The latest on Dandelion Salad30 September, 2010 — BRussell Tribunal
Ken Loach on the Tribunal On September 30, 2010
Film director Ken Loach explains why he supports the Russell Tribunal on Palestine
1st collector for Ken Loach on the Tribunal | Russell Tribunal on…
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30 September, 2010 – ZCommunications – ZNet Article
Venezuelan election commentary is still in flux – reactions are still trickling in. Still, so far available analyses are mostly failing to address the election's most important implications.
Yes, the Bolivarian Revolution is still in the saddle.
Yes, Chavez is vastly more popular – despite being in office ten years – than Obama, now in office for two years.
Yes the PSUV has retained more support and influence than, for example, the Democrats in the U.S.
30 September, 2010 — Bolivia Rising
Indigenous brothers of the world:
I am deeply concerned because some pretend to use leaders and indigenous groups to promote the commoditization of nature and in particular of forest through the establishment of the REDD mechanism (Reduction Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) and its versions REDD+ REED++.
Every day an extension of forests and rainforest equivalent to 36,000 football fields disappears in the world. Each year 13 million hectares of forest and rain forest are lost. At this rate, the forests will disappear by the end of the century.
30 September, 2010 — williambowles.info
It strikes me that we here in the UK have been top dog for so damn long that we've forgotten what it feels like to be an ordinary country, yet the memory lingers on…
"And it is why I will commit to you here and now. My beliefs will run through everything I do. My beliefs, my values are my anchor and when people try to drag me, as I know they will, it is to that sense of right and wrong, that sense of who I am and what I believe, to which I will always hold." — From Ed's keynote speech at the Labour Party conference.
What beliefs exactly are not spelt out but never mind, just like Tony Blair, fine-sounding words make up for any lack of content. So Ed is just an old-time social democrat after all? Amazing, after thirteen years of neo-Thatcherism, the beaten 'party of labour' all of a sudden rediscovers its 'roots'. Who could trust such people?
If the whole charade wasn't such a miserable and desperate attempt to regain the 'high ground', Labour's attempt to reinvent itself again, it would be nothing short of laughable.
And predictably the media is doing the 'Red Ed' putdown, as the ruling class gets nervous about the possible reactions from 'militants' in the unions who were instrumental in putting Ed in power. So Labour has to tread a narrow and very precarious line between protest and the fear of unleashing 'social unrest' and 'industrial chaos'.
The repeated use of the word “militants” throughout the piece is standard for the business-friendly press. So too is the use of scare words and phrases that are traditional warning signals of the presence of rabid unionists and other undesirables: “threats”, which are sometimes “veiled”, the prospect of “industrial chaos” and, perhaps the worst example in the interview, the fear that “TUC's plan for organised protest” could “play into the hands of those who hijack legitimate demonstrations for their own violent ends”. – 'Media Alert: “veiled threats” of “industrial chaos"'
So what is 'Not Red Ed' up to? I hazard the following guess: It must have been pretty obvious that Labour would lose the election and having already stated that they would 'put off' cuts in public spending for a coupla years, Ed has predictably attacked the Tory/Lib-Dem govt's plans to scupper our public services.
And it ties in neatly with his trade union backers who are mostly government workers, in fact it makes 'Not Red Ed' look squeaky clean. It's a good move, though as the government has got over four years to wreck everything (if anybody bothers to vote in four and a half years), they'll reelect a Labour government. And then what?
Surely, this Tweedle-Dee, Tweedle-Dum fiasco has gotta end?
The media of course, have had a field day; they finally have something/someone new to talk about. Someone who allegedly is not part of the ancien regime[1] and the now jettisoned New tag. It's a facsimile of the Morning Star's call for a 'return to social democracy'. Here's how the Independent summed up 'Not Red Ed's' conference speech:
"As such it was the most daring speech from a Labour leader delivered for a long time. In his conference addresses Tony Blair used to proclaim his boldness while advancing views that had been common orthodoxy since the early 1980s. Ed Miliband did not repeatedly express his boldness. He opted to be genuinely courageous by challenging some of those orthodoxies. He did so partly by repudiating parts of his party's past in terms that were explicit and cathartic: New Labour had become trapped by its old certainties. Iraq was wrong. New Labour had been too tolerant of light regulation and too dependent on the financial markets for revenue. New Labour had been too casual about civil liberties. The list of misjudgements was carefully balanced with many references to the achievements of 13 years of rule. — 'The dawn of Generation Ed', The Independent, 29 September, 2010 (my emph.)
'Generation Ed'? Puleeze! So, the past is behind us, welcome back to the future of 'old' Labour. After all, take away the four areas the Indie chose to select as proof of the arrival of 'Generation Ed' and indeed it does look like a pre-1992 Labour Party. The Star's social democracy no less.
Others on the left sound also sound positively euphoric about 'Not Red Ed's' success, for example:
"Early on, Labour’s most respected elder statesman, Tony Benn, backed Ed Miliband signaling to the rank and file that it was time for a return to Labour’s core progressive principles and her political base in the working class. Ed Miliband accomplished a few very deft and subtle maneuvers (SMS texting) that established his personal brand as the leader of the next generation rather than the heir-apparent of the last. Ed Miliband articulated his progressive vision by advocating, “a living wage,” the “greening” of the British economy and the introduction of, “windfall taxes.” — 'Insurgent Ed Miliband Ends the New Labour Era' by Michael Carmichael
The parallels with Obama's victory are not too far away:
"The election of 40-year-old Ed Miliband to lead the UK’s Labour Party proves the existence of a vibrant progressive movement in Britain that mirrors Barack Obama’s victory over Hillary Clinton in 2008. In 2006, I met Ed Miliband at a Young Fabians seminar in the House of Commons. At that point, I felt that he was moving swiftly toward great things. (ibid)
But answer me this: If 'Not Red Ed' is to avoid becoming 'Red Ed' (and the media have already told us what they think), the last thing he can do is use the Labour Party to bring the people out onto the streets in protest. After all, wouldn't this be the logical thing to do before the cuts take effect, never mind what we do after? It's only by mobilizing people on a vast scale that we stand any kind of chance of halting the cuts. But it's not to be:
"“Brendan Barber, head of the TUC, is not asking us to copy Greek workers in their fight against cuts. Yet plenty of his members want to do just that.” — ‘King of compromise alone on a tightrope’, Sunday Times, 19 September, 2010
With a leader of the UK's trade unions like Barber, who needs enemies? Ever since 2007 when the current crisis got underway, whenever the 'people' are mentioned it's in the same breath as 'social unrest', otherwise we just don't exist except as the 'public', that vague term that excludes trade union members (over six million), 'militants' (10-20,000?) and assorted ne'er-do-wells (number unknown).
Note
1. Of course, this is pure BS, 'Not Red Ed' is just as much a part of the ancien regime as anyone else in the Labour Party's 'inner sanctum'. It's all part of the process of shedding the past, again and again…
29 September, 2010 — ICH
Robert Gates: 'We're Not Ever Leaving' Afghanistan
By Marcus Baram
In a shocking indication of a split between the White House and the Pentagon over the war in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates believes that the U.S. military will never leave the war-torn country.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26477.htm
Statement By The Afghan Resistance
By The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
Reaction of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan to the Remarks of General Petraeus.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26483.htm
29 September, 2010 – URUK Net
My Family Photo Album
Layla Anwar
September 29, 2010 – This is one of my Family photo albums, the nicest I’ve got…I have other ones, of close “brothers and sisters”…but I am keeping it for some other time. This one dates 2003-2004. I don’t have words anymore…I packed them every morning early at dawn and sold them on the market…proved to be a bankrupt business – now you can relate to that – bankrupt. So I decided to share some photos of my family instead…after all, you’ve all been very curious to know what I look like…so tonight, I will assuage your curiosity and quench that thirst of yours…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=70264
Afghanistan: NATO soldiers kill children, officials say
Mirwais Himmat
September 29, 2010 – Four children were killed by coalition forces after a militant attack on a security patrol in southern Ghazni province on Wednesday, officials saids. Helicopter-borne foreign soldiers killed the children and wounded two men and a woman in an orchard in the Andar town, said the district chief, Sher Khan Yousafzai… The NATO-led soldiers did not let civilians collect the bodies, community chief, complained Dr. Ghani Bahadari, a member of the community council…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=70269
28 September, 2010 – URUK Net
Testimonies of Crimes Against Humanity in Fallujah – Towards a Fair International Criminal Trial
Conservation Centre of Environmental & Reserves in Fallujah (CCERF) & Monitoring Net of Human Rights in Iraq
To / High Commissioner of Human Rights of United Nations & The Office of Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council of UN 20-9-2010 . Your Excellency Followings upon our previous reports and submitted statements concerning what has happened and continue to happen in the City of Fallujah, Iraq. We wish to draw your attention to the deteriorating situation. From the outset and at the start of the indiscriminate and merciless campaign of collective punishment and wilful destruction, undertaken by the occupational troops of the United States of America, and inflicted upon the innocent defenceless civilians in Fallujah Most of which commenced in 2003 and since. The inhumane siege and indiscriminate killing that occurred in the First Incursions of Fallujah,(4/4/2004 to 5/5/2004).The genocidal massacres commenced with sustained and targeted bombing campaign, aimed directly at the homes of defenceless civilians, resulting in the killing and maiming of dozens of them, all carried out, under the false pretext of “pursuing the leaders of the resistance”, they then, proceeded to prepare the media and political establishments, for a second massacre in September 2004 the operation, seized in November 2004, as in the first incursions, has again resulted in the deaths of thousands more innocent, defenceless civilian victims, killed, wounded, now missin! g, or we re displaced…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=70261
29 September, 2010 — VTJP
News
International Middle East Media Center
Nobel Peace Laureate Still Detained By Israel
IMEMC – 29 Sep 2010 – Thursday September 30, 2010 – 04:48, Nobel Peace Laureate, Mairead Maguire, is still imprisoned by Israel and awaiting deportation from the country.
Man Wounded After Being Rammed By Settler’s Vehicle
IMEMC – 29 Sep 2010 – Thursday September 30, 2010 – 03:27, Palestinian medical sources reported on Wednesday at night that a Palestinian man from Nablus, in the northern part of the West Bank, was moderately wounded after being rammed by the a speeding settlers’ vehicle.
29 September, 2010 — IPS
MIDEAST: Hungry in Gaza, More and More
Eva Bartlett
GAZA CITY, Sep 29 – “Sometimes, for a day or two we don’t even have bread, nor flour to make bread. There’s a store nearby that, when we are truly desperate, lets us take a bag of bread or something simple, on credit. I owe them a lot of money for the food I’ve brought from them, but I still can’t pay them.”
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52996
Europe Offers Tax Benefits for Illegal Settlements
David Cronin
BRUSSELS, Sep 28 – Organisations raising funds to benefit the Israeli army and illegal settlements in the West Bank enjoy tax-exempt status in Europe, an IPS investigation has shown.
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52983
MIDEAST: Riots Grip East Jerusalem
Mel Frykberg
SILWAN, Occupied East Jerusalem, Sep 27 – Tension, the twisted carcasses of gutted vehicles, buses with smashed windows, smouldering dumpsters, streets riddled with rubber-coated steel bullets and empty cartridge cases, teargas, and air thickened with black soot from burning tyres marked the beginning of the fifth day Monday of continuous rioting in East Jerusalem.
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52978
MIDEAST: Homeless Bedouin Take On the State
Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler
AL-ARAQIB, Israel, Sep 26 – The pukk…pukk …pukk of a generator wired into the engine of a small truck punctures the silence of the desert. A man folds the bottom of his long yellow galabiya robe, tucking it into his blue jeans. He takes a plank of wood from the back of the truck and carries it over to a younger man who is sawing other planks.
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52968
Read more IPS reporting on Iraq & the Middle East here.
http://www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/iraq/index.asp
29 September, 2010 — IPS
MIDEAST: Hungry in Gaza, More and More
Eva Bartlett
GAZA CITY, Sep 29 – “Sometimes, for a day or two we don’t even have bread, nor flour to make bread. There’s a store nearby that, when we are truly desperate, lets us take a bag of bread or something simple, on credit. I owe them a lot of money for the food I’ve brought from them, but I still can’t pay them.”
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52996
Europe Offers Tax Benefits for Illegal Settlements
David Cronin
BRUSSELS, Sep 28 – Organisations raising funds to benefit the Israeli army and illegal settlements in the West Bank enjoy tax-exempt status in Europe, an IPS investigation has shown.
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52983
MIDEAST: Riots Grip East Jerusalem
Mel Frykberg
SILWAN, Occupied East Jerusalem, Sep 27 – Tension, the twisted carcasses of gutted vehicles, buses with smashed windows, smouldering dumpsters, streets riddled with rubber-coated steel bullets and empty cartridge cases, teargas, and air thickened with black soot from burning tyres marked the beginning of the fifth day Monday of continuous rioting in East Jerusalem.
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52978
MIDEAST: Homeless Bedouin Take On the State
Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler
AL-ARAQIB, Israel, Sep 26 – The pukk…pukk …pukk of a generator wired into the engine of a small truck punctures the silence of the desert. A man folds the bottom of his long yellow galabiya robe, tucking it into his blue jeans. He takes a plank of wood from the back of the truck and carries it over to a younger man who is sawing other planks.
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52968
Read more IPS reporting on Iraq & the Middle East here.
http://www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/iraq/index.asp
30 September, 2010 — BAR
President Barack “Midnight Raid” Obama: End Your Wars at Home and Abroad
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
Last week’s FBI raids likely signal that the Obama regime has begun a major campaign to criminalize and crush the Left. Think COINTELPRO, 21st century-style. President Obama, the constitutional rights lawyer who claims the right to kill at will, seeks to strangle the activist opposition to his wars and pro-Wall Street policies. “For targets not marked for oblivion, there awaits a grand jury with boundless powers to ensnare anyone.”
I Wanna Be A Macho Man: The Prosperity Gospel According to Eddie Long
by Sikivu Hutchinson
Allegations that Bishop Eddie Long lured young Black men to become his sexual playthings should come as no surprise, since his brand of “faith pimping spiritual ministry translates into emotional manipulation, psychological control, and sexual exploitation.” Long, a “self-proclaimed ‘spiritual daddy’ to a nationwide army of ‘wayward’ sons,” is the inevitable offspring of religious patriarchy and robber baron politics.
30 September, 2010 — Eric Walberg
The new Ottomans and the new Byzantines are poised for an intercept as the US stumbles in the current Great Game, reports Eric Walberg
The neocon plan to transform the Middle East and Central Asia into a pliant client of the US empire and its only-democracy-in-the-Middle-East is now facing a very different playing field. Not only are the wars against the Palestinians, Afghans and Iraqis floundering, but they have set in motion unforeseen moves by all the regional players.
21 September, 2010 — Eric Walberg
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign moves ahead in Washington, California, British Columbia, Harvard and Brown Universities, and the Netherlands, notes Eric Walberg
In July, in Rachel Corrie’s hometown of Olympia, Washington state, the popular Food Co-op announced that no Israeli products would be sold at its two grocery stores. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a principal endorser of this new Israel Divestment Campaign, issued a statement endorsing the boycott. “The Olympia Food Co-op has joined a growing worldwide movement on the part of citizens and the private sector to support by non-violent tangible acts the Palestinian struggle for justice and self-determination.”
28 September, 2010 — Palestine Center
On or about Sept. 26 the Israeli government’s declared settlement moratorium came to an end. This has been identified as a major obstacle in the nascent peace talks. The moratorium has been incomplete and settlement construction has continued in many areas despite the so-called “freeze.” As settlers awaited the coming of this date to return to large-scale building, Palestinian negotiators stated they will not continue with negotiations without an extension of the freeze. What role will the Israeli government’s decision have on the peace talks? What happens if these talks fail and what is the fallout if failure comes so early in the process? If a deal is reached and peace talks continue, what role will settlement construction play in destabilizing the process?
1st collector for The Settlement Freeze and the Peace Process Fr…
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These videos may be used without permission but with proper attribution to The Palestine Center. The speaker’s views do not necessarily reflect the views of The Jerusalem Fund.
30 September, 2010
Almost 200 people packed a Tower Hamlets meeting to resist the cuts. Distributed by Tubemogul.
1st collector for Len Aldis Pensioners Representative – Tower Ham… Follow my videos on vodpod
26 September 2010 — Occupation Magazine
Journal of a voyage
The course is 120. Another 200 miles to the port in Cyprus and the automatic pilot in the boat, which is supposed to maintain the course, refuses to work and leaves me with the unending task of maintaining the course on a turbulent sea with no sign of land from horizon to horizon. In another half hour, Itamar, my brother, who is also a “refusenik,” will relieve me at the wheel, after him Bruce and then Glyn will take their shifts. If everything goes according to plan, we will reach Famagusta at midday on Saturday, and there we will pick up the rest of the passengers, who together with us, as strange as it may seem, will try to break the blockade of Gaza.
For some weeks already we have been making our way east, from the Greek island on which the yacht was bought, from north of the Peloponnese through the Corinthian Canal, the Cycladic islands. Already we have experienced just about every kind of mishap in the book: the engines overheated on us and died, the wheel suddenly became detached, the anchor got stuck, the sail tore, a storm, and more. What we have not yet experienced is the uniqueness, the wondrousness and the strong arm of the IDF – the most moral army in the world, for those who forgot.
Check out my video library on Vodpod’s Vodspot. Over 900 videos and more added all the time.
29 September, 2010 — National Security Archive
Ambassador Cited Accused Colombian General’s Reliance on Death Squads
“Systematic” Support of Paramilitaries “Pivotal to his Military Success”
Infamous General a “Not-So-Success” Story of U.S. Military Training
For more information contact:
Michael Evans – 202/994-7029
mevans@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, September 29, 2010 – The U.S. ambassador to Colombia reported in 1998 that the “systematic arming and equipping of aggressive regional paramilitaries” was “pivotal” to the military success of Gen. Rito Alejo del Río Rojas, now on trial for murder and collaboration with paramilitary death squads while commander of a key army unit in northern Colombia.
The Secret “Biographic Note” from Ambassador Curtis Kamman is one of several documents published today by the National Security Archive pertaining to Del Río, whose trial resumes this month after years of impunity and delay. The documents are also the subject of an article published today in Spanish at VerdadAbierta.com, the leading online gateway for information on paramilitarism in Colombia. The article was also published in English today on the Web site of the National Security Archive.
“The collection is a unique and potentially valuable source of evidence in the case against Del Río, reflecting years of reports linking the senior army commander to paramilitarism,” said Michael Evans, director of the Archive’s Colombia Documentation Project. “As Del Río’s trial resumes, the court should examine the contemporaneous accounts of U.S. officials who were required by law to monitor and certify Colombia’s human rights performance.”
Other revelations include:
* The U.S. embassy takes a favorable view of Col. Carlos Alfonso Velásquez, who called for an investigation of Del Río’s ties to paramilitary groups, noting that his statements “add credibility to our human rights report.”
* A report on a conversation with Col. Velásquez, who told U.S. military officials that cooperation with paramilitaries “had gotten much worse under Del Río.”
* Documents reporting conspicuous increases in anti-paramilitary operations after Del Río’s transfer out of northern Colombia. The embassy said it was “more than coincidental that the recent anti-paramilitary actions have all taken place since the departure from northern Colombia of military personnel believed to favor paramilitaries.”
* The embassy notes a disturbing instance of possible military-paramilitary complicity in a paramilitary attack outside Bogotá just weeks after Del Río took command of the nearby military brigade.
* The shifting U.S. opinion about Del Río is clearly evident in two U.S. military reports from early 1998. In the first, Del Río, who attended the U.S. Army School of the Americas, is lauded as a U.S. military training “success story.” But a second, corrected, report from March 1998 lists Del Río instead as a “not-so-success” story, citing his alleged paramilitary ties.
Visit the Archive’s Web site or VerdadAbierta.com for more information about today’s posting.
________________________________________________________
THE NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE is an independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The Archive collects and publishes declassified documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). A tax-exempt public charity, the Archive receives no U.S. government funding; its budget is supported by publication royalties and donations from foundations and individuals.
29 September, 2010 — RT Top Stories
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Thousands of farmers in India are against the government’s plans to build a new highway. With two-thirds of the country’s population dependent on agriculture, land acquisition turns out to be a sensitive issue.
Indian farmers took to their capital recently in protest against a government takeover of their land to build a new $2 billion highway.
This followed the death of three farmers who were killed after police opened fire on protestors in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
‘We will not give our land for development at any price. We are ready to die, and will not allow anyone to step on our land,’ said protestor Jaipal Singh Advani. ‘Farmers have woken up and become conscious. There is no question of us giving our land to the government now.’
29 September, 2010 — williambowles.info
Lenin’s famous pamphlet ‘What is to be done?’ was written in 1901 and addressed in part, the issue of the political versus the economic struggle socialists have to engage in (not that the two can be separated) in order to get rid of capitalism.
To avoid misunderstanding, we must point out that here, and throughout this pamphlet, by economic struggle, we imply (in keeping with the accepted usage among us) the “practical economic struggle”, which Engels…described as “resistance to the capitalists”, and which in free countries is known as the organised-labour syndical, or trade union struggle. — Lenin, ‘What is to be done?‘
