Solidarity and Activism

A day of joy in Gaza

Rami Almeghari | The Electronic Intifada | 20 October 2011

Gaza City – The sense of joy was palpable in the streets of Gaza on Tuesday. It was a remarkable day in the life of the territory’s 1.6 million Palestinians. During the last five years Israel has levied a heavy price from them for the capture of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian resistance fighters. It has been extracted with Israel’s warplanes, tanks, bulldozers and relentless siege.

At last the people of Gaza could feel a sense of relief. From early morning, thousands lined both sides of Salah al-Din street, a main thoroughfare, as if they were receiving a VIP or a president. But it was prisoners freed under a deal between Israel and Hamas who were the honored guests. A few kilometers away from the main road, thousands more gathered in Gaza City’s al-Katiba Square, where a large stage had been erected and patriotic music played.

Just near the stage, hundreds of women of all ages stood anxiously, some cheering loudly as the song “Palestinians, Palestinians, Determined to Go On” played. Older women ululated joyfully, in a scene reminiscent of traditional Palestinian wedding parties before 1948, the year when many of these women and their families were displaced by Israeli occupation forces from towns and villages that are now over the border in Israel. On this day, Gaza resembled a big Palestinian wedding party for every single Palestinian man and woman.

Looking old and tired among dozens of women, Umm Hazem Hasanin from eastern Gaza City held a portrait of her son Hazem, who was taken prisoner by Israeli forces in 2004 near the Nahal Oz Junction, east of Gaza City.

Hasanin spoke cheerfully to The Electronic Intifada, despite having stood in the sun for several hours. “God willing, my son will be released soon, even tomorrow hopefully. I am here today despite the fact that my son is not listed in the exchange deal,” she said, “I am here to send a message that all Palestinians are looking for freedom and salvation from the Israeli occupation.”

Umm Hazem’s son, now 31, was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

“Proud of heroes”

Farhana al-Ashqar is another elder Palestinian woman, who waited several hours in Tuesday’s heat to welcome the freed prisoners. Her nephew Ibrahim has been imprisoned for one year and two months.

“May Allah bestow victory on the Palestinian resistance in order to achieve further prisoner swap deals that will help those in Israeli jails to be freed. We are proud of these heroes. I left my house today to come here and welcome such heroes,” al-Ashqar said . Others in the area designated for women in al-Katiba Square had relatives of their own listed in the long-awaited prisoners exchange deal.

Fawziya Abu Karsh is the sister-in-law of the released prisoner, Talib Abu Karsh, who was sentenced to four life terms. He has spent 16 years in prison.

“I have been here since 9 AM to welcome him and to see him after these long years of imprisonment. Let me greet the Palestinian resistance for helping release these Palestinian heroes,” Abu Karsh said, while carrying her baby near a portrait of Talib.

At another corner in al-Katiba Square, hundreds of youth gathered, raising Palestinian flags and banners of Hamas, Fatah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Islamic Jihad, a mix of colors representing the various political factions, a scene very rarely seen since a national unity government led by Fatah and Hamas, the major parties, collapsed the year after Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was captured.

“Waiting to hug my brother”

Khaled Hammad was in al-Katiba Square to receive his his freed brother.

“I am waiting here for the arrival of my brother Majdy Hammad, who has spent twenty years of his six-times life sentence. I am waiting for the moment to embrace him, something that I have never experienced for the past twenty years. Whatever I say cannot express my feelings or emotions at this moment.”

“I and all the Palestinian people are very excited today for this is a joyful day for all the Palestinian people, a day of victory for the Palestinian people, a day that has made all of us united — as you see, banners of all Palestinian factions are fluttering in this place. We hope that this day will bring unity among the people and the factions alike,” Hammad added.

After the long day of waiting, vans carrying the freed prisoners showed up in the back streets and an excited and anxious crowd, largely comprised of young people, rushed quickly to get a look into the buses. Many of them whistled as others set off fireworks.

The Electronic Intifada managed to get through the large crowds and spoke to those who arrived in the square. About 266 freed prisoners, including 136 from the West Bank arrived in Gaza on Tuesday.

“I cannot describe my feelings being among my brothers and sisters in Gaza. This is really a big reception that we did not expect,” Arafat al-Natshi, a freed prisoner from the West Bank city of Hebron, said excitedly. Under the deal, Al-Natshi has been forced to live in Gaza instead of being returned home to Hebron.

Mohammad Abu Awad is another freed prisoner, from the West Bank city of Nablus. “I am extremely happy to be released, something that I had not imagined because I have been sentenced to life. Yet my happiness is marred by the fact that we have left behind many brothers in jail, with whom we have spent more time than we’ve spent with our families,” Awad said.

Resistance “the only path”

Also among those who welcomed the released Palestinian prisoners were factional and governmental leaders, including top figures from Hamas. Jameela al-Shanti, minister of women’s affairs in the Hamas-led government in Gaza, hailed the prisoners’ release by means of the swap deal as a step in the right direction.

“The release of prisoners today is clear proof that the Palestinian resistance is the only path that will resolve the problems of the Palestinian people including Israeli settlement activities and the Israeli siege on Gaza,” al-Shanti told The Electronic Intifada as she stepped up onto the stage, “I would like to emphasize that we are taking this path until all our prisoners are released from Israeli jails and Palestine is liberated from the Israeli occupation.”

On Tuesday, Israel and Hamas, through Egyptian officials and with the help of the International Committee of the Red Cross, facilitated an agreed prisoners’ exchange. The agreement came after five years of talks, brokered by Egypt and Germany. Israel agreed to release more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, including women and minors, in exchange for the Israeli soldier.

Right after the soldier’s capture, Israel carried out a massive attack on Gaza, killing and injuring hundreds of Palestinian men, women and children and causing a great deal of damage to infrastructure, including power and water networks. Since then, Gaza’s 1.6 million residents have suffered power cut-offs, almost on a daily basis.

While carrying her baby in one hand and a picture of her freed brother-in-law in the other, Fawziya Abu Karsh praised Palestinian resistance fighters. She said, “May God help them all to capture ten more Israeli soldiers, so that our beloved prisoners are released from the Israeli occupation’s jails.”

Rami Almeghari is a journalist and university lecturer based in the Gaza Strip.

October 20, 2011 Posted by aletho | Solidarity and Activism | Leave a comment

Cambridge students to begin vote on company with Israeli settlement ties

Palestinian academics and Cambridge lecturers join call for boycott

Press Release – 10/20/2011

Students at Cambridge will start voting Friday in a referendum calling on the University to cut ties with a company implicated in Israeli human rights abuses.

The referendum, scheduled for 21-24 October, calls on CUSU (Cambridge University Students Union) to campaign to have the University cut ties with Veolia, a company involved in infrastructure projects in Israeli settlements, and employed by the University on a waste disposal contract.

This week, the campaign received letters of support from the Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees, and from a group of more than 25 Cambridge academics.

The letter from Palestinian academics said:

“As Palestinian academics, we are aware that universities are never separable from their political circumstances. Palestinian universities are regularly attacked by the IDF. Israeli universities directly contribute to the occupation through military research and development. By retaining a contract with Veolia, Cambridge is also implicated in Israel’s crimes. Dropping the contract would not be an inappropriate political intervention, but a rectification of one. Cambridge can live up to its reputation as an internationally leading institution by refusing ties with Veolia, leading the way against Israeli organizations that trample Palestinian human rights.”

The letter from Cambridge academics said:

“In choosing to employ Veolia for its waste management, the University poses a serious ‘reputational risk’ to itself. The University’s employment of Veolia for waste management makes dubious its claims of being committed to ethical conduct.”

Veolia’s activities in the West Bank include bus and light rail services and the Tovlan Landfill site, all serving illegal Israeli settlements. In recent years, the international community has targeted Veolia as a company profiting from the Israeli occupation. Veolia has lost contracts worth more than €10 billion since 2005,2 including, just a few months ago, a £300 million contract in Ealing, London. The actions against Veolia are part of a broader international campaign following the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israeli companies and institutions.

The Cambridge Campaign has detailed information on its website, including a point-by-point rebuttal to the No Campaign’s “falsehoods, insinuations made in bad faith, and sleights of hand.”

For more information, see: http://cambridgebinveolia.wordpress.com/
Contact: cambridgebds@hotmail.co.uk

October 20, 2011 Posted by aletho | Illegal Occupation, Solidarity and Activism | Leave a comment

Occupy Wall Street: What You Can Demand versus What You Must DO

By Glen Ford | BAR | October 19, 2011

If the signage at the Wall Street occupation site and its thousands of satellites around the country tells the tale, the dominant sentiment in the nascent movement is that finance capital be ejected from the commanding heights of power. True, there are myriad other issues in the churning mix of leaderless people power, but this is the tie that binds, without which centrifugal forces would have hurled the small, founding band of organizers into oblivion. Washington, DC’s Freedom Plaza, the other pole of the occupation force field, was established by significantly older, veteran activists, some of whom have wished Wall Street dead since the days before the bankers murdered and cannibalized (liquidated!) the last Titan of Industry.

Having challenged the plutocrats and all their minions – and gaining majority support of the American people in the process – the “movement” is called upon, from inside and out, to make specific demands. Of course, Old Fred taught us that power concedes nothing without a demand. But the wrong demands can undo a popular project, so this is not something to rush into. And, in many cases, there is no point in demanding anything from your enemy, except that he drop dead in a hurry.

It is by no means clear to me that all of the folks who claim to be bankster-slayers really want to kill the beast, or merely attempt to shrink or tame it. The logic of political economy, historical experience and common sense dictates that, if the vast wealth and power that flows from concentrated private capital is what allowed Wall Street to achieve hegemony over every important aspect of U.S. society, then concentrated capital must be vanquished; that it be given no space or opportunity to regroup to make further war on democracy.

Ah, democracy, the other dominant current in the occupation conversation. What does a movement of the 99% versus the 1% mean by democracy, when measured against the privileges of money? Is it acceptable that any human being wield a million times as much influence on society as the average Josephine, by virtue of his wealth or connections to money? What about the only somewhat rich, with a few thousand times as much societal clout? Would they be prevented, like parolees, from fraternizing with their peers, lest they combine to exercise mega-clout? And, what about when these rich guys put on their masks and call themselves “The Markets.” Will we allow them to run around freely, buying and selling stuff to make millions (and then billions and derivative trillions) for themselves while, as a byproduct, affecting the terms of life for all the rest of us, wholly outside the democratic process or any civilized notion of development?

Does anyone seriously believe that today’s Masters of the Universe will allow themselves to be shut out – as a class – of the electoral pathways to state power, without wreaking havoc on an impudent society through their current control of every lever of power and the sheer crush of their money? One cannot simply leave the hegemon intact, allowing him to retain all the powers of concentrated capital that made him Master, and expect him to accept the new limitations.

The idea that the plutocrats can be quarantined from power, while remaining plutocrats, is absurd. And no, there is no difference between Warren Buffet, the Koch brothers, Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg, the Walton (Mal-Mart) family and the late Steven Jobs. Their very existence is an insult to any legitimate concept of democracy. Every one of them would kill a million people to preserve his billions. They already do.

A movement must be prepared to break the plutocrats’ power – confiscate his fortune or make it impossible to spend – or find themselves like Lilliputians trying to tie down a huge and vicious unchained Gulliver while he stomps on you like roaches.

There is a nostalgia and romanticism in some neighborhoods of the movement – understanding that anyone is welcome to wander in and claim membership – that has echoes in the Tea Party. A Washington Post column by Barry Ritholtz, an author and head of a quantitative research firm, offers advice to the OWS movement. He wants to “bring back real capitalism,” with no bank bailouts. His closely related position is to end “too big to fail” banks in order to “restore competition.” None of this works, however, if the “real” finance capitalism at this stage in its development is exactly what we have experienced: an inherently unstable system that inexorably moves toward further consolidation, suborning every social institution along the way as a consequence of its very nature. If capitalism is in deep crisis – which is the case – and if the nature of that crisis compels finance capitalist institutions to search for ever-increasing returns through rigged markets, derivatives, systematic looting of vulnerable communities, overseas plunder under U.S. military protection and wholesale privatization of public assets in the developed capitalist countries, all of which requires massive corruption of the political and moral life of the home society, then we have simply experienced late-stage finance capitalism as it actually exists. Ritholtz would have us send the banks back to some previous era, where they will regain the vigor and moral uplift of youth.

Ritholtz clearly loves banks, or the idea of banks, and would never transfer their societal functions – which they no longer fulfill – to public entities under democratic direction. He thinks “competition” will solve the problem. However, Ritholtz does support a constitutional amendment to keep corporate money out of congressional elections, which I suppose gets his nose under the broad OWS tent, so to speak.

What about bringing back Glass-Steagall, the 1932 law that separated investment banking from commercial banking, but was repealed in 1999 under President Bill Clinton? Would reinstatement of Glass-Steagall fit the bill for meaningful reform worthy of OWS? I don’t think so. If the power of Wall Street was such in 1999 that a Democratic administration would collaborate in repeal of a foundational New Deal economic pillar, then finance capital was already hegemonic. Well before 1999, Wall Street power had passed the point where it could be controlled by conventional regulation. Rather, the struggle is to free society from its fatal embrace. There is no reforming Wall Street, only its dismantling and simultaneous replacement by public institutions for allocating capital for human needs and development.

The crisis of capitalism is the hegemony of finance capital, which is beyond repair. $16 trillion dollars in infusions from the public sector under President Obama – more than the gross domestic product of the United States – have failed to cause Wall Street to function as a social asset of the nation or the global economy. Quite the opposite; finance capital preys on the real economy and is most responsible for devouring and privatizing the public sector, leaving the people naked to the predations of a dying and parasitic system.

People can choose to be ruled by rich men who call themselves “markets” or they can trust themselves to erect public institutions that are responsive to human needs. For four weeks now, the swelling OWS movement has claimed to be contemplating how to harness democracy and end plutocracy. Since it is patently clear that plutocrats and democracy cannot coexist, the project is to rid us of the plutocrats, while there’s still time to save our world. Once that’s understood, the rest is in the details.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.

October 19, 2011 Posted by aletho | Economics, Solidarity and Activism, Supremacism, Social Darwinism, Timeless or most popular | Leave a comment

Syrians rally in support of Assad

Press TV – October 19, 2011

Waving Syrian flags and pictures of Assad, hundreds of thousands of government supporters converged in Saadallah al-Jabri Square and its sub-streets in Aleppo on Wednesday to show the level of support that the Syrian president enjoys.

They also condemned the-US backed sanctions as well as the biased Western stance towards the unrest in their country and called for national unity.

The demonstrators also voiced support for Assad’s reform program, adding that they are satisfied with the process of reforms in the country.

The mass pro-government rally in Aleppo comes one week after a similar demonstration in the capital, Damascus. The rally was organized by Aleppo Youths Gathering.

Damascus and Aleppo are the largest Syrian cities and economic powerhouses.

In the Damascus rally, demonstrators thanked Russia and China for blocking a UN Security Council resolution against their country.

They also denounced the formation of the “Syrian National Council (SNC)”, an umbrella body formally set up on October 2 in Turkey, pulling together most of the groups opposing the Syrian leader.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March and hundreds of people, including security forces, have been killed in the violence.

While the opposition and Western countries accuse security forces of being behind the killings, the government blames outlaws, saboteurs and armed terrorist groups for the deadly violence, stressing that the unrest is being orchestrated from abroad.

October 19, 2011 Posted by aletho | Solidarity and Activism, Video | Leave a comment

Boycott update: Champion fencer Sara Besbes stands down rather than plays Israeli

Mondoweiss | October 14, 2011

Sara Besbes, a Tunisian champion fencer, boycotted a competition in Italy rather than fence Israeli Noam Mills.

Besbes, who comes from a family of great fame in fencing, reached the final round where she had to play against an Israeli player. However, she stood still on the platform, pointing her sword toward the ground and refusing to move as a sign she was boycotting the Israeli athlete but without officially announcing it to avoid punitive measures by the judges.

Tunis Radio reports Noam Mills “collapsed in tears” as she was declared the winner.

A Google translation of this article from the Italian press indicates Besbes’s action required Mills to win the competition by inflicting the final blows against Besbes as she “remained completely passive to the point of suffering from the five thrusts that have losing the match”

An abnormal behavior that has not escaped the referees, who could not take action because it was not a rejection but, apparently, of a defeat. The Besbes, 22, belongs to a family of fencers: the mother was one of the most famous specialists in Tunisia, three sisters and a brother are part of the National Assembly and the father is on the board of the Federation. She, Sarah, was African champion and points to a place for the London Olympics. In short, not a champion, but even the newcomer, and there is more than reasonable suspicion that hers was a conscious decision and inspired by the leaders of her Federation. Even the rival, winning, reacted to the success with tears. The 5-0 defeat cost the Tunisian also the final knockout in the next round got the Chinese Li Na, who has eliminated easily. The Mills has instead continued the journey by eliminating the Mexican Teran and entered the main draw which Thursday released the new world champion. Sara and Tunisian leaders have preferred to avoid the comment.

This was the second such incident this week. Iranian Sayyad Ghanbari Hamad refused to fight against Israeli Tomer Or.

Ex-Israeli diplomat: Boycott my country (csmonitor.com)

October 14, 2011 Posted by aletho | Solidarity and Activism | Fencing, Israel, Tunisia | Leave a comment

Israeli occupation authority deports 17 foreign solidarity activists

Palestine Information Center – 13/10/2011

RAMALLAH — The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) deported 17 European solidarity activists from the West Bank after two days of detention for participating in pro Palestinian rallies.

Sources in the solidarity campaign with detained Palestinian leader Ahmed Saadat said that the activists were detained on Sunday night while demonstrating in front of the Nafha jail in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners, including Saadat, who are on hunger strike.

They said that the activists were held and interrogated at a police station on the charge of supporting a “hostile Palestinian organization”.

The sources noted that the activists were banned from contacting anyone until they were taken two days later in military vehicles to the Ben Gurion airport where they were deported.

The campaign managers charged the IOA with trying to restrict foreign participation in Palestinian solidarity rallies, adding that they would continue, nevertheless, in supporting Palestinian just struggle against occupation.

October 13, 2011 Posted by aletho | Full Spectrum Dominance, Solidarity and Activism | Leave a comment

France hit by anti-austerity protests

Press TV – October 11, 2011

French trade unions have staged a string of strikes to protest the government’s austerity measures, leaving school and public transport services disrupted.

Several French unions called for a national day of action against the government’s austerity package on Tuesday, calling on employees to demonstrate in streets and cripple transportation, especially in Paris.

State railway SNCF said nearly one quarter of the country’s high-speed trains would be either cancelled or delayed.

The strikes also caused express metro system delays in the French capital.

The walkout also affected schools, with many posting notices that canteen services would not be offered.

In Nice, some 500 people demonstrated against the cuts while more rallies are expected to be held in more than 200 towns and cities.

The protests followed the introduction of a cost-cutting package by President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government to slash 11 billion euros (USD 15 billion) from next year’s budget.

Paris says the move will reduce the country’s debts and prop up France’s key position in the troubled eurozone, AP reported.

Critics, however, argue that the cuts have unfairly targeted some sectors and workers and that the poor alone should not shoulder the burden of the austerity measures.

October 12, 2011 Posted by aletho | Economics, Solidarity and Activism | Leave a comment

Occupy Wall Street, Denounce the Democrats

By Margaret Kimberley | BAR | October 12, 2011

In 2009, the New York state legislature imposed a tax surcharge on residents earning $1 million or more per year. This “millionaire’s tax” was passed with the proviso that it expire on December 31, 2011. When Democrats in the state capital proposed extending this tax on the rich, Democratic governor Andrew Cuomo said no, and the surcharge was history.

The Occupy Wall Street protesters held a march, dubbed the millionaire’s march, to demand that the rich pay their fair share of taxes. They marched past the New York City homes of billionaire David Koch, News Corporation CEO Rupert Murdoch, and Jamie Dimon, CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase. For some strange reason, they did not march past the offices of the Democratic governor.

This stunning inaction is a bad omen that the Occupy Wall Street movement is doomed to fail unless it changes course quickly. The only way to protest income inequality or bailouts of the financial services industry is to protest against the people in power, even when they happen to be Democrats. Occupy Wall Street appears destined to turn into yet another effort to soft pedal Democratic complicity in the current economic crisis. OWS activists must not only disconnect themselves from the Democratic Party, but have the courage to protest them as strongly as they would Murdoch and Koch.

Agitation in favor of the “99%” against the “1%” is useless if it doesn’t address the bipartisan nature of the attack on the working people of this country. It is a bad sign indeed when the likes of Nancy Pelosi express support for OWS. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee hypocritically asks for “100,000 strong standing with Occupy Wall Street.” It strains credulity to believe that the people in charge of raising corporate cash for democrats really want to see changes in our political system.

It is Barack Obama, not George W. Bush, who made a lie of the dictum that Social Security is the “third rail of politics.” It is now in the slaughterhouse along with all other government programs, waiting its turn to be eviscerated. The Democrats have excelled in committing the crimes which Republicans have only dreamed about, and they will only grow bolder if they are not called to account.

As a witness to the protest in lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti park, this columnist did not see one sign or hear any general assembly statements denouncing the Democratic Party. It is easy to shout down Geraldo Rivera and Fox news, that condemnation is low hanging fruit for any intelligent person.

It will be harder to say that Andrew Cuomo and his political aspirations are as much a part of the problem as Messrs. Koch and Dimon. The propaganda which ignores Democratic Party perfidy is very deeply imbedded in the American people. If they don’t hear the voices of the American left telling them the truth of the country’s condition, then our situation is a dire one indeed.

The coming days and weeks will give the occupiers ample opportunity to speak out as the Obama administration ratchets up its efforts to realize right wing fantasies. On the same day that marchers missed a golden opportunity to expose the Democratic Party’s complicity in letting wealthy New Yorkers get away with their ill gotten gains, the administration charged Iranian citizens in a bizarre and unbelievable plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington. Will the OWS forces move to protest when Obama makes the inevitable case for war, or will they revert to letting Democratic crimes against humanity go unopposed?

While OWS promises to remain unco-opted by any political party, it has not moved further to include the Democrats in its denunciations. Partly as a result of its leaderless, decentralized nature, OWS has been slow to solidify any demands. Words like breaking up the concentration of wealth and power will be meaningless without a more pointed critique of the political system, a critique which should be no respecter of persons or party.

Mass action is the only way to prevent further inequality, and further American aggression around the world. Occupy Wall Street can be the beginning of a great movement, or a lost opportunity. The experiment may be in its beginning stages, but the learning curve has to be brief if OWS is to not only remain free from political interference, but make good on its claims of fighting for the interests of working people.

Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well as at http://freedomrider.blogspot.com. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgandaReport.com.

October 12, 2011 Posted by aletho | Progressive Hypocrite, Solidarity and Activism | Leave a comment

OWS knocks on US billionaires’ doors

Press TV – October 12, 2011

Hundreds of protesters marched in Manhattan to take the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) campaign to the doorsteps of US billionaires.

Protesters chanted “Tax the rich!” as they walked through Manhattan’s Upper East Side, pausing at homes of media mogul, Rupert Murdoch, banker, Jamie Dimon, and oil tycoon, David Koch, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

“Join us on a walking tour of the homes of some of the bank and corporate executives that don’t pay taxes, cut jobs, engaged in mortgage fraud, tanked our economy … all while giving themselves record-setting bonuses,” said NYC Communities for Change, one of the several groups organizing the protest.

Protesters said they were going to be made to suffer instead of the rich as of the start of 2012, when New York’s 2 percent ‘Millionaires Tax’ expires.

The OWS emerged on September 17, when a group of people began rallying in New York’s financial district to protest at ‘corporate greed’ and top-level corruption in the country.

The anti-Wall Street drive has seen protests erupting in major US cities and is being supported through ‘Occupy’ events in more than 1,400 cities across the globe.

The protesters have also adopted the nickname ‘the 99 percent.’ They have singled out for criticism specific people, whom are said to have enriched themselves at the expense of others to form the one percent wealthiest Americans.

They have also raised their voices against the supernumerary costs of the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

According to Thomson Reuters ASSET4 data, the average pay for top executives in the US is 142 times as much as that of the employees.

“Where’s my bailout?” also the ‘billionaires tour’ protesters shouted, protesting Wall Street’s 2008 bailouts for banks.

The US protesters say the generous bailouts hugely profited the banks, while the Joe Blow was made to take the brunt of job shortages and homelessness amid little help from the federal government.

October 11, 2011 Posted by aletho | Economics, Solidarity and Activism | Leave a comment

ALBA REPRESENTATIVES TRAVEL TO DAMASCUS TO SUPPORT SYRIA

NNN-AVN | October 9, 2011

CARACAS — The Political Council of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) will meet on Sunday Oct. 09 with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus to express their rejection of attempts at invasion and political destabilization on that country on behalf of the United States and its allies.

Delegations from Venezuela, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Bolivia will put their political experience and will at the disposal of the Syrian people. Also their support in the pursuit of political stability in the Middle East country, detailed Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro after a meeting held with Venezuelan ambassadors to Europe in Geneva, Switzerland.

“We will reject all ways of interventionism on behalf of the empire, which seeks to use the Libya model to go to a violent process to change regimes,” said the diplomat, who would travel to Damascus, Syria, from Geneva, where he submitted Venezuela”s Universal Periodic Review report at the UN Human Rights Council.

Besides Maduro, at Sunday’s meeting the attendance of Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez is also expected, as well as Sub-Secretary for North America and Europe of Ecuador’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Pablo Villagomez, Nicaraguan Ambassador to the United Nations, Maria Rubiales, and Bolivia’s Communication Minister Ivan Canelas.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been denouncing for months that his country is a victim of violence on behalf of terrorist groups armed from abroad.

In this connection, Syria’s Army and armed opposing groups remain in confrontation in different areas of the Nation. This has resulted in more than two thousand deaths, both civilian and security forces officers.

Foreign Minister Maduro stated that “fascist trends on the United States are reappearing,” concerning the statements of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who affirmed that he will attack “the evil socialism of Cuba and Venezuela.”

“These are fascist trends existing in the United States we had been talking about. They are tied to the right-wing sector in Venezuela.”

The Venezuelan diplomat said that the North American country has evidenced “absolute madness” given the statements of some representatives of that country, who said that “God created America to lead the world.”

“Those created by God to be free are the peoples of the world,” the Venezuelan Foreign Minister said.

In response to Secretary General of the Organization of American States, Jose Miguel Insulza, who requested Venezuela to abide by the sentence of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), over a former mayor who was disqualified in the country for deviation of public resources, Maduro said Insulza should “mind his own business.”

The IACHR ruled that Venezuela should lift the ban imposed on the former mayor, but Maduro explained that “the case is in Venezuela”s jurisdiction. The Court”s decision is in hands of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice and only they may determine the legality of any decision.”

“We have to fight the media and psychological war (…) manipulation and lies spread through media outlets, which seek to impose a situation of civil war and continued violence in Syria,” reported a press release from the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry.

October 9, 2011 Posted by aletho | Solidarity and Activism | Leave a comment

Italians protest austerity measures

Press TV – October 8, 2011

Students demonstrate in downtown Rome on October 7, 2011

Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in Italy to protest against the austerity measures adopted by the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The demonstrations were held in Milan and Rome on Saturday, DPA reported.

The rallies targeted the public sector job cuts that are part of the austerity measures, aimed at balancing the Italian budget by 2013.

A 60-billion-euro austerity package to balance the budget by 2013 was passed last month only after weeks of hesitation and delay.

Trade union representatives had earlier warned that a total of 300,000 jobs could end up being cut in the five-year period leading to 2013.

Also on Friday, students across the country protested against government cutbacks in funding for education.

Over the past three years, Berlusconi’s government has cut some 8 billion euros (USD 10.7 billion) from the education budget.

The Italian premier, who is under pressure over corruption and sex scandals, has been facing criticism for his center-right government’s erratic handling of the country’s economy.

Protest organizers said they were preparing a major mobilization for October 15 — which has been set as a day for anti-capitalist “Indignant” protests.

October 8, 2011 Posted by aletho | Economics, Solidarity and Activism | Leave a comment

Obama’s New Populist Fakery

Always the Bankers’ Whore

By MICHAEL HUDSON | CounterPunch | October 7, 2011

The seeds for President Obama’s demagogic press conference on Thursday were planted last summer when he assigned his right-wing Committee of 13 the role of resolving the obvious and inevitable Congressional budget standoff by forging an anti-labor policy that cuts Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and uses the savings to bail out banks from even more loans that will go bad as a result of the IMF-style austerity program that Democrats and Republicans alike have agreed to back.

The problem facing Obama is obvious enough: How can he hold the support of moderates and independents (or as Fox News calls them, socialists and anti-capitalists), students and labor, minorities and others who campaigned so heavily for him in 2008? He has double-crossed them – smoothly, with a gentle smile and patronizing pattern talk, but with an iron determination to hand federal monetary and tax policy over to his largest campaign contributors: Wall Street and assorted special interests. The Democratic Party’s Rubinomics and Clintonomics core operators, plus smooth Bush Administration holdovers such as Tim Geithner, not to mention quasi-Cheney factotums in the Justice Department.

President Obama’s solution has been to do what any political demagogue does: Come out with loud populist campaign speeches that have no chance of becoming the law of the land, while more quietly giving his campaign contributors what they’ve paid him for: giveaways to Wall Street, tax cuts for the wealthy (euphemized as tax “exemptions” and mark-to-model accounting, plus an agreement to count “income” as “capital gains” taxed at a much lower rate).

So here’s the deal the Democratic leadership has made with the Republicans. The Republicans will run someone from their present gamut of guaranteed losers, enabling Obama to run as the “voice of reason,” as if this somehow is Middle America. This will throw the 2012 election his way for a second term if he adopts their program – a set of rules paid for by the leading campaign contributors to both parties.

President Obama’s policies have not been the voice of reason. They are even further to the right than George W. Bush could have achieved. At least a Republican president would have confronted a Democratic Congress blocking the kind of program that Obama has rammed through. But the Democrats seem stymied when it comes to standing up to a president who ran as a Democrat rather than the Tea Partier he seems to be so close to in his ideology.

So here’s where the Committee of 13 comes into play. Given (1) the agreement that if the Republicans and Democrats do NOT agree on Obama’s dead-on-arrival “job-creation” ploy, and (2) Republican House Leader Boehner’s statement that his party will reject the populist rhetoric that President Obama is voicing these days, then (3) the Committee will wield its ax to cut federal social spending in keeping with its professed ideology.

President Obama signaled this long in advance, at the outset of his administration when he appointed his Deficit Reduction Commission headed by former Republican Sen. Simpson and Rubinomics advisor to the Clinton administration Bowles to recommend how to cut federal social spending while giving even more money away to Wall Street. He confirmed suspicions of a sellout by reappointing bank lobbyist Tim Geithner to the Treasury, and tunnel-visioned Ben Bernanke as head of the Federal Reserve Board.

Yet on Wednesday, October 4, the president tried to represent the OccupyWallStreet movement as support for his efforts. He pretended to endorse a pro-consumer regulator to limit bank fraud, as if he had not dumped Elizabeth Warren on the advice of Geithner – who seems to be settling into the role of bagman for campaign contributors from Wall Street.

Can President Obama get away with it? Can he jump in front of the parade and represent himself as a friend of labor and consumers while his designated appointees support Wall Street and his Committee of 13 is waiting in the wings to perform its designated function of guillotining Social Security?

When I visited the OccupyWallStreet site on Wednesday, it was clear that the disgust with the political system went so deep that there is no single set of demands that can fix a system so fundamentally broken and dysfunctional. One can’t paste-up a regime that is impoverishing the economy, accelerating foreclosures, pushing state and city budgets further into deficit and forcing cuts in social spending.

The situation is much like that from Iceland to Greece: Governments no longer represent the people. They represent predatory financial interests that are impoverishing the economy. This is not democracy. It is financial oligarchy. And oligarchies do not give their victims a voice.

So the great question is, where do we go from here? There’s no solvable path within the way that the economy and the political system is structured these days. Any attempt to come up with a neat “fix-it” plan can only be suggesting bandages for what looks like a fatal political-economic wound.

The Democrats are as much a part of the septic disease as the Republicans. Other countries face a similar problem. The Social Democratic regime in Iceland is acting as the party of bankers, and its government’s approval rating has fallen to 12 percent. But they refuse to step down. So earlier last week, voters brought steel oil drums to their own Occupation outside the Althing and banged when the Prime Minister started to speak, to drown out her advocacy of the bankers (and foreign vulture bankers at that!)

Likewise in Greece, the demonstrators are showing foreign bank interests that any agreement the European Central Bank makes to bail out French and German bondholders at the cost of increasing taxes on Greek labor (but not Greek property and wealth) cannot be viewed as democratically entered into. Hence, any debts that are claimed, and any real estate or public enterprises given or sold off to the creditor powers under distress conditions, can be reversed once voters are given a democratic voice in whether to impose a decade of poverty on the country and force emigration.

That is the spirit of civil disobedience that is growing in this country. It is a quandary – that is, a problem with no solution. All that one can do under such conditions is to describe the disease and its symptoms. The cure will follow logically from the diagnosis. But the role of OccupyWallStreet is to diagnose the financial polarization and corruption of the political process that extends right into the Supreme Court, the Presidency, and Obama’s soon-to-be notorious Committee of 13 once the happy-smoke settles from his present pretensions.

Michael Hudson is a former Wall Street economist. A Distinguished Research Professor at University of Missouri, Kansas City (UMKC), he is the author of many books, including Super Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire (new ed., Pluto Press, 2002) and Trade, Development and Foreign Debt: A History of Theories of Polarization v. Convergence in the World Economy. He can be reached via his website, mh@michael-hudson.com

October 7, 2011 Posted by aletho | Economics, Solidarity and Activism | Leave a comment

« Previous Entries Next Entries »

BRITAIN’S WARNING: PREPARE FOR WAR

Aletho News Videos

or go to

Aletho News Archives – Video-Images

From the Archives

British weapons and personnel doing much of the killing in Yemen

Press TV – June 18, 2019

A detailed report published by the Guardian newspaper has shown how Britain is massively contributing to Saudi Arabia’s devastating war on Yemen as it suggests that London is not only supplying the bombs that fall on Yemenis, but it provides the personnel and expertise that keep the war going.

The comprehensive report by Arron Merat published on Tuesday showed that Britain was doing much of the killing in Yemen as the country continues to provide Saudi Arabia with everything it needs to turn its southern impoverished neighbor into a graveyard.

“Every day Yemen is hit by British bombs – dropped by British planes that are flown by British-trained pilots and maintained and prepared inside Saudi Arabia by thousands of British contractors,” said Merat in the report. … continue

Blog Roll

Subscribe to Aletho News

Enter your email address to receive new posts by email.

Email Address:

Join 2,366 other subscribers
Visits Since December 2009
- 7,782,438 hits
Looking for something?

Search for:
Archives
Archives
Calendar

October 2026

M T W T F S S

1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8 9 10 11

12 13 14 15 16 17 18

19 20 21 22 23 24 25

26 27 28 29 30 31

« Sep
Categories

Aletho News Civil Liberties Corruption Deception Economics Environmentalism Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism Fake News False Flag Terrorism Full Spectrum Dominance Illegal Occupation Mainstream Media, Warmongering Malthusian Ideology, Phony Scarcity Militarism Progressive Hypocrite Russophobia Science and Pseudo-Science Solidarity and Activism Subjugation - Torture Supremacism, Social Darwinism Timeless or most popular Video War Crimes Wars for Israel
Tags
Afghanistan Africa AIPAC al-Qaeda Australia BBC Benjamin Netanyahu Brazil Canada CDC Central Intelligence Agency China CIA CNN Covid-19 COVID-19 Vaccine Donald Trump Egypt European Union Facebook FBI FDA France Gaza Germany Google Hamas Hebron Hezbollah Hillary Clinton Human rights Hungary India Iran Iraq ISIS Israel Israeli settlement Japan Jerusalem Joe Biden Korea Latin America Lebanon Libya Middle East National Security Agency NATO New York Times North Korea NSA Obama Pakistan Palestine Poland Qatar Russia Sanctions against Iran Saudi Arabia Syria The Guardian Turkiye Twitter UAE UK Ukraine United Nations United States USA Venezuela Washington Post West Bank WHO Yemen Zionism

October 2026
M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30	31

Aletho News
If Americans Knew
- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
No Tricks Zone
Contact:

atheonews (at) gmail.com
Disclaimer

This site is provided as a research and reference tool. Although we make every reasonable effort to ensure that the information and data provided at this site are useful, accurate, and current, we cannot guarantee that the information and data provided here will be error-free. By using this site, you assume all responsibility for and risk arising from your use of and reliance upon the contents of this site.

This site and the information available through it do not, and are not intended to constitute legal advice. Should you require legal advice, you should consult your own attorney.

Nothing within this site or linked to by this site constitutes investment advice or medical advice.

Materials accessible from or added to this site by third parties, such as comments posted, are strictly the responsibility of the third party who added such materials or made them accessible and we neither endorse nor undertake to control, monitor, edit or assume responsibility for any such third-party material.

The posting of stories, commentaries, reports, documents and links (embedded or otherwise) on this site does not in any way, shape or form, implied or otherwise, necessarily express or suggest endorsement or support of any of such posted material or parts therein.

The word “alleged” is deemed to occur before the word “fraud.” Since the rule of law still applies. To peasants, at least.

Fair Use

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more info go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

DMCA Contact

This is information for anyone that wishes to challenge our “fair use” of copyrighted material.

If you are a legal copyright holder or a designated agent for such and you believe that content residing on or accessible through our website infringes a copyright and falls outside the boundaries of “Fair Use”, please send a notice of infringement by contacting atheonews@gmail.com.

We will respond and take necessary action immediately.

If notice is given of an alleged copyright violation we will act expeditiously to remove or disable access to the material(s) in question.

All 3rd party material posted on this website is copyright the respective owners / authors. Aletho News makes no claim of copyright on such material.

ΑΛΗΘΩΣ

Related articles

Students demonstrate in downtown Rome on October 7, 2011

Featured Video

From the Archives

Press TV – June 18, 2019

Blog Roll

Subscribe to Aletho News

Visits Since December 2009

Looking for something?

Archives

Calendar

Categories

Tags

Contact:

Disclaimer

Site info