police state

North America

Podcast: Better anti than fa, thank you

Trump’s executive order designating Antifa a “domestic terrorist organization” was quickly followed by a mobilization of federal troops to anarchist hotbed Portland and a highly unusual call for a gathering of military brass from around the world in Quantico—to take place the day before the government will be shut down if a Congressional deal is not reached. These evident preparations for mass repression, or even an auto-golpe and establishment of a Trump dictatorship, were conveniently followed by a sniper attack on an ICE facility in Dallas. In Episode 297 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg argues that Trump’s attempted criminalization of anti-fascism portends an imminent consolidation of fascist rule in the United States—and asks what we’re going to do about it. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Inner Asia

Chinese advocate for Tibetan rights arrested for ‘splittism’

Human Rights Watch urged Chinese authorities to release activist Zhang Yadi (张雅笛), also known as Tara, after she was arrested for creating a digital platform advocating for Tibetan rights in the Chinese language. Zhang, 22, is a member of the activist group Chinese Youth for Tibet, which aims “to foster a deeper understanding of Tibetan culture within Chinese-speaking communities, challenge and deconstruct Han chauvinism, and address ethnic conflicts and prejudice.” She maintained the group’s website from France, where she was studying, but was arrested in Shangri-La, Yunnan province, after returning to China to visit family. Charged with promoting “splittism,” she may face life imprisonment. (Photo: Tibetan Review)

North America

Trump designates Antifa as ‘domestic terrorist organization’

President Donald Trump signed an executive order designating Antifa a “domestic terrorist organization.” The order calls Antifa a “militarist, anarchist enterprise that explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government.” Asserting a pattern of political violence, the order instructs executive agencies to “investigate, disrupt, and dismantle any and all illegal operations” of Antifa and related persons. A fact sheet from the Trump administration describes examples of political violence which it attributes to Antifa, including assaults against Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. (Photo: Antifa confronting far-right rally in Portsmouth, UK. Credit: Tim Sheerman-Chase via Wikimedia Commons)

Watching the Shadows

Podcast: Charlie Kirk = Calvo Sotelo?

Some are drawing an ominous analogy between Charlie Kirk and Horst Wessel, the early martyr of the Nazi cause. In Episode 296 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg offers a more ominous analogy still: to José Calvo Sotelo, the Spanish fascist leader whose assassination in 1936 provided the expedience for Generalissimo Franco’s coup d’etat that initiated the Spanish Civil War—and ultimately brought a decades-long dictatorship to Spain. Trump’s declaration of antifa as a “terrorist organization” since Kirk’s assassination is an open acknowledgement of his fascist intent. Fortunately, anti-fascist protesters are repudiating Kirk, and the wave of racist terror and anti-left reaction now being unleashed coast to coast. (Image mash-up: CounterVortex)

South Asia

UN Human Rights Council urged to maintain scrutiny on Sri Lanka

International human and civil rights groups urged the UN Human Rights Council to maintain its oversight of the situation in Sri Lanka. The appeal comes ahead of the council’s 60th session, where member states’ compliance with international human rights treaties is to be reviewed. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Commission of Jurists and the Asian Forum for Human Rights & Development called for the renewal of the Sri Lanka Accountability Project, led by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). In their statement, the groups accused Sri Lanka’s government of lacking the political will to establish an independent prosecutorial mechanism to ensure accountability for human rights violations and international crimes. The call comes as excavations continue at a mass grave site where hundreds of ethnic Tamils who disappeared during the country’s civil war are believed to be buried. (Photo via JURIST)

Africa

UN rights chief warns of growing repression in Mali

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk warned of a deteriorating rights situation in Mali amid a growing atmosphere of repression. The high commissioner urged the military junta to promptly rescind legal changes that have “slammed the door shut” on a return to democratic rule, and called for the unconditional release of all wrongly detained persons. Türk stated: “The laws enacted in recent months risk undermining respect for human rights in Mali for a protracted period. I urge the transitional authorities to take immediate and concrete steps to revoke the problematic laws.” (Map: PCL)

Iran

Iran: post-conflict crackdown on civil opposition

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) condemned the ongoing crackdown on civil opposition by the Iranian authorities following the conflict with Israel. Since the outbreak of hostilities in June, Iranian authorities have arrested over 20,000 people on such dubious charges as espionage for Israel, which may carry the death penalty. Minority ethnic and religious groups have been particularly targeted, with Kurdish, Baha’i, Christian and Jewish minorities under threat. Amnesty and HRW urged criminal accountability for unlawful arrests and executions. (Image: Grunge Love via Flickr)

Southeast Asia

Police automotive terror sparks Indonesia uprising

Days of popular protest in Indonesia exploded into violence after Affan Kurniawan, a motorbike delivery worker, was fatally struck by a police vehicle in Jakarta. The worker had not even been participating in the protest when armored vehicles ploughed into the crowd, mowing him down. Kurniawan’s helmet, lying in the rainy street after he was struck, has become an online viral image that fueled further demonstrations across the country. Six were killed and the army called to the streets before the protests were called off when the government agreed to revoke controversial perks for lawmakers, including lavish housing allowances. But the underlying grievances of unemployment and inflation remain. (Image via Twitter)

Central America

Podcast: MAGA-fascism and the struggle in El Salvador II

Kilmar Abrego García, released from extrajudicial detention in El Salvador, now fights deportation to Uganda. Hundreds of the Venezuelans sent by the US to the Salvadoran prison gulag have now been returned to Venezuela in a prisoner swap. But El Salvador remains on the growing list of human rights offenders cultivated by the Trump regime as surrogate detention states. The Trump State Department’s farcical “Human Rights Report” seeks to sanitize dictator Nayib Bukele’s anti-crime police state. And adding to the Orwellian nature of the Trump-Bukele axis, the US Justice Department has dropped charges against MS-13leaders who collaborated in the consolidation of the new Salvadoran dictatorship. In Episode 293 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg exposes the perverse charade. (Photo: Policía Nacional Civil de El Salvador via InfoDefensa)

Inner Asia

Amnesty: still no accountability for China’s crimes against Uyghurs

Amnesty International condemned the lack of accountability for the Chinese government’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims in western Xinjiang region, noting that nearly three years have passed since a groundbreaking UN report detailed gross violations of international law against the ethnic group. In interviews with Amnesty, distraught family members recounted being prohibited from any form of contact with their loved ones, many of whom were suddenly taken away and imprisoned without due process or formal charges. They spoke of how they have remained in the dark for years about whether their relatives are alive, and how lack of transparency has meant fear and anguish, with one family member describing the uncertainty as a “wound that never heals.” (Photo: Amnesty International)

Southeast Asia

Vietnam: Khmer Krom people face escalating repression

UN human rights experts condemned what they described as escalating repression against the Khmer Krom people in Vietnam, urging authorities to cease targeting minority communities through security laws, and to release those detained for peaceful activity. The experts reported that Khmer Krom rights defenders, including Theravada Buddhist monks, face systematic harassment and criminalization for peaceful efforts to promote indigenous identity, cultural expression and religious freedom. The experts further condemned government claims that indigenous and minority cultural identity threaten national security and public order. (Image: Unrepresented Nations & Peoples Organization-UNPO)

North America

Nebraska gets fed-funded migrant detention center

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen announced the opening of a new immigration detention center in the southwest corner of the state. The National Guard called the move a step in supporting “the president’s initiatives for homeland security.” The present McCook “Work Ethic Camp,” run by the state Corrections Department, will be transformed from a minimum-security facility, and its holding capacity will be expanded to approximately 300. The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that the new center, dubbed “Cornhusker Clink,” is to be a partnership between Nebraska and the DHS. Secretary Kristi Noem remarked that the partnership aims “to remove the worst of the worst out of our country.” The new detention center mirrors Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz,” from which deportations have already started to occur. (Image: Change.org)