Angry White Kid

ANSWER's big plan revealed

Confounded as to why anti-war sentiment in the US has been steadily increasing while attendance at their demonstrations (in monotony) has been decreasing, the ANSWER Coalition (who I've made clear I'm no fan of) released a proposal yesterday, asking What Should the Anti-War Movement Do Now?:

It is clear that the anti-war movement is not sufficiently strong at the moment to bring this criminal and despised war to an end. Every organization must ask why is this so and most importantly what can be done to change the situation immediately.

The first question to ask and answer is: Can a people's movement in the United States overcome the commitment of the White House, Congress and the Pentagon to authorize, extend and finance the war and occupation in Iraq?

If the answer to the question is yes...we must assess various factors and craft a strategy that will be fundamentally different from the current path of the anti-war movement. [Emphasis added]

So what's this great "new" strategy?  Unfortunately, it doesn't involve ANSWER dissolving and us rejoicing.  It involves...hold your breath...one big protest!  Taadaa!  Because that new/old strategy of organizing big protests has been working so well, ANSWER wants to get one million people to march on DC.  In six months to a year's time.  In the meantime, you can all take a nap.

Brilliant!  Why didn't anyone think of having a big protest in Washington, DC before? 

Oh wait, they have? 

Oh wait, and the war is still going on? 

Oh wait, no one pays attention to a "movement" that only involves showing your face once or twice a year at a boring, cop-coordinated rally?

Is this really the best that the "leaders of the vanguard" at ANSWER could come up with?  I guess adherence to Stalinism really does stifle creativity.

No wonder the US left is a worldwide laughingstock.  It's been co-opted (willingly) by the likes of ANSWER and their cult of banality and faux-dissent.

At this point, I think Bill Hicks and I are going to go watch American Gladiators.

Tragedy in Lebanon

What a disgraceful situation in Lebanon.

The Lebanese Army shows that while it will have tea with Israeli invaders, it is more than happy to indiscriminately shell Palestinian refugees. (And of course the US is always willing to pitch in when it comes to killing Palestinians.)

The media tries to paint Palestinians as terrorists, though the members of Fatah al-Islam are nearly everything but Palestinian.

Instead of condemning the massacre of Palestinian civilians, the American Task Force on Palestine (which hangs out with the AIPAC-financed WINEP) and the American Task Force on Lebanon send out a press release expressing "support for Lebanon" and condemning the "assault on Lebanese sovereignty, stability and security."  They call for merely "minimiz[ing] civilian casualties." And to top it off, in the same press release they manage to do away with the right of return - asking instead for the refugee camps to be made into nicer places to live.

And the Palestinian refugees, expelled by Israel and already facing horrific conditions in Lebanon, are left to fend for themselves.

Here is info on the Nahr el Bared Relief Campaign.  Here is an insightful interview with As'ad Abukhalil.

SSA shut down at Port of Oakland

My crappy cell phone photo of the picket.

This (early) morning a community picket successfully shut down the war profiteer SSA (Stevedoring Services of America) at the Port of Oakland.  The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) locals decided to honor and not cross the 100+ strong community picket. 

Therefore SSA, which was at full capacity with three ships waiting to be loaded and unloaded, wasn't able to do any business this morning.  The picket is continuing as the second shift of longshore workers arrives at 4:30PM, hopefully to meet with the same results.  I'm sure more photos and reports will go up at Indybay. May this only be the beginning.

UPDATE: SSA was indeed shut down all day by the picket. From a obnoxiously sectarian reportback:

When scores of picketers blocked the gates at the SSA terminal beginning at 7 a.m., the company eventually gave up and called off the shift. In the evening, an arbitrator ruled that this was not a bona fide “health and safety issue” and ordered the workers to go to work. However, the dock workers collectively refused.

Saturday: Picket to shut down the war profiteers

End state terror against immigrants

Three children whose parents were kidnapped by federal immigration agents.

Across the country, from Massachusetts to Northern California, undocumented workers continue to be ripped from their homes, families and livelihoods by the racist army of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Department of Homeland Security. 

Such actions are so revoltingly outrageous and inhuman they leave me speechless.  Immigrant and migrant workers are not the enemy.  The enemy is the neoliberal economic system that forced them from their countries of origin.  The same system that allows greedy corporations to exploit their labor here in the US.  The same system that is imposed - either economically or militarily - on the global south by the US and Europe.  The enemies are ICE, DHS, and the local and state agencies that cooperate with them as they target and attack one of the most vulnerable segments of society.

Only the most depraved of governments kidnap civilians and rip mothers and fathers from their children.  I can only wonder how these thugs with guns whose "job" it is to conduct military raids on innocent, unarmed migrant workers sleep at night, knowing their violent actions have shattered hundreds and thousands lives.  Of course, be it through bombs or prisons or economic policies, the US is well-versed when it comes to destroying families.

As I'm sure is occurring elsewhere, the Bay Area is responding to these raids.  And May Day is coming up.  On these days and every day the horrific war against immigrants and the working class must be denounced and combated.  The actions of ICE and DHS are prime examples of racist, classist state terror and must end immediately.

March 19: Die-in

For assembly points, to get involved or more information, visit dieinmarch19.org.

Support political prisoners, old and new

Check out this new short video on two longtime Puerto Rican political prisoners - Oscar Lopez Rivera and Carlos Alberto Torres. Visit the ProLibertad Freedom Campaign and National Boricua Human Rights Network for more info.

And check out these excerpts (in two parts) of a talk by Harold Taylor, one of the former Black Panthers arrested last week, given four days before he was arrested.  The video screening on Sunday in San Francisco went very well - so many people showed they had to screen the film twice.  Help support these political prisoners. Check out the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights and the Freedom Archives for more.

Part one:

Part two:

In other government repression news: Help defend journalist Sarah Olson (UPDATE 1: The army dropped the two charges against Lt. Watada that involved Sarah Olson, and therefore dropped the subpoena!). Activist Nadia Winstead beats a Grand Jury contempt rap.  And former professor Sami Al-Arian continues to be subject to abuse and harassment from this vindictive government and its Grand Juries.

Finally, this Friday, Feb. 2nd, at 6pm, there will be an event in solidarity with the political prisoners in Atenco and Oaxaca at Station 40.  Music, food, and talks on Atenco, Oaxaca, and the encuentro in Chiapas.  $5 - no one turned away - 3030B 16th St., near 16th/Mission BART in San Francisco.

UPDATE 2: In other great news, an immigration court ended the case of the LA 8 - two (not 8 anymore) Palestinians the government has been trying to deport for the past 20 years for distributing literature.

UPDATE 3: Three detainees being held indefinitely at "Guantanamo North" in Canada are facing serious health crises after being on hunger strike for two months due to a lack of medical supervision and the government's refusal to consider their just and reasonable demands. They are calling for support.

Actions to shut down Guantanamo

In front of the Supreme Court. Resistance Media / Ted Stein

Yesterday was the International Day of Action to Shut Down Guantanamo.  Witness Against Torture has compiled 76 action reports from around the world.

There were two events in the Bay Area yesterday and there will be a demo tomorrow in San Francisco from 1 - 3pm at Union Square, organized by Act Against Torture, Amnesty International USA, Presente! and the AFSC.  Bay Areans should come out tomorrow and get involved in the continuing work of these groups fighting to close Guantanamo.

This video about one of the detainees, Adel Hamad, was brought to my attention recently.

Regardless of if a detainee has a video or website about them, the horridness that is Guantanamo and all its accompanying disgraces must end.  Act Against Torture has enumerated some solid demands in that regard:

• Shut down Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, Baghram and all other U.S. prisons overseas, including secret CIA detention facilities.
• Release all detainees held without charge.
• Pay compensation to current and former detainees for violations of their human rights.
• Hand over real suspects to the International Criminal Court.
• Repeal the Military Commissions Act of 2006.
• Enact new laws unambiguously prohibiting torture and all other forms of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, by the military, the CIA, prison guards, civilian contractors, or anyone else.

The view from Kabul

This is devastating.  From Pajhwok Afghan News:

Dog-tired and fed up with the hardships they have been facing over the years, 65 per cent of the 50,000 widows in Kabul see suicide the only option to get rid of their miseries and desolation, revealed a survey conducted by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).

Addressing a news conference, UNIFEM's Director Meryem Aslan described condition of widows, especially those living in Kabul, as terrible. She said widows living in Kabul have to look after their families in face of little opportunities of earning livelihood and high rate of inflation. Without elaborating on the topic, she said 16 of the 65 per cent women had already ended their lives.

When will the fire be ceased?

Supposedly it is now "ceasefire" time, though we'll see how long that lasts.  I can't imagine it will be for long, since any ceasefire that leaves in place an occupation is no ceasefire at all.  And Israel's broad interpretation of "defensive" operations leaves one questioning what an "offensive" operation looks like.  After all, wasn't the massacre of Lebanon in "self-defense"? 

Though it seems after receiving what some might call a "bloody good hiding," the Israeli army is stating that "Israel should begin withdrawing its forces from Lebanon relatively quickly."  That's good news.  In other good news, nothing happened to the civilian convoy I mentioned below, though they weren't able to achieve their goal.  Regardless, I'm glad they're safe - especially in light of the Israeli bombing of a UN-coordinated civilian convoy heading north on the same day.

If the ceasefire does hold, then at least the racist Western governments and their mouthpieces, the racist Western media, can congratulate themselves on creating a "peace" that allows Israel to save face and wreak horrible destruction at the same time.  And the illegitimate Arab police states can breathe a sigh of relief for surviving another crisis by doing nothing in the face of U.S./Israeli aggression.  The status quo of ignoring the crisis in Gaza and the nearly daily murders in the West Bank sure is easier than providing Israel with diplomatic and military cover for its Lebanon invasion.  (Not to mention the Wall, where at a protest against it this weekend, the brutal occupation army beat down and fired rubber-coated bullets at nonviolent protesters, wounding 13, including my friend Jonas.  One Israeli protester has a bullet lodged in his skull. Video.)

A month from now, here in Nacirema, the people will have forgotten the events of July and August - if they even noticed in the first place - only to be reminded by the various "Year in Review" summaries.  And the root cause will remain unaddressed: the Israeli occupation of Arab land.  And until those occupations end, and until those Arab prisoners held by Israel are released, and until the rights of the Palestinian refugees are fulfilled, there will be more July wars - and August ones, and Sept., Oct., Nov...