I’ve just returned home from the World Against War demo today in London. It was a fantastic event, with an excellent turnout (between 10-40,000, according to the BBC) and a great atmosphere. The march was called to mark five years since the invasion of Iraq, although Israel’s recent crimes in Gaza were definitely on everyone’s mind – which is excellent, of course. The march was convened by the Stop the War Coalition around three basic demands: troops out from Afghanistan and Iraq, no attack on Iran and an end to the siege of Gaza. On all three, as Tony Benn was sure to remind us, the marchers spoke for the majority of British and world public opinion.
Tag: Activism
Mar 15 2008
Tibet Crisis Continues + ACTION ITEMS
In case you haven’t heard, there’ve been protests in Tibet the last few days marking the 49th anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising. These are some of the biggest demonstrations the country’s seen since the 1980s. The Chinese government has clamped down hard and violence has broken out.
Violent protests erupted Friday in a busy market area of Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, as Buddhist monks and other ethnic Tibetans clashed with Chinese security forces. Witnesses say the protesters burned shops, cars, military vehicles and at least one tourist bus.
The chaotic scene marked the most violent demonstrations since protests by Buddhist monks began in Lhasa on Monday, which was the anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule in 1959. The ongoing protests have been the largest in Tibet since the late 1980s, when Chinese security forces repeatedly used lethal force to restore order in the region.
The developments prompted the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, to issue a statement, saying that he was concerned about the situation and appealing to the Chinese leadership to “stop using force and address the long-simmering resentment of the Tibetan people.”
This particular media report skipped the last part of his statement: “I also urge my fellow Tibetans not to resort to violence.”
Mar 13 2008
A Tear For Si’an Kaan
cross posted from The Dream Antilles
The Si’an Kaan Bio-reserve is 1.3 million acres of protected land in the State of Quintana Roo, Mexico, about 2 hours south of Cancun, near Tulum. “Sian Ka’an” is translated from Mayan as “where the sky is born” or “gift from the sky”. I was there just a few days ago.
Please join me in paradise.
Feb 19 2008
The World As It Could Be
The only thing that never changes….is that everything always changes. However the rate of change undoubtedly fluctuates. If we look back at history we can see many periods and many points where the various conditions that normally cause slow and steady change suddenly converge and cause massive and rapid change, at least on the historical time scale. We seem to be in one of those periods right now.
But this time, unlike in the past, the change that is occurring as we speak is not limited to one culture or region. It is by its very nature, a planetwide phenomenon.
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Feb 11 2008
OK, Hillary, where are YOUR activists?
Noting that “my husband never did well in caucus states either,” Clinton argued that caucuses are “primarily dominated by activists” and that “they don’t represent the electorate, we know that.”
Now, I don’t care which candidate you support–personally, I support Obama, but that’s neither here nor there for the purposes of this post.
The fact that any candidate for the Democratic nomination can openly dismiss activists in such condescending terms is shocking. Senator Clinton apparently thinks that people who actually care enough about issues and are invested enough in a candidate to actually go out and suspend the routine of their daily lives to try to make a difference for the causes and candidates they support are in some way hijacking the “will of the electorate.”
More below…
Feb 05 2008
Obama for Organizer-in-Chief
Since I have came onto the little place we call the “netroots” I have written 63 blog posts. Many of them have been in favor of Barack Obama’s candidacy for president. So I thought it would be fitting the day before most of the nation votes, to write a sort of closing case for Obama. I have thought about many different ways I could explain my support. I could offer a wrap up of all the diaries I have written for him, I could make a new case, I could attack the other canidate. There were lots of ways I was thinking of doing this. But then this morning I read a article that pretty much summed up why I believe Obama is a better choice, a better choice for our party, our nation and our world.
The article is entitled “The Year of the Organizer” and it appeared on the American Prospect’s website. I’d like to explore that article and what it means to me.
Jan 22 2008
Wobblies Strike Starbucks: Let’s Help Them!
IWW Demonstraters at NYC Starbucks (NY TimesPhoto)
The NY Times has the story:
The dramatic battles of the American labor movement were often fought in hazardous settings like the coal fields of Kentucky or the textile mills of Massachusetts.
/snip
And so it was that a crowd of about 50 people wrapped in scarves and bandannas against the cold gathered Monday morning outside a Starbucks at the corner of Fifth Avenue and East 33rd Street.As their breath steamed the air, they chanted and sang. They carried long banners bearing the logo of the Industrial Workers of the World, a union founded in 1905 that has been trying to organize Starbucks workers since 2004.
Red and black anarchist flags waved in the wind, and one woman held aloft a placard depicting a pouncing black cat toppling what appeared to be a venti latte cup emblazoned with a dollar sign.
Typical New York Times. The labor struggle is supposed to be stuck in the 19th century and resemble Matewan or Hazard or Lawrence. Give me a break. This is 2008 and it’s time to organize and unionize the global latte retailer. And don’t remind me, please, that the Wobblies have been trying to organize Starbucks in NYC since 2004 and haven’t succeeded yet. Please. Enough is enough. It’s time.
Folks, can we help the Wobblies organize Starbucks? Of course we can. You’re smart. You drink coffee. You probably use their bathrooms and their hot spots. And you know it’s the right thing to do to help a union organize this industry. Let’s put our heads together and find ways to help. Put your ideas in the comments.
Of course, one of the things we might do immediately is stop swilling Starbucks in solidarity until they recognize this union. There are still plenty of non-globalized caffeine emporiums (emporia?) in Gotham and elsewhere in the world where we can download caffeine. These coffee purveyors have resisted the uniformity and standardized high priced Starbucks invasion. Instead of Starbucks we can go instead coffee places that are fair trade, organic, locally owned, non Global. Wouldn’t that be better? Wouldn’t we feel better about that? Wouldn’t we be able to snear at Starbucks consumers for being tools of oppression? Scabs? And so not hip?
I’m sure there are other things we can do. And folks like me, who are on a de facto Starbucks boycott already and have been for some time, probably need to do something to make our feelings felt. That’s what the comments are for: ideas to support this strike.
Organize Starbucks Already! Basta Ya!
Updated (5:24 pm ET): I put this up at orange. Some of the comments are astonishingly anti union. This is a surprise and a disappointment to me. To me, it’s an article of faith and reason that organized workers are in a much better position than unorganized workers. I thought that was beyond debate, but apparently, it’s not. Even on allegedly progressive/democratic blogs. For shame.
Jan 15 2008
Time To Get Into The Streets
This is stark, and it is maddening. This NY Times article says it succinctly:
The Iraqi defense minister said Monday that his nation would not be able to take full responsibility for its internal security until 2012, nor be able on its own to defend Iraq’s borders from external threat until at least 2018.
Those comments from the minister, Abdul Qadir, were among the most specific public projections of a timeline for the American commitment in Iraq by officials in either Washington or Baghdad. And they suggested a longer commitment than either government had previously indicated.
Pentagon officials expressed no surprise at Mr. Qadir’s projections, which were even less optimistic than those he made last year.
President Bush has never given a date for a military withdrawal from Iraq but has repeatedly said that American forces would stand down as Iraqi forces stand up. Given Mr. Qadir’s assessment of Iraq’s military capabilities on Monday, such a withdrawal appeared to be quite distant, and further away than any American officials have previously stated in public.
This means: US troops in Iraq until at least 2018. That means: ten more years of Iraq occupation and ten more years of US troops in harm’s way and ten more years of death and maiming in Iraq.
Friday is another Iraq Moratorium Day. I hope you know what to do.
Jan 04 2008
Mike says: ” “It’s the War,” Says Iowa to Hillary “
Michael Moore has it partly right, a Big Part, for the Failed Foreign Policies, The War in Iraq and on Terrorism, of this Incompetant, Corrupt Administration will be defining what this Country faces for Decades!
We have Set In Stone, what many in the World, had already thought about Us. And in doing so have Created even More Hatreds, towards the Country, but even more Damaging, towards Us the Citizens Of!
Dec 26 2007
Gratitude
An article called “Gratitude” by Joanna Macy was published in the November issue of Shambhala Sun, appropriately for Thanksgiving in the U.S., and also for the post-gifted holiday season.
But Macy’s concept of gratitude is especially interesting in that it doesn’t change as circumstances do: whether or not you got what you wanted for Christmas, or everyone in your family is healthy, or any of the other good things we are of course grateful for.
Macy is writing about a deeper gratitude, with spiritual and political ramifications.
The article begins:
“We have received an inestimable gift. To be alive in this beautiful, self-organizing universe–to participate in the dance of life with senses to perceive it, lungs that breathe it, organs that draw nourishment from it–it is a wonder beyond words. It is an extraordinary privilege to be accorded a human life, with self-reflexive consciousness that brings awareness of our own actions and the ability to make choices. It lets us choose to take part in the healing of our world.”
“Gratitude for the gift of life is the primary wellspring of all religions, the hallmark of the mystic, the source of all true art. Yet we so easily take this gift for granted. That is why so many spiritual traditions begin with thanksgiving, to remind us that for all our woes and worries, our existence itself is an unearned benefaction, which we could never of ourselves create.
That our world is in crisis–to the point where survival of conscious life on Earth is in question—in no way diminishes the value of this gift; on the contrary. To us is granted the privilege of being on hand: to take part, if we choose, in the Great Turning to a just and sustainable society. We can let life work through us, enlisting all our strength, wisdom and courage, so that life itself can continue.
There is so much to be done, and the time is so short. We can proceed, of course, out of grim and angry desperation. But the tasks proceed more easily and productively with a measure of thankfulness for life; it links us to our deeper powers and lets us rest in them….”
Dec 17 2007
It’s time to stop talking and complaining. It’s time for action.
Cross posted to Dailykos, VetVoice & Turn Maine Blue with link to here to post comments.
I am tired. So tired. I usually use an editor for my diaries because of my head injury and poor organization, grammar, repeating myself and essays that are generally too long. Those take me 10 hours or more and then an editor.
This one is straight from the heart and hip and will be written in short order and to the point (I hope).
During Viet Nam there were tons of protests and large marches and people in front of the
White house and more.
This war is even worse and the condition of our nation is far worse. We have some small and well meaning attempts at rallies and marches. Nothing near the ones of the Nam era.
Dec 15 2007
Finally Ending The Death Penalty
cross posted at The Dream Antilles
On Thursday, the New Jersey legislature voted to end capital punishment in that state. I was delighted by the breaking news, and posted an essay. Yesterday, I learned that around the world, death penalty abolitionists were rejoicing and that in Italy the Coliseum was being illuminated in celebration. I was delighted, and posted an essay. Today my happiness continued. The New York Times has an editorial about the death penalty. It begins:
It took 31 years, but the moral bankruptcy, social imbalance, legal impracticality and ultimate futility of the death penalty has finally penetrated the consciences of lawmakers in one of the 37 states that arrogates to itself the right to execute human beings.
This week, the New Jersey Assembly and Senate passed a law abolishing the death penalty, and Gov. Jon Corzine, a staunch opponent of execution, promised to sign the measure very soon. That will make New Jersey the first state to strike the death penalty from its books since the Supreme Court set guidelines for the nation’s system of capital punishment three decades ago.
Some lawmakers voted out of principled opposition to the death penalty. Others felt that having the law on the books without enforcing it (New Jersey has had a moratorium on executions since 2006) made a mockery of their argument that it has deterrent value. Whatever the motivation of individual legislators, by forsaking a barbaric practice that grievously hurts the global reputation of the United States without advancing public safety, New Jersey has set a worthy example for the federal government, and for other states that have yet to abandon the creaky, error-prone machinery of death.
More over the jump.