Filed under Antifa, Blog by T. Miles on 24 August 2010 at 1:02 am
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To the editors of the BBC,
Your appalling “Muslim Brotherhood expands westward” by Magdi Abdelhadi seems entirely based on two writers who have no academic qualifications or credibility and one of whom has a long history of extreme right-wing religious bigotry. The premise, pushed by Steven Emerson and several extreme right organizations like the Committee for the Present Danger and David Horowitz’s “Front Page” (the creator of “Islamo-Fascist Week”, who regularly republishes Emerson’s work), is that the Muslim Brotherhood has underground organizations plotting terror throughout the west. It would be laughable if it were not so pernicious.
Perhaps your writer might Google Steven Emerson’s name before you base an entire story on his fantastic and hateful views.
Some examples:
“controversial terrorism expert Steve Emerson-who has been accused of sloppy journalism and with having a pervasive anti-Arab bias-and behind the scenes was remaking himself into a self-styled authority on terrorism” (Salon.com, January 19, 2002).
Emerson was the prime mover behind the extreme-right “documentary” “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West” which extreme-right groups produced to be distributed during the 2008 US presidential campaign. It argued that Islam “is threatening, with all the means at its disposal, to bow Western civilization under the yoke of its values.”
Isabel Macdonald noted of Emerson in 2008 that:
“his research has been repudiated many times over. This is an “expert” who initially blamed the Oklahoma City bombing on Middle Eastern terrorists, and who is now going around claiming that the Bush State Department is collaborating with extremists.”
From the Minnesota Independent:
Emerson has a long history of getting into hot water over his anti-Muslim rhetoric. In the 1998 nuclear standoff between India and Pakistan, Emerson fed reporters with an informant who said Pakistan was set to strike India with a nuclear weapon. The media eventually found the informant to be unreliable – but not until international media had used Emerson’s source and intensified an international crisis.
In 1990, he was accused of plagiarism in his writings about Pan Am 103.
He sued a Florida paper after it published reports that he was supplying reporters with documents he said were from the FBI. The Florida Weekly Planet reported that the documents were frauds and Emerson sued. When he couldn’t substantiate his claims, he withdrew the lawsuit.
Emerson once claimed that an extremist Muslim group put out a hit on him and that the FBI offered to put him in a witness protection program. The FBI denied that claim.
Emerson told Fox News “80% of the mosques in the United States are controlled by the Wahhabists. That’s the reality. No one wants to admit it. They’re the ones that attract terrorists.”
In March of 1995, Emerson told The Jewish Monthly, “nearly all of the Islamic organizations in the United States that define themselves as religiously or culturally Muslim in character have, today, been totally captured or dominated by radical fundamentalist elements…”
In 1998 Emerson falsely wrote that in the 1960s one of his critics, California journalist Reese Erlich, ‘was charged with conspiracy to carry out violence in support of the Black Panthers.’ Emerson apologized and paid Erlich $3,000,” (Washington Post, November 14, 2001).
Emerson had concluded before September 11th, that “the U.S. has become occupied fundamentalist territory” (Jerusalem Post, 8/8/97)
Emerson is quoted by The Palm Springs (California) Desert Sun Newspaper as saying that “Islam’s ‘leadership and organizational superstructure’ threaten Western values” and that (radical) Muslims “want to conquer the United States. They want to conquer Europe.”
The Wall Street Journal stated in 1993, “Mr. Emerson’s prime role is to whitewash Israeli governments and revile their critics.”
Emerson appears regularly with Pamela Geller, the woman who is organizing the anti-Mosque protests in NY right now, along with another of Emerson’s regular collaborators, Robert Spencer. Spencer, author of the “Jihadwatch” blog who regularly equates all Muslims with terrorists, and their religion is “a cult”. With inspiration from groups like the English Defense League and Dutch neo-fascist Geert Wilders, Spencer and Geller run the group “Stop the Islamization of America”. Emerson regularly contributes to their work. Emerson has claimed that the Imam of the Islamic Community Center proposed for lower Manhattan Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, and former GW Bush era US government advisor, is a “radical extremist cleric who cloaks himself in sheep’s clothing.”
One could go on.
What possible research could your reporter have done to afford this — controversial at best — writer the forum of an entire article showcasing his crackpot theories, which include the belief that every major Muslim-American organization are involved in terrorism though a secret ‘US Muslim Brotherhood” group?
How could someone identified as your “Middle East Editor” be so startlingly ignorant of the background of their sources?
I expect a reply,
T Miles, NY, NY
For a little background on Emerson see:
- http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1443
- http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/Emerson_Steven
- http://www.cairchicago.org/2007/03/31/steven-emersons-disturbing-track-record/
- http://www.loonwatch.com/2009/05/steve-emerson-wowser/
- http://www.cairchicago.org/2009/05/05/career-hatemonger-steven-emerson-enraged-by-cair-chicago%E2%80%99s-positive-social-engagement/
- http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/42070
- http://smearcasting.com/smear_emerson.html
- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/isabel-macdonald/the-anti-muslim-smear-mac_b_133695.html
- http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/08/ground_zero_mosque_imam_bush_partner_for_peace.php
Filed under ..., Afrique by T. Miles on 17 June 2010 at 4:29 pm
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One of the many menacing street parties of South Africa, from soccerphile.com. Chilling.
As I’ll be spending most of this month tied to a TV or radio, I’ve so far noted one shocking fact: The South African World Cup is not riven by crime, corruption, shoddy workmanship, or terrorism. In fact, things are going swimmingly, the stadiums operations and infrastructure are beautiful, and the only deaths among the 450,000 visitors have been from road accident and falling off a mountain while admiring the scenery.
There’s more realistic complaints about the football itself, especially after the South African side’s almost suicidally poor performances (not to mention a drought of goals, dashed expectations for most African sides, and disastrous English, Spanish, and French performances). But even if rose gardens have not been delivered on the field or in terms of secondary development, so much of the press run up was so negative — even years of rumors that FIFA would move the cup at the last moment — that it may come as a shock how happy foreign fans are with what they’ve found in South Africa.
One report quotes a puzzled German fan. Puzzled because, despite the foreign press hysterics, he can go to a local bar and discover “I’m the only white guy in the room but I feel very safe.”.
South African sports reporter Peter Davies has a wonderful piece entitled An Open letter to our Foreign Media friends, marveling at the gloom of foreign media outlets who quake in terror of “machete-wielding gangs roaming the suburbs in search of tattooed, overweight Dagenham dole-queuers to ransack and leave gurgling on the pavement.” But surprise! There’s no fear in walking the streets provided you don’t hang a wad of cash out your back pocket. There are also a surprising shortage of wild animal attacks and collapsing stadia. “For instance, you will find precious few rhinos loitering on street corners, we don’t know a guy in Cairo named Dave just because we live in Johannesburg, and our stadiums are magnificent, world-class works of art.”
Andrew Harding, the BBC’s Africa correspondent, writes about tourists having “had some preconceptions overturned” as England fans descended on Phokeng. While local worried about hooligans (there were none), visitors realized they may have been misled about the dangers of “black Africa”. “We stayed at Sun City, said a couple from Leeds, sitting at [a black African run] bar. We were worried about the crime. But now we just wish we’d come and stayed here.”
Football, eh?
That said…
There are real complaints about South Africa — suffering from gross inequality and rampant poverty — throwing this much money at a World Cup party. I do agree. But that’s all of capitalism, not just football. And it’s not like they were really going to spend this money on poor folks. At best this can be an opportunity to cross borders in solidarity, to share these struggles, both in Africa and abroad. But I for one love sport, and the joy it brings. While those who look after the rich alone will always screw the poor, football can be our weapon as well as ours. Here are some links to the Poor People’s Movement and The Shack Dwellers Movement in South Africa, and social struggles around the World Cup, including the brilliant “Poor People’s Alternative World Cup.”
Other Related articles
Filed under Afrique, Do this by T. Miles on 30 November 2009 at 4:10 pm
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Guinean's and supporters march in the streets of Manhattan following the September 28th killings.
Join the second march on the UN by Guineans and their allies in New York City, Thursday December 8th. If you can’t make it, there are ways to get involved, including organizing solidarity events and extensive letter writing campaigns, so please do!
Kadiatou Diallo (Amadou Diallo‘s mother) and Norm Siegal of the NYCLU are lending their voices to this, in support of “Alliance Guinea” in America. Their Advocacy page asks: “Are you an elected leader or political activist? Join our advocacy action group. Email allianceguinea(at)gmail.com to get involved in any of these sub-committees.” There is also a full list of ways you can help at http://www.allianceguinea.org/advocacy-what-you-can-do/ .
The US based rights group Alliance Guinea is organizing a march and protest demanding the military junta in Conakry, murderers of thousands of innocents and, be brought to justice. Only last week it was reported that the Guinean military was employing South African and Israeli mercenaries, hired by a firm run by a US former West Point graduate and Morgan Stanley executive, to train ethnic militias. The use of such divisions, long overcome in by most Guineans, could plunge the nation into a civil war like Yugoslavia experienced in the 1990s, and create suffering across West Africa. Demand the UN make sure the regime in Conakry knows they have no future in government, and their only hope is to hand over power to a civilian transitional authority immediately.
If you can’t make the Tuesday lunchtime march:
- Write a letter to your government and press demanding action, and
- Come to the “Musique contre la Violence” unity night in Harlem on December 9 at 8PM at Shrine in Harlem
Full release follows:
Pro-democracy march in NYC on Dec. 8
From: Alliance Guinea
http://www.allianceguinea.org
This is far from over – the latest news out of Guinea is a proposed deal that would have the CNDD junta heading a “national transition council” for up to 10 months and open the door for Dadis to stand in elections. At the same time, the UN is beginning the work of the international commission of inquiry into the crimes of September 28, but it’s clear that more international pressure against the military and support for the population is needed.
Here in New York Alliance Guinea has joined forces with the Guinean Forces Vives in the US and our friends Kadiatou Diallo and Norman Siegel of the Amadou Diallo Foundation to form the “September 28 Coalition for Justice and Democracy in Guinea.”
Together we are organizing a march and rally on Tuesday, December 8 from 11am – 3pm to demand justice for the crimes committed and support for a speedy and democratic transition to civilian rule in Guinea. At 11am we will gather in front of the Guinean consulate at 140 E. 39th St., marching then to 47th Street and rallying by noon at Dag Hammarskjold Park in front of the United Nations.
see http://www.allianceguinea.org Stay tuned for a list of expected speakers.
If you live far from New York and cannot join us in person, here are two things you can still do:
- Make a donation – help us offset the cost of the rally (permits, transport, stage & sound system costs, etc.) through our new online giving button at http://www.allianceguinea.org Check it out and pass the word – every gift counts!
- Write a letter (again!) to your local newspaper or Congressperson/Member of Parliament and tell them about the march and how the latest news out of Guinea confirms the critical need for international pressure and support is critical to getting justice and preventing what could spiral into civil war. For sample letters and other tips, see http://www.allianceguinea.org/advocacy-what-you-can-do/
- And if you are in the New York area and can’t make it during lunch hour on Tuesday, don’t miss for what is going to be an amazing “Musique contre la Violence” unity night in Harlem on December 9 at 8pm at Shrine in Harlem with some of the greatest masters of Guinean music living in America and guest speakers from the September 28 Coalition. (2271 Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard, New York, NY 10030)
The situation in Guinea is just as dire as ever, and justice must be served and the military must go.
Need More details? see:
Filed under Antifa, Do this by T. Miles on 18 November 2009 at 4:49 pm
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Ivan, provided security for antifascists and dissdents of all stripes.
“S2W” at avtonom.org shares his memories of this modern day hero, Ivan Khutorskoy.
“Yesterday evening, Monday the 16th of November, 26 year old anti-fascist Ivan “Vanya Kostolom” Khutorskoy was shot to death at the entrance to his home at Khabarovsk street in the east side of Moscow; according to some information with two shots to his head.
Vanya was a great figure in the Russian anti-fascist movement, and I am sure many people will write down their memories of him in the days, months and years to come. But as of today most of his friends are too angry and too shocked, at the loss of this friend and comrade. [read the rest at avtonom.org]
You can help:
“Vanya’s father died a few years ago, he is by his mother and his sister. Donations to support friends and family with funeral costs are welcome, you may use Yandex-money account 41001411894609, or in case you do not know what that is, you may donate through ABC-Moscow: http://www.avtonom.org/donate. But in this case write to ABC-Moscow about your plans (abc-msk AT riseup DOT net, and also indicate in transfer that it is “for Kostolom friends and family”. ”
Filed under Featured, Niger by T. Miles on 11 November 2009 at 11:27 pm
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ECOWAS and it's Nigerian representatives are playing rough.
On the 11th of November, the government of Niger confirmed the elections for it’s new parliament, boycotted by opposition and assailed as undemocratic from abroad. Two days before Finance Minister Zeine, who now serves at the will of the first President of the Sixth Republic, Tandja Mamadou, also announced the government budget for 2010. Like the August 18th unilateral transition from the semi-presidential Fifth Republic, this first budget of the Sixth Republic is a mixture of unchecked opacity and optimistic bluster.
Niger’s government announced it would spend some 735 billion CFA Francs (1.1 Billion Euros), up from 730 Billion FCFA the year before. Of course, 2009 saw hundreds of millions — no one is quite sure how much — being paid to the government of Niger for new foreign mining and oil contracts. Still, Niger says that they expect their internal tax revenue to increase to record levels and and their foreign supports budget to increase almost nine and a half percent, to 330 billion FCFA (505 million Euros). With projected internal tax and and contract revenue, of around 614 million Euros, the government has confidently promised to exactly cover their expenditures. These figures, with a projection of a %4.3 economic growth for the coming year — almost entirely based on exports of uranium — sound good enough.
Venture capitalists reading the regurgitation of such projections in outlets like Bloomberg News, might be fooled. Except that these figures are largely meant as propaganda. The independent Niamey Canard Dechaine paper asked the obvious question in response: “who are these foreign sources of income” who will make up half of the revenue in direct payments, and much of the contract revenue?
The constitutional coup of President Tandja has ground these foreign payments to a halt. The EU has frozen 180 billion Euros in direct payments for this year, and given a 30 day ultimatum for a return to constitutional government, before they cut off further funds. IMF organized funding for infrastructure projects, including support for the African Development Bank managed Kandadji Hydroelectric Dam project, as well as for the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) fund, has not been reviewed since the beginning of September, and will likely be effected, especially as Kandadji funding was funneled through ECOWAS, an organization which has suspended all work with the government of Niger. Add the suspension of US and French non-humanitarian programs, and Niger has a rather large hole in its pocket, even if France continues to buy their uranium and China keeps investing in oil, mining, and infrastructure.
If more bad news were needed, the agricultural season was poor in parts of Niger, a nation where over eighty prevent of the population rely on agriculture for their livelihoods. While not a disaster, a June dry gap following the first rains caused some areas to have to replant, and millet yields are low. Couple that with the knife edge politically, Niger is in even worse shape.
Goods being confiscated at the Nigerian border with Niger
ECOWAS president Nigeria seems to be taking a hard line, regardless — or perhaps because of — that nation’s less than transparent 2007 presidential elections. President Yar’Adua has placed former General and President Abdulsalami Abubakar in the lead for the so called “Abuja I” consultations beginning this week. On the eve of these meetings, Nigeria arranged for a small demonstration of its strength. Border guards at the three main crossings south of Maradi, Zinder and Tahoua stopped all commercial transport for at least a day. Travelers were searched, and goods were impounded. The border between these neighbors cuts through the midst of Hausaland, and the major markets for goods from Niger — apart from those big exports by the government — are sold in the markets of Kano and Katsina. A flurry of denials as to who ordered such a closure followed, but the point was surely made.
The government delegation to Abuja, made up of PM Ali Badjo Gamatié and other high Nigerien officials who have been jetting around the ECOWAS states to plead their case for several weeks, arrived in Nigeria on the 10th. According to the Niamey press, the party which included three former Prime Ministers and several other high level minister, were met at the airport by no Nigerian delegation, and had to rent their own cars. All experienced officials, the Nigerien delegation included former Prime Ministers Mamane Oumarou, Cheiffou Amadou, Hamid Algabid, Seini Oumarou, current Press Minister Kassoum Moktar, former Press Minister Mohamed Ben Omar, longtime party leader Sanoussi Tambari Jackou, and current Foreign Minister Aïchatou Mindaoudou.
At the Abuja Sheraton, they were made to sit a wait several hours by the Nigerians, and then General Abdulsalami refused to meet with the entire illustrious delegation, and insisted that the current Niger PM and Foreign minister be the only officials interviewed. The Foreign Minister’s meeting with the Nigerian Ambassador to Niger was reportedly repeated halted while the Nigerian took calls on his mobile. Meanwhile a forty member Nigerien opposition delegation has arrived in Abuja as well, and both the EU and ECOWAS are demanding a compromise deal be done directly with the Nigerien anti-Tandja activists.
So here’s the big question: which side will be forced into a deal? On the surface there is no squaring the circle. The opposition will not accept the transition to the 6th Republic as legal, and the 5th Republic’s constitution was very clear that Tandja must leave power on 22 December.
The Nigerien opposition press has begun floating the answer: the 7th Republic. In this scenario, Tandja would become a figurehead President during an 18 month transition while an assembly of all stakeholders would be called to draft a new constitution, overseen by former President Mahamane Ousmane. Meanwhile opposition leader Mahamadou Issoufou would become head of government. If you think you’ve heard this before, you may be right. Military dictator Ali Saibou‘s failed 2nd Republic was edged out of power in much the same way, with him as figurehead, while a National Convention wrote a new constitution.
Ali Saibou
Will Tandja agree? I would be surprised. He’s shown a remarkable unwavering drive to remain in power at all costs, and there are clearly now powerful family and military cliques who are using Tandja as cover for their enrichment — or to simply stave off prosecutions which might follow a change of government.
The last Nigerien strongman, Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara, was overthrown in similar circumstances.
On the other hand, Tandja might be wise to follow in the footsteps of Ali Saibou. Saibou retired to his home village in 1993, and to the best of my knowledge is still there. The next Nigerien strongman to be removed from power, Colonel / General / President Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara left the presidency in two body bags following a 1999 coup. Tandja might be reminded that the murder of that president took place only days after a then Nigerian President, Abubacar Abdulsalami, led ECOWAS negotiators in meetings with Baré Maïnassara over his annulment of promised elections. And the coup leaders who put Baré Maïnassara in power and took him out remain in places of influence in Tandja’s clique as well.
Filed under Do this, Featured by T. Miles on 2 November 2009 at 4:53 pm
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Free stickers, via IDollarNY.org
Tomorrow (Tuesday) is general election day here in New York City and across the waters in NJ. If you can vote, use it to make a point.
I know all the debates about voting not changing anything, and while I tend to agree, I’m not asking you to overthrow capitalism with your vote. It won’t do that. But it is a splendid soapbox from which to shout, and it is a way to ensure the object with which those in power can hit you is as small as possible.
So here are my recommendations:
Vote Against Bloomberg
The 4th richest man in America and the 17th richest in the world, Bloomberg is a billionaire 16 times over. He’s spending over $100 Million to finance a campaign that is illegal under NYC law, after we all voted twice for term limits. Of course he got other politicians to annul this law. I wonder how?
Bloomy has jumped UP the rankings, making billions more during his two mayoral terms. And yet he’s cutting schools, health care, services, and raising only those taxes that hit the working poor hardest.
http://www.voterevbilly.org
In short, he’s a scumbag. Tell him what you think by voting for Reverend Billy Tallen for mayor!
You don’t have to worry that Billy will win and be corrupted by power. And Billy has always been the first at every little picket or protest, always offered solidarity, always been there for those fighting power. You owe him one (if not several).
Vote Socialist for NJ Governor
Greg Pason, perennial candidate for the Socialist Party is running for governor. I may be biased. But the media driven acceptable choices are the fat Republican who loves George Bush, or the hairy Democrat who made billions as a unrepentant capitalist merchant banker, or the “independent” who’s really a Republican who just doesn’t hate everyone who’s not straight/white/rich as much as the first guy.
http://www.votepason.org/
Greg Pason is not going to win. Again, if you think this is a question of revolutionary principles, you’ve gotten ahead of yourself. This is a lifeline to those out there who’ve always been told that capitalism, free markets, and wage labor are the only choices there are. I’ve seen the effect that Greg’s campaigns can have on people across the state. People are so rarely reached by radical newspapers, protests, email lists, or punk rock fanzines. New Jersey law gives an avowed anti-capitalist air time, mailings that go to every home in the state, and a platform bigger than any march you’ve ever put together. Every vote Greg and other anti-capitalist candidates gets lends legitimacy to a future more just society.
And this society has gotten so used to abstention, that despite what you’re told, no power is threatened when you stay home. They just think you’re too fat and happy to shift your ass.
So drag it out: you won’t find a better use for a vote, even abstention.
Vote for Debbie Rose for NY City Council
Next Left Notes Photo: Michelle Akyempong
If you’re lucky enough to live on Staten Island, you have the chance to vote for Debbie Rose for City Council. After decades of grassroots activism, Debbie got out the vote and shocked the Democratic Party machine in the primaries, spanking the right wing Democrat Fred Flintstone look alike Ken Mitchell. Now Debbie is a day away from being the first person of color to be elected from any Staten Island election. Ever.
If that’s not reason enough, Ken Mitichell is storming back, using the Conservative Party ballot line (NYC politicians stand on, sometimes seemingly contradictory, multiple party lines) to try and win back his City Council seat. The same seat he was gifted by the Democratic machine, with which he did zero, except voting against a law that would protect Abortion providers from harassment.
Is Debbie Rose going to change the world? Hardly. But she’s good people, has always been loyal to her working class community and the struggles here against racism, police brutality, pollution and poverty. We need to give her a louder megaphone, and take it away from the idiots who hold it now.
So like I said, votes won’t make a revolution. That’s up to the rest of us. Your vote can make a point. Use it.
Filed under Afrique, Featured by T. Miles on 22 September 2009 at 1:22 pm
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Uri Davis, born to Czech And British Jews in Palestine is now on Palestine’s governing council. Is he a contemporary Yossel Mashel Slovo?
(more…)
Filed under Do this, SP by T. Miles on 18 September 2009 at 11:45 am
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Pittsburgh, PA – From September 22nd to 25th members of the NYC Local of the Socialist Party USA, will be in Pittsburgh, PA to participate in mass demonstrations in opposition to the G20 meeting being held in the city. We will be providing live reports, pictures and videos to the Socialist Webzine (http://socialistwebzine.blogspot.com) and our twitter account (@socialistzine). We will also be available by phone for interviews before, during and after the street protests.
Nations in the G20 control 90 percent of world GDP, and 80 percent of world trade and operate under the free market direction of the IMF and World Bank. As a result, UNICEF reports that more than 25,000 children die each day due to poverty and millions survive on less than $1 a day. The economic policies of the G20 are a direct cause of the current global economic crisis which has produced mass layoffs and social suffering throughout the world.
The G20 meetings have no published agenda and there is no accountability – the meetings are conducted in secret and remain closed only through the violent acts of police. We oppose these policies and will make this opposition clear by taking part in the demonstrations against the G20 meeting.
“People are tired of settling for the crumbs of the global economy,” says Billy Wharton, Editor of The Socialist and Socialist Webzine. “Thousands will march in Pittsburgh to demand democracy, economic redistribution, and a future beyond capitalism.”
The NYC Local of the Socialist Party USA supports the creation of a world where the vast wealth in society is used for the benefit of the greater good. We believe in a radical expansion of democracy to all areas of life and we promote the use of our civil rights to protest. With our participation in these demonstrations we are not only declaring our opposition to the G20, but also our belief that the exploitative policies of capitalism offer no way forward for humanity. For us, taking part in these demonstrations are a declaration in our belief that a more democratic and equitable future is possible.
###
For more information or to arrange interviews contact:
Billy Wharton
Editor, The Socialist and The Socialist WebZine
718-869-2279
billyspnyc (at) yahoo.com
Filed under Afrique, Do this by T. Miles on 24 August 2009 at 3:54 pm
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UPDATE 24 August: Nigerien Civil society activist Marou Amadou remains in arbitrary detention. According to the BBC he has been beaten in custody. Several other opposition activists arrested for protesting the coup remain in custody. Police have attacked peaceful protests, most recently on 22 August in Niamey, at which several opposition leaders were arrested. Also on 22 August Wada Maman, Secretary General of the “Front Uni pour la Sauvegarde des Acquis Démocratiques” (FUSAD), Board Member and Secretary General of the “Association Nigérienne de Lutte contre la Corruption” (ANLC), was detained by the military while waiting for a Niamey bus. He is being held without charge or representation.
Please demand the release of these activists.
A sample letter, addresses, and statements by Nigerien and international rights groups are below.
Further links to background material follows sample letter and statements.
==Independent statement=====
PLEASE COPY, SIGN, AND EMAIL, PRINT OR FAX TO THE ADDRESSES BELOW. EMAILS ARE EASY BUT PAPER LETTERS AND FAXES MAKE A STRONGER IMPACT.
cc: missionduniger@gmail.com, webmestre@assemblee.ne, pneniger@gmail.com, ambanigeracanada@rogers.com, embassyofniger@ioip.com, ambassadeniger@hotmail.com
——sample letter——–
24 August 2009
To the honorable representatives of the Republic of Niger,
We deplore the recent wave of arrests by the government of Niger and the use of force to disperse peaceful protests. We demand the immediate release of all political prisoners, an end to political prosecutions, and a return to the rule of law and respect for human rights.
Nigerien authorities must respect dissent and their own constitution. The people of Niger have suffered too much since the struggle for democracy in 1991 to allow a handful of the powerful to return their nation to autocracy.
We support the rights of civil society and opposition groups to protest and assemble, and we support the general strike of the Nigerien labour confederations, the CDTN, CGSL-N, CNT, UGTN, UGSEIN, USPT, and the USTN.
We condemn the arrest of dissident journalists and the arbitrary closure of opposition press;
We condemn the arrests and use of force against peaceful protesters in on the day of the 4 August referendum, and in Niamey and elsewhere both before and after 4 August;
We condemn the use of force against those using peaceful civil disobedience on the day of the 4 August referendum in Illea and elsewhere on 4 August;
We condemn the arrests of opposition activists between 1 and 5 August, including:
*Zakari Oumarou, opposition leader, arrested and arbitrarily detained at Konni;
*Amadou Nomao, Deputy of the National Assembly, arrested and arbitrarily detained at Badaguichiri;
*Alhousseini Ousmane and Elhadj Idrissa Maïgoro, opposition members arrested at Tahoua;
*Dr. Douma, opposition member arrested at Ayorou;
We condemn the arrest between 4 and 11 August and arbitrary detention at Koutoukalé prison of opposition activist Monsieur Alassane Karfi;
We condemn the arbitrary detention by the Judiciary Police of President of the Front pour la Restauration de la Démocratie (FRD) Hamissou Moumouni;
We especially condemn the multiple arrests, unlawful detention at Koutoukalé prison and beating by FNIS (Ministry of Interior Paramilitary Police) of Marou Amadou, Vice Coordinator of the Collectif pour la Défense du Droit à l’énergie au Niger (CODDAE) and spokesperson of the FDD;
We condemn the unlawful detention at Koutoukalé prison beginning 22 August of Wada Maman, Secretary General of the “Front Uni pour la Sauvegarde des Acquis Démocratiques” (FUSAD), Board Member and Secretary General of the “Association Nigérienne de Lutte contre la Corruption” (ANLC).
We condemn the prosecution of Abdoulaye Tiemogo, editor of a private satirical weekly, Le Canard Dechaine and the orchestrated campaign to silence those who question the financial dealings of those close to the President of Niger.
Rest assured that the people of the world stand by the people of Niger is their demands for democracy, rule of law, judicial Independence, and economic transparency. The truth will come out, and the people of Niger will judge not only the behavior of their government, but those who failed to act in the defense of law.
With the deepest respect for your great nation,
Signed (Your Name)
=======Ends===========
Addresses:
=====================
TO: Ambassador of the Republic of Niger to the United States, S.E.M Toure Aminata Djibrilla Maiga
Embassy of the Republic of Niger
2204 R Street, NW,
Washington DC 20008
Phone: (202) 483-4224
Fax: (202) 483-3169
Email: embassyofniger@ioip.com, ambassadeniger@hotmail.com
Website: http://ambassadeniger@hotmail.com
—-
TO: Ambassador of the Republic of Niger to Canada, S.E.M Nana Aicha FOUMAKOYE
Embassy of Niger in Ottawa, Canada
38 Blackburn Avenue
Ottawa
Ontario K1N 8A3
Phone: (+1) (613) 232-4291 / 2
Fax: (+1) (613) 230-9808
Email: ambanigeracanada@rogers.com
Website: http://www.ambanigeracanada.ca
—-
TO: President of the Republic of Niger, Tandja Mamadou
Office of the President
Palais Présidentiel
BP 550
Niamey
Niger
Fax: + 227 20 73 34 30
email: pneniger@gmail.com
Website: http://www.presidence.ne/contacts.php
Secrétariat Directeur de Cabinet
Telephone: + 227 20-72-24-72
Directeur de Cabinet Adjoint
Telephone: + 227 20-72-36-67
—-
TO: Prime Minister of the Republic of Niger, Seini Oumarou;
Monsieur le Premier Ministre, Chef du Gouvernement ;
Email: webmestre@assemblee.ne
Fax : + 227 20 73 58 59
TO: M. Garba Lompo, Ministre de la Justice,
Fax : +227 20 72 37 77
TO: M. Albade Aboufa, Ministre de l’Intérieur,
Fax: + 227 20 72 21 76
TO: Mission permanente du Niger auprès de l’Union européenne,
Fax : + 32 2 648 27 84
TO: Ambassadeur M. Adani Illo, Mission permanente du Niger auprès des Nations unies à Genève,
Avenue du Lignon 36 (2ème étage), 1219 Le Lignon, Suisse.
Fax: +41 22 979 24 51.
Email: missionduniger@gmail.com
====END ADDRESSES=====
=======Transparency International Statement========
Anti-corruption leader arrested in Niger as civil society faces increased intimidation
Berlin, 24 August 2009
Transparency International (TI) is seriously concerned about the arrest in Niger, of Wada Maman, Board Member and Secretary General of TI chapter, the Association Nigérienne de Lutte contre la Corruption (ANLC)
*http://www.transparency.org/news_room/latest_news/press_releases/2009/2009_08_24_niger_intimidation
=======Ends===========
=======Publish What You Pay statement===============
Action Alert: PWYP calls on the Nigerien government to end all forms of harassment against civil society leader Marou Amadou
Source: PWYP International – Action Alert
Date: 13 Aug 2009
http://www.publishwhatyoupay.org/en/resources/action-alert-pwyp-calls-nigerien-government-end-all-forms-harassment-against-civil-society
PWYP strongly condemns the transfer into police custody of Marou Amadou, president of the United Front for the Safeguard of Democratic Assets (FUSAD), coordinator of the Advisory and Orientation Committee for the Defence of Democratic Rights (CROISADE), and member of the Réseau des Organisations pour la Transparence et l’Analyse Budgetaire (ROTAB) – Publish What You Pay (PWYP) Niger.
According to ROTAB/PWYP Niger, Marou Amadou was discharged on Tuesday, 12 August 2009 after appearing before the Court of First Instance in Niamey, where he had been summoned for “inciting disobedience of defense and security forces” and “regionalist propaganda”, following his arrest on 10 August 2009 by the Nigerien Judicial Police.
PWYP condemns Marou Amadou’s forced transfer into police custody just hours after a court had ordered his release.
PWYP therefore demands that the discharge decision be respected and calls for the immediate release of Marou Amadou.
PWYP urges the Nigerien authorities to guarantee Marou Amadou’s physical and moral integrity.
PWYP calls on President Mamadou Tandja to ensure an end to all forms of harassment and intimidation against Marou Amadou and civil society activists in Niger, and to guarantee freedom of speech and of the press in accordance with the international human rights standards Niger has committed itself to.
Actions Required:
PWYP asks that you write to the Nigerien authorities, Nigerien diplomatic representatives and to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in your respective countries to draw their attention to your concerns and forward them this statement
=======Ends===========
=======Frontline Defenders Statement=======
Niger: Detention of human rights defender Mr Marou Amadou
2009/08/17
(Sample letter included)
http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/2128/action
=======OMCT Statement=======
*Organisation Mondiale Contre la Torture
Relaxe et disparition forcée de M. Marou Amadou Niger 11 août 2009
http://omct.org/index.php?id=OBS&lang=fr&actualPageNumber=1&articleSet=Appeal&articleId=8737
====Ends=====
Further links:
*News Reports on the arrest of Marou Amadou
**http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5isewxWl32nJBbl2UP0n3QYpCKSYA
**http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/2009-08-10-voa36.cfm
** BBC NEWS | Africa | Niger opposition figure ‘beaten’ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8197439.stm
* Transparency International Statement (22 August)
http://appablog.wordpress.com/2009/08/24/anti-corruption-leader-arrested-in-niger-as-civil-society-faces-increased-intimidation/
* Collectif pour la Défense du Droit à l’énergie au Niger (CODDAE) statement (Francais)
http://coddae.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=92:declaration-de-presse-relative-a-larrestation-du-camarade-marou-amadou-pour-atteinte-a-la-surete-de-letat&catid=1:actualite&Itemid=50
* Opposition decalration 11 August http://pnds-tarayya.net/news/news.php?id=41
DÉCLARATION DU 11 AOÛT 2009 La Coordination des Forces pour la Démocratie et la République (CFDR) (Francais)
* Opposition decalaration on 4 August arrests
http://pnds-tarayya.net/news/news.php?id=38 (Francais)
*NIGER-En réaction à l’arrestation du président du Fusad, Amnesty international exige la libération de Amadou Arou
le Quotidien (Senegal) 19 August.
http://issikta.blogspot.com/2009/08/niger-en-reaction-larrestation-du.html
* Areva/Niger: organisation exposing links between the French Uranium consortia and the government of Niger (Francais) http://areva.niger.free.fr/
*Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders Annual Report 2009 – Niger
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4a5f300dc.html
*Nigerien Labor Confederations joint 72 hour strike, 23 August
http://www.tamtaminfo.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2073:preavis-de-greve-generale-de-72-heures-&catid=44:politique&Itemid=61
*Nigerien news articles (Francais)
*http://www.tamtaminfo.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2072:affaire-marou-amadou-le-proces-des-collectifs-associatifs&catid=44:politique&Itemid=61
*http://www.tamtaminfo.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1976:vague-darrestation-dans-les-rangs-des-opposants&catid=44:politique&Itemid=61
*http://www.tamtaminfo.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2005:-communique-de-presse&catid=44:politique&Itemid=61
*http://www.tamtaminfo.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2007:proces-marou-amadou-et-abdoulaye-tiemogo-des-militants-de-la-cfdr-copieusement-tabasses&catid=44:politique&Itemid=61
*Niger: Les manifestants de l’opposition dispersés par les forces de l’ordre, 22 August. (Francais)
http://fr.allafrica.com/stories/200908240223.html
*Niger: La matraque du colonel, 23 August. (Francais)
http://fr.allafrica.com/stories/200908240166.html
*Updates in English:
http://www.tomathon.com/mphm/
Filed under Featured, Lefty by T. Miles on 9 July 2009 at 8:55 pm
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Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf may be barred from politics for her sketchy past: consider this a cautionary tale to those calling Liberia “Black America’s Israel”.
(more…)
Filed under Featured, Lefty by T. Miles on 29 June 2009 at 9:00 pm
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This was the weekend for Coups: was the death of Michael Jackson assumed to distract us all? Regardless, a couple of Nigeriens have pointed out the uncanny similarities between the situation of President of Honduras Manuel Zelaya and President of Niger Mamadou Tandja. Despite this, both crises are intimately linked to the history of these nations, and represent very different forces. (more…)
Filed under Afrique, Do this by T. Miles on 23 June 2009 at 6:58 pm
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I recently saw an appeal from US high school students, raising funds for anti-malarial bed nets to be delivered to the DRC. “When people find out they can donate $10 to save a life,” (more…)
Filed under Featured, Lefty by T. Miles on 15 June 2009 at 8:34 pm
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Pictures coming out via Twitter and phones are being collected a number of places, including here. A statement by the
Worker-communist Party of Iran (WPI): “Long live revolution against the Islamic Republic of Iran!”
Member and blogger Saeed Valadbaygi’s Revolutionary Road Blog is at http://shooresh1917.blogspot.com/.
The image to the left is students storming a government “Basij” militia barracks in Tehran.
Wish them luck.
Filed under Photos, Solidarity by T. Miles on 15 June 2009 at 6:29 pm
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Filed under Featured, French by T. Miles on 28 May 2009 at 5:43 pm
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Julien Coupet, French situationalist shopkeeper, accused ringleader of “anarcho-autonomous” train saboteurs, and really insufferable pontificator, was finally released yesterday from a Paris jail, on remand. (more…)
Filed under Lefty by T. Miles on 22 May 2009 at 4:06 pm
2 comments
Two or three thoughts for the day. A review of Tom Goyens’ “Beer and Revolution: The German Anarchist Movement in New York City, 1880-1914.” is available. I may reprint it in full, as it’s under Creative Commons licensing. Allow me to digress (or not to, given the subject). Creative Commons is a Copyright/Left for creative works, which I think is generally superior to the GNU Public License. If you’re unaware of this, and you produce text, art, or photographs, you really owe it to the world to take a crash course. Copyright, which has expanded like a disease over the last fifty years, is doomed. In fact, it has expanded like antibodies fighting an overwhelming infection: proliferating in a failed attempt to smother its stronger foe. Information wants to be free, and all that.
But even with CC licenses you owe it to the rest of us to remember that the only thing you deserve from your work is the right to be identified as the person who created it, and recognized for exactly what you created. Try to impose a more strict license than that — which you can do in the CC — and it’s as doomed as copyright. It’s the intellectual equivalent of “those who don’t work don’t eat.” And since modern Capitalism is based upon one group of people benefiting from the work of other people, Copyright is going to go down fighting. Think “Terminator: Salvation”, but with less natural dialogue.
Second, I’ve been slightly obsessing about the papers recently: not the normal ones, but Niamey’s latest political crisis through the distorted mirror of the thriving newspapers of Niger‘s capital. Every day’s Le Sahel (the government rag), Republicain, Roue de l’Histoire, and Le Canard déchaîné are piped on line by two expatriate run websites, which means they probably have more readers abroad than they do at home (see below).
The President is attempting a slow motion coup, under the slogan “Tazartché”. My dictionary says that’s “continuity” in Hausa, but your results may vary. That a 71 year old ruler’s pals don’t like constitutional term limits (they want a refurendum on a New “Sixth Republic” before this November’s elections) is no surprise. One must give props to the writers of the 1999 constitution, though. Article 36 says that the President is limited to two Five year terms. Article 136 then says, that Article 36 (amongst others) is unrevisable. In any way. And yet President / Lieutenant Colonel Tandja and his MNSD party — created in 1987 as a single party modeled on Mussolini and Franco’s Integral Nationalist “managed” corporatism – want to pull an end run. Who in New York does this remind us of? Except in Niamey there is a vibrant opposition, massive protests, and an outside authority (ECOWAS) saying “changing the rules just before an election is a coup”.
As an aside, I’ve just learned that Mike Bloomberg is legally 5′ 6”, although he had previously pretended to be 5′ 7”, and even 5′ 1” on a drivers license. Isn’t that a felony? Additionally, anyone who’s stood near him thinks 5′ 6” is an exageration. Not that being short is bad, but being dishonest about it is a sign you might enjoy large cocaded hats and invading Austria.
So having established from obsessively reading the papers online (what a world), that Niger’s unstable political culture is more healthy than New York City‘s (Bloomberg is Mamadou Tandja, Anthony Wiener is Mahamadou Issoufou, Christine Quinn is Mahamane Ousmane, Reverend Billy is Moussa Kaka, I grow millet somewhere, etc…), what does this say about Nigerien politics? Still nothing good, I’m afraid. Headlines like “Ben Omar, le petit menteur!”, calling the Minister of Communications a liar, or impugning him with diverting catering funds as a University student in 1988, mask some simple facts.
Over %80 of Nigeriens are illiterate. Most don’t have access to clean water. Most live in rural communities and grow crops to feed their families, sell the excess when available, and travel for a few months after harvest doing odd jobs in Ghana or Nigeria to earn some cash. If the rains don’t come, there is little safety net. In part, this is poverty. In part this is because the intrusion of world markets since around 1980 (forced by the IMF and World Bank as “deregulation”) have turned rice and other basics into commodities, speculated upon by traders in London or Chicago, and consequently sold at prices matching what the Western Middle Classes can pay, but bought from government subsidized corporate agribusiness at prices much lower, and in volumes much higher, than any farmer can produce even in the poorest nations of the world. Given that reality, the newspapers slandering the largely ideologically vapid horsetrading that goes on amongst the Niamey elite is meaningless.
And that’s different from New York City only by degree, not by disease.
Filed under Solidarity by T. Miles on 24 March 2009 at 7:53 pm
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Regardless of what you may think of me, my opinions, or the people I speak of below, Israel is destroying itself. Based on a proposition so tenuous that it must be built with care and compassion from below, the dream that some Zionists had after the holocaust of a “new” state cut from the desert is gone. Rather, Israel has chosen to a military occupation of the homes of others for the last 30 years, kept them quiet by force and crafted a definition of citizenship which excludes all but new settlers to the land. Back in the good old days (in the history of the United States, for instance) famine, disease and the occasional massacre would have solved this problem in many fewer years. Modern press, human rights, and people being actually held to ideals they profess has so far prevented this, and more importantly will prevent this from happening quietly.
And so, as in the United States destruction of native peoples, Israel has become a genocidal state. I use that term without hyperbole and with much sadness. The recent press controversy of IDF graduation classes printing t-shirts with targets superimposed on pregnant Palestinian women which read “one shot two kills” or lined up on silhouettes of children with “jokes” about birth control are not simply tasteless or cruel. That no one complained before now in this citizen army points to a culture which, not for the first time, is seen wishing to exterminate an entire people who oppose them. How far Israelis have come from those Capra photos of stalwart young camp survivors building a new nation with arms still tattooed with serial numbers. Mythology or not, one image of itself as a defender of right — conveniently ignoring their Arab neighbors — has been replaced with a self image for the Jewish state that sees the murder of children in the womb as a solution to their definitional problems.
That is genocide. It would be merely alarmingly distasteful, but for the reality: the “facts on the ground” that elements of the Israeli state have been creating for decades. A slow motion removal of Palestinians by whatever means necessary. On which would take as much valuable land of even the 1967 occupation zone in slow, measured, deliberate, and inexorable steps. Couple this with the terrorism demonstrated recently at Hebron, where the stated purpose was to punish whole communities so badly that they would flee. Add on to this the revelations from members of the Israeli armed forces themselves of a culture of deliberate targeting of civilians for murder and their homes for exemplary destruction in the attacks on a caged Gaza this year. What other conclusion can I draw? Only the willfully blind will not see it.
But no matter what I say, Israel seems in no mood to heed the warning of its own citizens who have urged it rethink this occupation which destroys them from the inside even as it forges a Palestinian nationalism that will go to any length to survive. In fact — with the help of the United States — the project of draining the Palestinian lakes until the only fish left die flopping in the mud: this project remains. I fear that even should the world turn on this Israel’s leaders now, even should the United States do so, we are too far gone. Israel has defined itself as a nation bent on the removal of the Palestinians from their land: they may live, but they cannot be Palestinians. This is a project of the removal of a nation, and that is genocide.
So ignore the words of people like me. But should I and others shut up, your project remains, and that project, which cannot succeed in this era, that project will destroy Israel. What will replace it? As Israel has decided that it will accept the view of others, we outsiders can only pray for a land of all peoples living in harmony. Stranger things been built in that land.
Post script: While my point above was that the national self image of the Israeli “project” has become one which demands the destruction of the Palestinian people, and is thus doomed, other current events in Israeli politics are damning as well. The rise of the secular far right in Israel is as dangerous to Jews as non Jews: perhaps more so. While I don’t believe those involved in the large Zionist project, as oppressive as it is, are fascists in any real ideological sense, the far right in Israel is. Let’s be clear: the Libermann’s and other far right politicians in Israel are ideologically identical to the NDP in Germany or the FN in France. They are militarist, blood and soil nationalists who demand an ethnic cleansing of their state as a way to purify it, and integrate people together in a single body under a single direction which will put the interests of “nation” above those of the market, classes, internal communities, or the outside world. They are fascists. That this is allowed in Israel is a sad statement of how far they have sunk.
Two recent events encapsulate the future we will see with such people in government: A Palestinian cultural festival marking the Arab League’s designation of Jerusalem as the capital of Arab culture for 2009, was broken up by police, who barged into a children’s parade and ended a soccer tournament.
Israel bans Arab culture day in Jerusalem
Israel ‘breaks up’ Arab events
Nearby, Israeli troops shut down the press conference of parents of an American protester previously shot in the head at a peaceful protest on the West Bank
Meanwhile, an Israeli far right party which has previously called for the expulsion of all Arab citizens of Israel was allowed to march through an Arab community, protected by police.
Honestly, can even Zionists not see that this is has spun horribly out of control?
Filed under History, Lefty by T. Miles on 31 December 2008 at 8:42 pm
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Adding to the “everything the press tells you is a lie” file, here a a couple of articles of the (literally) criminal attacks on civilians in Gaza. First, despite the byline, this article on the “siege on Gaza” was written by Sara Roy before the recent Israeli bombing campaign, and right dates the siege from November 5, when the government of Israel cut off the last remaining food going into the tiny Palestinian territory. Note: if you put a wall around a city, destroy the little farmland on its outskirts, and ban all trade in and out for 30 years, people become rather dependent on food aid.
By the way, that image to the left is a World Food Program map of Food insecurity in the Gaza Strip (2004). The wee yellow bit — showing relative food security — was where there had been an Israeli settlement. Things look much worse today.
If you put people behind walls, cut off their access to the outside world and then cut off their food for two months, I can’t think of a word other than genocide to describe the situation. Now I can see folks who are perhaps rightly attached to Israel as a haven in the face of 2000 years of oppression and genocide blowing a gasket. But I just said what everyone will be saying in the history books. It’s well past time you realize that you’re not doing the Jewish people any favors by supporting a government and military that murders civilians and steals their land. (And no, appeals to G_d don’t count. Otherwise I’d be paying rent to the Mohawks, and I’d start a religion which promised me Aruba. That’s not how adults get along)
Lotsa good people in Tel Aviv understand this (see reports on the anti-war demos there this week) so why otherwise good people in Brooklyn have trouble with it is beyond me.
Further, the governments of Israel has maintained a two pronged policy since 1947: establish facts on the ground by occupying land and make sure there is no Palestinian opposition.
The first is done with settlements and walls and “Military zones” and “national parks” and “buffer zones” and the occasional, random killing of people (see Hebron last month). The second is done by making sure there is no Palestinian leadership that anyone would want to share a cubical with. First, the Israelis did this by deporting people. Second, they used to say “there’s no such thing as a Palestinian. They’re Arabs making up a national identity because they hate Jews” I remember having government representatives tell me this with a straight face in the 1980s. They also used to say that “Arabs, because they are not as culturally advanced as Westerners, have no sense of national identity, but those in the Territories are being used as fodder by the King of Jordan to expand his territory.” Why don’t they say this anymore? Because they got some new information and admitted an honest mistake? Or because the government and settlers don’t actually believe ANYTHING they tell the press or even the Israeli center left. They KNOW this is a game of biding time, and they’d tell you Palestinians have gills and therefore are only occupying any dry land at all out of spite if they thought you would buy it.
But part of this process of ensuring that “there is no partner for peace” in more germane here. The Israeli government funded (the then tiny, and even then evil) Hamas in the late 1970s and 1980s to really stick it to the PLO who were starting to look more acceptable when they stopped shooting athletes and hijacking airliners. At the same time, the Israeli government had a policy of rounding up and expelling non-violent secular activists. There was a whole Ghandian passive resistance group in the West Bank in the 1970s. What happened to them? Likud had them rounded up and deported, while releasing the founder of Hamas after serving one year of a life sentence for murder. Even Ehud Olmert was quoted in the Jerusalem Post last year saying: “Netanyahu established Hamas, gave it life, freed Sheikh Yassin and gave him the opportunity to blossom”.
So what is going on now is no “crisis” from the government of Israel’s point of view. Headlines in the US press like “Israel seeks to change rules of the game with Gaza assault” are profoundly ignorant. This is standard operation procedure. And until the US and the rest of the world tells Israel that their support is dependent upon the Israeli government immediately accepting the pre 1967 borders (no exceptions), this will go on and on and on and on.
- Reuters/Global Voices Blog roundup from Palestine: “In Gaza it’s 9/11 every hour, every minute, everywhere”
- If Gaza falls . . . Sara Roy (London Review of Books)
- “Hamas is a creation of Mossad (English translation)“ , L’Humanité (Summer 2002).; French original version: “Hamas, le produit du Mossad”, L’Humanité (December 14, 2001).
- The Tel Aviv Anti-War Demonstration. Adam Keller, The Other Israel, December-2008–January-2009 issue
- Not their war: Israeli media coverage of the Gaza onslaught has largely ignored the protests by peace activists.
Chris Dalby. guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 31 December 2008
- Olmert, Netanyahu clash over Hamas and Golan Heights. SHEERA CLAIRE FRENKEL. Jerusalem Post, Feb 13, 2007
- Situation Map-Gaza Crisis. 31 Dec 2008. Source: UNOSAT
Filed under Lefty by T. Miles on 10 December 2008 at 7:19 pm
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The On the Greek Riots blog is a good source of news for this. A lot of people on the left are following these (now four) days of rioting in every major Greek city. And unlike the European political commentators of the center (who are equally obsessed with the events), the left are beginning to ask the question: Is this (still, just) rioting? Or is it a revolution of some sort.
The press talking heads, previously content with dramatic pictures and “those nutty Greeks” commentary, are now wringing their hands furiously over the spiraling violence. That the rioting is so widespread, and has gone on for so long, is clearly an indication — visible even to newspaper editors — that this is not merely a reaction by the community of this 15 year old Athens boy murdered by the police. This is “a revolt of a whole generation of young people”, and perhaps a revolution.
Maybe. But if a revolution, it’s probably not the one young Anarchist Alexandros Grigoropoulos would have wanted.
Greece’s conservative government, with a one vote majority in parliament, is what is teetering on the brink of collapse here, not capitalism. And the opposition, led by the nepotistic Social -Democratic PASOK, who ruled the nation for decades prior to the 2004 conservative victory, is itching to break the government. While the revolutionary left and the trade union movement would surely love to see the end of the current government, the re-introduction of the Papandreou clan back into power is likely not what they have in mind. But that may be one reason this violence continues. PASOK, while artfully condemning violence, has come out on the streets and is stoking the anger, with demonstrations, parliamentary maneuvering, and press hysteria, at this despicable (and all too common) police murder.
In reaction, the rest of the European press has been forced to admit that this is something large: almost 1968 large. There is in Greece today a generation of overeducated young people who reject the current authorities and have a lessened prospect of being lured back into mainstream culture by the promise of future career opportunities. But remember, 1968 failed. It failed, in part, because it never made the jump out of universities to regular working people. Student revolts can be suppressed, and students won’t be students forever. Maybe they won’t be integrated into the mainstream in the same numbers as previous generations, but their community is dismantled every four years and subsumed in the rest of us, who are hardly — even in Athens — on the brink of taking to the streets. Subcultures, like the Hippies in the sixties or the Back Bloc Anarchists so powerful in urban Greece today, can keep up that community consciousness. But if the rejection of capitalism never makes the jump from a subculture, this starts and ends in riots.
It takes everyone to make a revolution, and unless “normal” folks get on board, this will go nowhere. MAYBE that jump is happening, as a wide swath of the left (not just urban young Anarchists, despite what their comrades here tell you) is taking to the streets. If young working people are enough taken with the liberation and power of these moments of struggle, maybe they can start a contagion in unions and neighborhoods. But that is a long process, and no one should assume that the burning barricades in Greek cities were put there by the families that live and work in those neighborhoods. When those are the people building barricades, then this is not only a revolution, then the revolution has already happened.
Meanwhile, Anarchists in New York and elsewhere play up the current violence and revolutionary nature of some of those taking it to the police in Greece. I think we on the left have to be awfully clear eyed as to who this really helps. If this is a revolutionary moment — and I think that in one sense it is — it is the moment of PASOK and the institutionalised trades Unions to jimmy their way back into government. It is a parliamentary revolution of one faction of the centrist governing class against another, more ideologically neo-liberal, faction. PASOK and its allies will likely get new elections out of this, and they will likely win them. At which point the violence will be suppressed and the patronage system of the Papandreous will return to previous programming.
In my opinion that is not something worth dying for.
Filed under Antifa, Lefty by T. Miles on 21 November 2008 at 8:20 pm
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The Socialist Party USA condemns the racially motivated attacks which have followed the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States. People of color have been targeted throughout the country by small groups of racist whites. Acts have ranged from a cross burning, simulated lynchings and even violent attacks. Mainstream news sources report that hundreds of incidents have occurred.
The election of Barack Obama was undoubtedly an important historical event. Millions of Americans rejected the race and red baiting tactics of the McCain-Palin campaign and cast their vote without regard to race-status. The election therefore drew from the long-term progressive cultural impact of the civil rights movement. Viewed entirely from this perspective, the election of Obama represents a potentially progressive moment in American race relations.
Sadly, the Obama presidency will offer little of the “change” and “hope” it promised throughout the campaign. Early indications are that his administration will be directed by a free-market capitalist agenda and his policies will seek to enhance the profitability of corporations at the expense of working-class America. People can expect little in the way of fundamental change in healthcare, militarism or wealth redistribution. Winning these much needed changes will be the duty of broad social movements.
Poor and working class whites will therefore be challenged not to fall back into patterns of racial animus which debilitated the labor movement throughout the 20th century. As scholar W.E.B DuBois noted, white workers have often proved willing to forgo the struggle for material gains in favor of receiving the psychological wages of whiteness.
As the US heads toward a major economic recession, a racist discourse which targets people of color and immigrants is sure to emerge among a section of whites. Elite politicians will seek to mobilize these sentiments as a means to push forward a right-wing political agenda. However, class unity can be built through a critical recognition of the role of racism inside of capitalist society. Speaking out forcefully against racism and building democratic multi-racial coalitions will greatly assist in the construction of the mass social movements needed to move beyond the meager reforms offered by the Obama regime.
White supremacy is a primary enemy of working class solidarity. The recent racist attacks are purposeful attempts to divide working people against each other. The socialist left has learned the hard lessons of the 20th century and will oppose any racist attacks be they cultural or physical. A cultural approach which features exchange and engagement, instead of just tolerance, offers the brightest possibilities for unity among all working people. Public campaigns and policy proposals to dismantle the prison industrial complex, address issues of environmental racism and to challenge racial patterns of employment could demonstrate the effectiveness of anti-racist class politics.
We recognize that every human being regardless of their country of origin or skin pigmentation needs healthcare, a clean environment and a peaceful life. Socialists remain committed to challenging the fear, racism and oppression that typify capitalist society by building movements which demonstrate that solidarity, equality and compassion offer brighter possibilities for humanity. Thus, the Socialist Party USA says no to racist attacks! No to white supremacy! And, yes to working class solidarity in the service of human liberation!
November 2008
Socialist Party USA Statement on the Recent Racist Attacks
National Action Committee of the SP-USA http://www.sp-usa.org/
Filed under French, Solidarity by T. Miles on 20 November 2008 at 8:15 pm
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The latest news on the Tarnac arestees. Four of the nine are released under the equivilent of bail, but still face possible charges. They were held four four days of interogations, though the police still don’t seem to have any direct evidence against any of them. Five (which the predictably frantic Le Figaro calls “The Hard Core” of situationalist students) remain in jail awaiting trial. Le Monde has a surprisingly sensitive portrait of the ordeal of one of the four released, and identifies each of the arrestees. The charges remain the same as those in the last post here.
Those facing the heaviest charges, and still detained are:
- Julien Coupat (34) accused ringleader
- Yldune L., 25, Archeolology Student
- Benjamin R., 30 , Poly Sci grad from the University of Rennes and former student of Development and environmental Sociology at the University of Edinburgh.
- Elsa H., 23 English Grad student arrested in Rouen,
- Bertrand D., 22 Sociology Grad student, also arrested in Rouen.
The four released but possibly facing lesser though serious charges are:
- Gabrielle H., 29 , a student nurse,
- Manon G., 25, a prize winning classically trained clarinetist,
- Aria T., 26, a Swiss actress known for her role in the sitcom Les Pique-Meurons.
- Mathieu B., 27, a former sociology student from the Parisien Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS).
While we await the trial, the SNCF workers rallied in Paris against rail priviatisation plans, staged a work stoppage, and forced the SNCF to back off of some of its more objectionable proposals.
Le Figaro, who have been the most energetic in convicting these nine students without trial, was also caught out today Liberation, for photoshoping a picture of law-and-order Justice Minister Rachida Dati to remove the huge diamond encrusted ring from her iron hands: a ring reportedly worth a cool 15,600 Euros!
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As I noted on the 10th of March, the CSRD junta in Niger has replaced all the civilian Region Governors with military men to administer local affairs during the transition. We now have the full list, and while I for one hate to see any military governing, a careful look at the men (all men) coming and going in Niger's Regions gives us an opportunity to examine what's going on behind the scenes, and what it augurs for the future.
More ...
Nigeriens were - are - undoubtedly pleased that the army stepped in to end a newly installed dictatorship. But criticisms of this so called "good coup" are beginning to appear even amongst its strongest supporters. With many months of transitional rule ahead, these whispers give us some idea of the problems the junta will soon face. 
One doesn't see much film, let alone color film, of colonial era African football. So you can imagine my delight when I stumbled across clips of a French colonial propaganda newsreel featuring the my favorite African club side wining a colonial cup final from 1956. 
The new military Junta in Niger has released their first real vision of their promised return to democracy. Niger's expectations, a redux of recent history, are being played to by the soldiers.
After a day of confusion, President Tandja and his supporters are under arrest by the military. I have maintained the live updates from the 18th, and added an in depth analysis of the new CSRD junta.
"Poets are feared by those in power that use violence, who are prosperous at the expense of the collective suffering." - Adamou Idé 
a dinosaur comic about about potable water conservation in sub-Saharan Africa?
The US government will make much of the arrests of three Malians who they say were part of a West African criminal network, devoted to drug smuggling and Osama Bin Laden. So far all we have is hype and what looks like the entrapment of low level criminals. 
The December 18th anniversary of the Nigerien Republic begins a series of dates which may bring the political crisis to a boil, just as mediators think they've made a breakthrough.
A brief look, if one is possible, at the simmering crisis in the northeast Central African Republic. As commentators try to come to grips with this often ignored nation, here is some recommended reading for Anglophones interested in the République centrafricaine.
Niger's rulers would have expected this to be wrapped up by now, with the previous legal deadline for a new president to pass on the 22nd with a shrug. But fears (or hopes) remain that some of those most loyal to the project are looking to abandon their President
"If you watch it frame by frame you can pinpoint the exact moment his heart rips in half..."
The local elections are odd enough. But "Claude Levi-Strauss" is the 4th most popular search on Yahoo? Right between "Dancing With The Stars" and "H1N1 Symptoms". 
Popular sound systems blend traditional sounds with DJ beats, and keep people across Bamako on their feet. But will Mali's capitol ban the "Balani Show" dance parties?
A recent seizure of US arms in Nigeria highlights the profit and loss of small arms supplied to West Africa.
Blood on the streets of Conakry is a price the Junta is willing to pay for power.