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  • BAUAW NEWSLETTER
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    Wednesday, January 26, 2005
     

    BAUAW NEWSLETTER-WEDNESDAY, JAN. 26, 2005

    1) We ain't gonna study war no more!
    (Killing and being killed is not a career choice!)
    Come to an organizing meeting to get the military
    out of our schools!
    Saturday, 11:00 a.m., February 5, 2005
    Centro del Pueblo, 474 Valencia Street
    (near 16th St. in S.F.)


    2) CRITICAL Hearing Friday January 28, 2005 for
    SHEILA DETOY17-Year-Old Girl Shot In Head By
    Rogue Cop In 1998 ...
    January 28, 2005
    9:30 AM
    Superior Court
    CIVIC CENTER COURTHOUSE
    400 McAllister Street Dept. 301
    San Francisco, CA 94102
    CASE # CPF04-504029
    LAST CHANCE FOR JUSTICE!
    The San Francisco Police Department is trying
    to get away with MURDER!!!
    for more information call (510)428-3939

    3) March 19, 2005 Global Day of Action
    No to War Occupation – Iraq, Palestine, Haiti,
    Afghanistan, Cuba Everywhere!
    Bring the Troops Home Now!
    Money for People’s Needs, Not War!
    San Francisco: March Assembles: 11 a.m. Dolores Park
    Rally: 1 p.m. Civic Center

    4) Army Recruiters Turn College Park High into Shooting Range
    from recent NBC 11 TV report

    5) U.S. Army recruiters cause uproar at College Park High
    By Jackie Burrell
    CONTRA COSTA TIMES
    Posted on Fri, Jan. 21, 2005
    http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/local/states/california/cou
    nties/contra_costa_county/10698686.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.js
    p

    6) "The Security State: The "New" COINTELPRO Campaign
    Directed at Arabs, Muslims and Southeast Asians"
    Question and Answer session will follow
    Thursday February 3rd
    7:00 PM
    145 Dwinelle
    UC Berkeley Campus
    Donation: $3-10 Sliding scale
    No one turned away for lack of funds.
    http://al-awda.org

    7) 36 U.S. Troops Die in Iraq in Their Bloodiest Day
    By Matt Spetalnick
    BAGHDAD (Reuters)
    Wed Jan 26, 2005 09:17 AM ET
    http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7437344&src=eD
    ialog/GetContent§ion=news

    8) Generation Debt: The New Economics of Being Young
    Feeling a Draft?
    Poor kids of color fight the Pentagon
    by Anya Kamenetz
    January 24th, 2005 12:21 PM
    http://www.villagevoice.com/generic/show_print.php?id=60395&page=kamenetz&is
    sue=0504&printcde=MzMyMDI4NzE1OA==&refpage=L25ld3MvaW5kZXgucGhwP2lzc3VlPTA1M
    DQmcGFnZT1rYW1lbmV0eiZpZD02MDM5NQ==

    9) Action Items
    EXAMINER AD DEMONIZES PALESTINIAN CHILDREN
    Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 25 January 2005
    From: "ei News"
    Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2005 4:08 PM
    http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3559.shtml
    *** Please visit the Action Item to view the advert ***

    10) Vote Where, How, and for Whom?
    ** Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches **
    ** http://dahrjamailiraq.com **
    Inter Press Service
    Dahr Jamail

    11) Cuba is resisting and making the difference
    By : Maïté Pinero
    Translated by: Patrick Bolland
    http://www.humaniteinenglish.com/news/output/world_1106589993.shtml

    12) WARNING: JOINING THE MILITARY IS HAZARDOUS
    www.objector.org, July 24, 2002
    http://www.guerrillafunk.com/thoughts/doc612.html

    13) California's Prison Budget
    Fri, 21 Jan 2005
    CRITICAL RESISTANCE
    CALIFORNIA PRISON BUDGET SUMMARY 2005-06

    14) The Antiwar Movement and the Iraqi Elections

    15) U.S. Army Prepares Armed 'Robo-Soldier' for Iraq
    By Michael P. Regan
    AP Business Writer
    TechnologyReview.com
    January 25, 2005
    http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/01/ap/ap_3012505.asp?p=0

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

    1) We ain't gonna study war no more!
    (Killing and being killed is not a career choice!)
    Come to an organizing meeting to get the
    military out of our schools!
    Saturday, 11:00 a.m., February 5, 2005
    Centro del Pueblo, 474 Valencia Street
    (near 16th St. in S.F.)

    Our children are being recruited to military service right out
    of High School. They are being offered Junior ROTC for class
    credit as an alternative to Physical Education. Junior ROTC advocates
    the military as a career choice. Every day we hear of schools and
    hospitals closing. Our children have fewer job opportunities
    available to them with far fewer benefits. And they are finding
    it increasingly more difficult to go to college because of increased
    college costs and the general increase in the cost of living. Junior
    ROTC makes the military attractive to them. But these are not
    the job opportunities we want for our children-or that our
    children want for themselves!

    Meanwhile, due to an ever-increasing war budget, most of our
    tax dollars are being spent on a war with no end in sight; and
    on overall defense spending that dwarfs even the war budget!
    And while corporations are raking in billions, two-thirds of
    them pay no taxes at all. This puts a severe strain on the taxes
    left over-after military and defense expenditures-for all social
    services and human needs-taxes that come from the poor and
    all working people. We want our children to have an opportunity
    to learn and thrive to the best of their potential not to kill and
    be killed. Stop the war. Bring all our troops home now. End all
    military recruitment in public schools and institutions of higher
    learning. Use our tax dollars for schools, healthcare, housing,
    jobs-all human needs not war!

    Number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq as of Jan 11: 1,357
    http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/USfatalities.html

    Number of U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq: over 10,000
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0104-12.ht

    Number of Iraqis killed: est. over 100,000
    http://www.iraqbodycount.net/press/

    Number of Iraqis wounded: Untold.
    Not counted but estimated in the millions.

    Cost of the war: $149.5 billion spent as of Jan. 12, 2005
    http://costofwar.com/index.html

    With the money spent so far on the war we could have
    hired over 2,600,566 public schoolteachers for one year.
    http://costofwar.com/index-public-education.html

    Total U.S. Defense spending: nearly $754 billion as of
    fiscal year 2004.
    http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1253

    The people of San Francisco voted last November 2004
    by a 63 percent majority to bring all our troops home now.
    We haven't changed our minds!

    Bay Area United Against War (www.bauaw.org) (415) 824-8730
    P.O. Box 318021, S. F., CA 94131-8021
    Labor Donated...BW

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

    2) CRITICAL Hearing Friday January 28, 2005 for
    SHEILA DETOY17-Year-Old Girl Shot In Head By
    Rogue Cop In 1998 ...
    January 28, 2005
    9:30 AM
    Superior Court
    CIVIC CENTER COURTHOUSE
    400 McAllister Street Dept. 301
    San Francisco, CA 94102
    CASE # CPF04-504029
    LAST CHANCE FOR JUSTICE!

    The San Francisco Police Department is trying to get away
    with MURDER!!!

    If the cops get their way, the Superior Court will DISMISS
    THE CASE against killer cop GREGORY BRESLIN !!!

    With no punishment for Breslin - or anyone - in the 1998
    cold-blooded police shooting of Sheila Detoy !!!

    Don't let police murder go unpunished !!!


    SIX YEARS - NO JUSTICE FOR SHEILA DETOY

    * May 13, 1998: San Francisco police officers shot up a car full
    of unarmed teenagers and killed 17-year-old Sheila Detoy.
    SFPD then blamed her friends for her death.

    * The Office of Citizen Complaints found that Officer Gregory
    Breslin is responsible for her death. The OCC also sustained
    complaints against the other officers involved in Sheila's killing.

    * In 2003 the San Francisco Police Commission decided they
    wanted to file charges against the officers, but the Police Officers
    Association is trying to get Breslin off on a technicality but we
    say: THERE IS NO TIME LIMIT ON PUNISHING KILLER COPS!!!

    for more information call (510)428-3939

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

    3) March 19, 2005 Global Day of Action
    No to War Occupation – Iraq, Palestine, Haiti,
    Afghanistan, Cuba Everywhere!
    Bring the Troops Home Now!
    Money for People’s Needs, Not War!
    San Francisco: March Assembles: 11 a.m. Dolores Park
    Rally: 1 p.m. Civic Center

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

    4) Army Recruiters Turn College Park High into Shooting Range
    from recent NBC 11 TV report -

    PLEASANT HILL - U.S. Army recruiters turned College Park High School's quad

    into a lunchtime shooting range Wednesday, much to the consternation of

    teachers and students.

    Recruiters arrived on the College Park campus in a glossy big rig, bearing

    realistic-looking handguns with air compressors to provide the recoil kick.

    And they gave the student shooters prizes.

    Military recruiters are no strangers on high school campuses, but they

    usually restrict themselves to flier distribution, strolling about the quad

    or putting in an occasional appearance in the college and career center.

    "It's not a soldier issue," said teacher Jen Kennedy. "In this

    post-Columbine era, target practice with high school students leaves me

    speechless."

    U.S. Army Sgt. Delbert Miller said he and the Fort Knox marksmanship team

    visited College Park as just one stop on an annual tour of hundreds of

    schools and colleges.

    "We presented it as an event for the kids," Miller said. "(We used) plastic

    pistols hooked up to an air compressor."

    Miller, whose crew handed out water bottles, T-shirts and dog tags, said he

    was unaware that all weapons -- including plastic guns, water pistols and

    Halloween props that resemble weapons -- are banned in California schools.

    If students brought to school anything like the pistols the recruiters

    shared with College Park students Wednesday, they'd be expelled, said junior

    Isaac Miller. These were "an exact replica of guns with blowback," he said.

    "It just seems weird."

    "When you shot, it recoiled like a real gun," said senior Tom Morgenstern.

    "Having guns at school? It's the Army, they have a legal right to be here,

    but when they start bringing these games to school and try to make shooting

    fun?"

    Morgenstern and fellow senior Jayme Farrell-Ranker had set up the school's

    tsunami relief fund-raising effort on the quad early Wednesday and soon

    found themselves sharing plaza space with the recruiters and shooting range.

    "We're trying to do something nice and they come with their games and guns,"

    said Farrell-Ranker.

    The marksmanship unit is one of several splashy military recruiting efforts,

    including big rigs that turn into science classrooms, portable rock walls,

    "adventure vans" with interactive exhibits on educational aspects of

    military life, and humvees that visit elementary through high schools. The

    marksmanship unit dates back to 1912.

    This particular demonstration took College Park officials by surprise.

    Principal Dennis Berger thought the event he had quickly approved Wednesday

    morning at the request of a former student was a ceremonial drill in which

    soldiers twirl rifles in a carefully choreographed routine.

    He was not on campus Wednesday morning and was under the impression that the

    demonstration involved electronic media.

    "It was a last-minute event," Berger said. "This one happened to be on

    marksmanship, so they had video games. ... In hindsight, I wish we had known

    in more detail what they were going to do. We got something we didn't quite

    expect."

    Sgt. Miller described the pistols as carnival game-style, but students said

    they shot a beam of light.

    Before they were allowed to handle the pistols, students had to supply their

    names, phone numbers, addresses and Social Security numbers. And many

    complied.

    "I was shocked and dismayed," said teacher Joan Lopate. "These kids are

    young and impressionable. I had one student come over to say, 'This

    recruiter was so aggressive. I'm only 15.'"

    When that student, Dustin Lovejoy, told the recruiter he was too young to

    join the military soon, he was told to sign up anyway. The recruiter said

    he'd call him "when it was time," Lovejoy said.

    "They're just showing you what they do in the Army," said junior Sierra

    Pierce, who has visited the nearby recruiting center on several occasions

    and plans to enlist. "Those kids are in for it now. (The military) won't

    stop till they're recruited."


    Joie Tamkin
    Assignment Editor
    NBC11/KNTV Bay Area
    415.276.1100
    Joie.Tamkin@nbcuni.com

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

    5) U.S. Army recruiters cause uproar at College Park High
    By Jackie Burrell
    CONTRA COSTA TIMES
    Posted on Fri, Jan. 21, 2005
    http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/local/states/california/cou
    nties/contra_costa_county/10698686.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.js
    p

    PLEASANT HILL -U.S. Army recruiters turned College Park High School's
    quad into a lunchtime shooting range Wednesday, much to the
    consternation of teachers and students.

    Recruiters arrived on the College Park campus in a glossy big rig, bearing
    realistic-looking handguns with air compressors to provide the recoil
    kick. And they gave the student shooters prizes.

    Military recruiters are no strangers on high school campuses, but they
    usually restrict themselves to flier distribution, strolling about the
    quad or putting in an occasional appearance in the college and
    career center.

    "It's not a soldier issue," said teacher Jen Kennedy. "In this
    post-Columbine era, target practice with high school students
    leaves me speechless."

    U.S. Army Sgt. Delbert Miller said he and the Fort Knox marksmanship
    team visited College Park as just one stop on an annual tour of
    hundreds of schools and colleges.

    "We presented it as an event for the kids," Miller said. "(We used)
    plastic pistols hooked up to an air compressor."

    Miller, whose crew handed out water bottles, T-shirts and dog tags,
    said he was unaware that all weapons -- including plastic guns,
    water pistols and Halloween props that resemble weapons -- are
    banned in California schools.

    If students brought to school anything like the pistols the recruiters
    shared with College Park students Wednesday, they'd be expelled,
    said junior Isaac Miller. These were "an exact replica of guns with
    blowback," he said. "It just seems weird."

    "When you shot, it recoiled like a real gun," said senior Tom
    Morgenstern. "Having guns at school? It's the Army, they have
    a legal right to be here, but when they start bringing these games
    to school and try to make shooting fun?"

    Morgenstern and fellow senior Jayme Farrell-Ranker had set up
    the school's tsunami relief fund-raising effort on the quad early
    Wednesday and soon found themselves sharing plaza space with
    the recruiters and shooting range.

    "We're trying to do something nice and they come with their
    games and guns," said Farrell-Ranker.

    The marksmanship unit is one of several splashy military recruiting
    efforts, including big rigs that turn into science classrooms,
    portable rock walls, "adventure vans" with interactive exhibits on
    educational aspects of military life, and humvees that visit
    elementary through high schools. The marksmanship unit dates
    back to 1912.

    This particular demonstration took College Park officials by
    surprise. Principal Dennis Berger thought the event he had
    quickly approved Wednesday morning at the request of a former
    student was a ceremonial drill in which soldiers twirl rifles
    in a carefully choreographed routine.

    He was not on campus Wednesday morning and was under the
    impression that the demonstration involved electronic media.

    "It was a last-minute event," Berger said. "This one happened to
    be on marksmanship, so they had video games. ... In hindsight,
    I wish we had known in more detail what they were going to do.
    We got something we didn't quite expect."

    Sgt. Miller described the pistols as carnival game-style, but
    students said they shot a beam of light.

    Before they were allowed to handle the pistols, students had
    to supply their names, phone numbers, addresses and Social
    Security numbers. And many complied.

    "I was shocked and dismayed," said teacher Joan Lopate. "These
    kids are young and impressionable. I had one student come
    over to say, 'This recruiter was so aggressive. I'm only 15.'"

    When that student, Dustin Lovejoy, told the recruiter he was
    too young to join the military soon, he was told to sign up
    anyway. The recruiter said he'd call him "when it was time,"
    Lovejoy said.

    "They're just showing you what they do in the Army," said junior
    Sierra Pierce, who has visited the nearby recruiting center on
    several occasions and plans to enlist. "Those kids are in for
    it now. (The military) won't stop till they're recruited."

    Jackie Burrell covers K-12 education. Reach her
    at 925-977-8568 or jburrell@cctimes.com .

    (c) 2005 ContraCostaTimes.com and wire service sources.
    All Rights Reserved.
    http://www.contracostatimes.com

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

    6) "The Security State: The "New" COINTELPRO Campaign
    Directed at Arabs, Muslims and Southeast Asians"
    Question and Answer session will follow
    Thursday February 3rd
    7:00 PM
    145 Dwinelle
    UC Berkeley Campus
    Donation: $3-10 Sliding scale
    No one turned away for lack of funds.
    http://al-awda.org

    Sacred Roots and Al-Qalam Institute
    Invites you to a talk by

    Dr. Hatem Bazian

    Lecturer in Near Eastern and Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley

    Speaking on the topic of:

    "The Security State: The "New" COINTELPRO Campaign
    Directed at Arabs, Muslims and Southeast Asians"
    Question and Answer session will follow


    Thursday February 3rd
    7:00 PM
    145 Dwinelle
    UC Berkeley Campus
    Donation: $3-10 Sliding scale
    No one turned away for lack of funds.

    http://al-awda.org

    To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-SF/


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

    7) 36 U.S. Troops Die in Iraq in Their Bloodiest Day
    By Matt Spetalnick
    BAGHDAD (Reuters)
    Wed Jan 26, 2005 09:17 AM ET
    http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7437344&src=eD
    ialog/GetContent§ion=news

    BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Thirty-one U.S. troops were reported killed
    in a helicopter crash and five more died in insurgent attacks
    Wednesday in the deadliest day for American forces
    since they invaded Iraq 22 months ago.

    The heavy U.S. toll came amid a series of guerrilla
    bombings and raids that killed 10 Iraqis in a campaign to
    sabotage Sunday's landmark election -- a cornerstone of U.S.
    plans in Iraq.

    CNN, quoting the U.S. military, reported 31 Marines died
    when their transport helicopter went down in the deserts of the
    restive Anbar province of western Iraq.

    The military confirmed casualties to reporters but gave no
    figures, as search and rescue teams scoured the area. The cause
    of the crash was not immediately known.

    Four U.S. Marines were killed in action in Anbar province,
    and an American soldier was killed in a rocket-propelled
    grenade attack north of Baghdad, U.S. officials said.

    The latest surge of insurgent attacks appeared aimed at
    sowing panic even as the U.S.-backed interim government vowed
    stringent measures to safeguard the election, Iraq's first
    since the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003.

    In a closely coordinated attack, three suicide car bombers
    hit the town of Riyadh, a Sunni Arab area southwest of the
    northern city of Kirkuk.

    Two explosives-laden cars blew up simultaneously close to
    an Iraqi army post and police station and a third vehicle
    detonated minutes later on a nearby highway, a local police
    chief said.

    Four Iraqi policemen, two Iraqi soldiers and three
    civilians were killed, and at least 12 people were wounded,
    police said.

    Shortly after the blasts, a U.S. combat patrol heading to
    the scene came under small arms fire and two U.S. soldiers were
    lightly wounded, the military said.

    The previous deadliest day for U.S. forces was March 23,
    2003, the third day of the war, when 28 U.S. soldiers died
    mostly in fierce fighting in southern Iraq.

    STRING OF ATTACKS

    Police in Baquba, a mixed Shi'ite and Sunni town 65 km (40
    miles) north of Baghdad, said one Iraqi policeman was killed
    and at least eight people were wounded when gunmen fired on the
    local offices of three parties contesting the polls.

    Sunni insurgents have repeatedly targeted the country's
    fledgling security forces in the countdown to the election,
    accusing them of collaborating with U.S.-led occupiers.

    Iraq's Shi'ite minority is expected to dominate the vote
    after decades of rule by Saddam's Sunni minority.

    In the northern city of Mosul, a rebel stronghold that has
    seen persistent violence, a video filmed by insurgents showed
    three Iraqi men who had apparently been taken hostage and who
    said they worked for Iraq's electoral commission in the city.

    On the video, a hooded insurgent carrying a pistol read out
    a statement as another masked guerrilla crouched with a
    rocket-propelled grenade launcher on his shoulder.

    "We are mujahideen in the province of Nineveh. What they
    call elections have no basis in the Islamic religion and that's
    why we will hit all election centers," the statement said.

    Several guerrilla groups in Iraq -- including militants
    loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al Qaeda's leader in the country
    -- have declared war on Sunday's elections, vowing to attack
    polling stations and kill those who dare to vote.

    The government plans extraordinary security measures,
    including closing Baghdad airport and land borders over the
    election period, extending night curfews in cities and banning
    cars from roads on election day. Zarqawi, a Jordanian with
    a $25 million bounty on his head, says the election is a plot
    by Washington and Iraqi Shi'ite allies against Sunni Arabs,
    who now fear being marginalized.

    Iraq's Shi'ites, oppressed under Saddam, strongly support
    the elections. A list of candidates dominated by Shi'ite
    Islamists and drawn up with the guidance of revered cleric
    Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is expected to win the most votes,
    cementing the newfound political power of Shi'ites.

    But many Sunni Arab parties will boycott the polls, saying
    the insurgency raging in Iraq's Sunni heartlands will prevent
    their supporters from voting and skew the results.

    Tension between Shi'ite and Sunni Arabs has been stoked by
    a series of bomb attacks on Shi'ite targets, raising fears of
    sectarian conflict.

    Insurgents have also assassinated several leading officials.
    Tuesday a top Baghdad judge was killed along with
    his son in an ambush as they left home during morning rush hour.

    (c) Reuters 2005

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

    8) Generation Debt: The New Economics of Being Young
    Feeling a Draft?
    Poor kids of color fight the Pentagon
    by Anya Kamenetz
    January 24th, 2005 12:21 PM
    http://www.villagevoice.com/generic/show_print.php?id=60395&page=kamenetz&is
    sue=0504&printcde=MzMyMDI4NzE1OA==&refpage=L25ld3MvaW5kZXgucGhwP2lzc3VlPTA1M
    DQmcGFnZT1rYW1lbmV0eiZpZD02MDM5NQ==

    Chris Dugan, 27, signed up for his future hitch in the marines
    while still in high school. "I wanted to be hard and serve my
    country," he says. "My grandfather was a marine." Dugan was
    lucky enough to serve in peacetime, from 1995 to 1999. Included
    was a short stint as a recruiter for high schoolers like himself,
    patriotic working-class kids without a lot of options to pay for
    college, get job training, or find work. "These recruiters
    psychoanalyze you and pitch you a story," he says. "They have
    a quota, and if that quota isn't met, it's their ass. They'll do
    whatever they can to get you in."

    But now Chris is out-far out. He's a master's student at Hunter
    College and a member of the International Socialist Organization
    and the Campus Antiwar Network. And he's a counter-recruiter,
    part of a growing grassroots national movement to keep kids
    like him out of Iraq.

    The No Child Left Behind Act, passed in 2002, included
    a little-seen provision stipulating that all public high schools
    provide a list of students' names, addresses, and other personal
    information to military recruiters. Douglas Smith, a spokesperson
    for the Army Reserve Command, says this provision is simply
    a matter of convenience. "It saves the recruiters a lot of research
    time figuring out how to get in contact with the students."

    But by the accounts of teachers, students, and parents, the
    officers in the pressed uniforms and shiny shoes are using those
    data to get more aggressive, particularly at poor and largely
    minority schools. At schools like Bronx Community College, they
    set up tables three or four days a week; at many high schools,
    they far outnumber college or other job recruiters. They call kids
    at home, show up at their front doors, and even threaten them,
    anything to get the kids to boot camp.

    Activists report that one kid who signed up for delayed entry was
    told that backing out, which is legally allowed, would be
    desertion in a time of war, meaning he could be hunted down
    and shot. (Smith, the army spokesperson, said a recruit could
    be considered AWOL-less serious than desertion-only after
    going through all physicals and other screenings, and then
    failing to show up for basic training.)

    On January 15 and 16, a coalition of local peace and student
    groups met in Manhattan to brainstorm ways to reach kids
    with the facts, starting with their right not to give up their
    personal info. "Schools are obligated to inform both parents
    and students of their right to opt out," said Amy of Youth
    Activists-Youth Allies (Ya-Ya), which helped organize the
    weekend counter-recruitment workshop. "Different schools
    and districts are doing a different quality of job with that"-ranging
    from letters sent home to each student to a small classified ad
    in the local paper.

    Ya-Ya has been meeting with high school officials, convincing
    them that giving recruiters "equal access" does not mean giving
    them free access to roam the halls and pull kids out of class.
    The group's teenage members hand out flyers at area public
    schools about the dangers of signing up for an eight-year hitch.
    One of them is headlined "What Recruiters Don't Want You to
    Know." Others talk about institutional racism, sexism, and
    homophobia in the military, and false economic promises.

    The army brags that it recently raised its top G.I. Bill award
    for college to $70,000. What the service doesn't tell you is
    that 43 percent of veterans see none of this money. You must
    contribute $100 of your own paycheck each month for the
    first year in order to qualify. Speaking of checks, for an army
    PFC in 2005, the pay is $14,822 a year. Combat pay, for those
    in Iraq, is another $225 a month, more if you have kids at home.

    Many of the counter-recruiters, not just the socialists, see their
    issue as one of economic justice. "Who does the military target?"
    asks Peter, a 17-year-old student at the specialized Urban
    Academy Laboratory public high school and a member of Ya-Ya.
    "Young men of color like me. People from the ghetto with no
    way out except the military. For me personally, this is about
    raising social awareness."

    With the pressure of Iraq, Afghanistan, and who knows what
    other looming commitments, the army is adding 1,000 recruiters
    to its staff this year, and the National Guard, which missed its
    fiscal year 2004 goal of 56,000 new enlistees by nearly 10 percent,
    is adding 700 more. The question on everyone's mind is what will
    happen when shiny Hummers, free T-shirts, cajoling, and bullying
    aren't enough. A Quaker woman at the workshop offered
    a how-to on conscientious objection-no church affiliation required.

    "Students at Hunter have a vested interest in this issue," Chris
    Dugan says. "We start out by asking them, 'Are you under 27?
    If there's a draft, you could go.' "

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

    9) Action Items
    EXAMINER AD DEMONIZES PALESTINIAN CHILDREN
    Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 25 January 2005
    From: "ei News"
    Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2005 4:08 PM
    http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3559.shtml
    *** Please visit the Action Item to view the advert ***

    The Electronic Intifada calls on its readers to protest an
    advertisement for the San Francisco Examiner and
    Washington Examiner newspapers demonizing Palestinian
    children. The advertisment appeared in the 24 January 2005
    of Media Week, a trade publication.


    THE PROBLEM

    The advertisement aims to attract advertisers to the
    Examiner newspapers. It includes a picture of a girl
    playing a violin on the left-hand side of the page, and
    another picture of a girl carrying an assault rifle on the
    right-hand side of the page. Superimposed over the two
    pictures is the legend "PTA to PLO," with PTA over the
    girl with the violin and PLO over the girl with the rifle.

    The pictures are undated and unsourced, however the
    implication is clear: the girl with the rifle is supposed
    to represent a Palestinian girl and embody what the PLO
    stands for.

    Such anti-Palestinian stereotypes obscure the reality that
    over the past four years Palestinian children have been
    the principal victims of violence and other human rights
    abuses in the Israel-Palestine conflict.

    625 Palestinian children were killed by the Israeli army
    and settlers in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip
    between 29 September 2000 and 31 December 2004 according
    to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. Over 100 Israeli
    children have been killed by Palestinians during the same
    period.

    Amnesty International has frequently condemned violence
    against Palestinian and Israeli children. In a 20 November
    2004 statement, the organization said:

    "Many killings of Palestinian children by
    Israeli armed forces have been unlawful, as
    wilful, killings resulting from acts including
    reckless shooting, tank and aircraft shelling
    and bombardments and house destruction. As
    such these killings are grave breaches of the
    Fourth Geneva Convention and therefore war
    crimes. Such killings have been part of
    widespread, as well as systematic, acts
    against Palestinian civilians. They have been
    carried out by Israeli armed forces pursuant
    to government policy, evidenced by the
    knowledge and approval of government
    authorities who are fully aware that for over
    four years such practices have consistently
    resulted in the killing or injury of civilians
    and who have declined to take effective steps
    to prevent such killings of civilians. They,
    therefore, meet the definition of crimes
    against humanity under international law."

    Amnesty also highlighted that:

    "In their daily lives, Palestinian children
    throughout the Occupied Territories have also
    been exposed to an increasingly high level of
    violence and violations of many of their
    rights including the right to education, to an
    adequate standard of living, to the highest
    attainable standard of health, to safe and
    secure housing, and to freedom of movement.
    For four years many have been confronted with
    Israeli army aircraft circling the sky or
    launching missiles, and with Israeli army
    tanks outside their homes and schools. Their
    villages and neighbourhoods have been kept
    under siege and they have often been confined
    to their homes for days and weeks at a time by
    curfews and closures. They have been forced to
    go through military checkpoints to get to
    school or to take long detours and to climb
    over blockades or in and out of ditches in
    order to visit relatives or to go to the
    doctor."

    Source: http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGMDE020022004

    The vast majority of killings are never investigated and
    rarely are the killers punished by Israeli authorities.

    While these human rights abuses continue unabated, some
    pro-Israel groups have aggressively used unrepresentative
    images similar to the one in The Examiner advertisement in
    campaigns designed to demonize Palestinian children and
    portray them as violent and Israel-hating and thereby
    justify or explain away violence against them.

    At the same time, equally disturbing images of Israeli
    children are readily available but have not been used by
    advocates for Palestinian rights to try to depict Israeli
    children in a similar manner. While many news
    organizations have taken seriously debunked claims that
    Palestinian children are routinely taught anti-Israel
    "hatred" and "incitement" in their schools, they have
    largely ignored evidence that Israeli children,
    particularly in West Bank settlements are indoctrinated
    with anti-Arab hatred. A lengthy report by Ada Upshiz in
    Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper on 21 January, for example,
    revealed how some Israeli children routinely terrorize
    Palestinians and call for the killing of all Palestinians
    if they do not leave their homeland.

    These phenomena are deeply disturbing and can be
    documented on both sides of the conflict. They are the
    product of a long and bitter conflict and should never be
    used to demonize children.

    News organizations have a responsibility to investigate
    the reality behind hate-motivated campaigns against
    Palestinian children and should certainly not draw on the
    same stereotypes to sell advertising.


    THE SOLUTION

    Please contact Mark Wurzer, Vice-President of Advertising,
    and Jim Pimentel, Managing Editor at The Examiner, to
    politely request that The Examiner:

    1. immediately withdraw the adverstisement;

    2. apologize for stereotyping and demonizing Palestinian
    children

    Mark Wurzer
    VP of Advertising
    E-mail: mwurzer@examiner.com
    Phone: +1 (303) 299-1488

    Jim Pimentel
    Managing Editor
    E-mail: jpimentel@examiner.com
    Phone: +1 (415) 826-1100

    Save the Dates - Al-Awda's Third International
    Convention: Empowering the Palestine Right to
    Return Movement, 15 - 17 April 2005, Los Angeles,
    California. Check for details at http://al-awdacal.org
    Support Al-Awda's Upcoming Third Annual International
    Convention in Los Angeles
    http://www.al-awdacal.org/alert-supp_conv.html
    Unless indicated otherwise, all statements posted
    represent the views of their authors and not
    necessarily those of Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition.

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

    10) Vote Where, How, and for Whom?
    ** Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches **
    ** http://dahrjamailiraq.com **
    Inter Press Service
    Dahr Jamail

    *BAGHDAD, Jan 26 (IPS) - With elections just four days away, many Iraqis
    are still uncertain how they will vote, or even where the polling
    stations are.*

    The only certainty appears to be violence. Another political
    assassination took place when judge Qais Hashim al-Shammari was killed
    with his brother-in-law as he was leaving his house in eastern Baghdad
    Tuesday.

    At least six U.S. soldiers have been killed in Baghdad this week. One
    soldier died when a roadside bomb struck his patrol Monday. Five
    soldiers died in what the military described as a "vehicle accident".

    A car bomb exploded the same day near the party headquarters of interim
    prime minister Iyad Allawi. At least five people, four of them police
    officers, died in the blast.

    In Baquba, north of Baghdad, party political offices were attacked
    Tuesday. At least one policeman was killed.

    Amidst such incidents people are guessing games around polling stations
    and candidates. It appears now that polling stations will be located in
    school buildings. The high commission for elections of Iraq has still
    not announced the location of polling stations due to security fears,
    but many school buildings around Baghdad are being cordoned off with
    sand barriers, concrete blocks and razor wire.

    "I feel unsafe in my own home now, even more than before," said Hashim
    al-Obeidy, a retired engineer. A school building near his house is being
    prepared as a polling station. "I watched the American soldiers building
    these barriers. And now I am afraid mortars will hit my home if the
    school is attacked."

    Standing outside his house in central Baghdad, he pointed to a row of
    large sand barriers outside an old yellow school building with damaged
    walls and cracked paint. "They already severely damaged our school
    system, they haven't rebuilt anything, and now they will create more
    destruction in the schools," he said.

    "I would be crazy to vote, it's so dangerous now," said 45-year-old
    guard Salman at another barricaded school building being prepared as a
    polling station. Most residents do not know yet which school they could
    go to vote in.

    Many Iraqis continue to express frustration over what they see as
    illegitimate elections.

    Prof. Shawket Daoud, a computer science specialist who now works for the
    government, said uncertainty over polling booths and the fear of
    violence was not the only problem. "Why vote when we don't even know who
    is running yet?"

    More than 7,000 candidates on the electoral lists have opted to remain
    anonymous prior to polling day. At least eight political leaders thought
    to be candidates have been killed. Many others receive death threats.

    But some Iraqis still say they will vote. "I'll vote because I can't
    afford to have my food ration cut," said Amin Hajar, 52, who owns a
    small auto garage in Baghdad. "There is a rumour that if we don't vote
    our ration will be stopped. And if that happened, I and my family would
    starve to death."

    He said that when he picked up his monthly food ration recently, he was
    forced to sign a form saying he had picked up his voter registration. He
    believes that the government may use this to track whether he votes or not.

    This rumor has circulated broadly around Baghdad even though there
    appears to be no truth in it.

    Abu Sabah, a grocery stall owner near the Karrada district of Baghdad
    says he is simply confused about the election. The elections feel rushed
    and a list of at least 83 coalitions of political parties with mostly
    anonymous candidates makes no sense, he says.

    "Who says we should have elections for people we don't even know during
    occupation, martial law and in a war zone," he said. "And why vote when
    we're expected to vote for an entire list of candidates when we only
    know, if we're lucky, one or two of their names?"

    More writing, photos and commentary at http://dahrjamailiraq.com

    You can visit http://dahrjamailiraq.com/email_list/
    to subscribe or unsubscribe to the email list.

    (c)2004, 2005 Dahr Jamail.
    Iraq_Dispatches mailing list
    http://lists.dahrjamailiraq.com/mailman/listinfo/iraq_dispatches


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

    11) Cuba is resisting and making the difference
    By : Maïté Pinero
    Translated by: Patrick Bolland
    http://www.humaniteinenglish.com/news/output/world_1106589993.shtml

    On 28th October last year, and for the 17th time, the UN
    General Assembly condemned the US blockade of Cuba, made
    more punitive by the Torricelli and Helms-Burton amendments
    (1). The vote was 179 votes to 4 – the 4 were the Unites
    States, Israel, the Marshall Islands (a tax haven) and
    Micronesia (19,000 inhabitants).

    In Cuba, Béatriz Roque, a “civil society” representative,
    was happy the embargo was being pursued, “this is the only
    way to get a transition towards democracy”, she said. And
    such people are surprised that they are not being carried
    shoulder-high through the Havana streets!

    The UN vote was hardly mentioned in the newspapers, which
    had several articles on the liberation of several political
    opponents. They said they didn’t receive any sanctions for
    this.. The same day, the International Red Cross reported
    “different forms of torture” at Guatánomo Bay. And while
    Raul Rivero and his friends have been treated correctly,
    this can’t be said for the 5 Cubans being held in secret in
    Miami. Their crime? They infiltrated terrorists
    organisations training with heavy military arms in Florida
    and planning assassination attacks. Their activities are in
    no way just folklore: in 1997, in Havana left several
    people were assassinated, both Cubans and tourists.

    It is in this climate of assassinations and renewed
    aggression by our northern neighbour that Cuba put on trial
    and imprisoned opponents conspiring with the American
    Interests section in Havana. The context was never
    mentioned by the outside media.

    As for Cuba, news is typically disproportionate. There is
    information available about all who are imprisoned, their
    health-reports are published, news that dissimulates what
    is most important: under the nose of the American Empire,
    11-million people faced with the daily hardships are
    choosing to resist. Since 1868, when Carlos Manuel de
    Cespedes proclaimed the freedom of slaves, through 1898,
    when Independence was hard-won but frustrated, until 1959,
    it has been the people’s demand for sovereignty, their
    desire to be a separate country, and not just a colony,
    that has been on he cards.

    “It will all end in a bloodbath”, it had been announced in
    Paris in 1990. The Socialist Block was collapsing and it
    was only a matter of time before Cuba would go the same
    way. At the end of the 1980s, the daily regimen of the
    Cubans was not limited to la Libreta. It was once again
    everything in short supply: food, petrol, work, transport.
    GNP down 35%, foreign trade down 80%, the economy
    collapsing.

    Most of all, economic isolation. The Sandinistas had lost
    the elections. Nicaragua, at war against US mercenaries had
    always been more democratic: a mixed economy, freedom of
    the press and the presence of opposition buying peace
    through the ballot box.

    So many “impartial observers”, so many demands to become
    democratic, when the nation of Sandino had dreamed of
    being sovereign! Today it Nicaragua has fallen back into
    oblivion. Only the banal is happening down there now:
    corruption, malnutrition, illiteracy, and the kids fighting
    each other again for the cardboard boxes and food-tins at
    the rubbish dumps.

    A lot of blood has been spilled since then, but not in
    Cuba. In a Latin America that is changing again – you can
    watch the democracy-watchers fidgeting over Venezuela,
    Brazil, Uruguay, Equator, Argentina … Cuba is still there.

    The millions of tourists who travel freely around the
    island, discussing with people on street-corners, find the
    Cubans are alive, writing, painting, dancing and also
    having parties. All is not doom and gloom.

    Certainly, life isn’t easy, and it isn’t because they know
    life is harder in 87 other countries, some so close to
    Cuba, that Cubans endure these difficulties. In grumbling,
    in criticising: the street-corner and café know-alls talk
    about all this gleefully. Every day the death-knell of the
    regime is ringing, you’re told. This has been going on for
    45 years …

    This has lasted because three generations have defended the
    revolution: those who new the Batista era; their children
    who saw conditions improving and then deteriorating; their
    grand-children for whom health, free education, books,
    cinema, concerts at give-away prices, have become the rule.

    These Cubans put up with the shortages but also the trials
    and errors, the readjustments by a government that is
    continually forced to react against new forms of US
    aggression, each time in a new way. Despite the frequent
    incomprehension and disagreements, they have never put
    their commitment to the revolution in the balance. If this
    rebel population is resisting, if nobody has been able to
    shut them up – not even Batista – the causes are to found
    in Cuban society.

    Cuba is not some kind of laboratory in which an
    experimental study of a perfect society, in the ideal
    conditions, was conducted. Human-beings created it, with
    numerous mistakes for sure, but with the dream of humanity
    that goes back to creating a world in which Freedom,
    Equality and Fraternity - Liberté, Égalité et Fraternité –
    was not just vain words – even more so today in a world
    dominated by money.

    Cuba is resisting – and continually making the difference.
    The restructuring of our sugar industry - the shutdown of
    70 of the 150 cane-factories could have brought a social
    earthquake. Instead of just brutally laying off 100,000
    workers – according to the democratic procedures of those
    who are democratically showing us the example – the
    government went to pains to hold meetings, consult, adjust
    their plans, consult again. Thousands of meetings with
    Fidel Castro and the various ministries. With the result
    that today salaries have been kept at the same levels,
    factories have been reconverted and thousands of workers
    have returned to school.

    At the end of the 1980s, there were still some young people
    under-qualified and without work, looking for their place
    in society. In concerts in the Square of the Revolution,
    thousands sang “William Tell, it’s time to give me the
    cross-bow”. It was these youths who provide Cuba with its
    “social solidarity groups”, present in every neighbourhood.
    More than 21,000 social workers have already graduated.
    Seven thousand more are being trained each year. The
    “solidarity movement” has taken up the struggle against
    inequalities, which is still found in the black Afro-Cuban
    community.

    Today 150,000 young adults (17-30 year-olds) have gone back
    to “integral further education”. This second chance has
    already enabled 48,446 others to go to university. Since
    computer-skills are taught from primary school onwards,
    13,000 teachers have been trained for this, as well as
    3,000 social animators. Those taking advantage of further
    training through these programme can go to one of the 938
    university centres spread across 169 towns and cities.

    Of course, some choose exile. But, this is to forget the
    thousands of teachers and doctors who have helped the
    world’s poor to learn how to read, to look after their
    health needs. In a Soweto shanty-town, the doctor is Cuban.
    In Venezuela, where the medical elite opposed to President
    Chavez lets the poor starve, it is Cubans who are providing
    the care and doing the vaccinating.

    There are 25,000 of them working, not for money or glory,
    in the poorest countries of the world. Just in Haiti, there
    are 450. These are “Voluntary exiles” and they always come
    back. Because of the “little difference” their island is
    making. “Right now I’m earning two pineapples a month. So,
    yes, sometimes I think of leaving. But when I seen the
    faces of children in my street, I’m proud to be Cuban” – so
    said Pedro Albalate, “internationalist surgeon”, who died
    in Quito in 1998. (2)

    Cuba’s hospitals - now getting renovated - took in 17,000
    sick children from Tchernobyl. By comparison, a few dozen
    were treated in France. This doesn’t get talked about,
    isn’t written about, but the poorest know about it. It was
    partly for this reason that Aleida Guevara, who had worked
    as a doctor in Nicaragua, sees her father’s portrait –
    symbol of a revolution still in its youth - being held high
    in demonstrations throughout the world. (3)

    It’s a country with a lot of difficulties, still derided
    and still threatened, as if it was a threat to the rest of
    the world, that has been able to do all this. But don’t
    tell anybody about what is really happening. That might
    disturb the conventional wisdom which wants us to believe
    that Cuba is a tyranny and Fidel Castro a dictator bent on
    making us weaker.

    For they are talking about us.(4) Defending Cuba is not
    just defending the health-care and free education, the
    solidarity work of the doctors, the cultural activities
    throughout the island, our pioneer scientific research,
    while deploring the lack of petrol, the electricity
    blackouts, the execution of a delinquent, the imprisonment
    of Rivero.

    To defend Cuba is to recognise how this society is
    different. Despite the things we disapprove of, this
    society refuses to sell itself out, to give up those values
    we have always defended.

    It if because of this “little difference” that 11-million
    Cubans still resist. It is their choice and their total
    right to do this. Not to admit this is to refuse to
    recognise their political consciousness, their moral
    supremacy. They support their leadership much more than the
    leadership can support them, for what is being played out
    on the ground, what is being written at ground-level –
    however the story ends – reveals the dignity, the great
    aspirations, and the honour of humanity.

    (1) The island is off-limits to international markets,
    and pays 30-50% more for imports of essential goods,
    particularly since ships trading with Cuba are refused
    access to US ports in the 6 months following their Cuban
    anchorage. The Swiss ISB Bank found itself hit by a
    $100-million fine for having accepted the transfer of Cuban
    funds.

    (2) Cuba est une île, by Danielle Bleitrach and Viktor
    Dedaj, Éditions Le Temps des cerises.

    (3) Félicitations, Commandant, c’est une fille ! by
    Alessandra Riccio. Éditions Desmaret.

    (4) Cuba vive, Cuba Mide, by Santiago Alba, in the review
    Rebelion.

    By Maïté Pinero,
    Ex-correspondant of l’Humanité in Havana (Tribune Libre)
    Translated by Patrick Bolland

    Marxism mailing list
    Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
    http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism


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

    12) WARNING: JOINING THE MILITARY IS HAZARDOUS
    www.objector.org, July 24, 2002
    http://www.guerrillafunk.com/thoughts/doc612.html

    Military recruiters tour the country
    selling a dangerous product with
    glamorous ads, just like tobacco
    companies or drug pushers. The ads promise
    opportunity and adventure -- but don't believe the hype.

    1. Joining the military is hazardous to your education.

    The military isn't a generous
    financial aid institution, and it isn't
    concerned with helping you pay
    for school. Two-thirds of all recruits never get any
    college funding from the military.
    Only 15% graduated with a four-year
    degree.

    What about going to school while
    you're in? Many GIs report that military
    life leaves them too busy and exhausted --
    and doesn't really make time for
    them to go to class.

    2. Joining the military is hazardous to your future.

    Joining the military is a dead end.
    After you've spent a few years in the
    military, you're 2 to 5 times more
    likely to be homeless than your friends who
    never joined. And, according to the
    VA, you'll probably earn less too. The
    skills you learn in the military will be
    geared to military jobs, not civilian
    careers; when you come out, many
    employers will tell you to go back to school
    and get some real training. As former
    Secretary of Defense Cheney declared,
    "The reason to have a military is to be
    prepared to fight and win wars...it's
    not a jobs program."

    3. Joining the military is hazardous to people of color.

    During the Gulf War, over 50 percent of
    front-line troops were people of
    color. Overall, over 30 percent of enlisted
    personnel but only 12 percent of
    officers are people of color, who are then
    disciplined and discharged under
    other than honorable conditions at a much
    higher rate than whites. When recent
    studies showed a slight dip in young
    African-Americans' (disproportionately
    high) interest in the military, the
    Pentagon reacted with a new ad campaign.
    They're targeting Latino youth with
    special Spanish-language ads. The
    recruiters' lethal result: tracking high
    achieving young people in communities of color
    into a dead-end, deadly occupation.

    4. Joining the military is hazardous to women.

    Sexual harassment and assault are
    a daily reality for the overwhelming
    majority of women in the armed forces.
    The VA's own figures show 90 percent of
    recent women veterans reporting
    harassment - a third of whom were
    raped. Despite
    the glossy brochures that advertise
    "opportunities for women," the
    military's inherent sexism is evident
    from sergeants shouting "girl!" at trainees who
    don't "measure up," to the intimidation
    of women who speak out about
    harassment and discrimination - not
    to mention military men's sexual abuse of
    civilian women in base communities.

    5. Joining the military is hazardous to your civil rights.

    If you aren't willing to give up your
    rights, the military isn't for you.
    Once you enlist, you become military
    property: you lose your right to come and
    go freely, you're ordered around 24
    hours a day, and you can be punished by
    your command without trial or jury. Free
    speech rights are severely limited in
    the military. You can be punished for
    being honest about being lesbian, gay
    or bisexual. Worst of all even if you hate
    your job, you can't quit.

    6. Joining the military is hazardous to your health.

    The military can't guarantee you'll
    be alive at the end of your eight-year
    commitment: they can't even promise
    you won't be desperately ill from "mystery
    illnesses" like those of the Vietnam
    and Persian Gulf wars. Whether it's
    atomic testing in the 1950s, Agent
    Orange during the war against Vietnam, or
    experimental vaccines and toxic
    weapons in the Persian Gulf, the military
    shamelessly destroys the health of its
    personnel -- and then does its best to
    downplay and ignore their suffering.

    7. Joining the military is hazardous to the environment.

    The US military is the single
    largest and worst polluter in the world, from
    toxins at bases to nuclear-tipped
    missiles to the destruction of ecosystems
    from South Vietnam to the Persian
    Gulf. And in today's military, the tanks and
    weapons are coated with depleted
    uranium from toxic nuclear waste!

    8. Joining the military is hazardous
    to our lives.

    The "adventure" in the commercials
    is code for war, the "discipline" code
    for violence. The military trains
    recruits to employ deadly force, yet
    recruiters rarely discuss the
    dehumanizing process of basic training, the
    psychological costs of killing, or the horrors of war.

    The ads lie because the product is
    lethal -- not just to you, but to all of
    us.

    For more information contact or write:

    Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors:

    630 20th Street #302,
    Oakland, CA 94612
    510-465-1617
    Fax 510 465-2459

    or

    1515 Cherry Street,
    Philadelphia, PA 19102
    215-563-8787
    Fax 215-567-2096

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

    13) California's Prison Budget
    Fri, 21 Jan 2005
    CRITICAL RESISTANCE
    CALIFORNIA PRISON BUDGET SUMMARY 2005-06

    The Numbers.
    * The Governor proposes that Californians
    spend more than $7 billion on
    prisons, 8.2% of the budget.
    That figure is only slightly less than the
    amount we spend higher education,
    which accounts for 11% of the budget. The
    Governor's proposal amounts to
    a 31.9% increase over Corrections budget of just
    two years ago.

    * The $7 billion includes $250 million
    to cover Corrections' 2004-05
    over spending.

    * The Governor proposes hiring
    1,575 new prison employees. The bulk of
    these employees will be guards at the
    controversial Delano II prison slated
    for opening in June 2005.

    * The Governor proposes $95 million
    in unallocated cuts from the
    Department's "inmate and parolee"
    programs. This means these cuts will come from
    rehabilitation, education and substance
    abuse programs. $95 million in savings
    could come from reducing the state's
    prison population by just 3,071 people.

    * The Governor projects that the
    prison population will drop slightly
    from 163,019 in 2004-05 to 162,744
    in 2005-06, a decrease of 264 prisoners.
    This drop is a far cry from projections in
    last year's budget, which had the
    prison population decreasing by as
    many as 15,000 prisoners due to parole
    reforms which the department has failed to implement.
    General Fund Expenditures Proposed for 2005-06

    Department Budget
    General Fund Share
    K-12 Education $35billion
    41.9%
    Health and Human Services $26 billion
    31.2%
    Higher Education $10billion
    11.7%
    Prisons
    $7billion
    8.2%
    Legislative, Judicial Executive $3 billion
    3.5%
    Resources $1
    billion 1.5%
    State and Consumer Services $562 million
    0.7%
    General Government $705 million
    0.7%
    Business, Transportation and Housing $380 million
    0.4%
    Labor and Workforce Development $87 million
    0.1%
    Environmental Protection $69million
    0.1%

    Meanwhile. According the independent
    Legislative Analyst, "The Governor's
    2005-06 budget proposal addresses
    the 2005-06 budget shortfall primarily
    through program savings in K-12
    education, social services, transportation and
    employee compensation."
    What about cutting prison spending
    by cutting the number of people in
    prison?

    * The unallocated cut of $95 million
    could come from reducing the
    state's prison population by just 3,071 people.

    * Closing just one prison could save
    approximately $100 million per
    year, every year.

    * Reducing the number of people
    sent back to prison for minor violations
    of parole to the national average could
    save approximately $888 million a
    year.

    * Releasing people from parole after
    12 months without a violation could
    save approximately $60 million per year.

    * Two for one credits currently
    earned by people in prison who
    participate in fire camp programs
    could be expanded to people participating in
    educational, vocational and substance
    abuse programs.

    * Increasing the threshold for
    grand theft from $400 to $1000 to reflect
    inflation could save approximately $34 million.

    * Restructuring sentences by just
    12 weeks could save approximately $60
    million; a 12-month change would save
    approximately $240 million.

    * Abolishing Three Strikes would save
    between $400 and $500 million per
    year.

    * Delaying activation of the Delano II
    prison would save $93 million.
    For more details on how to cut prison
    spending by reducing the number of
    people in prison and the number of
    prisons go to www.criticalresistance.org or
    www.curbprisonspending.org or
    www.effectivepublicsafety.org
    To get involved.
    Call Critical Resistance at 510.444.0484 or
    email us at croakland@criticalresistance.org

    ActionLA
    Action for World Liberation Everyday!
    Tel: (213)403-0131

    URL: http://www.ActionLA.org
    e-mail: Info@ActionLA.org

    Please Donate to ActionLA!
    Send check pay to:
    ActionLA/SEE
    1013 Mission St. #6
    South Pasadena CA 91030
    (All donations are tax deductible)

    Please join our ActionLA Listserv
    go to: http://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/actionla
    or send e-mail to: actionla-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

    Please join our new Asian American Labor Activism Alert! Listserv,
    send-e-mail to: api-la-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

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

    14) The Antiwar Movement and the Iraqi Elections


    1) Election Under Occupation

    The media theater called the Iraqi election is under way.
    U.S. television anchor people are broadcasting live from
    Baghdad, breathlessly describing the preparations for
    Sunday's display of so-called democracy.

    It is important to emphasive the circumstances under which
    this election is being held. More than 150,000 U.S.
    troops occupy the country, patrolling the streets with
    guns trained on Iraqi civilians. Iraq is under a state of
    emergency, with expanded police powers and a curfew.

    This is and election at gunpoint, which will be supervised
    by U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte. Negroponte built an
    impressive resume as a brutal enforcer of U.S. policy
    through murder, rape, and torture. Negroponte served as
    U.S. Ambassador to Honduras from 1981-1985; a period
    during which Honduras was the launching pad from which the
    Reagan administration conducted its violent attacks on the
    people of Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. The
    U.S-backed atrocities, which were condemned by the
    International World Court in the Hague, included
    kidnappings, rape, torture and killing of suspected
    dissidents. Reports from the Inter-American Commission on
    Human Rights in Honduras alleged that Negroponte oversaw
    the expansion of U.S training camp and military base on
    Honduran territory, where the U.S. trained Contra
    terrorists, and where the military secretly detained,
    tortured and executed Honduran suspected dissidents.

    This is the person the Bush Administration would have us
    believe is going to bring democracy to Iraq.

    Assisting him will be two US-funded organizations with
    long records of manipulating overseas elections on behalf
    of U.S. corporate interests, the National Democratic
    Institute for International Affairs (NDI) and the
    International Republican Institute (IRI). These groups,
    both of which are tied to covert plans to install
    US-favored regimes overseas, are among organizations that
    have been given more than $80 million for political
    activities in Iraq.

    Both organizations work closely with the National
    Endowment for Democracy and the U.S. Agency for
    International Development, long used by the CIA for covert
    operations abroad. They were, for example, involved in
    orchestrating the failed coup and recall referendum in
    Venezuela in an attempt to remove the democratically
    elected and popular President Hugo Chavez.

    This election is being conducted at gunpoint, administered
    by a war criminal, and stage-managed by CIA front
    companies. To pretend that this has anything to do with
    democracy is outrageous. The Iraqi people recognize this
    --among expatriates, 90 percent haven't even bothered to
    register to vote on Sunday.

    What, then is the purpose of the phony election? It is
    actually directed at the U.S. public, which is growing
    increasingly disillusioned with the war. The sole intent
    of the election is to provide legitimacy for the
    occupation, to marginalize the resistance movement, and
    create an illusion of progress. The election, like the
    phony transfer of power, will change nothing on the ground
    in Iraq. On January 31, the day after the election, more
    than 150,000 U.S. troops will still occupy Iraq, the
    torture chambers of Abu Ghraib will still be full of Iraqi
    prisoners, and CIA employee Iyad Allawi will still be the
    U.S.-appointed dictator.


    2) The Iraqi People Have Already Voted -- Against the
    Occupation

    The Iraqi people have already expressed their will; they
    are overwhelmingly opposed to the occupation of their
    country. The majority of Iraqi people want the U.S.
    troops to leave and do not believe that the U.S. and
    Britain should be involved in holding elections in Iraq,
    according to several polls.

    Many have already cast their ballot against colonial
    occupation by joining the nationwide uprising. The
    intelligence chief for the puppet regime in Iraq, General
    Mohamed Abdullah Shahwani, admitted that the resistance
    now numbers more than 200,000.

    The resistance is made up of many difference forces, with
    different ideologies and goals. They are united by the
    determination to free their country from U.S. occupation.

    The right of people to resist occupation by arms is a
    basic right recognized under international law and the
    Geneva Convention. The people of Iraq have a right to
    fight back against the occupation of their country, the
    torture of their people, and the bombing of their cities.
    They also have a right to expect the solidarity of all
    who oppose the criminal war. It is not the role of the
    antiwar movement to debate the ideology or tactics of the
    resistance; it is our job to stand in solidarity with them
    and do everything possible to assist them by working to
    end the occupation of their country.


    3) What Next for the Antiwar Movement?

    The phony elections will not silence the Iraqi resistance.
    It is important to remember that in the months since the
    last time the U.S. attempted to put an "Iraqi face" on the
    occupation, with the phony transfer of power and
    appointment of Iyad Allawi as puppet dictator, the
    resistance has spread and become more sophisticated and
    more entrenched.

    As the resistance grows, we in the U.S. have an obligation
    not to be deterred by false elections or talk of
    "timetables." We must stand with the people of Iraq and
    take up their demand: the immediate, unconditional, and
    complete withdrawal of all U.S. occupation forces.

    We must organize a united struggle to end the occupation.
    This is now more important than ever before. George W.
    Bush made it clear in his inauguration sermon that he
    intends to wage continual, global war. We must meet his
    call to war with renewed determination and unity.

    The global antiwar movement has called for massive
    protests on the weekend of March 19-20. In the U.S., the
    Troops Out Now Coalition is organizing local and regional
    demonstrations to demand an end to the occupation,
    including a massive regional convergence on Central Park
    on March 19. The International Action Center, part of the
    Troops Out Now Coalition, calls upon all progressive and
    antiwar organizations to join us in the streets on March
    19 & 20 to demand: "Troops Out Now!"

    March 19
    Troops Out Now!
    March on Central Park in NYC!
    Regional Demonstrations Across the U.S. & Worldwide

    The International Action Center
    http://www.iacenter.org
    mail to:iacenter@iacenter.org
    Anyone can subscribe.
    Send an email request to
    Action.News-subscribe@organizerweb.com

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

    15) U.S. Army Prepares Armed 'Robo-Soldier' for Iraq
    By Michael P. Regan
    AP Business Writer
    TechnologyReview.com
    January 25, 2005
    http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/01/ap/ap_3012505.asp?p=0

    ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, New Jersey (AP) -- The rain is turning to snow
    on a blustery January morning, and all the men gathered in a parking
    lot here surely would prefer to be inside.

    But the weather couldn't matter less to the robotic sharpshooter they
    are here to watch as it splashes through puddles, the barrel of its
    machine gun pointing the way.

    The Army is preparing to send 18 of these remote-controlled robotic
    warriors to fight in Iraq beginning in March or April.

    Made by a small Massachusetts company, the SWORDS, short for
    Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection Systems,
    will be the first armed robotic vehicles to see combat, years ahead
    of the larger Future Combat System vehicles currently under
    development by big defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin
    and General Dynamics Corp.

    It's easy to humanize the SWORDS (a tendency robotics researchers
    say is only human) as it moves out of the flashy lobby of an office
    building and into the cold with nary a shiver.

    Military officials like to compare the roughly 1-meter-high
    (3-foot-high) robots favorably to human soldiers: They don't
    need to be trained, fed or clothed. They can be boxed up and
    warehoused between wars. They never complain. And there are
    no letters to write home if they meet their demise in battle.

    But officials are quick to point out that these are not the
    autonomous killer robots of science fiction. A SWORDS robot
    shoots only when its human operator presses a button after
    identifying a target on video shot by the robot's cameras.

    "The only difference is that his weapon is not at his shoulder,
    it's up to half a mile (800 meters) away," said Bob Quinn,
    general manager of Talon robots for Foster-Miller Inc.,
    the Waltham, Massachusetts, company that makes the SWORDS.

    As one Marine fresh out of boot camp told Quinn upon
    seeing the robot: "This is my invisibility cloak."

    Quinn said it was a "bootstrap development process" to
    convert a Talon robot, which has been in military service
    since 2000, from its main mission -- defusing roadside
    bombs in Iraq_ into the gunslinging SWORDS.

    It was a joint development process between the
    Army and Foster-Miller, a robotics firm bought
    in November by QinetiQ Group PLC, which is
    a partnership between the British Ministry of
    Defence and the Washington holding company
    The Carlyle Group.

    Army officials and employees of the robotics
    firm heard from soldiers "who said 'My brothers
    are being killed out here. We love the EOD
    (explosive ordnance disposal), but let's put
    some weapons on it,"' said Quinn.

    Working with soldiers and engineers at
    Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey, it took
    just six months and only about $2 million
    (euro1.5 million) in development money
    to outfit a Talon with weapons, according
    to Quinn and Anthony Sebasto,
    a technology manager at Picatinny.

    The Talon had already proven itself to be
    pretty rugged. One was blown off the roof
    of a Humvee and into a nearby river by
    a roadside bomb in Iraq. Soldiers simply
    opened its shrapnel-pocked control unit
    and drove the robot out of the river,
    according to Quinn.

    NOTEBOOK

    The idea of robots helping in the ground
    war in Iraq sent the media into overdrive,
    with several hundred stories popping up
    around the world -- although many of these
    are simply reprints of the wire story. This isn't
    a huge advance in robotics though, military
    officials are quick to point out. Instead, this
    this is a low-tech field test. -- by Brad King

    What Others Are Saying:

    The Scripps Howard News Service -- by
    way of The Modesto Bee -- has a piece
    about these robots.

    The Guardian has an interesting piece
    on the new program.

    Here's an Army press release about the
    Explosive Ordnance Disposal robot which
    helps clear the way for ground units.


    Related Stories:

    The $200,000 (euro154,000), armed
    version will carry standard-issue Squad
    Automatic Weapons, either the M249, which
    fires 5.56-millimeter rounds at a rate of
    750 per minute, or the M240, which can
    fire about 700 to 1,000 7.62-millimeter
    rounds per minute. The SWORDS can fire
    about 300 rounds using the M240 and
    about 350 rounds using the M249 before
    needing to reload.


    All its optics equipment -- the four cameras,
    night vision and zoom lenses -- were
    already in the Army's inventory.

    "It's important to stress that not everything
    has to be super high tech," said Sebasto.
    "You can integrate existing componentry
    and create a revolutionary capability."

    The SWORDS in the parking lot at the
    headquarters of the cable news station
    CNBC had just finished showing off for
    the cameras, climbing stairs, scooting
    between cubicles, even broadcasting
    some of its video on the air.

    Its developers say its tracks, like those
    on a tank, can overcome rock piles and
    barbed wire, though it needs a ride to
    travel faster than 6.5 kph (4 mph).

    Running on lithium ion batteries, it can
    operate for one to four hours at a time,
    depending on the mission. Operators
    work the robot using a 13.5-kilogram
    (30-pound) control unit that has two
    joysticks, a handful of buttons and a video
    screen. Quinn says that may eventually be
    replaced by a "Gameboy" type of controller
    hooked up to virtual reality goggles.

    The Army has been testing it over the past
    year at Picatinny and the Aberdeen Proving
    Grounds in Maryland to ensure it won't
    malfunction and can stand up to radio jammers
    and other countermeasures. (Sebasto wouldn't
    comment on what happens if the robot and its
    controller fall into enemy hands.)

    Its developers say the SWORDS not only
    allows its operators to fire at enemies without
    exposing themselves to return fire, but also
    can make them more accurate.

    A typical soldier who could hit a target the
    size of a basketball from 300 meters (yards)
    away could hit a target the size of a coin
    with the SWORDS, according Quinn.

    The better accuracy stems largely from the
    fact that its gun is mounted on a stable platform
    and fired electronically, rather than by
    a soldier's hands, according to Staff Sgt.
    Santiago Tordillos of the EOD Technology
    Directorate at Picatinny. Gone are such issues
    as trigger recoil, anticipation problems, and
    pausing the breathing cycle while aiming a weapon.

    "It eliminates the majority of shooting
    errors you would have," said Tordillos.

    Chances are good the SWORDS will get
    even more deadly in the future. It has
    been tested with the larger .50 caliber
    machine guns as well as rocket and grenade
    launchers -- even an experimental weapon
    made by the Australian company Metal Storm
    LLC that packs multiple rocket rounds into
    a single barrel, allowing for much more rapid firing.

    "We've fired 70 shots at Picatinny and we
    were 70 for 70 hitting the bull's-eye," said
    Sebasto, boasting of the arsenal's success
    with a rocket launcher from around the
    1960s mounted on a SWORDS.

    5360.64714081611

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







    Tuesday, January 25, 2005
     

    BAUAW NEWSLETTER-TUESDAY, JAN. 25, 2005

    1) We ain't gonna study war no more!
    (Killing and being killed is not a career choice!)
    Come to an organizing meeting to get the military
    out of our schools!
    Saturday, 11:00 a.m., February 5, 2005
    Centro del Pueblo, 474 Valencia Street
    (near 16th St. in S.F.)


    2) CRITICAL Hearing Friday January 28, 2005 for
    SHEILA DETOY17-Year-Old Girl Shot In Head By
    Rogue Cop In 1998 ...
    January 28, 2005
    9:30 AM
    Superior Court
    CIVIC CENTER COURTHOUSE
    400 McAllister Street Dept. 301
    San Francisco, CA 94102
    CASE # CPF04-504029
    LAST CHANCE FOR JUSTICE!
    The San Francisco Police Department is trying
    to get away with MURDER!!!
    for more information call (510)428-3939

    3) March 19, 2005 Global Day of Action
    No to War Occupation – Iraq, Palestine, Haiti,
    Afghanistan, Cuba Everywhere!
    Bring the Troops Home Now!
    Money for People’s Needs, Not War!
    San Francisco: March Assembles: 11 a.m. Dolores Park
    Rally: 1 p.m. Civic Center

    4) On Eve of Iraq Vote, War Less Popular in US (link only)
    LOS ANGELES
    Published on Monday, January 24, 2005 Agence France Presse
    Tuesday, January 25, 2005
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0124-05.htm

    5) Grocers, unions reach contract terms (link only)
    Tentative deal averts labor strife that roiled south state
    George Raine, Todd Wallack, Chronicle Staff Writers
    Tuesday, January 25, 2005
    http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/01/25/MNGAUB00GS1.DTL


    6) Torture in Iraq Still Routine, Report Says (link only)
    By Doug Struck
    The Washington Post
    BAGHDAD
    Tuesday 25 January 2005
    Detainees beaten, hung by wrists, shocked by security
    forces, rights group finds.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/012605Z.shtml

    7) Bush to Seek About $80 Bln for Military Operations
    By Adam Entous
    WASHINGTON (Reuters)
    Mon Jan 24, 2005 11:32 PM ET
    http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7416921&src=eD
    ialog/GetContent§ion=news

    8) U.S. Faces More Tensions Abroad as Dollar Slides (link only)
    By DAVID E. SANGER
    This article was reported by David E. Sanger, Mark Landler
    and Keith Bradsher and written by Mr. Sanger.
    WASHINGTON
    January 25, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/25/business/25dollar.html?hp&ex=1106715600&en
    =9f78376270809a43&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    9) TROOP STRENGTH (link only)
    General Says the Current Plan Is to Maintain 120,000
    Soldiers in Iraq Through 2006
    By ERIC SCHMITT
    WASHINGTON
    January 25, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/25/politics/25army.html?oref=login

    10) Iraqi Women Paying the Price (link only)
    ** Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches **
    ** http://dahrjamailiraq.com **
    Online
    By Dahr Jamail
    January 24, 2005
    http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/newscommentary/000183.php#m
    ore

    11) Subject: benefit for
    AIDS Housing Alliance
    Mecca44@aol.com wrote:
    Hi friends, This Friday's (Jan. 28) performance of my
    show, "Italian. Queer. Dangerous" is a benefit for the
    AIDS Housing Alliance of SF,

    12) GUANTANAMO BAY
    Terror captives' suicide attempts called protest
    The U.S. military disclosed a spate of apparent suicide
    attempts by terror suspects in a mass protest at the
    Guantánamo Bay prison 17 months ago.
    BY CAROL ROSENBERG
    crosenberg@herald.com
    Posted on Tue, Jan. 25, 2005
    http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/10729961.htm

    13) Photos from Jeff Paterson

    14) U.N. Says U.S. Deficits Distort Global Economy (link only)
    By ELIZABETH BECKER
    WASHINGTON
    January 25, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/25/international/25cnd-trad.html

    15) FIGHT JERRY BROWN'S 10PM CURFEW FOR PAROLEES
    AND PROBATIONERS!
    at Jerry Brown's house - 27TH AND TELEGRAPH, OAKLAND
    (NEAR 19TH STREET BART)
    Wednesday, January 26, 9:30 p.m.
    Forwarded Message From: Linda Evans

    16) If Dr. King were alive today, he would be trying to
    * tear down this new Jim Crow of an incarceration
    * industry that is labeling and devastating young people
    * of color in extraordinary numbers.
    * - Van Jones, Human rights activist

    17) International Day of Action Against Caterpillar
    Wednesday, April 13, 2005
    http://www.bootcat.org/docs/cat-action-apr2005.html

    18) ICLU sues state over prison conditions (link only)
    Associated Press
    January 25, 2005
    http://www.indystar.com/articles/6/212200-9306-092.html

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

    1) We ain't gonna study war no more!
    (Killing and being killed is not a career choice!)
    Come to an organizing meeting to get the
    military out of our schools!
    Saturday, 11:00 a.m., February 5, 2005
    Centro del Pueblo, 474 Valencia Street
    (near 16th St. in S.F.)

    Our children are being recruited to military service right out of High
    School. They are being offered Junior ROTC for class credit as an
    alternative to Physical Education. Junior ROTC advocates the military
    as a career choice. Every day we hear of schools and hospitals
    closing. Our children have fewer job opportunities available to
    them with far fewer benefits. And they are finding it increasingly
    more difficult to go to college because of increased college costs and
    the general increase in the cost of living. Junior ROTC makes the
    military attractive to them. But these are not the job opportunities
    we want for our children-or that our children want for themselves!

    Meanwhile, due to an ever-increasing war budget, most of our tax
    dollars are being spent on a war with no end in sight; and on
    overall defense spending that dwarfs even the war budget! And
    while corporations are raking in billions, two-thirds of them pay
    no taxes at all. This puts a severe strain on the taxes left over-after
    military and defense expenditures-for all social services and
    human needs-taxes that come from the poor and all working
    people. We want our children to have an opportunity to learn
    and thrive to the best of their potential not to kill and be killed.
    Stop the war. Bring all our troops home now. End all military
    recruitment in public schools and institutions of higher learning.
    Use our tax dollars for schools, healthcare, housing, jobs-all
    human needs not war!

    Number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq as of Jan 11: 1,357
    http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/USfatalities.html

    Number of U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq: over 10,000
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0104-12.ht

    Number of Iraqis killed: est. over 100,000
    http://www.iraqbodycount.net/press/

    Number of Iraqis wounded: Untold.
    Not counted but estimated in the millions.

    Cost of the war: $149.5 billion spent as of Jan. 12, 2005
    http://costofwar.com/index.html

    With the money spent so far on the war we could have
    hired over 2,600,566 public schoolteachers for one year.
    http://costofwar.com/index-public-education.html

    Total U.S. Defense spending: nearly $754 billion as of
    fiscal year 2004.
    http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1253

    The people of San Francisco voted last November 2004
    by a 63 percent majority to bring all our troops home now.
    We haven't changed our minds!

    Bay Area United Against War (www.bauaw.org) (415) 824-8730
    P.O. Box 318021, S. F., CA 94131-8021
    Labor Donated...BW

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

    2) CRITICAL Hearing Friday January 28, 2005 for
    SHEILA DETOY17-Year-Old Girl Shot In Head By
    Rogue Cop In 1998 ...
    January 28, 2005
    9:30 AM
    Superior Court
    CIVIC CENTER COURTHOUSE
    400 McAllister Street Dept. 301
    San Francisco, CA 94102
    CASE # CPF04-504029
    LAST CHANCE FOR JUSTICE!

    The San Francisco Police Department is trying to get away
    with MURDER!!!

    If the cops get their way, the Superior Court will DISMISS
    THE CASE against killer cop GREGORY BRESLIN !!!

    With no punishment for Breslin - or anyone - in the 1998
    cold-blooded police shooting of Sheila Detoy !!!

    Don't let police murder go unpunished !!!


    SIX YEARS - NO JUSTICE FOR SHEILA DETOY

    * May 13, 1998: San Francisco police officers shot up a car
    full of unarmed teenagers and killed 17-year-old Sheila Detoy.
    SFPD then blamed her friends for her death.

    * The Office of Citizen Complaints found that Officer Gregory
    Breslin is responsible for her death. The OCC also sustained
    complaints against the other officers involved in Sheila's killing.

    * In 2003 the San Francisco Police Commission decided they
    wanted to file charges against the officers, but the Police
    Officers Association is trying to get Breslin off on a technicality
    but we say: THERE IS NO TIME LIMIT ON PUNISHING KILLER COPS!!!

    for more information call (510)428-3939

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

    3) March 19, 2005 Global Day of Action
    No to War Occupation – Iraq, Palestine, Haiti,
    Afghanistan, Cuba Everywhere!
    Bring the Troops Home Now!
    Money for People’s Needs, Not War!
    San Francisco: March Assembles: 11 a.m. Dolores Park
    Rally: 1 p.m. Civic Center

    Become an endorser and supporter for March 19

    The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition in the United States issued a call in
    early October to mobilize for the March 19 Global Day of Mass
    Action. This is the second anniversary of Bush's criminal
    aggression against the people of Iraq. More than 100,000 Iraqis
    have died and yet the resistance to occupation by the Iraqi people
    has not been stifled through the resort to high tech massacres.
    U.S. soldiers are being killed and maimed in a war for conquest.
    In these ways Iraq parallels the U.S. war against Vietnam. While
    the U.S. government is spending billions to kill in Iraq, Palestine
    and Haiti, it is destroying social programs and working peoples'
    Social Security. At the same time, the U.S. is threatening new
    military action in Iran, Cuba, North Korea, the Philippines,
    Sudan and other countries.

    Antiwar actions in Washington DC, San Francisco, Los
    Angeles and in other cities around the country and around
    the world will take place on March 19.

    On the first anniversary of the "Shock and Awe" invasion,
    March 20, 2004, the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition and others in
    a larger March 20 National Coalition promoted the building
    of a united front under the slogan: Bring the Troops Home Now,
    End Occupation from Iraq to Palestine to Haiti and Everywhere.
    The demonstration also highlighted the call for Money for Jobs,
    Education and Healthcare, Not for War and in defense of civil
    rights and civil liberties. More than 100,000 marched in New
    York City and 50,000 in San Francisco, refuting the notion
    that the antiwar movement must turn its back on the just
    struggle of the Palestinian people in order to build so-called
    broad support. In fact, the large turnout on March 20 of the
    Arab-American, Muslim, Haitian and other targeted
    communities helped the demonstration reflect the
    broad multi-national and multi-ethnic reality of the
    global people's movement for justice. This true united
    front organizing was a major step forward for the
    antiwar movement in the United States.

    We urge all antiwar and people's rights organizations
    to join together in this important day of action and
    global solidarity.

    To become an endorser of the March 19/20 Global
    Day of Mass Action fill out the form below and reply
    to answer@actionsf.org .

    Name:

    Organization:

    Organization for ID only: Y or N

    Organization endorses: Y or N

    Telephone:

    Email: Fax:

    Address:

    I can volunteer my time to help with March 19: Y or N

    Please mail me __________# of flyers for March 19.
    (You can also download english and spanish March 19
    flyers at www.actionsf.org .)

    I can pledge towards the March 19, 2005
    demonstration: Y or N Amount:

    (Please visit www.progressunity.org
    and
    select ANSWER to donate today or mail
    donations to A.N.S.W.E.R. 2489 Mission St.
    #24 San Francisco, CA 94110).
    To subscribe to the list, send a message to:
    activist-subscribe@actionsf.org

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

    4) On Eve of Iraq Vote, War Less Popular in US (link only)
    LOS ANGELES
    Published on Monday, January 24, 2005 Agence France Presse
    Tuesday, January 25, 2005
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0124-05.htm

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

    5) Grocers, unions reach contract terms (link only)
    Tentative deal averts labor strife that roiled south state
    George Raine, Todd Wallack, Chronicle Staff Writers
    Tuesday, January 25, 2005
    http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/01/25/MNGAUB00GS1.DTL

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

    6) Torture in Iraq Still Routine, Report Says (link only)
    By Doug Struck
    The Washington Post
    BAGHDAD
    Tuesday 25 January 2005
    Detainees beaten, hung by wrists, shocked by security
    forces, rights group finds.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/012605Z.shtml

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

    7) Bush to Seek About $80 Bln for Military Operations
    By Adam Entous
    WASHINGTON (Reuters)
    Mon Jan 24, 2005 11:32 PM ET
    http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7416921&src=eD
    ialog/GetContent§ion=news

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration is seeking
    about $80 billion in new funding for military operations this
    year in Iraq and Afghanistan, pushing the total for both
    conflicts to almost $300 billion so far.

    Administration and congressional officials said the new
    request, expected to be announced on Tuesday, would come on top
    of the $25 billion in emergency spending already approved for
    this fiscal year.

    That means funding for military operations in Iraq and
    Afghanistan will total nearly $105 billion in fiscal 2005 alone
    -- a record that shatters initial estimates of the cost.

    In addition to money for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and
    for new Army equipment, up to $650 million is expected to be
    earmarked for humanitarian, reconstruction and military
    operations in Asian nations devastated by last month's tsunami,
    congressional aides said. The administration is considering
    debt relief for Indonesia, the hardest-hit country, they said.

    The funding request comes as the U.S. Army said it is now
    planning to keep at least 120,000 troops in Iraq for the next
    two years to train and fight alongside Iraqi forces against
    insurgents. The Army total is part of a force of 150,000
    American soldiers, Marines and other troops now in Iraq.

    House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California said it
    was Congress' "highest responsibility" to provide the troops
    the support they need. But she said lawmakers "owe it to them
    to critically examine President Bush's request."

    John Pike, a defense analyst with GlobalSecurity.org, said
    the Pentagon might need even more money this year "because we
    just don't know the rate at which the insurgency will grow or
    subside, and we don't know the rate at which the Iraqi security
    forces can be stood up."

    The funding request is expected to be formally submitted to
    Congress after President Bush sends up his fiscal 2006 budget
    on Feb. 7.

    BRACING FOR A BACKLASH

    The White House is bracing for a backlash from Democrats
    and some Republicans. At nearly $105 billion, total funding for
    military operations in 2005 would be more than 13 times larger
    than Bush's budget for the Environmental Protection Agency.

    In addition to money for military operations, at least $780
    million would go to combat the drug trade in Afghanistan.

    The administration is also considering including $1 billion
    to $2 billion to construct a new U.S. embassy complex in
    Baghdad, and up to $200 million in aid for the Palestinians to
    shore up newly-elected President Mahmoud Abbas.

    Aid for Ukraine may also be included to bolster new
    President Viktor Yushchenko, congressional aides said.

    Bush has so far pledged $350 million in tsunami aid.
    The new package is expected to include up to $650 million,
    including $250 million to $350 million for reconstruction, and
    up to $300 million to replenish funds spent by the U.S. Agency
    for International Development and the Pentagon.

    Administration and congressional officials had initially
    expected this year's supplemental spending to total closer to
    $50 billion. But cost estimates skyrocketed to as much as $100
    billion as the Iraq insurgency intensified.

    Critics have long accused Bush and his advisers of
    understating the costs. Before the invasion, then-budget
    director Mitch Daniels predicted Iraq would be "an affordable
    endeavor," and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz assured
    Congress: "We are dealing with a country that can really
    finance its own reconstruction and relatively soon."

    Not including the new funding request, Congress has so far
    approved $120 billion for Iraq and another $60 billion for
    Afghanistan. Last year it also approved a $25 billion
    contingency fund for the Pentagon.

    Yet only a fraction of the $18.4 billion set aside for
    rebuilding Iraq has been spent. The White House blames the
    insurgency for the slow pace of reconstruction.

    (Additional reporting by Steve Holland and Anna Willard)

    (c) Reuters 2005

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

    8) U.S. Faces More Tensions Abroad as Dollar Slides (link only)
    By DAVID E. SANGER
    This article was reported by David E. Sanger, Mark Landler
    and Keith Bradsher and written by Mr. Sanger.
    WASHINGTON
    January 25, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/25/business/25dollar.html?hp&ex=1106715600&en
    =9f78376270809a43&ei=5094&partner=homepage

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

    9) TROOP STRENGTH (link only)
    General Says the Current Plan Is to Maintain 120,000
    Soldiers in Iraq Through 2006
    By ERIC SCHMITT
    WASHINGTON
    January 25, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/25/politics/25army.html?oref=login

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

    10) Iraqi Women Paying the Price (link only)
    ** Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches **
    ** http://dahrjamailiraq.com **
    Online
    By Dahr Jamail
    January 24, 2005
    http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/newscommentary/000183.php#m
    ore

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

    11) Subject: benefit for
    AIDS Housing Alliance
    Mecca44@aol.com wrote:
    Hi friends, This Friday's (Jan. 28) performance of my
    show, "Italian. Queer. Dangerous" is a benefit for the
    AIDS Housing Alliance of SF,

    a group that has helped
    hundreds of PWAs get housing.
    The group also wrote the recently passed
    legislation to limit condo conversations
    for buildings where seniors and
    people with AIDS are evicted. On Friday
    night they will be one year old. Come
    celebrate their first anniversary and help
    them raise much needed rent money.
    Our goal is to raise $1,000 (two months
    rent) which we can do if we get 100
    people to come and pay $10 each
    (admission is on a sliding scale from
    $5-25
    with no one turned away). The theatre
    seats 50 but the theatre and all of us
    involved with the production have
    agreed to do a second show at 10pm (if
    there's enough demand) and donate
    every cent to the AIDS Housing Alliance. A
    little about Italian. Queer. Dangerous. It's
    a one-man show (17 vignettes and
    a video) about my experiences growing up
    in South Philly's Little Italy. It's
    received rave reviews from both the
    Bay Area Reporter and the Bay Times. BAR
    said it was an "Italian Torch Song
    Trilogy." PJ Corkery of the Examiner was
    quoted in the SanFranciscoSentinel.com as
    saying the show was "profound."

    To make reservations call 415-554-0402
    (10pm show will only be added only if
    8pm sells out; you'll be called if that happens).

    To catch a preview of the show:
    http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/id274.htm
    , click on either real media or windows media video.

    DETAILS: Jon Sims Center, 1519 Mission/
    11th January 28, 8pm, $5-25 (no one
    turned away) elevator available for those
    who can't climb stairs MUNI:
    underground or any bus on Market to
    Van Ness, walk one block to Mission or #14
    to 11th. Seating limited, please call and
    make reservations: 554-0402.

    FINAL PERFORMANCE of Italian. Queer. Dangerous
    is on Saturday Jan. 29 at 8pm,
    it's not a benefit for AIDS Housing Alliance. thanks.

    Tommi

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

    12) GUANTANAMO BAY
    Terror captives' suicide attempts called protest
    The U.S. military disclosed a spate of apparent suicide
    attempts by terror suspects in a mass protest at the
    Guantánamo Bay prison 17 months ago.
    BY CAROL ROSENBERG
    crosenberg@herald.com
    Posted on Tue, Jan. 25, 2005
    http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/10729961.htm

    Twenty-three prisoners tried to hang or strangle themselves -- 10
    on the same day -- in a sustained, mass protest at the prison for
    terror suspects in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, the U.S. military
    disclosed Monday, more than a year after the episode.

    None of the captives died in the spree from Aug. 18 to 26, 2003,
    but the 20-bed prison hospital was filled during the episode, said
    Col. David McWilliams, a Southern Command spokesman. All of
    the prisoners were treated by a military psychiatric team.

    The prisoners used pieces of their uniforms or other items in
    their cells, demonstrating ``self-injurious behavior in a
    coordinated effort to disrupt camp operations.''

    A Southcom statement characterized the surge in so-called
    self-harm episodes -- with 10 on Aug. 22 -- as an attempt
    to challenge newly assigned Army reservists arriving on a regular
    rotation to guard terror suspects in the U.S.-controlled slice of Cuba.

    The disclosure comes as the Pentagon is preparing for the first
    time to substitute active-duty sailors for Army reservists who
    guard prisoners at Camp Delta.

    Monday, the Southern Command refused to explain why the
    military is turning to the Navy to guard the 550 or so terror
    suspects, most of whom were scooped up three years ago
    around the world.

    CONDITIONS CITED

    International human rights groups for some time have linked
    suicide attempts at the remote base to desperation by detainees
    held in rugged conditions without charge or trial.

    American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Jameel Jaffer attributed
    the August 2003 episode to ``the cruel and degrading
    treatment to which the Guantánamo prisoners were routinely
    being subjected at that time.''

    Through a lawsuit, the ACLU has uncovered FBI e-mails that
    described harsh military interrogation techniques 18-24 months
    ago that left one detainee so desperate he tore his hair from his head.

    Amnesty International's Jumana Musa said Monday that the
    disclosure was ''clear indication of the detrimental effects of
    long-term, indefinite detention'' and may be linked to ``the
    severity of approved interrogation techniques at that time.''

    In 2003, the prison recorded 350 ''self-harm'' events, including
    120 ''hanging gestures,'' by detainees.

    That figure dipped to 110 occurrences in 2004.

    Journalists first learned of the August 2003 episode earlier this
    month in interviews with medical staff at Camp Delta, but the
    Southern Command didn't confirm it or provide details until Monday.

    The disclosure illustrates that the Pentagon ''cannot be
    trusted to monitor themselves,'' Amnesty International's Musa
    said. ``The only way to end the constant stream of allegations
    of torture, ill-treatment and psychological deterioration of the
    detainees is to permit a truly independent investigation.''

    Soldiers distinguish suicide attempts from ''self-harm'' episodes
    by deciding which captives meant to kill themselves and which
    captives were trying to gain attention or medical treatment.

    No prisoner has killed himself at Guantánamo Bay, this ''because
    of a vigilant, well-trained guard force,'' the Southcom statement said.

    The most serious suicide attempt so far occurred Jan. 16, 2003.
    Guards spotted a prisoner hanging in his cell. He suffered brain
    damage and lapsed into a coma, but he regained consciousness.

    Of the 23 prisoners involved in the August 2003 episode, only
    16 remain in U.S. custody in Cuba.

    McWilliams, the Southcom colonel, would not say whether the
    seven who had been released from Guantánamo had been
    transferred to lockups in allied nations or had been set free
    after being found by an independent review panel to not meet
    the minimum requirements for detention on ''enemy combatant''
    status.

    NATIONALITY RANGE

    Guantánamo today has some 550 prisoners from about 42 nations,
    although the Bush administration is arranging to repatriate four
    Britons, an Australian who the Pentagon says had advance
    knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks and three French citizens.

    The French ambassador in Washington, Jean-David Levitte,
    told The Herald that negotiations are under way to repatriate
    the last three French citizens at Guantánamo soon; earlier, the
    Pentagon handed over to France four other French citizens .

    (c) 2005 Herald.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
    http://www.miami.com

    [Remember, you are reading this in the MIAMI HERALD, not in
    the organ of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist
    Party,GRANMA. And since Jim Jones wasn't the chaplain at
    Guantnamo, you have to wonder what kind of horrors these
    men were subjected to for them to have responded this way.]

    The Cuban government's position on Guantanamo is clear:
    http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2005/enero/juev20/05declar.html

    For a more serious approach to human rights at Guantanamo:
    http://www.guantanamohrc.org/

    Marxism mailing list
    Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
    http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism

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

    13) Photos from Jeff Paterson

    Dear Friends,

    I thought I'd share a few photos and videos I produced over the
    last few days.

    On Thursday, Jan. 20 thousands around the country held
    counter-inaugural events to declare "Not Our President!" during
    the Bush oath.

    Bay Area report and photos:
    http://www.notinourname.net/~bayarea/20jan05-nop.htm
    Video
    http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/01/1716741.php

    On Saturday, Jan. 22 thousands of pro-choice proponents meet
    thousands of anti-choice demonstrators in what "right to life"
    organizers billed as a first annual "Walk of Life West Coast"
    Photos:
    http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/01/1716544.php (pro-choice)
    http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/01/1716463.php (anti-choice)
    Video:
    http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/01/1716850.php

    -jeff
    Jeff Paterson jeff@paterson.net

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

    14) U.N. Says U.S. Deficits Distort Global Economy (link only)
    By ELIZABETH BECKER
    WASHINGTON
    January 25, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/25/international/25cnd-trad.html

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

    15) FIGHT JERRY BROWN'S 10PM CURFEW FOR PAROLEES
    AND PROBATIONERS!
    at Jerry Brown's house - 27TH AND TELEGRAPH, OAKLAND
    (NEAR 19TH STREET BART)
    Wednesday, January 26, 9:30 p.m.
    Forwarded Message From: Linda Evans

    Hey everyone: Come on out to this action to protest the 10 p.m. curfew for
    people on parole and probation!! This coming Wednesday!! THIS IS IMPORTANT!

    ***EMERGENCY ACTION!*******EMERGENCY ACTION!*******EMERGENCY ACTION!****
    Please forward to all your lists!

    FIGHT JERRY BROWN'S 10PM CURFEW FOR PAROLEES AND PROBATIONERS!

    Join Critical Resistance and All of Us or None as we cite Jerry Brown for
    harassing and scapegoating the people of Oakland.

    PLEASE JOIN US TO FIGHT BACK:

    THIS WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26
    9:30 P.M.
    JERRY BROWN'S HOUSE (OLD SEAR'S BUILDING)
    27TH AND