THIS JUST IN! MORE OF THE SAME!
THE WORLD CAN'T WAIT, OCT 5 PERMITS BEING STALLED!

OPEN LETTER TO CITY GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS

By Bonnie Weinstein

Gavin Newsom gavin.newsom@sfgov.org
San Francisco Board of Supervisors board.of.supervisors@sfgov.org
Sandy Lee sandy.lee@parks.sfgov.org
Cindy Shamban cindy.shamban@sfmta.com;sfgov.org/dpt
Crystal Stewart crystal.stewart@sfgov.org
Heather Fong heather.fong@sfgov.org

Dear City Government Officials and Interested Parties:

The World Can't Wait group, sf@worldcantwait.org, has
applied for permits to rally at Justin Herman Plaza at noon,
OCT 5 to march on Market Street to a main rally with prominent
speakers at 4PM in Union Square, and then to march back to
Justin Herman Plaza for the all-night vigil to to demonstrate
as part of the national day of mass resistance against the war
called with actions across the country.

The San Francisco Police Department has denied the march
permit. The SF Recreation and Parks Department is responsible
for permits at the sites and has not yet granted them.

Again, the San Francisco City Government has denied the right
to free speech and assembly to voices of resistance and
opposition to the policies of this government.

The bloodbath in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Lebanon, Haiti--
in nations around the world is continuing thanks to this hideous
and corrupt government, the government of the United States,
responsible for terror around the world. I do not support this
government. It is corrupt, vicious and out to defend the wealthy
at the expense of the planet itself--anything for the almighty
dollar and the power it buys.

I do not agree with everything that The World Can't Wait group
has to say --we have friendly debates frequently--but I insist
that they have the right to say it!

The right to free speech and assembly is meaningless if the
government at any level--city, state or federal--has the right
to deny permits for no reason or dictate when and where we
are allowed to demonstrate.

Our group, People United for General and Unconditional Amnesty
for All, was also denied our right to free speech and assembly--
based upon false statements made by the Police Department.
I got an apology about one of the false statements but still, we
were denied our permits and were subject to police intimidation.
A large number of police were present at the time and location
of our planned event last Saturday, Sept. 16th prepared to stop
us if we attempted to use amplified sound or take to the street.

With our permit denied we knew we would endanger many
people if we tried to go ahead with our plans so we altered
them to comply with the law. Which is why we tried to get
permits in the first place. So that we could advertise
a peaceful and legal rally.

We arrive the day of our planned rally with a bullhorn to
inform the community that the rally permits were denied and
why. We handed out explanatory flyers to those who would
take them and went ahead with our modest list of speakers.
We then peacefully marched on the sidewalk to the Mission
Police Station--the location of the source of the false statements
--where we formed an orderly picket line for about an hour.

We are very proud that we did this. And, we will not let this
issue go. WE THE PEOPLE HAVE THE RIGHT TO PROTEST THE
GOVERNMENT AND THE GOVERNMENT DOESN'T HAVE THE
RIGHT TO SILENCE US!

NOT ALLOWING PERMITS AND DENYING US THE RIGHT TO
AMPLIFIED SOUND IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL. IT IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL
TO EXACT HUGE FEES FROM PEOPLE IN ORDER JUST TO APPLY
FOR PERMITS (We had to come up with over $700.00 just for
the permits. We found we couldn't afford to rent a flatbed
truck or any speakers so decided to just use our own speaker
and speak from a milk-carton-type platform. The City couldn't
even allow this!)

FREE SPEECH IS FOR EVERYONE RICH OR POOR! WAVE THE FEES
FOR POOR GROUPS WHO HAVE NO MEANS OF FINANCIAL SUPPORT.
EVERY PERMIT APPLIED FOR MUST BE GRANTED UNLESS THERE
IS A DAMNED GOOD REASON.

The news of this and the city's insistence that A.N.S.W.E.R. pay
tens of thousands of dollars in fines for posting information
up in the community--a centuries-long practice of free speech
and mass communication among the poor--among those without
the billions of advertising dollars to spend--is already spreading
shockwaves throughout the community.

News of these permit denials and the harassment of A.N.S.W.E.R.
Will serve to expose the real nature of the city government.

What do we call a state that allows the Police to determine when,
where, how and if an opposition demonstration can take place?
We call that a Police State! What do we call those who do not
stand up against this injustice? I can think of a few choice words.

Why is it that the Zionists are afforded a location directly in front
of antiwar protests? Why do the Right to Lifers get a police escort
in a solidly pro-choice city? Why are mainstream politicians
or even corporations catered to routinely with street closures,
giant stages, sound systems, etc. when a small group of immigrants
who wanted to use a small sound system and a very short street
closure from Mission to Bartlett Streets on 24th Street for a total
of two hours on one day was met with a show of force at both the
ISCOTT hearing and at the location the demonstration was to take
place--to see to it that it would not take place. How much money
in Police overtime did we, the taxpayers, have to pay in order
to squelch this small expression of free speech and assembly?
How much to harass A.N.S.W.E.R.?

The whole community witnessed what happened to the People
United for General and Unconditional Amnesty for All on
September 16th at 24th and Mission Street. The whole
community notice the police show of force! The community
also noticed a small but brave group of people who carried
on as best we could with our rally. Standing on the lamp post
on the corner and having our rally anyway with an ineffective
bullhorn. The flyers, signs, posters and banners we carried
and handed out said it all! The whole community also watched
as this same small, gutsy group of about 50 people march
to the Mission Police Station at 17th and Valencia and picketed
them in protest of their denial of our permits.

WE DEMAND YOU SEE TO IT THAT "THE WORLD CAN'T WAIT"
PERMITS ARE GRANTED IMMEDIATELY! AND IMMEDIATELY DISMISS
ALL OF A.N.S.W.E.R.'S FINES AND MAKE REPARATIONS TO THEM
FOR THE HARASSMENT THEY HAVE HAD TO DEAL WITH! WE, AGAIN,
ALSO DEMAND THAT OUR PERMIT FEES BE RETURNED TO US SINCE
OUR PERMIT WAS DENIED UNDER FALSE PRETENCIS.

You can't pick and choose who can demonstrate. That is not your
prerogative if we are to claim to have freedom of speech and assembly.

WE DEMAND OUR RIGHTS!

Bonnie Weinstein

People United For a General and Unconditional Amnesty
Barrio Unido Por una Amnistia General e Incondicional
474 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
Contact Persons:
Cristina Gutierrez: 415-431-9925
Bonnie Weinstein: 415-824-8730
www.bauaw.org

Text of flyer handed out Sept. 15th to the community:


POLICE DENY PERMITS TO THE IMMIGRANTS OF THE PEOPLE
UNITED PREVENTING US FROM ORGANIZING IN OUR OWN
NEIGHBORHOOD IN ORDER TO DEMAND UNCONDITIONAL
AND GENERAL AMNESTY

The People United has been engaged in the application
process since May 10th in order to celebrate our national
holidays and find a real solution to our problems as immigrants
and specifically for undocumented immigrants. The police
have completely blocked all of the attempts we have made
in having an assembly in our own neighborhood. There has
been no possible negotiation, and furthermore the police
had lied at the public hearing in order to deny us our permits.

WHY?

Because The People United is the only organization in San
Francisco led by immigrants! Not by the sons of immigrants.
Not by any democratic nor republican parties. Not by any so
called left organizations or parties who claim they want to
save us but won't listen to our demands. Not by organizations
that receive governmental monies or who receive salaries
in order to supposedly help us immigrants get papers.
Not by democratic or republican parties who see us as
their future votes.

NO!

We are a group of immigrants who demand a general
and unconditional amnesty for all, we are not talking
about using our people to go vote and elect people who
never fulfill their promises.

We denounce our governments of Mexico, Guatemala,
Nicaragua, Colombia, Peru, etc., for not providing jobs
in our countries and forcing us to leave them.
We denounce the government of the United States for
being an accomplice with the government of our countries.
They work together to bring us here as a cheap source
of labor and many times we are forced to become scabs.

We denounce the government of the United States for planning
disenfranchisement and dehumanization keeping us as an
army of unemployed with no rights to health, education,
or dignity.

We denounce all the political parties and organizations that
look at us as objects in order to achieve their political and
economic needs and they deny us the right to organize
ourselves and represent our own struggle.

We denounce the police for the constant abuse of our people
of which the negation of this permit of this assembly
is just one more.

Immigrant brothers and sisters, unite in the struggle for
our rights and the general and unconditional amnesty for all!!!!

MEETING

Date: Thursday, September 21st

Place: 474 Valencia St.

Time: 7pM

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

In an interview in March 1995 entitled, "Jesse Helms: Setting the
Record Straight" that appeared in the Middle East Quarterly, Helms
said, "I have long believed that if the United States is going to give
money to Israel, it should be paid out of the Department of Defense
budget. My question is this: If Israel did not exist, what would
U.S. defense costs in the Middle East be? Israel is at least the
equivalent of a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Middle East. Without
Israel promoting its and America's common interests, we would
be badly off indeed."
(Jesse Helms was the senior senator from North Carolina and the
chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the time.)
http://www.meforum.org/article/244

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!VIVA FIDEL! LONG LIVE FIDEL! LONG LIVE THE CUBAN REVOLUTION!
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Harvest Time
By Bonnie Weinstein

Congress is postponing decisions about immigrant rights legislation
until after the elections. They say they don't want to antagonize
the Latino community before elections. But there is another reason.
It's harvest time! They need thousands of immigrant workers
to harvest the nations crops. They are not worried about antagonizing
Latino's-it's America's agribusiness they don't want to upset. Clearly
they don't want to deport all immigrants, they just want to be able
to terrorize them into submission.

What many American-born workers don't realize is that this threat
will be extended to them as well-not deportation, of course-but
the threat of being out of a job if they stand up for their rights.

What are the common dangers that we face? At the stroke of
a bosses pen we can be fired and find ourselves without a livelihood.
Throughout America factories are being closed down and re-built
in countries that force workers to live as slaves while a bonanza
of U.S, tax-free, corporate profits flows freely across all borders
and into the bosses' pockets.

An even more sinister danger is the lure of U.S. Military service.
All of our children and especially the children of undocumented
workers are in danger of being used as cannon fodder to maintain
the power and wealth of America's corporations. The Military
is entrenched in our public schools. They don't go to the schools
of the wealthy. To the children of immigrants they promise
citizenship and to the children of poor, American workers they
promise college and a career. But it does no good to become
a citizen after you are dead and it's hard to have a career with
half of your brain or body missing in action!

On Tuesday, November 14th at 7:00 P.M., the San Francisco Board
of Education will vote on whether to phase out the Junior Reserve
Officers Training Corps-a military recruitment program for the
High Schools. We must be there in force to see that they do
so immediately, and that they rid the schools of all military
recruiters! It is up to us so please come! That's Tuesday,
November 14, 7:00 P.M., at 555 Franklin Street, First Floor.
You can call the day before and the day of the meeting
to get on the speakers list: 415-241-6427.

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WE EXTEND OUR SOLIDARITY TO A.N.S.W.E.R. IN THEIR STRUGGLE
AGAINST THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO WHO, ACTING
AS A BODY, ARE INCREASINGLY LIMITING OUR RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH
(INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO POST PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS--A CENTURIES
OLD TRADITION OF MASS COMMUNICATION FOR THE POOR)
AND THE RIGHT TO FREE ASSEMBLY!

Paid advertising in the mass media is prohibitive. Only those with millions
of dollars to spend for advertising are allowed a public voice.
Right here in San Francisco the fees for permits have skyrocketed
and the permit process is long and complicated. The permit
application for DPT is 17 pages long and full of rules and regulations
that must be followed. And both the City and County and the ACLU
have agreed that while we have the right to free speech, the City and
County does, indeed, have the right to say when and where we may
or may not exercise it.

WE SAY NO!

THE CITYS' OBLIGATION IS TO MAKE SURE OUR
RIGHT TO ORGANIZE, PUBLICIZE AND PROTEST IS PROTECTED!
AND THAT OUR RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH AND THE RIGHT TO
HAVE DIRECT CONTACT WITH OUR OWN CONSTITUENCY
IS GUARANTEED! We must be able to post public events,
and hold public events where the people are. The San Francisco
Police Department routinely protects the rights of the Zionists
when they want to hold counter-demonstrations to our
Antiwar actions. They also protect the "Right to Lifers" when
they want to march down San Francisco's Embarcadero--HERE
IN SAN FRANCISCO--A PRO-CHOICE CITY!
The San Francisco Police Department goes all out to
accommodate them! WHY NOT US!

RESCHEDULED: ANSWER Postering Case Hearing
We are appealing for your support as our free speech lawsuit
against the San Francisco Department of Public Works (DPW)
reaches a critical stage. As you may be aware from articles that
have recently appeared in the Bay Guardian, the SF Weekly and
elsewhere, the DPW is attempting to impose fines that now total
more than $45,000 against the local ANSWER Coalition for
postering violations.

We just received word that the hearing for the ANSWER postering
case has been put off for 2 weeks. The new date of the hearing is
Thurs. Sept. 28, 9:30am at Superior Court, 400 McAllister St. (corner
Polk St., SF), 3rd Floor, Dept. 302. If you can, please join us at the
hearing two weeks from today to show your support.

If you would like to read a copy of attorney Ben Rosenfeld’s reply
to the city's response to our lawsuit, which summarizes the main
points of our position, please contact us at 415-821-6545 or
answer@actionsf.org.

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STOP THE WAR! BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
MONEY FOR HUMAN NEEDS NOT WAR!
MARCH AND RALLY
SATURDAY, 10/28
(TIME AND LOCATION TBA)

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THIS JUST IN:

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The Democratic Party's redevelopment plan is stopped by Petition
campaign until 2000! House Speaker Pelosi's, the Board of Supervisor's,
and the Mayor's plans to help the housing profiteers is stopped.

"The Bayview Hunters Point Redevelopment Area, passed on by the
Board of Supervisors 7-4 , and signed into law by the Mayor on
June 1, 2006, is now officially suspended pending an election at
which the voters will be given the opportunity to decide.  The election
will most likely take place during a normally scheduled general
election in 2007."

SEPTEMBER 12, 2006

Just before 5 pm today, Tuesday, September 12, 2006, John Arntz,
Director of Elections for the City and County of San Francisco officially
certified that the  REFERENDUM PETITION opposing the creation
of a Bayview Hunters Point Redevelopment Area as successful.

The Department of Elections found that more than the minimum
number of 21,615 valid signatures were submitted by Petition
sponsors.  Sponsors had submitted in excess of  33,000 signatures 
on August 30th, 2006 after a 90 day signature gathering drive. 
San Francisco has not seen a successful referendum petition drive
in decades.  A referendum allows San Francisco  voters to decide
on the merits of legislation passed by the Board of Supervisors.

WHAT THIS MEANS:

The Bayview Hunters Point Redevelopment Area, passed on by the
Board of Supervisors 7-4 , and signed into law by the Mayor on
June 1, 2006, is now officially suspended pending an election
at which the voters will be given the opportunity to decide. 
The election will most likely take place during a normally
scheduled general election in 2007.

SUPPORTES HAIL VICTORY:

Petition supporters hailed the results as a victory for democracy
and echoed their campaign slogan "Let the Voters Decide!  
Petition supporter , Willie Ratcliff,publisher of the Bayview Newspaper
said "This special interest legislation was never about the benefiting
the community. Now ,finally,  the will of the voters can be expressed
democratically, at the ballot."

CONTACT FOR FURTHER INFO:   
Brian Murphy O'Flynn     415-867-4370

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SCROLL DOWN TO READ:
EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS
GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
ARTICLES IN FULL
LINKS ONLY

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EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS
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TWO EVENTS TO PROTEST POLITICAL KILLINGS IN THE PHILIPPINES
THURS. SEPT. 21 INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTION
4pm, Powell & Market, San Francisco
Commemoration of 34th Anniversary of the Declaration
of Martial Law & Candle-light March for 750 Killed & Over 100
Disappeared Under US-Arroyo Regime
4:00 pm meet at Powell and Market (North side
of Market near Cable Car stop)
4:30 pm March to Philippine Consulate (447 Sutter St. @ Powell)
5:00 pm Speak out and commemorate victims of political
killings at Consulate
5:30 pm March to Civic Center to join the Interfaith Candle Light
Vigil A Declaration of Peace activity on the occasion
of International Peace Day

7:00 PM, Ecumenical Service
Bethlehem Lutheran Church, 959-12th St. Oakland, California
“Commemorative Night for the victims of political killings
and martial law.”

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Celebrate International Peace Day
Sep 21 2006 - 7:30am
Organization: CodePINK: Women For Peace
Contact Name: Sam Joi
Contact Email: mzsam@bayareacodepink.org
Contact Phone: 510-524-2776

We will celebrate International Peace Day by beginning with a march
across the Golden Gate Bridge during early morning rush hour.

We will have banners "DECLARE PEACE" and "RISE, WOMEN, RISE" as
we march. Wear hot pink, bring noise makers, signs, dress warm!

We will meet in both parking lots at the north & south end of the
bridge around 7:30a.m. and begin to march at 8:00a.m.

We would like this to be a women-led march with our allies joining us.

Location
North & South Vista Points Parking Lots, Golden Gate Bridge
Highway 101 South Parkig lot last SF exit San Francisco
& Marin, CA, 94112

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Free the Cuban Five!
September 23, 2006
Washington, DC
Breaking News...
On Aug. 9, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals issued its en banc
decision denying a new trial to the Cuban Five. On August 10,
the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five, together with
the National Lawyers Guild, sponsored an emergency press
conference in Washington in response to the decision.
A partial transcript to that press conference, in English
and Spanish, is here.
A March on the White House will be held on September 23
to continue to press forward with efforts to free the Five.
We urge all supporters to make every effort to join us on
that march. A public demonstration of support for the Five,
and outrage at their continued imprisonment, has never
been more vital. Details of the march are found at the
website below.
Join us in Washington on Sept. 23! Free the Cuban Five!
http://www.freethefive.org/

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IRAN WAR PERIL — EX-CIA MAN’S SF TALK SEPT. 24

The "threat" from Iran: Are mushroom clouds ahead?
Ray McGovern, a CIA analyst for 27 years, addresses
that issue at 12:45 p.m. Sunday, September 24, in the
First Unitarian Universalist Church (Starr King Room),
Franklin and Geary Streets, San Francisco.

McGovern will touch on Iraq too: "How we got in and
how we get out." Last May in Atlanta, national TV
networks showed him accusing Defense Secretary
Rumsfeld of prewar lying about supposed Iraqi weapons
of mass destruction.

McGovern founded Veteran Intelligence Professionals
for Sanity. He served the Central Intelligence Agency
from the Kennedy Administration to that of George H.
W. Bush. Awarded an Intelligence Commendation Medal,
he returned it following the revelations of torture.

There will be a question period until about 2 p.m.
Optional lunch (bring it or buy it) precedes the
program at 12:15. Cosponsors are the church’s World
Community Advocates and the War and Law League (WALL).

Following the program, WALL conducts its biennial
meeting. It is a nonpartisan, all-volunteer, San
Francisco-based group that opposes presidential wars
and aims at the rule of law in U.S. foreign affairs.

Public transit to the Unitarian Church includes
Muni's 47 and 49 bus lines on Van Ness Avenue, one
block east of Franklin, and the 38-Geary bus(which
connects with BART at the Montgomery Street Station).

For further information: (415) 738-8298 or (415)
564-2083; warandlaw@yahoo.com; http://warandlaw.org.

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THE DECLARATION OF PEACE

“WITNESS TO PEACE: PROTEST AND CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE TO
SAVE THE LIVES OF OUR CHILDREN”
ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE!
Meet at Military Recruiting Office
Monday, September 25, 2006, 4:00 P.M.-6:00 P.M.
Stonestown Ocean Recruiting Station
561 Buckingham Way
(Across the street from the mall.)

Eyes Wide Open Boots and Shoes Exhibit: The Numbers Increase
The Declaration of Peace

The Declaration of Peace (www.declarationofpeace.org) is
a nationwide campaign to establish a concrete and rapid
plan for peace in Iraq. In August and September Congressional
visits have urged our Members of Congress to sign on to end
this militaristic adventure in Iraq.

IF CONSCIENCE LEADS YOU, TRAIN AND JOIN WITH ACTIVISTS
OF FAITH IN A NON VIOLENT ACTION TO END MILITARISM
AND THE WAR IN IRAQ
PREPARATION AND TRAININGS

September 23, Saturday 1-5 p.m. Non-Violence Training,
San Francisco First Unitarian Universalist Society,
1187 Franklin Street at Geary
Get information as it develops.
Contact Sandra Schwartz at (415) 565-0201 x 24
or email sschwartz@afsc.org

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"No Thanks Bechtel!"
...for the Iraq war
...for undermining democracy
...for sick Iraqi children
...for destruction of the environment
...for nuclear weapons

Join us! Wednesday, Sept 27, 4:00 PM
Bechtel Corporate Headquaters, 50 Beale St, San Francisco
Half a block east from Embarcadero BART

DECLARE Peace - an end to war and war profiteering!
For more info on this event, please contact Lacy MacAuley at
Butterfly@Lacy.com.

For more info on Declaration of Peace, including a full calendar of events,
please visit:
http://www.declarationofpeace.org

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WHY DOES PROP 85 ENDANGER
TEEN SAFETY

Dear Health Care Activist,

Parents care most about keeping their teenagers safe.
That means always safe, even if they feel they can’t talk
to their parents about an unplanned pregnancy.

Parental notification laws cause young women to delay
seeking medical care.

When desperate teenagers turn to back-alley abortions
many will suffer serious injuries and some will die.

You are invited to our Saturday, September 30 health care meeting
on "Why Proposition 85 is bad for our health." The 3pm meeting
will be 4760 Mission in San Francisco, between Ocean and Geneva
at Russia. It is 5 blocks from the Balboa BART station.
Proposition is 85 is a re-run of the 2004 ballot initiative,
Proposition 73.

Groups in opposition to prop 85 include:
The California Federation of Labor, The California Medical
Association, The California Academy of Family Physicians,
The California Nurses Association, American Academy
of Pediatrics-California District, The Adolescent Health
Collaborative, Health Care of All, The League of Women
Voters, and Planned Parenthood. The State AFL-CIO at its
July convention voted to oppose this attack on reproductive rights.
Don Bechler
Chair - California Universal Health Care Organizing Project
Chair - Health Care for All - San Francisco chapter
415-695-7891

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Brian Ashley will report
on the new stage
of the struggle
for liberation in South Africa

October 1, 2006
2:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Refreshments @ 2:00 PM
Brian to speak @ 3:00 PM
Q & A to follow

Hosted By Alice & Frank Fried
742 Palmera Court
Alameda, CA 94501
510.769.0599

About Brian Ashley:

Brian Ashley has been an activist in the South African liberation
struggle having gone into exile in Zimbabwe in 1984. He is the
founder and director of the Alternative Information and
Development Centre, AIDC, a radical advocacy NGO mobilising
against neoliberal globalisation and its impact in South Africa
and Southern Africa. He helped form the Jubilee 2000 anti-
debt movement in South Africa and the global Jubilee South
movement that fights against debt domination by the International
Financial Institutions and the G8 countries. He is active in the
World Social Forum representing AIDC on the WSF International
Council and the African Social Forum Council. He is also a leading
member of the Palestinian Solidarity Committee. Apart from being
active in a number of social movements in SA he is a board member
of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, COSATU led Working
Partnerships Research and Education Agency.

A collection will be taken to support South African Solidarity Work

Frank Fried

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Urgent call from October 22 Coalition against Police Brutality, SF
October 22 Coalition against Police Brutality, Repression
and Criinalization of a generation
National Day of Protest, March and Rally in SF, Planning
NO MORE STOLEN LIVES ! NO MAS VIDAS ROBADAS !
Contact:
mesha Monge-Irizarry
Idriss Stelley Foundation
(415) 595-8251 24HR Bilingual Spa. Crisis line
iolmisha@cs. com
How: Already involved are : October 22 Bay Area, Idriss
Stelley Foundation, SF CEDP (Campaign to End the Death
Penalty, ISO (International Socialist Organization, Bay Area),
Bay Area Families of Victims and Survivors of Police brutality,
Code Pink
http://www.october22.org/
GET INVOLVED: To join our mailing list, please write to:
sf1022-talk-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

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U.S. Out of Iraq Now! We Are the Majority!
End Colonial Occupation from Iraq,
to Palestine, Haiti, and Everywhere!
October 28 National Day of Action
Locally Coordinated Anti-War Protests from Coast to Coast
Vote With Your Feet … and Your Voices, and Banners, and Signs!
Let Every Politician Feel the Power of the People!
http://answer.pephost.org/site/News2?abbr=ANS_&page=NewsArticle&id=7836

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October 28 National Day of Action
Locally Coordinated Anti-War Protests from Coast to Coast
Vote With Your Feet … and Your Voices, and Banners, and Signs!
Let Every Politician Feel the Power of the People!
http://answer.pephost.org/site/News2?abbr=ANS_&page=NewsArticle&id=7836
http://www.actionsf.org/
http://answer.pephost.org/site/News2?abbr=ANS_&page=NewsArticle&id=7869

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End Canada's Occupation of Afghanistan!
Call for action on October 28, 2006

This call for a pan-Canadian day of action, co-signed by the
Canadian Peace Alliance, the Canadian Islamic Congress, the
Canadian Labour Congress and the Montreal coalition Echec
a la Guerre, is being distributed and discussed at the World Peace
Forum now taking place in Vancouver. -SV The Collectif Échec
à la guerre, Canadian Peace Alliance, the Canadian Labour Congress,
and the Canadian Islamic Congress are jointly calling for a pan-
Canadian day of protest this October 28th, 2006, to bring Canadian
troops home from Afghanistan.

On that day, people all across the country will unite to tell
Stephen Harper that we are opposed to
his wholehearted support for Canadian and U.S. militarism.
This October marks the fifth anniversary of the invasion and
occupation of Afghanistan, and the people of that country are
still suffering from the ravages of war. Reconstruction in the
country is at a standstill and the needs of the Afghan people
are not being met. The rule of the new Afghan State, made
up largely of drug running warlords, will not realize the
democratic aspirations of the people there. In fact, according
to Human Rights Watch reports, the human rights record
of those warlords in recent years has not been better than
the Taliban.

We are told that the purpose of this war is to root out terrorism
and protect our societies, yet the heavy-handed approach of
a military occupation trying to impose a US-friendly
government on the Afghan people will force more Afghans
to become part of the resistance movement. It will also
make our societies more -- not less -- likely to see terrorist
attacks.

No discussion on military tactics in the House of Commons
will change that reality. Indeed, violence is increasing with
more attacks on both coalition troops and on Afghan civilians.
While individual Canadian soldiers may have gone to Afghanistan
with the best of intentions, they are operating under the
auspices of a US-led state building project that cares little
or the needs of the Afghan people. US and Canadian interests
rest with the massive $3.2 billion Trans Afghan Pipeline (TAP)
project, which will bring oil from the Caspian region through
southern Afghanistan (where Canada is stationed) and onto the
ports of Pakistan.

It has been no secret that the TAP has dominated US foreign
policy towards Afghanistan for the last decade. Now Canadian
oil and gas corporations have their own interests in the TAP.
Over the last decade, the role of the Canadian Armed Forces
abroad has changed, and Canadian foreign policy has become
a replica of the US empire-building rhetoric. The end result
of this process is now plain to see with the role of our troops
in Southern Afghanistan, with the enormous budget increases
for war expenditures and "security," with the Bush-style speeches
of Stephen Harper, and with the fear campaigns around
"homegrown terrorism" to foster support for those nefarious
changes.

It is this very course that will get young Canadian soldiers killed,
that will endanger our society and consume more and more
of its resources for destruction and death in Afghanistan.
We demand a freeze in defense and security budgets until
an in-depth public discussion is held on those issues across
Canada. The mission in Afghanistan has already cost Canadians
more than $4 billion. That money could have been used to fund
human needs in Canada or abroad. Instead it is being used
to kill civilians in Afghanistan and advance the interests
of corporations.

On October 28th, stand up and be counted.
Canadian Troops Out of Afghanistan Now!

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

San Francisco Board of Education Meeting
Tuesday, November 14th, 7PM
555 Franklin Street, 1st Floor
San Francisco, CA 94102
415/241-6427
The Board will vote on a resolution to phase out JROTC.

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

Close the SOA and Change Oppressive U.S. Foreign Policy
Nov. 17-19, 2006 - Converge on Fort Benning, Georgia

People's Movements across the Americas are becoming increasingly more
powerful. Military "solutions" to social problems as supported by
institutions like the School of the Americas were unable to squash their
voices, and the call for justice and accountability is getting louder each
day.

Add your voice to the chorus, demand justice for all the people of the
Americas and engage in nonviolent direct action to close the SOA and
change oppressive U.S. foreign policy.

With former SOA graduates being unmasked in Chile, Argentina, Colombia,
Paraguay, Honduras, and Peru for their crimes against humanity, and with
the blatant similarities between the interrogation methods and torture
methods used at Abu Ghraib and those described in human rights abuse cases
in Latin America, the SOA/WHINSEC must be held accountable!

Visit http://www.soaw.org to learn more about the November Vigil, hotel
and travel information, the November Organizing Packet, and more.

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

Shop for a Donation at Al-Awda!

Interested in furthering your knowledge about Palestine
and its people?

Want to help make the Palestinian Right to Return a reality?

Looking for ways to show your support for Palestine and
Palestinian refugees?

Why not shop for a donation at Al-Awda
http://al-awda.org/shop.html
and help support a great organization and cause!!

Al-Awda offers a variety of educational materials including interesting
and unique books on everything from oral histories, photo books
on Palestinian refugees, to autobiographies, narratives, political
analysis, and culture. We also have historical maps of Palestine
(in Arabic and English), educational films, flags of various sizes,
and colorful greeting cards created by Palestinian children.

You can also show your support for a Free Palestine, and wear with
pride, great looking T-shirts, pendants, and a variety of Palestine pins.

Shop for a Donation at Al-Awda!

Visit http://al-awda.org/shop.html for these great items, and more!

The Educational Supplies Division
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
PO Box 131352
Carlsbad, CA 92013, USA
Tel: 760-685-3243
Fax: 360-933-3568
E-mail: info@al-awda.org
WWW: http://al-awda.org

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition (PRRC), is a broad-
based, non-partisan, democratic, and charitable organization of
grassroots activists and students committed to comprehensive public
education about the rights of all Palestinian refugees to return to their
homes and lands of origin, and to full restitution for all their confiscated
and destroyed property in accordance with the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights, International law and the numerous United Nations
Resolutions upholding such rights (see FactSheet). Al-Awda, PRRC
is a not for profit tax-exempt educational and charitable 501(c)(3)
organization as defined by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the
United States of America. Under IRS guidelines, your donations
to Al-Awda, PRRC are tax-deductible.

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

IN VOGUE:
Unspeakably grotesque, This spread was so galling I felt a primal
scream rising inside me. And it was not because I am a woman.
The link is
http://www.voguevan ity.it/cont/ 060hvg/default. asp
The wounds of "western civilization" inflict themselves over
and over...unapologetic , shameless...ditto BW
http://www.voguevanity.it/cont/060hvg/default.asp

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

A CALL TO SUPPORT THE CASE OF ELVIRA ARELLANO
Stand in solidarity with all immigrants, documented and undocumented

The IAC urges you to support the case of Elvira Arellano. Elvira is
an undocumented worker who is taking a heroic stand against
deportations and fighting for her rights. She is a native of Michoacán,
Mexico who came to the U.S. like many of the other 12 million
undocumented in this country, in search of work and a better life.

In 2002, Elvira was detained by Homeland Security agents in an
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sweep at O’Hare Airport
in Chicago under the guise of allegedly looking for “terrorists”. She
was detained by the Department of Homeland Security for using
a false social security number on her job at O’Hare.

On August 18, 2006 Elvira Arellano and her seven year old son,
Saul who is a US citizen, took sanctuary in Adalberto United Methodist
Church in Chicago instead of reporting for deportation, primarily
because Saul has health problems. She has pledged to live indefinitely
in the church until granted a reprieve.

Elvira is a well known activist, representing many families in
Congressional hearings and speaking on behalf of immigrant rights.
She worked to organize in July 2005 a march of 50,000 for immigrant
rights in Chicago, and went on a hunger strike to support workers who
were picked up by ICE prior to the historic May 1st boycott in 2006.
Arellano was a founder of both La Familia Latina Unida and the
Coalition of African Arab Asian European and Latino Immigrants
of Illinois (CAAAELII).

The case of Elvira Arellano is a just case

Elvira Arellano has become the symbol of resistance to the heartless
and callous deportations that are sweeping the country. Despite
a legislative standstill in Congress, not only are deportations
escalating, local officials around the nation are implementing
de facto immigration policy that amount to a witch-hunt against
immigrants. A case in point is the anti-immigrant ordinance that
passed in July in Hazelton, PA.

Due to her heroic stand, a group of Black ministers spoke last
week at Adalberto Methodist of the comparisons of Arellano
to Rosa Parks. Reverend Albert Tyson said he hopes “their
support would increase the bonds between Latinos and African-
Americans.” At the meeting Arellano said, “I don’t only speak
for me and my son, but for millions of families like mine.”
Supporters from the predominantly Puerto Rican neighborhood
chanted, “Luchando mano y mano, Boriqua y Mexicano!”
(“Fighting hand in hand, Puerto Rican and Mexican!”)

Elvira Arellano is the perfect example that the anti-immigrant
hysteria sweeping the country is an inhumane situation that
has become intolerable. The human rights of immigrants are
being cruelly violated under the guise of fighting terrorism
or stopping “illegal” immigration. In fact, no human being
is illegal and whether in the U.S. documented or undocumented,
immigrants have a right to live in peace, without fear of evictions
from their homes or the country.

How you can help Elvira:

1. Write letters to Illinois Senators Richard Durbin and Barack
Obama as well as your own legislator urging them to prevent
her deportation.

For Senator Durbin visit: http://durbin.senate.gov/contact.cfm#contact
For Senator Obama: http://obama.senate.gov/contact/index.php

2. Send Letters to the Chicago Sun Times and the Chicago Tribune
asking them to stop demonizing Elvira as well as all immigrants.
Their emails are letters@suntimes.com and ctc-tribletter@tribune.com.

3. Send letters of support directly to Elvira at the organization she works
with and who has been spearheading her support, Sin Fronteras
at Centro Sin Fronteras 2300 S. Blue Island Ave., Chicago IL 60608
or visit the website: www.legalizationyes.com .
For Spanish speakers visit:
www.legalizacionsi.com

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

TWO AMICUS BRIEFS FILED FOR MUMIA ABU-JAMAL WITH
THE 3RD CIRCUIT FEDERAL APPEALS COURT IN JULY 2006

These pdf files can be found on Michael Schiffmann's web site at:

http://againstthecrimeofsilence.de/english/copy_of_mumia/legalarchive/

The first brief is from the National Lawyers Guild.
The second brief is from the NAACP Legal Defense
and Educational Fund, Inc.

Howard Keylor
For the Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
www.laboractionmumia.org.

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

SIR! NO SIR!
I urge everyone to get a copy of "Sir! No Sir!" at:
http://www.sirnosir.com/
It is an extremely informative and powerful film
of utmost importance today. I was a participant
in the anti-Vietnam war movement. What a
powerful thing it was to see troops in uniform
leading the march against the war! If you would
like to read more here are two very good
publications:

Out Now!: A Participant's Account of the Movement
in the United States Against the Vietnam War
by Fred Halstead (Hardcover - Jun 1978)

and:

GIs speak out against the war;: The case of the
Ft. Jackson 8; by Fred Halstead (Unknown Binding - 1970).

Both available at:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/103-1123166-0136605?search-alias=books&rank=+availability,-proj-total-margin&field-author=Fred%20Halstead

In solidarity,

Bonnie Weinstein

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

Endorse the following petition:
Don't Let Idaho Kill Endangered Wolves
Target: Fish and Wildlife Service
Sponsor: Defenders of Wildlife
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/664280276?z00m=99090&z00m=99090<l=1155834550

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

THIS JUST IN: THE KPFA PROGRAM COUNCIL HAS TURNED DOWN
THE SHOW!
SUPPORT "TAKING AIM" produced by Ralph Schoenman and
Mya Shone.

LET KPFA KNOW WE ARE DISAPPOINTED!

To contact KPFA PROGRAM COUNCIL email:
programcouncil@lists.kpfa.org

KPFA's Tracy Rosenberg voted to air "Taking Aim" and we
commend her for it.

You can thank her by writing her at:
tracyrose@gmail.com

In solidarity,
Bonnie Weinstein

Here's my letter to the KPFA Program Council::

To: KPFA PROGRAM COUNCIL
programcouncil@lists.kpfa.org
KPFA RADIO

Re: "Taking Aim"

Dear Council Members,

We are very disappointed that KPFA decided not to air the extremely
important show, "Taking Aim" produced by Ralph Schoenman and
Mya Shone.

Of course, we are also disappointed by your reluctance
to air a PSA for a rally to defend death row inmate, renowned
commentator, leader and writer, Mumia Abu-Jamal, because the
group that sponsored the rally was not a 501c3, non-profit,
semi-corporation.

I am happy to say that I did hear it announced in the Community
Calendar during Denis Bernstein's "Flashpoints," Thursday evening,
9/14, the day before the rally. But I'm sorry to say that I did not
hear the PSA.

God only knows, the downtrodden need a public voice more
than ever.

Organizers are not even allowed to post up posters and
announcements anymore in San Francisco. A.N.S.W.E.R. is currently
in a battle over the right to practice this centuries-old custom of
"posting up" for meetings, marches and rallies--historically one
of the only venues of mass communication freely available to the poor.

"Taking Aim" is a program that express that public voice.

KPFA is also supposed to express that public voice.

Now is not the time to silence it!

Please reconsider your decision not to air "Taking Aim." And end
the prohibition against airing the PSAs of non-501c3 groups and
organizations--after all, aren't they the grass roots of the matter?

Sincerely,

Bonnie Weinstein, www.bauaw.org
415-824-8730

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

END ALL U.S. AID TO ISRAEL!
Stop funding Israel's war against Palestine
Complete the form at the website listed below with your information.
Personalize the message text on the right with
your own words, if you wish.
Click the Next Step button to send your letter
to these decision makers:
President George W. Bush
Vice President Richard 'Dick' B. Cheney
Your Senators
Your Representative
Go here to register your outrage:
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Advocacy?
JServSessionIdr003=cga2p2o6x1.app2a&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=177

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

Idriss Stelley Foundation is in critical financial crisis, please help !
ISF is in critical financial crisis, and might be forced to close
its doors in a couple of months due to lack of funds to cover
DSL, SBC and utilities, which is a disaster for our numerous
clients, since the are the only CBO providing direct services
to Victims (as well as extended failies) of police misconduct
for the whole city of SF. Any donation, big or small will help
us stay alive until we obtain our 501-c3 nonprofit Federal
Status! Checks can me made out to
ISF, ( 4921 3rd St , SF CA 94124 ). Please consider to volunteer
or apply for internship to help covering our 24HR Crisis line,
provide one on one couseling and co facilitate our support
groups, M.C a show on SF Village Voice, insure a 2hr block
of time at ISF, moderate one of our 26 websites for ISF clients !
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeo9ewi/idrissstelleyfoundation/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/isf23/
Report Police Brutality
24HR Bilingual hotline
(415) 595-8251
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Justice4Asa/

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

Appeal for funds:
Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
Visit the Dahr Jamail Iraq website http://dahrjamailiraq.com
Request for Support
Dahr Jamail will soon return to the Middle East to continue his
independent reporting. As usual, reporting independently is a costly
enterprise; for example, an average hotel room is $50, a fixer runs $50
per day, and phone/food average $25 per day. Dahr will report from the
Middle East for one month, and thus needs to raise $5,750 in order to
cover his plane ticket and daily operating expenses.
A rare opportunity has arisen for Dahr to cover several stories
regarding the occupation of Iraq, as well as U.S. policy in the region,
which have been entirely absent from mainstream media.
With the need for independent, unfiltered information greater than ever,
your financial support is deeply appreciated. Without donations from
readers, ongoing independent reports from Dahr are simply not possible.
All donations go directly towards covering Dahr's on the ground
operating expenses.
(c)2006 Dahr Jamail.

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

New Flash Film
From Young Ava Over At 'Peace Takes Courage'
http://www.peacetakescourage.com/page-blog.htm
http://letter.cf.huffingtonpost.com/

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

Save the Lebanese Civilians Petition
http://epetitions.net/julywar/index.php
http://donations.tayyar.org/
To The Concerned Citizen of The World:
http://epetitions.net/julywar/index.php

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

Legal update on Mumia Abu-Jamal’s case
Excerpts from a letter written by Robert R. Bryan, the lead attorney
for death row political prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal.
...On July 20, 2006, we filed the Brief of Appellee and Cross
Appellant, Mumia Abu-Jamal, in the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia.
http://www.workers.org/2006/us/mumia-0810/

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

Today in Palestine!
For up to date information on Israeli's brutal attack on
human rights and freedom in Palestine and Lebanon go to:
http://www.theheadlines.org

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

For a great car magnet--a black ribbon with the words, "Bring
the troops home now!" written in red, and it also comes in a
lapel pin!--go to:
(Put out by A.N.S.W.E.R.)
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Ecommerce?store_id=1621

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF ZIONISM
BY RALPH SCHOENMAN
Essential reading for understanding the development of Zionism
and Israel in the service of British and USA imperialism.
The full text of the book can be found for free at:
http://www.marxists.de/middleast/schoenman/

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

JOIN THE LYNNE STEWAR DEFENSE
For those of you who don't know who Lynne Stewart is, go to
www.lynnestewart.org and get acquainted with Lynne and her
cause. Lynne is a criminal defense attorney who is being persecuted
for representing people charged with heinous crimes. It is a bedrock
of our legal system that every criminal defendant has a right to a
lawyer. Persecuting Lynne is an attempt to terrorize and intimidate
all criminal defense attorneys in this country so they will stop
representing unpopular people. If this happens, the fascist takeover
of this nation will be complete. We urge you all to go the website,
familiarize yourselves with Lynne and her battle for justice
www.lynnestewart.org

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

NATIONAL COMMITTEE TO FREE THE CUBAN FIVE
Comité Nacional por la Libertad de los Cinco Cubanos
Who are the Cuban Five?
The Cuban Five are five Cuban men who are in U.S. prison, serving
four life sentences and 75 years collectively, after being wrongly
convicted in U.S. federal court in Miami, on June 8, 2001.
They are Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero,
Fernando González and René González.
The Five were falsely accused by the U.S. government of committing
espionage conspiracy against the United States, and other related
charges.
But the Five pointed out vigorously in their defense that they were
involved in monitoring the actions of Miami-based terrorist groups,
in order to prevent terrorist attacks on their country of Cuba.
The Five’s actions were never directed at the U.S. government.
They never harmed anyone nor ever possessed nor used any
weapons while in the United States.
The Cuban Five’s mission was to stop terrorism
For more than 40 years, anti-Cuba terrorist organizations based
in Miami have engaged in countless terrorist activities against
Cuba, and against anyone who advocates a normalization
of relations between the U.S. and Cuba. More than 3,000 Cubans
have died as a result of these terrorists’ attacks.

Gerardo Hernández, 2 Life Sentences
Antonio Guerrero, Life Sentence
Ramon Labañino, Life Sentence
Fernando González, 19 Years
René González, 15 Years

Free The Cuban Five Held Unjustly In The U.S.!
http://www.freethefive.org/

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

Eyewitness Account from Oaxaca
A website is now being circulated that has up-to-date info
and video that can be downloaded of the police action and
developments in Oaxaca. For those who have not seen it
elsewhere, the website is:
www.mexico.indymedia.org/oaxaca
http://www.mexico.indymedia.org/oaxaca

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

REMINDER TO ALL GROUPS: BE SURE AND POST ALL ACTIONS AND
EVENTS TO WWW.INDYBAY.ORG TO REACH THE MOST PEOPLE
AGAINST THE WAR IN THE BAY AREA!
http://www.indybay.org

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

Iraq Body Count
For current totals, see our database page.
http://www.iraqbodycount.net/press/pr13.php

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

The Cost of War
[Over three-hundred-billion so far...bw]
http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

"The Democrats always promise to help workers, and the don't!
The Republicans always promise to help business, and the do!"
- Mort Sahl

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
"It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees."
- Emilano Zapata
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

Join the Campaign to
Shut Down the Guantanamo Torture Center
Go to:
http://www.shutitdown.org/
to send a letter to Congress and the White House:
Shut Down Guantanamo and all torture centers and prisons.
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
http://www.ANSWERcoalition.org http://www.actionsf.org
sf@internationalanswer.org
2489 Mission St. Rm. 24
San Francisco: 415-821-6545

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

Great Counter-Recruitment Website
http://notyoursoldier.org/article.php?list=type&type=14

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

DEFEND IMMIGRANT RIGHTS AND
CIVIL RIGHTS!

Last summer the U.S. Border Patrol arrested Shanti Sellz and
Daniel Strauss, both 23-year-old volunteers assisting immigrants
on the border, for medically evacuating 3 people in critical
condition from the Arizona desert.

Criminalization for aiding undocumented immigrants already
exists on the books in the state of Arizona. Daniel and Shanti
are targeted to be its first victims. Their arrest and subsequent
prosecution for providing humanitarian aid could result in
a 15-year prison sentence. Any Congressional compromise
with the Sensenbrenner bill (HR 4437) may include these
harmful criminalization provisions. Fight back NOW!

Help stop the criminalization of undocumented immigrants
and those who support them!

For more information call 415-821- 9683.
For information on the Daniel and Shanti Defense Campaign,
visit www.nomoredeaths.org.

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

FYI
According to "Minimum Wage History" at
http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/anth484/minwage.html "

"Calculated in real 2005 dollars, the 1968 minimum wage was the
highest at $9.12. "The 8 dollar per hour Whole Foods employees
are being paid $1.12 less than the 1968 minimum wage.

"A federal minimum wage was first set in 1938. The graph shows
both nominal (red) and real (blue) minimum wage values. Nominal
values range from 25 cents per hour in 1938 to the current $5.15/hr.
The greatest percentage jump in the minimum wage was in 1950,
when it nearly doubled. The graph adjusts these wages to 2005
dollars (blue line) to show the real value of the minimum wage.
Calculated in real 2005 dollars, the 1968 minimum wage was the
highest at $9.12. Note how the real dollar minimum wage rises and
falls. This is because it gets periodically adjusted by Congress.
The period 1997-2006, is the longest period during which the
minimum wage has not been adjusted. States have departed from
the federal minimum wage. Washington has the highest minimum
wage in the country at $7.63 as of January 1, 2006. Oregon is next
at $7.50. Cities, too, have set minimum wages. Santa Fe, New
Mexico has a minimum wage of $9.50, which is more than double
the state minimum wage at $4.35."

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

NO BORDERS! NO WALLS! NO FENCES! GENERAL AMNESTY FOR ALL!
OUR HOMELAND IS WHERE WE LIVE!

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

REPEAL THE NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT IN 2007!
Check out: 10 EXCELLENT REASONS NOT TO JOIN THE MILITARY
http://www.10reasonsbook.com/
Public Law print of PL 107-110, the No Child Left Behind
Act of 2001 [1.8 MB]
http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/index.html
Also, the law is up before Congress again in 2007.
See this article from USA Today:
Bipartisan panel to study No Child Left Behind
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
February 13, 2006
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-02-13-education-panel_x.htm

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
http://www.law.indiana.edu/uslawdocs/declaration.html
http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/decind.html
http://www.usconstitution.net/declar.html
http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/02/1805195.php

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

Bill of Rights
http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.billofrights.html
http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/02/1805182.php

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
ARTICLES IN FULL:
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

1) Raúl Castro Speaks Out Against U.S. at Summit Talks
By MARC LACEY
September 16, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/16/world/americas/16cuba.html

2) Immigration raid cripples Ga. town
By RUSS BYNUM, Associated Press Writer
Fri Sep 15, 2:13 PM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060915/ap_on_re_us/immigration_aftermath_1

3) Mexico: 1 million strong Convention elects “legitimate government”
By Jorge Martin   
Monday, 18 September 2006
http://www.marxist.com

4) U.S. to Maintain Iraq Force Levels
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 12:37 p.m. ET
September 19, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-US-Iraq.html?hp&ex=1158724800&en=52aa0f7e7bbbd51a&ei=5094&partner=homepage

5) Thai Prime Minister Declares State of Emergency
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 12:43 p.m. ET
September 19, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Thailand.html?hp&ex=1158724800&en=7088b6ed163114a6&ei=5094&partner=homepage

6) Seeing Huge Losses, Chrysler Slashes Production
By MICHELINE MAYNARD
September 19, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/19/business/20autocnd.html?hp&ex=1158724800&en=0774124b74af9322&ei=5094&partner=homepage

7) U.S. Resorting to 'Collective Punishment'
Inter Press Service
Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily
Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
http://dahrjamailiraq.com

8) Rules for the Real World
New York Times Editorial
September 20, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/20/opinion/20wed1.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

9) Canadian Man Tortured in Syria Wants Explanation From U.S.
By IAN AUSTEN
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/20/world/americas/20canada.html

10) Border Fence Must Skirt Objections From Arizona Tribe
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
September 20, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/20/washington/20fence.html?ref=us

11) Update on Suzanne Swift
September 19th, 2006. 101 days since her arrest.
formydaughtersuzanne@yahoo.com
http://suzanneswift.org/

12) City Hall declares war on the people of Bayview Hunters Point
by Willie Ratcliff
sfbayview@lists.riseup.net

13) President Chavez's Speech to the United Nations
By: President Hugo Chavez
Friday, Sep 16, 2005
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/print.php?artno=1555

14) Home Raids Provoke Increased Unrest
Inter Press Service
Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily
Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
http://dahrjamailiraq.com

15) G.O.P. in Senate Narrows Immigration Focus to 700-Mile Fence
By CARL HULSE
September 21, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/washington/21immig.html?ref=us

16) Many Theories on Income Inequality,
but One Answer Lies in Just a Few Places
HAL R. VARIAN
September 21, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/business/21scene.html

17) IOF Kill 5 Civilians in the Gaza Strip, including 3 Children,
& Injures 7 others; Two of the Victims Bled to Death when
IOF Prevented Ambulances from Rescuing them
September 21, 2006
http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/PressR/English/2006/111-2006.htm

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1) Raúl Castro Speaks Out Against U.S. at Summit Talks
By MARC LACEY
September 16, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/16/world/americas/16cuba.html

MEXICO CITY, Sept. 15 — Raúl Castro, who is standing in as Cuba’s
leader while his brother, Fidel, recuperates from surgery, railed at
the United States during a summit meeting in Havana of nonaligned
nations on Friday, urging them to unite against “unacceptable acts
of aggression essentially motivated by insatiable appetite for strategic
resources.”

Mr. Castro’s first public speech since taking power in July was just as
stridently anti-Washington as those offered by his elder brother.
He spoke of the Bush administration’s “irrational pretensions for
world dominance” and called “absurd” its aggressive military spending
now that the cold war is over.

“With regard to international relations, we are not the decisive force
that we could be,” Mr. Castro, 75, told members of the 118-member
group of developing nations. “The Non-Aligned Movement now has
to wage courageous battles against unilateralism, double standards
and the impunity granted to those in power, for a fairer and more
equal international order.”

The United States declined observer status at the summit meeting.
In Miami, however, the Bush administration’s top Cuban-American
official, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, delivered his own
rebuke to Cuba’s government.

Condemning repression on the island and calling Raúl Castro “simply
another military dictator,” Mr. Gutierrez called on Cuba to hold
a referendum on its future leadership, a proposal that the
Communist government would surely dismiss.

“Why not ask the people?” Mr. Gutierrez said at conference on Latin
America’s economic future, which attracted leaders from throughout
the region. “Let the Cuban people speak. Let the Cuban people
determine their own destiny.”

Noticeably absent from the fray in Havana was Fidel Castro, 80,
who continued his recuperation. Cuban newspaper photographs
showed him clad in pajamas while meeting with Secretary General
Kofi Annan of the United Nations, and President Hugo Chávez
of Venezuela.

“Despite the rigor and will with which he pursues his treatment and
physical therapy, the doctors have insisted that he continue to rest,”
Felipe Pérez Roque, Cuba’s foreign minister, told reporters on Friday.

The Non-Aligned Movement began during the cold war, when many
nations were firmly allied with either the United States or the Soviet
Union. The group has lived on, and now has 118 members that see
themselves as the voice for the developing world.

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2) Immigration raid cripples Ga. town
By RUSS BYNUM, Associated Press Writer
Fri Sep 15, 2:13 PM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060915/ap_on_re_us/immigration_aftermath_1

Trailer parks lie abandoned. The poultry plant is scrambling to
replace more than half its workforce. Business has dried up at
stores where Mexican laborers once lined up to buy food, beer
and cigarettes just weeks ago.

This Georgia community of about 1,000 people has become little
more than a ghost town since Sept. 1, when federal agents began
rounding up illegal immigrants.

The sweep has had the unintended effect of underscoring just
how vital the illegal immigrants were to the local economy.

More than 120 illegal immigrants have been loaded onto buses
bound for immigration courts in Atlanta, 189 miles away. Hundreds
more fled Emanuel County. Residents say many scattered into the
woods, camping out for days. They worry some are still hiding
without food.

At least one child, born a U.S. citizen, was left behind by his
Mexican parents: 2-year-old Victor Perez-Lopez. The toddler's
mother, Rosa Lopez, left her son with Julie Rodas when the raids
began and fled the state. The boy's father was deported to Mexico.

"When his momma brought this baby here and left him, tears
rolled down her face and mine too," Rodas said. "She said, `Julie,
will you please take care of my son because I have no money,
no way of paying rent?'"

For five years, Rodas has made a living watching the children
of workers at the Crider Inc. poultry plant, where the vast majority
of employees were Mexican immigrants. She learned Spanish,
and considered many immigrants among her closest friends.
She threw parties for their children's birthdays and baptisms.

The only child in Rodas' care now, besides her own son, is Victor.
Her customers have disappeared.

Federal agents also swarmed into a trailer park operated by
David Robinson. Illegal immigrants were handcuffed and taken
away. Almost none have returned. Robinson bought an American
flag and posted it by the pond out front — upside down, in protest.

"These people might not have American rights, but they've damn
sure got human rights," Robinson said. "There ain't no reason
to treat them like animals."

The raids came during a fall election season in which immigration
is a top issue.

Last month, the federal government reported that Georgia had
the fastest-growing illegal immigrant population in the country.
The number more than doubled from an estimated 220,000 in
2000 to 470,000 last year. This year, state lawmakers passed
some of the nation's toughest measures targeting illegal immigrants,
and Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue last week vowed a statewide
crackdown on document fraud.

Other than the Crider plant, there isn't much in Stillmore. Four
small stores, a coin laundry and a Baptist church share downtown
with City Hall, the fire department and a post office. "We're poor
but proud," Mayor Marilyn Slater said, as if that is the town motto.

The 2000 Census put Stillmore's population at 730, but Slater
said uncounted immigrants probably made it more than 1,000.
Not anymore, with so many homes abandoned and the streets
practically empty.

"This reminds me of what I read about Nazi Germany, the Gestapo
coming in and yanking people up," Slater said.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Marc Raimondi
would not discuss details of the raids. "We can't lose sight
of the fact that these people were here illegally," Raimondi said.

At Sucursal Salina No. 2, a store stocked with Mexican fruit sodas
and snacks, cashier Alberto Gonzalez said Wednesday that the
owner may shutter the place. By midday, Gonzalez has had only
six customers. Normally, he would see 100.

The B&S convenience store, owned by Keith and Regan Slater,
the mayor's son and grandson, has lost about 80 percent
of its business.

"These people come over here to make a better way of life,
not to blow us up," complained Keith Slater, who keeps a portrait
of Ronald Reagan on the wall. "I'm a die-hard Republican,
but I think we missed the boat with this one."

Since the mid-1990s, Stillmore has grown dependent on the
paychecks of Mexican workers who originally came for seasonal
farm labor, picking the area's famous Vidalia onions. Many then
took year-round jobs at the Crider plant, with a workforce
of about 900.

Crider President David Purtle said the agents began inspecting
the company's employment records in May. They found 700
suspected illegal immigrants, and supervisors handed out letters
over the summer ordering them to prove they came to the U.S.
legally or be fired. Only about 100 kept their jobs.

The arrests started at the plant Sept. 1. Over the Labor Day
weekend, agents with guns and bulletproof vests converged
on workers' homes after getting the addresses from Crider's files.

Antonio Lopez, who came here two years ago from Chiapas,
Mexico, and worked at the Crider plant, said agents kicked
in his front door. Lopez, 32, and his 15-year-old son were
handcuffed and taken by bus to Atlanta with 30 others. Because
of the boy, Lopez said, both were allowed to return. In his back
pocket, he carries an order to return to Atlanta for a court
hearing Feb. 2.

But now, "there's no people here and I don't have any work,"
he said.

The poultry plant has limped along with half its normal workforce.
Crider increased its starting wages by $1 an hour to help recruit
new workers.

Stacie Bell, 23, started work canning chicken at Crider a week ago.
She said the pay, $7.75 an hour, led her to leave her $5.60-an-hour
job as a Wal-Mart cashier in nearby Statesboro. Still, Bell said she
felt bad about the raids.

"If they knew eventually that they were going to have to do that, they
should have never let them come over here," she said.

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

3) Mexico: 1 million strong Convention elects “legitimate government”
By Jorge Martin   
Monday, 18 September 2006
http://www.marxist.com

A massive National Democratic Convention (CND) met in the centre
of Mexico City on Saturday, September 16 and decided to elect "a
legitimate government" with Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (the
candidate of the left-wing PRD in the July 2nd elections) as its
president. This was the culmination of a struggle of more than
2 months against electoral fraud which has put into question all
the institutions of Mexico's bourgeois democracy. For 48 days,
in the run up to the CND, tens of thousands of AMLO supporters
had organised a tent city in the centre of Mexico City, paralysing
its main thoroughfares, and millions had participated in massive
rallies and daily assemblies (the largest on July 31 with 3 million).

The CND was attended by 1,025,724 delegates from all over the
country and by tens of thousands of others who had not been
officially registered. It is difficult to estimate the size of this massive
rally, but it contained anything between 1.5 and 2 million people.

In the week prior to the assembly, the Mexican government had
tried to prevent it from taking place. September 15 is the traditional
day of the "Grito de Dolores" (the shout from Dolores), when the first
call for the struggle for independence of Mexico was made by Hidalgo
in 1810. Traditionally this is celebrated by the president giving an
address from the National Palace in Zocalo Square at midnight on
September 15. This is then followed by a military parade on Mexico's
Independence day on the 16. The government was threatening to
use the army to remove the protesters.

Finally, the movement decided to withdraw from the square to allow
the military parade to go through, but only after they had taken over
the Grito de Dolores. The movement decided to reassemble on the
afternoon of the16 for the CND. Showing the weakness of the
government, president Fox had to abandon (for the first time in nearly
100 years) any idea of delivering the Grito de Dolores from the Zocalo
and fleed to Guanajuato. The official excuse that was given was that
intelligences services had information that "groups of PRD radicals
were going to kill people". Now even high-ranking officials in the
intelligence service are refuting the official government version. The
truth is that in Mexico we have quite an unprecedented situation in
which the legitimate government of Fox cannot impose its will on the
mass movement. Hundreds of thousands rightly saw it as a victory
when left-wing Senator Dolores Ibarra and other representatives
of the movement celebrated the Grito de Dolores from the Zocalo.

The CND started about an hour late, delayed by torrential rain. But
more than 1 million delegates who filled the Zocalo and the nearby
streets of Pino Suárez, 20 de Noviembre, 16 de Septiembre, Madero
and 5 de Mayo, did not move and stood there waiting. They had come
to the Zocalo for a reason and they would not be moved by the rain.

When the meeting started the first speaker was left-wing writer Elena
Poniatowska. She started by mentioning a letter she had received
from Cuahtémoc Cárdenas, a former leader of the PRD, in which he
advises the movement "not to break the framework of the institutions"
by electing Obrador as a "legitimate president". This was received by
a roar of disapproval, with the multitude shouting "Traitor! Traitor!".
Cárdenas, and many others in the PRD leadership, have openly
disassociated themselves from the resistance movement against
electoral fraud. As a result, they have gone from being respected
leaders (Cárdenas furthermore is related to president Cárdenas
who in 1938 nationalised oil), to being widely despised and rightly
considered as traitors.

Another organisation which has been put to the test by this massive
movement is the "Otra Campaña" (the Other Campaign) set up by
Subcomandante Marcos and the leaders of the EZLN. By openly
advocating abstention from the election campaign which the masses
saw as an opportunity to change their lives, they have squandered the
support and respect they had amongst the workers and peasants
throughout Mexico. The leader of the EZLN is now commonly
referred to as Subcomediante Marcos ("subcomedian" instead
of "subcommander"). Revolutionary events put all organisations
and tendencies to the test, and mistakes are paid dearly
by those who fail it.

The CND passed a number of resolutions, declaring PAN presidential
candidate (who has been declared elected president by the electoral
tribunal) as a "usurper" and refusing "to recognise him as a legitimate
president of the Republic. A "plan of resistance" was also passed
with massive support. This includes a national day of action against
the privatisation of energy sources (electricity and oil), a national week
of action in defence of free state education in October, and so on.
This shows clearly that the character of the movement has gone
beyond the question of electoral fraud and the defence of democracy.
In fact, this is clearly linked to a rejection of the policies of the right-
wing PAN which include the privatisation of Mexico's oil company
PEMEX, of the electricity company, the creation of a two-tier higher
education system, the destruction of the social security system and
the elimination of basic workers' rights enshrined in the Constitution
of 1917 during the Mexican Revolution.

But the culmination of the CND was when the issue of recognising
AMLO as legitimate president was put to the massive meeting. There
was a proposal to declare him as "head of the resistance" instead,
thus making a concession to the established institutions, but this
was rejected out of hand, with a massive majority declaring him
"president of the Republic". Crushed against the barriers that created
a space for the media in the Zocalo, 84 year old Rafael Pérez Vázqued
shouted as loud as he could: "President, he is the president! We have
been fighting since the fraud! He was elected and should be president!"

It was then decided that AMLO would form a legitimate government
and that this would be installed in Mexico City on November 20,
Mexico's Revolution Day. After, it was agreed that the highest point
of the movement will be a massive mobilisation on December the 1,
to "prevent the installation of Calderón as president".

Lopez Obrador, in his speech accepting the presidential position,
made clear the challenge to the institutions of the ruling class which
he described as an "elite block openly composed of the leaders
of the PAN and the PRI, the political arm of a small rapacious
minority which has caused so much damage to our country".
He added that he was proud to be at the head of a "government
of the people."

Another issue which has fuelled the anger of the masses is the
media blockade imposed by the mass media in Mexico (and we
should add, also internationally) on the resistance movement.
A commission of "journalists in resistance" was set up which
immediately demanded the "expropriation of the TV channels",
in order to restore "truthful information, free from the interests
of the oligarchy".

Leaving the meeting of the CND, the masses were jubilant and
the mood was one of victory. Thousands left in columns with
raised clenched fists shouting "se siente, se siente, tenemos
presidente" (you can hear, you can hear, we have a president").
Undoubtedly this movement has strengthened the confidence
of the masses in their own strength, particularly after a period
in which a series of mass movements against the Fox government
had ended up in either victories or at least in a draw. The idea
has conquered the imagination of the masses that with direct
action in the streets they can fundamentally alter the course
of events. Even more than that, the way AMLO has conducted
the "information assemblies", has given the mass movement the
idea that they are the ones who decide and democratically vote
on the proposals for action. However imperfect the democracy
of a meeting of 1 million delegates might be (and in effect it
became a mass rally rather than a proper convention with
delegates and resolutions), the movement feels that they have
the power to decide. They will be closely watching what their
leaders do, and if they do not do what they expect from them,
they will be branded traitors, and the masses will try to replace
them with others that reflect more closely their aspirations.

A clear challenge to the ruling class and its institutions has been
made, and they are clearly afraid of it. Even if they were able
to diffuse the movement (and this is not ruled out), the ruling
class in Mexico (and its mentors in Washington) are in a very
difficult situation. The right-wing government of Fox, which
was elected with a sizeable majority, was unable to carry out
any of the counter-reforms that the ruling class and US imperialism
were asking for. Every single time it was stopped in its tracks
by a mass movement of the workers and peasants. The last one
was when it attempted to prevent AMLO from standing in the
elections. Two million came out onto the streets and Fox had
to publicly withdraw the measure.

If the Fox government was weak in the face of the mass movement,
just imagine how much weaker would be an eventual Calderón
government, assuming it can be installed.

The ruling class has already started a carefully organised campaign
to re-establish the legitimacy of its institutions and to brand AMLO
and the movement as dangerous outlaws and radicals. The first ones
to come out, and it could not be otherwise, were the Cardinals
Sandoval and Rivera, who at Sunday mass appealed for Lopez
Obrador to recognise Calderón and appealed to him to "accept the
rules of the democratic game". They know very well that the
movement that has been unleashed as a result of the electoral fraud
against AMLO, regardless of his intentions, is challenging not only
Calderon but the institutions of "democracy" (capitalist democracy
that is) as a whole.

Former left-wing intellectuals, international governments, the business
organisations, the media (in Mexico and abroad), have all joined the
chorus, in defence of democracy and the institutions of government.
While Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has expressed himself
in the strongest possible terms and said he "will not recognise the
elected government", Evo Morales in Bolivia took the opposite approach
saying that "even if there have been tricks, within the framework
of the norms, the winner must be recognised". On Thursday September
14, Bolivia's Foreign Affairs Minister Choquehuanca sent an official letter
of recognition to Calderón, in direct contradiction to Bolivia's ambassador
to Mexico who had declared that Bolivia would wait until December
1 to take a decision.

Meanwhile in Oaxaca, where the Popular Assembly of the People of
Oaxaca has declared itself to be the legitimate government of the
state and started to take over government functions (public order,
transport, etc), the movement continues to challenge the governor.
Last week there was an attempt by some leaders of the APPO, from
the teachers' union (section 22 of the SNTE), to put an end to the
teachers' strike which has been the backbone of the movement so
far. The deal that was proposed included a sizeable wage increase
for the teachers (the demand that sparked the movement), but when
leading members of the APPO and of SNTE 22 tried to explain the
agreement to the rank and file and advocated the end of the strike,
this was rejected and the leaders expelled from the assemblies,
showing the mood that exists in Oaxaca as well as that the struggle
goes beyond the mere struggle for economic demands.

Peoples' Assemblies, or similar bodies of dual power under other
names have been spreading throughout Oaxaca. The Popular Mixtec
Assembly and the APPO announced that these bodies had now spread
to Santa Catarina Ticua, Yuxia, San Andrés Chicahuaxtla, Yolomécatl,
La Laguna Guadalupe, Río Las Peñas, Siniyuvi, and were in the process
to be established in San Juan Mixtepec, Santo Domingo del Estado,
Teposcolula and San Agustín Tlacotepec. The APPO also reported
that Peoples' Assemblies were also being set up in other states
outside of Oaxaca, like in Guerrero, Michoacán and even in the
northern state of Baja California.

It is clear that the strategy of the state is to combine repression
with concessions that might force the teachers to abandon the
movement, thus weakening it significantly. The nationwide
Secretaria de Gobernacion (Ministry of the Interior) has revealed
that they are considering sending federal police and even the army
to Oaxaca, to re-establish legality. It is not ruled out that they could
even find an "institutional" way to remove the hated governor of
Oaxaca in order to put an end to the insurrectionary movement.

There is the danger that the declaration of AMLO as a president
will remain just words. For this new "government" to become
a real government it must, at a certain point, clash head on and
replace the Calderon government. A situation of dual power (the
elements of which exist today in Mexico) cannot last for a long
period of time without one replacing the other.

The main task now for the revolutionary movement in Mexico
is for this government elected at the CND to become a real
government. This should be done by creating local committees
of struggle, in every neighbourhood, factory, school and military
barrack, and for these to be linked up by elected representatives
at the local, regional, state and national level. These committees
should start by struggling for the immediate demands of the masses
(for clean water, food, housing, trade union democracy, decent wages,
against privatisation, etc), so that the struggle for genuine democracy
(workers' democracy) becomes inseparable from the struggle for
the improvement of the living conditions of the masses. Then these
committees, like in Oaxaca, could start taking over power at the
local level, running their own police force accountable to the
assemblies, transportation, provision of food, etc. The calling of
a general strike, which has been advocated by the Marxist Tendency
Militante since the beginning of the movement, would galvanise
the movement and put forward clearly the question of who rules.
A general strike demonstrates clearly that it is actually the workers
who make the country work and it brings to the fore not only the
power they have to paralyse society, but also that they have the
power to run it.

What will happen in the next weeks and months in Oaxaca and in
Mexico as a whole is difficult to predict. This is a struggle of living
forces and there are many factors involved: the quality and the
actions of the leadership of the movement, the tiredness of the
masses, the manoeuvres of the ruling class and its more or less
skilful management of the situation etc., and to this we have to
add accidental elements which might propel the movement even
further.

But one thing is clear: this is not just a "normal" movement against
electoral fraud. It has much deeper roots going back over the last
15 years of attacks on the living conditions of the masses, on their
acquired rights, the implementation of the NAFTA agreement which
destroyed Mexican agriculture and forced millions of Mexicans
to emigrate to the US, the widespread feeling that the institutions
of bourgeois democracy (the government, the judges, the governors,
the media) do not serve the people but only a small minority of the
rich and powerful, etc. Because of this, the movement will not go
away. It will develop in ebbs and flows, and through these the masses
will learn valuable lessons. The best and most advanced activists
amongst the workers, the peasants, the indigenous peoples, the
youth, must gather around a genuine revolutionary tendency
which can put forward a programme that can take the movement
forward.

The revolutionary events in Mexico, part of a continent wide
movement, are an inspiration for all of us.

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

4) U.S. to Maintain Iraq Force Levels
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 12:37 p.m. ET
September 19, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-US-Iraq.html?hp&ex=1158724800&en=52aa0f7e7bbbd51a&ei=5094&partner=homepage

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. military will likely maintain or possibly
even increase the current force levels of more than 140,000 troops
in Iraq through next spring, the top US. commander in the Middle
East said Tuesday in one of the gloomiest assessments yet of how
quickly American forces can be brought home.

Gen. John Abizaid, commander of U.S. Central Command, said military
leaders would consider adding troops or extending the Iraq deployments
of other units if needed.

''If it's necessary to do that because the military situation on the ground
requires that, we'll do it,'' he said. ''If we have to call in more forces
because it's our military judgment that we need more forces, we'll do it.''

Abizaid said that right now the current number of troops ''are prudent
force levels'' that are achieving the needed military effect.

His comments came as U.S. political leaders continue to face declining
public support for the war in Iraq, as they head into the coming
congressional elections. Abizaid, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld
and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace are expected
to meet with members of Congress later this week.

Late last year, military leaders had said they hoped to reduce troop
levels to about 100,000 by the end of this year. But Abizaid said Tuesday
that the rising sectarian violence and slow progress of the Iraqi
government made that impossible.

''I think that this level probably will have to be sustained through the
spring,'' he told military reporters. ''I think that we'll do whatever we
have to do to stabilize Iraq and Afghanistan and use the military
power of the U.S. to do that.''

Abizaid cautioned that the solution to much of Iraq's violence --
both sectarian and insurgents -- is not necessarily ''throwing more
American units at the problem.''

Instead, he said it is vital that the Iraqi government improve the political
and economic conditions in the embattled country, as part of an effort
to get the ''angry young men'' off the streets. And he said there will
be more emphasis on the U.S. military teams that are training the
Iraqi army and police forces.

There are currently 147,000 U.S. forces in Iraq -- up more than
20,000 from the troop levels in late June. Rumsfeld extended the
one-year deployment of an Alaska-based brigade in July, as part
of the effort to stem the escalating violence in Baghdad.

Abizaid said Tuesday that there are no plans to further extend
the deployment of the Alaska Stryker brigade.

On the Net:

Defense Department: http://www.defenselink.mil

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5) Thai Prime Minister Declares State of Emergency
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 12:43 p.m. ET
September 19, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Thailand.html?hp&ex=1158724800&en=7088b6ed163114a6&ei=5094&partner=homepage

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- The Thai military launched a coup against
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Tuesday night, circling his offices
with tanks, seizing control of TV stations and declaring a provisional
authority pledging loyalty to the king.

An announcement on Thai television declared that a ''Council of
Administrative Reform'' with King Bhumibol Adulyadej as head of state
had seized power in Bangkok and nearby provinces without any resistance.

At least 14 tanks surrounded Government House, Thaksin's office. Thaksin
was in New York at the U.N. General Assembly and declared a state of
emergency via a government-owned TV station.

A convoy of four tanks rigged with loudspeakers and sirens rolled through
a busy commercial district warning people to get off the street for their
own safety.

A senior military official, speaking on condition of anonymity because
of the sensitivity of the situation, said army Commander-in-Chief Gen.
Sondhi Boonyaratkalin had used the military to take over power from
the prime minister.

Thaksin has faced calls to step down amid allegations of corruption
and abuse of power.

Massive rallies earlier this year forced Thaksin to dissolve Parliament
and call an election in April, three years ahead of schedule. The poll
was boycotted by opposition parties and later annulled by Thailand's
top courts, leaving the country without a working legislature.

Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai Party twice won landslide election victories, in
2001 and 2005 and had been expected to win the next vote on Oct. 15,
bolstered by its widespread support in the country's rural areas.

Thaksin, who had been scheduled to address the U.N. General Assembly
on Wednesday night, switched his speech to Tuesday at 7 p.m. EDT.

On Monday, Thaksin had said he may step down as leader of Thailand
after the upcoming elections but would remain at the helm of his party,
despite calls for him to give up the post.

In Bangkok, several hundred soldiers were deployed at government
installations and major intersections, according to an Associated
Press reporter.

Army-owned TV channel 5 interrupted regular broadcasts with patriotic
music and showed pictures of the king. At least some radio and television
stations monitored in Bangkok suspended programming.

The cable television station of the Nation newspaper reported that tanks
were parked at the Rachadamnoen Road and royal plaza close to the
royal palace and government offices.

''The prime minister with the approval of the cabinet declares serious
emergency law in Bangkok from now on'' Thaksin said by television
from New York. He said he was ordering the transfer of the nation's
army chief to work in the prime minister's office, effectively suspending
him from his military duties.

Thaksin's critics want to jettison his policies promoting privatization, free
trade agreements and CEO-style administration.

Opposition to Thaksin gained momentum in January when his family
announced it had sold its controlling stake in telecommunications
company Shin Corp. to Singapore's state-owned Temasek Holdings
for a tax-free $1.9 billion. Critics allege the sale involved insider
trading and complain a key national asset is now in foreign hands.

Thaksin also has been accused of stifling the media and mishandling
a Muslim insurgency in southern Thailand that flared under his rule.

In Thailand's mostly Muslim south, separatist insurgents have waged
a bloody campaign that has left at least 1,700 dead, mostly civilians,
since 2004. Citizens there have complained of rights abuses by
soldiers and discrimination by the country's Buddhist majority.

Bhumibol, a 78-year-old constitutional monarch with limited powers,
has used his high prestige to pressure opposing parties to compromise
during political crises. He is credited with helping keep Thailand more
stable than many of its Southeast Asian neighbors.

He is the world's longest-serving monarch, celebrated his 60th year
on the throne with lavish festivities in mid-June that were attended
by royalty from around the world.

Many Thais are counting on him to pull the country through its current
political crisis, which has left it with no functioning legislature and
only a caretaker government after a divisive, inconclusive election.

Bhumibol was born in Cambridge, Mass. He became the ninth king
of Thailand's Chakri dynasty on June 9, 1946, succeeding his older
brother, Ananda, killed by an unexplained shooting.

Since then, the beloved king has reigned through a score of governments,
democratic and dictatorial. He has taken an especially active role
in rural development.

In 1992, demonstrators against a military strongman were gunned
down before the king stepped in to end the fighting and usher
in a period of stability.

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6) Seeing Huge Losses, Chrysler Slashes Production
By MICHELINE MAYNARD
September 19, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/19/business/20autocnd.html?hp&ex=1158724800&en=0774124b74af9322&ei=5094&partner=homepage

DETROIT, Sept. 19 — Dogged by slumping sales of sport utility
vehicles, the Chrysler Group said today that it would cut production
by 16 percent the rest of this year, and it confirmed that it expected
to lose $1.26 billion on operations in 2006.

DaimlerChrysler’s chief executive, Dieter Zetsche, also said the company
would continue to press the United Automobile Workers union to agree
to concessions on health care benefits, even though the union said
earlier this month that it would not reach a deal with the automaker.

At a briefing with industry analysts, Chrysler said it would cut third-
quarter production by 90,000 vehicles, double its original plan to cut
45,000 vehicles out of its production schedules. Chrysler said it would
cut another 35,000 vehicles from its production plans during the
fourth quarter.

Over all, Chrysler said it planned to build 705,000 cars and trucks
during the second half of the year, down 16 percent from its original
second-half projection.

Mr. Zetsche, who ran Chrysler from 2000 until last year, declined
to estimate how big a charge against earnings the company might take.
No decision has yet been made on whether the company will cut jobs
or take other steps.

But Mr. Zetsche said Chrysler was examining its structural costs from
its factories to its purchasing operations. He said the company would
act on those costs if necessary, but he was not specific.

“We have to clearly dig deeper into the top of Chrysler to make sure
we further can accelerate the process of increased competitiveness,”
Mr. Zetsche said.

In the presentation to analysts, Chrysler forecast that its share of the
American car market would be 10.6 percent during the third quarter,
down from its original plan to hold 11.2 percent. That puts
it in fourth place, behind General Motors, the Ford Motor Company
and Toyota, and just slightly ahead of Honda.

But in July, Honda outsold Chrysler, bumping it down to fifth place
in the American market. Honda recently announced plans to build
a new factory in Indiana, raising the likelihood that it could overtake
Chrysler permanently at some point.

Chrysler depends more heavily on sales of minivans, sport utility
vehicles and pickup trucks than any of its Detroit competitors.

But sales of S.U.V.’s and pickups have declined this year in the wake
of gasoline prices that reached $3 a gallon this summer. Consumers
have shifted away from larger vehicles to cars and crossover vehicles.

As a result, Chrysler has been dogged all year by big inventories
of unsold Jeeps and pickups, some of which are parked on lots
across the Detroit area and in Toledo, Ohio, home to much
of its Jeep production.

Nonetheless, the company had doggedly insisted that it had no plans
for deeper cuts in production like those at G.M. and Ford, and that
its business would pick up in the second half of 2006.

Indeed, Chrysler plans to introduce a number of new vehicles,
including more S.U.V.s, crossover vehicles and the Sebring sedan
during the rest of the year, a reason why its fourth-quarter
production cuts were more modest than those in the third quarter.

But DaimlerChrysler stunned analysts last week when it said Chrysler
would lose $1.5 billion during the third quarter, more than double
its previous forecast that it would lose $600 million during the quarter.

That disclosure, coupled with Chrysler’s announcement today,
drew criticism from analysts, who asked Mr. Zetsche why the
company had stayed so long with its forecast that it would break
even, only to suddenly acknowledge that it expected a significant loss.

“There is no way around saying we were optimistic,” Mr. Zetsche
said. “We saw things developing not in the way we planned for them.”

Rather than change the company’s forecast, Mr. Zetsche said,
managers insisted that “next month, we will make it” until the
time came to “face the music.”

“Obviously, our communication was miserable in this regard,”
he said.

He declined to blame either American or German managers for
the company’s problems, saying that the responsibility lay with
management in general. “You can blame anybody of us — that
is fair, absolutely,” Mr. Zetsche said.

Mr. Zetsche laid some blame, in fact, on the U.A.W. for resisting
a health care deal. Last year, U.A.W. members at G.M. and Ford,
who had previously received fully paid health care benefits, agreed
to pay for part of their medical coverage.

Earlier this month, however, the U.A.W.’s president, Ron Gettelfinger,
said there would not be a similar deal at Chrysler because a union
analysis showed that the company was not in as dire financial
shape as G.M. and Ford.

Mr. Zetsche said he was “extremely dissatisfied” at the union’s
stand. “It is a very strange position that we should have to lose
$10 billion before we can have the same as at G.M. and Ford,”
he said, referring to G.M.’s $10.6 billion loss last year.

The U.A.W. had no immediate comment today.

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7) U.S. Resorting to 'Collective Punishment'
Inter Press Service
Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily
Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
http://dahrjamailiraq.com

RAMADI, Sep 18 (IPS) - U.S. forces are taking to collective punishment
of civilians in several cities across the al-Anabar province west of
Baghdad, residents and officials say.*

"Ramadi, the capital of al-Anbar province, is still living with the
daily terror of its people getting killed by snipers and its
infrastructure being destroyed," Ahmad, a local doctor who withheld his
last name for security purposes told IPS. "This city has been facing the
worst of the American terror and destruction for more than two years
now, and the world is silent."

Destroying infrastructure and cutting water and electricity "for days
and even weeks is routine reaction to the resistance," he said. "Guys of
the resistance do not need water and electricity, it's the families that
are being harmed, and their lives which are at stake."

Students and professors at the University of al-Anbar told IPS that
their campus is under frequent attack.

"Nearly every week we face raids by the Americans or their Iraqi
colleagues," a professor speaking on condition of anonymity told IPS.
Students said that U.S. troops occupied their school last week..

"We've been under great pressure from the Americans since the very first
days of their occupation of Iraq," a student told IPS.

Such raids are being reported all over Ramadi. "The infrastructure
destruction is huge around the governorate building in downtown Ramadi,"
said a 24-year-old student who gave his name as Ali al-Ani. "And they
are destroying the market too."

IPS reported Sep. 5 that the U.S. military was bulldozing entire blocks
of buildings near the governorate to dampen resistance attacks on
government offices.

Such U.S. action seems most severe in al-Anabar province, where
resistance is strongest, and which has seen the highest U.S. casualties.

The city of Hit 80km west of Ramadi was surrounded by U.S. troops for
several days earlier this week. Several civilians were killed and at
least five were detained by U.S. forces. Checkpoints are in place at
each entrance to the city after the U.S. military lifted the cordon
around it. This has stifled movement and damaged local businesses.

"There was an attack on a U.S. convoy, and three vehicles were
destroyed," a local tribal chief who gave his name as Nawaf told IPS.
"It wasn't the civilians who did it, but they are the ones punished.
These Americans have the bad habit of cutting all of the essential
services after every attack. They said they came to liberate us, but
look at the slow death they are giving us every day."

In Haditha, a city of 75,000 on the banks of the Euphrates River in
western al-Anbar, collective punishment is ongoing, residents say. This
was the site of the massacre of 24 civilians by U.S. marines in November
2005.

"The Americans continue to raid our houses and threaten us with more
violence," a local tribal leader who gave his name as Abu Juma'a told
IPS. "But if they think they will make us kneel by these criminal acts,
they are wrong. If they increase the pressure, the resistance will
increase the reaction. We see this pattern repeated so often now."

Abu Juma'a added: "I pray that the Americans return to their senses
before they lose everything in the Iraqi fire."

In Fallujah, local police say residents have turned against them due to
the collective punishment tactics used by U.S. forces.

"The Americans started pushing us to fight the resistance despite our
contracts that clearly assigned us the duties of civil protection
against normal crimes such as theft and tribal quarrels," a police
lieutenant told IPS. "Now 90 percent of the force has decided to quit
rather than kill our brothers or get killed by them for the wishes of
the Americans."

At least one U.S. vehicle is reported destroyed every day on average in
the face of mounting U.S. raids and a daily curfew. The