Growing The Greens

words and photos by C. A. Matthews

My apologies in advance for the brevity and possible incoherence of this week’s post. I returned home Sunday evening from four days in Chicago at the Green Party Annual National Meeting. Early Monday morning I had a scheduled dental appointment to fix a broken tooth. So, I’m composing this blog article to publish at its usual Tuesday morning time while suffering from the twin effects of exhaustion and painkillers. Here goes nothin’!

My first thought is to post more photos than words about the convention. Yeah, that’s the safest way to go… I took a lot of photos and pages and pages of notes at the various workshops. My bleary-eyed, sleep-deprived brain is still trying to make sense of it all.

I attended workshops on organizing for peace; Uniting for Peace 2.0 (the UNGA resolution for Palestine); AI data centers and how they’re impacting our communities and the environment; Latin America under attack (by the usual suspects); the AI war machine (Or how Peter Thiel’s Palantir, Aduril and Erebor have effectively taken over the US military. It’s very scary as well as they’re bent on destroying our environment.); and the independent media and its role in the resistance (yeah!). You could say that Greens attract some very intelligent and very informative people...

 

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Radical Peace

by C. A. Matthews

A lot of talk in activist groups consists of “When do we act?” and “Who will lead us?” Discussions of when we’ll know what to do and how we’ll know who to trust or which groups are the best ones to give us advice can go on for days, weeks, months or even years. Everyone has a right to their opinion, but in the meantime nothing much is accomplished and things can continue to grow worse. Much worse.

Waiting forever for answers is the wrong option, I believe. We must act, even if we’re uncertain of what direction we’re going exactly. Making no decision is actually making a decision, one that’ll probably not yield the desired result. At the current crossroads we as activists find ourselves, following the example of leaders from the past may help us find the direction that will lead us to a more peaceful present and happier future.

Once upon a time, a radical activist declared, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9) and meant it. He kept emphasizing peace as an action that could produce positive results and strengthen our determination. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” (John 14: 27)

His idea of peace was both internal and external, as one can’t fully be realized without the other. This was quite a daring concept in his era, especially as it was vocalized by a poor man from a working class migrant family living on the edge of the world’s largest empire. Sound familiar? That’s were many of us find ourselves today—living on the edge of empire, struggling to survive.

Empire, both then and now, doesn’t care very much for peace. Peace doesn’t sell fighter jets or killer drones. You can’t grow empire if you don’t have ready access to natural resources, land, and (slave) labor enough to build the profitable weapons of war, and you can’t gain these things without endless wars and genocides to appropriate them from others. We’ve seen this recently with the US perpetrating resource grabs in both Venezuela and Gaza...

 

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This article is the 550th blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading, sharing, and subscribing to help TRC continue for another ten+ years. 

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Happy holidays and a very peaceful New Year to you and yours! 

 

Is Socialism The Answer?

by C. A. Matthews

When skies are cloudy and dark (like they are here most days in November), it’s hard imagining you’ll ever see the sun again. But then a little light starts to trickle through those thick clouds and then just a little more light and then… Suddenly the orange-red sun explodes across the horizon and bathes the bleak autumn landscape in its warm glow. You breathe a sigh of relief. All is not lost. There is hope in the world.

This past week gave Americans a glimmer of hope that perhaps all is not so dark or lost.

Everyone is talking about Zohran Mamdani winning the New York City mayoral election, so I don’t really feel like discussing his personal achievement of his win as much as the achievement of the voters of NYC. The voters’ achievement is what I find a glimmer of hope in.

How so? New Yorkers were inundated with an insane amount of propaganda—dare I call it hasbara—from Zionist donors who tried to equate a vote for Mamdani as a vote for Sharia Law and endless Islamic jihad. The videos and memes financed by the other candidates’ wealthy donors were just disgusting. Some went beyond the pale. It’s really telling that racism and Islamophobia is still very much alive and well in the US. The Civil Rights Movement of the last one hundred+ years counts for nothing to the billionaires, obviously.

But what I really found encouraging in all this distasteful mudslinging was that NYC voters didn’t fall for it. They didn’t let the smears and the name-calling dissuade them from voting for Mamdani. I praise them for seeing through the bullshit and standing up for themselves. What really gives me hope is that they were even okay with the ridiculous “He’s a Commie!” style insults hurled at Mamdani. It didn’t slow down New Yorkers from voting for him, at least not in significant numbers to cost him the election...

 

To find out if socialism is the answer, please read the rest of the article by copying or clicking on the following link: 

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Happy Armistice Day.

This article is the 545th blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading, sharing, and subscribing to help TRC continue for another ten years. 

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We’ve Got The Power!

by C. A. Matthews

Oftentimes, we don’t realize that all is not lost. We haven’t hit a roadblock like we thought. There is a path forward.

This is one of those times.

The Uniting for Peace resolution was made at the United Nations General Assembly this past week by Colombian President Gustavo Petro. He is now talking with other countries, such as the ones that comprise the Hague Group, to build a protective force for Gaza. (The US has since revoked Petro’s visa for his courage to speak so boldly at the UN. An illegal move, but what would you expect of Trump?)

More nations have recognized Palestine as a state than ever before. Spain, Italy, and recently Turkiye have sent naval escorts to protect the Global Sumud Flotilla. Every large city in Italy has held massive pro-Palestine protests and the longshoreman have vowed to go on strike to prevent the transport of military supplies to Israel.

So, even if the Western governments look like they’re not doing anything much to end the genocide in Gaza, there are some tiny, incremental changes happening for the better that will lead to a positive outcome. Yeah, I know—what’s happening seems very little and very late in the game, but it’s what we got.

Now is the time to play our cards well and pull out all the stops...

 

To find out how we can use our power for the good of all and end the genocide in Gaza, please copy or click on the following link: 

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This article is the 539th blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading, sharing, and subscribing to help TRC continue for another ten years. 

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Same Planet, Different Worlds

 

Same Planet, Different Worlds (Where Do We Fit In?)

by C. A. Matthews

“In an insane world, the sane man must appear insane.” – Charles William King

I’m anxiously awaiting news from the United Nations calling for a Uniting for Peace resolution. I’m wondering how it could have taken them this long to call what’s happening in Gaza a genocide. I’m debating whether or not to remain in a country with a government that shows zero respect for civil rights, human rights, or the rights of anyone not a member of the economic elite.

I’m puzzling, “Why do I live on a planet where some can carry on as if there’s nothing wrong with starving and bombing children simply because they want to steal the land right out from under the oppressed babies’ tiny feet? Where do I fit into a world that is very different from the way I want to imagine it?”

There’s a certain freedom to not fitting in. You revel in a feeling of superiority to those who declare with a straight face, “Newborns are Hamas!” as they clutch their Star of David flag. But really, where do we who are pro-Palestine and anti-genocide fit into a world full of narcissists and neo-Nazi sympathizers?

We may as well be aliens from outer space when conversing with the brain dead zombies who get their news from the mainstream media—if they even bother to follow the news at all. We seem to have nothing in common with each other. Well, we all breathe air and consume food in order to live, but most of us have very poor quality air to breathe and some have little or no access to food...

 

To find out how we can all fit into this world (and save our planet), please copy or click on the following link: 

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“Accumulation of wealth at one pole is at the same time accumulation of misery, slavery, and brutality at the opposite pole.” — Karl Marx 

 

 

Unite for Peace! (Or Die)

by C. A. Matthews

Last September, the United Nations gave the apartheid state of Israel one year to comply with the rulings of the International Court of Justice to end the genocide in Gaza or face the consequences.

That year ends on September 18, 2025. It’s high time for the war criminals’ day of reckoning!

On September 18 (or even before), the United Nations can start imposing serious sanctions on Israel. This include a military embargo as well as establishing a war crimes tribunal. Israel can also be stripped of its credentials as a member state in the General Assembly. The UN then can send in a protective force to distribute food and medical aid and protect Palestinian civilians from further harm at the hands of genocidal Zionists. More than two-thirds of the General Assembly supports creating such measures—it was more than a ten to one ratio for the September 2024 vote—and there’s nothing the US, even with its Security Council veto, can do about these measures.

So, what’s stopping this overwhelming majority of member nations in the United Nations from ending the genocide of the Palestinian people today? The US can’t stop the General Assembly vote or prevent sanctions against Israel from taking effect. Israel can’t prevent itself from being kicked out of the UN if enough member states vote to do so. The time to take decisive action to end this ethnic cleansing is now.

But let’s say that Canada feels pressured by the US not to vote yes on the UN’s Uniting for Peace process. Are there other countries so terrified of the US that they’d be willing to ignore the vast majority of their own people who want to stop the genocide in Gaza? Could the oligarchs of other colonizing countries in particular want to keep their ties with the US and its corporate oligarchs intact? Could they instruct their UN representatives to vote no or abstain on the initiative? Could US allies such as the UK, Germany, France, Canada, or Australia actually vote against Uniting for Peace?

Unfortunately, the answer is yes. But it’s still worth a shot even if there’s only a remote possibility to save lives, right? (...)

 

To read more about how we can start the Uniting for Peace process and how to become a part of the Lifeline for Palestine, please copy or click on this link: 

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And watch this video for a short explanation of Uniting for Peace:  https://youtu.be/79m9MSYH3kU 

This article is the 536th blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading, sharing, and subscribing to help TRC continue for another ten years. 

You can make a donation at https://paypal.me/camatthews or Buy Me a Coffee or Ko-fi. Every little bit helps since this is my only source of income. Thank you.