Sunday, June 09, 2013

From the Archives of Marxism-“Warsaw Ghetto Anti-Nazi Uprising of Labor”




Workers Vanguard No. 1024
     17 May 2013
From the Archives of Marxism-“Warsaw Ghetto Anti-Nazi Uprising of Labor”
By Art Preis
Militant, 6 May 1944
Last month marked the 70th anniversary of the heroic uprising against the Nazis by Jews interned in the Warsaw Ghetto. Memorial events grotesquely claimed the memory of these martyrs for Zionist Israel, a state whose oppression of the Palestinian people calls to mind the Nazis’ drive for lebensraum (“living space”). During the Nazi occupation, Zionist leaders in the West provided little assistance to the East European Jews. As Polish Jews bitterly observed in a January 1943 appeal to American Jewish leaders: “The survivors of the Jews in Poland live with the awareness that in the worst days of our history you have given us no aid.”
Who came to the assistance of the isolated and courageous Jews fighting extermination? The Polish nationalist Home Army not only refused to offer any practical or military assistance but also pocketed most of the small quantity of arms airlifted from Britain for the ghetto insurgents. The British Royal Air Force refused to bomb the gas chambers of Auschwitz even as they carried out sorties a few miles away. But 600,000 Soviet soldiers died liberating Poland from the Nazi scourge. We honor their memory. (For more, see “Hail Warsaw Ghetto Fighters!” WV No. 452, 6 May 1988.)
As our comrades of the Spartakusowska Grupa Polski said, “We stand in the tradition of the brave Trotskyists in the Jewish ghetto of Warsaw” (WV No. 892, 11 May 2007). Trotskyists, including those of Czerwony Sztandar [Red Flag] who went to their deaths in the Warsaw Ghetto, sided militarily with the Soviet Union despite the misrule of the Stalinist bureaucracy and opposed all the imperialist combatants, not least the “democratic” Allied powers. For the imperialists, World War II was a struggle over the redivision of colonies and spheres of exploitation. The Trotskyists saw in the German working class, trampled under the fascist jackboot, the instrument to overthrow the Nazi regime and to expropriate the bourgeoisie that had brought Hitler to power.
Zionist leaders remained silent about Nazi atrocities. The American government kept their knowledge secret as well. But our forebears, the American Trotskyists of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), broke the government and Zionist news blackout. They reported in their newspaper, the Militant, on 19 September 1942 that the State Department had “suppressed information that it received from its consular agents in Switzerland. This information has to do with the treatment of the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto. Evidence of the greatest atrocities has occurred there in connection with the renewed campaign to exterminate all Jews.” The SWP also fought to lift U.S. immigration restrictions on Jewish refugees, even as American Zionist leaders did not.
The article reprinted below, which was based on the limited information available at the time, originally appeared in the Militant on 6 May 1944.
*   *   *
The Battle of the Warsaw Ghetto, which began on April 19, 1943 and raged for 42 days, will go down in history as the first great revolutionary act of working-class mass resistance to the Nazi enslavers and hangmen of Occupied Europe.
Amid the dark alleyways and crumbling walls of their rat-infested, disease-ridden Ghetto prison, 40,000 men, women and children, the proletarian remnants of the Jewish population of Warsaw, Poland, went to their death battling arms in hand against the massed, trained legions of Hitler.
With weapons sufficient for only 3,000 fighters, the starved and ragged Jewish workers, who were organized and led by the labor and socialist underground movement, for six weeks held out with revolvers, rifles, a few machine guns, home-made bombs, knives, clubs and stones against thousands of trained soldiers using heavy artillery, tanks, flame throwers and aerial bombs.
The battle ended only after the Nazis dynamited and put to the torch every hovel and tenement in the entire area, and when every Jewish fighter lay dead under the ashes and rubble that marked the site where 400,000 Jews once lived.
Three Facts
Only within recent weeks have some of the details of the Battle of the Warsaw Ghetto been revealed outside of the labor and socialist press. But from the still-scanty information now available, three salient facts stand out. The Jewish fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto were overwhelmingly workers, armed, organized and led by the labor and socialist underground. They were inspired not merely by Jewish and Polish nationalist sentiment, but by class solidarity and socialist convictions, hoping that their struggle, conducted under the red flag, would help to arouse the workers everywhere in Poland and Europe to revolutionary class struggle. And theirs was not a “spontaneous revolt, out of desperation,” as bourgeois press commentators would have it appear, but a well-prepared, skillfully planned, organized mass action.
The Gestapo on July 22, 1942, demanded that the Judenrat (Jewish Council) deliver 6,000 to 10,000 persons a day for deportation to the “East,” as it turned out, for mass execution in specially designed gas chambers or by machine-gunning. Deceptively, the Nazis broadcast the rumor that the deportees were going to labor camps and even “the machinery of the Jewish auxiliary police was utilized by the Germans to spread rumors about the favorable labor conditions which awaited the deported.” (The Battle of Warsaw by S. Mendelsohn.) The Ghetto was a self-contained, isolated world with its own government, police, firemen and public health agencies.
The extermination campaign was initiated because “the German authorities, according to the report of the Polish government representatives, reckoned with the possibility of armed resistance at the time when there were still half a million Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto. They were afraid of it...”
Extermination Campaign
Within the Ghetto, a conflict arose. The Jewish leadership from the bourgeois class counseled against resistance, spreading the hope that the deportations were what the Nazis claimed. But the Jewish underground labor organizations, according to an official report to the Polish government-in-exile, “through handbills warned against the trap and called at least for passive resistance.”
The extermination campaign raged unabated. By January 1943, only about 40,000 to 45,000 of the original 400,000 Jews remained alive in the Ghetto. During this entire period, the Allied powers and their press scarcely commented on the unprecedented mass slaughter of the Jewish people.
Then came accounts of the first resistance. In the Polish newspaper Przez Walke do Zwyciesta, Jan. 20, 1943, it was reported, “We extend our admiration to the Fighter Unit (of the Jewish Labor underground) which during the latest liquidation met the Gestapo with gun in hand. Shooting broke out and developed into a real battle on Zamenhofa Street from where the Gestapo agents and German police had to flee and to which they returned only with reinforcements. Jews defended themselves with hand grenades and revolvers. Twenty Gestapo agents and police are dead and many more wounded.”
For three months the Nazis drew back from completing their liquidation drive. The Jewish workers of Warsaw used the respite to organize further for armed resistance.
Nazi Attack
When, in the middle of April, 1943, the Gestapo and Nazi military police attempted to renew the “deportation” drive, their orders for an assemblage of the Ghetto inhabitants were defied. Their police detachments tried to enter the Ghetto. “As a reply from the seemingly empty houses came flying bullets and hand grenades. Roofs and attics began to spit fire and to rain death on the German police. Fear descended on Hitler’s henchmen. They fled in confusion.” (Polska, April 29, 1943.)
From the account of an official representative of the Polish Government-in-Exile, we learn that the Nazis began the attack with “numerous, heavily armed S.S. detachments on cars mounted with machine guns and on tanks.”
“The actions of the defenders were perfectly coordinated,” says the report, “and the battles were fought on practically the entire territory of the Ghetto. Jewish resistance was brilliantly planned, so that in spite of the vast superiority in men and materiel on the German side, good results were achieved. In the first days of combat the Germans took severe punishment; hundreds of them were killed and more wounded. Several times they had to retreat behind the Ghetto walls. During the first week the battle had all the characteristics of regular military operations. The din of a tremendous cannonade was constantly heard from the Ghetto.” This phase of the battle lasted a week.
Authentic Accounts
Then the Nazis concentrated forces at individual points of resistance reducing them slowly one by one with dynamite, flame throwers and incendiary bombs. The Jewish workers fell back on guerrilla tactics, fighting from cellars, roofs, sewers, sortying out at night to assault the Nazi troops under cover of darkness. “The burning in the Ghetto kept spreading. The fires were becoming intolerable. After six days of further combat, after the Germans had already been using planes, artillery and tanks, they managed to break into the northern part of the Ghetto... By April 28th, the Germans had thrown into the battle 6,000 heavily armed troops. Estimates place the number of Germans dead at between 1,000 and 1,200. The Jews lost about 3,000 to 5,000...”
According to the most authentic accounts, Nazi occupation of the Warsaw Ghetto was not completed until 42 days after the fight began, and even months later they were meeting unexpected resistance from tiny hidden groups dug into the ruins and cellars.
Above all, it is necessary to emphasize the working class character of the resistance. The Stalinist swine and the bourgeois nationalist and religious leaders are engaged in a systematic campaign of falsification intended to obscure or deny the class struggle content of the Warsaw Ghetto revolt. While a few middle-class elements did participate, they fought under the inspiration, guidance, organization and leadership of the workers.
“Workers and the working intelligentsia are the heart and soul among the masses of fighting Jews who arose gun in hand against Nazi atrocities,” states an appeal of the Polish Labor Movement issued on the second day of the revolt. “Almost all underground publications, as well as the reports of the government representative, speak of the Jewish Fighter Organization which began and led the struggle... both the appeal of the Polish Labor Movement and some newspapers indicate that the organization consisted chiefly of workers, most of them young.” (S. Mendelsohn, The Battle of the Warsaw Ghetto.)
Underground Manifesto
An underground manifesto from Poland, issued by the Fighter Units, proclaims, “Our activity will still make it possible for a certain number of people to be spared... We live in full realization that it is our duty to proudly continue our glorious heritage of Socialist struggle.” (PM, April 18.)
That struggle is continuing, inspired by the example of the Jewish workers of Warsaw. In Lodz, the biggest Polish industrial center, 130,000 Jewish workers went on a general strike, halting temporarily the Nazi extermination drive there. Armed rebellions have flared up through all the labor camps. A full scale armed resistance was carried on for a month by the Jews of Bialystok, where 30,000 died in struggle and where the “German losses were high despite the heavy armaments, tanks and fire-throwers thrown into the battle.” (PM, April 18.)
Since the Warsaw battle, the British government has closed the last door of refuge for the Jews, in Palestine, while the American State Department and Roosevelt shed crocodile tears in public but deny haven to the Jews in any United States territory. Roosevelt could only mumble evasive statements about “military necessity” and “post-war” plans when asked to intercede with the British government to open Palestine once more for Jewish refugees. And on British soil, Jewish soldiers who resisted the anti-Semitic attacks imposed on them in the armed forces of the reactionary Polish exiled regime are court-martialed and given prison sentences.
Now it should be clear to the Jewish people everywhere, and to all the workers, that the capitalist “democracies” will not save the Jews from fascist barbarism. As the Jewish workers of Warsaw have demonstrated, only the workers themselves in revolutionary struggle will fight fascism to the death.
All honor to the brave Jewish worker dead, who have shown the workers everywhere the revolutionary road to freedom and socialist emancipation from capitalist reaction and fascism. When tens of millions shall rise in the manner of the heroic 40,000 worker-fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto, the forces of Nazism and capitalism will be swept away like chaff before the irresistible might of their onslaught. 




Workers Vanguard No. 1025
 

Zionism Betrayed Holocaust Victims, Jewish Refugees

Commentary

The following contribution was submitted to Workers Vanguard by Spartacist League Central Committee member Reuben Samuels.

I appreciated Art Preis’ moving 1944 article “Warsaw Ghetto Anti-Nazi Uprising of Labor,” reprinted in WV No. 1024, 17 May. Originally published in the Militant, newspaper of the then-revolutionary Socialist Workers Party (SWP), the article rightly slammed Britain as well as the U.S. and other imperialist “democracies” for shutting their borders to Jewish refugees fleeing Hitler’s “Final Solution.” Britain also prevented desperate Jews with nowhere else to go from reaching Palestine after promising them a “homeland” there in the 1917 Balfour Declaration as part of its divide-and-rule strategy for conquering the Arab Near East. Captured refugees who had made it to Palestine were shipped off to internment camps in the far reaches of the British Empire, such as Mauritius and Cyprus. Indeed, the Soviet Union was the only country to open its doors to Jewish refugees en masse, providing sanctuary for the overwhelming majority of the 2.5 million Jews who succeeded in fleeing the Nazis.

In his article, Preis wrote: “Since the Warsaw battle, the British government has closed the last door of refuge for the Jews, in Palestine, while the American State Department and Roosevelt shed crocodile tears in public but deny haven to the Jews in any United States territory. Roosevelt could only mumble evasive statements about ‘military necessity’ and ‘post-war’ plans when asked to intercede with the British government to open Palestine once more for Jewish refugees.” This statement might leave the false impression that the SWP supported the Zionist project of mass Jewish emigration to Palestine. On the contrary, the SWP stood with Lenin’s Bolsheviks in implacable opposition to Zionism and its scheme to carve a “Jewish homeland” out of the indigenous Palestinian Arab nation. In a 1920 resolution titled “The slogan of the Jewish proletariat must be ‘Hands off Palestine!’,” the Central Bureau of Jewish Sections of the Communist Party of Russia declared:

“Jews are being provocatively identified as initiators and culprits in the parceling out of Arab lands among the victorious powers [of World War I], including the handing over of Palestine to Britain. This identification serves British imperialism in Palestine and throughout the East as a means to ignite national passions among the working people of the East and to sow hatred between Arabs and Jews.... Such a policy is a direct violation of the rights of the Arab working masses in their struggle for independence and for complete possession of the land and of all the products of their labor.”

— reprinted in To See The Dawn: Baku, 1920—First Congress of the Peoples of the East, 1993

Under capitalism, peoples that have fled Europe to escape persecution and colonize less-developed regions of the world—for example, the Huguenots in South Africa (French Protestants absorbed into the Afrikaner population) or European Jewry in Israel—often turn the very weapons of the persecution inflicted upon them against the native populations they encounter. Entirely in keeping with the Nazi exterminators of the Jewish people, Israel was established on the blut und boden (blood and soil) principle of being a solely Jewish state lusting for Arab-free lebensraum (living space).

In a series of articles that denounced the refusal of American Jewish leaders to support the call for the U.S. to open its doors to refugees from Nazi persecution in 1938, SWP leader Felix Morrow wrote, prophetically, “Under what conditions, then, can one envisage a Jewish Palestine? Obviously only two: (1) By agreement with the Arabs, who inhabit not only Palestine but the Near East; or (2) by driving the Arabs out of Palestine with fire and sword” (“Blind Alleys for the Jewish People,” Socialist Appeal, 17 December 1938). Morrow added: “Without British bayonets, the Jews today would be driven out of Palestine by the Arabs. Jewish colonization in Palestine continues only thanks to British imperialism.”

One month before his assassination in August 1940, Leon Trotsky was even more blunt: “The attempt to solve the Jewish question through the migration of Jews to Palestine can now be seen for what it is, a tragic mockery of the Jewish people.... The future development of military events may well transform Palestine into a bloody trap for several hundred thousand Jews.”

In the immediate aftermath of the November 1938 Kristallnacht pogroms in Germany, the SWP spearheaded a nationwide labor-centered campaign demanding unrestricted immigration for the hundreds of thousands of refugees from Nazi terror then besieging American embassies in Europe as well as those who would surely follow. The 17 December 1938 issue of Socialist Appeal reported on a meeting earlier that month of 100 delegates representing 35 CIO industrial unions that unanimously adopted a resolution calling on President Roosevelt and the State Department “to immediately offer asylum in the United States by lifting all restrictions and quota limitations to the refugee victims of Fascism.” Even that quota, according to a recent Los Angeles Times op-ed (7 April), “was less than 25% filled during most of the Hitler era, because the Roosevelt administration piled on so many extra requirements for would-be immigrants.”

In their campaign to rescue the surviving victims of the Nazi genocide, the SWP and its anti-fascist allies had to fight not only the Roosevelt administration but also the American and world Zionist movement! American Jewish leaders were bitterly denounced in a January 1943 appeal from Polish Jews: “The survivors of the Jews in Poland live with the awareness that in the worst days of our history you have given us no aid.” In Zionism in the Age of the Dictators (1983), Lenni Brenner exposed how such organizations as Chaim Weizmann’s World Zionist Organization and Rabbi Stephen Wise’s American Jewish Congress (AJC) opposed the rescue of European Jewry. These groups wanted to save only “the chosen few”—those young, healthy and ambitious enough to forge a racialist Jewish statelet in the Arab Levant. Brenner cited Weizmann’s report to the World Zionist Congress in August 1937: “The old ones will pass; they will bear their fate, or they will not. They were dust, economic and moral dust, in a cruel world.”

Wise and the AJC certainly did not want that “economic and moral dust” in America either. In a letter to FDR dated 2 December 1942, Wise bragged about suppressing news of Hitler’s extermination plans, fearing that it might garner support for increased Jewish immigration to the U.S.: “I have had cables and underground advices for some months, telling of these things. I succeed, together with the heads of other Jewish organisations, in keeping them out of the press.” When Congress considered establishing a rescue commission in 1943—with the Nazi machine of industrial genocide in full swing—Wise personally rushed to Washington to kill the bill because it did not mention Palestine. He was also loath to see waves of Jewish immigrants arrive on America’s shores lest they provoke an anti-Semitic outpouring and spoil things for well-established bourgeois and petty-bourgeois Jews.

But the Zionists’ single greatest crime during World War II was their collaboration with Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi chief of transport responsible for executing the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question” in occupied Hungary. In early 1944, Eichmann made a private deal with Reszö Kasztner, a Hungarian Zionist politician and, grotesquely, the head of the Aid and Rescue Committee, to spare 1,685 Jews for a ransom of $1,000 a head. In return, Kasztner would ensure that the rest of the Jews would accept deportation without resistance. In the record span of less than two months, over 437,000 Jews were sent to Auschwitz, the overwhelming majority of whom were murdered upon their arrival. Around the same time, Eichmann allowed Joel Brand, another prominent member of the Aid and Rescue Committee, to leave Occupied Europe with a proposal from the Nazis: They would exchange one million Jews for 10,000 trucks from the U.S. and Britain to be used on the Eastern front against the Soviet Union. The Allies rejected the deal. Lord Moyne, the highest British official in the Near East, when informed by Brand of the proposal, asked: “What can I do with this million Jews? Where can I put them?” (T. Zane Reeves, Shoes Along the Danube [2011]). Seven months later, Lord Moyne was gunned down by the right-wing Zionist terrorists of the Stern Gang.

The 255,000 Hungarian Jews who survived the Holocaust did so thanks to the victorious Red Army, which put an end to the Nazi reign of terror and liberated the survivors of the East European death camps. As a workers state, the Soviet Union was compelled to save the Jews despite its bureaucratic degeneration under Stalin, who was himself an anti-Semite.

A penetrating analysis of the Jewish question and the rise of Zionism was provided by the Belgian Jewish Trotskyist Abram Leon. Writing under German occupation before his murder by the Nazis at Auschwitz at the age of 26, Leon characterized the Jews as a “people-class” who, as moneylenders and merchants, had provided the yeast for the development of capitalism out of feudalism. In 20th-century Europe, Jewish intellectuals and workers played a disproportionate role in the socialist movement. Such people were not attracted to the Zionist project since they looked forward to putting an end to anti-Semitism and all racism through the establishment of a socialist society.

Before Hitler’s ascension to power, the common answer of European socialists, even of the reformist Second International that included the Zionist “socialists,” was assimilation. Zionism was an entirely marginal political movement, and Jewish colonization of Palestine was modest, with many individual Jews leaving after a short stay there. It would take the victory of Hitlerite fascism in Germany, with the “democratic” imperialists turning a blind eye to the fate of European Jewry, to transform Zionism into a mass movement.

The time to have saved East European Jewry was in advance of the inter-imperialist carnage, with the SWP’s campaign to open U.S. borders representing a last-ditch effort to do so. The war brought Jewish immigration to Palestine to a virtual standstill. After its conclusion, the large number of Jews migrating to that country, in the process displacing the Palestinian people, consisted in their vast majority of desperate individuals with no other place to go.

In his book The Jewish Question: A Marxist Interpretation (published posthumously in 1946), Leon wrote:

“The conditions of the decline of capitalism which have posed so sharply the Jewish question make its solution equally impossible along the Zionist road. And there is nothing astonishing in that. An evil cannot be suppressed without destroying its causes. But Zionism wishes to resolve the Jewish question without destroying capitalism, which is the principal source of the suffering of the Jews....

“With the disappearance of capitalism, the national problem will lose all its acuteness. If it is premature to speak of a worldwide assimilation of peoples, it is nonetheless clear that a planned economy on a global scale will bring all the peoples of the world much closer to each other.”

Like his Trotskyist comrades in the Warsaw Ghetto, who emblazoned across their publication the slogan “Workers of the World Unite!”, Leon embodied the revolutionary internationalist program that alone can end the barbarism of future holocausts unleashed by the death agony of capitalism. 
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Remember the MOVE Massacre-May 1985 Bombing: Racist State Terror-Free all the MOVE prisoners! Free Mumia Abu-Jamal! Abolish the racist death penalty!

Make June Class-War Prisoners Freedom Month

Markin comment (reposted from 2010)
In “surfing” the National Jericho Movement website recently in order to find out more, if possible, about class- war prisoner and 1960s radical, Marilyn Buck [now deceased], whom I had read about in a The Rag Blog post I linked to the Jericho list of class war prisoners. I found Marilyn Buck listed there but also others, some of whose cases, like that of the “voice of the voiceless” Pennsylvania [former] death row prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal, are well-known and others who seemingly have languished in obscurity. All of the cases, at least from the information that I could glean from the site, seemed compelling. And all seemed worthy of far more publicity and of a more public fight for their freedom.
That last notion set me to the task at hand. Readers of this space know that I am a long -time supporter of the Partisan Defense Committee, a class struggle, non-sectarian legal and social defense organization which supports class- war prisoners as part of the process of advancing the international working class’ struggle for socialism. In that spirit I am honoring the class war prisoners on the National Jericho Movement list this June as the start of what I hope will be an on-going attempt by all serious leftist militants to do their duty- fighting for freedom for these brothers and sisters. We will fight out our political differences and disagreements as a separate matter. What matters here and now is the old Wobblie (IWW) slogan - An injury to one is an injury to all.
Note: This list, right now, is composed of class-war prisoners held in American detention. If others are likewise incarcerated that are not listed here feel free to leave information on their cases here. Likewise any cases, internationally that may come to your attention. I am sure there are many, many such cases out there. Make this June, and every June, a Class-War Prisoners Freedom Month- Free All Class-War Prisoners Now!
*******
Workers Vanguard No. 1025
 

Remember the MOVE Massacre-May 1985 Bombing: Racist State Terror

On 13 May 1985, the Philadelphia police, with the cooperation of Pennsylvania State Police and the FBI, consciously carried out racist state murder. Acting on the orders of black Democratic mayor Wilson Goode and the Reagan White House, the cops dropped a satchel with C-4 explosives onto the MOVE organization’s Osage Avenue home. The explosion and ensuing firestorm killed eleven black people, including five children, and destroyed an entire city block, leaving hundreds homeless. The bombing capped a 12-hour cop siege during which over 10,000 rounds of ammunition were fired into the house. Firefighters were prevented by police from tackling the blaze for more than an hour, and the cops shot at anyone trying to escape the inferno. There were only two survivors: 13-year-old Birdie Africa and Ramona Africa, who was sent to prison for seven years for the “crime” of still being alive.

This massacre was the culmination of years of police harassment, beatings and hundreds of arrests of members of this mostly black back-to-nature commune known for denouncing “the system” and defending its right to armed self-defense. In August 1978, 600 Philly cops had surrounded and attacked MOVE’s Powelton Village compound, unleashing a barrage of gunfire. Nine MOVE members were framed up and sentenced to between 30 and 100 years in prison after a cop was killed in the ferocious police crossfire. Merle Africa died in prison in 1998; the others are still locked away in Pennsylvania’s prison hellholes.

While covering the trial of the MOVE 9, Mumia Abu-Jamal became a MOVE supporter. A former Black Panther and Philadelphia journalist known as the “Voice of the Voiceless,” Mumia was framed for the December 1981 killing of police officer Daniel Faulkner and sentenced to death for his political views. Mumia was confined to death row for 30 years before his sentence was overturned two years ago, but his conviction still stands. For him it is now the “slow death row” of life in prison. Free all the MOVE prisoners! Free Mumia Abu-Jamal! Abolish the racist death penalty!

A new documentary about the MOVE bombing, Let the Fire Burn, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York in April, winning a Special Jury mention for a first documentary. The filmmaker, Jason Osder, watched the bombing live on television as a child and was spurred to make the documentary because he was horrified that people of his generation didn’t remember the events of 13 May 1985. Although Osder’s film is a welcome exposé, it makes an unwelcome attempt at being evenhanded. There are no two sides to an atrocity. In a Q&A with the filmmaker at the screening, a supporter of the Partisan Defense Committee stressed that the bombing was “not a confrontation between extremists and authority but between the oppressed and the oppressors.”

The MOVE bombing belongs to the long history of murderous capitalist state repression against workers, the oppressed and groups deemed “deviant.” We will not forget the 1921 aerial bombing of the black neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, or the 1993 massacre of the integrated Branch Davidian movement in Waco, Texas. These and other atrocities evoke the terror meted out by U.S. imperialism in its wars far from home.

The state branded MOVE “terrorist” to justify its mass murder, the signature of the Reagan years. With the “war on terror,” this pretext has become a fixture in the arsenal targeting those who stand up against the depredations of the capitalist rulers, not least black people. In this society, the entire state apparatus is racist to the core, as witnessed by “stop and frisk” and the massive numbers of black men in prison. Anti-black oppression has been the very bedrock of American capitalism since its foundation on the backs of chattel slaves seized from Africa.

On the 28th anniversary of the MOVE bombing, we again seek to etch this atrocity into the collective memory of the working class and oppressed. Workers revolution will avenge the MOVE martyrs. For black liberation through socialist revolution! 
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The Promise of a Socialist Society

Workers Vanguard No. 1025
31 May 2013

TROTSKY

LENIN

The Promise of a Socialist Society

(Quote of the Week)

In the selection below, Friedrich Engels makes plain how proletarian revolution opens the road to an emancipated future in which the productive powers of humanity are unleashed for the benefit of all mankind.

Their political and intellectual bankruptcy is scarcely any longer a secret to the bourgeoisie themselves. Their economic bankruptcy recurs regularly every ten years. In every crisis, society is suffocated beneath the weight of its own productive forces and products, which it cannot use, and stands helpless face to face with the absurd contradiction that the producers have nothing to consume, because consumers are wanting. The expansive force of the means of production bursts the bonds that the capitalist mode of production had imposed upon them. Their deliverance from these bonds is the one precondition for an unbroken, constantly accelerated development of the productive forces, and therewith for a practically unlimited increase of production itself....

With the seizing of the means of production by society, production of commodities is done away with, and, simultaneously, the mastery of the product over the producer. Anarchy in social production is replaced by systematic, definite organisation. The struggle for individual existence disappears.... Man’s own social organisation, hitherto confronting him as a necessity imposed by nature and history, now becomes the result of his own free action. The extraneous objective forces that have hitherto governed history pass under the control of man himself. Only from that time will man himself, with full consciousness, make his own history—only from that time will the social causes set in movement by him have, in the main and in a constantly growing measure, the results intended by him. It is humanity’s leap from the kingdom of necessity to the kingdom of freedom.

To accomplish this act of universal emancipation is the historical mission of the modern proletariat. To thoroughly comprehend the historical conditions and thus the very nature of this act, to impart to the now oppressed class a full knowledge of the conditions and of the meaning of the momentous act it is called upon to accomplish, this is the task of the theoretical expression of the proletarian movement, scientific socialism.

—Friedrich Engels, Anti-Dühring (1878)

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Poet's Corner- Bertolt Brecht's "To Those Born After"- In Honor Of Julius And Ethel Rosenberg On The 60th Anniversary Of Their Execution



To Those Born After
I
To the cities I came in a time of disorder
That was ruled by hunger.
I sheltered with the people in a time of uproar
And then I joined in their rebellion.
That's how I passed my time that was given to me on this Earth.

I ate my dinners between the battles,
I lay down to sleep among the murderers,
I didn't care for much for love
And for nature's beauties I had little patience.
That's how I passed my time that was given to me on this Earth.

The city streets all led to foul swamps in my time,
My speech betrayed me to the butchers.
I could do only little
But without me those that ruled could not sleep so easily:
That's what I hoped.
That's how I passed my time that was given to me on this Earth.
Our forces were slight and small,
Our goal lay in the far distance
Clearly in our sights,
If for me myself beyond my reaching.
That's how I passed my time that was given to me on this Earth.

II
You who will come to the surface
From the flood that's overwhelmed us and drowned us all
Must think, when you speak of our weakness in times of darkness
That you've not had to face:
Days when we were used to changing countries
More often than shoes,
Through the war of the classes despairing
That there was only injustice and no outrage.
Even so we realised
Hatred of oppression still distorts the features,
Anger at injustice still makes voices raised and ugly.
Oh we, who wished to lay for the foundations for peace and friendliness,
Could never be friendly ourselves.
And in the future when no longer
Do human beings still treat themselves as animals,
Look back on us with indulgence.
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In Honor Of Julius And Ethel Rosenberg On The 60th Anniversary Of Their Execution-On Paying Homage To Leftist (And Other) Political Opponents- A Short Note



A repost from June 19, 2010

Markin comment:
First question: What do the murdered heroic Kansas abortion provider, Doctor George Tiller, the 17th century Puritan revolutionary poet and propagandist, John Milton, author of Paradise Lost, and the early 20th century labor and civil rights lawyer, Clarence Darrow, defender of “Big” Big Haywood and John Scopes, among others, have in common? Similar expertise in similar fields? No. Common political vision? Hell, no. Could it be that they, each in their own way, contributed to the store of our human progress? Well, yes. And also, by the way, they have all been honored on this American Left History site for those contributions. And nary a flea-bitten, hard-shell, broad-backed, barn-burning, blood-thirty, red meat, communistic, reds under every bed, Bolshevik bastard who wants to “nationalize” women and “eat babies” for breakfast among them.

Second question: What do the pre-World War II American communist renegade from Marxism, Max Shachtman, the old English socialist and novelist turned British imperial informer, George Orwell, and the German “pope” of pre- World War I Marxism in the Second International , Karl Kautsky have in common? I will not prolong the agony on this one because I have to make my point before the next millennium so it is that they have made contributions to our common socialist movement before they went over to the other, pro-capitalist, pro-imperialist side (one way or the other). And also, by the way, they have all been honored on this American Left History site for those contributions. And nary a flea-bitten, hard-shell, broad-backed, barn-burning, blood-thirty, red meat, communistic, reds under every bed, Bolshevik bastard who wants to “nationalize” women and “eat babies” for breakfast among them.

Third question: What do the old-fashioned 19th century French revolutionary and Paris Commune member, Louis–August Blanqui, the iconic American black liberation fighter, Malcolm X, and the old Industrial Workers of World (IWW-Wobblies) organizer extraordinaire, Vincent St. John, have in common? Again, I will cut to the chase; they were all, one way or the other, political opponents of Marxism. And also, by the way, they have all been honored on this American Left History site for those contributions. And nary a flea-bitten, hard-shell, broad-backed, barn-burning, blood-thirty, red meat, communistic, reds under every bed, Bolshevik bastard who wants to “nationalize” women and “eat babies” for breakfast among them.

Okay, by my count I see zero legendary Bolshevik names listed above. Names like Leon Trotsky, V.I. Lenin, N. Krupskaya, J. Sverdlov, Jim Cannon, John Reed, “Big” Bill Haywood, and so on. Oh, they have been honored in this space, profusely. Of course. (Although I do not believe that there was a flea-bitten, hard-shell, broad-backed, barn-burning, blood-thirty, red meat, communistic, reds under every bed, Bolshevik bastard who wants to “nationalize” women and “eat babies” for breakfast among them either, that was pure bourgeosi propaganda, always). And that is exactly my point here.

Let me back track on this one, a little. Recently I did a series of reviews of the work of American detective fiction writer, Dashiell Hammett. (see blogs, dated August 15-18, 2010). Beyond a review of his outstanding literary work I noted that Hammett was a prominent supporter of the Stalinized American Communist Party in the 1930s and 1940s. In that dead night of the "red scare", which many from that time and since would prefer to obliterate from American "democratic" memory, especially the memory of their own silence and complicity, just said no to the committees that wanted him to “name names.” He didn’t and paid the price for his courageous act. Others, including long time Stalinists and fellow–travelers squawked to high heaven before those committees, sometimes without the least bit of pressure. A simple acknowledgement of Hammett’s deed, noting along the way, that Hammett and our Trotskyist forbears were still political opponents at the end of the day seemed less than controversial.

Not so, at least from an e-mail that I received, claiming (for me) the mantle of Stalinophile for such a “tribute”. First, I assume that the person, for good or ill, had not read my "tributes” to arch-Stalinist American Communist Party supporters, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who I have termed “heroic” for their deeds in behalf of the Soviet Union, when those deeds counted. Or that if the person had deeds, like Hammett's, involving less than going to meet death fearlessly by Stalinists are not worthy of kudos. In any case, this person is all wrong.

Go back to the first question above where basically non-political types were noted for their contributions to human progress. That is the “missing link” to this person’s mistaken position. I could have gone on and on about various persons that have been honored in this American Left History blog. But that seemed to me to be unnecessarily hammering home the point. Here is the real point. We have had few enough occasions when our fellows get it right to narrow the parameters of what contributes to human progress. If we get too picky we are left with honoring Lenin, Trotsky, and a few other Bolsheviks. Oh yes, and, of course, those few of us who claim to be contemporary Bolsheviks- including, I presume, the heroic, non-Stalinophile, e-mail sender. Enough said.

Note: I did not mention this e-mail sender’s political affiliation although it was provided. Let us just put it this way. The organization that the person belongs to (and I am not sure the person knows all the organization’s history, it didn’t seem so) has a history of “bailing water” (my term)for the “progressive" wing of the Democratic party (whatever that is?) and wondered out loud why I did not honor the likes of California’s’ current Attorney General, Jerry Brown, Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, ex-Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney,and so on. Jesus, give me a break. But, wait a minute, if the shades of old Dashiell Hammett were around today or those of some of his fellow reprobate Stalinists, those are the same kindreds that they would be kowtowing to, as well. Hey, I just tipped my hat to old Hammett I did not try to "steal" his "progressive/ popular front" political strategy. Strange bedfellows, indeed. Double, Jesus give me a break.
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On The 60th Anniversary Of Their Execution Honor Julius And Ethel Rosenberg

Ethel Sings: Espionage in high C

Date:
Sat, 06/29/2013
FANTASY DRAMA
A play featuring ETHEL ROSENBERG and JOAN OF ARC
A contemporary St. Joan plays Ethel’s alter ego. We see the two young girls as they were and as they might be today – the Jewish “maidel” from New York and the Catholic “maid” from Domremy.” We see them and a host of other outrageous characters.
The play (by Ethel’s distant cousin), encompasses this and more. Ethel was a talented singer who yearned for stardom. Could this dream and strong identification with Joan of Arc (whom she portrayed on stage) contribute to her untimely death at 37?
Though based on fact, Ethel Sings challenges time and space featuring Ethel in a virtuoso display of talent. Whether singing opera, practicing yoga or dancing to jive, ska, or club music:
Ethel sings to us. She sings to us of unlimited possibilities for doom and redemption in every generation and every civilization. She sings to touch our souls.
Ethel Sings: Espionage in high C
June 27-July 21, 2013
Performances at 8:00 pm
Post-show Talkback with Robert Meeropol after June 29th performance
Walkerspace
46 Walker St.
New York, NY

www.ethelsings.com for tickets and info
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Carry it Forward: Celebrate the Children of Resistance

Date:
Sun, 06/16/2013

On Sunday, June 16, 2013, the RFC will commemorate the 60th anniversary of Ethel and JuliusCarry it Forward event logo Large Rosenbergs’ executions with a benefit event at The Town Hall in New York City, entitled, Carry it Forward: Celebrate the Children of Resistance.
This stage event written by Ellen Meeropol (author of House Arrest), intersperses dramatic readings and dramatized vignettes with music and poetry, honors the legacy of ­resistance passed on from the Rosenbergs and others, and celebrates the courage of families who continue to resist today. It embraces the history of progressive activism both through a look back at past generations, and in the context of today’s struggles. It honors the community of people who are working for social justice, and shows activists, and their children, that they are not alone.
Activist legend Angela Davis will be the program's narrator, Eve Ensler (The Vagina Monologues and Emotional Creature) will portray Ethel Rosenberg, and Cotter Smith will portray Julius Rosenberg.
We will have music from Rebel Diaz — a progressive, Latino hip hop group — and the husband and wife folk duo, Mike + Ruthy; and poetry from Martín Espada. Renowned international human rights attorney, Lennox Hinds, will portray U.S. political prisoner, Russell Maroon Shoatz, and Shola Lynch (director of Free Angela & All Political Prisoners) and Djibril Toure (Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and Communities United for Police Reform) will portray his daughter and son.
Klemente Gilbert-Espada, Christina González, Emma Lang, RFC Board Chair Rafael Rodríguez Cruz, Samuel Sánchez, and the Serious Play! Theatre Ensemble will represent RFC beneficiaries including the family of Tito Kayak, or share their own stories as activists. Sheryl Stoodley will direct the production. Read all cast members' bios here.
$30, $50 and $100 tickets are on sale now via Ticketmaster's website here, or by calling (800) 982-2787 (service charges apply).
Tickets may also be purchased in person only from the Town Hall Box Office, located at 123 West 43rd Street (between 6th Avenue & Broadway), from noon - 6pm, Monday-Saturday, and starting at noon on event day, Sunday, June 16th.
All seats are reserved.
For more updates check back here, join the RFC's mailing list, or follow us on Facebook or Twitter @wwwrfcorg and #cifevent, and plan to join us in NYC on June 16, 2013!
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News

US War objector-in-exile Jules Tindungan

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    By Bob Meola, Courage to Resist. March 15, 2013
    "We treated them like dog shit. We’d roll into a village and the guys would throw water bottles at the kids. We’d do home incursions. It was like police harassment in L.A. that I’d seen growing up. We were foreign cops in another people’s country."
    Jules Tindungan (photo right) is a U.S. War Resister living in Toronto, Ontario. He joined the Army in 2005. Jules comes from a military family. His grandfather was from the Philippines and served in World War II and was present at the Bataan death march. An after effect of his service was U.S. citizenship for his family. Many other family members served in the military. Jules’ brother is currently deployed in Afghanistan. Numerous uncles and cousins are also current members of the U.S. military.
    Jules told me, “My father is an engineer and my mother is a surgical tech. We were middle to low income living in a low income part of town in Los Angeles. My father hasn’t had steady work in over a decade due to a civil suit against his employer, Cal Trans, for harassment and racism he received at the hands of his co-workers and the non-action of the state in the matter. My mother, for the most part, was the breadwinner. Dad was not able to help in a significant way with the income. Even today, my mom is working sixty hours a week as a surgical tech at a hospital.
    “They had four kids and were putting my older sister through college—university. I was a mediocre student. I felt financially I was in a bind. I felt I needed to get a paycheck to help my family. My brother was in the army reserve at the time and helping out the family. He was instrumental and the family encouraged me joining the military. It was like we—my family—had a duty to join the military.
    “I joined the Delayed Entry Program during my senior year of high school. As soon as I graduated, I went to basic training. I had about one and a half months in between. In August, 2005, I started basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia and then I went to Infantry School.
    “Basic training was very tough for me. I wasn’t an athlete growing up. I was into counter culture and punk rock. I had an attitude toward authority. So, basic training was definitely an eye opener for me. That was a few months.
    “Then I went to Infantry School where I trained as a mortar man—a sub-class in the infantry—a little version of artillery. I got selected to do follow up training at Airborne School. After that I was selected for the Ranger Indoctrination program. I didn’t agree with the hazing in the program. I quit that after three days.
    “Anyone who has been there can tell you that it is really intense. In the middle of the night, they will come in and get you out of bed and make you start doing exercises. It’s called ‘smoking’—physical exercise as punishment. The trainer will pull you out of bed—the hallway floor was drenched with sweat from push-ups and other exercises.
    Jules Tindungan, soon after arriving in Canada“I got kicked in the stomach while doing flutter kicks—lying on the ground with my feet six inches off the ground kicking them up and down in the air. When your feet start drooping down ‘cause it’s too hard to keep them up—I had a cadre/trainer kick me in the belly and say, ‘Get your feet back up.’ The floor was slippery with sweat.
    “Then I got sent to the 82nd Airborne Division in North Carolina. I was kept in a hold-over battalion that was re-structuring its organization. They called it a RSTA Unit—Reconnaissance, Surveillance, and Target Acquisition. I got placed in a new RSTA unit that had no leadership whatsoever. Many of us privates didn’t know what to do. For a number of months in 2008, we had nothing to do. We’d wake up, do physical training and be killing time for four to five hours a day moving furniture and cleaning things. We didn’t have training to prepare us for going overseas until they brought the program leadership in.
    “In July or August of 2006, we finally got some training about five months before we deployed. Eighty percent of the unit had zero experience overseas. We were brand new—very green—either right out of basic training or like me—with no training.
    “This affected me, personally. My job was to provide indirect fire. If I was in the general vicinity, I’d have to set up to fire tiny artillery shells to support troops in a fire fight. I had no training to do it. The last time I’d fired a round was in basic training. That’s like a rifleman who learns to shoot in basic and then doesn’t shoot for a year. I had to learn as I went.
    “I got to Afghanistan in January, 2007 with very little training in my job of being a mortar man. My mortar team killed civilians who were considered collateral damage. There was no accuracy. It’s called bracketing. They say to go to the left or right but it ends up near people’s houses.
    “Our unit got thrown right into the fire. We had very little experience. We were along the Pakistan border in the mountains. Because we were a reconnaissance unit, we didn’t stick around one base very long. We didn’t develop local relationships. We were moving around constantly. We had zero credibility with the people. It was bad for us soldiers and it was bad for the local people too. We could never build any rapport between our unit and the people. It created a bad situation wherever we went.
    “During 2007, I was on a number of different bases. We lost two people. The unit was—each company was about eighty people. We had three companies. There were about three hundred in the unit. We were very dispersed. We had a number of people wounded and permanently maimed. My buddy, Jose—we got separated. There were thirty or fifty men on bases in the same province, guarding a pass. His platoon got ambushed. A rocket ripped through his truck and exploded between his legs, resulting in the loss of his reproductive organs. He begged a soldier to shoot and kill him.
    “Another guy was walking through tall grass. He was shot in the leg. He’s an amputee. He lost a leg. He also got shot in his armor and it bounced around inside and tore up his organs. He was drenched in blood.
    “From January to July, we were constantly on the move, securing a district and moving on to another district or province. I was in Pakia, Gardez, and Paktika, and Gaznia provinces. For a large chunk of the deployment, I moved around a lot. In August, 2007, there was a really big long mission in Paktia. Hamid Karzai came to visit too.
    “We had to secure this pass. It hadn’t seen any NATO action since 2001, since the initial invasion. They had some Rangers or Special Forces pinned down there. It was big and quick and they left and had never come back. It was an isolated location. We secured the pass for Karzai to come in and talk to the people.
    “The orders came from NATO to guard this pass for the duration of our deployment. I was put with Chainsaw Company in Wilderness Base. It was FOB [Forward Operating Base] Wilderness. It was so isolated and far away from any main cities. That’s where I stayed for the rest of my deployment from August, 2007 to April, 2008. The official designation of our enemy was ACM, ‘Anti-Coalition Militia.’ The enemy that we were facing, often times, came from different groups. Eithe they were Haqqani Network, legitimate resistance fighters, or remnants from the old Taliban. Most of the old-school Taliban, from the nineties, had gone and fled to Pakistan after the initial invasion. There was indigenous resistance of farmers and local people. There are about six or seven high ranking Al Queda people left in Afghanistan.
    “Some time, late in our deployment, either November or December, 2007, many of us were notified that we were going to be stop-lossed. The leadership in our unit didn’t make it clear whether it would be to Iraq or Afghanistan.
    “They let us know that anyone, with a contract ending in 2009, would be kept over for another deployment. That happened in 2009 through 2010. I was in Toronto and I heard about it. A buddy I’d lived in a hut with stayed in contact with me until he died in 2010. I knew in April, 2008 that the next deployment would happen.
    “I was already trying to figure out how to change my job—my M.O.S.—and get out of the situation of having to deploy again. I was thinking: They got me suckered into another deployment. There’s no way out of that. But how can I get out of being in a situation again like I was in in Afghanistan, where they had me dropping bombs on people? I had reservations already because of my involvement in the deaths of a couple of civilians. I was wounded in a September, 2007. There was a fire fight around September 20th through 27th. One platoon was heavily pinned down taking heavy fire. We had done BDA—Battle Damage Assessment. Thirteen bodies had fired on seven or eight U.S. troops.
    “The called for fire. My mortar team had dropped a number of rounds in that area and blown people to bits. They found a woman and her child who had been killed by one of the mortars I’d dropped. That took a toll on my sanity for a bit. It contributed to me having my first anti-war feelings—my first feelings against this war and death of my friends and it started to snowball in deciding I didn’t want to be a combat soldier anymore.
    “We treated them like dog shit. We’d roll into a village and the guys would throw water bottles at the kids. We’d do home incursions. It was like police harassment in L.A. that I’d seen growing up. We were foreign cops in another people’s country.
    “I still performed my job. I never went AWOL there. When I came back in April, 2008, I talked to a sergeant major about changing my job to Civil Affairs work. I know now that Civil Affairs is B.S. It’s trying to hand out blankets to make up for its conduct. That didn’t pan out.
    “My options were small. After a couple of weeks, I’d planned to go AWOL. A buddy helped me go AWOL. I ran away in the middle of the night, in May. I’d flown to L.A. and lived with friends for a couple of weeks. I stayed away from my family in case they were being monitored. I knew I had a thirty day grace period before being turned in to the system.
    “I didn’t even know about IVAW or Courage to Resist or the War Resisters Support Campaign at the time. I found out about all of that after being in L.A. for thirty days. My sister convinced me to come home. My dad was worried that I’d been killed and the Army wouldn’t tell him. So, I had to talk to my dad. I stayed with them. We talked about my options.
    “My brother was graduating from ROTC in the last week of May. He was pissed at me. I had to tell him how we locked people in boxes with no ventilation and we strapped bodies on the hoods of our trucks and paraded them around the villages. I put on my uniform and went to his ROTC graduation. That’s the last time I put on my uniform. I gave my brother his first salute as an officer while I was an AWOL soldier.
    “The first two weeks I was couch-surfing and the last week and a half I was with my parents, trying to convince them that what I did was right. My dad wasn’t sure. I told him one deployment was enough and I couldn’t be blowing people up again. He said we had some cousins in Vancouver. I had an aunt there.
    “The next morning, after the graduation, I went to Vancouver and that is where I filed for asylum. I got taken in by some socialists—some hardcore communists. They taught me a lot about politics. I know nothing about politics when I went AWOL. I wasn’t even totally anti-war. I was anti the messed-up crap that I’d seen.
    “I learned a lot and became politically aware, here in Canada. I got involved in some speaking stuff. I got very active. I got worn out speaking in 2009.
    “I met my wife in 2008. She’s an activist. We got married in 2009. I decided to live more quietly and stop doing political stuff and started to work. My refugee board hearing didn’t happen for another year—until June, 2010.
    “I got to Vancouver, B.C. in May, 2008. I got caught at the border as a deserter. I was on a Greyhound bus full of tourists. I told the Canadian customs people that I had family there. They started looking through my stuff. One officer said I was ‘clean’—nothing on me. I felt they had been looking to see if I was a drug smuggler and I felt it was racist. I was the only person searched. Then they found my military I.D. in my pocket. They had found three previous deserters and now said, ‘He’s one of them.’
    “I told them I wanted to apply for asylum. They kept me there for twelve hours asking me questions. They had to let me stay when I asked for asylum. I had stayed a year in Vancouver. Two resisters, who came after me, got kicked out of Canada after four months. But I had moved to Montreal, Quebec in 2009. It was stupid. I didn’t speak any French.
    “My buddy, Chris, from my same unit and company, went AWOL too. He was from Philly. He went to Toronto and got a hold of me. I was telling him how things weren’t working out for me. He said to come to Toronto. We lived with him. We both learned the iron working trade. His asylum decision got denied and then he went to Canadian federal court and was successful.
    “In my case, the judge agreed, one hundred percent with all of my arguments and demanded that the refugee board hear my case. They had denied me once. The Refugee Board of Canada denied my claim in October, 2012. The federal refugee board denies everyone’s claims because of a clear mandate from the Canadian government. It would change everything if Canada allowed U.S. soldiers to come up here.
    “I was trying to figure out what to do. My lawyer, Allyssa Manning, took my case to a higher court and the federal court found in my favor in the first week of January.
    “My wife is a Canadian citizen. She is sponsoring me. They can’t remove me from the country without hearing from my sponsor. We filed the papers to be heard. There is so much back-log that they haven’t seen our sponsorship case yet. If that case is successful, I could become a permanent resident of Canada.
    “From October through December, 2012, I was worrying. My lawyer said we’d argue for a re-trial at the Refugee Board. The Federal Court couldn’t give me refugee status. They demanded that the Refugee Board rehear my case. A date for a rehearing has not been set yet.
    “The government of Canada is conservative. Stephen Harper has made it clear that he doesn’t want us—U.S. war resisters—here. They say we are ‘bogus refugees.’ His party backed the war in Iraq.
    “Operational Bulletin 202, in July, 2010, was a notice that the immigration mission handed to immigration officers around Canada saying to kick us out before we can ask for political asylum.
    “The New Democratic Party and the Liberal Party back us. We are trying to get refugee status. The government, technically, should not have any say in the immigration process. But they have been trying to influence the immigration process.
    “The immigration board recently has tried to say that U.S. deserters are criminals. You cannot have committed another crime in the military that would get you ten years. If you desert from the Canadian Army, you get ten years in prison. They are calling it ‘criminal inadmissability’. They are also saying to deny deserters who have married Canadians. They have shot a couple of people down like that. The process is not supposed to be political. But it has become political. Theoretically, the sponsorship of me could be approved by an immigration officer. It would make me a permanent resident of Canada.”
    Jules Tindungan could become a permanent resident of Canada through the sponsorship of his wife, if the government would decide that in his favor. He could also be granted political asylum by the Immigration and Refugee Board because, according to the War Resisters Support Campaign, the Federal Court of Canada “found that the U.S. court-martial system ‘fails to comply with basic fairness requirements found in Canadian and International Law’ therefore impacting whether Tindungan would receive a fair hearing if returned to the U.S.” The Immigration and Refugee Board could decide that Jules Tindungan could not receive an independent and impartial tribunal as required under Canadian and International law if he was deported back to the United States and could therefore grant him political asylum.
    The Canadian Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration has twice [in 2007 and in 2009] recommended that the government allow conscientious objectors and their families to stay in Canada. In 2008, Parliament voted in favor of the Committee’s recommendation to the government. In 2009, the House of Commons again voted in a non-binding motion in favor of the Committee’s recommendation. But the Harper government has not honored that recommendation.
    What is needed is for the courts of the United States and of the U.S. military to acknowledge the rights of Jules Tindungen and other U.S. war resisters to be exonerated, of any charges of wrong-doing, because of their attempts to follow their consciences and to uphold the Geneva Conventions and other applicable international law and because the United States military violates the Geneva Conventions. Thank you, Jules Tindungen, for recognizing war crimes when you saw them and refusing to be part of them. Thank you for having the courage to resist.
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    News

    Justin Colby sentenced to 9 months jail

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      Please write a letter today in support of this objector's early release
      Update April 19, 2013: War resister Justin Colby transferred to Fort Lewis, south of Seattle, to serve nine month prison sentence. Write him directly at: COLBY, Justin / 1450 Alder Rd. / Box 339536 / Joint Base Lewis-McChord, WA 98433-9536
      By SPC Justin Colby, US Army. March 22, 2013
      Justin wrote this statement a few hours before being sent away for 9 months to a military prison. Justin had lived in Canada in order to refuse a second Iraq deployment, and to better care for his family. See below for how to help Justin now.
      My name is Justin Colby and I am an Active Duty soldier serving in the United States Army. I am writing today to talk about some of my experiences serving in the US Army. I admit that there were many positive experiences about my serving the Army (and I have a great deal of respect and appreciation for many of those that I served with), but for the purposes of this writing I will focus on the negative experiences that shaped my ability to participate in this organization.
      I enlisted in May of 2003. My first duty station was South Korea. While I was in South Korea, I learned about the Iraq war. Glaring discrepancies became obvious. One professor said that Iraq never attacked the United States. As I talked to other soldiers about this, none of the people I served with could seem to explain why we should attack a country that never attacked us. When I asked at the command level why we were attacking Iraq I was dismissed completely.
      Eleven months into my Korean tour I was notified that I would be going to Iraq. I started researching more and asking more questions. While my unit was in Kuwait getting ready to cross over the Iraq border I explained to my first sergeant that I did not think I could participate in offensive operations against a country that never attacked us. I asked to apply for conscientious objector status. The First Sergeant made me do pushups until I was completely exhausted and humiliated. He told me that we could take “this” as high up the chain of command as I wanted, but the only result would be that I would be labeled a “domestic terrorist.” This intimidation worked and I crossed the border as commanded.
      Our destination was Ar-Ramadi, Al Anbar Province, Iraq – in the heart of the Sunni triangle. Immediately, I was terrified. Our base was attacked with mortars daily. Coalition forces and Iraqi resistance fighters came to our medical facility daily, wounded and killed in action. It was very difficult for me to watch mothers cry to us as we tried to save the lives of the women wounded by US forces. On multiple occasions, soldiers opened fire on vehicles carrying unarmed women and children. This happened for a variety of reasons (but most often happened because)if the soldiers commanded them to stop and they failed to stop ,lethal force was authorized. Regardless of the reasons, watching the life slip from a three year old toddler was devastating to both its mother and myself.
      I can also remember the Marines being particularly brutal in the handling of the dead bodies of the Iraqis killed in action. They would routinely toss the bodies off of their vehicles into the dirt beyond our medical facility. Watching bloodied, mutilated bodies rolling around in the dirt never felt normal to me. I can remember how we openly referred to the Iraqi casualties as “practice patients.” We routinely allowed medics to perform procedures outside of their scope of practice. As medics, we only had sixteen weeks of medical training.
      To put it in perspective, imagine if you mother had a heart attack and passed away, and you had to come to the hospital to identify her – but when you saw her body, you discovered that it was essentially dissected by somebody with only sixteen weeks of training – and imagine find out it was for “practice.”
      I made it through our year long deployment to Iraq only to return home to be abused by my new chain of command. I returned in August of 2005. In the late fall I found out that my girlfriend was pregnant. I married her after hearing this news (something I was very excited about), but it ended up being a nightmare. By December of 2005 I discovered that my pregnant wife was addicted to methamphetamine and was having an affair with a convicted felon (with a history of domestic violence). I immediately contacted the Colorado Springs police and Child protective service. I also filed for divorce (seeking custody of my soon-to-be-born son). I was told that this was the only way that I could prevent my soon-to-be-born son from being further harmed was to divorce my wife and demand custody.
      My June of 2006 things were reaching a very bad place. I was only weeks away from finalizing the divorce (and gaining full custody of my son). But at the end of June I was told that I would be deploying to the National Training Center for training in preparation for a second Iraq deployment. Our deployment to NTC was scheduled for early July, preventing me from protecting my son. I as devastated and both my physical and mental health deteriorated. I begged and pleaded with my leadership to no avail. My life turned into a nightmare. I felt like I had to leave before things got worse. In a time of extreme emotional distress, I left my unit and went AWOL. A short time later I went to Canada where I sought legal status based on my family hardship and my moral objections to further participation in war. After I left, Child Protective Services ended up removing my son from his mother. I unfortunately was unable to gain custody myself due to my legal status with the Army. It is this aspect of my story that I regret most. I can only say that had lost all faith in the legal system to do the right thing.
      While in Canada I tried to live my life as best I could. In the coming years, I formed a new family (with my Canadian common-law spouse, I had two new children). I always grieved the circumstances of why I had to leave, but I felt betrayed by the Army. I had felt that I had been required to put my own moral concerns aside to deploy the first time (doing this out of a sense of obligation to my oath and to my comrades), but when I later faced a terrible family crisis, the Army abandoned me.
      By the summer of 2012 I made the decision to return to the US. I had completed the first stage of being sponsored for legal residency in Canada (based on my family ties in Canada) so I was not deported. But I made the decision to come back anyway because I wanted to take responsibility for my actions and not be separated from my extended family. I wanted my children to grow up getting to see their grandparents and their aunts and uncles in the United States. In July I returned to military custody and was eventually sent back to Fort Carson. I continued to serve (doing whatever jobs were asked of me) from July 2012-March 2013. I sought an administrative discharge in lieu of court-martial but my request was denied. Today I will be pleading guilty to the charge of desertion.
      A few hours after Justin Colby wrote this, he was sentenced to 15 months in confinement, a bad conduct discharge, reduction to the lowest rank (E-1) and loss of all pay allowances (despite the fact this income is desperately needed to support his family), however, thanks to a sealed pre-trial plea agreement SPC Colby will only be serving a 9 month prison sentence.(Unlike the civilian system, military defendants who have a plea deal receive the lesser sentence of either the pre-agreed terms or what the judge thinks the sentence should be)
      Justin Colby is currently being held in the county jail in Colorado Springs awaiting transport to military correctional facility. Justin will, however, have the opportunity (likely in 3-6 months) to request clemency from the commanding general of Fort Carson. We are asking for friends, family and supporters of Justin Colby to write letters to the general asking that Justin be given an early release form prison so he can be back with his family. We do ask that all letters be respectful.
      Please send all letters to:
      Maj. General Paul J. LaCamera
      Public Affairs Office
      1626 Ellis Street, Ste. 200, Bldg.118
      Fort Carson, CO 80913, USA
      Fax: 1-719-526-1021
      Please send a copy of your letter to Justin’s civilian attorney (this is important because the letter will be submitted as part of the formal clemency process).
      James M. Branum, Attorney at Law
      PO Box 721016
      Oklahoma City, OK 73172
      Fax: 1-866-757-8785
      Email: girightslawyer(at)gmail(dot)com
      Courage to Resist continues to provide the majority of funding for Justin's legal defense. Please consider donating to Courage to Resist so that we can continue this important work!
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      Kimberly Rivera

      Iraq War Resister Kimberly Rivera sentenced to 14 months

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        Please help us provide humanitarian assistance to these courageous objectors with your contribution to the Rivera Family Support Fund today!
        By the War Resisters Support Campaign (Canada). April 29, 2013
        On Monday afternoon, during a court-martial hearing at Fort Carson, Colorado, Kimberly Rivera was sentenced to 14 months in military prison and a dishonorable discharge after publicly expressing her conscientious objection to the Iraq War while in Canada. Under the terms of a pre-trial agreement, she will serve 10 months of that sentence. (Photo right: Mario and Kim Rivera moments before Kim was taken to away in chains. She is currently in the local county jail awaiting transfer to a military prison.)
        Private First Class Kimberly Rivera deployed to Iraq in 2006 and sought asylum in Canada in 2007 because she decided she could no longer be complicit in the war. A mother of four young children—including two who were born in Canada—she was forced back to the United States of America by the Conservative government after receiving a negative decision on her pre-removal risk assessment. A Federal Court judge denied her request for a stay of removal, finding the possibility of her arrest and detention in the U.S. to be “speculative.” Rivera was arrested three days later, on September 20, 2012, as she presented herself at the U.S. border.
        “Kim is being punished for her beliefs and for her comments to the press while she was in Canada,” said James M. Branum, the defense attorney who represented Rivera during the court-martial proceedings. “Because she spoke out against the Iraq War, Kim’s sentence is harsher than the punishment given to 94 percent of deserters who are not punished but administratively discharged. In the closing arguments, the prosecutor argued that the judge needed to give PFC Rivera a harsh sentence to send a message to the other war resisters in Canada and their supporters.”
        The tremendous public outcry related to Rivera’s case shows the deep and broad support that Canadians continue to express for Iraq War resisters. In a period of 10 days leading up to the Rivera family deportation, 20,000 people signed a Change.org petition supporting the family. Faith, labour and human rights organizations spoke out, Amnesty International adopted Kim as a prisoner of conscience, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu published an opinion piece in The Globe and Mail newspaper calling the deportation order “unjust.”
        In stark contrast to this outpouring of support, Conservative MPs cheered when the Rivera family’s removal was announced in the House of Commons.
        “The Conservative government knew that Kim would be jailed and separated from her children when they forced her back to the U.S., yet they cheered her deportation,” said Michelle Robidoux, a spokesperson for the War Resisters Support Campaign. “They are out of step with the great majority of Canadians who opposed the Iraq War and who support allowing U.S. war resisters to stay in Canada.”
        On February 1, 2013, the Federal Court of Canada issued a decision in the case of another U.S. war resister, Jules Tindungan, finding that the U.S. court-martial system “fails to comply with basic fairness requirements found in Canadian and International Law.” The Court also found that the Refugee Board failed to deal properly with evidence that soldiers who have spoken out publicly about their objections to U.S. military actions are subjected to particularly harsh punishments because of having voiced their political opinions.
        “The sentence Kim received today underlines the concerns we have been raising all along, and what the Federal Court now acknowledges, that soldiers who speak out against unjust wars face harsher punishment and have no recourse within the U.S. military justice system,” said Robidoux.
        “Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Jason Kenney were ardent supporters of the Iraq War, and they want U.S. Iraq War resisters punished. But Parliament has voted twice to stop these deportations, and the majority of Canadians believe Kim and the other resisters did the right thing. We will continue to fight to make sure this injustice does not happen to any other U.S. war resister who is seeking asylum in Canada.”
        Please help us provide humanitarian assistance to these courageous objectors with your contribution to the Rivera Family Support Fund today!
        BACKGROUND
        Federal Court/Federal Court of Appeal decisions in favor of U.S. war resisters
        Since 2008, there have been 11 Federal Court or Federal Court of Appeal decisions in favour of U.S. war resisters who are seeking permanent resident status in Canada:
        1. Joshua Key - July 2008
        2. James Corey Glass - July 2008
        3. Jeremy Hinzman - September 2008
        4. Matthew Lowell - September 2008
        5. Dean Walcott - January 2009
        6. Kimberly Rivera - March 2009
        7. Kimberly Rivera - August 2009
        8. Jeremy Hinzman - July 2010 (Federal Court of Appeal)
        9. Dean Walcott - April 2011
        10. Chris Vassey - July 2011
        11. Jules Tindungan - February 2013
        Key dates: U.S. war resisters in Canada
        January 3, 2004: Jeremy Hinzman, the first U.S. Iraq War resister to come to Canada, arrived along with his wife Nga Nguyen and their first child Liam.
        May 2004: War Resisters Support Campaign founded in Toronto to advocate for a provision to be made to allow U.S. war resisters to the Iraq War to stay in Canada.
        June 3, 2008: The House of Commons passed a motion directing the Government of Canada to immediately stop deportation proceedings against all U.S. Iraq War resisters and facilitate the resisters’ requests for permanent resident status.
        June 27, 2008: An Angus Reid Strategies poll reveals that the majority (two-thirds) of Canadians agrees with the decision to let U.S. Iraq War resisters stay in Canada as permanent residents.
        July 15, 2008: Robin Long becomes the first U.S. Iraq War resister to be deported by the Harper government.
        October 2, 2008: Prime Minister Stephen Harper reversed his previous support for the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq stating during the English-language leaders’ election debate: “It was absolutely an error. It’s obviously clear the evaluation of weapons of mass destruction proved not to be correct. That’s absolutely true and that’s why we’re not sending anybody to Iraq.”
        January 9, 2009: Jason Kenney was criticized by Amnesty International Canada and the Canadian Council for Refugees for biasing all U.S. resisters’ cases with his public “bogus refugee claimants” comment.
        February 4, 2009: U.S. Iraq War resister Cliff Cornell was arrested when he crossed the border into the United States after exhausting all appeals to remain in Canada.
        March 15, 2009: Members of Parliament Olivia Chow and Borys Wrzesnewskyj met with U.S. Iraq War resister Robin Long in the Naval Consolidated Brig Miramar near San Diego. Long was court-martialed and sentenced to 15 months in prison after being deported from British Columbia by the Harper government.
        March 30, 2009: The June 3, 2008 motion was passed by Parliament a second time.
        April 28, 2009: Cliff Cornell was sentenced to 12 months in prison and a bad conduct discharge after publicly expressing his conscientious objection to the Iraq War while in Canada. Prosecutors used footage of a television news interview with Cornell as evidence against him.
        September 18, 2009: U.S. war resister and veteran Rodney Watson took sanctuary in the First United Church in Vancouver, BC, to avoid deportation by the Harper government. He remains there today.
        July 6, 2010: Federal Court of Appeal issued its unanimous ruling in favour of Hinzman.
        July 22, 2010: Citizenship and Immigration Canada, at the direction of Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, issued Operational Bulletin 202 which formalizes the bias against all U.S. war resisters in policy that immigration decision-makers must follow.
        September 2010: Peter Showler, former Chair of Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board, and Amnesty International Canada call on Immigration Minister Jason Kenney to rescind CIC Operational Bulletin 202 because it, “misstates the law and seeks to intrude on the independence of both IRB members and Immigration Officers,” and “implies that military deserters from the U.S. should be treated differently than deserters from other countries,” despite there being, “no basis in law for that proposition.”
        April 5, 2011: Federal Court of Canada rules in favour of U.S. war resister and veteran Dean Walcott.
        July 18, 2011: Federal Court of Canada rules in favour of U.S. war resister and veteran Chris Vassey.
        August 30, 2012: Canadian government orders U.S. war resister Kim Rivera and her family to leave Canada by September 20th or face deportation. Kim is the first woman Iraq War resister to seek asylum in Canada. She and her husband Mario have four children, two of them born in Canada.
        September 17th, 2012: Federal Court Justice Near denies Kim Rivera a stay of removal, stating that it is only "speculative" that Kim would be arrested and court martialed if she is forced to return to the U.S..
        September 17th, 2012: In an opinion piece in the Globe and Mail, Archbishop Desmond Tutu writes, "Isn’t it time we begin to redress the atrocity of this war by honouring those such as Ms. Rivera who had the courage to stand against it at such cost to themselves?"
        September 20th, 2012: Kim Rivera is arrested by U.S. authorities after voluntarily turning herself in at the border. She was charged with desertion.
        September 20th, 2012: Conservative Members of Parliament break into applause upon the announcement of Kim Rivera's forced return to the United States.
        January 26th, 2013: Prominent Canadians publish open letter to the Prime Minister in support of U.S. war resisters in the Globe and Mail.
        February 1st, 2013: Federal Court of Canada rules in favour of U.S. war resister and veteran Jules Tindungan.
        March 22nd, 2013: Justin Colby sentenced to 15 months in confinement and a bad conduct discharge after voluntarily returning to the U.S. from Canada. A sealed pre-trial plea agreement means he is serving 9 months confinement at Fort Lewis, Washington.
        April 29th, 2013: Kim Rivera sentenced to 14 months in prison by military court after publicly expressing her conscientious objection to the Iraq War while in Canada.

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        International Conscientious Objector Day May 15
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          In Berkeley, California, join us on International Conscientious Objectors’ Day, Wednesday, May 15th, to celebrate the 7th Annual Berkeley C.O. and War Resisters’ Day. Peace Flag raising ceremony at 11:30am at the Civic Center flagpole at 2180 Milvia Street, Berkeley.
          This Berkeley event features Conscientious Objectors and War Resisters from World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. Speakers include: Kriss Worthington, Berkeley City Councilmember; Jeff Paterson, Courage to Resist; Emma Cape, Bradley Manning Support Network; Bob Meola, Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission, War Resisters League.
          FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
          Celebration of 7th Annual Berkeley CO and War Resisters’ Day on Wednesday, May 15th, International Conscientious Objectors’ Day, at Civic Center Building Flag Pole, 2180 Milvia Street, Berkeley
          Contact: Bob Meola; bob@couragetoresist.org This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
          Berkeley, CA, May 14th, 2013—On Wednesday, May 15th, Berkeley CO and War Resisters’ Day, at 11:30 A.M., peace flags will once again be raised on two City of Berkeley flag poles as Berkeley celebrates the day proclaimed and designated in a 2007 Berkeley City Council resolution “…as the day on which Berkeley acknowledges, honors, and celebrates conscientious objectors and war resisters, civilian and military, past, present, and future.” May 15th is also International Conscientious Objectors’ Day. The City publicly recognized “that conscientious objectors and war resisters, past and present, civilian and military, have, due to conscience and principle, often sacrificed their time and freedom in prison or in exile or underground; and…conscientious objectors and war resisters often worked to end war and have refused for moral, ethical, political or religious reasons to participate in war; and…their resistance to militarism sets a noble example and an outstanding model for our youth and our whole community; and… their strength and their courage in following their consciences is often unsung.”
          There will be brief remarks by representatives of the Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission, War Resisters League, Courage to Resist, the Bradley Manning Support Network, and Councilmember Kriss Worthington. There will be singing and an opportunity for COs and War Resisters of any era to speak. The event has drawn COs from World War ll to the present in past years.
          Currently, COs around the world are imprisoned, some on a repeated basis, when they are released and repeatedly refuse to participate in military service. In the United States, U.S. Army PFC. Kimberly Rivera, a pregnant mother of four, was sentenced on April 29th, during a court-martial hearing at Fort Carson, Colorado, to 14 months in military prison and a dishonorable discharge after publicly expressing her conscientious objection to the Iraq War while in Canada. Under the terms of a pre-trial agreement, she will serve 10 months of that sentence. The Army has issued the harshest sentences to COs and war resisters who have publicly expressed their feelings about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
          This year is poignant, also, due to the long anticipated June 3rd starting date of PFC. Bradley Manning’s Court Martial trial at Fort Meade, Maryland after over three years of confinement, much of it under torturous conditions, for executing heroic acts of conscience when confronted with U.S. war crimes and the knowledge that his command was complicit with them and that only he could shed light on them.
          In recent years, there has been a need, felt globally, to have the right of selective conscientious objection recognized by nations. The U.S. wars of aggression, of the last decade, have caused many U.S. soldiers to wake to the fact that even if they would defend their country militarily, they refuse to fight what they see as illegal and immoral U.S. wars.
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