Distributed 2014-11-17 by "The Organizer" of the ILC:
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Statement of the O Trabalho Current of the Workers Party (PT):
Dilma Roussef, Candidate of the Workers Party, Re-elected by “the Strength and Spirit of Activists”
(27 October 2014)
In the second round of the presidential election, Dilma Roussef, current president of Brazil and leader of the Workers Party (PT), won her re-election bid thanks to popular mobilisations throughout the country. This is a defeat for the pro-imperialist reactionary forces lined up behind Aecio Neves, candidate of the Brazilian Social Democrat Party (PSDB), that led a brutal offensive against the PT candidate, resorting to all sorts of means – including a ”media coup” by Veja magazine on the eve of election day – but that were incapable of imposing their candidate.
The re-election of Dilma cannot be dissociated from the victory of Evo Morales in Bolivia or from the result in first round in Uruguay – with Tabaré coming out on top, supported by the organised sectors of the working class.
It was a difficult and hard-fought victory by PT activists and popular sectors. And it was a victory in spite of the PT’s “alliance policy” with parties like the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), which split in two to support Aecio Neves -- as the PMDB candidate for the presidency of Congress, Eduardo Cunha, acknowledged shortly after the victory of Dilma.
It was a victory in the polls that was won in the streets, with a high voter support among the youth.
This does not erase the fact, however, that the National Congress elected on 5 October is the most reactionary Congress since the military dictatorship. It does not alter the fact, either, that the PT parliamentary groups (in State Assemblies and the National Congress) are smaller and that the PT has suffered defeats in its traditional strongholds (like, for instance in the ABC region, the industrial belt of Sao Paulo). This is a dire blow for the party, which must now redirect itself to reconnect with its activist base and open up the path to the fundamental changes that the nation requires and that up till now have remained pending.
That is precisely why it is very important, that in her victory speech, Dilma asserted that the “first reform to be implemented is the political reform”, proposing “a popular consultation via a plebiscite”.
Yes, it is along these lines that we can make progress, because, with “this Congress things don't work”, and it is not the High Federal Court that should dictate a political reform for the nation.
No one should underestimate the impact of the 8 million votes obtained in the Popular Referendum in favour of an exclusive, sovereign Constituent Assembly concerning the political system, the result of which was handed to Dilma by a delegation that met and discussed with her on 13 October during a meeting in Brasilia, two weeks before the second round of the election.
What “agreement” can there be with the Brazilian Social Democrat Party putsch-makers (the PSDB, of the former President Cardoso), who, in complicity with right-wing publications Veja and Globo (a powerful right wing media group), demanded the “extinction of the PT” on the eve of the second round of the election? When these cynics talk of “unity”, it is in order to paralyse the PT and implicate it in a commitment to more tax exemptions for the big corporations, higher interest rates on loans, more primary fiscal surplus (destined to pay off the foreign debt), while they get ready to deal blows against the interests of the Brazilian people, as they do not wish to abandon their privileges.
The victory in the polls, won at the price of much effort and determination, should not mask the fact that the situation is not easy in a world that is sinking deeper into the crisis of capitalism, in which unemployment affects more than 200 million persons -- and the International Labour Organisation anticipates that this figure will increase yet more.
In Brazil, things are not settled either way. Because, in spite of the gains obtained by the struggle under the Lula and Dilma governments, the captains of industry have sacked 240,000 workers between January and September; social inequality is horrendous and the billions accorded to the speculators through the primary fiscal surplus deprive public services of vital funds.
Those who have ensured the re-election of the PT candidate – primarily the workers and young people, overcoming all kinds of obstacles, including from those political currents that refused to take up this class battle and that wrongly defended the “neutrality” of blank votes or refused to go to the polls – must remain mobilised throughout the country.
They must remain mobilised to guarantee that what the majority wants, as expressed in the polls, must be respected. Mobilised to demand, with all the necessary authority, that the demands of the exploited and oppressed majority of our people must be met.
They must remain mobilised so that an official Referendum for the Constituent Assembly can become a reality, for political reform, for an Assembly with one House (without a Senate), elected by proportional representation (one voter = one vote), without corporate financing and with a vote by lists. Winning this, we know, will depend on the popular pressure on the Congress.
For this is the only means of advancing toward unblocking the way to winning fundamental reforms, such as de-militarisation of the police, agrarian reform, re-nationalisations and an end to primary fiscal surplus, among other measures.
Comrades,
The O Trabalho current of the PT has thrown all its forces into the election battle, campaigning as the PT used to do at the beginning. Together with comrades from “Petista Dialogue and Action”, we have contributed to the success of the Popular Referendum for a “Constituent Assembly for Political Reform”.
As for us, we did not call for even one single vote to the “allies” of the PT (who are, in fact, “saboteurs”), such as Sartori from the PMDB in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, or Pezao, also from the PMDB, in Rio de Janeiro.
We have been combatants for an exclusive PT vote and for the re-election of Dilma for a Constituent Assembly that implements real political reform. We invite those who have been at our sides in this struggle to join us, to enter our ranks in the O Trabalho current of the PT.
Together, as Petistas, we have won. But the struggle has been hard and rich in lessons that we should reflect upon, so that our party can live up to the new challenges. Because those who have lost in the polls will not stop exerting pressure.
In order to discuss the election results and to map out the next steps to be taken, together with other comrades, we are part and parcel in the organisation of the “Petista Dialogue and Action” National Meeting (29 and 30 November in Brasilia). Its preparation already has meant organising local meetings in the coming days, where we invite all those who want to take up action as the PT used to.
More than ever this is the task that is on the agenda! The struggle continues!
Monday, October 27, 2014
Friday, October 24, 2014
Account of a delegation to the French Overseas Ministry concerning Anti-trade union repression in Guadeloupe
Communiqué from the International Committee Against Repression (Cicr)
Distributed by the ILC International Newsletter, New Series N° 197 (566) – October 24th 2014:
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A Cicr delegation was received, on its demand, for three hours the 13th of October 2014 by three advisers -- Mrs Sophie Onado, Mr. Marce-Pierre Mancel and Mr. Olivier Nicolas -- members of the cabinet of the French Overseas Minister Mrs. George Pau-Langevin. The Cicr delegation was made up by Mr. Jean Jacques Marie, historian; Mr. Gerard Bauvert, journalist; Dr. François Paraire, honorary hospital Doctor; Mrs Helene Rubinstein-Carrera, honorary barrister at the Paris bar; and by trade unionists Mr. Jacques Girod, General Joint Secretary of the CGT Force Ouvriere Paris department Union, and Mr. Samy Hayon from the CGT.
The objective of this delegation was recalled by the different participants: to put a stop to anti-trade union repression in Guadeloupe; to put a stop to court proceedings that continue to increase against trade unionists in Guadeloupe and that interfere with their union rights; to demand the release of Charly Lendo, former Joint General Secretary of the General Union of Workers of Guadeloupe (UGTG), who is summoned to appear in the Point-a-Pitre court the 20th of January 2015.
All this is occurring while the social situation in Guadeloupe is seriously deteriorating, the Bino (1) Agreements are hardly implemented, and the employers are systematically refusing to open up negotiations.
The Minister's advisers, after recalling their jurisdiction concerning the problems brought up by the delegation, which according to them were matters for the Minister of Justice, insisted on the importance of “territorial declination and implementation of the Responsibility Pact”.
The delegation reaffirmed that whatever appreciation one might have of government policy, for the Cicr and the trade union activists present, “no lessening of tensions in Guadeloupe are likely as long as systematic repression of trade unionists continues”.
As for the advisers, after registering the demands formulated by the delegation, they committed themselves to getting their Ministry to write a memo expounding the circumstances to the Ministry of Justice. The delegation then, re-asserted that it would pursue its campaign in France and at international level against anti-trade union repression and especially to demand the release of Charly Lendo.
[signed] The Cicr delegation and the trade unionists
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Note: (1) Agreements ratified by the government, signed between the employers' organisations and the trade unions of Guadeloupe in March 2009, at the end of the forty-four day general strike. Agreements called after the name of the trade unionist Jacques Bino, who was assassinated in Guadeloupe during the general strike.
Distributed by the ILC International Newsletter, New Series N° 197 (566) – October 24th 2014:
---
A Cicr delegation was received, on its demand, for three hours the 13th of October 2014 by three advisers -- Mrs Sophie Onado, Mr. Marce-Pierre Mancel and Mr. Olivier Nicolas -- members of the cabinet of the French Overseas Minister Mrs. George Pau-Langevin. The Cicr delegation was made up by Mr. Jean Jacques Marie, historian; Mr. Gerard Bauvert, journalist; Dr. François Paraire, honorary hospital Doctor; Mrs Helene Rubinstein-Carrera, honorary barrister at the Paris bar; and by trade unionists Mr. Jacques Girod, General Joint Secretary of the CGT Force Ouvriere Paris department Union, and Mr. Samy Hayon from the CGT.
The objective of this delegation was recalled by the different participants: to put a stop to anti-trade union repression in Guadeloupe; to put a stop to court proceedings that continue to increase against trade unionists in Guadeloupe and that interfere with their union rights; to demand the release of Charly Lendo, former Joint General Secretary of the General Union of Workers of Guadeloupe (UGTG), who is summoned to appear in the Point-a-Pitre court the 20th of January 2015.
All this is occurring while the social situation in Guadeloupe is seriously deteriorating, the Bino (1) Agreements are hardly implemented, and the employers are systematically refusing to open up negotiations.
The Minister's advisers, after recalling their jurisdiction concerning the problems brought up by the delegation, which according to them were matters for the Minister of Justice, insisted on the importance of “territorial declination and implementation of the Responsibility Pact”.
The delegation reaffirmed that whatever appreciation one might have of government policy, for the Cicr and the trade union activists present, “no lessening of tensions in Guadeloupe are likely as long as systematic repression of trade unionists continues”.
As for the advisers, after registering the demands formulated by the delegation, they committed themselves to getting their Ministry to write a memo expounding the circumstances to the Ministry of Justice. The delegation then, re-asserted that it would pursue its campaign in France and at international level against anti-trade union repression and especially to demand the release of Charly Lendo.
[signed] The Cicr delegation and the trade unionists
---
Note: (1) Agreements ratified by the government, signed between the employers' organisations and the trade unions of Guadeloupe in March 2009, at the end of the forty-four day general strike. Agreements called after the name of the trade unionist Jacques Bino, who was assassinated in Guadeloupe during the general strike.
Thursday, October 23, 2014
"War Abroad, War at Home: The Class Struggle in the United States Today"
An interview with Alan Benjamin, editor of the independent workers’ newspaper The Organizer, conducted 2014-10-23 by Jean-Pierre Raffi for Informations Ouvrières / Labor News No. 324, the weekly newspaper of the Independent Workers Party of France (POI).
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Question: A controversy erupted recently between President Barack Obama and General Martin Dempsey, commander in chief of the U.S. Armed Forces, concerning the conduct of the war in the Middle East. What is the significance of this debate?
Benjamin: Under pressure from the continued demonstrations against the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with the widespread opposition by the American people to these wars, Obama promised during his election campaign that there would be no more U.S. involvement in wars in this region, and he stressed, in particular, that there would be no more involvement of U.S. ground troops. Thus, he hesitated about sending troops into this new war against the Islamic State, or ISIS. But Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey said clearly: "U.S. troops will intervene on the ground, there is no room for hesitation."
He even said that it was a matter of weeks before this occurred, and he cited the Iraqi city of Mosul as the most probable theater of engagement of U.S. ground troops. Hillary Clinton, who will most likely be the next candidate of the Democratic Party in the presidential election of 2016, joined the fray, criticizing Obama harshly for his hesitation. She supported Dempsey very vocally. Hillary Clinton was Obama's Secretary of State; this kind of public debate does not happen every day. It is a fiery debate within the ruling party. The underlying issue here, and most political observers know this to be true, is that the American people, especially the workers, who are faced with budget cuts and other major attacks on their jobs and livelihoods, do not want war.
U.S. Labor Against the War, the labor antiwar coalition that represents unions with an estimated 30% to 40% of the organized workforce in the United States, has taken a firm stance in opposition to any form of U.S. intervention in Syria, Iraq and beyond. In various statements from its leadership, USLAW has made it clear that any such intervention by the United States would only aggravate the situation by continuing the "endless war" abroad and the deepening war at home against working people and the youth.
We are no longer in the period when the United States could provide both guns and butter – that is, it could fund the massive war expenditures without making cuts to the social budgets at home. Those days are long gone. Today, the cuts are massive, jobs are being destroyed left and right, and unemployment is still huge -- despite all the manipulation of labor statistics and administation statements to the contrary.
And, most important, there’s the resistance of the U.S. working class against this assault. This resistance was expressed in August-September 2012 in a major teachers' strike in Chicago, when the teachers showed that U.S. workers are willing and capable of fighting back when there is an opening to do so -- even at election time. Also very important, as a result of the teachers’ upsurge in Chicago, there has been a very powerful and widespread development of rank-and-file caucuses in cities across the country in both teachers’ unions: American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and National Education Association (NEA). In addition, this past summer, under pressure from these movements from below, both teacher union conventions voted to urge the resignation of Obama’s Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, because of the education privatization plans pushed by Duncan.
There is also a growing fightback in defense of the U.S. Postal Service. The Obama administration has gone very far in its privatization-destruction assault on the USPS, but this drive is facing steep opposition by the four postal unions and by the public at large. A recent expression of this fightback was the election of Mark Dimondstein, a militant union activist, to the presidency of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU). Dimondstein ran on a platform that called for halting the privatization of USPS, forging unity of all four postal unions in the country to fight the corporate onslaught, and maintaining and improving the collective bargaining agreements. Dimondstein, who is an advocate of the independent working class political action, has participated in leadership meetings of the Labor Fightback Network. Since he was elected, Dimondstein and the postal workers’ unions have rolled back some of the attacks at Staples, an office supply store that has been given the franchise of large numbers of post offices, showing that it is possible to fight back and to win.
And then, of course, there have been mass mobilizations by Black workers and youth against the mounting attacks they have been subjected to. Over a year ago, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a decision that severely restricts the voting rights of Blacks, particularly in the U.S. South. In response to this decision and to a whole host of other attacks, a protest movement erupted in the state of North Carolina called the Moral Mondays movement – with protest marches, direct actions and more. It is a movement that has since extended to other states in the South. Last February 14, more than 100,000 gathered in Raleigh, N.C., in a region-wide march organized by the Moral Mondays movement.
Question: And there was the uprising that followed the police assassination of Michael Brown, a young Black man in Ferguson, Missouri. Tell us about this. . . .
Benjamin: Indeed, on August 9, a white cop, Darren Wilson, murdered Michael Brown, a Black youth in Ferguson, a majority Black city north of St. Louis. After so many police killings of Black youth nationwide, this one, with the body of Brown left in the street for hours, was more than people could take. What followed was an uprising of Black youth in Ferguson and all across the country. Everywhere, Black youth took to the streets, shouting "Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!” -- the last words of Michael Brown.
Along with the mass protest actions, there has been a growing debate among Black activist organizations around what to do next. Among the questions being debated is how is it possible that the racist attacks against Black people are getting worse and worse under a Black president and a Black Attorney General, both of whom have insisted that we are now living in a “post-racial” society. Black youth are asking why Obama and the Justice Department have simply sat back, with only a whimper of protest, while all the killings and miscarriages of justice have continued. Once again, the question of independent Black political action is being posed by organizations such as the Black Left Unity coalition.
This is not all. This past weekend, on October 11-13, there was a national march on Ferguson organized by the main Black organizations in the region, including the NAACP and the Southern Law Poverty Center. Also, very important, for the first time ever in such a case, the AFL-CIO leadership endorsed the Ferguson Weekend of Resistance and organized a labor contingent in
the main action. All endorsers called for the arrest and conviction of Darren Wilson and justice for Michael Brown.
These demands are key today because there is an operation under way by the police and the St. Louis prosecutor, Bob McCulloch, similar to what happened with Trayvon Martin in Florida more than a year ago. The man who assassinated Martin was let go scot-free. Everything points to a similar miscarriage of justice in the works in the case of police officer Darren Wilson.
But there is one difference today, and that is that hundreds of thousands of people have stood up for Michael Brown to say, “Enough Is Enough!” This, in turn, has raised the question of the role and responsibility of the police and all the institutions involved – all of which, to one degree or another, have supported, or given cover, to the racist cop killers. The question, therefore, of an independent Black political movement, and an independent Black political organization, is back on the political agenda.
Question: We are just a few months before the mid-term elections in the United States. In 2008, there was a huge outburst of support for Obama. What is the situation today, on the eve of these mid-term elections?
Benjamin: Indeed, in 2008, hundreds of thousands of people -- mainly Black people, but not only them – took to the streets in celebration, many of them in tears, upon learning of Obama's victory. They hoped this election would put an end to eight years of war and heightened exploitation and oppression under George W. Bush. Obama had promised there would be no more war. The election of a Black man represented a qualitative change. Hope was everywhere. But no sooner had Obama taken office than the promises were betrayed. The 2012 elections were marked by a very high abstention rate of the Black population, and increasing abstentionism among the working class as a whole. But the sharp rejection of the Republicans, combined with hope that Obama would return to his campaign promises in his second term, now that he didn’t have to worry about being re-elected, enabled Obama to win a second term in office. It was a vote to reject the Republicans and its reactionary wing of the Tea Party, rather than a vote for Obama and his policies.
Today, the situation is complicated. All polls and political analysts point to a likely loss by the Democrats of their majority in the Senate. Their fate hangs in the balance in eight senatorial races. This time around the abstention rate is expected to increase dramatically, as Obama and the Democrats are now being blamed more directly for the loss of jobs and the drop in real wages.
In 2016 there will be presidential elections, and there is already talk of Obama as a lame-duck president. Hillary Clinton is widely expected to be the candidate of the Democratic Party – and, as your readers may know, she is more of a “hawk” when it comes to war spending and U.S. intervention abroad. A Clinton presidency would be one of heightened war at home and abroad against working people and all the oppressed.
It is in this situation that a discussion is beginning to take place among labor and community activists about what to do next: How could we support a candidate who wants to send more U.S. troops to the Middle East and who wants to increase the assault on the gains won by workers in bitter struggles.
In Lorain, Ohio – an industrial city near Cleveland – trade unionists, including the AFL-CIO central labor council, launched a slate of independent labor candidates for mayor and city council, and they won – under the banner of an Independent Labor Party. The unionists said they were betrayed by the Democrats and had to rely solely on themselves and their community allies to ensure that their interests were promoted. Other independent labor-community candidates have been elected in Seattle and other cities in recent months.
This poses the following question and challenge before the entire labor movement: Isn’t the road taken by the Lorain labor movement the road that needs to be followed by the entire U.S. labor movement? Should the labor movement not be running independent labor-community candidates, beginning at the local level, to build momentum for rebuilding a Labor Party Advocates type structure in the coming period?
Already, a number of union leaders and activists have replied in the affirmative to the challenge of the Lorain trade unionists. Next May, the Labor Fightback Network will be hosting its second conference at Rutgers University in New Jersey under the theme of promoting independent labor action and independent labor political action – with an explicit goal of promoting independent labor-community candidates and laying the groundwork for relaunching a Labor Party advocacy committee in the trade union movement.
Mark Dudzic, current national organizer of the dormant Labor Party formed in 1996 by then OCAW leader Tony Mazzocchi, is a convener of the Labor Fightback Network Conference. Organizers are hoping that Postal Workers President Mark Dimondstein will be able to take a weekend off from his busy schedule to be a keynote speaker at the Rutgers conference. The Rutgers conference will also feature the struggles being waged in Ferguson and other cities (in North Carolina, for example)
against the attacks on Black people, and against Black youth in particular. This, in turn, poses the question of building an independent Black political party linked to the struggle to build a Labor Party.
The situation in the United States is very difficult, but it is very rich in possibilities. There is a genuine search for independent political action by workers and the oppressed.
---
Question: A controversy erupted recently between President Barack Obama and General Martin Dempsey, commander in chief of the U.S. Armed Forces, concerning the conduct of the war in the Middle East. What is the significance of this debate?
Benjamin: Under pressure from the continued demonstrations against the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with the widespread opposition by the American people to these wars, Obama promised during his election campaign that there would be no more U.S. involvement in wars in this region, and he stressed, in particular, that there would be no more involvement of U.S. ground troops. Thus, he hesitated about sending troops into this new war against the Islamic State, or ISIS. But Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey said clearly: "U.S. troops will intervene on the ground, there is no room for hesitation."
He even said that it was a matter of weeks before this occurred, and he cited the Iraqi city of Mosul as the most probable theater of engagement of U.S. ground troops. Hillary Clinton, who will most likely be the next candidate of the Democratic Party in the presidential election of 2016, joined the fray, criticizing Obama harshly for his hesitation. She supported Dempsey very vocally. Hillary Clinton was Obama's Secretary of State; this kind of public debate does not happen every day. It is a fiery debate within the ruling party. The underlying issue here, and most political observers know this to be true, is that the American people, especially the workers, who are faced with budget cuts and other major attacks on their jobs and livelihoods, do not want war.
U.S. Labor Against the War, the labor antiwar coalition that represents unions with an estimated 30% to 40% of the organized workforce in the United States, has taken a firm stance in opposition to any form of U.S. intervention in Syria, Iraq and beyond. In various statements from its leadership, USLAW has made it clear that any such intervention by the United States would only aggravate the situation by continuing the "endless war" abroad and the deepening war at home against working people and the youth.
We are no longer in the period when the United States could provide both guns and butter – that is, it could fund the massive war expenditures without making cuts to the social budgets at home. Those days are long gone. Today, the cuts are massive, jobs are being destroyed left and right, and unemployment is still huge -- despite all the manipulation of labor statistics and administation statements to the contrary.
And, most important, there’s the resistance of the U.S. working class against this assault. This resistance was expressed in August-September 2012 in a major teachers' strike in Chicago, when the teachers showed that U.S. workers are willing and capable of fighting back when there is an opening to do so -- even at election time. Also very important, as a result of the teachers’ upsurge in Chicago, there has been a very powerful and widespread development of rank-and-file caucuses in cities across the country in both teachers’ unions: American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and National Education Association (NEA). In addition, this past summer, under pressure from these movements from below, both teacher union conventions voted to urge the resignation of Obama’s Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, because of the education privatization plans pushed by Duncan.
There is also a growing fightback in defense of the U.S. Postal Service. The Obama administration has gone very far in its privatization-destruction assault on the USPS, but this drive is facing steep opposition by the four postal unions and by the public at large. A recent expression of this fightback was the election of Mark Dimondstein, a militant union activist, to the presidency of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU). Dimondstein ran on a platform that called for halting the privatization of USPS, forging unity of all four postal unions in the country to fight the corporate onslaught, and maintaining and improving the collective bargaining agreements. Dimondstein, who is an advocate of the independent working class political action, has participated in leadership meetings of the Labor Fightback Network. Since he was elected, Dimondstein and the postal workers’ unions have rolled back some of the attacks at Staples, an office supply store that has been given the franchise of large numbers of post offices, showing that it is possible to fight back and to win.
And then, of course, there have been mass mobilizations by Black workers and youth against the mounting attacks they have been subjected to. Over a year ago, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a decision that severely restricts the voting rights of Blacks, particularly in the U.S. South. In response to this decision and to a whole host of other attacks, a protest movement erupted in the state of North Carolina called the Moral Mondays movement – with protest marches, direct actions and more. It is a movement that has since extended to other states in the South. Last February 14, more than 100,000 gathered in Raleigh, N.C., in a region-wide march organized by the Moral Mondays movement.
Question: And there was the uprising that followed the police assassination of Michael Brown, a young Black man in Ferguson, Missouri. Tell us about this. . . .
Benjamin: Indeed, on August 9, a white cop, Darren Wilson, murdered Michael Brown, a Black youth in Ferguson, a majority Black city north of St. Louis. After so many police killings of Black youth nationwide, this one, with the body of Brown left in the street for hours, was more than people could take. What followed was an uprising of Black youth in Ferguson and all across the country. Everywhere, Black youth took to the streets, shouting "Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!” -- the last words of Michael Brown.
Along with the mass protest actions, there has been a growing debate among Black activist organizations around what to do next. Among the questions being debated is how is it possible that the racist attacks against Black people are getting worse and worse under a Black president and a Black Attorney General, both of whom have insisted that we are now living in a “post-racial” society. Black youth are asking why Obama and the Justice Department have simply sat back, with only a whimper of protest, while all the killings and miscarriages of justice have continued. Once again, the question of independent Black political action is being posed by organizations such as the Black Left Unity coalition.
This is not all. This past weekend, on October 11-13, there was a national march on Ferguson organized by the main Black organizations in the region, including the NAACP and the Southern Law Poverty Center. Also, very important, for the first time ever in such a case, the AFL-CIO leadership endorsed the Ferguson Weekend of Resistance and organized a labor contingent in
the main action. All endorsers called for the arrest and conviction of Darren Wilson and justice for Michael Brown.
These demands are key today because there is an operation under way by the police and the St. Louis prosecutor, Bob McCulloch, similar to what happened with Trayvon Martin in Florida more than a year ago. The man who assassinated Martin was let go scot-free. Everything points to a similar miscarriage of justice in the works in the case of police officer Darren Wilson.
But there is one difference today, and that is that hundreds of thousands of people have stood up for Michael Brown to say, “Enough Is Enough!” This, in turn, has raised the question of the role and responsibility of the police and all the institutions involved – all of which, to one degree or another, have supported, or given cover, to the racist cop killers. The question, therefore, of an independent Black political movement, and an independent Black political organization, is back on the political agenda.
Question: We are just a few months before the mid-term elections in the United States. In 2008, there was a huge outburst of support for Obama. What is the situation today, on the eve of these mid-term elections?
Benjamin: Indeed, in 2008, hundreds of thousands of people -- mainly Black people, but not only them – took to the streets in celebration, many of them in tears, upon learning of Obama's victory. They hoped this election would put an end to eight years of war and heightened exploitation and oppression under George W. Bush. Obama had promised there would be no more war. The election of a Black man represented a qualitative change. Hope was everywhere. But no sooner had Obama taken office than the promises were betrayed. The 2012 elections were marked by a very high abstention rate of the Black population, and increasing abstentionism among the working class as a whole. But the sharp rejection of the Republicans, combined with hope that Obama would return to his campaign promises in his second term, now that he didn’t have to worry about being re-elected, enabled Obama to win a second term in office. It was a vote to reject the Republicans and its reactionary wing of the Tea Party, rather than a vote for Obama and his policies.
Today, the situation is complicated. All polls and political analysts point to a likely loss by the Democrats of their majority in the Senate. Their fate hangs in the balance in eight senatorial races. This time around the abstention rate is expected to increase dramatically, as Obama and the Democrats are now being blamed more directly for the loss of jobs and the drop in real wages.
In 2016 there will be presidential elections, and there is already talk of Obama as a lame-duck president. Hillary Clinton is widely expected to be the candidate of the Democratic Party – and, as your readers may know, she is more of a “hawk” when it comes to war spending and U.S. intervention abroad. A Clinton presidency would be one of heightened war at home and abroad against working people and all the oppressed.
It is in this situation that a discussion is beginning to take place among labor and community activists about what to do next: How could we support a candidate who wants to send more U.S. troops to the Middle East and who wants to increase the assault on the gains won by workers in bitter struggles.
In Lorain, Ohio – an industrial city near Cleveland – trade unionists, including the AFL-CIO central labor council, launched a slate of independent labor candidates for mayor and city council, and they won – under the banner of an Independent Labor Party. The unionists said they were betrayed by the Democrats and had to rely solely on themselves and their community allies to ensure that their interests were promoted. Other independent labor-community candidates have been elected in Seattle and other cities in recent months.
This poses the following question and challenge before the entire labor movement: Isn’t the road taken by the Lorain labor movement the road that needs to be followed by the entire U.S. labor movement? Should the labor movement not be running independent labor-community candidates, beginning at the local level, to build momentum for rebuilding a Labor Party Advocates type structure in the coming period?
Already, a number of union leaders and activists have replied in the affirmative to the challenge of the Lorain trade unionists. Next May, the Labor Fightback Network will be hosting its second conference at Rutgers University in New Jersey under the theme of promoting independent labor action and independent labor political action – with an explicit goal of promoting independent labor-community candidates and laying the groundwork for relaunching a Labor Party advocacy committee in the trade union movement.
Mark Dudzic, current national organizer of the dormant Labor Party formed in 1996 by then OCAW leader Tony Mazzocchi, is a convener of the Labor Fightback Network Conference. Organizers are hoping that Postal Workers President Mark Dimondstein will be able to take a weekend off from his busy schedule to be a keynote speaker at the Rutgers conference. The Rutgers conference will also feature the struggles being waged in Ferguson and other cities (in North Carolina, for example)
against the attacks on Black people, and against Black youth in particular. This, in turn, poses the question of building an independent Black political party linked to the struggle to build a Labor Party.
The situation in the United States is very difficult, but it is very rich in possibilities. There is a genuine search for independent political action by workers and the oppressed.
"Criminal Neglect: The Death of Thomas Eric Duncan", and the economics of Ebola
2014-10-23 from "Labor Fightback Network" [http://laborfightback.org] [https://www.facebook.com/laborfightback]:
On Friday, Sept. 25, 2014, Thomas Eric Duncan went to the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. He had a high fever and stomach pains. He told the nurse he had recently been in Liberia, part of the Ebola zone. But he was a Black man with no health insurance, so he was released after being given antibiotics and Tylenol.
Two days later Duncan returned to the hospital in an ambulance. Two days after that, he was finally diagnosed with Ebola. Eight days later, he died alone in his hospital room.
The still unanswered question is why the hospital would send home a patient with a 103-degree fever and stomach pains, especially since the patient had informed the hospital that he had recently been in Liberia. And why was he sent back into the community when it was obvious that he was extremely ill and might well have a communicable disease?
Duncan was the first victim of Ebola in the U.S. to have died. Others who contracted the disease received the very best treatment and as of this date all are recovering from Ebola.
The Dallas hospital acknowledged that mistakes were made. But not yet explained is how this all happened in a situation which left no margin for error. A number of excuses have been offered: there were no protocols, there were protocols but they were not observed, there was a problem with the software, there was a breakdown in the hospital's communication system and the higher-ups were not informed, etc.
But someone decided that Duncan's condition did not warrant hospitalization during his first visit there, much less being isolated and quarantined. Who made that decision and on what basis? Was it medical people or administrative personnel who were motivated by Duncan's not having insurance?
According to members of Duncan's family, "the most humiliating part of this ordeal was the treatment we received from the hospital. For the 10 days he was in the hospital, the staff not only refused to help us communicate with Thomas Eric, but also acted as an impediment. The day Thomas Eric died, we learned about it from the news media, not his doctors." (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 10/17/14)
Duncan was in the U.S. for the first time to visit his son. By being cut off from all communication with his family members, he had no way of knowing whether they even knew of his plight. And, as stated above, he was left to die alone.
[Note: National Nurses United is circulating a petition demanding that President Obama and Congress impose a uniform, optimal standard of care for all Ebola patients, their caregivers and the community. http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/page/s/national-nurses-united-urges-you-to-take-action-now]
Lessons to Be Learned From This Experience -
Assume for the moment that Duncan was white and that he came into the emergency room initially with an insurance card in his hand. Can anyone doubt that he would have been admitted and very likely would have received the same good treatment accorded the nurses who contracted Ebola? His nephew wrote that, "our loved one could have been saved. From his botched release from the emergency room to his delayed testing and delayed treatment and the denial of experimental drugs that have been available to every other case of Ebola treated in the United States, the hospital invited death every step of the way." (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 10/17/14)
The inescapable conclusion that must be drawn is that it was the convergence of pernicious racism and the broken health care system in this country, which puts profits ahead of patients, that cost Duncan his life.
But there is another factor that helps explain what happened here and why many others should be held accountable for what transpired. That has to do with the federal government's role in cutting funding for education and research to deal with epidemics and critical diseases.
In an October 17 opinion piece by Dana Milbank, columnist for theWashington Post, titled, "The Nasty Politicalization of Ebola" (reproduced in the October 20 Cleveland Plain Dealer under the title "Absent NIH Funding Cuts, Ebola Vaccine Might Exist"), the author documents the cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding between fiscal 2010 and fiscal 2014 of 10 percent in real dollars -- and vaccine research took a proportionate hit. Research on an Ebola vaccine funded at $37 million in 2010 was halved to $18 million in 2014. He notes, "With Ebola vaccines now entering clinical trials, it is not much of a stretch to conclude that vaccines would now be on the market -- potentially saving thousands of lives in Africa and avoiding panic in the United States."
Budget cuts for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have only compounded the problem.
Conclusion -
While the U.S. allocates some $800 billion to a trillion dollars a year for the military -- taking into consideration all related and derivative expenditures -- it continues to reduce funds for vitally needed social programs like health care, education, unemployment compensation, food stamps and the environment. Cutting Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid remain top priorities for right-wing forces in this country.
While the major political parties blame each other for inadequate funding for Ebola and other contagious diseases, it is only through bipartisan budget deals passed by Congress and approved by the president that the cuts in funding were engineered. Thomas Eric Duncan is one of countless victims of the distorted priorities the government is imposing.
It's time for long overdue fundamental changes to be implemented in the nation's health care system that will put an end to discriminatory treatment based on ethnicity or insurance coverage. It's high time to recognize health care as a right, not a commodity, and guarantee all residents quality and comprehensive coverage, with the parasitic insurance companies eliminated from the system. This is what a single payer system would bring about.
Finally, with the evident refusal of the two corporate parties to make needed changes, unions, joined by our progressive community partners, should run independent candidacies for political office in support of a program that would reflect the interests of the great majority. Let's end the subservience to the political agenda of the 1% and build such a movement now!
On Friday, Sept. 25, 2014, Thomas Eric Duncan went to the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. He had a high fever and stomach pains. He told the nurse he had recently been in Liberia, part of the Ebola zone. But he was a Black man with no health insurance, so he was released after being given antibiotics and Tylenol.
Two days later Duncan returned to the hospital in an ambulance. Two days after that, he was finally diagnosed with Ebola. Eight days later, he died alone in his hospital room.
The still unanswered question is why the hospital would send home a patient with a 103-degree fever and stomach pains, especially since the patient had informed the hospital that he had recently been in Liberia. And why was he sent back into the community when it was obvious that he was extremely ill and might well have a communicable disease?
Duncan was the first victim of Ebola in the U.S. to have died. Others who contracted the disease received the very best treatment and as of this date all are recovering from Ebola.
The Dallas hospital acknowledged that mistakes were made. But not yet explained is how this all happened in a situation which left no margin for error. A number of excuses have been offered: there were no protocols, there were protocols but they were not observed, there was a problem with the software, there was a breakdown in the hospital's communication system and the higher-ups were not informed, etc.
But someone decided that Duncan's condition did not warrant hospitalization during his first visit there, much less being isolated and quarantined. Who made that decision and on what basis? Was it medical people or administrative personnel who were motivated by Duncan's not having insurance?
According to members of Duncan's family, "the most humiliating part of this ordeal was the treatment we received from the hospital. For the 10 days he was in the hospital, the staff not only refused to help us communicate with Thomas Eric, but also acted as an impediment. The day Thomas Eric died, we learned about it from the news media, not his doctors." (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 10/17/14)
Duncan was in the U.S. for the first time to visit his son. By being cut off from all communication with his family members, he had no way of knowing whether they even knew of his plight. And, as stated above, he was left to die alone.
[Note: National Nurses United is circulating a petition demanding that President Obama and Congress impose a uniform, optimal standard of care for all Ebola patients, their caregivers and the community. http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/page/s/national-nurses-united-urges-you-to-take-action-now]
Lessons to Be Learned From This Experience -
Assume for the moment that Duncan was white and that he came into the emergency room initially with an insurance card in his hand. Can anyone doubt that he would have been admitted and very likely would have received the same good treatment accorded the nurses who contracted Ebola? His nephew wrote that, "our loved one could have been saved. From his botched release from the emergency room to his delayed testing and delayed treatment and the denial of experimental drugs that have been available to every other case of Ebola treated in the United States, the hospital invited death every step of the way." (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 10/17/14)
The inescapable conclusion that must be drawn is that it was the convergence of pernicious racism and the broken health care system in this country, which puts profits ahead of patients, that cost Duncan his life.
But there is another factor that helps explain what happened here and why many others should be held accountable for what transpired. That has to do with the federal government's role in cutting funding for education and research to deal with epidemics and critical diseases.
In an October 17 opinion piece by Dana Milbank, columnist for theWashington Post, titled, "The Nasty Politicalization of Ebola" (reproduced in the October 20 Cleveland Plain Dealer under the title "Absent NIH Funding Cuts, Ebola Vaccine Might Exist"), the author documents the cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding between fiscal 2010 and fiscal 2014 of 10 percent in real dollars -- and vaccine research took a proportionate hit. Research on an Ebola vaccine funded at $37 million in 2010 was halved to $18 million in 2014. He notes, "With Ebola vaccines now entering clinical trials, it is not much of a stretch to conclude that vaccines would now be on the market -- potentially saving thousands of lives in Africa and avoiding panic in the United States."
Budget cuts for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have only compounded the problem.
Conclusion -
While the U.S. allocates some $800 billion to a trillion dollars a year for the military -- taking into consideration all related and derivative expenditures -- it continues to reduce funds for vitally needed social programs like health care, education, unemployment compensation, food stamps and the environment. Cutting Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid remain top priorities for right-wing forces in this country.
While the major political parties blame each other for inadequate funding for Ebola and other contagious diseases, it is only through bipartisan budget deals passed by Congress and approved by the president that the cuts in funding were engineered. Thomas Eric Duncan is one of countless victims of the distorted priorities the government is imposing.
It's time for long overdue fundamental changes to be implemented in the nation's health care system that will put an end to discriminatory treatment based on ethnicity or insurance coverage. It's high time to recognize health care as a right, not a commodity, and guarantee all residents quality and comprehensive coverage, with the parasitic insurance companies eliminated from the system. This is what a single payer system would bring about.
Finally, with the evident refusal of the two corporate parties to make needed changes, unions, joined by our progressive community partners, should run independent candidacies for political office in support of a program that would reflect the interests of the great majority. Let's end the subservience to the political agenda of the 1% and build such a movement now!
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
Oct. 23rd Northbay Uprising radio news
[Links] are in-house, offsite links are noted . Backed-up links are to (archive.org) and (archive.today).
DONATE TODAY TO SUPPORT QILOMBO!
In addition to being an open community space several days out of the week, we also have a bookstore, a bike workshop, free use public computers, Sunday "All Produce to the People" mutual aid food distribution, a meditation space, workshops and skillshares, movie nights, and Hip-Hop events. As a registered 501(c)(3), all donations are tax-deductible, and being an all volunteer run organization, all donations go directly to keeping the space open. [http://qilombo.org/donate/]
Bookstore Open Monday 3pm-6pm; Wednesday 3pm-6pm; Friday 3pm-6pm
Mutual (A)id Food Distro Sundays 1:30pm - 4pm
Feeding ourselves and the community – come volunteer and take a bag of produce for yourself!
Breaking the Curse of Forgotten Places with community based resistance against the Politics of Criminalizing Communities, and educating the people on how the neoliberal military political economy has criminalized entire sectors of society both in the US and Mexico under the auspices of the “War on Drugs” in order to take control of territories, displace communities, and extract natural resources, a situation which affects every single one of us.
"The Border Crossed Us" poetry anthology, submissions accepted through November 1st!
Send submission to: [editor@) vagabondbooks.net] / [www.vagabondbooks.net]
Send up to three poems on the theme of ending human rights abuse against Mexican refugees in the USA and against Palestinians in the occupied territories. Include a short factual biography and a clear headshot photo. Files should be in Word (doc/docx) format (poems and bio); jpeg headshot. Include a cover letter with full contact information and titles of poems. Poet’s name should NOT appear on poem pages. Multilingual poems accepted with English Translation.
ACTION HEADLINES
In Memorial: "The Demise of the San Francisco Bay Guardian" [CounterPunch.org link] [archive.org]
"The Nuclear Resister" E-bulletin, for Sept. 2014 [NukeResister.org link] [archive.org]
Headlines include:
* CAMPAIGN NONVIOLENCE ACTION ARRESTS ACROSS THE U.S.
* ANOTHER NY DRONE PROTESTER GOES TO JAIL
* ARMY REFUSER SARA BEINING ARRESTED AND JAILED
Popular Resistance Newsletter:
* (2014-10-18) Communities Standing Up [PopularResistance.org link] [archive.today]
* (2014-10-11) "The People Are Ready For Action" [PopularResistance.org link] [archive.today]
Million Hoodies Movement for Justice [facebook.com/MillionHoodies] #Oct22, #BlackLivesMatter. Live shut down of I-75/I-85 Highway happening *RIGHT* now in Atlanta, GA! (Photo via Rise Up), followed by the Photo of the week by Hoodies supporter James S. Dugan. See more at [mhfrequency.org]
Northbay Copwatch:
* An open letter to Joshua Coleman of the Vallejo Police Department (2014-10-21) [Justice4MarioRomero.wordpress.com link] [archive.org]
* "Bend police investigating downtown fight Say Vallejo, Calif officer displayed handgun" (2014-09-29) [KTVZ.com link] [archive.today]
"Terrorism, COINTELPRO, and the Black Panther Party --An interview with law professor Angela A. Allen-Bell" (2014-09-03) [Angola3news.blogspot.com link] [archive.org]
Petition by Redwood Curtain Copwatch Humboldt County, to David Parris, Humboldt County Coroner, sign the petition at [Change.org link]:
We request a coroner's inquest into the unexplained, sudden, and violent death of Thomas McClain Thomas "Tommy" McClain was shot and killed by Eureka police in front of his family's home just after midnight on September 17, 2014. He was 22 years old.
There has been no arrest of officers involved in this shooting, and the "investigation" of this shooting is being handled by the Eureka Police Department itself. Chief Andrew Mills has said he will be responsible for deciding the fate of Stephen Linfoot, one officer named in the killing.
Troubling and changing details have been trickling out of the Eureka Police Department, but still no clear explanation of Tommy's death exists. Tommy's family and others in the community are still seeking answers.
* "Santa Cruz: Getting Closer to the Truth About Marijuana Citations and Arrests" (2014-10-13) [HUFFSantaCruz.org link] [archive.org]
* "The Marijuana Citation and Arrests Records That the Measure K Commitee Would Not Request" (2014-10-10) [Indybay.org link] [archive.org]
* "Measure K Committee Craps Out Again--Another Free Ride for the SCPD" (2014-10-06) [IndyBay.org link] [archive.org]
Online petition about (medical) mistreatment at Santa Cruz County Jail [Change.org link].
Intro by John Colby of Santa Cruz:
I ask you to inspect this change.org online petition about inmates at the Santa Cruz County Jail being denied (desperately) needed medicines.
Others have reported this is jail protocol — denying newly booked inmates medications for about twenty four hours. This has caused disabled inmates (serious) medical problems — the local jail reform/abolition group Sin Barras communicated they are documenting civil rights violations against jail inmates.
If occurring as reported, this would constitute a pattern and practice of discrimination as well as criminal negligence. After gaining more evidence, I will file a discrimination complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice against the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office. I shall also seek legal representation for a class action lawsuit on behalf of the identified victims.
I have also heard reports of inmate mistreatment based upon race, ethnicity and gender.
I ask the media to conduct independent investigations into these allegations — you must serve as a check on government abuse of power — the media is the fourth pillar of government.
John Colby, the "Gorilla Advocate" who does not back down from defending disabled people against Police abuse, has himself been targeted by the "Good ol' Boy" network of real-estate managers, police aficionados, and politically connected individuals (majority of the Democrat Party).
"Allow me to file criminal charges against dangerous SCPD informant", letter addressed 2014-10-06 to Santa Cruz Mayor Lynn Robinson and Santa Cruz City Council:
I am petitioning you to require City Attorney John Barisone to respond to the linked to letter — I faxed a signed copy to him and the carbon copied parties last March [http://tinyurl.com/k9jkjkf].
My sister and I saw Michelle LNU AKA Starr AKA Tiger in front of the Downtown post office about two weeks ago. Michelle LNU is the alleged methamphetamine abuser the Santa Cruz Police Department (SCPD) exploited to disrupt a First Amendment protected Downtown protest. Michelle LNU threatened and harassed my sister there, targeting my sister's disabilities. Until Michelle LNU is criminally charged, my sister cannot walk safely Downtown without fear of being assaulted by her.
Santa Cruz City Attorney Barisone — but more generally the City of Santa Cruz — have failed to protect my sister and I from vicious criminals who have terrorized us. At the Mission Gardens Apartments — a Section 8 project in Santa Cruz partially funded and administered by the City — you, your colleagues on the City Council, your city attorney and your police department denied us the service and protection we repeatedly plead for. Instead of forcing Mari Tustin — your planning commissioner who manages Mission Gardens — to evict the criminals there, you allowed Mari Tustin to illegally terminate my tenancy while I was a whistleblower about public corruption, fraud and housing program abuse to HUD's Office of Inspector General. So while I was displaced, losing my emotional assistance cats, the vicious criminals who gang stalked us there remain (under Mari Tustin's protection).
Mari Tustin endorsed the candidacies of two Santa Cruz mayors and three sitting City Council members.
I ask you to require City Attorney Barisone to let me file criminal charges against Michelle LNU on my sister's behalf. It's long overdue you and your colleagues begin serving us rather than the criminals terrorizing us.
It seems clear the City of Santa Cruz has supported criminal hate campaigns against us because of our advocacy for (disabled) homeless people and my Freedom of Information requests — passed to the U.S. Senate, the FBI and the USDOJ — uncovering public corruption by City officials.
Sincerely yours, John E. Colby, Ph.D., Santa Cruz, CA 95060 [Linkedin.com link]
Since Proposition 89 failed in 2006, corporations can spend any amount they want for or against candidates in cities like Richmond.
* "How Chevron swamps a small city with campaign money and bogus news", 2014-10-13 "LA Times" daily newspaper, [peeep.us]
* Purchase of Election by Chevron Shows We Have 'Oligarchy, Not Democracy'. According to estimates, fossil fuel company is on track to spend $3 million in attempt to gain control of city council in Richmond, California. [CommonDreams.org link] [archive.today]
USA Navy and Lennar Bay Area are developing radioactive land parcels for habitation and public use, and lying about it [SanPabloBayEPA.blogspot.com link]
Housing Solution: Affordable Tenant Co-ops Could Protect Buildings From Speculative Market" [SFPublicPress.org link] [archive.today]
* Ten Facts about Being Homeless in USA" [CommonDreams.org link] [archive.today]
* National Coalition for the Homeless report released this month [.pdf link at archive.org], shows that 21 cities have passed measures aimed at restricting the people who feed the homeless since January 2013. In that same time, similar legislation was introduced in more than 10 cities.
* "More Cities Are Making It Illegal To Hand Out Food To The Homeless" (2014-10-21) [archive.today].
"Ohlone Land Billboard Improvement" (2014-10-13) [IndyBay.org link] [archive.org]:
"Ohlone Land, Huchin Lives Buried, Return the Ancestors, #decolonizethebay" wheat pasted over 45 foot, 4 story billboard over the 580. A demonstration of continued resistance against genocidal colonization.In the spirit of resistance we give voice to the people of the land. Universities and colleges collecting remains like debt collectors. Alive is the soul of the land. Humming bird is the first mother of the people from the creation story. Basket designs weaving the strength of the past.
#decolonizethebay
An indigenous<>anarchist collaboration.
"Pimicikamak First Nation evicts Hydro workers over flood damage concerns" (2014-10-16) [WestCoastNativeNews.com link] [archive.today]
Harbor Seals are being evicted from Alameda Pointe.
* "Shake, Rattle, and Ignore" (2014-10-09) [AlamedaSun.com link] [archive.today]
Oct. 22: Join Prima farm workers in a march to L.A. City Hall
Fresno-based Gerawan Farming is one of the nation’s largest tree fruit grower. They sell peaches, nectarines and apricots under its Prima label at stores throughout L.A. including their biggest customer, Walmart. Gerawan farm workers voted to join UFW but the company is refusing to implement a state-mandated first contract that gives workers owed back wages, benefits and rights.
* "First witness testifies in ALRB hearing and already a police report has been filed over attempted witness tampering" (2014-10-08) [UFW.org link] [archive.org]
Join the LA Labor Movement, UFW President Arturo Rodriguez, LA City Council President Herb Wesson and farm workers on a march to City Hall calling on City leadership to pass a resolution telling Gerawan Farming to stop violating the law and implement the contract.
* "Chicago Activists ‘Charge Genocide’ A group of activists will be heading to the United Nations convention in Switzerland to discuss police brutality." (2014-10-22) [TheRoot.com link] [archive.today]
* "Hip-Hop Represents in Ferguson, Missouri", 2014-10-19 from the "Revolutionary Hip-Hop Report" [RHHR.org link] [archive.org]
* "St. Louis cops arrest protesters for smashing ‘police brutality’ pumpkins" (2014-10-21) [RawStory.com link] [archive.today]
* "Whites riot over pumpkins in NH and Twitter turns it into epic lesson about Ferguson" (2014-10-19) [RawStory.com link] [archive.org]
* "'White on Pumpkin Crime': Mainstream Riot Coverage from Ferguson, Missouri to Keene, New Hampshire" [CommonDreams.org link] [archive.org]
* "Keene State and the Dangers of Drunken Young White Men" (2014-10-22) [Alternet.org link] [archive.today]
USA Fascism Watch:
* "Financial guru Dave Ramsey: Jesus was wrong to say rich people can’t go to heaven" (2014-10-21) [RawStory.com link] [archive.org]* "Leaked TPP Chapter Exposes Sweet Deals for Big Pharma and US Bully Tactics; U.S. pushing rules that 'favor big corporate right holders, and undermine the public’s freedom to use knowledge,' intellectual property expert says" (2014-10-16) [CommonDreams.org link] [archive.org]
* "Hydraulic fracturing linked to earthquakes in Ohio" (2014-10-16) [archive.today], all artificial earthquakes and destruction of public aquifiers are crimes against humanity, but the criminals won't be prosecuted as long as they dominate the economic system. The buck stops at the investors.
* "The Business of America" (2014-10-05) [archive.today], from [PublicBankingPA.org]:
According to the government in Washington, the American economy has come roaring back. The second quarter GDP (Gross Domestic Product) was reported to be growing at a rate of 4.6 percent annually, turning around an economy that was contracting by 2 percent n the first quarter.
Pure propaganda.
The real state of the economy can be found in the US Census Bureau’s 2013 Income and Poverty Report, which concludes that in 2013 real median household income in the U.S. was 8 percent below 2007, the year prior to the Great Recession, and has now declined to the level of 1994.
And both the Federal Reserve and the Office of Comptroller of the Currency reported that there are about $4 trillion fewer dollars in circulation today in the nation than at the onset of the 2008 Wall Street crash.
The way forward for the American people is to use the still vast common wealth of the people to fund local initiative and innovation. The tool we need is public banking.
State and local governments in the U.S. possess trillions of dollars of reserves, investments and bank deposits. They can be harnessed to form public banks to do what Wall Street and Washington will not do: provide affordable credit to fund locally directed economic development, massive infrastructure investments and job creation, low cost student loans and reduced local government debt.
A network of state, municipal and county public banks is the path to restoring the prosperity and security of the American people. The effort to build that network is well underway. A few weeks ago, Santa Fe, NM became the first U.S. city to move formally to establish its own bank. More will follow.
* "Imperialism and Fascism are on the Rise in the USA" (2007) [GlobalResearch.ca link] [archive.today]
* " 'America lives in a fascist state' – trend forecaster" (2009) [GlobalResearch.ca link] [archive.today]
* "Does Fascism Lurk Around The Corner In The USA?" (2011) [GlobalResearch.ca link] [archive.today]
* "US Propaganda: How Corporate America Manipulates the American Public Into Unwitting Support for Corporate Fascism" (2014) [GlobalResearch.ca link] [archive.today]
Billionaires are funding a revolution in Arizona to establish a sovereign state government with Proposition 122: Rejection Of Unconstitutional Federal Actions, which, if successfully implemented, will institute a process to abolish Federal programs administered in the state, including Environmental Protection, Labor Relations, and public medical care... anything that harms the collecting of private profits, generally. One wonders if "Hate Laws" would be abolished, too.
* "INSANE ARIZONA GOP WANTS TO ESTABLISH A SOVEREIGN STATE BY PASSING PROP 122" (2014-10-20) [IfYouOnlyNews.com link] [archive.today]
* "Prop 122 & Backers Ducey & Brnovich Are Too Extreme for Arizona" [archive.org]
* 10th Amendment text: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
"UCSC Student Withdraws from University Citing UC's Connection to War Profiteering" (2013-10-13) [IndyBay.org link] [archive.org]
Shortly before the Fall 2014 quarter was to commence at the University of California Santa Cruz, undergraduate student Marjorie Langdon decided to take a leave of absence from her studies. In a letter to administrators explaining the decision, Marjorie strongly denounced the UC system's connections to the military industrial complex. Photo: Marjorie at a vigil held in Santa Cruz in June for the people of Iraq.
"Lockheed Martin developing compact nuclear fusion reactor" (2014-10-15) [Energy-Daily.com link] [archive.today]
Wars "R" Us! One reason, (many others), why we protest at Beale: Global Hawk Surveillance Drone, controlled from Beale AFB. Northrop Grumman gave more money this year in campaign contributions to members of Congress, especially to members of the House Armed Services Committee, to the tune of $1.3 million in the first 6 months of 2013.
* "Only 84 of 2,379 US Drone Attack Victims in Pakistan Confirmed Al-Qaeda Militants" (2014-10-18) [GlobalResearch.ca link] [archive.org]
* "Clergy and Veterans Among Eleven People Arrested at Beale Air Base Over Two Days of Campaign Nonviolence Demonstrations; 11 people arrested last month while resisting global warfare and drones killing" [link]
* Please watch this beautiful video of action by Devan Phenix [Youtube.com link].
* Find out more about past events and upcoming events at the Occupy Beale Air Force Base website [OccupyBealeAFB.org/] or the Occupy Beale FaceBook Page [facebook.com/OccupyBealeAirForceBase].
Join us for this month: October 27-28
Theme: Honoring and Celebrating the Maidu, the Indigenous People of the land that includes Beale AFB
Monday, Oct. 27, 3-5pm, Protest at Wheatland gate, Intersection of S. Beale Rd. and Ostrom Rd.
5:30pm: Potluck and Encampment at Main gate, End of N. Beale Rd. (parking nearby)
To include learning and sharing about the Maidu people.
Tuesday, Oct. 28, 6-8am, Protest at Main gate, End of N. Beale Rd. (parking nearby)
Truth Troubadour Vic Sadot was interviewed by Bev Collins (bevcollinsshow.com) on the “911 Talks” Radio Show on Oct 2, 2014. Songs Featured: The Ballad of William Rodriguez, Cheney’s in the Bunker, Blowback or Bloody Treason, and Trouble in the Rubble. This 911Talks show is now archived at this direct link:[.mp3 link at Livestream.com]
Vic [VicSadot.com] is a host for the Berkeley Fellowship Monthly Open Mic every 2nd Friday of the Month. Sign-up for performers is at 6:30 pm, show begins at 7 pm, with 20 ten minute spots available. Featured Artist perform between 8 and 8:30 pm. A production of the Social Justice Committee, which meets on the 1st & 3rd Sundays of the month at 12:30 pm in the Fireside Room on the second floor at 1606 Bonita Ave. [BFUU.org/events/Social-Justice]. "SOCIAL JUSTICE in the HEART of BERKELEY" [Youtube.com/user/BFUUSocialJustice].
Guns and Butter radio news for September 3, 2014: "The Pentagon Attack In Context" with Tod Fletcher. Download this clip (mp3, 10.27 megabytes) [.mp3 link at KPFA.org]. Play this clip in your Computer's media player [KPFA.org link]. The 9/11 Consensus Panel; contextual approach to analyzing events at the Pentagon; origins of the hijacker story; telephone calls from the planes; analysis of eyewitness reports; physical debris; photographic evidence; video evidence; black boxes; FBI takes control of the investigation; means, motive and opportunity; Pentagon specific purposes; planes as a diversionary tactic; John Lear.
Dr. Graeme MacQueen : The 2001 Anthrax Deception - The Case for a Domestic Conspiracy (1:23:23) Julian Childs interview at The Mind Renewed site and YouTube Channel. How the anthrax attacks of October 2001 are connected to 9/11/01 terror events. “Dr. Graeme MacQueen, co-editor of The Journal of 9/11 Studies, in an in-depth discussion on his important new book, ‘The 2001 Anthrax Deception: The Case for a Domestic Conspiracy’. Shortly after 9/11, the US was once again gripped by fear as letters containing anthrax were sent through the post to news media offices and two US Senators, killing five and infecting perhaps dozens of others. Initially widely-blamed on Al Qaeda and Iraq, the attacks were used to jusify and accelerate the USA PATRIOT Act. But as evidence grew that the anthrax spores had originated in laboratories embedded in the US military-industrial complex, attention was diverted to looking for the "lone nut"; a quest that ended with a convenient suicide." [http://youtu.be/9a0i91-npyE]
"New Evidence Links CIA to APA’s “War on Terror” Ethics" (2014-101-14) [CounterPunch.org link] [archive.org], scroll down past the Annual Fundraising Appeal.
The American Psychological Association (APA) has denied that it's members work with clandestine agencies for the purpose of torture, but the evidence shows that the APA membership contains many contracters who work for torturers. The article doesn't mention how many APA members also serve with domestic security agencies to target human-rights advocates and political prisoners.
"FBI Director: Government Surveillance 'Enhances Liberty'" (2014-10-17) [CommonDreams.org link] [archive.today]
"German journalist: European media writing pro-US stories under CIA pressure" [archive.org]
"US calls for 'complete' probe into Hong Kong police brutality" (2014-10-16) [archive.today], which is ironic considering how many Occupy protesters across the USA were tortured in public without a "complete" probe of systematic human-rights abuse...
The USA-backed dictatorship in Honduras is suppressing it's own version of an Occupy movement, with students organizing for freedom being met with police violence and official censorship. For example, here's an update from Daniel Langmeier for "Presente-Honduras Digest", Vol 36, Issue 40, 2014-10-21: "Instead of taking the demands by the students seriously, the Honduran authorities are analyzing if they committed a crime by taking over the facilities of the university in San Pedro Sula. Source, in Spanish, [http://www.proceso.hn/nacionales/item/89856-fiscal%C3%ADa-analiza-deducir-responsabilidades-a-estudiantes-que-mantienen-tomada-la-unah-vs.html]."
Stand with the People of Western Kurdistan! [link]
Until earlier this year, the group labeled "ISIS / ISIL" was funded directly by the USA and allies to destabilize the government of Syria despite the indiscriminate massacres of civilians.
* NATO behind creation of ISIL: Webster Tarpley [archive.org]
* "Senator McCain Visits With Syrian ‘Rebels’ – Terrorists" (2013-05-28) [archive.org]
* "New York Times FAIL: 'McCain No Connections To ISIS?!?" (2014-10-20) [archive.org]
Photo showing U.S. Senator John McCain with chiefs of the Free Syrian Army (i.e. ISIS), April 2013, at Idlib in Syria, pledging US Money and Weapons to Ex-US POW Ibrahim Al-Badri of the “Free Syrian Army”, a "Moderate Democratic" already among the Five Most Wanted Terrorists with a $10 Million bounty for his capture; and was simultaneously Emir of ISIS, styling himself Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, and World Caliph Ibrahim of the Restored Caliphate.World Fascism Watch: Mexico
* "Mexico: gunmen against student protest", from "Alternative Libertaire (AL)" of France [archive.org], machine translation distributed 2014-10-09 by "A-infos-en Digest", Vol 114, Issue 9:
Mexico shaken by revelations about a Students' protest massacre September 26: 6 dead, 25 wounded and 38 missing. We just found the bodies of 17 missing, presumably executed by paramilitaries in collusion with the government.
Following an attack on a Mexican Students' protest in Guerrero by the armed forces of the State, organizations and associations that support the "Other Campaign" in Europe show their solidarity.
The news about the Students' disparu.es are alarming, since the bodies were recently found in mass graves. The convergent evidence to accuse the paramilitary - in collusion with local authorities - of committing the massacre. Police murdered students -
MESSAGE OF SOLIDARITY
To the Students in Ayotzinapa and their Families.
To the Sexta.
To Civil Society.
To the Alternative Media, National and International.
Companer@s,
We learned the massacre against the students of the Normal School of Rural Ayotzinapa and disappearances that took place Friday, September 26 this year at Igual, Guerrero.
From wherever we are, we express our solidarity with the students and their families will we let them know that we are with them.
We denounce the various levels of government (federal, state and local) responsible for this brutal attack on the peaceful march of students which resulted in six deaths, 25 injured and 38 missing.
We demand the immediate reappearance and alive, missing and immediately stops the harassment and persecution of current social movements.
We join social movements of the world show their solidarity and support and struggling against bad governments.
These bad governments can not crush the dignity of peoples.
Democracy! Freedom! Justice! for all peoples of the world who are struggling.
---
* "Disappearance of Mexican Students Awakens the Guerrillas" (2014-10-19) [Telesurtv.net link] [archive.org]
* "The Mexican nation under threat of disintegration" [SocialistOrganizer.org link] [archive.org]
* "The Ayotzinapa disappeared: PARTISAN VIOLENCE AND THE CRIMINAL STATE (OF EXCEPTION)" (2014-10-19) [MexMigration.blogspot.de link] [archive.today]
* "Cops and Paramilitaries Tortured, Burned, Massacred Mexico Students" (2014-10-06) [archive.org]
* "Evidence of "Extrajudicial" Death Squads Emerging in Mexico" (2011-03-20) [Narcosphere.narconews.com link] [archive.org]
World Fascism Watch: Honduras
A new page [link] is being compiled showing the process of fascism in Honduras, which suffered a coup 2009 against a "leftist" government, and since then there has been an increase in drug trafficking involving the capitalist politicians, and thousands of victims of death-squads used by "conservative" capitalists against human-rights advocates, captive nations, women and the spectrum of LGBT.
* "Hillary Clinton admits role in Honduran coup aftermath" (2014-09-29) [archive.org]
* A very well done short documentary of the campesinas' struggle in Agua Blanca Sur in Honduras (with English subtitles). More than 700 peasant farmers face judicial processing for the crime of demanding their right to land. Women and their sons / daughters of the countryside have been victims of criminalization and persecution by the authorities, receiving alternative measures to prison by denying them the right to return to land, forcing them to sign in court every 15 days. This is the story of a country where poverty is criminalized.
-
The Plurinational State of Bolivia has reduced poverty and inequality more than any country in the Western Hemisphere over the last ten years by increasing the minimum wage 87%, doubling investment in schools and healthcare, and lowering the pension retirement age from 65 to 60. The government paid for these programs by increasing taxes on oil profits from 18% to 82%, which also allowed the country to eliminate its debt and amass the world's largest surplus. Bolivia is now estimated to have the region's fastest growing economy this year and next, according to the IMF.
* "Why Did Evo Win?" (2014-10-14) [archive.org]
* "Bolivia's Economy Under Evo in 10 Graphs" (2014-10-08) [CEPR.net link] [archive.org]
* "Evo Morales has proved that socialism doesn’t damage economies; Bolivia’s re-elected president has dumbfounded critics in Washington, the World Bank and the IMF" (2014-10-14) [TheGuardian.com link] [archive.today]
Bolivia is part of the ALBA union of states, which offers a better quality of life for citizens of member states through cooperative trade agreements. An example is member state Nicaragua, which has implemented social programs and human rights for the poor, versus fascist Honduras, which since 2009, under a USA-sponsored coup government, has seen a staggering rise in death-squad activity against labor unions and captive nations, replicating what is seen in Colombia, another USA-sponsored "death-squad" government (with crematoriums to burn the remains of their victims!!) whose respect for human rights pales in comparison to ALBA member state The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela...
* "Venezuelan Government Will Increase Public Spending in 2015, Despite Falling Oil Prices" (2014-10-22) [TelesurTV.net link] [archive.org]
* "Venezuela Fully Prepared to Cope With Oil Price Drop" (2014-10-22) [TelesurTV.net link] [archive.org]
* "Venezuela Slams UN Human Rights Head for Supporting 'Anti-democratic Elements'" (2014-10-22) [TelesurTV.net link] [archive.org]
The Nobel Prize... an acknowledgment of men's intellectual superiority to women?
* "Female Nobel winners are rare: One was a British communist" [PeoplesWorld.org link] [archive.org]
For the sake of Peace for the People of Korea, against nuclear war and the targeting of civilians, we take on the challenge of looking into the mirror...
To distract the public from the millions of dead civilians killed during countless wars, and millions of prisoners captured during the Drug War and tortured in private prisons across the homeland, the USA's "leaders" wag the finger at the usual enemy in order to show how much freedom it allows it's citizens. In this case, the DPRK (North Korea) is usually considered the worst of all enemies because of it's treatment of prisoners. The following are examples of how prisoners are treated in the USA.
* "Alabama Jailers Let Prisoners Die From Easily Treatable Illnesses to Save Money" (2014-10-19) [Alternet.org link] [archive.today]
* Darren Rainey, tortured to death with boiling water, Dade County, FL. "Prisoner: I cleaned up skin of inmate scalded in shower; human-rights groups call for federal intervention" [MiamiHerald.com link] [archive.today]
The prison system administered by the DPRK is estimated to hold almost 250,000 prisoners out of a population of 25 million, (California has 160,000 prisoners out of a population of 38 million), most of whom are petty criminals released after a few years in "reform through labor" centers.
* "North Korea, at UN, mentions its labor camps" (2014-10-07) [AP.org link] [archive.today].
The centers are expanding, and it is speculated that prisoners are being used in special factories to produce domestic goods, in preparation for their release and assignment as a state employee with a paycheck. Petty criminals are part of human-trafficking and illicit narcotic gangs based in South Korea, and the DPRK, having ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in August, has launched an aggressive campaign to root out child trafficking and prostitution. The worst human-rights abuse by the DPRK are against dissenters with foreign contacts. For example, Christians are allowed the freedom to worship at state licensed congregations, and Korean language Bibles are available in public libraries, however, if a Christian is suspected of working with foreign agencies, the state security agencies will send that person to a specific prison system which is estimated to have 120,000 inmates who, according to an escapee, are treated as harshly as drug-offenders are known to be treated in private-sector prisons across the California. There are reports of entire families being starved to death in "prison cities", although these reports are associated with USA clandestine agencies who have been proven to fabricate evidence to make a case for war, however these reports remain believable for the purpose of documenting human-rights abuse. For example, here's Operation Northwoods of 1962 to conduct terrorism against the USA and blame it on Cuba [archive.org], the Yellowcake Forgery of 2003 to fabricate evidence against Iraq [archive.org], 2008 Speedboat incident against Iran [archive.today]... the list continues, and every war targets civilian infrastructure and causes millions to become refugees. And now the USA is calling for war against the DPRK for its treatment of prisoners, which, when considering the recent wars against the People of Libya, Iraq, Syria and eastern Ukraine, is really just a call for the mass murder of millions of Korean civilians...
* " 'Humanitarian Warfare' against the DPRK or 'Conflict Resolution'? The UN Human Rights Inquiry on North Korea" (2014-10-28) [GlobalResearch.ca link] [archive.today]
* "DPRK Human Rights Briefing at UN Challenges US Unending War Strategy" (2014-10-14) [Taz.de link] [archive.org], [begin excerpt]: The Report proposes that the protection of human rights in the DPRK requires putting the political development of the DPRK into its historical context. The Report documents various forms of hostile actions by the US showing the effect such actions have had on the DPRK development after the end of WWII and the end of Japanese colonial rule over Korea. One such example that the Report provides is explaining that “sanctions were imposed on Korea after Korea was liberated from Japanese colonial rule.” Even before the Korean War, the US imposed sanctions against the socialist countries including the DPRK as part of its Cold War politics. The Report also documents recent hostile acts by the US against the DPRK. The DPRK puts the anti-human rights campaign by the “US and its followers” in the context of the effort to “defame the image of the DPRK in the international arena and dismantle the socialist system under the pretext of ‘protection of human rights’.” The ‘Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P) narrative provides the means by which “would-be rescuers lay claim to a monopoly on the virtuous use of violence….”
Keeping in mind such recent examples as Iraq and Libya, (DPRK) observes that the claims of noble goals provides a level of protection to the perpetrators of invasions using the mantle of R2P. Instead of being “viewed as human rights violations in themselves” when they engage in acts of war like aerial bombardment, military invasion, or an embargo on essential goods, they are provided with the appearance of acting as saviors. US concerns over human rights violations regarding the people of the DPRK would have to begin by addressing the massive destruction against the civilian population and civilian infrastructure of the DPRK carried out by the US and its allies during the Korean War and since (the Cold War) by its sanctions. [end excerpt].
* Full Report from the DPRKorea Association for Human Rights Studies, as presented to the United Nations, Part I (2014-09-15) [4thmedia.org link] [archive.org].
The original War against Korea saw carpet bombing of cities by the USA, with massive civilian deaths ranging into the millions. For whom, then, was the country being liberated for? For those who know how energy sources prove to influence the severity of war, northern Korea has Uranium mines.
Examples of "reliable" allies of the USA and their prisoners populations:
* Colombia has 140,000 prisoners out of a population of 47 million [Telesurtv.net link] [archive.org], not including the over 250,000 victims of government protected anti-leftist death squads, as documented by USA State Dept. internal memos released by Wikileaks [archive.org], who use "Hitler-like" crematorium oven facilities to cover up their slaughter, and whose membership trained a civilian spy network to select dissidents for death [archive.org].
* Saudi Arabia has 47,000 prisoners out of a population of 27 million [archive.org], and conducts public executions with beheadings [archive.today] while funding religious death squads across Arabia and Asia.
War in the Ukraine:
* "Preparing for War With Ukraine's Fascist Defenders of Freedom (2014-08-30) [peeep.us], an article which describes the neo-Nazis operating as death-squads in the Ukraine, sponsored by the USA.
* "US-Backed Ukraine Army Used Cluster Bombs Against Its Own People: Reports 'Firing cluster munitions into populated areas is utterly irresponsible and those who ordered such attacks should be held to account,' says rights group." (2014-10-21) [CommonDreams.org link] [archive.org]
* Self-described Anarchists are also joining the fight alongside neo-Nazis in the Azov Battalion against Novorossiya, view photos of the "anarchists" here [archive.org]
* "Putin’s International Brigades" (2014-10-02) [archive.org], describing volunteers defending Novorossiya.
* "Moscow Autonomous Action" (2014-10-19) [archive.org], anarchist observations on the Ukrainian war.
World War against the Eurasian Union:
Since WW2, the European Union (EU) and it's world wide financial empire has been a protectorate to the USA, and today has a population of 500 million and a GDP of USD$16 trillion, whose economy is dependent on energy extracted from resources held by the Federation of Russia.
During the coup against the government of the Ukraine in February 2014, the USA State Dept. has engineered a disruption of the energy arrangements between the EU and Russia (meanwhile the USA is securing Africa to replace Russia as the energy source for the EU). Despite this, the government of Russia secured a treaty enacting the Eurasian Union (EEU) with a population of 171 million and a GDP of $US4 trillion whose energy resources are now being integrated into the economy of China (population 1.4 billion and a GDP of USD$16 trillion). View a non-official map of the EEU, April 2014 [archive.org].
* "US dusted off old USSR-break-up strategy for use in Ukraine - former FSB chief" (2014-10-16) [RT.com link] [archive.org]: “Some US experts such as former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright have suggested that Moscow has power over enormous territory that it cannot develop and it prevents these territories from serving humanity’s needs. Statements are being made about the allegedly unjust distribution of natural resources and the necessity to provide free access to them for other nations.”
* "US Aggression in Ukraine and the Eurasian Union" (2014-06-30) [m.strategic-culture.org link] [archive.today]
* "This Map Shows The Huge Scale Of Vladimir Putin's Eurasian Plan" (2013-12-07) [BusinessInsider.com.au link] [archive.today]
ACTION CALENDER!
Blood and Ink: Ignacio Ellacuria, Jon Sobrino and the Jesuit Martyrs of the University of Central America with author Robert Lassalle-Klein, Phd.
date Friday, October 24, 2014
time 7:00 PM
where Newman Hall/ Holy Spirit Parish
2700 Dwight Way at College Ave.
Berkeley
Please note that this venue is wheelchair accessible but please call in advance.
admission Free
information 510-482-1062
Newman Nonviolent Peacemakers and the Fr. Bill O’Donnell Social Justice Committee welcome Robert Lassalle-Klein, Ph.D. who will discuss his recently published Blood and Ink (Orbis Books, 2014).
November 16, 2014 marks the 25th anniversary of the shocking massacre of the six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter by government troops at the University of Central America (UCA) in San Salvador. Lassalle-Klein provides the definitive account of the path that led to that fateful day: beginning with the Jesuits' own conversion by the poor; the renewal of the Salvadoran church exemplified in slain Archbishop Oscar Romero; and their faith-driven call to "walk with the crucified people of El Salvador."
Robert Lassalle-Klein, Phd is Professor of Religious Studies and Philosophy at Holy Names University, Oakland. A co-founder of the Oakland Catholic Worker, a house of sanctuary for refugees since 1986, he continues to lead delegations to El Salvador. Over 20 years ago, Fr. Jon Sobrino -- a surviving Jesuit who was outside of the country at the time of the massacre -- personally asked Bob "to tell our story." Blood and Ink is the story of that encounter which redefined Jesuit institutions, giving rise to new ways of addressing issues of social justice locally and abroad.
THE NUCLEAR UNIVERSITY AND U.S. POWER IN THE PACIFIC:
TIME FOR A NEW FREE SPEECH MOVEMENT?
University of California, Berkeley
Room/Building: 60 Evans
Thursday, October 23, 2014
6:00 PM - 9:30 PM
*The Pacific Pivot: overview
*The Marshall Islands: Ground Zero for nuclear colonialism
*California, US power in the Pacific, and the University
*Universities: intellectual arsenals for U.S. power
Presenters: Dr. Gray Brechin, author “Imperial San Francisco”; Paul Otoko, Marshall Islands elder; Arnie Sakai, Moana Nui Network; Christine Hong, Assistant Professor, UC Santa Cruz; Stephen McNeil, American Friends Service Committee; Andrew Lichterman and Jackie Cabasso, Western States Legal Foundation
Sponsors: American Friends Service Committee; Western States Legal Foundation; Working Group for Peace and Demilitarization in Asia and the Pacific; Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies Program, Department of Ethnic Studies, University of California at Berkeley
Speak Out Now Presents a Forum on...
U.S.A., Cops of the World
Sunday, October 26th 6:30pm
at the Neibyl Proctor Library at 6501 Telegraph Ave. Oakland
From Iraq to Syria to Sudan, from Haiti to Venezuela to Columbia -- U.S. troops, weapons, and money are used to enforce the elite's system of domination and exploitation. At home in the U.S., the cops are armed with the same weapons used against working people all over, from Ferguson to New York to Oakland.
[www.SpeakOut-Now.org] [510.343.9105] [mail@) speakout-now.org]
End Police Violence
Sunday, October 26 1:00pm
You are invited to discuss solutions to the unjust, discriminatory and deadly treatment of people of color, gender non-conformists and immigrants by the criminal justice system. At New Valencia Hall (see address below; near Civic Center BART). Tasty home-cooked brunch served at 12:15pm for $8 donation.
Occupy Sonoma County!
Monday, Oct. 27, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Unitarian/Universalist Congregation, 547 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa
Currently in a campaign to stop GMO's and threats to public health.
THE IRON HEEL THEATRE COLLECTIVE PRESENTS:
THE IRON HEEL,
BASED ON THE NOVEL BY JACK LONDON,
6 P.M. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2014
AT THE BERKELEY CITY CLUB HOTEL 2315 Durant Ave.
[http://www.politicaleventscalendar.org/pec/index.cfm]
The Iron Heel Theatre Collective presents THE IRON HEEL. Based on the novel of the same title by Jack London, it is a dramatic, Readers Theater production featuring mask/puppetry performance, giant hand-painted Cantastoria illustrations of the story, and live music. Originally published in 1908, Jack London s novel THE IRON HEEL is a dystopian science fiction novel that predicted the First World War, the rise of fascism, authoritarianism, and its brutal suppression of movements for change. The message is a timely warning in this era of corporate domination of the political process.
The October 31production features Jack London' s great granddaughter, Tarnel Abbott, as the socialite-turned-revolutionary, Avis Everhard, and Jack London 's great-great grandson, Devin O' Keefe as the anti-capitalist organizer, Ernest Everhard. Also featuring Artistic Director Regina Gilligan, Mask/puppet Director David Solnit, and guest musician Andres Soto on saxophone. Alicia Littletree Bales will be the Director of the Readers Theater, the cast and crew will include Julie Searle, Amanda Bellerby and Liz Watts.
The members of the Iron Heel Theatre Collective, Tarnel Abbott, Regina Gilligan, Devin O' Keefe, David Solnit, and the cast and crew of this production request a donation of $10.00 to $20.00, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds. Any proceeds beyond expenses of the production will be donated to Richmond Progressive Alliance (RichmondProgressiveAlliance.net) and the Sunflower Alliance (sunflower-alliance.net) in their fight for our climate, for the health and safety of East Bay communities threatened by big oil, and the building of a sustainable economy.
Save the People's Post Office
MOBILIZATION! HELP STOP THE SALE!
Sat. Nov. 1, 2014
2000 Allston Way on the steps of the Berkeley Post Office
It’s now in contract TO BE STOLEN!
The fate of the downtown Berkeley Post Office has reached a crisis point. The transfer of the building to private ownership may be only days away. For this reason, Berkeley Post Office Defenders call for a collaborative mobilization of all those who oppose the threat of privatization. Individuals and organizations will gather to share music, establish an ongoing direct action presence, and provide updates and support for political and legal action including:
- An injunction to Stop the Sale
- Postal banking
- Preservation of historic public property
- Boycott Staples profitization of postal services
• Massive Rally, 11 am to 12:30 pm,
1ST Action: Sponsored by Save the Berkeley Post Office, com
For more information please go to [www.savethebpo.com]
• Jam the Sale, 1 pm till 10 pm
2nd Action: Coordinated by Berkeley Post Office Defenders, [berkeleypostofficedefenders.wordpress.com]
" Come play music! Bring instruments -- including your singing voice, spoken word and dancing body. We will not allow our Post Office to be sold, and nothing can sustain persistent resistance like music. We will play until USPS stops pretending not to hear us say that our Post Office is not for sale!" You’re welcome to pre- schedule at http://tinyurl.com/mlxgpff
• Direct Action Presence, (bring your pillows)
3rd Action: in Collaboration with First They Came for the Homeless [www.facebook.com/pages/First-they-came-for-the-homeless/253882908111999]
It’s time to establish and support a physical presence at the Downtown Berkeley Post Office. By taking direct action to defend our public goods, we affirm our reasons for living in community by sharing our energy and resources for the benefit of all.
"Peace through Revolution" rally and march to the White House
Join the rally and March to the White House being organized by the Black is Back Coalition
Saturday, Nov. 1. Gather at 12 noon at Malcolm X Park and march to the White House.
For more information: [http://www.blackisbackcoalition.org/the-call]
Fighting for Peace: US Intervention in the Philippines and the People’s Resistance
A Webinar Report-backSunday, November 2, 2014
3pm Pacific/5pm Central/6pm Eastern
Register here to participate online: [http://tinyurl.com/BAYANPeaceMission]
GUEST SPEAKERS:
* Amirah Lidasan, Spokesperson for Suara Bangsamoro (Voice of the Moro People)
* Ramon Mejia, Iraq Veterans Against the War
* Juyeon Rhee, Nodutdol for Korean Community Development
This past summer 3 peace activists from the US-- a veteran of the US invasion of Iraq, and 2 activists with the US Out of Asia-Pacific Coalition-- traveled to Mindanao in the Southern Philippines to see the face of increasing US militarization, counterinsurgency, and people’s resistance on the ground. There they spent time with peasant and indigenous communities, and the Bangsamoro, an oppressed Muslim minority in the country struggling for self-determination despite a strong US pacification campaign. Come listen as they report back on their findings. Discuss ways to support grassroots communities in the Philippines defending themselves from state-sponsored violence, militarization and intervention.
Sponsored by: BAYAN USA / International League of Peoples Struggle / Iraq Veterans Against the War / US Out of Asia-Pacific Coalition. For more information: [www.bayanusa.org]
GMO OMG - Free Film Screening
Monday, Nov. 3, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
At the Unitarian/Universalist Congregation, 547 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa
For more info go to [OccupySonomaCounty.org]
Occupy Sonoma County invites you to this FREE screening of the 2014 film GMO OMG. GMO OMG director and concerned father Jeremy Seifert is in search of answers. How do GMOs affect our children, the health of our planet, and our freedom of choice? What is on our plate? Join us for this film to discuss these questions. Sponsored by the Occupy Sonoma County Free School and GMO Campaign.
Next Industrial Revolution: Birth of the Sustainable Economy
a film showing, part of the One Planet Film Festival 2014
St. Mary's College of California, Galileo Hall, Room 201, 1928 St. Marys Rd, Moraga
FREE & open to the public
See the complete schedule here [archive.today/ey44G]
Nov 4: The Next Industrial Revolution: William McDonough, Michael Braungart and the Birth of the Sustainable Economy (2001; 55min)
While some environmental observers predict doomsday scenarios in which a rapidly increasing human population is forced to compete for ever scarcer natural resources, Bill McDonough sees a more exciting and hopeful future. In his vision humanity takes nature itself as our guide reinventing technical enterprises to be as safe and ever-renewing as natural processes.
With the shorts, The Story of Electronics (8 min) & The Story of Solutions (9 min)
[www.BeeHiveCollective.org]
"Whistleblowers and Independent Media: A Check on Government Power"
A Public Forum with Speakers: Marjorie Cohn, Daniel Ellsberg, Ahmed Ghappour, Norman Solomon, Trevor Timm* Sunday, November 9, 2014 at 7:30 p.m.
* St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. in Berkeley
* Admission is $12; no one turned away for lack of funds. Tickets at [brownpapertickets.com/event/901329]
Our constitutional system of checks and balances is broken.
A Congress in the hands of corporations and their lobbyists can no longer protect the public from special interests and government, with its surveillance and endless wars for oil and profit.
Independent media have emerged as a powerful check on government abuses. Whistleblowers play an increasing and vital role in getting information to the public.
Our five panelists will engage in a lively discussion of the public's need for greater transparency and constitutional protection from government intrusion and abuse. How do "We the People" protect ourselves?
Our Panelists:
* Daniel Ellsberg: Activist, whistleblower, co–founder of the Freedom of the Press Foundation.
* Norman Solomon: Author, activist, co–founder of [www.RootsAction.org], coordinator of [ExposeFacts.org].
* Trevor Timm: Journalist and Columnist for the UK Guardian, executive director of Freedom of the Press Foundation.
* Marjorie Cohn: Law professor at Jefferson School of Law; author and human rights activist; former president of the National Lawyers Guild.
* Ahmed Ghappour: Hastings College professor of law; national security and cybersecurity litigator.
This Forum is the third in a series of Civil Liberty forums presented by St. John’s Presbyterian Church in Berkeley, California.
For further information, contact: Robert J. Jaffe, r.jaffe2[at]comcast[dot]net
Occupy the Farm documentary premiere
November 7 - November 137pm to 10pm
at the UA Berkeley 7 Theatre, 2274 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley.
Spread the word about Occupy The Farm and bring your friends to the Berkeley Premiere this November 7, playing for 7 days at the UA Berkeley 7 on Shattuck. More details on showtimes and tickets when we have them.
* Film Premiere page [facebook.com/events/1698666823691759].
* More info about the documentary, and updates on Occupy the Farm actions [facebook.com/OccupyTheFarmFilm].
And a movie premiere afterparty, Nov 7 at 9:30pm to Nov 8 at 12:30am
at the PLACE for Sustainable Living, 1121 64th St, Oakland. [facebook.com/events/741693772583887]
Celebrate the opening night of the Occupy the Farm Film with members of the documentary crew and OTF organizers. Live dance music with Los Nadies, and AnthNasty & the "insanely bad ass funk band". Stone soup with ingredients from the Gill Tract Farm! Show your film ticket stub to enter.
Peace & Justice Occupy Creech AFB
Nov. 9-15
Organized by CODEPINK, and our Peace and Justice allies!
Resist drone warfare/surveillance and global militarization!!
As you all probably know, Creech is one of the most important drone bases in the world.
The CIA does many of it's secret assassinations from there, as well as military drone killing independent from the CIA.
The desert is also very gorgeous place in the fall, and we are looking forward to beautiful desert walks with our sisters and brothers to rejuvenate between am and pm vigils, on mother earth's very sacred land.
We’re looking forward to visiting with the wild horses and relaxing in the local hot springs!
You’re welcome to join us for all or any part of the time we’ll be there
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