Immigration protests

As immigration reform rallies covered the country yesterday, they sent a simple but succinct message to lawmakers around the United States; change is needed. Let's hope someone gets the message.

In 2001 Howard Zinn wrote "How can a war be truly just when it involves the daily killing of civilians, when it causes hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children to leave their homes to escape the bombs, when it may not find those who planned the September 11 attacks, and when it will multiply the ranks of people who are angry enough at this country to become terrorists themselves?

This war amounts to a gross violation of human rights, and it will produce the exact opposite of what is wanted: It will not end terrorism; it will proliferate terrorism."

Unfortunately he was right. And the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are still raging as the recent bombings in Baghdad illustrate, and show no signs of abating. The chaos of the American military intervention has reduced the quality of life drastically all over Iraq and the war is STILL CONTINUING.

The walkout on April 18th is vitally important...we need to keep fighting to stop this.

From NAFTA to KORUSFTA

Excerpts:

"Trade representatives from the United States and South Korea are racing against the clock to sign the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement under the "fast track" deadline.

Given the effects of NAFTA on America's manufacturing workers and Mexico's farmers, free traders can no longer simply tout the miracles of neoliberal economics. According to the Economic Policy Institute, since NAFTA took effect, over 1 million workers in the U.S. lost their high-paying manufacturing jobs, and were forced to take lower-paying service jobs where they now earn 23 percent less. U.S. workers without a college education - 73 percent of the population - saw their wages drop by 13 percent since NAFTA took effect.

But NAFTA's impact is even more apparent in Mexico where real wages dropped by 80 percent and unemployment rose from nine to 15 percent. Approximately 1.5 million Mexican farmers were forced to give up farming because they were unable to meet the price of corn produced by massively-subsidized U.S. agribusinesses."

And get this:

"From 1995 to 2005, the U.S. rice industry received over $10.5 billion dollars in government subsidies, and the lion's share - 25 percent - went to the top one percent of rice growers. In the U.S., the average rice farm is 397 acres, compared with South Korea's average rice farm of 3.5 acres. Approximately 8,000 of America's two million farms grow rice, compared with South Korea, where over 787,000 farms - or 57 percent - cultivate rice."

Globalization and free trade make for beautiful economic theory and end up tearing apart the lives of the victims of government policy makers.

Original: http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/020807LA.shtml

CHINA IS ABOUT TO FUCKING EXPLODE-20,000 RIOT IN ZSHUSHAN

A student was killed and at least 60 people were injured in central China when villagers armed with bricks and rocks clashed with baton-wielding police over rising bus fares.

read it: libcom news article

***there over 100,000 incidences of civil unrest such as this a year in China. I give it two, maybe three years, but shit there is going to blow up. And you can bet the bastards on top won't go easily. The question is this: Will the United States condemn one of its top trading partners when People's Republic soldiers start gunning down civilians? Call me cynical, but I bet not.***

There's a Voting Rights Forum this Thursday at 7:30, at Seattle First Baptist Church. The 'Democratic Process' as it is practiced in this country may be better regulated than Nigeria but the basic principles of discrimination are still alive and kicking...here's what the group that's putting on the forum have to say:

"Citizens in Washington D.C. do not have full voting rights. Thousands of persons convicted of felonies who are not incarcerated do not have the right to vote in Washington State. Other voting restrictions place a burden on voters at the polls, particularly low-income, immigrant and minority citizens.

Moderated by Dorry Elias-Garcia, speakers will discuss current restrictions on voting and share personal experiences. Special guests include Ellen Berg, Bill Crepeau, Nadine Shiroma and Nancy Talner.

Co-sponsored by the ACLU of Washington, the Minority Executive Directors Coalition (MEDC), Raising Our Asian Pacific American Representation (ROAR) and the Hate Free Zone."

Check out more info on the event: http://lwvsea.brinkster.net/forum2.asp?id=366

The U.S. military and intelligence agencies continue to believe that they're beyond the realm of human rights and the Geneva Convention. Hit up the link to read more about illegal extraordinary rendition of African 'terror suspects'.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032307O.shtml

Arctic in danger

The Arctic is the newest spot endangered by Global Warming.

"Pollution from industrialized countries is heating the Arctic atmosphere faster than any region on Earth, a new study warns.

European researchers writing in today's issue of the journal Science report that temperature spikes in the Arctic are mainly caused by "human-induced emissions of long-lived greenhouse gases."

Ship emissions, smoke from summer forest fires, and air pollutants such as aerosols and ozone coming from the lower latitudes are contributing to "significant warming trends," the report authors say."

Better start learning how to swim. Check out the original: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/03/070316-arctic-pollution.html

Anti-Starbucks

If you're ever in the UK make sure to check out this site first...called "the delocator" it attempts to match you up with non-corporate coffee stores in any post code in the country! A must for the consumate traveller!

http://www.delocator.org.uk/

Iraq War, Ya Know...

Though the Bush administration can’t figure out how to win in Iraq, it is scoring a big victory on the public relations battlefield with its favorite myth: If you cut funding for the war you are not “supporting our troops.” If you support the troops you have to keep on paying billions for a failed war.

To believe that one, you’ve got to believe several other myths.

Myth one: The Bush administration does support the troops. In fact, of course, they’ve shorted the troops on everything from body armor to medical care for four years now.

Myth two: The only way to support the troops is to put them at risk of death or grievous injury and leave them there, for no good reason. If that’s “support,” then I’m glad I’m not being supported.

Myth three: Either we keep war funding at its present astronomical level or we won’t be supporting the troops at all. In fact, there is plenty of room to find a middle ground, to cut the funding by some amount yet still give the troops what they need to stay safe.

http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0315-22.htm

Global Warming Marches On...

The poor of other countries are now paying for the consumption of the West. In particular the subsistence and traditional farmers of low-lying coastal areas are suffering as their farmland is submerged; the islanders of India have been the latest to feel it.

Top climate experts on the UN panel predicted that temperatures would increase by between 1.8 and 4 Celsius (3.2 and 7.8 Fahrenheit), and sea levels would rise by between 7 and 23 inches to submerge islands in the 21st century.

The impact could be even greater if ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland thaw.

But in India they're already suffering...

Two nearby islands disappeared beneath the sea after residents were forced to leave, and the sea has swallowed about 100 sq. km of mangrove forest in three decades in the Sunderbans.

Now would be the time to notice!

Check out the original at http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031907P.shtml

Oppression in Chiapas

The poorest in Mexico's poorest state face yet more government sponsored oppression. The latest in a long line of sanctioned violence against the indigenous people of the Americas.

http://www.ainfos.ca:81/en/ainfos19215.html

Anarchist Bookfair

An anarchist bookfair, art exhibition, and film festival is being held in Manhattan on April 14th. Awesome!

http://www.ainfos.ca:81/en/ainfos19218.html

Hindus Defy Pollution to Bathe in Ganges Festival

**What does it say about our world and our culture that a sacred rite dating to over 2,000 years ago is threatened because we insist on constantly poisoning our earth? Well, that it's, um, FUCKED UP!**

ALLAHABAD, India -- Hindu holy men brandishing spears and tridents charged into the sacred Ganges on Monday, after threats to boycott the world's largest religious festival over pollution failed to dent devotees' fervour.

Industrial discharges, sewage, pesticides and the rotting remains of dead bodies have increased pollution levels in the Ganges over the years despite government promises to clean-up India's most sacred river.

more here: http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=12032

Christian Right- Stop Concern over Climate Change, Resume Gay-bashing

**Apparently the religious fascists on the right are wary of any diversion to their goals of seizing control over the bodies of women and queer folks. At the risk of sounding too militant or hateful, this is the enemy, kids.**

Leaders of several conservative Christian groups have sent a letter urging the National Association of Evangelicals to force its policy director in Washington to stop speaking out on global warming.

The conservative leaders say they are not convinced that global warming is human-induced or that human intervention can prevent it. And they accuse the director, the Rev. Richard Cizik, the association’s vice president for government affairs, of diverting the evangelical movement from what they deem more important issues, like abortion and homosexuality.

Read all about it: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0303-05.htm

Market collapses for patriotic merchandise

**Interesting story about a drop in demand for nationalistic slogans and memorabilia now that the war in Iraq has taken a turn for the worse.
Apparently people are only gung-ho for amerika when it's winning.**

For three years after the invasion of Iraq, it was difficult to drive more
than a few miles through middle America without seeing a car displaying a
magnetic yellow ribbon.

The magnets, bearing the slogan "Support Our Troops", became a symbol of
patriotism for millions of US motorists.

But as support for the war fades, demand for yellow ribbons has collapsed.

Magnet America, the largest manufacturer of the product, has seen sales fall
from a peak of 1.2m in August 2004 to about 4,000 a month and now has an
unsold stockpile of about 1m magnets.

read the full story at: http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20070302222500507

Compadres in Bellingham Throw Down

This Saturday, February 24th, over 100 people rallied in front of Bellingham, WA's Military Recruitment Center demanding an end to both the US occupation of Iraq and military recruitment in schools. The event, called in part by Northwest Students for a Democratic Society, was done in coordination with similar actions in both Tacoma and Olympia.

full article:
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20070225150214203

Word to B-ham.
Some cool stuff going on these days.

Constitutionary Politics

"...whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."

"...when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government..."

Lines from the Constitution. Which governs you, for right or wrong. So why don't we listen to these lines quite as hard?

US blows infrastructure to shit!

Came across this while reading the anarchist blog tothebarricades. Kinda sad article. Note:

Millions of Iraqis lack potable water and live with bad sewage systems, which have increased the incidence of waterborne diseases such as diarrhoea.

"The water shortage is a real problem in some parts of Iraq as a large part of the country is desert. But the existing networks have also suffered from lack of maintenance or by being destroyed during the war," said Cedric Turlan, information officer for the NGOs Coordination Committee in Iraq (NCCI).

According to the Ministry of Water Resources, only 32 percent of the Iraqi population has access to clean drinking water, and only 19 percent has access to a good sewage system.


http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/47680f1705a41755f52cc54b99ad50ae.htm

Israel gets a CO

Israel has recognized a Conscientious Objector for the first time in its history. Those who refuse to join the IDF have been ostracized from Israeli society...read more! http://www.ainfos.ca:81/en/ainfos19125.html

The White House fucks over Guantanamo again!

Detainees at Guantanamo Bay were denied the right to protest their imprisonment on the basis that their right to Habeas Corpus had been revoked by the Military Commissions Act...which was passed by Congress and thus the law of the land. Hold up...does Congress really have the right to legislate the rights of the citizens of other countries, let alone ours? This story lays bare the limits of the Representative Democracy, the Bush administration's foreign policy, the influence of the military in Washington, blah blah blah...

Check out what Amnesty International has to say about it the recent Guantanamo issue.

http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/document.do?id=ENGAMR510302007

Israeli activist sentenced

In our 4th issue we brought you the story of activists in Israel who protested the construction of a separation fence. Read more about how an activist was convicted for his part in the protests. Note the Judge's words: "it saddens me that a mature and articulate individual has come to the conclusion that the only way he can express his opinions is through the violation of the law, even if the law does not seem appropriate."

That's what we're all about boys and girls...as Henry David Thoreau said: "Anyone in a free society where the laws are unjust has an obligation to break the law."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/827284.html

Native Americans Still Victims

Ever since the BIA forced Native Americans to give up their children to white-run boarding schools designed to indoctrinate the youth, education has been the first line of the offensive against Native American culture and prosperity. As this article shows, that spirit is still alive and kicking in the Dakotas and the Midwest: http://www.progressive.org/mag_pember0207?page=0%2C0

We fight to save the wilderness

If we don't fight for the wild, our grandchildren will never know it.

Greenpeace

Greenpeace is keeping up it's usual barrage of symbolic protests to save the environment. Kimberly-Clark, the company that manufactures Kleenex, continues to turn ancient-growth forests into tissues. On February 12th it found itself a target ( http://kleercut.net/en/kc-lockdown ).

Who's reading your email?

Not content with tapping phones, the United States government has evidently decided to make sure no-one plans a revolution in cyberspace. Yet more civil liberties violated in the name of 'National Security', the buzzword that seems to waive everybody's rights these days. read more: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021507U.shtml

Is Iran Next?

Sure looks like the good ol' boys of the Pentagon and White House are gearing up for another good ol' war. Apparently one Mid-east disaster wasn't enough. Round up the cannon fodder. The chickenhawks are ready to go.

The link below is pretty interesting. It's kind of a U.S. government propaganda clearinghouse, with links to dozens of articles on attempted justification of an attack on Iran. Check it:

http://shiftshapers.gnn.tv/blogs/21670/Propaganda_Extravaganza_Redux_Target_Iran

Orlando Neo-Nazi rally organized by FBI informant

Fucked up.
But sadly, not entirely surprising.
---------------------------------

A paid FBI informant was the man behind a neo-Nazi march through the streets of Parramore that stirred up anxiety in Orlando's black community and fears of racial unrest that triggered a major police mobilization. That revelation came Wednesday in an unrelated federal court hearing and has prompted outrage from black leaders, some of whom demanded an investigation into whether the February 2006 march was, itself, an event staged by law-enforcement agencies.

Read the full story:
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20070215141516763

NEW ISSUE OUT!!!!

So our newest issue came out today.
it rocks.
find us at school or email us to get a copy.
scans soon at www.freewebs.com/haymarket_herald

The Haymarket Herald has landed!

The haymarket herald, Ingraham's radical underground newspaper is continuing its incursion into cyberspace with this blog-you can check out the website at www.freewebs.com/haymarket_herald.
Go on, it'll be fun!