“Concerned” People in Glass House

  
     There are a number of news organizations, such as the BBC and Reuters, partial to the United States and NATO’s point-of-view, saying that there are inhumane policies in China that deny its people freedom of expression, as if the government policies and media of the West safeguarded these liberties for us, a notion that Edward Snowden and other whistle-blowers have proven wrong; the teapot is calling the kettle black. Concerned people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. 

            These media outlets warn us about Muslim detention camps in Xinjiang that the Chinese government says are education centers; that they are really internment camps. Ex-inmates tell of abuses and torture of the one million ethnic minorities, the Uighurs, Kazakhs, victims of “intensive political indoctrination.”

“It is not mistreatment,” Li Xiaojun, the director for publicity at the Bureau of Human Rights Affairs of the State Council Information Office, told reporters. “What China   is doing is to establish professional training centers – educational centers.”

Li added: “If you do not say it’s the best way, maybe it’s the necessary way to deal with Islamic or religious extremism, because the west has failed in doing so. Look at Belgium, look at Paris, and look at some other European countries. You have failed.”

According to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report on Monday, former detainees described being denied food, being shackled or forced to stand for 24 hours, and being subjected to solitary confinement and sleep deprivation.”

Amazing that, percentage wise, American prisons educate so many more.

My friend tried to bait me: “So you feel these camps are justified? Seems reminiscent of Jews in Nazi camps. Neither group was trying to control the State.”

“No, not slave labor for the private American archipelago; there's no way to rehab a whole nation of drug addicts, thanks to big Pharma.”

   My troll wanted to keep the ball in his court. ”I am not asking you about the American opioid crisis, which I agree with you on, but the camps in China for Muslims.”

I pointed out that he knew more about the opioid crisis and prisons for profit than reeducation camps in China. I reminded him that China has been targeted often with foreign intervention bent on destroying its society. If the Chinese government. feels there is a need to protect its borders, I agree with it. China would have gone the way of Native Americans if it had let the foreign powers have their way and intoxicate their citizens. In Taiwan, the U.S. was complicit in dropping two million foreign ruling class invaders and with the 228 massacre of Taiwanese intellectuals and thus destroyed any chance of Taiwanese independence. I believe it would be best for you to be concerned and active with righting the wrongs of the U.S. govt. rather than being fearful of a sovereign nation protecting its borders from religious and political turmoil.

My personal American troll defended himself: “If they had left them alone it would not be part of China," he said flippantly like he supported automomy. His Taiwanese wife's father from China was one of the KMT [soldiers] that came over in 1949. "Although he was not perfect (none of us are)," he texted,  "he was not ruling class and killed no intellectuals.” I texted back he was probably shanghaied there with Chiang Kai-Sheks retreasting army.

My troll complained about Muslim camps in Xinjiang so I reminded him about other ethnic leansing closer to home. Here is an article by Dolores Cox posted on December 19, 2018:

“In Australia,  too, Aboriginal people are estimated to be only about 3 percent of the population now, yet they make up 27 percent of the prison population. According to Australia’s Justice Project, their radicalized incarceration rate is 13 times that of the white prison population. (tinyurl.com/ybdq7g6z). Aboriginal people also have higher arrest rates than whites, more convictions and a greater likelihood of imprisonment. Non-Indigenous prisoner rates have not increased since 2008.

The Australian Indigenous have experienced dispossession, exclusion from education and employment, and displacement. Only about 10 percent of Aborigines speak their native language. Only 59 percent of Indigenous youth ages 15-18 attend school, with just 34 percent graduating. And just 8.5 percent attend universities. Aboriginal home ownership is approximately 39 percent, and average income is only two-thirds that of non-Indigenous people.

Parallels in Racism

Parallels exist between the actions of white Europeans and European-descended Americans when it comes to the treatment of people of color worldwide. The U.S. was colonized in the 1600s by European settlers, resulting in the massacre, destruction of property and wholesale displacement of Indigenous people who had inhabited the land for thousands of years. Today, Native peoples comprise only about 2 percent of the U.S. population.

The U.S. has only 5 percent of the world’s population, yet jails 25 percent of the world’s total prisoner population. Similar to Australia, racial disparities dominate in the U.S. African Americans comprise approximately 14 percent of the U.S. population, yet 34 percent of prisoners are African-American men, women and children. Black men are incarcerated at nearly 6 times the rate of white men. And their prison sentences are 19 percent longer.”

Not liking the taste of his own medicine of my post to him, he reacted: “I like the image you sent, but not on my timeline.”

“And I not your negative comments on my posts,” I said

“Maybe you are right,” he patronized. “I could have messaged you about it, sorry. You can delete them.”

 I admitted to him I was selective in Facebook about what I see. All comments from friends cut me deeply and I wanted to respond, but so often a sarcastic friend, only out to support America and break my point-of-view down becomes a personal troll, not friendly at all; privately messaging me is better if a friend really wants to discuss politics.

Another instance was concerning a Workers World Party Facebook post. I said I supported the party that has always been there for workers and defending any communism, no matter how far from the theory they’d become.  A former Fellow Worker anarchist reminded me, “Sam Marcy supported the Soviet invasion of Hungary to crush the workers councils there.” As a product of the time, I would support Russia now if Ukraine wanted war.

In another instance, I read a post that said dozens of steel workers had been arrested in Iran, for protesting unpaid wages and government corruption - but they were still striking and taking to the streets to avoid arrests. “Workers at the National Steel Industrial Group in Ahvaz have been on strike since November 9. Homes have been raided at night and arrests have been made without warrants.”

            I say, sometimes, the solidarity of the state takes precedence over divisive factors, especially when it is under siege by NATO/USA/Israel. This is why I support any nation that counts those three imperialist states as enemies; one job at a time. Capitalist imperialism and fascism must be defeated first.

Some guy chided me in a comment: “So you are on the side of the Islamic fascist regime of the mullahs against the workers. The Iranian workers, of course, know better who their enemies are. And these are not the US and Israel. Congratulations and peace of your ashes.”

To this concerned citizen of the world I replied, “You, by sharing a labournet.tv and iranwire.com post  should be aware that though workers suffer all over the world, realize who is blowing the whistle on which nation's labor issues and their ulterior motives. If you are against "Islamic fascist regime of the mullahs against the workers" perhaps you are in favor of U.S. imperialism and destruction of U.S. anti-unionism and workers' rights. Clean up your own backyard. People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones or accuse a stranger who you know nothing about.

But since an injury to one is an injury to all, I don’t hesitate to share posts from the China Labour Bulletin, although they conveniently don’t discuss labor issues in Taiwan. I shared “Global Support for Disappeared Left Activists in China is feeling angry” which issued a bulletin: “URGENT! In the past week, another wave of mass arrest was carried out by the police. 9 more comrades of Jasic worker support group were taken away!”

 My personal troll, playing dumb, asked, “Why are these good comrades being arrested?”

“Better to ask,” I responded, "Why are there no comrades in Taiwan being arrested?" These workers dared to stand up against workplace abuses, and there are thousands in China but workers in Taiwan, who are abused, even more so, with salaries that haven't kept up with inflation in 18 years, don't dare to organize because of KMT gangsters and American obstruction via the DPP.

   For this reason, I choose to ignore the so-called “Joint Declaration by the Representatives of the Indigenous Peoples of Taiwan within the Indigenous Historical Justice and Transitional Justice Committee.

Since some people care so much about genocide and indigenous rights, and some are Jewish victims of one, like I am, I think readers might like to be reminded of the backyard they could clean up before worrying about the indigenous rights of Taiwanese natives, most of whom vote KMT, were co-opted by local corrupt politicians, and are being used again for sympathy against reunification. There are not any official spokesmen of these tribes; this is anti-Chinese propaganda. The vote buying and Stockholm effect from Christian missionaries who deluded them and burned their icons is more correct in the assessment of a people who are mostly assimilated, many alcoholic, and disinherited by the DPP and KMT. Again, I urge you to consider aiding a local indigenous population to soothe their savage souls.