2014-11-28 by Steven Argue of the Revolutionary Tendency [https://archive.today/xGdF5]:
The following is my response to a cop who saw my post of these cops and complained about protesters "always rioting", complained our protests "accomplish nothing", smugly pointed out that it is the police and not us who have the guns, and who said he loves the shirt in this photo and wanted to know where to get one.
[Photo: A cop with a t-shirt bragging, proud to beat us down. At the heart of the capitalist state are it's repressive cops, prisons, military, and courts of injustice. They are part of a system that cannot be reformed, but must be smashed in proletarian revolution.]
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In the United States armed police often violently attack people for exercising our rights to free speech, but the propaganda of the corporate media constantly spew their lies, making the victims of police repression look like the criminals. In reality, it is the capitalist police, and not the people, who are the violent criminals.
Our protests haven't accomplished a thing? Really? Bullshit. Here is a rundown of our top seven accomplishments in the United States in the past hundred years. Accomplishments made despite your arrests and police batons in the streets:
The protests of the women's suffrage movement combined with the example of the extensive gains for the liberation of women in the 1917 Russian Revolution to win women the right to vote in the United States in 1920.
In 1934 three major strikes, including two general strikes in San Francisco and Minneapolis, all led by reds and fighting against you cops, forced the U.S. capitalist class to give us the New Deal. The gains we won included Social Security, a minimum wage, a ban on child labor, and programs that provided jobs. It wasn't the socialism many of us were fighting for, but these things were accomplishments.
In the 1960s there were accomplishments as well. People fought back in the Black ghettos and across the South standing up in the face of police and Klan terror. Far from accomplishing nothing, we forced an end to legalized discrimination against Blacks. It wasn't an abolition of the racist capitalist system or an end to racist police terror, but important advances were made.
In the 1960's and 1970s people rose up against the U.S. slaughter of the Vietnamese people. By May 1970 so many people were fed-up with the war and government repression that eight million students went out on strike. This didn't immediately stop the war, but afterward the majority of people drafted opposed the war. Soldiers in Vietnam refused to murder for a war they didn't believe in, fighting in a country where they didn't belong. Many commanding officers that tried to force them to fight were fragged. This helped bring victory to the Vietnamese people, enabling them to run their country as they saw fit without U.S. mass murder and without U.S. imposed dictatorships. Once again, our struggles did accomplish something. The war was ended and our "boys" (men and women actually) the Vietnamese Communists were victorious. It wasn't an abolition of U.S. imperialism and U.S. imperialist wars, but the liberation of Vietnam and an end to the U.S. slaughter of three million Vietnamese people was still an important victory.
In addition, spin-offs from the movement against the U.S. war in Vietnam included the women's liberation movement, Gay and Lesbian liberation movements, and the environmental movement. The ERA still has not been passed, but we have made important headway on basic rights and reproductive freedom due to a mass movement that took to the streets. Gays and Lesbians are still officially discriminated against, including not being allowed to marry and have the same legal rights as straight couples, but they are no longer rounded-up by police vice squads with their names published in the newspapers the next day (and being fired from their jobs as a result), and they are no longer locked up and tortured in mental institutions for homosexuality. The planet is also rapidly being destroyed by greedy capitalists through global warming, but we did get some terrible things like DDT banned and the heightened awareness of earlier movements at least puts us one step closer to possibly rising up and doing something about global warming.
So as you can see, our work, and our protests, may not have yet brought on the revolution many of us seek, but you are either very naive or lying if you think that our protests have accomplished nothing. After all, if we were accomplishing nothing, why would those who own this country send you pigs out to bust our heads so often when we are simply exercising our legal right to protest. Your bosses are scared of the people, that’s why they send you thugs out against us. We will continue our struggle, always reminded that your anger and disapproval are signs that we are doing something right.
That was my message to him.
Regarding the police themselves, justice is extremely rare under America’s racist capitalist government. In the case of Rodney King, despite videotape showing the cops using enough force to kill a man, the police were acquitted in their first trial. In that case it took a mass six day uprising in 1992 that destroyed over a billion dollars in property to win a new trial for the criminal cops. In the subsequent trial, two cops, Koon and Powell, were found guilty. For a change, two brutal cops went to prison for their crimes. In addition, the 1992 uprising forced the resignation of LA’s Chief of Police. On a small scale, property was also redistributed through “looting”. Yet, the people paid a heavy price for this action with all kinds of repressive government forces mobilized in the streets including the Marines, 53 people were killed, around 2,000 people were injured, and nearly 20,000 people arrested. Yet, the destruction of a billion dollars in property was not without sense, because much of what was destroyed was owned by the ruling capitalist class, our oppressors and exploiters.
Another rare case where a small amount of justice was won was the case of Oscar Grant in Oakland California. Oscar Grant was clearly shown in video being handcuffed and executed by Oakland’s BART Police. Yet, to jail the guilty cop took a mass movement that included protests and a strike by the Oakland Longshore union (ILWU) shutting the Port of Oakland down. The killer of Oscar Grant got off easy with a conviction on a manslaughter charge, but the case was unusual in the fact that the cop did any time at all for his crime.
The true predators in America span from the politicians and judges who hold the highest positions of power all the way down to their badged minions and racist wannabes who patrol the streets, killing with impunity. They represent the wealthy capitalists who own America. Obviously, in capitalist America for those who hold power, the lives of young Black men are cheep. No protest, no strike, and no rebellion by itself will change these facts. To truly jail all of the criminals who are responsible and bring racial justice to America will take a proletarian revolution carried out by America’s multi-racial working class. That revolution must completely smash the capitalist state, at its heart the police, courts, prisons, and military to build new institutions based on racial equality and economic justice. Instead of destroying the property of the capitalists, our goal needs to be one of completely expropriating the entire capitalist class and using our ownership of the economy to guarantee everyone a job, housing, education, healthcare, security, and a clean environment through a new socialist economy based on human needs rather than profit. Building the kind of revolutionary party capable of leading such a revolution is a goal of the Revolutionary Tendency.
Justice for Michael Brown and All Victims of Police-State Terrorism!
For Resistance to the Racist Capitalist State!
For Mass Protests and Strikes!
For Armed Workers’ Self-Defense to Protect Ourselves, Our Families and Our Homes!
Towards a Revolutionary Party of the Multiracial Working Class
For Proletarian Socialist Revolution That Will Bring Justice, Including Prison For Racist Murdering Cops!
Tune in Thursdays 4 to 5pm (PST), at 89.5FM in the northeast San Pablo Bay Area, or on a Smart Phone[link], Desktop U-stream [link], Live Mp3 (.pls) stream [link], Netbook [link]. Hosted by Dr.G., Minister of Information of the Northbay MDS, breaking the blockade of censorship, with research archives and verified sources!Be a Community Journalist with our Community Journalist's Notebook [link], send news & info to [NorthbayMDS@) gmail.com]! Link sources are noted. Backed-up links are to (archive.org), (archive.today), (peeep.us).
"Let Your Motto Be Resistance: A Handbook on Organizing New Afrikan and Oppressed Communities for Self-Defense" [MXGM.org link] [archive.org]
Homes Not Jails! A solidarity network housing those in need with abandoned housing has seen one of it's founders move on into the next world...
* "Tenants’ hero Gullicksen remembered at crowded memorial in S.F." (2014-11-16) [SFGate.com link] [archive.today]
"Whole Foods" fascism meets Working Class Power!
John Mackey, founder and CEO of Whole Foods, describes himself as a “free market libertarian” and is proud to say that of “all the food retailers in the Fortune 500… we have the highest profits as a percentage of sales, as well as the highest return on invested capital.”
Mackey's view on labor relations with the workers at Whole Foods is extremely anti-union, and his ideology is hostile to Worker's Rights, and even Customer Rights... During June of 2014, Whole Foods agreed to pay an $800,000 penalty for overcharging customers, after an investigation by the city attorneys of Los Angeles, San Diego and Santa Monica. The illegal actions included “failing to deduct the weight of containers when ringing up fresh food, putting smaller amounts into packages than the weight stated on the label, and selling items by the piece instead of the pound, as required by law,” according to the Los Angeles Times. As part of the settlement, which applies to all stores in both Northern and Southern California, the company is required to have an employee at each store dedicated to insuring that pricing is correct.
* "Whole Food Market Workers Unite!" [WFMUnite.com]
* "IWW workers take on Whole Foods in SF" (2014-11-07) [48hillsonline.org link] [archive.today]
* Shut Down Whole Foods Distribution Center! Join Whole Foods Workers for a 24 Hour Picket at Whole Foods' Northern California Distribution Center This Weekend! Friday November 21, 2pm! Shut It Down, RAIN OR SHINE. Bring 5 Friends! Our Demands:
1) Full $5 an Hour Wage Increase For All Whole Foods Workers!
2) Stop Management's Intimidation of Union Members!
3) End Whole Foods' Silent Treatment! We Deserve a Real Response!
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* "Got Unfair Labor Practices? Put ’em to Use" (2014-11-10) [LaborNotes.org link] [archive.today]
* "How Wildcat Strikes Made Public Worker Unions Grow and Thrive" (2014-11-12) [LaborNotes.org link] [archive.today]
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* " 'History In The Making': Workers Hold First Sit-Down Work Action Targeting Walmart. 'I am out here on strike because of retaliation and disrespect' " (2014-11-13) [CommonDreams.org link] [archive.today]
* "Walmart Workers Ramp Up Protests for Black Friday" (2014-11-14) [LaborNotes.org link] [archive.today]
* "Fighting for 'Fair Shake,' Walmart Workers Plan for Black Friday Strikes" (2014-11-14) [CommonDreams.org link] [archive.today]
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* "Nurses Strike: It’s Not Just about Ebola" (2014-11-11) [LaborNotes.org link] [archive.today]
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* "Fast food convention portends escalation in strikes" (2014-07-28) [Msnbc.com link] [archive.today]
* "I’ve worked at McDonald’s for 10 years and still make $7.35 an hour" (2014-07-26) [QZ.com link] [archive.today].
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* "Solano court workers rally against cuts, furloughs" (2014-07-28) [seiu1021.org link] [archive.today]
* "Court workers protest pay, service cuts; Budget reductions include closing family law and civil divisions in Vallejo" (2014-07-23) [TimesHeraldOnline.com link] [archive.today]
"Berkeley: Nader talk supports post office activists" (2014-07-31) [MercuryNews.com] [archive.today], [begin excerpt]: Nader talked about the giant real estate firm CBRE and its contract with the Postal Service "to sell off postal properties all over the country without competitive bidding." He also noted the role of Richard Blum, CBRE chair and spouse of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, claiming, "He can actually deliver some of these (properties) to his business associates -- talk about conflict of interest. "And he has now amended the contract so he can do his own appraisal. You appraise the property so that you can sell this for less than market value. And then he sells it to his buddies." Nader pointed out that the Postal Service inspector general issued a "withering" report condemning the practice of the same entity doing both appraisals and sales. [end excerpt]
" 'Get Out' Anti-Homeless Law...With Phony 'Appeal' Process at Afternoon Council 11-18" (2014-11-15) [IndyBay.org link] [archive.today]
Student Power! Defend Education! Resist the Monopolist's Plan to privatize the Universities!
The Regents of the University of California voted this morning to approve a tuition increase plan that would raise tuition potentially by 27% over a five-year period, depending on funding levels provided by the State of California.
* "UC moves closer to tuition hike amid student protests" (2014-11-20) [SFGate.com link] [archive.today]
* "UC resists law requiring disclosure of expenditures" (2014-11-15) [SFChronicle.com link] [archive.today], [begin excerpt]: The law, AB94, requires UC to tell the public how much it spends to educate undergraduates versus graduates, how much it spends on research, and how much money from each funding source goes to each area. State officials say they want the data to understand how much tuition UC should charge, and what the size of enrollment should be, and for basic transparency to the public. UC currently lumps those expenditures together in an “average cost of instruction,” which is $17,000, $24,000 or $33,000 per student, depending on what UC counts as instruction. Either way, the “average cost” approach masks much of how UC spends public money. For example, it took an audit to learn in 2011 that the four UC campuses with the most underrepresented minority students were also getting the least amount of money per student. And when a rumor circulated a few years ago that UC was using student fees as collateral on the sale of construction bonds, there was no way to verify UC’s promise that that was not the case. As the Oct. 1 deadline approached, UC requested a month’s extension. On Oct. 31, UC President Janet Napolitano submitted a seven-page preliminary report explaining that accurately breaking out expenditures would be “extremely challenging” because of overlap between research and instruction, and because “funds are neither budgeted nor spent according to these categories.” It said that a final report would be submitted in six weeks, but its information “should be used cautiously.” [end excerpt]
* "Congress Commits an Act of War Against the Great Sioux Nation" (2014-11-17) [DailyKos.com link] [archive.today]
* "With Senate Poised to Vote on Keystone XL, New Analysis Reveals Dangerous Toll of U.S. Pipelines" (2014-11-17) [CommonDreams.org link] [archive.today]
"Sturgeon Study in Vallejo": Fisheries Biologist Mike Harris brings a research vessel to the Vallejo Municipal Marina every year to tag sturgeon. Information developed from tagging this year will complement information provided by Anglers' 2014 Sturgeon Fishing Report Cards. Anglers use the cards to record data on species, location and date of catch. The card was implemented in 2007 as a part of a suite of significant changes to sturgeon fishing regulations.
Tagging this year included a first-time collaboration with the U.S. Fish & Wild-life Service. This age and growth study was conducted by two research vessels on fishing grounds in San Pablo Bay and Suisun Bay between August 6 and October 22. The crews caught 468 white sturgeon, of which 250 were above the minimum study size and were tagged. Most of the captured white sturgeon were about 3 feet long, which means they were born in the year 2006. The largest white sturgeon captured was just under 7 feet long.
White sturgeon can live more than 100 years and weigh over 500 pounds. Green sturgeon are so uncommon that fishing for and harvesting is illegal under the Federal Endangered Species Act.
"Tell CA's Governor Brown it’s time to take the lead on chlorpyrifos" (2014-11-17) petition link [http://action.ufw.org/page/s/gov_chlorpyrifos]:
Last month, after more than 10 years of review, California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) finally released their proposed new guidelines on use of the brain-harming pesticide chlorpyrifos. But there is a catch ... the new “restricted use” guidelines will be entirely voluntary. And these voluntary regulations don’t do enough to protect children.
A decade is a long time. With more than one million pounds of chlorpyrifos used in California fields every year, countless children have been put in harm’s way as DPR drags its feet.
The harm of this dangerous pesticide is real and well documented. Studies have shown that exposure to this chemical during pregnancy can actually change the architecture of a developing brain. UC Davis MIND Institute research confirmed links between chlorpyrifos and learning disabilities. The DPR's own recent air monitoring data found chlorpyrifos in one of every three samples taken in three California communities.
Farm worker children in rural areas get a double dose of this harmful chemical. In addition to residues on fruits and vegetables, these kids breathe in chlorpyrifos that drifts into their homes, schools and playgrounds from nearby fields.
It's time to elevate the pressure. Join the UFW and a coalition of environmental groups in urging California Governor Brown to provide some much-needed leadership to better protect the health of children. Our coalition will be turning in the petition to Governor Brown in early December and wants to get at least 25,000 signatures.
"Bill Moyers interviews Mayor McLaughlin and Richmond Confidential reporter Harriet Rowan" (2014-11-07) [Sunflower-Alliance.org link] [archive.today].
Two days after Richmond's historic election, Bill Moyers interviewed Mayor McLaughlin and reporter Harriet Rowan, a UC Berkeley student and journalist who exposed details of Chevron's funding strategy. They discussed the role that corporate cash has played in Richmond, and the discoveries that Ms. Rowen made in the course of her reporting. Asked by Moyers about the lesson of this election, Mayor McLaughlin replied, "Corporations can have a lot of money and influence but that’s nothing when compared to the power of people when united.” Link to video [vimeo.com/111188023]
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Vermont Progressive Party (VPP) member Ellen David Friedman, a veteran labor, community, and political organizer, is visiting the Northbay city of Richmond to celebrate the recent electoral victory of the Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA) and to discuss ideas for the next steps forward. Like the RPA, Vermont Progressives had a great night on Nov. 4. The VPP now has a delegation of ten in the state legislature—three senators and seven state reps. A candidate for lieutenant governor, backed by the Party, racked up 36% of the vote, the best showing by any progressive running statewide other than Bernie Sanders in his ten successful federal races. With members on city councils and other local elected bodies throughout Vermont, the VPP is the most successful local and state-level third party in the country.
The VPP has also been very effective in developing a younger and more diverse cadre of candidates (fielding more than 20 this Fall). Some of them play an active year-round role in the statewide party leadership and in organizing around issues between elections. VPP recruitment hasbeen particularly impressive among younger, female labor activists and others from a trade union backround—see [Portside.org/2014-07-18/building-labor-base-third-party-campaigning] [archive.today].
Ellen herself is a longtime teacher union activist and Labor Notes supporter who has mentored many of these new VPP leaders. She managed one of Bernie’s statewide campaigns in the mid-1980s and, prior to being a founder of the VPP, played an active role in the Rainbow Coalition, even getting elected delegate to the 1988 Democratic National Convention as a Jesse Jackson supporter.
Ellen was a financial contributor to Team Richmond earlier this year, when Mike Parker was running for mayor. She is very interested in comparing notes with Richmond activists, of all stripes, about the progressive policy initiatives undertaken here and in Vermont, where VPP and its allies have spearheaded the push for single-payer health care, tax reform, GMO labeling, public financing of elections, greater legal protections for immigrant workers, and more labor-friendly policies by elected school board members and city councilors.
A "modified Jim Crow" in southern California:
The dominant settler culture in SoCal (Nueva Aztlan) has been able to keep it's political power, unimpeded, since the legal end to old "Jim Crow's" regime in 1947. "Jim Crow"? After the Federal War against the Confederate States ended in 1865, the subjugated states, dominated by white American nationals with conservative ideologies, found that their peculiar slave-based economic system had been outlawed, but were able to continue their economic relationship with the former slaves under "Jim Crow" laws, which ensured there would always be a lowest caste of workers by legal means. Many refugees fleeing from the Federal invasion of the Confederate States came to California, where their families and cultural values are protected to this day by an association of national vanguards embedded in the local security agencies (public and private), government, and in economic agencies, all to enable a fascist "White Power" over the captive nations within their realm, dominating those among them rather than working for a federation of nations. Among the vanguards is the KKK, more information about their role in Police departments elsewhere on this page. What follows here is an example of electoral domination on a City Council.
* "Judge kicks out Palmdale City Council, orders special election" (2013-12-02) [DailyNews.com link] [archive.today], [begin excerpt]: In what could be a precedent-setting decision, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mark Mooney scrapped Palmdale’s at-large elections — in which all voters choose from the same a common pool of candidates — in favor of dividing the city into four districts that would each choose a council member. Though the Census shows Palmdale is almost 60 percent Hispanic, and 15 percent African-American, only one Hispanic and one African-American have been elected to its council since the 1970s. R. Rex Parris, the lawyer for the plaintiffs and mayor of neighboring Lancaster, said the ruling should “break the stranglehold” of the political “machine” that “controls” Palmdale. He said the ruling could set a precedent for Anaheim and Whittier, as well as school districts in Santa Clarita and Lancaster, which have also been sued for holding at-large elections. But Palmdale deputy city attorney Noel Doran denied minorities in Palmdale have been disenfranchised. [end excerpt]
A modified "Jim Crow" in Detroit, Michigan: * "Separate and Unequal: A Journey Across a Divided Detroit" (2014-11-17) [CommonDreams.org link] [archive.today], introduction to the article by an old Detroiter at [TomDispatch.com link] [archive.today], which makes an interesting parallel between the Detroit dystopia seen in the original Robocop movie (1987), and the current conditions today.
Photo showing "Threat Management", a private security in Detroit that offers 24-hour protection to elite enclaves throughout the city.
"Jim Crow" in Ferguson, Missouri:
* "Missouri Governor Declares Preemptive State of Emergency for Ferguson" (2014-11-17) [CommonDreams.org link] [archive.today], read the text of the Missouri Governor's Executive Order 14-14 [Governor.mo.gov link] [archive.today], which says that the St. Louis County Police Department shall have command and operational control over security in the City of Ferguson relating to areas of protests, acts of civil disobedience and conduct otherwise arising from such activities; that there be a Unified Command with the Missouri State Highway Patrol, St. Louis County Police Department, and the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, to operate with no restrictions in the St. Louis area with the ability to deputize any security agency in the area. He also calls into action the Missouri State organized militia and that "the commanding officer of any unit or other organization of such organized militia so called into active service take such action and employ such equipment as may be necessary to carry out requests".
* "No more illusions: Missouri cops talked peace, prepared war" (2014-11-17) [LiberationNews.org link] [archive.today]
* "Ten Illegal Police Actions to Watch for in Ferguson" (2014-11-17) [CommonDreams.org link] [archive.today]
* "Ferguson Speaks: A Communique From Ferguson" video [vimeo.com/111938224]: The video communiqué displays a cross section of the myriad groups activated in the region and includes exclusive footage of Vonderrit Meyers Sr., Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III, celebrated artist and HandsUpUnited.org cofounder Tef Poe, Taurean Russell, Lost Voices organizer Low Key, Millennial Activists United co-creator Ashley Yates, activist and Grey’s Anatomy star Jesse Williams, Damon Davis -- a volunteer with The Don’t Shoot Coalition, Canfield Watchmen founder David Whitt, as well as local Ferguson business managers.
* "Ferguson Unrest Shows Poverty Grows Fastest in Suburbs" (2014-08-18) [Bloomberg.com link] [archive.today], [begin excerpt]: Inhabitants of the city -- which has lost more than 40 percent of its white population since 2000 -- said they’ve long felt disenfranchised by a mostly white city council and police force. The poverty rate in Ferguson was 22 percent in 2012, the most recent available, up from 10.2 percent in 2000, according to Census data. [end excerpt]
* "Friends of the Earth International Expresses Solidarity with the People of Ferguson, Missouri and People around the World who Face Social and Racial Injustices" (2014-11-13) [CommonDreams.org link] [archive.today]
"The People in Ferguson are Standing Up! It's Right to Rebel!", 2014-08-16 communique from "Stop Mass Incarceration Network" and "World Can't Wait":
Ever since the day Michael was murdered by a Ferguson cop, the people have refused to stop protesting and resisting. They have turned the eyes of the world to this police murder and their demand for justice. And with the whole world watching, the protesters have been violently assaulted by a military-style police force that makes Ferguson look like a war zone, time after time -- but the people in Ferguson keep holding their heads high, and they keep resisting.
Today hundreds were going down the street, adults and families with little kids, and many many teens. People had signs, they were chanting, many held their hands up in the air: "Hands up, don't shoot!" At about 9:30 PM (well before the second night of midnight curfew!) a large-scale military-style police assault very very violently came at the march. Dozens and dozens of cops in riot gear, tanks, tear gas, began pushing people out of the street. The media was being kept away. Very difficult to know from the outside world exactly how it went down - it's impossible to know from CNN where police justifications and allegations run thick. (It's so good that livestreamers are working from the scene so we can at least see and hear what we all can!)
As the police attacked the demonstrators, through the clouds of tear gas and smoke, you could see armored personnel carriers (tanks) rolling toward the marchers, cops on top pointing guns at the marchers. Marchers and journalists were shot with rubber bullets. Flash grenades, sound cannons, and clouds and clouds of tear gas.
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* "Anonymous exposes cop as member of KKK behind letter threatening to kill Ferguson protesters" (2014-11-16) [FilmingCops.com link] [archive.today]
* "KKK Missouri Chapter Threatens Ferguson Protesters with ‘Lethal Force’ " (2014-11-13) [Vice.com link] [archive.today]
* Read the KKK chapter's public communique against political disorder in Ferguson, complete and unabridged [.jpg link at archive.org]
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Frank Ancona, the head of the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, says his group is ready to protect citizens from violent Ferguson protesters, and has organized a Police solidarity campaign and participates in Community-Police Support actions, he is shown in the center of the photograph at the link [.jpg link at archive.org]. However, "KKK Disowns KKK Fundraiser for Darren Wilson" (2014-08-18) [TheWire.com link] [archive.today].
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Northbay Vigil for Michael Brown and the people of Ferguson, organized by the Peace and Justice Center of Sonoma County.
The Grand Jury in Missouri - meeting to determine whether to bring charges against the officer who killed unarmed Michael Brown - is expected to make its decision soon. If, as expected, the decision frees Officer Darren Wilson from responsibility, we will hold a vigil in Courthouse Square in Santa Rosa. As long as the decision does not come late in the day, the vigil will be held that day at 5:00. If it's late, we'll do it the next day. We might even do it both days!
Check with the Peace and Justice Center [707-575-8902] for the latest update!
Bring a candle (with appropriate holder to protect the sidewalks from drips) or a flashlight. This will be a peaceful vigil to honor Michael and his community.
* "While FBI Finds Police Killings on the Rise, Real Number of Killings Remains Unknown" (2014-11-13) [CommonDreams.org link] [archive.today]
* "Jon Burge, ex-Chicago cop who ran torture ring, released from prison" (2014-10-03) [Msnbc.com link] [archive.today], Chicago PD regularly tortured New African suspects to extract confessions, no matter if they were innocent, throughout the 1970s to 90s under the personal direction of Jon Burge, the Chief of Chicago Police. The article describes how much money taxpayers are paying for the crimes of police, "Burge has cost the city and Cook County nearly $100 million in legal fees and settlements. The city last year alone approved a $12.3 million settlement to a pair of Burge’s victims who are among the 120 known black victims of Burge’s ring. So far, according to various reports, the city has paid about $67 million in settlements to 18 victims and more than $20 million in lawyers to defend Burge, former mayor Richard Daley and the city."
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* Florida: "Investigation details coming after 2 Fruitland Park officers accused of KKK involvement" (2014-07-15) [wftv.com link] [archive.today]
* "Peace Activists 'Banned for Life' from Bookshop Santa Cruz for Protesting Leon Panetta" (2014-11-17) [IndyBay.org link] [archive.today]
* "Indybay Journalist Assaulted by Leon Panetta's Security at Bookshop Santa Cruz Event" (2014-11-11) [IndyBay.org link] [archive.today]
* "Protesters Confront Salinas Police Chief at Bookstore Appearance in Santa Cruz" (2014-08-28) [IndyBay.org link] [archive.today]
"Coca Cola Enlisted Intelligence Firm’s Help To Investigate Animal Rights Group PETA" (2012-02-28) [RepublicReport.org link] [archive.org]
Monopolist companies have an ideology of security over the market which make them hostile to regulations that impede their profits, and use their money and human resources to influence public opinion and any government agency to enact favorable conditions for the dominated market! For example, Comcast took action to censor a news article, published by an affiliated company, about its attempts to end internet neutrality, a perfect example of what the stakes are. If we lose net neutrality, there will be nothing to stop Internet providers like Comcast from going on a censorship rampage -- picking and choosing what we can and can’t see based on whether it aligns with their corrupt interests.
* "Comcast Affiliated News Outlet Censored My Article About Net Neutrality Lobbying" (2014-08-01) [RepublicReport.org link] [archive.today]
* "Leading Civil Rights Groups Just Sold Out on Net Neutrality" (2014-07-24) [RepublicReport.org link] [archive.org]
* "Why Is The NAACP Siding With Verizon Over Net Neutrality?" (2014-07-31) [HuffingtonPost.com link] [archive.today]
Why was Comcast so intent on censoring the article in question? It exposed some of their most immoral lobbying efforts, using astroturf groups to attempt to speak on behalf of communities of color. This isn’t the first time an ISP has been caught outright in this type of scam -- last month the leaders of national Deaf advocacy organizations embarrassed Verizon for attempting to convince Congress that net neutrality rules would be bad for people with disabilities.
* "Deaf advocacy groups to Verizon: Don’t kill net neutrality on our behalf" (2014-07-22) [ArsTechnica.com link] [archive.today]
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So-called "Conservatives" are willing to believe any study produced by certain "conservative" think-tanks, even if it is proven that the studies are produced to benefit certain private interests over the needs of the People.
* "Selling Out The Internet: Heartland Institute Took $285,000 From Telecoms, Opposed Net Neutrality" (2012-02-16) [RepublicReport.org link] [archive.org]
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A monopolist internet company would favor monopolist news media websites, and fake news websites, as long as the money is there to pay for preferential treatment. An example of a "politically-correct" fake news website is the "Washington Free Beacon", whose owners work for foreign governments allied with the USA, and advocates for whoever hires them to promote a concept to a "conservative" audience...
* "Conservative ‘Free Beacon’ Fronts for Lobbying Firm, Including Taiwanese Lobby" (2012-07-27) [RepublicReport.org link] [archive.today]
* "ANALYSIS: When a Congressman Becomes a Lobbyist, He Gets a 1,452% Raise (on Average)" (2012-03-14) [RepublicReport.org link] [archive.org]
* "Northrop Grumman Lobbyist On Staff With Armed Services Committee Also Owns Stock In His Former Firm" (2012-06-26) [RepublicReport.org link] [archive.org]
* "Chevron’s Lobbyist Now Runs the Congressional Science Committee" (2014-02-21) [RepublicReport.org link] [archive.org]
World Fascism Watch: Solutions to an Economic Dictatorship
* "Will a Revolution Happen in the US in Time?" (2014-11-13) [Anarkismo.net link] [archive.today], an foreign anarchist's perspective on the potential for a general rebellion as already seen across the European Union.
* "Wanted: an economy that puts people first" (2014-11-12) [PeoplesWorld.org link] [archive.today], a reflection by a socialist concerning the current state of economic dictatorship and artificial poverty in the USA.
* "The Super-Rich and Sordid Tales of Selfishness" (2014-11-17) [CommonDreams.org link] [archive.today]
* "Modern Slavery and the Triumph of Capitalism, (Part One)" (2014-11-14) [IdeasAndAction.info link] [archive.today], [begin excerpt]: The extractive power of capitalism has always existed. The ability to extract profit from people, production and resources is necessary for capitalism to function. There was a time when this was accompanied by a sort of creative power of capitalism. Capitalism once built things, even as it extracted profit from people and things. It built electrical power plants, built libraries, built universities and paved roads. These activities were in no way altruistic, they were adjustments, investments made to improve extraction of profit and to prove the superiority of capitalism over any competing system, but they still benefited non-capitalists just the same. That creation and building ended once the USSR was eliminated, as profits extracted from a freshly globalized economy made creation unnecessary. The capitalism of today is nothing but extraction, with the only benefit trickling down to the rest of us being “jobs”. This mania for ever-increasing rates of profit is similar to that of the era of the birth of industrialism, with one important difference: the tactical goals of the creative period included the entrapment and incapacitation of the social forces that had offered opposition during its formative years. The very social forces which once called for the replacement of capitalism with a more humane and fair system, now merely pine for a return to its more creative, less destructive, past. All of which have only postponed what promises to be a savage and bloody NEW stage of development, bloodier even than capitalism’s robber-baron beginnings. An indication of just how savage and brutal is evidenced in the dramatic growth of modern slavery, the ultimate capitalist solution to the wage problem. Beginning with the above-mentioned utter collapse of the Soviet Empire, the growth of the slave trade has outpaced any other sector of capitalist industry: a 2001 UNESCO report estimated that there were 1.7 million slaves in the world. As of 2013 that number had increased to 30 million (Global Slavery Index 2013, [GlobalSlaveryIndex.org]). That is over 2 million new slaves every year since 2001, and a total number considerably larger than those living in slavery at the time of the American Civil War (approximately 4 million). If your definition of slave includes forced labor (debt slaves, bonded labor where their debt increases as they work; and prison labor where forced labor is part of their prison sentence), some anti-slavery groups put the number of people living as slaves at 200 million worldwide. [end excerpt]
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USA Slave Labor in the homeland:
* "The Hidden History of ALEC and Prison Labor" (2011-08-01) [TheNation.com link] [archive.org]
* "Defense Contractors Using Prison Labor to Build High-Tech Weapons Systems" (2011-04-28) [Alternet.org link] [archive.today]
* "The Pentagon & slave labor in U.S. prisons" (2011-06-11) [IACenter.org link] [archive.today]
* "Slave Labor - alive and well in IL. OK.-Body armor and Missiles by UNICOR" (2011-03-16) [DailyKos.com link] [archive.org]
* "ADVANTAGES OF PRISON-BASED DEVELOPMENT" [Skidmore.edu link] [archive.today], a study of the 1990s development of prison labor in the USA.
--- USA Slave Labor globally is funded through Federal, State, and local support using financial instruments or legislative entitlement. Since the 1980s, investors based in the USA enabled the closure of factories in the USA (many of which were Unionized) as a tax write-off, and then secured grants and loans for the moving of fabrication operations into China where labor costs were very inexpensive (China subsidized the living conditions of the workers), the premise being that more capital is then freed in order to pay back the company shareholders. Like the USA today, factories in China hire prisoners for work contracts, including in the manufacturing of consumer products.
* "Made In China", a Wikipedia article [archive.today].
USA "Global Security State" * "The Surveillance Security State Is a Cancer Spreading Through the Body of the United States" (2014-10-28) [Truth-Out.org link] [archive.today].
* " Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single Superpower World" (2014-10-27) [TomDispatch.com link] [archive.today].
* "Review: Shadow Government — Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World" (2014-10-16) [PhiBetaIota.net link] [archive.today].
* "America’s Global Security State" (2014-10-03) [ContraryPerspective.com link] [archive.today].
* "US creating 'global security state': Oliver Stone" (2013-07-05) [Presstv.ir link] [archive.today].
* "The Making of a Global Security State The Five Uncontrollable Urges of a Secrecy-Surveillance World" (2014-06-16) [TomDispatch.com link] [archive.today].
* "Yes, America Should Be the World’s Policeman" (2014-11-15) [Online.wsj.com link] [archive.today], published by the "Wall Street Journal" for the investor class, providing insight into the ideology of our economic dictators.
* "Ex-US officials criticize Obama 'micromanagement' " (2014-11-16) [TerraDaily.com link] [archive.today], the article describes former CIA and DoD leaders speaking ill about how President Obama managed their agencies' plans. While the article does not describe it, Obama may have prevented indiscriminate war and foreign occupation from happening like how President Bush 2nd did with Iraq and Afghanistan, a very profitable venture worth trillions. Of course they're angry, although, the President is their boss, "elected by the People", many leaders in the CIA and DoD would like a President to yield autonomy to their agencies for war. [begin excerpt]: Leon Panetta and Robert Gates, two former directors of the CIA and Defense Department, on Saturday criticized President Barack Obama's "micromanagement" of the military. "My concern in terms of this relationship of the White House and the military is not on the big issues," Gates told an audience at the presidential foundation in Simi Valley, California. "It's in the increasing desire of the White House to control and manage every aspect of military affairs. It was the micromanagement that drove me crazy," Gates said. The former defense chief said Obama's administration stands in contrast to both Bush administrations, where once a decision was made, there was "no micromanagement." [end excerpt]
"For Guccifer, Hacking Was Easy, Prison Is Hard" (2014-11-10) [NYTimes.com link] [archive.today], a political prisoner whose work as a hacker was not to steal money, but to release information about corrupt politicians, and celebrity gossip. His skills, based on persistence and patience, scared world leaders and diplomats. Now in custody in Romania, EU, under the direction of a USA security agency, Guccifer says: “This world is run by a group of conspirators called the Council of Illuminati, very rich people, noble families, bankers and industrialists from the 19th and 20th century.”
Stand with the People of Africa against global economic fascism!
* "20,000 billion dollars for the banks, 1 billion for millions of Africans suffering from Capitalist famine" (2011) [WalkingButterfly.com link] [archive.today]
* "When you kill ten million Africans you aren't called 'Hitler' " (2010) [WalkingButterfly.com link] [archive.today], an article that gives details on a European dictator who was "given" the largest jurisdiction in Africa through negotiations with other European dictators, during the 1880s through 1910s, and with which the dictator proceeded to implement total war against all nations within that jurisdiction that is today known as Congo, a war more savage than anything seen in the 20th century, organized for the act of accumulating pure profit for the dictator's private friends.
* "Shell says 2008 Nigeria spills bigger than thought" (2014-11-03) [OilGasDaily.com link] [archive.today]
* "Shell challenges Amnesty International oil spill report" (2014-11-14) [OilGasDaily.com link] [archive.today]
Brazil: Oct. 27th Statement of the "O Trabalho" Current of the Worker's Party / Partido Trajabador (PT) [NorthbayMDS.blogspot.com link] on their recent victory in the Presidential elections in Brazil, and the tasks ahead for expanding Democracy in the Community with the wildly popular Constituent Constitutional Assemblies, promising a peaceful reformation of the political system like what's seen in Venezuela...
Uprising against fascism in Mexico:
Hundreds of thousands of people have marched in anger in Mexico’s capital after the government announced that the 43 students who disappeared seven weeks ago in the state of Guerrero have been murdered by "anti-leftist" death-squads protected by the state government and connected to the narcotic cartels. A political crisis is unfolding for Mexico's President Peña Nieto’s government, who has done nothing to stem the wave of political murders, and who has remained silent for weeks in this latest massacre.
* "BACKDROP TO THE MASSACRES IN AYOTZINAPA: The Mexican Nation Under Threat of Disintegration" (2014-11-17) [SocialistOrganizer.org link] [archive.today]
* Ayotzinapa (Mexico) Solidarity Appeal: "We Want The 43 Disappeared Students Back Alive! Punish Those Responsible For These Crimes!" [NorthbayMDS.blogspot.com link]
* "Massacre Taints Leader's 'Saving Mexico' Image" (2014-11-09) [NDTV.com link] [archive.today]
World Fascism Watch: Honduras
* "Excerpts from Congressional Briefing on the Impact of U.S. Security Assistance on Human Rights in Mexico, Central America and Colombia" (2014-11-13) [CEPR.net link] [archive.today]
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Libre congresswo/men as well as FNRP activists will protest against ZEDEs, i.e. charter cities, in the south of Honduras. ...and as you see, they are fed with Dollars, not Lempiras! Sources in Spanish (1) [Proceso.hn link] [archive.today], (2) [LaPrensa.hn link] [archive.today]
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Presente-Honduras Digest, Vol 37, Issue 25, 2014-11-14:
* Congress' president Mauricio Oliva continues to stigmatize journalists - this week by saying that it is also their behavior that puts them in danger... Source in Spanish [ElLibertador.hn link] [archive.today].
* CEPR's Mark Weisbrot analyzes Hilary Clinton's autobiography "Hard Choices" and her role in the Honduran coup d'etat. Sources in Spanish (1) [Alainet.org link] [archive.today], (2) [ElLibertador.hn link] [archive.today].
* According to El Libertador, Alden Rivera, a close collaborator of Honduras' President JOH, is part of a scandal, this time regarding his daughter Maria Rivera, the Honduran consul in Atlanta. Source in Spanish [ElLibertador.hn link] [archive.today].
* InSight Crime's take on adding a thousand new men to the military Police: "The militarization of domestic security in Honduras -- a central tenet of President Juan Orlando Hernandez' "iron fist" security strategy -- could increase the risk of human rights abuses by security forces who are trained for war scenarios, not for keeping the peace." Source [InsightCrime.org link] [archive.today].
* Reacting on the protest by some police officers against the military police, Nationalist majority leader in Congress Oscar Alvarez claims that organized crime is behind this, trying to break up the Fusina special force. Sources in Spanish (1) [Proceso.hn link] [archive.today], (2) [Proceso.hn link] [archive.today].
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* "Drilling the Caribbean: Indigenous communities speak out against oil and gas exploration in Honduras" (2014-11-13) [BeaconReader.com link] [archive.today], [begin excerpt] In 2013, the Honduran government granted BG Group oil and gas exploration rights in a 35,000 square kilometer block off the coast of the Moskitia. Miskitu and Garifuna community leaders are speaking out to defend their territories from oil and gas activity. In contrast to Belize and Costa Rica, where environmental NGOs, scientists, and others formed powerful national alliances to fight oil exploration, in Honduras, Indigenous opposition is as of yet largely unheard and unsupported. [end excerpt]
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US Dept of Labor Report on Commitments to Labor Rights Under CAFTA-DR Free Trade Agreement. The full 102 page report can be found at [.pdf link at gao.gov] [.pdf link at archive.org]. Briefing by Greg McCain: In May 2012, the Department of Labor (DOL) accepted a submission regarding Honduras, 49 days after receipt. The submission remains open and unresolved, pending publication of DOL's report. The submission, from the AFL-CIO and 26 Honduran organizations, alleged that the government of Honduras had violated its obligation under CAFTA-DR to enforce its labor laws relating to freedom of association; the right to organize; child labor; the right to bargain collectively; and the right to acceptable conditions of work in the Honduran apparel and auto manufacturing, agriculture, and port sectors. According to DOL officials, DOL has received over 1,200 documents in Spanish and visited Honduras four times to meet with stakeholders, reflecting the breadth of the allegations and detailed information reviewed and analyzed. As of May 2014, DOL was continuing to review documentation of the allegations and, according to DOL officials, is preparing its report.
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News digest from "Presente-Honduras Digest", Vol 37, Issue 23, 2014-11-13:
* COPINH and COFADEH denounces the assassination of campesino leader Juan Galindo in the Bajo Aguan. COFADEH also reports on the criminalization campaign against the deputy coordinator of the Human Rights Observatory of the Aguan (OPDHA), Irma Lemus. Sources in Spanish (1) [COPINH.org link] [archive.today], (2) [DefensoresEnLinea.com link] [archive.today], (3) [DefensoresEnLinea.com link] [archive.today].
* Honduras "...where the worst nightmares become true", article in Spanish [Alainet.org link] [archive.today]
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"COPIN denounces assassination of campesino leader in Rigores, Aguan Valley" (2014-11-12):
Declared in Intibuca, Honduras on the 12th of November 2014. COPINH laments the cowardly assassination of companero Juan Galindo, a criminal act committed last night, Tuesday November 11 around midnight in the community of Rigores in the Aguan Valley. Companero Juan Galindo stood out as a campesino leader, participating in the process of struggle for the land to benefit the campesinos in the region. He had received constant death threats and his case was being observed and accompanied by various human rights organizations that sought his protection. COPIN is in solidarity with the family of companero Galindo and his community and demands that the Government of Honduras and the responsible authorities investigate immediately and effectively and apply justice to the intellectual and material authors (of the crime). COPINH demands that the Government of Juan Orlando Hernandez ends the criminalization, repression, persecution and assassination of social , political and popular leaders - a situation that is maintained in total impunity, for example the case of the campesina leader Margarita Murillo and many more.
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"Criminalization of Human Rights Defender Irma Lemus in the Aguan" (2014-11-13) from Greg McCain [GregMcCain.pressfolios.com]: Irma Lemus is a Honduran peasant leader and leader of the Peasant Farmer Association Fuerzas Unidas, as well as deputy coordinator of the Human Rights Observatory of the Aguan. Her family are members of the Guadalupe Carney community in Trujllio. Legal proceedings against her, which had included an arrest warrant, have been carried out in the context of a conflict with the National Agrarian Institute (INA). INA has, since 2007, unjustifiably delayed the awarding of land located in Ocotes Altos, Trujillo to the peasant farmers of Fuerzas Unidas. The land belongs to the Republic of Honduras and thus the campesinos have a right to legally obtain it. INA instead awarded the land to Fondo Ganadero, a joint venture for-profit company using both public and private funds started in 1984 with USAID funds and functions as a financing and credit source for "small to medium size cattle ranchers". Its stated objective is to "increase domestic production of meat and milk, to support exports, reduce imports and improve the diet of the Honduran population with animal products" [fondoganaderohn.com/quienessomos.html]. Four other members of Fuerzas Unidas also have arrest warrants against. They have been accused of usurpation of land, cattle thievery, and extortion. There is no evidence of of anyone associated with the campesinos of having stolen any cattle and no explanation of how extortion was carried out. Irma voluntarily turned herself in on November 10th rather than have the further criminalization of being arrested. The judge of the Civil Court of Trujillo ruled that she must comply with substitute measures and sign in at the courthouse every 15 days and wait for the initial hearing on December 10th.
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"Presente-Honduras Digest", Vol 37, Issue 20, 2014-11-11:
* Marvin Ponce, assessor of JOH, told Proceso Digital that the bill to protect human rights defenders, journalists, social communicators, lawyers and justice operators is unconstitutional. Source in Spanish [Proceso.hn link] [archive.today].
* Sandra Cuffe published the first of three articles on Canada's notorious role in Honduras. In this first installment, she concentrates on mining issues. Source [Ricochet.media link] [archive.today].
* According to the representative of the World Food Program in Honduras, 23% of the population suffer from undernourishment. Source in Spanish [LatTibuna.hn link] [archive.today].
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Presente-Honduras Digest, Vol 37, Issue 1
* Latin American human rights activists, among them COFADEH's Bertha Oliva, denounce the role of the US in the militarization strategy in some Latin American countries. Source in Spanish [DefensoresEnLinea.com link] [archive.today].
* The writer and analyst Julio Escoto sees some hope in the coming dialogue between students and UNAH's authorities. Nevertheless, he also criticizes the later for mishandling the protest. During the protest, students were threatened by armed men who also took pictures of them. Sources in Spanish (1) [RadioProgresohn.net link] [archive.today], (2) [Conexihon.hn link] [archive.today].
* CEPR asks the important question if the EU and the Inter-American Development Bank will fund so called charter cities in Honduras. Source [Cepr.net link] [archive.today].
* While in Honduras a member of the governing party is accused of racism by the Garifuna community and their way of live is threatened by big tourist projects, Nicaragua has declared the Garifua culture as national heritage. Source in Spanish [El19digital.com link] [archive.today].
* Radio Progreso published an article on the situation of violence in the Rivera Hernandez sector in San Pedro Sula and its effects on the local children. Source [RadioProgresohn.net link] [archive.today].
* During the current session at the IACHR, its special rapporteur for human rights defenders, Jose de Jesus Orozco Henriquez, met with the special rapporteur of the UN, Michel Forst, to reiterate their common commitment to better protect human rights defenders. Source in Spanish [Conexihon.hn link] [archive.today].
* PEN International launched its newest center in Honduras, where it hopes to counteract the ever-increasing impunity in cases of violence against journalists. Meanwhile, Congress is still debating the bill for the protection of journalists, social communicators, lawyers, HRDs and justice operators. Sources in Spanish (1) [HondurasTierraLibre.com link] [archive.today], (2) [HondurasTierraLibre.com link] [archive.today].
* According to El Heraldo, Honduras has received almost $3.4 billion reimbursable and non-reimbursable financing by the international community in the fist 9 months of 2014. Source [ElHeraldo.hn link] [archive.today].
* "Jesuit threatened for human rights work to speak at SOA Watch vigil" (2014-11-17) [NCRonline.org link] [archive.today], which honors the sacrifice by members of the Catholic Church in their work against USA-sponsored fascism in El Salvador throughout the 1980s and 1990s, facing death-squads and military attacks organized by graduates of the military School of the Americas (SOA) at Fort Benning in the State of Georgia, USA, trained to operate against human-rights advocates, much like what is being seen in Honduras (a national jurisdiction next to El Salvador) today.
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Sisters and Brothers, 25 years ago, the US-trained Atlacatl Battalion entered the campus of the Central American University (UCA) and murdered:
Ignacio Ellacuria - Presente!
Ignacio Martin-Baro - Presente!
Segundo Montes - Presente!
Juan Ramon Moreno - Presente!
Joaquin Lopez y Lopez - Presente!
Amando Lopez - Presente!
Elba Julia Ramos - Presente!
Celina Ramos - Presente!
We remember these martyrs as we remember the tens of thousands of Salvadorans, including so many from our sistered communities and organizations, who died in the struggle for liberation in El Salvador.
We remember these martyrs as we recall that the US funded, trained and guided the killing machine that was the Salvadoran Armed Forces and their death squads to the tune of billions of dollars and tens of thousands of deaths and complete impunity for the Salvadoran and US authors of these crimes.
We remember these martyrs as we stand with our Salvadoran sisters and brothers as they continue to build a new El Salvador with a strong foundation of community, solidarity and hope.
We remember these martyrs as the "public debate" on immigrants rights in the United States completely ignores the role of U.S. foreign policy in driving people from their homelands.
Que Vivan los martires de El Salvador y Que Vivan su lucha!
Un abrazo solidario
[signed] Michael Ring, of the US-El Salvador Sister Cities
The NED was created by an act of the USA Federal Congress in 1983 and is more than 90% funded by public taxes. Yet, it is officially designated a private organization, thus it carries out foreign policy efforts in the name of US citizens, with US taxes, but with no meaningful public oversight. This has lead to many abuses, such as NED funding and coordination of the groups that overthrew Haiti’s elected government in 2004, leading to the bloodiest year in Haiti’s modern history. And this is just one example. For instance, in Nicaragua, in 1990, the NED spent more than $20 per voter to influence the presidential elections–more than had been spent per voter by both the Mondale and Bush, Sr. campaigns in the 1998 US elections! The NED has even supported parties and groups in Europe with ties to the most far right wing elements, such as NED work with convicted Nazi collaborator Lazslo Pasztor.
* "Trojan Horse: The National Endowment for Democracy", by William Blum, read more at [Iefd.org link] [archive.today]. [begin excerpt]: How many Americans could identify the National Endowment for Democracy? An organization which often does exactly the opposite of what its name implies. The NED was set up in the early 1980s under President Reagan in the wake of all the negative revelations about the CIA in the second half of the 1970s. The latter was a remarkable period. Spurred by Watergate—the Church committee of the Senate, the Pike committee of the House, and the Rockefeller Commission, created by the president, were all busy investigating the CIA. Seemingly every other day there was a new headline about the discovery of some awful thing, even criminal conduct, the CIA had been mixed up in for years. The Agency was getting an exceedingly bad name, and it was causing the powers-that-be much embarrassment. Something had to be done. What was done was not to stop doing these awful things. Of course not. What was done was to shift many of these awful things to a new organization, with a nice sounding name—The National Endowment for Democracy. The idea was that the NED would do somewhat overtly what the CIA had been doing covertly for decades, and thus, hopefully, eliminate the stigma associated with CIA covert activities. It was a masterpiece. Of politics, of public relations, and of cynicism. Thus it was that in 1983, the National Endowment for Democracy was set up to "support democratic institutions throughout the world through private, nongovernmental efforts". Notice the "nongovernmental"—part of the image, part of the myth. In actuality, virtually every penny of its funding comes from the federal government, as is clearly indicated in the financial statement in each issue of its annual report. NED likes to refer to itself as an NGO (Non-governmental organization) because this helps to maintain a certain credibility abroad that an official US government agency might not have. But NGO is the wrong category. NED is a GO. "We should not have to do this kind of work covertly," said Carl Gershman in 1986, while he was president of the Endowment. "It would be terrible for democratic groups around the world to be seen as subsidized by the C.I.A. We saw that in the 60's, and that's why it has been discontinued. We have not had the capability of doing this, and that's why the endowment was created." (The New York Times, June 1, 1986). And Allen Weinstein, who helped draft the legislation establishing NED, declared in 1991: "A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA." (Washington Post, September 22, 1991). In effect, the CIA has been laundering money through NED. The Endowment has four principal initial recipients of funds: the International Republican Institute; the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs; an affiliate of the AFL-CIO (such as the American Center for International Labor Solidarity); and an affiliate of the Chamber of Commerce (such as the Center for International Private Enterprise). These institutions then disburse funds to other institutions in the US and all over the world, which then often disburse funds to yet other organizations. [end excerpt]
* "5 Insidious Ways the US Has Tried Pulling Off Coups Through 'Democracy Promotion' " (2014-04-07) [Alternet.org link] [archive.today]
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Well here is a change without a difference! It may make US funding to interfere in other countries elections a little more hard to track, but notice they aren't cutting back any; just shifting the programs to other State Department offices. National Endowment for Democracy gets practically all its funding from USAID anyway. This fig leaf is way too small to cover USAID's privates.
* "US reviewing democracy work in hostile countries" (2014-11-10) [AP.org link] [archive.today]
* "Agency may halt risky democracy work" (2014-11-10) [Stripes.com link] [archive.today]
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The NED is working within Myanmar.
* "Myanmar's military regime says it's making way for democracy, but this activist says freedom is a long way off" (2014-11-12) [PRI.org link] [archive.today]
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NED is attempting a hostile take-over of Hong Kong, China's "Trillion Dollar Gem, not for "democracy" but for economic warfare, using genuine grassroots organizers as pawns, in coordination with billionaires and monopolist banking conglomerate.
* "Neo-Cons and Corporate Fascists for Hong Kong Democracy?" (2014-11-04) [LandDestroyer.blogspot.ca link] [archive.today]
* " 'Occupy Central’s' Dirty Money, Dirtier Leaders" (2014-11-07) [Journal-Neo.org link] [archive.today]
* "Hong Kong protesters plan to occupy British consulate" (2014-11-12) [TerraDaily.com link] [archive.today]
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"CIA’s ‘NED’ Succeeds in Ukraine Where Democracy 'Failed' " (2014-03-03) [4and20blackbirds.wordpress.com link] [archive.today]
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* "The Dirty Hand of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in Venezuela" (2014-04-25) [VenezuelAnalysis.com link] [archive.today]
During the G20 meeting of national governments, the Prime Minister of Australia was publicized as getting ready to "shirtfront" Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister of Russia, with a confrontation over the recent MH17 incident. The highly aggressive gesture was accompanied by a propaganda campaign by the monopolist media of Australia to portray a Russian Navy patrol off the coast of Australia as a menacing spy operation, and one of the monopolist media outlets uses the old communist "Hammer and Sickle" logo in association with the Russian Navy! Examples of this are collected at "Tense Situation! Australia Sends Third Warship to Confront Russian Flotilla Bound for Brisbane!", forum postings archived 2014-11-15 at [archive.org]. That these news media are being used to promote propaganda as simple-minded as this is another example of what is acceptable as "mainstream" news reporting, which is damning.
In response, the Russia State TV News publicized a satellite photo showing a USA-allied Ukraine jet shooting down the Malaysian Airlines MH17. The monopolist media of the USA distributed a response, for example, "Russian TV claims it has photo of downing of MH17" (2014-11-15) [SFGate.com link] [archive.today], with a list of further articles (all pretty much the same) at [archive.today]. Independent researchers studied the evidence, and "Web users debunk Russian TV's MH17 claim" (2014-11-15) [BBC.com link] [archive.today].
* "Vladimir Putin Marginalized at G20 in Brisbane? – Imagine – Mr. Putin Takes Center Stage" (2014-11-20) [GlobalResearch.ca link] [archive.today]
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* "Media Blackout as U.S. Sponsors Genocide in Southeastern Ukraine" (2014-11-14) [GlobalResearch.ca link] [archive.today]
* "Kiev not fully committed to ceasefire, amasses troops along E. Ukraine frontline – Russia" (2014-11-12) [RT.com link] [archive.today]
* "Ukraine says preparing for combat in face of Russian build-up" (2014-11-12) [SpaceWar.com link] [archive.today]
* "Moldova may be next front in EU gas war" (2014-11-13) [OilGasDaily.com link] [archive.today]
* "In the Donbass, It's War" (2014-07-16) [NorthbayMDS.blogspot.com link]
* "Ukraine scraps human rights treaty for rebel areas, cuts services, freezes banks" (2014-11-16) [RT.com link] [archive.today].
* "Russia Delivers a New Shock to Crimean Business: Forced Nationalization" (2014-11-18) [BusinessWeek.com link] [archive.today]. The fascist government in western Ukraine gives a classic Christmas gift to the People of Novorossiya... artificial famine, indiscriminate war, and vilification.
* "SS Christmas decorations on Czech auction site spark outrage" (2014-11-15) [RT.com link] [archive.today].
The bleeding heart of the conservative fascists has united a global alliance who say "Never Again!", to the countless millions dead by fascism during World War Two and afterwards, whose market-driven artificial famines across Latin America and Eurasia are remembered purely as an insult for human rights and dignity.
* "Russian leader congratulates Ukrainian WWII veterans, urges common fight against neo-Nazism" (2014-10-28) [RT.com link] [archive.today].
Affinity for historical fascism has arisen as a outgrowth of old Cold War networks coordinated by powerful Nazis (and other fascists) who survived World War Two, and were employed by the USA State Department, Defense Department, and by private monopolists to bring security to the global market. Employed by the thousands across Europe, and into the hundreds of thousands across the world, adherents to European fascism had protection and the freedom to associate for the perpetuation of their ideology and peculiar association with monopolists. Currently, there is a revival of fascist history, to bring about heroes around which to rally, such as Stephen Bandera, a fascist Ukrainian ally of Nazi Germany who is today regarded as a national hero by the dictatorship in western Ukraine.
* "China calls for swift movement on BRICS development bank" (2014-11-15) [TerraDaily.com link] [archive.today]. Map showing the combined jurisdictions of the governments subscribing to the BRICS Bank:
* "China wins APEC support for free trade 'roadmap' " (2014-11-14) [TerraDaily.com link] [archive.today]
* "China to double Iran energy investment: official" (201-11-16) [OilGasDaily.com link] [archive.today]
* "Russia to place global navigation stations in China" (2014-11-14) [GPSdaily.com link] [archive.today]
* "China, Myanmar ink $7.8 bn in deals: state media" (2014-11-15) [TerraDaily.com link] [archive.today]
--- The Republic of the Union of Myanmar administers a pluri-national jurisdiction adjacent to the Kingdom of Thailand, populated by a dominant Burma nation alongside 20 other nations, some of whom have national vanguards at war with the Myanmar military, vanguards which are known to be historically aided by USA agencies and strategic allies throughout the Cold War with fund-raising through heroin and opium production whose products were shipped through secure lines around the world. During the Cold War, 1962, when Myanmar was named Burma, the government refused to take sides (the choices being USA, or USSR), and implemented an independent socialist program for economic self-sufficiency, to prevent debt to foreign agencies, and to not be entangled in foreign alliances. This ended in 1988. The military also enacted a political dictatorship to coordinate resistance to the USA-funded (with help from allies including the Kingdom of Thailand) national vanguards, and instituted a police-state regime against rival political programmes and foreign-funded political parties. Recently, the military dictatorship administering the Republic of the Union of Myanmar has implemented a new program restricting its power over elections, and securing foreign business relationship with private corporations, while instituting sovereign trade with foreign governments.
* "1978 Opium War in Golden Triangle" [hlaoo1980.blogspot.de link] [archive.today].
* "The Burmese Nationalist Elite’s Pre-Independence Exploration of a National Development Road" [kyotoreview.org link] [archive.today].
--- Kachin nation relations with China and the USA (notes) [NorthbayMDS.blogspot.com link].
The Kachin nation is divided into three general jurisdictions:
- Kachin communities within southern China.
- The Kachin State jurisdiction of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar
- KIO, representing Kachin communities who, since 1961, have federated into a political entity mostly united by the Christian Baptist faith, protected by the KIA military, with a capital city at Laiza, and a taxation regime administering gold deposits, jade mines, and opium fields, with trade networks worldwide historically protected by USA clandestine agencies. The KIO is at war with the Myanmar military. KIO leader says "We will not ... disarm, until they have given us a place in a federal union and ethnic rights as was agreed in Panglong Agreement in 1947".
* "Kachin rebels say 23 cadets killed by Myanmar army shell" (2014-11-19) [Reuters.com link] [archive.today]
* "Green Light From China To Destroy CIA-Funded KIA?" (2014-05-07) [Hlaoo1980.blogspot.de link] [archive.today] translation of news article from [MyanmarExpress.net].
* "In Photos: Myanmar's Kachin Rebels, Still Fighting Their 50-Year War" (2014-04-21) [Vice.com link] [archive.today]
* [Reuters.com link]
* "KIA: US-Backed Bad-Arse Insurgents Visiting Washington" (2014-04-16) [Hlaoo1980.blogspot.de link] [archive.today], based on news articles from the Burmese and Kachin Blogs, 2014-04.
* "Myanmar old guard clings to $8 billion jade empire" (2013-09-28) [Reuters.com link] [archive.today]
* "KIA Insurgents Beheaded Alive Captured Army Lieutenant" (2013-09-14) [Hlaoo1980.blogspot.de link] [archive.today], compilation of translated articles from "Myanmar Defense League" [facebook.com/myanmardefenseleague]
* "Burma's Kachin army prepares for civil war" (2010-02-22) [BBC.co.uk link] [archive.today]
---
The USA is seeking "legal" justification through the United Nations for a military invasion of northern Korea, which could destabilize the SCO, a rival alliance against the USA, dominated by China, and Russia, a leading member of the Eurasian Union (EEU). The foundation for this charge for war is based on human rights abuse against prisoners! Coincidentally, during the early 1950s, the USA organized a UN invasion of northern Korea which bombed and killed over 3 million civilians in order to destabilize China and its allies. Part of the motive for this war is that northern Korea, administered by the DPRK government, contains rare minerals and uranium monetized at USD$12 TRILLION or more, and these resources are currently being consolidated into the EEU.
* "Top North Korea envoy in Moscow for Putin talks" (2014-11-17) [SpaceWar.com link] [archive.today]
* "Holding N. Korea regime to account 'paramount': UN rights envoy" (2014-11-14) [SpaceWar.com link] [archive.today], [begin excerpt]: The resolution followed a comprehensive UN inquiry, based on the testimony of North Korean exiles, that detailed a vast network of prison camps and documented cases of torture, rape, murder and enslavement. [end excerpt]. Compare that to this: "Rampant Use of Solitary Confinement in the US Constitutes Torture" (2014-11-17) [CommonDreams.org link] [archive.today], [begin excerpt]: Approximately 80,000 prisoners are held in solitary confinement in the U.S. The U.S. told the Committee Against Torture that federal law restricts the use of solitary confinement for juveniles, prisoners who are victims of sexual violence, and mentally ill prisoners, and that it prohibits the use of solitary if it is employed to discriminate against disabled persons. But in fact, across the U.S., any prisoner – regardless of age, gender, or physical or mental health – may be held in solitary – and they are. Every day, juveniles are held in isolation, which can be even more damaging to children than it is to adults. [end excerpt], and the examples of slave labor in the USA elsewhere on this page.
Meanwhile, the USA is directing its subsidiary state, the Republic of Korea (based in southern Korea), to instigate a war against the DPRK government in northern Korea.
* "N. Korea issues fresh warning of retaliatory strikes" (2014-11-15) [SpaceWar.com link] [archive.today]
The Republic of Korea government is returning to its authoritarian method of administration, as it had been for most of its existence until the 1990s when it implemented a managed democracy.
* "Democracy under attack in South Korea" petition from the Answer Coalition (2014-11-13) [AnswerCoalition.org link] [archive.today]
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a USA ally near Africa whose oppression is more extensive than anything attributed to northern Korea. ALL women are restricted in all aspects of life and are killed for arbitrary reasons (life holds no value there), so-called "leftists" and union organizers are assassinated by death-squads, and petty criminals are publicly murdered.
* "Saudi denies it may ease ban on women drivers; Local media quotes head of king's advisory council as saying claim it was to ease ban for women over 30 is misinformed." (2014-11-08) [AlJazeera.com link] [archive.today].
--- * "Saudi Royal Ties to 9/11 Hijackers Via Florida Saudi Family?" (2011-09)
pg.1 [WhoWhatWhy.com link] [archive.today],
pg.2 [WhoWhatWhy.com link] [archive.today],
pg.3 [WhoWhatWhy.com link] [archive.today].
* "9/11 Silence on Saudis" (2013-12-19) [WhoWhatWhy.com link] [archive.today].
* "‘20th hijacker’ in Sept. 11 attack vows to offer inside information on Al Qaeda operations" (2014-11-16) [NYDailyNews.com link] [archive.today] Zacarias Moussaoui wrote to federal courts in New York and Oklahoma and asked to testify in lawsuits involving victims of terrorism. He claims his testimony will implicate the government of Saudi Arabia and financial institutions on beliefs they supported terrorism.
---
The USA in 2003 replaced the socialist-oriented government of Iraq with another type of government that was many times worse in how it treats minority cultures (like the Sunni) and dissidents (Occupy Fallujah, organized by progressives and "leftists", was eventually attacked by military aircraft), while abolishing the social programs of the former government (no more free housing, dentistry, education, and employment), and outlawing labor unions and progressive political parties. The USA's economic dictators planned an economy in Iraq that served the global market primarily over all concerns for human rights, much like Saudi Arabia.
* "Iraqi president in talks with 'brother' Saudi king" (2014-11-11) [SpaceWar.com link] [archive.today]
---
* "Oil politics: The secret US-Saudi deal" (2014-10-31) [DailyMirror.lk link] [archive.today] whose purpose is to bring down the price of petroleum in order to destabilize the economy of the Federation of Russia. From the article, "The why and how of this weird phenomenon is found in a secret deal the United States and Saudi Arabia entered into last month. If oil prices fall, the US and its Gulf allies believe, Russia can be brought to its knees, for it earns 50 per cent of its revenue through oil and gas exports."
* "US Prepares to Sell Warships to Saudi Arabia to Help 'Take Down Iran' " (2014-11-20) [GlobalResearch.ca link] [archive.today], a war that would destabilize the Eurasian Union (EEU) and the SCO political union.
Saudi King Abdullah listens to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry during a meeting at the royal palace in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Sept. 11, 2014.
---
"30 years of USA dictatorships", a history poem delivered at a Napa Valley College SDS event, 2011: How many of you knew that the United States supported the 30 year old dictatorship that the People of Egypt recently had overthrown?
Were you aware the USA originally held Sadaam and Osama bin Laden as employees of the CIA, making sure the evil empire of the soviets was contained?
Who knew these policies were INSANE?
Ronald Regan’s regime only claimed their job was to make sure things stayed the same…
Germany supplies the money, Israel the security, and tyrannical regimes in Africa, America and Asia can do as they please.
The name of the game was and is economic security, which is tyranny by any other name…
Oppression of workers rights, women’s rights, economic rights and human rights are what the democracies of Europe and America wanted to give to the people of Arabia, you see?
Saudi Arabia and the United Emirates continued to play along with respect to dumbing down the population, beheading the naughty and enforcing Sharia law.
Kuwait and Qatar remained free for free market capitalism, as did Oman.
And so far nobody is pleased with this arrangement except the typical elite minority of 1/10 of 1 percent.
During the 1980s, Afghanistan is held under “socialist dictatorship” but at least they fed, housed, and protected the people and recognized human rights!
And now what do we have?
Karzai the gasoline cheat, whose family owns heroin companies and whose government claims the women-hating Taliban are a natural part of Afghanistan politics!
30 years of dictatorship! This is the legacy we see! We says we need a change of regime? The economic security regime does anything it pleases!
The USA does not care about Human Rights when organizing for warfare, despite laws implemented by the Federal Congress to regulate USA agencies engaged in warfare or support for foreign war...
For example:
* "Obama seeks human rights waiver on Islamic State war funds?" (2014-11-13) [SFGate.com link] [archive.today], original version [AP.org link] [archive.today].
Yet, certain members of the original generation of Nazis are being punished today, despite being near 100 years old, for human rights abuse allegedly committed before 1945, showing that even Cold War agents will be betrayed by their patron agencies in the USA, who allow the Federal legislative branch to make examples to show the world that, yes, the USA persecutes Nazis!
* "Lawmakers move to strip former Nazis of benefits" (2014-11-13) [AP.org link] [archive.today]
"Libya: Ten Things About Gaddafi They Don’t Want You to Know" (2014-10-14) [GlobalResearch.ca link] [archive.today], an article which outlines how much more advanced the Jamahiriya of Libya was before the USA / NATO invasion and destruction of their pluri-national democratic system.
"German election results reflect rightwing hypocrisy on Berlin Wall" (2014-11-12) [PeoplesWorld.org link] [archive.today], describing how the dissidents of 25 years ago in the German Democratic Republic (the old socialist east Germany), who succeeded in taking down that government based on their critique of human-rights abuse and government corruption, have in their time become greedy capitalist politicians who engage today in abusive behavior similar to what they acted against before the fall of the Berlin Wall, 1989.
History and the Current Context:
The following is a review of evidence concerning an incident during World War 2 called "The Katyn Massacre", whose importance was as a propaganda tool by Nazi Germany against their enemy, the USSR, and after the war the incident was then picked up by the USA to be used against Nazi Germany, and then revised to be brought against their Cold War enemy, the USSR. This revision of the incident to suit the ploy of propaganda has lead researchers to go on a search for what really happened. Professor Grover Furr has examined the best evidence and has reached a credible resolution to the mysteries hexing the incident .
* "The Katyn Forest Whodunnit" [last revised 2013-08-06] [Msuweb.montclair.edu link] [archive.org].
"A glimpse into World War II Army intelligence" (2014-11-14) [MessageMedia.co link] [archive.today], [begin excerpt]: When Christensen was activated in January 1942, he was told he would lose his identity – his mail was censored, he could have no visitors and wore a patch that indicated he belonged to the 2nd Armored Division which was fighting in Africa. He went to a code school on a 500 acre facility in northern California disguised as a chicken/egg ranch. The select men studied Morse code, Russian code and Japanese code, specifically the Japanese “purple code.” “They said the purple code couldn’t be broken,” he said, “but we broke it in three months. We didn’t know why we were learning Russian code but later found out it was because of the cold war with Russia.” [end excerpt]
The Republic of China is a government incorporated 1912 with claim to the entire jurisdiction of China as established by the Qing Dynasty. The Republic's President was a subject of the USA named Sun Yat-sen, having obtained a Certificate of Hawaiian Birth, issued by the USA Territory of Hawaii, for the conduction of business in New York prior to his appointment as President.
The Republic of China was one of many rival governments who claimed all or part of China, and despite support by the USA, was defeated and exiled by the Communist Party of China and their People's Army during the 1940s. Afterwards, the Republic of China maintained military operations along the southern borders of the People's Republic of China, in an alliance with Japan, the USA, UKGB, and the surviving fascist governments across the world, including the Kingdom of Thailand, to restore economic security for the European empires and their subsidiaries. The jurisdiction of Burma (Myanmar) was part of the UKGB, and the jurisdictions of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia were all part of the Republic of France's empire, both of which were united into a Western European Union that included all of Africa (!!!) and parts of the Americas (!) in 1954. That same year the war in Vietnam ended with the defeat of France. The opium smugglers in the French Empire kept clandestine operations funded but were now being exiled by the . The Republic of China kept opium plantations across northern Burma, and the Japan opium merchants kept plantations in Thailand, both adjacent to China in the peninsula of Indochina. From these plantations the Republic of China would organize military operations within the People's Republic of China, using members of the Kachin nation, among others, to act as cross-border agents.
---
Map showing the European empires in eastern Asia, established as of 1912, and lasting through 1947:
View the map at full resolution at [archive.org]
Historical Race Law in the USA:
"Jim Crow" was only one of many legal regimes governing the nations dominated by the European-descended Settlers ruling the USA, which goverened even white people who were suspected of having even "one drop of blood" from a non-European ancestor. Like "Jim Crow", another Race Law regime was called the Chinese Exclusion Act.
* "White Australia, Burma Census, and Bengali-Muslims" (2014-03-10) [Hlaoo1980.blogspot.de link] [archive.today], [begin excerpt]: United States of America's early settlers had tried unsuccessfully to prevent non-Europeans or non-whites from entering the States. The Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) was the federal law preventing Chinese and later all Asians and Pacific Islanders from immigrating to US until it was repealed in 1943. So how did the United States lawmakers legally define Chinese race for that law? Simple, Americans used the one-drop-of-blood rule. If one has any Chinese ancestry, he or she is Chinese. It doesn’t matter how far that ancestor is removed. It also doesn’t matter one’s origin or nationality. If one has a Chinese ancestor one is Chinese, period. The rule still applied informally (and strictly) in the great US of A and is widely called the single-drop-of-blood rule. If you have one drop of blood from a colored ancestor you and your descendants are a colored forever. But what happens if a colored looks real white and he or she lies not to have a single drop of colored’s blood in him or her? [end excerpt]
Inependent Media * Public Intelligence Blog: The truth at any cost lowers all other costs [Phibetaiota.net]
* "The Soapbox Network" indy radio (2014-11-16) [archive.today], with an interview with Dr. Helen Caldicott concerning the "Fuku Fubar" and the Fukushima disaster's radioactive water off the coast of California, and the threat of private companies managing nuclear facilties who think of profit first and who refuse to clean up the disaster zone. And an episode of "We were LIED to about 9/11" with host John Gold interviewing Thomas Drake, a former senior executive with the National Security Agency, a United States Air Force and Navy veteran, CIA intelligence analyst, computer software expert and whistleblower. While at NSA, he blew the whistle on multi-billion dollar programmatic fraud, waste and abuse; the critical loss and coverup of 9/11 intelligence; government wrongdoing; and a dragnet electronic mass surveillance and data mining program conducted on a vast scale by the NSA (with the approval of the White House) after 9/11.
John Brown and his comrades in the CWG are distributing their latest news journals. Their mission is uniting workers and oppressed nations within the USA into a global network of self-governing worker's and people's councils, as enumerated by the revolutionary socialist Leon Trostky:
* Class War, Vol 2 #3 [CWGusa.wordpress.com link], with info on Labor Black and Brown self defense, and the Labor Defender!
* Class Warrior, Vol 1 #7 [CWGusa.wordpress.com link], headlined "BRICS around the neck of the proletariate" refering to the geopolitical situation as it relates to a global working class revolution.
For Labor, Black and Brown Defense Against Racist Police Terror!
Read the full call to action from the revolutionary John Brown at [NorthbayMDS.blogspot.com link], [begin excerpt]: In the spate of police executions and vigilante murders from Amadou Diallo to Oscar Grant to Michael Brown a popular notion has gained ground that the police are out of control. The police are in fact under control and are a fully operational part of the state terror directed against black, brown and immigrant communities.
No faith in the bosses’ courts! We need our own institutions to gain justice!
Turn the meetings and mobilizations into organizing meetings for Labor, Black and Brown self-defense guards and tribunals!
Form up multi-racial Labor, Black and Brown self-defense guards to defend against racist police and vigilante terror!
For workers’ tribunals to bring murdering racist cops and vigilantes to justice! Build Labor, Black and Brown political strike actions to bring these criminals to justice!
SubMedia.tv: For the past four years we have visiting the Unist’ot’en camp and since then, we just can’t shut up about them. Why? Because their form of protest is beyond words and it’s manifested in direct action. They have created a real physical wall of opposition to all the proposed pipelines that could bring oil from the tar sands and fracked gas to world market in the Pacific ocean.
We introduced them to the world with our “Oil Gateway” video back in 2011 [SubMedia.tv/oil-gateway], and then with “The Action Camp” in 2012 [SubMedia.tv/action-camp].
We are now pleased to share with you our third mini-doc about them “Chokepoint: How to Stop a Pipeline” which we made for Al Jazeera’s AJ+ [SubMedia.tv/stimulator/2014/11/10/chokepoint-stop-pipeline].
* [UnistotenCamp.com] [archive.today] (archived 2014-11-15).
* "New Oil and Gas Pipelines Could Pose a Serious Threat to Canada’s North West" (2014-10-14) [Vice.com link] [archive.today].
* "There's Been HOW Many Pipeline Spills in Alberta in The Last Four Months??" (2014-11-17) [DailyKos.com link] [archive.org]
* "Unist'ot'en Camp Evicts A TransCanada Helicopter Crew" [Submedia.tv link]: On July 22, 2014, the Unist’ot’en camp evicted a TransCanada crew working on the Coastal Gaslink fracked gas pipeline, within their territories in so called “British Columbia”. If caught trespassing again, TransCanada’s equipment will be confiscated.
* "Unist'ot'en Clan Refuse All Pipeline Projects Assert Indigenous Law Over Unceded Lands" [Youtube.com link]: Unist'ot'en Territory - near Smithers, BC. June 18th, 2014.
Amid threats of a raid and impending pipeline approvals, the Unist'ot'en Clan of the Wet'suwet'en Nation are prepared to continue to defend their territories against the incursion of government and industry. A soft blockade was erected in 2009, which remains today, to insure that pipeline projects which violate Wet'suwet'en Law would not trespass onto Wet'suwet'en territories to develop projects without their consent. Yesterday the Federal government approved the Northern Gateway Pipeline, but the Uni'stot'en Camp still remains in the path of the proposed pipe as well as several others. The Northern Gateway is intended to expand the Athabasca Tar Sands facilitating the export of bitumen to international markets via supertankers off the West Coast. The Uni'stot'en Clan is part of the hereditary chief system which has governed Wet'suwet'en lands since time immemorial and is not subject to the Indian Act or other impositions of colonial occupation. "Harper is illegal, Canada is illegal. The Provincial and Federal governments are illegal because they don't have jurisdiction in our peoples territory. We have never signed any treaties, this land is unceded," states Freda Huson, Unist'ot'en Clan member and spokesperson for the camp. Huson references a Supreme Court ruling in the Delgamuukw vs. British Columbia case that clearly states the ownership of unceded territories remains with the Indigenous peoples and that Band Council Chiefs and Indian Act Agents have no authority over these lands. In fact, consultation and consent must be given by the traditional and hereditary governance systems.
Huson explains, "They've tried to get our consent and our Chiefs have said no to these projects and no means no. Wet'suwet'en law applies to these [projects]. Developers can go ahead and try and put their projects through here but they will be considered trespassers and we'll enforce Wet'suwet'en law against trespassers... We're not afraid of the Harper government, we're not afraid of anyone who is going to try and forcefully put their project through our territory when we've already said no." Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island have been standing up against resource extraction projects which infringe on our collective sovereignty and attack our territories, our peoples and our nations. Continued pushes for pipeline project approvals, tar sands expansion and fracking by the Federal government will only result in increased mobilization by Indigenous peoples.
"Our numbers are quite high across Canada, Indigenous people probably out-number settler people and you can guarantee that if there is an uprising in one community - especially with a bigger project that impacts the whole world through global warming - you're going to have a lot of upset people across Canada, this impacts every body." Temporary highway, rail and port blockades have been used to show support with other Indigenous communities across Turtle Island and Huson asserts that any attack on the Unist'ot'en will result in widespread, global support. "We had people make vows that they will shut down major highways to impact the Canadian economy if the Harper government is going to ignore Indigenous people." Dini Ze Toghestiy, a Hereditary Chief for the Likhs'amisyu Clan of the Wet'suwet'en Nation and member of the Unist'ot'en Camp asserts, "Supporters are repositioning themselves in surrounding towns to help build local support, and people in the cities are mobilized now. There's individuals all over the world who have pledged to do what they can to help us."
Concerning the threat of a raid on the camp, there was no police presence on Unist'ot'en territory on June 15th - the date set for the anticipated raid. A tip from the BC Civil Liberties Association informed the Unist'ot'en Camp that there's a rumour going around Victoria that the government, rather than file an injunction against the camp, file a charge for trespass using the Crown Lands Act. "But this is not Crown land" stated Toghestiy, "this land is unceded and we're still here. We're not going anywhere. People are showing up to the camp every day, our numbers are growing. This war is far from bring over and we're going to win this one. We're going to win it decisively."
ACTION CALENDAR
Nuclear Savage - free movie screening
Friday, Nov. 21, 7:00 p.m.
It was a Pacific island paradise.....until the United States tested nuclear weapons and conducted secret human radiation experiments that would remain top-secret until now. This is a documentary about the Marshall Islanders, who were used as human guinea pigs for three decades to study the effects of nuclear fallout on human beings - with devastating results. Nuclear Savage is a shocking tale that pierces the heart of our democratic principles. Jackie Cabasso, director of the Western States Legal Foundation, a public interest organization which monitors and analyzes U.S. nuclear weapons programs, will discuss the impact of weapons testing and the current international lawsuit by the Republic of Marshall Islands against nuclear weapons nations.
Free (charge for parking)
Newman Auditorium, Santa Rosa Jr. College, Santa Rosa
Drop Beats Not Bombs!
Saturday, Nov. 22, 7:00 to Midnight
Drop Beats not Bombs is a dub music benefit for Western States Legal Foundation, a non-profit, public interest organization founded in 1982, which monitors and analyzes U.S. nuclear weapons programs and policies and related high technology energy and weapons programs, with a focus on the national nuclear weapons laboratories.
Featuring Professor Shehab (aka Sassan Gari) an Iranian-American journalist, musician and the founding father of the Middle Eastern Dub movement, and BASS music/ Dubstep DJ Schlump and other DJ guests. Poets will perform between sets.
Arlene Francis Center, 99 - 6th St. W., Santa Rosa
San Francisco Film Premiere: “Huicholes: The Last Peyote Guardians” Saturday, Nov. 22, 7pm (6pm, doors open, reception)
At 2969 Mission St., San Francisco (corner 26th St.)
[facebook.com/events/334400346740223]
The Wixárika — Huichol — people of the Sierra Madre region of Mexico, are one of the last pre-Hispanic cultures alive in Latin America. They are at the forefront of a crusade to protect life and their sacred land, “Wirikuta” against giant mining companies.
This outstanding new documentary, produced 2014 (120 min.) by Argentinian filmmaker Hernán Vilchez, has won international awards, including at the International Environmental Film Festival.
We are honored to debut the film and host Vilchez and two Mara’kate — Huichol spiritual leaders — father and son protagonists, who will introduce the film and offer a spiritual ceremony before the film.
Proceeds will go towards development projects in the Wixarika community.
$5-20 donation requested. Wheelchair accessible.
More info: 415-821-6545 or [www.ANSWERsf.org].
Peace Action of San Mateo County presents: Environmentalist Brian Haberly speaks on fracking and climate change
DATE/TIME: Sun, Nov 23, 7:00pm-9:00pm
LOCATION: Unitarian Universalists of San Mateo, 300 E. Santa Inez, San Mateo
COST: Free, contributions welcome.
Fracking is employed around the country for both oil and gas. Many health care experts and environmentalists feel strongly that the method and related processes of fracking pose serious consequences for our health, the environment and the future of the world's climate. South Bay environmental activist Brian Haberly will share his concerns about fracking.
The process can release dangerous chemicals into the air such as methane, a greenhouse gas 30 times as potent as carbon dioxide. The possible result of climate change brings with it a number of anticipated environmental effects such as heat waves, extreme weather events, flooding, sea level rise, crop damage, and social instability.
MORE INFO: [http://www.sanmateopeaceaction.org] [smpa@) sanmateopeaceaction.org]
Dorothy Day Working Group of Occupy Santa Rosa
Monday, Nov. 24, 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.
Ongoing work on the issues of homelessness and mental health in Sonoma County.
The Peace & Justice Center of Sonoma County, 467 Sebastopol Ave., Santa Rosa
Women in the 1910 Mexican Revolution
Monday, Nov. 24, Noon to 1:00 p.m.
The Mexican Revolution was the first social revolution on the American continent in the twentieth century. Women from different ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds participated directly in different ways, including but not limited to organizing, fundraising for the armed struggle, intellectually collaborating, and fighting in the four armies involved in the revolution. Presented by Laura Larqué, born and raised in Mexico City, she received a BA from the University of Mexico in Sociology and she received an MA in History from SSU. Larqué has been teaching U.S., Latin America, Mexico and Chicano history for the past 20 years. Her knowledge in Mexican and Latin American history is wide as she has researched extensively on the history of Latin America and the fact that she is from Mexico gives her a unique perspective on the history of Latin America.
Newman Auditorium, Emeritus Hall, Santa Rosa Jr. College, Santa Rosa
