imperialism

 

Sunday October 7th marked the 11th year of the US-led NATO occupation of Afghanistan and it also coincided with Indigenous People's Day (anti Columbus Day). About 200 people gathered at Oakland's Oscar Grant Plaza to protest colonization in all it's forms, from the 500 years of genocide of Indigenous peoples to the the US war in Afghanistan. The action was called for by communities of color who directly affected by US colonialism and imperialism.

People gathered in Austin to hear a reading of Martin Luther King's "Beyond Vietnam". On April 4th, 1967, at the Riverside Church in New York City,Dr. King delivered his most direct critique of U.S. militarism. Please join us as we read excerpts from the speech he delivered exactly one year before his assassination. Produced by ZGraphix Vidography by Jeff Zavala & Grace Alfar Edited & Produced by Jeff Zavala http://zgraphix.org

Austin activists gathered at 6th and Lamar on a cold winter day to voice their opposition to the next imperialist war of aggression against the people of Iran. The U.S. and Israel, both of which have nuclear weapons, say they will stop at nothing to keep Iran from having a nuclear program, even though the U.S. secretary of defense states that Iran will not have nuclear capability any time soon. The U.S. has begun harsh economic sanctions which can destroy the Iranian economy and the lives of millions of Iranians by depriving them of food, medicine, and electricity. Either the U.S. or Israel is killing Iranian scientists in car bombings. U.S. drones are flying over Iran, in violation of its sovereignty. Three U.S. carrier groups are right off Iran's shore. And secret U.S. commando groups are in the country. Will we allow another U.S. war based on lies? Produced for Austin Indymedia by Jeff Zavala. This is a zgraphix production. http://zgraphix.org

Robert Jensen is a University of Texas journalism professor, widely-published author, Austin-based political activist, and leading radical thinker. Prior to his academic career, he worked as a professional journalist for a decade. At UT, Jensen teaches courses in media law, ethics, and politics. He is also a board member of the Third Coast Activist Resource Center. His most recent books are All My Bones Shake: Seeking a Progressive Path to the Prophetic Voice, Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity and The Heart of Whiteness: Confronting Race, Racism and White Privilege. Jensen also writes for popular media, both alternative and mainstream. His opinion and analytic pieces on such subjects as foreign policy, politics, and race have appeared in papers around the country. We discuss his recent essay, “The Anguish in the American Dream” posted on The Rag Blog, as well as the current ecological crisis and the key role he believes it must play in our political thinking. Rag Radio is Cutting-edge alternative journalism, politics, and culture in the spirit of the Sixties underground press. Rag Radio is Broadcast Live from 2-3 PM CST Every Friday Afternoon on KOOP 91.7 FM in Austin and Streamed to the World. http://koop.org

On Saturday, (3/20/10) thousands of people converged at the White House for the March on Washington, the largest anti-war demonstration since the announcement of the escalation of the Afghanistan war. By the time the march started at 2 p.m., the crowd had swelled up to 10,000 protesters. Transportation to Washington, D.C., was organized from over 50 cities in 20 states. Demonstrators rallied and marched shoulder to shoulder to demand U.S. Out of Iraq and Afghanistan Now, Free Palestine, Reparations for Haiti and No sanctions against Iran as well as Money for jobs, education and health care! Speakers at the Washington rally represented a broad cross section of the anti-war movement, including veterans and military families, labor, youth and students, immigrant right groups, and the Muslim and Arab American community. Following the rally, a militant march led by veterans, active-duty service members and military families made its way through the streets of D.C. carrying coffins draped in Afghan, Iraqi, Pakistani, Somali, Yemeni, Haitian and U.S. flags, among those of other countries, as a symbol of the human cost of war and occupation. Coffins were dropped off along the way at Halliburton, the Washington Post, the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs and other institutions connected to the war profiteering, propaganda, and human suffering. The final coffin drop-off was at the White House—the decision-making center of U.S. imperialism. The A.N.S.W.E.R Coalition Organized this event; Visit the A.N.S.W.E.R Coalition Website for More Information:http://AnswerCoalition.org Produced by Jeff Zavala. This is a ZGraphix production. http://ZGraphix.org

Al Jazeera - Empire looks at the dramatic changes taking place in the Arab world and their strategic implications. The fear factor has been broken, the genie is out of the bottle. Arabs have taken to the streets demanding freedom. As the winds of change blew across the Arab world, the US, the power that has long dominated the region, has been particularly absent. With all its allies crumbling one after another, what will the US do to maintain its influence in the region? And what can be expected of Israel, the country's closest ally in the region? Will the spread of democracy lead to a peaceful end to decades of autocratic rule in the Middle East or will the fear of Islamist extremism galvanize Washington's resolve to reinforce Pax Americana? Our guests today are: Rashid Khalidi, a professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University; Seymour Hersh, a Pulitzer-winning author; and Thomas Pickering, the former US under secretary of state. Our interviewees are: Clovis Maksoud, the director of the Center for the Global South; and Rob Malley, the Middle East director of International Crisis Group. This episode of Empire originally aired on February 7, 2011. more info: http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/empire/2011/02/20112875931593543...

David Barsamian's Alternative Radio presents: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Speech - "Beyond Vietnam" given in New York, NY on Apr. 4th 1967. Every year, almost like clockwork around his birthday, Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" gets airplay. The charismatic orator is frozen on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963. No doubt it was a great and historic presentation, profoundly moving and full of dazzling poetry and inspiring images. But he was to give another very significant speech that is often obscured. That was to come on April 4, 1967 in Riverside Church in New York. There King demonstrated his deep understanding of how the system works. He moved beyond a simple race analysis to include class and foreign policy issues. He forcefully denounced the war in Vietnam. He called the U.S. "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world" and he deplored the "giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism and militarism." Exactly one year later King was assassinated in Memphis where he had gone in solidarity with striking sanitation workers. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, Nobel Peace Prize winner, is one of the 20th century's most enduring figures. He advocated and practiced civil disobedience and non-violence. He said, "Christ gave us the goals and Mahatma Gandhi the tactics." He rose to national prominence during the epic Montgomery bus boycott and then went on to spearhead a movement which ended juridical apartheid in the U.S. Produced by Alternative Radiohttp://AlternativeRadio.org Compiled by http://ZGraphix.org

On Thursday December 16th 2010, snow fell as 131 people were arrested in a Civil Disobedience at the White House protesting the continuing wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan and in Iraq. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges provides an extraordinary anti-war soliloquy which is inter-cut with interview of Veterans of the recent wars and with Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the top secret Pentagon Papers. This action was organized by the Veterans Peace http://www.veteransforpeace.org/ Stop These Wars http://www.stopthesewars.org/ Read an interview with Chris Hedges just after the speech on the RawStory. And another Interview on Democracy Now where he discusses his most recent book, "Death of the Liberal Class" http://www.democracynow.org America's military and economic empire could collapse at any time, but predicting the precise day, week or month of its potential demise is unattainable, according to a former New York Times war correspondent who spoke with Raw Story. "The when and how is very dangerous to predict because there's always some factor that blindsides you that you didn't expect," Pulitzer-winning journalist Chris Hedges said in an exclusive interview. "It doesn't look good. But exactly how it plays out and when it plays out, having covered disintegrating societies, it's impossible to tell." He explained that he learned this lesson as events unfolded around him in the fall of 1989. Then, members of the opposition to the Soviet Empire told him that they predicted travel across the Berlin Wall separating East from West Germany would open within the year. "Within a few hours, the wall didn't exist," he said. Hedges was one of the 131 activists were arrested in an act of civil disobedience outside the White House yesterday, even as Obama was unveiling a new report citing progress in the Afghanistan war.

Dr. Dahlia Wasfi was born in the United States to an American Jewish mother and an Iraqi Muslim father. She lived in Iraq as a child, returning to the U.S. at age 5. She earned her medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997. Dr. Wasfi has made two trips to Iraq to visit her extended family since the 2003 "Shock and Awe" invasion, including a three month stay in Basrah in the spring of 2006. She has brought her ...eyewitness account of life under occupation to 22 United States; Capitol Hill in D.C.; Toronto and Vancouver, Canada; Madrid, Spain in 2007; and the 3rd International Iraq Conference in Berlin, Germany, in March 2008. Her talk in Austin will cover the devastating effects of the 1991 Gulf War, the economic sanctions, and the 2003 invasion and occupation. For more on Dr. Wasfi, including her writings, visit: http://www.liberatethis.com/upcomingtalks.html Sponsored by Texas Labor Against the War and CodePink Austin This is a Zgraphix production. Produced by Jeff Zavala. http://zgraphix.org

On Saturday, thousands of people converged at the White House for the March 20 March on Washington—the largest anti-war demonstration since the announcement of the escalation of the Afghanistan war. By the time the march started at 2 p.m., the crowd had swelled up to 10,000 protesters. Transportation to Washington, D.C., was organized from over 50 cities in 20 states. Demonstrators rallied and marched shoulder to shoulder to demand “U.S. Out of Iraq and Afghanistan Now,” “Free Palestine,” “Reparations for Haiti” and“No sanctions against Iran” as well as “Money for jobs, education and health care!” Speakers at the Washington rally represented a broad cross section of the anti-war movement, including veterans and military families, labor, youth and students, immigrant right groups, and the Muslim and Arab American community. Following the rally, a militant march led by veterans, active-duty service members and military families made its way through the streets of D.C. carrying coffins draped in Afghan, Iraqi, Pakistani, Somali, Yemeni, Haitian and U.S. flags, among those of other countries, as a symbol of the human cost of war and occupation. Coffins were dropped off along the way at Halliburton, the Washington Post, the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs and other institutions connected to the war profiteering, propaganda, and human suffering. The final coffin drop-off was at the White House—the decision-making center of U.S. imperialism. The A.N.S.W.E.R Coalition Organized this event; Visit the A.N.S.W.E.R Coalition Website for More Information: AnswerCoalition.com