redFlags

"I had court today. Fuck this country."

Joey Steel, a NYC organizer with World Can't Wait is facing trial March 6 for his arrest at Hunter College. Re-enacting a torture scene from Abu Ghraib, Steel and other activists challenged students to step out of their daily routines and recognize the horrors happening in their name. There was some debate about the particular rhetoric used in the Hunter incident, which included placing blame directly on the students who wandered into the arrests. There is no debate over the need to break the right-wing momentum or to defend those arrested for fighting back.

Joey Steel writes: "First, for all those who want to know I had court for the third time in realtion to my arrests at Columbia University and Hunter College. My charges from Columbia were dropped, and my charges from Hunter are going to TRIAL on March 6th. The judges said we are not allowed to file anymore motions, and my lawyer I guess missed the motions date. So it is on. The judges and lawyer both warned me about the possiblity of jail, and this lawyer, a new one from last time, warned me a few times. My lawyer is not at all sure what is going to happen.

"But sitting in court HOUR AFTER HOUR, there is nothing to do by think about how fucked up thus country is. There is nothing like a day in court to remind you why your a revolutionary." [read]

Tribunal Indicts Bush for "Crimes Against Humanity"

Revolution writes: Hundreds of people came together in New York City on the weekend of January 20-22 for a historic tribunal indicting the Bush administration for crimes against humanity. This extraordinary event opened Friday evening at the Riverside Church, where Harry Belafonte gave a riveting speech that brought the audience to their feet.

Among the witnesses and experts giving testimony about Bush's crimes were Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, former head of the Abu Ghraib prison; Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan; Scott Ritter, former UN weapons inspector; Alan Berkman, physician and professor of public health at Columbia University, and D. McBride, who was left to drown in a New Orleans prison when Katrina struck. The participation of people like this underscored the far-reaching significance and impact of the Bush Crimes Tribunal. [read]

Crackdown Inside San Quentin: Tookie Williams' Friends Get Locked-Down

Tom Kerr reports on Counterpunch: On December 9, 2005, four days before Tookie Williams' execution, ten of his fellow inmates were dislodged from their cells by guards in full riot gear and put in solitary  confinement in the San Quentin Adjustment Center, where they remain as of this writing (January 15).

According to two of these men, Steve Champion and Anthony Ross, all are under investigation on charges that they conspired to incite a riot and harm guards  if Tookie were executed. [read]

Updates on the Case of Daniel McGowan & Other Alleged Eco-Sabotage Arrestees

The wide-ranging persecution of ecological activists continues throughout the United States. Following nine years of investigation and infiltration, eleven indictments were handed down in Oregon and four other Western states on Jan. 20 in answer to five years of arson and sabotage claimed by the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front. No one was harmed in a single one of these actions, and some of the arrestees deny any involvement whatsoever.

Facing grand jury witch hunts and disproportionate charges, the government is attempting to force an array of activists into becoming snitches. According to some press reports, this has borne some rotton fruit. One attorney noted shortly after the initial arrests that the number of years between the acts and the charges mean that in lieu of physical evidence, the government is relying heavily on the words of informants and snitches.

Washington Post: 11 Indicted in 'Eco-Terrorism' Case

Indybay: Environmental & Anarchist witch-hunt under way, a 'very coherent summary'

World Social Forum convenes in Caracas, Karachi and Mali

Indymedia entry for coverage of the World Social Forum:

BAMAKO, MALI, 19 JANUARY 2006 - The World Social Forum is an alternative to the World Economic Forum , a yearly meeting of business and political elites in Davos, Switzerland. Believing that "Another World is Possible", the World Social Forum is a space for exchanging information and experiences of fighting neo-liberalism. The past decade has seen a wide range of popular resistance in Africa. The Forum will offer an opportunity for dialogue and reflection on those fights and the alternatives they offer in the global project to build a better world based on solidarity and common struggle, not competition and war.

This year's World Social Forum is being held simultaneously in Bamako (Mali) ,Caracas (Venezuela) , and Karachi (Pakistan). The Bamako World Social Forum opens today, the 19th of January 2006. Approximately 30,000 activists from across the region and the world are expected to attend. This is the first World Social Forum to be held in Africa.

In order to cover the happenings at the WSF, Indymedia and other media activists have set up an Independent Media Centre as part of the Thomas Sankara Youth Camp. Coverage in English will be carried on IMC South Africa and in French on IMC Marseilles. Photos and audio from the Youth Camp are also available.

Rank & File Auto Workers Fighting Concessions

Report by RoqueDaltonLives: Auto workers throughout the Midwest are mobilizing. But their union 'leaders' are not leading them. They are organizing themselves through a series of rank and file meetings in which hundreds have participated, and an organization has been formed called Soldiers of Solidarity.  Workers at Delphi are facing massive concessions, and the UAW hasn't provided leadership in fighting back.  Delphi was spun off from GM in a deceptive capitalist sleight of hand, though it is still the same company.  Now they are moving to slash workers' pensions and wages, under the myth of 'bankruptcy'.  This is a siginficant movement of workers fighting back against concessions, and forcing the hand of their unions to either fight or get out of the way.  There is much talk of workplace fightbacks like work to rule or some kind of strike.

Major Clashes Erupt Throughout Nepal

The following is from A World to Win News Service: The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) announced the end of its four-month-long unilateral ceasefire 2 January. That same day guerrilla military actions took place throughout the country, including bomb explosions in several cities, including Pokhara and Nepalgunj, and in some places daylight attacks destroying Royal Army vehicles.

Students for a Democratic Society 2.0

Students for a Democratic Society is re-launching with a meeting scheduled for this summer. Several local groupings of the participatory democratic student organization have popped up over the years, and it now seems there is enough of a critical mass to give it a go on a national level. With a the stark lack of an open, left-wing student federation in the United States, this can't but be a good development.

Impeachment: Can it happen?

Although Rep. Major Owens (D-NY); Niles Eldredge, curator of the Darwin show at the Museum of Natural History; and Lewis Lapham all recently signed the call, it's no longer just World Can't Wait urging us to drive out the Bush regime.

For the last few weeks, murmurs of impeachment have been creeping around the margins. The NSA spying scandal, open defense of torture, widespread acknowledgement that we were driven to war on lies -- and the hard-nosed press by the Bush team to keep pushing right has provoked more and more people into fighting back.

Barbara Sweet talks about the stakes right now and the Feb. 4 State of the Union/State of Emergency protests in Washington DC.  (mp3)

There's been plenty of debate of late about the direction of the antiwar movement, but not nearly enough about how exactly to move vague popular distress into a coherent force against the WHOLE right-wing juggernaught. That seems to be changing.

 

RC4: Appeal for funds to open office in DC

Joe Veale and Clyde Young sent the following appeal to Revolution: We need an office here in D.C. where people can come to have discussions with Clyde Young and Joe Veale, two of the members of the Revolutionary Communist Speaking Tour. Where they can watch the DVD version of a speech by Bob Avakian.  Read the Revolution newspaper. Get bundles of the newspaper to sell to others.  A place where people can find the Party.  Get organized.  And develop and become part of a revolutionary communist movement in society that can contend with all the other dead-end traps that the system has out there for people, all that entre-manure mess, “get rich or die trying trap.”  A place where people can learn what the revolution is all about.  How it is possible.  The potential role of masses on the bottom of society becoming leaders of the cause.  A place where they begin to learn what it means to be an emancipator of humanity.  A place where they can go out from to inspire and rally others to this great revolutionary cause. (read & donate)