Chris Hedges: Haiti’s Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier: Gang Leader or Revolutionary? + Another Vision: Inside Haiti’s Uprising

Screenshot by Dandelion Salad via Flickr
Watch the video below

Dandelion Salad
April 14, 2023

with Chris Hedges

TheRealNews on Apr 14, 2023

Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier has been placed in the international spotlight as an emblem of Haiti’s purported “gang problem.” But who is Chérizier really? A new documentary series, “Another Vision: Inside Haiti’s Uprising,” offers a different view of Chérizier—not as the leader of a criminal enterprise, but as a political figure leading an armed revolutionary movement. Directors Dan Cohen and Kim Ives join The Chris Hedges Report to discuss their new project.

Michael Hudson: The World Bank Has Always Been An Arm Of The U.S Military

Image by cool revolution via Flickr

by Michael Hudson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
November 5, 2022

India & Global Left on Nov 4, 2022

Prof. Hudson speaks on the nature of US financial dominance, the role of World Bank in developing countries, USA’s ability to run a huge balance of payment deficit, changes in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union, the problems of US economy with post-industrialization, and the role of neoclassical economics in all this.

The “American Experiment” Is Dying. What Will Replace It? by Rainer Shea

Image by Bob Bob via Flickr

by Rainer Shea
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Rainer Shea’s Newsletter, Sept. 18, 2022
September 19, 2022

The United States is considered the longest standing “democracy” by bourgeois thinkers because it’s never actually been a democracy, and has survived so long by undemocratically suppressing its proletariat. The jingoists who say it’s a republic and not a democracy are at least being honest about the nature of the social order they support. The USA was designed to be a modern version of Rome, an empire that only represented the interests of those who most directly benefit from the violence against the oppressed nations. Those being the rich, and the social base that’s bribed to align with the interests of the rich.

Will Griffin: Understanding Imperialism: One Divides Into Two

Screenshot by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

by Will Griffin
Writer, Dandelion Salad
March 24, 2022

“So what is imperialism? On the surface it may seem relatively easy to understand: a big powerful evil nation dominates a small weak innocent nation. But when we dig deeper imperialism becomes a complex system to understand. A wide variety of concepts frameworks and philosophies are used by different groups of people to understand this system of domination.

Haiti: From Neo-Colonialism to Neoliberal Brutality, by Yanis Iqbal + Caleb Maupin: Moise Killed: What is Really Happening in Haiti?

Screenshot by Dandelion Salad via Flickr
Watch the videos below

by Yanis Iqbal
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Aligarh, India
July 12, 2021

The 1697 Treaty of Ryswick legalized French control over the western third of the island of Hispaniola – a Spanish asset – under the name of Saint-Domingue. The colony proved to be a valuable spigot of wealth. In 1789, Saint-Domingue supplied two-thirds of the overseas trade of France and was the greatest individual market for the European slave trade. It was a greater source of income for its owners than the whole of Britain’s thirteen North American colonies combined. The labour of half-a-million slaves propped up the dazzling opulence of the French commercial bourgeoisie, and formed the hidden foundations of cities like Bordeaux, Nantes, and Marseille. In August 1791, after two years of the French Revolution and its ripple effects in Saint-Domingue, the slaves revolted.

Abby Martin: A Guide to US Empire in Africa

Image by Natasha Mayers via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

with Abby Martin

Empire Files on Mar 13, 2021

Abby Martin speaks to Eugene Puryear to discuss the big picture of US imperialism in Africa: From the Berlin Conference to the subversion of liberation movements to neocolonial puppets and the current sprawl of AFRICOM “counterterrorism.”

Thomas Sankara: An Icon of Revolution, by Yanis Iqbal

Image by mario via Flickr

by Yanis Iqbal
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Aligarh, India
October 16, 2020

October 15, 2020, was Thomas Sankara’s 33^rd death anniversary. On this day, he was murdered by imperialist forces at the tender age of 37. A Pan-Africanist, internationalist and Marxist, he was committed to the total liberation of the oppressed masses from the clutches of imperialism. Instead of bourgeoisie nationalism, Sankara believed in radical nationalism: a combination of anti-imperialist courage and unabashed humanism that pushes for revolution instead of neo-colonial settlement. Thus, he belonged to a pantheon of African revolutionaries like Amilcar Cabral, Samora Machel and Patrice Lumumba who understood the necessity of adopting socialism for the fundamental transformation of their respective societies. Looking at the short life of Sankara, one can’t help but be moved by the way in which he emerged through the anguish and aspirations of millions of Burkinabe civilians and commanded a radical project of socialist transformation.

Imperialism Won’t Be Over After The U.S. Empire Falls + Covid-19 Commercialism Is About Undermining Social Cohesion, by Rainer Shea

Screenshot by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

by Rainer Shea
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Rainer Shea: Anti-Imperialist Journalist, June 20, 2020
June 26, 2020

Underneath the bluster of a Trump administration that still acts like the United States is the world hegemon, the ruling class is working to pragmatically respond to the loss of America’s status as a dominant power. In 2017 the Pentagon put out a report that admitted American global influence is rapidly declining, and now that the U.S. is sure to soon lose its superpower status, the corporatocracy has to address this issue.

Imperialism 101, by Michael Parenti

Image by Eric B. via Flickr

by Michael Parenti
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Originally published Sept. 23, 2010
May 24, 2018

Chapter 1 of Against Empire, 1995

Imperialism has been the most powerful force in world history over the last four or five centuries, carving up whole continents while oppressing indigenous peoples and obliterating entire civilizations. Yet, it is seldom accorded any serious attention by our academics, media commentators, and political leaders. When not ignored outright, the subject of imperialism has been sanitized, so that empires become “commonwealths,” and colonies become “territories” or “dominions” (or, as in the case of Puerto Rico, “commonwealths” too). Imperialist military interventions become matters of “national defense,” “national security,” and maintaining “stability” in one or another region. In this book I want to look at imperialism for what it really is.

US-France’s New Terror Tango — State-sponsored Gangsterism by Finian Cunningham + Fact Sheet: U.S.-France Security Cooperation

by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from PressTV
February 11, 2014

France is emerging as the new partner-in-crime in support of America’s imperialist machinations across the globe.

Up until recently, that thuggish role was filled by British in what was euphemistically referred to as the “special Anglo-American relation”. Now the French are taking over from the British as the “oldest ally.”

Africa’s Bad Omen of World War by Finian Cunningham

by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from PressTV
January 22, 2014

Image by S. Phelps/UNHCR Photo Download via Flickr

This week the world rewound more than a century – with the announcement that the European Union is to send troops to Central Africa.

This development has ominous resonance with how imperial rivalry historically played out in Africa and which eventually led to world war.

France Makes Virtue out of Vice to Exploit Central Africa Chaos by Finian Cunningham

by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from Strategic Culture Foundation
November 27, 2013

“Forcefulness seems to come easily to Mr Hollande abroad”, noted one commentator for the New York Times, who contrasted the French president’s ailing political performance at home with his robust foreign policy.

Where Francois Hollande looks weak and beleaguered on the national stage, registering as the most unpopular French president ever, his fortunes seem to rise abroad with a strident interventionist foreign policy. We saw that in September when the French president unseated the British as America’s “special friend” by declaring his country’s readiness to join Washington in a military assault on Syria.

Famine-Stricken Niger Feeds French Development and Wealth by Finian Cunningham

by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from Strategic Culture Foundation
November 14, 2013

The former French African colony of Niger is facing famine – yet again – with international aid agencies reporting this week that up to one million people are currently without access to food.

It is the fourth such crisis to wrack the West African country in recent years, when famines struck similarly in 2012, 2010 and 2005. The immediate cause is extreme climate that has hit crop harvests. But the root cause is the deliberate underdevelopment of Niger under France’s parasitical neo-colonialism.

Land Grab: Violent Evictions Killing and Rape by Graham Peebles

by Graham Peebles
Writer, Dandelion Salad
London
August 12, 2013

Image by Dietmar Temps via Flickr

In many parts of the world development has become an invisible cloak under which all manner of “state sponsored” atrocities and human rights violations are being committed. Married to growth, development has been (largely) reduced to economic advancement – meaning maximizing Gross National Product (GNP) figures month on month, year on year, and turning over glowing returns to the insatiable global monetary bodies – The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) and – profit to private investors. No matter the human impact and environmental consequences.

Commercial Colonisation of Africa–The New Wild West by Graham Peebles

by Graham Peebles
Writer, Dandelion Salad
London
June 27, 2013

Image by UN / B. Wolff on Africa Renewal via Flickr

Dancing to the tune of their corporate benefactors, governments of the ruling G8 countries are enacting complex agriculture agreements delivering large tracts of prime cut African soil into the portfolios of their multinational bedmates.

Desperate for foreign investment, countries throughout Africa are at the mercy of their new colonial masters – national and international agrochemical corporations, fighting for land, water and control of the world’s food supplies.