Is racism in America over?

Abagond
John McWhorter, in his Forbes.com article, “Racism In America Is Over” (December 30th 2008), says that the election of a black man as president proves that racism against blacks is no longer a big issue in America. I expect white people to say that sort of thing, yet McWhorter is black.

McWhorter is not saying that racism has gone away completely, that no white person will ever use the n-word again, say. America will continue to be imperfect. But a racism that allows a black man to become president can only be so bad - and, in practice, not bad enough to matter much. It certainly cannot be the main issue or even one of the main issues that affects black Americans. Those who truly want to help blacks should give their attention to other, more important things.

I agree that America has come a long way in the past 50 years and the election of Obama is a big step on that road, but that does not mean racism no longer matters.

Socialist Aotearoa: Palestine’s long torment

Palestine’s long torment

by Anindya Bhattacharyya

The Gaza Strip is effectively the world’s largest prison camp.

Zionist terror gangs drove its population from their homes during the creation of Israel in 1948.

That event – known in Arabic as the Nakba (catastrophe) – saw 750,000 Palestinians ethnically cleansed. They fled to the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and to other countries.

Prior to this Britain controlled Palestine. The British imperialists had promised the land to both the native Palestinian population and to the Zionists, who had settled there over the previous 50 years.

Zionism was a Jewish nationalist movement that arose in Europe in the late 19th century as a response to the growth of anti-Semitism.

Zionism’s founder Theodor Herzl argued that anti-Semitism could never be defeated and that Jews should found a new “homeland”. Only a small minority of Jews backed this. Herzl and his supporters looked to the major powers for support.

In 1917 the British foreign secretary Lord Balfour gave official backing to their colonial ambitions. He hoped that a Zionist state in Palestine would serve the interests of British imperialism.

After the horror of the Holocaust, when Nazi Germany exterminated six million Jews, Zionism became a majority trend amongst Jews.Tragically, some Jews went from being the oppressed in Europe to becoming the oppressor in the Middle East.

Aotearoaa/New Zealand: Major Mobilisation for Justice in Palestine

Socialist Aotearoa: Major Mobilisation for Justice in Palestine- Auckland Sat Jan 10th


Global Peace and Justice Auckland and the Palestine Human Rights Campaign are planning a major mobilisation to protest the latest Israeli outrages against Palestinians living in the Gaza strip.

The protest will gather at 12 noon, Aotea Square, Auckland on Saturday 10th January.

We have received numerous calls asking what actions are planned for Aucklanders to register their outrage at Israel's actions. Saturday's mobilisation gives that opportunity.

(An organising meeting for the mobilisation and to plan immediate steps in the campaign to boycott Israel will be held at 6pm on Tuesday 6th January at the Unite Union Office at 6A Western Springs Road, Auckland)

Meanwhile like most New Zealanders we find the government's failure to condemn the Israeli massacre an outrage. The utterances of Foreign Minister Murray McCully are obsequious and embarrassing. His fawning to the US position will be welcomed in Israel but will be condemned around the rest of the world. He is putting New Zealand well out of step with the United Nations.

United Nations General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto called the launching of the ground offensive in Gaza "a monstrosity" in an accurate reflection of international opinion. McCully on the other hand has yet to issue a single word of criticism.


Mike Treen – (09) 8452132 or 0295254744
John Minto – (09) 8463173(H) or (09) 8469496(W)
For the GPJA Committee

Janfrie Wakim – 09 5200201 or 027 629 1004
For the Palestine Human Rights Campaign

Radio New Zealand News : Stories : 2009 : 01 : 03 : Vatican not bound by Italian laws

Radio New Zealand News : Stories : 2009 : 01 : 03 : Vatican not bound by Italian laws: "Italian laws do not automatically apply in the Vatican, owing to a ruling signed by Pope Benedict XVI designed to give the Holy See more autonomy.

Jose Maria Serrano Ruiz, president of the Vatican commission on law revisions, explained in the Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano that there are too many Italian laws, many of which are not in line with Catholic doctrine.

Under the new ruling, which went into effect with the New Year, Italian laws and ordinances must be specifically ratified by the Vatican to have the effect of law.

The change revises the 80-year-old practice, agreed to in 1929 by Pope Pius XI and Benito Mussolini, by which the Vatican automatically took over Italian laws affecting Rome and the surrounding region for areas where the Holy See did not have its own ordinances."

Israeli Steps up its Genocide Against the the Palestinian People

Radio New Zealand News : Stories : 2009 : 01 : 02 : Israeli sends tanks into Gaza Strip
Israeli tanks and infantry battled Hamas fighters in the Gaza Strip on Sunday in a ground offensive launched after eight days of deadly air strikes failed to halt the Islamist group's rocket attacks on Israel.

Wearing night-vision goggles on their helmets and camouflage paint on their faces, Israeli soldiers entered the densely populated enclave on Saturday along with tank columns that swept in from four points as combat helicopters flew overhead.

In initial fighting, Israeli ground forces killed eight Gazans, five of them gunmen, bringing the Palestinian death toll since the start of an air campaign on 27 December to more than 450, medical officials said.

There was no official word of any Israeli casualties.

Israel said it called up 10,000 reservists and the military's chief spokesman estimated the operation in the Hamas-run territory could take "many long days".

The ‘Other’, Older Palestinian Coup D’etat

Aotearoa IMC: The ‘Other’, Older Palestinian Coup D’etat

PLO commitment to the Annapolis understandings was a milestone that vindicated Hamas fears and accusations that Abbas was leading and pursuing an older political coup d’etat to deprive the Islamic movement from its electoral victory
The ‘Other’, Older Palestinian Coup D’etat

By Nicola Nasser*

Failing to substantiate for the President of the autonomous Palestinian Authority (PA), Mahmoud Abbas, a credible “legal” basis to extend his term from the Basic Law, which is the constitutional terms of reference that govern the rotation of power and the renewal of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the PA, Abbas in his capacity as the chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) convened the rubber stamping Fatah –dominated Central Council (CC) of the PLO in the West Bank city of Ramallah to elect him also President of the State of Palestine on November 23.

The move could have been the last “constitutional” resort to extend his term as PA president before it expires on January 9 next year in order to secure himself as the supreme “legitimate” authority on Palestinian decision –making in the context of the “make - or – break” bloody wrangling with the rival Hamas on the leadership of the Palestinian national movement.

The symbolic position secures his presidency for life in line with the “tradition” of his predecessor, but without any constitutional stipulation to support it as the PLO regulations lack even an official text of a presidential oath, an embarrassing fact that threw his senior aides into a whirlwind of frenzied last minute efforts to write down an oath for him to read out on November 23.

The position has been vacant since the death of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in 2004. The PLO lawmakers in exile withheld the position from Abbas because they were demanding a separation between the PA presidency and the PLO chairmanship as a precautionary measure lest Israeli tanks bulldoze away the PA as they did in 2002 taking down with it the PLO, the internationally – recognized sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, which legitimized the creation of the “Palestinian National Authority” (PNA) in 1993 as a subsidiary reporting to the PLO.

Nixzmary Brown 1998-2006

This video is a tribute to Nixzmary Brown who died three years ago this month.

May she rests in peace.