WHOSE SIDE ARE THEY ON??

Not everybody is enjoying the holiday weekend. It is the measure of a any society when those who struggle to improve the conditions of the ordinary people are victimised hounded and imprisoned. It is these cases that make it glaringly obvious on which side the powers that be stand, it is a display of their real intentions. An appeal from Labour Start.

        It's a long holiday weekend for many of us, a chance to celebrate the holidays with our families and friends.  I hesitate to write to you, to interrupt the festivities, but this is urgent.

        A week ago, the leader of the metal workers union of Kosovo, Hasan Abazi, was travelling to a meeting of European trade unionists in Zagreb, but on his way was arrested by the Serbian government. He was held for 50 hours without even the chance to talk to a lawyer. Now, he's being held in solitary confinement.

        Serbia has committed itself to allow free movement of Kosovars through its territory. That's part of what it needs to do to become a full member of the European Union.

        The International Metalworkers' Federation has issued an urgent appeal for his release. [*]

        Amnesty International has condemned the arrest. [**]

Please take a moment to send off a message of protest to the Serbian authorities:

http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=1338&src=lsmm

         Then, please publicize this to your friends, workmates and fellow union members by email, Twitter, Facebook, and word-of-mouth. If we can flood the inboxes of Serbian government ministers this weekend with our protest messages, they might be compelled to re-think this outrageous arrest and to let Hasan go. They don't want to risk Serbian membership in the EU -- a point we mention in the message to them.

Thank you -- and a very happy Easter and Passover to all of you.

Eric Lee

ann arky's home.

WESTERN CORPORATISM'S HIT SQUAD.

         Here in the developed Western world most people look at NATO as a force for good. However it history dosn't back that up. Country after country has suffered from its military might. In truth it is no more than the Western corporate world's hit squad. The following is an extract from an intersting article which you can read HERE. 

         Like dominoes they are falling: Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya. Even al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was taken out in a surprise ambush by US special forces at his secret hideout inside of nuclear-armed Pakistan.

           Since its first act of aggression on the territory of a sovereign state (on February 28, 1994, NATO aircraft shot down four jets in the Bosnian War) each successive NATO operation is revealing an increasingly disturbing trend: the leaders of the condemned countries are meeting violent, even barbaric ends. Has the rule of law taken a back seat in NATO's global juggernaut?

           Compare the ‘natural’ death of Slobodan Milocevic, former President of Serbia and Yugoslavia, with that of the grisly murder of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Shortly after the end of the Yugoslavian War, which saw a massive NATO aerial bombardment that lasted from March 24, 1999 to June 10, 1999, Milocevic was sent to The Hague to stand trial for charges of war crimes. Milocevic surprised his accusers by deciding to represent himself in the five-year trial. The case, however, abruptly ended without a verdict when the former four-term leader died of an apparent heart attack.

READ ON.

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