Individualist Spiritualist Anarchist Barbie

11/11- Fin

2006-11-11T00:15:00.001-08:00

Why not? Yeah. -Timothy Leary

Peace being sown among olive tree

2006-11-10T00:00:00.000-08:00

Jewish volunteers help Palestinians harvest crops

by John Murphy, Sun Foreign Reporter
KAFR QALIL, West Bank

The day is hot and dusty on this West Bank hillside, but 53-year-old Fuad Amer moves with the energy of a man half his age, stripping the fruit from his olive trees in giant handfuls, plucking others from the high branches with a surgeon's care.

His enthusiasm is understandable. This is the first time in four years that Amer has been able to harvest his olives.

Last year, he says, Jewish settlers set fire to his olive grove and destroyed his harvest. Before that, gun-toting settlers forced his family from the grove when they started picking. Israeli authorities, trying to avoid further confrontations, ordered him to stay away, Amer says, and the settlers helped themselves to his olives.

But this season, an Israeli high court decision granting Palestinian farmers protection from settler violence means that Amer will be able to harvest the olives from his 60 trees.

Hundreds of Israeli soldiers and police are patrolling stony hillside groves near Jewish settlements in the West Bank, vowing to keep the peace. Palestinians, usually fearful of Israeli authorities, are welcoming their presence.

"We are happy that the army is here. We feel like we're being protected," said Amer, who has been harvesting his olives within shouting distance of the hilltop settlement of Bracha. So far, he says, there have been no problems.

Since the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising in 2000, conflict, destruction and fear have hurt the annual harvest. Jewish settlers from hilltop communities in the West Bank have attacked and harassed pickers and cut down olive trees. Several Palestinian farmers have been killed by settlers.

The Israeli army and police have done little to stop the violence, critics say. Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights organization, reported that 90 percent of cases of settler violence against Palestinians go unsolved. While police closed most cases, citing lack of evidence, in many instances officers failed to conduct an investigation or lost the case files, the study said.

In 2004, after Jewish settlers prevented many Palestinians from picking their olives, several Palestinian villages and two Israeli rights groups - the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and Rabbis for Human Rights - filed a court petition to enable farmers to harvest their crop.

In June, Israel's high court ruled unanimously that the army must grant Palestinian farmers access to their olive groves at all times and protect them from settlers.

"Our policy is to allow Palestinians to get every last olive from every last tree, even if that tree is in the middle of a settlement," said Capt. Adam Avidan, a spokesman for the Israeli military's civil administration in the West Bank.

Still, this year has not been without problems. In recent weeks settlers set fire to two olive groves, Palestinian farmers say, and Israeli police arrested 10 settler youths - carrying knives, saws and brass knuckles - suspected of attacking and beating Palestinians harvesting olives, according to an article in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Some Palestinian farmers have turned to Israeli groups such as Rabbis for Human Rights for help. The group organizes Jewish volunteers who harvest the olives and serve as intermediaries between Jewish settlers and Palestinian farmers.

In Jit, a Palestinian village in the West Bank, a half-dozen volunteers picked olives alongside a Palestinian farmer just down the hill from the Jewish settlement of Kedumim. When an armed guard from Kedumim arrived and ordered everyone to leave, the volunteers stepped in, refusing to budge. They said the farmer had permission from Israeli authorities to harvest.

The settlement guard fumed.

"I decide where you can go," he said, vowing to return with the Israeli army to remove them.

But the Israeli army confirmed that the farmer and the volunteers were allowed to harvest.

Zakaria Sada, a Palestinian villager from Jit who works with Rabbis for Human Rights, recalls when families would gather in the fields near the settlement to picnic and pick olives. It was a time to relax, he said. But no longer.

"Now you are afraid when you pick the olives. You always have to look behind you to see where the settlers are," he said.

Settlers say it is necessary to keep Palestinian farmers far from their communities for security reasons. Palestinians say that the settlers' true goal is to push them off their land. Keeping the peace between the parties is a complicated task.

In Kfar Qalil's olive groves, it appeared as if a military operation was under way. Police patrolled the road leading to the hilltop settlements. Israeli soldiers arrived to keep an eye on farmers. Volunteers picked olives and gave regular updates by mobile phone to their organizations about any disturbances.

On a recent afternoon though, all was quiet.

Ahmed Kenna, 17, stood at the top of a ladder tugging at branches heavy with olives. It was his first time back in his family's fields in four years. Last year, his family was chased and his grandmother beaten, he said.

Working beside him was Joshua Corber, 24, a yeshiva student and volunteer for Rabbis for Human Rights.

"I think it's very important to show Arabs that there are Jews who sympathize with their cause," Corber said, as he tugged olives from the branches. "It's an important step for coexistence."

For Rabbi Arik Ascherman, executive director of Rabbis for Human Rights, scenes of Jews and Arabs working together are the beginning - not only of a more peaceful harvest, but perhaps a greater understanding between two peoples.

"I call it the dialogue of the olive groves," Ascherman said. "There are fancy, high-paid junkets that go abroad to bring Palestinians and Israelis together in dialogue. They're important, but it's a much deeper dialogue when average Israelis and average Palestinians spend a day together, shoulder to shoulder, harvesting the olives."

War Crimes Suit Prepared against Rumsfeld

2006-11-09T21:21:00.000-08:00

The president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, Michael Ratner, is heading to Germany today to file a new case charging outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld with war crimes for authorizing torture at Guantanamo Bay. [includes rush transcript] Would Rumsfeld stepping down leave him open to prosecution? In 2004, the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a criminal complaint in Germany on behalf of several Iraqi citizens who alleged that a group of U.S. officials committed war crimes in Iraq. Rumsfeld was among the officials named in the complaint. The Iraqis claimed they were victims of electric shock, severe beatings, sleep and food deprivation and sexual abuse.

Germany's laws on torture and war crimes permits the prosecution of suspected war criminals wherever they may be found. Now, the president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, Michael Ratner, is returning to Germany to file a new complaint. Michael Ratner joins us in our firehouse studio.

* Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

AMY GOODMAN: Michael Ratner joins us in our studio here in New York. Former CIA analyst Mel Goodman and journalist Bob Parry are still in Washington. Michael, why are you headed to Germany in the next few days?

MICHAEL RATNER: Thank you for having me on this issue, Amy. One of the shocking things really so far about the coverage of Rumsfeld’s resignation, there's not a word in any of it about torture. And here, Rumsfeld is one of the architects of the torture program of the United States. I mean, we have those sheets of paper that went to Guantanamo that talk about using dogs and stripping people and hooding people. We have one of our clients, al-Qahtani, who was in Guantanamo. Rumsfeld essentially supervised that entire interrogation, one of the worst interrogations that happened at Guantanamo. He actually authorized a rendition, a fake rendition of al-Qahtani, where flew him -- put a -- blindfolded him, sedated him, put him on an airplane and flew him back to Guantanamo, so he thought he would be in some torture country. So here you have Rumsfeld, one of the architects, not a word about it.

AMY GOODMAN: How do you know that he personally supervised it?

MICHAEL RATNER: There’s actually documents out there, that there’s part of the log that comes out. The log was published of his interrogation. And then there’s a report called the “Schmidt Report,” which was an internal investigation, in which there are statements in there about Rumsfeld being directly involved in the interrogation of al-Qahtani. So this guy has committed -- without any question, this guy has committed war crimes, violations of the Geneva Conventions.

Now, what do we do now? Well, we went to Germany before. Germany dismissed the earlier case on Rumsfeld, partly for political reasons, obviously. Rumsfeld said, “I’m not going back to Germany as long as this case is pending in Germany.” He had to go to the Munich Security Conference. They dismissed the case two days before. What they said when they dismissed it, what they said was, we think the United States is still looking into going up the chain of command, essentially, and looking into what the conduct of our officials are.

In fact, now, two years later, look where we are. One, he has resigned, so any kind of immunity he might have as a vice president [sic] from prosecution is out the window. Secondly, of course, as, you know, a little gift package to these guys, you know, our congress with the President has now given immunity to US officials for war crimes. They basically said you can’t be prosecuted for war crimes. That’s in the Military Commission Act. Now, that immunity, like the immunities in Argentina and Chile during the Dirty Wars, does not apply overseas.

So, now you have Germany sitting there with -- there’s no longer an argument the US can possibly prosecute him, because within the US, he’s out. So you have Germany sitting there with a former Secretary of Defense and basically in an immunity situation in the United States. So the chances in Germany have been raised tremendously, I think, and the stakes for Rumsfeld, not only in Germany, but anywhere that guy travels, he is going to be like the Henry Kissinger of the next period.

JUAN GONZALEZ: But then, what would you have to do? You would have to re-file the case before -- is it before an international court in Germany or in German courts?

MICHAEL RATNER: We’re actually going on Tuesday. We’re re-filing it in German courts under their law, which is universal jurisdiction, which basically says a torturer is essentially an enemy of all humankind and can be brought to justice wherever they’re found. So we are going to Germany to try and get them to begin an investigation of Rumsfeld for really a left-out part of this picture, which is the United States has essentially been on the page of torture now for five years.

AMY GOODMAN: Mel Goodman, as you listen to this, have you ever seen this, an American official concerned about going abroad -- you mentioned, Michael, Henry Kissinger -- but because they could be prosecuted? And how possible do you think this is, as a former State Department and CIA analyst?

MELVIN GOODMAN: Well, I think the record is quite clear. War crimes have been committed. Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld combined to sponsor the memos by John Yoo and Jay Bybee and others to sanction torture. CIA officials have committed war crimes. DOD officials have committed war crimes. If you look at the three decisions of the Supreme Court -- Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, Rasul v. Bush -- clearly laws have been broken, serious laws have been broken. And now the Congress is trying to rewrite the laws to launder these charges against these people.

But the ultimate question is, will any international body take on these charges, take on these cases, and really operate against high-level American officials? And I guess I have my doubts that this will be done. But I think what Michael Ratner is doing is important to at least establish the record of this pattern of torture and abuse, secret prisons, renditions and extraordinary renditions. I think it’s unconscionable what America has done in the name of the so-called war against terrorism over the last several years. And, of course, the war against terrorism is now the mantra of this administration, and Bob Gates incorporated it a few times in his very brief remarks yesterday, upon receiving this nomination. So this is a very important issue. I’m not optimistic that a court will take it on, but I think it’s very important to get the record out there for all to see what has been done in the name of the United States. This has been unconscionable behavior.

AMY GOODMAN: Michael Ratner, the White House recently proposed changing the War Crimes Act of 1996, that would narrow the scope of punishable offenses. The new list would exclude humiliating or degrading treatment of prisoners. Military law experts believe the Bush administration is effectively rewriting parts of the Geneva Convention, but this is US law. Why do they even have to bother, if they’re granting immunity to officials in the new War Commissions Act of 2006?

MICHAEL RATNER: I’m not sure I understood. They clearly did. They already -- the Military Commission Act --

AMY GOODMAN: They already did it, but they’re also trying to change the 1996 War Crimes Act.

MICHAEL RATNER: They did do that.

AMY GOODMAN: By the new Commissions Act.

MICHAEL RATNER: The new Commissions Act actually modifies -- we have a statute that makes violations of the Geneva Conventions war crimes. Because for five years they had been violating that statute in the belief that Geneva Conventions didn’t apply to the war on terror, and as Mel said, now that the Supreme Court says the Geneva Conventions do apply, these guys are sitting there and they’re not sleeping well. They’re not sleeping well, going back, because they’ve been torturing people or violating Geneva for five years. And going foward, as the President said in that September 6 press conference, we want to continue using CIA sites and doing this to people. So they have been forced to modify the War Crimes Act. That doesn’t affect what happens in Germany, other than the fact that it now says to the Germans, “Look at, you guys, first they violated Geneva, and now they're immunizing themselves.”

JUAN GONZALEZ: I’d like to ask Mel Goodman, given this situation, one of the things that is clear is that the military, many of even the highest-ranking military officers were in virtual rebellion against Secretary Rumsfeld, and it’s no accident that the major newspapers, the Military Times and Navy Times, just a few days before the election called for his resignation. Now, you have Bob Gates coming in and, as you say, he will try to clamp down on dissidents within the military. But given the situation in Iraq right now and this whole issue of the military being drawn more and more into war crimes through torture, do you expect that there’s going to be success in the civilian leadership led by Gates regaining control over dissent within the military?

MELVIN GOODMAN: Well, I don’t think Gates will have a big role in this. I think the important role has been played by the military lawyers. I think the real heroes in this has been the Judge Advocates Corps, the military officers who serve as lawyers in the military, who have gotten essentially reinstatement of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and a military that is obedient to the Geneva Conventions. So there’s been great progress by the Pentagon here.

I think what Gates will perform for the Pentagon is just representing the relief that all of these officers feel, that they no longer have to face the arrogance and the ignorance of Donald Rumsfeld on a day-by-day basis. So I think Gates will be in there to smooth things down at the Pentagon, in the same way that George Herbert Walker Bush came to the CIA in the 1970s at a very controversial and tendentious point in the CIA’s history, just to calm everything down for awhile, to stop the leaks, to stop the accusations, and essentially to be more loyal to the Bush administration.

AMY GOODMAN: Let me ask a quick question to Michael Ratner, as we wrap up. We have a new congress, Democrat congress, Democrat senate. Is there any discussion of accountability? Conyers talked about it before, when he was in the minority. Nancy Pelosi just announced impeachment is off the table. What do you want the Democrats to do?

MICHAEL RATNER: Well, the first thing I would want the Democrats to do, the absolute first thing, is restore the writ of habeas corpus to non-citizens both here in the United States and around the world. I would have them -- 48 of them voted to have it restored -- or not restored, but not taken out before. I would like to see them make an effort to do that. What are the chances of this? I think they're very low. I would love to see Conyers open a full investigation into the Iraq war. I would love to see the Intelligence Committee open a full investigation into torture.

AMY GOODMAN: We’ll have to leave it there. Michael Ratner, Melvin Goodman, Robert Parry, I want to thank you all very much for being with us.

PALIMPSEST: THE BEAUTY AND TRUTH LAB PLAGIARIZES HAKIM BEY

2006-11-09T10:42:00.000-08:00

I laughed appreciatively when I first learned that ancient Hawaiian poets used to gather together to compose poems by committee. Someone would suggest a line, and the others would either nix it or refine it. Can you imagine a similar miracle occurring among the raging artistic egos of Western culture? Even for us share-and-share-alike Libertarian Socialists here at the Beauty and Truth Lab, it can sometimes be hard to drop our attachment to being inviolably special.

As a favor to pronoia, however -- as proof of our devotion to the joy of undoing our fixations -- we decided to enlist one of our crazy heroes, Hakim Bey, to commit a collaboration with us. Of course he was too busy to satisfy our request, so we decided simply to take matters into our own hands. We lifted one of his published works, stripped it down, and used it as the skeleton for our own musings. The essay below amounts to an odd kind of plagiarism, then. Very few of our words are repeats of his, but his thought process is the underpinning. Think of it as a palimpsest.

PRONOIAC SORCERY
by Rob Brezsny and the Beauty and Truth Lab under the influence and
inspiration of Hakim Bey

THE UNIVERSE WANTS TO PLAY. Pity the educated cynics who refuse to
enjoy the fun, choosing instead to remain faithful to their numb logical
anguish.

THE UNIVERSE WANTS TO PLAY. Mourn for the humorless devotees who
refuse to join in the raucous unpredictable game so that they might feed
their spiritual greed, pretzeled up motionless on prayer mats with the
torment of grave meditations.

THE UNIVERSE WANTS TO PLAY. Have compassion for the imagination- dead heroes who cling so tightly to the masks they've forged for
themselves that they're dead to the delight of molting.

PRONOIAC SORCERY is the daily cultivation of playfully altered states of
awareness for the purpose of accomplishing practical miracles.

PRONOIAC SORCERY begins with your hunger for ingenious beauty and
ever-fresh truth. It thrives and ripens as you discover that everything you
behold is bursting with conscious intelligence.

PRONOIAC SORCERY is not about reading auras or divining past lives. It's
not the corrupt shamanism of teachers who soar adeptly through astral
realms but treat the people in their daily lives like crap. Goddess forbid
that PRONOIAC SORCERY might be confused with the dry lust for
supernatural power and a godlike ego offered through the occult magic of
Crowley's Golden Dawn. If it's elitist hocus-pocus you want, go for the
real thing -- political power, the accumulation of financial wealth, or
becoming one of the media mind-controllers.

Your perceptions gradually open under the quiet, steady, friendly shock of
PRONOIAC SORCERY. As they do, they kill off your false will and banish
your artificial self.

Real PRONOIAC SORCERY breaks holes in the consensual hallucination
called "reality," allowing you to escape to your lost home. It
metamorphoses the place where you actually live, right here and now --
wild, messy heaven brought kicking and screaming with delight into this
eternally virgin planet Earth. Here amazement is normal; sudden mutations
-- actual transformations of things you've never before been able to
change -- are possible.

As a pronoiac sorcerer, you prove the taboo truth that all of reality is
inherently designed to bring about our liberation. Best of all, you do it not
only for yourself. The enhanced perceptions you enjoy, the altered states
you craft, are not just for your own use in the silence of your selfish
needs. As a pronoiac sorcerer, you yearn to awaken the gift in other
people, to expand the intoxication through benevolent contagion.

PRONOIAC SORCERY: Let it spread. May it multiply. Unleash it and unmask
it -- not just in exotic once-in-a-blue-moon dreams, but in the throb of the
simple dramas you live from day to day.

Everything in the universe is alive with playful intelligence and wants to
improvise with us.

Hakim Bey's original version of "The Universe Wants to Play" can be found
here: http://tinyurl.com/y485hd

Amy Goodman's first Sydicated News Column

2006-11-09T10:24:00.000-08:00

Sunday, November 5, 2006
Beyond the nine-second sound bite
By AMY GOODMAN, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST

My goal as a journalist is to break the sound barrier. To cut through the static and bring forth voices that are not usually heard. I am not talking about a fringe minority, or the Silent Majority, but a silenced majority, increasingly restless, of people who are looking for alternative sources of information in a complex world.

With this column, I join you in the important ritual of reading the paper, of examining the news, to discern for yourself the state of the world and your place in it. I invite you to join me in going to where the silence is, as we seek out the news and newsmakers who are ignored. This column will include voices so often excluded, people whose views the media mostly ignore, issues they distort and even ridicule.

If we take television as but one example, you would hardly think there are legitimate dissenting viewpoints in this world. What is typically presented to us as news analysis is, for the most part, a small circle of pundits who know so little about so much, attempting to explain the world to us. While they may appear to differ, they are quibbling over how quickly the bombs should be dropped, not asking whether they should be dropped at all.

Unfortunately, as a result, people are increasingly turning away from the news, when news media should be providing a forum for discussion -- a forum that is honest, open, that weighs all the options and includes voices so often excluded, yet deeply affected by U.S. policy around the globe.

It is the job of the media to be the exception to the rulers, to hold those in power accountable for their decisions, to challenge and to ask the hard questions -- in short, to be the public watchdog. We in the media need to find stories of hope. We need to tell those stories that resonate with people, to tell stories of the people who live far from the rarified concerns of that passel of pundits crowding and crowing on the small screen. We need to hear local discussions cast in a global frame.

In this new media environment, what daily local and regional papers can consistently offer their readerships are the authentic voices of people in their communities dealing with a globalized world. We don't have to wait for the alternative media; we are building it right now.

Newspapers have always held a central role for my indie media colleagues in our daily newsgathering. In this column, I hope to go beyond the nine-second sound bite to bring you the whole meal, grass-roots voices in this community as well as in communities around the world.

This column will be a forum for stories from the streets, not the suites. It will engage you on the most important issues of the day, but it will engage you, I hope, with a relevance to everyday life. It will bring out the voices like those in your community, from all over the world, of people who now live in an increasingly globalized community. These unprecedented changes are affecting everyone, everywhere, in related ways. This is the tenor and direction I hope to bring to this column.

I see the media as a huge kitchen table that stretches across this country, one where we all sit around to debate and discuss the most critical issues of the day: war and peace, life and death. Anything less than that is a disservice to a democratic society.

Amy Goodman hosts the radio news program Democracy Now! Distributed by King Features Syndicate.

FYI: Transcript: NOMINATION OF ROBERT M. GATES, OF VIRGINIA, TO BE DIRECTOR, CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE (Senate - November 05, 1991)

2006-11-08T16:56:00.000-08:00

...

Mr. LEAHY. I understand. We entered into a unanimous-consent agreement that I would have been able to speak.

To get back at the subject at hand.

This was a difficult decision. It came after extensive meetings with Mr. Gates, Senator Boren, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee whom I respect greatly and other members of the Intelligence Committee, including some of those who voted against Mr. Gates in the Committee--for whom I have great respect--discussions by my staff with committee staff on the hearings, and a careful review of the lengthy committee report.

The decision was a close call. Mr. Gates who I expect will be confirmed easily, carries a heavy load on his shoulders. There remain concerns about his passivity during the Iran-Contra fiasco, and widespread charges about his willingness to tell those above him what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear. Fairly or not, he bears the legacy of the Casey years, when deceit, misinformation, illegal operations and, to put it charitably, misleading of the oversight committees and Congress were the norm.

Most troubling of all, there is a deeply disturbing pattern of allegations from past and present analysts in the CIA that Mr. Gates, from time to time, committed the cardinal sin against objective intelligence analysis--that he slanted key intelligence judgments to suit the policy proclivities of William Casey and the Reagan White House.

Based on my detailed discussions with Mr. Gates, with Senator Boren, current and former leaders of the intelligence community, and my reading of the record, I cannot find any smoking gun on any of these allegations. None of the evidence unambiguously points to mistakes or activities by Mr. Gates that clearly disqualify him for the post of Director of Central Intelligence.

In reaching this decision to vote for Robert Gates, I gave great weight to several arguments in his favor.

First, there is my own long association with Mr. Gates, first in my capacity as vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee, and since in my capacity as chairman of the Foreign Operations Subcommittee and member of the Defense Subcommittee especially in dealing with appropriations for intelligence matters. In all these positions, when I have had to deal with Mr. Gates, at times on quite sensitive intelligence or foreign policy matters, I have found him to be forthcoming, cooperative, and candid. Of the many senior intelligence or White House policy officials with whom I have dealt during the Reagan and Bush administrations, Mr. Gates has struck me as one of the few who actually understands and acts on the validity of and need for congressional oversight. I have had briefings from him straight through this year and I found him to be candid in those briefings.

Whether this cooperation reflects genuine conviction that oversight is a vital protection against abuse, or merely a realistic acceptance of the power and authority of Congress is irrelevant. The fact is that in all my dealings with him, so far as I can tell, Mr. Gates has never held back sharing sensitive and highly classified intelligence and other information from me. Leaders of the Intelligence Committee tell my they have had the same experience.

Then, there are Mr. Gates' personal qualifications. He is extraordinarily experienced in intelligence, with over 25 years in the field. The intelligence community, including the CIA, is going to pass through one of the most turbulent periods in its history over the next 3 or 4 years. Profound adjustments to the ending of the cold war will be necessary. The intelligence budget, which has grown for a decade, is now going to shrink and perhaps substantially. Three will be reductions in personnel and resources. There will be major redefinitions of missions and roles. U.S. intelligence will look a lot different 3 or 4 years from now.

A strong, experienced hand is needed to guide U.S. intelligence through this period of restructuring and readjustment. Mr. Gates is highly qualified to provide the leadership the intelligence community needs.

Third, to be blunt, Mr. President, Mr. Gates, with all his flaws and with all the clouds hanging over him, is surely far more qualified for this important position than anyone the White House is likely to put forward if he is not confirmed. One of the most troubling failures of the Bush White House is the recent pattern of mediocre, politically motivated appointments to key positions. I dread to think what kind of `no record, no opinions, no ideas' cipher the White House handlers would find if Mr. Gates is rejected.

It would probably be someone picked more for his or her lack of any controversial views or experience than a person the President believes is best suited to head U.S. intelligence in what is certain to be a very rough period.

Mr. President, I will vote for Mr. Gates. But in doing so, I want to send him a message. The following words are directed to him.

Mr. Gates, insofar as I can do so as one Senator, I will strongly react to any credible information that indicates you or your aides are politicizing intelligence analysis to suit your personal views or the ideological or policy desires of the White House. I will do so through my work on the intelligence budget in the Defense Subcommittee, through discussions with the Intelligence Committee leadership, and, if necessary, by going to the Senate leadership.

Furthermore, if it ever comes to my attention that any of the current or former CIA analysts who came forward to offer information or views about your record or your suitability to be Director of Central Intelligence are being punished, harassed or otherwise penalized, I will go immediately to the Intelligence Committee to ask for decisive action against you. I welcome the strong statement the present chairman of the committee has made in this regard, and having served with Senator Boren on that committee, I know, when Senator Boren makes a statement of that nature, he will carry it out.

And, finally, if it ever comes out that despite your statements to the contrary, you knew of or were involved in the abuses of the Casey era, including the diversion of money to the Contras from the Iran arms for hostages deals, I will urge your removal from office. Knowing me as you do, you would not expect anything else.

Mr. President, let me say in the positive area, Mr. Gates will have a superb opportunity to overcome the doubts and reservations of many during the coming years. I hope I have occasion in the future to commend him for his leadership. On balance, I expect that to be the case.

There is a difficult time ahead for the intelligence community in this country. It is not amateur hour, nor should it be. At the same time, if this country ever needed an intelligence community that could give straightforward, honest, objective analysis devoid of trying to twist it for policy considerations, that time is now. And so, with an act of faith that we will get that from the new Director, I will vote for Robert Gates.

Chomsky discovers roots of terrorism

2006-11-08T16:50:00.000-08:00

“The problem lies in the unwillingness to recognize that your own terrorism is terrorism”
-Noam Chomsky

As the U.S. crucial congressional elections draw near, the debate over the U.S. President’s decision to invade Iraq and his so-called “war on terror” gets heated.

The American academic Noam Chomsky who has been the foremost critic of America's imperial adventures for more than three decades here tackles the roots of terrorism and the role of the U.S. and the British governments in fighting or spreading it.

Excalibur (Ex): How important is an understanding of the role of states such as the U.S. and the UK when examining the question of terrorism?

Chomsky (Ch): It depends on whether we want to be honest and truthful or whether we want to just serve state power ( . . . ) We should look at all forms of terrorism.

I have been writing on terrorism for 25 years, ever since the Reagan administration came in 1981 and declared that the leading focus of its foreign policy was going to be a war on terror. A war against state directed terrorism which they called the plague of the modern world because of their barbarism and so on. That was the centre of their foreign policy and ever since I have been writing about terrorism.

But what I write causes extreme anger for the very simple reason that I use the U.S. government's official definition of terrorism from the official U.S. code of laws. If you use that definition, it follows very quickly that the U.S. is the leading terrorist state and a major sponsor of terrorism and since that conclusion is unacceptable, it arouses furious anger. But the problem lies in the unwillingness to recognize that your own terrorism is terrorism. This is not just true of the United States, it's true quite generally. Terrorism is something that they do to us. In both cases, it's terrorism and we have to get over that if we're serious about the question.

Ex: In 1979, Russia invades Afghanistan. The U.S. uses the Ziaul Haq regime in Pakistan to fund the rise of militancy. This gives Zia a green light to fund cross-border terrorism in Kashmir. Now we allegedly have some of those elements setting off bombs in Mumbai. Clearly, these groups are no longer controlled by any government.

Ch: The jihadi movements in their modern form go back before Afghanistan. They were formed primarily in Egypt in the 1970s. Those are the roots of the jihadi movement, the intellectual roots and the activist roots and the terrorism too.

But when the Russians invaded Afghanistan, the Regan administration saw it as an opportunity to pursue their Cold War aims. So they did with the intense cooperation of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and others ( . . . ) so the Reagan administration organized the most radical Islamic extremists it could find anywhere in the world and brought them to Afghanistan to train them, arm them.

Meanwhile, the U.S. supported Ziaul Haq as he was turning Pakistan into a country full of madrassahs and fundamentalists. The Reagan administration even ( . . . ) kept certifying to Congress that Pakistan was not developing nuclear weapons, which of course they were, so that U.S. aid to Pakistan could continue. The end result of these U.S. programs was to seriously harm Pakistan and also to create the international jihadi movement, of which Osama bin Laden is a product. The jihadi movement then spread ( . . . ) they may not like it much but they created it. And now, as you say, it's in Kashmir.

Kashmir, though, is a much more complex story. There are plenty of problems in Kashmir and they go way back, but the major current conflicts come from the 1980s. In 1986, when India blocked the election, it actually stole the election, and that led to an uprising and terrorist violence and atrocities, including atrocities committed by the Indian army.

Ex: The colonial legacy is generally dismissed by the media. What role does this legacy play in the emergence of home-grown terrorists in countries such as the U.S., the UK and Canada as well as to the creation of terrorism as a whole?

Ch: It's not brought up in the West because it's inconvenient to think about your own crimes. Just look at the major conflicts going on around the world today, in Africa, the Middle East, in South Asia, most of them are residues of colonial systems.

Colonial systems imposed and created artificial states that had nothing to do with the needs and concerns and relations of the populations involved.

They were created in the interests of colonial powers and as old fashioned colonialism turned into modern neo-colonialism, a lot of these conflicts erupted into violence and those are a lot of the atrocities happening in the world today.

How can anyone say colonialism isn't relevant? Of course it is and it's even more directly relevant.

Take the London bombing in 2005. Blair tried to pretend that it had nothing to do with Britain's participation in the invasion of Iraq. That's completely ridiculous. The British intelligence and the reports of the people connected in the bombing, they said that the British participation in the invasion and resulting horrors in Iraq inflamed them and they wanted to do something in reaction.

Ex: What keeps you motivated?

Ch: I'll just tell you a brief story. I was in Beirut a couple of months ago giving talks at the American university in the city. After a talk, people come up and they want to talk privately or have books signed.

Here I was giving a talk in a downtown theatre, a large group of people were around and a young woman came up to me, in her mid-'20s, and just said this sentence: "I am Kinda" and practically collapsed. You wouldn't know who Kinda is but that's because we live in societies where the truth is kept hidden. I knew who she was. She had a book of mine open to a page on which I had quoted a letter of hers that she wrote when she was seven years old.

It was right after the U.S. bombing of Libya, her family was then living in Libya, and she wrote a letter which was found by a journalist friend of mine who tried to get it published in the United States but couldn't because no one would publish it. He then gave it to me, I published it. The letter said something like this:

"Dear Mr Reagan, I am seven years old. I want to know why you killed my little sister and my friend and my rag doll. Is it because we are Palestinians? Kinda". That's one of the most moving letters I have ever seen and when she walked up to me and said I am Kinda, and, like I say, actually fell over, not only because of the event but because of what it means.

Here's the United States with no pretext at all, bombing another country, killing and destroying, and nobody wants to know what a little seven-year-old girl wrote about the atrocities. That's the kind of thing that keeps me motivated and ought to keep everybody motivated. And you can multiply that by 10,000.

Chomsky has written and lectured widely on linguistics, philosophy, intellectual history, contemporary issues, international affairs and U.S. foreign policy. His works include: Aspects of the Theory of Syntax; Cartesian Linguistics; Sound Pattern of English (with Morris Halle); Language and Mind; American Power and the New Mandarins; At War with Asia; For Reasons of State; Peace in the Middle East?; Reflections on Language; The Political Economy of Human Rights, Vol. I and II (with E.S. Herman); Rules and Representations; Lectures on Government and Binding; Towards a New Cold War; Radical Priorities; Fateful Triangle; Knowledge of Language; Turning the Tide; Pirates and Emperors; On Power and Ideology; Language and Problems of Knowledge; The Culture of Terrorism; Manufacturing Consent (with E.S. Herman); Necessary Illusions; Deterring Democracy; Year 501; Rethinking Camelot: JFK, the Vietnam War and US Political Culture; Letters from Lexington; World Orders, Old and New; The Minimalist Program; Powers and Prospects; The Common Good; Profit Over People; The New Military Humanism; New Horizons in the Study of Language and Mind; Rogue States; A New Generation Draws the Line; 9-11; and Understanding Power.

Israeli bombardment of Beit Hanoun kills at least 18, including 11 from one family

2006-11-08T06:55:00.000-08:00

Israel has renewed its assault on the Gaza Strip, killing at least 18 Palestinians on Wednesday morning.

Palestinian medical sources reported that dozens of Palestinian citizens had been killed or injured in an Israeli artillery bombardment of Beit Hanoun in the north of Gaza Strip. A large number of women and children were also injured in the shelling.

The sources said the preliminary number of the citizens killed is 18, but rising. In addition, more than 35 were injured. Many of the dead arrived at the hospital fragmented in pieces.

The bombing targeted the house of two brothers, Sa'ed and Sa'di Al-'Athamneh from Al-Kafarneh district in the town of Beit Hanoun.

Eleven members of the Al-'Athamneh family were killed, including a one-year old girl. The killed are:

Ne'meh Al-'Athamneh
Mohammed Al-'Athamneh
Mahmoud Al-'Athamneh
Mahdi Al-'Athamneh
Sa'ed Al-'Athamneh
Moha,med Al-'Athamneh
Fatmeh Al-'Athamneh
Nihad Al-'Athamneh
Arafat Al-'Athamneh
Dima Al-'Athamneh (1-year-old girl)
Another young girl, Ala' Al-'Athamneh

The medical services are identifying the rest of the dead but it is proving difficult to identify them due to their fragmented bodies and the critical condition in which they arrived at the Kamal 'Udwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya. In Kamal 'Udwan Hospital, there are 12 dead and in Kamal Naser Hospital there are 4 dead. The number of people killed is raising by the minute.

Eyewitnesses said that the Israeli artillery bombed the houses while the residents were sleeping, resulting in the large number of casualties. Palestinians are comparing this massacre to the Qana massacre by the Israeli army in south Lebanon three months ago.

The government spokesman, Ghazi Hamad, appealed to the international community on the Al-Jazeera satellite channel to mobilize and stop Israel carrying out such massacres against unarmed Palestinians.

Reports are also coming in that armed Palestinians are firing at the European Union building in Gaza City.

Chicago anti-war musician burns himself to death in rush hour traffic

2006-11-08T06:49:00.000-08:00

Local Musician Martyrs Himself for Peace
07 Nov 2006

Chicago Indymedia has learned that last Friday local music and art afficianado and peace advocate Malachi Ritscher burned himself to death on the side of the Kennedy Expressway near downtown Chicago during the morning rush hour. Near Malachi's remains, police found a camcorder with videotape inside and a homemade sign that read "Thou Shalt Not Kill."

Besides the note and videotape at the scene, Malachi also left a longer letter explaining his actions and his motivations. "What is one more life thrown away in this sad and useless national tragedy?" he wrote. "If one death can atone for anything, in any small way, to say to the world: I apologize for what we have done to you, I am ashamed for the mayhem and turmoil caused by my country."

Malachi was among more than seven hundred peace protesters who were illegally arrested on March 20, 2003, when thousands turned out to protest the beginning of the U.S. war on Iraq. His death, to date has received very little news coverage — and outlets that did report his death treated it as a simple suicide and the cause for slower-than-usual traffic that morning. The contents of the videotape he left have not been made public. Read more here, here and here.

Malachi's websites: savagesound | myspace

Two Smart Books for Kids: A Reading 11/14

2006-11-07T19:40:00.000-08:00

Martin Perna and Ricardo Cortés cross the continent to read from their children's books: "BLACKOUT!" and "It's Just a Plant" at Guerilla Cafe, Berkeley on Tues 11/14 at 6pm.

From Brooklyn with Love: Two Smart Books for Kids

A Reading November 14, 2006 at Guerilla Café, Berkeley

WHAT: Martín Perna and Ricardo Cortés will be reading from their children’s books BLACKOUT! and It’s Just a Plant. This event is FREE!

WHEN: 6 PM at Guerilla Café at 1629 Shattuck Ave. in Berkeley, CA.

BLACKOUT!, written by Martín Perna (founder of musical group Antibalas and saxophonist for TV on the Radio), is a true tale of the 36 hour blackout that affected the northeast USA in 2003. Illustrated in a coloring book format by Ricardo Cortés, we see how urban communities unite to use their imaginations to cope without electricity and in the process discover the beauty of darkness. For more information on BLACKOUT! visit: http://www.theblackoutbook.com

In addition to illustrating BLACKOUT!, Ricardo Cortés is author and illustrator of It's Just a Plant, a children's story of marijuana. Ricardo will read excerpts from this controversial book, which has been called "a glimpse of what enlightened drug education could be," by Dr. Andrew Weil, and attacked by Bill O'Reilly and the Office of Federal Drug Policy. For more information of It's Just a Plant, check out: http://www.justaplant.com

The readings will begin at Guerilla Café shortly after 6pm, followed by book signing, discussion, and a collaborative coloring project of BLACKOUT! Refreshments will be served.

For more information visit: http://www.guerillacafe.com

Josh Wolf: Independent Media and "Professionalism"

2006-11-07T19:38:00.000-08:00

[Editor's Note from Karen Slattery]:
Last month in our Ethics column, we called for a conversation about who counts or should count as a 'journalist' in the digital age. We are printing a response from the subject of that column, Josh Wolf. Wolf is in a California prison for refusing to turn over his video outtakes to a federal grand jury. Normally, The Digital Journalist does not print letters from readers in full. This month we are doing so because this problem is so important to the field. As Josh has no e-mail access in prison, his letter was typed and forwarded to us by his mother, Liz Wolf-Spada. She says that Josh in indeed the author. We hope that you will take a moment to read the letter, consider the issue and share your thoughts with us. We will follow up. The conversation is just beginning.

In your October Ethics column, "We Need to Talk...," you implicitly suggested that I should be protected from having to testify and provide my unpublished material, if and only if, I am a professional journalist. While I certainly understand your argument that a reporter's privilege must be very narrowly applied or the justice system would collapse, I cannot help but feel the criterion you've proposed is inherently flawed.

At best, the suggestion of narrowly defining who qualifies as a protected journalist will result in an elite class of professionals who work for mainstream media outlets, while reporters for the alternative press would be given no choice but to practice their craft without a net. More likely, I anticipate that this approach would establish a state-sanctioned journalist license, and anyone would be subject to having [his or] her license revoked should [he or] she stray from the party line. At worst, independent voices could be subject to prosecution for practicing journalism without a license.

The First Amendment was not written to protect the Hearst Corporation and its thousands of employees, although it certainly should. When the Founding Fathers set out to guarantee a free press they really did seek to protect independent journalists and pamphleteers, such as Thomas Paine and his Common Sense.

The problem with only protecting professionals, while denying these protections to those who do not rely on their reportage to support themselves financially is two-fold. For one, students of journalism must be protected - if they are not, they will be denied the opportunity to engage in serious newsgathering during their education and thus [be] unprepared to enter the field as professionals. Secondly, if independents are denied these protections, then who will report on mainstream journalists who abuse their professional standing?

What about the stories that are ignored or neglected by the mainstream media? Are those issues really not worthy of coverage simply because the established media has deemed them unfit for airtime? If it is important that these stories are covered, then isn't it also important that journalists investigating these stories be protected?

Who should be protected? As Jeff Jarvis mused previously, Tony Soprano shouldn't be able to insulate himself by simply creating a blog, but I do feel that the mommy-blogger who happens to break a story about a dishonest baby food company should not be forced to out her confidential sources. In my opinion, anyone's journalist activities should be protected whether or not he is paid for his work. After all, a journalist is supposedly a public servant and if he or she is working due to his or her own conscience and without financial compensation, how can this possibly invalidate him or her as a public servant?

But would this broad application to the journalist shield lead the justice system to collapse? I doubt it, but there is a more sensible approach to limiting these protections without establishing an exclusive class of protected journalists. By applying a balancing test between the need for law enforcement to obtain this information against the damage that would be inflicted to the rights of a free press, many of these cases can be resolved without the establishment of a state-sanctioned press.

For example, in my case the federal government has asserted that a protester threw a firework in the vicinity of a police car four days after the Fourth of July. The U.S. Attorney has argued that this was an attempt to burn the San Francisco police vehicle and should therefore be a federal investigation, but according to the police report, the car did not burn. Despite the fact that I've stated for the record that I neither filmed nor witnessed the alleged incident and despite the fact that we've offered to screen the complete footage for the judge, I am currently sitting in a federal prison cell for protecting my sources and unpublished material.

If I were to submit to the government demands, then it would no longer be possible for sources to trust me with privileged information; I would be denied the unfettered access that I've been granted as a result of establishing a trusted relationship with Bay Area activists, and I would thus be unable to fully report on civil dissent in the San Francisco region. Forcing me to comply with this subpoena would and has created a chilling effect, which should be balanced against the federal government's need to investigate the alleged crime that may have occurred and which resulted, if it even happened, in no significant damage to the police vehicle that suffered only a broken taillight.

- Josh Wolf

Uganda: Students, police clash over pay raise for lecturers

2006-11-07T19:35:00.000-08:00

A Makerere University lecturers strike yesterday took a violent twist after it sucked in students who engaged riot Police in running battles.

Riled by a delay to resolve the lecturers pay rise demands which cost them their lectures, the students rampaged through the university, looting, barricading roads and setting bonfires.

Lumumba Hall residents lit bonfires at 7:00pm on Monday and moved from one hall to another mobilising students to join the strike, the Police said.

However, the university remained quiet in the night but violence erupted early morning when the students burgled the Guild Canteen, vandalised and emptied it of beer.

They broke into the newly-refurbished Senior Staff Club, emptied it of beer, vandalised it and scattered furniture.
They also vandalised the counter, pulled off refrigerators’ doors, looted all the goodies and lined the fence with knickers and brassieres. One of them attempted to de-roof the structure with a hoe.

Kampala Police chief Grace Turyagumanawe, who supervised the operation and addressed Nsibirwa hall residents, said the situation began degenerating on Monday night.

“At about 7:00pm, we began getting reports and stepped up surveillance but the situation escalated in the morning at about 5:00am when the students blocked the roads, lit bonfires and raided Lumumba hall canteen,” Turyagumanawe said.

But by 10:00am, relative calm had returned to the campus. Police spokesman Edward Ochom was on the spot.

The Police condemned the students’ behaviour as thuggery and hooliganism.

Four suspected looters were arrested and detained at the Wandegeya Police station, Turyagumanawe said. The Police identified them as Ronald Kyobe, a first-year student of tourism, Andrew Mubiru, a second-year student of social sciences and Alex Kagoro, a student of economics. Another 13 students, seven of them girls, were detained, raising the number to 17.

A 9:00am meeting by the Makerere University Academic Staff Association (MUASA) was called off. However, the MUASA executive, who disagreed with Prime Minister Apolo Nsibambi on Monday, met President Yoweri Museveni yesterday afternoon. Museveni is to meet the entire MUASA team today.

Early in the morning, anti-riot Police battled with striking students in Mitchell and Nkrumah halls. As they lobbed teargas at them, the students hurled back stones and obscenities.

They mocked the Police with derogatory songs. They sang, “Police our enemy; we shall never forget you.”

The much dreaded water canon sprayed teargas and shot powerful blasts of itching blue water into the halls, scattering the students. But the Police also had a rough time outside the main campus. Like their counterparts, students residing in hostels on Sir Apollo Kaggwa Road and in the sprawling Kikoni slum, engaged the Police in a cat-and-mouse game, pelting them with stones before vanishing and regrouping later.

Military Police and armoured personnel vehicles were also deployed to quell the situation.

There was drama when the Police decided to flog the students off the streets. The students fled into Makerere Full Gospel Church where they melted into the lunch time congregation. The Police stopped outside.

Students lit fires on all roads in the university and at the main gate, which remained closed most of yesterday and was manned by heavily-armed policemen backed by special police constables. Entry and exit from the campus was restricted. The atmosphere was tense. Outside, all roads leading to and around the campus were sealed off and traffic diverted, creating huge traffic jams.

Fearing losses from rampaging students, Wandegeya, Kikoni and Kagugube residents kept their shops closed. Reports said the business community were armed with machettes to fend off looting students.

Laura Ingraham Tells Listeners To Crank Call Voter Protection Hotline

2006-11-07T10:53:00.000-08:00

From http://freedemocracy.blogspot.com

UPDATE: Laura Ingraham has asked her listeners to call the Dem Voter protection hotline - and they are now being flooded with calls from crank callers. Please call Laura and tell her what you think about this: 800.876.4123. You can e-mail her here. Apparently, voter intimidation and fraud are a joke to Laura Ingraham. Let's let her know that it is no joke.

UPDATE #2: More on Laura Ingraham: "caller indicated she is running a tape of Bill Clinton over and over saying "call 1-888 Dem Vote to report problems" - and then making fun of him, thus producing a spike in crank calls to the number" Protecting voter integrity is no joke. And I am not laughing. If anyone has audio of this, I'd love it.

In California, this is the year to vote third party

2006-11-07T07:20:00.000-08:00

Tuesday's election gives progressives a unique opportunity to give a boost to third parties, especially Peace & Freedom and the Greens.

Perhaps because she is neither as smug nor as arrogant in her affect as Joe The Kiss Lieberman, Diane Feinstein doesn't inspire the same degree of liberal loathing as the odiferous Connecticut senator,The Peace & Freedom Party even though California's senior senator has supported the war, is as insensitive to civil liberties as George Bush's favorite Democrat, and, if anything, is more reliably pro-business. Since she is no danger of defeat at the hands of the GOP's sacrificial lamb, a vote for Peace and Freedom's Marsha Feinland will help that venerable party of the left stay on the ballot ...

POWER
The Green and Peace & Freedom candidates are as qualified as their opponents, in many cases considerably more so, P&F's Feinlandso there is no reason not to give them support. Feinland, for example, is not simply an anti-war candidate. She has outlined progressive positions on issues as varied the minimum wage, universal health care, labor laws, the death penalty, the "war" on drugs, education, the environment, electoral reform, among other topics. The bottom line, however, is that a vote for Feinland is a vote for keeping the Peace and Freedom Party on future ballots where it may be needed (the Green Party doesn't face the same risk, because a sufficient number of voters have registered Green).

Phil Angelides, who as the state's treasurer shifted California's pension dollars from the stock market to community investments Angelides and friendand who is a strong proponent shareholder activism, would normally be a natural choice for voters who favor universal health care, public campaign financing, and strong environmental laws. The Governator, on the other hand, vetoed universal health care and almost every environmental bill that he could lay his hands on, the good press he's been getting on Global Warming notwithstanding. He also helped defend the unjust, counter-productive and expensive "three strikes" law when it looked like the voters might reform it in the last round of ballot measures two years ago, and has no compunctions against executing people. Arnold has raised more money from special interests than any governor in history; even his allies don't The GreenPartytrust him to have a solid position on anything: he is the very model of the packaged candidate -- when the new "conservative" Schwartzenegger was a political disaster in 2004, he reached into the wardrobe department for the "moderate" costume he wore originally to win his office from Gray Davis. It seemed for a while that the real Schwartzenegger had emerged in 2003-4, but it's become clear since he has no principles whatsoever.

However, with the polls showing that Angelides is about to be crushed like a Dixie Cup at Gold's Gym, progressives should consider giving their vote for governor to Peace & Freedom's Janice Jordan. Angelides has run such a disastrous campaign against the incumbent -- for most of it, hisP&F's Jordan principal argument was that he should get your vote because the Republican governor had been seen from time to time in the company of the Republican president -- that you were left to wonder how smart his decisions as chief executive would be. Too bad, because there was a case to be made against Schwartzenegger and Angelides had a strong record from which to make it.

Although, like most reasonable people, Janice Jordan opposes the war, as a candidate for state office she has sensibly not made foreign policy a focus of her campaign. Instead, she has outlined programs to advance health care, public safety, small business, wages, low cost housing, public ownership of utilities, and the arts, among others. Take a look at her website for more details.

Also worth considering is the Green's Peter Camejo, whose biannual runs for office on a sensible reform platform is turning him into the Norman Thomas of the 21st Century Norman Thomas(okay, I admit that comparison is a wee bit over the top). Someday, perhaps in the lifetime of someone not yet born, Camejo's calls for reigning in the corporations, for labor rights and a living wage, for fair elections, campaign finance reform and run-offs in state-wide elections, for a just criminal justice Green' Camejosystem and an end to "three strikes" and the death penalty, for women's rights and reproductive freedom, for a guaranteed quality education for everyone (including equal access to resources such as books, school facilities that work, and great teachers who are paid enough to stay in the profession), for a more rational approach to drug addiction, for universal health care, and so on, will be as commonplace as Thomas' once-radical call for Social Security.

The race for State Treasurer is another chance to boost the third parties. As Attorney General, the Democrat aspirant, Bill Lockyer, scurried to the head of the lynch mob that descended on the capital, faggots ablaze, to execute Stanley P&F's Sanders"Tookie" Williams, which is enough for me, but in his role as AG, he also actively failed to take on predatory lending, a big problem in California; and he accepted contributions from companies that, as the state's top cop, he was supposed to regulate. By contrast, long-time Oakland community activist Gerald Sanders (Peace & Freedom) and Mehul Thakker (Green) The Green's Thakkerhave each put forward thoughtful, progressive ideas on how the state should handle its finances, including tax reform, moving the state's deposits away from corporate banks, investing in renewable energy and otherwise using the state's cache of cash to benefit the environment, the schools, and the state's low-income communities, although Sanders, especially, has a little trouble staying focused on the issues at hand. (You can see and hear Thakker in a video on YouTube.)

Cruz Bustamante's political career would have been more fun to watch if we hadn't also had to endure it. Termed out of the Lt. Governor's chair, where fecklessness is a job qualification, he is running for Cruz ControlInsurance Commissioner as the candidate from Weight Watchers. While it's clear he's taking a lot of pride in having slimmed down, the other sources of his self-esteem are a mystery. You'd have thought that his pathetic run for governor in the election that rewarded us der Ahnold would have put a capper on his career in Sacramento, but now he wants a job where, ethically challenged and lazy, he can really do some harm.

In the current contest, Cruz began by accepting contributions from theThe Green's Cafiero insurance industry he is promising to oversee, then turned them back when it looked like enough voters might be offended by this lapse in judgment to force upon him the need to look for real work. Plus, there is no evidence he has -- you should pardon the expression -- the stomach for the job. His P&F's ConditRepublican opponent, businessman Steve Poizner, will be even less inclined than the feeble Cruz to fight for consumers, leaving voters with a choice between the Green's Larry Cafiero (who earned the coveted endorsement of the San Francisco League of Young Voters' aptly titled "Pissed Off Voter Guide") and Peace & Freedom's Tom Condit, either of whom is preferable to the hacks served up by the major parties.

In a few congressional districts, Green and Peace & Freedom candidates would be the best choices by far.

In the far west's 36th CD, Peace & Freedom's Jim Smith, P&F's Smitha labor activist, is waging strong but, alas, futile campaign in the Beach Cities against militarist Jane Harman. Although the right-wing Democrat is wildly out of sync with her district -- she supports every iteration of war and all restrictions on civil liberties (she backed Bush on torture, for pete's sake), as the richest member of Congress (her wealth comes from military contracts, natch), the steely Harman is nearly impossible to challenge. Still, any vote against her will be rewarded in heaven.

Meanwhile, in the 30th, on the west side of L.A. County where I live, Peace & Freedom's Adele Cannon, Adele and Oneil Cannona veteran campaigner for radical causes, is running against Henry Waxman, outraged at the Democratic congressman for voting for the war and the Patriot Act. Waxman is not nearly as liberal as his reputation, or the politics of his constituents, would lead you to believe. He gets good marks for standing up to the Republicans on the easy issue of corruption, but he has been terrible on the mysteriously difficult-for-Dems matter of U.S. predatoriness in Iraq and (soon) Iran. Send Waxman a message: Give your vote to the feisty Cannon.

The only reason to consider Harman a bigger problem than Howard Berman is that she is infinitely more powerful inside the House (although Nancy Pelosi has promised to depose her from her seat on the intelligence committee should the minority leader become Speaker). The race against Berman is more important than either the Harman or Waxman races, however, because the challenger, Byron De Lear, could actually win! Berman also represents a liberalThe Green's De Lear district -- the 28th covers San Fernando, Pacoima, Arleta, Panorama City, Van Nuys, and North Hollywood. The Valley congressman is the only California Democrat who still supports the war, but if he were as dovish as Ghandi he still should be kicked out for being anti civil liberties, anti corporate accountability, and anti anything that gets in the way of an imperialist foreign policy. De Lear...Now! De Lear...Now! De Lear...Now! Consult the list of towns in the 28th, call your friends who live there and tell them to vote.

In the 29th, covering Glendale and vicinity, another dedicated peace activist, P&F's LlamasPeace & Freedom's Linda Llamas, and the Green Party's Bill Paparian , a progressive lawyer and former mayor of Pasadena, are spotlighting the dismal record Green's Paparianof Democratic incumbent Adam Schiff (no similarity to his namesake on early episodes of Law and Order) rivaling Berman's on civil liberties, foreign policy and the war. Give Schiff a passadena and vote for Llamas or Paparian.

On the Assembly level, Green Ricardo Costa, in the sprawling 44th, centered on Pasadena but extending from La Canada to Duarte, and, in the 53rd running along the beach from Venice to Torrance, Peace & Freedom's Karl Abrams are seasoned activists who would bolster the progressive agenda in Sacramento.

Historically, third parties have been mechanisms for advancing new or initially unpopular political ideas, provided a brake on the excesses of the major parties, and held out the possibility of political change. Rather than vote for defective Democrats because the Republicans have offered someone who may be even worse, this year liberals get a chance to cast votes for third party candidates with clear consciences. The Dems have managed to come up with candidates in some races that are so bad it literally doesn't matter who is victorious. In no contest mentioned here will a third party vote throw the election to a Republican. Nor will any harm come from voting third party in the rare instances where a Green or Peace & Freedom candidate might win: De Lear, for example, has promised to vote with the Democrats to organize the House should the party gain a majority; besides, control of the legislature will be useless anyway, if it is dependent on the likes of Howard Berman.

The Green's Camejo has a TV ad budget of about $7,000, barely coffee money for his bigger rivals, to get a little cable time in Sacramento, the Bay Area and L.A. The gubernatorial hopeful suggests that many Democrats would like to vote Green, but don't want to waste their vote. "This time," Camejo says, "the Democratic candidate is not going to win, so you're free to vote for whoever you want. In fact, a vote for the Democrat will send no message. But a vote for the Green Party...this would be a powerful message." The same argument could be made by the Peace & Freedom Party, if it had $7,000, and a vote for Peace & Freedom for governor and senator is more than a vote against the war; it's also a vote for the long-term viability of alternative politics.

Haight Street Mural Gets a Makeover, and a Series of New Faces

2006-11-07T05:29:00.000-08:00

By Eric Zassenhaus
November 6, 2006
SAN FRANCISCO

The restoration of a prominent Haight Street mural depicting influential American anarchists was unveiled Wednesday night displaying ten new activists, including Brad Will, the New York journalist killed last Friday in protests in Oaxaca, Mexico.

"All of the people in the mural in some way or another took risks," said Susan Greene, the artist who painted the original mural in 1994 and oversaw its restoration. "He died to cover the story. That's kind of heroic to me. I wanted to mark his life in some way."

Will appears at the bottom right corner of the mural with his video camera, seemingly recording the menagerie of political activists - some decked out in turn of the century suits and bow ties, others in flowing hippie garb or more casual street wear. All stand before shelves of multicolored books, looking around with bemused discomfort.

The original mural on an 8-by-20 foot board featured 20 activists; the restoration kept the mural at the same size.

The "Anarchists in America" mural is part of Bound Together Books, the anarchist bookstore around the corner. It was a local landmark until three years ago when graffiti damaged it and it was taken down.

"Over the last three years, people have asked about the mural," said Tom Alder, a member of the bookstore's collective since 1979. "It's good to have it back."

Bound Together was founded in 1976, on a corner just down the street from its current location at Haight and Masonic. Entirely run by volunteers and managed by group consensus, the store stocks politically and culturally subversive books and magazines.

In addition to Will, Greene added Jeff Yippie and Richard "Tet" Tetenbaum, two former employees of the bookstore who have passed away since the mural was first designed. They were squeezed in alongside subversive luminaries Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, two influential anarchist thinkers and organizers who lived for a time in the Bay Area and Lucy Parsons, an influential African American labor activist from Chicago.

Luis Kemnitser, who passed away in 2006, was also added to the new mural. Kemnitser was a beloved professor at San Francisco State who helped fund the Needle Exchange, a program with provides clean needles free of charge to drug users in the hopes of limiting the spread of AIDS and other diseases.

Greene, who initially painted the mural in 1994, said she hoped the mural will continue to evolve as the neighborhood and the political landscape changes.

"Murals can be a really good way of communicating and making things visible," said Greene. "They're like living walls to me. I like to keep them alive and keep them current. I'm not the same person I was ten years ago and neither is the world."

Over a 20-year period, Greene has painted over 30 murals in San Francisco, Nicaragua and Palestine. In addition to her art, she's a clinical psychologist and professor at the New College and Goddard College in Vermont and an administrator at the San Francisco Art Institute.

This isn't the first time she has had to rehabilitate one of her murals. Another work of hers on 23rd and Mission streets that depicted pro-Palestinian activist Rachel Corrie and controversial journalist and death row inmate Mumia Abu Jamal, among other leftist leaders, has been defaced and restored several times.

More recently, a 30-foot pro-Palestinian mural she helped install at 21st Street was covered up after being defaced several times. The owner of the store where it was painted on was also being threatened.

"We decided to cover it until such a time as it's safe to uncover it," she said.

Her next project, she said, will be to publish recordings of many of the activists featured in the mural, which she hopes to do with The Freedom Archives, an association in the Mission that records audio and video of activist events and personalities.

New Law: NO FLY FOR ALL AMERICANS!

2006-11-07T05:08:00.000-08:00

You wanted it now you've got it!

This only applies to those Useful Idiots (TM) sheeple who believe everything Zionist Media Brainwashes them with.

If this law comes into effect, ALL AMERICANS beginning Jan 14, 2007 -- That's next year, in 2 months or so -- will have their freedom of movement taken away (as if it's not already severely limited).

Think about the ramifications...

They are treating us like sheep, herding us up, readying for the slaughter.... :( >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

We're All Prisoners,

Now: US Citizens to be Required ''Clearance'' to Leave USA International Politics October 26, 2006 Forget no-fly lists.

If Uncle Sam gets its way, beginning on Jan. 14, 2007, we'll all be on no-fly lists, unless the government gives us permission to leave-or re-enter-the United States.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (HSA) has proposed that all airlines, cruise lines-even fishing boats-be required to obtain clearance for each passenger they propose taking into or out of the United States.

It doesn't matter if you have a U.S. Passport - a "travel document" that now, absent a court order to the contrary, gives you a virtually unqualified right to enter or leave the United States, any time you want.

When the DHS system comes into effect next January, if the agency says "no" to a clearance request, or doesn't answer the request at all, you won't be permitted to enter-or leave-the United States.

Consider what might happen if you're a U.S. passport holder on assignment in a country like Saudi Arabia. Your visa is about to expire, so you board your flight back to the United States.

But wait! You can't get on, because you don't have permission from the HSA. Saudi immigration officials are on hand to escort you to a squalid detention center, where you and others who are now effectively "stateless persons" are detained, potentially indefinitely, until their immigration status is sorted out.

Why might the HSA deny you permission to leave-or enter-the United States?

No one knows, because the entire clearance procedure would be an administrative determination made secretly, with no right of appeal.

Naturally, the decision would be made without a warrant, without probable cause and without even any particular degree of suspicion.

Basically, if the HSA decides it doesn't like you, you're a prisoner - either outside, or inside, the United States, whether or not you hold a U.S. passport.

The U.S. Supreme Court has long recognized there is a constitutional right to travel internationally. Indeed, it has declared that the right to travel is "a virtually unconditional personal right." The United States has also signed treaties guaranteeing "freedom of travel."

So if these regulations do go into effect, you can expect a lengthy court battle, both nationally and internationally.

Think this can't happen? Think again.

It's ALREADY happening.

Earlier this year, HSA forbade airlines from transporting an 18-year-old a native-born U.S. citizen, back to the United States. The prohibition lasted nearly six months until it was finally lifted a few weeks ago.

Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union are two countries in recent history that didn't allow their citizens to travel abroad without permission.

If these regulations go into effect, you can add the United States to this list. For more information on this proposed regulation, see
http://hasbrouck.org/IDP/IDP-APIS-comments.pdf

Everett Massacre 90 years later

2006-11-06T00:00:00.000-08:00

by David Chircop

Historian David Dilgard takes a new look at the 1916 conflict that left five labor activists and two deputies dead on the Everett waterfront.

On a clear fall afternoon 90 years ago today, simmering labor friction came to a violent boil on Everett's waterfront, taking at least seven lives.

Anarchist labor agitators with the Industrial Workers of the World, know as Wobblies, faced off in a bloody shootout at the dock with a posse of 200 deputized citizens under Sheriff Donald McRae.

Today at 2 p.m. at the Everett Public Library, local historian David Dilgard will present "A Fresh Examination of the Everett Massacre."

Wobblies jailed in connection with the melee sang loud songs taunting McRae, whom they portrayed as a drunken fiend.

In reality, the sheriff was considered progressive among the ranks of the local labor unions. But IWW's biting rhetoric had reached beyond the town's shores.

Joyce Timpe, 80, of Everett wasn't around for the mayhem, but she remembers stories about the songs.

Her father, John Fowler, was a shingler who lived near the county jail northeast of Rockefeller and Pacific avenues.

"He could hear them singing and rocking," she said. "The rhythm of the rocking was about to shake the old building apart."

How you view the chaos that landed the men in jail can depend on your background, Dilgard said.

"To a certain extent, it still shakes out across class lines," he said.

However, the workers have gained wider sympathy, even among the families of former mill managers, in recent years, he said.

"If you can silence the working man, then his fate is sealed and he'll never improve his lot," he said.

The fighting Nov. 5, 1916, was stirred amid a bitter labor clash between the shingle weavers' union and mill-owning bosses.

More than 300 young Wobblies had traveled from Seattle to Everett aboard the wooden passenger steamships Verona and Calista to show solidarity with the striking mill workers - ostensibly through a free-speech rally.

The socialist-leaning group came to test a 1913 city ordinance that banned political speeches in the city's central business district.

Wobblies had opposed similar bans, such as a 1909 law in Spokane that outlawed street speaking. They also effectively organized workers of East Coast textile factories, Rocky Mountain mines and ranches in California and reached even into South America.

But the would-be protesters, mostly unskilled laborers, didn't get the chance to fan the flames of discontent in Everett that fateful autumn day.

"The idea that the Wobblies died in the defense of free speech was something that was certainly embraced by their contemporaries," Dilgard said.

In his presentation today, he will focus on free speech and street gatherings in Everett's early days.

The city fathers who met the passenger ships weren't all power-hungry lumber barons, Dilgard said.

They represented a broad cross section of Everett's establishment, including community leaders and businessmen.

They had received word that the agitators had come to burn down Everett's mills, and they were ready to defend them.

No one knows for sure who fired the first shot, but when the smoke cleared, at least five IWW men and two deputies were dead.

Tacoma historian Ronald Magden said the most objective account of the event is found in the King County court case that followed.

Upon their return to Seattle, 74 Wobblies were arrested. Only one, Thomas H. Tracy, was charged with murder. The IWW put up a vigorous defense and a jury acquitted him in May 1917.

The evidence and testimony help cut through inflammatory and often contradictory accounts of the shooting, he said.

In preparing for his 1991 book "Working Longshoremen," Magden interviewed two witnesses who were near the Verona's wheelhouse when the bullets started flying.

"They didn't know who fired the first shot," he said.

University of Washington-Bothell professor Dan Jacoby is chairman of the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies.

The IWW believed in worker-controlled industry, and they were effective at articulating their beliefs and organizing workers, Jacoby said.

But their anti-capitalist views, which resemble Bolshevism, also brought pressure from threatened government and industry interests.

In the 1920s, the I.W.W. saw its influence diminish even further.

Portland police department's infamous communist detail known as the "red squad" was said to have helped dismantle the radical group. Similar crackdowns played out across the country.

Because the Wobblies often rejected contractual agreements, they were never able to build the infrastructure needed for the "One Big Union" that it sought.

"They tended to be strong on rhetoric and relatively weak on long-term organization," Jacoby said.

Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.

Massacre programs

"Bloody Sunday: A Fresh Examination of the Everett Massacre" is the topic of a presentation Sunday by local historian David Dilgard on the 90th anniversary of the waterfront killings.

Sponsored by the Museum of Snohomish County History, the free event is at 2 p.m. Sunday in the auditorium of the Everett Public Library, 2702 Hoyt Ave.

Another event, "A Celebration of Free Speech: Remember the Everett Massacre 90 Years Later," is at 7 p.m. Monday in the library auditorium. Banjo player Leith Kuhl will perform union songs of the era.

Donations will benefit the Free Stehekin, an underground newspaper run by Cascade High School students.

Bonfire Night ~ V for Vendetta ~

2006-11-05T10:29:00.000-08:00

Ocean Beach Nov 5, by Indigo Moonstar

"Remember, Remember, The Fifth of November, The Gunpowder Treason and Plot. I know of no reason, The Gunpowder Treason, Should ever be forgot."

**Burn the Man on Ocean Beach**

When: Sunday November 5th, 8pm
Where: Ocean Beach, SF

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes_Night
Its time to give Guy Fawkes the sendoff he deserves,
After being rocketed to cult stardom by the movie V for Vendetta.

Bonfire Night has been a huge holiday in Britain since 1605.
Since then they have Burned an Effigy of Guy Fawkes
On Bonfire NIght, November 5th,
Which was also an effective way to control
The ancient custom of Burning the Man at Harvest time.

What to Bring:

Blankets
Clean Wood, 2x4s or logs (no nails)
Beverages
Yourself

NO GLASS ON BEACH YO!

DO NOT PARK IN LOT AFTER 10pm.

Election Day is on Tuesday.
You All Saw The Movie.

www.bonfire.org/guy

Santa Monica Police Raid Homes of Two Animal Liberation Press Officers

2006-11-04T00:00:00.000-08:00

Los Angeles- Search warrants were served on the residences Tuesday of two North American Animal Liberation Press Officers by the Santa Monica Police Department. No arrests were made, and no reason was given for the warrants, signed by Los Angeles Appellate Judge Paul Turner. Thousands of dollars worth of private items were taken with no explanation, confounding animal activists in the Los Angeles area, which has seen increasingly effective animal advocacy in the last several years.

Santa Monica Police Raid Homes of Two Animal Liberation Press Officers
Police refuse to delineate reason for search warrant
Similar raid last year resulted in costly lawsuit by activists
*

Los Angeles

Search warrants were served on the residences Tuesday of two North American Animal Liberation Press Officers by the Santa Monica Police Department. No arrests were made, and no reason was given for the warrants, signed by Los Angeles Appellate Judge Paul Turner. Thousands of dollars worth of private items were taken with no explanation, confounding animal activists in the Los Angeles area, which has seen increasingly effective animal advocacy in the last several years.

The homes of Dr. Jerry Vlasak and Linda Greene were raided on Tuesday, October 31 at around 11 am; neither occupant was at home. In a similar action in 2004, the same agency raided the home of Goldfinger lead guitarist John Feldman in Bellaire; no arrests were ever made, and Feldman was awarded $75,000 by the City of Santa Monica last year.

Press Officer Dr. Jerry Vlasak stated: “Apparently the Santa Monica Police are fond of rummaging through the belongings of innocent people who advocate for animals. My wife’s underwear drawer seemed to be of special interest to them, although the Press Office premises themselves have not been touched as yet. They left my home a mess; we are, however, looking forward to our hefty sum from the department, just like John and Amy [Feldman] got last year. The animals can always use the money.”

Linda Greene adds: “The Press Office must be doing something right, to incur such wrath from those who support animal exploitation and abuse.”

Despite the loss of several computers, the Press Officers, who claim they keep back-up data available at several locations, were unfazed and back at work within hours. Sgt. J. Moroso and Lt. Beautz of the Santa Monica Police Department, who conducted the raids, did not respond to repeated calls.

Contact Jerry Vlasak, MD, Press Officer, at (310) 251-0259.

Activists Disrupt Forum on WTO at Harvard to Deliver Demands in Solidarity with the Global South and are Forcibly Dragged Out

2006-11-03T19:46:00.000-08:00

by Three Activists

Shortly after Pascal Lamy, the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) began his address at the Harvard University Institute of Politics, three local activists took turns standing up to loudly deliver messages to the WTO.

The three activists wore bright red headbands inscribed with the words, NO WTO. Each read a portion from a statement charging the WTO with putting profits before people and destroying the lives, ecosystems, and communities of billions of people around the world. All three were quickly and forcibly dragged from of the building by Harvard security and Cambridge police.

The message the three activists delivered to the Director-General included a list of demands, compiled from numerous organizations leading the struggle in the Global South, such as Third World Network and Focus on the Global South. The demands include no more top down and non-transparent negotiations; that agriculture and food be taken out of the WTO; a total end to the patenting of essential life saving medications, especially HIV/AIDS drugs; and no corporate control over natural resources and environment.

When asked about the reasons for the disruption Mike Borucke, one of the activists involved, responded "The time for polite talk has long since passed, we don't want to hear any more excuses from the WTO and its powerful backers while people's lives are devastated from Indonesia to Colombia. I mean, the people of the world have been making their opposition loud and clear for years and years. Today we are just reiterating their rejection of the WTO, in person, to it's director."

Though some may try to frame this action as interfering with free speech, the activists assert otherwise. "We have no problem with free speech", said Jonathan McIntosh, one of the three involved, "what we take issue with is these policies being granted a large platform and 'megaphone'. The billions of people around the world directly affected by the atrocious policies of the WTO are not afforded any such platform for their opposition. If Harvard University were to give each of the billions of farmers, workers and fisher folk whose lives are destroyed by WTO policies the same forum space, we would have no problem with Lamy's talk tonight."

Jonathan continued "I'd say that for every event, like this one, held at elite western universities, Lamy should hold an open forum in a five thousand fishing villages and farming communities around Asia, Africa and Latin America. Tonight's event with it's brief questions and answer sessions for mainly privileged students who are in no way directly impacted by WTO policy, has nothing to do with accountability and everything to do with shoring up support for the institution among future global elite, while continuing to ignore the opposition of the majority of the planet."

In reaction to Lamy's topic of accountability Jason Lydon, another participant explained, "The topic of Lamy's presentation, 'Is the WTO Accountable?' is absurd. To have the figurehead of a powerful institution discuss accountability without the voices of those directly affected is impossible. There is no structure or mechanism at all for Farmers in the global south to have a voice in shaping the trade policies that will affect the survival of their community. But there has to be, before we can talk about any form of accountability."

Three additional people, who were in no way not part of the planned disruption, were shortly thereafter forcibly dragged out of the building, in an apparent pre-emptive action by Harvard officials to shield Mr. Lamy from further criticism. The three observers had not made any disruptions. They protested their removal and demanding to know on what grounds they were being thrown out, but were informed by uniformed officers only that they were not welcome.

Several other onlookers, also having nothing to do with the planned disruption, reported being intimidated or ordered to leave by uniformed officers

Resistance to the World Trade Organization is vibrant and worldwide. The negotiations at the most recent ministerial meetings in Hong Kong collapsed, due in part to the tens of thousands of protesters in the streets during the entirety of the meetings. As impacted communities across the Global South lead the opposition to the WTO, activists here in Boston take that struggle into Lamy's ivory towered address.

Contact:
Jonathan McIntosh
617.304.9668
jonnymcintosh@gmail.com

NOTE: The video of the event is up on the Harvard's Kennedy School web site. While activists cannot be seen in the video, they can be heard. Interruptions take place at minute 12, minute 16 and minute 18 of the video.

URL link to video:
http://iopforum.harvard.edu:8080/ramgen/fr20061101wto.rm

"The Gang That Can't Count Straight" Strikes Again:

2006-11-03T07:37:00.000-08:00

Margie Akin for Secretary of State
20212 Harvard Way, Riverside CA 92507
(951) 787-0318 margieakin@hotmail.com
For Release 2 November 2006

Riverside, CA

Bruce McPherson's office has failed to record votes properly,
failed to notice that a local election was conducted incorrectly, and failed
to meet his own deadline for announcing results, according to challenger Dr.
Margie Akin of the Peace and Freedom Party. The votes at issue are those
cast in the California-wide Student Mock Election conducted on October 24,
but Akin says this is a bad sign for the November 7 General Election.

Speaking to a group of supporters Wednesday night, Akin pointed out that the
Secretary of State's website promised early last week that the final student
poll totals would be posted on Friday, October 27. Only partial results
were posted then, and more were added on Monday and Tuesday. As of
Wednesday no more had been added, but the results were plainly incomplete,
with under 80,000 votes posted from only 377 of a projected total of 545
intermediate and high schools.

Akin pointed out that her party was doing well in the poll for a smaller
party, with about 16% of the vote for both Governor and US Senate. "When we
checked the school-by-school totals, they made sense, with our Party doing
quite well in minority areas and working-class neighborhoods, but we found a
strange anomaly in Santa Ana. One school had plainly not conducted the
election properly, or reported results correctly. And the Secretary of
State's office failed to catch it."

The mistake, reports Akin, gave Peace and Freedom Party Senate nominee
Marsha Feinland about one thousand votes too many. "This school did not
follow the rules, and only allowed students to vote for Democrats or
Republicans. Then the Democrat votes for Senate were reported for Feinland
instead of Feinstein." Akin suggests that because the non-partisan rules
were not followed, that all votes from Villa Fundamental Intermediate School
be tossed out. This would lower the percentage for Feinland to 16.52%
instead of the incorrect 17.55%. But the mock election percentage for Peace
and Freedom governor nominee Janice Jordan would rise from 15.69% to 15.95%.

"Because this is a mock election, the faulty vote counting does not threaten
our democracy. But if this is a fair sample of the work of the Secretary of
State, we may have trouble next week," said Akin. "When McPherson showed in
February that he could not read the Elections Code, and tried to throw the
Peace and Freedom Party off the ballot, he worried a lot of people. We
forced him to correct that mistake. But his certification of faulty voting
machines is a mistake that he refuses to correct, and it may come back to
haunt us."

All Eyes on Surrealism

2006-11-03T05:11:00.000-08:00

by MARIANNE F. KALETZKY, Crimson Staff Writer

I want to ask Dillon Professor of the Civilization of France and Professor of Comparative Literature Susan R. Suleiman about Stephen Colbert, and I’m not quite sure how to go about it.

We’re perched on stools in a little nook to the side of the main auditorium in the basement of the Carpenter Center, having just watched four films as part of a Harvard Film Archive series entitled “Adventures in Surrealism,” and I’m desperately looking for a reference to support my assertion—that many people who’ve never really learned about surrealism are still familiar with aspects of it that have been copied or parodied or popularized somehow.

I can’t stop thinking about this moment in an episode of “The Colbert Report” I watched over the summer. But something about traditional distinctions between high culture and low culture seems to warn me against bringing up a television show—whose most substantial legacy thus far has been coining the word “truthiness”—at my first meeting with a scholar of 20th century literature and art as prominent as Suleiman.

So I’m relieved when Suleiman, who also teaches Literature and Arts C-55, “Surrealism: Avant-Garde Art and Politics Between the Wars,” laughs and says “of course” in response to my question about whether she knows of “The Colbert Report.” I press onward.

“So he was talking about European troops in Lebanon and how he didn’t think that the governments had made an adequate commitment and he said ‘Ceci n’est pas un peacekeeping force,’” I explain.

“Oh, that is good,” she answers. I feel vindicated. Yet perhaps I should have known that, in this particular context, traditional distinctions of any kind don’t mean much. As Suleiman points out, surrealism itself was about subverting any notions of authority, whether moral or artistic.

“The surrealists were not just interested in art,” she says. “It wasn’t just a style. They wanted to change the world. Even Luis Buñuel in ‘Un chien andalou’ and in his other films, you know, he writes about how what he wants is to wake up the audience because they have a tendency to let themselves be lulled into quietness and sleep. So there’s a kind of anarchist tendency in Surrealism but also just an impulse to question and to contest authority, which is probably not such a bad thing in certain times.”

Even better, Suleiman notes, it’s also entertaining. “I love anything that has humor in it. And surrealist work, even while it’s shocking sometimes, violent…there’s always this sort of explosive humor,” she says.

This is perhaps helpful to bear in mind considering the fact that the most well-known of the four films we’ve seen, “Un chien andalou,” also contains one of the most notoriously disgusting images in all of film.

Very close to the beginning of the 28-minute silent film, Buñuel, who directed the film with Salvador Dalí, stands calmly behind a seated young woman with a razor in his hand. Lifting the razor, he draws it swiftly across the surface of her eye, making a piece of the cornea fall away.

Suleiman explains that viewers revolted by the violence of the image are not alone: Buñuel himself claimed to feel sick for a week afterwards despite the fact that the eye was not actually a human one, but rather a calf’s eye he had bought specially for the film. Even so, she says, the scene is remarkably rich and thought-provoking—more so because Buñuel is a part of it.

“First of all, it coincides with the moment when the cloud slices the moon...it’s kind of a statement about associations and metaphor, cutting an eye is like a cloud slicing the moon,” she says. “And then it’s also about filmmaking. You can argue that the cut is what filmmaking is about. So Buñuel puts himself in it I think partially as a commentary on film. Film is a cut. And also he had a theory that film should be a kind of violence and a provocation to the viewer, you know, it’s supposed to wake you up.”

She pauses and smiles.

“And if that won’t wake you up, well, I don’t know what will.”

—“Adventures in Surrealism” runs through Nov. 21 at the Harvard Film Archive.

—Staff writer Marianne F. Kaletzky can be reached at kaletzky@fas.harvard.edu.

Revolution in the Stacks

2006-11-02T06:11:00.000-08:00

Introduction

In 1999, protests against the World Trade
Organization and the “Battle in Seattle” put the
word “anarchy” back into the popular political
vocabulary. Since then, international
demonstrations against war and neoliberalism have
often involved groups of explicitly antiauthoritarian,
anti-capitalist youth. Who are these
young people and what kind of politics is motivating
them? For many, the answer is anarchism.
Anarchism is a political philosophy concerned
with the freedom of the individual from the power
of the state and other forms of authority. Some
confusion can arise, however, over the distinction
between “left” and “right” versions of anarchism.
“Left” anarchists are not only opposed to state
power, but also to private property, inequality and
capitalism. “Right” anarchists (e.g. Ayn Rand)
also oppose state power, but support an unfettered
capitalism and the central role of private
ownership.
This paper focuses only on the “left” variety of
anarchism, which emerged out of the liberal and
socialist movements of the nineteenth century.
Anarchism reached its zenith in Spain in the
1930s, collectivizing agriculture and industries,
before being crushed by totalitarianism. Its
influence around the world began to wane with the
rising power of the Soviet Union and the increased
prosperity of the post-war era.
Despite its overall decline in popularity, however,
anarchism experiences short bursts of interest and
influence amongst activist intellectuals and young
people every decade or so, most dramatically with
the rise of the New Left in the 1960s. Interest arose
again during the Punk era of the 1970s, then again
with the growth of the Internet and “cyberanarchy”
in the 1990s, and today with the activities
surrounding the anti-globalization, anti-neoliberal,
and anti-imperialist struggles.
As a result, librarians can expect user interest in
this topic to rise, fall, and rise again, and should
therefore be prepared with a well-managed
collection of classic and contemporary material.
This guide was written to assist librarians,
teachers, students and activists in their anarchist
research. The resource lists are by no means
comprehensive, but will instead direct researchers
toward some of the best materials available in
English.

How does an anarchist view election season?

2006-11-02T06:07:00.000-08:00

by Nikki Tundel, Minnesota Public Radio
October 30, 2006

Political candidates seem to have commandeered the airwaves. Neighborhoods are thick with lawn signs. And television ads extol the virtues of voting. What's an anarchist to do?

St. Paul, Minn. — Contrary to popular belief, anarchists aren't all about chaos and slam-dancing and breaking stuff. Many of them are passionate about political change. They just don't think elections lead to a better society.

Reporter Nikki Tundel met up with Sam Richard, an anarchist from Minneapolis. They talked about apathy, guerrilla theater and what it's like to be an anarchist in an election year.

AUDIO REPORT

US Army AMMO DUMP ATTACK with secondary explosions!

2006-11-01T07:09:00.000-08:00

[Thanks to Sunshine Jim for the link]

an amazing video shot by troops on the ground on October 10th.

This took out 300 troop that are'nt being counted in Octobers death toll......

that means a total of 400 not the cited 100 we hear from "W"

video here:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1410660598904719984

WILL THIS ELECTION BRING A BRIGHTER DAY OR THE END OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

2006-11-01T06:06:00.000-08:00

SUPPORT THE PEACE TEAM CANDIDATES NOW: http://www.peaceteam.net

If there were ever a more urgent reason to replace each and every member of Congress virtually without exception, one need only look at the breathtaking new martial law powers granted to the Bush administration this month. It has always been a sacred tenet of our Democracy that the U.S. military should not be deployed AGAINST American citizens. But literally in the dead of night and almost without comment, an amendment to the Insurrection Act was slipped into the just passed Defense Authorization bill stating, and get this:

"the President may employ the armed forces, including the National Guard in Federal service, to restore public order and enforce the laws of the United States when . . . the President determines that domestic violence has occurred"

So let's just say for example that the electronic election results in 8 days are so far out of line with pre-election and exit polling data so as to defy credulity. And let's just say that people organized massive peaceful protests of the theft of their elections. And let's just say that the Bush administration provoked "police" riots, or even had their own provocateurs commit violent acts so as to justify a military crackdown. Voila . . . now you have American soldiers shooting at otherwise peaceful political protesters. And you thought Kent State was a party!

And if you don't think that could ever happen, then why the hell have they pushed for such changes, which are now the law of the land?

The whole concept of the president as an unaccountable determiner, or "decider", insulated from any kind of oversight by Congress or the Courts has been the hallmark of the Cheney/Bush executive coup, which just keeps steamrollering along while our presumptive protectors in Congress are asleep at the switch, or cowering in their cloakrooms.

Shame on each and every member of Congress who allowed this to happen with hardly as much as peep or a whimper. Shame on them for their lack of diligence and lack of oversight. Shame, shame, shame on Democrats as well as Republicans. Are there any, any at all worth keeping, who will actually fight for the people and their rights? The list of keepers must now be short indeed.

But there are some candidates who ARE fighting to be the people's voice. There are candidates who were calling for our troops in Iraq to start coming home, and standing strong on that call, BEFORE the general public began to realize the scale of the Iraq disaster, doomed as it was from the start by its illegal and immoral underpinnings.

And what we are asking you to do, in this last 7 days before the upcoming election, is to donate anything you can, if you have not done so already, to help the brave candidates on the Peace Team to get their Lie/Die TV spots on the air, so the people know that there is at least somebody out there taking a stand on principle.

SUPPORT THE PEACE TEAM CANDIDATES NOW: http://www.peaceteam.net

So far you have contributed over $60,000 in just the last couple weeks to this valiant effort. It may not be the millions of dollars that other candidates may throw around, but it has made a real difference. Because of you, the courageous Peace Team candidates are getting a hearing they would have otherwise had. A number are definitely within striking distance if only we do everything we can to support them.

But most of all we thank you for your own courage in continuing to speak out, which will be all the more important regardless of who wins particular elections in this round. We must always keep the heat on the members of Congress we may be stuck with for the time being, until we can replace them with somebody better.

Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed to be ours.

Leading Journalists Expose Major Cover-ups in Media

2006-11-01T05:52:00.000-08:00

The riveting excerpts below are from the revealing accounts of 20 award-winning journalists in the highly acclaimed book Into the Buzzsaw. These courageous writers were prevented by corporate media ownership from reporting major news stories. Some were even fired or laid off. They have won numerous awards, including several Emmys and a Pulitzer. Join in building a better world by helping to spread this news across the land.

Jane Akre—Fox News. After our struggle to air an honest report [on hormones in milk], Fox fired the general manager [of our station]. The new GM said that if we didn’t agree to changes that the lawyers were insisting upon, we’d be fired for insubordination in 48 hours. We pleaded with [him] to look at the facts we’d uncovered. His reply: “We paid $3 billion dollars for these stations. We’ll tell you what the news is. The news is what we say it is!” [After we refused] Fox’s GM presented us an agreement that would give us a full year of salary, and benefits worth close to $200,000, but with strings attached: no mention of how Fox covered up the story and no opportunity to ever expose the facts. [After declining] we were fired. (click for more)

Dan Rather—CBS, Multiple Emmy Awards. What's going on is a belief that you can manipulate communicable trust between the leadership and the led. The way you do that is you don't let the press in anywhere. Access to war is extremely limited. The fiercer the combat, the more the access is limited, [including] access to information. This is a direct contradiction of the stated policy of maximum access to information consistent with national security. There was a time in South Africa when people would put flaming tires around people's necks if they dissented. In some ways the fear [now in the U.S.] is that you will have a flaming tire of lack of patriotism put around your neck. That fear keeps journalists from asking the tough questions. I am humbled to say, I do not except myself from this criticism. (click for more)

Monika Jensen-Stevenson—Emmy-winning producer for 60 minutes. Robert R. Garwood—14 years a prisoner of the Vietnamese—was found guilty in the longest court-martial in US history. At the end of the court-martial, there seemed no question that Garwood was a monstrous traitor. Several years later in 1985, Garwood was speaking publicly about something that had never made the news during his court-martial. He knew of other American prisoners in Vietnam long after the war was over. He was supported by Vietnam veterans whose war records were impeccable….My sources included outstanding experts like former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency General Tighe and returned POWs like Captain McDaniel, who held the Navy’s top award for bravery. With such advocates, it was hard not to consider the possibility that prisoners (some 3,500) had in fact been kept by the Vietnamese as hostages to make sure the US would pay the more than $3 billion in war reparations. [After the war] American POWs had become worthless pawns. The US had not paid the promised monies and had no intention of paying in the future. (click for more)

Kristina Borjesson—CBS, Emmy award winner. Pierre Salinger announced to the world on Nov. 8, 1996, that he’d received documents proving that a US Navy missile had accidentally downed [TWA flight 800]. That same day, FBI’s Jim Kallstrom called a press conference. A man raised his hand and asked why the Navy was involved in the recovery and investigation while a possible suspect. “Remove him!” [Kallstrom] yelled. Two men leapt over to the questioner and grabbed him by the arms. There was a momentary chill in the air after the guy had been dragged out of the room. Kallstrom and entourage acted as if nothing had happened. [Kallstrom was later hired by CBS.] (click for more)

Greg Palast—BBC. In the months leading up to the November [2000] balloting, Gov. Jeb Bush ordered elections supervisors to purge 58,000 voters on the grounds they were felons not entitled to vote. As it turns out, only a handful of these voters were felons. This extraordinary news ran on page one of the country’s leading paper. Unfortunately, it was the wrong country: Britain. In the USA, it was not covered. The office of the governor [also] illegally ordered the removal of felons from voter rolls—real felons—but with the right to vote under law. As a result, 50,000 of these voters could not vote. The fact that 90% of these were Democrats should have made it news as this alone more than accounted for Bush’s victory. (click for more)

Michael Levine—25-year veteran of DEA, writer for New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today. The Chang Mai “factory” that the CIA prevented me from destroying was the source of massive amounts of heroin being smuggled into the US in the bodies and body bags of GIs killed in Vietnam. Case after case was killed by CIA and State Department intervention and there wasn’t a thing we could do about it….In 1980, CIA-recruited mercenaries and drug traffickers unseated Bolivia’s democratically elected president. Immediately after the coup, cocaine production increased massively. Bolivia [became] the source of virtually 100% of the cocaine entering the US. This was the beginning of the crack “plague.”…The CIA along with State and Justice Departments had to protect their drug-dealing assets by destroying a DEA investigation. How do I know? I was the inside source….I sat down at my desk in the American embassy and wrote evidence of my charges. I addressed it to Newsweek. Three weeks later DEA’s internal security [called] to notify me that I was under investigation….The highlight of the 60 Minutes piece is when the administrator of the DEA, Federal Judge Robert Bonner, tells Mike Wallace, “There is no other way to put it, Mike, [what the CIA did] is drug smuggling. It’s illegal.” (click for more)

Gary Webb—San Jose Mercury News, Pulitzer Prize winner. In 1996, I wrote a series of stories that began this way: For the better part of a decade, a Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods gangs of LA and funneled millions in drug profits to a guerilla army run by the CIA. The cocaine that flooded in helped spark a crack explosion in urban America….The story was developing a momentum all of its own, despite a virtual news blackout from the major media. Ultimately, it was public pressure that forced the national newspapers into the fray. The Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times published stories, but spent little time exploring the CIA’s activities. Instead, my reporting and I became the focus of their scrutiny. It was remarkable [Mercury News editor] Ceppos wrote, that the four Washington Post reporters assigned to debunk the series “could not find a single significant factual error.” A few months later, the Mercury News [due to intense CIA pressure] backed away from the story, publishing a long column by Ceppos apologizing for “shortcomings.” The New York Times hailed Ceppos for “setting a brave new standard,” and splashed his apology on their front page, the first time the series had ever been mentioned there. I quit the Mercury News not long after that….Do we have a free press today? Sure. It’s free to report all the sex scandals, all the stock market news, [and] every new health fad that comes down the pike. But when it comes to the real down and dirty stuff—such stories are not even open for discussion. (click for more)

John Kelly—Author, ABC producer. ABC hired me to help produce a story about an investment firm that was heavily involved with the CIA. Part of the ABC report charged that the CIA had plotted to assassinate an American, Ron Rewald, the president of [the investment firm]. Scott Barnes said on camera that the CIA had asked him to kill Rewald. After the show aired, CIA officials met with ABC executive David Burke, [who] was sufficiently impressed “by the vigor with which they made their case” to order an on-air “clarification.” But that was not enough. [CIA Director] Casey called ABC Chairman Goldenson. [Thus] despite all the documented evidence presented in the program, despite ABC standing by the program in a second broadcast, Peter Jennings reported that ABC could no longer substantiate the charges. That same day, the CIA filed a formal complaint with the FCC charging that ABC had “deliberately distorted” the news. In the complaint, Casey asked that ABC be stripped of its TV and radio licenses….During this time, Capital Cities Communications was maneuvering to buy ABC. [CIA Director] Casey was one of the founders of Cap Cities. Cap Cities bought ABC. Within months, the entire investigative unit was dispersed. (click for more)

Robert McChesney—500 radio & TV appearances. [There has been a] striking consolidation of the media from hundreds of firms to an industry dominated by less than ten enormous transnational conglomerates. The largest ten media firms own all US TV networks, most TV stations, all major film studios, all major music companies, nearly all cable TV channels, much of the book and magazine publishing [industry], and much, much more. Expensive investigative journalism—especially that which goes after national security or powerful corporate interests—is discouraged. Largely irrelevant human interest/tragedy stories get extensive coverage….A few weeks after the war began in Afghanistan, CNN president Isaacson authorized CNN to provide two different versions of the war: a more critical one for the global audience and a sugarcoated one for Americans….It is nearly impossible to conceive of a better world without some changes in the media status quo. We have no time to waste. (click for more)

For a powerful 10-page summary of this material: www.WantToKnow.info/massmedia

For other reliable resources on the media cover-up: Media Information Center

The Transitions of the Social Revolution

2006-11-01T00:15:00.000-08:00

Culture and Social Revolution
The Transitions of the Social Revolution
Imagine, if you will, an onion, connected and interconnected circles raveled around a core. Each layer is distinct, separate, yet all a part of the whole. This dialectical representation of what the Ancient Egyptians considered to be a representation of life itself is a perfect example of the current transition period to Communism. The outside core is culture, embedded within, created from, yet distinct from society. The social layer is distinct and yet a malfeasant creation in servitude to the laws of capital, the state, and all oppression needed to maintain the exploitative rule of the capitalist class.

The core, tertiary, and most fundamental contradiction that can only be resolved after the onion has been peeled, is the natural environment and Man's harmonious adaptation to it.
The form of revolution is based upon the content of its specific internal contradictions. The primary contradiction of social revolution is the conflict of the oppressed class struggling against the vampirical exploitative oppressor. We must understand that today's "have nots" are tomorrow's "gon'-gets"1 Revolution is uneven, violent, and an organic process that is difficult to fully grasp and understand. Revolution is anathema to all forms of class society. Revolution is evolution, violent, struggle, a series of negations2 as the simple organisms move and struggle to survive, adapt, and eventually overcome the existing environmental external contradictions that inhibited earlier development. As an organism struggles to survive, and adapt, that organism moves to a higher understanding of both itself, and its environment. The more complex the organism, the more aware of its own existence and the existence of others it is.

Peter Kropotkin illustrated that, in direct contradiction to the bourgeois apologist Hobbes3, Darwin's theory of natural selection was too skewed towards individual competition. Mutual aid is the primary factor of evolution. The dialectical exchange between each organism and its own and opposites is the foundation for all societies, animal, and human. Engel's illustrated how the human hand created the human mind through tools, work, and society.4 As the human hand created the tools for work, the mind adapted to the potentials opened up through each actualization, and dexterity of both mind and hand created the unbridled potential of modern man. Piaget clearly illustrated the social creature that man is in his studies on the stages of human development. A quick examination of each stage of human development shows the negations necessary to achieve adulthood, mature cognition, requires positive and healthy social interaction. "Conversations with others strengthens internal dialogue5." Art and culture arise from the abstract understandings of concrete reality, the interaction of humanity struggling to make meaning with the external world.

Anarchism exists naturally within the heart and souls of the working class: communism is the logical extrapolation from it6. Today's movement has inherited a century and half's worth of anarchist struggle. Anarchy is the chaos and raw unbridled potential within the working class; it is the struggle against selfish order that is oppressive, and it must eventually lead to an organism of some sort. Individual cells must eventually come together to form an organism, or they will be the basic food source for every animal, like the helpless Plankton that float in the ocean in an anarchic utopia of sunlit splendor. They are constantly being devoured by any and all who come into contact with them.

The greatest setback the anarchist movement faced was their inept smashing during the Bolshevik revolution. The authoritarian principles of scientific socialism won out over the passionate ideologues of anarchism. An organized entity with a plan, a vision, and the initiative necessary to carry it out will always destroy a lack of organization. The anarchists and socialists both wanted communism7, but the socialists wanted to take authoritarian shortcuts to get there. There are no shortcuts during the social revolution. None. All shortcuts will lead to capitalism in a more powerful virulent form than before the revolution.

Without belaboring the point and spending countless pages extolling the organization while clearly illustrating the failures of both socialism and naked anti-authoritarianism, suffice it to say that anarchy, unbridled potential, restistance to oppressive order, exists within the working class, but only an organization of dedicated revolutionaries can create the necessary conditions for, provide leadership to, and then facilitate self-governance of the working class within the framework of a communist society. Only organization can deliver the working class through the "Red Sea" of social revolution. Though the Pharoaic forces of the bourgeoisie may attack us and hound us, the imperialist swine and their fascist dogs will die. The major key for us as revolutionaries to realize is that we don't need, nor should we ever aspire to be, a Moses. We must struggle against any and all attempts at creating a cult of personality. The cult of personality is always used as a lightning rod to mysticize the working class and obscure class rule. You cannot have a state without having a "great leader." It is a sad testament to our working class revolutionary heritage that our prior leaders, soldiers, and fighters retreated from this principle. Great leaders will emerge through the fires of class struggle, but they must be the product of revolution, and their authority will pass with the revolution, not to become idols that assume leadership and are absolutely followed by the masses that sacrificed so much.

Social revolution must come from below, and it must be led by the working class in their own interests. For the working class to lead itself to emancipation and an end to class rule, a mass party of millions of dedicated revolutionaries must facilitate and coordinate the great task of social revolution. We must keep in mind that grass grows from the roots up, and from a seed. A tiny embryo planted in soil causes weeds to crack concrete. The anarchy that exists within the working class is dormant until provoked, though there are some revolutionaries, and more every day, who are aware that the system of capitalism has to be smashed. It needs to be cultivated and facilitated into a hunger for a communist world that is dedicated to meeting our needs. The dialectic between anarchism and communism must be maintained.

The social revolution is the transition period between capitalism and communism. We are in the social revolution period now. The Bolsheviks made a great mistake and retreat from revolution when they theorized that the transition period comes after a violent revolution for state power. The anarchist movement correctly declared that the proletariat shouldn't aspire to state power, but should instead smash the power of the state. But, the major anarchist principle that seems to be forgotten in this argument of transition period is that of "anarchy now!" – building anarchy wherever and whenever you can.

The revolutionary has seized control of his own mind and must continually struggle against the internalized state and social constructs that she/he's been indoctrinated with under the oppression of capitalist culture. By becoming a revolutionary dedicated to the absolute destruction of class rule and the monolithic state that supports it, while absolutely dedicated to creating an egalitarian society of all for all and in the interests of all, then you have "state power." The individual determination necessary for the creation of a "stateless" society is predicated upon the initiative and desire to meet the needs all of those who are in need. The contemporary revolutionary is akin to the medieval atheist who laughed at the priests when they threatened hell, and shook the foundations of the church to its knees, for we deny capital, the god of the modern state, as the prime motivator of human existence.

We seize power within ourselves in order to facilitate others seizing their own power. We don't want power to force others to serve our own interests, but to empower all to create the necessary framework to meet all of our interests. We must recognize that revolution is a series of negations, rebirths through deaths. Each negation of a stage leads to a higher stage of development and understanding.

The appearance of today's globalized world my lead some to wonder how a social revolution can take place. The capitalists have bombs, tanks, and computers to coordinate their planes and bombs. How can a revolutionary movement create a social revolution within these existing social conditions? Some authoritarian socialist groups adhere to the "vanguard party" concept of building a party, dropping some agitation, and eventually seizing power to put themselves in charge because they are smarter than Mao, Lenin, and Stalin put together, and the entire anarchist movement didn't exist. They know more than everyone, and if you've ever talked to them or more realistically, been talked at by them, then you realize that their concept of dictatorship of the proletariat is a couple of proletarian dictators.
As far as the Maoist people's war for New Democracy (basically the same old bourgeois democracy with new promises), any religious "foco" guerilla organizations that exist such as Hamas, or the "left" governments of social democracy, will either bring about bourgeois democracy or a theocracy that will deepen the power of the state, further entrench the laws of capital within the minds of the people, build cynicism, and maintain class rule. All struggles for national sovereignty are doomed to maintain the capitalist state. "Self-determination" for a "people" is a euphemism for a nation. A country is a distinct sphere of influence of one section of a minority class exploiting the mass section of toilers while creating a buffer class of intellectuals and apologists who tell the toilers that they should be happy because they have Vietnamese or Palestinians whipping their asses instead of Imperialist Americans or Fascist Israelis. National self-determination is nothing more than bourgeois aspirations and outright manipulation of the working class into creating a bourgeois revolution that is against the interests of the toiling masses. The national question has been answered time and time again through millions of corpses and smashed dreams. All forms of nationalism are a death trap for the revolutionary movement.

This brings us to the first stage of the social revolution – where the revolutionary legions of the Chinese revolution left off. After a revolution that leads to an authoritarian form of government, the most advanced sections of the revolutionary proletariat will rise up to advance the revolution to its original egalitarian goals, we see this repeated with Kronstadt's sailors, the Friends of Durruti, and the left elements of the Red Guard during The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China. At the nexus of revolution, the Chinese proletariat saw that culture hid the capitalist reconstruction being buried in red flags and Mao Zedong rhetoric. Culture was saturated within the left movement of Allende's Chile in South America. Culture is ideology in practice, and culture creates consciousness.

The stages of revolution are all interconnected, for as the culture of revolution is created, it will embolden the toiling masses to reconsider the society in which they live. The revolutionary culture must come from the interaction of a living breathing toiling class struggling valiantly to free itself from its oppressor. As the revolutionary seeks to "build a base within the working class"8 through "social insertion"9 our experiences and the workers experiences must be written down, filmed, photographed, and journalized. Paintings of the struggles we are in, poems celebrating the sacrifices that are made, and songs showing the beauty of class struggle will lead to a further solidarity within the working class and their revolutionary center.

Our culture work must go beyond mere propaganda agitation to a full all out assault on the sexist, racist, and nationalist garbage pushed by the capitalists. Billboards and subway posters should be a constant target of markers, spray cans, and bumper stickers. This culture of revolt will have its roots in the revulsion of the minstrel show racist garbage coming out of Hollywood today. Music can be laid down in computer home studios and distributed widely through our networks and the internet. Rage Against The Machine, despite their internal contradictions, did raise the consciousness of many fans who tuned into their rage drenched lyrics. Artists are culture workers, and they are very valuable to the bourgeoisie. The international ruling class makes trillions of dollars a year through its culture industry belching out bland pop ditties that reinforce the social status quo. Revolutionary art and culture must attack the very foundation of capital – patriarchy, privilege, power, domination, and violence.

A quantity of cultural actions will qualitatively affect the social aspect of revolution. Each quantity of cultural work will qualitatively advance the social by building the conscious of the proletariat, and inspire them to revolt. The spirit of revolt can then be further fomented by culture centers, community gardens, collective farms, and especially, revolutionary libraries. Our culture work will both fund and facilitate the cultural centers and Ferrer's modern schools where the communist world will germinate. Our new world will be born of a conscious and rational movement for the international working class to have full self-determination, self-devolopment, and self-_expression. Where the individual developement of all will never be allowed to impinge on the individual freedom of any.

As a communist world becomes more tangible to the toiling masses, they will desire to create the necessary conditions to build that new world. We must continually be organizing a collective approach among the toiling masses. We must never make the historically anarchist mistake of just letting things happen on their own, nor should we make the authoritarian mistake of doing things for the workers because we have their interests at heart and really know what's best for them. We have to be in the struggle and be organic with how the organization will happen. At the same time, we must not hesitate to build our revolutionary organization through organizing branches or affinity groups. Wherever communist culture begins to blossom organizing should also be growing. Our primary measurement during the cultural work/consciousness raising period of the social revolution must be the growth of revolutionary organization. If we are not growing, then we are not being revolutionary, are not leading enough, and are heading in the wrong direction. If we are growing as the revolutionary aspirations of the working class grow, then we are correct in our work and analysis.

The art that we create will be a reflection of the struggles to collectivize, organize, and rise up against the capitalist class. But, there are many anarchist groups, libertarian communist groups, and especially socialist groups, that say that culture work should not happen since it violates the indigenous culture of an area. This is an absolutist and reductionist way of understanding culture. The entire human population possesses a culture saturated with superstition, slavery, elitism, privilege, and especially religion. Artificial social constructs maintained and financed by the capitalists and that serve the interests of capital permeate the mental landscape of the proletariat. The conflict between what is innate and inherent of humanity must be discovered in conflict with what we know is not a part of us. The "black conscious" and the spirit of other oppressed peoples have a natural affinity of struggle, solidarity, and egalitarian sacrifice. As the exploited toiling masses seek to find their commonality in struggle, whatever cultural differences that arise, will be natural. We cannot know what these cultural differences are now, as the culture of the oppressor shackles the mind of the oppressed. A dialectic, lucid, conscious, and rational worldview based on the organic interplay of ideas and mutual respect will lay the foundation of a communist worldview.

Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc. hold out pie in the sky rhetoric to keep billions of our fellow wage slaves suffering through their lives on Earth. The priest of all hues and persuasions, is the employee of the state. The preacherman charlatans teach our fellow wage slaves to follow a messiah, and to make the rich man richer so that the offering plate stays full. The Dalai Lama implied support for the USA's imperialist genocide in Iraq11 and Pope Benedictine XVI was an actual member of the Nazi party. All culture in the world today has been created under the auspices of the state and so are poisoned by capitalism. The unity of the working masses comes from our strength to persevere, our desire for equality, and our innate understanding that we should all be struggling to share the Earth's resources. As we unite through struggle, the working class will coalesce. As we tear down the artificial social constructs of country, nation, and religion, the indigenous peculiarities associated with certain parts of humanity and particular to geographical locations will arise. But, we really can't know what they will be at this stage of history. We must constantly remind ourselves that communism will be the beginning of history.

As the social revolution leads to the communist revolution, we will then see the environmental revolution unleashed. The Earth's infinite12 resources will be tapped as we organize ourselves off of the industrial fossil fuels and move towards geothermic, wave, or wind energy. The more we fight to harmonize ourselves with nature and discover our true humanity, the more of an egalitarian society we will build. We should build environmental awareness and theorize how to best implement environmentally friendly, yet agriculturally conducive energy systems that will meet the needs of the working class. Each empty factory seized is a potential windmill factory, but at this stage of the social revolution, our aspirations to a pure environment must be fought for through a long continuous struggle.

The stages of the social revolution can be built, must be fought for, now. We must join churches in our areas to build clothing swaps, soup kitchens, and raise the awareness of the congregations. We must enlist in the armed services to create the spirit of revolt and insurrections among the armed wing of the capitalist class. We should try to buy old camp sites and build collective farms to supply the urban working class with fresh food. We should attempt to turn every abandoned lot into a community garden and cultural center. But, most importantly, we must live, breath, and dedicate ourselves into being the people we want others to be in a communist society. Let others see us, hear us, and let us foment the spirit of revolt so that the social revolution destroys the state, capital, and privilege once and for all.

1 The Coup advances this in their song "We Are The Ones", as they go on to say that we'll tear down your state." The use of hip hop as a revolutionary weapon by groups such as this illustrates the potential of revolutionary music.

2 A Negation is "addition by subtraction." By the negating of one aspect, a further growth can occur. A negation of a thing is not necessarily a negative thing, nor is it always positive, but it always causes a change to occur.

3 See Brian Morris' Kropotkin: The Politics of Community for a polemic against Hobbes using Kropotkin's analysis found in Mutual Aid.

4 "The Part played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man" Frederick Engels 1876

5 Dialectical Materialism: In Laws, Categories, and Practice by Ira Gollobin has an in depth discussion of Piaget and his stages of development. Gollobin directly correlates Piaget's research to the stages of humanity, and, by so doing, illustrates the potential world that we can create.

6 "The ABC of The Revolutionary Anarchist" by Nestor Makhno

7 Communism is a stateless society based upon the principle of "from each according to ability and to each according to need." It is the end state goal of libertarian communism, anarchy, and socialism.

8 "Build a Base in the Working Class" Progressive Labor Party document 1968 Class consciousness has nothing to do with how well you can vocalize Marxist-Leninist propositions. It has everything to do with your relations to people, and how they can eventually be moved into battle against the class enemy.

9 "Especifismo: The Anarchist Praxis of Building Popular Movements and Revolutionary Organizations in South America" NEFAC document 2006 This assumes the perspective that social movements will reach their own logic of creating revolution, not when they as a whole necessarily reach the point of being self-identified "anarchists," but when as a whole (or at least an overwhelming majority) they reach the consciousness of their own power and exercise this power in their daily lives, in a way consciously adopting the ideas of anarchism.

11 "Dali Lama: Iraq War May Be Justified" by SCOTT LINDLAW Monday, Sep. 15, 2003 WASHINGTON (AP) - The Dalai Lama said Wednesday that the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan may have been justified to win a larger peace, but that is it too soon to judge whether the Iraq war was warranted.

12 Infinite relative to the finite limits of existence. For example, solar energy can only exist so long as there is an Earth and a sun.

¡Fuera Ulises! San Cristobal takes action for justice in Oaxaca

2006-11-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

Cha-Cha 31 Oct 2006 04:06 GMT

¡Ulises Ya Cayo!
¡Ulises Ya Cayo!

¡Presos politicos, desaparicidos, no se olvidan!
¡Presos politicos, desaparicidos, no se olvidan!

San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas
October 30, 2006, 7:40pm

Over 100 people marched as The Other Campaign through the streets of San Cristobal de Las Casas tonight in solidarity with the Popular Assembly of Communities of Oaxaca (APPO), demanding the immediate resignation of former governor Ulises Ruiz, the immediate withdrawl of paramilitary forces and the federal police (PFP), immediate release of all political prisoners and kidnapped people, and an end to all government sponsored violence against the people of Oaxaca.

Marchers carried candles repudiating the murder of activists and comrades, including Brad Will, a NYC resident and Indymedia reporter who was fatally shot through the stomach by paramilitary soldiers working on behalf Ulises Ruiz. Activists carried banners dedicated to the murdered and the disappeared saying “¡No Estan Muertos!” – They Have Not Died.

The march ended in the central square of San Cristobal, where its ranks swelled considerably. A Oaxacan woman brought us up to the minute, reporting a 15 year old minor and an adult teacher just murdered by paramilitary forces. The police are spraying crowds with water mixed with a skin irritant out of hoses designed for crowd control. The federal police and paramilitaries have invaded the city, kidnapped and disappeared activists, as well as committing murder. She warned that if “this is permitted to occur in Oaxaca unopposed, the same with happen here in Chiapas.” The crowd responded with cries of “¡Ulises, ya cayo!” – Ulises is done!

An activist with The Other Campaign and La Otra Jovel read us communiqués from both the Jovel and the Sexta Commission of the Zapatistas, and implored us to take part in the further actions that will occur throughout Chiapas.

In the center of the gathering, activists began to lay memorial candles. I thought about Brad Will’s courage as a fighter for the democratic power that comes from below, and against the power that dominates from above. I hoped he was somehow able to see the faces of the people gathered here tonight, gathered in New York City, in Tuxtla Gutierrez, in Argentina, around the world, demanding justice for Oaxaca and everyone who has been murdered by the government. We will continue to work for justice.

At the end of the demonstration a cold wind suddenly blew through the gathering, chilling everyone momentarily. The candles in the center shrunk to tiny blue dots against the night, but by the time people began to walk home not a single one had gone out.

LONG LIVE APPO AND THE COMMUNITIES OF OAXACA!

LONG LIVE BRAD WILL!

LONG LIVE EMILIO FABIAN!

END THE OCCUPATION, AND
ENOUGH OFTHE ILLEGITAMITE GOVERNMENT OF ULISES RUIZ!

LIBERTY FOR ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS NOW!!!

DOWN WITH BORDERS!

LONG LIVE SOLIDARITY!!!

NYT: Mexican Protesters Keep Their Message Alive, and on the Air

2006-10-31T17:04:00.000-08:00

OAXACA, Mexico, Oct. 30

Eros Hoagland for The New York Times

Protesters at a radio station in Oaxaca, Mexico, that has served as a central means of communication for those challenging the local government. One of them concealed his features because of fear of reprisals by the police. Stations like this have been used to alert protesters to moves against them by the police. More Photos >

As the federal riot police hunkered down in Oaxaca’s main square on Monday, protesters sought to protect their not-so-secret weapon in their five-month siege of the city: the pilfered radio transmitter they use to mobilize the population.

Photographs

Oaxaca Torn by Clashes

Enlarge This Image

Eros Hoagland for The New York Times

The barricaded radio station at Oaxaca University where protesters have broadcast messages to their supporters. More Photos »

“We are in a red alert, a red alert!” a nervous-sounding announcer said over and over from inside the bullet-scarred university station, which was ringed by sandbags and protected by masked supporters on the roof equipped with handmade mortars. “The police are moving in!”

The cry was premature, but it drew hundreds of supporters from across this city in southern Mexico. They prepared Molotov cocktails and reinforced the barriers around the gates of Oaxaca University in anticipation of a raid.

“We will transmit until the last minute,” an announcer who described himself as a law professor, but declined to provide his name, said in an interview. “We will not run. We are like the captains of the ship, and we’ll go down with the ship.”

Oaxaca State’s beleaguered governor, Ulises Ruiz, was also hunkered down, on his own turf. The federal police remained in control of the central square on Monday, but protesters marched through the rest of downtown, denouncing Mr. Ruiz and occasionally setting fire to vehicles.

Although the governor insisted in a television interview on Monday that he would not resign, his support appeared thin as both houses of the Congress passed nonbinding resolutions urging him to cede power for the good of the state and the nation.

In the Chamber of Deputies, only Mr. Ruiz’s Institutional Revolutionary Party, known as the PRI, and another small allied party stuck by the governor, and even that backing seemed lukewarm.

In the Senate, even the PRI joined in a statement urging Mr. Ruiz to “reconsider separating himself from charge, in order to contribute to the re-establishment of governability, normality and peace.”

But the governor said he was not budging. “I am governing Oaxaca,” he declared in a late-night news conference, dismissing the protesters as a relatively small group that did not represent the masses. “The questions of Oaxaca will be decided by Oaxacans.”

Mr. Ruiz said the arrival of federal troops had not resolved the crisis but might establish an environment where the opposing parties could resolve their differences at the negotiating table. As for the graffiti painted around town accusing the governor of being an assassin, he declared, “I don’t accept their views. I respect human rights.”

Members of the Oaxaca People’s Popular Assembly, which has been coordinating the protests, clearly disagree, as their frequent anti-Ruiz messages over the radio make clear.

If the diffuse movement that has laid siege to Oaxaca has a nerve center, it is the trash-strewn conference room where the group broadcasts regular updates to their comrades.

On Monday, the radio called people into the streets for three protest marches that drew thousands. Announcers also mourned three people who the protesters said had died in a raid on Sunday. The government said it had no information of any deaths at the hands of the police.

Even after the federal police raid managed to take back the symbolic Zócalo, or central square, the station kept the movement alive.

The protest began as a teachers’ strike, but a deal was reached to raise their salaries. Some teachers returned to classes on Monday, although it appeared that many were not sure it was safe to do so.

While the protest coalition consists of leftists, local residents have said that the issue is more a struggle to wrest control of the state from the PRI, the political party that once controlled all of Mexico, but whose national power has greatly diminished.

“It’s strange, but I’m not afraid,” Alejandra Canseco Martínez, 22, a student who frequently sends out updates over the airwaves, said from inside the radio station. “Maybe I should be afraid, because we don’t know what will happen and the police are only a few blocks away.”

It is not the first time that the station has been under siege.

The current standoff began June 14, when the police broke up a teachers’ protest and smashed the transmitter that the teachers had been using to broadcast their messages from the main square. The following day, as supporters joined forces with the teachers, university students took over the campus station.

On July 22, gunmen opened fire on the station, sending workers ducking for cover and eventually knocking the signal off the air. But listeners heard the attack and converged on the station in support.

On Aug. 8, someone sneaked into the station and poured acid onto the transmitter, again killing the signal. But by that time, protesters had taken over another station. Within weeks, a dozen public and private stations around Oaxaca were controlled by protesters.

However, the university station, with its transmitter repaired, remains the chief source of information for the protesters. Its messages are dismissed as revolutionary propaganda by critics, but supporters relish the hard-edge words that fly across the colonial city.

“The other stations only say things in support of Ulises,” said Sal Lozano, 43, a farmer, speaking of Mr. Ruiz, the governor. “We’re going to defend this station with everything we have.”

Antonio Betancourt contributed reporting from Oaxaca, and Elisabeth Malkin from Mexico City.

Arrested for Remembering Brad Will

2006-10-31T17:02:00.000-08:00

As I walked to the consulate from the train I stopped to have a conversation with two “Punk” kids walking downtown. The male-bodied person had a giant Mohawk, and a studded jean jacket with a drawn on peace sign on their lapel and a Circle-A on their back. The female-bodied person had scene-ish hair with a “Rough” twist and a riot girl fashion line up. I approached them and explained the current situation in Oaxaca and what had happened to , “My friend Brad.” I also told them about the vigil and celebration that was going to happen in about an hour or so, and invited them to join. The male-bodied person looked at me and said, “Dude we don’t protest, we are not into politics.” “What?! What the fuck do you think that Circle-A on your back means?” I responded, in what I have to admit was a rather hostile tone. “It means punk!” I have heard this answer before. Without responding I just turned and walked away. It was at that very moment that I concluded that Punk was dead.

There were already a few people at the consulate when I arrived, mostly ANSWER folks. As the minutes ticked by, some fellow anarchists and Indymedia journalists also began showing up. I started holding up my sign with Brad’s picture and the years of his birth and death on it. People were making their signs, and altars, arranging flowers and candles, and holding placards to inform the people driving by about the horrible atrocities that are being committed in Oaxaca. It was at this time that “Officer Friendly” (His name is not officer friendly, but it sounds nicer than “Lieutenant Jack Ass” or just plain “Douche Wad” while still maintaining that great sarcastic Chicago “fuck you” attitude) approached the grieving crowd and began to hassle many people creating a memorial for Brad.

Maybe I should have stayed off to the side where I was. Maybe I should have just kept holding my sign up to the road. But I did not. I walked over to officer friendly and Chris, the person he was eventually to arrest, to see what was going on. My emotions have been really insane since I had found out Brad died, and that surely played into the events of Monday afternoon. I am not going to detail the next few events leading up to my arrest because I feel that is unnecessary but what I do want to say is that , other than the immediate moments after I had found out Brad was murdered, I have never felt such intense rage, hatred, and sadness before in my entire life. I feel that if I had wanted to, in the heat of the moment, I could have really hurt someone. My adrenalin was pumping like it never had before and “Officer Friendly” was just not helping the situation. So I ended up in the slammer but not before “Officer Friendly” admitted to being a Fascist.

Jail was absolutely ridiculous. For about six hours Chris and a I sat in this room, that was more of a club house for lazy police officers than a holding facility for supposed “criminals.” We got to hear officers make racist, queer-phobic, and sexist slurs non-stop. We also had the pleasure of hearing officers cheer when the news reported that 3 civilians had been killed but only one officer had been shot in the hand at Augusta and Kedzie. This is how sick these people are. They celebrate when civilians or “bad guys” are murdered in their own neighborhood. After hours of jerking us around and upon arrival of “Officer Friendly” we found we were being charged with “disorderly conduct… maybe.” More jerking around, and more jerking around. Until finally we are told that one of us (me) was being taken to 111th and State and the other (Chris) was being taken to Grand and Central. When one of the officers transporting Chris asked, “Why are we taking them all the way out there?” Officer Friendly replied, “Special Orders” Cleary they were trying to break us. It wasn’t working, we continued to snicker at how childish they were.

At around 9:15 or 9:30 my transport to 111th and State began. The two officers continuously spewed out racist comments as if they were trying to provoke me. “Look at all those Nigger Monkeys on that front porch” they said referring to a group of black kids sitting outside of their house, “Hey why don’t you throw that banana your wife gave you at them and see how they jump all over it,” one officer said to the other. “My banana is worth more than that,” the other responded. I bit my tongue, knowing that if I responded It would just be another 12 hours before I was out.

Despite being on the very outskirts of the city, 111th and State was actually pretty cool . The guards were nice and agreed that it was bullshit that Officer Friendly had sent me all the way from Ashland and Adams to 111th and State. They treated me very well and had me out of there in about 4 hours or so.

Now, I am not sure what I believe in terms of after life theory but I do know that through this whole ordeal I was not alone. Even if none of us have spirits and Brad didn’t have a spirit, to me he was there. The whole time he was in my mind and in my heart because had he been alive, he would have been in jail with me. No doubt about it, that is just the person Brad was. He did not let them take a friend without a fight. He did not let them trample on his rights without a fight. And that is how Brad should be remembered. That is the legacy of Brad Will. We must step it up. We must stop simply chanting, “let them go” when they are dragging away a friend, or a non friend for that matter. If everyone there had said, “No! You are not arresting Chris. No! You are not arresting Tristyn!” We would have shown solidarity and more so our strength. I know that is a very privileged thing to say, and a very risky thing to do. However, if there is one thing we can learn from the death of Brad, and the people of Oaxaca is, without freedom we have nothing, so there is nothing to lose. Lastly, I want to thank everyone for their help and offerings.

Brad Will! Presente!
Viva APPO!

Rwanda probes French role in genocide

2006-10-31T00:00:00.000-08:00

An independent national commission entrusted with probing the alleged French involvement in the Rwandan genocide began hearing on Tuesday in the Rwandan capital Kigali. The country's President, Paul Kagame, accused France-trained Hutu paramilitary forces of having supported the genocide.

French authorities have denied any charges. It is estimated that nearly one million Rwandan Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered in 100 days in the Rwandan genocide in 1994.

The commission, which includes historians and professors, is led by general prosecutor Jean de Dieu Mucyo. It appears to be certain that there was some sort of French involvement. Commissioners are expected to hear testimonies from 25 genocide survivors.

At the end of the hearings, the commission is to determine whether it is necessary for Rwanda to issue a motion at the International Court of Justice in the Hague against Paris for its assumed role in the genocide.

In Tuesday's sittings, four witnesses testified, including the ambassador to France in the period following the mass murders and a high official of the Rwandan security services.

Residents of the country's south-western area who were involved in the "Operation Torquoise" by the French under UN mandate to open a secure corridor between June and August 1994, accused French troops for allowing the militias that perpetrated the massacres to flee into neighbouring Zaire (now Congo Kinshasa, DRC).

A former ambassador of Rwanda in Paris, Jacques Bihozagara, informed the commission that France had an active role in the genocide, which according to him, was mitigated by its fears to lose influence in Africa.

He blamed the French government for its failure to withhold genocide suspects. "France did not express repentance," the French news agency AFP quoted Mr Bihozagara as saying in his evidence.

The former diplomat said Operation Turquoise aimed to protect only those responsible for the genocide.

The International Criminal Court had already judged some of the most important cases of the Rwandan genocide in the Tanzanian city of Arusha. The court had convicted twenty-five leaders but the Rwandan government is said to have been slow in effecting the legal process.

A genocide survivor, Rupert Bazambanza, said at the start of the war no one knew what genocide was.

"Overnight, our friends and neighbours became our enemy and wanted to kill us," he said, adding that it was difficult for them to smile through tears at the end of the genocide.

"It was like the Titanic. Everyone wanted to leave the boat, but had no way of doing so," Mr Bazambanza told 'Africa Comic'.

At this point, he had realised that he could not go home because everything was burnt down and that people were being murdered around him and bodies surrounded and covered the roads. Feeling very alone, Mr Bazambanza went into hiding.

"I felt like no one cared about what was going on," he said. But Mr Bazambanza wanted to make sure that people didn't just let this tragedy fade from memory. He started travelling and sharing his story with the world. "Every time I have the chance to talk to people, I realise why I survived," he said.

Camp Falcon etc...

2006-10-30T07:55:00.000-08:00

Baghdad Ammo Dump - From an Arabic news broadcast. Notice at 4:00 what appears to be a small nuke going off.

What Really Happened?

Plot thickens, Camp Falcon Coverup

Las Vegas appealing judge's ruling on feeding homeless at parks

2006-10-30T00:00:00.000-08:00

LAS VEGAS

The city is appealing a local judge's ruling that a law against providing food to homeless people at city parks is unconstitutional.

A city prosecutor was not given a chance to oppose dismissal of a misdemeanor charge against a California man who was cited under an ordinance the City Council approved in July, Ben Little, an assistant Las Vegas city attorney, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal for a Friday report.

Little declined further comment, saying the case remained pending following Thursday's appeal.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada hailed Municipal Court Judge George Assad's decision to dismiss the case. Assad said the ordinance was unconstitutionally vague and denied equal protection of the law.

Patrick Band, the California activist who had been issued a summons Aug. 10 for feeding people at a park east of downtown Las Vegas, said he was surprised by the ruling.

"For a judge on that level to throw out a case and to claim it's unconstitutional, that's rare and exciting and interesting," Band told the Review-Journal. "Personally, it's a great thing. I'm glad that's taken care of."

Band was one of five people issued summonses under an ordinance making it illegal to provide food or meals to the indigent "for free or for a nominal fee" in parks.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, a vocal supporter of cracking down on the homeless, has said handouts discourage indigent people from seeking help from social service providers set up to handle mental health and substance abuse problems.

An ACLU lawyer said the city should stop enforcing the ordinance - at least until a federal court rules on the ACLU lawsuit.

"There is absolutely no justification and no basis for marshals, police or anyone else to be arresting or citing people based on this law that a Las Vegas judge has ruled unconstitutional," said Allen Lichtenstein, ACLU general counsel in Las Vegas.

Actions in Los Angeles to support the Struggle --Stand with Oaxaca!

2006-10-29T20:41:00.000-08:00

Actions in the Week of October 29th

Action at the Mexican Consulate Today Sunday -at 6pm -- Mexican consulate is on 6th St. and Park View -- support the liberation struggle in Oaxaca being waged by the APPO (Asemblea Popular de Pueblos de Oaxaca / Popular Assembly of the People in Oaxaca) and Seccion 22 Teacher's Union -- Stop the Repression!

Monday 12 pm -- Press Conference -- APPO LA in front of the Mexican Consulate -- 6th St and Park View - Pico Union

Wednesday at 6pm - Action at the Mexican Consulate - Stop the Repression - Support the Liberation of Oaxaca -- Ulises ya Cayo - Ulises out of Oaxaca
6th and Park View

Thursday Nov 1st
Planton - Encampment/Sit In in front of the Mexican Consulate - Dia De Los Muertos -- Stop the Repression in Oaxaca - Ulises Fuera de Oaxaca/ Ulises Out of Oaxaca
10am-9pm
6th and Park View

Noam Chomsky Tells the Truth

2006-10-29T19:55:00.000-08:00

Time and again, he claims, the U.S. backs terrorists and spreads conflict in order to guarantee the wealth of a tiny minority.

Video Runtime 20 Minutes

A New Campaign Tactic: Manipulating Google Data

2006-10-29T13:13:00.000-08:00

By Tom Zeller Jr., The New York Times

Thursday 26 October 2006

If things go as planned for liberal bloggers in the next few weeks, searching Google for "Jon Kyl," the Republican senator from Arizona now running for re-election, will produce high among the returns a link to an April 13 article from The Phoenix New Times, an alternative weekly.

Mr. Kyl "has spent his time in Washington kowtowing to the Bush administration and the radical right," the article suggests, "very often to the detriment of Arizonans."

Searching Google for "Peter King," the Republican congressman from Long Island, would bring up a link to a Newsday article headlined "King Endorses Ethnic Profiling."

Fifty or so other Republican candidates have also been made targets in a sophisticated "Google bombing" campaign intended to game the search engine's ranking algorithms. By flooding the Web with references to the candidates and repeatedly cross-linking to specific articles and sites on the Web, it is possible to take advantage of Google's formula and force those articles to the top of the list of search results.

The project was originally aimed at 70 Republican candidates but was scaled back to roughly 50 because Chris Bowers, who conceived it, thought some of the negative articles too partisan.

The articles to be used "had to come from news sources that would be widely trusted in the given district," said Mr. Bowers, a contributor at MyDD.com (Direct Democracy), a liberal group blog. "We wanted actual news reports so it would be clear that we weren't making anything up."

Each name is associated with one article. Those articles are embedded in hyperlinks that are now being distributed widely among the left-leaning blogosphere. In an entry at MyDD.com this week, Mr. Bowers said: "When you discuss any of these races in the future, please, use the same embedded hyperlink when reprinting the Republican's name. Then, I suppose, we will see what happens."

An accompanying part of the project is intended to buy up Google Adwords, so that searches for the candidates' names will bring up advertisements that point to the articles as well. But Mr. Bowers said his hopes for this were fading, because he was very busy.

The ability to manipulate the search engine's results has been demonstrated in the past. Searching for "miserable failure," for example, produces the official Web site of President Bush.

But it is far from clear whether this particular campaign will be successful. Much depends on the extent of political discussion already tied to a particular candidate's name.

It will be harder to manipulate results for searches of the name of a candidate who has already been widely covered in the news and widely discussed in the blogosphere, because so many links and so many pages already refer to that particular name. Search results on lesser-known candidates, with a smaller body of references and links, may be easier to change.

"We don't condone the practice of Google bombing, or any other action that seeks to affect the integrity of our search results," said Ricardo Reyes, a Google spokesman. "A site's ranking in Google's search results is automatically determined by computer algorithms using thousands of factors to calculate a page's relevance to a given query."

The company's faith in its system has produced a hands-off policy when it comes to correcting for the effects of Google bombs in the past. Over all, Google says, the integrity of the search product remains intact.

Writing in the company's blog last year, Marissa Mayer, Google's director of consumer Web products, suggested that pranks might be "distracting to some, but they don't affect the overall quality of our search service, whose objectivity, as always, remains the core of our mission."

Still, some conservative blogs have condemned Mr. Bowers's tactic. These include Outside the Beltway, which has called him "unscrupulous," and Hot Air, which declared the effort "fascinatingly evil."

But Mr. Bowers suggested that he was acting with complete transparency and said he hoped political campaigns would take up the tactic, which he called "search engine optimization," as a standard part of their arsenal.

"I did this out in the open using my real name, using my own Web site," he said. "There's no hidden agenda. One of the reasons for this is to show that campaigns should be doing this on their own."

Indeed, if all campaigns were doing it, the playing field might well be leveled.

Mr. Bowers said he did not believe the practice would actually deceive most Internet users.

"I think Internet users are very smart and most are aware of what a Google bomb is," he said, "and they will be aware that results can be massaged a bit."

Go to Original

Free Speech Online "Under Threat"
BBC News

Friday 27 October 2006

Bloggers are being asked to show their support for freedom of expression by Amnesty International.

The human rights group also wants web log writers to highlight the plight of fellow bloggers jailed for what they wrote in their online journals.

The organisation said fundamental rights such as free speech faced graver threats than ever before.

The campaign coincides with the start of a week-long UN-organised conference that will debate the future of the net.

Watching Words

"Freedom of expression online is a right, not a privilege - but it's a right that needs defending," said Steve Ballinger of Amnesty International. "We're asking bloggers worldwide to show their solidarity with web users in countries where they can face jail just for criticising the government."

Mr Ballinger said the case of Iranian blogger Kianoosh Sanjari was just one example of the dangers that some online writers can face. Mr Sanjari was arrested in early October following his blogging about conflicts between the Iranian police and the supporters of Shia cleric Ayatollah Boroujerdi.

Amnesty wanted bloggers to publicise cases such as this, said Mr Ballinger, and to declare their backing for the right to free speech online.

The human rights group is also taking its campaign to the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) - a group set up by the UN to act as a debating body for national net policies. The first big meeting of the IGF takes place in Athens from 30 October to 2 November.

"The Internet Governance Forum needs to know that the online community is concerned about free expression online and willing to stand up for it," said Mr Ballinger.

Many governments were using technology to suppress the free flow of information among their citizens, said Mr Ballinger.

"People have been locked up just for expressing their views in an email or a website," he said. "Sites and blogs have been shut down and firewalls built to prevent access to information."

Hi-tech firms such as Yahoo and Google have been criticised for the help they have given to nations such as China which works hard to monitor online discussion.

In May 2006, Amnesty International started a campaign that aimed to expose the ways that governments use the net to quash dissent. Co-ordinated via the Irrepressible.info website, the campaign asks websites to use an icon displaying text from censored sites.

Pledges gathered from those backing this campaign will be presented at the IGF.

IWW Starbucks Baristas Crash Book Promo Event

2006-10-29T01:59:00.000-08:00

New York, NY

Holding picket signs and handing out Howard Schultz “Most Wanted” flyers, union baristas and supporters protested the visit of the Starbucks Chairman to promote the coffee chain's first bookselling venture. Two campaign supporters entered the Park Avenue store where one of 25 promotional events around the country took place and unfurled a "Stop Union-Busting" banner. The two campaigners were forcibly removed by a Starbucks Regional Director. The baristas crashed the event to demand an end to the relentless anti-union campaign overseen by Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz who opted not to attend.

“Four IWW members are currently out of a job because of Howard Schultz’s animosity towards unions,” said Isis Saenz, a New York barista and IWW member. “Schultz is a billionaire and just made the list of the world’s richest people. What more does he want?”

While Starbucks is set to profit handsomely from its expansion into bookselling, baristas continue to languish in poverty with fluctuating work hours each week. Starbucks has fallen far short of the socially responsible image it seeks to create. Despite referring to itself as a leader in employee health care, the coffee giant insures a lower percentage of its workforce than Wal-Mart.

Starbucks has waged a fierce anti-union campaign against baristas joining the Industrial Workers of the World to gain an independent voice at work. The company agreed to refrain from spying, bribing, threatening, and terminating workers in a March settlement with the U.S. government triggered by charges from the IWW Starbucks Workers Union [www.StarbucksUnion.org]. However, Starbucks has continued union-busting with impunity including terminating workers for exercising their right to join the union.

Despite the unlawful anti-union campaign, baristas have won wage increases, more secure scheduling, and safety improvements through direct action on the job and in the community. The union currently has an organized presence at seven Starbucks locations in New York City and Chicago.

http://www.starbucksunion.org/node/1094

http://www.iww.org/en/node/2971

Activists fear they've become FBI targets

2006-10-28T08:08:00.000-07:00

by GREGORY D. KESICH

The FBI has released more documents connected to Maine peace groups, leading local activists to say they have been targeted for surveillance for opposing the government. Last January, a single e-mail from a Canadian anarchist group that had been circulated by Maine peace activists was released by the government in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Maine Civil Liberties Union

Full Story

Brad Will, New York Documentary Filmmaker and Indymedia Reporter, Assassinated by Pro-Government Gunshot in Oaxaca While Reporting the Story

2006-10-28T07:35:00.000-07:00

Photographer Oswaldo Ramirez of the Daily Milenio Wounded in Attack by Shooters for Ulises Ruiz Ortiz in Santa Lucia El Camino
By Al Giordano

The Other Journalism with the Other Campaign in Chihuahua

October 27, 2006

Brad Will, 36, a documentary filmmaker and reporter for Indymedia in New York, Bolivia and Brazil, died today of a gunshot to the chest when pro-government attackers opened fire on a barricade in the neighborhood of Santa Lucia El Camino, on the outskirts of Oaxaca, Mexico. He died with his video camera in his hands.

Brad Will in Chetumal, Quintana Roo
Photo: D.R. 2006 Narco News

Brad went to Oaxaca in early October to document the story that Commercial Media simulators like Rebecca Romero of Associated Press distort instead of report: the story of a people sick and tired of repression and injustice, who take back the government that rightfully is theirs. In that context, his assassination is also a consequence of what happens when independent media must do the work that Big Media fails to do: to tell the truth. My friend and colleague since 1996 when we labored together at 88.7 FM Steal This Radio on New York’s Lower East Side, I bumped into him again in Bolivia in 2004 during a public reception held by the Narco News School of Authentic Journalism, and again on the Yucatán peninsula last January where he came to cover the beginnings of the Zapatista Other Campaign – Brad died to bring the authentic story to the world.

Brad went to Oaxaca in early October knowing, assuming and sharing the risks of reporting the story. His final published article, on October 17, titled “Death in Oaxaca,” reported the assassination of Alejandro García Hernández on the barricades set up by the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO, in its Spanish initials). Brad wrote:

“…went walking back from alejandros barricade with a group of supporters who came from an outlying district a half hour away—went walking with angry folk on their way to the morgue—went inside and saw him—havent seen too many bodies in my life—eats you up—a stack of nameless corpes in the corner—about the number who had died—no refrigeration—the smell—they had to open his skull to pull the bullet out—walked back with him and his people
“…and now alejandro waits in the zocalo—like the others at their plantones—hes waiting for an impasse, a change, an exit, a way forward, a way out, a solution—waiting for the earth to shift and open—waiting for november when he can sit with his loved ones on the day of the dead and share food and drink and a song—waiting for the plaza to turn itself over to him and burst—he will only wait until morning but tonight he is waiting for the governor and his lot to never come back—one more death—one more martyr in a dirty war—one more time to cry and hurt—one more time to know power and its ugly head—one more bullet cracks the night—one more night at the barricades—some keep the fires—others curl up and sleep—but all of them are with him as he rests one last night at his watch…”

Brad Will’s Assassins
Photo: D.R. 2006 El Universal

Last September 26, Brad, on his way to Mexico, wrote me:

“hey al
it brad from nyc—it would be great to get yr narco contacts in oaxaca—i am headed there and want to connect with as many folks as posible—are you in df?—i should be stopping though there and it would be great
to go out for a drink
solid
brad”

Knowing of Brad’s hard luck covering other stories (he had been beaten by police in New York and in Brazil doing this important but dangerous work), his difficulty with the Spanish language, and of the greater risk for independent reporters who haven’t been embedded over time (and thus known by the people) in Oaxaca, I pleaded with him not to go, to instead go to Atenco and report on the story there of the arrival of Zapatista comandantes:

“Our Oaxaca team is firmly embedded. There are a chingo of other internacionales roaming around there looking for the big story, but the situation is very delicate, the APPO doesn’t trust anyone it hasn’t known for years, and they keep telling me not to send newcomers, because the situation is so fucking tense… If you are coming to Mexico, I would much more recommend your hanging around DF-Atenco and reporting that story which is about to begin. The APPO is (understandably) very distrustful of people it doesn’t already know. And we have enough hands on deck there to continue breaking the story. But what is about to happen in Atenco-DF needs more hands on deck.”

Brad replied that same night, undeterred:

“hey
thanks for the quick get back—i have a hd professional camera—i have heard reports about the level of distrust in oax and it is disconcerting—i think i will still go—i wont tell them you sent me and i am open to other suggestions on how to spend my time—i dont know what is happening in atenco in the coming days—i may connect with la otra capitulo dos somewhere along the way—great to hear from you—do you have a cell / phone number?
solidaridad
b rad”

I was not surprised that he decided to go to Oaxaca anyway. Brad had always taken risks: whether riding freight train box cars across the North American plain, or bunkering in his Fifth Street squat in 1996 when police and the wrecking ball invaded, his life had been one of courage. I gave him my cell phone number in case of emergency. He wrote back on October 7, three weeks ago:

“hey al
brad here—thanks for the contacts and info—i landed in df feeling
pretty ill and then came straight to oax and am plugged in—if you want to share your contacts down here it would be very helpful—i think I will stay down here for a month—nancy said you had a contact with a human rights lawyer who might help journalists not get deported – please help me with that information as well—i know you are busy and look forward to seeing more of your work
peace
b rad”

In those emails are the words of a valiant compañero who, knowing full well that this story could be his last, decided to share the risks with the people whose cause he reported.

Also sharing the risks today in Santa Lucia El Camino, Oaxaca was photographer Oswaldo Ramírez of the daily Milenio, wounded by gunfire. It was Milenio reporter Diego Osorio who confirmed the news of Brad’s death at 4:30 this afternoon. He also said that in another corner of the city, outside the state prosecutor’s office, gunmen fired at other APPO members, that three were wounded, and that one schoolteacher is reported dead, but was unable so far to confirm that report.

Photo: D.R. 2006 El Universal

Brad Will was known and liked throughout the hemisphere, and in its media centers from New York to Sao Paulo to Mexico City. Tonight his body lies in the same Oaxaca morgue he visited and wrote about last week. He will not go silently into the long night of repression that the illegitimate governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, President Vicente Fox and his illegitimate successor Felipe Calderon have created in Oaxaca, and, indeed, in so much of Mexico. It was inevitable that soon an international reporter would join the growing list of the assassinated under the repressive regimes of Mexico (others had already been raped and beaten in Atenco, only to be deported from the country last May). Tonight it was Brad, doing the responsible and urgent work, video camera in hand, of breaking the Commercial Media blockade.

Speaking at a public meeting of the Other Campaign in Buaiscobe, Sonora, when the news came in about Brad’s death, Zapatista Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos, upon receiving a briefing of the day’s events in Oaxaca, told the public and the press:

“We know that they killed at least one person. This person that they killed was from the alternative media that are here with us. He didn’t work for the big television news companies and didn’t receive pay. He is like the people who came here with us on the bus, who are carrying the voices of the people from below so that they would be known. Because we already know that the television news companies and newspapers only concern themselves with governmental affairs. And this person was a compañero of the Other Campaign. He also traveled various parts of the country with us, and he was with us when we were in Yucatán, taking photos and video of what was happening there. And they shot him and he died. It appears that there is another person dead. The government doesn’t want to take responsibility for what happened. Now they tell us that all of the people of Oaxaca are mobilizing. They aren’t afraid. They are mobilizing to take to the streets and protest this injustice. We are issuing a call to all of the Other Campaign at the national level and to compañeros and compañeras in other countries to unite and to demand justice for this dead compañero. We are making this call especially to all of the alternative media, and free media here in Mexico and in all the world.”

Tonight, from the Oaxaca City Morgue, Brad Will shouts “Ya Basta!” – Enough Already! – to the death and suffering imposed (as Brad, a thoughtful and serious anarchist, understood) by an economic system, the capitalist system. His death will be avenged when that system is destroyed. And Brad Will’s ultimate sacrifice exposes the Mexican regime for the brutal authoritarian violence that the Commercial Media hides from the world, and thus speeds the day that justice will come from below and sweep out the regimes of pain and repression that system requires. Brad gave his life tonight so that you and I could know the truth. We owe him to act upon it, and to share the risks that he took. Goodbye, old friend. Your sacrifice will not be in vain.

Update, 10:30 p.m. Oaxaca: The Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) has confirmed that schoolteacher Emilio Alfonso Fabián has died from three bullet wounds after an attack by shooters for Ulises Ruiz Ortiz outside the state government palace.

Kristin Bricker reported for this story from Sonora
*
More:

"Death in Oaxaca" - Last Published Communique from Anarchist Companero Brad Will

Mexico, Oaxaca, New, York City Indymedia journalist Bradley Will killed by statwe forces

Federal Police and Paramilitaries Enter Oaxaca City: NYC Indymedia Journalist Killed

Mexico City reports that from Will's recovered videiotapes, they have identified his killer
as a paramilitary named Pedro Carmona, ex-president of Felipe Carrillo
Puerto de Santa Lucia del Camino, a colonia in Oaxaca.

An Open Letter to Demian Bulwa at the Chronicle

2006-10-27T15:46:00.000-07:00

by Insurgent

On October 16th, Demian Bulwa at the San Francisco Chronicle published an article about my case. He wrote to me in prison and asked me what my impressions of his article were. What follows is the letter I sent him.

Dear Demian,

Thank you for sending me the article clipping and requesting my feedback. My only real complaint is the secondary headline, but I do realize that you likely had no say in that. By stating “Anarchist says he did not film attack on police officer,” I feel that the Chronicle does a disservice to its readers in two ways. For one, by shifting the subject to the injured officer, the headline neglects the fact that the subject of the grand jury investigation is the alleged attempted arson of an SFPD patrol vehicle and not the alleged assault.

This shift of focus to an injured member of the SFPD coupled with the term “anarchist” creates the impression that I am likely lying — which your own reportage describes as “an assertion that appears to be consistent with the police reports”. Furthermore, as I mentioned in our interview, we offered to screen the footage in-camera for Judge Alsop in an effort to verify, without a doubt, that I neither filmed the alleged assault nor the incident that is the subject of the Federal investigation.

Instead, the chosen headline evokes the assassination of William McKinley and other violent acts perpetuated by people who identified as anarchists. It sensationalizes the issue and suggests distrust where a more balanced headline would not.

Beyond the wording of the headline, I have few issues with the article you wrote. I feel that your choice of leads, “Blogger and anarchist…” is an attempt to sensationalize the issue, like the headline, and would be no more appropriate than pointing out that a journalist covering Palestine happens to identify as Muslim. This is especially true given that the word “anarchist” carries a diversity of meanings; it’s the sort of word I feel shouldn’t be used without a definition attached. To me, your syntax here demonstrates my thesis that there is an effort to demonize and discredit anarchism in much the same way as the campaign against communism throughout the Cold War.

The quotation you used from my blog is essentially accurate but may be taken somewhat out of context in that the “actions” referenced are the petty vandalism that occured and not the alleged assault of Officer Peter Shields. It is also important to keep in mind that the statement was made over a year ago, shortly after the demonstration occured.

Additionally, it seems worth mentioning that although FBI spokesman Joseph Schadler’s suggestion that there is “a huge difference [in finding potential witnesses] from a fishing expedition for anarchists” may be true; the one does not preclude the other. Nothing in the article attributed to the FBI suggests that the FBI is not using this excuse as an opportunity to simultaneously gather broad intelligence on those participating in civil dissent and those who identify as anarchists.

The only other matter that I feel needs to be clarified is that of my project, which will help facilitate prisoners to blog. I do not want to “create a blog for prisoners” but am instead working to develop an organization that will allow those incarcerated to create and maintain their own blogs; the difference is subtle but significant.

Although this letter may seem quite critical of your coverage, I’m actually quite impressed with the depth of your report and appreciate your efforts to utilize a broad spectrum of sources to establish a comprehensive picture of the issues involved.

I look forward to your furture coverage of this case and encourage you to respond to this correspondence. I have decided to post this letter to my blog alongside a link to your article. If you do have an opportunity to respond, please let me know what, if anything, I can post on my site and I will gladly respect what you request.

Thanks again for the coverage,

Josh

An Interview with Cindy Sheehan 10/24

2006-10-27T08:02:00.000-07:00

We all know that the Vietnam War ended when Congress cut its funding. There is a bill that has been sponsored by Rep. Jim McGovern, (D-Ma) HR4232 that cuts funding to leave our troops in Iraq, but he has very little support and even a smaller chance of getting it to the floor for a vote. I believe that most representatives don't support the bill because they will be accused of "not supporting the troops." I believe that it is not supporting the troops to leave them in that nightmare.

-The Antiwar Movement and Independent Politics: An Interview with Cindy Sheehan

Sheehan: Yes, well the group is called Progressive Democrats of America. They have had no problem with me endorsing third party candidates. I completely support a viable third party. I don't know if PDA's position is holding up an independent antiwar party as much as the mainstream Republican and Democrats are.

Peace and Freedom favorite 3rd party of student voters

2006-10-27T07:57:00.000-07:00

October 26, 2006

Results of a statewide mock student election released today show Peace and Freedom Party leading all other third party candidates for Governor and U.S. Senate.

Marsha Feinland, Peace and Freedom Party candidate for U.S. Senate, has 17.51% of the vote. Her Republican and Democratic rivals have 21.76% and 38.46%, respectively. The nearest third party candidate, Todd Chretien of the Green Party, has 11.62%.

Janice Jordan, Peace and Freedom Party candidate for Governor, has 15.72% of the vote. Her Republican and Democratic rivals have 32.41% and 34.61%, respectively. The nearest third party candidate, Peter Camejo of the Green Party, has 8.95%.

The mock student election is conducted by the California Secretary of State. For more information about the mock election, you can visit http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/studentmockelection_06_results.htm.

For more information about the Peace and Freedom Party's Campaign 2006, visit http://www.peaceandfreedom2006.org.

The Worst Congress Ever, by MATT TAIBBI

2006-10-27T07:48:00.000-07:00

There is very little that sums up the record of the U.S. Congress in the Bush years better than a half-mad boy-addict put in charge of a federal commission on child exploitation. After all, if a hairy-necked, raincoat-clad freak like Rep. Mark Foley can get himself named co-chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, one can only wonder: What the hell else is going on in the corridors of Capitol Hill these days?

These past six years were more than just the most shameful, corrupt and incompetent period in the history of the American legislative branch. These were the years when the U.S. parliament became a historical punch line, a political obscenity on par with the court of Nero or Caligula -- a stable of thieves and perverts who committed crimes rolling out of bed in the morning and did their very best to turn the mighty American empire into a debt-laden, despotic backwater, a Burkina Faso with cable.

To be sure, Congress has always been a kind of muddy ideological cemetery, a place where good ideas go to die in a maelstrom of bureaucratic hedging and rank favor-trading. Its whole history is one long love letter to sleaze, idiocy and pigheaded, glacial conservatism. That Congress exists mainly to misspend our money and snore its way through even the direst political crises is something we Americans understand instinctively. "There is no native criminal class except Congress," Mark Twain said -- a joke that still provokes a laugh of recognition a hundred years later.

But the 109th Congress is no mild departure from the norm, no slight deviation in an already-underwhelming history. No, this is nothing less than a historic shift in how our democracy is run. The Republicans who control this Congress are revolutionaries, and they have brought their revolutionary vision for the House and Senate quite unpleasantly to fruition. In the past six years they have castrated the political minority, abdicated their oversight responsibilities mandated by the Constitution, enacted a conscious policy of massive borrowing and unrestrained spending, and installed a host of semipermanent mechanisms for transferring legislative power to commercial interests. They aimed far lower than any other Congress has ever aimed, and they nailed their target.

"The 109th Congress is so bad that it makes you wonder if democracy is a failed experiment," says Jonathan Turley, a noted constitutional scholar and the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington Law School. "I think that if the Framers went to Capitol Hill today, it would shake their confidence in the system they created. Congress has become an exercise of raw power with no principles -- and in that environment corruption has flourished. The Republicans in Congress decided from the outset that their future would be inextricably tied to George Bush and his policies. It has become this sad session of members sitting down and drinking Kool-Aid delivered by Karl Rove. Congress became a mere extension of the White House."

The end result is a Congress that has hijacked the national treasury, frantically ceded power to the executive, and sold off the federal government in a private auction. It all happened before our very eyes. In case you missed it, here's how they did it -- in five easy steps:
Continued here

NBC's Jay Leno Seen Breaking the Law with the Governor?

2006-10-27T06:58:00.000-07:00

While LAist hasn't really made up our mind yet who we're voting for in the Governor's race, it looks like Jay Leno has.

In an bizarre move, the Tonight Show invited Governor Schwarzenegger on the air yesterday as a guest on the show -- in the middle of a close race. But for some reason they didn't invite the Democratic candidate Phil Angelides, which has prompted Angelides' team to begin an online protest, demanding equal time.

Not only does LAist agree that the late night NBC talk show, based in LA, owes it to Mr. Angelides, but we believe that the other candidates running for the top seat also deserve just as much time as Arnold got. And in the same fashion: alone with Jay during the same part of the show. It's only fair.

Peter Camejo, who was nominated by the California Green Party, Art Olivier of the California Libertarian Party, Janice Jordan from the Peace and Freedom Party, and Edward Noonan from the American Independent Party, all deserve equal treatment by Jay and equal time.

Not only that, but since the following Californians filed a statement of intent with the Secretary of State to be allowed as write-in candidates, we believe that they should also get the exact same treatment as the Governator got: Mary Carey (Independent), George Fellows (Independent), James Harris (Socialist Workers), Eric "Moose" Mahoney (Independent), Aaron Proctor (Independent), Daniel Sage (Independent), Elisha Shapiro (Nihilist Party).

If the "Tonight Show" does not allow all of these official candidates on the show in exactly the same manner that the incumbent was allowed on the air, aired to all California voters on free broadcast network television, LAist believes that Jay Leno, "The Tonight Show", and NBC have a bias towards Mr. Schwarzenegger, and are willing to give him, and only him, valuable and free tv time on the most popular late night show on television.

We also believe that if they don't give all of these candidates the same air time and equal treatment that NBC is in violation of the law. Equal treatment should include announcing that each of these candidates will appear on the show the same way that NBC announced Arnold's appearance -- through tv spots that occured nationwide during other NBC shows.

If NBC tries to group each of these candidates together in some stupid comedy bit, and doesn't allow each of them to have just as much time as the Governor got -- with each of them sitting alone in the prime seat right next to Jay -- we will believe that NBC and Jay Leno have an agenda against those other candidates, and we will also believe that NBC and Jay Leno don't believe in the basic American standard that each candidate is just as important as the next, and all deserve to be treated with the same respect.

As it stands right now, it appears that Jay Leno and NBC only believe that the Republican candidate deserves to be seen on tv. We look forward to seeing this corrected.

Posted by Tony Pierce

www.wakeupandsaveyourcountry.com

2006-10-27T05:54:00.000-07:00

Wake Up And Save Your Country is proud to present "Cheated!", a graphic novel of the 2004 presidential election in Ohio, drawn from documentary films and photographs and designed to inform, infuriate and activate anyone who cares about the state of democracy in America.

THINGS IRAQ AND VIETNAM HAVE IN COMMON

2006-10-27T05:49:00.000-07:00

by Danny Schecter, Media Channel

1. Both wars were illegal acts of pre-emptive aggression unsanctioned by international law or world opinion.

2. Both wars were launched with deception. In Iraq it was the now proven phony WMD threat and contrived Saddam-Osama connection. In Vietnam, it was the fabricated Gulf of Tonkin incident and the elections mandated by the Geneva agreement that were canceled by Washington in l956 when the U.S. feared Ho Chi Minh would win

3. The government lied regularly in both wars. Back then, the lies were pronounced a "credibility gap." Today, they are considered acceptable "information warfare." In Saigon military briefers conducted discredited "5 O'Clock Follies" press conferences. In this war, the Pentagon spoon-fed info at a Hollywood style briefing center in Doha.

4. The U.S. press was initially an enthusiastic cheerleader in both wars. When Vietnam protest grew and the war seen as a lost cause, the media frame changed. In Iraq today most of the media is trapped in hotel rooms. Only one side is covered now whereas in Vietnam, there was more reporting occasionally from the other. In Vietnam, the accent was on progress and "turned corners." The same is true in Iraq.

5. In both wars, prisoners were abused. . .

6. Illegal weapons were "deployed" in both wars. The U.S. dropped napalm, used cluster bombs against civilians and sprayed toxic Agent Orange in Vietnam. Cluster bombs and updated Mark 77 napalm-like firebombs were dropped on Iraqis. Depleted uranium was added to the arsenal of prohibited weapons in Iraq.

7. Both wars claimed to be about promoting democracy. Vietnam staged elections and saw a succession of governments controlled by the U.S. come and go. Iraq has had one election so far in which most voters say they were casting ballots primarily to get the U.S. to leave. The U.S. has stage-managed Iraq's interim government. Exiles were brought back and put in power. Vietnam's Diem came from New Jersey, Iraq's Allawi from Britain.

8. Both wars claimed to be about noble international goals. Vietnam was pictured as a crusade against aggressive communism and falling dominos. Iraq was sold as a front in a global war on terrorism. Neither claim proved true.

9. An imperial drive for resource control and markets helped drive both interventions. Vietnam had rubber and manganese and rare minerals. Iraq has oil. In both wars, any economic agenda was officially denied and ignored by most media outlets.

10. Both wars took place in countries with cultures we never understood or spoke the language. Both involved "insurgents" whose military prowess was underestimated and misrepresented. In Vietnam, we called the "enemy" communists; in Iraq we call them foreign terrorists. (Soldiers had their own terms, "gooks" in Vietnam, "ragheads" in Iraq) In both counties, they was in fact an indigenous resistance that enjoyed popular support. (Both targeted and brutalized people they considered collaborators with the invaders just as our own Revolution went after Americans who backed the British.) In both wars, as in all wars, innocent civilians died in droves.

11. In both countries the U.S. promised to help rebuild the damages caused by U.S. bombing. In Vietnam, a $2 Billion presidential reconstruction pledge was not honored. In Iraq, the electricity and other services are still out in many areas. In both wars U.S. companies and suppliers have profited handsomely; Brown &Root in Vietnam; Halliburton in Iraq, to cite but two.

12. In Vietnam, the Pentagon's counter-insurgency effort failed to "pacify" the countryside even with a half a million U.S. soldiers "in country." The insurgency in Iraq is growing despite the best efforts of U.S. soldiers. More have died since President Bush proclaimed "mission accomplished" than during the invasion. The insurgency in Iraq is growing despite the best efforts of U.S. soldiers. More have died since President Bush proclaimed "mission accomplished" than during the invasion.

The Vietnamese forced the U.S. into negotiations for the Paris Peace Agreement. When the agreement was continually violated, they brilliantly staged a final offensive that surprised and routed a superior million-man Saigon Army.

Can the Iraqi resistance do the same?

Nicaragua set to outlaw abortion

2006-10-26T12:46:00.000-07:00

Nicaragua is expected to approve a law that outlaws all forms of abortion today.

Leaders from the Roman Catholic church have helped to draft legislation outlawing abortion in all cases, including cases of rape and abortion to save the pregnant woman's life.

The legislation has been supported by all parties, who want to attract votes from the majority Catholic population. El Salvador and Chile have had similar laws in place since the 1980s. Most Latin American countries allow abortion only in cases of rape and medical emergency. This law will add Nicaragua to the 34 other countries across the world who have an absolute ban on abortion.

The new law will carry a prison sentence of 6 to 30 weeks for any women who abort their pregnancies, as well as any medical staff who perform the procedure.

Haitian death squad leader ordered to pay $19 million to torture survivors

2006-10-26T05:56:00.000-07:00

For Immediate Release
October 25, 2006

JUDGE AWARDS DAMAGES TO THREE WOMEN FOR TORTURE AND CRIMES AGAINST
HUMANITY

Emmanuel "Toto" Constant, the former leader of Haiti's notorious death squad known as FRAPH, has been ordered to pay $15 million in punitive and $4 million in compensatory damages to three women who survived rape, other torture and attempted killing committed by paramilitary forces under his command. U.S. District Court Judge Sidney H. Stein, of the Southern District of New York, awarded the survivors a total of $19 million in damages after hearing testimony from the women and expert witnesses. The damages award was entered late yesterday.

The Court previously found Constant liable for torture, including rape, attempted extrajudicial killing, and crimes against humanity carried out as part of FRAPH's reign of terror during the period of military rule in Haiti from 1991 to 1994. The judgment, entered August 16, 2006, marks the first judgment where someone has been held accountable for the state-sponsored campaign of rape in Haiti. In yesterday's order, Judge Stein stated, "Though no price tag can be placed on the atrocities visited upon these plaintiffs and other innocent civilians by FRAPH, plaintiffs are indeed entitled to monetary compensation and the Court will therefore
grant it..."

Constant fled to the United States in December 1994. Despite the outcry from the Haitian community and human rights organizations, he lived and worked freely in New York until he was arrested in July 2006 in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme in Suffolk County, NY. He remains in jail awaiting a criminal trial on charges of grand larceny, forgery and
falsifying business records.

The U.S. government moved to deport Constant in 1995. However, after he disclosed on 60 Minutes that he had been on the CIA payroll during the period when FRAPH was formed, he was released from detention [by Bill Clinton] and has been allowed to remain in the U.S.

The lawsuit was filed in December 2004 by the Center for Justice & Accountability (CJA) and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) on behalf of the three women, all survivors of torture at the hands of FRAPH. Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP acted as pro bono co-counsel in this matter. Due to an on-going fear of reprisals, the plaintiffs had to submit their testimony anonymously. Two of the women testified in open court behind a screen.

During the hearing, Trinity University professor Robert Maguire testified that FRAPH worked closely with the Haitian Armed Forces and did the military's "dirty work" in committing widespread human rights abuses and that FRAPH was "the muscle." Ivor Samson of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP argued in his closing that in addition to compensatory damages, the court should also award punitive damages to punish Constant for his wanton, oppressive and malicious actions. A punitive damages award would send a message from the international community that Constant’s conduct will not be tolerated, and that U.S. courts, through laws such as the Alien Tort Statue and the Torture Victim Protection Act, can play an important role in discouraging and deterring future abuses.
...

Green Politics: Anti-War Washington Senatorial Candidate Says Dems Tried to Bribe Him Not to Run

2006-10-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

The Green Party nominee for Senate in Washington is Aaron Dixon. Last week, Dixon was arrested at a local television station for entering the lobby and demanding that he be included in that station’s televised debates between Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell and Republican Mike McGavick. Aaron Dixon joins us now from a studio in Seattle.

* Aaron Dixon. Green party candidate for Senate in Washington State.

AMY GOODMAN: Aaron Dixon now joins us from a studio in Seattle. We welcome you to Democracy Now!

AARON DIXON: Hello, Amy.

AMY GOODMAN: It’s good to have you with us. Well, describe what happened.

AARON DIXON: Well, on the day of the debate, I and 50 volunteers and supporters from our campaign went down to KING 5 TV studios. While the supporters were outside, I saw an opportunity to go in the door where the debate was taking place, and I went in, and I was confronted by several security personnel. At that point, I requested that I be allowed to participate in the debate, because I am running for U.S. Senate. They refused, and I asked to speak to a supervisor, someone that was in charge, so that I could explain to them why I felt that I should be included in the debate. After being given the runaround for several minutes, they called the police department, and the officer showed up and said that he would have to escort me out. I told him that I refused to leave, and then I was arrested.

AMY GOODMAN: And what were you charged with?

AARON DIXON: Well, I wasn’t really charged with anything. They said that they were arresting me for being on the premises without permission.

AMY GOODMAN: Because it’s private property?

AARON DIXON: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: Who owns KING 5?

AARON DIXON: It’s owned by a large corporation. It used to be owned by the Bullitt family. I’m not quite -- Belo owns it now. thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: I am looking at the video footage now, and for our radio listeners, you can go on our website and you can watch Aaron Dixon being arrested. But it looks like there were a lot of people outside with signs that say, for example, "Let Dixon debate." Who were the people outside? How many were there?

AARON DIXON: There were about 50 supporters and volunteers of the Aaron Dixon for U.S. Senate campaign.

AMY GOODMAN: And so, where does it stand right now? And what were the responses of the Democratic and Republican candidates to you being arrested, trying to participate in the debate?

AARON DIXON: Well, they totally ignored it. They didn’t say anything about the incident whatsoever.

AMY GOODMAN: Why did you want to participate in the debate?

AARON DIXON: Well, because I felt that my voice needed to be heard, that there needed to be a different perspective than the perspective of the two parties that we hear from all the time, and that I felt that I should not be excluded merely because my campaign was not able to raise a million dollars.

AMY GOODMAN: A million dollars?

AARON DIXON: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: What were the requirements?

AARON DIXON: That was one of the requirements. That was one of the requirements, that you had to have --

AMY GOODMAN: Set by whom?

AARON DIXON: KING TV.

AMY GOODMAN: So they are determining who gets heard in this senatorial race?

AARON DIXON: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: Talk about your background, Aaron Dixon. Why did you get involved in Green Party politics? Where do you come from?

AARON DIXON: Well, I was a member of the Black Panther Party for ten years during the late ’60s and ’70s. And over the past 20 years, I’ve worked with at-risk youth and gang-involved youth. I’ve also had the opportunity to travel to South America and participate in the World Social Forum in Brazil and Venezuela.

And when I was approached by the Green Party about running for U.S. Senate, you know, running as a political candidate is something that I never wanted to do, never felt that I had any inclination to do, but I felt that it was time in this country that we began to introduce the concept that we have a multi-party system and that we provide the American people with more choices than what we have now, particularly more progressive choices that are delivering a different type of message than the message that we get from the Republican Party and the Democrat Party.

AMY GOODMAN: Have you had any contact with the Democratic candidate, with Maria Cantwell? And what has been their response to your Green Party candidacy?

AARON DIXON: Personally, no. I haven’t had any response from her, but we have had responses from people in her campaign that have offered money for me to drop out of the campaign.

AMY GOODMAN: What do you mean, offered money? Who offered you money?

AARON DIXON: Well, there was a candidate, an antiwar candidate named Mark Wilson, and Mark Wilson and I had crossed paths on many occasions. He was running as a Democrat, and he had said in several instances that after the primary that he would throw his support my way. But about a month ago, Mark Wilson joined the Maria Cantwell camp, and shortly after that, he made a call to me personally and asked that if I would be willing to drop out, that they would raise -- that there were people in Maria's camp that would raise a lot of money for the nonprofit that I founded.

AMY GOODMAN: What is that nonprofit?

AARON DIXON: It’s called Central House. We work with at-risk youth, and we have a transitional housing program.

AMY GOODMAN: So they would throw a fundraiser for you, or they would just raise money for your nonprofit.

AARON DIXON: Yes, they would raise money for my nonprofit.

AMY GOODMAN: Did you consider this?

AARON DIXON: No. No, I didn’t. No, I didn’t consider that at all.

AMY GOODMAN: So, are you saying they tried to bribe you?

AARON DIXON: Yeah. I received at least three or four calls from Mr. Wilson and someone else in Maria Cantwell’s camp on a regular basis about dropping out.

AMY GOODMAN: Why do you think they see you as a threat? How close is the race?

AARON DIXON: Well, I think because of what happened with Ted Lamont defeating --

AMY GOODMAN: Ned Lamont.

AARON DIXON: -- Ned Lamont, excuse me, defeating Lieberman, I think that there was some concern that, because of Maria Cantwell’s support on the war, that she would possibly be in trouble and that her Republican challenger, Mike McGavick, seemed to be running a well organized campaign.

AMY GOODMAN: So, what are your plans now? Are there any other debates planned? And how are you campaigning for Green Party candidate for Senate in Washington state?

AARON DIXON: Well, there is another debate scheduled for Maria Cantwell and Mike McGavick in Spokane. I’m not quite sure what we’re going to do about that. But we have continued to run our campaign. We just finished a statewide tour, talking to a lot of rural communities. For the next couple of weeks, we’re going to concentrate our work in Seattle and outlining areas of Seattle and continue to campaign and work towards getting as many votes as we possibly can.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, Aaron Dixon, I want to thank you very much for joining us, Green Party candidate for Senate in Washington state, joining us from a studio in Seattle.

TELL THE DEMOCRATIC SAFE SEVENTY TO CONTRIBUTE AT PEACE TEAM DOT NET TO HELP THE PEACE TEAM CANDIDATES WHO ARE CALLING FOR OUR TROOPS TO START COMING

2006-10-25T22:43:00.000-07:00

[I, personally, did not vote for any Democrats (or, obviously, any Repukes..), this time...but for those who still plan to...and do not agree with war...here's some info for you]

With the polls breaking our way, there are at least seventy Democratic congressional incumbents who have NO serious competition for reelection. Twelve of them are holding campaign war chests in excess of a MILLION dollars. To see who of the Safe Seventy is from your state, please visit the link below:

SAFE SEVENTY LOOKUP: http://www.peaceteam.net/safe_seventy.php

And yet there are so many other candidates, mostly non-incumbents who have a real shot in their districts, the first real shot in many elections, to take that seat back from a recidivist Bush rubber stamper. In particular, the brave candidates on the Peace Team who are running their election swinging Lie/Die TV spots are standing strong with the kind of courage that will get them elected if only they can get the word out to their constituents.

Without picking on anybody in particular. No, actually, let's definitely pick on somebody in particular. Marty Meehan in the 5th district is sitting on nearly five MILLION dollars right now. Others have called on him to step up to the plate and share the wealth with some of his currently underfinanced fellow candidates.

Yet his press secretary was quoted today as saying they had not received a single call. We KNOW that's not true, because WE CALLED HIS OFFICE OURSELVES TWO DAYS AGO, just when we first asked you to make such calls!! And you can call too, here's his campaign office phone number.

Marty Meehan (MA-05) 978-251-3151

TELL HIM TO CONTRIBUTE AT PEACE TEAM DOT NET

He gives great speeches about how we need to bring our troops home. That's good. But we need more than his ONE vote to turn this policy around. His press secretary says it would be "unfair" to his constituents for him to share his donations with other campaigns. What's unfair about having more votes on your side to WIN on the policy issues your constituents care about?!?!

Contrast this with Barney Frank, also from Massachusetts, who has donated a quarter of a million dollars to help the cause this month alone, much in excess of his "required" dues. We need more examples like Congressman Frank. And we need them in the next 24-48 hours, so we can get ALL the Safe Seventy to step up to the plate in time.

Especially if you are from the 5th District of MA, we need you to call Mr. Meehan's press secretary at the number above and tell them to say the next time somebody asks that people are calling, because YOU are calling. Then click on the link below to get their numbers, and make sure you contact all the incumbents in the Safe Seventy in your own state in the same way.

SAFE SEVENTY LOOKUP: http://www.peaceteam.net/safe_seventy.php

Tell them they weren't just elected to hold their own seat. Tell them they were elected to DELIVER policy change. Ask them how they expect to do that without having enough other members of Congress to vote WITH them. Tell them to be a team player. Tell them YOU have contributed to help the brave candidates at Peace Team dot net, and you don't have five million or even five hundred thousand dollars.

This election is absolute life and death. This is our last chance to take back our democracy. We must have the LARGEST possible vote margins so there can be no question about what the outcome will be. We must all join forces like never before. And we must take absolutely nothing for granted until the concession speeches start rolling in from the other side.

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Green Politics: Anti-War House Candidate Michael Berg on His Debate Lock-Out in Delaware and How His Son’s Death in Iraq Led to His Candidacy

2006-10-25T22:25:00.000-07:00

We turn to Delaware and the race for the state’s one House seat. Three challengers are vying to upset seven-term incumbent Republican Congressman, Mike Castle. Democratic candidate Dennis Spivack is up against Karen Hartley-Nagle, who is running as an Independent and Michael Berg, who is on the Green Party ticket. Michael Berg is the father of Nicholas Berg, the 26-year-old American who was captured and beheaded in Iraq in May 2004.

Last week a forum for the candidates was held at Brandywine High School in Wilmington Delaware. The forum was sponsored by the Council of Civic Organizations of Brandywine Hundred. Third party candidates were not invited. Well Michael Berg decided to attend the forum anyway. He climbed onto stage and took a seat. Forum moderator Harvey Rubenstein asked him to leave.

* Footage of Delaware candidates’ forum.

Michael Berg was then escorted from the forum by a police officer. According to the Delaware News Journal, Rubenstien told the audience afterwards that the third party and independent candidates were not invited because “voters have traditionally stuck with the Republican and Democratic parties.” He also said that including all candidates would have meant stretching the forum out for three or four hours. Michael Berg joins me now from a studio in Delaware.

* Michael Berg. Green Party candidate for Congress in Delaware. He is the father of Nicholas Berg who was captured and beheaded in Iraq in May 2004.

AMY GOODMAN: We turn to Delaware and the race for the state’s one House seat. Three challengers are vying to upset seven-term incumbent Republican Congressmember Mike Castle. Democratic candidate Dennis Spivack is up against Karen Hartley-Nagle, who is running as an Independent, and Michael Berg, who is on the Green Party ticket. Michael Berg is the father of Nicholas Berg, the 26-year-old American who was captured and beheaded in Iraq in May 2004.

Last week, a forum for the candidates was held at Brandywine High School in Wilmington Delaware. The forum was sponsored by the Council of Civic Organizations of Brandywine Hundred. Third party candidates were not invited. Well, Michael Berg decided to attend the forum anyway. He climbed onto the stage and took a seat. Forum moderator Harvey Rubenstein asked him to leave.

HARVEY RUBENSTEIN: I’m asking you, Mr. Berg, to please leave the stage. If you want to make a spectacle of yourself, I understand that, but we’re ready to start.

MICHAEL BERG: I think you’re making a spectacle of democracy.

AMY GOODMAN: Michael Berg was then escorted from the forum by a police officer. According to the Delaware News Journal, Rubenstien told the audience afterwards the third party and independent candidates were not invited, because, quote, “voters have traditionally stuck with the Republican and Democratic parties.” He also said that including all candidates would have meant stretching the forum out for three or four hours. Michael Berg joins us now from a studio in Delaware. Welcome to Democracy Now!, Michael Berg.

MICHAEL BERG: Thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: It’s good to have you with us. Well, why don't you further describe the scene? And for our radio listeners, you can go to our website and see the video of Michael Berg sitting on the stage and then being escorted out. Describe what happened.

MICHAEL BERG: Well, they did let Karen Hartley-Nagle and I come in and set up a display of campaign materials. All the other candidates got a whole table. They made us share a table. It kind of deminimizes [sic] us and makes us look small. Then people finally started filing into the auditorium, and I just decided that I was going to go up on the stage and sit down with them. So, I did. Mr. Rubenstein asked me to leave, and I just tried to bring it to the attention of the people in the audience that they were being deprived of hearing all four candidates.

Mr. Rubenstein's comment in the paper that having all the candidates participate would have stretched it out to three or four hours was very misleading. There were only three candidates who were being deprived of being heard when their opponents were being heard. There were a whole list of other candidates, where no one in the office was being allowed to talk. That’s a different story. If the Democrat can’t talk, the Republican can’t talk, the Green and Independent can’t talk, that puts everyone on an even level. But when you say the Democrat can talk and the Republican can talk, but the Green and the Independent can’t, that, to me, is vote steering.

AMY GOODMAN: So what did you -- as I look at the video, you put tape over your mouth?

MICHAEL BERG: That wasn’t tape. That was actually a bumper sticker that said, “Berg for Congress.” I had done that before at the Jewish Community Center, and I just wanted people to realize that not only was I being gagged, but they were being prevented from hearing all of the candidates.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, your response to Mr. Rubenstein telling the audience that third party and independent candidates were not invited, because voters have traditionally stuck with the Republican and Democratic parties?

MICHAEL BERG: You know, it’s kind of a Catch-22. What they say is that there isn’t enough voter interest in us, but they won’t let the voters see us so that they can become interested in us. The whole thing is set up and run by Democrats and Republicans, and it keeps us out. Mike Castle had earlier indicated -- he’s the Republican incumbent -- he had earlier indicated that he thought that all candidates should be allowed to speak, and there was some possibility that he wasn’t going to go to any forum where they wouldn’t allow us to speak, but tonight he will debate Dennis Spivack, the Democrat, and Karen Hartley-Nagle and I will be barred from it.

AMY GOODMAN: Why are you running for Congress, Michael Berg?

MICHAEL BERG: I’m running for Congress to stop the war that stopped my son Nick. None of the other candidates, not even the Independent, Karen Hartley-Nagle, is willing to say, “If elected, I will support, vote for, and sponsor bills to end the war immediately.” People want to let the war go on for three months or six months, but every three minutes, someone is dying. That’s according to the latest Johns Hopkins study. That’s too many for me.

My son Nick was killed the 91st day that he was in Iraq. And people want to let the war go on 90 more days? Nick was abducted the 58th day -- and his fate was sealed -- that he was in Iraq. People want to let the war to go on for another 30 -- another three months, another six months, or indefinitely, as the Republican says. I don’t see how people feel that they have the authority to allow people to die at the rate of one every three minutes. I don’t.

AMY GOODMAN: Michael Berg, I remember when we talked to you about your son, when he was beheaded. Before that, he was held in U.S. captivity, and you were investigating what happened. For people who don’t remember, if you could explain -- and are you continuing that investigation, as you run for Congress from Delaware?

MICHAEL BERG: Well, what happened to my son was, he was picked up by the Iraqi police, who immediately turned him over to the American military police, who immediately turned him over to the FBI. He was held in an American military prison illegally for 13 days. And finally, I filed a writ of habeas corpus, which I guess I can’t do anymore, and got him out of that American prison.

But it was too late. The events that took place at the Abu Ghraib prison, the rapes, murders, and tortures, became public, and the resistance to the American invasion of Iraq became a grassroots affair in Iraq. Everyone became against the Americans, and so Nick was abducted shortly thereafter. I blame the United States military and the FBI for detaining Nick illegally for 13 days and preventing him from going home, when he had planned to go home, which was before those atrocities were made public. And he would have been home safely.

As far as the investigation is concerned, I got to ask questions of the Defense Department, the State Department, the military, the FBI, but as far as I’m concerned, I got the same lies that they told the public. So now, I haven’t furthered the investigation. Beyond that, I don’t think I will ever get the honest truth, certainly not with the current administration in power.

AMY GOODMAN: He was head of a telecommunications company? He wanted to help set up telecommunications in Iraq?

MICHAEL BERG: That’s right. It was originally -- about a year before he went over, it was just a one-man company, but by the time he went over to Iraq, he had about a half a dozen people working for him. To say that he was the head of a telecommunications company sounds like more than what it was. He originally used a corner of my garage and our spare bedroom as his warehouse and office.

AMY GOODMAN: And the U.S. held him, why? He was a contractor.

MICHAEL BERG: Well, they held him, they said, because they were suspicious of an American who wasn’t with Bechtel or Halliburton or the U.S. military. Nick was there legally. He had all the proper visas and papers. He was actually recruited to go there at a forum in Crystal City, Virginia, on December the 4th of 2003, which was part of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 movie. But they were suspicious of him.

They didn’t think that Americans should be walking around alone. And there is no policy about that. That was just one person’s opinion. So, they arrested him. They took him to the American military police. And there, a lawyer, Lt. Col. William Kern, decided all on his own that that was true, that it was suspicious for an American to be alone.

Nick hadn’t done anything. Nick is, to this day, not suspected at this time of ever having done anything wrong. And every agency that I pose that question to told me that that was true, that he’s not suspected of having done anything wrong. He was at the time -- they were worried that he was a terrorist, so they took their time investigating and finally concluded that he wasn’t a terrorist, and they let him go, but it was too late for him when they did it.

AMY GOODMAN: So why are you running for Congress?

MICHAEL BERG: Well, I can’t do anything about my son's death at this point. Nothing will ever bring him back. But I am running for Congress in the same way that a parent who loses a child in a bicycle accident when they didn’t have a helmet on, you know, and then they go out on a crusade to try to get everyone to put helmets on their children when they ride their bicycles. It’s the same thing with me.

This war, this stupid war that was based on lies to begin with, that is going on just for George Bush to save face -- which is backfiring anyhow -- is killing people at the rate of one every three minutes. Someone is having the experience that I had every three minutes. Someone is losing a son, someone is losing a father, someone is losing a loved one every three minutes in Iraq, and I’m running for Congress to stop it.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re also joined, Michael Berg, by Howie Hawkins, who is the New York Green senatorial candidate. Howie, You come from Rochester?

HOWIE HAWKINS: Syracuse.

AMY GOODMAN: Syracuse. Explain how you got involved in politics. What is your background?

HOWIE HAWKINS: I came up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and by the time I was about 12 years old, in 1964, Reagan was campaigning against fair housing. I decided I’m not a Republican. And then I watched the Democrats exclude the Mississippi Freedom Democrats. And at that point, I said, “I’m looking for my own party,” which became the Peace and Freedom campaign in 1967-68. I’m 14 years old then, urging adults to register in this party. I was afraid of getting drafted. I eventually was drafted.

And since that time, I’ve been involved in trying to set up a people's party that wasn’t corporate-funded, that tried to represent the working people in this country, fights for peace, fights for the environment. And so, I, you know, just sort of got involved at that time, and I’ve stuck with it.

AMY GOODMAN: And why did you choose this race, the senatorial race?

HOWIE HAWKINS: It kind of chose me. The state committee asked me to run. And we knew we were going to run somebody, because Clinton has been pro-war, and the war issue is -- you know, Michael has just been very articulate about that. It’s not only a personal tragedy for all the people being affected, military families -- a lot of people are tied to the military through their family. But, it’s draining our Treasury. It’s bankrupting our country. Over a trillion dollars, according to former Clinton administration officials, who -- you know, Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes, who studied the cost of what --

The troops coming back home are going to be sick, disabled. The depleted uranium is causing what we called Gulf War Syndrome, from the first Gulf War. And now, we're finding out the proportions are the same. Hundreds of thousands of people coming back are going to have to be taken care of over the long run. So, that’s going to drain our Treasury. So, you know, this is a central issue. And so we knew we wanted to run against Clinton, and whoever the Republicans put up, because we needed an antiwar alternative.

And then, there’s lots of other issues. I mentioned healthcare, the energy crisis, the problem of global warming. You know, my position is take about half the military budget, 300 billion dollars a year, and over ten years build a new energy infrastructure for the world around renewable energy. I believe that will create hundreds of thousands of jobs in New York alone. It will do more for world peace and national security than all the arms in the world. And it will deal with this problem of global warming.

AMY GOODMAN: So, how do you get word out? You’re not included in the televised debates. How are you conducting your campaign?

HOWIE HAWKINS: It’s going by word-of-mouth through organized groups, like the peace movement, community groups. Zogby did a poll, showed I’m getting 21% support among independent voters. And you look at party enrollment in New York state, that’s at least 5% of the total vote. If I got that vote, it would be the most a Green ever got in the state, more than Nader got in 2000. It’d be more than an independent progressive for Senate got in New York state since W.E.B. Dubois in 1950. He got 210,000 votes. The kind of numbers I’m getting translate into 300,000 to 400,000 votes.

If we hold that, it will send a strong message on our issues and, I think, give hope to the movements, who I think have been demoralized. You look at the antiwar sentiment using the Gallup poll question, “Was the war a mistake?” and in three years we’ve got to just about where we were in the anti-Vietnam War. We’re at 54% on that question. It was 56% at the peak in the antiwar Vietnam War. But you don’t see the manifestation and the resistance in the movement. So I think a strong vote for us will give hope to the movements and encourage all kinds of activity on the issues we’re talking about.

Blogger Jailed for Refusing to Turn Over Video

2006-10-25T21:00:00.000-07:00

Josh Wolf profiled on NPR

by Ari Shapiro

...
If the case had been prosecuted in state court, Josh Wolf might have been able to invoke the shield law that California offers for reporters. But a federal grand jury is handling the case, and there is no federal shield law for journalists.

There are also questions about whether bloggers are journalists at all. If they aren't, they would not be eligible for any sort of shield law. But the judge hearing Wolf's case said he didn't need to address that question, because federal courts don't have a law that protects journalists from being forced to turn over materials.

Wolf says he'll stay in prison indefinitely rather than surrender his video footage. That could keep him behind bars until the grand jury's term expires next July.
...

See link for Timeline: Journalists and Jail Time

PROTESTS CONTINUE IN HUNGARY

2006-10-25T05:37:00.000-07:00

Police in Hungary are preparing for another night of unrest after protests in Budapest yesterday turned into overnight rioting. Regular street demonstrations began last month when Hungarian Prime Minster Ferenc Gyurcsany was caught on tape admitting that he lied repeatedly about the county´s economy to win re-election. Hungary's largest opposition party is calling for a referendum on the prime minister's economic policy, which includes austerity measures to reduce the country's budget deficit, the largest in the European Union. Gyurcsany's package of reforms includes steps that could lead to the privatization of Hungary's systems of public health and education.

The Brown Berets of Watsonville, California

2006-10-25T05:35:00.000-07:00

by Gloria Muñoz Ramírez

In a City of Immigrant Farmworkers, a New Youth Movement Draws Inspiration from the Zapatistas and the Radical Organizing of the 60s

They take up the legacy of Chicano agrarian leader César Chávez, of Malcolm X, of Martin Luther King, of the Zapatistas and, of course, of sixties movements like the Black Panthers and the Brown Berets. From this last group they retake its name, its berets and its fighting spirit.

The new Brown Berets are a group of autonomous youths, most of them students, dressed head to toe “in the color of the earth.” They are based in Watsonville, California, an agricultural region inhabited and, above all, worked by tens of thousands of people of Mexican, African American and Filipino origin.

Ramiro Medrano relates: “We began to organize in 1994. There was a lot of social mobilization in the United States in that year, because social assistance was being taken away from undocumented people with Proposition 187. That was also the year of the Zapatista uprising and we as Mexicans in the United States, as Chicanos, well, it made a big impact on us. The Chicano has an identity problem. We feel Mexican, but we are not recognized as such in Mexico, and neither are we gringos. After 1994, we were proud to say, together with the Zapatistas, we are Mexicans, indigenous people, and we are proud of it.”

In Watsonville, 80 percent of the population is Mexican or of Mexican origin. The majority are field workers, indigenous people who confront racism daily through organization and strength of character. They are the workforce of the U.S. city that has the greatest exports of strawberries, lettuce, broccoli and raspberries, as well as other products harvested by the exodus on this side of the Rio Grande.

“In 1994, the gang violence here left a young girl and her brother dead of gunshot wounds. This caused us to say ya basta – enough already! – to the violence generated by racism in the schools and in the fields. Young people with no options search for an identity, a sense of belonging, and that is how the gangs are formed. We didn’t want that in our neighborhoods anymore,” Ramiro continues.

And that is how the Brown Berets began. First with a great march for peace and unity that went through all the battle-torn neighborhoods. Later, once organized as a group, they had more long-term goals: get the youths out of the gangs; have representation in the schools and on their administration to avoid racism in the selection of students; organize against immigration raids and their agents’ actions in the barrio; hold workshops and events to strengthen identity through education, and many more, including the organization of a “Justice Network” in order to communicate by telephone the actions of la migra. Through this network they organize rapid concentrations of people to stop attacks by immigration agents, which they record and distribute. “It’s about not just standing by.”

Published in Spanish in Gloria Muños Ríos’ column “Los de abajo” (“The Underdogs”) of October 21.

Palestinian farm workers organise

2006-10-25T05:30:00.000-07:00

Submitted by Ed on Mon, 23/10/2006

Palestinian farmer

In-depth article about the plight of farm workers in the Jordan Valley and their attempts to organise.

Work at Any Cost: Employment of Palestinian Agricultural Workers in Jordan Valley Settlements

Hundreds of Palestinian workers from Jericho and its surroundings are employed in Israeli settlements in the Jordan Valley. So far, no Palestinian or Israeli body had taken upon itself to provide an accurate account of the numbers of these workers.

Virtually invisible, these workers grow date and herb crops and cultivate fields in the intense heat characteristic of the Jordan Valley, covering hundreds of acres under the jurisdiction of the Jordan Valley Regional Council, stretching from the Dead Sea area to Bet She’an Valley. With no one to assist them, they are neglected and ignored: representatives of the Palestinian Authority, unable to enter the settlements, cannot supervise work there, and the Authority is too weak to make this problem a part of the agenda in Israel or outside of it. On its part, the Israeli supervision system—both the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labour and the Civil Administration—prefer to ignore the glaring exploitation of Palestinian workers and pretend it does not exist.

Targeted Exploitation
The workers are willing to suffer harsh working conditions in order to bring home bread and escape the circles of poverty and unemployment in the Palestinian Authority’s territories. In the settlements, they earn between 50 to 60 Shekels [approx. $12 to $14] for a 7 hour workday, from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. For working an extra hour, they are paid an additional 10 Shekels. They receive no payslips, and their employers often delay paying wages. Most workers are frequently transferred from one employer to another, and an employer who wishes to fire a worker can do so very easily. Workers therefore often find it difficult to show proof of their employment if they approach the Israeli Labour Courts.

Workers are not paid for vacation days and are thus compelled to work on their religious holidays and on weekly vacation days without receiving the compensation dictated by the law. In some worksites there are no scheduled lunch breaks and restroom facilities are often absent. Most workers are not supplied with suitable safety equipment, especially when spraying or working in the sun.

The Israeli employers do not bother registering these workers in the Israeli Bureau of Employment; as a consequence, employees are defined as working “off the books”, and thus find it extremely difficult to guarantee any rights for themselves. Palestinian work managers are complicit in this situation, for they provide workers for Israeli employers. As far as the Israeli employers are concerned, these workers are mere numbers, they have no names or rights. Employers would even go as far as to let their Palestinian workers feel that by employing them, they are doing them a great favour for which they should be grateful.

Awakening?
The workers are afraid to complain, lest they lose their source of income. They were silent for years, but some are now becoming increasingly aware of the exploitation they experienced and try to come to terms with it. Despite their fears, they come to the Office of United Labour Unions in Jericho, and receive a basic explanation on their rights according to Israeli law and Jordanian law. This, in turn, increases their awareness of the long-repressed experience of abuse and exploitation, especially in matters concerning their wages. Alarmed at the revelation that the law entitles them for a minimum wage of 18 Shekels per hour, they begin to ask questions: what can be done? How can the Israeli employer be made to pay us by law? If we open our mouth to speak, we risk losing our jobs: dozens of unemployed workers will be willing to replace us. How are we going to support our families?

How Many Workers Are There?
It is difficult to tell the exact number of Palestinian workers employed in the Jordan Valley. An inquiry with the Palestinian Ministry of Labour gives the impression that during the Second Intifada, which started in the year 2000, and especially since last March—after Israel disengaged itself from the Palestinian Authority and all matters pertaining to it—the Ministry has no record of workers employed in Jordan Valley settlements. According to Nasser Awagna, an official in the Palestinian Ministry of Labour in Jericho, “after Israel disengaged itself from the Authority’s institutions, workers began to receive work permits by either applying directly to the Israeli Civil Administration or through their Israeli employers. We no longer process permits here.” Israeli Civil Administration’s labour officer estimates the number of workers at up to 8,000. Local authorities estimate the number of workers at under 2,000.

Few are those who receive permission to work in one of the twenty-one Jordan Valley settlements. Those who do not receive a work permit have to find illegal ways of entry to the settlements. In the past year, it has become fashionable with the Civil Administration for labourers in Jericho to refuse permits “based on security considerations.” This tag is attached to most workers, including those who have no connection to anti-Israel activity, no criminal record, not even a traffic offence. This tag leaves Palestinian agriculture labourers in a state of constant anxiety: if caught by the Israeli security forces, they might lose their source of income. In many cases, workers had to pay fines ranging from 300 to 500 Shekels [approx. $70 to $115] after being caught working without a permit. Their Israeli employers refused to reimburse the payment.

The work permit, which workers receive through the employer’s mediation, becomes a strong bargaining card in the hands of the employer. Workers report of several cases in which, when a worker complained to his employer or attempted, by means of a lawsuit, to realize his legal rights, the employer responded by threatening the worker that unless the lawsuit is revoked, he will see to it that the worker does not receive a work permit. According to workers, more than a handful of employers threatened to falsely accuse workers for theft and bring to their expulsion from the settlements.

The Israeli employer feels free to seek the assistance of the police, the Border Police or the settlement’s security guards as a form of “solution” for the problem that the Palestinian worker creates. Workers, and occasionally Arab work managers as well, report that when a problem arises at work, rather than attempting to solve it the employer often prefers to throw the worker out by threats to call the police.

The work permit gives the Israeli employer much power, a power that he does not hesitate to use for securing the continual exploitation of his employees.

Damage to Body and Soul
In addition to the work permit, work accidents, illness and safety at work are all issues facing Palestinian workers in the Valley. The workers know that in case of a work accident, neither the Israeli employer nor the Palestinian work manager will be willing to assume responsibility. Neither will cover the medical expenses nor pay for illness days. Even worse, most chances are that the injured worker will lose his or her job. Knowing this from experience, many workers prefer to concentrate their efforts on figuring out how to survive a day of work without getting hurt, how to secure their job from one day to the next. Most try to avoid thinking of the possibility of a work accident, even though the chances of it happening are not unlikely. The employer, failing to provide workers with any adequate personal protection equipment, exposes them to harsh and dangerous working conditions.

One of the most painful stories related by the date crops workers is that of their work during the fruit thinning season. According to their testimonies, to perform this work they are forced to spend three to six hours a day sitting at the top of a palm tree. This practice, known in the Valley by the name “Taxi Driver,” was adopted from a method used in the U.S. to exploit Mexican workers: using a crane, the employer lifts the worker to the top of the palm tree and leaves him there to labour for long hours, with no way of getting down. Both private employers and the settlements’ secretariats engage in this practice, which in recent years has become prevalent in many settlements in the Valley.

The workers report that they are compelled to remain seated at the top of the palm tree in a dangerous and uncomfortable position. They take their breakfast there, and with no access to bathroom facilities they must evacuate their bodily waste from thence. When a worker needs to attend the bathroom he must resort to quarrelling with the work manager, alternately shouting and pleading. The workers’ fear of falling is constant: it may hurt not only their bodies, but their income as well.

The date crops workers who managed to persist in this job have suppressed these fears to the extent that some of them insist that the job is neither difficult nor dangerous. Abbed, a 34-year old from the village of Jaftlak, says he has no reason to worry. He began working with date crops when he was fourteen years old, and thinks it perfectly normal to spend long hours on the high tree. The insects, snakes and bees that threaten him regularly practically no longer exist for him, and the strong wind that sways the tree, making other workers scream in fear and beg to be let off, only strengthens him. “This is why I survived and persisted in this job for years, while others quit it on the very first day,” he concludes.

In addition to the mental stress that results from the pressure in work and the fear of losing it, the intensive labour on the palm trees causes many workers to suffer headaches and pain in the back and limbs. This is only a small fraction of the health problems suffered by Palestinian agriculture workers. They are exposed to harsh working conditions, including, among others, spraying with no protective equipment such as masks and gloves. Contrary to what the law requires, they receive no proper instructions from the employer on the use pesticides. According to workers, the most common diseases caused by working with pesticides without adequate protective equipment are eczema, breathing problems and nose sensitivity. Worker also suffered from sunstrokes and, in cases of falling off trees, from bone fractures.

Salim, 23, says: “when I was sixteen, a tractor wagon fell on me. No one covered the medical expenses and I returned to work within a month. Until this day I suffer pain in my legs, back and elbows, especially in the winter season.” Salim adds that “every year in November and December I receive burns to my arms and face as result of using the pesticide Agzidoff. The burns remain for a couple of months before the skin begins to heal.” Sammie (fictitious name) has been working in the settlement Patzael for the past fifteen years, earning 50 Shekels [approx. $12] a day, including travel expenses. Sammie, who works from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., is one of six permanent workers employed by the business owner year-round. “I work with pesticides twice, sometimes three times a week, with no protective equipment. I have nose and hands sensitivity,” he says.

Fatal Competition
The dire economic hardships in the Occupied Territories, resulting in poverty and unemployment among most Palestinians, have created great demand for employment in the settlements. This demand, in turn, has been exploited by Israeli employers for obtaining cheap labour. It has also generated intense competition among workers, which serves only to weaken them and exacerbate their condition.

A divide-and-conquer policy is a distinctive feature of worker-employer relations in the Jordan Valley. The Palestinian workers come to the settlements from various places: from nearby villages, from the city of Jericho and in recent years from Ramallah, Jenin and Nablus—where the erection of the separation wall made it difficult for Palestinian workers to find employment and drove them to the Jordan Valley in search of jobs. Workers no longer know one another; their sole interest is to keep their jobs as long as possible.

Fierce competition also exists among Palestinian work managers, who function as human resources agents of sorts: they supply workers according to the employer’s demand, drive them to the worksite, and receive commission ranging from 10 to 30 Shekels [approx. $2.5 to $7] a day per worker, depending on the location from which workers are brought. But work managers have no control over working conditions. Most of them have no written employment agreement with the Israeli employer. For the most part, they were able to obtain their position as work managers in virtue of their proficiency in the Hebrew language, for being skilful workers themselves, and for possessing a vehicle for worker transportation. Over the years, these contractors, known among the workers as “mualamin,” have accumulated a great deal of power and created a system of shared interests with the Israeli employers.

From talking with some of the contractors it appears that competition exists especially between contractors from Jericho and those coming from the surroundings of Nablus and Ramallah. In Jericho there are only seven contractors, working with some 300 agricultural workers. In the villages surrounding Nablus, however, there are dozens of contractors; one of them, for instance, recruits some 200 workers alone.

Labourers who work with contractors from Jericho work from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. for a total of 65 Shekels a day, 10 Shekels of which go to the contractor. Those, on the other hand, who work with contractors from outside Jericho, are paid 45 Shekels per workday, while the contractor receives 25 Shekels per person for transporting workers to and from the worksite. These contractors supply the Israeli demand for children, women and men from outside Jericho who are willing to work at any price. Recently a problem emerged in one of the workplaces: The Israeli employer had decided that he wants to employ women from the Jericho area, and men from Nablus and Ramalla. The employer persisted in his decision despite the objection of the female workers, who claimed such mix-up creates tension between male and female workers; nor did he yield to the contractor’s request to approve the employment of several men from the Jericho area in order to “protect” the Jericho female workers from male workers from outside the city.

The Israeli checkpoints pose another serious obstacle for workers and contractors alike. Sometimes the contractor with his workers would be stopped at a checkpoint on their way to work. The Israeli employer then calls another contractor, knowing this one will be willing to risk the life of his workers driving them through dusty sideroads, and asks him to replace the contractor stopped at the checkpoint. “This is a serious problem. It thwarts any attempt to make the employer assume responsibility for his workers and release them from the checkpoint,” says a veteran contractor.

In May this year Kav LaOved and the Palestinian Geberal Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) in Jericho organized a workshop attended by thirty agricultural labourers and contractors employed in the Jordan Valley settlements. Attorney Hashem Massrawa of Kav LaOved told the Palestinian contractors: “you are responsible for the rights of the Palestinian workers no less then the Israeli employers are.”

Kefach, a contractor of female workers, employs 70 agricultural labourers. She drives them to and from work and receives a commission of 10 Shekels a day for each worker. Kefach is also responsible for distributing payslips to her employees. Attorney Massrawa had warned her that workers may file a suit against her in the Palestinian Authority as well as in Labour Courts in Israel: along with the Israeli employer, she too can be legally considered as their employer.

Attorney Massrawa talked with the participants about the ambiguity of the contractor’s status. He explained Palestinian contractors that they must ensure that workers receive the minimum wage as determined by Israeli law. Otherwise, they might be made to pay the difference in case a worker files a complaint against them and against the Israeli employer.

According to Massrawa, the Israeli employer uses the indirect payslip distribution method to hide from workers the fact that he is their employer; this allows him to forsake responsibility for their rights. Accordingly, the Israeli employer refuses to recognize most work accidents, and the workers lose their right to Social Security benefits.

Attorney Massrawa also discussed the Jordanian employment law (which, pending a Supreme Court ruling, is the law governing Palestinian workers in Jewish settlements in all matters except for minimum wage). Besides holidays, workers are entitled by Jordanian law for 12 annual vacation days; the work week is defined as having 48 hours, 9 work hours a day; payment for the weekly rest day is calculated for each worker according to the total number of days he worked each month. Furthermore, the worker is entitled to severance pay and to insurance against work accidents.

Massrawa explained workers that they must prepare for the long run. “What will happen to you in case of illness or work accident,” he asked them. “Has it occurred to you that the employment method will make it difficult for you to obtain compensation?” Massrawa also noted the risks involved in working with pesticides without protective equipment, and that by agreeing to work under such conditions they are ignoring the direct threat to their health. Massrawa urged workers to begin thinking beyond the short-term goal of earning 1,000 Shekels by the end of the month, and to start considering their future as workers.

The Road to Organization
The PGFTU in Jericho sees great importance in organizing the workers. Waal Nadif, the chair of the Jericho PGFTU, says that “the Israeli employer does not recognize the Palestinian unions in the territories. Representatives of Palestinian trade unions are prohibited from entering Israeli worksites. We can’t even move freely in our own territories,” he says.

In Nadif’s opinion, the labour laws that the State of Israel applies to Palestinian workers in the settlements are highly unjust. These laws are based on the 1965 Jordanian regulation no. 2—an outdated and problematic regulation that fails to secure even minimal rights for workers. “Unfortunately, the Israeli law is in agreement with this,” says Nadif. “Along with this problem, a serious dilemma emerges in case that the Israeli law itself is being applied to the Palestinian workers in the settlements. Such application has wide-ranging political implications, since it supposedly constitutes recognition of the settlements as part of Israel rather than occupied Palestinian lands. I can’t come up with a solution for this dilemma off the top of my head, but we have to find a formula that protects worker rights in the settlements while at the same time guarantees their political right in their territories.”

As a consequence of the collaboration with Kav LaOved the PGFTU perceives a new and positive change: Palestinians who work in the settlements come to talk about their difficulties in their work with the Israeli employer, regardless of their suspicion and fear of losing their jobs. “Only recently have we in the Jericho PGFTU begun to understand that the condition of Palestinian workers in the settlements is most difficult, and that we have to work to improve it,” says Nadif.

A Hopeful Note
“Today more than ever we perceive willingness among the workers to unionize,” writes Waal Nadif in an information sheet recently published as an initiative of Kav LaOved and the Jericho PGFTU. Nadif adds that “the workers’ attitude toward the Jericho PGFTU is changing. If initially they came only to receive various services, today they are coming to receive legal and organizational consultation and attend preparation and awareness workshops. It’s a good start. We are aware that the work that lies ahead of us is hard and requires much patience, but we’re on the right track and in the future we shall enjoy its fruits, Inshallah.