August 4, 2008 - Some News, Views, and Info

Fighting For Union Rights and Clean Air: Truck drivers and community groups unite in Oakland, California to demand better working conditions and environmental protection (Socialist Worker) July 24, 2008

Sexual Assault In Military: A congresswoman said Thursday that her "jaw dropped" when military doctors told her that four in 10 women at a veterans hospital reported being sexually assaulted while in the military. A government report indicates that the numbers could be even higher. (CNN) July 31, 2008

Sexual Assault in the Military: A DoD Cover-Up? Sexual violence against both female and male military personnel must stop. (ZNet) August 4, 2008

River Diversion Plans For Whose Benefit in Thailand? Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej’s plans to divert water from rivers in neighbouring Laos to help feed agricultural production faces stiff opposition from those who argue the projects could threaten the environment and local people’s lives. (Inter Press Service) August 4, 2008

Stinging Tentacles Offer Hint of Oceans' Decline: The explosion of jellyfish populations, scientists say, reflects a combination of severe overfishing of natural predators, like tuna, sharks and swordfish; rising sea temperatures caused in part by global warming; and pollution that has depleted oxygen levels in coastal shallows. (International Herald Tribune) August 2, 2008

Why For Profit Water Companies Are Behind A Bottled Water Backlash: In the UK, private water delivery companies see bottled water as a direct competitor for their product, tap water. The next time we hear of a new tap water campaign coming out of the UK, let's cheer for the profile the issue is getting, but we need to be wary that such a campaign is driven by a for profit water services company whose aim is to promote its brand of privatized water. (Alternet) July 31, 2008

The Fists Still Hold Power: The image lasted for only as long as it took to play the national anthem -- yet it still resonates four decades later. Black American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos, winners of the gold and bronze medals, respectively, in the 200-meter race bow their heads and raise their black-gloved fists to protest racism during the medal ceremony at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. (Los Angeles Times) August 3, 2008

Dave Zirin on Why Jonah Goldberg Fears the Fist: Jonah Goldberg’s regular column in the LA Times is usually an awkward grab bag of right wing talking points backed by knowledge of history that would shame a poodle, although a poodle would never be so pompous. Goldberg stepped on to Zirin's beat this past week with a column about the 1968 Olympic protesters, Tommie Smith and John Carlos. Goldberg's piece was such a cheap, dishonest scribble, Zirin feel compelled to respond. (Dissident Voice) August 2, 2008

Schwarzenegger Imposes Minimum Wage On California State Workers & Cuts 22,000 Jobs (Workers Independent News) August 1, 2008

June 4, 2008 - Some News, Views, and Info

The 2nd of May Revolt at the UN Forum on Indigenous Peoples: The United Nations censors indigenous people at a forum for indigenous people (w/ links to video) (Climate and Capitalism) June 2, 2008

From Kennedy to Obama: Liberalism's Last Fling: John Pilger refers back to his travels with Robert Kennedy to describe the false hopes offered by those, like Barack Obama, who exploit the appeal of liberalism then present a very different reality. (JohnPilger.com) May 29, 2008

The American Electoral Charade: Two candidates with almost identical positions on virtually every issue fight to exhaustion over non-substantial concerns for months, and will doubtless soon celebrate having achieved "unity." Those citizens that want to abolish the American oligarchic form of government should vote for the Green Party, and put Cynthia McKinney at the head of the ticket. (Black Agenda Report) June 4, 2008

Dirty Deeds in Bolivia: Bolivia’s right-wing extremists who have been doing their best to rip their own country apart for the past two years rather than accept the rule of their constitutionally elected President Evo Morales finally have showed themselves in their true colours. (Bolivia Rising) June 2, 2008

Blackwater: From the Nisour Square Massacre to the Future of the Mercenary Industry (w/ audio and Video) (Democracy Now!) June 2, 2008

West Coast Winter Soldier: “Enough Is Enough, It’s Time to Get Out”: Dozens of veterans from the U.S. occupation of Iraq converged in Seattle over the weekend to share stories of atrocities being committed daily in Iraq, in a continuation of the "Winter Soldier" hearings held in Silver Spring, Maryland in March. (Inter Press Service) June 2, 2008

Whalemeat Traders Defying Ban: Icelandic and Norwegian companies have begun exporting whalemeat to Japan (BBC News) June 2, 2008

May 19, 2008 - Some News, Views, and Info

Plans For New Coal Plants Under Fire In UK: Protesters are to launch one of the hardest-hitting environmental campaigns for more than a decade over plans to build a new generation of coal-fired power stations in the UK. (London Observer) May 18, 2008

I Give Up, Says Brazilian Minister Who Fought To Save The Rainforest: In a letter to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Ms Silva said that her efforts to protect the rainforest acknowledged as the "lungs of the planet" were being thwarted by powerful business lobbies. (The Independent UK) May 15, 2008

The Emergence of Real Trade Unionism in Wal-Mart Stores in China (China Labor News Translations) May 4, 2008

Comments on the Strike Movement in Egypt (International Socialist Review) May-June 2008

Women - The Guardians of Potato Biodiversity in Peru (Inter Press Service) May 16, 2008

Iraq Veterans Describe Atrocities to US Lawmakers (OneWorld.net) May 17, 2008

Santa Ana, California Labor Rally: HEY, ARNOLD! NO BUDGET CUTS! (Los Angeles Indymedia) May 15, 2008

May 13, 2008 - News, Views, & Info

Perceived as “Dykes, Whores, Bitches”: 1 in 3 US Military Women Experience Sexual Abuse (The WIP) May 7, 2008

Bolivia: Fraud, Violence and Mass Resistance Marks Right-Wing Push (Bolivia Rising) May 11, 2008

Food Crisis (Part One): The Greatest Demonstration of the Historical Failure of the Capitalist Model (Socialist Voice) April 28, 2008

FOOD CRISIS (Part Two): Capitalism, Agribusiness, and the Food Sovereignty Alternative (Socialist Voice) May 11, 2008

Exposing 'Juan Crow' in the state of Georgia: the matrix of laws, social customs, economic institutions and symbolic systems enabling the physical and psychic isolation needed to control and exploit undocumented immigrants. (The Nation) May 8, 2008

Antiwar Marine's Mother Elaine Brower Reports From March's Winter Soldier
(Against the Current) May/June 2008

A Report on Winter Soldier 2008 (Against the Current) May/June 2008

Amazon's Future in Delicate Balance. 75% of Deforestation in Amazon is to Create Cattle Pasture (BBC News) May 12, 2008

Winter Soldiers Sound Off

By Dahr Jamail, The Progressive, April 2008

Jason Moon suffers from persistent insomnia as he wrestles with memories of his time in Iraq. “While on our initial convoy into Iraq in early June 2003, we were given a direct order that if any children or civilians got in front of the vehicles in our convoy, we were not to stop, we were not to slow down, we were to keep driving,” says the former National Guard and Army Reserve member. “In the event an insurgent attacked us from behind human shields, we were supposed to count. If there were thirty or less civilians we were allowed to fire into the area. If there were over thirty, we were supposed to take fire and send it up the chain of command. These were the rules of engagement. I don’t know about you, but if you are getting shot at from a crowd of people, how fast are you going to count, and how accurately?”
Moon is taking part in Winter Soldier. This is public testimony organized by the Iraq Veterans Against the War about the human consequences of failed U.S. policy in the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. The group takes its name from the Winter Soldier testimony by Vietnam Vets, including John Kerry, in 1971, which played a part in turning public opinion against that war.

Continue reading 'Winter Soldiers Sound Off'. . .

Iraq War Vet: We’ve Heard Enough from the Generals and the Politicians

By Bill Van Auken, WSWS, April 9, 2008

Among the several hundred spectators who joined hundreds of members of the media and the Democratic and Republican Senators on the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees was a fairly small, but particularly skeptical audience—a group of veterans returned from Iraq.
“I would have rather not heard from General Petraeus at all,” said Geoff Millard, who served with the Army’s 42nd Infantry in Tikrit in 2004 and 2005. “I think we are at capacity of hearing from politicians, pundits and generals.”
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Millard said that while he believes the war remains today as bad as it was when he was there three and a half years ago, the mood of the soldiers themselves has undergone a change.
“Most soldiers when I was there were against the war, but they couldn’t admit it,” he said. “And now, it’s like, after doing two or three tours, those who still support the war are in the minority.”
Millard said that he and other veterans hope to soon have the opportunity to give their own testimony on Capitol Hill, reprising the “Winter Soldier” hearings that they themselves organized recently in Maryland in which soldiers and Marines returned from Iraq spoke of their experiences and the brutality of the war against the Iraqi people.

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Winter Soldiers Move Toward GI Resistance

By Aaron Glantz, Inter Press Service, March 21, 2008

Hundreds of veterans who gathered outside Washington last weekend to testify about their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan are returning to their communities across the country with the goal of stoking resistance to the Iraq war from inside the U.S. military.

Continue reading 'Winter Soldiers Move Toward GI Resistance'. . .

Winter Soldier Marches Again

By Amy Goodman, Truthdig, March 19, 2008

Last weekend, in the lead-up to the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, a remarkable gathering occurred just outside Washington, D.C., called Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan, Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupations. Hundreds of veterans of these two wars, along with active-duty soldiers, came together to offer testimony about the horrors of war, including atrocities they witnessed or committed themselves.

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US Vets, Active-Duty Soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan Testify About the Horrors of War

Democracy Now!, March 17, 2008

US veterans gathered in Maryland this past weekend to testify at Winter Soldier, an eyewitness indictment of atrocities committed by US troops during the ongoing occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Soldiers spoke of free-fire zones, the shootings and beatings of innocent civilians, racism at the highest levels of the military, sexual harassment and assault within the military, and the torturing of prisoners. While the corporate media ignored the story, we broadcast their voices.

Continue reading, watching, and listening to 'US Vets, Active-Duty Soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan Testify About the Horrors of War'. . .

Veterans Recall Horrors of War in Live Broadcast

By Anna Badkhen, Boston Globe, March 16, 2008

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Hundreds of soldiers and Marines from across the country are testifying this weekend in the "Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan" hearings, a four-day event held at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Md. The event is named after the 1971 Winter Soldier hearings in which Vietnam War veterans testified in a Detroit hotel about war crimes they had participated in or witnessed.
The hearings, which began Thursday and end today, were organized by the Iraq Veterans Against War, a national antiwar organization, and broadcast live in locations across the country. The veterans who testified called for an immediate withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

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Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans to Testify

By Maya Schenwar, Truthout, March 1, 2008

Thirty-seven years ago, in the midst of a bitter-cold Michigan winter, 109 Vietnam veterans gathered at a Howard Johnson Motel auditorium in Detroit to tell their stories. For three days, they told of ransacking undefended villages, attacking civilians, mutilating bodies, torturing Viet Cong suspects, burning houses, destroying Vietnamese property and livestock and killing innocent children. At the conference, entitled Winter Soldier, the veterans accepted responsibility and mourned for their actions. But, taken collectively, their words incriminated a much larger culprit: the war itself.
This year, from March 13 to 16, about 300 veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will follow in the footsteps of their predecessors, gathering for a second Winter Soldier conference, in Silver Spring, Maryland. Organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) it will make up the largest gathering ever of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.
Their mission? To tell the story of the war in the terms of those who have actually lived it.

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Resistance in the Ranks

Socialist Worker, September 14, 2007

U.S. soldiers have seen and experienced the brutality of the U.S. occupation in Iraq firsthand--and a growing number are becoming open and vocal opponents of the American war machine, setting an example for the antiwar movement as a whole.
After a recent meeting at the Different Drummer Café, a GI coffeehouse in Watertown, N.Y., near Fort Drum, three antiwar soldiers--two veterans and one active-duty--sat down for a roundtable discussion about the occupation of Iraq and the antiwar movement inside the U.S. military.

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Nuremberg Actions' Brian Willson Celebrates 20 Years of Resistance

By Kevin Fagan, San Francisco Chronicle, September 1, 2007

Twenty years ago today, a 46-year-old former Air Force captain sat down on the tracks in front of a train loaded with bombs at the Concord Naval Weapons Station. As the minute hand swept past 11:56 a.m. and the blazing summer sun beat down, he calmly held a plastic jug of water and listened to the metal wheels grinding toward him from 600 feet away.
The ex-captain's name was S. Brian Willson. He was there to block the train, with about 50 other demonstrators gathered around him, to protest U.S. arms shipments to Central America.
But nothing was blocked that day.
Instead, the train barreled into him at 16 miles an hour, slicing off his legs and one ear and laying open his skull - and igniting what quickly became the nation's biggest anti-war movement in the decades between the Vietnam and Iraq eras.

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No Justice at Lt. Watada's Pre-Trial Replay

Courage to Resist, July 9, 2007

On Friday, a pretrial hearing was held at Fort Lewis in the U.S. Army's second attempt to court-martial Lt. Ehren Watada for refusing to deploy to Iraq in June 2006. Lt. Watada continues to argue that the Iraq war is illegal under U.S. and international law. During the first court martial in February, after over a thousand anti-war protesters gathered at the gates of Fort Lewis, military judge Lt. Col. John Head orchestrated a mistrial in order save the prosecutions weak showing prior to defense arguments. Now, this same judge plans on presiding over a new trial. Last week Judge Head ruled in support of himself, twice. First, Head claimed that he could be impartial claiming beyond credibility that he does not have an "intractable attitude or preconceived notions". Second, he ruled that a new trial again wouldn't violate Lt. Watada’s constitutional right not to be prosecuted twice for the same crime, known as double jeopardy.
The U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals has issued a partial stay in the court martial that remains in effect. While pretrial proceedings have been allowed to go forward, no court-martial can take place until the partial stay is lifted. If the current partial stay is lifted in time for the scheduled July 23 court martial, it is likely that the Federal Court of Appeals would step in to review the issue of double jeopardy.

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Iraq Vets Bear Witness

By Chris Hedges & Lila Al-Arian, The Nation, July 9, 2007

Over the past several months The Nation has interviewed fifty combat veterans of the Iraq War from around the United States in an effort to investigate the effects of the four-year-old occupation on average Iraqi civilians. These combat veterans, some of whom bear deep emotional and physical scars, and many of whom have come to oppose the occupation, gave vivid, on-the-record accounts. They described a brutal side of the war rarely seen on television screens or chronicled in newspaper accounts.
Their stories, recorded and typed into thousands of pages of transcripts, reveal disturbing patterns of behavior by American troops in Iraq. Dozens of those interviewed witnessed Iraqi civilians, including children, dying from American firepower. Some participated in such killings; others treated or investigated civilian casualties after the fact. Many also heard such stories, in detail, from members of their unit.

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Iraq Veterans Speak Out

International Socialist Review, May-June 2007

In March 2007, four members of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) spoke in Watertown, New York, home of one of the largest U.S. military bases, Fort Drum. Stationed there are 15,000 soldiers, many who have been deployed to Iraq and/or Afghanistan several times. IVAW members Adrienne Kinne, Matt Howard, Drew Cameron, and Matt Hrutkay spoke to audiences at Jefferson Community College in Watertown and the Different Drummer Café, a GI coffeehouse set up outside Fort Drum by Citizen Soldier’s Tod Ensign. The ISR’s Eric Ruder recorded their speeches, which appear here with their permission.

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Cindy Sheehan Quits Anti-War Activism: Feels Betrayed, Leaving Democratic Party

By Lilian Kim, ABC 7, May 28, 2007

Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan is calling it quits. The woman who pleaded with President Bush for a face-to-face meeting at his Crawford ranch now wants to part of the fight. She is resigning as the face of the anti-war movement.
Some bloggers are saying good riddance, but most anti-war activists say they are sorry to see Cindy Sheehan go. They credit her for galvanizing the anti-war movement.

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Antiwar Vet Darrel Anderson on Why He Decided to Face the Threat of Prison

Socialist Worker, February 23, 2007

Darrell Anderson served in Iraq with the Army’s First Armored Division from January to July 2004--where he was injured in combat and received a Purple Heart. Having turned against the war, he went AWOL before his unit deployed for a second tour.
Darrell fled to Canada and spent a year and eight months there before returning to the U.S., where he turned himself in and was kicked out of the Army with a less-than-honorable discharge. Since his return, he has been active with Iraq Veterans Against the War--in particular, organizing around the case of Lt. Ehren Watada, the first officer to refuse to go to Iraq.
Darrell talked to Jason Farbman and Darrin Hoop about his own story, and the growing resistance within the ranks of the military.

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Watada and Congress

By Sharon Murphy, La Crosse Tribune, February 20, 2007

Ehren Watada doesn’t have the power and clout of the freshest freshman senator or representative. Yet he had the courage to stand up and speak the truth. He knew he was up against the power of the military and faced rejection, prison and professional disgrace. But he stood up.

Neither Senate nor House is willing to stand, as Watada did, and speak the truth.

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