Thursday, September 8, 2011

Pan-Africanism or imperialism? Unity and struggle towards a new democratic Africa

"Fourth, therefore, Pan-Africanism must be a bottom–up people's ideology putting pressures on their states and monitoring their actions rather than a top–down statist programme or plan. People's Pan-Africanists must be wary of African states and their imperialist backers who wrap up their ‘nepadisms’ in the garb of Pan-Africanism."
By: Issa Shivji
SOURCE: PAMBAZUKA NEWS:
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/55473

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Haiti's President is demanding answers after an 18-year-old man alleged he was raped by UN soldiers

September 05, 2011 - Haiti's President is demanding answers after an 18-year-old man alleged he was raped by UN soldiers from Uruguay.

Mobile phone footage of the alleged attack has also surfaced, fueling anger in the country.

Please note that Nazanin Sadri's report contains images some viewers may find disturbing.http://youtu.be/akLT9rWGwTU

Continuing to struggle rather than celebrating freedom (Pambazuka News)

‘The leader pacifies the people. For years on end after independence has been won, we see him, incapable of urging on the people to a concrete task, unable really to open the future to them or of flinging them into the path of national reconstruction, that is to say, of their own reconstruction; we see him reassessing the history of independence and recalling the sacred unity of the struggle for liberation.'
By: Reverend Mavuso Mbhekeseni
SOURCE: PAMBAZUKA NEWS
http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/75745

Why It Took Eleven Months Instead of Three Weeks to Show that Haiti’s Cholera Is Nepalese

"When the UN Security Council next considers MINUSTAH's mandate in mid-October of this year, Drs. Renaud Piarroux, Frank Aarestrup, and Paul Keim should stand up and explain why MINUSTAH troops must be immediately removed from Haiti so as to prevent new epidemics. The scientists should additionally propose that MINUSTAH countries make reparations for polluting Haiti's rivers and aquifers."
By Dady Chery, Columnist.
SOURCE: Axis of Logic
http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_63656.shtml

Is this Minustah's 'Abu Ghraib moment' in Haiti?

"The video is profoundly disturbing. It shows four men, identified as Uruguayan troops from the UN mission in Haiti (Minustah), seemingly in the act of raping an 18-year-old Haitian youth. Two have the victim pinned down on a mattress, with his hands twisted high up his back so that he cannot move. Perhaps the most unnerving part of the video is the constant chorus of laughter from the alleged perpetrators...."
By Mark Weisbrot
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN, UK:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/sep/03/minustah-un-haiti-abuse

Famine in Somalia caused by imperialism!

Despite the propaganda campaign of constant images of Africans starving, the objective material reality is that Africa can feed itself and the world.

In fact, Africa is so fertile that, in 2009, the U.S. think tank Oakland Institute reported how hedge funds and speculators had acquired farming land in Africa the size of France to grow food for Bio-fuels.
By: Libanga Tika-kongo
SOURCE: UHURU NEWS:
http://uhurunews.com/story?resource_name=famine-in-somalia-caused-by-us

Dr. King's Memorial Is About the Reality, Not the "Dream"

 "He was not about elected positions and presidents; he was about people. Dr. King was not about tax breaks for the wealthiest of us; he was about social programs for the least of us. He was not about a war in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Libya. He saw "... war as an enemy of the poor ..." and attacked it as such."

by: Dr. Wilmer J. Leon III
SOURCE: http://www.truth-out.org/dr-kings-memorial-about-reality-not-dream/1314383761

Martin Luther King and the fate of the civil rights movement

In his courageous public denunciation of the war in Vietnam, King said, “We are criminals in that war” and “have committed more war crimes almost than any nation in the world.” He also branded the United States government “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.”
Martin Luther King and the fate of the civil rights movement

UN to memorialize victims of slavery, slave trade (ShareNews)

""This is an important occasion as we come together to share and disseminate new knowledge that would lead to a better understanding of the causes and consequences of slavery and its impact on society today while addressing other critical social issues such as racism and discrimination," said Robert Hache, York University's vice-president of research and innovation."
By:RON FANFAIR
Source: SHARENEWS:
http://www.sharenews.com/local-news/2011/08/25/un-memorialize-victims-slavery-slave-trade

Crisis In The Congo: Uncovering The Truth (documentary)

Crisis in the Congo: Uncovering The Truth explores the role that the United States allies, Rwanda and Uganda, have played in triggering the greatest humanitarian crisis at the dawn of the 21st century.
Support the completion of the film: http://congojustice.org/take-action/
Sign The Petition:http://www.change.org/petitions/fully-implement-public-law-109-456
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CrisisInTheCongo
Twitter: http://twitter.com/CongoCrisis
Congo Resources: http://friendsofthecongo.org

ARMED GROUPS AND MINERAL EXPLOITATION IN THE CONGO

"Mineral exploitation, the object of activism and legislation, is but one source of revenue for these armed groups. They literally rule over the territories they control, taxing every economic activity and terrorizing the civilians into submission. Losing access to the mines will marginally affect their capacity to generate funds, considering that weapons and ammunitions are relatively inexpensive."
By: Mvemba Dizolele
SOURCE: Dizolele's Eye on Africa
http://dizolele.com/?p=422

Somalia: Global war on terror and the humanitarian crisis (Pambazuka News)

"The US government’s counterterrorism activities and ‘humanitarian’ assistance in Somalia and the Horn of Africa go a long way towards explaining the region’s entrenched problems, writes Horace Campbell."
By: Horace Campbell
Source: Pambazuka News
http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/75805

Richard Hart - Caribbean Labour Rebellions

"The labour rebellions of the 1930s increased the self confidence of the workers in these colonies and convinced them of the influence they could exert by united action. The principal immediate benefit that the workers derived from the rebellions....a realisation of the need to bring trade union legislation in all the colonies into line with legislation in Britain." 
SOURCE: SOCIALIST HISTORY SOCIETY:
http://www.socialisthistorysociety.co.uk/HART.HTM

The struggle to convert nationalism to Pan-Africanism (Pambazuka News)

"And I have called for a reconstruction of a new Pan-Africanist grand narrative to face the unfinished tasks of national liberation and move forward to the tasks of social emancipation. Throughout the history of humankind, masses have been moved by the grand narrative of liberty, freedom, justice and emancipation to bring about change – sometimes revolutionary changes, at other times not so revolutionary." By Issa Shivji
SOURCE: PAMBAZUKA NEWS:
http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/75620

 

Pambazuka - Thinking and living Fanon

"Frantz Fanon is the relatively unconsidered psychiatrist, philosopher and revolutionary who dedicated his life to the liberation of the African continent and theorising the racialised black experience. As a philosopher on the experience of being black, he is an extremely relevant and useful entry point into the conversation of race in South Africa today." 
(by Chantelle Malan and Danielle Bowler)
SOURCE: PAMBAZUKA NEWS:
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/75775

Labour leadership still mostly White and male (By MURPHY BROWNE)

"Racialized people had been a part of Canada's labour force for centuries, including the contribution of native Canadians to the fur trade which enriched European traders; enslaved Africans who laboured without pay (1628-1834) and the Chinese who built the railroad with massive loss of life....there was blatantly racist exclusion of these workers from the celebration of Labour Day in those early days." (By MURPHY BROWNE)
SOURCE: SHARENEWS:
http://www.sharenews.com/opinion/2010/09/01/labour-leadership-still-mostly-white-and-male

Barrick caught with blood on its hands

"After relaying the details of the corruption and violence near the mine site – including fresh allegations of gang-rape by Barrick security – York expresses skepticism that Barrick’s promises of investigating the matter will bring justice. “In each case, however, the police will be investigating themselves,” he writes, “something that is unlikely to reassure the 68,000 people in the villages around the mine.”
SOURCE: BASICS NEWS:
http://basicsnews.ca/2011/07/barrick-caught-with-blood-on-its-hands/

Pambazuka - Pan-Africanism or imperialism? Unity and struggle towards a new democratic Africa

"Fourth, therefore, Pan-Africanism must be a bottom–up people's ideology putting pressures on their states and monitoring their actions rather than a top–down statist programme or plan. People's Pan-Africanists must be wary of African states and their imperialist backers who wrap up their ‘nepadisms’ in the garb of Pan-Africanism."
SOURCE: PAMBAZUKA NEWS:
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/55473

Pan-Africanism in Mwalimu Nyerere’s thought

"Outlining the essential differences between the respective approaches of Julius Nyerere and Kwame Nkrumah, Issa G. Shivji discusses the gradualist and radical positions of two pillars of the Pan-Africanist movement....Shivji stresses that genuine African nationalism can only ever be Pan-Africanism."
SOURCE: PAMBAZUKA NEWS: 
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/56108