By James F. Harrington

Syria is made up of many diverse peoples, the majority of whom happen to be Sunni Muslims. There are also Shi’ites and a small amount of Druze living there.

There are a fair amount of Christians living in Damascus and elsewhere. During the Christmas holidays, they really go out big and decorate their homes with all these beautiful lights, etc.

There used to be a lot of Jews in Syria and there still remain a small amount, however Israel exerted a lot of pressure for the Jewish population to leave Syria and move to Israel.

These people didn’t leave Syria because of any discrimination done to them by the Arab majority. My wife’s father used to buy clothing materials from a Jewish gentleman with whom he liked doing business.

The current president of Syria, Basha Al-Assad, comes from a very small sect called the Alawi. They are an offshoot of the Shi’a branch of Islam. They are centered mainly in the isolated northwest province of Latakia.

The wealthy Sunnis of northern Syria used to look down on the Alawi’s, whom were mostly uneducated.

Basha’s father, Hafez Al-Assad came from this area. He became an air-force pilot and worked his way up the ladder. All along he made a lot of friends who were fellow Alawi’s. He also joined the Ba’th party and rose quickly to become the leader of that party in Latakia.

He finally was made the head of the Syrian army and airforce. He quickly ousted soldiers, many of whom were Sunni’s and replaced them with Alawi and Druze officers.

By way of siding with the right leaders, Hafez was finally in the position of taking power for himself.

He appointed mostly Alawi people to the top positions of the Syrian government as his son, Basha to this day still does.

Last week Basha finally lifted the 1963 Emergency Law which forbid more than three people meeting on the streets. They could arrest you and hold you in prison with no trials.

Unfortunately, he quickly replaced it with another law that bans protests without a license. Many young people are being killed on a daily basis by Basha’s security forces.

He still hasn’t released thousands of political prisoners that are rotting in Syrian jails, nor has he lifted restrictions on the media.

In 1982, Hafez violently cracked down on the Muslim Brotherhood in the town of Hama (my wife’s mother came from there) killing around thirty-thousand people.

The only political organization that is allowed in Syria is the Ba’th party.

Like father, like son, Basha is following in his late fathers notorious footsteps!

The uprising taking place all across Syria right now, includes both Christians and Muslim young people who are trying to introduce a little freedom to their native land.

EDITORIAL: Happy birthday, Lenin! 

by: PWW/NM Editorial Board

The following is an editorial written in 2006 when this publication was a 20-page print weekly called People’s Weekly World and Nuestro Mundo. While the global movement for socialism continues to assess the incredible gains people won after the 1917 Russian Revolution, and, ultimately, the fatal weaknesses that ended socialism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the ideas of Vladimir Lenin still carry currency today. Happy birthday, Lenin!

More than 60 years ago, the great African American poet Langston Hughes wrote:

Lenin walks around the world.

Frontiers cannot bar him.

Neither barracks nor barricades impede.

Nor does barbed wire scar him.

Lenin walks around the world.

Black, brown, and white receive him.

Language is no barrier.

The strangest tongues believe him.

Lenin walks around the world.

The sun sets like a scar.

Between the darkness and the dawn

There rises a red star.

Hughes was writing about Vladimir Lenin, a leader of the Russian Revolution — the world’s first socialist revolution. April 22 is the anniversary of Lenin’s birth.

Lenin took up scientific socialism where its founders, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, left off. He analyzed imperialism, a phase of capitalism he said was characterized by huge monopolies, the dominance of big banks and the carving up of the world among the great capitalist powers.

The growth of the transnational corporations and the ruthlessness of many imperialist governments, with the U.S. at the fore, show that Lenin’s analysis was right. The war in Iraq is a prime example. It’s a war for U.S. corporate control of resources, especially oil.

But Lenin didn’t stop there. He underlined the need of workers in the imperialist countries to see their own self-interest in allying with the peoples of oppressed nations.

He noted that the exploiters of those countries were the same exploiters of workers in the oppressor nations. Seeing the need to end that shared exploitation, he called for changing the slogan “Workers of the world unite” to “Workers and oppressed peoples of the world unite.”

That slogan still rings true today. For those of us in the U.S., it calls upon us to fight to bring our troops home, to demand no permanent bases in Iraq, and that reparations be paid to help the Iraqi people rebuild a secure and sovereign nation.

The contribution that Lenin made to the theory of imperialism was immense, as were his other contributions, like the need for a political party that represents the interests of the working class and allies, known in many countries, including this one, as the Communist Party.

Lenin still walks around the world — in the struggles for workers and oppressed people to be free from poverty, exploitation, war and racism — and to join together to build a better world.

Jimmie Carter statements from his trip to Cuba:

End the US blockade of Cuba, free the Cuban 5, take Cuba off the US’ state sponsors of terrorism list, end the US travel ban, meets with the families of the Cuban 5

http://www.granma.cu/ingles/cuba-i/1april-interview.html

Urged Bush and Obama to free the Cuban 5
“in my private conversations with President Bush and with President Obama, I have talked about the release of these persons. I recognize the limitations within the judicial system of the United States and I hope that the President can grant this pardon; but that is a decision that only the President himself can make; in other words, I can’t tell the President what to do, but the President, both before and now, knows that my opinion is that the trial of the Five was highly questionable, that standards were violated, and that the restraints on their visitations are extreme.”

Meeting with Evo Morales and Fidel Castro on global warming
“I believe that the United States has not been as firm as it should have been in approaching the problems of global warming. Since I have been here, the Cuban officials have pointed out to me what has been done with the old city of Havana, and I have been in Bolivia to meet with Evo Morales, and Bolivia could be the first country to have major damage to its economy, because of the melting of its mountain glaciers, which signify a source of drinking water. For that reason, I hope that in the future, this issue, as it is also related to global warming, can be discussed by all nations, and I know that Fidel Castro is also a promoter of this issue. We were talking about the steps taken when I was president of the United States, and we have been talking now and he is talking and trying to use his voice as a senior statesman for the wellbeing of human beings. We were talking, we were in agreement on a lot of things and, above all, we also talked about this global warming, and I believe that there are possibilities between the two countries.”

http://www.granma.cu/ingles/cuba-i/1april-Press-Conference.html

“I believe we should immediately eliminate the trade embargo that the United States has imposed on the people of Cuba and also allow travel without any kind of restriction from the U.S. to Cuba and vice-versa”

Falseness of US Classifying Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism

“The only American allegations in terms of terrorism against the Cuban government are related to some of the groups in Colombia, the FARC and ETA in Spain.

When I met with the ambassadors of Spain and Colombia yesterday morning, they told me that they had absolutely no objection, that they thought that the capacity of members of ETA and FARC in Colombia to come to Cuba was something very positive for them, because it gave them an opportunity to communicate in a friendly way in Cuba with people who were causing problems in their own countries. And so the American allegations, the affirmation of terrorism, is a premise which is completely unfounded, and that is another aspect that the President of the United States could address; in other words, eliminate the statement that Cuba is sponsoring terrorism, because it is evidently untrue.”

Here is a link for an excellent interview by Ernesto Aguilar of Houston’s KPFT with Bernie Dwyer from Radio Havana.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/qy0cft

They discuss a wide range of topics including the Cuban 5, state of the blockade against Cuba and current conditions in Cuba.

Enjoy this excellent work!

China’s Information Office of the State Council, or cabinet, published a report titled “The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2010” here Sunday. Following is the full text:

Human Rights Record of the United States in 2010

The State Department of the United States released its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2010 on April 8, 2011. As in previous years, the reports are full of distortions and accusations of the human rights situation in more than 190 countries and regions including China. However, the United States turned a blind eye to its own terrible human rights situation and seldom mentioned it. The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2010 is prepared to urge the United States to face up to its own human rights issues.

I. On Life, Property and Personal Security

The United States reports the world’s highest incidence of violent crimes, and its people’s lives, properties and personal security are not duly protected.

Every year, one out of every five people is a victim of a crime in the United States. No other nation on earth has a rate that is higher (10 Facts About Crime in the United States that Will Blow Your Mind, Beforitsnews.com). In 2009, an estimated 4.3 million violent crimes, 15.6 million property crimes and 133,000 personal thefts were committed against U.S. residents aged 12 or older, and the violent crime rate was 17.1 victimizations per 1,000 persons, according to a report published by the U.S. Department of Justice on October 13, 2010 (Criminal Victimization 2009, U.S. Department of Justice, http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov). The crime rate surged in many cities in the United States. St. Louis in Missouri reported more than 2,070 violent crimes per 100,000 residents, making it the nation’s most dangerous city (The Associated Press, November 22, 2010). Detroit residents experienced more than 15,000 violent crimes each year, which means the city has 1,600 violent crimes per 100,000 residents. The United States’ four big cities – Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York – reported increases in murders in 2010 from the previous year (USA Today, December 5, 2010). Twenty-five murder cases occurred in Los Angeles County in a week from March 29 to April 4, 2010; and in the first half of 2010, 373 people were killed in murders in Los Angeles County (www.lapdonline.org). As of November 11, New York City saw 464 homicide cases, up 16 percent from the 400 reported at the same time last year (The Washington Post, November 12, 2010).

The United States exercised lax control on the already rampant gun ownership. Reuters reported on November 10, 2010 that the United States ranks first in the world in terms of the number of privately-owned guns. Some 90 million people own an estimated 200 million guns in the United States, which has a population of about 300 million. The Supreme Court of the United States ruled on June 28, 2010 that the second amendment of the U.S. Constitution gives Americans the right to bear arms that can not be violated by state and local governments, thus extending the Americans’ rights to own a gun for self-defense purposes to the entire country (The Washington Post, June 29, 2010). Four U.S. states – Tennessee, Arizona, Georgia and Virginia – allow loaded guns in bars. And 18 other states allow weapons in restaurants that serve alcohol (The New York Times, October 3, 2010). Tennessee has nearly 300,000 handgun permit holders. The Washington Times reported on June 7, 2010 that in November 2008, a total of 450,000 more people in the United States purchased firearms than had bought them in November 2007. This was a more than 10-fold increase, compared with the change in sales from November 2007 over November 2006. From November 2008 to October 2009, almost 2.5 million more people bought guns than had done so in the preceding 12 months (The Washington Times, June 7, 2010). The frequent campus shootings in colleges in the United States came to the spotlight in recent years. The United Kingdom’s Daily Telegraph reported on February 21, 2011 that a new law that looks certain to pass through the legislature in Texas, the United States, would allow half a million students and teachers in its 38 public colleges to carry guns on campus. It would become only the second state, after Utah, to enforce such a rule.

The United States had high incidence of gun-related blood-shed crimes. Statistics showed there were 12,000 gun murders a year in the United States (The New York Times, September 26, 2010). Figures released by the U.S. Department of Justice on October 13, 2010 showed weapons were used in 22 percent of all violent crimes in the United States in 2009, and about 47 percent of robberies were committed with arms (www.ojp.usdoj.gov, October 13, 2010). On March 30, 2010, five men killed four people and seriously injured five others in a deadly drive-by shooting (The Washington Post, April 27, 2010). In April, six separate shootings occurred overnight, leaving 16 total people shot, two fatally (www.myfoxchicago.com). On April 3, a deadly shooting at a restaurant in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, left four people dead and two others wounded (www.nbclosangeles.com, April 4, 2010). One person was killed and 21 others wounded in separate shootings around Chicago roughly between May 29 and 30 (www.chicagobreakingnews.com, May 30, 2010). In June, 52 people were shot at a weekend in Chicago (www.huffingtonpost.com, June 21, 2010). Three police officers were shot dead by assailants in the three months from May to July (Chicago Tribune, July 19, 2010). A total of 303 people were shot and 33 of them were killed in Chicago in the 31 days of July in 2010. Between November 5 and 8, four people were killed and at least five others injured in separate shootings in Oakland (World Journal, November 11, 2010). On November 30, a 15-year-old boy in Marinette County, Wisconsin, took his teacher and 24 classmates hostage at gunpoint (abcNews, November 30, 2010). On January 8, 2011, a deadly rampage critically wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Six people were killed and 12 others injured in the attack (Los Angeles Times, January 9, 2011).

Read more: http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/90883/7345784.html

Cuba Support Group Ireland
PRESS RELEASE, 12 April 2011

NATIONAL TOUR 14 – 21 APRIL: Bay of Pigs Anniversary Celebration
================================================================

Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Cuban Victory at the Bay of Pigs

10 towns, 8 days, 3 Cubans, 50 years of resistance: Cuba Support Group
Ireland, in conjunction with Irish Friends of Cuba Coalition, is pleased to
announce a major tour of Ireland by a high-level delegation from Cuba to
celebrate the victory of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces over the CIA
back mercenary invasion of Cuba on 16 April 1961. This will be an event
that anyone with an interest in Cuba, world history, politics or journalism
will want to participate. The delegation will be lead by Col. Victor Dreke,
a highly decorated Cuban military commander and veteran of the Bay of Pigs
victory.

The tour will culminate with a day-long symposium in Liberty hall Dublin on
16 April examining the historical significance of the Bay of Pigs, the
enduring validity of the Cuban Revolution and the Challenges that Cuba is
facing today.

Symposium in Liberty Hall, Dublin
=================================

09:00 – 09:30
Registration

09:30 – 10:30
Documentary film: “66 Hours” – The True Story of Bay of Pigs.
Directed by Otto M. Guzmán, MUNDO LATINO

10:30 – 10:45
Introduction by Jack McGinley, Chair of the SIPTU Solidarity with Cuba
Forum.

10:45 – 11:45
Historical significance of the Bay of Pigs Victory.
Speakers: Víctor Dreke, Deputy Chairman of the Association of Combatants of
the Cuban Revolution, Bay of Pigs veteran.
Moderator: Gerry Grainger, Workers Party
Q&A

11:45 – 12:00
Coffee
12:00 – 13:00

Validity of the Cuban Revolution 50 years after declaring its socialist
character.
Speaker: Reinaldo Taladrid, journalist and political analyst
Moderator: Eugene Mc Cartan, Communist Party of Ireland
Q&A

13:00 – 14:00
Lunch

14:00 – 16:30
Solidarity with Cuba Presentations and adoption of Plan of Action
– The US blockade.
Speakers: Simon McGuinness and Dr. David Hickey, Cuba Support Group and
María Aleida del Riego, Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples.
– EU Common Position on Cuba.
Speakers: Barbara de Brun MEP and Teresita Trujillo, Cuban Ambassador to
Ireland.
– The Miami Five.
Speakers: Reinaldo Taladrid, Finian McGrath TD and Jimmy Kelly, UNITE.

16:30
Closing remarks. Adoption of the Final Declaration.
Speaker; Jack O’Connor ICTU.

17:00
Laying of wreath at the memorial to Commandant James Connolly by Cuban
veteran

18:00
Internationale

Advanced registration for Dublin event recommended via email to
IrishFriendsofCubaCoalition@gmail.com

The Cuban Delegation
====================

Col. Victor Dreke Cruz
———————-
On 17 April 1961, the first day of the Bay of Pigs Invasion, Victor Dreke
assumed command of two companies of the 117th Battalion, taking part in a
clash with paratroops of US lead “Brigade 2506” under the command of
Comandante Che Guevara. On 19 April, he was wounded in combat and briefly
captured after driving towards Girón in a jeep ahead of his tanks.

Highly decorated in Cuba and Africa, he was to serve in Congo in 1965 under
Che, and later in 1966-8 in Guinea-Bissau, he retired in 1990.
More:
http://bayofpigs50.blogspot.com/2011/02/biography-of-victor-dreke-cruz.html

Reinaldo Taladrid
—————–
Award winning Cuban journalist TV presenter and broadcaster, Reinaldo
Taladrid has worked for most of the major news channels in the USA and
currently hosts a nightly “Round Table” political discussion on Cuban TV
which is broadcast to the whole of Latin America on the TeleSUR satellite.
He is one of the most recognised people in Cuba and has interviewed all of
the Cuban leaders and two US presidents. He is uniquely placed to provide
an overview of Cuba’s place in Latin America, its current economic
adjustments and the prospects of US-Cuban relations.

Maria Aleida del Riego
———————-
Coordinator for Ireland and Britain of the Cuban Institute of Friendship of
the Peoples (ICAP), Maria Aleida del Riego have visited Ireland before and
is familiar with all the groups in these Irelands who are active in support
of the Cuban Revolution. Maria coordinates the brigades on which Irish
people travel to Cuba and is an invaluable source of information and
assistance to visitors who want to understand the nature of Cuban society.

National Bay of Pigs Tour Programme
===================================

Limerick
——–
Thursday, 14 April, 18:00 hrs
Reinaldo Taladrid – Public meeting at the University of Limerick – Room
C1061 in Main Building
Cuba Support Group
Contact: Nina Blodau nblodauyahoo.com

Waterford
———
Thursday, 14 April 19:00 hrs.
Maria Aleida del Riego – Public meeting
Waterford Trades Council
Contact: Tommy Hogan
Ph: 086 1656818

Dublin
——
Saturday, 16 April 09.00 – 18.00
Liberty Hall Bay of Pigs Celebration
Day-Long Conference (see detailed programme below)
SIPTU / Cuba Support Group Contact: Simon McGuinness CubaSupport@eircom.net

Belfast
——-
Monday, 18 April, 19.00
Victor Dreke & Reinaldo Taladrid – Public meeting in Europa Hotel
With film, music and presentations
Sinn Fein
Contact Sean Murray
Sean.murraysinn-fein.ie

Derry
—–
Monday, 18 April, 20.00
Maria Aleida del Riego – Public meeting in Sandino’s
Sinn Fein
Contact Daisy Mules

Galway
——
Tuesday, 19 April, 20.00
Victor Dreke & Reinaldo Taladrid – Public meeting in SIPTU Hall
Galway Trades Union Council
Contact: Pat Hardiman
Pathardiman99gmail.com

Letterkenny
———–
Tuesday, 19 April, 19.00
Maria Aleida del Riego – Public meeting in Station House (Ramada) Hotel;
with Cuban film “66 Hours”
Cuba Support Group
Contact: Bill O’Brien wobrien05eircom.net

Sligo
—–
Wednesday, 20 April
Maria Aleida del Riego Public meeting in Glasshouse Hotel, Hyde Bridge
Organized by Declan Bree dbreeeircom.net

Dundalk
——-
Wednesday, 20 April, 19.30
Reinaldo Taladrid – Public meeting venue Imperial Hotel
Sinn Féin
Contact: Emma McArdle
Emma.mcardlesinn-fein.ie

Cork
—-
Thursday, 21 April, 19.30
Victor Dreke, Reinaldo Taladrid & Maria Aleida del Riego Public meeting in
Connolly Hall.
Cuba Support Group contact: John Bowen johnbowen51gmail.com

__________________________________________________________
_______________________

Further information and to arrange media interviews with the delegation
contact:

Simon McGuinness,
National Coordinator,
Cuba Support Group Ireland,
15 Merrion Square, Dublin 2.

Ph: 087 6785842
www.CubaSupport.com

From the National Guardian
March 16, 1953

On Stalin
By W.E.B. DuBois

Joseph Stalin was a great man; few other men of the 20th century approach his stature. He was simple, calm and courageous. He seldom lost his poise; pondered his problems slowly, made his decisions clearly and firmly; never yielded to ostentation nor coyly refrained from holding his rightful place with dignity. He was the son of a serf but stood calmly before the great without hesitation or nerves. But also – and this was the highest proof of his greatness – he knew the common man, felt his problems, followed his fate.

Stalin was not a man of conventional learning; he was much more than that: he was a man who thought deeply, read understandingly and listened to wisdom, no matter whence it came. He was attacked and slandered as few men of power have been; yet he seldom lost his courtesy and balance; nor did he let attack drive him from his convictions nor induce him to surrender positions which he knew were correct. As one of the despised minorities of man, he first set Russia on the road to conquer race prejudice and make one nation out of its 140 groups without destroying their individuality.

His judgment of men was profound. He early saw through the flamboyance and exhibitionism of Trotsky, who fooled the world, and especially America. The whole ill-bred and insulting attitude of Liberals in the U.S. today began with our naive acceptance of Trotsky’s magnificent lying propaganda, which he carried around the world. Against it, Stalin stood like a rock and moved neither right nor left, as he continued to advance toward a real socialism instead of the sham Trotsky offered.

Three great decisions faced Stalin in power and he met them magnificently: first, the problem of the peasants, then the West European attack, and last the Second World War. The poor Russian peasant was the lowest victim of tsarism, capitalism and the Orthodox Church. He surrendered the Little White Father easily; he turned less readily but perceptibly from his ikons; but his kulaks clung tenaciously to capitalism and were near wrecking the revolution when Stalin risked a second revolution and drove out the rural bloodsuckers.

Then came intervention, the continuing threat of attack by all nations, halted by the Depression, only to be re-opened by Hitlerism. It was Stalin who steered the Soviet Union between Scylla and Charybdis: Western Europe and the U.S. were willing to betray her to fascism, and then had to beg her aid in the Second World War. A lesser man than Stalin would have demanded vengeance for Munich, but he had the wisdom to ask only justice for his fatherland. This Roosevelt granted but Churchill held back. The British Empire proposed first to save itself in Africa and southern Europe, while Hitler smashed the Soviets.

The Second Front dawdled, but Stalin pressed unfalteringly ahead. He risked the utter ruin of socialism in order to smash the dictatorship of Hitler and Mussolini. After Stalingrad the Western World did not know whether to weep or applaud. The cost of victory to the Soviet Union was frightful. To this day the outside world has no dream of the hurt, the loss and the sacrifices. For his calm, stern leadership here, if nowhere else, arises the deep worship of Stalin by the people of all the Russias.

Then came the problem of Peace. Hard as this was to Europe and America, it was far harder to Stalin and the Soviets. The conventional rulers of the world hated and feared them and would have been only too willing to see the utter failure of this attempt at socialism. At the same time the fear of Japan and Asia was also real. Diplomacy therefore took hold and Stalin was picked as the victim. He was called in conference with British imperialism represented by its trained and well-fed aristocracy; and with the vast wealth and potential power of America represented by its most liberal leader in half a century.

Here Stalin showed his real greatness. He neither cringed nor strutted. He never presumed, he never surrendered. He gained the friendship of Roosevelt and the respect of Churchill. He asked neither adulation nor vengeance. He was reasonable and conciliatory. But on what he deemed essential, he was inflexible. He was willing to resurrect the League of Nations, which had insulted the Soviets. He was willing to fight Japan, even though Japan was then no menace to the Soviet Union, and might be death to the British Empire and to American trade. But on two points Stalin was adamant: Clemenceau’s “Cordon Sanitaire” must be returned to the Soviets, whence it had been stolen as a threat. The Balkans were not to be left helpless before Western exploitation for the benefit of land monopoly. The workers and peasants there must have their say.

Such was the man who lies dead, still the butt of noisy jackals and of the ill-bred men of some parts of the distempered West. In life he suffered under continuous and studied insult; he was forced to make bitter decisions on his own lone responsibility. His reward comes as the common man stands in solemn acclaim.

http://www.mltranslations.org/Miscellaneous/DuBoisJVS.htm