[Organizing] the annual Day Against Homophobia contributed to the inclusion of these objectives in the agreements of the Cuban Communist Party conference. The mere fact that they are explicitly formulated within the policy of the Party and, of course, of the country, opens the doors for this strategy.
That is, it has been expressed that the country needs to work against all forms of discrimination, and that homophobia, transphobia and every form of discrimination associated with sexuality issues needs to be fought against corresponds to an emancipating as society, as the true essence of socialism.
I cannot think of socialism coexisting with forms of discrimination, and this is one of them. Work on this problem requires a deep culture change, and this is achieved through education, through policy that supports the strategy, through the media and the laws. There are several institutions in the social structure that need to be involved in all these processes. One day is not enough, the work of CENESEX and the Ministry of Health is not enough … and the fact that the Party gives a green light and harbors the objective is essential.
Besides, this is a task for the Party, because according to Marxist ideas, the Party is the vanguard, the group that carries the new ideas, to take us to a new society. If the Party cannot articulate these new ideas, how could it prepare the conditions for us to be able to create a really fair and equitable society? Therefore, I think the fact that the party so DECIDED was absolutely relevant and historic.
The Dictator and The Zionist - The Trouble with Sacha Baron Cohen.
This morning, Sacha Baron Cohen is on my mind. Not a pleasant image to have to confront, but he’s been all over the place with the press for his new movie, The Dictator, which premiered in London earlier this week. He plays a composite character based on Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi - but I also see a lot of Iran’s Ahmedinijad in there. I don’t even really know what the plot of the movie is, but SBC’s movies have never really been big on plot.
I read this blog on CNN by Dean Obeidallah which calls out Cohen on the racism he displays in “browning up” to play an Arab man. Obeidallah’s argument is that Arabs and Indians themselves should be in movies that make fun of them. Fair enough. He doesn’t go far enough, in my opinion, to address all the stereotypes of Arabs that come out to play in the movie, but that’s because he hadn’t seen the movie when he wrote the piece. I wonder if he will.
What bothers me is that nobody’s addressing something more complex and, in my mind, more dangerous. So I’m going to attempt to do it. I know what I’m going to say is controversial, but I believe in speaking my mind when I see something that bothers me.
You see, SBC is a Zionist, a very publicly declared one. Which is not a problem for me personally, really. He’s got the right to hold his political views even if they are very bigoted ones that have been the root of most of the strife in the Middle East since 1948. But he’s got a very deliberate agenda which he expresses not-so-subtly in all his movies, and it’s not being said by commentators because of the fear that they will be called anti-Semitic.
Zionism is the belief in a Jewish nation, and the accompanying fierce loyalty to that nation, no matter what it does in the name of protecting itself and perpetuating its survival. It’s Zionism, not Judaism, that has seen the worst atrocities committed against the people of Palestine. Now, SBC doesn’t go around spouting things about the greatness of Israel in his movies. But if you look carefully, each one of his productions - from Ali G to Borat to Bruno to now, The Dictator, advances a certain element of Zionist propaganda against Muslims. Which is that Muslims are laughable, unintelligent, idiotic people with no intellect at best, and terrorists at worst. And Cohen uses buffoonery to do this.
How? By taking the stereotypes, derived both from Orientalism and from anti-Islamic Zionism, and playing them out to such ridiculous extremes, that his audiences laugh. And in laughing, they feel entertained. And in being entertained, they swallow the stereotypes and the racism whole, without pausing to critically analyze what they’ve been presented with. You could call this SBC’s particular genius. Yes, it’s pretty clever. But it’s also dangerous.
With Ali G, Cohen presented a fairly innocuous character: a rudeboy of uncertain ethnicity* (but everyone assumed he was Asian, or at least an Asian persona taken on by a white man for even more irony and laughs) who was stupid, racist, anti-Semitic, and sexist. A genius comedic character who made people laugh and believe that Asians, especially Muslim ones, of a certain age, class, and educational level, are all like this.
With Borat, I almost don’t have to say anything. We all know the buffoon he played who was from Kazakhstan who went to the United States and displayed all sorts of inappropriate behavior. He spouted off truisms about life in Kazakhstan, which included some pretty nasty jibes at village life - “My sister is best prostitute in village” - implying that again, Kazakhs - who happen to be Muslim - are backwards, idiotic yokels who engage in incest and bestiality. Of course it’s ridiculous, you say, we know it’s not true. Yes, but when you pick a country that most people know virtually nothing about and you assign values and mores to it, you know that because of the vacuum of knowledge, people will subconsciously adopt those values, or at least associate them with the country in the absence of better knowledge. Again, very, very clever.
In Bruno, the story of a gay Austrian fashionista, there’s no overt racism against Arabs or Muslims for a while. But then Cohen pulls the stunt of interviewing a Palestinian man who he claims is a dangerous Muslim terrorist. The man, in real life, is a Palestinian Christian who has nothing to do with terrorism. Cohen made him sign a release form before appearing in the movie, and didn’t tell him that he was going to brand him as a terrorist. On screen, this is a big joke, but in real-life Palestine, this can result in your death at the hands of Israeli security forces.
Most people think of Sacha Baron Cohen as a comedic genius, as I said before, as a trickster, someone who stands conventions on their heads to get laughs. I see him as someone else: a very intelligent man with a political stance and a stage on which to make that stance known. That he’s being subversively funny about it and using comedy rather than straight political discourse to do so is a sign of his brilliance, but also of his duplicity. He is advancing the worst of Zionist propaganda against Muslims with his movies, and the worst part is, you’re paying $15 each time to see him do it.
*I’ve had several people tell me Ali G was a parody of whites who want to be gangsta, Jamaican, or black. This wasn’t revealed until later in the series, though - and to be honest, when I saw him, the first thing that popped into my mind was that he was a parody of an Asian. Perhaps it was the name “Ali” (which was later revealed to be short for Alistair), a Muslim name that is very common amongst British Pakistanis, not so common amongst Afro-Carribbeans. Anyway, even if it was a white wannabe, critics rounded on him for making it “safe” to laugh at that culture from an imagined politically correct stance because it was buffoonery. I stick to my original claim that he was lampooning Asians (in addition to blacks, a more definite identity that I think evolved and became clearer as the series went on), and that his Zionist, anti-Muslim and anti-Arab stance has become more bold over time and become more and more overt in his films. And one thing people don’t know is that when he talks in the supposed language of each character, he’s actually making in-jokes in Hebrew.(x)
Very nicely said
Resolution adopted by the Central Committee, Communist Party of Canada, April 14‑15, 2012
Demands are growing for the resignation of Defense Minister Peter MacKay and Prime Minister Harper, in the wake of the Auditor‑General’s report that the purchase of sixty‑five F‑35 fighter‑bombers would cost taxpayers at least $10 billion more than the Conservative government ever admitted. But while corruption and lies are among the defining features of the Harper Tory regime, this scandal raises far deeper issues. Far more significant questions concern the true nature of Canada’s role in the global imperialist drive for markets, resources, and corporate profits, and the choice between military spending versus urgent social needs.
As the Communist Party and the anti‑war movements have warned for several years, the Harper government and the top military brass have repeatedly lied to Canadians about the F‑35s. The calls for MacKay’s resignation are welcome, but the real responsibility for this $10 billion whopper lies squarely with Stephen Harper, who runs his government with an iron fist.
Fundamentally, however, the F‑35 scandal is not about a flawed procurement process, or finding the “most suitable” jet, or “defending” Canada. The real problem is the concept that Canada needs to spend tens of billions to purchase new fleets of aircraft and warships, even though there is simply no military threat to this country. Nor are 21st century fighter jets like the F‑35 suitable for use as “patrol planes” with search‑and‑rescue capabilities ‑ they are killing machines with massive arsenals of bombs, rockets, and bullets, and alarmingly, with the capability to carry nuclear weapons payloads. They are a key part of the imperialist strategy for global corporate control of raw materials such as hydrocarbon resources, and for NATO’s tactics of “regime change”, under the “responsibility to protect” doctrine.
Another lame justification for the F‑35 and warship procurements has been the argument that these programs are necessary to boost research and development spending in Canada, allegedly to create high‑tech jobs. But the reality is that the government’s “Canada First” plan to spend $500 billion on military purchases over the next two decades will create far fewer jobs than investments in clean water for Aboriginal communities, social housing, public transit, a Canada‑wide childcare program, universal pharmacare and other improvements in the Medicare system, or many other urgent social and economic priorities. In short, the fighter‑bomber program and other military purchases will come with an enormous human and environmental cost to Canadians, while serving no purpose other than to fuel the insanely expensive and dangerous global arms race.
With the exception of Green Party leader Elizabeth May, no party in the current Parliament has taken a principled stand against the F‑35s, or more broadly in opposition to the “Canada First” military expansion strategy. During the F‑35 debate, Thomas Mulcair’s NDP, which claims to be a party of peace, has failed to reject the drive to make Canada an integral part of the U.S. war machine, preferring to join in the chatter about improved military procurement processes.
The Communist Party of Canada urges the labour and democratic movements to address the real issues arising from the F‑35 scandal. Tell all the parties in Parliament: No to any purchases of fighter‑bombers and warships! Slash military spending by 75%, in favour of investments in peaceful priorities for Canada!
Central Committee, Communist Party of Canada
290A Danforth Ave. Toronto, Ontario M4K 1N6
Phone 416-469-2446 E-mail info@cpc-pcc.ca
Tuesday, May 22 - 2pm to 8 pm
1 Rockefeller Plaza (Outside Quebec Gov Office). 48th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues
Frankfurt, Chicago, Quebec. We are with you!
LIST OF EVENTS FOR TUESDAY, MAY 22nd
2pm to 4pm—Demonstrate, 1 Rockefeller Plaza
Demonstration in solidarity with the Quebec Student Strike
Outside the Quebec Government Offices at 1 Rockefeller Plaza
5pm—Gather, Check-in, Washington Square Park, North Side of Fountain
Gather to paint banners, make ‘book bloc’ shields, and cut red squares for the evening march.
Check-in for those who want to facilitate lectures, workshops, skill-shares, and discussions. Please bring all the materials you may need to make banners and host classes.
6pm—Free University, Washington Square Park, various locations— check board on North Side of Fountain
Teach in/Speak out assembly about the Quebec student strike, the emergency laws, and the criminalization of dissent; followed by self-organized lectures, workshops, skill-shares, and discussions of the Free University.
8pm—Assembly and March, Washington Square Park
General Assembly and March against Repressive anti-protest laws worldwide
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This Tuesday, May 22, marks the 100th day of the ongoing Quebec student strike, one of the largest student mobilizations in history. Last Friday, the Quebec government enacted a draconian emergency law (Bill 78) intended to break the strike. The law outlaws public assembly, imposes harsh fines for strike activity and effectively criminalizes protest, just as the movement is escalating to unprecedented levels.
On Tuesday in New York City, we will demonstrate in solidarity with Quebec students and in defense of our right to protest. An increase in the powers of the police and the state anywhere is an attack on us everywhere.
WEAR RED!
Organized by folks from Strike Everywhere and Occupy Wall Street, the Ad Hoc Committee for Solidarity with Quebec Students
May 19: Birthday of Malcolm X and Ho Chi Minh, two great revolutionary fighters for social justice and national liberation.
More than 2000 prisoners on their 4th day of an open hunger strike , some are on their 50th day .
see :
- Palestinian Prisoners’ Day Factsheet (PDF)
- Palestinian Prisoners’ Day Call to Action and Karameh Strike Handout (PDF)
- Adameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association
- Palestinian prisoners issue :The Palestine you don’t know.
- The prisoners news : FB page (for Arabic readers,great source)
- Statement from Palestinian Prisoners to Escalate Hunger Strikes
- No Legal Frontiers
- Quds News Network
