The following article raises the question, If we're not living under
an Oligarchy, what would we call it? When a government carefully
controls the Media so the news is slanted toward the interest of the
Corporate Class, then we can not say that we live in a Free Land.
Carl Jarvis

*****

Mondoweiss

A tale of two parades: how a New York governor throws Puerto Ricans under
the bus while reaffirming his commitment to Israeli apartheid
Amith Gupta on  June 9, 2017 2 Comments

  Governor Andrew Cuomo at the Israel Day Parade in New York City, June 4,
2017. (Photo: Andrew Cuomo)

Being a governor is often seen as a stepping-stone in the United States for
the presidency. While the current and former U.S. Presidents are exceptions
to that rule, nobody's behavior embodies that tradition more than Governor
Andrew Cuomo of New York. The Governor has never missed an opportunity to
promote himself, including around issues that have almost nothing to do with
New York state politics - from conducting his own foreign affairs to
partisan grandstanding against Donald Trump's most illiberal policies.

Given that a wannabe president like Cuomo might be expected to constantly
promote his own brand, it raises eyebrows when a politician refuses to show
up at a parade for one of his state's most vibrant demographics. But that's
exactly what Cuomo did when he publicly rebuked the organizers of the Puerto
Rican Day Parade. Accusing the Puerto Rican Day Parade organizers of
engaging in a "political mess" by choosing to honor revolutionary leftist
and former political prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera, the Governor joined
several mega-corporations in refusing to respect the organizers' autonomous
decision to honor Lopez Rivera.

Lopez Rivera has been ruthlessly attacked in right-wing press as little more
than a terrorist, in part because of his connection to the Fuerzas Armadas
de Liberacion Nacional (FALN). The FALN was an armed group involved in a
string of bombings aimed at ending American colonial rule over the island of
Puerto Rico. Founded by the children of Puerto Ricans who migrated to the
U.S. mainland in the 1940s and faced racism and police violence through the
1950s and 1960s, the FALN was established in 1974.

Adamantly anti-imperialist and socialist in outlook, the FALN carried out
attacks aimed primarily at government institutions and corporations that
were invested in the U.S. occupation of Puerto Rico, and by extension, the
campaign of violent repression carried out on that island. Although
right-wing press portrayed the FALN as mindlessly violent, analyses of the
actual armed campaigns waged by the FALN indicate that few of these attacks
- none of which involved Lopez Rivera - were intended to kill at all. In a
2008 article, sociologist Michael Gonzalez-Cruz points out that out of one
hundred and twenty actions carried out by the FALN, there were casualties in
only two: a reprisal attack on Wall Street that killed four, and an attack
on a Chicago police station in response to a lynching, which killed two. Per
Gonzalez-Cruz, 95 percent of the attacks carried out by the FALN were not
aimed at killing people at all, but were various forms of symbolic violence
aimed at the destruction of property.

Lopez Rivera, who was never accused of involvement in any of the FALN's
bombings, was nonetheless arrested and jailed for sedition due to his
campaign against American rule over Puerto Rico. Lopez Rivera's political
activism until his arrest was characterized by traditional grassroots
organizing: he founded a school and a community center for Puerto Ricans in
Chicago, campaigned for bilingual education and affirmative action in
schools and universities, and sought an end to police brutality against
Puerto Ricans. Ironically, one of the few times that Lopez Rivera engaged in
armed combat was when he served in the U.S. military during the Vietnam War,
where he was awarded a Bronze star.

Uniquely principled, Lopez Rivera refused clemency when offered by Bill
Clinton in 1999, because it did not come with the release of other members
of his organization. President Obama, responding to overwhelming support for
Lopez Rivera among Puerto Ricans and others, finally pardoned him before
leaving office last year. The same overwhelming support culminated in New
York City councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito choosing to honor him with an
award at the parade - sparking an immediate right-wing backlash that mirrors
the sort of mischaracterization that took place against the FALN in the
1970s and 1980s. Cuomo alleged that this backlash was too much of a
distraction from other issues in Puerto Rico, such as its economic malaise -
as though support for a jailed comrade and the long history of American
control over Puerto Rico that Lopez Rivera confronted could be meaningfully
separated from the present-day financial crisis in Puerto Rico.

But political violence, bombings, needless casualties, boycotts, and
controversy has not, and never has, created too much of a distraction for
Cuomo to attend another national parade. Carrying an Israeli flag and draped
in a sash labelling him an "Honorary Grand Marshall," Cuomo joined the
"Celebrate Israel Day Parade" on June 4. Funded by Zionist billionaires,
banks, lobbying initiatives, and the government of Israel itself, the
Celebrate Israel Day Parade was attended by an assortment of Zionist
community organizations and their constituents. Men, women, and small
children donning light blue shirts spent the entire day, alongside Cuomo,
whitewashing the systematic dispossession of another nation of people as
they celebrated a state that has just completed 50 years of U.S.-funded
military occupation - an occupation that has killed more innocents in the
last month than the FALN killed during the entirety of its existence.

Speaking at a breakfast meeting the morning of the parade, Cuomo read out a
proclamation dubbing June 4th "Shimon Peres Day" after the late Israeli
President. Cuomo gushed his uncritical support for the Israeli state as he
sought to tie New York to Israel, while other speakers celebrated Israeli
conquest during the 1967 war. Cuomo specifically attacked the movement to
boycott Israel, invoked the September 11th attacks to justify Israeli policy
while misleadingly tying them to Palestinian uprisings, and cited New York's
Jewish population as a justification for his views on what is clearly a
foreign policy matter. In doing so, Cuomo not only dehumanizes the
Palestinian population that makes up a significant portion of his own
constituency, but also erased the long-standing tradition of dissent on
Israel within the U.S. Jewish community.

Outside this morbid celebration, a small group of Palestinians and
supporters held a counter-protest marked by Palestinian flags, one of few
apparent signs that the colonization of Palestine is not a dead letter.
Groups like American Muslims for Palestine, Al Awda New York, Samidoun, the
New York City Students for Justice in Palestine, Jews for Palestinian Right
of Return and others mobilized a small but passionate group of supporters as
they protested what was little more than a grotesque celebration of the
ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

Palestinians and supporters protest the Israel Day Celebration in New York
City, June 4, 2017. (Photo: Joe Catron)

This tale of two parades is remarkable in that it is very much a microcosm
of politics in a state that is often reduced to little more than a bastion
of liberalism. In an America in which Donald Trump is the standard for what
does and doesn't constitute progress, it is easy to miss the deep-seated
differences that characterize the politics of a supposedly left-leaning
state.

But the demonization of Oscar Lopez Rivera on the one hand, and the
mirroring, unbridled whitewash of Zionism on the other, tell the story of
the limits of liberalism in New York. While Cuomo felt comfortable lecturing
the Puerto Ricans among his constituents when they chose to celebrate
someone widely viewed as a hero, he had no qualms celebrating the unbridled
state violence and regime of apartheid that Israel has carried out against
the Palestinian people in violation of even the lowest standards of
international humanitarian law. Indeed, whether he is marching at the
parade, reaffirming his support for Israel during the 2014 Gaza Massacre, or
penalizing boycotts of Israel, Governor Cuomo has made it very clear which
communities count - and which do not - in this supposedly liberal bastion.

And the response is mutual. While establishment press has sought to
aggressively downplay the growth of Palestine solidarity, the Palestinian
community in New York and its allies continue to make inroads where Cuomo
has exited. For example, the National Lawyers Guild, which has condemned
Cuomo's attempt to repress solidarity with Palestine, has been outspoken in
its support for Lopez Rivera. Similarly, Samidoun, a group focused on
Palestinian prisoners rights that spearheaded the counter-rally against the
Celebrate Israel Day Parade, has long considered Lopez Rivera and Puerto
Rican dissenters to be allies against unjustified U.S. aggression. As Cuomo
shuns Puerto Ricans and Palestinians alike through his parade habits,
perhaps there is an opening for greater unity and blossoming solidarity
among communities that remain excluded from New York's establishment
politics.