Students Against Imperialism at GW

04/14/2020

Indigenous Communities Left Vulnerable to COVID-19
by Dayii Elfayous

It has become crystal clear that even in the midst of a global public health crisis, capitalism continues to prioritize the wellbeing of the wealthy elite. Among the communities that are already at higher risk of contagion during this time, having been exposed to the virus through economic exploitation, sanctions, and other cruel means by which countries with capitalist economies sustain themselves, are indigenous peoples.
As we already know, colonization and occupation are vehicles through which many infectious diseases— like measles and smallpox— have come in contact with indigenous communities in the Americas, ravaging them and leaving indigenous peoples today with lower immunity to illnesses as benign as the common cold. Limited access to medical care and information in remote indigenous territories has, time and time again, reintroduced other infectious diseases to these communities. Seeing as their needs are far from met by administrations worldwide, these diseases continue to threaten the lives of indigenous peoples everywhere.
With COVID-19, individual hygiene and social distancing are of utmost importance, although it is definitely true that in certain countries administrations’ careless and untimely responses to the virus are the reason for it spreading to the extent that it has. To go beyond that, the same issues that have threatened the lives of indigenous peoples preceding the outbreak of COVID-19, such as climate change and deforestation, are making it increasingly difficult for indigenous communities to avoid contraction, as the virus was initially transmitted among wildlife.
In Brazil, the COVID-19 crisis could literally bring indigenous groups to extinction. President Jair Bolsonaro has encouraged gold miners, ranchers, and loggers to enter remote native territories where healthcare is absent and communities have not yet come in contact with the virus. In addition, natives have no choice but to put themselves at greater risk of contagion, as they must enter cities to retrieve medicine and medical equipment. The fascist Bolsonaro administration is strategically exterminating indigenous communities by prioritizing the interests of big businesses, despite what this could mean for Brazil’s native peoples, and simultaneously slashing government funds for vital public welfare programs, like SESAI, that exist to provide them with healthcare.
With COVID-19 exposing the ills of colonialist, imperialist, and capitalist governments around the world, we have no choice but to acknowledge how cruel policies like those of Bolsonaro’s administration wreak havoc on marginalized communities. It is our responsibility, as leftists and sentient human beings, to stand in solidarity with indigenous peoples and all other communities at the forefront of the movement against COVID-19 and, in the long run, for social and economic reform.

04/14/2020

Repression and Resistance in the Philippines
by Jiawei dela Cruz

A few days ahead of March 8, the International Working Women’s Day, the Filipino government under Rodrigo Duterte arrested the secretary general and national chairperson of GABRIELA Alliance, the biggest feminist organization in the country, on false charges. This is not the first time progressive activists have been targeted by the government: just a month ago, on February 7, five young human rights activists were arrested by the army, who placed guns and fake evidence in their apartments and offices so they can accuse them of being “terrorists”.

Since his election in 2016, Rodrigo Duterte has exposed himself of being a fascist dictator and suppressor of people’s democratic rights. Winning an election through a populist platform which promised the end of corruption, improvements of people’s rights, and dependency on foreign powers, Duterte broke all of his promises as soon as he stepped into office. He launched a “War on Drugs”, mobilizing fascist militia and the police force to indiscriminately kill anyone suspected of being drug users.At the same time, drug lords like his own family, who are closely associated with the government and military, are left unharmed. He declared a martial law in the southern island of Mindanao on the pretense of combating ISIS, but when ISIS was defeated, he not only continued to renew the martial law, but even extended it in reality to a national level through his whole-of-nation approach. Killings and repression are now a common occurrence everywhere in the Philippines, even in the busy areas of Manila. The army and police are given the ability to conduct raids and arrests whenever they please, without any warrant.

These measures benefit no one but Duterte, his cronies, and foreign interests like that of the US. In the resource-rich of Mindanao, where there is an abundant reserve of gold, copper, and oil, thousands of indigenous people are being displaced as their ancestral land and thousands of acres of forests are turned into mines operated by American and Chinese companies. In a country where 75% of the population are agrarian, the Duterte regime passed the Rice Tariffication Law, effectively eliminating tariffs for imported foreign rice (the main source of food in the country), which flooded the Filipino market and destroyed the livelihood of peasants with their cheap price. The country has become such a hard place for people to live as thousands of Filipinos are leaving their home for the US every day in the hope of searching for a better life.

Speaking out for social justice and human rights is a dangerous thing to do in Duterte’s Philippines, as activists are routinely “red-tagged”, accused to be communists, harassed, subjected to arbitrary arrests and violations of fundamental human rights, and very often, killed. In the first two years of Duterte’s presidency alone, 34 lawyers who were fighting for human rights were assassinated, including the 54-year-old Benjamin Ramos, a lifelong fighter for the poor and underprivileged, who was shot in the streets in plain sight as he was returning from work.

However, wherever there is oppression, there is resistance. The progressive movement in the Philippines is growing stronger day by day, in the face of the heightening repression. People in all sectors of the Filipino society, from workers, peasants, professionals, to students, artists and business owners, are getting organized in the various progressive and people’s organizations under the Bagong Alyanza Makabayan (BAYAN), or New Patriotic Alliance, to fight for a just society that is both national and democratic, where the Filipino people will be the masters of their own fate, instead of a small group of corrupt officials, landowners, and foreign multinational corporations.

Further reading:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/07/world/asia/philippine-lawyer-duterte.html

https://www.bulatlat.com/2019/08/09/rights-abuses-land-grabbing-confront-indigenous-peoples-in-ph/

https://www.bulatlat.com/2019/08/09/rights-abuses-land-grabbing-confront-indigenous-peoples-in-ph/

The lawyer, Benjamin Ramos, was shot by men on a motorcycle after being put on a watchlist by the police and military.

01/05/2020

Despite all the statements to the contrary, Democrats and Republicans are both responsible for rising tension with Iran. The war machine knows no partisan identity.

" ... Democrats tee up the ball for Trump’s aggressive maneuvers, and then express outrage when his administration takes a swing."

Democratic leaders are feigning outrage, but they've supported the precursors to war.