An Injury to One is An Injury to All:
A Conference in Defense of Civil Liberties and to End Indefinite Detention

Featuring:

Glen Greenwald - Author and Guardian Columnist

Sahar F. Aziz - Civil Rights Legal Scholar

Shahid Buttar - Executive Director, Bill of Rights Defense Committee

Steve Downs - Executive Director, National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms

Nancy Murray - Director of Education, ACLU of Massachusetts

Ruth Wilson Glimore - Scholar, Activist and Prison Abolitionist

John Woodruff - International Representative of United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE)

And many others!


Saturday December 8, 2012
Semesters Hall, Student Center
Central Connecticut State University
New Britain, CT


Dear Friends,

Our movements and our communities are under assault. Rarely a week goes by without the passage of a new repressive law, grand jury subpoena, raid, sentencing, or court ruling targeting our movements. No minute goes by without new deportations, arrests, illegal frisks, frame-ups and prison sentences that divide and repress immigrant, African American, Latino, Muslim, Arab, South Asian and other communities targeted by our government. The repressive apparatus is strengthened daily. "Secure Communities" or S-Comm, which connects local police forces to federal immigration authorities, has been implemented in nearly every state and will be universal by 2013. The right of the president to detain anyone (including U.S. citizens) without trial has been codified into law, and is now being defended in the courts. The NSA's right to spy on our e-mails and phone-calls without even suspicion of wrong-doing was just approved once again by the House.

Deportations have grown to roughly 400,000 a year - between 1.5 and 2 times the rate during 2001-2008. 1 out of every 8 people in prison on planet earth is African American. (about one in four is American) In the last four years double the number of whistle-blowers have been prosecuted under the WWI Espionage act than in all previous years combined.

The last few months alone are stunning:

• In April, 2012 Tarek Mehanna began serving a 17 and one half year sentence for writings he placed online and a trip to Yemen.
• Between August and October, 2012 federal courts jailed three young Pacific Northwest anarchists for refusing to testify in grand-jury fishing operations. All three have spent significant time in solitary confinement. One of them - Leah Plante - was told she would be in solitary for her entire sentence of 18 months.
• On August 28, 2012 Dr. Shakir Hamoodi, an Iraqi-American engineer who spoke out against the invasion of Iraq, began serving a three year sentence for sending money to his family in Iraq which they needed for food and medicine during the U.S. sanctions regime.
• On Monday, October 29, 2012 the Supreme Court declined to hear the case of the Holy Land Five - five leaders of what had been the largest Muslim charitable organization in the U.S. - who are serving sentences ranging between 15 and 65 years for giving charity to Palestinians.

But on December 8th residents and activists from Connecticut and the region will meet in New Britain to learn about each others struggles and make connections necessary to mount a serious response to this many-sided offensive. December 8th can be a critical step in building a movement capable of defending our brothers and sisters when they are targeted for their speech, their political activity, race, religion, or nation of origin; that can prevent deportations; that can expose and challenge racial profiling and the mass-incarceration of generations; that can defend workers organizing in their work-places; that can overturn reactionary laws that restrict our basic civil freedoms.

There is now one month before the December 8th conference. We are at a critical moment where we need to buy plane tickets for our speakers and finish gathering the funds to bring this event together. (Sahar Aziz is coming from Texas and Glen Greenwald is coming all the way from Brazil!) Between transportation, speaker Honoraria, and publicity we need an estimated $6,500. This is also an ideal time to get the word out far and wide. Please contact us if you can contribute financially or in any other way.

To endorse, contribute, help out, or for more information contact Dan at 860-985-4576 ordaniel.adam.piper@gmail.com

Send advanced registration fee, lit table fees or contributions to:

C/O of Dan Piper

103 Elizabeth street

Hartford, CT 06105

Make checks payable to: "CT Coalition to Stop Indefinite Detention"

For more information see:
http://ctstopindefinitedetention.wordpress.com/
or http://www.facebook.com/StopIndefiniteDetention?fref=ts

Endorsing organizations (in formation):
Bill of Rights Defense Committee; National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms; Project SALAM; New England United; United National Anti-war Coalition; Committee to Stop FBI Repression; Connecticut Green Party; National Lawyers Guild-CT; American Friends Service Committee, Western MA; Muslim Student Association of CCSU; Stop the Raids, Trinity College; We Refuse to Be Enemies; West Hartford Citizens for Peace and Justice; CT United for Peace; Hartford Catholic Workers; Latin American Students Organization of CCSU; Connecticut Coalition for Peace and Justice-Hartford; Bethlehem (NY) Neighbors for Peace; Middle East Crisis Committee; Central Connecticut Chapter of Veterans for Peace; Occupy Hartford; Manchester Peace Coalition; Greater Hartford Coalition on Cuba.

Hosted by CCSU YSA

Initiated by the Connecticut Coalition to Stop Indefinite Detention

(Contact Marilyn (marilynl@alumni.neu.edu) if you are interested in carpooling from Boston area)

Joan Livingston has shared a video with you on YouTube Video for those who haven't seen it on facebook or Twitter. Thanks to all for another wonderful march! Peace, Joan Armistice (Veterans) Day Peace March, Boston by Joan Livingston On Veterans Day, as pro-military displays fill the streets and airwaves of the United States, peace activists from around Massachusetts march, chant, sing, and rally with Veterans for Peace (and the Leftist Marching Band) to say "No War! No More!"

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Dear Friend,
I want to give you a special invitation to attend the state convention of the Green-Rainbow Party (our Massachusetts affiliate of the Green Party). I'll be there to talk about the presidential campaign - and where we go from here. And you can hear our Vice-presidential candidate, Cheri Honkala, speak at 12:50pm. Hope to see you there this Saturday! - Jill Stein

Think Globally, Run Locally - You're Invited to our 2012 State Convention November 17

Fill out the Registration form today. See agenda page for the day's schedule.

We're looking forward to a great 2012 Annual State Convention in Worcester this Saturday, November 17. Cheri Honkala, co-founder, Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, anti-foreclosure activist, and 2012 Green Party Candidate for Vice President will be our keynote speaker! Bill Strickland, Afro-American Studies professor and co-founder of the Rainbow Coalition Party, will speak on the need for alternate politics.

We will congratulate and thank Scott Laugenour for running an excellent local campaign that excited everyone around the state. We will also welcome back Jill Stein to Massachusetts after a spectacular national campaign that was heard around the globe. And we will meet the dedicated volunteers who have worked behind the scenes all year on these campaigns and on keeping the party going. We'll roll up our sleeves for the next stage in our growth and advocacy for people, peace and the planet.


Please visit the Agenda Page to check out the detailed plan for the day. We will be:

• starting the day with coffee and music, led by Master of Ceremonies Scott Laugenour
• electing statewide party officers,
• hearing from several candidates about electoral politics.!
• enjoying a hot vegan/vegetarian lunch - included with registration fee for pre-registrants (please register by Friday noon).

Also, there is still time to help with the convention! We need GRP members like you to keep the event running smoothly, so please volunteer!

WHEN

November 17, 2012 at 9am

WHERE

Unity Hall, First Unitarian Church, Worcester MA
90 Main St
Worcester, MA 01608
Google map and directions

CONTACT

Richard Vaillette · rvaillette@gmail.com · 978-855-2470

Help answer the question: HOW IS GREEN RAINBOW DIFFERENT?
The Platform Committee seeks your help to say what the Green-Rainbow Party sees as a program for the people's government, locally and in Massachusetts. Please help our democratic process by bringing the diversity of Green-Rainbow views to the draft “Fundamental Platform” in progress (see webpage link). This will be an early agenda item at the convention. Please email questions or comments to platform@greenrainbow.net.

Help Develop Green-Rainbow Candidates
Now that the elections are over, the Candidate Development and Legal Committee (CDLC) will be reforming and looking ahead to the future. We need new members who want to help recruit and support GRP candidates for local and state level races in 2013 and 2014. We usually meet monthly by teleconference. Interested people should send their contact information to John Andrews, jandrews166@gmail.com.

See you Saturday!

Green-Rainbow Party
http://www.green-rainbow.org/

-=-=-
Green-Rainbow Party · PO BOX 87, N. Hatfield, MA 01066, United States

-=-=-

Newsletter of Socialist Alternative
November 12th, 2012

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For more 2012 election coverage and analysis, check out SocialistAlternative.org!<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001Y2bsE7DlpWMCakoQUo4xN66r77pDc3HQ9NTn4YhMF6qbEF2iLhrGVrMWXEueUoMItqa0TU0_h48bA8fEFmBUa79HrtA7kmBPJrbe2sG-OqWudIVAiMapm8WOCL21cGQ5>

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Socialist Wins 28% of the Vote in Seattle - Historic Opportunities to Challenge Corporate Politics<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001Y2bsE7DlpWO0BgjfLq6px48Mg2V4r7Lwq48WfNdG0Gua3F0pcGaHk2UnudOuNfPs8sWzXFnD3I1TUz4GndkvVGKpYWS87zvUPSdKkqr_mWOLvTrke8WleoUbPTW87cZZimlKjCKjvXCyOz8j7h_xjLgp8n3q9cTWuCrqE1J1DXk=>
By Philip Locker

"This is just the beginning!" Kshama Sawant promised supporters and voters on behalf of Socialist Alternative at an excited election night party on November 6 in Seattle, WA. While the presidential race was mainly about what to vote against (see article Right Wing Rejected in the Elections<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001Y2bsE7DlpWM5EdneOcTp0nW6tFRFTaTHKErRecXoQso-EWyEhp82BptPmnxKDPxfY6S5qgrGNlAUAHcGdXJYBU2MtJkBs-jtUj9YdpQqy6Jhqg6mImBEv5H3e31rlOqrhVqDCuNxtn5UYSGcuFZIe6QQXdx1pOaj8YIlcq4odBg=>), an inspiring campaign in Seattle's 43rd district for Washington state house offered working-class voters a real alternative. The ongoing vote count at the time this article was written has Kshama Sawant winning over 28%, pointing toward a final number of over 20,000 votes.

Socialist Alternative ran against Frank Chopp, Speaker of the House and the most influential Democratic legislator in Washington state. Chopp represents the Washington establishment, a well-deserved target for the anger of frustrated, poor, working-class people, and young people in Seattle. The vote for Sawant marks the strongest opposition by far that Speaker Chopp has faced during his entire 18 years in office.

This record-breaking vote for an independent working-class candidate has raised the confidence of workers, young people, and activists that it is possible to struggle against looming budget cuts from the "fiscal cliff," attacks on public sector workers, education, and other social programs.

In Washington state, the Democratic Party won the governor's race and maintained their majority control over both houses in the state legislature. They will likely propose a further round of vicious budget cuts to social services is likely early next year, while they allow corporations such as Boeing, Amazon, and Microsoft to get away without paying barely any taxes. Sawant, a union activist and teacher, commented, "Public sector unions like mine need to prepare for strike action against budget cuts. Workers and youth need to be ready to occupy the Olympia state capitol building against attacks on our living standards."

Based on this election breakthrough and the links built during the campaign, Socialist Alternative is using the profile and authority it has won to help to build a fight-back against all attacks on working people and oppressed groups in the coming weeks and months.

Sawant and Socialist Alternative are also forming a broad electoral alliance with other left-wing forces to use this result as a launching pad for a far bigger challenge to the Democratic Party. Concretely, Socialist Alternative is organizing for 2013 a slate of independent left-wing candidates to run for mayor and for all the open city council seats, all of which are currently held by Democrats. "We will go after them!" Sawant declared to huge applause of excited supporters on election night.

Election night also saw mass celebrations in the streets of Seattle after the passage of Referendum 74 for marriage equality and the defeat of Mitt Romney. Sawant addressed a crowd of over 2,000 people, saying "If you think that the Democratic Party politicians did this for you, let me tell you it was us that won this! The fight for LGBT rights has just begun - we still need to fight poverty, homelessness, and workplace discrimination!"

Socialist Ideas Gaining Support

"We achieved this election result as an openly Socialist campaign that was largely ignored by the corporate media, with no corporate donations, on a shoe-string budget," explained Sawant. The campaign had to take the Washington Secretary of State, the Attorney General, and King County to court to allow Sawant's party, Socialist Alternative, to be printed on the ballot.

As Sawant and campaign volunteers knocked on doors all around the district and spoke to union meetings, community forums, neighbors, and friends, they all had experiences that led them to the same conclusion - there is clearly an open audience for socialist ideas among a large section of young people and working-class people. This confirms what opinion polls since the Great Recession have consistently indicated.

After years of attacks by right-wing pundits claiming that any taxes on the rich are "socialist" and denouncing Obama as a "socialist," a growing number of people are looking to find out more about socialist ideas as a fundamental alternative to the failing capitalist system.

Secret of Success

The anger and distrust towards both corporate parties is reaching a boiling point across the country. In Seattle, as in most large cities across the country, there is deep discontent among progressive workers and youth at the Democratic Party, which has held a virtual monopoly on political power in the city and governed Washington state for years.

Frustration over unemployment, student debt, the healthcare crisis, budget cuts, and the suffocating domination of the super-rich was finally given an organized expression last year by the labor uprising in Wisconsin and the Occupy movement. While the elections in 2012 acted as a safety valve for the ruling class and succeeded in temporarily undermining these movements, that same fury at Wall Street and big business is still palpable and continues to be a key factor in U.S. politics.

Unfortunately, this mood across the country was not able to find a clear expression in the 2012 elections due to the failure of the left and the leaders of the labor movement and other progressive movements to organize a strong working-class political challenge to both parties.

It is in that context that the Sawant campaign starkly stands out. "Sawant nearly topped the combined national votes of all the socialist candidates in a single district! ... Make no mistake: Sawant and Socialist Alternative made history in Seattle" (The North Star, 11/8/12). Socialist Alternative's vote was the highest for an openly socialist candidate, including with union endorsements, in recent memory anywhere in the US. How was this possible?

The basis of the success of the Sawant campaign lay firstly in correctly recognizing the political space that exists for a working-class alternative that could bring the spirit and message of the Occupy movement into the elections. The campaign then moved quite audaciously to make use of the opportunity that this opening presented.

The campaign was able to connect to the mood of workers and young people by advancing concrete demands addressing questions facing ordinary people, such as calling for an increase of the minimum wage to $15/hour, a public jobs program to fight unemployment, a struggle to defend women's rights, and full equality for LGBT people. These immediate demands were linked with the overall need to fight against capitalism and transform society along socialist lines. This approach struck a chord with those searching for a bold alternative to the corrupt, broken political system.

The Sawant campaign also stood out as an energetic activist campaign. The district was plastered with campaign posters, and "Stop Chopp - Vote Sawant" yard signs were seen everywhere. The Sawant campaign tabled and leafleted in various neighborhoods, engaging thousands of people in political conversations. The campaign also systematically reached out to progressive organizations and unions, while also actively participating and helping promote various protests and community struggles taking place.

On numerous occasions, the campaign's enthusiasm and determination overcame various obstacles. A significant mid-campaign victory was the legal struggle to get Sawant's party listed on the ballot. This battle was also used to expose the undemocratic and rigged nature of corporate politics that imposes enormous hurdles against independent candidates.

When Sawant's employer, Seattle Central Community College, refused to rehire her in the middle of the election campaign in a blatant act of retaliation and political discrimination, a campaign was launched to defend her job and improve the appalling working conditions for adjunct community college teachers at her college and beyond. Not only did the campaign succeed in forcing the college administration to reinstate Sawant for the next academic quarter, but it also was able to reverse their previous policy of imposing a right-wing "free market" economics textbook in her classes.

There were also particularly favorable conditions for Sawant's campaign that not all independent left candidates will be able to immediately replicate. Frank Chopp was particularly vulnerable as a leading Democrat whose policies, despite his liberal rhetoric, are substantially to the right of the voters of the left-wing Seattle district he "represents." In this "safe" Democratic district, Seattle's main alternative weekly newspaper The Stranger broke with its general policy of supporting Democrats and endorsed Sawant, which helped the campaign reach a much larger audience. But The Stranger's endorsement was itself symptomatic of the growing discontent and ferment among the Democrats' base at their corporate policies.

Independent Working-Class Politics

As a prominent figure in Occupy Seattle, Sawant brought the spirit of this uprising against Wall Street into the election year. One of the main slogans in the Vote Sawant campaign was "A voice for the 99%," pointing towards the need for a new force, a real activist political party of workers, the poor, and young people.

Socialist Alternative used the terrain of the 2012 elections to stimulate a debate about the need to break from the Democratic Party, popularize socialist ideas, and help prepare the ground for future working-class battles. Outlined in "Imagine 200 Occupy Candidates This Year," Socialist Alternative argued there was a real opportunity to challenge the corporate duopoly if credible working-class campaigns were organized - and was able to set an impressive example with its own campaign in Seattle.

Despite all the special circumstances in Seattle's 43rd district, who could deny the power of this argument now? Unfortunately the call to Occupy activists to run a whole number of independent candidates across the country - as a tool to systematically reach out to the hundreds of thousands of workers and fight against corporate politics - was not heeded despite a few notable exceptions. The leaders of labor, civil rights, anti-war and environmental organizations overwhelmingly rejected all attempts to support independent left candidates. Instead of endorsing and actively campaigning for independent, working-class-based candidates, enormous sums were spent to support a big-business party.

Even in Seattle, where the "lesser evil" argument did not even apply since no Republican ran in the race, the main union leaders refused to support Sawant, a union activist running on an uncompromising working-class agenda against a big-business Democrat. They did not dare cross the powerful Speaker of the House, believing that they would somehow be rewarded for their endorsement of Chopp despite his long track record against working people. Of course, this "pragmatic" approach of supporting our class enemies is exactly what has led to the catastrophic decline of the labor movement, and only emboldens politicians like Chopp to carry out an even more blatant anti-worker agenda.

The 28% vote for Sawant is quite a rebuke to this timid strategy of the union leadership. If they had actually put their weight behind Sawant's campaign - actively promoting it to all union households in the district, mobilizing volunteers, and putting money behind the campaign - it is entirely conceivable that Frank Chopp would have been defeated, and a genuine fighter for working people would have been elected Speaker of the House.

The message is clear: The unions have to break with the Democrats and use their resources and influence to build a voice for workers and the 99%. Rank-and-file union members will need to lead the way in demanding their organizations take up such an approach.

The Sawant campaign is also an example for Occupy and union activists of how to link together protests and social movements and elections. Although the electoral system is rigged in favor of the corporate elite, the Sawant campaign shows how we can resist capitalism not only in the streets but also in the elections and reach a broader audience.

This is now an urgent task. Since Obama's re-election, he has signaled he is prepared to move even further to the right with offers to the Republicans to carry out major attacks on Medicare, Medicaid, and other social services as part of the negotiations to avoid the "fiscal cliff." These are just some of the battles to come.

That is the "beginning" spoken of by Kshama Sawant. Socialist Alternative will do everything in its power to make sure that the agenda of the 1% will meet a determined working-class and community resistance. As part of this process, Socialist Alternative is working to organize left-wing independent challenges for mayor and every city council seat in Seattle's 2013 elections, together with activists from Occupy, unions, and other social movements.

On a national level, Socialist Alternative is appealing to prominent figures in progressive politics, along with left-wing, Occupy, and working-class activists, to organize a joint speaking tour around the country with Kshama Sawant. This speaking tour is an opportunity to provoke discussion and debate on building mass struggles against Obama and the corporate agenda as well as the need to build towards working-class political representation, a new mass force of resistance, and as an immediate step putting forward left electoral challenges to the two parties of Wall Street in 2013 and beyond.

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Joan Livingston has shared a video with you on YouTube CodePink's Pakistan delegation on US drone warfare by Joan Livingston CodePink members traveled to Pakistan to meet with local officials and victims of U.S. drone strikes in that country. Now back home, they are telling Americans about President Obama's "secret" drone wars. This report at the Community Church of Boston is by Paki Weiland and Lois Mastrangelo. (CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin, part of the delegation, is the author of "Drone Warfare.")

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<*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smedleyvfp/

Stop the Drones Report Back from the October CodePink Anti-Drone Peace Delegation to Pakistan When: Monday, November 26, 2012, 7:30 pm Where: MIT Room 32-141 • 32 Vassar St • Cambridge On October 7 (the anniversary of the US attack on Afghanistan), a delegation of 31 US antiwar activists marched with tens of thousands of Pakistanis sickened by the civilian death toll and growth of rightwing reaction brought on by the US drone war in Waziristan. Hear first-hand reports and view slides from delegation members who just met with the families of drone victims, with intellectuals, political activists, and others in Islamabad, Lahore, and the tribal areas. We will also hear from Pakistanis on the impact of the US “War on Terror” and drone attacks on Pakistan. Learn about the growing use of drones for military attacks and for domestic surveillance. Discuss what we can do to stop the use and proliferation of these deadly weapons. Panelists: Joe Lombardo, Co-Coordinator, United National Antiwar Coalition; member of the Troy Area Labor Council (New York); tour member Paki Wieland, Arrested Hancock AFB drone resister; Engages in peacekeeper & nonviolence training and education; tour member Lois Mastrangelo, United for Justice with Peace; CodePink of Greater Boston; tour member Osman Khan, Radical economist pursuing his doctorate; just returned from six months in Pakistan researching the impact of drone attacks and war on the tribal peoples of western Pakistan Waqas Mirza, Recent Political Science graduate University of Massachusetts Amherst; Writes and speaks about impact of “War on Terror” on Pakistan Endorsed by United National Antiwar Coalition, United for Justice with Peace, Code Pink Greater Boston, Alliance for a Democratic and Secular South Asia, Muslim Peace Coalition, Veterans For Peace, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Massachusetts Global Action Suggested donation $5.00. Proceeds to support anti-drone protests

Thursday, November 15, 2012

12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

Harvard Yard

Do you believe STRONG, STABLE JOBS and RESPECT FOR WORKERS should be central to Harvard’s mission?

It is time to STAND UP with Harvard’s 4600+ employees represented by HUCTW!

HUCTW workers have been without a contract for months.

Meanwhile, Harvard continues to insist that it cannot afford decent wage increases and affordable health care plans for workers.

For more information, see http://www.huctw.org/negotiations/rallyforafaircontract.html .

Harvard College Student Labor Action Movement -- PLEASE FORWARD!

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Home > Justice at Walmart > Stand with Walmart Strikers on Black Friday

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Stand with Walmart Strikers on Black Friday

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Quincy Supports Walmart Workers on Black Friday

November 23 • 08:00 am

Quincy, MA

MassUniting

darrin@massuniting.org

MORE DETAILS TO COME! Please RSVP for more information.

Stand with Walmart workers in their fight for their rights. For decades, Walmart Stores, Inc have dragged down wages, forcing their workers to work irregular schedules, and intimidated and took retribution on any workers who fought back. It's time for the retribution to end, so come to this local Walmart to show your solidarity and tell Walmart that they need to pay their fair share.

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Take Action Like the Under the Hood Facebook page. If you are a veteran or active duty, sign the Appeal for Redress. Like our work? Make a donation. Send us your feedback. Dear , In honor of Veterans Day last weekend, Under the Hood Cafe and Outreach Center along with members of IVAW marched in the local parade outside of Fort Hood to carry the message of veterans' and service members' Right to Heal. In this photo, IVAW member, Malachi Muncy, dramatizes the issue of reliance on medication to treat soldiers and veterans suffering from various forms of military trauma: Malaichi said, “It’s easy to remember the veterans coming home on planes and impossible to forget those coming back in boxes. It’s those locked up at home with mounting prescriptions, those falling into the judicial system, and those dying senseless accidents that are being forgotten.” For more photos of this event, you can go to the Under the Hood Facebook page (and like it!). Under the Hood and IVAW also used the parade to spread the word to active duty soldiers about the Appeal for Redress, a project that makes it easy for service members and veterans to reach out to members of Congress about the lack of access to proper health treatment for PTSD, Military Sexual Trauma, and Traumatic Brain Injury. If you are a veteran or service member, you can add your name to send a letter urging members of Congress to take action around issues of proper health care in the military and VA systems. In Solidarity, Iraq Veterans Against the War and the Afghanistan Veterans Against the War Committee P.S. Please support the important work of Under the Hood Cafe and Outreach Center, a safe haven outside of Fort Hood for soldiers and their families to get support and alternative information about their rights.

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The World Can't Wait Stop the Crimes of Your Government Donate | Local Chapters | Store | Previous Newsletters

Dear I am writing you very quickly today. World Can't Wait has a mission of stopping the crimes of our government. All day yesterday, in court (see below) we were getting messages and calls about the aerial assault on Gaza by Israel. Reading the news, we learned that Israel is preparing a ground attack, and that three Israelis were killed by missiles from Gaza. The death toll in Gaza is reported now to be 15, including children, and the widely circulated photo of a parents holding a baby they buried today. From Dr. Mona Al-Farra in Gaza City, an urgent message on Facebook: Dear Friends, Gaza is under extensive Israeli military attack, in less than 2 hours, 14 military attacks against different targets in different parts of Gaza Strip, 6 were killed including 2 young girls age 4 and 7, 11 were injured, the hospitals are already lacking essential emergency medications, and citizens were called for blood donation, we do not have power, iam using UBS, the first stage of this operation has been accomplished, we expect more escalation. your solidarity means a lot at this difficult times, pass the word, this aggression, should stop now. One of the most popular tweets under the hashtag #gazaunderattack was, "I am embarassed to be an American today. How can we sit and watch innocent civilians murdered in Gaza, again." And, "Obama sleeps soundly while all of Gaza is awake to the sound of US supplied bombs and rockets." There were protests in last night in Seattle, DC, NY, San Francisco, Chicago, and more protests are planned around the country and around the world today. Find a protest near you! Queens Defendants Found NOT Guilty of Serious OGA Charges; Guilty of Lesser Disorderly Conduct Charge Queens, NY – A Queens jury today found four men not guilty of obstructing the NYPD’s 103rd Precinct last year. The high-stakes trial for political protesters began October 23, delayed several times by weather, and almost ended with a mistrial because of the highly unusual arrest of a sitting juror last week. Carl Dix, Jamel Mims, Morgan Rhodewalt and Robert Parsons were charged with two counts of Obstruction of Government Administration, a Class A misdemeanor which carries a possible sentence of 12 months in jail. Prosecutors failed to convince the jury that the men, who were part of a group of 20 who loudly protested the NYPD stop-and-frisk policy last November 19, had disrupted normal functioning of the precinct. Dix said today, “The prosecution attempted to make us pay a heavy price for protesting against stop and frisk. They crafted the case from the beginning, and failed in this objective. They put on a case, but couldn’t provide any evidence that we obstructed the precinct, or that we intended to do that. At the 103rdPrecinct last year, and today in court, we delivered a loud message against NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policy, and we won’t stop protesting this unjust, unconstitutional, racist, policy.” The jury found the defendants guilty of one count of disorderly conduct, a violation. They will be sentenced January 7. 13 more defendants await trial next year for the same incident. More coverage Debra Sweet, Director, The World Can't Wait Click to tweet or share on Facebook:

From The Smedley Butler Brigade -Veterans For Peace

Hi Smedleys & Samanthas,

 

Someone just asked me to post the song I wrote that I read at the Veterans / Armistice Day Rally at Faneuil Hall. It is entitled "Extremists" and was inspired by the ACLUM's "Policing Descent", the monitoring of Peace Groups by the Boston Police.

Extremists

Chorus

They say that we’re extremists

Cause we’re out here in the street

How unpatriotic to be marching for peace

They say “we better watch them, like never before”

Cause there’s nothing more dangerous

Than Veterans Against War

Verse

So they stand on every corner, with their cameras in their hands

Taking film and snapping pictures of everything they can

They develop film and write reports on everything they saw

Protecting all our citizens from folks who broke no law

They’ve been doing this so long, they know us to our core

They know we’re peaceful veterans, who know the cost of war

Because we’ve seen the horror, and the price we always pay

They have to document everything we do and say

They got Home Land Security, FBI and DIA

State and local police, don’t forget the CIA

Why, we are so important, a clear danger to the land

Can’t let this love and peace thing, get too far out of hand

Well they got their Bric, play all their tricks, wasting all our dough

All those files and pictures, with nothing much to show

So we raise our voices here today, to let them know it’s time

Stop hassling the peace groups, go back to fighting crime

© Patrick J. Scanlon 2012

Tom Hayden : Sticking It to Wall Street

15 November 2012

Tom Hayden : Sticking It to Wall Street

The fallen bull. Image from Tumblr.
A legacy of Occupy:
Sticking it to Wall Street

The Occupy movement energized a vanguard of voters to become more populist in their demands.

By Tom Hayden / The Rag Blog / November 15, 2012

It is unfortunate that Occupy Wall Street lost its momentum after the uprisings of 2011, because the election and its results have opened another opportunity to stick it to Wall Street and choke and reform the “great vampire squid” for another next generation. As I wrote six months ago in The Nation:

This year marks the first presidential campaign in our lifetime when the gluttony of Wall Street, the failures of capitalism, the evils of big money in politics and a discussion of fundamental reform will be front and center in election debates. No doubt the crisis that gave rise to Occupy will not be fixed by an election, but that’s beside the point. Elections produce popular mandates, and mandates spur popular activism. It’s time to organize a progressive majority.

From the general Occupy standpoint, Obama was just another Wall Street candidate, and the elections did not matter much anyway. That is a tragic view to take, since it robbed Occupy of an occasion to take credit and feel empowered -- “Fired up! Ready to go!” as the Obama multitudes say. In fact, Occupy did influence the election, did influence the outcome, and did shape the mandate, without, in most cases, its members even voting for Obama. Hopefully they will try to shape the terms of the bailout ahead.

The Occupy movement influenced the political climate in which Obama and his advisers chose to attack Romney as an agent of Bain Capital; incidentally, against the strong preferences of such powerful Democratic figures as Bill Clinton and Cory Booker, the Newark mayor who publicly said he was “nauseated” by the president’s attack on private equity.

The Occupy movement energized a vanguard of voters to become more populist in their demands. The Occupy movement surely helped make it possible for Elizabeth Warren to ride the wave to Washington. And those were only some of the aftershocks of Occupy long after it faded from the streets and headlines.

Wall Street, which did everything in its considerable power to turn on and defeat Obama, now thinks it is “time to mend fences.” (New York Times, November 8, 2012) But if Obama and Axelrod retain any of their Chicago political instincts, there should be some payback before any mending takes place. If Obama is forced to compromise his preferences on the fiscal cliff, reforming Wall Street is where he should be able to implement his words from the campaign trail.

If Obama had to stock his cabinet with Wall Street players in order to avoid total economic disaster in 2009, now he can offer some new choices and directions. Where is Ralph Nader when we need him?

Obama should stick it to Wall Street and make it hurt so badly that they will never forget the screws in this lifetime.

First, Obama should encourage Harry Reid to put Elizabeth Warren on the Senate Banking Committee and empower a de facto reform bloc of Sherrod Brown, Bernie Sanders, Tammy Baldwin, Richard Blumenthal, Tom Harkin, Chris Murphy, Al Franken, Jon Tester, and Warren, among others. Let progressive populist leadership come out of the new Senate. Second, deeper public hearings should bore into the scandal and call the attention of public watchdogs over the obscure process of writing Dodd-Frank regulations on derivatives and hedge fund manipulations.

Wall Street lobbyists are already preparing a "lobbying frenzy” against the administration’s tentative plan to “apply derivatives rules to American banks trading overseas.” (New York Times, November 8, 2012) As Obama promised long ago about health care, such Wall Street plans should be exposed on television at every turn because, like mushrooms, they only grow in the dark.

This opening of the process for all to see can be achieved if there is aggressive monitoring of a U.S. senator. Wall Street somehow thinks its world will conveniently go dark as they lobby in stealth to weaken the Volcker Rule, contain the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and legislate a diluted authority for other key agencies.

The opportunity to prolong the recent ideological and values debate may increase, not subside. On the left, an opportunity still exists to enter the debate loud and clear with concrete demands.

To “occupy” Wall Street is no longer a policy demand, if it ever was. Extending democracy to Wall Street might be a better and bolder banner -- with proposals for greater disclosure, accountability, regulation in the public interest, a ban on secret donors to campaigns, a Robin Hood transactions tax, and a long state-by-state campaign to eliminate the Citizens United decision.

The theme song might be Leonard Cohen’s “Democracy Is Coming to the USA.”

[Tom Hayden is a former California state senator and leader of Sixties peace, justice, and environmental movements. He currently teaches at Pitzer College in Los Angeles. His latest book is The Long Sixties. Hayden is director of the Peace and Justice Resource center and editor of The Peace Exchange Bulletin. Read more of Tom Hayden's writing on The Rag Blog.]

The Rag Blog