AMERICAN LEFT HISTORY

This space is dedicated to the proposition that we need to know the history of the struggles on the left and of earlier progressive movements here and world-wide. If we can learn from the mistakes made in the past (as well as what went right) we can move forward in the future to create a more just and equitable society. We will be reviewing books, CDs, and movies we believe everyone needs to read, hear and look at as well as making commentary from time to time. Greg Green, site manager

Monday, August 12, 2013

"The American public needs more than a show of outrage or endless demonstrations. It needs to develop a formative culture for producing a language of critique, possibility, and broad-based political change."

America’s Descent Into Madness

by Henry A. Giroux

America has entered one of its periods of historical madness, but this is the worst I can remember: worse than McCarthyism, worse than the Bay of Pigs and in the long term potentially more disastrous than the Vietnam War. – John le Carré

America is descending into madness. The stories it now tells are filled with cruelty, deceit, lies, and legitimate all manner of corruption and mayhem. The mainstream media spins stories that are largely racist, violent, and irresponsible —stories that celebrate power and demonize victims, all the while camouflaging its pedagogical influence under the cheap veneer of entertainment. Unethical grammars of violence now offer the only currency with any enduring value for mediating relationships, addressing problems, and offering instant pleasure. A predatory culture celebrates a narcissistic hyper-individualism that radiates a near sociopathic lack of interest in or compassion and responsibility for others. Anti-pubic intellectuals dominate the screen and aural cultures urging us to shop more, indulge more, and make a virtue out of the pursuit of personal gain, all the while promoting a depoliticizing culture of consumerism. Undermining life-affirming social solidarities and any viable notion of the public good, right-wing politicians trade in forms of idiocy and superstition that mesmerize the illiterate and render the thoughtful cynical and disengaged. Military forces armed with the latest weapons from Afghanistan play out their hyper-militarized fantasies on the home front by forming robo SWAT teams who willfully beat youthful protesters and raid neighborhood poker games. Congressional lobbyists for the big corporations and defense contractors create conditions in which war zones abroad can be recreated at home in order to provide an endless consumer products, such as high tech weapons and surveillance tools for gated communities and for prisons alike.

The issue of who gets to define the future, own the nation’s wealth, shape the reach of state resources, control of the global flows of goods and humans, and invest in institutions that educate an engaged and socially responsible citizens has become largely invisible. And yet these are precisely these issues that offer up new categories for defining how matters of representations, education, economic justice, and politics are to be defined and fought over. The stories told by corporate liars and crooks do serious harm to the body politic, and the damage they cause together with the idiocy they reinforce are becoming more apparent as America descends into authoritarianism, accompanied by the pervasive fear and paranoia that sustains it.

The American public needs more than a show of outrage or endless demonstrations. It needs to develop a formative culture for producing a language of critique, possibility, and broad-based political change. Such a project is indispensable for developing an organized politics that speaks to a future that can provide sustainable jobs, decent health care, quality education, and communities of solidarity and support for young people. At stake here is a politics and vision that informs ongoing educational and political struggles to awaken the inhabitants of neoliberal societies to their current reality and what it means to be educated not only to think outside of a savage market-driven commonsense but also to struggle for those values, hopes, modes of solidarity, power relations, and institutions that infuse democracy with a spirit of egalitarianism and economic and social justice. For this reason, any collective struggle that matters has to embrace education as the center of politics and the source of an embryonic vision of the good life outside of the imperatives of predatory capitalism. As I have argued elsewhere, too many progressives are stuck in the apocalyptic discourse of foreclosure and disaster and need to develop what Stuart Hall calls a “sense of politics being educative, of politics changing the way people see things.” This is a difficult task, but what we are seeing in cities that stretch from Chicago to Athens, and other dead zones of capitalism throughout the world is the beginning of a long struggle for the institutions, values, and infrastructures that make critical education and community the core of a robust, radical democracy. This is a challenge for young people and all those invested in the promise of a democracy that extends not only the meaning of politics, but also a commitment to economic justice and democratic social change.
The stories we tell about ourselves as Americans no longer speak to the ideals of justice, equality, liberty, and democracy. There are no towering figures such as Martin Luther King, Jr. whose stories interweave moral outrage with courage and vision and inspired us to imagine a society that was never just enough. Stories that once inflamed our imagination now degrade it, overwhelming a populace with nonstop advertisements that reduce our sense of agency to the imperatives of shopping. But these are not the only narratives that diminish our capacity to imagine a better world. We are also inundated with stories of cruelty and fear that undermine communal bonds and tarnish any viable visions of the future. Different stories, ones that provided a sense of history, social responsibility, and respect for the public good, were once circulated by our parents, churches, synagogues, schools, and community leaders. Today, the stories that define who we are as individuals and as a nation are told by right-wing and liberal media that broadcast the conquests of celebrities, billionaires, and ethically frozen politicians who preach the mutually related virtues of the free market and a permanent war economy.
These neoliberal stories are all the more powerful because they seem to undermine the public’s desire for rigorous accountability, critical interrogation, and openness as they generate employment and revenue for by right-wing think tanks and policy makers who rush to fill the content needs of corporate media and educational institutions. Concealing the conditions of their own making, these stories enshrine both greed and indifference encouraging massive disparities in wealth and income. In addition, they also sanctify the workings of the market, forging a new f political theology that inscribes a sense of our collective destiny to be governed ultimately and exclusively by market forces. Such ideas surely signal a tribute to Ayn Rand’s dystopian society, if not also a rebirth of Margaret Thatcher’s nonfiction version that preached the neoliberal gospel of wealth: there is nothing beyond individual gain and the values of the corporate order.
The stories that dominate the American landscape embody what stands for commonsense among market and religious fundamentalists in both mainstream political parties: shock-and-awe austerity measures; tax cuts that serve the rich and powerful and destroy government programs that help the poor, elderly, and sick; attacks on women’s reproductive rights; attempts to suppress voter ID laws and rig electoral college votes; full-fledged assaults on the environment; the militarization of everyday life; the destruction of public education, if not critical thought itself; an ongoing attack on unions, on social provisions, and on the expansion of Medicaid and meaningful health care reform. These stories are endless, repeated by the neoliberal and neoconservative walking dead who roam the planet sucking the blood and life out of everyone they touch—from the millions killed in foreign wars to the millions incarcerated in our nation’s prisons.
All of these stories embody what Ernst Bloch has called “the swindle of fulfillment.” That is, instead of fostering a democracy rooted in the public interest, they encourage a political and economic system controlled by the rich, but carefully packaged in consumerist and militarist fantasy. Instead of promoting a society that embraces a robust and inclusive social contract, they legitimate a social order that shreds social protections, privileges the wealthy and powerful and inflicts a maddening and devastating set of injuries upon workers, women, poor minorities, immigrants, and low- and middle-class young people. Instead of striving for economic and political stability, they inflict on Americans marginalized by class and race uncertainty and precarity, a world turned upside-down in which ignorance becomes a virtue and power and wealth are utilized for ruthlessness and privilege rather than a resource for the public good.
Every once in a while we catch a brutal glimpse of what America has become in the narratives spun by politicians whose arrogance and quests for authority exceed their interest to conceal the narrow-mindedness, power-hungry blunders, cruelty, and hardship embedded in the policies they advocate. The echoes of a culture of cruelty can be heard in politicians such as Senator Tom Coburn, a Republican from Oklahoma, who believes that even assistance to those unemployed, homeless, and working poor suffering the most in his home state should be cut in the name of austerity measures. We hear it in the words of Mike Reynolds, another politician from Oklahoma who insists that government has no responsibility to provide students with access to a college education through a state program “that provides post-secondary education scholarship to qualified low-income students.” We find evidence of a culture of cruelty in numerous policies that make clear that those who occupy the bottom rungs of American society—whether low-income families, poor minorities of color and class, or young, unemployed, and failed consumers—are considered disposable, utterly excluded in terms of ethical considerations and the grammar of human suffering.
In the name of austerity, budget cuts are enacted that fall primarily on those individuals and groups who are already disenfranchised, and will thus seriously worsen the lives of those people now suffering the most. For instance, Texas has enacted legislation that refuses to expand its Medicaid program, which provides healthcare for low-income people. As a result, healthcare coverage will be denied to over 1.5 low-income residents as a result of Governor Perry’s refusal to be part of the Obama administration’s Medicaid expansion. This is not merely partisan politics; it is an expression of a new form of cruelty and barbarism now aimed at those considered disposable in a neo-Darwinian survival-of-the-fittest society. Not surprisingly, the right-wing appeal to job-killing and provision-slashing austerity now functions as an updated form of medieval torture, gutting myriad of programs that add up to massive human suffering for the many and benefits for only a predatory class of neo-feudal bankers, hedge fund managers, and financiers that feed off the lives of the disadvantaged.
The general response from progressives and liberals does not take seriously the ways in which the extreme right-wing articulates its increasingly pervasive and destructive view of American society. For instance, the views of new extremists in Congress are often treated, especially by liberals, as a cruel hoax that is out of touch with reality or a foolhardy attempt to roll back the Obama agenda. On the left, such views are often criticized as a domestic version of the tactics employed by the Taliban—keeping people stupid, oppressing women, living in a circle of certainty, and turning all channels of education into a mass propaganda machine of fundamentalist Americanism. All of these positions touch on elements of a deeply authoritarian agenda. But such commentaries do not go far enough. Tea Party politics is about more than bad policy, policies that favor the rich over the poor, or for that matter about modes of governance and ideology that represent a blend of civic and moral turpitude. The hidden order of neoliberal politics in this instance represents the poison of neoliberalism and its ongoing attempt to destroy those very institutions whose purpose is to enrich public memory, prevent needless human suffering, protect the environment, distribute social provisions, and safeguard the public good. Within this rationality, markets are not merely freed from progressive government regulation, they are removed from any considerations of social costs. And where government regulation does exits, it functions primarily to bail out the rich and shore up collapsing financial institutions and for what Noam Chomsky has termed America’s only political party, “the business party.” The stories that attempt to cover over America’s embrace of historical and social amnesia at the same time justify authoritarianism with a soft-edge and weakens democracy through a thousand cuts to the body politic. How else to explain the Obama administration’s willingness to assassinate American citizens allegedly allied with terrorists, secretly monitor the email messages and text messages of its citizens, use the NDAA to arrest and detain indefinitely American citizens without charge or trial, subject alleged spies to an unjust military tribunal system, use drones as part of a global assassination campaign to arbitrarily kill innocent people, and then dismiss such acts as collateral damage. As Jonathan Turley points out, “An authoritarian nation is defined not just by the use of authoritarian powers, but by the ability to use them. If a president can take away your freedom or your life on his own authority, all rights become little more than a discretionary grant subject to executive will.”
At the heart of neoliberal narratives are ideologies, modes of governance, and policies that embrace a pathological individualism, a distorted notion of freedom, and a willingness both to employ state violence to suppress dissent and abandon those suffering from a collection of social problems ranging from dire poverty and joblessness to homelessness. In the end, these are stories about disposability in which growing numbers of groups are considered dispensable and a drain on the body politic, the economy, and the sensibilities of the rich and powerful. Rather than work for a more dignified life, most Americans now work simply to survive in a survival-of-the-fittest society in which getting ahead and accumulating capital, especially for the ruling elite, is the only game in town. In the past, public values have been challenged and certain groups have been targeted as superfluous or redundant. But what is new about the politics of disposability that has become a central feature of contemporary American politics is the way in which such anti-democratic practices have become normalized in the existing neoliberal order. A politics of inequality and ruthless power disparities is now matched by a culture of cruelty soaked in blood, humiliation, and misery. Private injuries not only are separated from public considerations such narratives, but narratives of poverty and exclusion have become objects of scorn. Similarly, all noncommercial public spheres where such stories might get heard are viewed with contempt, a perfect supplement to the chilling indifference to the plight of the disadvantaged and disenfranchised.
Any viable struggle against the authoritarian forces that dominate the United States must make visible the indignity and injustice of these narratives and the historical, political, economic, and cultural conditions that produce them. This suggests a critical analysis of how various educational forces in American society are distracting and miseducating the public. Dominant political and cultural responses to current events—such as the ongoing economic crisis, income inequality, health care reform, Hurricane Sandy, the war on terror, the Boston Marathon bombing, and the crisis of public schools in Chicago, Philadelphia, and other cities—represent flashpoints that reveal a growing disregard for people’s democratic rights, public accountability, and civic values. As politics is disconnected from its ethical and material moorings, it becomes easier to punish and imprison young people than to educate them. From the inflated rhetoric of the political right to market-driven media peddling spectacles of violence, the influence of these criminogenc and death-saturated forces in everyday life is undermining our collective security by justifying cutbacks to social supports and restricting opportunities for democratic resistance. Saturating mainstream discourses with anti-public narratives, the neoliberal machinery of social death effectively weakens public supports and prevents the emergence of much-needed new ways of thinking and speaking about politics in the twenty-first century. But even more than neutralizing collective opposition to the growing control and wealth of predatory financial elites—which now wield power across all spheres of U.S. society—responses to social issues are increasingly dominated by a malignant characterization of marginalized groups as disposable populations. All the while zones of abandonment accelerate the technologies and mechanisms of disposability. One consequence is the spread of a culture of cruelty in which human suffering is not only tolerated, but viewed as part of the natural order of things.
Before this dangerously authoritarian mindset has a chance to take hold of our collective imagination and animate our social institutions, it is crucial that all Americans think critically and ethically about the coercive forces shaping U.S. culture—and focus our energy on what can be done to change them. It will not be enough only to expose the falseness of the stories we are told. We also need to create alternative narratives about what the promise of democracy might be for our children and ourselves. This demands a break from established political parties, the creation of alternative public spheres in which to produce democratic narratives and visions, and a notion of politics that is educative, one that takes seriously how people interpret and mediate the world, how they see themselves in relation to others, and what it might mean to imagine otherwise in order to act otherwise. Why are millions not protesting in the streets over these barbaric policies that deprive them of life, liberty, justice, equality, and dignity? What are the pedagogical technologies and practices at work that create the conditions for people to act against their own sense of dignity, agency, and collective possibilities? Progressives and others need to make education central to any viable sense of politics so as to make matters of remembrance and consciousness central elements of what it means to be critical and engaged citizens.
There is also a need for social movements that invoke stories as a form of public memory, stories that have the potential to move people to invest in their own sense of individual and collective agency, stories that make knowledge meaningful in order to make it critical and transformative. If democracy is to once again inspire a populist politics, it is crucial to develop a number of social movements in which the stories told are never completed, but are always open to self- and social reflection, capable of pushing ever further the boundaries of our collective imagination and struggles against injustice wherever they might be. Only then will the stories that now cripple our imaginations, politics, and democracy be challenged and hopefully overcome.
Henry A. Giroux currently holds the Global TV Network Chair Professorship at McMaster University in the English and Cultural Studies Department and a Distinguished Visiting Professorship at Ryerson University. His most recent book is The Educational Deficit and the War on Youth (Monthly Review Press, 2013), His web site is www.henryagiroux.com
Republished from: Counterpunch

(please forward widely)

UNAC Statement

The Military Coup and Massacres in Egypt

During the transition from the toppled Mubarak regime and Mohamed Morsi’s inauguration, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) military leadership imposed an undemocratic constitution on Egypt that did not allow for censuring or removing a president whom the majority of people wanted replaced

Following the election of Morsi, hopes were high that post-Mubarak Egypt would establish democracy and lift the economy. After a disastrous year in office, millions were angered and they turned out on June 30 demanding Morsi’s resignation.

The SCAF seized the opportunity to initiate a coup and arrested Morsi. They are running Egypt despite the appointment
of a president and prime minister. It is General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi who makes the proclamations and has the power.

In early July, the SCAF massacred over 50 protesting members of the Muslim Brotherhood during their sit-in. General al-Sisi then called for massive demonstrations to support his initiation of a war on terror, a war on the Muslim Brotherhood, a bloody campaign of repression, and a return to the Mubarak era status quo. On July 27, scores of Islamist protestors were killed by government security men.

On July 29, the interim prime minister was given the power to place the country in a state of emergency and to initiate a crackdown on not just “terrorists” but religious and secular activism of all kinds. In addition, the interior ministry announced the resurrection of several police units responsible for some of the most egregious human rights violations including secret detentions, torture, and extrajudicial killings.

While taking no political position on the Muslim Brotherhood, we condemn the killings by the military regime of Muslim Brotherhood supporters and the pre-emptive arrests of their leaders. We oppose the crackdown on protests and dissidents. We oppose the scapegoating of Palestinians, the destroying of the tunnels to Gaza, and the closing down of the border crossing at Rafah.

The SCAF represents the same powers that have controlled Egypt and repressed its people for decades with a military trained by and beholden to the Pentagon. We do not believe that a military government will bring democracy or act in the economic, political and social interests of Egyptians suffering from severe austerity measures. Anticipating from past actions, the repressive force now directed against the Brotherhood will be turned on trade unions and other popular movements and organizations.

UNAC opposes all U.S. aid to military dictatorships and repressive regimes in Egypt, Israel, Bahrain, Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

We call for the immediate end of shipments of weapons and crowd control equipment to Egypt and an end to the U.S. government’s annual $1.3 billion in military aid to the Egyptian military.

8/9/13

Lynne Stewart Needs Our Help

8/9/13

Compassionate Release Denied BUT ALL Is Not Lost. ACT NOW!

Dear Friends of Lynne Stewart,

Today, Judge John Koeltl DENIED Lynne Stewart's petition for compassionate release. But he left the door open for another decision.

Citing the "law" that requires the Bureau of Prisons to first make a recommendation to the Judge for Compassionate Release Koeltl wrote:

"The petitioner has appropriately submitted a renewed motion for compassionate release to the BOP, and the court is prepared to give prompt and sympathetic consideration to any motion by the BOP that seeks compassionate release. But the current application seeking to circumvent a motion by the BOP is without merit and is DENIED."

Koeltl is fully aware of Lynne's dire medical situation. Her attorneys have submitted statements by prison doctors stating that Lynne has less than 18 months to live. Other submissions by independent doctors have estimated Lynne's prognosis at six months! Koeltl has all this information before him.

His decision appears to signal to the BOP that he is prepared to grant compassionate release in accord with the law and with Lynne's medical condition.

The focus must now shift to a massive campaign to press the BOP as well as Attorney General Eric Holder and President Omama to meet their legal responsibilities and recommend compassionate release now.

Lynne's new petition is now before the BOP. Contact the BOP now as follows.

In solidarity,

Jeff Mackler, West Coast Coordinator, Lynne Stewart Defense Committee

Ralph Poynter states it all: The struggle for every second of Lynne's life continues with full force. Lynne is urging all her supporters and defenders of human and democratic rights everywhere to vigorously renew their letters to BOP director. Write to him or call as follows:

Mr. Charles E. Samuels, Jr., Director, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 320 First Street, NW Washington, DC 20534 Re: Lynne Stewart, #53504-054 Compassionate Release ~ or CALL: 202-307-3250/202-307-3062

http://lynnestewart.org/

KEEP THE PRESSURE ON: Lynne has filed a SECOND request for Compassionate Release, so please continue to get signatures on the petition at http://lynnestewart.org/

WATCH today's Democracy Now segment with Ralph Poynter speaking on Lynne Stewart: http://www.democracynow.org/2013/8/8/i_do_not_want_to_die Amy Goodman will give a brief update on the case tomorrow, Friday Aug 9 on DN.

All Out for August 24 and 28

Saturday, August 24, 2013. Rally at the Lincoln Memorial at 8 am and march to the King Memorial.

UNAC has endorsed the events around the 50^th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington where Martin Luther King gave his historic, “I have a dream speech.” Martin Luther King understood the connection between civil rights and peace and came out strongly against the Vietnam War. Please join UNAC at this march. We will send out more details where UNAC supporters and peace activists can meet.

For more information: http://nationalactionnetwork.net/

August 28

The actual anniversary of the historic march is Wednesday, August 28. On that day rallies will be organized around the country. UNAC has endorsed these actions. Please plan to join one of the rallies being planned or plan one in your area. These actions are being called around the demands of :

STOP THE WAR ON YOUTH OF COLOR

JUSTICE FOR TRAYVON MARTIN –JAIL ZIMMERMAN!
OVERTURN ‘STAND YOUR GROUND’ LAWS!

JOBS& EDUCATION
NOT MASS INCARCERATION!

END RACIAL PROFILING OF ALL FORMS!
STOP RACIST POLICE TERROR INCLUDING STOP-AND-FRISK!

IMMIGRANT RIGHTS NOW
STOP DEPORTATIONS!

A LIVING WAGE AND UNION RIGHTS
FOR LOW-WAGE AND ALL WORKERS!

For more information: http://peoplespowerassemblies.org/aug-28-mobilization/

click here to donate to UNAC

Click here for the Facebook UNAC group.

To remove yourself from the UNAC listserv, please send an email to: UNAC-unsubscribe@lists.riseup.net
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European Parliamentarians call on President Obama to free Bradley Manning

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Open Letter from Members of the European Parliament
to President Barack Obama and US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel

Pfc. Bradley Manning (photo credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

As Members of the European Parliament, who were elected to represent our constituents throughout Europe, we are writing to express our concerns about the ongoing persecution of Bradley Manning, the young U.S. soldier who released classified information revealing evidence of human rights abuses and apparent war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The U.S. Army has charged Private First Class Manning with 21 different crimes, including ‘Aiding the Enemy’; a capital charge. To convict a person who leaked information to the media of “Aiding the Enemy” would set a terrible precedent. Although we understand the US government is not seeking the death penalty for Bradley Manning, there would be nothing to stop this from happening in future cases. As it is, PFC Manning faces the possibility of life in prison without parole, recently rejected as “inhuman and degrading treatment” by the European Court of Human Rights.
On July 2nd , Army prosecutors closed their arguments in the case without having provided any real evidence that Bradley Manning aided the enemy, or that he intended to do so. In his defense against those charges to which he pleaded not guilty, PFC Manning was not permitted to bring any evidence of motivation. And in a statement calling on the court to allow a ‘public interest’ defense, Amnesty International said that this was ‘disturbing…as he has said he reasonably believed he was exposing human rights and humanitarian law violations. Moreover, the prosecution provided no evidence that PFC Manning caused harm to U.S. national security or to US and NATO troops.
We agree with Amnesty International that the U.S. government should immediately drop the most serious charges against PFC Bradley Manning, and that to charge Bradley Manning with ‘aiding the enemy’ is ‘ludicrous’ – a ‘travesty of justice’ which ‘makes a mockery of the US military court system’.
“We’ve now seen the evidence presented by both sides, and it’s abundantly clear that the charge of ‘aiding the enemy’ has no basis,” said Widney Brown, Senior Director for International Law and Policy at Amnesty International. “The prosecution should also take a long, hard look at its entire case and move to drop all other charges that aren’t supported by the evidence presented.”
Rather than causing harm, Bradley Manning’s release to WikiLeaks of the Iraq War Logs and the Afghan War Diaries shone much needed light on those occupations, revealing, amongst other abuses, the routine killing of civilians. The bleak picture painted by these war diaries contrasts greatly with the rosy progress reports being provided to the public by military and political leaders. PFC Manning has said he felt that if the American public had access to this information, this could ‘spark a domestic debate’ on American foreign policy ‘as it related to Iraq and Afghanistan’. Far from being a traitor, Bradley Manning had the best interests of his country in mind.
The Iraqi people continue to suffer the consequences of this war, even after the withdrawal of foreign troops, with millions of homeless refugees and the resumption of sectarian violence. Meanwhile, eleven and a half years after the U.S invaded Afghanistan, that nation has yet to form a functioning democracy or to free itself from the Taliban and fundamentalist warlords.
Bradley Manning: ‘I felt that we were risking so much for people that seemed unwilling to co-operate with us, leading to frustration and anger on both sides. I began to become depressed with the situation that we found ourselves increasingly mired in year after year.’
Bradley Manning was witness to the wrongdoing of the U.S. military. He says this ‘troubled’ and ‘disturbed’ him. But instead of ‘passing by on the other side’ like so many others, he acted in accordance with international law and with a strong commitment to truth, transparency and democracy. He wrote at the time that he hoped his actions would lead to “worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms.”
Bradley Manning also released information about the men who continue to be wrongly held in indefinite detention at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo, Cuba. Over one hundred of these prisoners have been carrying out a long, indefinite hunger strike, and 45 of them are being force-fed by U.S. soldiers. This intolerable situation continues to undermine U.S. claims to promote freedom and democracy, compromising the standing of the US in the world and diminishing US moral authority.
Bradley Manning’s courageous action, for which he has three times been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, was an inspiration to others, including Edward Snowden, who recently revealed massive U.S. government surveillance in the U.S. and also against European governments and citizens.
We are concerned that the U.S. administration’s war on whistleblowers such as Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning is a deterrent to the process of democracy in both the United States and Europe.
We hereby urge you to end the persecution of Bradley Manning, a young gay man who has been imprisoned for over three years, including ten months in solitary confinement, under conditions that the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendez deemed “cruel and abusive.” Bradley Manning has already suffered too much, and he should be freed as soon as humanly possible.
Signed,
Marisa Matias, Member of the European Parliament, Portugal
Christian Engström, Member of the European Parliament, Sweden
Ana Maria Gomes, Member of the European Parliament, Portugal
Gabi Zimmer, Member of the European Parliament, Germany
Paul Murphy, Member of the European Parliament, Ireland
Sabine Wils, Member of the European Parliament, Germany
Jacky Henin, Member of the European Parliament, France
Alda Sousa, Member of the European Parliament, Portugal
Martina Anderson, Member of the European Parliament, Ireland
Nikola Vuljanić, Member of the European Parliament, Kroatia
Sabine Lösing, Member of the European Parliament, Germany
Lothar Bisky, Member of the European Parliament, Germany
Helmut Scholz, Member of the European Parliament, Germany
Willy Meyer, Member of the European Parliament, Spain
Mikael Gustafsson, Member of the European Parliament, Sweden
Marie-Christine Vergiat, Member of the European Parliament, France
Patrick Le Hyaric, Member of the European Parliament, France

Daring Aerial Blockade Stops Tar Sands Pipeline Expansion in Michigan

This morning, Michigan Coalition Against Tar Sands (MI-CATS) is taking direct action in the Crane Pond State Game Area to halt expansion of Canadian corporation Enbridge Energy’s tar sands pipeline 6B. Enbridge’s claim that they have restored the Kalamazoo River after the 2010 spill holds no merit, nor does it justify expanding the pipeline. Tar sands cannot be cleaned up; this material is thick and heavy, it sinks in water, and clings to surfaces. Expanding the pipeline increases the risk of another disaster for all of life and future generations.

Felix of the unconfined Kalamazoo River basin climbed into the trees early this morning to halt the expansion of Enbridge’s tar sands pipeline 6B. A rope traverse, spanning a portion of where construction is taking place, is the sole line that holds the platform they are sitting on up in the air. If it were cut and/or tampered with by police or workers they could fall from the tree, resulting in serious injury, possibly even death.

“Tar sands pipeline 6B is pumping a dangerous concoction which fuels global capitalism. This pipeline is Canada’s promise that industrialized capitalism will continue to exploit and oppress the people of the world and the environment. Capitalism guarantees the continued destruction of the natural world. It enables the ruling class to exploit the world’s resources and force the rest of the population to labor for the ruling classes profits. Additionally, we are way beyond the verge of climate crisis. It is of utmost importance that carbon emissions stop immediately. Tar sands infrastructure is one example of industries at the root of the oil addiction. By taking action at the root of the problem, we endeavor to stop the symptoms of the problem. If we halt all carbon emissions into the atmosphere and remember how to live in harmony with the earth, there might be hope for life as we humans have known it for a few hundred thousand years.”

MI CATS asserts that direct action tactics, including civil disobedience, are now necessary as Enbridge’s dominant presence in our bio-region has allowed no room for any constructive alternatives. After three long years of blatant lies and omissions, Enbridge has the audacity to triple the capacity of the same pipeline that poured an ecologically abrasive sludge into the Kalamazoo River. This catastrophe was the largest inland oil spill this continent has ever experienced. While the Kalamazoo spill was the largest, it is one of many devastations brought on by Enbridge. Enbridge’s insidious business practices caused more than 800 pipeline spills between 1999 and 2010; that is more than one tar sands spill a week.

All pipelines leak. All markets peak. Capitalism can rot in hell. Enbridge places profit before our families, the ecosystem, our grandmothers, our dogs (yo what up Smokey*?), our grandchildren and the future of life on this planet. The continuation of tar sands transportation through pipelines like Line 6B risk more than just our own backyards; everything in the industry’s wake is left defiled and in squalor. Our actions against Enbridge won’t stop until Enbridge stops participating in the resource extraction industry. We stand in solidarity with all first peoples’ whose lands were forcibly taken from them, Idle No More, Fearless Summer, those working to end corporate personhood, all the species going extinct, those sick and dying thanks to the extraction industry, and all folks fighting oppression in order to live full and happy lives.

*Smokey was a dog who died as a result of the 2010 spill.

*FREE BRADLEY MANNING* Gay whistleblower who revealed governments’ crimes to Wikileaks
Ever since the trial of Private Bradley Manning started on 3rd June in Fort Meade, US, protests and support have never stopped inside and outside the Court. Recently, Bradley has been celebrated in Pride marches and awarded the Sean MacBride Peace Prize. Hundreds, including *Queer Strike* and *Payday, signed a full page ad in the New York Times* (25 July). 17 Members of the European Parliament signed an open letter to Obama supporting him. 100,000 people signed a petition for him to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. On 30 July, the charge of “aiding the enemy” was dropped, but Bradley Manning was convicted of 20 offences, including five counts of "espionage". The original maximum sentence of 136 year is now reduced to 90. 27 July: INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTION in 14 countries (that we know of): Australia, Belgium, Canada, England (several locations), France, Germany (over 20 cities), Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Scotland, South Korea, Turkey, Wales and the US (over 40 cities).
Berlin	London – Vigil at St Martin in the Fields
Haverfordwest, Wales	Rome	Philadelphia
Istanbul	Daily protest at the trial, Fort Meade.
FREE BRADLEY MANNING - DEFEND ALL WHISTLEBLOWERS ASYLUM FOR ASSANGE AND SNOWDEN!
Thanks to international whistleblower Bradley Manning, we know: ● The “collateral murder” video of a US helicopter gunship crew killing Iraqi civilians ● The officially sanctioned cover-up of rape and other torture in Iraq and Afghanistan ● The extent of drone strikes ● The US government attacks on popular government & movements in Haiti and Venezuela ● Corruption by Tunisian dictator Ben Ali, which spurred the 2011 revolution ● Israel consulting with Egypt and the Palestinian Authority before invading Gaza ● etc.
Edward Snowden’s exposé of global snooping by the US has caused outrage around the world. The work of Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange has been crucial in spreading Bradley Manning’s evidence of governments’ crimes and brutality, and for organizing against US persecution of Snowden.		Assange	Snowden
Pride in London	Pride in San Francisco
	What you can do ● Write to Bradley ●Write to your local press ● Translate this message and/or send to your networks ● Show the Collateral Murder video at meetings ●Sign Daniel Ellsberg’s petition and Nobel Prize petition ● Attend ongoing picket at the Ecuador embassy in London to support Assange.● Check the Bradley Manning Support Network (BMSN) for further actions ●Send messages of support to BMSN (cc payday@paydaynet.org and we’ll publish on our website.)
Payday men's network has been organising with *Queer Strike* in defence of Bradley Manning and other whistleblowers and refuseniks. Contact us at payday@paydaynet.org www.refusingtokill.net

Conflict in Syria: US Intervention and the Prospects for Peace

A forum on Syrian perspectives, the US role and activist response

When: Thursday, August 15, 2013, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Where: First Parish Cambridge (Unitarian Universalist) • 3 Church Street • Harvard Square • Cambridge

Donation – $5 (No one turned away)

Presenters:

Marwa Alnaal

Syrian American Forum
A graduate of the international relations program at Clark University, Ms. Alnaal is a Syrian American who has travelled to Syria multiple times to study the crisis.

Assaf Kfoury

Boston University computer science department
Prof. Kfoury grew up in Beirut and Cairo and has published numerous articles on the Middle East in the Nation, Z-net, Counter Punch, etc, and has recently returned from Lebanon.

Nidal Bitari

Arab NGO Network for Development, ANND, Program Coordinator
Mr. Bitari has written in Arabic journals and will talk about his expierences during the uprising in Syria as a Palestinian living in a Syrian refugee camp.

With Commentary By:

Elaine Hagopian

Professor of sociology at Simmons College (emeritus)
Prof. Hagopian is Syrian by birth and has spent much of her life studying the Middle East, Palestine and Syria.

The drawn out conflict in Syria is of great concern; 100,000 people have been killed and there are more than a million refugees, but intervention by the US and other countries creates the potential for a major regional war.
The US decision to supply arms to the opposition escalates the violence when a ceasefire and political talks are needed.
Most activists in the peace/antiwar movement and public opinion oppose US intervention, but there are many questions because of the complexity and lack of reliable information.

US Forces Deployed in Jordan
democracynow.org

The Following Questions will be Addressed:

-- What is the historical background of the current situation?

-- What is the actual situation in Syria, who are the players and what are
their agendas? How are things changing?

-- How are the US and other countries involved, including sanctions, "nonlethal" aid and covert actions? What can we do to oppose US
intervention?
-- Can the peace movement support a dialogue and "political solution by Syrians and for Syrians, based on the Geneva Declaration of June 2012"?
(Syrian American Forum)? How can this be achieved?

-- Is there a way to provide humanitarian assistance to refugees and other victims, through UN or genuinely neutral agencies?