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STATEMENT OPPOSING ANTI-CHINA CAMPAIGN
Here's a view that is being drowned out... just as America's crimes against humanity are being drowned out in the media just now:
For immediate release
April 7, 2008 Press contact:
Richard Becker, 415-377-6321
Bill Hackwell, 415-269-7917
STATEMENT OPPOSING ANTI-CHINA CAMPAIGN
We are opposed to the campaign of disinformation and demonization that is targeting the People’s Republic of China (PRC.) The timing of the campaign is linked to China’s hosting of the 2008 Summer Olympics. That the Olympics are taking place in China is of historic significance and great pride to all the country’s people. It was less than six decades ago that China emerged from a century of colonialist humiliation at the hands of the same big powers that are spearheading the China-bashing campaign today.
Washington is providing financial, political, diplomatic and propaganda support to the racist demonization effort, supposedly because of concern for “human rights.” This is the same government that is directly responsible for the death of one million Iraqis since 2003.
While one out of every three Iraqis have been killed, wounded or displaced since 2003 the US government is eager to have people in the US., especially students, protest any government other than their own. One pretext for the anti-China campaign is the fact that the PRC has trade relations with Sudan. The US wants to overthrow the government of oil-rich Sudan and replace it with a puppet. It has supported “rebel groups” who are prolonging the civil war. The people of the Sudan, who are suffering greatly, are cynically used as a fund raising vehicle by organizations that have raised tens of millions of dollars but have never spent a penny actually helping the people of Sudan, including those who live in the Darfur region.
Demonization campaigns against particular countries and their leaders are not just media exercises. Over the last two decades, such campaigns have preceded the invasions of Iraq and Panama, the bombing war against Yugoslavia, the coups in Haiti and attempted coup in Venezuela, and a threatened war against Iran. The pattern is clear and so too is the danger.
Regarding Tibet, for many centuries a region of China, the hand of Washington in the latest events is obvious for anyone who wants to see. For more than 50 years, the CIA and other U.S. government agencies have trained, funded, coordinated and supported the old feudal and repressive regime in Tibet represented by the Dalai Lama. The CIA front group the National Endowment for Democracy funds the International Campaign for Tibet, the Tibetan Youth Congress, the Tibetan People’s Uprising Movement and the Dalai Lama himself. The U.S. maintains close ties with the Tibetan “government-in-exile” in India, whose real aim is to break away a region making up a quarter of China’s territory. These U.S. actions constitute an effort to de-stabilize and dismember the Peoples Republic of China. The progress in education, women’s rights, employment and health care would be immediately eviscerated if the old serf-owning ruling elite, represented by the Dalai Lama, was brought back to power.
No one, least of all progressive people, should be misled about what is really going on. The real motivation for the anti-China campaign has nothing to do with human rights or liberation, and everything to do with an agenda of global domination.
We the undersigned call for an end to the disinformation and demonization campaign against China, and a halt to the attempts to boycott and disrupt the 2008 Olympics.
Initial Signers:
Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General
Muna Coobtee, Party for Socialism and Liberation
Tony Gonzales, American Indian Movement-West*
Richard Becker, Western Region Coordinator, ANSWER Coalition*
Dave Ewing, Co-Chair,U.S.-China Peoples Friendship Association,San Francisco
Willie Bartolome, Coordinator, Philippine Peasant Support Network (Pesante)-USA
Arturo P. Garcia, Philippine Immigrant Network for Empowerment
Bob Anderson, Stop the War Machine, Albuquerque, New Mexico*
Chuck Kaufman, Co-Coordinator, Nicaragua Network*
Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Civil Rights Attorney
Peter Erlinder, Law Professor, former President of the National Lawyers Guild
Riva Enteen, member, National Lawyers Guild
Idriss Stelley Foundation
Education Not Incarceration, San Francisco Chapter
San Francisco Village Voice Community Radio
Mesha Monge Irizarry, San Francisco Bayview National Black Newspaper reporter*
Gilberto López y Rivas, Professor and Journalist
Beatrice Eisman, U.S.-Vietnam Friendship Association*
Mario Santos, National Coordinator,Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines—USA
Jim Lafferty, Interim General Manager, KPFK 90.7 FM Pacifica Radio* and Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild, Los Angeles*
Ecumenical Fellowship for Justice and Peace-Los Angeles
Judi Cheng, New York City, NY
Eli Stephens, Left I on the News
Allen Cooper, Veterans for Peace, GI Rights Hotline*
Peing Baclig, Justice for Filipino American Veterans (JFAV)*
Jack Vergara, Echo Park Community Coalition (EPCC)*
Pons De Leon, First Quarter Storm Network (FQSN)-USA-
*Organizations for Identification Only
April 7, 2008 Press contact:
Richard Becker, 415-377-6321
Bill Hackwell, 415-269-7917
STATEMENT OPPOSING ANTI-CHINA CAMPAIGN
We are opposed to the campaign of disinformation and demonization that is targeting the People’s Republic of China (PRC.) The timing of the campaign is linked to China’s hosting of the 2008 Summer Olympics. That the Olympics are taking place in China is of historic significance and great pride to all the country’s people. It was less than six decades ago that China emerged from a century of colonialist humiliation at the hands of the same big powers that are spearheading the China-bashing campaign today.
Washington is providing financial, political, diplomatic and propaganda support to the racist demonization effort, supposedly because of concern for “human rights.” This is the same government that is directly responsible for the death of one million Iraqis since 2003.
While one out of every three Iraqis have been killed, wounded or displaced since 2003 the US government is eager to have people in the US., especially students, protest any government other than their own. One pretext for the anti-China campaign is the fact that the PRC has trade relations with Sudan. The US wants to overthrow the government of oil-rich Sudan and replace it with a puppet. It has supported “rebel groups” who are prolonging the civil war. The people of the Sudan, who are suffering greatly, are cynically used as a fund raising vehicle by organizations that have raised tens of millions of dollars but have never spent a penny actually helping the people of Sudan, including those who live in the Darfur region.
Demonization campaigns against particular countries and their leaders are not just media exercises. Over the last two decades, such campaigns have preceded the invasions of Iraq and Panama, the bombing war against Yugoslavia, the coups in Haiti and attempted coup in Venezuela, and a threatened war against Iran. The pattern is clear and so too is the danger.
Regarding Tibet, for many centuries a region of China, the hand of Washington in the latest events is obvious for anyone who wants to see. For more than 50 years, the CIA and other U.S. government agencies have trained, funded, coordinated and supported the old feudal and repressive regime in Tibet represented by the Dalai Lama. The CIA front group the National Endowment for Democracy funds the International Campaign for Tibet, the Tibetan Youth Congress, the Tibetan People’s Uprising Movement and the Dalai Lama himself. The U.S. maintains close ties with the Tibetan “government-in-exile” in India, whose real aim is to break away a region making up a quarter of China’s territory. These U.S. actions constitute an effort to de-stabilize and dismember the Peoples Republic of China. The progress in education, women’s rights, employment and health care would be immediately eviscerated if the old serf-owning ruling elite, represented by the Dalai Lama, was brought back to power.
No one, least of all progressive people, should be misled about what is really going on. The real motivation for the anti-China campaign has nothing to do with human rights or liberation, and everything to do with an agenda of global domination.
We the undersigned call for an end to the disinformation and demonization campaign against China, and a halt to the attempts to boycott and disrupt the 2008 Olympics.
Initial Signers:
Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General
Muna Coobtee, Party for Socialism and Liberation
Tony Gonzales, American Indian Movement-West*
Richard Becker, Western Region Coordinator, ANSWER Coalition*
Dave Ewing, Co-Chair,U.S.-China Peoples Friendship Association,San Francisco
Willie Bartolome, Coordinator, Philippine Peasant Support Network (Pesante)-USA
Arturo P. Garcia, Philippine Immigrant Network for Empowerment
Bob Anderson, Stop the War Machine, Albuquerque, New Mexico*
Chuck Kaufman, Co-Coordinator, Nicaragua Network*
Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Civil Rights Attorney
Peter Erlinder, Law Professor, former President of the National Lawyers Guild
Riva Enteen, member, National Lawyers Guild
Idriss Stelley Foundation
Education Not Incarceration, San Francisco Chapter
San Francisco Village Voice Community Radio
Mesha Monge Irizarry, San Francisco Bayview National Black Newspaper reporter*
Gilberto López y Rivas, Professor and Journalist
Beatrice Eisman, U.S.-Vietnam Friendship Association*
Mario Santos, National Coordinator,Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines—USA
Jim Lafferty, Interim General Manager, KPFK 90.7 FM Pacifica Radio* and Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild, Los Angeles*
Ecumenical Fellowship for Justice and Peace-Los Angeles
Judi Cheng, New York City, NY
Eli Stephens, Left I on the News
Allen Cooper, Veterans for Peace, GI Rights Hotline*
Peing Baclig, Justice for Filipino American Veterans (JFAV)*
Jack Vergara, Echo Park Community Coalition (EPCC)*
Pons De Leon, First Quarter Storm Network (FQSN)-USA-
*Organizations for Identification Only
For more information:
http://www.pslweb.org/site/News2?page=News...
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Comments
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on the American left.
I was starting to worry, frankly.... worry that so many "activists" can be so easily duped, this late in the game. In fact, that concern persists. But look-- here's some of the same points a very few of us have been making, coming from a bunch of different people.
Will you at least sit down for a minute and read this short statement through, and then rethink your likely-received thoughts on Tibet, before going out there and doing the front-line work for the CIA?
Pretty please?
I was starting to worry, frankly.... worry that so many "activists" can be so easily duped, this late in the game. In fact, that concern persists. But look-- here's some of the same points a very few of us have been making, coming from a bunch of different people.
Will you at least sit down for a minute and read this short statement through, and then rethink your likely-received thoughts on Tibet, before going out there and doing the front-line work for the CIA?
Pretty please?
It was in 1980, and it was because the USA was offended at (wait for it).... the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
What about "free Afghanistan"?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American-led_boycott_of_the_1980_Summer_Olympics
What about "free Afghanistan"?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American-led_boycott_of_the_1980_Summer_Olympics
Becker and the Stalinists at ANSWER supported the crackdown in Tiananmen Square. So they got a couple of leftist ding a lings to sign their stupid petition, apologizing for a the brutality and oppression of the Chinese State.
Who has more credibility on this issue, the unknown PSL or Amnesty International, which supports Tibetan's human rights?
The PSL says that the Olympic Games will be a source of pride for the Chinese people, which may be true for some, but who really benefits? Are the ones displaced to make way for new stadiums and facilities really all that proud? Are they proud that Tibetans were beaten by Chinese police?
Why is the titular Party for 'Socialism' and 'Liberation' so supportive of the state capitalist Chinese government, whose policies have created a growing disparity of extreme wealth and poverty? Is this the kind of Liberation the PSL envisions - corrupt party officials prosper while workers starve?
PSL says the anti-China campaign is 'racist,' which is utterly absurd. The policies of the corrupt regime and their violent crackdown on dissent are being opposed, not the Chinese people as a race or ethnic group.
The PSL points to some truths about who funds the so-called Tibetan freedom movement, but that doesn't mean Tibetans aren't being oppressed by the ultra-capitalist pigs in Beijing.
We expect this kind of drivel from the RCP Avakian cult; the PSL seemed to have some sensible activists. How embarrassing that the anti-Chinese government crackdown rally will draw more people than ANSWER's recent anti-Iraq war rally.
Screw the Tibetan theocracy and the Chinese plutocracy!
The PSL says that the Olympic Games will be a source of pride for the Chinese people, which may be true for some, but who really benefits? Are the ones displaced to make way for new stadiums and facilities really all that proud? Are they proud that Tibetans were beaten by Chinese police?
Why is the titular Party for 'Socialism' and 'Liberation' so supportive of the state capitalist Chinese government, whose policies have created a growing disparity of extreme wealth and poverty? Is this the kind of Liberation the PSL envisions - corrupt party officials prosper while workers starve?
PSL says the anti-China campaign is 'racist,' which is utterly absurd. The policies of the corrupt regime and their violent crackdown on dissent are being opposed, not the Chinese people as a race or ethnic group.
The PSL points to some truths about who funds the so-called Tibetan freedom movement, but that doesn't mean Tibetans aren't being oppressed by the ultra-capitalist pigs in Beijing.
We expect this kind of drivel from the RCP Avakian cult; the PSL seemed to have some sensible activists. How embarrassing that the anti-Chinese government crackdown rally will draw more people than ANSWER's recent anti-Iraq war rally.
Screw the Tibetan theocracy and the Chinese plutocracy!
Stalinism. That's all ya got, someone else's discrediting beliefs, real or imagined?
Sheesh... most Chinese citizens supported the crackdown at Tienanmen Square.
Did that make it right? even... democratic?
By the same token, what if most Tibetans supported the lynchings of their ethnically-Chinese neighbors-- would that make it right? or even 'democratic'? And what should a national government do in such a situation-- leave it to the States to decide?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Rock_Nine#Federal_intervention
Oh, but wait, it's always easier just to red bait, isn't it?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-baiting
Congratulations! Have an all-American prize:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/21/Is_this_tomorrow.jpg
Sheesh... most Chinese citizens supported the crackdown at Tienanmen Square.
Did that make it right? even... democratic?
By the same token, what if most Tibetans supported the lynchings of their ethnically-Chinese neighbors-- would that make it right? or even 'democratic'? And what should a national government do in such a situation-- leave it to the States to decide?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Rock_Nine#Federal_intervention
Oh, but wait, it's always easier just to red bait, isn't it?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-baiting
Congratulations! Have an all-American prize:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/21/Is_this_tomorrow.jpg
"Screw the Tibetan theocracy and the Chinese plutocracy!"
Right... because that approach has worked out so well, so far, right?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism_in_Spain
Or perhaps I misunderstand, and you had any of several other political alternatives in mind, like say
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlightened_absolutism
...or perhaps everyone's favorite theocratic-plutocracy-shielding device,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliament#Parliamentary_government
Right... because that approach has worked out so well, so far, right?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism_in_Spain
Or perhaps I misunderstand, and you had any of several other political alternatives in mind, like say
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlightened_absolutism
...or perhaps everyone's favorite theocratic-plutocracy-shielding device,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliament#Parliamentary_government
Sure, the Chinese wannabe-capitalist Stalinist state does engage in brutality and oppression and, apparently unlike Becker and the PSL, I can acknowledge that and still support the rest of their argument.
Saddam Hussein was brutal and oppressive (including back when the U.S. was arming him and hardly anybody except the left was speaking out against him), but this reality was later used as an excuse by the U.S.-Israel Axis to impose on the Iraqi people a level of brutality and oppression that was way beyond anything Saddam was capable of. Moreover, the replacement of the U.S.'s onetime-client Saddam by more dependent (and therefore more compliant) puppets propped up by U.S. troops has not only made the lives of Iraqis (the ones who still HAVE lives) worse, but made Iraq (or, more precisely, forces based in Iraq) a far greater threat to Iraq's neighbors than ever before.
What it boils down to is that it is the United States that is the danger without peer in the world today and that it is against the United States, with its manifold crimes against the people(s) of the world and their material environment, that we should be directing our energies.
I do not, BTW, propose that those fighting the U.S. Empire should use as much violence against the persons and institutions of that Empire as that Empire uses against those who resist it. It would, in any case, be nearly impossible to do so!
This is a complicated issue for the ahistorical U.S. Left . Both the P.S.L. and Pablo are partly right. Pre-1959 Tibet was a pretty ugly place. Priests were the ruling class and just about everyone else were serfs . Women were especially oppressed. (Even The Dahli Lama had to (very partially ) acknowledge that a few years ago ) And the CIA is and always has been deeply involved in the Tibetan exile movement .
But the P.R.C. is no workers paradise . The move towards Capitalist restoration is pretty far along and democratic rights are practically non existant .(The P.S.L. , as is their wont, doesn't mention this )
The role of the U.S. govt. shouldn't be ignored . U.S. corporations are deeply involved in the '' New China '' and you can bet their execs do not grill their Chinese hosts about human rights when they visit .
Still the U.S. sees the PRC more as a rival than a trade partner so their obedient media cries crocodile tears over Tibet .
What to do ? I probably will go and check things out tommorrow but unless there is a contingent that opposes both the PRC leadership , US Imperialism , and the Tibetan priesthood i wil be just watching the action . Not disinterested but not a partisan .
But the P.R.C. is no workers paradise . The move towards Capitalist restoration is pretty far along and democratic rights are practically non existant .(The P.S.L. , as is their wont, doesn't mention this )
The role of the U.S. govt. shouldn't be ignored . U.S. corporations are deeply involved in the '' New China '' and you can bet their execs do not grill their Chinese hosts about human rights when they visit .
Still the U.S. sees the PRC more as a rival than a trade partner so their obedient media cries crocodile tears over Tibet .
What to do ? I probably will go and check things out tommorrow but unless there is a contingent that opposes both the PRC leadership , US Imperialism , and the Tibetan priesthood i wil be just watching the action . Not disinterested but not a partisan .
I second what Sean wrote. I can't see myself lining up with either faction Wednesday. Nor will i stand with the "" Olympics are above politics '' mob.
What we need is a Left movement that can deal with grey, complicated situations like Tibet and China . Not sis boom bah cheerleading for either .
What we need is a Left movement that can deal with grey, complicated situations like Tibet and China . Not sis boom bah cheerleading for either .
It's also important to remember some recent history. These clowns were the same assholes who protested the NATO/US bombing of Serbia and Kosovo by promoting the brilliance and socialism of the genocidal maniac Slobodan Milosevic. I went to one of their marches and was horrified to see people making that three-fingered salute. There was a small contingent of counter-protesters (three or four) at the end who denounced the bombing AND Milosevic, but they were pushed away from the rally by the usual Workers' World Party thugs. Disgusting.
I'm so fed up by the "infantile left" of the U.S. What's this incessant obsession about supporting the current China that is neither revolutionary nor a workers' state? Some of the worst qualities about "being American" is to talk and act self-righteously without really trying to understand the language and the culture of the country(ies) we talk about. How about going to live in China, Tibet, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, and then form your opinions? Or better yet, go and talk with Tibetans, Taiwanese, Hong Kong socialists and communists... see what they think about the "One China" issue. Why can't Americans, even the "progressives", claw themselves out of their judeo-christian "black or white", "0 or 1" socialization and see things? This American arrogance, more than anything else, is what pisses people off around the world.
In Asia, China is like the U.S., an imperialist power. Asian countries have been invaded by China for centuries. That's not a communist in China right now... it's a fascist government, where the government IS industry and not labor. Yeah, Tibet's stupid theocracy sucks. But is running the other way to the bosom of a fascist imperialist power the only thing the American left can think about? Revolution takes listening, organizing, and imagination. What happened to American leftists?? Have we gone so far into withdrawal after the cold war that we've become self-righteous and arrogant as well?
In Asia, China is like the U.S., an imperialist power. Asian countries have been invaded by China for centuries. That's not a communist in China right now... it's a fascist government, where the government IS industry and not labor. Yeah, Tibet's stupid theocracy sucks. But is running the other way to the bosom of a fascist imperialist power the only thing the American left can think about? Revolution takes listening, organizing, and imagination. What happened to American leftists?? Have we gone so far into withdrawal after the cold war that we've become self-righteous and arrogant as well?
One major faux pas that Americans tend to do... probably an extension of its racist arrogance: don't ventriloquate people who are not you... period. Tim Wise once said that America would be much less racist if Americans would just "believe it when they say". Believe people of color when we say that we felt racism... don't wait until you've read "Black Like Me" (written by a white reporter who chemically "darked" himself to experience the South in the 50's) to say "oh yeah, I never knew it felt like that!"
Believe Tibetans, the Taiwanese, the Mongolians, the Burmese, the Vietnamese, etc. when they say that they don't want to have anything to do with an occupation power (China). Contrary to popular American (and a big chunk of American left) belief, these "other" Asian people are not stupid. They are not rallying simple pawns of Western capitalist powers that some American leftists think they are. To say stupid things like that is plain racist.
WHO THE HELL are these American leftists (including pro-Tibet folks) to say what's best for these people? Do the Iraqi really want American-style "democracy"? Or are the Iraqi better off with a workers' state? Oh, wait, I know, how about asking the Iraqi what they want? All Iraqi, not just the aristocracy. Please... wrap the same analysis around the so-called "People's Republic" of China too... China has exploited the rest of Asia for far too long. If it's any indication, American capitalists just LOVE China right now for that very reason.
Believe Tibetans, the Taiwanese, the Mongolians, the Burmese, the Vietnamese, etc. when they say that they don't want to have anything to do with an occupation power (China). Contrary to popular American (and a big chunk of American left) belief, these "other" Asian people are not stupid. They are not rallying simple pawns of Western capitalist powers that some American leftists think they are. To say stupid things like that is plain racist.
WHO THE HELL are these American leftists (including pro-Tibet folks) to say what's best for these people? Do the Iraqi really want American-style "democracy"? Or are the Iraqi better off with a workers' state? Oh, wait, I know, how about asking the Iraqi what they want? All Iraqi, not just the aristocracy. Please... wrap the same analysis around the so-called "People's Republic" of China too... China has exploited the rest of Asia for far too long. If it's any indication, American capitalists just LOVE China right now for that very reason.
Let's not waste too much time with the apologists for the tyranny of Beijing. It is big capitalism which wants us to ignore human rights and these "maoists" play right into the hands of this form of big business neo-fascism. Seize the time - we will not have an opportunity like this for a long time. As for Ramsey Clark - SHAME!
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