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Wednesday, April 20, 2005
BAUAW NEWSLETTER - WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 2005
"Of course there's a ruling class, and it's based on money.
It's a very simple problem. You can buy a jet plane of your
own, or you can buy a president." Kurt Vonnegut
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Teachers and School Districts
to Sue Over Education Law
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON
Filed at 11:43 a.m. ET
April 20, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Education-
Lawsuit.html?hp&ex=1114056000&en=ca5a6a0cd85ce48c&ei=5094&partner=home
page
2) Utah Vote Rejects Parts
of Education Law
By SAM DILLON
Published: April 20, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/20/national/20child.html?
3) ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
A forum on standing up for civil rights in the Bayview:
Speaking:
Barbara Becnel (advocate for Stan Tookie Williams)
Sandra-Juanita Cooper (Campaign to
End the Death Penalty/Bayview Chapter)
Minister Christopher Mohammed (Nation of Islam/SF)
mesha monge - IRIZARRY (Idriss Stelley Foundation)
Charlene Smythe (Green Party/Bayview resident)
Mary Bull (Green Earth Alliance)
SATURDAY April 30th, 7:00 PM Bayview Opera House
4705 3rd Street, SF (Between Oakdale and Newcomb)
with Entertainment by: COLORED INK & LOCO BLOCO Snacks
and refreshments provided Sponsored by Campaign to
End the Death Penalty, Idriss Stelley Foundation,
D.O.K.T.A. Cooper's Community Networking Project
PG&E is spitting out toxins that give our children asthma,
police harass and even gun down innocent people and get
a slap on the wrist (if that), Governor Schwarzenegger
is planning on spending over $200 million to refurbish
San Quentins death row while cutting school budgets
across the state, and California plans on executing five
time Nobel peace prize nominee, Stan Williams, (an innocent
man on death row) who has done more to effectively lead
kids away from gangs and violence than any single person
in California. Enough is Enough! More than ever, we need
to build a new civil rights movement. Come here people
speak about how we can start on that project, now!
4) Open Letter to the U.S. Antiwar Movement:
An Appeal for Unity
[Bay Area United Against War strongly endorses
this unity statement and encourages all groups to
sign on. If we join forces we can expand this movement into
every community in the nation effectively putting a stop
to military recruitment and demanding an end to the war and
to bring all the troops home immediately.
...Bay Area United Against War (www.bauaw.org)]
5) The Grim Reaper Riding a Firetruck in Iraq
By Steve Fainaru
The Washington Post
Tuesday 19 April 2005
Marines recount dramatic assault at base near Syria.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/041905Z.shtml
6) Resisting the economic war in Iraq
Interview with Hassan Juma ' a Awad, head of Basra Oil Union
By Greg Muttitt of Platform
Corporate Watch Newsletter Issue 21
April/May 2005
http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/newsletter/issue23/part13.htm
7) Democrats back Negroponte nomination as new documents
detail role in contra war
By Joseph Kay
19 April 2005
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/apr2005/negr-a19.shtml
8) For Workers' Memorial Day 2005
Stop Terrorizing Injured Workers!
Single Payer For All!
www.workersmemorialday.com
http://www.workersmemorialday.com/
9) Radical Politics in Modern Ireland -
The History of the Irish Socialist
Republican Party 1896-1904
David Lynch
To Be Published March 2005 |
192 Pages Irish Academic Press 0716533561
10) AVAILABLE NOW!
"FIGHTBACK!" A Collection of Socialist
Essays By Sylvia Weinstein
Published March 2005, 360 pages
ISBN 0-9763570-0-3
Socialist Viewpoint Publishing Association
1380 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
($25.00 plus $5.95 shipping and handling)
11) Support the Right to March in New York City
Emergency Demonstration
Thursday, April 21
1:00 pm
City Hall, NYC
WRITE TO MAYOR BLOOMBERG AND PROTEST
http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html
12) California workers protest cuts
By J. Marquardt
San Francisco
Published Apr 14, 2005 9:57 PM
http://www.workers.org/2005/us/california-0421/
13) Please Forword - ATTENTION NEW YORKERS!
Join Latin's For Mumia and others to stop the legal
lynching of brother Mumia Abu-Jamal!
Saturday April 23, 2005 in Harlem, New York City.
1pm: Rally and March starting at the
Harlem State Office Building at
163 West 125th Street.
3pm: Salem United Methodist Church at
129th Street and 7th Avenue
Free Mumia Abu-Jamal and All Political Prisoners! Stop the Racist
Death Penalty! No Military Recruiters on our Campuses!
Stop the War(s)!
The link to the flier is below, spread the word.
http://www.freemumia.net/images/04-23-05Harlem.pdf
Carlos Rovira - "Carlito"
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Teachers and School Districts
to Sue Over Education Law
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON
Filed at 11:43 a.m. ET
April 20, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Education-
Lawsuit.html?hp&ex=1114056000&en=ca5a6a0cd85ce48c&ei=5094&partner=home
page
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The nation's largest teachers union and school
districts in three states are launching a legal fight over No Child Left
Behind, aiming to free schools from complying with any part of the
education law not paid for by the federal government.
The lawsuit, expected to be filed Wednesday in the U.S. District
Court for eastern Michigan, is the most sweeping challenge to
President Bush's signature education policy. The outcome would
apply only to the districts involved but could have implications
for all schools nationwide.
Leading the fight is the National Education Association, a union
of 2.7 million members that represents many public educators
and is financing the lawsuit. The other plaintiffs are nine school
districts in Michigan, Texas and Vermont, plus 10 NEA chapters
in those three states and Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana,
New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Utah.
Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, as the chief officer
of the agency that enforces the law, is the only defendant.
The suit centers on a question that has overshadowed the law
since Bush signed it in 2002: whether the president and Congress
have provided enough money.
The challenge is built upon one paragraph in the law that says
no state or school district can be forced to spend its money on
expenses the federal government has not covered.
''What it means is just what it says -- that you don't have to
do anything this law requires unless you receive federal funds
to do it,'' said NEA general counsel Bob Chanin.
''We want the Department of Education to simply do what
Congress told it to do. There's a promise in that law, it's
unambiguous, and it's not being complied with.''
The plaintiffs want a judge to order that states and schools don't
have to spend their own money to pay for the law's expenses
-- and order the Education Department not to try to yank federal
money from a state or school that refuses to comply based
on those grounds.
Spending on No Child Left Behind programs has increased
40 percent since Bush took office, from $17.4 billion to
$24.4 billion, federal figures show. The Bush administration
has repeatedly said schools have enough money to make
the law work.
Yet the suit accuses the government of shortchanging schools
by at least $27 billion, the difference between the amount
Congress authorized and what it has spent. The shortfall
is even larger, the suit says, if the figures include all promised
funding for poor children.
The suit, citing a series of cost studies, outlines billions
of dollars in expenses to meet the law's mandates. They include
the costs of adding yearly testing; getting all children up
to grade level in reading and math, and ensuring teachers
are highly qualified.
To cover those costs, the suit says, states have shifted money
away from such other priorities as foreign languages, art and
smaller classes. The money gap has hurt schools' ability to
meet progress goals, which in turn has damaged their
reputations, the suit says.
Plaintiffs include the Pontiac School District in Michigan, the
Laredo Independent School District in Laredo, Texas; the
Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union in Brandon, Vt.; and six
of the school districts that are part of Rutland Northeast in
south central Vermont.
The NEA promised to bring the suit almost two years ago and
began recruiting states to be plaintiffs. But the union found
no takers -- in part because states had no firm cost estimates,
and in part because states were wary of the political fallout
of suing the federal government.
More than a dozen states, however, are considering anti-No
Child Left Behind legislation this year. On Tuesday, the Utah
Legislature passed a measure giving state education standards
priority over federal ones imposed by No Child Left Behind.
The school districts involved in the lawsuit give the NEA the
diversity it wanted, from rural Vermont students to limited-English
learners in Laredo to poor students in Pontiac. In the suit,
Spellings is accused of violating both the education law and
the spending clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The NEA and the Bush administration have had a testy
relationship.
When the union first promised the lawsuit, then-Education
Secretary Rod Paige accused the NEA of putting together a
''coalition of the whining.'' He later referred to the NEA as a
''terrorist organization'' for the way it opposed the law,
a comment for which he later apologized.
On the Net:
National Education Association: http://www.nea.org
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) Utah Vote Rejects Parts
of Education Law
By SAM DILLON
Published: April 20, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/20/national/20child.html?
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
A forum on standing up for civil rights in the Bayview:
Speaking:
Barbara Becnel (advocate for Stan Tookie Williams)
Sandra-Juanita Cooper (Campaign to End the
Death Penalty/Bayview Chapter)
Minister Christopher Mohammed (Nation of Islam/SF)
mesha monge - IRIZARRY (Idriss Stelley Foundation)
Charlene Smythe (Green Party/Bayview resident)
Mary Bull (Green Earth Alliance)
SATURDAY April 30th, 7:00 PM Bayview Opera House
4705 3rd Street, SF (Between Oakdale and Newcomb)
with Entertainment by: COLORED INK & LOCO BLOCO Snacks
and refreshments provided Sponsored by Campaign to End
the Death Penalty, Idriss Stelley Foundation, D.O.K.T.A.
Cooper's Community Networking Project
PG&E is spitting out toxins that give our children asthma,
police harass and even gun down innocent people and get
a slap on the wrist (if that), Governor Schwarzenegger
is planning on spending over $200 million to refurbish
San Quentins death row while cutting school budgets
across the state, and California plans on executing five
time Nobel peace prize nominee, Stan Williams, (an
innocent man on death row) who has done more to
effectively lead kids away from gangs and violence
than any single person in California. Enough is Enough!
More than ever, we need to build a new civil rights
movement. Come here people speak about how we
can start on that project, now!
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
4) Open Letter to the U.S. Antiwar Movement:
An Appeal for Unity
[Bay Area United Against War strongly endorses
this unity statement and encourages all groups to
sign on. If we join forces we can expand this movement into every
community in the nation effectively putting a stop to military
recruitment and demanding an end to the war and to bring all
the troops home immediately. ...Bay Area United Against War
(www.bauaw.org)]
Greetings:
My name is Nancy Wohlforth. I am writing on behalf of United
States Labor Against the War (USLAW), whose Steering Committee
voted to sign "An Appeal to the U.S. Antiwar Movement for United
Demonstrations in the Fall" and to disseminate that Appeal as
widely as possible throughout the movement and to other
concerned groups. (Please see the Appeal below.)
It is our hope that groups opposed to the war will act promptly
in endorsing and signing the Appeal and forwarding it to whatever
lists of potential supporters of the Appeal they have access to.
While our emphasis is, of course, to provide a vehicle for groups
active in the antiwar struggle to voice their support for united
antiwar actions in the fall, we believe it is appropriate -- and
indeed essential -- to reach out to any organization that, whatever
its particular mission might be, agrees that the antiwar cause is
strengthened to the extent that the movement is unified.
Please send notice of endorsements of the Appeal to
or to USLAW's mailing address at
1718 M Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20036. We request
phone numbers of all endorsers.
Our goal is to get many signers to the Appeal by mid-May
and then invite representatives from the various national
antiwar formations to convene together, hopefully in early
June, to decide dates, times and places for united actions
this fall.
We greatly appreciate your support for this undertaking.
In unity,
Nancy Wohlforth
USLAW Co-Convenor
An Appeal to the U.S. Antiwar Movement
for United Demonstrations in the Fall
We think it critical that U.S. antiwar leadership bodies initiate
a call for united national demonstrations in the fall of this year.
Powerful national mobilizations that confront the government
in the streets with hundreds of thousands can be a crucial factor
in bringing the unjust and immoral war against Iraq and the
occupation of that country to an end.
We must remember the truth revealed by the Pentagon Papers:
that mass actions against the Vietnam War were not ignored
by the war makers. Rather, those in power viewed these actions
as manifestations of a potential social upheaval too disruptive
to be left out of their geopolitical calculations. Mass national
actions remain the clearest, most direct means to demonstrate
our opposition to the war and reshape the political landscape.
They are also the type of activity most likely to penetrate the
consciousness of the troops and to assure them that if they
turn against the war, they will be welcomed into the safe
haven of a movement millions strong and ever growing.
Over the past few years, the major antiwar coalitions in this
country, to their great credit, have mobilized hundreds of
thousands of people in the streets. Yet the war and occupation
of Iraq continue, making clear that larger actions are required
to get U.S. troops out of Iraq. No one can dispute the obvious:
a united movement organizing united demonstrations can
generate a larger turnout than the component parts of the
movement can by organizing separately and sometimes
competitively. Nor can anyone doubt that rank-and-file antiwar
activists and their organizations want united actions and that
they expect leaders of the major coalitions to act responsibly
and join together to organize them.
The fall actions will also provide an opportunity for a united
peace movement to address the Iraq war's profound negative
impact here in the United States.
[Endorsers of the above statement will be listed on the USLAW
web site at http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org and the list
will be periodically updated. It is our hope that the major
antiwar coalitions will take note of all the endorsements
and respond positively to a follow-up invitation to attend
a meeting in the near future of representatives from each
group to decide the date, time, locations and other essential
matters for the fall actions.]
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) The Grim Reaper Riding a Firetruck in Iraq
By Steve Fainaru
The Washington Post
Tuesday 19 April 2005
Marines recount dramatic assault at base near Syria.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/041905Z.shtml
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) Resisting the economic war in Iraq
Interview with Hassan Juma ' a Awad, head of Basra Oil Union
By Greg Muttitt of Platform
Corporate Watch Newsletter Issue 21
April/May 2005
http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/newsletter/issue23/part13.htm
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
7) Democrats back Negroponte nomination as new documents
detail role in contra war
By Joseph Kay
19 April 2005
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/apr2005/negr-a19.shtml
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
8) For Workers' Memorial Day 2005
Stop Terrorizing Injured Workers!
Single Payer For All!
www.workersmemorialday.com
http://www.workersmemorialday.com/
Sacramento Capital on West Steps from 11:00 am
to 1:00 PM April 28, 2005
- Buses Leaving from East Bay at SEIU 250-560 20th St.
Oakland April 28, 2005 8:30 AM
- Buses Leaving From San Francisco at 8:30 AM on
April 28, 2005 at Bill Grahm Auditorium on Grove St/Polk
- Buses Leaving From South Bay Labor Temple 8:00 AM on
April 28, 2005
- Please call (415)867-0628 for reservations.
We are requesting a $5.00 reservation fee.
[To download a PDF version of the Workers' Memorial Day
leaflet for distribution to friends and co-workers,
please go to our website at
www.workersmemorialday.com .]
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Injured and disabled workers are under direct attack. As a result
of the deregulation of the California Workers' Comp System,
insurance companies can refuse to care for injured and disabled
workers and are not penalized. The governor and the Democrats
have both passed a bill that destroys our health & safety.
Already injured workers have been unable to get proper medical
care, payments for their housing and their families. Some workers
have committed suicide. We cannot afford to let this continue.
While profits are going up for the insurance billionaires like Buffet,
retraining benefits have been permanently cut and now temporary
workers' comp is limited to two years. The media has ignored and
censored the plight of the injured workers. Instead of exposing
the daily nightmares we face, they are only concerned about the
insurance companies and the employers. Workers' Comp was
established to protect our rights and not the profit of the
insurance companies yet today, they are making a giant profit
off of our misery.
Health and safety on the job is also being threatened. When
workers realize that they will not be receiving care when they
are injured on the job this will create even more of a stressful
and dangerous condition on the job. Every day in California, two
workers die on the job and this is bound to grow unless injured
and disabled workers along with their families and the entire
labor movement stand together now to defend our basic rights.
We need tens of thousands of disabled and injured worker in
Sacramento.
At the same time we believe that all workers should be entitled
to healthcare. We need to push now for single payer in
California and get the insurance companies out of the
healthcare industry!
Please join our organizing committee and we will provide
a speaker and videos for organizing. Also if you can, get your
organization to endorse this.
Buses will leave from SF, the E. Bay and the South Bay
Please send contributions to
California Coalition For Workers Memorial Day
P.O. Box 720027
San Francisco, CA 94172
For more information, (415) 867-0628,
www.workersmemorialday.com
P.O. Box 720027, SF 94172
California Injured Workers Coalition (415) 738-2184
www.injuredworkerscoalition.com
San Francisco - San Francisco Labor Council , (415) 440-4809
info@sflaborcouncil.org
South Bay Area - The Chelsie Group, (408) 347-0331,
billmeyer@chelsiegroup.org
North Bay Area - (707) 795-0783,
fightN4yourlife@aol.com
Sacramento Area - Dina Padilla (916) 725-2673
blndi26@cs.com
Los Angeles Area - Christine Pietz (818) 846-1632
Cpietz@sbcglobal.net
Monterey/Santa Cruz Area - Barri Boone (831) 465-9786,
unmaid@pacific.net
This rally is endorsed by: SF Labor Council, N. Bay Labor
Council, S. Bay Labor Council, ILWU, IBT Jt Council 7, CA
Injured Workers Coalition, Inc., UTLA-AFT1021, SEIU 790,
UAPD/AFSCME, NALC 214, CWA 9423, CWA Dist. Council 9,
CWA 9410, UA 393, SEIU 535 Disability Caucus , ATU1555,
UAW 2244, Sign & Display Union 510, ILWU10, SEIU 415,
BAC 3, AMFA 9, KPFA, KPFA Labor Collective, The Chelsie
Group, Labor Action Coalition (LAC), Million Worker Movement,
Labor Video Project, FACE Intel, Dr. June Fisher, Dr. Larry Rose,
Victims of UPS/Red Thursday Committee, Pushing Limits-KPFA,
Jerome Otis; Pres. N.Cal Chapt. TNBC, Voters Injured at Work.,
Butte County Health Care Coalition, Healthcare
For All-California, WILPF-SC
Resolution From San Francisco Labor
Council Supporting April 28, 2005
http://sflaborcouncil.org/control/assets/12-13-04SptofWrkrsMemorialDay.pdf
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
9) Radical Politics in Modern Ireland -
The History of the Irish Socialist
Republican Party 1896-1904
David Lynch
To Be Published March 2005 |
192 Pages Irish Academic Press 0716533561
The Irish Socialist Republican Party (ISRP) was a party of seminal
importance in the history of radical politics in modern Ireland. The party
was the forerunner and ideological springhead for a political tradition that
has had a significant impact on radical Irish politics ever since.
The ISRP was the first experiment with that powerful, dynamic, yet sometimes
very confused cocktail of traditional republican politics and socialist
principles.
The party produced the first regular socialist paper in Ireland the Workers'
Republic, ran candidates in local elections, represented Ireland at the
Second International, agitated over issues such as the Boer War and the 1798
commemorations. Politically the ISRP was before its time, putting the call
for a independent "Republic" at the centre of its propaganda before Sinn
Fein or others had done so.
This is the first full length study of this important organization. Using
the primary sources available this study delves into the internal politics
and personalities that brought life to the organization. The political
significance of the organization led by James Connolly is also viewed in
both the international and national sphere.
The legacy of the ISRP was to have an impact on the left-wing and republican
movements in Ireland for many decades following it's demise in 1904.
David Lynch is a journalist who lives in Dublin. He has done work for such
publications as Magill, Leinster Leader and The Irish Times.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
10) AVAILABLE NOW!
"FIGHTBACK!" A Collection of Socialist
Essays By Sylvia Weinstein
Published March 2005, 360 pages
ISBN 0-9763570-0-3
Socialist Viewpoint Publishing Association
1380 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
($25.00 plus $5.95 shipping and handling)
With biting wit and deep insight, Sylvia Weinstein's essays read
as if they were written today. Her single-minded devotion to
workers the world over make this collection of essays spanning
the years 1984-2001 a tribute to the power of this class to make
real change in the world.
Her involvement in a wide range of social movements including
the civil rights, antiwar, labor, childcare, pro-choice clinic
defense, defense of the Cuban revolution and women's rights
movement make these essays particularly meaningful lessons
from the voice of personal experience.
She was a powerful speaker who used no notes. Her warm and
"down-home" style put the audience at ease and engaged them.
Her forthright honesty came through, her devotion to the cause
genuine and backed up by early morning clinic defense every
Saturday for years.
The cover of the book shows Sylvia as she gives one of her
brilliant "fund pitches" at an International Woman's Day Rally
in San Francisco. Careful examination of the crowed reveals
the smiles on their faces as she speaks. I can hear her voice
in these essays.
In her own words, "I'm an optimist. I have witnessed the
magnificent powers of workers in struggle for their unions;
women who have defended our clinics against the 'Pro-life
fanatics; Blacks who have fought and won against the most
racist system of Jim Crow; and oppressed people who have
the power to fight and the will to win. If we are united
and know who the real enemy is, we cannot loose!"
(Sylvia Weinstein, 1926-2001.)
This book's a keeper! I am very proud to recommend this book.
Bonnie Weinstein (Sylvia Weinstein was my mother.)
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
11) Support the Right to March in New York City
Emergency Demonstration
Thursday, April 21
1:00 pm
City Hall, NYC
WRITE TO MAYOR BLOOMBERG AND PROTEST
http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html
[Dear Mayor Bloomberg, We demand a permit for the May Day March
organized by the Troops Out Now Coalition and the Million Worker March.
If I could be back there in my place of birth and where I was raised,
Brooklyn, New York, I would march as is my right as a free citizen in
a democratic society-even if we don't live in one. Issue the permit.
Bonnie Weinstein, Bay Area United Against War]
The Bloomberg Administration has refused a permit for the
May Day March organized by the Troops Out Now Coalition
and the Million Worker March. The march, which is
expected to draw thousands of people from all over the
region, will begin with a 1:00 pm rally in Union Square.
In a Tuesday morning meeting between march organizers and
police officials at Manhattan South, Assistant Chief Bruce
Smolka told organizers that they would not allow a march
anywhere, any distance, on any route, on May Day.
Last year, organizers with the Million Worker March issued
a call for a unified May Day demonstration in New York
City. Since that time, both the Million Worker March and
the Troops Out Now Coalition, a group of labor, antiwar
and community activists, have been planning for a rally in
Union Square, followed by a march. Organizers applied for
a permit in November of last year, which gave the city
ample time to prepare.
Now, less than two weeks before the march, the Bloomberg
Administration has said they will refuse to issue a permit
for any march from Union Square. This is part of a
pattern of illegal and unconstitutional political
repression directed at antiwar activists and working
people.
Two years ago, when millions of people all over the world
marched against the war, the Mayor refused to allow a
march in New York City. During the Republican National
Convention, he refused to allow a peaceful rally in
Central Park. Throughout the week of the Convention, the
Bloomberg Administration and the NYPD engaged in illegal
mass arrests and detentions. In prosecuting those
arrested, they used perjured testimony and altered
videotape to press fabricated charges.
Our basic rights--the right to free speech, the right to
assemble, the right to express dissenting political
views--are under attack. Please join us to defend these
rights. Call, fax, or email Mayor Bloomberg and tell him
you support the right to march on May Day. Then join us
for an emergency demonstration on Thursday at 1:00 pm at
City Hall.
Working people have the right to speak out and to march
for better wages, for education, for healthcare, and
against the war--especially on May Day, which is
International Workers Day.
The permitted rally in Union Square is scheduled to go
ahead as planned, and organizers are determined to
exercise their right to march.
What you can do:
Contact Mayor Bloomberg
***********************
Phone: (212) 788-3000
Fax: (212) 788-2460
E-Mail: http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html
Call the NYPD
Nicolas Estavillo, Chief of Patrol for NYC
Phone: 646-610-6734
Join us for an emergency demonstration at City Hall
Thursday, April 21, 1:00 pm
Donate to help with expenses
http://www.troopsoutnow.org/donate.html
http://www.TroopsOutNow.org
Anyone can subscribe.
Send an email request to
Action.News-subscribe@organizerweb.com
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
12) California workers protest cuts
By J. Marquardt
San Francisco
Published Apr 14, 2005 9:57 PM
http://www.workers.org/2005/us/california-0421/
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
13) Please Forword - ATTENTION NEW YORKERS!
Join Latin's For Mumia and others to stop the legal
lynching of brother Mumia Abu-Jamal!
Saturday April 23, 2005 in Harlem, New York City.
1pm: Rally and March starting at the
Harlem State Office Building at
163 West 125th Street.
3pm: Salem United Methodist Church at
129th Street and 7th Avenue
Free Mumia Abu-Jamal and All Political Prisoners! Stop the Racist
Death Penalty! No Military Recruiters on our Campuses!
Stop the War(s)!
The link to the flier is below, spread the word.
http://www.freemumia.net/images/04-23-05Harlem.pdf
Carlos Rovira - "Carlito"
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
It's a very simple problem. You can buy a jet plane of your
own, or you can buy a president." Kurt Vonnegut
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Teachers and School Districts
to Sue Over Education Law
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON
Filed at 11:43 a.m. ET
April 20, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Education-
Lawsuit.html?hp&ex=1114056000&en=ca5a6a0cd85ce48c&ei=5094&partner=home
page
2) Utah Vote Rejects Parts
of Education Law
By SAM DILLON
Published: April 20, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/20/national/20child.html?
3) ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
A forum on standing up for civil rights in the Bayview:
Speaking:
Barbara Becnel (advocate for Stan Tookie Williams)
Sandra-Juanita Cooper (Campaign to
End the Death Penalty/Bayview Chapter)
Minister Christopher Mohammed (Nation of Islam/SF)
mesha monge - IRIZARRY (Idriss Stelley Foundation)
Charlene Smythe (Green Party/Bayview resident)
Mary Bull (Green Earth Alliance)
SATURDAY April 30th, 7:00 PM Bayview Opera House
4705 3rd Street, SF (Between Oakdale and Newcomb)
with Entertainment by: COLORED INK & LOCO BLOCO Snacks
and refreshments provided Sponsored by Campaign to
End the Death Penalty, Idriss Stelley Foundation,
D.O.K.T.A. Cooper's Community Networking Project
PG&E is spitting out toxins that give our children asthma,
police harass and even gun down innocent people and get
a slap on the wrist (if that), Governor Schwarzenegger
is planning on spending over $200 million to refurbish
San Quentins death row while cutting school budgets
across the state, and California plans on executing five
time Nobel peace prize nominee, Stan Williams, (an innocent
man on death row) who has done more to effectively lead
kids away from gangs and violence than any single person
in California. Enough is Enough! More than ever, we need
to build a new civil rights movement. Come here people
speak about how we can start on that project, now!
4) Open Letter to the U.S. Antiwar Movement:
An Appeal for Unity
[Bay Area United Against War strongly endorses
this unity statement and encourages all groups to
sign on. If we join forces we can expand this movement into
every community in the nation effectively putting a stop
to military recruitment and demanding an end to the war and
to bring all the troops home immediately.
...Bay Area United Against War (www.bauaw.org)]
5) The Grim Reaper Riding a Firetruck in Iraq
By Steve Fainaru
The Washington Post
Tuesday 19 April 2005
Marines recount dramatic assault at base near Syria.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/041905Z.shtml
6) Resisting the economic war in Iraq
Interview with Hassan Juma ' a Awad, head of Basra Oil Union
By Greg Muttitt of Platform
Corporate Watch Newsletter Issue 21
April/May 2005
http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/newsletter/issue23/part13.htm
7) Democrats back Negroponte nomination as new documents
detail role in contra war
By Joseph Kay
19 April 2005
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/apr2005/negr-a19.shtml
8) For Workers' Memorial Day 2005
Stop Terrorizing Injured Workers!
Single Payer For All!
www.workersmemorialday.com
http://www.workersmemorialday.com/
9) Radical Politics in Modern Ireland -
The History of the Irish Socialist
Republican Party 1896-1904
David Lynch
To Be Published March 2005 |
192 Pages Irish Academic Press 0716533561
10) AVAILABLE NOW!
"FIGHTBACK!" A Collection of Socialist
Essays By Sylvia Weinstein
Published March 2005, 360 pages
ISBN 0-9763570-0-3
Socialist Viewpoint Publishing Association
1380 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
($25.00 plus $5.95 shipping and handling)
11) Support the Right to March in New York City
Emergency Demonstration
Thursday, April 21
1:00 pm
City Hall, NYC
WRITE TO MAYOR BLOOMBERG AND PROTEST
http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html
12) California workers protest cuts
By J. Marquardt
San Francisco
Published Apr 14, 2005 9:57 PM
http://www.workers.org/2005/us/california-0421/
13) Please Forword - ATTENTION NEW YORKERS!
Join Latin's For Mumia and others to stop the legal
lynching of brother Mumia Abu-Jamal!
Saturday April 23, 2005 in Harlem, New York City.
1pm: Rally and March starting at the
Harlem State Office Building at
163 West 125th Street.
3pm: Salem United Methodist Church at
129th Street and 7th Avenue
Free Mumia Abu-Jamal and All Political Prisoners! Stop the Racist
Death Penalty! No Military Recruiters on our Campuses!
Stop the War(s)!
The link to the flier is below, spread the word.
http://www.freemumia.net/images/04-23-05Harlem.pdf
Carlos Rovira - "Carlito"
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Teachers and School Districts
to Sue Over Education Law
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON
Filed at 11:43 a.m. ET
April 20, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Education-
Lawsuit.html?hp&ex=1114056000&en=ca5a6a0cd85ce48c&ei=5094&partner=home
page
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The nation's largest teachers union and school
districts in three states are launching a legal fight over No Child Left
Behind, aiming to free schools from complying with any part of the
education law not paid for by the federal government.
The lawsuit, expected to be filed Wednesday in the U.S. District
Court for eastern Michigan, is the most sweeping challenge to
President Bush's signature education policy. The outcome would
apply only to the districts involved but could have implications
for all schools nationwide.
Leading the fight is the National Education Association, a union
of 2.7 million members that represents many public educators
and is financing the lawsuit. The other plaintiffs are nine school
districts in Michigan, Texas and Vermont, plus 10 NEA chapters
in those three states and Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana,
New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Utah.
Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, as the chief officer
of the agency that enforces the law, is the only defendant.
The suit centers on a question that has overshadowed the law
since Bush signed it in 2002: whether the president and Congress
have provided enough money.
The challenge is built upon one paragraph in the law that says
no state or school district can be forced to spend its money on
expenses the federal government has not covered.
''What it means is just what it says -- that you don't have to
do anything this law requires unless you receive federal funds
to do it,'' said NEA general counsel Bob Chanin.
''We want the Department of Education to simply do what
Congress told it to do. There's a promise in that law, it's
unambiguous, and it's not being complied with.''
The plaintiffs want a judge to order that states and schools don't
have to spend their own money to pay for the law's expenses
-- and order the Education Department not to try to yank federal
money from a state or school that refuses to comply based
on those grounds.
Spending on No Child Left Behind programs has increased
40 percent since Bush took office, from $17.4 billion to
$24.4 billion, federal figures show. The Bush administration
has repeatedly said schools have enough money to make
the law work.
Yet the suit accuses the government of shortchanging schools
by at least $27 billion, the difference between the amount
Congress authorized and what it has spent. The shortfall
is even larger, the suit says, if the figures include all promised
funding for poor children.
The suit, citing a series of cost studies, outlines billions
of dollars in expenses to meet the law's mandates. They include
the costs of adding yearly testing; getting all children up
to grade level in reading and math, and ensuring teachers
are highly qualified.
To cover those costs, the suit says, states have shifted money
away from such other priorities as foreign languages, art and
smaller classes. The money gap has hurt schools' ability to
meet progress goals, which in turn has damaged their
reputations, the suit says.
Plaintiffs include the Pontiac School District in Michigan, the
Laredo Independent School District in Laredo, Texas; the
Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union in Brandon, Vt.; and six
of the school districts that are part of Rutland Northeast in
south central Vermont.
The NEA promised to bring the suit almost two years ago and
began recruiting states to be plaintiffs. But the union found
no takers -- in part because states had no firm cost estimates,
and in part because states were wary of the political fallout
of suing the federal government.
More than a dozen states, however, are considering anti-No
Child Left Behind legislation this year. On Tuesday, the Utah
Legislature passed a measure giving state education standards
priority over federal ones imposed by No Child Left Behind.
The school districts involved in the lawsuit give the NEA the
diversity it wanted, from rural Vermont students to limited-English
learners in Laredo to poor students in Pontiac. In the suit,
Spellings is accused of violating both the education law and
the spending clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The NEA and the Bush administration have had a testy
relationship.
When the union first promised the lawsuit, then-Education
Secretary Rod Paige accused the NEA of putting together a
''coalition of the whining.'' He later referred to the NEA as a
''terrorist organization'' for the way it opposed the law,
a comment for which he later apologized.
On the Net:
National Education Association: http://www.nea.org
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) Utah Vote Rejects Parts
of Education Law
By SAM DILLON
Published: April 20, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/20/national/20child.html?
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
A forum on standing up for civil rights in the Bayview:
Speaking:
Barbara Becnel (advocate for Stan Tookie Williams)
Sandra-Juanita Cooper (Campaign to End the
Death Penalty/Bayview Chapter)
Minister Christopher Mohammed (Nation of Islam/SF)
mesha monge - IRIZARRY (Idriss Stelley Foundation)
Charlene Smythe (Green Party/Bayview resident)
Mary Bull (Green Earth Alliance)
SATURDAY April 30th, 7:00 PM Bayview Opera House
4705 3rd Street, SF (Between Oakdale and Newcomb)
with Entertainment by: COLORED INK & LOCO BLOCO Snacks
and refreshments provided Sponsored by Campaign to End
the Death Penalty, Idriss Stelley Foundation, D.O.K.T.A.
Cooper's Community Networking Project
PG&E is spitting out toxins that give our children asthma,
police harass and even gun down innocent people and get
a slap on the wrist (if that), Governor Schwarzenegger
is planning on spending over $200 million to refurbish
San Quentins death row while cutting school budgets
across the state, and California plans on executing five
time Nobel peace prize nominee, Stan Williams, (an
innocent man on death row) who has done more to
effectively lead kids away from gangs and violence
than any single person in California. Enough is Enough!
More than ever, we need to build a new civil rights
movement. Come here people speak about how we
can start on that project, now!
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
4) Open Letter to the U.S. Antiwar Movement:
An Appeal for Unity
[Bay Area United Against War strongly endorses
this unity statement and encourages all groups to
sign on. If we join forces we can expand this movement into every
community in the nation effectively putting a stop to military
recruitment and demanding an end to the war and to bring all
the troops home immediately. ...Bay Area United Against War
(www.bauaw.org)]
Greetings:
My name is Nancy Wohlforth. I am writing on behalf of United
States Labor Against the War (USLAW), whose Steering Committee
voted to sign "An Appeal to the U.S. Antiwar Movement for United
Demonstrations in the Fall" and to disseminate that Appeal as
widely as possible throughout the movement and to other
concerned groups. (Please see the Appeal below.)
It is our hope that groups opposed to the war will act promptly
in endorsing and signing the Appeal and forwarding it to whatever
lists of potential supporters of the Appeal they have access to.
While our emphasis is, of course, to provide a vehicle for groups
active in the antiwar struggle to voice their support for united
antiwar actions in the fall, we believe it is appropriate -- and
indeed essential -- to reach out to any organization that, whatever
its particular mission might be, agrees that the antiwar cause is
strengthened to the extent that the movement is unified.
Please send notice of endorsements of the Appeal to
1718 M Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20036. We request
phone numbers of all endorsers.
Our goal is to get many signers to the Appeal by mid-May
and then invite representatives from the various national
antiwar formations to convene together, hopefully in early
June, to decide dates, times and places for united actions
this fall.
We greatly appreciate your support for this undertaking.
In unity,
Nancy Wohlforth
USLAW Co-Convenor
An Appeal to the U.S. Antiwar Movement
for United Demonstrations in the Fall
We think it critical that U.S. antiwar leadership bodies initiate
a call for united national demonstrations in the fall of this year.
Powerful national mobilizations that confront the government
in the streets with hundreds of thousands can be a crucial factor
in bringing the unjust and immoral war against Iraq and the
occupation of that country to an end.
We must remember the truth revealed by the Pentagon Papers:
that mass actions against the Vietnam War were not ignored
by the war makers. Rather, those in power viewed these actions
as manifestations of a potential social upheaval too disruptive
to be left out of their geopolitical calculations. Mass national
actions remain the clearest, most direct means to demonstrate
our opposition to the war and reshape the political landscape.
They are also the type of activity most likely to penetrate the
consciousness of the troops and to assure them that if they
turn against the war, they will be welcomed into the safe
haven of a movement millions strong and ever growing.
Over the past few years, the major antiwar coalitions in this
country, to their great credit, have mobilized hundreds of
thousands of people in the streets. Yet the war and occupation
of Iraq continue, making clear that larger actions are required
to get U.S. troops out of Iraq. No one can dispute the obvious:
a united movement organizing united demonstrations can
generate a larger turnout than the component parts of the
movement can by organizing separately and sometimes
competitively. Nor can anyone doubt that rank-and-file antiwar
activists and their organizations want united actions and that
they expect leaders of the major coalitions to act responsibly
and join together to organize them.
The fall actions will also provide an opportunity for a united
peace movement to address the Iraq war's profound negative
impact here in the United States.
[Endorsers of the above statement will be listed on the USLAW
web site at http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org and the list
will be periodically updated. It is our hope that the major
antiwar coalitions will take note of all the endorsements
and respond positively to a follow-up invitation to attend
a meeting in the near future of representatives from each
group to decide the date, time, locations and other essential
matters for the fall actions.]
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) The Grim Reaper Riding a Firetruck in Iraq
By Steve Fainaru
The Washington Post
Tuesday 19 April 2005
Marines recount dramatic assault at base near Syria.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/041905Z.shtml
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) Resisting the economic war in Iraq
Interview with Hassan Juma ' a Awad, head of Basra Oil Union
By Greg Muttitt of Platform
Corporate Watch Newsletter Issue 21
April/May 2005
http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/newsletter/issue23/part13.htm
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
7) Democrats back Negroponte nomination as new documents
detail role in contra war
By Joseph Kay
19 April 2005
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/apr2005/negr-a19.shtml
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
8) For Workers' Memorial Day 2005
Stop Terrorizing Injured Workers!
Single Payer For All!
www.workersmemorialday.com
http://www.workersmemorialday.com/
Sacramento Capital on West Steps from 11:00 am
to 1:00 PM April 28, 2005
- Buses Leaving from East Bay at SEIU 250-560 20th St.
Oakland April 28, 2005 8:30 AM
- Buses Leaving From San Francisco at 8:30 AM on
April 28, 2005 at Bill Grahm Auditorium on Grove St/Polk
- Buses Leaving From South Bay Labor Temple 8:00 AM on
April 28, 2005
- Please call (415)867-0628 for reservations.
We are requesting a $5.00 reservation fee.
[To download a PDF version of the Workers' Memorial Day
leaflet for distribution to friends and co-workers,
please go to our website at
www.workersmemorialday.com .]
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Injured and disabled workers are under direct attack. As a result
of the deregulation of the California Workers' Comp System,
insurance companies can refuse to care for injured and disabled
workers and are not penalized. The governor and the Democrats
have both passed a bill that destroys our health & safety.
Already injured workers have been unable to get proper medical
care, payments for their housing and their families. Some workers
have committed suicide. We cannot afford to let this continue.
While profits are going up for the insurance billionaires like Buffet,
retraining benefits have been permanently cut and now temporary
workers' comp is limited to two years. The media has ignored and
censored the plight of the injured workers. Instead of exposing
the daily nightmares we face, they are only concerned about the
insurance companies and the employers. Workers' Comp was
established to protect our rights and not the profit of the
insurance companies yet today, they are making a giant profit
off of our misery.
Health and safety on the job is also being threatened. When
workers realize that they will not be receiving care when they
are injured on the job this will create even more of a stressful
and dangerous condition on the job. Every day in California, two
workers die on the job and this is bound to grow unless injured
and disabled workers along with their families and the entire
labor movement stand together now to defend our basic rights.
We need tens of thousands of disabled and injured worker in
Sacramento.
At the same time we believe that all workers should be entitled
to healthcare. We need to push now for single payer in
California and get the insurance companies out of the
healthcare industry!
Please join our organizing committee and we will provide
a speaker and videos for organizing. Also if you can, get your
organization to endorse this.
Buses will leave from SF, the E. Bay and the South Bay
Please send contributions to
California Coalition For Workers Memorial Day
P.O. Box 720027
San Francisco, CA 94172
For more information, (415) 867-0628,
www.workersmemorialday.com
P.O. Box 720027, SF 94172
California Injured Workers Coalition (415) 738-2184
www.injuredworkerscoalition.com
San Francisco - San Francisco Labor Council , (415) 440-4809
info@sflaborcouncil.org
South Bay Area - The Chelsie Group, (408) 347-0331,
billmeyer@chelsiegroup.org
North Bay Area - (707) 795-0783,
fightN4yourlife@aol.com
Sacramento Area - Dina Padilla (916) 725-2673
blndi26@cs.com
Los Angeles Area - Christine Pietz (818) 846-1632
Cpietz@sbcglobal.net
Monterey/Santa Cruz Area - Barri Boone (831) 465-9786,
unmaid@pacific.net
This rally is endorsed by: SF Labor Council, N. Bay Labor
Council, S. Bay Labor Council, ILWU, IBT Jt Council 7, CA
Injured Workers Coalition, Inc., UTLA-AFT1021, SEIU 790,
UAPD/AFSCME, NALC 214, CWA 9423, CWA Dist. Council 9,
CWA 9410, UA 393, SEIU 535 Disability Caucus , ATU1555,
UAW 2244, Sign & Display Union 510, ILWU10, SEIU 415,
BAC 3, AMFA 9, KPFA, KPFA Labor Collective, The Chelsie
Group, Labor Action Coalition (LAC), Million Worker Movement,
Labor Video Project, FACE Intel, Dr. June Fisher, Dr. Larry Rose,
Victims of UPS/Red Thursday Committee, Pushing Limits-KPFA,
Jerome Otis; Pres. N.Cal Chapt. TNBC, Voters Injured at Work.,
Butte County Health Care Coalition, Healthcare
For All-California, WILPF-SC
Resolution From San Francisco Labor
Council Supporting April 28, 2005
http://sflaborcouncil.org/control/assets/12-13-04SptofWrkrsMemorialDay.pdf
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
9) Radical Politics in Modern Ireland -
The History of the Irish Socialist
Republican Party 1896-1904
David Lynch
To Be Published March 2005 |
192 Pages Irish Academic Press 0716533561
The Irish Socialist Republican Party (ISRP) was a party of seminal
importance in the history of radical politics in modern Ireland. The party
was the forerunner and ideological springhead for a political tradition that
has had a significant impact on radical Irish politics ever since.
The ISRP was the first experiment with that powerful, dynamic, yet sometimes
very confused cocktail of traditional republican politics and socialist
principles.
The party produced the first regular socialist paper in Ireland the Workers'
Republic, ran candidates in local elections, represented Ireland at the
Second International, agitated over issues such as the Boer War and the 1798
commemorations. Politically the ISRP was before its time, putting the call
for a independent "Republic" at the centre of its propaganda before Sinn
Fein or others had done so.
This is the first full length study of this important organization. Using
the primary sources available this study delves into the internal politics
and personalities that brought life to the organization. The political
significance of the organization led by James Connolly is also viewed in
both the international and national sphere.
The legacy of the ISRP was to have an impact on the left-wing and republican
movements in Ireland for many decades following it's demise in 1904.
David Lynch is a journalist who lives in Dublin. He has done work for such
publications as Magill, Leinster Leader and The Irish Times.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
10) AVAILABLE NOW!
"FIGHTBACK!" A Collection of Socialist
Essays By Sylvia Weinstein
Published March 2005, 360 pages
ISBN 0-9763570-0-3
Socialist Viewpoint Publishing Association
1380 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
($25.00 plus $5.95 shipping and handling)
With biting wit and deep insight, Sylvia Weinstein's essays read
as if they were written today. Her single-minded devotion to
workers the world over make this collection of essays spanning
the years 1984-2001 a tribute to the power of this class to make
real change in the world.
Her involvement in a wide range of social movements including
the civil rights, antiwar, labor, childcare, pro-choice clinic
defense, defense of the Cuban revolution and women's rights
movement make these essays particularly meaningful lessons
from the voice of personal experience.
She was a powerful speaker who used no notes. Her warm and
"down-home" style put the audience at ease and engaged them.
Her forthright honesty came through, her devotion to the cause
genuine and backed up by early morning clinic defense every
Saturday for years.
The cover of the book shows Sylvia as she gives one of her
brilliant "fund pitches" at an International Woman's Day Rally
in San Francisco. Careful examination of the crowed reveals
the smiles on their faces as she speaks. I can hear her voice
in these essays.
In her own words, "I'm an optimist. I have witnessed the
magnificent powers of workers in struggle for their unions;
women who have defended our clinics against the 'Pro-life
fanatics; Blacks who have fought and won against the most
racist system of Jim Crow; and oppressed people who have
the power to fight and the will to win. If we are united
and know who the real enemy is, we cannot loose!"
(Sylvia Weinstein, 1926-2001.)
This book's a keeper! I am very proud to recommend this book.
Bonnie Weinstein (Sylvia Weinstein was my mother.)
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
11) Support the Right to March in New York City
Emergency Demonstration
Thursday, April 21
1:00 pm
City Hall, NYC
WRITE TO MAYOR BLOOMBERG AND PROTEST
http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html
[Dear Mayor Bloomberg, We demand a permit for the May Day March
organized by the Troops Out Now Coalition and the Million Worker March.
If I could be back there in my place of birth and where I was raised,
Brooklyn, New York, I would march as is my right as a free citizen in
a democratic society-even if we don't live in one. Issue the permit.
Bonnie Weinstein, Bay Area United Against War]
The Bloomberg Administration has refused a permit for the
May Day March organized by the Troops Out Now Coalition
and the Million Worker March. The march, which is
expected to draw thousands of people from all over the
region, will begin with a 1:00 pm rally in Union Square.
In a Tuesday morning meeting between march organizers and
police officials at Manhattan South, Assistant Chief Bruce
Smolka told organizers that they would not allow a march
anywhere, any distance, on any route, on May Day.
Last year, organizers with the Million Worker March issued
a call for a unified May Day demonstration in New York
City. Since that time, both the Million Worker March and
the Troops Out Now Coalition, a group of labor, antiwar
and community activists, have been planning for a rally in
Union Square, followed by a march. Organizers applied for
a permit in November of last year, which gave the city
ample time to prepare.
Now, less than two weeks before the march, the Bloomberg
Administration has said they will refuse to issue a permit
for any march from Union Square. This is part of a
pattern of illegal and unconstitutional political
repression directed at antiwar activists and working
people.
Two years ago, when millions of people all over the world
marched against the war, the Mayor refused to allow a
march in New York City. During the Republican National
Convention, he refused to allow a peaceful rally in
Central Park. Throughout the week of the Convention, the
Bloomberg Administration and the NYPD engaged in illegal
mass arrests and detentions. In prosecuting those
arrested, they used perjured testimony and altered
videotape to press fabricated charges.
Our basic rights--the right to free speech, the right to
assemble, the right to express dissenting political
views--are under attack. Please join us to defend these
rights. Call, fax, or email Mayor Bloomberg and tell him
you support the right to march on May Day. Then join us
for an emergency demonstration on Thursday at 1:00 pm at
City Hall.
Working people have the right to speak out and to march
for better wages, for education, for healthcare, and
against the war--especially on May Day, which is
International Workers Day.
The permitted rally in Union Square is scheduled to go
ahead as planned, and organizers are determined to
exercise their right to march.
What you can do:
Contact Mayor Bloomberg
***********************
Phone: (212) 788-3000
Fax: (212) 788-2460
E-Mail: http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html
Call the NYPD
Nicolas Estavillo, Chief of Patrol for NYC
Phone: 646-610-6734
Join us for an emergency demonstration at City Hall
Thursday, April 21, 1:00 pm
Donate to help with expenses
http://www.troopsoutnow.org/donate.html
http://www.TroopsOutNow.org
Anyone can subscribe.
Send an email request to
Action.News-subscribe@organizerweb.com
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
12) California workers protest cuts
By J. Marquardt
San Francisco
Published Apr 14, 2005 9:57 PM
http://www.workers.org/2005/us/california-0421/
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
13) Please Forword - ATTENTION NEW YORKERS!
Join Latin's For Mumia and others to stop the legal
lynching of brother Mumia Abu-Jamal!
Saturday April 23, 2005 in Harlem, New York City.
1pm: Rally and March starting at the
Harlem State Office Building at
163 West 125th Street.
3pm: Salem United Methodist Church at
129th Street and 7th Avenue
Free Mumia Abu-Jamal and All Political Prisoners! Stop the Racist
Death Penalty! No Military Recruiters on our Campuses!
Stop the War(s)!
The link to the flier is below, spread the word.
http://www.freemumia.net/images/04-23-05Harlem.pdf
Carlos Rovira - "Carlito"
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Monday, April 18, 2005
BAUAW NEWSLETTER - MONDAY, APRIL 18, 2005
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
FROM THE HORSE'S MOUTH:
LEARN MORE ABOUT JROTC go to:
http://www.jrotc.org/
Do you think they help enlistment?
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
LYNNE STEWART WILL BE FEATURED SPEAKER
AT THE MASS RALLY FOR MUMIA ABU JAMAL,
2 P.M., SUNDAY APRIL 24
AT MISSION HIGH SCHOOL (18TH & DOLORES, SF)
Sunday, April 24: Lynne will be the featured speaker at a 2 pm
Mission High School mass rally (18th and Dolores) for Mumia
Abu-Jamal.
The rally includes a concert by Michael Franti. Pam Africa
will also speak as well as Mumia's lead counsel, Robert R. Bryan and
Bay Area National Lawyers Guild Executive Director, Carlos
Villarreal. This will be the main event of Lynne's tour. Mumia will
record greeting for the rally.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Benefit for Military Resisters
and Iraq Veterans Against the War
Old-Time Square Dance with LIVE Music! Saturday, April 30, 2005
Potrero Hill Neighborhood House
953 De Haro St., San Francisco
(at 22nd St. overlooking SF General Hospital)
Social & Introductions: 6 pm - 7:30 pm
Dance: 7:30 pm - 11 pm
$10-$30 sliding scale / $5 students
FEATURING
The Stairwell Sisters
http://www.stairwellsisters.com
with calling by Evie Ladin
"wild, hard dance music...infectious" - Oakland Tribune
AND
The Squirrelly Stringband
http://www.spectacularopticals.com/SQUIRRELLY.swf
The Bernal Hill Stringband and other special guests!
2) Escalation of the Attacks on Free Speech at
San Francisco State University
From: kyeaw@sfsu.edu
*****Please Forward Widely*****
3) Rural Chinese Riot as Police Try to Halt Pollution Protest
By JIM YARDLEY
April 14, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/14/international/asia/14riot.html
4) Pentagon's War Spending Hard to Track - Watchdog
Thu Apr 14, 2005 08:51 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=8181342&src=eDialog/GetContent
5) Suit Details Abuse Allegations at Guantanamo
Thu Apr 14, 2005 07:54 AM ET
The suit said guards once entered Ait Idir's cell, secured
his hands behind his back and "picked him up and slammed his
body and his head into the steel bunk in his cell." ...The
guards escalated the beating, the suit stated. "The guards
picked him up again, stuffed Mr. Ait Idir's face in the toilet
and repeatedly pressed the flush button. Mr. Ait Idir was
starting to suffocate and he feared he would drown," it said.
...After removing him from the cell, it added, "They held him
down and pushed a garden hose into his mouth. They opened the
spigot. As the water rushed in, Mr. Ait Idir began to choke.
The water was coming out of his mouth and nose."
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=8180557&src=eDialog/GetContent
6) Yale, Columbia Grad Students to Strike
By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Graduate students at Yale and Columbia
Universities approved strikes Wednesday to try to force
administrators to recognize their right to unionize.
Wed Apr 13,10:53 PM ET
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050414/ap_on_re_us/ivy_league_strike_1
7) You Can't Be All That You Can Be If You're Dead
By Mike Rhodes
April 13, 2005
http://www.indybay.org/print.php?id=1732939
8) 'Hysterical' Corby must wait another week
By Matthew Moore and AAP
April 14, 2005 - 6:36PM
She had been due to learn today if prosecutors would
recommend she face the death penalty if found guilty
of smugging 4.1kg of cannabis found inside her unlocked
bodyboard bag last October.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/04/14/1113251710672.html?oneclick=true#
9) STONEWALL TO CITY HALL: lessons from gay liberation politics
with Gwenn Craig, Merle Woo and Tommi Avicolli Mecca
Thursday, APRIL 21, 7-9pm:
Noe Valley Ministry, 1025 Sanchez
10) PROTEST TO FREE ALL PALESTINIAN POLITICAL PRISONERS
MONDAY, APRIL 18, noon - 1:00 p.m.
Bay Area Red Cross Office, 85 Second Street, San Francisco
This action called by the Justice In Palestine Coalition in
solidarity with 100s of actions to be held around the world that day
For info Kate 510-381-1287 katrap@mindspring.com
11) YOUR SUPPORT, PRESENCE, VOICE, and SENTIMENTS NEEDED!
MILITARY RECRUITERS OUT OF WATSONVILLE HIGH!
STOP THE POVERTY and LATINO DRAFT!!!
COUNTER-RECRUITMENT RALLIES
Tuesday April 19th, 9:30am-12:15pm
Wednesday, April 20th, 9:30-12:15pm
Watsonville Vets Hall
12) *Protest Against Military Recruiters*
Thursday, April 21st * 10:30 am
The Fountain on Sproul Plaza, UC Berkeley
13) A Dirty Little Footnote
to the Energy Bill
By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO
April 15, 2005
"The question is who will pay for the cleanup. United Water,
a subsidiary of Suez S.A. , has sued the manufacturers of MTBE
[methyl tertiary butyl ether], to recover its costs. And as
hundreds of communities from coast to coast are finding the
additive in their water systems, the issue of paying for the
cleanup is becoming increasingly contentious."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/15/business/15pollute.html
14) School Pools, Now Dry Storage
By ELISSA GOOTMAN
Published: April 14, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/14/nyregion/14pool.html
15) Study Finds Shortcoming in
New Law on Education
By GREG WINTER
Published: April 13, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/13/national/13child.html
16) AFL-CIO EXECUTIVE PAYWATCH
Great new web site!
"Every year, shareholders and America' s workers learn of new
jaw-dropping executive compensation packages that seemingly
defy rational explanation. In 2004, the average CEO of a major
company received $9.84 million in total compensation, according
to The New York Times."...and more. Go to:
http://www.aflcio.org/corporateamerica/paywatch/
17) Student's Arrest at G.O.P.
Convention Puts His Life in Limbo
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
Published: April 15, 2005
Videos Shed New Light on Convention Arrests
New video evidence has led prosecutors to drop charges
against many protestors arrested during the Republican
Convention. Jim Dwyer, a reporter for The Times, narrates
a look at some of the footage.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/15/nyregion/15tape.html
18) RNC demonstrators
settle contempt of court
claims against NYC
By SAMUEL MAULL
Associated Press Writer
April 15, 2005, 2:58 PM EDT
http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--conventionarrests0415apr15,0,3633451.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork
19) A Deal for Jet Fighters
Opens the Door to India
By LESLIE WAYNE
Published: April 16, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/16/business/worldbusiness/16plane.html?ei=5094&en=8a405b021c535ca8&hp=&ex=1113710400&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1113671069-QWEfGr/5yZmdox2dO9WBBQ
20) For Women in Sciences,
Slow Progress in Academia
By SARA RIMER
Published: April 15, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/15/education/15women.html?
21) Urgent Alert - Take Action Now!
Stop the terrorist Luis Posada Carriles
from gaining asylum in the United States
Support Venezuela and Cuba's demands on Bush
to extradite the murderer Luis Posada to Venezuela.
Tell George W. Bush and Congress:
No asylum for the fascist criminal in the United States!
The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition has set-up an easy-to-use way to
send Bush and Congress a message. Use the link below to tell them:
"No safe-haven for the terrorist Posada in the U.S."
22) INTERVIEWS: 'Racism is a key motivating factor in the war'
(Aidan Delgado)
[Aidan Delgado is former Army reservist, honorably discharged as a
conscientious objector, who is the son of a U.S. diplomat and has lived in
Thailand, Senegal, and Egypt. -- Thanks to seven years spent in Cairo, he
became fluent in Arabic and gained considerable familiarity with Arab culture.
-- As an Army Reservist, Delgado served in the 320th Military Police
Company; he spent twelve months in Iraq, six of them at Abu Ghraib prison. --
A number of pieces on Delgado follow: -- (1) A long interview conducted by
Paul Rockwell and posted on the web site Black Commentator, in which Delgado
describes widespread officially tolerated anti-Arab racism both in military
training and in the conduct of operations in Iraq, and asks: "Have we
overcome racism in the sense that blacks and whites are banded together in the
hatred of Arabs?" -- (2) A piece from UCLA's *Daily Bruin* in January. --
(3) An interview conducted by Oakland attorney Scott Fleming, published in LiP
magazine and widely reproduced elsewhere, in which Delgado says of his time in
the military: "It made me really unpopular, the radical notion that you
should treat Arabs or Iraqis as human being"; Delgado also explains how he
overcame his initial reluctance to speak out about his experiences. --Mark]
http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/2612/
Think Piece
NEW REVELATIONS ABOUT RACISM IN THE MILITARY
By Paul Rockwell
Black Commentator
April 7, 2005
http://www.blackcommentator.com/133/133_think_racism_military.html
23) MILITARY OUTREACH IS NECESSARY,
BUT SCHOOLS MUST TAKE CARE
TO SET LIMITS
We want you -- within reason
San Jose Mercury
Mercury News Editorial
Posted on Thursday, Apr. 14, 2005
http://thinkfirst.peacework.us/articles/CounterRecruiting-Editorial-M2005m0414.html
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/11390961.htm
24) Climate change wreaking havoc with seasons
By Matthew Beard
15 April 2005
Climate change is playing havoc with the timing of the
seasons and could drastically alter the landscape, according
to one of the most comprehensive studies of its kind.
Frogs have begun spawning in Britain as early as October, oaks
are coming into leaf three weeks earlier than they were
50 years ago and there were an unprecedented 4,000 sightings
of bumblebees by the end of January this year.
Scientists, who also noted that people were mowing their
lawns earlier, have concluded that spring now arrives ahead
of schedule.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=629530
25) U.S. cuts Sec. 8 housing subsidy
Bay Area rents, aid voucher values decline
Ilene Lelchuk, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, April 18, 2005
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/04/18/BAG7KCAJHS1.DTL
26) "By putting my weapon down, I chose to reassert myself
as a human being."
On May 1, 2, and 4th, Camilo Mejía, the first Iraq war
veteran to file for discharge from the army as a conscientious
objector, and who spent a year in the stockade for his
courageous stance, is coming to the Bay Area. He will be
making appearances in San Jose, Palo Alto, Oakland, and Santa
Cruz at events co-sponsored by Veterans for Peace, KPFA &
many other groups:
· San Jose, Sunday, May 1, 2 pm, at St. Paul‚s United
Methodist Church 405 S 10th, co-sponsored by South-Bay Mobilization.
· Palo Alto, Sunday, May 1, 7 pm, at Unitarian Church
at Charleston and Middlefield, co-sponsored by Peninsula Peace
and Justice Center.
· Oakland, Monday, May 2, 7 pm, 1st Congregational
Church, 27th at Harrison.
· Santa Cruz, Wednesday, May 4th, 7 pm, Veterans Building
846 Front Street, co-sponsored by Resource Center for
Non-Violence and VFW Bill Motto Post 5888.
27) Detroit crisis leads to call:
Feed the cities, starve the Pentagon
By Cheryl LaBash
Detroit
Published Apr 14, 2005 11:35 PM
http://www.workers.org/2005/us/detroit-0421/
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Benefit for Military Resisters
and Iraq Veterans Against the War
Old-Time Square Dance with LIVE Music! Saturday, April 30, 2005
Potrero Hill Neighborhood House
953 De Haro St., San Francisco
(at 22nd St. overlooking SF General Hospital)
Social & Introductions: 6 pm - 7:30 pm
Dance: 7:30 pm - 11 pm
$10-$30 sliding scale / $5 students
FEATURING
The Stairwell Sisters
http://www.stairwellsisters.com
with calling by Evie Ladin
"wild, hard dance music...infectious" - Oakland Tribune
AND
The Squirrelly Stringband
http://www.spectacularopticals.com/SQUIRRELLY.swf
The Bernal Hill Stringband and other special guests!
ANTI WAR EVENT TO SUPPORT A CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR:
All dances taught! Beginners welcome!
The most fun you could have for the best cause!
All proceeds to benefit the defense of Pablo Paredes
(swiftsmartveterans.com) and Iraq Veterans Against the War
(ivaw.net). To protest the Iraq War, Petty Officer Third Class
Pablo Paredes publicly refused to deploy to the Middle East and
is now facing military courts martial. IVAW is a newly formed
organization of recent Iraq veterans opposed to the ongoing war
and occupation.
Benefit hosted by Not in Our Name, Code Pink, Iraq Veterans
Against the War, International Socialist Organization, College
Not Combat, Courage to Resist, Freedom Socialist Party, Queers
for Peace and Justice/SF, Radical Women, and Bay Area United
Against War.
Public transit: Muni 19 bus from Civic Center BART (8th Street) -
outbound toward Hunters Point.
"Combine this band's vocal prowess with skilled
multi-instrumental chops and a hellbent-for-leather attitude, and
you have a wild funky recording... Brittle, hard-edged, exciting
ensemble singing... in which the Stairwell Sisters rocket into
the high lonesome stratosphere." - Old-Time Herald
For more information and leaflets:
http://bayarea.notinourname.net
510-601-8000
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) Escalation of the Attacks on Free Speech at
San Francisco State University
From: kyeaw@sfsu.edu
*****Please Forward Widely*****
Students at San Francisco State still need your help. The attack
against student activists for the March 9th counter recruitment
protest has escalated. On April 1, 2005, the six student
organizations that endorsed the demonstration (Students Against
War (SAW), LA Raza, Voices for Sexual Freedom (VOX), Pilipino
American Collegiate Endeavor (PACE), M.E.C.h.A. and the
International Socialist Organization (ISO)) received letters
stating that the administration is beginning formal Disciplinary
Proceedings against them. This is on top of the 3 individual
students who received letter from judicial affairs on
March 22nd. The groups involved may be facing formal hearings
as soon as Monday, April 25, 2005.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
We ask the public to continue speaking-out against the
administration's plans to limit free speech rights, and demand
that no sanctions be placed on student's organizations that
helped to plan the March 9th protest.
Please contact:
Robert A. Corrigan, SFSU President
Phone: (415) 338-1381, Fax: (415) 338-6210
Email: corrigan@sfsu.edu
Please CC your email to: cansfsu@hotmail.com
Penny Saffold, SFSU Vice President/Dean of Students
Phone: (415) 338-2032, Fax: (415) 338-0900
Email: psaffold@sfsu.edu
Please CC your email to: cansfsu@hotmail.com
Also, please sign our online petition at
http://www.petitiononline.com/556/petition.html
MARCH 9TH COUNTER-RECRUITMENT DEMONSTRATION
On Wednesday, March 9th, students from New York to San Francisco
rallied to protest military recruiters on their campuses. The
students were expressing their outrage at the military's anti-gay
"don't ask, don't tell" policy, the diversion of federal funding
away from education into military spending, and the war in Iraq.
At San Francisco State University, the administration has
responded with police action and secret meetings.
At SFSU over 150 students joined Students Against War -- the
school's Campus Antiwar Network chapter -- and other groups to
protest Air Force recruiters and Army Corps of Engineers attending
a school sponsored career fair. The crowd flooded the fair,
surrounding their tables and chanting. When Air Force recruiters
tried to wait out the protest, students staged a peaceful
anti-war sit-in and teach-in.
POLICE INTIMIDATION AND UNIVERSITY THREATS
The following day, recruiters returned to the SFSU career fair.
As soon as two activists entered the career fair, eight police
officers forcibly removed them from their own student center,
pushing them and twisting one activist's arm. When the other
activist asked why she was being forced to leave, she was pushed
into a doorway, told she was causing a fire hazard by standing
there, and then kicked out of the building.
A number of members of Students Against War have received official
notices of appointment from the Coordinator of Judicial Affairs
dated March 18, 2005. The letters state that the administration
has received a complaint from the Chief of Public Safety and that
each student must meet individually with Judicial Affairs. The letter
specifically states that the meetings are confidential and none of
the students have been informed of nature of the charges against
them. Failure to respond the summons may jeopardize the student‚s
status at San Francisco State University.
On April 1, 2005, the six student organizations that endorsed the
demonstration (Students Against War (SAW), LA Raza, Voices for
Sexual Freedom (VOX), Filipino American Collegiate Endeavor
(PACE), M.E.C.h.A. and the International Socialist Organization
(ISO)) received letters stating that the administration is
beginning formal Disciplinary Proceedings. The groups involved
may be facing formal hearings as soon as Monday, April 25, 2005.
The university disciplining students and organizations for a
peaceful demonstration is unacceptable. The actions of the police
and the San Francisco State administration are a blatant attempt
to stifle dissent and create a climate of intimidation. The
administration is purposely singling out the leading organizers
as well as political organizations on campus to prosecute.
San Francisco State University should be ashamed that they are
a shell for the US military. They undermine their own anti-
discrimination policies and commitments to diversity by allowing
a racist, sexist and anti-gay institution to recruit on campus.
When the administration refuses to defend it own policies, students
are forced to be the moral backbone of the university. The students
and organizations, who participated in the March 9th demonstration,
where defending their classmates and refusing to let one more
person become cannon fodder in an illegal war.
These attacks are an attempt to go after one of the leading
campuses in the growing counter recruitment movement around the
country. If they can punish students at San Francisco State for
protesting, it will be easier to arrest, sanction and intimidate
students on other campuses.
For more information about the March 9th protest: http://xpress.sfsu.edu/archives/breaking/003099.html http://www.insidebayarea.com/localnews/ci_2603424 http://kpix.dayport.com/launcher/4122/?tf=video_player.tpl
Watch a video of the protest at http://www.indybay.org/uploads/collegenotcombat.mov.
We urgently need your help. Please lend your support to
anti-war student activists and activists who are fighting
the militarization of our schools by letting the
administration know that their actions are not
supported by members of the community, students,
alumni, faculty, and staff.
Sincerely,
Students Against War
cansfsu@hotmail.com
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) Rural Chinese Riot as Police Try to Halt Pollution Protest
By JIM YARDLEY
April 14, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/14/international/asia/14riot.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
4) Pentagon's War Spending Hard to Track - Watchdog
Thu Apr 14, 2005 08:51 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=8181342&src=eDialog/GetContent
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) Suit Details Abuse Allegations at Guantanamo
Thu Apr 14, 2005 07:54 AM ET
The suit said guards once entered Ait Idir's cell, secured
his hands behind his back and "picked him up and slammed his
body and his head into the steel bunk in his cell." ...The
guards escalated the beating, the suit stated. "The guards
picked him up again, stuffed Mr. Ait Idir's face in the toilet
and repeatedly pressed the flush button. Mr. Ait Idir was
starting to suffocate and he feared he would drown," it said.
...After removing him from the cell, it added, "They held him
down and pushed a garden hose into his mouth. They opened the
spigot. As the water rushed in, Mr. Ait Idir began to choke.
The water was coming out of his mouth and nose."
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=8180557&src=eDialog/GetContent
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) Yale, Columbia Grad Students to Strike
By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Graduate students at Yale and Columbia
Universities approved strikes Wednesday to try to force
administrators to recognize their right to unionize.
Wed Apr 13,10:53 PM ET
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050414/ap_on_re_us/ivy_league_strike_1
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
7) You Can't Be All That You Can Be If You're Dead
By Mike Rhodes
April 13, 2005
http://www.indybay.org/print.php?id=1732939
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
8) 'Hysterical' Corby must wait another week
By Matthew Moore and AAP
April 14, 2005 - 6:36PM
She had been due to learn today if prosecutors would recommend
she face the death penalty if found guilty of smugging 4.1kg of
cannabis found inside her unlocked bodyboard bag last October.
(latest news: prosecutors will not ask for death penalty--just
life in prison.)
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/04/14/1113251710672.html?oneclick=true#
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
9) STONEWALL TO CITY HALL: lessons from gay liberation politics
with Gwenn Craig, Merle Woo and Tommi Avicolli Mecca
Thursday, APRIL 21, 7-9pm:
Noe Valley Ministry, 1025 Sanchez
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
10) PROTEST TO FREE ALL PALESTINIAN POLITICAL PRISONERS
MONDAY, APRIL 18, noon - 1:00 p.m.
Bay Area Red Cross Office, 85 Second Street, San Francisco
This action called by the Justice In Palestine Coalition in
solidarity with 100s of actions to be held around the world that day
For info Kate 510-381-1287 katrap@mindspring.com
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
11) YOUR SUPPORT, PRESENCE, VOICE, and SENTIMENTS NEEDED!
MILITARY RECRUITERS OUT OF WATSONVILLE HIGH!
STOP THE POVERTY and LATINO DRAFT!!!
COUNTER-RECRUITMENT RALLIES
Tuesday April 19th, 9:30am-12:15pm
Wednesday, April 20th, 9:30-12:15pm
Watsonville Vets Hall
On Tuesday, April 19th and Wednesday April 20th, recruiters from
the U.S. Army,U.S. Marine Corps, and U.S. Navy will be at the
Watsonville High Senior Day, organized by Watsonville Cabrillo
College and Watsonville High. Please join us in informing youth
and the public about the truths of war and the military and
alternatives to enlistment. Our youth deserve positive jobs,
scholarships, and higher education, not psychological warfare
and military occupation. PLEASE: YOUR PRESENCE IS CRUCIAL -
SUPPORT LOCAL YOUTH!! There is heavy recruitment taking place
in Watsonville and we MUST provide youth with positive alternative
for their own self-determination and empowerment. The Youth are
our leaders... NOT cannon fodder!
Have fun and bring 5 friends, noise-makers, horns, pots/pans,
musical instruments, your power, your voice, your resistance,
your alternatives.
WHY MILITARY RECRUITERS SHOULD BE BANNED FROM Watsonville High:
-Institutional Discrimination Against Queers in the
Military through their 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Policy!
-Sexual Harassment in the Military! (90% of recent women vets
reported sexual harrasment- 1/3 of whom were raped)
-Racism in the Military and in its Recruiting
Practices!
-They lie! Most Enlistees Don't Get the $$$ for
College, Job Training, or Travelling that is Promised!: (two-thirds
of recruits never get any college funding! veterans average
only 1.78 months of training in 31 months of active duty)
-Destruction of the Environment by the Military!
-$$$ for Education, Not Incarceration or the Military!
-Intentional recruitment into low-income communities and
communities of color, specifically Latino communities:
NO MORE POVERTY DRAFT -And this thing called WAR!
This action will take place in solidarity with UCSC‚s recent
action to kick recruiters off campus as well as with current
counter-recruitment campaigns, and proposal to Watsonville City
Council to ban military recruiters from public property.
"The true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love"
- Che Guevara
"From the depths of need and despair, people can work together,
can organize themselves to solve their own problems and fill
their own needs with dignity and strength." ~ Cesar Chavez
Dare to Struggle ˆ Dare to Win
!POWER TO THE PEOPLE!
¡Hasta la victoria!
ucsc_antiwar Moderator
Welcome to the ucsc_antiwar group at Yahoo! Groups, a
free, easy-to-use email group service. Please
take a moment to review this message.
To learn more about the ucsc_antiwar group, please visit
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ucsc_antiwar
To start sending messages to members of this group, simply
send email to
ucsc_antiwar@yahoogroups.com
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
12) *Protest Against Military Recruiters*
Thursday, April 21st * 10:30 am
The Fountain on Sproul Plaza, UC Berkeley
Counter Recruitment has become a national issue, and it's
working. Between these efforts and widespread anger about the
war, all branches of the United States Military have seen
drastic drops in their recruitment rates. In February, the
Army missed its recruiting goal for the first time in nearly
five years, and it missed its March goal by 32 percent. The
Army Reserve is 10 percent behind their year-to-date recruiting
target and the National Guard is 26 percent short, while the
need for soldiers is on the rise. Counter Recruitment has
proven to be an effective tool in actually hindering the
Military's ability to carry out this immoral and unjust war,
and Berkeley
Stop the War Coalition has been working to bring the Counter
Recruitment movement to UC Berkeley's
campus.
Recently, the Associated Students at the University of
California (ASUC) passed a resolution that argued that
military recruiters (who refuse to recruit gays and lesbians)
violate the University of California's anti-discrimination
policy and therefore should not be allowed access to ASUC
facilities (SB 107). Still, military recruiters have announced
their intention to show up at the Career Fair in the MLK
student union. We have to build the biggest protest possible
to let them know that we won't stand for the military's
discriminatory policies and that we oppose the war on Iraq
that they are recruiting for. Join a growing movement of
schools that are taking a stand against military recruitment
on campuses!
COME THE LAST PLANNING MEETING & CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
TEACH-IN FOR THE PROTEST WEDNESDAY APRIL 20th,
225 WHEELER @ 7pm
SPONSORED BY: Berkeley Stop the War Coalition, member
of the Campus Anti-war Network (CAN)
WEBSITES AND CONTACT INFO:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ucbstopthewar/
www.campusantiwar.net
Contact: ucbstopthewar@hotmail.com, or Daniel at 510-708-6803 and dsaver@berkeley.edu
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
13) A Dirty Little Footnote
to the Energy Bill
By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO
April 15, 2005
"The question is who will pay for the cleanup. United Water,
a subsidiary of Suez S.A. , has sued the manufacturers of MTBE
[methyl tertiary butyl ether], to recover its costs. And as
hundreds of communities from coast to coast are finding the
additive in their water systems, the issue of paying for the
cleanup is becoming increasingly contentious."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/15/business/15pollute.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
14) School Pools, Now Dry Storage
By ELISSA GOOTMAN
Published: April 14, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/14/nyregion/14pool.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
15) Study Finds Shortcoming in
New Law on Education
By GREG WINTER
Published: April 13, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/13/national/13child.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
16) AFL-CIO EXECUTIVE PAYWATCH
Great new web site!
"Every year, shareholders and America' s workers learn of new
jaw-dropping executive compensation packages that seemingly
defy rational explanation. In 2004, the average CEO of a major
company received $9.84 million in total compensation, according
to The New York Times."...and more. Go to:
http://www.aflcio.org/corporateamerica/paywatch/
CEO Pay Widens the Income Gap
2004 Top 10 Most Highly Paid CEOs on Executive PayWatch
Yahoo Inc.
Terry S. Semel
$109,301,385
Apple Computer
Steven P. Jobs
$86,315,789
Coach Inc.
Lew Frankfort
$64,918,520
TXU Corp.
John C. Wilder
$54,960,893
Occidental Petroleum
Ray R. Irani
$52,648,142
NVR Inc.
Dwight C. Schar
$51,058,500
KB Home
Bruce Karatz
$47,288,228
Toll Brothers
Robert I. Toll
$44,240,611
Allegheny Energy
Paul J. Evanson
$40,543,354
Motorola Inc.
Edward J. Zander
$38,851,374
What's wrong with CEOs taking a disproportionate share of the wealth?
Excessive CEO pay takes dollars out of the pockets of shareholders
-including the retirement savings of America's working families.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
17) Student's Arrest at G.O.P.
Convention Puts His Life in Limbo
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
Published: April 15, 2005
Videos Shed New Light on Convention Arrests
New video evidence has led prosecutors to drop charges against
many protestors arrested during the Republican Convention.
Jim Dwyer, a reporter for The Times, narrates a look at some of
the footage.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/15/nyregion/15tape.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
18) RNC demonstrators
settle contempt of court
claims against NYC
By SAMUEL MAULL
Associated Press Writer
April 15, 2005, 2:58 PM EDT
http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--conventionarrests0415apr15,0,3633451.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
19) A Deal for Jet Fighters
Opens the Door to India
By LESLIE WAYNE
Published: April 16, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/16/business/worldbusiness/16plane.html?ei=5094&en=8a405b021c535ca8&hp=&ex=1113710400&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1113671069-QWEfGr/5yZmdox2dO9WBBQ
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
20) For Women in Sciences,
Slow Progress in Academia
By SARA RIMER
Published: April 15, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/15/education/15women.html?
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
21) Urgent Alert - Take Action Now!
Stop the terrorist Luis Posada Carriles
from gaining asylum in the United States
Support Venezuela and Cuba's demands on Bush
to extradite the murderer Luis Posada to Venezuela.
Tell George W. Bush and Congress:
No asylum for the fascist criminal in the United States!
The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition has set-up an easy-to-use way to
send Bush and Congress a message. Use the link below to tell them:
"No safe-haven for the terrorist Posada in the U.S."
On April 12 Luis Posada Carriles, the notorious anti-Cuba terrorist
and killer, appealed for asylum in the United States through his
attorneys in Miami. The planner of terrorist acts that have killed
dozens of Cubans and other people, Posada was in hiding in
Central America for the last seven months after being prematurely
released from jail by Panama's right-wing puppet president Mireya
Moscoso at the behest of the Bush administration.
Posada was convicted in Panama after being caught in November
2000 with 33 pounds of C-4 explosives intended for assassinating
Cuban President Fidel Castro. Now, the U.S. government is entertaining
inviting this man, who poses such a great and vicious danger, to
receive safe haven from prosecution in the United States.
Undoubtedly assisted by the U.S. government to enter the United
States, Posada has been in Miami since the end of March. His three
other conspirators, Pedro Remón, Gaspar Jiménez Escobedo and
Guillermo Novo Sampol, were also pardoned in Panama and flew
into Miami last August. They are implicated in several murders in
the United States, including the 1976 Washington DC car-bombing
that killed Chilean Orlando Letelier and American Ronnie Moffitt.
Posada was a CIA agent in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and possibly
to the present. He was trained in explosives and sabotage at the
notorious School of the Americas in the CIA's "Operation 40" for
the Bay of Pigs invasion.
What are some of his other crimes? Posada and his accomplice
Orlando Bosch were the masterminds of the bombing of Cubana
Airlines flight 455 on October 6, 1976 that killed 73 people.
Posada and Bosch plotted the crime from Venezuela.
The Justice Department moved to deport Bosch from the United
States in 1989. In the deportation order, U.S. Asst. Attorney
General Joseph D. Whitley said: "For 30 years Bosch has been
resolute and unwavering in his advocacy of terrorist violence. ...
His actions have been those of a terrorist, unfettered by laws or
human decency, threatening and inflicting violence without regard
to the identity of his victims."
These words hold true for Posada, his partner-in-crime.
However, Bush Sr. overrode the deportation order in 1990.
Bosch lives in Miami.
Posada bragged to the New York Times in an interview
(July 12 & 13, 1998) that he directed the 1997 bombings
of Havana hotels. A 32-year-old Italian tourist, Fabio Di Celmo,
was killed at the Copacabana hotel.
These are only some of the shocking crimes carried out against
the Cuban and other peoples.
While in Venezuela in the 1970s, Posada oversaw the killing of
Venezuelan leftists as head of the Intelligence and Prevention
Services Division (DISIP) of the national police. In the 1980s
Posada commanded the supply of munitions to the Nicaraguan
contras from the CIA's Ilopango airbase in El Salvador.
Today, the presence of Posada, Bosch and other terrorists in
Miami is proof that the U.S. government is fully behind the
terror attacks on Cuba.
Since the 1959 Cuban revolution, more than 3,400 Cuban people
have died by violent attacks perpetrated on the island by
anti-Cuban paramilitary groups that operate freely in Miami.
It is time for justice for the victims of Posada's crimes.
Peace-loving people in the U.S. and all who believe in justice
must make it clear that Posada is not welcome here, and we
must demand that this government reject his asylum claim.
The fact that the Bush Administration and the CIA are clearing
the way for Posada to take up residence in the U.S. is evidence
of the extreme hypocrisy and outright lie of Bush's so-called
"war on terror." They have engaged in a calculated and cynical
manipulation of the term to claim to be fighting against
"terrorism" when in truth, they are waging a political war for
conquest and empire.
We urge all A.N.S.W.E.R. supporters to send a letter to Bush
and Congress now to say:
1. No asylum for Posada
2. Honor the extradition demand of Venezuela
A.N.S.W.E.R. has set up an easy-to-use mechanism to facilitate
sending a quick email to George W. Bush and the Congressional
Representative in your District and Senators in your state with
your demands. Several members, including William Delahunt
(D-MA) and Jim McDermott (D-WA), have protested Posada's
asylum petition.
We have provided a sample letter, but you can customize your
message to get your point across. Please take a moment now,
by clicking here to send a message to Bush and Congress.
Free the Cuban Five
Instead of arresting the terrorists, the FBI prosecuted the
anti-terrorists: five Cuban men who were sent by Cuba into
Miami to monitor the actions of the paramilitary groups, to protect
Cuba from terror attacks. Known as the "Cuban Five," they were
unjustly tried and convicted in Miami in 2001 and are serving
lengthy sentences in U.S. prison. They are Gerardo Hernández,
Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and
René González.
For more background information on the Miami terrorists and the
freedom campaign for the Cuban Five anti-terrorist activists, visit: www.freethefive.org
Funds are Urgently Needed
Funds are urgently needed to help the antiwar movement continue
to get stronger. We can't do it without your help. You can make
a contribution through a secure server by clicking here, where
you can also find information on how to contribute by check.
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
http://www.ANSWERcoalition.org
info@internationalanswer.org
National Office in Washington DC: 202-544-3389
New York City: 212-533-0417
Los Angeles: 323-464-1636
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
For media inquiries, call 202-544-3389.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
20) US Marshals, local police
stage nationwide mass arrests
By Bill Van Auken
WSWS :News & Analysis :North America
16 April 2005
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/apr2005/arr-a16.shtml
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
21) Army helicopter lands at
Port Angeles, Sequim high schools
in bid to interest recruits
2005-04-14
by RAUL VASQUEZ
http://peninsuladailynews.com/sited/story/html/204077
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
22) INTERVIEWS: 'Racism is a key motivating factor in the war'
(Aidan Delgado)
[Aidan Delgado is former Army reservist, honorably discharged as a
conscientious objector, who is the son of a U.S. diplomat and has lived in
Thailand, Senegal, and Egypt. -- Thanks to seven years spent in Cairo, he
became fluent in Arabic and gained considerable familiarity with Arab culture.
-- As an Army Reservist, Delgado served in the 320th Military Police
Company; he spent twelve months in Iraq, six of them at Abu Ghraib prison. --
A number of pieces on Delgado follow: -- (1) A long interview conducted by
Paul Rockwell and posted on the web site Black Commentator, in which Delgado
describes widespread officially tolerated anti-Arab racism both in military
training and in the conduct of operations in Iraq, and asks: "Have we
overcome racism in the sense that blacks and whites are banded together in the
hatred of Arabs?" -- (2) A piece from UCLA's *Daily Bruin* in January. --
(3) An interview conducted by Oakland attorney Scott Fleming, published in LiP
magazine and widely reproduced elsewhere, in which Delgado says of his time in
the military: "It made me really unpopular, the radical notion that you
should treat Arabs or Iraqis as human being"; Delgado also explains how he
overcame his initial reluctance to speak out about his experiences. --Mark]
http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/2612/
Think Piece
NEW REVELATIONS ABOUT RACISM IN THE MILITARY
By Paul Rockwell
Black Commentator
April 7, 2005
http://www.blackcommentator.com/133/133_think_racism_military.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
23) MILITARY OUTREACH IS NECESSARY,
BUT SCHOOLS MUST TAKE CARE
TO SET LIMITS
We want you -- within reason
San Jose Mercury
Mercury News Editorial
Posted on Thursday, Apr. 14, 2005
http://thinkfirst.peacework.us/articles/CounterRecruiting-Editorial-M2005m0414.html
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/11390961.htm
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
24) Climate change wreaking havoc with seasons
By Matthew Beard
15 April 2005
Climate change is playing havoc with the timing of the
seasons and could drastically alter the landscape, according
to one of the most comprehensive studies of its kind.
Frogs have begun spawning in Britain as early as October, oaks
are coming into leaf three weeks earlier than they were
50 years ago and there were an unprecedented 4,000 sightings
of bumblebees by the end of January this year.
Scientists, who also noted that people were mowing their
lawns earlier, have concluded that spring now arrives ahead
of schedule.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=629530
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
25) U.S. cuts Sec. 8 housing subsidy
Bay Area rents, aid voucher values decline
Ilene Lelchuk, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, April 18, 2005
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/04/18/BAG7KCAJHS1.DTL
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
26) "By putting my weapon down, I chose to reassert myself
as a human being."
On May 1, 2, and 4th, Camilo Mejía, the first Iraq war
veteran to file for discharge from the army as a conscientious
objector, and who spent a year in the stockade for his
courageous stance, is coming to the Bay Area. He will be
making appearances in San Jose, Palo Alto, Oakland, and Santa
Cruz at events co-sponsored by Veterans for Peace, KPFA &
many other groups:
· San Jose, Sunday, May 1, 2 pm, at St. Paul‚s United
Methodist Church 405 S 10th, co-sponsored by South-Bay Mobilization.
· Palo Alto, Sunday, May 1, 7 pm, at Unitarian Church
at Charleston and Middlefield, co-sponsored by Peninsula Peace
and Justice Center.
· Oakland, Monday, May 2, 7 pm, 1st Congregational
Church, 27th at Harrison.
· Santa Cruz, Wednesday, May 4th, 7 pm, Veterans Building
846 Front Street, co-sponsored by Resource Center for
Non-Violence and VFW Bill Motto Post 5888.
All events $5-15 sliding scale donation, no one turned away
for lack of funds. All events co-sponsored by Global Exchange,
CCCO, AFSC, International ANSWER, Not in Our Name, Code Pink,
Stop Impunity and Courage to Resist. Events are wheelchair
accessible. For more information, call 415-255-7331 or
www.veteransforpeace.org
For additional information, contact Bill Schwalb @
(415) 285-5627. For press contact, contact (510) 418-3436.
Background (not in PSA)
At age 19, Camilo Mejía joined the army, seduced by the promise
of a free college education, which later turned out to be not so
free. He served as an infantryman from 1995 until 1998, then
transferred to the Florida National Guard, and worked while
attending school. In December 2002 Camilo was enrolled in the
University of Miami and was one semester away from finishing
his BA in psychology when his National Guard unit was activated
in preparation for the war on Iraq. Deployed to Iraq in
April 2003, he was a squad leader engaged in combat operations
until October, when he returned to the US on a 14-day leave.
From his personal experiences in Iraq, he had come to a clear
and deep opposition to the war. He refused to return to his
unit in Iraq, and filed for a discharge as a conscientious
objector, stating that he believed the war to be „illegal and
immoral.‰ In May 2004, he turned himself into the military and
presented his conscientious-objector application. He was
subsequently tried by the army as a deserter and sentenced
to one year in the stockade, but only spent nine months.
He was adopted by Amnesty International as a Prisoner of
Conscience, has been awarded a „Courage of Conscience Award‰
from Peace Abbey.
Released from prison on February 15, he has agreed to come to
the Bay Area to speak. He is being sponsored by Veterans for
Peace, KPFA, Global Exchange, CCCO, AFSC, Peninsula Peace Center,
South Bay Mobilization, International ANSWER, Resource Center
for Non-Violence, Code Pink, Not in Our Name, Stop Impunity,
Courage to Resist.
Released from prison on February 15, he has agreed to come to
the Bay Area to speak. He is being sponsored by Veterans for
Peace, KPFA, Global Exchange, CCCO, AFSC, Peninsula Peace
Center, South Bay Mobilization, International ANSWER, Resource
Center for Non-Violence, Code Pink, Not in Our Name, Stop
Impunity, Courage to Resist.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
27) Detroit crisis leads to call:
Feed the cities, starve the Pentagon
By Cheryl LaBash
Detroit
Published Apr 14, 2005 11:35 PM
http://www.workers.org/2005/us/detroit-0421/
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
FROM THE HORSE'S MOUTH:
LEARN MORE ABOUT JROTC go to:
http://www.jrotc.org/
Do you think they help enlistment?
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
LYNNE STEWART WILL BE FEATURED SPEAKER
AT THE MASS RALLY FOR MUMIA ABU JAMAL,
2 P.M., SUNDAY APRIL 24
AT MISSION HIGH SCHOOL (18TH & DOLORES, SF)
Sunday, April 24: Lynne will be the featured speaker at a 2 pm
Mission High School mass rally (18th and Dolores) for Mumia
Abu-Jamal.
The rally includes a concert by Michael Franti. Pam Africa
will also speak as well as Mumia's lead counsel, Robert R. Bryan and
Bay Area National Lawyers Guild Executive Director, Carlos
Villarreal. This will be the main event of Lynne's tour. Mumia will
record greeting for the rally.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Benefit for Military Resisters
and Iraq Veterans Against the War
Old-Time Square Dance with LIVE Music! Saturday, April 30, 2005
Potrero Hill Neighborhood House
953 De Haro St., San Francisco
(at 22nd St. overlooking SF General Hospital)
Social & Introductions: 6 pm - 7:30 pm
Dance: 7:30 pm - 11 pm
$10-$30 sliding scale / $5 students
FEATURING
The Stairwell Sisters
http://www.stairwellsisters.com
with calling by Evie Ladin
"wild, hard dance music...infectious" - Oakland Tribune
AND
The Squirrelly Stringband
http://www.spectacularopticals.com/SQUIRRELLY.swf
The Bernal Hill Stringband and other special guests!
2) Escalation of the Attacks on Free Speech at
San Francisco State University
From: kyeaw@sfsu.edu
*****Please Forward Widely*****
3) Rural Chinese Riot as Police Try to Halt Pollution Protest
By JIM YARDLEY
April 14, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/14/international/asia/14riot.html
4) Pentagon's War Spending Hard to Track - Watchdog
Thu Apr 14, 2005 08:51 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=8181342&src=eDialog/GetContent
5) Suit Details Abuse Allegations at Guantanamo
Thu Apr 14, 2005 07:54 AM ET
The suit said guards once entered Ait Idir's cell, secured
his hands behind his back and "picked him up and slammed his
body and his head into the steel bunk in his cell." ...The
guards escalated the beating, the suit stated. "The guards
picked him up again, stuffed Mr. Ait Idir's face in the toilet
and repeatedly pressed the flush button. Mr. Ait Idir was
starting to suffocate and he feared he would drown," it said.
...After removing him from the cell, it added, "They held him
down and pushed a garden hose into his mouth. They opened the
spigot. As the water rushed in, Mr. Ait Idir began to choke.
The water was coming out of his mouth and nose."
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=8180557&src=eDialog/GetContent
6) Yale, Columbia Grad Students to Strike
By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Graduate students at Yale and Columbia
Universities approved strikes Wednesday to try to force
administrators to recognize their right to unionize.
Wed Apr 13,10:53 PM ET
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050414/ap_on_re_us/ivy_league_strike_1
7) You Can't Be All That You Can Be If You're Dead
By Mike Rhodes
April 13, 2005
http://www.indybay.org/print.php?id=1732939
8) 'Hysterical' Corby must wait another week
By Matthew Moore and AAP
April 14, 2005 - 6:36PM
She had been due to learn today if prosecutors would
recommend she face the death penalty if found guilty
of smugging 4.1kg of cannabis found inside her unlocked
bodyboard bag last October.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/04/14/1113251710672.html?oneclick=true#
9) STONEWALL TO CITY HALL: lessons from gay liberation politics
with Gwenn Craig, Merle Woo and Tommi Avicolli Mecca
Thursday, APRIL 21, 7-9pm:
Noe Valley Ministry, 1025 Sanchez
10) PROTEST TO FREE ALL PALESTINIAN POLITICAL PRISONERS
MONDAY, APRIL 18, noon - 1:00 p.m.
Bay Area Red Cross Office, 85 Second Street, San Francisco
This action called by the Justice In Palestine Coalition in
solidarity with 100s of actions to be held around the world that day
For info Kate 510-381-1287 katrap@mindspring.com
11) YOUR SUPPORT, PRESENCE, VOICE, and SENTIMENTS NEEDED!
MILITARY RECRUITERS OUT OF WATSONVILLE HIGH!
STOP THE POVERTY and LATINO DRAFT!!!
COUNTER-RECRUITMENT RALLIES
Tuesday April 19th, 9:30am-12:15pm
Wednesday, April 20th, 9:30-12:15pm
Watsonville Vets Hall
12) *Protest Against Military Recruiters*
Thursday, April 21st * 10:30 am
The Fountain on Sproul Plaza, UC Berkeley
13) A Dirty Little Footnote
to the Energy Bill
By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO
April 15, 2005
"The question is who will pay for the cleanup. United Water,
a subsidiary of Suez S.A. , has sued the manufacturers of MTBE
[methyl tertiary butyl ether], to recover its costs. And as
hundreds of communities from coast to coast are finding the
additive in their water systems, the issue of paying for the
cleanup is becoming increasingly contentious."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/15/business/15pollute.html
14) School Pools, Now Dry Storage
By ELISSA GOOTMAN
Published: April 14, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/14/nyregion/14pool.html
15) Study Finds Shortcoming in
New Law on Education
By GREG WINTER
Published: April 13, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/13/national/13child.html
16) AFL-CIO EXECUTIVE PAYWATCH
Great new web site!
"Every year, shareholders and America' s workers learn of new
jaw-dropping executive compensation packages that seemingly
defy rational explanation. In 2004, the average CEO of a major
company received $9.84 million in total compensation, according
to The New York Times."...and more. Go to:
http://www.aflcio.org/corporateamerica/paywatch/
17) Student's Arrest at G.O.P.
Convention Puts His Life in Limbo
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
Published: April 15, 2005
Videos Shed New Light on Convention Arrests
New video evidence has led prosecutors to drop charges
against many protestors arrested during the Republican
Convention. Jim Dwyer, a reporter for The Times, narrates
a look at some of the footage.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/15/nyregion/15tape.html
18) RNC demonstrators
settle contempt of court
claims against NYC
By SAMUEL MAULL
Associated Press Writer
April 15, 2005, 2:58 PM EDT
http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--conventionarrests0415apr15,0,3633451.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork
19) A Deal for Jet Fighters
Opens the Door to India
By LESLIE WAYNE
Published: April 16, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/16/business/worldbusiness/16plane.html?ei=5094&en=8a405b021c535ca8&hp=&ex=1113710400&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1113671069-QWEfGr/5yZmdox2dO9WBBQ
20) For Women in Sciences,
Slow Progress in Academia
By SARA RIMER
Published: April 15, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/15/education/15women.html?
21) Urgent Alert - Take Action Now!
Stop the terrorist Luis Posada Carriles
from gaining asylum in the United States
Support Venezuela and Cuba's demands on Bush
to extradite the murderer Luis Posada to Venezuela.
Tell George W. Bush and Congress:
No asylum for the fascist criminal in the United States!
The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition has set-up an easy-to-use way to
send Bush and Congress a message. Use the link below to tell them:
"No safe-haven for the terrorist Posada in the U.S."
22) INTERVIEWS: 'Racism is a key motivating factor in the war'
(Aidan Delgado)
[Aidan Delgado is former Army reservist, honorably discharged as a
conscientious objector, who is the son of a U.S. diplomat and has lived in
Thailand, Senegal, and Egypt. -- Thanks to seven years spent in Cairo, he
became fluent in Arabic and gained considerable familiarity with Arab culture.
-- As an Army Reservist, Delgado served in the 320th Military Police
Company; he spent twelve months in Iraq, six of them at Abu Ghraib prison. --
A number of pieces on Delgado follow: -- (1) A long interview conducted by
Paul Rockwell and posted on the web site Black Commentator, in which Delgado
describes widespread officially tolerated anti-Arab racism both in military
training and in the conduct of operations in Iraq, and asks: "Have we
overcome racism in the sense that blacks and whites are banded together in the
hatred of Arabs?" -- (2) A piece from UCLA's *Daily Bruin* in January. --
(3) An interview conducted by Oakland attorney Scott Fleming, published in LiP
magazine and widely reproduced elsewhere, in which Delgado says of his time in
the military: "It made me really unpopular, the radical notion that you
should treat Arabs or Iraqis as human being"; Delgado also explains how he
overcame his initial reluctance to speak out about his experiences. --Mark]
http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/2612/
Think Piece
NEW REVELATIONS ABOUT RACISM IN THE MILITARY
By Paul Rockwell
Black Commentator
April 7, 2005
http://www.blackcommentator.com/133/133_think_racism_military.html
23) MILITARY OUTREACH IS NECESSARY,
BUT SCHOOLS MUST TAKE CARE
TO SET LIMITS
We want you -- within reason
San Jose Mercury
Mercury News Editorial
Posted on Thursday, Apr. 14, 2005
http://thinkfirst.peacework.us/articles/CounterRecruiting-Editorial-M2005m0414.html
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/11390961.htm
24) Climate change wreaking havoc with seasons
By Matthew Beard
15 April 2005
Climate change is playing havoc with the timing of the
seasons and could drastically alter the landscape, according
to one of the most comprehensive studies of its kind.
Frogs have begun spawning in Britain as early as October, oaks
are coming into leaf three weeks earlier than they were
50 years ago and there were an unprecedented 4,000 sightings
of bumblebees by the end of January this year.
Scientists, who also noted that people were mowing their
lawns earlier, have concluded that spring now arrives ahead
of schedule.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=629530
25) U.S. cuts Sec. 8 housing subsidy
Bay Area rents, aid voucher values decline
Ilene Lelchuk, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, April 18, 2005
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/04/18/BAG7KCAJHS1.DTL
26) "By putting my weapon down, I chose to reassert myself
as a human being."
On May 1, 2, and 4th, Camilo Mejía, the first Iraq war
veteran to file for discharge from the army as a conscientious
objector, and who spent a year in the stockade for his
courageous stance, is coming to the Bay Area. He will be
making appearances in San Jose, Palo Alto, Oakland, and Santa
Cruz at events co-sponsored by Veterans for Peace, KPFA &
many other groups:
· San Jose, Sunday, May 1, 2 pm, at St. Paul‚s United
Methodist Church 405 S 10th, co-sponsored by South-Bay Mobilization.
· Palo Alto, Sunday, May 1, 7 pm, at Unitarian Church
at Charleston and Middlefield, co-sponsored by Peninsula Peace
and Justice Center.
· Oakland, Monday, May 2, 7 pm, 1st Congregational
Church, 27th at Harrison.
· Santa Cruz, Wednesday, May 4th, 7 pm, Veterans Building
846 Front Street, co-sponsored by Resource Center for
Non-Violence and VFW Bill Motto Post 5888.
27) Detroit crisis leads to call:
Feed the cities, starve the Pentagon
By Cheryl LaBash
Detroit
Published Apr 14, 2005 11:35 PM
http://www.workers.org/2005/us/detroit-0421/
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Benefit for Military Resisters
and Iraq Veterans Against the War
Old-Time Square Dance with LIVE Music! Saturday, April 30, 2005
Potrero Hill Neighborhood House
953 De Haro St., San Francisco
(at 22nd St. overlooking SF General Hospital)
Social & Introductions: 6 pm - 7:30 pm
Dance: 7:30 pm - 11 pm
$10-$30 sliding scale / $5 students
FEATURING
The Stairwell Sisters
http://www.stairwellsisters.com
with calling by Evie Ladin
"wild, hard dance music...infectious" - Oakland Tribune
AND
The Squirrelly Stringband
http://www.spectacularopticals.com/SQUIRRELLY.swf
The Bernal Hill Stringband and other special guests!
ANTI WAR EVENT TO SUPPORT A CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR:
All dances taught! Beginners welcome!
The most fun you could have for the best cause!
All proceeds to benefit the defense of Pablo Paredes
(swiftsmartveterans.com) and Iraq Veterans Against the War
(ivaw.net). To protest the Iraq War, Petty Officer Third Class
Pablo Paredes publicly refused to deploy to the Middle East and
is now facing military courts martial. IVAW is a newly formed
organization of recent Iraq veterans opposed to the ongoing war
and occupation.
Benefit hosted by Not in Our Name, Code Pink, Iraq Veterans
Against the War, International Socialist Organization, College
Not Combat, Courage to Resist, Freedom Socialist Party, Queers
for Peace and Justice/SF, Radical Women, and Bay Area United
Against War.
Public transit: Muni 19 bus from Civic Center BART (8th Street) -
outbound toward Hunters Point.
"Combine this band's vocal prowess with skilled
multi-instrumental chops and a hellbent-for-leather attitude, and
you have a wild funky recording... Brittle, hard-edged, exciting
ensemble singing... in which the Stairwell Sisters rocket into
the high lonesome stratosphere." - Old-Time Herald
For more information and leaflets:
http://bayarea.notinourname.net
510-601-8000
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) Escalation of the Attacks on Free Speech at
San Francisco State University
From: kyeaw@sfsu.edu
*****Please Forward Widely*****
Students at San Francisco State still need your help. The attack
against student activists for the March 9th counter recruitment
protest has escalated. On April 1, 2005, the six student
organizations that endorsed the demonstration (Students Against
War (SAW), LA Raza, Voices for Sexual Freedom (VOX), Pilipino
American Collegiate Endeavor (PACE), M.E.C.h.A. and the
International Socialist Organization (ISO)) received letters
stating that the administration is beginning formal Disciplinary
Proceedings against them. This is on top of the 3 individual
students who received letter from judicial affairs on
March 22nd. The groups involved may be facing formal hearings
as soon as Monday, April 25, 2005.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
We ask the public to continue speaking-out against the
administration's plans to limit free speech rights, and demand
that no sanctions be placed on student's organizations that
helped to plan the March 9th protest.
Please contact:
Robert A. Corrigan, SFSU President
Phone: (415) 338-1381, Fax: (415) 338-6210
Email: corrigan@sfsu.edu
Please CC your email to: cansfsu@hotmail.com
Penny Saffold, SFSU Vice President/Dean of Students
Phone: (415) 338-2032, Fax: (415) 338-0900
Email: psaffold@sfsu.edu
Please CC your email to: cansfsu@hotmail.com
Also, please sign our online petition at
http://www.petitiononline.com/556/petition.html
MARCH 9TH COUNTER-RECRUITMENT DEMONSTRATION
On Wednesday, March 9th, students from New York to San Francisco
rallied to protest military recruiters on their campuses. The
students were expressing their outrage at the military's anti-gay
"don't ask, don't tell" policy, the diversion of federal funding
away from education into military spending, and the war in Iraq.
At San Francisco State University, the administration has
responded with police action and secret meetings.
At SFSU over 150 students joined Students Against War -- the
school's Campus Antiwar Network chapter -- and other groups to
protest Air Force recruiters and Army Corps of Engineers attending
a school sponsored career fair. The crowd flooded the fair,
surrounding their tables and chanting. When Air Force recruiters
tried to wait out the protest, students staged a peaceful
anti-war sit-in and teach-in.
POLICE INTIMIDATION AND UNIVERSITY THREATS
The following day, recruiters returned to the SFSU career fair.
As soon as two activists entered the career fair, eight police
officers forcibly removed them from their own student center,
pushing them and twisting one activist's arm. When the other
activist asked why she was being forced to leave, she was pushed
into a doorway, told she was causing a fire hazard by standing
there, and then kicked out of the building.
A number of members of Students Against War have received official
notices of appointment from the Coordinator of Judicial Affairs
dated March 18, 2005. The letters state that the administration
has received a complaint from the Chief of Public Safety and that
each student must meet individually with Judicial Affairs. The letter
specifically states that the meetings are confidential and none of
the students have been informed of nature of the charges against
them. Failure to respond the summons may jeopardize the student‚s
status at San Francisco State University.
On April 1, 2005, the six student organizations that endorsed the
demonstration (Students Against War (SAW), LA Raza, Voices for
Sexual Freedom (VOX), Filipino American Collegiate Endeavor
(PACE), M.E.C.h.A. and the International Socialist Organization
(ISO)) received letters stating that the administration is
beginning formal Disciplinary Proceedings. The groups involved
may be facing formal hearings as soon as Monday, April 25, 2005.
The university disciplining students and organizations for a
peaceful demonstration is unacceptable. The actions of the police
and the San Francisco State administration are a blatant attempt
to stifle dissent and create a climate of intimidation. The
administration is purposely singling out the leading organizers
as well as political organizations on campus to prosecute.
San Francisco State University should be ashamed that they are
a shell for the US military. They undermine their own anti-
discrimination policies and commitments to diversity by allowing
a racist, sexist and anti-gay institution to recruit on campus.
When the administration refuses to defend it own policies, students
are forced to be the moral backbone of the university. The students
and organizations, who participated in the March 9th demonstration,
where defending their classmates and refusing to let one more
person become cannon fodder in an illegal war.
These attacks are an attempt to go after one of the leading
campuses in the growing counter recruitment movement around the
country. If they can punish students at San Francisco State for
protesting, it will be easier to arrest, sanction and intimidate
students on other campuses.
For more information about the March 9th protest: http://xpress.sfsu.edu/archives/breaking/003099.html http://www.insidebayarea.com/localnews/ci_2603424 http://kpix.dayport.com/launcher/4122/?tf=video_player.tpl
Watch a video of the protest at http://www.indybay.org/uploads/collegenotcombat.mov.
We urgently need your help. Please lend your support to
anti-war student activists and activists who are fighting
the militarization of our schools by letting the
administration know that their actions are not
supported by members of the community, students,
alumni, faculty, and staff.
Sincerely,
Students Against War
cansfsu@hotmail.com
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) Rural Chinese Riot as Police Try to Halt Pollution Protest
By JIM YARDLEY
April 14, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/14/international/asia/14riot.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
4) Pentagon's War Spending Hard to Track - Watchdog
Thu Apr 14, 2005 08:51 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=8181342&src=eDialog/GetContent
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) Suit Details Abuse Allegations at Guantanamo
Thu Apr 14, 2005 07:54 AM ET
The suit said guards once entered Ait Idir's cell, secured
his hands behind his back and "picked him up and slammed his
body and his head into the steel bunk in his cell." ...The
guards escalated the beating, the suit stated. "The guards
picked him up again, stuffed Mr. Ait Idir's face in the toilet
and repeatedly pressed the flush button. Mr. Ait Idir was
starting to suffocate and he feared he would drown," it said.
...After removing him from the cell, it added, "They held him
down and pushed a garden hose into his mouth. They opened the
spigot. As the water rushed in, Mr. Ait Idir began to choke.
The water was coming out of his mouth and nose."
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=8180557&src=eDialog/GetContent
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) Yale, Columbia Grad Students to Strike
By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Graduate students at Yale and Columbia
Universities approved strikes Wednesday to try to force
administrators to recognize their right to unionize.
Wed Apr 13,10:53 PM ET
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050414/ap_on_re_us/ivy_league_strike_1
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
7) You Can't Be All That You Can Be If You're Dead
By Mike Rhodes
April 13, 2005
http://www.indybay.org/print.php?id=1732939
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
8) 'Hysterical' Corby must wait another week
By Matthew Moore and AAP
April 14, 2005 - 6:36PM
She had been due to learn today if prosecutors would recommend
she face the death penalty if found guilty of smugging 4.1kg of
cannabis found inside her unlocked bodyboard bag last October.
(latest news: prosecutors will not ask for death penalty--just
life in prison.)
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/04/14/1113251710672.html?oneclick=true#
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
9) STONEWALL TO CITY HALL: lessons from gay liberation politics
with Gwenn Craig, Merle Woo and Tommi Avicolli Mecca
Thursday, APRIL 21, 7-9pm:
Noe Valley Ministry, 1025 Sanchez
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
10) PROTEST TO FREE ALL PALESTINIAN POLITICAL PRISONERS
MONDAY, APRIL 18, noon - 1:00 p.m.
Bay Area Red Cross Office, 85 Second Street, San Francisco
This action called by the Justice In Palestine Coalition in
solidarity with 100s of actions to be held around the world that day
For info Kate 510-381-1287 katrap@mindspring.com
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
11) YOUR SUPPORT, PRESENCE, VOICE, and SENTIMENTS NEEDED!
MILITARY RECRUITERS OUT OF WATSONVILLE HIGH!
STOP THE POVERTY and LATINO DRAFT!!!
COUNTER-RECRUITMENT RALLIES
Tuesday April 19th, 9:30am-12:15pm
Wednesday, April 20th, 9:30-12:15pm
Watsonville Vets Hall
On Tuesday, April 19th and Wednesday April 20th, recruiters from
the U.S. Army,U.S. Marine Corps, and U.S. Navy will be at the
Watsonville High Senior Day, organized by Watsonville Cabrillo
College and Watsonville High. Please join us in informing youth
and the public about the truths of war and the military and
alternatives to enlistment. Our youth deserve positive jobs,
scholarships, and higher education, not psychological warfare
and military occupation. PLEASE: YOUR PRESENCE IS CRUCIAL -
SUPPORT LOCAL YOUTH!! There is heavy recruitment taking place
in Watsonville and we MUST provide youth with positive alternative
for their own self-determination and empowerment. The Youth are
our leaders... NOT cannon fodder!
Have fun and bring 5 friends, noise-makers, horns, pots/pans,
musical instruments, your power, your voice, your resistance,
your alternatives.
WHY MILITARY RECRUITERS SHOULD BE BANNED FROM Watsonville High:
-Institutional Discrimination Against Queers in the
Military through their 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Policy!
-Sexual Harassment in the Military! (90% of recent women vets
reported sexual harrasment- 1/3 of whom were raped)
-Racism in the Military and in its Recruiting
Practices!
-They lie! Most Enlistees Don't Get the $$$ for
College, Job Training, or Travelling that is Promised!: (two-thirds
of recruits never get any college funding! veterans average
only 1.78 months of training in 31 months of active duty)
-Destruction of the Environment by the Military!
-$$$ for Education, Not Incarceration or the Military!
-Intentional recruitment into low-income communities and
communities of color, specifically Latino communities:
NO MORE POVERTY DRAFT -And this thing called WAR!
This action will take place in solidarity with UCSC‚s recent
action to kick recruiters off campus as well as with current
counter-recruitment campaigns, and proposal to Watsonville City
Council to ban military recruiters from public property.
"The true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love"
- Che Guevara
"From the depths of need and despair, people can work together,
can organize themselves to solve their own problems and fill
their own needs with dignity and strength." ~ Cesar Chavez
Dare to Struggle ˆ Dare to Win
!POWER TO THE PEOPLE!
¡Hasta la victoria!
ucsc_antiwar Moderator
Welcome to the ucsc_antiwar group at Yahoo! Groups, a
free, easy-to-use email group service. Please
take a moment to review this message.
To learn more about the ucsc_antiwar group, please visit
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ucsc_antiwar
To start sending messages to members of this group, simply
send email to
ucsc_antiwar@yahoogroups.com
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
12) *Protest Against Military Recruiters*
Thursday, April 21st * 10:30 am
The Fountain on Sproul Plaza, UC Berkeley
Counter Recruitment has become a national issue, and it's
working. Between these efforts and widespread anger about the
war, all branches of the United States Military have seen
drastic drops in their recruitment rates. In February, the
Army missed its recruiting goal for the first time in nearly
five years, and it missed its March goal by 32 percent. The
Army Reserve is 10 percent behind their year-to-date recruiting
target and the National Guard is 26 percent short, while the
need for soldiers is on the rise. Counter Recruitment has
proven to be an effective tool in actually hindering the
Military's ability to carry out this immoral and unjust war,
and Berkeley
Stop the War Coalition has been working to bring the Counter
Recruitment movement to UC Berkeley's
campus.
Recently, the Associated Students at the University of
California (ASUC) passed a resolution that argued that
military recruiters (who refuse to recruit gays and lesbians)
violate the University of California's anti-discrimination
policy and therefore should not be allowed access to ASUC
facilities (SB 107). Still, military recruiters have announced
their intention to show up at the Career Fair in the MLK
student union. We have to build the biggest protest possible
to let them know that we won't stand for the military's
discriminatory policies and that we oppose the war on Iraq
that they are recruiting for. Join a growing movement of
schools that are taking a stand against military recruitment
on campuses!
COME THE LAST PLANNING MEETING & CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
TEACH-IN FOR THE PROTEST WEDNESDAY APRIL 20th,
225 WHEELER @ 7pm
SPONSORED BY: Berkeley Stop the War Coalition, member
of the Campus Anti-war Network (CAN)
WEBSITES AND CONTACT INFO:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ucbstopthewar/
www.campusantiwar.net
Contact: ucbstopthewar@hotmail.com, or Daniel at 510-708-6803 and dsaver@berkeley.edu
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
13) A Dirty Little Footnote
to the Energy Bill
By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO
April 15, 2005
"The question is who will pay for the cleanup. United Water,
a subsidiary of Suez S.A. , has sued the manufacturers of MTBE
[methyl tertiary butyl ether], to recover its costs. And as
hundreds of communities from coast to coast are finding the
additive in their water systems, the issue of paying for the
cleanup is becoming increasingly contentious."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/15/business/15pollute.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
14) School Pools, Now Dry Storage
By ELISSA GOOTMAN
Published: April 14, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/14/nyregion/14pool.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
15) Study Finds Shortcoming in
New Law on Education
By GREG WINTER
Published: April 13, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/13/national/13child.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
16) AFL-CIO EXECUTIVE PAYWATCH
Great new web site!
"Every year, shareholders and America' s workers learn of new
jaw-dropping executive compensation packages that seemingly
defy rational explanation. In 2004, the average CEO of a major
company received $9.84 million in total compensation, according
to The New York Times."...and more. Go to:
http://www.aflcio.org/corporateamerica/paywatch/
CEO Pay Widens the Income Gap
2004 Top 10 Most Highly Paid CEOs on Executive PayWatch
Yahoo Inc.
Terry S. Semel
$109,301,385
Apple Computer
Steven P. Jobs
$86,315,789
Coach Inc.
Lew Frankfort
$64,918,520
TXU Corp.
John C. Wilder
$54,960,893
Occidental Petroleum
Ray R. Irani
$52,648,142
NVR Inc.
Dwight C. Schar
$51,058,500
KB Home
Bruce Karatz
$47,288,228
Toll Brothers
Robert I. Toll
$44,240,611
Allegheny Energy
Paul J. Evanson
$40,543,354
Motorola Inc.
Edward J. Zander
$38,851,374
What's wrong with CEOs taking a disproportionate share of the wealth?
Excessive CEO pay takes dollars out of the pockets of shareholders
-including the retirement savings of America's working families.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
17) Student's Arrest at G.O.P.
Convention Puts His Life in Limbo
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
Published: April 15, 2005
Videos Shed New Light on Convention Arrests
New video evidence has led prosecutors to drop charges against
many protestors arrested during the Republican Convention.
Jim Dwyer, a reporter for The Times, narrates a look at some of
the footage.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/15/nyregion/15tape.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
18) RNC demonstrators
settle contempt of court
claims against NYC
By SAMUEL MAULL
Associated Press Writer
April 15, 2005, 2:58 PM EDT
http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--conventionarrests0415apr15,0,3633451.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
19) A Deal for Jet Fighters
Opens the Door to India
By LESLIE WAYNE
Published: April 16, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/16/business/worldbusiness/16plane.html?ei=5094&en=8a405b021c535ca8&hp=&ex=1113710400&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1113671069-QWEfGr/5yZmdox2dO9WBBQ
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
20) For Women in Sciences,
Slow Progress in Academia
By SARA RIMER
Published: April 15, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/15/education/15women.html?
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
21) Urgent Alert - Take Action Now!
Stop the terrorist Luis Posada Carriles
from gaining asylum in the United States
Support Venezuela and Cuba's demands on Bush
to extradite the murderer Luis Posada to Venezuela.
Tell George W. Bush and Congress:
No asylum for the fascist criminal in the United States!
The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition has set-up an easy-to-use way to
send Bush and Congress a message. Use the link below to tell them:
"No safe-haven for the terrorist Posada in the U.S."
On April 12 Luis Posada Carriles, the notorious anti-Cuba terrorist
and killer, appealed for asylum in the United States through his
attorneys in Miami. The planner of terrorist acts that have killed
dozens of Cubans and other people, Posada was in hiding in
Central America for the last seven months after being prematurely
released from jail by Panama's right-wing puppet president Mireya
Moscoso at the behest of the Bush administration.
Posada was convicted in Panama after being caught in November
2000 with 33 pounds of C-4 explosives intended for assassinating
Cuban President Fidel Castro. Now, the U.S. government is entertaining
inviting this man, who poses such a great and vicious danger, to
receive safe haven from prosecution in the United States.
Undoubtedly assisted by the U.S. government to enter the United
States, Posada has been in Miami since the end of March. His three
other conspirators, Pedro Remón, Gaspar Jiménez Escobedo and
Guillermo Novo Sampol, were also pardoned in Panama and flew
into Miami last August. They are implicated in several murders in
the United States, including the 1976 Washington DC car-bombing
that killed Chilean Orlando Letelier and American Ronnie Moffitt.
Posada was a CIA agent in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and possibly
to the present. He was trained in explosives and sabotage at the
notorious School of the Americas in the CIA's "Operation 40" for
the Bay of Pigs invasion.
What are some of his other crimes? Posada and his accomplice
Orlando Bosch were the masterminds of the bombing of Cubana
Airlines flight 455 on October 6, 1976 that killed 73 people.
Posada and Bosch plotted the crime from Venezuela.
The Justice Department moved to deport Bosch from the United
States in 1989. In the deportation order, U.S. Asst. Attorney
General Joseph D. Whitley said: "For 30 years Bosch has been
resolute and unwavering in his advocacy of terrorist violence. ...
His actions have been those of a terrorist, unfettered by laws or
human decency, threatening and inflicting violence without regard
to the identity of his victims."
These words hold true for Posada, his partner-in-crime.
However, Bush Sr. overrode the deportation order in 1990.
Bosch lives in Miami.
Posada bragged to the New York Times in an interview
(July 12 & 13, 1998) that he directed the 1997 bombings
of Havana hotels. A 32-year-old Italian tourist, Fabio Di Celmo,
was killed at the Copacabana hotel.
These are only some of the shocking crimes carried out against
the Cuban and other peoples.
While in Venezuela in the 1970s, Posada oversaw the killing of
Venezuelan leftists as head of the Intelligence and Prevention
Services Division (DISIP) of the national police. In the 1980s
Posada commanded the supply of munitions to the Nicaraguan
contras from the CIA's Ilopango airbase in El Salvador.
Today, the presence of Posada, Bosch and other terrorists in
Miami is proof that the U.S. government is fully behind the
terror attacks on Cuba.
Since the 1959 Cuban revolution, more than 3,400 Cuban people
have died by violent attacks perpetrated on the island by
anti-Cuban paramilitary groups that operate freely in Miami.
It is time for justice for the victims of Posada's crimes.
Peace-loving people in the U.S. and all who believe in justice
must make it clear that Posada is not welcome here, and we
must demand that this government reject his asylum claim.
The fact that the Bush Administration and the CIA are clearing
the way for Posada to take up residence in the U.S. is evidence
of the extreme hypocrisy and outright lie of Bush's so-called
"war on terror." They have engaged in a calculated and cynical
manipulation of the term to claim to be fighting against
"terrorism" when in truth, they are waging a political war for
conquest and empire.
We urge all A.N.S.W.E.R. supporters to send a letter to Bush
and Congress now to say:
1. No asylum for Posada
2. Honor the extradition demand of Venezuela
A.N.S.W.E.R. has set up an easy-to-use mechanism to facilitate
sending a quick email to George W. Bush and the Congressional
Representative in your District and Senators in your state with
your demands. Several members, including William Delahunt
(D-MA) and Jim McDermott (D-WA), have protested Posada's
asylum petition.
We have provided a sample letter, but you can customize your
message to get your point across. Please take a moment now,
by clicking here to send a message to Bush and Congress.
Free the Cuban Five
Instead of arresting the terrorists, the FBI prosecuted the
anti-terrorists: five Cuban men who were sent by Cuba into
Miami to monitor the actions of the paramilitary groups, to protect
Cuba from terror attacks. Known as the "Cuban Five," they were
unjustly tried and convicted in Miami in 2001 and are serving
lengthy sentences in U.S. prison. They are Gerardo Hernández,
Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and
René González.
For more background information on the Miami terrorists and the
freedom campaign for the Cuban Five anti-terrorist activists, visit: www.freethefive.org
Funds are Urgently Needed
Funds are urgently needed to help the antiwar movement continue
to get stronger. We can't do it without your help. You can make
a contribution through a secure server by clicking here, where
you can also find information on how to contribute by check.
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
http://www.ANSWERcoalition.org
info@internationalanswer.org
National Office in Washington DC: 202-544-3389
New York City: 212-533-0417
Los Angeles: 323-464-1636
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
For media inquiries, call 202-544-3389.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
20) US Marshals, local police
stage nationwide mass arrests
By Bill Van Auken
WSWS :News & Analysis :North America
16 April 2005
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/apr2005/arr-a16.shtml
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
21) Army helicopter lands at
Port Angeles, Sequim high schools
in bid to interest recruits
2005-04-14
by RAUL VASQUEZ
http://peninsuladailynews.com/sited/story/html/204077
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
22) INTERVIEWS: 'Racism is a key motivating factor in the war'
(Aidan Delgado)
[Aidan Delgado is former Army reservist, honorably discharged as a
conscientious objector, who is the son of a U.S. diplomat and has lived in
Thailand, Senegal, and Egypt. -- Thanks to seven years spent in Cairo, he
became fluent in Arabic and gained considerable familiarity with Arab culture.
-- As an Army Reservist, Delgado served in the 320th Military Police
Company; he spent twelve months in Iraq, six of them at Abu Ghraib prison. --
A number of pieces on Delgado follow: -- (1) A long interview conducted by
Paul Rockwell and posted on the web site Black Commentator, in which Delgado
describes widespread officially tolerated anti-Arab racism both in military
training and in the conduct of operations in Iraq, and asks: "Have we
overcome racism in the sense that blacks and whites are banded together in the
hatred of Arabs?" -- (2) A piece from UCLA's *Daily Bruin* in January. --
(3) An interview conducted by Oakland attorney Scott Fleming, published in LiP
magazine and widely reproduced elsewhere, in which Delgado says of his time in
the military: "It made me really unpopular, the radical notion that you
should treat Arabs or Iraqis as human being"; Delgado also explains how he
overcame his initial reluctance to speak out about his experiences. --Mark]
http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/2612/
Think Piece
NEW REVELATIONS ABOUT RACISM IN THE MILITARY
By Paul Rockwell
Black Commentator
April 7, 2005
http://www.blackcommentator.com/133/133_think_racism_military.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
23) MILITARY OUTREACH IS NECESSARY,
BUT SCHOOLS MUST TAKE CARE
TO SET LIMITS
We want you -- within reason
San Jose Mercury
Mercury News Editorial
Posted on Thursday, Apr. 14, 2005
http://thinkfirst.peacework.us/articles/CounterRecruiting-Editorial-M2005m0414.html
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/11390961.htm
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
24) Climate change wreaking havoc with seasons
By Matthew Beard
15 April 2005
Climate change is playing havoc with the timing of the
seasons and could drastically alter the landscape, according
to one of the most comprehensive studies of its kind.
Frogs have begun spawning in Britain as early as October, oaks
are coming into leaf three weeks earlier than they were
50 years ago and there were an unprecedented 4,000 sightings
of bumblebees by the end of January this year.
Scientists, who also noted that people were mowing their
lawns earlier, have concluded that spring now arrives ahead
of schedule.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=629530
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
25) U.S. cuts Sec. 8 housing subsidy
Bay Area rents, aid voucher values decline
Ilene Lelchuk, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, April 18, 2005
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/04/18/BAG7KCAJHS1.DTL
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
26) "By putting my weapon down, I chose to reassert myself
as a human being."
On May 1, 2, and 4th, Camilo Mejía, the first Iraq war
veteran to file for discharge from the army as a conscientious
objector, and who spent a year in the stockade for his
courageous stance, is coming to the Bay Area. He will be
making appearances in San Jose, Palo Alto, Oakland, and Santa
Cruz at events co-sponsored by Veterans for Peace, KPFA &
many other groups:
· San Jose, Sunday, May 1, 2 pm, at St. Paul‚s United
Methodist Church 405 S 10th, co-sponsored by South-Bay Mobilization.
· Palo Alto, Sunday, May 1, 7 pm, at Unitarian Church
at Charleston and Middlefield, co-sponsored by Peninsula Peace
and Justice Center.
· Oakland, Monday, May 2, 7 pm, 1st Congregational
Church, 27th at Harrison.
· Santa Cruz, Wednesday, May 4th, 7 pm, Veterans Building
846 Front Street, co-sponsored by Resource Center for
Non-Violence and VFW Bill Motto Post 5888.
All events $5-15 sliding scale donation, no one turned away
for lack of funds. All events co-sponsored by Global Exchange,
CCCO, AFSC, International ANSWER, Not in Our Name, Code Pink,
Stop Impunity and Courage to Resist. Events are wheelchair
accessible. For more information, call 415-255-7331 or
www.veteransforpeace.org
For additional information, contact Bill Schwalb @
(415) 285-5627. For press contact, contact (510) 418-3436.
Background (not in PSA)
At age 19, Camilo Mejía joined the army, seduced by the promise
of a free college education, which later turned out to be not so
free. He served as an infantryman from 1995 until 1998, then
transferred to the Florida National Guard, and worked while
attending school. In December 2002 Camilo was enrolled in the
University of Miami and was one semester away from finishing
his BA in psychology when his National Guard unit was activated
in preparation for the war on Iraq. Deployed to Iraq in
April 2003, he was a squad leader engaged in combat operations
until October, when he returned to the US on a 14-day leave.
From his personal experiences in Iraq, he had come to a clear
and deep opposition to the war. He refused to return to his
unit in Iraq, and filed for a discharge as a conscientious
objector, stating that he believed the war to be „illegal and
immoral.‰ In May 2004, he turned himself into the military and
presented his conscientious-objector application. He was
subsequently tried by the army as a deserter and sentenced
to one year in the stockade, but only spent nine months.
He was adopted by Amnesty International as a Prisoner of
Conscience, has been awarded a „Courage of Conscience Award‰
from Peace Abbey.
Released from prison on February 15, he has agreed to come to
the Bay Area to speak. He is being sponsored by Veterans for
Peace, KPFA, Global Exchange, CCCO, AFSC, Peninsula Peace Center,
South Bay Mobilization, International ANSWER, Resource Center
for Non-Violence, Code Pink, Not in Our Name, Stop Impunity,
Courage to Resist.
Released from prison on February 15, he has agreed to come to
the Bay Area to speak. He is being sponsored by Veterans for
Peace, KPFA, Global Exchange, CCCO, AFSC, Peninsula Peace
Center, South Bay Mobilization, International ANSWER, Resource
Center for Non-Violence, Code Pink, Not in Our Name, Stop
Impunity, Courage to Resist.
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27) Detroit crisis leads to call:
Feed the cities, starve the Pentagon
By Cheryl LaBash
Detroit
Published Apr 14, 2005 11:35 PM
http://www.workers.org/2005/us/detroit-0421/
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