CONTENTS:
PHILLY AREA ACTION:
NATIONAL
& INTERNATIONAL ACTION:
COMMENTARY:
==========
PHILLY AREA ACTION:
AFRICAN
SONG/NEW CONTEXTS Concert on Sat,. April 21
7 PM & 9 PM shows, at
the World Café Live
3025 Walnut Street, Philadelphia
Three remarkable
African voices, in two concerts: one special evening of local immigrant artists
sharing great music, both traditional and innovative. Tickets: 7 PM: One
hour family show: $12 (General admission), $7 (children, students, seniors), $16
(reserved VIP seating). 9 PM: $20 (General admission), $15 (children, students,
seniors), $25 (reserved VIP seating). For advance tickets, call PFP at
215.726.1106
________________________________________
RUSH-HOUR RALLY FOR 14 ACTIVISTS* FACING TRIAL
MONDAY IN PHILA.
MUNICIPAL COURT
FIRST TRIAL IN THE AREA FOR IRAQ WAR
RESISTANCE
This Monday, April 23, in the first trial in the
Philadelphia area for
nonviolent resistance to the war in Iraq, the "PHILA.
DECLARE
PEACE 14"* will face in Phila.Municipal Court [Criminal
Justice
Center, 1301 Filbert Street] misdemeanor charges of
defiant
trespass, criminal trespass, and criminal conspiracy, for
their
peaceful presence on September 25, 2006 at the office of
then
Senator Rick Santorum, nonviolently demanding that our Senators
and
Congresspeople act to end the war. The occasion will be the
first trial in
Philadelphia for war resistance since the 1980's.
7:30AM - Stand with the
"PHILA. DECLARE PEACE 14" Vigil, Broad
St. & JFK Blvd., (across the
street from the northeast side of Phila.
City Hall and a short block
from the Criminal Justice Center);
Continue the Stand for Peace, after the 14
leave for court, until 9:30AM and the trial.
CONTACT:
610-544-1818 brandywine@juno.com
www.brandywinepeace.com
_____________________________________________________________________
Public Access Coalition Meeting on Monday, April
23rd
PCAC is winning the battle for Public Access Cable TV. Please
attend
this upcoming meeting to find out how you can be involved in
the
final stretch of this twenty five year campaign.
When: Monday
April 23, 2007 6:30pm
Where: DC 47 AFSCME, 1606 Walnut St.
For more
information, please visit www.phillyaccess.org or email
Danielle Redden at danielle@phillyaccess.org
___________________________________
Tuesday, May 15, 2007: Primary
Election in Philadelphia. Resolution on the ballot states:
Shall the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter be amended tostate the citizens'
views regarding the mission served by U.S. troops in Iraq and that the citizens
of Philadelphia urge the United STates to make 2007 the time to redeploy U.S. troops out of harm's way in Iraq?
Grannies will be organizing to get
out the message to voters to VOTE YES on this
resolution.
_____________________________________________________________________
Friday, May 18, 2007: Babatte
Josephs presents the Miriam Seidler Award for Peace to the Grannies at the Philadelphia Senior Center, Broad and
Lombard Sts., Noon.
===============================
NATIONAL &
INTERNATIONAL ACTION:
Santiago and Mahmoud, our brothers, murdered and
jailed
In unions in different countries, we call each other by
different names. Some unions use the word 'comrade', others use
'colleague'. And many use the terms 'brother' and 'sister' to describe
fellow union members. Are we simply using these words because we
always have, or do they still have any real meaning? I ask that question because
in the last few days one of our brothers has been brutally tortured and
murdered, and another one, an innocent man, jailed.
In Mexico,
Santiago Rafael Cruz, a 29-year-old union organizer from the Farm Labor
Organizing Committee (FLOC, AFL-CIO) was brutally tortured and murdered.
Santiago was a successful organizer in the USA who had moved down to Mexico to
run the union's office there. His activities aroused the hostility of
those who fear the growth of trade unionism among farm workers, and generated
attacks in the media, threats of deportation, robberies and intimidation,
culminating in this terrible crime.
Santiago has a family in Mexico, a
mother, father, sisters and brothers. But his family is much larger than
that; it includes all of us. We must grieve together with his family, and
we must fight together with them as one large family to ensure that the Mexican
government investigates the murder, arrests and prosecutes those responsible,
and ensures the safety of union activists in that country.
Please take a
moment to send off your message today:
http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=232
About
the same time that union-hating murderers were ending the life of this
courageous young man in Mexico, on the other side of the world Iranian security
forces lured union activist Mahmoud Salehi into the local prosecutor's office on
the pretext of discussing plans for this year's May Day celebrations.
Salehi, a former president of the bakery workers' union in the city of Saqez,
was then arrested and put in jail for a year with a three year suspended
sentence on top of that. His crime was that in 2004 he organized a May Day
demonstration.
Tell the Iranian authorities to release Mahmoud Salehi
now, and to drop all charges. Send off your message by clicking
here:
http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=231
I
doubt very much if Santiago and Mahmoud ever met -- and yet they are
brothers. One now languishing in an Iranian prison, the other in a Mexican
grave. If these two men were not just fellow trade union members but
actually your brothers, the sons of your mothers and fathers, how would you
react? I know that you wouldn't be silent -- you would be up in arms and
the whole world would know your anger and your pain.
Please pass this
message on. Let's tell the Mexican and Iranian governments that we in the
international trade union movement are a single family, and we will not tolerate
our brothers and sisters being tortured, jailed or murdered anywhere in the
world.
Eric Lee
[ericlee@labourstart.org]
_________________________________
Celeste Zappala,Mother of Sgt Sherwood Baker KIA 4/26/04
writes:
Last year a wonderful documentary maker,
Peter
Daulton, created a film about the Eyes Wide Open
Exhibit.- the
display of empty boots that honors the
fallen soldiers, I first saw the
display in July 2004
when the number of fallen was 865. Sherwood was
720.
It will be three years this Thursday that he was
killed while
guarding those who looked for the weapons
of mass destruction.
In
Philadelphia area WHYY will show the film on
Wednesday April 25 at 10:30
pm. In other cities it
will be shown at different times during the
next
month. I am enclosing two links, one to the film the
other to
the AFSC website which gives information
about the film and the
exhibit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJBtXRVN768
www.afsc.org/eyes/pbs-documentary.php
____________________________________________________
Legislative vehicles to end the occupation and bring our troops
home
H.R. 508 (http://capwiz.com/pdamerica/issues/bills/?billtype=H.R.&billnumb=508&congress=110)
H.R.
746 (http://capwiz.com/pdamerica/issues/bills/?billtype=H.R.&billnumb=746&congress=110)
_______________________________________________________________________
Defend
Dissent and Critical Thinking - Stop the Firing of Ward Churchill
What's
happening with Norman Finkelstein is part of a
horrible wave of suppressing
radical academics across the U.S. Colorado has
been going after Native
American radical historian Ward Churchill for a long
time, and the state
legislature there is basically trying to get him fired,
with a big hearing
date coming up soon. If you have friends in academia who
would be
willing to sign the petition or write letters, please pass this
along.
It matters.
For those that like shortcuts, go sign the petition
at:
http://www.defendcriticalthinking.org/
_____________________________________________________
Support
Green Buildings, Not Only On Earth Day/ FCNL Legislative Action
Message
http://capwiz.com/fconl/utr/1/MNQTHAHSZI/CQVEHAHXFR/1150856351
Where
do we consume the most energy? In our homes and buildings. Our
homes and
other buildings use more energy than either our cars or big
factories.
Buildings use more than 70 percent of all electricity
generated in the United
States. We in the U.S. produce almost as many
global warming greenhouse gas
emissions from our homes and buildings as
the entire economies of Japan,
France, and the United Kingdom combined.
You can help support effective
energy-efficient, green building legislation
by encouraging your
representative to cosponsor the bills below.
*Take Action for the Earth,
contact your representative:
http://capwiz.com/fconl/utr/1/MNQTHAHSZI/MVUWHAHXFS/1150856351
Urge
her or him to cosponsor the "Securing America's Energy
Independence Act of
2007" (HR 550). This legislation, introduced
by Rep. Michael McNulty (NY),
would extend tax credit incentives for
solar energy, fuel cells, and
energy-efficiency improvements for homes
and buildings.
Got a little
more time? Ask your representative to cosponsor two other
important pieces of
legislation that should be part of any
comprehensive energy conservation
effort:
- The "High-Performance
Green Buildings Act of 2007" (HR
121)
- http://capwiz.com/fconl/utr/1/MNQTHAHSZI/JDDEHAHXFT/1150856351=9647301
and
the "Extend the Energy Efficiency Incentives Act of 2007"
(HR 1385) -
http://capwiz.com/fconl/utr/1/MNQTHAHSZI/LZXAHAHXFU/1150856351=9651146
As
part of your lobbying, urge your representative to contact FCNL for
a tour of
FCNL's newly renovated building on Capitol Hill -- to see
what is possible
and affordable today.
More
background on green buildings -
http://capwiz.com/fconl/utr/1/MNQTHAHSZI/AIKIHAHXFV/1150856351=102
=
Order
FCNL publications and "War is Not the Answer" campaign
bumper stickers and
yard signs:
http://capwiz.com/fconl/utr/1/MNQTHAHSZI/EPNKHAHXFZ/1150856351/
_____________________________________________________________
TELL
UALBANY TO CUT THE COKE CONTRACT NOW!
UAlbany's 10 year long,
multimillion dollar monopoly Coca Cola
contract is close to finished. For
this past year, UA students
have been organizing to sever our contract and
cease giving
business to the global corporate king of union-busting,
water
stealing and labor abuses.Please call and
email Provost in Charge
Susan Herbst, CC'd to other
administrators, our Student Senate, Association
representatives
to show them the student support to kick coke off our campus
for
good! Please list if you are a faculty, community organization or
student.
You can take action
at:
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/albany_coke/g7ugbirqtij78d?
Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this.
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/albany_coke/forward/g7ugbirqtij78d?
_____________________________________________________________________
Protect
Released Colombian Human Rights Leader
Thanks to your action earlier this
year, Colombian human rights
defender Gabriel Gonzalez was recently released
from prison
after a judge in Bucaramanga, Santander department,
acquitted
him of all charges.
Take action now to demand that the
Colombian Interior Ministry
urgently provide Mr. Gonzalez with adequate
protection to
prevent attacks against him.
Click Here to Take
Action:
http://action.humanrightsfirst.org/campaign/GabrielGonzalez2/iguw5d5rat6b6ji?
Learn
more the case of Gabriel Gonzalez:
http://action.humanrightsfirst.org/ct/ZdMIInK1_QWL/
==========
COMMENTARY
America
at a Crossroads" veers to the right By Gary Kamiya
http://www.salon.com/opinion/kamiya/2007/04/17/crossroads/
If
anyone still believes that PBS has a left-wing bias,
"America at a
Crossroads," the $20 million, 12-hour
series about Islam, terrorism and the
post-9/11 world
that kicked off Sunday night, should shut them up once
and
for all. "Crossroads" proves yet again that five
years after the 9/11
attacks, the mainstream American
media still can't bring itself to talk about
the real
causes of Arab and Muslim rage at the West.
Chomsky and Zinn
on Patriotism in America
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041907F.shtml
In a
Democracy Now! special broadcasted from Boston on April 16 - Patriots Day, a
Massachusetts state holiday marking the start of the Revolutionary War - Amy
Goodman talks with two of the city's leading dissidents, Noam Chomsky and Howard
Zinn.
Soldier's Request to Spend Time With Dying Mother Denied
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041907H.shtml
A Decatur
soldier with five months left on his enlistment tried unsuccessfully to get an
extension on his two-week leave to stay with his dying mother, who is
hospitalized on life-support. Sgt. Tim Robinson requested another week in a
letter faxed to his unit explaining that his mother, Kate Mae Jones, was dying
of kidney and heart failure. His request included a note from his mother's
doctor concerning her condition, but his commanding officer denied the
extension.
VIDEO | Willie Nelson Speaks to Truthout
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041307S.shtml
Willie
Nelson was among those honored at the first annual Camp Casey Peace Awards.
Truthout's Geoffrey Millard had an opportunity to sit down with the country
music legend. Willie spoke about his opposition to the war, his biodiesel-fueled
bus and his commitment to working with farmers.
VIDEO | Pelosi: "The
President Is Not King"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041307B.shtml
On the
"Today Show," Nancy Pelosi sat down with Campbell Brown to discuss her trip to
Syria as well as the stand-off between the White House and Congress over
war-funding. Pelosi said: "The president is not king, the president is the
president of the United States. America is a democracy. We have to make
decisions based on our judgment. Thus far, the president's judgment hasn't been
good in terms of, say, for example, the war on Iraq. So with all due respect to
the president and the role he has, we want respect for the role we have. And
members of Congress have gone on fact-finding trips since our country began.
We're not going to
====== *
Number Of Iraqi Civilians Slaughtered In
America's War On Iraq - At Least 655,000 + +
http://tinyurl.com/usq4x
Number of U.S. Military
Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America'sWar On Iraq
3,309
http://icasualties.org/oif/
The War in Iraq Costs
$417,897,692,362
See the cost in your community
http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182
=====
*
Iraq Has Two Virginia Techs Every Day By Juan
Cole
I keep hearing from US
politicians and the US mass media that the "situation is improving" in Iraq. The
profound sorrow and alarm produced in the American public by the horrific
shootings at Virginia Tech should give us a baseline for what the Iraqis are
actually living through. They have two Virginia Tech-style attacks every single
day.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17545.htm
===
Is
Cheney Right? Will Democrats Cave on Iraq Funding? By Ray
McGovern
While our corporate media
remains allergic to analyzing the administration's true intentions, Democrats
cannot fail to see the White House game for what it is. Will they be frightened
into acquiescing in the certain deaths of 1,000 to 1,500 more American troops
already "in harm's way," and the wounding of several times that number - not to
mention the mounting casualties among Iraqis?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17546.htm
===
The
Inexplicable Enrichment of Bush Cronies - The Iraq Money Trail By Evelyn
Pringle
It's time for Americans to
face the cold hard truth that nothing will be accomplished by allowing the daily
carnage in Iraq to continue, and if Bush has his way, our young people will be
dying in this war profiteering scheme until hell freezes over. Congress needs to
authorize funding to pull our troops out of that deathtrap and not one dime
more.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17547.htm
===
France
Warned CIA of Hijack Plot in 2001 By Angela
Donald Associated Press
Writer
Nine months before al-Qaida
slammed airliners into the World Trade Center, French intelligence suspected the
terror network was plotting a hijacking - possibly involving a U.S. airline -
and warned the CIA, former French intelligence officials said Monday.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17548.htm
===
Dare
To Look Back - By Sheila
Samples
On Dec. 9, 2000 -- three
days before the Florida deadline -- the US Republic shuddered on its axis when
Bolton crashed through the doors of a Tallahassee library where Miami-Dade
ballots were being recounted and shouted triumphantly -- "I'm with the
Bush-Cheney team, and I'm here to stop the count!" http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17550.htm
===
Iraqi
politican says insurgents must
unite:
Insurgent groups in Iraq
should unite, agree a programme and be ready to reap the political rewards for
inflicting heavy losses on U.S. troops, an Iraqi Sunni politician said on
Tuesday.
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=L17522103
===
Iraqi
refugee children trapped in poverty and fear
:
More than two million Iraqi
refugees are trapped in a cycle of poverty and fear. More than half a million of
these are school-age children, many with no access to education or psychological
support, according to research by World Vision. http://www.cnw.ca/fr/releases/archive/April2007/16/c5350.html
===
Jordan
begs world to shoulder Iraq refugee
burden:
Jordan on Tuesday begged
the international community to help it shoulder the burden of 750,000 Iraqi
refugees who have fled there.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L17589653.htm
===
Iraq's
neighbours blocking refugees -- rights
group:
Iraq's neighbours are
making it harder and harder for Iraqis to flee across the border to escape
violence, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Tuesday.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L17634333.htm
===
$400
Billion for war: US announces USD 100 million
:
US Under-Secretary of State
Paaula Dobriansky announced today that her government expects in 2007 to provide
USD 100 million in humanitarian assistance for Iraqis, both inside and outside
Iraq. The US will also contribute USD 18 million to the United Nations High
Commissioner (UNHCR) emergency appeal for Iraqi displacement. http://snipurl.com/1gxq4
===
Clash of civilizations?: 2
Minute Video:
Talk is rising of a
'clash of civilizations'. But the problem isn't culture, it's politics - from
9/11 to Guantanamo, Iraq to Iran. This clash is not inevitable, and we don't
want it.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17544.htm
===
New
threat to skilled U.S. workers:
The master plan, it seems, is to move perhaps 40 million high-skill American
jobs to other countries. U.S. workers have not been consulted.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2003668844_harrop17.html