Angry White Kid

From Occupy Oakland to Occupied Palestine

Check out the full article at the Occupied Oakland Tribune.

An abridged version of the following article appeared in the print edition (issue 3) of the Occupied Oakland Tribune.

by Scott Campbell

Sitting in solitary in Glenn Dyre jail after being arrested during the first raid on the Occupy Oakland camp at Oscar Grant Plaza, I had no idea what was playing out on the streets just blocks away. Not until getting out the following day did I see footage of the massive police violence that was unleashed on the evening of October 25.

As someone who has worked in solidarity with Palestinians for years, that footage reminded me of scenes that play out frequently in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Villages there whose land is being taken for the construction of Israel’s illegal separation wall hold weekly nonviolent protests against their continued dispossession. As happened on October 25 in Oakland, these peaceful rallies are met with tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets from Israeli forces. Often live ammunition is deployed and since 2004, 22 Palestinians, almost half children, have been killed by Israeli forces while protesting against the usurpation of their lands and livelihoods.

 

December 12 - West Coast Port Shutdown

More info at http://westcoastportshutdown.org/

General Strike - Nov. 2 - Occupy Oakland

All out for the General Strike on Wednesday, November 2 in Oakland, CA!

More info at http://www.occupyoakland.org/strike/

Act Now: Health of Hunger Strikers in California Prisons in Jeopardy

"No one has to die, start negotiations now!"

From the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity website:

The health of at least 200 hunger strikers in the SHU is rapidly worsening. A source with access to the current medical conditions who prefers to be unnamed reported:

“The prisoners are progressing rapidly to the organ damaging consequences of dehydration. They are not drinking water and have decompensated rapidly. A few have tried to sip water but are so sick that they are vomiting it back up. Some are in renal failure and have been unable to make urine for 3 days. Some are having measured blood sugars in the 30 range, which can be fatal if not treated.“

The hunger strikers are well into their 13th day without food. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation refuses to negotiate. The situation has become increasingly dire and there is a real possibility it may get even worse. That the State of California and the CDCR seem content to let these prisoners die rather than even talk to them is inexcusable and demands immediate and increased action. No one should have to risk his or her life just to see a bit of sunlight - yet Governor Brown and CDCR Secretary Cate are forcing these individuals to do just that.

PLEASE CONTACT:

Secretary Matthew Cate
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
1515 S Street
Sacramento  95814
Phone: (916) 323-6001

CDCR Public Affairs Office: (916)445-4950
CDCR on Twitter

Other CDCR emails:

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

Governor Jerry Brown
State Capitol, Suite 1173
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 445-2841
Email at his website
Governor Brown on Twitter
Governor Brown on Facebook

Public Safety Committee Chair Senator Loni Hancock
State Capitol, Room 2082
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 651-4009
Email at her website

Sample Script for Phone Calls:

“Hi my name is _________ . I’m calling about the statewide prisoner hunger strike that began at Pelican Bay. I support the prisoners & their reasonable “five core demands.” I am alarmed by the rapidly deteriorating medical conditions of the hunger strikers & the inaction of the CDCR. I urge you to make sure the CDCR negotiates with the prisoners and the outside mediation team the prisoners have approved, immediately & in good faith, before prisoners are force-fed or even die. Thank you.”

If you are a California resident, also contact your state senator and legislator. Their contact information can be found by entering your ZIP code here.

And if you haven't yet, sign the online petition in support of the hunger strikers here.

Keep an eye on Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity and California Prison Focus for further updates, action alerts and protests regarding the hunger strike.

U.S. to Israel: Go ahead and kill our citizens

In a few days time, ten ships with hundreds of civilians from 22 countries on board will be setting sail for the Gaza Strip. The Freedom Flotilla 2 - Stay Human will be challenging Israel's four year siege and blockade of the Gaza Strip, as well as its 44 year occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Unarmed and committed to nonviolence, members of the flotilla include members of parliament, writers, artists, clerics, activists and journalists. 

On May 31, 2010, Israeli forces violently boarded the ships comprising the first Freedom Flotilla while they were in international waters (a violation of international law).  On the Mavi Marmara, commandos killed nine individuals, including U.S. citizen Furkan Dogan, who the UN found was killed "execution-style," as were five other victims.  This time around, the Israeli military has announced its plan to deploy attack dogs and snipers against the flotilla and stated, “We will do anything we have to do to prevent a boat from breaking the blockade...If there is the same violence against our forces on board, there is a pretty good chance there will be injuries.”

One of the boats in this flotilla will be a U.S.-flagged vessel, "The Audacity of Hope." On board will be around forty U.S. citizens and ten members of the media.  The passengers include Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker and Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein.  Twenty-five percent of the passengers are Jewish.

Given Israel's exceedingly violent response to the first flotilla, in flagrant violation of international law, one would expect the U.S. government to caution Israel against using force against U.S. citizens. Yes, we are all aware what super good friends Israel and the U.S. are, but when your friend says, "I'm ready to kill your people," you'd expect the U.S. to at least suggest Israel show a tiny bit of restraint. After all, it is the State Department's role to protect and assist U.S. citizens traveling abroad. Well, those running the show at State must have forgotten that part of the job description, as instead of cautioning Israel, in recent days the State Department has unleashed at all-out diplomatic offensive against its own citizens, essentially giving Israel the green light to kill them while washing their hands of any responsibility.  Consider the following:

Corcoran Super-Max Prisoners to Join Pelican Bay Hunger Strike July 1

As I couldn't find mention of this development regarding the upcoming hunger strike at California's Pelican Bay State Prison - and now Corcoran State Prison - on July 1, I'm posting this email I've received from the Jericho list and Freedom Archives list below. PARC has more background and documents on the hunger strike. Also, sign this petition supporting the hunger strikers and their demands.  It's important those of us on the outside spread the word about and stand in solidarity with those on the inside fighting to end the daily torture and abuse that embody the "Security Housing Unit."

Pelican Bay SHU

Greetings,

I am writing from behind the walls of Corcoran State Prison and am in an isolation super max section (i.e. short corridor) behind political beliefs not compatible to the state, and therefore isolated not only from general population, but also other prisoners. I am writing to inform your organization that we prisoners here at C.S.P. Corcoran are going to take part in the Pelican Bay State Prison’s Hunger Strike. (emphasis in original) I have enclosed a copy of our letter of solidarity and would kindly ask if you could make copies or submit it in one of your publications so as to inform the general public of our fight to change the inhuman conditions we are subjected to for our political beliefs or falsely identified as politically active in an organization. It would be greatly appreciated. Enclosed is a copy of our solidarity letter.

Haribu L.M. Soriano-Mugabi
C.S.P. Corcoran
P.O. Box 3481
Corcoran, CA 93212

Statement of Solidarity with the Pelican Bay Collective Hunger Strike on July 1st.
From: the N.C.T.T. Corcoran SHU

Greetings to all who support freedom, justice, and equality. We here of the N.C.T.T. SHU stand in solidarity with, and in full support of the July 1st hunger strike and the 5 major action points and sub-points as laid out by the Pelican Bay Collective in the Policy Statements (See, “Archives”, P.B.S.P.-SHU-D corridor hunger strike).

Anti-Mumia “abolitionist” Renny Cushing tries to clean up image in Mexico

As a contributor to El Enemigo Común and given the vicious attacks leveled against Carolina by Al Giordano in response to the publication of this article in various outlets (those attacks and Carolina's responses can be read at El Enemigo Común), I am republishing her article in cyber-solidarity. - scott

Anti-Mumia “abolitionist” Renny Cushing tries to clean up image in Mexico

[Originally published by El Enemigo Común]
[Spanish version]
May 31, 2011
x carolina

For Renny Cushing: May the light and shadow of Mumia Abu-Jamal follow you all the days of your life. May you vomit every time you look in the mirror. And may your portrait be hung in the gallery of the Fraternal Order of Police forever.

For 29 ½ years, the North American State ––its police, district attorneys, courts, news media–– have sought to silence the revolutionary African-American journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal once and for all.  Now they have some accomplices who call themselves “abolitionists” to help them do their job.  One of them is visiting in Mexico in an apparent attempt to polish his tarnished image by tagging onto the movement for Peace and Justice with Dignity sparked by the esteemed poet Javier Sicilia and embraced by the EZLN and thousands of Mexican people. His name is Renny Cushing. Several questions arise, and the first is this: How can a person who has lost all dignity offer anything to this movement?

Who is Renny Cushing?  Ex anti-nuke activist and death penalty opponent, he is a Democratic Party politician, has been a State Representative in New Hampshire several times, and is Director of Murder Victims Families for Human Rights.  

What is he doing in Mexico? Al Giordano’s old friend and mentor was invited to be a teacher in the Narco News School of Authentic Journalism in May, 2011.  Al Giordano is the founder and editor of Narco News Bulletin.

What does a politician allied with one of the most brutal police organizations in the U.S. have to do with authentic journalism? I don’t have the slightest idea.

What is he planning to do now? To the misfortune of the highly respected poet  Javier Sicilia, the EZLN and tens of thousands of Mexicans engaged in the process of building a movement for Peace and Justice with Dignity,  Renny Cushing is one of the United States organizers who will take part in the new Caravan that leaves from Cuernavaca for Cd. Juárez this coming June 4.  This was reported in an article written by  Lucero Mendizábal and published in  Narco News on May 22,, 2011.

What the Narco News article doesn’t mention

It’s highly possible that the reporter doesn’t know that Cushing was one of the supposed abolitionists who tried to silence Mumia Abu-Jamal on March 4, 2010, when they stalked out of the Fourth World Congress against the Death Penalty in Geneva, Switzerland on March 4, 2010, in an outrageous protest against a phone call to the Congress by the death row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal.

It’s also doubtful that Javier Sicilia has heard of this shameful episode.

The obvious question is this: Did Al Giordano know about it when he invited Cushing to Mexico?

Review of "Amexica: War Along the Borderline" by Ed Vulliamy

Picking up Amexica: War Along the Borderline by journalist Ed Vulliamy, I was initially excited, thinking here might be an accessible book by a veteran journalist capable of explaining to the English-speaking public just what is going on in Mexico and why.  Naïve, I know.  My suspicions were raised as early as the second paragraph when the author mistranslated the extremely common Spanish-language sign-off Atte: as Look out.  Atte: is actually an abbreviation of Atentamente, simply meaning Sincerely.  Get something that basic that wrong that early in the book, and I knew I was in for a ride - downhill.

In short, Amexica is part travelogue, part sympathetic recounting of the devastation of the militarization of the war on drugs, and part “look at what daring stuff this white guy did.”  Vulliamy gets some things right - pointing out the fact that the drug trade is just another form of transnational capitalism; examining the U.S. role in arming the cartels and laundering their money; describing the toll neoliberalism has taken on Mexico in terms of migration and maquiladoras; and putting names and faces on some the 35,000+ dead in Felipe Calderón’s disastrous so-called fight against organized crime.  The main problem is that all of this is carried out superficially and with a lack of historical context and political analysis, along with omissions and errors.  As such, if you want to know how things are right now in the borderlands, reading this book might be somewhat useful.  If you want to know why things are they way they are right now, this book will not help you.

In glossing over the past to get to the juicy, bloody present, Vulliamy does his readers a disservice.  There is no discussion of how the war on drugs as a concept emerged in the Nixon-era and developed as a strategy of population containment and oppression, a politically expedient and enormously profitable endeavor that since 2001 has coalesced well with the rhetoric of the war on terror and Bush and Obama’s war on migrants.  The end of 70 years of PRI rule in Mexico on the federal level, dismantling the pre-existing arrangements with the drug cartels just as they were getting more powerful due to the collapse of the Colombian cartels, goes nearly unexamined.  Similarly ignored is the role that Calderón’s legitimacy played in the launching of a military offensive inside of Mexico.  As he fraudulently arrived at the presidency, the drug war was a means of instilling his regime with legitimacy.  Scant attention is paid to the Mérida Initiative, the U.S.’s billion dollar military aid package to Mexico, nor to how the same police and military forces receiving the aid and executing the “drug war” are also involved in large scale human rights violations, massive corruption, and the severe repression of Mexico’s social movements - all with impunity.  Linking these factors to the current events that this book covers is essential for any understanding of the situation.

Adding to the contextual shortcomings of the book are the various errors and poor translations.  It’s stunning his editors either in the U.K. or U.S. did not hire a translator to verify his Spanish - or at least open a Spanish-English dictionary.  Some of the more humorous examples: He translates gabacho as someone from Europe and gringo as someone from the U.S. (Both mean someone from the U.S., Vulliamy would simply be a güero); and translating fresa - in reference to someone who dresses or acts bourgeois - literally as strawberry.  Regarding the facts, some examples of errors: The claim that Carlos Salinas privatized communally-held land in the 1980s. (He only arrived at the presidency in December of 1988, privatization did not begin until after the 1992 reform of Article 27 of the Mexican Constitution in preparation for NAFTA.)  Vulliamy’s statement that the Arrellano Félix Organization intentionally killed Cardinal Posadas Ocampo in 1993 in order to target the Catholic Church.  (Initial investigations showed they confused Posadas’ convoy with that of a rival cartel leader. More recent investigations indicate the assassination was likely state-sponsored.)  Or also his writing that “the only investigation of its kind” into Los Zetas penetration into Monterrey was carried out by a Los Angeles Times reporter, ignoring those done by Mexican journalists or Kristin Bricker for Narco News.

In sum, Vulliamy’s book leaves much to be desired and that which is present should be cautiously digested.  Even if it took a bit longer to put out, a more thoroughly-considered and better edited version of this book would have made a much more useful contribution to this politically-manufactured crisis facing Mexico and increasingly the U.S.

Call out for the 8th Mesoamerican Forum of the Peoples

[En español]

THE 8TH MESOAMERICAN FORUM OF THE PEOPLES

Friday, April 8th – Sunday, April 10th, 2011

Minatitlán, Veracruz, México

Linking the struggles of the peoples against domination

For the compañeros and compañeras in the struggle for a world free of domination, and for those who have been assassinated by the repressive state forces and oligarchies of our lands.

C O N S I D E R I N G

That capitalism and its prevailing neoliberal model in the Mesoamerican region has imposed free trade agreements with the United States, Commercial Partnership Agreements with Europe, and that these predatory politics of imperialist countries have only brought more misery to our people.

That for ten years, transnational corporations with the complicity of the region’s oligarchies have launched a major offensive to appropriate and privatize our natural (biodiversity, arable land, water, forests) and strategic resources (minerals, various energy/fuel sources) of our rural communities, metropolitan populations, and the garífuna and indigenous peoples through Plan Puebla Panamá – now called the Mesoamerican Integration Project - as a strategy to undermine what little sovereignty the people have, with the collaboration of their rulers. 

Therefore, the organizational and political advancement of our peoples has become an urgent necessity given the repressive politics of regional and U.S. oligarchs.  We must better prepare ourselves to confront the criminalization of popular movements and the militarization of our lands.

The history of Mesoamerica can be characterized by the plunder, injustice and violence that has weighed on our original peoples since the European invasion more than 500 years ago and has repeated itself up until the Honduran military coup in 2009.  Since that time, this history, which is ours, has been marked by the struggle of the peoples.  Today, we continue struggling against the capitalist projects of death put forward by the great imperialist powers. 

Therefore:

WE CALL

THE PEOPLES, COMMUNITIES AND ORGANIZATIONS THAT STRUGGLE, RESIST AND CONSTRUCT ALTERNATIVES

TO THE

8^th MESOAMERICAN FORUM OF THE PEOPLES

Friday, April 8th – Sunday, April 10th, 2011 

Minatitlán, Veracruz, Mexico

Address: School of Social Work at the Universidad Veracruzana, Minatitlan campus, located on calle Managua (without number), colonia: Nueva Minatitlan, Minatitlan, Veracruz, Mexico

The “low-intensity war” against autonomy (Part Two)

"The Hawks" paramilitary group attacks a student march on
June 10, 1971 in Mexico City, killing at least 30 people.

Part One

The “low-intensity war” against autonomy (Part Two)
By Daniel Arellano Chávez, Neri Martinez Hernandez and Ricardo Trujillo Gonzalez
December 2, 2010
Translated by Scott Campbell
[Spanish original]

From the Hawks and the White Brigade to the Caravan of Death, Peace and Justice, and UBISORT

The 1960s and 70s in Mexico were full of popular uprisings, peaceful or armed, which refused to submit to the regime that emerged following the 1910 Revolution, a regime that came about by eliminating the ambitions of the masses and the indigenous, assassinating the revolutionaries who had been demanding a profound transformation in the country; Villa, Zapata, Magón, killed along with one million others, so that the triumphant “revolutionary family”(civilian and military members of the Porfiriato, the liberal bourgeoisie, landowners, and defeated revolutionaries, together with U.S. interests) could impose their authoritarianism and remain in power.

The extermination of insurgents in the mountains of Guerrero

Genaro Vásquez Rojas and Lucio Cabañas Barrientos, rural teachers, active participants in their communities’ protests, persecuted, witnesses to and survivors of massacres against their peoples, rise up in arms; their demands range from the struggle against local strongmen to the transformation of the country.  Resisting from the mountains, their National Revolutionary Civic Association (ACNR) and the Party of the Poor’s (PDLP) Execution Brigade cause the Mexican army’s largest losses since the Revolution.  The powerful don’t forgive their impudence.

“Fourteen military campaigns are carried out to annihilate both subversive organizations.  Baloy Mayo amply documents them in his book La guerilla de Genaro y de Lucio.  For the first campaign, after which Lucio goes underground as a result of the Atoyac massacre in 1967, the army carried out “peaceful” patrols in the Atoyac mountains, where, under the guise of medical or sports programs, they tried to win the confidence of the inhabitants.  For the second, after the Tlatelolco Massacre, when Genaro and Lucio begin to act, the army turns to paramilitary groups organized by the strongmen’s “white guards” and start to undertake violent incursions into the mountain towns.” [1]

“It was during the second campaign that the actions of the army, who accompanied the paramilitaries, took a radical turn.  This occurred approximately in 1968-1969.  From then on, not only would they seek out direct clashes with the rebel groups, but the most brutal persecution took place in the taking over entire towns, to raid the homes of peasants in a true ‘witch hunt,’ unjustified detentions, torture and disappearances of men and women became routine.  Not giving a second thought to the type and means of persecution, the government had no problem deploying groups of gunmen to join up with the police and the army in all their military maneuvers, starting with the second anti-guerilla campaign.” [2]

In the “summer of 1973 there was a shakeup at the highest levels of the military.  Brigadier General Alberto Sánchez López (a participant in Operation Galeana, the Tlatelolco Massacre of 1968) became Chief of the General Staff, the ‘top technical operative body’ of the Department of National Defense; Colonel Jaime Contreras Guerrero (a graduate of the Inter-American Defense College in the United States) became head of military intelligence, and Lieutenant Colonel Mario Renán Castillo Fernández (who studied at Fort Bragg, North Carolina) became head of General Staff operations.  In Guerrero, Brigadier General Eliseo Jiménez Ruiz was named commander of the 35th Military Zone, based in Chilpancingo, assisted by Lieutenant Colonel Enrique Cervantes Aguirre as his Chief of the General Staff.  General Salvador Rangel Medina is posted to the 27th Military Zone based in Acapulco.  The last two generals are responsible for putting into motion Operation Firefly, which sought to tighten the siege around the guerillas.”

But the persistence of the rebellious Guerrerans was enormous. Genaro and Lucio were visible actors in the rebellion, however the sustenance of the guerillas was above all found in their deep roots in the community, shown by the number of military campaigns launched against them, which they repelled, as well as the constant changes in military command: