>Rural post offices are being hit with “Local Transportation Optimization.” This occurs in locations over 50 miles from a processing plant with a population of less than 30,000. Instead of there being two mail trucks a day, the evening truck, which picks up the day’s outgoing mail, is being eliminated. This adds an extra day in delivery time to much of the area’s mail. Nearly half of Oregon’s post offices, and 10,000 across the U.S., are being affected. > >The USPS has refused to answer concerns by Oregon Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, and Representatives Earl Blumenauer and Suzanne Bonamici, who have called on the postal service to hold a local “Listening Session.” > >The Postal Board of Governors has also refused to attend a local community hearing called by the Portland City Council and U.S. Postal Service representatives. The meeting was to give elected officials, including senators and House representatives, a chance to raise concerns about the impact of these recent changes in the USPS on jobs and quality of service. > >Rallies to demand improved postal services and to protect good, living-wage union jobs were held during the week of May 6 in more than 85 cities in 36 states.

>When the encampment opened on April 29, 21 participants were detained in the morning but released without charge. Since then Kaler has repeatedly attempted to intimidate students and supporters. But emails accusing Palestine backers of illegal activity and posted signs reading “No trespassing, private property” and “No encampments” were ignored or defaced. > >Now a number of students are facing academic discipline for participating in the encampment. > >When students painted a pro-Palestine mural on the “Spirit Rock” — on which students have painted graffiti for years — on May 7, CWRU hired contractors to paint over it at 5:00 a.m. The contractors spray-painted the campers who defended the mural, which the contractors destroyed. CWRU’s suspension in March of the campus Students for Justice in Palestine chapter was for “gluing” leaflets in unauthorized locations, including the Spirit Rock. > >On the last day of the encampment, students moved their protest to the university administration building, where they held a sit-in to demand CWRU divest from companies doing business with [Zionism]. The day before, hundreds of people attended a nearby “All Out for Rafah” demonstration. > >Encampment participants spoke during the public comment section at the Cuyahoga County Council meeting on May 14, where local activists pressed the Council to fully divest from […] apartheid.

At this point I am nearly convinced that most antisocialists seriously think that capitalism is just when good stuff happens. Even if we had the most obvious and unambiguous example linking capitalism to atrocities — the Kill Corp. employing somebody whose job is literally just to go around and massacre innocents for the sake of shareholders and mad $$$ — antisocialists would still be scratching their heads wondering what that has to do with capitalism. While so far I haven’t seen anybody unkiddingly say that orgasms are capitalism and stubbed toes are socialism, there isn’t much left stopping antisocialists from making that call either.

>Nazis nationalized most of their war industry and still went to war.

This is very, very misleading. Just because a business falls under state‐ownership doesn’t mean that the businessman’s autonomy is gone. Quoting Clarence Y.H. Lo’s Business Collaboration within the Nazi War Machine: Corporations and the State in the Austrian Semiperiphery:

>During the [Third Reich’s] military buildup Gustav Krupp was chosen Führer der Wirtschaft (leader of the economy) in the “alter kruppscher Tradition” (old Krupp tradition) and later pledged not to offend [Fascism] (Manchester 1968:354, 367). In response to [Berlin’s] demands, Krupp increased its military production from RM 50 to 150 million between 1937/1938 to 1940/1941 (Manchester 1968:369; Overy 1994:136–38). > >Gustav Krupp personally lobbied Hitler between 1941 and 1943 for a special law that would change the Krupp Aktiengesellschaft corporation into a family enterprise that would pay no capital gains tax (which would have been RM 70 million) when Gustav Krupp passed ownership on to his heir (Overy 1994:140). In return for the family tax exemption, increased depreciation (raising profit, James 2012:202; 207), and interest‐free state loans, Krupp was willing to have his armaments production determined by [Axis] officials. > >The [Fascists], dependent on Krupp, were glad to see collaborative arrangements reducing the uncertainties (Pfeffer and Salancik 1978) of military supply (Overy 1994:137,139, 140).

Furthermore, businesses that were beyond ‘state ownership’ still made substantial contributions to the Fascist war machine, and the presumption that the Fascist state micromanaged everything has a more serious consequence as it pardons capitalists involved in atrocities:

>The point is that industrial behavior under [Fascism] cannot be reduced to simple structural explanations. Even within the context of a dictatorship that demanded high levels of production for war, industrialists made choices as individuals. They approached the SS for cheap labor; they decided whether to buy a Jewish company at a fraction of its value; they determined how forced and [neo]slave laborers would be treated in their factories.

(Source.)

I suppose that this is only quibbling, though. The fact of the matter is that the Fascist empires never reduced let alone abolished capital, the law of value, and generalized commodity production.

>Palestine is only important because it represents another coalition of the oppressed for them to colonize [and, from a more sinister POV, Israel is THE epitome of Western imperialism, all legacies of which must be overturned]. […] It doesn't matter the agent, except that a radical imperialistic reactionary group like Hamas/IRGC/Hezbollah is actually the perfect anti-duhring for Western dominance, since you have to assume the guise & tactics of the enemy in order to repeal it. […] The co-opting of causes makes sense, since in order for Marxism to be coherent & defensible in its totalitarianism, you have to view all relation through the same aesthetic (class struggle); and there seems to be an at least latent awareness on behalf of Marxists that this aesthetic needs to be forced on others. ("You don't understand the way in which you're oppressed; therefore, it's up to us to liberate you in the way that you are truly meant to be liberated." Note as well that the aim of the movement itself is not liberty [bad; individualistic], but liberation [good; collectivist].)

I hope that I don’t have to explain how terrible this reply is.

>The USSR, a Communist regime, spent 15-20% of GDP on military purposes; likely higher by some estimates. The US spent 5% during the same cold war period, and a bit less today. That includes military foreign aid. The facts paint the opposite conclusion.

The U.S.S.R. increased its military spending to forcibly neocolonize somebody else’s land…? Oh, whom am I kidding. Of course antisocialists believe that.

I could go on, but I’ll stop here so as to prevent further testing your patience.

>On May 11, in downtown Seattle, 2,000 demonstrators marched and rallied to remember Nakba Day, chanting: “From the River to the Sea, Palestine is almost Free!” > >At the rally, Indigenous speakers and performers made statements in solidarity with Palestine. A “No Tech for Apartheid” spokesperson condemned Google, Microsoft and Boeing as all standing next to each other in spying and invading Palestine. > >A speaker from Samidoun, the Palestinian prisoners organization, affirmed their dedication to support and gain strength from Palestinian prisoners. She said, “They keep our struggle alive.”

>Only nine countries — led by the U.S. and [Zionism’s neocolony] — voted against full membership for Palestine, with 25 countries abstaining. Only two Latin American countries and none of the African members voted no or abstained. The 143 countries that backed Palestine contain the vast majority of the world’s people and encompass most of its land mass. > >Logic would dictate[,] then, that Palestine would be admitted as a full member of the U.N. […] Wrong! > >Since its formation in 1945, the U.N.’s structure has been rigged against colonized nations, by concentrating the real power not in the General Assembly but in the U.N. Security Council. This 15-member body includes five “permanent” members — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France — with veto power over resolutions passed by the Security Council, including recommendations from the General Assembly. > >This means that the U.S. alone can block any decision made by most of the other countries in the world. This has been the case every time the General Assembly votes to oppose the U.S. blockade of Cuba. Only the U.S., [Zionism’s neocolony] and a few other countries vote to maintain the blockade — but the economic strangulation of Cuba continues. > >The way the U.N. is set up allows U.S. [neo]imperialism to advance its own interests against any country that gets in its way. It’s no accident that five of the U.N.’s six “principal organs” are U.S.-based, located in New York City. The one exception is the International Court of Justice, headquartered in The Hague. That in itself speaks volumes about who really calls the shots in this international body. > >Because of a rigged system, in place for almost 80 years, U.S. [neo]imperialism can — and most likely will, as it did in the Security Council in April — deny Palestine a vote in the U.N. The General Assembly resolution asks the U.S. to reconsider its April veto. But the odds of that happening are slim to none. > >The vote in favor of making Palestine a full U.N. member, while unenforceable, was a political victory. As Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine political bureau member Omar Murad stated May 12: “The voting in the United Nations General Assembly with a majority of 143 votes to accept the request for membership of the State of Palestine is an important achievement obtained thanks to the steadfastness of our people, their sacrifices and the support of the free people of the world, and it represents a resounding slap in the face of the Zionist entity.” (Resistance News Network) > >Yet justice in Palestine will never be won by way of the U.N.’s processes. The Palestinian resistance, with the support of the international working class, is the force that can bring down the racist, settler-colonial Zionist state. > >That victory is on the horizon!

>Far exceeding the accumulated endowments are funds directly pumped into universities by the Department of Defense. These research and development grants dominate the budget of entire departments, especially in STEM — science, technology, engineering, mathematics — fields. > >The threat to withdraw government funding is all-powerful. The majority of science research projects are dependent on the Pentagon’s earmarked funding. > >Solving planetary problems of food, health and climate are not on the Pentagon’s agenda. Its focus is on research and development of deadly, high-tech weapons. > >A clear demand has arisen out of a living struggle that is embraced by millions who are in motion, who have learned the bitter truth that it is decades of U.S. political support, infusions of weapons and massive funding that is responsible for the Zionist war machine. This one word “Divest” challenges and exposes the whole corrupt edifice of collaboration with Zionism and with expanding U.S. wars around the globe. > >The students, faculty, staff and their supporters are courageously raising a revolutionary demand that challenges the whole underpinning of education in the U.S. today. What is at stake? > >The billionaire Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir, a CIA-backed surveillance and data mining-tech company tied to U.S. intelligence cartels and to Israel, summed up the debate from the viewpoint of the U.S. ruling class: “We think these things that are happening across college campuses are a sideshow. No, they are the show. If we lose the intellectual debate, you will not be able to deploy any army in the West, ever.” (Palantir on X, May 8)

cross‐posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3702299

> Pictured: ‘Knight of Judaea’, by Richard Cronin (1919). > > Many people (such as my mother) have characterized the situation in Palestine as an ‘ancient conflict’. There is some truth to that summary, but not necessarily in the way that people think. > > The present iteration of violent domination can be traced all the way back to the 1880s at the earliest; ‘ancient’ only in a colloquial sense of the word. Nonetheless, it is ancient in that it parallels previous European attempts to dominate Palestine, hence why some of us cynically refer to this as ‘the Zionist crusade’: > > >Both the Crusades and the Zionist projects although centuries apart resemble one another in more than one aspect. It may even be argued that Zionism is the continuation of the crusades or a new form of it and that Zionism is the heir of the Crusade. Many authors have looked at the parallels between these two historical movements, both foreign invaders coming from the west committing heinous crimes, establishing a colony in the heart of the Muslim World surviving for a period of time before their inevitable fall. > > > >[…] > > > >A joint Christian–Jewish initiative for the occupation of Palestine was presented by David Reubeni to Pope Clement VII in the early sixteenth century in March 1524.[8] The Pope who saw this as an opportunity to mobilize Jews who were in need for arms to occupy Palestine under European auspices wrote letters to some European monarchs to support such an endeavor, such as the King of Portugal. [9] This may be the first time such an initiative was put forward for a colonialist settler Jewish state through relocating Jews to settle with European support. Although this did not materialize, it was the template that was followed a few centuries later by Theodore Herzl and succeeded with European support. > > Elsehow, the continuity between the Crusades and Zionism is, perhaps, not as slim as it may first seem. Quoting Alexander Schölch’s Palestine in Transformation, 1856–1882, pages 73–5: > > >[O]f the many colonization projects and enterprises, only two had any success: the settlements of Templars since 1868 and those of [proto‐Zionist] immigrants since 1882. The Templars, a pietistic sect from Württemberg, had set for themselves the goal of “bringing together the people of God” in Jerusalem. […] The number of Templars settled in Palestine never exceeded a maximum of 2,200 souls.¹⁷⁰ […] Thus the historical rôle of the Templars was reduced to having proved to their more successful competitors and successors, the [proto‐Zionist] settlers, that European colonization in Palestine could actually succeed. The [proto‐Zionist] settlers tried to learn from the experience of the Templars. > > (Emphasis added.) > > Update: I found an interesting (if relatively minor) parallel between Benjamin Netanyahu and Pope Urban II at Clermont in 1095. Quoting Christian Hofreiter’s Making Sense of Old Testament Genocide: Christian Interpretations of Herem Passages, page 173: > > >At the conclusion of his speech, Urban draws another typological parallel based on an OT warfare text, a text that does not itself include the term herem but contains God’s prediction of utter destruction, later reiterated in terms of herem. The OT text in question is the battle against Amalek.⁷⁴ > > > >Urban tells the crusaders: ‘Moreover, you who are to go shall have us praying for you; let us have you fighting for God's people. It is our duty to pray, yours to fight against the Amalekites. With Moses, we shall extend unwearied hands in prayer to Heaven, while you go forth and brandish the sword, like dauntless warriors, against Amalek.’⁷⁵ > > (Emphasis added.) > > I am not the first to spot this similarity, though almost nobody else has, even in articles linking the first crusade to the Zionist one. > > Likewise, Elliott Horowitz’s Reckless Rites, page 121: > > >Urban was not the first Christian to refer to the Arabs as Amalekites. The Byzantine chronicler Theophanes, who died early in the ninth century, referred to the Muslim conquerors of Palestine (in the seventh century) as “the desolate Amalek.”⁴⁶

>Linda Gomaa, with Amazonians United, described Jeff Bezos and Amazon’s ties with the U.S. [neo]imperialist system, the military-industrial complex, and the CIA. Gomaa said: “Jeff Bezos gets rich off all our pain. Amazon workers are barely able to make it through the day without constantly needing to take pain killers and are barely able to pay their rent. One of our co-workers died inside a warehouse on the floor. Management didn’t want to stop production for the day, so they put boxes around his dead body. > >Gomma continued: “We are in solidarity with the UPenn encampment and those around the world in solidarity with Palestine. Corporate media is doing everything they possibly can to convince you that the public is against you. It’s corporate media that is against you, the elites are against you, our boss is against you. But working people — and we are constantly having conversations with our co-workers about Palestine and the world, about politics — we are with you. > >“The people who make this country and the world run are with you. Workers are the driving economic force in this country, we have the power to stop the funding of this genocide in Palestine when we organize in the belly of the beast.”

>The second part took place when the activists and health care workers marched to Fordham Plaza for a rally, where they were joined by Neturei Karta, an anti-Zionist Jewish organization, which has been a regular presence at Palestine solidarity protests in this city. A Fordham University student who was arrested at a student encampment also spoke. > >The protesters then took the streets on Fordham Road and marched to the Grand Concourse, where they took public transportation to New York University in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village to show solidarity to the encampment there in the third part of their day’s actions. > >New York Police Department cops followed the protesters onto the train and instructed the train conductor to not move until the protesters got off the train. After shutting the entire D-line down for about 15 minutes, the demonstrators changed cars and kept moving forward. When they reached NYU, the organizers there opened the front of the march to their banners.

>Also speaking were representatives of Workers World Party and Party for Socialism and Liberation. Jesus Sanchez, with PSL, said; “[Zionism’s neocolony] caused much destruction in Central America in the 1980’s, especially toward Indigenous tribes such as the Mayan population in Guatemala. Along with the U.S., they trained forces in the genocide of the Mayans under the Ríos Montt régime.” > >Speaking for Workers World Party, this writer stated: “Look at the photo of this beautiful 11-year-old girl from Guatemala. We must understand why she and her family were even here in Houston. It is because of U.S. imperialism destroying the economies and overthrowing the leadership of Central American countries that people are forced to leave their homes. > >“It is the U.S. that is responsible for little Maria’s death. She and her family should never have been forced to be here.”

>Across the state, reproductive rights activists have been mobilizing, marching, rallying and petitioning since the ban was first proposed. The “Rally to Stop the Six-Week Abortion Ban” drew 2,000 people to Lake Eola Park in Orlando on April 13 to kick off the “Yes on 4” campaign geared to getting passage of Amendment 4 in November. > >At the same time, abortion access organizations are dispensing information about how to obtain abortifacient pills by mail, which can be administered at home – and telling abortion seekers about the nearest states that permit the procedure and their requirements. Abortion funders are scrambling to raise funds to help pregnant people travel out of state for this essential health care. > >The main point is that there is organized resistance to this reactionary attack. The slogans “Abortion is health care!” and “Abortion rights are human rights!” could not be more appropriate.

>The emphasis this May Day was the fight against Zionist apartheid and the genocide against Palestinians. The crowd paid close attention to the over 15 speakers and cultural performances, including music and poetry. > >Nzinga from the All African People’s Revolutionary Party (AAPRP) conveyed the anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist sentiment of the action perfectly with a militant denunciation of U.S. imperialism and [Zionism’s] settler state. The coalition intends to continue to meet and plan actions together as the struggle continues and new alliances bring anti-imperialist forces closer to this goal in the overall war against capitalism.

>There are several House members who have serious reservations about H.R. 6090, especially some progressive Democrats. Jerry Nadler is one of the most outspoken critics of the new bill. Nadler, who is Jewish and represents a district in New York City with one of the largest Jewish populations in the U.S., called out the hypocrisy of the bill and its supporters. > >Nadler publicly commented: “If my Republican colleagues were serious about antisemitism, they would have spoken up after neo-Nazis in Charlottesville chanted: ‘Jews will not replace us,’ If my Republican colleagues were serious about antisemitism, they would have spoken up when President Trump declared that there were ‘very fine people on both sides’ of that rally.” (The Nation, May 3) > >[…] > >Many activists at the encampments, including many among the thousands who have been arrested, are Jewish. One of the leading organizations to participate in the encampments is Jewish Voice for Peace. Passover was celebrated at many, if not all, of the pro-Palestinian encampments, and Seder dinners were also prepared. Seder dinners at encampments featured grape juice in lieu of wine, to respectfully honor the demand that the encampments remain alcohol-free. Jewish students at Columbia and other encampments invited non-Jewish participants to join them. > >As an expression of solidarity with their Palestinian siblings, many Jewish activists have sported keffiyehs, while images on social media have shown Jewish activists wearing kippahs (skull caps, also called yarmulkes) with watermelon designs. Watermelons are symbolic of Palestinian solidarity, because they feature the colors of the Palestinian flag. > >During a Seder dinner at Yale University, one of the event organizers, 22-year-old Yale student Miriam Levine, proudly told the crowd: “Tonight, we stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people, not in spite of our Judaism but because of it. Tonight we proclaim that our liberation is intertwined.” (New York Times, April 22) > >The bourgeois media have been silent about the presence of Jewish activists at the encampments. Instead, they falsely claim that pro-Palestinian protesters at the encampments are “attacking” Jewish students. There have been reports of pro-[Zionist] provocateurs making racist and anti-Jewish statements, but once again, the corporate press does not find those stories to be newsworthy.

>Chief Ron Thomas refused to dismantle the demonstration, which he said was very peaceful, for a second time. He said “there is no legal way” for officers to dismantle the demonstration “unless they do something that creates an unlawful assembly. We are absolutely not going to go in and sweep out this peaceful protest just because they are occupying a space on your campus that you would like to use for something else right now and because of your fears that maybe this could grow to the point where it interferes with other campus activities.” > >In 2020, following police assaults on demonstrations protesting the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the city was ordered to pay millions of dollars to demonstrators after a decision was made that the assault amounted to an unconstitutional response and excessive use of force. > >Thomas noted that since these payouts were made, there have been changes in the Denver police’s approach to crowd control. (Denver Post, May 4). His statement, however, provides no guarantee that the university administration or the police will find no pretext for police intervention.

>Tacked to the stage was a huge banner with the slogan “Long live the spirit of Kent and Jackson State!” — the slogan chanted in 1977 during the movement to try to stop KSU from building a gym on the site of the shootings. Earlier in the day, “Move the gym” had been chalked on the gym wall. > >Student speakers Sophia Swengel and Juliana Buonaiuto received applause when they drew parallels between the events at Kent State in 1970 and the wave of campus encampments now in solidarity with Palestine. Hundreds of pro-Palestine activists, who are demanding KSU divest from [neocolonial] bonds and companies that do business with the Zionist state, turned their backs on University President Todd Diacon when he spoke. > >After the university-sponsored memorial ended, divestment activists held a militant rally for Palestine, tying together the student movements of 1970 and today.

>In the next few hours, the entire sidewalk was covered with chalked slogans, voicing solidarity with Palestine and demanding CWRU divest from […] apartheid. Other comments drew links with “Stop Cop City!” in Atlanta and the fight against capitalism in general. > >Kaler’s threats have so far not been carried out — a third victory for the occupation — and the presence of campus police outside Hind’s Oval has been subdued. On May 4, around 9 p.m., students again expanded the encampment to the edge of the sidewalk on Euclid Avenue, the main thoroughfare on Cleveland’s East Side. There have been no arrests or incidents of police brutality since the first day. > >Supporters have provided the occupiers with food, water, ice, first aid supplies, tents, tarps, blankets and storage bins — and whatever the organizers say is most needed on a given day.

See also: Campus encampments — challenging global imperialism

>The bill would end 24-hour shifts, requiring them to be split into two 12-hour shifts, and would cap the number of hours worked for home attendants to 50 hours per week. Protesters denounced New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who has refused to bring the bill to a vote and instead sided with home care and insurance companies. The event was called by the Ain’t I a Woman?! Campaign. > >At least four of the speakers spoke of the genocide being carried out in Gaza and demanded an end to the killing of Palestinians.

>A majority of the supplemental package is $61 billion to Ukraine to prop up a collapsing [neo]fascist régime that is so mired in corruption that huge amounts of equipment are pirated and resold on arrival. > >Providing a huge infusion of high-tech military equipment — along with U.S. advisers, trainers, military contractors and mercenaries — is a desperate effort to prolong the war, although there is little chance of reversing Ukraine’s defeat. > >The Ukrainian spring offensive ended in a total rout. After two years of predicting a great military victory, even the major U.S. media is describing the loss of one part of Ukraine after another. The country’s cobbled together military units defy their warring commanders and surrender or just walk away, all while the front lines collapse. > >The biggest setback in the U.S.-instigated war in Ukraine is that U.S. strategists totally failed in their effort to impose “régime change” in Russia.

>Five workshops and meetings devoted to solidarity with Palestine, along with an impromptu meeting to support the Columbia University encampment, were well attended. However, the failure of conference organizers to have a single speaker on Palestine in any of the main sessions was a glaring omission. The militant rally for Palestine that took place outside the conference hotel was not officially part of the conference. > >Some activists at the conference were frustrated by its political limitations. While Labor Notes makes a point of hailing worker-leaders deemed “troublemakers,” one participant commented: “I’m not a troublemaker, I’m a revolutionary.” Another described a workshop on socialism as “horrible” due to a conception of socialism that would merely reform capitalism. > >Despite the limitations and contradictions, however, the Labor Notes conference was a positive event that brought together thousands of class-conscious workers who want to fight back against the capitalist class.