Juneteenth Festivals in the United States

Celebrate Resistance to Advance the Fight for the Rights of All!

March in Seattle, Washington, June 19, 2020 in the midst of the protests movement against the killing of George Floyd.

On June 19 across the United States Juneteenth celebrations bring out the spirit of the broad and persistent resistance of African Americans to slavery. The celebrations bring together many different organizations, artists, activists and people from many walks of life to celebrate the victory over slavery and the ongoing fight for rights. It is with pride in resistance against great odds that African Americans justly stand and celebrate and organize to consolidate their best traditions. Juneteenth squarely puts forward that it is the people that are decisive and it’s their struggle for rights that moves society forward, making it a day of celebration for all.

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.

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.

Wet’suwet’en resistance to CGL pipeline occupation 2021: Recap of events from Wet’suwet’en territory

All Out for Wedzin Kwa!INTERNATIONAL WEEK OF ACTIONS – October 9 – 16

– http://www.yintahaccess.com –

We are producing below the most recent recap of events from the Gidimt’en Checkpoint, Wet’suwt’en territory, issued October 4, 2021.

Edmonton exhibition of works by artist Mary Joyce: ‘Culture of Resistance’ – a review

“When you enter Galerie Cité in Edmonton where Mary Joyce’s show ‘Culture of Resistance’ is on display, the first impression is a combination of energy, vibrancy, sensuousness and beauty” | Marina Allemano

The review below of Mary Joyce’s show, Culture of Resistance, was written by Dr. Marina Allemano, Retired Lecturer, Department of Modern Languages & Cultural Studies, University of Alberta, and an author, translator and literary critic.

Palestine May 2021 in text and photos

The Electronic Intifada 3 June 2021

Palestinian demonstrators burn tires near the Israeli barrier surrounding Gaza in solidarity with Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem on 8 May | Mohammed Zaanoun ActiveStills

May 2021 marked a turning point in the Palestinian anti-colonial struggle for national liberation.

Israel, with its state-of-the-art military supplied and funded by Washington, was dealt a blow by the Palestinian armed resistance and unilaterally declared a ceasefire after 11 days of intense fire across the Gaza-Israel boundary.

73rd Anniversary of Al Nakba, May 15, 1948 – Resistance Until Liberation

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

May 15 is the day we commemorate Al Nakba — the Catastrophe — a day marking a “continuous journey of pain, loss and injustice” for the Palestinian people. It marks the day that some 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes during the 1948 war. Palestinians were forced from their lands and homes due to military attacks by Zionist forces, supported by the British and U.S. governments. The Israeli Zionist forces attacked 774 cities and villages, and occupied 80 per cent of the Palestinian soil after killing nearly 15,000 Muslim and Christian civilians. Those who survived were forced to migrate to the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and neighbouring countries, such as Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.

Montreal Rally supports Palestinian Resistance

On Monday, May 10 at 5:00 pm in Montreal, in immediate response to the attempted eviction of Palestinians from the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of Jerusalem and Israeli state police violence deployed against the Al-Aqsa mosque since May 7, Montreal’s Palestinian community and its allies held a protest rally in front of the Israeli consulate. Speaker after speaker condemned state terrorism and hailed the Palestinian people’s steadfast resistance to this barbarism. They defended the Palestinian people’s right to be, their right to resist, their right to live in peace and to recover their stolen lands. The youth were in the forefront at the action, in large numbers.

Stand with the Palestinian Resistance to expulsion and annexation!

The eyes of the world are on Palestine as the heroic Palestinian people fiercely resist Israeli terrorism and violence intended to expel them from their homes and occupy their properties in occupied East Jerusalem. Hundreds of Palestinian men, women and children face losing their homes. For several days now the Israeli military has carried out brutal attacks against the Palestinians of the area who have stood together as one. Israeli military and police have attacked the protesters with batons, tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse them. “Skunk water” and tear-gas have been fired into Palestinian homes to force the occupants to abandon their dwellings.

Flashback: The day the war broke out

Halifax, March 20, 2003. Hundreds upon hundreds of people take to the streets to condemn the U.S. invasion of Iraq the night before.

In this article from our archives, TONY SEED chronicles the response of Haligonians – and authority – to the first day of the U.S. war against Iraq. Similar demonstrations take place in Shelburne, Wolfville and Antigonish and a silent vigil in Sydney, Cape Breton, as well as in Fredericton, New Brunswick (see below), across Canada and around the world. History shows the correctness of this just stand. The war and ensuing occupation, endorsed and supported by the Chrétien government and every daily newspaper in Canada, caused a terrible tragedy for the people of Iraq and West Asia (Middle East): the number of Iraqis slaughtered is an estimated 1,455,590 people. From reports submitted to Shunpiking Magazine and TML Daily.

(HALIFAX, 20 March 2003) – TODAY a mass democracy meeting broke out at Dalhousie University on Canada’s Atlantic coast against Bush’s barbarous war against Iraq, beginning a day of mass opposition and upheaval that swept across the nation, from east to west, continuing a wave of protest unfolding around the globe, first Oceania, then Asia, the Middle East and Europe and onto the Americas as surely as the earth travels around the sun.

War Party

– Poem by El Jones –

Composed on the occasion of on the occasion of this year’s 12th annual rally and webinar in opposition to the Halifax War Conference

For audio, click below or here

A woman’s going to send the drones
So ready the covers of your Vogues
The food bank lines are now miles long
But a woman’s the one who sends the bombs
Liberal feminism can’t be wrong
When a woman’s the one who sends the bombs.
Can’t get workers PPE
But you go girl Nancy Pelosi
All hail the bipartisan war parties
Now Trump is gone we all agree
George W. Bush has been redeemed
The war criminals are on our team
And there’s a Black woman on my TV screen
And when she bombs I’ll yell yasss Queen
We’ll force your countries to be free
And little Black girls can finally see
Themselves in drones and F-16s
And this is MLK Jr’s dream
Brought to you by Wall Street
Brought to you by the elites
We’ll never ever give you peace
Fund military and police
But a woman could be commander in chief
See what can happen when you believe?
This is gender equality
So everybody take a knee
The resistance heroes hip hip hooray
The FBI and CIA
The generals and NSA
So please enjoy your new air base
We’ve all forgot Abu Ghraib
We all forgot Guantanamo Bay
And none of them will see the Hague
The Patriot Act’s so yesterday
We‘re all in love with John McCain
Make Lockheed Martin great again
Centrist neo-liberals all the rage
Kids still living in a cage
The war party is here to stay
And let’s lock Julian Assange away.
We can’t let him expose the truth
We’re never bringing home the troops
Obama’s so cool shooting hoops
You’ll all be crushed under the boot
We’re plotting out another coup
Billionaires we won’t prosecute
We save that for moms of truant youth
Those Timberlands were looking cute
So let the oil companies pollute
He’ll put them in the cabinet
Add bankers to make up the set
We’ll regulate the internet
Corporate news is all you’ll get
But a woman’s going to send the jets
Are Yemeni women happy yet?
This moment gives me all the feels
A woman’s making weapons deals
A woman’s making refugees
A woman’s going to rob and steal
Last week we were environmentalists
But now wars for oil are feminist
And history will reminisce
How all the donors benefit
Orange man is out the door
Things can go back to how they were before
Biden voted for the Iraq War
How dare you ask for any more
Your kids still super predators
And his kid’s on strike number four
But prison’s just for you and yours
And really the crime bill’s all your fault
This is the time for unity
Bow down to oil and energy
And let’s be friends with GOP
And white suburban families
There’s no more white supremacy
Black woman deliver us the vote
We’ll still be kneeling on your throat
But a woman’s going to send the drones
So volunteer to work those phones
So we can bomb some woman’s home
And probably waterboard her son
They’re back in fashion neo-cons
So four more years of settlements
War parties are in agreement
And let’s hashtag Black excellence
Kamala is Vice President.
The ladies join the gentlemen
In sword, famine, wild beast, pestilence
The four horse persons of apocalypse
These days we call that feminist
Is this the dream of suffragists?
And I heard her bombs never miss
And don’t forget to call her Ms.
Madame, her honour, she or ma’am
Get ready those detainment camps
Muster the troops line up the ranks
A woman’s going to send the tanks
And all of us will give her thanks
Especially weapons manufacturers, banks
And thanks to those suburban moms
A woman’s going to send the bombs
I’m glad a woman is so strong
To send our countries all those bombs.

(November 19, 2020)

How did World War I actually end?

English journalist PAUL MASON* poses the question, as it is being totally ignored amidst the often revisionist and pro-war centenary commemorations, part of the all-round falsification of history.

– On the occasion of Remembrance Day, we are featuring a series of articles on the war and related matters of concern. This article was originally published on this blog on November 14, 2014 and republished in November 6, 2018 on the occasion of the centenary of the end of World War I –

Quiz question: why did the first world war end? We are witnessing commemorations in which the human preference for restraint and dignity will be under pressure from the televisual tendency for wittering on without knowledge or feeling.

So one crucial piece of knowledge should be, for schoolchildren and for TV presenters alike: how and why did it actually end?

This Day. Anniversary of the National Hunger March in Britain

The present in Britain: food poverty amongst the unemployed and low paid

Hunger marchers at Hyde Park, London, 1932

October, 2020 marks the 88th anniversary of the National Hunger March of September-October 1932. It was the largest of a series of hunger marches in Britain during the great depression.

50th anniversary of War Measures Act (V) – Courageous resistance to military occupation and attempt to isolate Quebec

Fifth in a series on the issues and goals of the “October Crisis” and the forces in motion, reposted from TML Weekly.

University of Calgary students hold a large rally on campus on October 27, 1970 to denounce the War Measures Act. After the rally, 300 students march angrily to downtown Calgary. Some 1,000 students in Regina organize similar actions.

By Christine Dandenault

When the government of Pierre Elliot Trudeau enacted the War Measures Act on October 16, 1970 and the army was deployed in the streets of Ottawa and Montreal before that and arrests began, opposition and resistance was immediate across the country. Students and youth, intellectuals, working people and other collectives in their thousands protested all across the country. The following account is taken from newspapers published by the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) and its affiliated organizations at the time the events were taking place.

50th anniversary of War Measures Act (IV) – Honour to those unjustly imprisoned during the 1970 ‘October Crisis’

Fourth in a series on the issues and goals of the “October Crisis” and the forces in motion, reposted from TML Weekly.

Rally of 1,500 in Vancouver, October 19, 1970, one of many actions across the country supporting the Quebec people’s struggle and opposing imposition of the War Measures Act.

Youth fill Paul Sauvé Arena in Montreal in support of Quebec national liberation on the eve of the declaration of the War Measures Act in October 1970. A number of the youth in attendance are among those arrested in the raids which follow the Act being invoked.

Protest at new British spy towers in Northern Ireland

Large-scale surveillance installations used by British forces to spy on the nationalist population in the north of Ireland are the focus of a new campaign by republican activists.

Use of state-backed racist militias in the United States

Resistance persists against state-organized attempts to undermine movement for change

Memorial and march in Rochester, New York, September 3, 2020, for Daniel Prude who died in police custody in March 2020.

In the United States, the ruling circles and their elected representatives are going all out to undermine the growing movement for change. They are portraying those protesting for rights and against police violence and impunity as the source of conflict and violence which is, in fact, caused by the state. They also claim the way forward is by choosing sides in the November election or other reliance on the state machinery.

British army arrests soldier for opposing war in Yemen

Statement by Veterans For Peace UK in Support of Lance Corporal Ahmed Al-Babati

A serving British soldier, Lance Corporal Ahmed Al-Babati, of 14^th Signal Regiment, has been arrested for opposing the ongoing war in Yemen outside of Downing Street.  During his protest he blew a whistle for every child killed by airstrikes in which the UK is fully complicit – until he was hauled away by Royal Military Police.  He has also made statements denouncing the role the UK has had in supplying Saudi Arabia with munitions.

US people’s movement against racism, injustice, impunity and inequality does not relent

March on Washington, August 28, 2020.

By Kathleen Chandler

The movement in the U.S. Against Racism, Injustice, Impunity and Inequality is continuing relentlessly, seen in the massive demonstration under COVID-19 conditions in Washington, DC on August 28. August 27 marked the 90th straight day of protests in Portland, Oregon and a number of other cities which have also sustained actions for 90 days without letup.

August protests have focused on demanding that the country’s resources be directed to guaranteeing rights to security, education, housing, health care, immigration and other crucial matters. This culminated August 28 with more than 70,000 people converging in Washington, DC on the 57th anniversary of the March  on Washington which took place on August 28, 1963.

Sighting. Thousands around the world join the Days of Resistance for Palestine

Worldwide support for the Palestinian people and their right to be

By Samidoun

Demonstration In Montreal, August 9

The Days of Resistance for Palestine between August 7 and 9, brought together thousands of organizers and supporters of justice for Palestine around the world to stand with the Palestinian people, their resistance to colonization, annexation and occupation and their struggle for justice, return and liberation throughout Palestine, from the river to the sea.

Despite attacks from high-level Israeli officials that aimed to suppress these actions, noting that they had “warned Western governments” about the protests, over 100 organizations joined Samidoun’s call for the Days of Resistance, with an array of diverse actions taking place around the world. These events included protests, car caravans, art and cultural interventions and public educational events, all in support of the Palestinian people and their right to resist.

Read on for a detailed report on the events and actions around the world.

Use of pandemic as excuse to trample workers’ rights

Stand up for the rights of all!

Governments across the country are engaging in unacceptable self-serving activities under the cover of the pandemic. While the working people have taken a clear stand against returning to “business as usual” — a state of affairs that continues to worsen the pandemic — governments are using the situation to take away any voice the working people have.

When music – and the fiddle – matters

From Columbus, Ohio (Click to enlarge)

US nationwide strike for Black lives to be held on July 20

“Today, in this national moment of reckoning, working people are demanding fundamental changes to America’s broken system. They’re coming together in the Strike for Black Lives to declare that until Black people can thrive, none of our communities can thrive.” – Mary Kay Henry, President, Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

US president piles on more provocations to an already disgraceful situation

Provocation and desperation filled the air. Trump’s wild card | PIERRE CHÉNIER

Tens of thousands march on the I-94 in Minneapolis, May 31, 2020.

U.S. President Donald Trump held a press conference on June 5, where he stated that the COVID-19 pandemic has been largely overcome and is under control in the U.S. He declared that the country has been pacified through the use of the National Guard and their domination of the streets against looting. He declared that the United States is on its way to a great economic recovery and renewed dominance in world affairs. 

The bankruptcy of US institutions

By CHRISTINE DANDENAULT

Black Panthers at the front of march for justice for George Floyd in Atlanta, GA to protect participants.

The current situation in the United States shows the anarchy and chaos into which the U.S. government and financial oligarchy have plunged the country, because that is all they have to offer in their efforts to save the imperialist system and their absolute power.

The ugly truth of the ‘world’s greatest democracy’ for all to see

By NICK LIN

Washington, DC protest against the killing of George Floyd, May 30, 2020.

For twelve days, hundreds of thousands of people have burst out in militant protests in more than 140 cities across the United States against police brutality, impunity, racism and injustice. They mourn the death of George Floyd killed in cold blood by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25.

Brutal killing of George Floyd: Yes to resistance! No to the use of police powers and the military to criminalize politics!

60,000 protest in Houston, TX, George Floyd’s hometown, June 3, 2020.

The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) expresses its deepest sympathies for the family of George Floyd and all other victims of police impunity and killings in the United States.

CPC(M-L) denounces all racist attacks  – whether they are spontaneous or organized by a crisis-ridden failed state which gives itself a green light to govern through unfettered police powers and the use of the military. In the United States, confronting state violence is a way of life, which tells us the kind of democracy that exists there. It is the resistance of the people, especially African-Americans, as well as Puerto Ricans, Hispanics, Indigenous peoples and all minorities, along with working people of all origins, which tells us about the courage and fighting spirit that characterize the U.S. working class and people. CPC(M-L) strongly believes that this resistance is of the calibre that will find the way forward in a manner which holds the racist American state to account. We are one humanity, waging one struggle for peace, freedom and democracy. Canadians stand as one with their U.S. sisters and brothers.

How we became refugees: The day my grandfather lost his village in Palestine

By RAMZY BAROUD

Starting on March 27, 1948, a beautiful, small Palestinian village called Beit Daras, came under Zionist militias attacks. With little means – a few old rifles and kitchen knives – the Badrasawis fought back, repelling the first raid and the second.

End the catastrophe imposed on the Palestinian people!

Painting depicting the Nakba by Palestinian artist Ismail Shammout.

May 15 marks the 72nd anniversary of Al Nakba — the Catastrophe — a day marking a “continuous journey of pain, loss and injustice” for the Palestinian people. It marks the day that some 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes during the 1948 war. Palestinians were forced from their lands and homes due to military attacks by Zionist forces, supported by the British and U.S. governments. The Israeli Zionist forces attacked 774 cities and villages, and occupied 80 per cent of the Palestinian soil after killing nearly 15,000 Muslim and Christian civilians. Those who survived were forced to migrate to the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and neighbouring countries, such as Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.

Surviving a quarantine: On faith, humour and ‘Dutch candy’

Seven lessons from Palestine on surviving lockdown | Ramzy Baroud

Empty streets and closed shops are seen after a curfew was announced by authorities as a measure against coronavirus (COVID-19), in Ramallah, West Bank on March 23, 2020 | Issam Rimawi / Anadolu Agency.

(April 5) – Call it a ‘quarantine’, a ‘shelter-in-place’, a ‘lockdown’ or a ‘curfew’, we Palestinians have experienced them all, though not at all voluntarily.