownership Models There are two different types of ownership models uploads -> Police Militarization uploads -> City of rising star regular meting thursday, july 14, 2016 uploads -> Township of winfield uploads -> Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act of 2014 uploads -> The Black Panther Party’s Ten-Point Program What We Want Now! Download 5.81 Mb. Share with your friends:
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