The author circulated this message to his friends and on social media. The Chanzo is publishing the message here with special permission. Minor editing has been done to enhance readability.
Dear Friends and Comrades,
Very soon, we will be saying goodbye to 2024 and welcoming 2025 with all the fanfare we repeat every year. Millions of ready-made Happy New Year cards will be downloaded and shared worldwide through multiple social media platforms.
This year, we might even see AI-generated New Year messages crafted to our tastes. But my New Year message does not have a template, and it cannot be generated by AI because AI cannot read my mind—not yet.
Friends, I dare not greet you with “Happy New Year.” How can you even imagine happiness amid the murder and mayhem we witness every day on our screens?
Yes, families matter; yes, children and grandchildren matter—yes, it is only human to celebrate such events as the New Year with family and friends.
But human family matters more, yes. Millions of children and grandchildren of humanity matter most, yes. And the human family is not happy. It is in turmoil.
What with Gaza and Sudan and Ukraine, not to mention other bloody spots like Eastern DRC and Northern Mozambique, and not to mention the suffering of billions living in poverty and millions homeless, not to mention the unrelenting pillage of nature and the world’s lands and rivers and forests by voracious multinationals!
My New Year greeting comes to you amidst the most cruel and brutal inhumanity that we have been witnessing over the last year. A genocide is happening in front of our eyes as thousands of Gazan children are slaughtered, starved, orphaned, maimed, brutalised and traumatised without relent.
Meanwhile, the so-called international community, a euphemism for Western imperialist powers, continues supplying arms to the brutal Benjamin Netanyahu regime under the utterly vacuous and disgraceful excuse of “self-defence.” It’s just shameless, bestial even!
But we cannot lose hope. We cannot stop screaming and shouting against such bestiality, for we are humans. We cannot stop expressing solidarity for the victims of injustices, wars and genocide because injustices, wars, and genocide somewhere are injustices, wars and genocide everywhere.
For as the Zapatistas say, our word of solidarity, our shouting and screaming, our protests, our demonstrations and occupation of embassies of warmongers is a word of encouragement to the victims of oppressors and genociders and an act of shaming the brutes.
So, let us continue naming and shaming the brutes in 2025 and beyond.
Warmly and in solidarity,
Issa G. Shivji.
The author is a renowned Tanzanian intellectual and a staunch defender of the international working class. He’s also Professor Emeritus at the University of Dar es Salaam. He’s available on X as @IssaShivji. The opinions expressed here are the writer’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of The Chanzo. If you are interested in publishing in this space, please contact our editors at editor@thechanzo.com.
