Global Action Against Zionist Genocide.

    A call for global action against the Zionist genocide taking place in Gaza.

      ACTION ALERT UPDATE from USPCN: Our organizing is working! Ship delayed. Come out to West Oakland BART station at 3 PM Saturday, NOT 5 AM. Bring your friends and family to this historic action! "With community backing, the International Longshoremen Workers Union refused to handle cargo from South African ships in the 1980s, spurring an international boycott that helped end the apartheid regime in South Africa,” says Monadel Herzallah of the US Palestinian Community Network. “We hope that this action and many others like it will encourage organized labor to join the global BDS movement to end Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.”

      USPCN strongly encourages the broadest possible mobilization and support for this critically important action in Oakland! For those who cannot make it, please see below for events in other cities:

Stop Israel at the Port

Zionism isn't welcome on our Coast!

West Coast Blockade of the Israeli Zim Ship

Port of Oakland

Saturday, August 16th

3 PM (TIME CHANGE)

Meet at West Oakland Bart and march to Berth 57

     Participants:Those planning to participate: subscribe to text-alerts and receive live updates about the 8/16 Block the Boat, text "join" to (510) 346-5951.

Livestream:

KFPA will be livestreaming the action at www.kpfa.org/kpfa-live-stream-channel.

Also follow @BlocktheBoat for live tweets.

Volunteers and Support: Fill out form to volunteer with transportation assistance. Email info @ araborganizing.org to support with food donations. Contact AROC to pick up posters and postcards for outreach.

Donations: Donate here to help with event costs.

STOP THE SIEGE ON GAZA!

END THE COLONIAL OCCUPATION OF PALESTINE!

RIGHT OF RETURN FOR ALL PALESTINIAN REFUGEES!

FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!

BOYCOTT, DIVEST, SANCTION!

Global Statements

-  Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions - Gaza Strip
-  Palestinian and South African Trade Unions
-  Labor for Palestine
-  Congress of South African Trade Unions
-  National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa
-  Transport Workers Solidarity Committee
-  UNITE, British Trade Union

Other cities' actions:

New York, NY, US

Saturday, August 16

1:00 PM

Israeli Consulate (Block the Boat Solidarity)

More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/429725363832321/

Miami, FL, US

Saturday, August 16

5:00 PM

Torch of Friendship (Block the Boat Solidarity)

More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/316267675214918/

Chicago, IL, US

Saturday, August 16

11:00 AM

North Avenue Beach Bridge

More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/937841456231113/

Los Angeles, CA, US

Saturday, August 16

1:00 PM

Hollywood and Vine

More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1482387852007381

Seattle, WA, US

Saturday, August 16

12:00 PM

Westlake Center

More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/665212870225672/

Hamtramck, MI, US

Saturday, August 16

12:00 PM

Caniff St and Joseph Campau

More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/457504094391468/

Tacoma, WA, US (Block the Boat)

Wednesday, August 20

More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/678819478876975/

Seattle, WA, US (Block the Boat)

Friday, August 22

More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/678819478876975/

What's happening?

     The world has watched in horror as Israel has continued to bombard and devastate Gaza. Millions around the globe have come out in support of the Palestinian people and against the Zionist regime, holding massive marches, demonstrations, and actions. Here in the Bay, San Francisco witnessed some of the biggest mobilizations in recent years, with a series of marches, each bringing out thousands of people. It's time to step it up.

Call to Action

      Palestine is calling us to action! Palestinians laborers, Palestinian General Federation Trade Union (PGFTU), have called on workers around the world to refuse to handle Israel goods. Palestinians throughout Gaza, the West Bank and 1948 Palestine have demonstrated their unity in the struggle against Apartheid Israel and have taken to the streets in the tens of thousands, bravely facing Israeli military armed with US made weapons to call on the international community to stand with them as they resist Zionism throughout all of historic Palestine. We will be answering this call by organizing community pickets at the Port of Oakland, asking the longshoreman to honor this request and to stand with the people of Palestine as they have done in the past.

Historical Background

      During apartheid in South Africa, ILWU workers made history when they refused to unload South African cargo in San Francisco in 1984. This action was a major catalyst for international anti-apartheid solidarity and struggle worldwide. In 2010, after a Turkish flotilla, the Mavi Marmara, was attacked by Israel for attempting to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza, we built on ILWU's history and successfully blocked the Israeli Zim ship from being unloaded at the Port of Oakland - the first time in US history an Israeli ship was blocked. We will be continuing this legacy by organizing to block the Israeli ship once again. And just as apartheid fell in South Africa, so too it will fall in Israel!

Sustained BDS in the Bay

      If there is one thing that the latest Israeli attacks show, it's the power of Palestinian resilience. The resistance in Gaza is still alive and thriving, despite Israel's ongoing attempts to destroy it. But we should always remember that the Palestinian resistance did not begin with Israel's latest bombardment, nor did it begin during the last bombardment. It has been going on since 1948, since Israel came into existence. And it will not cease until Israeli apartheid falls.

We refuse to allow Israel to conduct its business as usual, here in the Bay and everywhere!

      Every Saturday, the Israeli owned Zim shipping line docks and unloads its cargo at the Port of Oakland. Let this action be the beginning of a sustained campaign to stop the Israeli ship from ever unloading in our town.

From Seattle to Oakland to Los Angeles - turn the Israeli ship around!

Not in Palestine

Not in the Bay

Not Anywhere

Stand Against Zionism Everywhere

Endorsed by:

AF3IRM

Al-Awda New York

All African People’s Revolutionary Party (AAPRP)

American Friends Service Committee

American Muslims for Palestine

ANSWER Coalition

Arab Youth Organizing (AYO)

AROC: Arab Resource & Organizing Center

ASATA: Alliance of South Asians Taking Action

Bay Area Women in Black

BAYAN-USA

Bay Area CodePink

Bay Area Latin America Solidarity Coalition

Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Social Justice Committee

Black Organizing Project (BOP)

Black Organizing Leadership and Dignity (BOLD)

Black Workers For Justice

B.U.W (BLOOK UNITY WORKERS ): PALISTINIAN INDEPANDENCE TRADEUNION ORGENIZATION IN WESTBANK AND GAZZA AND JEROZALIM

Catalyst Project

CodePink Washington

Committee for Open Discussion of Zionism (CODZ)

Communist Party of San Francisco

Critical Resistance – LA

Critical Resistance – Oakland

Critical Resistance – Portland

Descoloniza a Oakland/Decolonize Oakland

Free Palestine Movement

Freedom Archives

Friends of Deir Ibzi’a

Fuerza Mundial/Pueblos en Movimiento

General Union of Palestine Students – SFSU

Global Women’s Strike

Gray Panthers of San Francisco

Green Party of Alameda County

Haiti Action Committee

International Action Center

International Jewish Anti Zionist Network

International Solidarity Movement – West Bank/Gaza

International Socialist Organization

International Tribunal of Conscience for Camilo

ISM-Nor Cal

IWW Bay Area Branch

Jewish Against Genocide

Jews for Palestinian Right of Return

Justice for Palestinians

La Voz de l@s trabajadores/Worker’s Voice

Labor for Palestine

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace

Malcolm X Grassroots Movement

Marcha Patriotica (Colombia) – California chapter

Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA)

Movement Generation

National Lawyers Guild SFBA Chapter

Noam Chomsky

NorCal Friends of Sabeel

Occupy SF Action Council

ONYX Organizing Committee

The Palestine-Israel Action Committee

Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions

Palestinian Youth Movement

Queers Undermining Israeli Terror

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network

San Francisco Green Party

School of the Americas Watch East Bay

Socialist Alternative – Bay Area Branch

Socialist Organizer

SOUL: School of Unity and Liberation

Southern Anti-Racism Network

Stanford Students for Justice

Students for Justice in Palestine – Cal

Totally Radical Muslims

UAW Local 2865 (Academic Student Workers at the University of California)

US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation

US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott

US Palestinian Community Network

Veterans For Peace Chapter 69

World Can’t Wait Bay Area

Workers World Party

Xicana Moratorium

For more info: info@araborganizing.org | 415-861-7444

[ Event on Facebook]

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Nobody Gives You Freedom.

      Israelis dancing in the streets chanting "Gaza is a graveyard", "There's no school tomorrow, because there are no children left in Gaza", tells you something of the prevailing attitude in Israel. 

         I read a lot, and view a lot, not necessarily agreeing with all I come across, but there is always information to be picked up here and there. One thing I have learnt through reading the proper history, the history of our struggle for justice, is that whatever improvements we have gained, were never given to us by benevolent powers that be, but were wrestled from them by struggle, resistance and confrontation. Without that determination, we would still be steeped in poverty and deprivation worse than the Victorian era, with little or no rights.

Riot4Gaza from the stimulator on Vimeo.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Gun Tottin' Cops.

      I have been silent for a few days, (you hadn't noticed), my internet connection went down for almost a week, so I had to do with the real world for a while, but I'm now back connected to the cyberworld.

.

 Inverness.

     Slowly, slowly, the guns come on to our streets. First special occasions, then routinely at airports, now walking our streets. The establishment is always fearful that the people will one day wake up and realise, we don't need our lords and masters, and then do something about it. Inverness, one of the areas with the lowest crime rate in the country, and there are cops strutting around the streets with guns strapped to their sides, Wyatt Earp's of the north. 

     The powers that be are now going to look at this. A bit late, should the issue of putting guns routinely on the streets not have been discussed before it happened, or is this sort of decision to be left to the whims of some over zealous authoritarian police chief? Sooner or later we will have an armed police force patrolling our streets. The establishment is well aware of the economic future the people of this country are facing, and the fear of civil unrest will always shape their thinking. Let's not forget, the police are not there to protect you, but to protect them, our lords and masters. 

Luton.

This from Anarchist News:

1. What happened to Mike Brown is a tragedy that can’t be put into words. A less spoken tragedy is that it’s the day to day reality for so many of us–especially those of us who are young, who are people of color, who don’t fit the cops’ idea of an acceptable, law abiding citizen. How often do the police kill someone? In St. Louis, it seems like almost every month. We often don’t do anything about it, or feel like we can. The last few days have been different.
2. People in Ferguson have shown–through gathering, talking and debating with each other, protesting and rioting– that this tragedy won’t be yet another one placed on our already over-burdened backs.
3. Day to day, we don’t have a voice. Working people, people of color, poor people, the disenfranchised – we don’t have an official media that will argue our interests like the rich and middle class. We don’t have a police force we can call like the middle class or an army like the rich. We only have each other. Large protests and rioting gives us a voice, gives us power. These actions let us take back some of our dignity.
4. The 1960s saw many urban uprisings: riots and looting where fed-up, voiceless people were able to have a voice and, for once, the nice things that are constantly kept out of our reach. One of the police and government’s biggest fears is that people will realize we don’t need them and their mentality.
5. In response to the urban uprisings of the ‘60s, police developed a two-fold strategy. First, that police from then on would have counter-insurgency training, gear and weaponry, and would use it as their day to day way of patrolling neighborhoods where poor people and people of color live. We see the effects of this constantly: getting pulled over not by one cop but 3-5 cars worth, having ourselves groped, our shoes taken off, having the doors of our homes kicked in.

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Tunnels.

       I have always maintained that Israel wants the whole of the Palestinian territory for a "Greater Israel" and what goes on in Gaza and elsewhere in the Palestinian territories is nothing short of genocide. This latest inhumane slaughter being administered by Israel on the people of Gaza, is claimed as destroying "the tunnels", which they claim are used to attack Israel and smuggle in arms. If your borders are sealed and nothing can go in or out, how do you survive? I'm a great believer in the ingenuity of the ordinary people in the face of arduous and life threatening conditions. If the means of survival can't come in by road, sea or air, then the only alternative is to die or find another way of getting those necessities of life. Perhaps the tunnels do bring in weapons, but the proof seems to be that they are mainly used to keep the people of Gaza alive. Everything from livestock to sugar, parts to fix what they already have, to cement. These tunnels are a leak in the Israeli blockade of Gaza and is allowing Gaza to survive, so they must be destroyed. The genocide goes on under a cloak of many guises, the biggest is self defence. One of the most powerful military nations on the planet, continually blasts, bombs and strangles a small territory which has no army as such, no military defence, and Israel calls it self defence, while the world looks on. Genocide, no other word fits the situation.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

War Is The Crime.

     Yesterday, August 6th. marked the 69th anniversary of the atomic bomb being dropped on Hiroshima, killing at least 80,000 people instantly, with tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, dying of various forms of radiation illnesses the following years, 90% of the city was obliterated. A few days later, August 9th. the US dropped a second bomb, a plutonium bomb, on Nagasaki, instantly killing more than 40,000, and again leaving a legacy of radiation diseases for generations. We should add that the estimates of the immediate deaths vary as it is impossible to state accurately, these figures are at the bottom end of the estimates. 

        Targeting civilians is recognised internationally as a war crime, can anyone claim that obliteration an entire city in one fell swoop, is not targeting civilians? After WW2 we hung quite a few for war crimes, unsurprisingly, they were all on the other side.

      The victors write the history, and our history always tells us that what ever we do in war is honourable, and what ever our enemies do is barbaric. The fact that Nagasaki was a mainly civilian city, and ironically, a city with the highest Christian population in Japan, doesn't change that. Just like Israel today, we claimed that we were justified, no matter the cost, it was the honourable road to go.

      The entire history of capitalism, is one of deadly conflicts, with civilian casualties, seen merely as collateral damage. More and more it is the civilian population that suffers in war. Gone are the days when two vast armies faced each other across some waste land, and slaughtered each other until one could claim victory. In modern warfare the casualty rate is normally higher among the civilian population than in the military. Remember "Shock and Awe" visited on the Iraqi people, drones in Pakistan, and Somalia, and now Gaza. 

       This being the case, and targeting civilians being a war crime then it should follow that war itself, by its modern nature is one large war crime, and any state that enters into war is automatically guilty of a war crime.

Photo from Dresden after the Allies bombed the city, creating a fire storm, 1945.

         Wars are states way of cementing their power and wealth, what happens to the people is of little concern, and it will remain so, until we take control of our own lives. Until we decide that we the people should shape the world we want to live in, and base our societies on communities grounded in the fundamentals of mutual aid, co-operation, and seeing to the needs of all our people, we will be at the mercy of the power hungry, war mongering, profit seeking, greed driven capitalist system.  

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

      

Welcome To Greece's Economic Miracle.

      The Peloponnese in Greece, is probably one of the most beautiful places on earth. Breathtaking views, glorious weather, and steeped in Greek history and mythology. While the rest of Greece mires in "austerity", unemployment, poverty and deprivation, nestling in the beautiful Peloponnese is the small town of Nea Manolada. Former “Socialist” Prime Minister George Papandreou, praised the area as an "economic miracle". This little town has a turnover of more than €90 million, all from that lovely fruit, strawberries, acre upon acre of strawberries.

      While the Greek state,  under its program called, Xenios Zeus, after the ancient Greek God of hospitality, carries out mass sweeps of immigrants, rounding them up and placing them in over crowded and inhumane concentration camps, it gives the area of Nea Manolada a miss. This might seem odd as the town has a population of approximately 2,000, but a migrant population of approximately 4,000. Among and around the lush strawberries are migrant workers living under the glaring Greek sun in makeshift plastic tents, where hygiene is poor or none existent.  

 

      This is the small town in which an employer and a some of his foremen, blasted some migrant workers with shotgun pellets, for having the audacity to ask for their six previous months wages. Their case came to court recently and the result proves that the Greek judicial system is as corrupt and fascist as the Greek state. The employer was acquitted, while the two shooters were given 14 years and 8 years, but were released on appeal and ordered to pay a €5 a day fine instead.

      The Nea Manolada "economic miracle" is built on extremely low, or non-existent wages, and dreadful conditions. Greece is in the European Union, and this part of Greece is where brutal exploitative capitalism morphs into brutal capitalist slavery. The latter being the ideal conditions for maximum profit, the capitalists dream.

        These conditions, and worse, are repeated all over the world, all in the name of profit for the few, that is the system we tolerate, why?

The full story HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Workers Know Your History.

        Despite all the pomp and ceremony marking the start of the blood letting of the imperialist land grab, that goes by the name of WW1, and the lies that they pump out, we should keep repeating, "It was the working class that stopped the slaughter", not the stupid, arrogant generals, not the so called "military strategists", it was the ordinary people in countries across the globe. It was their revulsion at the slaughter, and their desire for peace across borders, that silenced the guns, and saw the blood stop flowing. All contrary to the aims of the ruling classes and the capitalist system. 

       The struggles that brought the imperialist bloodshed to an end, are not over, the workers may have lost the first real battle, but we will win the final one, and eventually over throw this system of capitalism, which is a blot on the history of humanity.

       As I keep repeating, "Workers Know Your history."

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Behind The Smoke And Mirrors.

        It is always good to hear some truth, coming from America and spoken by an American from the "higher echelons".

       Basically, the war machine in Washington (I call it the Warfare State), couldn't abide that. There are just too many people that operate in the devil's workshop; which is to say we have all of this capacity, we have all this machinery of war-making and of intervention and of global empire that is obsolete and unnecessary -- and yet it is manned by people who want something to do. Who need to justify budgets. Who need to pursue and prosecute missions. That is what I think is happening at the present time.

       It's just the warfare state machinery has gotten itself activated into motion and it is drastically simplifying the real facts that we face and creating a narrative that is really preposterous in terms of what our national security, the safety and security of the American people, really requires in this circumstance.

 

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk