Red Brigade wrote: Of course they have. The people of Libya are rising up massively to bring back the direct democracy of the Jamahiriya that existed thanks to the benevolence of comrade Gaddafi, who was just a symbolic figurehead and had no real power at all and was beloved by everyone except for the Al-Qaeda puppets. Oh wait, the people who captured Bani Walid contacted the NTC, who agreed to recognise them as the only authority over the town, and for now it just means one more town that the NTC can't control directly in the post-war power vacuum. The funny thing is that I originally hit "Reply" to respond to the digression about WWII, but I was "distracted" by the above post. I just want to say that at this point, registering one's disgust with Dagoth Ur's (apparently orthodox Trotskyist) position on World War II is kind of pointless, because it only dignifies that kind of nonsense unnecessarily. But like all worthless orthodox Trotskyist opinions, it is interesting to note that it's just a bunch of weird posturing that has nothing to do with reality. What would it concretely have meant for the communist resistance movements in occupied Europe to consistently say: "As soon as the fascists are significantly weakened, we should stop opposing them, because the US, who just liberated us, are now the main major threat"? At what specific moment would that be, anyway? Right after Stalingrad? Let's say that in 1944 (after years of communist calls for a second front), the western Allies are planning D-Day and they ask the French resistance to sabotage key German facilities. In the ortho-Trot opinion, they should have said: "Sorry, can't do that; the Red Army has already reached the Romanian border, and Nazi Germany is doomed. We'll just sit here and allow the Germans to implement murderous scorched-earth strategies until the Soviets have finally made it over here." Brilliant stuff.
[quote]Oh wait, the people who captured Bani Walid contacted the NTC, who agreed to recognise them as the only authority over the town, and for now it just means one more town that the NTC can't control directly in the post-war power vacuum./quote]
Simplifying matters a bit, no? Bani Walid and Sabha were the last towns to fall. Historically these areas were the core of anti-colonial resistance against the Italians and were only effectively under colonial control years after the coastal areas of the country. NATO and the NTC may control the coastal areas, but there is significant evidence to suggest that their control is weakest in these areas, and the relative weakness of authorities in Niger means that the Tuareg and other Gaddafi loyalists can just sit on the other side of the border and wait. You act as if this is unimportant and just a minor footnote, or the last gasp of resistance. I highly doubt that that is the case. That said, I appreciate your commentary on the earlier debate, I had decided to leave it alone but I think you nailed it. Strangely, up until now I assumed you were a trotskyist. "The present is a time of struggle; the future is ours."
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Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 14 Jan 2010, 05:46 Ideology: Other Leftist Party Member Matthijs wrote: Libya was a direct democracy. The people of Libya ruled through People's Committees and Basic People's Congresses. Workers Self Management was also practiced. The Italian activist Yvonne Di Vito even compared Libya to an African Switzerland. It's funny how one of the NTC's biggest allies is the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group which openly supports and works with Al-Qaeda. It's also funny how most of the NTC supporters are Libyans that were living abroad or how the NTC used soldiers from Tunisia and Egypt. The Prime Minister of the NTC is an American Citizen. Also I guess the NTC's torture and killing of blacks in Libya is fine. "Those who do not move, do not notice their chains." - Rosa Luxemburg Long Live The Bolivarian Revolution! RIP Muamar Qadafi RIP Hugo Chavez
Yes, it's absolutely delightful that blacks are being lynched, because I totally support the NTC, as I have repeatedly stated in, umm, zero posts on this forum and anywhere else? Oh wait, it seems that I didn't say that anywhere, and that you pulled it out of your ass.
A large part of the NTC, by the way, consists of people who were, up until very recently, officials in the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. Of course, that's not possible, because the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya was a stateless, classless utopia run by direct democracy, so of course they didn't have "officials", but yet here they are, and the same people still largely run Libya in the absence of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. Funny that. I googled this "Italian activist" Yvonne di Vito, and, besides finding the same video on all the usual looney-fringe websites, I finally managed to find out who this woman is: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... bings.html Hey wow, she is the wife of an Italian guy who arranged Ghaddafi's escort service, and personal friend to Ghaddafi. I'm sure that someone who has been acting as the Madame of the rich and powerful has a keen political insight on life at the bottom in Libya. Next up on Russia Today, it's Ghaddafi's nurse, Ghaddafi's mistress and Ghaddafi's swimming pool guard explaining the finer points of direct democracy in the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. After that, we have an exclusive interview with Alejandro from the Korean Friendship Association explaining how people's power works in North Korea. At the risk of having one big post full of sarcasm, I do want to mention one thing in all seriousness, and that is the "Al-Qaeda" thing. It's one of the issues in which vulgar "anti-imperialist" leftists have developed an amazing kind of doublespeak. Compare: On 9/11: "Al-Qaeda doesn't really exist as such, that is just a simplification used to justify the bombing of Afghanistan and Iraq. Al-Qaeda is not some kind of centralised organisation, and it cannot be somehow defeated by invading countries." On Libya: "Like Gaddafi said, all his opponents are Al-Qaeda operatives." Weird. @Aurelian: fair enough, the history behind those towns is a bit more complex. It is true that the NTC and co. are not consolidated everywhere; but I think the fact remains the same. There does not seem to be much organised resistance. Instead, what we have is a power vacuum, and in places like Bani Walid, local tribal leaders try to get more power for themselves. The NTC can't enforce its claims there (yet), so they recognise these people as the legitimate authorities and try to work out a deal. So you can tell me where exactly "Gaddafi loyalists" come in to this. The main tactic used in NTC in-fighting at the moment is to label one's opponents as "Gaddafi loyalists", but that doesn't make it true. Who would fight for a zombie leader anyway? I think at this point, it is fair to say that there will be a lot of bloody struggle going on in Libya, one of the many fruits of the brilliant intervention by NATO of turning an uprising into a destructive civil war (which Red Brigade thinks I support, but that is a rather small thinking error compared to the idea that Libya was "an African Switzerland"), but "Gaddafi loyalists" will have very little part in it, simply because there aren't all that many of them in the end, and if they exist, it's probably along tribal lines rather than because of their commitment to the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. But of course, I don't have a crystal ball, and I might be proven wrong.
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Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 13 Feb 2008, 15:25 Ideology: Other Leftist Politburo Matthijs wrote: You do realise that Libya had the highest human development index in Africa before the civil war, right? Or do you not consider the HDI to be at all valid? Your anti-Gaddafi sentiment is about as irrational as RB's talk of direct democracy, which in all fairness did exist to a certain degree. Have you not heard of media spin and misrepresentation of the truth? One thing that makes me laugh is the talk of Gaddafi stock piling gold as a show of how excessively he lived in the Western media. It never gets mentioned that he was actually stock piling gold as a means to support a new pan African currency based on a gold standard. It's so sad that even Leftists end up swallowing the bullshit. Quote: Of course the HDI is not valid. HDI includes the GDP per capital. Therefore, in an oil country as Libya, the total wealth increases artificially the HDI. If you compare with Tunisia and its dictator Ben Ali, Tunisia has practically the same HDI. Yet, it has much less oil. So it means that Tunisia's HDI is actually better. However, we know that this country is not socialist and suffers from heavy poverty and inequalities. The Gini coefficient would be a better index, but you can't find it because Gaddafi had no interest in giving it. ![]() "Mao was just a degenerated Trotsky." Dagoth Ur "fishing is part of agriculture" Gred OP-Bagration wrote: I disagree on that, I've noticed a number of posters commenting on how any country with oil wealth is guaranteed to trickle down. FYI Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Ecuador are all oil-producing countries, yet all are still mired in poverty. Plus Equatorial guinea is said to have a high HDI for same reasons... so we really need to begin looking at how well wealth was distributed. While many in Libya in the west in particular complained of unemployment there did not appear to be anyone starving to death, did anyone notice that? The protests tended to reflect certain peoples dissatisfaction with the government in terms of restrictive policies as opposed to impoverishment. They say a picture is worth 1000 words, and I think you'll find most of the pictures in Libya point to a modern developed country. The other point brought up about how many former Gaddafi government ministers were part of the NTC is actually more related to opportunism, particularly many in the government were likely to be indicted on corruption charges (as part of the proposed reforms) and this same group were the defectors. Lets be clear, there was construction all over the country, Libya was giving loans elsewhere in Africa, and there were many in universities, certainly some were built and expanded in Gaddafi's rule. I'm not even citing anything from Mathaba or whatever here, just looking at this taking a step back. I don't believe Libya was paradise on earth, but checking out the many videos of the country, there are a lot of nice cars, well kept buildings, modern infrastructure, and the water system that was built in the desert. I think it is hard to argue that a great deal of good was accomplished there even if Gaddafi had negative sides. @ Mathijis: Lets employ a bit of historicity here, if your enemy says you did it, and you say you did it, then you probably did it. Both sides acknowledge there are many Gaddafi supporters still out there. Where exactly do you think those 1.7 million people who came to support him in Tripoli went? Where are all the loyalists who held out in Ghadames, Sabha, and Bani Walid? Maybe some of those people will come to accept the NTC, but judging by the revolt against the NTC by former militias, it does not create a situation where the Gaddafi loyalists will give up per se. All the independent journalists in Libya such as Voltaire Network, global research, Lizzie phelan have concluded as much and even RT was giving some good reports before the "end" of the civil war. Seriously, do you just get all your information from al-Jazeera "The present is a time of struggle; the future is ours."
Quote: This is exactly what I said. HDI proves nothing. Maybe you didn't read what I wrote. Quote: Nobody was starving to death in Tunisia also. There was poor people and unemployement in both countries, especially in Benghazi suburbs. Quote: And what about Saudi Arabia? This country is exactly the contrary of socialism, but it has some great cars. So, do you support them? ![]() "Mao was just a degenerated Trotsky." Dagoth Ur "fishing is part of agriculture" Gred
No, my point is this. When Gaddafi came to power, it was like Equatorial Guinea, next to no redistribution, whereas now its a lot better. You can hate all you want, but the fact of the matter is he was very popular FOR SOME REASON for at the very least the first twenty years. You don't stay in power for 40 years "mercilessly repressing innocent people" as Western academics might point out, clearly he did a lot of good in the country, there is material evidence of that everywhere. There are many poor people in Saudi Arabia, don't let the news fool you. The problem with Saudi is they have more money than they know what to do with, comparing Saudi and Libya is a bit unfair no? If we review the economic history there are many reasons outside Gaddafi's control which might point to why that country is much wealthier.
I understand its questionable to reference claims of Gaddafi supporters, they are probably over stating the social welfarism in Libya. On the other hand, its not totally contrived, and you should be wary to accept BBC accounts of Libya = Tunisia. "The present is a time of struggle; the future is ours."
I don't think people who rebelled really care about what it was before Gaddafi, rather about what it could be without him. He obviously gave much money to his friends, people in Tripoli and the al-Gadafa. But in the end, he failed.
![]() "Mao was just a degenerated Trotsky." Dagoth Ur "fishing is part of agriculture" Gred
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Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 14 Jan 2010, 05:46 Ideology: Other Leftist Party Member Matthijs wrote: Libya was not 100 precent run by 100 precent pure direct democracy. For example Libya had a national General People's Congress which was made up of representatives from local Basic People's Congresses. There was also the General People's Committee which was elected by the General People's congress of members from different Basic People's Congresses, the General People's Committee also had a General Secretary who was considered Head of Government. So it was not a pure direct democracy there were still parts of representative democracy in the government. But there were also a lot of aspects of direct democracy. Like the Basic People's Congresses (Conference) which all adult Libyans were members of and allowed to voice their opinion in. Libya also practiced forms of worker's self management. Matthijs wrote: I can understand not taking her as a very reliable source after finding out who her husband is. But RT is still a reliable alternative to the mainstream media in America. Especially on Libya, they have interviewed lots of people on Libya, and have sent journalists to Libya. Plus they would report on different positive things that Gaddafi did for Libya and Africa, like the Pan-African gold currency that FC mentioned. Of course more mainstream media sources in the west especially America will not report on things like this. Matthijs wrote: I believe that Al-Qaeda caused 9/11, and i'm still against the Afghan and Iraq wars. I don't buy into the conspiracy theories like that and I don't know many leftists or anti-imperialists that do.
Gaddafi gave lots of money to African nations and Pan-African organizations like the African Union. He also gave money to different revolutionary and anti-imperialsit organizations, other then the IRA. "Those who do not move, do not notice their chains." - Rosa Luxemburg Long Live The Bolivarian Revolution! RIP Muamar Qadafi RIP Hugo Chavez Quote: USA are doing the same with United nations and many countries. Quote: In the 1980's he assassinated Thomas Sankara and helped the invasion of Liberia in 1989, then of Sierra Leone. 400 000 people died in these wars. He was also an imperialist. ![]() "Mao was just a degenerated Trotsky." Dagoth Ur "fishing is part of agriculture" Gred
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Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 14 Jan 2010, 05:46 Ideology: Other Leftist Party Member OP-Bagration wrote: Yeah but the USA does not support African unity like Gaddafi did. The USA works against African unity, and any type of third-world unity. The assassination of Patrice Lumumba should of made this clear. OP-Bagration wrote: How did he help assassinate Thomas Sankara this is the first time i've ever heard something like that. Would you like to give a source or elaborate on that. By invasion of Liberia and Sierra Leone do you mean the Liberian and Sierra Leone civil wars? Because Libya never invaded them Gaddafi did mistakenly support Charles Taylor and the NPF, but Libya never invaded either country. Gaddafi was not an imperialist. "Those who do not move, do not notice their chains." - Rosa Luxemburg Long Live The Bolivarian Revolution! RIP Muamar Qadafi RIP Hugo Chavez matthijs wrote: How does responding to an argument dignify it? It's a liberal tendency to not try to defeat an idea you know to be wrong. matthijs wrote: As soon as you beat the nazis clearly. One threat down, one way bigger one to tackle. Not that I would have continued world war two against the Americans (militarily) but calling their intervention in Europe "liberation" is to lie and to ignore the imperialism they brought with them in tow. The only liberators during world war two were the anti-nazi soldiers themselves. And to a lesser degree the USSR. matthijs wrote: I never said to leave the nazis alone. If your enemies want to kill each other let them, but don't forget they're both your enemies. matthijs wrote: Better than your strawmen though. ![]() لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا الله مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ الله - يا عمال العالم اتحدوا Red Brigade wrote: I've heard this claim too. The assassination of Sankara has more to do with the politics of Cote D'Ivoire wanting a cheaper source of labour, and for the rulers in the north to maintain power they need a numeric superiority enhanced by people moving in. Reality check: Cote D'Ivoire is one of the staunchest allies of America and France on the African continent. I'm not sure what Gaddafi did or didn't do, but lets be real, France has 45% economic ownership of Cote D'Ivoire, care to hazard a guess what % of Burkina Faso's economy they owned? Liberia, Uganda, and Central African Republic are three examples of leaders we can disagree that it was not wise to support, but then again, we do have the gift of retrospect, and these people were seen as a force of change and liberators at the same time. Many viewed Idi Amin as someone who would upset the British establishment and change the imbalance between Asians and Africans. He did do that, a long with many other negative things. There is a good article by Yoweri Museveni on Gaddafi which partially explains these events. Gaddafi was a creditor country on the African continent, but the key maneouvering of this so-called Arab Spring is about brining Libya into the Arab grouping of nations as opposed to African, which is why many African nations and popular movements have been the strongest supporters. Its not about coming out in full force with a green flag, but calling Gaddafi an imperialist shows you take imperialist propaganda at face value. He made some controversial decisions we can criticize, but outright labelling an imperialist is fundamentally flawed. His loans were not making ridiclous scores of money for Libya, and many in Africa view him as a hero, why is it when anyone in the developing world regards some populist as a hero it is because they are "misguided" they know what they want, and he acts in their interests. Western interests are to portray him as an idiot because they can discredit him in world opinion, we all know he is not an idiot though. It just takes a bit of objectivity here... "The present is a time of struggle; the future is ours."
Matthijs wrote: Your narrative runs like a neo-con denunciation of RT as foreign propaganda. In fact, most of the people they interview are independent journalists, analysts, people from think tanks, activists, and overwhelming academics and university professors, often times from the United States. They just show more activist views, unless you think that's not objective? "The present is a time of struggle; the future is ours."
Fellow Comrade wrote: Now we get to play "Fun with statistics with Fellow Comrade" (certainly better than being accused of "anti-Gaddafi sentiment" as if that's some kind of venereal disease!). I consider HDI as valid as you do, but I'm sure you would not award the same generosity to the corruption index, unemployment rates, press freedom index, etc. Tunisia was also a relatively prosperous country, so maybe we can cry about the overthrow of comrade Ben-Ali next. A new pan-African currency based on the gold standard? Well, that makes sense! Too bad Gadhafi is dead, or he could have accompanied Ron Paul on the campaign trail. Aurelian wrote: And what if you emphatically deny that you "did it", like the guys in Bani Walid? The fact of the matter is that "Gadhafi loyalist" is mostly a popular slander method used in intra-NTC conflicts. The key words in all your ~*pertinent questions*~ about the "many Gadhafi supporters" are of course all in the past tense. They came to support him, they held out. I don't know where the "1.7 million people in Tripoli" went, but they're clearly not at the square any more. Reality check: Tripoli has a population of 1.8 million. If 94% of the population of Tripoli (and one-third of the entire population of Libya) supports Gadhafi, how on earth could they possibly lose? Even if you only had guns for a fraction of them (Gadhafi apologists at one point claimed that he was arming the general population to beat back the imperialist rebs, whatever happened to that?). Even if they were all unarmed, the rebels would have had to commit a genocide of epic proportions to stand a chance of winning the city. I had never heard of Lizzie Phelan up until very recently, but reading this article by her says enough. I mean, really? I don't necessarily believe in "objectivity", but it's impossible to take someone seriously who simply writes propaganda for the lowest common denominator. Lizzie Phelan calling the rebels "rats" is about as credible as Ronald Reagan calling Gadhafi a "mad dog". I realise that I just argued against attacking the source in the Syria thread, but you can always find "sources" that make you wonder. No matter if it's Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck on one side, or Lizzie Phelan and Voltaire Network (which backed 9/11 conspiracy theories) on the other. I don't think you should get all your information from al-Jazeera, just as I don't think you should ever get all your information from one exclusive news medium. But if you had to choose between al-Jazeera, Fox News or Press TV, then obviously the first option would be vastly superior to the other two combined. It's not like you have to make some binary choice between either propaganda from the imperialists or from "anti-imperialist" crackpots. Everyone is welcome to consume news media in the way they see fit, but I would recommend critically watching as much as possible, with an additional instinctive "filter" against the Glenn Becks and Lizzie Phelans of this world. @Red Brigade: sorry I can't write a very detailed response, because you mention a lot of things that we can simply agree to disagree on, but one thing: Red Brigade wrote: Does that include such leading lights of anti-imperialism as Austrian fascist leader Jörg Haider? I'm honestly curious about this.
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Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 14 Jan 2010, 05:46 Ideology: Other Leftist Party Member Matthijs wrote: Im guessing the money and support given to Jörg Haider was most likely because of some of his anti-American stances. It was also probably so Jörg Haider and the Freedom Party of Austria would spread support for Libya in Austria. But it was still wrong of Gaddafi to give him that money. Also Gaddafi's son was much more closer to Jörg Haider than Gaddafi was. There are also a lot more left wing groups that Gaddafi supported, such as the ANC, PLO, IRA, PFLP, Polisario Front, Red Brigades, Red Army Faction, NPA, The Muslim Brotherhood and many more. He even supported the Trotskyist Workers Revolutionary Party, and their printing press. Also Lizzie Phelan is not that bad of a journalist, she spent a lot of time in Libya during the conflict. I don't agree with calling the rebels names, but she is still a good journalist. Last edited by Red Brigade on 11 Feb 2012, 22:18, edited 1 time in total.
"Those who do not move, do not notice their chains." - Rosa Luxemburg Long Live The Bolivarian Revolution! RIP Muamar Qadafi RIP Hugo Chavez
http://atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/13986-james-petras-phd-washingtons-long-war-against-africa.html
I am shocked that AFRICOM is not being discussed here, the US Empire is rapidly expanding in Africa, which the ultimate result will be less democracy. They key actors in AFRICOM are all US-friendly regimes, and I think its questionable to be referring to Nigeria or Senegal as model democracies. or, what about Jean Bricmont who wrote Humanitarian Imperialism? http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/04/21/libya-in-the-face-of-humanitarian-imperialism/ If you can debunk the 10 claims in this article below, then do so: http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/Perspectives_1/article_7783.shtml Quote: Last edited by Snowdon on 11 Feb 2012, 22:17, edited 2 times in total.
"The present is a time of struggle; the future is ours."
I have seen many neo-cons balk at the idea of creating a currency, but we know Gaddafi's history, he believes in south-south cooperation and pan-african unity, and he backs it up time and time again. Why would he not propose such a currency? He wants Africa to unite, and why not? You might question his ideas, but there is no doubt he would do something like this and certainly wanted to. Chavez created a currency, so why would Gaddafi not? Its possible, and many would have backed him. Gaddafi working with Angola, South Africa, Zimbabwe definitely is worrying to the United States as it could strengthen Africa-africa trade and start creating another pole of power in the world. Don't you think that when NATO decides to intervene somewhere it has more to do with power politics than any 'democracy' or 'freedom'?
Do you know what a bomb is? Have you examined the damage in the country? when people get bombed they lose morale after a time, no one holds out forever. I mean, what does it take to convince you there were Gaddafi supporters, if they held out for 5 years? I'm sure the 1.7 million in Tripoli came from outside the city as well, you making statistics on the spot does not make it untrue. NATO applied pressure and at some points they appeared worried they might not win. 50,000 troops versus the rebels, defectors, ex-pats, special forces, and whoever else was there we just don't know. They really drummed up how unprepared the rebels were, and all these ways they just couldnt get the gaddafi forces because they were blending in with the city. NATO thought it would be a much shorter victory, and they underestimated support for Gaddafi, and stuck to that line throughout the whole conflict. It was obviously very divided, maybe Gaddafi had more supporters but probably not by much, people are just getting on with their lives and they don't want any more war... that doesn't then mean that this is some great victory for the Libyan people. You're talking shit man, Lizzie Phelan is not Glenn Beck, and I don't understand why al-Jazeera, being funded by Qatar, a country attacking Libya, should be the purveyor of accurate information? Its like accepting American war propaganda about how the Viet Cong are evil marauders. Come on man, you can't take information on any given conflict by one of the aggressive nations involved? Now I understand why you don't believe in objectivity. The claim he was arming supporters was from al-Jazeera actually. I am only suggesting some alternative sources, there are many other independent media organizations that have taken a view contrary to al-Jazeera. If BBC and al-Jazeera have been proven to be capable of errors in reporting too. Do you really believe what the BBC puts out on Tibet? The imperialist sources are naturally going to use spin tactics on any kind of reporting that revolves around something they don't like. Fox may wrap it up differently, but RT, al-Jazeera, BBC they all do the same thing. I don't believe in getting all information from RT, but dismissing all information they release is questionable. There are volumes of books which examine western propaganda, I think you should give them a read because they really got the blinders on you. Ok, lets pose a similar question, where are all Aristide's or Sankara's supporters. These rebels have been lynching people and ethnically cleansed a town. We are also considering the entire country has been bombed, British special forces, Qatari forces went in, and who knows what went between border crossing in Tobruk, do you know? Gaddafi was an obstacle to American, British, and French imperial designs in the African continent, Qatar is just reaping some benefits. The trade agreements signed with foreign companies gave a good more percentage of oil wealth to Libya than these new agreements will. Funding all kinds of projects across Africa and giving loans, is as much a rival as China. I found it hilarious when al-Jazeera or BBC started interviewing Africans on what they thought of Libyan war they all came out strongly against it and they had to end the interview. “If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.” -Malcolm X... think about it. "The present is a time of struggle; the future is ours."
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