Why do we see genocide erupting over and over again?

 

By Steven Halpern

Today the world is witnessing a genocide organized by the Israeli government against the Palestinian people. What is happening is unimaginable. The so-called Israeli Defense Force has murdered over 20,000 human beings. The large majority are women and children. The Israeli government has instituted a policy of denying the residents of the Gaza Strip adequate supplies of food, clean water, health care, and shelter. The United Nations reported that about half of the population of 2.3 million in Gaza are now starving. 

One of the weapons the IDF uses is white phosphorous bombs supplied by the United States government. These bombs burn their victims to death or cause lung damage due to of smoke inhalation. 

In his book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Elan Pappe reported that one of the first commodities manufactured by the state of Israel were flame throwers. The former Zionist forces called themselves the Hagenah. In 1948 the Hagenah used those flame throwers along with bull dowsers, and explosives to destroy Palestinian homes. Oftentimes there were people living in those homes while the Hagenah was destroying them. In all, the Hagenah forced about 700,000 Palestinians to leave their homes in 1948. That was how Israel became a nation.

As horrendous as these criminal acts are, there is a long history of firebombing used by the armed forces of the United States. Why has the United States government been so determined to use deliberate force to subjugate people all over the world? 

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin argued in his pamphlet State and Revolution that the state was invented for capitalism as a “special instrument of repression.” In another pamphlet by Lenin, he argued that “Imperialism is the highest stage of capitalism.”

Positive aspects of capitalism mask the horror story

Lenin also understood that while capitalism was a highly repressive system, it was also a significant advance over feudalism. Royal families ruled the feudal societies. Religious clerics anointed those rulers based on what they argued was the will of God.

In those years, most people were peasants who lived their entire lives on manors controlled by the lords. Then there were the craft guilds that were about small-scale production. The overwhelming majority of the population was illiterate. For the most part there were no educational or health care systems.

With capitalism, there were new priorities that centered on the continual drive for profits. Economic growth became an absolute necessity to insure relative stability. This begins to explain the profound change humanity experienced from the feudal epoch.

Today the commodities of food, clothing, cell phones, and automobiles are transported all over the world. With all their profound limitations, there are health care and educational systems. Perhaps billions of people work to provide these and other goods and services every day. All of this was unimaginable in the feudal epoch.

With all this growth, we need to ask a question. Where does the money come from to finance this growth? This is where we see the fundamental contradiction of the capitalist system. 

Capitalists are continually driven to cut their costs. At one time, the northeast of the United States was an industrial center of the world. From the 1940s to the early 1970s there was significant industrial growth in this country. Unions organized and forced employers to give up a part of their enormous profits. The civil rights and Black power movements also organized and Black people began to make significant gains.

Then, for various reasons, employers and banks decided to move factories to nations where wages might be $10 per day or less. Most replacement jobs in the United States had effectively lower wages and fewer benefits than the manufacturing jobs that left the country. 

We also see how employers routinely keep their expenses down by using discrimination. The average wages of Black people, Latinos, immigrants, Native Americans, and women are less than the average wages of white men. Protests against this discrimination have erupted throughout the history of this country. 

The long history of these protests is clear evidence of how the working class has a sense that we are the ones who create all wealth. This class consciousness did not exist in the feudal epoch. With this consciousness comes the will to demand a greater share of the profits. Ultimately workers begin to understand that since the working class produces all wealth, we need to have a government that makes a priority of human needs over profits.     

So, when we hear arguments that the United States is the greatest democracy the world has known, or that here there is liberty and justice for all, the reality tells another story. We might start this story with an order given by General George Washington in the year 1779.

The Sullivan Campaign

During the revolution of the thirteen colonies against British colonialism, most Native American nations supported the British. While the British didn’t have a very good record in support of Native American rights, most of the indigenous nations felt that they weren’t as horrendous as the revolutionaries. In other words, one of the reasons behind the revolution was to determine which people of European decent would control the land Native Americans lived on for thousands of years.

So, General George Washington gave the following orders to General John Sullivan in the war against the Iroquois.

“The immediate objects are the total destruction and devastation of their settlements, and the capture of as many prisoners of every age and sex as possible. It will be essential to ruin their crops now in the ground and prevent their planting more.”

So here Washington made his objectives clear. He wasn’t just about a military defeat of the Iroquois. Washington wanted a total destruction of their homeland. One method used to achieve this goal was to destroy Iroquois’ homes with fire.

The hot wars against Native Americans would continue for over 100 years and culminate in the massacre at Wounded Knee in South Dakota. 

Bretton Woods, New Hampshire

The First and Second World Wars cost the lives of about 80 million human beings. Today we can ask a question few people are interested in. Why didn’t the world use the enormous resources for those wars to eliminate poverty in the world? 

This wasn’t because politicians are stupid or insensitive. No, the answer has to do with Lenin’s statement that “Imperialism is the highest stage of capitalism.” The two world wars were about deciding what nation would replace Britain as the world’s superpower.

So, even before the Second World War was over, the United States invited representatives of 44 nations to a meeting in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. There the United States made it clear that the power brokers in this country would head up the new superpower of the world.

Then, the United States gave the world an example of what might happen to nations that went against the demands of the new superpower. 

Flames Over Tokyo

In 1991 E. Bartlett Kerr wrote his book Flames Over Tokyo—The U.S. Army Air Forces’ Incendiary Campaign Against Japan 1944-1945. This book goes into the details of how the United States Air Force organized to burn large parts of 67 Japanese cities to the ground. Kerr showed how those 67 Japanese cities had similar populations as the 67 largest cities in the United States. The U.S. Air Force used phosphorous firebombs in this destruction. That six-month campaign took place before the Air Force dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

The Air Force murdered hundreds of thousands of Japanese by fire, smoke inhalation, or incineration by atomic bombs. Most of those deaths were of civilians. The commander of the Air Force bombing of Japan was Curtis LeMay. 

 The war against Korea

General LeMay was also the commander of the Air Force in the war against Korea. This is what he had to say about firebombing Korea. “We burned down every town in North and South Korea.”

The U.S. domination of the world declared at Bretton Woods didn’t last very long. In 1949 the Chinese people organized a revolution. This revolution protested over 100 years of humiliation by imperialist powers since the Opium Wars in the 1840s.

The United States government wanted to keep soldiers in Asia to battle against the Chinese revolutionary government. However, the soldiers in the military organized a Bring the troops home movement. They saw no reason to go to war against the Chinese. So, the U.S. government needed to bow to that demand.

Then, the U.S. government’s puppet Syngman Rhee became so unpopular in Korea that workers and farmers in the north and south organized to remove him from power.

Rhee had little support. The armed forces of the North had considerable experience in the war of independence against the Japanese. They clearly didn’t want Korea to be ruled by the U.S. puppet regime of Syngman Rhee. So, they invaded the south and met little resistance. 

The forces supporting Rhee only managed to hold on to a small part of the South of the nation known as Pusan. Then the United States organized a massive invasion of the country at Inchon. 

The revolutionary forces of China fought with the Koreans in their independence struggle against Japan. China joined in the war against the U.S. invasion and together with the armed forces in the Korea fought the United States to a stalemate. 

Vietnam

Curtis LeMay continued to be an Air Force General during the war against Vietnam. His remarks on that war followed his actions in the wars against Japan and Korea. This is what he had to say.

“My solution to the problem would be to tell the North Vietnamese Communists frankly that they got to drawn in their horns and stop their aggression or we’re going to bomb them back into the stone age.”

Le May was well aware of the fact that Vietnam is located on the other side of the Pacific Ocean from the United States. While they posed no threat to this country, the U.S. government demanded their absolute obedience. He also was aware of President Eisenhower’s statement that Ho Chi Minh would have won an election in Vietnam by a margin of 90%. Yet LeMay also felt comfortable arguing that the Vietnamese communists were engaged in “aggression.” 

Le May wasn’t just talking about a massive bombing campaign. The U.S. Air Force used five million tons of bombs in Vietnam. This was twice the tonnage of bombs as they used in the Second World War. Of that amount, there were 400,000 tons of napalm and 19 million gallons of herbicide. The Air force dropped hundreds of thousands more bombs on Laos and Cambodia. 

President Johnson named his bombing campaign against Vietnam Rolling Thunder. President Nixon didn’t feel Johnson’s bombing campaign was sufficient, so he ordered the Air Force to carry out new bombings called Linebacker I and Linebacker II. 

However, the Vietnamese people resisted this unimaginable aggression. Aided with an international anti-war movement, the Vietnamese forced the U.S. armed forces to leave their country. 

The current genocide

On September 11, 2001, individual terrorists took control over passenger jet planes and crashed those planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. As a result, over 3,000 people lost their lives.

On that same day, the news media neglected to mention other events that had just as dire consequences. The United Nations estimates that every day, on average, 30,000 children die of preventable diseases. We might speculate that every day there might be 60,000 parents who mourn the deaths of all those children. These thousands of preventable deaths of children continue every day.

The United States government dealt with these events by going to war against Iraq and Afghanistan. They also continued their massive funding of the Israeli government that now is carrying out a genocide of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. 

Looking at this long history, I believe that Lenin understood what he was talking about when he argued that “Imperialism is the highest stage of capitalism.” The history of mass murder ordered or supported by the United States government wasn’t about stupidity, insensitivity, or denial of reality. No, those acts of genocide reflect the essence of who the power brokers in this country are.

The other side to this history has been the tenacious struggles aimed at resisting the horrors organized by the government and the capitalist forces they serve. When we look at the massive demonstrations now erupting in the streets demanding “Ceasefire Now,” we see how these struggles are continuing.

The current horror we see today in Gaza is also a reflection of how the international capitalist system is falling apart. As this crisis continues to unfold, workers living in the world will become more and more open to the idea of advancing a government that has completely different priorities. A government that makes human needs the priority over profits will ultimately be the only answer to the enormous problems we face today.

Crisis in Zionism—Opportunity for Palestine?

 

A talk by Ilan Pappé 

Reviewed by Steve Halpern

Last evening, I listened to a talk by Israeli historian Ilan Pappé on Youtube. This lecture was given on October 19, 2023 at the University of California at Berkley. Although Pappé was born and raised in Israel, his political views in solidarity with Palestinian liberation have made it difficult for him to live in the land of his birth. Currently is a history professor at the University of Exeter. 

Pappé started his talk with a description of recent large Israeli demonstrations protesting Benjamin Natanyahu’s effort to take powers away from the Israeli judicial authorities. He emphasized that in the Israeli discussions about those demonstrations, the word Palestinians was never mentioned. 

Then Pappé spoke about the party in Southern Israel that was attacked by supporters of Hamas who lived in the Gaza Strip. He said that the theme of that party was peace and love. Two miles away from that party was the Gaza Strip where Palestinians have been brutalized for decades. 

Pappé also talked about the status of the two million Palestinians who are citizens of Israel. They have been routinely attacked by street gangs and many fear going out of their homes. 

Then, there are the Palestinians who live in the Israeli occupied West Bank. Much of the land in the West Bank has been confiscated by Israeli settlers. Now about ten percent of the population of Israel lives in the West Bank. Those settlers have been murdering Palestinians and those murders have been assisted by the Israeli armed forces. 

Pappé argues that the attack by supporters of Hamas, and the current Israeli genocide against Palestinians need to be placed in context. This context is the Palestinian struggle for liberation that has been going on since 1929, well before the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. This context is the struggle against colonialism, slavery, and the rights of indigenous people all over the world.

Pappé also pointed to the significance of the fact that the apartheid state of South Africa and the Zionist state of Israel both came about in the year 1948. This was at a time when the United Nations became an entity. The United Nations argued that all the people of the world were entitled to certain rights. However, the Black people of South Africa and the Palestinians were routinely denied those rights. 

Given this history, Pappé concluded that the struggle against colonialism in the world has been messy and fraught with atrocities. Clearly the Palestinian struggle for liberation has also been fraught with atrocities.

Today there are about six-million Palestinians who live in Israel and the Occupied Territories. Out of that number about one-million have served time in Israeli prisons over the years. The one issue that has united all Palestinians is the demand that Israel release all Palestinian prisoners. 

So, Pappé views the source of the problems of the Middle East as the political philosophy of Zionism. He argues that Zionism has always been a racist political movement. In order to begin to move away from the current unimaginable horror, the world needs to confront the fact that Zionism has always been a racist movement.

Pappé's vision of a rational future for the Middle East comes from his examination of the reality of Palestine before the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. In those years, Jews, Moslems, and Christians lived together in relative peace. At that time, Palestine had no problem with its Arabic neighbors. Pappé's vision of a rational future for the Middle East is a return to the reality of those years. 

For me, this is a powerful message by Ilan Pappé. For me, this message has resonance with people all over the world who are protesting against the continued Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people.

I believe there is one limitation to Pappé's argument. The existence of the state of Israel has always been an outgrowth of imperialism. Imperialism didn't come about because of a mistake in judgement or insensitivity. No, imperialism is the necessary outgrowth of the capitalist system. 

Today, there are about 3,000 billionaires in the world, while about 30,000 children die every day of preventable diseases. This gross, and in my opinion criminal disparity of wealth, isn't with us because of a mistake in judgement. No this disparity of wealth reflects the very essence of what the capitalist system is. 

However, if Ilan Pappé were to make this argument, many people wouldn't be listening to what he had to say. So I highly recommend listening to Pappé in his own words and draw you own conclusions.      

  

Palestinians Are Human Beings and not Animals

By Steve Halpern

This past week the world learned of a raid organized by Palestinians living in the Israeli Occupied Territory, known as the Gaza Strip. The political organization Hamas took responsibility for that raid. Those Palestinians who allied themselves with Hamas broke through the wall separating the Gaza Strip from Israel. They then murdered hundreds of civilians and kidnapped over one-hundred hostages.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallat responded to that raid arguing that Israel is fighting "human animals." Gallat backed up his words by organizing the bombing of the 2.3 million people who live in the Gaza Strip. He also cut off the two roads that supply those 2.3 million people with supplies. 

Today the Israeli government is denying the residents of Gaza food, water, and electricity. We might consider that the German Nazis who were led by Adolf Hitler murdered six million Jews. However, before those Jews were murdered, the Nazis gave them small amounts of food and water.    

In the United States there are laws against cruelty to animals. Consciously denying food and water to animals is a crime in this country. So, Mr. Gallat believes that the Palestinian people do not deserve the same treatment as animals.

Gallat's father, Michael, fought the Nazis as a partisan in Belarus. In my opinion, Micheal Gallat's efforts in those years were heroic. The film Defiance is a nice portrayal of the Jewish guerilla struggle against the Nazis at that time.

Then, Michael Gallat came to Palestine in 1948 and joined in the Israeli armed forces that drove about 700,000 Palestinians from their homeland. In my opinion, while Michael Gallat's struggle against the Nazis was heroic, his effort to rob Palestinians of their homeland was criminal. Michael Gallat named his son Yoav after an Israeli military operation carried out against Egypt in 1948.    

While Yoav Gallat labels Palestinians as "animals" he is the Defense Minister of a government that has been occupying the Gaza Strip and the West Bank for decades. The residents of those occupied territories do not have the right to vote in Israeli elections. Yet the entire Israeli government claims that Israel is a "democracy."

People all over the world are asking a basic question. How and why did the Israeli and Palestinian people come to this catastrophic place in history? In this blog, I will ask a different question. How and why did people who live all over the world come to this catastrophic place in history?

In looking at this question, I will explore events that the international press has ignored when reporting on these events.

The Declaration of Independence—July 4, 1776

The Declaration of Independence was written by the former President Thomas Jefferson, who was also a slave owner. This Declaration was a list of grievances people in the thirteen colonies had against the British. Those grievances provoked the colonists into armed revolution.

One of those grievances was the idea that the British had given support to "merciless Indian Savages." 

So, Jefferson viewed Native Americans as "Savages." He also supported the laws that made African Americans chattel slaves. Yet in his Declaration he also argued that,

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

Then Jefferson wrote the words that I believe continue to be relevant today.

"Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and provide new Guards for their future security."

The 100 years war against Native Americans

Clearly the so-called "founding fathers" of this country didn't really believe that all men had "certain unalienable rights." The facts are that the wars against the First Nations of this country took place from the time of the so-called American Revolution to the massacre at Wounded Knee in South Dakota, over a span of more than 100 years.

During the war of 1812, the Shawnee people sided with the British against the United States government. Their leader was Tecumseh. 

Tecumseh was repulsed by Native Americans who abused prisoners and said he would not fight with anyone who mistreated prisoners.

The Shawnee held prisoners from the United States during the war of 1812. Those prisoners testified that they were treated well when they were detained by the Shawnee. Those prisoners clearly disagreed with Thomas Jefferson when he argued that Native Americans were "merciless Indian Savages."

38 Nooses

Scott W. Berg wrote a book titled 38 Nooses. This book documents the story behind President Abraham Lincoln's order to execute 38 people from the Dakota nation.

The Dakota people had been self-sufficient for generations. However, when farmers began moving into Southern Minnesota, Dakota leaders signed a treaty with the government. They would no longer be able to hunt, fish, and farm for the food they needed. The government would provide allotments of food that would allow them to survive. However, in the 1860s that wasn't happening. 

So, the Dakota met with Andrew Myrick, the agent who was charged with supplying the Dakota with allotments of food. Myrick had been selling that food so he could enrich himself. When the Dakota met with Myrick he had access to ample amounts of food.

Little Crow was the leader of the Dakota and he informed Myrick that his people were starving and he would like some of the food that his people had been promised. 

Myrick answered that Little Crow and the Dakota could "Eat grass."

The Dakota didn't immediately respond to those words. They had a meeting and discussed their options. They clearly could have starved to death. Or they could go to war and get the food that they were supposed to have because of a treaty with the United States government. They chose to go to war. In fact, when a nation violates a treaty, this is an act of war.

The farmers in Minnesota resisted when the Dakota mobilized to confiscate food. In all, the Dakota murdered about 400 people in southern Minnesota. After the United States Army defeated and captured the Dakota, the prisoners were put on trial. According to the Constitution people are supposed to have a trial when they are accused of a crime. However, the Constitution doesn't say that those trials need to be conducted in a language that defendants can understand. 

The trials of the Dakota were held in English, a language most of the Dakota didn't understand. Those trials were fast-tracked and took about ten minutes. Initially the military ordered executions of 303 Dakota. However, Lincoln reduced that number and ordered the execution of 38. Lincoln felt the need to order those executions because he wanted votes from Minnesota in the upcoming elections.

During the Civil War, General Ulysses S. Grant needed to find a way to feed the troops under his command. Grant confiscated food from farmers who supported his enemy the Confederacy. If those farmers resisted those confiscations, they were executed. 

Military historians viewed that policy by General Grant as brilliant. Grant would be elected to be President of the United States. For carrying out a similar policy, the Dakota received 38 nooses.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott

In the year 1954 Rosa Parks refused to sit in the back of a municipal bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Police officers arrested Parks for violating the Jim Crow laws of those years. Then for 385 days the Black people of Montgomery refused to ride on the busses in that city. As a result of those actions, the government reversed the law and Black people won the right to sit anywhere they wanted on those buses. 

We might consider that the people who supported the Montgomery Bus Boycott engaged in a nonviolent action. We might also consider that the Black people who lived in Montgomery in those years had advantages that the people who live in the Gaza Strip today do not have.

While there was tremendous repression, a viable leadership emerged that worked to organize the boycott. While Back people in those years didn't have basic rights, they had access to jobs, food, housing, and water. People living in the Gaza Strip today do not have access to those things.

America on Fire

I was born and raised in Newark, New Jersey. In 1967 I was fourteen-years-old. That was the year a rebellion erupted in the city. Black people were experiencing systematic racist discrimination. There was routine police brutality. When the police brutalized a taxi driver by the name of John Smith the city erupted in protest. 

The governor ordered the National Guard to occupy Newark. The Guard proceeded to murder about 24 tax paying residents. Three of those murdered were children. 

Elizabeth Hinton wrote an important book titled America On Fire. At the end of her book, Hinton has a seventy page list of rebellions that took place over a twenty year period by the Black community protesting racist police brutality. The 1967 rebellion in Newark was one of the rebellions on that 70 page list.

The author James Baldwin explained why those rebellions erupted. This explanation echoed the idea Ralph Ellison wrote about in his novel The Invisible Man. 

Baldwin argued that when a young Black person steals a television from a store she or he doesn't really want that television. What these people are saying is that they are not invisible and that they do indeed exist.

Again, we need to compare the experience of people who participated in those rebellions to the experience of people who live in the Gaza Strip today. While those people lived in an institutionalized racist country, they had access to jobs, food, water, and the right to vote. People who live in the Gaza Strip do not have these things.

September 11, 2001

On September 11, 2001, hijackers took control of commercial jets and flew those jets into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Those actions caused the deaths of over 3,000 people. Thousands more suffered life-changing injuries. 

Unlike the bombings of Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, the world witnessed the utter horror of those actions. People from around the world mourned the deaths of those who had been murdered. Many people became understandably enraged by those actions. The United States government used those murders as a pretext to go to war against the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. 

When a reporter asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld why the United States was using cluster bombs in those wars, he gave the following response.

The U.S. used cluster bombs "because they kill people."

516 people murdered in Philadelphia in 2022

In the year 2022, 516 people lost their lives because of murders in Philadelphia. I've seen masked teenagers fire indiscriminately in videos displayed by the news media in the city. 

We might also think about the fact that many young people today have feelings of hopelessness. While there are available jobs, those jobs oftentimes do not pay enough for people to afford astronomical rents, tuition fees, or to raise families. 

So, under those conditions many resort to drugs and or crime. Today, Philadelphia is a center for a billion dollar illegal drug business. Many young people who do not see a viable future and resort to selling drugs. With the competition for selling those drugs, there is violence. 

Today the United States has more prisoners than any nation in the world. Because people are desperate to stay out of prison, there is more violence.

Yet, the United States is a wealthy country and there are resources to completely eliminate poverty. However, because we live in a capitalist system, the priority is corporate profits and not the needs of the 340 million people who pay taxes in this country.

The recent events in Israel and the Gaza Strip

Recently there were mass demonstration in Israel protesting Benjamin Netanyahu's effort to strip the judicial authorities in the country of their power. In effect, Netanyahu would like to be King of Israel where his personal authority would be the law of the land.

Then there was the raid by Palestinians that the news media labels as supporters of the political organization Hamas. Many of the leaders of Hamas do not live in the Gaza Strip. Israel doesn't want those leaders in Gaza and those leaders undoubtedly prefer to live outside Gaza, as place that has been labeled as an "outdoor prison."

However, 2.3 million people do live in the Gaza Strip. 50% do not have jobs. 50% do not have a sufficient amount of food. 90% of the population doesn't have access to clean water. Although the Gaza Strip is an Occupied Territory of the state of Israel, the people of Gaza do not have a right to vote in Israeli elections. Because of the repressive measures used by Hamas, it is extremely difficult for the people of Gaza to organize an independent political movement that challenges Israeli repression.

In a series of wars, the Israeli Air Force has bombed the people of Gaza causing thousands of deaths. The children of Gaza might be the most traumatized in the world. Most, no doubt, have friends or family members who were murdered, injured, or spent time in Israeli prisons. 

So, in Gaza there is a considerable amount of rage. Clearly most people living in that area do not engage in terrorist actions. However, many people do engage in terrorist suicide missions. 

The Palestinian raid into Israel has effectively eliminated most opposition to the Netanyahu dictatorship. In the past, President Joe Biden expressed criticism of the Israeli moves to compromise their judiciary. Now Biden says that he has Israel's back. He's supported that statement by sending warships to Israeli waters. In effect President Joe Biden, as well as governments in many countries have given their full endorsement to the unfolding genocide against the Palestinian people.   

Clearly I'm opposed to the murders and kidnapping of Israeli civilians. However, the war that Israel is carrying out today will certainly lead to unimaginable horror. That war will escalate and the ultimate outcome will be both horrific and unpredictable. 

Israel can end this war tomorrow    

My opinion is that the Israeli government has the power to end this war tomorrow. How can this happen?

Today there are over 200,000 Palestinians who live in the United States. Those Palestinians have the right to own homes in any part of this country. They have the right to travel to any part of this country. They have the right to vote in national elections. They can get jobs where they can have enough money to purchase food and housing. They have access to clean water.

Palestinians who live in the Gaza Strip do not have the right to any of these things. My opinion is that we need to demand that the Israeli government immediately give every Palestinian who lives in the world the right to all these things. But first we need to demand an end to this criminal war.

We should keep in mind that according to Israeli law, Jewish people who live in any nation in the world have a right to Israeli citizenship. That right needs to be extended to every Palestinian who lives in the world.

Many people will view these demands as outrageous. My answer to those people is to ask the question. What kind of world do you want to live in?

My parents lived at a time when the Nazis murdered six million Jews. Those Jews didn't have the weapons to defend themselves against that holocaust. 

Today, the Palestinian people are facing a similar holocaust initiated by someone who would like to view himself as King Benjamin Netanyahu. 

The Nazis thought they had the power to murder six million Jews and get away with it. Then the Second World War erupted and sixty-seven million people died.

Today Israel is one of many nations that has access to atomic bombs. These are things we need to think about. We need to do whatever is necessary to stop this genocidal war against the Palestinian people.  

Serving Herself—The Life and Times of Althea Gibson

 

By Ashley Brown

Oxford University Press, 2023

A review of the book and a short history of Black women's championship tennis

By Steve Halpern

The wonderful victory of nineteen-year-old Coco Gauff at the United States Open Tennis Tournament has caused many people to review the impressive accomplishments of Black women in championship tennis. Lists that I've seen include the names Venus and Serena Williams, Sloan Stevens, Naomi Osaka, and Coco Gauff. 

Looking at this list, I noticed that the name Althea Gibson was missing. Gibson was the first Black woman to win major championships in tennis during the 1950s. This sparked my curiosity. Eventually I found Ashley Brown's book Serving Herself—The Life and Times of Althea Gibson. For many reasons I'm glad I made that discovery. So, in order to see why I think this book is important, first we need to look at the life of Althea Gibson.

Althea Gibson

Althea Gibson was born in Silver, South Carolina. Her father Daniel initially was a share cropper, but was unable to make a living at this. So, when Althea was three-years-old the family moved to the Harlem section of New York City. 

Daniel Gibson was, in a way, fortunate that he got a job as an auto mechanic during the years of the depression. For a time, Althea's family lived on public assistance. However, while many other families experienced hunger in the city, Althea reported that her family usually had food. In those years, the seven people in her family shared five rooms.

In her early years Gibson considered herself "the wildest tomboy you ever saw." She didn't like school and stayed away as often as she could. Her father attempted to discipline her with beatings. Daniel Gibson understood that his daughter could not get away with many of the things white children get away with and the only method of discipline he might have known was to use force.

Daniel Gibson also understood that his daughter would need to have the ability to defend herself on the streets of Harlem. So, on the roof of the tenement where they lived, he gave her boxing lessons that became very rough. 

Those lessons proved to be useful when a member of a gang called the Sabres tried to rob her uncle Charlie who she called Junie. Althea called out the robber. Then, when the Sabre member threw a sharpened screwdriver at Althea, it was on. She said, "We fought all over the block," with "his fists and his elbows and his knees and even his teeth. Althea said, "The Sabre didn't even think of me as a girl, I can assure you." 

Roger Wilkins grew up in Harlem in those years and became the Assistant Attorney General under the Lyndon Johnson Administration. He said the Sabres were the "baddest mf–ers in the [Harlem Valley]." The fight between Althea Gibson and the Sabre was remembered in Harlem for many years, and this battle gave her street credibility.

Running the streets of Harlem, young Althea became obsessed with playing any game where a ball was involved. She didn't just want to play sports, but became obsessed with winning.

Another glimpse of the character of Althea Gibson was with her meeting with Sugar Ray Robinson, who many consider to be the greatest welterweight boxing champion of all time. Gibson met Robinson in a bowling alley where she demonstrated how she didn't fear anybody. This is what she had to say. "So you're Sugar Ray Robinson?" "Well I can beat you in bowling right now." 

Althea would become friends with Robinson and his wife the singer, dancer, and model Edna Mae Robinson. She also established relations with Nat King Cole who gave her a camera for her visits abroad. The heavyweight champion Joe Lewis paid for a lavish hotel room for her in Detroit, and paid for one of her trips to Europe. Jackie Robinson who broke the color line in baseball was also a friend. 

Turning points  

In the year 1905 Black people were experiencing some of the most vicious crimes imaginable. Today in Montgomery, Alabama there is a museum that documents 4,400 lynchings that took place in this country. Many of those lynchings took place around the year 1905.

Then, in that same year a meeting was held in Niagara Falls, New York. W.E.B. DuBois wrote the document that became the anthem of that movement. This is what he had to say.

"Against this the Niagara Movement eternally protests. We will not be satisfied to take one jot or tittle less than our full manhood rights. We claim for ourselves every single right that belongs to a freeborn American, political and social; and until we get these rights we will never cease to protest and assail the ears of America." 

Dr. Hubert A. Eaton and Dr. Robert Walter Johnson were Black doctors who lived in states where Jim Crow segregation was the law. Although they were both relatively prosperous, they were not allowed to use the same bathrooms or restaurants as people who were white. They were also competent students of the game of tennis.

One day the doctors watched as Althea Gibson competed in a losing effort. They both saw how Gibson had the real potential to become a champion. So, they made the difficult decision to take in Althea, organize for her education, and prepare her for a career in tennis. Perhaps the sentiment expressed by W.E.B. DuBois might have influenced their decision. 

Althea understood that this would be the kind of opportunity that she was living for. Her parents agreed. However, there would be a few problems. She would not be living on the streets of Harlem, but in states where Jim Crow was the law. Violating the norms of that system could cost her life. Under those conditions, she would need to become a competent student. She would need to stop wearing bluejeans and start wearing clothes acceptable to an upper middle-class Black family. 

As we might imagine, it wasn't easy for Althea to make all these adjustments. She did her best, but she was also a human being. 

One day she borrowed the car that belonged to Dr. Eaton. She wanted to make out with a boy. She didn't have a driver's license. 

While Althea didn't get caught, Dr. Eaton found out about what she did. He became enraged. Had Althea been stopped by a police officer, that officer would have, no doubt, been a white racist. That would have reflected on his family. Because of this and another incident, Celeste Eaton, the Doctor's wife wanted Althea out of her home.

With tears in her eyes, Althea begged Celeste Eaton to not send her back to Harlem. Celeste Eaton saw those tears, and perhaps thought about the sentiment expressed by W.E.B. DuBois. She agreed to allow Althea remain in her home, continue her education and her tennis training. 

In my opinion. these seemingly impossible events would become turning points, not only for Althea Gibson, not only in the history of women's tennis, but turning points in the history of sports in the world. 

Althea's tennis career develops

Because Althea hadn't done well in school, she was older than her classmates in high school and in the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College she attended. Aside from playing tennis, she was the top basketball player on the women's team at FAMC. 

Just as there were the Negro Leagues and the Major leagues for white players in baseball, there was a similar setup in tennis. Black players competed in the American Tennis Association (ATA) and white players competed in the United States Tennis Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA). 

Initially Althea Gibson gained sponsorship to play in tournaments in the ATA. Then because of pressure from various people, as well as her ability, Gibson began competing against players in the USLTA. 

In the year 1955 racists tortured and murdered Emmett Till in Money, Mississippi. In a make-believe trial, Till's murderers were found to be not guilty. 

During these years, the United States was becoming the superpower of the world. Before the end of the Second World War, the United States government organized a meeting in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire where representatives of 44 nations attended. 

At this meeting, United States representatives informed the nations of the world that this country would be the new super power. The implication was clear. Those nations who resisted the will of the power brokers in this country would face consequences. 

After this meeting, the United States government showed the world what those consequences would be. The U. S. Air Force firebombed and destroyed large parts of 67 Japanese cities in a six month campaign. Then, the Air Force destroyed the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic bombs. 

Then, in 1950, the United States invaded Korea and murdered millions of Korean and Chinese people. However, the Chinese and Korean soldiers forced the United States out of the northern part of that country. So, while the United States was the new superpower, there was significant resistance.

Under those conditions, politicians in this country became adamant promoters of the idea that the United States was the greatest democracy the world has ever known. This in spite of the fact that Black people were denied basic citizenship rights. This was in spite of the fact that Emmett Till's murderers were set free.

Under those conditions the State Department of the United States had a meeting with Althea Gibson. They asked her to go on an international goodwill tour of the world with other prominent tennis players. Clearly the State Department wanted Gibson, a Black woman, to be on that tour to pretend that there was racial tolerance in this country. Yet, at this time Gibson was legally barred from using the same bathrooms as white people. 

The State Department didn't ask Gibson to refrain from making statements protesting Jim Crow segregation on her tour. They knew that making those kinds of statements would be tantamount to ending her career in tennis. Paul Robeson and W.E.B. DuBois were both critical of Jim Crow.  The government took away their passports and this prohibited them from traveling abroad. Gibson knew all about this. 

By going on this tour, Gibson was able to play with some of the best men and women players in the world. In the past Gibson spent much of her time playing in the ATA where the players did not have the skills of the USLTA players. So this tour allowed Gibson to develop the skills that would make her a world champion.

There are four major tournaments in championship tennis. These are the French Open, the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open. Althea Gibson won Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open twice. She won the French Open once. 

Upon winning Wimbledon the Queen of England shook her hand. Then she returned to a ticker-tape parade in New York City that celebrated her victory. Yet at that time in New York City, there were restaurants that refused to serve anyone who was Black.

The photo below was taken by the New York Times photographer Carl T. Gosset Jr. It is a photo of Althea Gibson surrounded by children in Harlem after she returned from her 1957 Wimbledon victory. Given the expression on her face, I think it is fair to say that Gibson was ecstatic to be surrounded by those children. Perhaps she was feeling that after all her trials and tribulations, she had come home. This is my favorite photo of her.

British imperialism

We might consider that at the same time as the Queen of England was congratulating Althea Gibson for her victory, the British armed forces were carrying out unimaginable acts of horror all over the world. Caroline Elkins documented this history in her Pulitzer Prize winning book Legacy of Violence—A history of the British Empire. 

In Kenya, the British armed forces herded thousands of the Kikuyu people into concentration camps where they were tortured and murdered. Some of those survivors sued the British government for being subjected to that unimaginably horrendous treatment.

The British government representative did not deny that those horrors occurred and the court ordered the British government to pay out millions of dollars in compensation.

Why did championship tennis change?

When Althea Gibson competed in tennis, the major tournaments were amateur events. Coco Gauff just won three million dollars in the U.S. Open. Althea Gibson never won any money for her championship wins. Even Jackie Robinson, who broke the color line in baseball, received a salary for playing the game. So, a question to be asked is, Why did such a profound transformation take place with respect to championship tennis?

There are two trends in the capitalist system that trump all laws or even basic common sense. First, the capitalist economy absolutely needs to continually expand. Every year corporations spend about $200 billion in advertising in a continual effort to sell all the commodities they possibly can. 

Where does the money for this expansion come from? Corporations are also continually driven to cut their production costs in order to finance expansion. This explains why corporations eliminated millions of manufacturing jobs in this country and moved those jobs to nations where wages might be two dollars per day. 

In order to maintain this system, a buffer class emerges between the billionaires and the vast majority of the population. So, while 34 million people in this country own about $1.2 million or more in assets, another 34 million people don't have enough food to eat. This gross disparity of wealth isn't about mistakes in judgement or insensitivity. No, that gross inequality is the very essence of the capitalist system. This also explains why racist and sexist discrimination have always been routine to the capitalist economy.

So, in the days when Althea Gibson wasn't making any money in tennis, the power brokers were developing their plans to greatly expand the coverage and advertising of the game. In 1969 championship tennis became a professional game that eventually became a multi-billion-dollar enterprise. 

After tennis, Althea Gibson would attempt to make a living at singing, acting, playing golf, and working in the government. She was the first Black golfer to join the ranks of the LPGA. 

However, at the end of her life she ran out of money and resorted to writing bad checks. She was on the verge of suicide when her supporters made charitable donations that sustained her for the rest of her life. We might put this in the context of many championship athletes who ran out of money towards the end of their lives. These horror stories are also normal to the capitalist system.

Ashley Brown ended her book with a quotation by Althea Gibson where she congratulated Venus Williams for her championship wins. This is part of what Althea had to say. "I gladly pass the torch to you and Serena. I know that you two will carry it well because you and your sister have been prepared for this day by your parents."

Serving Herself?

For me, Ashley Brown's biography of Althea Gibson is a necessary read to gain a complete understanding of the history of sports in the world. However, I don't like the title of this book—Serving Herself.

Certainly Ashley Brown presented a considerable amount of evidence that supports the reason for this title. Althea Gibson made many statements arguing that she didn't consider herself as a "crusader" like Jackie Robinson to break the color line in tennis. She argued that she was about advancing her career.

There were also reporters in the Black press who resented this attitude of Gibson. In 1954 there was a 385 day Montgomery Bus Boycott that forced the government to reverse the laws that had restricted Black people to sit in the back of municipal busses. To the best of my knowledge, Gibson didn't give verbal support to that movement. If she had, she might have not had a career in tennis. So, let us look at this issue with a bit of perspective.

In my opinion, Mohammed Ali was the greatest athlete that I know of. He wasn't just a champion heavyweight boxer. He was an articulate speaker and poet. He had a magnetic personality. He sacrificed his career to protest the war against the people of Vietnam. 

We can also say that Ali, like virtually all genuine leaders, made some serious mistakes. He became openly critical of his friend and mentor Malcolm X. He made dehumanizing remarks about his opponent Joe Frazier. In the course of his life, Ali made attempts to amend those mistakes. So I don't judge Ali by his mistakes, but by the totality of his life. I also believe that the consciousness of Mohammed Ali was influenced by the civil rights movement, as well as his friendship with Malcolm X.

I say all that to say, that I don't judge Mohammed Ali because of all the things he said, but by what he did in his life. I don't judge Jackie Robinson by all the statements that he made, but by his actions of breaking the color line in baseball.

As Althea Gibson said, she passed "the torch." In the next section of this blog I will give a summary of the enormous torch Althea Gibson passed to women athletes of color all over the world. 

     

Evonne Goolagong Cawley

Evonne Goolagong was the former number one women's tennis player in the world. She won all the major tournaments except for the French Open. She is also an Aborigine from Australia.

Recently I viewed a documentary titled Australia's Dark Secret: The Inhumane Treatment of Indigenous Peoples. This documentary begins with a tour of a vacation resort in Australia overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The weekly cost of an apartment in this resort is $33,000. The commentator looks at the view from this apartment and says "this must be paradise."

From paradise, the commentator drives hundreds of miles to the center of Australia to a place ironically called Utopia. This is where Aborigines live in shacks lacking electricity and running water. There is a spigot outside the shack that gives the family access to running water. 

Next to this shack is where a government representative lives. That building has eighteen air-conditioners. The person who lives in the shack says he would like one of those air-conditioners and he pays taxes. 

In an interview I listened to with Evonne Goolagong Cawley, she mentioned that when she was living with her family in the Australian countryside, her mother warned her to hide whenever a car drove by. In those days, Aborigine children were being kidnapped by white people who might see them walking near the road.

Goolagong's father was an expert at shoring sheep or taking the wool off of the animal. He was also, like Althea Gibson's father, a car mechanic. Because of his skills Goolagong's family lived in a more affluent area of the Australian countryside.

Someone gave Evonne Goolagong a board with a ball. This fascinated the young Evonne and she spent hours hitting that ball against a round water tank. 

Then she became fascinated looking at a game of tennis being played in the area. A player noticed her interest and invited young Evonne to play. This was another turning point in the history of sports.

In 1965 Vic Edwards, a prominent Australian tennis coach saw Goolagong play. Immediately he saw her potential, as Doctors Eaton and Johnson saw the potential in Althea Gibson. 

Like Gibson, Goolagong moved away from her family to live in a home with Edwards. Edwards became her guardian and took control of her money. While Edwards aided in giving Goolagong the skills that made her a champion, she also accused him of sexual harassment. Eventually she broke all relations with Edwards.

When she was under Edwards influence, Goolagong made a statement that she wasn't Aborigine. She also competed in a tournament in South Africa in the apartheid era. At that time, Arthur Ash was not allowed to compete in the tournament because he was Black. 

Since those years, Goolagong was able to become a millionaire. She now identifies with her Aboriginal heritage and runs a camp for aboriginal children. 

The family of Venus Williams, Serena Williams, Richard Williams, and Oracine Price

Richard Williams is the father of Venus and Serena Williams who dominated women's tennis for about seventeen years. Richard Williams was raised in a shack in Shreveport, Louisiana by his mother Julia who barely made a living by picking cotton. 

As a child, Richard Williams wasn't thinking about tennis. He was busy running from racist mobs. Three of his close friends were lynched by racist mobs. 

Eventually Richard Williams left Shreveport and settled in Los Angeles, California. He managed to make a bit of money running a security service and married Oracine Price. 

One day he saw a tennis match on television where, after four days, the winner of the women's tournament won $40,000. Then, Richard Williams wrote a 78 page proposal where he outlined how he was going to have two daughters who would become tennis champions. Here was another turning point in the history of sports.

Unlike both Althea Gibson and Evonne Goolagong, Richard Williams and Oracine Price were able to train their daughters. I believe this is significant. The fathers of Naomi Osaka and Coco Gauff were also able to train their daughters.

 

Li Na

Li Na was a tennis champion player who won the Australian and French Opens. She was born and raised in China. Her father was a badminton competitive player. When thinking about the significance of Li Na's accomplishments, we might look at a bit of Chinese history.

In the late 19th century literally tens of millions of Chinese starved to death. Up until the year 1910 many Chinese women had their feet bound and broken in the foot binding practice that was routine in those years. 

Then came the Chinese Revolution of 1949. We might consider that while revolutions create profound change, that change doesn't always have positive effects. The revolution in that created the United States is a good example of this. 

After the so-called American Revolution the new government carried out unimaginable genocidal practices with respect to African slaves and Native Americans. Yet the capitalist system developed that industrialized this country. I don't believe that industrialization would have happened if we continued to live under British rule. 

In China, the most populous nation in the world, was ruled by Mao Zedong after the revolution. Mao made serious mistakes with his Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution. Had Li Na lived in the years when Mao had power, a career in tennis would have been unthinkable. 

However, when Deng Xiaoping became the new leader of the country, profound changes took place. Deng adopted to capitalist methods at a time when capitalist power brokers were looking to invest in nations where wages were only a few dollars per day. 

While the Chinese government continues to be repressive, the development of that country has been almost unbelievable. These changes allowed for China to become a powerhouse in international sports and Li Na has benefitted from that change.

We might also consider that the nation of India has a population that is about equivalent to the population of China. Yet there are very few Indian athletes who have managed to compete on a championship level. So, while China continues to have an extremely repressive government, the Chinese Revolution created enormous changes.

Naomi Osaka

Naomi Osaka's father, Leonard Francois, was born in Haiti. He managed to get an educational opportunity in Japan and met Naomi's mother Tamika Osaka there. After getting married, Tamika's parents disowned her because she married a Black man. The family then moved to Osaka Japan and later to Florida where they lived with Haitian relatives.

Naomi Osaka won four major championships, and for a time was listed as the best women's tennis player in the world. She was sponsored by a Japanese sporting association. She has become one of the most prominent sports figures in Japan. She also has identified with the Black Lives Matters movement.

    

Ons Jabeur

Ons Jabeur was born and raised in Monastir, Tunisia. She is the highest ranking women's tennis player in Africa as well as in the Arabic speaking world. At one time she was rated number two in women's tennis. While she hasn't won a major tournament, she played in the finals of both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.

Coco Gauff

Coco Gauff is the current women's champion of the United States Open. For me, a good way to look at Gauff's connection to the life of Althea Gibson is to look at the following timeline.

1955—Twenty-seven year old Althea Gibson graduated from the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College (FAMC.)

1957—Althea Gibson wins Wimbledon, the most prestigious tennis tournament in the world.

1961—Coco Gauff's grandmother, Yvonne Lee Odom, who was fifteen years old at that time became the first Black student to attend an all white high school in Florida. Odom was a competent basketball player, but she wasn't allowed to be a member of the all white team at Seacrest High School.

2012—Serena Williams wins the U.S. Open tennis tournament. This is the link to the Youtube video of eight-year old Coco Gauff celebrating Serena's victory.   

2023—Nineteen-year old Coco Gauff wins the U.S. Open.

2023—Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is running for President of the United States. This is what Governor DeSantis has to say about the enslavement of millions of African Americans in this country. "slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit." DeSantis also wants to de-emphasize the racist discrimination in the history corses of the educational system. That history has been a routine part of the history of this country. 

My opinion is that there are millions of people in this country who will find these statements by DeSantis, the Presidential candidate disgusting.    

Final words by Althea Gibson

After reading 391 pages of Ashley Brown's biography of Althea Gibson, I came across a passage where Gibson unleashed with the same kind of fury that she brought to her battle with the Sabres' gang member on the streets of Harlem. This was in a series of talks she gave defending the role of women in sports. For me, Gibson's ideas are just as relevant today as they were decades ago.

Gibson asked her audience to "acknowledge the indigenous obligation which has always belonged to women. This is simply being women—perpetuating the idea of femininity." 

"The arguments most often used to justify discrimination against women in sports—that athletics are bad for their health and femininity, that women are not skilled enough or interested in playing games—have on the surface a nice paternalistic, even altruistic quality," That was the myth and Gibson let loose with the reality. "Recent studies show such assumptions are incorrect and self-serving nonsense."

"Anything beyond token sexual equality in athletics represents a formidable threat to male pride and power." Male defensiveness about female athletic prowess is not restricted to head to head confrontations. She acknowledged that "a hundred or so male tennis players could defeat Billie Jean King." However, "hundreds of thousands ...would be fortunate to win a set from King."

"For obvious reasons, it is often the unathletic spectator orientated man who has the most derogatory things to say about outstanding sportswomen." 

"The competitive spirit of sports breeds a desire for success and encourages desipline. If women are exposed to sports they will become more confident and develop a sense of identity."

"there never has been a really successful society in which women were suppressed."

"It is women's right to control her body, be it wanting an abortion, or wanting to strengthen it through sports."

"our male-dominated society prefers women [to be] physically and psychologically dependent." "Better athletic programs will develop more aggressive women with confidence and a strong sense of identity."

Well, if you have reached this part of my too long review of Ashley Brown's wonderful biography of Althea Gibson, you're probably thinking that this was way too long. I wrote this very long review to underscore my argument that Althea Gibson, although she denied it, was a crusader. She opened the door and passed the torch for women of color in athletics. This is a better world because of her efforts.