Debate with the College Republicans!

Damn. Its July, 2 months since our previous posting!
Suraj and I have been busy busy busy! So many apologies for not having written in ages...
Trust us though, we are back NOW! Summer's finally rolled by into Seatown and we are happy w beaming sunshine, and free(er) with no ongoing campaign for the next month or so!

Here's an update on what we've been busy with since May 4th (our last posting)...Hopefully most of you still remember that Suraj and I were part of an organization called March 1st Solidarity, a Korean solidarity group calling for US troops to get out of Asia, and no longer have our homelands be used as a base for attacking the Middle East!

So here's whats been up:

We organized a debate against the University of Washington College Republicans! Yes, the same folks who organized the Islamofascism Awareness Week last Nov. They also *tried* to organize a game of "Tag an Illegal Immigrant" which fortunately! got shut down by every other group on the UW campus! You can read about the CR's racist events here and here .

So, why did we choose to debate the CR? Honestly, we thought it was time that the CR had their asses kicked publicly in a debate! We felt that many other activist groups' way of responding to attacks from the right was to turn it into a festival, a celebration, rather than choose direct confrontation. Of course, there is an ideological basis for it. The argument that we have heard is that confrontation is too reactionary and too much based on the terms of our "enemies." Instead, activists should work on strengthening their bonds with one another and create “positive” and peaceful spaces, thus the "celebration and gathering" route, as opposed to the confrontation route.
Honestly, we don't buy this philosophy. Its couched too much in a feel-good sort of liberalism, post-modernist PC-ness...where any form of confrontation and argument is seen as violent. For real, having heated debates or verbal confrontation is not violence! Why can't we stick up and defend ourselves against racists and white supremacists? Why do we have to pretend that they dont exist, or try to "convert" their energy into positive spaces that border on accomodating the racist attacks at times? Why do we have to cater to what bourgeois liberal society thinks of our resistance? Why do we have to act out of fear rather than strength?

Along those lines, we organized a public debate w the College Republicans. A healthy, non-violent and heated exchange of words. Here is our flyer:




* we also have a youtube of the debate but its not posted up yet. we will be adding it to this post as soon as we can!

March 1st Solidarity rally: US Troops Out of South Korea!

Check it out here:

Part One

Still "Gone for Broke"?

I recently came across an article about a campaign that has been started by some Japanese Americans, calling for the US Postal service to issue a stamp commemorating Nisei veterans and their participation in World War Two. These Nisei veterans contributions to WW2 have been forgotten by mainstream US history, and the stamp campaign is part of an initiative to reverse that. When they are discussed, these Nisei vets are lauded for their heroism and patriotism, particularly their willingness to "prove" that they were American by fighting for the US during a time when their identities made them suspect. The term to "go for broke" is used to describe the situation of these Nisei vets during WW2 era, whose families were interned in concentration camps as a result of Executive Order 9066 issued by the government, and yet still decided to fight for this government which has wronged them. Revisionist or not, the retelling of the history of this era usually paints these soldiers as ones who maintained enduring faith and hope in America's egalitarian ideals, believing that the injustice of EO 9066 would eventually reverse itself.

I couldn't help but wonder, would we use, and glorify the same term "go for broke" to describe Black soldiers in the US who fought in the Civil War, WW2, Vietnam War, and today's Iraq War? Would we also use those terms to describe the Latino immigrant soldiers who enlist in the US army to fight in Iraq for citizenship while their families are locked up in detention centers? The legacy of the Black Power and Chicano movements show us that white supremacy, embodied in the US state, preaches democracy worldwide for its foreign policy, but never practices it at home. Except for when its an inescapable compromise pushed by the people's wrath.

Are the only times we glorify subservience to the state, moments when resistance is not seen to be threatening anymore? Blacks or Latinos in this country could not glorify joining the army easily, because the attacks on their communities by white supremacy is still so glaring, so in your face. So why is it that for J.A community, reluctant subservience to the state is glorified, rather than critiqued?

I couldn't help but painfully notice the elements of "model minority" that went into the description of these Nisei veterans. In a speech by historian Eric Saul, "America at its Best," he points out "Japanese values" that have made Nisei veterans fighters for an unjust government. Nowhere does he talk about the proud legacy of No-No boys, those who resisted fighting in WW2 for a government who only used democracy as a rhetoric, cos those Japanese Am at the time sure weren't seeing any democracy happening in the US!
Here's a quote from the piece:

Furthermore, your President, on February 19, 1942, signed an Executive Order that said you weren't Americans anymore, you were "non-aliens." So why did you join the army? Why did you become soldiers, and ironically become, of all things, the most decorated army unit that this country has ever produced?
There were words like girl and on, which your parents taught you, which means "duty," and "honor," and "responsibility." You had to pay back your debt to your country.

Oyakoko: love for family. Your parents couldn't become citizens, but you loved your families and you had to . prove your loyalty at any cost. You used your bodies as hostages for your families to prove your love for democracy and justice when you volunteered from those camps.
[...]
Enryo: humility. There's an old Japanese proverb that says if you do something really good and you don't talk about it, it must be really, really good! You never talked about your wartime_ record. You didn't tell your children, you didn't tell your wives, and you didn't even tell the country.

Gaman: internal fortitude, keep your troubles to yourself. Don't show how you're hurting.
[...]
Haji: don't bring shame on your family. When you go off to war, fight for your country, return if you can, but die if you must.
[...]

I mean, for real...this sounds all rosy and great..but I bet that most of the Nisei who went to fight at that time were mad confused and didnt know what else to do...worried for their own parents' safety if they didnt go to fight, worried for themselves too! For all the talk about Niseis "volunteering" to go fight in the war, the fact is that the repercussion for not fighting in the war was imprisonment in the state pen. Its bad enough that folks were forced to go fight in the war, but its even worse still that its made to seem like a choice when really, there wasnt any...There's nothing beautiful or great about forcing a group of oppressed people to fight a dirty war for the US...subservience to the white supremacist US state was never in anybody's blood, anybody's culture whatsoever. I resent the way that proud cultural traditions that have been used for people's liberation struggles are now being twisted in a pretty perverted manner to glorify subservience and non-resistance...

People usually pit the US coalition of Allied forces, against the Japanese Empire during WW2, saying the former is the lesser of two evils. I find that hard to believe, considering that General McArthur was intending to drop a kazillion atomic bombs in North Korea soon after the Japanese War had ended. There wasn't no democratic ideal in resisting the Japanese...it was all a malevolent, practical political calculation. One area that I am really curious about, is the history of anti-war, anti-imperial resistance within Japan itself before and during the war period. While the rest of the Asian world was celebrating Japan's victory over Russia, for redeeming their sense of Asian dignity and pride, Japanese anarchists and socialists were fighting Japanese militarism within Japan itself. They were consistently for the solidarity of the international working class, not for allying with any specific nation's ruling elite.

There's a lot to be covered. But for now, here's a link to an article by John Crump that is pretty eye-opening: Anarchist Opposition to Japanese Militarism, 1926-37

GLB talk on Nov 15th!!

Burma and Buddhists of the World Unite

New blog, new city and our first entry! Its been a long week with many closing shifts at X cafe where I work-- which really just means a lot of banal (and anal) cleaning, washing, stocking and boring tedious stuff like that. One good thing is that I don't have to deal w the customers when I am out back manhandling the dishes. Its exhausting to have to smile and be all polite when all I can think about in my mind is: Get Out!! Its closing time!!!

On a happier note, I've been spending some time this week researching for an article on what's happening in Burma these days and its brought me into contact w some interesting Asian folks in Seattle. What's going on in Burma now is pretty horrendous. The military junta which has been in power for the last 40 plus years have been cracking down on the mass protests with brute military force: guns, beatings, torture and allegedly, even cremation of people who are still alive!! These are desperate measures to repress the mass protests, which seem to be partly spontaneous but also tied to an underground revolutionary organization consisting of the leaders of the "1988 generation," where a similar crackdown and massacre occurred to suppress popular uprisings. The monks in Burma who had joined in solidarity with the lay protesters have also gotten the beat-down. An absolute no-no for a Buddhist country like Burma, where even the most vile and powerful of leaders have to pay respects and provide alms for the monastic order as a way of establishing some form of legitimacy. Its inspiring to see monks stand in solidarity with political movements and brings to mind the Buddhist resistance movement in Vietnam in the 70s, where monks like Thich Naht Hanh broke with the more conservative and state-aligned national Buddhist church, and organized mass protests on the streets against the US invasion. He even wrote a manual for young Buddhist activists, teaching them how to meditate and maintain love and compassion, while protesting uncompromisingly against injustice. Really, fighting against oppression, doing what needs to be done at the present moment IS a practice of Zen mindfulness and "no-thinking" mind of being present always. Unfortunately, this tradition has been lost in the warm and fuzziness of the predominantly white and liberal American Buddhism who are happy only to see Buddhism as only an individual practice, always peaceful and non-threatening to the social order.

This image of protesters in Thailand, also another Buddhist country, made my day:



M made a really important insight a few days ago when I was raving about the potential for an international Buddhist solidarity movement. He pointed out the different ways in which Islam and Buddhism are perceived in terms of non-violence. To quote his email, he says "When there are popular street demonstrations in Palestine or Xinjiang they are not perceived as nonviolent but as a precursor or counterpart to armed struggle or "terrorism" , whereas resistance in Tibet and Burma is portrayed as nonviolent even when it actually is connected to revolutionary organizations and armed struggle." Whatever happened to the interfaith solidarity movement of the 70s? Thich Naht Hanh, the Vietnamese monk whom I refer to above, was an anti-Zionist who spoke out against the Zionist rabbi establishment when he was invited to Jerusalem for interfaith dialogs in the late 60s. He spoke openly of the hypocrisy of Zionist rabbis supporting the Vietnamese resistance movement while condoning the repression of Palestinians. I am not a Buddhist philosopher or historian, but there is something fishy going on in the way Buddhism is taken up in the US, in popular imagination, if it is merely portrayed as a non-violent alternative to the "violence of Islam." Yes, yet another way that Asians are portrayed as a "model minority" serving to support white supremacist beating down of other people of color!

My visit to the Burmese monastery down at Kent, WA was really interesting. Thanks to Tin, a Burmese student whom I met at University of Washington, when I went to show support for a Free Burma rally some students were organizing, I was able to communicate with the folks I met there. There were several young ethnic Karen children, an ethnic minority that has been suppressed by the predominantly ethnic Burmese military government. They had just arrived in town with their parents who had been living in the Mela refugee camp, located along the Thai-Burmese border, for eighteen years! It seems like as part of their "initiation" into a new life, the young kids were becoming monks for a short period of time, a practice that is quite common in Theravada Buddhism practiced in continental Southeast Asian countries like Thailand, Cambodia and Burma. These young monks were so cute, climbing trees and making a ruckus when I bet they were supposed to be meditating!

The wide consensus of the US as the harbinger of benevolence and democracy has been dominant in the whole "Burma question." Bush, and Clinton before, have been supporting economic sanctions in Burma since 1997 and Bush has recently been pushing the UN for more internationally recognized economic sanctions and condemnation of the junta, especially w China, Russia and the EU. Not that these are bad things in and of themselves cos these capitalists don't have a conscience anyway, but then the fact that it's the same US that is in Iraq fomenting civil war, is trying to push for human rights in Burma is kinda a ridiculous notion. I will bet that the nationalist cynics back in Southeast Asia and China will be pointing out that the US intervention is a way of "one-upping" China, or more broadly, the rise of Asia, by posing itself as a more "human rights," "benevolent," "ethical" alternative to the Chinese economic giant that deals with dirty ol Burmese military junta. Pulling the wool over everyone's eyes, the US has made everyone believe that it doesn't reap any money off of the Burmese people's suffering. But really, Chevron (where Condi Rice once sat as a Board member) and Halliburton (Cheney's baby) have been shaking hands with the same evil Burmese military bigshots for a long time. The 1997 economic sanctions that Clinton passed only applied to new US companies which intend to enter Burma, not the ones that already there. I'm sure all sorts of conspiracy-theories can be spun from this, but I'll just leave it as the US's media gimmick for now.

peacing out for the night,
jomo