Scottish Teachers vote to stop Army recruiting in schools:
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.1459912.0.ban_sought_on_armed_forces_visits_to_schools.php
The SLLU welcome the scottish teaching union, EIS, decision to ban army recruitment from schools.
This despicable practise, in which the army recruitment officers act like the "Child Catcher" in the film "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!" centres, enevitably, in those areas devastated by the ruinous policies of Thatcher, Bush, Reagan, Major and Blair. Our poor are dying in the foriegn oil fields in order to fill the pockets of the rich.
STOP THE SLAUGHTER! BRING OUR BOYS HOME!
GELDOF G8 - "BOLLOCKS!"
Even the liberal Blairite fan, Bob Geldof, has called the latest G8 summit "Bollocks" and a sham. He has said of the deal between the leaders of the richest eight nations – all of whom are millionaires - , "This wasn't serious, this was a total farce... I won't have it spun as anything else except a farce."
Come to the Cre8 Garden and help create something worthwhile - a memorial to the past present and future victims of Globalisation/capitalism. And let’s put pressure on our politicians to ensure a fair world for everyone.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Isla%20Montevideo/49/220/36
Capitalism Kills. Come plant a flower (there is one on this notice) at the Cre-8 Anti-G8/Capitalism Garden in memory of all of the victims of this violent world system we live in.
It is an indictment of the current world system that
1. that there are more people in the world in poverty than not
2. there is enough food in the world to feed everyone, yet millions starve and millions die of obesity
3. the gap between the incomes of the richest and poorest countries was about 3 to 1 in 1820 and over 72 to 1 nowadays
4. The amount of food spent on pet food in the US and Europe each year equals the additional amount needed to provide basic food and health care for all the people in poor countries with a sizeable amount left over.
5. WOMEN AND CHILDREN MAKE UP 76% of poor people in the US (institute for women’s policy research 2001) 7. $13billion a year would satisfy the worlds sanitation and food needs (about as much as the people of the US and European Union spend each year on perfume)
6. The 225 richest people in the world have a combined wealth of more than $1 trillion - equal to the annual income of the poorest 47% of the earths population, some 2.5 BILLION people.
7. Former chief economist of the World Bank, Joseph Stiglitz in his book "Making Globalisation Work" admits that globalisation makes some people poorer and that Africa has gotten poorer since the 1980's while wages for the av American family have fallen as the US continues to borrow $2 billion a day from the rest of the world.
8. 42 million Americans live in poverty - 25.3% are American Indians and Alaskan natives; 24.9 % are Black; 21.8% are Hispanics; 11.1% are Asians and 8.3 % are whites - see above for a breakdown on how many are women.
9. A Canadian study shows that the wealthiest nations do not have the healthiest people. instead, it is the countries such as Norway and Cuba with the smallest economic gap between rich and poor.
Capitalism has failed - it is an unsustainable economic model - its central premise of unlimited economic growth is impossible to achieve in a world of finite resources. we are subordinating life to commerce, rather than commerce to life.
Arrangements have been finalised for travelling to germany for the G8 protests (1st-8th june). For anyone who has not booked yet, we recommend joining the Globalise Resistance delegation which is leaving from London on the 1st of June.
Here's what's on offer:
Outward
Bus from London early on Friday 1 June (exact time will be announced soon) to Harwich. People are welcome to make their own way to Harwich and save themselves £15, especially if you aren't travelling from London. Groups such as students and trade unionists might want to organise minibusses or coaches to get there.
Ferry (leaves at 0900 from Harwich to Hook of Holland (arrives about 1615)
Bus leaves Hook of Holland to Rostock, stopping in Utrecht to pick up Dutch activists
Arrive Rostock Saturday morning.
Return
Same journey in reverse, but there's a choice:
1. leave Rostock Sunday evening, arrive Harwich 2015 on Monday 4 June
2. leave Rostock Thursday evening, arrive Harwich 2015 on Friday 8 June
http://www.resist.org.uk/reports/archive/g82007/G82007-03.php
Some activists have already booked flights individually from London Stanstead to Hamburg Lubeck on the 1st of June, and it is still possible to do so with Ryan Air, however bare in mind costs will go up and it would be necessary to book asap. those of us flying are making arrangements to meet up with the Globalise Resistance bus on Rostock, and there are also already students from the glasgow group travelling on the bus.
If you're going to germany please arrange travel now if you haven't done so as it is just a week away.
Physical attacks by right-wing groups on meetings of the Indonesian
National Liberation Party of Unity (Papernas - see
translated articles from Indonesian press below). Their objective seems
to be to disrupt attempts by Papernas to get registered as an electoral
party in time for the 2009 presidential elections. After the massacre of
up to a million leftists and social activists in Indonesia 1965, the
anti-communist hysteria being promoted by these right-wing groups is
deeply menacing.
The situation is quite bad now and some office bearers of
the new party have been intimidated into resigning after being
threatened with having their homes burnt down by these right-wing thugs.
If you or friends can approach human rights and civil
liberties groups or prominent democratic rights advocates to send
messages supporting the democratic right of Papernas to organise, please
send them to Katarina Pujiastuti at
These articles are the translated by James Balowski from the INDOLEFT
news service is produced by the Institute of Liberation, Media and
Social Studies (LPMIS) and Action in Solidarity with Asia and the
Pacific. See
Please spread this urgent appeal for solidarity to your friends and
comrades.
Solidarity greetings
Peter
* * *
Papernas conference in Sukoharjo forcibly broken up by Islamic thugs
Tempo Interactive - April 30, 2007
Imron Rosyid, Solo -- Dozens of members of Surakarta Islamic Community
Militia (LUIS) forcibly broke up a conference being held by the National
Liberation Party of Unity (Papernas) in the Central Java city of
Sukoharjo on Sunday March 29. Islamic groups in Jakarta have taken
similar actions against Papernas.
The LUIS members blockaded the entrance to the conference venue at the
Gajah House on Jl. Yos Sudarso in the Tanjung Anom area of Sukoharjo.
Members of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) (sic) even frisked a police
intelligence officer who they accused of being a provocateur. "We have
evidence, Papernas is PKI [Indonesian Communist Party]", said LUIS
general secretary Khoirul Suparjo.
Shouting "God is great", the LUIS members who were wearing robes and
turbans arrived on motorbikes and an open pickup truck. Papernas members
who believed they already had a permit to hold the event tried to hold
them off from inside the building. However because the LUIS members
outnumbered conference participants, some of them decided to leave the
venue before the event started.
Sukoharjo Regent Bambang Riyanto, who was wearing tennis sportswear,
then facilitated a dialogue between the two groups in order to prevent
anarchic acts. The head of the Papernas conference organising committee,
Onang Tiyoso eventually gave in and agreed to halt the event but under
the condition that all FPI members must leave the location before they
disbanded. "In formal terms, Papernas does in fact actually have a
permit for the activity, but in order that the local situation remains
favorable, I have asked Papernas to cancel the event", said Riyanto.
Suparjo said that his organisation would continue to hunt down Papernas
members that want to organise similar activities saying based on the
statutes and rules of association that they have on the party, Papernas
is communist. He cited the Papernas' program of Tripanji(1), the
protection of prostitutes and so forth as evidence that they are
identical to the PKI.
Meanwhile the chairperson of Papernas' Central Java Regional Leadership
Board, Kelik Ismunanto said he regretted the LUIS' actions in forcibly
breaking up the event. According to Ismunanto, regardless of LUIS'
perceptions of Papernas they do not have the authority to prohibit or
break up their events. "Our party is registered with the Department of
Justice and Human Rights, we will be participating in the 2009 general
elections and we had already obtained a permit for the event from the
police", said Ismunanto while promising that they would take legal
action against LUIS over the incident.
Notes:
1. Tripanji - Papernas' Three Banners of National Unity: Abolishing the
foreign debt, nationalising the mining industry and build the national
industry for the welfare of the people.
* * *
Papernas declaration in Sukoharjo broken up by right-wing thugs
(Adds details on previous posting – JB.)
Radar Solo - April 30, 2007
Sukoharjo -- A tense situation developed at the declaration of the
National Liberation Party of Unity (Papernas) in Sukoharjo, Central
Java, that was to be held yesterday afternoon. Even before Papernas
members had begun the meeting, dozens of members of the Sukoharjo
Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) had occupied the Gajah Tanjung Anom
Building where the event was to be held.
Led by Ustad (Islamic teacher) Khoirul, the FPI members, who had been
arriving since 10am, began to pour into the venue where the event was to
be held. They immediately moved towards the auditorium that had been set
aside by the Papernas organising committee.
FPI's arrival caused confusion among some of the Papernas members. "We
have come here to break up this event. We are asking that Papernas be
disbanded and not be allowed to exist in Indonesia. Because Papernas is
an embryo of the PKI (Indonesian Communist Party - Ed.). Where is the
committee chairperson, I want to meet them", ordered Khoirul in a shrill
voice.
Not wanting to create a problem, several of the Papernas members that
were already present left the venue one by one. Unfortunately the FPI
members prevented this. "Don't let them leave. The ones that were here
earlier, order them all back inside", Khoirul instructed his subordinates.
It was not just members of Papernas that were harassed, but also other
people in the vicinity who they considered suspicious. Tensions reached
a climax when the FPI frisked a Sukoharjo district police intelligence
officer that had been guarding the venue from the start. If he was
indeed a police officer, the FPI asked the man to show them his identity
card.
A National Unity and Social Protection Agency (Kasbang Linmas) official
also suffered a similar fate. Becoming suspicious about his actions, the
FPI immediately accosted him. As well as examining his identification
papers, they also asked for the photographs on his cell phone to be
erased. The FPI members even asked the man to take off his shirt and
show them a tattoo on his body.
"This is a picture and symbol of the PKI. Because we know that earlier
you were inside and now you are going back inside", asserted one of the
FPI members while pointing at the tattoo on the Kasbang Linmas
official's body.
After a short while Sukoharjo Regent Bambang Riyanto arrived. He had
come to facilitate a dialogue between the two camps in order to resolve
the problem peacefully. This was because Riyanto wanted the situation in
Sukoharjo to remain 'conducive'.
The two parties met at around 11.30am. Papernas eventually agreed not to
go ahead with the event and asked its members who were already present
to return home. Following this, one by one the FPI members left the
location. (mg2/mg3)
* * *
Media Indonesia - April 30, 2007
Papernas flags burnt at FPI protest in Bekasi
Golda Eksa, Bekasi -- Around 30 members of the Bekasi Islamic Defenders
Front (FPI) gave speeches and set fire to flags of the National
Liberation Party of Unity (Papernas) in front of the Bekasi municipal
government offices on Monday April 30. They also brought banners and
posters with messages opposing Papernas.
"Papernas, is a reincarnation of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).
Papernas [says it] is populist democratic. This term is the camouflage
that is usually used by communists or socialist in Indonesia like the
PKI. It is because of this that we don't want the party to grow and
develop", said action coordinator Ustad (title of Islamic teacher)
Abdurrahman.
Abdurrahman went on to say that the PKI's once cause the nation to loose
its best sons. Moreover he said, thousands of Muslims were wiped out by
the PKI.
After giving speeches for around an hour, the protesters set fire to
Papernas flags shouting that they will not tolerate Papernas' presence,
especially in Bekasi.
From the Bekasi government offices, they then moved off to continue the
action at the Bekasi City Regional House of Representatives on Jl.
Chairul Anwar in East Bekasi under the tight security of the Bekasi
municipal police. (GG/OL-02).
[Translated by James Balowski.]
Papernas postpones regional meeting to avoid clash with FPI
Liputan 6 - April 30, 2007
Sukoharjo -- The National Liberation Party of Unity (Papernas) continues
to come under pressure. Again and again the Islamic Defenders Front
(FPI) has attempted to break up Papernas events. This time it was a
meeting to establish a regional leadership board in Sukoharjo, Central
Java, on Sunday April 29.
Without showing any hesitation, FPI members moved in and tried to evict
Papernas members who had arrived at the Gajah Sukoharjo Building for the
event. Tensions rose between the two camps and police moved in quickly
before a clash could break out.
The two groups were then brought together for a dialogue facilitated by
Sukoharjo Regent Bambang Riyanto. The FPI said it objected to Papernas
because it has a communist ideology that his banned in Indonesia. In the
end the Papernas members decided to postpone the meeting because it
could potentially result in a brawl.
On March 29 Papernas demonstrators clashed with the FPI in the Dukuh
Atas area on Sudirman, Central Jakarta. Several people were injured
including two children and a middle-ranking police officer from the
Tanah Abang sectoral police. (TOZ/Ferry Aditri)
* * *
Right-wing thugs attempt to disrupt May Day in Yogyakarta
Khairul Ikhwan, Yogyakarta -- A commemoration of May Day in Yogyakarta
was almost marred by a clash when protesters from the Yogyakarta
People's and Worker Alliance (ARPY) were unexpectedly waylaid by members
of the Anti-Communist Front (FAKI) and the Yogyakarta Islamic Defenders
Front (FPI).
The FAKI and FPI members accused the ARPY of being infiltrated by the
National Liberation Party of Unity (Papernas) that they claim has a
communist ideology.
The incident occurred at intersection in front of the central post
office when a man climbed up onto an open pickup truck that ARPY was
using as a platform and dragged a person giving a speech off the
vehicle. Initially the ARPY activists were too shocked to react but were
eventually able to rescue their colleague.
Tension rose as FAKI and ARPY members confronted each other but
fortunately police were able separate the two groups before a clash
could break out.
Five thousand workers rally in Medan for May Day
May Day was also commemorated by thousands of workers in the North
Sumatra provincial capital of Medan with around 5,000 workers rallied at
the North Sumatra DPRD and the Medan State Court.
The workers, who came from a number of labour organisations such as the
North Sumatra Trade Union (SBSU) and the Indonesian Prosperous Trade
Union (SBSI), were demanding improvements to workers' welfare and that
May 1 be declared a national holiday. (djo/sss)
* * *
Prominent NU cleric Abdullah Faqih to lead anti- Papernas group
Antara News - April 14, 2007
Surabaya -- Prominent Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) cleric and the caretaker of
the Langitan pesantren (traditional Islamic boarding school) in Tuban,
East Java, KH Abdullah Faqih has been chosen to lead a group opposing
the National Liberation Party of Unity (Papernas).
The senior ulama (Islamic scholar) has been appointed to be the advisor
to the Friendship Forum to Safeguard Pancasila and the Unitary State of
the Republic of Indonesia Against the Threat of Neo- Communism (Forum
Silaturrahmi Mengawal NKRI dan Pancasila dari Ancaman Neo-Komunisme)
that held a consolidation meeting in the East Java provincial capital of
Surabaya on Saturday, which was attended by delegations from Sumatra,
Java and West Nusa Tenggara.
Other prominent figures that were in attendance included KH Ir.
Solahuddin Wahid (Gus Solah, the caretaker of Tebuireng pesantren in
Jombang), Prof. Dr. Aminuddin Kasdi (East Java Indonesian Historians
Society, MSI), Prof. Dr. Edi Sri Swasono (economist), Taufik Ismail
(cultural observer), retired TNI Major General Sutoyo NK (the former
director general of social and political affairs at the Department of
Domestic Affairs) and KH Abdussshomad Bukhori (chairperson of the East
Java Indonesian Ulemas Council, MUI).
"The PKI [Indonesian Communist Party] has indeed been destroyed, but
communist ideas are resurfacing through various means and because of
this vigilance is needed", said Faqih who is also one of the founders of
the Ulama National Awakening Party (PKNU).
Faqih believes that one of the ways in which ex-PKI or PKI cadres are
rising up again is through politics, education and the law. "The
political means being undertaken includes among other things efforts to
revoke the Tap MPRS XXV/1966(1), but it failed", he said.
"Now, they are trying to take advantage of the situation and conflicts
the Indonesian nation is experiencing, most recently by building a new
political movement. This conflicts with [the state ideology of]
Pancasila and Islam, because of this it must be resisted", he asserted.
Speaking separately with Antara News during a break in the event, Gus
Solah explained that it would be best to invite Papernas to address the
legal factors because Indonesia is a constitutional state. "But, the
legal efforts shouldn't be juridical in character, rather a submission
to the Constitutional Court in the form of an appeal or judicial
review", explained the younger brother of former President Abdurrahman
Wahid(2).
Speaking in a similar vein, the deputy chairperson of the goodwill
committee, Arukat Djaswadi said that they are urging the government to
act immediately against Papernas because it has violated the MPRS
Decree, Law Number 27/1999(3) on State Security, and many other laws.
"Because of this, it is time for the government to act firmly, because
they are most clearly an embryo of a communist [party], because they use
the principle of populist democracy, whereas if they [want to] live in
Indonesia they must use Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution"
, he said.
The head of the Center for Indonesian Community Studies (CICS) explained
that Papernas cannot be dealt with of by juridical means because
Papernas uses the ideology of logic, however Papernas has clearly
violated the "rules of the game" in Indonesia and the government must be
firm.
Similar comments were made by Kasdi. "The aroma of the PKI inside
Papernas is strong, including the view that the 1945 [nationalist]
revolution is unfinished, the jargon of Tripanji(4) and the focus on
workers, farmers and the urban poor", he said.
Notes:
1. Tap MPRS XXXV/1996: MPRS Decree Number XXXV/1996 on the Dissolution
of the Indonesian Communist Party and Prohibitions on Marxist, Leninist
and Communist Teachings
2. Following the attack by the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) on Papernas
in Jakarta on March 29 Wahid publicly condemned the incident saying that
it was unconstitutional and if the government stays quiet on the issue
it will endanger the life of the nation. He also called on police to act
firmly against the FPI. Wahid was scheduled to speak at a Papernas
declaration that had to be postponed because of the attack.
3. Law No. 27/1999 is a revision to the Criminal Code that codifies the
MPRS Decree.
4. Tripanji - Papernas' Three Banners of National Unity: Abolishing the
foreign debt, nationalising the mining industry and building the
national industry for the welfare of the people.
* * *
FPI accuses Papernas of spreading communist ideology, undermining the state
Sinar Indonesia Baru - April 11, 2007
Medan (SIB) -- Dozens of people from the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI)
demonstrated at Regional House of Representatives (DPRD) in the North
Sumatra regional capital of Medan on Tuesday April 10 against the
National Liberation Party of Unity (Papernas). The protesters believe
that Papernas is extremely dangerous because it only wants to legalise
and provide legal guarantees to commercial sex workers and is hiding
behind the mask of the state ideology of Pancasila and the 1945
Constitution.
The demonstrators gave speeches and issued a statement against the
establishment of Papernas, which held its founding congress in
Kaliurang, Central Java in January. They said that this was extremely
dangerous because the denial of religious values is becoming ever more
rampant and fate of the country will be to degenerate into an
uncivilized nation.
Action organisers Muhammad Iqbal and Ustad Muliyamin said that Papernas
only acknowledges Pancasila as the country's ideological basis and the
1945 Constitution as a constitution. In addition to this, Papernas'
adheres to imperialist principles (sic) in order to try to recruit
members from all sectors of society, particularly from the working
class, farmers, students and the urban poor. Based on this, the FPI is
asking that the National Unity and Social Protection Agency (Kesbang
Linmas) not to accept Papernas' when it registers itself nationally on
June 2.
They also called on the national and North Sumatra General Election
Commission not to verify the registration of a party that has communism
as its ideology, because it violate Tap MPRS Number 25/1996 and Law
Number 27/1999(1) on the dissolution of the Indonesian Communist Party.
They are also asking the police as investigators and the enforcers of
the law to have the courage to take firm action against Papernas and
disband all of its regency and municipal offices throughout North Sumatra.
The FPI is also asking the leaders and members of the North Sumatra DPRD
to be more careful and stay on guard against the communist movement in
the legislator because they suspect that it has already been infiltrated
by certain individuals who want to spread communist ideology in North
Sumatra and that they also suspect that the mastermind behind this
spread is the financier of Papernas in North Sumatra.
They are therefore asking the people of North Sumatra to be wary of
agitation and propaganda that is being manipulated by certain
irresponsible individuals to overthrow the Pancasila state and the 1945
Constitution and replace it with communist ideas. (A13/c)
Notes:
1. Tap MPRS XXXV/1996 - MPRS Decree Number XXXV/1996 on the Dissolution
of the Indonesian Communist Party and Prohibitions on Marxist, Leninist
and Communist Teachings. Law No. 27/1999 is a revision to the Criminal
Code that codifies the MPRS Decree.
Double click on image (above) to take you to Youtube.
Make the G8 history
DEAN MAR EACHDRAIDH AN G8
Fatta al’historia lo G8
HACE EL G8 HISTORIA
Faites à l’histoire le G8
Lass das G8 Geschichte werden
Go to Scotland Sim, Fortuna Mall or to the Anti FN building on Porcupine and place suggestions for SLLU demonstration against the G8.
Overview of RL demos in Rostock Germany in June this year:
http://www.smallurl.info/?r=1yd
This Edition:
A Global Rebellion!
Introduction to the G8 (What they are all about)
Networks to contact
VIDEOS OF G8 2005
"We Have a President Who is a Utopian" Video - Seymour Hersh: Mario Savio Memorial Lecture
Chavez – Subs and oil
Cuba Embraces Open-Source Software
VIDEO: The Corporation
Mystery: How Wealth Creates Poverty in the World By Michael Parenti
Bush all set to attack Iran: Report
Poverty gap in US has widened under Bush (Taken from The Independent)
By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.": Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), US civil rights leader
G8 2007 Rostock Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvzpfOUPMMs
From 6-8 June 2007, the G8 Summit – the meeting of the heads of state and government of the USA, Canada, Japan, Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany and Russia – will take place in Heiligendamm in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern on Germany’s Baltic Sea. The Summit location is the Kempinski Grand Hotel.
In June this year, the leaders of the world’s richest countries gather in Germany to hatch deals that will ensure corporations, working at home and abroad, are not hampered by trade union or health and safety legislation, trade barriers, human rights laws or pollution penalties.
The G8 will plead its commitment to tackling poverty, but in reality it will plan worldwide imposition of privatisation. From the UK’s NHS to water provision in parched African countries, the G8 will help corporations raid whatever they can for profit.
The G8 will conspire with the arms companies and oil corporations - for whom soldiers from our communities are sent to Iraq to kill and be killed.
The G8 will make platitudes about fair trade, but at the same time help giant global companies like Asda/Wal-Mart drive independent banana producers out of business in Central America and ruin small town high streets.
Think the G8 is all about Africa? It is. But it’s all about you, too. It’s about all of us.
Grant the Rulers No Calm: A Global Rebellion
June 2007. A massive group of demonstrators from all over Europe and the rest of the world, gathers together and marches through the streets of Rostock to protest against the G8 summit meeting. Tens of thousands greet the heads of state as they arrive at the airport and block the grand summit location, Heiligendamm. Again and again imaginative and resourceful actions disrupt the order of the day and the scheduled events for the summit meeting. The focal point of the public is not on the communications of the economically powerful but on the multitudinous voices of the protests and of the sites of resistance.
Those who cannot make it, protest at Governor Linden’s House on SL en-masse – watched by the world and in-world press. Anti corporation banners mix with socialist, anti-capitalist and religious ones.
The announcements about the actions taking place against the G8 summit meeting next year could read something along these lines. It would not be entirely surprising if the events wound up running something along the lines of what is outlined above. The possibility of such a scenario grows out of the protests in Seattle, Prague, Genoa, Scotland and Florence and is a practical result of the debates that have taken place in a variety of social fora over the past few years amongst radical leftists and those critical of capitalist globalization in Germany, in Europe and around the world. In this summit, countless local battles that have been fought worldwide come together.
The mobilization against the 2007 G8 summit ties in with experience gleaned from past summit protests and also in other struggles, such as in the recent and ongoing struggles in Oaxaca. These experiences are based on initiatives that contrast the systematic disenfranchisement through capitalist globalization with the globalization of social, cultural, economic and political rights. These initiatives come into relation with resistance against military interventions as well as with resistances against the day-to-day intensifications of the regime of work and exploitation. Where these struggles cross paths, even if they reveal contradictions, they raise the demand for a free right to life.
There can be no dialogue with the G8
In the radicalization and expansion of these initiatives the question will also be asked anew about a break from a system based on property and ownership and on domination through class, patriarchy, race and imperialism. The world is still not that different from the one that the history of class struggles will create of it. In other words, we can only create an alternative when we have freed ourselves from these divisions.
Wherever the representatives of capitalist globalization gather, whether in the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank or the G8, the actors and creators of new and global movements of resistance arrive and decidedly show the representatives of the neoliberal economic order their bare teeth. It should and will not be any different in June 2007 at the Baltic Sea, when the heads of state for the eight most powerful economic and industrialized nations of the world gather together in Heiligendamm.
For while these summits pretend to be the legitimate and legitimated representatives of the so-called “civilized world”, the G8 dominated world suffers war, poverty and calamity, worldwide attacks on social and humanitarian rights, the continuing destruction of the environment and a politics of torture and of depriving people of their rights.
We decidedly take the right from the G8 to make decisions that affect the daily reality of our lives and we refuse a dialogue even if the G8 actually could attain legitimacy. If the G8 promises to create and secure world order, then they attain recognition only because millions worldwide are threatened with insecurity. For precisely this reason, one goal of the mobilizations is to put the alleged legitimacy of the G8 into question, to erode and lastly destroy it.
That is why we must respond to the global destabilization of means of survival and we must find answers to the daily drive towards competition. To this, only answers other than those of the neo-liberal discourse can respond. And, on this we are certain, the answers must be different than the answers that have existed previously for leftists and for social movements. No doubt about it, class exploitation, patriarchal and racist domination continue. But those of the exploited classes have to a large extent been dissolved into a profoundly discriminating hierarchy of precarity. And “difference” and “subjectivity” have been co-opted and re-instrumentalized as part of the arsenal of the neoliberal war.
Ya basta! – Together and in Solidarity
We know that a social alternative does not come about through leftist radical rhetoric but rather that it must be related through praxis to the struggles. We assume that this cannot be achieved solely by one movement or another alone. Therefore, before, during and after Rostock, we want to work together and come into communication with activists from the social protests, the environmental and peace movements, the movements critical of capitalist globalization, the activists in leftist unions and those working towards human rights, those who are part of migrants’ self-organizations, and the traditional, alternative and militant currents of the left. To what extent this will be successful, depends first and foremost on the solidarity of all the participants to one another, the reliability on agreement, the mutual acceptance and respect of different forms of action and expression.
The Interventionist Lefts seeks actions of solidarity, of the common Ya Basta! It’s enough! We participate in trans-regional as well as local alliances and networks, in order to mobilize for Rostock and Heiligendamm, in order to connect local demonstrations with global struggles. Therefore, we participate in all the demonstrations, days of action and counter-activities during the summit. We want to disrupt and block the arrival of the eight heads of state as much as the G8 summit in the Kempinski.
Introduction to the G8...
G8 stands for group of eight nations. It is an exclusive grouping of the political leaders of eight specific countries. It is not an institution, it has no constitution or charter, and it has no permanent secretariat or headquarters. These are of course the world's most industrialised, wealthy and powerful States.
The G8 began as a group of six countries at a time of significant global economic insecurity in the 1970's. The leaders of these countries would argue that they gathered, as the leading nations, in order to manage this crisis in the interests of global stability. A stability that of course ensured that they retained their power, with their interests at the heart of the global agenda and this has meant the nudging of the global economy in a direction which reinforces the supremacy of private and corporate interests over democratic and collective ones. (e.g. favouring privatisation, deregulation, capital mobility and the erosion of sovereign control over domestic economies)
The membership of the g8 has evolved over time to include the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Canada and the president of the European Union. The scope of the topics of discussion have also evolved from the first, supposedly one -off meeting that focussed on macro-economic policy. Now issues of security, trade, relations with developing countries and other trans-national issues and even domestic issues, such as employment have been discussed.
It is important to be clear that the G8 Summits are not a policy-making forum. They are a time for the leaders of these states to network and build relationships. They are a time to discuss complex international issues and crises, to allow for a more powerful collective response.
The co-ordination of these nations and their unequal influence over international institutions such as the WTO, IMF and G20 ensures that their interests dominate the world order.
As such the G8 Summits have always been a focus for protests and counter summits. Following the Peoples Global Action call for a united global day of action in 1998, the Summit protests have, however, grown and strengthened, forcing the G8 Summits to more and more remote locations with ever increasing security costs.
G8 Germany 2007 – http://g8-2007.de/
Networking structures & mobilizations in Germany 2007
Dissent! - Network of Resistance
left radical Network with a lot of different working groups such as bike caravan, Trauma support, Anti-repression, Infotour
www.dissentnetzwerk.org
No-Lager-Network
against all borders, for global rights - topic: migration
www.no-lager.de
Interventionistische Linke - IL
broad left network with different groups like attac
www.g8-2007.de
www.heiligendamm2007.de
Revolutionäres Bündnis
anti-imperalistic orientation
http://free.pages.at/nog8/home.html
Vision 07 / Karawahnsinn
contact: vision07@riseup.net
http://vision07.net/drupal
Mass demonstration and blockades
contact: blockade@g8-2007.de
Counter summit
contact: peter.wahl@weed-online.org
Working-group on Anti-repression
contact: gipfelsoli@nadir.org
German mailinglist
subscribe: g8-2007@lists.riseup.net
G8 Office in Berlin
open Wednesday & Thursday afternoon 14.00 -17.00
call: 0049-30-40985406 or 0176-62078158
G8 mobilisation in Hamburg
see: https://hamburg.dissentnetzwerk.org/MainEnglish/HomePage
Fascists:
There are also right-wing / fascist mobilisations against neoliberalism, globalisation and the G8, but for an emancipatory movement there can NEVER be any way of cooperation!!!
Issues & topics around the G8
theoretical texts about G8 and the resistance against it:
www.gipfelsoli.org/Inhalt+Theorie.html
www.gipfelsoli.org/Media+Tools/dissent_broschuere.pdf
Infosheets about G8 from a Canadian NGO
www.web.ca/acgc
A short history of the G8 (indymedia UK June/2005)
https://www4.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/06/314377.html
International mobilisation
Mailinglist for the international mobilisation
subscribe: g8-int-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
VIDEOS OF G8 2005:
Children of the Revolution! George Square 1919; G8 2005 - Revolution!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6voRU3eLQM
G8 Auchterarder Part one - March and entrapment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFUE9cXLb1Q
G8 Auchterarder part2 confrontation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKnLKJn8Uis
AD BREAK:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flfvZ2B2H8w
"We Have a President Who is a Utopian"
Video - Seymour Hersh: Mario Savio Memorial Lecture
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17199.htm
We Are All Torturers Now!: 2 Minute video: Warning: This video contains graphic images and audio of torture and should only be viewed by a mature audience.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15740.htm
Chavez preparing for conflict with US plans to buy 9 subs : Venezuela is currently negotiating with European and Russian companies the purchase of nine submarines valued in three billion US dollars for the event of “an attack from United States”, report several South American newspapers. http://www.mercopress.com/vernoticia.do?id=9939&formato=HTML
Chavez signs decree to nationalize foreign oil companies: The decree allows Venezuela's state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, (PDVSA) to take a 60 per cent stake on May 1 in four projects which process crude oil into 600,000 barrels of synthetic oil a day in the country's eastern Orinoco River basin. http://snipurl.com/1bjlg
http://www.sun- sentinel. com/technology/ ats-ap_technolog y16feb18,
0,6181416. story
Cuba Embraces Open-Source Software By JOHN RICE
Associated Press Writer
February 18, 2007, 9:40 PM EST
HAVANA -- Cuba's communist government is trying to shake off the yoke
of at least one capitalist empire -- Microsoft Corp. -- by joining
with socialist Venezuela in converting its computers to open-source
software.
Both governments say they are trying to wean state agencies from
Microsoft's proprietary Windows to the open-source Linux operating
system, which is developed by a global community of programmers who
freely share their code.
"It's basically a problem of technological sovereignty, a problem of
ideology," said Hector Rodriguez, who oversees a Cuban university
department of 1,000 students dedicated to developing open-source
programs.
Other countries have tried similar moves. China, Brazil and Norway
have encouraged the development of Linux for a variety of reasons:
Microsoft's near-monopoly over operating systems, the high cost of
proprietary software and security problems.
Cuban officials, ever focused on U.S. threats, also see it as a
matter of national security.
Communications Minister Ramiro Valdes, an old comrade-in-arms of
President Fidel Castro, raised suspicions about Microsoft's
cooperation with U.S. military and intelligence agencies as he opened
a technology conference this week.
He called the world's information systems a "battlefield" where Cuba
is fighting against imperialism.
He also noted that Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates once described
copyright reformers -- including people who want to do away with
proprietary software -- as "some new modern-day sort of communists" --
which is a badge of honor from the Cuban perspective.
Microsoft did not return calls seeking comment. Cuba imports many
computer preloaded with Windows and also purchases software in third
countries such as China, Mexico or Panama.
Valdes is a hard-liner who favors uniforms and military haircuts, but
the biggest splash at the conference was made by a paunchy, wild-
haired man in a T-shirt: Richard Stallman, whose Free Software
Foundation created the license used by many open-source programs,
including Linux.
Middle-aged communist bureaucrats and ponytailed young Cuban
programmers applauded as the computer scientist from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology insisted that copyright laws
violate basic morality; he compared them to laws that would threaten
people with jail for sharing or modifying kitchen recipes.
Stallman also warned that proprietary software is a security threat
because without being able to examine the code, users can't know what
it's doing or what "backdoor" holes developers might have left open
for future entry. "A private program is never trustworthy, " he said.
Cuba also has trouble keeping proprietary software current. Its
sluggish satellite link to the outside world makes downloads of
updates agonizingly slow. And U.S. companies, apparently worried
about American laws restricting trade with Cuba, are increasingly
blocking downloads to the island.
Cubans try to get around the problem by putting software updates on a
server located on the island. But many computers wind up unpatched
and vulnerable.
Cuba's Cabinet also has urged a shift from proprietary software. The
customs service has gone to Linux and the ministries of culture,
higher education and communications are planning to do so, Rodriguez
said.
And students in his own department are cooking up a version of Linux
called Nova, based on Gentoo distribution of the operating system.
The ministry of higher education is developing its own.
Rodriguez's department accounts for 1,000 of the 10,000 students
within the University of Information Sciences, a five-year-old school
that tries to combine software development with education.
Cuba is also training tens of thousands of other software and
hardware engineers across the country, though few have computers at
home. Most Cubans have to depend on the slow links at government
internet cafes or schools.
Rodriguez shied away from saying how long it would take for Cuba to
get most of its systems on Linux: "It would be tough for me to say
that we would migrate half the public administration in three years."
But he said Linux use was growing rapidly.
"Two years ago, the Cuban free-software community did not number more
than 600 people ... In the last two years, that number has gone well
beyond 3,000 users of free software and its a figure that is growing
exponentially. "
Even so, most of the computers at this week's technology conference
showed the red, green, blue and yellow Windows start button in the
bottom left-hand corner of their screens.
And the start of the open-source sessions was delayed as organizers
fiddled with the computer running their projector. The conference
room screen had been displaying the words "Windows XP."
The Corporation
This is an extraordinary film about the creation of the American corporation, its legal organizational model, its global economic dominance and its psychopathic tendencies, and its incredible ambition to influence every aspect of culture in its unrelenting pursuit of profit. Video.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12998.htm
Mystery: How Wealth Creates Poverty in the World
By Michael Parenti
There is a “mystery” we must explain: How is it that as corporate investments and foreign aid and international loans to poor countries have increased dramatically throughout the world over the last half century, so has poverty? The number of people living in poverty is growing at a faster rate than the world’s population. What do we make of this?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17102.htm
Bush all set to attack Iran: Report:
The Bush administration's preparation to strike Iran is complete with the top commander of the US Central Command having received computerised plans for ‘Operation Iranian Freedom’, a report has said.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17098.htm
Iran: Minister briefs media on plans to avoid impact of sanctions on oil industry:
Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh said here Saturday that to avoid the impact of sanctions on the country's oil industry, special plans have been drawn up, just as the industry has been expanding over the past 20 years despite sanctions.
http://www2.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-234/0702177596201152.htm
===
Iran's top leader: Oil, gas reserves will dry up, Tehran needs to produce nuclear fuel:
"Oil and gas reserves won't last forever. If a nation doesn't think of producing its future energy needs, it will be dependent on domination-seeking powers," the television quoted Khamenei as saying.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/17/africa/ME-GEN-Iran-Nuclear.php
===
Poverty gap in US has widened under Bush (Taken from The Independent)
By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles
Published: 27 February 2007
The number of Americans living in severe poverty has expanded dramatically
under the Bush administration, with nearly 16 million people now living on
an individual income of less than $5,000 (£2,500) a year or a family
income of less than $10,000, according to an analysis of 2005 official
census data.
The analysis, by the McClatchy group of newspapers, showed that the number
of people living in extreme poverty had grown by 26 per cent since 2000.
Poverty as a whole has worsened, too, but the number of severe poor is
growing 56 per cent faster than the overall segment of the population
characterised as poor - about 37 million people in all according to the
census data. That represents more than 10 per cent of the US population,
which recently surpassed the 300 million mark.
The widening of the income gap between haves and have-nots is nothing new
in America - it has been going on steadily since the late 1970s. What is
new, though, is the rapid increase in numbers at the bottom of the
socio-economic pile. The numbers of severely poor have increased faster
than any other segment of the population.
"That was the exact opposite of what we anticipated when we began," one of
the McClatchy study's co-authors, Steven Woolf of Virginia Commonwealth
University, said. "We're not seeing as much moderate poverty as a
proportion of the population. What we're seeing is a dramatic growth of
severe poverty."
The causes of the problem are no mystery to sociologists and political
scientists. The share of national income going to corporate profits has
far outstripped the share going to wages and salaries. Manufacturing jobs
with benefits and union protection have vanished and been supplanted by
low-wage, low-security service-sector work. The richest fifth of US
households enjoys more than 50 per cent of the national income, while the
poorest fifth gets by on an estimated 3.5 per cent.
The average after-tax income of the top 1 per cent is 63 times larger than
the average for the bottom 20 per cent - both because the rich have grown
richer and also because the poor have grown poorer; about 19 per cent
poorer since the late 1970s. The middle class, too, has been squeezed ever
tighter. Every income group except for the top 20 per cent has lost ground
in the past 30 years, regardless of whether the economy has boomed or tanked.
These figures are rarely discussed in political forums in America in part
because the economy has, in large part, ceased to be regarded as a
political issue - John Edwards' "two Americas" theme in his presidential
campaign being a rare exception - and because the right-wing think-tanks
that have sprouted and thrived since the Reagan administration have done a
good job of minimising the importance of the trends.
They have argued, in fact, that the poverty statistics are misleading
because of the mobility of US society. A small number of left-wing
think-tanks, such as the Economic Policy Institute, meanwhile, argue that
the census figures are almost certainly lower than the real picture
because many people living in extreme poverty do not answer census
questionnaires.
United States poverty league: States with the most people in severe poverty
California 1.9m
Texas 1.6m
New York 1.2m
Florida 943,670
Illinois 681,786
Ohio 657,415
Pennsylvania 618,229
Michigan 576,428
Georgia 562,014
North Carolina 523,511
Source: US Census Bureau
