Syria is Opportunity to Build a Real Peace Movement
“They’ve handed this to us on a silver platter: an announced war,” said David
Swanson, veteran peace activist and publisher of the influential web site
WarIsACrime.org. “This is an opportunity to build an
anti-war movement.” However, so-called “progressives” on Capitol Hill have
proven to be of little use. “For the most part, the Progressive Caucus has
reached a new low,” said Swanson. “Now they’re split, half pro-war and half
anti-war. You’re not seeing leadership from the usual congresspeople. You see
incredible deference to the president.”
Obama is Going Down
“England and Germany and other forces that have usually been reliable
partners in crime have tried to distance themselves from this criminal war” that
Obama plans against Syria, said Omali Yeshitela, chairman of the Black Is Back
Coalition. The president’s domestic situation is also perilous. “It is difficult
for many of the Negroes who have been in bed with Obama to continue this elicit
affair. Obama stands the chance of going down in history as a war criminal.”
Deceitful War, American-Style
The U.S. routinely tells bald-faced lies to justify its military aggressions,
said John Quigley, professor emeritus of international law at Ohio State
University. Quigley, author of
Ruses for War: American Intervention Since
World War Two, cites phony U.S. pretexts for war in the Dominican Republic
(1965), Grenada (1983), Sudan (1998), and Iraq (1993), not to mention the
patently false basis for the Iraq invasion of 2003. Is the U.S. a rogue state?
“In the sense of taking action that has no basis in international law, then I
suppose” it is, said Prof. Quigley.
Lynne Stewart Critiques the “So-Called Left”
People’s lawyer Lynne Stewart, who is suffering from Stage Four breast
cancer, will probably not benefit from Attorney General Eric Holder’s recent
revisions of Bureau of Prisons regulations on compassionate release, since she
is charged with terrorism, said Ralph Poynter, Stewart’s husband and comrade in
struggle. Stewart “is very angry with what is happening in the so-called Left,
who have neglected the struggle in the rest of the world,” said Poynter. “If we
can’t get our minds around freeing our political prisoners, maybe all of our
time has come.”
Misleadership Class in Deep Conflict with Black Masses
“I don’t believe there has ever been this wide and extensive a split between
the Black elite and bourgeoisie, who are aligned through Obama to finance
capital and American empire, and the broad masses” of African Americans, said
Dr. Anthony Monteiro, professor of African American Studies at Philadelphia’s
Temple University. Monteiro estimates the March on Washington commemoration,
organized by traditional Black organizations in deep collaboration with the
White House, drew only about 25,000 people. “The elite, the so-called
leadership, is in trouble with the great masses of Black people.”
California Prisoners Suspend Hunger Strike
After nine weeks, inmates called a halt to the third hunger strike since
2011, without having forced California officials to accede to any of their major
demands, most notably an end to the “torture” of long term solitary confinement.
However, the struggle continues, according to Keith James, of the Stop Mass
Incarceration Movement. “They are waging a protracted battle,” said James. “We
really have to have these prisoners’ backs, because this torture is continuing."
At its height, 30,000 inmates were involved in the protest.
Reporting 
