1) We ain't gonna study war no more!
(Killing and being killed is not a career choice!)
Come to an organizing meeting to get the
military out of our schools!
Saturday, 11:00 a.m., February 5, 2005
Centro del Pueblo, 474 Valencia Street (near 16th St. in S.F.)
Our children are being recruited to military service right out of High
School. They are being offered Junior ROTC for class credit as an
alternative to Physical Education. Junior ROTC advocates the military
as a career choice. Every day we hear of schools and hospitals closing.
Our children have fewer job opportunities available to them with far
fewer benefits. And they are finding it increasingly more difficult to
go to college because of increased college costs and the general
increase in the cost of living. Junior ROTC makes the military attractive
to them. But these are not the job opportunities we want for our
children-or that our children want for themselves!
Meanwhile, due to an ever-increasing war budget, all of our tax
dollars are being spent on a war with no end in sight; and on
overall defense spending that dwarfs even the war budget! And
while corporations are raking in billions, two-thirds of them pay
no taxes at all. This puts a severe strain on the taxes left
over-after military and defense expenditures-for all social
services and human needs-taxes that come from the poor and
all working people. We want our children to have an opportunity
to learn and thrive to the best of their potential not to kill and
be killed. Stop the war. Bring all our troops home now. End all
military recruitment in public schools and institutions of higher
learning. Use our tax dollars for schools, healthcare, housing,
jobs-all human needs not war!
Number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq as of Jan 11: 1,357
http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/USfatalities.html
Number of U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq: over 10,000
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0104-12.ht
Number of Iraqis killed: est. over 100,000
http://www.iraqbodycount.net/press/
Number of Iraqis wounded: Untold.
Not counted but estimated in the millions.
Cost of the war: $149.5 billion spent as of Jan. 12, 2005
http://costofwar.com/index.html
With the money spent so far on the war we could have
hired over 2,600,566 public schoolteachers for one year.
http://costofwar.com/index-public-education.html
Total U.S. Defense spending: nearly $754 billion
as of fiscal year 2004.
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1253
The people of San Francisco voted last November 2004
by a 63 percent majority to bring all our troops home now.
We haven't changed our minds!
Bay Area United Against War (www.bauaw.org) (415) 824-8730
P.O. Box 318021, S. F., CA 94131-8021
Labor Donated...BW
2) Let's Hit the Streets
On the 32nd Anniversary of Roe v. Wade
To Defend Abortion Rights!
Saturday, January 22
* 10 am - Rally at Powell and Market Streets, San Francisco
(Powell Street BART)
* 11 am - March up Market Street, along the Embarcadero
to Aquatic Park
www.indybay.org/womyn
Driving? Need a ride? Visit
http://drivingvotes.org/rides/sfprochoice.php
3) ITALIAN.QUEER.DANGEROUS
a one-man show featuring Tommi Avicolli Mecca
directed by Francesca Prada, Jan. 14-19, 8:00pm,
JON SIMS CENTER
1519 Mission, Between Van Ness and 11th Sts., SF
[Come to the special antiwar presentation of
ITALIAN.QUEER.DANGEROUS this Friday evening,
Jan. 14th, 8:00 p.m.]
The reviews are in for "Italian. Queer. Dangerous."
Peace activists be there tonight!
4) CRITICAL Hearing Friday January 28, 2005 for
SHEILA DETOY17-Year-Old Girl Shot In Head By
Rogue Cop In 1998 ...
5) Officer who beat boy gets $1.6m
A US policeman who was filmed punching a black youth and
slamming him against a car has been awarded
$1.6m (£890,000) in a race discrimination case.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4190965.stm
6) Protesters Target Bush's Inauguration
by Jeannine Aversa
Published on Thursday, January 20, 2005 by the Associated Press
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0120-09.htm
7) Mock Coffins and Jeers as Bush Sworn In
By Andy Sullivan
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
Fri Jan 21, 2005 08:29 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7394050&src=eD
ialog/
GetContent§ion=news
8) STATEMENT FROM THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Cuba calls on the United States to stop
the torture of prisoners in Guantánamo
Havana, January 19, 2005
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2005/enero/juev20/05declar.html
9) Manifest Destiny, an introduction
http://www.pbs.org/kera/usmexicanwar/dialogues/prelude/manifest/d2aeng.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) We ain't gonna study war no more!
(Killing and being killed is not a career choice!)
Come to an organizing meeting to get the military out of our schools!
Saturday, 11:00 a.m., February 5, 2005
Centro del Pueblo, 474 Valencia Street (near 16th St. in S.F.)
Our children are being recruited to military service right out of High
School. They are being offered Junior ROTC for class credit as an
alternative to Physical Education. Junior ROTC advocates the military
as a career choice. Every day we hear of schools and hospitals closing.
Our children have fewer job opportunities available to them with far
fewer benefits. And they are finding it increasingly more difficult to
go to college because of increased college costs and the general
increase in the cost of living. Junior ROTC makes the military attractive
to them. But these are not the job opportunities we want for our
children-or that our children want for themselves!
Meanwhile, due to an ever-increasing war budget, all of our tax
dollars are being spent on a war with no end in sight; and on
overall defense spending that dwarfs even the war budget! And
while corporations are raking in billions, two-thirds of them pay
no taxes at all. This puts a severe strain on the taxes left
over-after military and defense expenditures-for all social
services and human needs-taxes that come from the poor and
all working people. We want our children to have an opportunity
to learn and thrive to the best of their potential not to kill and
be killed. Stop the war. Bring all our troops home now. End all
military recruitment in public schools and institutions of higher
learning. Use our tax dollars for schools, healthcare, housing,
jobs-all human needs not war!
Number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq as of Jan 11: 1,357
http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/USfatalities.html
Number of U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq: over 10,000
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0104-12.ht
Number of Iraqis killed: est. over 100,000
http://www.iraqbodycount.net/press/
Number of Iraqis wounded: Untold.
Not counted but estimated in the millions.
Cost of the war: $149.5 billion spent as of Jan. 12, 2005
http://costofwar.com/index.html
With the money spent so far on the war we could have
hired over 2,600,566 public schoolteachers for one year.
http://costofwar.com/index-public-education.html
Total U.S. Defense spending: nearly $754 billion
as of fiscal year 2004.
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1253
The people of San Francisco voted last November 2004
by a 63 percent majority to bring all our troops home now.
We haven't changed our minds!
Bay Area United Against War (www.bauaw.org) (415) 824-8730
P.O. Box 318021, S. F., CA 94131-8021
Labor Donated...BW
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) Let's Hit the Streets
On the 32nd Anniversary of Roe v. Wade
To Defend Abortion Rights!
Saturday, January 22
* 10 am - Rally at Powell and Market Streets, San Francisco
(Powell Street BART)
* 11 am - March up Market Street, along the Embarcadero
to Aquatic Park
www.indybay.org/womyn
Driving? Need a ride? Visit
http://drivingvotes.org/rides/sfprochoice.php
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) ITALIAN.QUEER.DANGEROUS
a one-man show featuring Tommi Avicolli Mecca
directed by Francesca Prada, Jan. 14-19, 8:00pm,
JON SIMS CENTER
1519 Mission, Between Van Ness and 11th Sts., SF
[Come to the special antiwar presentation of
ITALIAN.QUEER.DANGEROUS this Friday evening,
Jan. 14th, 8:00 p.m.]
The reviews are in for "Italian. Queer. Dangerous." We got raves
in the Bay Area Reporter and the SF Bay Times today. Both papers
gave the show a solid thumbs up. Even the Examiner's PJ Corkery
told the SF Sentinel online paper that the show was "profound."
Wow.
This weekend's performances are Friday and Saturday night, 8pm,
Jon Sims Center, 1519 Mission/11th, $5-10 (no one turned
away)...for those who need it, there is an elevator, merely come
in and call up the steps to the ticket collector. Any MUNI
bus/train that goes to Van Ness and Market will take you
within a block, and the #14 goes right past and stops at Mission
and 11th. For those who can't make this weekend, the show
runs again next weekend, with Friday Jan. 28 as a benefit for
the AIDS Housing Alliance (a great organization that helps
people with AIDS secure housing). The ticket price that night
is slightly higher, still with no one turned away. It's $5-25.
Closing night is Sat. Jan. 29 though the show may be extended.
Below are some quotes from the critics and for those who want
a sneak preview of the show, there's a link to either a real video
or windows media at
http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/id274.htm
BAR
"Every solo show since Spalding Gray swam to Cambodia has
begged the question: "Is this person's life substantial enough
to hold our attention for an hour or more?" In Mecca's case,
the asnwer is yes--and not because of his queer activism. In
fact, gratefully, we were spared the stories of activism, which
after all is but a byproduct of his character, as solid as the
south of Italy where he traces his lineage, the source of his
beloved famiglia."
"Dangerous? Maybe, like Eugene O'Neill, or Tennessee
Williams, or Edward Albee. Mecca confronts us with a mirror
in which we see ourselves, and we're all a little Italian, queer
and dangerous."
BAY TIMES:
"Writer Mecca suffuses intensely personal information in an
economical style, transporting his audience quickly and
completely."
"The oral history in Italian. Queer. Dangerous is the chronicle
of a gay activist who managed to survive inner demons, the
struggle for gay liberation and AIDS as well as ignorance,
prejudice, and homophobia. He lived to tell. Listen."
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
4) CRITICAL Hearing Friday January 28, 2005 for
SHEILA DETOY17-Year-Old Girl Shot In Head By
Rogue Cop In 1998 ...
LAST CHANCE FOR JUSTICE!
The San Francisco Police Department is trying to get away
with MURDER!!!
If the cops get their way, the Superior Court will DISMISS THE
CASE against killer cop GREGORY BRESLIN !!!
With no punishment for Breslin - or anyone - in the 1998
cold-blooded police shooting of Sheila Detoy !!!
Don't let police murder go unpunished !!!
January 28, 2005
9:30 AM
Superior Court
CIVIC CENTER COURTHOUSE
400 McAllister Street Dept. 301
San Francisco, CA 94102
CASE # CPF04-504029
SIX YEARS - NO JUSTICE FOR SHEILA DETOY
* May 13, 1998: San Francisco police officers shot up a car
full of unarmed teenagers and killed 17-year-old Sheila Detoy.
SFPD then blamed her friends for her death.
* The Office of Citizen Complaints found that Officer Gregory
Breslin is responsible for her death. The OCC also sustained
complaints against the other officers involved in Sheila's killing.
* In 2003 the San Francisco Police Commission decided they
wanted to file charges against the officers, but the Police
Officers Association is trying to get Breslin off on a technicality
but we say: THERE IS NO TIME LIMIT ON PUNISHING KILLER COPS!!!
for more information call (510)428-3939
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) Officer who beat boy gets $1.6m
A US policeman who was filmed punching a black youth and
slamming him against a car has been awarded
$1.6m (£890,000) in a race discrimination case.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4190965.stm
Jeremy Morse, who was sacked by the Los Angeles police over the
incident, said he had been treated more harshly than a black
officer who was also there.
A second white officer was awarded $811,000 (£450,000)
damages.
Inglewood Police Chief Ronald Banks, who had disciplined the
officers, called the awards "ridiculous".
Mr Morse was caught on camera in July 2002 as he arrested
16-year-old Donovan Jackson at a petrol station in Inglewood.
This is not the first time police officers have been trapped in
race situations where they suffered unfairly
Lawyer for Jeremy Morse
He claimed Mr Jackson had grabbed his testicles - though that
was not visible on the videotape.
The tape was repeatedly played on US TV stations and caused
an uproar.
Mr Morse was sacked and his partner, Bijan Darvish, who
is also white, was suspended for 10 days for filing a police
report that failed to mention his partner's conduct.
Mr Morse was twice tried for assault but the case was
dismissed after juries failed to reach a verdict. Mr Darvish
was acquitted of filing a false report.
'Nationwide impact'
The men filed "reverse discrimination" lawsuits, claiming
a third officer, Willie Crook, who also allegedly hit Mr Jackson
with a torch and failed to report the incident, received only
four days' suspension because he is black.
"This is not the first time police officers have been trapped
in race situations where they suffered unfairly," said
Mr Morse's lawyer, Gregory Smith.
"This will have an impact in police departments across
the country."
Police Chief Banks, who is black, denied race was a factor.
"I based my decision on their actions and what I thought
their responsibility was. It was based purely on the facts,"
he said after hearing news of the award.
"I was shocked at not only the verdict but the size of the
awards. It was somewhat ridiculous."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/4190965.stm
Published: 2005/01/20 11:48:22 GMT
(c) BBC MMV
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) Protesters Target Bush's Inauguration
by Jeannine Aversa
Published on Thursday, January 20, 2005 by the Associated Press
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0120-09.htm
WASHINGTON - Anti-war protesters, including some who carried
coffin-like cardboard boxes to signify the deaths of U.S. troops in
Iraq , descended on the capital Thursday. Some of their chants
could be heard as President Bush delivered his inaugural address.
Coffins draped with U.S. flags line Malcolm X park in Washington
as part of protest to memorialize the more than 1366 American
soldiers who have died in the war with Iraq before the United States
presidential inauguration January 20, 2005. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
Protesters mocking the administration of U.S. President George W.
Bush cheer during an organized protest at Washington's
Malcolm X Park before the United States presidential inauguration
January 20, 2005. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
Protesters are arrested during the swearing-in ceremony for
President Bush at the US Capitol in Washington, Thursday,
Jan. 20, 2005. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)
The chants came toward the end of Bush's speech, and
the president continued his address without interruption
or any sign that he heard them.
On Capitol Hill, some protesters were briefly detained by police,
and then released after Bush finished speaking, said Andrea Buffa,
spokeswoman for CodePink: Women for Peace, a social justice
peace movement.
CodePink member Jodie Evans said she and other protesters
got tickets to the ceremony from members of Congress
representing New York and California.
Michael Lauer, a Capitol Police spokesman, said police had
arrested five people for protesting during Bush's inaugural
speech. He did not know whether they were men or women,
or whether they were the people caught on television trying
to unfurl a protest banner.
Earlier in the day, about 500 people rallied in a park several
miles from the Capitol.
"Worst President Ever" and "Four more years: God HELP America"
were on some of the signs. Protesters covered hundreds of
cardboard boxes with black cloth and American flags to
symbolize U.S. troops and others killed in Iraq.
"It's important to show that when Bush's second inauguration
goes into the record books, there was healthy dissent,"
said Jared Maslin, 19 of Hanover, N.H.
Aidan Delgado, 23, of Sarasota, Fla., returned to the United
States last April after his military service. He said he was
a mechanic at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, which gained
notoriety as a place of torture during Saddam Hussein's rule
and was the scene of alleged prisoner abuse by U.S. troops.
"What I experienced in Iraq fills me with remorse," Delgado
told the crowd of protesters. "If we are going to preserve our
nation at all, we need to criticize what we did wrong and
we have to criticize ourselves."
Several police cars lined the perimeter of the park, but the
event remained mostly peaceful.
At one demonstration, supporters of the president engaged
in a shouting and shoving match with some opponents
of the war.
An anti-war group called the Rhythm Workers Union banged
on steel drums and danced in mud-caked boots.
Elsewhere in the city, more than 300 anti-war protesters -
organized by CodePink - sported beauty pageant style
banners with "resist!" scrawled in black.
"We're against the war mostly," said Shannon Fell, 22, of
Detroit, who wore a bright pink wig and feather boa.
Some protesters carried signs advocating abortion rights.
Others urged people to donate money to tsunami relief efforts.
Some took issue with Bush's environmental and economic policies.
Associated Press writers Genaro Armas and Libby Quaid
contributed to this report.
(c) 2005 The Associated Press
###
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
7) Mock Coffins and Jeers as Bush Sworn In
By Andy Sullivan
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
Fri Jan 21, 2005 08:29 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7394050&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Flag-draped coffins and jeering anti-war
protesters competed with pomp and circumstance on Thursday at
the inauguration of President Bush along the snow-dusted,
barricaded streets of central Washington.
As the president's motorcade made its way down Pennsylvania
Avenue from the Capitol to the White House amid the tightest
security in inaugural history, thousands of protesters along
the parade route and nearby downtown streets booed, chanted
slogans and carried placards condemning Bush's policies at home
and abroad.
Some turned their back as the president drove slowly past.
Others yelled, "George Bush, you can't hide. We charge you with
genocide." Among the forest of protest signs, some read "Blood
is on your hands" and "Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam." Others
called for electoral reform, gay rights, abortion rights and
the use of renewable energy.
"There are a lot of people dying overseas for nothing and
I'm here to get my voice heard," said Bill Coffelt, 40, an
engineer from Fairfax, Va.
Protesters also traded insults with the more numerous,
cheering Bush supporters, many of whom wore fur coats and paid
for the best viewing spots at the first inaugural parade since
the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
In one area, police briefly sought to disperse with pepper
spray demonstrators who hurled bottles, trash and snowballs at
officers while trying to break through a security fence holding
them back from the parade.
At least one snowball hit Vice President Dick Cheney's
limousine, and Bush's limousine sped up to get past the
commotion.
One group of protesters carried hundreds of mock coffins
along 16th Street, a downtown thoroughfare leading to the White
House, to remind Americans of the mounting casualties in Iraq.
And an American flag was set alight just outside a security
checkpoint at 13th and Pennsylvania.
"It's beyond comprehension the damage this man has done,"
said Meredith Lair, 32, who just completed a doctorate in
history at Pennsylvania State University. "I think it's
horrifying what we're doing to Iraq," said Lair, who was
carrying a sign that read, "Mr. Bush, under my mittens I'm
giving you the finger."
ISOLATED SCUFFLES
Police said there were at least 13 arrests, two for
assaulting an officer and the rest for disorderly conduct or
other violations. One was a man who embarrassed police four
years ago by sneaking past security to get a handshake from
Bush. He did not get a chance for another grip this inauguration.
Police also scuffled with about 30 protesters two streets
away from the parade route, using pepper spray and batons to
disperse the group of self-styled anarchists, who wore
bandannas to hide their faces.
"He (Bush) says he's bringing freedom to the world, and
we're getting pepper-sprayed for our First Amendment rights.
That's kind of ironic," said 22-year-old Dustin, who works for
the National Institutes of Health and did not want to give his
full name.
Just outside the White House grounds, 17 protesters staged
a "die-in." After shouting a chant of "Stop the killing, stop
the war," they dropped to the pavement one by one as one of
them began reading a list of those killed in Iraq.
One spectator apparently found the act so credible that he
began administering CPR. Others were less sympathetic.
"I hope you don't get up. I hope you freeze your ass off,"
said another, who was among a group heading toward the
parade-viewing grandstands nearest the White House.
Throughout the city, thousands of police and military
troops were on patrol with bomb-sniffing dogs, and spectators
had to pass through metal detectors before attending any
inaugural events or heading to the parade.
Police sealed off 100 blocks around the White House and
parade route, barring all traffic except official security and
police cars.
Demonstration organizers had complained they were not being
given adequate access to protest, while Bush supporters were
granted prime locations along the parade route. (additional
reporting by Deborah Zabarenko, Randy Fabi, Susan Heavey and
JoAnne Allen)
(c) Reuters 2005
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
8) STATEMENT FROM THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Cuba calls on the United States to stop
the torture of prisoners in Guantánamo
Havana, January 19, 2005
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2005/enero/juev20/05declar.html
For a comprehensive file of Cuban position papers on
Guantanamo, the Cuban foreign ministry (MINREX) has
created a page with numerous important documents like
the one last year for the UN Human Rights Commission
in Geneva which called on the UN to investigate the
crimes being carried out there. That motion wasn't
adopted due to US pressure, but this year it may be
harder to resist after all of what's been learned
about US torture, which has come out of US sources
as significant at the FBI, the Taguba report, and
so much, much more.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?R13251448
GRANMA INTERNATIONAL
Havana. January 20, 2005
STATEMENT FROM THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Cuba calls on the United States to stop
the torture of prisoners in Guantánamo
On January 19, 2005, reflecting the indignation of our
people at the atrocities committed on prisoners held at the
US Naval Base in Guantánamo, the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs presented the US governmental authorities in Havana
and Washington with a diplomatic note denouncing the
flagrant violations of human rights that the said
government is daily committing on Cuban territory illegally
occupied by the above-mentioned naval base. This
communication called for an immediate end to that
inhuman and criminal conduct.
The note reminds the US government that the atrocities
being committed on the base and the very fact of utilizing
that illegally occupied Cuban territory as a prison, is in
violation of numerous instruments of international law and
international humanitarian law, and moreover, violates the
Coal and Naval Stations Agreement signed in February 1903
by the government of the United States and the Cuban
government of that period, in conditions of inequality and
disadvantage for our country, whose independence was
circumscribed via the Platt Agreement.
According to Article II of that agreement, the US
government committed itself to doing everything necessary
to ensure that those locations should be exclusively used
as coal or naval stations and for no other objective.
It is also important to recall that when the Cuban
authorities were informed – although not consulted – of the
US government decision to transfer a group of prisoners
from the war in Afghanistan to this US military enclave in
Guantánamo, the government of the Republic of Cuba informed
national and internal opinion in a statement dated January
11, 2002, that "although the transfer of foreign prisoners
of war on the part of the government of the United States
to one of its military installations located on part of our
national territory over which we have been deprived of the
right to exercise jurisdiction is not in line with the
regulations that gave rise to that installation, we shall
not create any obstacles to the development of the
operation." Moreover, the statement highlighted that our
government had "taken note with satisfaction of public
statements from the US authorities in the context of the
prisoners receiving adequate and humane treatment."
The dramatic reality of the prisoners detained on the
Guantánamo Naval Base, reported by the media to total 550
at the present time, likewise reveals the double standards
of the US government in its hackneyed and manipulative
campaigning on behalf of human rights.
The arbitrary detention of these foreign prisoners without
the mediation of a legal trial, as well as the torture and
degrading treatment to which they are being subjected,
constitute a gross violation of human rights and numerous
international treaties and conventions, in particular, the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on
torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment.
With this hypocritical conduct, the government of the
United States has demonstrated the falsity of its own
public statements and once again has lied to the government
of the Republic of Cuba, to its own people and to the
international community by concealing the horrific acts of
torture, cruelty and humiliating and denigratory treatment
committed on prisoners detained on the Guantánamo Naval
Base, only comparable with the torture inflicted on inmates
in the prison of Abu Ghraib and other penitential
establishments in occupied Iraqi territory.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs adds its voice to the
calls and demands of the international community that the
government of the United States instantly end these
flagrant violations of prisoners that, moreover, are
being committed on illegally occupied Cuban territory.
Cuba has the total moral right afforded by an
irreproachable history in this context and the right
conferred on it to exercise sovereignty over all parts of
Cuban territory to denounce these abuses and violations
that the US government is daily committing on the detainees
on the Guantánamo Naval Base and to demand the end of these
practices that violate international law.
Havana, January 19, 2005
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2005/enero/juev20/05declar.html
Marxism mailing list
Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
9) Manifest Destiny, an introduction
http://www.pbs.org/kera/usmexicanwar/dialogues/prelude/manifest/d2aeng.html
[From: Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Director
Western States Legal Foundation
1504 Franklin Street, Suite #202
Oakland, California USA 94612
Tel: (510) 839-5877 Fax: (510) 839-5397
E-mail: wslf@earthlink.net
Web site: www.wslfweb.org
part of the Abolition 2000 Global Network to Eliminate
Nuclear Weapons]
I would like to add to Phyllis Bennis' excellent analysis of today's
imperial coronation speech. My candidate for the single most
important line in the speech is: "My most solemn duty it to
protect this nation and its people against further attacks and
emerging threats. Some have unwisely chosen to test American's
resolve, and have found it firm."
Compare this to the September 2002 National Security Strategy
of the United States which states: "America will act against...
emerging threats before they are fully formed. This was
elaborated in the December 2002 National Strategy to Combat
Weapons of Mass Destruction, which states that the U.S.
"reserves the right to respond with overwhelming force - including
through resort to all of our options - to the use of WMD [weapons
of mass destruction] against the United States, our forces abroad,
and friends and allies." "All of our options" includes both
"conventional and nuclear response and defense capabilities,"
employed in appropriate cases through preemptive measures."
While I was listening to the speech, I had the eerie feeling that
it was written about 150 years ago, and the phrase "manifest
destiny" came to mind. Sure enough, a Google search turned
this up:
Manifest Destiny
an introduction
http://www.pbs.org/kera/usmexicanwar/dialogues/prelude/manifest/d2aeng.html
No nation ever existed without some sense of national destiny
or purpose.
Manifest Destiny -- a phrase used by leaders and politicians in
the 1840s to explain continental expansion by the United States
-- revitalized a sense of "mission" or national destiny for Americans.
The people of the United States felt it was their mission to extend
the "boundaries of freedom" to others by imparting their idealism
and belief in democratic institutions to those who were capable of
self-government. It excluded those people who were perceived as
being incapable of self-government, such as Native American
people and those of non-European origin.
But there were other forces and political agendas at work as well.
As the population of the original 13 Colonies grew and the U.S.
economy developed, the desire and attempts to expand into new
land increased. For many colonists, land represented potential
income, wealth, self-sufficiency and freedom. Expansion into the
western frontiers offered opportunities for self-advancement.
To understand Manifest Destiny, it's important to understand
the United States' need and desire to expand. The following points
illustrate some of the economic, social and political pressures
promoting U.S. expansion:
The United States was experiencing a periodic high birth rate and
increases in population due to immigration. And because
agriculture provided the primary economic structure, large
families to work the farms were considered an asset. The U.S.
population grew from more than five millon in 1800 to more
than 23 million by mid-century. Thus, there was a need to expand
into new territories to accommodate this rapid growth. It's estimated
that nearly 4,000,000 Americans moved to westernterritories
between 1820 and 1850.
The United States suffered two economic depressions -- one
in 1818 and a second in 1839. These crises drove some people
to seek their living in frontier areas.
Frontier land was inexpensive or, in some cases, free.
Expansion into frontier areas opened opportunities for new
commerce and individual self-advancement.
Land ownership was associated with wealth and tied to
self-sufficiency, political power and independent "self-rule."
Maritime merchants saw an opportunity to expand and promote
new commerce by building West Coast ports leading to increased
trade with countries in the Pacific.
Sometimes you just hate to be right! -- Jackie Cabasso
"Your imagination is your preview
of life's coming attractions." - Albert Einstein
Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Director
Western States Legal Foundation
1504 Franklin Street, Suite #202
Oakland, California USA 94612
Tel: (510) 839-5877 Fax: (510) 839-5397
E-mail: wslf@earthlink.net
Web site: www.wslfweb.org
part of the Abolition 2000 Global Network
to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons
UNITED FOR PEACE & JUSTICE | 212-868-5545
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