(please forward widely) Join UNAC for an educational conference call on the situation in Mali and Africa. There will be short presentation by three UNAC leaders followed by questions and discussion. The conference call will be at 9 PM (EST) on Sunday, February 24. Speakers will include, Glen ford, Ana Edwards and Abayomi Azikiwe. To access the call, please dial (218)339-3600 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (218)339-3600 end_of_the_skype_highlighting. The access code is 342310#. Glen Ford is a longtime journalist and executive editor of BlackAgendaReport.com, a weekly journal of African-American political thought and action. Glen is also the vice-chair of the Black is Back Coalition, an antiwar and social justice coalition Ana Edwards is the host of DefendersLIVE a radio show in Richmond Virginia. She is also a founding member of the Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality and the chair of the Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project. Ana recently returned from a trip to Mali Abayomi Azikiwe is the editor of the Pan-African News Wire. He is also a founding member of the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI). The United National Antiwar Coalition says: France and the US out of Africa Now! No Resource Wars for the Profits of the 1%! Not One More Cent for the new Scramble for Africa! The recent French military intervention and the US military and intelligence operations in the region must be opposed by all those who stand in favor of self-determination for African peoples. Contrary to the self-serving claims of both France and the US that they are out to defend democracy, both nations' military operations in the Sahara-Sahel are in defense of their access to Africa's minerals, oil, gas, and arable land at bargain basement prices. The invitation for a French military attack by a Malian coup regime armed by Washington is but a fig leaf for an escalation of already existing efforts to protect the 1%'s plunder of Nigerién uranium, Malian gold, Nigerian oil, Algerian natural gas, Western Saharan phosphates, Cote d'Ivoire’s plantations, and more. Africanists liken the current situation to the period in the late 19th and early twentieth century when the European countries carved up Africa between them. In the new "Scramble for Africa," Europe and the United States, are competing for petroleum, minerals, and land to the detriment of the economic well-being of the African peoples. The claim that the French intervention, an intervention supported by the U.S., is an emergency humanitarian response to help the people of Mali is belied by the context in which it is occurring: ≈Colonialism Redux and Ecological Disaster. France, who held many colonies in Africa, really never left after granting independence in the 1960's. France intervened militarily in Africa 19 times between 1962 and 1995 and more recently intervened in Cote d' Ivorie, Chad, and the Central African Republic in order to defend the 1%’s interests. On January 23, news sources reported that French special forces were sent to protect the French privately owned Areva uranium mining operation in the border country of Niger. Uranium from Niger supplies reactors supplying 75% of France’s electrical needs. ≈ National Oppression. The Tuareg and other Northern peoples were first denied control over their homeland when the colonial map-makers divided their territory between Mali, Niger, Chad, Algeria, and other countries that border the Sahara. Tuareg rebellions, like the one that prompted this French intervention, have challenged France’s right to extract uranium in a manner that poisons the local populations and decimates their livelihood. At the same time, the Tuareg claims are disputed by other Northern peoples, such as the Songhai, and by Southern groups that feel Mali proper would be weakened by Tuareg independence. Colonialism’s legacy of divide and conquer cannot be solved with the colonizer’s guns. ≈Austerity Mandated by the 1%. The last two decades of IMF and World Bank-imposed economic restructuring in Mali made gold mining so profitable that Mali is now the number three gold producer on the African continent. At the same time, this development has left the majority of Malians living on less than US$1 a day and the peoples of that nation some of the poorest on the planet. US military aid to Mali reinforces this state of affairs. ≈Competition for Oil and Natural Gas. Nigerian oil, a high quality sweet crude, is a crucial part of the U.S. energy plan and is cited as part of the reason that the U.S. has created the Trans-Saharan Counterterrorism Initiative (TSCTI). A 2009 agreement for a $10 billion natural gas pipeline from Algeria to a Nigerian port further demonstrates the hydrocarbon basis of the TSCTI and related US military plans for the region. The 2010 budget request for Trans- Saharan Counter Terrorism Partnership (TSCTP) was $80.3 million. ≈”War on Terror” Funding Used Against the 99%. Washington recently asked France and Algeria to be sure to include US favored partner Morocco in the unfolding so-called “War on Terror “in the Sahara-Sahel. Morocco has been using the US’s “War on Terror” rhetoric to justify its occupation of Western Sahara and contain the national aspirations of the Sahrawi people organized in the Polisario Front. Africanist Franklin Charles Graham IV, in an article in the Review of African Political Economy, says that it is fair to say that most US aid for counter-terrorism activities in the Sahara-Sahel goes to suppress indigenous rebellions against corrupt and undemocratic regimes. ≈Elite Rivalries. The 2008 authorization of AFRICOM, the U.S. Africa Command under whose aegis Washington is sending troops and special forces to 35 African nations is, according to Concerned Africa Scholar’s Daniel Volman, a direct response to the growing competition from China and other players for Africa’s energy resources. ≈Looting of Africa. According to the South African political economist Patrick Bond, development aid and investment in Africa from the imperialist countries since the colonies were granted formal independence has resulted in a growing impoverishment of the people of the continent, leaving more Sub-Saharan people living on less than a $1 a day than in the 1950’s. Including the loss to the peoples of their raw material wealth, and the ecological damage wrought by its extraction, raises the dollar amount of the plunder to unimaginable levels. ≈War at Home. Each cent spent for the extraction of profits from Africa for the 1% could be spent at home for the victims of the current economic crisis. Each effort to paint the main threat to the well-being of the African people as terrorism will be accompanied by new threats to civil liberties here in the United States. Whatever the exact reality of a new influx of non-Malian Islamic radicals into the Sahara-Sahel, based on the experience of US propaganda and military action in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia, those who support self-determination must take any claim by Washington that it is intervening to fight an Al Qaeda threat with a grain of salt. The evidence that resources are the main reason for war in the Sahara-Sahel is too strong. If the recent occupations of the Middle East by the US have taught us anything, it should be that no problem will be solved by US and European military intervention. Join the United National Antiwar Coalition is its efforts to educate about European and US resource wars in Africa and build a movement to end them. UNAC speakers are available for forums and interviews. See the United National Antiwar Coalition at www.unacpeace.org Some places to look for information on the resource wars in Africa: Review of African Political Economy Bulletin of the Concerned Africa Scholars Third World Quarterly Pambazuka News Pan-African News Wire Black Agenda Report New Internationalist Jadilyya click here to donate to UNAC Click here for the Facebook UNAC group. To add yourself to the UNAC listserv, please send an email to: UNAC-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

From The Bradley Manning Support Network



Dear All

THANK YOU very much for taking action this weekend and becoming a leader in the movement to free Army whistle-blower Bradley Manning! We are excited to report that 70 EVENTS (that we know of) have happened around the world this weekend, a sign that people everywhere are truly beginning to recognize how important Bradley's case is to the futures of people worldwide.

How did your event go?

- We'd like to share the extent of actions worldwide, big and small alike, with our supporters online and with the media. PLEASE REMEMBER TO E-MAIL ME (emma@bradleymanning.org) PHOTOS FROM YOUR EVENT, along with a one-paragraph description, BY MIDDAY TOMORROW if possible so we can include them in our updates. A general description of your activities and the number of people who participated is fine, but don't leave out any exciting details!

- If you were able to collect names on our petition (http://www.bradleymanning.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Petition.1.pdf) PLEASE MAIL THEM TO OUR CENTRAL OFFICE as soon as you can. If you plan to organize future events for Bradley, I encourage you to save the contact information yourself first, so that you can communicate directly with other supporters in your area.

- If you wish to organize more events for Bradley in the future, and you'd like to be added to our international organizers' e-mail list to actively participate in ongoing discussions about strategy and actions between now and the June court martial, please let me know!

Next week I will send more information about our campaign's next steps, including launching a letter-writing campaign and call-in to target military presiding authority General Linnington, asking congresspeople to launch inquiries into the lack of accountability for Bradley's torture at Quantico, and beginning to plan for our June 1st International Day of Action, the weekend before Brad's court martial. I look forward to working with you all further!

Thank you again very much for your hard work! The growing grassroots movement to support Bradley Manning is giving this young whistle-blower a fighting chance at freedom!

In solidarity,
Emma Cape
National Organizer for the Bradley Manning Support Network (www.bradleymanning.org)

The Class Struggle At Harvard Continues

Dear All,

For six months, employees of Harvard's University Financial Services suffered a regime of fear. Administrators announced "restructuring," then threatened union members that they would be fired if they didn't work fast enough. Every week for the six month "transition," managers met with anxious staffers to tell them they were not succeeding. Work was divided up unequally, and sometimes there was little to do, but the bosses kept insisting that their fishy production tallies would determine who would stay and who would get canned. Staff believed that management targeted certain staff to be fired, then cooked up data to support their scheme. You can read more about the hellish "transition" endured by UFS workers here. When it was over, three workers of color were terminated, all parents, two of them longer-service women with histories of disability. All Caucasian workers are keeping their jobs in the department, where management condoned racist comments and behavior for years.

One union member returned from a disability leave only to be told she is being laid off after 25+ years' service. Previously she was written up for confronting a colleague over racist remarks (the co-worker received no discipline). Another woman, known to be the fastest worker in the unit, was terminated for supposedly not working fast enough. She has also protested racist treatment at Harvard, has two kids, and could lose her home. One day after the last termination, union members and our allies fought back with a militant picket in the freezing cold. Please help us make our March 7 action bigger and louder! We'll gather starting at 5:30 pm, at Harvard's Holyoke Center, 1350 Mass. Ave, very close to the Harvard Sq Red Line T stop, for a rally and march to the affected workplace. Click here for a map. A flyer is attached with more information. The Facebook event is here.

In Solidarity,

Geoff Carens, Union Rep, HUCTW/AFSCME Local 3650
Delegate, Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
iwwboston.org

Out In The 1960s Night-The Old Man's See

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman


The young man, a mere boy actually at fourteen, Daniel Patrick Riley III (Daniel III)to give him a name, sat at the kitchen window and watched the old man dragging himself haltingly across the old ball field to his favored spot in in the front window of Harry's Variety situated just across the street from the field. The old man, see, Daniel Patrick Riley, Senior (Daniel, Senior, Riley, Junior, for the interested, although he plays no part in this story, was busy making do at his work location up in Adamsville Center working as a welder at the shipyard) had suffered a debilitating stroke a couple of years before and so the lame walk (and hanging useless arm), the seemingly taking forever walk across the ball field from his house, the very house that Daniel III was sitting in at the kitchen table watching him struggle at his almost daily task. Daniel, Senior hated, absolutely hated to stay in the house any more than he had to, else he would have to put up with Grandmother Riley's constant chatter. He much preferred the company of men, even if only the young corner boys who peopled the walls in front and to the side of Harry's Variety. In any case Daniel, Senior was given every deference by one and all at that locale, even by king hell king corner boy leader Red Riley (Daniel, Senior's grand- nephew) a man not known to defer to anyone, not for long anyway (Daniel III had seen him waylay a guy with a whipsaw chain, a tough looking guy, just because he was a corner boy from the wrong corner, Jesus).

Daniel III as he watch his grandfather make those final stumbling steps on the curb at Sagamore Street wondered to himself the stories the old man had to tell, tell about old North Adamsville, about the field he had just crossed (called Welcome Young Field, no, not because it welcomed the young, although it did that, did that pretty well he thought, but because some long ago guy gave the town the land to build the park and the town, as towns did in those days, named the place after him and that was his name). He wondered, for instance, how the old man felt, all Irish proud, all rumor had it old IRA proud too although the details of that connection were very sketchy, very touchy in fact, about one of their own, Jack Kennedy, making it all the way to the White House just a few months back. The old man had married old, had his children old, and thus he was remote from them and more remote from his grandchildren so questions to him, or about him, were filtered through Grandmother Riley, or not answered.

Daniel, Senior had been born in that very house that he had just come from and which Daniel III had been sitting at watching him do his daily exertions. Thus, Daniel III was sure that the old man had plenty he could tell about what was what, and who was who in the neighborhood. See Daniel III was, and was not ashamed to admit it, something of a know-it-all or wanted to be a know- it- all and so it bothered him that Daniel, Senior was not accessible. He had his own very short list of experiences and remembrances about the area, and stuff that he had learned about from others (including Ma and Grandma) but he wanted to know what it was like when the Irish first started pushing out of the cold- water flats over in Dorchester and South Boston and moving into the small single homes that dotted the neighborhood or into the cold- water flats that also dotted the area as well.

But mainly this day Daniel III was concentrated, as was his wont, when he came over from his own home in South Adamsville with his two brothers to stay with his grandparents at the beginning of summer vacation, on the "history" of that old ball field. He knew that in a few days that something called the North Adamsville Sons of Hibernia, which rumor had it his grandfather had helped start back in the late 1930s, was organizing the annual Fourth of July celebration where they kicked out the jams (sorry, his schoolboy expression of the moment). That was where he and his brothers has traditionally loaded up, loaded up like crazy on the twice daily hand-out of soda and ice cream (and stashed a ton of it in grandpa's old ice box and kept going back for more, whoa!). It was also where he had won his first road race ( a snappy victory against older boys) and had , ah, kissed his first serious kiss (not first kiss, okay, just first serious kiss) the previous year when he was smitten by Mary Shea, who lived across from his grandparents, at the nighttime dance held in the converted tennis courts.

What he really wanted to know though was the whole story behind the creation of the ball field and the whole park. He already knew the Welcome Young part, or at least the official welcome young part but he wanted more. He had heard that the real reason for the ball park was that the three gin mills that lined Sagamore Street just up from Harry’s Variety (okay, okay he had watched too many film noir things of late), the Dublin Grille, The Irish Pub, and Matty’s had gotten together along with their patrons including his own father and his two uncles (Henry and Kevin) and petitioned the town to create a ball park so that the patrons, all male, all young family men or budding family men could have an excuse to be out a few nights a week in the spring and summer playing the national pastime with their fellows. Then stop in; conveniently stop into one of the gin mills to have a beer, or seven, before heading home to the wife and kiddies at about midnight or so. Here was the funny part though, his grandfather was the guy who was pushing for the construction and he didn’t drink liquor, hated it and was a lifelong tee-totaler.And would not allow liquor in the house so grandmother, when she wanted to entertain her sisters who all liked to drink as she did, had to go uptown to a place where “ladies were invited,” a place like the Red Feather and do their drinking there.
He had also heard that the reason that his grandfather pressed the issue was that he wanted his sons, if they had to drink that cursed liquor, to be near home when they fell on their faces. (The uncles lived at home and Daniel III and his family had lived a couple of blocks away up on Newbury Street then.)

Just like he wanted to know, know about how he got the whole damn neighborhood, even the non-Irish to vote overwhelming for Jack Kennedy from his stoop over at Harry’s. And about how Harry was “connected,” seriously connected, and never had to worry about a bust when he ran his “book” right out in the open (Daniel III had even seen the fabled book, filled with byzantine writing, lying right on the counter one time). Yah, Daniel III wanted to know all that stuff, and his grandfather‘s role in it.

Fast forward 2011-A old man, watched or unwatched he was not sure, and the watching part did not matter, did not matter like it did with that other old man a half century before had been watched, sat, memory sat, on an aluminum bleacher at the corner of Welcome Young Field on the Fourth Of July and wondered, wondered out loud, when the North Adamsville Sons of Hibernia stopped organizing the annual festivities. (Probably from the multi-hued of colors of those passing by him, black, Latinos, Asian, and white, Irish white he could tell, when the neighborhood “changed” or those old-timers died off or got cranky.) Wanted to know when the three gin mills (still film noir enthralled) closed up shop. (Probably the same as above.) Wanted to know about what ever happened to old “connected” Harry. Wanted to know why the park seemed smaller to his adult eye (and was actually smaller since a chuck of it had been chopped off when they expanded the Red Line subway to North Adamsville.) But he mainly wanted to know all that stuff that his grandfather never told him, and with another more dastardly stroke a couple of years after that last one never could. Yes, as he stood up and started to drag his own lame arthritic leg and ankle, remarkably like his own grandfather’s halting gait, back across the field in front of his grandparents’ house (long since sold off to strangers) he still really did want to know all that stuff, and his grandfather’s role in it.

Poet’s Corner- Langston Hughes- Juke Box Love Song

He, Jimmy Sands, new in town, new in New Jack Cityalthough, not new to city life havinglived in Baltimore, Detroit, Chi Town, Frisco and Seattle along the way decided to hit the uptown hot spots one night. Not the “hot’ hot spots like the Kit Kat Club which was strictly for the Mayfair swells, or the Banjo Club, the same, but the lesser clubs, the what did he mock call them, yah, “the plebeian clubs,” which translated to him as the place where hot chicks, mostly white, Irish usually, from the old country, all red-headed, all slim and slinky, all, all, pray, pray, ready to give up that goddam novena bookthey carried around since birth, maybe before, and live, read give in to his siren song of love, and ditto some sassy light-skinned (high yella his father, his father who never got beyond Kentucky-born nigra to designate the black kindred, called them) black girls, steamy Latinas with those luscious lips and far-way brown eyes, and foxy (foxy if he could ever understand them, or rather their wants) Asian girls, a whole mix, a mix joined together by one thing, no, two things, one youth, young, young and hungry, young and ready, young and, well, you know, young and horny, and two, a love of dancing, rock and roll dancing (and in a pinch, maybe that last dance pinch, in order to seal the evening’s deal, a slow one.

So one James Sands, taxi-driven, indicating that for once in his tender young life that he was flush with dough (having just done a seaman’s three month tour of every odd-ball oil tanker port of call in the eastern world it seemed, he was not sure that he would ever get that oil tank smell out of his nostrils, all he knew was that he would have to be shanghaied or something to get him back on one of those dirty buggers) and ready to spend it on high- shelf liquor (already having scored some precious high end jimson, you know, weed, reefer in case he got lucky), some multi-colored women (choices listed see above), and some music, alighted (nice) in front of Jim Sweeney’s Hi Hat Club up around 100^thStreet just around where things began to mix and match in the city. The only problem, when he inquired, inquired of that beautiful ganga connection, was that while Jim Sweeney’s had plenty of high- priced, high-shelf liquor and plenty of that mix and match bevy of women that the place had no live band for dancing just a jukebox. But a jukebox that had every kind of song, rock and blues song, you could ask for and the speakers were to die for. So here he was.

As Jimmy entered (nice, no cover) he remembered back to the old neighborhood, the old high school after school scene, in dockside Baltimore, at Ginny’s Pizza Parlor where every cool guy and gal went to have their chilling out pizza and soda, maybe a couple of cigarettes and to play about ten songs on Ginny’s jukebox. He remembered too that afternoon when Shana, long, tall, high yella (sorry) Shana, from the cheerleaders squad showed up there alone, and Shana, if you had seen her would under no circumstances ever need to be alone in any spot in this good green earth much less at Ginny’s. Seems she and her boyfriend had had a falling out and she was on the prowl. Taking his chances Jimmy, old smooth Jimmy, asked her to dance when somebody put Chuck Berry’s Roll Over Beethoven on, and she said, yes, did you hear that, yes. And that dance got him a couple more, and then a couple more after that, until Shana said she had to leave to go home for some supper and then somebody put on Ballad of Easy Rider, a slow one by The Byrds, and that was their last chance dance. They saw each other a few times after that, had shared some stuff, but, hell, there was no way in that damn Baltimore city that a whitebread (term of art used in the neighborhood so take no offense) and a high yella (take offense) could breathe the air there together, although he was ready to jump the hoops to do the thing. Maybe tonight, maybe in the crazy mix and match night if he didn’t get distracted by some red-headed Irish girl ready to burn that damn novena book for some whiskey and smoke, he might find his Shana, make something of it, and make the East River smile.

Juke Box Love Song

I could take the Harlem night
and wrap around you,
Take the neon lights and make a crown,
Take the Lenox Avenue busses,
Taxis, subways,
And for your love song tone their rumble down.
Take Harlem's heartbeat,
Make a drumbeat,
Put it on a record, let it whirl,
And while we listen to it play,
Dance with you till day--
Dance with you, my sweet brown Harlem girl.

Langston Hughes

From The Boston Bradley Manning Support Committee Archives (September 2012)

Let’s Redouble Our Efforts To Free Private Bradley Manning-President Obama Pardon Bradley Manning -Make Every Town Square In America (And The World) A Bradley Manning Square From Boston To Berkeley to Berlin-Join Us In Davis Square, Somerville –The Stand-Out Is Every Wednesday From 4:00-5:00 PM

Markin comment:

The Private Bradley Manning case is headed toward a mid- winter trial. Those of us who support his cause should redouble our efforts to secure his freedom. For the past several months there has been a weekly stand-out in Greater Boston across from the Davis Square Redline MBTA stop (renamed Bradley Manning Square for the stand-out’s duration) in Somerville on Friday afternoons but we have since July 4, 2012 changed the time and day to 4:00-5:00 PM on Wednesdays. This stand-out has, to say the least, been very sparsely attended. We need to build it up with more supporters present. Please join us when you can. Or better yet if you can’t join us start a Support Bradley Manning weekly stand-out in some location in your town whether it is in the Boston area, Berkeley or Berlin. And please sign the petition for his release either in person or through the <i>Bradley Manning Support Network</i>. I have placed links to the <i>Manning Network</i> and <i>Manning Square</i> website below.

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Bradley Manning Support Network
http://www.bradleymanning.org/

Manning Square website
http://freemanz.com/2012/01/20/somerville_paper_photo-bradmanningsquare/bradleymanningsquare-2011_01_13/
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The following are remarks that we have been focusing on of late to build support for Private Manning’s cause at stand-outs, marches and rallies.

We of the international anti-war movement were not able to do much to affect the Bush- Obama Iraq war timetable or, as of now, the Afghanistan one, but we can save the one hero of that war, American soldier Private Bradley Manning. The Manning legal case, and Private Manning as an exceptionally brave individual, can and should serve to rally all those looking for a concrete way to express their anti-war outrage at the continuing atrocious American imperial war policies. The message below can serve as a continuing rationale for my (and your) support to this honorable whistleblower.

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Veterans for Peace proudly stands in solidarity with, and in defense of, Private Bradley Manning.

I stand in solidarity with the alleged actions of Private Bradley Manning in bringing to light, just a little light, some of the nefarious war-related doings of this government, under Bush and Obama. Those precious bits of information leaked to< i>Wikileaks</i> about American soldiers committing war atrocities in Iraq as chronicled in the tape known on <i>YouTube</i> as< i>Collateral Murder</i> and the <i>Iraq and Afghan War Diaries</i>. If he did such acts they are no crime. No crime at all in my eyes or in the eyes of the vast majority of people who know of the case and of its importance as an individual act of resistance to the unjust and barbaric American-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I sleep just a shade bit easier these days knowing that Private Manning may have exposed what we all knew, or should have known- the Iraq war and the Afghan war justifications rested on a flim-flam house of cards. American imperialism’s gun-toting flim-flam house of cards, but cards nevertheless.

I am standing in solidarity with Private Bradley Manning because I am outraged by the treatment meted out to Private Manning, presumably an innocent man, by a government who alleges itself to be some “beacon” of the civilized world. Bradley Manning has been held in solidarity at Quantico, other locales, and now at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas for over two years, and has been held without trial for longer, as the government and its military try to glue a case together. The military, and its henchmen in the Justice Department, have gotten more devious although not smarter since I was a soldier in their crosshairs over forty years ago.

Many of us have become somewhat inured to the constant cases of jackboot torturous behavior on the part of the American military in places like Guantanamo, Bagram and other national security hellhole black box locations against foreign nationals. We have also become inured, or at least no longer surprised, when American civilian citizens are subject to such actions, and more likely death. However, as recent allegations of pre-trial torturous conduct condoned by high military authority (see the allegations and motion to dismiss charged on the< i>Bradley Manning Support Network </i>website) by Private Manning’s civilian defense lawyer David Coombs make clear, those acts are not confined to foreign nationals and American civilian citizens. The torture of Private Manning, an American soldier, by the American government should give us all pause. And should have us shouting to the heavens for his release.

These are more than sufficient reasons to stand in solidarity with Private Manning and will be until the day this brave soldier is freed by his jailers. And I will continue to stand in proud solidarity with Private Manning until that great day.

I urge everyone to sign the petition calling on the American military to free Private Bradley Manning either here or on the <i>Bradley Manning Support Network</i> website. And if we cannot get Private Manning freed that way I urge everyone to begin a campaign in your area to call on President Barack Obama, or whoever is president while Private Manning is incarcerated, to pardon this brave soldier. The American president has the constitutional authority to grant pardons to the guilty and innocent, the convicted and those facing charges. I call on President Obama to pardon Private Manning now.

Immediate Unconditional Withdrawal of All U.S./Allied Troops And Mercenaries From Afghanistan! Hands Off Iran! Free Private Manning Now! President Obama Pardon Private Manning!

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"God knows what happens now. Hopefully worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms...

I want people to see the truth... because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public."

—online chat attributed to Army RFC Bradley Manning

Accused Wikileaks Whistleblower Bradley Manning, a 23-year-old US Army intelligence analyst, is accused of sharing a video of the killing of civilians— including two Reuters journalists—by a US helicopter in Baghdad, Iraq with the Wikileaks website.

He is also charged with blowing the whistle on the Afghan War Diary, the Iraq War Logs, and revealing US diplomatic cables. In short, he's been charged with telling us the truth.

The video and documents have illuminated the true number and cause of civilian casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, human rights abuses by U.S.-funded contractors and foreign militaries, and the role that spying and brines play in international diplomacy.

Half of every edition of The New York Times has cited one or more of these documents during the past year. The leaks have caused Amnesty International to hail Wikileaks for catalyzing the democratic middle eastern revolutions and changing journalism forever.

What happens now is up to YOU!

Never before in U.S. history has someone been charged with "Aiding the enemy through indirect means" by making information public.

A massive; popular outpouring of support for Bradley Manning is needed to save his life.

We are at a turning point in our nation's history. Will we as a public demand greater transparency and accountability from pur elected leaders? Will we be governed by fear and secrecy? Will we accept endless war fought with our tax dollars? Or, will we demand the right to know the truth—the real foundation of democracy.

Here are some actions you should take now to support Bradley:

» Visit www.standwithbrad.org to sign the petition. Then join our photo petition at iam.bradleymanning.org

» Join our facebook page, savebradley,

to receive campaign updates, and follow SaveBradley on twitter

» Visitwww.bradleymanning.org and

download our Organizer Toolkit to learn howyou can educate community members, gain media attention, and donate toward Bradley's defense.

The People Have the Right to Know...

Visit wvwv.braclleymaiiniiig.org to learn howyou can take action!

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What did WikiLeaks reveal?

"In no case shall information be classified... in order to: conceal violations of law, inefficiency, or administrative error; prevent embarrassment to a person, organization, or agency... or prevent or delay the release of information that does not require protection in the interest of the national security."

—Executive Order 13526, Sec. 7.7. Classification Prohibitions and Limitations

"Is this embarrassing? Yes. Is this awkward? Yes. Consequences for U.S. foreign policy? I think fairly modest."

—Robert Gates, Unites States Secretary of Defense

PFC Bradley Manning is a US Army intelligence specialist who is accused of releasing classified information to WikiLeaks, an organization that he allegedly understood would release portions of the information to news organizations and ultimately to the public.

Was the information that PFC Manning is accused of leaking classified for our protection and national security, as government officials contend? Or do the revelations provide the American public with information that we should have had access to in the first place? Justwhat are these revelations? Below are some key facts that PFC Manning is accused of making public.

There is an official policy to ignore torture in Iraq.

The "Iraq War Logs" published by WikiLeaks revealed that thousands of reports of prisoner abuse and torture had been filed against the Iraqi Security Forces. Medical evidence detailed how prisoners had been whipped with heavy cables across the feet, hung from ceiling hooks, suffered holes being bored into their legs with electric drills, urinated upon, and sexually assaulted. These logs also revealed the existence of "Frago 242,"an order implemented in 2004 not to investigate allegations of abuse against the. Iraqi government This order is a direct violation of the UN Convention Against Torture, which was ratified by the United States in 1994. The Convention prohibits the Armed Forces from transferring a detainee to other countries "where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture." According to the State Department's own reports, the U.S. government was already aware that the Iraqi Security Forces engaged in torture (1).

U.S. officials were told to cover up evidence of child abuse by contractors in Afghanistan.

U.S. defense contractors were brought under much tighter supervision after leaked diplomatic cables revealed that they had been complicit in child trafficking activities. DynCorp — a powerful defense contracting firm that claims almost $2 billion per year in revenue from U.S. tax dollars — threw a party for Afghan security recruits featuring boys purchased from child traffickers for entertainment. DynCorp had already faced human trafficking charges before this incident took place. According to the cables, Afghan Interior minister HanifAtmar urged the assistant US ambassadorto"quash"the story.These revelations have been a driving factor behind recent calls for the removal of all U.S. defense contractors from Afghanistan (2).

Guantanamo prison has held mostly innocent people and low-level operatives.

The Guantanamo Files describe how detainees were arrested based on what the New York Times referred to as highly subjective evidence. For example, some poor farmers were captured after they were found wearing a common watch or a jacket that was the same as those also worn by Al Queda operatives. How quickly innocent prisoners were released was heavily dependent on their country of origin. Because the evidence collected against Guantanamo prisoners is not permissible in U.S. courts, the U.S. State Department has offered millions of dollars to other countries to take and try our prisoners. According to a U.S. diplomatic cable written on April 17, 2009, the Association for theDignity of Spanish Prisoners requested that the National Court indict six former U.S. officials for creating a legal framework that allegedly permitted torture against five Spanish prisoners. However,"Senator Mel Martinez... met Acting FM [Foreign Minister] AngelLossada... on April 15. Martinez...-underscored that the prosecutions would not be understood or accepted in the U.S. and would have an enormous impact on the bilateral relationship"(3).

There is an official tally of civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Even though the Bush and Obama Administrations maintained publicly that there was no official count of civilian casualties, the Iraq and Afghanistan War Logs showed that this claim was false. Between 2004 and 2009, the U.S. government counted a total of 109,000 deaths in Iraq, with 66,081 classified as non-combatants. This means that for every Iraqi death that is classified as a combatant, two innocent men, women or children are also killed (4),

FOOTNOTES:

(1)Alex Spillius, "Wikileaks: Iraq War Logs show US ignored torture allega-

tions,"Telegraph, October 22,2010. http://www.telegrapti.co.uk/news/

woridnews/middleeast/iraq/8082223/WiMleab-lraq-War-Logs-show-US-

ignored-torture-allegations.html.

(2)foreign contractors hired Afghan 'dancing boys; WikiLeaks cable

reveals'guanJian.co.uk, December 2,2010, http://www.guardian.co.tik/

world/2010/dec/02/foreign-contractors-hired-dancing-boys

(3) Scott Shane and Benjamin Weiser.The Guatanamo Files: Judging De­tainees'Risk, Often With Rawed Evidence'New York Times, April 24,2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/2S/world/guantanamo-files-flawed-evidence-for-assessing-risk.html;'US embassy cables: Don't pursue Guantanamo criminal case, says Spanish attorney general'guardian.co.uk, December 1,2010, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/202776.

(4) Iraq War Logs Reveal 15,000 Previously Unlisted Civilian Deaths,' guard-ian.co.uk, October 22,2010, http://www.guardian.co.uk/won'd/2010/ oct/22/true-civilian-body-count-iraq

From The Boston Bradley Manning Support Committee Archives (February 23,  2013)

Free Private Bradley Manning Stand-Out-Park Street Station-Boston –Saturday February 23, 2013 --1:00 to 2:00 PM-1000 Days Is Enough

 

Support And Build The Bradley Manning International Day Of Solidarity

From The Bradley Manning Support Network website:

“On February 23, 2013, the Bradley Manning Support Network is asking supporters to take action internationally in protest of Bradley’s 1000th day of being imprisoned without trial. Enough is enough. Bradley has been denied his right to a speedy trial.

For following his conscience and standing up for Americans’ right to know what our government is doing with our tax dollars, young whistle-blower Bradley Manning has  spent three birthdays in prison. His excellent legal defense continues to fight hard against a government prosecution that hinders access to important evidence at every turn.

In addition to aggressively persecuting Bradley with the Espionage Act and an egregious “aiding the enemy” charge, the military subjected him to unlawful pretrial punishment and has denied him his constitutionally mandated right to a speedy trial. Bradley’s pretrial treatment has been wholly un-American. It’s up to us as fellow citizens to see that our constitutional rights are upheld and to ensure that the military isn’t given a free pass for their mistreatment of Bradley…”

Pardon Private Bradley Manning Stand-Out-Central Square, Cambridge, Every Wednesday, 5:00-6:00 PM-Check website below - http://freemanz.com/2012/01/20/somerville_paper_photo-bradmanningsquare/bradleymanningsquare-2011_01_13/

 

When The Blues Is Dues- When A Girl Has Got To Have It- Bessie Smith’s“Put A Little Sugar In My Bowl”-Take Two

… she admitted it, had admitted to herself earlier that evening, she needed, no, she wanted a man, a good man, hell, an average man, that night. She was tired of turning herself on her stomach in bed, her lonesome bed, and manipulating her tongue- wetted fingers deep down between her thighs rapidly for some thrills (rapidly, unlike some women, according to her girl talk friends, was the best way that she could get her thrills).After a streak of bad breaks (she, before she got her current job working as a pool secretary, had been a waitress, a cocktail waitress, in a joint where every guy, married, single, a fag or two even, thought he could hit on her, and the management had expected her to take the cue, which she did for a while until she felt that she was nothing but low-priced whore and left) this bad karma , and bad, almost evil men she had, what did Bessie Smith call it in that gin house, barrelhouse song, oh yah, she had her wanting habits on. No question.

So fortified with a few shots of home scotch, high shelf-stuff some long ago guy, some guy with dough and maybe his own wanting habit son had brought along to seal the deal when she was on an earlier prowl, she went out, hailed the nearest cab, and went up to the Cotton Club all by her lonesome. If the sight of a good-looking dame with alabaster white skin, blue eyes, blond, real blonde, well, blonde with brownish highlights as she told the girls at the water cooler at work when they noticed, as they would, her new “color,” long legs and bedroom-begging hips ready to play house didn’t wake up some good, hell again, average guy, she swore she would go into a nunnery, well, maybe not a nunnery but do something like that to cure her itch and get back at those bastards who took her for a ride and then left her flat.

The point was to be a little subtle when she got there, since a single woman looking like she looked, all long legs slinky dress, and looking like she was on the prowl, at that club meant only one thing and she would not have to draw the right guy a diagram to know what that thing was, if he was a right guy. She got out of the cab, paid off the cab driver and added a good tip for good luck and entered the club. No stranger she to the wilds of the Cotton Club, but previously she had been somebody’s “exclusive” (that “exclusive” was a story unto itself and the last damn time she would be somebody’s hands-off mistress while he was sitting at home most nights with wifey and she with just her wetted fingers for comfort, and so was a little hesitant as she headed to the bar, sat down at a corner stool, opened up her purse and pulled out a cigarette just like in the movies. No bites. No guy coming up out of nowhere to light the damn thing and make some small talk.

She stood up for a moment to arrange her drink to give the boys a good look. Still no bite. A guy, a good-looking guy, looked in her direction, looked like a taker but then along came his honey from the Ladies’ Room and that dream flickered out. Then from behind her came a soft male voice, not feminine, but soft, like the guy was a little unsure of himself too. She turned in his direction and saw a fairly good-looking guy, maybe a professor over at Columbia or something like that from his airy look. He had asked if he could buy her a drink, she automatically said no, her womanly first response no, and then on some kind of cosmic whim, said hell, this guy is maybe it tonight. As she said,“yes scotch and water please” she thought how it was funny that guys always thought it was only them that were sex hunger and wouldn’t this professor be surprised at that if he knew his chances of getting laid tonight were looking better than when he, single man, came into the notorious Cotton Club.

As it turned out this guy wasn’t a professor but another one of those dime- a- dozen writers from down in the Village who are always trying to find themselves, and glad to tell you about the voyage. Although this guy turned out to have a big knowledge of blues stuff, stuff that she was interested in, stuff that if things worked out she might be able to get out from under that steno pool she was now imprisoned in and get a job in some club, maybe not the Cotton Club, but a club, as a torch singer. So they spent a lot of the talking about blues and jazz stuff, having some more loose scotches, and having a dance or two if the song was right. She noticed that when she danced with him he held her firmly but not tightly, the right way, and she also noticed that when they danced she was getting a little steamy, a little steamy in that old love puddle way. About two o’clock she asked him if he wanted to go home with her and before he said yes, fairly drunk at that point, but also filled with hopeful desire that this guy would be alright, she asked him point blank as they entered a waiting cab if he “would put a little sugar in her bowl.” And knowing the exact meaning of that reference when they hit her place he did…

When The Blues Is Dues- The Byrds So You Want To Be A Rock And Roll Star

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

…who knows when that sound hits the brain, or rather sounds put together to make the sway, to make the movement, and, in the end, that ferocious desire to replicate that long ago felt tribal combination. Maybe it went back to the womb, sitting, better rolling and hence a jump up on the swaying , all attuned to every stimulant, repeated back to some primeval forest dwelling, Adam and Eve time, maybe before, maybe. Or more realistically maybe back to cradle Mother Africa times, high wind-swept desert time in some Nile river flow, all bunched up against old Pharaoh’s lashes, and sing- song was the only way to keep rolling those stones up that pyramid hill. And some ancient forbear hearing that rushing river and those desert winds started swaying, started moving just a little bit different from cave times, and kept that thought embedded in all the slave ages. Or maybe, and here I speak of Billy maybe, Billy Riley from the old neighborhood, hometown Hullsville, maybe, it was just some reaction, from the womb or not, to the sounds hear in about 1943, his birth year, coming from some old wooden-faced RCA radio booming out Doris Day, Harry James, Lena Horne, the Duke, the Count, the Inkspots, and he said, no, declared, no way, no way in hell was that his sway (although he may, or may not, have known to use that neighborhood friendly word).

And the reason that Billy, William Riley, was saying that big “no”however he expressed it was because in the year of our lord 1955 he saw, saw live on television, all in beautiful black and white, Mister Billy Haley and his Comets performing Rock Around The Clock (and later Elvis, and Bo, and Chuck, and Jerry Lee but Brother Haley was the ding-dong-daddy that got him swaying that ancient sway) and that settled things, settled things for one Billy Riley, at least while the dream held. Billy Riley decided right then and there that he had his ticket out of the no dough, no girls, nowhere old town. And he almost made it, almost turned the tide, the red sea tide on old Pharaoh.

See Billy had a pretty good voice, a pretty solid voice for a twelve year old, a little Elvis snarl and turned- up lip voice, a little be-bop be-bop Bo Diddley beat feel, a little manic Jerry Lee squeal in just the right places. Check. Billy had pretty good moves, natural untrained moves, moves that with a little help could be twisted in some sellable commodity. Check. Billy also had good looks, maybe not the haughty Elvis flip, or Jerry Lee jut jaw but good enough. Check. And Billy, in old sixth grade class, at school dances, and church concerts got the girls going, got them going maybe too much (got them wet, sweaty, whatever, if one was to believe the talk in the dance or concert girls’ room at intermission or at Monday morning before school girl gabs). Check. Moreover Billy was ready, more than ready, after a few successes winning contests in local talent shows (really against nothing competition except one doo wop girl three some that beat him bad but he chalked that up to them being “hot”) and after he started drawing scout attention, to sell himself to the devil, the devil’s brother, or whomever one sold out to in order to get that old neighborhood jail break-out chance. Check

But see too something happened to Billy, happened out of the blue, when he hit thirteen, his voice changed and he started sounding like all smooth and silky like Mister Perry Como and so he was finished before he even began (although the girls still hovered around him for a while). But know this too through a troubled youth (his parents divorced, father off with some woman, heading south, and mother picking up guys, “uncle” guys, whenever she had the chance), through a couple of scrapes with the law (a couple of off-hand gas station robberies, kid’s stuff) , through two tours in‘Nam (and a couple of purple hearts and some other medals) , through a couple of drug addictions (reefer, sister), through a couple of bouts of homelessness (one after his first marriage fell through the floor)Billy Riley never lost that idea that he could have been a rock and roll star, could have challenged the king in all his glory. Yah, maybe it did go back to Pharaoh times...

So You Want To Be A Rock 'n' Roll Star Lyrics

by The Byrds

from The Country Bears Soundtrack

So you want to be a rock and roll star?
Then listen now to what I say.
Just get an electric guitar
Then take some time
And learn how to play.
And with your hair swung right,
And your pants too tight
It's gonna be all right.
Then it's time to go downtown
Where the agent man won't let you down.
Sell your soul to the company
Who are waiting there to sell plastic ware.
And in a week or two
If you make the charts
The girls'll tear you apart.

The price you paid for your riches and fame,
Was it all a strange game?
You're a little insane.
The money, the fame, and the public acclaim,
Don't forget who you are,
You're a rock and roll star.

From The Center for Marxist Education

Special CME event on Robert F. Williams and the Deacons for Self-Defense, with James Smethurst, African-American Studies, UMass-Amherst

Time: 3-5pm

Place: The Center for Marxist Education, 550 Mass. Ave. 2d FL, in Cambridge

near the Central Square MBTA Staion on the Red Line


Massive racist violence challenged the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s. Robert F. Williams, leader of the NAACP in Monroe, NC, and a WWII and Korean War veteran, organized and advocated armed defense of the Movement against this racist violence, which emanated not only from the Klan but from police and sheriff departments (often closely connected to the Klan).

Williams placed a special emphasis on recruiting veterans. The NAACP removed him from his position, and the federal government persecuted him, forcing him into exile, first in Cuba then in China. From Cuba and China, he edited the radical black newspaper, The Crusader, and broadcast the radio show, Radio Free Dixie. He had a profound influence on the Black Liberation movement. Excerpts from a recent documentary on Williams will also be shown.

The speaker, Jim Smethurst, teaches African-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and has written many articles and books on the African-American struggle and culture. Don't miss this one!

Also on Saturday February 23:

PROTEST 1,000 DAYS OF DETENTION OF US ARMY PRIVATE BRADLEY

MANNING

Time: 1-2pm

Place: Pardon Bradley Manning Square, Park Street MBTA Station-Boston

Common, Boston, MA


Organized by the Bradley Manning Support Network (www.bradleymanning.org) who reports:

When he returns to court in Fort Meade, MD, for a pretrial hearing from February 26 to March 1, Judge Denise Lind will rule on the defense's motion to dismiss charges for lack of a speedy trial. Defense lawyer David Coombs has laid out the ways in which the government has violated the 5th and 6th Constitutional Amendments, Rule for Court Martial 707, and Uniform Code of Military Justice Article 10 in taking this long to try Bradley Manning. Prosecutors were supposed to arraign Manning within 120 days but took well over 600. They're also supposed to remain actively diligent throughout the proceedings, but Coombs has showed substantial periods of their inactivity and needless delay. Bradley's due process rights have been clearly violated, and the only legal remedy is to dismiss charges.

Free Private Bradley Manning Stand-Out-Park Street Station-Boston –Saturday February 23, 2013 --1:00 to 2:00 PM-1000 Days Is Enough

Support And Build The Bradley Manning International Day Of Solidarity

From The Bradley Manning Support Network website:

“On February 23, 2013, the Bradley Manning Support Network is asking supporters to take action internationally in protest of Bradley’s 1000th day of being imprisoned without trial. Enough is enough. Bradley has been denied his right to a speedy trial.

For following his conscience and standing up for Americans’ right to know what our government is doing with our tax dollars, young whistle-blower Bradley Manning has spent three birthdays in prison. His excellent legal defense continues to fight hard against a government prosecution that hinders access to important evidence at every turn.

In addition to aggressively persecuting Bradley with the Espionage Act and an egregious“aiding the enemy” charge, the military subjected him to unlawful pretrial punishment and has denied him his constitutionally mandated right to a speedy trial. Bradley’s pretrial treatment has been wholly un-American. It’s up to us as fellow citizens to see that our constitutional rights are upheld and to ensure that the military isn’t given a free pass for their mistreatment of Bradley…”

Pardon Private Bradley Manning Stand-Out-Central Square, Cambridge, Every Wednesday, 5:00-6:00 PM-Check website below - http://freemanz.com/2012/01/20/somerville_paper_photo-bradmanningsquare/bradleymanningsquare-2011_01_13/