Hosted by Dr.G., Minister of Information of the Northbay MDS. Tneune 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]. Be a Community Journalist with our Community Journalist's Notebook [link]. Send news & info to [NorthbayMDS@) gmail.com]! Northbay Uprising News scripts [link]. Archived webpages at (archive.org) and at (archive.today) are available even if the original is taken down. News links are provided for educational purposes only, and do not constitute an endorsement of political tendencies, or, of foreign governments.
InDIYpendent Media
Spotlight from the Northbay Uprising Media Collective
Recommended Radical Newsletters:
* The Soapbox People's Network (2015-03-28) [https://archive.today/BcVYt]
* Popular Resistance Newsletter (2015-03-29) [https://archive.today/teKmh]
* CCDSLinks: Radical Ideas for Radical Change (2015-03-27) [https://archive.today/NvjqB]
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ACTION HEADLINES!
Stories are reviewed and provided by Northbay MDS Committees and Affiliates
information collected by the
SOLANO PEACE, JUSTICE, AND FREEDOM COALITION
* Spring Rising: An Antiwar Intervention in DC WRAP-UP (PART ONE) by Cindy [https://archive.today/D2bWc]
* [http://cindysheehanssoapbox.com/spring-rising-videos.html]
* "The Costs of War, the Price of Peace" (2015-03-26) [https://archive.today/INrg1] [begin excerpt]:
What price would you pay not to kill another human being? At what point would you commit the offenses allegedly perpetrated by Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was charged Wednesday with desertion and “misbehavior before an enemy?”
Bowe Bergdahl was a private when he left his post in Afghanistan, under circumstances that are still unknown to the public, and was captured by the Taliban. They imprisoned him for five years, until he was released in a controversial prisoner swap negotiated by the Obama administration. Five Taliban members who were held for years at Guantanamo Bay were released to house arrest in Qatar in exchange for Bergdahl. He now faces a court-martial and potentially life in prison. Meanwhile, the architects of the disastrous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan remain untried, while a new report asserts that up to 1.3 million people have been killed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan in the first 10 years of the so-called war on terror.
The report is called “Body Count” and is published in the U.S. by Physicians for Social Responsibility. “It has been politically important to downplay Allied forces’ responsibility for the massive carnage and destruction in the region,” writes San Francisco doctor Robert M. Gould in the report’s foreword. He told me: “We need to take full responsibility for the true cost of war as we are preparing to continue our involvement in Afghanistan and deepen our involvement in Syria and Iraq. There’s great anger throughout the region about our involvement and the underplaying here of what the true costs are in terms of death and destruction.” [end excerpt]
* "Your Money at War: Everywhere Military strategy? Who needs it? The madness of funding the Pentagon to 'cover the globe' " (2015-03-26) [https://archive.today/VB6tH]
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WARNING: the following articles contains graphic photos and descriptions.
* "Rape of Iraqi Women by US Forces as Weapon of War: Photos and Data Emerge" (2015-03-24) [https://archive.today/vXoWL]
* "'I didn't think of Iraqis as humans,' says U.S. soldier who raped 14-year-old girl before killing her and her family" (2010-12-21, dailymail.co.uk) [https://archive.today/Q7meZ]
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* "US troops, contractors sexually abused Colombian girls with impunity" (2015-03-25, rt.com) [https://archive.today/auIAb]
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USLAW RESOLUTION OPPOSING U.S. INTERVENTION IN VENEZUELA
[http://uslaboragainstwar.org] [https://www.facebook.com/Labor.Against.War]
(Resolution adopted by the National Steering Committee of US Labor Against the War/USLAW on March 25, 2015)
Whereas, on May 5, 2014, the San Francisco Labor Council (AFL-CIO), an affiliate of U.S. Labor Against the War (USLAW), adopted a resolution characterizing the government of Nicolás Maduro as the "legitimate, democratically elected government of Venezuela" and calling "for respect for the sovereignty of the Venezuelan people, free from U.S. government intervention in the internal affairs of Venezuela"; and
Whereas, on December 18, 2014, U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law legislation that imposes sanctions against officials in the Venezuelan government; and Whereas, on March 9, 2015, the Obama administration, without offering any evidence, declared that "Venezuela represents a threat to the national security of the United States," while ordering sanctions against seven additional Venezuelan officials and announcing that further sanctions (economic and financial) could follow; and
Whereas, the U.S. State Department allocates least $5 million per year to intervene in the internal affairs of Venezuela by funding opponents of the Venezuelan government and its democratically elected President Nicolás Maduro in the name of promoting "democratic practices" ; and
Whereas, Sharon Burrows, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), to which the AFL-CIO is affiliated, declared on March 10, 2015, that "there is no evidence that the United States faces a threat to its national security from Venezuela"; and
Whereas, Victor Baez, ITUC regional organizer for the Americas, declared that "sanctions from the outside will not solve the internal problems of Venezuela and will only worsen them," and then went on to call for "respect for the democratically elected authorities in Venezuela"; therefore,
Be it resolved, that U.S. Labor Against the War calls on President Obama and the U.S. Congress to (1) repeal the sanctions imposed on Venezuela, (2) end the funding of the forces inside Venezuela that seek to destabilize the government of Nicolás Maduro, (3) remove Venezuela from the list of countries that represent a threat to the security of the United States, and (4) restore full diplomatic relations with the democratically elected government of Venezuela; and
Be it further resolved, that U.S. Labor Against the War urges its affiliates, the AFL-CIO and all other labor organizations to adopt resolutions with these four demands; and
Be it finally resolved, that a copy of this resolution be sent to President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, the leadership of the House and Senate and President Richard Trumka.
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* "John Boehner Outs Himself As He Calls Obama An 'Anti-War' President" (2015-03-28) [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/29/1374090/-House-Speaker-John-Boehner-Outs-Himself-As-He-Calls-Barack-Obama-An-Anti-War-President]
* "McCain to Netanyahu: Treat "Abusive & Surly" Obama with Contempt by Going Rogue & Bombing Iran" (2015-03-28) [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/28/1374021/-McCain-to-Netanyahu-Treat-Abusive-Surly-Obama-with-Contempt-by-Going-Rogue-Bombing-Iran]
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standing proudly with the Brown Berets, Al Rojas and other warriors!
* Ceaser Chavez March photos by Maile Hampton (2015-03-28, PSL Sacramento):
Photo caption: Comrades there through it all, ones I can trust to always protect me if necessary and I know will always be there. Also see: "African American woman faces jail in California over 'lynching' charge; Maile Hampton charged for trying to stop the arrest of a protester by grabbing him away from police, defined as ‘lynching’ under California state law" (2015-03-18, theguardian.com) [https://archive.today/0uXNn]
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* (2015-03-28, La Mesha Irizarry): Still do not have details, but Idriss Stelley Foundation program director, Jeremy Miller, was assaulted by a female police officer, D. Williams, in front of his home on Revere and 3rd, 50 minutes ago in SF. There was a brawl and Jeremy had gone to attempt diffusing it, the officer warned him she was going to mace him if he did not back away, Jeremy asserted he was at least 10 feet away, observing and not interfering with police business, then D. Williams just walked up to him and maced him straight in his eyes, and confiscated his digital recorder. Jeremy's wife is driving him to emergency at SFGH.
UPDATE, posted at [https://archive.today/z5VYA]: Jeremy Miller, our program director at Idriss Stelley Foundation, is on his way! Jeremy got a whole can of Mace in his eyes by officer D. Williams last night, while he was in front of his house, doing community safe keeping. An hour later, he still did his show at Mutiny Radio, and is coming now for your support, Jabari, that's how we roll !!!
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Defend the AfrikaTown Garden!
video from "WeCopwatch" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60vOu0UkMTY]
While the city of Oakland flaunts its newly developed downtown area, this "revitalization project" has come with the cost of the residents of Oakland. Gentrification, along with a brutal police force, has displaced black and brown residents as a means to "clean up" the neighborhood. AfrikaTown is a community effort to provide a different alternative, one that supports and lifts the existing community rather than displace it. AfrikaTown is already an important and necessary aspect of West Oakland, where people come to gather, celebrate, and eat. Within AfrikaTown is Qilombo, a community center that offers workshops and events to the residents. It has a bookstore, a free store, and a food distribution program. Adjacent to Qilombo is a garden that has been transformed over the last year to provide fresh vegetables for the community, with a beautiful mural that depicts struggle across the black diaspora. Hundreds of people have helped to bring AfrikaTown to life, and we need more support than ever to see it continue.
Come out and support so we can see AfrikaTown become an established community in our city.
Follow AfrikaTown! [www.facebook.com/afrikatowncommunitygarden] [twitter.com/AfrikaTown]
Liberation Day: Save AfrikaTown!
Friday at 7:00am,
Qilombo Books, 2313 San Pablo Ave, Oakland, California 94612
[https://www.facebook.com/events/360569967469771/]
We need the voices, bodies and the love of the local community to stop developers from destroying the vision of a successful African counterculture movement. AfrikaTown has provided the community with fresh fruits and vegetables, a comfortable environment to interact with one another, barbecues and a place to gain political awareness. We are asking for folks to show up, bring your bodies, signs and stand in solidarity with one of the last black-ran community spaces in West Oakland. With your help, AfrikaTown has the power to prevent the complete displacement of black and brown residents in West Oakland.
Join us on April 3rd as EARLY AS YOU CAN, as we take a stand and say "NO MORE!"
There will be food, performances and knowledge on ways to get involved in the protection of AfrikaTown and the movement.
* "Defending Afrika Town: West Oakland’s fight to preserve a space made for and by the community" (2015-03-30, whatshappeningblackoakland.wordpress.com) [https://archive.today/GEvtP]
Photos showing the defense of AfrikaTown, Thursday, March 26th. At 1pm, a bulldozer and Oakland police arrived, and were blocked by New Afrikans, who were unmoved and able to negotiate a "Stay" order until the following Friday, April 3rd.
Chaga Kwa Nia writes: Every time we as black people in America come together to create something for our people and the surrounding communities, imperialism comes to destroy it. We must keep Afrikatown and Qilombo Oakland safe from the forces who want to destroy afrikatown and evict qilombo.. This is all blacks and in oakland have as a space to call our own.. Gentrification must be stopped here..
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Fly Benzo, hip-hop artist, community liberation organizer, and target of security state police, writes, "Just left the Eastside Arts Alliance supporting Jabari Shaw, who was run down by OPD, the FBI and more and almost killed with his Daughter and friend in the car... His daughter ended up with a broken leg...Rockin that #RebelWear..."
#RebelWithoutAPause #FTP #RBG
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* "Justice 4 Jabari, Anniyah, & Mary" event page [https://archive.today/z5VYA].
* Fundraiser for Jabari, Anniyah, & Mary [http://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/fundraiser-for-jabari-anniyah-mary/325030]
* Photos of Jabari and Family [https://archive.today/NQU86]
Jabari Shaw, community liberation advocate, UNIA Oakland member, was the target of a Homeland Security death-squad.
According to the East Bay Express and eyewitness testimony, U.S. Marshals were surveilling a home in East Oakland when Jabari exited the building with his four-year-old daughter. Shaw and his daughter entered the car, driven by close friend Mary Vaillancourt. Federal officers, dressed in plainclothes, approached the car with weapons drawn but failed to identify themselves clearly as law enforcement. Unsure of their identity and fearing for her life, Vaillancourt accelerated away from the scene, prompting several unmarked cars to pursue them. When officers identified themselves as law enforcement by flashing their lights, Vaillancourt attempted to stop at a red light, but the car was rammed from behind by pursuing officers, propelling the vehicle through the intersection and into the back of a Paratransit van. See photos [https://archive.today/S5gP8]. He survived, and is recovering from his injuries, but is being followed by strangers with cameras. He was able to document this. "I was at highland hospital and caught this s.o.b. taking pictures of me yesterday (Thursday, March 26th). Bad enough I'm visiting the emergency room every week because i don't have a primary care provider. I got to deal with a**holes like this..."
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Justice For O'Shaine Evans!
Press Conference announcement for March 30th [http://heyevent.com/event/761733373940576/press-conference-justice-for-oshaine-evans].
O'Shaine Evans was shot and killed by SFPD Officer David Goff October 7th.
Join his family as they file for damages!
O'Shaine was a Caribbean immigrant raised in Oakland, an aspiring boxer, an enthusiastic uncle, and a beloved community member whose life was tragically cut short just five months ago.
Since O'Shaine's death, his mother Angela, his sister Cadine, and his brother and brother-in-law Troy and Raheim, have become incredibly active in the anti-police brutality movement--attending rallies and marches, speaking to draw connections between immigrant rights, racial discrimination, and police misconduct.
Now it's our time for all Bay Area residents fighting the criminalization of Black and Brown young people to come together and support O'Shaine's fight for justice!
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TOWARDS REVOLUTIONARY SOLUTIONS
SOLIDARITY WITH THE NEW AFRICAN NATION!
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* "Black America's State of Surveillance" (2015-03-30, progressive.org) [https://archive.today/9sSGk][begin excerpt]: In a recent address, New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton made it clear: “2015 will be one of the most significant years in the history of this organization. It will be the year of technology, in which we literally will give to every member of this department technology that would’ve been unheard of even a few years ago.”
Predictive policing, also known as “Total Information Awareness,” is described as using advanced technological tools and data analysis to “preempt” crime. It utilizes trends, patterns, sequences, and affinities found in data to make determinations about when and where crimes will occur.
This model is deceptive, however, because it presumes data inputs to be neutral. They aren’t. In a racially discriminatory criminal justice system, surveillance technologies reproduce injustice. Instead of reducing discrimination, predictive policing is a face of what author Michelle Alexander calls the “New Jim Crow”—a de facto system of separate and unequal application of laws, police practices, conviction rates, sentencing terms, and conditions of confinement that operate more as a system of social control by racial hierarchy than as crime prevention or punishment.
In New York City, the predictive policing approach in use is “Broken Windows.” This approach to policing places an undue focus on quality of life crimes—like selling loose cigarettes, the kind of offense for which Eric Garner was choked to death. Without oversight, accountability, transparency, or rights, predictive policing is just high-tech racial profiling—indiscriminate data collection that drives discriminatory policing practices.
As local law enforcement agencies increasingly adopt surveillance technologies, they use them in three primary ways: to listen in on specific conversations on and offline; to observe daily movements of individuals and groups; and to observe data trends. Police departments like Bratton’s aim to use sophisticated technologies to do all three.
But by far, the widest net is cast over black communities. Black people alone represent 40 percent of those incarcerated. More black men are incarcerated than were held in slavery in 1850, on the eve of the Civil War. Lest some misinterpret that statistic as evidence of greater criminality, a 2012 study confirms that black defendants are at least 30 percent more likely to be imprisoned than whites for the same crime. [end excerpt]
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Of course, conservative African-Americans are against government regulation of personal firearms, but their ideology is against community liberation, and advocates for only individualism and against any "collective" approach to liberty, with adherence to the current dominant establishment.
* "Black leaders speak out against gun control" (2013-02-22, urbancure.org) [https://archive.today/8HjX0], video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM72klOt0jk], and their "Never Again" campaign advertisement [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMV1hNXt1JM]
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It took no less that 12 black folks to help one university educated racist to 'apologize' for his supposed ignorance in "not" knowing that singing about lynching "niggers" was wrong. I doubt a single member of Negrotron believes that, but $omething made them get up there with him anyway.
They didn't require that racist to answer any questions that expose his frat. The same frat that sang about hanging "niggers" from a tree and had a chapter do this to a black pledge: "allegedly kidnapped her son, blindfolded him, bound his hands and feet, and forced him to drink so much alcohol that he passed out and died." That whole crew of Negroes should be a shamed of this PR stunt, all things considered...
* "Oklahoma Inquiry Traces Racist Song to National Gathering of Fraternity" (2015-03-27, nytimes.com) [https://archive.today/DG7Wj]
* "University Of Oklahoma Racist Video – SAE Under Fire" (2015-03-09, Al Jazeera) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUXke4QFV-A]: A racist chant video posted online of Oklahoma fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon showed several people chanting a racial slur and indicating black people would never be admitted to the fraternity. The national headquarters of SAE issued a statement: "We apologize for the unacceptable and racist behavior of the individuals in the video, and we are disgusted that any member would act in such a way.”
* "SAE FRATERNITY DEADLY HAZING OF HAITIAN-AMERICAN GEORGE DESDUNES RESURFACED AFTER RACIST CHANT VIDEO RELEASED" (2015-03-09, lunionsuite.com) [https://archive.today/O9UOY]
Articles by Shaun King
* "SAE fraternity threatens lawsuit, deny they're racist, says they're being 'tarred and feathered' " (2015-03-13) [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/13/1370650/-Whoa-SAE-fraternity-files-lawsuit-denies-they-are-racist-say-they-re-being-tarred-and-feathered]
* "This can't be real: Popular conservative places the blame for racist SAE chant on hip hop" (2015-03-11) [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/11/1370100/-This-can-t-be-real-life-Popular-conservative-places-the-blame-for-racist-SAE-chant-on-hip-hop]
* "Frat that declared 'there will never be a n*gg*r in SAE' hazed black student to death" (2015-03-10) [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/10/1369823/-Frat-which-declared-they-ll-never-be-a-nigg-r-in-SAE-recently-killed-hazed-black-pledgee-to-death]
* "A deeper examination of the sheer joy of Oklahoma students chanting about hanging n*gg*rs from trees" (2015-03-09) [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/09/1369591/-A-deeper-examination-of-the-sheer-joy-of-Oklahoma-students-chanting-about-hanging-niggers-from-trees]
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* "Sh*t White Feminists Say to Black Feminists (and How to Counter Them)" [https://archive.today/Ng8z2] [begin excerpt]:
PROBLEM #1: Accusing Us of Not Being Sweet and Kind Enough -
"You’re too angry and militant! No one will ever listen to you unless you’re nice.”
Translation: Your anger makes me uncomfortable because I’m unaccustomed to it. I don’t feel the need to get mad because I have less invested in the cause.
Let's get one thing straight. Those who comprise the oppressive class have NO VESTED INTEREST in giving up their power over you. Pleading, cajoling, and asking very nicely for white people to stop exploiting people of colour gets us nowhere. History is the only place you need to look in order to confirm this. It took a war to even begin to start the halt of slavery in America. It took women sacrificing themselves, destroying property, starving themselves, assaulting police officers and much more before they were given the right to vote in England. It is because of strikes and protest and strong shows of discontent that workers have earned labor rights over the years. Nothing is ever gifted to us without a fight. Black women could talk all day and all night, placidly and peacefully with any of the racist white men in Congress and it wouldn’t change a thing. The process of change is sparked by conflict, it forces an undesirable situation that will only cease if demands are met. When white feminists ask us to temper ourselves, they are saying, “Give in to the status quo.” They are saying, “You have no right to meet your dehumanisation, exploitation, and oppression at the hands of white people with righteous anger. How dare you be visibly shaken!”. They are saying that they are more dismayed at our reactions to racism than with racism itself.
[end excerpt]
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information collected by the Committee for
STUDENT POWER!
Student debt has skyrocketed to over $1.3 trillion. It is so huge many students have lost hope. Though the Obama administration has recently taken steps to combat the problem [https://archive.today/Y0khv] including a new proposal to make community college free, its sheer size makes it almost impossible to deal with. Indeed most graduates are spending their first years out of college unemployed or without proper resources.
On top of it all the U.S. federal government is profiting from student debt to the tune of $110 billion over the next decade.
Peoplesworld.org reports that the issue was a major concern at the recently concluded NextUp young worker’s summit in Chicago [https://archive.today/bOZub].
Indeed a new movement is developing to cancel all student debt led by the American Federation of Teachers, Democracy in Action and many others.
They are circulating a petition urging President Obama and Congress to forgive the debt immediately.
And with good reason: the debt is unpayable and uncollectable.
Sign the petition here [http://cancelallstudentdebt.com/?code=DFA].
information collected by the Worker's Defense Committee
WORKER'S POWER!
* "April 15th at Fast Food Restaurants Is Going to Be Incredible" (2015-03-31, attn.com) [https://archive.today/Wui4N]
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* "Unions And Black Lives Matter Activists Join Forces Against Scott Walker" (2015-03-22, usw.org) [https://archive.today/vGyYM]
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* "After Talking to Washington Post about Low Wages, Hotel Worker Fired" (2015-03-30, commondreams.org) [https://archive.today/Zu801]
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* "Why Mexico’s Farmworkers Who Harvest Our Food Are on Strike" (2015-03-26, truthdig.com) [https://archive.today/LaLxe]. Photo showing State Police in Baja California del Norte just before they attack the workers and their families.
If you like fresh strawberries, you probably eat Driscoll's Strawberries, because they monopolize the fresh strawberry market
These berries are picked in Baja California Norte, Mexico, by workers who only make Mex$110 a day - that's US$8 a day. Photo showing an actual paycheck by one of those farms. That check is in Mexican Pesos, Mex$260 = US$17.20
They haven't had a raise in fifteen years even though the industry has boomed. The women farmworkers are often sexually harassed by the foremen at work. They live in squalor in shacks with no running water. Now they're on strike and they are facing off against Driscoll's and the Policia Estatal de Baja California Norte. They need your help. BOYCOTT DRISCOLL'S BERRIES.
Trader Joe's is a major purchaser and retailer seller of Driscoll's strawberries
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* "California teachers fight to save their union and the schools" (2015-03-25, peoplesworld.org) [https://archive.today/9tqG4]
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* "Court Slaps Down Airport Worker Strike Ban" (2015-03-27, labornotes.org) [https://archive.today/mz58z]
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* "Right-to-Work Threats, State by State" (2015-03-25, labornotes.org) [https://archive.today/Bt5mD]
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WARNING: the following articles contains graphic photos and descriptions.
* "Rape of Iraqi Women by US Forces as Weapon of War: Photos and Data Emerge" (2015-03-24) [https://archive.today/vXoWL]
* "'I didn't think of Iraqis as humans,' says U.S. soldier who raped 14-year-old girl before killing her and her family" (2010-12-21, dailymail.co.uk) [https://archive.today/Q7meZ]
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* "US troops, contractors sexually abused Colombian girls with impunity" (2015-03-25, rt.com) [https://archive.today/auIAb]
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USLAW RESOLUTION OPPOSING U.S. INTERVENTION IN VENEZUELA
[http://uslaboragainstwar.org] [https://www.facebook.com/Labor.Against.War]
(Resolution adopted by the National Steering Committee of US Labor Against the War/USLAW on March 25, 2015)
Whereas, on May 5, 2014, the San Francisco Labor Council (AFL-CIO), an affiliate of U.S. Labor Against the War (USLAW), adopted a resolution characterizing the government of Nicolás Maduro as the "legitimate, democratically elected government of Venezuela" and calling "for respect for the sovereignty of the Venezuelan people, free from U.S. government intervention in the internal affairs of Venezuela"; and
Whereas, on December 18, 2014, U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law legislation that imposes sanctions against officials in the Venezuelan government; and Whereas, on March 9, 2015, the Obama administration, without offering any evidence, declared that "Venezuela represents a threat to the national security of the United States," while ordering sanctions against seven additional Venezuelan officials and announcing that further sanctions (economic and financial) could follow; and
Whereas, the U.S. State Department allocates least $5 million per year to intervene in the internal affairs of Venezuela by funding opponents of the Venezuelan government and its democratically elected President Nicolás Maduro in the name of promoting "democratic practices" ; and
Whereas, Sharon Burrows, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), to which the AFL-CIO is affiliated, declared on March 10, 2015, that "there is no evidence that the United States faces a threat to its national security from Venezuela"; and
Whereas, Victor Baez, ITUC regional organizer for the Americas, declared that "sanctions from the outside will not solve the internal problems of Venezuela and will only worsen them," and then went on to call for "respect for the democratically elected authorities in Venezuela"; therefore,
Be it resolved, that U.S. Labor Against the War calls on President Obama and the U.S. Congress to (1) repeal the sanctions imposed on Venezuela, (2) end the funding of the forces inside Venezuela that seek to destabilize the government of Nicolás Maduro, (3) remove Venezuela from the list of countries that represent a threat to the security of the United States, and (4) restore full diplomatic relations with the democratically elected government of Venezuela; and
Be it further resolved, that U.S. Labor Against the War urges its affiliates, the AFL-CIO and all other labor organizations to adopt resolutions with these four demands; and
Be it finally resolved, that a copy of this resolution be sent to President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, the leadership of the House and Senate and President Richard Trumka.
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* "John Boehner Outs Himself As He Calls Obama An 'Anti-War' President" (2015-03-28) [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/29/1374090/-House-Speaker-John-Boehner-Outs-Himself-As-He-Calls-Barack-Obama-An-Anti-War-President]
* "McCain to Netanyahu: Treat "Abusive & Surly" Obama with Contempt by Going Rogue & Bombing Iran" (2015-03-28) [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/28/1374021/-McCain-to-Netanyahu-Treat-Abusive-Surly-Obama-with-Contempt-by-Going-Rogue-Bombing-Iran]
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BAY AREA SOLIDARITY
Updates on campaigns for for Peace, Justice, & Freedom across the greater Bay Area, Norcal, and Socal
standing proudly with the Brown Berets, Al Rojas and other warriors!
* Ceaser Chavez March photos by Maile Hampton (2015-03-28, PSL Sacramento):
Photo caption: Comrades there through it all, ones I can trust to always protect me if necessary and I know will always be there. Also see: "African American woman faces jail in California over 'lynching' charge; Maile Hampton charged for trying to stop the arrest of a protester by grabbing him away from police, defined as ‘lynching’ under California state law" (2015-03-18, theguardian.com) [https://archive.today/0uXNn]
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* (2015-03-28, La Mesha Irizarry): Still do not have details, but Idriss Stelley Foundation program director, Jeremy Miller, was assaulted by a female police officer, D. Williams, in front of his home on Revere and 3rd, 50 minutes ago in SF. There was a brawl and Jeremy had gone to attempt diffusing it, the officer warned him she was going to mace him if he did not back away, Jeremy asserted he was at least 10 feet away, observing and not interfering with police business, then D. Williams just walked up to him and maced him straight in his eyes, and confiscated his digital recorder. Jeremy's wife is driving him to emergency at SFGH.
UPDATE, posted at [https://archive.today/z5VYA]: Jeremy Miller, our program director at Idriss Stelley Foundation, is on his way! Jeremy got a whole can of Mace in his eyes by officer D. Williams last night, while he was in front of his house, doing community safe keeping. An hour later, he still did his show at Mutiny Radio, and is coming now for your support, Jabari, that's how we roll !!!
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Defend the AfrikaTown Garden!
video from "WeCopwatch" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60vOu0UkMTY]
While the city of Oakland flaunts its newly developed downtown area, this "revitalization project" has come with the cost of the residents of Oakland. Gentrification, along with a brutal police force, has displaced black and brown residents as a means to "clean up" the neighborhood. AfrikaTown is a community effort to provide a different alternative, one that supports and lifts the existing community rather than displace it. AfrikaTown is already an important and necessary aspect of West Oakland, where people come to gather, celebrate, and eat. Within AfrikaTown is Qilombo, a community center that offers workshops and events to the residents. It has a bookstore, a free store, and a food distribution program. Adjacent to Qilombo is a garden that has been transformed over the last year to provide fresh vegetables for the community, with a beautiful mural that depicts struggle across the black diaspora. Hundreds of people have helped to bring AfrikaTown to life, and we need more support than ever to see it continue.
Come out and support so we can see AfrikaTown become an established community in our city.
Follow AfrikaTown! [www.facebook.com/afrikatowncommunitygarden] [twitter.com/AfrikaTown]
Liberation Day: Save AfrikaTown!
Friday at 7:00am,
Qilombo Books, 2313 San Pablo Ave, Oakland, California 94612
[https://www.facebook.com/events/360569967469771/]
We need the voices, bodies and the love of the local community to stop developers from destroying the vision of a successful African counterculture movement. AfrikaTown has provided the community with fresh fruits and vegetables, a comfortable environment to interact with one another, barbecues and a place to gain political awareness. We are asking for folks to show up, bring your bodies, signs and stand in solidarity with one of the last black-ran community spaces in West Oakland. With your help, AfrikaTown has the power to prevent the complete displacement of black and brown residents in West Oakland.
Join us on April 3rd as EARLY AS YOU CAN, as we take a stand and say "NO MORE!"
There will be food, performances and knowledge on ways to get involved in the protection of AfrikaTown and the movement.
* "Defending Afrika Town: West Oakland’s fight to preserve a space made for and by the community" (2015-03-30, whatshappeningblackoakland.wordpress.com) [https://archive.today/GEvtP]
Photos showing the defense of AfrikaTown, Thursday, March 26th. At 1pm, a bulldozer and Oakland police arrived, and were blocked by New Afrikans, who were unmoved and able to negotiate a "Stay" order until the following Friday, April 3rd.
Chaga Kwa Nia writes: Every time we as black people in America come together to create something for our people and the surrounding communities, imperialism comes to destroy it. We must keep Afrikatown and Qilombo Oakland safe from the forces who want to destroy afrikatown and evict qilombo.. This is all blacks and in oakland have as a space to call our own.. Gentrification must be stopped here..
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Fly Benzo, hip-hop artist, community liberation organizer, and target of security state police, writes, "Just left the Eastside Arts Alliance supporting Jabari Shaw, who was run down by OPD, the FBI and more and almost killed with his Daughter and friend in the car... His daughter ended up with a broken leg...Rockin that #RebelWear..."
#RebelWithoutAPause #FTP #RBG
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* "Justice 4 Jabari, Anniyah, & Mary" event page [https://archive.today/z5VYA].
* Fundraiser for Jabari, Anniyah, & Mary [http://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/fundraiser-for-jabari-anniyah-mary/325030]
* Photos of Jabari and Family [https://archive.today/NQU86]
Jabari Shaw, community liberation advocate, UNIA Oakland member, was the target of a Homeland Security death-squad. According to the East Bay Express and eyewitness testimony, U.S. Marshals were surveilling a home in East Oakland when Jabari exited the building with his four-year-old daughter. Shaw and his daughter entered the car, driven by close friend Mary Vaillancourt. Federal officers, dressed in plainclothes, approached the car with weapons drawn but failed to identify themselves clearly as law enforcement. Unsure of their identity and fearing for her life, Vaillancourt accelerated away from the scene, prompting several unmarked cars to pursue them. When officers identified themselves as law enforcement by flashing their lights, Vaillancourt attempted to stop at a red light, but the car was rammed from behind by pursuing officers, propelling the vehicle through the intersection and into the back of a Paratransit van. See photos [https://archive.today/S5gP8]. He survived, and is recovering from his injuries, but is being followed by strangers with cameras. He was able to document this. "I was at highland hospital and caught this s.o.b. taking pictures of me yesterday (Thursday, March 26th). Bad enough I'm visiting the emergency room every week because i don't have a primary care provider. I got to deal with a**holes like this..."
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Justice For O'Shaine Evans!
Press Conference announcement for March 30th [http://heyevent.com/event/761733373940576/press-conference-justice-for-oshaine-evans].
O'Shaine Evans was shot and killed by SFPD Officer David Goff October 7th.
Join his family as they file for damages!
O'Shaine was a Caribbean immigrant raised in Oakland, an aspiring boxer, an enthusiastic uncle, and a beloved community member whose life was tragically cut short just five months ago.
Since O'Shaine's death, his mother Angela, his sister Cadine, and his brother and brother-in-law Troy and Raheim, have become incredibly active in the anti-police brutality movement--attending rallies and marches, speaking to draw connections between immigrant rights, racial discrimination, and police misconduct.
Now it's our time for all Bay Area residents fighting the criminalization of Black and Brown young people to come together and support O'Shaine's fight for justice!
===*===*===
* "As Top Democrats Embrace a Robin Hood Tax, It’s Time for Activists to Go Big" (2015-01-12, thenation.com) [https://archive.today/rbqoy]
===*===*===
SOLIDARITY WITH THE NEW AFRICAN NATION!
Black Power! Revive the Community! Defend the Nation!
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* "Black America's State of Surveillance" (2015-03-30, progressive.org) [https://archive.today/9sSGk][begin excerpt]: In a recent address, New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton made it clear: “2015 will be one of the most significant years in the history of this organization. It will be the year of technology, in which we literally will give to every member of this department technology that would’ve been unheard of even a few years ago.”
Predictive policing, also known as “Total Information Awareness,” is described as using advanced technological tools and data analysis to “preempt” crime. It utilizes trends, patterns, sequences, and affinities found in data to make determinations about when and where crimes will occur.
This model is deceptive, however, because it presumes data inputs to be neutral. They aren’t. In a racially discriminatory criminal justice system, surveillance technologies reproduce injustice. Instead of reducing discrimination, predictive policing is a face of what author Michelle Alexander calls the “New Jim Crow”—a de facto system of separate and unequal application of laws, police practices, conviction rates, sentencing terms, and conditions of confinement that operate more as a system of social control by racial hierarchy than as crime prevention or punishment.
In New York City, the predictive policing approach in use is “Broken Windows.” This approach to policing places an undue focus on quality of life crimes—like selling loose cigarettes, the kind of offense for which Eric Garner was choked to death. Without oversight, accountability, transparency, or rights, predictive policing is just high-tech racial profiling—indiscriminate data collection that drives discriminatory policing practices.
As local law enforcement agencies increasingly adopt surveillance technologies, they use them in three primary ways: to listen in on specific conversations on and offline; to observe daily movements of individuals and groups; and to observe data trends. Police departments like Bratton’s aim to use sophisticated technologies to do all three.
But by far, the widest net is cast over black communities. Black people alone represent 40 percent of those incarcerated. More black men are incarcerated than were held in slavery in 1850, on the eve of the Civil War. Lest some misinterpret that statistic as evidence of greater criminality, a 2012 study confirms that black defendants are at least 30 percent more likely to be imprisoned than whites for the same crime. [end excerpt]
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Of course, conservative African-Americans are against government regulation of personal firearms, but their ideology is against community liberation, and advocates for only individualism and against any "collective" approach to liberty, with adherence to the current dominant establishment.
* "Black leaders speak out against gun control" (2013-02-22, urbancure.org) [https://archive.today/8HjX0], video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM72klOt0jk], and their "Never Again" campaign advertisement [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMV1hNXt1JM]
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It took no less that 12 black folks to help one university educated racist to 'apologize' for his supposed ignorance in "not" knowing that singing about lynching "niggers" was wrong. I doubt a single member of Negrotron believes that, but $omething made them get up there with him anyway.
They didn't require that racist to answer any questions that expose his frat. The same frat that sang about hanging "niggers" from a tree and had a chapter do this to a black pledge: "allegedly kidnapped her son, blindfolded him, bound his hands and feet, and forced him to drink so much alcohol that he passed out and died." That whole crew of Negroes should be a shamed of this PR stunt, all things considered...
* "Oklahoma Inquiry Traces Racist Song to National Gathering of Fraternity" (2015-03-27, nytimes.com) [https://archive.today/DG7Wj]
* "University Of Oklahoma Racist Video – SAE Under Fire" (2015-03-09, Al Jazeera) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUXke4QFV-A]: A racist chant video posted online of Oklahoma fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon showed several people chanting a racial slur and indicating black people would never be admitted to the fraternity. The national headquarters of SAE issued a statement: "We apologize for the unacceptable and racist behavior of the individuals in the video, and we are disgusted that any member would act in such a way.”
* "SAE FRATERNITY DEADLY HAZING OF HAITIAN-AMERICAN GEORGE DESDUNES RESURFACED AFTER RACIST CHANT VIDEO RELEASED" (2015-03-09, lunionsuite.com) [https://archive.today/O9UOY]
Articles by Shaun King
* "SAE fraternity threatens lawsuit, deny they're racist, says they're being 'tarred and feathered' " (2015-03-13) [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/13/1370650/-Whoa-SAE-fraternity-files-lawsuit-denies-they-are-racist-say-they-re-being-tarred-and-feathered]
* "This can't be real: Popular conservative places the blame for racist SAE chant on hip hop" (2015-03-11) [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/11/1370100/-This-can-t-be-real-life-Popular-conservative-places-the-blame-for-racist-SAE-chant-on-hip-hop]
* "Frat that declared 'there will never be a n*gg*r in SAE' hazed black student to death" (2015-03-10) [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/10/1369823/-Frat-which-declared-they-ll-never-be-a-nigg-r-in-SAE-recently-killed-hazed-black-pledgee-to-death]
* "A deeper examination of the sheer joy of Oklahoma students chanting about hanging n*gg*rs from trees" (2015-03-09) [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/09/1369591/-A-deeper-examination-of-the-sheer-joy-of-Oklahoma-students-chanting-about-hanging-niggers-from-trees]
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* "Sh*t White Feminists Say to Black Feminists (and How to Counter Them)" [https://archive.today/Ng8z2] [begin excerpt]:
PROBLEM #1: Accusing Us of Not Being Sweet and Kind Enough -
"You’re too angry and militant! No one will ever listen to you unless you’re nice.”
Translation: Your anger makes me uncomfortable because I’m unaccustomed to it. I don’t feel the need to get mad because I have less invested in the cause.
Let's get one thing straight. Those who comprise the oppressive class have NO VESTED INTEREST in giving up their power over you. Pleading, cajoling, and asking very nicely for white people to stop exploiting people of colour gets us nowhere. History is the only place you need to look in order to confirm this. It took a war to even begin to start the halt of slavery in America. It took women sacrificing themselves, destroying property, starving themselves, assaulting police officers and much more before they were given the right to vote in England. It is because of strikes and protest and strong shows of discontent that workers have earned labor rights over the years. Nothing is ever gifted to us without a fight. Black women could talk all day and all night, placidly and peacefully with any of the racist white men in Congress and it wouldn’t change a thing. The process of change is sparked by conflict, it forces an undesirable situation that will only cease if demands are met. When white feminists ask us to temper ourselves, they are saying, “Give in to the status quo.” They are saying, “You have no right to meet your dehumanisation, exploitation, and oppression at the hands of white people with righteous anger. How dare you be visibly shaken!”. They are saying that they are more dismayed at our reactions to racism than with racism itself.
[end excerpt]
information collected by the Committee for
STUDENT POWER!
Student debt has skyrocketed to over $1.3 trillion. It is so huge many students have lost hope. Though the Obama administration has recently taken steps to combat the problem [https://archive.today/Y0khv] including a new proposal to make community college free, its sheer size makes it almost impossible to deal with. Indeed most graduates are spending their first years out of college unemployed or without proper resources.On top of it all the U.S. federal government is profiting from student debt to the tune of $110 billion over the next decade.
Peoplesworld.org reports that the issue was a major concern at the recently concluded NextUp young worker’s summit in Chicago [https://archive.today/bOZub].
Indeed a new movement is developing to cancel all student debt led by the American Federation of Teachers, Democracy in Action and many others.
They are circulating a petition urging President Obama and Congress to forgive the debt immediately.
And with good reason: the debt is unpayable and uncollectable.
Sign the petition here [http://cancelallstudentdebt.com/?code=DFA].
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* "Corinthian 15 - now Corinthian 100 go to Washington to demand a full student debt discharge; Student Debt Strikers to meet with Federal Regulators as their numbers grow; 'Corinthian 15' become 'Corinthian 100', Consumer Financial Protection Bureau invites strikers to argue case" (2015-03-31), a press release from The Debt Collective, a new membership organization that leverages collective power by offering debtors a shared platform for organization, advocacy, and direct action. "Alone, our debts are a burden; together, they make us powerful." [www.debtcollective.org], contact them at [0000debt@) gmail.com].
UPDATE: Department of Education will attend meeting with strikers at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Last month 15 graduates of the embattled Corinthian Colleges made history by joining with the Debt Collective to announce the first ever student debt strike. Since then, their numbers have exploded and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has invited the strikers to meet in the nation’s capital with a group of regulators on Tuesday, March 31st. This invitation is a direct response to the students’ bold demand for debt cancellation.
Debt Collective organizers and the Corinthian 100 are calling on Education Secretary Arne Duncan to meet with them while they are in Washington.
The growing strike targets the Department of Education (DOE) which has failed to discharge the fraudulent debt of Corinthian students despite its clear authority to do so. Corinthian has been the target of numerous fraud investigations by state and federal authorities, including an ongoing predatory lending suit by the CFPB. But none of these regulators have power over federal student loans; only the Department of Education has that power. Rather than relieving these defrauded students’ debts, the Department has chosen to bail out the company while sinking students in a lifetime of debt for degrees that many experts have called worthless.
“The Department of Education has become little more than a debt collector,” commented Corinthian 100 striker Ann Bowers. “Not only does the law tell them to erase our debts, it’s the right thing to do. If they really thought their job was protecting students they would have done it already.”
The letter to the strikers, written by Rohit Chopra, the CFPB’s student loan ombudsperson, said that the CFPB would like to “discuss further” potential “ways to address the burden of their student loans.”
“We call on the Department of Education to attend this historic meeting and acknowledge Corinthian strikers who have been defrauded under the agency’s watch for decades” says Debt Collective organizer Laura Hanna. “The Department of Education must discharge these debts.”
While in Washington the Debt Collective will also unveil a new, ground-breaking legal strategy. One of the main grounds of support for the strikers’ claim that the Department should forgive their loans can be found in a law called “Defense to Repayment.” The Department itself promulgated regulations under this law declaring that students are eligible for a full discharge of their loans if the school they went to violated state consumer protection laws. Together with the Debt Collective, hundreds of current and former Corinthian students will submit simultaneous Defense to Repayment claims on the steps of the Department of Education.
By submitting these claims, these students are testing the Department’s commitment to the law and to student protection. “They are demanding not only that the federal regulator of the nation’s colleges and universities do its job and cancel the debt of all Corinthian students, but also laying the groundwork for future claims against predatory lenders,” says Debt Collective member Luke Herrine.
---
* "Corinthian 15 - now Corinthian 100 go to Washington to demand a full student debt discharge; Student Debt Strikers to meet with Federal Regulators as their numbers grow; 'Corinthian 15' become 'Corinthian 100', Consumer Financial Protection Bureau invites strikers to argue case" (2015-03-31), a press release from The Debt Collective, a new membership organization that leverages collective power by offering debtors a shared platform for organization, advocacy, and direct action. "Alone, our debts are a burden; together, they make us powerful." [www.debtcollective.org], contact them at [0000debt@) gmail.com].
UPDATE: Department of Education will attend meeting with strikers at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Last month 15 graduates of the embattled Corinthian Colleges made history by joining with the Debt Collective to announce the first ever student debt strike. Since then, their numbers have exploded and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has invited the strikers to meet in the nation’s capital with a group of regulators on Tuesday, March 31st. This invitation is a direct response to the students’ bold demand for debt cancellation.
Debt Collective organizers and the Corinthian 100 are calling on Education Secretary Arne Duncan to meet with them while they are in Washington.
The growing strike targets the Department of Education (DOE) which has failed to discharge the fraudulent debt of Corinthian students despite its clear authority to do so. Corinthian has been the target of numerous fraud investigations by state and federal authorities, including an ongoing predatory lending suit by the CFPB. But none of these regulators have power over federal student loans; only the Department of Education has that power. Rather than relieving these defrauded students’ debts, the Department has chosen to bail out the company while sinking students in a lifetime of debt for degrees that many experts have called worthless.
“The Department of Education has become little more than a debt collector,” commented Corinthian 100 striker Ann Bowers. “Not only does the law tell them to erase our debts, it’s the right thing to do. If they really thought their job was protecting students they would have done it already.”
The letter to the strikers, written by Rohit Chopra, the CFPB’s student loan ombudsperson, said that the CFPB would like to “discuss further” potential “ways to address the burden of their student loans.”
“We call on the Department of Education to attend this historic meeting and acknowledge Corinthian strikers who have been defrauded under the agency’s watch for decades” says Debt Collective organizer Laura Hanna. “The Department of Education must discharge these debts.”
While in Washington the Debt Collective will also unveil a new, ground-breaking legal strategy. One of the main grounds of support for the strikers’ claim that the Department should forgive their loans can be found in a law called “Defense to Repayment.” The Department itself promulgated regulations under this law declaring that students are eligible for a full discharge of their loans if the school they went to violated state consumer protection laws. Together with the Debt Collective, hundreds of current and former Corinthian students will submit simultaneous Defense to Repayment claims on the steps of the Department of Education.
By submitting these claims, these students are testing the Department’s commitment to the law and to student protection. “They are demanding not only that the federal regulator of the nation’s colleges and universities do its job and cancel the debt of all Corinthian students, but also laying the groundwork for future claims against predatory lenders,” says Debt Collective member Luke Herrine.
---
Defend Public Higher Education
* "Montreal police disperse hundreds of protesters with tear gas, stun grenades" (2015-03-28, rt.com) [http://rt.com/news/244789-montreal-police-tear-gas/]
* (2015-03-27) [https://www.facebook.com/TheCoup]: There are massive student protests happening in Montreal and Quebec right now against austerity measures.
The photo below is from a 5000 student protest 2 days ago in which, as you can see, police fired a tear gas canister right into a student's face. The numbers are growing everyday and the protests are going on right now.
UPDATE: I'm told that there are now 70,000 students on strike.
Check out this video of that same protest:
[https://ricochet.media/en/360/video-quebec-students-defiant-in-face-of-police-attacks]
“'One senses that the protesters have finally realized that united, nothing and no one can stand in their way,' Jean told Ricochet. 'Without fear, the role of the police is relegated to bearing witness to a movement. All we need is confidence in our own collective power.'”
When I spoke at Concordia University in Montreal last year, I was impressed by the level of organization, radicalization, and militancy that existed in the student body there. For instance, years ago, the students had a number of militant strikes that resulted in the freeze of tuition in Quebec for over three decades and in forcing the university to create a paid position to someone that the students elect to plan their mobilizations!
Montreal is not very far from many other universities in the US. It's telling that many of the students in the US universities have no idea that these protests are going on. So much for the 'transformative power' of social media. Tell your friends about this.
===*===*===* (2015-03-27) [https://www.facebook.com/TheCoup]: There are massive student protests happening in Montreal and Quebec right now against austerity measures.
The photo below is from a 5000 student protest 2 days ago in which, as you can see, police fired a tear gas canister right into a student's face. The numbers are growing everyday and the protests are going on right now.
UPDATE: I'm told that there are now 70,000 students on strike.
Check out this video of that same protest:
[https://ricochet.media/en/360/video-quebec-students-defiant-in-face-of-police-attacks]
“'One senses that the protesters have finally realized that united, nothing and no one can stand in their way,' Jean told Ricochet. 'Without fear, the role of the police is relegated to bearing witness to a movement. All we need is confidence in our own collective power.'”
When I spoke at Concordia University in Montreal last year, I was impressed by the level of organization, radicalization, and militancy that existed in the student body there. For instance, years ago, the students had a number of militant strikes that resulted in the freeze of tuition in Quebec for over three decades and in forcing the university to create a paid position to someone that the students elect to plan their mobilizations!
Montreal is not very far from many other universities in the US. It's telling that many of the students in the US universities have no idea that these protests are going on. So much for the 'transformative power' of social media. Tell your friends about this.
information collected by the Worker's Defense Committee
WORKER'S POWER!
* "April 15th at Fast Food Restaurants Is Going to Be Incredible" (2015-03-31, attn.com) [https://archive.today/Wui4N]
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* "Unions And Black Lives Matter Activists Join Forces Against Scott Walker" (2015-03-22, usw.org) [https://archive.today/vGyYM]
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* "After Talking to Washington Post about Low Wages, Hotel Worker Fired" (2015-03-30, commondreams.org) [https://archive.today/Zu801]
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* "Why Mexico’s Farmworkers Who Harvest Our Food Are on Strike" (2015-03-26, truthdig.com) [https://archive.today/LaLxe]. Photo showing State Police in Baja California del Norte just before they attack the workers and their families.
If you like fresh strawberries, you probably eat Driscoll's Strawberries, because they monopolize the fresh strawberry market
These berries are picked in Baja California Norte, Mexico, by workers who only make Mex$110 a day - that's US$8 a day. Photo showing an actual paycheck by one of those farms. That check is in Mexican Pesos, Mex$260 = US$17.20They haven't had a raise in fifteen years even though the industry has boomed. The women farmworkers are often sexually harassed by the foremen at work. They live in squalor in shacks with no running water. Now they're on strike and they are facing off against Driscoll's and the Policia Estatal de Baja California Norte. They need your help. BOYCOTT DRISCOLL'S BERRIES.
Trader Joe's is a major purchaser and retailer seller of Driscoll's strawberries
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* "California teachers fight to save their union and the schools" (2015-03-25, peoplesworld.org) [https://archive.today/9tqG4]
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* "Court Slaps Down Airport Worker Strike Ban" (2015-03-27, labornotes.org) [https://archive.today/mz58z]
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* "Right-to-Work Threats, State by State" (2015-03-25, labornotes.org) [https://archive.today/Bt5mD]
COMMUNITY FASCISM WATCH
* "Video shows Berkeley ambassador beating homeless man" (2015-03-27) [http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Video-shows-Berkeley-ambassador-beating-homeless-6161861.php] [https://archive.today/R66RI], an insight into the personal ideology of those who take the lead in "cleaning up our town".
NORTHBAY COPWATCH
Petition for a Federal investigation of Vallejo California police department
[https://www.change.org/p/president-of-the-united-states-u-s-department-of-justice-internal-affairs-federal-investigation-of-vallejo-california-police-department]:
Vallejo California is a very diverse Bay area town. It's demographics consist of 32.9% Caucasian American, 22.1% African American and 45% of every other race and ethnicity. In a town so diverse, why is 70% of the police force Caucasian American? Vallejo has been overshadowed with racial tension for decades; not among the community, but between the residents and the police. Vallejo police department has had numerous complaints, unjustified murders, police brutality, corruption, racist behavior and patterns, harassment and constant violations of constitutional rights. Listed below are some facts and incidents that are major causes of concern:
* In 2012 Vallejo police department accounted for over 33.3% of the cities total homicides. Out of the 20 murders, Vallejo police department was responsible for 6 of them.
* In 2012, Vallejo’s homicide rate was 38 times the national average.
* Vallejo police officers do not write their own police reports. Their reports are outsourced to a company in Tennessee (who owns this company and is this normal protocol?)
* Officer Sean Kenney is involved in multiple lawsuits and complaints. He's murdered three people in five months.
* Officer Kenney wasn't fired - he was promoted to Detective. He has been transferred from Napa to Vallejo and is now working for the Haward police department. This seems to happen whenever he does something unjustified and wrong like murder.
* Vallejo police officers fired thirty-three shots into a parked car. One person was hit thirty times. This person of course died. He was murdered.
There is no statue of limitation on murder. Although these officers were deemed justified by their own District Attorney, he should also be investigated along with the Vallejo police department for their crimes against the community. I am pleading with you to sign this petition, especially if an officer of the Vallejo police department has violated the constitutional rights of either you or someone you know. We are requesting a federal investigation of the Vallejo police department, retraining of their officers and a mandatory use of body cameras for all officers while on duty. Thank you for being a part of the solution and standing up for your constitutional rights. There is no reason any community should have to live in fear of the officers they pay to serve and protect them.
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* "S.F. jail inmates forced to fight, public defender says" (2015-03-26, sfgate.com) [https://archive.today/2Qr20]
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* "Feds suspend loans to sheriff over stolen M16A1 rifle" (2014-09-15, napavalleyregister.com) [https://archive.today/Zb5KM]
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FRESNO, CALIFORNIA POLICE CHIEF, KEITH FOSTER, ARRESTED FOR SELLING DRUGS
Published On March 27, 2015 | By Joshua H | Articles
On Thursday federal agents from the FBI and ATF arrested Fresno, California police chief, Keith Foster, after a year long investigation [https://archive.today/B6bvg]. The investigation revealed that Foster and several accomplices had been distributing oxycodone, heroin and marijuana [https://archive.today/ub6hH]. Foster and three others have been arrested for distribution and possession of these substances and more arrests appear likely in the case [https://archive.today/YJ0Ga]. Deputy Chief Foster, 51, has been in his current position for eight years. There are three other deputy chiefs in the Fresno PD. Foster’s duties were to oversee patrol and each of the cities four policing districts. For the time being he is on paid leave, but has been stripped of his department issued gun and peace officer powers. Foster and his accomplices will see a judge on Friday to determine if they can be released on bail. Foster and his family are well known in both the Fresno community and police department. His father served for many years and a subsection is named after him. These charges have rocked the entire community and will likely continue to do so as the involvement of others is revealed over the course of the next several days and months. The prohibition of drugs in our country continues to ruin lives all the way from the lowliest crackhead to those who vow to uphold and fight the un-win-able War on Drugs. Too bad ya can’t get high on irony!
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* "City of Oxnard Hired S.F. Law Firm to Investigate Alleged Shooting-Tattoos “Earned” by Cops" (2014-10-07, cjnotebook.com) [https://archive.today/z7n1v]
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Domestic security agencies, including the various branches of the military, are always prepared for any type of uprising against the Federal power, or against the economic monpolist's dictatorship. The following article describes a war game targeting the regions where anti-Federalism is popular, and is designed to terrorize and subdue those who feel emboldened to uphold anti-Federal sovereignty.
* "Special forces set to swarm Southwest and operate undetected among civilians in massive military exercise" (2015-03-26, dailymail.co.uk) [https://archive.today/gCFJI] [begin excerpt]:
Seven Southwestern states will soon be infiltrated by 1,200 military special ops personnel as part of a controversial domestic military training in which some of the elite soldiers will operate undetected among civilians.
Operation Jade Helm begins in July and will last for eight weeks. Soldiers will operate in and around towns in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah and Colorado where some of them wil drop from planes while carrying weapons loaded with blanks in what military officials have dubbed Realistic Military Training.
But with residents of the entire states of Texas and Utah dubbed 'hostile' for the purposes of the exercises, Jade Helm has some concerned the drills are too realistic.
The Houston Chronicle reports that, among the planned exercises, soldiers will attempt to operate undetected among civilian populations.
Residents, in turn, will be asked to report suspicious activity in order to gauge the effectiveness of the soldiers. [end excerpt]
---
===*===*===
* "Video shows Berkeley ambassador beating homeless man" (2015-03-27) [http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Video-shows-Berkeley-ambassador-beating-homeless-6161861.php] [https://archive.today/R66RI], an insight into the personal ideology of those who take the lead in "cleaning up our town".
NORTHBAY COPWATCH
Petition for a Federal investigation of Vallejo California police department
[https://www.change.org/p/president-of-the-united-states-u-s-department-of-justice-internal-affairs-federal-investigation-of-vallejo-california-police-department]:
Vallejo California is a very diverse Bay area town. It's demographics consist of 32.9% Caucasian American, 22.1% African American and 45% of every other race and ethnicity. In a town so diverse, why is 70% of the police force Caucasian American? Vallejo has been overshadowed with racial tension for decades; not among the community, but between the residents and the police. Vallejo police department has had numerous complaints, unjustified murders, police brutality, corruption, racist behavior and patterns, harassment and constant violations of constitutional rights. Listed below are some facts and incidents that are major causes of concern:
* In 2012 Vallejo police department accounted for over 33.3% of the cities total homicides. Out of the 20 murders, Vallejo police department was responsible for 6 of them.
* In 2012, Vallejo’s homicide rate was 38 times the national average.
* Vallejo police officers do not write their own police reports. Their reports are outsourced to a company in Tennessee (who owns this company and is this normal protocol?)
* Officer Sean Kenney is involved in multiple lawsuits and complaints. He's murdered three people in five months.
* Officer Kenney wasn't fired - he was promoted to Detective. He has been transferred from Napa to Vallejo and is now working for the Haward police department. This seems to happen whenever he does something unjustified and wrong like murder.
* Vallejo police officers fired thirty-three shots into a parked car. One person was hit thirty times. This person of course died. He was murdered.
There is no statue of limitation on murder. Although these officers were deemed justified by their own District Attorney, he should also be investigated along with the Vallejo police department for their crimes against the community. I am pleading with you to sign this petition, especially if an officer of the Vallejo police department has violated the constitutional rights of either you or someone you know. We are requesting a federal investigation of the Vallejo police department, retraining of their officers and a mandatory use of body cameras for all officers while on duty. Thank you for being a part of the solution and standing up for your constitutional rights. There is no reason any community should have to live in fear of the officers they pay to serve and protect them.
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* "S.F. jail inmates forced to fight, public defender says" (2015-03-26, sfgate.com) [https://archive.today/2Qr20]
---
* "Feds suspend loans to sheriff over stolen M16A1 rifle" (2014-09-15, napavalleyregister.com) [https://archive.today/Zb5KM]
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FRESNO, CALIFORNIA POLICE CHIEF, KEITH FOSTER, ARRESTED FOR SELLING DRUGS
Published On March 27, 2015 | By Joshua H | Articles
On Thursday federal agents from the FBI and ATF arrested Fresno, California police chief, Keith Foster, after a year long investigation [https://archive.today/B6bvg]. The investigation revealed that Foster and several accomplices had been distributing oxycodone, heroin and marijuana [https://archive.today/ub6hH]. Foster and three others have been arrested for distribution and possession of these substances and more arrests appear likely in the case [https://archive.today/YJ0Ga]. Deputy Chief Foster, 51, has been in his current position for eight years. There are three other deputy chiefs in the Fresno PD. Foster’s duties were to oversee patrol and each of the cities four policing districts. For the time being he is on paid leave, but has been stripped of his department issued gun and peace officer powers. Foster and his accomplices will see a judge on Friday to determine if they can be released on bail. Foster and his family are well known in both the Fresno community and police department. His father served for many years and a subsection is named after him. These charges have rocked the entire community and will likely continue to do so as the involvement of others is revealed over the course of the next several days and months. The prohibition of drugs in our country continues to ruin lives all the way from the lowliest crackhead to those who vow to uphold and fight the un-win-able War on Drugs. Too bad ya can’t get high on irony!
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* "City of Oxnard Hired S.F. Law Firm to Investigate Alleged Shooting-Tattoos “Earned” by Cops" (2014-10-07, cjnotebook.com) [https://archive.today/z7n1v]
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Domestic security agencies, including the various branches of the military, are always prepared for any type of uprising against the Federal power, or against the economic monpolist's dictatorship. The following article describes a war game targeting the regions where anti-Federalism is popular, and is designed to terrorize and subdue those who feel emboldened to uphold anti-Federal sovereignty.
* "Special forces set to swarm Southwest and operate undetected among civilians in massive military exercise" (2015-03-26, dailymail.co.uk) [https://archive.today/gCFJI] [begin excerpt]:
Seven Southwestern states will soon be infiltrated by 1,200 military special ops personnel as part of a controversial domestic military training in which some of the elite soldiers will operate undetected among civilians.
Operation Jade Helm begins in July and will last for eight weeks. Soldiers will operate in and around towns in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah and Colorado where some of them wil drop from planes while carrying weapons loaded with blanks in what military officials have dubbed Realistic Military Training.
But with residents of the entire states of Texas and Utah dubbed 'hostile' for the purposes of the exercises, Jade Helm has some concerned the drills are too realistic.
The Houston Chronicle reports that, among the planned exercises, soldiers will attempt to operate undetected among civilian populations.
Residents, in turn, will be asked to report suspicious activity in order to gauge the effectiveness of the soldiers. [end excerpt]
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Five-Eyes and allies
* "Was I a CIA Spy? 50 Years On, I Still Don’t Know" (2015-03-29) [https://archive.today/LIQSy]:
whowhatwhy.org writes: Longtime ABC News commentator Jeff Greenfield had a moment of clarity. He read a “fascinating” new book, Patriotic Betrayal, and realized that he may have been an “unwitting” stooge for the CIA when he took CIA-funded trips as a college student in the 1960s. However, in spite of his journalistic acumen and an on-camera admission from fellow traveler Gloria Steinem that she was a CIA informant during similar trips [https://archive.today/UmR2s], Greenfield says he's still clueless about the extent of his complicity.
---
April Fools!
* "Security Experts: PANIC" [https://archive.today/8rCUT], an EFF newsletter with fake stories to commemorate April Fools Day, and, familiar as they are with the clandestine agencies, provide the following critique of the current context:
Privacy Nihilists Debate Mass Surveillance -
The tension was palpable at the first ever Privacy Nihilist Debate held earlier this week in the gymnatorium of San Francisco's Uli Kunkel High School. It started with a strong opening statement: "There is no truth to observe, so from a metaphysical and epistemological perspective, mass surveillance is meaningless." That was followed by a gripping rejoinder: "Merelogically, any perceptor, even myself, will not perceive 'me,' only improper misperceptions of supposed parts of me. The truth of my being cannot be known even if all observable parts are cataloged. The government is capable only of making inherently flawed observations that cannot form the basis of correct action." Ultimately, the nihilists agreed that no act is inherently right or wrong and concluded the debate with a group shrug.
whowhatwhy.org writes: Longtime ABC News commentator Jeff Greenfield had a moment of clarity. He read a “fascinating” new book, Patriotic Betrayal, and realized that he may have been an “unwitting” stooge for the CIA when he took CIA-funded trips as a college student in the 1960s. However, in spite of his journalistic acumen and an on-camera admission from fellow traveler Gloria Steinem that she was a CIA informant during similar trips [https://archive.today/UmR2s], Greenfield says he's still clueless about the extent of his complicity.
---
April Fools!
* "Security Experts: PANIC" [https://archive.today/8rCUT], an EFF newsletter with fake stories to commemorate April Fools Day, and, familiar as they are with the clandestine agencies, provide the following critique of the current context:
Privacy Nihilists Debate Mass Surveillance -
The tension was palpable at the first ever Privacy Nihilist Debate held earlier this week in the gymnatorium of San Francisco's Uli Kunkel High School. It started with a strong opening statement: "There is no truth to observe, so from a metaphysical and epistemological perspective, mass surveillance is meaningless." That was followed by a gripping rejoinder: "Merelogically, any perceptor, even myself, will not perceive 'me,' only improper misperceptions of supposed parts of me. The truth of my being cannot be known even if all observable parts are cataloged. The government is capable only of making inherently flawed observations that cannot form the basis of correct action." Ultimately, the nihilists agreed that no act is inherently right or wrong and concluded the debate with a group shrug.
from the Committee to
FREE 'EM ALL!
[PoliticalPrisonersUSA.blogspot.com] End the Drug War! Stop Jim Crow! Close the Torture Chambers!
** Become a Human Rights Pen Pal! [link]
* "Report and Photos from 1st Monthly Statewide Coordinated Actions to End Solitary Confinement, March 23" (2015-03-30, sfbayview.com, with photos from prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com) [https://archive.today/LTodu]
In Los Angeles, activists protested in front of the State Building, taking their message to the people with the power to end solitary confinement.
A surveillance camera view of the Pelican Bay SHU “exercise yard”
Inmates in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) at Pelican Bay State Prison spend 23 hours a day in their cells with only 1 hour a day to spend in the 10′ X 20′ cement room for exercise.
* "Prisoners’ Agreement to End Hostilities as the basis for the abolition of ‘legal’ slavery" issued by Michael Zaharibu Dorrough, J. Heshima Denham and Kambui Robinson, NCTT Corcoran SHU (2014-12-25) [https://archive.today/F9zSK]
For more information on the NCTT or its work product, go to NCTTCORSHU.org or contact:
* Michael Zaharibu Dorrough, D-83611, CSP Cor SHU 4B1L-22, P.O. Box 3481, Corcoran CA 93212
* J. Heshima Denham, J-38283, CSP Cor SHU 4B1L-39, P.O. Box 3481, Corcoran CA 93212
* Kambui Robinson, C-82830, CSP Cor SHU 4B1L-28, P.O. Box 3481, Corcoran CA 93212
NCTT mailed this to Kendra Castaneda Perez. She is a writer, a prisoner human rights advocate, and the wife of Raymond “Chavo” Perez, who is one of the 12 representatives responsible for the historic Agreement to End Hostilities and who spent 18 years in Pelican Bay SHU Short Corridor until January 2014, when he was transferred to Sacramento State Prison (New Folsom) general population into Step 5 of the Step Down Program.
The artist writes, “With the utmost respects to all the PBSP SHU Short Corridor representatives for having the brilliant foresight and wisdom to move the whole system in such a profound and positive direction, I thought respectfully to capture their sentiment in art. In solidarity.” – Art: Michael D. Russell, C-90473, PBSP SHU D7-217, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532
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* "Deputy in inmate fights faced 2006 complaints" (2015-03-28, sfgate.com) [https://archive.today/TDMa4]
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* "UN: US is violating Kenny Zulu Whitmore’s right to be free from torture" (2015-03-27, Free Zulu Team Europe, sfbayview.com) [https://archive.today/JboA2]
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* "Ohio State Penitentiary Hunger Strike Enters Second Week" (2015-03-25, Prisoner News):
On Monday March 16th, over 30 supermax prisoners at Ohio State Penitentiary went on hunger strike. Warden Jay Forshey and OSP staff are refusing to meet their demands or negotiate with them. Some of the hunger strikers have not even been met and consulted with regarding their demands. Eleven prisoners remain on hunger strike and are committed to staying through to the end, if necessary.
Two recent policy changes at OSP are the main issues, though prisoners have many other specific grievances. The biggest issue, effecting the most prisoners is the withdrawal of congregate recreation. All but the cadre and long timer prisoners at OSP are no longer allowed to go out on the range together for their one hour a day recreation out of their cells. This policy change reduces human contact between prisoners, isolating and dehumanizing them further, and denying them opportunities to demonstrate that they are not security threats, a key component of the security step-down process they need to go through to get out of solitary confinement. It also creates a logistical problem, if only one prisoner at a time is allowed to rec, there is not enough time in a week for each of the over 450 prisoners to get their legally required five hours of rec time per week. This policy change violates court decisions that are supposed to bind OSP to a minimum standard of humane treatment.
The second change, OSP has decided to deny programming to prisoners at level 5B. This directly effects a few dozen prisoners, who are at the highest security level in the Ohio system. Depriving these prisoners of access to programming demonstrates the ODRC's commitment to cruelty and punishment, rather than rehabilitation and counseling for their captives. Like the recreation restriction, it slows the process by which 5B prisoners can step down to lower security levels, acquiring more
privileges. It is also illegal. Some of the denied programming includes religious programming. Any prisoner placed on level 5B will be there for at least a year. It is a violation of the first amendment right to freedom of religion to deny anyone the ability to practice their religion for over a year, and a violation of the fourteenth amendment equal protection under the law to exclude these prisoners from opportunities afforded to other prisoners without just cause.
There are many other issues at OSP, everything from unsafe and slippery conditions in the showers that have caused multiple injuries, to restricted access to hardcover books in violation of US Supreme Court decision "Turner v Safely". The Warden at OSP is not taking the prisoners' demands seriously and appears to not have consulted ODRC legal services before instituting these illegal and unconstitutional policy changes. That is why we're requesting supporters to call Trevor Clark and Austin Stout in the ODRC legal services department.
Please call ODRC Legal Services department and request that they speak with the hunger striking prisoners and address the illegal policy changes at OSP.
1. Call ODRC Legal Services- tel: [614-752-1765], ask for Trevor Clark, Austin Stout or their boss,
Stephen Gray. Write letters: Legal Services, 770 West Broad Street, Columbus, Ohio 43222.
Email: [Trevor.Clark@odrc.state.oh.us]; [Austin.Stout@odrc.state.oh.us] and [Stephen.Gray@odrc.state.oh.us]
2. Please call Warden Jay Forshey at OSP and demand that he change these policies and meet with all the hunger striking prisoners to address their other issues. tel: [330-743-0700 ext 2006]
Write letters: Warden Forshay, OSP, 878 Coitsville-Hubbard Rd, Youngstown, OH 44505.
Email [Jay.Forshey@odrc.state.oh.us] and [Laura.Gardner@odrc.state.oh.us]
---
* "Pregnant Woman Jailed, Forced To Give Birth In Solitary Confinement, Baby Dies In Cell" (2015-03-26, by Jackson Marciana) [http://countercurrentnews.com/2014/05/giving-birth-in-cell/]:
Could you imagine being kept in solitary confinement in an isolated jail cell? As bad as that might be, a Texas woman was forced to endure not only that, but also giving birth alone in her solitary jail cell. To make matters worse, this resulted in the death of her newborn baby.
Nicole Guerrero is now suing the police. According to a federal lawsuit she filed, Nicole Guerrero explains that “Wichita County denied [her] access to reasonable medical care … ignored her obvious signs of labor and constant requests for medical assistance, failed to conduct a physical examination … when she began to display obvious signs of labor, left [her] unattended in a solitary cell while she was obviously in labor, failed to transport [her] to the hospital for safe delivery, which ultimately caused [her] to deliver her baby alone in the solitary cell, and resulted in [her] suffering severe and likely permanent, physical and psychological injuries.”
So far, the Wichita County has refused to comment on the case.
“We are prohibited [from talking] about pending litigation in Texas because we are representing the county in this case,” the Wichita County District Attorney Maureen Shelton said of himself and officers.
The U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Texas released to the document which names as defendants Wichita County, the Sheriff’s Office, registered nurse LaDonna Anderson, and Correctional Healthcare Management, Inc., Anderson’s employer.
It all started when Guerrero had been arrested on drug possession charges back on June 2, 2012. By June 11, she was told by a doctor who had been assigned to treat her for an infection, that unbeknownst to her, she was eight and a half months pregnant.
The warden and prison guards were informed about this, but she was kept in solitary confinement nevertheless. But soon she began experiencing pain and cramping, so she asked for help.
A nurse came and said she was not in labor, so guards returned her solitary confinement, where she suffered for hours, crying out for help, finally giving birth.
By 5 a.m. on June 12, a detention officer walking by saw that her cries were real, and that she was in fact in labor. He helped her deliver the baby, but because no help had come sooner, the umbilical cord had been wrapped around its neck.
CPR was performed on the baby but it was too later. The lawsuit accuses Anderson and Correctional Healthcare Management of medical malpractice. It says that there was a violation of Guerrero’s due process rights under the 14th Amendment as she was deprived of access to reasonable medical care
===*===*===
articles recommended by the
SAN PABLO BAY ECOLOGICAL PRESERVATION ASSOCIATION
Campaigns, info, and more [SanPabloBayEPA.blogspot.com]
* "Rethinking wetland restoration: smaller wetlands more valuable than previously thought" (2015-03-24, uwaterloo.ca) [https://archive.today/jjflc]. Photo, Prairie Pothole Region landscape showing high wetland density.
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* "Lobbyist Claims Monsanto’s Roundup Is Safe To Drink, Freaks Out When Offered A Glass" (2015-03-27, theantimedia.org) [https://archive.today/Ll8EZ]:
French television station Canal+ recently sat down with Dr. Patrick Moore for an upcoming documentary. Dr Moore, who claims to be an ecological expert and is currently the frontman for Ecosense Environmental, stated to the interviewer that Monsanto’s weed killer Roundup was not responsible for skyrocketing cancer rates in Argentina.
This is where the interview took a turn for the surreal.
Dr. Moore insisted that Roundup is safe to drink, at which point the interviewer did the only logical thing one could do in that situation. He offered the doctor a glass of the weed killer to allow him an opportunity to back up his statement. The following is the text from that exchange.
Dr. Patrick Moore: “You can drink a whole quart of (Roundup) and it won’t hurt you.”
Canal+: “You want to drink some? We have some here.”
Moore: “I’d be happy to, actually…. Uhh…Not.. Not really. But I know it wouldn’t hurt me.”
Canal+: “If you say so, I have some glyphosate, have some.”
Moore: “No. I’m not stupid.”
Canal+: “So, it’s dangerous, right?
Moore: “No, People try to commit suicide with it and fail; fail regularly.”
Canal+: “Tell the truth, it’s dangerous.”
Moore: “It’s not dangerous to humans.”
Canal+: “So, are you ready to drink one glass?”
Moore: “No, I’m not an idiot. Interview me about golden rice, that’s what I’m talking about.”
Canal+: “We did.”
Moore then abruptly ends the interview by calling the host a “complete jerk” and storms off.
Watch the video from Canal+ here: [http://www.canalplus.fr/c-infos-documentaires/pid3357-c-special-investigation.html?vid=1122650&sc_cmpid=SharePlayerEmbed]
Greenpeace, an organization to which the doctor turned lobbyist belonged in the 1970’s, issued this statement in part in 2008 regarding Dr. Patrick Moore [https://archive.today/D1tME] [begin statement]:
Patrick Moore often misrepresents himself in the media as an environmental “expert” or even an “environmentalist,” while offering anti-environmental opinions on a wide range of issues and taking a distinctly anti-environmental stance. He also exploits long-gone ties with Greenpeace to sell himself as a speaker and pro-corporate spokesperson, usually taking positions that Greenpeace opposes.
While it is true that Patrick Moore was a member of Greenpeace in the 1970s, in 1986 he abruptly turned his back on the very issues he once passionately defended. He claims he “saw the light” but what Moore really saw was an opportunity for financial gain. Since then he has gone from defender of the planet to a paid representative of corporate polluters. Patrick Moore promotes such anti-environmental positions as clearcut logging, nuclear power, farmed salmon, PVC (vinyl) production, genetically engineered crops, and mining. Clients for his consulting services are a veritable Who’s Who of companies that Greenpeace has exposed for environmental misdeeds, including Monsanto, Weyerhaeuser, and BHP Minerals. [end statement]
Health and the Human Ecology
Monopolists enforce a regime that does not recognize the natural right to health and life
* "USRTK Calls for Investigation of Monsanto Cover Up, Harassment of USDA Scientists" (2015-03-30) [https://archive.today/4Ir4u]
* "Environmental group seeks greater protection for USDA scientists" (2015-03-27, Reuters newswire) [https://archive.today/iZdGK]
* "USDA URGED TO SHIELD ITS SCIENTISTS FROM HARASSMENT: Agency Scientific Integrity Policy Riddled with Gags, Gaps and Loopholes" (2015-03-26, peer.org) [https://archive.today/wQxT7]
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Save The Birds [link]! and the Bees [link]!
A campaign to preserve and expand the habitat and populations of pollinators in the San Pablo Bay Area.
* "Critics question study that denied pesticides' danger to bees" (2015-03-27, UPI newswire) [https://archive.today/VEi5Y]* "Environmental group seeks greater protection for USDA scientists" (2015-03-27, Reuters newswire) [https://archive.today/iZdGK]
* "USDA URGED TO SHIELD ITS SCIENTISTS FROM HARASSMENT: Agency Scientific Integrity Policy Riddled with Gags, Gaps and Loopholes" (2015-03-26, peer.org) [https://archive.today/wQxT7]
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Save The Birds [link]! and the Bees [link]!
A campaign to preserve and expand the habitat and populations of pollinators in the San Pablo Bay Area.
* "San Francisco’s Native Bees Do the Job Just Fine" (2015-03-17) [https://baynature.org/articles/san-franciscos-native-bees-do-the-job-just-fine/]
Ways to help native bees:
- Create a bee garden with wildflowers native to your area
- Choose wildflowers with blossoms of varying size and shapes, and with varied bloom times to support a diverse bee population
- Plant in 3 to 4-foot wide color blocks of the same flower species (bees especially like purple, blue, white and yellow flowers)
- Keep your garden pesticide and herbicide free
- Leave an area of bare dirt where ground nesting bees can tunnel
- Make stem bundles of plant material for wood-nesting bees
- Create a bee block as a nesting cavity for bees
* "Should I Plant Milkweed to Save the Monarchs?" (2015-03-03) [https://baynature.org/articles/plant-milkweed-save-monarchs/] [begin excerpt]:
Showy milkweed is native to California. Photo: Philip Bouchard/Flickr
The answer to this question seems more and more complex each day. People want an easy equation: Monarch + Milkweed = Saving Monarchs. Unfortunately in the Bay Area, we were inundated will a Goodwill tsunami of non-native tropical milkweed from Home Depot that went into everyone’s garden during the voguish years of “Butterfly Gardening” ( 70’s -90’s), so the question is not starting from a neutral base.Turns out there is strong evidence that planting milkweed ( Aesclepis sp.) in places it never was (San Francisco and other California counties) might not be the best idea. If they never bred somewhere, making them breed is not helping them. They should move along, or nectar, or overwinter in their South/Southwesterly Migration. Milkweed that never was is not missing. Get it?
So, this is what I would advise: a) Find out the local, native Milkweed endemic to your area. (Do not proceed to Home Depot because tropical milkweed is easier to buy. Do your research: call your locale California Native Plant Society Chapter) b) If you live in Northern San Mateo County or San Francisco County, DO NOT PLANT MILKWEED.
This may seem counterintuitive BUT THAT is actually helping the monarch. Contact the Xerces Society if you are not sure. Better to plant nectaring flowers in your garden if you are not sure. That will help them. [end excerpt]
===*===*===
articles recommended by the
NO NUKES! campaign
[StopNuclearDeath.blogspot.com]
* "Feds probe PG&E report on California nuclear plant safety" (2015-03-25, sfchronicle.com) [https://archive.today/ijfrV]
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* "Cat litter blamed for $240m radiation leak at New Mexico nuclear waste dump" (2015-03-27, theguardian.com) [https://archive.today/oFeKU] [begin excerpt]:
A radiation leak at an underground nuclear waste dump in New Mexico was caused by “chemically incompatible” contents, including cat litter, that reacted inside a barrel of waste causing it to rupture, scientists said on Thursday.
The US Energy Department report on last year’s radiation accident at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad showed that a drum of waste containing radioisotopes like plutonium was improperly packaged at the Los Alamos National Laboratory near Santa Fe before arriving for disposal.
The improper mix in the barrel, including the wrong sort of cat litter used to absorb liquids, sparked a chemical reaction causing it to heat up and generate gases that dislodged its lid, spewing radioactive materials, investigators found. [end excerpt]
===*===*===
articles recommended by the
SAN PABLO BAY SOVEREIGNTY Think-tank
[SovereignSanPabloBay.blogspot.com]* "ORNL-led team demonstrates desalination with nanoporous graphene membrane" (2015-03-25, ornl.gov) [https://archive.today/h9Etf]
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* "How Ohio’s Energy Economy Became a Radioactive 19th Century Relic" (2015-04-01, commondreams.org) [https://archive.today/EDEsL]
Ohio Gov. John Kasich tilts at Solartopia. (Cartoon: John Bailey / freepress.org)
===*===*===
UNITED STATES FASCISM WATCH
[UnitedStatesFascism.blogspot.com] Current trends among fascists, monopolists, and their vanguards.
* "How Privatization Degrades Our Daily Lives" (2015-03-23, commondreams.org) [https://archive.today/4jmds] [begin excerpt]:
The Project on Government Oversight found that in 33 of 35 cases the federal government spent more on private contractors than on public employees for the same services. The authors of the report summarized, "Our findings were shocking." ("Bad Business: Billions of Taxpayer Dollars Wasted on Hiring Contractors", 2011-09-13 [https://archive.today/HJxDm])
Yet our elected leaders persist in their belief that free-market capitalism works best. Here are a few fact-based examples that say otherwise.
In his most recent exposé of the health care industry in the U.S., Steve Brill notes that it's "the only industry in which technological advances have increased costs instead of lowering them." An investigation of fourteen private hospitals by National Nurses United found that they realized a 1,000% markup on their total costs, four times that of public hospitals. Other sources have found that private health insurance administrative costs are 5 to 6 times higher than Medicare administrative costs.
A report [https://archive.today/GD0Ev] by a coalition of housing rights groups concluded that "public housing is a vital national resource that provides decent and affordable homes to over a million families across the country." But, according to the report, a privatization program started during the Clinton administration resulted in "the wholesale destruction of communities" and "the displacement of very large numbers of low-income households of color" [https://archive.today/M7iPl].
The public bank of North Dakota (BND) had an equity return of 23.4% before the state's oil boom. The normally privatization-minded Wall Street Journal admits that "The BND's costs are extremely low: no exorbitantly-paid executives; no bonuses, fees, or commissions; only one branch office; very low borrowing costs.."
But thanks to private banks, interest claims one out of every three dollars that we spend, and by the time we retire with a 401(k), over half of our money is lost to the banks.
It costs less than 50 cents to send a letter to any remote location in the United States. For an envelope with a two-day guarantee, this is how the U.S. Postal Service recently matched up against competitors:
- U.S. Post Office 2-Day $5.68
- Federal Express 2-Day $19.28
- United Parcel Service 2 Day $24.09
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* " ‘Wealth creators’ are robbing our most productive people; Lives are being trashed by klepto-remuneration: theft through excess rewards to rapacious bosses" (2015-03-31, theguardian.com) [https://archive.today/9GUxE]
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* "Google Bullies, Censors MintPress & AntiWar.com Over Abu Ghraib Photos" (2015-03-27, mintpressnews.com) [https://archive.today/LCTNm] [begin excerpt]:
MintPress News and AntiWar.com have both been targeted by Google AdSense with threats to kill ad revenue for publishing the infamous photos of Abu Ghraib detainee torture by American troops. Many are left wondering if this is an attempt to control the narrative on the war in Iraq.
The war on MintPress and other independent media targets funding
As an independent watchdog news organization, it is our duty to keep the public informed about U.S. foreign policy issues, no matter how difficult they may be to process. Despite the fact that we complied with Google’s demands, we feel we have been directly targeted because of our status as independent media and our stance on challenging the corporate establishment’s narrative of our wars.
Yet this is not the first time our newsroom’s funding sources have been targeted for our coverage of U.S. meddling in the conflicts of other nations. Nearly two years ago, MintPress found itself in the midst of an organized bullying and smear campaign led by corporate newsrooms like BuzzFeed and others [https://archive.today/rC8ty] to discredit MintPress’ reporting by focusing on our funding sources after we broke several stories on al-Qaida-linked rebels fomenting a chemical weapons attack in Ghouta, Syria, to drive the U.S. into war with the Syrian government.
We believe there is a deliberate effort to silence independent voices by targeting our lifeline — our funding and revenue, the one channel that keeps our business running — in order to discredit our newsroom and dismiss our reporting. [end excerpt]
* "The FBI vs. Antiwar.com; Secret documents reveal government spy-and-smear campaign" (2011-08-22, antiwar.com) [https://archive.today/SwalL]
* "Don’t See Evil: Google’s Boycott Campaign Against War Photography and Alternative Media" (2015-03-29, antiwar.com) [https://archive.today/XrrLC] [begin excerpt]:
Google and the Security State
In its early years, Google, ensconced in Silicon Valley, seemed to blissfully ignore Washington, D.C. It didn’t have a single lobbyist until 2003. Partly out of the necessity of defending itself against government threats, it gradually became ever more entangled with the Feds. By 2012, as The Washington Post reported, it had become the country’s second-largest corporate spender on lobbying.
And now, as Julian Assange of Wikileaks details, Google has become incredibly intimate with the White House, the State Department, the Pentagon, and the US intelligence community. As The Wall Street Journal recently reported, Google employees have visited the Obama White House to meet with senior officials on average about once a week.
As Assange also discusses, Google has become a major defense and intelligence contractor. And a recently leaked series of friendly emails between Google executives (including Eric Schmidt) and the NSA (including Director Gen. Keith Alexander) indicates that Google’s allegedly “unwilling” participation in the government’s mass surveillance program (revealed by Edward Snowden) may not have been so unwilling after all.
In one email, Gen. Alexander referred to Google as “a key member of the Defense Industrial Base”: security state newspeak for the Military Industrial Complex.
In 2013, Google even went so far as to enlist in the Obama Administration’s campaign to drum up public support for an air war against Syria. As Assange wrote:
“On September 10, Google lent its front page?—?the most popular on the internet?—?to the war effort, inserting a line below the search box reading “Live! Secretary Kerry answers questions on Syria. Today via Hangout at 2pm E.T.”
Kerry used the massive platform provided by Google to further spread the since-debunked claim that the Syrian government used chemical weapons against the US-backed rebels. “Don’t be evil… unless you’re helping to lie the country into war.”
As it turns out, the national security state has been involved with Google from the very beginning: even in those fabled grad school days when Google was nothing but a research project, as investigative reporter Nafeez Ahmed has shown. Founder Sergey Brin’s work at Stanford University on what would later become Google received funding and even oversight from the CIA and the Pentagon through a program created to seed and incubate technology research that could later prove useful for information warfare.
Google’s dominance of the online ad market is one source of its potential gatekeeping power. If a web site running its ads contains content that Google or its friends in the government find objectionable, it can simply pull its ads unless and until the content is removed: as long as it comes up with an excuse convincing enough to keep it from looking bad.
Google Vs. Antiwar.com
This may be what Google is doing right now to Antiwar.com, a long-running and popular daily news and commentary site that is strongly critical of US foreign policy.
On the morning of March 18, Eric Garris, founder and webmaster of the site, received a form email from Google AdSense informing him that all of Antiwar.com’s Google ads had been disabled. The reason given was that one of the site’s pages with ads on it displayed images that violated AdSense’s policy against “violent or disturbing content, including sites with gory text or images.”
Of course the images in question were not “snuff,” or anything intended for titillation whatsoever. They were the famous images of detainee abuse at the Abu Ghraib US military prison in Iraq. Those images are important public information, especially for Americans. They are the previously secret documentation of horrific state violence inflicted in our name and funded by our tax dollars.
The next morning, Gawker picked up the story. Garris told me that within 10 minutes of the sympathetic Gawker post appearing, he was contacted via email by someone from Google’s Public Relations department.
The PR guy struck a conciliatory, even apologetic note [begin message]:
“Hi Eric, Our media team noticed your blog post and informed me regarding the issue you raise in your post. I am very sorry that you had this experience, as we should have warned you before blacklisting the site, which we didn’t. Our warning would have mentioned simply removing our AdSense code from the Abu Ghraib page, which would allow you to continue earning money on the other pages of your site that were not in violation of any AdSense policies. At this point, please remove the ad code from this page and we can reinstate ad serving throughout your site. Once complete, please file a site appeal, and our team will review ASAP. Further, revenue earned to this point, and after reinstatement will not be affected.
Google does need to be very careful with this sort of thing, since we have to make sure that our ads do not appear on pages that violate any of our policies. There are surprising instances of bad actors out there, and even otherwise trustworthy publishers can end up being the victim of bad traffic. At the same time, though, partners like you deserve a better customer service experience even when there are problems. Your post has sparked conversation here - you have been heard.
Please feel free to reach out again if need be. While I can’t solve everything, I’m happy to hear from great partners like you directly.
Best, [Redacted]” [end message]
As instructed, Garris removed the code and submitted an appeal that very day. After such a friendly email from the PR guy, he hoped to see the ads restored the next morning. The following day, not only were the ads still gone, but there was yet another message from AdSense in his inbox, informing him that his appeal was rejected because yet another non-compliant page was found: this one a report on the war in Ukraine that included an image of dead rebel fighters. (Contrary to various reports, Antiwar.com’s ads were never even briefly restored.) It read [begin message]:
“Thank you for submitting an appeal. However, after thoroughly reviewing antiwar.com and taking your feedback into consideration, we are unable to enable ad serving to your site again at this time, as your site appears to still be in violation.
Example page where violation occurred: http://original.antiwar.com/chris_ernesto/2014/05/28/heads-up-the-us-is-losing-in-ukraine/
(…)
Please take some time to review your site again for compliance. When making changes, please note that the URL mentioned in your policy notification may be just one example and that similar violations may exist on other pages of your website. Appropriate changes must be made across your entire website before ad serving can be enabled on your site again.” [end message]
To help the PR guy understand his predicament, he shared with him a quandary he was dealing with at that very moment as he was preparing the front page for the next day. There had just been a wave of terror attacks in Yemen, and there was an aftermath photo of blood-splattered rescuers moving a victim in a makeshift stretcher. But you couldn’t actually see the victim. Would this be a violation?
The PR guy couldn’t answer yes or no. He said it depended on the context, and that:“A good rule of thumb is if it would be okay for a child in any region of the world to see that image, it’s acceptable.”
This response was astounding to Garris on many levels. First of all “it’s for the children” is the standard excuse for censorship. Are all the millions of web sites that host Google’s ads now operating under the content standards of PBS Kids or Disney Jr?
And what is “any region of the world” supposed to mean? If you can’t judge based on the violence and suffering portrayed alone, what is the decisive “context”? Is it the identity of the victims and of the victimizers? Is the goal not to offend the parents of children in allied countries? Is it okay if the Yemeni had been suicide-bombed by an ISIS affiliate, but not if he had been aerial-bombed by the Saudis? Would the prisoner abuse photos have been okay if they were from the time that Abu Ghraib was Saddam Hussein’s torture dungeon instead of America’s? Would the Ukrainian corpses have been okay had they been the victims of the eastern rebels, instead of the US-backed government in Kiev?
War journalism and anti-war activism cannot be effectively pursued without war photography. This is true because such imagery conveys vital public information, and because one of the most effective ways of turning people against war is to vividly show them its horrors. Furthermore, independent web sites that cover war with small budgets and large traffic depend on ad revenue. So Google pulling ads on all of the AdSense customers who publish war photography amounts to a massive, debilitating boycott of independent online war journalism and anti-war activism.
Of course the war party in America would love nothing more. War photography is the bane of all war makers. Images like the Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of a naked Vietnamese child fleeing a napalm attack played a major role in turning American public opinion against the Vietnam War and against war in general. Frustrated warmongers likened the subsequent anti-war public sentiment to a mental disorder, calling it the “Vietnam Syndrome”.
By the time of the Gulf War, America’s first major war since Vietnam, the Federal government, having learned its lesson, was ready to tightly regulate the war imagery that reached the American public, both through Pentagon policy and through its sway over the media. As a result, the typical visuals of the Gulf War were constant CNN video loops of crosshairs-view “precision strikes” and night-time bombardments of Baghdad that looked like an Atari video game or a 4th of July fireworks show. What was not televised was the carnage wreaked on the ground by those blips on the screen. It wasn’t deemed fit to print either. After photographer Kenneth Jarecke captured a gruesome shot of an Iraqi soldier who was burned alive while trying to escape over the dashboard of his truck, he could not find a single major outlet who would run the picture.
After this sanitized coverage helped ensure the Gulf War’s popularity, President George H.W. Bush exulted in a speech, “And by God, we’ve kicked the Vietnam Syndrome once and for all!”
Now, the war party is terrified that images such as these, combined with the abject failure of the wars, will give America an anti-interventionist “Iraq War Syndrome.” If leaks of such images can’t be stopped, at least their propagation must be slowed down.
Their problem is that media blackouts, like the one that occurred with the Gulf War torched corpse photo, have relatively little effect in an era in which anyone can post war photos to their blog and watch it go viral through social media. That is where a ubiquitous ad provider like Google can be of great service, by limiting the appearance of war photography on the millions of sites that depend on its ads.
After all, it isn’t just Antiwar.com that Google has leaned on. I have been informed that The American Conservative reluctantly decided to disable AdSense on all its article pages after Google objected to one of those troops-urinating-on-corpses photographs appearing in its article on the scandal. And anti-war activist Mnar Muhawesh had to blur an Abu Ghraib photo and remove a Syrian Civil War photo on her Mint Press News site after she received similar objections from Google.
And the troubling incidents go beyond web site ads. Google’s YouTube recently targeted Luke Rudkowski’s anti-regime alternative media project WeAreChange by, without notice, disabling ads on most of its YouTube videos and clearly suppressing their rate of appearance for users (2015-03-24), [https://archive.today/6xTP7]. This almost completely demonetized his account and obliterated his business model. After Rudkowski filed a complaint, Google gave absolutely no reason for demonetizing any but two of the videos. Those two, which covered the subject of ISIS, contain absolutely no gore, and yet were still deemed “not appropriate for advertising at this time” due to the “sensitive nature” of their content. Again, it must be asked of Google: exactly whose sensitivities are being protected here? And Google even preemptively disabled ads for James Corbett’s anti-imperialist Corbett Report YouTube channel even though Corbett has never even used them (2015-03-26) [https://archive.today/gbeW9].
“GooTube” also took down Ben Swann’s documentary short film “Origin of ISIS”, which features Antiwar.com’s Angela Keaton, and which attributes the rise of the terror group to US intervention in Iraq and Syria and the direct funding of US regional allies. It has since been restored, but to reach its page on YouTube, one must first get past a page that advises “viewer discretion” because the video is “potentially offensive or graphic.” Swann’s video also contains no gore, yet still apparently did not pass the “any child in any region of the world” test. Wouldn’t want to scandalize any generous Qatari sheiks with kids, after all [https://archive.today/MFe5J].
[end excerpt]
* "Google Suspends Site from Ad Network for Abu Ghraib Photo" (2015-03-26, gawker.com) [https://archive.today/bTY3y] [begin excerpt]: AntiWar.com cofounder Eric Garris thinks, understandably, that Google was requesting that they pull the pictures entirely if AntiWar.com is to continue working with AdSense. He told me that total suspension from AdSense could cost the site thousands of dollars a month, which is a decent chunk of AntiWar.com's modest budget. (They're currently looking into joining alternate ad networks.)
Garris also told me that the Abu Ghraib page has never actually included Google ads, specifically because of the obvious possibility that advertisers would balk at seeing their ads there. According to a Google spokesperson, that would mean AntiWar.com hasn't actually violated AdSense policies at all. What's still unclear is why this suspension happened, how AntiWar.com can get reinstated, and how they can make sure something like this doesn't happen in the future.
March 20 Update: Just when Google was about to resume serving ads to AntiWar.com, the site received another notice claiming that another page was in violation. This one didn't feature Abu Ghraib photos at all, but rather an Associated Press photo of corpses in Donetsk [https://archive.today/g3nS9].
[end excerpt]
* "The Abu Ghraib Prison Photos" (antiwar.com) page 1 [https://archive.today/dBJ4], page 2 [https://archive.today/7unWL]
* "Google wants to rank websites based on facts not links" (2015-02-28, newscientist.com) [https://archive.today/1jmJ2]
* "How the CIA made Google Inside the secret network behind mass surveillance, endless war, and Skynet" (2015-01-22, medium.com) part 1 [https://archive.today/AV6ol], part 2 [https://archive.today/Y3uCX]
* "Classified Evidence: US Soldiers Raped Boys In Front Of Their Mothers ; Now, over a decade later the evidence of these events are beginning to surface, but the Department of Defense is still doing their best to keep it under the radar" (2014-12-19, mintpressnews.com) [https://archive.today/HdL2b]
* "Low-wage Facebook contractor leaks secret censorship list" (2012-02-22, rawstory.com) [https://archive.today/UXKIJ]
* "Inside Facebook's Outsourced Anti-Porn and Gore Brigade, Where 'Camel Toes' are More Offensive Than 'Crushed Heads' " (2012-02-26, gawker.com) [https://archive.today/zrxpX] [begin excerpt]: Perhaps most intriguing is the category dedicated to "international compliance." Under this category, any holocaust denial which "focuses on hate speech," all attacks on the founder of Turkey, Ataturk, and burning of Turkish flags must be escalated. This is likely to keep Facebook in line with international laws; in many European countries, holocaust denial is outlawed, as are attacks on Attaturk in Turkey. [end excerpt]
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Glenn Beck is accusing Daily Kos Staff Writer Shaun King of being one of "the two main guys" leading a network of "Islamicists, Communists and anti-Americans" as part of a national "anti-police" conspiracy. Shaun’s work covering police brutality for Daily Kos is always supported by facts, often including videos of the violence people of color face at the hands of police every day. Online activism and reporting on sites like Daily Kos and social networks like Twitter helped make the events in Ferguson, New York and Cleveland national news stories. These activists have started a movement to push back against police violence. Now that activists have got the attention of the nation and elected officials from Elizabeth Warren to Rand Paul are calling for an end to police militarization, Beck is trying to scare people into believing activists are the enemy.
* Shaun King's articles [http://www.dailykos.com/user/Shaun%20King], updates [https://twitter.com/shaunking]
* "Meet our newest writer, Shaun King" (2014-10-01) [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/01/1333655/-Meet-our-newest-writer-Shaun-King]
* "What it feels like when you see your face plastered on Glenn Beck's creepy chalkboard" (2015-03-25) [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/25/1373207/-What-it-feels-like-when-you-see-your-face-plastered-on-Glenn-Beck-s-creepy-chalkboard]
* Daily Kos has more viewers than Glen Beck, according to their fundraiser page (2015-03-29)[https://archive.today/N477l]
This incident is not the first time a conservative network attempted to demonize Shaun King.
* "Activist Shaun King Exposed For Allegedly Stealing Funds Raised" (2014-12-27) [https://archive.today/xy600]
If you want to see Glenn Beck’s ridiculous conspiracy for yourself, you can watch his video here.
* "Glenn & I discuss who's really pulling the strings in Ferguson 3/16/15" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfPuxQtyJq8]: Glenn Beck and John Cardillo expose the money and coordination behind the civil unrest in Ferguson, MO.
Why is there a concerted conservative campaign to discredit and demonize Shaun King? The following selection of articles he has published give insight why:
* "Conservative organization busted trying to get peaceful protestors to say they want to kill police" (2015-03-20) [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/20/1372131/-Conservative-organization-busted-trying-to-get-peaceful-protestors-say-they-want-to-kill-police]
* "Investigation reveals that four Florida officers filmed KKK video, texting about 'killing n*ggers' " (2015-03-23) [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/23/1372703/-Investigation-reveals-that-four-Florida-officers-filmed-KKK-video-texting-about-killing-nigg-ers]
* "Five ugly and uncanny parallels between lynchings and police killings in America" (2014-11-13) [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/13/1344670/-5-ugly-and-uncanny-parallels-between-lynchings-and-police-killings-in-America]
* "Peaceful protestors assaulted and teargassed over and over again in St. Louis" (2014-11-25) [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/25/1347478/-Peaceful-protestors-assaulted-and-teargassed-over-and-over-again-in-St-Louis]
The following are the "Ferguson" articles by Shaun King:
* "Three eyewitnesses to Mike Brown's murder publicly state that they stand by their original accounts" (2014-11-14) [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/14/1344794/-Three-eyewitnesses-to-Mike-Brown-s-murder-publicly-state-that-they-stand-by-their-original-accounts]
* "The complete guide to every public eyewitness interview in the shooting death of Mike Brown" (2014-10-31) [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/31/1340611/-The-complete-guide-to-every-public-eyewitness-interview-in-the-shooting-death-of-Mike-Brown]
* "Earliest police report from Ferguson is released and conflicts with Darren Wilson's testimony leaks" (2014-10-29) [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/29/1340042/-Earliest-police-report-from-Ferguson-is-released-and-conflicts-with-Darren-Wilson-s-testimony-leaks]
* "Shocking statement from Mike Brown autopsy expert gets lost in the shuffle of leaks and lies" (2014-10-28) [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/28/1339636/-Shocking-statement-from-Mike-Brown-autopsy-expert-gets-lost-in-the-shuffle-of-leaks-and-lies]
* "Leaks everywhere in St. Louis. Here's a running tally of the denials" (2014-10-23) [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/23/1338691/-Leaks-everywhere-in-St-Louis-Here-s-a-running-tally-of-the-denials]
* "Echoes of COINTELPRO in Ferguson" (2014-10-20) [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/20/1337083/-Echoes-of-COINTELPRO-in-Ferguson]
* "Is it a coverup? House of Cards level corruption in Ferguson and beyond" (2014-10-03) [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/03/1333925/-Is-it-a-coverup-House-of-Cards-level-corruption-in-Ferguson-and-beyond]
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* "The Big Lie The Media Tells About Indiana’s New ‘Religious Freedom’ Law" (2015-03-30) [http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2015/03/30/3640374/big-lie-media-tells-indianas-new-religious-freedom-law/] [begin excerpt]:
On Friday, the Washington Post published an article titled “19 states that have ‘religious freedom’ laws like Indiana’s that no one is boycotting.” The article snarks about organizations like the NCAA that have protested Indiana’s law, noting “the NCAA didn’t say it was concerned over how athletes and employees would be affected by Kentucky’s RFRA when games were played there last week.” The piece concludes “Indiana might be treated as if it’s the only state with a bill like this, but it’s not.” The piece has been shared over 75,000 times on Facebook.
The Washington Post article largely mirrors the argument advanced by Indiana Governor Mike Pence. Appearing on ABC’s This Week, Pence claimed “Then state-Sen. Barack Obama voted for [the Religious Freedom Restoration Act]. The very same language.”
The same argument is parroted on Fox News and elsewhere.
It’s not true.
Every other Religious Freedom Restoration Act applies to disputes between a person or entity and a government. Indiana’s is the only law that explicitly applies to disputes between private citizens. This means it could be used as a cudgel by corporations to justify discrimination against individuals that might otherwise be protected under law. Indiana trial lawyer Matt Anderson, discussing this difference, writes that the Indiana law is “more broadly written than its federal and state predecessors” and opens up “the path of least resistance among its species to have a court adjudicate it in a manner that could ultimately be used to discriminate…”
This is not to say the federal RFRA — and the state laws that are actually modeled after it — don’t have problems. Indeed, “Nineteen members of Congress who voted for the passage of the law in 1993 have now withdrawn their support for the federal RFRA given that it has been interpreted by the courts in ways that were not intended by the Congress at the time of the law’s passage.” Much of this rethinking was prompted by the Hobby Lobby case, where the Supreme Court expanded its interpretation of the federal RFRA to certain corporations.
Claiming that the Indiana law is just like the laws in 19 other states, however, is simply not true. Other states are following Indiana’s lead and broadening the language of the law.
[end excerpt]
* "One simple graphic shows the anti-LGBT animus behind Indiana's new law" (2015-03-30, glaad.org) [https://archive.today/nkjQZ]. Links to more info about Micah Clark [https://archive.today/lGcHA], Curt Smith [https://archive.today/Pua9I], Eric Miller [https://archive.today/e7vy4]. Two to the right of Curt Smith is Dr. Bill Katip, President of Grace College.
* "SC Restaurant Owner Refuses To Serve Blacks, Cites Religious Beliefs" (2014-07-02, forwardprogressives.com) [https://archive.today/fHp9g]
The GLAAD Commentator Accountability Project (CAP) [https://archive.today/D1hjL] aims to put critical information about frequent anti-gay interviewees into the hands of newsrooms, editors, hosts and reporters. Journalists or producers who are on deadline often don't have the time to dig into the histories of a commentator. Audiences need to be aware that when they’re not talking to the mainstream media, these voices are comparing LGBT people to Nazi Germany, predicting that equal treatment of LGBT people will lead to the total collapse of society, and even making accusations of satanic influence.
An example fromt he CAP files is Star Parker [https://archive.today/BY8GI]: In column denouncing inlcusive military service, pits homosexuality against free society [https://archive.today/9LKrN]: "As a Christian, I believe in the truth of traditional morality as transmitted to us through our biblical sources. And I believe, along with George Washington, who stated clearly in his farewell address to the nation, that religion and traditional morality are critical to the maintenance of our free society. Homosexual behavior is unacceptable by these moral standards."
* "Top Anti-Gay Lawyer Inadvertently Tells Court That Brown v. Board of Education Was Wrongly Decided" (2015-03-07) [http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/05/07/3435053/top-anti-gay-lawyer-inadvertently-tells-court-that-brown-v-board-of-education-was-wrongly-decided/] [begin excerpt]:
Monte Neil Stewart is the lead attorney defending Nevada’s practice of anti-gay marriage discrimination and he’s a member of the legal team defending similar discrimination in Utah. He also just told a federal appeals court that Brown v. Board of Education was wrongly decided and we should return to the days when public school discrimination was allowed.
Stewart submitted a letter to the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday arguing that the Supreme Court’s recent decision authorizing a New York state town to open its legislative sessions with a prayer also supports the conclusion that marriage discrimination is constitutional. According to Stewart, “[i]n upholding the town’s practice of beginning town council meetings with prayer, the Court made several statements indicating that the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, made applicable to the States through the Fourteenth Amendment, should not be interpreted in a way that renders invalid a practice—like prayer in public meetings—that was well established at the time the First and Fourteenth Amendments were adopted.”
Stewart, however, thinks this holding should be applied very broadly. In his words, “[a]ny ‘test the Court adopts’ for determining Fourteenth Amendment limitations on a State’s authority to define marriage ought likewise respect ‘a practice’—namely, the man-woman definition of marriage—that was universally ‘accepted by the Framers’ of the Fourteenth Amendment.”
Marriage discrimination was, indeed, an accepted practice in 1868, when the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified. So was public school segregation. Indeed, as Erwin Chemerinsky explains, “[t]he same Congress that ratified the Fourteenth Amendment also voted to segregate the District of Columbia public schools.” The separate but equal doctrine, which formed much of the legal basis for public school segregation, was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1896. It wasn’t until 1954 — 86 years after the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified — that public school segregation was struck down by the Supreme Court.
So, if Stewart is correct that a practice becomes constitutional so long as it was accepted at the time that the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified, Brown was wrongly decided. Some other examples of practices that were accepted in 1868 are government discrimination against women — a practice that wasn’t blocked by the Supreme Court until the 1970s — and bans on interracial marriage. Both of these practices would also be permitted under Stewart’s reading of the Constitution. [end excerpt]
---
* "This Is What It’s Like to Get Pulled over for Expired Tags in Police State USA 2015" (2015-03-25, truthstreammedia.com) [https://archive.today/C7NSo]
Video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U3ZRI1z3xk].
My friend and coworker at The Daily Sheeple Lily Dane was terrified tonight after police pulled her over for the high crime of expired tags and it turned into a bullying session that lasted over an hour and that apparently required four cop cars and SIX POLICE.
I guess because we have this many officers and not a lot of actual, dangerous crime going on, they’ve got to justify their jobs somehow… This isn’t protecting and serving. It’s extortion.
Although the initial female officer seemed cordial and made the situation out to be no big deal, her male partner decided to turn the situation into a long, drawn-out bullying session and called Lily a criminal because she “broke the law” (as if all laws are equal and someone with expired tags is on par with, say, a rapist or baby killer), even though Lily has no criminal history and had done nothing wrong at that point other than having expired tags, except, perhaps, maybe for speaking out and being politically active against the police state online as an alternative media journalist. See [https://archive.today/nCH3t]. At one point he even threatened her that he could take her car away and throw her in jail if he wanted to just to be an even bigger bully.
[begin transcript] I said, 6 officers? Is this really necessary? I'm not a criminal. The cop said "Yes, you are. You broke the law." SIX COPS, for an expired tag." He said, "I can impound your car and throw you in jail if I want to". I said, "Why would you do that to me? I have a totally clean record."[end transcript]
This video is the story of what happened. I’m sharing it because we live in such an insane police state that something has to change.
As our previous special report exposes, police are using pre-crime algorithms to assign color-coded threat scores to each and every one of us before an officer ever lays eyes on us based upon, among others, our social media and online posts. Is Lily special because of her political views, or is this just the way they treat everyone nowadays simply for driving with expired tags?
It isn’t a reason to bully and intimidate and harass some lady for over an hour, acting like she was lying about owning her car, lying about her insurance card, and even lying about what state she lived in (even though it was on her driver’s license).
---
US Uncut writes [https://www.facebook.com/usauncut]:
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has slashed funding to public colleges by $600 million since 2008--more than any other state. Over the same period, Jindal has handed corporations $11 billion in tax cuts--also more than any other state. Louisiana now faces a record budget deficit which Governor Jindal proposes to solve by cutting an additional $300 million from state colleges. After he awarded oil giant ExxonMobil with $263 million in subsidies.
* "If We Put an End to Corporate Welfare, College Tuition Could Be Free" (2015-02-19, attn.com) [https://archive.today/BGcnL]
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* "State PUC faces $5.1 million in legal fees; public to pay" (2015-03-27, sfgate.com) [https://archive.today/pPNIW]
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* "SAUDI GOVERNMENT RETAINS GOP’S BIG DATA FIRMS" (2015-03-24, firstlook.org) [https://archive.today/MXJLW]. whowhatwhy.org writes: The Kingdom just added two big tech firms—Zignal Labs and Targeted Victory—to its impressive team of U.S.-based lobbyists, lawyers and public relations professionals [https://archive.today/fI3dn]. Apparently, the Saudis want to escalate their efforts to influence American public opinion and policy. The two data crunchers will work with Qorvis Communications, a controversial lobbying firm specializing in Persian Gulf regimes [https://archive.today/cA4bi].
---
The following article was carried on a news magazine intended for the liberal upper middle-class of the dominant cultural demographic in the USA, and is an indication of the propaganda cues intended for that audience. The tragedy is that the NFL is "all American", so, they say, it must be cleansed! It must be redeemed of it's... Socialist heritage! what the hell kinda cues are these, folk?
* "America's Socialist Sports League: The NFL Because revenues are spread evenly across franchises, owners don't gain much financially when their teams win" (2015-03-26, theatlantic.com) [https://archive.today/MLgwY]
===*===*===
Every nation is by right an autonomous power representing the will of the people, for which there are inalienable rights recognized by world institutions.
Solidarity with the U'Wa People, among the most ancient of all nations on Earth!
* "Pygmies demand end to discrimination in DR Congo" (2015-03-27, AFP newswire) [https://archive.today/EmgMa] [begin excerpt]: Pygmies in the Democratic Republic of Congo used the forum offered by a festival of indigenous peoples Friday to demand protection against discrimination by other Congolese who they claim treat them like "savages". Since colonial times, they have cohabited uneasily with majority Bantus, who are accused of exploiting the Pygmies, paying them meagre wages -- or with alcohol and cigarettes -- and generally treating them as inferior beings. The Pygmies fate was expected to dominate the second International Festival for Native Peoples, which opened Friday in the capital Kinshasa. Patrick Sayidi, coordinator of the native rights' group DGPA, said it was an "occasion to plead for respect of the Pygmy people in DRC... to highlight their culture and stop the idea that Pygmies are sort of savages, animals." "We are suffering," a group of Pygmy women chanted in the local language Lingala as indigenous groups from around the world arrived for the festival. The nomadic lifestyle of Pygmies is increasingly under threat from deforestation, mining and extensive farming. Addressing the opening of the festival, Congolese environment minister Bienvenu Liyota Ndjoli denounced the "discrimination, stigmatisation and marginalisation" that the community suffers. The festival, which closes Sunday, brings together native peoples from around Africa, Europe, Asia and Latin America. [end excerpt]
===*===*===
GEOPOLITICAL NEWS
Provided by Northbay MDS Committees, and the 5th World News service [FifthWorldNews.blogspot.com], documenting Nations and Institutions of Self-Government not recognized by the United Nations. USA State Dept.'s legal statement supporting unilateral declarations of independence (2009-07) [.pdf link]: "The legal principle of territorial integrity does not prevent non-state entities from peacefully declaring its independence." Legal mandate set by the UN International Court (2010-07-22) [archive.today/mc6sX]: "No general prohibition may be inferred from the practice of the Security Council with regard to declarations of independence,” and “General international law contains no prohibition on declarations of independence."
WORLD FASCISM WATCH
Fascism is for the benefit of the economic dictatorship, whereby entire regions have been made deserts for the purpose of enhancing the private wealth of individuals.
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TPP):
* Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) - Investment Chapter (wikileaks.org) [https://archive.today/URgiM]
* "Secretive Pro-Corporate Trade Deal Could Endanger Health, Labor, Environment" (2014-12-07, whowhatwhy.org) [https://archive.today/4v0Rt]
* "TPP-ing the economy: Is new trade pact 'NAFTA on steroids?' " (2015-03-25, by Rev. Jim Conn, peoplesworld.org) [https://archive.today/JP6hI]
* "Trans-Pacific Partnership Seen as Door for Foreign Suits Against U.S." (2015-03-25, nytimes.com) [https://archive.today/eUapB]
* "TPP vs. Democracy: Leaked Draft of Secretive Trade Deal Spells Out Plan for Corporate Power Grab; WikiLeaks reveals negotiators planning to expand secret corporate tribunals" (2015-03-26, commondreams.org) [https://archive.today/tYGiC]
"With the veil of secrecy ripped back, finally everyone can see for themselves that the TPP would give multinational corporations extraordinary new powers that undermine our sovereignty," said Lori Wallach of Public Citizen. (Photo courtesy of Wikileaks)
---
Weapons for a New World Order
* "Squid-Inspired ‘Invisibility Stickers’ Could Help Soldiers Evade Detection in the Dark" (2015-03-23) [https://archive.today/uRxtT]
* "Tiny bio-robot is a germ suited-up with graphene quantum dots" (2015-03-24, news.uic.edu) [https://archive.today/9FSz4]
* "Help Me Obi: Is this the first true 3D video?" (2014-07-27, cnet.com) [https://archive.today/VtYdV], video [https://vimeo.com/73161507], homepage [http://www.helsonandjackets.com/index.php/help-me-obi]
* "Boeing patents 'Star Wars'-style force fields; Aircraft and military manufacturer Boeing has been granted a patent on a system that is designed to prevent explosion shockwaves from harming a target" (2015-03-22, cnet.com) [https://archive.today/uvBhn]
* "Method and system for shockwave attenuation via electromagnetic arc" United States Patent 8,981,261, registered by Tillots on March 17, 2015 (patft.uspto.gov) [https://archive.today/PMEtW], Abstract:
A method and system for attenuating a shockwave propagating through a first medium by heating a selected region of the first fluid medium rapidly to create a second, transient medium that intercepts the shockwave and attenuates its energy density before it reaches a protected asset. The second medium may attenuate the shockwave by one or more of reflection, refraction, dispersion, absorption and momentum transfer. The method and system may include a sensor for detecting a shockwave-producing event, determining a direction and distance of the shockwave relative to a defended target and calculating a firing plan, and an arc generator for creating the second medium. The arc generator may create the second medium by creating an electric arc that travels along an electrically conductive path utilizing at least one of high intensity laser pulses, pellets forming a conductive ion trail, sacrificial conductors, projectiles trailing electrical wires, and magnetic induction.
* "Physics students design real-world Star Wars deflector shields; Physics students at the University of Leicester designed a concept for fully operational deflector shields, but there's one problem: they'd blind whoever they protect" (2014-05-02, cnet.com) [https://archive.today/y0ojK]
Full scientific paper at [https://web.archive.org/web/20150328000402/http://physics.le.ac.uk/journals/index.php/pst/article/download/678/486]
---* "Tiny bio-robot is a germ suited-up with graphene quantum dots" (2015-03-24, news.uic.edu) [https://archive.today/9FSz4]
* "Help Me Obi: Is this the first true 3D video?" (2014-07-27, cnet.com) [https://archive.today/VtYdV], video [https://vimeo.com/73161507], homepage [http://www.helsonandjackets.com/index.php/help-me-obi]
* "Boeing patents 'Star Wars'-style force fields; Aircraft and military manufacturer Boeing has been granted a patent on a system that is designed to prevent explosion shockwaves from harming a target" (2015-03-22, cnet.com) [https://archive.today/uvBhn]
* "Method and system for shockwave attenuation via electromagnetic arc" United States Patent 8,981,261, registered by Tillots on March 17, 2015 (patft.uspto.gov) [https://archive.today/PMEtW], Abstract:
A method and system for attenuating a shockwave propagating through a first medium by heating a selected region of the first fluid medium rapidly to create a second, transient medium that intercepts the shockwave and attenuates its energy density before it reaches a protected asset. The second medium may attenuate the shockwave by one or more of reflection, refraction, dispersion, absorption and momentum transfer. The method and system may include a sensor for detecting a shockwave-producing event, determining a direction and distance of the shockwave relative to a defended target and calculating a firing plan, and an arc generator for creating the second medium. The arc generator may create the second medium by creating an electric arc that travels along an electrically conductive path utilizing at least one of high intensity laser pulses, pellets forming a conductive ion trail, sacrificial conductors, projectiles trailing electrical wires, and magnetic induction.* "Physics students design real-world Star Wars deflector shields; Physics students at the University of Leicester designed a concept for fully operational deflector shields, but there's one problem: they'd blind whoever they protect" (2014-05-02, cnet.com) [https://archive.today/y0ojK]
Full scientific paper at [https://web.archive.org/web/20150328000402/http://physics.le.ac.uk/journals/index.php/pst/article/download/678/486]
#OPDeathEaters [WorldFascists.blogspot.com]
* "Getty curse: Guns, cocaine and death at 47 - the latest member of the billionaire oil family to prove that money doesn't buy happiness" (2015-04-01, dailymail.co.uk) [https://archive.today/YYnpm] [begin excerpt]: The body of Andrew Getty, naked from the waist down, was discovered in a bathroom at his gated, three-storey £2.6 million villa in the Hollywood Hills on Tuesday afternoon.
The 47-year-old grandson of John Paul Getty, once the world’s richest man, Andrew was an heir to the vast Getty oil fortune.In 2003, Andrew was sued by a studio assistant, Ingrid Jacobs, for £500 in unpaid wages for his first and only film, a horror movie made in the house where he died this week.
The court heard how Getty snorted cocaine, spent heavily on prostitutes and carried a gun — keeping an arsenal of assault rifles at his home and threatening the film crew with them.
‘All of us lived in fear of his dark, violent moods,’ said Ms Jacobs in court.
‘He once screamed at me: “I’m going to kick you in the kidneys so hard that you choke.”
‘He had no worries about spending thousands a week on high-price prostitutes, but he was mean as hell with everyone else.’
Charity Thomson, the movie’s assistant director, said she saw Getty snorting drugs while on the set. She described him as ‘a spoilt rich kid who doesn’t value his own life or that of anyone else’.
===*===*===
United States of Mexico
* "Ayotzinapa Caravana 43: Families call for missing students to be returned" (2015-03-25, peoplesworld.org) [https://archive.today/x355J]
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The Huichol nation has recuperated 35% of their territory after seeing their land privatised by President Calderon (source in Spanish).
* "Recuperan huicholes 35% d e playa privatizada por Calderón" (2014-09-05, desinformemonos.org) [https://archive.today/5KnRN] photo [https://archive.today/VKYCQ]
===*===*===
Republic of Honduras
[northbaymds.blogspot.com/2014/10/world-fascism-watch-honduras.html] Most of the comments are collected from the daily "Presente Honduras Digest", and from the "Honduras Solidarity Network" listserve, authored by experts in geopolitics and history of Latin America. Libre is the "leftist" party working to uphold human rights and sovereignty, JOH is the dictator of Honduras supported by the USA.
On April 8th, a new protest march will be held in Honduras, demanding justice in the case of the murdered students. Source in Spanish [http://www.hondurastierralibre.com/2015/03/honduras-movilizacion-hacia-al.html]
The main as well as the alternative media has published numerous articles on the student protests. For an overview, I recommend the following article:
* "Education Crisis in Honduras: Protests in Streets & Four Students Involved in Protests Killed Last Night" (2015-03-25) [https://archive.today/QOB6N].
Medical students protested yesterday (2015-03-24) in front of the Casa Presidencial to demand financial support for their social service in hospitals and health centers. Source in Spanish [https://archive.today/en2p0].
University students joined in the protest to support the demands by their younger peers. The Education Secretary Marlon Escoto, meanwhile, announced the suspension of one his reforms. Sources in Spanish: (1) [https://archive.today/yyv5S], (2) [https://archive.today/1jPxj]
As a response to the protest, UNAH suspended classes. Source in Spanish [https://archive.today/vbGtu].
In a protest last Thursday, students identified a police officers who was infiltrating the march and taking pictures of some participants. Julieta Castellanos felt forced to deny any involvement in the infiltration. Source in Spanish [https://archive.today/7oXwl].
Several students involved in the protest have been found murdered recently. Sources in Spanish: (1) [https://archive.today/QvS2r], (2) [https://archive.today/rVdDM], (3) [https://archive.today/8xRiA], (4) [https://archive.today/xSsDA], (5) [https://archive.today/QW5Uq]
COFADEH reports on 13 students hit by police. Source in Spanish [https://archive.today/qfk1h].
And finally, several civil society organization emitted press releases.
* from [www.casa-alianza.org.hn] [https://archive.today/ql3lO]
* from La Red Nacional de Defensoras de Derechos Humanos en Honduras [https://archive.today/ehj5t]
* from Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras (COPINH) [https://archive.today/8syTi]
C-Libre also took up the extrajudicial killings of students who participated at the protests. Furthermore, they denounce the raid by the Military Police of the house of Nery Gomez, a student leader. And finally, C-Libre writes of the disappearance of another 4 students after having participated at a protest. Sources in Spanish, (1) [https://archive.today/35bha], (2) [https://archive.today/GxaTc], (3) [https://archive.today/6aviy].
UNICEF demands that the Honduran state investigates the murder of the students. Various Honduran human rights organization also came together to denounce the state repression against the protest. Sources in Spanish, (1) [https://archive.today/K81NX], (2) [https://archive.today/qI0r4]
The Education Minister, meanwhile, attacks the media for informing about the murder of four students. Libre demanded his resignation, as well as the one of JOH. Sources in Spanish, (1) [https://archive.today/XEXWh], (2) [https://archive.today/y4ixC], (3) [https://archive.today/niilD]
* "Military Police Break Into Home of University Student Who Assisted High School Protesters" (2015-03-26, Greg McCain):
Today, members of the Military Police of Public Order (POMP) entered WITHOUT ANY JUDICIAL ORDER, the home of companero Nery Gomez in the colonia Miraflores here in Tegucigalpa. Nery, who is an active member of the Movimiento Amplio Universitario (MAU), reported by telephone that at four in the morning members of the PMOP showed up in the aforementioned colonia -which is gated- and asked members of the private security or if they knew and where Nery lived.
"Private guards allowed them in and said where my house was. I did not sleep there for fear that something like this might happen to me, as I have been supporting, as a member of MAU, the high school student's protests. They entered the house and my room, emptied and took my documents "Gomez said. In addition he denounces that last night, on his way to buy dinner, a white NISSAN FRONTIER, with no plates,was monitoring where he was going to eat. However at that time nothing more happened, but this was a prelude to what would happen this morning.
* "LIBRE Diputado (Lawmaker) responds to accusations made against him by Education Minister" (2015-03-26, Greg McCain): The Minister of Education, Marlon Escoto, has accused LIBRE and specifically Bartolo Fuentes, the LIBRE Diputado from Yoro, of being the masterminds behind the student protests and of manipulating the Middle and High School students. Below is Bartolo's response, posted on Facebook, to the unfounded statements of the Minister.
[begin response] For the minister's ears, "I DO NOT DIRECT THE STUDENTS, BUT I'M WITH THEIR FIGHT". I clarify that I do not direct any struggle of students in the capital, as has been indicated by Minister (Of Education) Escoto. Out of respect for them, not because I disagree with their struggle, but because it must be recognized that they have sufficient capacity to think, and decide, and to take action on their own. If the Minister Escoto believes that his accusations give me grief, He's wrong! Even less so fear. Defending rights is not a crime, to oppose absurd decisions such as yours is the duty of every conscious citizen. Continue Forward young students in your struggle, demand that the minister respond to the educational needs of each center. I only regret not being able to accompany them in their actions, but if I get the chance in the days when I am in Tegucigalpa, do not doubt that I will be with you and your fathers and mothers claiming rights that the government, enemy of public education, denies us. [end response]
* "The Manipulation of Student Struggles in Honduras; Outside Agitators will Lead to Misguided Martyrs" (2015-03-26, panampost.com) [https://archive.today/FCD8h]
Both National congresswoman Lena Gutierrez as well as Education Secretary Marlon Escoto are denigrating the students as political pawns. Sources in Spanish: (1) [https://archive.today/9f1LP], (2) [https://archive.today/B1ldg]
C-Libre denounces that both the Education Minister as well as the Security Minister denigrate and even criminalize the student protests. In a press conference, the young students said that they don't want to create more martyrs and demanded that the Education Minister, Marlon Escoto, sit down with them. Radio Progreso also has some article on the repression of the protests. Sources in Spanish: (1) [https://archive.today/RFaud], (2) [https://archive.today/hiuTz], (3) [https://archive.today/5wuHA], (4) [https://archive.today/ls8Wl].
Journalists covering the topic aren't safe either. Ten reporters were threatened by the police during a protest in Catacamas. Marlon Escoto even went so far as to blame Channel 36 for the protests. Sources in Spanish: (1) [https://archive.today/fW6Ow], (20) [https://archive.today/i45QB].
Defensores en Linea spoke with Jose Guadalupe Ruelas Garcia, the director of Casa Alianza, about the recent murder of various students. Source in Spanish [https://archive.today/0Kov6].
---
* Declaration on the wave of criminalization against the campesinos and campesinas of La Paz, Honduras, March 23, 2015, Via Campesina Honduras [https://archive.today/eS7L2]:
Photo: "Immediate liberty for the arrested campesinas & campesinos, more than 5 thousand in all of Honduras".
Campesinos and campesinas, members of the National Center of Rural Workers (CNTC) accompanied by Via Campesina carried out a march on Monday through the main streets in the province of La Paz as pressure to demand that the
government end the violence against the campesinos.
The countryside has stopped being an important sector for governments since the neoliberal system defines its plan for development based on the industry of agro-exportation, the financial system, mining, tourism, sweat-shops maquiladores and other things and agriculture is left abandoned.
The agrarian and alimentation crisis is a true human tragedy, the situation in the countryside worsens day after day due to the lack of a true legal framework (to protect it).
In order to resolve the agrarian problem and guarentee support to the small farming sector of the country, last April 9 the Law for an Integral Agrarian Reform with Gender Equity for Food Sovereignty and Rural Development, was introduced (to the Congress); it has remained tabled by
the legislature.
The campesino movement continues to be repressed on the land, our fields are destroyed, we are beaten, they burn our houses; from 2014 to the present 15 campesino groups in different municipalities, belonging to the CNTC have suffered violent evictions and another 34 evictions have been announced to take place soon.
As of this moment around 5 thousand campesinos and campesinas at the national level have legal charges against them and more than 700 are women. Just in La Paz of 48 campesino groups 46 of the groups are in legal processes; we have more than 500 people with probationary measures, 161 are
women and there are 10 comrades in prison condemned to more than 6 years.
They are:
1. Omar Mejia Galea (10 de Enero 2014) Grupo Buena Vista, la brea Comayagua
2. Benancio Palomo Chavarria (10 de enero 2014) Grupo Buena Vista, la brea Comayagua
3. Gerson Edgardo Hernandez (10 de Enero 2014) Grupo Buena Vista, la brea Comayagua
4. Hector David Galeas Lopez (11 de Octubre 2013) Grupo 18 de Abril la Pollera, Quilaperque, La Paz
5. Nery Antonio Gonzales (11 de Octubre 2013) Grupo 18 de Abril la Pollera, Quilaperque, La Paz
6. Angel Arnaldo Martinez Marquez (11 de Octubre 2013) Grupo 18 de Abril la Pollera, Quilaperque, La Paz
7. Manuel Nicolas Dominguez (11 de Octubre 2013) Grupo 18 de Abril la Pollera, Quilaperque, La Paz
8. Jose David Aguilar Galeas (11 de Octubre 2013) Grupo 18 de Abril la Pollera, Quilaperque, La Paz
9. Jacinto Bardales 11 de Octubre 2013) Grupo 18 de Abril la Pollera, Quilaperque, La Paz
10. Osmar Lara, Grupo Campesino Unidos para un Futuro Mejor, Marcala, La Paz
Photo showing Rafael Alegria and Franklin Almendarez.
During the protest by the campesino movement the General Secretary of the CNTC, Franklin Almendarez denounced the political persecution aimed at the local group leaders and campesino leaders in La Paz, "our companeros are followed in public places and public transportation by the police authorities and people dressed as civilians, we also want to sound the alert to the fact of the confabulation of the National Police with the big
landowners to facilitate armed civilians executing evictions and persecuting the campesino groups" he stated.
"In the same way, we vigorously denounce that government institutions such as the Institute for Forest Conservation (ICF) and the National Agrarian Institute (INA) deny us the right to Agrarian Reform, dismisses as "without cause" the filings for titles to the land made by our companeros, denying them access to natural resources and violating Accord 169 signed and ratified by the Government of Honduras with the International Labor Organization (OIT). The peoples affected must have the right to decide their own priorities regarding the process of development to the extent
that this affects their lives, beliefs, institutions and spiritual well being and the lands that they occupy or use in some way, and (the right) to control to the degree possible their own economic, social and cultural development. (Accord 169, Article 7(1). "
For his part, the General Coordinator of Via Campesina Honduras, Rafael Alegria stated that, "this march has been organized in La Paz to demand that the government end the criminalization of the campesino movement, we want this day to make history and its voice reach the government to say that we need them to give us land so that the campesinos have a parcel of land to work, that the Law for an Integral Agrarian reform with Gender Equity for Food Sovereignty and Rural Development that is tabled in the congress be passed immediately; the immediate liberation of the campesinos in legal proceedings and of the 11 companeros imprisoned in Tamara and Marcala; and an immediate end to the violent evictions and the destruction of crops", he concluded.
The march arrived to the court building in La Paz where campesinos Blanca Rodriguez Manueles, Romulo Galeas and Antonio Gonzales had court hearings for allegedly stealing land, they were accompanied by the Coordinator of Via Campesina, Rafael Alegria and the General Secretary of the CNTC, Franklin Almendarez; they achieved the campesinos being freed pending the continuation of the investigation.
Afterwards the march went to the prison in La Paz where family members accompanied by congressmen from the LIBRE Party Rafael Alegria and Wilfredo Paz and Franklin Almendarez, visited the 5 young campesinos who are incarcerated there.
---
General Electric Co. of the USA to support the ZEDES sovereign cities. Source in Spanish [https://archive.today/dP1j2]
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The Central American Conference on Transnational Security was held in Tegucigalpa. There were police and military from 14 different countries from the region in attendance. John Kelly from Southcom was present as well as Erin Logan, who I believe is the principal director for counter-narcotics and global threats, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Policy) in the White House.
According to the Honduran press, Kelly announced at the conference that Logan is the highest level representative from the White House that has attended such conference. Radio Globo reported that Kelly praised the efforts of the Honduran military and police in human rights (This of course is said the same day that the press reports the violent killings of four high school students in Tegucigalpa involved in protests yesterday against neoliberal reforms to public education). Source in Spanish [https://archive.today/81T03].
The US Marines are about to create a new special force for Latin America with its seat in Honduras. It'll be called Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force-South (SPMAGTF-South). Sources in Spanish (1) [http://www.ellibertador.hn/?q=article/marina-de-eeuu-crear%C3%A1-fuerza-especial-para-am%C3%A9rica-latina-con-sede-en-honduras], (2) [http://www.tiempo.hn/nacion/item/25404-los-marines-estadounidenses-crearan-una-fuerza-especial-para-latinoamerica-con-sede-en-honduras]
* "Special Forces Soldiers Train Honduran Counter-Narcotic, Counter-Trafficking Force" (2015-03-24, shadowspear.com) [https://archive.today/J8vx2] [begin excerpt]:
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, FL (CPT Thomas Cieslak): A Honduran force skilled in combating criminal organizations and countering human and narcotic trafficking recently trained with Special Forces soldiers on Eglin Air Force Base's ranges located in Northwest Florida.
Green Berets from the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) hosted members of the Honduran TIGRES, whose name translates into "Intelligence and Special Security Response Groups Units", the final two weeks of February to mentor and coach them in tactics and methods they will use to fight narcotics and human trafficking in their country ... [end excerpt]
A National Party delegation went to inspect the consulates of Honduras in the US and became witnesses to "mistreatment, disorder and mafias controlling these offices." Source in Spanish [http://www.hondurastierralibre.com/2015/03/honduras-comision-de-diputados.html]
===*===*===
Republic of France Overseas Department of Guadeloupe
* "Charges Dropped Against Charly Lendo, Former Deputy Secretary General of the UGTG: A Great Victory for the Struggle Against Anti-Union Repression!", 2015-03-13, by Robert Stephan, for Issue No. 216 of the ILC International Newsletter:
Last March 3, Charly Lendo, former Deputy General Secretary of the General Union of Workers of Guadeloupe (UGTG), was acquitted by the Point-à-Pitre court of the charges of indirect, involuntary homicide, of indirect blows and wounds, and of endangering the lives of others, following his appearance in court the 20th of January 2015.
This same court decided that Charly Lendo was guilty of blocking traffic on February 17, 2009, but he was not sentenced for this. This is a great victory for the struggle against anti-union repression. It is the result of mobilisation and solidarity.
The origin of the proceedings against Charly Lendo . . .
Proceedings against Charly Lendo were started after the massive movement in 2009 headed by Liyannaj Kont Pwofitasyon (LKP) and the forty-four day general strike, during which his organisation, the UGTG, played an important role. This was a movement that resulted in the signing of the February 26, 2009 Bino Agreement and the Protocol of Agreement on the 4th of March 2009.
The French State, finding itself in difficulty with this mass mobilisation in Guadeloupe, with demonstrations counting tens of thousands and up to 100,000, has done all it can to regain control of the situation, starting by “derailing” the Bino Agreement, as requested by the CGMPE and the Medef (the bosses' organisation) and by refusing to respect its commitments.
The attempt by the French State, with its “servile” judiciary system, to send the UGTG leader to prison, its harassment of this union, which has witnessed hundreds of its leaders summoned to appear in court, are illustrations of this.
. . . the workers mobilised with their organisations and the people
Responding to calls from the UGTG, hundreds of thousands mobilised in this way. These were UGTG activists, representatives from trade unions, from LKP organisations and associations in particular.
The UGTG mobilisation against the repression of these unionists was relayed at the international level by the International Committee against Repression (CICR) and the International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples -- and at Caribbean level, by the Association of Workers and Peoples of the Caribbean (ATPC).
And now?
General mobilisation is underway. Practically all trade unions are calling for a general strike on the 26th of March 2015.
The Associations of Water users in Guadeloupe, with the LKP and the farmers of Daubin, of the West Collective and Santa Rose and neighbourhood (COSE), are also calling for mobilisation.
This is a movement that has been preparing for months, through resistance action by workers and their organisations against the bosses and the State, undermining the social guarantees of workers, pensioners, the unemployed, young people and the working masses. But also through meetings and debate conferences organised by the LKP and Water Committees.
The people of Guadeloupe, called on once more to the polls, have no confidence in the candidates and in these elections that will solve none of their problems.
This is the context of this court appearance, the context in which this verdict was pronounced.
---
* "Solidarity Is an Instrument in the Struggle of Workers and Peoples"
Communiqué of the General Union of Workers of Guadeloupe (UGTG), [begin excerpt]:
This decision confirms that it was a question of a case fabricated from A to Z in order to set at loggerheads two families living in the same vicinity. By diabolising Charly Lendo and his union, the Genera Union of Workers of Guadeloupe (UGTG), union action was intended to be presented as criminal more easily.
The court case against Charly Lendo has been the object of widespread mobilisation and of very great solidarity, in Guadeloupe itself, as well as at international level, for more than two years.
There have been hundreds of solidarity messages from organisations and personalities from many countries or regions throughout the world (North America, South America, the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, Europe).
There have been hundreds of appeals addressed to the Minister for Justice, especially by organisations in France. There was the presence of several delegations at the hearing in court, from Martinique, France and Haiti. There was also the solidarity meeting on January 14 at the Labour Exchange in Paris, organised by the CICR. It has been the solidarity and mobilisation of activists and organisations in Guadeloupe that were present in number last January 20th.
All these communiqués, all these stands taken, all this mobilisation and this solidarity have very largely contributed to Charly Lendo's being acquitted and have meant that our cries were heard way beyond the limits of Guadeloupe.
Solidarity is an instrument in the struggle of workers and peoples;
Long live the solidarity of workers and peoples!
Long live international solidarity!
[end excerpt]
---
* "Charly Lendo Acquitted: What Is at Stake in Guadeloupe and Elsewhere", editorial of the International Committee Against Repression Bulletin (CICR):
This verdict constitutes an immense success and a resounding defeat for those who have for a long time been hatching this plot. . . .
The aim was to get the UGTG, the main trade union on the Island, to back down and with it the other trade unions.
But the initiators of this plot underestimated several factors. The first of these was decisive: the uninterrupted mobilisation of the UGTG and its activists and with them the trade unions of Guadeloupe, supported by the population. Strikes, demonstrations, rallies never ceased during long battles.
This united front, with the organisations of Guadeloupe on the side of the UGTG demanding Charly Lendo's release and an end to anti union repression, weighed heavily in these results.
The second factor, underlined by Elie Domota, General Secretary of the UGTG, has been the importance of international solidarity all through these years. Trade unions from the Caribbean, the United States, Brazil, the Indian Ocean and of course from metropolitan France, all answered present.
Remember Elie Domota's round trip in 2012, invited by our Committee, received by more than a thousand union leaders in France, in Paris, in Nantes, but also in Lyon, Lille, Limoges.
The last two years, no less than three delegations received at the Ministry for Justice and two at the Ministry for Overseas where leaders from the CGT-FO and the CGT, with our Committee, expressed their refusal of anti-union repression, demanding that charges be dropped and Charly Lendo acquitted.
And the meeting of the 14th of January, in the main room of the Labour Exchange in Paris, in the presence of union leaders from Metropolitan France from the CGT-FO and the CGT, where UGTG leaders took to the floor. Several hundred activists once again addressed a letter to Mrs Taubira, Minister for Justice. . . .
The road has certainly been long and difficult. But the defeat, which the mobilisation of the working class of Guadeloupe, with its unions, supported by trade unions from all over the world, has just inflicted on those, who, with the case of the trade unionist Charly Lendo wanted to bring the UGTG to its knees, is a powerful encouragement to pursue our action.
We thank those who authorised the CICR to be present at the hearing of Jocelyn Leborgne, UGTG leader and at the court appearances of Charly Lendo.
===*===*===
Republic of Colombia
* "Colombian Report on US Military’s Child Rapes Not Newsworthy to US News Outlets" (2015-03-26, fair.org) [https://archive.today/VbAHq]
===*===*===
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
[northbaymds.blogspot.com/2014/10/world-fascism-watch-honduras.html] Most of the comments are collected from the daily "Presente Honduras Digest", and from the "Honduras Solidarity Network" listserve, authored by experts in geopolitics and history of Latin America. Libre is the "leftist" party working to uphold human rights and sovereignty, JOH is the dictator of Honduras supported by the USA.
On April 8th, a new protest march will be held in Honduras, demanding justice in the case of the murdered students. Source in Spanish [http://www.hondurastierralibre.com/2015/03/honduras-movilizacion-hacia-al.html]
The main as well as the alternative media has published numerous articles on the student protests. For an overview, I recommend the following article:
* "Education Crisis in Honduras: Protests in Streets & Four Students Involved in Protests Killed Last Night" (2015-03-25) [https://archive.today/QOB6N].
Medical students protested yesterday (2015-03-24) in front of the Casa Presidencial to demand financial support for their social service in hospitals and health centers. Source in Spanish [https://archive.today/en2p0].
University students joined in the protest to support the demands by their younger peers. The Education Secretary Marlon Escoto, meanwhile, announced the suspension of one his reforms. Sources in Spanish: (1) [https://archive.today/yyv5S], (2) [https://archive.today/1jPxj]
As a response to the protest, UNAH suspended classes. Source in Spanish [https://archive.today/vbGtu].
In a protest last Thursday, students identified a police officers who was infiltrating the march and taking pictures of some participants. Julieta Castellanos felt forced to deny any involvement in the infiltration. Source in Spanish [https://archive.today/7oXwl].
Several students involved in the protest have been found murdered recently. Sources in Spanish: (1) [https://archive.today/QvS2r], (2) [https://archive.today/rVdDM], (3) [https://archive.today/8xRiA], (4) [https://archive.today/xSsDA], (5) [https://archive.today/QW5Uq]
* "Education crisis RIGHT NOW: 4 high school students murdered while students protest reforms to public education" (2015-03-25, by Karen Spring):
Right now, Honduran police and military are firing tear gas at University students that have occupied the National Autonomous University (UNAH) in Tegucigalpa and the press is reporting that four students have already been arrested, some beaten. University students are protesting in solidarity with high school students that have taken to the streets and been repressed by state forces for days.
Last week, during a protest on the streets in Tegucigalpa near the high school Vicente Caceres Central Institute, two high school students Dar?o Jose Cabrera and Jose Luis Ochoa, were shot at and injured by a private security guard located near the protests [https://archive.today/yw6aD] (2015-03-17). The Honduran press is now reporting that the body of a 13-year old female student was found earlier this morning (March 25th), wrapped in sheets and dumped on the side of the street. The student had been involved in the protests at the Central Institute the previous day and was found murdered after never returning to her home after the protests. Late last night, the Honduran press reported that three high school students from the Institute Jesus Aguilar Paz in Tegucigalpa, were violently killed after leaving their night classes [https://archive.today/tKZY9] (2015-03-25). Today, students from the same Institute joined others across the country protesting the deaths of their two companeros, demanding justice and an end to the government's policies.
* (2015-03-25, by Greg McCain) Two students who had been involved in protests last week against their school's administration were gunned down in the street last night. Elvin Antonio Lopez (19) and Darwin Josue Martinez (21) were killed while on their way home in Comayaguela. An unidentified woman was also hit by bullets and taken in serious condition to the hospital.
COFADEH reports on 13 students hit by police. Source in Spanish [https://archive.today/qfk1h].
And finally, several civil society organization emitted press releases.
* from [www.casa-alianza.org.hn] [https://archive.today/ql3lO]
* from La Red Nacional de Defensoras de Derechos Humanos en Honduras [https://archive.today/ehj5t]
* from Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras (COPINH) [https://archive.today/8syTi]
C-Libre also took up the extrajudicial killings of students who participated at the protests. Furthermore, they denounce the raid by the Military Police of the house of Nery Gomez, a student leader. And finally, C-Libre writes of the disappearance of another 4 students after having participated at a protest. Sources in Spanish, (1) [https://archive.today/35bha], (2) [https://archive.today/GxaTc], (3) [https://archive.today/6aviy].
UNICEF demands that the Honduran state investigates the murder of the students. Various Honduran human rights organization also came together to denounce the state repression against the protest. Sources in Spanish, (1) [https://archive.today/K81NX], (2) [https://archive.today/qI0r4]
The Education Minister, meanwhile, attacks the media for informing about the murder of four students. Libre demanded his resignation, as well as the one of JOH. Sources in Spanish, (1) [https://archive.today/XEXWh], (2) [https://archive.today/y4ixC], (3) [https://archive.today/niilD]
* "Military Police Break Into Home of University Student Who Assisted High School Protesters" (2015-03-26, Greg McCain):
Today, members of the Military Police of Public Order (POMP) entered WITHOUT ANY JUDICIAL ORDER, the home of companero Nery Gomez in the colonia Miraflores here in Tegucigalpa. Nery, who is an active member of the Movimiento Amplio Universitario (MAU), reported by telephone that at four in the morning members of the PMOP showed up in the aforementioned colonia -which is gated- and asked members of the private security or if they knew and where Nery lived.
"Private guards allowed them in and said where my house was. I did not sleep there for fear that something like this might happen to me, as I have been supporting, as a member of MAU, the high school student's protests. They entered the house and my room, emptied and took my documents "Gomez said. In addition he denounces that last night, on his way to buy dinner, a white NISSAN FRONTIER, with no plates,was monitoring where he was going to eat. However at that time nothing more happened, but this was a prelude to what would happen this morning.
* "LIBRE Diputado (Lawmaker) responds to accusations made against him by Education Minister" (2015-03-26, Greg McCain): The Minister of Education, Marlon Escoto, has accused LIBRE and specifically Bartolo Fuentes, the LIBRE Diputado from Yoro, of being the masterminds behind the student protests and of manipulating the Middle and High School students. Below is Bartolo's response, posted on Facebook, to the unfounded statements of the Minister.
[begin response] For the minister's ears, "I DO NOT DIRECT THE STUDENTS, BUT I'M WITH THEIR FIGHT". I clarify that I do not direct any struggle of students in the capital, as has been indicated by Minister (Of Education) Escoto. Out of respect for them, not because I disagree with their struggle, but because it must be recognized that they have sufficient capacity to think, and decide, and to take action on their own. If the Minister Escoto believes that his accusations give me grief, He's wrong! Even less so fear. Defending rights is not a crime, to oppose absurd decisions such as yours is the duty of every conscious citizen. Continue Forward young students in your struggle, demand that the minister respond to the educational needs of each center. I only regret not being able to accompany them in their actions, but if I get the chance in the days when I am in Tegucigalpa, do not doubt that I will be with you and your fathers and mothers claiming rights that the government, enemy of public education, denies us. [end response]
* "The Manipulation of Student Struggles in Honduras; Outside Agitators will Lead to Misguided Martyrs" (2015-03-26, panampost.com) [https://archive.today/FCD8h]
Both National congresswoman Lena Gutierrez as well as Education Secretary Marlon Escoto are denigrating the students as political pawns. Sources in Spanish: (1) [https://archive.today/9f1LP], (2) [https://archive.today/B1ldg]
C-Libre denounces that both the Education Minister as well as the Security Minister denigrate and even criminalize the student protests. In a press conference, the young students said that they don't want to create more martyrs and demanded that the Education Minister, Marlon Escoto, sit down with them. Radio Progreso also has some article on the repression of the protests. Sources in Spanish: (1) [https://archive.today/RFaud], (2) [https://archive.today/hiuTz], (3) [https://archive.today/5wuHA], (4) [https://archive.today/ls8Wl].
Journalists covering the topic aren't safe either. Ten reporters were threatened by the police during a protest in Catacamas. Marlon Escoto even went so far as to blame Channel 36 for the protests. Sources in Spanish: (1) [https://archive.today/fW6Ow], (20) [https://archive.today/i45QB].
Defensores en Linea spoke with Jose Guadalupe Ruelas Garcia, the director of Casa Alianza, about the recent murder of various students. Source in Spanish [https://archive.today/0Kov6].
---
* Declaration on the wave of criminalization against the campesinos and campesinas of La Paz, Honduras, March 23, 2015, Via Campesina Honduras [https://archive.today/eS7L2]:
Photo: "Immediate liberty for the arrested campesinas & campesinos, more than 5 thousand in all of Honduras".
Campesinos and campesinas, members of the National Center of Rural Workers (CNTC) accompanied by Via Campesina carried out a march on Monday through the main streets in the province of La Paz as pressure to demand that the
government end the violence against the campesinos.
The countryside has stopped being an important sector for governments since the neoliberal system defines its plan for development based on the industry of agro-exportation, the financial system, mining, tourism, sweat-shops maquiladores and other things and agriculture is left abandoned.
The agrarian and alimentation crisis is a true human tragedy, the situation in the countryside worsens day after day due to the lack of a true legal framework (to protect it).
In order to resolve the agrarian problem and guarentee support to the small farming sector of the country, last April 9 the Law for an Integral Agrarian Reform with Gender Equity for Food Sovereignty and Rural Development, was introduced (to the Congress); it has remained tabled by
the legislature.
The campesino movement continues to be repressed on the land, our fields are destroyed, we are beaten, they burn our houses; from 2014 to the present 15 campesino groups in different municipalities, belonging to the CNTC have suffered violent evictions and another 34 evictions have been announced to take place soon.
As of this moment around 5 thousand campesinos and campesinas at the national level have legal charges against them and more than 700 are women. Just in La Paz of 48 campesino groups 46 of the groups are in legal processes; we have more than 500 people with probationary measures, 161 are
women and there are 10 comrades in prison condemned to more than 6 years.
They are:
1. Omar Mejia Galea (10 de Enero 2014) Grupo Buena Vista, la brea Comayagua
2. Benancio Palomo Chavarria (10 de enero 2014) Grupo Buena Vista, la brea Comayagua
3. Gerson Edgardo Hernandez (10 de Enero 2014) Grupo Buena Vista, la brea Comayagua
4. Hector David Galeas Lopez (11 de Octubre 2013) Grupo 18 de Abril la Pollera, Quilaperque, La Paz
5. Nery Antonio Gonzales (11 de Octubre 2013) Grupo 18 de Abril la Pollera, Quilaperque, La Paz
6. Angel Arnaldo Martinez Marquez (11 de Octubre 2013) Grupo 18 de Abril la Pollera, Quilaperque, La Paz
7. Manuel Nicolas Dominguez (11 de Octubre 2013) Grupo 18 de Abril la Pollera, Quilaperque, La Paz
8. Jose David Aguilar Galeas (11 de Octubre 2013) Grupo 18 de Abril la Pollera, Quilaperque, La Paz
9. Jacinto Bardales 11 de Octubre 2013) Grupo 18 de Abril la Pollera, Quilaperque, La Paz
10. Osmar Lara, Grupo Campesino Unidos para un Futuro Mejor, Marcala, La Paz
Photo showing Rafael Alegria and Franklin Almendarez.
During the protest by the campesino movement the General Secretary of the CNTC, Franklin Almendarez denounced the political persecution aimed at the local group leaders and campesino leaders in La Paz, "our companeros are followed in public places and public transportation by the police authorities and people dressed as civilians, we also want to sound the alert to the fact of the confabulation of the National Police with the big
landowners to facilitate armed civilians executing evictions and persecuting the campesino groups" he stated.
"In the same way, we vigorously denounce that government institutions such as the Institute for Forest Conservation (ICF) and the National Agrarian Institute (INA) deny us the right to Agrarian Reform, dismisses as "without cause" the filings for titles to the land made by our companeros, denying them access to natural resources and violating Accord 169 signed and ratified by the Government of Honduras with the International Labor Organization (OIT). The peoples affected must have the right to decide their own priorities regarding the process of development to the extent
that this affects their lives, beliefs, institutions and spiritual well being and the lands that they occupy or use in some way, and (the right) to control to the degree possible their own economic, social and cultural development. (Accord 169, Article 7(1). "
For his part, the General Coordinator of Via Campesina Honduras, Rafael Alegria stated that, "this march has been organized in La Paz to demand that the government end the criminalization of the campesino movement, we want this day to make history and its voice reach the government to say that we need them to give us land so that the campesinos have a parcel of land to work, that the Law for an Integral Agrarian reform with Gender Equity for Food Sovereignty and Rural Development that is tabled in the congress be passed immediately; the immediate liberation of the campesinos in legal proceedings and of the 11 companeros imprisoned in Tamara and Marcala; and an immediate end to the violent evictions and the destruction of crops", he concluded.
The march arrived to the court building in La Paz where campesinos Blanca Rodriguez Manueles, Romulo Galeas and Antonio Gonzales had court hearings for allegedly stealing land, they were accompanied by the Coordinator of Via Campesina, Rafael Alegria and the General Secretary of the CNTC, Franklin Almendarez; they achieved the campesinos being freed pending the continuation of the investigation.Afterwards the march went to the prison in La Paz where family members accompanied by congressmen from the LIBRE Party Rafael Alegria and Wilfredo Paz and Franklin Almendarez, visited the 5 young campesinos who are incarcerated there.
---
General Electric Co. of the USA to support the ZEDES sovereign cities. Source in Spanish [https://archive.today/dP1j2]
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The Central American Conference on Transnational Security was held in Tegucigalpa. There were police and military from 14 different countries from the region in attendance. John Kelly from Southcom was present as well as Erin Logan, who I believe is the principal director for counter-narcotics and global threats, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Policy) in the White House.
According to the Honduran press, Kelly announced at the conference that Logan is the highest level representative from the White House that has attended such conference. Radio Globo reported that Kelly praised the efforts of the Honduran military and police in human rights (This of course is said the same day that the press reports the violent killings of four high school students in Tegucigalpa involved in protests yesterday against neoliberal reforms to public education). Source in Spanish [https://archive.today/81T03].
The US Marines are about to create a new special force for Latin America with its seat in Honduras. It'll be called Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force-South (SPMAGTF-South). Sources in Spanish (1) [http://www.ellibertador.hn/?q=article/marina-de-eeuu-crear%C3%A1-fuerza-especial-para-am%C3%A9rica-latina-con-sede-en-honduras], (2) [http://www.tiempo.hn/nacion/item/25404-los-marines-estadounidenses-crearan-una-fuerza-especial-para-latinoamerica-con-sede-en-honduras]
* "Special Forces Soldiers Train Honduran Counter-Narcotic, Counter-Trafficking Force" (2015-03-24, shadowspear.com) [https://archive.today/J8vx2] [begin excerpt]:
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, FL (CPT Thomas Cieslak): A Honduran force skilled in combating criminal organizations and countering human and narcotic trafficking recently trained with Special Forces soldiers on Eglin Air Force Base's ranges located in Northwest Florida.
Green Berets from the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) hosted members of the Honduran TIGRES, whose name translates into "Intelligence and Special Security Response Groups Units", the final two weeks of February to mentor and coach them in tactics and methods they will use to fight narcotics and human trafficking in their country ... [end excerpt]
A National Party delegation went to inspect the consulates of Honduras in the US and became witnesses to "mistreatment, disorder and mafias controlling these offices." Source in Spanish [http://www.hondurastierralibre.com/2015/03/honduras-comision-de-diputados.html]
===*===*===
Republic of France Overseas Department of Guadeloupe
* "Charges Dropped Against Charly Lendo, Former Deputy Secretary General of the UGTG: A Great Victory for the Struggle Against Anti-Union Repression!", 2015-03-13, by Robert Stephan, for Issue No. 216 of the ILC International Newsletter:
Last March 3, Charly Lendo, former Deputy General Secretary of the General Union of Workers of Guadeloupe (UGTG), was acquitted by the Point-à-Pitre court of the charges of indirect, involuntary homicide, of indirect blows and wounds, and of endangering the lives of others, following his appearance in court the 20th of January 2015.
This same court decided that Charly Lendo was guilty of blocking traffic on February 17, 2009, but he was not sentenced for this. This is a great victory for the struggle against anti-union repression. It is the result of mobilisation and solidarity.
The origin of the proceedings against Charly Lendo . . .
Proceedings against Charly Lendo were started after the massive movement in 2009 headed by Liyannaj Kont Pwofitasyon (LKP) and the forty-four day general strike, during which his organisation, the UGTG, played an important role. This was a movement that resulted in the signing of the February 26, 2009 Bino Agreement and the Protocol of Agreement on the 4th of March 2009.
The French State, finding itself in difficulty with this mass mobilisation in Guadeloupe, with demonstrations counting tens of thousands and up to 100,000, has done all it can to regain control of the situation, starting by “derailing” the Bino Agreement, as requested by the CGMPE and the Medef (the bosses' organisation) and by refusing to respect its commitments.
The attempt by the French State, with its “servile” judiciary system, to send the UGTG leader to prison, its harassment of this union, which has witnessed hundreds of its leaders summoned to appear in court, are illustrations of this.
. . . the workers mobilised with their organisations and the people
Responding to calls from the UGTG, hundreds of thousands mobilised in this way. These were UGTG activists, representatives from trade unions, from LKP organisations and associations in particular.
The UGTG mobilisation against the repression of these unionists was relayed at the international level by the International Committee against Repression (CICR) and the International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples -- and at Caribbean level, by the Association of Workers and Peoples of the Caribbean (ATPC).
And now?
General mobilisation is underway. Practically all trade unions are calling for a general strike on the 26th of March 2015.
The Associations of Water users in Guadeloupe, with the LKP and the farmers of Daubin, of the West Collective and Santa Rose and neighbourhood (COSE), are also calling for mobilisation.
This is a movement that has been preparing for months, through resistance action by workers and their organisations against the bosses and the State, undermining the social guarantees of workers, pensioners, the unemployed, young people and the working masses. But also through meetings and debate conferences organised by the LKP and Water Committees.
The people of Guadeloupe, called on once more to the polls, have no confidence in the candidates and in these elections that will solve none of their problems.
This is the context of this court appearance, the context in which this verdict was pronounced.
---
* "Solidarity Is an Instrument in the Struggle of Workers and Peoples"
Communiqué of the General Union of Workers of Guadeloupe (UGTG), [begin excerpt]:
This decision confirms that it was a question of a case fabricated from A to Z in order to set at loggerheads two families living in the same vicinity. By diabolising Charly Lendo and his union, the Genera Union of Workers of Guadeloupe (UGTG), union action was intended to be presented as criminal more easily.
The court case against Charly Lendo has been the object of widespread mobilisation and of very great solidarity, in Guadeloupe itself, as well as at international level, for more than two years.
There have been hundreds of solidarity messages from organisations and personalities from many countries or regions throughout the world (North America, South America, the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, Europe).
There have been hundreds of appeals addressed to the Minister for Justice, especially by organisations in France. There was the presence of several delegations at the hearing in court, from Martinique, France and Haiti. There was also the solidarity meeting on January 14 at the Labour Exchange in Paris, organised by the CICR. It has been the solidarity and mobilisation of activists and organisations in Guadeloupe that were present in number last January 20th.
All these communiqués, all these stands taken, all this mobilisation and this solidarity have very largely contributed to Charly Lendo's being acquitted and have meant that our cries were heard way beyond the limits of Guadeloupe.
Solidarity is an instrument in the struggle of workers and peoples;
Long live the solidarity of workers and peoples!
Long live international solidarity!
[end excerpt]
---
* "Charly Lendo Acquitted: What Is at Stake in Guadeloupe and Elsewhere", editorial of the International Committee Against Repression Bulletin (CICR):
This verdict constitutes an immense success and a resounding defeat for those who have for a long time been hatching this plot. . . .
The aim was to get the UGTG, the main trade union on the Island, to back down and with it the other trade unions.
But the initiators of this plot underestimated several factors. The first of these was decisive: the uninterrupted mobilisation of the UGTG and its activists and with them the trade unions of Guadeloupe, supported by the population. Strikes, demonstrations, rallies never ceased during long battles.
This united front, with the organisations of Guadeloupe on the side of the UGTG demanding Charly Lendo's release and an end to anti union repression, weighed heavily in these results.
The second factor, underlined by Elie Domota, General Secretary of the UGTG, has been the importance of international solidarity all through these years. Trade unions from the Caribbean, the United States, Brazil, the Indian Ocean and of course from metropolitan France, all answered present.
Remember Elie Domota's round trip in 2012, invited by our Committee, received by more than a thousand union leaders in France, in Paris, in Nantes, but also in Lyon, Lille, Limoges.
The last two years, no less than three delegations received at the Ministry for Justice and two at the Ministry for Overseas where leaders from the CGT-FO and the CGT, with our Committee, expressed their refusal of anti-union repression, demanding that charges be dropped and Charly Lendo acquitted.
And the meeting of the 14th of January, in the main room of the Labour Exchange in Paris, in the presence of union leaders from Metropolitan France from the CGT-FO and the CGT, where UGTG leaders took to the floor. Several hundred activists once again addressed a letter to Mrs Taubira, Minister for Justice. . . .
The road has certainly been long and difficult. But the defeat, which the mobilisation of the working class of Guadeloupe, with its unions, supported by trade unions from all over the world, has just inflicted on those, who, with the case of the trade unionist Charly Lendo wanted to bring the UGTG to its knees, is a powerful encouragement to pursue our action.
We thank those who authorised the CICR to be present at the hearing of Jocelyn Leborgne, UGTG leader and at the court appearances of Charly Lendo.
===*===*===
Republic of Colombia
* "Colombian Report on US Military’s Child Rapes Not Newsworthy to US News Outlets" (2015-03-26, fair.org) [https://archive.today/VbAHq]
===*===*===
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
* "But What About the Oil? US Senators Get to the Heart of the Matter in Wake of Venezuela Sanctions" (2015-03-24, venezuelanalysis.com) [https://archive.today/hvEap]
===*===*===* "UK 'military lobby' behind Falklands beef-up: Argentina" (2015-03-24, AFP newswire) [https://archive.today/iW3uh]
===*===*===
Republic of France (EU)
* "140 years in prison for opponents of the TAV" (20105-02-25, ainfos.ca) [https://archive.today/zp8QG]
---
* "France steps up monitoring of cash payments to fight 'low-cost terrorism' " (2015-03-18, reuters.com) [https://archive.today/lcxWM] [begin excerpt]:
Just over two months after Islamist gunmen killed 17 people in attacks against a satirical weekly and a Jewish foodstore in Paris, it is necessary to "fight against the use of cash and anonymity in the French economy", Sapin said.
From September onwards, people who live in France will not be allowed to make payments of more than 1,000 euros ($1,060) in cash, down from 3,000 now. The cap for foreign visitors, left higher for reasons that include facilitating tourism, will be cut to 10,000 euros from 15,000.
Any cash deposit or withdrawal of more than 10,000 euros over a single month will be automatically signaled to the Tracfin anti-fraud and money laundering agency.
The authorities will have to be notified over transfers of more than 10,000 euros - for instance cheques, pre-paid cards or gold - by freight within the European Union.
The government will also increase controls on pre-paid cards and add mini-bank accounts to a national banking database. [end excerpt]
===*===*===---
* "France steps up monitoring of cash payments to fight 'low-cost terrorism' " (2015-03-18, reuters.com) [https://archive.today/lcxWM] [begin excerpt]:
Just over two months after Islamist gunmen killed 17 people in attacks against a satirical weekly and a Jewish foodstore in Paris, it is necessary to "fight against the use of cash and anonymity in the French economy", Sapin said.
From September onwards, people who live in France will not be allowed to make payments of more than 1,000 euros ($1,060) in cash, down from 3,000 now. The cap for foreign visitors, left higher for reasons that include facilitating tourism, will be cut to 10,000 euros from 15,000.
Any cash deposit or withdrawal of more than 10,000 euros over a single month will be automatically signaled to the Tracfin anti-fraud and money laundering agency.
The authorities will have to be notified over transfers of more than 10,000 euros - for instance cheques, pre-paid cards or gold - by freight within the European Union.
The government will also increase controls on pre-paid cards and add mini-bank accounts to a national banking database. [end excerpt]
Kingdom of Spain
* "Draconian Laws Sending Spain Back to the Dark Ages" (2015-03-28, truthvoice.com) [https://archive.today/HqF4o] [begin excerpt]:Law on Citizen Safety (Gag Law) -
“The gag law is revenge against social movements that emerged after 15M” – Patricia Martin, Avaaz.
Under the new Citizen Safety Law or Ley Mordaza (Gag Law) as human rights defenders have renamed it, public protests, freedoms of speech and the press and documenting police abuses will become crimes punishable by heavy fines and/or jail. Some key points on the Ley Mordaza:
* Photographing or recording police – 600 to 30.000€ fine.
* Peaceful disobedience to authority – 600 to 30.000€ fine.
* Occupying banks as means of protest – 600 to 30.000€ fine.
* Not formalizing a protest – 600 to 30.000€ fine.
* For carrying out assemblies or meetings in public spaces – 100 to 600€ fine.
* For impeding or stopping an eviction – 600 to 30.000€ fine.
* For presence at an occupied space (not only social centers but also houses occupied by evicted families) – 100 to 600€ fine.
* Police black lists for protesters, activists and alternative press have been legalized.
* Meeting or gathering in front of Congress – 600 to 30.000€ fine.
* Appealing the fines in court requires the payment of judicial costs, whose amount depends on the fine.
* It allows random identity checks, allowing for racial profiling of immigrants and minorities.
* Police can now carry out raids at their discretion, without the need for “order” to have been disrupted.
* External bodily searches are also now allowed at police discretion.
* The government can prohibit any protest at will, if it feels “order” will be disrupted.
* Any ill-defined “critical infrastructure” is now considered a forbidden zone for public gatherings if it might affect their functioning.
There are also fines for people who climb buildings and monuments without permission. (This has been a common method of protest from organizations like Greenpeace.)
The Gag Law will also affect internet freedoms as tweets calling for demonstrations or protests may be subject to penalties and fines for organizers. While an individual user may not be considered “an organizer” it could also be construed to include anyone who disseminates a call to protest through any media, including social media. [end excerpt]
===*===*===
Republic of Greece
* "Moscow-friendly Greece could 'paralyse' NATO" (2015-03-25, AFP newswire) [https://archive.today/QCWUP]---
* "Fascists at the gate in Greece" (2015-03-30, peoplesworld.org) [https://archive.today/rfUsI] [begin excerpt]
When some 70 members of the neo-Nazi organization Golden Dawn go on trial sometime this spring, there will be more than street thugs and fascist ideologues in the docket: a tangled web of influence that is likely to engulf Greece's police, national security agency, wealthy oligarchs, and mainstream political parties. While Golden Dawn - with its Holocaust denial, its swastikas, and Hitler salutes - makes it look like it inhabits the fringe, in fact the organization has roots deep in the heart of Greece's political culture.
Golden Dawn was founded by some of the key people who ruled during the 1967-74 junta, and Greek dictator Georgios Papadopoulos, the leader of the "colonels" who led the 1967 coup, groomed the party's founder and current leader, Nikos Michaloliakos. Papadopoulos was a Nazi collaborator and served with the German "security battalions" that executed 130,000 Greek civilians during World War II. Papadopoulos was trained by the U.S. Army and recruited by the CIA. Indeed, he was the first CIA employee to govern a European country.
According to the Supreme Court's Vourliotis, Golden Dawn believes that "Those who do not belong to the popular community of the race are subhuman. In this category belong foreign immigrants, Roma, those who disagree with their ideas and even people with mental problems." The party dismisses the Holocaust: "There were no crematoria, it's a lie. Or gas chambers," Michaloliakos said in a 2012 national TV interview. Some 60,000 members of Greece's Jewish population were transported and murdered in the death camps during World War II.
[end excerpt]
===*===*===
Republic of Ukraine
* "7 Interesting Facts about Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuF_xVOk_pc]Classified documents published by Wikileaks shows that Ukraine’s President Poroshenko was in fact an American informant, stirring up trouble long before the Maidan coup.
* "OUR UKRAINE INSIDER POROSHENKO ON RADA MAJORITY COALITION TALKS" (2006) [https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/06KIEV1706_a.html]
---
* "Ukraine’s oligarchs struggle for the loot" (2015-03-27, marxist.com) [https://archive.today/xuHSb]
* "Ukraine’s Most Dangerous Oligarch?" (2015-03-27, thedailybeast.com) [https://archive.today/roY4K]
* "We just got a glimpse of how oligarch-funded militias could bring chaos to Ukraine" (2015-03-23, vox.com) [https://archive.today/Xihyg]
* "Ukraine's President fires billionaire governor who bankrolled militia" (2015-03-25, fortune.com) [https://archive.today/afqyz]
---
* "Ukraine's Right Sector Leader Wants Donbas Residents Deported" (2015-03-29, sputniknews.com) [https://archive.today/55w49]
* "The lunatics are taken over the asylum; Right Sector leader predicts new Maidan, larger and bloodier than before" (2015-03-31) :
Rada MP and Right Sector Leader Dmitri Yarosh told Ukrainian media to expect a third Maidan revolution, and claimed that it would be bloodier than before, given that the country's growingly impatient young revolutionaries are now heavily armed. The US created Frankenstein Monster may be about to run out of control. In a recently released excerpt from his Sunday interview with Ukrainian newspaper Obozrevatel, MP, militant activist and Right Sector Leader Dmitri Yarosh noted that if a third Maidan were to take place in Ukraine, it would be bloodier and more terrible than anything ever witnessed before it. "In Ukraine, everything is possible, a new Maidan all the more so. People have dignity. And when they are pushed to the limit, they come out for new Maidans," Yarosh stated. "Of course, the next one will be, let's say, different. People are so heavily armed now that no one is going to sit in tents and wait for a month or two, singing songs or waving flashlights. And this is just something that we don't need," the radical parliamentarian added. "Our position is that we must walk on a knife's edge. On the one hand we must maintain the state, but on the other, we must make it so that parasites do not drink the blood of the Ukrainian people, as they did before the revolution," Yarosh added. "We have among us radicals, who are already shouting 'let's do it now!' Especially the youth, which has taken a breath of this spirit of freedom, and now they are ready, at a moment's notice, to take the parliament, the presidential administration, to kick everyone out of there. We are trying to explain to them that in such a case we would lose our state, and that Putin would immediately send his troops to Kiev, to save the country from the worst kind of junta. Because this 'juntlet' we have now is relatively sweet, and not very scary, compared to the most bloodthirsty Banderites. Therefore even this process must be tempered. Whether I am correct or not only time will tell," the Right Sector leader noted. In a separate interview published Sunday on Ukrainian news site LB.ua, Yarosh noted that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko "still does not understand what country he lives in, and the underlying realities" of his position.
---
* (2015-03-26, South Front) [https://archive.today/fQ9Jk]:
Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Vadym Prystaiko:
“Fighting must cease, illegal armed formations be removed from the occupied territories, control established over the border, and Ukrainian television broadcasting restored so that all political parties may have the opportunity to freely present their platforms, and it is with these conditions in place, as exist across the entire Ukraine, that they will be able to select their own representatives, with whom, naturally, the central authorities and the government in Kiev will conduct talks.” He explained further, “Ukrainian citizens, regardless of their ideological perspective, should be allowed to organize and participate in the elections. And they should make their choice independently, not under the barrel of a gun, and not having had their choice made for them”.Prystaiko's statement is just another example of the Kiev regime’s routine propaganda:
1. Kiev-controlled territories are burning in chaos. Today it is a place of conflict and wide-spread criminality motivated by greed and nationalistic issues. The Odessa Massacre and war crimes in Kiev-occupied territories reflect the dismal human rights situation in the oligarchical state of Ukraine.
2. If Novorossia (DPR and LPR) armed forces withdraw, pro-Kiev nazi battalions will occupy the territories and for sure Ukrainian nazi "patriots" will start terror against the "subhumans" (https://archive.today/1d76w) of Donbass.
3. Ukrainian television broadcasting is a US-controlled propaganda machine. Ukrainian TV means nazi and US brainwashing without a whisper of real news. Kiev has banned Russian TV channels and even a good share of Russian or old Soviet cartoon video production. The Kiev regime crackdowns on media freedom and carries out violence against dissenting Western and Russian mass media.
4. "All political parties may have the opportunity to freely present their platforms", Prystaiko said. But where have we seen different political platforms in Ukraine? Kiev authorities are killing and persecuting any political opponents. This is the type of democracy which Kiev prefers.
5. Kiev officials believe that the guns of Novorossian fighters oppose independent elections. Apparently they think the gun barrels of nazi battalions will ensure a pro-US and pro-oligarch “democratic” choice for DPR and LPR residents. The only reason why someone wants to allow Kiev's nazi battalions to occupy Eastern Ukraine is to start the genocide of locals.
---
* "Ultra-nationalist Ukrainian battalion gears up for more fighting" (2015-03-25, Reuters newswire) [https://archive.today/LpSPM] [begin excerpt]:
The Azov battalion originated from Biletsky's paramilitary national socialist group called "Patriot of Ukraine", which propagated slogans of white supremacy, racial purity, the need for authoritarian power and a centralized national economy.
"Patriot of Ukraine" opposed giving up Ukraine's sovereignty by joining international blocs, called for rolling back of liberal economy and political democracy, including free media.
In 2008, Biletsky urged "thousands of young fanatic apostles" to advance its ideas. Local media have reported on several violent incidents in which the group was involved.
Since Azov was officially created last May, it has been involved in fighting on the outskirts of the rebel stronghold of Donetsk, a battle for the town of Illovaysk which Ukrainian forces lost last summer and across the coast of the Sea of Azov.
But, since Azov was enrolled as a regiment of Ukraine's National Guard in September and started receiving increased supplies of heavy arms, Biletsky has toned down his rhetoric.
Most of "Patriot of Ukraine" websites are now down or under restricted access. He denied Azov's symbol was a reference to Nazism, saying it was rather a Ukrainian nationalist symbol.
Biletsky said his troops, all volunteers, were "officially" making 6,000 hryvnia ($316) a month but in fact around 10,000 hryvnia. Apart from getting funds from the interior ministry, Azov is believed to be getting support from among Ukrainian super-rich oligarchs.
Biletsky did not say whether and how his views have changed since he wrote the "Patriot of Ukraine" program but said his priority now was extinguishing the pro-Russian rebellion.
"We have only one goal right now - fighting for the homeland until all of it is freed. And then we will try to build a new Ukraine that we could all be proud of. We are patriots. We believe in our nation, nationalism is our ideology," he said.
[end excerpt]
---
* "The conflict in Ukraine has led to a Golden Age for Jews — though some are still leaving" (2015-03-18, pri.org) [https://archive.today/zX41j] [begin excerpt]: But while it may be true that Jews have never been more integrated into Ukrainian society, they are also leaving Ukraine in record numbers — mostly for Israel. According to the Jewish Agency for Israel, Ukrainian immigration to Israel nearly tripled last year, another result of the Ukraine conflict. But for the Jews who do remain, Shchupak tells me it’s a different Ukraine. He says the Menorah Center has lately become a refuge, and not just for Jews but also techies fleeing separatist-controlled parts of Donetsk. He says it might soon become Ukraine’s version of Silicon Valley. [end excerpt]
---
* "Chechnya will begin arming Mexico if the USA sends weapons to Ukraine" (2015-03-26, eluniversal.com.mx) [https://archive.today/4EDmd] (in Spanish)
===*===*===
Union of People's Republics of NovorossiyaFor more info, with maps, and news links, visit [NovorossiyaSolidarity.blogspot.com].
Ukrainian crisis news:
* (2015-03-31) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqT42oDRza4]
* (2015-03-27) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZr32ZiqoEs]
* (2015-03-25) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GU8_ITmEFgQ]
* (2015-03-24) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi7AxFtyBL8]
---
* "Pepe Escobar in eastern Ukraine: Howling in Donetsk" (2015-03-30, atimes.com) [https://archive.today/s8xky]
* "Beyond Left and Right, Beyond Red and White: Framing the Liberation War in Donbass" (2015-03-30, greanvillepost.com) [https://archive.today/FMPDe]
* "The factories of Novorossiya continue to repair captured tanks of pro-Kiev forces from Debaltsevo" photo (2015-03-30, SouthFront) [https://archive.today/WXEHy]
* Ukrainian punitive battalions are escalate the conflict (2015-03-31):
Spot report by the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine on the escalation of the situation in Shyrokyno, 28 March 2015. On 27 March, the SMM observed from an observation point in the vicinity of Berdianske (government-controlled, 18km east of Mariupol) escalating fighting in Shyrokino (“Donetsk People’s Republic” (“DPR”) controlled, 20km east of Mariupol, 102 km south of Donetsk) counting over 225 mortar shells from 14:40hrs to 17:15hrs. The shelling had started only a few hours after a SMM visit to the “DPR” “command” in Shyrokino. From its position the SMM estimated that the shells were fired from a position of the Ukrainian Armed Forces located in Berdyanskoye. The SMM assessed that the majority of these outgoing shells impacted on the southern part of the Shyrokyne village, controlled by “DPR”. About 20 mortar shells were observed to have been fired back from the area controlled by “DPR”. The Headquarters of Mariupol Defence disproves the OSCE Mission statement. Kiev does not want to admit that its law enforcement bodies are not following the Minsk Agreement and are trying to escalate the conflict instead, in accordance with the instructions received from Washington.
* (2015-03-26) [https://archive.today/k9pEe]: Another portion of the shipment of armored "Humvees" came to Ukraine from the United States. In fact, as previously announced, will be only part of the armored set of machines. Some of them will adopt for use in punitive and territorial battalions. Similar to the British "Saxons", it is good we will soon see them on the front and it is hardly is a serious cause for concern, especially since the American-made cars tended to successfully burn on the battlefield last summer. There will be delivery of about 230 of these machines. The picture shows the destruction "Hammer" in Stepanovka and the destruction of an artillery VSN Humvee, in autumn 2014. In general, there is experience in destroying these vehicles. It should be understood that for the Americans, this is like sending a batch of seeds. Later, more serious parcels can arrive.
* (2015-03-26) [https://archive.today/kfera]: "While the US Congress is urging Pres. Obama to authorize the delivery of the US weapons to conflict zone in Ukraine, witnesses in Austria report NATO tanks being transported direction to the East. Photo taken in Linz in the morning March 24, 2015."
---
25.03.15 Message from the activists.
Anti-Maidan partisans have carried out an intimidation attack against the junta by sabotaging a railroad. A powerful demolition charge was blown up at the railroad between Demurino and Prosyanaya in the Dnepropetrovsk province under a running coal train. The guerrilla attack took place at the 331st kilometer of the railroad today. Although the train carriages weren't derailed as a result of the explosion, they took considerable damage. No human casualties were reported. The investigation of the incident was initiated by the transport police of the illegal "Donetsk province of Ukraine". This partisan attack shows that the citizens of the Dnepropetrovsk region will never reconcile with the inhuman power of Ukrainian occupiers and will not allow state criminals to use the coal of junta-ravaged Donbass with impunity.It's hard to be lapdog of US-backed Kiev government in Ukraine:
* "Unknown partisans have blown up Kiev military's fuel tank around Kharkov today" photo (2015-03-30, SouthFront) [https://archive.today/4RJU7]
===*===*===
Arab Republic of Syria
* "Syria's President Assad: US Airstrikes a Recruiting Bonanza for ISIS" (2015-03-30, commondreams.org) [https://archive.today/KA9MX]
===*===*===
State of Israel, occupied territories, international operations
* "COURT ACCEPTS DOJ’S ‘STATE SECRETS’ CLAIM TO PROTECT SHADOWY NEOCONS: A NEW LOW" (2015-03-26, firstlook.org) [https://archive.today/SJ0Fu] [begin excerpt]:
In May 2013, UANI launched a “name and shame” campaign designed to publicly identify — and malign — any individuals or entities enabling trade with Iran. One of the accused was the shipping company of Greek billionaire Victor Restis, who vehemently denies the accusation. He hired an American law firm and sued UANI for defamation in a New York federal court, claiming the “name and shame” campaign destroyed his reputation.
Up until that point, there was nothing unusual about any of this: just a garden-variety defamation case brought in court by someone who claims that public statements made about him are damaging and false. That happens every day. But then something quite extraordinary happened: In September of last year, the U.S. government, which was not a party, formally intervened in the lawsuit, and demanded that the court refuse to hear Restis’s claims and instead dismiss the lawsuit against UANI before it could even start, on the ground that allowing the case to proceed would damage national security.
When the DOJ intervened in this case and asserted the “state secrets privilege,” it confounded almost everyone. The New York Times’s Matt Apuzzo noted at the time that “the group is not affiliated with the government, and lists no government contracts on its tax forms. The government has cited no precedent for using the so-called state secrets privilege to quash a private lawsuit that does not focus on government activity.” He quoted the ACLU’s Ben Wizner as saying: “I have never seen anything like this.” Reuters’s Allison Frankel labeled the DOJ’s involvement a “mystery” and said “the government’s brief is maddeningly opaque about its interest in a private libel case.” [end excerpt]
* United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) [https://archive.today/z6mcp], leadership [https://archive.today/yjuM], excerpt of their Advisory Board: R. James Woolsey, Former Director of the CIA ; Meir Dagan, Former General Director of the Israeli Mossad ; Francis Townsend, Former U.S. Homeland Security Advisor ; Sir Richard Dearlove, Former Head of the UK’s MI6 ; Lord Charles Guthrie, Former Chief of Staff of UK Armed Forces ; Fouad Ajami, Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution
===*===*===
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
* "The Islamic bomb: Nuclear Wahhabis, anyone?" (2015-03-20, atimes.com) [https://archive.today/xSR2W]
===*===*===
Ansarullah Revolutionary Government of Yemen
* "Protesters urge end to Saudi invasion of Yemen" (2015-03-29, presstv.ir) [https://archive.today/JnZa9]
* "Saudi Warplanes Kills Dozens of Civilians As Yemeni Army, Committees Advance" (2015-03-30) [http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?eid=203564&frid=23&seccatid=31&cid=23&fromval=1]:
The Saudi-led aggression on Yemen continued on Monday as the airstrikes targeted al-Mozraq camp, killing and injuring of civilians. 45 martyrs, including women and children, were claimed by the air raid on the camp which lies in Hija province.
Meanwhile, the Yemeni army and the Public Committees and advanced in the provinces of Lahj and Abyan. Al-Qaeda terrorists collapsed in Aden as Yemeni army and the Public Committees controlled the city's airport.
* "Yemen: More Civilians Martyred as Saudi Warplanes Target Popular Market in Saada" (2015-03-27) [http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?eid=203124&frid=23&cid=23&fromval=1&seccatid=31]:
More civilians were martyred as Saudi-US warplanes struck several targets across Yemen, including a popular market in the city of Saada, Yemeni sources reported.
The sources said that the strike on Saada market took place early morning on Friday, noting that several civilians were martyred.
Overnight strikes targeted Sanaa, where explosions were heard in the capital, the sources said, noting that the Yemeni air defense systems repelled the hostile warplanes.
Health ministry officials said also on Friday that at least 39 civilians have been killed in more than 24 hours of Saudi assault on Yemen, AFP reported.
Earlier on Thursday night al-Manar correspondent reported that fresh strikes targeted an army camp in Sanaa as well as different positions in Saada.
Saudi Arabia along with other Gulf and Arab states have been since Wednesday night waging a military attack on Yemen, in a bid to protect the government of the fugitive President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, who fled the country to Oman earlier on Thursday.
The declaration of theassault came from Washington by the Saudi ambassador to US Adel al-Jubeir.
---
* "That’s How Saudi-Led Aggression on Yemen Commits Atrocities" (2015-03-30) [http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?eid=203597&frid=23&cid=23&fromval=1&seccatid=31]: Saudi Terrorism in Yemen. Footage broadcast by Al-Manar TV channel showed how the Saudi-led aggression on Yemen targets the civilians and the residential areas, committing massacres.
Dozens have been killed or injured of Yemenis since a coalition of 10 countries, led by Saudi Arabia, launched late Wednesday a wide military offensive on Yemen, causing also so much destruction.
Media outlets reported that Saudi Arabia has deployed "100 fighter jets, 150,000 soldiers and other navy units" for the military campaign against Yemen. It also sent 5000 takfiri terrorists to fight against the Yemeni army.
Saudi Arabia is known for training and funding takfiri groups and sending them to the conflict-hit zones in the Arab and Muslim world, including Syria, Afghanistan and now in Yemen.
---
* "Yemeni Army Kills, Arrests Number of Takfiris As Saudi-Led Aggression Continues" (2015-03-29) [http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?eid=203421&frid=23&cid=23&fromval=1&seccatid=31]
Saudi AirstrikesThe Yemeni army, backed by the Popular committees, expelled Qaeda militants from a post on main highway in Shabwa, southern the country, killing 10 terrorists and arresting a number of others.
On the other hand, the Saudi-led aggression on Yemen continued as airstrikes targeted various cities, destroying the country's main facilities, including Sanaa airport.
The Yemeni's air defense system encountered the hostile air raids, according to Al-Manar reporter.
Politically, the Algeria FM Ramatan al-Amamera submitted to his Egyptian and Saudi counterparts an initiative to end the crisis.
Well-informed sources mentioned that all the concerned parties were informed about the initiative and that Saudi Arabia is complicating the political procedure, setting the deployment of "Arab" troops in Sanaa as a precondition to reach a solution.
---
* "Ansarullah Has Evidence to US Role in Terrorist Operations in Yemen" (2015-03-28) [http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?eid=203311&cid=23&fromval=1]:
A senior member of the popular Ansarullah movement disclosed that the revolutionary group has information and evidence at hand to corroborate the US has played the main role in ongoing unrests and terrorist attacks in Yemen.
Ansarullah"The movement has collected documents which unveil that the US has been playing a role in Yemen's current terrorist operations," member of Ansarullah Executive Committee Ali Qassem Al-Shahdi told Fars news agency on Friday.
He explained that Ansarullah has gained access to these documents after taking control of Yemen's National Security Office which had tight cooperation with the CIA and other spy agencies.
Earlier today, Ansarullah Spokesman Zeifollah al-Shami said Yemeni tribes, army and popular forces are united to give a crushing response to the recent Saudi aggression, adding that Tel Aviv and Washington have ordered Riyadh to attack Yemen.
"We know that the Saudi aggression and airstrikes have taken place at the order of Israel and the US," al-Shami told FNA. He noted that the Yemeni people have put aside their differences to fight against the aggressors.
"God willingly, the crushing response to the aggressions of the Saudi enemy will come coming days," al-Shami added.
Saudi Arabia launched airstrikes against Yemeni shopping market early Saturday, targeting civilian areas.
---
* "Ansarullah Leader: US, Israel behind Yemen Terrorist Attacks" (2015-03-22) [http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?eid=202200&cid=23&fromval=1]:
Leader of Ansarullah group in Yemen accused on Sunday the United States and the Zionist entity of supporting the recent terrorist attacks that targeted two mosques in the capital of Sanaa on Friday.
In a televised address tackling mainly Friday's deadly attacks, Sayyed Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said some countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar are financing acts of terror in the Middle East region and beyond.
He called on all Yemenis to rise up against terrorists groups operating in Yemen, noting that the Yemeni people are not safe in any other place.
"Everyone is a target,” he said.
Branches of the so-called 'Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant' (ISIL) Takfiri group and the terrorist al-Qaeda organization in Yemen are claiming responsibilities for the brutal crimes of de-establishing security and targeting the Yemeni people.
Over 140 people were killed and more than 350 suffered injuries in three bomb attacks at the Badr mosque in southern Sana’a and the al-Hashoosh mosque in the northern part of the capital. The ISIL Takfiri terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attacks.
"The attacks show that terrorists are unfamiliar with humane values, Sayyed Houthi said, adding that the attacks have uncovered the vicious nature of the perpetrators.
The attackers are seeking to humiliate the Yemeni people and force them to surrender, Houthi stated.
“But they are of course mistaken,” he stressed.
He further noted that the fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi is being used as a "puppet" to target the people in the country.
Hadi, along with members of Prime Minister Khaled Bahah’s cabinet, stepped down in late January. He then fled his home in Sana’a to Aden, Yemen’s second largest city in the south, where he officially withdrew his resignation and highlighted his intention to resume duties.
Hadi's militiamen are fighting the Yemeni army and popular committees to occupy the state's facilities in an attempt to establish a rival governance in the country.
Some Persian Gulf Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, have already relocated their embassies from Sana’a to Aden.
===*===*===
* "Saudi Warplanes Kills Dozens of Civilians As Yemeni Army, Committees Advance" (2015-03-30) [http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?eid=203564&frid=23&seccatid=31&cid=23&fromval=1]:
The Saudi-led aggression on Yemen continued on Monday as the airstrikes targeted al-Mozraq camp, killing and injuring of civilians. 45 martyrs, including women and children, were claimed by the air raid on the camp which lies in Hija province.
Meanwhile, the Yemeni army and the Public Committees and advanced in the provinces of Lahj and Abyan. Al-Qaeda terrorists collapsed in Aden as Yemeni army and the Public Committees controlled the city's airport.
* "Yemen: More Civilians Martyred as Saudi Warplanes Target Popular Market in Saada" (2015-03-27) [http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?eid=203124&frid=23&cid=23&fromval=1&seccatid=31]:
More civilians were martyred as Saudi-US warplanes struck several targets across Yemen, including a popular market in the city of Saada, Yemeni sources reported.
The sources said that the strike on Saada market took place early morning on Friday, noting that several civilians were martyred.
Overnight strikes targeted Sanaa, where explosions were heard in the capital, the sources said, noting that the Yemeni air defense systems repelled the hostile warplanes.
Health ministry officials said also on Friday that at least 39 civilians have been killed in more than 24 hours of Saudi assault on Yemen, AFP reported.
Earlier on Thursday night al-Manar correspondent reported that fresh strikes targeted an army camp in Sanaa as well as different positions in Saada.
Saudi Arabia along with other Gulf and Arab states have been since Wednesday night waging a military attack on Yemen, in a bid to protect the government of the fugitive President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, who fled the country to Oman earlier on Thursday.
The declaration of theassault came from Washington by the Saudi ambassador to US Adel al-Jubeir.
---
* "That’s How Saudi-Led Aggression on Yemen Commits Atrocities" (2015-03-30) [http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?eid=203597&frid=23&cid=23&fromval=1&seccatid=31]: Saudi Terrorism in Yemen. Footage broadcast by Al-Manar TV channel showed how the Saudi-led aggression on Yemen targets the civilians and the residential areas, committing massacres.
Dozens have been killed or injured of Yemenis since a coalition of 10 countries, led by Saudi Arabia, launched late Wednesday a wide military offensive on Yemen, causing also so much destruction.
Media outlets reported that Saudi Arabia has deployed "100 fighter jets, 150,000 soldiers and other navy units" for the military campaign against Yemen. It also sent 5000 takfiri terrorists to fight against the Yemeni army.
Saudi Arabia is known for training and funding takfiri groups and sending them to the conflict-hit zones in the Arab and Muslim world, including Syria, Afghanistan and now in Yemen.
---
* "Yemeni Army Kills, Arrests Number of Takfiris As Saudi-Led Aggression Continues" (2015-03-29) [http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?eid=203421&frid=23&cid=23&fromval=1&seccatid=31]
Saudi AirstrikesThe Yemeni army, backed by the Popular committees, expelled Qaeda militants from a post on main highway in Shabwa, southern the country, killing 10 terrorists and arresting a number of others.
On the other hand, the Saudi-led aggression on Yemen continued as airstrikes targeted various cities, destroying the country's main facilities, including Sanaa airport.
The Yemeni's air defense system encountered the hostile air raids, according to Al-Manar reporter.
Politically, the Algeria FM Ramatan al-Amamera submitted to his Egyptian and Saudi counterparts an initiative to end the crisis.
Well-informed sources mentioned that all the concerned parties were informed about the initiative and that Saudi Arabia is complicating the political procedure, setting the deployment of "Arab" troops in Sanaa as a precondition to reach a solution.
---
* "Ansarullah Has Evidence to US Role in Terrorist Operations in Yemen" (2015-03-28) [http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?eid=203311&cid=23&fromval=1]:
A senior member of the popular Ansarullah movement disclosed that the revolutionary group has information and evidence at hand to corroborate the US has played the main role in ongoing unrests and terrorist attacks in Yemen.
Ansarullah"The movement has collected documents which unveil that the US has been playing a role in Yemen's current terrorist operations," member of Ansarullah Executive Committee Ali Qassem Al-Shahdi told Fars news agency on Friday.
He explained that Ansarullah has gained access to these documents after taking control of Yemen's National Security Office which had tight cooperation with the CIA and other spy agencies.
Earlier today, Ansarullah Spokesman Zeifollah al-Shami said Yemeni tribes, army and popular forces are united to give a crushing response to the recent Saudi aggression, adding that Tel Aviv and Washington have ordered Riyadh to attack Yemen.
"We know that the Saudi aggression and airstrikes have taken place at the order of Israel and the US," al-Shami told FNA. He noted that the Yemeni people have put aside their differences to fight against the aggressors.
"God willingly, the crushing response to the aggressions of the Saudi enemy will come coming days," al-Shami added.
Saudi Arabia launched airstrikes against Yemeni shopping market early Saturday, targeting civilian areas.
---
* "Ansarullah Leader: US, Israel behind Yemen Terrorist Attacks" (2015-03-22) [http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?eid=202200&cid=23&fromval=1]:
Leader of Ansarullah group in Yemen accused on Sunday the United States and the Zionist entity of supporting the recent terrorist attacks that targeted two mosques in the capital of Sanaa on Friday.
In a televised address tackling mainly Friday's deadly attacks, Sayyed Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said some countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar are financing acts of terror in the Middle East region and beyond.
He called on all Yemenis to rise up against terrorists groups operating in Yemen, noting that the Yemeni people are not safe in any other place.
"Everyone is a target,” he said.
Branches of the so-called 'Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant' (ISIL) Takfiri group and the terrorist al-Qaeda organization in Yemen are claiming responsibilities for the brutal crimes of de-establishing security and targeting the Yemeni people.
Over 140 people were killed and more than 350 suffered injuries in three bomb attacks at the Badr mosque in southern Sana’a and the al-Hashoosh mosque in the northern part of the capital. The ISIL Takfiri terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attacks.
"The attacks show that terrorists are unfamiliar with humane values, Sayyed Houthi said, adding that the attacks have uncovered the vicious nature of the perpetrators.
The attackers are seeking to humiliate the Yemeni people and force them to surrender, Houthi stated.
“But they are of course mistaken,” he stressed.
He further noted that the fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi is being used as a "puppet" to target the people in the country.
Hadi, along with members of Prime Minister Khaled Bahah’s cabinet, stepped down in late January. He then fled his home in Sana’a to Aden, Yemen’s second largest city in the south, where he officially withdrew his resignation and highlighted his intention to resume duties.
Hadi's militiamen are fighting the Yemeni army and popular committees to occupy the state's facilities in an attempt to establish a rival governance in the country.
Some Persian Gulf Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, have already relocated their embassies from Sana’a to Aden.
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Islamic Republic of Iran
* "As lakes become deserts, drought is Iran's new problem" (2015-03-21, AFP newswire) [https://archive.today/PWtK3]
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Occupied State of West Papua ===*===*===
research from the Committee for the Study of
HISTORY AND THE CURRENT CONTEXT
* "The Secret History of South Asian and African American Solidarity" [https://archive.today/BcpjH]
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* "Stick to Sports: The Communist Sportwriter and the FBI Plot to ruin him" (vice.com) [https://archive.today/bGfJ1]
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* "Panther Politics in Chicago and Beyond" book review (2013-09, h-net.org) [https://archive.today/V13Rn]:
Whether in academia or the wider culture, interest in the Black Panther Party for Self Defense (BPP), formed by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, California, in 1966, remains intense. Notable recent publications include, for example, Joshua Bloom and Waldo E. Martin Jr.’s Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party (2013), Jane Rhodes’s Framing the Black Panthers: The Spectacular Rise of a Black Power Icon (2007), Judson L. Jeffries’s Comrades: A Local History of the Black Panther Party (2007), and Curtis Austin’s Up Against the Wall: Violence in the Making and Unmaking of the Black Panther Party (2006). The Panthers generate so much interest not just because of the dramatic nature of their story, but also because their rise and fall has so much to say about many of the “larger” themes in contemporary U.S. history: race, violence and power; the impact and meaning of the civil rights and Black Power movements; government surveillance and repression; and the wider meaning of the “1960s” and all that contested decade has come to stand for.Reflecting one of the key trends of recent scholarship on the BPP--an increasing emphasis on localism--Jakobi Williams’s From the Bullet to the Ballot turns our attention away from Oakland and the organization’s national headquarters towards Chicago and the Illinois chapter of the Party (ILBPP) under the charismatic, active, and highly effective leadership of Fred Hampton. The book is divided into six chapters. Chapter 1 places the ILBPP in the wider context of the political and social conditions that existed for black Chicagoans between 1900 and 1970, with particular emphasis on the “tactics of mafia violence and police brutality” that was “par for the course” for the repressive political machine of Mayor Richard J. Daley (p. 29), as well as the failure of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Freedom Movement campaign in the city. Chapter 2 examines the origins of the ILBPP, which was formed in 1968, in Hampton’s early experience in the NAACP and stresses the importance of the black student movement more broadly to the development of the organization. Chapter 3 provides a detailed comparison between the activities of the Illinois and Oakland chapters of the party, thereby illustrating the still powerful gravitational pull of BPP national headquarters, and seeks to differentiate the Midwestern group from its California counterpart in the former’s (somewhat) reduced “hypermasculinity” (p. 119) and (marginally) greater awareness of gender issues; its unwillingness to abandon its commitment to, or connection with, the civil rights struggle in Chicago; and its focus on dismantling Mayor Daley’s “Democratic machine’s control of Chicago residents” (p. 107).
In Williams’s view, the most significant and important feature of the ILBPP’s attempts to resist the power of Daley machine is found in its grassroots, antiracist, anticlass Rainbow Coalition, which included groups like the Puerto Rican Young Lords, the white southern Young Patriots, Students for a Democratic Society, and members of Chicago gangs, such as the Black Disciples and the Black Stone Rangers. He examines this Rainbow Coalition in fascinating detail in chapter 4 of the book. Chapter 5 documents just how central law enforcement repression was to the Panthers’ demise in Chicago (as it was elsewhere), as it highlights the work of both the Chicago Police Department’s infamous Red Squad (its Intelligence Section and Surveillance Unit) and the FBI’s equally infamous Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO). The last chapter examines the legacy of the ILBPP not just in Chicago, but nationally, with Williams placing particular emphasis on the Panthers’ survival programs--its free breakfast for children and free medical research health clinics--together with the impact of its Rainbow Coalition activism.
One of the considerable strengths of the book is Williams’s access to the previously sealed records of the Red Squad, and it would have been interesting to know more about how this access came about. At times, though, he relies a little too heavily on these sources, while at others--his discussion of the 1968 Democratic National Convention being a case in point (pp. 103-107)--more context is needed for readers who may not be as familiar with the period and its politics as the author is. A further problem, as Williams himself acknowledges, is that many of the former members of the ILBPP “refuse to be interviewed and/or are engaged in producing their own projects” such as the nonprofit Illinois Black Panther Party History Project (p. 12). One of the unfortunate results of these former members’ unwillingness to engage with Williams is that it occasionally provides him with a very narrow evidence base for some of his conclusions--his discussion of why rank-and-file members joined the party, for example (pp. 85-89). Similarly, I am not sure that all readers are likely to be entirely convinced by the connections Williams attempts to make between the “racial coalition politics” of Hampton and the Panthers in 1968, the 1983 mayoral campaign of Harold Washington, the first African American mayor of Chicago, Jesse Jackson’s two presidential runs in the 1980s, and the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States in 2008.
Overall, though, From the Bullet to the Ballot is a welcome addition--one replete with numerous illuminating photographs--to the substantive literature on the history of the Black Panther Party and on the contested legacies of the civil rights and Black Power movements in the United States.
[end article]
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* "The Korean working class: From mass strike to casualization and retreat, 1987-2007" (2008-01-09, libcom.org) [https://archive.today/0ITno]
* Nike Anti-Sweatshop campaign chronology 1988 to 1997 [https://archive.today/UmcYH]
* "The Nike Controversy" (stanford.edu) [https://archive.today/aIiCl]
* "Midnight Notes' Chronology of Asian and Oceanian Workers' Struggles 1995-1997" [https://archive.today/nAuLd]: The Asian/Oceanian Crisis of 1997 has been extensively analyzed by the business media, the research teams of the IMF and U.S. government officials. Their consensus is that it is a crisis was caused by the weak, "immature" banking systems of the "Asian Tigers." Bankers simply made too many bad loans to their cronies. Their solution is simple: let the IMF take over the Asian banks and finance ministries to ensure transparency and efficiency in the future.
But whenever the global media establishment points to monetary faults in this period, they are invariably referring beyond controllable transgressions of bankers, speculators and stock jobbers to the original sin of capitalism: class struggle. The ultimate source of all crisis is the reduction of profits by working class action. And one need not go far to see that this original sin was flourishing in Thailand, Indonesia, East Timor and especially South Korea, where millions of workers struck against "neoliberalism" in December 1996 and January 1997 before the grim gaze of a nuclear-armed U.S. occupation army.
The following Chronology should be a useful prophylactic for our reader who might, unhappily, find him/herself in the company of the insidious minions of the business media who continue to spout "good fundamentals" and "corrupt trading practices" while the streets are filled with tear gas, bullets and bludgeons.
South Korea. Jun. 8, 1995
President Kin Young Sam warned that a planned strike at the state-owned telephone company would be akin to "an attempt to overthrow the state."
South Korea. Jun. 19, 1995
Workers at Hyndai Heavy Industries approved a provisional wage agreement providing for a 5.6% wage increase and bonuses of three months pay.
East Timor. Oct. 12, 1995
Indonesian troops were ordered to "restore order" after major protest riots and demonstrations in the capital of Dili.
Indonesia. Dec. 7, 1995
The Dutch and Russian embassies in Jakarta were occupied by 113 Timorese and on-Timorese to protest the Indonesian government's occupation of East Timor.
South Korea. March 13, 1996
Two leaders of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, Yang Kyu Hon and Kwon Young Kil, were arrested. The Confederation brought a new militancy into the Korean union movement.
Irian Jaya (Indonesia).March 13 1996
"Rioting erupted again in the Irian Jayan town of Timika yesterday disrupting Freeport mine operations. Sources in Irian Jaya said more than 1,000 Irianese went on the rampage in Timika and the new town of Kuala Kencana damaging houses and hijacking vehicles. This followed a disturbance by several hundred people at Tembagapura, Freeport's mine, in the mountains 70km north of Timika on Saturday.
An army spokesman told AFP that 'The situation is getting out of hand here'. 'The police have given up and the military is awaiting orders to take action'.
The rioters, some armed with bows and arrows and axes, came from village communities around Timika and Tembagapura, including people from the Dani, Moni and Amungme tribes. Production at the Freeport mine was halted early on Monday following the troubles on Sunday. There were unconfirmed reports late yesterday that the rioters had tried to take over the airport at Timika.
About 300 Indonesian troops were being flown to Timika yesterday to help restore order. Two rioters were said to have been wounded by troops who opened fire on the protestors with rubber bullets, with one person believed to be in a critical condition.
Sources in Irian Jaya said that the rioting may have been sparked by a road accident late last week in which a Dani man was said to have been knocked down and injured by an expatriate Freeport employee.
Tribal leaders in the area of the Freeport mine are calling for a meeting with Mr James Moffett,US-based head of Freeport's holding company, Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold. Freeport spokesmen have denied that they colluded with the armed forces in a series of incidents that led to a number of civilian deaths.
Last week the National Human Rights Commission said that it would send an investigative team to Irian Jaya following a request from the local Amungme tribal council to re-examine allegations of human rights abuses in the vicinity of the Freeport mine. (The Australian, 3/13/96)
South Korea. Jun. 19, 1996
Large parts of the auto industry were shut down because workers at Kia Motors Corp., the country's second largest auto corporation, struck in a wage dispute.
Indonesia. July 27, 1996
Protesters rioted through downtown Jakarta after the security forces stormed the headquarters of the Indonesian Democratic Party, driving out the supporters of the PDI leader, Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of Indonesia's founding President Sukarno. The riots left millions of dollars of damage in Jakarta's commercial district.
Thailand. October 1996
Hundreds of displaced peasants set up camp in front of the Government House demanding more compensation.
Indonesia. Dec. 15, 1996
The Indonesian Ministry of Manpower recently announced that the average regional minimum wages would rise by 10% throughout the country. The labor unions had demanded 15%.
Thailand. Dec. 16, 1996.
The torching of two Sanyo Universal Electric PLC buildings after negotiations over year-end bonuses broke down has stirred fears about Thailand's record of harmonious labor relations. The increasingly open conflictuality has been officially documented. "The Labor Ministry recorded 1,075 labor disputes in 1995, with 74 of them resulting in strikes or lockouts while in 1991 there were 495 disputes and 63 work stoppages. The confrontations are becoming sharper as well. For example, a strike against Japanese motorcycle manufacturer Suzuki's Thai operations shut it down for three months" (Far Eastern Economic Review, 1/9/97).
South Korea. Dec. 26-29, 1996
The largest series of strikes and walkouts in South Korean history, involving hundreds of thousands of workers, took place to protest the new labor legislation that allows companies to lay off and fire workers more easily and to avoid paying overtime in a more flexible work system.
South Korea. January 9, 1997
South Korea's primary labor group called the biggest strike in the nation's history to protest the controversial new labor law.
South Korea. January 15, 1997
A general strike was called by a coalition of labor unions. The unions claim that 600,000 workers observed the strike call, the government claims it was "only" 100,000.
South Korea. January 22, 1997
150,000 workers, according to the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, walked off their jobs to protest the new labor legislation. The wave of strikes over the previous three weeks have already "cost" South Korean corporations about $3 billion in lost production.
East Timor. March 23, 1997
There was a serious military crackdown against a group of about 250 unarmed East Timorese students who marched to the hotel where a representative of the U.N. General Secretary was staying. They wished to express their opposition to the continued integration of East Timor into Indonesia. They entered the hotel lobby and presented their written statement to an assistant to the U.N. representative. Soon thereafter, right in the hotel lobby itself, the Indonesian military began its assault on the students. The soldiers beat the students with sticks, shot at them and arrested those they could grab. The students were either pushed through the plate glass windows of the hotel or intentionally broke through them to escape. The Indonesian military, ever ready with an excuse for the inexcusable, claimed that the students were carrying machetes and knives. The U.N. envoy, Jamsheed Marker, has not issued a clear statement about what he saw if anything and his quips to the press indicate that he is buying the military's absurd version. His comments so far do not evidence any serious concern about the atrocity and its aftermath.
According to what we would consider to be the most reliable report, "21 were hit by bullets and 30 were injured by bayonets and broken glass. Among the injured some were captured and are being detained by the police, others managed to seek protection in Motael, in the convents and in their own homes. Some have disappeared and their whereabouts are not known." The report lists the names of 90 people who have disappeared, either they are in hiding or they are in the secret custody of the military. Of the 21 hit by bullets, an unknown number have died, anywhere from one to seven depending on the report.
Two days after the Dili incident, 32 Timorese students in Java and Bali entered the Austrian Embassy in Jakarta. Frustrated with Marker's lack of determination to meet East Timorese people during his 48 hours in East Timor, they demanded a meeting with him at the embassy (EAST TIMOR ACTION NETWORK / Madison).
Indonesia. April 28, 1997
A wage dispute at a factory near Jakarta that makes Nike shoes was resolved with employees winning a 10.7% wage increase. It was the second protest in a week against a Nike subcontractor.
Indonesia. April 28, 1997
"After rushing through the trials of the PRD (People's Democratic Party) defendants to their predetermined end, the judges in Jakarta read out the sentences yesterday, April 28. The PRD activists came to the courtroom for the opening of the session at around 10am. Wearing black headbands with the slogan "Democracy is dead" and T-shirts stating "Boycott the Elections" and singing songs such as "We Shall Overcome," they entered the courtroom under guard, told the judges they did not recognize the authority of the court and were then permitted to exit to a nearby holding cell. To the cheers of 200 supporters, the PRD continued its defiant boycott of the court up to the last. The judges, perhaps out of pique, decided to evict the entire audience and read out their 3 hour statement to a near empty courtroom.
In a meager attempt to appear lenient, the judges knocked one to two years off the already stiff sentences the prosecution demanded. Budiman got 13 years instead of 15, Garda got 12 instead of 13, Pranowo got 9 instead of 10, and so on. (See the listing below.) The only significant reduction was for Petrus who received 6 years instead of 12. Two other PRD activists, I Gusti Agung Anom Astika and Wilson Nurtiyas, will be sentenced next week.
What was the PRD ultimately convicted of? The judges' final decision, which reads more like a political statement than a legal document, makes it perfectly clear that the PRD's only crime was to criticize the government. The judges made no mention of the charges for which the PRD was originally arrested: masterminding the July 27 riot and propagating a communist ideology. The Suharto regime, unable to find anything to substantiate those charges that top officials hyped in the media last September, dropped them before the trial began.
In their statement, the judges so obviously incriminate themselves in a politically determined case that it would be unnecessary for us to make any comments. Just read an excerpt for yourself: "The defendants are proven guilty for holding meetings to establish the PRD, holding worker demonstrations, and making statements that contradict the facts of the New Order government. The defendants also do not accept Pancasila [the "state ideology"] as the only principle. Their acts do not only discredit the New Order government, they disturb state security and economic stability."
The judges defended the high sentences by blaming the defendants for their lack of remorse and recalcitrance during the trial: "Budiman does not deserve to be respected and honored because he has trampled upon the dignity of the court ... The defendant was arrogant to read a speech which has nothing to do with the case and discredited the New Order government, especially President Suharto." When the judges' own statement is a defense of the New Order, it is ridiculous to contend that Budiman's speech, which was the PRD's collective statement, was irrelevant to the case.
The sentences: 1) Budiman Sudjatmiko, 13 years; 2) B. Garda Sembiring, 12 years; 3) Ign. D. Pranowo, 9 years; 4) J. Eko Kurniawan, 8 years; 5) Suroso, 7 years; 6) Petrus H. Haryanto, 6 years; 7) Ken Budha Kusumandaru, 4 years; 8) Victor da Costa, 1 1/2 years; 9) Ign. Putut Arintoko, 1 1/2 years; 10) Dita Indah Sari, 6 years; 11) Coen Husein Pontoh, 4 years; 12) M. Sholeh, 4 years; 13) I Gusti Agung Anom Astika, not yet announced; 14) Wilson Nurtiyas, not yet announced."
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ACTION CALENDER
A list of gatherings, workshops, and educational events in the greater Bay Area region
National Day of Action - Shine a Light on Corporate Corruption!
Thursday April 2nd from 11 AM - 1 PM
Corner of South Main and Olympic Blvd, Walnut Creek
More info: [www.moneyoutpeoplein.com] [moneyout_peoplein@) yahoo.com] [925-878-9288]
On the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court's McCutcheon ruling we'll be joining groups in 50 other cities. We're calling on President Obama to issue an Executive Order to Shine the Light on Corporate Corruption by requiring contractors that do business with the government to disclose their political spending.
Signs, music, petitions and information sheets will be provided. Please help spread the word. Congressman Mark DeSaulnier, and State Senate Candidates Susan Bonilla and Mark Glazer have been invited to speak.
Under the current system, corporations that bid for government contracts do not have to disclose their campaign spending. This has led to a corrupt pay-to-play system where government contracts can secretly funnel untold sums to help elect the very same lawmakers who are responsible for awarding government contracts. The solution does not require an act of Congress. President Obama has the authority to fix the problem with the stroke of a pen. By signing the executive order, contractors would have to disclose their political spending, and citizens would be able to see which elected officials are getting the greatest contributions from the contractors. An executive order would shine the light on corporate corruption and set an example for other agencies struggling to curb money in politics.
Please sign the attached petition as well as forwarding it to all whom you know. The petition is about requesting President Obama to sign an Executive Order about government contractors - the primary purpose of the rally. There are currently 500,000 signatures collected and the more signatures the more powerful the message when they are delivered to the White House by Public Citizen, the coordinator of the national action. CLICK HERE FOR PETITION [http://action.citizen.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=12661]
Good Friday Witness: Beyond Nuclear Weapons, Beyond Empire, Beyond Racism
April 3rd at 7 AM
Vasco & Patterson Pass Roads, Livermore
Adjacent to Livermore Nuclear Weapons Laboratory.
People concerned about the continuing development of nuclear weapons will join for an interfaith prayer service followed by nonviolent acts of witness.
We will remember Dr. Martin Luther King's "Beyond Vietnam" speech given on April 4, 1967.
David Hartsough, a leader in nonviolent efforts to end war and injustice will speak. David met Martin Luther King during the Montgomery bus boycott in 1956 and has been active in civil rights and the anti-nuclear movement since the 1950s.
From the corner we will walk to the gates of the Lab, pausing along the way to mourn the deaths of the people of color in our communities who have been killed by police and "security" forces. At the gate we will join in a circle dance to "Ella's Song," following which some will block the gates, risking arrest.
This event is wheelchair accessible.
Principal organizers are Ecumenical Peace Institute and Livermore Conversion Project.
For more information & a flyer visit [www.epicalc.org] or call 510-990-0374.
Voices from Jeju Island: Anti-Naval Base Struggle in South Korea
Nationwide U.S. speaking tour featuring activists Hee Eun Park and Paco Michelson
SF & Santa Cruz: April 4 (Saturday) – April 9 (Thursday)
[www.SaveJejuNow.org] [Facebook.com/Groups/NoNavalBase]
[www.answercoalition.org/voices_from_jeju_island_anti_naval_base_struggle_in_south_korea]
Since 2007, the people of Gangjeong and their supporters have struggled every day to oppose the construction of a Korean naval base on Jeju Island, the only special autonomous province of South Korea. The naval base will be home to U.S. and South Korean Aegis Combat Systems, which are produced by Lockheed Martin to track and guide weapons. South Korean Navy officials say the base will be able to accommodate 20 warships and two 150,000-ton cruise liners. The clash is a clear example of U.S. neocolonialism. The Korean people of Jeju are being violently forced to endure the theft of their land and a cultural landmark to serve the interests of the governments of South Korea and the United States.
Since 2007, the people of Gangjeong and their supporters have struggled everyday against state violence, corporate power, war profiteering, and environmental destruction. They have done so nonviolently and passionately. As a result of their work for peace, the tiny village of Gangjeong now has one of the highest “crime” rates in all of South Korea. More than 220,000 police officers (as of 2012) have been stationed in Gangjeong. So far, more than 700 arrests have been made, leading to approximately 200 court cases for more than 650 people, approximately $270,000 in fines levied, and 46 imprisonments. More than 30 internationals have been refused entry, deported, or denied entry. All for the “crime” of peacefully resisting the construction of a naval base that threatens villager’s livelihoods, the local ecology, and the peace of northeast Asia.
Many of Gangjeong villagers are farmers whose struggle for justice has meant sacrificing their crops. Many Gangjeong supporters work fulltime for the struggle and rely on odd jobs and occasional field labor to survive. The fines are increasing and many people owe thousands of dollars they cannot afford to pay. Please think of these brave peacemakers who are giving everything they can in this fight for justice and make a donation to help cover their legal costs.
To donate visit: [http://savejejunow.org/donate] and click the “Donate Now” link. Be sure to make a note that it is for “Jeju legal” with your donation.
Panel With Family Members of Ayotzinapa 43
Tuesday, April 7th, 7:00 PM
Last September, a caravan transporting 43 students from Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers' College of Ayotzinapa, on its way to a protest, was stopped by police and the apprehended students handed over to a criminal syndicate. The students have since disappeared, and this has caused a nation-wide human rights controversy in Mexico. On April 7th, parents of some of the missing students will stop in Santa Rosa as part of their speaking tour.
1700 Corby Ave., Santa Rosa
Solidarity with People of Jeju Island
Wednesday, April 8, 7:00pm – 8:30 pm
St John’s Episcopal Church, Petaluma
The people of Gangjeong village on Jeju Island, S. Korea, have struggled for eight years to prevent the construction of a naval base that threatens their livelihoods, the local ecology, and the peace of northeast Asia. More than 220,000 police officers have been stationed in Gangjeong to contain the peaceful protest; 700 arrests have been made, leading to fines of close to $270,000, imprisonment, and deportations.
Come and hear about this passionate struggle from two courageous activists.
Hee Eun “Silver” Park and Paco Michelson are traveling across the US to share the story of the struggle. All funds raised will go to the legal costs of the activists and villagers of Gangjeong.
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