As the benefit caps begin to be implemented in London, we want to share with you this important new report by researchers at Sheffield Hallam University. It documents how the financial impact of the UK government’s cuts will vary widely across the country, hitting Britain’s poorest places the hardest, and allowing more affluent areas “to escape relatively lightly”.
The findings of the report illustrate class warfare in action – how neoliberal policies for economic “recovery” put the burden of “austerity” on the backs of the poorest and most vulnerable. So although Margaret Thatcher will be buried tomorrow at a cost of £10M to the UK taxpayer, her oppressive classist ideology can be seen to live on in the policies of the current government.
It’s no surprise that these are turbulent times we are living in, but they are particularly so today. While a general strike and public protests sweep southern Europe in response to neoliberal “austerity” in this time of economic crisis, Israel has launched a fresh attack on the Gaza strip, killing and injuring civilians, a woman has died in Ireland after being denied an abortion due to religious reasons, and last month a teenage girl activist in Pakistan was shot in the head as a response to her campaigning for girls’ education.
We commend those who are taking collective action to protest being forced into more dire economic conditions due to austerity, taking on both the police and the state in hopes of ensuring a better future. We stand in solidarity with the Palestinians who are suffering yet another grave injustice at the hands of the IDF. We honor the deceased and keep the injured in our thoughts.
We are grateful for the survival of 14-year old Malala Yousafzai and support her courageous work to ensure girls in a misogynist society have access to education, and are overjoyed to hear of the passing of Pakistan’s Universal Education Bill, undoubtedly spurred by international attention on Malala. Yet at the same time, we mourn the loss of Savita Halappanavar, who died unnecessarily due to an archaic law and sexist medical and religious culture that refused her requests for a termination. Along with many other feminist activists, in her honor, we will continue to work for the rights of all women to authority over our own bodies and lives.
Many are resisting. In addition to the millions on strike, Spanish and Portuguese demonstrators are blocking roads and clashing with police, vigils have been held in Ireland and London to remember Savita and call for legalized abortion in Ireland, and a list of emergency global actions for Gaza to happen in the next few days is currently being compiled. Support actions in your area or add to it if you are able to help organize one.
For more detailed coverage on these topics, see the below articles and video compiled from media that we consider as reputable as possible. Underneath the headlines you will find the hashtags to follow on Twitter for more info and breaking updates.
As Invisible Children’s Kony2012/stopKony campaign goes viral, Sisters of Resistance share links that criticize the paternalistic, racist, “white savior” nature of the “not for profit” organization (as well as a trailer for a documentary about US interference in Africa.)
In advocating further US military intervention in Uganda, with no reference to the political economic context, or underlying systemic causes of the conflict, let alone the fact corporations prolong and profit from it, Kony2012 furthers a racist, imperialist Western agenda which cannot be understood without reference to Africom.
African people are presented as “invisible” and incapable, while the Hollywood narrative of the “white American good guy saving the world and getting the bad guy” is perpetuated at a time when US global dominance is crumbling.
If the founders of Invisible Children were serious, they would take down the arms companies, corporations and governments that fund, profit from, cause and prolong the conflict (read more about cobalt, corporations and Central Africa here).
Invisible Children has been condemned time and time again. As a registered not-for-profit, its finances are public. Last year, the organization spent $8,676,614. Only 32% went to direct services (page 6), with much of the rest going to staff salaries, travel and transport, and film production. This is far from ideal for an issue which arguably needs action and aid, not awareness, and Charity Navigator rates their accountability 2/4 stars because they lack an external audit committee. But it goes way deeper than that.
The group is in favour of direct military intervention, and their money supports the Ugandan government’s army and various other military forces. Here’s a photo of the founders of Invisible Children posing with weapons and personnel of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. Both the Ugandan army and Sudan People’s Liberation Army are riddled with accusations of rape and looting, but Invisible Children defends them, arguing that the Ugandan army is “better equipped than that of any of the other affected countries”, although Kony is no longer active in Uganda and hasn’t been since 2006 by their own admission.
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Thoughts on Kony 2012 and White Saviours vs. Allies
I watched the Kony 2012 video this morning and I have to say the White saviour, colonial overtones made me extremely uncomfortable. Not to mention the lack of any consultation or even reference to any of the Ugandan groups who have been actively fighting against Kony for years. Even the way Invisible Children denies granting the two (!) Ugandan politicians further identification in the video. What party are they from? What role in government do they play? Why was there no mention of the president? Or of any other adult Ugandans? Why weren’t Ugandans given the opportunity to speak for themselves? Why were they instead treated as props for the self-aggrandizing filmmaker and his friends? Merely showing images of nameless mutilated children, flashing them before the audience’s eyes reduces and erases the children’s humanity. This type of stomach-turning pity-porn is no way to bring attention to a cause. This is no way to treat those you wish to help.
I could go on about the problems with the video: the lack of Ugandan culture; the weird inclusion of the narrator’s very young son and how the video placed him at the centre of the narrative as the ideal future; the fact that it took nearly 9 minutes for Joseph Kony and the LRA to even be mentioned; the pro-military stance; and the basis that no one else could possibly have heard or cared about the LRA before Invisible Children ever before. The video is the very definition of the White Man’s Burden.
Invisible Children has had some success already: late last year, President Barack Obama committed 100 US troops to provide “advice and assistance” to the Ugandan army in removing Joseph Kony from the battlefield. The President’s move came in part due to the NGO’s tremendous advocacy efforts. Everyone agrees that this a hugely important issue, but Invisible Children’s methods have come in for searing criticism; most scathingly, they have been attacked as “neo-liberal, do-good Whiteness”. Elsewhere, Foreign Affairs has provided some important context on this matter, in relation to Uganda’s strategic importance to the USA. I would also recommend the Twitter feed of Laura Seay, who was moved to comment this morning that “[Solomme Lemma] is tweeting links to great community-based organizations working in Northern Uganda. Give there if you really want to help. I understand the anger and resentment at Invisible Children’s approach, which with its paternalism has unpleasant echoes of colonialism. I will admit to being perturbed by its apparent top-down prescriptiveness, when so much diligent work is already being done at Northern Uganda’s grassroots.
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@DynamicAfrica, @InnovateAfrica and @TexasinAfrica have been tweeting criticism and analysis as well as promoting the important work already being done by grassroots Ugandan organisations. For further information on the context of US imperialism in Africa please see:
For our final post of 2011, we would like to thank all of the readers who have made Sisters of Resistance a success in our first year by sharing with you this important film that we believe captures or touches upon many of the issues of injustice currently facing the world at large. Continue reading →
UK students and anti-cuts groups have released a statement linking the riots to the cuts, police brutality and systematic inequality. They call for an investigation into Mark Duggan’s death, the disbanding of the IPCC to be replaced with independent body, and no punishment of rioters with increased sentences, violence or elimination of benefits.
They call for the reversal of the punitive programme of cuts that is targeting most heavily areas of deprivation and marginalised groups, including young people, to be replaced by a policy of positive investment and wealth re-distribution.
They call upon those involved in community and campaigning groups, including trades unions, for their support and a refusal to condemn and disown those involved in riots; stating that instead everything possible must be done to engage with them, recognising their actions as part of the broad range of responses to the neoliberal cuts programme.
Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.-Dickens 22 hours ago
That shit pissed me off. I'm not going there anymore. 23 hours ago
Found out today the guy who owns the nail shop I go to is mad racist. Won't do black girls with long nails. Says they're dirty. Fucked up. 23 hours ago
I am patriarchy and I pester you for attention, then tell you off if you don't respond in a manner pleasing to me. 1 week ago
I am patriarchy and I value competition over collaboration. 1 month ago
I am patriarchy and I sustain women's unpaid labor. 1 month ago
I am patriarchy and to "succeed" in a masculine role, a woman must prove herself more macho, domineering and ruthless than any man #thatcher1 month ago
I am patriarchy. The more insecure I make you feel, the easier it will be to control you. 2 months ago
