Wise words...

"Strange times are these in which we live when old and young are taught in falsehoods school. And the one man that dares to tell the truth is called at once a lunatic and fool" -- Plato.

"I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not so desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right" Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience, 1849

"As long as the world shall last there will be wrongs, and if no man objected and no man rebelled, those wrongs would last forever" Clarence Darrow

"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality" Bishop Desmond Tutu

"He does not believe who does not live according to his belief" Thomas Fuller

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Scottish solutions

From Scottish SLLU member, Plot Tracer -

Comments required on sl (to Plot Tracer or here on blog):

I ask SLLU members to make an outright condemnation of the attacks in England and Scotland. People have been reticent in giving views on this.

In my opinion, it is easy. The people who did this are stupid to think the appalling act of killing holiday makers will ease the conditions in Palestine or Iraq by giving the “West” a taste of what has disgustingly happened in those countries because of a terrible and very mistaken foreign policy initiated by Bush and Blair.

Nor will it make those in power in western countries, or those in subjection in UK/US decide to push their governments to ease the situation in the Middle East.

SLLU members should condemn the attempts on the lives of ordinary shoppers/ night clubbers/ travellers. We also acknowledge the fact that these embittered people/organisations would not be attacking us if our so called leaders had not sanctioned attacks on their livelihoods/countries/families.

The solution? – Uk and US out of Iraq! Allow the people of Iraq to come to a solution without US market and political pressure.

Allow the people of the Middle East to govern themselves and allow them to sell/distribute their own oil/resources for the benefit of their own country – which will allow them freedom from the World Bank and IMF – and those organisation's stipulations - ie. what they constitute an “unfettered market”.

UK should support the formation of a Palestine state without Israeli/US/ US political or US market conditions. UK/US should as a first step, stop selling and servicing weapons to countries in the area that have been modelled in their image by their regimes. These countries, rather than imposing a solution via their hand selected emissaries, should allow the peoples to have honest and open talks.

Other SLLU comments welcome on this subject. Im me or place comments on Blog. ALL comments will be placed on the SLLU blog. - http://slleftunity.blogspot.com/

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Close the School of the Americas

Congress to take critical vote tomorrow!

Tell your representative: Close the School of the Americas!

In the next two days, Congress will vote on an amendment to close the notorious School of the Americas/WHINSEC. The School of the Americas, funded by our tax dollars and located at Ft. Benning Georgia, has trained -for more than 60 years- over 60,000 Latin American Soldiers in torture, psychological warfare and war against civilian populations. Many of the tactics of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay began at the SOA to be used on civilians and those working for justice in Latin America. This school has graduated the worst human rights abusers in Latin American History. Rep. McGovern (MA) and Rep. John Lewis (GA) will introduce an amendment to the Foreign Operations appropriations bill to cut funding for the SOA/ WHINSEC and stand up against the legacy of torture as a part of US Foreign Policy!

Last year, in a similar vote, ANSWER (http://www.answercoalition.org/) activists made a decisive difference in challenging the school. We are continuing to support the work of the School of the Americas Watch (SOAW), which has carried on a long campaign to shut this institution down.

We expect a close vote and need as many people as possible flooding the offices of the House of Representatives with calls, e-mails and faxes in support of a YES vote on the amendment everyday through June 8th. This is it! You can make a difference and it's the people power of our movement that will get this amendment passed! Send an e-mail and free fax to Congress by using this link:

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We Had Our First Meeting!

After the best attempts of the system, we still managed to have a successful meeting in the SLLU offices on Saturday 2nd December at 1pm SLT.

There were discussions about many things, but conclusions were made.

These were that the “perfect” capitalist system of SL can be, with the will of enough people on the game, completely socialised, that is ran by the people with skills rather than those with money as is the case now; and we, the SLLU can be part of this “revolution” or change.

We discussed a starting point for our revolutions, and it was agreed that we have started well with our premises in Scotland. Our next “baby step” to change is to utilise the skills of people already in our group. Three people with skills such as clothes design, building and scripting are going to make things for a welcome pack which will be in the office for people to access. Anyone with skills such as these who was not able to come to the meeting is asked to perhaps create something for the pack. Suggestions were made of teeshirts and clothes with the logos of world wide socialist and left organisations on them. Other ideas are welcome.

Finances as per Sunday 3rd December 2006 are L$1826 – with L$100 coming off for rent in another two days.

The next meeting will be at 1.00pm slt (9.00pm gmt) Sunday 10th December. Please bring ideas and comradeship!

I will be publishing details of the meeting in full on the blog during the week.

In solidarity

Plot Tracer

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