Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
March 25, 2018
Hello All – Yesterday's student-led demonstrations were magnificent. More than 800 demonstrations were held around the world, with at least a million people participating. There are already hundreds of videos and picture-sets up on the Internet – for starters, check out Susan Rutman's pictures and this excellent video of the march in White Plains (c. 5,000 people); Erik McGregor's pictures of the march in NYC (more than 100,000 people); and some video from the rally in Washington, DC (a zillion people) and around the world. NB esp. the powerful speech, and long moments of silence, from Emma Gonzalez. (More pictures/video are posted on the CFOW Facebook page.)
In the days ahead, we have a lot to think/talk about; about what happened Saturday (and the weeks leading up to it), and where all this might go. Can/will this movement be sustained? Will state legislatures act? And will this movement, or the energy from Saturday's event, spill over into other efforts for reform, whether electoral and/or via mass movements?
To kick off some discussion, I offer here a few thoughts:
To date, the students organizing this movement have shown that they are beyond competent to organize, produce, and frame their message. This has been true not only for the Florida students, but for the organizers in White Plains as well, and I suspect in high schools across the country.
The widespread (universal?) decision to exclude politicians from any significant role in Saturday's events, and not to tie their legislative program to the leadership of the Democratic Party, is brilliant and commendable. Simply in itself, this is a perceptive indictment of the US political system as it really exists, recognition that we, the people, have little real or effective representation in the nation's legislatures. This is extremely radical, but flows from daily experience and common sense.
In White Plains and in the media coverage of other marches, I heard both students and adults voicing a recognition that the current generation of adults has failed to make the changes we need, and that a new generation must take over. Whether this is fair to the "older generation," and not over-optimistic about the new generation, is irrelevant. To me it is reminiscent of the atmosphere of the early 1960s, with the civil rights movement and the cultural rebellion against the "Silent Generation" of the 1950s. A supernova of new energy can and will reach far beyond the student generation itself.
While the focus of the marches and rallies was on gun-control and opposed to gun-violence, the signs, chants, and slogans of the participants demonstrated a deeply imbedded understanding that our political and social systems – indeed, our national psychology – are in crisis. Students understand that things are connected. Guns, cruelty, violence, are part of a broader loveless political culture, which they reject as intolerable and unacceptable. In the early days of the Civil Rights movement, so much was built on the idea of a "Beloved Community"; and this seems to be what students are experiencing today.
Finally, I think it is clear that the chances of war in the near term are very high. Trump's new "War Cabinet" (Bolton, Pompeo, Matthis, etc.) have North Korea and Iran in their sights, and war tensions will soon rise. The Democrats, the "Resistance," and other newly energized anti-Trump forces have shown zero interest in combating the drift to war. Will/can the student movement change this?
And there are many more questions. Please join the discussion.
News Notes
Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman is featured in the NBC/MSNBC documentary airing tonight (9 p.m.) called Hope & Fury: MLK, the Movement and the Media. For more information and to see a trailer, go here.
This week the trial of an anti-pipeline activist in Montana, who had turned a valve to cut off the flow of tar sands oil, resulted in only minimal charges against the defendant, 66-year-old Leonard Higgins. Read about this important development (for the "necessity defense") here and here.
As reported in a previous CFOW newsletter, the poisoning of a former Russian double-agent in Salisbury, England, blamed by the British government on the Russians, raises many questions of logic and evidence, while furthering the Western "Red Scare." Here is a useful update on the case.
Among the thousands of victims of Turkey's fascist government are many of the country's intellectuals and artists, accused of Thought Crimes. In a move timed to coincide with the first anniversary of her imprisonment, Banksy has returned to New York after a five-year hiatus to paint a mural in honor of political prisoner Zehra Doğan, a Kurdish painter and journalist sentenced to almost three years for painting a watercolor of Nasyabin, a city in Turkish Kurdistan reduced to rubble by Turkish Army forces while fighting Kurdish rebels. Read this bitter but interesting story here.
Ahed Tamimi, the Palestinian teenager who is now internationally famous for slapping an Israeli soldier harassing her family, has been sentenced to serve eight months in an Israeli jail. Her mother was also convicted and sentenced to eight months in jail, in her case for "incitement," as she recorded Ahed's arrest and posted the video online.
Things to Do/Coming Attractions
Ongoing – CFOW holds a vigil/rally each Saturday at the VFW Plaza in Hastings (Warburton and Spring) from 12 to 1 p.m. Everyone invited; please join us!
Ongoing – CFOW stalwart Elisa Zazzera manages Hastings' "Community Supported Agriculture" (CSA). The CSA partners with an upstate farm to provide fresh vegetables each Wednesday. Highly recommended. To learn more about this, and/or to sign up for the next growing season, go here.
Saturday, April 7th – Col. Ann Wright, active in so many things, will speak about the 2018 Gaza Freedom Flotilla at the Unitarian Church of All Souls, 1157 Lexington Ave. in NYC, starting at 7 p.m. Her talk is sponsored by Jews Say No! and Vets for Peace, Chapter 34 in NYC.
Sunday, April 8th – The CFOW monthly meeting will be held at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society, 12 Elm St. in Dobbs, from 7 to 9 p.m. At these meetings we review what we've done over the past month and make plans for the next month. Everyone is welcome at these meetings.
Saturday, April 14th - "Know Drones" (Nick Mottern), Code Pink, WESPAC, and several other organizations will hold a "Rally & March for Peace & Economic Justice" in Greenwich, CT from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. (More information coming soon.)
CFOW Nuts & Bolts
Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester. We meet for a protest/rally each Saturday in Hastings, from 12 to 1 p.m., at the VFW Plaza (Warburton and Spring St.) Our leaflet and posters for our rallies are usually about war or climate change, but issues such as racial justice or Trump's tax cut legislation are often targeted, depending on current events. We meet on the first Sunday of each month, from 7 to 9 p.m., at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society. Our weekly newsletter is archived at https://cfow.blogspot.com/; and news of interest and coming events is posted on our CFOW Facebook page. If you would like to make a financial contribution to our work, please send your check to CFOW, PO Box 364, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706. Thanks!
This Newsletter
Articles linked in the CFOW newsletter are intended to illuminate some of the main action-issues about which we are concerned. Coming mostly from the "dissenting media," they provide an alternative to the perspectives of the mainstream media. In addition to the excellent "Featured Essays," I highly recommend the sets of articles on Yemen and newly appointed National Security Adviser John Bolton ("War & Peace"); a pair of articles on the dangers facing our immigrant neighbors ("State of the Union"); Richard Falk's provocative article on reframing the events in Israel at its founding in 1948 ("Israel/Palestine"); and Paul Buhle's brief memoir of Caribbean writer Wilson Harris ("Our History").
Rewards!
For this week's Rewards!, let's have a little respect for the old folks and remind the youngsters where we've been. First up is Sam Cooke and "A Change is Gonna' Come." Next, check out Sweet Honey in the Rock, singing "In the Morning When I Rise." And to recall a bit of student oratory, back in the day, here is Mario Savio and a snippet of his great speech from 1964 that energized the Berkeley Free Speech movement of that year. Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
FEATURED ESSAYS
15 Years Ago, America Destroyed My Country
By
---- Fifteen years ago today, the invasion of Iraq began. Three months later, I returned to Iraq for the first time since 1991 as part of a collective to film a documentary about Iraqis in a post-Saddam Iraq. We wanted to show my countrymen as three-dimensional beings, beyond the binary of Saddam versus the United States. In American media, Iraqis had been reduced to either victims of Saddam who longed for occupation or supporters and defenders of dictatorship who opposed the war. We wanted Iraqis to speak for themselves. For two weeks, we drove around Baghdad and spoke to many of its residents. Some were still hopeful, despite being drained by years of sanctions and dictatorship. But many were furious and worried about what was to come. The signs were already there: the typical arrogance and violence of a colonial occupying power. My short visit only confirmed my conviction and fear that the invasion would spell disaster for Iraqis. Removing Saddam was just a byproduct of another objective: dismantling the Iraqi state and its institutions. … No one knows for certain how many Iraqis have died as a result of the invasion 15 years ago. Some credible estimates put the number at more than one million. You can read that sentence again. The invasion of Iraq is often spoken of in the United States as a "blunder," or even a "colossal mistake." It was a crime. Those who perpetrated it are still at large. [Read More] For more on 15 years of war in Iraq, read Stephanie Savell, "15 Years After the Iraq Invasion, What Are the Costs?" [Link]; and Jeffrey St. Clair, "How They Sold the Iraq War," [Link].
The Battle for Paradise: Puerto Ricans and Ultrarich "Puertopians" Are Locked in a Pitched Struggle Over How to Remake the Island
By Naomi Klein, The Intercept [March 20, 2018]
---- It's hard to imagine an energy system more vulnerable to climate change-amplified shocks than Puerto Rico's. The island gets an astonishing 98 percent of its electricity from fossil fuels. But since it has no domestic supply of oil, gas, or coal, all of these fuels are imported by ship. They are then transported to a handful of hulking power plants by truck and pipeline. Next, the electricity those plants generate is transmitted across huge distances through above-ground wires and an underwater cable that connects the island of Vieques to the main island. The whole behemoth is monstrously expensive, resulting in electricity prices that are nearly twice the U.S. average. And just as environmentalists like Massol-Deyá had warned, Maria caused devastating ruptures within every tentacle of Puerto Rico's energy system. … This decentralized model doesn't eliminate risk, but it would make the kind of total power outage that Puerto Ricans suffered for months — and which hundreds of thousands are suffering still — a thing of the past. Whoever's solar panels survive the next storm would, like Casa Pueblo, be up and running the next day. And "solar panels are easy to replace," Massol-Deyá pointed out — unlike power lines and pipelines. [Read More]. Naomi Klein was on Democracy Now! this week, speaking about Puerto Rico; [See the Program]
---- It's hard to imagine an energy system more vulnerable to climate change-amplified shocks than Puerto Rico's. The island gets an astonishing 98 percent of its electricity from fossil fuels. But since it has no domestic supply of oil, gas, or coal, all of these fuels are imported by ship. They are then transported to a handful of hulking power plants by truck and pipeline. Next, the electricity those plants generate is transmitted across huge distances through above-ground wires and an underwater cable that connects the island of Vieques to the main island. The whole behemoth is monstrously expensive, resulting in electricity prices that are nearly twice the U.S. average. And just as environmentalists like Massol-Deyá had warned, Maria caused devastating ruptures within every tentacle of Puerto Rico's energy system. … This decentralized model doesn't eliminate risk, but it would make the kind of total power outage that Puerto Ricans suffered for months — and which hundreds of thousands are suffering still — a thing of the past. Whoever's solar panels survive the next storm would, like Casa Pueblo, be up and running the next day. And "solar panels are easy to replace," Massol-Deyá pointed out — unlike power lines and pipelines. [Read More]. Naomi Klein was on Democracy Now! this week, speaking about Puerto Rico; [See the Program]
We've Been Presented with Two Options: Militarization or Regulation
By Claire Devine, The Nation [March 23, 2018]
[FB - Claire Devine is a student at Jesuit High School in Portland, Oregon.]
---- For me, school has always been a refuge. I cannot imagine that sanctity violated by the introduction of weapons. Every day, I walk into my favorite history class and discuss structures of governments all over the world, and my teacher implores us to think deeply and critically about society. Now I imagine walking into the same classroom, wondering if that will be the day my teacher has to pull the gun out of his desk drawer, whether I am actually safe there, whether a loud bang in the room across the hall was just a chair falling. This could be the world of future high-school students: paranoia. High-schoolers get it: The gun debate is a farce to maintain money in politics and paranoia among the masses. Meanwhile, guns are fetishized in the media and have come to symbolize power and status. These all have worked together to get us where we are today, with many dead children as a result. They are also so deeply embedded in our society, and supported by powerful people, that it seems virtually impossible to change our country's priorities. But that still doesn't take away the fact that I want everyone in this country to have clean water, access to health care, and a place to live that is clean and safe and affordable. This is what most of the young people I know want and believe, too. The shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School revealed a deep, systematic failure, not a security failure. [Read More]
The Right Way to Remember Rachel Carson
By Jill Lepore, The New Yorker [March 26, 2018]
[FB – I'm at my monthly quota for The New Yorker, but I'm told this is an excellent/interesting essay.]
---- Not until the end of her life did she write the work for which she is now known. Before then, she had always thought of herself as a poet of the sea. [Read More]
WAR & PEACE
[FB – This has been a difficult week for antiwar people. We marked the 15th anniversary of the Iraq War. As noted in this Democracy Now! segment, the US Senate rejected Sen. Sanders' Resolution to demand that US support for the Saudi war against Yemen be brought into compliance with the War Powers Act of 1973, with 10 Senate Democrats supporting the pro-war position and voting against the Resolution, and liberal mainstream media outlets like MSNBC remaining totally silent. And that was just the beginning….]
The War in Yemen
Britain and the US must stop fuelling the bloody Saudi war on Yemen
By Patrick Wilcken, The Guardian [UK] [March 20, 2018]
[FB – Patrick Wilcken is a researcher on human rights and arms control for Amnesty International.]
---- The end of this week marks three tragedy-filled years for the people of Yemen, who have suffered from the Saudi-led military coalition's devastating – and often indiscriminate – bombing of their country. Fleets of fighter jets, the bulk from Saudi Arabia itself, have wreaked havoc on an impoverished country, with thousands of airstrikes on targets including hospitals, markets, homes, factories and funeral halls. Thousands of civilians have been killed, thousands more horribly injured. Collapsed infrastructure, coupled with a partial blockade, have deprived most of the population of clean water and proper healthcare, unleashing the worst cholera outbreak in modern history. Despite all this, western countries, led by the US and the UK, have supplied the Saudi-led coalition with huge amounts of advanced military equipment, facilitating a military campaign characterised by repeated violations of international humanitarian law, including possible war crimes. This conflict has revealed in the starkest possible terms the real cost of the lucrative global arms trade. [Read More]
(Video) Reformer or War Criminal? Saudi Crown Prince Welcomed in U.S. as Trump Touts Weapons Deals
From Democracy Now! [March 22, 2018]
---- On Tuesday, President Trump met with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House, where the two leaders finalized a $12.5 billion weapons deal. This comes less than a year after Trump announced a $110 billion arms deal with the Saudis. During the meeting, Trump held up posters of recent Saudi weapon purchases from the United States and said, "We make the best equipment in the world." Human rights groups warn the massive arms deal may make the United States complicit in war crimes committed in the Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen. We speak with Al Jazeera's Mehdi Hasan and Medea Benjamin of CodePink. [See the Program]. For more on this obscene arms deal, read Brett Wilkins, "Trump Touts $12.5B Saudi Arms Sale as US Support for Yemen War Literally Fuels Atrocities," [Link].
The Appointment of John Bolton, War Criminal
[FB – The appointment of John Bolton to be Trump's National Security Advisor practically guarantees that we will have a war before the November elections. Bolton is a terrible person, with a long history of warmongering. As investigative journalist Gareth Porter writes in the article linked below, Bolton has advocated/contrived at war against Iran for many years. We should expect that Trump (supported, sadly, by most of Congress) will begin to attack the Iran nuclear agreement soon. And just a few weeks ago, Bolton wrote an op-ed in The Wall St. Journal advocating war against North Korea. That this man is allowed to be on television is bad enough; but beginning in mid-April he will be "briefing" President Trump everyday on how to manage our empire, and when/where to use military force against non-cooperators.]
Let's call Bolton what he is, a War Criminal with Terrorist Ties, not just "Hawkish"
By Juan Cole, Informed Comment [March 23, 2018]
---- John Bolton helped lie our country into an illegal war of aggression that killed several hundred thousand Iraqis, wounded over a million, and displaced 4 million from their homes, helped deliver Baghdad into the hands of Iran, and helped create ISIL, which blew up Paris. In a just world, Bolton would be on trial at the Hague for war crimes. Instead, he has been promoted into a position to do to Iran what he did to Iraq. [Read More]
Apocalypse Soon? John Bolton Is Set to Replace H.R. McMaster as National-Security Adviser
By James Carden, The Nation [March 23, 2018]
---- The Bolton appointment comes soon after Trump's firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and his subsequent nominations of Mike Pompeo for Secretary of State and Gina Hapsel for the top job at CIA. These three will soon join hardline Secretary of Defense James Mattis to comprise something of a War Quartet within the cabinet and will almost certainly maneuver the US military into more needless conflicts abroad. This comes at a time when, by some estimates, the United States is waging at least nine (yes, nine) undeclared wars across the globe. Still more, Brown University's Cost of War project estimates that between 2015 and October 2017 the US military conducted air and drone strikes on seven countries and had combat troops deployed in 15 more. [Read More]
The Untold Story of John Bolton's Campaign for War With Iran
By March 22, 2018]
---- In my reporting on U.S.-Israeli policy, I have tracked numerous episodes in which the United States and/or Israel made moves that seemed to indicate preparations for war against Iran. Each time—in 2007, in 2008, and again in 2011—those moves, presented in corporate media as presaging attacks on Tehran, were actually bluffs aimed at putting pressure on the Iranian government. But the strong likelihood that Donald Trump will now choose John Bolton as his next national security advisor creates a prospect of war with Iran that is very real. Bolton is no ordinary neoconservative hawk. He has been obsessed for many years with going to war against the Islamic Republic, calling repeatedly for bombing Iran in his regular appearances on Fox News, without the slightest indication that he understands the consequences of such a policy. His is not merely a rhetorical stance: Bolton actively conspired during his tenure as the Bush administration's policymaker on Iran from 2002 through 2004 to establish the political conditions necessary for the administration to carry out military action. More than anyone else inside or outside the Trump administration, Bolton has already influenced Trump to tear up the Iran nuclear deal. [Read More]
GLOBAL WARMING/CLIMATE CHAOS
Climate Change Policy Is Proving Difficult To Enact Even in Liberal States with Democratic Control
By Kate Aronoff, The Intercept [
---- The scale of change required to cap temperature rise at 2 degrees is so drastic that scientists are now openly questioning whether it's even possible. According to an analysis from Oil Change International, even burning through existing fossil fuel reserves — those housed in actively operating mining and drilling operations — would take us well above 2 degrees of warming. If burned, existing oil and gas reserves alone would see us overshoot 1.5 degrees. According to a new study in Nature from researchers at Duke University, the difference between capping emissions at 1.5 degrees and 2 degrees could mean as many as 150 million lives, echoing a longstanding slogan from climate-vulnerable Global South nations at international climate negotiations: "1.5 to survive." The implication here is clear: Meeting the targets set out by the Paris Agreement means that there can be no new fossil fuel development, which also means a dramatic build-out of zero-carbon fuel sources. [Read More]
Buried, altered, silenced: 4 ways government climate information has changed since Trump took office
By
---- In most cases, it's not possible to know who ordered and administered these changes, whether agency staff working independently or the Trump administration itself. History shows us how public information on government activities has changed to reflect the policy directives of different administrations. The Bush era saw a similar chilling affect on scientific research and environmental regulation. Several scientists at the time came forward to accuse the administration of censoring public awareness efforts about climate change. In recent years, the U.S. has reduced its own greenhouse gas emissions. And the Obama administration invested in combating climate change and making related information more available to the public. Now that information is being stifled, but climate change continues, whether it's documented or not. 
These changes are not just damaging to those trying to address climate change. In our view, burying climate science diminishes our democracy. It denies the average citizen the information necessary to make informed decisions, and fuels the flames of rhetoric that denies consensus-based science. [Read More]
These changes are not just damaging to those trying to address climate change. In our view, burying climate science diminishes our democracy. It denies the average citizen the information necessary to make informed decisions, and fuels the flames of rhetoric that denies consensus-based science. [Read More]THE STATE OF THE UNION
We Need to Talk About Inequality (With Bernie Sanders)
The Deconstructed Podcast, The Intercept [
---- On the first episode of his new podcast "Deconstructed," The Intercept's Mehdi Hasan sits down with former presidential candidate and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders to talk poverty, inequality, media bias, and the 2020 presidential election. Sanders is fresh off a Facebook town hall with Sen. Elizabeth Warren and filmmaker Michael Moore that was viewed live by nearly 2 million people. He and Mehdi dig into the challenges facing the Democratic Party, how the left can connect with Trump voters, and whether Trump firing Mueller would be an impeachable offense (Bernie's answer? Yes). Sanders ends with a warning to Democrats: "Anyone who thinks Trump cannot win a re-election is just not looking at reality. He can. That doesn't mean he will. And I think there's a good chance he could be stopped. But anyone who just sits back and says, 'Hey, no problem, come 2020 Trump is gone' — that would be a big mistake." [Hear/read the Podcast]
Polling Shows Running on Progressive Policies Would Work in Swing Districts
By Aída Chávez, The Intercept [
---- It's become a cliché that each faction within each party believes that victory would be assured if only the party would follow their preferred policy approach. Democrats in the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which has been becoming increasingly involved in primaries across the country in a way it hasn't before, now has polling to back up its claim. The data, crunched by Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, comes from a survey of 600 likely 2018 voters over the phone in 30 targeted swing districts, and an additional oversample of 300 Democratic-leaning surge voters. (Those are people who don't have a history of voting and are less certain to vote in 2018.) Swing districts often have a roughly equal balance of Democrats and Republicans, leading political strategists to advise moderation as the path to victory. But, Lake's poll found, that's not what voters in those districts actually want. Almost three-quarters of the voters surveyed, for instance, supported "Medicare for All." Policies dealing with cheaper prescription drugs, infrastructure, protecting Social Security and Medicare, and cracking down on Wall Street, are exceedingly popular with swing and surge voters alike, the survey found. Lake's memo claims, "These policies not only motivate the progressive base, but make voters more likely to support Democrats. A majority of voters (52 percent) said they would be more likely to vote for a candidate talking about the progressive policies we mentioned, while only 26 percent would be less likely." [Read More] Also interesting is Russell Mokhiber, "Study Finds Single Payer Viable in 2018 Elections," [Link]
Immigrants in Danger
If Trump Doesn't Get His Wall, No One Gets DACA
By Julianne Hing, The Nation [March 23, 2018]
---- The spending bill will fund the federal government through to at least September, granting six months off from the regular "will they keep the lights on?" wrangling. The more-than-2,000-page bill covers opioid treatment, disaster relief, and national security. It provides funding for the hiring of more than 300 new Customs and Border Patrol agents. But the bill offers nothing for the 700,000 DACA recipients whose lives have been thrown into limbo after Trump canceled the program in September of last year. The spending resolution is widely seen as the last best chance to get something done on DACA. … as immigrant youth and advocates have been saying for some time now, all his wailing about DACA recipients' being left out rings hollow. Trump has never prioritized the welfare of immigrant youth. "For us, [his veto threat] highlights that his intention all along was to use Dreamers as bargaining chips to get his wall," Pliego said. Trump's strategy, now as ever, appears to be to cut young people off from their livelihoods and endanger their families in order to get Democrats and Republicans to the table, dangling hope in front of immigrants, but always snatching it away so long as he does not get his own actual prize: a big, beautiful wall. [Read More]
Are "Sanctuary Cities" Doing Enough? A New Report Shows How to Really Fight Trump's Deportation Machine.
By José Olivares, The Intercept [March 21, 2018]
---- When Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf warned activists about an impending immigration enforcement operation in her city, she was praised for her defiance of the Trump administration's deportation agenda, and proudly claimed as a hero in the so-called resistance. Schaaf is not the only local elected official that has stood up in opposition to President Donald Trump. Since the 2016 election, many mayors and state governors have begun implementing efforts to slow down the federal government's attacks on immigrants and other vulnerable communities. In particular, "sanctuary cities" have committed to limiting their cooperation with federal immigration officials. But do these gestures of resistance go far enough? Maybe not, according to a report released today by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts and the Century Foundation. Although words from anti-Trump politicians may have a pleasant ring, the report says, robust communication channels still exist between local authorities and federal agencies, which frequently lead to deportations, intrusive surveillance, civil liberties violations, and over-criminalization. States and cities could be doing more to roll back longstanding invasive policies as concerns arise about how the Trump administration might use them – what the report calls an "enhanced sanctuary city approach." [Read More]
ISRAEL/PALESTINE
Renaming the 1948 War: Partition, Dispossession, and Fragmentation
By Richard Falk, ZNet [March 25, 2018]
---- Israel has been brilliant over the years in shaping and misdirecting the public discourse on the future of Palestine. Among its earliest achievement along these lines was the crucial propaganda victory by having the 1948 War known internationally as the 'War of Independence.' Such a designation erases the Palestinians from political consciousness, and distorts the deeper human and political consequences of the war. Language matters, especially in vital circumstances where there are winners and losers, a reality that applies above all to a war of displacement. … To circle back to the contention that language is itself a site of struggle, it become desirable, even now, more than 70 years later, to call the 1948 War by a name that reveals more clearly its essential and flawed character, and this name is The Partition War. Only by such a linguistic move can we begin to understand the extent to which the international community, as embodied in the UN, was guilty of original sin with respect to the Palestinian people, and their natural rights, as well as their legal entitlements and reasonable political expectations. Endorsing the partition of Palestine was what I would describe as a 'geopolitical crime.' [Read More]
OUR HISTORY
A Caribbean Giant Passes: Wilson Harris, RIP
---- We learn only now that novelist Wilson Harris (1921-2018) passed, several weeks ago, in Chelmsford, England. With him passes, very nearly, generations of highly political, English-language Caribbean literature. George Lamming, of Barbados, remains frail but has spent a life on the Left; V.S. Naipaul, raised in Trinidad, is active and as always, on the Right. Wilson Harris was outside the usual political spectrum, but definitely on the side of liberation, that is liberation of the ecosphere, of the earth's inhabitants at large, and of all the cultures now endangered with extermination. … Harris was quickly dubbed the "James Joyce of the Caribbean" because his style seemed to take apart the normal uses of language. These critics did not grasp, presumably could not grasp, that Harris believed his method could open up memories hidden by conquest, race hatreds and false so-called advances of civilization. Language that had been used against the lowly, jungle dwellers, peasants or proletarians, could be turned around for other uses. But not easily, and not with didactic methods. "Freedom," he told a reporter in 2006, "needs to be explored in depths beyond conventional linearities." [Read More]
