Disinformation » Activism

Bradley Manning Nominated For Nobel Peace Prize

Liam McGonagle — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:25:50 +0000

Source: Abode of Chaos (CC)

It’ll be fascinating to see how this plays out because it’s such an unusual choice. Normally you have to commit tens of thousands of armed troops to Afghanistan before you go home with one of these babies. From the blog of Birgitta Jónsdóttir:

[On] February 1st 2012 the entire parliamentary group of The Movement of the Icelandic Parliament nominated Private Bradley Manning for the Nobel Peace Prize. Following is the reasoning we sent to the committee explaining why we felt compelled to nominate Private Bradley Manning for this important recognition of an individual effort to have an impact for peace in our world.

Our letter to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee:

We have the great honor of nominating Private First Class Bradley Manning for the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize. Manning is a soldier in the United States army who stands accused of releasing hundreds of thousands of documents to the whistleblower website WikiLeaks. The leaked documents pointed to a long history of corruption, war crimes, and imperialism by the United States government in international dealings. These revelations have fueled democratic uprising around the world, including a democratic revolution in Tunisia. According to journalists, his alleged actions helped motivate the democratic Arab Spring movements, shed light on secret corporate influence on our foreign policies, and most recently contributed to the Obama Administration agreeing to withdraw all U.S.troops from the occupation in Iraq.

Bradley Manning has been incarcerated for well over a year by the U.S. government without a trial. He spent over ten months of that time period in solitary confinement, conditions which experts worldwide have criticized as torturous. Juan Mendez, the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on Torture and Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment, has repeatedly requested and been denied a private meeting with Manning to assess his conditions.

The documents made public by WikiLeaks should never have been kept from public scrutiny. The revelations – including video documentation of an incident in which American soldiers gunned down Reuters journalists in Iraq – have helped to fuel a worldwide discussion about America’s overseas engagements, civilian casualties of war, imperialistic manipulations, and rules of engagement. Citizens worldwide owe a great debt to the WikiLeaks whistleblower for shedding light on these issues, and so I urge the Committee to award this prestigious prize to accused whistleblower Bradley Manning.

Sincerely,
Birgitta Jónsdóttir
Margrét Tryggvadóttir
Þór Saari
Members of the Icelandic Parliament for The Movement

No More Taco Bell Until Abortion Ends (Video)

JacobSloan — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 07:21:45 +0000

Site editor’s note: if you have been following this political/internet/media explosion you may find this recent story posted to disinfo.com in December as an interesting footnote to the outcome.

These people will enjoy no more burritos until unborn babies are no longer terminated. Until Abortion Ends is a perplexing and to some extent inadvertently amusing trend in which people pledge to give up various things “until abortion ends”. (Although I assume they actually mean “until abortion becomes criminalized”.)

Ex-Marine Reoccupies His Own Foreclosed Home

Jin_TheNinja — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:28:25 +0000

There seems to be a trend by the Big Banks- wherein they resist all attempts to modify mortgages and commence foreclosure proceedings without justification. Private Property- what does it truly mean in a capitalist system? Via Democracy Now :

Anonymous Reveals The Arcane Legal Trick Behind ACTA

majestic — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:58:32 +0000

Anonymous exposes the nefarious goals of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). Thanks to Christopher Neitzert for the tip.

“Greetings, world. We are Anonymous.

We are here to reveal to you an arcane legal trick, which will be used to take away your freedom starting in June 2012.

Your governments have been secretly negotiating the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement or ACTA as it is known.

The title is misleading.

The true goal of ACTA is to crush the internet, as we know it, and to take away your freedom.

We and other good people of this Earth have been pointing out a major problem with ACTA. The text of the agreement is extremely vague and can be interpreted in many ways. If read one way, ACTA does not endanger your freedom. If read another way, ACTA is the worst thing that has ever happened and will be used to take away your freedom and to crush the internet as we know it.

Supporters of ACTA are saying that each country, which ratifies ACTA, will choose their own interpretation. This is the biggest lie ever told.

Just like any other international agreement ACTA must be interpreted according to the Vienna Convention of 1969.

Article 32 of the Vienna Convention says that if any part of a treaty is ambiguous it must be interpreted based on documents produced during the drafting and negotiations phase of the agreement. For Acta these documents are classified and have never been made available to the public through official sources. Such secrecy has never surrounded any other global treaty in modern times.

In essence the true meaning of ACTA is being kept secret even from the governments who sign it.

Our friends at Wikileaks have obtained a small portion of these secret documents and their content is chilling. When all major governments of the world have signed and ratified ACTA, the secret documents will be gradually made public and the true meaning of ACTA will be revealed to the nations of the world.

Article 27 of the Vienna Convention says that all international treaties take precedence over any internal laws. The secret parts of ACTA will take precedence over any national laws. Governments will have no choice. Citizens will have no choice. The internet, as we know it, will end.

The last major obstacle in ACTA’s path is the European Parliament. In June 2012 the European Parliament will have its final vote on ACTA. If they vote to ratify ACTA, the world, as we know it, will end. Your freedoms will gradually disappear. Your internet will be gradually turned into a controlled, censored channel where you can only view content produced by a handful of companies.

ACTA is a declaration of war against every man, woman, and child on this planet.

If you are a politician, and you defend ACTA, you are guilty of treason of the highest degree and we will deal with you as such.

We will defeat ACTA.
We will not be silenced.
We will take to the streets.
We will take back our governments.
We are Anonymous.
We are legion.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
Expect us.”

The Megapocalypse Of Kim DotCom

James Curcio — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 23:27:33 +0000

Via Modern Mythology (by P. Emerson Williams)

An operation planned by a large international team of law enforcement working over the course of years and carried out with helicopters and machine guns in a military style raid. Taking refuge in a safe room, reportedly found “near a semi-automatic shotgun”, a larger than life villain is dragged out and taken into custody.

Photo: Andreas Bohnenstengel (CC)

No, the target is not a drug kingpin, nor a deposed dictator (hence the safe room – sewage drains are reserved final hiding places for deposed dictators and jihadist masterminds), not a banker responsible for tearing the world economy apart, nor a corrupt Western politician on the leash of said bankers.

Much hay has been made of Kim Dotcom’s expansive mansion, expensive toys and cheesy movie villain antics. For those wondering why Megaupload was the target this fact alone should make it clear. They needed someone who would not invoke sympathy, and in this respect, they chose well. A huge congratulations to our owners for selecting and directing a story in a manner that would qualify them to take the raw footage shot for a reality TV show and create a narrative. If spying on citizens and enforcing laws not yet passed loses its luster, they should have no problem getting a job with Wife Swap or Deadliest Catch.

The takedown of megaupload is framed in the mold of major drug busts to which we have become used when presented with such a laundry list. More ingeniusly, in a fresh new year following the annum of the birth of the Occupy movement, the preceding list brings to mind the lists of bonuses, net worth and ostentatious belongings of hedge fund managers and bank executives. Our master’s meme-schemers had all of us in their thoughts in the planning stages. If this is all a coincidence, why would the presence of a full-size inflatable replica of a Russian T-72 tank on Goldfinger’s, uh, I mean Mr. DotCom’s property be relevant to the story? What does the widespread discussion of his license plates with “POLICE,” “MAFIA,” “V,” “STONED,” “CEO,” “HACKER,” GOOD,” “EVIL,” and “GUILTY” tell us about what the law enforcement side of the story wants us to think? Like Joseph Kennedy, DotCom amassed what to the great majority of us is a vast fortune (a $200 million company isn’t enough to impress our owners) through insider trading, shady schemes and outright fraud before founding the “Mega Conspiracy”…

(Full article)

Anonymous Attacks Monsanto (Video)

Good German — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 19:23:53 +0000

Via the Earth First! Newswire:

Anonymous, which briefly knocked the FBI and Justice Department websites offline as well as Music Industry websites in retaliation for the US shutdown of file-sharing site Megaupload, is a shadowy group of amazing international hackers.

Anonymous Message To Monsanto: We fight for farmers! – Video Transcript (Cross-Posted from Organic Common Sense:

“To the free-thinking citizens of the world: Anonymous stands with the farmers and food organizations denouncing the practices of Monsanto We applaud the bravery of the organizations and citizens who are standing up to Monsanto, and we stand united with you against this oppressive corporate abuse. Monsanto is contaminating the world with chemicals and genetically modified food crops for profit while claiming to feed the hungry and protect the environment. Anonymous is everyone, Anyone who can not stand for injustice and decides to do something about it, We are all over the Earth and here to stay.

To Monsanto, we demand you STOP the following:

Contaminating the global food chain with GMO’s [sic].

Intimidating small farmers with bullying and lawsuits.

Propagating the use of destructive pesticides and herbicides across the globe.

Using “Terminator Technology”, which renders plants sterile.

Attempting to hijack UN climate change negotiations for your own fiscal benefit.

Reducing farmland to desert through monoculture and the use of synthetic fertilizers.

Inspiring suicides of hundreds of thousands of Indian farmers.

Causing birth defects by continuing to produce the pesticide “Round-up”

Attempting to bribe foriegn officials

Infiltrating anti-GMO groups

Monsanto, these crimes will not go unpunished. Anonymous will not spare you nor anyone in support of your oppressive illegal business practices.

Read more here.

Let’s Be Clear, Ron Paul Fucking Sucks. Here Are 20 Reasons Why

majestic — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:48:53 +0000

Before admirers of Representative Paul go crazy, I didn’t write this post (or the headline) and I don’t endorse it (neither does disinformation), but I am interested in your well argued debate as to whether or not the little red umbrella author is right about any (or all?) of his points:

Every single one of the candidates currently running for the Republican nomination is a walking disaster. But one of them, Texas congressman Ron Paul, seems to be getting a disturbing amount of support from liberals. Mostly that’s because his nut-job libertarian views happen to not sound so nutty on a handful of issues. He wants to end the War on Drugs. He is against the death penalty. He would not support a constitutional ban on gay marriage. He was opposed to the War in Iraq and wants to end all American military intervention abroad. All of that sounds pretty good to us left-wing types — downright refreshing coming from a Republican. Some progressives have claimed they’d rather vote for him than for Obama. Even Occupiers have sung his praises.

But if you’re a liberal who supports Ron Paul, you either haven’t been paying enough attention or you’re out of your fucking mind.

Here are 20 reasons why:

1. He wants to repeal the Civil Rights Act. That’s the 1964 law that made segregation illegal and outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex or national origin. Paul claims it infringes on people’s freedom. If a restaurant or hotel wants to ban African-Americans, he believes they should be allowed to. As he put it in a speech to Congress: “the forced integration dictated by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 increased racial tensions while diminishing individual liberty.”

2. He’s also against the Americans With Disabilities Act. That’s the 1990 bill passed by the first President Bush, which followed up the Civil Rights Act by making it illegal to discriminate against someone because of a disability. Paul wants it gone, too.

3. He is against public health care. You know how you think Americans are crazy because they can’t do any better on universal health care than the watered down bill Obama got through? Well, President Ron Paul would do much, much worse. He thinks that in an entirely private system, poor people would have all of their needs taken care of by charitable doctors who would be willing to work for free. Ron Paul, by the way, is a medical doctor.

4. He wants to dissolve the public education system. He promises to eliminate the Department of Education entirely and leave the question of whether to offer any public education at all up to local governments. He calls public education “socialist” (which we actually agree with, but he, unlike us, doesn’t think that’s a good thing) and says, “I preach home schooling and private schooling.”…

[continues at the little red umbrella]

UK Undercover Police Had Children With Activists They Were Spying On

Good German — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 09:46:57 +0000

Bob Lambert. Photo: CSTPV

Paul Lewis and Rob Evans report for the Guardian:

Two undercover police officers secretly fathered children with political campaigners they had been sent to spy on and later disappeared completely from the lives of their offspring, the Guardian can reveal.

In both cases, the children have grown up not knowing that their biological fathers – whom they have not seen in decades – were police officers who had adopted fake identities to infiltrate activist groups. Both men have concealed their true identities from the children’s mothers for many years.

One of the spies was Bob Lambert, who has already admitted that he tricked a second woman into having a long-term relationship with him, as part of an intricate attempt to bolster his credibility as a committed campaigner.

The second police spy followed the progress of his child and the child’s mother by reading confidential police reports which tracked the mother’s political activities and life.

The disclosures are likely to intensify the controversy over the long-running police operation to infiltrate and sabotage protest groups.

Police chiefs claim that undercover officers are strictly forbidden from having sexual relationships with the activists they are spying on, describing the situations as “grossly unprofessional” and “morally wrong”.

But that claim has been undermined as many of the officers who have been unmasked have admitted to, or have been accused of, having sex with the targets of their surveillance.

Last month eight women who say they were duped into forming long-term intimate relationships of up to nine years with five undercover policemen started unprecedented legal action. They say they have suffered immense emotional trauma and pain over the relationships, which spanned the period from 1987 to 2010.

Until now it was not known that police had secretly fathered children while living undercover. One of them is Lambert, who adopted a fake persona to infiltrate animal rights and environmental groups in the 1980s.

Read more here.

Polish Lawmaker Smokes Pot in Parliament

DeepCough — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 05:01:55 +0000

Photo: Peterson (CC)

If Ron Paul or Barney Frank did something like this, I’d be a little bit more inclined to support them, especially concerning presidential bids … Reports Agence France-Presse via the RAW Story:

Janusz Palikot, the leader of a new party which brought in Poland’s first trans-gender and openly gay MPs, launched a drive Friday to legalise marijuana by smoking pot in parliament.

“This is the weed,” he told reporters in his office in the lower house of parliament, lighting up a large incense joint containing what he said was a legal quantity of marijuana.

Palikot said his party had submitted a bill to legalise marijuana.

Earlier on Friday, the philosophy graduate known for his flamboyant political stunts, caused a stir when he announced he would “light up” in parliament.

“I want to condemn the hypocrisy concerning marijuana consumption,” Palikot told reporters. “Someone said they would smoke a joint in parliament and the reaction was tantamount to someone announcing a coup d’etat.” …

Bank Of America ATMs Altered To Become ‘Truth Machines’

JacobSloan — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:00:23 +0000

San Francisco’s Rainforest Action Network altered 85 Bank of America ATMs around the city last week using sticker overlays, so that the machines would notify users of what their money is being used for. Bankrupting America has a handy map of the affected/improved ATMs.

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The Internet is a ‘Series of Tubes’; RIP Senator Ted Stevens, Americans Elect These F-ing People …

HAL9000 — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 09:09:17 +0000

Stupid People Freaking Out About the Great (Intended) Wikipedia Blackout of 2012

SpaceNeedle — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 02:37:39 +0000

To be expected, and I think Gawker has found some of the best ones:

Youth is no excuse … I call the members of this generation (and their educators) who are so confused, the WikiStupid.

Martin Luther King, Jr.: ‘Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam’

ralph — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 03:07:48 +0000

On the date on his birth, let’s focus on matters that make the U.S. holiday matter even more:

Alan Moore Hangs Out with Masked Occupy Protesters

ralph — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 02:19:07 +0000

I appreciate the Alan Moore interview, but how “out to lunch” is this reporter to describe comics as a male-dominated readership … Not that way in 2012. Please discuss Mr. Moore and the rest:

This Explains All the Fuss About SOPA (Photo)

HAL9000 — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:37:11 +0000

Thanks to Anticapitalist.Tumblr.com.

Whither Environmentalism?

Good German — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 03:59:45 +0000

Jennifer Browdy de Hernandez writes at Common Dreams:

In the latest issue of Orion Magazine, environmental activists Derrick Jensen and Paul Kingsnorth both express their frustrations with the current environmental movement.

Jensen takes movement organizers to task for their drift towards actions that are “fun and sexy.” ”The fact that so many people routinely call for environmentalism to be more fun and more sexy reveals not only the weakness of our movement but also the utter lack of seriousness with which even many activists approach the problems we face,” he says bitterly. “When it comes to stopping the murder of the planet, too many environmentalists act more like they’re planning a party than building a movement.”

But let’s face it, there are a lot of people on this planet who find the issues addressed by environmentalism just too scary and depressing to deal with. The environmentalist party-planners are trying to reach these folks, who have been suckled from birth on cheery feel-good media, by presenting environmental action as fun and upbeat, rather than as doom-driven and angst-ridden. It’s environmentalism on anti-depressants, and it fits a big swath of our population, who don’t want to dwell on anything sad or upsetting, unless maybe it’s a movie guaranteed to ultimately have a happy ending …

Read more here.

The A-Z Of Occupation

Danny Schechter — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 06:15:09 +0000

Every social movement I have been involved with, or covered as a journalist, develops its own language of liberation, its own alphabet, and its own buzzwords, rhetoric and discourse.

Here are some of the key words I heard/retained in covering the Occupy Wall Street movement. I am sure there are many words, phrases, and slogans I overlooked, never heard or forgot. Send your favorites to: dissector@mediachannel.org.

These are words that power a struggle and speak to the internal processes that attracted so many to take part, as well as the issues that drive it and the obstacles that face it. They are some of the phrases, terms, sayings and expressions that the occupiers use in their conversations to define themselves and discuss their mission.

A. Adbusters, Anarchy, Arrest, Activist, Action, Anger, Angry, Atrium, Assembly (Freedom of,) Arab Spring, Autonomy, Anonymous. All Night, All Week, Austerity, Autumn Awakening.

B. Bloomberg, Billionaire, Banker, Bank Transfer, Bankster, Barricade, Brookfield, Brooklyn Bridge, Battery, Bowling Green, (The) Bull, Bubble Tea, Building 7, Bishop, Burger King (Bathrooms), Bailout, Broke, BOA, Municipal Bonds, Bail Bonds, Bonus, Block, Beginning (As in “The Beginning Is Near”) Become (Your Dream).

C. Capitalism, CEO, Convergence, Corporate, Co-op, Cedar St. Congress, Campaign, Cops, Comrades, Comfort, Confrontation, Community, Courts, Church, Chase, Cairo. Citibank, Contract, Clusters, Class, Color, Caucus, Citizens, Charlotte’s Web, Community Board, Courage, Causes (Not Symptoms), Citizens United, Control.

D. D17, demonstration, direct Democracy democracy, democratize, Donate, Drumming, Drones, Derivatives, Depression, Debt, Donuts, Downtown, Down With, Deutsche Bank, DC, Diogenes, Duarte Square, Diversity, Dialogic, Discourse, Debate, Dow Jones, Dreamers, Decolonization, Discipline.

E. Encampment, Events, Engage, Equity, Everyone, Eviction, Elite, Economic Elite, Economy, Exercising (Our Rights), Egypt, Enacting (The Impossible).

F. Freedom, Fed, (as in End The) Facebook, Foreclosure, Foley Square, Faith Leaders, Fifty Broadway, Front Line (on Broadway).

G. Greed, GA, Garbage, Goldman Sachs, Ground Zero, Generator, General Strike, Guy Fawkes, Global, Guards (as in Brookfield Realty), Grievances, Grannies.

H. Hope, Horizontalism, Hand Gestures, Hacking, Habeus, Hugs, Hypothermia, Health Care, Not Hedge Funds, Homeland Security, Halal.

I. Internet, Info, infiltrator, inequality, injury, insurgency, Indignados.

J. Justice, Judge, Jobs, JP Morgan.

K. Kitchen, Kettling.

L. Leaderless. Labor. Legal, Love, Library (as in People’s), LiveStream, Lower Zuc, Liberty Square, Liberty Street, Lehman Brothers, Loans, Leverage, Libertarian, LAPD.

M. Mic Check, Money, Mickey D (Toilets), Movement, Mobilization, March, Media, Medical Tent, Motorcycle Cops,, Meditate, Mohammed Bouazizi, Men’s Holding Cell, First Precinct, Matrix. Militant, MF Global, Metrocard.

N. Now, Nurse, Nonviolent Training, NYPD, NYFD, NDAA, N+1, National Lawyers Guild, Ninety Nine Percent, Native Americans.

O. OWS, Occupation, Occupy, OccuPie, Occupy Times Square, Occupy Broadway, Occupy the Holidays, Occupy Thanksgiving, Occupy Christmas, Occupy The Hood, Occupy The Barrio, Occupy The World, Occupy Our Homes, Occupy The Dream, Occupy Buildings, Occupy Workplaces, Occupy 2.0, Outreach, O40 (Organizing for Occupation), Overthrow (The Courts), Oakland, One Percent.

P. Pizza, Pizza, Pizza, Public Space, Peace, Peaceful. Protest, Pepper Spray, Police, Police Foundation, Poster, Press, Parks, Personhood (Corporate), Privatization, Point of Process, Predator, Precarity, Plunder, Private Army, Profit. Port, Public Safety, Poverty (as in growing), Profiteering (as in Growing), Pressure, Populism, Plutocracy.

Q. Queer, Question.

R. Revolution, Re-occupy, Righteous, Restraining Order, Rage, Raid (as in police Raid), Ratings. Reverend Billy, Reclaim Democracy, Riot Squad (“Take Off Your Riot Gear, There’s No Riot Here”).

S. Speech (As in Free), Strategy, Security, Symbols, System, Sanctuary, Sustainable, Spies, Surveillance, Struggle, Stock Exchange, Sign, Solidarity, Subways (A,C,N,R,1 2 3 4,5), Sanitation, Sleeping Bag, Starbucks (Toilet), Sothebys, Social Media, Spokes, Spokescouncil, Sixty Wall, Student Loans, Shutdown, Sell Out, Spring (and the Hope Of Renewal), Supreme Court.

T. Truth Telling, Tidal, Thermal, Thematic, Tactics, Trust, Tarp, TARP, Twitter Tumblr, Trinity, Traders, Tents, TV Trucks, TURU Truck, Toilets, Tombs, Tunisia, The Commons, T-Shirt. Turning Point, Think Tank, Troy Davis.

U. Unemployment, Unity, Unions, Up Stream, Union Square, Unleadership, UC Davis, UFT.

V: Victory, Veterans, Vegan, Vegetarian, Videos (You Tube).

W. Wall Street, workers, Web Site, Workgroup, Welcome Desk, White Shirt, White Collar Crime, Wikileaks, Washington Square, Winter, Weird Red Thing, Walk (To Washington), Whose Street? (Our Street), “Walmart for Rats” Media (Putdown of Zuccotti Park), Wachovia, We Are Everywhere, We Are The 99%, War (No More).

X. Xhale, Extraordinary.

Y. Youth, You Cannot Evict An Idea Whose Time Has Come, Yippie, Yippie Museum.

Z. Zuccotti Park, Zephyr the Therapy Dog At Medical Tent.

Written as a birthday present for Bea, an Occupier Supremo.

News Dissector Danny Schechter writes the newsdissector.com blog. His new book is Occupy: Dissecting Occupy Wall Street. His latest film is Plunder: The Crime Of Our Time. Comments to dissector@mediachannel.org

How Should OccupyWallStreet Spend Its $300,000?

ralph — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:28:12 +0000

Hopefully they make wiser decisions now. As Alison Bowen reports in Metro New York:

Nearly two months after the NYPD raided Zuccotti Park, Occupy Wall Street protesters are now deciding how to spend $300,000 left in their coffers.

At a recent meeting, protesters debated what to do with the money, down from $706,855 at the movement’s peak, according to the New York Post. Much of that $700K came via online donations from OWS supporters and has already been spent on food and supplies.

The remaining OWS members meet daily at the atrium at 60 Wall Street. During one such meeting, the Post reported, one of the ideas pitched included burning the cash in a bonfire on Wall Street, a suggestion that has since been dropped.

The Industry of Hunger

Jin_TheNinja — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 08:43:19 +0000

Photo: Tawheed Manzoor (CC)

Vandana Shiva on Al Jazeera English explains how, as mega-chains venture into industrial farming, they have created an epidemic of hunger- and generated billions in profit.

New Delhi, India – In November 2011, when the UPA government announced that it had cleared the entry of big retail chains such as Walmart and Tesco into India through 51 per cent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail, it justified the decision saying that FDI in retail would boost food security and benefit farmers’ livelihoods.

But the assurance that FDI in retail would ease inflation did not resolve the political crisis the government was facing; it deepened it. Parliament was stalled for several days of the Winter Session, after which the government was forced to withdraw its decision.

The story of FDI in retail goes back to 2005, when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed an agriculture agreement with the US, along with the nuclear agreement. On the board of the US-India Knowledge Initiative in Agriculture, as it is called, sit Monsanto (the world’s leading producer of GM seeds), ConAgra (among the world’s biggest agribusinesses, along with Cargill) and Walmart (the world’s largest retail giant).

Protests had prevented Walmart’s entry into retail, but, in 2007, it did get a backdoor entry through a joint-venture with Bharti (their stores go by the names of Easyday and Best Price Modern Wholesale). No back-end infrastructure has been built so far, one of the other claims of the government about why we need retail giants.

Farmers’ suicides spike in India

The way the UPA government tried to ram through the decision on FDI in retail – without consulting the opposition parties, or even its allies – was clearly undemocratic. But the decision itself was also flawed. It illustrated a disconnect between an ideology based on market fundamentalism – which is the leaning of the present government – and the Indian reality of small farms and small retail…

Read the rest on Al Jazeera English

The Power of The Powerless (Video)

imkaan — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 03:19:49 +0000

Václav Havel died on Sunday, ironically while the U.S. news media is focused on Kim il-Jong’s death. Here’s an excerpt from a documentary that may be of interest:

NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly Laughs at #OWS Police Brutality Accountability (Video)

Camron Wiltshire — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 22:56:38 +0000

Via We Are Change:

We Are Change randomly meets up NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly on the streets on NYC and asks him about the numerous incidents of police brutality during Occupy Wall Street. Recorded 12/16/11:

D17: Protests Mark The Third Anniversary of OccupyWallStreet Movement Puts On A “Why I Occupy” Show in Times Square

Danny Schechter — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:23:08 +0000

Saturday marked the third month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street. It was also Bradley Manning’s Birthday. It was one of those days that confirmed the validity of the chant: “All Day, All Week, Occupy Wall Street”.

Ok, maybe, it wasn’t a whole week but Saturday felt like a week in one day. The plan for the day, as announced, was to gather at Duarte Park at 6th Avenue and Canal Street to attempt a RE-Occupation of vacant land owned by Trinity Church, more of a real estate company than a house of worship.

For a few weeks, the Occupy Movement had been demanding that the church allow the movement to take “sanctuary” on that land. There were earlier protests and even a hunger strike that made page one of the New York Times. Police in riot gear had ousted the occupiers the last time they tried to take over the space a few weeks back, and, since then, there has been a rancorous standoff between a Church that is supported by many fat cat one-percenters and OWS’s volunteer non-violent army of outrage.

The church has repeatedly turned the movement down, despite support for the OWS demands from many clergy in New York and the most famous Episcopal priest in the world, South Africa’s Desmond Tutu,. (Tutu sent OWS a supportive message but, then later sent the Church a disclaimer of any attempt on his part to sanction violence.)

No doubt church lawyers were expressing worries about financial liability should there be any claims, but many of the their trustees had political objections. They are Wall Streeters, including, a Vice President of Brookfield Properties,the owner of the “public” Zuccotti Park that had been the Movement’s home until they were unceremoniously and violently ejected by police in the dark of night. Trinity Church may be there to serve God, but the defense of their real estate portfolio seems to come before their pretensions at social justice..

The gathering at Duarte Park was predictably surrounded by cops, some in riot gear, while what looked like a the Zuccotti Park alumni Association roamed around on a sliver of a City Park next to the unholy Trinity site. At least half of the crowd, which grew as the day progressed, appeared to be covering the other half with still or video cameras and tape recorders. The press was out in force too, no doubt hoping for a bloody confrontation. Pacifica Radio outlet WBAI was broadcasting live and its programming was played back at the crown on boom boxes.

The librarians of the People’s Library where on hand with a few boxes of newly donated books, but, despite the rhetoric, the scene seemed tired except for those who were dancing around or looking for action. A few activists and clergy were arrested for climbing over the fence while others tried, but failed, to knock it down. (There were more than 50 arrests Sarurday,)

I was pretty discouraged by the relatively small turnout and the focus on getting to occupy a new tiny land base in an area with no real pedestrian traffic nearby, instead of finding more ways to reach out to mainstream America.

Saturday was a big Xmas Shopping day. While tens of thousands of New Yorkers were flocking to stores in Times and Herald Square. I thought that if you want to hit at economic power, you should be Occupying Macy’s or Toys ‘R’ Us. All the stores were putting on new sales after Black Friday turned out to be relative bust. Why not a march by Occupy Santas?

It all seemed unpromising when announced concerts at the park by Lou Reed and others didn’t seem to materialize, or at, least I missed them. But I left too soon.

Unknown to me, the movement then launched a previously unscheduled march –but, at the last minute changed its direction and headed uptown, catching the police unaware.

The Live Stream people went with them so what happened next was shown on the Internet. One of the live streamers was busted but kept his camera-computer going from inside a Police paddy wagon. At one point, I saw coverage by three cameras. One view, in ironic counter-point, covered several cops defending the statue of the Bull on an empty Wall Street traffic junction. No one there was bullish. Bullshit anyone?

The cops attacked as the activists marched up Seventh Avenue at 29th Street, arresting some for marching when they should be walking, a crime that may soon by punishable by the crazed new NDAA measure treating the homeland as a battlefield. The crowd then broke into smaller guerilla-style groups, darting in and out of various streets, and ending up in a packed Times Square on a Saturday night at the height of the Christmas shopping season. This march was spontaneous, powered by the power of surprise. The police actually chased some out of towners out of Times Square to try to cut them off at the pass, but failed.

Before the men in Blue, led by men in White, could reassert their version of Law and Order, and while shoppers and tourists watched, the occupiers began “mic-checking,” with individual after individual shouting out “Why I Occupy,” and offering personal statements and testimony that were repeated several times.

In this way, individual members of the movement, from every class, color and gender, spoke with eloquence about their reasons for protesting—personal reasons and social reasons, national reasons and global reasons, economic reasons and political reasons reached out to thousands. They had to electrify whoever was watching, Their passion and sincerity was there for all to see.

I watched the Live Stream of the event on a computer in Harlem and was moved, at some points, to tears by how articulate and reasonable they were. They later left the square and returned to Zuccotti Park for a late-night General Assembly meeting. Not only was this the best show on Broadway on the “Great White Way” for that hour, but it proved the correctness of a political claim, asserted in one of the OWS signs written after the police raided Zuccotti Park.

It reads: “It’s So Not Over.”

Danny Schechter writes about Occupy Wall Street on Al Jazeera, Progressive Radio Network other outlets and his News Dissector blog. He made the film Plunder the Crime Of Our Time. Please email comments to dissector@mediachannel.org.

Occupy Wukan? or A Chinese Spring

MoralDrift — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 01:45:43 +0000

The village of Wukan in Guangdong province has staged a massive protest over local officials seizing land without compensation for development projects. This type of issue has been sticky in China for quite some time, similar to eminent domain in the U.S. but without much recourse or a court to appeal to. Here is a video posted on YouTube, its in Mandarin but the images are worth it:

The Financial Times also has a decent article and video.

Nation’s Worst Mayor, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, Has Disabled Her Facebook Page

ralph — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 22:27:23 +0000

Because there is nothing better than a politician who can’t take the heat. Hey internets, why not make her leave Twitter too. Or better yet resign.

OccupyWallStreet Economics

JDSuss — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 22:38:24 +0000

Photo: David Shankbone (CC)

J. D. Suss writes on Stories, Essays, Detritus:

Economics 101 teaches that the quantity of a product or service is determined by the demand, which is reflected by its price and is a function of its quality.

The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) Movement might be deconstructed using this same analysis:

The number and size of Occupations worldwide can be determined by the demand, reflected by the price we pay for sympathizing and participating—a direct result of discerning the quality of the values it promotes.

The individual making such a discernment wants an assurance of its quality before committing to the OWS Movement. He or she does not want to be bamboozled by some phony color revolution sponsored by a hidden power elite, or a false flag operation carried out by its governmental minions. An individual requires a solid basis upon which to make a reasoned choice that this Movement is in his or her best interests.

If the masses can be steered into demanding what the World Order has been cooking up for at least a hundred years or more—a one-world, socialist dictatorship—then they are simply silly putty in the NWO hands. (Witness the so-called “Arab Spring.”)

G.K. Chesterton has written that “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.” What’s Wrong with the World, p. 48 (1910). If we transpose “capitalism” (or even “democracy”) in place of “Christianity” we grasp a certain truth that has been eluding the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators and many (if not most) of their sympathizers. Has capitalism really ever been given a fair shake—or has it been undermined almost from the start?

Capitalism is a system that allows any man or woman to produce a product or service, which is then vetted by a free market of buyers which determines how much buyers are willing to pay for that product or service. It puts the freedom to choose in the hands of the People—the freedom of sellers to produce and sell, and buyers to inspect and buy, viz., the freedom of both to possess and use money to do as they see fit.

But subverted capitalism is not capitalism at all. The most insidious example of subverted capitalism is corporate “capitalism,” also termed crony, predatory, or crisis “capitalism.” Corporate “capitalism” is not capitalism at all. What is it then? The modern corporation aggregates large amounts of capital in order to make a profit for a shareholder class that expects maximum income. To operate, it forms a semi-monopolistic structure. Its purpose is to dominate a market in order to dictate price by limiting quality according to its own profit-based analysis – buyers be damned! This is not capitalism it is a corporate command economy, viz., private socialism. It is public socialism to the extent that government is involved, and this unholy alliance can be referred to as a “corpocracy.” A corpocracy is a mixture of private and public socialism, i.e., some monolithic WE decides what products and services are allowed into the market, their price, quality, and quantity.

In order to fund the banksters, the governmental part of the monolithic WE taxes your income on the “dollars” from your private labor. These “dollars” are currently called “federal reserve notes” and are used to pay the interest on the money the government borrows from the Federal Reserve. A note is a promise to pay. “Promises to pay” are in fact debt instruments. They are absolutely not true dollars as contemplated in the U.S. Constitution. All of this nonsense is capitalism turned on its head.

Probably one of the few times we enjoyed real capitalism in this country was in the 1840s, when Pres. Andrew Jackson terminated the central bank (what he termed “a den of vipers”). That period was one of incredible growth and plenty for all. But, predictably, it was subverted by the unscrupulous interests of modern corporatism.

Libertarians would have us believe that business can have free reign over all; that government should not interfere whatsoever in the affairs of the individual, including the business sector. And this is essentially what we have had in commerce, beginning with the dismantling of the regulatory function of government in the Reagan years and that culminated in the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999. All of this deregulation allowed banks to run amok, leading to the current meltdown. Ralph Nader has pointed out two weaknesses of libertarianism: consumer protection and labor unions do not figure into its ideal system—and where does environmental protection enter into the calculus?

Government needs to ensure that the individual retains his or her ability to compete in the marketplace. The regulatory role of all three branches of government is to preserve the rule of law; viz., a rule of law that secures individual liberty by protecting individuals from the depredations of corporate dominance of the marketplace (and from any and all crony government alliances). In commerce, the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission probably have the lion’s share of the executive regulatory roles. Let them be what they were instituted to be: watchdogs for the People.

I judge a healthy economic climate by the number of individual enterprises and mom-and-pops businesses I see as I walk down the streets of any town, not by the number of corporate, cookie-cutter franchises that litter the urban-suburban sprawl in the U.S. If the modern corporation cannot be put back into its cage by relegating it to what traditional corporate entities once were, then they must be closely scrutinized under the law to protect the People from its Goliath-like influences in commerce and in politics. Free legislatures from the overwhelming influence of the monied (read “corpocracy”) class! Let the courts actually be the arbiters of fairness and justice for individuals, instead of enforcers for the corpocracy’s values-vacuum-laws! And while we’re at it, free the press from oppressive control by the forces of corpocracy! Ideally, capitalism can only operate within the free flow of information, with real investigative reporting, instead of mind control by presstitutes!

Chesterton’s Christianity, like true capitalism, might be given a fair chance. True capitalism is closer to the precepts of individual freedom than is socialism—by a long shot. Thus, regaining true capitalism should be a professed value of the OWS Movement. And while we’re at it, OWSers (and all the forces of corpocracy)—be sure to remember to give peace a chance!

______________

Jonathan D. Suss is a cultural mutant multi-career virtuoso (blues piano player and singer, woodworker, poet/writer, one-time military officer, lawyer, English professor, and Ph.D. in Humanties) who is bereft of ambition to “be anything” in this phony baloney world—secular or otherwise. He is always on the look-out for an enlightened patrone from deep in the woods or from the plutocratic elite who also “sees thru the world” and may wish to join forces to further worthwhile underdog agendas by performing weird tasks, such as piercing the veil of corpocracy. Some of his ideas can be further studied at http://spyoptaelip.blogspot.com and he can be contacted at theo4b@gmail.com.

OccupyWallStreet Shuts Down 3 West Coast Ports

Join Or DIE — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 05:57:42 +0000

Via CBS News:

More than 1,000 Occupy Wall Street protesters blocked cargo trucks at some of the West Coast’s busiest ports Monday, forcing terminals in Oakland, Calif., Portland, Ore., and Longview, Wash., to halt operations.

While the protests attracted far fewer people than the 10,000 who turned out Nov. 2 to shut down Oakland’s port, organizers declared victory and promised more demonstrations to come.

“The truckers are still here, but there’s nobody here to unload their stuff,” protest organizer Boots Riley said. “We shut down the Port of Oakland for the daytime shift and we’re coming back in the evening. Mission accomplished.”

Organizers called for the “Shutdown Wall Street on the Waterfront” protests, hoping the day of demonstrations would cut into the profits of the corporations that run the docks and send a message that their movement was not over.

More: CBS News

Should Pepper Spray Be TIME’s Person of the Year?

Good German — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 23:32:12 +0000

Slade Sohmer asks at HyperVocal:

What started out as a joke has become an increasingly real proposition: Even though it’s not a “person,” we must now begin to debate whether Pepper Spray should grace TIME’s most discussed cover.

No person, place or thing has come to define the absurdity of 2011 more than the “food product, essentially,” this suddenly ubiquitous lachrymatory agent/chemical weapon.

Pepper spray, essentially, gave birth to the national media’s recognition of the Occupy Wall Street movement when NYPD Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna cowardly pepper-sprayed some unwitting young women. Without his depraved indifference to the freedom to assemble and the freedom of speech, the national media, and by extension the nation, might never have begun to discuss income inequality in earnest.

The pepper-spraying incidents then moved west: The notoriously corrupt Tulsa police department doused some eyes while evicting the Occupy protesters in that city, then Seattle police sprayed 84-year-old Dorli Rainey as she checked out the protests there. Portland police continued the Pacific Northwest trend, and the instantly iconic image of a young woman taking it in the face went viral …

Read more here.

WikiLeaks Releases Spyware Firm Videos That Show How to Hack Email, Skype, WiFi

HAL9000 — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 20:54:45 +0000

Kim Zetter writes on WIRED’s Threat Level:

What better way to sell your wares than to produce a marketing video showing exactly how your product works? Even if that product is spyware, marketed to oppressive regimes.

WikiLeaks, as part of its Spy Files trove of documents, released on Thursday a series of videos from Gamma International, a UK-based firm that markets the Finfisher spyware.

The video shows how the company’s product can be used to sniff WiFi networks from a hotel lobby, hack computers and cell phones, or intercept Skype communications and siphon encryption passwords.

Who Is Winning The War on Wall Street? Making It Personal Is One Way To Seize The Initiative

Danny Schechter — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 06:14:58 +0000

Wall Street has become a battleground, defended by a battalion of New York Cops, and under surveillance around the clock. There’s a war under way after months of protests and assaults by the non-violent warriors of Occupy Wall Street.

So, who’s winning?

On the surface, despite major layoffs and economic setbacks, you would have to say that the epicenter of our financial markets is alive, if not well. The exchanges and banks remain open for business, even if their costs for security are up, and their long-term optimism is way down.

Attempts by occupiers and activists to “shut it down” have so far failed, but they have slowed it down and forced its defenders on the defensive. A sharp critique of out of control capitalism that was barely heard in the media before the movement began. It is now everywhere. The Movement has changed the national conversation.

The gluttons of greed are, at least temporarily, on the defensive.

But, is the movement forcing reforms or restraint? Not yet. Europe’s pain so far seems to be America’s gain, as bailouts there drive stock prices here higher.

Also, as we are learning, there is not much that the Federal Reserve won’t do behind the scenes to keep big banks flourishing. We just found out, 3 years after the fact, that they pumped a whopping $17.7 TRILLION in no interest money into the coffers of financial institutions whose lobbyists and media decry big government intervention and Socialism.

Down, the street, the Occupiers are winning a moral victory just by surviving. Their slogan dejure is now “It’s So Not Over,” even as they lost the Park that was their base and have suffered setbacks across the country by what seems like a coordinated Municipal counter-offensive.

Public opinion seems to turn against protesters when there’s violence or conduct considered outrageous, but the New York Times reports, “The Occupy Wall Street protests continue to spread around the country, highlighting grievances some Americans have about banks, income inequality and a sense that the poor and middle class have been disenfranchised. A recent New York Times/CBS News poll found that almost half of the public thinks the sentiments at the root of the movement generally reflect the views of most Americans.”

So, on one level, Wall Street is losing whatever positive reputation in may have enjoyed, even if the Movement challenging it still lacks a specific program.

What would winning consist of in this context?

For the financiers and the investors, it’s all about money and they are still making it, even if bonuses go down for a while. They continue to deepen inequality by transferring wealth from the rest of us into their pockets. The 1% is hardly hurting the way the 99% is.

Their lobbyists and the politicians that follow their lead have managed to thwart any real financial reforms, mild as they were. Risky derivatives remain risky. The Industry has succeeded in keeping a shadowy banking system none — transparent, despite the agencies that are lowering their credit ratings and the State Attorney Generals that are beginning to summon up the courage to file lawsuits.

Critics of Occupy Wall Street want the movement to grow up, be more focused and “pragmatic” as in engaging in policy debates defined by others. In a specious denunciation of “The Decadent Left,” Russ Douthat, one of the Times op ed wags snipes that the “movement was dreamed up in part by flakes, and populated in part by fantasists.”

To him, being political means moving from the outside to the inside and lose the very qualities that built the movement. It means not aligning with unions or building coalitions. It means playing the game.

In contrast, I believe the movement has to stay true to itself, but make all of these issues more personal to the American people who are suffering because of Wall Street’s manipulations.

They have to be told who is really responsible for their terrible distress: the loss of jobs, pensions and homes.

The information is there — but the movement needs to find ways of dramatizing it and communicating it, the more specific and less rhetorical the better.

It’s time for an economic justice campaign that names and shames the reprehensible Wall Street elite, a crew that constitutes less that 1% of the 1%.

We have to demand three I’s and a P:

1. Investigate who stole what
2. Indict wrong doers
3. Prosecute the guilty
4. And Incarcerate White Collar Criminals

That’s how to send a signal to Wall Street: Make it personal!

Go after prosecutors in Cities, States and the Justice Department to force them to explain why none of the big banksters responsible for our economic misery have, so far, gone to jail. (More than 1700 fraudsters were imprisoned after the far less serious S&L crisis.)

These CEO’s knew what they were doing and they are getting away with it!

This approach won’t transform the economy but it will make the targets of the campaign more concrete, visible and immediate. It raises demands for economic fairness that most Americans support.

The current system of agencies agreeing to settlements without anyone admitting responsibility has to stop.

The cover-ups by politicians and the complicit of media have to stop.

We have had bailouts. Now, its time for a “jailout!”

Talk about an issue that so many agree on but yet has been so politicized and so minimized by prosecutors seeking excuses.

Yes, the Industry has a flotilla of high priced lawyers who know how to evade and avoid justice. Yes, they rewritten the laws to make it hard to convict.

But, until now, there has been no one in the streets — with protests or pitchforks — demanding justice. Occupy Wall Street has shown that you can influence the agenda.

This issue is a no-brainer. Who will pick it up?

Third World Canada

Jin_TheNinja — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 02:54:06 +0000

The Canadian media’s furor and spin on the following story is demonstrable proof that any and all attempts to de-legitimise Indigenous self-government and exploit Aboriginal territories for resources is not only allowed, it is welcomed. These policies are based on historical paternalistic colonialism, which is explicitly intended to systematically disenfranchise Native peoples.

Note as per this story , Canada spends MORE than two times per capita on non-natives for social infrastructure (housing, education, healthcare) than it does on aboriginal people. The amount reported in the Al Jazeera story below, is the entire budget, and does not include any additional civil infrastructure (roads, transport links) funds, which is normally separate from social spending: