Bulletin N° 758
Subject : LANDING WITH BOTH FEET ON THE
WRONG SIDE OF HISTORY : Lucrative profits from failed ‘slave’ revolts &
corporate ‘false flag’ operations.
P.S. We invite CEIMSA readers view these two late-20th-century masterpieces, both are astute artistic depictions of stages of class consciousness only a few decades ago.
La Haine
1995
(French, with English subtitles)
https://watchmovie.me/watch-movie-la-haine/h2NT
[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIwEAZNnfWI ]
This 1995 French black-and-white film was written, co-edited, and directed by Mathieu Kassovitz. It is about three young friends and their struggle to live in the banlieues of Paris. The title derives from a line spoken by one of them, Hubert, "La haine attire la haine!", "hatred breeds hatred." The film depicts approximately 19 consecutive hours in the lives of three friends in their early twenties from immigrant families living in an impoverished multi-ethnic French housing project (a ZUP – zone d'urbanisation prioritaire) in the suburbs of Paris, in the aftermath of a riot. Vinz (Vincent Cassel), who is Jewish, is filled with rage. He sees himself as a gangster ready to win respect by killing a cop, manically practicing secretlyin front of a mirror the role of Travis Bickle from the film Taxi Driver. His attitude towards police, for instance, is a simplified, stylized blanket condemnation, even to individual policemen who make an effort to steer the trio clear of troublesome situations. Hubert (Hubert Koundé) is an Afro-French boxer and small-time drug dealer, the most mature of the three, whose gymnasium was burned in the riots. The quietest, most thoughtful and wisest of the three, he sadly contemplates the ghetto and the hate around him. He expresses the wish to simply leave this world of violence and hate behind him, but does not know how since he lacks the means to do so. Saïd (played by Saïd Taghmaoui) is an Arab Maghrebi who inhabits the middle ground between his two friends' responses to their place in life.
&
Queimada/Burn !
1969
(English)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQBHr8pjGXI
This 1969 Italian-French film directed by Gillo Pontecorvo and starring Marlon Brando, Evaristo Márquez and Renato Salvatori is the fictional story of the creation of a banana republic in the Caribbean, and the events that follow it. Brando plays a British secret government agent, named after the American filibuster William Walker, who manipulates a slave revolt to serve the interests of the sugar trade. In 1844, the British Admiralty sends Sir William Walker (Brando), an agent provocateur, to the fictional island of Queimada, a Portuguese possession in the Lesser Antilles. Britain seeks to open the island to exploitation by the fictional Antilles Royal Sugar Company. Walker's task is to organize an uprising of African slaves against the Portuguese regime, which the British intend to replace with a government dominated by pliable white planters. When he arrives in Queimada, Walker befriends José Dolores (Márquez), whom he entices to lead the slave revolt, and induces leading landowners to reject Portuguese rule. Dolores's rebellion is successful, and Walker arranges the assassination of the Portuguese governor in a nighttime coup. Walker establishes a puppet regime beholden to British sugar interests, headed by the idealistic but weak revolutionary Teddy Sanchez (Salvatori). Walker convinces Dolores to recognize the new regime and to surrender his arms, in exchange for the abolition of slavery. Having succeeded in his mission, he returns to Britain. He returns years later to undo ‘his creation’ and to stabilize the ‘wage slave’ system which is threatened by a slave rebellion of a different nature.
_________________________________________________
June 23, 2017
Grenoble, France
Dear Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,
Several decades ago, teaching history in a very different social context,
many of us younger teachers appealed to “freedom in the marketplace of ideas” : Choose the logic of your analysis, and develop your ideas accordingly to where
they lead you; then decide if that is where you really want to go –whether your
premises are conservative royalist assumptions, or qualify as liberal
capitalist individualism; whether they are democratic socialist or
authoritarian corporatist - just follow the logic until you can see what
appears. What appears now to be no more than a quaint faith in the existence of
a kind of universal reason which is reaching out toward some immutable condition of progress
had, at the time, inspired many of us progressive teachers to experiment in this
fashion. We had no doubt that the results of these exercises in tolerance would
ultimately justify the process.
Today, the “marketplace of ideas” is paraded out before us as another failed
concept – “There is no left or right; there is only right or wrong!” (as the
cliché insists). Popular imaginations dissipate into thin air like white clouds
on a hot summer afternoon, and we are faced with the stale odor of a
slash-and-burn landscape under the scorching sun.
The misery inflicted on the increasingly visible members of society around the
world today focuses our attention, as never before, upon the injustices that have usually been deemed as meerly temporary side effects of our
political economy. This new focus prompts many of us either to retreat into narrow
enclosures with familiar designs and routines to console ourselves, or to explore the
wide world of diversity, with its mixture of sweet and bitter life forms, but
freed of all received ideas.
The contradictions between the technically feasible and the politically
expedient are daily experiences that contain challenges which will nurture and
strengthen the next generation in their search for new modes of relationships
and authentic democracy without capitalism.
The 17 items below expose the old treachery of capitalist relationships that
trys to pass as the New Normal, and the habitual cynicism that lubricates the
wheels turning within wheels - those repetitions that have brought us to the brink
of disaster. Eventually, a theoretical grasp of historical materialism could
offer us escape from the repeated mistakes of the past, the disastrous
consequences of entering into the hammerlock of capitalist control over our
much devalued lives.
The class-conscious struggle of the many against the few remains our only hope to
bring to an end this historic system of human sacrifice which we call capitalism
. . . .
Sincerely,
Francis Feeley
Professor emeritus of
American Studies
University
Grenoble-Alpes
Director of Research
University of
Paris-Nanterre
Center for the Advanced
Study of American Institutions and Social Movements
The University of
California-San Diego
a.
MEET YOUR ALL-WHITE, ALL-MALE SENATE DEATH PANEL
https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/5/5/1659368/-Meet-your-very-white-very-male-Senate-death-panel
by Joan McCarter
===========
b.
Islamic
Terrorism: Our Ally For 38 Years
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47237.htm
by
Chris Kanthan
June 14, 2017
Dear Diary, I can’t show this letter to the innocent
people of America and the world, so it’s just between you and me. Imagine the
shock and the outrage if I say that we have to embrace Islamic terrorism! The
average person doesn’t understand what’s at stake and how sometimes the elites
need to rely on “controlled chaos” for the greater good.
Afghanistan: Fifteen Years of Invasion and Occupation
October 8, 2016
( video)
http://www.globalresearch.ca/video-afghanistan-fi... #sthash.kblI7kLN.dpuf
&
Al Qaeda: The Data Base
Septembre 11, 2016
http://www.globalresearch.ca/al-qaeda-the-database-2/24738
===========
c.
US Uranium Weapons Have Been Used in
Syria
https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/10/28/us-uranium-weapons-have-been-used-in-syria/
October 28, 2016
This month, the Pentagon admitted it has used
uranium weapons in attacks inside Syria — violating its public promise last year
that it would not use DU there, and contradicting the claim that US bombing is
done in defense of the Syrian people, according to the Int’l Campaign to Ban Uranium Weapons.
===========
d.
Trump Frees Mattis
to Escalate Endless Afghan War
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:19327:Trump-Frees-Mattis-to-Escalate-Endless-Afghan-War
June 15, 2017
As Defense Secretary James Mattis
is authorized to determine troop levels in Afghanistan, Stephen Miles of Win
Without War says the U.S. and other foreign powers should focus on a political
solution
===========
e.
Dirty
Open Secret: US Created and Supports ISIS
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47241.htm
by
Stephen Lendman
June 14, 2017
It’s one
of the dirtiest of dirty open secrets. US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) documents prove it – obtained by Judicial Watch
through an FOIA lawsuit. They show ISIS, al-Qaeda and like-minded terrorist
groups are the “major forces” used as US foot soldiers in Syria, Iraq and
elsewhere. The
myth of so-called “moderate rebels” was long ago discredited. Yet claiming they
exist persists. The DIA documents show America, NATO, Saudi Arabia and other
regional rogue states support an Islamic caliphate to challenge, topple and
replace Bashar al-Assad with
an imperial puppet. Longstanding US/Israeli plans call for redrawing the Middle
East map by color revolutions and wars, replacing independent governments with
pro-Western puppet regimes, balkanizing Iraq, Syria, Iran and other regional
countries for easier control, looting their resources, and exploiting their
people. In a January 2016 Iran Review article, James Fetzer discussed
evidence of ISIS’ creation by America.
===========
f.
US White Phosphorus Bombs Won't Eradicate
Terrorism In Syria
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:19344:US-White-Phosphorus-Bombs-Won%27t-Eradicate-Terrorism-In-Syria
US-backed
forces are using tactics that cause a 'staggering' number of civilian deaths, but
military action won't defeat ISIS, says Phyllis Bennis,
director the New Internationalism Project at IPS
===========
g.
More Evidence of US
Support for ISIS
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47279.htm
by Stephen Lendman
===========
h.
Israel Secretly Aids Anti-Assad Forces in
Syria Proxy War
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:19361:Israel-Secretly-Aids-Anti-Assad-Forces-in-Syria-Proxy-War
June 20, 2017
Beirut-based
journalist Nour Samaha has uncovered extensive
Israeli government support of anti-Assad forces in southern Syria
===========
i.
Saudi Arabia, Israel to Establish Economic
Relations for First Time: The Times
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47290.htm
by
Geo Politics
Riyadh (YE) – Saudi
Arabia and the Israeli regime are in clandestine talks to establish official
economic relations for the first time since the entity was created on the
Palestinian territories some 69 years ago, a report says.
===========
j.
From: "Open
Letter" <stopdivisiveattacks1@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, 18 June, 2017
Subject: Tell the Forward to Publish Response to "Left
Anti-Semitism" Accusation
|
===========
k.
"USS
Liberty: Dead In The Water"
(BBC Documentary,
2002)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjOH1XMAwZA
On June 8th, 1965, during the Six-Day War,
Israel attacked and nearly sank the USS Liberty belonging to its closest ally,
the USA. Thirty-four American servicemen were killed and over 170 wounded in
the two-hour assault by Israeli warplanes and torpedo boats.
Israel claimed that the whole affair had been a
tragic accident based on mistaken identification of the ship. The American government
accepted the explanation. For more than 30 years many people have disbelieved
the official explanation but have been unable to rebut it convincingly.
Now, "Dead in the Water" uses
startling new evidence to reveal the truth behind the seemingly inexplicable
attack. The film combines dramatic reconstruction of the events, with new
access to former officers in the US and Israeli armed forces and intelligence
services who have decided to give their own version of events. Interviews
include President Lyndon Johnson's Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara,
former head of the Israeli navy, Admiral Shlomo Errell, and members of the USS Liberty crew.
===========
l.
The
Reichstag Fire
("Der Reichstagsbrand und seine politischen
Folgen")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8Sj5NqV6rQ
February 27, 1933
The
day after the German parliament (Reichstag) building burned down due to arson, President Hindenburg issues the
Decree for the Protection of People and the Reich. Though the origins of the
fire are still unclear, in a propaganda maneuver, the coalition government
(made up of Nazis and the Nationalists) blamed the Communists. They exploited
the Reichstag fire to secure President Hindenburg’s approval for an emergency
decree, popularly known as the Reichstag Fire Decree, that
suspended individual rights and due process of law. The Reichstag Fire Decree
permitted the regime to arrest and incarcerate political opponents without
specific charge, dissolve political organizations, and to suppress
publications. It also gave the central government the authority to overrule
state and local laws and overthrow state and local governments. The decree was
a key step in the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship. Germany became a
police state in which citizens enjoyed no guaranteed basic rights and the SS,
the elite guard of the Nazi state, wielded increasing authority through its
control over the police.
===========
m.
Closing Democracy’s Doors Until the People Open Them
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/06/21/closing-democracys-doors-until-the-people-open-them/
===========
n.
From: Jim O'Brien
Sent: Friday, 16 June, 2017
Subject: HAW Notes 6/16/17: Links to recent articles of interest
http://stopthewars.org/mailman/listinfo/haw-info_stopthewars.org
Links
to Recent Articles of Interest
“Iran 1953: State Department Finally
Releases Updated Official History of Mossadeq Coup”
Edited by Malcolm Byrne, National Security
Archive, posted June 15
“The ‘Global Order Myth: Teary-Eyed
Nostalgia as Cover for U.S. Hegemony”
By Andrew J. Bacevich, The
American Conservative, posted June 15.
The author is a professor emeritus of
history and international relations at Boston University.
“The Irrationality of Iran
Vilification”
By Danny Sjursen, LobeLog, posted June 12
The author is a U.S. military strategist
who formerly taught history at West Point.
“National Illusions and Global
Realities”
By Lawrence S. Wittner, Huffington
Post, posted June 11
The author is a professor of history
emeritus at SUNY Albany.
“Does Oliver Stone Have a Weak Spot for Dictators?”
By Peter Kuznick, History
News Network, posted June 11
The author teaches history at American
University and collaborated with Oliver Stone on the TV series and book The
Untold History of the United States.
“U.K.’s Corbyn
Told Truth about Terrorism”
By Lawrence Davidson, Consortium
News, posted June 10
The author teaches history at West
Chester University.
“The Six-Day War Was a Turning Point
in Passionate Attachment to Israel”
By Jeremy Kuzmarov, Huffington
Post, posted June 8
The author teaches history at the
University of Tulsa.
“America’s Real Red Scare: The
Slow-Motion Collapse of the American Empire”
By William J. Astore, TomDispatch.com,
posted June 6
The author, a retired Air Force
lieutenant colonel, taught history for fifteen years at military and civilian
schools.
“Will the Neocons’
Long War Ever End?”
By Nicolas J. S. Davies, Consortium
News, posted June 5
“The Israeli-American Hammerlock on
Palestine”
By Rashid Khalidi, The
Nation, posted June 5
The author teaches history and Modern
Arab Studies at Columbia University.
Thanks to an anonymous reader for suggesting
some of the above articles. Suggestions can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.
===========
o.
Only in U.S. Can You Destroy Another
State's Plane In Their Own Country And Call It "Self-defense"
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47280.htm
by Holisticgreen
The
world is now perhaps closer to World War Three than it has been in five
decades.
An
American pilot shot down a Syrian fighter that was attacking ISIS, thus
confirming that Washington is not fighting ISIS, as Washington claims, but is
protecting ISIS, its agent sent to Syria by Obama and Hillary to overthrow the
Syrian government. General Michael Flynn revealed on a TV interview that Obama
and Hillary had, over his objection as director of the Defense Intelligence
Agency, made the “willful decision” to send ISIS to Syria.
===========
p.
The
US Seems Keener To Strike At Assad
Than
It Does To Destroy Isis
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47288.htm
by Robert Fisk
It is instructive that the
West now expresses more outrage at the use of gas – it blames the Assad regime
for this, of course – than at the continued cruelty of Isis
the Defense Intelligence
Agency, made the “willful decision” to send ISIS to Syria.
===========
q.
Another
Step Toward Devastating War
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47286.htm
by
Paul Craig Roberts
An
idiot American pilot shot down a Syrian fighter that was attacking ISIS, thus
confirming that Washington is not fighting ISIS, as Washington claims, but is
protecting ISIS, its agent sent to Syria by Obama and Hillary to overthrow the
Syrian government. General Michael Flynn revealed on a TV interview that Obama
and Hillary had, over his objection as director of the Defense Intelligence
Agency, made the “willful decision” to send ISIS to Syria.
===========
r.
The Single Party French State …
as
the Majority of Voters Abstain