Attacks in Paris

[The Feral Underclass]

40 dead and 100 hostages in three separate gun and bomb attacks on restaurants and concert.

Rolling coverage at The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2015/nov/13/shootings-reported-in-eastern-paris-live

[Aslan]

Holy shit, thats all I can say after just reading about the attack in Beirut. Now theirs one currently in Paris that has killed 40 people.

[Sasha]

Holyshit indeed, if this is as big as it seems it wouldn't suprise me if france will invade Syria.
The hostage situation is at an eagles of death metal show, I was supposed to work a program with the same singer this friday, guess that wont be happening now, fuck imagine that happening at your work. Fucking hell.

[The Feral Underclass]

They've declared a state of emergency across the whole country, so borders closed, international transport cancelled, curfews etc. They're taking this shit really seriously.

[Tim Cornelis]

I see some people commenting about how France is closing their borders, making concessions to the nationalist far-right. Closing the borders means closing it to everyone and on both sides. You can't get in (I'm guessing) but Hollande explicitly mentioned getting out of the country. And it's a temporary measure. Just to get that straight.

[BIXX]

I'm curious, how do we even know this is anyone like Isis or the Taliban or whatever? Everyone has assumed it and I haven't seen anything saying that's the case anywhere.

[Comrade #138672]

I'm curious, how do we even know this is anyone like Isis or the Taliban or whatever? Everyone has assumed it and I haven't seen anything saying that's the case anywhere.Yes. Someone on Twitter said that he heard "Allah Akbar". If that is not evidence, then I don't know what is... The media simply take his word for it without questioning it.

Of course, this does not mean that it is impossible, but simply because it is possible does not mean that it must be assumed without evidence.

[Armchair Partisan]

Troll aside, it's going to be really difficult to stop the far right if the jihadists are doing everything in their power to play to their hands. For one, what the fuck is wrong with these people? For two, when will these attacks stop? The methods of the far right will just lead to further ghettoization of Muslim communities, leading to all-out war between the radical elements of the Muslim minority and the rest of the country, which will further legitimize the populism of the far right, creating an endless feedback loop... how can this be broken?

(Edit: Here (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11995227/Paris-shooting-Many-feared-dead-live.html) is one of the many live feeds, an arrested terrorist said he was from ISIL.)

[willowtooth]

I'm curious, how do we even know this is anyone like Isis or the Taliban or whatever? Everyone has assumed it and I haven't seen anything saying that's the case anywhere.

witnesses reported hearing them screaming "this is for syria", its most likely them, its either a retaliation for france's recent syrian bombing campaign or just general retaliation against the french because syria was their former colony

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/09/28/syri-s28.html

[Tim Cornelis]

I removed all comments and posts referring to that one poster, to nip this in the bud. It looked like derailing (should you wonder where the posts have gone).

[Antiochus]

I'm curious, how do we even know this is anyone like Isis or the Taliban or whatever? Everyone has assumed it and I haven't seen anything saying that's the case anywhere.

Well, suicide attacks of this scale tend to be a hallmark of Islamists. Regardless, its almost certainly the work of Muslim fundamentalists. In the small chance that it is not, the attack was probably staged by an 'other', so it will play into the hands of fascists there very well.

Condolences to the victims and their loved ones.

[olahsenor]

http://www.windsorstar.com/news/world/bomb+blasts+targeting+leftist+peace+rally+calling+ more/11430479/story.html

Complacency can be a negative trait if we do not remain vigilant. Not full of it. Read.

[Zoop]

I fear the consequences of this. No doubt there will be an increase in far-right sentiment and violence, most likely targeted at the refugees.

[olahsenor]

http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/muslim-montrealer-says-she-was-told-by-costco-employee-go-back-to-your-country/ar-BBmDtuS?li=AAadgLE&ocid=sk2mdhp

Sometimes I too cannot blame Islam but this is a slap on the face of us Leftists by the French Quebecois and not on the couple because we stand up for these people. What else can you do but shrug your shoulders.

[The Feral Underclass]

Death toll now 140. I assume those taken hostage at the concert have been killed.

Sasha, I wonder if the person you were talking about was among them?

[Aslan]

As of 7:43 PM its 140 dead. Truely the French 9/11. Its a coordinated attack! I'm scared that this will lead to further attacks in London or other European capitals. This could also be a catalyst for far-right activity.

One thing for sure is that France will experience a political firestorm! Francois will most likely abdicate.

[Heilmann]

Sasha, I wonder if the person you were talking about was among them?

Might seem like a small matter in the midst of this, but since it was raised: a quick glance at their facebook page tells me the band is safe. I guess that's not confirmed though. And the crew isn't mentioned.

[olahsenor]

I can imagine the relief you got once your friend was declared safe. So with my loved ones, comrade.

[khad]

Talking with a friend in Paris, there could be as many as 7 separate attacks. The scale and coordination of this is on a scale that we haven't seen, well ever. It is possible that dozens of terrorists were involved in this operation.

Edit: I marvel at how fucking weak this board has become. Obeying intelligence services? C'mon, son, I am disappoint. Yeah, those spooks knew, just like those spooks knew about the Charlie Hebdo attack after spending years watching those wahhabis and clearing them of all suspicion. Just like how in 2012 the French authorities let an Al-Qaeda guy returning from Afghanistan shoot 12 people in Toulouse and Montauban.

Unimaginable databases, my ass!

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/09/charlie-hebdo-suspects-us-terrorist-watchlist-cherif-said-kouachi

[MarxSchmarx]

I have temporarily closed this thread. Until we find out the details of what exactly transpired, I think there is little constructive perspectives that can come out of this. I hate to say it, but every report I read is that the French authorities are on top of this. Unless we learn otherwise, let us wait to see what those with access to unimaginable databases have to say before jumping to conclusions. For what it is worth, I understand intelligent services that are otherwise reluctant to share information with the French (including both Private and governmental entities) are trying to navigate this whole affair. I think at this point the chance that any given leftist knows more than the French government is near zero. Yeah these are bourgeois entities but the French state is not stupid. It understands the value of intelligence, no matter what its source.

[ckaihatsu]

Situation in Paris: Communiqué of the National Secretaries of the Independent Workers Party (POI) of France

http://tinyurl.com/o5jwoe3
Communiqué of the National Secretaries of the Independent Workers Party (POI) of France

The Independent Workers Party (POI) condemns in the strongest terms the horrible carnage in Paris on November 13.

Again, innocent and civilian victims are the ones bearing the brunt of the attacks; they are the victims of this barbarism.

The Independent Workers Party reiterates what it had stated in the aftermath of the attacks in Paris at the beginning of 2015: The struggle to ensure that these appalling acts do not recur requires the fight against war, of which this barbarism, now being extended to the entire world, is the natural child.

The Independent Workers Party reiterates its commitment to the fight against war, against all military interventions perpetrated in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Central Africa by the governments of the major powers in the service of the multinational corporations and the capitalist class.

It's these war policies that tear nations apart and spread barbarism around the world.

For the Independent Workers Party, the struggle for peace, against barbarism, and for democracy is inseparable from the struggle of the workers, united with their organizations, against the policies of misery that are foisted upon them.

It is the same struggle for the defense of workers' rights, for democracy, for peace, for sovereignty, and human civilization against barbarism. This fight requires -- more than ever in the dramatic situation that we are now facing -- that the organizations that speak in the name of the working class do not yield to the invitation that will be made to them to join the "holy union" with the government and the bosses.
The POI national secretaries,
Gérard Schivardi, Jean Markun, and Daniel Gluckstein

* * * * * * * * * *


Contribution to the Opening of the Département-level Congress of the POI

(Preparatory to the National Congress of the POI on November 21-22, 2015)

As our département-level Congress of the POI opens today, on 14 November, we cannot begin the proceedings without expressing our indignation and horror at the attacks that hit Paris and the Paris region last night.

Those attacks, which targeted innocent people, civilian victims, form part of a context: the spread of barbarism and war to every region of the world. No nation is being spared.

Obviously, the delegates to this département-level Congress of the Independent Workers' Party will unanimously condemn the attacks and express their repugnance of barbarism, and will express their firm determination, acting on their commitment to help the working class take action in defence of their rights and democracy in co-operation with the workers and activists of the nations of the whole world, to do everything they can to put a stop to this surge in barbarism.

And this is precisely why it is impossible not to take into account the role played by our government in the events that have just occurred. One cannot dissociate these events from the long chain of events that led to them, from the wars of intervention which over the course of 25 years have in turn dismembered Iraq, Libya, Syria, Mali and the Central African Republic, unleashing terror. One cannot ignore the responsibility of all the governments of the big powers for these wars, which have generated a new form of barbarism. This includes the responsibility of the French government.

Immediately following the attacks earlier this year, in January 2015, the Independent Workers' Party clearly stated that only the independent struggle of the working class and the peoples for peace and sovereignty is capable of putting a stop to the surge in barbarism. There is no doubt whatsoever that the events that have just occurred will be exploited by the government to try to revive a form of Sacred Union. Using the pretext of the "war on terror", this will in fact be aimed at uniting all of society's forces, beginning with the labour organisations, not around a struggle against terrorism, but around the struggle to defend the policy of this government, and behind it the policy of the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

We reaffirm the position that we have held consistently: only the independent struggle of the working class together with their organisations is capable of opening up the path to winning back democracy, peace and the sovereignty of nations. One cannot dissociate the war being waged by the French government on the nations and peoples of the four corners of the world from the measures it is taking against the workers and people at home.

This is why, linking up with the comrades of the whole International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples, linking up with the activists throughout the world who are waging that struggle which does not dissociate the struggle for peace from the struggle for labour rights, the Independent Workers' Party will continue its struggle to help the working class take independent action to repel all the attacks aimed at dismantling the Labour Code, labour rights and democratic rights. And in so doing, to help the working class, through its own movement in co-operation with the workers and peoples the world over, to open up the path to a return to civilisation and an end to barbarism. Clearly, this issue will be at the heart of the National Congress of the Independent Workers' Party that is faithful to its origins.

[Invader Zim]

I made the appalling error of reading Daily Telegraph below the line comments, 95% -- and I'm not exaggerating -- are calling for the implementation of fascist policies in response to this brutality. That ranges from the mass expulsion of all Muslims, the total closing of the borders, the restoration of 19th century colonialism, the use of the hydrogen bomb on Syria, to full scale extermination.

The atrocity is, of course, terrible, but in some ways I found the reactions to it just as saddening. It isn't merely the predilection of many to turn and embrace fascism in extreme circumstances, but the stupidity of that reaction which is exactly what attacks like this are designed to illicit in the first place.

[Tim Cornelis]

I've also seen the reverse. Miserable Tankies saying they wont shed a tear for civilian deaths because of French imperialist crimes. And likened it to civilian deaths due to bombing in Nazi-Germany. Ironic, of course, because Allied powers (UK/USA) were responsible for those and apparently then it's okay to support it.

Another one went even further, a Tankie with a DPRK flag in his facebook profile picture, said (TW: sexual violence):

"i hope france is taken over and turned into an islamic caliphate and all the white women and little children get raped in the name of allah"

I don't know if this is a troll or not (Poe's Law), but he was friends with the Tankie that posted about not crying for France (definitely not a troll), so maybe not.

[Invader Zim]

Yeah, I've seen some shocking victim blaming too, but those morons are in the minority. The otherwise traditionally fairly 'liberal' British right's reaction, and it genuinely seems en mass, with fascism however I did not see coming. This might be naivety on my part and that I should have seen it coming, as others did. But the pages and pages of it, thousands and thousands and thousands of comments, really shocked me.

I actually tried to call for sanity, and pointed out that this attack is not indicative of the views of all Muslims, and that Salafi Jihadists are, by definition, are an extreme tiny minority within an extreme tiny minority, and I was quickly inundated with replies even more extreme, vicious and fascistic than the ones I previously addressed. It really is genuinely terrifying. I know quite a lot about history in the 20th century, and it has always been my view that history is not cyclical and that you cannot use the past to predict the future. But reading those comments you can genuinely see how pogroms happen, and its really pretty terrifying. I'm wondering if we are witnessing a, albeit contextually very different, repeat of the kind of attitudes which arose in the 1930s.

[BIXX]

So, I know earlier someone said that there was evidence this was Isis or whatever but can someone source that claim? Someone I knew said that so far that hasn't been verified publicly.

[Invader Zim]

So, I know earlier someone said that there was evidence this was Isis or whatever but can someone source that claim? Someone I knew said that so far that hasn't been verified publicly.

They've claimed responsibility.

http://www.vox.com/2015/11/14/9734794/isis-claim-paris-statement

And apparently one of the attackers was well known to the authorities, and another is alleged to have returned from Syria, eye witnesses also report that the attackers claimed during the attacks that their motivation was to respond to French military strikes in Syria. Of course, none of this is necessarily conclusive, and as such there is still some room for scepticism, but it does seem to be stacking up that this was indeed ISIS.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2015/nov/14/paris-terror-attacks-attackers-dead-mass-killing-live-updates

[olahsenor]

There are indeed some people who want to 'die for Allah' and you might not know that someone from among France's intelligence agencies might be perverse enough and cunning enough to identify their trigger points and boost them to do these to justify the intended repercussions. I am not accusing anybody but it is possible. Man, the boy 'wants to die'.

[Antiochus]

There was a poll out there somewhere which I read on yahoo or something that said (before the attack btw) that some 40% of French citizens could see themselves support an un-elected authoritarian government. No doubt if this is legitimate, this number will rise. Very worrying and very sad. Europe is headed down a similar path as it was in the 1930s, but with much, much less pushing them in that direction.

[Tim Cornelis]

Yeah those Tankies are miserable, obnoxious, but benign. The same can't be said for the hoards of national conservatives shading into right-wing authoritarianism.

[willowtooth]

So, I know earlier someone said that there was evidence this was Isis or whatever but can someone source that claim? Someone I knew said that so far that hasn't been verified publicly.

what do you think? it was french or usa military?

[BIXX]

Well, I am pretty positive given that someone was able to give me a link to a claim that it was not false flag.

[Lacrimi de Chiciură]

Let the scapegoating begin (actually, intensify).

Given the French state's treatment of refugees and migrants before this happened, it really makes me concerned about what those people face now in light of what's happened. The strengthening of the repressive state apparatus and the augmentation of vehemence in pro-criminal state discourse which are happening as a reaction to these events should be a major concern to us all.

In September the Front national mayor of the city of Béziers released this video of himself going to apartments occupied by Syrian refugees, accompanied by armed police, literally shouting "You're not welcome!" and telling them to leave town.

Bd56015v4CE

Almost immediately after these events, the government of Poland has openly announced that it will disregard international human rights law, which had been given an inkling of enforceablity in this domain through EU migrant quotas.

[willowtooth]

Well, I am pretty positive given that someone was able to give me a link to a claim that it was not false flag.

What group would do something like this other than daesh?

[OnFire]

ISIS’ reliance on indiscriminate terror reveals the true nature of this organisation, which is nothing more than a gang of looters and traffickers. ISIS is merely the product of the chaos into which Iraq has been plunged following the destructive wars waged by European governments and in its methods it replicates the indiscriminate bombing raids on Syria and Iraq under cover of the ‘war on terror’.

In striking indiscriminately at working class districts of Paris ISIS plays an arch-reactionary role since it will be Muslims who may end up paying a high price through a renewed wave of Islamophobia, intolerance and racism. Moreover everything will be put in place to justify repression of action by workers and young people, starting with the imposition of a ‘state of emergency’ under which trade union demonstrations can be banned.

Politicians, from the Front National to the PS (Socialist Party), are all united in their talk of ‘war’. A war they created and for which the people are paying the price today. But this is not our war. This government of ours continues to support the regime of the President of Turkey Erdogan. This is the same Erdogan who has for years been aiding ISIS, by allowing the terrorists and their contraband to cross the frontier, while keeping it firmly closed to the people of Kobane, a Kurdish town in the north of Syria which resisted and defeated ISIS last January. This same Erdogan bombs towns in Turkish Kurdistan, yet it is the Kurds who have just freed the Iraqi town of Sinjar from ISIS occupation.

It is the governments of Europe who sustain the regimes in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and sell arms to them, at the same time as these countries support ISIS and engage in mass killings in Yemen.

[khad]

Big surprise, the French cops lied.

They said that all attackers were shot and killed, but right now there's a massive manhunt for one that got away.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/16/world/europe/paris-terror-attack.html?_r=0

[Comrade #138672]

Not getting in the way of the Kurds would be a starter to destroy ISIS, but I guess they still prefer that Turkey bombs the crap out of the Kurds instead of ISIS.

[olahsenor]

Well, I am pretty positive given that someone was able to give me a link to a claim that it was not false flag.

Ya, it was not a false flag, comrade. If you perceive false flag as having been approached by someone claiming to work for ISIS but in reality are French intelligence officers. Too remote a possibility to sacrifice hundreds in the name of 'national security'. Condolences to the bereaved families.

[Tim Cornelis]

Speaking of shading into right-wing authoritarian territory. 25% of the Dutch population now wants to have imposed a state of emergency... What emergency situation has transpired on Dutch soil that would warrant that? Oh, it's pre-emptive, which means by extension that it's indefinite.

[ckaihatsu]

Yeah, I've seen some shocking victim blaming too, but those morons are in the minority. The otherwise traditionally fairly 'liberal' British right's reaction, and it genuinely seems en mass, with fascism however I did not see coming. This might be naivety on my part and that I should have seen it coming, as others did. But the pages and pages of it, thousands and thousands and thousands of comments, really shocked me.

I actually tried to call for sanity, and pointed out that this attack is not indicative of the views of all Muslims, and that Salafi Jihadists are, by definition, are an extreme tiny minority within an extreme tiny minority, and I was quickly inundated with replies even more extreme, vicious and fascistic than the ones I previously addressed. It really is genuinely terrifying.




I know quite a lot about history in the 20th century, and it has always been my view that history is not cyclical and that you cannot use the past to predict the future. But reading those comments you can genuinely see how pogroms happen, and its really pretty terrifying. I'm wondering if we are witnessing a, albeit contextually very different, repeat of the kind of attitudes which arose in the 1930s.


We can't say that *all of human history* repeats itself, but we *can* say that for all of human history since *World War I*, when the major (Western) empires came into conflict with their leapfrogging up-and-coming rivals, over the finite resources of the earth ('Third World' colonies, politically). Nothing in the way of the competing nation-states has been *resolved* since then, so we're bound to see an indefinite *repeating* of the same kind of history, over and over, until humanity rises up to overthrow bourgeois rule and its nation-state framework, once and for all.

Here's the dynamic explained at another thread, that pertains to your concern:





However, the dark part of this mechanism is functioning according to the hidden agenda. The refugees is only an additional trouble which must be dumped with the rest of the "useless" workforce. Someone has to do the dirty job: extreme nationalists and fascists will do it. Historically, they had been mobilized every time the big capital needed them.




http://www.revleft.com/vb/real-reason-west-t194520/index.html


And:





For Trotsky, the most pressing theoretical task, upon which all strategic and tactical considerations depended, was to locate the eruption of the war in the historical development of the world capitalist economy.

Marx had explained that the era of social revolution arrives when the “material productive forces of society come into conflict with the existing relations of production.” At this point, these relations are transformed from forms of development of the productive forces into their fetters.

Herein lay the significance of the war. It announced the fact that the entire nation-state system, which had been responsible for the historically unprecedented economic growth of the previous four decades—a veritable trampoline for the leap of the productive forces, as Trotsky once called it—had become a fetter upon their further rational development. Mankind had entered the epoch of the social revolution.

“The forces of production which capitalism has evolved have outgrown the limits of nation and state,” Trotsky wrote in the very first sentence of his analysis. “The national state, the present political form, is too narrow for the exploitation of these productive forces. The natural tendency of our economic system, therefore, is to seek to break through the state boundaries. The whole globe, the land and the sea, the surface as well as the interior have become one economic workshop, the different parts of which are inseparably connected with each other.” [1]

For Trotsky, this process, now described as globalisation, had a far-reaching significance. If the ascent of mankind can be reduced to a single measure, then it is surely the productivity of labour, the growth of which provides the material basis for the advancement of human civilisation. And increased productivity of labour is inseparably bound up with the expansion of the productive forces on a local, regional and global basis. The development of the productive forces on a global scale had been carried forward at a rapid pace in the last decades of the nineteenth century under the aegis of the expanding capitalist powers.

But the process was increasingly contradictory, for, as Trotsky explained, “the capitalist states were led to struggle for the subjection of the world-embracing economic system to the profit interests of the bourgeoisie of each country. What the politics of imperialism has demonstrated more than anything else is that the old national state that was created in the wars of 1789-1815, 1848-1859, 1864-66, and 1870 has outlived itself, and is now an intolerable hindrance to economic development. The present war is at bottom a revolt of the forces of production against the political form of nation and state. It means the collapse of the national state as an independent economic unit.” [2]

The task confronting mankind was to ensure the harmonious development of the productive forces that had completely outgrown the nation-state framework. However, the various bourgeois governments proposed to solve this problem “not through the intelligent, organised cooperation of all of humanity’s producers, but through the exploitation of the world’s economic system by the capitalist class of the victorious country, which country is by this war to be transformed from a great power into a world power.” [3]

The war, Trotsky insisted, signified not only the downfall of the national state, as an independent economic unit, but the end of the progressive historical role of the capitalist economy. The system of private property and the consequent struggle for markets and profits threatened the very future of civilisation.




https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2005/09/le5-all.html

[Aslan]

From Spain to the hills of Macedonia, from Gibraltar to the Aegean. A new iron curtain has descended across the continent...

Its ironic how western Europeans constantly insist that they are the shining beacon of freedom and equality. But when emigrants from the war-torn middle east come to Europe to seek asylum from the wars that western Europe started in the first place. They instantly decline any asylum seekers. Apparently western European nations apparently don't have enough ''freedom'' to pass around.

[Armchair Partisan]

From Spain to the hills of Macedonia, from Gibraltar to the Aegean. A new iron curtain has descended across the continent...

Its ironic how western Europeans constantly insist that they are the shining beacon of freedom and equality. But when emigrants from the war-torn middle east come to Europe to seek asylum from the wars that western Europe started in the first place. They instantly decline any asylum seekers. Apparently western European nations apparently don't have enough ''freedom'' to pass around.

Eh, there is a logic to it. From the bourgeois nationalist perspective, a nation state is only responsible for the well-being of its own citizens, and thus the well-being of refugees and other migrants and foreigners are ignored unless it is expedient to look out for them or integrate them into the nation. It is a completely different paradigm compared to socialist internationalism and the idea that the worker has no country, and thus it's hard to argue against it in the abstract without selling the whole socialist package along with it - and why liberals find it hard to argue against the national-conservative right with what are more often than not just appeals to emotion. If one does not oppose the idea of nationalism and the nation state, admitting refugees en masse does not make sense, except for the other liberal argument, which proposes turning them into an obedient, easily controlled underclass that can do menial jobs.

[Comrade Jacob]

Awful events but somehow more important than the constant slaughter of people in the middle east according to the reaction of facebook warriors.

[Aslan]

Your right, I just really wanted to poke fun at Churchill and Neo-Liberalism :)

edit: 3 attacks in 1 year? Remind me to never go to paris.

[olahsenor]

I imagine my son or daughter to be the innocent victims. Terrible what terrorism has wrought on mankind and it will not stop.

[Aslan]

Stocks have apparently dropped like a rock since the Friday the 13th attacks.

[ckaihatsu]

Stocks have apparently dropped like a rock since the Friday the 13th attacks.


But what can we do to buoy the world's exchange values -- ?


= )


(8^p

[Full Metal Bolshevik]

Your right, I just really wanted to poke fun at Churchill and Neo-Liberalism :)

edit: 3 attacks in 1 year? Remind me to never go to paris.You're more likely to get shot in your country than get killed by a terrorist attack in Paris.

[PhoenixAsh]

Falling trees kill more people annually than terrorism.

Anyway. Tell me again how these attacks are anything different from the French bombing if civilian targets?

What is truly sickening though is the fact that these attacks show how racially biased everybodies morality is. Only the rare exception changed their facebook profile picture to the Lebanese flag and nobody else seems to have even acknowledged these attacks happening.

Not only that...and changing your profile picture to a flag not only looks incredibly stupid. But you are also outright endorsing that countries policies. Including the grave human rights violations within France itself and those France has committed and commits abroad.

[khad]

http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/1.686257

While a lot of Iraqi intel reports read as total bullshit, these rumblings have the air of truth. It's become increasingly clear that this operation was planned and directed from the top. Not only were the attackers in phone contact with ISIS handlers overseas, but they had at least on guy who was sent to France after doing a tour with the Islamic State in Syria. Significant change in tactics.


The dispatch said the Iraqis had no specific details on when or where the attack would take place, and a senior French security official told the AP that French intelligence gets this kind of communication "all the time" and "every day."

However, six senior Iraqi officials corroborated the information in the dispatch, a copy of which was obtained by the AP, and four of these intelligence officials said they also warned France specifically of a potential attack. Two officials told the AP that France was warned beforehand of details that French authorities have yet to make public.

Among them: that the Paris attacks appear to have been planned in Raqqa, Syria — the Islamic State's de-facto capital — where the attackers were trained specifically for this operation and with the intention of sending them to France.

The officials also said a sleeper cell in France then met with the attackers after their training and helped them to execute the plan.

There were 24 people involved in the operation, they said: 19 attackers and five others in charge of logistics and planning.

The officials all spoke anonymously because they are not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

[Бай Ганьо]

I'm still waiting for the first Charlie Hebdo cartoon making fun of the Paris massacre, like happened with the crash of the Russian passenger plane in Egypt. I doubt the French government would react on such a cartoon by indulgently saying that "journalists in France [are] free to express their opinions, but that they [do] not reflect the views of the French government". http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/11/charlie-hebdo-plane-crash-cartoons-anger-russians-151109054925078.html

[OnFire]

Awful events but somehow more important than the constant slaughter of people in the middle east according to the reaction of facebook warriors.

Most people who follow the mainstream news tend to not care for "fires in furnace".

I hope we all agree that every religious violence is archreactionary and should be condemned, no matter who is targeted.

[xtrmntr]

sad loss of innocent life.

but i just don't get some people calling for further bloodshed. do they not learn ? the clue is in their name -- ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria).

two countries that have been targeted for western interventionism and military action and both countries left in ruins (same as libya were ISIS also have a smaller influence). this is how ISIS came about .... a vacuum created .... yet still right-wing jingoists are saber rattling for more bloody war. it's as if they don't learn. a perpetual circle of conflict and chaos and a good money earner for the military industrial complex and a damn good distraction while the working class are being fucked over on a daily basis.

the calls for more policing and intelligence funding brings the creeping police state and the next-door neighbour even closer.
call me cynical .....

[ckaihatsu]

Yeah, watch out! -- the Western powers are now 'tacitly miffed' at ISIS....

[OnFire]

Friendly GER-NED which was scheduled to take place today at 20:45 in Hanover was just cancelled due to terror alert. Seems like Daesh is active in Germany now. Also GSG9 is reported to be on the scene.

http://m.taz.de/Deutschland---Niederlande/!5254095;m/

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

It's obvious that this silly French flag business on facebook, and the crocodile tears of people like Madonna (Why the fuck is she breaking down in tears on stage ffs?) are absurd. I think, though, that equally dangerous is the reaction of some people who take up a contrary position in response; it's clear that this attack has been pretty devastating to many people and is pretty awful. And I don't think it's wrong to say that, as long as you keep in mind the obvious point that it's not just white wealthy Europeans who are suffering under terrorism.

And yeah, it is really fucking irritating that people still think going to war to end war is a viable policy decision. Especially if said decisions take advantage of people's obvious emotional states in the aftermath of an awful terror attack.

[ckaihatsu]

What some people are *still* missing is that this is all a *geopolitical* thing going on, the extension of the neoconservative 'shit list' (PNAC) -- as against Syria -- and the international schism that's created as long the U.S. and NATO consider it to be a legitimate agenda for foreign policy. (If Syria is demonized then that puts Iran and Russia on the 'other side' and invites GCC-backed fundamentalism and terrorism, as from ISIS / Saudi Arabia.)

[blake 3:17]

France's state of emergency may last months
Hollande to propose changes to constitution such as increased surveillance and stripping citizenship amid safety threat.

French President Francois Hollande will present a bill to extend the state of emergency in France, as well as propose severe amendments to the constitution in light of a recent wave of attacks in Paris that killed at least 129 people.

The French leader said on Monday, in an exceptional joint gathering of parliament, that he would make the proposals on Wednesday and parliamentarians would vote on them before the end of the week.

Friday's "acts of war ... were decided and planned in Syria, prepared and organised in Belgium [and] perpetrated on our soil with French complicity", he said, speaking in Versailles, south of Paris.

"I have asked the prime minister to prepare constitutional amendments," he added.

Those amendments include exceptional measures such as stripping the citizenship of convicted terrorists, increased surveillance, and "more sophisticated methods" to curb weapons trafficking.

He proposed measures to speed up the expulsion of foreigners considered a threat to public order, strip binational citizens who carry out acts hostile to national security of French citizenship, and bar binationals considered a terrorism risk from entering French territory.

"We must change our constitution to act against terrorism," he said.

He also announced an increase in police recruitment and a halt to layoffs in the army during the 50-minute speech.

Al Jazeera's Jacky Rowland, reporting from Paris, said: "The new constraints in effect limit civil liberties in France, but Hollande is trying to persuade French people that these are essential if he is to be able to protect the nation against the kind of attacks we saw last Friday."

full story & link: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/11/france-state-emergency-months-151116155912054.html

[Aslan]

You're more likely to get shot in your country than get killed by a terrorist attack in Paris.

I'm more likely to get kicked in the balls by a dwarf in a Christmas elf costume than to get attacked by a terrorist.

[willowtooth]

#fuckparis is trending......lol

http://www.citypages.com/news/the-fuckparis-hashtag-sends-the-internet-into-a-fury-7836574

[Rafiq]

Of course that is in horrible taste. But you know what? I will not dismissively condemn those black people who feel the need to say #fuckparis.

Think about what happened this year: With all the events occurring in Mizzou, with black lives matter, with all the anti-austerity momentum: All of these was overshadowed by more, cliche'd and obnoxious liberal 'human rights' bullshit. Of course many would be angry about it: Of course the Paris attacks were acts of barbarism. But how they are being articulated is barbaric: On one hand you have conservatives harking for the blood of more innocents, and on the other hand, you have this:

pfbph4VCVtk

This kind of liberal "tolerance", i.e. "We won't stoop to their level", of course we commend it if we juxtapose it to the disgusting filth that has brewed. But ultimately, the generosity of the liberals to "tolerate" the Muslims despite ISIS is riddled with a kind of black mail: What fascinates me is that - if our democratic (even bourgeois democratic!) standards were intact, our real liberal standards, it would not even cross our minds no one would actually have to constantly keep saying "Not all Muslims" and whatever.

The "not all Muslims" cliche is worthless political correctness, it's no different from a liberal who says "Well not all blacks are criminals" while pathologically still associating them with that by merit of the fact that many are concentrated in miserable, poverty stricken ghettos. Likewise, yes, many poor and marginalized Muslims ARE attracted to religious fundamentalism, the question is, why? When push comes to shove, the bourgeois ideologues will succumb and say "It's because their culture" or whatever. We Communists on the other hand recognize a different truth: It is because we have not made ourselves as Communists a formidable alternative, of course, not because we haven't 'compromised" with their religion and culture, but because on the contrary, we have not addressed the specific ills which make this identity important for them.

We should condemn #fuckparis, but we should not be disgusted by it. Liberals are deep-seated racists and reactionaries who guise this feeling with political correctness? Fine, we will do the same: Instead of #fuckparis, we should say: We will not allow the opportunist liberals to turn the underlying problems of our present epoch into another false opposition between "extremist fundamentalism" and "moderate human rights liberalism". We are Communists. We are "extremists", and if our true potentials were unleashed we would scare those cowardly Islamists shitless, just as we horrified and terrorized the Fascists up to the events of WWII.

The Islamists are cowards, I know it's a cliche, but think about it: do you know how TERRIFYING we would be to them, our prerogative to abolish the family, sexual emancipation, destruction of religion, abolition of private property? When Islamists, even these types, talk about economic concerns, they sound like any "moderate" bourgeois ideologue, being "balanced", letting things go their natural course, ETC. They are cowards. During WWII, Stalin famously remarked that (to paraphrase him): Hitler is not the powerful beast some worthless piece of shit pseudo-intellectuals have made him out to be. We should repeat Stalin: The Islamists are not as powerful as those worthless pseudo-intellectual, "clash of culture" scum make them out to be, from scum like Sam Harris to that fucker Dawkins. They are fascinated by Fascists (whether Islamist or otherwise) for good reason: Religious fundamentalism (or nationalist passions, ETC.) and liberal tolerance are TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN. Fascism is powerful precisely because it designates at, but does not strike at THE SOCIAL ANTAGONISM. We are the ones who make the chickens come home to roost, we the Communists, we are the demons that they must mimic to gain the popularity and the edge they have. And for all intensive purposes: Do you understand that it was the New Left terrorism of the 70's which was the forerunner to modern Islamist terrorism? Of course, people like the RAF, etc. would have never killed ordinary people like this, but you get the point: The "horror" That it invokes in liberals has little to do with any concern for the lives of ordinary people, but the fact that it is "extreme", etc.

[PhoenixAsh]

So....Russian, French, American and British politicians have said that defeating ISIS is going to be easy and it will be a matter of hours and days before the military capabilities as well as the Caliphate itself will be destroyed.

After 4 years of war and 2 years of intense bombardments the only logical conclusion we can draw from these statements is that they have been fooling around spending our tax money.

So let's put this in perspective.

The US defence department stated previously that the ISIS operations average 11 million dollars per day. This I the cost for the US and excludes Russia and countries not established in the coalition.

In the last 20 days a little over 2500 bombing sorties have been flown. So far groups within Raqqa have confirmed most of the targets were empty or abandoned sites and that the strikes have little or no effect whatsoever.

33 ISIS members have reportedly been killed in the last few days. And I can find mention of another 300 in the last month.

This means that each kill costs roughly 1 million dollar.

ISIS has 5000 confirmed fighters in Raqqa....

[Бай Ганьо]

The former head of the French intelligence agency Squarcini revealed that, two years ago, the Syrian secret services proposed to hand over a list of all French jihadists operating in Syria. The now prime minister of France Manuel Valls rejected the offer on the grounds that "France does not exchange information with a regime like that of Syria".

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3ecx2g_l-instant-m-yves-de-kerdrel-valeurs-actuelles-squarcini-revele-que-la-syrie-a-la-liste-des-djihadist_news

[Guardia Rossa]

Ah, well, everyone here is "Oh, islam is sooo baaaad, they killed 140 french! Good they are striking back!"
I say "But well, they bombard Syria for more than two years..."
"ARE YOU TRYING TO JUSTIFY TERRORISM???"
"No.... I'm just saying it's cause and consequence. It's a informal war they got into. Now at least they know they are in one. Of course it was sad but war is war, they accepted the chance of being attacked when they got in it. You can't blame only the terrorists if they are striking back. I doubt Hollande didn't knew this would happen sooner or later"
"..."

[Zoop]

If anything this event demonstrates the selective compassion, selective outrage and rabid racism that infests every crevice of our society. The mass solidarity movements are generated when good ol' white folk are killed, but we don't care when those brown folks are slaughtered and maimed. Where were the mass solidarity movements after the Ankara and Beirut massacres? They didn't exist, because people don't give a shit when the victims aren't white.

[ckaihatsu]

Ah, well, everyone here is "Oh, islam is sooo baaaad, they killed 140 french! Good they are striking back!"
I say "But well, they bombard Syria for more than two years..."
"ARE YOU TRYING TO JUSTIFY TERRORISM???"
"No.... I'm just saying it's cause and consequence. It's a informal war they got into. Now at least they know they are in one. Of course it was sad but war is war, they accepted the chance of being attacked when they got in it. You can't blame only the terrorists if they are striking back. I doubt Hollande didn't knew this would happen sooner or later"
"..."


Yeah, where's the 'Fuck the Caliphate' sentiment -- ??

Syria is no longer one intact territory when the Islamic State is controlling a good chunk of it, along with part of Iraq.

[waddon1]

If only the USSR was still here to help defend the world :crying:

[Vee]

Yeah, where's the 'Fuck the Caliphate' sentiment -- ??

Syria is no longer one intact territory when the Islamic State is controlling a good chunk of it, along with part of Iraq.

they have smaller footholds in other countries too.

[xtrmntr]

sad loss of innocent life.

but i just don't get some people calling for further bloodshed. do they not learn ? the clue is in their name -- ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria).

two countries that have been targeted for western interventionism and military action and both countries left in ruins (same as libya were ISIS also have a smaller influence). this is how ISIS came about .... a vacuum created .... yet still right-wing jingoists are saber rattling for more bloody war. it's as if they don't learn. a perpetual circle of conflict and chaos and a good money earner for the military industrial complex and a damn good distraction while the working class are being fucked over on a daily basis.

the calls for more policing and intelligence funding brings the creeping police state and the next-door neighbour even closer.
call me cynical .....

next door spy neighbour i meant.

french police have been given extra powers that enable them to limit public gatherings and broaden stop and search. expect these to be interminable and calls for such to be implemented elsewhere as hegemonistic-state-sanctioned fear-mongering propaganda takes hold.

i concur with other posters about the sickening hypocrisy on show and lack of concern when deaths/murders are perpetrated on 'non-white' and predominantly non-christian countries.

according to reports FA premier league clubs plan to play the french national anthem prior to kick-off this weekend. if there was consistency the palestine national anthem would be played regularly before football matches.

[The Intransigent Faction]

If anything this event demonstrates the selective compassion, selective outrage and rabid racism that infests every crevice of our society. The mass solidarity movements are generated when good ol' white folk are killed, but we don't care when those brown folks are slaughtered and maimed. Where were the mass solidarity movements after the Ankara and Beirut massacres? They didn't exist, because people don't give a shit when the victims aren't white.

Add to this that where there is public condemnation of the spike in racist attacks and intimidation in other countries following what happened in Paris, it is generally couched in nationalistic terms. The racist attacks aren't just wrong, says this narrative: They are wrong because "those Muslims are French/Canadian/American...too."

[Counterculturalist]

Yes, and "this is America/Canada! We don't treat people like that here, because we're so wonderful!" :rolleyes:

Instead of, y'know, acknowledging that all nation-states are built on brutally repressing people...

It's nice to see a loud backlash against these racist attacks, of course, but it's too bad it's being used to bolster Western exceptionalism.

[ckaihatsu]

Btw, check out the beginning of the movie 'Zardoz' to see how the empire would *like* to treat immigrants (or does, tacitly)....


Zardoz (1974)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070948/

[ckaihatsu]

http://www.answercoalition.org/could_there_be_a_ceasefire_and_western_policy_shif t_in_syria?utm_campaign=ANSWER%20Coalition&utm_campaign=news_11_25_2015&utm_medium=shared_article&utm_medium=email&utm_source=facebook&utm_source=answercoalition


Could there be a ceasefire and Western policy shift in Syria?

posted by Answer Coalition | 9pt

November 24, 2015

Since this article was written, a new round of talks has begun in Vienna on Syria's possible "political transition." Early reports from that meeting point suggest a ceasefire and negotiated agreement has become more likely — although such an outcome remains far from certain.

https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/answercoalition/pages/2604/attachments/original/1448406573/1117syria.jpg?1448406573

The biggest immediate question right now in the Syrian war is whether there will be a local ceasefire between the Syrian government and some foreign-backed insurgent forces as part of a renewed international effort to create a larger ceasefire and political framework.

A ceasefire followed by negotiations and national elections was the essence of the agreement that emerged from the second round of the so-called Vienna Talks on Nov. 14. The participants in Vienna included Russia, United States, France, the UK, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Lebanon and others.

Secretary of State John Kerry was publicly optimistic that a ceasefire or multiple ceasefires might take hold.

But in the recent days there have been mixed messages about the viability of such an effort. There is clearly divided opinion and debate within the imperialist establishment in Washington and among its allies.

Saudi Arabia, from which ISIS or ISIL has received huge amounts of material support, was present in Vienna, and formally agreed with the final resolution.

Al Arabiya, a Saudi-financed media outlet, reported on Nov. 19, 2015:

“A powerful Syrian insurgent group said on Thursday it was studying a local ceasefire proposal tabled by an international mediator aimed at halting fighting near Damascus.

“Islam Alloush, spokesman for the Jaish al-Islam group, told Reuters the ceasefire proposal had been presented by the mediator to the former head of a sharia board that operates in rebel-held areas, who in turn had presented it to rebel groups and civilian organisations in the opposition-held area. …

“The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that monitors the war, earlier reported the failure of negotiations aimed at achieved [sic] a local ceasefire between rebels and government forces in the Eastern Ghouta near Damascus.”

Is there a policy shift from the centers of world imperialism?

The rebels are backed by Western governments and in the week since the Paris attacks, there has been a discernible shift in U.S. and French rhetoric on Syria and Russia. This could signify a larger turning point in their policy there, with important ramifications in regional and global politics.

On Sunday, Presidents Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin met directly. A White House official told Reuters, “President Obama and President Putin agreed on the need for a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political transition, which would be proceeded by UN-mediated negotiations between the Syrian opposition and regime as well as a ceasefire.” According to Reuters, “Obama welcomed efforts by all countries in confronting the Islamic State, noting the importance of Russia’s military efforts in Syria focusing on the group.”

The meeting followed on the heels of a new peace plan — agreed to by Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — for talks between Assad and the Syrian opposition by January 1, and new elections in Syria within 18 months. Secretary of State John Kerry announced, “we’re weeks away, conceivably, from the possibility of a big transition for Syria.” It is worth remembering that only two years ago Kerry was advocating the bombing of the Syrian army.

Obama still maintains “we do not believe [Assad] has a role in Syria’s future,” and clearly is working — with combined pressure from Turkey, Saudi Arabia and his EU partners — to entice Russia to abandon Assad. But this hard line could also be grandstanding so as to conceal the shift that is taking place. The rhetoric around Syria’s “political resolution” suggests the White House is subtly backing off its “Assad must go” precondition for negotiations.

Even more noteworthy is the changed U.S. tone towards Russia’s intervention. Just last month the Obama administration deemed the Russian airstrikes “not helpful” and “doomed to fail.” Now the White House says Russia’s military efforts are “welcomed” and “appreciated.”

The discussion of a ceasefire between the Syrian rebel groups and the Syrian state signifies a potential pause in the West’s campaign against the Syrian government, and opens the possibility of a larger truce. To be clear, there is no certainty things will move in this direction, and Washington has not yet taken action to decisively reverse its policy. As The New York Times remarked, such an “alliance remains largely theoretical” at this point.

Washington has not declared an end to its regime change efforts. Washington has not normalized relations with Syria. It has not forced the cut off of military and financial support to those rebel groups, linked most closely to Saudi Arabia and Turkey, that are besieging the Syrian Arab Army’s positions.

France too has for years has been funding armed rebels, including extremist elements in Syria, and even introduced a resolution to bring Assad before the International Criminal Court. Without formally turning away from this course, it is now directly coordinating with Russian air force “as allies” and Hollande has announced, according to Sputnik News, “In Syria, we’re looking for the political solution to the problem, which is not Bashar Assad. Our enemy in Syria is ISIL.” France and Russia are proposing separate resolutions on Syria at the UN Security Council, and France has already suggested a willingness to combine them.

For its part, the Syrian government declared a willingness to cooperate with France if it was genuinely changing its policy to fight ISIS, but has not directly responded to the unilateral French bombardment of Raqqa. Such Western bombings of ISIS territory have been condemned by Damascus in the past as a violation of international law and Syria’s national sovereignty, part of the West’s double game.

Anti-Muslim bigotry and state repression

The immediate cause of this possible shift is of course the ISIS terrorist attack in Paris. It is a travesty that it required bloodshed in France to potentially move the West away from the policies that have empowered ISIS and devastated so many lives in the region. As British Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn put it, when ISIS was killing Arabs, Turks and Kurds “hardly any publicity” was given to “the bombing in Beirut last week or the killing in Turkey.”

The racist media coverage, combined with the new war drive, is already reverberating powerfully on the homefront. Hollande has declared three months of emergency (martial) law and has empowered the police to raid houses without warrants. He intends to eviscerate existing civil liberties protections from state surveillance. French police conducted hundreds of raids in the first days after the attacks, while refugees and immigrants, especially Arabs and Muslims, have been viciously attacked by racist groups.

Many progressive and workers’ organizations are standing up to this wave of repression, but Hollande is marshalling the full power of the state in the wake of the massacre.

Like Hollande, ruling-class politicians in the United States are whipping up a frenzy, calling on one hand for war against ISIS, and on the other demonizing the Syrian refugees fleeing ISIS. The Republican-led House of Representatives, joined by 47 Democrats, voted to suspend the Syrian refugee program as part of their racist fear-mongering campaign.

Donald Trump has called for closing mosques and a special ID card for Muslims. New measures are being proposed to strengthen NSA surveillance and give the government backdoor entry into civilians’ encrypted communications.

Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and the Republican establishment have called for expanded military intervention in Syria, pointing to the failure of existing policy.

The Obama administration appears to be calculating differently, however. Whatever U.S. strategic aims existed back in 2011 — principally, neo-colonial regime change — these were definitively altered by the forceful intervention of Russia last month and the joint re-commitment of Iranian and Hezbollah forces. Unable to knock over Assad as they planned, the Obama administration is now coming face to face with the blatant contradictions of its Syria policy.

Fighting those who fight ISIS?

The potential reorientation of U.S. policy in Syria, which would temporarily downplay its goal of regime change so as to partner with those fighting ISIS, at least temporarily, must be recognized for what it is. It is a de facto acknowledgment that for the last four years Washington’s Syria policy has been an unmitigated disaster.

This imperialist policy in Syria, combined with the earlier destruction of Iraq and Libya, has given rise to ISIS as a significant power in each of these countries. Rather than democracy and freedom, Washington’s non-stop overt and covert wars have led to death and destruction for Syrians, Kurds, a whole spectrum of the region’s religious and ethnic minorities, the 224 passengers on the Russian plane, the people of Beirut, Ankara and now Paris.

Nearly 85,000 Syrian army soldiers have lost their lives in four years of the many-sided civil war. The Syrian army has done the bulk of the fighting against ISIS, as have the Kurdish-based People’s Protection Units (YPG) in the country’s north. But the CIA and Pentagon have been cultivating instead a large spectrum of fundamentalist reactionary groups that are fighting against the Syrian Army.

In funding, supporting and arming a range of extreme reactionary, fundamentalist and other armed groups to fight the Syrian Arab Army, Paris and Washington have forced the Syrian government to fight on many fronts, and take considerable territorial losses. ISIS has in fact been the main beneficiary of U.S. and French policy.

The chest-thumping from French President Francois Hollande, and flurry of airstrikes on the ISIS capital of Raqqa, cannot hide this reality. In fact, the airstrikes on Raqqa — a city of 1 million people — will certainly be ineffectual except in killing more civilians, and may cause many more to sympathize with and join ISIS.

ISIS will not be defeated by airstrikes. But the Obama administration, the Pentagon and the American public have little appetite for a full ground invasion — which would be another quagmire, result in the deaths of huge numbers of Syrians and thousands of U.S. troops, and repeat the very conditions that gave rise to ISIS in the beginning. It is clear that ISIS can only be defeated by forces on the ground who are from the region itself. But the only ground forces with the experience and capability to take them on are the Syrian Arab Army, the YPG and their allied militias. That is the central contradiction in U.S. policy, and it cannot be wiggled out of.

Unless both France and the United States turn away from this contradictory and catastrophic policy, their newly declared war on ISIS must be exposed as pure demagogy. It will be more of the same.

Makings of a failed strategy — ISIS not contained

Washington first carried out its offensive against the Syrian state by backing any rebels they could find. The rapid growth of Al-Qaeda and allied fundamentalists in Syria led the U.S. interventionists to promise to only support the “moderate” opposition. Then whole divisions of such “moderates” joined Al-Qaeda, which split into ISIS.

Then Washington promised to build up a mercenary army of vetted “moderates” to fight ISIS. They allocated $500 million but ended up with just “four or five” actual fighters. Still Washington kept up the battle for Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, embedding CIA assets with the Al-Qaeda-led coalition, while demanding “Assad must go” as the precondition for peace talks. They ensured the world that ISIS was “contained.”

If in fact ISIS had been contained, and had not threatened U.S. strategic interests, Washington would have tolerated their medievalist mini-state. Breaking up Syria has long been a dream of neoconservative and Israeli strategists in particular, and the United States is no stranger to relationships of convenience with the most reactionary Wahhabist forces.

But ISIS has no intention of being contained. ISIS has no intention of recognizing the borders of existing nation-states in the region and in fact has an apocalyptic program specifically oriented towards fomenting world war.

ISIS’s global reach was proven with ferocity in the attacks in Paris and in the group’s pledge to carry out follow-up attacks in the United States. The organization’s ability to recruit from and then carry out significant operations within the Western world have changed the game in U.S. and French imperialist policy circles.

Hollande is requesting meetings with both Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Other conservative, establishment French MPs were in Damascus this week for a meeting with Assad, and calling for a reorientation towards the Syrian government. Their argument — that Assad was never sending suicide bombers to France — will presumably resonate across broad sections of the French public and political establishment.

Assad never wanted war with the West

The Assad government never asked for war with the West. In fact, it had a considerable history of partnership with the West in the Lebanese Civil War and the first Iraq war, and had extensive relationships with Western financial institutions in the post-Soviet era in particular. As a legacy of the country’s nationalist revolution and orientation, the Syrian government did maintain independent relations with Palestinian and Lebanese resistance forces, and with Iran. In this sense, it has functioned as a thorn in the imperialists’ side from time to time.

Dizzy with success from the 2011 Libya war, the arrogant interventionists and neo-cons in the Obama administration overcame the internal opposition of more restrained voices and pushed to replicate the operation in Syria. Ever since, U.S. policy has been a tangled mess of visionless half-steps and contradiction. As with the Iraq war, the Syria intervention has been a catastrophe for millions of people in the region, but also a catastrophe for U.S. imperialism.

Just because imperialism is an enduring system, predetermining the overall strategic goals of Washington’s policymakers regardless of who sits in office, that does not mean its specific policies are unimportant. Not all policies fit perfectly into a master plan for hegemony. Policies can be failures. They can backfire and they can be reversed.

If the United States were to step back from its current policy of regime change, which has nourished ISIS and devastated millions within Syria, that would be a significant step forward for the peoples of the region. This would constitute a truce of sorts with Syria and would likely push Washington into some sort of informal relationship with the anti-ISIS coalition called for by the Syrian government, Russia, Iran and Hezbollah.

No new diplomatic or military orientation — including a potential truce of sorts — can change the essential nature of imperialism. No policy reversal can erase the history of how U.S. militarism and interventionism destroyed Iraq, Libya and Syria as unitary nation-states.

It will also not mean the creation of a new multi-polar world system based on joint management, which the Russian government frequently alludes to. Washington will not simply let its dream of long-term unipolar hegemony slide away.

U.S. imperialism has no permanent friends — only permanent interests. The Assad government has already seen how quickly its Western “friends” became bitter enemies when opportunities arose for regime change.

Likewise, the Kurdish-based Democratic Union Party (PYD), which leads the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which called on U.S. air support against ISIS, needs no lessons about imperialist treachery; while the United States claims to support their struggle, the U.S. government has silently authorized Turkey’s bombardment of their comrades. The PYD/YPG has since signaled closer relations with Russia.

Nonetheless, if a Middle East reorientation were to be effected in Washington, the struggle in Syria, and the tenor of world politics, would enter a new complex phase — temporarily drawing the Pentagon to the side of the very governments it has long demonized: Iran, Syria and Russia. As was shown in World War II, the classic case of “strange bedfellows” alliances, this political situation will require careful analysis and creative tactics from all anti-imperialists.

Such a truce or even coalition would be inherently temporary and unstable, as the logic and structural demands of imperialism — not to mention the policymakers’ fundamental allegiance to “American leadership” and “exceptionalism” — prohibit them from functioning as equal partners with independent states of the formerly colonized world, or those states that challenge their world order.

Reposted from Liberation

[ckaihatsu]

[LFN] U.S. OUT OF SYRIA NOW! Give Aid and Asylum to Syrian Refugees! No U.S. Intervention in the Syrian Civil War!

[to subscribe / unsubscribe, contact [email protected]]


Give Aid and Asylum to Syrian Refugees!

No U.S. Intervention in the Syrian Civil War!

The horrific murders of 129 people in Paris on November 13 have served as the pretext for a dangerous escalation of war in Syria and Iraq and a head-on attack on civil liberties and the right to privacy in France and Belgium. It has also intensified the debate about admitting Syrians and Iraqis who are fleeing from the conflict, as many state governors in the United States are declaring that no Syrian refugees will be admitted to their states -- empty rhetoric, to be sure, since nearly all of them are lawyers who know full well that only the federal government has jurisdiction in asylum cases.

The attack in Paris was preceded by attacks in Beirut and Baghdad, which unfortunately received far less attention in the United States. Responsibility for all three attacks was claimed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria -- ISIS. Though ISIS's rule has been harsh and brutal within the territory it controls, it had not carried out attacks on civilians outside of that territory -- until now. What ISIS has done is a dangerous escalation of the violence, which gives France, Britain, the United States, and other Western powers an opening to increase their military intervention in the Middle East with reduced opposition from the populations of their own countries.

Indeed, the United States, France, and Russia have been carrying out massive air strikes against ISIS. The U.S. has deployed Special Operations troops to the Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Syria, in what could be just the beginning of a larger-scale U.S. intervention with ground forces. Presidential candidates, including Republican Lindsey Graham and Democrat Hillary Clinton, are calling for an even larger U.S. military intervention.

As refugees from the Syrian and Iraqi civil wars continue to stream into eastern and central Europe and into other Middle Eastern countries, the news is nothing short of heartbreaking. Families are boarding overcrowded vessels of questionable seaworthiness or attempting to cross into Lebanon, Turkey, or Jordan, where they are languishing in overcrowded camps where food and water are in short supply.

The U.S.'s intelligence services went into action to begin the process of regime change in Syria. Senator John McCain even went there and met with a group of opposition leaders. He promised them money and weapons and was even photographed with them. However, their opposition to Assad was based not on any desire for democracy but rather on their belief that Syria should be ruled according to Sunni Islam, the majority denomination among Muslims in Syria and indeed worldwide. Assad belongs to the Alawi sect, a branch of Shi'i Islam, which has existed since the 8th century.

Their organization was to take shape as ISIS, as they joined forces with Iraqi military officers -- Sunni Muslims like their executed leader Saddam Hussein -- who had been purged from the Iraqi army by the Shi'i-dominated government and its patrons in Washington.

In the spring of 2014 the world was subjected to the spectacle of gruesome executions in ISIS-controlled territory. Sensational news reports led to calls for U.S. intervention to stop ISIS, conveniently forgetting that U.S. intervention against the Syrian government is what led to the formation of ISIS in the first place!

Up until now, ISIS has been mainly a conventional military force, whose aim is to capture territory and add it to its fundamentalist caliphate. It is commanded by well-trained professional military officers. It has achieved considerable success, controlling a swath of territory from northeastern Syria across northern Iraq, including the city of Mosul, the most important city of northern Iraq and an important oil center. It has even penetrated within a few kilometers of Baghdad itself.

The Islamic Republic of Iran, whose government is led by Shi'i clerics and whose population is about 94% Shi'i Muslim, justifiably considers ISIS to be a threat to its security. Iran has allied itself with the Syrian government as has Russia, which is carrying out air strikes against forces opposing the Assad government. The United States has accused the Russians of attacking forces other than ISIS, the so-called "moderate opposition."

It is time for the United States to take the next step and put a complete stop to its intervention in the region. Complete means complete. It means no troops, no bombing, no air support, no drones, no weapons, no money, no delay, and no conditions. This is what the labor movement and its community allies must demand.

U.S. policy has contributed mightily to the continuation of civil war in Syria, which has led to a terrible civilian death toll and destruction of Syrian cities and social infrastructure. Syrian civilians have been fleeing by the thousands to wherever they can escape the violence -- to Turkey, to Greece, to Hungary, to Austria, to Germany. It has been a humanitarian disaster, without question.

To date, the U.S. government, which bears a lot of responsibility for the disaster, has done precious little to help the refugees. Presidential contender Donald Trump has even promised, "If I'm elected, they're going back," even though a much smaller number of refugees has thus far come to the United States than to Middle Eastern or European countries. One expects hatefulness like that from the lips of the Donald; one might expect better from Obama, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, but thus far we have heard nothing from the president but empty words.

If the Obama administration can waste $500 million on a project to arm and train a nonexistent "moderate opposition," surely it can put up some serious money for humanitarian aid -- food, housing, medical care, and safe transportation for families who just want to get their children out of harm's way.

The labor movement needs to demand exactly the opposite of what the billionaire Trump is proposing: open the gates to the refugees and provide for the needs of the families seeking safety from violence -- no delay, and no conditions. Already groups around the country are taking to the streets to demand just that.

The people of the Middle East, from the Black Sea to the Persian Gulf, have suffered for over a century because of the ham-handed intervention and exploitation at the hands of the so-called "Great Powers" of Europe and North America. All working people, both in the exploited countries and the exploiter countries, have a direct interest in putting a stop to it. Peace, security, and fair payment for their labor and natural resources are all that the people of the region wish. It's simple justice.

- - - -

Issued by the Labor Fightback Network. For more information, please call 973-975-9704 or email [email protected] or write Labor Fightback Network, P.O. Box 187, Flanders, NJ 07836 or visit our website at laborfightback.org. Facebook link : https://www.facebook.com/laborfightback

Donations to help fund the Labor Fightback Network based on its program of solidarity and labor-community unity are necessary for our work to continue and will be much appreciated. Please make checks payable to Labor Fightback Network and mail to the above P.O. Box or you can make a contribution online. Thanks!

[Emmett Till]

http://www.icl-fi.org/english/leaflets/paris-crim-2015.html

LTF Statement on the Criminal Attacks in Paris
The following is a translation of a statement issued by our comrades of the Ligue Trotskyste de France on November 14.

We strongly condemn the criminal killing of some 120 people last night. Everything indicates that Islamic fundamentalists carried out the attacks in support of the Islamic State and particularly in response to French airstrikes, which have been extended in recent weeks to Syria. More than ever we demand the immediate withdrawal of French and U.S. troops from the entire Near East in particular, as well as from Mali and elsewhere in the world.

The perpetrators of these acts, in indiscriminately targeting just anyone, fundamentally share the same mentality as the imperialists in identifying the working masses with their capitalist exploiters and oppressors. Yet, regardless of the barbarism of the terrorists who coldbloodedly murdered dozens of innocent civilians in the streets of Paris and in a concert hall, the fact remains that the biggest terrorists in the world are the imperialists themselves, including the French imperialists.

It is their unspeakable crimes in the Near East that have provoked—and continue daily to heighten—the bloody chaos in Syria and Iraq, and which push youth into the arms of the Islamic reactionaries. Thus, any blow against the imperialist armies and their proxies in the Near East, even by such repugnant forces as the Islamic State, would serve the interests of the international working class. Marxists do not give the slightest political support to these reactionaries, whose horrible crimes we condemn, including those of last night.

That French youth raised in this country—over a thousand of whom have already gone to Syria to wage jihad—succumb to such a backward ideology indicates above all the level of desperation of a whole layer of young people from working-class families, many of them originally from the former French colonies in Africa. This is a reactionary consequence of chronic unemployment, as well as racist discrimination at school, at work, in the allocation of housing and across all aspects of life—a consequence of the racist demonization of Muslims. It is also the result of the endless betrayals by the reformist leaderships of the working class who have for so long been an obstacle to a revolutionary perspective.

We protest in advance the use of these crimes by [President François] Hollande's capitalist government to justify increasingly repressive measures against Muslims and dark-skinned people as well as to strengthen sweeping surveillance measures against the entire population. These police-state measures, as we have long insisted, are ultimately aimed at the working class, the only class with the historic interest and social power to lead all the oppressed in a struggle to overthrow the capitalist system that each day descends further into barbarism. We say: Down with the state of emergency! Down with Vigipirate and Sentinelle! French troops out of the Near East and Africa!

[Црвена]

I meant to post this as soon as it was published, but forgot. Anyway, I wrote something on the attacks: http://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1083/more-reason-to-revolt/ . What are people's thoughts? (Sorry for plugging)

[Црвена]

If only the USSR was still here to help defend the world :crying:

The USSR was um, never imperialist, of course.

[Sibotic]

Ah, well, everyone here is "Oh, islam is sooo baaaad, they killed 140 french! Good they are striking back!"
I say "But well, they bombard Syria for more than two years..."
"ARE YOU TRYING TO JUSTIFY TERRORISM???"
Yes, poor France, they would never have a state based on the slaughter of Parisians, would they? Let alone ones which were proportionately much better than this lot.

That said, actions may bring reactions, as you say, and despite the allegation that France is 'responding to the attacks,' its response has been entirely a peacetime one which implies that Western 'attacks' on ISIS by that point were really a dead letter and the response is merely multiplying 0 by something to still give 0.

Obviously ISIS subjecting 'France' to what they had once had to orchestrate from Versailles seems interesting, but you can probably get something out of that. It certainly seems like a sign of confidence, so to speak.


#fuckparis is trending......lol

http://www.citypages.com/news/the-fu...a-fury-7836574 (http://www.citypages.com/news/the-fuckparis-hashtag-sends-the-internet-into-a-fury-7836574)
Honestly a night in Paris is much less kitschy with ISIS than left to the West.

[ckaihatsu]

Jan. 23 United Front Rally in Paris Demands Immediate Lifting of State of Emergency


IN THIS MESSAGE

1) Appeal of the January 23 Rally in Paris to Demand that Hollande and Valls Lift the State of Emergency Immediately

2) Link to video of full rally (in French): http://latribunedestravailleurs.fr/

3) Speech by Daniel Gluckstein, National Secretary of the POID to the rally (in English)

* * * * * * * * * *

1) APPEAL of January 23 Rally in Paris
Hollande-Valls: Lift the State of Emergency!

We, the 1,500 participants in the Rally held in Paris on January 23, 2016, at the initiative of the Call of the 333 to demand the lifting of the State of Emergency;

Having met in the aftermath of the provocative announcement by [French President François] Hollande that he will extend the State of Emergency for another three months, and the assertion by [Prime Minister Manuel] Valls, for whom the State of Emergency should be maintained "until we can put an end to Daech" [the Arabic name for ISIS - Tr. Note];

Having gathered 12,000 endorsements in support of the Appeal of the 333; and
After having heard the speeches by the following people:

Patrick Baudouin, Lawyer, honorary president of the FIDH (International Federation of Human Rights)

Esther Benbassa, Senator, Vice President of the Laws Commission

Denis Collin, Philosopher

Jean-Jacques Marie, Historian

Nicolas Bonnet-Oulaldj, Member of the National Executive Committee of the French Communist Party (PCF)

Olivier Besancenot, NPA (New Anti-Capitalist Party)

Sergio Coronado, Green Party, National Deputy

Daniel Duthil, AP-HP trade unionist

Wladimir Susanj, Trade unionist, Paris

Mathilde Zylberberg, Union of Magistrates

Vincent Présumey, Teacher unionist

Noël Mamère, National Deputy

Danielle Simonnet, Coordinator, Parti de Gauche (Left Party)

Jean Hedou, Trade unionist, Paris

Dominique Gros, University professor

Daniel Gluckstein, National secretary, Independent Democratic Workers Party (POID) [See his full speech below.]

Eric Le Courtois, trade unionist, Cotes d'Armor

Dominique Coujard, Honorary magistrate, former president of the Paris Court of Appeals

Patrick Picard, Trade unionist, Paris

Jean-Jacques Karman, Member of the National Executive Committee of the French Communist Party (PCF)

Claude Charmont, Trade unionist, Seine-et-Marne

Jacques Cotta, Journalist and filmmaker

And having heard the messages that were received from:

Mickaël Wamen, Goodyear trade unionist, who has been sentenced for his trade union activity

Rony Brauman

Isabelle Attard, National Deputy

Jacques Nikonoff, spokesperson Party of the Emancipation of the People.

We send a message of solidarity to Goodyear workers who have been sentenced for their trade union activity, and we demand an immediate halt to the legal proceedings against them.

We reiterate our demand for the immediate lifting of the State of Emergency about which all the Rally speakers, in their diversity, have shown that it is repressive and threatens all existing democratic rights.
We call to expand the campaign for the lifting of the State of Emergency and oppose its extension, as announced by the president. We welcome the multiplication of initiatives which, like ours, demand the lifting of the State of Emergency.

We call for support to the delegation that will go to François Hollande's presidential office to press for this demand.

We call for the broadest mobilization in unity to defeat the proposed Constitutional Reform by which François Hollande seeks to etch in stone this continuous erosion of democracy.

In full respect of the positions and commitments that each and every one of us upholds, let us mobilize across the country to say, by the tens and hundreds of thousands:

No to the Constitutional Reform!
Lift the State of Emergency Immediately!

We mandate the speakers at this rally to publicize this appeal and to promote this the campaign at the national level and in all communes and departments.

-- Appeal adopted by the 1,500 participants at the Rally on January 23, 2016, in the Espace Charenton (Paris)

* * * * * * * * * *


2) Link to video of full rally (in French):

http://latribunedestravailleurs.fr/

* * * * * * * * * *
3) Speech by Daniel Gluckstein, national secretary of the Independent Democratic Workers Party (POID), to the January 23 Rally in Paris:
"The Labor Movement Has a Special Responsibility"

Many speakers before me have said things that we can all support in opposition to the State of Emergency. Some raised for our consideration some ways to fight against terrorism and to prevent our youth from being drawn toward it. I admit that I am no expert on the subject, but I would like to propose two sets of demands that we might want to raise to address this question:

- For the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all French troops from Syria, Iraq, and Mali; for the immediate end to all French air strikes; and for an end to support to all the regimes that finance, arm and sustain Daech [Tr. Note: This is the Arabic name for ISIS.]

- Given that 41 billion euros were offered in tax exonerations to the bosses under the "Responsibility Pact", these 41 billion euros should instead be used to create 1 million jobs for our youth in the working class suburbs, so that these youth are much less susceptible to ideologies to which many want to draw them.

But of course, there is a problem -- and that problem is this government, which is implementing the policies of the most extreme reactionary political forces.

It is true that when we met as a small core to initiate the Call of the 333, we had a sense that we were relatively isolated. There were, it is true, the six deputies who voted courageously against the extension of the State of Emergency. But there was also at the National Assembly the joint stance taken by Bartolone [Socialist Party President of the National Assembly -- Tr. Note] and by all the leaders of the parliamentary groups -- without exception -- that called for "national unity" in support of the State of Emergency.

Things have clearly changed, as we heard this afternoon, and so much the better. But we must pose the problems clearly: To whom are we addressing the demand to lift the State of Emergency? It's to the Hollande-Valls government, the very same government that in the next few weeks will be seeking to extend the State of Emergency and to "reform" the Constitution in an even more authoritarian and anti-democratic direction. It is the very same government that is about to enact a law aimed at dismantling the Labor Code, using the ordinance procedure provided by Article 38 of the undemocratic Constitution of the Fifth Republic. It is the very same government that has jailed the trade unionists at Goodyear.

This is the government that must be fought if we are to lift of the State of Emergency.

One can only welcome the broad unity that is expressed here on this platform around the demand to the lift the State of Emergency, regardless of the political disagreements that may exist among us, and to salute the courage of Mamère and Coronado, who though isolated, did not hesitate to vote against the State of Emergency, and to applaud the stance of the judges and democratic-rights activists who have spoken out here today.

But in this broad front that is coming together to demand the lifting of the State of Emergency, the labor movement has a special responsibility. This particular responsibility derives from the fact that the Fifth Republic -- which was founded, as Mitterrand used to say (but who then quickly forgot it), as a "regime of a permanent coup d'etat." It is an undemocratic, corporatist, and Bonapartist regime whose aim has always been to deal blows against the working class, to dismantle its rights and guarantees, and to integrate its organizations into the State apparatus. And today, for this regime it means destroying the Labor Code and workers' rights altogether.

For workers, the struggle for democracy is a struggle without limitations. Its immediate objective is the defense of all workers' and democratic guarantees threatened by a moribund capitalist system -- and the defense of all freedoms, without restrictions. But the labor movement, historically, has also set itself the task of extending democracy, not only in the political arena, but also into the economic and social arenas, through the establishment of the collective ownership of the means of production wrested from the capitalist class.

That is the particular role, the historic role, of the labor movement. This does not mean that such a position should be imposed on those who, from their own vantage point, are sincerely engaging in the fight for freedom, for the lifting of the State of Emergency. But it is important to emphasize that responsibility nonetheless.

I overheard a conversation by chance just now as I was entering this hall. It was a conversation between two participants in our rally. One said to the other: --Well, there are a lot of people, but the die has been cast; the State of Emergency will pass in the National Assembly." Well no, comrades, nothing has been cast in stone. Someone said earlier from this podium: "If we do no succeed in imposing our demands from the top, in the National Assembly, we will impose them from below."

Yes, we will impose them from below - that is, through the mobilization of millions and millions of people, through strikes, through mass protests around specific objectives. It will take the combat in unity in support of clear slogans and a clear objective - to defeat this government in the service of the reactionary forces and the European Union, and to defeat it as it seeks to impose each and every one of its plans.

We must defeat this government to force the release of our Goodyear comrades, to preserve the Labor Code and workers' rights, and to prevent the enactment of the Constitutional "reform."

And we must defeat it to impose the lifting of the State of Emergency.

[ckaihatsu]

France: 8 Goodyear Workers Sentenced to Prison

[tTo susbscribe / unsubscribe, contact [email protected]]

http://socialistorganizer.org/france-8-goodyear-workers-sentenced-to-prison/

France: 8 Goodyear Workers Sentenced to Prison

By the Editorial Board of The Organizer newspaper

Eight former Goodyear workers in Amiens, France have been sentenced to 9 months in prison in a so-called "boss-napping" during the occupation of the Goodyear-Nord tire plant in January 2014. The sentences were originally set at 24 months, but a portion of the terms were suspended. Philippe Martinez, a leader of the CGT, called the decision "scandalous and unjust."

Workers at the facility fought for six years to stave off the plant closing after bosses had deemed the plant out of date and made modernization of the facility contingent on concessions in work rules and shift structure.

The fight came to a head when union members occupied the plant and temporarily detained two members of the plant management. The Confederation Generale du Travail (CGT) was able to negotiate a severance package for the almost 1,200 workers displaced by the plant closing. Fifteen percent of industrial jobs in France have been lost in the past decade.

The prosecution of the 8 Goodyear workers is politically motivated and comes in the context of a general offensive against workers in France, Europe, and worldwide. The "Socialist" president, François Hollande, used the aftermath of the Paris terror attack to impose a State of Emergency, which limits the right to speak and protest, as well as advocating for an anti-worker Labor Code "reform."

Claiming that the Code du Travail is overly complex and an obstacle to investment by foreign capitalists, Hollande is pushing for the gutting of traditional protections workers have won through decades of struggle.

Defending working-class methods of struggle

Factory occupations are a traditional method of working-class struggle, along with strikes, general strikes, and mass actions. In the United States, we look back to the Flint sit-down strike (1936-37), the Toledo Autolite strike (1934) and the Minneapolis Teamster strike (1934) for inspiration. Our class has to relearn the lessons of the past in order to reverse the retreat of our unions. We should also take inspiration from the example of the workers at Goodyear-Nord, who were not afraid to confront the power of the bosses and the state.

Speaking at a rally in Paris on January 23 against the State of Emergency, Daniel Gluckstein, a national secretary of the Independent Democratic Workers' Party (POID), stated:
"If we do no succeed in imposing our demands from the top, in the National Assembly, we will impose them from below.
"Yes, we will impose them from below -- that is, through the mobilization of millions and millions of people, through strikes, through mass protests around specific objectives. It will take the combat in unity in support of clear slogans and a clear objective -- to defeat this government in the service of the reactionary forces and the European Union, and to defeat it as it seeks to impose each and every one of its plans.

"We must defeat this government to force the release of our Goodyear comrades, to preserve the Labor Code and workers' rights. . . ."

Demand justice

The Editorial Board of The Organizer newspaper demands justice for the Goodyear workers. No prison sentences, not one day in jail! We call on U.S. unions to show solidarity with the workers of France as they resist the State of Emergency and the assault on the Code du Travail. We say no to the prosecution of Air France workers, who are under threat of prosecution for an incident where bosses were stripped of their shirts and forced to climb over a fence to escape angry workers.

* Free the Goodyear 8! Not one day in jail!

* No Labor Code Reform!
-- The Editors


* * * * * * * * * *


Call to Defend the Goodyear 8 Front and Center at the January 23 Rally in Paris to Lift the State of Emergency

At the conclusion of the mass united-front rally in Paris on January 23 to demand the immediate lifting of the State of Emergency, the 1,500 participants voted by acclamation an Appeal which, among its many points, "sen[t] a message of solidarity to the Goodyear workers who on January 12, 2016, were sentenced [to nine months in prison] for their trade union activity, and we demand an immediate halt to the legal proceedings against them."

One of the rally conveners, Jacques Cotta, underscored the importance of the fight in defense of the Goodyear 8 to the overall struggle to defend the Labor Code and to demand the lifting of the State of Emergency. In his speech to the rally he stated, in part:

"The [Hollande-Valls] government has now issued prison sentences to workers at Goodyear whose sole 'crime' was having organized a fightback to save their jobs, their factory, and their very lives.

"The State of Emergency is aimed at forcing workers and society at large to accept the terms of a disciplined and servile exploitation without complaining. It means accepting the destruction of 765 jobs at Alstom, former flagship of our industry, which has now been sold to the U.S. multinational General Electric. It means accepting the 3,300 job cuts at EDF [the electrical utility corporation]. It means accepting precarious jobs, flexibility, poverty, and the destruction of jobs in all sectors. It means accepting the new laws gutting unemployment insurance, lowering wages, decimating pension plans, and dismantling the Labor Code. It means accepting all the directives of the European Union that [French President François] Hollande is implementing, when he does not put them forward first.

"The State of Emergency is about attacking the trade unions that demonstrate their independence in relation to the bosses and the State and that uphold their mandate to defend the material and moral interests of the wage-earners."

The January 23 rally in Paris also received a message from Mickael Wamen, the CGT secretary-treasurer at the Goodyear plant in Amiens-Nord. Wamen is one of the 8 Goodyear workers sentenced to nine months in prison for his trade union activity. His message, titled "Not one of the 8 Goodyear workers is guilty of anything!', reads in part:

"Never has a government lied to us as much as this government has; never has a government so violated the rights of the workers.

"Hollande promised us change. He promised to be on the side of the workers to stop plant closings. Instead, what he has done is jail those workers to whom he made these promises.

"We must unite so that the day that our Appeal is heard in the courts in Amiens, we have the largest number of people possible at our side to say, 'Stop the financial dictatorship and those who govern our country at their behest!'

"Not one of the 8 Goodyear workers is guilty of anything. We all lost our jobs, we all suffered for years from constant harassment by an archaic and vengeful management. We filed more than 700 grievances of harassment over the years, but these were all ignored by the same arbitrator who welcomed the court decision to sentence eight of our members on January 12!

"The reality is scary, but it must produce a massive reaction of resistance by all those who wish that France remains a country of freedom and not a country where the corporations and the powerful have the right to do as they please. . . .

"The bankers and financial elites have all become 'socialists'; they even applaud the speeches of government ministers who claim to be on the left. . . . Never has a government attacked our rights like this one has: They are hell bent on destroying the Labour Code, capping compensation in the workplace tribunals, removing 'burdens' for the corporations, generalizing Sunday work, or removing the CDI!

"And now this government is sending to prison those workers who are mobilizing against the plant closures! . . . So, yes, it has become urgent to take action because we have never seen as much destruction of our rights. The State of Emergency does not help resolve the global geopolitical situation; it just gives more power to those who want to crush us. The State of Emergency must be lifted immediately and replaced with a State of Social Emergency!"

* * *