UNITED NATIONS - Hypocritical, Imperialist Global SHAM

Issued by the International Coordinating Committee,

International League of Peoples' Struggle

September 21, 2011

THE International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) denounces as a complete sham and grand deception the UN call for the celebration of September 21 as an “International Day of Peace”. The UN Secretary General describes this as “a day on which armed conflicts is meant to be stilled… a day on which we appeal to combatants to observe a ceasefire… a day on which we reaffirm commitment to non-violence and the peaceful resolution of disputes.”

Photo art: JB

Nothing can be more hypocritical on a global scale than for the UN to appeal for non-violence and peace. The United Nations Organization was established in 1945 after the Second World War supposedly in response to the global aspiration to preserve peace and prevent war. But through its sixty-six years as an international agency purportedly with a mission to keep and ensure global peace, the UN has had its hands dripping with the blood and tears of millions of victims of imperialist aggression, to which it had either turned a blind eye if not supported and even vested with a cloak of legitimacy.

In November 1947, only two years after its establishment, the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 181 (II), creating the state of Israel by “partitioning” Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state. Pushed by the US, the partition resolution gave the larger and choice portion to the minority Jews, and the smaller one to the majority Palestinians. Instead of putting an end to the armed conflict, the resolution immediately caused its escalation and intensification, eventually resulting in the ruthless, violent expulsion of the Palestinians from their homeland.

It also set off a series of Arab-Israeli wars ostensibly over the existence of the state of Israel vis-à-vis the rights of the Palestinians to their homeland. But behind all the conflict was the aim of US imperialism to secure a foothold in the Middle East and ensure their control of oil and other resources in the region. Since then, Israel has zealously served the US as junior partner and hatchetman in the Middle East. The UN has condoned and supported Zionist Israel’s violent oppression and persecution of the Palestinians, and its military transgressions on neighboring Arab states such as Lebanon and Syria.


The UN also served US imperialist interests when the US attacked North Korea in 1950 and began the war of aggression against Korea. The UN endorsed the US aggression and further sent troops under the guise of “peace keeping” to fight alongside the US and South Korean armies against the North Koreans and the Chinese volunteers. It ultimately enforced the permanent division of the Korean nation through the establishment of the so-called Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) at the 38th parallel.

In 1960-61, a UN peace-enforcement contingent was sent to the Congo where its first Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba, faced a US- and Belgian-backed rebellion in the Congolese province of Katanga. Lumumba appealed for UN and even US intervention, but the UN refused while the US continued to support the rebellion. US official documents declassified years later reveal that then US President Eisenhower ordered the CIA to “eliminate” Lumumba, after several attempts to poison him failed. The Katanga rebels eventually captured Lumumba with the help of CIA and Belgian police officers. Lumumba again appealed to the UN to intervene, but all the UN Secretary General Dag Hammarksjold did was to lamely appeal to the Katangans to treat Lumumba according to the due process of law.

The UN did not act when US-NATO took advantage of ethnic conflict and intervened in the Kosovo war, subjecting Serbia to intense bombing in Serbia in March 1999. Instead, UN Security Council Resolution 1244 dated June 10, 1999 provided the pretext for US-NATO occupation of Kosovo under the guise of a UN mission to enforce a peace agreement. The resolution in effect legitimized the US-NATO bombings of Serbia and paved the way for the separation of Kosovo from Serbia.

Kosovo is now a US-NATO colony, with the biggest US Army base in the Balkans, Camp Bondsteel, also serving as the headquarters of the NATO Kosovo Force Multinational Brigade East. It was the first time the UN invoked “humanitarian” reasons to legitimize aggression and occupation by imperialist forces. Camp Bondsteel is reportedly being used as a secret detention center, with one European Council observer describing it as “a small version of Guantanamo”.

Like Kosovo, Sudan is another country coveted by US imperialism, being rich in still untapped oil, copper and other natural resources, where the entry of a UN peacekeeping mission served US imperialist interest rather than that of the Sudanese. The US had instigated and taken advantage of ethnic differences as one way of destabilizing the Sudanese government and preventing Sudan’s extraction of its natural resources with the help of China. The US brokered the Darfur Peace Agreement between the Sudanese government and the rebels it has backed, with provisions for the presence of US troops under a UN peacekeeping force.

The UN again sat idly by while the US and its “coalition of the willing” allies invaded and occupied Afghanistan and then Iraq on false claims of countering terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. When the US found itself saddled with rising costs of occupation and many of its allies withdrew from the coalition, the UN was called upon to set up a “Peacebuilding Commission” to provide a politically acceptable mechanism for overseeing the occupation and sharing the financial burden.

The Peacebuilding Commission, which includes all the permanent members of the Security Council at its core, primarily brings together international donors, and financial institutions, national governments, troop contributing countries; marshals resources and advises on and proposes integrated strategies for post-conflict peacebuilding and recovery. A Peacebuilding Fund was also provided for in the UN resolutions establishing the Peace Commission.

The most recent and most blatant example so far of how the UN is being used to legitimize and deodorize naked imperialist aggression under the guise of “humanitarian intervention” is the March 2011 UN Security Council Resolution 1973 (2011) ordering a “No-Fly-Zone over Libya” and air strikes against Muammar Gaddafi “to ensure the protection of civilians”. Thinking that a few bombings for a few days would bring about the downfall of Gaddafi, the US and its NATO allies were at first careful to point out that the intervention precludes hitting non-military targets, deploying ground forces or arming the so-called Libyan rebels.

But as the months wore on and there were no direct hits to finish off Gaddafi and topple his regime, the targets became more visibly non-military, and the presence of foreign ground troops and the arming of the rebels became an open secret. The bombings have been extremely barbaric and resulted in a full blown invasion, tens of thousands of civilian casualties (at least 50,000 according to the NATO rebels themselves) and untold destruction of social infrastructure and civilian structures. No end is in sight for the violence unleashed and further generated by the UN and NATO.

By acts of commission and omission, the UN has been wantonly violating the provisions in its own Charter upholding the norms of international law especially on respecting national sovereignty and defining the parameters for the use of armed force. In September 2008, UN Secretary General Ban Ki -Moon and NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer signed a declaration of cooperation which reportedly included cooperation in “maintaining international security on the basis of the UN Charter and certain international directives”. But the text of the declaration has been kept secret even to Security Council members, eliciting suspicion as to its contents.

It is not surprising that the UN hardly enforces resolutions, such as those passed by the General Assembly, that are not attuned to imperialist interests, while those that serve imperialist interests are the ones that are enforced. It is in the General Assembly where issues are discussed openly and voted upon democratically, each member countries being represented and having equally one vote. But it has no implementing power and thus its resolutions have only the power of moral suasion, no matter that these are democratically arrived at.

The real power to decide and implement lies in the Security Council, which has only fifteen members, ten of whom are temporary and on rotation basis. The remaining five permanent members, all victors in the Second World War, each has a veto power over the fourteen others. Additionally, the US is undisputedly “the first among equals”, being the biggest donor contributing up to 22 percent of the UNO’s finances aside from having the mightiest military machine.

The pretense at maintaining global peace and security is as deceitful as the related myth of promoting development and progress. The UN plays lip service to the need for global and economic justice especially for the third world countries, if there is to be an enduring peace. But its programs and policies, such as the Millennium Development Goals, are designed to serve the corporate agenda of imperialist globalization instead of instituting structural and policy reforms such as national industrialization, the cancellation of onerous debts and the reversal of WTO trade regimes and neoliberal reforms imposed by the IMF-WB. The perpetuation of these policies daily inflict the slow but severe violence through poverty and social injustice that afflicts the majority of peoples all over the world.


It is thus totally pathetic and disgusting for the UN to continue the pretense at being the champions of world peace. Its calls for an international day of peace, ceasefire and non-violence ring hollow amid the cacophony of injustice, murder and genocide that it has been a willing party to. The UN, especially its Security Council and the office of the Secretary General, has been a tool of the US and its imperialist allies and reactionary puppets for waging wars of aggression against sovereign states as well as for armed counterrevolution against the people and their revolutionary forces.

The ILPS calls on all its member organizations and allies to totally expose and oppose the UN for being a front and tool of imperialist plunder and war, not an international agency for promoting peace and development. Only the solidarity of the people and all those who resist and struggle against imperialism can pave the way to a world with genuine peace and development.###
 
(Reprinted with permission from Mr. Jose Maria Sison)

____________


Source:

International Coordinating Committee, International League of Peoples' Struggle. UN INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE IS FARCICAL AND HYPOCRITICAL. 21 Sept. 2011. https://www.facebook.com/notes/joma-sison/un-international-day-of-peace-is-farcical-and-hypocritical/10150446550438066


Photo credits:

http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675047739_Premier-Patrice-Lumumba_King-Baudouin-of-Belgium_death-of-Lumumba

http://empirestrikesblack.com/2011/04/imperialist-powers-prepare-escalation-of-libyan-war/

http://1389blog.com/2008/02/23/kosovo-news-and-views-roundup-22308/

http://www.veracitynow.com/Sphere-of-Influence/return-of-blatant-white-imperialism.html

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/mar2003/dese-m13.shtml
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/world/2001/israel_and_palestinians/key_maps/5.stm

http://www.shiachat.com/forum/index.php?/topic/234992852-somalia-land-of-the-forgotten/

http://redantliberationarmy.wordpress.com/2011/07/04/libya-and-the-united-front/

http://images.ctv.ca/archives/CTVNews/img2/20110525/600_abyei_sudan_un_patrol_ap_110525.jpg
 
http://powerpointparadise.com/blog/2011/09/un-report-offers-smoking-gun-proof-of-nato-u-s-lies/


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Joma's Vignette of the Philippine Senate's Rejection of the US Bases

Recalling how the Philippine Senate got to vote on the resolution ending the U.S. Military Bases

By Prof. Jose Maria Sison

MONTHS before the Philippine Senate vote on the resolution ending the US Military Bases on September 16, 1991,  Sen Wigberto Tanada and Ms. Maris Diokno came to converse with me and Louie Jakandoni about the prospects of GRP-NDFP peace negotiations and about what the NDFP could do to encourage the senators to vote for the resolution ending the US miklitary bases in the Philippines.


We agreed that Sen. Tanada would announce at the proper time  on the floor of the Senate before the vote on the aforesaid resolution the NDFP declaration of ceasefire and readiness to engage in peace negotiations with GRP upon the vote to terminate or not to extend the US-RP Military Bases Treaty.   When Sen. Tanada eventually made the announcement, the overwhelming of the senators roared in approval.


The NDFP declaration helped in keeping the majority of the senators for the resolution.  It served to remind everyone of the longrunning mass movement for the dismantling of the US military bases. It presaged The Hague Joint Declaration of the GRP and NDFP in 1992. The declaration established the framework for GRP-NDFP peace negotiations.

Louie and I met with Sen. Tanada and Maris Diokno at the premises of the Tricontinental Centre of the University of Louvain in Belgium, with Francois Houtart acting as the host and facilitator.

(Reprinted with permission of Mr. Joma Sison)

___________

 Source:

Sison, Joma. BEFORE PHILIPPINE SENATE VOTE ON THE RESOLUTION ENDING US MILITARY BASES. 15 Sept. 3022. https://www.facebook.com/notes/joma-sison/before-philippine-senate-vote-on-the-resolution-ending-us-military-bases/10150438643398066


Photo credits:

http://sison-inps.741.com/poetry.htm

http://www.yonip.com/main/articles/september_16.html
http://www.filipinowriter.com/ndfp-message-of-condolence-on-the-death-of-former-president-corazon-aquino







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Ang Pagsasakasaysayan ni Rizal sa Sinaunang Pamayanang Pilipino at ang Pagtingin dito ng Bagong Historiograpiyang Pilipino

ni Dr. Zeus A. Salazar
Copyright, 2011



Dahil mukhang nagkulang ang mga Propagandista kabilang si Rizal sa pagbibigay halaga sa SINAUNANG PAMAYANANG PILIPINO, pati mga historyador natin ay hindi rin nagbigyan ng tamang paglalahad ang SIBILISASYON natin BAGO dumating ang mga mapuputlang mananakop.

Isang malalalim at malawak na paglalahad ng ating pinanggalingan at kung ano tayo bago dumating ang pstng Kastila. Mula sa panguhahing tagapagtaguyod ng Pantayong Pananaw, Bagong Kasaysayan.

Sa pagkabuo ng Bagong Kasaysayan (BAKAS) gamit ang Pantayong Pananaw (PP), pundamental na naiba ang pagkaunawa sa natawag ng mga Propagandista, alinsunod sa mga Kastila, na "panahon bago ang 1521"--i.e., ang sinaunang pamayanan ng kasaysayan ng Kapilipinuhan. Naging malawak ang pagtingin dito hindi lamang sa PAGPAPANAHON [1.e., 250,000 taon na ang nakalipas o 67,000 taon kung papagsisimulain lamang ito sa Taong Kalaw (ng malakatedral na unib callao sa Penablanca, Cagayan)... kundi gayundin sa LAWAK ng TERITORYO, kung ang pag-uusapan ay ang pinagmula ng kabihasnang Pilipino--i.e., ang paglaganap ng mga Austronesyano hanggang sa Madagaskar sa bandang Aprka at sa Rapa Nui (Ester Island) sa bandang Timog Amerika simula noong 4,000 B.K. o bago pa rito.

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10 Years of US/al Qaeda Terrorism: 9/11 as Blowback on Bald Eagle Imperialism

(ILPS Statement on the 10th Anniversary of 9/11)

By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson
International League of Peoples' Struggle
10 September  2011

We, the International League of People's Struggle (ILPS). join the entire people of the world in commemorating the tenth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks which claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 people in the United States. In no uncertain terms, we strongly condemn these horrendous attacks on civilians and al Qaeda as the self-admitted perpetrator. We stand in solidarity with all the victims, their families and the entire people in denouncing and opposing terrorism of whatever scale.

9/11 is a blowback on US imperialism. The US has long promoted Islamic fundamentalism as an ideological and political weapon against communism as well as against secular nationalism, especially since the Cold War. Al Qaeda emerged from the Islamic fundamentalists who were used by the US against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan but who subsequently became disgruntled with the US after Soviet occupation ended. It has vowed to combat the US and its imperialist allies for their policies and acts of plunder and aggression victimizing Islamic peoples and countries.

Instead of being remorseful for fostering Islamic fundamentalism and the ground for al Qaeda, the US has used the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York City and the Pentagon as pretext for terrorism on a far greater scale under the policy of "global war on terror". This has generated state terrorism and wars of aggression and had inflicted atrocities of monstrous proportions on peoples and countries worldwide. For the last ten years, we have witnessed the lopsided contest of two monstrosities, the mega-terrorism of the US and NATO powers and the mini-terrorism of al Qaeda.

The US policy of " global war on terror", designed as a "perpetual" and "borderless" war, is in fact a global war of terror against the people of the world and against anti-imperialist and democratic forces. It has resulted in millions of civilian deaths and the destruction of social infrastructure. The US and its imperialist allies have seized 9/11 as the opportunity to justify and use wars of aggression and expansionism as a means to counter the ever-deepening crisis of monopoly capitalism.

9/11 has given rise to the doctrine of "pre-emptive first strike" used by the US to invade Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2002. It has been invoked by the US to declare countries like Iraq, Iran and North Korea as the "axis of evil"; and to vilify Libya (up to 2004), Syria and Cuba in the same vein. These countries have been in the crosshairs of the US military machine. They are the target of war threats and provocations, psychological warfare and special operations, vilification by the corporate mass media, political and diplomatic isolation, economic and trade sanctions.

The US has complemented its open wars of aggression with various forms of military intervention, including highprofile and low-profile killings of opponents in various countries, rendition and torture, the recruitment, training, arming and financing of puppet armed units and joint military operations with them. In connection with these, US Special Forces and CIA operatives are deployed in 120 countries and are carrying out a "special war".

The US imperialists have encroached on the territory of other countries and engaged in drone attacks on civilian populations as in Pakistan, the permanent stationing of US forces and covert US combat and related operations as in the Philippines and the opening of new US military bases, forward stations and other installations as in a number of countries in Central Asia, Latin America and elsewhere. The number and deployment of US Special Forces under the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) have increased significantly under the regime of Obama.


So-called anti-terror legislation such as the USA PATRIOT Act as well as the designation of groups and individuals as "foreign terrorists" has also followed the 9/11 attacks. The PATRIOT Act legitimizes violations of the rights and civil liberties of the American people. It allows limitless surveillance, warrantless arrests and indeterminate detention without charges in the name of security. Hard-won civil and political liberties and constitutional rights of the people long established in bourgeois jurisprudence are set aside or violated with impunity in the name of countering "terrorism". The PATRIOT Act has set the pattern for developing the legal infrastructure for fascism on a global scale.

Detention facilities similar to Guantanamo prison and Abu Ghraib have been established in many countries for detaining suspected terrorists and "unlawful combatants" of different nationalities indefinitely without charges. Torture and murder have been committed, especially in secret CIA prisons across the world. The US, with or without the connivance or consent of host governments, have carried out rendition operations in many parts of the world whereby alleged suspected terrorists are covertly abducted and brought to secret detention centers for interrogation, torture and indefinite detention.

National liberation movements, anti-imperialist leaders and even law-abiding Islamic organizations and charitable foundations have been designated as "terrorist" and subjected to political persecution, including arbitrary arrests, trumped-up charges, freezing of assets, denial of political refugee status and related protection and deprivation of social benefits, as well public defamation and incitement to violence on persons labeled as "terrorist". Under the aegis of the US-led war of terror, the United Nations, the International Criminal Court and the international monopoly media have been used as instruments and willing accomplices to justify wars of aggression and crimes against humanity.

While condemning the 9/11 attacks on civilians, the ILPS also condemns the far more destructive and vicious war of terror being waged by the US and its allies in the name of fighting "terrorism". This war of terror is nothing less than the unrelenting attempts by US imperialism to impose political, military, socio-economic and cultural hegemony on the peoples of the world through the use of military might. The wars of aggression and military occupation of Afghanistan, Iraq and now Libya have brought about far larger civilian casualties than the original 9/11 attacks. The US-NATO global war of terror has masqueraded as humanitarian intervention, protection of civilians and defense of human rights to kill and maim great numbers of people.

In his inhuman and bizarre way, al Qaeda's Osama bin Laden has been extremely successful in provoking and bringing out the unbridled aggressive and terrorist character of imperialism. Even his killing, considered by the US as a major victory in its so-called war on terror, has served to whet the appetite of the US and its NATO partners for worse acts of mega-terrorism. It is also quite ironical that the US and NATO have once more connived with the al Qaeda through its branch, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, against the Gaddafi government, thus utterly exposing the "war on terror" as a monstrous and murderous lie.

Estimates show that since 9/11 the US has already spent as much as $4 trillion to fund its wars, occupation and intervention worldwide. The US government under Bush and subsequently Obama, has delivered hundreds of billions of dollars to the US military-industrial complex while reducing spending for social services, entitlements and benefits. The gargantuan military spending of the US is one of the immediate causes of the current US debt crisis.

Ten years after 9/11, the US finds itself bogged down in a historic debt crisis and protracted global depression. Its military forces are overstretched and pinned down in several theaters of war around the globe. The US retains more than 150,000 troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and is now engaged with NATO in a war of aggression in Libya.

Over the past decade, anti-war, anti-imperialist and armed revolutionary movements have risen to resist the US wars of aggression. The American people have repeatedly manifested their opposition to the use of 9/11 for justifying wars of aggression. They have pressed for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan while protesting the huge military spending at the expense of real economic recovery, state subsidies and social services.

The peoples of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Palestine continue to wage armed resistance to US-led and US-sponsored occupation and aggression. Revolutionary and progressive movements in Asia, Latin America and Africa are at the forefront of the people's struggles for national and social liberation. Countries like Cuba, People's Democratic Republic of Korea and Venezuela are asserting their sovereignty against US threats of aggression. Exploited and oppressed peoples in both imperialist and dominated countries are advancing the struggle against imperialist wars and for redirecting resources to jobs, livelihood, fair wages and social welfare.

It is imperative that the peoples of the world wage militant and sustained struggles against the US and NATO wars of aggression, state terrorism and counter-revolution. It is only through the struggle of the people that the people can hope to eliminate all forms of terrorism and achieve a new and better world of greater freedom, democracy, social justice, all-round development and world peace. ###

(Reprinted with permission from Mr. Joma Sison)

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Sison, Jose Maria. 9/11 IS A BLOWBACK ON US IMPERIALISM, CONDEMN BOTH AL QAEDA AND US FOR TERRORISM. 10 September 2011. http://www.josemariasison.org/?p=8681



Photo credits:

http://nymag.com/news/articles/wtc/gallery/

http://www.americanrespect.com/images/osama-small.jpg

http://rt.com/files/usa/news/lawlessness-imported-america/soldier.n.jpg

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/09/pictures/110908-about-911-september-9-11-twin-world-trade-center-towers-indelible/


peace. ### Reposts are licensed to the respective authors. Otherwise, posts by Jesusa Bernardo are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Philippines.