The toxic masculinity that triggered the New Year Eve’s attacks on women was there in the morning to deny they even happened.
Mass sexual harassment occurred on New Year’s Eve in Bengaluru, India [EPA]
by Meena Kandasamy@meenakandasamy Meena Kandasamy is a poet, fiction writer, translator and activist who lives in Chennai and London. via Al Jazeera with thanks
The reasoning extended goes like this: You had violence visited upon you (groped/pinched/felt-up/beaten/raped/murdered) because you did this (wore short clothes, wore no clothes, wore revealing clothes, loved a man of the wrong caste, stepped out of home, stepped into the street at the wrong time of day, went to work, went partying, got drunk, got on a bus, were speaking to a man of a different religion, did not pay enough dowry, talked back, and so on).
The mass molestation of women in Bengaluru during the midnight celebrations at New Year brings to mind the similar outrageous incident that took place in Cologne last year.
The kneejerk reaction of the Indian political establishment was to blame “western culture” – Karnataka’s Home Minister G Parameshwara blamed young women for their western attire, while Samajwadi Party leader Abu Azmi blamed the late-night revelries as a western import.
Rewind to a year ago, and in another part of the world, immigrants were blamed for the sexual violence, asylum seekers were rounded up as suspects, and the right-wing seized the opportunity to talk about “rapefugees”
Violence against women is universal, so, we end up with multiple iterations of the same tragedy, with eerily similar responses: In India, the ruling class blames western culture. In the West, the ruling class blames immigrants. This blame game achieves its intended aim: It outsources trouble, diverts attention from the misogyny on the domestic front and normalises violence against women. Continue reading “Bengaluru attacks: Patriarchy excuses toxic masculinity by night and day”
Since January 1st, protests and actions have been happening daily across Mexico to protest the government-ordered 20% price hike on gas, called the #gasolinazo.
Every state and Mexico City have seen actions from marches and blockades of toll booths, border crossing and highway, to the expropriation of corporate mega stores. Four have been killed by police and 800 arrested.
In the early morning hours of January 5th 2017, two Revolutionary Struggle members, fugitive comrade Pola Roupa and anarchist Konstantina Athanasopoulou were captured at a southern suburb of Athens. Anti-terror cops raided a hideout with Pola and her six-year-old son inside, while Konstantina was arrested in another house nearby.
After being forcibly removed from his mother, Lambros-Viktoras Maziotis Roupas—the small son of Revolutionary Struggle members Nikos Maziotis and Pola Roupa—is being held captive inside a children’s hospital guarded by cops(!), without any access to visitations by his close relatives or even the legal representative of his parents.
The Greek authorities, and in particular the public prosecutor for minors Mrs. Nikolou, still refuse to entrust the child to first-degree relatives of Pola Roupa.
In response to this, three Revolutionary Struggle members—the anarchist prisoner Nikos Maziotis, the recaptured comrade Pola Roupa and the newly arrested Konstantina Athanasopoulou—have undergone hunger and thirst strike since January 5th, demanding that the six-year-old be immediately placed with his aunt and grandmother (relatives on his mother’s side).
In an open letter Nikos Maziotis stated, among others, that: “Our son is the child of two revolutionaries, and he’s proud of his parents. We will not succumb to any blackmail. We defend our choices with our very life”.
On January 6th, during the women’s transfer to Evelpidon courts, Pola shouted: “The worms are holding my kid captive at Paidon (children’s hospital in Athens), guarded by armed cops; at the age of six, he is a prisoner of war” and: “Long live the Revolution!”. Furthermore, Pola stated: “I am a revolutionary, and I have nothing to apologize for.”
“I am an anarchist, member of the armed revolutionary organization Revolutionary Struggle (Epanastatikos Agonas). The only terrorists are the State and the Capital. I refuse to eat and drink anything until the child of my comrades Pola Roupa and Nikos Maziotis is delivered to relatives of theirs.
Konstantina Athanasopoulou”
On the inside, anarchist prisoners and other inmates at different wings of Koridallos male and female prisons have mounted a joint protest by refusing lock-up, to claim an end to the captivity of Lambros-Viktoras in solidarity with the Revolutionary Struggle prisoners currently on hunger and thirst strike.
On the outside, comrades in various cities throughout Greece have carried out diverse actions in immediate support of the anarchist revolutionaries, demanding that the first-degree relatives of Pola Roupa be granted immediate visitation and custody of the underage child.
Strength to Konstantina Athanasopoulou, Pola Roupa and Nikos Maziotis, proud members of Revolutionary Struggle.
Revolutionary Struggle will neither lay down arms nor surrender to the enemies of freedom.
Photo: banner in Syros: Solidarity to those who do not bow their head -and to their kids- P.Roupa, N.Maziotis, K.Athanasopoulou
08.01.16: Imprisoned Revolutionary Struggle members Pola Roupa and Konstantina Athanasopoulou, on hunger and thirst strike since 05.01.17. have both collapsed and been transferred to hospital.
Solidarity Actions
07.01.17: Two OPKE (Group of Crime Prevention and Suppression) police vehicles ambushed in Exarcheia, Athens with Molotov cocktails, one OPKE vehicle completely destroyed.
07.01.17: 3 ATMs torched in Thessaloniki
06.01.17: Car torched outside the home of Tassos Tsakiridi, Deputy Mayor for Social Policy in the Neapoli-Sykies Municipality in Thessaloniki.
from Intercontinental Cry with thanks… After eight years of struggle, communities in Santa Cruz Barillas, Guatemala, are celebrating a decision by Spanish company Ecoener-Hidralia to leave Guatemala and start the “process of extinction of Hidro Santa Cruz S.A”.
The Dec. 29 announcement signals the end to a tragic legacy of political persecution and imprisonment, criminalization of resistance, threats and the murder of social leaders.
The aggressiveness of the hydro dam’s proponents reached its highest point with the murder of community leader Andrés Pedro Miguel, attributed to security officers hired by the multinational company. Legal authorities, even in light of undisputed evidence, decided to keep this crime unpunished.
Two basque activists were arrested in Greece for attempting to smuggle eight refugees to Euskadi
The activists and eight refugees have been detained in Greece when they tried to access a ferry bound for Italy in an action of civil disobedience to European migratory policies organized and financed by social groups.
200 volunteers came to help load a lorry with donated refugee aid in Euskadi
Until now only a handful of refugees have made it to Spain due to government blocking.
On the inside, anarchist prisoners and other inmates at different wings of Koridallos male and female prisons have mounted a joint protest by refusing lock-up, to claim an end to the captivity of Lambros-Viktoras in solidarity with the Revolutionary Struggle prisoners currently on hunger and thirst strike.
On the outside, comrades in various cities throughout Greece have carried out diverse actions in immediate support of the anarchist revolutionaries, demanding that the first-degree relatives of Pola Roupa be granted immediate visitation and custody of the underage child.
From our comrades in Greece we have learned that during the arrest of comrade Pola Roupa (member of Revolutionary Struggle and partner of the comrade Nikos Maziotis, also a member of Revolutionary Struggle), that the police kidnapped and detained her 6 year old son.
The child is being held in a hospital room under armed guard and the police are refusing to allow family members or legal representatives to see him. Although we do not know if he is being interrogated it is worth noting that it is illegal under Greek law to interrogate a minor without the presence of a parent / guardian or lawyer.
In response to the state’s vengeful kidnapping and detention of their son, comrades Pola and Nikos have begun a hunger and thirst strike to demand that their child be released from police custody and into the care of close relatives. The 25 year old woman comrade who was…
Political Prisoners Obama Could Pardon Before He Leaves Office
BY SARA DAVID shared with thanks, illustrations added… With limited time left in the White House, the pressure’s on POTUS to do as much good as he can before Trump’s Legion of Doom threatens the civil liberties of many. Now more than ever, Obama must take a stand to protect human rights activists, radical revolutionaries, and those disproportionately punished by government. Here are some of the political prisoners that Obama should and could pardon before he leaves office:
Mumia Abu-Jamal Mumia Abu-Jamal was convicted of the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner, according to Democracy Now, though he has always maintained his innocence.
Abu-Jamal is a former member of the Black Panther Party, supporter of Philadelphia’s MOVE organization, and award-winning journalist whose writing from prison has reached worldwide audiences. Like the FBI’s obsession with the Black Panther Party, MOVE (a Philadelphia-based black liberation group that often demonstrated against police brutality) was targeted by the U.S. government to quash civil rights activists. In 1985, Philadelphia Police bombed MOVE headquarters, destroying 65 homes and killing 11 people, including five children.
“Because Mumia has for thirty years been subjected to torture on death row and because he is innocent, justice for Mumia will not be served by life imprisonment, but by his release from prison.”
Amnesty International says Abu-Jamal was sentenced to death “after a trial that failed to meet international standards.” Yet he’s spent 35 years in prison—almost all of which he says has been spent in solitary confinement on Pennsylvania’s Death Row.
Abu-Jamal’s demand for a new trial is supported by Nobel laureates Nelson Mandela (now deceased), Toni Morrison, and Desmond Tutu, as well as the NAACP and the Congressional Black Caucus. On Tuesday, the San Francisco Bay View published an open letter calling on NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick to speak out in support of Abu-Jamal.
Leonard Peltier
Image via Getty/MPI
Leonard Peltier fought for Native American rights as a member of the American Indian Movement (AIM). According to Amnesty International, a 1975 confrontation involving AIM members left two FBI agents dead. Peltier was convicted of their murders, but has always maintained his innocence.
His case has long been “a flash point in the strained relations between federal law enforcement and Native Americans,” according to Mother Jones. The FBI agents’ deaths occurred on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, approximately 18 miles from Wounded Knee. Mother Jones reported:
In 1973, about 200 Sioux, led by members of the American Indian Movement, occupied Wounded Knee for 71 days to protest injustices against Native Americans and what they perceived as the corrupt leadership of the reservation’s president. By the end of the standoff, two Native Americans had been killed, 12 were wounded, and 12 were “missing” but suspected of having been killed by tribal leadership, according to Peltier’s petition.
The three years after the Wounded Knee occupation became known within Native American circles as the “Reign of Terror,” a period during which dozens of Native Americans were murdered and hundreds were assaulted by a private militia that was aligned with Oglala Lakota Souix chairman Dick Wilson and known as the “GOON squad.”
There has been zero recourse for law enforcement responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Native Americans, and Amnesty International has said when it comes to Peltier, it “is concerned about the fairness of proceedings leading to his trial and conviction,” and calls on citizens to write to Obama to request clemency on humanitarian grounds. Peltier has exhausted all legal resources, spent 40 years in jail, and is in poor health. At 71 years old, Peltier suffers from diabetes and was recently diagnosed with an abdominal aortic aneurysm.
Military whistle-blower and democracy advocate Chelsea Manning (known as Bradley Manning until 2013) gave information to the public that exposed unjust detainment of innocent people at Guantanamo Bay.
According to her website, Manning revealed the following via WikiLeaks:
the Collateral Murder video that exposed the killing of unarmed civilians and two Reuters journalists by a US Apache helicopter crew in Iraq
the Afghan War Diary that revealed uninvestigated civilian casualties and contractor abuse
the Iraq War Logs that revealed civilian casualties, and uninvestigated reports of torture
the US diplomatic cables that revealed the role that corporate interests and spying play in international diplomacy
There is no evidence that anyone died as a result of Manning’s leaked info. For her actions revealing the U.S. government’s crimes against humanity, Manning has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times—and sentenced to 35 years in prison.
And Manning’s abuse didn’t even begin with her trial or sentencing. Though soldiers are promised fair treatment and a speedy trial under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, PVT Manning was arrested in 2010 and “waited in pre-trial confinement for over three years before her trial finally began.” According to Manning’s website:
Additionally, during the first 10 months of her incarceration she was subjected to solitary confinement at the Quantico, Virginia, Marine Corps brig. During this time, Manning was denied meaningful exercise, social interaction, sunlight, and on a number of occasions was forced to stay completely naked.
Pre-trial punishment is clearly illegal under US military law, and these extreme conditions were unique to Manning. In March 2011, chief US State Department spokesperson PJ Crowley called Manning’s treatment “ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid.” Following his immediate resignation, he has stated that the prosecution’s heavy-handed persecution of Manning has undermined the government’s credibility.
Furthermore, Manning’s treatment caused an investigation by the United Nations special rapporteur on torture, Juan Mendez. Mendez’s requests to visit Manning were repeatedly denied, and after 14 months of investigation, he issued a statement concluding Manning’s treatment was “cruel and inhuman.”
Assata Shakur
Black Panther activist Assata Shakur was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a New Jersey State Trooper. She spent six and a half years in prison in what she calls “brutal circumstances” before escaping from the maximum security wing of the Clinton Correctional Facility for Women in New Jersey in 1979 and moving to Cuba in 1984. According to Shakur, she was pulled over by the New Jersey State Police, shot twice, and then charged with murder of a police officer.
The FBI itself has admitted that COINTELPRO—a Counterintelligence Program launched in 1956 to disrupt Communities Party activity that was later expanded to include domestic groups including the Black Panther Party—was “rightfully criticized by Congress and the American people for abridging first amendment rights and for other reasons.”
The FBI has also admitted to enlisting the cooperation of local police departments to disrupt and “neutralize” the Black Panther Party. With micro- and macro-government vendettas against prominent black activists (which is still very much alive today), how could Shakur rely on the U.S. Department of Justice to give her a fair trial?
She writes on her website that she’s a “20th century escaped slave”:
Because of government persecution, I was left with no other choice than to flee from the political repression, racism and violence that dominate the US government’s policy towards people of color. I am an ex political prisoner, and I have been living in exile in Cuba since 1984. I have been a political activist most of my life, and although the U.S. government has done everything in its power to criminalize me, I am not a criminal, nor have I ever been one. In the 1960s, I participated in various struggles: the black liberation movement, the student rights movement, and the movement to end the war in Vietnam. I joined the Black Panther Party.
By 1969 the Black Panther Party had become the number one organization targeted by the FBI’s COINTELPRO program. Because the Black Panther Party demanded the total liberation of black people, J. Edgar Hoover called it “greatest threat to the internal security of the country” and vowed to destroy it and its leaders and activists.
In 2015, musician Common was pulled from a commencement speech at Kean University because of police complaints against “A Song for Assata.” Also that year, Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza wrote: “When I use Assata’s powerful demand in my organizing work, I always begin by sharing where it comes from, sharing about Assata’s significance to the Black Liberation Movement, what its political purpose and message is, and why it’s important in our context.” Today, there’s even a Chicago-based collective of radical Black women called Assata’s Daughters.
Earlier this year, Obama said Cuba had agreed to “help resolve the cases of several U.S. fugitives living in Cuba,” including Shakur, the Independent reported.
Oscar López Rivera
Oscar López Rivera has become the longest-held political prisoner in the history of Puerto Rico, after being sentenced to 70 years in prison in 1981. López Rivera was a Chicago-based activist fighting discrimination and police brutality in Puerto Rican communities in the ‘60s.
He was not convicted of killing or harming anyone, but rather “seditious conspiracy”—plotting “against the U.S.” to further Puerto Rican independence. In reality, López Rivera was fighting for the very American principle of no taxation without representation. Puerto Rico is neither a sovereign country nor the 51st state, so its people are U.S. citizens that could be drafted into the military—but can’t even vote for president or Congress representatives.
In 1999, then-president Bill Clinton used his final days in office to grant a presidential pardon to 11 Puerto Rican independence fighters under the condition that they renounce violence, according to the Washington Post. López Rivera was offered a lesser deal; he renounced violence but ultimately refused the deal because he said he had no faith in the U.S. government “sticking to its side of the bargain,” the Guardian reported. According to the publication:
Two decades ago he and his fellow Puerto Rican independence fighters renounced violence and embraced peaceful political reform. The last year in which the militant group to which he belonged committed a violent act was 1983.
Yet López Rivera still sits in prison.
Prominent supporters of pardoning López Rivera include Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro García Padilla, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, former president Jimmy Carter, and Pulitzer Prize-winning Lin-Manuel Miranda, who confronted Obama about López Rivera face to face during a recent White House visit.
by Meena Kandasamy
@meenakandasamy Meena Kandasamy is a poet, fiction writer, translator and activist who lives in Chennai and London. via Al Jazeera with thanks
Protests for freedom of the 2 rescuers.–Freedom for Bego and Mikel- –No person is Illegal–.
From our comrades in Greece we have learned that during 
