Ukraine, trapped in a spiral of war: Pierre de Gaulle

Napoleon silver Specimen Essai “Friendship” Medallic 2 Francs L’An IX (1801), by Tiolier.

The speech that follows was given by Pierre de Gaulle, the grandson of Charles de Gaulle, at the French Embassy in Paris, on June 14, 2022, to mark Russia Day. It is a speech that has been heavily censored in France, and we are happy to provide this English translation.

Mr. de Gaulle addresses the current Ukraine-Russia conflict by way of a blunt and brave denouncement of the French political elite who have succeeded in undermining the ideals of his grandfather who always sought the inclusion of Russia within Europe. The opening words of greetings Mr. de Gaulle made in Russian.

This Day. June 24, 1497 – Britain’s ‘Dominion, Title and Jurisdiction‘ of Canada begins

Indigenous resistance to colonialism continues in the present, including Mi’kmaq defence of their hereditary rights against fracking on their traditional territories.

By Tony Seed

On June 24, 1497, the Venetian navigator Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot), commissioned by Henry VII of England, landed in Newfoundland. Believing it to be an island off the coast of Asia, he named it New Found Land. Under the commission of this king to “conquer, occupy, and possess” the lands of “heathens and infidels,” Caboto reconnoitred the Newfoundland coast and landed on the northern shore of what is today known as Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia.

Canada Day 2022: Conception of Rights in Canada’s Constitution

The conception of rights enshrined in the current Constitution of Canada dates back to the days of the British conquest and rebellions against it. It is a conception that enshrines and protects the rights of the Crown with institutions, values, aims and practices established for that purpose. Before that, the French Crown also imposed laws and practices in defence of private property which also contributed to shaping the country’s future.

The Two-Star Republic

This flag represents the struggle of the Republican Patriots who took up arms, led an insurrection against the British Empire, declared the independence of Lower Canada, but also of Upper Canada, established the Two-Star Republic and then worked to establish a union between the two Canadas. This union has nothing to do, in any way whatsoever, with the despicable Act of Union of 1840, but rather the project of union between the Republican States of North America.

U.S. Supreme Court decision and importance of affirming women’s rights

An interview with Dawn Hemingway (Carrell), one of the main organizers of Canada’s 1970 Abortion Caravan

Demonstration outside U.S. Consulate in Toronto, June 25, 2022, affirms women’s abortion rights and denounces U.S. Supreme Court Decision

TML: Thank you for joining us. You were one of the main organizers of Canada’s 1970 Abortion Caravan which boldly affirmed women’s rights at that time, bringing women into the front lines of the fight for rights. Before we ask you about that, please tell us what you think about the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) to overturn its previous Roe v. Wade ruling of 1973.

This Day. June 25, 1950 – Anniversary of the Start of the Korean War

Part of the Mansudae Grand Monument in Pyongyang, tribute to the DPRK’s heroic fighters in the Korean War.

Juneteenth and the end of slavery

All Out for People’s Empowerment! End the Injustice NOW! | Dougal MacDonald

107th Coloured Troops, Ft. Woodbury, Arlington County, Virginia, November 1, 1865.

June 19, 1865 or Juneteenth (also known as Freedom Day) is celebrated across the United States in appreciation of the vital contributions made by African Americans in emancipating the four million people enslaved by the system of slave labour and in carrying forward the fight for justice and equality before and since the U.S. Civil War. Recent actions across the U.S. salute the determined and undaunted resistance to police violence, government impunity, and demands for accountability and for change that favours the people.

40th anniversary of New York City march against war, nuclear weapons and for human needs

– Voice of Revolution –

June 12, 2022 marks the 40th anniversary of the historic New York City “March for Nuclear Disarmament and Human Needs.” More than a million people marched in 1982, effectively shutting down midtown Manhattan for the day. The numbers were such that people filled the streets from start to finish of the march. Many of the feeder marches never reached the starting point at the United Nations as wave after wave of people marched toward the UN or rallied where they stood. It was a powerful and united stand against the U.S. use, testing and buildup of its nuclear arsenal. No More Hiroshimas! U.S. Disarm Now! Fund Human Needs! Abolish Nuclear Weapons, March for Peace and Justice! were among the demands raised.

Victory over fascism in Europe, May 9, 1945 – The Anglo-American plot against the peace: Operation Sunrise

Intrigues and conniving of Anglo-Americans during World War II | Dougal MacDonald

Soviet Red Army at Battle of Berlin, May 1945.

According to the renderings of history put forward in many Anglo-American accounts of World War II, the war against Germany did not end on May 9 with the German surrender in Berlin, but on May 4 or May 7 or 8.

D-Day, June 6, 1944: Normandy Landing during World War Two

D-Day June 6, 1944. Normandy Landing during World War Two – Hilary LeBlanc

Normandy Landing and the Re-Writing of History – François Lazure

June 3-8, 1984 – Anniversary of Operation Blue Star

Indira Gandhi’s Invasion of the Golden Temple and Massacre at the Sikhs’ Holiest Site

Original Akal Takht, Darshani Deori and surrounding area prior to Operation Blue Star.

Sculpture dedicated to freedom fighter

On May 12, a beautiful statue of Mary Ann Shadd Cary by local sculptor Donna Mayne was unveiled at the University of Windsor’s downtown campus at the corner of Ferry and Chatham Streets.

Barbados declares itself a republic. Yes! It can be done!

Ceremony swearing in Dame Sandra Mason as Barbados’ first President, November 29, 2021.

For the information of readers, we are reposting two articles on the declaration of Barbados, November 30, 2021 that it will become a republic.

Renewal Update

Today, November 30, Barbados became a Republic. The Republic of Barbados was declared at a ceremony late in the evening on November 29 at the National Heroes Square in the capital, Bridgetown, to coincide with the anniversary of Barbados’ formal independence from Britain, 55 years ago.

With this action, Barbados has become the fourth of Britain’s previous colonies in the Caribbean to become a republic, following Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Dominica which have had already taken this path forward.

Peoples of the Caribbean give ‘working royals’ a fitting reception

The visits in March and April of the so-called working members of the British royal family to Commonwealth “realms” were shocking for their display of racist condescension, extravagant living and wasteful expenditures. | Margaret Villamizar

Protest in Jamaica against the Royal Visit, March 23, 2022.

Organized to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s 70 years on the English throne, these “Platinum Jubilee” tours to the 14 former British colonies that retain the British monarch as their official head of state have taken different members of the “House of Windsor” to six Caribbean countries, Australia and Papua New Guinea. The latest such tour brought “heir to the throne” Charles and his wife Camilla Parker Bowles to Canada from May 17 to 19.

Victoria Day – Empower yourself now

Statue of Queen Victoria, symbol of colonial rule, toppled in front of Manitoba legislature during Cancel Canada Day action, July 1, 2021.

May 23, the third Monday in May, is officially slated as Victoria Day. This has been the case since 1845 when the birthday of Queen Victoria was celebrated and, at one time was officially called Imperial Day. Since then, it is used in England to celebrate the reigning monarch, no matter when they were actually born. In this sense, it is an out-dated practice which Quebeckers had the good sense to name Patriot’s Day to celebrate the rebellion against British rule in 1837-38. For Ontarians, it marks the beginning of good weather. Before climate change, when weather was more predictable, it used to mean that the ground was no longer frozen so planting could start and also that plants would no longer be subject to frosts.

But the fact remains that Canada’s institutions are tied to an anachronistic system. The recent visit to Canada of the so-called heir to the throne, Prince Charles, and his wife Camilla Parker Bowles was, in fact, to celebrate the jubilee platinum anniversary of the Queen’s reign. Pictures of her jubilee celebrations in England featured the more than £1000 gowns worn by members of the Royal Household as it is called – a reminder that those who rule over the people definitely live in another world that has nothing to do with the majority except for the fact that they carry its burden on their backs – a burden we must break with in order to renew the democracy in Canada so that it is set by the people and favours their interests, not the interests of the likes of the “Royals” and their retinues comprised of the party governments that keep them going.

– Laura Chesnick, Independent candidate in Windsor-Tecumseh in the Ontario election

Conception of Rights in Canada’s Constitutions of 1840, 1867 and 1982

185th Anniversary of 1837-38 Rebellions in Lower and Upper Canada

Patriots led by Wolfred Nelson defeat British troops at the Battle of Saint-Denis.

Anniversary of the 1837-38 Rebellion – Quebec Patriots’ Day

185th Anniversary of 1837-38 Rebellions in Lower and Upper Canada. May 23rd is Quebec Patriots’ Day.

Assembly of the Six Counties on October 23 and October 24, 1837, a gathering of some 6,000 Patriots held in Saint-Charles, Lower Canada, in defiance of a British proclamation forbidding public assemblies.

Nation-Building Project of Quebec Patriots

National Patriots’ Day marks the 1837-1838 uprising to honour the memory of the Patriots who gave their lives or were forced into exile in the struggle to end British colonial rule by establishing a Republic of Quebec.

Patriots’ Day celebrates the striving of the people to affirm their right to be. Beginning in the spring of 1837, when the British Crown formally rejected the demands of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada included in the 92 Resolutions of 1834, numerous mass meetings broke out across Quebec where the people spoke and demanded their democratic rights.

A powerful weapon in Britain’s ‘dirty war’ against the Irish: The Ulster Defence Regiment

Declassified files have revealed the shocking level of collusion between the British Army’s UDR regiment and loyalists. Micheál Smith is the author of a new book on the subject (for the Irish Times).

For some, the conflict in Northern Ireland was characterised by an impenetrable jumble of abbreviations. Amid the alphabet soup of loyalist paramilitary groups – the UVF, LVF, UDA, etc – some might mistakenly include the UDR. But the Ulster Defence Regiment was in fact a fully-fledged element of the British army.

This Day. Vietnamese defeat French colonial forces

On this day, 7 May 1954, French colonial forces in Vietnam were soundly defeated by the pro-independence Viet Minh in the battle of Dien Bien Phu.

April 30, 1975 – 47th Anniversary of the Reunification of Vietnam

The Great Spring Victory that culminated in the fall of Saigon and American occupiers fleeing for their lives, achieved the reunification of Vietnam 47 years ago, on April 30, 1975.

“Nothing More Precious than Independence and Freedom; They Have Chosen Uncle Ho’s Path”

The Great Spring Victory that culminated in the fall of Saigon and American occupiers fleeing for their lives, achieved the reunification of Vietnam 47 years ago, on April 30, 1975. The reunification of Vietnam shines in the annals of the liberation struggles of the peoples of the world. The defeat of U.S. imperialist aggression lifted the spirit of the peoples of the world who were striving to put an end to colonialism and imperialism. Revolution was then in flow. The world has since changed greatly, going into a period of retrogression and retreat of revolution, yet today’s Socialist Republic of Vietnam continues to shine and inspire.

47th anniversary of Vietnamese people’s great victory over the US imperialists: The real American war in Viet Nam – ‘kill anything that moves’

By DOUGAL MACDONALD

Victory monument in Xuan Loc, Vietnam

Forty-seven years ago, the U.S. imperialists were resoundingly defeated by the heroic Vietnamese people, who had suffered greatly at the hands of the French colonialists and then the U.S. imperialists. Historic photos show the last of the U.S. invaders scrambling frantically to escape Viet Nam by helicopter, trying to save their worthless skins from the wrath of people’s war.

John Grierson, father of the documentary film

Grierson’s emphasis on realism had a profound long-term influence on Canadian film. “Art is not a mirror,” he said, “but a hammer. It is a weapon in our hands to see and say what is good and right and beautiful.”

John Grierson, considered the father of the documentary film, was the first Commissioner of the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and wrote the bill that went before Parliament creating the then National Film Commission in 1939.

By 1939, when he arrived in Canada, Grierson was a well-known filmmaker and considered the founder of the British documentary movement. It was John Grierson who coined the phrase ‘the documentary film.’

The French had been using the word documentary to describe travel or exploratory films. Grierson said, “Documentary is the creative interpretation of actuality.”

Prime Minister Mackenzie King was in favour of developing Canadian film and supported the founding of this new board and the invitation to bring Grierson to Canada.

The National Film Board of Canada was born.

April 13, 1919 – Anniversary of the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre in Punjab

At the festival of Baisaki, the Sikh New Year, on April 13, 1919, the British opened fire on men, women and children in Amritsar, massacring more than 1,000 and injuring many more. The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre went down in history as one of the most heinous crimes of British rule. Today the site commemorates all those who were murdered there under British orders.

Commemorations at Jallianwala Bagh, April 13, 2019, honouring the 100th anniversary of those martyred by the British colonialists.

105th anniversary of Battle of Vimy Ridge April 9-12, 1917: Canada must never again provide cannon fodder for imperial interests

Canadian soldiers in the trenches at Vimy Ridge, 1917.

On April 2, 1917, the Canadian Corps, deployed as part of the British Army on Vimy Ridge in France in the First World War, initiated the largest artillery barrage in history up to that point. They shelled the German trenches for a week, using more than one million shells. The German artillery pieces were hidden behind the ridge, but by observing the sound and light from their firing, the Canadians were able to locate and destroy about 83 per cent of the German guns.

73rd anniversary of the founding of NATO

Today, the wars in which the U.S. imperialists and NATO members are engaged are not politics by other means when negotiations fail. These are wars of destruction and, because there are no politics, there are no negotiations.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an aggressive military-political alliance. It was conceived and brought into being on April 4, 1949 during the Cold War, on the pretext of defending Europe against “communist invasion” and the claim that the communist “evil” and totalitarianism were a threat to Western freedom and democracy. In this regard, it has always described itself as a defensive alliance, a myth perpetrated to this day which has no basis in fact.

46th Anniversary of Palestinian Land Day: Uphold Palestinian Right of Return! Support Palestinian Resistance!

This year marks the 46th anniversary of Land Day, which commemorates the events of March 30, 1976, when six Palestinians from Arab villages inside the Green Line were shot and killed by Israeli forces while protesting the confiscation of 5,500 acres of land from the Galilee. Since then, Land Day has been commemorated by Palestinians inside Israel as well as in the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem and around the world | Five articles

Badia national festival marks Land Day 2022 in Gaza.

In Palestine rallies and marches mark Land Day. In the towns where the six martyrs were killed 46 years ago, Palestinians lay wreaths at their graves.

Yom-el-Ard – Day of the Land: Symbol of Palestinian Resistance

On the 46th anniversary of Land Day

This article from our archives provides essential information on the vital issue of land and the rising of 1976, when the Palestinian citizens of Israel revolted against the Israeli government, which had just announced new and extensive land expropriation plans in the Galilee.

Remembrance, Revelation, and Reparation: The Trans-Atlantic Slave System and Its Afterlife

March 25 Online Presentation

– A presentation by Dr. Isaac Saney, followed by Q&A –

Friday, March 25, 2022 at 3:30-5:30 pm EST

Organized by the University of Windsor to commemorate the UN International Day of the Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, as part of the University of Windsor’s Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Decolonization (EDID) Week.

The Trans-Atlantic Slave System fundamentally altered not only the lives and destinies of millions of Africans and the African continent but also transformed the world. Its boundaries and reach extended into every dimension, facet and interstice of the new global society. Indeed, living in a world created by and through the sufferings and struggles of enslaved Africans presupposes that the creation of a more just and sustainable political, economic, social, and ecological order necessitates not only reckoning with this history but also demanding reparatory justice.

To register click here.

History as Memory

Developments of Concern Related to U.S./NATO War Hysteria

The memory of history will assert itself and reject comparing the defence of the Russian population of the Donbass with what Hitler did, while the neo-Nazi battallions attacking the Russian-speaking population of eastern Ukraine get off scot-free.

Monument to the Children, Donestk, Donbass. Boy covers his little sister from attacks by Ukrainian army artillery |Getty

International Women’s Day – Origins and History

Women from around the world gathered at the Second International Conference of Socialist Women in 1910 passed the resolution establishing International Women’s Day.

International Women’s Day was first celebrated in March 1911, with March 8 set as the official date in 1921. Ever since women fought for the right to vote in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the essence of their fight has been political. They have put forward their claims on society as a matter of right, facing all kinds of state-inspired discrimination and violence against them and state-sanctioned attempts to relegate them to second, third and fourth grade citizenship based on brutal identity politics and exploitation. Women, however, speak in their own name and refuse to accept any limitations on their right to decide all matters which affect their lives. Their courage and determination in the front ranks of the struggle for a society which recognizes everyone as equal members of the body politic with equal rights and duties inspires everyone to also fight for the rights of all.