On the brink of war — and paying the price at homeTHE world appears to be on the brink of a brutal escalation of the war in the Middle East. Some 10,000 US troops stand ready. Israel’s rulers are using the opportunity to extend their wars of territorial conquest in Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelensky is signing deals with Gulf sheikdoms for the supply of aggressive drone technology. Collateral damage is already being inflicted on those who can no longer afford to heat their homes or buy the food they need. What is the position of our own government? To equivocate. Factories in Britain still contribute to the production of weapons used by the US and Israel. Both in Britain and also, it seems, elsewhere in the Mediterranean and Pacific, British military bases still enable US planes to refuel and utilise their targeting technology. Our Prime Minister professes himself unhappy. Yet in the past week the Metropolitan Police, despite contrary legal judgements, have resumed prosecutions of anyone displaying support for an organisation whose crime it was to draw attention to Britain’s material complicity with Israel.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/brink-war-and-paying-price-homeBarbecue, Empire, and Haiti’s Child SoldiersAs the group expands its control over the country, one glaring reality is that a significant portion of its armed members are under 18. Under the command of Jimmy Chérizier, known as “Barbecue,” and his former lieutenant, escaped kidnapper Kempès Sanon, Viv Ansanm deployed these armed youths to sack the sprawling neighborhoods of Solino. Their assault has displaced over 125,000 people across 24 different communities. “Viv Ansanm burned us out of our homes because we were one of the last bastions of peace and resistance left in Pòtoprens [Port-au-Prince],” said Ezayi Jules, a spokesperson for the community. “They reduced our neighborhoods to ashes. Now our families are homeless as Barbecue runs around everywhere talking about his “revolution.’” Beginning in 2018, Viv Ansanm and its predecessor, the G-9 gang alliance, have targeted and invaded neighborhoods that had long been bulwarks of popular resistance agains the interests of big capital and foreign domination. The numbers speak for themselves. Armed grou
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