Aimé Césaire

It is with great sadness that we learn of the passing of theorist and writer Aimé Césaire. Our condolences to his family. For those unfamiliar with Césaire, we recommend the excellent Discourse on Colonialism .

Winter Soldier

Watching the film Winter Soldier today, there are so many first visceral reactions. The backdrop is that the New York governor is resigning for sleeping with prostitutes, which is pretty inexcusable, except the corporate press's tenor of "oh of course he has to resign," when Bush and Cheney just grin down from their pile of corpses is pretty aggravating. The film is one of those necessary ones that just wrenches all the lies out into the light. It's a documentary about the Winter Soldier investigations/hearings where veterans of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Vietnam tell about what they did and saw. I can't convey the power of it, you should just go watch it. I might go and schedule a screening in my neighborhood because it is that good.
There's going to be a New Winter Soldier that begins tomorrow and goes through this weekend. If you have a blog, tell people about it. If you're on a list-serv, spread the word. There's a lot that people can do to help. Spread the word. Let people know. We need to get it up on reddit and delicious. It needs to be talked about. The war needs to end.

Cuba

We hang with the anarchists, we've got a whole stack of Spanish Civil War books on the shelf and are quick to argue the possibility and beauty in an anarchist world. Occasionally, we drink with the liberals and we hang with every sect of lefty faction, including the world renowned communist factionalist league. But some of them anarchists grit their teeth when they hear us talk about Cuba. We love Cuba. A quick sail from the deepest south, a plantation society was overthrown.
And despite all the trashing from the U.S., rhetorically and physically, Cuba has held strong through coup attempts, biological warfare, losing its biggest subsidizer (don't scoff, capitalism is an entire system of subsidy), and the long silent endurance marathon of struggling to stay free so close to the empire's cold inner core. Look to Allende in Chile and the activists (students, organizers, teachers, doctors, workers, people all with dreams, stories, scars and strengths and families) taken to the stadium, look to Nicaragua and the rest of Central America and the families ripped apart and death squads, look to vietnam and the thousands of gallons of poison just pumped, carpet style, over the entire country. The masters have to make examples of the uppity slaves; one that has struck back must be put down.
Today, the New York Times reports that Fidel Castro is resigning as the president of Cuba. Lefties everywhere, of every stripe, need to touch base. The United States government has tried to destabilize and threaten Cuban sovereignty since the bay of pigs, including, but not limited to linking Cuba to the war on terror (president Carter, of all people, immediately got on a plane to Cuba and said that this was total nonsense and that Cuba shouldn't be linked to at all; we still hate Carter, but he did earn points for this one). If Cuba is attacked or messed with, lefties need to mobilize and stand up quick. We need to make clear that this is unacceptable. I wish the same thing was happening for Iraq and Afghanistan, but if the master's whip changes direction, we must be ready.
The world is a much better place because of Castro's work. We hope that he continues to live a long and healthy life.

A Question of Class

In the last year, as History Is A Weapon has become more widely known, we've been getting a little more email sent in. We try to respond to everyone in a timely manner and be as helpful as we can. In the last few months, we've been getting some email that we appreciate, but it peeves us a little. College students, they've been only college students so far, say great things about the site and then insist that we expand. We'd love to add more stuff, about first nation stuff, queer issues, more on gender, latino and asian struggles, but there's only so much time and we're trying to get other things off the ground. Besides, we're picky. They always close their emails with a pledge to help, but most of them disappear into the ether (with some notable exceptions who we appreciate greatly). We always respond with a "why don't you type up 'A Question of Class' from Dorothy Allison's Skin?" We hear such good things about it. Well, now we need to suggest something new to be typed up, because A Question of Class is here and it is excellent.

I could try to do it some sort of justice, but can't. The entire time I first read it, I annoyed the other person in the room with "you just have to read this! It's amazing." Well, now it is amazing and online. You should read it right now.

New Addition Poster

Oh, do we have a gift for some of you. Now don't go clicking all willy-nilly, but Anna over at Left Palate helped us put together a poster. So if you have access to something that can print 11 by 17 in color and want to help spread the word about History Is A Weapon, the idea and the website, go to our poster page and print up a copy. It's a bigger file, so don't hotlink it or anything, but we trust you.
Happy postering!
The History Is A Weapon poster page






Anna, who designed our wrapping paper, also made an early inspiration to competitor parody something that is perhaps best left described as little as possible. We think she thinks she is funny.