Rethink Afghanistan – Stop the Drone Killings
This new video from Rethink Afghanistan provides analysis on the realities of US military use of Predator Drones in Pakistan. Drones used by the US since the beginning of the Obama administration have killed over 700 civilians.
Amway endorses US/Korea Trade Agreement
On Friday, the Obama administration announced that the US and South Korea had reached an agreement on a trade policy that essentially replicates NAFTA.
This decision by the Obama administration is a betrayal of what was promised during the campaign about trade policy and a betrayal of working people in this country. Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch Director Lori Wallach confirms this in a statement release on Friday:
“Choosing to advance Bush’s NAFTA-style Korea free trade agreement rather than the new trade policy President Obama promised during his campaign will mean more American job loss and puts the White House at odds with the majority of Americans who, polling shows, oppose more-of-the-same job-offshoring agreements.
Merely tweaking the “cars and cows” market access provisions of Bush’s NAFTA-style Korea trade pact but leaving in place the offshoring-promoting foreign investor protections is a slap in the face to the majority of Americans who, according to repeated polls, oppose the same old trade policy that has cost millions of American jobs.”
The White House also posted statements of support from government and business leaders on Friday. One of those statements is from Doug DeVos, the current President of Amway. “Like most companies, we support a more competitive playing field. This new trade agreement allows Amway to continue meeting aggressive growth targets, and gives a much needed boost for all export business in Michigan.”
This statement from Amway shouldn’t surprise us since they don’t even chose to make the claim that this trade agreement will create jobs, it is merely about “meeting aggressive growth targets.” The US Chamber of Commerce is a bit more subtle in their approach and uses that tired old line that the US/Korea Trade Agreement will,“create thousands of new jobs, advance our national goal of doubling exports in five years, and demonstrate that America is once again ready to lead on trade.”
This is the exact same rhetoric that the Obama administration uses in his announcement on Friday and it indicates that the Democratic White House is taking cues from the Chamber of Commerce.
Interestingly enough, as the progressive blog Firedoglake reports, most of the major unions in the US have been silent on the US/Korean trade agreement. However, there was one major union that took a stance on this trade agreement – the UAW. According to Firedoglake the UAW supports the trade agreement. UAW president Bob King flew back from Europe and was greeted by Obama himself when he got off the plane, no doubt to get the auto worker president to give his support for the anti-worker legislation. Working people who are in unions which gave millions to elect this President should be asking what the hell they have won as workers since the beginning of 2009?
Winter Open House at The Bloom Collective
Winter Open House
Sat. Dec. 11 Noon -5 p.m.
Refreshments & Conversation
3 – 5 p.m. Potluck Discussion
Recent Political Repression in the US
671 Davis NW
(Corner of 5th & Davis)
The Bloom Collective hosts a winter open house Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. Stop by to mingle, merry-make, dialogue and potluck with The Bloom community of core members, patrons and volunteers. If you haven’t had a chance to visit The Bloom since we moved to Steepletown Center on the northwest side, this is the perfect time to do it. If you haven’t been there for awhile, you’ll really like the new larger room that now is home to the infoshop/lending library’s thousands of books, hundreds of DVD documentaries and a recently expanded zine collection.
Bloom core members tackled the job of improving the zine collection last fall. What is a zine? It’s a small self-published “magazine.” Zines have been around since the 1970s, as an effective way to protest the idea that information can be “owned” or copyrighted. In the ’80s and ’90s, making zines became popular within the DIY and punk scene as a way of self-expression and a form of resistance against commercial culture and even official left magazines, which tend to rely on a small sector of experts who can tell us all what to think.
Potluck discussion on political repression
At 3 p.m., the potluck discussion gets started. The topic is Recent Political Repression in the US. The topic was chosen because of the FBI’s targeting of political activists here in the Midwest this past fall.
The Bloom Collective will serve hot beverages and treats (vegan options available!) and has a few small items for purchase, including 2011 Slingshot planners for $6.This may be your last chance to get a Slingshot before the New Year as The Bloom is going to be closed from Dec. 12 through Jan. 5.
On behalf of The Bloom Collective, we hope to see you there!
The editorial in Sunday’s Grand Rapids Press about where they stand on WikiLeaks effort to uncover US war crimes should tell us something about the mentality of those who make up the Press editorial staff.
The Press editorial begins by trying to frame the issue as one between closed-door government discussion and “carefully calibrated press releases.” The Pres is clear that the decision by WikiLeaks to post US government documents is not only damaging to US government credibility, it is a criminal act that should result in punishment of those responsible.
The Press editorial staff thinks the US government should go after both the US soldier who copied the documents and the person responsible for posting the documents online, Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks. “The president has to go after Mr. Assange with every legal tool at hand to send the strong message that this kind of theft of classified material won’t be tolerated.”
Unfortunately, the Obama administration agrees with the advice from the Press editorial staff. A few days ago President Obama said, “The Attorney General and I don’t always agree on different issues. But I believe on this one, he and I strongly agree that there should be a criminal prosecution”.
However, the main issue of concern for people who care about justice and democracy is the lack of understanding by the Press editorial staff over both the content of the WikiLeaks documents and how US foreign policy functions.
The Press editorial makes mention of “unflattering — opinions American diplomats have of foreign leaders,” but fails to mention that the documents reveal that US intelligence agencies spied on foreign leaders and United Nations diplomats.
The Press editorial thinks that the leaks documents “could do real damage to the delicate balance of Middle Eastern power.” However, if one does not look at these documents through an imperialist lens then it is clear that what US policy is actually doing in is to increase the chances of instability in the Middle East.
What the Press editorial staff fails to either understand of to admit is that the US documents posted by WikiLeaks further demonstrates that the US has no interest in promoting justice, democracy or peace anywhere in the world.
The independent press gets this. For example, Jeremy Scahill has an excellent piece about what the WikiLeaks documents reveal about US policy with Pakistan. Scahill believes the documents reveal that the US is engaged in a “secret” war in Pakistan, where innocent civilians are being killed from US military drone attacks.
The Press editorial says nothing about the fact that the leaked documents reveal that the US (and Israel) are determined to attack Iran. The Press editorial fails to mention the US efforts to undermine the democratically elected government of Venezuela in the WikiLeaks documents and it contempt for the popular government in Bolivia. The US government documents posted by Wikileaks even reveals that the US government undermined the efforts at any serious reduction of carbon emissions at the Global Climate Summit talks last year in Copenhagen. Instead, the Press editorial felt it was important to tell us, “Lybian leader Moammar Gaddafi depends on a Ukranian nurse described as a “vuluptious blonde.”
However, the largest omission in the Press editorial on the recent Wikileaks documents is the failure to acknowledge the US role in war crimes. The Press editorial staff either refuses to or fails to understand that the US government has been committing war crimes in the form of torture and deliberate attacks on civilians in both Iraq and Afghanistan. This is the real crime, not that the WikiLeaks posted the US government documents. The Press editorial staff should be saluting the courage of WikiLeaks instead of calling for their prosecution.
The Press editorial concludes by saying that the 1971 release of the Pentagon Papers ultimately provided a public service but the WikiLeaks documents do not. Well, who better to ask about this comparison than Daniel Ellsberg, the person who released the Pentagon Papers.
Last week during an interview with Democracy Now, Ellsberg not only expressed his support for what WikiLeaks has done but he said that the public must support and defend WikiLeaks from any government prosecution.
As we said at the beginning of this posting, the Grand Rapids Press editorial from yesterday is very instructive in terms of what it tells us about the Press editorial staff’s view of democracy. In the end, it is clear that the Press not only supports the suppression of information that would enhance democracy, they support the repressive and brutal practices of the US government with their complicity by failing to call it out.
GRIID encourages everyone to look at the US documents posted on WikiLeaks and to draw your own conclusions about US Foreign Policy. As we always say from a media literacy perspective – it is better to develop critical thinking skills than to promote censorship.
30th Anniversary of the Murder of 4 US Church Workers in El Salvador
It was 30 years ago today that the bodies of four US church workers – Ita Ford, Maura Clarke, Dorothy Kazel and Jean Donovan – were exhumed from where the spot they were clandestinely buried the day they were murdered.
Ita, Maura and Dorothy were nuns in the Catholic Church and had been working on Central America for some time before they were killed. Jean Donovan was a successful accountant with Arthur Andersen, but in 1977 she decided to leave all that behind and work for justice through the lay religious order of Maryknoll.
The four women had been invited to work with internal refugees in El Salvador by the Archbishop Oscar Romero in 1979. They women became good friends of the bishop up until his assassination in March of 1980. The women were present at the funeral for Romero where Salvadoran soldiers opened fire on the crowd of mourners, killing roughly 30 people.
Jean Donovan wrote that things became more dangerous by the day and that friends of hers were being killed on a regular basis. When asked why she didn’t leave, Donovan said, “I almost could, except for the children, the poor, bruised victims of this insanity. Who would care for them? Whose heart could be so staunch as to favor the reasonable thing in a sea of their tears and loneliness? Not mine, dear friend, not mine.”
On December 2nd, Jean and Dorothy drove to the Salvadoran airport to pick up Ita and Maura. After they left the airport they were pulled over by Salvadoran Security forces. The four women were murdered, the bodies taken to a clandestine location and buried. After the bodies were exhumed it was determined that the four women were raped before they were murdered.
This injustice took place at the end of the Carter administration, which did nothing to hold the Salvadoran government accountable. The incoming Reagan administration was quite friendly with the Salvadoran government and even suggested that the four women were responsible for their own deaths.
However, family members of the four women and former US Ambassador to El Salvador Robert White fought hard for an investigation and in 1984 five Salvadoran National Guardsmen were sentence to 30 years each for the murders. The Truth Commission findings in 1992 determined that the murders were planned and that the soldiers were following them from the airport.
As a young man I was inspired by the dedication and courage that these four women demonstrated in the face of repression. Their deaths and the murder of Archbishop Romero months earlier both played a major role in my decision to become involved in solidarity work in Central America in the 1980s.
The self-less love that the 4 women demonstrated is what led several of us to start the Koinonia House in Grand Rapids in 1984, on the 4th anniversary of their death and then to declare ourselves a sanctuary for Central American refugees in 1986. Two years later I went to Guatemala to work with Peace Brigades International (PBI) and follow the tradition of the four women in doing solidarity work with people who were being terrorized by US funded death squads.
The courage of Ita, Dorothy, Maura and Jean were part of what influenced my own work and the work and lives of countless other people. It is because of this that we honor their memory today.
Dorothy Kazel, Ita Ford, Maura Clarke and Jean Donovan…….Presente!
Open letter from Afghan Youth to our World Leaders
(This letter is re-posted from ZNet.)
Dear Mr Obama, Mrs Clinton, Mr Petraeus, Mr Rasmussen, and all our world leaders,
We are Afghans and we ask the world to listen.
Like yourselves, we couldn’t live without the love of our family and friends.
We were hurt by your criticism of Mr Karzai for voicing the people’s anguished pleas, “Stop your night raids.”
Please, stop your night raids.
If you could listen, you would have heard 29 NGOs in Afghanistan describe how we now have “Nowhere to Turn”.
If you could listen, you would also have heard Mr Karzai and the 29 NGOs express concern over your Afghan Local Police plan; the world will henceforth watch our militia killing the people, your people and our people, with your weapons and your money.
If you could listen, you would have heard the sound of your drones crystallizing the nights of hatred among the Afghan, Pakistani and global masses.
Instead, we hear your determination to ‘awe, shock and firepower’ us with Abrams tanks. We hear distant excitement over your new smart XM25 toy, a weapon you proudly proclaim will leave us with ‘nowhere to hide’.
Nowhere to turn and nowhere to hide.
Your actions have unfortunately dimmed our hopes that we the people could turn to you. Along with our Afghan war-makers, you are making the people cry.
Yet, we understand. You are in the same trap we’re in, in a corrupt, militarized mania.
Love is how we’re asking for peace, a love that listens, and reconciles.
And so, we invite you to listen to the people of Afghanistan and to world public opinion on the Global Day of Listening to Afghans, to be internet-broadcast from Kabul this December.
It is time to listen broadly and deeply to both local and overseas Afghan civil groups and the numerous alternative solutions they have proposed for building a better socio-political, economic and religious/ideological future for Afghanistan.
We have shared the pain of our American friends who lost loved ones on September 11, by speaking with and listening to them.
Though, if the world could listen like these American friends did, the world would know that few Afghans have even heard about September 11 and that no Afghans were among the 19 hijackers. The world would have heard our yearnings as we were punished over the past 9 years.
If the world could listen, they would know how much we detest the violence of the Taliban, our warlords, any warlord, or any bullet-digging finger-trophy troops.
And now, for at least another four more years, we will grieve over souls who you are unwilling to ‘count’ and we are unwilling to lose.
It is extra painful to us and to your troops because clearly, there are non-violent and just alternatives.
We understand the pain of financial hardships but try telling an Afghan mother about to lose her child or a soldier about to take his life that the only way their illiterate and angry voices can ruffle the posh feathers of our world leaders is when it disturbs not their human or truth deficit, but their trillion dollar economic deficits. How do we explain that without denuding ourselves of human love and dignity?
What more can we say?
How else can we and our loved ones survive?
How can we survive with hearts panicking in disappointment while perpetually fleeing and facing a ’total’ global war, a war that wouldn’t be questioned even in the crude face of a thousand leaks?
We would survive in poverty, we may survive in hunger, but how can we survive without the hope that Man is capable of something better?
We sincerely wish you the best in your lives.
We are Afghans and we ask the world to listen.
Salamat bAsheen!
Be at peace!
Meekly with respect,
The Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers
Global Day of Listening to Afghans
19th December 2010
Why not listen?
Why not love?
To share the pain of Afghans and people in conflict all over the world, please join us in Afghanistan by taking a few minutes on the 18th & 19th of December 2010 to Skype call us or call us directly, from wherever you are
Email youthpeacevolunteers@gmail.com
1. To arrange a call on the 18th & 19th of December 2010 OR
2. To support our Open letter from Afghan Youth to our World Leaders, by emailing “YES, Why not listen?”
Please call us…tell us when your heart has pain
MiBiz, Whirlpool and Newsweek’s Green Rankings
In their weekly electronic Michigan Manufacturing newsletter, MiBiz announced that the Michigan-based Whirlpool Corporation was included in Newsweek’s top 500 Green Ranking on companies in the US.
The blurb in MiBiz, was based on a Press Release by Whirlpool itself, without any real verification of whether or not the company does engage in sustainable practices. The press release cites Whirlpool’s commitment to the environment by setting up an office of environmental control and having all its appliances “capable of receiving and responding to signals from smart grids.”
There is no evidence to suggest that Whirlpool actually cares about the environment. In fact, the opposite is true, since the company makes products that require intense amounts of mining to acquire resource in the manufacturing of their products, immense amounts of energy to produce them and unnecessary amounts of energy to power their appliances. Add to that the company’s treatment of workers and support for racist policies and it seems quite laughable to give Whirlpool and kind of award for responsible behavior.
However, rational thinking does not apply in Newsweek’s Green Rankings process. According to the website’s methodology, “The goal was to assess each company’s actual environmental footprint and management of that footprint (including policies and strategies), along with its reputation among environmental experts.”
An investigation into the Methodology shows that the “standards” are pretty weak and conducted by a London-based group called Trucost, which has a strong history with the corporate and financial world. The group’s publications tend to focus on carbon trading and environmental costs within a market framework.
Whirlpool is 116th on a list of the top 500 companies in the US on Newsweek’s Green Rankings. If one looks at the list of companies that precede Whirlpool, you can get a sense of how ridiculous this green ranking system is.
Companies such as McDonalds (79th), the GAP (71st), the pharmaceutical company Merck (68th), Coca Cola (54th), Wal-Mart (51st), JPMorgan Chase (45th), Starbucks (33rd), Pfizer (21st), Nike (10th) and Dell (1st) are all on the Newsweek Green Rankings list. Anyone who knows much of anything about the practices (both ecologically and socially) of these corporations knows that they are involved in serious environmental degradation, labor abuses, corruption and political manipulation.
Honestly, how could anyone say with a straight face that McDonalds does anything that promotes environmental sustainability? The very nature of McDonalds – drive through food, factory farm meet, forest destruction, unhealthy food, deceptive marketing campaigns targeting kids, and low wages – is unsustainable. (See the film McLibel and the website http://www.mcspotlight.org/).
For MiBiz to promote this hoax that companies like Whirlpool are environmental stewards is irresponsible and unethical. And while is may seem quite apparent to reasonable people we have to exposed this deception for what it is as nothing more than a form of greenwashing.
Media Bites – Chevy’s Greenwashing Campaign
In this week’s Media Bites we take a look at a new ad campaign by Chevrolet, called Chevy Runs Deep. The ad campaign presents the car company as making an environmental commitment to carbon emissions reduction. However, this is based on how many cars they sell, not on any serious effort to reduce greenhouse gases.
What We Are Reading
Below is a list of books that we have read in recent weeks. The comments are not a review of the books, instead sort of an endorsement of ideas and investigations that can provide solid analysis and even inspiration in the struggle for change. All these books are available at The Bloom Collective, so check them out and stimulate your mind.
The Ecological Rift: Capitalism’s War on the Earth, by John Bellamy Foster, Brett Clark and Richard York – Humanity in the twenty-first century is facing what might be described as its ultimate environmental catastrophe: the destruction of the climate that has nurtured human civilization and with it the basis of life on earth as we know it. All ecosystems on the planet are now in decline. Enormous rifts have been driven through the delicate fabric of the biosphere. The economy and the earth are headed for a fateful collision—if we don’t alter course. In The Ecological Rift: Capitalism’s War on the Earth, environmental sociologists John Bellamy Foster, Brett Clark, and Richard York offer a radical assessment of how capitalism is inherently destructive to the environment. The authors also look at the arguments that free market apologists offer for what is now called Green Capitalism.
Pakistan: Democracy, terrorism, and the Building of a Nation, by Iftikhar Malik – As the fall-out of the US-led “war on terror” continues to destabilize the countries of the Indian subcontinent, Pakistan and its fate are never out of the headlines. How did this predominantly Muslim country of 175 million reach this critical state? And what does the future hold in the face of such political and social upheaval? This clear, comprehensive book synthesizes the complex issues facing Pakistan today while remaining cautiously optimistic about the future of a pluralistic nation caught between civic and military imperatives. Professor Malik examines: the country’s strategic geopolitical position; the main characters who have shaped the nation; the legacy of Partition and the role of civil society as a force for change; the vexing problems of good governance; and the parts played by Political Islam and Jihadi extremism, and by the West in its use of Pakistan as a buffer state. This is an excellent book for those wanting to have a better understanding of the US Af-Pak war.
Dispossessing the Wilderness: Indian Removal and the Making of the National Parks, by Mark David Spence – A landmark historical reconstruction of a forgotten story–the eviction of American Indians from a troika of our nation’s major parks: Yosemite, Yellowstone, and Glacier. Spence documents the separate but symbiotic developments of the Indian reservation and recreational park systems, the former to corral Indians, the latter to sequester nature. Spence underpins his three compelling narratives with a clear exposition of the evolving ‘wilderness’ and ‘preservationist’ ideologies, which spelled exclusion for Indian residents of these natural wonders. His riveting chronicle concludes with current tensions, as Indians are attempting to reclaim special rights to these sacrosanct areas and parks are struggling to correct a century of native dispossessions and misrepresentations of the cultural/historical record.
U.S. Savage Imperialism: Noam Chomsky on the U.S. Empire, the Mideast, and the World – In a talk at Z Media Institute 2010, Noam Chomsky begins by comparing the similarity between the U.S. founding mission to be an empire of the chosen, with Israel’s mission. He cites the U.S. self-proclaimed “humanitarian mission” to help the native population by exterminating or removing it. He then talks of the manifest destiny, its preference for settler colonialism, which he calls the most savage kind of imperialism, and the importance of the Mideast in establishing U.S. world dominance. DVD includes talk (65 minutes) and Q&A on the environment, activism, and other topics (56 minutes).
Eco-Alert: Citizen involvement in future accountability in the Gulf after BP disaster
(This alert is re-posted from Public Citizen.)
The Oil Spill Commission will begin deliberations this week on its final report and recommendations, due to be released on January 11.
Please join Public Citizen in advocating for strong citizen participation in overseeing oil and gas activities in the Gulf.
After the Exxon Valdez spill, Congress set up Regional Citizens’ Advisory Councils for Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet in the State of Alaska. These Councils resulted in improved environmental safeguards and substantially safer and more reliable transportation and spill response capabilities in Alaska.
The citizens of the Gulf Coast deserve the same structure to monitor and provide recommendations for exploration, development, production, coastal refining and transportation of oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico and for prevention, response and restoration measures related to the social, economic, health and environmental impacts of an incident that could result in a significant oil or gas release into the Gulf.
Lax government oversight contributed to the BP oil spill disaster, but increased government regulation alone cannot prevent future accidents. A council of Gulf Coast citizens—including representatives of commercial and charter fishing, the tourism industry, indigenous and socially vulnerable populations, conservationists and municipal governments—with knowledge of their communities and a direct interest in promoting safer oil and gas operations is needed.
Thank you for your continued support on this issue. The oil has stopped flowing from the well, but there is still much that needs to be done to make the Gulf and its communities whole again. The establishment of Regional Citizens’ Advisory Councils will be a significant step toward that end.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 