Solidarity with the Uprising of the People of Egypt

While the US hedges its bets and makes appropriate tut tuts, the SCAF in Egypt refuses to relinquish power. The Egyptian police have killed 38 protesters, for which deaths the ruling junta have apologised, with 3,256 people injured. Protesters have been targeted viciously by the military with tear gas courtesy from US suppliers, although the US denies it was purchased with aid money, well, not recently, at any rate, so its spokespeople say.

Medics have been overwhelmed with casualties from the tear gas, with canisters landing in the clinic in this Reuters story at least once a day.

“We get two to three to casualties per minute,” said Salem. “Sixty to 70 percent are suffocation, the rest are pellets or bullets,”

“We are seeing serious convulsions,” said Salem. Behind him, a casualty displayed just the symptoms he was describing. From his pocket, Salem pulled a handwritten note detailing the ingredients of “CS gas”, one of the types being used.

Many of the gas canisters collected by the activists are unmarked, fuelling speculation that more sinister weapons have been used. The military council on Wednesday denied the security forces had used anything poisonous.

Will the SCAF and most specifically Tantawi, step down and permit presidential elections not just parliamentary elections?

Raafat Fouda, constitutional law professor at Cairo University, agreed saying that it was against the constitutional decree announced by SCAF in March.

“SCAF didn’t rule Egypt through a referendum, then they shouldn’t leave through a referendum either,” Fouda said.

“The people who accepted SCAF as their ruler during the transitional period can make it step down without a referendum,” he added.

However, Fouda favored the scenario where SCAF hands over power to the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC).

Fouda said that according to all the constitutions around the world, when the president fails to perform his duties and the parliament fails as well, the head of the SCC takes over.

“The head of the SCC doesn’t have the right to run for president and he is a respected member of the judiciary,” Fouda said.

The head of the SCC would then be responsible for appointing an interim government to draft the new constitution and hold the parliamentary elections.

Fouda also recommended handing over power to a presidential council.

“As long as the members of the presidential council include people with no specific political affiliation like presidential hopeful Mohamed ElBaradei for example,” he said.

Some protesters in Tahrir suggested that all prominent presidential hopefuls including ElBaradei, Adel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, Hazem Salah Abou Ismail and Amr Moussa be part of the council.

“The political scenarios are many, but the problem lies with whether SCAF is willing to heed to the people’s demands and leave power as soon as possible,” Fouda said.

UPDATE

Parliamentary elections to proceed? “Scaf also said elections would start as scheduled on Monday. There had been speculation that they might be delayed.”

Related Links

Egyptians Have Lost Their Fear. There’s No Going Back Now.
20 November 2011 – Revolution continues in Tahrir Square, Cairo.
Atomic Truth Bomb Dropped on FOX News
US widely distrusted (with very good reason) in arab world, while ‘Turkey is viewed as having played the “most constructive” role in the past year’s events and its prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, emerged as the most admired leader by far in the region’
I don’t know that SCaF was hailed as saviour of the Egyptian uprising, but still.
RT @asma_akram: Egyptians protesters shouting “if you want to turn this into Syria, we will turn it into Libya” #Egypt #Tahrir #Jan25

Other Links

UN member states, the ICRC and human rights groups reject a flawed US-backed plan for new regulations on cluster bombs

The Desperate Racist Game of Hasbara Bingo

Hasbara Bingo

After visiting Palestine in 1897, two rabbis from Vienna reported that “The bride is beautiful, but she is married to another man”, and so Northern European zionists realised they would have to conjure up ‘plausible’ reasons to justify genociding and expelling indigenous Palestinians, acquiring their land to establish the racist ethnosupremacy of Israel. For Herzl and other early zionists, the ‘Jewish question’ could be solved with Jewish nationalism, as they held the essentialist antisemitic belief that Jews carried antisemitism wherever they went. Racism and bigotry however must be countered and nullified wherever they exist. In order to assert its legitimacy, Zionist ideology has incorporated many cognitively dissonant memes and myths, including the direct denial, in keeping with other settler colonial land-thieving projects in Australia (“terra nullius”) and the US (“the Promised Land”), that there ever was a place called Palestine, or a Palestinian people.

Political zionism is manifestly expansionist and militarist – belligerent expansionism is the zionist elite’s strategy, tactic and aim. To obscure its crimes however, Israel projects the lie in its marketing endeavours that it is pursuing ‘peace negotiations’ earnestly, whilst simultaneously sabotaging peace and precluding the formation of a viable Palestinian state by stealing as much Palestinian land and building as many illegal zionist jews-only settlements on Palestinian land as possible, using the contradictory pretext of ‘defence and security’.

Ali Abunimah described an example of this apparent cognitive dissonance recently – “Israel claims Gaza waters are “closed military zone” but that it “withdrew” from Gaza in 2005. Which is it liars?”

Israel’s deceitful posturing as a ‘peace-seeking’ nation whilst behaving in the exact opposite to sabotage peace was demonstrated well recently by Netanyahu after the successful vote to admit Palestine to UNESCO.

As it began, someone shouted Vive La Palestine (long live Palestine); when the delegates began to vote on the resolution to admit Palestine, the hall rang with loud and sustained cheers, as representatives of Austria, Russia, Brazil, India, China, South Africa and France indicated their country’s affirmative vote. The resolution was carried with 107 for, 14 against and 52 abstentions.

Reasonable people would think this is a wonderful triumph for the Palestinian quest for peace, the object of which is, after all, the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. The two-state solution is supported not only by the Quartet (US, Russia, the EU, and the UN) — the sponsors of the peace process — but also by the parties themselves — Israel and Palestine.

Yet, the Obama administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that Palestinian membership in UN agencies undermines the peace process. They, therefore, announced punitive retaliatory measures: Washington will punish Unesco by withholding its financial contributions to it. Israel will go further by withholding its financial contribution to Unesco; and by punishing the Palestinians. Netanyahu announced that his government will accelerate the construction of new colonies in occupied East Jerusalem — a policy that has been condemned by the UN, the EU, and even by Washington itself as lacking legitimacy and undermining the peace process.

There is something wrong here. Either the Palestinians, supported by the international community, are misguided and their quest for membership in UN agencies does undermine the peace process. Or the peace process is intellectually corrupt claiming to serve the cause of peace when in fact it is perpetuating conflict.

There have been many instances in which it is possible to say that the Palestinians have pursued misguided policies. In a recent interview on Israeli television Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas mentioned two such instances — the Palestinian refusal to accept the 1947 UN Resolution recommending the partition of Palestine and the 2000 second Palestinian intifada. The editors of Wall Street Journal, a leading supporter of the American-Israeli position on the Palestinian quest for UN membership, recently explained that the Palestinian move undermined the peace process because it alienated Israel.

This logic reverses the roles: The occupier is absolved of its obligations under international law, and the victim is burdened with the obligation not to alienate the occupier even in the face of oppression, dispossession and collective punishment. If alienating your interlocutor undermines the quest for peace, then the Palestinians — who experience daily alienation under Israeli occupation — can legitimately argue that the Israelis have destroyed the peace process.

Israel treats Palestinians and other non-Jews as second class citizens in Israel and denies any rights at all to Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. Despite the UN in 1948 requiring that its admission of Israel as a state was dependent upon Israel recognising Palestinian refugees’ right to return, Israel has still failed to fulfill its promise. Instead, this legal recognition is cast by pernicious zionist hasbara as tantamount to destroying Israel, and so, too, is the one state solution vilified.

As Martin Woollacott correctly observes in his review of Ghada Karmi’s book “Married to Another Man”, ‘The single-state argument is not the essence of the problem. The essence is a change in the nature of Zionism’. Deconstruction and dismantlement of the white supremacist ideology of zionism is essential if peace is to be achieved in the region. Until then, Israel will remain the useful tool of exploitative imperialists which British Prime Minister Campbell-Bannerman envisaged in 1907. Thus does empire employ racism as a divide and rule tactic to achieve its rapacious ends to monopolise the vast resources of the Middle East.

Supported by other settler colonial and imperial entities and regardless of the negative consequences on Israel’s legitimacy in the Middle East, Israel’s crimes against humanity and war crimes are minimised and shrugged off – for Israel, land and resource theft are of singularly paramount import and is even portrayed as of ‘benefit’ to the dispossessed. In settler colonial Australia too, the suspension of human rights under the Anti-Discrimination Act for Aboriginals in the Northern Territory for the horrific Intervention was justified on the grounds of ‘need’ and sold to the public as essential for the ‘good’ of Aboriginals, despite protest from Aboriginal groups and communities.

The zionist regime similarly fails to acknowledge the racist nature of its laws which deliver privilege to 80% of the population and discriminate deliberately through birth or religion against 20% of the population. The racist Knesset proceeds instead to pass even more such laws. Yet it can hardly be expected for racists to recognise racist laws – the disease of racism occludes perceptions which threaten its eradication. Israel obscures its apartheid ziocolonial practices through a prism of overweaning need. In fact, Israel has no intention of permitting a Palestinian state or relinquishing one metre of land it has already stolen, yet to bolster the perfidious legitimacy of its theft, pretends it is seeking to negotiate for a Palestinian state for which Palestinians must deliver ever more concessions to achieve. By this strategy, Israel and its cruel western sponsors cast the onus onto Palestinians to pursue ‘peace’ while Israel continues its oppression and illegal appropriation of more Palestinian land and resources.

The boot on the neck of the oppressed can hardly expect the oppressed to remain silent while the boot attempts to crush them. Boycott, divestment and sanctions have been called by Palestinian civil society to counter Israel’s rejection of Palestinians rights – and increasingly, people of conscience throughout the world are answering the call.

Related Links

Balfour’s apartheid legacy
Shlomo Ben Ami, former Israeli foreign minister :

‘The Arab Spring has pushed Israel into a strategic trap from which it can extricate itself only through accommodation with the Palestinians. In the current political climate, Arab leaders, whether conservative or revolutionary, can no longer afford to be seen as complicit with Israel and the United States in the region. The Palestinian cause will now resonate louder than ever in the central squares of Cairo, Amman and Ankara.’

Political History of Australia
White Australia – Nation of Bigoted Climate Savers
The Phantom Menace: Fantasies, Falsehoods, and Fear-Mongering about Iran’s Nuclear Program

Other Links

As women everywhere should through protest movements, not just in the Arab world : Women urged to put their stamp on Arab Spring
Muslim Brotherhood did not understand Erdogan’s message on secularism
Julie action doll! Julia Gillard makes surprise visit to Afghanistan

End the Racist Intervention Insist Northern Territory Elders and Community Representatives

Statement by Northern Territory Elders and Community Representatives – No More! Enough is Enough!

Melbourne 4 November, 2011

United First People’s Law men and women who are born leaders representing people of Prescribed Areas in the Northern Territory make this statement. Once again, they have gathered to openly discuss the future of our generation who have been subjugated by the lies and innuendo of the Federal Government, set out in the Stronger Futures document (October 2011).

The Stronger Futures report has created a lot of anger and frustration due to the lack of process and the ignorant way in which the views of the people have been reported. We therefore reject this report.

We will not support an extension of the Intervention legislation. We did not ask for it. In fact we call for a genuine Apology from the Federal Government for the hurt, embarrassment, shame and stigma, and for the illegal removal of the Racial Discrimination Act. It is our intention to officially call upon Government for reparation.

The recent consultations report shows that Government has failed to take seriously our concerns and feelings. This report is simply a reflection of pre-determined policy decisions. This is shown clearly by the absence of any commitment to bilingual learning programmes as well as the proposal to introduce welfare cuts and fines to parent of non-attending school children. Once again a punitive policy that is neither in the best interests of the child or the family.

Blanket measures have been central to the Northern Territory Intervention and have been the source of much distress. Where there are problems, they must be addressed on a case by case basis and preferably with the assistance through the appropriate community channels.

Since August 2007 till 2011, more than 45,000 First Nations Peoples living in the Prescribed Areas were traumatised when a Bill was passed through both Houses of Parliament (The House of Representatives and the Senate).

This legislation suspended the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 to put in place the Northern Territory Emergency Response. The Australian Greens were the only party to oppose the legislation.

These actions have placed Australia in breach of its international treaty obligations to the First Nations Peoples. Respectful discussion and negotiation with community elders did not take place before the introduction of the Intervention.

Discussions on a diplomatic basis are essential. There are elders in every Aboriginal Nation invested by the authority of the majority. These are the people with whom Minister Macklin should be negotiating, rather than with the chosen few, as has been her habit.

There has NEVER been acquiescence in the taking of our lands by stealth. Aboriginal people are sovereign people of this Nation. The process that will lead to legal recognition of customary law should be immediately commenced.

We believe that there should be an honest and comprehensive treaty negotiation with the Australian Government and facilitated by the United Nations.

We have a right under international law to self determination and after almost five years of the oppression of the Intervention, we demand that Government hand back to us control over our communities and provide adequate Government, long-term funding to ensure the future of Homelands.

Community Councils have suffered from years of underfunding. The same is happening today with the Shires that have been imposed on us. There is a lack of funding for our Core Service.There is no capacity for Aboriginal communities to engage in long-term services planning without the certainty of long-term funding.

We have had enough! We need our independence to live our lives and plan our futures without the constant oppression and threats which have become central to the relationship between Government and Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. We will not support policies that have not been negotiates with all elders of Prescribed communities and we will not support an extension of the Intervention, or an Intervention under other names.

Since the Apology and since reconciliation, the level of incarceration of Aboriginal men has increased three-fold; our families are being punished for failure to attend a foreign school design; our capacity to govern our own lives has been totally disempowered; Aboriginal youth suicide rates in the Northern Territory are higher than anywhere else in Australia; and our people have been demonized, labelled and branded. This is not what an apology is and it is not reconciliation. These outcomes are the very opposite to their intent.

Australia is in breach of its international treaty obligations to the first nation’s people through it membership to the United Nations in the elimination of racial discrimination.

We as leaders of the Northern Territory acknowledge other peoples’ views. We acknowledge that some may agree and some may disagree with parts or all of the ‘intervention’; whatever the name the Government chooses to call it. The only right we now have left is to remain silent.

We as Aboriginal people call on the international community to hold Australia to account for its continuing crimes against humanity for its treatments of its first nation’s people. Again, we say to our visits by the Minister’s department; this is not consultation. Proper consultation is about listening and inviting and including the views of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Consultation is about outcomes that are progressive and agreeable to all parties.

The future is based on our children having a quality education, but to date this continues to be a systemic failure. A quality education for our people needs to include:
• Bilingualism in schools to be returned and strengthened to ensure our children learn their traditional languages, dialects and cultural knowledges.
• Attendances need to be rewarded, rather than children and families being punished for non-attendance.
• Aboriginal teachers in classrooms and school educational leadership roles are essential to building quality, localized schooling programs. This means also equal pay and entitlements, rewards and opportunities consistent with their important roles.
• Curriculum needs to change and reflect traditional knowledges not just for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, but importantly for the broader Australian population who know very little about their own first peoples.
• Aboriginal teachers need to be treated fairly and equally to their non-Aboriginal counterparts in delivering quality education to our children. This includes the opportunity to tell oral stories of Kinship, Creation Stories, and about important cultural knowledge and skills.

Failure to accept these views and work seriously toward their inclusion will simply mean more of the same.

Rev. Dr. Djiniyini Gondarra OAM
Rosalie Kunoth-Monks OAM
Japata Ryan
Harry Nelson
Djapirri Murunggirritj
Barbara Shaw
Yananymul Mununggurr

SOURCE

Greens Senator Rachel Siewert: “The Government’s Stronger Futures Consultation Report wasn’t surprising, but it was deeply disappointing.”

Other relevant Statements.

Aboriginal Elders statement: 7th Feb 2011

PUBLIC STATEMENT NORTHERN TERRITORY INTERVENTION

REBUILDING FROM THE GROUND UP – AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE NORTHERN TERRITORY INTERVENTION

Basic Rights not BasicsCard – Address to the Say No to Income Management Rally, Bankstown, 6th October 2011 Dr John Falzon – or watch the Video

Rev. Dr. Djiniyini Gondarra full response to Minister Jenny Macklin

Joint letter by Alastair Nicholson QC and others full response to Minister Jenny Macklin

Rt Hon. Malcolm Fraser full response to Minister Jenny Macklin

Related Links

SBS: Elders voice anger over NT intervention
“Statement by Northern Territory Elders and Community Representatives – No More! Enough is Enough!”
http://stoptheintervention.org/
http://www.jumbunna.uts.edu.au/researchareas/alternatives.html
http://www.ourgeneration.org.au/press/
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1602367/Elders-voice-anger-over-NT-intervention

US Abstains on Kimberley Process Vote – Zimbabwe Free to Export Marange Diamonds

Effectively clearing Marange blood diamonds for sale to blood diamond processor, Israel, the US abstained from the Kimberley Process plenary session vote. US and EU sanctions remain in place for Zimbabwe diamonds, yet the lifting of sanctions against diamonds from Marange will permit the diamond sales to bolster the Mugabe and apartheid Israeli regime. The KP Civil Society Coalition of NGOs, led by Partnership Africa Canada (PAC) and Global Witness commented

… the KP has “thrown away” its main point of leverage over the Zimbabwean government by allowing it to export diamonds without first fulfilling previous commitments to reform its diamond trade.

“The KP has effectively given up on Zimbabwe. KP member governments and the diamond industry seem ready to turn their back on the interests of Zimbabwe’s citizens, the public good and the principles on which the Kimberley Process was founded,” said Liberia-based Green Advocates president Alfred Brownell.

Edward Cross, an MP from Tsvangirai’s rival MDC party agrees with the NGOs and human rights organisations that the sanctions should have remained:

“I think it was absolutely wrong to allow the Marange diamonds to be sold,” he said.

“I have evidence that the value and volumes of Marange diamonds are being underestimated and are being used to subvert the democratic process in Zimbabwe.”

Rights groups accuse Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party of funnelling profits from Marange diamonds to senior military officials and party leaders.

More concerns are raised by Tendai Biti, Zimbabwe Minister for Finance and a founding member of the MDC opposition party:

But Zimbabwe’s revenue has not been fully accounted for, prompting Mr Biti to complain bitterly of systematic plundering by authorities. The minister has had several clashes with President Robert Mugabe and Mr Mpofu.

In a document seen by Business Day that Mr Biti presented to the government recently, he complained about the systematic corruption linked to the diamond fields. Mr Biti said the money from diamond sales could go towards paying public servants and other state obligations.

Diamond proceeds mostly bypass the fiscus amid suspicions that Mr Mugabe, his ministers and business allies are diverting the revenue for their own public administration and political activities. Under pressure, the Zimbabwean mines ministry yesterday claimed that it would ensure “minerals are exploited for the people’s benefit”.

Revenue has not been fully accounted for, prompting Mr Biti to complain of plundering by authorities

In the past, Mr. Biti has been arrested and detained for political reasons by the Mugabe regime.

Other diamond processor representative bodies acclaiming the removal of sanctions include India’s Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council.

Next year the US will take over the chairmanship of the KP.

Global Palestinian Solidarity Statement

Sean Clinton from Global Palestinian Solidarity writes:

“The agreement to allow the export of blood-tainted diamonds from Zimbabwe sets the Kimberley Process (KP) and the diamond industry on collision course with civil society. On Tuesday, a letter (attached) signed by over 2000 people worldwide addressed to all members of the KP was sent to KP Chair, Mr. Mathieu Yamba and to the NGOs, Global Witness and Partnership Africa Canada. The letter calls for:

1. – an urgent review of the KPCS definition of a “conflict diamond” so all diamonds that generate revenue used by any group or government to commit breaches of international humanitarian and human rights law are classed as conflict or blood diamonds
2. – the ending of the use of the term “conflict free” to describe diamonds that fall outside the existing narrow KPSC definition of a conflict diamond.
3. – the introduction of a universal hallmarking system for all diamonds so consumers can be fully informed where a diamond was mined, cut and polished.

Human rights activists highlighted the fact that despite the Israeli diamond industry being a major source of revenue for the Israeli military which stands accused by the UN Human Rights Council of war crimes, Israeli diamonds are not classed as conflict or blood diamonds and are labeled conflict free by jewellers worldwide.

The decision of the Kimberley Process members to allow the export of diamonds from Zimbabwe demonstrates that the industry is unwilling to end the trade in all diamonds that fund gross human rights violations. As a result, the KP could not legally prevent the export of diamonds from the Marange area. In order to maintain the charade and keep the discredited KP in place, member states have agreed to turn a blind eye to concerns expressed by NGOs, including Global Witness and Partnership Africa Canada. The agreement reached serves only the diamond industry which will once again claim that all diamonds are conflict free – a totally false and misleading claim which must be challenged.”

Related Links

NGOs slam KP decision on Zimbabwe diamond sales
Justice and Diamonds in Zimbabwe: Saving Kimberley from Itself
UNHCR | Refworld | Zimbabwe court drops charges against diamond fields activist
Zimbabwe: Rampant Abuses in Marange Diamond Fields | Human Rights Watch
Document – Zimbabwe: Human rights defender held in Zimbabwe: Farai Maguwu | Amnesty International
Physicians for Human Rights – Background on the Health Crisis in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe Police Block Art Exhibition On Past Atrocities | Article-27
UN report lashes Mugabe regime
U.S. to Head Kimberley Process, but Meeting Brings Mixed Reactions
“Zimbabwe diamond sales defy U.S.-led sanctions” (Pro-Mugabe regime)
“Imperialists try to block Zimbabwe’s diamond trade” (Pro-Mugabe regime)

Palestine / Israel Links

Public Lecture by Professor Noam Chomsky

On Dis-Ability, Inclusion & Police Brutality : Emma Rosenthal Speaks in MacArthur Park

October 22 Speech Against Police Brutality

Emma Rosenthal Speaks at Macarthur Park
Emma Rosenthal Speaks at Macarthur Park Oct 22, 2011 (Photo J Pedro Morales)
Emma Rosenthal, MacArthur Park, Rampart Division-LAPD, Los Angeles

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak to you today at this October 22 demonstration against police brutality on the theme, Resistance Matters, focusing on a segment of EVERY community– people with dis-abilites.

People with dis-abilities are specifically targeted by police for abuse and brutality.

People who are deaf, unable to heed orders they do not hear, unable to communicate with authority, often are killed or battered by a system that doesn’t take their communication needs into consideration.

People with visible dis-abilities attract the attention of bullies, including the bullies in blue who know that there are no consequences for our ostracism or victimization.

People who appear, walk, talk differently are often singled out, accused of being drunk, and often have trouble with law enforcement because of both misunderstandings and the outright hostility toward us, by the police.

People with mental health conditions come in contact with police on the street, when our behavior doesn’t conform to society’s expectations, or when police are called to respond to medical emergencies.

Homelessness and prisons ARE our society’s mental health care system.

Police often respond to medical psychiatric emergencies with brutal and often deadly force, claiming they felt that they were in imminent danger.

Imagine if health care providers said they had to kill a patient because the patient’s condition threatened the lives of health care professionals.

It is the job of health care providers to treat people who are ill. We must demand no less of emergency personnel, including police, when answering a call for medical emergencies.

___________________

There is a nexus of gender, class and race with dis-ability, compounding our experience with authorities. We are part of every community, not a separate group, or geographic. There is no organization or outreach that can fully succeed without our full inclusion. You cannot address the issue of police brutality without also addressing the role of people with dis-abilities in the struggle for social justice.

Yet many social justice organizations don’t include people with dis-abilities fully, in addressing many social justice issues, and often perpetuate attitudes and policies that contribute to our marginalization.

You can’t defend our rights without our participation, our full participation. Nothing about us, without us. Working on our behalf without us, simply appropriates our exploitation in the service of rhetoric.

A movement that isn’t informed by the victims perpetuates the abuse. Planning that does not take our specific needs and issues into consideration often puts us in significant danger. Too often event security responds to us in much the same way that the state does. I have been at demonstrations where the event coordinators did as much to endanger us, as the police do. This must be changed, this must be challenged.

We cannot fight a system by replicating its attitudes & practices. We cannot demand from society what we cannot also create among ourselves.

Expectations of people with dis-abilities merge with issues of race/gender and class to increase marginalization via expectations of behavior.

Thinking of people with dis-abilities as aberrant, undesirable, non-contributing and a burden have no place in the movement, these are capitalist attitudes.

Dis-ability rights isn’t charity. nothing short of full inclusion is justice. It is not your place to “help” us, but rather to work with us, to include us in ways that inform praxis.

It is NOT our job to make you comfortable with out conditions.

It is NOT our job to find our own way into your organizations.

It is NOT our job to say what you want to hear, and to leave our particular needs and experience out of the discussion.

Dis-ability inclusion is the collective responsibility of the entire community.

________________

Additionally, agents of repression know to use dis-ability to divide the movement, like they use gender & race; by relying on our own prejudice & bigotry.

Infiltrators use ridicule of people with dis-abilities. Police have been known to “street: us into demonstrations to provoke an angry crowd that knows we are acceptable targets.

These divisive tactics don’t work when we check ourselves, our own entitlements that mask as privileges that defeat us all. We cannot build a sincere movement w/o including the most marginalized sectors, and we cannot address police brutality by ignoring its specific nexus with dis-abilty .

_______________

It must also be recognized that police not only target people with dis-abilities for abuse, but also, in their brutality, create dis-ability, leaving those who survive, injured and traumatized. Let us honor those comrades wounded in the struggle, injured by capitalism, with ramps, sign language & voice, as well as make room for all activists into the future, as any one of us can become a person with a dis-ability, at any time.

No more excuses. These are matters of resistance because resistance matters.

So, let us build the strongest resistance to police brutality and state hegemony by ever increasing the circle, by standing, sitting, signing, rolling arm in arm in solidarity, a strong movement that cannot afford to leave anyone behind, a movement that needs everyone’s voice, everyone’s story.

SOURCE