Skip to content

… on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing

Home
About

Category: new authoritarianism

“It is Venezuela today. It will be South Africa tomorrow,” warns its largest trade union
Spread the love
Original article by Pavan Kulkarni republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.
NUMSA march to US consulate in solidarity with Venezuela. Photo: NUMSA
Marching to the US consulate in Johannesburg, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) protested against US aggression on Venezuela on January 24.
Demanding the release of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores, South Africa’s largest trade union marched to the US consulate in Johannesburg on Saturday, January 24.
“In defending Venezuela, we defend the sovereignty of all nations,” concluded the memorandum read aloud outside the consulate by Irvin Jim, general secretary of the over 460,000 members-strong National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA).
“It is Venezuela today … It will be South Africa tomorrow,” Jim warned in his address to the demonstration. US President Donald Trump, who has bombed parts of Nigeria after concocting a false story about a “Christian Genocide” in the country, has also been spinning tales about a “White Genocide” underway in South Africa.
“This is not a joke,” NUMSA warned in a statement. “Donald Trump can easily use the lie of a White genocide in South Africa to invade South Africa, capture South Africa’s president and transport him to a jail in the US, and declare that he is now in charge of our country and all its natural wealth, whilst controlling all trade and natural wealth … After the US criminal military invasion of Venezuela, it is foolish to ignore” this threat to South Africa.
Read more: The empire laid bare: US terror in Venezuela
“There is a madman in the White House”
“There is a madman in the White House. There is a fascist in the White House,” NUMSA’s president, Andrew Chirwa, said in his opening address to the demonstration. “Today, it is Venezuela that was attacked by this international criminal. Tomorrow it is” Cuba, Iran, Nigeria, South Africa. “All over the world this man” is baying “for blood.”
In parallel, the Trump administration is also attempting to strangle South Africa’s economy, threatening to exclude it from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which provides tariff-free access to the US market, on which the country’s automotive sector is heavily dependent.
“Our members and workers across various sectors are losing jobs” because “he has imposed 30% tariffs against South Africa,” Jim added in his speech.
Stressing the need for “an anti-imperialist front to mobilize the workers” across party and union affiliations, Jim said that NUMSA “will soon be convening a political colloquium”, inviting all progressive political parties. “It is about time to unite the working class … behind a revolutionary agenda,” as South Africa faces increasing US aggression.
South Africa punished for taking the genocidal state of Israel to the ICJ
South Africa, the union maintains, “is being punished by Trump for taking the genocidal state of Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).” Reaffirming that “this was the correct position … in defense of the people of Palestine,” NUMSA called on the South African government not to cave in to the pressure by Leo Brent Bozell III, Trump’s new ambassador to South Africa.
At his Senate confirmation hearing, he had stated that if appointed, “I would press South Africa to end proceedings against Israel,” and the ICJ itself to stop what he deemed a “lawfare” against Israel.
“If he continues to insult our national sovereignty … by demanding that South Africa must withdraw its case in the ICJ against Israel,” NUMSA insists, “the South African government must act swiftly, and ensure that he packs his bags and leaves the country.”
The South African government must also “continue to demand the release of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro and Comrade Cilia Flores in all international forums,” added the memorandum, which was also copied to the Minister of International Relations.
Demanding that the football governing body “cancel all World Cup matches in the US this year,” a copy of the memorandum was also sent to the FIFA President.
It further called on the African Union (AU) and the BRICS to urgently convene and formulate a coordinated and collective response to the US imperialist aggression.
“No country is safe from America’s greedy appetite”
Recalling the European leaders defending unipolarity under the cover of “rules-based order” at last year’s G20 summit in South Africa, the US had boycotted Alex Mashilo, spokesperson of the South African Communist Party (SACP) said in his address to the protest: “Little did they know that just after a few weeks, that unipolar power will turn against them and demand Greenland.”
Under “the mad Trump administration”, NUMSA emphasized in its statement, “no country is safe from America’s greedy appetite”.
The US is a danger to itself
The US has now even “become extremely dangerous to itself” and “its citizens”, with Trump “brutalizing the American people daily” using “his personal ‘Gestapo’ police commonly known as ICE.”
Read more: Killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis a day after general strike ignites community outrage
Expressing “solidarity with American citizens who are being brutalized by ICE,” NUMSA insisted, “This is a moment when all people of the world, including well-meaning US citizens and all South Africans, must unite” against imperialism.
Original article by Pavan Kulkarni republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.
Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.
27 January 2026
“Even though our weapons were smaller, we didn’t stop fighting”: the testimony of a Cuban combatant after the US attack on Venezuela
Spread the love
Original article by Pablo Meriguet republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.
Cuban soldiers during a demonstration honoring the 32 combatants killed in the US attack on Venezuela. Source: Miguel Díaz-Canel/Facebook
Yohandris Varona Torres, a Cuban combatant and survivor of the US attack on Venezuela, describes the events of January 3.
Cuba honored 32 soldiers who fell in combat with the US army on January 3 in Venezuela, carrying out security activities legally agreed upon with the Caracas government. Many of the Cubans killed were part of the personal security detail of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who was kidnapped after the attack and transferred to the United States. Hundreds of thousands of Cubans attended the ceremonies commemorating the fallen in what the Cuban government described as a new attack against the Revolution.
But not all Cubans who fought against US forces died. Little by little, the testimonies of Cuban soldiers who survived a clearly uneven fight have been revealed.
The testimony of a surviving combatant
Among them is Yohandris Varona Torres, who gave an interview to Adelante, a Cuban media outlet. Varona had been in Venezuela for just over two months as a security guard until the day of the intervention, where, according to Venezuelan authorities, 100 people died and 100 more were injured.
“We fought there against the planes that were firing at us. Even though our weapons were smaller, we didn’t stop fighting; we confronted them. I am trained, and I know how to fight, but they were superior to us. At that moment, my only thought was to fight. We had to shoot, and I started doing so,” said Varona during the commemoration ceremony for the fallen combatants.
Regarding his personal experience during the attack, Varona stated that despite the narrative that the mainstream media tried to impose, the forces on the ground did confront US troops: “That night, I had gone on duty at midnight and was supposed to be there for six hours. The attack took place at approximately 2:00 a.m. It was dawn. Everything was dark. If a helicopter comes at you, the only thing you can do is shoot at it and defend yourself. That’s how it was. We were shooting until the very last moment.”
Varona also spoke about the huge technological gap between Venezuelan and US forces. The same argument had already been made by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who explained the difference in weaponry and military infrastructure between the troops defending Venezuelan soil and the US attackers.
In addition, Varona said that after the attack, there was dispersion, and that there was no timely support to collect their dead compatriots: “Our comrades are a glory for all of Cuba. They were my brothers. They were working with me. I saw them all fall, and I carried them all. There was no support from anyone for that, but nobody was left on the field. We preserved them in one of our dormitories. I cannot explain the pain. But at least no one was left in Venezuela. Here they are, in our homeland.”
In the face of threats of possible new aggression against Cuba, during his speech to the crowd honoring the dead, Díaz-Canel said that revolutionaries are willing to fight to the bitter end if a similar or worse attack were to occur against the island. In the same spirit, Yohandris Varona Torres declared: “I will always be at my country’s disposal to fight the enemy wherever necessary. That is what the Commander [Fidel Castro] taught us. And the deaths of my comrades cannot be in vain.”
Original article by Pablo Meriguet republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.
Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.
27 January 2026
Meta, Google Under Fire for Letting ICE Run ‘White Nationalist-Inspired Propaganda’ to Recruit Agents
Spread the love
Original article by Jake Johnson republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
Videos are displayed on screens as US Immigration and Customs Enforcement holds a major hiring event on August 26, 2025 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images)
“The impact of an unqualified army of ICE agents being unleashed across the country has been severe,” wrote Reps. Becca Balint and Pramila Jayapal.
A pair of House Democrats on Thursday demanded that the tech behemoths Google and Meta stop allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement to use their platforms to bolster the Trump administration’s efforts to recruit agents for its mass deportation campaign and lawless assault on communities across the United States.
In letters to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Reps. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) wrote that they are “alarmed by recent reports that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has partnered” with the tech giants “as part of a large-scale campaign that uses white nationalist-inspired propaganda to recruit immigration enforcement agents.”
RECOMMENDED…
‘Part of a Larger War’: Whistleblower Exposes ICE Effort to Spy on Immigrants—and Americans
ICE Plots $100 Million ‘Wartime Recruitment’ Drive Aimed at Hiring Gun Enthusiasts
ICE, the lawmakers wrote, has “taken to Google’s platforms to draw in more applicants using advertisements that use white nationalist themes.” As for Meta, Balint and Jayapal pointed to a recent Washington Post story showing that DHS “spent $2.8 million on recruitment ads across Meta platforms Facebook and Instagram” last year.
“Since August, the agency has paid Meta an additional $500,000 to run recruitment advertisements on its platforms,” the House Democrats wrote. “In the first three weeks of the government shutdown last year alone, ICE spent an astounding $4.5 million on paid media campaigns.”
DHS, which oversees ICE, has repeatedly used white nationalist-linked rhetoric in social media posts and recruitment ads. Investigative journalist Austin Campbell reported for The Intercept earlier this month that “the Department of Homeland Security’s official Instagram account made a recruitment post proclaiming, ‘We’ll Have Our Home Again,’ attaching a song of the same name by Pine Tree Riots.”
“Popularized in neo-Nazi spaces, the track features lines about reclaiming ‘our home’ by ‘blood or sweat,’ language often used in white nationalist calls for race war,” Campbell noted. “It isn’t new to see extremist right-wing ideology perpetuated in online culture. What is new is seeing it echoed in official messaging from a federal law enforcement agency with the power to detain, deport, and use lethal force.”
In their letters on Thursday, Balint and Jayapal demanded that Meta and Google “cease further enabling this conduct,” arguing the companies are “complicit” in the Trump administration’s dangerous onslaught against US communities.
“The impact of an unqualified army of ICE agents being unleashed across the country has been severe,” they wrote.
Original article by Jake Johnson republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.
26 January 2026
‘Please Get the Truth Out,’ Alex Pretti’s Parents Plead as Trump Officials Baselessly Smear Shooting Victim
Spread the love
Original article by Julia Conley republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
Mourners gather at a makeshift memorial in the area where Alex Pretti was shot dead a day earlier by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 25, 2026. (Photo by Octavio Jones/AFP via Getty Images)
“Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly thugs,” said Michael and Susan Pretti.
Michael and Susan Pretti urged the press and the public to counter the Trump administration’s baseless claims about their son, Alex Pretti, after he was fatally shot by US Border Patrol agents on a street in Minneapolis and immediately—with no evidence—declared a “domestic terrorist” by top White House officials.
Pretti’s parents expressed heartbreak as well as anger over their son’s killing, which no federal officials contacted the family about, leaving them to learn he had been fatally shot from an Associated Press reporter who reached out to them.
RECOMMENDED…
‘What the F*ck Did You Do?!’ Video Contradicts DHS Claims About Killing of Alex Pretti
‘Sick, Malicious Lie’: Trump Caught Pushing ‘Alternate Reality’ Version of Minneapolis ICE Shooting
“Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital,” said the Pretti family. “Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately, he will not be with us to see his impact.”
https://twitter.com/amandalitman/status/2015232750123360757?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2015232750123360757%7Ctwgr%5E2c6ce23888cdc4077cffd5c21e0f5990ba537aa1%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Fminneapolis-shooting-update
They emphasized that Pretti acted as a “hero” in his final moments, moving to help a woman who had just been forcefully pushed to the ground by a federal agent.
“His last thought and act was to protect a woman,” they said before directly disputing claims by officials including White House Homeland Security Adviser Stephen Miller, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, who have made claims that are contradicted by multiple videos of the shooting.
In addition to labeling Pretti a “domestic terrorist”—a claim likely stemming from a memo signed by Attorney General Pam Bondi, which claims that acts of domestic terrorism include “impeding” or “doxing” law enforcement officers even though filming federal agents is a constitutional right—officials have claimed he “approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun” and wanted to inflict “maximum damage” on the agents.
Bovino on Saturday refused to answer a direct question about when Pretti approached the officers with a weapon; videos show him holding a phone, not the firearm he was legally permitted to carry in a holster, and approaching the woman who was pushed to the ground. The agents then pushed him to ground and surrounded him before one reached into the fray and took Pretti’s gun just before at least one officer fired roughly 10 shots, killing him. Despite the fact that Pretti had just been disarmed and was on the ground, officials have called the shooting “defensive.”
“The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting,” said Michael and Susan Pretti. “Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by [President Donald] Trump’s murdering and cowardly thugs. He had his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE pushed down, all while being pepper sprayed.”
“Please get the truth out about our son,” the Pretti family concluded. “He was a good man.”
Pretti had no criminal record. He earned a bachelor’s degree in biology, society, and the environment from University of Minnesota in 2011 and worked as a research scientist before going back to school to become a registered nurse.
Pretti’s father added in comments to the AP that his son “was very upset with what was happening in Minneapolis and throughout the United States with ICE, as millions of other people are upset,” and had exercised his First Amendment right to demonstrate against the Trump administration’s mass deportation and detention campaign and an ICE agent’s killing of Renee Good earlier this month.
“He thought it was terrible, you know, kidnapping children, just grabbing people off the street,” said his father. “He cared about those people, and he knew it was wrong, so he did participate in protests.”
After the fatal shooting, the son of a deceased veteran whom Pretti had cared for at the VA hospital posted a video of him reading a “final salute” for his father.
“My father’s final words to me were, ‘Continue to fight the good fight,” wrote the man. “He would be honored in Alex’s sacrifice, and ashamed of this current administration. In my dad’s words I encourage you all to continue to ‘fight the good fight.’”
The AP reported that as of Saturday night, Pretti’s family still had not heard from federal officials about their son’s killing.
Original article by Julia Conley republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.
26 January 2026
Thousands take to the streets to protest latest ICE’s latest killing in Minneapolis
Spread the love
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/thousands-take-streets-protest-latest-ices-latest-killing-minneapolis
Protesters gather at Embarcadero Plaza for a protest in San Francisco, January 24, 2026, in response to a fatal shooting in Minneapolis
PROTESTERS took to the streets across the United States over the weekend after a man was “executed” in Minneapolis during President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Footage aired across social media showed a group of officials from the Immigration Customs Enforcement (Ice) agency surrounding Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse on Saturday before shooting him after a brief struggle.
The footage showed Mr Pretti, a legal gun owner, was disarmed by Ice officials before being shot.
After the shooting, an angry crowd gathered and protesters clashed with federal officers, who wielded batons and deployed stun grenades.
The Minnesota National Guard was assisting local police at the direction of Governor Tim Walz, officials said.
Guard troops were sent to both the shooting site and a federal building where officers have squared off with demonstrators daily.
Information about what led up to the shooting was limited, police chief Brian O’Hara said.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that federal officers were conducting an operation and fired “defensive shots” after a man with a handgun approached them and “violently resisted” when they tried to disarm him.
Bystander footage of the shooting that emerged soon after, show Mr Pretti with a phone in his hand but none show him with a weapon.
During a news conference DHS secretary Kristi Noem accused Mr Pretti of trying to “impede a law enforcement operation.” She questioned why he was armed but did not offer details about whether Pretti drew the weapon or brandished it at officers.
President Trump accused local politicians, including the Democratic governor and mayor, of “inciting insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric.”
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York urged Democrats to “refuse to vote to fund Ice.”
The Communist Party of the USA (CPUSA) condemned the killing as a “continuation of the fascist invasion of Minneapolis and an increase in state-violence against our working class and people.
“We are calling for arrests of all federal agents involved in these tragedies and for Ice to be removed completely from Minnesota by building on the general strike.”
The CPUSA was referring to the general strike in Minneapolis on Friday which saw thousands of workers walking out on strike and more than 700 businesses closing to protest against the presence of Ice agents.
The Party of Socialism and Liberation said: “The people need to use our power to shut down business as usual and make it impossible for this reign of terror to continue.”
Original article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/thousands-take-streets-protest-latest-ices-latest-killing-minneapolis
dizzy: I occasionally quote Morning Star articles in full without asking. Morning Star‘s copyright is recognised.
Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.
26 January 2026

←Previous Page

1 … 307 308 309 310 311 … 448

… on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing

A UK Socialist's blog

Blog
About
FAQs
Authors

Events
Shop
Patterns
Themes

Twenty Twenty-Five

Designed with WordPress