Revolucion o Reformismo,
Parlamento Burgues o Poder Popular.
sábado, 27 de febrero de 2021
‘They Wasted Away Four Years of My Life’. Scholar Wang Xiyue talks about spending 40 months in an Iranian prison and what he learned about the regime...,PRESIDENTE.LIBERTAD PARA TOD@S L@S INMIGRANTES,LEGALIZACION AHORA PARA MAS DE 30 MILLONES DE INDOCUMENTAD@S,REUNIFICACION FAMILIAR INMEDIATA.DERECHOS HUMANOS PARA TOD@S.SI NO HAY JUSTICIA NO HABRA PAZ.BASTA DE DISCRIMINACION Y RACISMO CON LATINOS Y AFRODESENDIENTE.QUEREMOS PAN.COMIDA Y TRABAJO Y NINGUN DESALOJO DE VIVIENDAS Y DE MODESTOS NEGOCIOS.Basta de discriminacion con las vacunas.INDEMNIZACION POR EL GENOCIDIO DE LA PANDEMIA CAPITALISTA:COALICION 1 DE MAYO DEL BRONX.2021...,#8M2021 ¡Contra el virus del patriarcado y el capitalismo, la vacuna del feminismo y la solidaridad!. 8 de Marzo de 2021 – Día de las Mujerxs Trabajadoras – Llamado de Acción Global de La Vía Campesina...,EE.UU.SIN LUZ Y SIN AGUA: EL FRACASO DE LA DESREGULACIÓN Y LA PRIVATIZACIÓN EN SUS PROPIAS ENTRAÑAS. El análisis de James Petras en CX36, 23 de febrero de 2021..., Pensamiento. [Dossier] Imperialismo y ciencias sociales x La Haine. Un programa antiimperialista para la cultura y las ciencias sociales :: (Nota introductoria y dossier de la revista «Referencias», mayo de 1970)...,
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Un
programa antiimperialista para la cultura y las ciencias sociales ::
(Nota introductoria y dossier de la revista «Referencias», mayo de 1970)...,
8 DE MARZO,2021.
#8M2021 ¡Contra el virus del patriarcado y el capitalismo, la vacuna del feminismo y la solidaridad!.
8 de Marzo de 2021 – Día de las Mujerxs Trabajadoras – Llamado de Acción Global de La Vía Campesina.
(Harare 25 de Febrero 2021) Este 8 de Marzo 2021, articuladxs en nuestra diversidad, y en una sola voz, afirmamos ¡Contra el virus del patriarcado y el capitalismo, la vacuna del feminismo y la solidaridad!, a
la vez que resaltamos el rol fundamental de las mujerxs del campo, y
del campesinado en su conjunto, como primera línea en la producción de
alimentos agroecológicos y saludables que sustentan la vida, y
representan entre el 60 y el 70% de la producción mundial.
Al
cumplirse 25 años de la construcción colectiva de la Soberanía
Alimentaria, ésta es nuestra vía concreta y sostenible frente a las
distintas crisis que hoy vivimos, necesitamos acabar con la violencia
sistémicamente del capitalismo y del patriarcado, que hoy vulneran
principalmente los derechos de las mujerxs, diversidades, de la niñez, y
la clase trabajadora, excluyéndolos incluso, del acceso público y
gratuito a una vacuna, que debería ser considerada así como la
alimentación un derecho humano. Tal como lo defendemos en nuestro
llamado internacional ¡Por el Derecho a la Salud pública y gratuita para todas las poblaciones!
En
el mundo el rol político, social y económico de las mujerxs es vital,
más aun en medio de esta pandemia, y seguimos recibiendo salarios más
bajos, estamos en la informalidad, precarizadas, explotadas, somos
migrantes, madres solteras, trabajadoras agrícolas, pescadoras,
pastoras, que tenemos menor acceso a la tierra, a la tecnología, y a
políticas públicas de salud, protección contra la violencia, educación y
cultura. El mayor obstáculo al que nos enfrentamos en el campo es la
falta de acceso a medios de producción como la tierra. En el mercado,
las mujeres apenas poseemos el 1% de las tierras y aun así tenemos el
reto de seguir garantizando la alimentación y cuidado de comunidades,
familias y del mundo en condiciones de desigualdad política, económica y
social.
En ese sentido, en esta jornada también exigimos a los Estados implementar la Declaración de la ONU sobre Derechos Campesinos y
de otras personas que trabajan en zonas rurales (UNDROP, por sus siglas
en inglés). Donde se reconoce a las mujeres y al campesinado como
"sujetxs de derecho. Esta Declaración de las Naciones Unidas es un
instrumento estratégico para fortalecer las luchas y propuestas de los
movimientos rurales. Además, sienta una jurisprudencia y una perspectiva
jurídica internacional para orientar la legislación y las políticas
públicas en todos los niveles institucionales en beneficio de quienes
alimentan al mundo.
El
modelo del agronegocio imperante está estandarizado por el poder
económico de la agroindustria, son las grandes corporaciones
multinacionales las que controlan que se va a producir, qué comemos,
cuánto comemos y el precio de lo que comemos, hacen lobbys con
gobiernos, e incluso con organismos multilaterales, tal como hemos
venido denunciando con la Cumbre de la Alimentación organizada por la FAO para
este año, y cuyo objetivo es seguir acaparando aún más el mercado de la
alimentación. Esta dinámica genera altas ganancias para las
corporaciones, y costos gravísimos para la salud de las sociedades y del
planeta.
A
lo largo de la historia las mujerxs luchamos por ser sujetas de
transformaciones, de movilización y concientización, es así que como La
Vía Campesina saludamos todas las luchas y compañeras que resisten en la
India, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, Cuba, Kurdistán, Palestina, las
zapatistas, las mujeres diversas organizadas en la Marcha Mundial de
Mujeres y otras redes amigas, que están participando activamente de los
cambios que precisan nuestras sociedades, por justicia y dignidad para
las mayorías.
Movilízate:
Este
8 de Marzo, como cada Día de las Mujeres trabajadoras, llamamos a
nuestras organizaciones miembros, aliados y amigxs a conspirar desde
todos los espacios donde estemos, en nuestras comunidades, calles,
plazas, mercados, escuelas y trabajos, cuidando de la vida, sigamos
denunciando y movilizando conciencias, presionando para que los estados
se comprometan con las luchas históricas de las mujerxs de los campos y
las ciudades.
¡Contra el virus del patriarcado y el capitalismo, la vacuna del feminismo y la solidaridad!
¡Amplifica nuestra voz, reproduce y comparte nuestros materiales!
Para
descargar afiche oficial 2021 y materiales de comunicación para redes
sociales, también puedes hacer tu afiche en tu lengua local encontrarás
una versión en blanco, todo disponible aquí.
James Pertras/
Continúan los cortes de luz y agua en varios estados de EEUU provocados
por fuertes tormentas y faltas de mantenimiento de los compañías. Biden
da muestras de reforzar vínculos con la UE y la OTAN para enfrentar a
Rusia y China. https://archive.org/details/petras-22-feb …
El
concepto originariamente marxista de nación, móvil y abierto, es el
antídoto que precisamos ahora para hacer frente a los imperantes
enfoques hipersujetivistas, idealistas..,
El
subdesarrollo ha sido y es aún generado por el mismo proceso histórico
que genera también el desarrollo económico: el desarrollo del propio
capitalismo...,Noticias de New York
Escena 1: Sebastián Piñera y su compadre Duque de Colombia viajan a
Cúcuta, en medio de crisis política venezolana. Su intención era aportar
bienes para la “crisis humanitaria” de los sufridos venezolanos. En
mitad del puente, dio una arenga digna de Winston Churchill, apoyando la
democracia y criticando […]
Texto
de Néstor Kohan :: Carta de Fidel a Salvador Allende (29 de julio de
1973) :: Discurso de Fidel en homenaje póstumo a Allende, La Habana (28
de septiembre de 1973)...
Paloma
Norambuena, quien integró el directorio de Blanco y Negro entre 2017 y
2018, analiza el fracaso institucional y cultural de la sociedad anónima
que maneja y es dueña del equipo de fútbol más popular de Chile.
APAPA Applauds CA Legislature's Funding Approval
to Help Address Surge of AAPI Hate Crimes
2/24/2021
Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs Association (APAPA)
Sacramento, CA–
APAPA congratulates the efforts of Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San
Francisco), Chair of the Assembly Budget Committee, for securing the
approval of $1.4 million in state funding. This will bolster the
research and reporting at UCLA that tracks the recent wave of hate
incidents targeting Asian Americans in California. The appropriation will be a part of Assembly Bill 85 (AB 85), a fiscal measure to provide additional resources for California’s ongoing pandemic response.
The
recent trend of racial attacks on Asian Americans in the San Francisco
Bay Area and the whole country is of great concern to APAPA and all
Asian Americans. APAPA leaders, Carl Chan in Oakland, Dennis Wu in San Francisco, and Ruth Asmundson in YoloCounty, are proactively working with local authorities to prevent future hate crimes.
We
greatly appreciate the efforts of the Asian Pacific Islander
Legislative Caucus (APILC) and other legislators for making this fund
available to collect data, conduct research, and address racism and hate
crimes against the API community. Special thank you to California
Governor Gavin Newsom for signing AB 85 into law on February 24, 2021.
Wang Xiyue. (Photograph by Andrew Harnik/AFP/Getty Images)
Wang
Xiyue is a Jeane Kirkpatrick fellow at the American Enterprise
Institute in Washington and a Ph.D. candidate at Princeton University.
An American citizen, he went to Iran in 2016 for historical research at
the height of the Obama-era U.S.-Iran rapprochement. After some months
there, he was detained, then arrested, charged, and finally sentenced to
10 years imprisonment for spying by Iran’s Revolutionary Court. He was
freed in a prisoner swap in 2019. He spoke to Danielle Pletka on
February 24, 2021.
Danielle Pletka: Tell me a little bit about your background and how you ended up in Iran.
Wang Xiyue:
I was a Ph.D. candidate doing dissertation research in Iran, so my
research topic was really comparative governance studies between Iran,
later Qajar/early Pahlavi Iran, and then late-imperial Russia and
early-Soviet period on frontier Turkmen nomads. I was curious because
the nomads cross the border, and it's a really interesting case study to
see how Russia and Iran managed the same group of nomads who used to go
back and forth between the two countries during this period of time.
DP: That’s a pretty recondite, recherché subject. How did you end up on this nomadic tribe on the Russian-Iranian border?
Wang:
I was looking for a project. I had a hard time getting into the Iranian
National Archive, so I could only go to the Iranian foreign ministry
archive. The foreign ministry archive maintains a good record from
frontier regions, because that's where they deal with their neighbors.
I
was then looking at things on the Afghan border, on the Russian border,
and I realized that the Turkmen issue was actually very interesting.
And I was looking for a cross-border governance project with Russia, and
the Turkmen area was kind of perfect for that purpose because it was
the last piece of land unclaimed in the late 19th century in Eurasia.
Iran tried to conquer the Turkmen territory many times, but they failed.
And then Russia eventually conquered in 1983 what is today
Turkmenistan. So that period of history and that area fascinates me.
Very little work has been done, partially because of the difficulties of
getting into Iran and Turkmenistan. After the JCPOA, things looked
positive. My academic adviser suggested I go to Iran to do this research
[after I received a visa].
DP: That's fantastic. This is what month?
Wang: It was January 2016.
Pletka:
I would say these are the best days of the JCPOA, while Obama is still
president and before there are questions raised about the deal. This is
after they got the money, right? (Note: The Obama administration transferred $1.7 billion in non-U.S. currency notes to Iran in January 2016.)
Wang:
Mid-January Iran released the hostages, so it looked even better. We
didn’t know the true extent of the payment until August. It wasn't
really disclosed fully. We thought it was $400 million, but it turned out to be a full $1.7 billion.
Pletka: Right. But they should’ve been very happy. So, you arrive in Iran and what happens?
Wang:
In the beginning, there were no problems. I was spending a lot of time
in language school and then was looking for academic contacts and
getting to know Iranian scholars, visiting archives and libraries for
access, to get logistics done in the first six weeks. And then it was
Iranian new year. Everything was closed down, so I returned home for a
month and a half, and then I went again May 1. When I went again in May,
I started intensive archival work. I was very anxious professionally,
because I didn't know what kind of material I would find. But it was a
very hopeful period because I did find good material. Trouble started to
show up a few days before I was supposed to leave Iran.
Pletka: When was that? What date was that around?
Wang:
I believe mid-July 2016, because I was working with a local scholar who
was trying to get some documents for me. The documents are all
accessible for Iranians, nothing was confidential. It's just that the
national archive never officially said yes or no to my request. So, I
asked my Iranian academic contact what I should do, and he suggested,
“These materials are available to Iranians, so why don’t I just get
these things for you?”
Pletka: And that was a historical document? It wasn’t anything modern.
Wang: Right.
It's a Qajar-Iranian historical document. He got half of them for me,
and when he went to get the second half, the archive told him that he
was getting documents for a foreigner, and they weren’t going to give
him the documents. The archive knew that we submitted the same list.
That’s
when I felt a bit troubled. A few hours before I was supposed to leave
the country, I was called by the intelligence. They claimed to be
Iranian police, wanted to ask me questions, and asked me to bring my
passport and computer with me. So, I went to the designated diplomatic
police station with my passport and computer. There were two people: one
interpreter and one interrogator. The first thing the interrogator did
was take my passport. He flipped through it and asked me, “Are you
Chinese?” Why is that important? That is usually not the first thing
that police will ask you when they look at your passport. I think they
knew that they were going to take me hostage. So, knowing that I wasn’t
Chinese, because he saw my Chinese visa, he decided that I could be
taken. (Note: Wang Xiyue was born in the People’s Republic of China,
but moved to the United States with his family and became a U.S.
citizen.)
Pletka: If you had been a Chinese national, do you think they would’ve done that?
Wang: No. In fact, they made it very clear. They said, “Had you been Chinese, this would not have happened” during interrogation.
Pletka: So, were you ever released after that first interrogation?
Wang:
Yes. They took my passport and computer and let me go. They kept me in
limbo for 18 days. I reported it to Princeton. I was really naïve. I
didn’t understand the dynamic. Actually, to be really fair, many Iran
experts have not talked about what I am trying to talk about. So, there
is a deep level of misinformation. I would say disinformation, but
disinformation might be too strong. I think there is a tendency not to
describe Iran and its relation with the United States in certain factual
ways.
Pletka: Why do you think that is?
Wang:
Well, you know, I think there are many reasons. For academics on our
university campuses, they need access to sources in Iran. Like I can
tell you the same people who strongly advised me to go, some
Iranian-American scholars, their work is based on access to sources in
Iran. Through what has happened to me … it should have become clear to
them that the JCPOA could not work as Obama envisioned. But today, they
are still proposing the very same line of policy advice that they gave
in 2015 and 2016. I don't think it’s a lack of understanding. There's
strong vested interest for their professional reasons.
Pletka:
You see the same thing with China as well, with reporters in China who
want to maintain their access, and are afraid, and are explicitly
warned. That’s how authoritarian regimes act. So, 18 days, then you go
back for your passport and what happens?
Wang: So, on August 4, I read Jay Solomon’s WSJ article on my smartphone about the true extent of the January 2016 exchange. (Note:
The Solomon article broke the news that an airlift of cash from the
U.S. to Iran coincided with a prisoner exchange between the two
countries.) After reading that piece, I felt, “Oh shoot, they are
going to arrest me, because clearly they want to take me for ransom.” I
thought, “Okay, I will go to the Swiss embassy on Sunday for a
consultation with this new information.”
Pletka: Why did Jay Solomon’s article make you think you were going to get arrested?
Wang: Jay Solomon exposed the full extent of the hostages-for-cash exchange.
Pletka: But shouldn’t that have made the Iranians happy, no? It was a ton of money.
Wang:
No, because then, Donald Trump came out and said, “Obama has done
wrong. Obama shouldn’t have done that, because it will encourage
Iranians to arrest more Americans.”
Pletka: They saw it as a ransom payment.
Wang: Precisely. Iran saw it as a ransom payment, and they talk about it in the media in the open.
Pletka:
This is a window into how Washington sees this—a good-faith effort to
assist the Iranian economy—versus how the transactional Iranians see it.
Wang: Yes,
exactly. That is repeatedly talked about in Iranian media, that this is
a ransom. It really doesn’t matter how Obama and his administration saw
it. It was perceived by Iran as ransom, clearly. It is not even an
inference. It's their explicit statement. The moral of this is make
America pay.
Pletka: Why not? They understand how markets work. So, you went to the Swiss embassy, our protecting power.
Wang:
I probably went to the Swiss embassy four times. They advised me not to
escalate. Because if I escalate, the Iranians will think I’m important
and may take drastic actions. I didn’t know at that time Siamak Namazi’s
passport was taken two months before he was arrested. (Note: Siamak Namazi was arrested
by Iranian authorities in 2015. A dual U.S.-Iranian national, he was
charged with spying. Months later, his aged father was lured back to
Iran and arrested. Both remain in Evin prison.) And then the State
Department, having received the information, kept silent. My wife told
me, “You should stay in the Swiss embassy.” I asked the Swiss embassy if
I could stay and they told me no.
Pletka:
In retrospect that was probably wrong. Although, we can understand why
they might have thought that being more circumspect would’ve helped you.
I think the decision was probably already made. So, you make the
decision on Thursday to go to the Swiss embassy on Sunday, and what
happens?
Wang: On
Sunday, first thing in the morning, I got a call around 8:30, I
remember, from the interpreter. He asked me to go to the Hotel Azadi. By
the way, Azadi means “freedom,” it’s the direct opposite of prison.
Pletka: Nice. Ironic.
Wang: Ironic,
yes. So, they asked me to go to Hotel Azadi. I went, and I later
learned the entire third floor was theirs for interrogation. They told
me, “We have investigated you. We don’t think you’ve done anything
wrong. We will release you and take you to the airport. And then, I told
them, “Well, I want the Swiss to do that. Thank you.” They said “No. We
have to take you. You can tell the Swiss to go to the airport and wait
for you.” So, I called the Swiss and told them that the Iranians have
told me that they are going to release me and asked if they could meet
me at the airport to process travel arrangements. The Iranians then took
me back to my apartment, asked me to take my luggage, and then instead
of taking me to the airport, they took me to prison.
Pletka: So, you weren’t expecting that?
Wang: No.
When I came out to their car I sensed something was wrong, because the
airport was in the south, but the prison was in the north. They were
taking me up north, and I realized something was wrong. And then they
took my cellphone from my hand, switched it off, and put it in their
pocket.
Pletka: Always a good sign. And so were you taken immediately to Evin?
Wang: I
was taken into an office in Evin, like an investigative court. And
then, the investigative judge issued an arrest warrant, accusing me of
espionage. I was taken directly to solitary confinement.
Pletka: That’s terrible.
Wang: There
was literally nothing but a sink inside. Then there were scribbles on
the wall. I was reading things on the wall just to get myself
distracted. You know the Iranians don’t use the Arabic numerals we use?
They use their own system. But, somebody wrote on the wall, in English,
“364 days.”
A cell in Evin prison. (Photo by Kaveh Kazemi/Getty Images)
Pletka: In solitary? With no bed? Just a sink? So how long were you kept there?
Wang: I
was kept in solitary for 18 days. They fed me, and then they
interrogated me every evening for a couple of hours. The longest
probably for 5 hours, maybe longer.
It
wasn’t actually clear what they were doing. To me, they were still
suspicious of me and investigating me, because they asked very specific,
but mundane questions. Stuff like where I was born, where I was
educated, where I grew up, what I studied in college, my work
experience, my opinion about politics, my knowledge about Iranian
history, this sort of stuff. For a long time, they didn’t ask me what I
had done. Of course they asked me who I know, the Iranian people I’ve
gotten to know, and where I've gone to in Iran, things I’ve done in
Iran, but nothing was really incriminating. And then, for the most part,
I had wishful thoughts: Maybe they are still seriously investigating,
and once they find that I am innocent, they will let me go. But then it
became clear what they were doing. On the 18th day, they told me “We
have finished the investigation, we think you have done nothing.” This
is the second time they have said that. “I have written a positive
report about you to my chief. I will take you to my chief tomorrow
night, and then he will talk to you. If you convince him that you are
innocent, he may release you or let you go on bail." On the second day,
they took me to hotel Istiqlal, also in Northern Tehran, third floor.
And an old man came. He told me “I’m sorry you have to go through this.
Had you been Chinese, this wouldn’t have happened.” And then he said,
“We are going to ask you some questions and film you. We are going to
analyze your facial expressions, and if you are telling the truth we
will release you.” And then they started filming and asked me the same
questions that they had time and time again during interrogation. I soon
realized that this is not about analyzing my facial expressions on me
telling the truth or not. It’s for propaganda, because they were asking
me opinion questions that couldn’t be judged by a true or false.
Pletka: Like what?
Wang:
"What do you think about U.S. policy towards the Middle East? What do
you think about U.S. strategy towards Iran?" This kind of thing.
And
then very late at night they took me back to Evin. And then on the
third day, I was allowed to talk to my wife for the first time after 19
days. That was the first time I spoke to anyone outside.
Pletka: Wow.
Wang:
And then they left me alone for 10 days. Then they restarted
interrogation. This time, they changed interrogators. They did not allow
me to remove my blindfold this time. I never saw the second
interrogator. This time there was no interpreter, it was completely done
in Farsi. He basically forced me into a confession. He said, “You
collected information illegally because you are not on a research visa,
but you are doing research.”
Pletka: What kind of visa were you on?
Wang:
I was on a student language visa. I also made the research intention
very clear to the Iranian interests section in my letter of
introduction. But, the intelligence told me, “No, you have done illegal
things by collecting information without permission.” And then I said,
“Well usually you would deport people doing that. Why don’t you deport
me?” Of course, they then said “You have broken our law, and you are a
spy. You have to confess that you are a spy. Otherwise, you will never
set your foot on American soil or see your wife and son again. You will
go back to solitary confinement until you confess. We have a lot of
time.” I think they were kind of lazy, and they told me, “We want a deal
with the United States. If you confess, hopefully a deal will happen
soon. If you don’t, you will suffer for nothing. One day you will
confess. We want our money back. We want our prisoners back. You have to
be a spy for us to have a case.”
Pletka: I see. So you confessed.
Wang:
And so I confessed. One sentence, “I’m a spy for the United States.”
One sentence. No details whatsoever. And I felt really disgusted by
myself because it’s a self-betrayal.
Pletka: But there’s nothing you can do.
Wang:
Right. There’s nothing I could do. There was no counsel from anybody,
no one to give me advice. Although I was with other prisoners for a
couple of days, I was already in that condition for almost a month. And
that’s a very difficult condition. And they know certainly how to play
mental games with you.
Pletka: And so there you are, and when did they sentence you?
Wang: April or May 2017.
Pletka: So, they sentence you to how long?
Wang: 10 years.
Pletka: 10 years, for spying. Stunning.
Wang:
I can tell you, the craziest thing they told me. They said “Your
adviser, Stephen Kotkin, single-handedly brought down the Soviet Union.”
Pletka: Really?
Wang: Oh, yeah. Steve Kotkin wrote a book on the collapse of the Soviet Union. And he publishes regularly for Foreign Affairs. So, the judge, Judge Salavati, said, “Your adviser single-handedly brought down the Soviet Union, so he sent you, his student, to bring down our regime.”
Pletka: Sorry, I shouldn’t laugh. And Judge Salavati, he’s an IRGC judge?
Wang:
No, he’s the most ferocious judge in the Iranian system. He’s the judge
of the Revolutionary Court. And he hands out most of the death
sentences. So, he only gives out maximum sentences, that’s what he does.
Pletka: He’s a hanging judge, we say in English.
Wang: Yes,
a hanging judge. And then I said, “I am a foreigner. I don’t know
anybody here, and I don’t even speak Farsi fluently. And I came with
$12,000, how can I bring down your regime?” And he said, “You couldn’t.
Because before you could, our Supreme Leader, who’s so wise, and the
intelligence voices, who are so capable, they called you before you
could do it.”
Pletka: You ended up spending 40 months in prison. What did you learn? First of all, are you taken out of solitary?
Wang: Yes.
So, my interactions were with Iranian officials and the judge and those
enforcers of state violence, and with other prisoners who were really
from all walks of life. They were really just fundamentalists, they were
embezzlers, and corrupt officials, and they were smugglers and
intellectuals, scholars. But also a lot of former officials. Some of
them were senior, like the political counselor to the Iranian embassy in
China. Counselor to Iranian embassy in Venezuela. The ambassador to the
Iranian embassy in Turkmenistan. And the consular official, Iranian
consulate in Quetta, Pakistan. And then I was with money launderers.
People who circumvented sanctions, who were involved in
multibillion-euro cases. So, I was with all kinds of different people
and I learned a lot from communicating with them.
Pletka: What would you say were your most important lessons that you learned?
Wang: The
most important lesson is that the way that they deal with us, their
attitude toward us, is not reactive. It’s proactive. We tend to think if
we do things right, they will come around and have good relations with
us. That’s wishful thinking and that’s totally wrong. We have tried that
since the very early days of the revolution. And then people criticize
Trump for closing the door for diplomacy. But there’s not a single day
where Trump said, “I don’t want to talk to them.”
Pletka: Right, no, that’s true. He, I think most people believed, wanted a better Iran deal. A Trump Iran deal. Not an Obama Iran deal.
Wang: Right. But he always kept the door of diplomacy open.
Pletka:
Let me ask you about a story you told me. At a certain point you said
to one of your interrogators that you believed that President Obama
should visit Iran and that the United States should have a normal
relationship with Iran. And what did he respond to you?
Wang:
He said, “No way, we don’t want Americans.” He said, “American
president is not welcomed in our country. We will never have American
president to visit us. Never, ever.”
And that was used as evidence against me in court.
Pletka: Why was that evidence against you?
Wang:
Because they said, “You want American president to visit Iran. So, you
want regime change.” You see, this is how they perceive any goodwill
gesture from the United States. It doesn’t really matter how much we
give them, how much we are willing to compromise and reconcile with
them, they will not see it positively. And then they will do everything
against that.
Pletka: And so how did you get out?
Wang: That
was 40 months later, that was really a surprise. I knew when Mohammed
Javad Zarif and Hassan Rouhani came to the U.N. General Assembly in
September they talked about exchange, prisoner exchange. And then they
started a propaganda campaign about Dr. [Massoud] Soleimani, the
scientist eventually exchanged
for me. In Iran for like over a month, he’s on TV all the time. So I
sense something positive may come out of it, but I wasn’t really sure.
Pletka: And how did you know about that? Did you have access to Iranian news?
Wang: Yeah, we had newspapers and we had a TV in prison.
Pletka: Interesting, okay.
Wang:
Yes. And then of course many people were making efforts, the true
extent to that was not known to me because the administration would not
share information. The day when it happened, it was very strange.
Prisoners knew who’s getting out, who’s being released, who’s going to
furlough. And around that time, nobody was slated to go. And then I was
having my French lesson with a francophone prisoner, we were talking
about a novel I was reading, a French novel. And then they started
playing this tune in a loudspeaker. When they play it once, it means
somebody goes to furlough, when they play it twice it means somebody’s
going to be released. So they played it twice and then somebody started
reading a poem about God’s will or something like that. And I was asking
the teacher, “Who’s going to be released?” And he said, “No one. We
don’t know.” And then they read my name. He said, “Mr. Wang, you are
released. You are released.” And then that was a shock to me. I totally
didn’t expect that it would happen that way. And then they took me out
of the general prison, and the warden told me, “As far as we’re
concerned, you are released. But we cannot release you onto the street.
We have to release you to the intelligence.” So they took me back to the
intelligence, high security prison, a special ward inside Evin.
Pletka: Okay.
Wang:
It was the first prison, where I stayed for nine and a half months. So,
I was taken to a small cell identical to the one that I spent a long
time in. I totally freaked out. I just couldn’t stop talking to other
prisoners in the cell. I wasn’t allowed to call. I was uncertain whether
they were playing a game, what’s going on. And then on Saturday
morning, around 4:30, before the morning adhan, they took me out and
then they said, “Do you know what will happen to you?” And I said, “No.”
They said, “We’re taking you to the airport. You're going home.”
Pletka: Wow.
Wang:
Yeah. And in the airport, I saw the Swiss ambassador and some lady who
introduced herself as the Swiss deputy foreign minister or something.
And then we took a picture and she said, “We don’t have time, let’s go.”
And then she grabbed my wrist and dragged me to the exit of the VIP
lounge. And we saw this Swiss aircraft parked on the tarmac. But the
gate of the lounge was locked. And then she asked the Iranians, “Where’s
the key? Why is it locked?” And the Iranians said, “We don’t know where
the key is.” Then the Swiss ambassador explained to her it was agreed
that the American plane containing Soleimani and the Swiss plane
containing me would arrive in Zurich at the same time. And [former Iran
envoy] Brian Hook said, “If the Iranians don’t let you go, we will call
the plane back and we’ll cancel the deal.” And that was very scary. So
she actually told the Iranians, “If you don’t open the door right now,
the Americans are going to cancel the deal.” And then, all of a sudden,
they got the key and they let us go.
Pletka:
I’ve never asked you this, and don’t tell me something you don’t want
to share, but were you mistreated in prison? I worry people are going to
think, “Oh, well, of course it’s bad to be in prison, but not too bad.
It’s not like Guantanamo Bay or anything.” Were you treated decently in
prison? You had French lessons with a French speaking prisoner. You
learned Farsi from your colleagues. What would you say about that?
Wang:
Well, you know, when I told my friends when I came back about my
day-to-day life in prison, their first reaction is, “Wow, the Iranians
are so humane.” And I think that’s the most offensive thing that they
can say. I said, “There’s nothing humane about their behavior. If
they’re really humane, they wouldn’t do this to me. They wasted away
four years of my life. Caused immense personal suffering and suffering
of my family. For their gain. And there’s nothing humane in that. But I
do say that I could have been treated much worse, that is true. But,
imagine a situation where Iranian prisoners mostly spend a month or two
in the high security prison. I spent nine and a half months, mostly in a
cell without a window. I could see sunlight twice a week for 20 minutes
each. I had telephone calls for 10 minutes a week when I was in the
high security prison. And I was under constant psychological pressure.
Because I didn’t know what would happen to me. In the first 18 days of
solitary confinement, I lost nine kilos. And that was really difficult
because I couldn’t sleep, the floor was so hard. And then 24/7, the
light was on. They used something called “white torture” for the most
part.
Pletka: What does that mean?
Wang: White
torture means no physical torture, but psychological torture. There are
many ways to do that. And I later on read Solzhenitsyn in prison. You
read the first three chapters, it corresponds exactly to what the
Iranians are doing to us.
Pletka: Let’s talk a little about what you’ve learned and how you see current policy through the prism of your experience.
Wang:
I think first of all the Iranian hostility against the United States
has its own roots. And secondly, the regime is a very vicious,
opportunistic, and suspicious regime that views its relations with the
outside world as zero sum. So, if you don’t advance, they think you are
weak. That’s why, I say, you can’t really engage it through goodwill. It
will abuse your goodwill to the max it can. And they are doing that
very thing right now. I tweeted
yesterday, what do you gain by making all these concessions to Iran?
Nothing, but so far, more hostages have been taken, Iran has restricted
IAEA access for inspection, and they hijacked the Korean ship and all that. There’s nothing they have given us in return. And they’re going to keep doing that.
Pletka: So
you feel like you were naïve. I look at these people who are
accomplished, serious: Tony Blinken, Jake Sullivan. These are not
babies. They’re not academics, these are people with experience in the
world. Do you have a sense of why it is that in your view they are
misinterpreting Iranian signals and intentions?
Wang:
[Rep.] Ro Khanna wrote something very interesting. So he said, “Iran is
a 0.44 percent of global GDP. US, 25 percent. China, 19 percent. Why
are we wasting our time on 0.44 percent? And getting bogged down in the
Middle East with Iran? We need to get out and focus on China.” And I
told him, “Sorry, it doesn’t work that way. It costs you a million to
build a nice house. But it doesn’t cost an arsonist so much to burn it
down." [Note: Xiyue Wang and Rep. Khanna have been debating the Iran issue on Twitter.]
Pletka: Well said.
Wang: And
I think this reflects somehow their way of thinking: They believe we
have to somehow set aside Iran conundrum. We cannot solve it. Let’s
manage it. Set it aside. Focus on more important issues, be it China,
Asia, or domestic issues of COVID or other things. But they don’t really
understand the Iranian regime, or they’d prefer not to understand it.
Because it is a time- and resource-consuming topic. When I was a school
boy, it was Desert Storm. Iraq was shooting scud missiles to Kuwait and
Israel, and America would launch missiles to intercept the scud missile.
And I remember clearly in the Chinese news, they talked about missiles,
and said the scud missile is a low technology missile and it doesn’t
cost that much. The Patriot missile is much more expensive. I asked my
father, “Why do they intercept the scud missile with a Patriot that is
much more expensive?” And the answer was simple: You need to prevent the
scud missile from causing much greater damage. And I think that’s the
question we don’t want to really think carefully about.
Pletka: Iran is the scud missile.
Wang:
Iran is the scud missile. It’s not like you give them a deal and they
will abide by the deal and keep quiet. Iran has an offensive defense
strategy. And the only way to deal with that is to counter its malicious
behavior. You constrain it. And you contain it. You cannot do it by
persuasion, appeasement.
Pletka: This
is one of those lessons that unfortunately is very hard for some people
to learn. And you learned it the most personally, very painful way. But
I suspect that there are others who for political reasons and
ideological reasons don’t wish to learn it.
Wang:
Exactly, that’s the problem ... We certainly don’t think Tony Blinken
or Jake Sullivan are naïve, or they don't understand. What I do fear
though, is that they do understand, but they are cynical in the way that
they don’t want to seriously deal with it. So, they want to set aside
the problem so it’ll be a problem for others.
Pletka: Kick the can down the road.
Wang: I think that’s a dangerous idea to do that. In my Foreign Policy piece,
I propose a way that the United States should deal with Iran in
relation to China. You keep pressure on Iran because once you start
showing an intention to take that pressure away, you will see China
getting closer to Iran. It is already proven that China’s illicit
purchases of Iranian oil skyrocketed since the election. Because they
sense that Biden is going to open up with Iran, reengage with Iran, so
there’s nothing to lose. And then the people who argued beforehand,
“Trump has failed. We have pushed Iran and China closer, we need to undo
that.” And that’s wrong because once you start reengaging, you will see
that process unfolding exactly, like a self-fulfilling prophecy. So, I
want to suggest, it’s impossible for the US to stop working with China
in some regards. You need to constrict the Chinese influence but you
don’t want head-on conflict with Chinese influence. You want to kind of
work with it, coordinate policy when you can and then limit its
influence. So, for example, you can allow China to buy more Iranian oil.
But in return, you will tell China not to support Iran any further.
Pletka:
We’re going to have an opportunity to see how strong-minded, how tough
this administration is in the coming months. And I look forward to
watching it with you and understanding better through your experience
how they can do better. Wang Xiyue, thank you so much for taking the
time to talk to me.
Wang: We have warned about this, and I think it’s important to keep my voice loud, for better future policy.
La
existencia de redes transnacionales dedicadas al tráfico de personas es
el dato imposible de soslayar en medio de la crisis migratoria de
Colchane. Hasta ahora nadie ha logrado desarmar esas redes, incluso las
autoridades chilenas reconocen que no saben demasiado sobre ellas.
Culpan a los migrantes por no hacer las denuncias, y quienes migran
acusan que los coyotes los estafan y les roban. CIPER reconstruyó la
ruta que recorren los miles de migrantes venezolanos que desde fines de
2020 abarrotan la frontera norte del país. Esta es una historia de
voluntades de hierro y de viajes sin papeles.
VAMOS HACIA EL 1 DE MAYO 2021.A TUMBAR EL MURO DE TRUMP.
DEMANDAMOS AL NUEVO PRESIDENTE.LIBERTAD PARA TOD@S L@S
INMIGRANTES,LEGALIZACION AHORA PARA MAS DE 30 MILLONES DE
INDOCUMENTAD@S,REUNIFICACION FAMILIAR INMEDIATA.DERECHOS HUMANOS PARA
TOD@S.SI NO HAY JUSTICIA NO HABRA PAZ.BASTA DE DISCRIMINACION Y RACISMO
CON LATINOS Y AFRODESENDIENTE.QUEREMOS
PAN.COMIDA Y TRABAJO Y NINGUN DESALOJO DE VIVIENDAS Y DE MODESTOS
NEGOCIOS.Basta de discriminacion con las vacunas.INDEMNIZACION POR EL
GENOCIDIO DE LA PANDEMIA CAPITALISTA:COALICION 1 DE MAYO DEL BRONX.2021
27 DE FEBRERO 2021.NEW YORK:No mientan no escondan la Verdad.SOMOS MAS DE 30 MILLONES L@S INDOCUMENTAD@S EN LOS
EE.UU.Legalizacion
ahora...,LA PANDEMIA ES UN GENOCIDIO DEL CAPITALISMO SALVAJE,GLOBAL E
IMPERIALISTA.EXPLOTADORES TIENEN QUE RESPONDER.LA CLASE TRABAJADORA DEBE
DEMANDAR A TODA LA VIEJA CLASE POLITICA CAPITALISTA.TODO LO QUE SE
HABLA SOBRE PANDEMIA ES MIERDA Y BASURA...,450 MIL ASESINADOS POR LA
PANDEMIA CAPITALISTA SOLO EN EE.UU.?
El "Mini" Manifiesto..., Intraduccion:MAS
DE 6O MILLONES ESTA MURIENDO DE HAMBRE EN EE.UU.,100 MILLONES YA
EMPIESAN A MORIR DE HAMBRE EN LATINOAMERICA.ESTA REALIDAD YA VENIA ANTES
DE LA MALVADA PANDEMIA-COVID19.EL CAPITALISMO SALVAJE RESPONSABLE DE
TODAS LAS DESIGUALDADES Y MALES DEL MUNDO.DIGAN LA VERDAD CABRON@S.
LA
PANDEMIA - Covid19 ES UN GENOCIDIO DEL CAPITALISMO SALVAJE GESTADO
DESDE HACE MUCHO TIEMPO .La recesion economica que se arrastra desde
hace una decada a intentado un Golpe de Estado Mundial.Estamos al borde
del fin del Mundo.La inscapacidad de todas las fracciones de la clase
capitalistas y la de sus intrumentos politicos e
institucionales.Arrastro a su vez a todos los
Conglomerados,Multinacionales,Poderes economicos,Militares,Financieros y
Bancaios. como el
Wall Street,FMI, Los Grupos de los 7,8,9 10 y 20 a enfrentarse entre si.Por
tanto la crisis se prolongo,dio paso a las conspiraciones,guerras y a
un callejon sin Salida.UNA CRISIS CRIMINAL CAPITALISTA,ECONOMICA Y
FINANCIERA MUNDIAL LLEGANDO A PARIR LA MAL LlAMADA PANDEMIA QUE NO ES
MAS QUE UN ENGENDRO Y CONSECUENCIAS DE LAS DESIGUALDADES IMPUESTAS POR EL CAPITALISMO Y
POR SUS DIVERSAS PRACTICAS DE DOMINACION.
REPETIMOS LA PANDEMIA ES UN
GENOCIDIO Y LA PRIMERA CONSECUENCIA DE LA CRISIS DEL VIEJO SISTEMA
CAPITALISTA E IMPERIALISTA MUNDIAL.LOS DISCURSOS Y ANALISIS.PROPUESTAS
DE HAYER Y HOY SON LAS MISMAS BERBORREA DEL CAPITALISMO.ASISTIMOS OTRA
VEZ A LAS ALTERNATIVAS. O SOCIALISMO LIBERTARIO O BARBARIE IMPERIALISTA.
Los
Muerto que Hablaran.?.COBRARAN INDEMNIZACION Y HARAN QUE LOS RICOS DE
LAS MULTINACIONALES,EL WALL TREET Y LA VIEJA DIRECCION POLITICA DEL
CAPITALISMO SALVAJE.ARREGLEN EL CHANCHUYO Y PAGUEN LOS GASTOS DE LA
PANDEMIA Y CRISIS HAN GENERADO.NI UNA CORA PARA LOS BANCOS Y NI UN PENI
PARA EL WALL STREET.
El "mini" Manifiesto:
AQUI LA LUCHA RECIEN COMIENZA.SE VIENEN A LAS CALLES mas de 70 MILLONES
DE
DESEMPLEAD@S,30 MILLONES DE INDOCUMENTAD@S.En el 2006 eramos 12
MILLONES reconocidos por Obama,HOY SOMOS MILLONES DE HAMBRIENTOS Y SIN
VIVIENDAS.Millones que No TIENEN COMO Pagar LAS Rentas A LA ORDEN DEL
DIA,CRISIS DE VIVIENDAS A NIVEL NACIONAL.,MILES DE DESAMPARAD@S,POBRES Y
MARGINAD@S
EN EL EX PAIS MAS RICO DEL MUNDO.Quien Responde por los mas de 500.000mil
Muertos
de la Pandemia en USA.?.COMO PARAR EL RACISMO Y
BRUTALIDAD-POLICIAL EN AUMENTO.SE VA EL PRESIDENTE TRUMP. O DEBERA SER
DERROTADO
POR LA FUERZA DEL PUEBLO Y DE TOD@S L@S DESCONTENT@S.USTED SE RESISTE A
DEJAR LA CASA BLANCA,PERO DEBERA SER DEMANDADO POR TODOS LOS CRIMENES DE
LESA HUMANIDAD Y POR EL GENOCIDIO DE LA PANDEMIA IMPERIALISTA.A
PREPARAR LA
HUELGA GENERAL UNITARIA
y a
Desmantelar el sistema Nacional de las Policia Racista y Fascistas
ABOLIRLO YA. Existen y se vienen variadas Crisis CRIATURAS DE LA CRISIS
MAYOR.VAMOS POR MOVLIZACIONES A ESCALA INTERNACIONAL Y NACIONALES UNIDOS
CONTRA LA CRISIS MAYOR DEL CAPITALISMO SALVAJE A LEVANTAR EL PROGRAMA Y
LA ALTERNATIVA DEL PODER POPULAR,LA NUEVA SOCIEDAD DE TOD@S L@S
AFECTAD@S POR UN MUNDO MEJOR.MIL FORMAS DE LUCHAS,MIL FORMAS DE
ORGANIZACION Y UNA SOLA PROPUESTA POR LA CUAL TOD@S A LUCHAR HASTA
VENCER,TENEMOS RAZONES,LA FUERZA Y LA VERDAD.NADIEN NOS TRANCARA EL
CAMINO.PARAR EL GENOCIDIO DE LOS GRANDES CAPITALISTAS,SUS EJERCITOS Y LA
PANDEMIA2020 ES
LA ENFERMEDAD DEL CAPITALISMO EN DECADENCIA NO HAY SOLUCIONES DE
PARCHES NI REVOLCANDOSE EN LA CRISIS DE TODAS LAS FORMAS DE DOMINACION
DE LA VIEJA CLASE POLITICA DEL IMPERIALISMO Y DE SUS DISFRACES.,La'Eradeldesorden'quevendrátraslamuertedelaglobalización,segúnDeutscheBank.UN
SOLO CULPABLE EL CAPITALISMO SALVAJE Y SU VIEJA CLASE POLITICA.LAS
SOLUCIONES LIMITADAS Y AUN SUJETAS AL NEOCAPITALISMO ESTAN DESTINADAS AL
FRACASO Y A LA PROLONGACION DE LA CRISIS,RECESION Y ETERNA PANDEMIA
SOSTENIDA POR LA FUERZA Y CONSPIRACIONES,GUERRAS Y HAMBRUNAS.LA PANDEMIA
ES LA ORGANIZACION MAS CRIMINAL Y PERFECTA DEL IMPERIALISMO,DEL
CAPITALISMO SALVAJE Y DE TODAS LAS CORPORACIONES EN ESTE
SIGLO,NINGUNA SOLUCION DE PARCHES RESUELVE EL CRIMEN DEL CAPITALISMO
SALVAJE MENOS
LOS ANALISIS PERIODISTICOS DE BAJA MONTA,NO DEN DEMORAR UNA CAUNA
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AUTORIDADES Y PRESIDENTES POR ESTE BRUTAL Y DESCARADO GENOCIDIO
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PERIODISMOS LACAYOS DEL CN,DEL WALLSTREET Y FONDO MONETARIO
INETERNACION TAMBIEN SON CULPABRA DE LOS CRIMENES Y GENOCIDIO DE LA
PANTEDEMIA2020ESTAMOS CONVOCANDO A PARO DE
RESISTENCIA NACIONAL POR L@S
INMIGRANT@S Y TRABAJADOR@S DE LOS EE.UU.EL 1ero DE MAYO del
2021..ALERTAS SOBRE LAS DIVERSAS VACUNAS QUE PODRIAN CONSTITUIRSE EN LA
CONTINUIDAD DEL GENOCIDIO EN MUCHAS PARTES.EL GENOCIDIO CONTINUARA SI NO
TERMINA LA RECESION Y CRISIS MUNDIAL DEL CAPITALISMO SALVAJE QUE SIGUE
CON SU EXTERMINIO SOCIAL Y HINUMAN@S.
etc.etc..,por el
Melinka....,PRESO POLITICO EN EEUU (Prohibido Salir
del Pais),INDOCUMENTADO Y PERSEGUIDO POR ORGANOS DE REPRESION DEL
IMPERIO Y DE CHILE.
James Petras Para: 'Rosario Campos'.
Solidaridad incondicional con Victor Toro!
Amigo,compañero y gran luchador desde que nos conocemos en “Nueva Havana”en 72
Derechos y violencias en los extractivismos es un muy reciente libro
que presenta el primer estudio detallado de las denominadas
extrahecciones en América Latina. Ese nuevo término se aplica a la
apropiación de recursos naturales incumpliendo los derechos y bajo
violencia. El libro se publicó pocas semanas atrás, y parte de estudios
de caso basados […]
El miembro del Secretariado del Comité
Central del PCC, Jorge Cuevas Ramos, y el responsable de Organización
Política del Frente Polisario, Jatri Aduh, intercambiaron ayer acerca de
las relaciones bilaterales y la situación actual
El músico de Lleida se reafirma con una nueva canción, 'Fuerza
y orgullo', en todo lo que ha defendido y la justicia quería que
rectificara para no acabar condenado por enaltecimiento del terrorismo e
injurias del rey.
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