from thefreeoinline on 21st Dec 202  By Dr. Westen K. Shilah at HomeAfrica

Foreign interventions cannot solve security problems in Haiti, as long as they remain the main reason for insecurity in the country

By Dr. Westen K. Shilaho, scholar of Political Science and International Relations, Senior Research Fellow in Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation, University of Johannesburg

FILE PHOTO: Police officers patrol a neighborhood amid gang-related violence in downtown Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on April 25, 2023. ©  Richard PIERRIN / AFP

Last month Kenyan lawmakers approved a plan to send 1,000 police officers to Haiti ostensibly to counter gang violence and restore law and order, as part of the UN-backed Multinational Security Support Mission in Haiti.

 Workers in Haiti considered ‘salaried slaves’ – The Free

The mission, for an initial period of 12 months, was approved through the adoption of the Security Council resolution 2699 (2023). At the US behest, the Kenyan government agreed to head this multinational security force to stabilize the Caribbean nation paralyzed by crime. 

The latest deterioration of the situation in Haiti, the poorest country in the northern hemisphere, came following the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July 2021.

Uprising Intensifies in Haiti as Fuel Costs Continue to Rise / by It’s Going Down

US Chooses Shameful Hypocrisy in Forcibly Returning Haitians

But the country has been beset by turmoil since it gained independence in 1804. It was the first black nation to gain independence, and more poignantly, free itself from slavery.

What should be a symbol of black people’s resistance and triumph over imperial subjugation, a historic and gallant black nation, has been reduced to a metaphor for violence, chaos, and political instability.

Haiti’s homicide rate is so high that life expectancy “is conditionally renewable every 24 hours”. On top of that, its sorry state has been compounded by frequent natural disasters.

The existential threat to Haiti’s stability, however, is the erosion of its sovereignty by the French – its former colonisers – and the US. France for over a century brazenly looted Haiti’s resources and forced it to pay for loss of slaves and its slave colony.

This larceny hollowed out the state, obliterated its capacity and impoverished Haiti. Numerous coups, some engineered by the US, ensured instability.

For Haiti to stabilize, imperialism, and neocolonialism must be neutralized. Poorly thought-out UN-backed interventions failed before because there is no military solution to Haiti’s challenges, and this latest one is likely to end the same way.

Gangs, cholera and political turmoil leave half Haiti’s children relying on aid – The Free

Kenya’s decision to deploy police officers and other supporting personnel to Haiti has elicited mixed reactions

. The government insists that it has an “international” obligation to contribute to stabilizing Haiti, part of Africa’s diaspora.

The phrase “international standards” is ubiquitous among the Kenyan elite. It betrays a Eurocentric mindset that conflates Westernization with Modernization.

Kenya ready for peacekeeping mission in Haiti

Critics question the wisdom behind deploying the police to Haiti, yet Kenya has insecurity issues of its own. Kenya’s acquiescence to lead this mission flies in the face of Pan-Africanism.

Kenya is seen as a lackey of the US in undermining the sovereignty of a fellow black country, perpetrating imperialism, and occupation. 

Continue reading “Proxy colonialism in Haiti: West is using Kenya as an imperial accomplice”

from thefreeonline on 20th December 2023 by banned World News.

650,000 brave men have defied the Ukrainian police state and fierce media pressure to join the insane slaughter, fleeing the country, 0ften to where their families are waiting, in the EU

Some 74% of men and 65% of women said they would opt to hand over their passports to avoid a useless death in the demoralised Ukrainian army, in Facebook surveys

FILE PHOTO: Mariana Bezuglaya, extreme Right deputy chair of National Security, Defense and Intelligence

A majority of Ukrainians responding to a Facebook poll by a leading lawmaker have said they would be willing to renounce their citizenship in order to avoid being drafted into the military.

Potential conscripts evade draft, flee country

Nearly 500,000 Ukrainian soldiers now “dead or badly wounded”… Dec 2023

According to Russia 125,000 have been ‘lost’ just in the first part of this year year’s bungled Great Offensive (2023). Under Martial Law desperate police are raiding bars, clubs, saunas etc and chasing down any men they can find.

Continue reading “650,000 flee Ukraine to escape forced draft – 74% happy to give up citizenship to avoid suicidal conscription”

from thefreeonline  by Thompson Chau On 20 Dec 2023 at Al Jazeera

Close to the generals and ethnic armed groups who began a major offensive in October, Beijing brought both to the table. However, as a creation of colonial looting Myanmar is a mix of ethnic cultures, religions, and capitalist predators, fighting continues.

A Karenni Nationalities Defence Force soldier helps civilians evacuate amid the military bombing of Loikaw in November

Bangkok/Taipei – China has emerged as the dominant foreign power in terms of shaping possible outcomes in Myanmar’s spiralling political crisis as Beijing seeks to exert its influence over several armed groups who have staged the biggest challenge to the generals since they seized power in the February 2021 coup. 

 Myanmar: A Rebellion built on Hope – Anarchist Woman Guerilla Leisa Speaks Out – – The Free

Beijing last week pushed the three powerful ethnic armies – the Arakan Army (AA), the Mandarin-speaking Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) – to agree to a truce after fighters working with anti-coup coalitions across Myanmar pushed Senior General Min Aung Hlaing’s military out of swathes of the north, overran hundreds of military outposts and seized control of border crossings with China under Operation 1027.

Operation 1027Alliance of ethnic armed groups, AA, Tiang and MNDAA says it has taken a key border town and overrun dozens of military bases. December 2023

European nations join Myanmar genocide caseThe case at the UN’s top court accuses Yangon of committing genocide against people belonging to the Rohingya community …17 Nov 2023

• ‘Fighting is all around’: Myanmar faces deepening humanitarian crisis
• Hundreds of Thais trapped by clashes in northern Myanmar being evacuated

China’s ceasefire announcement followed talks in its southwestern city of Kunming between the State Administration Council (SAC), as Myanmar’s coup leaders call themselves, and the Three Brotherhood Alliance, the coalition of the AA, MNDAA and TNLA, which is driving the 1027 offensive.

The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA)^{[n 1} https://www.burmalink.org/tag/mndaa/page/5/

Continue reading “Tentative truce shows China’s influence – and its limits – in Myanmar- fighting continues”

Hundreds of Palestinian civilians, including children and elderly, are held hostage in ‘Sde Teman’ military camp in inhumane conditions. Press TV – December 19, 2023 A Geneva-based rights group has called for an urgent international investigation into torture and murder of Palestinian abductees held in Israel’s “Guantanamo-like” jails. In a statement released on Monday, the […]

In a statement released on Monday, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said it had gathered testimonies confirming recent reports in Israeli media about the regime’s field execution of the Gaza abductees.

Rights Monitor Demands Probe of Israel’s ‘Guantánamo-Like’ Prison

The Sde Teman Israeli army camp has been turned into “a new Guantanamo-like prison,” where detainees lose their lives after being subjected to extreme torture and mistreatment, it added.

The Israeli army uses open-air chicken coops to house the inmates and withhold food or drink for long periods of time.

The rights group also noted that the Palestinians held in Sde Teman are caged in inhumane conditions, blindfolded and subjected to harsh interrogations with their hands tied.

It further said that turning on lights at night, as well as barring the abductees from using phones and meeting lawyers and representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) are among the torture tactics being used at the Israeli jail.

The testimonies affirm that multiple elderly abductees endured cruel beatings and humiliating treatment, Euro-Med said.

One of the released detainees, who was speaking on condition of anonymity, said that he witnessed Israeli soldiers directly shooting and killing five abductees in separate incidents.

Earlier, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported the deaths of six Palestinians in Israeli prisons since the beginning of Israel’s ongoing bloody war on Gaza.

Despite evidence of violence preceding the inmates’ death or medical neglect – their cause of death was not established, according to the report.

It added that Just 71 out of 500 Palestinians arrested during the Gaza war have been brought before Israeli courts, and that the remaining detainees have been moved to prisons run by the Israeli Prison Service or to detention facilities run by the regime’s so-called internal security service, Shin Bet.

Previously, the Euro-Med field teams documented the detention of more than 1,200 Palestinian civilians in random Israeli arrest campaigns across Gaza during Israel’s onslaught on the besieged territory.

The abductees were subjected to all forms of beatings and ill-treatment during their detention and purposefully left blindfolded, nearly nude, and kneeling on the ground upon their release.

Israel waged the devastating war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian Hamas resistance group carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

Since the start of the aggression against Gaza, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 19,453 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 52,286 others.

Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under the rubble in Gaza, which is under “complete siege” by Israel.

via thefreeonline…  Al Jazeera./

12 percent of global trade passes the Red Sea via the Suez Canal. 12 shipping companies have suspended transit

BREAKINGAt least 29 killed as Israeli forces destroy residential buildings in RafahBREAKINGIsraeli attacks have killed at least 19,667 people in Gaza since October 7

US launches maritime coalition to counter attacks .. Ansarallah govt says are a response to Israeli Genocide in Gaza Strip– vows to continue

Published On 19 Dec 2023

• What’s the impact of the Houthis hijacking a ship in the Red Sea?
• Houthis target Israel-linked ships in Red Sea. Here’s what you need to know
• Yemen’s Houthis say they attacked two more vessels in the Red Sea
• US announces 10-nation force to counter Houthi attacks in Red Sea

The Houthis would only halt their attacks if Israel’s “crimes in Gaza stop and food, medicines and fuel are allowed to reach its besieged population”, al-Bukhaiti said.

He spoke after US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced a coalition on Monday to protect trade in the Red Sea after the attacks forced shipping lines to suspend operations.

The Iran-linked Houthis have waged attacks on more than a dozen commercial ships in an attempt to pressure Israel to end its bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

“These reckless Houthi attacks are a serious international problem and they demand a firm international response,” Austin said about the new 10-nation coalition. He said the force would operate “with the goal of ensuring freedom of navigation for all countries and bolstering regional security and prosperity”.

After the US announcement, Houthi Major General Yusuf al-Madani said in a statement: “Any escalation in Gaza is an escalation in the Red Sea … Any country or party that comes between us and Palestine, we will confront it.”

Spokesperson al-Bukhaiti told Al Jazeera on Monday that the group would confront any US-led coalition in the Red Sea.

Not an act of ‘defiance’

“You have the military establishment in Yemen, in the areas controlled by the Houthis, warning that they will continue to target ships cruising through the Bab el-Mandeb strait and the Red Sea and they insist they are doing this to protect people in Gaza, in particular,” Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra said, reporting from Doha on Tuesday.

“A top Houthi official, Mohammed Abdulsalam, who is also a senior negotiator, said the attacks by the Houthis are not an act of defiance but if this new coalition is adamant on launching attacks, then they will have to bear the consequences of what he described as a broader conflict in the region.

“But he said at the same time that the Houthis are still adamant on the need for the Israelis to stop the war if they want the Houthis to stop the attacks,” our correspondent added.

On Tuesday, Abdulsalam told Reuters news agency that the US-led naval patrol mission is “essentially unnecessary” – as all waters near Yemen are still safe, except for Israel-linked ships or vessels travelling to Israel.

The US and British navies said over the weekend that their destroyers had shot down a total of 15 drones in the waterway.

In the latest incident on Tuesday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, said four small boats, each carrying four to five people, approached a vessel off the coast of Djibouti in a “suspicious” manoeuvre – but that no weapons were seen during the incident.

At least 12 shipping companies, including the Italian-Swiss giant Mediterranean Shipping Company, France’s CMA CGM and Denmark’s AP Moller-Maersk, have suspended transit through the Red Sea due to safety concerns. UK oil giant BP on Monday became the latest firm to announce it would avoid the waters.

About 12 percent of global trade passes through the Red Sea, which connects to the Mediterranean Sea via the Suez Canal.

Houthi attacks have effectively rerouted a significant portion of trade by forcing freight companies to sail around Africa, imposing higher costs and delays for energy, food and consumer goods deliveries.

Ahmed Helal, MENA director at The Global Counsel, told Al Jazeera the “cascading impact” of the crisis is on inflation. “Major central banks have been cutting interest rates to combat inflation and bring prices down for consumers. But this disruption in a major global trade artery affects regular goods and energy, both oil and natural gas,” he said.

He added that because of the Houthi attacks, and the ongoing disruption of natural gas supplies to Europe as a result of the Ukraine war, “European natural gas prices jump by 12 percent, UK natural gas prices jump by 10 percent, and the price of oil also jumped by 4 percent in the past 24 hours”.

• Israel-Palestine conflict
• Live updates
• Know their names: West Bank
• Tunnel warfare
• Photos
• What role is AI playing?
• ‘We are dying here’
• A brief history
• Live tracker
• Did tech dependence cause intel failure?
• A simple guide

News|Israel-Palestine conflict

 on 21st Dev 2023 by CrimethInc

Take Matters in Your Own Hands

Steal Something from Work Day 2023

This bombshell essay is part of Crimethinc’s coverage of Steal Something from Work Day 2023. See ‘Further Reading’ links below for much more info.

Welcome to Steal Something from Work Day coverage from 2023! Every year, we observe this day as an opportunity to reflect on the individualized forms of anti-capitalist resistance that millions upon millions of employees engage in on a daily basis, and to imagine forms of collective action that could start with take this .

Today, we’ll zoom in on a particular variant of workplace theft: the leak.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/817857478?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0 Cheers to Yugoslavian film director Dušan Makavejev and hip-hop duo Test Their Logik.

Leak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace

There are many things you can steal from work. You could steal money, time, goods, raw materials, access to specialized equipment. Another thing you could steal is information. For this year’s Steal Something from Work Day, let’s talk about the last of these.

In the information age, knowledge is power. The circulation of classified information is integral to the lattice of repressive institutions that maintain the prevailing order. Information is the blood in the bloodstream of the beast.

Controlling which information circulates and which does not has always been central to statecraft. But in the heyday of social media, this is arguably the most determinant aspect of rule itself, even more so than military force.

“In a digitally interconnected world, whoever has the most robust networks, the right relationship between visible and opaque channels, and the most persuasive narrative will triumph. Communication and coordination trump brute force when any clash can draw in a potentially infinite number of participants on either side.”

–Canary in the Coal Mine: Twitter and the End of Social Media

In a globalized economy in which work has penetrated into every corner of our lives, practically every worker is accustomed to inhabiting multiple identities and being subject to conflicting loyalties. The battle lines of social conflict now cut directly through the heart of every ordinary civilian. One weapon in these battles is the information leak.

Information leaks can serve a variety of agendas. On the one hand, they can destabilize established power.

For example, embassy cables published by Wikileaks played a role in catalyzing the revolution that brought down president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia, sparking a global wave of uprisings that lasted from 2011 through 2014.

On the other hand, defenders of the prevailing order can use leaks to circulate cherry-picked information, as well. Intentionally or not, the advance leak of the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe vs. Wade arguably served to defuse resistance, giving the general public a chance to get used to the bad news before it was confirmed and ensuring that those who might otherwise have been shocked into action joined predictable liberal demonstrations.

Still, as a persistent strategy aimed at the reigning power structure, leaking information has considerable advantages.

WikiLeaks: Tunisia knew its rulers were debauched. But leaks still had impact

The less that the various institutions of repression can trust each other and their own employees, the more difficult it becomes for them to respond rapidly and coordinate with each other.

We saw this in the administration of Donald Trump in 2017, when a series of leaks eroded trust within the regime. If information is the blood in the bloodstream of the security state, persistent leaks coagulate that blood.

Today, it is widely understood that our society is headed directly for economic and ecological disaster, but the authorities have yet to take meaningful steps to change course.

When millions are complicit in structures that they know to be destructive and doomed, this creates the conditions in which formerly complacent employees may choose to carry out individual acts of subversion from within the halls of power.

This is not the first time that such conditions have developed in the American workplace. At the end of the 1960s, the Vietnam War contributed to an erosion of faith in the United States government and associated corporations and industries.

In late 1969, with the assistance of his former RAND Corporation colleague Anthony Russo, Daniel Ellsberg secretly made photocopies of a number of classified documents that became known as the Pentagon Papers.

Ellsberg set out to reestablish contact with anarchist poet Gary Snyder, with whom he had previously debated US foreign policy, and put the Pentagon Papers into circulation.

Inspired by by Daniel Ellsberg’s action, former National Security Agency employee Perry Fellwock revealed the existence of the NSA and its worldwide covert surveillance network.

Peter Buxtun, an employee of the United States Public Health Service, revealed the existence of the Tuskegee syphilis experiment in 1972.

Many more revelations followed, impacting the nuclear power and petroleum industries as well as various government agencies.

Three decades later, the Iraq War created a similar erosion of faith. When US army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning discovered that she was, in her words, “actively involved in something that [she] was completely against,” she began bringing rewritable CDs to her job:

I would come in with music on a CD-RW, labelled with something like “Lady Gaga”… erase the music… then write a compressed split file. No one suspected a thing. […]

You had people working 14 hours a day… every single day… no weekends… no recreation… people stopped caring after three weeks.

Exemplifying the spirit of Steal Something from Work Day, Manning “listened and lip-synced to Lady Gaga’s ‘Telephone’ while exfiltratrating possibly the largest data spillage in Nth American history.”

Continue reading “Leak it Now- How Citizens change the World leaking the Bosses’ Crimes -Crimethinc”

from thefreeonline on 13th Dec 2023 by Argentina. Indymedia. via Red Latina sin fronteras
Faced with the Cutbacks and the new debt announced, we redouble our unity and resistance

On 12/13, an open meeting of the “Self-call for the suspension of payment and investigation of the debt” was held, convened by the member organizations of the space after the assumption of Javier Milei and the deployment of an adjustment plan on the popular sectors

Given the announcements of the new government, we call for a response in the broadest unity.

Milei’s mask is falling. The mega-adjustment and devaluation that he promised to the IMF, along with the commitment to pay the debt, are the only thing that remains of the campaign rhetoric. Not to mention “caste”.

With the first announcements, it has been clearly shown that it is the government of the dominant classes and their international bosses, without mediation. With Caputo they assume those directly responsible for the debt and looting of Argentina. They come for everything.

The crumbs with which it boasts of helping the recipients of the planned misery do not even come close to compensating for the incentivized hyperinflation and the announced adjustment.

It is a brutal attack against the working people, the territories, the bodies and all of nature, in order to unload the full weight of the crisis on them: immediate devaluation of 118%;

Drastic increase in transportation, water and energy; state layoffs and maximum delay in their income; the same in retirements and social benefits; closure or degradation of organizations and public policies for the defense of our Sovereignty, Rights and Social Justice; new awards for exporters and importers including a new nationalization of their doubtful debts; deepening of the dependent, extractivist and debtor model.

The vaunted Freedom will only exist for price-forming monopolies, banks and speculators.

They tell us that “there is no money,” but they intend to continue deriving every penny produced in the country, what was obtained from the looting of our natural assets and the privatization of state companies, to “honor” said scam.

Continue reading “Argentina-Self-callout: Enough already of ‘Cutbacks’ and Looting – English/Spanish”