Scintilla, April 2024,
Organ of Communist Platform, for the Communist Party of the Proletariat of Italy [posted 3/29: piattaformacomunista.com/index.php/appello-per-il-xxviii-campeggio-internazionale-della-gioventu-democratica-antifascista-e-antimperialista/ ]
Appeal for the 28th International Camp of Democratic, Anti-Fascist and Anti-Imperialist Youth
2024, Dominican Republic [poster]
''Youth united for peace and the future against imperialism and its wars''
We appeal to the youth of the world, those who are fighting for better living conditions, for our rights and for real change against the system of exploitation, inequality, violence and war. We say: Stop war and genocide! No more racism! No more exploitation! Stop the oppression of women! No more subjugation of the youth and peoples!
All over the world, the imperialist powers, with their allies, continue to compete for control of new territories, using reactionary violence to impose their interests and subjugate the peoples. The most recent evidence of this reality is the genocide that is taking place in Palestine, where Israeli Zionism, in its new wave of violence since October 2023, has caused the death of several thousand Palestinians and aims to annihilate a nation. The danger of a world conflict is always present as long as capitalism exists.
Similarly, the war in Ukraine represents one of the crucial conflicts of our time, showing the contradictions between imperialist groups such as NATO, the EU, the USA, China and Russia. The great powers have subjugated the African, Asian, and Latin American continents for decades, imposing inequality, hunger, and poverty. The imperialists wage war and reap the profits, while the peoples suffer the consequences and the youth end up becoming ''cannon fodder'' in these predatory wars. The general crisis of the system is aggravated by the economic crisis that is brewing. The rich of the world are trying to shift the consequences onto the shoulders of the workers, the youth and the people. To achieve this, they make use of their governments, promote social cuts, increase the cost of living, labor flexibility, unemployment, and an education catastrophe that threatens the perpetuation of inequality.
The capitalist offensive against the world working class is trying to disguise itself with ''new'' faces, but it does not hide its intention to push for the suppression of previously obtained rights. Examples of this threat include the policies of Milei in Argentina, Daniel Noboa in Ecuador, Dina Boluarte in Peru, and the prevailing colonial situation in Puerto Rico, among others.
The economic crisis, imperialist war and climate change converge as the immediate challenges of our time. This triple threat represents a common danger for the future, especially for young people. That is why, all over the world, the working class, youth, peasants, indigenous peoples, women and nature defenders are rising up, resisting and mobilizing. Urgent change is needed, and we will achieve it.
Therefore, the democratic, anti-imperialist and anti-fascist youth of the world is organizing for a new world without exploitation, free and in which they can live in peace. We will meet from August 18 to 25 in the Dominican Republic at the 28th International Camp of the Democratic, Anti-Fascist and Anti-Imperialist Youth, where we will discuss our problems, our struggle and our hopes. We will share experiences, participate in study, cultural and sporting activities to strengthen ties, all with the aim of agreeing on common actions to unify our struggles and proceed, shoulder to shoulder, with the working class and the peoples of the world.
Cordially
The International Preparatory Committee
[The current main calendar is posted at: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2024/04/some-additional-events-and.html ]
consortiumnews.com/2024/04/12/vijay-prashad-violating-diplomatic-missions/ The BBC interviewed an expert on international law this morning who claimed that Israel had apparently violated international law in attacking Iran's embassy in Syria and that Iran and Syria would violate international law if they retaliate militarily, but her examples of legal retaliation (economic sanctions, going to the UN Secretary General, etc.) would not deter Israel and the US. I don't think Iran and Syria have economic or diplomatic relations with Israel to break and the USA shields Israel from action by the UN. When the US government and its mainstream media say that the goal is to prevent the war from widening in the Middle East, what they mean is Israel gets a free hand to commit what looks like ethnic cleansing and massive violation of "international law" and the "rules of war," with no real limits imposed by the Biden administration, and the US will "deter" any other country or group from intervening militarily on the side of the Palestinians, even as Israel widens the war on its own accord by bombing Syria and Lebanon and assassinating Iranian personnel in third countries. The media calls this an "Israel-Hamas war," as if it doesn't involve all of Palestine and acts of war aren't happening throughout the region. The US is also practically a co-belligerent. The West Bank is kept down by the Israeli military, armed settlers, and the Palestinian Authority, leaving Gaza as the main theatre, so far, and the background of the conflict begins October 7th for the media. Whatever happened to IJ, etc in Gaza? On the other hand, nearby countries and groups are being bombed by Israel or exchanging fire with them, but many don't seem to want all out war. Note that the BBC can say Iranian "embassy" or "consulate," but NPR seems to prefer to say that an unnamed Iranian general, etc. were killed in Syria. [They have said the words on the 13th, but it still feels like NPR was avoiding them before. The US government might want to deny that the building was a diplomatic facility, but even if that were true, Syrian sovereignty was violated and people killed, for what reason? I don't think Israel has claimed or given a justification for the bombing. I think NPR's problem goes far beyond belief in Adam Schiff, though the evidence disappears into the air, behind paywalls, somewhere on the Internet, etc.: www.thefp.com/p/npr-editor-how-npr-lost-americas-trust/ , posted April 9th.] What outrage and shock they [NPR] would put up if a US diplomatic building in another country, at peace or not, were demolished. Is the issue that embassies are treated as sovereign territory, so this was like an attack inside Iran, or is it that an embassy was blown up in a third country not even directly involved in the war? And then Israel and the US pledged to 'respond' jointly if Iran retaliates for what Israel started. What if Israel goes further? It has been suggested that Israel could engineer an "October surprise" to give the election to Trump, though Biden has already damaged seriously his chances by deciding to go so far with Israel.
[The US, France, and the UK blocked a Russian proposal to condemn the April 1st attack on Iran's embassy: www.reuters.com/world/un-security-council-fails-condemn-strike-iran-syria-2024-04-03/ ]
[The "moral suicide" of Israel and the "West" in the war in Gaza: newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/end-of-innocence ]
[Tax resistance over the war in Palestine: popularresistance.org/tax-resistance-movement-grows-in-response-to-us-support-for-genocide/ ]
Religious freedom and other civil liberties in the EU going the Ukrainian way : www.rt.com/russia/595784-russian-church-estonia-terrorists/
[And 'freedom of speech' in Germany: popularresistance.org/german-police-shut-down-pro-palestine-conference/ ] [DiEM25 livestream on the incident: 4/16 at 6pm CET 5pm GMT 12pm EST? – www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZoYUOpxDYY ] [The BBC often talks about the status of abortion rights in the US, but now 4/14 PM it came out that abortion is mostly illegal and controversial even in Germany. I can't recall the BBC ever talking about the status of abortion in the UK, though they haven't covered it in Russia either. They attacked China over its One Child policy and now they focus on population decline, lack of interest in having children, and feminism in China. They also often have this focus with the ROK, Japan, and maybe Russia, and not so much with the rest of Europe's declining population. What about the 'need' for draftable youth in Taiwan?]
The Japanese prime minister was in North Carolina from DC Friday, April 12th. Joint US, Japan, and ROK naval manuevers in the East China Sea, aimed at China, ended.
[2010's Chapel Hill/Carrboro UFO reports in the DTH: www.dailytarheel.com/article/2013/02/e-t-may-be-phoning-home-more-often and www.dailytarheel.com/article/2012/11/triangle-seen-in-carrboro-sky An article on the former Internationalist Books should be coming up or was published the week of April 8th.]
Professor of English and author Peter Dale Scott (born January 11, 1929 in Montreal): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Dale_Scott
Rightist writer and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891 in Notasulga, Alabama – January 28, 1960 in Fort Pierce, Florida); there is/was a campaign to rename an academic building at UNC for her (Saunders/Carolina or Hamilton?): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zora_Neale_Hurston
Ralph Nader (born February 27, 1934 in Winsted, Connecticut): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Nader
Writer Ralph Ellison (March 1, 1913? in Oklahoma City – April 16, 1994 in New York City): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Ellison
Amateur geologist Ellen Devereux Sewall Osgood (March 10, 1822 – December 8, 1892): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Sewall_Osgood
K'inich Janaab' Pakal I or Pacal the Great of Palenque, now in Chiapas, in southern Mexico, is supposed to have been born March 19, 603 CE: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_monarchs
The Tokyo subway sarin nerve gas attack was March 20, 1995 and there had been a similar attack in Matsumoto June 27, 1994, among other crimes attributed to Aum Shinrikyo: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aum_Shinrikyo
The Prefectural Earth Defense Force (県立地球防衛軍, Kenritsu Chikyū Bōei Gun) OVA came out March 21, 1986, and became legally available in the USA April 18, 2006: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prefectural_Earth_Defense_Force
Akira Kurosawa (黒澤明 or 黒沢明) March 23, 1910 – September 6, 1998): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira_Kurosawa
Poet Robert Lee Frost (March 26, 1874 in San Francisco, California – January 29, 1963 in Boston): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Frost
K'uk' Bahlam of Palenque, now in southern Mexico, is supposed to have been born March 30, 397 CE: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_monarchs
The Battle of Puná, between the Spanish and non-Inca locals, was in April 1531 on an island near what is today Guayaquil, Ecuador: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Puná
Manga artist Akira Toriyama (鳥山明, April 5, 1955 – March 1, 2024): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira_Toriyama
Future Boy Conan (未来少年コナン, Mirai Shōnen Konan), directed by Hayao Miyazaki, originally aired April 4th to October 31st in 1978: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Boy_Conan
Walter Scott was killed April 4, 2015 in North Charleston, South Carolina: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Walter_Scott
Director Isao Takahata (高畑 勲) October 29, 1935 – April 5, 2018): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isao_Takahata
The inter-conquistador Battle of Las Salinas was April 6, 1538 near Cuzco, Peru: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Las_Salinas
The Pioneer 11 probe was launched April 6, 1973: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_11 Pioneer 10 had been launched March 3, 1972: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_10
April 6, 1979 Israel sabotaged a French nuclear reactor being sent to Iraq: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Opera
Leftist musician David Stefan Rovics (born April 10, 1967 in New York City): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Rovics
[NPR left Twitter/X April 12, 2023 because they want media in US government-targeted countries to be labelled and vilified as state media, but how dare NPR, the BBC, the CBC, etc. be so labelled: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NPR_controversies and twitter.com/NPR (but I don't see a government-funded or state media label here on BBC or Voice of America accounts). State media is fine, but government-funded "Western" media outlets use the label as a way to tar government-funded media in targeted countries – don't listen to or consider what they say, and believe Biden, NATO, the Israeli government, the Ukrainian government, the Pentagon, the "intelligence community," etc. They said bizarre things about the alleged independence of the Voice of America during the Trump administration, but apparently in 2019 NPR was actually led by someone from the VOA.]
There will be Spring Plant Sales with various vendors at the Chatham Mill Farmers' Market in Pittsboro April 13th, 20th, and 27th 8am-12pm: www.chathammillsfarmersmarket.com/spring-plant-sales/ (includes vendor plant lists).
[Iran attacked Israel April 13th over the April 1st embassy bombing in Syria. Were the drones and missiles shot down over Jordan, etc, and if people had been hit by shrapnel? Biden said "Don't" to Iran a few days ago – so what is he saying to Israel now? Aaron David Miller told the BBC that we are in a "strategic cul de sac" or something – Israel is the "decider" for the US government regarding war now. This is a dramatic "escalation," not Israel's attacks deep inside Lebanon and Syria. The BBC even brought up Israel's years of covert assassination missions carried out inside Iran. Biden has to restrain Israel, but hasn't, at least not openly.]
Neo-Inca leader Túpac Amaru (April 14, 1545 – September 24, 1572): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Túpac_Amaru
[Durham Central Park Spring Food Truck Rodeo and Lao Solar New Year? – April 14th 12-4pm, and again June 9, September 8, and November 3rd at 501 Foster Street.]
[April 14th National Pecan Day, free cookie day at Tonya's Cookies and Bake Shop in Chapel Hill.]
Strike for Gaza April 15th: www.shutitdown4palestine.org/toolkits
Grave of the Fireflies (火垂るの墓, Hotaru no Haka), set in WWII Kobe, Japan came out April 16, 1988 and the two Barefoot Gen movies, set in Hiroshima, came out a few years earlier, in the summer: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_of_the_Fireflies and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barefoot_Gen_(1983_film)
[Free Cone Day at Ben and Jerry's April 16th 12-8pm]
[JCRA April 17th 3pm online: jcra.ncsu.edu/midweek/ Deeper in the Garden: "The Real Secret Life of Plants"]
K'an II of Caracol (a name in Spanish), now in the western central Cayo District of Belize, is supposed to have been born April 18, 588 CE: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_monarchs
[The Asian and African Bandung Conference, a first not involving Europe or the Americas, was held in Indonesia April 18-24 in 1955. A few days ago NPR's All Things Considered interviewed a Belgian academic on his new book on Indonesia and decolonization and mentioned Bandung. There was no mention of Indonesia's shadows, the killing or imprisonment of a huge number of supposed communists (in the PKI), the Suharto dictatorship, mistreatment of indigenous people in western New Guinea, and the occupation of East Timor, now independent. There might also be an issue of Indonesian independence leaders having collaborated with Japan during WWII: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandung_Conference NPR can't laud the communist-led Vietnamese, Chinese, or Korean national liberation movements.] [The book is Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World by Belgian historian David Van Reybrouck: www.npr.org/2024/04/09/1243752585/how-indonesias-revolution-paved-the-way-for-decolonization-worldwide and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Van_Reybrouck ]
[The first annual Ocracoke Earth Day will be April 19th-21st: www.ocracokealive.org ]
[Free Fridays on the Front Porch is still held at the Carolina Inn, by UNC, in Chapel Hill, 5-8pm April 19th-October 25 in 2024.]
[Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel y Bermúdez Larjiq Zada (born April 20, 1960 in Placetas, in Villa Clara province in northwestern central Cuba): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_Díaz-Canel ]
There will be an FODL Pop-Up DVD Sale at the Durham Main Library Saturday, April 20th 11am-3pm: fodlnc.org/events/ There will be a few book sales in the Triangle this month and later in the summer.
[April 20th 12-4pm Apex EarthFest at the Town Hall, 73 Hunter Street.]
[Broadway Our Way in Broadway, NC April 20th 10am-10pm]
[Don Quixote author Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (around September 29, 1547 – April 22, 1616): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Cervantes ]
[Mayfest at Thistledown Farm in Graham, NC April 27th 3-9pm; a free reservation is required.]
[Piedmont Farm Animal Refuge Tour and Explore in Pittsboro April 27th. Raleigh Underground Market?]
The LA riots were April 29th-May 4th, 1992, after the March 3, 1991 beating of Rodney King: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Los_Angeles_riots
Blood and red ink or paint were put on the UNC Confederate soldier statue known as "Silent Sam" April 30, 2018 and it was toppled August 20, 2018 around 9:20pm, the night before the first day of fall classes. The pedestal was removed at some point and apparently an incongruous conifer was planted at the site in November 2020: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Sam
The expedition of Hernando de Soto, coming from the town of Cofaqui, Ocute, now in Greene County, Georgia, entered and occupied the Mississippian chiefdom of Cofitachequi, now lost, but thought to have been near the Wateree River in what is now northern South Carolina, southwest of Durham, May 1, 1540. The Spanish army was in the town for about 10 days. They looted a treasure of pearls from a temple and took the apparently ruling "Lady of Cofitachequi" with them by force when they left for Joara, in what is now Burke County, North Carolina. She escaped on the way. Cofitachequi's 'original' inhabitants left or otherwise vanished sometime after about 1672, when Henry Woodward visited the area. In 1701 John Lawson (December 27, 1674 – September 16, 1711, tortured to death by the Tuscarora around the beginning of the Tuscarora War) said the area was inhabited by the Congaree. The Muscogee, Catawba, and other groups today are supposed to have ties to Cofitachequi. See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cofitachequi , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocute , and the current issue of the Archaeological Institute of America's Archaeology magazine ( archaeology.org , online at: www.archaeology.org/issues/550-2405/features/12289-south-carolina-cofitachequi-chiefdom ).
[UNAC is calling for demonstrations against the wars in the Middle East on International Workers' Day/May 1st?] [ popularresistance.org/unac-conference-draws-hundreds-with-a-focus-on-building-unity-in-action/ ]
An Inca army under Manco Inca Yupanqui laid siege to the capital, Cuzco, held by Spanish and allied forces under Hernando Pizarro, May 6, 1536 to early March 1537: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Cusco
John Brown (May 9, 1800 – December 2, 1859): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brown_(abolitionist)
José Gabriel Condorcanqui or Túpac Amaru II (circa 1742 – May 18, 1781): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Túpac_Amaru_II
[Vietnamese independence leader and revolutionary Ho Chi Minh was born in central Vietnam around May 19, 1890 and passed away at 9:47am September 2, 1969 in Hanoi: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho_Chi_Minh
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Waldo_Emerson
Walter Whitman Jr. (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Whitman
The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) was founded sometime in June 1965: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_Arab_News_Agency
[Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz (born June 3, 1931 in Biran, in Holguin Province in eastern Cuba): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raúl_Castro
[The annual Ocrafolk Festival will be June 7-9th on the coast of North Carolina: www.ocracokealive.org ]
Historian Alfred "Al" William McCoy (born June 8, 1945 in Concord, Massachusetts): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_W._McCoy
June 14, 1980 Israel is thought to have assassinated Yahya El Mashad, the Egyptian head of Iraq's nuclear program, while he was in Paris. There were other suspicious deaths in Western Europe, bombings, and threats. Tzipi Livni was allegedly involved: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahya_El_Mashad , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Rasul_(Iraqi_scientist) , and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Opera
[Pierre Goldman (June 22, 1944 in Lyon, France – September 20, 1979 assassinated in Paris, possibly by the Spanish and/or French governments): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Goldman ]
Francisco Pizarro, Marquess of the Atabillos (circa March 16, 1478 – assassinated June 26, 1541 by the half native Panamanian son of a conquistador Pizarro had had executed July 8, 1538): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Pizarro , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diego_de_Almagro , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diego_de_Almagro_II
Novelist William Cuthbert Faulkner (September 25, 1897 in New Albany, Mississippi – July 6, 1962 in Byhalia, Mississippi): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Faulkner
Aum Shinrikyo leader Shoko Asahara (麻原 彰晃) born Chizuo Matsumoto (松本 智津夫) March 2, 1955 – executed, with others, July 6, 2018, and there were further executions July 26th: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoko_Asahara and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aum_Shinrikyo
Mawaru Penguindrum (輪るピングドラム) originally aired July 8 to December 23 in 2011, according to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguindrum
The Green Party's 2024 National Convention will be held online July 11-14th: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Green_Party_presidential_primaries
Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_David_Thoreau
Pon Poko (平成狸合戦ぽんぽこ, Heisei Tanuki Gassen Ponpoko) by Isao Takahata came out July 16, 1994: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pom_Poko
Eric Garner was killed July 17, 2014 in Staten Island, New York: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Eric_Garner
Inca ruler Atahualpa was executed by the Spanish around July 26, 1533: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atahualpa
The 2024 Summer Olympics will be July 26 to August 11th, mainly in Paris: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Summer_Olympics
Author Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison or Toni Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford February 18, 1931 in Lorain, Ohio – August 5, 2019 in Bronx, New York): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toni_Morrison
Professor of philosophy of religion and theology and 9/11 truth author David Ray Griffin (August 8, 1939 in Wilbur, Washington – November 26, 2022? in Santa Barbara, California?): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ray_Griffin
Michael Brown was killed August 9, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri, part of Saint Louis: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Michael_Brown
Virginia Dare was born August 18, 1587 in the lost English colony on Roanoke Island in North Carolina: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Dare
Writer Malcolm Cowley (August 24, 1898 – March 27, 1989): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Cowley
The Voyager 2 probe was launched August 20th and Voyager 1 was launched second, September 5th, in 1977: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_2 and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_1
Belize became independent September 21, 1981; it had been renamed, from British Honduras, June 1, 1973: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belize
The Galileo spacecraft was sunk in the clouds of Jupiter September 21, 2003: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_(spacecraft)
Túpac Katari / Catari or Túpaj Katari) born Julián Apasa Nina (circa 1750 – November 13, 1781): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Túpac_Katari
The Battle of Cajamarca in what is now northern Peru was November 16, 1532: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_conquest_of_the_Inca_Empire
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