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How can the Palestinian struggle for freedom and dignity take lessons from the Black Liberation Movement? Historical circumstances are clearly different yet there are similarities. Both are located in a colonial-like situation, where a powerful oppressor dominates another less powerful group. Racism is a major factor. The Black Liberation Movement and Malcolm X’s eloquent voice and militant politics resonate with Palestinians struggling for their freedom. Liberation struggles are not easy. Resistance to change is entrenched. Power does not readily give up its prerogatives. 2CDs

Hindutva is theocratic Hindu nationalism. It is a powerful force in what is now the world’s most populous country. Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, is a lifelong member of the RSS, an openly Hindu supremacist organization. Le Monde Diplomatique reports: Hindutva “followers regard India as a Hindu country. Non-Hindus are at best guests, at worst invaders, and must be identified, watched, deprived of certain rights, and in some cases expelled or even eliminated. The main victims of Hindutva are India’s large Muslim minority. Hindutva adherents oppose mixed Hindu-Muslim marriages, calling them a ‘love jihad’ that aims to convert Hindu women so that their offspring will be raised as Muslims. This paranoid fantasy has encouraged violence and widespread denigration of Indian Muslims.” Recorded at the Swedish Academy at the Thought and Truth Under Pressure conference.

Corporate power is more concentrated than ever before. The rich are significantly richer. And the poor? Well, they know their place. There’s an odor of fascism in the air. FDR once warned, “The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism.” You can hardly turn on the radio or TV or go online and not hear or read the sentence: This is the most important election in American history. In response to the current crises, note the plural, we can moan and groan or we can act. The task for concerned citizens is what it always has been: organize at the grassroots, resist oppression and put forth positive alternatives.

The separation of church and state has long been a cornerstone of American democracy. The Founders of the Republic, Jefferson, Madison, et al, insisted on a secular government unencumbered by religious dogma. However, in recent years decisions by a conservative-dominated Supreme Court have increasingly blurred that barrier. How has this happened? Enter Leonard Leo and a pile of money. Co-chair of the highly influential Federalist Society, he has been at the forefront of weaponizing religious freedom. According to Andrew Seidel, Leo “is universally recognized as the man who orchestrated the hostile takeover of the Supreme Court. He is responsible for the nomination and confirmation of John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.” Leo chose them, Seidel says, for their “crusader ideology.” The erosion of secular values poses a threat to democracy.

Julia Conley, staff writer for Common Dreams writes, “Along with persistent protests at public events held by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, recent polling is continuously demonstrating that the White House's vehement support for Israel's bombardment of Gaza despite the rising civilian death toll is not winning them accolades among the voters whose backing they depend on in the upcoming election.” Conley cites a recent poll that “50% of 2020 Biden voters believe the Israeli assault that the U.S. has helped fund is a genocide.” Young Democrats in particular are highly critical of the administration’s policy dimming Biden’s reelection hopes.

In a landmark decision the International Court of Justice, the UN’s highest judicial body, based in The Hague, by an overwhelming vote ruled that the accusation that Israel in its assault on Gaza is committing genocide is “plausible.” The Israeli prime minister in response said, “Israel’s commitment to international law is unwavering. The charge of genocide leveled against Israel is not only false, it’s outrageous.” Almost certainly the issue will move from the ICJ to the UN Security Council where it is likely to be vetoed by Washington. Meanwhile, in Gaza, where no place is safe, the bloodbath continues. The number of Palestinians killed, wounded and missing is soaring. Internationally, Washington is more and more isolated. Biden’s “ironclad” backing of Israel is coming under increasing scrutiny and opposition. The U.S., critics say, is enabling genocide.

A vital and independent press is essential to the functioning of democracy. In recent years, media concentration has accelerated. This has resulted in the closing down of many domestic and foreign bureaus and a sharp reduction in the number of working reporters. In pursuit of a juicy tidbit, too many journalists today cozy up to power. They take pride in being called on by their first name at presidential news conferences. They play golf and tennis with high administration officials and are invited to all the important dinner parties. We need a press that will hold the feet of the mighty to the fire and not drink cabernet sauvignon with them. Citizens are ill-served by lapdogs with laptops.

In the wake of the Holocaust in the 1940s and earlier in the century the genocidal attacks against the Armenians by Turkey and the German slaughter of the Herero and Namaqua peoples in SW Africa, the Polish jurist Raphael Lemkin coined the term genocide. In 1948 the UN adopted the Genocide Convention. On December 29, 2023, South Africa filed a case with the UN’s International Court of Justice in The Hague accusing Israel of the crime of genocide in its ongoing assault on Gaza. The Convention defines genocide as “the intent to destroy in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.” Israel has dismissed the South African charge calling it “meritless.”

The “Oppenheimer” movie and the Ukraine war have brought much-needed attention to the possibility of terminal war. The arms race will end the human race. To call nukes weapons of mass destruction comes nowhere near describing the level of devastation that their use would result in. To be clear, these are weapons of annihilation that would make Hiroshima and Nagasaki look trivial. And how are our great leaders addressing this existential threat? Instead of advocating universal nuclear disarmament countries led by the U.S. are spending billions to upgrade them. That’s a good definition of insanity. It’s nothing short of a miracle that nuclear war, the ending of the planet, has not happened. Can our luck last forever? The odds and logic say no. If we don’t reverse the insane arms race, we will be committing suicide.

Gideon Levy, the noted Israeli journalist, says "Gaza is a cage, the biggest prison in the world." 2.3 million Palestinians are locked in a small area. For years they have been under siege by Israel and now relentless bombing resulting in tens of thousands of deaths and massive destruction. If you're trapped in a cage you'll try to break out. Millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem have been under the boot of Israel, enduring decades of occupation, killings, oppression, imprisonment of thousands, evictions, land seizures, roadblocks, checkpoints, walls, and fences. That explains what happened on October 7. It doesn’t excuse it. As the great poet W.H. Auden wrote, “I and the public know What all schoolchildren learn, Those to whom evil is done Do evil in return.”