It
has been correctly written that: �Capitalism is the extraordinary
belief that the nastiest of men, for the nastiest of reasons, will
somehow work for the benefit of us all.� Indeed, the
very system of capitalism is in fact, sustained systemic terrorism
against the poor. Years of corporate-government subterfuge,
disinformation, discreditation, wrongful imprisonments of political
activists, and outright assassinations in this nation continue to
be important mainstays of and for this filthy, rotten, hypocritical,
capitalist system.
Economic
exploitation and racism are fundamental components of capitalism.
What better way to fool, manipulate, and continue dividing and exploiting
everyday people than to install a biologically colored person
as the head of the U.S. Empire acting in the fake names of
�change� and �hope,� to actually perpetuate capitalism
and its concomitant egregious inequities. Consequently, virtually
any who oppose the systemic economic blood sucking and war
policies of this de facto Wall Street / military presidential puppet
are quickly and fallaciously depicted and smugly dismissed,
by the corporate media and phony �progressives,� as being either
racists, unrealistic, or chronic complainers. Thus, the blood sucking
of the everyday Black, Brown, Red, White, and Yellow peoples by
this system continues unabated, unexposed, unchallenged.
There
are numerous deadly systemic gatekeeper foxes in the
very midst of everyday people. They can be found among the Democratic
Party foxes and the Republican Party wolves. They are insidiously
pernicious to the needs, wants, and aspirations of everyday
people. Many of these gatekeepers masquerade as �liberals� and/or
�progressives,� giving new meaning to hypocrisy and double-speak,
even as everyday people increasingly suffer in this nation
and throughout the world.
Without
the complicity of these systemic gatekeeper foxes of differing colors,
the chicanery of the pro-apartheid Zionist Obama / Biden
/ Rahm Emanuel administrative regime could not be effective. An
example of a systemic gatekeeper fox can be found in the rhetoric
and actions of U.S. Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota.
A
Case In Point: Antics of a Gatekeeper - U.S. Representative Keith
Ellison
Representative
Keith Ellison rhetorically claims to be a so-called political �progressive�
but his actions (or lack thereof) belie his words.
With
reference to an upcoming April 8, 2010, so-called �public forum,�
the long established organization known as WAMM (Women Against Military
Madness) noted that �it is important to recognize
that neither [Keith] Ellison nor his invited speakers call for ending
direct military and economic support for the Israeli government
as it continues atrocities against Palestinians. Congress grants
approximately $2.5 billion in aid to Israel
each year, and Ellison has voted in favor of all these bills
since he has been in office. The money that Ellison supports
directly buys weapons that Israel
has used and continues to use to attack the civilian population
in Gaza and the West Bank, and provide further
economic support for Israel�s policies of apartheid and ethnic
cleansing.�
These
actions and inactions by Ellison are directly in line with, and
in support of, the apartheid-Zionist policies of Barack Obama, Joe
Biden, and Rahm Emanuel; and demonstrate the hideous hand of the
disproportionately powerful Zionist lobby known as AIPAC
(American Israel Public Affairs Committee), which controls virtually
every U.S. elected official in Washington, D.C., from the White
House on down, at the horrible expense of the �American� people
collectively. AIPAC�s money is seemingly endless, and its
propaganda machine is hideously effective - against the best
interests of the vast majority of people in this nation and throughout
the world.
Nevertheless,
many elected representatives, including Keith Ellison, who rhetorically
espouse to be anti-apartheid and/or �progressive,� are actually
about the business of studiously supporting various forms of systemic
exploitation, including apartheid-Zionism. This is horrible on the
part of any and all who do this, but it is especially
reprehensible on the part of so-called black (i.e. �African
American�) elected officials, including Keith Ellison.
Adding
insult to the injury of everyday people: On February 28, 2010, at
a presentation at which Mr. Dhoruba Bin Wahad (Black Panther Party
veteran and wrongfully convicted U.S. political prisoner for 19 years)
was the invited guest speaker, Representative Keith Ellison attempted
to publicly deride Mr. Bin Wahad, as being essentially nothing
but a complainer. Ellison attempted to ridicule Dhoruba
by saying publicly to him, among other things, that �At the end
of the day all you [Dhoruba Bin Wahad] have,
is a complaint.� Dhoruba is, and has been, a long time grass
roots political activist, taking action with respect to the legitimate
complaints of everyday people. It would behoove Representative Ellison
to take note that at bare minimum, specific �complaint[s]� against
the ongoing and intensifying injustices of this filthy, racist,
hypocritical system in this nation, as they affect people of all
colors, are in fact not only legitimate but also absolutely
imperative! �Moreover, it is not the �end of
the day� that everyday people need and seek, but a seriously
different day, a day of and for real systemic
change! Moreover, Representative Keith Ellison�s brazen but
unsuccessful, attempt to red bait Dhoruba Bin Wahad
as being a �socialist� was correctly refuted as being inaccurate;
notwithstanding of course, the fact that real systemic everyday
people�s socialism does represent a viable alternative
to this blood sucking, war mongering capitalist system.
As
with Barack Obama, the current, articulate fork-tongued head
Democratic Party fox; systemic gatekeepers such as Representative
Keith Ellison, consistently engage in practicing their skills at
double-speak in a nonstop effort to keep everyday people
bamboozled, confused, and controlled. Two specific examples
of the use of the double-speak tactic with respect
to Representative Ellison are the following:
1.
The Black Commentator article titled, The
Judas Factor: Barack Obama and a Movement Betrayed (or �for Those
Who Have Joined the Empire�), of April 10th, 2008, said, in
pertinent part, that �Barack Obama and his Democratic Party are
unequivocal and cynical frauds. I recently read a message from his
[Barack Obama�s] colleague U.S. Congressman Keith Ellison�s
Spring, 2008, Fifth District Community Newsletter which stated in
relevant part that �we must end the war in Iraq
by redeploying our troops out of the region.� How
utterly and despicably misleading, nebulous, and cynical to
the �American� people and the entire world. The American Heritage
Dictionary specifically defines the word �redeploy� as
meaning, �To move (military forces) from one combat zone to another.�
This is NOT bringing U.S.
troops back home to the United
States. This is spreading the
war internationally, and is the zenith of hypocrisy and deceit��
Undoubtedly,
Representative Keith Ellison knew full well that his above-mentioned
double-speak rhetoric in the Spring of 2008 was
misleading the people and giving them false hope. It is now
the Spring of 2010, and the bloody U.S.
war in Iraq rages on, and has in
fact been expanded and �spread internationally,� with
many thousands of additional U.S. troops,
between the years of 2008 and 2010; having been sent to be maimed
or killed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and/or Pakistan. This is what double-speak
is all about - misleading the people by raising false hope,
and in so doing, manipulating them to the hilt! This is inexcusable
and it is utter deceit.
2.
Virtually no socially and politically conscious person in
this nation does not know about the fact that there are
many unjustly convicted and imprisoned political prisoners in
the U.S. gulag prison system, including the much publicized cases
of our beloved freedom fighters Mumia Abu-Jamal, Leonard Peltier,
and Lynne Stewart (to name but a very few). Representative Keith
Ellison, as an astute political observer, is certainly cognizant
of these and no doubt other such cases.
Nevertheless,
recently, when members of an audience (including some who are Representative
Ellison�s constituents) specifically insisted on knowing what his
position is on political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, Ellison replied,
like a slippery fox, that he �hadn�t thought about it.�
(Reference Twin Cities IndyMedia).
The
fact is that having purportedly been a politically-active attorney,
and having reportedly had �a close connection to the NLG� (National
Lawyers Guild) which has repeatedly delineated and disseminated
detailed information about the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, it would
be the height of absurdity to actually believe that Representative
Ellison was not, and is not, very much aware of Mr. Abu-Jamal�s
case or that he has not �thought about it.�
This is deceit, chicanery, and double-speak on the
part of Representative Ellison, and this is precisely what should
be expected from the Democratic Party foxes and the Republican
Party wolves. The fact that Representative Ellison eventually
went on to state that he will �consider� a congressional
resolution questioning the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal is, in
substance more double-speak and utterly meaningless;
and simply served as an attempt to temporarily placate those who
had questioned him about Mr. Abu-Jamal�s case and the decades-long
gross injustices thereto. It�s called systemic gate keeping.
U.S.
Representative Keith Ellison is by no means the only systemic
gate keeper. He has many cohorts in the Democratic Party
foxes and the Republican Party wolves nation-wide who utilize essentially
the same or similar tactics.
Where
Do We Go From Here?
In
the wake of the fairly recent Democratic Party foxes� passage of
the phony health care �deform� package (as noted writer,
journalist, and Black Panther Party veteran Kiilu Nyasha describes
it), and as Obama and his Democratic and Republican colleagues
push for environmentally insane off-shore drilling, and the de facto
support for, and proliferation of, nuclear weapons and the nuclear
power industry in this nation, and as the wars rage on in
Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan, and as joblessness, homelessness,
home foreclosures, and prison incarceration rates steadily
climb, we face some very urgent decisions and concomitant tasks.
First
and foremost, it is time to reject the dangerous corporate-perpetuated,
gate keeper myth that real, systemic, and positive change
can only be brought about through the Democratic or Republican Parties.
The Democratic Party foxes and the Republican Party wolves are themselves
an oxymoron to real, systemic, positive change. They have demonstrated
this repeatedly. These corporate political parties are the systemic
grave yard of people�s movements for real change in this nation.
The
everyday people in this nation are methodically played as perpetual
political ping-pong balls at the mercy of the Democratic Party
foxes and Republican Party wolves. We must stop allowing this. The
Democratic Party and its cohorts are playing directly into�� the
hands of the Republican Party and its �tea-bagger� ilk, and vice
versa; always to the detriment of everyday people, as a whole.
Black people (particularly the massive Black underclass), and our
Brown, Red, White, and Yellow sisters and brothers are hurting at
an increasingly horrible rate, even as the corporate media,
acting as the propaganda arm of these corporate party foxes and
wolves, uses omission, diversion, and outright lies to keep us divided,
manipulated, and controlled. These systemic gate keepers understand
the words of the late Steven Biko, when he said that, �The most
potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind
of the oppressed.� It is time that we understand
this, and act accordingly.
We
must organize in the towns, the cities, the schools, colleges, and
universities, the work places, the country-side, in-the-streets,
and in every nook and cranny of this country. We must organize collectively
for an end to this systemic death grip of the Democratic and Republican
Party foxes and wolves upon us. We must organize - each one teach
one - for a different and more humane tomorrow! But we must
organize today!
We
must become creative revolutionaries, believing in
and acting upon the faith of the revolutionary. This is not about
reform. It is not about reforming a hideously
corrupt and politically bankrupt political system. It
is about freeing our minds and consciously struggling for
the creation of a sustainable society and planet based upon fulfilling
human needs and not upon cyclical greed and subterfuge.
In
the immortal words of Joe Hill, �Don�t mourn. Organize!�
Onward
now sisters and brothers. Onward!
BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board Member, Larry Pinkney,
is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of
Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner
and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil/political
rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political
organizing activities in opposition to voter suppression, etc.,
Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS
NewsHour, formerly known as The MacNeil/LehrerNewsHour. For more
about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and
Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn].
(Click here
to read excerpts from the book). Click here
to contact Mr. Pinkney.
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