Today in Labor History March 12, 1967: Suharto took power from Sukarno in Indonesia. He ruled Indonesia as an authoritarian, kleptocratic dictator for 31 years, and is widely considered one of the most brutal and corrupt dictators of the 20th century. During that time, he amassed a fortune worth $38 billion. Suharto rose to power under Sukarno during the 1965-1966 genocide. During that ostensibly anti-Communist purge, Suharto’s troops murdered 1-3 million communists, labor activists, peasants and ethnic minorities. During that genocide, he received support military and economic from both the U.S. and the U.K. In 1974, the Suharto regime, with approval of U.S. president Gerald Ford, invaded East Timor, killing over 200,000 Timorese. Another 75,000-200,000 died from starvation and disease. The current Indonesian government is considering awarding him the posthumous honor of National Hero.
📖 The book "Timor-Leste’s Long Road to Independence", edited by Zélia Pereira and Rui Graça Feijó, includes a chapter authored by Pedro Aires Oliveira where the historian discusses the reasons that allowed for the retention of Portuguese sovereignty in Timor until 1974. 🇹🇱
Mass murderer and War Criminal Henry Kissinger is finally dead!
He won the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Lê Đức Thọ, for their work in orchestrating a ceasefire in the Vietnam War. Two Nobel Prize committee members resigned in protest. During his diplomatic career, Kissinger was involved in orchestrating and/or supporting the Chilean coup and Pinochet dictatorship (over 3,000 killed); the Argentine Dictatorship (up to 30,000 killed); the Pakistani genocide in Bangladesh (3 million killed); and the Genocide in East Timor (up to 300,000 killed).
In the United States, one of the twentieth century’s most prolific butchers died as he lived — beloved by the rich and powerful, regardless of their partisan affiliation.
#EastTimor#documentary - first of several I'll be sharing for #educational purposes. Showing how #geopolitics & evil money interests always trumps what is right. Australia started the Western corrupt shit & Jimmy Carter's administration helped fuel more bloodthirst. There's no American leader who has zero innocent foreign blood on their hands. NONE. https://youtu.be/j_s46-5R4OE?si=QSqLGVx-aTkJxgUz
Today in Labor History October 16, 1973: Mass murderer and War Criminal Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Lê Đức Thọ, for their work in orchestrating a ceasefire in the Vietnam War. Two Nobel Prize committee members resigned in protest. During his diplomatic career, Kissinger was involved in orchestrating and/or supporting the Chilean coup and Pinochet dictatorship (over 3,000 killed); the Argentine Dirty War (up to 30,000 killed); the Pakistani genocide in Bangladesh (3 million killed); and the Genocide in East Timor (up to 300,000 killed).
Today in Labor History October 8, 1965: The Indonesian military, led by future dictator Suharto, began torturing and massacring thousands of "suspected" Communists, leading ultimately to the overthrow of leftist President Sukarno. Other targets of the murders were members of the Gerwani women’s movement, trade unionists, ethnic Javanese Abangan, ethnic Chinese, atheists, teachers, students, and alleged leftists in general. The U.S. embassy provided the death squads with the names of suspected “communists.” Intelligence agencies from the U.S., U.K., and Australia provided anti-communist propaganda, as well as military and logistical aid. Overall, the genocide (1965-1966) led to 500,000 to 1.2 million civilian deaths and 1.5 million imprisoned. A top-secret CIA report from 1968 called the massacres "one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century, along with the Soviet purges of the 1930s, the Nazi mass murders, and the Maoist bloodbath of the early 1950s." Nevertheless, Western media either downplayed the events, or celebrated them. Suharto remained in power until 1998, continuing to imprison, torture and slaughter workers and civilians. He also presided over the East Timor Genocide of up to 300,000 people in the 1970’s.
This week on my podcast, I read my recent @medium column, "How To Think About #Scraping: In #privacy and #labor fights, copyright is a clumsy tool at best," which proposes ways to retain the benefits of scraping without the privacy and labor harms that sometimes accompany it:
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
Henry Kissinger, War Criminal Beloved by America’s Ruling Class, Finally Dies (www.rollingstone.com)
Henry Kissinger has died at age 100, his consulting firm said in a statement on Wednesday.