Today in Labor History June 1, 1981: Two Filipino longshore labor organizers, Domingo & Viernes, were assassinated in Seattle, Washington on orders of U.S.-backed dictator Ferdinand Marcos. In 1986, as a result of ongoing protests, President Ronald Reagan told Marcos to “cut and cut cleanly.” That evening, Marcos and his wife Imelda fled to Hawaii aboard a U.S. air force plane, after 20 years of rule, with an entourage of 90 people (mostly servants), with 22 crates of cash valued at $717 million, 300 crates of jewelry of unknown value, $4 million worth of unset precious gems, $200,000 in gold bullion, $1 million in Philippine pesos and deposit slips for $124 million in banks in the Cayman Islands. Plus, countless crates of shoes. The Marcos hold the Guinness record for the largest ever theft from a government. Today, their son, Bong Bong Marcos, rules over the Philippines, with Sara Duterte as his vice-president, daughter of the brutal previous president, Rodrigo Duterte, who has been linked to the death-squad murders of over 1,400 alleged drug dealers and street children.

#laborhistory #WorkingClass #union #seattle #philippines #filipino #deathsquads #assassination #marcos #duterte #organizers #dictator

Today in Labor History May 14, 1980: Salvadoran and Honduran soldiers gunned down 600 Salvadoran refugees as they tried to cross the Sumpul River from El Salvador. Soldiers from El Salvador’s notorious ORDEN paramilitary also bludgeoned people with gun butts and gored them with machetes and military knives. They also threw babies and children into the air and decapitated them with machetes. A Honduran priest who visited the site said that there were so many vultures picking at the bodies in the river that it looked like a black carpet. Typhoid cases broke out in villages down river because of the large quantity of rotting corpses. And bones from the victims could still be seen a year later.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #elsalvador #deathsquads #honduras #imperialism #massacre #women #children

Yes, well.

In the right (🧐) hands, the #SecondAmendment IS a legal invitation to control the #USA with fascist #DeathSquads.

Shit should have never been in the #Constitution of a democratic country in the first place.

😔

Today in Labor History March 23, 1980: Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador gave a speech appealing to the men of the Salvadoran armed forces to stop killing Salvadoran civilians. The next day, they assassinated him, too, while he was celebrating Mass. No one was ever convicted for the crime, the United Nations Truth Commission for El Salvador concluded that Major Roberto D'Aubuisson had ordered the assassination. At the time, D’Aubuisson was a death squad leader. He later founded the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) political party. D’Aubuisson, a neo-fascist and an alumnus of the notorious School of the Americas (aka School of the Assassins) in Fort Benning, Georgia, went on to serve as president of the Legislative Assembly, and to run for president, ultimately losing to another brutal right-winger, Jose Napoleon Duarte.

Though he was hailed by supporters of Liberation Theology, Romero’s biographer wrote that he was never interested in that movement, and that he faithfully adhered to Catholic teachings on liberation and a preferential option for the poor. And throughout his life he continued to draw inspiration from Opus Dei. However, after the assassination of his friend and fellow priest Rutilio Grande, also in 1977, he became critical of the military. In 1997, Pope John Paul II gave Romero the title of Servant of God, and the church opened a cause for his beatification. Pope Francis canonized him in 2018.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #imperialism #DeathSquads #elsalvador #assassination #ArchBishopRomero #romero

Today in Labor History March 12, 1967: Suharto took power from Sukarno in Indonesia. He ruled Indonesia as an authoritarian, kleptocratic dictator for 31 years, and is widely considered one of the most brutal and corrupt dictators of the 20th century. During that time, he amassed a fortune worth $38 billion. Suharto rose to power under Sukarno during the 1965-1966 genocide. During that ostensibly anti-Communist purge, Suharto’s troops murdered 1-3 million communists, labor activists, peasants and ethnic minorities. During that genocide, he received support military and economic from both the U.S. and the U.K. In 1974, the Suharto regime, with approval of U.S. president Gerald Ford, invaded East Timor, killing over 200,000 Timorese. Another 75,000-200,000 died from starvation and disease. The current Indonesian government is considering awarding him the posthumous honor of National Hero.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #genocide #indonesia #easttimor #massacre #deathsquads #suharto #sukarno #dictator #communist #union #torture #imperialism #coldwar #starvation

Today in Labor History February 4, 1981: Death squads killed 68 campesinos in the massacre of Chimaltenango, Guatemala. The massacre was one of many massacres making up the Guatemalan genocide. 200,000 Guatemalans died in the genocide. 93% of them were killed by government forces and death squads. 83% of the victims were Maya.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #guatemala #genocide #indigenous #maya #DeathSquads #imperialism #massacre #campesinos

Today in Labor History January 16, 1992: The government of El Salvador and the FMLN rebels signed a peace accord, formally ending their 12-year-old civil war. 75,000 people died in that war, mostly civilians, and mostly at the hands of the military and government-supported death squads. 25% of the population became refugees. The U.S. taxpayers heavily subsided the Salvadoran government and its death squads and also trained many of them at the School of the Americas (AKA School of the Assassins), in Fort Benning, Georgia. The FMLN was named after Farabundo Marti, a Salvadoran revolutionary from the 1930s, who led a communist uprising that created the short-lived Salvadoran soviet, the first soviet in the western hemisphere. The Martinez dictatorship then slaughtered over 40,000, mostly indigenous people, in a genocide known as La Matanza. Martinez was one of the first world leaders to recognize Hitler.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #elsalvador #FMLN #FarabundoMarti #imperialism #DeathSquads #communism #indigenous #genocide #CivilWar #SchoolOfTheAmericas #dictatorship #hitler

Today in Labor History December 11, 1981: Over 800 people were slaughtered by the Salvadoran military in the village of El Mozote in one of the largest 20th century massacres in Latin America. Men, women and children were tortured and systematically executed by the U.S.-supported regime, which was trying to wipe out unions, leftists and peasant activists. The Atlacatl Battalion carried out the massacre. The Battalion was created in 1980 at the U.S. Army's School of the Americas and trained by U.S. military advisors.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #elsalvador #genocide #civilwar #elmozote #massacre #deathsquads #SchoolOfTheAmericas #imperialism #torture

Today in Labor History November 16, 1989: Six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter were assassinated in El Salvador. They were among thousands killed by the military and right-wing death squads for speaking out for economic and social justice. The Jesuits were advocates of a negotiated settlement between the government of El Salvador and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN). The murders attracted international attention and increased international pressure for a cease-fire. It was also a turning point that led toward a negotiated settlement to the war. Nine members of the Salvadoran military were tried. Only Colonel Guillermo Benavides and Lieutenant Yusshy René Mendoza were convicted. Everyone else was absolved or found guilty on lesser charges. Benavides and Mendoza were sentenced to thirty years in prison, but were released in 1993 by a legislature dominated by anti-guerilla and pro-military politicians.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #deathsquads #assassination #elsalvador #fmln #communism #Revolution #prison #imperialism

Today in Labor History October 27, 2006: U.S. anarchist activist and journalist, Brad Will, was murdered by a government-affiliated paramilitary while covering the teachers’ strike in Oaxaca, Mexico. He was affiliated with Indymedia. In the 1990s, he worked as a teaching assistant to Peter Lamborn Wilson (a.k.a. Hakim Bey). He later moved to a squat in New York’s Lower East Side. He once participated in a protest against a proposed amendment to the Colorado constitution that sought to curtail gay rights, by pretending to marry another man, dressed in drag, with a parade in front of a Promise Keepers event in Boulder, Colorado. He was also active in Earth First, pirate radio, and other causes.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #bradwill #oaxaca #union #teachers #strike #assassination #mexico #paramilitary #deathsquads #anarchism #pirateradio #earthfirst #lgbtq

If you think cops are #ACAB now, wait'll you see what #Trump has in mind! When a #Fascist says they're going to install #Fascism if elected, believe them! #VoteLikeYourLifeDependsOnIt!

American #DeathSquads’: Inside Trump’s Push to Make #Police More Violent

Trump’s recent call for a “#ViolentDay” of policing is part of his plan to push cops to be as brutal as possible and shield them from accountability

By Asawin Suebsaeng, Tim Dickinson
October 3, 2024

"In the final weeks of his 2024 campaign to retake the White House, Trump is now explicitly running on a platform of encouraging domestic law enforcement to initiate — with an idea that drew immediate comparisons this week to the #dystopian-horror movie series, #ThePurge — 'one really violent day' of policing to put the fear of god into retail thieves."

Original article:
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-plan-cops-violent-american-death-squads-1235123895/

Archive:
https://archive.ph/5V1rR

#USElections #Elections2024 #VOTE!!! #CharacteristicsOfFascism #SignsOfFascism #WeDontNeedThatFascistGrooveThing

Today in Labor History October 8, 1965: The Indonesian military, led by future dictator Suharto, began torturing and massacring thousands of "suspected" Communists, leading ultimately to the overthrow of leftist President Sukarno. Other targets of the murders were members of the Gerwani women’s movement, trade unionists, ethnic Javanese Abangan, ethnic Chinese, atheists, teachers, students, and alleged leftists in general. The U.S. embassy provided the death squads with the names of suspected “communists.” Intelligence agencies from the U.S., U.K., and Australia provided anti-communist propaganda, as well as military and logistical aid. Overall, the genocide (1965-1966) led to 500,000 to 1.2 million civilian deaths and 1.5 million imprisoned. A top-secret CIA report from 1968 called the massacres "one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century, along with the Soviet purges of the 1930s, the Nazi mass murders, and the Maoist bloodbath of the early 1950s." Nevertheless, Western media either downplayed the events, or celebrated them. Suharto remained in power until 1998, continuing to imprison, torture and slaughter workers and civilians. He also presided over the East Timor Genocide of up to 300,000 people in the 1970’s.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #genocide #indonesia #suharto #coldwar #communism #anticommunism #torture #easttimor #deathsquads #cia

Listening to The New Abnormal (Trump’s Troubles With Women Are Just Beginning): https://shows.acast.com/the-new-abnormal/episodes/dont-fall-for-melanias-sudden-abortion-about-face

Melania Trump’s recent revelation that she supports abortion rights—in clear opposition to her husband’s own positions on the issue—may have shocked some, but The New Abnormal co-host Danielle Moodie wasn’t surprised or moved by the admission. Then, senior political reporter at Rolling Stone—and former Daily Beast reporter—Asawin Suebsaeng joins the program to discuss his most recent piece, “‘American Death Squads’: Inside Trump’s Push to Make Police More Violent.” Plus! A conversation with Katya Schwenk, a reporter at The Lever, about her recent story, “The Toxic Loophole Behind a Chemical Plant Disaster.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

https://shows.acast.com/the-new-abnormal/episodes/dont-fall-for-melanias-sudden-abortion-about-face #TheNewAbnormal #NewAbnormal #whitesupremacy #maga #trumpisaconvictedfelon #trump #DonaldTrump #EndTrumpism #endmaga #deathsquads #trumpforprison #rollingstone #harrisforpresident #VoteBlue #kamalaharris #harriswalz2024

💔 Colombia Is Uncovering Right-Wing Militias’ Mass Graves

https://jacobin.com/2024/07/colombia-mass-graves-right-wing-cucuta/

#colombia #politics #deathsquads #latinamerica #southamerica #humanrights

> Saravia confirms that D’Aubuisson masterminded the murder. The cashiered major later became the leader of El Salvador’s rightwing Arena Party.

> Just before his murder, Romero had broadcast an appeal to ordinary soldiers to stop the killing, counseling them that they were not “obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God.”

https://nieman.harvard.edu/articles/uncovering-the-death-squads-in-el-salvador/
#Saravia #DeathSquads #ElSalvadorArena

> “People see the Holocaust as a Jewish issue,” Loftus said. “They don’t see the larger covert abuse issue. . . . I’m not a Nazi hunter now. I’m not a Simon Wiesenthal. I’m hunting those Western bureaucrats that recruited them, that handful of the ‘40s and ‘50s who made Nuremberg meaningless. They created a statute of limitations for genocide.”

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-10-23-mn-237-story.html

#JohnLoftus in #TurningTheTide mentions 2025 for National Archive documents aoubt CentralAmerican #DeathSquads and Nazis..

Heritage Foundation Head Refers to ‘Second American Revolution’ - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/03/us/politics/heritage-foundation-2025-policy-america.html?smid=url-share&unlocked_article_code=1.400.g1SP.YPE0mzA5FYy4

He went on to say that “the radical left” was “apoplectic” because “our side is winning” and said, “And so I come full circle in this response and just want to encourage you with some substance that we are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”

#fascism #maga #deathSquads #threats #uspol

Today in Labor History June 19, 1985: Gunmen opened fire on an outdoor restaurant in San Salvador’s upscale Zona Rosa, killing 13, including four U.S. Marines and two U.S. businessmen. A broadcast by Radio Venceremos, the FMLN’s pirate radio station, said: "If U.S. Army members and CIA agents died in San Salvador, it was because they came to attack our people. No one had summoned them; they died as a result of the interventionist policy carried out by President Reagan, whose intervention grows day by day. Reagan will have to assume full responsibility for his deeds." I was in El Salvador in 1993 and some of the bullet holes were still visible from the Zona Rosa attack. And, even though peace had been officially declared at this point, there were still sporadic death squad murder occurring, even while I was there. I remember going to a peace march in San Salvador that was patrolled by armed United Nations monitors. Buses had driven in from every corner of the country, displaying banners of the department or town from where they came, as well as others demanding an end to governmental impunity and assassinations.

Mark Danner wrote a really horrifying, but excellent article in the New Yorker, 1993, about the dirty war the Salvadoran government had waged against its own people. It includes the story of how guerillas pretended to allow the Radio Venceremos transmitter to get captured by the ruthless Colonel Monterosa, when in reality they had packed it full of explosive to destroy the colonel. You can read it here: http://markdanner.com/1993/12/06/the-truth-of-el-mozote/

#workingclass #LaborHistory #imperialism #elsalvador #deathsquads #FMLN #reagan #cia #marines #civilwar #SchoolOfTheAmericas #radiovenceremos #pirateradio

Banana giant held liable for funding paramilitaries - @BBCWorld

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6pprpd3x96o

#USA #DeathSquads #Colombia #Paramilitary