Bob Morris @ Apr 3rd 2003 23:59 - Category: Unfiled ;
More baying from the mad and insane
“Australian-born media tycoon Rupert Murdoch has shown true American patriotism by declaring that it was important that the world learned to “respect” America.”, this at a symposium hosted by convicted felon, Michael Milken.
Bob Morris @ Apr 3rd 2003 06:59 - Category: Unfiled ;
U.S. plan for seizing Baghdad
Send in the bulldozers: what Israel told marines about urban battles.
Today, the Democracy Now radio show interviewed Chris McGreal of the Independent, author of the story, who details how the U.S. sent 1,000 troops to Israel for “training” in this.
Democracy Now also reports, based on live interviews from Iraq, that the U.S. is using cluster bombs on civilian areas, with horrific results on women and children.
(the above stories will be on their website in audio format later today)
They also have an exclusive on their home page:
“U.S. military detains, beats and threatens to kill four foreign journalists in Iraq. A Democracy Now! interview with Israeli reporter Dan Scemama.”
Bob Morris @ Apr 3rd 2003 00:18 - Category: Unfiled ;
“Don’t mourn, organize”
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or “Wobblys”) are a militant labor union who gained renown in the early decades of the 1900’s.
They organized in industrial areas, and in mining and logging camps. One one memorable occasion, they marched on a logging camp in the northwest, and were met by the sheriff with a band of goons hired by management. The Wobblys said, “We have a constitutional right to organize here”. The sheriff replied, “There is no Constitution here”, and the goons attacked, badly injuring many, driving the Wobblys back.
A few day later, the Wobblys marched on the same camp again! That’s what they were made of. This time, they were successful, and they unionized it.
Joe Hill, perhaps the best known of all Wobblys, was their songwriter. In 1915, he was executed for murder. In a final letter to a supporter, he penned the now immortal words, “Don’t mourn, organize”.
Inded. Many of us in the peace movement, myself included, have literally made ourselves sick over this war. I’ve pushed myself way too hard, many of my friends have too, feeling sick over, and mourning this insane war.
So,
This is a marathon, not a sprint. Pace yourself. Slow down. Take some time off, get perspective. Look at a flower.
However
Illegitimus non carborundum est.
(Don’t let the bastards get to you).
And remember what Joe Hill said!
P.S. From the historical section of the current IWW website: What they did 93 years ago echoes through to our day.
1910
* First reference to “direct action” in IWW publications.
* First use of terms “sabotage” and “passive resistance” in IWW publications.
Bob Morris @ Apr 3rd 2003 00:11 - Category: Unfiled ;
Open letter from Tom Hayden
Tom Hayden, of course, has been an activist and organizer since the early 60’s. This open letter has many useful insights. It’s long - and worth reading. Emphasis added.
“With the mainstream media already questioning the administration’s false optimism, it’s hard to make predictions as to where this crisis is going. A hollow victory seems likely – turning iraq into our own gaza strip and west bank. Who knows? we nonetheless need a strategy into which our tactics blend, so these are notes intended to provoke discussion.
*Marching with 10,000 in LA the other day, reading about the 25,000-plus in Boston, I felt that the tide of street protests still runs strong. It’s crucial since it’s building a movement, signaling to the powers that we’re not going away, and virtually the only mechanism we have to make the corporate media recognize our existence.
Every peace and justice activist has to credit the organizations who have made these mass demonstrations happen since last fall.
Criticism of civil disobedience and street blockades in San Francisco has to be done constructively and carefully. We shouldn’t play into the NY Times attempt to separate the “civil” from the “wild” activist communities. The Bay Area people are brave brothers and sisters, thousands have gone to jail, they are putting the heat on Bechtel, and the world knows it.
My feeling is that if tying up traffic is counter-productive, activists will adapt and modify. They don’t need to be lectured or marginalized. It doesn’t work anyway.
*It seems to me also that the campaign focus against the military invasion of the corporate media is rapidly growing, both at organizational and grass-roots levels. We may obtain a few media opportunities as a result, but the main thing is to assure that the desk editors keep assigning reporters to our actions. Move.on and others doing a good job.
* the emphases on stopping the war, peace is patriotic and support our troops/bring them home are being noted, and lesser internal disputes need to be respectfully submerged.
* Our pre-war polling numbers are likely to come back. We are the iceberg and Bush is the Titanic.
* we must remain optimistic, flexible and creative. Targets for action (such as war profiteers) will keep appearing and multiplying as the days go on. The nature of a war is that it pushes things to the surface.
* very soon the battle for Baghdad will loom and the wheels of diplomacy can be expected to turn. Jeremy Brecher is on top of efforts to move the UN General Assembly into action. Certainly there will be an initiative to create a cease-fire, prisoner releases, and a new UN formula - perhaps too late.
* We must keep the momentum and increase our effectiveness. Repeating the same tactics can bring stagnation. Our numbers in the streets will not keep growing if we call demonstrations on a weekly basis. Time is needed for larger demonstrations to be staged, and those possibilities will be enhanced if people feel the plans are smart, strategic, effective.
* which brings me to this observation. As I marched along the empty streets of downtown LA, I wondered what if we marched in multiple columns through neighborhoods where people reside and gather? What if everyone of our 10,000 marchers had 50 leaflets to give out before the day’s work was done? 500, 000 leaflets left behind! What if the leaflets had the following messages:
(a) we want your support for our right to protest, it’s an American thing to do;
(b) we want you to understand why we are against this war and want to bring the troops home now;
(c) we want you to know the voting record of your congressperson or senator, and how to get hold of their staff.
In pursuing such an approach, we would satisfy several needs:
(a) the need to keep marching
(b) the need to explain and educate to a broader base
(c)the need to deepen the grass-roots base of the movement
(d) perhaps most important, the need to build effective political pressure while also strengthening the grassroots movement.
As a veteran of many campaigns, I can tell you that incumbent politicians are impacted, whether they admit it or not, by credible grassroots organizers going door to door in their districts telling voters that they stink (more appropriate terminology to be inserted here). This is especially true of Democratic incumbents who already know they are selling out their souls and their voters, and of any incumbent in a marginal district. And it’s even more likely to get a response if they think their might be a primary challenge.
Out of this process might come a “peace politics” strategy in the Democratic Party with an emphasis on holding the presidential candidates’ accountable in states (like Iowa) which already have a large anti-war voting constituency. The “peace politics” strategy might circulate a platform proposal to hand to candidates as they finesse their way through house parties and fundraisers, with the strong implication that voters and activist groups might hold back their endorsements and resources until the candidate’s positions are clarified fully.
Of course, the peace candidates already in the race should be and will be supported by many people who feel, correctly, that those candidates reach a wider public. In addition, the peace candidates already are a collective thorn in the side of the “major” (that is, compromised) candidates. At some point, the Democratic Party and its presidential nominee will have to attract millions of peace-minded Democrats back to the voting booth - with more than silky words. The Democratic Party will need every one of those votes.
The Green Party represents a parallel challenge. Hopefully its strategists are encouraging Ralph Nader to speak out nationally against the Iraq War on behalf of all those who voted for him or wished him well. At state and congressional levels, the Greens can be a major factor for wavering Democratic politicians. The Democratic party (and frankly, none of us) can defeat Bush in 2004 without respecting and building bridges to the Green Party and its constituents. It is not inevitable that the past be repeated if we start the dialogue now.
This memo is more political in content than most, but it is not intended to divert the movement into an electoral framework (as if anyone could). The point is that this movement needs to define pressure points in the system that can be targeted to help end this war, future wars and imperial ventures, and the Bush presidency - and keep building another and better world, beyond the present system’s boundaries, for the future.
At a recent discussion of Iraq between Sen. Hillary Clinton and Code Pink activists, the good Senator’s position was so disappointing that Jodi Evans handed her a “pink slip” she was wearing. The Senator walked out. Bridges were certainly burned. I might be so cautious that I would not have done it myself. But I have a feeling that the Senator’s outrage was connected to her inner knowledge of betrayal of all she once stood for. And I have a feeling that one day she will need the peace constituency she has abandoned”
Bob Morris @ Apr 3rd 2003 00:05 - Category: Unfiled ;
Bon appetit!
Researchers have for the first time documented “unacceptable levels” of man-made environmental toxins in the Inuit population of Greenland.
Traditional food sources like polar bears are affected. There is little doubt the toxins originate from the traditional local diet of polar bears, seals and whales, a diet which so far has been considered one of the healthiest on the planet.”
Bob Morris @ Apr 3rd 2003 00:04 - Category: Unfiled ;
Getting ugly
“French cemetery of Brit war dead defaced
French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin has pleaded for trans-Atlantic tolerance after graffiti was daubed on a British war cemetery in northern France.”
Bob Morris @ Apr 3rd 2003 00:03 - Category: Unfiled ;
Bob Morris @ Apr 3rd 2003 00:03 - Category: Unfiled ;
Great moments in Iraq War predictions
From ProRev
DAVID LETTERMAN, SEPTEMBER 11, 2002 - Are we going into Iraq? Should we go into Iraq? I’d like to go in. I’d like to get the guy. I don’t like the way the guy looks.
BILL CLINTON - He is a threat. He’s a murderer and a thug. There’s no doubt we can do this. We’re stronger; he’s weaker. You’re looking at a couple weeks of bombing and then I’d be astonished if this campaign took more than a week. Astonished.”
Bob Morris @ Apr 3rd 2003 00:02 - Category: Unfiled ;
Yet another reason to go organic!
“Organically grown foods higher in cancer-fighting chemicals than conventionally grown foods!
The findings appear in the Feb. 26 print edition of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society”
Bob Morris @ Apr 3rd 2003 00:01 - Category: Unfiled ;
“War” singer Edwin Starr dead
Your song lives on…
Bob Morris @ Apr 3rd 2003 00:00 - Category: Unfiled ;
Two headlines from the Guardian
No sniping, mortars, or tracer. And no sign of the dreaded Republican Guard
Pentagon plans for worst nightmare when invading Badgdad
I would assume the Republican Guard is waiting in Baghdad rather attacking us head on. Wouldn’t you do the same?
And that’s just what Robert Fisk is reporting:
Saddam’s masters of concealment dig in, ready for battle.
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