Category Archives: Government Oppression

Ever since China forcibly took hold of Tibet in the early 1950s, it has strived hard to culturally assimilate the region into the Mainland. As a part of this campaign, it has come down hard against Buddhist monks, suppressed dissenting voices and expression of religious beliefs that it regards as incongruous to the idea of China.

It was this campaign of repression against the fellow Tibetans that forced their spiritual leader Dalai Lama to flee China in 1959 and seek asylum in India. Since then, the clampdown in Tibet has only increased.

Though the Communist regime in China has a long history of curtailing religious freedom, especially in the restive province of Tibet, with the authoritarian leader Xi Jinping at the helm of affairs, its efforts have become increasingly hostile towards religion and initiated campaigns to Sinicise them.

The Chinese Communist Party has exhibited eager alacrity in Sincising all religions, in an attempt to tighten its grip over civil society. Just as it deployed sophisticated surveillance system to keep a tab on Uyghur Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, China is using new tools of surveillance to control the Tibetan Buddhist monks and turn them into a tool of CCP, a new report titled Party Above Buddhism: Chinas Surveillance and Control of Tibetan Monasteries and Nunneries has revealed.

The report that was released on 10 March 2021 documents measures and policies undertaken that force Buddhist monks and nuns to serve the interests of the Communist Party. The changes affected by the new policies empower CCP with direct supervision of Buddhist monasteries and nunneries. Party cadres and police have been placed inside religious institutions, in a bid to pressurize the monks. They are also forced to denounce Dalai Lama for the sake of Chinas unity, the report says.

According to the report, the current budget of the United Front Work Department, the agency that now has direct oversight of all religions in Tibet, has risen three times what it used to be in 2016. In a matter of 4 years, the budget shot up from 23.9 million yuans in 2016 to 62 million in 2020 underscores Chinas commitment to strengthening the control of the Tibetan region.

Similar to that in Xinjiang, China also runs detention centres in Tibet that are euphemistically called reeducation camps by the communist leaders. In these reeducation camps, monks and nuns are hustled into extending their loyalty to the CCP, often at the expense of their religious beliefs. China has also enforced a Four Standards policy that basically requires monks and nuns to serve as propagandists for the government.

The report outlines how the Sinicisation of Tibetan monasteries requires Tibetan monks, nuns to shun their moral visions and conform to the CCPs ideology. As a part of policing monasteries, police officers are deployed in Tibetan monasteries to keep an eye on their activities.

Besides the obvious purpose of surveillance, the decision to have police officers inside the monasteries in Tibet was taken with the aim of stopping incidents of self immolation. Monks, in an attempt to awaken the public conscience over the atrocities committed by the Communist authorities set themselves on fire. The morbid incidents garnered global attention, giving voice to the oppression underway in Tibet.

In addition to this, local government authorities and Communist Party officials also interfere in the working of the monasteries through the way of management committees the report highlights. The communist cadres have a direct role in the management of monasteries through management committees. Monasteries are also mandated to fly Chinese flags and have portraits of the CCP leaders in their precincts.

When unrest flares up in the Tibetan region, the spotlight inevitably falls on religious institutions for being responsible for stoking the disruption. Buddhist monks and nuns are made scapegoats by the local authorities hard-pressed by the senior leaders to identify the cause of the upheaval and bring to justice those responsible for it. During the political upheaval in 2013-2014, monks and nuns were arrested for participating in a peaceful protest and for supposedly planning future protests.

Not only are monks and nuns are subjected to extensive surveillance, but they are also heavily indoctrinated to generate loyalty and obedience. A report published in 2018 chronicled how the monks in Tibet were subjected to political indoctrination. Tibetan religious leaders were asked to take mandatory training that aims to reduce the influence of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama while at the same time attempts to build loyalty to the communist party.

Though the Chinese constitution grants religious freedom to its citizens, it is a fact that the Chinese Communist Party has placed many constraints on it, especially in Xinjiang and Tibet. Repressive measures are used to discourage people from manifesting their religious inclinations, and dissent against restrictions on religious activities is treated as an insult to the CCP, often resulting in arbitrary imprisonment at reeducation camps.

Devotion to exiled Dalai Lama is one of the core tenets of Tibetan Buddhism and China is determined to end this religious observance. Intrusive official presence in monasteries, widespread surveillance, regular reeducation campaigns, curbs on travel and communications, discouraging religiosity are some of the tools used by China to bring an end to this devotion to Dalai Lama and align the residents to the CCP ideology.

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Pervasive surveillance, indoctrination, and state repression: Tools employed by China against Tibets Buddhist monasteries - OpIndia

Chinas economic and military rise over the past 30 years has propelled it to a position of great power and influence on the international stage. The conversation around U.S.-China relations has subsequently characterized China as not just a competitor for hegemony, but as an existential threat to American national security. This narrative, pushed by both Democrats and Republicans, has wrongly conflated China as a hegemonic challenger with China as a national security threat. Although Chinas increasing influence does inherently challenge the U.S.s position as the global hegemon, it is not the existential national security threat its often made out to be, but instead a responsible stakeholder in the current global system.

Chinas growing influence on the international stage is due largely to its economic growth and military. China, the worlds largest trader and second-biggest economy, is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and has greatly increased its military capacity in the past decade. Yet, none of this poses an existential threat to U.S. national security, loosely defined as the ability of the government to protect the well-being, health and safety of its citizens. China does not have a military capability to match that of the U.S., currently relies heavily on trade with the U.S. for economic stability and has a stake in maintaining the current international political order. For these reasons, China does not threaten the well-being of American citizens.

China can be considered a responsible stakeholder; because its economic growth can be credited to the liberal order, China depends on the stability of the system. China is incentivized to cooperate within the current bounds of the world order and avoid large-scale destabilization because of the robust gains it receives from international trade. Chinas inclusion in the World Trade Organization is largely responsible for the economic power China wields today, and China and the U.S. are highly dependent on each other for trade stability: The U.S. is Chinas largest export market, with about 19% of Chinese exports sold in the U.S. Additionally, China has been an active participant in and beneficiary of Western international institutions. As a permanent member of the UN Security Council and major contributor to UN Peacekeeping operations, China has expanded its soft power capacities abroad and has committed to long-term participation in the current world order. The Belt and Road Initiative, a massive infrastructure and energy investment project funded by China throughout much of the developing world, is another channel through which the state further expands its soft power influence. Because China benefits greatly from the current international system, it will be careful not to create large disruptions. Chinas reliance on global stability is in the best interest of the American people, as it creates safeguards against an escalation of tensions between the U.S. and China.

Even if China wanted to challenge the U.S. in a way that threatened American citizens, it has neither the military capacity, economic resources, diplomatic ties nor internal stability to do so. China lags behind the U.S. in terms of military spending and technology; a sheer lack of resources prevents China from posing a significant military threat. As a middle-income country, China also is facing slowing economic growth, low productivity and low domestic consumption. This, coupled with the Chinese Communist Partys ongoing systemic oppression of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang and Tibet, demonstrates the internal instability preventing China from seriously threatening the well-being of the American people. Lastly, China currently lacks diplomatic influence and secure East and Southeast Asian alliances to really challenge the United States international standing.

This is not to say that China hasnt already posed some threats to American interests, including theft of U.S.-based technology and intellectual property. Instead, I am arguing that these threats are overblown in the popular narrative, and that, given the international context, Chinas opportunities to act on this information are limited. Secondly, climate change as a global existential threat may provide more opportunities for cooperation between the two nations, increasing trust and stabilizing diplomatic relations.

It will be interesting to see if, and how, the Biden administration pivots from the Trump administrations tough on China approach. It is in both the U.S. and Chinas best interests to cooperate on as many fronts as possible, and for the U.S. to tone down the rhetoric of China as an existential threat.

Please join us in attending the EPIIC International Symposium from March 1820. The China-US-Russia: Multipolarity or Polar Opposites discussion will be held Friday, March 19 at 9:00 am EDT.

Francesca Michielli is a junior studying economics. Francesca can be reached at [emailprotected]

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Op-ed: China is not the existential threat to US national security that many may think - Tufts Daily

The University of Georgia Student Government Association held a seminar on equity, diversity and inclusion for Senators, and the educational affairs committee discussed a resolution that recommends UGA continue supporting the HOPE and Zell B. Miller Scholarships at a meeting Tuesday.

SGA has not passed a piece of legislation about the continued approval of HOPE and Zell since 2011 when changes were last made to the scholarships.

The idea is to have support on the record in years where there isnt potential change as a way to make a [stronger argument of support] whenever there is change, Senator Bradley Howard said.

Senators Will Curvin and Howard authored the resolution. It unanimously passed throughout the educational affairs committee and will be reviewed in the Senate next week.

Senators Ella Baxter and Will Harris hosted a diversity, equity and inclusion presentation for the Senate where they focused on power, privilege and oppression.

Harris began the presentation by allowing senators and staff to create word clouds, a word association exercise, around the words privilege, power and oppression. Afterwards, there was an open dialogue to discuss their thoughts.

I thought it was interesting that so many dark words came up for each one. I think everyone has their own connotations based on their experiences of what constitutes power or oppression, Senator Dylan Fauntleroy said.

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UGA SGA discuss Zell and HOPE legislation, holds diversity and inclusion seminar - Red and Black

The failed response to the Texas disaster is the result of a bankrupt ideology that view big government as the enemy, that views lowering taxes is a cure-all, that venerated rugged individualism, and that relies on the big lie to preserve power.

Subscribing to Ronald Reagans view that government was the problem, Republicans sowed distrust of the federal government and regulation. They argued for more power to the states. We saw the failure of this philosophy with the disjointed response to the pandemic. Now, we see it repeated in Texas. Texas created its own power grid because Republicans abhorred federal regulation. Former Texas Governor Rick Perry proudly proclaimed that Texans would rather be without power for several days than have more federal regulation.

Equating taxes with big government oppression, Texas Republicans repeatedly pushed for low taxes. The failure to weatherize infrastructure was a consensus policy decision to avoid higher taxes.

Loathing a dependence on government, a Texas mayor ranted: No one owes you or your family anything; no is it in the local governments responsibility to support you during trying times like this! Sink or swim, its your choice! Unable to deal with the debacle, he retreated to a survival of the fittest argument.

Lastly, fearing voter outrage, Republicans again resorted to the big lie. Opposed to renewable energy sources, Governor Greg Abbot blamed US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, the Green New Deal and wind turbines. Wind turbines provide only 10% of the states energy. The real problem was with the natural gas infrastructure that failed due to the lack of weatherization.

Michael Camerota Westfield

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Disaster in Texas result of Republican dismissal of big government (Letters) - masslive.com

Federal authorities continue rounding up North Texans for allegedly taking part in the deadly Washington insurrection. But months before the Capitol assault, some connected to a different type of anti-government movement were menacing Dallas streets and threatening violence against police, court records show.

Daniel Austin Dunn, 30, of Denton County, was one of them, the FBI says. He pleaded guilty in December to making threats -- for encouraging violence against police in social media posts during the George Floyd protests in downtown Dallas last summer. He is currently awaiting sentencing.

Dunn, a former Marine who lives on a Bartonville ranch, was a sympathizer of the anti-government boogaloo boys -- or boogaloo bois -- extremist movement, according to prosecutors. Like some of those charged in the Jan. 6 insurrection, Dunn used violent rhetoric against law enforcement, saying in one post, They should all be lined up and shot, court records show.

In response to a video of a Michigan police officer firing a tear gas canister at close range at an unarmed man, Dunn wrote: Why wasnt this cop shot immediately?

A couple of pending federal cases show that threats of violence from armed extremists also exist at home, as the Dallas FBI warned just a few months ago. Dunns case provides insight into the loose-knit and decentralized boogaloo movement, which coalesced online in chat groups of those with shared libertarian values.

Many, like Dunn, have previous military experience. And they believe armed overthrow of an oppressive government is justified, just as some militia members do. But experts say there are important distinctions between them and the far-right militias that sprung to life following the volatile November election.

Boogaloo boys, usually clad in Hawaiian shirts, came to notice in Dallas and around the country last year while protesting COVID-19 lockdown orders and as they attended Black Lives Matter protests while armed with assault rifles. What they want is a civil war, which they hope to instigate by exploiting civil unrest, experts say. Some boogaloo adherents have been arrested for inciting riots as well as shooting, bombing and killing police officers.

Mark Pitcavage, a senior research fellow with the Anti-Defamation Leagues Center on Extremism, said boogalooers or boogs, as they are also known, are anti-authority and view the police as the tools of a repressive state. They believe the police want to take away their guns, he said. And no-knock warrants in the middle of the night make them angry, particularly since one of their own 21-year-old Duncan Lemp was killed that way by police in Maryland in March 2020, Pitcavage said.

The boogaloo movement is much like the pre-Trump militia movement minus the specific New World Order conspiracy stuff, he said.

Boogaloo adherents are mostly interested in guns and military gear, Pitcavage said, and did not buy into Donald Trump. The boogaloo movement originated in a discussion forum for people who love tactical gear, he said. Some members consider militias to be lapdogs due to their enthusiasm for Trump, while viewing themselves as more pure, Pitcavage said.

Thats why boogalooers did not play much of a role in the Jan. 6 insurrection, he said. Trump remaining in office doesnt get their juices flowing. Rather, they are more likely to turn out to an anti-gun or anti-lockdown rally, he said.

Still, authorities are taking threats from both groups seriously given the rise in militants calling for armed revolution. Arrests are being made.

He [Dunn] essentially endorsed the boogaloo boys as good people, Jeff Cotner, an FBI agent, said during Dunns June detention hearing.

Philip Russell Archibald, 29, of Lancaster, is also linked to the boogaloo boys, court records show. He used his social media accounts to encourage vigilante activity and guerilla warfare against National Guard troops that deployed to Dallas last summer to help police the BLM protests, prosecutors say. He remains in federal custody awaiting trial on steroid trafficking charges and a firearm charge.

Archibald was in downtown Dallas after curfew, armed with a rifle, and he posted on Facebook that he was hunting Antifa and was going to kill looters, according to court records. He has pleaded not guilty, and his attorney could not be reached for comment.

Archibald and Dunn, who had access to a handgun, shotgun and hunting rifle, are not accused of acting on their alleged threats. They are among several other Texas boogaloo members or supporters who are charged with assorted crimes.

Cameron Emerson Casey Rankin, 21, a self-proclaimed boogaloo member, was arrested on a firearms charge in San Antonio in November. Authorities say he wished to overthrow the government and had showed up at the Alamo in May with other armed men for a planned protest.

Ivan Harrison Hunter, 26, of Boerne, was charged in October for allegedly firing an assault rifle at a Minneapolis police station during a riot in May. Hunter had been in frequent communication with Rankin, authorities said.

Rankin and Hunter have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.

Rankins attorney, John Ritenour, said the allegations against his client have nothing to do with that movement or any alleged involvement. Hunters attorney could not be reached for comment.

Alex Newhouse, who leads terrorism and extremism research at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California, spent months studying the boogaloo movement with help from students and published a recent paper on it. He said in an interview that the Millennial and Generation Z followers viewed the BLM protests as an opportunity to gain support for an armed citizen revolt.

An intelligence bulletin issued by the FBIs Dallas field office in the fall reported that boogaloo adherents were likely to try to incite fellow extremists to take part in anti-government protests, thereby increasing the threat of violence in the Dallas area. But the boogaloos biggest recent demonstration was at a Jan. 18 pro-gun event in Richmond, Va., Newhouse said.

I have suspicions that a lot of the militia boogaloo types sort of melted back into the Three Percenters and the Oath Keepers, who obviously had a very significant showing at the Jan. 6 insurrection, he said.

With Joe Biden in the White House, the boogaloo and militia movements would normally be in a position to surge, Pitcavage said, due to their typical hostility toward Democrats. But this past summer, they were largely de-platformed, meaning removed from social media, YouTube and other online forums, which limited their ability to organize and recruit, he said.

Its a lot harder for them to get their message out, Pitcavage said.

Dunn served for two years in the Marines as an aircraft ordnance technician before leaving the service in 2012 following his arrests in Lubbock where he was stationed, court records show. A superior had recommended an other than honorable discharge after Dunn was charged with two felonies and two misdemeanors, but it was ultimately listed as honorable, prosecutors said.

In those cases, Dunn had fired a gun at a man during a dispute over a woman, the FBI said. No one was hurt during the incident. Several weeks later, Dunn was arrested again -- for retaliation, stalking, unlawful carrying of a weapon and public intoxication, court records show. Police said he slashed the victims tires.

He was on probation from 2014 through April 2020 related to those cases, court records show. His probation officer told the FBI that Dunn was strongly anti-government and could become violent if somebody says the wrong thing.

She said that he told her that she was the only person in law enforcement that he did not want to kill, Cotner, the FBI agent, testified.

Dunn allegedly posted on Facebook on the morning of June 1 that civil unrest is whats needed to start a revolution, and civil unrest is what these protests are turning into every night. I love it.

By then police had clashed for two straight days with protesters in downtown Dallas, firing projectiles and pepper spray into the roving crowds. The skirmishes became violent at times following sporadic looting and vandalism of downtown buildings and businesses.

Dunn also wrote: Get this out to EVERYONE! Riot cops cant keep up the oppression if they cant see. Paint bombs (water-balloons with thick paint), blind riot cops and slicken their gear. Its an effective tactic. He included a photo of riot police covered in paint splatter, court records say.

On June 2, he posted several photos including a flag with an igloo and Hawaiian flowers indicative of boogaloo ideology, court records say. Dunn attached the photos on someone elses post that said, I would like to talk to you about the boogaloo movement, if you will hear me out.

And Dunn had this to say about a post involving Trump on Facebook: If I ever stand face to face with this president, Id [expletive] slap him, according to court records.

By June 3, Dunn had become angrier about footage of the police response to the social justice protests, writing: So far Ive seen people shot in the head and eye with rubber bullets tear gas canisters shot directly at people from point blank range, and children being Maced and tear gassed. Why arent more cops being shot? Why arent people actually fighting back?

On June 5, Dunn commented on a video showing riot police shoving an elderly man to the ground. All 16 of them should be lined up and shot like the dogs they are. They very clearly have no regard for life, so they dont deserve theirs anymore, he allegedly wrote.

Another post that day says: This is why I say to shoot cops; theyre absolute thugs and criminals and they can do this with impunity, court records show.

The rhetoric is similar to what turned up on social media months later when an angry mob of Trump supporters overwhelmed police and stormed into the Capitol looking for lawmakers.

Temani Adams, Dunns attorney during the detention hearing, said her client completed his probation from the Lubbock cases and the charges were dismissed. She questioned the claim that Dunn is anti-government, noting that he is ex-military and the son of a retired federal agent. Adams also said her client supports Black peoples rights.

One of Dunns comments on social media was directed at a photo of men wearing boogaloo paraphernalia, saying they were there to help protesters, court records show. Theyre on your side. Their entire ethos is to protect you from the state, the government, the police, the military, and anybody else who stands against civilians. THEY ARE YOU FRIEND. THEY ARE THERE TO PROTECT YOU, THE CIVILIAN.

Newhouse said boogaloo expressions of solidarity toward BLM and Antifa are superficial, designed merely to forge temporary allies of convenience for what they view as a potential common goal: the dismantling of the government. There are no common goals beyond that, he said.

Rick Dunn, his father and a former Southwest Airlines pilot and recently-retired federal Homeland Security agent, said during the detention hearing that his son has lived at home most of his life, once worked for a daycare center and loves little kids. Ive never seen him in a fight. Never hurt anybody, he said. Hes very compassionate wouldnt hurt a flea.

In the case of Archibald, the other North Texas boogaloo supporter, it was his alleged drug operation that led to his arrest, court records show.

Federal agents had been investigating Archibalds steroid distribution ring since March 2019, court records show. The bodybuilder and personal trainer mailed the drug to his customers in Texas and across the country. He was arrested after agents arranged several undercover drug buys, authorities say.

The Middlebury Institutes Newhouse said heightened awareness of domestic terrorism is shaping how law enforcement responds to extremist views.

Wichita Falls resident Gavin Perry, 27, was arrested last year after threatening to kill U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, saying she is running a satanic cult, court records show. There is no indication he is connected to the boogaloos or any other extremist movement, but he also allegedly threatened other Democrats on his Facebook page. Perry remains in federal custody as he awaits trial.

Erin Nealy Cox, the U.S. attorney in Dallas at the time, said in a statement about Perrys case that while the First Amendment guarantees the right to free speech, it does not permit the making of death threats against politicians and others.

We will not allow them to threaten our officials physical safety, she said.

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These alleged anti-government extremists emerged in North Texas months before the Capitol riot - The Dallas Morning News

Some stories and events are just as powerful and infuriating years after the fact as they are when they first happened.

Writer-director Shaka Kings Judas and the Black Messiah dives deep into one of the countrys most disturbing acts in the last 50 years the political assassination of black liberation figure Fred Hampton in what was a coordinated effort from the highest law enforcement offices in the nation. The assassination of the 21-year-old Black Panther Party chairman would prompt a civil rights lawsuit that would stretch on for 13 years, and would result in wounds and scars that have not healed in the 52 years since.

Kings unapologetically powerful film pulls the focus back from Hampton brought to life with an exceptional performance from Daniel Kaluuya and directs its focus through the eyes of William ONeal, the undercover FBI informant who infiltrated his inner circle. It was ONeals information that would help the FBI coordinate with Chicago law enforcement to ultimately assassinate Hampton in his home, surrounded by his family and friends.

The movie leans into the religious allegories posed by its title. ONeal is very much presented as a Judas even reluctantly to Hamptons messiah figure. Hes conflicted throughout the film, constantly walking a razors edge between loyalty to a cause in which he comes to believe and trying to escape jail for relatively minor crimes. King goes out of his way to focus on how just how difficult the predicament is in which ONeal finds himself simultaneously showing just how dangerous the Black Panther Party could be to those whom betray it, as well as showing just how far the FBI and law enforcement are willing to go to silence a man they find threatening to their entire way of life.

Hampton is portrayed not as a savior of oppressed people, but as a man who sees injustice and wants to do something about it. Hes not infallible far from it, actually. His first on-screen appearance sees him ratchet his black power rhetoric too intensely and actually pushes some of his audience away. Its not until he meets his soon-to-be-girlfriend Deborah Johnson, who helps temper his rage with poetic finesse that he starts making inroads ultimately recruiting what he calls a rainbow coalition of not just black members, but hispanic and poor whites who have all been mistreated and oppressed by the government.

Judas and the Black Messiah offers a view of the events leading up to the assassination that feels like a car crash unfolding in slow motion. Every step each character takes, every action they undergo, every statement they make brings them closer to what the audience knows is a foregone conclusion but one that is disheartening and infuriating because of just how wrong it is. Hampton is fighting against an unjust system that cannot be dismantled by one man. The audience knows this. The movie goes out of its way to remind the audience, harkening back to the assassination of Martin Luther King. Jr. and the murder of Emmit Till both powerful events to the black community of 1969 Chicago. You want to cheer on Hampton, who despite some inflammatory rhetoric, truly wants to do good in the world. But you know whats going to happen.

Its that focus on ONeal, and his ever-growing internal conflict, that drives the story toward its inevitable disastrous conclusion. Hes driven harder and harder by Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons), who quickly evolves from a young and ambitious FBI agent to a master manipulator at the bidding of J. Edgar Hoover, the head of the entire bureau. ONeals actions make much more sense when seen through this light, rather than if the movie remained solely focused on Hamptons rise to power.

Kaluuyas performance as Hampton is downright haunting at times. He conveys that mix of powerful bravado and hard family man. He channels the real Hampton with rousing speeches that make the audience want to stand to its feet and cheer alongside him. And then he casually switches to the more subdued brother and caring individual who would have your back, no matter what. Kaluuya delivers probably his best performance yet, and thats saying something for such a young actor with an already storied list of performances.

The real marquis performance comes from LaKeith Stanfield, as ONeal. Eagle-eyed viewers might recognize him from his limited, but extremely important, role in Get Out alongside Kaluuya as Andre Heyworth, whose body was hijacked by mad scientists. His star has been rising ever since and he delivers a sensational performance here, anchoring the film with heart and humanity.

Judas and the Black Messiah is a movie one enjoys, but one that is extremely powerful and important to watch. The movies events are just as impactful in 2021 as they were in 1969 perhaps even more so, as Hamptons battle continues to this day with his son, Fred Hampton Jr. For many, this will be the first opportunity to see the Black Panther Party in a more favorable light not as the terrorist organization that Hoover and law enforcement have tried to portray them as for the last more than 50 years, but as a group that wanted to help alleviate the oppression of people and empower them.

Judas and the Black Messiah is in theaters now and available to stream this month on HBO Max.

Josh Rouse lives in Lawton and writes a weekly movie review column for The Lawton Constitution.

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REVIEW: 'Judas and Black Messiah' delivers powerful message 50 years later - The Lawton Constitution

On June 24, 1978, Sydneys Gay Solidarity Group responded to a call for an international day of protest put out by gay and lesbian activists from San Francisco. They went on to organize the first Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

A thousand people attended the festival and march from Kings Cross to Oxford Street. Halfway through the event, Sydneys police force suddenly withdrew their permit, pushing the crowd into Hyde Park. Instead of dispersing, the marchers fought their way to Kings Cross, where the police arrested fifty-three people. Since then, the Mardi Gras has been held annually, in defiance of homophobia and police persecution.

Today, the Sydney Mardi Gras (MG) parade and festival held on March 6 has grown to become one of the citys most prominent cultural attractions. As with similar pride events worldwide, the Sydney establishment has come to see it as a significant driver of rainbow tourism. In 2018, Forbes magazine calculated that investment from the New South Wales Government in the Sydney Mardi Gras, between 2009 and 2017, has produced an estimated return of more than AU$265 million ($205 million) in visitor spend.

Theres another clear parallel with pride events elsewhere. In recent times, Mardi Gras has increasingly kowtowed to the will of sponsors and corporate spokespeople, compromising the spirit of solidarity that was at the heart of the original march. Its time we started reviving and reclaiming that spirit for the present.

As Sasha Soldatow argues in a seminal pamphlet, What is This Gay Community Shit?, even before the first Mardi Gras, there was a tug of war in progress within the movement between a radical wing and a pro-capitalist one:

So-called community aspirations were taking over from the preceding debates of sexual politics, debates that involved both women and men attempting to renegotiate and reinvent the temperament of gender. Simply put, the whole gay community thing was twaddle; it was a matter of emerging gay capitalists smelling the dollars.

Over time, LGBT business interests the pink dollar have gradually subverted Mardi Grass once-participatory model. In order to attract investors and sponsors, MGs current leadership has strategically built a membership that is apolitical, conservative, or hyper-focused on personal identity at the expense of real solidarity.

They have also given more space to the police, non-radical NGOs, and corporations eager to showcase their commitment to diversity. As the organizers have made room for costumed allies including former Liberal PM Malcolm Turnbull leftist and radical queer organizations have found themselves marginalized and excluded.

Apart from the obvious political problems raised by prioritizing police and business, these moves have reduced space for grassroots participants. Publicly, Mardi Gras claims to allow for an equal balance between corporate and grassroots floats. However, the organizers neglect to mention stipulations that allow corporate floats to carry a hundred people, while grassroots ones are limited to twenty.

The Pride in Protest (PiP) coalition has stood against this transformation, pushing to rebuild MGs commitment to solidarity. In 2019, PiP won a breakthrough when member and local communist Charlie Murphy was elected to the Mardi Gras board. Other board members cite their many years of association with businesses, the law, or marketing firms, but Charlie describes herself as being passionate about Mardi Gras no longer answering to corporate power and status quo institutions.

PiPs argument is gaining ground. In 2020, another PiP member, Alex Bouchet, was elected alongside Charlie. This coincided with a push at the 2019 annual general meeting, as grassroots Mardi Gras members argued that the parade should cut its ties with drug manufacturer Gilead, in response to price gouging of HIV prevention drug PrEP in the United States.

PiP pushed further, arguing that MG should also sever ties with ANZ, one of Australias four major banks, and Qantas, Australias major airline carrier, for its role in deporting refugees. Members have raised similar concerns about companies like the retail giant Woolworths and the Star casino.

To date, MG has only seriously considered divesting from Gilead. Indeed, MG is so protective of its corporate ties that consultations with its sponsors occur completely behind closed doors, often unseen even by board members.

In any other popular organization a trade union, for example this would be unheard of. Within Mardi Gras, its par for the course. The majority of the MG board defends the practice as being entirely legitimate for a company, in the process both erasing the organizations membership and redefining its purpose.

A similar battle is also playing out over the involvement of the New South Wales (NSW) Police and Corrective Services in Mardi Gras. The NSW Polices history of persecuting LGBT people has not ended at the 2013 Mardi Gras, a Sydney police officer bashed Bryn Hutchinson and fined his sister for screaming during the assault. According to PiP, between 1970 and 2010, the NSW Police failed to investigate ninety suspected gay hate murders.

Aboriginal LBGT people are disproportionately at risk, as a result of racialized policing and high rates of incarceration and death in custody. In 2009, NSW Police arrested Veronica Baxter, an Aboriginal transgender woman, detaining her on remand at Silverwater prison, in an all-male facility.

Prison guards found Baxter dead in her cell two days later. Although evidence showed that she had used an emergency intercom in her cell multiple times the night before her death, prison guards did not record the calls and claimed not to remember taking them.

PiP also argues that Mardi Gras has a broader responsibility to stand in solidarity with other movements such as Black Lives Matter that oppose bigotry and institutional violence. The 2020 MG annual general meeting (AGM) voted down a motion by Indigenous PiP members Keith Quayle and Lungol Wekina barring a NSW Police float at MG. Nevertheless, their motion attracted 44 percent of the vote, the closest MG has come to banning law enforcement from the march.

Reclaiming Mardi Gras also means democratizing its membership. Naturally, MG markets itself as inclusive. As the MG website declares, its vision is to be a global leader in the promotion of diversity, inclusion, equity and social justice through culture, creativity and partnerships.

The boardroom jargon should give you a hint about the MG boards priorities. They have rejected proposals to open up membership, for example, by reducing the joining fees.

At the same time, MG has strategically depoliticized membership. Today, its focus is less on democratic participation and more on coupons. MG rewards its members with discounts at shops like Daly Male and fitness supplement stores, or with reduced entry at Sydneys famous Stonewall bar.

Of course, muscle queens and business gays are perfectly welcome 2020 was the year of the himbo, after all. Yet by implicitly prioritizing a narrow subset of LGBT people, who also happen to be the target audience for key LGBT businesses, the Mardi Gras board undermines its claim to represent the citys entire LGBT population.

In 2019, PiP won a small victory for democracy. They successfully passed a motion on the MG board to establish an ethics charter that would ensure broader consultation about preferred sponsors at the MG annual general meeting. Shortly after this victory, recently elected PiP MG board member Alex Bouchet reported discovering that Mardi Gras had already been busy consulting only with sponsors instead of the community.

In response to pressure, MG has made some positive changes for example, by placing a First Nations float front and center at the parade. But efforts like these will appear cosmetic and tokenistic so long as the MG board is effectively closed, with no Indigenous representatives.

This points to a broader issue with representation. PiPs Charlie Murphy is the only out transgender board member and one of the few to have been elected, despite continual involvement of trans people within MG since its inception. The exclusivity of MGs internal culture ensures that this kind of disproportion remains entrenched.

The conservative evolution of Mardi Gras represents a sharp break with its radical, working-class traditions. If you start digging into the marchs history, before long, youll find yourself talking with Ken Davis, lifelong socialist and one of the lead organizers of the first three festivals. Ken still clearly remembers these parades, almost wholly organized and led by gay and lesbian workers.

This began to change when, after an initial debate, small businesses were included. Over time, the Right used this as grounds to justify the inclusion of big business, too. Similarly, they argued that if public-service workers and civil servants were included, police floats should also be allowed to participate.

These moves had consequences. Previously, as Ken explains:

Unions and groups of out queer workers have been in Mardi Gras since the first night in 1978 for example, teachers, postal and railway workers, telephonists, nurses, flight attendants, firefighters.

Today, prioritizing business floats often forces workers to attend under the banner of their employers. And corporate floats are judged worthy for the parade on the basis of whether they are good employers to LGBT people. Its a label that Ken who has been a proud Trotskyist since he was fifteen finds offensive, as would any other socialist or trade unionist who understands labor relations to be inherently exploitative.

Mardi Gras has also strategically defanged the political content of the original parade. As Ken explains, the Right used the rise of gay and lesbian health services and NGOs to justify further diluting the marchs politics:

With AIDS in the mid 1980s, there was a change, with large numbers of heterosexual volunteers in the parades with community AIDS services contingents, and then municipal councils and relevant government departments started to promote their services in the parades.

The end result was a victory for for-profit consultancies that run diversity programs and reward big corporations for being queer friendly.

To remain relevant, Mardi Gras needs to recapture and update the spirit of the 1970s, when radical movements against war and oppression converged with the workers movement. At the forefront was the Builders Labourers Federation (BLF), whose green bans achieved global renown.

Its not so well known that the BLF was the first union in Australia (and one of the first worldwide) to extend solidarity to gay and lesbian people. In one famous instance, the union placed a pink ban on Macquarie University. In response to the expulsion of Jeremy Fisher, treasurer of the universitys Gay Lib club, on explicitly homophobic grounds, the BLF halted building works until the administration readmitted him.

As Ken Davis explains, union members felt little sympathy with vice chancellors and had experienced more than a few run-ins with police. It was natural that they would extend solidarity to gay and lesbian students. And in the 1970s, the Sydney police were not so concerned with presenting a tolerant, diverse public image:

Early gay pride protests saw scores of arrests. Lesbian and gay activists faced police repression in environmental, indigenous, peace, and feminist protests. There was great concern around corrupt inner-city police stations, prisons, and their sexist, racist, and heterosexist violence. In 1978, before the first Mardi Gras, on the night of June 24, we already used the chant: Stop Police Attacks, on Gays, Women and Blacks.

Today, the marketing has changed, but the social role played by corporations and police forces has not.

There are two possible futures for Mardi Gras. If LGBT businesses stay in control, it will remain a corporate-sponsored street party and wont meet the standards of inclusivity it promises. Alternately, if MGs membership is empowered, it may draw in new generations of LGBT people, and once more become a festival of resistance against oppression and corporate power.

Read more:

Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Should Stand for Solidarity With the Oppressed Not With Cops and Corporations - Jacobin magazine

The United States of America was founded on a conspiracy theory. In the lead-up to the War of Independence, revolutionaries argued that a tax on tea or stamps is not just a tax, but the opening gambit in a sinister plot of oppression. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were convinced based on "a long train of abuses and usurpations" that the king of Great Britain was conspiring to establish "an absolute Tyranny" over the colonies.

"The document itself is a written conspiracy theory," says Nancy Rosenblum, a political theorist emerita at Harvard University. It suggests that there's more going on than meets the eye, that someone with bad intentions is working behind the scenes.

If conspiracy theories are as old as politics, they're also in the era of Donald Trump and QAnon as current as the latest headlines. Earlier this month, the American democracy born of an eighteenth century conspiracy theory faced its most severe threat yet from another conspiracy theory, that (all evidence to the contrary) the 2020 presidential election was rigged. Are conspiracy theories truly more prevalent and influential today, or does it just seem that way?

The research isn't clear. Rosenblum and others see evidence that belief in conspiracy theories is increasing and taking dangerous new forms. Others disagree. But scholars generally do agree that conspiracy theories have always existed and always will. They tap into basic aspects of human cognition and psychology, which may help explain why they take hold so easily and why they're seemingly impossible to kill.

Once someone has fully bought into a conspiracy theory, "there's very little research that actually shows you can come back from that," says Sander van der Linden, a social psychologist at the University of Cambridge whose research focuses on ways to combat misinformation. "When it comes to conspiracy theories, prevention is better than cure."

Counting conspiracies

When Joseph Uscinski began studying conspiracy theories a decade ago, he was one of only a handful of scholars mostly psychologists and political scientists interested in the topic. "No one cared about this at the time," says Uscinski, a political scientist at the University of Miami in Florida. American Conspiracy Theories, the 2014 book he cowrote with political scientist Joseph Parent, became a landmark in conspiracy theory research.

To investigate how conspiracy beliefs have changed with time, Uscinski, Parent, and a small army of research assistants analyzed more than 100,000 letters to the editors of the New York Times printed between 1890 and 2010. Among these, they identified 875 letters that dabbled in conspiracy talk that some group was acting in secret to steal power, or bury the truth, or reap some other benefit at the expense of the common good.

Many of the letters alleged geopolitical conspiracies: In 1890, it was England and Canada conspiring to take back territory from the United States, and in 1906, Japan was supposedly sending soldiers in disguise to prepare to seize Hawaii. Others focused on domestic political conspiracies, such as President Harry Truman covering up Communist infiltration of the government in the 1950s, and the idea that the 9/11 attacks were coordinated by the U.S. to smear the Saudis. Still others were just bizarre, such as a 1973 letter claiming that lesbianism is a CIA-inspired plot.

Read the rest of the article at Knowable Magazine, an independent journalistic endeavor from Annual Reviews. Sign up for the newsletter.

Read more:

The enduring allure of conspiracies - The Week Magazine

Eid Nowruz, the Persian New Year, is on its way in Iran. But Irans rule has made Eid a mourning for the people, especially the workers and the poor.

This is at a time when the coronavirus is spreading like wildfire in Iran, and government agents are depriving workers of their wages, forcing workers to come to work at the risk of becoming infected with the coronavirus.

In these circumstances, workers are left looking for their wages. Despite the poverty line of 10 million Tomans, their wages do not provide their basic needs. But government officials also refuse to pay these meager salaries.

In this regard, February 18, a group of workers of Shahriar Municipality held a protest rally in front of the city council to protest the non-payment of their salaries for two months.

In a video interview, three of the protesting workers described their problems as follows:

Worker: We came here and gathered for the salary increase. They did not pay us for two months.

Reporter: How much is your salary?

Worker: My salary is 2.45 million and 150,000 is the end of service bonus. You, Mr. mayor, can you live with 2.6 million? And make a living?

Reporter: Do you have a problem with the mayor or with the contract and service company?

Worker: Mr. Contractor says the mayor should give it to me then I can give it to you.

Another Worker: Im like him too. My salary is low. And now I have not received my salary for two months.

Is Poverty in Iran the Result of Sanctions or Plundering?

The conditions of all workers are complicated, their life cycles do not change, a group of workers in Mahshahr went on strike for the third day on February 15, to protest the dismissal of their colleagues from the South Tehran Company.

February 15, a group of HEPCO workers held a protest rally in protest of their problems and demands along the Arak railway.

The state-run daily Kar-o-Karegar wrote in acknowledging the dire living conditions of the workers: The cost of living basket for a working family with a population of 3.3 people is 10 million tomans, while the minimum wage received by workers, eventually reaches 3 million tomans. However, due to high inflation, purchasing power has fallen sharply and the workers table has become empty. (Kar-o-Karegar, February 9)

And on February 15, the same daily, quoting a government official, the head of the Supreme Chamber of Trade Unions, wrote:

Workers wages and benefits will be determined unilaterally and to the benefit of the employer in collective agreements. Under the current circumstances, workers will see their minimum wages violated. For example, the job nature of brick factory workers is one of the hard and harmful jobs. This group is not only deprived of the rights because of the hard work, but the news indicates that the situation of this group is not good, and they are deprived of the minimum. Not only is the employer reluctant to negotiate in the true sense of the word, but it simply violates the workers rights.

But why arent peoples problems solved? The situation is so difficult and indisputable that the state media has also admitted it.

The state-run daily Mostaghel on February 20 wrote: None of the social classes of the Iranian people have a real representative in the government structure. Workers and other lower classes in Iran who are worse than other sections of society. The workers do not even have a real union. They also do not have a media. Their voices do not reach anywhere. (Mostaghel, February 20).

The Arman daily on February 15, with the headline Lets not fill the workers patience bowl, acknowledged the oppression and exploitation by the government and its institutions. It further acknowledged the workers impatience with all this oppression and exploitation and expressed its concern and wrote:

This is not the right path that has been chosen (by the government) for the workers and their lives and livelihoods, and it may reach critical points. Once we reach that dangerous situation and cross that critical point, no one can solve the problems that have arisen. It should be noted that all the problems will explode like a volcano and at the same time, we will not see good results on the day when the tolerance of the majority of the society, i.e. the workers, is exhausted and their patience is exhausted.

It is very clear that the main problem and concern of the author of this article is not that oppression and exploitation of workers, but his main concern is about the clear conditions for the uprising of the people, including the workers.

Of course, such conditions of oppression and exploitation by the government are not limited to the working class, but all the poor sections of society are in such a situation that the media and government experts, while acknowledging it, are worried about their patience and revolt. An uprising that is sometimes called the uprising of the hungry.

See the rest here:

Irans New Year (Eid-E-Nowruz) and the Empty Baskets of Its Workers - Iran Focus

With Swiss voters set to decide on a contentious burka ban on March 7, Anila Noor and Maria Khoshy explain why they as Muslim feminists and refugees oppose the idea.

Anila Noor & Maria Khoshy

We are feminists, womens rights activists, and leaders in our communities. We are also Muslims. One of us is a recent refugee from Pakistan to the Netherlands. The other fled to Switzerland from Afghanistan when she was thirteen years old.

In our countries of origin, our governments mandated what we wore in an effort to restrict our basic human rights. We do not want the same to happen in Switzerland, a democratic nation which prides itself on its respect for human rights and the rule of law. It is time that the government and people in power stop telling us how to dress.

Keep your duppata (headscarf) on your head properly, wear your hijab! These are words I grew up with in Pakistan. Conservative groups often invoke a famous saying to impose the hijab or burka: the proper place of a woman is in her chadar aur char diwari meaning veiled and within the four walls of her home. In Afghanistan as well as in Pakistan, many women have been killed in the name of honour or in retaliation for asserting our basic womens rights as human rights.

We left our homes to flee oppression, including gender-based persecution. So, it is deeply ironic that we find ourselves now fighting against violations of our human rights in our place of refuge. In Pakistan and Afghanistan, and now in Switzerland, the government is under pressure from conservative forces to restrict womens basic autonomy and freedom of dress.

That Switzerland would consider joining other European countries in banning forms of dress is particularly ironic given its strong commitment to neutrality and the freedom of religion. It is also ironic given that only a few dozen women in a country of almost nine million people wear the burka.

It is hurtful to us that people claim that the initiative protects womens rights without bothering to ask the women most directly affected by the ban Muslim migrants to Switzerland, visitors and tourists from certain Middle East countries, and Muslim feminists and advocates for gender equality. New Women Connectors brings together refugee women across Europe, many of whom fled repressive regimes in the Middle East or war-torn Syria. Some of the Muslim women in our group wear the hijab; others do not. It does not matter, as it is their choice. As Muslims in Europe, we do not tend to wear bikinis to the beach. We do not tattoo our arms or faces. However, we do not object to other peoples freedom to do so.

If a woman who prefers the full burka were to join our group, we would welcome her with open arms. We personally do not wear burkas or niqabs, but as feminists, we are not threatened or bothered by those who do. More fundamentally, we are deeply concerned about what will happen to the small number of women in Switzerland who do wear the burka or niqab. Will the threat of fines force them to stay indoors, and what impact will this have on their mental health and the mental health of their children?

During the Covid-19 crisis, we asked ourselves why womens clothing has garnered so much attention when there are so many more pressing issues facing refugee women in Europe, including Switzerland. The pandemic has had a devastating economic toll on many sectors of society, but women have been the hardest hit.

As community leaders and organisers, we know the systematic barriers to equality and inclusion faced by refugee women in Switzerland: labour market restrictions, employment discrimination, and even access to opportunities. We face lack of respect or recognition for our educational accomplishments or professional skills, simply because we built our careers in developing nations. We face social ostracisation.

We face limitations on our ability to access education, to get loans to start businesses, and to find affordable childcare for our children so that we can work. We face accusations that we are not willing to learn the local language when in fact we work very hard at it, and we have already demonstrated our ability to master several other languages. We often face domestic violence at home and threatening or insulting behaviour on the street. We face stereotypes in the news media that portray us as passive victims of oppression rather than as the courageous human rights defenders that we are. We face the accusation that our values are somehow at odds with those of Europe, when we are the ones who fled our homes to have a shot at justice and freedom here in Europe. We fight for European values like freedom of religion, autonomy, and gender equality even more fiercely than do many Europeans, if only because we know what it is like to grow up under oppressive regimes.

It is hurtful to want to belong and yet to be perennially treated as the other blamed for our own integration failuresExternal link when we, just like European women, are working so very hard. Hateful initiatives like the burka and niqab ban are just one more reminder that no matter how hard we try, we will never fully belong; we can never really become Swiss.

By advocating for the right of refugee and migrant women to have a seat at the table, we also seek to advance gender equality for our European-born colleagues. Institutional and structural barriers to gender equality like labour market discrimination, domestic violence, and lack of affordable childcare affect Swiss-born women too. Switzerland ranks 26th of 29 in the Economists glass ceiling index: these issues affect native Swiss women as well as migrants. Our interests are not opposed to those of Swiss women: we are on the same side.

Anila NoorExternal link, a human rights activist, TEDx SpeakerExternal link and refugee to the Netherlands from Pakistan, is an expert in gender and migration issues, part of the European Commissions Expert GroupExternal link on views of Migrants, and the co-founder of GIRWLExternal link and managing director of New Women ConnectorsExternal link. @nooranila

Maria Khoshy is a commercial studies student and a refugee representative and activist in Switzerland. @mariakhoshy

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of SWI swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch publishes op-ed articles by contributors writing on a wide range of topics Swiss issues or those that impact Switzerland. The selection of articles presents a diversity of opinions designed to enrich the debate on the issues discussed. If you would like to submit an idea for an opinion piece, please e-mail english@swissinfo.ch.

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'We don't want the government restricting our freedom of dress' - swissinfo.ch