EARTH FIRST, USA.

     
         A posting from our friends across the pond. It should be shouted from the street corners and from the roof tops, resistance to this system of capitalist exploitation, and the rape and plunder of the planet is growing day by day.

Earth First!: dancing on the tables of bureaucracy and greed for 30 years and counting


By Panagioti, co-editor of Earth First! Journal 

         Earth First! has been a pain in the ass to industrialists for over 30 years now in the US. Despite serious repression from the Green Scare over the past decade (where eco-activists have been labeled 'terorists' and threatened with life sentences for acts of sabotage) the movement of ecological direct action looks to be getting back on its feet again. The stories below gives a glimpse of this summer alone... Last week in Montana, Earth First! activists in the US stormed the Capital of Montana in resistance to new fossil fuel infrastructure  This week tree sitters halted mountaintop removal coal mining in West Virginia  Last month, a direct action campaign of indigenous activist and allies kicked off in the San Francisco Peaks of Arizona And the resistance continues:  Earlier in the summer, Earth First!ers in Maine took their case against industrial wind power clearcutting endangered species habitat to a 'criminal' trial for their road blockades of a year earlier. While some charges were dropped, and some resulted in jail sentences, their fight continues. And in Florida, forest defenders opposing the construction of a new biotech animal testing laboratory by occupying the tree canopy this spring were summonsed to court for their alleged involvement in this 6-week occupation (which has played a major part in delaying the construction thus far)  All across the US eco-resistance is back on the rise, and the trend seems to be present in several other countries as well. With the ecological crisis expanding, the need has never been greater. We intend to rise to the challenge.

P.S. Don't forget to check out the latest Earth First! Journal, for a more in-depth look at news, strategy and analysis around the world

P.P.S Don't forget to start plannin' to celebrate the 200 year anniversary of the Luddite Uprisings starting this November... 

Oh, and the Earth First! Journal may be planning a trip across the Atlantic next spring/summer. We are hoping to make a stop-over in Glasgow... So keep an eye out for us!

ann arky's home.

DOES RAPE CHARGE = INVASION?

 

LIBYA - Behind the phony ICC 'rape' charges: ARE NATO FORCES PREPARING A GROUND ATTACK?

The following is an article by Sara Flounders for    International Action Center.

        Without presenting a shred of reliable evidence, NATO and International Criminal Court conspirators are charging the Libyan government with conspiracy to rape -- not only rape as the "collateral damage" of war, but rape as a political weapon.

This charge of an orchestrated future campaign of rapes was made at a major press conference called by the lead prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on June 8, 2011. The even wilder unsubstantiated ICC charge that Libya plans to mass distribute Viagra to its troops confirms this as the most tawdry and threadbare form of war propaganda.

          It is important to understand that NATO countries with the full complicity of the corporate media and the ICC are spreading this Big Lie in order to win support for and close down all opposition to a ground assault of Libya, something that would otherwise be unpopular both in Europe and the United States. This wild charge adds to the evidence of a massive escalation in bombing urban targets in Libya, the use of British and French helicopters that give close support to ground troops and the positioning in the Mediterranean off Libya of U.S. warships that can quickly land troops. The NATO alliance is desperate to put Libya beyond all discussion or defense and raise the NATO war to the level of a Holy Crusade to defend women.

         The charge of rape as a political weapon was spread -- without evidence -- against Serb forces to justify U.S. plans for the first NATO bombing campaign in the history of the military alliance in 1994 in Bosnia and was used again in 1999 in Serbia in the first NATO occupation. The rape charge was used to soften up the U.S. and European population for the criminal war against Yugoslavia. Now a similar plan is in the works for Libya.

        All too often widely fabricated lies are spread to justify imperialist wars. In 1991 the first war against Iraq was justified by outrageous charges that the Iraqi army had grabbed Kuwaiti babies from incubators and smashed the babies to the floor. This was presented as reliable “testimony” to in the U.S. Congress and in the UN. Months later it was confirmed as a total fabrication. But the lie had served its purpose. In 2001 the corporate media and U.S. politicians claimed that they had to bomb and then massively occupy Afghanistan to win rights for women that the Taliban taken away. The situation for women in Afghanistan and for the entire population has deteriorated further under U.S. / NATO occupation.

       Despite video and photo evidence that the entire world has seen through WikiLeaks, the International Criminal Court has never considered for a moment filing criminal charges against U.S. British, French or German troops. The pictures, videos and reports in major newspapers of sexual torture and humiliation at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq by U.S. soldiers, the testimony by the U.S. soldiers involved in rapes, tortures, mutilations and executions in Iraq and Afghanistan confirms the brutal reality of U.S. wars. These wars have never been to ‘save’ women.

      As an African country, Libya can hardly expect a fair hearing or any form of justice from the ICC. The International Criminal Court created with high hopes of international justice in 2002 has been used against 7 countries – all in Africa. Meanwhile, the ICC has never examined U.S. drone attacks on defenseless civilians in at least 8 African, Arab and South Asian countries. Nor has it even touched U.S. invasions and occupations. Israeli bombing of the Palestinian people is “off limits”.

        This is an essential time to remind all people concerned about the rights of women that U.S. intervention or any imperialist intervention has never protected women. Even women serving within the U.S. military machine are not “safe”. According to a study published by the Journal of Military Medicine, 71 per cent of women soldiers have been sexually assaulted or raped while serving in the U.S. military. Women who have been assaulted consistently report poor medical treatment, lack of counseling, incomplete criminal investigations and threats of punishment for reporting the assaults. In 2009 the Pentagon admitted that approximately 80 per cent of rapes are never reported – making it the most under-documented crime in the military. In addition U.S. military bases are all too often surrounded by an entire sex industry of abused women forced by hunger, dislocation and lost families into work in bars and clubs.

      Rape in every society has little connection to sexuality and desire. It has always been about imposing power and domination. The "political rape" charge in this case makes no sense and has no basis beyond the U.S.-NATO desire to justify expanding the war against Libya.

Stop U.S.-NATO intervention in Libya.

ann arky's home.

CHANGING FORM OF CAPITAL CRISIS.

      
         Some interesting details on the on-going crisis that's, according to the optimistic, is over and we are now looking for GROWTH, the capitalist's panacea. You can read the full article at LINKS Internation Journalof Socialist Renewal.

         "---Perhaps the first indicator that the capitalist crisis is still unfolding is the rise in unemployment in many advanced capitalist countries.

         How many are affected by this? According to the latest figures of the International Labor Organisation, 205 million workers are jobless and the capitalist crisis has destroyed 30 million jobs since 2007.

        Unemployment in the United States rose from around 4.5% in late 2006 to 10% in 2009. In March 2011 it had slightly fallen to 9%. In Europe, the crisis has restored mass unemployment in a number of countries: in Spain (20% in 2010), Ireland (14%), Greece (12.5%), Portugal (11%). Millions of people are thus reduced to idleness since the unfolding of the crisis.

        The second form of the continuing capitalist crisis is the crisis in state finance. Sovereign debt has thus become the centre of the crisis since 2010 and the default of Greece.

       The global recession, but also state intervention to save the banking sector, led in the advanced capitalist countries to a significant increase of the weight of sovereign debt in national economies. This does not concern only the peripheral economies of the eurozone since the same phenomenon affects the US, Japan and the core EU countries. Hence, the austerity measures adopted by governments (“left” and right) to reduce public spending and satisfy the demands of financial markets (whose criteria is a more or less 60% of GDP in public indebtedness). ---"    READ ON---

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MORE AN THAT,- LAND OF THE FREE!!!.

       The following information was gleaned from an article on DISSIDENT VOICE, the full article is well worth a read, very detailed and informative.

       While it is becoming more widely know that the US imprisons a greater proportion of its citizens than any other country in the world, it should also be noted that the US, that Land of the Free has seen an increase in the number of peaceful protesters being arrested since Obama came to office. Since the Obama inauguration there have been over 2,600 arrests of activists protesting in the US. Recent research shows that since the start of 2011 over 670 individuals have been arrested at protests in the US. More than 1290 during 2010 and 665 arrested during 2009.

       There has been a steady increase in the number of people arrested at protests since 2009 and these protests have covered a wide range of campaigns. They have been protests against US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Guantanamo, strip mining, home foreclosures, Nuclear weapons, immigration policies, mistreatment of hotel workers, police brutality budget cut backs, the mistreatment of Bradley Manning, Blackwater, attempts to cut back on collective bargaining.

      What is also happening in the US is that there is a steady increase in the number of Americans willing to risk arrest and imprisonment for acts of civil disobedience. That itself is a healthy sign that the American people are becoming more aware of the total lack of democracy in their country.

ann arky's home.

ANOTHER ILLEGAL WAR, HOW MANY DOES THE WEST WANT??

     

       SIGN online petition at  iacenter.org/africa/libyawarpowersact to send messages to House and Senate Foreign Relations Committees, congressional leaders, the Obama administration, the U.N. Secretary-General, Security Council, General Assembly President and member states, and the national and international media. On May 19 the war against Libya reached its 60-day mark. On that date this criminal war will be in explicit violation of the War Powers Act.

      The War Powers Act is a U.S. law that grew out of the struggle against the war in Vietnam. It requires a president involved in a military conflict lasting longer than 60 days to come before Congress for authorization to continue the war. Knowing that this war is immoral, illegal and based on lies, the Obama administration has refused to address the reasons behind initiating yet another war after years of death and destruction in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.

     In the past 61 days of a war that was promoted as a "humanitarian intervention" to enforce a "no-fly zone," the U.S. and NATO have conducted more than 2,500 bombing missions. A May 13 NATO bombing killed 11 Islamic religious leaders and injured 47 other members of a highly publicized, unarmed religious peace delegation of 150 Imams and other Islamic leaders. The NATO command has acknowledged the attack occurred.

      This was a deliberate, targeted massacre by U.S./NATO aircraft. The religious leaders were gathered to attempt a meeting of peace and reconciliation with the NATO-supported opposition. The attack occurred in the city of Brega, which is 500 miles east of Tripoli and close to the area under opposition control. Since time immemorial, in every country and culture, peace delegations, religious delegations and unarmed envoys traveling under white flags have been accorded respect and safe passage, especially in war zones.

      U.S./NATO Command, with reconnaissance predator drones that are able to read a license on a car, knew exactly what this large, highly respected Islamic peace delegation was, where the delegates were staying and what their announced purpose was. This latest NATO airstrike is a most grievous war crime. It is an unprecedented new level of international lawlessness and it reveals a dangerous escalation of the war on Muslim people. It comes on top of the ongoing criminal assassination attempts on Col. Gadhafi that have already killed his son and three of his grandchildren.

       NATO bombs have hit numerous civilian targets including the Libyan Down's Syndrome Society, a school that provided speech therapy, handicrafts and sports sessions for disabled children. NATO Planning Staff claim that "All NATO targets are military targets," And the New York Times reports that Gen. Sir David Richards, Britain's top military commander, is propsing that NATO target Libyan "infrastructure," including electrical power grids and fuel dumps, in government held areas. Such targeting would be an attack on the civilian population that would constitute a war crime according to the Geneva Conventions.

       We believe the people of Libya, North Africa, the Middle East, the U.S. and the world deserve a debate on the need to immediately end this war. With the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression having a continued impact on the peoples of the U.S. and the world, we must stand up and demand the end to the bombings and other destabilization efforts against Libya, and all other forms of hostility against this African country.

      We need money for jobs, housing, food, health care, and quality education -- not for war and destruction.  Tell Congress, the White House and the corporate media that the illegal and criminal war on Libya must end now.

Stop the bombs! End the war!

SIGN online petition at   iacenter.org/africa/libyawarpowersact

ann arky's home.

BOLD NATIVE.

              Glasgow vegan society are showing 'Bold Native' at the Free Hetherington on Tuesday at 8.00 followed by a discussion on direct action and animal liberation. 'Bold Native' is a feature film and is a really good film regardless of where you stand on the issue of animal liberation and direct action and it would be good if a lot of different opinions were represented in the discussion. I'll post a blurb and link to the trailer below:

                'Bold Native' is a fiction feature film. Charlie Cranehill, an animal liberator wanted by the United States government for domestic terrorism, emerges from the underground to coordinate a nationwide action as his estranged CEO father tries to find him before the FBI does. The film simultaneously follows a young woman who works for an animal welfare organization fighting within the system to establish more humane treatment of farmed animals. From abolitionists to welfarists, 'Bold Native' takes on the issue of modern animal use and exploitation from several angles within the context of a road movie adventure story'

http://boldnative.com/trailer/

Tuesday 10th May,
Free Hetherington,
13 University Gardens.
Glasgow.

https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=113279282091315#!/event.php?eid=113279282091315

ann arky's home.

ELECTIONS, DEMOS, PETITIONS, TWITTER, --- WHAT NEXT??

    

The following short extract is from  ADBUSTERS.  The full article makes good reasding.

   

' ----Everywhere we look there are signs of moral decay, political corruption and fascistic tendencies. However, activists have not been passive. For decades, since the end of democracy in America first became undeniable, we have tried every tactic to avert catastrophe. We have voted, written letters, donated money, held signs, protested in marches, clicked links, signed petitions, tweeted websites, written books, taught classes, knitted sweaters, learned how to farm, turned off the television, programmed apps, engaged in direct action, committed petty vandalism … All this has been for naught. Popular revolution remains the only reasonably viable tactic remaining.'

         This was written concerning America, but it could equally well apply to any Western country. We, here in the UK, could say exactly the same. The more we tweet/facebook, march, petition the further that democracy slips away. Millions marched to try to stop the illegal Iraq invasion but the UK spent 5 years destroying the infrastructure of that country and the US is still there. Since 2001 there has been innumerable demonstrations/marches and petitions to pull the troops out of Afghanistan, we are still there killing and being killed.

        Now we face savage cuts to our standard of living, the decimation of our NHS, the privatisation of the Universities, the rapid erosion of our education system and the slashing of any social benefits. All this is being done against the wishes of the people of this country, simply to save the bankers and bond merchants form losing some of their unearned wealth. Our millionaire public school thugs, sometimes know as the cabinet, know who there friends are, and it certainly isn't you and I.

       So do we continue tweeting/facebooking, marching, petitioning, demonstrating, writing letters, waving placards and every 4 or 5 years running out to vote in, another bunch of duplicitous smiling crooks and liars. Or do we finally take up the only road left open to us, if we want to change this stinking system of inequality and exploitation, a popular uprising of the ordinary people, not asking for change, but making those changes we want to see?

ann arky's home.

A MOVING MOVIE!!!

           In a journey from the mountains of southeastern Mexico to the northern border with the United States, Subcommander Marcos, Zapatista spokesperson, and the people of Mexico trace the forgotten face of a country. A celebration of the struggle for land and dignity.

Glasgow Screening

Sunday 8th May

5.15pm

Glasgow Film Theatre

12 Rose St

Glasgow, G3 6RB

Followed by Q&A with the director Nicolas Défossé

          A merchandise stall will be at this event selling Zapatista t-shirts, coffee and crafts. The money raised goes to health clinics and schools run by the Zapatistas in the Highlands of Chiapas, Mexico.

           City of Los Angeles, USA. In the heart of the city, undocumented Mexican immigrants are hunted by the police and struggle to earn a living without losing their identity. On the other side of the border, in the mountains of southeastern Mexico, dawn arrives, hidden in mist. It is January 1st, 2006; thousands of indigenous Zapatistas prepare to say farewell to their spokesman Subcomandante Marcos. His mission: to travel across the country for the next six months to learn from the resistance of Mexican men and women who fight for a better Mexico. So begins a journey that plans to reach the border with the United States, at the other end of the country...

            From Chiapas to Quintana Roo, from Yucatan to Oaxaca, from Nayarit to Colima, from Michoacan to Guerrero, from the State of Mexico to the heart of the country and the enormous metropolis known as Mexico City, we follow the steps of this journey that traces the face of the "other" Mexico, made up of the humble and simple people, a face much different from the one TV shows us every day. It is a journey that dares to “start building the image of the people we really are.” as expressed by Subcomandante Marcos.

           This challenge is not without risks… by uncovering Mexico’s dignified and rebellious face, irrigating the seeds of rebellion and solidarity of an entire country, this journey is a provocation against those who control the country's economy and it's image. What starts as an isolated murmur will become a clamour of hundreds of thousands of voices, "Viva Mexico" How will those in power respond?

Glasgow Chiapas Solidarity Group:
glasgowchiapassolidarity@googlemail.com
http://glasgowchiapassolidaritygroup.wordpress.com/
http://www.vivamexicofilm.com/eng.html

ann arky's home.

TEAPOT INTRODUCTION TO ANARCHY - PAGE 9.

     And so to page 9 of the wonderful wee book, The Teapot Collective Introduction to Anarchy. It is something worthwhile to read on this holiday Friday. Page 8 can be found HERE.

      Propaganda by the deed experienced a revival in the 1970s with an equally notorious urban guerrilla movement in Europe and the US (many groups of which were more Marxist-orientated than anarchist) A strong pacifist anarchist movement has also always existed alongside this, from Tolstoy and christian Utopian anarchists to parts of the peace movement of this century.

     On the question of violence, it's probably fair to say that most anarchists believe in the importance of self-defence and militantly defending whatever autonomy we achieve, at least where it's tactically sensible. The idea and history of the insurrection, of pissed-off people reclaiming their power by showing their strength in attacks on symbols of the state and capitalism, is also quite inspiring to many anarchists.

     More recently, women's liberation has emerged a force attacking our systemic oppression as women in a society based on power over each other. A society which needs to oppress some people so the elite can prosper. 

ann arky's home.

ESCALATION!!!

    

    Since posting the previous article "A DAY'S KILLING AT THE OFFICE" I have learnt that the US has made Predator armed drones available in support of NATO for use in Libya. The precedent has now been set, armed drones will now become the preferred weapon of choice. We all know that the UK police, and other police forces no doubt, have been using smaller drones  for surveillance purposes, which no doubt could be armed with smaller weapons. The state now has the perfect Orwellian tools, CCTV cameras everywhere, small drones patrolling the skies above our cities, perhaps armed, and the armed Predator drone to sort out any trouble. All this from one central control room in an inconspicuous building sitting somewhere in a leafy suburb. Welcome to 1984.

ann arky's home.

A DAY'S KILLING AT THE OFFICE!!

     

      The day is fast approaching when states will be able to wage war against other states without their military having to leave their own country. War with two distinct portions, the perpetrators sitting comfortably in what could pass for an electronic games room with keyboards, hand sets and monitors and those on the receiving end being blasted into oblivion by guided missiles, drones and other new hi-tec weaponry. You don't even need to be fit, you just sit comfortably in your seat at an office not far from your home, handset suitably placed, gaze at your monitor and at the right moment move your finger and BOOM, mission accomplished. After your 8 hour shift you can go home to your family. Warriors of the future. It is not as if this is far fetched, at the moment the US is creating havoc in the region of the Afghanistan/Pakistan border with a just such a scenario. The drones that are killing thousands in the Afghanistan/Pakistan border region are controlled from somewhere in America.

        The drone attacks were relatively few back in 2004 as a matter of fact the total number of drone attacks for 2004/2007 was just 9 strikes with estimated deaths ranging from 89 to 112. In 2008 the numbers increased quite dramatically with 34 drone strikes that year alone and deaths between 273 and 313. When the man of peace, Obama took office in 2009, the number of drone strikes increased again with the estimated deaths rising to between 368 and 724. 2010 saw the deaths from drone strikes almost double to somewhere between 607 and 993.

       The New America Foundation states that since 2004 the total killed in drone strikes in that region number somewhere between 1,435 and 2,283, that's is a lot of death and misery without leaving your office. Of course their will be those who say they were all Taliban or Al Qaeda but again The New America Foundation state that about 32% of those deaths were civilian. Killed dispassionately from the comfort of an office chair, it is really quite frightening.

       As long as we continue with the state system and its bed companion, corporate capitalism, we will have wars and those wars will become more and more hi-tec with the military being more and more like office staff who never get their hands dirty and never see the blood they shed, making it easier and easier for the state to recruit killers for their cause of power and profit above all.

ann arky's home.