Listing of over 100 events in 60+ cities.

Chicago: Immigration march could draw 300,000 people

Los Angeles. Marches to cause gridlock

California schools. Will they empty for May 1 protest?

Las Vegas. Casinos fear boycott will cripple Strip

San Diego. Thousands expected

Orlando. Boycott, and human chain

And many, many more.

Politicians are dumbfounded by this. Millions are in the streets demanding equality and respect. D.C., much as they’d like to, can no longer evade the issue, as it has become front page nationwide. They can’t control it either. It didn’t come from manipulations by lobbyists, think tanks, and Congress, it wasn’t planned by them as another PR media hype. Instead, it roared out of the grassroots, from, by, and for the people.

Mainstream media is mostly clueless too. They’re looking at it from the outside. As well as doing their usual job of trying to create splits in the movement. They don’t understand it. It’s the birth of a new civil rights movement. That’s what we’re seeing. This is no transitory event.

The liberal and progressive blogosphere is mostly missing in action again. Just like they’ve been for the antiwar movement. Too busy faxing their Congresscritters and trying to raise the dead corpse of the Democratic Party, I guess.

Meanwhile, millions of immigrants and their supporters just showed them what to do. People in the streets. The immigrant rights movement, in just 2 months, has forced Congress to heed them. Now that’s real political power.

May 1 should be quite extraordinary.

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US charges ex-Abu Ghraib officer

The US military has charged the former head of the interrogation centre at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison over the abuse of Iraqi detainees.

Lt-Col Steven Jordan has been charged with seven offences including maltreatment of prisoners.

He is the first officer charged with criminal offenses for the atrocities of Abu Ghraib.

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Two immigrant rights demonstrations Monday in Los Angeles could each draw a half-million marchers or more, police said Thursday, as officials expressed concern about a major disruption of traffic, commerce and school.

This is this first time to my knowledge that LAPD has made crowd predictions in advance of the event. Odd. (Update: Police now say the total might be 500,000, which seems more realistic.)

Demonstrations are planned for downtown at noon and Mid-Wilshire at 4 p.m. Gascon said the LAPD is gearing up to deal with hundreds of thousands of demonstrators at each.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Cardinal Roger Mahony and others have encouraged protesters to attend the late-afternoon march from MacArthur Park down Wilshire Boulevard to La Brea Avenue, prompting authorities to say that crowd might be the larger of the two.

The MacArthur Park march (4 pm, MacArthur Park) does not endorse the boycott. Call it Protest-Lite. Also, the logistics are terrible. But, hey, if you want to march 4.1 miles in a straight line to a tar pit with no obvious way to get back, on a day when traffic will be gridlocked, then have at it.

The March 25 Coalition emphatically does endorse the boycott. They called the downtown march (Noon, Olympic & Broadway.) This march is 1.1 miles, and begins and ends near subway stops. Politically and logistically, this is the one to be at.

Major walkouts from schools are expected whether the mayor approves or not. It was apparently fine for him to lead student boycotts as a youth, but it’s not ok for anyone else to do the same now - according to him, that is. I’m guessing students will disagree.

Also, L.A. ports braced for May 1 truck driver boycott

Visits to Polizeros are 50% above normal. We’ve been averaging 3000 visits a day, Thursday was 4500. (I won’t have Friday’s numbers until the middle of Saturday.) Commenting here is way up too, and is almost entirely in posts about May 1.

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Excerpts from comments to posts here about May 1. (you never saw these comments because I deleted them.)

You are all ignorant puppets. — Nacho Sanchez

Nacho goes on to explains it’s all because of those commies at ANSWER. Ah, no. As most of you know, I’m in ANSWER, and while even those who loathe us will admit we are skilled organizers, nope, ain’t no way we could have mobilized the several million who have marched these past few weeks. What happened was a genuine grassroots upsurge. Deal with it, Nacho, and here’s a clue, lots of people in ANSWER are Latino and/or immigrants too. ANSWER is but one of dozens of groups and coalitions nationwide helping to build for May 1.

You Mexicans sure have big egos. — Proud 2b American

Asking to be treated as human beings, why that’s just darned uppity of them, isn’t it?

There is no way that a bunch of uneducated and illiterate peasants from rural Mexico could possibly organize this coordinated protest. — Sad American

Some undocumented workers might well speak three languages (their indigeneous language, Spanish, and English.) How many do you speak, Mr. Sad? P.S. Your rampant racism is showing. You should try harder next time to pretend you aren’t a bigot.

Note to bozos: If I delete your right-wing comment, sending it again multiple times, complete with insults, will not cause me to relent. Also, there are multiple ways to configure things so your comments are deleted before the moderation process, causing your deathless prose to go screaming into the void, unread by anyone.

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Major meatpacking plant gives 15,000 workers day off May  1.

California Senate votes to support work boycott

May 1 immigrant boycott aims to “close” US cities

“There will be 2 to 3 million people hitting the streets in Los Angeles alone. We’re going to close down Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Tucson, Phoenix, Fresno,” said Jorge Rodriguez, a union official who helped organize earlier rallies credited with rattling Congress as it weighs the issue.

From the listservs

At yesterday’s National Alliance for Human Rights meeting, it was announced that on May 1st, community leaders announce an international boycott against Coca Cola and its products (Minute Maid, etc.)  If amnesty is not granted then a second international company should be added to the list.  Wal-Mart?

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TheOilDrum, a blog by those in the oil industry with “politically diverse” views, have released a manifesto of sorts detailing why the mainstream response to rising oil prices will not solve anything.

We strongly feel that the leaders of both political parties are not only headed in the wrong direction with respect to gas prices, but we also worry that they fundamentally misunderstand the factors behind the current situation at gasoline stations

A few factors that effect oil pices

1. Oil companies do not single-handedly determine the price of oil. The price of oil is set on the crude oil futures market.

2. The output of major oilfields is declining and that we may now have reached a peak or plateau in global oil supply.

3. The geopolitical situation is volatile, and an astute citizen may notice that every time there is news from Nigeria or Iran, the price of oil goes up.

4. Countries like China and India are industrializing at a great pace.

Demagoguery and grandstanding are not strategies for addressing our energy problems. As an alternative, the editors of The Oil Drum put forth the following recommendations:

1. It is nonsensical for political leaders of both parties to eliminate the gas tax temporarily or permanently as this will only worsen our dependence on oil by disincentivizing the innovation of oil alternatives and oil conservation efforts.

2. Both mainstream American political parties are doing their country a disservice by accusing convenient scapegoats of price gouging or price fixing instead of educating the public about how the price of gas is actually set.

3. Right now, governments should be focused on helping us cure our “addiction to oil.”

The political discourse on this topic is simply so devoid of fact, and constructive discourse so buried and out of the mainstream, that we felt we needed to raise a voice of reason. Public officials will continue to misinform and obfuscate if we allow it.

Read the whole post, the above is an abbreviated version. This is blogging at its best.

Yes, they are completely correct when they say that oil prices are set by futures prices. While oil companies are certainly exploiting this for every penny they can gouge, the real problem, as they note, is that we are running out of cheap oil at the same time that demand rises sharply. Toss in the insurgency in Nigeria and possibility of war in Iran, then prices become even more volatile.

Their real point is, this is not a short term spike. Oil prices will not be going back to $1.50 a gallon ever. So, as a country, we need to come up with a plan now, because prices are going to stay high.

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Not meant to be inclusive!

Another Day in the Empire
Interesting views on the Middle East and the neocons. Impassioned but tends towards extreme gloom. Makes me want to scream, join an group and start organizing, you’ll feel better.

BlairWatch
Hard-hitting leftie blog from Britain. Started the “I’ll print the al-Jazeera memo” memo. It’s not a typo when they spell his name “Bliar.”

The Blue Voice
This one’s getting lots of notice lately. Progressive news and views from multiple bloggers.

Craig Murray
Ex-British ambassador to Uzbekistan who resigned after exposing British/US policy of sending prisoners there to be tortured for information.

Global Voices Online
Aggregates blog content from dozens of countries and assembles it in an easy to use fashion. Listen to what the world is saying.

L.A. Voice
Community blog in and about L.A. Fun to read, tilts leftward, covers all aspects of life in L.A.

Left I on the News
Exposes the deceptions and lies of government and mainstream media. Often uncovers stuff no one else noticed.

Life of Riley
Dave Riley from Australia, long time leftie organizer, blogs and podcasts about socialism, leftie politics, and more.

Nether World
A fellow traveler to BlairWatch. Hey, things are coming off the wheels for the government in the UK too, as blogged here.

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Sri Lankan rebels appealed to the international community to pressure the government against taking further military action in Tamil areas, saying the raids in response to a suicide bombing amounted to genocide.

The government of Sri Lanka has “openly declared war” and other countries are “turning a blind eye” to the assaults, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam said in a statement late yesterday after the air strikes on rebel positions. “We call on the international community to strongly condemn this genocidal attempt on the Tamil-speaking people.”

India loathes Tigers, fears impact of Sri Lanka war

No country mistrust the Tamil Tigers more than India but when Sri Lanka began bombing rebel positions this week its giant neighbour got nervous.

The air and artillery strikes, which followed a suspected Tiger suicide bomb attack that killed 10 and wounded the army commander, halted on Thursday, with the government under international pressure — not least from New Delhi — to stop.

In just a few weeks, things in Sri Lanka have gone from peaceful to nearly out of control.

More from DJ Mitchell, who lived in Sri Lanka for several years, working with Sarvodaya, an organization working to end the civil war.

In the past few weeks, violence has been increasing in the area of Trincomalee. LTTE attacks on the one hand, and Sinhala extremist attacks on the other, had already (according to BBC reports) driven several hundred people from their homes. The military appears not to have been involved in these attacks, although there are reports (also through BBC) of disappearances and extra-judicial killings at the hands of the security forces.

On Tuesday this week, a suicide bomber attacked Army HQ, seriously wounding the top general and killing 8 bystanders. On Wednesday, the military responded by bombing LTTE positions around Trinco, and the LTTE also used mortars against Navy ships. The LTTE reported 40,000 refugees were driven out, though my sources put that number closer to 15,000, and a smaller number around Batticaloa (which has not made the news).

On Thursday, there was a lull in the violence. Public gatherings in Colombo were banned “for public safety.” Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission has been working urgently to get the two parties back to the negotiating table.

Is this a return to war, or is it two sides jockeying for better position in prelude to further talks? My sources think it is the latter, though I am not completely convinced. What is most troubling to me about the events of this week is not the inter-party violence, but a return to the indiscriminate killing of civilians: by the LTTE’s suicide bomber and by military’s the shelling.

Everywhere I have gone in the war affected areas, Sinhalese people have told me, “We do not want to fight Tamils,” and Tamil people have told me, “We do not want to fight Sinhalese.” In my opinion, this is a war perpetrated by the leaders of both sides on the people of Sri Lanka. The challenge is getting the voice of the people to be heard.

How can the peace movement respond to this upsurge in violence? The plans we had continue to move forward, but clearly a new and significant response is called for if we are to have any effect on the situation. What that response will be we do not yet know. For now, it is back to the planning stage.

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Right now Congress is pushing a law that would abandon the First Amendment of the Internet — a principle called “network neutrality” that preserves the free and open Internet. Congress needs to hear from you today or they will hand over control of what you do online to companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast.

Politicians are trading favors for campaign donations from these companies. They’re being wooed by people like AT&T’s CEO, who says “the Internet can’t be free.” Sign this petition to tell your elected representatives to protect Internet freedom now. When you fill out the information and push submit, we will automatically send it to your Members of Congress.

Sign the petition

Online petitions don’t accomplish much, in my opinion, unless there’re people in the streets backing it up. However it only takes a few seconds. This battle is important and happening now. The real solution will come with a restructured system that takes control the Net out of the hands of private corporations - something many countries already have.

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In honor of Abramoff, watered-down ‘reform’

Washington lobbyists lobbied for a weak lobbying reform bill. They got what they lobbied for. Shouldn’t that be proof enough that most lobbyists — Jack Abramoff comes to mind — have too much power?

Not, apparently, for the Republican leadership that is pushing a watered-down version of already watered-down reform.

On the other hand, I’m not hearing Democrats scream loudly for genuine reform, are you?

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So I’m in the hotel lobby trying to get on the Net because the server the wireless in the room connects to wasn’t responding.

A techy-looking guy walks past, sees the PC, says I can’t get online, can you? Not in the rooms, I’m trying here, the lobby is a different net. He says, all I get is blank screens, I’m going outside to the parking lot where it’s cooler and I can scream.

Another Nethead. Addicted aren’t we?

PS I called tech support, told them their server was dead, and to their credit, an hour later, the room wireless was working. And that’s where this is coming from.

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Just heard some senator on NPR saying, because of gas prices, he was backing a $100 refund check to American drivers - and that this proves that “Congress gets it.”

It was the best laugh Sue and I had all day. I wonder, what planet is Congress from?

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We’re at a convention these next few days. The wireless isn’t working inthe room but is working in the lobby. So, blogging may (or may not) be haphazard the next few days. Depends if they fix their network or not.

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The Maoists were clear that the cease-fire is for three months only and “with the intention to encourage the political parties to announce an unconditional special assembly.”

The rebels are for now “being flexible in order to trust the parties” to help overthrow the king, Yadav said. “If anyone goes against the people, their downfall is inevitable, whether it is the political parties or the monarchy or any force.”

Note they specifically say the King and monarchy must go.

[tags]nepal[/tags]

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ExxonMobil’s Q1 profit rises seven per cent to $8.4 billion.

The corner station here in L.A., $3.19 for self-serve regular.

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The meme spreads - frontpage LA Times, on the spread of the May 1 boycott to Mexico and Latin America.

In Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, the Chamber of Commerce announced that its 5,000 members would neither buy nor sell U.S. products that day. And leaders of a Chihuahua state peasant group said they planned to block the bridges that link Ciudad Juarez and El Paso.

In Guatemala, activists who work with Maya Indians are planning to use community radio stations to spread word of the boycott to rural areas.

A commenter here last week said email was circulating Costa Rica about May 1 too.

What’s most amazing about all this, the historic March 25 march in L.A., and now the May 1 boycott, is that it’s coming straight out of the grassroots. Yes, there are organizers, but even they are stunned by the size of this emerging immigrant rights movement. While the chattering classes and Netizens look for guidance from D.C., workers across the country, Latino and non-Latino, undocumented as well as citizen, have marched in the streets by the literal millions. You bet it’s gotten the attention of D.C. And it’s come from the working class.

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Global Guerillas on the coming US attack on Iran

Despite the seeming inevitability of this path, the outcomes (”effects”) it would produce are far from inevitable. An attack of this type would be a global system shock that is rife with downside risks and uncertainties. Once the attack commences, the shock waves it produces would be far-reaching, unpredictable, and in most cases very bad. Even if the U.S. military is prepared to repel an Iranian counter-attack and armed revolts from Iraqi Shiite militia members, it’s impossible to prevent rocketing oil prices, global terrorist attacks, and severe diplomatic fall-out. Further, Iran’s government may prove to be more resourceful than anticipated and outlast the attack, only to resume production of nuclear materials with the intent of revenge. Worse yet, the US might inadvertently collapse the US-led post cold war environment as countries, distrustful of US intentions, scramble to safety amid rapidly gyrating economic and social instability.

Despite these well-founded fears, the lack of other viable options coupled with the pertinacious intent of the U.S. administration to stop Iran from building the bomb (heedless of the costs), will likely drive the Pentagon towards this method of attack. To the Bush administration, all alternatives are preferable to a nuclear-armed Iranian clerical regime with de facto control over Palestine’s Hamas, Shiite militias in Iraq, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and numerous other global terror groups. For those contemplating this attack, the Iranian regime, with Ahmadinejad as its public face, has become everything that Saddam promised to be and more.

A far saner solution is voiced by former US Senator James Abourezk, “To end terrorism, end illegal occupations.”

John Robb, who is most of Global Guerillas, tends to be accurate about what’s coming. His expertise is in what he calls open source warfare, networked organizations engaged in asymmetrical warfare against traditional militaries. I’ve no idea what his politics are, he never expresses them. Interesting guy.

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A country that fears small, distant countries to such an extent that it utilizes military in place of diplomatic means is not a superpower. The entire world knows that the US is not a superpower when its entire available military force is tied down by a small lightly armed insurgency drawn from a Sunni population of a mere 5 million people.

Neoconservatives think the US is a superpower because of its military weapons and nuclear missiles. However, as the Iraqi resistance has demonstrated, America’s superior military firepower is not enough to prevail in fourth generation warfare. The Bush regime has reached this conclusion itself, which is why it increasing speaks of attacking Iran with nuclear weapons.

The US is the only country to have used nuclear weapons against an opponent. If six decades after nuking Japan the US again resorts to the use of nuclear weapons, it will establish itself as a pariah, war criminal state under the control of insane people. Any sympathy that might still exist for the US would immediately disappear, and the world would unite against America.

A country against which the world is united is not a superpower.

– Paul Craig Roberts. Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. Former Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review.

Why is no one in Congress saying this? Will they again sit back, do nothing, and allow another war to begin? The consequences of attacking Iran will be a global conflagration, yet in D.C., both parties are doing nothing to stop it from happening. This is amorality of the worst kind. At least the neocons tell you where they stand, unlike the Democrats, who mouth platitudes about peace, then vote for war.

The people can stop the Iran war. Congress can not and will not.

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The record Atlantic hurricane season last year can be attributed to global warming, several top experts, including a leading U.S. government storm researcher, said on Monday.

“The hurricanes we are seeing are indeed a direct result of climate change, and it’s no longer something we’ll see in the future; it’s happening now,” said Greg Holland, a division director at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo.

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40,000 flee Sri Lanka violence

Some 40,000 civilians fled homes in northeastern Sri Lanka to escape government airstrikes on Tamil rebel areas in recent days that have killed at least a dozen people, the rebels said Thursday.

DJ Mitchell blogged here eloquently earlier today about the collapsing cease fire in Sri Lanka.

40,000 refugees in one day. Hard to grasp, isn’t it.

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May 1 as a holiday for workers began in the United States. That’s right, the United States. It was born in, and commemorated, the struggle for the eight hour work day.

In the late 1800’s the union that became the AFL, along with anarchist organizers, were pushing hard for an eight hour work week. Strikes ensued. In 1886, police fired into a crowd, killing a striker. Workers protested the next day at Haymarket Square in Chicago. At the end of the rally, a bomb went off. Anarchists were blamed, several were tried in a kangaroo court and hung. In 1893, the governor pardoned all of them, saying they were innocent.

The unions went on to win the battle for the eight hour day, even though some paid with their lives.

When other countries began celebrating May Day, it took on a socialist flavor, so the U.S. changed the date here to Labor Day. Thus, most don’t even know the International Workers Day started in the U.S.

It is not surprising that the state, business leaders, mainstream union officials, and the media would want to hide the true history of May Day. In its attempt to erase the history and significance of May Day, the United States government declared May 1st to be “Law Day”, and gave the workers instead Labor Day, the first Monday of September - a holiday devoid of any historical significance.

May 1, considering its historical importance, seems an apt date for the upcoming immigrant workers boycott.

[tags]May Day,international workers day[/tags]

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“We must never take any option off the table, because the danger is real. But we need to make every effort to negotiate, and it doesn’t look like that’s being done.”

Really? Never take any option off the table? Even using nuclear weapons, or violating international law by launching an unprovoked war of aggression? How about kidnapping Ayatollah Khamenei and torturing him until President Ahmadinejad agrees to destroy all nuclear facilities in Iran? Could we at least take that option off the table?

Feingold is supposed to be a progressive! Further proof, if any be needed, that the ruling class moves in lockstep when it comes to imperialist invasions.

With “progressives” like this, hyping the “danger” of Iran and refusing to “take any option off the table,” why worry about FOX News and the right wing?

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From DJ Mitchell.

Today’s suicide bomb attack in Sri Lanka appears to mark the return to business as usual. It was bad enough that certain officials were targetted by snipers. The resumpton of suicide bombing indicates a disregard for collateral damage– in other words, innocent bystanders.

It must be noted that the LTTE is not alone in its march to war. The government has used paramiltaries, such as TELO and EPDP, to harrass LTTE supporters. Ethnic violence between LTTE-supporters and hard-line Sinhalese groups has increased daily in Trincomalee, and schools are beginning to fill with refugees. There have been reports of Tamils being abducted by the security forces and found dead the next day. The number of disappearances on both sides has increased. While the army has so far been reluctant to re-enter the war directly, there has been plenty of violence conducted on the government’s behalf.

Also the so-called Karuna Faction of the LTTE, the breakaway group that has sided (more or less) with the government, has attacked the LTTE regularly. Led by LTTE’s former top strategist, the Karuna Faction is effective and deadly. The LTTE claims that Karuna is supported and armed by the government, as well as India, but I have not had any independent reports indicating that this is true.

While it is true that Karuna and the government have a common enemy, Karuna’s claim that they arm themselves with captured LTTE weaponry appears (so far) to be true. Nevertheless, today’s bombing indicates a turning point, perhaps a tipping point beyiond which a resumption of war is inevitable. While I offer my condolences to Gen. Fonseka and his family for his grave injuries, my sympathy goes out to the Sinhalese and Tamil civilians, for they are the ones who will bear the brunt of the renewed violence.

And yet the quest for peace is not over. (I pray that it will never be over.) More on that when I have current details on what’s been going on.

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Will the Maoists spoil Nepal’s victory party?

The Maoists control 80% of the countryside, have set up provisional governments in those areas, and are well-armed. The King’s capitulation would not have been possible without their support.

Rejecting the King’s announcement, the leader of the Maoists, who uses the nom-de-guerre Prachanda (the terrible one), said that the political parties had committed an “historic blunder” by ending the protests. He also announced that the Maoists would immediately blockade Kathmandu and other major towns until a special assembly, with the power to draft a new constitution for Nepal, was formed.

[tags]Nepal[/tags]

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