US, Northwest Anarchist People of Color Gathering - report-back

The weekend of Friday August 15th through August 17th marked the renewal of a
specifically anarchist presence among people of color in the Northwest. The
gathering took place in Portland, Oregon over a three-day period. Around twenty
people of color from all over the region attended the gathering coming from as
far away as Eugene and Bellingham. Olympia, Seattle and Portland were also
represented at the event. The focus of the weekend was to define what an APOC
(Anarchist People of Color) organization looks like, specifically in the context
of the Northwest, and also to define what it means to be part of an APOC identity.

Friday night was focused on a social event at a fellow APOCer's house where
folks could hang out with one another, eat food, and get to know everyone who
would be part of the gathering. This was in sharp contrast to many other
activist events that take place. The focus here instead was on building
community and feeling comfortable around one another rather than insisting on
immediately "getting down to business." Despite the amazing community- building
that happened that weekend, there was much business that had to be addressed.

Saturday began with a report-back from the NE APOC gathering that happened just
before the one in the Northwest, followed by lively discussions about the APOC
of the past. APOC, as an idea, began over the Internet on a listserv in 2001 by
Ernesto Aguilar and was inspired by anarchists of color throughout history, such
as Lucy Parsons, Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin, and Ricardo Flores Magon. In 2003, the
first formal gathering of Anarchist People of Color at the national level
occurred in Detroit, Michigan at Wayne State University. Although some
factionalism occurred at the conference (see illvox.org), a sense of purpose
emerged from the conference in general. After hurricane Katrina in 2005, plans
fell through for another national conference that was to be held in Houston,
Texas. Resources could not be gathered to change the conference's venue in time.
Thus, 2009 will mark the renewal of APOC at a national level. The gatherings
that are taking place now in the Northeast, Northwest, and soon in the Southwest
are precursors to this renewal.

In the past, APOC has not been associated with any sort of centralized group,
but instead is a network made up of individuals and collectives. There are many
different ideas concerning what APOC is, what it should be, and what it means to
claim an APOC identity. In fact, the diversity of opinions present throughout
APOC is one of the reasons why it is an important presence in left revolutionary
movements today. At the recent Northwest gathering, participants articulated
many of these points that make APOC essential and relevant. One of these ideas,
and one that is particularly salient, was the fact that an APOC organization
gives people of color working for social change a chance to come together and
take back our communities. It gives us the impetus to create revolution in the
here and now. In other words, coming together with other people of color who
have similar experiences is incredibly empowering and gives us insight that we
didn't have before that we can then use in our own communities.

Furthermore, an APOC presence allows people of color to reclaim our
anti-authoritarian past and ideas from what has become a movement with a
majority-white face. This reminds us, and the world, that people of color all
over the place were living in anti-authoritarian societies long before Proudhon
or Bakunin ever wrote it down and called it anarchism. Therefore, APOC is
extremely important because it allows people of color to look back and take
pride in our history that has been erased through colonialism, imperialism, and
domination. It shows the world that anarchism is not just for and by white
people. It is for all people. Lastly, an APOC presence allows a place for people
of color to find support outside of our mass movement work.

The left in the United States is composed primarily of white folks. Because of
this, people of color involved in these movements face a lot of difficulties
from flat-out racism to being marginalized and not understood by their comrades
who have completely different experiences. APOC serves as a place for people
with similar experiences in relation to race to come together and find
much-needed support and guidance.

One issue that came up at the gathering that will need to be discussed and
analyzed further both in the Northwest and at a national level is the term APOC
itself. What does it mean? What does the "A" mean? How does this label make
people of color feel? Some people prefer the terms "autonomous" or
"anti-authoritarian" to "anarchist." The reasons for this are plenty and include
issues of inclusivity and appearances. Many people of color in the U.S. today do
not wish to be associated with what has become the stereotypical white North
American anarchist movement that is less about community and more about creating
a lifestyle out of anarchism. Because of these common notions of what anarchism
is, many people of color feel that the term alienates us from the communities we
come from. Furthermore, it was pointed out at the gathering that we shouldn't
feel obligated to define ourselves by our relationships to racism, colonialism,
and imperialism, because all people of color have different relationships to
these histories. In other words, all people of color are not the same and we all
have our own complex pasts and stories. However, what all people of color do
have in common is the fact that we are not white in a society that elevates
whiteness, maleness, heterosexuality, money, etc. above all else and defines
everything in relation to these "norms." Because of this, there is common ground
for us to work together around issues that affect people of color in particular
such as immigration, access to healthcare, gentrification, sexual violence, gang
presence, war in our communities, and the prison industrial complex.

The weekend ended with brainstorming about how our current work on issues as
diverse as working with youth, poetry and spoken word, hip hop, Industrial
Workers of the World, infoshops, homeless outreach, prison work, education, and
student movements fits into an APOC identity in the Northwest. We brainstormed
particular groups that are already working around issues that affect us as
people of color in the region. We identified groups such as OLIN in Portland who
do Zapatista solidarity work, Communities Against Rape and Abuse in Seattle who
are an affiliate of INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, Seattle Solidarity
Network who are doing a lot of positive work against gentrification, and Olympia
Industrial Workers of the World who are doing support work for day laborers in
the area. At the conclusion of the weekend, we had developed a small community
among APOCers in the Northwest, a plan to publish a periodical, some concrete
ideas to be thinking about, and a date for the next gathering in December of
2008 in Olympia, WA.

http://www.ainfos.ca/en/ainfos21540.html

Hurricane builds off Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico and small islands of the north-eastern Caribbean are on alert as the latest Atlantic hurricane roars in at category-three strength.

Rains from Hurricane Omar, which is packing maximum winds of 115mph (185km/h), have reached the Virgin island of St Croix and two Puerto Rican islands.

One man reportedly died of a heart attack on the island of Culebra.

The 2008 hurricane season has been active, including devastating storms that led to some 800 deaths in Haiti.

At 0300 GMT the centre of Omar was about 30 miles (45km) south-east of St Croix, the Miami-based US National Hurricane Center said.

Boats sink

Heavy rains and winds battered the island, sinking boats in the harbour, felling trees and forcing workers to shut down a major oil refinery, The Associated Press reports.

At the Caravelle Hotel, maintenance worker Mike Parish was working by the light from generators in a vain effort to keep rain water from blowing in beneath the door after the authorities cut electricity across the island as a precaution.

"We're doing all we can," he said. "The water is too much for us."

US Virgin Islands Governor John deJongh on Wednesday closed all public schools, sent home government employees and imposed an 1800 curfew across the islands.

"Take this very seriously," he said. "Folks are out right now doing their last minute shopping, and that's understandable. Once that's done, we encourage them to go home."

On Puerto Rico's island of Culebra, a man collapsed as he tried to install storm shutters on his house, AP says.

On Vieques, the storm flooded roads and downed tree branches.

Schools, government offices and most businesses have shut down in Puerto Rico and residents have been buying up drinking water, canned goods and other supplies.

"I'm not too worried, but I went out and bought water, candles and gas," San Juan resident Kevin Mead, 35, told Reuters news agency.

Earlier, Omar dumped rain on northern Venezuela and nearby islands.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7672212.stm

Police investigating vandalism at Boston Herald

Police are trying to find out who slashed conveyor belts and cut wires on sorting machines at the Boston Herald.

A manager at the daily newspaper discovered the vandalism at about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday. The machines had last been inspected at about 3:30 p.m.

A police report said 15 conveyor belts and six sorting machines were damaged. No security cameras were filming the vandalized area.

The newspaper notified police at about 12:19 a.m. Wednesday.

A spokesman for the Herald declined comment on the incident. A message for comment on whether the vandalism affected the printing of Wednesday's editions was not immediately returned.

In June, the Herald announced plans to lay off 130 to 160 workers and outsource its printing operations

http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/09/24/police-investigating-vandalism-boston-herald

Max Specktor, of the RNC 8, to plead not guilty to terrorism charges

A University student arrested preemptively before the Republican National Convention will be one of the first people prosecuted under a terrorism clause in the Minnesota Patriot Act since it was passed in 2002.

Cultural studies junior Max Specktor is charged with conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism.

Monday, Specktor’s hearing was postponed until at least November.

Specktor and seven other defendants facing the same charge will be heard together, and face a maximum of seven and a half years of jail time.

The eight suspects, calling themselves the RNC 8, plan to plead not guilty to the charges, defendant Nathanael Secor said.

Max Specktor

As a housemate fried long strips of sweet potato in the kitchen, Specktor sat on the front stairs of his Minneapolis house and dwelled on the prospect of seven-and-a-half years in jail, and the guarantee of cost and worry from a yearlong trial.

Specktor, a graduate of Minneapolis South High School, got involved with activism by planning protests against the Iraq War.

“After doing that kind of work in high school, I was kind of burned out on trying to change something with a big protest,” Specktor said. “I was getting into local community work.”

He got involved with a now-closed Jackpine Community Center on Lake Street in Minneapolis, where many people were planning protests with the RNC Welcoming Committee, an anti-authoritarian activist group.

“The RNC, obviously I didn’t want it to come to my town,” he said. “I thought, ‘Wow, maybe this is a chance to learn some skills and build community.’ ”

The group, which typically fluctuated between 20 and 30 people, took inspiration from mass mobilizations from the “anti-globalization movement” of the late 1990s, like the protests that helped shut down the World Trade Organization’s conference in Seattle in 1999.

“I got a lot of inspiration from that,” he said. “Our movement, especially the radical anti-war and social justice, needs a big event to keep it going.”

The RNC Welcoming Committee wasn’t planning any illegal actions, Specktor said; instead they set up housing, meals and legal support for other protesters, some of whom might engage in civil disobedience.

“Basically, we provided the infrastructure for people to survive in the city while they’re protesting,” he said.

But authorities pointed to the group’s website, which urged a strategy called “swarm, seize, and stay” that used civil disobedience to try to shut down the convention.

Civil disobedience, while illegal, can be traced back to the foundation of the United States and is very different from terrorism, Specktor said.

“[Civil disobedience is] consciously making a decision to disobey for a higher purpose,” he said. “It’s a time-honored tradition that we celebrate in our history books, the people in the civil rights era who sat in at the lunch counters and wouldn’t get out of their seats.”

Preemptive raids

The weekend before the protests, activists’ houses, including Specktor’s, were raided by the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Department and other law enforcement agencies.

Six members of the RNC Welcoming Committee were arrested Saturday, Aug. 30, while Specktor and another man were arrested the following Monday morning — Sept. 1, the first day of the RNC.

Protesters had yet to unfurl the first banner during protests in St. Paul.

During raids, police said they found throwing-style knives, fireworks, a box containing gas masks and lock picking kits, according to the criminal complaint.

They also seized activist literature concerning the RNC, maps of St. Paul, paint and electronics, the complaint stated.

After Specktor’s arrest, police found a backpack containing a plastic bottle of Mylanta, black gloves, and a paper entitled: “St. Paul and the RNC burn 9/1/08.”

In Specktor’s vehicle, police found a pry bar, two boxes of firecrackers, five assorted black helmets and a roll of unused caution tape, the police complaint stated.

The actions police and authorities took were ridiculous, said Ted Dooley , one of the lawyers representing the RNC 8.

“Anything is a weapon if it is used as a weapon,” he said.

The Ramsey County Sheriff’s department spokesperson did not return multiple phone calls requesting comment.

After the raids, Specktor was the only one of the RNC 8 who was held in the psychiatric ward of the Ramsey County Law

Enforcement Center, he said.

“I was in a cell by myself; the whole time I was only released for an hour to walk along this short hallway and make a few phone calls,” he said. “I felt powerless, but I didn’t feel threatened.”

After three days, he was released after being charged with conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism.

The Case

Bruce Nestor, president of the Minnesota chapter of the National Lawyers Guild said the terrorism charges trivialize real acts of violence and potentially violate the First Amendment.

“This is an attempt to criminalize political dissent,” he said. “It has a chilling effect on anybody planning political activities.”

However, University law professor Dale Carpenter said if the state can prove the RNC 8 had intent to commit violence, the state has a pretty good chance of winning the case.

The state doesn’t have to wait for people to riot or endanger lives in order to make arrests, Carpenter said.

“If someone is threatening to punch you, a police officer doesn’t have to wait until he actually punches you to arrest him,” Carpenter said.

After lawyers obtained copies of search warrants, Welcoming Committee members discovered that the group had been infiltrated by law enforcement and paid informants for about a year.

Information obtained by paid police informants is often inaccurate or made up, Nestor said.

“There’s a history of paid informants actually being provocateurs,” Nestor said. “Meaning they commit illegal acts or encourage illegal acts to increase the value of their information.”

During a raid on an unrelated house during the RNC, information provided by one of the FBI’s informants was inaccurate, Nestor said.

The informant said there would be boxes of weapons delivered to a house in St. Paul, but the boxes turned out to contain literature instead, Nestor said.

“If that’s one of the informers that the FBI is relying on, I have no more reason to trust the informers being used by the Ramsey County Sheriff,” he said

Specktor said it was strange to realize people he’d worked with for more than a year were being paid by police.

“We went through all this organizing aware that we might be surveilled,” he said. “It’s kind of creepy when you find out who those people were.”

Community reactions

Specktor said his friends, family and neighbors have been nothing but supportive.

“You might read blogs that say we’re terrorists and people comment and say we should be hung up,” Specktor said, “but my friends and everyone I’ve talked to since these events have gone down have had nothing but positive things to say.”

Mordecai Specktor , Max Specktor’s father and the editor of American Jewish World said he and Specktor’s mother are proud of their son’s activism.

“My wife and I are worried about Max; of course we don’t want to see our son go to prison,” he said. “We’re glad that he’s idealistic and that he has ideas about social betterment and uplifting people.”

As a journalist, Mordecai Specktor said the media mostly failed to critically examine police claims about activists.

“In the case of the RNC 8, there’s all these wild claims [in the police’s complaint] of kidnapping delegates,” he said. “Journalists should be investigating the case and finding where the truth lies; we’re not just like the record and playback buttons on the tape recorder.”

The arrests and charges facing the RNC 8 are designed to intimidate people from demonstrating, Mordecai Specktor said.

“We saw this dress rehearsal for the police state during the RNC,” he said. “[It’s] designed to make people nervous about articulating their views.”

Gus Ganley , a University film student who was found innocent during his own trial for an arrest at a protest last year, said facing prison time for activism can interfere with relationships and self-esteem.

“The nature of this crime, it’s a thought crime,” Ganley said. “You’re constantly thinking about it, constantly looking over your shoulder.”

Ganley, a friend of Specktor’s, said Specktor tries not to let the charges affect his life.

“With Max, I’ve noticed if anything he’s more energized,” Ganley said. “That just speaks to his character, that he’s somebody with such a vast reserve of energy that he’s able to tap into.”

Specktor said he’s trying to focus on the importance of his case as an educational tool.

“It might inspire people if we win. It might inspire people if we lose,” he said. “If people see we’re going to jail for their belief it’s going to inspire people.”

The price of losing the case would be balanced by this educational benefit, Specktor said.

“I’m not saying I want to go to jail,” he said. “If you stand up for your beliefs and they arrest you for it, I don’t think you should stop standing up for your beliefs.”

http://www.mndaily.com/2008/10/12/u-student-plead-not-guilty-terrorism-charges

Flood didn't bring 'toxic soup,' environmental expert says

By Rod Boshart
The Gazette
rod.boshart@gazettecommunications.com

DES MOINES — Flooded areas of Iowa faced isolated and short-term water quality and sediment problems, but nothing like the "toxic soup" that some feared, a state environmental expert said Thursday.

Mary Skopec, supervisor of the state Department of Natural Resources' watershed monitoring and assessment section, said elevated bacteria and other potential health risks last June were washed away by record water levels in bloated Iowa streams and rivers.

"The good news is that a lot of the floodwaters helped to dilute contaminants in the water and in the case of sediment we really weren't seeing very high levels," said Skopec, who discussed water quality issues with the Rebuild Iowa Advisory Commission's agriculture and environment task force.

"We really didn't see sediment levels of contaminants that were at a public health risk in any way, shape or form. In most cases we were nowhere near that maximum allowable concentration," she added.

"The media talking about toxic soup was a little overblown," Skopec told task force members. "There was so much water and the dilution was so high that we didn't actually hit levels that were of a public health concern."

The DNR water expert said high levels of bacteria were noted in the Cedar River below the city's flood-impacted wastewater treatment plant, and residents were urged to stay out of the water until the problem subsided.

Skopec said follow-up water testing has indicated bacteria levels statewide are back at normal and acceptable levels.

Throughout the flood monitoring process, she said, only one sample in 22,000 analyte results for sediment found lead at a level that exceeded state guidelines in a non-residential area of the Des Moines River downstream from Des Moines.

Skopec noted there were other "isolated hits" where a few chemicals were detected at levels that exceeded government standards or didn't have state or federal standards, but they were so short-lived they did not pose a public health issue.

"In general things looked pretty OK with respect to exposure through either ingestion or skin contact," she said.

Task force members who are pushing for a complete flood plain mapping of Iowa were told the process likely will cost about $23.3 million and take up to 10 years to complete.

Task force co-chair Brent Halling said a 10-year timeline "isn't going to sell," and Skopec said the process should using risk-based assessments rather than past flood experiences in creating new maps that account for Iowa's changing hydrology.

DNR official Lyle Asell said about 8 percent of Iowa is flood plain. Currently, about one third of Iowa's 99 counties have no flood plain maps for their unincorporated areas, while the remainder have partial to full coverage but the quality and detail of their flood maps are poor.

http://gazetteonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081009/NEWS/710099908/1001/NEWS

Whirlpool cuts 440 jobs in Amana

It wasn’t too long ago that workers at the Whirlpool plant in Amana were working extended shifts in order to meet an increased demand, but today employees learned that 440 workers would soon face layoffs.

Jill Saletta, director of external communications for Whirlpool, said the voluntary and involuntary job cuts will take place over the next 10 days and can be traced back to current economic instability.

“Our employees at the plant were notified today about layoffs that are coming,” Saletta siad in a phone interview this afternoon. “There are 440 individuals affected. One hundred and ten are voluntary. The balance, or 330, are involuntary.”

Whirlpool purchased Maytag for $1.7 billion in 2005 and subsequently shut down the company’s headquarters in Newton in 2006, costing the community roughly 1,800 jobs. When the decision was made to close the Newton facilities, Whirlpool management said operations would be expanded in Amana to provide up to 400 jobs over a two-year period.

Whirlpool received $5 million in state incentives to expand the Amana facility in exchange for its promise to keep and create jobs in Iowa.

http://iowaindependent.com/6812/whirlpool-cuts-440-jobs-in-amana

Chiapas Massacre Update

Posted by Kristin Bricker - October 9, 2008 at 12:34 am

State police summarily executed three peasants in front of a child

The Fray Bartolome de las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba) issued a press release on denouncing the October 4 police operation in Chincultik that left six peasants dead, 17 wounded, and 36 detained. Of the wounded, ten were beaten and six were shot. Three men were gravely injured: one was transfered to a hospital in Mexico City, and the other to a hospital in the Chiapas capital of Tuxtla Gutierrez.

According to a communique from the state attorney general's office, about 40 police had entered the community to carry out subpoenas against 28 people whom it suspected were involved in the takeover of the Chincultik ruins and the booth at the entrance to the ruins where visitors are charged an entrance fee. The police entered on horseback, in vehicles, and on foot, shooting tear gas and kicking down doors in various houses.

The townspeople, who claim that the government does not properly maintain the ruins and that the tourism proceeds from the ruins should benefit the town, defended themselves from the attack. They surrounded the police and disarmed them, guarding the 77 police weapons in the town. The residents detained the police officers, holding them in the town office.

Hours later, 300 State Preventative Police officers entered the community, again shooting tear gas at the residents. The peasants responded with sticks and stones, at which point the police opened fire, injuring several residents.

Agustin Alfaro Alfaro, his wife Eloisa Margarita Espinoza Morales, and their young son arrived from a neighboring ranch to transport four of the injured men to the nearest hospital. However, before reaching the hospital the State Preventative Police intercepted their truck and opened fire. A bullet struck Alfaro in the leg. The police pulled him from the car and shot him in the chest. Then they summarily executed three of the injured men: Rigoberto López, Alfredo Hernández, and Miguel Antonio Martínez. Espinoza Morales and her son were uninjured.

During the operation, police also shot Ignacio Hernández López and Ricardo Ramírez Ramírez, who died on the way to the hospital.

The 36 peasants who were detained during the operation were released the following day in exchange for the weapons the peasants confiscated from the police they detained.

Frayba reports that state and federal authorities have decided to pay the dead peasants' families MX$35,000 (USD$2,851.31) in funeral costs and MX$75,000 (USD$6,109.95) in "economic support." They've also promised residents food rations, community development projects to build tourist hostels or restaurants. The residents are offended by the offer.

Meridiano90 released the following photo montage of the operation and its aftermath:

Nor'Easter Issue 3 Out Now!

ssue #3 of the Nor'Easter, the quarterly of the Northeast Anarchist Network, is ready to hit the streets or nearest computer screen!

Download the Fall 2008 issue (10.1mb PDF) - 20 pages featuring:

* Chronicle of the Battle of Saint Paul: Report from the RNC
* Report from Caravan to Chiapas: Observation and Solidarity with Zapatista Communities
* Pandamonium in the Streets of NYC
* APOCs Build It From Below: APOC Northeast and Northwest regional gatherings
* Reports from around the region and beyond

Print some off or get in touch with the Nor'Easter Collective, and spread 'em far and wide!

http://www.neanarchist.net/files/NorEaster3.pdf

PIP official blasts US Democrats on PR status

August 9, 2008
Press Release

San Juan, Puerto Rico - PIP Secretary for North American Affairs, Manuel Rodriguez Orellana, criticized statehood representatives for caving in to commonwealth supporters on a Democratic Party status plank that accepts territorial status as a legitimate option for Puerto Rico.

“This is a giant leap backwards. After all their rhetoric about ‘decolonization,’ there is no attempt to even suggest that Puerto Rico must move towards a non-colonial, non-territorial status. This represents statehooders’ unprincipled submissiveness to political expediency in order to please their colonial masters. It is a shameful reversal of American politicians to attempt to reverse U.S. official policy to achieve a fully democratic, non- territorial status to correct 110 years of colonial domination of a Latin American nation of the Caribbean,” according to Rodríguez Orellana.

Reportedly, in its pertinent part, the plank reads: "We believe that the people of Puerto Rico have the right to the political status of their choice, obtained througha fair, neutral and democratic process of self-determination."

Phone-in against Phony charges!

--Phone-in against Phony charges!--
RNC Arrestees Call-In Day of Action:
Monday October 13th (9am- 5pm)

6 of the RNC8 are attending court on Monday Oct 13th. In solidarity with them
and the 800+ other RNC arrestees, we are asking folks to take 5 minutes to call
Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner's office, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman
and St. Paul City Attorney John Choi and demand that ALL CHARGES BE DROPPED.

Call (651)266-8510 and tell Mayor Chris Coleman's office that the city of St.
Paul must hold police accountable for their actions and brutality during the
RNC and that all charges against protesters be dropped.


Call (651)266-3222 and demand that Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner drop
the Felony charges against almost 2 dozen RNC protesters and that you are
watching the "RNC 8" case very closely. Demand that her office not prosecute
protest organizers as "terrorists".


Call City Attorney John Choi at (651)266-8710 and demand that all misdemeanor
charges be dropped now! He has referred to RNC protesters as outsiders who
wanted to "create mayhem." Let him know the hundreds Twin Cities residents
arrested during the convention would probably disagree.

Please be polite, but firm. Remember that what you say will have an impact on
everybody facing charges, and it could very easily have a negative impact if
you are not careful.

THE FINANCIAL MESS & WASHINGTON'S WARS

By Max Elbaum
Published on: September 30, 2008

Washington's Wars and Occupations:

Month in Review #41

September 29, 2008

War Times/Tiempo de Guerras

Last month the prime example of Washington's hypocrisy was John McCain's remark about Russia's military action in Georgia: "In the 21st century, nations don't invade other nations."

This month it's U.S. hypocrisy about economic policy that makes front page news. Covering the opening of this year's U.N. session the New York Times reported:

"With a pillar of American power - its financial leadership - so badly shaken, there was a certain satisfaction among some of the attendees that the Bush administration, which had long lectured other nations about the benefits of unfettered markets, was now rejecting its own medicine by proposing a major bailout of financial firms... 'They are all remembering the unforgiving advice they got from American financial institutions to let your banks go to the wall'... 'There is resentment at what they see as evidence of double standards'... The extraordinary nature of the outpouring was that it came from some of America's closest allies and trading partners."

Of course there are more links here than just hypocrisy:

*Both Washington's Middle East invasions and its 25-year deregulation crusade were largely ideology-driven, fueled by the right-wing belief that American Free Markets Are Ordained to Rule the World.

*Wars and deregulation - and now the bailout - are justified by lies, fear-mongering (the-sky-will-fall-if we-don't-invade/bailout!) and "Trust Us!" demagogy. ("This goes back to the Iraq War," Rep. Sam Farr said about the bailout Sept. 23. "Nobody on the Hill, of either party, has confidence in the White House.")

*Oil is central to both crises: real petroleum in the case of Washington's drive to control the Middle East; and fictitious capital snake-oil in the form of exotic "financial instruments" that Wall Street has used to boost profits, swindle home-buyers, and now dump it all into the public debt.

*Structurally, both Washington's militarism and the financial crisis are connected to deep underlying features of U.S. capitalism and its role in the world. Maintaining the global empire that is such a source of corporate profit requires a huge military - and entrenches a tendency to use that military to gain control of other countries' resources. With the spread of manufacturing and industrial might to rising powers (China, India, Brazil, and more), U.S. capitalists have become increasingly dependent on financial speculation (one bubble after another) to maintain the flow of profit.



SEVERE BLOW TO U.S. HEGEMONY

Finally, there is the parallel between neoliberal financial policies and the Iraq War that now dominates the news: Both have crashed. Now the people who are responsible for these messes are scrambling to find a way to limit the damage to their fortunes and their power (and cover their butts).

As with Washington's debacle in Iraq, the impact of this now-exploded financial mess will not be limited to the next few weeks. It will take months and even years for its ripple effects to sink in. Much of what lies ahead is unpredictable. But already two things seem all but certain:

1. The bailout of the big financial institutions now working its way through Congress is a swindle on U.S. workers and the poor. We will end up holding most of the bag for the financial elite's two-decade long party. The extent of public outcry meant that the current bailout version is not as horrific as the administration's original proposal (and the fightback is continuing as of this writing). But it comes nowhere near meeting even the minimal standards of a fair-to-ordinary-people measure. For one outline of a progressive response, click here.

2. Even with such a giveaway to Wall Street, this crisis is a huge blow to U.S. global power. Against the background of failure in Iraq, this financial meltdown marks another big step away from U.S. international hegemony toward a multipolar world.

The essence of the new situation was laid out bluntly by Germany's finance minister Peer Steinbruck in Berlin Sept. 24. Steinbruck laid responsibility for the crisis right in Washington's lap: "the conditions that gave rise to the current turmoil in the markets were allowed to develop because of a reckless pursuit of short-term profit and huge bonuses in Anglo-Saxon financial centers." He went on to say:

"The U.S. will lose its status as the superpower of the world financial system. The world financial system will become multipolar."

This is no isolated statement or reckless boast. An official U.S. government intelligence forecast being prepared for the next president envisions "a steady decline in U.S. dominance in the coming decades" according to Thomas Fingar, the U.S. intelligence community's top analyst. The report also concludes that the one key area of continued U.S. superiority - military power - will "be the least significant" asset in the increasingly competitive world of the future.

From the left, Immanuel Wallerstein comes to the same conclusion via assessing the aftermath of the Ossetia-Georgia-Russia conflict: "It would be a mistake to underestimate the importance of the agreement on Sept. 8 between Nicolas Sarkozy of France and the President of Russia. It marks the definitive end of Act I of the new world geopolitical order. This accord was reached between Europe and Russia; the U.S. played no diplomatic role whatsoever. What is the bottom line? Russia has gotten more or less what it wanted in Georgia. The U.S. has no real cards to play. Ignored in Georgia and under attack by its closest allies in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, the U.S. is somewhat unhappily entering the realities of the post-Cold War world, in which it has to play by new rules... [all this] has sealed the reality of a true multilateral geopolitical arena."



IMPACT ON U.S. WARS

These blows to U.S. power weaken, but far from end, U.S. capacity to invade, occupy and make war on other countries.

The latest crisis almost certainly takes the possibility of a military strike against Iran off the table, at least for the duration of the Bush presidency. Washington is being blamed worldwide for jeopardizing the whole global economy. Even conservatives lack any confidence in the Bush White House. So this President is in no position to start a war that everyone knows would throw the oil-based world economy into a whole new level of crisis.

Regarding Iraq, Washington's new troubles have hardened the stance of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki regarding a timetable for U.S. withdrawal and Iraqi jurisdiction over U.S. troops' actions. Anti-occupation sentiment among Iraqis is stronger than ever. Iran's capacity to influence events in Iraq has risen. Washington's is steadily declining. So is the U.S. capacity to re-escalate with additional troops. It will still require great pressure (no matter who wins the election) to get the U.S. totally out, much less hold Washington to account for all the horrors it has inflicted on Iraqi society. But Neocon bluster notwithstanding, the main drama centers around how far the U.S. can be forced to retreat, not whether any of its original strategic goals (pro-Western government in Baghdad as part of a "new Middle East) will be met.

Washington is also more out on a limb than ever in Afghanistan. That war is being lost. Each civilian death in a U.S. bombing is turning the population ever more against foreign occupiers. The U.S. is responding by expanding the war in a futile attempt at victory, which in this case means military raids into Pakistan. The result is weekly reports of armed clashes between U.S. and Pakistani troops. There is nothing but disaster at the end of this road. And with the U.S. stymied in regard to Iran and Iraq, the whole enterprise now makes little strategic sense even from an imperial point of view. A few voices in the policy-making elite are beginning to cautiously call for a change of course here. After the melodrama now pre-occupying Washington ends, such voices are likely to grow even louder.

Regarding Israel-Palestine, no one even pretends any more that Bush's goal of a peace agreement by the end of 2008 has a ghost of a chance. New Israeli settlement building plus the uptick in Jewish settler terrorism (see "Radical Settlers Take on Israel," New York Times Sept. 26) make any possible deal less likely than ever. U.S. policy is still hostage to the give-Israel-a-blank-check mantra of the Israel lobby and Christian right (among others). So even a U.S. administration forced to retrench and make some serious compromises regarding Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan will be extremely difficult to budge on Israel-Palestine. Even here though, anti-occupation voices such as Jimmy Carter's are being raised on the edges of mainstream politics. And now lame-duck Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert admits himself that Israel must withdraw from the West Bank and East Jerusalem if there is to be any hope of peace (New York Times Sept. 29). Such statements provide openings for the grassroots Palestine solidarity movement to reach an expanded audience with its anti-colonial, anti-racist, self-determination message.



DANGER FROM THE NEOCONS & RACIST, RIGHT WING POPULISM

The far right is not reconciled to the new balance of world power. An alignment of the most militarist wing of the ruling elite and true believers from the Christian right insist that victory everywhere can be won - if only the "soft-on-our-enemies-appeasers" get out of the way and "America's full power" is unleashed.

The McCain-Palin is today's political expression of this position. Conservative blogger Andrew Sullivan lays out the reality (Sept. 22) more bluntly than most left-of-center pundits are willing to do:

"It's very important for people to realize that the McCain-Palin ticket is explicitly running on war against Iran.... It isn't a matter of if but when. For McCain, it is a matter of fighting wars to win, instead of accepting any limits on American power. For Palin, it is a matter of theological destiny."

What's especially dangerous is that this attitude toward war is tucked into a larger set of beliefs characterizing a re-energized, racist, right-wing populism. The threat is visible in the populist right's response to the financial crisis: in their view, the culprits are "eastern elites" who devote themselves to "coddling Blacks and immigrants" while ignoring the difficulties - and disrespecting the values - of "hard-working white ordinary Americans." (Tales about Jewish bankers running the country are in the mix too, though these are kept in the background lest they disrupt the cozy alliance between the Christian right and many hard Zionist Jews.)

Sarah Palin is emerging as the know-nothing public point person for this dangerous trend. And this current won't go away even if they are beaten this year in the electoral arena. On the contrary, if a Black man occupies the White House it is likely to get all the more strident in its appeals to jingoism and racism, doing all it can to make military confrontation with the entire Muslim and Arab world (and Russia too) a litmus test of any political figure's patriotism and "real American-ness." Especially in the hard economic times ahead, no one should under-estimate the appeal of such demagogy to significant layers of the white population.



A DIFFERENT DIRECTION

These dangers noted, at present the stronger tide seems to be flowing in a different direction. The majority of the country is sick of the Iraq war, inclined toward some kind of more equitable response to the financial crisis, and hungry for a change from eight years of Bushism (and in many cases 25 years of conservative dominance). A new generation is jumping into politics with its majority having a different sensibility than their elders on issues of global warming, war and peace, race and sexuality.

For the popular majority, the electoral arena has become a key site of battle against the far right. But not the only one. In response to the financial crisis, as in response to Washington's wars, opposition voices - including broad coalition efforts - are taking to the streets as well as the electoral campaign. There were nationwide anti-bailout actions Sept. 25; called by TrueMajority, USAction and UFPJ; also note the statement by a broad array of trade union and community leaders in this Common Dreams' article.

It remains to be seen if this progressive motion can cohere into a grassroots movement capable of holding every politician's feet to the fire and driving the country in the direction of peace, equality and justice. Future historians are likely to see the last few years as a turning-point, when the U.S. empire peaked and went into decline. But what will come after is still up for grabs.

Global stock selloff

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Global fears about the financial crisis deepened on Friday as stock markets the world over fell sharply and government officials scrambled to contain the damage.

Expectations for a coordinated response grew while the world's finance ministers and central bankers prepared to meet this weekend in Washington. President Bush is expected to make a statement about the financial crisis shortly after 10 a.m.

In the United States, stock futures were trading sharply lower - a sign that investors are bracing for a rough time at the opening bell.

European markets got off to a terrible start. Within the first 10 minutes of trading, London's FTSE, the CAC in Paris and the XETRA DAX in Frankfurt, Germany, had all sloughed off about 10% of their values.

European markets recovered some, but all were down generally 6% to 10% by late morning.

Russia's volatile stock markets were closed on Friday. Government financial officials suspended them before trading was scheduled to open, according to the Russian Trading System. The markets will remain closed until further notice.

One economist said the markets are nearing their bottom. "We are getting mighty close," according to Tom Hougaard with City Index in London. "I have no doubt that with in the next 48 to 72 hours, we will find a low."

Asian markets ended lower. The Nikkei Exchange in Japan closed down 9.6%.

Meanwhile, the Australian All Ordinaries index closed more than 8% lower and South Korea's KOSPI index finished the day off 4.3%.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down about 8% in afternoon trading and Mumbai's BSE SENSEX was down 7.4%.

The losses brought more attempts by government officials to reverse the tide.

The Bank of Japan injected $45 billion into financial markets - the largest single-day amount in history - and India's central bank made $8.2 billion available.

Three European central banks offered $120 billion in overnight cash to markets, in an effort to keep a strained financial system flush with cash, the Associated Press reported. The European Central Bank offered $100 billion, the Bank of England $10 billion and the Swiss National Bank $10 billion.

A day earlier, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority cut its key interest rate by half a percent - its second such recent move.

On Wednesday, the British government said it would make available $87 billion to the nation's eight largest banks in an effort to shore-up their capital positions. In return for the infusion of capital the British government will receive preferred shares of those banks.

Iceland seized control of its three largest banks. Officials with the Italian government have said they are looking at their own bank rescue plan similar to the British efforts.

In the United States, where the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department have already taken numerous steps in recent days, speculation grew that the government might take even more dramatic action like making direct capital investments in banks.

The selloff followed another brutal day on Wall Street on Thursday. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 679 points - or 7.3%. The Dow, Standard & Poor's 500 and Nasdaq all closed at five-year lows.

Over the last seven sessions, the Dow has lost 2,271 points, or 20.1%. Since hitting an all-time high of 14,164.53 one year ago Thursday, the Dow has lost 39.4%.

Alternatives to Capitalism: Parecon -vs- Anarchist Communism

An exchange of positions between Michael Albert and Wayne Price

We are constantly being told that the only economy that works is the capitalist market economy. However, events over the last few weeks have shown this to be a lie. Capitalism is a crazy way in which to run a society. But are there any alternatives? And if so, what are they and how would they work?
In this debate (originally hosted on Znet), two leading thinkers outline other economic systems. Michael Albert and Wayne Price put forward their respective positions and reply to each other in a series of 10 short articles.

Wayne Price, a member of the North American anarchist organization NEFAC and a regular contributor to Anarkismo, argues the case for Anarchist Communism, while Michael Albert, co-author of Parecon and founder of Znet, speaks on behalf of Participatory Economics. Each article is then commented upon by the other author, who then each have an opportunity to respond before making a final conclusion.

http://www.anarkismo.net/article/10140

An invitation to refound organized anarchism

The Quebec collectives of NEFAC are re-organizing themselves. Basically, the Quebec and American sections of the Federation have decided to form two solid but independent organizations. On 22 and 23 November, we will be holding a congress at the Métropole where the manifesto and constitution of a new Quebec-specific anarchist communist organization will be adopted. We will be taking the opportunity to begin a dialogue with comrades who are close to us and see whether it is possible to integrate more militants in this process which will affect all parts of Quebec.

Our basis for unity

Over the past decade of struggles, we have been successful in establishing a serious anarchist communist organization in Quebec. That in itself is a victory but there is still a long way to go, in our opinion, before we can begin to see the type of organization that we have in mind emerging in the province. To ensure the development of organized anarchism in Quebec, a strategy for the many different tasks to be carried out is required. This will demand the establishment of a militant, revlutionary organization for the radical social movements and for the emergence of a wide, open libertarian left.

But first, what type of organization are we talking about? As we see it, it is part of the social struggles. It is a collection of militants on the same wavelength, a meeting-place for debate and the sharing of ideas and experiences, both social and political. It is not a secret group, a private club or an affinity group, but a public organization which anyone who shares its positions can join. Organization is essential in order to share our resources, break with localism and maximise the impact of our libertarian practices by coordinating our political activities. Experience has led us to adopt the platformist principles of organization, i.e. an effective organization is one that is based on:

* theoretic and tactical unity
* federalism and direct democracy
* collective responsibility.

We do not have a dogmatic approach to the "Organizational Platform of Anarchist Communists", the document which "platformism" is based on; it is the starting point of our practice, not the end point. In concrete terms, the search for unity and consistency is a permanent process which takes place through internal debate. Federalism and direct democracy allow us to achieve a certain balance between autonomy and collective force. What is common to us all is collectivized and controlled democratically by the whole organization, but members maintain their full political and organizational autonomy in their local work. Collective responsibility means that the members of the organization participate in the internal debates and decision-making but will adopt the majority position. In short, agree with the positions and campaigns that are adopted and participate in them.

Winning back a social base

Each time anarchism played a role in other countries, there were organized anarchists with deep roots in their societies. It was the case in Spain, in Ukraine, France and Mexico, where organized anarchism had a presence in the majority of localities and in every district of the larger cities, carrying out intense activity in the various social movements and enjoying a lively, diversified press. It could be said that everywhere anarchism made a difference, it was rooted in the movement and had a stong social base. This is something that is lacking in Quebecois anarchism, and something we want to change.

For a long time now, the Quebec anarchist movement has been a generational phenomenon concerning mostly young people. Every new generation of militants drives out the preceding one and has to practically re-invent the wheel. If anarchist communists are to win back a social base, we will have to face the double challenge of rooting ourselves in the social movements on both a medium and long-term basis. And we will have no chance of doing this unless we are unable to develop a militant presence in the struggles of our class. It is time to reconsider a fundamental form of militancy: the mass action of the social movements in our neighbourhoods, schools, campuses, workplaces, etc. It may be somewhat less glorious than certain other forms of "radical" militancy, but we cannot ignore it if we are to be successful in the long term in building an open movement based on the realities of our class.

Organized anarchism cannot confine itself to militant ghettos. It must move out into the neighbourhoods and the places of our daily lives. The anarchist movement must also leave the big cities and establish itself throughout the land. To consolidate anarchism in our class, we are ready to go to plces we have practically never been - in the smaller towns of the province.

We will do our best to support, materially and morally, anyone who wants to join an existing group in the new organization or to develop one in their town. Refounding organized anarchism and turning it into a force to be reckoned with in society is no mean task... But if you're interested and if you want your say too, now's the chance. All contributions are welcome!

Article from "Cause Commune", No. 22 (October 2008).

http://www.nefac.net/en/node/2444

Class Action Alliance/Common Action General Assembly Report - 9.13.08

On Saturday, September 13th, members of Class Action Alliance, a regional anarchist organization, traveled from across the Northwest United States to Seattle, WA, for our second general assembly. Members representing the cities of Bellingham, Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia and Portland were in attendance.

As the first organization-wide meeting since our founding conference in June 2008, the general assembly was our first opportunity to meet face-to-face, reflecting on our first four months as a group and looking forward to the future ahead. We made a number of important and exciting decisions, including a name change, plans for internal study and education, and a forthcoming publication.

After much discussion, Class Action Alliance has decided to change our name to "Common Action." We feel the name better suits our work in a broad range of social movements, while representing our desire to come together and build our politics in common as an anarchist organization. It also stresses the purpose of our organization: taking effective and dynamic action in the struggle for a new world.

Common Action members are involved in a variety of organizing projects and social movements, including immigrant solidarity, youth and student organizing, anti-war campaigns, workplace organizing, and much more. Together we represent years of experience, and with this general assembly have taken steps toward sharing our knowledge with one another through internal education and collectively authoring position papers.

At the assembly, we approved the first Common Action publication, a newsletter entitled "Intersections." The first issue of the forthcoming publication will include articles on gentrification in Seattle, the Northwest Anarchist People of Color gathering, the 2008 presidential election, and a hazardous oil pipe-line being planned for the northern counties of Washington State. The newsletter will soon be distributed throughout the Northwest US. Contact us at the address below to receive your own copy. It will also be available on the internet via our website.

Aside from the newsletter, other forms of outreach are also in the works, including speaking tours and resources for new members. We also passed a position paper on building an anarchist international organization, which will soon appear on our website.

All in all, after four short months, Common Action is an organization on the move, having good conversations, and committed to doing real work. Contact us at nwcommonaction@gmail.com or visit http://www.nwcommonaction.org for more information.

Petraeus: US Should Talk With Talk With Taliban, Other Enemies

Much has been made of the rumored peace talks between Afghanistan and the Taliban, and while both the Taliban and the Afghan government have made rather public denials that any such talks are ongoing, the United States has been totally silent on the report. That is, until today.

Today, General David Petraeus confirmed that Afghan President Hamid Karzai has in fact asked Saudi Arabia to arrange peace talks between his government and the Taliban. He also referenced “some local activities” to that end.

And while the general said he didn’t want to “get into the middle of domestic politics,” he appeared to endorse the idea, saying that he thought the US should talk with its enemies. In the case of Afghanistan he said “the key is making sure that all of that is done in complete coordination with complete support of the Afghan government and with President Karzai.”

President Karzai seems to be in favor of reconciliation as well, having last week made a public call to Taliban leader Mullah Omar to return to the country and participate in upcoming presidential elections. Karzai promised to be personally responsible for Omar’s safety. The Taliban rejected the call, saying Karzai was a “puppet” of the US and not in a position to negotiate.

So far the only sign that the Taliban is at all open to reconciliation is a statement by Mullah Omar late last month which offered US and NATO forces a “reasonable opportunity” to withdraw safely from the country. There has been no apparent progress on the offer.

http://news.antiwar.com/2008/10/08/petraeus-confirms-peace-overtures-to-taliban/

THANK YOU, SARAH PALIN!

TRASH-TALKING ALASKA GOVERNOR INSPIRES COMMUNITY ORGANIZER ACTION FUND

A month after Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin trashed community organizers as a way to attack Barack Obama, activists and individuals around the country have responded by raising more than $7,500 for the “Community Organizers Fight Back Fund.” The Chicago-based Midwest Academy is managing the fund and will use the money to train future organizers.

During her acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention Sept. 3, Palin remarked that being the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, was “sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.” Former New York Governor George Pataki chimed in as well, saying, “What in God’s name is a community organizer? I don’t even know if that’s a job.”

As one prominent Republican after another mocked Obama’s three years of working with low-income residents on the South Side of Chicago in the 1980s, irate community organizers rapidly mobilized.

“These were pretty personal attacks. That’s the work I do every day,” recalls John Raskin, a 27-year-old community organizer with Housing Conservation Coordinators, a group that works for affordable housing on the West Side of Manhattan. Community organizers work together with individuals and families to take local collective action and win improvements on issues facing their neighborhoods.

Raskin immediately contacted other organizers and formed the Community Organizers of America (COA). A website was quickly put up, organizersfightback.wordpress.com, and hundreds of comments poured in expressing solidarity with community organizers of all stripes.

Five days after COA was formed, a call for donations to the ironically named “Sarah Palin Action Fund for Organizer Training” was made. COA’s efforts raised $2,600, which has been donated to the Midwest Academy’s general fund to train community organizers.

The Midwest Academy bills itself as a “national training institute committed to advancing the struggle for social, economic and racial justice.”

Jackie Kendall, the executive director of the academy, says that the money will most likely be used for a combination of subsidizing people going to its training programs and providing some of the stipend money for up to 40 participants in summer internship programs.

Activists attending the training will learn about a variety of organizing skills from working with coalitions to successful recruiting tactics to strategies to hold elected officials accountable.

Rae Wright, an organizer with Citizen Action Illinois, a public interest organization, attended Midwest Academy’s internship program in 2007. “It taught me not only how to be a stronger organizer, but to be a stronger peer and leader in the communities that I am invested in,” she says.

The next training session will be from Oct. 6 to 10 in Chicago, with costs per participant ranging from $775 to $1,050.

According to the academy, individuals on the email list of True Majority, a liberal organization founded by Ben Cohen of Ben and Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream, contributed the most money for the fund after a plea for donations was announced to their listserv.

The McCain-Palin campaign has tried to downplay the mocking of community organizers, saying that they play an “important role.” Peter Feldman, a spokesman for the campaign, wrote in an email to The Indypendent Sept. 18: “Gov. Palin’s remark was in response to the Obama campaign’s belittling of her executive experience. There is certainly a place as demonstrated by Gov. Palin’s own record of civic involvement, but Barack Obama’s role as a community organizer pales in comparison to Gov. Palin’s demonstrated experience.”

Jackie del Valle, the lead housing organizer for New Settlement Apartments, a Bronx-based housing advocacy group, and a member of COA, says that “it was clear that [the Republicans] didn’t have an understanding at all of what community organizers were.”

Around 18,000 members of Facebook, the social networking website, have joined groups with names like “Community Organizers Against Sarah Palin” and “We Are All Community Organizers” speaking out against the GOP’s attacks on organizers.

“We have to hold the officials who use this sort of language accountable,” Raskin says. “[We need] to make sure that when you attack community organizers, you can’t get away with that.” COA plans on sending a “thank-you” letter to Palin after its $10,000 fundraising drive is over, commending her for “raising awareness of the vital role of community organizing.”

For more information on the fund drive, visit midwestacademy.com and organizersfightback.wordpress.com.

http://www.indypendent.org/2008/10/01/thank-you-sarah-palin/

Victims' Families in Uproar over New German Terrorism Film

"The Baader-Meinhof Complex," a new film chronicling the murderous exploits of the Red Army Faction, a German left-wing terrorist group, is stirring anger among relatives of the group's victims. The head of one family says she will return Germany's top civilian honor in protest.

Amid accusations its makers are guilty of "hero worship" and glorifying murderous activists with "terrorist-chic," a new German film that recreates the dramatic history of 1970s terrorist gang the Red Army Faction (RAF), is becoming a lightning rod for impassioned protests from spouses and children of those killed by the group. Just over a week after its release, the deabte over the "Baader-Meinhof Complex" continues to rage in Germany.

Launched and led by radical history professor Andreas Baader and journalist Ulrike Meinhof, the RAF, or the "Baader-Meinhof Gang" as they are sometimes called, claimed 34 lives in a wave of attacks against businesses, industrialists, bankers and government officials in West Germany that spanned a three-decade period that began in the late 1960s and continued into the '80s.

One of those lives belonged to Jürgen Ponto, the former head of Dresdner Bank. As a protest against the film his widow, 79-year-old Ignes Ponto, says she will return the Federal Cross of Merit, Germany's highest civilian honor, that she received in 1988 for founding a group committed to promoting the teaching of music in the country's schools. The decision by Ponto, a professional musician, to return her award was made public on Tuesday by her daughter, Corinna Ponto.

The film has been roundly criticized for glamorizing the RAF and for exploiting its aura of "terrorist-chic" in order to make a splash at the box-office. Meinhof's own daughter, journalist Bettina Roehl, went so far as to call the film's depiction of her mother's crimes the "worst-case scenario," saying "it would not be possible to top its hero worship."

The film, which is based on a book by former SPIEGEL editor in chief Stefan Aust, has been selected as Germany's official entry for best foreign film in the 2009 Oscar race.

According to Ponto's daughter, who was 19 years old when her father was killed, the family has been forced over the years to accustom itself to painful public discussions of their family's tragedy. She says that the release of the film, however, reaches a "whole new level of public indignity."

In addition to glamorizing terrorism, the Pontos accuse the film of getting the facts wrong and drifting into "fantasy." The film's visual reconstruction of Jürgen Ponto's murder is "entirely false," Corinna Ponto told the German newspaper Die Welt. "Up until now, there had never been any pictures of my father's murder," she said. "That always gave us a measure of comfort and also protection. The film's inaccurate incursion into our private lives feels to me like a special betrayal."

The family also criticized the government for continuing to fail, after all these years, to dedicate any kind of plaque or memorial to the RAF's victims. Corrina Ponto also attacked the government for providing public art subsidies to help finance a film she considers "unhistorical" and "dangerous."

"The Baader-Meinhof Complex" will be released in the United States and Britain in November.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,druck-582894,00.html

Secrets of Iraq's death chamber

Like all wars, the dark, untold stories of the Iraqi conflict drain from its shattered landscape like the filthy waters of the Tigris. And still the revelations come.

The Independent has learnt that secret executions are being carried out in the prisons run by Nouri al-Maliki's "democratic" government.

The hangings are carried out regularly – from a wooden gallows in a small, cramped cell – in Saddam Hussein's old intelligence headquarters at Kazimiyah. There is no public record of these killings in what is now called Baghdad's "high-security detention facility" but most of the victims – there have been hundreds since America introduced "democracy" to Iraq – are said to be insurgents, given the same summary justice they mete out to their own captives.

The secrets of Iraq's death chambers lie mostly hidden from foreign eyes but a few brave Western souls have come forward to tell of this prison horror. The accounts provide only a glimpse into the Iraqi story, at times tantalisingly cut short, at others gloomily predictable. Those who tell it are as depressed as they are filled with hopelessness.

"Most of the executions are of supposed insurgents of one kind or another," a Westerner who has seen the execution chamber at Kazimiyah told me. "But hanging isn't easy." As always, the devil is in the detail.

"There's a cell with a bar below the ceiling with a rope over it and a bench on which the victim stands with his hands tied," a former British official, told me last week. "I've been in the cell, though it was always empty. But not long before I visited, they'd taken this guy there to hang him. They made him stand on the bench, put the rope round his neck and pushed him off. But he jumped on to the floor. He could stand up. So they shortened the length of the rope and got him back on the bench and pushed him off again. It didn't work."

There's nothing new in savage executions in the Middle East – in the Lebanese city of Sidon 10 years ago, a policeman had to hang on to the legs of a condemned man to throttle him after he failed to die on the noose – but in Baghdad, cruel death seems a speciality.

"They started digging into the floor beneath the bench so that the guy would drop far enough to snap his neck," the official said. "They dug up the tiles and the cement underneath. But that didn't work. He could still stand up when they pushed him off the bench. So they just took him to a corner of the cell and shot him in the head."

The condemned prisoners in Kazimiyah, a Shia district of Baghdad, are said to include rapists and murderers as well as insurgents. One prisoner, a Chechen, managed to escape from the jail with another man after a gun was smuggled to them. They shot two guards dead. The authorities had to call in the Americans to help them recapture the two. The Americans killed one and shot the Chechen in the leg. He refused medical assistance so his wound went gangrenous. In the end, the Iraqis had to operate and took all the bones out of his leg. By the time he met one Western visitor to the prison, "he was walking around on crutches with his boneless right leg slung over his shoulder".

In many cases, it seems, the Iraqis neither keep nor release any record of the true names of their captives or of the hanged prisoners. For years the Americans – in charge of the notorious Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad – did not know the identity of their prisoners. Here, for example, is new testimony given to The Independent by a former Western official to the Anglo-US Iraq Survey Group, which searched for the infamous but mythical weapons of mass destruction: "We would go to the interrogation rooms at Abu Ghraib and ask for a particular prisoner. After about 40 minutes, the Americans brought in this hooded guy, shuffling along, shackled hands and feet.

"They sat him on a chair in front of us and took off his hood. He had a big beard. We asked where he received his education. He repeatedly said 'Mosul'. Then he said he'd left school at 14 – remember, this guy is supposed to be a missile scientist. We said: 'We know you've got a PhD and went to the Sorbonne – we'd like you to help us with information about Saddam's missile project'. But I said to myself : 'This guy doesn't know anything 'bout fucking missiles.' Then it turned out he had a different name from the man we'd asked for, he'd been picked up on the road by the Americans four months earlier, he didn't know why. So we said to the Americans: 'Wrong gentleman!' So they put the shackles on him and took him back to his cell and after 20 or 30 minutes, they'd bring someone else. We'd ask him where he went to school and he told us he had never been to school.

"Wrong person again. It was a complete farce. The incompetence of the US military was astounding, criminal. Eventually, of course, they found the right guy and brought him in and took his hood off. He was breathing heavily, overweight, pudgy, disoriented, a little bit scared."

On this occasion, the Americans had found the right man. The British and American investigators asked the guards to remove the man's shackles, which they did – but then they tied one of the man's legs to the floor. Yes, he had a PhD.

Again, the official's testimony: "We went through his history, what he'd worked on – he was obviously just a minor functionary in one of Saddam's missile programmes. Iraqi scientists didn't have the knowledge how to make nuclear missiles nor did they have the financial support necessary. It just remained in the dreams of Saddam."

The scientist-prisoner in Abu Ghraib miserably told his captors that he'd been arrested by the Americans after they'd knocked on his front door in Baghdad and found two Kalashnikov rifles a woman's hijab, verses from the Koran and, obviously of interest to his captors, "physics and missile textbooks on his bookshelves." But this supposedly valuable prisoner was never charged or previously interviewed even though he admitted he was a rocket scientist.

"I don't know what happened to him," the former official told me. "I tried to tell the UK and the US military that we've arrested this man but that he's got a wife, children, a family. I said that by locking up this one innocent person, you've got 50 men radicalised overnight. No, I don't know what happened to him."

For many of the investigators working for the Anglo-American authorities in Baghdad, the trial for the crime for which the Iraqi dictator was himself subsequently hanged was a fearful experience that ultimately ended in disgust. Through captured documents, they could see the dark, inner workings of Saddam's secret police. The idea of the Saddam trial was less to bring members of the former regime to justice than to show Iraqis how justice and the rule of law should operate.

"It was exhilarating to see Saddam being cross-examined," one of the court investigators said. "The low point was when he was executed. What drove me on was seeing how Saddam dealt with his victims – I was looking at a microcosm of all the deaths that had taken place in Iraq. But when he was executed, it was done in such a savage way."

Saddam Hussein was hanged in the same "secure" unit at Kazimiyah where Mr al-Maliki's people, in an echo of Saddamite Baathist terror, now hang their victims.

Iraq The death penalty

*The death penalty in Iraq was suspended after Saddam Hussein was deposed in 2003. It was reinstated by the interim government in August 2004.

*The United Nations, the European Union and international human rights organisations all spoke out against the reintroduction.

*At the time, the government claimed the death penalty was a necessary measure until the country had stabilised. Amnesty International claims that "the extent of violence in Iraq has increased rather than diminished, clearly indicating that the death penalty has not proved to be an effective deterrent."

*Saddam, left, his half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and Iraq's former chief judge Awad Hamed al-Bandar were hanged at the end of 2006 for their part in the killings of 148 people in the mainly Shia town of Dujail in 1982. Illicit videos of all three executions later became public. Saddam's body could be seen on a hospital trolley, his head twisted at 90 degrees. Barzan – Iraq's former intelligence chief –was decapitated by the noose. Officials said it was an accident.

*According to Amnesty, there were at least 33 executions reported in Iraq last year. About 200 people were estimated to have been sentenced to death.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/secrets-of-iraqs-death-chamber-953517.html

Starbucks Settles Claim With NLRB

Starbucks Corp. has agreed to a settlement with the National Labor Relations Board on charges of anti-union activities at its Mall of America store that stemmed from the July firing of a barista who tried to organize workers.

The settlement agreement is the third nationally the Seattle-based corporation has reached with the NLRB concerning alleged efforts to stop workers from joining a union.

It comes in the wake of the August reinstatement of barista Erik Forman, who still is trying to organize Starbucks workers at Twin Cities stores into a union called the Starbucks Workers Union.

Forman claimed Starbucks said it fired him for discussing a warning for showing up late with a coworker. But it was really for his union organizing activities, he said.

After he was fired, Forman filed a charge of unfair labor practices with the NLRB. The board concluded there was sufficient evidence the company violated the National Labor Relations Act.

Marlin Osthus, NLRB acting director in Minneapolis, said the board found Forman's and other workers' activities were protected under the law.

When Starbucks rehired Forman, it said the firing was "ill-considered."

"We view this settlement of the NLRB charge as confirming the steps we already took to make things right in this situation," Starbucks said in a statement. In settling, the company didn't admit to violating the law in any way.

The charges ranged from interrogation of union activists, threats against workers and surveillance of union organizing. In the settlement, Starbucks says it will not engage in any of these activities.

The company also agreed to post a notice for 60 days in its Mall of America store telling workers of their rights to join, form or assist a union.

The settlement also requires Starbucks to give Forman back pay for lost wages due to his termination.

"I'm definitely happy to be back at work," Forman said. "I'm even more happy to be back on the shop floor to continue organizing with coworkers to earn a living wage, for guaranteed hours and for other positive changes."

Julie Forster can be reached at 651-228-5189.

Daniel Gross
Organizer
IWW Starbucks Workers Union
www.StarbucksUnion.org
Ph:(917) 577-1110
Fx:(917) 591-6128
dgross@iww.org

It's Up to Us to STOP THE WAR!

It's Up to Us to STOP THE WAR!
National Campus Antiwar Network Conference
October 10-12
DePaul University, Munroe Hall 114

As the presidential elections near, the death and destruction being brought to Iraq by the US military continues. Instead of removing the US military out of the Middle East, it looks as though expansion and endless war is on the horizon. The billions of dollars used every month to continue the occupation should be used to to fund our schools. Instead, military recruiters continue to swarm our campuses in search of desperate students that find little stability and economic security as the economy worsens.

We deserve better. We deserve a future free of war.

At our upcoming national conference we will be discussing how we can build and strengthen the student antiwar movement so that we can pressure whoever is in the White House and Congress to bring an immediate end to the occupation of Iraq. Topics will range from the history of the Vietnam antiwar movement to the occupation of Afghanistan to strategies for grassroots organizing.

Help shape the next year of the student antiwar movement!

http://www.campusantiwar.net/

Building a “citizen’s archive” of the RNC

Nigel Parry wasn’t arrested, harassed, or gassed during the RNC. But he was affected.

At the Tilsner Artists’ Cooperative, where he’s lived on and off over the years, he shared a room a friend was renting out to people working for Indy Media and the Glass Bead Collective. “I spent the week with extremely freaked out and justifiably paranoid independent media people.”

He was getting “fog of war” reports all week. It was difficult to get the big picture — it still is.

So Parry–a songwriter, photojournalist, and web designer — started a paper archive of everything that happened outside the Xcel. “I printed everything from Star Tribune reports to St. Paul City Council minutes.”

People he met during the convention who had stayed in town to work on a documentary about the RNC kept asking him about one document or another. “Finally I just decided to gather everything online.”

Parry has experience with this. He co-founded the website Electronic Intifada after his experiences in the West Bank. To this day, the site is an always-current archive of events in Palestine — often written by Palestinians themselves.

Parry’s current endeavor is RNC ‘08 Report. He calls it “a citizen’s archive of media reports, government documents, and other resources.”

His collection, he insists, “is unprejudiced — it’s the widest possible range of sources because that’s what will be the most helpful. I’ve archived the Twitter feeds and I’ve archived Department of Defense press releases about the deployment of the national guard. I’ve got city press releases on the arrests of the RNC 8 and the press releases of the RNC Welcoming Committee.”

He’s still furiously adding to the site and wants people to tell him what he’s missing. His vision is nothing short of a total archive.

“The goal,” he says, “is clarity.”

http://minnesotaindependent.com/12385/building-a-citizens-archive-of-the-rnc

"You don't mess with the government, idiots": Six killed at archealogical site occupation in Chiapas, Mexico

Mexican police on Friday shot and killed six peasants during and after an operation to end the popular occupation of an archealogical tourist site near Miguel Hidalgo, Chiapas.

The site at Chinkultic had been occupied by members of its surrounding villages since 7 September, following what villagers saw as its neglect by the INAH (Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia) - the state institution charged with maintaining the country's thousands of ruins sites - and the concentration of profits from tourism in the municipality (one of the poorest in Mexico) outside of its inhabitants.

The municipality of La Trinitaria, which encompasses Miguel Hidalgo and Chinkultic, ranks as one of the very poorest in Mexico. Some days before the successful eviction of the occupiers on Friday, villagers had successfully apprehended, detained and disarmed some 77 policemen sent to arrest the occupation's "ringleaders".

Although the deaths were written off by the state and federal police as an unfortunate necessity of the rescue of their officers, weapons and the site itself, evidence is now beginning to surface of some of the deaths happening a long way from Chinkultic and following its return to the police.

La Jornada today quotes Eloísa Margarita Espinosa Morales, a woman who was travelling with her husband in his pickup truck carrying injured villagers from Miguel Hidalgo towards the nearest hospital in Comitán (some 40km away). A police roadblock detained them several kilometres up the road and although they stated the intention of their journey, the police told them to "get down on the ground, you dogs!" before taking Morales' husband into wasteland and firing seven fatal bullets into him.

"You don't mess with the government, you idiots", the police told the truck's passengers. When Morales protested her innocence, she was robbed of her jewlry and told to "shut up if you don't want to die like those fools".

Monday saw the intervention of the Chiapas state governor, one Juan Sabines from the social democratic PRD (Partido Revolucionario Democrático) party. In exchange for some conciliatory words about the massacre (he promised to investigate "four of the six deaths", declaring that "justice is always with the people") in a meeting with villageleaders and relatives of the deceased, the police weapons were returned and an agreement was reached on the Chinkultic issue.

By Tuesday La Jornada was reporting "the return of normality" to both Miguel Hidalgo and the site of Chinkultic, however it appears to be far from the end of the story. Communities within the region of the Lagunas de Montebello, a 60km squared national park which sits around 10km east of Miguel Hidalgo on the Guatemalan border, have also called for the expulsion of INAH officials from the park in favour it being administered by they themselves.

The regions of La Trinitaria and Lagunas de Montebello also sit very close to the 32 autonomous municipalities of the EZLN (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional) and have seen plenty of social unrest in the last few years.

http://www.libcom.org/news/you-dont-mess-with-government-idiots-six-killed-archealogical-site-occupation-chiapas-mexic