Thursday, May 21, 2015


Bernie Sanders Calls for Political Revolution Against Billionaires
Campaign Needs to Build Independent Political Power
 
Boldly calling for a "political revolution" against the "billionaires and oligarchs" who have hijacked the political system, Bernie Sanders has launched an insurgent campaign for President. The only self-described socialist in Congress, Sanders explained his decision to run to ABC News, saying "We need a political revolution in this country involving millions of people who are prepared to stand up and say 'Enough is enough,' and I want to help lead that effort." 
Contradicting the cynics who say Americans are hopelessly apathetic and conservative, his announcement has been met with a tremendous wave of enthusiasm. In the first day of his campaign 100,000 people signed up to get involved on his website and 35,000 people donated $1.5 million, more than any of other presidential contender raised in their first day. By the fourth day of his campaign, an incredible 75,000 people had donated $3 million at an average of $43 per donation. 99.4% of contributions to Sanders were for $250 or less.

 
This campaign can gain a big echo amongst the millions who are disgusted by corporate politics that are making the rich richer while living standards for the rest of us are increasingly lagging behind. This is why first the Occupy movement and now the fight for $15 have won such support across the country. It is also why there is increasing openness to the idea of a "third party" and explains how Kshama Sawant won almost 100,000 votes in 2013 when she was elected as a socialist to the Seattle City Council.
 
But unfortunately, despite Sanders being an independent member of Congress for the past 25 years, he has declared he will be seeking the Democratic Party nomination, a move Socialist Alternative has argued against over the past year.
 
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~ Delivered this message at the UNAC Plenary Panel entitled "Endless Imperial War" on May 9 in New Jersey

 

 
Neocons have successfully taken over both mainstream political parties in Washington. Obama’s administration is infested with the likes of:

Secretary of War Ashton Carter who wants confrontation with Russia and "preventive war” against North Korea and Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland who  is anti-Russian and was instrumental in toppling Ukraine's elected president just over a year ago.

The neocons are reigniting Cold War hysteria. 

Anyone in the west that speaks out against this provocative US-NATO chaos plan is “Putinized” in a classic replay of 1950’s style red-baiting.

Right after the US-NATO sponsored coup d’état in Kiev the neo-Nazi's were sent to take similar control of Crimea after their chaotic Maidan split the country and initiated civil war.

Scores of local Crimean citizens did much to defend themselves from the vicious attacks by the nationalist death squads.  Putin sent in the “little green men” to stabilize Crimea and the entire Russian operation was done without anyone (as far as I know) being killed.  In a subsequent referendum 95% of Crimean’s voted to join Russia.

Neo-Nazi's death squads have now been given official status inside Kiev's military.  This means they are getting training from the US Army who are now in western Ukraine. 

What is the plan? Continue to expand US-NATO bases up to the Russian border including Ukraine. Deploy so-called “missile defense” systems that are key elements in Pentagon first-strike attack planning. From eastern Ukraine US cruise missiles could reach beyond the Urals, where Russia’s main nuclear forces are located.

By 2020, when the current phase of NATO missile defense will be fully implemented, the MD shield (taking out Russia’s retaliatory capability) could be used after the US-NATO first-strike sword is thrust into the heart of Russia.

Russia has an aging satellite early-warning system and keeps its nuclear forces on launch on warning status – thus the chance of accidental nuclear war increases.  Forget any future negotiations on reductions of nuclear weapons – Russia and China repeatedly warn that US deployments of MD have killed nuclear disarmament talks.

The overall strategy, recently spelled out in a Chicago speech by George Friedman of Stratfor, is to destabilize the Putin government internally and externally which would create chaos and lead to regime change in Moscow.

One significant method of external destabilization is the European Reassurance Initiative signed by Obama at the cost of $985 million. These monies are for Pentagon "projects" that include: Airfield infrastructure & improvements for US-NATO war planes in Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania.

In late February US military vehicles paraded 300 yards from the Russian border in Narva, Estonia.  Narva sits 100km from Saint Petersburg. 

In early March the battles between the Ukrainian army and the pro-Russian self-defense forces in the east had largely stopped and heavy weaponry was being pulled back. The Minsk-2 cease-fire was then holding. At that same moment, US General Philip Breedlove, the top NATO commander in Europe, spoke to the media in Washington. Putin, Breedlove said, had once again "upped the ante" in eastern Ukraine by sending in Russian troops.

Der Spiegel reported that German leaders in Berlin were stunned. They didn't understand what Breedlove was talking about. The German government, supported by intelligence gathered from their own sources, did not share Breedlove’s irrational view.

In mid-April US airlift planes flew into western Ukraine delivering military hardware and soon thereafter hundreds of US Army “trainers” made the same journey followed by Canadian and other NATO troops. 

This military "capacity building" near the Russian border illustrates the game of hardball that Washington and Brussels are playing.  They are putting a loaded gun to Putin's head - the threat is being made to either submit or face expanded war and chaos similar to what the US-NATO have already unleashed in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and beyond.

The US corporate oligarchy thought they had Moscow safely in the bag back in the early 1990's.  Washington does not like to be denied and thus is willing to face a nuclear war with Russia in order to finish the job of corporate consolidation.  Sadly citizens in the US lack a clear understanding of the present situation. 

Not all of NATO is following the script, recently a Czech reserve unit issued the following statement: “We, the Czechoslovak soldiers in reserve, unanimously reject any participation in battles that are geopolitical acts of aggression of the global elite by way of NATO and the support of our governments.”

Last weekend more than 5,000 brave citizens in Kiev protested against the US-backed regime’s crackdown on political leaders and journalists – many of them killed in the past month.  Organizers of the protest were reportedly arrested following the march.

The US-NATO proxy war in Ukraine is a ‘trigger’ for a full-scale war with Russia.  In the past the peace movement has supported self-defense forces in places like El Salvador and Nicaragua.  We should be doing the same today in eastern Ukraine.

Russia has the world’s largest supply of natural gas… and due to climate change the Arctic ice is melting giving the oil industry the ability to ‘drill-baby-drill’ in that region.  Russia has the largest land border with the Arctic.  It’s clear that the job of the Pentagon is to serve as the primary resource extraction service for corporate capitalism.

Thank you.

Bruce K. Gagnon
 
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 443-9502
http://www.space4peace.org 
http://space4peace.blogspot.com  (blog)

Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth. - Henry David Thoreau
CIW list header

“Will Ben & Jerry’s Help Improve Conditions for Dairy Workers?”

dairy_workers_1_Fotor
Great new article in Civil Eats asks: “A little Justice With Your Cherry Garcia?”
Worker-driven Social Responsibility — the market-based model for the enforceable protection of human rights in corporate supply chains at the heart of the CIW’s Fair Food Program — is a proven success.  To quote an earlier post, entitled, “Worker-driven Social Responsibility (WSR): A new idea for a new century“:
… The Fair Food Program has effected unprecedented change in Florida’s fields since it was implemented across 90% of the state’s tomato industry in 2011.  It has eliminated or greatly reduced longstanding abuses from sexual harassment to modern-day slavery, added over $15 million [Update: now $17 million and counting] in Fair Food Premiums to farm payrolls, and earned the praise of human rights experts from the White House to the United Nations.  It has been called “one of the great human rights success stories of our day” in the Washington Post and “the best workplace monitoring program… in the US” on the front page of the New York Times.
President Clinton, on the occasion of the presentation of the 2014 Clinton Global Citizen Award to the CIW for “defending the human rights of farmworkers across the United States,” agreed, phrasing his opinion of the model in somewhat folksier language:
“You’ve got a success model, and you ought to put the pedal to the metal.”
Well, news came this week out of Vermont that an organization of dairy workers, Migrant Justice/Justicia Migrante, is doing just that.  Calling on Ben & Jerry’s to “stand up for farmworkers’ rights in its supply chain,” Migrant Justice launched a campaign this month to demand that the iconic ice cream giant use its market power to support a new worker-driven social responsibility program they are calling “Milk with Dignity”...
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Coalition of Immokalee Workers • PO Box 603, Immokalee, FL 34143 • (239) 657-8311 • workers@ciw-online.org
International week of actions
to close detention centres
 
 
 
Dear friends
 
We hope you can join in these international actions and circulate this call to your network.
 
SAVE THE DATE: In London, the All African Women's Group and others are planning a protest against detention on 15 June, 12- 2pm. More details soon.
 
International week of actions
to close detention centres
15 - 21 June 2015
http://www.refusingtokill.net/images/Spanish%20anti%20detention.jpg
To all organizations and collectives that are working for the closure of migrant detention centres and against migration policies that criminalize migrants and refugees:
The Spanish CIE´s NO Campaign is made up of organizations, collectives and individuals organized in different parts of Spain. The third State-wide meeting celebrated in December 2013 brought together organizations from the majority of Spanish territories with the aim of creating a common agenda.
One decision taken was to create an International CIE´s ¡NO! Campaign to further the work at European and World level and coordinate actions around specific dates. Last year, 2014, were registered actions around the 15J (Day Against Detention Centres) from Venice and Bologna (Italy), Tacoma (Washington – USA), Bedfordshire and Oxford (UK), Corinth (Greece) and finally from Ottawa (Canada).
From the Spanish CIEs ¡NO! Campaign, we ask you to support 15-21J 2015 Week Against Detention Centers (15 June, Day against Detention Centers), a week of concerted actions to demand the closure of the migrant detention centres.
Every organization can choose an action or activity. 15J provides a good opportunity to visualize our struggle, create links and to act in a coordinated fashion.
Right to migrate! Close Detention Centres!
End to racist stop and search! No more deportations!
 
We also invite your organization to the international meeting in Valencia in October.
You can send your proposed activity by e-mail to: carlossoledad@gmail.com
All activities will be showcased at this website: https://15jdiacontraloscie.wordpress.com/
This website also includes certain practical information to help organisations to join “15J – Action Day Against Detention Centers”. We are currently translating the main content into English.
Hope to hear from you soon,
Carlos Soledad
 
International Group Spanish CIE´s NO Campaign
Skype: carlossoledad
Phone/Whatsapp: +34 633 89 89 38