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Articles by Ashur Smithen
The Crown’s largest crime: the British Raj (India)
Trigger warning: descriptions of sexual violence and assault In writing this article, the author in no way means to convey the impression that Indians were merely passive victims. On the contrary, they actively resisted at virtually every stage of their oppression. Indeed when independence was gained it was due to their actions as opposed to their ruler’s benevolence as is commonly stated.
The Empire’s largest parasitic host: India
Trigger warning: mention of sexual violence and assault In writing this article, the author in no way means to convey the impression that Indians were merely passive victims. On the contrary, they actively resisted at virtually every stage of their oppression. Indeed when independence was gained it was due to their actions as opposed to their ruler’s benevolence as is commonly stated.
Cuban medical internationalism (despite US blockade)
In 1965, Cuba had one physician for every 1,200 people, a dire condition made worse by the exodus of middle-class professionals out of Cuba in the wake of the revolution. 40 years later in 2005, however, Cuba boasted one physician for every 167 people — a number unparalleled anywhere else in the world. In 2015, it became the first country in the world to eliminate the mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis.
Cuba, colonialism and the USA (revolution & Operation Peter Pan)
Cuba is a nation in the global South that has been brutalized just like any other. This former Spanish colony only abolished slavery in 1886 compared to Haiti (1804), Jamaica (1835), and the United States (1865). It is currently subject to the longest-lasting trade embargo in modern history, at the hands of the world’s one true global superpower. Despite this, Cuba has not just survived, but flourished in the face of all Western imperialism could throw at it.
Democracy is hypocrisy: democratic development outside the Whitestream narrative
It seems to me that there are very few terms in the modern language that are as powerful and dangerous as democracy. We are told that certain societies and cultures are democratic, while others aren’t. The implication is that those who have democracy are good, and those who lack it are bad.
Democracy is hypocrisy: what the West has done to undermine democracy
On 12 April 1964 at the King Solomon’s Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan, Malcolm X delivered what is considered by many to be the definitive version of his legendary Ballot or the Bullet speech. At one point he stated, “You and I have never seen democracy, all we’ve seen is hypocrisy” (X, 1964). This remains just as true today as it did 60 years ago when it was delivered. Throughout human history, empires have always needed to justify their conquests.
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