World News & Views

The Republic of Guinea, Conakry, on the western coast of Africa has a history that mirrors that of many other countries on the African continent. From colonialism, imperialism and dictatorships, Guinea has managed up until the present to avoid major ethnic clashes. Although there have always been ethnic tensions hovering over the Guinean society, Peuhl, Malinke, Susu, Kisi and all other groups have found ways to live as one nation. The current outbreak of ethnic violence in the wake of the first and second rounds of elections has roots in the beginning of the modern Guinean state.

On Wednesday, July 17, Nick Long reported for the Voice of America that the Congolese army’s recent successes at driving the M23 militia from their positions in eastern Congo have caused euphoria amongst Congolese, particularly in Goma, the capital city of North Kivu Province on Congo’s border with Rwanda. Here’s that Voice of America radio report:

With the forced resignation of Bolivian President Evo Morales and the physical assaults against leaders of the Movement for Socialism, the progress made by indigenous and working-class people of Bolivia is under serious assault.

The plot to control Haiti has gone from the absurd to the ridiculous. The return of Jean Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier raises serious questions about who in Haiti facilitated his return and what his supporters expect to gain by bringing him back.

“On Aug. 16, police opened fire on striking Marikana workers, killing 34 and wounding 78. The bitter struggle was called off only after the strikers had secured a 22 percent wage increase. The strike wave is now engulfing South Africa’s platinum, gold and coal mining industries and has spread to other sectors. There are more than 100,000 workers on strike across South Africa.”

The Democratic National Press (DNP) had to find someone to blame besides the Democrats and their own thieving national committee, so we were subjected to the two-year, $30 million Russiagate investigation that finally ended with the grudging conclusion that there’s no evidence to indict Trump.

Haiti Action Committee strongly condemns the joint statement by nine members of the House of Representatives claiming “Violent Protests That Have Left Haiti at a Standstill.” Their assertion, “While the frustrations that have prompted the protests are justifiable, the violent acts being used to express them are indefensible,” is as backwards a statement as President Trump equating those protesting white supremacy in Charlottesville with the racist demonstrators.

Rwandan President Kagame and Carnegie Mellon University’s new relationship has the whiff of a celebrity marriage. An African war criminal in possession of a presidency must be in want of a Western institution whose reputation can lend him international credibility.

On Oct. 25, Haitians are slated to go to the polls to elect a new president and Parliament, after a disastrous first round vote for Parliament on Aug. 9, marred by Martelly government-sponsored voter suppression, violence and corruption. Amid protests and calls from thousands of demonstrators to annul the August elections, it took almost two months to announce the “winners” who will contest this Oct. 25 “run-off.”

According to the United Nations, 700 million Africans don’t have access to electricity most of the time in rural regions, far from urban zones. The “Fondation Energie,” founded by French political personality Jean-Louis Borloo, and the “Energy for Africa” project sponsored by Guinea President Alpha Conde are inspiring inventors to solve the problem. During 2016, two young Africans, Evariste Akoumian and Delphine Oulai, presented their responses.

Viet Nam and the Vietnamese people have confronted the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, and their quick and united national response has produced remarkable results and earned the recognition of top public health experts and organizations around the world.

Once again, the world is rising up against oppression. In the U.S., our time will come. Remember the kind of commitment we saw in Malcolm X, who was murdered 46 years ago this month. On the morning of Feb. 21, Malcolm received a phone call saying, “Today is the day.” He showed up anyway, knowing that that day could be his very last day on this Earth. Malcolm did not let fear control his commitment to the cause of freedom and justice. That is the real stuff we all are made of. Deep inside every one of us is a Revolution waiting to happen.

Since 9-11, the U.S. government, through Presidents Bush and Obama, has increasingly told the U.S. public that “state secrets” will not be shared with citizens. Candidate Obama pledged to reduce the use of state secrets, but President Obama continued the Bush tradition. The courts and Congress and international allies have gone meekly along with the escalating secrecy demands of the U.S. executive.

I talked to a future repatriate, my comrade Dr. Chris Zamani, about his recent trip to South Africa in search of a homeland and a place for him to stick his flag. I talked to him about some of the factors that he has to consider in order to prepare to make that move. He has a very interesting outlook on history and life that is driving his decision to want to leave the U.S., and I wanted to share this ongoing conversation that we have been having with each other for the last few years. Check out Dr. Zamani in his own words ...

At the Cape Town film festival, Cynthia McKinney debuted Minister of Information JR's "Operation Small Axe," a film that will get folks ready for the venue change in the Oscar Grant killer cop case. It's screening Saturday, Oct. 17, 1:30 p.m., at the West Oakland Library, 18th & Adeline, for Black Panther History Month and Thursday, Oct. 22, 7 p.m., SF State Student Union for the Black Student Union.

Dr. Maryse Narcisse, presidential candidate of Fanmi Lavalas, addressed an overflow audience in Oakland in late April. She spoke in the wake of the selection of Haiti’s new president, Jovenel Moise, a right-wing businessman and protégé of former president Michel Martelly, who took office via an electoral process so replete with fraud and voter suppression that opposition forces called it an “electoral coup.”

If the world and international media ignores West Papua now, the Indonesian security services may turn it into a bloodbath.

Zapata’s legacy of integrity, dignity, self-determination and emancipation rang loud and clear to many, not as simply a worthy cost of freedom but a call to duty, to fight and challenge for a deserved justice. Zapata and the EZLN generalized their plight. Exposure itself can be a force when successfully framed: “Circumstances create man as much as man creates his circumstances.” As the vanguard, we must create ours.

Kagame denies responsibility for the assassination attempts even as he welcomes their success, as he did that of his former intelligence chief Patrick Karegeya, who was strangled by multiple assassins. Shortly thereafter, Kagame told a Rwandan audience, mostly in their own language, Kinyarwanda, that you can’t betray Rwanda without being punished.

Despite years and months of intense advocacy and organizing, whole nations and masses of people are facing increased possibilities of drowning, burning and/or starving to extinction. All the progressive forces we have met – inside and outside of the governments – have told us how determined they are to continue our generation’s mandate to reclaim the power from the selfish polluters who threaten the survival of all of us.