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URGENT! ACT NOW!
TROY DAVIS IS TO BE EXECUTED ON MIDNIGHT, SEPTEMBER 21, 2011!
http://www.naacp.org/content/main
We've just received terrible news: The state of Georgia has set Troy Davis's execution date for midnight on September 21st, just two weeks from today.
This is our justice system at its very worst, and we are alive to witness it. There is just too much doubt.
Even though seven out of nine witnesses have recanted their statements, a judge labeled his own ruling as "not ironclad" and the original prosecutor has voiced reservations about Davis's guilt, the state of Georgia is set to execute Troy anyway.
Time is running out, and this is truly Troy's last chance for life.
But through the frustration and the tears, there is one thing to remain focused on: We are now Troy Davis's only hope. And I know we won't let him down.
There are three steps you can take to help Troy:
1. Send a message of support to Troy as he fights for justice on what may be the final days of his life:
http://action.naacp.org/LettersOfSupport
2. Sign the name wall, if you haven't already. And if you have, send it to your friends and family. Each name means a more united front for justice:
http://action.naacp.org/Name-Wall
3. Make sure everyone knows about this injustice. Spread the word on Facebook and Twitter (using the hashtag #TooMuchDoubt) so that Troy Davis's story can be heard. We still have a chance to save his life, but only if people are willing to speak out against injustice.
Today, the state of Georgia has declared their intention to execute a man even though the majority of the people who put him on the row now say he is innocent and many implicate one of the other witnesses as the actual killer. Now that a date has been set, we cannot relent. We must redouble our efforts.
Thank you. Please act quickly and forward this message to all who believe the justice system defeats itself when it allows a man to be executed amid so much doubt.
Ben
Benjamin Todd Jealous
President and CEO
NAACP
Troy Davis Case: Part One:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SH4IpmJl6M&NR=1
Troy Davis Case: Part Two:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajDmdDl-FhM&feature=relmfu
Troy Davis Case: Part Three:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mcraX7yq_0&feature=relmfu
Troy Davis Case: Part Four:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJxudiudK4c&feature=relmfu
www.justicefortroy.org
Here are the mailing addresses for both the Bd. of Pardons and the Georgia Gov. for folks who will write snail mail appeals for Troy Davis.
Mailing Addresses:
State Board of Pardons and Paroles
2 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, SE
Suite 458, Balcony Level, East Tower
Atlanta, Georgia 30334-4909
Telephone: (404) 656-5651
Governor Nathan Deal
Office of the Governor
203 State Capitol
Atlanta,Georgia 30334
(404) 656-1776
http://gov.georgia.gov/00/gov/contact_us/0,2657,165937316_166563415,00.html
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This drawing has come to symbolize the California prison hunger strike and the solidarity it has generated. It was contributed by Rashid Johnson, a prisoner in Red Onion Prison, Virginia.
Pelican Bay SHU prisoners plan to resume hunger strike Sept. 26
by Mutope Duguma (s/n James Crawford)
September 1, 2011
http://sfbayview.com/2011/pelican-bay-shu-prisoners-plan-to-resume-hunger-strike-sept-26/
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Bay Area United Against War Newsletter
Table of Contents:
A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
B. VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.
C. SPECIAL APPEALS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
D. ARTICLES IN FULL
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A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
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Please Circulate Widely
Mon. Sept. 12, 6-8pm
Join ANSWER on Local 2 Picket Line!
Hyatt Hotel Workers are on Strike!
Hyatt Regency Hotel, 5 Embarcadero Center
Market and Drumm Sts., near Embarcadero BART, SF
The ANSWER Coalition has answered the solidarity call by Local 2 to adopt a picket line. Join ANSWER activists and supporters from 6-8pm for a spirited evening of chanting and picketing.
700 San Francisco Grand Hyatt and Hyatt Regency workers are joining thousands of Hyatt workers nationwide in launching week-long strikes today. Hyatt has singled itself out as the worst employer in the hotel industry. Hyatt has abused its housekeepers, replacing career housekeepers with minimum wage temporary workers and imposing dangerous workloads on those housekeepers who remain. By striking, workers are demanding the right to help themselves and other Hyatt workers across the United States contend with an abusive employer, intent on destroying decent jobs.
TO ADOPT OR INDIVIDUALLY SIGN UP FOR A PICKET SHIFT, PLEASE CLICK HERE
For more information on other picket actions contact: Julia Wong at 203-915-9572 or jwong@unitehere2.org
For more information on Local 2, visit www.unitehere2.org.
For updates on the strike, visit www.hotelworkersrising.org
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
http://www.AnswerCoalition.org
http://www.AnswerSF.org
Answer@AnswerSF.org
2969 Mission St.
415-821-6545
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Palestine Is Coming to the U.N.!
Rally, Thursday, September 15, 5 pm: Gather at Times Square
6 pm: March to Grand Central and then over to the U.N. to demand:
Palestine: Sovereignty Now!
Palestine: Enforce the Right of Return!
Palestine: Full Equality for All!
5 pm: Gather at Times Square
6 pm: March to Grand Central and then over to the U.N., as we say:
End All U.S. Aid to Israel!
End the Occupation!
Support Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions!
For more information, email palestineun@gmail.com
Sponsored by the Palestine U.N. Solidarity Coalition
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September 10-21
The 2011 Gaza Freedom Flotilla:
What Happened? What's next?
Sept 10, 7:00 p.m. Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists
1924 Cedar (at Bonita)in Berkeley
$5-$20 suggested donation
Sept 12, 7:00 p.m. San Jose Peace & Justice Center
48 S. 7th St. in San Jose, $5-$10 suggested donation, no one turned away
Sept 13, 7:00 p.m., San Mateo Peace Action, Unitarian Universalists of San Mateo, 300 E. Santa Inez, free, donations accepted
Sept 14, 4:00 p.m., JVJP & MESG, Vista Room, 3400 Golden Rain Rd., in Walnut Creek (Rossmoor), free, donations accepted
Sept 15, 7:00 p.m., SACPJC, Westminster Hills Community Center, 27287 Patrick Ave, Hayward, $15 suggested donation
Sept 21, 7:30 p.m., Peninsula Peace & Justice, First Baptist Church, 305 N. California Ave, Palo Alto, free, donations accepted
FOR MORE INFO: 510-232-2500 | www.freepalestinemovement.org | info@freepalestinemovement.org
In June, 2011, hundreds of people from around the world, including at least 44 Americans, gathered in the Mediterranean to board eleven vessels bound for Gaza. But only one, the French boat DignitÃ(c)/Karama, met Israeli forces at sea.
What happened? Where are the boats now? What is being planned?
Four passengers (more welcome!) from the San Francisco area will hold panel discussions to respond to these questions and discuss their experiences.
Regina Carey , strategic planner and planned giving
consultant, defends original peoples. She co-founded
Marin Black/Jewish Dialogue Group and participated
in the World Social Forum and UN Conference Against
Racism.
Paul Larudee , co-founder of the movement to break
the siege of Gaza by sea, works as a piano technician
and part time NGO administrator in El Cerrito, CA.
Henry Norr , former columnist at the SF Chronicle, has been a human rights volunteer in Palestine and an advocate in the U.S., which contributed to his firing in 2003.
Jimbo Simmons, American Indian Movement - West, resists colonization,, protects traditional knowledge and sacred sites, and is in solidarity with Palestinians and all indigenous peoples facing expulsion and ethnic cleansing.
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An Evening with Ali Abunimah -- with Special Guest Alice Walker
Wednesday, October 5th, 7:00 PM
First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway
Buy Your Tickets Today:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/194416?
Ali Abunimah is co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. Alice Walker is a Pulitzer-Prize-winning writer, including her book Overcoming Speechlessness: A Poet Encounters the Horror in Rwanda, Eastern Congo, and Palestine/Israel. She participated in the US Boat to Gaza, part of the Freedom Flotilla.
Tickets: $15, $10 students/low-income, available at through Brown Paper Tickets, or at local bookstores: (East Bay) Books, Inc.; Diesel; Moe's Books; Walden Pond; (SF) Modern Times. No one turned away for lack of funds.
Benefit for MECA's Maia Project: Clean Water for the Children of Palestine
Wheelchair accessible & ASL interpreted.
Cosponsors: KPFA, Arab Film Festival, Arab Resource & Organizing Center, US Palestinian Community Network, Arab Cultural & Community Center, Jewish Voice for Peace, Bay Area Women in Black, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Global Exchange.
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Protest, March & Die-In on 10th Anniversary of Afghanistan War
Friday, Oct. 7, 2011, 4:30-6:30pm
New Federal Building, 7th & Mission Sts, SF
End All the Wars & Occupations-Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Libya, Haiti . . .
Money for Jobs, Healthcare & Schools-Not for the Pentagon
Friday, October 7, 2011 will be the exact 10th anniversary of the U.S./NATO war on the people of Afghanistan. Hundreds of thousands of Afghani people have been killed, wounded and displaced, and thousands of U.S. and NATO forces killed and wounded. The war costs more than $126 billion per year at a time when social programs are being slashed.
The true and brutal character of the U.S. strategy to "win hearts and minds" of the Afghani population was described by a Marine officer, quoted in a recent ANSWER Coalition statement:
"You can't just convince them [Afghani people] through projects and goodwill," another Marine officer said. "You have to show up at their door with two companies of Marines and start killing people. That's how you start convincing them." (To read the entire ANSWER statement, click here)
Mark your calendar now and help organize for the October 7 march and die-in in downtown San Francisco. There are several things you can do:
1. Reply to this email to endorse the protest and die-in.
2. Spread the word and help organize in your community, union, workplace and campus.
3. Make a donation to help with organizing expenses.
Only the people can stop the war!
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
http://www.AnswerCoalition.org
http://www.AnswerSF.org
Answer@AnswerSF.org
2969 Mission St.
415-821-6545
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(Please forward widely)
Save the dates of October 6, 15 to protest wars; and May 15-22, 2012--Northern California UNAC will be discussing plans for solidarity actions around the Chicago G-8 here.
United National Antiwar Committee
UNACpeace@gmain.com or UNAC at P.O. Box 123, Delmar, NY 12054
518-227-6947
www.UNACpeace.org
UNITED NATIONAL ANTIWAR COMMITTEE (UNAC) CALLS FOR ACTIONS IN OCTOBER
TO MARK 10 YEARS OF WAR ON AFGHANISTAN
On June 22, the White House defied the majority of Americans who want an end to the war in Afghanistan. Instead of announcing the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops, contractors, bases, and war dollars, Obama committed to removing only one twentieth of the US forces on the ground in Afghanistan over the next eight months. Another 23,000 will supposedly be withdrawn just in time to influence the 2012 elections. Even if the President follows thru on this plan, nearly 170,000 US soldiers and contractors will remain in Afghanistan. All veterans and soldiers will be raising the question, "Who will be the last U.S. combatant to die in Afghanistan?"
In truth, the President's plan is not a plan to end the war in Afghanistan. It was, instead, an announcement that the U.S. was changing strategy. As the New York Times reported, the US will be replacing the "counterinsurgency strategy" adopted 18 months ago with the kind of campaign of drone attacks, assassinations, and covert actions that the US has employed in Pakistan.
At a meeting of the United National Antiwar Committee's National Coordinating Committee, held in NYC on June 18, representatives of 47 groups voted to endorse the nonviolent civil resistance activities beginning on October 6 in Washington, D.C. and to call for nationally coordinated local actions on October 15 to protest the tenth anniversary of the US war in Afghanistan. UNAC urges activists in as many cities as possible to hold marches, picket lines, teach-ins, and other events to say:
· Withdraw ALL US/NATO Military Forces, Contractors, and Bases out of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya NOW!
· End drone attacks on defenseless populations in Pakistan and Yemen!
· End US Aid to Israel! Hands Off Iran!
· Bring Our War Dollars Home Now! Money for Jobs and Education, Not for War and Incarceration!
Note these dates of upcoming significant events:
· November 11-13 UNAC National Conference - a gathering of all movement activists to learn, share, plan future actions.
· May 15-22, 2012 International Protest Actions against war criminals attending NATO meeting and G-8 summit in Chicago.
Challenge the NATO War Makers in Chicago May 15-22, 2012
NATO and the G8 are coming to Chicago - so are we!
The White House has just announced that the U.S. will host a major international meeting of NATO, the US-commanded and financed 28-nation military alliance, in Chicago from May 15 to May 22, 2012. It was further announced that at the same time and place, there will be a summit of the G-8 world powers. The meetings are expected to draw heads of state, generals and countless others.
At a day-long meeting in New York City on Saturday, June 18, the United National Antiwar Committee's national coordinating committee of 69 participants, representing, 47 organizations, unanimously passed a resolution to call for action at the upcoming NATO meeting.
UNAC is determined to mount a massive united outpouring in Chicago during the NATO gathering to put forth demands opposing endless wars and calling for billions spent on war and destruction be spent instead on people's needs for jobs, health care, housing and education.
CHALLENGE THE NATO WAR MAKERS
Whereas, the U.S. is the major and pre-eminent military, economic and political power behind NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), and
Whereas, the U.S. will be hosting a major NATO gathering in the spring of 2012, and
Whereas, U.S. and NATO-allied forces are actively engaged in the monstrous wars, occupations and military attacks on Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, the Middle East and elsewhere,
Be it resolved that:
1) UNAC, in conjunction with a broad range of groups and organizations that share general agreement with the major demands adopted at our 2010 Albany, NY national conference, initiate a mass demonstration at the site of the NATO gathering, and
2) UNAC welcomes and encourages the participation of all groups interested in mobilizing against war and for social justice in planning a broad range of other NATO meeting protests including teach-ins, alternative conferences and activities organized on the basis of direct action/civil resistance, and
3) UNAC will seek to make the NATO conference the occasion for internationally coordinated protests, and
4) UNAC will convene a meeting of all of the above forces to discuss and prepare initial plans to begin work on this spring action.
Resolution passed unanimously by the National Coordinating Committee of UNAC on Saturday, June 18, 2011
click here to donate to UNAC:
https://nationalpeaceconference.org/Donate.html
Click here for the Facebook UNAC group.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_157059221012587&ap=1
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B. VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.:
[Some of these videos are embeded on the BAUAW website:
http://bauaw.blogspot.com/ or bauaw.org ...bw]
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Architects & Engineers - Solving the Mystery of WTC 7 - AE911Truth.org
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZEvA8BCoBw&feature=player_embedded
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Geneva Towers Controlled Demolition -- San Francisco, May 16, 1968
I lived in Geneva Towers in 1967 for about six months. I was married with a six-month-old son when we moved to the Towers. It reminded us of New York (we had just moved to San Francisco in August of 1966 so an apartment building was familiar to us.) But what a difference from New York. I didn't drive at the time and, with a baby, and elevators that often didn't work (we were on the 15th floor--I don't remember which building) I was basically trapped. Mass transit was slow and the distances were long to get downtown. The apartment had heating under the synthetic flooring tiles and the first time we turned it on, the tiles melted where the heating coils were. The electric oven caught fire the first time we used it; and the first time we took a shower the tiles started to pop off the walls. The kitchen cabinets were made of unpainted particle board. The sliding doors to the cabinets were less than a quarter-inch thick and cracked if you slid them too fast! What a pre-fab slum that was!
I was so glad to break the lease and move into the Castro--into a two bedroom, first-floor Victorian flat--in a warm and bustling community close to everything. And the rent was $125.00 a month!
I did make it a point to watch the demolition of the Towers on TV (it was broadcast live.) And I was so glad to see it go. It's the first thing I thought of when I saw the collapse of the World Trade Center. ...Bonnie Weinstein
Geneva Towers Implosion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7XVQ1LE2es&feature=related
The implosion [controlled demolition] of the Geneva Towers near the Cow Palace in San Francisco, CA on May 16, 1998
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Benton Harbor REPEAL RECALL.wmv
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woLL-AxOnTk
A few facts from the video:
Whirlpool has been meddling in [Benton Harbor] city politics for 30 years. For every tax break and advantage it can get. As the neighborhoods crumble...
With global sales of $18 Billion Whirpool paid 0% in 2010 federal taxes.
It received a refund of $64 Million.
Whirlpool has received 500 Million in tax breaks just since 2005.
Millions more in the past 3 decades.
Whirlpool took 19 Billion in federal stimulus funds. Then closed plants in the US. Including the plant in BH.
Rep. Fred Upton receives substantial campaign contributions from Whirlpool. And the Koch brothers.
Gov. Rick Snyder signed the Emergency Manager Law. And a budget that taxes pensions and cuts education funding in Michigan.
Then gave corporations (like Whirlpool) a $1.8 Billion tax break."
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Labor Beat: THE PEOPLE'S PUTT PUTT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FkYBneJpds
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The Preacher and the Slave - Joe Hill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca_MEJmuzMM
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Michael Allison Faces 75 Years In Illinois Prison for recording police WTWO!
Michael Allison faces 75 years in prison for recording public servants. Shame on Crawford County States Atty Tom Wiseman!
Here is the contact information for the State Attorney prosecuting this_ guy. I think we should all give him a call and tell him our opinion!
Crawford County States Attorney
Tom Wiseman
Crawford County Courthouse
105 Douglas St.
Robinson, IL 62454
618-546-1505
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London Riots. (The BBC will never replay this. Send it out)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biJgILxGK0o
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Protest which sparked Tottenham riot
Hours before the riot which swept the area demonstrators gather outside Tottenham Police Station in North London demanding "justice" for the killing of a 29-year-old man, Mark Duggan, who was shot dead by police.
By Alastair Good
August 7, 2011
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newsvideo/8687058/Protest-which-sparked-Tottenham-riot.html
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Visualizing a Trillion: Just How Big That Number Is?
"1 million seconds is about 11.5 days, 1 billion seconds is about 32 years while a trillion seconds is equal to 32,000 years."
Digital Inspiration
http://www.labnol.org/internet/visualize-numbers-how-big-is-trillion-dollars/7814/
How Much Is $1 Trillion?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPfY0q-rEdY&feature=player_embedded
Courtesy the credit crisis and big bailout packages, the figure "trillion" has suddenly become part of our everyday conversations. One trillion dollars, or 1 followed by 12 zeros, is lots of money but have you ever tried visualizing how big that number actually is?
For people who can visualize one million dollars, the comparison made on CNN should give you an idea about a trillion - "if you start spending a million dollars every single day since Jesus was born, you still wouldn't have spend a trillion dollars".
Another mathematician puts it like this: "1 million seconds is about 11.5 days, 1 billion seconds is about 32 years while a trillion seconds is equal to 32,000 years".
Now if the above comparisons weren't really helpful, check another illustration that compares the built of an average human being against a stack of $100 currency notes bundles.
A bundle of $100 notes is equivalent to $10,000 and that can easily fit in your pocket. 1 million dollars will probably fit inside a standard shopping bag while a billion dollars would occupy a small room of your house.
With this background in mind, 1 trillion (1,000,000,000,000) is 1000 times bigger than 1 billion and would therefore take up an entire football field - the man is still standing in the bottom-left corner. (See visuals -- including a video -- at website:
http://www.labnol.org/internet/visualize-numbers-how-big-is-trillion-dollars/7814/
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One World One Revolution -- MUST SEE VIDEO -- Powerful and beautiful...bw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE3R1BQrYCw&feature=player_embedded
"When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty." Thomas Jefferson
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Very reminiscent of Obama...bw
Pat Paulsen 1968
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oiQhhdz8ys
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Japan: angry Fukushima citizens confront government (video)
Posted by Xeni Jardin on Monday, Jul 25th at 11:36am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVuGwc9dlhQ&feature=player_embedded
The video above documents what I am told is a meeting between Fukushima residents and government officials from Tokyo, said to have taken place on 19 July 2011. The citizens are demanding their government evacuate people from a broader area around the Fukushima nuclear plant, because of ever-increasing fears about the still-spreading radiation. They are demanding that their government provide financial and logistical support to get out. In the video above, you can see that some participants actually brought samples of their children's urine to the meeting, and they demanded that the government test it for radioactivity.
When asked by one person at the meeting about citizens' right to live a healthy and radioactive-free life, Local Nuclear Emergency Response Team Director Akira Satoh replies "I don't know if they have that right."
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Class Dismissed: How TV Frames the Working Class [Full Film]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6ZS91cqpa8
Narrated by Ed Asner
Based on the book by Pepi Leistyna, Class Dismissed navigates the steady stream of narrow working class representations from American television's beginnings to today's sitcoms, reality shows, police dramas, and daytime talk shows.
Featuring interviews with media analysts and cultural historians, this documentary examines the patterns inherent in TV's disturbing depictions of working class people as either clowns or social deviants -- stereotypical portrayals that reinforce the myth of meritocracy.
Class Dismissed breaks important new ground in exploring the ways in which race, gender, and sexuality intersect with class, offering a more complex reading of television's often one-dimensional representations. The video also links television portrayals to negative cultural attitudes and public policies that directly affect the lives of working class people.
Featuring interviews with Stanley Aronowitz, (City University of New York); Nickel and Dimed author, Barbara Ehrenreich; Herman Gray (University of California-Santa Cruz); Robin Kelley (Columbia University); Pepi Leistyna (University of Massachusetts-Boston) and Michael Zweig (State University of New York-Stony Brook). Also with Arlene Davila, Susan Douglas, Bambi Haggins, Lisa Henderson, and Andrea Press.
Sections: Class Matters | The American Dream Machine | From the Margins to the Middle | Women Have Class | Class Clowns | No Class | Class Action
http://www.mediaed.org
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Let's torture the truth out of suicide bombers says new CIA chief Petraeus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sm02UbKNCKQ
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Kim Ives & Dan Coughlin on WikiLeaks Cables that Reveal "Secret History" of U.S. Bullying in Haiti
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LL0Dk21dC-M
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Operation Empire State Rebellion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJvBlQcaaaU&feature=player_embedded#at=10
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20 Facts About U.S. Inequality that Everyone Should Know
Click an image to learn more about a fact!
http://www.stanford.edu/group/scspi/cgi-bin/facts.php
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Licensed to Kill Video
http://nirs.org/multimedia/video/l2k.htm
Gundersen Gives Testimony to NRC ACRS from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.
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Tier Systems Cripple Middle Class Dreams for Young Workers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09pQW6TW8m4&feature=youtu.be
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Union Town by Tom Morello: The Nightwatchman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5ZT71DxLuM&feature=player_embedded
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BRADLEY MANNING "BROKE THE LAW" SAYS OBAMA!
"He broke the law!" says Obama about Bradley Manning who has yet to even be charged, let alone, gone to trial and found guilty. How horrendous is it for the President to declare someone guilty before going to trial or being charged with a crime! Justice in the U.S.A.!
Obama on FREE BRADLEY MANNING protest... San Francisco, CA. April 21, 2011-Presidential remarks on interrupt/interaction/performance art happening at fundraiser. Logan Price queries Barack after org. FRESH JUICE PARTY political action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfmtUpd4id0&feature=youtu.be
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Max Romeo - Socialism Is Love
http://youtu.be/eTvUs4rY4to
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Cuba: The Accidental Eden
http://video.pbs.org/video/1598230084/
[This is a stunningly beautiful portrait of the Cuban natural environment as it is today. However, several times throughout, the narrator tends to imply that if it werent for the U.S. embargo against Cuba, Cuba's natural environment would be destroyed by the influx of tourism, ergo, the embargo is saving nature. But the Cuban scientists and naturalists tell a slightly different story. But I don't want to spoil the delightfully surprising ending. It's a beautiful film of a beautiful country full of beautiful, articulate and well-educated people....bw]
Watch the full episode. See more Nature.
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The Kill Team
How U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan murdered innocent civilians and mutilated their corpses - and how their officers failed to stop them. Plus: An exclusive look at the war crime photos censored by the Pentagon
Rolling Stone
March 27, 3011
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-kill-team-20110327
Afghans respond to "Kill Team"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3guxWIorhdA
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WikiLeaks Mirrors
Wikileaks is currently under heavy attack.
In order to make it impossible to ever fully remove Wikileaks from the Internet, you will find below a list of mirrors of Wikileaks website and CableGate pages.
Go to
http://wikileaks.ch/Mirrors.html
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Labor Beat: Labor Stands with Subpoenaed Activists Against FBI Raids and Grand Jury Investigation of antiwar and social justice activists.
"If trouble is not at your door. It's on it's way, or it just left."
"Investigate the Billionaires...Full investigation into Wall Street..." Jesse Sharkey, Vice President, Chicago Teachers Union
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSNUSIGZCMQ
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Domestic Espionage Alert - Houston PD to use surveillance drone in America!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpstrc15Ogg
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Julian Assange: Why the world needs WikiLeaks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVGqE726OAo&feature=player_embedded
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Coal Ash: One Valley's Tale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E7h-DNvwx4&feature=player_embedded
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Flashmob: Cape Town Opera say NO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wElyrFOnKPk
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"Don't F*** With Our Activists" - Mobilizing Against FBI Raid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyG3dIUGQvQ
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C. SPECIAL APPEALS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
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Oppose the Death Penalty for Troy Davis
Take Action On This Issue
Troy Davis has faced execution three times for a crime he may not have committed. In an unprecedented evidentiary hearing held in a federal district court in Savannah, Georgia in June, 2010, he was able to present evidence supporting his innocence claim. However, the standard for proving his innocence was "extraordinarily high", especially given the lack of physical and scientific evidence in his case. The federal judge ruled that he did not meet the high standard, despite the fact that doubts about his guilt remain unresolved. It is more important than ever that we continue to let Georgia authorities know that we oppose any effort to execute Troy Davis. Sign the petition today!
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=6oJCLQPAJiJUG&b=6645049&aid=12970&msource=WPSGIL2970
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Your help is needed to defend free speech rights
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
http://www.AnswerCoalition.org/
info@AnswerCoalition.org
National Office in Washington DC: 202-265-1948
Boston: 857-334-5084 | New York City: 212-694-8720 | Chicago: 773-463-0311
San Francisco: 415-821-6545| Los Angeles: 213-251-1025 | Albuquerque: 505-268-2488
We are writing to urge you to send an email letter today that can make a big difference in the outcome of a free speech fight that is vital to all grassroots movements that support social justice and peace.
It will just take a moment of your time but it will make a big difference.
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=326
All across the country people and organizations engaged in producing and disseminating leaflets and posters - the classic method of grassroots outreach used by those without institutional power and corporate money - are being faced with bankrupting fines.
This has been happening with ferocity in the nation's capital ever since the ANSWER Coalition was fined over $50,000 in the span of a few weeks for posters advertising the Sept. 15, 2007, protest against the Iraq war.
Attorneys for the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) filed a major lawsuit in August 2007 against the unconstitutional postering regulations in Washington, D.C.
"The District has employed an illegal system that creates a hierarchy of speech, favoring the speech of politicians and punishing grassroots outreach," Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Executive Director of the PCJF, stated in explaining a basic tenet of the lawsuit. "It's time for that system to end, and it will."
The hard-fought four-year-long lawsuit filed by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund against Washington, D.C.'s unconstitutional postering regulations has succeeded in achieving a number of important victories, including the issuance of new regulations after the Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia warned just last month of an impending declaration of unconstitutionality against the District.
In July 2011 the federal District Court issued a preliminary opinion regarding one aspect of our lawsuit and suggested that the D.C. government "revise the regulations to include a single, across-the-board durational restriction that applies equally to all viewpoints and subject matters."
But this battle is not finished. The new regulations still contain dissent-crushing "strict liability" provisions (explained below) and remain unconstitutionally vague and ambiguous. Plus the District has never withdrawn the tens of thousands of dollars of fines against ANSWER.
The District of Columbia is required by law to open the new rules to public comment, which it has done with an extremely short comment period that is now open. We need people to send a comment today to the government of Washington, D.C. It just takes a minute using our online Submit a Comment tool, which will send your comment by email.
Send a letter today in support of the right to produce and disseminate leaflets and posters in Washington, D.C. We have included a sample comment but we encourage people to use or add your own language.
An Opportunity for You to Make a Difference
In response to our lawsuit, the District of Columbia has now issued "Emergency Regulations" replacing the current system which the city now admits are a "threat to the public welfare," after the court issued a preliminary opinion that agreed with a basic argument of the lawsuit.
This is an important moment and we need you and others who believe in Free Speech to weigh in during the short 15-day public comment period in response to the proposed Emergency Regulations for postering. Submit an online Comment now that makes one or more of three vital points:
Drop the $70,000 fines that have been applied to the ANSWER Coalition for anti-war posters during the past four years.
End "Strict Liability" fines and penalities. Strict Liability constitutes something of a death penalty for Free Speech activities such as producing leaflets and posters. It means that an organization referenced on posted signs can be held "strictly liable" for any materials alleged to be improperly posted, even if the group never even posted a single sign or poster. The D.C. government is even going further than that - it just levied fines against a disabled Vietnam veteran who didn't put up a single poster but was fined $450 because three posted signs were seen referencing a Veterans for Peace demonstration last December, and the District's enforcement agents researched that his name was on the permit application for the peace demonstration at the White House. Any group or person that leaves literature at a bookstore, or distributes literature, or posts .pdf fliers on the Internet, can be fined tens of thousands of dollars simply for having done nothing more than making political literature available.
Insist that any new regulations be clear, unambiguous and fair. The District's new "Emergency" Regulations are still inadequate because they are vague and ambiguous. Vaguely worded regulations in the hands of vindictive authority can and will be used to punish, penalize and fine grassroots organizations that seek to redress grievances while allowing the powerful and moneyed interests to do as they please. The District's postering regulations must be clear and unambiguous if they are to be fair, uniform and constitutional.
Take two minutes right now, click through to our online comment submission tool.
Thank you for your continued support. After you send your comment today to the District of Columbia please send this email to your friends and encourage them to take action as well. Click here to send your comment to the District.
Sincerely,
ANSWER Coalition
www.AnswerCoalition.org
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STOP BART CENSORSHIP!
This is San Francisco, not Egypt.
Sign the Petition:
http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/bart_censorship/?r=231035&id=25860-3083065-U6EApmx
The petition reads:
"A government agency cannot shut down an entire cell phone communications network just because it is being used to express dissent. BART Police must be held accountable for their actions. Stop the heavy handed tactics that violate free speech rights in an attempt to quell dissent."
You don't lose your First Amendment rights when you decide to take public transit. But that's what happened last week when BART Police turned off for three hours the underground network that allows passengers to communicate by cell phone on trains and on underground station platforms.
The BART Police suspended cell phone service in order to silence dissent. It was the first time ever in the United States that a government agency shut down cell phone service in order to suppress a public protest.
"All over the world, people are using mobile devices to protest oppressive regimes, and governments are shutting down cell phone towers and the Internet to stop them," said Michael Risher of the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California. "It's outrageous that in San Francisco, BART is doing the same thing."1
Tell the BART Board of Directors: Stop the BART Police from suspending cell phone service and violating free speech rights.
A government agency cannot shut down an entire cell phone communications network just because it's being used to express dissent.
It's shocking that a transit agency would go rogue and shut down a cell phone network in a major U.S. city. The incident, not surprisingly has sparked outrage from local elected officials and civil liberties groups and garnered national and international attention.
In the light of pressure from elected officials and national and international news coverage, the elected board that governs the Bay Area Rapid Transit Authority cannot ignore this blatant and mass violation of civil rights. We must take advantage of this moment to pressure the BART Board of Directors to step in and take action to hold the BART Police accountable and stop them from suspending our First Amendment rights.
Tell the BART Board of Directors: The BART Police must be held accountable for their actions -- stop the heavy handed tactics that violate free speech rights in an attempt to quell dissent.
BART Police have been the center of controversy in recent years and have a history of cover ups in response to public outrage over its use of deadly force. Last week's cell phone disruption was aimed at disrupting protests of a fatal July 3 shooting of a knife-wielding homeless man.
Despite local, national and international outrage, BART officials haven't gotten the message yet. BART spokesman Linton Johnson said that the agency may cut cell phone service again in the future, explaining that riders "don't have the right to free speech inside the fare gates."2 It's up to the elected BART Board of Directors, who are accountable directly to the voters, to hold BART officials accountable.
Sign our petition and we will deliver your signatures to the elected members of the BART Board of Directors. And please share this petition with your Bay Area friends and family so they can take action, too.
1 BART admits halting cell service to stop protests, San Francisco Chronicle, August 13, 2011
2 Cell service stays on during BART protest in SF, San Francisco Chronicle, August 16, 2011
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Statement by Angela Davis regarding Troy Davis
I urgently appeal to Georgia Governor Nathan Deal and to the members of the Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole - L. Gale Buckner , Robert E. Keller, James E. Donald, Albert Murray, and Terry Barnard - to spare the life of Troy Davis, a young African American citizen of your state.
I hope everyone within sight or sound of my words or my voice will likewise urgently call and fax Gov. Neal and the members of the Board. Under Georgia law, only they can stop the execution of Troy Davis.
First of all, there is very compelling evidence that Troy Davis may be innocent of the murder of Police Officer Mark MacPhail in 1989 in Savannah. The case against Davis has all but collapsed: seven of nine witnesses against him have recanted their testimony and said that they were pressured by police to lie; and nine other witnesses have implicated one of the remaining two as the actual killer. No weapon or physical evidence linking Davis to the murder was ever found. No jury has ever heard this new information, and four of the jurors who originally found him guilty have signed statements in support of Mr. Davis.
More importantly, the planned execution of a likely innocent young Black man in the state of Georgia has become a terrible blot on the status of the United States in the international community of nations. All modern industrial and democratic nations and 16 states within the United States have abolished capital punishment. The fact that the overwhelming majority of the men and women on death rows across the country are Black and other people of color, and are universally poor, severely undermines our country's standing in the eyes of the people of the world.
Most importantly, the execution of Troy Davis will contribute to an atmosphere of violence and racism and a devaluation of life itself within our country. If we can execute anyone, especially a man who may be innocent of any crime, it fosters disrespect for the law and life itself. This exacerbates every social problem at a time when the people of our country face some of the most difficult challenges regarding our economic security and future.
I urge everyone to join with me in urging Governor Neal and the Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole to stay the execution of Troy Davis and commute his death sentence. Give this young man a life, and an opportunity to prove his innocence.
Please, call or fax today. Stop the execution of Troy Davis!
Gov. Nathan Deal
Tel: (404)651-1776
Fax: (404)657-7332
Email: georgia.governor@gov.state.ga.us
Web contact form: web: http://gov.state.ga.us/contact.shtml
Georgia Board of Parsons and Parole
L. Gale Buckner
Robert E. Keller
James E. Donald
Albert Murray
Terry Barnard
Tel: (404) 656-5651
Fax: (404) 651-8502
Angela Y. Davis
July 14, 2011
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Say No to Police Repression of NATO/G8 Protests
http://www.stopfbi.net/get-involved/nato-g8-police-repression
The CSFR Signs Letter to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel
The CSFR is working with the United National Antiwar Committee and many other anti-war groups to organize mass rallies and protests on May 15 and May 19, 2012. We will protest the powerful and wealthy war-makers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Group of 8. Mobilize your groups, unions, and houses of worship. Bring your children, friends, and community. Demand jobs, healthcare, housing and education, not war!
Office of the Mayor
City of Chicago
To: Mayor Rahm Emanuel
We, the undersigned, demand that your administration grant us permits for protests on May 15 and 19, 2012, including appropriate rally gathering locations and march routes to the venue for the NATO/G8 summit taking place that week. We come to you because your administration has already spoken to us through Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy. He has threatened mass arrests and violence against protestors.
[Read the full text of the letter here: http://www.stopfbi.net/get-involved/nato-g8-police-repression/full-text]
For the 10s of thousands of people from Chicago, around the country and across the world who will gather here to protest against NATO and the G8, we demand that the City of Chicago:
1. Grant us permits to rally and march to the NATO/G8 summit
2. Guarantee our civil liberties
3. Guarantee us there will be no spying, infiltration of organizations or other attacks by the FBI or partner law enforcement agencies.
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LEONARD PELTIER NEEDS OUR HELP!
Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee
PO Box 7488, Fargo, ND 58106
http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info
contact@whoisleonardpeltier.info
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Supporter of Leak Suspect Is Called Before Grand Jury
By SCOTT SHANE
June 15, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/16/us/politics/16brfs-Washington.html?ref=world
A supporter of Pfc. Bradley E. Manning, who is accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of documents to WikiLeaks, was called before a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va., on Wednesday, but he said he declined to answer any questions. The supporter, David M. House, a freelance computer scientist, said he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, because he believes the Justice Department is "creating a climate of fear around WikiLeaks and the Bradley Manning support network." The grand jury inquiry is separate from the military prosecution of Private Manning and is believed to be exploring whether the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, or others in the group violated the law by acquiring and publishing military and State Department documents.
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Justice for Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace: Decades of isolation in Louisiana state prisons must end
Take Action -- Sign Petition Here:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/appeals-for-action/justice-for-albert-woodfox-and-herman-wallace
For nearly four decades, 64-year-old Albert Woodfox and 69-year-old Herman Wallace have been held in solitary confinement, mostly in the Louisiana State Penitentiary (known as Angola prison). Throughout their prolonged incarceration in Closed Cell Restriction (CCR) Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace have endured very restrictive conditions including 23 hour cellular confinement. They have limited access to books, newspapers and TV and throughout the years of imprisonment they have been deprived of opportunities for mental stimulation and access to work and education. Social interaction has been restricted to occasional visits from friends and family and limited telephone calls.
Louisiana prison authorities have over the course of 39 years failed to provide a meaningful review of the men's continued isolation as they continue to rubberstamp the original decision to confine the men in CCR. Decades of solitary confinement have had a clear psychological effect on the men. Lawyers report that they are both suffering from serious health problems caused or exacerbated by their years of close confinement.
After being held together in the same prison for nearly 40 years, the men are now held in seperate institutions where they continue to be subjected to conditions that can only be described as cruel, inhuman and degrading.
Take action now to demand that Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace be immediately removed from solitary confinement
Sign our petition which will be sent to the Governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, calling on him to:
* take immediate steps to remove Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace from close confinement
* ensure that their treatment complies with the USA's obligations under international standards and the US Constitution.
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WITNESS GAZA
http://www.witnessgaza.com/
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Stop Coal Companies From Erasing Labor Union History
http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-coal-companies-from-erasing-labor-union-history
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One year after Bradley's detainment, we need your support more than ever.
Dear Friends,
One year ago, on May 26, 2010, the U.S. government quietly arrested a humble young American intelligence analyst in Iraq and imprisoned him in a military camp in Kuwait. Over the coming weeks, the facts of the arrest and charges against this shy soldier would come to light. And across the world, people like you and I would step forward to help defend him.
Bradley Manning, now 23 years old, has never been to court but has already served a year in prison- including 10 months in conditions of confinement that were clear violation of the international conventions against torture. Bradley has been informally charged with releasing to the world documents that have revealed corruption by world leaders, widespread civilian deaths at the hands of U.S. forces, the true face of Guantanamo, an unvarnished view of the U.S.'s imperialistic foreign negotiations, and the murder of two employees of Reuters News Agency by American soldiers. These documents released by WikiLeaks have spurred democratic revolutions across the Arab world and have changed the face of journalism forever.
For his act of courage, Bradley Manning now faces life in prison-or even death.
But you can help save him-and we've already seen our collective power. Working together with concerned citizens around the world, the Bradley Manning Support Network has helped raise worldwide awareness about Manning's torturous confinement conditions. Through the collective actions of well over a half million people and scores of organizations, we successfully pressured the U.S. government to end the tortuous conditions of pre-trial confinement that Bradley was subjected to at the Marine Base at Quantico, Virginia. Today, Bradley is being treated humanely at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. T hanks to your support, Bradley is given leeway to interact with other pre-trial prisoners, read books, write letters, and even has a window in his cell.
Of course we didn't mount this campaign to just improve Bradley's conditions in jail. Our goal is to ensure that he can receive a fair and open trial. Our goal is to win Bradley's freedom so that he can be reunited with his family and fulfill his dream of going to college. Today, to commemorate Bradley's one year anniversary in prison, will you join me in making a donation to help support Bradley's defense?
http://bradleymanning.org/donate
We'll be facing incredible challenges in the coming months, and your tax-deductible donation today will help pay for Bradley's civilian legal counsel and the growing international grassroots campaign on his behalf. The U.S. government has already spent a year building its case against Bradley, and is now calling its witnesses to Virginia to testify before a grand jury.
What happens to Bradley may ripple through history - he is already considered by many to be the single most important person of his generation. Please show your commitment to Bradley and your support for whistle-blowers and the truth by making a donation today.
With your help, I hope we will come to remember May 26th as a day to commemorate all those who risk their lives and freedom to promote informed democracy - and as the birth of a movement that successfully defended one courageous whistle-blower against the full fury of the U.S. government.
Donate now: bradleymanning.org/donate
In solidarity,
Jeff Paterson and Loraine Reitman,
On behalf of the Bradley Manning Support Network Steering Committee
www.bradleymanning.org
P.S. After you have donated, please help us by forwarding this email to your closest friends. Ask them to stand with you to support Bradley Manning, and the rights of all whistleblowers.
View the new 90 second "I am Bradley Manning" video:
I am Bradley Manning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-P3OXML00s
Courage to Resist
484 Lake Park Ave. #41
Oakland, CA 94610
510-488-3559
couragetoresist.org
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Drop the Charges Against Carlos Montes, Stop the FBI Attack on the Chicano and Immigrant Rights Movement, and Stop FBI Repression of Anti-War Activists NOW!Call Off the Expanding Grand Jury Witchhunt and FBI Repression of Anti-War Activists NOW!
Cancel the Subpoenas! Cancel the Grand Juries!
Condemn the FBI Raids and Harassment of Chicano, Immigrant Rights, Anti-War and International Solidarity Activists!
STOP THE FBI CAMPAIGN OF REPRESSION AGAINST CHICANO, IMMIGRANT RIGHTS, ANTI-WAR AND INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY ACTIVISTS NOW!
Initiated by the Committee to Stop FBI Repression stopfbi.net stopfbi@gmail.com
http://iacenter.org/stopfbi/
Contact the Committee to Stop FBI Repression
at stopfbi.net
stopfbi@gmail.com
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Mumia Wins Decision Against Re-Imposition Of Death Sentence, But...
The Battle Is Still On To
FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL!
The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO Box 16222 • Oakland CA 94610
www.laboractionmumia.org
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Abolish the Death Penalty Blog
http://www.ncadp.org/blog.cfm?postID=165
Abolish the Death Penalty is a blog dedicated to...well, you know. The purpose of Abolish is to tell the personal stories of crime victims and their loved ones, people on death row and their loved ones and those activists who are working toward abolition. You may, from time to time, see news articles or press releases here, but that is not the primary mission of Abolish the Death Penalty. Our mission is to put a human face on the debate over capital punishment.
You can also follow death penalty news by reading our News page and by following us on Facebook and Twitter.
1 Million Tweets for Troy!
Take Action! Tweet for Troy!
When in doubt, don't execute!! Sign the petition for #TroyDavis! www.tinyurl.com/troyepetition
Too much doubt! Stop the execution! #TroyDavis needs us! www.tinyurl.com/troyepetition
No room for doubt! Stop the execution of #TroyDavis . Retweet, sign petition www.tinyurl.com/troyepetition
Case not "ironclad", yet Georgiacould execute #TroyDavis ! Not on our watch! Petition: www.tinyurl.com/troyepetition
No murder weapon. No physical evidence. Stop the execution! #TroyDavis petition: www.tinyurl.com/troyepetition
7 out of 9 eyewitnesses recanted. No physical evidence. Stop the execution of Troy Davis www.tinyurl.com/troyepetition #TroyDavis
Thanks!
Exonerated Death Row Survivors Urge Georgia to:
Stop the Execution of Troy Davis
Chairman James E. Donald
Georgia State Board of Pardons & Paroles
2 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, SE
Suite 458, Balcony Level, East Tower
Atlanta, GA 30334
May 1, 2011
Dear Chairperson Donald and Members of the Board:
We, the undersigned, are alive today because some individual or small group of individuals decided that our insistent and persistent proclamations of innocence warranted one more look before we were sent to our death by execution. We are among the 138 individuals who have been legally exonerated and released from death rows in the United States since 1973. We are alive because a few thoughtful persons-attorneys, journalists, judges, jurists, etc.-had lingering doubts about our cases that caused them to say "stop" at a critical moment and halt the march to the execution chamber. When our innocence was ultimately revealed, when our lives were saved, and when our freedom was won, we thanked God and those individuals of conscience who took actions that allowed the truth to eventually come to light.
We are America's exonerated death row survivors. We are living proof that a system operated by human beings is capable of making an irreversible mistake. And while we have had our wrongful convictions overturned and have been freed from death row, we know that we are extremely fortunate to have been able to establish our innocence. We also know that many innocent people who have been executed or who face execution have not been so fortunate. Not all those with innocence claims have had access to the kinds of physical evidence, like DNA, that our courts accept as most reliable. However, we strongly believe that the examples of our cases are reason enough for those with power over life and death to choose life. We also believe that those in authority have a unique moral consideration when encountering individuals with cases where doubt still lingers about innocence or guilt.
One such case is the case of Troy Anthony Davis, whose 1991 conviction for killing Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail rested almost solely on witness testimony. We know that today, 20 years later, witness evidence is considered much less reliable than it was then. This has meant that, even though most of the witnesses who testified against him have now recanted, Troy Davis has been unable to convince the courts to overturn his conviction, or even his death sentence.
Troy Davis has been able to raise serious doubts about his guilt, however. Several witnesses testified at the evidentiary hearing last summer that they had been coerced by police into making false statements against Troy Davis. This courtroom testimony reinforced previous statements in sworn affidavits. Also at this hearing, one witness testified for the first time that he saw an alternative suspect, and not Troy Davis, commit the crime. We don't know if Troy Davis is in fact innocent, but, as people who were wrongfully sentenced to death (and in some cases scheduled for execution), we believe it is vitally important that no execution go forward when there are doubts about guilt. It is absolutely essential to ensuring that the innocent are not executed.
When you issued a temporary stay for Troy Davis in 2007, you stated that the Board "will not allow an execution to proceed in this State unless and until its members are convinced that there is no doubt as to the guilt of the accused." This standard is a welcome development, and we urge you to apply it again now. Doubts persist in the case of Troy Davis, and commuting his sentence will reassure the people of Georgia that you will never permit an innocent person to be put to death in their name.
Freddie Lee Pitts, an exonerated death row survivor who faced execution by the state of Florida for a crime he didn't commit, once said, "You can release an innocent man from prison, but you can't release him from the grave."
Thank you for considering our request.
Respectfully,
Kirk Bloodsworth, Exonerated and freed from death row Maryland; Clarence Brandley, Exonerated and freed from death row in Texas; Dan Bright, Exonerated and freed from death row in Louisiana; Albert Burrell, Exonerated and freed from death row in Louisiana; Perry Cobb, Exonerated and freed from death row in Illinois; Gary Drinkard, Exonerated and freed from death row in Alabama; Nathson Fields, Exonerated and freed from death row in Illinois; Gary Gauger, Exonerated and freed from death row in Illinois; Michael Graham, Exonerated and freed from death row in Louisiana; Shujaa Graham, Exonerated and freed from death row in California; Paul House, Exonerated and freed from death row in Tennessee; Derrick Jamison, Exonerated and freed from death row in Ohio; Dale Johnston, Exonerated and freed from death row in Ohio; Ron Keine, Exonerated and freed from death row in New Mexico; Ron Kitchen, Exonerated and freed from death row in Illinois; Ray Krone, Exonerated and freed from death row in Arizona; Herman Lindsey, Exonerated and freed from death row in Florida; Juan Melendez, Exonerated and freed from death row in Florida; Randal Padgett, Exonerated and freed from death row in Alabama; Freddie Lee Pitts, Exonerated and freed from death row in Florida; Randy Steidl, Exonerated and freed from death row in Illinois; John Thompson, Exonerated and freed from death row in Louisiana; Delbert Tibbs, Exonerated and freed from death row in Florida; David Keaton, Exonerated and freed from death row in Florida; Greg Wilhoit, Exonerated and freed from death row in Oklahoma; Harold Wilson, Exonerated and freed from death row in Pennsylvania.
-Witness to Innocence, May 11, 2011
http://www.witnesstoinnocence.com/view_news.php?Exonerated-Death-Row-Survivors-Urge-George-to-Stop-the-Execution-of-Troy-Davis-181
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"A Fort Leavenworth mailing address has been released for Bradley Manning:
Bradley Manning 89289
830 Sabalu Road
Fort Leavenworth, KS 66027
The receptionist at the military barracks confirmed that if someone sends Bradley Manning a letter to that address, it will be delivered to him."
http://www.bradleymanning.org/news/update-42811
This is also a Facebook event
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=207100509321891#!/event.php?eid=207100509321891
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Committee to Stop FBI Repression
NATIONAL CALL-IN DAY -- ANY DAY
to Fitzgerald, Holder and Obama
The Grand Jury is still on its witch hunt and the FBI is still
harassing activists. This must stop.
Please make these calls:
1. Call U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald at 312-353-5300 . Then dial 0
(zero) for operator and ask to leave a message with the Duty Clerk.
2. Call U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder 202-353-1555
3. Call President Obama at 202-456-1111
Suggested text: "My name is __________, I am from _______(city), in
______(state). I am calling _____ to demand he call off the Grand Jury
and stop FBI repression against the anti-war and Palestine solidarity
movements. I oppose U.S. government political repression and support
the right to free speech and the right to assembly of the 23 activists
subpoenaed. We will not be criminalized. Tell him to stop this
McCarthy-type witch hunt against international solidarity activists!"
If your call doesn't go through, try again later.
Update: 800 anti-war and international solidarity activists
participated in four regional conferences, in Chicago, IL; Oakland,
CA; Chapel Hill, NC and New York City to stop U.S. Attorney Patrick
Fitzgerald's Grand Jury repression.
Still, in the last few weeks, the FBI has continued to call and harass
anti-war organizers, repressing free speech and the right to organize.
However, all of their intimidation tactics are bringing a movement
closer together to stop war and demand peace.
We demand:
-- Call Off the Grand Jury Witch-hunt Against International Solidarity
Activists!
-- Support Free Speech!
-- Support the Right to Organize!
-- Stop FBI Repression!
-- International Solidarity Is Not a Crime!
-- Stop the Criminalization of Arab and Muslim Communities!
Background: Fitzgerald ordered FBI raids on anti-war and solidarity
activists' homes and subpoenaed fourteen activists in Chicago,
Minneapolis, and Michigan on September 24, 2010. All 14 refused to
speak before the Grand Jury in October. Then, 9 more Palestine
solidarity activists, most Arab-Americans, were subpoenaed to appear
at the Grand Jury on January 25, 2011, launching renewed protests.
There are now 23 who assert their right to not participate in
Fitzgerald's witch-hunt.
The Grand Jury is a secret and closed inquisition, with no judge, and
no press. The U.S. Attorney controls the entire proceedings and hand
picks the jurors, and the solidarity activists are not allowed a
lawyer. Even the date when the Grand Jury ends is a secret.
So please make these calls to those in charge of the repression aimed
against anti-war leaders and the growing Palestine solidarity
movement.
Email us to let us know your results. Send to info@StopFBI.net
**Please sign and circulate our 2011 petition at http://www.stopfbi.net/petition
In Struggle,
Tom Burke,
for the Committee to Stop FBI Repression
FFI: Visit www.StopFBI.net or email info@StopFBI.net or call
612-379-3585 .
Copyright (c) 2011 Committee to Stop FBI Repression, All rights
reserved.
Our mailing address is:
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
PO Box 14183
Minneapolis, MN 55415
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Call for EMERGENCY RESPONSE Action if Assange Indicted,
Dear Friends:
We write in haste, trying to reach as many of you as possible although the holiday break has begun.......This plan for an urgent "The Day After" demonstration is one we hope you and many, many more organizations will take up as your own, and mobilize for. World Can't Wait asks you to do all you can to spread it through list serves, Facebook, twitter, holiday gatherings.
Our proposal is very very simple, and you can use the following announcement to mobilize - or write your own....
ANY DAY NOW . . . IN THE EVENT THAT THE U.S. INDICTS JULIAN ASSANGE
An emergency public demonstration THE DAY AFTER any U.S. criminal indictment is announced against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Spread the word and call people to come out, across the whole range of movements and groups: anti-war, human rights, freedom of information/freedom of the press, peace, anti-torture, environmental, students and youth, radicals and revolutionaries, religious, civil liberties, teachers and educators, journalists, anti-imperialists, anti-censorship, anti-police state......
At the Federal Building in San Francisco, we'll form ourselves into a human chain "surrounding" the government that meets the Wikileaked truth with repression and wants to imprison and silence leakers, whistleblowers and truthtellers - when, in fact, these people are heroes. We'll say:
HANDS OFF WIKILEAKS! FREE JULIAN ASSANGE! FREE BRADLEY MANNING!
Join the HUMAN CHAIN AROUND THE FEDERAL BUILDING!
New Federal Building, 7th and Mission, San Francisco (nearest BART: Civic Center)
4:00-6:00 PM on The Day FOLLOWING U.S. indictment of Assange
Bring all your friends - signs and banners - bullhorns.
Those who dare at great risk to themselves to put the truth in the hands of the people - and others who might at this moment be thinking about doing more of this themselves -- need to see how much they are supported, and that despite harsh repression from the government and total spin by the mainstream media, the people do want the truth told.
Brad Manning's Christmas Eve statement was just released by his lawyer: "Pvt. Bradley Manning, the lone soldier who stands accused of stealing millions of pages secret US government documents and handing them over to secrets outlet WikiLeaks, wants his supporters to know that they've meant a lot to him. 'I greatly appreciate everyone's support and well wishes during this time,' he said in a Christmas Eve statement released by his lawyer...." Read more here:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/mannings-message-christmas-eve-i-gr/
Demonstrations defending Wikileaks and Assange, and Brad Manning, have already been flowering around the world. Make it happen here too.
Especially here . . .
To join into this action plan, or with questions, contact World Can't Wait or whichever organization or listserve you received this message from.
World Can't Wait, SF Bay
415-864-5153
sf@worldcantwait.org
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DEFEND LYNNE STEWART!
http://lynnestewart.org/
Write to Lynne Stewart at:
Lynne Stewart #53504 - 054
Unit 2N
Federal Medical Center, Carswell
P.O. Box 27137
Fort Worth, TEXAS 76127
Visiting Lynne:
Visiting is very liberal but first she has to get people on her visiting list; wait til she or the lawyers let you know. The visits are FRI, SAT, SUN AND MON for 4 hours and on weekends 8 to 3. Bring clear plastic change purse with lots of change to buy from the machines. Brief Kiss upon arrival and departure, no touching or holding during visit (!!) On visiting forms it may be required that you knew me before I came to prison. Not a problem for most of you.
Commissary Money:
Commissary Money is always welcome It is how Lynne pay for the phone and for email. Also for a lot that prison doesn't supply in terms of food and "sundries" (pens!) (A very big list that includes Raisins, Salad Dressing, ankle sox, mozzarella (definitely not from Antonys--more like a white cheddar, Sanitas Corn Chips but no Salsa, etc. To add money, you do this by using Western Union and a credit card by phone or you can send a USPO money order or Business or Govt Check. The negotiable instruments (PAPER!) need to be sent to Federal Bureau of Prisons, 53504-054, Lynne Stewart, PO Box 474701, Des Moines Iowa 50947-001 (Payable to Lynne Stewart, 53504-054) They hold the mo or checks for 15 days. Western Union costs $10 but is within 2 hours. If you mail, your return address must be on the envelope. Unnecessarily complicated? Of course, it's the BOP !)
The address of her Defense Committee is:
Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
1070 Dean Street
Brooklyn, New York 11216
For further information:
718-789-0558 or 917-853-9759
Please make a generous contribution to her defense.
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In earnest support of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange:
http://readersupportednews.org/julian-assange-petition
rsn:Petition
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KEVIN COOPER IS INNOCENT! FREE KEVIN COOPER!
Reasonable doubts about executing Kevin Cooper
Chronicle Editorial
Monday, December 13, 2010
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/13/EDG81GP0I7.DTL
Death penalty -- Kevin Cooper is Innocent! Help save his life from San Quentin's death row!
http://www.savekevincooper.org/
http://www.savekevincooper.org/pages/essays_content.html?ID=255
URGENT ACTION APPEAL
- From Amnesty International USA
17 December 2010
Click here to take action online:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&template=x.ascx&action=15084
To learn about recent Urgent Action successes and updates, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/iar/success
For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa25910.pdf
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"Secret diplomacy is a necessary tool for a propertied minority, which is compelled to deceive the majority in order to subject it to its interests."..."Publishing State Secrets" By Leon Trotsky
Documents on Soviet Policy, Trotsky, iii, 2 p. 64
November 22, 1917
http://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/government/foreign-relations/1917/November/22.htm
FREE JULIAN ASSANGE! FREE BRADLEY MANNING! STOP THE FBI RAIDS NOW!
MONEY FOR HUMAN NEEDS NOT WAR!
To understand how much a trillion dollars is, consider looking at it in terms of time:
A million seconds would be about eleven-and-one-half days; a billion seconds would be 31 years; and a trillion seconds would be 31,000 years!
From the novel "A Dark Tide," by Andrew Gross
Now think of it in terms of U.S. war dollars and bankster bailouts!
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Courage to Resist needs your support
Please donate today:
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38590
"Soldiers sworn oath is to defend and support the Constitution. Bradley Manning has been defending and supporting our Constitution."
-Dan Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistle-blower
Jeff Paterson
Project Director, Courage to Resist
First US military service member to refuse to fight in Iraq
Please donate today.
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38590
P.S. I'm asking that you consider a contribution of $50 or more, or possibly becoming a sustainer at $15 a month. Of course, now is also a perfect time to make a end of year tax-deductible donation. Thanks again for your support!
Please click here to forward this to a friend who might
also be interested in supporting GI resisters.
http://ymlp.com/forward.php?id=lS3tR&e=bonnieweinstein@yahoo.com
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Add your name! We stand with Bradley Manning.
"We stand for truth, for government transparency, and for an end to our tax-dollars funding endless occupation abroad... We stand with accused whistle-blower US Army Pfc. Bradley Manning."
Dear All,
The Bradley Manning Support Network and Courage to Resist are launching a new campaign, and we wanted to give you a chance to be among the first to add your name to this international effort. If you sign the letter online, we'll print out and mail two letters to Army officials on your behalf. With your permission, we may also use your name on the online petition and in upcoming media ads.
Read the complete public letter and add your name at:
http://standwithbrad.org/
Courage to Resist (http://couragetoresist.org)
on behalf of the Bradley Manning Support Network (http://bradleymanning.org)
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610
510-488-3559
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Committee to Stop FBI Repression
P.O. Box 14183
Minneapolis, MN 55414
Please make a donation today at stopfbi.net (PayPal) on the right side of your screen. Also you can write to:
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
P.O. Box 14183
Minneapolis, MN 55414
This is a critical time for us to stand together, defend free speech, and defend those who help to organize for peace and justice, both at home and abroad!
Thank you for your generosity! Tom Burke
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Short Video About Al-Awda's Work
The following link is to a short video which provides an overview of Al-Awda's work since the founding of our organization in 2000. This video was first shown on Saturday May 23, 2009 at the fundraising banquet of the 7th Annual Int'l Al-Awda Convention in Anaheim California. It was produced from footage collected over the past nine years.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTiAkbB5uC0&eurl
Support Al-Awda, a Great Organization and Cause!
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, depends on your financial support to carry out its work.
To submit your tax-deductible donation to support our work, go to
http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and follow the simple instructions.
Thank you for your generosity!
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COURAGE TO RESIST!
Support the troops who refuse to fight!
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/
Donate:
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/21/57/
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D. ARTICLES IN FULL (Unless otherwise noted)
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1) Addressing confusion about PFC Bradley Manning's case
By the Bradley Manning Support Network
September 1, 2011
http://www.bradleymanning.org/commentary/addressing-confusion-about-pfc-bradley-manning%E2%80%99s-case
2) 9-11 Ten Years Later
By John Reimann
September 8, 2011
http://worldwidesocialist.net/blog/?p=2110
3) Egyptian protesters pull down Israel embassy wall
By Sami Aboudi and Yasmine Saleh
CAIRO | Fri Sep 9, 2011 7:48pm EDT
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/09/us-egypt-protest-idUSTRE7885PH20110909
4) Pelican Bay SHU prisoners plan to resume hunger strike Sept. 26
by Mutope Duguma (s/n James Crawford)
September 1, 2011
http://sfbayview.com/2011/pelican-bay-shu-prisoners-plan-to-resume-hunger-strike-sept-26/
5) The Lingering Injustice of Attica
By HEATHER ANN THOMPSON
September 8, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/09/opinion/the-lingering-injustice-of-attica.html?_r=1&emc=eta1
6) Israelis Flee Cairo Embassy as Protesters Invade Offices
By DAVID KIRKPATRICK and ETHAN BRONNER
September 10, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/world/middleeast/11egypt.html?ref=world
7) Pipeline Spills Put Safeguards Under Scrutiny
By DAN FROSCH and JANET ROBERTS
September 9, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/10/business/energy-environment/agency-struggles-to-safeguard-pipeline-system.html?ref=us
8) Deal Reached on Dialysis for Immigrants
By KEVIN SACK
September 9, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/10/health/10grady.html?ref=us
9) Rich Tax Breaks Bolster Makers of Video Games
"All told, the federal government gave $123 billion in tax incentives to corporations in 2010, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, with breaks for groups and people as diverse as Nascar track owners, mohair producers, hedge fund managers, chicken farmers, automakers and oil companies. Many tax policy analysts say the breaks for the video game industry - whose domestic sales of $15 billion a year now exceed those of the music business - are a vivid example of a tax system that defies common sense. ...Video game industry officials say that by improving technology, they are indirectly helping society at large. Dean Zerbe, national managing director at Alliantgroup, said that the military had used some video game technology to train soldiers and pilots." [UN-BE-LIEV-ABLE!!! ...bw]
By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI
September 10, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/technology/rich-tax-breaks-bolster-video-game-makers.html?ref=business
10) Hyatt Hotel Slams Week of Strikes
By Carl Finamore
Posted on September 10, 2011 by dsalaborblogmoderator
http://talkingunion.wordpress.com/2011/09/10/week-of-strikes/
11) Japanese Official Resigns Over Radiation Joke
By MARTIN FACKLER
September 10, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/world/asia/11minister.html?ref=world
12) Relics of a Tribe's Eviction Are Unearthed in Montana
By KIRK JOHNSON
September 10, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/us/11tribe.html?ref=us
13) Trial to Start in Vt.'s Bid to Close Nuclear Plant
"Gov. Peter Shumlin, when he was Senate president, orchestrated the vote to close the plant a month after it was revealed that radioactive tritium was leaking into soil and water around the reactor and that plant officials had made misstatements by denying to the state that the plant had underground pipes that carried tritium."
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
September 11, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/09/11/business/AP-US-Vermont-Yankee-Trial.html?src=busln
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1) Addressing confusion about PFC Bradley Manning's case
By the Bradley Manning Support Network
September 1, 2011
http://www.bradleymanning.org/commentary/addressing-confusion-about-pfc-bradley-manning%E2%80%99s-case
This article is a reference both for those who have just begun learning about PFC Bradley Manning's case, and those who have been following it for awhile. It addresses several common misconceptions about the case. As an advocate for Bradley Manning, you can use the information in the article to educate others, whether speaking to them in-person or sharing relevant excerpts online.
Bradley Manning fits the definition of a whistle-blower (not a traitor).
In online discussions attributed to PFC Bradley Manning, he says that he hopes his actions will spur "discussion, debates, and reforms" and that he "want[s] people to know the truth, no matter who they are, because without information you cannot make informed decisions as a public." This is the classic definition of a whistle-blower (a person who tells the public about alleged dishonest or illegal activities/misconduct occurring in a government department).
Unfortunately, the government is charging PFC Bradley Manning with "knowingly [giving] intelligence to the enemy, through indirect means," under Article 104 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice - an allegation of treason and a capital offense. By this rational, scores of service-person-posted blogs, photos, and videos, would now be punishable by death-simply because they are accessible on the Internet. The charge against Bradley Manning appears to be about sending a message to other would-be whistle-blowers.
The Founding Fathers restricted the definition of treason in the U.S. Constitution to, "Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort...." They did so because they wanted to prevent a repeat of England's abuse of power.
It is inappropriate and abusive to attempt to use the Espionage Act against PFC Manning.
PFC Bradley Manning was given access to classified documents (of various levels of secrecy) as a military intelligence analyst. In the course of doing his job, it appears that he became aware of information that was classified not for legitimate purposes, but for purposes of political convenience. Releasing such information fits under the classic definition of whistle-blowing, not "spying."
Espionage is associated with spying on, or for, potential or actual enemies, primarily for military purposes. No one believes that PFC Bradley Manning engaged in any such activities.
In the chat logs which allegedly record a conversation between PFC Bradley Manning and hacker Adrian Lamo-these chat logs serve as the primary known evidence in this case-Manning expresses a desire for the information to be in the public domain, as opposed to it being used to benefit any nation at the expense of another.
Bradley Manning: i mean what if i were someone more malicious
Bradley Manning: i could've sold to russia or china, and made bank?
Adrian Lamo: why didn't you?
Bradley Manning: because it's public data
Adian Lamo: i mean, the cables
Bradley Manning: it belongs in the public domain
Bradley Manning: information should be free
Bradley Manning: it belongs in the public domain
Bradley Manning: because another state would just take advantage of the information... try and get some edge
Bradley Manning: if its out in the open... it should be a public good
Bradley Manning: i couldn't be a spy...
Bradley Manning: spies dont post things up for the world to see
The legality (or illegality) of releasing classified documents isn't black and white.
In the United States, there is no Congressional law regarding the leaking of classified documents. Documents are classified, or declassified, according to Executive Orders, which apply only to those working for the government.
Furthermore, according to the 1971 Supreme Court Case New York Times Co. vs. United States, as well as President Obama's Executive Orders, documents may not be classified to conceal embarrassing activity or violations of law, but only for national security reasons:
"In no case shall information be classified... in order to: conceal violations of law, inefficiency, or administrative error; prevent embarrassment to a person, organization, or agency... or prevent or delay the release of information that does not require protection in the interest of the national security."
-Executive Order 13526, Sec. 1.7. Classification Prohibitions and Limitations
There were many documents released by WikiLeaks that were clearly not classified for reasons of national security. In fact, when asked about the leaks in November 2010, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said, "Is this embarrassing? Yes. Is this awkward? Yes. Consequences for U.S. foreign policy? I think fairly modest."
In the United States, the release of classified information is not, in general, illegal. A 'patchwork' of different laws criminalize disclosing certain types of classified information, and then only under certain circumstances.
PFC Bradley Manning faces a military court martial under the rules of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, primarily Articles 92 and 104. Article 92 generally covers any "failure to obey order or regulation", and Article 134-generally known as the "catch all" article-criminalizes everything that would "prejudice good order and discipline... or was of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces."
However, had Bradley Manning performed his job by continuing to hide information which could constitute evidence of human rights violations, he would have then been engaged in illegal activity according to international law (which the United States helped create after WWII). Nuremberg Principle IV states: "The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him."
Should one person be able to make the decision on what is classified and what is publicly released?
Which documents are classified, and which that are not, rests on the judgment of individuals most of the time. Thousands of U.S. government workers possess the power to classify documents at the "classified" and "secret" levels, the highest levels of secrecy of the documents released by WikiLeaks. Seventy-six million classification decisions were made in 2010 alone, eight times as many as in 2001. Additionally, The Information Security Oversight Office conducted a survey in 2009 in which they estimated that approximately 35% of documents which had been classified that year did not meet classification requirements.
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) allows citizens to request declassification of documents that no longer must be kept classified. However, because of the large number of requests relative to the staff and resources available for reviewing the classification statuses of documents, this process can take years.
Upon enlisting in the armed forces, Bradley Manning took the following oath: "I, Bradley Manning, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same...."
This oath assumes that individual service people will act on their conscience to defend the U.S. Constitution, which holds government transparency and democracy as core principles.
In instances where there was a reasonable belief that crimes were committed and covered up, service members have an obligation to come forward with that information-regardless of conflicting rules and regulations. The "Collateral Murder" video is only one such example of evidence being hidden from view by classification for no legitimate reason. Yet Bradley Manning faces decades in prison for releasing that video alone!
Did Bradley Manning endanger lives?
To date, the government has made no allegation that any U.S. soldier, citizen, ally, or informant has been physically injured as a result of the revelations.
Many facts that the leaks brought to light about U.S military actions in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen, for example, were already well known by citizens of those countries, experiencing the reality at their doorstep. The leaks served to inform the American people of aspects of the U.S. governments' actions abroad that are not frequently covered by domestic mainstream news outlet (for example, the number of civilian casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the fact that there is an official military policy to ignore torture in Iraq).
The Iraq War Logs and the Afghan War Diary were comprised of years-old field reports written by combat troops in the midst of battle. Names of local persons are spelled phonetically in these reports, usually with general descriptions of region or cities. The majority of these names were redacted by WikiLeaks prior to release. The U.S. State Department has declared that of the non-redacted names, there was not enough identifying information released on any individual to justify taking preventive action.
Meanwhile, scores of U.S. and foreign citizens continue to die on a daily basis in these occupation zones due not to Bradley Manning, but due to the controversial policies that he exposed.
Did the documents reveal anything new or important?
While some of the revelations in the documents were previously suspected by academics or human rights advocates carefully studying these topics, the documents uncovered many details that were previously unknown. The documents give American citizens greater insight into the reasoning behind U.S. foreign policies than they have ever been privy to before. It is one thing to suspect something is occurring, but is another thing to have it confirmed by primary sources in the government.
At the end of April 2011, The Atlantic Wire published a study in which they found that for the first four months of 2011, nearly one-half of New York Times editions cited one or more of the leaked cables in their news stories. Many facts brought forth in the documents are of great significance to those working in the fields of foreign policy and human rights advocacy.
The leaked documents include information about the following:
1. There is an official policy to ignore torture in Iraq.
2. There is an official tally of civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan.
3. Guantanamo prison has held mostly innocent people and low-level operatives.
4. The State Department authorized the theft of the UN Secretary General's DNA.
5. The U.S. Government withheld information about the indiscriminate killing of Reuters journalists and
innocent Iraqi civilians.
6. The State Department backed corporate opposition to a Haitian minimum wage law.
7. The U.S. Government had long been faking its public support for Tunisian President Ben Ali.
8. U.S. officials were told to cover up evidence of child abuse by contractors in Afghanistan.
9. The Japanese and U.S. Governments had been warned about the seismic threat at Fukushima.
10. The Obama Administration allowed Yemen's President to cover up a secret U.S. drone bombing
campaign.
11. Known Egyptian torturers received training from the FBI in Quantico, Virginia.
Please download our factsheet to learn more:
http://www.bradleymanning.org/news/what-did-wikileaks-reveal
Did Bradley Manning leak documents "indiscriminately"?
PFC Bradley Manning held a Top Secret clearance while working as an army intelligence analyst in Iraq. Yet the vast majority of documents he is accused of leaking consisted of low-level classified documents-about half of the documents were even "unclassified". Of those that were classified, most were simply "Confidential." About 11,000 documents were "Secret." None of the released documents were "Top Secret," the highest classification. Bradley Manning clearly had access to a much larger number of documents than what was leaked.
President Obama encouraged the perception that Bradley Manning leaked documents indiscriminately when he declared in April, 2011 that Bradley Manning "dumped" information. He then went on to mistakenly declare that now widely-respected Pentagon Papers whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg was "different" than Bradley Manning because Ellsberg didn't release information that was classified in the same way. The fact is that Ellsberg released "Top Secret" information when he gave information to The New York Times, while Manning is only accused of releasing lower-level classified information. Daniel Ellsberg has also stated in interviews that alongside critical revelations the Pentagon Papers contained thousands of pages of information of little to no public significance. Like many other whistle-blowers, Ellsberg had to trust media organizations to do some of the sorting of an immense amount of data.
In the chat logs between Adrian Lamo and Bradley Manning, Manning allegedly describes the documents he was later accused of leaking, along with some reasons why he felt they needed to be public:
Bradley Manning: hypothetical question: if you had free reign over classified networks for long periods of time... say, 8-9 months... and you saw incredible things, awful things... things that belonged in the public domain, and not on some server stored in a dark room in Washington DC... what would you do?
Bradley Manning: or Guantanamo, Bagram, Bucca, Taji, VBC for that matter...
Bradley Manning: things that would have an impact on 6.7 billion people
Bradley Manning: say... a database of half a million events during the iraq war... from 2004 to 2009... with reports, date time groups, lat-lon locations, casualty figures... ? or 260,000 state department cables from embassies and consulates all over the world, explaining how the first world exploits the third, in detail, from an internal perspective?
Adrian Lamo: What sort of content?
Bradley Manning: uhm... crazy, almost criminal political backdealings... the non-PR-versions of world events and crises... uhm... all kinds of stuff like everything from the buildup to the Iraq War during Powell, to what the actual content of "aid packages" is: for instance, PR that the US is sending aid to pakistan includes funding for water/food/clothing... that much is true, it includes that, but the other 85% of it is for F-16 fighters and munitions to aid in the Afghanistan effort, so the US can call in Pakistanis to do aerial bombing instead of americans potentially killing civilians and creating a PR crisis
Bradley Manning: theres so much... it affects everybody on earth... everywhere there's a US post... there's a diplomatic scandal that will be revealed... Iceland, the Vatican, Spain, Brazil, Madascar, if its a country, and its recognized by the US as a country, its got dirt on it
Adrian Lamo: what kind of scandal?
Bradley Manning: hundreds of them
Adrian Lamo: like what? I'm genuinely curious about details.
Bradley Manning: uhmm... the Holy See and its position on the Vatican sex scandals
Adrian Lamo: play it by ear
Bradley Manning: the broiling one in Germany
Bradley Manning: im sorry, there's so many... its impossible for any one human to read all quarter-million... and not feel overwhelmed... and possibly desensitized
Bradley Manning: Apache Weapons Team video of 12 JUL 07 airstrike on Reuters Journos... some sketchy but fairly normal street-folk... and civilians
...
Bradley Manning: at first glance... it was just a bunch of guys getting shot up by a helicopter... no big deal... about two dozen more where that came from right... but something struck me as odd with the van thing... and also the fact it was being stored in a JAG officer's directory... so i looked into it... eventually tracked down the date, and then the exact GPS co-ord... and i was like... ok, so thats what happened... cool... then i went to the regular internet... and it was still on my mind... so i typed into goog... the date, and the location... and then i see this http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/13/world/middleeast/13iraq.html
Adrian Lamo: what do you consider the highlights?
Bradley Manning: The Gharani airstrike videos and full report, Iraq war event log, the "Gitmo Papers", and State Department cable database
Should Bradley have gone through the chain of command in his attempt to report misconduct?
In the chat logs, Bradley Manning references an instance in which he had previously tried to alert his commanding officer about a war crime, and was reportedly told to "shut his mouth."
Bradley Manning: i think the thing that got me the most... that made me rethink the world more than anything
Bradley Manning: was watching 15 detainees taken by the Iraqi Federal Police... for printing "anti-Iraqi literature"... the iraqi federal police wouldn't cooperate with US forces, so i was instructed to investigate the matter, find out who the "bad guys" were, and how significant this was for the FPs... it turned out, they had printed a scholarly critique against PM Maliki... i had an interpreter read it for me... and when i found out that it was a benign political critique titled "Where did the money go?" and following the corruption trail within the PM's cabinet... i immediately took that information and *ran* to the officer to explain what was going on... he didn't want to hear any of it... he told me to shut up and explain how we could assist the FPs in finding *MORE* detainees...
everything started slipping after that... i saw things differently
Bradley Manning: i had always questioned the things worked, and investigated to find the truth... but that was a point where i was a *part* of something... i was actively involved in something that i was completely against...
Having tried to utilize the proper chain of command already, PFC Manning would have had compelling reason to believe that similar efforts would have been equally unsuccessful. Because the controversial policies PFC Manning is accused of revealing were made at various levels within the military and State Department, it would have been difficult, if not impossible to determine an appropriate level of authority that could have presided objectively over the information.
Did PFC Bradley Manning leak the documents because he was angry at the military about the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy?
PFC Bradley Manning seems to attribute his growing interest in politics to his experience as a gay man living under the Army's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) policy. Most people, of course, begin looking at larger issues from their own personal perspective. However, no one has presented any evidence that indicates that PFC Manning was motivated by vengeance about DADT.
The chat logs PFC Manning mentions serving alongside many other gay service people. For example, he allegedly told Adrian Lamo:
Bradley Manning: DADT isnt really enforced
Bradley Manning: top interrogator here has a civil union in NJ
In conversations with gay activist Zinnia Jones, Bradley Manning is alleged to have expressed a desire that the military become a more welcoming place for all sorts of minorities to serve their country:
Bradley Manning: i actually believe what the army tries to make itself out to be: a diverse place full of people defending the country... male, female, black, white, gay, straight, christian, jewish, asian, old or young, it doesnt matter to me; we all wear the same green uniform... but its still a male-dominated, christian-right, oppressive organization, with a few hidden jems of diversity
In the Lamo-Manning chat logs, Bradley Manning allegedly discusses reasons for his changing views on U.S. foreign policies that are completely unrelated to his sexuality. For example, one pivotal experience for him was described above, a situation in which he was being asked to help arrest Iraqis making innocent critiques of corruption in their government.
Should Bradley Manning be punished, even if it was morally correct to release the information?
While Bradley Manning appears from the chat logs to have been aware of the risk of being imprisoned for life for his actions, that doesn't mean that he should spend life in prison for doing the right thing. Due to a popular movement against the Vietnam War and misconduct by the presiding administration, Daniel Ellsberg never spent a day in jail for leaking the Pentagon Papers. Bradley Manning, on the other hand, has been imprisoned since May 2010, and for the first ten months he was subjected to extreme and torturous conditions which were declared unconstitutional by 300 top U.S. legal scholars. Although he has yet to be tried, Bradley Manning has already been subjected to substantial punishment for an alleged act of "civil disobedience" This is why we have no qualms about demanding Bradley Manning's freedom.
PFC Bradley Manning's alleged actions make America stronger.
Bradley Manning's alleged actions place him firmly alongside Daniel Ellsberg and other prominent American whistle-blowers, which is to say Bradley is an American hero who stands accused of making our government officials more accountable to the public whom they serve. In these trying times, Americans would do well to remember the intentions of our forefathers. As founding father Patrick Henry stated in 1775, "The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them."
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2) 9-11 Ten Years Later
By John Reimann
September 8, 2011
http://worldwidesocialist.net/blog/?p=2110
September 11, 2011 marks the tenth anniversary of what could arguably be called the greatest and most important domestic crime in US legal history. This refers only to legal crimes, not such crimes against humanity as chattel slavery, genocide against American Indians, machine gunning of striking workers by National Guard troops, nor such crimes against nature such as the poisoning of the Gulf of Mexico due to the BP oil spill disaster. etc.
The US corporate controlled media thoroughly reported on the 2,966 fatalities due to the massive crime that was 9-11. They ignored, however, the 5,915 work related fatalities of the previous year and the estimated 4,000 people who die annually due to being unable to get health insurance. They ignored the estimated 15 million children who die annually world-wide due to simple hunger.
This same media has ignored, and thereby helped cover up, the controversy surrounding the causes of 9-11.
Controlled Demolition?
The "9-11 Truth" movement (as it is known) claims that this crime was actually organized and carried out by elements within the Bush administration. They point to claims that the World Trade Center towers collapsed in a pattern that resembles that of a controlled demolition, claims that traces of thermite - the explosive used for such demolitions - have been found in the dust of the collapsed buildings, that the temperature at which the fires burned could not have been hot enough to burn through the steel structure, among other points. (Some of these arguments can be found at these web sites: http://www.infowars.com/expert-who-concluded-wtc-7-was-a-controlled-demolition-killed-in-car-accident/, http://www.911truth.org/.)
To these claims, there are counter- arguments, such as the claim that the thermite residue in the dust could have been caused by the thousands of computers that burned in the fire, claims that the collapse of WTC building seven collapsed from the top first (thus disproving that an explosive charge was set at the base), and other arguments. (Some of the counter arguments can be found here: http://www.debunking911.com/pull.htm, http://truthphalanx.com/does-science-lie/.)
Insider Stock Trading
Also suspicious is the mass of what appears to be insider trading on the stock market in the days leading up to 9/11. As reported in numerous newspapers throughout the United States, in those previous days and weeks, there had been abnormally high amounts of trades ("short" trades and "puts") which essentially bet that the stocks of American and United Airlines would drop. These were the two airlines whose planes were hijacked. The stock market had been closed for several days after the attack, preventing anybody from collecting these profits and remaining undetected. A little over two weeks after the attack, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that some $2.5 million in profits from these trades had remained uncollected. (http://articles.sfgate.com/2001-09-29/news/17617189_1_trading-options-ual-corp-options-exchanges)
Official investigators claimed that there was nothing suspicious about these trades, because they were carried out by one company which had "no conceivable connection with Osama bin Laden." What they failed to mention was that much of them had been carried out by a firm managed by A.B. "Buzzy" Kronegard, who was closely connected with the FBI (http://www.hereinreality.com/insidertrading.html). Widely reported immediately following the attack, the news of these trades quickly was scrubbed from the mass media.
"First Responders" Abandoned
The US corporate controlled media also ignores the plight of those who have been lauded as the heroes of 9-11 - the police, firefighters and emergency medical technicians who first responded to the attack in New York City. Since that time, hundreds if not thousands of those who survived have fallen ill from skin diseases, asthma, etc. and some died from cancer. It is almost universally believed that this was as a result of the toxic dust they breathed in that time. Despite this, they are in general denied prolonged medical care. Cancer victims, for instance, are denied money for care because it is claimed that there is no "proof" that the dust they breathed caused the cancer. In the commemoration for 9-11 planned for this year in New York City, these "first responders" are not even invited.
Long Standing Plans
9-11 made possible the US invasion of Afghanistan and the later invasion of Iraq. There had been long-standing discussions about these invasions.
On February 12, 1988, for instance, John Maresca, Vice President for International Relations for Unocal Oil, testified before the US Congress. Unocal had long had an interest in building a pipeline through Afghanistan for access to the Caspian Sea region oil and natural gas deposits. Maresca explained that the wealth of oil and natural gas in the Caspian Sea region had to have a better transport system out of the region. Without better access, there would be greater instability in the world hydrocarbon markets. He discussed the various pipeline options available and their shortcomings. He stated, "The only other possible route is across Afghanistan... From the outset, we have made it clear that construction of the pipeline we have proposed across Afghanistan could not begin until a recognized government is in place that has the confidence of governments, lenders, and our company."
Maresca's statement shows the tip of the iceberg. Behind the scenes, powerful forces were working away, trying to figure out how to justify an invasion of Afghanistan.
The link with the invasion of Iraq is slightly more complicated since Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9-11, even by the US regime's official position. However, 9-11 transformed the mood in the United States to make this invasion politically possible. Also, repeated statements by Bush and others implied a link between Saddam Hussein and 9-11, leaving millions of Americans thinking that that link existed as did stories carried by that propaganda institution, Fox News. For instance, a 2003 poll found that 48% of Americans believed there was a link between Saddam Hussein and 9-11 (http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/international_security_bt/102.php).
Plans to invade Iraq had been discussed years before 9-11. In 1998, the Project for a New American Century (PNAC), a far-right "think" tank, had sent then-President Bill Clinton a letter advocating an invasion of Iraq. Subsequently, some 29 PNAC members became high officials in the Bush administration. These included senior member of the National Security Council Elliot Abrams, Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Stephen Cambone, Vice President Dick Cheney, US Representative to the UN Human Rights Commission Jeanne Kirkpatrick, and US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
PNAC represented the thinking of a wing of the US capitalist class as best stated by Francis Fukayuma (also a PNAC member and a member of the Bush administration), who famously commented that we were facing "the end of history", meaning the world domination of US capitalism was going to continue forever. The US's military power could not be challenged, and therefore US capitalism could do whatever it liked, wherever it liked and there was nothing that any other force could do about it. The policy could be summed up as "shoot first and ask questions later." Finding an excuse for a US invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan was a mere technical matter.
(Frustrated in both countries and facing a huge economic crisis, the strategists for US capitalism later came to conclude that a more strategic approach was necessary. That is why they installed Barack Obama into office, but that is a different story.)
Underlying Factors Behind 9-11
Clearly, the 9-11 attacks, if they were carried out by bin Laden & Co. were the result of several factors. First was the role of US capitalism world wide, especially in the Middle East. There, in coordination with the State of Israel, it has continually sought to maneuver and repress any mass movement of workers as it seeks to maintain control over this most important center for world oil supplies. It has defended the Israeli state's brutal repression of the Palestinian people.
However, the reason why the legitimate anger against world capitalism turned to at least some support for terrorist acts is more complex than this. The fact is that the world's working class had been quite quiescent, especially in the US, and entire layers of young people could not see a mass workers' movement as the means of opposing US capitalism. And especially at that time, when the capitalist economy was booming, it was almost impossible to see any alternative to US capitalism. As the capitalist strategist Francis Fukuyama famously said, the domination of US capitalism represented "the end of history".
A principle reason for this was the role of the leadership of the world working class, especially in the US. There, the union leadership has spent decades repressing and isolating any union radicals, thus weakening the traditions of the class struggle. They have spent decades pressing the myth that the unions and the unionized employers have common interests. This systematic campaign of theirs has led to a disorganization of the US working class which makes it extremely difficult for forces in regions like the Mid East to see any way to link up with US workers. As a result, some may tend to sympathize with acts of individual terrorism as the only means of hitting back.
Anti-Capitalist Sentiment Prior to 9-11
In the years leading up to this world-changing event, this had started to change. There was a growing movement against global capitalism. This movement possibly first really caught mass attention in 1999 with the WTO protests in Seattle, Washington. Young radicals were joined by a layer of workers - mainly union workers, including members of the United Steel Workers of America - and actually succeeded in shutting down the WTO meetings. This was followed by similar protests in Doha, Qatar and protests against G8 meetings in Washington DC, Prague, Czech Republic, Davos, Switzerland and Gothenburg, Sweden.
At the Seattle protest, the mainstream union leadership had mobilized a layer of their members to participate, assuming that they would be able to inoculate them against the radicalism of the youth. They failed miserably in this as a layer of Steelworkers and other union members participated in the physical shut down of the WTO meeting. The reformist union bureaucracy never made this mistake again.
Despite this, however, the working class was becoming increasingly affected by these protests and starting to respond. Frightened by this, a determination was made to crush the protests, perhaps starting in the Genoa protest against the WTO meeting in July of 2001. The police murdered a young protester, Carlo Giuliani, assuming that this would scare others off. It had the opposite effect, enraging many thousands and ultimately it is estimated that some 300,000 turned out to protest the WTO. These were not all just young radicals. Clearly, a layer of workers were starting to respond, especially as they saw the devastation that the "globalization" of capitalism was wreaking on their lives.
The capitalist tops were so frightened by this that the London "Economist" magazine proposed that future such meetings be cancelled. Under the title "Disarray in Genoa" (July 22, 2001), they wrote that the protest in Genoa "has raised questions about the future of such meetings." They continued that, "next year's G8 summit in Canada seem likely, on current trends, to face similar challenges."
US and World Capitalism Strengthened
9-11 changed all this.
Prior to 9-11, the mood in the US would have made the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan unthinkable. It was the transformation of the mood after 9-11 that made possible the the support for these invasions.This monstrous crime strengthened the US capitalist class as well as world capitalism. The rising anti-capitalist movement was brought to a near standstill, especially in the US.
As if in preparation for the movement that is once again being born, the 9-11 crime gave the US regime an excuse to increase its means of legal repression. This includes the "special rendition" of suspected "terrorists" to countries where they will be tortured. It includes the use of mental torture in US prisons through enforced isolation (such as that being used against Bradley Manning, the suspected Wikileaks leaker.)
These are the reasons why the methods of individual terrorism are so foreign to the workers' movement world wide and, in fact, are so harmful to that movement.
Remembering 9-11 Today
Today, as we remember the 2,966 innocent people who died in the 9-11 attacks as well as all the "first responders" who were sickened and/or died, let us not forget all the Palestinian people whose lives have been destroyed by the combined role of US and Israeli capitalism. Let us not forget those in Pakistan, Afghanistan and elsewhere whose lives have been similarly destroyed nor the destruction of the planet's environment as a result of the uncontrollable lust for profit. We should renew our dedication to end the end the brutal system which is the cause of these crimes against humanity and crimes against nature. That is the real lesson of 9-11.
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3) Egyptian protesters pull down Israel embassy wall
By Sami Aboudi and Yasmine Saleh
CAIRO | Fri Sep 9, 2011 7:48pm EDT
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/09/us-egypt-protest-idUSTRE7885PH20110909
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian activists destroyed a wall around the Israeli embassy and set police cars on fire in Cairo on Friday after thousands demonstrated at Tahrir Square to push for a timetable for reforms and an end to military trials for civilians.
Activists who spearheaded an uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak on February 11 have been piling pressure on the ruling military council to fix a date for parliamentary and presidential elections and to get rid of senior officials who served under Mubarak.
Thousands converged on Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the pro-democracy protests that toppled Mubarak, after Friday prayers for what was billed as "Correcting the Path" protests.
Some later marched to the opposite bank of the Nile in Giza. Demonstrators used hammers, large iron bars and police barricades to tear down the wall, erected this month by Egyptian authorities after daily protests over the killing of five Egyptian border guards in Sinai.
Protesters scaled the embassy building, removed the Israeli flag for the second time in less than a month and burned it.
Giza's police chief said that two police vehicles were set alight near the Israeli embassy building during the protests. State television said four police vehicles were set on fire.
"This action shows the state of anger and frustration the young Egyptian revolutionaries feel against Israel especially after the recent Israeli attacks on the Egyptian borders that led to the killing of Egyptian soldiers," Egyptian political analyst Nabil Abdel Fattah told Reuters.
Egyptian police stood aside as activists tore down the concrete wall to the cheers of hundreds of demonstrators.
"It is great that Egyptians say they will do something and actually do it," Egyptian film director and activist Khaled Youssef said, standing among the protesters outside the embassy.
"They said they will demolish the wall and they did ... the military council has to abide by the demands of the Egyptian people," he said.
Israel Radio cut into its Sabbath programing with bulletins about the Cairo demonstrations. Citing Foreign Ministry sources, it said the ambassador was safely at his official residence and that Israel was in contact with Egypt, the United States and European powers about the incident.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in a statement late on Friday that he had gone to the ministry's situation room in Jerusalem to monitor events at the embassy.
"Police will ... be left unharmed to continue demolishing the wall," one security source said. State television reported that 88 people were hurt during the pushing and shoving or from falling debris.
Tensions between the two countries sparked a series of angry protests that reached a climax last month when a demonstrator scaled the building and removed the Israeli flag.
The five security men died during an Israeli operation against gunmen who had killed eight Israelis. Egypt threatened to withdraw its ambassador from Tel Aviv. Israel has stopped short of apologizing, saying it is still investigating how the Egyptian troops were killed.
Protesters also demonstrated outside the Interior Ministry, near Tahrir Square, pelted the building with stones and scrawled graffiti denouncing the head of the ruling military council, Mohamed Hussein Tantawi.
State television said a fire broke out at a building used to store forensic evidence. Firefighters managed to put it out.
TAHRIR PROTESTS
Fridays demonstrations were organized mostly by secular groups which had been pushing for reforms, a new constitution and an end to the trial of civilians before military courts.
Islamists, including the political party set up by the Muslim Brotherhood -- Egypt's best organized political force after the dissolution of Mubarak's National democratic Party -- have distanced themselves from the planned protests.
The country's military rulers have promised to hand back power to a civilian government after elections, which they said would be held before the end of 2011. The council has also facilitated the trial of Mubarak and several of his aides, including former Interior Minister Habib al-Adli, on charges of corruption or conspiring to kill some 850 demonstrators.
But many Egyptians remain sceptical.
"Since January 25 until today, we don't feel there has been any change," said Kamel Ebrahim, a 37-year-old civil servant who was among the thousands in Tahrir Square.
"Thugs and thieves have multiplied and the Field Marshal has done nothing to improve things," he said, referring to Tantawi.
The protests also put pressure on Tantawi, who is due to testify in Mubarak's trial in a closed session on Sunday. The judge has banned all media coverage of the proceedings during the week also. Other senior figures, including former officials under Mubarak, will also testify.
"This is your last chance, either you say the people are in my heart or you leave," a man who identified himself only as a driver said. "Will you be able to say that Mubarak did not give orders to shoot?" he said, standing beneath a large poster on which Tantawi's face was spliced together with Mubarak's.
Activists said they have no plans to camp in the square.
Protests were also organized in Alexandria, Egypt's second largest city, and in Suez. Witnesses said military police detained three activists during a demonstration in the city.
In Alexandria, thousands of protesters chanted "The trial, the trial or the gang will stay in power."
One of the protesters, Hazem Ahmed, 26, a member of Egypt's Democratic Front party said, "I joined the protest because of the slow pace of the trials and it being not serious."
(Reporting by Dina Zayed, Shaimaa Fayed and Seham Eloraby, Abdel Rahman Youssef in Alexandria and Yusri Mohamed in Suez; Additional reporting by Dan Williams in Jerusalem; Writing by Sami Aboudi; Editing by Louise Ireland)
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4) Pelican Bay SHU prisoners plan to resume hunger strike Sept. 26
by Mutope Duguma (s/n James Crawford)
September 1, 2011
http://sfbayview.com/2011/pelican-bay-shu-prisoners-plan-to-resume-hunger-strike-sept-26/
We had our last and final meeting with Undersecretary Scott Kernan on Aug. 18, 2011. Sitawa and the rest of the negotiators were very disappointed with the outcome because the undersecretary's horns came out for real!
All the same, we are going forward with our indefinite hunger strike, which will start on Sept. 26, 2011. We know they probably have manipulated some new attempt to deal with us, but what they fail to realize is that we were never playing. If these people think we are going to remain under this tortuous treatment, then they will get the body count that they seek or a bunch of hospitals filled up throughout the state.
This is the only way to expose to the world how racist prison guards and officials have utilized policy in order to torture us. And we have the material to expose them because many of us suffer from serious medical conditions or a lack of medical treatment, which we inherited right here in SHU.
We are being deprived of every basic human necessity in order to continue our suffering. For example, I suffer from "trigeminal neuralgia" - a nerve disease* that hit me for the first time in January - and if you know anything about this disease, you will know it's the worse pain ever known to mankind.
If these people think we are going to remain under this tortuous treatment, then they will get the body count that they seek or a bunch of hospitals filled up throughout the state.
I question how I even got this disease, because I've always been healthy and taken care of myself - but this quack doctor left me with an ear infection for eight months; then this happened. Do you know what these clowns gave me for treatment? Tylenol!
So, CDCR's dehumanizing labeling, where they say we are gangs or gang leaders, is only to dehumanize us to the world in order to treat us how they see fit.
They did this with the Natives when they called them "savages," they did it with our ancestors when they kidnapped them from the continent saying they were three fifths human being, two fifths monkey/ape etc. - which justified enslaving them/us for over 400 years and counting.
They did this to poor whites who were indentured servants; so we must realize that nothing has changed, only the process. So, I appreciate the time and love you all have given to us and you can believe that we will not yield until justice is achieved. We went into this trying to save lives, if possible, but we see now that there will have to be casualties on our side and we all know that power concedes to no one without demands.
So, I say we respect and love you all and, again, thank you all. And trust me when I tell you, we are dealing with criminals who run and oversee these prisons. They do not give a hoot about law and order.
This letter was received by the Bay View on Sept. 1. Send our brother some love and light: James Crawford, D-05996, D1-117U, PBSP-SHU, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532. He is the writer of "The Call [2]," the formal announcement that alerted the world to this massive hunger strike, in which 6,600 prisoners participated, according to CDCR's own records. As the strike was about to begin, he wrote "SHU prisoners sentenced to civil death begin hunger strike [3]," explaining the reasons for the strike. Most recently, he wrote "This hunger strike is far from over [4]" to say that he and his comrades would most likely have to resume the strike.
* According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine [5], trigeminal neuralgia [6] is a nerve disorder that causes a stabbing or electric-shock-like pain in parts of the face.
Article printed from San Francisco Bay View: http://sfbayview.com
URL to article: http://sfbayview.com/2011/pelican-bay-shu-prisoners-plan-to-resume-hunger-strike-sept-26/
URLs in this post:
[1] Image: http://sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/California-prison-solidarity-drawing-by-Rashid-Johnson-Red-Onion-Prison-Va.jpg
[2] The Call: http://sfbayview.com/2011/the-call-hunger-strike-to-begin-july-1/
[3] SHU prisoners sentenced to civil death begin hunger strike: http://sfbayview.com/2011/shu-prisoners-sentenced-to-civil-death-begin-hunger-strike/
[4] This hunger strike is far from over: http://sfbayview.com/2011/this-hunger-strike-is-far-from-over/
[5] U.S. National Library of Medicine: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/aboutnlm/
[6] trigeminal neuralgia: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001751/
[7] Strike updates: Stop prison torture at Pelican Bay: http://sfbayview.com/2011/strike-updates-stop-prison-torture-at-pelican-bay/
[8] Don't fall for CDCR's disinformation: http://sfbayview.com/2011/don%e2%80%99t-fall-for-cdcr%e2%80%99s-disinformation/
[9] Hunger strike updates: Legislative hearing on Pelican Bay SHU tomorrow in Sacramento: http://sfbayview.com/2011/hunger-strike-updates-legislative-hearing-on-pelican-bay-shu-tomorrow-in-sacramento/
[10] Supermax prisons: 21st century asylums: http://sfbayview.com/2011/supermax-prisons-21st-century-asylums/
[11] No justice, no food, no 4th of July celebration: http://sfbayview.com/2011/no-justice-no-food-no-4th-of-july-celebration/
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5) The Lingering Injustice of Attica
By HEATHER ANN THOMPSON
September 8, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/09/opinion/the-lingering-injustice-of-attica.html?_r=1&emc=eta1
Philadelphia
FORTY years ago today, more than 1,000 inmates at Attica Correctional Facility began a major civil and human rights protest - an uprising that is barely mentioned in textbooks but nevertheless was one of the most important rebellions in American history.
A forbidding institution that opened in 1931, Attica, roughly midway between Buffalo and Rochester, was overcrowded and governed by rigid and often capricious penal practices.
The guards were white men from small towns in upstate New York; the prisoners were mostly urban African-Americans and Puerto Ricans. They wanted decent medical care so that an inmate like Angel Martinez, 21, could receive treatment for his debilitating polio. They wanted more humane parole so that a man like L. D. Barkley, also 21, wouldn't be locked up in a maximum security facility like Attica for driving without a license. They also wanted less discriminatory policies so that black inmates like Richard X. Clark wouldn't be given the worst jobs, while white prisoners were given the best. These men first tried writing to state officials, but their pleas for reform were largely ignored. Eventually, they erupted.
Over five days, Americans sat glued to their televisions as this uprising unfolded. They watched in surprise as inmates elected representatives from each cellblock to negotiate on their behalf. They watched in disbelief as these same inmates protected the guards and civilian employees they had taken hostage.
They also saw the inmates request the presence of official "observers" to ensure productive and peaceful interactions with the state. These eventually included the New York Times columnist Tom Wicker; the radical lawyer William M. Kunstler; politicians like Arthur O. Eve, John R. Dunne and Herman Badillo; and ministers as well as activists.
As the rebellion wore on, and the lawn around Attica filled with hundreds of heavily armed state troopers, these observers worried that Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller, having already refused to grant amnesty to the inmates if they surrendered, would turn to force. This, they knew, would result in a massacre.
Several observers begged the governor to come to Attica. In lieu of amnesty, they reasoned, his presence might at least assure the inmates that the state would honor any agreement it made with them and prevent any reprisals should they end their protest. Rockefeller wouldn't consider it.
On the morning of Sept. 13, 1971, he gave the green light for helicopters to rise suddenly over Attica and blanket it with tear gas. As inmates and hostages fell to the ground blinded, choking and incapacitated, more than 500 state troopers burst in, riddling catwalks and exercise yards with thousands of bullets. Within 15 minutes the air was filled with screams, and the prison was littered with the bodies of 39 people - 29 inmates and 10 hostages - who lay dead or dying. "I could see all this blood just running out of the mud and water," one inmate recalled. "That's all I could see."
Incredibly, state officials claimed that the inmates, not the troopers, had killed the hostages. Meanwhile, scores of inmates who had survived the assault were tortured. Enraged troopers, and not a few correctional officers, forced these men, many of whom had been shot multiple times, to crawl naked across shattered glass and to run a gantlet as fists, gun butts and nightsticks rained down on their bodies. Investigators from the state police, the very entity that had led the assault, were then asked to determine what had gone wrong - all but guaranteeing that only inmates, not troopers, would face charges. Public opinion toward the inmates, once sympathetic, gradually turned against them.
The hostages were also treated miserably. The state offered families of dead hostages small checks, which they cashed to tide them over in this difficult time, but it did not tell them that taking this money meant forgoing their right to sue the state for sizable damages.
Much of the nation, however, never heard this history. Had it not been for the legal fight waged by inmates to hold the state accountable, and the testimony provided later by surviving hostages and their families, there might have been no official record of these brutal acts.
In 1997, the inmates were awarded damages for the many violations of their civil rights and, though the state fought that judgment, in 2000 it had to pay out a settlement of $8 million. In 2005, the state reached a settlement with the guards and other workers for $12 million. The vast majority of the inmates and guards got far less than they deserved.
Despite having to pay damages, 40 years later, the State of New York still has not taken responsibility for Attica. It has never admitted that it used excessive force. It has never acknowledged that its troopers killed inmates and guards. It has never admitted that those who surrendered were tortured, nor that employees were misled.
We have all paid a very high price for the state's lies and half-truths and its refusal to investigate and prosecute its own. The portrayal of prisoners as incorrigible animals contributed to a distrust of prisoners; the erosion of hard-won prison reforms; and the modern era of mass incarceration. Not coincidentally, it was Rockefeller who, in 1973, signed the law establishing mandatory prison terms for possession or sale of relatively small amounts of drugs, which became a model for similar legislation elsewhere.
As America begins to rethink the wisdom of mass imprisonment, Attica reminds us that prisoners are in fact human beings who will struggle mightily when they are too long oppressed. It shows as well that we all suffer when the state overreacts to cries for reform.
Heather Ann Thompson, an associate professor of history at Temple University, is writing a book on the Attica uprising.
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6) Israelis Flee Cairo Embassy as Protesters Invade Offices
By DAVID KIRKPATRICK and ETHAN BRONNER
September 10, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/world/middleeast/11egypt.html?ref=world
CAIRO - Israel sent a pair of military jets into Cairo at dawn on Saturday to evacuate its embassy staff after six members had been trapped in the embassy overnight by thousands of protesters who invaded the building and tossed documents from the windows.
As an angry mob stormed the embassy and tore down its flag for the second time in a month, Israel appealed to the United States for help. Coming a week after Turkey expelled Israel's ambassador over its refusal to apologize for a deadly raid on a Turkish ship, the attack left Israel facing crises in relations with its two most important regional allies, and ambassadors in neither country.
The violence also raised concerns about whether Egypt's military-led transitional government would be able to maintain law and order and meet its international obligations, and to what extent popular rage unleashed by the Arab Spring would send a chill over the region.
Throughout the night, desperate Israeli officials had placed several calls to their American counterparts seeking help to pressure the Egyptians to take more action to protect the embassy. Defense Minister Ehud Barak called Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called President Obama, Israeli and American officials said.
In Washington, the White House said in a statement that Mr. Obama had "expressed his great concern" about the embassy situation in his conversation with Mr. Netanyahu. The statement said Mr. Obama called on the government of Egypt "to honor its international obligations to safeguard the security of the Israeli Embassy."
Israeli officials said the six trapped embassy staff members were rescued by Egyptian commandos early Saturday morning, after hours when Egyptian military and security forces had appeared to stand idle on the sidelines for fear of confronting the mob.
"This went on for 13 hours and there was real concern for the safety and lives of our people," an Israeli official said. "The mob penetrated the embassy and at the end there was only one wall separating it from six of our people."
Israel flew out its ambassador and about 85 other diplomats and family members, leaving behind only one diplomat, the deputy ambassador, who took refuge in the American Embassy, diplomats familiar with the arrangements said.
For Israel, the embassy attack and evacuation represented the most ominous deterioration yet in its relationship with its neighbor in the seven months since the revolution that ousted former President Hosni Mubarak, a strongman who suppressed the Egyptian public's hostility to Israel to keep his country's alliance with Israel and the United States a guiding principle of its foreign policy.
The Egyptian prime minister, Essam Sharaf, who serves under the council of military officers acting as a transitional government, called an emergency cabinet meeting on Saturday as the Egyptian Interior Ministry put the police on alert to guard against more violence.
For Egypt's interim military rulers, allowing the invasion of a foreign embassy is an extraordinary breach of Egypt's international commitments that is raising security concerns at other embassies as well.
"It has led to a complete loss of credibility in the government internationally from all directions," a Western diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the situation. And it poses a new dilemma for the military council, which has sought to avoid confrontations with protesters and, often, to accede to the popular will to guard its own tenuous legitimacy.
It was the second time in four weeks that Egypt and Israel stood on the brink, following a dispute last month over the killing of three Egyptian soldiers along the border by Israeli military forces pursuing terrorist suspects. And it comes at a time when Israel is feeling new pressures from all sides, with the Palestinians gathering support in the United Nations General Assembly for a bid to establish their nominal statehood next month and the expulsion of Israel's ambassador from Turkey.
For some, the image of the fleeing diplomats boarding jets at dawn evoked comparisons with the 1979 evacuation of the Israeli Embassy in Tehran after the Iranian revolution replaced a former ally with an implacable foe.
"Seven months after the downfall of Hosni Mubarak's regime, Egyptian protesters tore to shreds the Israeli flag, a symbol of peace between Egypt and its eastern neighbor, after 31 years," Aluf Benn, the editor in chief of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, wrote Saturday. "It seems that the flag will not return to the flagstaff anytime soon."
The attack on the embassy marked a new turn toward violence in the previously peaceful protest movement that has flourished in Cairo's Tahrir Square since the revolution. At a demonstration called Friday to reiterate a litany of liberal demands, thousands of hard-core soccer fans showed up looking for revenge on police officers who attacked some of them after a match earlier in the week, and they injected a new impulse toward mayhem into the day.
Exercising a new freedom of expression, Egyptians have staged protests outside the Israeli Embassy nearly every day since the Israeli killing of the Egyptian officers near the border, and last weekend the Egyptians erected a new wall in front of the embassy's block to help protect the buildings from damage.
But on Friday demonstrators marched to the building carrying hammers and determined to tear it down, and after its demolition went on to break into the building while thousands of others clashed with riot police outside, hurling homemade incendiary devices and setting several cars on fire.
The Egyptian Interior Ministry said Saturday that at least two people had died in the clashes around the embassy, one from a bullet wound and one from a heart attack, while as many as 1,200 had been injured from the overnight clashes with the police. As late as Saturday afternoon, enough tear gas lingered in the streets around the embassy to force passers-by to clutch tissues over their noses.
Since the dispute over the border killings last month, many Egyptians have clamored for Egypt to expel Israel's ambassador. When word reached the crowds outside the Israeli Embassy on Saturday morning that Israel was evacuating its ambassador, some reacted with satisfaction that the attack on the embassy had succeeded.
On Saturday, though, Egyptian politicians at every level, from the young leaders of the revolution to the older liberals and Islamists, spoke out against the violence the night before. But Gamal Abdel Gawad, director of the Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, warned that given the popular pressure, repairing relations with Israel could be "an uphill battle."
David Kirkpatrick reported from Cairo, and Ethan Bronner from Jerusalem. Heba Afify contributed reporting from Cairo.
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7) Pipeline Spills Put Safeguards Under Scrutiny
By DAN FROSCH and JANET ROBERTS
September 9, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/10/business/energy-environment/agency-struggles-to-safeguard-pipeline-system.html?ref=us
DENVER - This summer, an Exxon Mobil pipeline carrying oil across Montana burst suddenly, soiling the swollen Yellowstone River with an estimated 42,000 gallons of crude just weeks after a company inspection and federal review had found nothing seriously wrong.
And in the Midwest, a 35-mile stretch of the Kalamazoo River near Marshall, Mich., once teeming with swimmers and boaters, remains closed nearly 14 months after an Enbridge Energy pipeline hemorrhaged 843,000 gallons of oil that will cost more than $500 million to clean up.
While investigators have yet to determine the cause of either accident, the spills have drawn attention to oversight of the 167,000-mile system of hazardous liquid pipelines crisscrossing the nation.
The little-known federal agency charged with monitoring the system and enforcing safety measures - the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration - is chronically short of inspectors and lacks the resources needed to hire more, leaving too much of the regulatory control in the hands of pipeline operators themselves, according to federal reports, an examination of agency data and interviews with safety experts.
They portray an agency that rarely levies fines and is not active enough in policing the aging labyrinth of pipelines, which has suffered thousands of significant hazardous liquid spills over the past two decades.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who oversees the pipeline agency, acknowledges weaknesses in the program and is asking Congress to pass legislation that would increase penalties for negligent operators and authorize the hiring of additional inspectors. That may be a tough sell in a Congress averse to new spending and stricter regulation.
"We need to know with great certainty that inspections and replacements have been done in a timely way that will prevent these kinds of spills from happening," he said.
Federal records show that although the pipeline industry reported 25 percent fewer significant incidents from 2001 through 2010 than in the prior decade, the amount of hazardous liquids being spilled, though down, remains substantial. There are still more than 100 significant spills each year - a trend that dates back more than 20 years. And the percentage of dangerous liquids recovered by pipeline operators after a spill has dropped considerably in recent years.
The industry, however, believes the current system works and points with pride to what it considers a record of improvement.
"Data shows that releases from pipelines have declined over the last decade as the result of stringent regulation and the industry's continued commitment to safety," wrote Peter Lidiak, pipeline director for the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, in an e-mailed response.
Throwing more resources and money at the problem may not be the answer for the tiny agency, because there remain deeper concerns about how it works, especially its reluctance to mandate safety improvements or to level meaningful fines for wrongdoing.
Such concerns come at a critical time for the agency. The State Department last month gave a provisional green light to a controversial 1,661-mile pipeline from Canada to Texas, called Keystone XL, that will carry a trickier form of crude - and fall under the agency's purview. And a just-released National Transportation Safety Board report on a natural gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno, Calif., that last year cost eight people their lives, characterized the agency's regulatory practices as lax and inadequate. In the report, the safety board urged the Transportation Department to go back and audit many of the pipeline agency's safety and enforcement policies.
An analysis of federal reports and safety documents by The New York Times suggests that while the agency performs better than it did 10 years ago, it still struggles to safeguard a transport network laced with risks.
For example, the agency requires companies to focus their inspections on only the 44 percent of the nation's land-based liquid pipelines that could affect high consequence areas - those near population centers or considered environmentally delicate - which leaves thousands of miles of lines loosely regulated and operating essentially on the honor system. Meanwhile, budget limits and attrition have left the agency with 118 inspectors - 17 shy of what federal law authorizes.
Pipeline operators, critics argue, have too much autonomy over their lines, and too much wiggle room when it comes to carrying out important safeguards, like whether to install costly but crucial automated shut-off valves.
"The system as it presently exists, I don't think it really protects the public," said Representative Corrine Brown of Florida, the ranking Democrat on the House transportation subcommittee on railroads, pipelines and hazardous materials. "Self-reporting doesn't work. We need additional rules and regulations to make sure we're doing what we're supposed to be doing to protect communities."
She and other lawmakers want Congress and the Obama administration to bolster rules, hire more inspectors and reinvest in the pipeline infrastructure, much of which was laid from the 1950s to the 1970s.
New Project, New Risks
The Keystone XL project is different from most other pipelines in that it will carry a gritty mixture that includes bitumen, a crude drawn from Canadian oil sands that environmentalists argue is more corrosive and difficult to clean when spilled. In its report, the State Department cited 57 special conditions designed to keep the Keystone pipeline safe and wrote that it would have little environmental impact if operated according to regulations.
The National Wildlife Federation and other environmental groups assailed that conclusion, saying the State Department had not sufficiently accounted for the impacts of a major spill. More than 1,200 people were arrested during two weeks of protests against Keystone XL outside the White House this summer.
Richard Kuprewicz, a former pipeline engineer for the oil company Arco who serves on an advisory committee to the pipeline agency, said the current regulatory system was not fully prepared to monitor a project like Keystone XL, given the number of leaks the agency already contends with.
"We're seeing too many ruptures," Mr. Kuprewicz said. "The numbers are too high."
Since 1990, more than 5,600 incidents were reported involving land-based hazardous liquid pipelines, releasing a total of more than 110 million gallons of mostly crude and petroleum products, according to analysis of federal data. The pipeline safety agency considered more than half - at least 100 spills each year - to be "significant," meaning they caused a fire, serious injury or fatality or released at least 2,100 gallons, among other factors.
Pipeline operators reported recovering less than half of all hazardous liquids spilled over the last two decades, according to federal records. And the ratio is not improving: after recovering more than 60 percent of liquids spilled in 2005 and 2006, operators recovered less than a third between 2007 and 2010.
Nearly half of all incidents since 2002 arose from malfunctioning equipment, construction flaws and other technical problems with pipelines. Corrosion, which the agency considers to be different from equipment failure, is the second leading cause, and to blame nearly one-quarter of the time.
In written testimony to Congress after the Yellowstone spill, Cynthia L. Quarterman, the pipeline agency's top official, emphasized oversight upgrades like increased money for state safety agencies and more extensive training for agency employees. She also noted a decline in significant incidents.
Yet a recent report by the Congressional Research Service, while acknowledging progress, also outlined problems, noting that "recent pipeline incidents suggest there continues to be room for improvement."
The report said the pipeline agency was hampered by a chronic inspector shortage. Fifteen states are certified to perform their own liquid pipeline inspections, but budget problems within state agencies are also a matter of "great concern," it said.
The National Transportation Safety Board report on San Bruno said the pipeline agency's monitoring of state oversight programs and its own enforcement program had been "weak."
And when something goes wrong, very little happens in the way of penalties, The Times found. For every five significant incidents reported at a hazardous liquid pipeline between 2002 and 2010, the agency issued one fine.
The fines for that period, about $14 million, ranged from $1,000 for an inspection violation to a high of $2.4 million for the oil fire and Enbridge Energy pipeline spill in November 2007 that killed two people near Clearbrook, Minn. In May, BP was fined $25 million after two spills of more than 213,000 gallons of crude in Alaska in 2006 - in a case handled by the Justice Department. Federal regulators found that in the aftermath of the spills, the company failed to make prescribed corrections to the pipelines in question. But most of the pipeline agency's fines do not exceed $25,000, records show.
Relying on Self-Policing
The Enbridge line that ruptured last year in Michigan, which was transporting oil sands crude, had a history of problems. Inspections in 2007 and 2009 identified 390 anomalies with the line. But the company had repaired only 61 when the spill occurred.
Regulators typically inspect pipeline operators once every three to five years, according to the agency. However, they also rely on "integrity management programs" that require companies to draw up their own plans to assess risks like leaks and corrosion, and how to address them.
But even those self-policing plans are only mandated for lines that could affect high-consequence areas. Moreover, the safety board report found that the agency needed to more effectively measure whether a company was sufficiently monitoring its lines.
Carl Weimer, executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust, a nonprofit group based in Washington State that advocates for safer pipelines, noted that the programs, for example, only require operators to verify they have leak-detection mechanisms, but do not demand proof that they work.
On May 7, a pumping station accident in Sargent County, N.D., along TransCanada's Keystone pipeline, which would one day connect to the company's proposed XL line, spilled nearly 17,000 gallons of oil sands crude. Pipeline agency documents show it was a local resident who alerted TransCanada, prompting a shutdown of the line.
An internal pipeline agency report from 2009 concluded that regulators depend too much on the oil and gas industry for information and its investigations of accidents had exposed "some significant differences between what the company reports and an objective view of these events."
The agency is currently considering whether to require automated shutoff valves for pipelines and minimum standards for leak detection systems.
"Starting a decade ago, we went with a system of regulations that allows the pipeline companies to decide how to best maintain their pipelines," Mr. Weimer said. "Now it's become clear we need to tell them how to do it better."
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8) Deal Reached on Dialysis for Immigrants
By KEVIN SACK
September 9, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/10/health/10grady.html?ref=us
ATLANTA - Twenty-one illegal immigrants will continue to receive regular dialysis at no cost for three years under an agreement disclosed Friday by Atlanta's public hospital, Grady Memorial, and the world's largest dialysis provider, Fresenius Medical Care.
The deal solves an impasse created when a previous one-year contract between Grady and Fresenius expired on Aug. 31 and the dialysis provider refused to serve patients who showed up for their regular thrice-a-week treatments.
The patients spent the past week seeking care in Atlanta-area emergency rooms, including Grady's, which are required by federal law to screen and treat those at risk of impairment or death.
In some instances, ailing patients were turned away by emergency room doctors who determined that their elevated potassium levels and fluid retention were not yet severe enough to justify emergency treatment. Each renal patient's need for dialysis is different, but those unable to artificially clean the toxic substances from their blood can die in as little as two weeks.
One of the patients, an illegal immigrant named Reina Andrade, chose to fly home to Honduras on Wednesday morning after being denied treatment by Grady's emergency room on Saturday, becoming seriously ill on Sunday and receiving dialysis through another hospital's emergency room that night, according to her sister, Marlen Andrade.
Hours after Reina Andrade and her 9-year-old son boarded a flight for Tegucigalpa, Grady and Fresenius announced that they had an agreement in principle to restore the treatments.
"That was too late for her," said Marlen Andrade, who lived with her sister near Atlanta. "She's already gone. I told myself that God must have a plan for her."
Marlen Andrade said she learned from relatives on Friday that her sister received dialysis in Tegucigalpa that morning, and that her family had scraped together enough to pay for perhaps two weeks of treatments. There is no provision for free care in Honduras, she said.
The agreement between Grady and Fresenius would allow Ms. Andrade to receive treatment in Atlanta if she could return here. But that would require a rigorous illegal border crossing that can be physically challenging even for the healthy.
"In her condition, she could never cross the border illegally again, never," Marlen Andrade said. Reina Andrade was fit when she first immigrated to the United States 12 years ago, her sister said, but developed kidney disease several years later.
The patients' odyssey began two years ago when Grady closed its outpatient dialysis clinic, where many had received free treatment for years. Illegal immigrants are not eligible for Medicare, which covers most dialysis costs for American citizens. After the immigrants filed a lawsuit and gained news media attention, the hospital agreed to pay Fresenius to care for them during a transitional period. Other than the past week, it has never ended.
Under the new contract, Grady agrees to pay Fresenius $15,500 per patient per year for treatment at the company's outpatient clinics. That is less than half of the $750,000 flat fee Grady paid Fresenius for the yearlong contract that just ended.
Grady, which receives direct appropriations from two county governments, faces a budget shortfall of more than $20 million this year. It maintained in negotiations that it could not afford to pay Fresenius the previous rates.
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9) Rich Tax Breaks Bolster Makers of Video Games
"All told, the federal government gave $123 billion in tax incentives to corporations in 2010, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, with breaks for groups and people as diverse as Nascar track owners, mohair producers, hedge fund managers, chicken farmers, automakers and oil companies. Many tax policy analysts say the breaks for the video game industry - whose domestic sales of $15 billion a year now exceed those of the music business - are a vivid example of a tax system that defies common sense. ...Video game industry officials say that by improving technology, they are indirectly helping society at large. Dean Zerbe, national managing director at Alliantgroup, said that the military had used some video game technology to train soldiers and pilots." [UN-BE-LIEV-ABLE!!! ...bw]
By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI
September 10, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/technology/rich-tax-breaks-bolster-video-game-makers.html?ref=business
The United States government offers tax incentives to companies pursuing medical breakthroughs, urban redevelopment and alternatives to fossil fuels.
It also provides tax breaks for a company whose hit video game this year was the gory Dead Space 2, which challenges players to advance through an apocalyptic battlefield by killing space zombies.
Those tax incentives - a collection of deductions, write-offs and credits mostly devised for other industries in other eras - now make video game production one of the most highly subsidized businesses in the United States, says Calvin H. Johnson, who has worked at the Treasury Department and is now a tax professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
Because video game makers straddle the lines between software development, the entertainment industry and online retailing, they can combine tax breaks in ways that companies like Netflix and Adobe cannot. Video game developers receive such a rich assortment of incentives that even oil companies have questioned why the government should subsidize such a mature and profitable industry whose main contribution is to create amusing and sometimes antisocial entertainment.
For example, Electronic Arts of Redwood City, Calif., shipped more than two million copies of Dead Space 2 in the game's first week on the market this year. It shows a total of $1.2 billion in global profits the last five years using an accounting method that management says captures its operating profits.
But largely because of deferred revenue, deductions for executive stock options and a variety of accounting requirements, the company officially reports a net loss for the period. And the company reports that it paid out $98 million in cash for taxes worldwide in those years.
Neither corporations nor the government make tax returns public, and the information most companies disclose in their regulatory filings is insufficient to determine how much they pay in federal taxes and how that compares to the official United States corporate rate of 35 percent.
All told, the federal government gave $123 billion in tax incentives to corporations in 2010, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, with breaks for groups and people as diverse as Nascar track owners, mohair producers, hedge fund managers, chicken farmers, automakers and oil companies.
Many tax policy analysts say the breaks for the video game industry - whose domestic sales of $15 billion a year now exceed those of the music business - are a vivid example of a tax system that defies common sense. Most times, subsidies begin as a way to nurture a fledgling industry that will not be profitable for years or to encourage a business activity deemed to have a broad benefit to society, like reducing pollution or improving public health.
But it's a lot easier to create a tax break than to eliminate it. That leaves a generous assortment of tax incentives available to all types of companies, like Electronic Arts, with skilled accounting departments.
Electronic Arts has also lobbied successfully for more tax assistance. The architect of the company's strategies in recent years was Glen A. Kohl, a tax lawyer colorful enough to publicly compare himself to Bruce Springsteen and to joke in the pages of The Wall Street Journal that his dog, Rubin, shared the name of the Treasury secretary under whom he served (Robert E. Rubin).
After working in the Treasury Department during the Clinton administration, Mr. Kohl entered the private sector and became head of E.A.'s tax department in 2004, leading the company as it aggressively lobbied for a federal tax break on domestic production and set up a matrix of offshore subsidiaries, many in low-tax countries.
As a result, the company with the defiant sales slogan, "Your Mom Hates Dead Space 2," in effect gets financial help from moms and other United States taxpayers to reduce its federal tax bill.
Company officials say they have no qualms about taking all the tax breaks legally available to them. To do otherwise would be like a consumer "insisting on paying full price during a store sale," wrote Jeff Brown, a company spokesman. Even E.A.'s competitors acknowledge that the company's tax strategies aren't particularly aggressive compared to others in the industry.
Furthermore, Electronic Arts officials say that in recent years the company has paid a substantial portion of its profits in taxes, but declined to discuss details of its financial reports.
Several tax experts noted that one of the company's biggest tax advantages is a tool available to all companies, a deduction related to the stock gains on options exercised by its executives. (Tax practitioners also said that the company's losses, under generally accepted accounting principles, provided the most meaningful picture and reflected the standard approach used by other companies.)
Industry advocates say that without these incentives the United States would forfeit its technological edge - and the 32,000 direct jobs in the gaming industry - to countries like Canada, which offers video game developers even greater tax subsidies.
"Software and high-tech industries are the brain trust of the U.S.," said Shane T. Frank, chief operating officer of Alliantgroup, a consulting firm that helps video game companies and other businesses take advantage of the tax credit for research and development. "We can't afford to lose that knowledge and those high-paying jobs to India or anywhere else."
Trying to Lure Jobs
One reason Electronic Arts and other video game companies have a bounty of tax incentives that other industries envy is that elected officials from across the political spectrum find it hard to resist offering incentives to encourage technological research - and jobs.
When the tax code was rewritten in 1954 - nearly 20 years before the first commercially successful video game was released - Congress included a new break allowing companies to deduct all laboratory-based research and experimentation costs immediately. Part of the intention was to simplify the tax code. But with the cold war and nuclear arms race making Americans fearful that the country's technological edge was eroding, Daniel Reed, chairman of the House Ways and Means committee, also promised the tax break would indirectly bolster national security by stimulating "the search for new products and new inventions upon which the future economic and military strength of our nation depends."
In 1969, the I.R.S. expanded that tax break to allow companies to deduct the cost of software development, which was a small part of a business that was then dominated by bulky mainframe computers. When the video game industry sprouted in the early 1970s, game developers reaped substantial tax savings because most of their costs were for software development.
Electronic Arts, founded in 1982, has since become one of the world's dominant video game companies - producing popular titles like SimCity, FIFA soccer, Harry Potter and Madden NFL - and has benefited mightily from that tax incentive.
The company's software development costs - including salaries for the designers - have totaled nearly $6 billion over the last five years, and the company says it deducted all but a small amount of those expenses immediately. Companies that produce movies or compact discs, by contrast, face tighter restrictions which often require them to spread out the deduction on most production costs over a number of years. While video game makers have often compared themselves to movie companies when seeking tax incentives, the game developers' ability to write off the vast majority of their development costs immediately gives them a substantial financial advantage over other entertainment companies in taxes and cash flow.
Video game companies also get other research-related breaks. In 1981, as Americans worried that Japan's growing dominance in the auto business would be followed by a decline of the high-tech industry in the United States, Congress added another research and development credit, this time specifically for companies that increased their R.& D. spending from the previous year. The hope was that by encouraging companies to invest more in research, the private sector might create the next Bell Laboratories and inspire the kind of technological breakthroughs that benefit society as a whole.
Within a few years, the credit was being claimed by businesses with little technological background - fast-food restaurants, hair stylists and fashion designers. So Congress tried to restrict what research would qualify. The credit was denied for social science research and marketing. The narrowest definition, proposed by the Clinton administration, was to allow the credit only for research that produced an actual innovation, but that measure met determined opposition from business lobbyists. By the time the Treasury Department ruled in 2002, an appointee of President George W. Bush decided to drop it.
"It seemed as though it would be impossible to enforce," said Pamela F. Olson, then the assistant secretary for tax policy, and now a tax lawyer at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. "Because you couldn't be certain that someone wouldn't come back later and challenge things, by saying that what seemed like an innovation at the time had actually been discovered before."
The failed attempts to restrict the R.& D. credit to basic research have been a boon for video game companies. Even when companies are merely creating new versions of existing games - conducting research that would have little value to anyone but themselves - their development processes usually involve enough experimental uncertainty to qualify for the tax break.
During the last five years, Electronic Arts has claimed tens of millions in tax savings from research and development credits for its various games, according to the company's regulatory filings. (Company officials declined to specify how much of that total came from the federal government.)
At the same time, the I.R.S. and the United States Tax Court have denied the credit for some projects that would have benefited the community as well as the companies receiving it. In 2009, for instance, the federal tax court denied Union Carbide's attempt to claim a research and development credit for its project to reduce the pollutants released from the smokestacks of a refinery in Louisiana. Union Carbide failed to meet the experimental threshold for the credit, though video game makers often seem to have little trouble meeting the requirement.
Video game industry officials say that by improving technology, they are indirectly helping society at large.
Dean Zerbe, national managing director at Alliantgroup, said that the military had used some video game technology to train soldiers and pilots. Electronic Arts said it donated some games to the military, schools and charities.
Even those who support subsidies for technological research complain that the current research and development credit is woefully designed - favoring big companies over start-ups and often subsidizing businesses for research they would have done anyway.
Michael D. Rashkin, author of "Practical Guide to Research and Development Tax Incentives," said that the video game industry had failed to name a technological breakthrough that had helped anyone beyond its shareholders, employees or customers.
"The research credit benefits the wrong companies and encourages the wrong kind of research," said Mr. Rashkin, a tax expert and executive at Marvell Technology, a company based in Santa Clara, Calif. "By diverting funding and attention from where it could be most useful, the credit is hobbling American innovation."
Yet, given the sharp decline in American manufacturing jobs over the last half century, subsidies for research and development still have wide support. The Obama administration has proposed making the research and development tax credit permanent (it has been renewed every two years since 1981), and expanding it, at a cost of more than $100 billion over the next decade.
Looking for More
Electronic Arts has not been content to merely collect the many benefits from existing tax breaks. Mr. Kohl, who had an extensive background in mergers and acquisitions law, arrived at the company in 2004, the same year Congress passed a domestic production deduction that was intended to cut taxes on companies that export. When President George W. Bush signed the law in October, it listed an assortment of industries eligible for the break, including sound recordings and computer software, but did not specify video games.
Electronic Arts paid $60,000 early the next year to hire a prominent Washington tax lobbying firm. Soon after the law was signed, its lobbyist, Jonathan Talisman of Capitol Tax Partners, was granted a meeting with the Treasury Department's deputy assistant secretary of tax policy - the same office Mr. Kohl once held - to ask that the deduction be extended to video game companies and the revenues they earned from online subscriptions. When the I.R.S. issued its final regulations, video games and their online revenues were specifically cited as qualifying for the deduction. That deduction last year equaled 9 percent of its production costs, offering E.A. significant tax savings.
Company officials point out that the deduction is available to a wide range of industries. "The credit is not specific to video games," said Mr. Brown, the spokesman. "It's designed to encourage any domestic manufacturing in the United States - from soft drinks to steel, to movies, music and newspapers." During Mr. Kohl's seven years at the company, Electronic Arts also became more aggressive about assigning its intellectual property offshore, a move that often reduces a company's tax bill. Mr. Kohl, who declined to be interviewed, is now running the tax department at Amazon, which is leading the legal battle by Internet retailers who want to avoid collecting state sales taxes from customers.
In 2003, before joining Electronic Arts, Mr. Kohl co-authored a widely-cited proposal urging the federal government to crack down on corporate tax avoidance, warning that "the tax shelter problem is simply too detrimental to the tax system not to act." As head of tax at Electronic Arts, he became a noted expert in using foreign subsidiaries to legally, and sharply, cut a corporation's United States tax bill. As a co-chairman of the Silicon Valley Tax Directors Group, he also moderated a seminar in 2010 that showed technology companies how to use offshore subsidiaries to reassign the licensing of their intellectual property and, in some cases, reduce their effective federal tax rate substantially from 35 percent.
Electronic Arts has more than 50 overseas subsidiaries, according to its recent regulatory filings, many in low-tax countries like Bermuda, Singapore and Mauritius. The company has also accumulated more than $1.3 billion in profits offshore, where it will not be taxed by the United States unless it is brought back into the country.
Company officials say its overseas activities are not an attempt to avoid United States taxes and instead reflect how much of its business takes place in other countries. "E.A. is a global company with a majority of our customers and roughly 50 percent of our revenue generated outside of the United States," Mr. Brown said. "Naturally we hire, build facilities, copyright our trademarks, invest and pay taxes in countries outside of the U.S."
Jockeying for Developers
As Congress and the Obama administration wrestle with the next round of budget cuts this fall, and a possible overhaul of the tax code, they will determine whether the types of subsidies offered to E.A. and other corporations are worth the billions in forgone revenue annually to the Treasury. While Britain and some nations in the European Union have been paring back their tax subsidies for game developers, Canada has been trying to lure them and their jobs from below the border. In 2008, Ontario paid one game company a subsidy of more than $321,000 for each job to relocate from the United States. More recently, Montreal persuaded the game company THQ to relocate 800 production jobs there, closing studios in New York and Phoenix, with a rich package of incentives.
E.A. has 750 employees in Montreal, where all video game companies receive a tax credit equal to 37.5 percent of their payroll, and has announced plans to hire more there. Over all, 4,500 of Electronic Arts' 7,600 employees are in the United States.
There are signs that more tax breaks may be in store for game manufacturers. States have been offering an escalating collection of incentives to try to attract the companies - more than 20 states now offer video game developers tax breaks to cover their wages, development and manufacturing costs.
Several recent studies have raised doubts about the effectiveness of subsidies offered by state and local governments, and Michigan this year reduced its breaks for game developers. But Texas officials say its tax breaks for game developers are more beneficial than those given other businesses, in part because the average salaries in the industry exceed $80,000 a year.
Game developers are pushing for more. John S. Riccitiello, the chief executive of Electronic Arts, was among the business leaders who successfully lobbied the City of San Francisco to drop its payroll tax last year to help retain social media companies like Zynga, maker of FarmVille and other games. The video game industry's trade group, the Entertainment Software Association, this year recruited 39 members of Congress to form the E-caucus, which will advocate for legislation to benefit game developers. Representative Kevin Brady, a Republican from Texas who sits on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, said that the caucus has not asked for tax breaks.
But industry officials say they eventually hope to persuade Congress to make video game companies eligible for the federal tax breaks now available to film and television producers. Michael D. Gallagher, chief executive of the software group, said that the industry would not push for the breaks now, given the nation's budget problems, but might do so later.
"It certainly is a worthwhile policy goal," Mr. Gallagher said.
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10) Hyatt Hotel Slams Week of Strikes
By Carl Finamore
Posted on September 10, 2011 by dsalaborblogmoderator
http://talkingunion.wordpress.com/2011/09/10/week-of-strikes/
Victoria Guillen with her lovely daughter on picket duty at San Francisco Grand Hyatt
Hyatt Hotels wasted no time and pulled no punches in condemning UNITE-HERE's seven-day strike against six hotels in San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles and Waikiki.
Spokesperson for San Francisco Hyatt Hotels, Peter Hillan, told me on the first day of the strike that "we offered UNITE-HERE's Local 2 the same contract they signed with the Hilton, Starwood and Intercontinental but the union leadership rejected our offer. This strike is nothing but street theatre that hurts our associates."
"Oh yeah," responded 15-year Grand Hyatt employee Aurolyn Rush when learning of Hillan's dismissive remark, "then why are we all here," as her arms extended proudly to the active picket line outside her hotel.
All 700 workers walked off the job on September 8 at the two downtown Hyatt hotels in the "City by the Bay" with the union indicating over 2000 workers participating in the strike nationally.
Directly responding to Hillan's statement, union negotiating committee member Rush said, "first of all, right now what is on the table from the Hyatt, contrary to what Mr. Hillan told you, is less than the Hilton agreement.
"For example, Hyatt proposes to take out contract card-check language for hotels newly acquired or constructed in the area. Our members fought for two years and were locked out for 58 days in the 2004-2006 dispute to get these organizing rights. We are not about to give that up.
"However," she strongly emphasized, "this is not why we are on strike now."
So, Hillan appears to be right in one sense, this dispute is quite different from the union's negotiations with other hotels "but then again," says Local 2 spokeswoman Julia Wong, "the Hyatt is unlike any other hotel."
Wong cited the Hyatt's horrible safety record and mistreatment of employees as the worst in the industry.
"The Hyatt can ignore that but we won't. That's what this strike is all about," she added.
So, while negotiations with the Hyatt are different than bargaining with other hotels, it should also be acknowledged that this work stoppage is also quite different than other strikes.
Different Strike for Different Hotel
Hyatt pickets shoo away an airport van
As experienced union negotiators understand, no contract is just about wages and benefits. There are other extremely important protections and rights for workers that are often the most controversial aspects of negotiations.
In this particular case, the union is taking a stand for specific contract language that allows workers to organize solidarity actions such as strikes and boycotts when Hyatt management imposes egregiously unsafe and abusive working conditions.
This is the controversial language that Hillan terms "unprecedented in San Francisco."
"Yes, well this unprecedented language, as Mr. Hillan describes it, is in direct response to Hyatt's unprecedented abuse," UNITE-HERE national boycott coordinator Lisa Jaicks told me while holding a picket sign.
But, as Jaicks reported to me, neither is it quite so unprecedented as Mr. Hillan suggested.
In fact, Local 2 sources negotiated similar language with the prestigious landmark Fairmont Hotel after management there recently threatened to convert prime guest rooms into exclusive private condominiums.
After citywide protests, the hotel backed off. But if the issue comes up again, the union now has contractual rights to organize economic actions such as a strike and boycott. And, just in the last month, the union negotiated similar contract language covering workers at restaurants employed at San Francisco International Airport (SFO).
"So, again, contradicting what Mr. Hillan claims in your interview, this language is not without precedent," Wong said. "But it is not about getting what we got at the Fairmont or at SFO, it is about addressing specific conditions at Hyatt hotels where workers need rights to express solidarity with each other."
Antonia Cortex, 35-year San Francisco Grand Hyatt housekeeper agrees: "I have chronic pain in my shoulders and elbows, and I clean just 14 rooms a day. In some cities, Hyatt makes [non-union] housekeepers clean 30 rooms in one day. I'm on strike because I want the right to take action for all Hyatt housekeepers, no matter where they work. We all work for the same company. We should all have the right to stand up for each other."
While the unique character of the strike has attracted scorn from management, labor supporters both recognize and admire its bold and courageous stand.
For example, the 100,000-member affiliates of the San Francisco Labor Council, AFL-CIO, support obtaining contract language that would give Hyatt workers rights "to organize, get contracts, or protest abuses wherever they may occur."
Clearly, in a period when unions are fighting mostly defensive battles to hold onto workers' current wages and health benefits, UNITE-HERE's week-long nationally coordinated strike attempts to do much more.
"This is an exciting and historic event for our union," Local 2 president Mike Casey told me. "After two years without a contact, workers in four cities for the first time have coordinated week-long strikes to advance the principle of solidarity."
We Are the Best Place to Work in Town
UNITE-HERE and the Hyatt chain have been at odds for some time with currently active boycotts at 17 locations around the country, all initiated by workers at the targeted hotels. The union has documented an impressive $20 million loss in hotel revenue.
Union safety concerns are a major issue and would seem to be backed up by a November 19, 2009 Chicago Tribune report by Julie Wernau: "Housekeepers at Hyatt Hotels are more likely to get injured on the job than at other major hotel chains, according to a study set to be published in January's American Journal of Industrial Medicine. The study, led by researchers at the University of Illinois School of Public Health, is based on data from 50 unionized hotel properties of various brands."
Again, Hillan doesn't put much stock into this. "On claims of Hyatt abuse, the documentation of the supposed academic study is not credible."
Unimpressed, union supporters point out that the critical report was published in a prestigious peer-reviewed journal.
Nonetheless, Hillan asserts, "the Hyatt is the best place to work in town."
Not according to Rush: "They fired 100 housekeepers in Boston, made them train minimum-wage replacements and then, on very short notice, gave them plastic garbage bags to clean out their lockers. Some of these workers had over 20 years. Is this the best place to work?
"This is not the only example. I would not be working here in San Francisco because of their harassment if not for the union protecting me. Neither would others at my hotel."
Pointing to a woman on the picket line with her infant child, Aurolyn described the case of seven-year Hyatt employee Victoria Guillen who had a doctor's excuse from work for her recent high-risk pregnancy.
"San Francisco Hyatt management told Victoria she would be fired if she did not return to work three days after the birth of her daughter even though her doctor advised several more months of recuperation.
"We were outraged. Co-workers petitioned for her, the union had religious and community delegations plead her case and Victoria eventually was able to return to work only after the doctor approved her medical release. But, of course, the horrible stress of these threats during her pregnancy was outrageous and unnecessary.
"We want the right to express that same kind of solidarity for other Hyatt workers wherever the abuse occurs without being harassed or intimidated. It's that simple!"
That basic idea of concern for each other originally motivated workers to build unions in the first place and it appears now again to be the inspiration for hotel workers on Hyatt picket lines across the country.
Carl Finamore is Machinist Local Lodge 1781 delegate to the San Francisco Labor Council, AFL-CIO. He can be reached at local1781@yahoo.com
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11) Japanese Official Resigns Over Radiation Joke
By MARTIN FACKLER
September 10, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/world/asia/11minister.html?ref=world
TOKYO - Just over a week after he took office, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda of Japan suffered his first political setback on Saturday when the new minister of trade and industry resigned after a joke about radiation caused a public uproar.
The industry minister, Yoshio Hachiro, stepped down after apologies failed to quell calls for his resignation within his own governing Democratic Party. The party appeared to be moving quickly to control damage to Mr. Noda's government.
"It was an inappropriate remark," Mr. Noda said Saturday. "I want to apologize and correct the remark." Mr. Noda, Japan's seventh prime minister in five years, is trying to avoid the fate of many of his predecessors, who were undermined by similar scandals over gaffes by members of their governments.
The problem began on Thursday, after Mr. Hachiro returned from a trip to evacuated areas around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. According to Japanese newspaper reports, Mr. Hachiro, who was wearing protective clothing, moved as if to wipe his sleeve against a reporter and jokingly said, "Look out, radiation!"
The jest caused outrage largely because Mr. Hachiro's ministry, which was in charge of promoting as well as regulating nuclear power, has been widely blamed for lax oversight that allowed the Daiichi plant to operate without adequate defenses against tsunamis. The plant was crippled by a huge earthquake and tsunami on March 11, causing the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.
Earlier on Thursday, Mr. Hachiro had raised eyebrows by calling the evacuated communities around the plants "dead towns," a statement seen as insensitive to the approximately 80,000 people who had been driven from their homes by the nuclear accident.
Mr. Hachiro apologized the same day for that remark. But then he made the comment about radiation on his clothing, which was criticized in newspapers on Saturday as a serious lapse of judgment.
Mr. Hachiro later said that his recollection of the episode was "not very clear," though he admitted that he had pretended to rub his sleeve on a reporter.
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12) Relics of a Tribe's Eviction Are Unearthed in Montana
By KIRK JOHNSON
September 10, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/us/11tribe.html?ref=us
ABSAROKEE, Mont. - The bitter tale of Indian-white conflict that unfolded at this spot more than a century ago was told not in blood and battle, but in the legalese and fine print of a contract.
Now an archaeologist hired by the Montana Department of Transportation to plan for a road rebuilding project has found the physical evidence, in stones and building fragments that were until recently buried beneath shimmering waves of alfalfa just off State Highway 78.
"An Indian tribe faced the end of its traditional way of life, and it happened right here," the archaeologist, Stephen Aaberg, said as co-workers sifted dirt through mesh screens on a recent afternoon.
For the Crow tribe, the events of March 1880, on which Mr. Aaberg has focused his research, proved devastating. That was when a draft agreement from Washington was read aloud to tribal leaders for the first time here, at a compound that served as the arm of the federal government on the reservation.
The document ultimately forced the tribe, which once dominated a vast swath of Montana, onto a smaller reservation. It echoed a theme that scarred the West again and again as white settlers coveted lands that Indians had been promised but did not seem to be using: new document, new constriction of space.
What made the story even worse for the Crow is that they had allied with Gen. George Armstrong Custer against the Sioux and Northern Cheyenne only four years earlier at the Battle of the Little Bighorn - 100 miles east of here - and might have expected a reward, Mr. Aaberg said, or at least fairer treatment. The compound was abandoned in 1883 after the agreement was signed, because this spot, about 50 miles southwest of Billings, was no longer on the reservation.
"If we agree to be farmers, will you stop taking our land?" one Crow leader asked the government officials, in comments written down that day as the draft agreement was read.
The Crow tribe is now considering how the ruins should be remembered. The tribe's archaeologist, Tim McCleary, a professor of anthropology at Bighorn Community College, located on the Crow reservation, said that the events of March 1880 were huge historical markers for the tribe, but that many families with mixed Crow and white heritage also trace their ancestry to marriages that began as contact grew between the tribe and federal administrators, making memories complicated.
"It's obviously an important site," he said. "But feelings are mixed."
Because a federal worker in the 1880s drew up a detailed blueprint of the site, now on display in a local museum, Mr. Aaberg said, he was able to identify many specific areas inside the compound, including the doctor's quarters.
Among the poignant pieces found in the local rubbish pit was the arm of a doll. In a compound where most of the children were mixed race or Indian, and darker skinned in any event, the arm was made of porcelain, still gleaming white after all those years underground.
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13) Trial to Start in Vt.'s Bid to Close Nuclear Plant
"Gov. Peter Shumlin, when he was Senate president, orchestrated the vote to close the plant a month after it was revealed that radioactive tritium was leaking into soil and water around the reactor and that plant officials had made misstatements by denying to the state that the plant had underground pipes that carried tritium."
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
September 11, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/09/11/business/AP-US-Vermont-Yankee-Trial.html?src=busln
BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (AP) - A federal judge is about to be asked to take a first crack at this question: In early 21st-century America, can a small state tell an $11.2 billion corporation to pack up its nuclear plant and go home?
On Monday morning, in a stately federal courtroom upstairs from a U.S. Post Office - in a town still recovering from the floods two weeks ago of Hurricane Irene's remnants - a high-powered Entergy Corp. legal team will square off against the Vermont attorney general's office with that question in the balance.
Judge J. Garvan Murtha will hear opening arguments in what is expected to be a three-day trial. At issue is whether the Entergy-owned Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, just a few miles south of the courtroom in neighboring Vernon, should be allowed to operate past next March 21, when its initial 40-year license expires.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has said yes. Just 10 days after an earthquake and tsunami triggered meltdowns at the Fukushima plant - reactors of the same design and about the same age as Vermont Yankee - the NRC said Vermont's lone nuclear station had passed its review and was fit for a 20-year license extension, lasting until 2032.
The state of Vermont has said no. The state passed a law in 2006 saying that before a nuclear plant could get permission from regulators to keep operating, both houses of the Legislature had to approve. The state Senate voted 26-4 in 2010 against continued operation.
New Orleans-based Entergy filed suit in April, saying the state is pre-empted by the federal Atomic Energy Act from trying to shut Vermont Yankee down. Whichever side loses is almost certain to appeal, so a resolution could take years.
The judge in July denied Entergy's request for a preliminary injunction allowing Vermont Yankee to continue operating while the lawsuit works its way through the courts. But in a nod to the company's plea for a quick answer about the plant's future, he set an unusually early date for the full trial.
It's a case that's drawing national attention both from supporters and critics of nuclear power.
"We are paying attention to it because we are concerned about our 650 energy industry colleagues at the site," said Tom Kauffman, spokesman for the industry group Nuclear Energy Institute, of the job losses if the plant closes. "We are also concerned about the citizens of Vermont" and their need for a large source of low-carbon electrical generation, he said.
Diane Curran, a Washington-based lawyer who has represented several anti-nuclear groups, said more states should be exercising more oversight over nuclear power plants in this post-Fukushima world.
"To me there's an overarching question about whether in today's era there should be any debate about whether states should have a lot more control about nuclear plants within their borders," she said.
A big question hanging over the case is why Vermont wants its only reactor shut down. Entergy has charged that Vermont's main concern is about nuclear safety - something a 1983 U.S. Supreme Court decision said was solely the province of the NRC
Vermont's lawyers denied during the preliminary injunction hearings that the issue was safety - instead they said it was "reliability" - will the plant operate well and provide a stable supply of electricity to the state's consumers?
But others see two problems with that. First, the plant is reliable by industry standards, with a "capacity factor," above the industry average, Kaufmann said. Second, Vermont Yankee and the state's electric utilities have been unable to agree on a contract for the utilities to buy power from the plant after next March. If all the power is sold out of state, as is likely if the plant keeps operating, Vermont's concern about reliability would be rendered moot.
Overall, the state hasn't provided a clear reason for shutting the plant down, said Patrick Parenteau, a professor at the Vermont Law School and former state environmental commissioner. "That may be the state's chief vulnerability" in the case, he said. The judge is likely "looking for a real crisp explanation that he can say, 'I may not agree with it, but I'll defer to it, I'll accept it."
Vermont has always been closely divided on the question of nuclear power. Steve Terry, a former Vermont journalist who went on to serve as vice president at Green Mountain Power Corp., said it was a close vote in the state House in 1966 that decided on a nuclear plant versus a huge deal to import Canadian power. "It's been a long-time, persistent issue," he said.
In recent years, nuclear opponents have been in the ascendancy, now occupying key spots in state government. Gov. Peter Shumlin, when he was Senate president, orchestrated the vote to close the plant a month after it was revealed that radioactive tritium was leaking into soil and water around the reactor and that plant officials had made misstatements by denying to the state that the plant had underground pipes that carried tritium.
If the real reason that the state wants to close Vermont Yankee is that the anti-nukers are now in charge, observers say the judge may end up having to rule on whether that decides the matter.
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