August 19, 2018
MY CORNER by Boyd
Cathey
John HOOD of the John
Locke Foundation, Confederate Monuments, and the Battle for Western
Civilization
Friends,
All
across the nation—and not just in the
Old South—there is an insistent effort to take down, remove, and, at times,
destroy the monuments that represent our history and heritage. It has been the statues
honoring Robert E. Lee, P. G. T. de Beauregard, and Confederate veterans that
have been highlighted most specifically as targets by this movement and
featured in the Mainstream Media. Indeed, very likely a majority of American
citizens not familiar with this advancing campaign probably believe that it is only those Confederate symbols that are
the object of this frenzied attack, and that once those monuments are disposed
of, further demands for “cultural cleansing” can be blunted and contained, or
will just go away.
In many
ways, this temporizing approach appears to be the view of much of the
establishment “conservative movement,” and as well, of many leaders of the
Republican Party.
An
excellent example of this pusillanimous position came recently in an article by
John Hood, chairman of the board of the supposedly-conservative John Locke
Foundation, in Raleigh, North Carolina [https://www.johnlocke.org/person/john-hood/]. In
what was supposedly a “defense” of the three monuments now standing on Capitol
Square in Raleigh currently being challenged by the administration of
Democratic Governor Roy Cooper, Hood demonstrated obvious discomfort at having
to defend symbols admittedly of his own Tar Heel heritage, declaring [Winston-Salem Journal, August 18, 2018]:
Why
not erect more monuments and public art to commemorate a broader range of
individuals, movements, and events? That’s a noble enterprise that could unify
North Carolinians across the political spectrum…. There has to be a better way.
[https://www.journalnow.com/opinion/columnists/john-hood-monument-protests-marred-by-illegality/article_eba5fd41-52ae-5447-90e8-36769d462a01.html]
Hood, be
it remembered, was a vigorous and very vocal Never Trumper (and continues to
be), whose positions on most issues mirror standard establishment Republican boilerplate.
And like them he answers accusations of racism, bigotry, and white supremacy from
the Farther Left, as a dog answers the dog whistle of his owner...and like how
most Neoconservatives respond in fearful fright of their Farther Left critics.
What
actually bothers him are not the
ideologically-motivated attacks on the monuments as symbols of Southern
heritage and history, but, as he makes clear, the physical attacks on them—that, and that alone. And to prove his bona fides to the Farther Left, he adds
his own exculpatory mea culpas for his
state’s and region’s “history of hate,” and points proudly to his own record of
tearful reparations (of the financial kind) for slavery, racism, and white
supremacy:
“Although
my love of state history is broad and deep, it does not extend to the
Confederacy itself, the founding principles of which I view with contempt. Not
only do I celebrate the abolition of slavery, the destruction of Jim Crow, and
the expansion of freedom, but I also believe these events deserve far more
official commemoration than North Carolina has yet erected…. I admire the
planned North Carolina Freedom Park, for example. To be constructed in Raleigh
on land between the General Assembly complex and the Executive Mansion, the
park would “celebrate the enduring contributions of African Americans in North
Carolina who struggled to gain freedom and enjoy full citizenship.” Similarly,
the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation has just announced its Inclusive Public Arts
Initiative, which will fund up to 10 new projects across the state with grants
of up to $50,000 each. The intent is to “share stories of diversity, equality,
inclusion and equity as they relate to the people and places of North Carolina,
especially those whose stories have not been or are often untold,” the
Foundation stated….. Indeed, the grant maker for which I serve as president,
the John William Pope Foundation, helped pay for a mural painted several years
ago at North Carolina Central University’s law school.”
Hood,
like the other epigones of the establishment “conservative movement”—the “Big
Con” as my friend Dr. Jack Kerwick terms them—is unwilling to engage in the
intellectual battle required because, essentially, he agrees with Farther Left historically and philosophically, and he
is willing to temporize: just don’t damage the monuments physically, and, somehow we can all do a “Rodney King” and get
along—“There has to be a better way.”
This defeatist
approach—which is the stance of Neoconservatives generally facing the cultural war
we find ourselves in—puts me in mind of a quote I first read used by my mentor
Russell Kirk; it is from Hilaire Belloc’s This and That and the Other (1912) (p. 282):
“[T]he Barbarian is discoverable everywhere in this that he cannot make; that he can befog or destroy, but that he cannot sustain; and of every Barbarian in the decline or peril of every civilisation exactly that has been true. We sit by and watch the Barbarian, we tolerate him; in the long stretches of peace we are not afraid. We are tickled by his irreverence, his comic inversion of our old certitudes and our fixed creeds refreshes us: we laugh. But as we laugh we are watched by large and awful faces from beyond: and on these faces there is no smile.”
Is this not the very essence of modern Neoconservatism’s—and of
John Hood’s--craven compliance in what is, in fact, an ignominious retreat, an
insouciant giving way to the enemies of our civilization?
The
standard template employed by the self-denominated “social justice warriors” is
that those monuments to the Confederate dead represent “racism,” “a defense of
slavery,” and “white supremacy.” Yet, as
is apparent from reports from across the nation (and in Canada and Western
Europe: see, for instance: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-wants-john-a-macdonald-statue-1.4783329), Confederate
monuments are only a first step. After them—indeed, now concurrently with the
attacks on them—are assaults on symbols memorializing Christopher Columbus, Franciscan
Junipero Serra (who founded so many of the early Spanish missions in
California), Andrew Jackson, Woodrow Wilson, George Washington, the politically-incorrect
names of cities, towns, streets, and even colleges—the list is enlarged almost
daily.
What John
Hood and his Neoconservative associates do not understand…or, refuse to
understand…is that their praxis leads to the imminent peril that Belloc wrote
about in 1912, and to the triumphant return of the “rough beast” determined to
destroy and replace Western Christian civilization that poet William Butler
Yeats foresaw at the cataclysmic end of the World War I in his poem "The Second Coming" (1919): that “rough beast”
held at bay for twenty centuries “vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle” in
Bethlehem, which now “slouches” as the Demon
Serpent of the Old Testament to be (re)born.
The John
Hoods of this world wish to have it both ways: unwilling to antagonize the dominant
and vociferous voices on the Farther Left, while giving the deceptive appearance of opposition to the Barbarians.
Such
allies in the civilizational war in which we find ourselves are no allies at
all: like the chicken in the middle of the road, they will be ground down by
the cultural Marxist “semi” that comes hurtling down the freeway.
Who are
some of those who have largely inspired and motivated this latest multifaceted
campaign of cultural destruction? And who have injected fear and fright into
the hearts of not just the leadership of the Democratic Party, but increasingly
have neutered real opposition from “conservatives”? Who are they—the proverbial
tails that wag the establishment dog?
Let me
give just a couple of local examples in reference to the destruction of the
Confederate veterans’ memorial in Durham, NC, and the frenzied efforts to take
down the “Silent Sam” monument on the grounds of the University of North
Carolina in Chapel Hill: the Democratic Socialists of America and the Communist
Workers World Party.
These
groups have been spearheading the efforts, and they hold the state Democratic
Party in subinfeudated bondage to their rhetoric and demands. They set a
linguistic narrative and policy template which has captured not just major
portions of our politics, but is fawned over by the near totality of our media,
and taught as unchallenged truth by our educational system and in our colleges.
To dissent is to risk an organized and rowdy demonstration, demands for
censorship, and, at a minimum, the smearing of one’s reputation (and possibly
career).
Unlike John Hood and those like him, these
groups and individuals only understand one thing: stouthearted and fierce
opposition…to a final verdict. Either they win, or we do. The options are that
simple…and that stark. Our civilization and culture are at stake.
-----------------------------------------------
DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF
AMERICA
We Stand with Maya Little
North
Carolina Piedmont DSA stands with UNC Chapel Hill graduate student worker Maya
Little, who was arrested last week for demonstrating the true meaning of UNC’s
monument to white supremacy, Silent Sam. By contextualizing this racist statue
with red paint and her own blood, Little sent a clear message to UNC’s moderate
liberal leadership and reactionary Board of Governors, who have chosen to
ignore students and community members, appease neoconfederate and racist
groups, and mobilize the police to surveil, infiltrate, and disrupt protesters.
Silent Sam must fall.
NCPDSA calls for any judicial
or UNC Honor Court charges against Little to be dropped. Fighting against white
supremacy is not a crime; it models the utmost honorable character.
Additionally, we call for Chancellor Carol Folt to acknowledge the harm her
leadership has caused students and the community and to accept responsibility
for the racists threats against Little’s life which Folt’s inaction has
permitted. Silent Sam must be removed from campus immediately.
– NC Piedmont
DSA Steering Committee
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COMMUNIST
WORKERS WORLD PARTY (Durham, NC, and
Chapel Hill)
Victory in Durham over white supremacy
UPDATE: On Feb. 20, the Durham district
attorney announced that all charges have been dropped against all the Durham
defendants, including five who were to have gone to trial on April 2.
People power won the day here on Feb. 19,
as three anti-racist activists went to trial on charges stemming from the
toppling of a Confederate monument on Aug. 14. The three beat the charges.
The trial was held six months after
righteous action by the people of Durham brought down the monument. After
months of political pressure, the state decided to break the trials against the
eight freedom fighters into separate proceedings. Felony riot charges the eight
had faced were dropped last month, thanks to pressure and solidarity from the
anti-racist movement around the country.
The state’s presumptive motivation may have
been their estimation that they had a better chance of convicting the activists
on the three misdemeanor charges each faced: defacing a public building or
monument, conspiracy to deface a public building or monument, and injury to
real property. Instead, the people’s movement against white supremacy and in
support of these anti-racist fighters emerged victorious. Raul Jimenez was
acquitted of all charges. The charges against Dante Strobino and Peter Gilbert
were dismissed outright.
“Today is a small victory,” said Raul
Jimenez at the rally after the trials ended. “Two of us had our charges
dismissed, and I was found not guilty. This is a reminder that tearing down
monuments to white supremacy is not a crime! It shows that the whole world is
watching. It’s a reminder that there are people who not only support what
happened here in Durham, but support their communities doing the same thing we
did here. White supremacy is not welcome anywhere. We will continue to fight.” Strobino
added, “The judge thought this was going to be an easy conviction. Today showed
that the power of the people can overcome the state.”
Courts
packed, streets filled against white supremacy
Throughout the day, dozens packed the
courtroom to support those facing trial. Later hundreds filled the streets for
a solidarity march against white supremacy — which turned into a victory rally
after the day’s proceedings. Nearly 75 people showed up for an early morning
press conference at the courthouse before the trials began. The crowd included
not only many from Durham, but also solidarity delegations that had traveled
from New York, Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, Philadelphia, San Diego, Indiana,
Ohio and elsewhere.
A statement issued by arrestees and read at
the press conference noted: “As we head to court, we are buoyed by the strength
and determination of being part of an unrelenting people’s movement for
justice. We are walking in the legacy of many freedom fighters who have come
before us.” The statement uplifted the 50th anniversary of the Orangeburg
Massacre in South Carolina and the 39th anniversary of the Greensboro Massacre
[Communist Workers’ Party] in North Carolina.
It continued: “They give us the strength
and determination to continue to fight racist jails, racist courts, the racism
of Durham’s eviction crisis, brought on by gentrification. We will not stop
until white supremacy and all forms of oppression and exploitation are
defeated. No matter the outcome of the trial, our movements will push
forward with more resolve than ever.”
Throughout the day, the courtroom was
filled with supporters as the state suffered defeat after defeat. In the
evening, upwards of 200 people gathered at the site where the toppled monument
had once stood for a march to the courthouse to join the freedom fighters as
court ended for the day. As the march prepared to step off, word reached the
crowd that another victory had been secured by the people’s movement: Raul
Jimenez was found not guilty of all charges. The response from the crowd was
electric. Cheers and chants broke out as the demonstration hit the streets
heading to the courthouse, taking over all lanes and snarling downtown traffic.
“People all over the world know about what
happened in Durham. Freedom-loving people, anti-racist people, oppressed
people, they know about what you did,” Larry Holmes, first secretary of Workers
World Party, told the rally at the courthouse. “Black people passed that statue
going to that court; that statue was there to tell them you may not have
physical chains on, but they’re still there, and that you’ll never get justice
under this white supremacist system. It was a statue of terror. … The statue
was put up at the height of the KKK’s national strength and membership. But
[Black people] won’t have to pass by that reminder anymore because we liberated
it. Statues are symbolic of systems. When you tear down a statue, you remind
everyone that someday we’ll tear down things that are bigger than statues and
build something that’s about freedom and liberation.”
Takiyah Thompson, one of the five freedom
fighters whose charges remain, said, “We’re fighting white supremacy and hatred
and a system that keeps its foot on our necks. Around the corner [at the Durham
County jail] there are people in jail with bail as little as $50 who can’t pay
for their freedom. A few weeks ago, a Black Lives Matter activist was shot and
killed in New Orleans. It’s important that we come out and build real community
as we continue to fight.”
Thompson added, “I’m looking forward to not
justice but a push toward liberation. Because even though we’re in court and
we’re doing all this organizing around this issue, we know that this is a
protracted battle.”
#DefendDurham
struggle continues
When
white supremacists marched on Charlottesville, Va., in August, they were met
with militant opposition by anti-fascist and anti-racist protesters. Heather
Heyer, an anti-fascist [Antifa extremist] who marched that day, was murdered by
a member of the fascist American Vanguard Party.
Two
days later, the people of Durham continued that opposition by tearing down the
Confederate Soldiers Monument, erected 93 years ago to terrorize the Black
community. “After the events in Charlottesville, which were meant to revive
racist terror in the ugliest form, those who stood up and refused to be pushed
back were also fearful of what it meant,” said Sara Flounders, co-director of
the International Action Center. “And then two days later, the liberating act
in Durham changed the climate and was felt all over the world.”
After
the toppling of the Confederate statue, Sheriff Mike Andrews opened a witch hunt
against anti-racist activists and issued charges against nearly a dozen people.
When the initial defendants went to turn themselves in, hundreds of Durham
community members came forward in solidarity, claiming responsibility for the
action. Support for the defendants in the community and across the country has
only grown since. “I think the support has been great,” said Thompson. “It’s
just been steadily growing instead of waning, as the courts and the legal
system would want it to.”
More
analysis and reporting on the Durham court proceedings and the ongoing anti-racist
struggle will appear in future issues of WW.
------------------------
Our Program - WWP
We’re talking about the
real issues facing workers and oppressed people – and organizing for the real
solutions. Revolutionary solutions. Join us in the struggle
to demand:
Abolish Capitalism
Disarm the Police & ICE Agents
Fight for Socialist Revolution
Defend Black Lives Matter
Disarm the Police & ICE Agents
Fight for Socialist Revolution
Defend Black Lives Matter
Mass struggle is the way
forward. Read our full 10 points program:
1. End the war on Black and
Brown people. Reparations now. Stand with and defend the Black Lives
Matter Movement.
We stand in solidarity with and
support the demands of the Black Lives Matter uprising, including jailing
killer cops, abolishing the police and the historic necessity of
reparations for Black people here and worldwide. Black, Brown and
Indigenous peoples have the right to fight racist oppression by any means
necessary. The rebellions in Baltimore and Ferguson were righteous acts of
indignation and should be defended by the working-class movement.
2. End racism. Support
self-determination for Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian and Arab peoples.
The U.S. has a long history of
violating the rights of the oppressed. The southwest part of this country
was stolen from Mexico, creating an internal colony of Mexican/Chicano
people. Genocide and robbery of the lands of Native people are part and parcel
of the brutal history of the U.S. Japanese Americans experienced criminal
intern-
ment camps, and Filipinos in the U.S. suffer tremendous exploitation here and in their homeland. Chinese people were made indentured servants to build this country’s railroads. And Puerto Rico and Hawaii were overthrown and lost their sovereignty.
ment camps, and Filipinos in the U.S. suffer tremendous exploitation here and in their homeland. Chinese people were made indentured servants to build this country’s railroads. And Puerto Rico and Hawaii were overthrown and lost their sovereignty.
3. Abolish capitalism – fight
for a socialist revolution.
Capitalism cannot be reformed.
We need revolutionary socialism – a system of people’s power, where the
worker and oppressed peoples, not the banks and corporations, own and
control everything, where the needs of the 99% are filled, not profit for
the 1%. Although progressive changes should be supported, they do not go
far enough; the whole rotten system must be overturned. With
the profit drive eliminated and the power in the hands of the masses
of people who create society’s wealth, great advances are possible.
Everyone can have a job at a living wage or guaranteed income for those
who can’t work. Everyone can have free, quality health care, free,
quality education through college, affordable housing, and the
infrastructure can be repaired. All the ills created by capitalism can
finally begin to be dismantled once human needs, not corporate greed, are
society’s central organizing principle.
4. Stop the deportations and
raids. Full rights for all migrants. End Islamophobia. Open the borders
for people; close the borders for profiteers and warmongers.
No worker is illegal, whether
they are from Mexico, Honduras, Syria, Haiti or anywhere. What must be illegal
is the role of U.S. corporations and the military in provoking
instability and imposing misery, causing people from those
countries to seek refuge. No racist attacks on immigrants and Muslims.
Every migrant should be accorded full civil and human rights. Shut down
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Instead of building walls on the
U.S./Mexican border, open the borders for free and safe travel. Stop the
so-called drug war that creates horrific conditions of incarceration and
violence and fills the bankers’ coffers.
5. Food, water, housing,
clothing, health care, education and childcare for all. Solidarity with
homeless people. Moratorium NOW! to stop all foreclosures, evictions,
utility shut-offs. Justice for the people of Flint, Mich. Free
education for all, full funding for public schools. Job training with
a stipend. Cancel student debt. Defend the right of student athletes
to strike for a living wage.
No one in the world’s
wealthiest country should be hungry. Restore and expand all food programs.
Free, clean water is a human right. Capitalist housing creates wealthy
landlords and gentrification, a new form of colonialism. We
want permanent, quality, affordable housing for all.
Abolish health-care-for-profit and replace it with a publicly
owned health care system with free medical and dental care. Jail the
pharmaceutical profiteers. Quality public education is being
systematically eliminated via forced testing, Common Core and charter schools.
Young people, especially youth of color, are denied education and sent to
prison in ever increasing numbers. College should be free.
Student debt, the trillions of dollars the federal government
and banks are robbing from millions of workers, should be immediately
cancelled.
6. Women need full liberation
in all facets of society. Equal pay for comparable work. Reproductive
justice, including the right to abortion. Restore all
welfare programs. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, queer liberation
now. Stop the murders of trans women. Full rights for all queer people.
We demand equal pay for
equivalent work. Women’s control of their own bodies requires full reproductive
rights: free, legal, accessible abortion, birth control, no
forced sterilization and full support needed to raise
healthy children. Abuse, rape, incest and violence must end.
Fully funded safe houses are needed. Stop the objectification and
commodification of women. Federal law banning anti-LGBTQ discrimination is
urgent. End the murders of transgender women of color; support the calls
for LGBTQ people to leave the military and for LGBTQ
communities fighting displacement and gentrification. Demand
access to employment and health care that is sensitive to
LGBTQ people; resources devoted to eliminating LGBTQ youth homelessness;
and the right of all LGBTQ people to define their families. We support
LGBTQ people in the fight for self-determination, trans and gender
liberation, and against co-optation of LGBTQ issues such as “pinkwashing”
by Israel.
7. Change the system, not the
climate. Make the Pentagon and oil corporations pay for the destruction of
the planet. Reparations for climate victims of Hurricane Katrina
and elsewhere. Immediate support for climate refugees. Free the land!
Global warming and its
destruction fueled by profit-driven corporations is not a future problem;
it’s here now. Millions of people are affected by loss of homes and
livelihoods. And poor communities – already exposed to racial and class
exploitation – are the most affected in the U.S. and worldwide. The banks,
multinational corporations and the Pentagon– the world’s worst polluter – must
be held accountable. But we can’t wait for them to stop climate change. We
need socialism. Only a socialist system can handle the
worldwide crisis of rising sea levels, droughts, extreme weather, lack
of food and water, etc. The number one sustainable country in the world is
a socialist one: Cuba. All of humanity, including non-human species, is at
risk, and only extreme measures can save us and other species. Socialism is
the only system capable of taking those measures.
8. Defeat imperialism. Shut
down the Pentagon. U.S. hands off Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia,
Africa and the Middle East. Build international solidarity!
U.S. imperialism has 1,000
military bases and the largest military budget in history- all to impose
capitalist domination globally. We oppose all U.S. wars,
invasions, occupations and drone attacks, regardless of the
media lies and justifications. We oppose sanctions,
economic destabilizations and all U.S. “free trade” agreements
such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which breaks unions, wrecks
the environment and violates national sovereignty. We demand independence,
reparations for countries like Haiti and canceling the debt from Puerto
Rico to Africa to Greece. We oppose NATO, the war on Syria and the
encirclement of Russia and China, threats against People’s Korea and the
revolutionary movement in Venezuela. We demand justice for the Ayotzinapa
43 and an end to the drug war in Mexico and everywhere. We support the Palestinian
people’s full national liberation, sovereignty and right to return. We
call for an end to all U.S. aid to Israel and all reactionary governments
worldwide.
9. Full employment and
decent jobs or income for all regardless of race, religion, age, gender,
disability or arrest history. End all forms of austerity
worldwide. Support the movement for $15 and a union. Abolish
“right to work” (for less) laws. Repeal Taft Hartley. Stop
killing disabled people, especially those with emotional disabilities.
Wall Street owes the people for
the destruction the 1% has caused. Stop privatization and defend pensions.
A trillion dollar plan is needed to rebuild cities like Detroit and
Baltimore that have been destroyed by criminal predatory lending and capitalist
restructuring that eliminated millions of union jobs. Workers produce all
of society’s wealth, yet only get back a small fraction in wages. A
fighting union for every worker. All workers have the right to strike.
Equal opportunity in transportation, housing, education and employment for
people with disabilities, and accessible wheelchair ramps, elevators and
buses to provide equal access. Minimum wage laws must include disabled
people, who sometimes earn only 22 cents an hour. Cops who kill with
impunity disabled people of color and disabled LGBTQ people, particularly
the emotionally and psychologically disabled, must be brought to
justice. We demand a system where all contribute according to their abilities
and receive according to their needs.
10. End the prison-industrial
complex and mass incarcerations of Black and Latinx youth. Abolish solitary
confinement and the death penalty. Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, Ana Belen Montes,
Leonard Peltier, Oscar López Rivera, Rev. Edward Pinkney, Aafia Siddiqui,
Rasmea Odeh and all political prisoners. Stop FBI harassment of activists.
Prisons are internment camps
for working-class people, especially Black, Brown and Indigenous peoples.
Tear down the prison walls! People who are incarcerated need
housing, job training, health care, and social services, none of
which are offered in prison camps or the probation system. The GEO
Group, Corrections Corporation of America and detention centers for immigrants
should be shut down. Dismantle ICE and release all immigrant detainees.
Meanwhile, prisoner demands for decent food, an end to solitary
confinement, minimum wage for labor, etc., must be met. The U.S.
government has systematically attacked freedom fighters who organize and
fight for a more just society. Free them all! Stop FBI harassment of
activists. Stop NSA spying programs, government surveillance and sabotage of
political movements.
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