From sharai at resist.ca  Mon Feb  2 17:11:33 2004
From: sharai at resist.ca (sharai)
Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2004 19:11:33 -0600
Subject: [news] Fw: Update on Annie Mae's case
Message-ID: <000d01c3e9f2$ad1e2fe0$036c4818@pentium-266.accesscomm.ca>


-----Original Message-----
From: John Boncore <splitting_the_sky at yahoo.com>
To: Harvey Arden <roadjumper at earthlink.net>
Date: Monday, February 02, 2004 7:04 PM
Subject: Fwd: Update on Annie Mae's case




Ellen Gabriel <ellen.gabriel at mcgill.ca> wrote: 
  Date: Mon, 02 Feb 2004 12:31:13 -0500
  From: Ellen Gabriel 
  Subject: Update on Annie Mae's case



  >
  > FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
  > Indigenous Women Challenge Man Indicted for
  > Anna Mae's Murder to take Lie-Detector
  > Friday 30, January, 2004
  >
  > The Indigenous Women for Justice (IWJ), a US based Native women's
  > advocacy group, today challenged John Boy Graham, one of the two men
  > indicted for the first-degree murder of Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash, to
  > take a polygraph to be conducted by an independent examiner. The IWJ
  > sent their invitation to Graham via his attorney, Terry LaLiberte.
  > Graham, a one-time American Indian Movement (AIM) subordinate, was
  > indicted for Aquash's murder by a federal grand jury in March 2003,
  > along with Arlo Looking Cloud. Since being apprehended in December
  > 2003, Graham's family and friends have created a website to recruit
  > supporters and raise funds to oppose Graham's extradition to the US to
  > face trial. The basis for Graham's fundraising activities is his
  > insistence that he is innocent, but the IWJ has produced a document
  > entitled, "The Lies of John Graham," to counter Graham's claims.
  >
  > "The Lies of John Graham" can be viewed at
  > www.indigenouswomenforjustice.org. "The Lies of John Graham" is
  > compiled from on-the-record, recorded interviews with AIM leaders,
  > members, and individuals connected to the Aquash murder case, along
  > with written testimonials and transcripts. Graham conducted one of the
  > recorded interviews, and should Graham directly question the
  > credibility of the statements attributed to him, or others, in "The
  > Lies of John Graham," the IWJ will air those recorded statements.
  > Letter to LaLiberte
  > January 30, 2004
  >
  > Violence against women, the lifegivers, is not traditional. Mental,
  > physical, and sexual abuse against indigenous women is rampant
  > throughout our communities. Our sister, Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash,
  > suffered all of those brutal indignities in the last 36-hours of her
  > life. Even at the last, as she was forced to kneel before her
  > executioners, her thoughts were not for herself; her thoughts and
  > prayers were for her daughters. Anna Mae is an indigenous mother
  > still. How do we know what happened to Anna Mae? Because IWJ members
  > were silent witnesses who are silent no more. If John Graham has been
  > wrongly indicted for her murder, the IWJ see no reason why he would
  > not consent to a polygraph, for if he is truly innocent, what does he
  > have to fear?
  >
  > Indigenous Women for Justice also call on Graham's attorney, Terry
  > LaLiberte, to either retract or amend the factually inaccurate and
  > misleading statement attributed to him in yesterday's press. LaLiberte
  > is quoted as saying, "There's no evidence. There's no bullets. There's
  > no gun. There's no DNA." Dr. Garry Peterson removed a .32 caliber slug
  > from Anna Mae's head to establish the cause of death, so clearly there
  > is a bullet.[3a771b.jpg] Anna Mae's body was found fully clothed, and
  > forensic pathology was able to establish from traces of semen in Anna
  > Mae's underwear that she had either had intercourse, or been raped,
  > shortly before she was killed. Eye-witness testimony indicates that
  > Graham raped Anna Mae. The US has until the end of January to file its
  > extradition documents, so it is unlikely that LaLiberte will have seen
  > those documents, and therefore he cannot give a sound appraisal of the
  > content. LaLiberte should explain that, under extradition treaty
  > between the US and Canada, the US does not have to present all of the
  > evidence against Graham, they only need to provide a summary. An
  > extradition hearing is not a trial, and LaLiberte should know that
  > murder cases do not stand or fall on forensic evidence alone, but on a
  > body of evidence as a whole. Again, if he is so confident of his
  > client's innocence, he should have no objections to him taking a
  > lie-detector test.
  >
  > With all of the controversy, propaganda, and intimidation that has
  > surrounded Anna Mae's death, if this case can be resolved then it
  > might provide hope for others who lost loved ones during that era, and
  > who are still awaiting closure. If Anna Mae Pictou-Aquashs life is
  > expendable, where does it end? Are we to believe that the lives of all
  > young Indian mother's are expendable? Or should we just accept that a
  > handful of men associated with AIM have the right to decide who lives
  > or dies, and that it's okay to take an Indian woman's life as long as
  > her executioners are Indian? The IWJ do not believe that Anna Mae
  > Pictou-Aquash's life is expendable; we do not believe that any woman's
  > life is expendable. This isn't a battle between what's left of AIM and
  > the FBI, this is a struggle to bring justice for one of our sisters
  > who was kidnapped, brutalized, and murdered.
  >
  > Violence against women is not traditional, and the Indigenous Women
  > for Justice urges Canada to extradite John Graham to face trial for
  > the charge on which he is indicted, the first-degree murder of a
  > Canadian citizen and First Nation mother, Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash.
  >
  > For further information contact www.indigenouswomenforjustice.org
  >
  > The IWJ is a unity sisterhood of women from indigenous nations located
  >
  > in what is
  > commonly called the United States and Canada.
  > -----------------------------------------------------------------------
  > The IWJ can be contacted at: sisters at indigenouswomenforjustice.org
  >
  --

  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Katsi'tsakwas Ellen Gabriel
  3505 Peel,
  Montreal, Quebec
  H3A 1W7
  phone: 514-398-3217
  fax: 514-398-8169
  www.mcgill.ca/fph/
  ===============================================================




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From pnbrown at vcn.bc.ca  Mon Feb  2 20:35:20 2004
From: pnbrown at vcn.bc.ca (Paul Browning)
Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2004 20:35:20 -0800
Subject: [news] Fw: SCHOOL E-lert 02/02/04: School Board Joins "No Cuts to
	Kids Campaign"
Message-ID: <026301c3ea0f$21da0090$6401a8c0@PAUL>


----- Original Message ----- 
From: COPE E-lerts 
To: cope at cope.bc.ca 
Sent: Monday, February 02, 2004 11:51 AM
Subject: SCHOOL E-lert 02/02/04: School Board Joins "No Cuts to Kids Campaign"




SCHOOL E-lert 02/02/04: COPE Trustees Work to Stop $3-Million Cut to Inner City Schools

WHAT'S HAPPENING?
-The COPE-led school board has joined community groups in launching a campaign to stop $3-million in cuts to Vancouver inner city schools, calling on children and family development minister Christy Clark to save programs for vulnerable children.
-An expected 36 per cent cut in funding will have a devastating impact on the hot lunch, child safety, family advancement workers and other vital programs provided to inner city kids.
-The hot lunch programs provide more than 10,000 meals daily to inner city school kids, and alternate and inner city programs provide extra academic support and counselling services to students and families, giving children a chance to succeed and stay in school. 
-Groups involved in the No Cuts To Kids Campaign include: Inner City Parents; Northeast Vancouver Community Organizations (NEVCO); Inner City Education Society; BC Association of Social Workers; Save Our Schools; Vancouver Elementary Principals and Vice-Principals Association; Vancouver SecondaryAdministrators Association; Vancouver School Board; Vancouver Elementary School Teachers' Association; Vancouver Secondary Teachers' Association; Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 15; International Union of Operating EngineersLocal 963.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?
-Find out more about Ministry of Children and Family Development programs for Vancouver's inner city schools by visiting http://www.vsb.bc.ca/NR/rdonlyres/0F64801B-728B-4A50-99EE-320D3E902668/0/MCFDFinalPDF.pdf
-Email your MLA by visiting http://www.vsb.bc.ca/MLA/EmailMLA.htm and tell them to stand up for vulnerable children in their community.
-Contact children and family development minister Christy Clark by calling 250-387-9699.

QUESTIONS?
-For more information, contact COPE Organiser Nathan Allen by calling 604-255-0400, or email nathan at cope.bc.ca.




A NOTE ON E-LERTS
E-lerts are COPE press releases and highlight information about upcoming
civic activities. Here's how COPE uses them:
(1) There are four types of E-lerts -- COMMUNITY, COUNCIL, PARKS and SCHOOL.
(2) There will likely be a maximum of three E-lerts a week for all
boards/council.
(3) You can sign up for selective E-lerts. To change your E-lert status,
please reply to this e-mail by putting the name of the board or council you
wish to be E-lerted to in the subject line (e.g., Jane Doe wants Council
and Parks so she replies with COUNCIL PARKS in the subject line). COMMUNITY
E-lerts are sent to everyone regardless of your E-lert status.
(4) If you do not wish to receive E-lerts, please reply to this e-mail by
putting "REMOVE" in the subject line.
(5) If you know anyone who would like to receive E-lerts, please send their
name, phone number and e-mail address to cope at cope.bc.ca or sign-up at http://www.cope.bc.ca/index.cfm/fuseaction/news.elert/pageID/4113699F-09CC-40AC-A9D07CDA92973C41/pageID/4113699F-09CC-40AC-A9D07CDA92973C41/index.html

PRIVACY NOTE: The names and addresses of subscribers to COPE E-lerts will
not be provided to any other individual or group.

COALITION OF PROGRESSIVE ELECTORS - VANCOUVER'S VOICE
Address: 140-111 Victoria Drive, Vancouver, BC V5L 4C4
Web Site: http://www.cope.bc.ca
E-mail: cope at cope.bc.ca
Telephone: (604) 255-0400
Fax: (604) 708-5740

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From ron at resist.ca  Tue Feb  3 11:51:36 2004
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Tue, 03 Feb 2004 11:51:36 -0800
Subject: [news] [Fwd: [pga] Twenty- three human rights activists received
 three to
 six month sentences in Federal Prison for nonviolent actions to close the
 SOA/WHISC]
Message-ID: <401FFBC8.2090904@resist.ca>


*Ministers, Divinity School Student, a Former New York City Firefighter,
and a Nobel Peace Prize Nominee included among 27 Sentenced for
Nonviolent Protest of the School of the Americas/WHISC*

*Twenty- three human rights activists received three to six month
sentences in Federal Prison for nonviolent actions to close the SOA/WHISC*

Columbus, GA - During the last week of January 2004 twenty-seven human
rights advocates from across the country faced trial in Federal court
for civil disobedience to close, what they call a terrorist training
camp on U.S. soil: the School of the Americas renamed Western Hemisphere
Institute for Security Cooperation (SOA/WHISC). Graduates of the
controversial combat training school for Latin American soldiers
continue to be implicated in human rights atrocities throughout Latin
America. The defendants were among 10,000 who gathered in November to
call for the closure of the SOA/WHISC.

The defendants included one Catholic nun, three Jesuit priests and one
Jesuit brother, a Presbyterian minister, a Diocesan priest, a Franciscan
priest, two Quakers, a divinity school student, a former New York City
Firefighter, a Nobel Peace Prize Nominee, and various human rights
activists.

The defendants testified in court against a double standard in the "war
on terrorism", offering evidence to put the SOA/WHISC and U.S. foreign
policy on trial. Defense Attorney Edward Osowski argued that first
amendment rights of defendants were violated when the military blasted
patriotic music toward the permitted demonstration site on Saturday,
November 22nd.

The trial judge, G. Mallon Faircloth, adhered to his previous sentencing
record, and gave sentences ranging from 12 months probation to six
months in federal prison, with fines ranging from 500 to 1,500 dollars.

The SOA/WHISC is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers.
Its graduates are consistently involved in human rights atrocities and
coups, including the El Mozote Massacre of over 900 civilians and last
year's failed coup in Venezuela. In 1996 the Pentagon was forced to
release training manuals used at the school that advocated the use of
torture, extortion and execution.

/Fr. Joe Mulligan began a liquids only fast as he and four other
defendants entered  Muscogee County Jail to begin their prison sentences.
http://www.soaw.org/new/article.php?id=727
<http://www.soaw.org/new/%3Ca%20href=>">Statement on Fast/


*Sentences:*

*Elizabeth Bradley*, 49, of Sacramento, CA- 12 months probation, $500 fine

*Leisa Faulkner Barnes*, 49, of Sacramento, CA- three months federal prison,
$500 fine

*Louise Lynch, of Fremont*, CA- 12 months probation, $500 fine

*Faith Fippinger*, 63, of Sarasota, Fl- three months federal prison

*David Corcoran*, 69, of Des Plaines, Ill- six months federal prison

*Scott P. Diehl*, 40, of Burlington, IA- three months federal prison,
$500 fine

*Kathy Kelly*, 51, of Chicago, Ill- three months federal prison

*Craig Adams*, 52, of Glenwood, WI- three months federal prison

*Rich Wekerle*, 67, of Moscow, ID- six months federal prison

*Cynthia Brinkman*, SSND, 67, Ellington, MN-six months federal prison

*Ozone O'Leary*, currently residing in Duluth, MN- three months in federal
prison

*Mary Vaughan*, of White Bear, MN- 24 months probation, $500 fine

*Michael Walli*, 55, of Duluth, MN- three months federal prison, $500 fine

*Gregory Poferl*, 57, of St. Paul, MN- three months federal prison,
$1,000 fine

*Gary Ashbeck*, of Baltimore, MD- six months federal prison, 67 days
credited for time served

*Betsy Lamb*, 65, of Columbia, MD- six months federal prison, $500 fine

*Shirley Way*, 42, of Stanley, NY- three months federal prison

*Alice E. Gerard*, 47, of Buffalo, NY- three months federal prison, $500
fine

*Fr. Joseph E. Mulligan, S.J.*, 60, of Nicaragua- three months federal
prison

*Brother Mike O'Grady, S.J.*, 41, of Cincinnati, OH- 32 days Muscogee
County Jail

*Fr. Ben Jimenez, S.J.*, of Cleveland, OH- released 2 ? months time served

*Peg Morton*, 73, of Eugene, OR- three months federal prison

*Father Bernie Survil*, 63, of Greenburg, PA, three months federal prison

*Don Beisswenger*, 73, of Nashville, TN- six months federal prison,
$1,000 fine

*Sarah Jobe*, 22, of Nashville, TN- 12 months probation, $1,500 fine

*Eric Robinson*, 23, of Bellingham, WA- six months federal prison,
$1,000 fine

*Father Jerry Zawada*, 66, of Burlington, WI- six months federal prison

Eric LeCompte
SOA Watch Coordinator of Organizing
phone: (202)234-3440
fax: (202)636-4505
elecompte at soaw.org <mailto:elecompte at soaw.org>




From ron at resist.ca  Tue Feb  3 12:05:37 2004
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Tue, 03 Feb 2004 12:05:37 -0800
Subject: [news] The Rising Strength of the World Social Forum
Message-ID: <401FFF11.70205@resist.ca>


http://fbc.binghamton.edu/commentr.htm

Fernand Braudel Center, Binghamton University Commentary No. 130, Feb. 
1,2004


shniad at sfu.ca wrote:



> http://fbc.binghamton.edu/commentr.htm
> 
> Fernand Braudel Center, Binghamton University Commentary No. 130, Feb. 1,
> 2004 
> 
> The Rising Strength of the World Social Forum
> 
> The recent 4th meeting of the World Social Forum (WSF) in Mumbai (India) -
> Jan. 16-21, 2004 - was a big step forward in the steadily rising strength of
> the World Social Forum. In five years, it has become a major actor on the
> world scene. There are three moments of origin in this story. The first was
> the very successful mass protests at the Seattle meeting of the World Trade
> Organization in November, 1999. A large group of mostly U.S. protestors - an
> unlikely coalition of AFL-CIO trade-unionists, environmental activists, and
> anarchists - succeeded in scuttling the meeting. Two months later, in
> January, 2000 at Davos, a group of some 50 intellectuals from around the
> world tried a different tactic, organizing an "anti-Davos at Davos," seeking
> to get anti-neoliberal arguments a world press. And in February, 2000, two
> Brazilian leaders of popular movements, Chico Whitaker and Oded Grajew, went
> to Paris to talk to Bernard Cassen, Director of Le Monde Diplomatique and
> the president of Attac-France. The two Brazilians suggested to Cassen that
> they join forces and launch a world meeting that would combine mass protest
> and intellectual analysis. They convened this in Porto Alegre, Brazil, at
> the same time as the 2001 meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos. They
> called this the World Social Forum, and Cassen said the object was to "sink
> Davos." 
> 
> Porto Alegre in 2001 expected some 1500 participants. Some 10,000 came. The
> bulk of the participants in 2001 were from Latin America, France, and Italy.
> The basic principles of the WSF were that it was an "open meeting place" for
> "groups and movements of civil society that are opposed to neoliberalism and
> to domination of the world by capital and any form of imperialism." Its
> theme was "another world is possible." It was a "process," not an
> organization. It would not take positions as such, or make proposals for
> action, but it might generate such positions and proposals by some or all of
> those taking part in the WSF. It was "plural, diversified, non-confessional,
> non-governmental and non-party" and acted in a "decentralized fashion." In
> short, there was to be no hierarchy or organizational discipline. 
> 
> The formula was original and quite different from the historic antisystemic
> movements, including Communist and other Internationals. And it caught fire.
> The second meeting at Porto Alegre attracted 40,000 participants, including
> now a large group from North America. The third, in 2003, had 70-80,000
> participants. Every conceivable kind of movement, reformist and
> revolutionary, every variety of oppressed or marginalized persons, the Old
> Left and the New Left, social movements and NGOs, came. So did an increasing
> number of political figures. The world press paid increasing attention. 
> 
> But there were problems. The three biggest ones were: (1) a tension between
> those who insisted on retaining the formula of an open forum and those who
> wished to see the WSF become a "movement of movements," perhaps eventually
> another "International"; (2) an inadequate degree of participation from
> Asia, Africa, and east-central Europe; (3) debates about the internal
> structure and the funding of the WSF - how democratic and how independent
> was it as a structure? All three problems were tested at the Mumbai meeting,
> the first to be held other than in Porto Alegre. 
> 
> The concept of the open forum is seen by the original founders as the key
> element that provides the strength of the WSF. They argue that any deviation
> from that formula will lead to exclusions and turn the WSF into one more
> sectarian movement. To guarantee the openness of the forum, the charter of
> principles had barred "party representations" and "military organizations."
> It was hard to enforce since both parties and guerilla movements came
> anyway, through front organizations. And it was controversial since many
> participants saw no reason to bar party structures (as long as any one of
> them was not in a controlling position). And guerilla organizations included
> the Zapatistas as well, who claim to be a military organization, even if
> their military action has been virtually nil, and of course most
> participants were highly sympathetic to the Zapatistas, even considering
> them a model movement. 
> 
> When the Forum moved from Brazil to India, from a country in which most
> movements had more or less supported the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) and
> therefore didn't need the actual formal presence of the PT to a country in
> which the movements were divided among many parties and where the parties
> were key mass organizations, the Indian organizing committee dropped the
> provision about parties. Still, the proscription against violence led to a
> split among the Indians. A small Maoist movement organized a counter-Forum,
> called Mumbai Resistance-2004, on grounds across the road from the WSF. And
> they denounced the WSF as a combination of Trotskyites, Social-Democrats,
> reformist mass organizations, NGOs financed by transnationals - in short, a
> stalking-horse for quietism and counter-revolution. They specifically
> attacked the concept of the open forum (merely a talk show, they said), the
> slogan (not "another world," but socialism as the objective, they said), and
> the financing of the WSF (the fact that some money had come in the past from
> the Ford Foundation). 
> 
> But Mumbai Resistance proved to be a minor sideshow, stimulating some good
> discussion in the WSF but attracting maybe 2% of the numbers attending the
> WSF. As for action by the WSF, many pointed out that the world
> demonstrations of Feb. 15, 2003 against the war in Iraq were inspired and
> organized by WSF participants. So, in the end, everyone seemed to agree that
> WSF should retain the concept of the open forum but perhaps find some way to
> accept and institutionalize groups that wished to take common actions. There
> already is an assembly of movements, who meet together at the time of the
> WSF, and do pass resolutions and propose concrete actions. They are planning
> a worldwide demonstration on March 20, 2004, the anniversary of the U.S.
> invasion of Iraq. 
> 
> The wish to expand the geographic scope of the WSF was behind the move to
> Mumbai, and it was a spectacular success. In 2002, according to the chief
> Indian organizer, not 200 people in India had even heard of the WSF. In
> 2004, hundreds of organizations, and more than 100,000 Indians alone
> attended it, coming from every conceivable social group - at least 30,000
> dalits (untouchables), adivasi (tribal peoples), and women everywhere.
> Furthermore, against all of previous Indian political culture, they
> represented a wide range of political views, working together. The WSF will
> return to Porto Alegre in 2005 and is planning to go to Africa in 2006. 
> 
> Finally, the internal structure of the WSF was a subject openly debated. An
> international council had been founded in 2002, with some 150 members, all
> co-opted. It is broadly representative, but certainly not elected. For were
> it to be elected, the WSF would become a hierarchical structure. But is this
> "democratic"? The international council makes real decisions - where the
> meetings are held, who will speak at the plenary sessions (the "stars"), and
> who may or may not be excluded from attendance. To be sure, most of the
> sessions are organized from the bottom up. In Mumbai, there were 50 or so
> such simultaneous "seminars" at every meeting-time, all in effect
> autonomous. In the sessions analyzing the structure of the WSF, the push was
> for more openness of decision-making, a way for participants to have input
> on the decisions. And all this, without turning the WSF into a hierarchical
> structure. Not easy, but at least publicly debated. 
> 
> One should not miss the evolution of the thematic emphases. At Seattle, the
> drive was to stop the WTO. After Cancun in 2003, the WTO has receded as a
> major threat. Indeed, while the WSF is still fighting neoliberalism, the
> sense is that the WSF has made a real difference, that if Brazil and India
> are now pushing a different line, it is in large part because of the
> presence of the WSF. The Davos gathering was hardly mentioned at this year,
> but if there was one villain on all the posters this year, for all the
> marchers at Mumbai, it was George W. Bush. The poster of a Pakistani women's
> organization captured the sentiment: "When Bush comes to shove, resist." 
> 
> The leading participants in the WSF are aware that riding the WSF is like
> riding a bicycle - keep going forward or fall off. For the moment, the WSF
> is riding well. 
> 
> Immanuel Wallerstein 
> 
> 
> 
> Project-X list:
> initiated for the (re)building of the Left.
> 


The Rising Strength of the World Social Forum

The recent 4th meeting of the World Social Forum (WSF) in Mumbai (India) -
Jan. 16-21, 2004 - was a big step forward in the steadily rising strength of
the World Social Forum. In five years, it has become a major actor on the
world scene. There are three moments of origin in this story. The first was
the very successful mass protests at the Seattle meeting of the World Trade
Organization in November, 1999. A large group of mostly U.S. protestors - an
unlikely coalition of AFL-CIO trade-unionists, environmental activists, and
anarchists - succeeded in scuttling the meeting. Two months later, in
January, 2000 at Davos, a group of some 50 intellectuals from around the
world tried a different tactic, organizing an "anti-Davos at Davos," seeking
to get anti-neoliberal arguments a world press. And in February, 2000, two
Brazilian leaders of popular movements, Chico Whitaker and Oded Grajew, went
to Paris to talk to Bernard Cassen, Director of Le Monde Diplomatique and
the president of Attac-France. The two Brazilians suggested to Cassen that
they join forces and launch a world meeting that would combine mass protest
and intellectual analysis. They convened this in Porto Alegre, Brazil, at
the same time as the 2001 meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos. They
called this the World Social Forum, and Cassen said the object was to "sink
Davos."

Porto Alegre in 2001 expected some 1500 participants. Some 10,000 came. The
bulk of the participants in 2001 were from Latin America, France, and Italy.
The basic principles of the WSF were that it was an "open meeting place" for
"groups and movements of civil society that are opposed to neoliberalism and
to domination of the world by capital and any form of imperialism." Its
theme was "another world is possible." It was a "process," not an
organization. It would not take positions as such, or make proposals for
action, but it might generate such positions and proposals by some or all of
those taking part in the WSF. It was "plural, diversified, non-confessional,
non-governmental and non-party" and acted in a "decentralized fashion." In
short, there was to be no hierarchy or organizational discipline.

The formula was original and quite different from the historic antisystemic
movements, including Communist and other Internationals. And it caught fire.
The second meeting at Porto Alegre attracted 40,000 participants, including
now a large group from North America. The third, in 2003, had 70-80,000
participants. Every conceivable kind of movement, reformist and
revolutionary, every variety of oppressed or marginalized persons, the Old
Left and the New Left, social movements and NGOs, came. So did an increasing
number of political figures. The world press paid increasing attention.

But there were problems. The three biggest ones were: (1) a tension between
those who insisted on retaining the formula of an open forum and those who
wished to see the WSF become a "movement of movements," perhaps eventually
another "International"; (2) an inadequate degree of participation from
Asia, Africa, and east-central Europe; (3) debates about the internal
structure and the funding of the WSF - how democratic and how independent
was it as a structure? All three problems were tested at the Mumbai meeting,
the first to be held other than in Porto Alegre.

The concept of the open forum is seen by the original founders as the key
element that provides the strength of the WSF. They argue that any deviation
from that formula will lead to exclusions and turn the WSF into one more
sectarian movement. To guarantee the openness of the forum, the charter of
principles had barred "party representations" and "military organizations."
It was hard to enforce since both parties and guerilla movements came
anyway, through front organizations. And it was controversial since many
participants saw no reason to bar party structures (as long as any one of
them was not in a controlling position). And guerilla organizations included
the Zapatistas as well, who claim to be a military organization, even if
their military action has been virtually nil, and of course most
participants were highly sympathetic to the Zapatistas, even considering
them a model movement.

When the Forum moved from Brazil to India, from a country in which most
movements had more or less supported the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) and
therefore didn't need the actual formal presence of the PT to a country in
which the movements were divided among many parties and where the parties
were key mass organizations, the Indian organizing committee dropped the
provision about parties. Still, the proscription against violence led to a
split among the Indians. A small Maoist movement organized a counter-Forum,
called Mumbai Resistance-2004, on grounds across the road from the WSF. And
they denounced the WSF as a combination of Trotskyites, Social-Democrats,
reformist mass organizations, NGOs financed by transnationals - in short, a
stalking-horse for quietism and counter-revolution. They specifically
attacked the concept of the open forum (merely a talk show, they said), the
slogan (not "another world," but socialism as the objective, they said), and
the financing of the WSF (the fact that some money had come in the past from
the Ford Foundation).

But Mumbai Resistance proved to be a minor sideshow, stimulating some good
discussion in the WSF but attracting maybe 2% of the numbers attending the
WSF. As for action by the WSF, many pointed out that the world
demonstrations of Feb. 15, 2003 against the war in Iraq were inspired and
organized by WSF participants. So, in the end, everyone seemed to agree that
WSF should retain the concept of the open forum but perhaps find some way to
accept and institutionalize groups that wished to take common actions. There
already is an assembly of movements, who meet together at the time of the
WSF, and do pass resolutions and propose concrete actions. They are planning
a worldwide demonstration on March 20, 2004, the anniversary of the U.S.
invasion of Iraq.

The wish to expand the geographic scope of the WSF was behind the move to
Mumbai, and it was a spectacular success. In 2002, according to the chief
Indian organizer, not 200 people in India had even heard of the WSF. In
2004, hundreds of organizations, and more than 100,000 Indians alone
attended it, coming from every conceivable social group - at least 30,000
dalits (untouchables), adivasi (tribal peoples), and women everywhere.
Furthermore, against all of previous Indian political culture, they
represented a wide range of political views, working together. The WSF will
return to Porto Alegre in 2005 and is planning to go to Africa in 2006.

Finally, the internal structure of the WSF was a subject openly debated. An
international council had been founded in 2002, with some 150 members, all
co-opted. It is broadly representative, but certainly not elected. For were
it to be elected, the WSF would become a hierarchical structure. But is this
"democratic"? The international council makes real decisions - where the
meetings are held, who will speak at the plenary sessions (the "stars"), and
who may or may not be excluded from attendance. To be sure, most of the
sessions are organized from the bottom up. In Mumbai, there were 50 or so
such simultaneous "seminars" at every meeting-time, all in effect
autonomous. In the sessions analyzing the structure of the WSF, the push was
for more openness of decision-making, a way for participants to have input
on the decisions. And all this, without turning the WSF into a hierarchical
structure. Not easy, but at least publicly debated.

One should not miss the evolution of the thematic emphases. At Seattle, the
drive was to stop the WTO. After Cancun in 2003, the WTO has receded as a
major threat. Indeed, while the WSF is still fighting neoliberalism, the
sense is that the WSF has made a real difference, that if Brazil and India
are now pushing a different line, it is in large part because of the
presence of the WSF. The Davos gathering was hardly mentioned at this year,
but if there was one villain on all the posters this year, for all the
marchers at Mumbai, it was George W. Bush. The poster of a Pakistani women's
organization captured the sentiment: "When Bush comes to shove, resist."

The leading participants in the WSF are aware that riding the WSF is like
riding a bicycle - keep going forward or fall off. For the moment, the WSF
is riding well.

Immanuel Wallerstein



Project-X list:
initiated for the (re)building of the Left.




From ron at resist.ca  Tue Feb  3 12:34:04 2004
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Tue, 03 Feb 2004 12:34:04 -0800
Subject: [news] Workers Sieze Alcan Smelter in Quebec
Message-ID: <402005BC.8080202@resist.ca>



http://www.canada.com/search/story.aspx?id=6d762d9d-c3e2-4e77-8d46-6d5d91388
f86
Alcan CEO calls on unionized workers to open dialogue over seized plant

DAVID PADDON
Canadian Press


Monday, February 02, 2004

Alcan president Travis Engen at a news conference in Montreal on April 24,
2003. (CP/Paul Chiasson)

CREDIT: (CP/Paul Chiasson)

ADVERTISEMENT



TORONTO (CP) - The head of Alcan Inc. said Monday he's concerned about
safety at one of the company's Quebec aluminum smelters, which has been
taken over by unionized workers.

"You have to remember these are facilities that use very, very high levels
of power, millions of amperes of electricity, molten metal," Travis Engen
said after a speech to a Toronto business lunch.

While the unionized workers have done well operating the smelter at
Jonquiere, Que., on their own since taking it over last week to protest
plans to close it this spring, affecting 550 jobs, Alcan management is
still responsible for the facility, he said.

"We're quite concerned about the potential for something which might breach
our health-and-safety standards," Engen said.

But he added the company hasn't given any deadline to the workers, who are
represented by an affiliate of the Canadian Auto Workers union.

"There will be some limits, obviously, because there are some raw materials
required to produce aluminum. I would image the stocks of raw materials
that are at hand are falling. But there's no deadline," Engen said.

Quebec's Labour Relations Board ruled late Friday that the workers' actions
were illegal. On Saturday, thousands of people demonstrated against plans
to close the plant 10 years earlier than expected.

Engen said the 60-year-old smelter, which had been slated to close in 2014
because its technology doesn't meet more stringent environmental standards,
is being closed earlier because of the age of its workforce.

"We've been trying to find the right moment in time when, because of the
natural evolution of the employment, that we'd have enough retirements to
more than offset the job reductions so that people could be transferred and
there would not be any layoffs," Engen said.

Alcan had been in discussions with union representatives before the
company's announcement Jan. 22 that it plans to close the facility. But the
workers' representatives have been unwilling to talk since then, he said.

"We remain open, interested, available. And would welcome whatever steps
could be taken to open up a dialogue," Engen told reporters.

Alcan had started the closure process, which requires several weeks. But
Rolland Poirier, the union local's general secretary, said in an interview
the workers took over the plant last Tuesday "and stopped the closure
process."

Poirier said Monday the mill's foremen are making inspections at the mill,
which still runs 24 hours a day, "but the operating decisions are being
made by the operators."

The last of the four potlines was to be closed at the start of April,
Poirier said. He added that the Quebec government has named a mediator to
try to resolve the dispute.

Although Alcan is rationalizing its global operations since the acquisition
of Pechiney SA of France in December, Engen said the closure of the
Jonquiere smelter was due to its aging technology and desire to avoid
layoffs.

But Engen said he does expect layoffs will result from its takeover of
Pechiney, particularly some of the functions at its Paris headquarters.

Montreal-based Alcan (TSX:AL) is the world's largest aluminum producer by
revenue after its recent takeover of Pechiney, completed last month for
$6.3 billion.

? Copyright 2004 The Canadian Press



From sharai at resist.ca  Tue Feb  3 14:55:21 2004
From: sharai at resist.ca (sharai)
Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2004 16:55:21 -0600
Subject: [news] Murder Trial Revives Intrigue of the 70's Indian Movement
Message-ID: <000c01c3eaa8$cde75100$036c4818@pentium-266.accesscomm.ca>

Front page story in today's NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/03/national/03TRIB.html?8hpib
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------

New York Times

February 3, 2004



Murder Trial Revives Intrigue of the 70's Indian Movement

By MONICA DAVEY and CHARLIE LeDUFF


RAPID CITY, S.D. ? Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, a young mother and American
Indian activist, was shot in the head and left to die on the Pine Ridge
Reservation in the winter of 1975. The trial of one of two men accused of
killing her begins here on Tuesday. Between those moments, decades apart,
lies a mystery, and a bitter struggle.

Law enforcement authorities and Indians across the country are watching
closely, not just for what the trial will reveal about Ms. Pictou Aquash's
death, but for what it threatens to expose about suspicion and violence
inside the American Indian Movement, or AIM, the militant group whose
clashes with federal authorities drew the eyes of the world to the Pine
Ridge Reservation in the 1970's.

Ms. Pictou Aquash was a member of AIM, one of scores who seized the Sioux
village of Wounded Knee in 1973, demanding civil rights for Indians while
holding federal officials at bay for 71 days. The men indicted in her
murder, Arlo Looking Cloud and John Graham, were in AIM, too.

Did the movement kill one of its own? Or was Ms. Pictou Aquash a victim of
corrupt, even murderous, federal law enforcement? On the eve of the trial,
Indians are clashing over these questions ? in newspaper and magazine
articles, in television interviews, on the Web and in court.

AIM leaders insist, as they always have, that federal agents engineered the
killing as part of their conflict with AIM. Other Indians point the finger
at the movement itself, saying they believe that AIM leaders ordered her
killed because they suspected she was a federal informer.

The editor of a national Indian newspaper has made an even more explosive
accusation: that the trial will lead back to one of the American Indian
Movement's best-known members, Leonard Peltier, whose life imprisonment in
the killings of two federal agents at Pine Ridge has made him an
international human-rights celebrity among those who believe he was framed
by vengeful federal authorities.

The editor, Paul DeMain, has written in News From Indian Country that he
believes that Ms. Pictou Aquash knew too much about Mr. Peltier's case and
may have been killed by AIM members to protect Mr. Peltier. Mr. Peltier has
sued Mr. DeMain for libel, denying any connection to the killing of the
agents or of Ms. Pictou Aquash.

Being at the heart of such fire is familiar territory for AIM, a polarizing
force in Indian country since its birth in Minneapolis in 1968. AIM's
founders demanded civil rights, treaty recognition and a return to
traditional ways. Warlike in attitude and dress, they won admirers and
enemies on reservations. For many, AIM meant pride and cultural rebirth, but
others criticized its tactics ? like the siege at Wounded Knee ? as too
radical and violent.

Wounded Knee ended in a truce, but the armed conflict at Pine Ridge dragged
on for years. Among the bloody incidents, one stirred an intense manhunt. On
June 26, 1975, two F.B.I. agents, Jack Coler and Ronald Williams, were
trying to arrest a robbery suspect on a farm. In a gun battle, an AIM member
and both agents died. The agents, lying wounded by their car, were finished
off by bullets in the head at close range. Several Indians were later
arrested, but only Mr. Peltier was convicted.

Another Pine Ridge killing drew less notice. On Feb. 24, 1976, a rancher
found the body of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash curled in a gully. Ms. Pictou
Aquash was 30, with a broad smile and a sharp, determined attitude. She
believed in AIM, family members said, and was close to AIM leaders.

Indians here and on other reservations immediately suspected federal agents
or the Guardians of the Oglala Nation, a security force allied with the
tribal government and federal authorities.

Peculiar circumstances fueled those suspicions: at first the authorities
said they could not identify the body, though they had questioned Ms. Pictou
Aquash in the past. A coroner said she had died of exposure, overlooking the
bullet wound, which was found only when her body was exhumed for a second
autopsy.

Vernon Bellecourt, a longtime AIM leader and its spokesman, said recently
that he still believed federal authorities were responsible for her death.
"How they did it? I don't know," Mr. Bellecourt said. "How they set it up? I
don't know."

Among Indians, there was another theory. Ms. Pictou Aquash's daughter said
she heard it: that AIM itself might have killed Ms. Pictou Aquash, thinking
she was a spy. At the height of the Pine Ridge conflict, federal authorities
wanted inside information, and AIM members often suspected their own of
talking.

Robert D. Ecoffey, now deputy director of law enforcement services at the
Bureau of Indian Affairs, heard the whispers many times, too, in decades of
pursuing the Pictou Aquash case. But they went nowhere, Mr. Ecoffey and
other law enforcement officials said, because most people on the reservation
would not talk, perhaps fearing retribution, perhaps to keep a united front
for AIM.

"The case would be dead for a long time, then it would come back to life and
you would hear something," said James E. McMahon, the United States attorney
in South Dakota. "But then that would not pan out."

Finally, not long ago, Mr. McMahon said, people once inside AIM spoke up.

"Feelings changed," said Mr. Ecoffey, a Lakota who grew up in Pine Ridge.
"There had been a distrust between those who had the knowledge and the
F.B.I. People realized now that justice had to be done for Anna Mae."

Last year, the authorities indicted Mr. Looking Cloud and Mr. Graham. Mr.
Graham, arrested in Canada, will fight extradition in a hearing in March,
said his lawyer, Terry La Libert?. "There's no evidence in this case," Mr.
La Libert? said. "What we have is a bunch of hearsay, innuendo and
politics."

Mr. Looking Cloud, who goes to trial on Tuesday, has a straightforward
defense, said his lawyer, Tim Rensch: "He didn't do it."

Law enforcement authorities declined to discuss their theory of the motive
in the case before the trial. But they said they did not believe that Mr.
Looking Cloud, a low-level AIM member who became a drifter after leaving
Pine Ridge, plotted the killing on his own. And even a former AIM leader,
Russell Means, has publicly said he believes that AIM leaders ordered the
killing.

Mr. Bellecourt, the spokesman, in turn accused Mr. Means of being a "C.I.A.
snoop." He said his group had posted an "urgent appeal" on the Web for money
for Mr. Looking Cloud's defense after Mr. Looking Cloud's family sought help
to prove his innocence.

Mr. DeMain, the editor, said he once undertook a similar mission for Mr.
Peltier. Mr. DeMain, an Oneida-Ojibwe, said he began researching the case a
dozen years ago, hoping to prove ? as Robert Redford, the Dalai Lama,
Archbishop Desmond Tutu and others have insisted over the decades ? that Mr.
Peltier was unjustly imprisoned.

Mr. DeMain said he believed that ballistic evidence against Mr. Peltier was
flawed, and that a witness had lied. But after years of interviews, he said,
he became convinced that Mr. Peltier, now serving consecutive life terms in
the federal prison in Leavenworth, Kan., was a murderer.

"What I found was not a case where the government may have framed an
innocent man, but where the government may have framed a guilty man," he
said in an interview at his home in Hayward, Wis.

Mr. DeMain said he had determined from interviews that Ms. Pictou Aquash had
at one point heard Mr. Peltier brag about shooting both F.B.I. agents, and
even re-enacted the crime. That knowledge made her a target of AIM, Mr.
DeMain said.

Last year, Mr. DeMain published as much in his newspaper, writing that the
"primary motive" behind the killing was Ms. Pictou Aquash's knowledge of
what Mr. Peltier claimed to have done.

Another person who was once close to AIM leaders and who declined to be
named in this article, saying she feared for her safety, said that she, too,
had seen Mr. Peltier brag in front of Ms. Pictou Aquash and others about
shooting the agents. That person has been summoned as a witness at the
trial.

Mr. Peltier has sued Mr. DeMain for libel in federal court in Minneapolis.
Mr. Peltier's lawyer, Barry A. Bachrach, said that after years of court
appeals, even the government had said it could not prove that Mr. Peltier
executed the agents. The government, Mr. Bachrach said, has argued merely
that he "aided and abetted" in their deaths. The 1975 shootout, Mr. Bachrach
said, was chaotic and confusing, with many people firing guns, some in
self-defense. "It was a war zone," he said.

Eric F. Melgren, the United States attorney in Kansas, argued the
government's side in a hearing last fall. He said that to persuade appeals
courts to uphold the murder convictions, some prosecutors had asserted that
the government needed only to show that Mr. Peltier at least aided and
abetted in the killings. The government still believes that Mr. Peltier
fired the fatal shots, he said.

Mr. Bachrach said his client rejected the government's allegations and any
ties to Ms. Pictou Aquash's death. "He denies shooting the agents and thus
denies that a motive for the murder of Anna Mae was because he supposedly
admitted to her that he killed the agents," Mr. Bachrach said. "You can get
people to say anything. But it's a falsehood that Anna Mae was murdered as a
result of something Leonard supposedly admitted to her."

Besides, Mr. Bachrach said, Mr. Peltier considered Ms. Pictou Aquash a
friend.

The 28th anniversary of Mr. Peltier's imprisonment is next week, with events
planned in Boston, Toronto and Tacoma, Wash. His legal battle, meanwhile,
goes on.

Among Indians, especially here in southwest South Dakota, the coming trial
has stirred painful memories.

"It's awesome to know hundreds of people knew intimate details," said
Richard Two Elk, who grew up with Mr. Looking Cloud. "How the community knew
all this time. And how a massive orchestra was conducted to hide it."

AIM, meanwhile, splintered. Some leaders went off to Hollywood or the
lecture circuit. Nevertheless, Mr. Bellecourt, 72, said AIM was alive and
well. He said its legacy was vast ? culturally, economically and
philosophically. "We've changed things forever," he said.

Denise Maloney Pictou was 11 when her mother died. Her mother believed
firmly in AIM values, she said: human rights, treaty recognition, tradition.
Ms. Maloney Pictou said she was struggling to mesh those values with the
thought that AIM could have killed her mother.

"I really do believe in their purpose in what they started out to be," Ms.
Maloney Pictou, now 39, said. "I cannot believe that everything they did
back there is in vain."

Still, she said, she suspects there may be more revelations ahead.

"I truly believe that this is just the tip of the iceberg," she said. "If
Anna Mae opens up the door to the rest of the injustices, I'll be there to
push forward."

-----------------------------------------------------
"Love is profoundly political. Our deepest revolution will
come when we understand this truth. Only Love can
give us the strength to go forward in the midst of
heartbreak and misery. Only Love can give us the
power to reconcile, to redeem, the power to renew weary
spirits and save lost souls.The transformative power of
Love is the foundation of all meaningful social change."
---Bell Hooks





From resist at resist.ca  Tue Feb  3 15:31:09 2004
From: resist at resist.ca (Resist! Collective)
Date: Tue, 03 Feb 2004 15:31:09 -0800
Subject: [news] Resist! Collective Newsletter
Message-ID: <40202F3D.2010902@resist.ca>

The Resist! Collective has been working hard to upgrade almost all of
the major systems on the server in order to correct technical problems
and to increase security. Because of this, you may have noticed some
downtime over the last few weeks. Some of the specifics you might be
interested in, as a system user, are listed below. All of the
significant problems resulting from the upgrades have been identified
and fixed. We expect the server to be much more reliable at this point.
If you notice anything unusual, please contact us at the email addresses
listed at http://help.resist.ca.

Thanks for your patience,
The Resist! Collective

In this newsletter:

	* Webmail Fixed
	* Calendar Fixed
	* Spam on Resist.ca
	* Mail Quotas Explained
	* Security Certificates Updated
	* Documentation Updated
	* Reminder to Change Passwords
	* Internet Explorer Vs. Mozilla
	* Contributions


Webmail Problems Fixed
----------------------
Until recently, many people were experiencing problems checking their
web email (https://mail.resist.ca) with Micro$oft's Internet Explorer
(version 5.0 -> 5.5). We have corrected a problem with the security
layer that caused IE to spit out errors when loading pages or sending
mail. People using those browsers should not be experiencing problems at
this point. If you are still experiencing these problems, please contact
us. Also see the note on Mozilla below.

Calendar Fixed
--------------
Internet Explorer users were also having problems viewing events in our
calendar (http://calendar.resist.ca). An upgrade in the software has
corrected the problem. Since then, the calendar of Vancouver and other
BC events has once again become a great resource for activists in the
area. We think it's the coolest calendar going. If you haven't seen it,
check it out.

Spam on Resist.ca
-----------------
We have recently added Realtime Blackhole Lists (RBL's) to resist.ca.
RBL's check every message coming to the server against a few trusted
sources to let us know if a message is known to be spam. We hope this
will reduce the amount of unsolicited email that makes it's way into
your resist.ca inbox. Beside this system-wide change, you can also see
http://help.resist.ca/email.php#spam for more information on what you
can do to further reduce your spam load.

Mail Quotas Explained
---------------------
By default, your resist.ca email account has a maximum storage of 10
Megabytes. Mail quotas on resist.ca include all email that you store on
the server. That is to say, your Inbox, your Sent folder, and your Trash
folder. It also includes any other folders you have created on the server.

Please try to keep the amount of mail you store on the server to a
minimum. If even a small fraction of our users used their entire quota,
we would run out of space quickly. Please try to regularly empty your
Sent and Trash folders. If you can use POP mail to download messages to
your local computer, it makes a big difference to us. Thanks for helping
out.

See http://help.resist.ca/email.php#space for more details.

Security Certificates Updated
-----------------------------
Last week, we changed certificate authorities. You should have seen a
warning about the security certificate changing when logging into your
email account. In order to not see warnings like this in future (unless
there is a real problem), please see the document at
http://help.resist.ca/rtc-ca-cert.php on how to properly install the
Root Certificate for your web browser or email client.

Documentation Updated
---------------------
The documentation on the website has been given a big facelift. This
includes the help pages (http://help.resist.ca), as well as several
documents about the Resist! Collective and our relationship to our users
including a new basis of unity (the statement of principles which you
probably agreed to when you got your resist.ca email account found at
http://resist.ca/special/basis), and a new mission statement
(http://resist.ca/special/mission).

These documents were modified with contributions from your suggestions
as well as discussions of collaboration with the Red Cursor Collective
(http://riseup.net).

Change your Password
--------------------
Changing your password regularly is an important part of maintaining the
security of the server. For the benifit of all of our users, please do
it soon. If you aren't sure how: http://help.resist.ca/email.php#passwd.

Internet Explorer Vs. Mozilla
-----------------------------
If you are still using IE, you shouldn't be! :) As political folks, we
hope you will want to check out http://mozilla.org for the Mozilla Web
Browser and Email client.

Not only does Mozilla rock, this free and opensource suite is built by a
community of programmers with an anti-corporate bent. Mozilla is
approximately as fast as IE and has all the functionality of IE plus
great features like popup blocking and tabbed browsing. The Mozilla mail
client offers intelligent spam blocking that learns as you tell it which
messages are spam and which aren't. Microsoft says it won't be putting
out a new version of IE until 2005.

Contributions Made Easier
-------------------------
We couldn't really do a newsletter without a pitch for contributions,
could we? As usual, donations (cash, labour or hardware) are hugely
appreciated. We can't thank folks enough who have helped us keep the
servers running over the last year or so through their financial
support. If you have been using our services and haven't contributed in
the last year, please consider kicking it down.

Recently, your donations have helped us to meet the increased hardware
requirements caused by an increase in the number of resist.ca users as
well as the month-to-month maintenance costs of keeping our systems online.

Kicking it down has recently become easier! We now offer you the option
of using Paypal to make your financial contribution. See
http://help.resist.ca/org.php#donate for more details.
_______________________________________________
Listadmins mailing list
Listadmins at lists.resist.ca
https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/listadmins



From ron at resist.ca  Wed Feb  4 22:18:29 2004
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Wed, 04 Feb 2004 22:18:29 -0800
Subject: [news] The 10 Worst Corporations of 2003
Message-ID: <4021E035.7040201@resist.ca>



-------- Original Message --------
From: Moe <moe at kootenaycuts.com>


The 10 Worst Corporations of 2003
By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

2003 was not a year of garden variety corporate wrongdoing. No, the
sheer variety, reach and intricacy of corporate schemes, scandal and
crimes was spellbinding. Not an easy year to pick the 10 worst
companies, for sure.

But Multinational Monitor magazine cannot be deterred by such
complications. And so, here follows, in alphabetical order, our list for
Multinational Monitor of the 10 worst corporations of 2003.

Bayer: 2003 may be remembered as the year of the headache at Bayer. In
May, the company agreed to plead guilty to a criminal count and pay more
than $250 million to resolve allegations that it denied Medicaid
discounts to which it was entitled. The company was beleaguered with
litigation related to its anti-cholesterol drug Baycol. Bayer pulled the
drug ? which has been linked to a sometimes fatal muscle disorder --
from the market, but is facing thousands of suits from patients who
allege they were harmed by the drug. In June, the New York Times
reported on internal company memos which appear to show that the company
continued to promote the drug even as its own analysis had revealed the
dangers of the product. Bayer denies the allegations.

Boeing: In one of the grandest schemes of corporate welfare in recent
memory, Boeing engineered a deal whereby the Pentagon would lease tanker
planes -- 767s that refuel fighter planes in the air -- from Boeing. The
pricetag of $27.6 billion was billions more than the cost of simply
buying the planes. The deal may unravel, though, because the company in
November fired for wrongdoing both the employee that negotiated the
contract for Boeing (the company's chief financial officer), and the
employee that negotiated the contract for the government. How could
Boeing fire a Pentagon employee? Simple. She was no longer a Pentagon
employee. Boeing had hired her shortly after the company clinched the deal.

Brighthouse: A new-agey advertising/consulting/ strategic advice
company, Brighthouse's claim to infamy is its Neurostrategies Institute,
which undertakes research to see how the brain responds to advertising
campaigns. In a cutting-edge effort to extend and sharpen the commercial
reach in ways never previously before possible, the institute is using
MRIs to monitor activity in people's brains triggered by advertisements.

Clear Channel: The radio behemoth Clear Channel specializes in consuming
or squashing locally owned radio stations, imposing a homogenized music
play list on once interesting stations, and offering cultural support
for U.S. imperial adventures. It has also compiled a record of "repeated
law-breaking," according to our colleage Jim Donahue, violating the law
-- including prohibitions on deceptive advertising and on broadcasting
conversations without obtaining permission of the second party to the
conversation -- on 36 separate occasions over the previous three years.

Diebold: A North Canton, Ohio-based company that is one of the largest
U.S. voting machine manufacturers, and an aggressive peddler of its
electronic voting machines, Diebold has managed to demonstrate that it
fails any reasonable test of qualifications for involvement with the
voting process. Its CEO has worked as a major fundraiser for President
George Bush. Computer experts revealed serious flaws in its voting
technology, and activists showed how careless it was with confidential
information. And it threatened lawsuits against activists who published
on the Internet documents from the company showing its failures.

Halliburton: Now the owner of the company which initially drafted plans
for privatization of U.S. military functions -- plans drafted during the
Bush I administration when current Vice President and former Halliburton
CEO Dick Cheney was Secretary of Defense -- Halliburton is pulling in
billions in revenues for contract work -- providing logistical support
ranging from oil to food -- in Iraq. Tens of millions, at least, appear
to be overcharges. Some analysts say the charges for oil provision
amount to "highway robbery."

HealthSouth: Fifteen of its top executives have pled guilty in
connection with a multi-billion dollar scheme to defraud investors, the
public and the U.S. government about the company's financial condition.
The founder and CEO of the company that runs a network of outpatient
surgery, diagnostic imagery and rehabilitative healthcare centers,
Richard Scrushy, is fighting the charges. But thanks to the slick
maneuvering of attorney Bob Bennett, it appears the company itself will
get off scot free -- no indictments, no pleas, no fines, no probation.

Inamed: The California-based company sought Food and Drug Administration
approval for silicone breast implants, even though it was not able to
present long-term safety data -- the very thing that led the FDA to
restrict sales of silicone implants a decade ago. In light of what
remains unknown and what is known about the implants' effects --
including painful breast hardening which can lead to deformity, and very
high rupture rates -- the FDA in January 2004 denied Inamed's
application for marketing approval.

Merrill Lynch: This company keeps messing up. Fresh off of a $100
million fine levied because analysts were recommending stocks that they
trashed in private e-mails, the company saw three former execs indicted
for shady dealings with Enron. The company itself managed to escape with
something less than a slap on the wrist -- no prosecution in exchange
for "oversight."

Safeway: One of the largest U.S. grocery chains, Safeway is leading the
charge to demand givebacks from striking and locked out grocery workers
in Southern California. Along with Albertsons and Ralphs (Kroger's),
Safeway's Vons and Pavilion stores are asking employees to start paying
for a major chunk of their health insurance. Under the company's
proposals, workers and their families will lose $4,000 to $6,000 a year
in health insurance benefits.


Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime
Reporter, http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com. Robert Weissman is
editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Multinational Monitor,
http://www.multinationalmonitor.org. They are co-authors of Corporate
Predators: The Hunt for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy (Monroe,
Maine: Common Courage Press; http://www.corporatepredators.org).

(c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

This article is posted at: <http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/corp
focus/2004/000173.html>.
_______________________________________________

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and Robert Weissman. Please feel free to forward the column to friends or
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From sharai at resist.ca  Fri Feb  6 14:37:09 2004
From: sharai at resist.ca (sharai)
Date: Fri, 06 Feb 2004 16:37:09 -0600
Subject: [news] Wife of AIM leader says Leonard Peltier Killed
Message-ID: <40241715.3080603@resist.ca>

The Rapid City Journal
2/5/04
------------------------------------
Wife of AIM leader says Leonard Peltier admitted killing FBI agents

By Heidi Bell Gease, Journal Staff Writer

RAPID CITY -- With a courtroom hanging on her every word, the former
common-law wife of American Indian Movement leader Dennis Banks
testified Wednesday that she and the late Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash heard
Leonard Peltier brag about killing two FBI agents at Oglala in 1975.

Darlene Nichols, also known as Ka-Mook Nichols, said the women were
traveling with Peltier and Banks in late 1975. "He (Peltier) put his
hand like this," she said, using her thumb and forefinger to imitate a
gun, "and started talking about the two FBI agents."

Nichols continued tearfully, "He said, 'That (expletive) was begging for
his life, but I shot him anyway.'"

Peltier, who is currently serving consecutive life sentences for the
deaths of agents Jack Coler and Ron Williams, maintains he is innocent.
His attorney, Barry Bachrach, denied Nichols' accusations in an
interview with The Associated Press, saying: "I'm not sure who put her
up to it, but it is unequivocally false. This whole trial is about
smearing Leonard and other AIM people and covering up history."

Nichols' words were the most riveting part of the first full day of
testimony in the murder trial of Arlo Looking Cloud, who is accused of
helping to kill AIM activist Pictou-Aquash in December 1975. Nichols'
testimony was part of a larger picture as prosecutors sought to show
that Pictou-Aquash feared for her life in the months before her death.

Nichols had a front-row seat for AIM activities in the 1970s. She joined
the movement as a teenager and soon became involved with Banks, with
whom she had four children before they separated 17 years later.

She told how, during a national AIM convention in June 1975, there were
repeated rumors and accusations that Pictou-Aquash was a federal informant.

Defense attorney Tim Rensch objected repeatedly to that and similar
testimony, saying the answers involved hearsay. In most cases, U.S.
District Judge Lawrence Piersol ruled that the testimony had limited
admissibility: Jurors could not take the statements as fact but could
consider them as evidence of Pictou-Aquash's state of mind.

Nichols said the rumors were openly discussed and that Pictou-Aquash was
obviously upset and afraid. "I heard that (Peltier) had taken her away
from the camp in a car and had put a gun to her head and wanted to know
if she was an informant," Nichols testified. "She told him that if he
believed that, he could go ahead and shoot."

Peltier, Banks, Nichols, Nichols' sister and Pictou-Aquash began
traveling together by motor home in the fall of 1975, when Peltier and
Banks were both fugitives. Nichols said Pictou-Aquash was watched
constantly. "Somebody always went around with her," she said.

In Oregon, a highway patrol officer stopped the vehicle. Everyone but
Banks got out, and Banks drove away and escaped. Peltier started running
and was shot, but Nichols said he, too, managed to escape. The others
were arrested, and Nichols and Pictou-Aquash shared a jail cell for weeks.

U.S. Attorney Jim McMahon asked what Pictou-Aquash's state of mind was.
"She was upset. She was crying," Nichols said. "I knew that she was
scared of Leonard and Dennis at that point."

Nichols, who clutched an eagle feather while on the witness stand, said
she never saw Pictou-Aquash alive after that. She learned Pictou-Aquash
was dead when Banks called her on Feb. 24, 1976 - the same day
Pictou-Aquash's body was found. Earlier in the day, retired FBI agents
had testified that they weren't able to identify Pictou-Aquash's
decomposed body until after her severed hands were sent to a Washington,
D.C., lab, where fingerprints could be taken.

Nichols said she remembered the day Banks called because it was her
nephew's birthday. Later, she chose to cooperate with law enforcement,
she said. "I (had) started believing the American Indian Movement had
something to do with it."

Nichols said she contacted the FBI and later wore a wire to record
conversations with Looking Cloud, Banks and others.

In cross-examination, Rensch asked Nichols about her work as a
California movie casting director. She admitted that her salary is
irregular and that she earned only about $9,000 last year.

"Do you have plans to sell your story?" Rensch asked her.

"No," she replied.

Rensch also questioned whether Pictou-Aquash was really being held
against her will in the motor home. Nichols said Pictou-Aquash wasn't
tied up and didn't ask to leave. "I think if she had wanted to leave,
there would have been an incident," she said.

Nichols testified that she has received $42,000 from the federal
government, some of it reimbursement for her travel expenses. The
government also paid to move Nichols from California to a safer location
in New Mexico because of her involvement with the case. She said she
moved again after Banks learned where she was living.

Former AIM member Mathalene White Bear also testified that Pictou-Aquash
was afraid in 1975. Pictou-Aquash came to see her in California that
September, White Bear said, and told White Bear that threats had been
made on her life.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't she also afraid of the FBI?"
McMahon asked.

"Yes," White Bear said.

Before Pictou-Aquash left, she showed White Bear an unusual silver
filigree ring. She also gave her a phone number, saying that she hoped
the next time White Bear saw the ring, it would be on Pictou-Aquash's
finger. "But if it were to come to me another way, then what I was to do
was to call that phone number," White Bear said.

White Bear later received three phone calls from Pictou-Aquash. The
first time, Pictou-Aquash said she was OK and was waiting for word on
what to do next. The second time, she was more upset. "She said she felt
like she was being caged in," White Bear said. "The people she was with
had her afraid to go outside. They had her afraid that she was being
watched, is the feeling she got."

By the third call, Pictou-Aquash sounded scared. "She knew something was
going wrong," White Bear said. That call was disconnected.

White Bear cried, saying that was the last time she spoke with
Pictou-Aquash. A few days after that call, she testified, "I got a
little box in the mail ... And when I opened it up, all that was in
there was the silver ring."

White Bear called the telephone number Pictou-Aquash had left, which
belonged to John Trudell, a former national AIM president and poet. He
picked up the ring.

"Then, I spent 28 years of hell waiting to find out what happened, the
truth," she said.

Earlier in the day, several retired FBI agents and experts testified
about how the investigation and autopsies were conducted.

Rensch questioned agents about cultivating agents, and whether any were
involved in "Cointelpro," a counterintelligence program. All denied any
involvement.

Rensch asked if retired FBI agent William Wood had ever tried to "snitch
jacket" a person - to start rumors that people were government agents
when they really weren't.

"Absolutely not, no," Wood replied. "As far as I know, that wasn't a
technique that was used."

Testimony resumes at 9 a.m. today.

Contact Heidi Bell Gease at 394-8419 or heidi.bell at rapidcityjournal.com

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright ? 2004 The Rapid City Journal
Rapid City, SD



From ron at resist.ca  Mon Feb  9 14:36:27 2004
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Mon, 09 Feb 2004 14:36:27 -0800
Subject: [news] NYTimes.com Article: Maoist Rebellion Shifts Balance of
 Power in Rural Nepal
Message-ID: <40280B6B.7020700@resist.ca>



-------- Original Message --------

hari s
SANSAD/INSAF

>Maoist Rebellion Shifts Balance of Power in Rural Nepal
>
>February 5, 2004
>  By AMY WALDMAN
>
>
>
>
>
>BARDIYA, Nepal - Until two-and-a-half years ago, Rachna
>Sharma and her husband lived as zamindars, or landlords, in
>this district in western Nepal, presiding over an ample
>estate just as their forebears had done.
>
>As members of a high caste, they did not dirty their hands
>working their land. That was left to the Tharus, a landless
>and powerless ethnic group indigenous to this plain area.
>Until 2000, when the government, under pressure, freed
>them, thousands of Tharus - including 15 families on Mrs.
>Sharma's estate - lived as bonded laborers, equal to
>slaves.
>
>But today Mrs. Sharma, an aristocratic beauty, lives as a
>refugee, if a cosseted one, in the town of Nepalganj.
>Maoist rebels are living in her former house and cooking in
>her kitchen. The Tharus are farming her lands - and keeping
>all of the crops.
>
>When they come to see her in town, she tries, futilely, to
>wheedle a share, making requests where she once issued
>commands.
>
>"Now we have to be polite to them," Mrs. Sharma, 36, said.
>
>
>The guerrilla insurgency that the Communist Party of Nepal
>(Maoist) began against the constitutional monarchy eight
>years ago has wreaked great damage in this country of
>Himalayan scenery and epic poverty. More than 8,500 people
>have died, including more than 1,500 since the end of
>August, when a cease-fire broke down.
>
>The insurgency has also, in parts of rural Nepal, wrought
>changes in the balance of power between the landed and the
>landless that multiparty democracy - ushered in with great
>expectations in the early 1990's - failed to bring.
>
>That dynamic helps explain why a rebellion that many say
>has become a criminal enterprise as much as a political
>movement still finds support among the Tharus and other
>disenfranchised ethnic groups and the country's low castes.
>
>
>In the villages of Bardiya, young Tharus talk happily about
>how the landlords have had to flee the Maoists' wrath. "All
>the zamindars are scared of us now," said Bal Krishna
>Chaudhary, an intense 18-year-old Tharu student from a
>family of former bonded laborers.
>
>His eldest sister, Sita, was a Maoist supporter taken by
>the army more than two years ago. They said she was
>carrying a bomb, a charge he denies, but he does not
>dispute her Maoist sympathies.
>
>"They speak for the people," he said, explaining why. "They
>speak for the Tharus."
>
>Like a creeper wrapping itself around a tree, the Maoist
>movement has used the entrenched poverty and discrimination
>of this Hindu kingdom's deeply feudal society to build its
>insurgency. Nepal has perhaps the most rigid caste
>hierarchy remaining today.
>
>This country has been, and still is, dominated by two high
>castes: the Brahmins - called Bahuns in Nepal - or priestly
>caste, of Mrs. Sharma; and Chhetris, or warrior caste, of
>her husband.
>
>The two castes hold the highest positions in government,
>politics and business. They control the army and the press.
>And perhaps most crucially in a society still reliant on
>agriculture, they own the land.
>
>Much of that land was once farmed by the Tharus, an
>aboriginal group in Nepal's lowlands. With a population of
>about 1.2 million, out of Nepal's 24 million, they are one
>of the country's largest ethnic groups.
>
>Once self-sufficient farmers, the Tharus were gradually
>dispossessed as the government granted land to high castes
>to secure their loyalty and expand its reach. Then, the
>eradication of malaria - to which Tharus are believed to be
>immune - drew in large numbers of hill migrants to claim
>Tharu lands.
>
>Tharus, little educated and ill-equipped to battle for
>their rights, went from being owners to landless tenants.
>For several generations, an estimated 20 percent or more of
>Tharus in western Nepal - some 20,000 families - were
>indentured, usually with no hope of escape.
>
>The Maoists did little or nothing to free the Tharus from
>bonded labor; the pressure on the government came from
>domestic and international organizations.
>
>But the Maoists have woven the uplifting of the Tharus -
>and of Nepal's other downtrodden groups - into their
>tapestry of slogans, and it has resonated among a people
>who believe that both royalist rule and multiparty
>democracy have failed them.
>
>"We work with them because we think they can help raise our
>issues and get us our rights as citizens," Bal Krishna
>Chaudhary, the student, said. He knew seven people who had
>joined the Maoists, he said. Most are dead or missing.
>
>Ekraj Chaudhary, a Tharu radio journalist based in
>Nepalganj, said he believed that most Tharus were involved
>with the Maoists, even if only passively. But even in the
>movement, he said, they were still relegated to low-level
>militants, and thus easy prey for the army.
>
>Col. Dipak Gurung, a spokesman for the Royal Nepal Army,
>said the Maoists were exploiting the Tharus. "Tharus are
>very meek people, they normally don't resist," he said. "By
>nature, by culture, they are submissive."
>
>No longer, as Mrs. Sharma could testify. At 45, Mrs.
>Sharma's husband is working in Nepalgunj as a computer
>instructor - the first job he has ever held - to support
>their family. "Zamindars never worked," she said. "It's
>very strange."
>
>But if the undoing of nobles like Mrs. Sharma has cheered
>some Tharu hearts, the cost of the insurgency has troubled
>many others. This is a war with no winners.
>
>As a result of the rebellion, the state is pulling out of
>many Maoist-controlled areas - generally the country's
>remote and desperately poor rural regions.
>
>The police have been pulled back to district headquarters.
>Teachers and doctors, often singling out the Maoists for
>extortion or worse, are in some cases refusing to serve in
>villages. The swollen military budget, required to sustain
>an army now close to 80,000-strong, has crowded out
>development spending.
>
>The government calls most of the dead Maoists, but human
>rights advocates, journalists and ordinary Nepalis say many
>are civilians caught in the crossfire or Maoist
>sympathizers mislabeled militants.
>
>Support for the Maoists by some Tharus has placed the
>entire community under suspicion. The army has come down
>hard on the Tharus - harassing, beating, detaining and
>sometimes killing them, often with little or no evidence.
>
>On a recent afternoon, four parents, faces wan and weary,
>sat on a bench in the front yard of a village home,
>clutching photographs - and in one case simply a negative -
>of their missing children.
>
>Thirty-seven Tharus have disappeared into army custody from
>this district alone, said Mr. Chaudhary, the journalist.
>Across the country, 709 Nepalis have disappeared in the
>last eight years, 200 into Maoist control and the rest into
>the custody of security forces, according to the National
>Human Rights Commission.
>
>Colonel Gurung disputed that the army had taken people
>without accounting for them. "We're not that
>irresponsible," he said. He said it was "very rare" that
>anyone would be killed in army custody.
>
>But Phool Kesari, a Tharu and a former bonded laborer,
>whose husband was taken by the army a year and a half ago,
>is almost certain that he is dead. The army came three days
>after he was taken to say that he was a Maoist, which she
>denies. There has been no word of him since.
>
>She has no relatives to rely on. She depends on a
>15-year-old daughter still working as a bonded laborer, for
>about 4,000 rupees, or $60, a year.
>
>She sat in her one-room house, the possessions inside
>countable on two hands. Three small children clung to her,
>their eyes watering from the thick, stinging smoke of a
>cooking fire, their noses running.
>
>"How am I going to survive?" she asked. She had no land, no
>property, no education, no husband, no income and three
>children to feed.
>
>Without waiting for an answer, she offered one. "Maybe I'll
>go back to the zamindar," she said.
>
>http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/05/international/asia/05NEPA.html?ex=1077004602&ei=1&en=43a1dac50df00876
>
>
>---------------------------------
>
>Get Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. Imagine
>reading The New York Times any time & anywhere you like!
>Leisurely catch up on events & expand your horizons. Enjoy
>now for 50% off Home Delivery! Click here:
>
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>or other creative advertising opportunities with The
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>
>For general information about NYTimes.com, write to
>help at nytimes.com. 
>
>Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
>
>


From ron at resist.ca  Mon Feb  9 15:15:32 2004
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Mon, 09 Feb 2004 15:15:32 -0800
Subject: [news] Province backs off plan for dramatic cuts to welfare
Message-ID: <40281494.0@resist.ca>

  Saturday, February 07, 2004

VICTORIA -- The B.C. government added a sweeping, last-minute exemption 
to its welfare cuts Friday before announcing that only 339 people could 
lose all or part of their benefits in the coming year.

After months of speculation that up to 28,000 people could be affected 
by the cuts, the ministry now says that anyone who has an employment 
plan, complies with the plan, and is actively looking for work will 
continue to receive welfare.

Critics quickly hailed the exemption as a major flip-flop that 
effectively neuters the government's new time-limit rule slated to take 
effect April 1. The rule restricts welfare recipients who are deemed 
employable to just two years of benefits in any five-year period. There 
are now 25 exemptions to the rule.

Seth Klein of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says the 
latest exemption applies to "pretty much everybody"

"There are thousands of people, they've been accumulating time on the 
clock until now, but they are abiding by their employment plans," he 
said. "Now, they've just learned that as long they continue abiding by 
their employment plans, they're exempt."

Ministry of human resources spokesman Richard Chambers said the 
exemption was added Friday, but neither he, nor Minister Stan Hagen was 
able to say how many people would be covered by it. Chambers 
acknowledged, however, that it could be in the thousands.

Hagen explained the change by saying the government has had "huge 
success" moving people off welfare into the work force. "But as you come 
down the curve and sort of deal with the individuals that we're now 
dealing with, they're getting more difficult to place.

"I think it's valuable from a public policy standpoint to examine the 
criteria that you're using. I mean public policy is not ingrained in 
stone, so, periodically, you have to look at the public policy to make 
sure that you're treating people humanely and fairly."

Hagen said the Liberal government wants to ensure "that those who are 
unable to work, or are doing everything in their power to find work, 
will be protected."

Vancouver councillor and long-time anti-poverty activist Jim Green gave 
kudos to the province for its decision and did not criticize the 
apparent flip-flop on the issue.

"They're being realistic and I'm happy about that," Green said.

Initially, city staff had estimated about 8,000 people in Vancouver 
would lose their welfare cheques because of the changes and Green said 
he is pleased that number will now be much lower.

But opponents said the government clearly caved in to mounting criticism 
of the pending cuts from politicians, churches and community groups.

"I think the government misread the public on this," Victoria councilor 
Rob Fleming said. "I think they were being quite political all along 
that welfare-bashing was a way to improve their approval ratings.

"In fact, British Columbians do understand that there is a problem with 
homelessness in B.C.'s towns and cities."

Klein said the new exemption effectively renders the time-limit rule 
redundant.

"It's completely superfluous, because, already, even without a 
time-limit law, if you don't abide by your employment plan you can be 
cut off," he said. "I'm actually surprised that there's anyone [facing 
cuts], given this last exemption."

The ministry says there are 172 "employable" people who have been on 
welfare for two years and may lose their benefits next fiscal year for 
failing to look for a job, quitting a job without a good reason, getting 
fired or refusing work.

Another 167 employable couples or families with children may have their 
welfare rates reduced by anywhere from $100 to $300 a month.

The 25 exemptions to the rule include people with disabilities, pregnant 
women, single parents with children under three, people in a special 
care facility or people with an alcohol or drug problem.

"If you look at the number of exemptions that were in place and what 
they've got in place now, they basically have finally recognized that 
this policy wasn't going to work, that they were going in the wrong 
direction, and they've backed off," NDP leader Carole James said.

"It's a victory for those community organizations and groups who did 
stand up to this government and told them it was wrong from the beginning."

The government's critics compared the situation to the recent review of 
disability benefits, which took a year to determine that the vast 
majority of people qualified for the benefits.

"I think there's a lot of similarities to the disability review with 
this ministry really putting vulnerable people through a social 
experiment that's not working," Bruce Wallace of the Vancouver Island 
Public Interest Research Group said.

He accused the government of "introducing these really radical social 
policies that are punitive, and then trying to back away from them. 
Unfortunately, it's causing incredible stress, and it's neglecting the 
real need for welfare reform in the province."

Hagen, however, blamed the NDP for creating the anxiety around the 
welfare limits by exaggerating the number of people that would be affected.

"I wish the NDP hadn't done that quite frankly," he said. "I think it 
was totally irresponsible and inaccurate."

Hagen said the ministry was unable to set the record straight any 
earlier, because it didn't have accurate information until two days ago.

"I think that we moved in a timely manner, because, first of all, this 
doesn't take effect until April," he said. "If you're suggesting we 
should have come out three months ago, we would not have had accurate 
numbers three months ago, because people cycle on and off welfare, and 
we want to make sure that we deal with these cases as people, because we 
are dealing with people's lives."

Hagen predicted the number of people facing cutoff will likely drop 
again before April 1.

"I'm looking upon this ministry as the ministry of jobs," he said. "I 
think when those folks on the list are notified that they are going to 
be dropped off income assistance in April, that they'll probably make a 
more concentrated effort in finding work."

Klein, meanwhile, called on government to scrap the time-limit rule 
completely.

"It bothers me that they're leaving a redundant law on the books," he 
said. "It's a bad precedent to be setting in the country."

As long as the rule is there, he said, it's unclear who will protect 
people who qualify for the exemptions, but lack the ability to advocate 
for themselves.

"People will fall through the cracks," he said.

Wallace said the government needs to start working with the community if 
wants to achieve real welfare reform.

"To continue to introduce these policies, and continue to have to 
backtrack, and then try to still squeeze them through, is not working," 
he said. "They need to engage the public in how to make a progressive 
welfare agenda that takes care of those in need, that respects human 
rights, and reduces poverty."
? The Vancouver Sun 2004


From resist at resist.ca  Tue Feb 10 12:48:34 2004
From: resist at resist.ca (Resist! Collective)
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2004 12:48:34 -0800
Subject: [news] Government Retreat on Social Assistance
Message-ID: <402943A2.1020206@resist.ca>


Stop Welfare Cuts Coalition
MEDIA RELEASE
For Immediate Release
             February 10, 2004
Government Retreat on Social Assistance Leaves Many Concerns

The BC Liberal?s effort, to white wash its widely condemned Welfare
Cuts agenda, has been harshly criticized by those with first hand
knowledge of the Issues involved.

Paul Jenkinson, Chairperson, BC Association of Social Workers: Child
Welfare and Family Committee, says ?? it is now clear that the Liberal
government would have denied a financial income to many legitimate
families and individuals if the policy (had) been allowed to go forward
?

The ? government has exhibited an unreasonable faith in the free market
economy and as such have been convinced that everybody can find and
keep a job if they just want to.  This reversal in policy acknowledges
the barriers that many people have to finding and keeping employment.
Minister Hagen (has been quoted as saying) ? ..the government has had
huge success moving people off of welfare into the workforce ...but as
you come down the curve and sort of deal with individuals that we're
now dealing with they're getting more difficult to place?.

While Minister Hagen?s comments continue to have a strong element of
blaming and poor bashing to them, he is recognizing ...the fact that
some people will simply not be able to work?If the Liberal government
had a process in place to consult with the many organizations and
individuals with expertise in the area of poverty issues they would
have been able to avoid the waste of government energy and the ensuing
trauma to welfare clients that accompanied the Two Year Welfare Limit
Policy and the Review of Disability Benefits.

In both cases the governments" uninformed" policy threatened many
people with the loss of income but when faced with the reality of
poverty and disability in BC  (the policy) had to be reversed.?

Thia Walters of Life Is Not Enough Society explains,  ? ? It is not the
2 year time limit that people should be worried about it is the
thousands that have already been dumped off the roles. They are in my
office every day.?

Debbie Krull, Community Advocate, United Native Nations Local 111
reports, ?One woman from the Aboriginal Friendship Centre?s Access
Employment Program has clients whom have already been cut off
assistance due to welfare?s work plan (policy). How many people share
this story?

Another woman brought forth the reality that some programs do not get
accreditation of being either a job or training program. In fact one
welfare worker told a 22yr old aboriginal youth to quit her grade 12
completion courses at Langara College and sign up for a job training
program. The youth chose to complete her grade 12 and got cut off of
welfare.?


										               ?2.

Seth Klein, BC Director, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives stated
on Feb. 6th,
?The policy?s sole remaining function is to intimidate welfare
recipients, who, in spite of the new exemption, will live in fear of
being cut off. The exemption?s application remains uncertain ? once
this issue recedes from the public spotlight, the Ministry may instruct
case workers to be more demanding about employment plans, or may
refrain from informing clients about the exemptions. The onus should be
on the Ministry to inform the thousands of people living with the
stress of a looming cut-off that they are now exempt from the rule.

While today?s announcement does show that the government is
reconsidering the time limits rule, it must go further. The Ministry?s
estimates indicate that hundreds of people will still fall through the
cracks. Regardless of whether the number is 15,000, 300 or one, this is
a bad law. It remains an awful precedent in Canada and should be
removed from the books.?

Shelagh Day of the Poverty and Human Rights Project points out ?This is
a major retreat. The government has essentially acknowledged that the
time limits legislation was wrong. Now it has to take it off the books
entirely. The government owes an apology to the many people it has
insulted and put under terrible stress.?

Bev Meslo, from the National Action Committee on the Status of
Women-BC, insists ??Now, if you fill out a form and agree to look for
work you are exempt for a limited amount of time, thereby enabling this
government put out ridiculous numbers that few can believe. ? Added to
their.. (Women on Welfare)?fear(s)? is (the) fear of child apprehension
because these cuts make it impossible for single parents to meet the
standards set by the Ministry of Family and Children?. This
government?s sneaky sidestep will have dire consequences for the most
vulnerable."

BCGEU President George Heyman said  ? ? The Campbell government should
be deeply ashamed for putting tens of thousands of vulnerable people
through months of unnecessary anxiety and distress over the potential
impact of these changes.

?Like the Campbell government?s previous debacle where it put 14,000
people with disabilities through extensive and stressful benefits
reviews, this too was a costly and wasteful exercise in terms of human
pain and ministry resources.

?The two-year time limits should still be taken off the books. The
government is estimating that 167 clients may see reduced benefits in
the next year, because they?ve been collecting welfare for more than
two years.

?Those figures represent mostly single parents and their children. Not
one British Columbian in need deserves to be punished further for
living in poverty.?


The Stop Welfare Cuts Coalition remains committed to reversing morally
bankrupt policies of the BC Liberal government that stand in violation
of both the Canadian Charter of Human Rights and the International
Covenant on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights, and will continue to
?Fight Back!? until Welfare Time Limits are defeated.

?3.





Some of the groups involved in the Stop Welfare Cuts Coalition are: End
Legislated Poverty, BC Teachers Federation, Vancouver Status of Women,
Anti-Poverty Committee, Aboriginal Women?s Collective, First United
Church and various other churches across the Lower Mainland, BC
Government and Employees Union, Lower Mainland Coalition for Social
Justice, Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, Tenants Rights Action
Coalition, Prepare the General Strike Committee, Housing Action
Committee, United Native Nations Local 111, and the Seniors Network BC.

For more information on the Stop Welfare Cuts Coalition please contact
Lisa c/o End Legislated Poverty at 604-879-1209 or by email at
elp at telus.net


From ron at resist.ca  Tue Feb 10 20:11:53 2004
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2004 20:11:53 -0800
Subject: [news] Bush's Iraq: an appointocracy
Message-ID: <4029AB89.5040208@resist.ca>

i hoope i didn't forward this already.

-------- Original Message --------
From: shniad at sfu.ca

Globe and Mail	   Thursday, January 22, 2004 - Page A19	

Bush's Iraq: an appointocracy

Washington wants carefully selected groups to do its bidding. Iraqis
marching in the streets want the vote

By Naomi Klein

'The people of Iraq are free," declared U.S. President George W. Bush in
Tuesday's State of the Union address. The day before, 100,000 Iraqis begged
to differ. They took to the streets of Baghdad shouting "Yes, yes to
elections. No, no to selection."

According to Iraq occupation chief Paul Bremer, there really is no
difference between the White House's version of freedom, and the one being
demanded on the street. Asked on Friday whether his plan to form an Iraqi
government through appointed caucuses was headed toward a clash with
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani's call for direct elections, Mr. Bremer said he had
no "fundamental disagreement with him."

It was, he said, a mere quibble over details. "I don't want to go into the
technical details of refinements. There are, if you talk to experts in these
matters, all kinds of ways to organize partial elections and caucuses. And
I'm not an election expert, so I don't want to go into the details. But
we've always said we're willing to consider refinements."

I'm not an election expert either, but I'm pretty sure there are differences
here than cannot be refined. Ayatollah al-Sistani's supporters want every
Iraqi to have a vote, and for the people they elect to write the laws of the
country -- your basic, imperfect, representative democracy.

Mr. Bremer wants his Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) to appoint the
members of 18 regional organizing committees. The committees will then
select delegates to form 18 selection caucuses. These selected delegates
will then further select representatives to a transitional national
assembly. The assembly will have an internal vote to select an executive and
ministers who will form the new government of Iraq. That, Bush said in his
address, constitutes "a transition to full Iraqi sovereignty."

Got that? Iraqi sovereignty will be established by appointees appointing
appointees to select appointees to select appointees. Add to that the fact
that Mr. Bremer was appointed to his post by President Bush and that Mr.
Bush was appointed to his by the U.S. Supreme Court, and you have the
glorious new democratic tradition of the appointocracy: rule by appointee's
appointee's appointees' appointees' appointees' selectees.

The White House insists that its aversion to elections is purely practical:
there just isn't time to pull them off before the June 30 deadline. So why
have the deadline? The most common explanation is that Bush needs "a
braggable" on the campaign trail: When his Democratic rival raises the
spectre of Vietnam, Mr. Bush will reply that the occupation is over, we're
on our way out.

Except that the United States has absolutely no intention of actually
getting out of Iraq. It wants its troops to remain, and it wants Bechtel,
MCI and Halliburton to stay behind and run the water system, the phones and
the oil fields. It was with this goal in mind that, on Sept. 19, Mr. Bremer
pushed through a package of sweeping economic reforms that The Economist
described as a "capitalist dream."

But the dream, though still alive, is now in peril. A growing number of
legal experts are challenging the legitimacy of Mr. Bremer's reforms,
arguing that under the international laws that govern occupying powers --
the Hague Regulations of 1907 and the 1949 Geneva Conventions -- the CPA can
only act as a caretaker of Iraq's economic assets, not as its auctioneer.
Radical changes such as Mr. Bremer's Order 39, which opened up Iraqi
industry to 100 per cent foreign ownership, violate these laws and could
therefore be easily overturned by a sovereign Iraqi government.

That prospect has foreign investors seriously spooked, and many are opting
not to go into Iraq. The major private insurance brokers are also sitting it
out, having assessed Iraq as too great an expropriation risk. Mr. Bremer has
responded by quietly cancelling his announced plan to privatize Iraq's 200
state firms, instead putting up 35 companies for lease (with a later option
to buy). For the White House, the only way for its grand economic plan to
continue is for its military occupation to end: only a sovereign Iraqi
government, unbound by the Hague and Geneva Regulations, can legally sell
off Iraq's assets.

But will it? Given the widespread perception that the United States is not
out to rebuild Iraq but to loot it, if Iraqis were given the chance to vote
tomorrow, they could well immediately decide to expel U.S. troops and to
reverse Mr. Bremer's privatization project, opting instead to protect local
jobs. And that frightening prospect -- far more than the absence of a census
-- explains why the White House is fighting so hard for its appointocracy.

Under the current U.S. plan for Iraq, the transitional national assembly
would hold onto power from June 30 until general elections are held no later
than Dec. 31, 2005. That's 17 leisurely months for a non-elected government
to do what the CPA could not legally do on its own: invite U.S. troops to
stay indefinitely and turn Mr. Bremer's capitalist dream into binding law.
Only after these key decisions have been made will Iraqis be invited to have
their say. The White House calls this self-rule. It is, in fact, the very
definition of outside-rule, occupation through outsourcing.

That means that the world is once again facing a choice about Iraq. Will its
democracy emerge stillborn, with foreign troops dug in on its territory,
multinationals locked into multiyear contracts controlling key resources,
and an entrenched economic program that has already left 60-70 per cent of
the population unemployed? Or will its democracy be born with its heart
still beating, capable of building the country Iraqis choose?

On one side are the occupation forces. On the other are growing movements
demanding economic and voter rights in Iraq. Increasingly, occupying forces
are responding to these movements by using fatal force to break up
demonstrations, as British soldiers did in Amarah earlier this month,
killing six. Yes, there are religious fundamentalists and Saddam loyalists
capitalizing on the rage in Iraq, but the very existence of these
pro-democracy movements is itself a kind of miracle: After 30 years of
dictatorship, war, sanctions and, now, occupation, it would certainly be
understandable if Iraqis met further hardships with fatalism and
resignation. Instead, the violence of Mr. Bremer's shock therapy appears to
have jolted tens of thousands into action.

Their courage deserves our support. Last week, at the World Social Forum in
Mumbai, India, author and activist Arundhati Roy called on the global forces
that opposed the Iraq war to "become the global resistance to the
occupation." She suggested choosing "two of the major corporations that are
profiting from the destruction of Iraq" and targeting them for boycotts and
civil disobedience.

In his State of the Union address, President Bush said, "I believe that God
has planted in every heart the desire to live in freedom. And even when that
desire is crushed by tyranny for decades, it will rise again." He is being
proven right in Iraq every day -- and the rising voices are chanting, "No,
no U.S.A. Yes, yes elections."

Naomi Klein is the author of No Logo and Fences and Windows

http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040122/CONAOMI
22/Columnists/Idx

Project-X list:
initiated for the (re)building of the Left.




From ron at resist.ca  Wed Feb 11 21:29:26 2004
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2004 21:29:26 -0800
Subject: [news] Panhandlers Rally in Gastown!
Message-ID: <402B0F36.3060009@resist.ca>

-------- Original Message --------
From: apc at resist.ca

Panhandlers rally to protest 'harassment'

John Colebourn
The Province


Wednesday, February 11, 2004

It's tough being a panhandler in Vancouver.

Competition is fierce at some of the tonier spots, and the hundreds of
"panners" who stick their hats and cups out daily say store owners and
police are putting the squeeze on them.

To get their message across, about 100 panhandlers yesterday staged a
rally in Gastown -- some even stopped cars asking for change -- while a
handful of police watched nearby.

Lisa Wulwik, an organizer with End Legislated Poverty, said her group
helped plan the protest outside the offices of the Gastown Business
Improvement Society to remind people they still have rights.

"There's definitely a lot more people living on the streets and there's
more people panning," said Wulwik. "A lot of people panning are being
harassed by the police and the merchants' associations."

Wulwik said merchants in both Gastown and other parts of the downtown 
have hired "ambassadors" to make a panhandler's life miserable.

"My rights while I'm panhandling mean that the ambassadors have no legal
authority to ask me to move on," says an information pamphlet that 
Wulwik handed to the protesters.

Leanore Sali, director of the Gastown Business Improvement Society, said
aggressive panhandlers are driving away customers. "The issue of
panhandling is a concern throughout the city," she said.

Sali said the society has hired two full-time "ambassadors" who walk the
streets of Gastown keeping an eye on panhandlers.

She said Gastown merchants feel it's time to clamp down on aggressive
panhandlers.

Last fall, Vancouver City Council discussed adding some teeth to an
existing bylaw that outlaws aggressive panhandling. But in the end 
nothing was done.

The bylaw, passed in 2001, makes it illegal to obstruct pedestrians. It
requires panhandlers to stay at least 10 metres away from banks, 
automated teller machines and liquor stores. Violators can be fined up 
to $2,000.

David Cunningham of the Anti-Poverty Committee said it helped organize 
the protest to warn civic politicians that panhandlers have a right to 
be on the street.

"There's a lot more competition out there," he said. "There are single
mothers out there panhandling. Nine out of 10 [panhandlers] are in a
desperate situation and about one out of 10 has a mental illness or
addiction problem."

Panhandler Amanda Tyler, 32, who took part in the rally, said on a good
day she can make more than $100.

"Panhandlers are being pushed out of everywhere," said Tyler, an 
admitted cocaine and heroin addict. "I'd rather panhandle than steal 
from stores or sell my body."


From ron at resist.ca  Wed Feb 11 21:32:44 2004
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2004 21:32:44 -0800
Subject: [news] BC Welfare Cuts and Seniors
Message-ID: <402B0FFC.40705@resist.ca>



-------- Original Message --------
From: apc at resist.ca

Stop Welfare Cuts Coalition

MEDIA RELEASE
For Immediate Release
         February 03, 2004

Welfare Cuts: A New Shock Looms for Pensioners

The upcoming welfare cuts are nothing new to low-income seniors. Welfare
recipients used to feel that they had hit a small jackpot when they became
old enough to receive the Federal pension, but this has been changing for
several years, ever since the previous government began the policy of
forcing older welfare recipients to apply for their OAP/CPP early to get
them off the welfare rolls. This had the effect of forcing their incomes
down over the life of their pensions. People in receipt of these lower
pensions were able to claim GIS to bring their income up to the poverty
level.


A new shock looms for these pensioners and other low-income pensioners!
Any senior who is on minimum Old Age Pension (OAP) has been eligible for
the Guaranteed income Supplement (GIS). This supplement was supplied from
the welfare budget by the Provincial government. Last year the Campbell
government, in a particularly sneaky move, decided to cut the GIS by
deducting the amount the Federal government added by its' cost of living
formula each year from the GIS payment . This means that in a short period
of time, the GIS will disappear and the low-income senior will be worse
off than before even though the base pension will have increased somewhat.


This move is of a piece with the government's plan to remove people from
the regular welfare rolls every month starting with April, 2004, and
continuing to infinity! Phil Lyons, co-chair of the Seniors Network BC
compares the two devious plans: "This process is like the 'death of 1000
cuts' for poorer people as opposed to 'off with their heads'. The
suffering is more drawn out but the end is the same'.

Some of the groups involved in the Stop Welfare Cuts Coalition are: End
Legislated Poverty, BC Teachers Federation, Hospital Employees' Union,
Vancouver Status of Women, Anti-Poverty Committee, Aboriginal Women's
Collective, First United Church and various other churches across the
Lower Mainland, BC Government and Services Employees Union, Lower Mainland
Coalition for Social Justice, Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users,
Tenants Rights Action Coalition, Prepare the General Strike Committee,
Housing Action Committee, United Native Nations Local 111, Organizers'
Training Group and the Seniors Network BC.

For more information on the Stop Welfare Cuts Coalition please contact
Lisa c/o End Legislated Poverty at 604-879-1209 or by email at
elp at telus.net


From ron at resist.ca  Wed Feb 11 21:57:04 2004
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2004 21:57:04 -0800
Subject: [news] Divisions and missed opportunities in Bombay
Message-ID: <402B15B0.9050009@resist.ca>



-------- Original Message --------
From: Oliver de Marcellus <elviejo at greenmail.ch>

Divisions and missed opportunities in Bombay

I generally see the positive side of things, but if we are to advance, it
is also necessary to recognise errors. Whatever its positive aspects (which
other reports have amply developed),  the WSF in India was not the great
step forward, the grand rendezvous with the asian movements, that it should
have been. And like a bicycle (or WTO), a movement that doesn't advance is
in danger of falling on its face.
This was not the impression of a friend who had (unlike me) attended the
WSF in Porto Allegre. He felt that the general discourse was more radical,
an impression that probably depends on the particular activities attended.
He also found that the atmosphere in the forum, with its constant
processions of indian demonstrators marching around the grounds, was more
popular than the more european style of Porto Alegre.
Knowing a little about the popular movements of India, I had a very
different impression. Whereas the MST of Brazil and the assembly of popular
movements apparently managed to win (after some struggle) a significant
political space in the previous forums, the most important indian movements
fighting globalisation refused to participate in a WSF that they considered
hopelessly controlled by indian NGOs having no real perspective of struggle.
The national federation of farmers' organisations, no doubt the world's
most powerful single force against WTO ( as the Indian government's
position in Doha and Cancun showed), other important peasant movements of
Asia ( Philippines and Nepal), a large part of the National Association of
Peoples' Movements (NAPM), such as the National (and World) Fishworkers
Forum and the National Association of landless and agricultural workers,
not to mention all the maoist organisations (very significant in India and
Asia) were all excluded or excluded themselves from WSF, and held various
parallel events that went relatively unnoticed by western participants.
Whatever the quality of the foreign participants, the participants of the
host country have a decisive influence in such forums. There is no doubt
that if all these organisations had participated, the WSF would have
shifted very clearly further left, since all of them (whatever their
important differences) are radically anti-capitalist. How was such an
opportunity lost ?
Responsibility seems quite shared to me.
Certainly, the principal culprits (and those who had everything to gain
from the division) were the indian NGOs organising the WSF. NGOs and
popular movements have difficult relations everywhere, but in Indian the
conflict is particularly strong. One must realise that the huge indian
peasant movements, counting their membership by the millions and mobilising
regularly by the tens or hundreds of thousands, do all this with
exclusively volontary activism and no subsidies from anyone. They are
understandably suspicious of NGOs, funded from abroad, which -while
offering comfortable salaries to their management - have an often rather
paternalistic, " missionary " attitude, when they are not more or less
active agents of capitalist " development ". WWF India, for example, was
the instigator of a scandalous law prohibiting all human presence in
national parks, parks which happen to have been the lands and livelihoods
of the indigenous Adhivasi peoples since before history. A law of "
enclosure " which of course leaves the way open for the lumber companies,
bio-pirates, etc. Exactly, the same scenario being played out against the
Zapatistas in Chiapas and in other parts. According to a very credible
source in NAPM, some of the NGOs in the WSF are actively involved in that
sort of " development ". More generally, the indian movements point out
that 13% of all World Bank " aid " for India is channelled through local
NGOs, including ones in the WSF organising committee, and for them " who
pays the piper, calls the tune ".
Certainly, the introductory text to the WSF definitely gave the impression
that its authors were astonishingly ignorant concerning the
anti-globalisation struggle. For them it was " a process that started in
Seattle, continuing in Prague, Genoa and Porto Alegre ", coming finally to
Asia ! How could any indian organisation have accepted such a totally
eurocentric piece of revisionism ? Without even making the links with the
whole anti-colonial struggle, the anti-IMF struggles of the eighties or the
mobilisation of farmers' movements (particularly in India) against the
foundation of the WTO in 1995, the current anti-globalisation movement was
clearly inspired principally by the Zapatistas and the indian farmers, who
came to Europe to propose it. Where were these people when 280, 000
peasants demonstrated in Hyderabad in 1998, during the first Global Day of
Action against WTO, when Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets where dismantled or
during the Cremate Monsanto campaigns against GMOs that so inspired the
western activists before Seattle ? Playing cricket ? Or is this ignorance
intentional ?
However, some blame also goes to the indian popular movements. If they had
presented a united front they could have dictated their terms to the NGOs,
who could not have staged a credible WSF without some of them - or done
something much better outside. But they were divided, and divided were
diddled. Apparently, they managed to win over one or two authentic figures,
well known abroad, such as Medha Patkar of the Narmada Dam struggle by
making some concessions (notably refusing the funding from the Ford
Foundation that had subsidised the previous forums). Then they could afford
to ignore the rest.
Vijay Jawandhia, leader of the farmers' movement in the state of
Maharashtra (of which Bombay is the capital) had a key interest in the WSF,
since he hoped to use the event to mobilise and strengthen his movement. He
is also a tolerant man, much more prone to linking than to sectarism. He
was the only leader of the national farmers coordination who accepted to go
into the WSF. But he told me, disgusted, that all his propositions were
rejected by the organising committee.
And indeed the WSF avoided any links with popular mobilisations of the
region during the forum. On the 19th there was a demonstration of
fishworkers, Dalits, agricultural workers and other organisations of NAPM,
which tried to block the central railroad station in protest against the
invasion of industrial trawlers, in particular. On the 20th, the farmers
organisations (several thousand peasants of KRRS having squatted trains for
24 hours to come up from Karnataka) and the maoist organisations wanted to
march to the US consulate against the war and neo-colonialism. At both
demos, there were only a handful of foreigners, people of the Peoples'
Global Action network who had been attending the parallel forums of Mumbai
Resistance 2004 and Peoples' Movements Encounters II outside the WSF. As a
result, the police managed to stifle both actions. Realising the situation
a bit late (I feel also some responsibility for this bungle !), I went to
the Media Centre the day before to make sure that at least the media were
properly informed (although the organisers had already sent communiqu?s).I
handed out 40 communiqu?s without finding one " media activist " whoknew
about it !
Which is not to say that some " movers " in the WSF weren't "informing "
about the parallel forums. Thus Agnoletto, of the Genoa Social Forum, was
caught red-handed, repeating an absurd and malicious piece of slander about
Mumbai Resistance 2004 in an official WSF press conference. He explained to
the enthralled foreign media that there were hindu fundamentalist groups
participating in it. If he had had the curiosity to just cross the road for
five minutes, he would have realised the absurdity of this, since MR 2004
consisted on the one hand of the most classical, hardling maoist
organisations (several supporting armed struggle, including against the BJP
government), on the other hand of the Gandhian inspired farmers
organisations, totally opposed to (and often physically attacked by) the
right wing fundamentalists. Challenged by a more knowledgeable journalist,
Agnoletto first refused to give the source of his " scoop ", and finally
said that it came from several indian organisers come to Europe to prepare
the WSF...
Of course it was very difficult for foreigners to understand what was going
on even within the WSF. While the big demos in town went unnoticed, there
was an unceasing ballet of colorful marchers, musicians and dancers roaming
around the Forum grounds. Most of them were indigenous Adhivasi and for
them (and other minority groups and smaller movements) the Forum was a
great platform. My indian informants (including people from NAPM who
participated in the WSF) were perhaps overly suspicious and dismissive of
these "demonstrators", whom they said were bussed in by NGOs to make a
show, without really having the possibility (if only for questions of
language) of participating in the discussions. And if they had come to
demonstrate, why did they do it there, instead of leading the foreigners
out into the streets for a real one?
Participating in the much smaller forum of Peoples Movements Encounter II,
I saw groups of nepalese, sri-lankan, and indian fisherfolk, philippinos,
indigenous and Dalit agricultural labourers of various states really
involved in discussion. After each speech, someone in each group
translated: a harmonius babble of murmors in Maharathi, Tamil, Hind,
Nepali, etc. It reminded me of the multi-national affinity groups preparing
the battle of Prague: at once frustrating and empowering to see very simple
ideas searching their way through the incredible diversity of signals that
humanity has invented. Will we finally manage to destroy the tower of Babel
all the same?
Unfortunately, not only the major indian movements didn't unite to win an
adequate space within WSF, they also ended by organising several parallel
spaces outside rather like (though on a much larger scale) the parallel
spaces outside the ESF events.
All these divisions led to others, since networks that spanned them, like
Via Campesina or Peoples' Global Action were obliged to find neutral
meeting spaces outside all the others!
Finally, some blame must also go to the foreign participants. Those like
myself, who could have better anticipated the problems and at least made
the situation a bit more transparent. And of course those involved in
organising the WSF, who seem to have - like Agnoletto - sideduncritically
with the NGOs against the real indian movements.

Unfortunately WSF in Bombay doesn't seem to have made much progress  inits
basic contradictions:
How to be open to diversity without being infiltrated by "globalisation
with a human face" (when the press announces Stiglitz as the "star" ofthe
show, it is a bit disquieting!). How to keep a minimum of unity between
moderate and radical trends. How to organise less long-winded speeches
about the horrors of globalisation and more real debate about what we are
going to do about it.

It is also high time to recognise that controlling the organisation of a
Social Forum in any country is a tempting political prize for organisations
and political parties. If we cannot invent a transparent, democratic,
international process which really ensures the participation of all parts
of the movement, the process - more decisive than unifying - will end up as
a vulgar front organisation of some party.

Coming back to Europe, we learn that the organisation of the next ESF in
London is already menacing to be exclusive and divisive... Well if the
Indians can do it, why not the Brits?

Comparing the WSF to the ground-breaking inspiration of the Zapatista
encounters or to the more focused, action oriented PGA conferences, I
wonder too how people who think that small is beautiful and want horizontal
discussion can organise such huge affairs. The rather consumerist situation
of having to choose one's individual menu in a huge global market of
discourses, most often not visibly leading towards any real action or
organisation is not very inspiring. Fortunately, like many participants no
doubt, I didn't really have to choose much, as nearly all my time was used
in the meetings of my particular network (mostly outside the WSF). In that,
the WSF is a convenient arrangement. By juxtaposing all kinds of meetings
and networks, it provides a chance to participate in several. But can it be
no more than that?
And then, as in most conferences, there are always the corridors, the
friends and the "chance" meetings with strangers... And the settingitself
must have reinforced awareness of some vital facts. (One human out of 6 is
indian, two thirds of them still live from an agriculture which their
government is pushing into bankrupcy. Meanwhile in the cities "job-loss
growth" and privatisation is also destroying thousands of livelihoods. All
this under a government that maintains itself by systematically encouraging
fundamentalist hatred and pogroms. The future is explosive: one way or the
other.)

The WSF was rather disastrously organised, but as the first great indian
revolutionary (a certain Gautama Boudha) said three thousand years ago: bad
can come out of good things, and good from bad! !<






From ron at resist.ca  Wed Feb 11 22:06:52 2004
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2004 22:06:52 -0800
Subject: [news] Wal-Mart, other big retailers driving down working conditions
	worldwide
Message-ID: <402B17FC.4040800@resist.ca>



-------- Original Message --------
From: shniad at sfu.ca

OneWorld US	 February 10, 2004

Wal-Mart, other big retailers driving down working conditions worldwide

Jim Lobe

Washington, D.C. --Wal-Mart and other major global retailers in the apparel
and food industries are driving down working conditions for millions of
mostly women workers worldwide, according to a new report by the
British-based international development agency, Oxfam.

Despite the retailers' claims that they demand that their contractors comply
with basic labor standards, their demands for ever-quicker and cheaper goods
are making compliance impossible in many cases, according to the report,
"Trading Away Our Rights."

"This is where globalization is failing in its potential to lift people out
of poverty and support development," said the director of Oxfam's "Make
Trade Fair" campaign. "There is a widening gap between the rhetoric of
global corporate social responsibility and the reality of the corporate
business model."

"Many corporations have codes of conduct to hold their suppliers accountable
for labor standards, but their own ruthless buying strategies often make it
impossible for these standards to be met," he added.

The new report, which is based on hundreds of interviews of workers, factor,
and farm owners, global brands, importers, exporters, and union and
government officials in 12 countries, comes amid growing efforts by
multinational corporations to reassure their consumers that workers who
produce their goods are able to earn a decent living.

But a spate of recent newspaper articles and studies have suggested that
these efforts may be undermined by growing competitive pressures created by
the demands of retailers and the ever-growing number of poor countries that
have heeded advice and pressure from international financial institutions
(IFIs) to open their economies to attract investment and jobs.

"Globalization has hugely strengthened the negotiating hand of retailers and
brand companies," according to the report. "New technologies, trade
liberalization, and capital mobility have dramatically opened up the number
of countries and producers from which they can source products, creating a
growing number of producers vying for a place in their supply chains."

Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, has led the field in putting this
model into practice, the report said. It is currently buying products from
some 65,000 suppliers worldwide and selling to over 138 million consumers
each week through its 1,300 stores in 10 countries.

It has made China, where wages are far lower than anywhere else in Asia and
workers are denied the opportunity to form independent unions, the center of
production, a key point made in feature article that appeared in the
Washington Post Sunday.

"As capital scours the globe for cheaper and more malleable workers, and as
poor countries seek multinational companies to provide jobs, lift production
and open export markets," the Post said, "Wal-Mart and China have forged
themselves into the ultimate joint venture, their symbiosis influencing the
terms of labor and consumption the world over."

That marriage, however, according to the both the Post account and the Oxfam
report, has come largely at the expense of the worker on the factory line.
"Wal-Mart pressures the factory to cut its price, and the factory responds
with longer hours or lower pay," a Chinese labor official who declined to be
identified for fear of retaliation told the Post, "And the workers have no
options."

That was also the message of a report released Monday by the New York-based
National Labor Committee and China Labor Watch on a toy factory in Ping
Township in Guangdong province that produces goods for Wal-Mart. The two
groups reported that the mostly female labor force at the plant were paid
only about half the legal minimum wage and forced to work longer hours than
the legal maximum. It also reported that fire exits were normally locked.

Wal-Mart responded to the report by insisting that it conducted regular
inspections of all of its plants in China, but the groups said that plant
managers were always informed of the inspections in advance and coached the
workers on what to tell the inspectors.

The report was largely consistent with the findings of the Oxfam study that
put the main responsibility for the worsening situation on corporate buying
teams that pressure suppliers to deliver "just-in-time" orders at ever-lower
prices in hopes of squeezing maximum profit from goods once they are sold to
shoppers in mainly wealthy countries.

"Today's business ethos is 'make it quick, make it flexible, make it
cheap,'" said Blomer. "Anyone appalled by labor conditions in the world
today should be asking, 'so who turned up the heat?' The workers at the
bottom of the global supply chains are helping to fuel national export
growth and shareholders' returns, but their jobs are being made vere more
insecure, unhealthy and exhausting and their rights weakened."

To minimize resistance, contractors are employing workers who are less
likely to try to join trade unions in those countries where they exist. For
the most part, these include young women, often migrants or immigrants, who
are easily intimidated if they do not cooperate with management.

"Jobs in labor-intensive industries are celebrated as empowering women,"
according to Bloomer. "While we welcom the fact that millions of women are
getting a wage, the wage alone doesn't free them from poverty. Instead,
they're being burnt out by working harder, faster, over longer hours and
with few health, maternity or union rights. It's a poor strategy for
improving women's lives," he added, noting that the IFIs, such as the World
Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were complicit in the
worsening situation by encouraging governments to make their labor markets
ever more "flexible."

In Chile, for example, 75 percent of women in the agricultural sector are
hired on temporary contracts picking fruit and put in more than 60 hours a
week during the season, but one third still make below minimum wage.

Fewer than half the women in Bangladesh garment factories have a contract,
and the majority receive no maternity or health benefits. Some 80 percent
fear dismissal if they complain.

In China's Guangdong province, young women face 150 hours of overtime each
month in the garment factors, but only 40 percent have a written contract
and 90 percent have no access to social insurance.

Given these kinds of situations, governments must step in to guarantee
workers basic labor rights, including the right to join trade unions and
bargain collectively. At the same time, a greater effort must be made to
enforce labor laws, while consumers must insist that retailers do a far
better job of monitoring labor conditions to ensure that the employment they
are creating in poor countries is not exploitative, according to the report.



http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=655&ncid=655&e=1&u=/oneworld
/20040210/wl_oneworld/4536788681076419116


From ron at resist.ca  Wed Feb 11 22:10:36 2004
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2004 22:10:36 -0800
Subject: [news] Hold Bush to His Lie
Message-ID: <402B18DC.5080905@resist.ca>

-------- Original Message --------
From: shniad at sfu.ca

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040223&s=klein

The Nation     February 23, 2004 issue

Hold Bush to His Lie

by Naomi Klein

If you believe the White House, Iraq's future government is being designed
in Iraq. If you believe the Iraqi people, it is being designed at the White
House. Technically, neither is true: Iraq's future government is being
engineered in an anonymous research park in suburban North Carolina.

On March 4, 2003, with the invasion just fifteen days away, the United
States Agency for International Development asked three US firms to bid for
a unique job: After Iraq was invaded and occupied, one company would be
charged with setting up 180 local and provincial town councils in the
rubble. This was newly imperial territory for firms accustomed to the
friendly NGO-speak of "public-private partnerships," and two of the three
decided not to apply. The "local governance" contract, worth $167.9 million
in the first year and up to $466 million total, went to the Research
Triangle Institute (RTI), a private nonprofit best known for its drug
research. None of its employees had been to Iraq in years.

At first, RTI's Iraq mission attracted little public attention. Next to
Bechtel's inability to turn the lights on, and Halliburton's wild
overcharging, RTI's "civil society" workshops seemed rather benign. No more.
It now turns out that the town councils RTI has been quietly setting up are
the centerpiece of Washington's plan to hand over power to appointed
regional caucuses--a plan so widely rejected in Iraq it could bring the
occupation to its knees.

In late January I visited RTI senior vice president Ronald Johnson at his
offices near Durham (down the block from IBM, around the corner from
GlaxoSmithKline). Johnson insists that his team is focused on the "nuts and
bolts" and has nothing to do with the epic battles over who will rule Iraq.
"There really is not a Sunni way to pick up the garbage versus a Shiite
way," he tells me. (Perhaps, but there is a public way and a private way,
and according to a July Coalition Provisional Authority report, RTI is
pushing the latter, establishing "new neighborhood waste collection systems"
that "will be arranged through privatized curbside collection.")

Neither are the councils RTI has been setting up uncontroversial. On January
28, the same day Johnson and I were calmly discussing the finer points of
local democracy, the US-appointed regional council in Nasiriyah, about 200
miles southeast of Baghdad, was surrounded by gunmen and angry protesters.
As many as 10,000 residents marched on the council offices demanding direct
elections and the immediate resignation of all the councilors. The
provincial governor called in bodyguards with rocket-propelled grenade
launchers and fled the building.

Poor RTI: The appetite for democracy among Iraqis keeps racing ahead of the
plodding plans for "capacity building" it drew up before the invasion. In
November the Washington Post reported that when RTI arrived in the province
of Taji, armed with flowcharts and ready to set up local councils, it
discovered that "the Iraqi people formed their own representative councils
in this region months ago, and many of those were elected, not selected, as
the occupation is proposing." The Post quoted one man telling a RTI
contractor, "We feel we are going backwards."

Johnson denies that the previous council was elected and says that, besides,
RTI is only "assisting the Iraqis," not making decisions for them. Perhaps,
but it doesn't help that Johnson compares Iraq's councils to "a New England
town meeting" and quotes another RTI consultant observing that the
challenges in Iraq are "the same thing I dealt with... in Houston." Is this
Iraqi sovereignty--conceived in Washington, outsourced to North Carolina,
modeled on Massachusetts and Houston and imposed on Basra and Baghdad?

The United Nations, now that it has agreed to go back to Iraq, must somehow
carve out a role for itself in this mess. A good start, if it decides that
direct elections are impossible before the White House's June 30 deadline,
would be to demand that the deadline be scrapped. But the UN will have to do
more than monitor elections; it will have to stop a robbery in progress--the
US attempt to rob Iraq's future democracy of the power to make key
decisions.

Washington wants a transitional body in Iraq with the full powers of
sovereign government, able to lock in decisions that an elected government
will inherit. To that end, Paul Bremer's CPA is pushing ahead with its
illegal free-market reforms, counting on these changes being ratified by an
Iraqi government it can control. For instance, on January 31 Bremer
announced the awarding of the first three licenses for foreign banks in
Iraq. A week earlier, he sent members of the Iraqi Governing Council to the
World Trade Organization to request observer status, the first step to
becoming a member. And Iraq's occupiers just negotiated an $850 million loan
from the International Monetary Fund, giving the lender its usual leverage
to extract future economic "adjustments."

In other countries that have recently made the transition to democracy--from
South Africa to the Philippines to Argentina-- this period between regimes
is precisely when the most devastating betrayals have taken place: backroom
deals to transfer illegitimate debts and to maintain "macro-economic
continuity." Again and again, newly liberated people arrive at the polls
only to discover that there is precious little left to vote for. But in
Iraq, it's not too late to block that process. The key is to confine any
transitional council's mandate to matters directly related to elections: the
census, security, protections for women and minorities.

And here's the really surprising part: It could actually happen. Why?
Because all of Washington's reasons for going to war have evaporated; the
only excuse left is Bush's deep desire to bring democracy to the Iraqi
people. Of course, this is as much a lie as the rest--but it's a lie we can
use. We can harness Bush's political weakness on Iraq to demand that the
democracy lie become a reality, that Iraq be truly sovereign: unshackled by
debt, unencumbered by inherited contracts, unscarred by US military bases
and with full control over its resources, from oil to reparations.

Washington's hold on Baghdad is growing weaker by the day, while the
pro-democracy forces inside the country grow stronger. Genuine democracy
could come to Iraq, not because Bush's war was right, but because it has
been proven so desperately wrong.




From christoff at dojo.tao.ca  Thu Feb 12 00:04:40 2004
From: christoff at dojo.tao.ca (Stefan Christoff)
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2004 03:04:40 -0500 (EST)
Subject: [news] CKUT Radio: Radha D'Souza - The Struggle for
	Self-Determination 
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.44.0402120304180.12023-100000@dojo.tao.ca>


CKUT Radio: Radha D'Souza - The Struggle for Self-Determination

Radha D'Souza is a researcher, social justice activist and writer
currently based in New Zealand. Most of her life experiences relate to
India, where she was a public interest lawyer, researcher, democratic
rights and labour rights activist, columnist and free lance writer. Radha
has worked in Asia-Pacific action networks and campaigns both locally and
internationally.

This interview touches on a variety of subjects, from the recent World
Social Forum in India and the grassroots driven counter event called
Mumbia Resistance. The interview focuses on the relationship between
capitalist globalization, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) and
international institutions such as the World Bank, IMF and the WTO. The
interview also address social movements in India and increased
governmental repression post September 11th while making the ties to
increased repression against social movements throughout the world since
911.

-> To listen to the interview with Radha visit:
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=8590

-> For more information on Mumbai Resistance visit:
http://www.mumbairesistance.org/

-> To read writings of Radha D'Souza on Mumbai Resistance visit:
http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2004-02/07d'souza_.cfm

----------------------




From ron at resist.ca  Thu Feb 12 21:32:56 2004
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2004 21:32:56 -0800
Subject: [news] Dr Atkins diet guru died obese, sick
Message-ID: <402C6188.8070206@resist.ca>

     Dr. Robert Atkins, whose popular diet stresses protein-rich meat 
and cheese over carbohydrates, weighed 258 pounds at his death and had a 
history of heart disease. Millions bought his best selling diet book and 
still follow Dr. Robert Atkins' low-carb, high-protein diet plan.

Paper: Diet guru Atkins qualified as obese

Tuesday, February 10, 2004

------------------------------------------------------------------------

NEW YORK (AP) -- Dr. Robert Atkins, whose popular diet stresses 
protein-rich meat and cheese over carbohydrates, weighed 258 pounds at 
his death and had a history of heart disease, a newspaper reported Tuesday.

Atkins died last April at age 72 after being injured in a fall on an icy 
street.

Before his death, he had suffered a heart attack, congestive heart 
failure and hypertension, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a 
report by the city medical examiner.

At 258 pounds, the 6-foot-tall Atkins would have qualified as obese, 
according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's body-mass 
index calculator.

Diet is one potential factor in heart disease, but infections also can 
contribute to it.

Stuart Trager, chairman of the Atkins Physicians Council in New York, 
told the Journal that Atkins' heart disease stemmed from cardiomyopathy, 
a condition thought to result from a viral infection.

Atkins' weight was due to bloating associated with his condition, and he 
had been much slimmer during most of his life, Trager said.

Atkins widow outraged

The medical examiner's report was given to the Journal by the Physicians 
Committee for Responsible Medicine, a group that advocates 
vegetarianism. The medical examiner's office told the Journal that the 
report had been sent to the group in error.

There was no immediate response Tuesday to a call seeking additional 
comment from the medical examiner's office.

The diet guru's widow, Veronica Atkins, was outraged that the report had 
been made public.

"I have been assured by my husband's physicians that my husband's health 
problems late in life were completely unrelated to his diet or any 
diet," she told the Journal.

Last month, Veronica Atkins demanded an apology from Mayor Michael 
Bloomberg after Bloomberg called her late husband "fat."

In April 2002, Atkins issued a statement saying he was recovering from 
cardiac arrest related to a heart infection he had suffered from "for a 
few years." He said it was "in no way related to diet."

? Atkins widow in 'fat' spat with NYC mayor

http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/02/10/atkins.widow.ap/index.html

__________________

Report: Atkins advises cutback on meat

Monday, January 19, 2004

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Promoters of the popular low-carbohydrate, 
high-fat Atkins diet are saying that people should limit their intake of 
saturated fat by cutting back on Atkins staples such as meat, cheese and 
butter, The New York Times reported on Sunday.

Responding to criticism from scientists that Atkins could lead to heart 
disease and other health problems, the director of research and 
education for Atkins Nutritionals, Colette Heimowitz, is telling health 
professionals that only 20 percent of a dieter's calories should come 
from saturated fat, the paper said.

Beef, pork, lamb and butter were on the list of "foods you may eat 
liberally" in diet founder Dr. Robert C. Atkins' plan. Atkins' original 
1972 book, "Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution," was contrary to the 
recommendations of most nutritional experts at the time. It has become 
increasingly popular since the 1992 publication of his book, "Dr. 
Atkins' New Diet Revolution."

Atkins, who died last year, always maintained that people should eat 
other food besides red meat, but had trouble getting that message out, 
the paper said.

The change comes as new low-carb diets are gaining in popularity, with 
many calling for less saturated fats. The South Beach Diet is one such 
plan and has sold millions of copies of its book since its launch last 
year. The book is currently No. 1 on the New York Times best-seller list.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/diet.fitness/01/19/atkins.reut/


From ron at resist.ca  Fri Feb 13 10:09:55 2004
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2004 10:09:55 -0800
Subject: [news] Cathedral Grove Protestors Stop Logging
Message-ID: <402D12F3.1010107@resist.ca>


from cathedralgrove.com

     Report on today's confrontation between loggers and 
environmentalists at Cathedral Grove.

February 12, 2004
Protesters Threatened With Arrest/Injuction to be sought

A half dozen loggers complete with parks representatives showed up at 7 
this morning at the site of the proposed Parking lot at Cathedral Grove. 
Protesters refused to leave, and for the first time the RCMP were called 
in. Once they had arrived, the police threatened protester ?Jim 
Erkiletian? from Nanaimo with arrest, to which he replied, ?well if it 
comes down to it, this is where I have to make my stand?. They left 
shortly afterwards, having warned him that civil actions could also be 
taken against him. Shortly after loggers left. Later in the day, a 
lowbed trailer arrived and removed the hoe-chucker, an excavator with 
grapple jaws used to move large logs.

We also learned from reporters on site that an injunction will be sought 
after by the crown. Our lawyer in Vancouver, Cameron Ward (604-688-6881) 
has notified the ministries that he wishes to fight such an injunction 
if it is applied for with Carmanah Forestry Society being the respondent.
?These injuctions are rarely defeated in British Columbia? Haskell 
stated, ?as there is no endangered species law or any other legal 
avenues to take, but we have to do anything we can do fight this 
half-baked plan that is pushed through without public review.? ?It 
should be no surprise to the public that individuals are willing to be 
arrested? said Haskell, ?as there are no legal avenues for them to take 
and no opportunity for their concerns to be integrated into a workable 
plan.?

?We are calling for a stop-work order and a meaningful open and full 
public process so that the public can work with the government to 
resolve this contentious issue?, Haskell said. ?Presently the public has 
been left completely in the dark with fear and safety being used to 
shove their agenda for Cathedral Grove down our throat.? ?CFS is 
challenging MLA Trumper to a Public Town Meeting in the Cental Island 
and Victoria on this issue so the truth can finally come out.?


From lesleymoore at shaw.ca  Sat Feb 14 16:47:11 2004
From: lesleymoore at shaw.ca (Lesley Moore)
Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2004 16:47:11 -0800
Subject: [news] Forums on BC Hydro around BC
Message-ID: <001901c3f35d$3fdc0dc0$76185018@vc.shawcable.net>

Below are some dates for upcoming forums around B.C. about changes to BC Hydro and our electricity system.  

Some of the topics to be discussed include:
1)  BC Hydro rate increases ~7.23% this year and 2% next year.
2)  Transmission grid ~ U.S. based RTO West and our transmission system.
3)  Implications of Bill 85 ~ Control of BC Hydro assets and BCUC's ability to make decisions on rates.
4)  Privatizing one third of BC Hydro ~ The contract with Accenture for support services.
5)  Future electricity generation ~ Privatization of all new electricity supply; BC Hydro limited to upgrading and maintaining existing facilities.
6)  Loss of BC's competitive advantage ~ Power generated by private companies to be billed at U.S. market rates over time.
7)  Update on Charter challenge launched by the OPIEU that was heard in BC Supreme Court December 2003.
8)  Update on the Class Action lawsuit launched by BC Citizens for Public Power.
9)  Environmental concerns ~ Coal fired electricity generation, and "green washing".

There is no charge to attend these public forums.  Please spread the word!  


FEBRUARY 19, 2004 -- VANCOUVER
Event:                  "The Fight for BC Hydro:  What's New - What's Next?"
When:                  Thursday Feb 19 at 7:30 pm
Where:                 Vancouver Public Library - Alice McKay Room - 350 West Georgia St.
Speakers:             John Young - Executive Director, BC Citizens for Public Power
                            Rudy Lawrence - President, Council of Senior Citizens' Organizations (COSCO)
                            Mark Veerkamp - Consumers' Association of Canada
                            Speakers representing the BC Government and the environmental community have also been invited.
Sponsored by:      Council of Canadians (Vancouver Chapter), and COSCO 
Contact:               Penny Tilby 604-263-1005 tilbypeterson at telus.net 

FEBRUARY 23, 2004 -- PARKSVILLE
Event:                 "Energy for Our Future:  A Plan for British Columbia"
When:                 Monday Feb 23 from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Where:                Parksville Community Centre Main Auditorium (next to City Hall)
Presented by:      Richard Neufeld, Minister of Energy & Mines, and Judith Reid, MLA
Contact:              250-951-6021


FEBRUARY 29, 2004 -- NANAIMO
Event:                 "Public Meeting on BC Hydro & Our Electricity System"
When:                 Sunday Feb 29 from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm
Where:                Bowen Park Complex 2300 Bowen Park Rd. 
Speaker:             Mark Veerkamp
Sponsored by:     Mid-Island Coalition for Strong Communities
Contact:              June Ross 250-729-0185  cat_balou at shaw.ca 





FEBRUARY 29, 2004 -- PRINCE GEORGE

Event:                 "Public Meeting on BC Hydro & Our Electricity System"
When:                 Sunday Feb 29 from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm

Where:                College of New Caledonia, Room 1-306 (Theatre)

Speakers:            Paul Nettleton - MLA, and Jim Sinclair - BC Federation of Labour

Sponsored by:     Active Voice Coalition

Contact:              Karen Taylor 250-563-1116  shortnote3 at shaw.ca 

                           Peter Ewart 250-962-6792  peter.ewart at shaw.ca 

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From sharai at resist.ca  Mon Feb 16 11:28:33 2004
From: sharai at resist.ca (sharai)
Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2004 13:28:33 -0600
Subject: [news] A Call to Action: Defend Libraries
Message-ID: <403119E1.6010305@resist.ca>

  	
				
On November 26 2003 The Regina Public Library board announced the 
closure of the Prince of Wales, Connaught and Glen Elm branches as well 
as the Dunlop Art Gallery and the Prairie History Room

These cuts have not been stopped! The Dunlop Gallery shows have been 
cancelled, layoff notices have been sent, and the RPL is making 
arrangements for the branch closures RIGHT NOW.

The people of the City of Regina must speak up or these valuable 
instutions will be CLOSED by May 1 2004. If you believe the people who 
live in Regina should be consulted before their history, art and 
libraries are closed, please get involved.

If we stop the cuts to Regina libraries, we will be sending a clear 
message to politicians in all levels of government -Saskatchewan people 
value their public services and will fight to keep them!

Please vist;

www.friendsofrpl.ca
http://rubyarts.org/dunlop


From christoff at resist.ca  Tue Feb 17 02:19:20 2004
From: christoff at resist.ca (Stefan Christoff)
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 02:19:20 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [news] CKUT Radio: Dahr Jamail - Independent Media Activism in
 Occupied Iraq 
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.58.0402170219080.17113@resist.ca>


CKUT Radio: Dahr Jamail - Independent Media Activism in Occupied Iraq

The current military occupation of Iraq, maintained and enforced mainly by
American and British armed forces is often projected to the world through
the lens of corporate and state run media structures. Despite this reality
there is a growing amount of grassroots, independent media activists and
reporters on the ground in Iraq and throughout the world, presenting a
different picture as to the reality of the occupation from mass media
structures. With the growing anti-occupation movement throughout the
world, independent media voices in Iraq have become a critical element to
the global anti-occupation movement, often playing a key role in
illustrating the truly devastating realities of the ongoing occupation.

To listen to the Interview with Dahr Jamail visit:
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=8605

To read reports written by Dahr Jamail and other independent media
activists visit:
http://www.electroniciraq.net
http://www.occupationwatch.org/

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>


From ron at resist.ca  Tue Feb 17 12:28:35 2004
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 12:28:35 -0800
Subject: [news] NYM Statement on the Arrest of John Graham
Message-ID: <40327973.5060508@resist.ca>

  Unceded Coast Salish Territory (Vancouver BC), February 7, 2004

On Monday, December 1, 2003, John Graham was arrested in Vancouver, 
Canada. He is charged by the FBI with the 1975 murder of Anna Mae Pictou 
Aquash, a Mik?maq from Nova Scotia whose frozen body was found on the 
Pine Ridge reservation, South Dakota. Presently free on bail, John 
Graham faces extradition to the US.


At this time, NYM Vancouver feels it necessary to state its position in 
regards to this case.

Anna Mae has been an inspiration and example to our movement for many 
years. She symbolized the warrior spirit and our people?s determination 
to resist. This is also the legacy of the American Indian Movement, to 
which she belonged.

It was because of this spirit that AIM was targeted by the FBI?s 
Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTEL-PRO) in the early 1970?s, and why 
so many AIM members in S. Dakota were killed during this period, 
including Anna Mae Aquash.

If, as alleged, her killing was ordered by AIM?s leadership (under the 
pretext she was an informant), those ultimately responsible for her 
death are US government officials, inc. the FBI. For it was under their 
orders that a deadly counter-insurgency campaign was waged against AIM, 
which included portraying genuine movement members as informants.

This strategy was used to create paranoia and division, to turn members 
against one another (just as the FBI had done against the Black Panther 
Party). Anna Mae was herself the target of an FBI ?bad jacket.? FBI 
agents had threatened to kill her in the year prior to her death. When 
her body was found, despite being on an FBI wanted list, agents had her 
hands cut off for fingerprint analysis. During the first autopsy, the 
government coroner determined the cause of death to be exposure, somehow 
missing the bullet hole in the back of her head.

Leonard Peltier, we recall, was extradited from Vancouver in 1977 under 
false evidence provided to Canadian courts by the FBI. He was 
subsequently tried and convicted for the 1975 shoot-out at Oglala, S. 
Dakota, in which two FBI agents were killed. During this same incident, 
the FBI shot & killed AIM member Joseph Stuntz Killsright.

We Are Wolves Not Sheep

A basic principle of any resistance movement is non-collaboration with 
our enemy. As Peltier recently stated in regards to the arrest of John 
Graham:

     ?When we talk of sovereignty, we must be willing to solve our own 
problems and not go running to the oppressor for relief? We have been 
and still are at odds with the most dangerous, well-funded, strongest 
military and political organization in the history of the world [the US 
government].?

We must therefore oppose the attempt to extradite John Graham to S. 
Dakota by US authorities, and denounce the efforts by certain 
individuals in our own community to facilitate this process.

In particular, we must clarify that Kelly White, a local Native radio 
show host who has conducted an ongoing campaign against John Graham, has 
never been a leader, member, or advisor to the Native Youth Movement. 
Furthermore, NYM Vancouver does not consider information provided by Ms. 
White to be credible.

In conclusion, no member of NYM was involved in the conflicts of the 
1970s. We weren?t there. We cannot say with certainty that John Graham 
did-- or did not-- kill Anna Mae. We have neither the information nor 
witnesses at our disposal to make such a decision.

What can be said is that Anna Mae Aquash, along with many others, died 
as a direct result of her commitment to the struggle for her people. She 
is an example of all we aspire to be as a resistance movement. She was a 
warrior, a veteran of the 71-day siege at Wounded Knee, 1973; a 
community worker, who helped set up schools & camps. She promoted 
traditional culture & spirituality. She gave her life for us, knowing 
all along the consequences. That is why she is called a Brave-Hearted Woman.

Whatever the result of any trials conducted in the court rooms of our 
oppressor, the same ones? ultimately responsible for Anna Mae?s death, 
we will continue to advance in our movement towards victory, inspired by 
her memory and her spirit.

Native Youth Movement
Vancouver Chapter
nymchapter604 at hotmail.com

We Are Wolves Not Sheep


From ron at resist.ca  Tue Feb 17 13:49:01 2004
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 13:49:01 -0800
Subject: [news] Tutu tells Blair: Apologise for "immoral" war
Message-ID: <40328C4D.8040807@resist.ca>



-------- Original Message --------
From: shniad at sfu.ca

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=491761

Independent	16 February 2004

Tutu tells Blair: Apologise for "immoral" war

By Nigel Morris, Home Affairs Correspondent

Archbishop Desmond Tutu will challenge Tony Blair and George Bush today to
apologise for their pursuit of a counter-productive and "immoral" war in
Iraq.

In a scathing analysis of the background to the invasion, he will ridicule
the "dangerously flawed" intelligence that Britain and the US used to
justify a military action which has made the world a "great deal less safe".


The intervention of the Nobel peace prize winner in the controversy over
Iraq follows a series of deadly terrorist attacks in the country over the
past week, including an armed raid on a police station on Saturday in which
22 people died.

Delivering the Longford Lecture, sponsored by The Independent, the emeritus
Archbishop of Cape Town will argue that the turmoil after the war proved it
is an illusion to believe that "force and brutality" leads to greater
security.

"How wonderful if politicians could bring themselves to admit they are only
fallible human creatures and not God and thus by definition can make
mistakes. Unfortunately, they seem to think that such an admission is a sign
of weakness. Weak and insecure people hardly ever say 'sorry'.

"It is large-hearted and courageous people who are not diminished by saying:
'I made a mistake'. President Bush and Prime Minister Blair would recover
considerable credibility and respect if they were able to say: 'Yes, we made
a mistake'."

The archbishop will link Mr Bush's support, when he was Governor of Texas,
for capital punishment with a new philosophy behind the invasion of Iraq. He
will say: "It may not be fanciful to see a connection between this and the
belligerent militarist policies that have produced a novel and dangerous
principle, that of pre-emption on the basis of intelligence reports that in
one particular instance have been shown can be dangerously flawed and yet
were the basis for the United States going to war, dragging a Britain that
declared that intelligence reports showed Iraq to have the capacity to
launch its weapons of mass destruction in a matter of minutes.

"An immoral war was thus waged and the world is a great deal less safe place
than before. There are many more who resent the powerful who can throw their
weight about so callously and with so much impunity."

The archbishop, who was awarded the Nobel prize in 1984, will suggest that
the two leaders have operated a policy of "might is right - and to hell with
the rule of international law".

Sir Menzies Campbell, the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, said
yesterday: "These comments from such a widely respected figure of
independent mind emphasises the extent to which Britain's reputation and
possibly influence have been affected by the military action against Iraq.

"I doubt if President Bush or Mr Blair are going to apologise, but they
should certainly reflect seriously upon the alienation of figures such as
Desmond Tutu."

A Downing Street spokeswoman said: "The Government's position on Iraq has
been made clear. We will wait to see what the archbishop says and respond in
due course."

In his lecture the archbishop will draw on his experience in South Africa
after the downfall of apartheid to argue that "retributive justice" ignores
victims' needs and can be "cold and impersonal".

He will instead champion the concept of "restorative justice" - in which
offenders and victims are brought together - and point to South Africa's
Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which he headed, as an illustration of
the idea being put into practice.

Now 72, the archbishop is spending several weeks in Britain in his role as
visiting professor in post-conflict studies at King's College, London.

He will also take a swipe in his speech at the steady increase in the
British prison population in recent years, arguing that harsher sentencing
does not "stem the tide of recidivism". He will warn that sending first-time
offenders to prison increases the prospect of them becoming repeat
offenders, making harsh sentences "quite costly".



From resist at resist.ca  Tue Feb 17 14:18:28 2004
From: resist at resist.ca (Resist! Collective)
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 14:18:28 -0800
Subject: [news] Behind the AFL-CIO's call for a "a new labor code for Iraq"
Message-ID: <40329334.8050702@resist.ca>

US: Behind the AFL-CIO's call for a "a new labor code for Iraq"
By Jamie Chapman
11 February 2004
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/feb2004/afl-f11.shtml

A January 22 statement issued by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney
calling for a "new labor code for Iraq" would at first glance appear
to be a long overdue defense of Iraqi workers, who are suffering even
greater privations under the US/British occupation than they faced
under the regime of Saddam Hussein.

With unemployment reaching as high as 70 percent, workers have taken
to the streets in defiance of the Coalition Provisional Authority
(CPA) to demand jobs. Leaders of such protests have been arrested.
When British troops were called out early last month to help Iraqi
police put down the demonstrations, a number of protesters were shot
and killed.

Most who have jobs are being given an "emergency" wage of a mere $60
a month, with no overtime pay, even though they often must work
12-hour or longer shifts daily. The CPA has abolished previously
existing bonuses that constituted as much as half of most workers'
overall compensation. Those who are working are usually required to
support large extended families that are without jobs. Prices are
constantly rising.

Visitors to the Al Daura oil refinery near Baghdad report workers
have none of the required safety equipment, such as hard-toed shoes,
gloves and goggles. At times they have to turn valves using only
rags. A similar lack of basic safety precautions is typical
throughout Iraqi industry.

Meanwhile, an injury is a disaster for the worker, who loses pay for
the time he cannot work and also runs up bills for any medical care,
if he is lucky enough to obtain it. There is no system of
compensation for the costs of workplace injuries.

For an organization that purports to represent American workers to
come to the defense of the embattled Iraqi working class would
clearly be appropriate. Such a gesture is hardly characteristic,
however, of the AFL-CIO officialdom, which usually spends its
energies fulminating against foreign workers for "stealing" American
jobs.

A closer reading of Sweeney's statement suggests that something other
than solidarity is motivating the AFL-CIO. He condemns neither the
occupation nor the war itself, nor even the deplorable conditions of
life and work in Iraq. Rather, he singles out the policy of CPA
administrator Paul Bremer in enforcing a 1987 law passed under Saddam
Hussein prohibiting the organization of trade unions in the public
sector, which encompasses the large majority of the Iraqi workforce.

No doubt, the continuing use of this 1987 law against workers
demonstrates the fraud of US claims to be bringing "freedom" and
"democracy" to the Iraqi people, and deserves to be condemned.

Sweeney's point, however, is not to stand up for the democratic
rights of Iraqi workers, but to create room for the AFL-CIO-in return
for a handsome fee-to play the rule of adjunct and advisor to the US
occupation authority in Iraq.

Sweeney hints at his real purpose when he writes in his letter,
"Training and other kinds of support from the international trade
union movement should be encouraged."

The timing of Sweeney's letter is no coincidence. It came only two
days after the State of the Union speech, in which President Bush
proposed to double funding for the government-financed National
Endowment for Democracy (NED). The additional $40 million is to go
entirely to programs in the Middle East.

One week before Bush's speech, Democratic presidential candidate John
Edwards made a nearly identical appeal to double the NED funding.

The AFL-CIO, through its American Center for International Labor
Solidarity, or "Solidarity Center," is a constituent element of the
NED, competing with fronts for the Democratic and Republican parties
and the "Center for International Private Enterprise," which
represents big business, for the government funding.

Congress created the NED in 1983 as a means of influencing and
financing various groups around the world seen as capable of
countering popular opposition to US policies. It became a conduit for
funds that previously were funneled covertly from the CIA. It
immediately played a prominent part in Washington's efforts to
subvert and overthrow the Sandinista government of Nicaragua.

The NED used AFL-CIO affiliates to provide money and technical
support to conservative, pro-US trade unions in countries like Korea,
as an alternative to the more radical unions that organized the
strikes and factory occupations that led to the overthrow of the
US-backed military dictatorship there.

These efforts were a continuation of the activities previously
carried out by the AFL-CIO through various "labor fronts" created in
collaboration with the CIA. The most infamous was the one in Latin
America, the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD),
which was deeply implicated in the overthrow of governments deemed
inimical to US interests.

The AIFLD advised the so-called "labor" opposition to the Chilean
Popular Unity government of Salvador Allende, helping to sow the
confusion and unrest that provided a critical backdrop to the bloody
coup by General Pinochet in 1973. The AFL-CIO has never acknowledged
its role in those events.

Such interventions are by no means a thing of the distant past. Using
NED money, the AFL-CIO worked hand-in-glove with the CIA and the US
State Department in preparing the aborted April 2002 coup against
Venezuela's populist president Hugo Chavez. The US union bureaucrats
provided financial aid and "technical advisors" to Venezuela's CTV
union federation, which worked together with the main big business
association in organizing "strikes" aimed at destabilizing the regime
and preparing the coup attempt.

Last November 6, Bush spoke before the NED to proclaim a new US
policy towards the Middle East. The conquest of Iraq, he said, was
only the first step in a war for "democracy" that would continue for
"decades to come."

On the same day, Sweeney issued a special statement on the 20th
anniversary of the founding of the NED. He solidarized himself with
Bush's war against "the threat of global terrorism" and went on to
express support for the US occupation of Iraq, stating, "The AFL-CIO,
in concert with the international trade union movement, stands ready
to participate in the Iraq reconstruction effort."

A recent report posted on the NED's web site entitled "NED expands
work in Iraq" indicates that while the Democratic, Republican and big
business-affiliated organizations have been brought into Iraq-helping
to create the framework for a US-backed puppet regime, participating
in the drafting of a new constitution and advising on "economic
reforms" and "market values"-the AFL-CIO's front group thus far has
been frozen out.

Sweeney is making a pitch for some of the contract work. Having
presided over a long string of betrayals, concessions and layoffs for
workers in the US itself, the AFL-CIO is offering to use its
expertise in cobbling together a servile Iraqi union organization.
Such an organization would support continued US control over the
country, oppose any militant struggles and act to subordinate Iraqi
workers to the interests of the US oil companies and other American
business interests seeking to profit off the country's subjugation.

Maintaining its sources of government funding-including from the
right-wing administration of George W. Bush-has become all the more
important as the AFL-CIO has seen its membership dues base sink to
historic lows.

Well before the war started, in October 2002, when a war resolution
was being debated in Congress, Sweeney indicated his acceptance of
the basis for the impending slaughter. He wrote to US lawmakers then,
"Saddam Hussein is a menace-to his own people, to stability in a
critical region of the world and potentially to America and our
allies."

On the day the bombing began, he wrote again, "The Iraqi regime is a
brutal dictatorship that is a threat to its neighbors and its own
citizens. We support fully the goal of ridding Iraq of weapons of
mass destruction. We sincerely hope this conflict will result in a
more democratic and prosperous IraqS" Echoing Bush's own phony appeal
to patriotism, he continued, "[W]e are unequivocal in our support of
our country."

Only five days later, Sweeney issued another statement endorsing
Bush's request to Congress for a supplemental $79 billion in order to
carry out the onslaught.

There are elements within the antiwar protest milieu who have hailed
Sweeney's January 22 statement as an important sign of growing US
labor opposition to the occupation of Iraq. Such a viewpoint can be
explained in some cases by naivet? and ignorance of the AFL-CIO's
long record of betrayal and collaboration. Others, however, have
sought to make political careers providing a "left" cover for the
trade union officialdom. Whatever the reason, the attempt to cast
this moribund labor bureaucracy as an instrument for struggle against
war flies in the face of reality.

The mobilization of American working people against the occupation
and future wars is possible only in direct opposition to the AFL-CIO
bureaucracy, which shares political responsibility for the killing in
Iraq and is seeking to fatten its expense accounts by collaborating
in the occupation.

-----

Copyright 1998-2004
World Socialist Web Site
All rights reserved



From ron at resist.ca  Tue Feb 17 17:02:46 2004
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 17:02:46 -0800
Subject: [news] Bush economic report praises 'outsourcing' jobs
Message-ID: <4032B9B6.30301@resist.ca>



-------- Original Message --------
From: shniad at sfu.ca

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04041/271362.stm

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette     February 10, 2004

Bush economic report praises 'outsourcing' jobs

By Warren Vieth and Edwin Chen, Los Angeles Times

Washington -- The movement of U.S. factory jobs and white-collar work to
other countries is part of a positive transformation that will enrich the
U.S. economy over time, even if it causes short-term pain and dislocation,
the Bush administration said yesterday.

The embrace of foreign "outsourcing," an accelerating trend that has
contributed to U.S. job losses in recent years and become an issue in the
2004 elections, is contained in the president's annual report to Congress on
the health of the U.S. economy.

"Outsourcing is just a new way of doing international trade," said N.
Gregory Mankiw, chairman of Bush's Council of Economic Advisors, which
prepared the report. "More things are tradable than were tradable in the
past. And that's a good thing."

The report, which predicts that the nation will reverse a three-year
employment slide by creating 2.6 million jobs in 2004, is part of a weeklong
effort by the administration to highlight signs that the recovery is picking
up speed. Bush's economic stewardship has become a central issue in the
presidential campaign, and the White House is eager to demonstrate that his
policies are producing results.

In his message to Congress yesterday, Bush said the economy "is strong and
getting stronger," thanks in part to his tax cuts and other economic
programs. He said the nation had survived a stock market meltdown,
recession, terrorist attacks, corporate scandals and war in Afghanistan and
Iraq, and was finally beginning to enjoy "a mounting prosperity that will
reach every corner of America."

The president repeated that message during an afternoon "conversation" on
the economy at SRC Automotive, an engine-rebuilding plant in Springfield,
Mo., where he lashed out at lawmakers who oppose making his tax cuts
permanent.

"When they say, 'We're going to repeal Bush's tax cuts,' that means they're
going to raise your taxes, and that's wrong. And that's bad economics," he
said.

Democrats who want Bush's job were quick to challenge his claims.

Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry, the front-runner for the Democratic
presidential nomination, supports a rollback of Bush's tax cuts for the
wealthiest Americans and backs the creation of tax incentives for companies
that keep jobs in the United States -- although he supported the North
American Free Trade Agreement, which many union members say is responsible
for the migration of U.S. jobs, particularly in the auto industry, to
Mexico.

Campaigning yesterday in Roanoke, Va., Kerry questioned the credibility of
the administration's job-creation forecast. "I've got a feeling this report
was prepared by the same people who brought us the intelligence on Iraq," he
said. "I don't think we need a new report about jobs in America. I think we
need a new president who's going to create jobs in America and put Americans
back to work."

In an evening appearance at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., North
Carolina Sen. John Edwards mocked the Bush administration's economic report.


Edwards, also a Democratic presidential nomination candidate who also
supports repealing tax cuts for the richest Americans and offering
incentives to corporations that create new jobs in the United States, said
it would come as a "news bulletin" to the American people that the economy
is improving and the outsourcing of jobs overseas is good for America.

"These people," he said of the Bush administration, "what planet do they
live on? They are so out of touch."

The president's 411-page report contains a detailed diagnosis of the forces
contributing to the U.S. economic slowdown and a wide-ranging defense of the
policies Bush has pursued to combat it.

It asserts that the last recession actually began in late 2000, before the
president took office, instead of March 2001, as certified by the official
recession-dating panel of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

The report repeats the administration's contention that the Bush tax cuts
must be made permanent to have their full beneficial effect on the economy.


Social Security also must be restructured to let workers put part of their
retirement funds in private accounts, the report argues. Doing so could add
nearly $5 trillion to the national debt by 2036, the president's advisers
note, but the additional borrowing would be repaid 20 years later, and the
program's long-term health would be more secure.




From resist at resist.ca  Wed Feb 18 13:13:55 2004
From: resist at resist.ca (Resist! Collective)
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 13:13:55 -0800
Subject: [news] VDLC Calls For Suspension Of IWA
Message-ID: <4033D593.1020901@resist.ca>



-------- Original Message --------
From: 	Will Offley <willo at lynx.bc.ca>


Tonight's meeting of the Vancouver and District Labour Council voted
near-unanimously to call on the Canadian Labour Congress executive to
suspend the Industrial, Wood and Allied Workers from the CLC.

The vote took place on a motion put forward by the Children's and
Women's Hospital local of the Hospital Employees Union, which read as
follows after minor amendment by the VDLC executive:



>     WHEREAS the raid on HEU by Local 1-3567 show its leadership are
>     consciously and actively collaborating with Gordon Campbell's
>     campaign to privatize health care; 
>       
>     NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Vancouver and District
>     Labour Council urge the CLC executive to suspend the IWA until
>     such time as Local 1-3567 has withdrawn from these yellow-dog
>     contracts or has been expelled from the IWA./



Many delegates speaking to the motion expressed frustration that little
had been done to sanction the IWA during the 14 months since its raid on
HEU began.  One visitor, a member of IWA local 1-3567, expressed his
disgust at the conduct being carried out by his own union in
implementing substandard contracts, both for health care workers and for
millworkers such as at the G&H Noble mill in Surrey.   It was notable
that delegates of both public and private sector unions were united in
condemning the actions of the IWA leadership, in pointing out that large
sections of the IWA were publicly opposing the actions of their own
union, and in demanding that the leadership of the CLC refuse to
tolerate this situation any longer.

The fact sheet below was circulated to the VDLC delegates and observers
from the public (nearly 100 in all) who attended the meeting:

*/Did you know/*/ that for over a year the leadership of IWA Local
1-3567 (including its president, Satnam ?Sonny? Ghag) has been
consciously cooperating with the Liberal/multinational campaign to
destroy the Hospital Employees Union?  Starting in December 2002 IWA
1-3567 met behind closed doors with the Compass Group and negotiated a
sweetheart deal with them in secret, one that cut wages in half to
approach minimum-wage levels, that eliminated pay equity, that
eliminated pensions, and that slashed benefits to the bone.  Seven
months later a similar deal was signed with Aramark.  These agreements
give the IWA voluntary recognition as the union for any work the company
may be awarded in that health region, whether at the time of signing or
any point in the future.

*Did you know* that on September 17, 2003 the CLC neutral umpire found
IWA 1-3567 to be in violation of the Canadian Labour Congress
constitution?  Or that one week after this decision was handed down, new
charges were laid against it for yet another violation?

*Did you know* that all HEU members whose jobs are privatized have to
reapply as new hires?  Or that there is a blacklist, and very few HEU
members actually do get hired?  Or that those few who do are instructed
by their new boss to sign IWA cards at the time they are hired?

*Did you know* that in 2001 local 1-3567 signed a similar agreement with
G.H. Noble (a custom-cut sawmill in Surrey), cutting their members?
wages by 35% and allowing for weekend work with no overtime, no sick pay
until four months off the job, and no restrictions on the employer?s
right to contract out?  Or that G.H. Noble is owned by Gurdial Ghag,
Satnam Ghag?s brother?

*Did you know* that members of the Vancouver IWA local 1217 have filed
documents in Vancouver Supreme Court alleging that on December 16,
2003,^ Satnam Ghag participated in a violent assault on the crew at
Mainland Sawmills, an assault in which baseball bats, peavey poles and a
knife were brandished and/or used.  Did you know that several of these
affidavits state that Satnam Ghag was a direct participant in this violence?

*Did you know* that a month before the 2001 provincial election an
individual named Satnam Ghag made a substantial campaign contribution to
the B.C. Liberals, along with two other individuals named Gurdial Ghag
and Swarn Ghag?  Did you know that Satnam ?Sonny? Ghag?s brother?s name
is Gurdial?  Or that his father?s name is Swarn?

*Did you know* that on January 24, 2004 nearly 100 members of IWA local
1-3567 who oppose the raid on HEU and the violence against fellow IWA
members went to the local office and were prevented by Sonny Ghag from
exercising their right to speak at a meeting of the local executive board?

*Did you know* that despite B.C. Federation of Labour and IWA policy
against the export of raw logs, IWA local 1-3567 has a voluntary
certification at Pacific Custom Log Sort on the Fraser, which
containerizes top-grade logs and trucks them to the Surrey-Fraser docks,
where they are loaded on ships and exported to Japan, China and Korea
for remanufacture?

John Ames, delegate, BCGEU local
Gretchen Dulmage,  delegate, HEU Women's and Children's Hospital local
Claudio Eckdahl, delegate, BCGEU local 603
Louise Hutchinson, delegate, HEU Women?s and Children?s Hospital local
Roger Kishi, delegate, HEU St. Paul's local, Asian Canadian Labour
Alliance (ACLA)
Andy Mathison, member, IWA 1-3567
Gene McGuckin, delegate, CEP 1129
Jazmin Miranda, delegate, CUPE local 15
Will Offley, delegate, BCNU Central Vancouver Region
Jeff Pazik, member, IWA 1-3567
Susan Stout, retired member, CAW local 2002

(Signed in individual capacity; organizations listed for identification
purposes only.)


From ron at resist.ca  Thu Feb 19 19:08:47 2004
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2004 19:08:47 -0800
Subject: [news] Tyendinaga Community Braces for visit from Gabriel
Message-ID: <40357A3F.4090406@resist.ca>



-------- Original Message --------
From: OCAP <ocap at tao.ca>


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tyendinaga community braces for visit from Kanehsatake former Chief James
Gabriel

Mohawk Council House
(otherwise known as the Mohawk Community Centre)
York Road
Tyendinaga
Mohawk Nation Territory

Tyendinaga community members are outraged to learn that James Gabriel is
planning to attend a meeting dealing with matters of Mohawk Nation
policing and security this Friday, February 20th, 2004.

The controversy and turmoil that surrounds James Gabriel is ongoing and
unresolved.  We are offended and dismayed that he should choose, even by
the anticipation of his presence, to bring this anger and instability into
our community.

Gabriel has been legally and legitimately deposed of as Chief by the
people of Kanehsatake.  Tyendinaga will respect the will of the people of
Kanehsatake who have said so clearly that James Gabriel no longer has a
voice with which to represent them.

James Gabriel, who has reportedly hired a P.R. consulting firm, in a vain
attempt to resuscitate his failed political career, apparently wants to
use the community of Tyendinaga has a backdrop to present himself as
something other than the ousted and illegitimate Chief he is.  Community
members are offended that he should try to use us in such a way and refuse
to be used as a backdrop for this man's personal gain against the will and
decision of the people of Kanehsatake.

Community members are gathering tonight, setting up a vigil and fire
across from the Meeting House and will prepare for Gabriel's arrival.

Please see the attached document for further and more comprehensive
information or phone (613) 968-3305.
_____________________________________________________________________________


February 19, 2004

Mr. Larry Hay
Tyendinaga Peacekeeping Services
Mohawk Nation Territory,
K0K-1X0

Dear Chief Hay,

Re. Proposed meeting of Nation Peacekeepers and Elected Representatives

A great deal of concern has been expressed throughout our community
regarding the February 20th scheduled gathering.

It is my understanding that the former Chief of Kanehsatake, James
Gabriel, has in-fact confirmed his attendance at this meeting.  A Montreal
paper quotes Mr. Gabriel as saying he will be attending a meeting of all
Mohawk Chiefs on Mohawk Lands as representative Chief to Kanehsatake.

As you are aware, the political turmoil that surrounds this man is on
going and unresolved.  It is believed by members of our community and
confirmed by runners who attended the recent disruption in Kanehsatake,
that James Gabriel is no longer speaking for his people and has been
deposed/dehorned through an appropriate and legal process sanctioned
through the community of Kanehsatake.

An emergency meeting was held to discuss the situation and the following
decisions were reached.

- The issue of Mohawk National Security and Community Peacekeeping is an
issue of concern for all.  It is therefore resolved that this meeting
should take place on Friday and all efforts to ensure its success and
security will be respected.

- Direction will be provided to community Peacekeepers to prohibit the
attendance of James Gabriel.

- Failing this, the responsibility for fulfilling this direction shall
fall at the feet of the men of Tyendinaga and will be carried out pursuant
to the Law.

Given the recent turmoil throughout the whole of the Mohawk Nation, it is
necessary that this gathering be afforded every opportunity to succeed.
The recent events at Kanehsatake illustrate the need for effective
National Mohawk Peacekeeping initiatives and further, the consistent
resource funding necessary to meet evolving community based Peacekeeping
practices and procedures.

Mr. Gabriels attendance casts a doubt over the legitimacy of these goals.
It appears, and has been suggested, that his reasons for attending are
simply to show that he is involved in an official capacity within the
Mohawk Nation and carrying on business supported by the others in
attendance.  It is an affront that Mr. Gabriel would feel Tyendinaga is an
appropriate place to backdrop for his political agenda and a greater
slight to the men, women, warriors and children of his own community who
have legally deposed him and forever denied his authority to represent
them.

It is my understanding that other representatives, Elected Chiefs, will be
attending from Kanehsatake and can serve as fair and proper representation
for their people.

Respectfully submitted,

In Peace and Friendship

Shawn Brant


From ron at resist.ca  Thu Feb 19 19:39:31 2004
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2004 19:39:31 -0800
Subject: [news] Welfare Cuts and BC Seniors
Message-ID: <40358173.5080408@resist.ca>



-------- Original Message --------
From: apc at resist.ca

Stop Welfare Cuts Coalition

MEDIA RELEASE
For Immediate Release
         February 03, 2004

Welfare Cuts: A New Shock Looms for Pensioners

The upcoming welfare cuts are nothing new to low-income seniors. Welfare
recipients used to feel that they had hit a small jackpot when they became
old enough to receive the Federal pension, but this has been changing for
several years, ever since the previous government began the policy of
forcing older welfare recipients to apply for their OAP/CPP early to get
them off the welfare rolls. This had the effect of forcing their incomes
down over the life of their pensions. People in receipt of these lower
pensions were able to claim GIS to bring their income up to the poverty
level.


A new shock looms for these pensioners and other low-income pensioners!
Any senior who is on minimum Old Age Pension (OAP) has been eligible for
the Guaranteed income Supplement (GIS). This supplement was supplied from
the welfare budget by the Provincial government. Last year the Campbell
government, in a particularly sneaky move, decided to cut the GIS by
deducting the amount the Federal government added by its' cost of living
formula each year from the GIS payment . This means that in a short period
of time, the GIS will disappear and the low-income senior will be worse
off than before even though the base pension will have increased somewhat.


This move is of a piece with the government's plan to remove people from
the regular welfare rolls every month starting with April, 2004, and
continuing to infinity! Phil Lyons, co-chair of the Seniors Network BC
compares the two devious plans: "This process is like the 'death of 1000
cuts' for poorer people as opposed to 'off with their heads'. The
suffering is more drawn out but the end is the same'.

Some of the groups involved in the Stop Welfare Cuts Coalition are: End
Legislated Poverty, BC Teachers Federation, Hospital Employees' Union,
Vancouver Status of Women, Anti-Poverty Committee, Aboriginal Women's
Collective, First United Church and various other churches across the
Lower Mainland, BC Government and Services Employees Union, Lower Mainland
Coalition for Social Justice, Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users,
Tenants Rights Action Coalition, Prepare the General Strike Committee,
Housing Action Committee, United Native Nations Local 111, Organizers'
Training Group and the Seniors Network BC.

For more information on the Stop Welfare Cuts Coalition please contact
Lisa c/o End Legislated Poverty at 604-879-1209 or by email at
elp at telus.net


From pnbrown at vcn.bc.ca  Fri Feb 20 21:33:42 2004
From: pnbrown at vcn.bc.ca (Paul Browning)
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 21:33:42 -0800
Subject: [news] Fw: Act to Eliminate Racial Profiling
Message-ID: <007501c3f83c$44c6eec0$6401a8c0@PAUL>


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Davies, Libby - M.P." <Davies.L at parl.gc.ca>
To: "Davies, Libby - M.P." <Davies.L at parl.gc.ca>
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2004 11:05 AM
Subject: Act to Eliminate Racial Profiling


Dear friends,

I wanted to share with you information on my recently tabled Bill, An Act to
Eliminate Racial Profiling. Below you will find a press release and
backgrounder on the initiative.   Working with my colleagues Joe Comartin
and Pat Martin we have also put together a website to help bring people
together who are interested in diversity and justice issues in Canada.  Feel
free to check it out at www.canadians4justice.ca.

Sincerely,

Libby

NDP LAUNCHES SET OF BOLD INITIATIVES TO ELIMINATE RACIAL PROFILING
February 12, 2004

OTTAWA- NDP MPs Joe Comartin, Libby Davies and Pat Martin today launched a
series of bold initiatives put forward by the NDP Diversity Advocacy Team.
"We have seen an increasing level of what can best be described as the
'criminalization of diversity' and we feel strongly that action must be
taken", said Libby Davies.

The initiative involves an act to eliminate racial profiling, tabled today
in Parliament by Davies. If passed this legislation would ban racial
profiling from a spectrum of federal departments and jurisdictions.

"The practice of racial profiling poses a serious threat to strongly held
Canadian values of equal rights, democracy and justice. We need a legally
binding mechanism to ensure the accountability of our enforcement agencies
and officials", said Joe Comartin who seconded the Bill.

Raage Mohammed and Mohad Aawed of the Somali Cultural Centre in Ottawa
attended the launch to support the need to ban racial profiling. Members of
the Somali community recently experienced a police raid that many allege was
racially motivated.

The Diversity Advocacy Team has also been advocating for the swift passage
of the "Once in A Lifetime" Bill, which would allow a Canadian citizen or
permanent resident to sponsor, on one occasion, a family member who would
otherwise not qualify under family class provisions. "There are serious
shortcomings with the Canadian immigration system and we need a much
stronger emphasis on family reunification. I believe this Bill, which has
received widespread support except from the federal Liberal government, will
begin to address this issue", said Davies.

The NDP Diversity Advocacy Team has launched a website to bring Canadians
together who are interested in justice and diversity issues. "Our website,
which can be found at www.canadians4justice.ca offers a variety of ways for
people to link into the work of our team and join various campaigns to
promote diversity issues", said Pat Martin.

The site also invites visitors to share their "horror stories" trying to
navigate the immigration system. "We are planning on bringing these accounts
to the attention of the new Minister of Immigration to demand the system be
reformed", added Martin.

The NDP Diversity Advocacy Team consists of members of the federal NDP
Caucus as well as a range of community and organizational partners dedicated
to fighting racism and discrimination in Canada.

An Act to eliminate racial profiling
February 12, 2004
Libby Davies MP, Vancouver East

Racial profiling has been a reality in Canada since before September 11,
2001. However since 9-11 and the enactment of anti-terrorist legislation
(Bill C-36) we have seen an increased criminalization of diversity in
Canada. Too frequently innocent people report being detained, harassed or
singled-out by enforcement officials based on nothing more than the colour
of their skin or their religious beliefs.

The federal NDP believes that An Act to eliminate racial profiling takes a
step forward in re-affirming the right of all Canadians to equal treatment
under the law.  We need a legally binding mechanism to ensure the
accountability of our enforcement agencies and officials to all of the
people of Canada, regardless of their race or religious beliefs.

Background on An Act to eliminate racial profiling

Definition: The Definition of racial profiling used in the proposed Act
comes from the Ontario Human Rights Commission report issued in December
2003 on racial profiling.  "any action undertaken for reason of safety,
security or public protection that relies on stereotypes about race, colour,
ethnicity, ancestry, religion or place of origin, or a combination of these
rather than on reasonable suspicion, to single out an individual for greater
scrutiny or different treatment."

Proof of violation:  Any proof that the activities of an enforcement agency
have had a disparate impact on racial or ethnic minorities will be
considered proof that the officers have engaged in racial profiling, unless
evidence can be provided to the contrary.

Definition of enforcement officer or agency: The proposed Act states that
"an enforcement officer or enforcement agency must not engage in racial
profiling" This will include:
?The RCMP and RCMP officers
?Officers operating under the Canada Customs Act or Excise Act
?Officers operating under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act
?Officers operating under the Aeronautics Act

Proactive steps that must be taken by agencies:
a)    the prohibition of racial profiling;
b)    data collection on routine investigatory activities to determine if
enforcement officers are engaging in racial profiling;
c)   procedures for receiving, investigating and responding to complaints
alleging racial profiling;
d)   disciplinary procedures for enforcement officers who engage in racial
profiling;
e)   any other measure the Minister considers necessary to eliminate racial
profiling

Accountability measures found in the Act:
?At least once a year the Minister is to review the data collected by the
enforcement agency in order to assess the effectiveness of the policies and
procedures in place for eliminating racial profiling
?Within two years of coming into force of this Act and every year after
that, the enforcement agencies will be required to prepare a report to be
submitted to the Minister on racial profiling. The report must include: a) a
summary of the data collected; b) status of the agency's policies and
procedures; and c) a description of any other policies and procedures the
Minister feels would facilitate the elimination of racial profiling. The
Minister must present this report to Parliament within 10 days of receiving
it (when the House is sitting)
?The data collected by the enforcement agencies must be made available to
the public
Recourse for racial profiling:  The Federal Court has jurisdiction to hear
all cases in which a claim for relief is made or a remedy is sought under
this Act.


Libby Davies, MP
Vancouver East

483 West Block                              2412 Main Street
House of Commons                        Vancouver, BC
Ottawa, On  K1A 0A6                    V5T 3E2
Ph. (613) 992-6030                      Ph.  (604) 775-5800
Fax (613) 995-7412                     Fax (604) 775-5812
                   email:  daviel at parl.gc.ca
www.libbydavies.ca
www.ndp.ca





From pnbrown at vcn.bc.ca  Fri Feb 20 21:40:35 2004
From: pnbrown at vcn.bc.ca (Paul Browning)
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 21:40:35 -0800
Subject: [news] THE BC GOVERNMENT JUST ELIMINATED ALL STUDENT GRANTS
Message-ID: <008f01c3f83d$3ab3a0d0$6401a8c0@PAUL>

 Students in BC have come under attack in the last week as the BC Government
eliminated all student grants to needy students. This heartless move comes
along with a doubling of tuition fees in only three years and major cuts in
funding. We need all the support we can get to stop these policies. Students are working actively to fight this and we need your support. You can help with the following:

Express your concern by:

1. Writing B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell (premier at gov.bc.ca)

2. Writing your local newspapers (university & community based)

3. Writing Paul Martin & your local MP to ask them to put pressure on BC's
premier on behalf of all Canadians (we don't want this grant policy
spreading across Canada).

Paul Martin (pm at pm.gc.ca)

MP Finder 
(http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/people/house/PostalCode.asp?lang=E&
source=sm)

Backgrounder
    
    BC now stands alone among Canadian provinces in terms of its commitments
to students. Tuition has doubled in three years, funding is being slashed,
and student grants were eliminated.


In solidarity,


 

Paul Browning
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From pnbrown at vcn.bc.ca  Fri Feb 20 21:45:18 2004
From: pnbrown at vcn.bc.ca (Paul Browning)
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 21:45:18 -0800
Subject: [news] Re: THE BC GOVERNMENT JUST ELIMINATED ALL STUDENT GRANTS
References: <008f01c3f83d$3ab3a0d0$6401a8c0@PAUL>
Message-ID: <00b701c3f83d$e385dc00$6401a8c0@PAUL>

One more thing - if you live in BC, please also contact your local MLA.

-Paul Browning

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Paul Browning 
  To: Vancouver Activist News ; san at masses.tao.ca 
  Sent: Friday, February 20, 2004 9:40 PM
  Subject: san: THE BC GOVERNMENT JUST ELIMINATED ALL STUDENT GRANTS


   Students in BC have come under attack in the last week as the BC Government
  eliminated all student grants to needy students. This heartless move comes
  along with a doubling of tuition fees in only three years and major cuts in
  funding. We need all the support we can get to stop these policies. Students are working actively to fight this and we need your support. You can help with the following:

  Express your concern by:

  1. Writing B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell (premier at gov.bc.ca)

  2. Writing your local newspapers (university & community based)

  3. Writing Paul Martin & your local MP to ask them to put pressure on BC's
  premier on behalf of all Canadians (we don't want this grant policy
  spreading across Canada).

  Paul Martin (pm at pm.gc.ca)

  MP Finder 
  (http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/people/house/PostalCode.asp?lang=E&
  source=sm)

  Backgrounder
      
      BC now stands alone among Canadian provinces in terms of its commitments
  to students. Tuition has doubled in three years, funding is being slashed,
  and student grants were eliminated. 


  In solidarity,


   

  Paul Browning


------------------------------------------------------------------------------


  _______________________________________________
  SAN mailing list
  SAN at masses.tao.ca
  https://masses.tao.ca/lists/listinfo/san
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From resist at resist.ca  Sun Feb 22 13:41:18 2004
From: resist at resist.ca (Resist! Collective)
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 13:41:18 -0800
Subject: [news] Special Interests Get the Gold (Again)
Message-ID: <403921FE.4080206@resist.ca>



-------- Original Message --------
From: NO GAMES 2010 <nogamespress at yahoo.com>

NO GAMES 2010 COALITON

-FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE-				Feb 20, 2004

SPECIAL INTERESTS GET THE GOLD (AGAIN)

Vancouver- The Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (OCOG) for
the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games announced today that they had picked
John Furlong as CEO.  Furlong, who had been key officer of the Bid
Corp, was one of 2 businessmen short listed competitors for the job.
Dick Pound, Canadian IOC official claimed today that the OCOG had
?rigged? their decision and cited interference by Premier Gordon
Campbell in the decision.

Chris Shaw, spokesperson for NO GAMES 2010, said that the choice of
Furlong demonstrates that the special interests behind the Games have
maintained their grip on all aspects of Vancouver?s bid.  ?Putting in
John Furlong is essentially the same as putting in Jack Poole?, said
Shaw. ?Furlong is more urbane, but Poole will tell him what to do at
every step.  This is another victory for the developers who have been
behind the Bid from the beginning?.

NO GAMES notes that Furlong was formerly CEO of the elite Arbutus Club
which belongs to Caleb Chan, a Bid Corp director.  Chan has major real
estate holdings all along the Sea to Sky Corridor and is linked to Hong
Kong tycoon Li Ka Shing.  ?Mr. Furlong is still working for Chan and
the other Bid Corp developers, he is just going to change his office?,
said Shaw.  ?This is not Canada?s bid, merely that of Vancouver?s
development elite. If the OCOG had chosen David Emerson [the other
competitor], I might have thought that they were actually going to run
an honest Games.  Furlong is going to do exactly what his bosses tell
him to do?, claimed Shaw.

The IOC recently faced another scandal arising from the arrest of South
Korean IOC Vice President Kim Un-yong.  The Korean and Vancouver press
have suggested that Kim may have been involved in an effort to
manipulate the IOC vote that awarded the Games to Vancouver.  ?Here is
Mr. Furlong?s first challenge: assure the people of BC that neither he
nor any member of the Bid Corp played any role in manipulating the vote
in July?, said Shaw.  ?Next, he should immediately release the
financial statements of the original Bid Society and the Bid Corp to
the Auditor General of BC?.

?The special interests got their gold medal today?, said Shaw, ?but
they and Furlong will trip on the way to the finish line.  We?ll be
waiting for that?, warned Shaw.

					-30-

For more information, contact Chris Shaw at 604-924-1467;
casgreen05 at hotmail.com, Phil LeGood at 604-2182455; pwlegood at sfu.ca or
Ian Gregson at iang at sfu.ca604-320-1911


From ron at resist.ca  Sun Feb 22 14:12:17 2004
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 14:12:17 -0800
Subject: [news] U.S. soldier seeks Canadian refugee status
Message-ID: <40392941.8070207@resist.ca>


TORONTO - A U.S. soldier who is absent without leave is seeking refugee 
status in Canada as a conscientious objector.

Jeremy Hinzman, who faces prosecution in the U.S., left the 82nd 
Airborne Division in North Carolina last month and fled to Toronto with 
his wife and baby.

Hinzman told the Fayetteville Observer in a phone interview that he had 
"a romantic vision" of the army when he joined three years ago.

He said the structure of army life, complete with subsidized housing, 
groceries and money for education, appealed to him.

     * FROM DISCLOSURE: AWOL in America

But at the start of basic training, he became disillusioned and 
horrified by chanting about killing during marches, shooting at targets 
without faces and the dehumanization of the enemy.

Hinzman applied as a conscientious objector, saying he wanted to fulfil 
his service obligation but not fight in combat.

His application was rejected while he was in Afghanistan.

Hinzman said he and his wife decided to flee to Toronto before he could 
be shipped off to Iraq.

Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board said none of the 268 American 
applicants for refugee status last year were accepted.

Sgt. Pam Smith, a spokesperson for the 82nd Airborne based at Fort 
Bragg, N.C., said Hinzman could be arrested in the U.S., and would be 
put on a national database.

But she said the army won't search him out.

"We don't have time to go and track down people who go [absent without 
leave]," she said. "We're fighting a war."

Written by CBC News Online staff


From ron at resist.ca  Mon Feb 23 08:21:52 2004
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 08:21:52 -0800
Subject: [news] Haiti
Message-ID: <403A28A0.1070404@resist.ca>

By: Peace No War Network--Americas Watch
URL: www.PeaceNoWar.net

1. Defend the Democratically-Elected Government of President Aristide!
2. Stop the US Destabilization Campaign against Haiti!
3. End the US Embargo against Haiti!

We've seen this one before..

Chile 1973 - US-backed coup overthrows popularly elected government:
Pres. Allende killed.

Haiti 1991 - US-backed coup overthrows popularly elected government:
Pres. Aristide exiled.

Haiti 2001 - Attempted coup d'etat: A million people loyal to Pres.
Aristide rise up to stop it!

Venezuela 2003 - US-backed coup d'etat fails: Millions loyal to Pres.
Chavez rise up to stop it!

Now a new coup d'etat is brewing in Haiti

Who are the 'rebels'? -- These death squads  -- led by veterans of the
Ton Ton Macoutes terror gangs (from the time of the Duvalier family
dictatorship) and the CIA-supported FRAPH (from the 1991-94 coup years)
-- are terrorizing the country, seizing towns and police stations,
killing people from the popular organizations, vowing to overthrow
Aristide by force of arms.

Who's behind it? -- Sweatshop owners and other members of Haiti's
business and landowning elite, who fear the "people power" program of
President Aristide -- and behind them, the United States government,
unhappy with Aristide's refusal to toe Washington's line.
* Last year the US shipped tons of weapons to the neighboring Dominican
Republic, many of which are now turning up in Haiti in the hands of the
death squads.
* For a decade the US has run a destabilization and disinformation
campaign in Haiti to undermine and demonize the Aristide government --
funneling money to opposition groups, financing captive media outlets,
"salting" the Haitian police with CIA-trained operatives.
*Since Aristide's second overwhelming election victory in 2000 --
angered by his policies like doubling of the minimum wage and refusing
to privatize state enterprises -- the US has enforced an embargo on
financial aid to Haiti. Once again the US has thrown a roadblock to the
fulfillment of Aristide's program of:
building a school and health clinic in every community.
good roads.
clean drinking water.
electric power.
literacy campaigns.
food self-sufficiency.
democratic participation at the local level.

This is an outrage! -- On Feb. 13th, 1,000 Haitians and supporters
demonstrated in New York to say "NO to the 'death' coup d'etat" and
demand "respect for the 5-year mandate of President Aristide respect for
the vote of the people respect for the will of the people." This is no
time for us to sit quiet.
- From: "Carolyn S. Scarr" <epicalc at earthlink.net>

1) Letter from Jennifer Harbury
2) Congresswoman Maxine Waters Condemns Violence in Haiti
3) Rebels Plan to Attack Haitian Capital (2/23, Assoicated Press)
4) Haiti at brink again - US owes help (Christian Science Monitor,
January 23)
5) More background on the FRAPF and useful links
6) Haiti demo Thursday, Feb 26 3-5, San Francisco, CA, USA.

******************************************************************************************************
1) February 20, 2004
Via Rights Action
Jennifer Harbury wrote:

We urgently need your support and telephone calls on the growing crisis in
Haiti. I am sure you have all seen the recent press articles about what is
described as the popular unrest there, but far more than civil disobedience
is at stake now. We are looking at yet another grab for power by the same
death squads that ravaged Haiti a few years ago.

The self proclaimed uprising has been extremely violent and people are
dying. While members of the political opposition are indeed part of this
uprising, so too are many of the most notorious torturers and death squad
members who devastated Haiti before Aristide's return to power.

When we remember that FRAPH and many other military human rights violators
were in fact backed by the CIA in those years, the recent insinuations by
U.S. officials that they would not oppose an ouster of President Aristide
take on a rather sinister light. Mr. Aristide was legally and popularly
elected by the people of Haiti not once, but twice, in the more recent
elections by 92% of the vote. (The claims of electoral error arose in a
senate election, not his presidential victory).

Why are we suggesting that he leave office or accept U.S.- dictated changes
in his policies?

The opposition demonstrators have seized the town of Gonaives, killing more
than 50 people the first week, including three hospital patients and 14
policemen who were mutilated and dragged through the streets. A number of
key roads and a bridge have been obstructed, preventing the arrival of badly
needed medical personnel as well as humanitarian supplies. According to
reports, the "Resistance" has proclaimed that anyone not supporting the
overthrow of Aristide would be attacked. They backed up this threat with
beatings and killings, and destroyed several homes, two of which happened to
belong to the survivors of the Raboteau massacre. (In 1994 the army and
paramilitary troops had entered Raboteau, shooting, beating and arresting
people in masses. As the people fled towards the harbor to swim to safety,
they encountered armed men on the beachfront, who opened fire on them.
Undeterred, the people of Raboteau pressed their human rights case through
trial, winning a verdict against 16 of the 22 defendants despite the U.S.
refusal to hand over thousands of FRAPH documents).

Two of the opposition leaders reported to have engaged in killings of police
officers in Haiti's Central Plateau, include Guy Philippe, a U.S.-trained
former Haitian soldier who has attempted at least three coups in the last
four years, and Louis Jodel Chamblain, the #2 ranked leader of the notorious
CIA-backed FRAPH death squad. Chamblain was convicted in both the
assassination of Antoine Izmery, a pro-democracy businessman in 1993, and
the 1994 Raboteau massacre.

Jean Pierre, alias Tatoune, was a local FRAPH leader and was serving a life
sentence for the Raboteau massacre, until his escape in a 2002 jailbreak.
The opposition also includes civilians like sweat shop owner and U.S.
citizen Andy Apaid, who opposed an increase of the minimum wage last year,
when Aristide attempted to raise it from the $1.60 per day where it now
stands.

Since so many of the more brutal members of the "opposition" in fact have
long standing ties to the U.S. intelligence community, we should be calling
off our dogs instead of pressing Aristide to bend his policies to U.S.
demands.

Haiti really does not need the FRAPH or other death squads, let alone the
CIA, to interfere with a lawfully elected government, let alone to return to
power for a new round of blood baths. Who can forget the massacre in the
Saint-Jean Bosco Church of 1988, which took place as Aristide was giving his
Sunday mass? Thugs and secret police broke down the church doors and opened
fire, attacking and stabbing the people as they prayed. A pregnant woman was
stabbed through the stomach, more than a dozen others were killed, many more
badly hurt, and the Church was burned to the ground.

Miraculously Aristide survived, became President, survived a violent coup,
and became President yet again.

The people of Haiti have spoken clearly enough about their choice of their
national leader. There are no masses of refugees fleeing Aristide as there
were under Duvalier and the FRAPH. We should respect this choice instead of
supporting yet more terror.

PLEASE CALL OR WRITE THE STATE DEPARTMENT, HAITI DESK: TEL. 202-736-4628.

Tell Them:

1.. The United States should fully support any legally and popularly elected
government, including that of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, President of Haiti..
2.. Because many of the persons involved in the current violence by the
opposition, were in fact death squad members and extreme human rights
violators, with long standing links to the U.S. intelligence services, the
U.S. government should take all steps possible to control these assets and
allies, and require the immediate cessation of violence and intimidation on
their part. Any and all covert funding to them should be halted forthwith.
3.. The U.S. government should respect and comply with any request by
President Aristide for reasonable assistance to his understaffed and
under-equipped police force.
4.. The U.S. should respect the sovereign status of the government of Haiti
and not interfere in the socio-economic policies of that country by
threatened intervention or sanctions of any kind.

If you wish to make additional calls, please give your support and thanks to
Maxine Waters, and ask for help from other allies and friends on the Hill,
such as Sen. Leahy, Sen. Dodd, Rep. Conyers, Rep. Rangel, and Rep. Lantos.
The Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.

Thank you everyone. Your calls do make a difference, and always have.
Abrazos, Jennifer
******************************************************************************************************
2) Congresswoman Maxine Waters Condemns Violence in Haiti; Calls for
State Department to Support the Democratically-elected government of
Haiti and denounce Andre Apaid

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release
Contact: Nancy Stevens (202) 225-2201
February 11, 2004

CONGRESSWOMAN WATERS CONDEMNS VIOLENCE IN HAITI;CALLS FOR STATE
DEPARTMENT TO SUPPORT THE DEMOCRATICALLY-ELECTED GOVERNMENT OF HAITI AND
DENOUNCE ANDRE APAID

        Washington, D.C. -- Today, at a press conference on Capitol Hill,
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) called for the State Department to support the
democratically-elected government of Haiti and denounce Andre Apaid.
She made the following statement:

        Yesterday, I returned from a trip to Haiti, where I observed the
escalation of political violence that occurred over the weekend.  This
was my second trip to Haiti so far this year.  I am deeply concerned
about the growing violence organized by the so-called opposition and
what now appears to be gangs in the northern part of the country being
supported in their violent activities by this so-called opposition.

   Unfortunately, the opposition, led by Andre Apaid, under the banner of
the Group of 184, is not simply a peaceful group trying to correct the
problems of the government.  Andre Apaid is a Duvalier-supporter, who
allegedly holds an American passport and obtained permanent resident
status in Haiti through deceptive means.  Andre Apaid is ferociously
adamant about forcing Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the first
democratically-elected President in the history of Haiti, out of office.

Andre Apaid is the owner of fifteen factories in Haiti.  He has been
accused of tax evasion, operating sweatshops and being a President
Aristide-hater.  The so-called peaceful protests led by Andre Apaid and
his Group of 184 are responsible for defying the rule of law as it
relates to parade routes, notification of protest actions, and other
laws that are normally respected in any democratic society.  The
protests he organizes have become increasingly violent.  Police officers
are confronted, property is damaged, and roads are blocked.  It is my
belief that Andre Apaid is attempting to instigate a bloodbath in Haiti
and then blame the government for the resulting disaster in the belief
that the United States will aid the so-called protestors against
President Aristide and his government.

Andre Apaid refuses to negotiate despite the fact that the State
Department, the Organization of American States and many other
organizations are now supporting a proposal put forth by CARICOM.  Andre
Apaid continues to use inflammatory language, denounce President
Aristide, refuse to negotiate and demand that President Aristide leave
his democratically-elected presidency.  His so-called opposition group
has accused President Aristide of everything from corruption and drug
trafficking to support for paramilitary activity.  When asked for
documentation, they have not been able to produce anything more than
rumors, innuendos and allegations.

   President Aristide disbanded the military when he returned to office
and has a police force of only 5,000 for a country of 8 million people.
The United States aborted its efforts to support and train the new
police force and currently has a ban on selling guns and equipment to
Haiti.  This policy effectively denies Haitian law enforcement officers
the essential equipment that they so desperately need to maintain order
and enforce the rule of law.

  President Aristide has given the United States special authority to
assist with drug interdiction efforts by allowing the United States to
interdict drugs in Haitian waters.  The government of Haiti does not
have the resources needed to wage a tough and consistent war against
drugs, and the President of Haiti is begging the United States for
assistance to eliminate drug trafficking.

  President Aristide is pursuing a progressive economic agenda in Haiti.
Under his leadership, the Haitian government has made major investments
in agriculture, public transportation and infrastructure.  On February
7, 2003, the government doubled the minimum wage from 36 to 70 gourdes
per day, despite strong opposition from the business community.  There
have also been a number of reforms to prohibit trafficking in persons
and protect the estimated 400,000 children from rural villages who work
as domestic servants in households in the cities.

  President Aristide has also made health care and education national
priorities.  More schools were built in Haiti between 1994 and 2000 than
between 1804 and 1994.  The government expanded school lunch and school
bus programs and provides a 70% subsidy for schoolbooks and uniforms.
The maternity wards of eight public hospitals have been renovated, and
hundreds of Haitians are being trained as physicians.  Twenty new HIV
testing centers will open around the country during the next two years.
All of this is being accomplished despite a continuing embargo by the
IMF and the World Bank.

  The so-called opposition is supported by many of the same people who
were content with the brutal dictators of Haiti's past.  These are the
same people who enriched themselves on the backs of the poor in Haiti
for so many years with the support of the United States government.
These people do not want a strong president like Jean-Bertrand Aristide,
who will force them to pay their taxes and provide decent wages to their
workers.

  Last Thursday, armed gangs took control of the Gonaives police station
during a five-hour gunfight and set the mayor's house on fire.  Since
then, these gangs have set fire to the police stations of Gonaives, St.
Marc and Trou du Nord.  In St. Marc, they sealed off the city by
dragging tires, debris and logs across the main roads and setting them
on fire.  The armed gangs have seized nearly a dozen towns in the past
week, and at least 40 people have been killed.

  Unfortunately, these gangs appear to be obtaining support from the
so-called opposition in the hope that their attacks will help to fuel
other attacks in other parts of the country and eventually a coup d'etat
in Port-au Prince.  This is clearly an attempt at a power-grab.
Unfortunately, the same forces that fashion themselves as the opposition
also have control over the broadcast media in Haiti.  They have used the
power of the press to discredit President Aristide and disseminate false
information to the international press about the situation in Haiti.

  The nations of CARICOM are trying to assist the people of Haiti to end
the violence and resolve this crisis peacefully.  The CARICOM proposal
includes an outright rejection of a coup d'etat in any form and requires
that any change in Haiti must be done in accordance with the
Constitution of Haiti.  CARICOM calls upon the opposition in Haiti to
ensure representation on the Provisional Electoral Council so that the
Council can begin to prepare for the holding of elections.  CARICOM also
calls upon the international community to provide economic support to
Haiti.  Economic assistance, including assistance from the United
States, is essential to alleviate the suffering of the people of Haiti
and build a foundation for political stability and economic growth.

  The State Department must denounce Andre Apaid and the Group of 184 and
must answer this question:  How can the State Department remain silent
while Andre Apaid, who allegedly holds an American passport, creates so
much dissension, disruption and violence in this small, impoverished
country?

  The State Department must use its influence to help stabilize Haiti,
provide assistance for health, education and infrastructure development,
and discourage Haitians from building boats and rafts to get to American
shores.

  Finally, the international press must discontinue the practice of
repeating rumors and innuendos and begin to spend quality time learning
the truth and writing the truth about what is really going on in Haiti.

******************************************************************************************************
3) Rebels Plan to Attack Haitian Capital
By PAISLEY DODDS
.c The Associated Press

CAP-HAITIEN, Haiti (AP) - Rebels overran Haiti's second-largest city in
their biggest victory of a bloody uprising and said soon they will
attack the capital in their campaign to oust President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide.

As thousands of looters rampaged through Cap-Haitien Sunday, rebel
leader Guy Philippe predicted a quick victory over Aristide's partisans,
who sought to block any advance by erecting flaming barricades on the
highway into the capital, Port-au-Prince, from the north.

``I think that in less than 15 days we will control all of Haiti,''
Philippe said at a Cap-Haitien hotel as he swigged from a bottle of beer.

Sources close to the government said several Cabinet ministers in
Port-au-Prince were asking friends for places to hide in case the
capital is attacked.

After rebels drove government troops from Cap-Haitien, a city of some
500,000 on Haiti's north coast, thousands of people went on a looting spree.

The takeover of Cap-Haitien by some 200 fighters was the most
significant advance by Aristide opponents since the uprising began on
Feb 5. At least 15 people died in Sunday's fighting.

The two-pronged rebel assault quickly engulfed key points in the city.
The police station was burned, then looted, as was a pro-Aristide radio
station. Thousands of people rushed to the port and carted off goods.

``We're all hungry,'' said Jean Luc, 11, who strapped four 110-pound
sacks of rice to a bicycle and was precariously trying to pedal it home.

Residents also defaced posters of Aristide, who was wildly popular when
he became Haiti's first freely elected leader in 1990 but lost support
since flawed legislative elections in 2000 led international donors to
freeze millions of dollars in aid.

Opponents accuse him of failing to help those in need in the Western
hemisphere's poorest country, allowing corruption and masterminding
attacks on opponents by armed gangs. Aristide denies the charges.

The rebels say they have no political agenda beyond ousting Aristide,
but the man who started the rebellion, Gonaives gang leader Buteur
Metayer, on Thursday declared himself the president of liberated Haiti.

Rebels have now driven government forces from half the country. As
Cap-Haitien stood on the brink of falling, police stayed barricaded in
their posts, saying they lacked the personnel and firepower to fend off
the insurgents.

Many people expressed joy at the rebel victory.

``The people are happy. Finally we're free from terror,'' said Fifi
Jean, 30, as she stood in front of the blazing police headquarters,
which was burned after the police fled amid the rebel assault. As night
fell, fires broke out in the homes of some Aristide supporters in
Cap-Haitien.

As the rebel leader predicted victory, his fighters, clad in camouflage
uniforms and black flak jackets, sat by the hotel pool in lounge chairs,
drinking beer and eating plates of goat, chicken, rice and beans.

Philippe said he wanted to see Aristide thrown in jail and put on trial,
although he did not know what charges the country's leader would face,
saying it would be up to Haitian judges to try him.

The rebel leader was an officer in the army when it ousted Aristide in
1991 and instigated a reign of terror that ended in 1994 when the United
States sent 20,000 troops to end the military dictatorship and restore
the president to power.

In taking Cap-Haitien, rebels said their force only met resistance at
the city's airport, where Philippe said eight militant civilians loyal
to Aristide were killed in a gunbattle.

In addition, seven other bodies were seen for the known total death toll
Sunday to 15 in Cap-Haitien. At least one rebel was wounded.

Aristide supporters commandeered a plane from the airport, and witnesses
said those who fled on it included seven police officers and former
Aristide lawmaker Nawoum Marcellus, whose Radio Africa had been inciting
violence against opponents.

``We came in today and we took Cap-Haitien; tomorrow we take
Port-au-Prince'' the capital, boasted Lucien Estime, a 19-year-old who
joined the popular rebellion from the hamlet of Saint Raphael, south of
Cap-Haitien.

``Our mission is to liberate Haiti,'' he said.

More than 70 people have died in the uprising so far.

The United States blames Aristide for the crisis and has made clear it
does not want to send troops to restore order in Haiti.

The political opposition in Haiti has said it will respond formally by 5
p.m. Monday to a U.S.-backed peace plan that calls for Aristide to
remain president while sharing some power with rivals until new
elections could be organized.

The opposition coalition Democratic Platform insists that any plan must
include Aristide's resignation.

Aristide accepted the plan, but indicated he would not negotiate with
the soldiers who had ousted him in 1991.


02/23/04 04:53 EST
******************************************************************************************************
4) Haiti at brink again - US owes help
by Randall Robinson, Christian Science Monitor, January 23, 2004,
(BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS)

Ten years ago, I risked my life by embarking on a hunger strike. It was
a desperate attempt to change America's Haiti policy. In the 28th day of
my fast, President Clinton announced that the US would pursue a more
just Haiti policy. Shortly thereafter, a US-led multinational force
reinstalled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who had been ousted in a
military coup. Haiti's first democratically elected president, Mr.
Aristide had won in a landslide, and I was proud to stand with the
Haitian people - and him.

Today, Aristide - who stepped down at the end of his first term and was
reelected to the presidency in 2000 - is under attack again. Political
unrest is rocking the poverty-stricken nation - including protests both
for and against the president. And a summit of Caribbean Community
representatives has begun a series of meetings to resolve the crisis.
This week they are meeting with Aristide opponents who accuse him of
trampling on civil rights and are demanding he step down.

Again, I stand with this leader and his right to complete his five-year
term. And again, I urge the US - the world's most powerful democracy -
to resolutely embrace Haiti's democratically elected president.

How has Aristide - who was so loved and revered - ended up the focus of
calls for his ouster?

Aristide may have failings in his ability to negotiate the vicious power
divide between Haiti's economic elite and its broader masses, but US
policy has created an environment in which it is impossible for him to
succeed.

As in Iraq, the US has in Haiti pursued policies and formed allegiances
that violate the sanctity and inviolability of the ballot box, while
attempting to deliver the future of an entire nation and people into the
hands of a specially selected, unelected few.

US financial, political, and military support for Haiti remained strong
while the Duvalier family dictators and their successors were in power.
However, the US attitude soured with the election of Aristide, who'd
been an enormously popular Roman Catholic priest working among the poor
and against the brutality of Haiti's dictators.

Aristide's criticism of US support for Haiti's dictators won him the
eternal distrust and ire of certain US policymakers. And as president,
his adherence to principles - when wealthy Haitians and the US expected
greater "flexibility" - only deepened his foes' opposition to him.

Haiti's US-trained Army overthrew Aristide in 1991. Public pressure
pushed the US to lead a multinational effort to restore Aristide's
government in exile in 1994. But when republicans, who'd vehemently
opposed the restoration, won control of Congress, they moved to isolate
Aristide.

They successfully pushed legislation to finance the training of those
who opposed Aristide's grass-roots Lavalas movement and to withdraw US
assistance to the Haitian government. And later, the Bush administration
forced the Inter-American Development Bank to deny Haiti hundreds of
millions of dollars in already approved loans for safe drinking water,
literacy programs, and health services. They began giving aid - that
normally would go to the Haitian government - to nongovernmental
organizations, some of which were run by wealthy anti-Aristide Haitians.

Most troubling, though, has been US encouragement of Haiti's opposition
in its refusal to participate in elections that the government continues
to call for, but which the opposition knows it will lose.

The US has actually taken the position that there can be no legitimate
elections in Haiti if the opposition doesn't participate, and that if
elections do go forward without the opposition, the US won't accept the
results. This reflects terribly on what America stands for as a nation,
particularly in these times.

It is because of the opposition's rejection of elections that Aristide
has "failed to hold elections"; new parliamentarians have not been
elected, leaving vacancies in the parliament; and with a nonfunctioning
parliament Aristide is "ruling by decree." The suggestion being that he
has "usurped the powers of government for his own dictatorial purposes."

So, yes, there are now those who demonstrate because the government has
been unable to "make life better." But the broad masses of Haitians want
no coups. They want democracy to work, stability for their families, and
the president to complete his term.

The US must live up to the standards required of the world's most
powerful democracy and support the Haitian government call for elections
- whether or not some elements of the opposition participate.

The US and Haitian Constitutions provide for the stability of the state
with specified terms of each president. The Constitution must be the
final authority in the US, in Haiti, and in all democracies, or anarchy
will prevail.

The opposition in Haiti calls for the overthrow of the democratically
elected government. The US must unequivocally condemn and distance
itself from these proponents of insurrection and refuse to recognize a
government that seizes power.

The US must take these steps if it genuinely wants to support democracy
and promote stability in Haiti. Not to do this is bad for America. The
rest of the world must see the US as more than the embodiment of
economic and military might, but as the embodiment of such inviolable
principles as justice, equity, and consistency. These intangibles, are,
in fact, key to the real and lasting security that all Americans crave.

* Randall Robinson is founder and former president of TransAfrica, a
foreign policy organization. Now a writer, he lives in the Caribbean.

******************************************************************************************************
5) More background on the FRAPF and useful links

Alan Nairn
The Nation - Haiti Under Cloak - Feb 26, 1996
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Global_Secrets_Lies/HaitiFeb96_Nairn.html

David Grann
The Atlantic Monthly - Giving the Devil his Due - June 2001
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2001/06/grann.htm

Zmagazine
An Interview With Allan Nairn June 1995 - Nairn broke the story of the
United States government's role in establishing and funding the brutal
Haitian paramilitary death squad, FRAPH
http://www.zmag.org/ZMag/articles/june95arnove.htm

William Blum:
Killing Hope "Who will rid me of this turbulent preist?" Haiti 1986-1984
- excerpts from the book.
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/Haiti_KH.html

Black Commentator
http://www.blackcommentator.com/73/73_haiti_pina.html

Haiti Progres
http://www.haiti-progres.com/
Click on English link once you enter this site. Also has good archive of
past articles.

Council on Hemispheric Affairs
http://www.coha.org
Many recent commentaries on Haiti.

Haiti Action Committee
http://www.haitiaction.org/

http://www.lethaitilive.org
******************************************************************************************************
6) Haiti demo Thursday, Feb 26 3-5, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Support Haiti's democracy
Thurs. Feb 26 - 3pm-5pm S.F. Federal Building
corner Golden Gate Ave. & Polk Street
near Civic Center BART Station

=============================================================
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From ron at resist.ca  Mon Feb 23 08:54:34 2004
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 08:54:34 -0800
Subject: [news] Toronto man sues police, says video shows beating
Message-ID: <403A304A.4080801@resist.ca>

this is the second story to come out in just over 2 months where toronto 
cops were caught on video beating someone.


Toronto man sues police, says video shows beating
Last Updated Wed, 18 Feb 2004 21:21:25
CBC News

TORONTO - A Toronto man who claims he was beaten unconscious by police 
officers is suing the city's police force, saying a video tape of the 
incident will support his case.

The video tape, released by Kenneth Wood on Wednesday, shows several 
officers restraining Wood and hitting him with a baton until he collapses.

Wood says he gets angrier every time he sees the video.

"This thing was on national TV?my daughter saw it, my elderly father saw 
it, my family saw it," said Wood. "For all they knew I was dead on the 
street and it caused a lot of scare and grief for a lot of people."

Wood was at an anti-poverty demonstration in downtown Toronto in October 
2001. He claims he was helping an elderly motorist get through the crowd 
when police came at him. He says he remembers being beaten and then 
blacked out.

"I don't think I was that terrified in my life as when that happened and 
it was totally unreal and totally unprovoked," said Wood.

He filed a complaint in 2001, and filed the $450,000 lawsuit after his 
lawyers obtained the video footage from news crews and other protesters.

Rick McIntosh, president of the Toronto Police Association, says the 
tape doesn't provide the whole story ? whether Wood provoked police.

"Obviously the man is struggling and resisting officers and they used 
what force is necessary to protect themselves," said McIntosh.

Wood's lawyer Brian Shiller says what happened to Wood is not an 
isolated incident.

"Chief [Julien] Fantino is not in control of this police force. It is a 
police force out of control," said Shiller.

Fantino denies the allegations, saying abuse is not widespread.

"It's not rampant, it's not systemic and there are things we have to 
look into," said Fantino.


From ron at resist.ca  Mon Feb 23 08:56:11 2004
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 08:56:11 -0800
Subject: [news] Aussie riot fuelled by long history of repression
Message-ID: <403A30AB.8060604@resist.ca>


Aussie riot fuelled by long history of repression

February 17, 2004
The Star (South Africa)
By Kathy Marks

Sydney - Politicians and community leaders have appealed for calm after 
an unparalleled night of rioting in inner-city Sydney.

It was sparked by the death of an Aboriginal teenager who was impaled on 
a metal railing after allegedly being chased by police officers.

Three inquiries are to be held into 17-year-old Thomas Hickey's death 
and the subsequent violence, one of the worst eruptions of civil unrest 
witnessed in Australia.

Aboriginal youths pelted police with bricks, bottles and petrol bombs 
during nine hours of street battles in Redfern, a neighbourhood with a 
history of volatile community relations

Yesterday the burnt-out cars were removed and the broken glass and rocks 
swept up, but Redfern - just a few kilometres from the city centre and 
Opera House - was still seething with rage and resentment.

"We want an eye for an eye," said one long-term resident, Rodney Murray. 
"If they kill our people, this is how we're going to fight back."

Locals claim that Hickey flew off his bicycle after it was rammed by a 
police car that was pursuing him on Saturday.

He landed on the railing, and was impaled through the neck and chest. He 
died in hospital on Sunday.

Police deny chasing him and described his death as a freak accident.

In a community that long ago lost faith in the criminal justice system, 
such protestations cut little ice.

Redfern, Sydney's Aboriginal heartland, is plastered with posters 
bearing the photos of three police officers and the words "child murderers".

"The police killed my son," said Gail Hickey, Thomas's mother. "I don't 
care what they say. I don't believe them."

Aboriginal leaders say that while the boy's death was the catalyst for 
the violence, it was fuelled by decades of racial tension and social 
neglect.

The suburb is infamous for its slum housing, chronic street crime and 
high unemployment. Heroin is dealt openly in a park near the railway.

Redfern has been a flashpoint for conflict in the past, but the scale 
and ferocity of the disturbances took everyone - including police - by 
surprise.

"They said it would never happen in Australia," said John Watts, a local 
councillor. "They said Australia was the happy country, the lucky 
country. Well, now it's happening here."

While the New South Wales Premier, Bob Carr, claimed the rioting was 
aggravated by alcohol and outsiders, locals blamed police for provoking it.

They said officers patrolled obtrusively while the community were in 
mourning, and alleged that some had been "smiling and sniggering".

The rumours mounted during a stiflingly hot day and, as the sun went 
down, grief turned to anger.

The 150 rioters were well prepared.

They wheeled out eight large rubbish bins filled with broken paving 
stones, and had also stockpiled beer bottles in tubs.
Order was not restored until just before dawn. - Independent Foreign Service


From ron at resist.ca  Mon Feb 23 08:57:16 2004
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 08:57:16 -0800
Subject: [news] Man with mental illness pepper-sprayed to death in Toronto
Message-ID: <403A30EC.9080803@resist.ca>

Pepper spraying revisited

Feb. 18, 2004. 01:00 AM
Toronto Star
JOE FIORITO

Naked, surrounded, pepper-sprayed, dead. The details of the death of 
Robert Walker made the psych survivors wince. This happened to him. It 
could happen to us.

"How many police?"

"Ten."

"Oh."

A derisive "Oh!" The details of what happened are unclear, but there 
were 10 police and there was one angry naked man. "Oh!" said the psych 
survivors.

They were talking about the death of Robert Walker yesterday afternoon 
at PARC, the Parkdale Activity and Recreation Centre, a bright, 
multi-purpose drop-in on Queen St. a couple of blocks west of Lansdowne.

A tall man spoke up from under his hoodie. He said, "That person could 
still be alive today." Someone added, "If we have 10 police who cannot 
arrest one person without the use of pepper spray, then they should not 
be on the job." And someone else said, "We have people who get upset 
around here. We don't shout at them. We don't surround them with 10 
staff. If we can do it, why can't they?"

Why, indeed?

There had been complaints. Police came early Monday morning. They found 
Walker in the middle of Woodbine Ave. near Queen St. E. They surrounded 
him and they waited. There was shouting. And then they pepper-sprayed 
him and they put him in an ambulance. Walker was dead on arrival at St. 
Michael's Hospital. The Special Investigations Unit, which looks into 
incidents involving police, is investigating. Dr. Jim Cairns, deputy 
chief coroner of Ontario, said there will be an inquest, since Walker 
died in custody.

When PARC closed for the afternoon, Terence and George and Glenn walked 
down the street to a nearby coffee shop. They did not know Robert Walker 
but they had much more to say.

Terence: "I know what it's like to be pepper-sprayed. It happened a 
couple of years ago. I was staying on the street in those days. I was 
trying to get into a hostel. I couldn't get in. I got somewhat angry. I 
was upset. It was quite horrible. They sprayed me from three feet away. 
My eyes began to burn. They took me to the hospital to get it washed 
away." He said, "It would have helped if they had talked to me."

Glenn: "I was shocked when I heard the news. It seems every time I show 
up, I hear about someone dying."

George: "I've never been mistreated by the police, thank God. You need 
to know how to restrain properly. I think the police don't give a damn 
about people on the street."

Terence: "Most people in society have a warped view. When something like 
this happens there's a lot of publicity. But most people with disorders 
have not committed violence."

Most have not.

Most people who have survived the psychiatric system also know they are 
viewed with suspicion by the rest of society. George took a moment and 
drew a circle on the table with his forefinger. "Here's the circle. All 
of the psych survivors are in it. We have to get out of the circle." He 
continued. "A lot of survivors are on medication. Their voices are loud 
but their bodies are weak. It wouldn't take much to restrain them. "

All three men are quite familiar with medication. They know it makes 
them weak. They also know it can affect their behaviour in unpleasant or 
unpredictable ways.

George: "If someone does something wrong, is that the person or is it 
the medication? Even suicide can be caused by medication. If medication 
is supposed to help a person, why do they have to restrain a person 
after he'd had medication?"

Glenn: "Surround him. Don't touch him. He'll get cold."

Oh.

At one o'clock in the morning, on a cold night in February, how long do 
you think it would take for a naked man to stop being upset and to start 
shivering in earnest? Lay off the pepper spray. What's a few more 
minutes? Where's the harm?

Terence: "I know that area where it happened. I grew up there. It gets 
quiet late at night. It was cold. There were a lot of police. Keep an 
eye on him. Let him run. He'll get tired."

George: "This is part of what I'm talking about. Why didn't they wait? 
That's one of the tools. There should be more training, better training. 
If the police could learn to see the person as a person..."

Terence: "A lot of mental health has got to do with poverty. People end 
up in bad conditions...disability pensions haven't gone up in 10 years. 
You aren't housed or clothed properly, you have no money for food."

Glenn: "I'm moving pretty soon. Right now I have a room with a shared 
bathroom and a shared kitchen. It costs me $400 a month. The other guy 
drinks and smokes, it's not my kind of environment."

George: "I know a guy who was living in a shelter. It wasn't good for 
him. He had to spend three months in a psychiatric hospital. When they 
let him out, he went right back to the place that caused the problem. 
Peace of mind is part of it. Everybody needs peace of mind."

And if these three men could speak directly to the chief of police ? 
they think the position should be elected, by the way ? this is what 
they would say:

George: "You are facing a human being. The first thing you have to think 
about is, you are facing a human being."

Glenn: "Show restraint. Think about what you are doing. Put yourself in 
that person's shoes and act accordingly."

Terence: "Life is sacred. I would say that to the chief of police and 
everyone in the police force. Even if we don't have very much, we are 
people, too. Life is sacred."

Tell it to the cops.

<><><><><><><><><><>

Pepper-sprayed man dies
Melee breaks out on east-end street
But neighbours praise police `restraint'

Feb. 17, 2004. 06:26 AM
Toronto Star
PETER EDWARDS AND SCOTT SIMMIE
STAFF REPORTERS

An emotionally distressed, naked man who lunged out at police officers 
in the middle of an east-end Toronto street died early yesterday morning 
after he was subdued and put in an ambulance.

Witnesses said a blast of pepper spray did nothing to halt Robert 
Walker, 41, who was pronounced dead shortly after he arrived at St. 
Michael's Hospital.

"It didn't really seem to affect the man at all," said neighbour Priya 
Glassey, who watched the confrontation from inside her home.

"He just kept going."

Walker repeatedly lunged at police, and he appeared to have something in 
his hand, Glassey said.

The incident is being probed by the provincial Special Investigations 
Unit, which investigates any injury, death, or allegation of sexual 
assault that occurs during police operations.

Police said that at 12:23 a.m. yesterday, officers responded to a 
disturbance call on Woodbine Ave., near Queen St. E.

Witnesses said Walker ran into the street naked and that police showed 
"incredible restraint," as 10 or more officers surrounded him and 
attempted to coax him into an ambulance.

"They were shouting at him to get down," Glassey said. "They tried to 
surround him and he kept lunging at police. He wouldn't stop. The police 
were incredibly restrained."

Police eventually gained control and placed Walker in an ambulance.

Paramedics were transporting Walker to hospital when he went into 
medical distress. He was pronounced dead at St. Michael's Hospital.

Glassey and other neighbourhood residents said police did not strike the 
man during the altercation, which neighbours said lasted at least 15 
minutes.

"I didn't see them hit him ? not once," she said.

Scott Gottfried, 28, a sheet metal worker who lived in the same house as 
Walker, also watched the early-morning confrontation.

"If I thought they (police) were being rough I would have said so," 
Gottfried said. "I thought they were doing a good job. The police were 
being very respectful."

"They certainly weren't very aggressive," said another neighbour who 
watched police try to coax the man into the ambulance.

"They tried to talk him into it. He was kicking and flailing around. I 
think they tried their best ... I didn't see them get rough or anything."

Walker, who worked as an unlicensed auto mechanic, had a history of 
violence in the boarding house, Gottfried said.

Gottfried said he was watching television shortly after midnight when he 
heard a violent outburst from the man's room. Then there was a crashing 
down the stairs.

Gottfried said he thought Walker was alone at the time.

The province's SIU has seven officers ? including two forensic experts ? 
probing the case, spokesperson Rose Hung said.

A post mortem was to be conducted yesterday.

When attempting to apprehend someone under the Mental Health Act who has 
a history of violence, police protocol is to notify the Emergency Task 
Force.

There is also a Mobile Crisis Intervention Team in Toronto that pairs a 
police officer with a mental health professional.

But the team responds only after the first officers at the scene have 
deemed the situation safe and ensured that no weapons are involved.

It is unlikely the team, which operates from 1 p.m. to 11 p.m. in a 
different part of the city, would have been asked to attend this situation.

Toronto police officers do not carry Taser stun guns, which immobilize 
targets with a jolt of electricity, although they are available to 
members of the Emergency Task Force.

Most frontline officers in Toronto carry small 55-gram cans of pepper 
spray on their belts.

The spray was hailed as a humane alternative to batons when it was 
introduced into Toronto police cruisers in the early 1990s.

Although a Toronto Police Service report called Less-Lethal Force 
Technology says the spray is effective 92 per cent of the time, there 
are cases in which it just doesn't seem to work. These include people 
with high pain thresholds and those in emotional distress or psychosis.

Last year, Toronto police used pepper spray 25 times in situations where 
the person was emotionally disturbed. In eight of those cases it was 
ineffective.

Three Ontario residents died in a 16-month period in the mid-1990s after 
police used pepper spray as a restraint.

Dr. James Young, Ontario's chief coroner at the time, reviewed several 
cases and concluded that most died of heart attacks linked to a 
condition called excited delirium, which can be triggered by psychiatric 
disorders or by drugs such as cocaine.

Pepper spray, a derivative of the cayenne pepper plant, causes a 
reaction when it comes into contact with mucous membranes.

Reactions can include "severe burning, involuntary spasmodic 
contractions of the eyes, bronchial spasms, gasping for breath, gagging, 
intense burning of the contaminated skin, and in some individuals nausea 
may occur...," according to the Toronto police report.

"Most subjects report that the initial shock of the oleoresin capsicum 
is so intense that their eyes slam shut, and their hands reflexively and 
immediately cover their faces."

In 2000, New York's Civilian Complaint Review board, which reviews 
complaints against police, examined available literature on pepper spray 
after concerns were raised about its use on emotionally disturbed persons.

It concluded that "until further scientific research has been conducted, 
the CCRB recommends that the NYPD restrict the use of pepper spray 
against emotionally disturbed persons wherever possible."

A coroner's jury listed a number of factors, including the use of pepper 
spray, for the death of Whitby Mental Health Centre patient Zdravko 
Pukec, 26, in September 1995, ruling the blind patient, who suffered 
from schizophrenia, died of cardiac arrest "associated with acute 
psychosis, physical restraint, positional asphyxia, exhaustion and 
stress due to pepper spray."



From ron at resist.ca  Mon Feb 23 13:15:36 2004
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 13:15:36 -0800
Subject: [news] Chicken Little revisits RAV line
Message-ID: <403A6D78.40202@resist.ca>


Vancouver Sun	  February 14, 2004

Chicken Little revisits RAV line

The funding proposals for the transit plan have some laughably big holes in
them.

Pete McMartin

It was Thursday afternoon. It was sunny. Outside, taxpayers were blithely
enjoying the balmy present: Inside, the finance committee of the Greater
Vancouver Regional District was arguing over how impoverished those same
taxpayers deserved to be in the very near future. The choices before them
were (a) Mildly Indebted, (b) Substantially In Hock or (c) Zaire. I have
seen the future and it's written in red ink.

The committee was there to consider the financial implications of the
Greater Vancouver Transit Authority's 10-year Strategic Transportation Plan,
the ambitious, multi-billion remake of the Lower Mainland's transport
corridors.

The plan includes new buses, new SkyTrain cars, new arterial roads, new
bridges and a third SeaBus, and the extension of SkyTrain in the northeast,
but its best known and most expensive component is the RAV line, the rapid
transit line between Richmond and downtown Vancouver.

As has been the pattern for the RAV line, its TransLink masters have
practised a hurry-up offence to make their way through the various levels of
government, screaming, at each stop:

"The sky is falling! There's no time left! We need your approval yesterday
if we are going to get this thing built before the Olympics!"

They're an excitable bunch, the TransLink folk, always threatening us, like
the editors of the National Lampoon, with a variation of: "Buy this magazine
or we'll shoot this dog!" Urgency is their preferred form of extortion. Last
year, TransLink went to Vancouver city council for approval of the RAV line
and gave councillors two months to digest 15 technical reports and conduct
marathon public consultation meetings. Any longer, councillors were told,
would jeopardize the project.

When the GVTA then went looking for funding for RAV, they said they
absotively, posilutely had to have $450 million from the federal government.
A penny less, they said, would jeopardize the project.

When the feds came back, scoffing, and said they could have $300 million
take it or leave it, TransLink took it. Suddenly, RAV could be built with
only $300 million in federal funds.

Now, RAV has come to its latest roadblock. It needs the okay from the GVRD.
While the GVRD supports the plan in principle, its bureaucrats took a long
look at the GVTA's proposed financing of the plan and said, and I
paraphrase:

"You're kidding us, right?"

The funding was, as the GVRD planners saw it, mirage-like, a wish-list that
might never materialize. It centred on the GVTA's "promise" of federal funds
in the form of GST and fuel tax rebates.

Well, the GVRD planners rightly pointed out, we all know how reliable the
federal government's word has been, especially in the West. What if those
"promised" federal funds do not come through?

Well, according to the GVTA report:

"A lack of federal funding beyond 2007 would create a greater funding
challenge to implement all the programs identified in the ten year Outlook.
The funding gap would be $260 million in 2013 assuming the 2005 measures are
implemented."

In other words, we will be royally up the creek. We will have the RAV line
-- which will be a white elephant, I predict -- and not much else. Programs
like arterial road-building, new bridges, bike routes, SkyTrain car
replacement and bus procurement will have to be scrapped. Parking charges
will double and fares will increase at the rate of inflation. We will have
fatally wounded our long-range transportation plans so that we might have a
brand new, shiny RAV line for the Olympics.

"The remaining $112 million gap would have to be funded from regional
sources."

What would those regional sources be?

The taxpayers, in their various guises.

Seeing the thinness (and political danger) in this, the GVRD planners in
their report wrote, with hilarious understatement:

"This lack of certainty as to how financial obligations are to be met is
quite foreign to local government finance."

TransLink chair Doug McCallum chose to see this public service as
obstruction. McCallum, who, in his capacity as Surrey mayor, is forever
bleating about his fiscal frugality when it comes to his own constituents,
predicted, predictably, calamity.

"If the [GVRD] board does not ratify this plan," McCallum scowled, "the RAV
line will be gone. We no longer have anymore time."

It was then that Doug Miller, mayor of little Lions Bay, and sitting across
the boardroom table from McCallum, piped up.

"I'm glad to hear," he said, smiling bemusedly at the pouting McCallum,
"that the sky is falling again."

pmcmartin at png.canwest.com


http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?i
d=4cfe8101-23a0-4b0e-a7a8-bc8be1bfe26f



From ron at resist.ca  Mon Feb 23 13:16:24 2004
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 13:16:24 -0800
Subject: [news] Missing In Action In Iraq - by Naomi Klien
Message-ID: <403A6DA8.3030609@resist.ca>

http://globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040218/COKLEIN18/TPComment/Columnists

Missing in action in Iraq

Americans hear about their 500 dead soldiers. What about the 10,000
dead Iraqi civilians?

By NAOMI KLEIN
Globe & Mail - Wednesday, February 18, 2004 - Page A19

It was Mary Vargas, a 44-year-old engineer in Renton, Wash., who
carried U.S. therapy culture to its new zenith. Explaining why the war
in Iraq was no longer her top election issue, she told the Internet
magazine Salon that, "when they didn't find the weapons of mass
destruction, I felt I could also focus on other things. I got
validated."

Yes, that's right: war opposition as self-help. The end goal is not to
seek justice for the victims, or punishment for the aggressors, but
rather "validation" for the war's critics. Once validated, it is of
course time to reach for the talisman of self-help: "closure." In this
mindscape, Howard Dean's wild scream was not so much a gaffe as the
second of the five stages of grieving: anger. The scream was a moment of
uncontrolled release, a catharsis, allowing U.S. liberals to externalize
their rage and then move on, transferring their affections to more
appropriate candidates.

All of the front-runners in the Democratic race borrow the language of
pop therapy to discuss the war and the toll it has taken not on Iraq, a
country so absent from their campaigns it may as well be on another
planet, but on the American people themselves. To hear John Kerry, John
Edwards and Howard Dean tell it, the invasion was less a war of
aggression against a sovereign nation than a civil war within the United
States, a traumatic event that severed Americans from their faith in
politicians, from their rightful place in the world and from their tax
dollars.

"The price of unilateralism is too high and Americans are paying it --
in resources that could be used for health care, education and our
security here at home," Mr. Kerry said on Dec. 16. "We are paying that
price in respect lost around the world. And most importantly, that price
is paid in the lives of young Americans forced to shoulder the burden of
the mission alone."

Conspicuously absent from Mr. Kerry's tally are the lives of Iraqi
civilians lost as a direct result of the invasion. Even Mr. Dean, the
"anti-war candidate," regularly suffers from the same myopic math.
"There are now almost 400 people dead who wouldn't be dead if we hadn't
gone to war," he said in November. On Jan. 22, he put the total number
of losses at "500 soldiers and 2,200 wounded."

But on Feb. 8, while Mr. Kerry was in Virginia and Mr. Dean was in
Maine, both of them assuring voters that they were the aggrieved and
deceived victims of President George W. Bush's war, the number of Iraqi
civilians killed since the invasion reached as high as 10,000. That
number is the most authoritative estimate available, since the occupying
authorities in Iraq refuse to keep statistics on civilian deaths. It
comes from Iraq Body Count, a group of respected British and U.S.
academics who base their figures on cross-referenced reports from
journalists and human-rights groups in the field.

John Sloboda, co-founder of Iraq Body Count, told me that while the
passing of the grim 10,000 mark made the British papers and the BBC, it
received "scandalously little attention in the United States," including
from the leading Democratic candidates, even as they hammer Mr. Bush on
his faulty intelligence. "If the war was fought on false pretences," Mr.
Sloboda says, "that means that every death caused by the war is a death
on false pretences."

If that's the case, the most urgent question is not, "Who knew what
when?" but "Who owes what to whom?" In international law, countries that
wage wars of aggression must pay reparations as a penalty for their
crimes.

Yet in Iraq, this logic has been turned on its head. Not only are there
no penalties for an illegal war, there are prizes, with the United
States actively and openly rewarding itself with huge reconstruction
contracts. "Our people risked their lives. Coalition, friendly coalition
folks risked their lives and therefore, the contracting is going to
reflect that," Mr. Bush said.

When the reconstruction spending has attracted scrutiny, it has not
been over what is owed to Iraqis for their tremendous losses, but over
what is owed to American taxpayers. "This war profiteering is poison to
America, poison to Americans' faith in government and poison to our
allies' perception of our motives in Iraq," John Edwards said. True, but
he somehow failed to mention that it also poisons Iraqis -- not their
faith, or their perceptions, but their bodies.

Every dollar wasted on an overcharging, underperforming U.S. contractor
is a dinar not spent rebuilding Iraq's bombed-out water-treatment and
electricity plants. It is Iraqis, not U.S. taxpayers, who are forced to
drink typhoid- and cholera- infested water, and then to seek treatment
in hospitals still flooded with raw sewage, where the drug supply is
even more depleted than during the sanctions era.

There is currently no plan to compensate Iraqi civilians for deaths
caused by the willful destruction of their basic infrastructure, or as a
result of combat during the invasion. The occupying forces will only pay
compensation for "instances where soldiers have acted negligently or
wrongfully."

According to the latest estimates, U.S. troops have distributed roughly
$2-million in compensation for deaths, injuries and property
damage.That's less than the price of two of the 800 Tomahawk cruise
missiles launched during the war, and a third of what Halliburton admits
two of its employees accepted in bribes from a Kuwaiti contractor.

To talk about the price of the Iraq war strictly in terms of U.S.
casualties and tax dollars is an obscenity. Yes, Americans were lied to
by their politicians. Yes, they are owed answers. But the people of Iraq
are owed a great deal more, and that enormous debt belongs at the very
centre of any civilized debate about the war.

In the United States, a good start would be for the Democratic
candidates to acknowledge some collective responsibility. Mr. Bush may
have been the war's initiator, but in the language of self-help, he had
plenty of enablers.

They include Mr. Kerry and Mr. Edwards, among the 27 other Democratic
senators and 81 members of the House of Representatives who voted for
the resolution authorizing Mr. Bush to go to war. They also include
Howard Dean, who believed and repeated Mr. Bush's claims that Iraq had
weapons of mass destruction. They include, too, a credulous and
cheerleading press, which sold those false claims to an overly trusting
U.S. public, 76 per cent of whom supported the war, according to a CBS
poll released two days after the invasion began.

Why does this ancient history matter? Because so long as Mr. Bush's
opponents continue to cast themselves as the primary victims of his war,
the real victims will remain invisible, unable to make their claims for
justice. The focus will be on uncovering Mr. Bush's lies, a process
geared toward absolving those who believed them, not on compensating
those who died because of them.

If the war was wrong, then the United States, as the main aggressor,
must devote itself to making things right. Part of grief is guilt, when
the grieving party starts to wonder whether they did enough, if the loss
was somehow their fault, how they can make amends. Closure is supposed
to come only after that reckoning.

Naomi Klein is the author of No Logo and Fences and Windows.


From ron at resist.ca  Mon Feb 23 15:21:32 2004
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 15:21:32 -0800
Subject: [news] Dennis Mills's Silence, Tyendinaga Update and more ...(ocap)
Message-ID: <403A8AFC.2010601@resist.ca>


OCAP NEWS

1.  Dennis Mills' selective silence rings loud
2.  Tyendinaga Update:  Gabriel stopped from stepping onto Mohawk Territory
3.  Charges against Jama Jama Dropped
4.  Metropolitan Hotel Workers meet with Union Leadership


1.  DENNIS MILLS' SELECTIVE SILENCE RINGS LOUD

Two months have passed since MP Dennis Mills' self-imposed ultimatum:
within a month of intervening in the occupation of an abandoned building
at 558 Gerrard by OCAP and supporters, he was to turn the premises into
social housing or resign his seat.  This contract was a written one, sworn
in front of crowds of demonstrators and press.  After this appearance at
the November housing demonstration, Mills then spent the next few months
repeatedly renewing his so-called solemn pledge in the media and to the
community involved.

However, it is now months into a hard winter and no social housing has
been built.  Sickeningly, at front and centre of Mills' webpage is an
outdated newspaper article, entitled "MP makes a promise come true",
glorifying Mills' purported benevolence and commitment to the housing
crisis.   It is accompanied by a photograph of the man standing in front
of the still empty building, describing him as having "delivered
everything he promised".  Now, Mills is gearing up for a federal election
race against Jack Layton in the downtown riding of Toronto-Danforth.  If
his broken promise on building social housing in his riding is any
indication of Mills' credibility, we can only imagine what is to come.

Below is the letter sent recently to Mills by OCAP.  We are asking people
to call in and ask Mills why the building at 558 Gerrard is still standing
empty.  And more on Mills to follow ...

Dennis Mills, Member of Parliament (Toronto-Danforth)
Constituency Office  - 170 Danforth Avenue
Tel: 416-462-3250
Fax: 416-462-1675
Email: millsd1 at parl.gc.ca

House of Commons - 264 West Block
Ottawa, Ontario
Tel: 613-992-7771
Fax: 613-996-9884
Email: millsd at parl.gc.ca

Policy Inquiries:
Tel: 416-462-3250
Fax: 416-462-1675
suggestions at dennismills.com

Letter from OCAP:

To Dennis Mills, Member of Parliament,

On November 8, 2003, during an occupation carried out by members of our
organization and residents of the east-end community, you made a pledge
that the building at 558 Gerrard would be turned into housing or you would
resign your seat in Parliament.  Now, two months later it is clear that
there has been no movement towards converting the building into housing
and you to appear to be launching a re-election campaign at the very
moment it would seem more appropriate to be looking for a new job.

We have seen you line-up trade union funding, proclaim victory and then
refuse to comment when Bridgepoint hospital denied there was any deal.  We
have waited to see the work of conversion to housing begin at 558 Gerrard
or to hear a new more appropriate location announced but there has been
nothing.

We expect that the deal you made still stands and that there will either
be a new social housing development or your resignation before the
election campaign.  If your position on 558 Gerrard has changed then
please advise us so we can act accordingly.

-  OCAP


2.  TYENDINAGA UPDATE

Update below in the form of excerpts from local press on events this past
Friday on the Tyendinaga, Mohawk Nation Territory that prevented
Kanehsatake former chief James Gabriel from setting foot in the community.

Protest forces chiefs off Tyendinaga

By Henry Bury, The Intelligencer, Belleville

TYENDINAGA MOHAWK TERRITORY -- A potentially explosive situation was
diffused Friday morning when a meeting of Mohawk chiefs was moved from the
Mohawk Community Centre to an undisclosed Belleville location.

Dozens of native protesters waited across from the community centre prior
to the scheduled 10 a.m. meeting start. They vowed to do everything in
their power to prevent James Gabriel from attending the meeting of chiefs
dealing with matters of Mohawk Nation policing and security.

Gabriel was recently deposed as Chief of Kanehsatake south of Montreal and
local protest organizer Shawn Brant said the former chief is not welcome
on the reserve.

"Certainly it was our mandate to remove this man from our community. He is
not welcome here," said Brant.

About a half hour before the meeting was to start, however, protesters
were informed that the meeting of chiefs and Gabriel was moved from the
reserve to an undisclosed Belleville location as a safety measure.

Brant said moving the meeting off the reserve "certainly served to ease
tensions that existed.

"And I don't think I'd be remiss in saying I'm not relieved," he added.
"I am happy that they managed to seek concession on their part and we
could offer none on our part.  Nobody was hurt and we're always happy
about that."

Protesters initially gathered across from the community centre for a vigil
Thursday night.  The pitched a temporary lodge and kept a bonfire going
all night.  More people joined the group Friday morning as a show of force
in anticipation of the 10 a.m. meeting that never materialized.

"We have a mandate to stop this man from entering the building and
removing him from the community and that's what we were going to do if he
showed his face here," Brant said.

Tyendinaga Mohawk Chief R. Donald was unavailable Friday to explain the
reason for the meeting.

A Canadian Press report from Montreal says the Mohawk leaders were meeting
to discuss public security issues on their territories and reserves.

The report said Gabriel attended the meeting and made a brief statement
before leaving.  The contents of that statement is not known.

Gabriel's authority was questioned since he fled Kanesatake before fire
destroyed his home on Jan. 12.

The remaining three, (band councillors), who no longer recognize Gabriel's
legitimacy participated in Friday's meeting.


3.  CROWN BOWS TO COMMUNITY PRESSURE, DROPS CHARGES AGAINST JAMA JAMA

On February 16, members of the Somali Community and their friends packed
an Etobicoke courtroom to see if charges laid against Jama Jama would be
dropped. Jama had been been the victim of an unprovoked beating by Toronto
cops and had then been accused of assaulting them. Sadly for the
upstanding representatives of 'Toronto's Finest', the whole episode had
been captured on video without their knowledge.

A senior Crown came out to Etobicoke to take charge of the ceremony of
capitulation. She acknowledged that there was no reasonable prospect of
convicting Jama on the charges and announced they would be withdrawn. In
this rare situation, the cops have been unable to criminalize one of their
vicitms. The real issue now is to take on their racist abuses. OCAP
pledges that it will work with Jama, his family and commmunity and all
decent minded people to take this fight to the 23 Division and those who
direct them. Justice will be served when those to blame for the
brutalization of Jama and thousands of others face the consequences they
deserve.

Until then, there is no justice.


4.  METROPOLITAN HOTEL WORKERS MEET WITH UNION LEADERSHIP

On Thursday, February 19, a seven-person hotel workers delegation, backed
by dozens of community supporters, went to the offices of HERE Local 75.
On February 9, they had delivered a letter to the President of the Local
but had received no reply.  This week, he was put on notice that the
delegation would be arriving to insist that a meeting take place.

On arrival at the Union office, the main meeting room was opened for the
delegation and all supporters.  The workers put forward their grievances
around inaction and passivity in the face of the sweatshop regime run by
Henry Wu at the Metropolitan Hotel.
Nine specific demands (listed below) were presented to the union leadership.

The response of the leadership to the rank and file delegation was a case
study in bureaucratic thinking.  Very correctly, the President pointed out
that hotel workers represent a highly oppressed, largely immigrant
workforce and that their union is up against rapacious employers and
hostile governments.  Just as accurately, he spoke of the limited and
unequal financial and material resources available to the workers'
organization as opposed to that which the employers can throw against it.
However, he
presented the abuses being heaped on workers at the Metropolitan as a given.

When cases of workers being disciplined for speaking in their own language
or for taking a discarded cookie after working without legal meal breaks,
he told those present 'welcome to the hotel sector'.  Far worse, he
presented the whole formation of the rank and file committee as an attempt
by a few people to selfishly monopolize resources for their own
situations.  Workers who organize to defend themselves where their union
leadership has fallen short are presented as 'disruptive' and those who
support them are interfering in matters they don't understand.

The hotel workers present refuted the President's arguments by pointing
out that the Committee they are part of has now grown to fifty-six women
and men out of a present workforce of two hundred.  In some departments, a
majority is part of the Committee.  There is a sense of grievance with the
union leadership that no amount of arrogant and blinkered disregard can
wish out of existence.

The meeting concluded on an angry note with the President agreeing to meet
with the Committee on March 3 when a reply to the nine demands will be
provided.  The Metropolitan Hotel Workers Committee will see if the
leadership of the Local is ready to draw up clear plans for a challenge to
Henry Wu's Five Star Sweatshop at that time.  If such a campaign is not
forthcoming, the Committee stands ready to act independently.

DEMANDS TO THE LOCAL 75 LEADERSHIP FROM THE METROPOLITAN HOTEL WORKERS
COMMITTEE

1. Assist in a major campaign to win the rehiring of victimized workers
and resist the sweatshop practices of Henry Wu's management.  This must
include a bold mobilizing strategy that involves rallies at the Hotel,
Wu's home, locations that reflect his political/social connections, etc.
Community allies to be involved in this initiative.

2. A vigorous use of the grievance procedure and the clearing up of 
backlogs.

3. A serious response to workplace harassment issues.  No tolerating false
accusations against workers, persecution for speaking other languages and
other such abuses.

4. A drive to enforce basic workplace rights.  Demand respect for
seniority rights, compensation for continuous loss of employment, worker
access to seniority lists and schedules.  Challenge employer abuses such
as a denial of proper meal and rest breaks.

5. Defend injured workers in the Hotel.  Demand modified duties when they
are needed.  Investigate and challenge dangerous chemicals and working
conditions.

6. Copies of the Collective Agreement to be provided without delay to
Metropolitan Hotel workers who request them.

7. Provide full disclosure on salaries and benefits of Local 75 elected
representatives and staff.

8. Provide adequate meeting space and other reasonable facilities to the
Metropolitan Hotel Workers Committee as a viable and important rank and
file initiative within the Local.

9. Respond in writing to the Committee's demands.  The Committee to
address a Membership Meeting of the Local and the leadership's response to
be made clear at that time.  Trusted community allies to be part of these
discussions.


_______________________________________________
ocap mailing list
ocap at masses.tao.ca
https://masses.tao.ca/lists/listinfo/ocap




From ron at resist.ca  Tue Feb 24 09:36:14 2004
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2004 09:36:14 -0800
Subject: [news] safe streets: a dead end
Message-ID: <403B8B8E.6010705@resist.ca>

-------- Original Message --------
From: kara at resist.ca

"SAFE STREETS" A DEAD END

On Tuesday February 10th, the Housing Action Committee (HAC), the
Anti-Poverty Committee (APC), End Legislated Poverty (ELP), and a fist
full of supporters stormed the stone sidewalks of Gastown. The small army
of well over a hundred poor and working poor people lined the streets in a
mass "pan-in."  Tourists, who usually walk by panners with disdain, were
overwhelmed with shock. The police who are more then used to harassing
individual panhandlers where left powerless by the mob.

Members of ELP passed "know your rights" cards down the lines of out
stretched hands and hats. The card clarifies the law protecting a person's
right to panhandle under section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
ELP made the cards after years of legal battles which have finally
succeeded in upholding poor people's right to work.

The mass demonstration was a response to the growing poor bashing coming
from business and government.  The Business Improvement Association (BIA),
a committee of Vancouver business owners, carries a lot of weight with the
city and often throws that weight down upon people living on the streets
or who make their living on the street.  They are further conspiring to
persecute poor people by enacting more by-laws that would enable police
and private security to ticket and push around panhandlers.

Recently the top goons of the BIA have hired free agent Dave Jones as
their crime czar. Dave Jones has a long history of oppressing poor people.
Before being recruited by the BIA, Jones was a top cop in the Downtown
Eastside. During the heroic Woodward's squat he was instrumental in
developing the police and cities "divide and conquer" campaign. He worked
tirelessly to undermine the solidarity in the squat and on the streets.
He is also a world renowned strategist of crowd control and was involved
in the security discussions regarding the bloody G-8 demonstrations in
Genoa, as well as the G-8 meetings two years ago outside Calgary.

Now with his long history of police repression he has moved on to crime
prevention in the private sector. It seems his first crusade on behalf of
his BIA employers is to conquer the livelihoods of panhandlers. He has
publicly stated that the first step is to encourage the public to refrain
from referring to people asking for change as "panhandlers," but to call
them "beggars" instead.  He envisions people purchasing pretend keys from
charities and handing them out to people in need who can then redeem them
for a sandwich.

Unfortunately for Jones and his cronies he has lipped off too loud outside
of closed meetings and we on the street have heard of his plans. When we
marched pass his office, (that he had to flee from) we left a letter
warning him we are sick and tired of his begging to the police for more
enforcement and that we don't want any of his solicited bullshit.

Representing the government's attitude is Lorne Mayencourt, the Liberal
MLA for Vancouver-Burrard. He has threatened a few times now to push a
private members bill that would see a series of new laws passed that would
mimic the Safe Streets Act that was disastrously implemented in Ontario at
the beginning of 2000.

The Ontario Safe Streets Act (OSSA) is an extension of legislated class
war. It has given the police power to ticket, fine and/or detain street
active people. Using squeegeeing and "aggressive panhandling" as its
justification for intensifying the then ruling Conservative parties war on
the poor, a full out attack was waged on the streets by the police. Mass
arrests and ticketing forced many people who depended on making their
living through spare change further into isolation.

After waves of cuts to welfare and social services, women were left with
nowhere to go.  Involvement in the sex trade as well as overdoses
increased. The Safe Street Act made driving through downtown less annoying
for the wealthy but is a dead end for the poor.

The OSSA represents the ideology of the state and the aspirations of
business. Through public manipulation the Liberals and the BIA are
generating a propaganda war against poor people that will, as in Ontario,
justify repressive laws. As the welfare cuts continue and policing
increases, the city and province think that expanding the arsenal of laws
and penalties will help keep poor people off the streets and out of the
public eye. But by warehousing poor people in shelters and jails where the
outside can not see in, the crimes of capitalism will continue with no
accountability.

By marching through Gastown we have proven to the police, city, business and
the government that we will not remain silent while they plot new ways to
persecute our brothers and sisters. We have shown them, as well as
ourselves, how rapidly we can mobilize a large group of people who can
cause a great degree of economic disruption. We feel economic disruption
is the only power we have as poor people.

If the Liberals are allowed to continue their assault on all working and
poor people our actions will intensify. There are an increasing number of
demonstrations on the streets and more people are attending. This
mobilization is not being lead by individuals wanting to go only so far
but by the people who are fighting to win!

HAC/APC organizer
David Cunningham


From ron at resist.ca  Tue Feb 24 09:39:29 2004
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2004 09:39:29 -0800
Subject: [news] Health Chiefs Paid $1 million While Hospital Beds Close
Message-ID: <403B8C51.3040505@resist.ca>



-------- Original Message --------
rom: Bob Wilson <BWilson at heu.org> (by way of Janine Bandcroft)


Health chiefs paid $1m while hospital beds close
The Vancouver Province
Fri 20 Feb 2004
Page: A5
Section: News
Byline: Michael Smyth
Column: In the House: B.C.'s Liveliest Opinions
Source: The Province

W hile the B.C. government was busy closing hospital beds and
shutting nursing homes last year, regional health board directors
were making a killing -- pocketing more than $1 million in fees and
expenses.

Health-board directors raked in $1,002,572 in fees during the last
fiscal year, according to documents newly released by the health
authorities. The 57 board members, all directly appointed by the
Gordon Campbell cabinet, also filed $102,271 in expense claims.

Health-board directors used to be voluntary positions. The Liberals
decided to make them paid positions in 2001. Many have made a tidy
sum at their part-time jobs.

Jac Kreut, the part-time chairman of the Vancouver Island Health
Authority, was paid $44,500 in fees and $3,875 in expenses. The board
held six public meetings in the past year.

"Most of these board chairs are business people with substantial
incomes -- and here they are making big money on the side," NDP
opposition leader Joy MacPhail complained yesterday.

Kreut is the Vancouver Island CEO of Terasen Gas. He's typical of the
Liberals' health-board appointees, many of whom have big-business
backgrounds.

Keith Purchase, the former CEO of TimberWest Forest Products, is the
part-time chairman of the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority.
Purchase collected $37,265 in fees in the last fiscal year.

Wynne Powell, the president of London Drugs, is chairman of the
Provincial Health Services Authority. He made close to $20,000 in
fees and expenses.

Health Services Minister Colin Hansen defended the payouts, saying
the health board directors have stressful duties.
"These are huge organizations," he said, noting that the Vancouver
Coastal Health Authority has a budget of close to $2 billion. "We
need top-notch people providing that governance."

Board chairmen are paid $15,000 a year. Directors get $7,500. They
receive $500 per meeting, per diems and expenses.
Chris Allnutt, head of the Hospital Employees Union, said the $1
million spent on directors' fees could have been better utilized.

"In his budget speech, the finance minister said that dollars saved
in health-care restructuring would go back into care for patients,"
Allnutt said.

The HEU, which has waged a running public-relations war with the
government, plans to come out swinging at the Liberals today. The
union has traced the corporate connections of health board directors,
linking them to companies that donated more than $1 million to the
B.C. Liberal Party since 1996.

"It's disgusting," Allnutt said.
But a defiant Hansen denied the government has stacked the health
boards with patronage appointments.
"I'm quite proud of our group," he said.
Although Hansen admitted health board appointees used to work for
free, he insisted the Liberals' restructured system is cheaper for
taxpayers. That's because the Liberals reduced the number of health
authorities from 52 under the NDP to just six.

But MacPhail said the Liberals have destroyed any sense of community
involvement by filling the boards with forestry executives and resort
owners.

"They've completely eroded the long-standing and honoured principle
of volunteerism," she said.
I personally wouldn't care who the Liberals put on these boards if
they were getting results for patients. Sadly, under their watch,
surgery waiting lists have grown by 25 per cent.

I also have to wonder what kind of priorities these well-paid
directors have when they spend $125,000 of your money on new
corporate logos for their organizations. And don't forget the B.C.
Supreme Court judge who lambasted the boards for illegally holding
their meetings in secret.

Maybe it's time to bring back the volunteers.
Voice mail: 604-605-2004
E-mail: msmyth at direct.ca


From ron at resist.ca  Tue Feb 24 16:13:10 2004
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2004 16:13:10 -0800
Subject: [news] PMs ticking time bomb
Message-ID: <403BE896.7050003@resist.ca>


Toronto Star	 February 24, 2004

PM?s ticking time bomb

Police raid on B.C. ?Basi Boys? could turn embarrassing spotlight on
Martin?s tactics in ousting of Chr?tien

Thomas Walkom

The most unpredictable element of a political scandal is its spillover.

Even if Prime Minister Paul Martin is able to persuade most Canadians that
he had nothing to do with the Quebec sponsorship affair, the controversy may
remind voters about other matters the Liberals would prefer forgotten.

One such matter is simmering away in British Columbia, sparked by
post-Christmas police raids on the homes and offices of key Martin
organizers.

Up to now, the raids have been virtually ignored by media east of the
Rockies, as of little interest to anyone outside B.C.

In fact, as Liberals here admit privately, the B.C. business is a time bomb
for the Prime Minister. Unlike the Quebec sponsorship scandal, it speaks to
something for which Martin cannot escape responsibility ? the ruthless, and
at times dubious, tactics he used to oust Jean Chr?tien, take over the
Liberal party, and become prime minister.

The B.C. events surfaced publicly on Dec. 28 when RCMP and Victoria police
raided the offices of two political aides in the provincial Liberal
government.

Police said the raids were connected to a 20-month investigation into drugs
and organized crime.

More tellingly, as Victoria police chief Paul Battershill told reporters a
few days later, the raids were connected to allegations of "money laundering
and proceeds of crime."

Initially, the media concentrated on the provincial angle. That made some
sense since the two aides, David Basi and his brother-in-law Robert Virk,
were important figures in Premier Gordon Campbell?s government.

But it soon became clear that the police were casting a wider net. Officers
searched the offices of two key Martinites ? Bruce Clark, the Prime
Minister?s chief fundraiser on the west coast, and Eric Bornman,
communications director for the federal Liberals.

As well, police visited Mark Marissen, B.C. campaign chair for Martin?s
leadership, and asked him to hand over what he later called important
documents he may have inadvertently received.

Most attention, however, focused on Basi. In addition to his provincial
role, Basi, too, was a key figure in Martin?s successful campaign to take
over the federal Liberal party.

Described as a bright and energetic organizer, Basi recruited thousands of
new Liberals ? many from his own Indo-Canadian community ? to capture riding
associations for Martin.

Known as Basi?s Boys, the new members flooded ridings. In one particularly
high-profile case, they took over the Liberal constituency association of
then natural resources minister and Chr?tien supporter Herb Dhaliwal.

In another instance, the Basi Boys successfully had their people appointed
to the executive of the Esquimault-Juan de Fuca Liberal riding association.

That won little public attention ? until early December when, as part of
their money-laundering investigation, police raided the home of one of those
Basi Boy appointees.

Around the same time, police also uncovered a marijuana growing operation at
a Vancouver Island property owned by Basi but rented to someone else.

The politically sensitive nature of the case has made it unusually opaque.
Search warrants authorizing the Liberal raids ? as well as any information
backing them ? have been sealed by the courts.

As a result, it?s impossible to know the exact nature of the allegations
involved.

It is worth pointing out, however, that so far no one involved in any of
these raids, including Basi, has been charged with anything.

Nonetheless, all of this is potentially bad news for Martin. In the midst of
an ethics scandal, it reminds the public that his capture of the Liberal
crown, and hence the prime ministership, involved tactics that were hardly
glorious.

To join the Liberals and vote for the party leader, a prospective member
must sign a form and pay $10. Under party rules, that fee is not supposed to
be paid by someone else.

It sounds simple. But in practice, as Liberals themselves admit, various
factions end-run the rules by engaging in massive sign-ups in which
organizers, rather than the prospective members, pay the $10 fees.

That means that the faction with the most blank membership forms and the
most money can win. Indeed, one of the keys to Martin?s success over
Chr?tien was his ability to change the party rules in key provinces so that
? up until last February ? Martinites had access to the largest number of
blank forms.

All that was needed then was money for the $10 fees. In B.C., where Liberal
membership skyrocketed from 3,000 to about 40,000, that meant about
$370,000.

Some of this undoubtedly came from the new members themselves. But clearly,
some did not. In one riding where the Basi Boys had been active, the
Vancouver Sun found some cases of duplicate memberships and others where new
members denied paying their own fees.

One member turned out to be a dog that had been dead for five years. But he,
too, was welcomed to the Liberal party.

He even received a Christmas card from the-then jolly but now very
beleaguered Martin.

Thomas Walkom?s column appears on Tuesday. twalkom at thestar.ca


http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Artic
le_Type1&c=Article&cid=1077535862546&call_pageid=970599109774&col=Columnist9
69907626796




From ron at resist.ca  Wed Feb 25 17:05:11 2004
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2004 17:05:11 -0800
Subject: [news] APC refuses to retreat!
Message-ID: <403D4647.7060103@resist.ca>



-------- Original Message --------
From: lubby at resist.ca


THE PEOPLE REFUSE TO RETREAT, THE LIBERALS WE WILL DEFEAT!

On Friday February 20th, the Anti-Poverty Committee organized a march of
over 150 angry people. This by far has been the largest anti-poverty march
in over a year, since the labour bureaucrats issued their orders to the
rank and file to retreat and fall in behind the NDP.

The march denounced the Liberals and exposed their lies. April 1st remains
to be a day of catastrophe for poor people across this province. The
figure of recipients to be cut off of welfare that was released by the
Liberals is yet more manufactured bullshit. Realizing the impossibility of
absorbing tens of thousands of people into shelters and onto the streets
all at once, the Liberals have changed tactics and will instead throw
people off in three month intervals. Instead one big tidal wave we will
drown with wave after wave.

APC took the streets to say while we have the government bending over to
make concessions, now is the time to break its back!

The march winded through the Downtown Eastside and ended up at an
abandoned welfare office. The office has been empty for years and will
soon be joined by seven other vacant welfare offices when the Liberals
shut them down and throw out the workers and welfare recipients.

The office was taken over for the weekend as a community center and from
there we launched our ultimatum to the government: every welfare office
they close to the people, the people will take it back and convert it into
housing!

Throughout the weekend over twenty-five different organizations and union
locals strategized the destruction of the BC Liberals. The theme that ran
through the six workshops was the necessity of forming a Common Front to
unite our struggles. The diversity of the organizations that have so far
signed on to the Common Front reflects the all out attack the liberals
have launched on all sectors of poor and working poor people.

The APC sees this Common Front as only the beginning of a rejuvenated
offensive. We have shown with the dozens of other organizations, who
refuse to retreat, that mobilizing people at ground zero of the
devastation caused by the Liberals is building the momentum to carry the
struggle of all working people. Moving from victory to victory we have
proven what it takes to fight back; we have shown what it will take to
win!


From rebel_jill at resist.ca  Thu Feb 26 23:29:11 2004
From: rebel_jill at resist.ca (=?iso-2022-jp?B?GyRCIXobKEJKSUxM?=)
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2004 16:29:11 +0900
Subject: [news] an activist of homeless liberation group in osaka was
	kidnapped and arrested by Polizei
Message-ID: <003301c3fd03$684e5880$d653e5d2@computer>

[Alerts] an activist of homeless liberation group in osakkka
 was kidnapped and arrested by G.P.

author: rebel_JILL        e-mail: rebel_jill98 at yahoo.co.jp

Comrades;

  an activist of homeless liberation group in osakkka was kidnapped and 
arrested by Geheimnis Polizei on 17 February 2004. he was released from 
Sonezaki police office on 19 Feb 2004. he is innocent. despite of his 
innocence, Police has not tried to apologize to him and other comrades! we 
never give up fighting against the tyranny! in solidarity!! (rebel_JILL)


Support the KamaPat crackdown of FEB 17 2004
Rage against Osaka Police's oppression on the homeless movement

To all,

On February 17 2004, the Kamagasaki-Patrol member, K's apartment was 
raided and then arrested by 10 Osaka police inspectors, including Koan 
(public order/security police detectives) under suspicion of "processing 
of inconsistent copy of electronically notarized documents". Released in 
the morning of 19th, we do not tolerate the injustice done to our fellow 
member by the Osaka police.

Osaka police did it because he had had homeless people's residents' cards 
registered under his address. But the truth is that he did it simply to 
put their address on his temporarily and to support the fellows who can 
not receive the national pension or applying for a job without address.

The homeless fellows and day laborers are being discriminated as "you have 
no address"or "you have no residential card", being so not unable to apply 
for a job nor receive the national pension. Even worse, some fellows who 
are able to receive public assistance are unable to transfer his 
residential card due to a pressure from an illegal moneylender's unjust 
collection (the moneylenders are living off of his public assistance, his 
only income to survive. The administration had not only neglected to 
tackle this social illness being irresponsible, but rather pushed more on 
the social edge. Because of non actions seen from anywhere, K had been 
providing fellow homeless to use his address. If this is a crime leading 
to an arrest, it implies that fellow homeless' basic rights and existence 
are
completely being denied. And we feel urgent not to be silent allowing them 
to do the same to other fellow homeless support groups.

During his two-day arrest and investigation, the Osaka police threatened 
him about his past protesting activities as a blackmailing exercise (he 
escorted a fellow applying for public assistance, demanding welfare ward 
officer for a fare procession.). After the even, more than 10 officers 
approach the homeless tents where the fellows who had used his address, 
and made them put in an appearance, then harassing them by saying "Change 
your address immediately otherwise we arrest you." "(by showing the 
supporters' photo images) Who is the leader?" "Give the supporters' names 
and who were at the protest in last May?" (A protest to Osaka 
administration when fellow's belongings was forcefully taken). "Why you do 
soup-kitchen?" They even accused not to do soup-kitchen in Umeda Station 
(Kama-pat's recently lanched activity). All these questions irrelevant of 
this event, sometime up to nine hours a day! When the fellows remain 
silence, which is protected by the constitution, the police kick the 
fellows legs or grub the fellows and bully them.

Police patrolling and controlling of parks are entailed in "Homeless 
Special Treatment Law" which was formed in July 2002 and the nation's 
"homeless support policy" Even before these new law and policy, we had 
seen administrating and monitoring such as the case the Osaka police were 
collecting fingerprints of fellow homeless when imperial family was 
visiting the area. The police have increasing its power and establishing 
the nation who could exercise a war since the Yuji Law (controversial 
national emergency law) and sending Japanese Self Defense Force to Iraq.

Since the introduction of infamous "homeless special treatment bill", 
elimination and interning (into shelters) are escalating everywhere in 
Japan. We are certain that the case of raiding and arresting of our fellow 
member had intended to destroy the homeless movement. We are certain 
because the pretense used for was a minor offence and long hours of 
investigations, often irrelevant to the case, done to the fellow homeless, 
was nothing but unnecessary.

We do not tolerate the Osaka police's unjust suppression on the homeless 
support group. We encourage all of our fellow supporters to support and be 
fully aware of the case onward, and kindly ask you to sing the protest 
statement below.

Please email or fax us after signing your name and your organization. Your 
names will be on our website or our flyer.

e-mail: kamapat (at) infoseek.jp
phone&fax: +81-6-6374-2233
url:  http://www.geocities.co.jp/WallStreet/9279/

/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
 we'll be singing
when we're winning
 we'll be singing
i get knocked down
 but i get up again
u're never going to keep me down(ChumbaWamba)
              $$ $$
              $$ $$             
\\           $$ $$             \\
$$      $$$$$$$$$$$$       $$
$$   $$$$  $$$$  $$$$$     $$
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
     $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
  \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
\\\\\\\\\\      \\\\\\\\\\\
\\\\\\\\            \\\\\\\\\
 instead of THEIR violence,
  WE must try to get OUR MUTUAL AID SOCIETIES
   all over the world.(@Libertaire-JILL)

rebel_jill98 at yahoo.co.jp

/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
 we'll be singing
when we're winning
 we'll be singing
i get knocked down
 but i get up again
u're never going to keep me down(ChumbaWamba)
              $$ $$
              $$ $$             
\\           $$ $$             \\
$$      $$$$$$$$$$$$       $$
$$   $$$$  $$$$  $$$$$     $$
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
     $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
  \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
\\\\\\\\\\      \\\\\\\\\\\
\\\\\\\\            \\\\\\\\\
 instead of THEIR violence,
  WE must try to get OUR MUTUAL AID SOCIETIES
   all over the world.(@Libertaire-JILL)

rebel_jill98 at yahoo.co.jp